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 14 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 98 87
Rank change year-on-year -22 -11 -6
Permanent jobs citing Windows Server 1,649 1,514 2,334
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.55% 3.03% 2.80%
As % of the Operating Systems category 25.87% 21.78% 22.48%
Number of salaries quoted 1,305 1,292 1,876
10th Percentile £27,750 £27,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,750 £31,250 £31,438
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 £53,750 £55,000
90th Percentile £68,750 £72,500 £65,625
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% -6.25% -

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 6,374 6,952 10,381
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 5.99% 13.93% 12.46%
Number of salaries quoted 4,761 4,638 7,429
10th Percentile £28,000 £26,750 £26,450
25th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £33,966
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,000 £48,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -13.40% -7.62%
75th Percentile £67,500 £63,750 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £84,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £38,325 £45,000
% change year-on-year +10.89% -14.83% -

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 14 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 14 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 -27 1,530 £42,000 +5.00% 388
UK excluding London -4 1,377 £40,000 +6.67% 338
South East +7 359 £42,500 +6.25% 119
Work from Home -19 357 £42,500 - 139
North of England +11 344 £37,500 +11.94% 83
London -96 240 £55,000 -8.33% 85
South West -29 219 £37,500 -3.06% 37
Midlands -30 191 £37,500 +7.14% 54
North West +63 188 £37,500 +1.35% 47
East of England -9 175 £36,500 -18.89% 36
Yorkshire -37 120 £36,000 +20.00% 24
East Midlands -25 101 £33,000 -5.71% 20
West Midlands -32 90 £42,500 +21.43% 34
Wales -40 45 £42,500 -26.09% 8
Scotland +24 38 £32,500 -18.75% 10
North East -52 36 £42,500 +21.43% 15
Northern Ireland -62 6 £40,000 -27.27%

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
1 447 (27.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 292 (17.71%) SharePoint
3 84 (5.09%) IIS
4 35 (2.12%) Confluence
5 21 (1.27%) Apache
6 16 (0.97%) nginx
7 10 (0.61%) WordPress
8 7 (0.42%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 4 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2007
9 4 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2010
9 4 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
9 4 (0.24%) JBoss
9 4 (0.24%) SAS
10 3 (0.18%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.061%) CMS
11 1 (0.061%) Drupal
11 1 (0.061%) HCL Notes
11 1 (0.061%) NetWeaver
11 1 (0.061%) Site Server
Applications
1 140 (8.49%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (2.18%) 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 (0.061%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.061%) Revit
Business Applications
1 5 (0.30%) Infor CloudSuite
2 4 (0.24%) Exchequer
2 4 (0.24%) Primavera
3 3 (0.18%) Infor LN
3 3 (0.18%) Infor M3
3 3 (0.18%) NetSuite
3 3 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.18%) Sage X3
4 2 (0.12%) Carpe Diem
4 2 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
4 2 (0.12%) Elite 3E
4 2 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
4 2 (0.12%) Sage 200
4 2 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.12%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.061%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.061%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.061%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 1,055 (63.98%) Microsoft 365
2 896 (54.34%) Azure
3 470 (28.50%) Entra ID
4 180 (10.92%) AWS
5 104 (6.31%) OneDrive
6 62 (3.76%) SaaS
7 50 (3.03%) IaaS
8 38 (2.30%) Power Platform
9 34 (2.06%) PaaS
10 29 (1.76%) Nutanix
11 27 (1.64%) Power Automate
12 24 (1.46%) GCP
12 24 (1.46%) Google Workspace
12 24 (1.46%) Microsoft Copilot
13 20 (1.21%) Mimecast
14 18 (1.09%) Azure DevOps
15 15 (0.91%) Cloudflare
15 15 (0.91%) Microsoft Purview
16 13 (0.79%) GitHub
17 12 (0.73%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 615 (37.30%) DNS
2 528 (32.02%) Firewall
