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 1 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 23 21
Rank change year-on-year -7 -2 +3
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 388 256 359
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.91% 7.21% 8.13%
As % of the System Software category 50.79% 51.51% 55.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 234 195 257
10th Percentile £225 £161 £200
25th Percentile £275 £200 £308
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £430 £475
Median % change year-on-year +16.28% -9.47% +46.15%
75th Percentile £581 £588 £608
90th Percentile £628 £623 £670
England median daily rate £450 £425 £430
% change year-on-year +5.88% -1.16% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 2 9
10th Percentile £16.00 £45.49 £11.80
25th Percentile £43.81 £64.58 £16.00
Median hourly rate £52.50 £96.39 £24.50
Median % change year-on-year -45.53% +293.41% +8.89%
75th Percentile £77.50 £128.19 £28.75
90th Percentile £92.70 £147.28 £56.34
England median hourly rate £52.54 £22.00 £21.62
% change year-on-year +138.80% +1.78% +10.85%

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 764 497 650
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.63% 13.99% 14.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 499 348 434
10th Percentile £263 £190 £223
25th Percentile £420 £256 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £503
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -0.50% +0.50%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £608
90th Percentile £670 £639 £672
England median daily rate £500 £500 £510
% change year-on-year - -1.86% +1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 13 28
10th Percentile £16.00 £56.25 £20.38
25th Percentile £38.75 £56.75 £33.25
Median hourly rate £60.00 £81.00 £57.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.93% +42.11% +3.63%
75th Percentile £70.16 - £70.00
90th Percentile £86.50 £88.30 -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £34.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year +88.41% +25.45% -40.22%

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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1 October 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 +2 199 £500 +81.82% 79
Hampshire -2 139 £538 +4.88% 67
Berkshire +5 87 £500 +42.86% 43
Oxfordshire +8 73 £350 +33.33% 20
Buckinghamshire -17 39 £590 +115.72% 16
West Sussex -14 16 £188 -6.25% 12
Surrey -29 16 £444 +90.86% 35
Kent -11 13 £275 +4.76% 13
East Sussex -1 4 £115 -32.35% 7
Home Counties - 2 £600 -
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 33 (8.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (6.96%) SharePoint
3 12 (3.09%) Confluence
4 8 (2.06%) Apache
4 8 (2.06%) nginx
5 4 (1.03%) IIS
6 3 (0.77%) Tomcat
Applications
1 20 (5.15%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.26%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 12 (3.09%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.52%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 179 (46.13%) Azure
2 131 (33.76%) Entra ID
3 101 (26.03%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (11.08%) AWS
5 19 (4.90%) GCP
6 18 (4.64%) Azure Monitor
7 13 (3.35%) IaaS
8 11 (2.84%) Azure Sentinel
9 10 (2.58%) Power Platform
10 9 (2.32%) Azure Key Vault
10 9 (2.32%) OneDrive
10 9 (2.32%) PaaS
10 9 (2.32%) SaaS
11 8 (2.06%) Azure AKS
11 8 (2.06%) Azure DevOps
12 7 (1.80%) Azure Logic Apps
13 6 (1.55%) Azure App Service
14 5 (1.29%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 4 (1.03%) Azure API Management
15 4 (1.03%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 96 (24.74%) DNS
