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 19 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 26 21
Rank change year-on-year -2 -5 -1
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 339 221 426
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.38% 7.49% 7.58%
As % of the System Software category 56.13% 48.89% 52.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 243 171 275
10th Percentile £190 £200 £148
25th Percentile £256 £268 £215
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £537 £465
Median % change year-on-year -8.38% +15.49% +3.33%
75th Percentile £576 £650 £608
90th Percentile £650 £700 £638
England median daily rate £450 £450 £390
% change year-on-year - +15.38% -8.24%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 2 17
10th Percentile £20.14 £20.77 £16.25
25th Percentile £26.26 £21.98 £17.69
Median hourly rate £61.86 £23.99 £17.80
Median % change year-on-year +157.91% +34.75% -3.78%
75th Percentile £92.75 £25.99 £50.00
90th Percentile £100.55 £27.20 £66.45
England median hourly rate £22.36 £22.50 £17.72
% change year-on-year -0.61% +26.98% -6.56%

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 604 452 804
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.37% 15.32% 14.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 459 324 488
10th Percentile £231 £206 £180
25th Percentile £380 £379 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £478
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +9.95% -4.50%
75th Percentile £591 £630 £589
90th Percentile £660 £696 £638
England median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 13 50
10th Percentile £20.86 £31.40 £17.69
25th Percentile £27.34 £47.50 £20.31
Median hourly rate £53.61 £57.75 £58.75
Median % change year-on-year -7.17% -1.70% +12.98%
75th Percentile £88.25 £71.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £99.50 £81.00 £75.15
England median hourly rate £42.69 £29.00 £22.30
% change year-on-year +47.19% +30.04% -43.18%

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 19 March 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 19 March 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 19 March 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 -5 178 £471 -24.64% 42
Berkshire -9 122 £479 -23.30% 19
Hampshire -9 87 £500 - 46
Surrey +7 33 £500 +127.27% 8
Oxfordshire +6 30 £275 -24.09% 13
Buckinghamshire 0 26 £531 +165.38% 10
Kent -2 19 £190 -53.57% 5
East Sussex +1 10 £600 +17.07% 5
West Sussex -12 9 £600 +189.16% 9
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 59 (17.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (9.44%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.18%) Confluence
4 2 (0.59%) IIS
4 2 (0.59%) WordPress
5 1 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.29%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 17 (5.01%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.88%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.59%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.29%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.47%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.29%) assyst
2 1 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.29%) Remedy AR System
2 1 (0.29%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 153 (45.13%) Azure
2 127 (37.46%) Entra ID
3 111 (32.74%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (12.68%) AWS
5 26 (7.67%) GCP
6 25 (7.37%) OneDrive
7 18 (5.31%) Power Platform
8 12 (3.54%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (3.24%) SaaS
10 10 (2.95%) Power Automate
11 9 (2.65%) GitHub
12 8 (2.36%) IaaS
12 8 (2.36%) PowerApps
13 7 (2.06%) Azure Monitor
14 6 (1.77%) Serverless
15 5 (1.47%) Azure Functions
15 5 (1.47%) Azure Logic Apps
15 5 (1.47%) Nutanix
16 4 (1.18%) AWS CloudFormation
16 4 (1.18%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 82 (24.19%) DNS
2 59 (17.40%) DHCP
3 38 (11.21%) Firewall
4 30 (8.85%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (6.49%) VPN
