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 10 September 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 380 458 366
Rank change year-on-year +78 -92 +67
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 524 222 526
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.46% 0.45% 0.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.50% 0.50% 0.70%
Number of salaries quoted 323 134 381
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,475 £30,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £30,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
75th Percentile £58,125 £57,188 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £43,500 £43,750 £45,000
% change year-on-year -0.57% -2.78% +11.74%

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 105,685 44,574 74,714
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.54% 89.72% 95.24%
Number of salaries quoted 72,853 26,277 45,811
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,000 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

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 10 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Systems Administrator in the UK

Systems Administrator
Top 16 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 10 September 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 +65 453 £45,000 - 54
UK excluding London +56 407 £43,500 -0.57% 48
London +5 102 £56,750 +3.18% 12
Work from Home -34 87 £55,000 +29.41% 18
South East +29 84 £45,000 - 21
South West -79 76 £35,000 -22.22% 10
North of England -3 71 £45,000 +16.88% 10
Midlands +5 69 £45,000 +26.76% 5
Scotland - 52 £43,500 - 1
East of England -1 47 £40,000 -11.11% 1
Yorkshire -15 36 £45,000 -14.29% 7
West Midlands +1 35 £55,000 +29.41% 2
East Midlands -4 34 £41,750 +39.17% 3
North West 0 27 £40,000 +3.90% 2
Wales -70 8 £50,000 +5.26%
North East - 8 £47,500 - 3

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

For the 6 months to 10 September 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.

1 104 (19.85%) Microsoft
2 97 (18.51%) Linux
3 77 (14.69%) Windows
4 70 (13.36%) Active Directory
5 66 (12.60%) Microsoft 365
6 65 (12.40%) Azure
7 61 (11.64%) DevOps
8 59 (11.26%) Entra ID
9 51 (9.73%) Problem-Solving
10 47 (8.97%) Red Hat
11 44 (8.40%) SQL
12 43 (8.21%) Windows Server
13 41 (7.82%) Bash
13 41 (7.82%) Continuous Improvement
14 40 (7.63%) AWS
14 40 (7.63%) CI/CD
14 40 (7.63%) Firewall
15 39 (7.44%) Ansible
15 39 (7.44%) Microsoft Exchange
16 37 (7.06%) Python
16 37 (7.06%) SaaS
17 35 (6.68%) Security Cleared
18 34 (6.49%) DNS
18 34 (6.49%) Hyper-V
19 33 (6.30%) SharePoint
19 33 (6.30%) Vulnerability Management
20 31 (5.92%) Kubernetes
21 28 (5.34%) ERP
21 28 (5.34%) Terraform
22 27 (5.15%) Mac OS

