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 15 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 25 23 23
Rank change year-on-year -2 0 -5
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 268 328 419
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.73% 7.92% 7.76%
As % of the System Software category 52.65% 49.92% 48.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 199 237 256
10th Percentile £178 £200 £148
25th Percentile £200 £262 £184
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £313
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% +44.00% -16.67%
75th Percentile £567 £638 £534
90th Percentile £603 £671 £615
England median daily rate £450 £425 £400
% change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 6 24
10th Percentile £21.35 £22.33 £15.50
25th Percentile £25.64 £23.36 £19.25
Median hourly rate £32.77 £27.50 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.16% +1.85% +45.95%
75th Percentile £96.39 £46.94 £55.00
90th Percentile £134.55 £61.34 £68.63
England median hourly rate £22.00 £23.80 £19.50
% change year-on-year -7.56% +22.05% +4.00%

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 509 657 870
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 12.77% 15.86% 16.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 355 437 542
10th Percentile £190 £218 £167
25th Percentile £265 £360 £253
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +2.04%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £588
90th Percentile £625 £675 £650
England median daily rate £500 £515 £500
% change year-on-year -2.91% +3.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 26 61
10th Percentile £35.17 £26.25 £19.25
25th Percentile £67.44 £53.41 £27.00
Median hourly rate £81.00 £60.50 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +33.90% +5.21% +76.92%
75th Percentile £81.50 £70.00 £71.25
90th Percentile £88.97 £70.63 £76.53
England median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £43.84
% change year-on-year -40.00% +14.06% +78.02%

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 15 November 2025.

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 15 November 2025.

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 15 November 2025. 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 -6 120 £413 -31.82% 92
Hampshire -3 84 £500 -1.48% 72
Berkshire -9 70 £476 -23.80% 54
Buckinghamshire +18 33 £274 -27.55% 18
Surrey -5 30 £235 -10.31% 26
Oxfordshire -6 17 £275 -33.33% 28
Kent +4 12 £155 -3.75% 27
East Sussex +2 10 £180 -62.11% 7
West Sussex -20 9 £201 +0.63% 14
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 55 (20.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 26 (9.70%) SharePoint
3 18 (6.72%) Skype for Business
4 11 (4.10%) Exchange Server 2010
5 10 (3.73%) Exchange Server 2003
5 10 (3.73%) Exchange Server 2007
5 10 (3.73%) Exchange Server 2013
5 10 (3.73%) Office Communications Server
5 10 (3.73%) SharePoint Server
6 8 (2.99%) Apache
7 7 (2.61%) Mattermost
8 4 (1.49%) IIS
9 2 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 31 (11.57%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.37%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 1 (0.37%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.61%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.37%) assyst
2 1 (0.37%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.37%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 110 (41.04%) Microsoft 365
2 72 (26.87%) Azure
3 56 (20.90%) Entra ID
4 24 (8.96%) AWS
5 19 (7.09%) GCP
6 15 (5.60%) OneDrive
7 10 (3.73%) GitHub
8 8 (2.99%) IaaS
9 7 (2.61%) PaaS
10 5 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
10 5 (1.87%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (1.87%) Power Platform
10 5 (1.87%) SaaS
11 4 (1.49%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 4 (1.49%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (1.49%) GitHub Actions
