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 5 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 121 101 94
Rank change year-on-year -20 -7 -17
Permanent jobs citing Windows Server 1,692 1,445 2,089
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.52% 2.93% 2.65%
As % of the Operating Systems category 26.31% 21.78% 21.41%
Number of salaries quoted 1,338 1,199 1,505
10th Percentile £27,750 £27,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,000 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,000 £40,000 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £56,250 £55,813 £55,250
90th Percentile £68,750 £75,000 £68,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £38,094 £41,500
% change year-on-year +5.00% -8.21% +3.75%

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 6,431 6,635 9,757
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 5.79% 13.45% 12.37%
Number of salaries quoted 4,815 4,344 6,424
10th Percentile £28,000 £27,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £32,000 £31,250 £35,000
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 £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% -4.69%

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 5 September 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 5 September 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 -23 1,576 £42,000 +5.00% 510
UK excluding London -6 1,420 £40,000 +5.00% 396
Work from Home -24 383 £42,500 -1.36% 164
South East +9 362 £42,500 +6.25% 137
North of England +23 358 £37,500 +7.14% 83
London -79 243 £55,000 -8.33% 162
South West -38 219 £37,500 -2.60% 38
Midlands -15 207 £37,750 +7.86% 72
North West +62 194 £37,500 - 39
East of England -6 190 £36,500 -18.89% 55
Yorkshire -25 129 £35,750 +19.17% 23
East Midlands -26 105 £32,250 -4.44% 27
West Midlands -22 102 £42,500 +21.43% 45
Wales -51 41 £45,000 -21.74% 4
Scotland +27 39 £32,500 -29.28% 14
North East -49 35 £42,500 +21.43% 24
Northern Ireland -78 4 £40,000 -27.27% 9

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 (27.30%) Microsoft Exchange
2 316 (18.68%) SharePoint
3 97 (5.73%) IIS
4 35 (2.07%) Confluence
5 26 (1.54%) Apache
6 20 (1.18%) nginx
7 10 (0.59%) Skype for Business
7 10 (0.59%) WordPress
8 5 (0.30%) Exchange Server 2013
9 4 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 4 (0.24%) JBoss
9 4 (0.24%) SAS
9 4 (0.24%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
10 3 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
11 1 (0.059%) CMS
11 1 (0.059%) Drupal
11 1 (0.059%) HCL Notes
11 1 (0.059%) NetWeaver
11 1 (0.059%) Site Server
Applications
1 129 (7.62%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (1.95%) 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%) 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%) Elite 3E
3 2 (0.12%) Exchequer
3 2 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
3 2 (0.12%) Primavera
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%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.059%) Magento
4 1 (0.059%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1,090 (64.42%) Microsoft 365
2 895 (52.90%) Azure
3 505 (29.85%) Entra ID
4 173 (10.22%) AWS
5 114 (6.74%) OneDrive
6 59 (3.49%) SaaS
7 44 (2.60%) IaaS
8 38 (2.25%) Power Platform
9 33 (1.95%) Power Automate
10 29 (1.71%) Microsoft Copilot
11 28 (1.65%) PaaS
12 27 (1.60%) Nutanix
13 21 (1.24%) Google Workspace
14 20 (1.18%) Azure DevOps
14 20 (1.18%) GCP
14 20 (1.18%) Mimecast
15 19 (1.12%) Microsoft Purview
16 15 (0.89%) Cloudflare
17 13 (0.77%) GitHub
18 12 (0.71%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 628 (37.12%) DNS
2 555 (32.80%) Firewall
3 508 (30.02%) DHCP
4 274 (16.19%) VPN
5 249 (14.72%) TCP/IP
6 211 (12.47%) VLAN
7 193 (11.41%) WAN
8 182 (10.76%) LAN
9 148 (8.75%) Wireless
10 132 (7.80%) Wi-Fi
11 114 (6.74%) VoIP
12 73 (4.31%) Network Security
13 68 (4.02%) SAN
14 33 (1.95%) NAS
