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 21 August 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 382 457 393
Rank change year-on-year +75 -64 +42
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 509 219 508
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.44% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.50% 0.49% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 323 135 405
10th Percentile £30,250 £26,550 £30,000
25th Percentile £36,131 £30,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
75th Percentile £57,500 £56,875 £52,500
90th Percentile £70,000 £70,750 £65,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £43,000 £45,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year -4.44% - +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 101,140 44,848 79,070
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.97% 89.92% 95.08%
Number of salaries quoted 69,235 26,502 52,116
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 £72,000
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,712 £47,683 £50,000
% change year-on-year +12.64% -4.63% -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 21 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 21 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 +96 445 £45,000 - 68
UK excluding London +52 381 £43,000 -4.44% 67
London +23 113 £57,500 +4.55% 9
Work from Home -21 90 £52,500 +20.00% 20
Midlands +18 74 £45,000 +50.00% 6
South West -73 69 £35,000 -22.22% 17
North of England +2 66 £45,000 +16.88% 15
South East -4 65 £45,000 - 26
East of England +17 54 £40,000 -11.11% 1
Scotland - 46 £43,500 - 2
East Midlands +5 38 £41,750 +39.17% 3
West Midlands -2 36 £52,500 +29.63% 3
Yorkshire -11 35 £45,000 -14.29% 11
North West -8 26 £40,000 +18.64% 2
Wales -53 7 £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 21 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.

1 107 (21.02%) Microsoft
2 100 (19.65%) Linux
3 78 (15.32%) Windows
4 72 (14.15%) Microsoft 365
5 71 (13.95%) Active Directory
6 66 (12.97%) Azure
7 62 (12.18%) DevOps
8 60 (11.79%) Entra ID
9 52 (10.22%) Red Hat
10 51 (10.02%) Problem-Solving
11 50 (9.82%) SQL
12 43 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
12 43 (8.45%) Windows Server
13 42 (8.25%) Bash
14 41 (8.06%) Microsoft Exchange
15 39 (7.66%) Firewall
15 39 (7.66%) Security Cleared
16 38 (7.47%) CI/CD
16 38 (7.47%) DNS
16 38 (7.47%) Hyper-V
16 38 (7.47%) Python
17 37 (7.27%) Ansible
17 37 (7.27%) AWS
18 34 (6.68%) SaaS
18 34 (6.68%) SharePoint
19 33 (6.48%) Vulnerability Management
20 30 (5.89%) DV Cleared
20 30 (5.89%) ERP
20 30 (5.89%) Git
21 29 (5.70%) 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 41 (8.06%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (6.68%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.57%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.79%) IIS
5 3 (0.59%) nginx
6 2 (0.39%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.20%) Apache
7 1 (0.20%) Confluence
7 1 (0.20%) JBoss
7 1 (0.20%) Moodle
7 1 (0.20%) WordPress
Applications
1 16 (3.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (2.55%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 17 (3.34%) Primavera
2 3 (0.59%) Elite 3E
2 3 (0.59%) iTrent
3 1 (0.20%) HFM
3 1 (0.20%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 72 (14.15%) Microsoft 365
2 66 (12.97%) Azure
3 60 (11.79%) Entra ID
4 37 (7.27%) AWS
5 34 (6.68%) SaaS
6 25 (4.91%) OpenShift
7 22 (4.32%) Power Platform
8 18 (3.54%) Power Automate
9 17 (3.34%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 14 (2.75%) GCP
10 14 (2.75%) Mimecast
11 13 (2.55%) PaaS
11 13 (2.55%) PowerApps
12 12 (2.36%) Intacct
13 11 (2.16%) Amazon ECR
13 11 (2.16%) Amazon ECS
14 9 (1.77%) Azure Logic Apps
14 9 (1.77%) Dynamics 365
15 6 (1.18%) Azure DevOps
16 5 (0.98%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 39 (7.66%) Firewall
2 38 (7.47%) DNS
3 23 (4.52%) TCP/IP
4 19 (3.73%) DHCP
5 18 (3.54%) VPN
6 16 (3.14%) LAN
7 11 (2.16%) SAN
8 9 (1.77%) WAN
8 9 (1.77%) Wi-Fi
9 7 (1.38%) HTTP
9 7 (1.38%) Network Security
10 6 (1.18%) Internet
10 6 (1.18%) VLAN
11 4 (0.79%) VSAN
12 3 (0.59%) SSH
12 3 (0.59%) Wireless
13 2 (0.39%) Multicast
13 2 (0.39%) NAS
14 1 (0.20%) DKIM
14 1 (0.20%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (3.14%) MySQL
2 11 (2.16%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (1.57%) Power BI
4 3 (0.59%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.59%) GIS
5 2 (0.39%) Big Data
6 1 (0.20%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 30 (5.89%) Git
2 16 (3.14%) GitLab
3 8 (1.57%) JIRA
4 2 (0.39%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.20%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.20%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.20%) Robot Framework
5 1 (0.20%) Selenium
5 1 (0.20%) TeamCity
General
1 94 (18.47%) Finance
2 76 (14.93%) Social Skills
