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 5 June 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 406 478 416
Rank change year-on-year +72 -62 +107
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 366 194 614
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.44% 0.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.50% 0.63%
Number of salaries quoted 261 142 502
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £34,188 £33,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £49,000 £41,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.16% +18.07% -12.63%
75th Percentile £63,750 £57,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £71,125 £62,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £47,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year -15.79% +18.75% -

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 86,877 39,175 97,799
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.74% 89.43% 94.82%
Number of salaries quoted 58,375 22,028 71,043
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £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 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,890 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.75% +1.78% -6.54%

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 5 June 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 5 June 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 +80 335 £45,000 -10.00% 76
UK excluding London +30 253 £40,000 -15.79% 71
London +47 98 £60,000 +9.09% 19
Work from Home +26 74 £55,000 +15.79% 38
Midlands +27 67 £35,000 -1.41% 15
North of England -29 50 £42,500 +10.39% 8
East Midlands +18 47 £32,500 -8.45% 7
East of England +8 45 £40,000 -30.43% 8
South East -29 39 £62,500 +27.55% 15
South West -78 31 £38,500 -23.00% 17
Yorkshire -22 30 £45,000 -14.29% 3
Scotland +26 21 - - 6
West Midlands -19 20 £45,000 +26.76% 8
North West -6 16 £36,500 -5.19% 4
North East - 4 £47,500 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 5 June 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 84 (22.95%) Linux
2 76 (20.77%) Microsoft
3 57 (15.57%) DevOps
3 57 (15.57%) Problem-Solving
4 54 (14.75%) Microsoft 365
5 51 (13.93%) Windows
6 49 (13.39%) SQL
7 44 (12.02%) Azure
8 43 (11.75%) Active Directory
8 43 (11.75%) Red Hat
9 35 (9.56%) Entra ID
10 34 (9.29%) Firewall
11 33 (9.02%) Bash
12 32 (8.74%) Continuous Improvement
12 32 (8.74%) VMware
13 29 (7.92%) AWS
14 28 (7.65%) Analytics
14 28 (7.65%) CI/CD
14 28 (7.65%) Python
15 27 (7.38%) ERP
16 26 (7.10%) Hyper-V
17 25 (6.83%) Process Improvement
17 25 (6.83%) Vulnerability Management
18 24 (6.56%) Security Cleared
19 23 (6.28%) Microsoft Exchange
19 23 (6.28%) Terraform
20 21 (5.74%) Ansible
20 21 (5.74%) Configuration Management
20 21 (5.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
20 21 (5.74%) VMware Infrastructure

