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 18 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 88 62
Rank change year-on-year -13 -26 +37
Permanent jobs citing Windows Server 1,333 1,749 2,487
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.18% 3.28% 4.19%
As % of the Operating Systems category 26.84% 21.85% 27.67%
Number of salaries quoted 1,002 1,048 2,249
10th Percentile £27,750 £29,525 £27,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £45,250 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.60% +0.56% -
75th Percentile £55,875 £60,000 £57,500
90th Percentile £75,000 £78,000 £72,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £37,500 £42,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year -11.76% +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 4,967 8,006 8,988
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 8.14% 15.02% 15.13%
Number of salaries quoted 3,641 4,497 7,418
10th Percentile £27,000 £28,250 £26,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £36,250 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,055 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.10% +0.11% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £88,750 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £37,500 £45,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year -17.58% +1.11% -

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 18 January 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 18 January 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 -4 1,229 £40,000 -13.04% 406
UK excluding London -9 1,024 £37,500 -11.76% 399
Work from Home -40 324 £43,085 -13.83% 126
South East +19 256 £37,500 -18.48% 144
London -45 254 £57,500 -13.21% 66
North of England -12 225 £37,000 -7.50% 83
South West +13 207 £37,500 -11.76% 58
East of England -6 143 £43,085 -4.26% 48
Midlands -28 143 £31,000 -17.33% 44
North West -6 102 £40,500 -4.71% 37
Yorkshire -16 98 £33,500 -10.67% 38
East Midlands -17 90 £28,500 -9.52% 23
West Midlands -45 53 £44,000 +10.00% 20
Scotland -42 28 £38,000 -5.00% 22
North East -11 25 £35,000 -6.67% 9
Wales -5 20 £52,297 +0.57% 6
Northern Ireland -8 9 - - 3

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
1 439 (32.93%) Microsoft Exchange
2 231 (17.33%) SharePoint
3 53 (3.98%) IIS
4 14 (1.05%) Skype for Business
5 10 (0.75%) Confluence
6 7 (0.53%) Apache Solr
6 7 (0.53%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (0.53%) Tomcat
6 7 (0.53%) WinCC
7 5 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.30%) Apache
8 4 (0.30%) FactoryTalk
9 3 (0.23%) CMS
9 3 (0.23%) WordPress
10 2 (0.15%) ArchestrA
10 2 (0.15%) BizTalk Server
10 2 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2010
11 1 (0.075%) Exchange Server 2007
Applications
1 100 (7.50%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.05%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.53%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (0.45%) Siemens NX
5 3 (0.23%) CATIA
5 3 (0.23%) SOLIDWORKS
5 3 (0.23%) Windchill
6 2 (0.15%) Acrobat
6 2 (0.15%) CINEMA 4D
6 2 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 1 (0.075%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.075%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (0.90%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.45%) Teamcenter
3 5 (0.38%) PlanetPress Connect
3 5 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.30%) NEC Housing
5 3 (0.23%) Fidessa
5 3 (0.23%) SAP Business One
6 2 (0.15%) Dynamics NAV
6 2 (0.15%) Visualfiles
7 1 (0.075%) Carpe Diem
7 1 (0.075%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.075%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.075%) Pegasus Opera
7 1 (0.075%) Sage 200
7 1 (0.075%) Towers Watson Igloo
Cloud Services
1 854 (64.07%) Microsoft 365
2 816 (61.22%) Azure
3 317 (23.78%) Entra ID
4 128 (9.60%) AWS
5 77 (5.78%) OneDrive
6 60 (4.50%) SaaS
7 54 (4.05%) Google Workspace
8 44 (3.30%) IaaS
9 35 (2.63%) Azure Logic Apps
10 33 (2.48%) PaaS
11 24 (1.80%) GCP
11 24 (1.80%) Nutanix
12 23 (1.73%) Azure Sentinel
12 23 (1.73%) Power Platform
13 19 (1.43%) Azure DevOps
13 19 (1.43%) Azure Monitor
14 16 (1.20%) PowerApps
15 12 (0.90%) Microsoft Purview
15 12 (0.90%) OpenShift