3 496 (30.08%) DHCP
4 258 (15.65%) VPN
5 245 (14.86%) TCP/IP
6 197 (11.95%) WAN
7 193 (11.70%) VLAN
8 186 (11.28%) LAN
9 131 (7.94%) Wireless
10 123 (7.46%) Wi-Fi
11 111 (6.73%) VoIP
12 71 (4.31%) SAN
13 64 (3.88%) Network Security
14 35 (2.12%) NAS
15 28 (1.70%) Internet
16 25 (1.52%) SSL
17 21 (1.27%) Remote Desktop
18 18 (1.09%) VSAN
19 15 (0.91%) SD-WAN
20 14 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 183 (11.10%) SQL Server
2 96 (5.82%) Amazon RDS
3 25 (1.52%) MySQL
4 20 (1.21%) Power BI
5 17 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
7 15 (0.91%) MongoDB
8 12 (0.73%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 10 (0.61%) Oracle Database
10 8 (0.49%) Crystal Reports
11 7 (0.42%) Relational Database
12 5 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
13 4 (0.24%) Elasticsearch
13 4 (0.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 3 (0.18%) Data Lake
14 3 (0.18%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 2 (0.12%) BusinessObjects
15 2 (0.12%) KNIME
15 2 (0.12%) NoSQL
15 2 (0.12%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 58 (3.52%) JIRA
2 51 (3.09%) Git
3 20 (1.21%) GitLab
4 15 (0.91%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.55%) Bitbucket
5 9 (0.55%) Visual Studio Code
6 4 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.24%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
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%) TeamCity
7 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.061%) Browser DevTools
8 1 (0.061%) Gatling
8 1 (0.061%) JMeter
8 1 (0.061%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.061%) Postman
General
1 729 (44.21%) Social Skills
2 220 (13.34%) Analytical Skills
3 124 (7.52%) Finance
4 64 (3.88%) Manufacturing
5 62 (3.76%) Organisational Skills
6 55 (3.34%) Retail
7 51 (3.09%) Documentation Skills
8 44 (2.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 41 (2.49%) Legal
9 41 (2.49%) Telecoms
10 39 (2.37%) Public Sector
11 31 (1.88%) Law
12 23 (1.39%) Banking
13 21 (1.27%) Aerospace
14 14 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
15 12 (0.73%) Military
16 11 (0.67%) Games
17 10 (0.61%) Advertising
18 9 (0.55%) Local Government
19 8 (0.49%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 495 (30.02%) IT Support
2 396 (24.01%) IT Engineer
3 374 (22.68%) Support Engineer
4 316 (19.16%) IT Support Engineer
5 252 (15.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 209 (12.67%) Senior
7 192 (11.64%) Analyst
8 147 (8.91%) Systems Engineer
9 146 (8.85%) IT Technician
10 132 (8.00%) Support Analyst
11 126 (7.64%) 2nd Line Support
12 124 (7.52%) Support Technician
13 107 (6.49%) IT Support Technician
14 82 (4.97%) 2nd Line Engineer
15 81 (4.91%) IT Analyst
16 73 (4.43%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
17 71 (4.31%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 70 (4.24%) Administrator
19 69 (4.18%) Lead
20 66 (4.00%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (2.37%) .NET
2 31 (1.88%) HTML
3 28 (1.70%) Web Services
4 26 (1.58%) CSS
4 26 (1.58%) XMPP
5 25 (1.52%) LDAP
6 23 (1.39%) Regular Expression
7 22 (1.33%) XML
8 18 (1.09%) .NET Framework
9 17 (1.03%) JSON
10 13 (0.79%) ARM Templates
11 12 (0.73%) Middleware
12 7 (0.42%) JSON Schema
12 7 (0.42%) SAML
13 5 (0.30%) ASP.NET
13 5 (0.30%) Elastic Stack
14 4 (0.24%) ADO
14 4 (0.24%) boto
14 4 (0.24%) GraphQL
14 4 (0.24%) web3js
Miscellaneous
1 203 (12.31%) Driving Licence
2 108 (6.55%) Hybrid Cloud
3 97 (5.88%) Data Centre
3 97 (5.88%) Onboarding
4 89 (5.40%) Legacy Systems
5 80 (4.85%) Self-Motivation
6 54 (3.27%) Management Information System
7 46 (2.79%) Replication
8 43 (2.61%) PKI
9 40 (2.43%) Clustering
10 38 (2.30%) Public Cloud
11 32 (1.94%) Security Posture
12 26 (1.58%) CCTV
13 20 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
13 20 (1.21%) Enterprise Storage
14 16 (0.97%) Cloud Native
15 15 (0.91%) Cyber Threat
15 15 (0.91%) Private Cloud
16 12 (0.73%) Analytical Mindset
17 11 (0.67%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 1,649 (100.00%) Windows
2 413 (25.05%) Linux
3 203 (12.31%) Windows Server 2016
4 148 (8.98%) Windows 10
5 124 (7.52%) Windows Server 2019
6 68 (4.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 66 (4.00%) Mac OS