3 37 (7.27%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (4.72%) Manufacturing
5 23 (4.52%) Banking
6 22 (4.32%) Retail
7 17 (3.34%) Billing
8 14 (2.75%) Legal
9 12 (2.36%) Law
10 9 (1.77%) Organisational Skills
11 8 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.79%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (0.79%) Police
14 3 (0.59%) Games
14 3 (0.59%) Public Sector
15 2 (0.39%) Marketing
16 1 (0.20%) Electronics
16 1 (0.20%) Local Government
16 1 (0.20%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (4.91%) Terraform
2 7 (1.38%) WebSockets
3 6 (1.18%) Middleware
4 3 (0.59%) Boost C++ Libraries
5 2 (0.39%) LEMP Stack
5 2 (0.39%) Node.js
5 2 (0.39%) OpenID
6 1 (0.20%) CSS
6 1 (0.20%) CSS3
6 1 (0.20%) HTML
6 1 (0.20%) HTML5
6 1 (0.20%) Keycloak
6 1 (0.20%) OAuth
6 1 (0.20%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.20%) OpenTofu
6 1 (0.20%) React
6 1 (0.20%) Redfish
6 1 (0.20%) SAML
6 1 (0.20%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 25 (4.91%) Data Structures
2 20 (3.93%) Clustering
3 14 (2.75%) Social Media
4 12 (2.36%) Data Centre
4 12 (2.36%) Onboarding
5 9 (1.77%) Management Information System
6 7 (1.38%) Operational Technology
7 6 (1.18%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (0.79%) PMI
8 4 (0.79%) Private Cloud
9 3 (0.59%) Embedded Systems
9 3 (0.59%) Hybrid Cloud
9 3 (0.59%) IoT
9 3 (0.59%) Replication
9 3 (0.59%) Security Posture
10 2 (0.39%) Educational Technology
10 2 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
10 2 (0.39%) Housing Association
11 1 (0.20%) Distributed Computing
11 1 (0.20%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 100 (19.65%) Linux
2 78 (15.32%) Windows
3 43 (8.45%) Windows Server
4 27 (5.30%) Mac OS
5 24 (4.72%) Apple iOS
6 23 (4.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 21 (4.13%) Android
8 19 (3.73%) CentOS
9 13 (2.55%) Ubuntu
10 10 (1.96%) Unix
11 8 (1.57%) Debian
12 7 (1.38%) Rocky
13 6 (1.18%) Windows 10
14 4 (0.79%) CoreOS
14 4 (0.79%) Windows Server 2016
14 4 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
15 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (12.18%) DevOps
2 51 (10.02%) Problem-Solving
3 43 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
4 38 (7.47%) CI/CD
5 33 (6.48%) Vulnerability Management
6 30 (5.89%) ERP
7 26 (5.11%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 24 (4.72%) Configuration Management
9 19 (3.73%) Change Management
9 19 (3.73%) Identity Management
9 19 (3.73%) Release Management
10 18 (3.54%) Change Control
10 18 (3.54%) Infrastructure as Code
11 17 (3.34%) Capacity Planning
12 16 (3.14%) Analytics
12 16 (3.14%) High Availability
12 16 (3.14%) Time Management
13 15 (2.95%) CRM
13 15 (2.95%) ITIL
13 15 (2.95%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 50 (9.82%) SQL
2 42 (8.25%) Bash
3 38 (7.47%) Python
4 27 (5.30%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.38%) R
6 6 (1.18%) JavaScript
7 4 (0.79%) Shell Script
8 3 (0.59%) C
8 3 (0.59%) C++
8 3 (0.59%) Go
8 3 (0.59%) PHP
8 3 (0.59%) Ruby
9 2 (0.39%) VBA
Qualifications
1 39 (7.66%) Security Cleared
2 30 (5.89%) DV Cleared
3 27 (5.30%) SC Cleared
4 15 (2.95%) Degree
5 8 (1.57%) RHCSA
6 4 (0.79%) AWS Certification
6 4 (0.79%) CIPD
6 4 (0.79%) DBS Check
6 4 (0.79%) PMI Certification
7 3 (0.59%) HND
8 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.20%) Linux+ Certification
9 1 (0.20%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (5.30%) QA
2 15 (2.95%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (0.59%) GDPR
5 1 (0.20%) SOC 2
System Software
1 71 (13.95%) Active Directory
2 38 (7.47%) Hyper-V
3 26 (5.11%) Docker
4 17 (3.34%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.38%) Ceph
5 7 (1.38%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.98%) iptables
7 2 (0.39%) Firmware
7 2 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.39%) vSphere
8 1 (0.20%) KVM
8 1 (0.20%) NFS
8 1 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.20%) Xen
Systems Management
1 37 (7.27%) Ansible
2 29 (5.70%) Kubernetes
3 22 (4.32%) Microsoft Intune
3 22 (4.32%) Nagios
4 20 (3.93%) Nessus
5 18 (3.54%) Grafana
6 15 (2.95%) Prometheus
7 13 (2.55%) Proxmox
8 8 (1.57%) Podman
9 7 (1.38%) Argo
9 7 (1.38%) Check_MK
9 7 (1.38%) Istio
10 6 (1.18%) Puppet
11 4 (0.79%) McAfee ePO
11 4 (0.79%) SCCM
11 4 (0.79%) SCVMM
12 3 (0.59%) Failover Clustering
12 3 (0.59%) Microsoft Clustering
12 3 (0.59%) systemd
13 2 (0.39%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 107 (21.02%) Microsoft
2 52 (10.22%) Red Hat
3 23 (4.52%) VMware
4 22 (4.32%) Salesforce
5 13 (2.55%) Sage
6 12 (2.36%) Splunk
7 11 (2.16%) Rapid7
8 9 (1.77%) SAP
8 9 (1.77%) SolarWinds
8 9 (1.77%) Veeam
9 8 (1.57%) CrowdStrike
9 8 (1.57%) Dell
10 7 (1.38%) SonicWALL
11 5 (0.98%) Concur
11 5 (0.98%) Databricks
11 5 (0.98%) Google
11 5 (0.98%) Meraki
12 4 (0.79%) Cisco
12 4 (0.79%) McAfee
13 3 (0.59%) Palo Alto