12 3 (1.12%) Google Workspace
12 3 (1.12%) Microsoft Purview
12 3 (1.12%) PowerApps
13 2 (0.75%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 48 (17.91%) DNS
2 40 (14.93%) Firewall
3 33 (12.31%) Cisco IOS
4 28 (10.45%) DHCP
5 24 (8.96%) VPN
6 17 (6.34%) Cisco Firepower
6 17 (6.34%) Cisco ISE
6 17 (6.34%) Junos
7 16 (5.97%) SAN
8 11 (4.10%) TCP/IP
8 11 (4.10%) Wi-Fi
9 10 (3.73%) DDNS
10 9 (3.36%) 4G
11 8 (2.99%) Skype
12 7 (2.61%) Remote Desktop
13 5 (1.87%) WebEx
14 4 (1.49%) SMTP
14 4 (1.49%) Unified Communications
15 3 (1.12%) LAN
15 3 (1.12%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.61%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.75%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (0.75%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (1.49%) MSI
1 4 (1.49%) Robot Framework
1 4 (1.49%) Sonatype Nexus
2 3 (1.12%) Git
3 2 (0.75%) Fiddler
3 2 (0.75%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.37%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.37%) JIRA
General
1 109 (40.67%) Social Skills
2 23 (8.58%) Finance
3 16 (5.97%) Games
4 12 (4.48%) Documentation Skills
4 12 (4.48%) Public Sector
5 9 (3.36%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (2.99%) Legal
7 7 (2.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (2.24%) Law
9 4 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.12%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.12%) Retail
11 2 (0.75%) Marketing
11 2 (0.75%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.37%) Banking
12 1 (0.37%) Billing
12 1 (0.37%) French Language
12 1 (0.37%) German Language
12 1 (0.37%) Local Government
12 1 (0.37%) Military
Job Titles
1 65 (24.25%) Support Engineer
2 30 (11.19%) IT Support
3 26 (9.70%) 3rd Line Engineer
3 26 (9.70%) Analyst
4 24 (8.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 22 (8.21%) Architect
5 22 (8.21%) IT Engineer
6 19 (7.09%) 3rd Line Support
6 19 (7.09%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
6 19 (7.09%) Deployment Engineer
6 19 (7.09%) Platform Engineer
7 18 (6.72%) IT Support Engineer
8 16 (5.97%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
8 16 (5.97%) Cloud Engineer
8 16 (5.97%) Cloud Network Engineer
8 16 (5.97%) Network Engineer
9 15 (5.60%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 15 (5.60%) Network Support
9 15 (5.60%) Network Support Engineer
10 14 (5.22%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (5.22%) LDAP
2 13 (4.85%) SailPoint
3 11 (4.10%) OAuth
4 8 (2.99%) SAML
5 6 (2.24%) OpenID
6 4 (1.49%) .NET
6 4 (1.49%) Microsoft Graph
6 4 (1.49%) OAuth2
6 4 (1.49%) YAML
7 3 (1.12%) .NET Core
7 3 (1.12%) .NET Framework
8 2 (0.75%) ARM Templates
8 2 (0.75%) ASP.NET
8 2 (0.75%) GraphQL
8 2 (0.75%) Jinja
8 2 (0.75%) Kafka
8 2 (0.75%) REST
9 1 (0.37%) Azure Blueprints
9 1 (0.37%) Blazor
9 1 (0.37%) React
Miscellaneous
1 19 (7.09%) PKI
2 12 (4.48%) Replication
3 10 (3.73%) Onboarding
4 8 (2.99%) Fat Client
4 8 (2.99%) Thin Client
4 8 (2.99%) Video Conferencing
5 6 (2.24%) Data Centre
5 6 (2.24%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (1.49%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (1.49%) Driving Licence
6 4 (1.49%) NHS
6 4 (1.49%) Operational Technology
6 4 (1.49%) Private Cloud
7 3 (1.12%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (1.12%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (1.12%) Security Posture
7 3 (1.12%) Virtual Team
8 2 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (0.75%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (0.75%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 180 (67.16%) Windows
2 65 (24.25%) Windows 10
3 49 (18.28%) Windows Server
4 22 (8.21%) Linux
4 22 (8.21%) Mac OS
5 16 (5.97%) Android
6 10 (3.73%) Windows Server 2003
7 8 (2.99%) Windows 7
8 6 (2.24%) Windows Server 2012
