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 1 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 105 87
Rank change year-on-year -23 -18 -20
Permanent jobs citing Windows Server 1,713 1,390 2,094
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.45% 2.81% 2.80%
As % of the Operating Systems category 25.85% 22.14% 21.89%
Number of salaries quoted 1,341 1,125 1,264
10th Percentile £27,750 £28,000 £28,000
25th Percentile £31,000 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,000 £40,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.23% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £57,500 £57,500 £57,500
90th Percentile £68,750 £75,000 £70,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £39,500 £38,094 £42,500
% change year-on-year +3.69% -10.37% +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 6,626 6,277 9,564
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 5.62% 12.69% 12.79%
Number of salaries quoted 4,806 4,030 5,651
10th Percentile £27,750 £27,000 £27,750
25th Percentile £31,577 £31,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £41,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.43% -17.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £63,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £38,325 £47,307
% change year-on-year +10.89% -18.99% +0.43%

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 1 October 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 1 October 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 -19 1,599 £42,000 +3.70% 837
UK excluding London -4 1,422 £39,500 +3.69% 600
Work from Home 0 403 £42,500 -7.61% 288
South East +1 374 £42,500 +6.25% 188
North of England +23 335 £37,500 +7.14% 141
London -61 264 £55,000 -8.33% 267
Midlands +1 240 £37,750 +7.86% 99
South West -58 204 £39,000 +9.75% 55
East of England -10 188 £37,500 -16.67% 80
North West +49 173 £37,500 -6.83% 80
West Midlands +1 131 £42,500 +21.43% 61
Yorkshire -8 129 £35,500 +9.23% 44
East Midlands -23 109 £31,000 -4.62% 37
Scotland +41 41 £32,500 -27.30% 25
Wales -66 37 £45,000 -21.74% 13
North East -54 33 £42,500 +21.43% 18
Northern Ireland -83 3 £40,000 -27.27% 8

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
1 480 (28.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 326 (19.03%) SharePoint
3 98 (5.72%) IIS
4 31 (1.81%) Confluence
5 27 (1.58%) Apache
6 19 (1.11%) nginx
7 13 (0.76%) Skype for Business
8 10 (0.58%) WordPress
9 4 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 4 (0.23%) JBoss
9 4 (0.23%) SAS
9 4 (0.23%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2013
10 2 (0.12%) Office Communications Server
11 1 (0.058%) CMS
11 1 (0.058%) HCL Domino
11 1 (0.058%) HCL Notes
11 1 (0.058%) NetWeaver
11 1 (0.058%) SharePoint Server
11 1 (0.058%) Site Server
Applications
1 124 (7.24%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (1.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 3 (0.18%) Photoshop
4 2 (0.12%) SmartSuite
4 2 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
5 1 (0.058%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.058%) Revit
Business Applications
1 5 (0.29%) Infor CloudSuite
2 3 (0.18%) Infor LN
2 3 (0.18%) Infor M3
2 3 (0.18%) NetSuite
2 3 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.18%) Sage X3
3 2 (0.12%) Carpe Diem
3 2 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
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 (0.058%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.058%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.058%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,121 (65.44%) Microsoft 365
2 913 (53.30%) Azure
3 576 (33.63%) Entra ID
4 171 (9.98%) AWS
5 123 (7.18%) OneDrive
6 56 (3.27%) SaaS
7 47 (2.74%) IaaS
8 37 (2.16%) Power Platform
9 34 (1.98%) Google Workspace
10 33 (1.93%) Power Automate
11 28 (1.63%) Microsoft Copilot
12 24 (1.40%) PaaS
13 23 (1.34%) Mimecast
14 21 (1.23%) Azure DevOps
14 21 (1.23%) GCP
14 21 (1.23%) Microsoft Purview
15 19 (1.11%) Azure Sentinel
16 18 (1.05%) Nutanix
17 17 (0.99%) Azure Monitor
18 15 (0.88%) Cloudflare
Communications & Networking
1 643 (37.54%) DNS
2 578 (33.74%) Firewall
3 522 (30.47%) DHCP
4 307 (17.92%) VPN
5 267 (15.59%) TCP/IP
6 235 (13.72%) VLAN
7 196 (11.44%) WAN
8 192 (11.21%) LAN
9 141 (8.23%) Wi-Fi
10 139 (8.11%) Wireless