8 50 (3.03%) Ubuntu
9 37 (2.24%) Apple iOS
9 37 (2.24%) Windows Server 2012
10 33 (2.00%) Android
11 28 (1.70%) CentOS
12 19 (1.15%) VMS
13 14 (0.85%) Windows Server 2008
14 11 (0.67%) Unix
15 6 (0.36%) Debian
16 5 (0.30%) CoreOS
16 5 (0.30%) Rocky
17 3 (0.18%) Windows 7
17 3 (0.18%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 571 (34.63%) Problem-Solving
2 405 (24.56%) Customer Service
3 370 (22.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 330 (20.01%) Continuous Improvement
5 290 (17.59%) Disaster Recovery
6 289 (17.53%) ITIL
7 284 (17.22%) Cybersecurity
8 188 (11.40%) Service Delivery
9 183 (11.10%) Migration
10 154 (9.34%) Project Delivery
11 148 (8.98%) Mentoring
12 143 (8.67%) High Availability
13 138 (8.37%) Customer Experience
14 136 (8.25%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 125 (7.58%) Root Cause Analysis
16 123 (7.46%) Business Continuity
17 114 (6.91%) ITSM
18 107 (6.49%) Kalman Filter
19 101 (6.12%) Infrastructure as Code
20 91 (5.52%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 324 (19.65%) PowerShell
2 191 (11.58%) SQL
3 97 (5.88%) Python
4 49 (2.97%) Bash
5 36 (2.18%) C#
6 26 (1.58%) Bicep
7 24 (1.46%) VBA
8 18 (1.09%) Java
9 10 (0.61%) Ruby
9 10 (0.61%) T-SQL
10 9 (0.55%) JavaScript
10 9 (0.55%) PHP
11 8 (0.49%) Shell Script
12 7 (0.42%) VB.NET
12 7 (0.42%) VBScript
13 4 (0.24%) Perl
14 3 (0.18%) Kusto Query Language
14 3 (0.18%) VB
15 2 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 2 (0.12%) Go
Qualifications
1 275 (16.68%) Security Cleared
2 179 (10.86%) SC Cleared
3 168 (10.19%) Degree
4 149 (9.04%) Microsoft Certification
5 105 (6.37%) Azure Certification
6 96 (5.82%) Cisco Certification
7 88 (5.34%) DV Cleared
8 81 (4.91%) DBS Check
9 76 (4.61%) CCNA
10 32 (1.94%) Network+ Certification
11 29 (1.76%) CCNP
12 26 (1.58%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 23 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
14 22 (1.33%) AWS Certification
15 21 (1.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 19 (1.15%) A+ Certification
17 17 (1.03%) Computer Science Degree
18 15 (0.91%) CompTIA Security+
18 15 (0.91%) MCSA
19 14 (0.85%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 180 (10.92%) Cyber Essentials
2 156 (9.46%) SLA
3 87 (5.28%) PCI DSS
4 78 (4.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 44 (2.67%) GDPR
6 34 (2.06%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 22 (1.33%) NIST
8 9 (0.55%) 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 1 (0.061%) COSHH
11 1 (0.061%) DICOM
11 1 (0.061%) GRC
11 1 (0.061%) HL7
11 1 (0.061%) ITGC
11 1 (0.061%) NCSC
11 1 (0.061%) TickIT
System Software
1 1,093 (66.28%) Active Directory
2 482 (29.23%) Hyper-V
3 462 (28.02%) VMware Infrastructure
4 109 (6.61%) vSphere
5 82 (4.97%) Terminal Server
6 59 (3.58%) VMware ESXi
7 57 (3.46%) Virtual Machines
8 50 (3.03%) Docker
9 29 (1.76%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (1.52%) VMware NSX
11 16 (0.97%) Virtual Servers
12 14 (0.85%) Squid
13 12 (0.73%) Firmware
14 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 9 (0.55%) Terminal Services
16 6 (0.36%) BitLocker
16 6 (0.36%) VMware Server
17 4 (0.24%) EMC RecoverPoint
18 3 (0.18%) DFS Replication
18 3 (0.18%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 334 (20.25%) Microsoft Intune
2 107 (6.49%) Terraform
3 96 (5.82%) Ansible
4 72 (4.37%) Kubernetes
5 49 (2.97%) SCCM
6 37 (2.24%) FortiGate
7 32 (1.94%) Single Sign-On
8 24 (1.46%) Failover Clustering
9 23 (1.39%) vCenter Server
9 23 (1.39%) WSUS
10 22 (1.33%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (1.09%) SCOM
11 18 (1.09%) ZABBIX
12 16 (0.97%) Nagios
12 16 (0.97%) VxRail
13 15 (0.91%) Jamf Pro
13 15 (0.91%) Microsoft Clustering
13 15 (0.91%) Packer
14 14 (0.85%) Grafana
15 13 (0.79%) Puppet
Vendors
1 1,279 (77.56%) Microsoft
2 680 (41.24%) VMware
3 217 (13.16%) Veeam
4 174 (10.55%) Cisco
5 127 (7.70%) Splunk
6 111 (6.73%) SolarWinds
7 91 (5.52%) Nimble Storage
8 81 (4.91%) Brocade
9 80 (4.85%) Tanium
10 62 (3.76%) Red Hat
11 61 (3.70%) Meraki
12 54 (3.27%) Apple
13 53 (3.21%) Citrix
14 52 (3.15%) SonicWALL
15 47 (2.85%) ServiceNow
16 45 (2.73%) Fortinet
16 45 (2.73%) Sophos
17 43 (2.61%) Oracle
18 42 (2.55%) Google
18 42 (2.55%) HP