6 14 (4.13%) TCP/IP
7 13 (3.83%) Kerberos
8 12 (3.54%) FTP
9 10 (2.95%) SAN
10 9 (2.65%) 4G
10 9 (2.65%) LAN
11 8 (2.36%) Cisco Firepower
11 8 (2.36%) Cisco IOS
11 8 (2.36%) Cisco ISE
11 8 (2.36%) Junos
11 8 (2.36%) SD-WAN
12 7 (2.06%) SSL
12 7 (2.06%) VLAN
13 6 (1.77%) SSH
13 6 (1.77%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (6.49%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.24%) Power BI
3 6 (1.77%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.59%) MySQL
5 1 (0.29%) Amazon Athena
5 1 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
5 1 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.29%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.29%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.29%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.29%) Parquet
5 1 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 13 (3.83%) JIRA
2 6 (1.77%) Robot Framework
3 5 (1.47%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.59%) Git
4 2 (0.59%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.29%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.29%) Browser DevTools
5 1 (0.29%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.29%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.29%) GitLab
General
1 124 (36.58%) Social Skills
2 36 (10.62%) Public Sector
3 32 (9.44%) Documentation Skills
4 15 (4.42%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (3.54%) Finance
5 12 (3.54%) Military
6 10 (2.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 10 (2.95%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (2.06%) Legal
8 4 (1.18%) Police
8 4 (1.18%) Retail
9 3 (0.88%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.59%) Games
11 1 (0.29%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.29%) Back Office
11 1 (0.29%) Electronics
11 1 (0.29%) Front Office
11 1 (0.29%) Law
11 1 (0.29%) Publishing
11 1 (0.29%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 47 (13.86%) Support Engineer
2 43 (12.68%) Architect
3 36 (10.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 35 (10.32%) IT Support
5 34 (10.03%) Analyst
6 32 (9.44%) IT Engineer
7 26 (7.67%) IT Support Engineer
7 26 (7.67%) Senior
8 14 (4.13%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (3.83%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 12 (3.54%) Support Analyst
11 11 (3.24%) Service Analyst
11 11 (3.24%) Service Desk Analyst
12 10 (2.95%) Deployment Engineer
12 10 (2.95%) Desktop Support
12 10 (2.95%) Infrastructure Architect
12 10 (2.95%) Wintel Analyst
13 9 (2.65%) Network Engineer
14 8 (2.36%) 3rd Line Support
14 8 (2.36%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (11.50%) LDAP
2 11 (3.24%) OAuth
2 11 (3.24%) SailPoint
3 10 (2.95%) SAML
4 9 (2.65%) OpenID
4 9 (2.65%) REST
5 8 (2.36%) .NET
6 7 (2.06%) OAuth2
7 6 (1.77%) ADO
8 5 (1.47%) Microsoft Graph
9 4 (1.18%) .NET Core
9 4 (1.18%) .NET Framework
10 3 (0.88%) ARM Templates
11 2 (0.59%) ASP.NET
11 2 (0.59%) Entity Framework
11 2 (0.59%) GraphQL
11 2 (0.59%) Middleware
11 2 (0.59%) Unreal Engine
11 2 (0.59%) Web Services
12 1 (0.29%) Laravel
Miscellaneous
1 37 (10.91%) PKI
2 26 (7.67%) Onboarding
3 16 (4.72%) Replication
4 10 (2.95%) Product Ownership
5 9 (2.65%) Fat Client
5 9 (2.65%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (2.65%) Thin Client
6 8 (2.36%) Data Centre
6 8 (2.36%) Driving Licence
7 7 (2.06%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (2.06%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (2.06%) Video Conferencing
8 5 (1.47%) Management Information System
8 5 (1.47%) Operational Technology
8 5 (1.47%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.18%) CMDB
9 4 (1.18%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.88%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.59%) Cloud Native
11 2 (0.59%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 202 (59.59%) Windows
2 90 (26.55%) Windows Server
3 50 (14.75%) Windows 10
4 35 (10.32%) Linux
5 9 (2.65%) Mac OS
