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 July 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 384 466 392
Rank change year-on-year +82 -74 +105
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 438 218 652
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.46% 0.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.48% 0.51% 0.66%
Number of salaries quoted 296 154 540
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,913 £28,225
25th Percentile £35,946 £30,000 £33,966
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £42,000
Median % change year-on-year - +7.14% -8.20%
75th Percentile £60,313 £57,500 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,875 £63,875
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year -11.11% +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 91,485 43,049 99,006
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.14% 89.92% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 62,795 25,127 71,233
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,550
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £76,125 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,130 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +4.26% - -5.66%

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 July 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 July 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 +85 394 £45,000 - 81
UK excluding London +55 315 £40,000 -11.11% 74
London +44 107 £60,000 +9.09% 16
Work from Home +14 89 £55,000 +15.79% 22
Midlands +38 76 £40,000 +23.08% 10
North of England -1 55 £45,000 +16.88% 13
East Midlands +20 54 £35,000 +16.67% 4
East of England +18 53 £40,000 -11.11% 9
South East -22 53 £45,000 -8.16% 20
South West -81 46 £40,000 -15.79% 15
Scotland +45 32 - - 5
Yorkshire -8 31 £45,000 -5.26% 8
West Midlands 0 22 £45,000 +16.88% 6
North West -3 19 £40,000 +18.64% 5
North East - 5 £47,500 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 5 July 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 94 (21.46%) Microsoft
2 89 (20.32%) Linux
3 70 (15.98%) Microsoft 365
4 61 (13.93%) DevOps
5 59 (13.47%) Problem-Solving
5 59 (13.47%) Windows
6 57 (13.01%) Active Directory
7 55 (12.56%) Azure
8 54 (12.33%) SQL
9 47 (10.73%) Entra ID
10 45 (10.27%) Red Hat
11 41 (9.36%) Firewall
12 40 (9.13%) Continuous Improvement
13 38 (8.68%) Bash
14 36 (8.22%) ERP
14 36 (8.22%) Microsoft Exchange
14 36 (8.22%) Python
15 34 (7.76%) Hyper-V
16 32 (7.31%) AWS
17 31 (7.08%) VMware
18 30 (6.85%) CI/CD
18 30 (6.85%) SharePoint
19 28 (6.39%) Windows Server
20 27 (6.16%) Vulnerability Management
21 26 (5.94%) Ansible
21 26 (5.94%) Security Cleared
22 25 (5.71%) DNS
23 24 (5.48%) Configuration Management
23 24 (5.48%) QA
23 24 (5.48%) 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 36 (8.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (6.85%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.91%) WordPress
4 3 (0.68%) Apache
4 3 (0.68%) CMS
5 2 (0.46%) nginx
5 2 (0.46%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.23%) Confluence
6 1 (0.23%) Moodle
6 1 (0.23%) Site Server
Applications
1 14 (3.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (2.05%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 15 (3.42%) iTrent
2 12 (2.74%) Primavera
3 3 (0.68%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.46%) Shopify
5 1 (0.23%) HFM
Cloud Services
1 70 (15.98%) Microsoft 365
2 55 (12.56%) Azure
3 47 (10.73%) Entra ID
4 32 (7.31%) AWS
5 23 (5.25%) Power Platform
6 20 (4.57%) SaaS
7 19 (4.34%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 19 (4.34%) Power Automate
8 14 (3.20%) PowerApps
9 13 (2.97%) Mimecast
10 12 (2.74%) GCP
10 12 (2.74%) Intacct
11 10 (2.28%) Dynamics 365
11 10 (2.28%) GitHub
12 9 (2.05%) Azure Logic Apps
13 8 (1.83%) Amazon ECR
13 8 (1.83%) Amazon ECS
13 8 (1.83%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (1.83%) GitHub Actions
14 6 (1.37%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 41 (9.36%) Firewall
2 25 (5.71%) DNS
3 17 (3.88%) VPN
4 14 (3.20%) LAN
4 14 (3.20%) TCP/IP
5 10 (2.28%) SAN
5 10 (2.28%) Wi-Fi
6 9 (2.05%) HTTP
6 9 (2.05%) Network Security
7 8 (1.83%) DHCP
8 7 (1.60%) Internet
9 5 (1.14%) WAN
10 4 (0.91%) Wireless
11 3 (0.68%) NAS
11 3 (0.68%) SSH
11 3 (0.68%) VLAN
12 2 (0.46%) Multicast
12 2 (0.46%) VoIP
13 1 (0.23%) DKIM
13 1 (0.23%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.97%) MySQL
2 9 (2.05%) Power BI
3 8 (1.83%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.68%) GIS
5 1 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.23%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.23%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 17 (3.88%) Git
2 13 (2.97%) GitLab
3 8 (1.83%) JIRA
General
