Windows Server Job Trends

Microsoft Windows Server
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Windows Server skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 101 89
Rank change year-on-year -21 -12 -12
Permanent jobs citing Windows Server 1,684 1,506 2,247
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.53% 3.01% 2.76%
As % of the Operating Systems category 26.32% 21.94% 22.07%
Number of salaries quoted 1,328 1,255 1,658
10th Percentile £27,750 £27,500 £26,750
25th Percentile £31,000 £31,250 £32,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,000 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £57,500 £55,313 £55,000
90th Percentile £68,750 £75,000 £67,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £39,750 £38,094 £41,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% -7.09% +2.50%

All Operating Systems
UK

Windows Server falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring operating system skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 6,397 6,863 10,179
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 5.82% 13.70% 12.51%
Number of salaries quoted 4,784 4,532 6,840
10th Percentile £28,000 £27,000 £26,750
25th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -16.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £63,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £38,325 £45,000
% change year-on-year +10.89% -14.83% -4.26%

Windows Server
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Windows Server relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Windows Server job vacancy trend in the UK

Windows Server
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Windows Server.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Windows Server

Windows Server
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Windows Server over the 6 months to 31 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Windows Server within the UK over the 6 months to 31 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 -29 1,567 £42,000 +5.00% 409
UK excluding London -19 1,407 £39,750 +4.35% 363
Work from Home -28 375 £42,500 -0.68% 141
South East +1 360 £42,500 +6.25% 125
North of England +11 356 £37,500 +7.14% 72
London -80 247 £55,000 -8.33% 88
South West -41 218 £37,500 -2.60% 37
Midlands -21 203 £37,500 +7.14% 67
North West +59 194 £37,500 - 35
East of England -6 185 £36,500 -18.89% 60
Yorkshire -27 128 £36,000 +20.00% 21
East Midlands -28 103 £32,500 -7.14% 27
West Midlands -20 100 £42,500 +21.43% 40
Wales -53 42 £45,000 -21.74% 5
Scotland +18 39 £32,500 -18.75% 8
North East -53 34 £42,500 +21.43% 19
Northern Ireland -80 4 £40,000 -27.27% 2

