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 16 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 114 70
Rank change year-on-year -18 -44 +28
Permanent jobs citing Windows Server 1,308 1,247 3,386
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.43% 2.85% 3.51%
As % of the Operating Systems category 24.26% 18.37% 24.94%
Number of salaries quoted 999 1,063 2,996
10th Percentile £27,250 £27,500 £26,000
25th Percentile £30,000 £31,500 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £42,000 £41,353
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +1.56% -8.10%
75th Percentile £57,500 £55,000 £53,750
90th Percentile £73,350 £73,886 £66,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £37,500 £37,500 £38,000
% change year-on-year - -1.32% -5.00%

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 5,392 6,790 13,578
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 5.90% 15.52% 14.07%
Number of salaries quoted 3,966 4,344 10,711
10th Percentile £27,694 £27,250 £26,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -14.29%
75th Percentile £68,750 £66,250 £62,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,000 £40,000 £42,500
% change year-on-year +5.00% -5.88% -5.56%

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 16 May 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 16 May 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 1,206 £40,000 -4.76% 326
UK excluding London -7 1,032 £37,500 - 296
South East +38 279 £41,000 -3.53% 96
North of England +10 274 £35,000 +4.48% 62
Work from Home -23 265 £42,500 - 171
London -63 248 £57,500 -4.17% 69
South West -23 162 £34,250 -14.38% 45
North West +48 141 £36,250 -3.33% 35
Midlands -54 134 £32,500 -7.14% 39
Yorkshire -37 111 £34,000 +13.33% 22
East of England -9 107 £35,000 -17.65% 31
East Midlands -36 77 £29,250 -16.43% 21
West Midlands -76 56 £39,500 +12.86% 18
Scotland -1 32 £31,500 -30.00% 14
Wales -10 32 £45,000 +18.13% 16
North East -35 22 £45,000 +28.57% 6
Northern Ireland - 12 - -

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
1 310 (23.70%) Microsoft Exchange
2 229 (17.51%) SharePoint
3 47 (3.59%) IIS
4 24 (1.83%) Confluence
5 9 (0.69%) Exchange Server 2007
5 9 (0.69%) Exchange Server 2010
5 9 (0.69%) Exchange Server 2013
6 5 (0.38%) WordPress
7 4 (0.31%) Apache
7 4 (0.31%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.23%) JBoss
9 2 (0.15%) BizTalk Server
10 1 (0.076%) CMS
10 1 (0.076%) Drupal
10 1 (0.076%) nginx
10 1 (0.076%) Site Server
Applications
1 163 (12.46%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.23%) Photoshop
4 2 (0.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.076%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.076%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 5 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
1 5 (0.38%) Dynamics NAV
2 4 (0.31%) Exchequer
2 4 (0.31%) Primavera
3 3 (0.23%) NetSuite
3 3 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.15%) Fidessa
5 1 (0.076%) Infor CloudSuite
5 1 (0.076%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
5 1 (0.076%) Magento
5 1 (0.076%) Sage 200
5 1 (0.076%) SAP Business One
5 1 (0.076%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 790 (60.40%) Microsoft 365
2 706 (53.98%) Azure
3 326 (24.92%) Entra ID
4 154 (11.77%) AWS
5 95 (7.26%) OneDrive
6 57 (4.36%) SaaS
7 56 (4.28%) Google Workspace
8 48 (3.67%) IaaS
9 43 (3.29%) Nutanix
10 35 (2.68%) PaaS
11 28 (2.14%) Power Platform
12 16 (1.22%) GCP
13 15 (1.15%) PowerApps
14 13 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
14 13 (0.99%) Azure Sentinel
14 13 (0.99%) GitHub
15 12 (0.92%) Microsoft Copilot
16 11 (0.84%) Mimecast
17 10 (0.76%) Microsoft Purview
17 10 (0.76%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 498 (38.07%) DNS
2 424 (32.42%) DHCP
3 381 (29.13%) Firewall
4 218 (16.67%) VPN
5 197 (15.06%) WAN
6 187 (14.30%) TCP/IP
7 179 (13.69%) LAN
8 125 (9.56%) VLAN
9 110 (8.41%) Wi-Fi
10 83 (6.35%) Wireless
11 79 (6.04%) VoIP
12 65 (4.97%) SAN
13 40 (3.06%) Remote Desktop
14 37 (2.83%) Network Security
15 31 (2.37%) NAS
16 25 (1.91%) SD-WAN
17 20 (1.53%) Internet
18 17 (1.30%) WLAN
19 15 (1.15%) VSAN