11 118 (6.89%) VoIP
12 74 (4.32%) Network Security
13 65 (3.79%) SAN
14 32 (1.87%) NAS
14 32 (1.87%) SSL
15 29 (1.69%) Internet
16 18 (1.05%) VSAN
17 16 (0.93%) Structured Cabling
18 15 (0.88%) IP Telephony
19 14 (0.82%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 192 (11.21%) SQL Server
2 87 (5.08%) Amazon RDS
3 28 (1.63%) MySQL
4 21 (1.23%) Azure SQL Database
5 18 (1.05%) Power BI
6 15 (0.88%) PostgreSQL
7 12 (0.70%) Relational Database
8 10 (0.58%) MongoDB
8 10 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 8 (0.47%) Oracle Database
10 6 (0.35%) Crystal Reports
11 5 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.23%) Data Lake
13 2 (0.12%) Big Data
13 2 (0.12%) BusinessObjects
13 2 (0.12%) Elasticsearch
13 2 (0.12%) KNIME
13 2 (0.12%) Looker
13 2 (0.12%) Power Query
13 2 (0.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 50 (2.92%) JIRA
2 43 (2.51%) Git
3 17 (0.99%) GitLab
4 13 (0.76%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.53%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
7 3 (0.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.12%) Ant
8 2 (0.12%) Apache Ivy
8 2 (0.12%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.12%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.12%) IBM UrbanCode
8 2 (0.12%) Maven
8 2 (0.12%) Postman
8 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.058%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.058%) Carbide.c++
9 1 (0.058%) Fiddler
9 1 (0.058%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.058%) TeamCity
General
1 744 (43.43%) Social Skills
2 222 (12.96%) Analytical Skills
3 138 (8.06%) Finance
4 71 (4.14%) Manufacturing
5 53 (3.09%) Organisational Skills
6 50 (2.92%) Documentation Skills
6 50 (2.92%) Retail
7 45 (2.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 45 (2.63%) Telecoms
8 43 (2.51%) Legal
9 32 (1.87%) Law
9 32 (1.87%) Public Sector
10 29 (1.69%) Aerospace
11 14 (0.82%) Banking
12 13 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
12 13 (0.76%) Military
13 12 (0.70%) Games
14 10 (0.58%) Local Government
15 9 (0.53%) Advertising
15 9 (0.53%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 508 (29.66%) IT Support
2 426 (24.87%) IT Engineer
3 398 (23.23%) Support Engineer
4 333 (19.44%) IT Support Engineer
5 292 (17.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 216 (12.61%) Senior
7 202 (11.79%) Analyst
8 136 (7.94%) Systems Engineer
9 132 (7.71%) Support Analyst
10 122 (7.12%) 2nd Line Support
11 108 (6.30%) IT Technician
11 108 (6.30%) Support Technician
12 94 (5.49%) IT Support Technician
13 91 (5.31%) 2nd Line Engineer
14 90 (5.25%) Administrator
15 83 (4.85%) IT Analyst
16 81 (4.73%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
17 73 (4.26%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
18 68 (3.97%) Lead
19 65 (3.79%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 99 (5.78%) Terraform
2 44 (2.57%) .NET
3 33 (1.93%) HTML
4 29 (1.69%) CSS
5 27 (1.58%) Web Services
6 24 (1.40%) XML
7 20 (1.17%) JSON
8 19 (1.11%) .NET Framework
9 17 (0.99%) LDAP
10 15 (0.88%) XMPP
11 14 (0.82%) Regular Expression
12 13 (0.76%) ARM Templates
13 12 (0.70%) Middleware
14 9 (0.53%) SAML
15 8 (0.47%) WinForms
16 7 (0.41%) ASP.NET Web Forms
17 6 (0.35%) Elastic Stack
17 6 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
18 5 (0.29%) ASP.NET
18 5 (0.29%) jQuery
Miscellaneous
1 219 (12.78%) Driving Licence
2 106 (6.19%) Onboarding
3 104 (6.07%) Hybrid Cloud
4 80 (4.67%) Legacy Systems
5 79 (4.61%) Data Centre
6 69 (4.03%) Self-Motivation
7 53 (3.09%) Management Information System
8 44 (2.57%) Replication
9 43 (2.51%) PKI
10 42 (2.45%) Clustering
11 39 (2.28%) CCTV
12 38 (2.22%) Security Posture
13 28 (1.63%) Public Cloud
14 26 (1.52%) Enterprise Storage
15 19 (1.11%) Cloud Native
16 18 (1.05%) Enterprise Software
17 15 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
17 15 (0.88%) Private Cloud
18 13 (0.76%) Operational Technology
19 12 (0.70%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 1,713 (100.00%) Windows
2 412 (24.05%) Linux
3 191 (11.15%) Windows Server 2016
4 170 (9.92%) Windows 10
5 120 (7.01%) Windows Server 2019
6 61 (3.56%) Mac OS
7 56 (3.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 47 (2.74%) Ubuntu
9 37 (2.16%) Android
10 35 (2.04%) Apple iOS