15 29 (1.71%) Internet
15 29 (1.71%) SSL
16 19 (1.12%) VSAN
17 18 (1.06%) Remote Desktop
18 16 (0.95%) Structured Cabling
19 12 (0.71%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 185 (10.93%) SQL Server
2 96 (5.67%) Amazon RDS
3 26 (1.54%) MySQL
4 19 (1.12%) Power BI
5 16 (0.95%) Azure SQL Database
6 15 (0.89%) PostgreSQL
7 12 (0.71%) MongoDB
7 12 (0.71%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 11 (0.65%) Relational Database
9 9 (0.53%) Oracle Database
10 8 (0.47%) 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%) Looker
14 2 (0.12%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 55 (3.25%) JIRA
2 47 (2.78%) Git
3 18 (1.06%) 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%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.059%) Postman
8 1 (0.059%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.059%) Vagrant
General
1 751 (44.39%) Social Skills
2 227 (13.42%) Analytical Skills
3 122 (7.21%) Finance
4 71 (4.20%) Manufacturing
5 58 (3.43%) Organisational Skills
6 52 (3.07%) Retail
7 49 (2.90%) Documentation Skills
8 44 (2.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 43 (2.54%) Legal
10 42 (2.48%) Telecoms
11 37 (2.19%) Public Sector
12 30 (1.77%) Law
13 21 (1.24%) Aerospace
14 17 (1.00%) Banking
15 14 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
16 13 (0.77%) Games
17 12 (0.71%) Military
18 10 (0.59%) Advertising
19 8 (0.47%) Electronics
20 7 (0.41%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 505 (29.85%) IT Support
2 413 (24.41%) IT Engineer
3 393 (23.23%) Support Engineer
4 329 (19.44%) IT Support Engineer
5 273 (16.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 216 (12.77%) Senior
7 192 (11.35%) Analyst
8 149 (8.81%) Systems Engineer
9 139 (8.22%) IT Technician
10 126 (7.45%) 2nd Line Support
10 126 (7.45%) Support Analyst
11 119 (7.03%) Support Technician
12 102 (6.03%) IT Support Technician
13 88 (5.20%) 2nd Line Engineer
14 81 (4.79%) IT Analyst
15 78 (4.61%) Administrator
16 76 (4.49%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
17 75 (4.43%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 69 (4.08%) Lead
19 65 (3.84%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (5.91%) Terraform
2 43 (2.54%) .NET
3 32 (1.89%) HTML
4 28 (1.65%) CSS
5 27 (1.60%) Web Services
6 23 (1.36%) XML
6 23 (1.36%) XMPP
7 22 (1.30%) LDAP
8 21 (1.24%) Regular Expression
9 19 (1.12%) .NET Framework
10 18 (1.06%) JSON
11 12 (0.71%) Middleware
12 10 (0.59%) ARM Templates
13 8 (0.47%) SAML
14 5 (0.30%) ASP.NET
14 5 (0.30%) Elastic Stack
14 5 (0.30%) JSON Schema
14 5 (0.30%) WinForms
15 4 (0.24%) ASP.NET Web Forms
15 4 (0.24%) boto
Miscellaneous
1 200 (11.82%) Driving Licence
2 106 (6.26%) Hybrid Cloud
3 100 (5.91%) Data Centre
3 100 (5.91%) Onboarding
4 89 (5.26%) Legacy Systems
5 78 (4.61%) Self-Motivation
6 55 (3.25%) Management Information System
7 45 (2.66%) Replication
8 41 (2.42%) Clustering
8 41 (2.42%) PKI
9 37 (2.19%) Public Cloud
10 35 (2.07%) CCTV
10 35 (2.07%) Security Posture
11 20 (1.18%) Enterprise Software
11 20 (1.18%) Private Cloud
12 18 (1.06%) Enterprise Storage
13 16 (0.95%) Cloud Native
14 15 (0.89%) Cyber Threat
15 12 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
15 12 (0.71%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 1,692 (100.00%) Windows
2 423 (25.00%) Linux
3 205 (12.12%) Windows Server 2016
4 152 (8.98%) Windows 10
5 124 (7.33%) Windows Server 2019
6 65 (3.84%) Mac OS
7 61 (3.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 53 (3.13%) Ubuntu
9 39 (2.30%) Apple iOS
10 38 (2.25%) Windows Server 2012
11 37 (2.19%) Android
12 27 (1.60%) CentOS
13 21 (1.24%) VMS
14 13 (0.77%) Unix
14 13 (0.77%) Windows Server 2008
15 8 (0.47%) Rocky
16 7 (0.41%) Debian
17 5 (0.30%) CoreOS
18 3 (0.18%) Solaris
19 1 (0.059%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 591 (34.93%) Problem-Solving