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 39 (7.44%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (6.30%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.53%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.76%) IIS
5 2 (0.38%) nginx
6 1 (0.19%) Apache
6 1 (0.19%) Confluence
6 1 (0.19%) JBoss
6 1 (0.19%) Moodle
6 1 (0.19%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.19%) WordPress
Applications
1 21 (4.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.29%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 23 (4.39%) Primavera
2 2 (0.38%) Dynamics NAV
2 2 (0.38%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.19%) HFM
3 1 (0.19%) iTrent
3 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 66 (12.60%) Microsoft 365
2 65 (12.40%) Azure
3 59 (11.26%) Entra ID
4 40 (7.63%) AWS
5 37 (7.06%) SaaS
6 25 (4.77%) OpenShift
7 24 (4.58%) Power Platform
8 21 (4.01%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 21 (4.01%) Power Automate
9 13 (2.48%) GCP
9 13 (2.48%) Mimecast
9 13 (2.48%) PaaS
9 13 (2.48%) PowerApps
10 11 (2.10%) Amazon ECR
10 11 (2.10%) Amazon ECS
10 11 (2.10%) Intacct
11 9 (1.72%) Azure Logic Apps
11 9 (1.72%) Dynamics 365
11 9 (1.72%) GitHub
12 7 (1.34%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 40 (7.63%) Firewall
2 34 (6.49%) DNS
3 22 (4.20%) VPN
4 20 (3.82%) TCP/IP
5 18 (3.44%) DHCP
6 14 (2.67%) LAN
7 9 (1.72%) SAN
7 9 (1.72%) WAN
8 8 (1.53%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (1.15%) Network Security
10 5 (0.95%) HTTP
10 5 (0.95%) Internet
10 5 (0.95%) VLAN
11 4 (0.76%) VSAN
12 3 (0.57%) SSH
13 2 (0.38%) Wireless
14 1 (0.19%) FTP
14 1 (0.19%) iSCSI
14 1 (0.19%) SSL
14 1 (0.19%) WireGuard
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.86%) MySQL
2 11 (2.10%) Elasticsearch
3 10 (1.91%) Power BI
4 3 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.57%) GIS
5 2 (0.38%) Big Data
6 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 26 (4.96%) Git
2 16 (3.05%) GitLab
3 8 (1.53%) JIRA
4 2 (0.38%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.19%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.19%) Robot Framework
5 1 (0.19%) Selenium
5 1 (0.19%) TeamCity
General
1 86 (16.41%) Finance
2 77 (14.69%) Social Skills
3 37 (7.06%) Analytical Skills
4 26 (4.96%) Manufacturing
4 26 (4.96%) Retail
5 20 (3.82%) Banking
6 16 (3.05%) Billing
7 11 (2.10%) Legal
8 10 (1.91%) Organisational Skills
9 9 (1.72%) Law
10 7 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (0.95%) Automotive
11 5 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (0.95%) Police
12 4 (0.76%) Public Sector
13 3 (0.57%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.57%) Games
14 2 (0.38%) German Language
14 2 (0.38%) Marketing
14 2 (0.38%) Polish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (5.34%) Terraform
2 5 (0.95%) Middleware
2 5 (0.95%) WebSockets
3 3 (0.57%) Boost C++ Libraries
4 2 (0.38%) OpenID
5 1 (0.19%) CSS
5 1 (0.19%) CSS3
5 1 (0.19%) HTML
5 1 (0.19%) HTML5
5 1 (0.19%) Keycloak
5 1 (0.19%) LEMP Stack
5 1 (0.19%) Node.js
5 1 (0.19%) OAuth
5 1 (0.19%) OAuth2
5 1 (0.19%) OpenTofu
5 1 (0.19%) React
5 1 (0.19%) Redfish
5 1 (0.19%) SAML
5 1 (0.19%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 24 (4.58%) Data Structures
2 18 (3.44%) Clustering
3 14 (2.67%) Social Media
4 11 (2.10%) Onboarding
4 11 (2.10%) Operational Technology
5 9 (1.72%) Data Centre
5 9 (1.72%) Management Information System
6 8 (1.53%) Private Cloud
7 7 (1.34%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (0.76%) Housing Association
9 4 (0.76%) PMI
10 3 (0.57%) Embedded Systems
10 3 (0.57%) IoT
10 3 (0.57%) Replication
10 3 (0.57%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.38%) Educational Technology
11 2 (0.38%) Enterprise Software
11 2 (0.38%) Learning Management System
12 1 (0.19%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 97 (18.51%) Linux
2 77 (14.69%) Windows
3 43 (8.21%) Windows Server
4 27 (5.15%) Mac OS
5 24 (4.58%) Apple iOS
6 21 (4.01%) Android
7 20 (3.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 17 (3.24%) CentOS
9 12 (2.29%) Ubuntu
10 10 (1.91%) Unix
11 8 (1.53%) Debian
12 6 (1.15%) Rocky
12 6 (1.15%) Windows 10
13 4 (0.76%) CoreOS
13 4 (0.76%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.76%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (11.64%) DevOps
2 51 (9.73%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (7.82%) Continuous Improvement
4 40 (7.63%) CI/CD
5 33 (6.30%) Vulnerability Management
6 28 (5.34%) ERP
7 26 (4.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 21 (4.01%) Configuration Management
9 19 (3.63%) Change Management
9 19 (3.63%) Identity Management
9 19 (3.63%) Release Management
9 19 (3.63%) Time Management
10 18 (3.44%) Analytics
10 18 (3.44%) Change Control
10 18 (3.44%) Customer Experience
11 17 (3.24%) CRM
11 17 (3.24%) Infrastructure as Code
11 17 (3.24%) ITIL
12 16 (3.05%) Capacity Planning
12 16 (3.05%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 44 (8.40%) SQL
2 41 (7.82%) Bash
3 37 (7.06%) Python
4 26 (4.96%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.34%) R
6 6 (1.15%) Go
7 5 (0.95%) JavaScript
8 3 (0.57%) C
8 3 (0.57%) C++
8 3 (0.57%) PHP
8 3 (0.57%) Ruby
8 3 (0.57%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.38%) VBA
Qualifications
1 35 (6.68%) Security Cleared
2 26 (4.96%) DV Cleared
2 26 (4.96%) SC Cleared
3 15 (2.86%) Degree
4 7 (1.34%) AWS Certification
5 6 (1.15%) DBS Check
6 5 (0.95%) RHCSA
7 4 (0.76%) PMI Certification
8 3 (0.57%) CIPD
8 3 (0.57%) HND
9 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.96%) QA
2 15 (2.86%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.38%) GDPR
6 1 (0.19%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 70 (13.36%) Active Directory
2 34 (6.49%) Hyper-V
3 24 (4.58%) Docker
4 12 (2.29%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.34%) Ceph
5 7 (1.34%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.95%) iptables
7 2 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.38%) vSphere
8 1 (0.19%) Firmware
8 1 (0.19%) NFS
8 1 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.19%) Xen
Systems Management
1 39 (7.44%) Ansible
2 31 (5.92%) Kubernetes
3 22 (4.20%) Grafana
4 20 (3.82%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (3.82%) Nessus
5 18 (3.44%) Nagios
5 18 (3.44%) Prometheus
6 14 (2.67%) Proxmox
7 8 (1.53%) Podman
8 7 (1.34%) Argo
8 7 (1.34%) Check_MK
8 7 (1.34%) Istio
9 4 (0.76%) McAfee ePO
9 4 (0.76%) Puppet
9 4 (0.76%) SCCM
9 4 (0.76%) SCVMM
10 3 (0.57%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.57%) systemd
11 2 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 104 (19.85%) Microsoft
2 47 (8.97%) Red Hat
3 22 (4.20%) VMware
4 21 (4.01%) Salesforce
5 12 (2.29%) Sage
5 12 (2.29%) Splunk
6 11 (2.10%) Rapid7
7 9 (1.72%) SAP
8 8 (1.53%) CrowdStrike
9 7 (1.34%) Dell
9 7 (1.34%) Veeam
10 6 (1.15%) SolarWinds
10 6 (1.15%) SonicWALL
11 5 (0.95%) Concur
11 5 (0.95%) Databricks
11 5 (0.95%) Google
12 4 (0.76%) McAfee
12 4 (0.76%) Meraki
13 3 (0.57%) Cisco
14 2 (0.38%) Sophos