10 35 (2.04%) Windows Server 2012
11 24 (1.40%) CentOS
12 23 (1.34%) VMS
13 14 (0.82%) Unix
14 10 (0.58%) Rocky
15 9 (0.53%) Windows Server 2008
16 7 (0.41%) Debian
17 5 (0.29%) CoreOS
18 3 (0.18%) Solaris
19 1 (0.058%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 611 (35.67%) Problem-Solving
2 454 (26.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 386 (22.53%) Customer Service
4 354 (20.67%) Disaster Recovery
5 350 (20.43%) Continuous Improvement
6 324 (18.91%) Cybersecurity
7 291 (16.99%) ITIL
8 225 (13.13%) Migration
9 179 (10.45%) Project Delivery
10 175 (10.22%) Service Delivery
11 139 (8.11%) Mentoring
12 137 (8.00%) Root Cause Analysis
13 134 (7.82%) Business Continuity
14 132 (7.71%) Customer Experience
14 132 (7.71%) High Availability
15 124 (7.24%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 111 (6.48%) ITSM
17 100 (5.84%) Infrastructure as Code
18 99 (5.78%) Kalman Filter
19 97 (5.66%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 336 (19.61%) PowerShell
2 193 (11.27%) SQL
3 83 (4.85%) Python
4 52 (3.04%) Bash
5 41 (2.39%) C#
6 33 (1.93%) Bicep
7 24 (1.40%) VBA
8 21 (1.23%) Ruby
9 15 (0.88%) Java
10 13 (0.76%) JavaScript
11 11 (0.64%) T-SQL
12 8 (0.47%) PHP
12 8 (0.47%) VBScript
13 7 (0.41%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.41%) VB.NET
14 4 (0.23%) Perl
14 4 (0.23%) VB
15 2 (0.12%) C
15 2 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 1 (0.058%) Go
Qualifications
1 265 (15.47%) Security Cleared
2 185 (10.80%) Degree
3 177 (10.33%) SC Cleared
4 173 (10.10%) Microsoft Certification
5 115 (6.71%) Cisco Certification
6 105 (6.13%) Azure Certification
7 85 (4.96%) CCNA
8 78 (4.55%) DV Cleared
9 62 (3.62%) DBS Check
10 45 (2.63%) CCNP
11 41 (2.39%) Network+ Certification
12 26 (1.52%) AWS Certification
13 25 (1.46%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 23 (1.34%) CISSP
14 23 (1.34%) CompTIA Security+
14 23 (1.34%) MCSA
15 22 (1.28%) A+ Certification
16 21 (1.23%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 20 (1.17%) BPSS Clearance
17 20 (1.17%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 203 (11.85%) Cyber Essentials
2 142 (8.29%) SLA
3 81 (4.73%) PCI DSS
4 73 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 47 (2.74%) GDPR
6 41 (2.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 18 (1.05%) NIST
8 15 (0.88%) QA
9 5 (0.29%) Data Quality
9 5 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.23%) GRC
11 3 (0.18%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.18%) COBIT
11 3 (0.18%) RMADS
12 2 (0.12%) ISO 9001
13 1 (0.058%) COSHH
13 1 (0.058%) DICOM
13 1 (0.058%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.058%) HL7
13 1 (0.058%) TickIT
System Software
1 1,126 (65.73%) Active Directory
2 517 (30.18%) Hyper-V
3 473 (27.61%) VMware Infrastructure
4 105 (6.13%) vSphere
5 82 (4.79%) Virtual Machines
6 73 (4.26%) Terminal Server
7 68 (3.97%) VMware ESXi
8 39 (2.28%) Docker
9 34 (1.98%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (1.46%) VMware NSX
11 21 (1.23%) Firmware
12 18 (1.05%) Virtual Servers
13 14 (0.82%) Squid
14 8 (0.47%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 7 (0.41%) BitLocker
16 6 (0.35%) Terminal Services
16 6 (0.35%) VMware Server
17 4 (0.23%) XenApp
18 3 (0.18%) DFS Replication
18 3 (0.18%) EMC RecoverPoint
Systems Management
1 401 (23.41%) Microsoft Intune
2 83 (4.85%) Ansible
3 60 (3.50%) Kubernetes
4 57 (3.33%) SCCM
5 41 (2.39%) FortiGate
6 34 (1.98%) Single Sign-On
7 26 (1.52%) vCenter Server
8 25 (1.46%) Failover Clustering
9 24 (1.40%) Jamf Pro
9 24 (1.40%) WSUS
10 19 (1.11%) Puppet
10 19 (1.11%) SCOM
11 17 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 17 (0.99%) ZABBIX
12 16 (0.93%) Progress Chef
13 15 (0.88%) Microsoft Clustering
13 15 (0.88%) VxRail
14 12 (0.70%) Nagios
14 12 (0.70%) Nessus
15 11 (0.64%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 1,330 (77.64%) Microsoft
2 699 (40.81%) VMware
3 237 (13.84%) Veeam
4 203 (11.85%) Cisco
5 110 (6.42%) SolarWinds
6 104 (6.07%) Splunk
7 81 (4.73%) Meraki
8 75 (4.38%) Citrix
8 75 (4.38%) Nimble Storage
8 75 (4.38%) SonicWALL
9 73 (4.26%) Brocade
10 72 (4.20%) Tanium
11 67 (3.91%) Apple
12 59 (3.44%) Fortinet
13 54 (3.15%) Google
14 50 (2.92%) Red Hat
15 44 (2.57%) Sophos
16 41 (2.39%) WatchGuard
17 37 (2.16%) Oracle
18 36 (2.10%) HP