Windows Server
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
1 462 (27.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 312 (18.53%) SharePoint
3 93 (5.52%) IIS
4 35 (2.08%) Confluence
5 25 (1.48%) Apache
6 19 (1.13%) nginx
7 10 (0.59%) WordPress
8 9 (0.53%) Skype for Business
9 6 (0.36%) Exchange Server 2013
10 4 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2007
10 4 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2010
10 4 (0.24%) JBoss
10 4 (0.24%) SAS
10 4 (0.24%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.059%) CMS
11 1 (0.059%) HCL Domino
11 1 (0.059%) HCL Notes
11 1 (0.059%) NetWeaver
11 1 (0.059%) Site Server
Applications
1 133 (7.90%) Microsoft Office
2 34 (2.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 3 (0.18%) Photoshop
4 2 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.12%) SmartSuite
4 2 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
5 1 (0.059%) Revit
Business Applications
1 5 (0.30%) Infor CloudSuite
2 3 (0.18%) Exchequer
2 3 (0.18%) Infor LN
2 3 (0.18%) Infor M3
2 3 (0.18%) NetSuite
2 3 (0.18%) Primavera
2 3 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.18%) Sage X3
3 2 (0.12%) Carpe Diem
3 2 (0.12%) Elite 3E
3 2 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
3 2 (0.12%) Sage 200
3 2 (0.12%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.059%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.059%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.059%) Magento
4 1 (0.059%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,087 (64.55%) Microsoft 365
2 897 (53.27%) Azure
3 496 (29.45%) Entra ID
4 172 (10.21%) AWS
5 111 (6.59%) OneDrive
6 60 (3.56%) SaaS
7 45 (2.67%) IaaS
8 38 (2.26%) Power Platform
9 32 (1.90%) Power Automate
10 31 (1.84%) PaaS
11 28 (1.66%) Microsoft Copilot
12 27 (1.60%) Nutanix
13 23 (1.37%) Google Workspace
14 22 (1.31%) GCP
15 19 (1.13%) Azure DevOps
15 19 (1.13%) Mimecast
16 18 (1.07%) Microsoft Purview
17 15 (0.89%) Cloudflare
18 13 (0.77%) Azure Sentinel
18 13 (0.77%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 624 (37.05%) DNS
2 549 (32.60%) Firewall
3 505 (29.99%) DHCP
4 272 (16.15%) VPN
5 252 (14.96%) TCP/IP
6 209 (12.41%) VLAN
7 195 (11.58%) WAN
8 184 (10.93%) LAN
9 144 (8.55%) Wireless
10 130 (7.72%) Wi-Fi
11 114 (6.77%) VoIP
12 71 (4.22%) Network Security
13 67 (3.98%) SAN
14 33 (1.96%) NAS
15 29 (1.72%) Internet
16 28 (1.66%) SSL
17 19 (1.13%) VSAN
18 18 (1.07%) Remote Desktop
19 16 (0.95%) Structured Cabling
20 13 (0.77%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 186 (11.05%) SQL Server
2 96 (5.70%) Amazon RDS
3 26 (1.54%) MySQL
4 19 (1.13%) Power BI
5 16 (0.95%) Azure SQL Database
6 15 (0.89%) PostgreSQL
7 13 (0.77%) MongoDB
8 12 (0.71%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 9 (0.53%) Oracle Database
9 9 (0.53%) Relational Database
10 8 (0.48%) Crystal Reports
11 5 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.24%) Elasticsearch
12 4 (0.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 3 (0.18%) Data Lake
13 3 (0.18%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 2 (0.12%) BusinessObjects
14 2 (0.12%) KNIME
14 2 (0.12%) NoSQL
14 2 (0.12%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 55 (3.27%) JIRA
2 48 (2.85%) Git
3 18 (1.07%) GitLab
4 14 (0.83%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.53%) Bitbucket
5 9 (0.53%) Visual Studio Code
6 4 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.12%) Ant
7 2 (0.12%) Apache Ivy
7 2 (0.12%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.12%) IBM UrbanCode
7 2 (0.12%) Maven
7 2 (0.12%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.059%) Browser DevTools
8 1 (0.059%) Gatling
8 1 (0.059%) JMeter
8 1 (0.059%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.059%) Postman
8 1 (0.059%) Subversion
General
1 743 (44.12%) Social Skills
2 223 (13.24%) Analytical Skills
3 124 (7.36%) Finance
4 70 (4.16%) Manufacturing
5 62 (3.68%) Organisational Skills
6 52 (3.09%) Retail
7 48 (2.85%) Documentation Skills
8 45 (2.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 42 (2.49%) Legal
10 40 (2.38%) Telecoms
11 38 (2.26%) Public Sector
12 29 (1.72%) Law
13 21 (1.25%) Aerospace
14 20 (1.19%) Banking
15 14 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
16 12 (0.71%) Games
16 12 (0.71%) Military
17 10 (0.59%) Advertising
18 8 (0.48%) Electronics
18 8 (0.48%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 500 (29.69%) IT Support
2 410 (24.35%) IT Engineer
3 388 (23.04%) Support Engineer
4 326 (19.36%) IT Support Engineer
5 271 (16.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 213 (12.65%) Senior
7 192 (11.40%) Analyst
8 151 (8.97%) Systems Engineer
9 139 (8.25%) IT Technician
10 129 (7.66%) Support Analyst
11 126 (7.48%) 2nd Line Support
12 118 (7.01%) Support Technician
13 101 (6.00%) IT Support Technician
14 86 (5.11%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 81 (4.81%) IT Analyst
16 76 (4.51%) Administrator
17 75 (4.45%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 74 (4.39%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
19 70 (4.16%) Lead
20 65 (3.86%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (6.06%) Terraform
2 41 (2.43%) .NET
3 30 (1.78%) HTML
4 27 (1.60%) Web Services
5 26 (1.54%) CSS
6 24 (1.43%) XMPP
7 22 (1.31%) LDAP
8 21 (1.25%) Regular Expression
8 21 (1.25%) XML
9 18 (1.07%) .NET Framework
10 16 (0.95%) JSON
11 12 (0.71%) Middleware
12 11 (0.65%) ARM Templates
