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 24 August 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 375 467 398
Rank change year-on-year +92 -69 +36
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 518 220 511
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.48% 0.44% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.51% 0.49% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 329 136 402
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,625 £30,000
25th Percentile £36,011 £30,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
75th Percentile £58,750 £54,375 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,625 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £43,500 £45,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year -3.33% - +12.50%

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 101,876 44,986 79,362
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.93% 89.87% 95.10%
Number of salaries quoted 69,841 26,672 51,908
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 £75,000 £75,000 £72,450
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,292 £47,602 £50,000
% change year-on-year +14.05% -4.80% -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 24 August 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 24 August 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 +82 450 £45,000 - 61
UK excluding London +63 390 £43,500 -3.33% 60
London +41 113 £57,500 +4.55% 9
Work from Home -24 88 £55,000 +29.41% 15
Midlands +16 74 £45,000 +26.76% 7
South West -70 70 £35,000 -22.22% 14
South East +4 69 £45,000 - 25
North of England +7 66 £45,000 +16.88% 12
East of England +7 54 £40,000 -11.11%
Scotland - 49 £43,500 - 2
East Midlands +1 38 £41,750 +39.17% 2
West Midlands +13 36 £55,000 +29.41% 5
Yorkshire +2 35 £45,000 -14.29% 7
North West -3 26 £40,000 +18.64% 3
Wales -54 8 £50,000 +5.26%
North East - 5 £47,500 - 4

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

For the 6 months to 24 August 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.

1 106 (20.46%) Microsoft
2 101 (19.50%) Linux
3 77 (14.86%) Windows
4 71 (13.71%) Active Directory
4 71 (13.71%) Microsoft 365
5 65 (12.55%) Azure
6 63 (12.16%) DevOps
7 60 (11.58%) Entra ID
8 51 (9.85%) Red Hat
9 50 (9.65%) Problem-Solving
9 50 (9.65%) SQL
10 43 (8.30%) Bash
10 43 (8.30%) Continuous Improvement
10 43 (8.30%) Windows Server
11 41 (7.92%) Microsoft Exchange
12 40 (7.72%) Firewall
13 39 (7.53%) CI/CD
13 39 (7.53%) Python
14 38 (7.34%) Ansible
14 38 (7.34%) AWS
14 38 (7.34%) DNS
14 38 (7.34%) Security Cleared
15 37 (7.14%) Hyper-V
16 35 (6.76%) SaaS
17 34 (6.56%) SharePoint
18 33 (6.37%) Vulnerability Management
19 30 (5.79%) Git
19 30 (5.79%) Kubernetes
20 29 (5.60%) DV Cleared
20 29 (5.60%) ERP