2 47 (12.11%) DHCP
3 41 (10.57%) Firewall
4 38 (9.79%) VPN
5 18 (4.64%) TCP/IP
6 15 (3.87%) Network Security
7 14 (3.61%) LAN
8 13 (3.35%) SSL
9 12 (3.09%) VLAN
9 12 (3.09%) Wi-Fi
10 10 (2.58%) WAN
11 9 (2.32%) SSH
12 8 (2.06%) Wireless
13 7 (1.80%) Cisco ASA
13 7 (1.80%) Cisco Firepower
13 7 (1.80%) IPsec
14 5 (1.29%) FTP
14 5 (1.29%) X.509
15 4 (1.03%) NetScaler
15 4 (1.03%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (10.31%) SQL Server
2 11 (2.84%) Azure SQL Database
3 9 (2.32%) Power BI
4 6 (1.55%) NoSQL
5 3 (0.77%) MySQL
6 2 (0.52%) Data Mining
6 2 (0.52%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 19 (4.90%) JIRA
2 5 (1.29%) Atlassian Bamboo
2 5 (1.29%) Bitbucket
3 4 (1.03%) Git
4 3 (0.77%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.52%) MSI
6 1 (0.26%) GitLab
6 1 (0.26%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 114 (29.38%) Social Skills
2 46 (11.86%) Analytical Skills
3 41 (10.57%) Documentation Skills
3 41 (10.57%) Public Sector
4 14 (3.61%) Organisational Skills
5 13 (3.35%) Military
6 10 (2.58%) Marketing
7 8 (2.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (1.80%) Finance
9 4 (1.03%) Aerospace
9 4 (1.03%) French Language
10 2 (0.52%) Advertising
10 2 (0.52%) Legal
10 2 (0.52%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.52%) Police
10 2 (0.52%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.26%) Games
11 1 (0.26%) Local Government
11 1 (0.26%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.26%) Retail
Job Titles
1 72 (18.56%) Support Engineer
2 49 (12.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 42 (10.82%) Senior
4 38 (9.79%) IT Support
5 37 (9.54%) IT Engineer
6 34 (8.76%) Cloud Engineer
7 29 (7.47%) Architect
8 28 (7.22%) IT Support Engineer
9 27 (6.96%) Analyst
10 20 (5.15%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 15 (3.87%) Consultant
11 15 (3.87%) IAM Specialist
12 14 (3.61%) Developer
12 14 (3.61%) Technical Architect
13 13 (3.35%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 12 (3.09%) Lead
15 11 (2.84%) 1st Line Support
15 11 (2.84%) 3rd Line Support
15 11 (2.84%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
16 10 (2.58%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (13.14%) LDAP
2 43 (11.08%) Terraform
3 35 (9.02%) OAuth
3 35 (9.02%) OpenID
3 35 (9.02%) SAML
4 22 (5.67%) OAuth2
5 20 (5.15%) SailPoint
6 19 (4.90%) REST
7 17 (4.38%) Web Services
8 16 (4.12%) ARM Templates
9 14 (3.61%) .NET
10 8 (2.06%) OpenTofu
11 7 (1.80%) .NET Framework
11 7 (1.80%) 802.1X
11 7 (1.80%) Microsoft Graph
12 6 (1.55%) .NET Core
12 6 (1.55%) Entity Framework
13 4 (1.03%) JSON
13 4 (1.03%) RESTful
14 3 (0.77%) LAMP
Miscellaneous
1 53 (13.66%) Onboarding
2 38 (9.79%) PKI
3 24 (6.19%) Management Information System
4 17 (4.38%) Hybrid Cloud
5 10 (2.58%) Data Centre
5 10 (2.58%) Driving Licence
6 9 (2.32%) Clustering
7 8 (2.06%) Enterprise Software
8 7 (1.80%) ARM Cortex
8 7 (1.80%) Operational Technology
8 7 (1.80%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.29%) Cyber Defence
10 4 (1.03%) Fibre Optics
10 4 (1.03%) SCADA
11 3 (0.77%) Device Driver
11 3 (0.77%) Legacy Systems
11 3 (0.77%) Public Cloud
11 3 (0.77%) Replication
12 2 (0.52%) Enterprise Cloud
12 2 (0.52%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 258 (66.49%) Windows
2 124 (31.96%) Windows Server
3 86 (22.16%) Linux
4 57 (14.69%) Windows 10
5 27 (6.96%) Unix
5 27 (6.96%) Windows Server 2019
6 13 (3.35%) CentOS
6 13 (3.35%) Ubuntu
7 10 (2.58%) Mac OS
8 7 (1.80%) Windows 7
9 4 (1.03%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.77%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.52%) VMS
