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 2 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 23 17
Rank change year-on-year -8 -6 +6
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 323 226 431
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.85% 7.65% 7.64%
As % of the System Software category 54.19% 49.34% 54.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 175 283
10th Percentile £200 £200 £158
25th Percentile £281 £281 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £537 £465
Median % change year-on-year -8.38% +15.49% +3.33%
75th Percentile £586 £638 £608
90th Percentile £668 £700 £638
England median daily rate £450 £450 £400
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 3 17
10th Percentile £20.86 £21.58 £17.11
25th Percentile £27.34 £23.99 £17.69
Median hourly rate £61.86 £28.00 £17.80
Median % change year-on-year +120.93% +57.30% -3.78%
75th Percentile £96.25 - £40.25
90th Percentile £104.95 - £66.45
England median hourly rate £22.50 £23.05 £17.71
% change year-on-year -2.36% +30.16% -4.30%

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 596 458 794
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 10.79% 15.51% 14.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 453 328 491
10th Percentile £255 £210 £200
25th Percentile £400 £400 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £598
90th Percentile £694 £675 £644
England median daily rate £500 £525 £480
% change year-on-year -4.76% +9.38% -8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 14 48
10th Percentile £22.48 £28.00 £17.69
25th Percentile £36.37 £45.63 £18.66
Median hourly rate £50.00 £57.25 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year -12.66% +4.32% +5.53%
75th Percentile £90.50 £69.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £103.30 £80.25 £69.04
England median hourly rate £50.00 £29.00 £22.00
% change year-on-year +72.41% +31.82% -45.00%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 -7 163 £471 -20.17% 37
Berkshire -14 106 £479 -23.30% 16
Hampshire -18 81 £538 -2.27% 50
Surrey +3 36 £500 +44.93% 9
Oxfordshire +7 34 £275 - 12
Buckinghamshire -3 23 £560 +180.00% 9
Kent 0 19 £190 -53.57% 4
West Sussex -13 11 £600 +158.06% 10
East Sussex -2 10 £600 +14.29% 5
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 64 (19.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (8.98%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.55%) Confluence
4 2 (0.62%) IIS
4 2 (0.62%) WordPress
5 1 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.31%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (4.95%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.24%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.62%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.31%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.31%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (2.17%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.31%) assyst
2 1 (0.31%) Remedy AR System
2 1 (0.31%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 155 (47.99%) Azure
2 125 (38.70%) Entra ID
3 104 (32.20%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (13.31%) AWS
5 26 (8.05%) GCP
6 18 (5.57%) OneDrive
7 17 (5.26%) Power Platform
8 12 (3.72%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (3.10%) SaaS
10 8 (2.48%) IaaS
10 8 (2.48%) Power Automate
11 7 (2.17%) Azure Monitor
12 6 (1.86%) GitHub
12 6 (1.86%) PowerApps
12 6 (1.86%) Serverless
13 5 (1.55%) Azure Functions
13 5 (1.55%) Azure Logic Apps
13 5 (1.55%) Nutanix
14 4 (1.24%) AWS CloudFormation
14 4 (1.24%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 81 (25.08%) DNS
2 58 (17.96%) DHCP
3 39 (12.07%) Firewall
4 28 (8.67%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (6.50%) VPN
6 14 (4.33%) TCP/IP
