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 May 2026.

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

6 months to
17 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 402 445 426
Rank change year-on-year +43 -19 +110
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 345 223 550
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.51% 0.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.40% 0.56% 0.60%
Number of salaries quoted 251 174 447
10th Percentile £29,750 £27,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £37,750 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £40,400
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +23.76% -17.00%
75th Percentile £63,750 £57,500 £51,875
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,875 £59,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £49,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year -19.19% +23.75% -0.62%

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 85,551 39,541 91,790
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.32% 89.78% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 56,475 22,949 67,336
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -5.66%

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 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 15 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 May 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 +42 318 £45,000 -10.00% 61
UK excluding London +14 244 £40,000 -19.19% 60
London +18 89 £65,000 +18.18% 13
Midlands +32 72 £32,500 - 9
Work from Home +24 64 £52,500 +5.00% 21
East Midlands +12 49 £32,500 -3.70% 6
North of England -29 42 £42,500 +0.87% 11
South East -14 41 £57,500 +17.35% 12
East of England +1 40 £40,000 -30.43% 12
South West -76 29 £39,250 -21.50% 10
Yorkshire -33 26 £45,000 -14.29% 6
West Midlands -11 23 £45,000 +38.46% 3
Scotland +9 20 £26,000 -48.00% 5
North West -4 13 £36,500 -7.01% 5
North East - 3 £47,500 -

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

For the 6 months to 17 May 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 79 (22.90%) Linux
2 65 (18.84%) Microsoft
3 56 (16.23%) Problem-Solving
4 54 (15.65%) DevOps
5 46 (13.33%) Azure
5 46 (13.33%) Microsoft 365
6 44 (12.75%) SQL
7 43 (12.46%) Windows
8 39 (11.30%) Red Hat
9 38 (11.01%) Active Directory
10 33 (9.57%) Bash
11 32 (9.28%) VMware
12 31 (8.99%) Firewall
13 29 (8.41%) Analytics
13 29 (8.41%) Security Cleared
14 28 (8.12%) AWS
14 28 (8.12%) CI/CD
15 27 (7.83%) Entra ID
15 27 (7.83%) Process Improvement
15 27 (7.83%) Python
16 25 (7.25%) iTrent
17 23 (6.67%) Continuous Improvement
18 22 (6.38%) Terraform
19 21 (6.09%) VMware Infrastructure
20 20 (5.80%) DV Cleared
20 20 (5.80%) ERP
20 20 (5.80%) Hyper-V
20 20 (5.80%) Infrastructure as Code
21 19 (5.51%) Ansible
21 19 (5.51%) DNS