16 11 (0.83%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 549 (41.19%) DNS
2 524 (39.31%) DHCP
3 415 (31.13%) Firewall
4 231 (17.33%) VPN
5 220 (16.50%) TCP/IP
6 180 (13.50%) WAN
7 170 (12.75%) VLAN
8 161 (12.08%) LAN
9 97 (7.28%) Wi-Fi
10 79 (5.93%) VoIP
11 67 (5.03%) SAN
12 57 (4.28%) Wireless
13 50 (3.75%) Remote Desktop
14 35 (2.63%) Network Security
14 35 (2.63%) SD-WAN
15 31 (2.33%) Internet
16 20 (1.50%) SSL
17 15 (1.13%) VSAN
18 14 (1.05%) IP Telephony
18 14 (1.05%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 111 (8.33%) SQL Server
2 109 (8.18%) Amazon RDS
3 27 (2.03%) MySQL
4 17 (1.28%) Relational Database
5 13 (0.98%) PostgreSQL
6 10 (0.75%) MongoDB
7 8 (0.60%) DTS
7 8 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
9 5 (0.38%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.30%) MS Access
10 4 (0.30%) Power BI
10 4 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
10 4 (0.30%) SAP HANA
10 4 (0.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.23%) Data Mining
12 2 (0.15%) Azure SQL Database
13 1 (0.075%) Sybase ASE
13 1 (0.075%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 37 (2.78%) Git
2 30 (2.25%) JIRA
3 10 (0.75%) GitLab
4 8 (0.60%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.38%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 5 (0.38%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.30%) Octopus Deploy
6 4 (0.30%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 4 (0.30%) Toad
7 3 (0.23%) Subversion
7 3 (0.23%) Visual Studio
7 3 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.15%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.15%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.075%) LoadRunner
General
1 590 (44.26%) Social Skills
2 157 (11.78%) Analytical Skills
3 115 (8.63%) Finance
4 58 (4.35%) Manufacturing
5 50 (3.75%) Law
6 48 (3.60%) Organisational Skills
7 40 (3.00%) Documentation Skills
8 37 (2.78%) Retail
9 35 (2.63%) Legal
10 25 (1.88%) Telecoms
11 23 (1.73%) Public Sector
12 17 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 13 (0.98%) Banking
14 12 (0.90%) Front Office
15 11 (0.83%) Advertising
16 10 (0.75%) Aerospace
16 10 (0.75%) Games
17 9 (0.68%) Marketing
18 8 (0.60%) Back Office
19 7 (0.53%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 383 (28.73%) IT Support
2 288 (21.61%) Support Engineer
3 245 (18.38%) IT Engineer
4 229 (17.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 201 (15.08%) IT Support Engineer
6 157 (11.78%) 2nd Line Support
7 142 (10.65%) Senior
8 141 (10.58%) Systems Engineer
9 128 (9.60%) Analyst
10 103 (7.73%) Support Analyst
11 90 (6.75%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 90 (6.75%) 3rd Line Support
12 84 (6.30%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
13 78 (5.85%) Support Technician
14 76 (5.70%) Technical Support
15 71 (5.33%) Cloud Engineer
16 62 (4.65%) IT Technician
17 55 (4.13%) Azure Engineer
18 53 (3.98%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
19 50 (3.75%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (2.18%) .NET
2 12 (0.90%) FIX Protocol
3 10 (0.75%) LDAP
3 10 (0.75%) Node.js
4 6 (0.45%) CSS
4 6 (0.45%) HTML
4 6 (0.45%) Middleware
5 5 (0.38%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (0.38%) Kafka
5 5 (0.38%) YAML
6 4 (0.30%) FIDO
6 4 (0.30%) FreeSWITCH
6 4 (0.30%) OAuth
6 4 (0.30%) OAuth2
6 4 (0.30%) OpenID
6 4 (0.30%) OpenTelemetry
6 4 (0.30%) RESTful
6 4 (0.30%) SailPoint
6 4 (0.30%) SAML
7 3 (0.23%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 165 (12.38%) Driving Licence
2 106 (7.95%) Legacy Systems
3 58 (4.35%) Hybrid Cloud
4 57 (4.28%) Onboarding
5 46 (3.45%) Data Centre
6 45 (3.38%) Self-Motivation
7 39 (2.93%) Enterprise Software
8 36 (2.70%) Replication
9 26 (1.95%) Clustering
10 25 (1.88%) PKI
11 23 (1.73%) Public Cloud
12 21 (1.58%) CCTV
13 20 (1.50%) CMDB
13 20 (1.50%) iPad
13 20 (1.50%) Management Information System
14 18 (1.35%) Video Conferencing
15 14 (1.05%) Client/Server
16 13 (0.98%) SCADA
17 10 (0.75%) Social Media
18 9 (0.68%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 1,333 (100.00%) Windows
2 275 (20.63%) Linux
3 184 (13.80%) Windows Server 2016
4 165 (12.38%) Windows 10
5 113 (8.48%) Windows Server 2019
6 60 (4.50%) Mac OS