7 13 (4.02%) Kerberos
8 12 (3.72%) FTP
9 11 (3.41%) SAN
10 10 (3.10%) LAN
11 8 (2.48%) SD-WAN
12 7 (2.17%) SSL
12 7 (2.17%) Unified Communications
12 7 (2.17%) VLAN
12 7 (2.17%) WAN
13 6 (1.86%) Cisco Firepower
13 6 (1.86%) Cisco IOS
13 6 (1.86%) Cisco ISE
13 6 (1.86%) Junos
13 6 (1.86%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (7.12%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.41%) Power BI
3 6 (1.86%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.62%) MySQL
5 1 (0.31%) Amazon Athena
5 1 (0.31%) Amazon QuickSight
5 1 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.31%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.31%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.31%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.31%) Parquet
5 1 (0.31%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 15 (4.64%) JIRA
2 6 (1.86%) Robot Framework
3 5 (1.55%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.62%) Git
4 2 (0.62%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.31%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.31%) Browser DevTools
5 1 (0.31%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.31%) GitLab
5 1 (0.31%) MSI
General
1 111 (34.37%) Social Skills
2 37 (11.46%) Public Sector
3 32 (9.91%) Documentation Skills
4 14 (4.33%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (3.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 12 (3.72%) Military
6 11 (3.41%) Finance
6 11 (3.41%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (2.17%) Legal
8 6 (1.86%) Police
9 5 (1.55%) Retail
10 4 (1.24%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.62%) Games
12 1 (0.31%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.31%) Back Office
12 1 (0.31%) Electronics
12 1 (0.31%) Front Office
12 1 (0.31%) Law
12 1 (0.31%) Publishing
12 1 (0.31%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 44 (13.62%) Architect
2 43 (13.31%) Support Engineer
3 38 (11.76%) IT Support
4 35 (10.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 33 (10.22%) Analyst
6 32 (9.91%) IT Engineer
7 30 (9.29%) Senior
8 27 (8.36%) IT Support Engineer
9 15 (4.64%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (3.72%) Support Analyst
11 11 (3.41%) 3rd Line Engineer
12 10 (3.10%) Infrastructure Architect
12 10 (3.10%) Lead
12 10 (3.10%) Service Analyst
12 10 (3.10%) Service Desk Analyst
12 10 (3.10%) Wintel Analyst
13 9 (2.79%) Desktop Support
13 9 (2.79%) IT Analyst
13 9 (2.79%) IT Support Analyst
13 9 (2.79%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (12.07%) LDAP
2 11 (3.41%) REST
3 10 (3.10%) OAuth
3 10 (3.10%) SAML
4 9 (2.79%) OpenID
5 8 (2.48%) .NET
6 7 (2.17%) OAuth2
7 6 (1.86%) ADO
7 6 (1.86%) SailPoint
8 4 (1.24%) .NET Core
8 4 (1.24%) .NET Framework
8 4 (1.24%) Microsoft Graph
9 3 (0.93%) ARM Templates
10 2 (0.62%) ASP.NET
10 2 (0.62%) Entity Framework
10 2 (0.62%) GraphQL
10 2 (0.62%) Middleware
10 2 (0.62%) Unreal Engine
10 2 (0.62%) Web Services
11 1 (0.31%) React
Miscellaneous
1 38 (11.76%) PKI
2 27 (8.36%) Onboarding
3 17 (5.26%) Replication
4 10 (3.10%) Product Ownership
5 9 (2.79%) Data Centre
5 9 (2.79%) Legacy Systems
6 8 (2.48%) Driving Licence
6 8 (2.48%) Fat Client
6 8 (2.48%) Thin Client
7 7 (2.17%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (1.55%) CMDB
8 5 (1.55%) Management Information System
8 5 (1.55%) Operational Technology
9 4 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.24%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.24%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.24%) Video Conferencing
10 3 (0.93%) Clustering
11 2 (0.62%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 190 (58.82%) Windows
2 89 (27.55%) Windows Server
3 39 (12.07%) Linux
4 33 (10.22%) Windows 10
5 9 (2.79%) Mac OS
6 8 (2.48%) Windows 7