13 7 (0.42%) SAML
14 5 (0.30%) ASP.NET
14 5 (0.30%) Elastic Stack
14 5 (0.30%) JSON Schema
15 4 (0.24%) boto
15 4 (0.24%) GraphQL
15 4 (0.24%) web3js
Miscellaneous
1 198 (11.76%) Driving Licence
2 105 (6.24%) Hybrid Cloud
3 101 (6.00%) Onboarding
4 100 (5.94%) Data Centre
5 89 (5.29%) Legacy Systems
6 78 (4.63%) Self-Motivation
7 56 (3.33%) Management Information System
8 45 (2.67%) Replication
9 41 (2.43%) Clustering
9 41 (2.43%) PKI
10 36 (2.14%) Public Cloud
11 34 (2.02%) Security Posture
12 32 (1.90%) CCTV
13 20 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
13 20 (1.19%) Private Cloud
14 19 (1.13%) Enterprise Storage
15 16 (0.95%) Cloud Native
16 15 (0.89%) Cyber Threat
17 12 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
18 11 (0.65%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 1,684 (100.00%) Windows
2 417 (24.76%) Linux
3 204 (12.11%) Windows Server 2016
4 151 (8.97%) Windows 10
5 122 (7.24%) Windows Server 2019
6 65 (3.86%) Mac OS
7 60 (3.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 52 (3.09%) Ubuntu
9 39 (2.32%) Apple iOS
10 38 (2.26%) Windows Server 2012
11 36 (2.14%) Android
12 25 (1.48%) CentOS
13 20 (1.19%) VMS
14 14 (0.83%) Windows Server 2008
15 12 (0.71%) Unix
16 7 (0.42%) Debian
16 7 (0.42%) Rocky
17 5 (0.30%) CoreOS
18 3 (0.18%) Solaris
19 1 (0.059%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 588 (34.92%) Problem-Solving
2 405 (24.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 401 (23.81%) Customer Service
4 343 (20.37%) Continuous Improvement
5 316 (18.76%) Disaster Recovery
6 302 (17.93%) Cybersecurity
7 289 (17.16%) ITIL
8 197 (11.70%) Migration
9 191 (11.34%) Service Delivery
10 166 (9.86%) Project Delivery
11 144 (8.55%) Mentoring
12 141 (8.37%) High Availability
13 136 (8.08%) Customer Experience
13 136 (8.08%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 132 (7.84%) Business Continuity
15 126 (7.48%) Root Cause Analysis
16 109 (6.47%) ITSM
17 108 (6.41%) Kalman Filter
18 98 (5.82%) Infrastructure as Code
19 89 (5.29%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 330 (19.60%) PowerShell
2 189 (11.22%) SQL
3 91 (5.40%) Python
4 47 (2.79%) Bash
5 37 (2.20%) C#
6 26 (1.54%) Bicep
7 24 (1.43%) VBA
8 16 (0.95%) Java
9 14 (0.83%) Ruby
10 10 (0.59%) JavaScript
10 10 (0.59%) T-SQL
11 9 (0.53%) PHP
12 8 (0.48%) VBScript
13 7 (0.42%) VB.NET
14 6 (0.36%) Shell Script
15 4 (0.24%) Perl
15 4 (0.24%) VB
16 3 (0.18%) Kusto Query Language
17 2 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 2 (0.12%) Go
Qualifications
1 268 (15.91%) Security Cleared
2 181 (10.75%) Degree
3 176 (10.45%) SC Cleared
4 162 (9.62%) Microsoft Certification
5 109 (6.47%) Azure Certification
6 102 (6.06%) Cisco Certification
7 86 (5.11%) DBS Check
8 83 (4.93%) DV Cleared
9 79 (4.69%) CCNA
10 37 (2.20%) Network+ Certification
11 32 (1.90%) CCNP
12 24 (1.43%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 23 (1.37%) BPSS Clearance
14 22 (1.31%) AWS Certification
15 21 (1.25%) A+ Certification
15 21 (1.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 19 (1.13%) CompTIA Security+
17 18 (1.07%) MCSA
18 17 (1.01%) Computer Science Degree
19 16 (0.95%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 193 (11.46%) Cyber Essentials
2 157 (9.32%) SLA
3 87 (5.17%) PCI DSS
4 76 (4.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 47 (2.79%) GDPR
6 37 (2.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 20 (1.19%) NIST
8 9 (0.53%) QA
9 5 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.18%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.18%) COBIT
10 3 (0.18%) ISO 9001
10 3 (0.18%) RMADS
11 2 (0.12%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.12%) GRC
12 1 (0.059%) COSHH
12 1 (0.059%) DICOM
12 1 (0.059%) HL7
12 1 (0.059%) ITGC
12 1 (0.059%) NCSC
System Software
1 1,105 (65.62%) Active Directory
2 498 (29.57%) Hyper-V
3 469 (27.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 104 (6.18%) vSphere
5 82 (4.87%) Terminal Server
6 63 (3.74%) Virtual Machines
7 61 (3.62%) VMware ESXi
8 43 (2.55%) Docker
9 34 (2.02%) Virtual Desktop
10 27 (1.60%) VMware NSX
11 15 (0.89%) Virtual Servers
12 14 (0.83%) Firmware
12 14 (0.83%) Squid
13 9 (0.53%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 9 (0.53%) Terminal Services
14 7 (0.42%) BitLocker
15 6 (0.36%) VMware Server
16 4 (0.24%) EMC RecoverPoint
17 3 (0.18%) DFS Replication
17 3 (0.18%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 360 (21.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 91 (5.40%) Ansible
3 66 (3.92%) Kubernetes
4 49 (2.91%) SCCM
5 40 (2.38%) FortiGate
6 32 (1.90%) Single Sign-On
7 29 (1.72%) vCenter Server
8 24 (1.43%) Failover Clustering
9 22 (1.31%) WSUS
10 21 (1.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (1.07%) Jamf Pro
11 18 (1.07%) SCOM
12 17 (1.01%) VxRail
13 16 (0.95%) ZABBIX
14 15 (0.89%) Microsoft Clustering
14 15 (0.89%) Packer
15 14 (0.83%) Puppet
16 13 (0.77%) Nagios
17 12 (0.71%) Grafana
18 11 (0.65%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 1,321 (78.44%) Microsoft
2 691 (41.03%) VMware
3 226 (13.42%) Veeam
4 181 (10.75%) Cisco
5 120 (7.13%) Splunk
6 112 (6.65%) SolarWinds
7 88 (5.23%) Nimble Storage
8 81 (4.81%) Brocade
9 80 (4.75%) Tanium
10 67 (3.98%) Meraki
11 66 (3.92%) SonicWALL
12 63 (3.74%) Apple
13 59 (3.50%) Red Hat
14 56 (3.33%) Citrix
15 46 (2.73%) Fortinet
16 43 (2.55%) Sophos
17 42 (2.49%) HP
17 42 (2.49%) ServiceNow
18 40 (2.38%) Google
19 38 (2.26%) Oracle