1 91 (20.78%) Finance
2 67 (15.30%) Social Skills
3 25 (5.71%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (5.48%) Retail
5 23 (5.25%) Manufacturing
6 22 (5.02%) Banking
7 17 (3.88%) Billing
8 12 (2.74%) Legal
9 11 (2.51%) Law
10 10 (2.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.68%) Games
14 3 (0.68%) Public Sector
15 1 (0.23%) Digital Health
15 1 (0.23%) Local Government
15 1 (0.23%) Marketing
15 1 (0.23%) Police
15 1 (0.23%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (2.05%) Middleware
1 9 (2.05%) WebSockets
2 3 (0.68%) Boost C++ Libraries
3 2 (0.46%) LEMP Stack
3 2 (0.46%) Node.js
4 1 (0.23%) HTML
4 1 (0.23%) OpenID
4 1 (0.23%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (5.71%) Data Structures
2 21 (4.79%) Clustering
3 12 (2.74%) Data Centre
4 10 (2.28%) Onboarding
5 9 (2.05%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (1.83%) Management Information System
6 8 (1.83%) Private Cloud
7 6 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (0.68%) Embedded Systems
8 3 (0.68%) IoT
8 3 (0.68%) Replication
8 3 (0.68%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.46%) Educational Technology
9 2 (0.46%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.46%) Operational Technology
10 1 (0.23%) Cloud Native
10 1 (0.23%) Distributed Computing
10 1 (0.23%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.23%) Legacy Applications
10 1 (0.23%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 89 (20.32%) Linux
2 59 (13.47%) Windows
3 28 (6.39%) Windows Server
4 21 (4.79%) Mac OS
5 20 (4.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (4.11%) Android
6 18 (4.11%) Apple iOS
7 13 (2.97%) CentOS
8 12 (2.74%) Ubuntu
9 7 (1.60%) Debian
10 5 (1.14%) Unix
11 4 (0.91%) Rocky
11 4 (0.91%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (13.93%) DevOps
2 59 (13.47%) Problem-Solving
3 40 (9.13%) Continuous Improvement
4 36 (8.22%) ERP
5 30 (6.85%) CI/CD
6 27 (6.16%) Vulnerability Management
7 24 (5.48%) Configuration Management
8 23 (5.25%) Analytics
9 22 (5.02%) Infrastructure as Code
10 21 (4.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 21 (4.79%) Process Improvement
11 19 (4.34%) Release Management
12 18 (4.11%) Change Management
13 17 (3.88%) Identity Management
14 16 (3.65%) Change Control
15 15 (3.42%) CRM
16 14 (3.20%) High Availability
16 14 (3.20%) Service Delivery
17 13 (2.97%) Patch Management
17 13 (2.97%) Revenue Recognition
Programming Languages
1 54 (12.33%) SQL
2 38 (8.68%) Bash
3 36 (8.22%) Python
4 20 (4.57%) PowerShell
5 8 (1.83%) Go
6 6 (1.37%) JavaScript
6 6 (1.37%) PHP
7 5 (1.14%) R
8 3 (0.68%) C
8 3 (0.68%) C++
8 3 (0.68%) Ruby
8 3 (0.68%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.46%) VBA
Qualifications
1 26 (5.94%) Security Cleared
2 18 (4.11%) DV Cleared
2 18 (4.11%) SC Cleared
3 14 (3.20%) Degree
4 10 (2.28%) RHCSA
5 9 (2.05%) CIPD
6 8 (1.83%) AWS Certification
7 3 (0.68%) HND
8 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.23%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.23%) CCNA
9 1 (0.23%) CCNP
9 1 (0.23%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.23%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.23%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.23%) Linux+ Certification
9 1 (0.23%) MCSE
9 1 (0.23%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (5.48%) QA
2 15 (3.42%) Data Quality
3 10 (2.28%) GDPR
4 6 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.23%) SOC 2
System Software
1 57 (13.01%) Active Directory
2 34 (7.76%) Hyper-V
3 20 (4.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (3.65%) Docker
5 5 (1.14%) iptables
6 3 (0.68%) Firmware
7 2 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.23%) KVM
Systems Management
1 26 (5.94%) Ansible
2 24 (5.48%) Terraform
3 23 (5.25%) Microsoft Intune
4 22 (5.02%) Kubernetes
5 20 (4.57%) Nagios
6 19 (4.34%) Grafana
7 18 (4.11%) Proxmox
8 17 (3.88%) Nessus
9 12 (2.74%) Prometheus
10 8 (1.83%) Puppet
11 3 (0.68%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.68%) SCCM
11 3 (0.68%) systemd
12 2 (0.46%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.46%) Red Hat Satellite
13 1 (0.23%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.23%) Jamf Pro
13 1 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
13 1 (0.23%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 94 (21.46%) Microsoft
2 45 (10.27%) Red Hat
3 31 (7.08%) VMware
4 23 (5.25%) Salesforce
5 13 (2.97%) Sage
6 12 (2.74%) SolarWinds
7 11 (2.51%) Veeam
8 9 (2.05%) SAP
8 9 (2.05%) Splunk
9 8 (1.83%) Rapid7
9 8 (1.83%) SonicWALL
10 6 (1.37%) Cisco
10 6 (1.37%) CrowdStrike
10 6 (1.37%) ServiceNow
11 5 (1.14%) Concur
11 5 (1.14%) Databricks
11 5 (1.14%) Google
11 5 (1.14%) Meraki
12 3 (0.68%) Dell
12 3 (0.68%) Palo Alto