Systems Administrator
Also advertised as: 3rd Line Support Engineer, enterprise administrator, ICT sysadmin, ICT sysadmins, ICT system administrators, ICT systems administrator
Keeps servers, networks and business systems running day to day.
What the job involves
Systems administrators look after the servers, storage and infrastructure that a business depends on. You patch systems, manage backups, monitor performance and respond when something goes down. Most people move into the role from IT support rather than starting here.
Typical responsibilities
- Maintain and patch servers and infrastructure
- Manage backups and disaster recovery
- Monitor system performance and capacity
- Administer user access and permissions
- Support migrations and upgrades
Common employers
- Managed service providers
- Universities
- Local councils
- Retail head offices
- Financial services firms
Pay, hours and working environment
Typical pay
£25,000 – £32,000 a year
With experience
£38,000 – £50,000 a year
Typical hours
37.5 hours, with occasional out-of-hours maintenance windows
Working environment
Office based with server room visits, some remote administration
Remote working
hybrid
Demand for this work
steady
Pay ranges are indicative guidance drawn from advertised UK vacancies and published careers information. They are not an offer, and actual pay varies by employer, location and experience.
Skills and qualifications
Core skills
- Windows and Linux server administration
- Active Directory
- Virtualisation
- Scripting
- Backup and recovery
- Monitoring tools
Transferable skills you may already have
- Methodical troubleshooting
- Attention to detail
- Working under pressure
Requirements employers ask for
- Windows and Linux server administration
- Active Directory
- Virtualisation
- Scripting
- Backup and recovery
- Monitoring tools
- No formal qualification required; IT support experience expected
- interpret technical texts
- hardware components
- apply system organisational policies
- ICT system programming
- administer ICT system
- migrate existing data
- software components libraries
- ICT system user requirements
- solve ICT system problems
- support ICT system users
- organisational policies
- manage system testing
Useful but not essential
- Methodical troubleshooting
- Attention to detail
- Working under pressure
- CompTIA Server+
- Microsoft Certified: Windows Server
- Level 3 Network Cabling and Infrastructure apprenticeship
- interact with users to gather requirements
- interfacing techniques
- information security strategy
- provide ICT system training
- acquire system component
- systems development life-cycle
- ICT system integration
- execute integration testing
Helpful qualifications
- CompTIA Server+
- Microsoft Certified: Windows Server
- Level 3 Network Cabling and Infrastructure apprenticeship
Ways into this career
A degree is only one route. Where an apprenticeship, work-experience or qualification route exists, it is listed here alongside the academic option.
Apprenticeships and work-based routes
- Network Engineer (Level 4)
- Infrastructure Technician (Level 3)
Degree and college routes
- Related subject: Computing
- Related subject: IT
- Related subject: Networking
Where this career can lead
next
Senior Systems Administrator
next
Cloud Engineer
next
IT Infrastructure Manager
The good parts and the hard parts
What people enjoy
- Clear progression from IT support
- Broad, transferable infrastructure skills
- Rarely short of employers needing the role
What people find hard
- On-call duties when systems fail overnight
- Legacy systems can be frustrating to maintain
Common questions
- Do you need a degree to become a systems administrator?
- No. As well as degree routes, this career can be entered through an apprenticeship or by building experience and qualifications on the job. not_required
- How much does a systems administrator earn in the UK?
- Typical advertised pay runs from £25,000 to £32,000 a year, rising towards £50,000 with experience. Figures are indicative guidance rather than an offer.
- What skills transfer into this career?
- Skills that transfer well include Methodical troubleshooting, Attention to detail, Working under pressure.
Related careers
Scrum Master
Helps agile teams work smoothly and remove obstacles to delivery.
CRM Administrator
Configures and maintains the software a business uses to manage customer relationships.
IT Support Technician
Fixes technology problems for staff or customers, from logins to hardware faults.
Software Developer
Writes, tests and maintains the code behind applications and systems.
Site Reliability Engineer
Applies software engineering to keep large systems reliable at scale.
QA/Test Engineer
Finds defects and verifies that software works before it reaches users.
Where this information comes from
- National Careers Service
- Institute for Apprenticeships
Last reviewed 15 September 2026.
Read how our career data is built and reviewed, or tell us if something here is wrong.