7 7 (2.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (1.86%) Unix
8 6 (1.86%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (1.55%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (1.24%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.62%) CentOS
12 1 (0.31%) Kali Linux
12 1 (0.31%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (22.29%) Problem-Solving
2 61 (18.89%) Cybersecurity
3 57 (17.65%) ITIL
4 53 (16.41%) DevOps
5 51 (15.79%) Customer Service
6 44 (13.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 37 (11.46%) ITSM
7 37 (11.46%) SIEM
8 35 (10.84%) CI/CD
9 33 (10.22%) Agile
9 33 (10.22%) DevSecOps
10 25 (7.74%) Roadmaps
11 24 (7.43%) Migration
12 23 (7.12%) Privileged Access Management
13 22 (6.81%) High Availability
14 20 (6.19%) Disaster Recovery
14 20 (6.19%) Service Management
15 17 (5.26%) Identity Access Management
15 17 (5.26%) Infrastructure as Code
15 17 (5.26%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 97 (30.03%) PowerShell
2 54 (16.72%) Python
3 18 (5.57%) SQL
4 9 (2.79%) Bash
4 9 (2.79%) JavaScript
5 8 (2.48%) C#
6 6 (1.86%) Java
7 3 (0.93%) BeanShell
7 3 (0.93%) Bicep
7 3 (0.93%) PHP
8 1 (0.31%) Korn
Qualifications
1 167 (51.70%) Security Cleared
2 108 (33.44%) SC Cleared
3 50 (15.48%) DV Cleared
4 25 (7.74%) CISSP
5 24 (7.43%) CISM
6 15 (4.64%) Degree
7 13 (4.02%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (2.17%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.55%) AWS Certification
9 5 (1.55%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 4 (1.24%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (1.24%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.93%) A+ Certification
11 3 (0.93%) CCA
11 3 (0.93%) CESG Certified Professional
11 3 (0.93%) Citrix Certification
12 2 (0.62%) CCNA
12 2 (0.62%) CCNP
12 2 (0.62%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.62%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (12.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 40 (12.38%) NIST
2 35 (10.84%) GDPR
3 8 (2.48%) SLA
4 5 (1.55%) NCSC
5 4 (1.24%) Cyber Essentials
5 4 (1.24%) Data Quality
5 4 (1.24%) NIST 800
6 2 (0.62%) JSP 440
6 2 (0.62%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.31%) PMO
System Software
1 60 (18.58%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (7.43%) Hyper-V
3 11 (3.41%) Virtual Desktop
4 10 (3.10%) VMware NSX
5 8 (2.48%) Firmware
6 6 (1.86%) Docker
6 6 (1.86%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (1.86%) vSphere
7 3 (0.93%) DFS Replication
7 3 (0.93%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.62%) NFS
8 2 (0.62%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.31%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 1 (0.31%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 50 (15.48%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (10.22%) SCCM
3 20 (6.19%) Terraform
4 15 (4.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 15 (4.64%) Single Sign-On
5 13 (4.02%) Ansible
6 11 (3.41%) vCenter Server
7 9 (2.79%) Jamf Pro
8 8 (2.48%) WMI
9 7 (2.17%) SCOM
10 6 (1.86%) Kubernetes
11 3 (0.93%) WSUS
12 2 (0.62%) WhatsUp Gold
13 1 (0.31%) Cisco CUCM
13 1 (0.31%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.31%) Grafana
13 1 (0.31%) Puppet
13 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Satellite
13 1 (0.31%) Salt
13 1 (0.31%) SCSM
Vendors
1 190 (58.82%) Microsoft
2 79 (24.46%) VMware
3 36 (11.15%) ServiceNow
4 35 (10.84%) BeyondTrust
4 35 (10.84%) CyberArk
5 22 (6.81%) Citrix
6 16 (4.95%) Cisco
7 9 (2.79%) Meraki
7 9 (2.79%) SolarWinds
8 8 (2.48%) Avaya
8 8 (2.48%) Mitel
9 7 (2.17%) BMC
9 7 (2.17%) Juniper
9 7 (2.17%) Remedy
10 6 (1.86%) Oracle
11 5 (1.55%) Fortinet
11 5 (1.55%) Red Hat
12 4 (1.24%) F5
12 4 (1.24%) Google
12 4 (1.24%) Splunk