8 6 (2.24%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (2.24%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (1.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (1.49%) CentOS
11 2 (0.75%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.37%) Kali Linux
12 1 (0.37%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (17.91%) Problem-Solving
2 43 (16.04%) ITIL
3 36 (13.43%) DevOps
4 35 (13.06%) ITSM
5 33 (12.31%) Cybersecurity
6 30 (11.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 25 (9.33%) Customer Service
7 25 (9.33%) Service Management
8 22 (8.21%) Agile
8 22 (8.21%) Identity Access Management
9 19 (7.09%) CI/CD
10 18 (6.72%) Migration
11 16 (5.97%) E-Commerce
11 16 (5.97%) Prototyping
12 14 (5.22%) Continuous Improvement
12 14 (5.22%) High Availability
12 14 (5.22%) Infrastructure as Code
12 14 (5.22%) SIEM
12 14 (5.22%) Validation
13 13 (4.85%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 81 (30.22%) PowerShell
2 28 (10.45%) Python
3 12 (4.48%) SQL
4 11 (4.10%) Java
5 8 (2.99%) BeanShell
6 6 (2.24%) Bash
6 6 (2.24%) PHP
7 4 (1.49%) C#
7 4 (1.49%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.75%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.37%) Bicep
9 1 (0.37%) VB
Qualifications
1 107 (39.93%) Security Cleared
2 52 (19.40%) SC Cleared
3 50 (18.66%) DV Cleared
4 18 (6.72%) Degree
5 15 (5.60%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (4.48%) CISSP
7 11 (4.10%) CISM
8 9 (3.36%) DBS Check
9 7 (2.61%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (2.24%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 4 (1.49%) Azure Certification
11 4 (1.49%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (1.12%) Master's Degree
12 3 (1.12%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 2 (0.75%) A+ Certification
13 2 (0.75%) CCNP
13 2 (0.75%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (0.75%) Citrix Certification
13 2 (0.75%) MCSE
14 1 (0.37%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (8.58%) GDPR
2 21 (7.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (5.60%) NIST
4 8 (2.99%) SLA
5 2 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (0.75%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.37%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.37%) Government Security Classifications
6 1 (0.37%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.37%) NCSC
6 1 (0.37%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.37%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 37 (13.81%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (7.09%) VMware NSX
3 10 (3.73%) Brightmail
3 10 (3.73%) Hyper-V
3 10 (3.73%) ISA Server
4 8 (2.99%) vSphere
5 6 (2.24%) Terminal Services
6 5 (1.87%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (1.49%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (1.12%) DFS Replication
9 2 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.37%) NFS
10 1 (0.37%) UAG
Systems Management
1 55 (20.52%) SCCM
2 43 (16.04%) Microsoft Intune
3 19 (7.09%) Terraform
3 19 (7.09%) vCenter Server
4 12 (4.48%) Ansible
5 11 (4.10%) WMI
6 10 (3.73%) Microsoft Clustering
6 10 (3.73%) Single Sign-On
7 9 (3.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 8 (2.99%) SCOM
9 7 (2.61%) HP SiteScope
10 4 (1.49%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (1.12%) Kubernetes
12 2 (0.75%) logstash
13 1 (0.37%) Avamar
13 1 (0.37%) Cisco CUCM
13 1 (0.37%) Cisco UCCE
13 1 (0.37%) EMC NetWorker
13 1 (0.37%) Nmap
13 1 (0.37%) VxRail
Vendors
1 171 (63.81%) Microsoft
2 54 (20.15%) VMware
3 47 (17.54%) Cisco
4 26 (9.70%) Splunk
5 23 (8.58%) ServiceNow
6 19 (7.09%) Citrix
6 19 (7.09%) CyberArk
7 17 (6.34%) Juniper
7 17 (6.34%) Meraki
7 17 (6.34%) SolarWinds
8 12 (4.48%) BeyondTrust
9 9 (3.36%) Remedy
10 6 (2.24%) Google
11 5 (1.87%) Dell
12 3 (1.12%) Apple
12 3 (1.12%) McAfee
12 3 (1.12%) Veeam
12 3 (1.12%) Wyse
13 2 (0.75%) Sage
13 2 (0.75%) Sophos