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 20 March 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 451 430 433
Rank change year-on-year -21 +3 +119
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 247 236 460
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 199 188 393
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,775 £27,550
25th Percentile £31,250 £43,833 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £40,400
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +23.76% -15.83%
75th Percentile £62,500 £58,188 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £76,250 £62,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £37,500 £50,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -25.00% +25.00% -5.88%

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 69,320 38,229 80,901
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.97% 90.36% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 44,176 23,016 61,754
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £39,000 £43,419 £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% -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 20 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 20 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 -6 236 £45,000 -10.00% 76
UK excluding London -29 172 £37,500 -25.00% 72
London +6 67 £62,500 -10.71% 18
Midlands +20 59 £32,500 - 12
East Midlands -18 38 £32,500 +1.56% 4
South East -21 37 £52,500 +7.14% 16
Work from Home -17 34 £52,500 +5.00% 35
South West -62 26 £40,000 -20.00% 4
North of England -44 24 £35,000 -17.29% 21
East of England -5 22 £47,500 -17.39% 9
West Midlands +19 21 £41,250 +10.00% 8
Yorkshire -38 14 £35,000 -18.84% 13
North West -26 10 £36,500 -13.75% 6
Scotland -29 4 £26,000 -48.00% 8

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

For the 6 months to 20 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 (23.89%) Linux
2 58 (23.48%) Problem-Solving
3 31 (12.55%) DevOps
4 28 (11.34%) Windows
5 27 (10.93%) Microsoft
5 27 (10.93%) VMware
6 26 (10.53%) SQL
7 25 (10.12%) Azure
7 25 (10.12%) iTrent
8 24 (9.72%) Microsoft 365
8 24 (9.72%) Security Cleared
9 23 (9.31%) ERP
10 22 (8.91%) Bash
10 22 (8.91%) DV Cleared
10 22 (8.91%) Firewall
10 22 (8.91%) Python
11 20 (8.10%) Analytics
11 20 (8.10%) Red Hat
12 18 (7.29%) Active Directory
12 18 (7.29%) GDPR
12 18 (7.29%) Process Improvement
13 17 (6.88%) Ansible
13 17 (6.88%) AWS
14 16 (6.48%) VMware Infrastructure
15 15 (6.07%) CIPD
15 15 (6.07%) Terraform
16 14 (5.67%) CI/CD
16 14 (5.67%) Configuration Management
16 14 (5.67%) Infrastructure as Code
17 13 (5.26%) Kubernetes

