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 October 2025.

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

6 months to
21 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 473 350 429
Rank change year-on-year -123 +79 +213
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Administrator 184 483 349
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.70% 0.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.73% 0.65%
Number of salaries quoted 97 332 287
10th Percentile £28,750 £31,250 £28,950
25th Percentile £30,000 £35,500 £34,791
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £44,263
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +12.96% -6.81%
75th Percentile £57,500 £53,818 £60,000
90th Percentile £72,500 £72,250 £68,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £42,000
% change year-on-year - +7.14% +7.68%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 44,066 65,835 53,518
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.75% 95.36% 95.62%
Number of salaries quoted 25,983 37,615 41,369
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £32,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,345 £43,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £56,252 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% -6.25% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £93,750 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -10.00% -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 21 October 2025.

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 21 October 2025. 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 -114 172 £45,000 -10.00% 91
UK excluding London -107 129 £45,000 - 74
Work from Home +20 76 £43,750 -2.78% 81
South West +24 70 £45,000 -10.00% 7
London -1 43 £55,000 - 30
South East -36 22 £45,000 -10.00% 19
Midlands -24 16 £32,750 -27.22% 10
East of England +2 15 £45,000 +12.50% 10
East Midlands -12 13 £30,000 -25.00% 6
North of England -40 5 £45,000 +28.57% 27
West Midlands +26 3 £42,500 -5.56% 4
Yorkshire -18 3 £42,500 +25.93% 7
North West -2 2 £45,000 - 18
Wales +15 1 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 21 October 2025, 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 85 (46.20%) Linux
2 59 (32.07%) Security Cleared
3 58 (31.52%) Cisco
4 55 (29.89%) DV Cleared
5 54 (29.35%) Cisco Certification
5 54 (29.35%) High Availability
6 50 (27.17%) SC Cleared
7 49 (26.63%) CCNP
7 49 (26.63%) Innovative Thinking
8 48 (26.09%) Windows
9 43 (23.37%) VMware
10 36 (19.57%) Microsoft
11 31 (16.85%) Active Directory
11 31 (16.85%) Problem-Solving
11 31 (16.85%) Red Hat
12 30 (16.30%) CCNA
13 28 (15.22%) Azure
13 28 (15.22%) RHCSA
14 27 (14.67%) VMware Infrastructure
15 26 (14.13%) Microsoft 365
15 26 (14.13%) Unix
16 24 (13.04%) Windows Server
17 23 (12.50%) AWS
18 20 (10.87%) ERP
19 19 (10.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
20 18 (9.78%) Bash
21 17 (9.24%) DevOps
21 17 (9.24%) Python
22 16 (8.70%) Degree
23 15 (8.15%) Mentoring

