Active Directory Contract Job Trends in the South East

Microsoft Active Directory
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Active Directory skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 24 15
Rank change year-on-year -7 -9 +15
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 332 230 442
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.74% 7.68% 7.95%
As % of the System Software category 52.95% 53.00% 56.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 222 177 294
10th Percentile £200 £200 £159
25th Percentile £350 £263 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% +5.56%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £608
90th Percentile £700 £700 £638
England median daily rate £450 £450 £400
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 3 18
10th Percentile £27.45 £21.58 £14.74
25th Percentile £43.81 £23.99 £16.61
Median hourly rate £52.50 £28.00 £17.69
Median % change year-on-year +87.50% +58.28% -4.38%
75th Percentile £83.00 - £18.51
90th Percentile £101.10 - £43.18
England median hourly rate £26.83 £21.46 £17.69
% change year-on-year +25.02% +21.31% -4.51%

All System Software Skills
South East

Active Directory falls under the System Software category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring system software skills in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 627 434 782
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 10.83% 14.50% 14.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 470 317 491
10th Percentile £263 £250 £200
25th Percentile £406 £363 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £606 £623 £608
90th Percentile £700 £680 £644
England median daily rate £500 £525 £488
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 11 48
10th Percentile £32.66 £28.00 £17.26
25th Percentile £44.60 £36.50 £17.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £57.50 £50.75
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +13.30% -4.25%
75th Percentile £80.94 £63.75 £62.81
90th Percentile £98.50 £71.25 £65.00
England median hourly rate £56.25 £28.00 £22.00
% change year-on-year +100.89% +27.27% -56.00%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Active Directory relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Active Directory job vacancy trend in the South East

Active Directory
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Active Directory.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in the South East over the 6 months to 26 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in the South East

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Active Directory.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Active Directory in the South East over the 6 months to 26 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Active Directory in the South East

Active Directory
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Active Directory within the South East region over the 6 months to 26 April 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Thames Valley -5 172 £465 -13.57% 40
Berkshire -19 96 £475 -22.76% 16
Hampshire -18 84 £560 -0.44% 29
Oxfordshire +5 53 £275 +4.76% 13
Surrey +4 39 £500 +6.38% 4
Buckinghamshire -10 23 £560 +104.25% 11
Kent -3 19 £190 -50.16% 10
West Sussex -13 10 £600 +78.57% 4
East Sussex -3 6 £600 +14.29% 2
Active Directory
England