20 13 (0.99%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 140 (10.70%) SQL Server
2 57 (4.36%) Amazon RDS
3 24 (1.83%) MySQL
4 19 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (1.30%) Power BI
6 13 (0.99%) Relational Database
7 11 (0.84%) MongoDB
7 11 (0.84%) Oracle Database
8 10 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
9 8 (0.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 8 (0.61%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 4 (0.31%) Crystal Reports
10 4 (0.31%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.15%) InfluxDB
11 2 (0.15%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 2 (0.15%) Sybase ASE
12 1 (0.076%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.076%) Redis
12 1 (0.076%) SAP HANA
12 1 (0.076%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 49 (3.75%) Git
2 46 (3.52%) JIRA
3 20 (1.53%) GitLab
4 11 (0.84%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.69%) Bitbucket
5 9 (0.69%) Visual Studio Code
6 7 (0.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 6 (0.46%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 4 (0.31%) Subversion
9 3 (0.23%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.15%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
11 1 (0.076%) Gatling
11 1 (0.076%) JMeter
11 1 (0.076%) Vagrant
11 1 (0.076%) Visual Studio
General
1 535 (40.90%) Social Skills
2 136 (10.40%) Analytical Skills
3 121 (9.25%) Finance
4 71 (5.43%) Organisational Skills
5 49 (3.75%) Documentation Skills
5 49 (3.75%) Retail
6 43 (3.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 37 (2.83%) Manufacturing
8 30 (2.29%) Banking
9 29 (2.22%) Law
10 25 (1.91%) Public Sector
11 21 (1.61%) Telecoms
12 16 (1.22%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.07%) Legal
14 12 (0.92%) Games
14 12 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
15 10 (0.76%) Back Office
15 10 (0.76%) Local Government
16 9 (0.69%) Advertising
17 8 (0.61%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 447 (34.17%) IT Support
2 336 (25.69%) IT Engineer
3 322 (24.62%) Support Engineer
4 279 (21.33%) IT Support Engineer
5 180 (13.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 167 (12.77%) Senior
7 136 (10.40%) 2nd Line Support
8 133 (10.17%) IT Technician
9 114 (8.72%) Analyst
9 114 (8.72%) Support Technician
10 93 (7.11%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 93 (7.11%) IT Support Technician
11 86 (6.57%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
12 83 (6.35%) Support Analyst
13 71 (5.43%) Systems Engineer
14 59 (4.51%) Lead
15 58 (4.43%) Cloud Engineer
16 57 (4.36%) 3rd Line Support
17 52 (3.98%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 50 (3.82%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (2.14%) .NET
2 18 (1.38%) XMPP
3 17 (1.30%) HTML
4 16 (1.22%) LDAP
4 16 (1.22%) Regular Expression
5 14 (1.07%) CSS
6 11 (0.84%) ARM Templates
7 9 (0.69%) JSON
7 9 (0.69%) Web Services
8 8 (0.61%) FIX Protocol
9 6 (0.46%) REST
10 5 (0.38%) .NET Framework
10 5 (0.38%) Apache NiFi
10 5 (0.38%) FreeSWITCH
10 5 (0.38%) Keycloak
10 5 (0.38%) OAuth
10 5 (0.38%) OAuth2
10 5 (0.38%) OpenID
10 5 (0.38%) SAML
10 5 (0.38%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 153 (11.70%) Driving Licence
2 90 (6.88%) Hybrid Cloud
3 73 (5.58%) Self-Motivation
4 72 (5.50%) Data Centre
5 52 (3.98%) Onboarding
6 44 (3.36%) Legacy Systems
7 43 (3.29%) Public Cloud
8 40 (3.06%) Replication
9 31 (2.37%) PKI
10 29 (2.22%) Management Information System
11 19 (1.45%) Clustering
11 19 (1.45%) Security Posture
12 15 (1.15%) CCTV
12 15 (1.15%) Video Conferencing
13 13 (0.99%) Enterprise Software
14 11 (0.84%) CMDB
14 11 (0.84%) Fat Client
14 11 (0.84%) Thin Client
15 10 (0.76%) EPoS
15 10 (0.76%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 1,308 (100.00%) Windows
2 272 (20.80%) Linux
3 157 (12.00%) Windows 10
3 157 (12.00%) Windows Server 2016
4 104 (7.95%) Windows Server 2019
5 58 (4.43%) Windows Server 2012
6 56 (4.28%) Mac OS
6 56 (4.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 54 (4.13%) Apple iOS
8 36 (2.75%) Android
9 34 (2.60%) Ubuntu
10 22 (1.68%) Windows Server 2008
11 20 (1.53%) CentOS
12 14 (1.07%) Unix
13 13 (0.99%) VMS