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 13 (7.07%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (2.72%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.54%) Confluence
3 1 (0.54%) IIS
3 1 (0.54%) OpenStack
Applications
1 9 (4.89%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.09%) AutoCAD
3 2 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.09%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (1.09%) Trello
Business Applications
1 6 (3.26%) Dynamics NAV
2 4 (2.17%) Oracle EBS R12
3 3 (1.63%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (1.09%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (1.09%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 28 (15.22%) Azure
2 26 (14.13%) Microsoft 365
3 23 (12.50%) AWS
4 6 (3.26%) Entra ID
5 5 (2.72%) Amazon EC2
5 5 (2.72%) Dynamics 365
6 4 (2.17%) Power Platform
6 4 (2.17%) SaaS
7 3 (1.63%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (1.63%) Azure Storage
7 3 (1.63%) Power Automate
8 2 (1.09%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.54%) Canva
9 1 (0.54%) GCP
9 1 (0.54%) OCI
9 1 (0.54%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.54%) Serverless
9 1 (0.54%) Slack
9 1 (0.54%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.52%) DNS
1 12 (6.52%) Firewall
2 8 (4.35%) TCP/IP
3 6 (3.26%) DHCP
3 6 (3.26%) LAN
3 6 (3.26%) Network Security
3 6 (3.26%) SAN
3 6 (3.26%) Wireless
4 5 (2.72%) VPN
4 5 (2.72%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (2.17%) Asterisk PBX
6 3 (1.63%) Cisco IOS
6 3 (1.63%) HTTP
6 3 (1.63%) Multicast
6 3 (1.63%) Wireless Security
7 2 (1.09%) Cisco ISE
7 2 (1.09%) Internet
8 1 (0.54%) iSCSI
8 1 (0.54%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.54%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.72%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.63%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.09%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (1.09%) SAP HANA
3 2 (1.09%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.54%) MySQL
4 1 (0.54%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.54%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (3.80%) GitLab
2 6 (3.26%) JIRA
3 3 (1.63%) Git
4 2 (1.09%) TeamCity
General
1 81 (44.02%) Finance
2 35 (19.02%) Social Skills
3 16 (8.70%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (6.52%) Public Sector
5 9 (4.89%) Banking
6 8 (4.35%) Manufacturing
7 7 (3.80%) General Ledger
8 6 (3.26%) Organisational Skills
9 5 (2.72%) Law
10 4 (2.17%) Retail
11 3 (1.63%) Automotive
12 2 (1.09%) Legal
12 2 (1.09%) Local Government
13 1 (0.54%) Greek Language
13 1 (0.54%) Italian Language
13 1 (0.54%) Mandarin Language
13 1 (0.54%) Spanish Language
13 1 (0.54%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.63%) LDAP
1 3 (1.63%) WebSockets
1 3 (1.63%) XML
1 3 (1.63%) XMPP
2 2 (1.09%) .NET
3 1 (0.54%) FreeSWITCH
3 1 (0.54%) libvirt
3 1 (0.54%) Lightning Web Components
3 1 (0.54%) TAPI
Miscellaneous
1 49 (26.63%) e-Learning
2 8 (4.35%) Data Centre
3 7 (3.80%) Hybrid Cloud
4 5 (2.72%) Driving Licence
4 5 (2.72%) Management Information System
4 5 (2.72%) PKI
4 5 (2.72%) Video Conferencing
4 5 (2.72%) Virtual Team
5 4 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.63%) FMCG
7 2 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.09%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.09%) Learning Management System
7 2 (1.09%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.09%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.54%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.54%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.54%) IoT
8 1 (0.54%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.54%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 85 (46.20%) Linux
2 48 (26.09%) Windows
3 26 (14.13%) Unix
4 24 (13.04%) Windows Server
5 19 (10.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (3.26%) Windows 10
7 4 (2.17%) Debian
7 4 (2.17%) VMS
8 3 (1.63%) AIX
8 3 (1.63%) Ubuntu
9 2 (1.09%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 2 (1.09%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.54%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.54%) Solaris
10 1 (0.54%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (29.35%) High Availability
2 49 (26.63%) Innovative Thinking
3 31 (16.85%) Problem-Solving
4 20 (10.87%) ERP
5 17 (9.24%) DevOps
6 15 (8.15%) Mentoring
7 13 (7.07%) Change Management
8 11 (5.98%) Cybersecurity
9 10 (5.43%) Time Management
10 9 (4.89%) Migration
11 8 (4.35%) Accounts Payable
11 8 (4.35%) Change Control
11 8 (4.35%) Customer Service
11 8 (4.35%) ITIL
11 8 (4.35%) Performance Tuning
12 7 (3.80%) Containerisation
12 7 (3.80%) Customer-Centricity
12 7 (3.80%) Infrastructure Management
12 7 (3.80%) ITSM
12 7 (3.80%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 18 (9.78%) Bash
2 17 (9.24%) Python
3 15 (8.15%) PowerShell
3 15 (8.15%) SQL
4 4 (2.17%) Shell Script
5 2 (1.09%) Korn
6 1 (0.54%) Perl
6 1 (0.54%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 59 (32.07%) Security Cleared
2 55 (29.89%) DV Cleared
3 54 (29.35%) Cisco Certification
4 50 (27.17%) SC Cleared
5 49 (26.63%) CCNP
6 30 (16.30%) CCNA
7 28 (15.22%) RHCSA
8 16 (8.70%) Degree
9 8 (4.35%) MCSE
9 8 (4.35%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (2.72%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (1.09%) AAT
12 2 (1.09%) DBS Check
12 2 (1.09%) MCP
12 2 (1.09%) MCSA
13 1 (0.54%) AWS Certification
13 1 (0.54%) Azure Certification
13 1 (0.54%) BPSS Clearance
13 1 (0.54%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.35%) QA
2 3 (1.63%) PCI DSS
3 2 (1.09%) Data Quality
3 2 (1.09%) SLA
4 1 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 31 (16.85%) Active Directory
2 27 (14.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (3.26%) vSphere
4 4 (2.17%) Hyper-V
4 4 (2.17%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.63%) Docker
5 3 (1.63%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.09%) KVM
7 1 (0.54%) Corosync
7 1 (0.54%) Kamailio
7 1 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.54%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 10 (5.43%) Ansible
1 10 (5.43%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (3.26%) Terraform
3 4 (2.17%) Kubernetes
3 4 (2.17%) Nagios
4 3 (1.63%) Grafana
4 3 (1.63%) ZABBIX
5 2 (1.09%) Puppet
5 2 (1.09%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 1 (0.54%) Icinga
6 1 (0.54%) Pacemaker
6 1 (0.54%) Podman
6 1 (0.54%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.54%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.54%) Salt
6 1 (0.54%) SCCM
6 1 (0.54%) VxRail
Vendors
1 58 (31.52%) Cisco
2 43 (23.37%) VMware
3 36 (19.57%) Microsoft
4 31 (16.85%) Red Hat
5 7 (3.80%) Oracle
5 7 (3.80%) Salesforce
6 5 (2.72%) Workday
7 4 (2.17%) SAP
7 4 (2.17%) SolarWinds
8 3 (1.63%) LogicMonitor
8 3 (1.63%) Okta
8 3 (1.63%) ServiceNow
8 3 (1.63%) Zscaler
9 2 (1.09%) Bloomberg
9 2 (1.09%) Citrix
9 2 (1.09%) IBM
9 2 (1.09%) Reuters
9 2 (1.09%) Sophos
9 2 (1.09%) Yardi
10 1 (0.54%) HP