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 71 (21.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (8.73%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.51%) Confluence
4 2 (0.60%) IIS
4 2 (0.60%) WordPress
5 1 (0.30%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.30%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 22 (6.63%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.20%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.60%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.30%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (2.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.30%) assyst
2 1 (0.30%) Remedy AR System
Cloud Services
1 164 (49.40%) Azure
2 135 (40.66%) Entra ID
3 103 (31.02%) Microsoft 365
4 40 (12.05%) AWS
5 20 (6.02%) GCP
6 18 (5.42%) Power Platform
7 15 (4.52%) OneDrive
8 12 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (3.61%) SaaS
9 9 (2.71%) IaaS
10 8 (2.41%) Power Automate
11 7 (2.11%) Azure Logic Apps
11 7 (2.11%) Azure Monitor
12 6 (1.81%) PowerApps
12 6 (1.81%) Serverless
13 5 (1.51%) Azure Functions
13 5 (1.51%) Nutanix
14 4 (1.20%) AWS CloudFormation
14 4 (1.20%) Azure Key Vault
14 4 (1.20%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 85 (25.60%) DNS
2 65 (19.58%) DHCP
3 35 (10.54%) Firewall
4 27 (8.13%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (6.33%) VPN
6 15 (4.52%) FTP
7 13 (3.92%) Kerberos
7 13 (3.92%) TCP/IP
8 11 (3.31%) LAN
8 11 (3.31%) SSL
9 10 (3.01%) SAN
10 8 (2.41%) SD-WAN
10 8 (2.41%) WAN
11 7 (2.11%) Network Security
11 7 (2.11%) SSH
11 7 (2.11%) Unified Communications
12 6 (1.81%) IPsec
12 6 (1.81%) NAS
12 6 (1.81%) VLAN
13 4 (1.20%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (9.94%) SQL Server
2 12 (3.61%) Power BI
3 6 (1.81%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (0.90%) Data Mining
5 2 (0.60%) MySQL
6 1 (0.30%) Amazon Athena
6 1 (0.30%) Amazon QuickSight
6 1 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.30%) MariaDB
6 1 (0.30%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.30%) Parquet
6 1 (0.30%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 14 (4.22%) JIRA
2 6 (1.81%) Robot Framework
3 5 (1.51%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.60%) Git
4 2 (0.60%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.30%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.30%) Browser DevTools
5 1 (0.30%) GitLab
5 1 (0.30%) MSI
General
1 101 (30.42%) Social Skills
2 48 (14.46%) Public Sector
3 39 (11.75%) Documentation Skills
4 16 (4.82%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (4.22%) Military
6 13 (3.92%) Organisational Skills
7 12 (3.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 9 (2.71%) Finance
9 8 (2.41%) Legal
10 6 (1.81%) Police
11 4 (1.20%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.20%) Retail
12 2 (0.60%) Games
13 1 (0.30%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.30%) Back Office
13 1 (0.30%) Billing
13 1 (0.30%) Electronics
13 1 (0.30%) Front Office
13 1 (0.30%) Publishing
13 1 (0.30%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 41 (12.35%) Architect
2 37 (11.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 35 (10.54%) IT Support
4 34 (10.24%) Analyst
5 33 (9.94%) Support Engineer
6 32 (9.64%) Senior
7 28 (8.43%) IT Engineer
8 24 (7.23%) IT Support Engineer
9 16 (4.82%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (3.61%) Lead
11 11 (3.31%) Support Analyst
12 10 (3.01%) Service Analyst
12 10 (3.01%) Service Desk Analyst
12 10 (3.01%) Wintel Analyst
13 9 (2.71%) 3rd Line Engineer
13 9 (2.71%) IAM Specialist
13 9 (2.71%) Infrastructure Architect
13 9 (2.71%) IT Analyst
13 9 (2.71%) IT Support Analyst
13 9 (2.71%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (12.05%) LDAP
2 17 (5.12%) OAuth
2 17 (5.12%) SAML
3 16 (4.82%) OpenID
4 14 (4.22%) OAuth2
5 12 (3.61%) REST
6 9 (2.71%) SailPoint
7 8 (2.41%) .NET
7 8 (2.41%) Web Services
8 6 (1.81%) ADO
9 5 (1.51%) Microsoft Graph
10 4 (1.20%) .NET Core
10 4 (1.20%) .NET Framework
11 3 (0.90%) ARM Templates
12 2 (0.60%) 802.1X
12 2 (0.60%) ASP.NET
12 2 (0.60%) Entity Framework
12 2 (0.60%) GraphQL
12 2 (0.60%) Middleware
12 2 (0.60%) Unreal Engine
Miscellaneous
1 42 (12.65%) Onboarding
2 37 (11.14%) PKI
3 16 (4.82%) Replication
4 12 (3.61%) Data Centre
5 10 (3.01%) Product Ownership