12 1 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (23.97%) Problem-Solving
2 85 (21.91%) ITSM
3 72 (18.56%) ITIL
4 68 (17.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 53 (13.66%) Cybersecurity
6 50 (12.89%) Technical Leadership
7 49 (12.63%) Privileged Access Management
8 48 (12.37%) Agile
8 48 (12.37%) Runbook
9 46 (11.86%) SIEM
10 44 (11.34%) RBAC
11 42 (10.82%) Analytics
12 38 (9.79%) Identity Access Management
12 38 (9.79%) Migration
13 36 (9.28%) Change Control
14 35 (9.02%) Information Security
15 33 (8.51%) CI/CD
15 33 (8.51%) Continuous Improvement
15 33 (8.51%) Customer Service
16 32 (8.25%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 152 (39.18%) PowerShell
2 64 (16.49%) Python
3 37 (9.54%) SQL
4 18 (4.64%) Bash
5 17 (4.38%) Bicep
6 8 (2.06%) C
6 8 (2.06%) JavaScript
7 6 (1.55%) C#
8 5 (1.29%) Java
9 2 (0.52%) BeanShell
10 1 (0.26%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 195 (50.26%) Security Cleared
2 102 (26.29%) DV Cleared
3 95 (24.48%) SC Cleared
4 56 (14.43%) Degree
5 29 (7.47%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (3.87%) Azure Certification
7 13 (3.35%) CISSP
8 12 (3.09%) CISM
9 10 (2.58%) BPSS Clearance
9 10 (2.58%) MCSA
10 8 (2.06%) MCSE
11 6 (1.55%) CESG Certified Professional
11 6 (1.55%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (1.29%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 5 (1.29%) AWS Certification
12 5 (1.29%) CRISC
12 5 (1.29%) DBS Check
12 5 (1.29%) GIAC
12 5 (1.29%) SANS
12 5 (1.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 60 (15.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 57 (14.69%) NIST
3 17 (4.38%) GDPR
4 15 (3.87%) NCSC
5 12 (3.09%) SLA
6 9 (2.32%) Cyber Essentials
6 9 (2.32%) Data Quality
7 5 (1.29%) ISO 31000
7 5 (1.29%) JSP 440
8 3 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 3 (0.77%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.52%) GxP
10 1 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.26%) GRC
10 1 (0.26%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.26%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.26%) QA
System Software
1 82 (21.13%) VMware Infrastructure
2 52 (13.40%) VMware ESXi
3 28 (7.22%) VMware NSX
4 27 (6.96%) Hyper-V
5 16 (4.12%) vCloud
6 14 (3.61%) Virtual Machines
7 13 (3.35%) Virtual Desktop
7 13 (3.35%) vSphere
8 4 (1.03%) BitLocker
8 4 (1.03%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.77%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.77%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 3 (0.77%) OpenAM
9 3 (0.77%) Postfix
10 2 (0.52%) Docker
10 2 (0.52%) UAG
11 1 (0.26%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 51 (13.14%) vCenter Server
2 44 (11.34%) Microsoft Intune
3 37 (9.54%) SCCM
4 36 (9.28%) SCOM
5 15 (3.87%) Ansible
6 14 (3.61%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 11 (2.84%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (1.29%) Packer
9 4 (1.03%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (1.03%) Clonezilla
9 4 (1.03%) Kubernetes
9 4 (1.03%) WMI
10 3 (0.77%) Dell DRAC
10 3 (0.77%) HAProxy
11 2 (0.52%) NetBackup
11 2 (0.52%) SCSM
11 2 (0.52%) vMotion
11 2 (0.52%) WSUS
12 1 (0.26%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.26%) McAfee ePO
Vendors
1 216 (55.67%) Microsoft
2 100 (25.77%) VMware
3 44 (11.34%) CyberArk
4 37 (9.54%) ServiceNow
5 31 (7.99%) BeyondTrust
6 25 (6.44%) SolarWinds
7 20 (5.15%) Cisco
8 15 (3.87%) Remedy
9 14 (3.61%) Oracle
10 12 (3.09%) Juniper
11 11 (2.84%) Broadcom
11 11 (2.84%) CrowdStrike
12 9 (2.32%) BMC
12 9 (2.32%) Citrix
12 9 (2.32%) Meraki
13 8 (2.06%) Palo Alto
14 6 (1.55%) Atlassian
14 6 (1.55%) Splunk
15 5 (1.29%) Dell
15 5 (1.29%) Google