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 41 (7.92%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (6.56%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.54%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.77%) IIS
5 3 (0.58%) nginx
6 2 (0.39%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.19%) Apache
7 1 (0.19%) Confluence
7 1 (0.19%) JBoss
7 1 (0.19%) Moodle
7 1 (0.19%) WordPress
Applications
1 16 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.32%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 20 (3.86%) Primavera
2 3 (0.58%) Elite 3E
2 3 (0.58%) iTrent
3 1 (0.19%) HFM
3 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 71 (13.71%) Microsoft 365
2 65 (12.55%) Azure
3 60 (11.58%) Entra ID
4 38 (7.34%) AWS
5 35 (6.76%) SaaS
6 25 (4.83%) OpenShift
7 22 (4.25%) Power Platform
8 18 (3.47%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 18 (3.47%) Power Automate
9 14 (2.70%) GCP
9 14 (2.70%) Mimecast
10 13 (2.51%) PaaS
10 13 (2.51%) PowerApps
11 12 (2.32%) Intacct
12 11 (2.12%) Amazon ECR
12 11 (2.12%) Amazon ECS
13 9 (1.74%) Azure Logic Apps
13 9 (1.74%) Dynamics 365
14 6 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
14 6 (1.16%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 40 (7.72%) Firewall
2 38 (7.34%) DNS
3 23 (4.44%) TCP/IP
4 19 (3.67%) DHCP
4 19 (3.67%) VPN
5 16 (3.09%) LAN
6 11 (2.12%) SAN
7 9 (1.74%) WAN
7 9 (1.74%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (1.35%) HTTP
8 7 (1.35%) Network Security
9 6 (1.16%) Internet
9 6 (1.16%) VLAN
10 4 (0.77%) VSAN
11 3 (0.58%) SSH
11 3 (0.58%) Wireless
12 2 (0.39%) Multicast
12 2 (0.39%) NAS
13 1 (0.19%) DKIM
13 1 (0.19%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (3.09%) MySQL
2 11 (2.12%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (1.54%) 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 30 (5.79%) Git
2 16 (3.09%) GitLab
3 8 (1.54%) 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 93 (17.95%) Finance
2 75 (14.48%) Social Skills
3 37 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (4.63%) Manufacturing
5 23 (4.44%) Banking
5 23 (4.44%) Retail
6 17 (3.28%) Billing
7 14 (2.70%) Legal
8 12 (2.32%) Law
9 9 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
10 8 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (0.97%) Police
12 4 (0.77%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.58%) Games
13 3 (0.58%) Public Sector
14 2 (0.39%) Marketing
15 1 (0.19%) Electronics
15 1 (0.19%) Local Government
15 1 (0.19%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (5.02%) Terraform
2 7 (1.35%) WebSockets
3 6 (1.16%) Middleware
4 3 (0.58%) Boost C++ Libraries
5 2 (0.39%) LEMP Stack
5 2 (0.39%) Node.js
5 2 (0.39%) OpenID
6 1 (0.19%) CSS
6 1 (0.19%) CSS3
6 1 (0.19%) HTML
6 1 (0.19%) HTML5
6 1 (0.19%) Keycloak
6 1 (0.19%) OAuth
6 1 (0.19%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.19%) OpenTofu
6 1 (0.19%) React
6 1 (0.19%) Redfish
6 1 (0.19%) SAML
6 1 (0.19%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 25 (4.83%) Data Structures
2 20 (3.86%) Clustering
3 14 (2.70%) Social Media
4 12 (2.32%) Data Centre
4 12 (2.32%) Onboarding
5 9 (1.74%) Management Information System
6 7 (1.35%) Operational Technology
7 6 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (0.97%) Private Cloud
9 4 (0.77%) Hybrid Cloud
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%) Distributed Computing
12 1 (0.19%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 101 (19.50%) Linux
2 77 (14.86%) Windows
3 43 (8.30%) Windows Server
4 27 (5.21%) Mac OS
5 24 (4.63%) Apple iOS
6 23 (4.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 21 (4.05%) Android
8 19 (3.67%) CentOS
9 13 (2.51%) Ubuntu
10 10 (1.93%) Unix
11 8 (1.54%) Debian
12 7 (1.35%) Rocky
13 6 (1.16%) Windows 10
14 4 (0.77%) CoreOS
14 4 (0.77%) Windows Server 2016
14 4 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
15 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (12.16%) DevOps
2 50 (9.65%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (8.30%) Continuous Improvement
4 39 (7.53%) CI/CD
5 33 (6.37%) Vulnerability Management
6 29 (5.60%) ERP
7 26 (5.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 24 (4.63%) Configuration Management
9 19 (3.67%) Change Management
9 19 (3.67%) Identity Management
9 19 (3.67%) Release Management
10 18 (3.47%) Change Control
11 17 (3.28%) Analytics
11 17 (3.28%) Capacity Planning
11 17 (3.28%) Infrastructure as Code
12 16 (3.09%) High Availability
12 16 (3.09%) Time Management
13 15 (2.90%) CRM
13 15 (2.90%) ITIL
13 15 (2.90%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 50 (9.65%) SQL
2 43 (8.30%) Bash
3 39 (7.53%) Python
4 27 (5.21%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.35%) R
6 6 (1.16%) JavaScript
7 4 (0.77%) Go
7 4 (0.77%) Shell Script
8 3 (0.58%) C
8 3 (0.58%) C++
8 3 (0.58%) PHP
8 3 (0.58%) Ruby
9 2 (0.39%) VBA
Qualifications
1 38 (7.34%) Security Cleared
2 29 (5.60%) DV Cleared
3 26 (5.02%) SC Cleared
4 15 (2.90%) Degree
5 8 (1.54%) RHCSA
6 5 (0.97%) AWS Certification
7 4 (0.77%) CIPD
7 4 (0.77%) DBS Check
7 4 (0.77%) PMI Certification
8 3 (0.58%) HND
9 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.19%) Linux+ Certification
10 1 (0.19%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (5.21%) QA
2 15 (2.90%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (0.58%) GDPR
5 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 71 (13.71%) Active Directory
2 37 (7.14%) Hyper-V
3 26 (5.02%) Docker
4 16 (3.09%) 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%) KVM
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 (7.34%) Ansible
2 30 (5.79%) Kubernetes
3 22 (4.25%) Nagios
4 21 (4.05%) Microsoft Intune
5 20 (3.86%) Nessus
6 19 (3.67%) Grafana
7 16 (3.09%) Prometheus
8 13 (2.51%) Proxmox
9 8 (1.54%) Podman
10 7 (1.35%) Argo
10 7 (1.35%) Check_MK
10 7 (1.35%) Istio
11 5 (0.97%) Puppet
12 4 (0.77%) McAfee ePO
12 4 (0.77%) SCCM
12 4 (0.77%) SCVMM
13 3 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
13 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Clustering
13 3 (0.58%) systemd
14 2 (0.39%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 106 (20.46%) Microsoft
2 51 (9.85%) Red Hat
3 23 (4.44%) VMware
4 22 (4.25%) Salesforce
5 13 (2.51%) Sage
6 12 (2.32%) Splunk
7 11 (2.12%) Rapid7
8 9 (1.74%) SAP
8 9 (1.74%) SolarWinds
8 9 (1.74%) Veeam
9 8 (1.54%) CrowdStrike
10 7 (1.35%) Dell
10 7 (1.35%) 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