Systems Administrator Job Trends

System Administrator (Sysadmin)
UK

The median System Administrator (Sysadmin) salary in the UK is £45,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 March 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 455 420 442
Rank change year-on-year -35 +22 +95
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 249 242 459
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.56% 0.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.62% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 199 186 390
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,250 £45,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £41,367
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +20.87% -12.91%
75th Percentile £61,250 £58,750 £52,188
90th Percentile £69,000 £76,250 £60,700
UK excluding London median annual salary £37,500 £50,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -25.00% +25.00% -4.19%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 68,739 38,903 80,284
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 90.47% 94.61%
Number of salaries quoted 43,768 23,119 61,505
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £39,000 £43,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £91,934
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -5.23%

Systems Administrator
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Systems Administrator' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Systems Administrator job vacancy trend in the UK

Systems Administrator
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Systems Administrator job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Systems Administrator job vacancies in the UK

Systems Administrator
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Systems Administrator over the 6 months to 17 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Systems Administrator within the UK over the 6 months to 17 March 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +1 238 £45,000 -10.00% 81
UK excluding London -26 174 £37,500 -25.00% 76
London +21 67 £60,000 -17.24% 21
Midlands +26 59 £32,500 - 14
East Midlands -1 38 £32,500 +1.56% 5
South East -14 37 £52,500 +7.14% 20
Work from Home -17 36 £52,500 +5.00% 36
South West -60 28 £40,000 -20.00% 3
North of England -32 24 £35,000 -17.65% 21
East of England -5 22 £47,500 -17.39% 7
West Midlands +22 21 £41,250 +10.00% 9
Yorkshire -34 14 £35,000 -18.84% 13
North West -16 10 £36,500 -14.12% 6
Scotland -31 4 £26,000 -48.00% 10

Systems Administrator Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 March 2026, Systems Administrator job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Systems Administrator in the job title.

1 59 (23.69%) Linux
2 57 (22.89%) Problem-Solving
3 31 (12.45%) Windows
4 29 (11.65%) DevOps
5 28 (11.24%) Microsoft
5 28 (11.24%) VMware
6 27 (10.84%) Security Cleared
7 25 (10.04%) Azure
7 25 (10.04%) iTrent
7 25 (10.04%) SQL
8 24 (9.64%) DV Cleared
9 23 (9.24%) ERP
9 23 (9.24%) Microsoft 365
10 22 (8.84%) Firewall
11 20 (8.03%) Analytics
11 20 (8.03%) Bash
11 20 (8.03%) Python
12 19 (7.63%) Active Directory
13 18 (7.23%) GDPR
13 18 (7.23%) Process Improvement
13 18 (7.23%) Red Hat
14 16 (6.43%) AWS
14 16 (6.43%) VMware Infrastructure
15 15 (6.02%) Ansible
15 15 (6.02%) CIPD
16 13 (5.22%) Cisco
16 13 (5.22%) Infrastructure as Code
16 13 (5.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 13 (5.22%) Terraform
17 12 (4.82%) Change Management

