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 4 September 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 379 466 382
Rank change year-on-year +87 -84 +43
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 517 219 508
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.45% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.50% 0.50% 0.67%
Number of salaries quoted 322 134 377
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 £57,500 £55,625 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £43,500 £42,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year +2.35% -5.56% +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 103,497 43,997 75,693
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.82% 89.68% 95.22%
Number of salaries quoted 71,228 25,950 47,905
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,169 £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 £76,250 £74,258 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £92,159
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 4 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 4 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 +89 447 £45,000 - 84
UK excluding London +58 399 £43,500 +2.35% 62
London +18 103 £56,750 +3.18% 30
Work from Home -43 85 £55,000 +29.41% 25
South East -1 76 £45,000 - 29
South West -70 75 £35,000 -22.22% 13
Midlands +15 71 £45,000 +26.76% 5
North of England -9 69 £45,000 +16.88% 11
Scotland - 51 £43,500 - 1
East of England +5 49 £40,000 -11.11% 1
Yorkshire -10 37 £45,000 -14.29% 7
East Midlands -12 36 £41,750 +39.17% 3
West Midlands +3 35 £55,000 +29.41% 2
North West -7 26 £40,000 +3.90% 3
Wales -66 8 £50,000 +5.26%
North East - 6 £47,500 - 3

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

For the 6 months to 4 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 (20.12%) Microsoft
2 96 (18.57%) Linux
3 76 (14.70%) Windows
4 70 (13.54%) Active Directory
5 67 (12.96%) Microsoft 365
6 65 (12.57%) Azure
7 60 (11.61%) DevOps
8 59 (11.41%) Entra ID
9 48 (9.28%) Problem-Solving
9 48 (9.28%) Red Hat
10 45 (8.70%) SQL
11 43 (8.32%) Continuous Improvement
11 43 (8.32%) Windows Server
12 40 (7.74%) Bash
12 40 (7.74%) Firewall
13 39 (7.54%) AWS
13 39 (7.54%) CI/CD
13 39 (7.54%) Microsoft Exchange
14 38 (7.35%) Ansible
15 36 (6.96%) Python
15 36 (6.96%) SaaS
16 35 (6.77%) Hyper-V
16 35 (6.77%) Security Cleared
17 34 (6.58%) DNS
18 33 (6.38%) SharePoint
18 33 (6.38%) Vulnerability Management
19 30 (5.80%) Kubernetes
20 27 (5.22%) ERP
20 27 (5.22%) Mac OS
20 27 (5.22%) Terraform