6 9 (2.71%) Driving Licence
6 9 (2.71%) Legacy Systems
6 9 (2.71%) Management Information System
7 7 (2.11%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (1.51%) CMDB
8 5 (1.51%) Fat Client
8 5 (1.51%) Operational Technology
8 5 (1.51%) Thin Client
9 4 (1.20%) Clustering
9 4 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.20%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (0.60%) Cloud Native
10 2 (0.60%) Linux Command Line
10 2 (0.60%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 197 (59.34%) Windows
2 93 (28.01%) Windows Server
3 51 (15.36%) Linux
4 26 (7.83%) Windows 10
5 16 (4.82%) Unix
6 9 (2.71%) Windows 7
7 8 (2.41%) Mac OS
7 8 (2.41%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (2.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (1.51%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (1.20%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.60%) CentOS
11 2 (0.60%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (23.49%) Problem-Solving
2 65 (19.58%) ITIL
3 59 (17.77%) Cybersecurity
4 47 (14.16%) Customer Service
4 47 (14.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 46 (13.86%) DevOps
6 45 (13.55%) ITSM
7 42 (12.65%) SIEM
8 33 (9.94%) Agile
9 31 (9.34%) CI/CD
10 29 (8.73%) Privileged Access Management
11 28 (8.43%) DevSecOps
12 26 (7.83%) Roadmaps
12 26 (7.83%) Runbook
13 25 (7.53%) Migration
14 24 (7.23%) High Availability
15 23 (6.93%) Identity Access Management
15 23 (6.93%) Information Security
15 23 (6.93%) RBAC
16 21 (6.33%) Change Control
Programming Languages
1 109 (32.83%) PowerShell
2 63 (18.98%) Python
3 19 (5.72%) SQL
4 10 (3.01%) Bash
4 10 (3.01%) JavaScript
5 8 (2.41%) C#
6 3 (0.90%) Bicep
6 3 (0.90%) Java
6 3 (0.90%) PHP
7 1 (0.30%) Korn
Qualifications
1 172 (51.81%) Security Cleared
2 115 (34.64%) SC Cleared
3 49 (14.76%) DV Cleared
4 30 (9.04%) Degree
5 19 (5.72%) CISM
5 19 (5.72%) CISSP
6 16 (4.82%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (1.81%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.51%) AWS Certification
9 5 (1.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 4 (1.20%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (0.90%) A+ Certification
11 3 (0.90%) CCA
11 3 (0.90%) CESG Certified Professional
11 3 (0.90%) Citrix Certification
12 2 (0.60%) CCNP
12 2 (0.60%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.60%) PMI Certification
12 2 (0.60%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (16.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 53 (15.96%) NIST
3 30 (9.04%) GDPR
4 10 (3.01%) SLA
5 7 (2.11%) NCSC
6 6 (1.81%) Data Quality
7 5 (1.51%) NIST 800
8 4 (1.20%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.60%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.60%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.30%) PMO
11 1 (0.30%) QA
System Software
1 67 (20.18%) VMware Infrastructure
2 28 (8.43%) Hyper-V
3 11 (3.31%) Virtual Desktop
4 9 (2.71%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (2.41%) Firmware
5 8 (2.41%) VMware NSX
5 8 (2.41%) vSphere
6 6 (1.81%) Docker
6 6 (1.81%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.90%) DFS Replication
8 2 (0.60%) NFS
8 2 (0.60%) Terminal Services
8 2 (0.60%) UAG
9 1 (0.30%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.30%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 1 (0.30%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 48 (14.46%) Microsoft Intune
2 28 (8.43%) SCCM
3 18 (5.42%) Terraform
4 16 (4.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 16 (4.82%) Single Sign-On
5 13 (3.92%) Ansible
6 10 (3.01%) vCenter Server
7 9 (2.71%) Jamf Pro
7 9 (2.71%) SCOM
8 7 (2.11%) Kubernetes
9 5 (1.51%) WMI
10 3 (0.90%) SCSM
10 3 (0.90%) WSUS
11 2 (0.60%) WhatsUp Gold
12 1 (0.30%) Cisco CUCM
12 1 (0.30%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.30%) McAfee ePO
12 1 (0.30%) Puppet
12 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.30%) Salt
Vendors
1 197 (59.34%) Microsoft
2 82 (24.70%) VMware
3 40 (12.05%) BeyondTrust
3 40 (12.05%) CyberArk
4 31 (9.34%) ServiceNow
5 21 (6.33%) Citrix
6 14 (4.22%) Cisco
7 13 (3.92%) Meraki
8 12 (3.61%) Oracle
9 9 (2.71%) Remedy
10 8 (2.41%) Avaya
10 8 (2.41%) BMC
10 8 (2.41%) Mitel
11 5 (1.51%) Fortinet
11 5 (1.51%) Red Hat
11 5 (1.51%) SolarWinds
11 5 (1.51%) Veeam
12 4 (1.20%) BiZZdesign
12 4 (1.20%) F5
13 3 (0.90%) Zscaler