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 23 (6.28%) Microsoft Exchange
2 20 (5.46%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.09%) WordPress
4 3 (0.82%) Apache
4 3 (0.82%) CMS
5 2 (0.55%) Confluence
5 2 (0.55%) nginx
5 2 (0.55%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.27%) Moodle
6 1 (0.27%) Site Server
Applications
1 13 (3.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 20 (5.46%) iTrent
2 7 (1.91%) Primavera
3 3 (0.82%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.55%) Shopify
5 1 (0.27%) HFM
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle 11i
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.27%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.27%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 54 (14.75%) Microsoft 365
2 44 (12.02%) Azure
3 35 (9.56%) Entra ID
4 29 (7.92%) AWS
5 20 (5.46%) Power Platform
6 17 (4.64%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 13 (3.55%) Power Automate
8 11 (3.01%) PowerApps
8 11 (3.01%) SaaS
9 10 (2.73%) GCP
10 9 (2.46%) Azure Logic Apps
11 8 (2.19%) Amazon EKS
11 8 (2.19%) GitHub
11 8 (2.19%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (2.19%) Intacct
11 8 (2.19%) Mimecast
12 6 (1.64%) Amazon ECR
12 6 (1.64%) Amazon ECS
13 5 (1.37%) Dynamics 365
14 3 (0.82%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 34 (9.29%) Firewall
2 20 (5.46%) DNS
3 15 (4.10%) LAN
4 13 (3.55%) VPN
5 12 (3.28%) TCP/IP
6 10 (2.73%) HTTP
7 9 (2.46%) Network Security
7 9 (2.46%) SAN
8 7 (1.91%) Internet
8 7 (1.91%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (1.37%) WAN
10 3 (0.82%) NAS
10 3 (0.82%) SSH
10 3 (0.82%) VLAN
10 3 (0.82%) Wireless
11 2 (0.55%) DHCP
11 2 (0.55%) Multicast
11 2 (0.55%) VoIP
12 1 (0.27%) DKIM
12 1 (0.27%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (3.01%) MySQL
2 9 (2.46%) Power BI
3 6 (1.64%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.82%) GIS
5 2 (0.55%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.55%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.27%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.27%) Oracle Database 12c
6 1 (0.27%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 14 (3.83%) Git
2 11 (3.01%) GitLab
3 5 (1.37%) JIRA
4 1 (0.27%) Bitbucket
General
1 75 (20.49%) Finance
2 54 (14.75%) Social Skills
3 27 (7.38%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (5.74%) Banking
5 15 (4.10%) Retail
6 14 (3.83%) Manufacturing
7 11 (3.01%) Law
8 10 (2.73%) Billing
8 10 (2.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (2.19%) Legal
10 7 (1.91%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.82%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.82%) Games
11 3 (0.82%) Public Sector
12 1 (0.27%) Digital Health
12 1 (0.27%) Local Government
12 1 (0.27%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.27%) Police
12 1 (0.27%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.73%) WebSockets
2 7 (1.91%) Middleware
3 3 (0.82%) LAMP
4 2 (0.55%) LEMP Stack
4 2 (0.55%) Node.js
5 1 (0.27%) HTML
5 1 (0.27%) OpenID
5 1 (0.27%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.64%) Data Structures
2 14 (3.83%) Clustering
3 13 (3.55%) Data Centre
4 10 (2.73%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.46%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (2.19%) Private Cloud
7 4 (1.09%) Onboarding
7 4 (1.09%) Replication
8 3 (0.82%) Security Posture
8 3 (0.82%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.55%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.55%) Operational Technology
10 1 (0.27%) Distributed Computing
10 1 (0.27%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.27%) FMCG
10 1 (0.27%) Legacy Applications
10 1 (0.27%) Life Science
10 1 (0.27%) Product Ownership
10 1 (0.27%) Video Conferencing
10 1 (0.27%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 84 (22.95%) Linux
2 51 (13.93%) Windows
3 21 (5.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 21 (5.74%) Windows Server
4 20 (5.46%) Mac OS
5 17 (4.64%) Android
5 17 (4.64%) Apple iOS
6 12 (3.28%) CentOS
7 9 (2.46%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.09%) Debian
8 4 (1.09%) Rocky
9 3 (0.82%) Unix
10 1 (0.27%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (15.57%) DevOps
1 57 (15.57%) Problem-Solving
2 32 (8.74%) Continuous Improvement
3 28 (7.65%) Analytics
3 28 (7.65%) CI/CD
4 27 (7.38%) ERP
5 25 (6.83%) Process Improvement
5 25 (6.83%) Vulnerability Management
6 21 (5.74%) Configuration Management
7 20 (5.46%) Infrastructure as Code
8 15 (4.10%) Release Management
8 15 (4.10%) Service Delivery
9 14 (3.83%) Change Control
9 14 (3.83%) Disaster Recovery
9 14 (3.83%) High Availability
9 14 (3.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 13 (3.55%) Identity Management
11 12 (3.28%) Mobile Device Management
11 12 (3.28%) Patch Management
12 11 (3.01%) Data Management
Programming Languages
1 49 (13.39%) SQL
2 33 (9.02%) Bash
3 28 (7.65%) Python
4 10 (2.73%) PowerShell
5 8 (2.19%) Go
6 3 (0.82%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.82%) PHP
6 3 (0.82%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.55%) VBA
8 1 (0.27%) Perl
8 1 (0.27%) R
8 1 (0.27%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (6.56%) Security Cleared
2 16 (4.37%) DV Cleared
3 13 (3.55%) CIPD
4 11 (3.01%) RHCSA
4 11 (3.01%) SC Cleared
5 8 (2.19%) AWS Certification
5 8 (2.19%) Degree
6 2 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.27%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.27%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.27%) CCNA
7 1 (0.27%) CCNP
7 1 (0.27%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.27%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.27%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.27%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.27%) Linux+ Certification
7 1 (0.27%) MCSE
7 1 (0.27%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (4.92%) QA
2 14 (3.83%) Data Quality
2 14 (3.83%) GDPR
3 2 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.27%) SOC 2
System Software
1 43 (11.75%) Active Directory
2 26 (7.10%) Hyper-V
3 21 (5.74%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (3.55%) Docker
5 4 (1.09%) iptables
6 3 (0.82%) Firmware
6 3 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.27%) KVM
Systems Management
1 23 (6.28%) Terraform
2 21 (5.74%) Ansible
3 19 (5.19%) Kubernetes
3 19 (5.19%) Nagios
4 17 (4.64%) Grafana
4 17 (4.64%) Proxmox
5 16 (4.37%) Nessus
6 15 (4.10%) Microsoft Intune
7 12 (3.28%) Prometheus
8 7 (1.91%) Puppet
9 3 (0.82%) SCCM
9 3 (0.82%) systemd
10 2 (0.55%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.55%) Red Hat Satellite
11 1 (0.27%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.27%) Podman
11 1 (0.27%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.27%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 76 (20.77%) Microsoft
2 43 (11.75%) Red Hat
3 32 (8.74%) VMware
4 13 (3.55%) SolarWinds
5 12 (3.28%) Salesforce
6 10 (2.73%) Veeam
7 9 (2.46%) Sage
8 8 (2.19%) SonicWALL
9 7 (1.91%) Splunk
10 6 (1.64%) Cisco
10 6 (1.64%) Rapid7
10 6 (1.64%) ServiceNow
11 5 (1.37%) Meraki
11 5 (1.37%) SAP
12 4 (1.09%) Concur
12 4 (1.09%) Databricks
13 3 (0.82%) Dell
13 3 (0.82%) Palo Alto
14 2 (0.55%) Oracle
14 2 (0.55%) Workday