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 17 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 22 19
Rank change year-on-year -4 -3 +1
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 311 227 422
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.59% 7.28% 7.67%
As % of the System Software category 55.54% 48.09% 53.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 229 169 262
10th Percentile £180 £198 £148
25th Percentile £255 £250 £203
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £470 £411
Median % change year-on-year +4.68% +14.36% -8.67%
75th Percentile £563 £638 £575
90th Percentile £640 £662 £615
England median daily rate £450 £425 £388
% change year-on-year +5.88% +9.68% -6.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 1 18
10th Percentile £20.14 - £16.25
25th Percentile £26.26 - £18.08
Median hourly rate £61.86 £19.97 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +209.76% -55.62% +143.24%
75th Percentile £92.75 - £62.85
90th Percentile £100.55 - £71.44
England median hourly rate £22.27 £22.09 £18.00
% change year-on-year +0.79% +22.72% -6.49%

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 560 472 790
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.86% 15.14% 14.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 417 325 473
10th Percentile £200 £206 £163
25th Percentile £350 £356 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £473
Median % change year-on-year - +5.82% -5.50%
75th Percentile £575 £613 £575
90th Percentile £650 £670 £638
England median daily rate £500 £525 £480
% change year-on-year -4.76% +9.38% -8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 13 54
10th Percentile £23.02 £45.50 £19.04
25th Percentile £40.62 £55.38 £45.01
Median hourly rate £78.00 £57.75 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +35.06% -5.71% +17.79%
75th Percentile £82.25 £71.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £97.50 £81.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £31.86 £29.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +9.86% -27.50% -

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 17 February 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 17 February 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 17 February 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 +1 149 £475 -17.39% 61
Berkshire -1 108 £481 -23.00% 17
Hampshire -9 81 £500 +8.11% 52
Surrey +4 42 £500 +122.22% 14
Oxfordshire +1 26 £275 -33.33% 18
Kent +2 19 £180 -28.00% 18
Buckinghamshire -1 15 £521 +38.93% 26
East Sussex 0 10 £600 +17.07% 2
West Sussex -18 7 £550 +175.00% 12
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 51 (16.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (9.97%) SharePoint
3 9 (2.89%) Skype for Business
4 7 (2.25%) Mattermost
5 3 (0.96%) Confluence
6 2 (0.64%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (0.64%) WordPress
7 1 (0.32%) Exchange Server 2003
7 1 (0.32%) Exchange Server 2007
7 1 (0.32%) Exchange Server 2013
7 1 (0.32%) Office Communications Server
7 1 (0.32%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 26 (8.36%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.64%) SOLIDWORKS
3 1 (0.32%) AutoCAD
3 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (2.89%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.32%) assyst
2 1 (0.32%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.32%) Remedy AR System
2 1 (0.32%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 134 (43.09%) Azure
2 100 (32.15%) Entra ID
3 97 (31.19%) Microsoft 365
4 39 (12.54%) AWS
5 26 (8.36%) GCP
6 24 (7.72%) OneDrive
7 14 (4.50%) Power Platform
8 11 (3.54%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (3.54%) SaaS
9 10 (3.22%) GitHub
10 9 (2.89%) IaaS
10 9 (2.89%) Power Automate
11 7 (2.25%) PowerApps
12 6 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
12 6 (1.93%) PaaS
13 5 (1.61%) Serverless