7 55 (4.13%) Windows Server 2012
8 38 (2.85%) Android
9 35 (2.63%) Apple iOS
10 19 (1.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 15 (1.13%) Unix
11 15 (1.13%) Windows Server 2008
12 8 (0.60%) Mac OS X
12 8 (0.60%) Ubuntu
12 8 (0.60%) Windows 7
13 6 (0.45%) Debian
13 6 (0.45%) Windows 8
14 5 (0.38%) Solaris
15 4 (0.30%) CentOS
15 4 (0.30%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 479 (35.93%) Problem-Solving
2 357 (26.78%) Customer Service
3 295 (22.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 265 (19.88%) ITIL
5 189 (14.18%) Migration
6 155 (11.63%) Disaster Recovery
7 150 (11.25%) Cybersecurity
8 141 (10.58%) Mentoring
9 135 (10.13%) Continuous Improvement
10 130 (9.75%) Service Delivery
11 128 (9.60%) Vulnerability Remediation
12 106 (7.95%) Customer Experience
13 105 (7.88%) Vulnerability Scanning
14 103 (7.73%) Kalman Filter
15 100 (7.50%) Email Filtering
16 99 (7.43%) Web Filtering
17 91 (6.83%) Service Management
18 88 (6.60%) ITSM
19 82 (6.15%) DevOps
20 79 (5.93%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 287 (21.53%) PowerShell
2 128 (9.60%) SQL
3 57 (4.28%) Python
4 27 (2.03%) Bash
5 16 (1.20%) VB
6 15 (1.13%) JavaScript
7 13 (0.98%) C#
8 12 (0.90%) VB.NET
8 12 (0.90%) VBA
9 11 (0.83%) PHP
10 9 (0.68%) Shell Script
11 8 (0.60%) Bicep
12 6 (0.45%) T-SQL
12 6 (0.45%) VBScript
13 3 (0.23%) Tcl
14 2 (0.15%) Ladder Logic
14 2 (0.15%) Perl
15 1 (0.075%) Delphi
15 1 (0.075%) Go
15 1 (0.075%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 213 (15.98%) Security Cleared
2 162 (12.15%) SC Cleared
3 111 (8.33%) Microsoft Certification
4 99 (7.43%) Degree
5 56 (4.20%) DV Cleared
6 48 (3.60%) Cisco Certification
7 47 (3.53%) Azure Certification
8 41 (3.08%) CCNA
9 36 (2.70%) DBS Check
10 30 (2.25%) Network+ Certification
11 26 (1.95%) MCP
11 26 (1.95%) MCSA
12 21 (1.58%) MCSE
13 19 (1.43%) CCNP
14 18 (1.35%) AWS Certification
15 15 (1.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 14 (1.05%) A+ Certification
16 14 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
17 9 (0.68%) HND
18 8 (0.60%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 152 (11.40%) Cyber Essentials
2 107 (8.03%) PCI DSS
3 89 (6.68%) SLA
4 50 (3.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 41 (3.08%) GDPR
6 17 (1.28%) NIST
7 16 (1.20%) QA
8 15 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 7 (0.53%) IEC 61508
10 6 (0.45%) GRC
10 6 (0.45%) GxP
10 6 (0.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 5 (0.38%) IEC 61131
12 4 (0.30%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.30%) ISO 9001
13 3 (0.23%) Accessibility
14 2 (0.15%) HIPAA
14 2 (0.15%) NCSC
System Software
1 945 (70.89%) Active Directory
2 398 (29.86%) Hyper-V
3 297 (22.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 98 (7.35%) Terminal Server
5 55 (4.13%) vSphere
6 45 (3.38%) VMware ESXi
7 40 (3.00%) Docker
7 40 (3.00%) Virtual Desktop
8 21 (1.58%) Virtual Machines
9 16 (1.20%) Firmware
10 12 (0.90%) VMware NSX
11 11 (0.83%) Virtual Servers
12 8 (0.60%) vCloud
12 8 (0.60%) XenApp
13 6 (0.45%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.30%) Kamailio
14 4 (0.30%) VMware Workstation
15 3 (0.23%) ISA Server
15 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 2 (0.15%) Squid
Systems Management
1 312 (23.41%) Microsoft Intune
2 70 (5.25%) SCCM
3 58 (4.35%) Terraform
4 47 (3.53%) Kubernetes
5 44 (3.30%) Ansible
6 38 (2.85%) vCenter Server
7 32 (2.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 27 (2.03%) WSUS
9 23 (1.73%) Autotask
10 19 (1.43%) SCOM
11 16 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
12 14 (1.05%) Jamf Pro
13 13 (0.98%) Nagios
14 12 (0.90%) Puppet
15 11 (0.83%) FortiGate
16 10 (0.75%) Failover Clustering
16 10 (0.75%) ZABBIX
17 9 (0.68%) Prometheus
18 7 (0.53%) vRealize
18 7 (0.53%) VxRail
Vendors
1 874 (65.57%) Microsoft
2 529 (39.68%) VMware
3 176 (13.20%) Veeam
4 136 (10.20%) SolarWinds
5 113 (8.48%) Cisco
5 113 (8.48%) Nimble Storage
6 106 (7.95%) Splunk
7 104 (7.80%) Tanium
8 96 (7.20%) Brocade
9 69 (5.18%) Google
10 58 (4.35%) Citrix
11 52 (3.90%) Apple
12 42 (3.15%) Dell
13 32 (2.40%) Red Hat
14 30 (2.25%) Meraki
14 30 (2.25%) Oracle
15 29 (2.18%) HP
16 28 (2.10%) ServiceNow
17 27 (2.03%) Datto
18 25 (1.88%) Fortinet