5 9 (2.65%) Windows 7
6 7 (2.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (1.77%) Unix
7 6 (1.77%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.47%) Windows Server 2012
9 4 (1.18%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.59%) CentOS
11 1 (0.29%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.29%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (20.65%) Problem-Solving
2 61 (17.99%) Cybersecurity
3 56 (16.52%) DevOps
4 51 (15.04%) ITIL
5 49 (14.45%) Customer Service
6 47 (13.86%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 38 (11.21%) ITSM
8 37 (10.91%) SIEM
9 35 (10.32%) CI/CD
10 33 (9.73%) DevSecOps
11 32 (9.44%) Agile
12 25 (7.37%) Roadmaps
13 24 (7.08%) Migration
14 23 (6.78%) High Availability
14 23 (6.78%) Privileged Access Management
15 19 (5.60%) Identity Access Management
15 19 (5.60%) Infrastructure as Code
15 19 (5.60%) Service Management
16 17 (5.01%) Change Management
16 17 (5.01%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 104 (30.68%) PowerShell
2 56 (16.52%) Python
3 16 (4.72%) SQL
4 11 (3.24%) Java
5 9 (2.65%) Bash
6 8 (2.36%) BeanShell
6 8 (2.36%) C#
7 7 (2.06%) JavaScript
8 3 (0.88%) Bicep
8 3 (0.88%) PHP
9 1 (0.29%) Korn
9 1 (0.29%) VB
Qualifications
1 177 (52.21%) Security Cleared
2 116 (34.22%) SC Cleared
3 52 (15.34%) DV Cleared
4 25 (7.37%) CISSP
5 24 (7.08%) CISM
6 15 (4.42%) Degree
6 15 (4.42%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (2.36%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.47%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.47%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 4 (1.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 4 (1.18%) DBS Check
9 4 (1.18%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 3 (0.88%) A+ Certification
10 3 (0.88%) CCA
10 3 (0.88%) CCNP
10 3 (0.88%) CESG Certified Professional
10 3 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.88%) Citrix Certification
11 2 (0.59%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (11.50%) NIST
2 38 (11.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 35 (10.32%) GDPR
4 9 (2.65%) SLA
5 5 (1.47%) NCSC
6 4 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.18%) Data Quality
6 4 (1.18%) NIST 800
7 3 (0.88%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.29%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.29%) PMO
8 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 60 (17.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 23 (6.78%) Hyper-V
3 12 (3.54%) VMware NSX
4 11 (3.24%) Virtual Desktop
5 7 (2.06%) vSphere
6 6 (1.77%) Docker
6 6 (1.77%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (1.47%) Firmware
8 3 (0.88%) DFS Replication
8 3 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.59%) NFS
9 2 (0.59%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.29%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.29%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.29%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 48 (14.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 41 (12.09%) SCCM
3 23 (6.78%) Terraform
4 16 (4.72%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 15 (4.42%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (4.13%) vCenter Server
7 13 (3.83%) Ansible
8 9 (2.65%) Jamf Pro
8 9 (2.65%) WMI
9 7 (2.06%) SCOM
10 6 (1.77%) Kubernetes
11 2 (0.59%) Cisco CUCM
11 2 (0.59%) WhatsUp Gold
11 2 (0.59%) WSUS
12 1 (0.29%) Backup Exec
12 1 (0.29%) Cisco UCCE
12 1 (0.29%) EMC NetWorker
12 1 (0.29%) Nmap
12 1 (0.29%) Norton AntiVirus
12 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 195 (57.52%) Microsoft
2 81 (23.89%) VMware
3 40 (11.80%) ServiceNow
4 35 (10.32%) BeyondTrust
4 35 (10.32%) CyberArk
5 22 (6.49%) Citrix
6 15 (4.42%) Cisco
7 10 (2.95%) SolarWinds
8 9 (2.65%) Juniper
9 7 (2.06%) Avaya
9 7 (2.06%) Meraki
10 6 (1.77%) Mitel
11 5 (1.47%) BMC
11 5 (1.47%) Fortinet
11 5 (1.47%) Oracle
11 5 (1.47%) Red Hat
11 5 (1.47%) Remedy
12 4 (1.18%) Dell
12 4 (1.18%) McAfee
12 4 (1.18%) Veeam