14 9 (0.69%) Windows 7
15 7 (0.54%) Windows 8
16 5 (0.38%) Debian
17 4 (0.31%) CoreOS
18 3 (0.23%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 415 (31.73%) Problem-Solving
2 312 (23.85%) Customer Service
3 265 (20.26%) ITIL
4 253 (19.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 193 (14.76%) Cybersecurity
6 172 (13.15%) Continuous Improvement
7 169 (12.92%) Disaster Recovery
8 143 (10.93%) Service Delivery
9 113 (8.64%) Mentoring
10 94 (7.19%) High Availability
10 94 (7.19%) Vulnerability Remediation
11 91 (6.96%) Root Cause Analysis
12 89 (6.80%) Migration
13 84 (6.42%) ITSM
14 83 (6.35%) Business Continuity
15 80 (6.12%) Change Management
16 78 (5.96%) Infrastructure as Code
17 75 (5.73%) DevOps
18 74 (5.66%) Project Delivery
19 70 (5.35%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 272 (20.80%) PowerShell
2 139 (10.63%) SQL
3 75 (5.73%) Python
4 30 (2.29%) Bash
5 18 (1.38%) C#
6 15 (1.15%) Bicep
7 13 (0.99%) VB.NET
8 11 (0.84%) JavaScript
8 11 (0.84%) VBA
9 10 (0.76%) PHP
10 9 (0.69%) Java
11 6 (0.46%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.46%) VB
12 5 (0.38%) Shell Script
12 5 (0.38%) VBScript
13 2 (0.15%) Go
13 2 (0.15%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.076%) Delphi
14 1 (0.076%) Korn
14 1 (0.076%) Perl
Qualifications
1 216 (16.51%) Security Cleared
2 119 (9.10%) Degree
3 118 (9.02%) SC Cleared
4 110 (8.41%) Microsoft Certification
5 84 (6.42%) DV Cleared
6 70 (5.35%) DBS Check
7 54 (4.13%) Azure Certification
8 38 (2.91%) Cisco Certification
9 32 (2.45%) CCNA
10 29 (2.22%) Network+ Certification
11 22 (1.68%) A+ Certification
12 19 (1.45%) MCSE
13 18 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
13 18 (1.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 13 (0.99%) CCNP
15 12 (0.92%) AWS Certification
15 12 (0.92%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 11 (0.84%) HNC
16 11 (0.84%) HND
16 11 (0.84%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 118 (9.02%) SLA
2 95 (7.26%) Cyber Essentials
3 64 (4.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 54 (4.13%) PCI DSS
5 26 (1.99%) GDPR
6 22 (1.68%) NIST
7 18 (1.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 8 (0.61%) QA
9 5 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.31%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.23%) ISO 9001
12 2 (0.15%) COBIT
12 2 (0.15%) GRC
12 2 (0.15%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.076%) DICOM
13 1 (0.076%) HL7
13 1 (0.076%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.076%) ITGC
13 1 (0.076%) NCSC
13 1 (0.076%) RMADS
System Software
1 877 (67.05%) Active Directory
2 345 (26.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 307 (23.47%) Hyper-V
4 94 (7.19%) vSphere
5 43 (3.29%) Terminal Server
5 43 (3.29%) VMware ESXi
6 38 (2.91%) Docker
7 26 (1.99%) Virtual Desktop
8 24 (1.83%) Virtual Machines
9 23 (1.76%) VMware NSX
10 13 (0.99%) Terminal Services
11 11 (0.84%) Firmware
12 9 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
13 7 (0.54%) VMware Workstation
14 6 (0.46%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 6 (0.46%) Squid
15 4 (0.31%) BitLocker
16 2 (0.15%) EMC RecoverPoint
16 2 (0.15%) VMware Server
17 1 (0.076%) Xen
Systems Management
1 212 (16.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 93 (7.11%) Terraform
3 73 (5.58%) Ansible
4 57 (4.36%) Kubernetes
5 48 (3.67%) SCCM
6 41 (3.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 36 (2.75%) vCenter Server
8 27 (2.06%) WSUS
9 23 (1.76%) Single Sign-On
10 21 (1.61%) VxRail
11 19 (1.45%) FortiGate
12 18 (1.38%) Autotask
13 17 (1.30%) Jamf Pro
13 17 (1.30%) SCOM
14 14 (1.07%) Nagios
15 13 (0.99%) Packer
16 12 (0.92%) Grafana
16 12 (0.92%) ZABBIX
17 9 (0.69%) Backup Exec
17 9 (0.69%) Nessus
Vendors
1 897 (68.58%) Microsoft
2 517 (39.53%) VMware
3 118 (9.02%) Veeam
4 107 (8.18%) Cisco
5 78 (5.96%) Splunk
6 70 (5.35%) SolarWinds
7 65 (4.97%) Nimble Storage
8 60 (4.59%) Google
9 56 (4.28%) Dell
10 52 (3.98%) Apple
10 52 (3.98%) HP
11 48 (3.67%) Citrix
12 47 (3.59%) Red Hat
13 41 (3.13%) Meraki
14 40 (3.06%) Brocade
14 40 (3.06%) Tanium
15 31 (2.37%) McAfee
15 31 (2.37%) Oracle
16 28 (2.14%) ServiceNow
17 25 (1.91%) Dell Compellent