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 19 (5.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (4.93%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.16%) WordPress
4 3 (0.87%) Apache
4 3 (0.87%) CMS
5 2 (0.58%) Confluence
5 2 (0.58%) nginx
5 2 (0.58%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.29%) Site Server
Applications
1 10 (2.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.16%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 25 (7.25%) iTrent
2 6 (1.74%) Primavera
3 3 (0.87%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.58%) Shopify
4 2 (0.58%) Workday HCM
5 1 (0.29%) HFM
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle 11i
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.29%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 46 (13.33%) Azure
1 46 (13.33%) Microsoft 365
2 28 (8.12%) AWS
3 27 (7.83%) Entra ID
4 16 (4.64%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 16 (4.64%) Power Platform
5 11 (3.19%) Power Automate
5 11 (3.19%) PowerApps
6 9 (2.61%) Azure Logic Apps
6 9 (2.61%) GCP
7 8 (2.32%) Amazon EKS
7 8 (2.32%) GitHub
7 8 (2.32%) GitHub Actions
8 7 (2.03%) Mimecast
9 5 (1.45%) Amazon ECR
9 5 (1.45%) Amazon ECS
9 5 (1.45%) SaaS
10 4 (1.16%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (0.87%) Amazon EC2
11 3 (0.87%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 31 (8.99%) Firewall
2 19 (5.51%) DNS
3 15 (4.35%) LAN
4 13 (3.77%) VPN
5 11 (3.19%) TCP/IP
6 10 (2.90%) HTTP
7 8 (2.32%) Network Security
7 8 (2.32%) SAN
8 6 (1.74%) Internet
8 6 (1.74%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (1.45%) WAN
10 3 (0.87%) NAS
10 3 (0.87%) SSH
10 3 (0.87%) VLAN
10 3 (0.87%) Wireless
11 2 (0.58%) Multicast
11 2 (0.58%) VoIP
12 1 (0.29%) DHCP
12 1 (0.29%) DKIM
12 1 (0.29%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.90%) MySQL
2 5 (1.45%) Elasticsearch
2 5 (1.45%) Power BI
3 3 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.58%) GIS
4 2 (0.58%) Relational Database
4 2 (0.58%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database 12c
5 1 (0.29%) RDBMS
5 1 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 13 (3.77%) Git
2 10 (2.90%) GitLab
3 5 (1.45%) JIRA
4 1 (0.29%) Bitbucket
General
1 63 (18.26%) Finance
2 48 (13.91%) Social Skills
3 29 (8.41%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (5.80%) Banking
5 13 (3.77%) Manufacturing
5 13 (3.77%) Retail
6 11 (3.19%) Law
7 8 (2.32%) Legal
8 7 (2.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (2.03%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (0.87%) Billing
9 3 (0.87%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.87%) Public Sector
10 2 (0.58%) Games
10 2 (0.58%) Military
11 1 (0.29%) Local Government
11 1 (0.29%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.90%) WebSockets
2 4 (1.16%) Middleware
3 3 (0.87%) LAMP
4 2 (0.58%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.58%) Node.js
5 1 (0.29%) HTML
5 1 (0.29%) OpenID
5 1 (0.29%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (3.48%) Clustering
1 12 (3.48%) Data Centre
1 12 (3.48%) Data Structures
2 9 (2.61%) Hybrid Cloud
2 9 (2.61%) Management Information System
3 8 (2.32%) Private Cloud
4 4 (1.16%) FMCG
4 4 (1.16%) Replication
5 2 (0.58%) Onboarding
5 2 (0.58%) Operational Technology
5 2 (0.58%) Security Posture
5 2 (0.58%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.29%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.29%) Distributed Computing
6 1 (0.29%) Driving Licence
6 1 (0.29%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.29%) Learning Management System
6 1 (0.29%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.29%) Life Science
6 1 (0.29%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 79 (22.90%) Linux
2 43 (12.46%) Windows
3 19 (5.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 17 (4.93%) Windows Server
5 16 (4.64%) Mac OS
6 15 (4.35%) Android
6 15 (4.35%) Apple iOS
7 11 (3.19%) CentOS
8 8 (2.32%) Ubuntu
9 4 (1.16%) Rocky
10 3 (0.87%) Debian
10 3 (0.87%) Unix
11 1 (0.29%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (16.23%) Problem-Solving
2 54 (15.65%) DevOps
3 29 (8.41%) Analytics
4 28 (8.12%) CI/CD
5 27 (7.83%) Process Improvement
6 23 (6.67%) Continuous Improvement
7 20 (5.80%) ERP
7 20 (5.80%) Infrastructure as Code
8 18 (5.22%) Configuration Management
8 18 (5.22%) Vulnerability Management
9 14 (4.06%) High Availability
9 14 (4.06%) Service Delivery
10 13 (3.77%) Release Management
11 12 (3.48%) Change Control
11 12 (3.48%) Disaster Recovery
12 11 (3.19%) Customer-Centricity
12 11 (3.19%) Cybersecurity
12 11 (3.19%) Data Management
12 11 (3.19%) Identity Management
12 11 (3.19%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 44 (12.75%) SQL
2 33 (9.57%) Bash
3 27 (7.83%) Python
4 8 (2.32%) Go
5 6 (1.74%) PowerShell
6 3 (0.87%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.87%) PHP
6 3 (0.87%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.58%) VBA
8 1 (0.29%) Perl
8 1 (0.29%) R
8 1 (0.29%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 29 (8.41%) Security Cleared
2 20 (5.80%) DV Cleared
3 15 (4.35%) CIPD
4 13 (3.77%) SC Cleared
5 11 (3.19%) RHCSA
6 8 (2.32%) AWS Certification
7 7 (2.03%) Degree
8 4 (1.16%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (0.87%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.29%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.29%) CCNA
10 1 (0.29%) CCNP
10 1 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.29%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.29%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.29%) Linux+ Certification
10 1 (0.29%) MCSE
10 1 (0.29%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (5.22%) GDPR
2 16 (4.64%) QA
3 10 (2.90%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.29%) SOC 2
System Software
1 38 (11.01%) Active Directory
2 21 (6.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (5.80%) Hyper-V
4 12 (3.48%) Docker
5 3 (0.87%) Firmware
5 3 (0.87%) iptables
6 2 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.29%) KVM
Systems Management
1 22 (6.38%) Terraform
2 19 (5.51%) Ansible
3 18 (5.22%) Kubernetes
3 18 (5.22%) Nagios
4 17 (4.93%) Nessus
5 16 (4.64%) Grafana
6 15 (4.35%) Microsoft Intune
7 13 (3.77%) Proxmox
8 12 (3.48%) Prometheus
9 6 (1.74%) Puppet
10 3 (0.87%) systemd
10 3 (0.87%) WSUS
11 2 (0.58%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.58%) Red Hat Satellite
11 2 (0.58%) SCCM
12 1 (0.29%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
12 1 (0.29%) Podman
12 1 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.29%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 65 (18.84%) Microsoft
2 39 (11.30%) Red Hat
3 32 (9.28%) VMware
4 13 (3.77%) SolarWinds
5 9 (2.61%) Veeam
6 7 (2.03%) SonicWALL
7 6 (1.74%) ServiceNow
7 6 (1.74%) Splunk
8 5 (1.45%) Cisco
8 5 (1.45%) Rapid7
9 4 (1.16%) Meraki
9 4 (1.16%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.87%) Dell
10 3 (0.87%) Palo Alto
10 3 (0.87%) Sage
11 2 (0.58%) Atlassian
11 2 (0.58%) CrowdStrike
11 2 (0.58%) Oracle
11 2 (0.58%) SAP
11 2 (0.58%) Workday