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 8 (3.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (1.62%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.21%) Apache
3 3 (1.21%) CMS
3 3 (1.21%) WordPress
4 2 (0.81%) nginx
4 2 (0.81%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.40%) Confluence
5 1 (0.40%) Site Server
Applications
1 4 (1.62%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.21%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 25 (10.12%) iTrent
2 2 (0.81%) SAP Business One
2 2 (0.81%) Shopify
2 2 (0.81%) 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 (10.12%) Azure
2 24 (9.72%) Microsoft 365
3 17 (6.88%) AWS
4 10 (4.05%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 7 (2.83%) Amazon EKS
5 7 (2.83%) GitHub
5 7 (2.83%) GitHub Actions
5 7 (2.83%) Power Platform
6 6 (2.43%) GCP
6 6 (2.43%) SaaS
7 5 (2.02%) Dynamics 365
7 5 (2.02%) Entra ID
7 5 (2.02%) Mimecast
8 4 (1.62%) Power Automate
9 3 (1.21%) Amazon ECR
9 3 (1.21%) Amazon ECS
9 3 (1.21%) Intacct
9 3 (1.21%) Nutanix
9 3 (1.21%) PowerApps
9 3 (1.21%) Veeva
Communications & Networking
1 22 (8.91%) Firewall
2 11 (4.45%) VPN
3 10 (4.05%) DNS
4 9 (3.64%) LAN
4 9 (3.64%) TCP/IP
5 8 (3.24%) Network Security
6 7 (2.83%) HTTP
7 4 (1.62%) SAN
7 4 (1.62%) WAN
8 3 (1.21%) Cisco IOS
8 3 (1.21%) Cisco ISE
8 3 (1.21%) Internet
8 3 (1.21%) NAS
8 3 (1.21%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (1.21%) Wireless
9 2 (0.81%) Multicast
9 2 (0.81%) VLAN
9 2 (0.81%) VoIP
10 1 (0.40%) DHCP
10 1 (0.40%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.83%) Power BI
2 5 (2.02%) MySQL
2 5 (2.02%) SQL Server
3 3 (1.21%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (0.81%) Crystal Reports
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 11 (4.45%) Git
2 6 (2.43%) JIRA
3 3 (1.21%) GitLab
4 1 (0.40%) Bitbucket
General
1 47 (19.03%) Social Skills
2 39 (15.79%) Finance
3 25 (10.12%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (4.05%) Banking
4 10 (4.05%) Retail
5 9 (3.64%) Organisational Skills
6 7 (2.83%) General Ledger
7 6 (2.43%) Law
7 6 (2.43%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.21%) Billing
9 3 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.21%) Legal
10 2 (0.81%) Military
11 1 (0.40%) Back Office
11 1 (0.40%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.40%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.02%) WebSockets
2 4 (1.62%) Middleware
3 3 (1.21%) LAMP
4 2 (0.81%) JSON
4 2 (0.81%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.81%) Node.js
4 2 (0.81%) XML
5 1 (0.40%) HTML
5 1 (0.40%) ODBC
5 1 (0.40%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 8 (3.24%) Hybrid Cloud
1 8 (3.24%) Management Information System
2 7 (2.83%) Data Centre
2 7 (2.83%) Private Cloud
3 6 (2.43%) FMCG
4 4 (1.62%) Clustering
4 4 (1.62%) Learning Management System
5 3 (1.21%) Driving Licence
5 3 (1.21%) iSeries
5 3 (1.21%) PKI
6 2 (0.81%) Data Structures
6 2 (0.81%) e-Learning
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 (23.89%) Linux
2 28 (11.34%) Windows
3 13 (5.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 10 (4.05%) CentOS
5 8 (3.24%) Windows Server
6 7 (2.83%) Unix
7 4 (1.62%) Android
7 4 (1.62%) Apple iOS
7 4 (1.62%) Mac OS
8 3 (1.21%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.81%) Debian
9 2 (0.81%) Rocky
9 2 (0.81%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (23.48%) Problem-Solving
2 31 (12.55%) DevOps
3 23 (9.31%) ERP
4 20 (8.10%) Analytics
5 18 (7.29%) Process Improvement
6 14 (5.67%) CI/CD
6 14 (5.67%) Configuration Management
6 14 (5.67%) Infrastructure as Code
7 11 (4.45%) Change Management
7 11 (4.45%) Continuous Improvement
8 9 (3.64%) ITIL
8 9 (3.64%) Service Management
9 8 (3.24%) Service Delivery
9 8 (3.24%) Time Management
10 7 (2.83%) Accounts Payable
10 7 (2.83%) AI
10 7 (2.83%) Business Intelligence
10 7 (2.83%) Cybersecurity
10 7 (2.83%) E-Commerce
10 7 (2.83%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 26 (10.53%) SQL
2 22 (8.91%) Bash
2 22 (8.91%) Python
3 7 (2.83%) Go
4 5 (2.02%) PHP
4 5 (2.02%) PowerShell
5 3 (1.21%) JavaScript
5 3 (1.21%) Perl
6 2 (0.81%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.40%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.40%) VBA
Qualifications
1 24 (9.72%) Security Cleared
2 22 (8.91%) DV Cleared
3 15 (6.07%) CIPD
4 8 (3.24%) SC Cleared
5 7 (2.83%) AWS Certification
5 7 (2.83%) Degree
5 7 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (2.43%) RHCSA
7 4 (1.62%) MCSA
7 4 (1.62%) MCSE
8 3 (1.21%) Azure Certification
8 3 (1.21%) CCNA
8 3 (1.21%) CCNP
8 3 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (1.21%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.40%) A+ Certification
9 1 (0.40%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.40%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.40%) Linux+ Certification
9 1 (0.40%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.29%) GDPR
2 7 (2.83%) QA
3 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 1 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 18 (7.29%) Active Directory
2 16 (6.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (3.64%) Hyper-V
4 7 (2.83%) Docker
5 3 (1.21%) Firmware
6 1 (0.40%) KVM
6 1 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 17 (6.88%) Ansible
2 15 (6.07%) Terraform
3 13 (5.26%) Kubernetes
4 11 (4.45%) Nagios
4 11 (4.45%) Proxmox
5 10 (4.05%) Grafana
6 9 (3.64%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (3.24%) Prometheus
8 7 (2.83%) Nessus
9 5 (2.02%) Puppet
10 3 (1.21%) WSUS
11 2 (0.81%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.40%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.40%) Progress Chef
12 1 (0.40%) SCCM
12 1 (0.40%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 27 (10.93%) Microsoft
1 27 (10.93%) VMware
2 20 (8.10%) Red Hat
3 11 (4.45%) Cisco
4 8 (3.24%) SolarWinds
5 5 (2.02%) Salesforce
5 5 (2.02%) ServiceNow
5 5 (2.02%) Veeam
6 4 (1.62%) SAP
6 4 (1.62%) Splunk
7 3 (1.21%) Bloomberg
7 3 (1.21%) Dell
7 3 (1.21%) IBM
7 3 (1.21%) Okta
7 3 (1.21%) Oracle
7 3 (1.21%) Reuters
7 3 (1.21%) Sage
7 3 (1.21%) SonicWALL
7 3 (1.21%) Sophos
7 3 (1.21%) Zscaler