14 4 (1.29%) AWS CloudFormation
14 4 (1.29%) Azure Functions
14 4 (1.29%) Azure Key Vault
14 4 (1.29%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 70 (22.51%) DNS
2 52 (16.72%) DHCP
3 31 (9.97%) Firewall
4 23 (7.40%) Wi-Fi
5 18 (5.79%) VPN
6 15 (4.82%) Cisco Firepower
6 15 (4.82%) Cisco IOS
6 15 (4.82%) Cisco ISE
6 15 (4.82%) Junos
7 13 (4.18%) Kerberos
8 12 (3.86%) TCP/IP
9 10 (3.22%) FTP
10 9 (2.89%) 4G
11 8 (2.57%) Skype
12 6 (1.93%) SAN
12 6 (1.93%) VLAN
13 5 (1.61%) LAN
13 5 (1.61%) SSH
13 5 (1.61%) Unified Communications
13 5 (1.61%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (5.47%) SQL Server
2 8 (2.57%) Power BI
3 5 (1.61%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.32%) Amazon Athena
5 1 (0.32%) Amazon QuickSight
5 1 (0.32%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.32%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.32%) MySQL
5 1 (0.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 8 (2.57%) JIRA
2 5 (1.61%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (1.29%) Git
3 4 (1.29%) Robot Framework
4 2 (0.64%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.32%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.32%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.32%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.32%) GitLab
General
1 116 (37.30%) Social Skills
2 30 (9.65%) Documentation Skills
3 26 (8.36%) Public Sector
4 17 (5.47%) Finance
5 10 (3.22%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (2.89%) Military
7 7 (2.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (1.61%) Legal
8 5 (1.61%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.29%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.64%) Games
10 2 (0.64%) Retail
11 1 (0.32%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.32%) Banking
11 1 (0.32%) Billing
11 1 (0.32%) Electronics
11 1 (0.32%) Law
11 1 (0.32%) Marketing
11 1 (0.32%) Publishing
11 1 (0.32%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 54 (17.36%) Support Engineer
2 36 (11.58%) Analyst
3 35 (11.25%) Architect
4 32 (10.29%) IT Support
5 31 (9.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 29 (9.32%) IT Engineer
7 24 (7.72%) IT Support Engineer
8 19 (6.11%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 19 (6.11%) Senior
9 16 (5.14%) Network Engineer
10 15 (4.82%) Cloud Engineer
11 14 (4.50%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
11 14 (4.50%) 3rd Line Support
11 14 (4.50%) Cloud Network Engineer
11 14 (4.50%) Support Analyst
12 13 (4.18%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
12 13 (4.18%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 13 (4.18%) Network Support
12 13 (4.18%) Network Support Engineer
13 11 (3.54%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (11.90%) LDAP
2 10 (3.22%) SailPoint
3 8 (2.57%) .NET
3 8 (2.57%) OAuth
4 7 (2.25%) OpenID
4 7 (2.25%) SAML
5 5 (1.61%) ADO
5 5 (1.61%) OAuth2
5 5 (1.61%) REST
6 4 (1.29%) .NET Core
6 4 (1.29%) .NET Framework
6 4 (1.29%) Microsoft Graph
7 2 (0.64%) ARM Templates
7 2 (0.64%) ASP.NET
7 2 (0.64%) Entity Framework
7 2 (0.64%) GraphQL
7 2 (0.64%) Jinja
7 2 (0.64%) Kafka
7 2 (0.64%) Middleware
7 2 (0.64%) Unreal Engine
Miscellaneous
1 32 (10.29%) PKI
2 21 (6.75%) Onboarding
3 15 (4.82%) Replication
4 11 (3.54%) Fat Client
4 11 (3.54%) Thin Client
5 8 (2.57%) Video Conferencing
6 7 (2.25%) Product Ownership
7 6 (1.93%) Driving Licence
7 6 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (1.93%) Operational Technology
7 6 (1.93%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (1.29%) Management Information System
8 4 (1.29%) NHS
8 4 (1.29%) Security Posture
9 3 (0.96%) CMDB
9 3 (0.96%) Data Centre
9 3 (0.96%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (0.96%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 182 (58.52%) Windows
2 80 (25.72%) Windows Server
3 49 (15.76%) Windows 10
4 36 (11.58%) Linux
5 11 (3.54%) Windows 7