2 413 (24.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 398 (23.52%) Customer Service
4 345 (20.39%) Continuous Improvement
5 323 (19.09%) Disaster Recovery
6 304 (17.97%) Cybersecurity
7 288 (17.02%) ITIL
8 203 (12.00%) Migration
9 190 (11.23%) Service Delivery
10 168 (9.93%) Project Delivery
11 144 (8.51%) Mentoring
12 141 (8.33%) High Availability
13 137 (8.10%) Customer Experience
14 136 (8.04%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 135 (7.98%) Business Continuity
16 124 (7.33%) Root Cause Analysis
17 109 (6.44%) ITSM
18 107 (6.32%) Kalman Filter
19 96 (5.67%) Infrastructure as Code
20 88 (5.20%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 328 (19.39%) PowerShell
2 191 (11.29%) SQL
3 88 (5.20%) Python
4 47 (2.78%) Bash
5 39 (2.30%) C#
6 25 (1.48%) Bicep
7 24 (1.42%) VBA
8 16 (0.95%) Java
9 15 (0.89%) Ruby
10 12 (0.71%) JavaScript
11 10 (0.59%) T-SQL
12 9 (0.53%) PHP
13 8 (0.47%) VBScript
14 7 (0.41%) VB.NET
15 6 (0.35%) Shell Script
16 4 (0.24%) Perl
16 4 (0.24%) VB
17 2 (0.12%) C
17 2 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 2 (0.12%) Go
Qualifications
1 271 (16.02%) Security Cleared
2 180 (10.64%) Degree
3 178 (10.52%) SC Cleared
4 163 (9.63%) Microsoft Certification
5 109 (6.44%) Azure Certification
6 107 (6.32%) Cisco Certification
7 87 (5.14%) DBS Check
8 84 (4.96%) DV Cleared
9 81 (4.79%) CCNA
10 38 (2.25%) Network+ Certification
11 37 (2.19%) CCNP
12 23 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
12 23 (1.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 22 (1.30%) A+ Certification
13 22 (1.30%) AWS Certification
14 21 (1.24%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 20 (1.18%) CompTIA Security+
15 20 (1.18%) MCSA
16 19 (1.12%) MCSE
16 19 (1.12%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 198 (11.70%) Cyber Essentials
2 156 (9.22%) SLA
3 87 (5.14%) PCI DSS
4 74 (4.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 46 (2.72%) GDPR
6 38 (2.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 19 (1.12%) NIST
8 9 (0.53%) QA
9 5 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.24%) Data Quality
11 3 (0.18%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.18%) COBIT
11 3 (0.18%) ISO 9001
11 3 (0.18%) RMADS
12 2 (0.12%) GRC
13 1 (0.059%) COSHH
13 1 (0.059%) DICOM
13 1 (0.059%) HL7
13 1 (0.059%) ITGC
13 1 (0.059%) NCSC
System Software
1 1,103 (65.19%) Active Directory
2 502 (29.67%) Hyper-V
3 474 (28.01%) VMware Infrastructure
4 103 (6.09%) vSphere
5 82 (4.85%) Terminal Server
6 66 (3.90%) Virtual Machines
7 62 (3.66%) VMware ESXi
8 42 (2.48%) Docker
9 35 (2.07%) Virtual Desktop
10 27 (1.60%) VMware NSX
11 14 (0.83%) Firmware
11 14 (0.83%) Squid
11 14 (0.83%) Virtual Servers
12 9 (0.53%) Terminal Services
13 8 (0.47%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.47%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 6 (0.35%) VMware Server
15 4 (0.24%) EMC RecoverPoint
16 3 (0.18%) DFS Replication
16 3 (0.18%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 365 (21.57%) Microsoft Intune
2 91 (5.38%) Ansible
3 64 (3.78%) Kubernetes
4 48 (2.84%) SCCM
5 40 (2.36%) FortiGate
6 32 (1.89%) Single Sign-On
7 29 (1.71%) vCenter Server
8 24 (1.42%) Failover Clustering
9 22 (1.30%) WSUS
10 19 (1.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 19 (1.12%) SCOM
11 18 (1.06%) Jamf Pro
12 17 (1.00%) 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 11 (0.65%) Progress Chef
17 11 (0.65%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 1,322 (78.13%) Microsoft
2 702 (41.49%) VMware
3 229 (13.53%) Veeam
4 182 (10.76%) Cisco
5 119 (7.03%) Splunk
6 112 (6.62%) SolarWinds
7 88 (5.20%) Nimble Storage
8 81 (4.79%) Brocade
9 80 (4.73%) Tanium
10 69 (4.08%) SonicWALL
11 65 (3.84%) Apple
11 65 (3.84%) Meraki
12 58 (3.43%) Citrix
12 58 (3.43%) Red Hat
13 47 (2.78%) Fortinet
14 43 (2.54%) Sophos
15 42 (2.48%) HP
16 41 (2.42%) ServiceNow
17 39 (2.30%) Google
17 39 (2.30%) Oracle