Systems Administrator Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 7 (2.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (1.61%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.20%) Apache
3 3 (1.20%) CMS
3 3 (1.20%) WordPress
4 1 (0.40%) Confluence
4 1 (0.40%) nginx
4 1 (0.40%) Site Server
4 1 (0.40%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.20%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 25 (10.04%) iTrent
2 2 (0.80%) SAP Business One
2 2 (0.80%) Shopify
2 2 (0.80%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.40%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.40%) Oracle 11i
3 1 (0.40%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.40%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.40%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 25 (10.04%) Azure
2 23 (9.24%) Microsoft 365
3 16 (6.43%) AWS
4 9 (3.61%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 7 (2.81%) Amazon EKS
5 7 (2.81%) GitHub
5 7 (2.81%) GitHub Actions
5 7 (2.81%) Power Platform
6 6 (2.41%) SaaS
7 5 (2.01%) Dynamics 365
7 5 (2.01%) Entra ID
7 5 (2.01%) Mimecast
8 4 (1.61%) GCP
8 4 (1.61%) Power Automate
9 3 (1.20%) Intacct
9 3 (1.20%) PowerApps
9 3 (1.20%) Veeva
10 2 (0.80%) Amazon ECR
10 2 (0.80%) Amazon ECS
10 2 (0.80%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 22 (8.84%) Firewall
2 11 (4.42%) VPN
3 10 (4.02%) DNS
4 9 (3.61%) LAN
4 9 (3.61%) Network Security
4 9 (3.61%) TCP/IP
5 7 (2.81%) HTTP
6 4 (1.61%) SAN
6 4 (1.61%) WAN
7 3 (1.20%) Cisco IOS
7 3 (1.20%) Cisco ISE
7 3 (1.20%) Internet
7 3 (1.20%) NAS
7 3 (1.20%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (1.20%) Wireless
8 2 (0.80%) VoIP
9 1 (0.40%) DHCP
9 1 (0.40%) iSCSI
9 1 (0.40%) Multicast
9 1 (0.40%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.81%) Power BI
2 5 (2.01%) SQL Server
3 3 (1.20%) MySQL
4 2 (0.80%) Crystal Reports
4 2 (0.80%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.40%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.40%) Oracle Database 12c
5 1 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.40%) RDBMS
5 1 (0.40%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.40%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 9 (3.61%) Git
2 6 (2.41%) JIRA
3 2 (0.80%) GitLab
4 1 (0.40%) Bitbucket
General
1 45 (18.07%) Social Skills
2 39 (15.66%) Finance
3 24 (9.64%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (4.02%) Retail
5 9 (3.61%) Organisational Skills
6 8 (3.21%) Banking
7 7 (2.81%) General Ledger
8 6 (2.41%) Law
8 6 (2.41%) Manufacturing
9 5 (2.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.20%) Billing
10 3 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.20%) Legal
11 2 (0.80%) Military
12 1 (0.40%) Back Office
12 1 (0.40%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.40%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.01%) WebSockets
2 4 (1.61%) Middleware
3 3 (1.20%) LAMP
4 2 (0.80%) JSON
4 2 (0.80%) XML
5 1 (0.40%) HTML
5 1 (0.40%) LEMP Stack
5 1 (0.40%) Node.js
5 1 (0.40%) ODBC
5 1 (0.40%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 8 (3.21%) Hybrid Cloud
1 8 (3.21%) Management Information System
2 7 (2.81%) Private Cloud
3 6 (2.41%) Data Centre
3 6 (2.41%) FMCG
4 4 (1.61%) Clustering
4 4 (1.61%) e-Learning
4 4 (1.61%) Learning Management System
4 4 (1.61%) PKI
5 3 (1.20%) Driving Licence
5 3 (1.20%) iSeries
6 2 (0.80%) Data Structures
7 1 (0.40%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.40%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (0.40%) Life Science
7 1 (0.40%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.40%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.40%) Replication
7 1 (0.40%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 59 (23.69%) Linux
2 31 (12.45%) Windows
3 13 (5.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 9 (3.61%) Unix
4 9 (3.61%) Windows Server
5 8 (3.21%) CentOS
6 4 (1.61%) Android
6 4 (1.61%) Apple iOS
6 4 (1.61%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.20%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.80%) Debian
8 2 (0.80%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.40%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (22.89%) Problem-Solving
2 29 (11.65%) DevOps
3 23 (9.24%) ERP
4 20 (8.03%) Analytics
5 18 (7.23%) Process Improvement
6 13 (5.22%) Infrastructure as Code
7 12 (4.82%) Change Management
7 12 (4.82%) CI/CD
7 12 (4.82%) Configuration Management
8 11 (4.42%) Continuous Improvement
9 9 (3.61%) ITIL
9 9 (3.61%) Service Management
10 8 (3.21%) Service Delivery
10 8 (3.21%) Time Management
11 7 (2.81%) Accounts Payable
11 7 (2.81%) AI
11 7 (2.81%) Business Intelligence
11 7 (2.81%) Cybersecurity
11 7 (2.81%) E-Commerce
11 7 (2.81%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 25 (10.04%) SQL
2 20 (8.03%) Bash
2 20 (8.03%) Python
3 7 (2.81%) Go
4 5 (2.01%) PHP
4 5 (2.01%) PowerShell
5 3 (1.20%) Perl
6 2 (0.80%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.80%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.40%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.40%) VBA
Qualifications
1 27 (10.84%) Security Cleared
2 24 (9.64%) DV Cleared
3 15 (6.02%) CIPD
4 10 (4.02%) SC Cleared
5 7 (2.81%) AWS Certification
5 7 (2.81%) Degree
5 7 (2.81%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (2.41%) RHCSA
7 5 (2.01%) CCNA
7 5 (2.01%) CCNP
7 5 (2.01%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (1.61%) MCSA
8 4 (1.61%) MCSE
9 3 (1.20%) Azure Certification
9 3 (1.20%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.40%) A+ Certification
10 1 (0.40%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.40%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.40%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.40%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.23%) GDPR
2 5 (2.01%) QA
3 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 19 (7.63%) Active Directory
2 16 (6.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (3.61%) Hyper-V
4 6 (2.41%) Docker
5 3 (1.20%) Firmware
6 1 (0.40%) KVM
6 1 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 15 (6.02%) Ansible
2 13 (5.22%) Terraform
3 12 (4.82%) Kubernetes
4 10 (4.02%) Proxmox
5 9 (3.61%) Grafana
5 9 (3.61%) Microsoft Intune
5 9 (3.61%) Nagios
6 8 (3.21%) Prometheus
7 7 (2.81%) Nessus
8 5 (2.01%) Puppet
9 3 (1.20%) WSUS
10 1 (0.40%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.40%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.40%) Red Hat Satellite
10 1 (0.40%) SCCM
10 1 (0.40%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 28 (11.24%) Microsoft
1 28 (11.24%) VMware
2 18 (7.23%) Red Hat
3 13 (5.22%) Cisco
4 7 (2.81%) SolarWinds
5 5 (2.01%) Salesforce
5 5 (2.01%) ServiceNow
6 4 (1.61%) SAP
6 4 (1.61%) Veeam
7 3 (1.20%) Bloomberg
7 3 (1.20%) Dell
7 3 (1.20%) IBM
7 3 (1.20%) Meraki
7 3 (1.20%) Okta
7 3 (1.20%) Oracle
7 3 (1.20%) Reuters
7 3 (1.20%) Sage
7 3 (1.20%) SonicWALL
7 3 (1.20%) Sophos
7 3 (1.20%) Zscaler