6 7 (2.25%) Mac OS
7 6 (1.93%) Unix
8 5 (1.61%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (1.29%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.96%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.32%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.32%) VMS
11 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (19.29%) Problem-Solving
2 54 (17.36%) Cybersecurity
3 49 (15.76%) DevOps
3 49 (15.76%) ITSM
4 44 (14.15%) ITIL
5 38 (12.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 37 (11.90%) Customer Service
7 36 (11.58%) CI/CD
8 34 (10.93%) SIEM
9 31 (9.97%) DevSecOps
10 29 (9.32%) Agile
11 22 (7.07%) Privileged Access Management
11 22 (7.07%) Service Management
12 21 (6.75%) Migration
13 20 (6.43%) Infrastructure as Code
14 17 (5.47%) Identity Access Management
14 17 (5.47%) Roadmaps
15 16 (5.14%) Prototyping
16 13 (4.18%) Collaborative Working
16 13 (4.18%) Identity Management
Programming Languages
1 100 (32.15%) PowerShell
2 56 (18.01%) Python
3 22 (7.07%) SQL
4 11 (3.54%) Java
5 8 (2.57%) Bash
5 8 (2.57%) BeanShell
6 5 (1.61%) C#
6 5 (1.61%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.96%) PHP
8 2 (0.64%) Bicep
8 2 (0.64%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.32%) VB
Qualifications
1 163 (52.41%) Security Cleared
2 99 (31.83%) SC Cleared
3 53 (17.04%) DV Cleared
4 23 (7.40%) CISSP
5 22 (7.07%) CISM
6 17 (5.47%) Microsoft Certification
7 12 (3.86%) Degree
8 7 (2.25%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (1.61%) AWS Certification
9 5 (1.61%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 4 (1.29%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (1.29%) Azure Certification
10 4 (1.29%) DBS Check
10 4 (1.29%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 3 (0.96%) CCNP
11 3 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.64%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (0.64%) CCIE
12 2 (0.64%) CCNA
12 2 (0.64%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (11.58%) NIST
2 33 (10.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 30 (9.65%) GDPR
4 6 (1.93%) SLA
5 4 (1.29%) Cyber Essentials
5 4 (1.29%) Data Quality
5 4 (1.29%) NCSC
6 3 (0.96%) NIST 800
6 3 (0.96%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.32%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.32%) PMO
7 1 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 49 (15.76%) VMware Infrastructure
2 18 (5.79%) VMware NSX
3 14 (4.50%) Hyper-V
4 9 (2.89%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (1.93%) vSphere
6 5 (1.61%) Docker
7 4 (1.29%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.96%) DFS Replication
8 3 (0.96%) NFS
9 2 (0.64%) Firmware
9 2 (0.64%) Terminal Services
9 2 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.32%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.32%) Brightmail
10 1 (0.32%) ISA Server
10 1 (0.32%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 40 (12.86%) Microsoft Intune
2 37 (11.90%) SCCM
3 23 (7.40%) Terraform
4 21 (6.75%) vCenter Server
5 16 (5.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 14 (4.50%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (4.18%) Ansible
7 13 (4.18%) SCOM
8 11 (3.54%) WMI
9 8 (2.57%) Jamf Pro
10 7 (2.25%) HP SiteScope
10 7 (2.25%) Kubernetes
11 2 (0.64%) Cisco CUCM
11 2 (0.64%) logstash
11 2 (0.64%) WhatsUp Gold
12 1 (0.32%) Cisco UCCE
12 1 (0.32%) Grafana
12 1 (0.32%) Puppet
12 1 (0.32%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.32%) Salt
Vendors
1 178 (57.23%) Microsoft
2 72 (23.15%) VMware
3 34 (10.93%) CyberArk
3 34 (10.93%) ServiceNow
4 32 (10.29%) BeyondTrust
5 27 (8.68%) Cisco
6 18 (5.79%) Citrix
7 16 (5.14%) Juniper
7 16 (5.14%) SolarWinds
8 11 (3.54%) Splunk
9 9 (2.89%) Remedy
10 5 (1.61%) Google
11 4 (1.29%) Fortinet
11 4 (1.29%) McAfee
11 4 (1.29%) Oracle
11 4 (1.29%) Red Hat
12 3 (0.96%) Broadcom
12 3 (0.96%) F5
12 3 (0.96%) Palo Alto
12 3 (0.96%) Veeam