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 (7.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (6.38%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.55%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.77%) IIS
5 2 (0.39%) 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 16 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.32%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 22 (4.26%) Primavera
2 2 (0.39%) Elite 3E
2 2 (0.39%) iTrent
3 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.19%) HFM
3 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 67 (12.96%) Microsoft 365
2 65 (12.57%) Azure
3 59 (11.41%) Entra ID
4 39 (7.54%) AWS
5 36 (6.96%) SaaS
6 25 (4.84%) OpenShift
7 22 (4.26%) Power Platform
8 20 (3.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 19 (3.68%) Power Automate
10 13 (2.51%) GCP
10 13 (2.51%) Mimecast
10 13 (2.51%) PaaS
10 13 (2.51%) PowerApps
11 11 (2.13%) Amazon ECR
11 11 (2.13%) Amazon ECS
11 11 (2.13%) Intacct
12 9 (1.74%) Azure Logic Apps
12 9 (1.74%) Dynamics 365
13 8 (1.55%) GitHub
14 6 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 40 (7.74%) Firewall
2 34 (6.58%) DNS
3 21 (4.06%) VPN
4 20 (3.87%) TCP/IP
5 18 (3.48%) DHCP
6 14 (2.71%) LAN
7 9 (1.74%) SAN
7 9 (1.74%) WAN
8 8 (1.55%) Wi-Fi
9 6 (1.16%) Network Security
10 5 (0.97%) HTTP
10 5 (0.97%) Internet
10 5 (0.97%) VLAN
11 4 (0.77%) VSAN
12 3 (0.58%) SSH
12 3 (0.58%) Wireless
13 1 (0.19%) FTP
13 1 (0.19%) SSL
13 1 (0.19%) VoIP
13 1 (0.19%) WireGuard
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.90%) MySQL
2 11 (2.13%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (1.55%) Power BI
4 3 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.58%) GIS
5 2 (0.39%) Big Data
6 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 26 (5.03%) Git
2 16 (3.09%) GitLab
3 8 (1.55%) JIRA
4 2 (0.39%) 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 (16.63%) Finance
2 73 (14.12%) Social Skills
3 34 (6.58%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (4.84%) Manufacturing
5 24 (4.64%) Retail
6 20 (3.87%) Banking
7 16 (3.09%) Billing
8 11 (2.13%) Legal
9 10 (1.93%) Law
10 9 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
11 8 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
12 5 (0.97%) Police
13 4 (0.77%) Automotive
14 3 (0.58%) Documentation Skills
14 3 (0.58%) Games
14 3 (0.58%) Public Sector
15 2 (0.39%) Marketing
16 1 (0.19%) German Language
16 1 (0.19%) Polish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (5.22%) Terraform
2 5 (0.97%) Middleware
2 5 (0.97%) WebSockets
3 3 (0.58%) Boost C++ Libraries
4 2 (0.39%) 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 (4.64%) Data Structures
2 19 (3.68%) Clustering
3 14 (2.71%) Social Media
4 11 (2.13%) Onboarding
5 10 (1.93%) Operational Technology
6 9 (1.74%) Data Centre
6 9 (1.74%) Management Information System
7 7 (1.35%) Private Cloud
8 6 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (0.77%) PMI
10 3 (0.58%) Embedded Systems
10 3 (0.58%) IoT
10 3 (0.58%) Replication
10 3 (0.58%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.39%) Educational Technology
11 2 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
11 2 (0.39%) Housing Association
12 1 (0.19%) CCTV
12 1 (0.19%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 96 (18.57%) Linux
2 76 (14.70%) Windows
3 43 (8.32%) Windows Server
4 27 (5.22%) Mac OS
5 24 (4.64%) Apple iOS
6 21 (4.06%) Android
7 20 (3.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 17 (3.29%) CentOS
9 12 (2.32%) Ubuntu
10 10 (1.93%) Unix
11 8 (1.55%) Debian
12 6 (1.16%) Rocky
12 6 (1.16%) Windows 10
13 4 (0.77%) CoreOS
13 4 (0.77%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (11.61%) DevOps
2 48 (9.28%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (8.32%) Continuous Improvement
4 39 (7.54%) CI/CD
5 33 (6.38%) Vulnerability Management
6 27 (5.22%) ERP
7 26 (5.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 21 (4.06%) Configuration Management
9 19 (3.68%) Change Management
9 19 (3.68%) Identity Management
9 19 (3.68%) Release Management
10 18 (3.48%) Analytics
10 18 (3.48%) Change Control
11 17 (3.29%) Customer Experience
11 17 (3.29%) Infrastructure as Code
11 17 (3.29%) Time Management
12 16 (3.09%) Capacity Planning
12 16 (3.09%) High Availability
12 16 (3.09%) ITIL
13 15 (2.90%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 45 (8.70%) SQL
2 40 (7.74%) Bash
3 36 (6.96%) Python
4 26 (5.03%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.35%) R
6 5 (0.97%) Go
6 5 (0.97%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.58%) C
7 3 (0.58%) C++
7 3 (0.58%) PHP
7 3 (0.58%) Ruby
7 3 (0.58%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.39%) VBA
Qualifications
1 35 (6.77%) Security Cleared
2 26 (5.03%) DV Cleared
2 26 (5.03%) SC Cleared
3 15 (2.90%) Degree
4 6 (1.16%) AWS Certification
5 5 (0.97%) RHCSA
6 4 (0.77%) CIPD
6 4 (0.77%) DBS Check
6 4 (0.77%) PMI Certification
7 3 (0.58%) HND
8 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (5.03%) QA
2 15 (2.90%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.39%) GDPR
6 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 70 (13.54%) Active Directory
2 35 (6.77%) Hyper-V
3 24 (4.64%) Docker
4 12 (2.32%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.35%) Ceph
5 7 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.97%) iptables
7 2 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.39%) 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 38 (7.35%) Ansible
2 30 (5.80%) Kubernetes
3 21 (4.06%) Grafana
4 20 (3.87%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (3.87%) Nessus
5 18 (3.48%) Nagios
6 17 (3.29%) Prometheus
7 13 (2.51%) Proxmox
8 8 (1.55%) Podman
9 7 (1.35%) Argo
9 7 (1.35%) Check_MK
9 7 (1.35%) Istio
10 4 (0.77%) McAfee ePO
10 4 (0.77%) Puppet
10 4 (0.77%) SCCM
10 4 (0.77%) SCVMM
11 3 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.58%) systemd
12 2 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 104 (20.12%) Microsoft
2 48 (9.28%) Red Hat
3 21 (4.06%) Salesforce
4 20 (3.87%) VMware
5 12 (2.32%) Sage
5 12 (2.32%) Splunk
6 11 (2.13%) Rapid7
7 9 (1.74%) SAP
8 8 (1.55%) CrowdStrike
9 7 (1.35%) Dell
9 7 (1.35%) Veeam
10 6 (1.16%) SolarWinds
10 6 (1.16%) SonicWALL
11 5 (0.97%) Concur
11 5 (0.97%) Databricks
11 5 (0.97%) Google
12 4 (0.77%) McAfee
12 4 (0.77%) Meraki
13 3 (0.58%) Cisco
14 2 (0.39%) Sophos