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

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 22 15
Rank change year-on-year -8 -7 +17
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 378 246 458
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.82% 7.33% 8.18%
As % of the System Software category 52.35% 53.59% 55.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 244 178 305
10th Percentile £220 £200 £200
25th Percentile £300 £250 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% - +40.00%
75th Percentile £592 £607 £608
90th Percentile £650 £700 £650
England median daily rate £450 £450 £450
% change year-on-year - - +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 4 21
10th Percentile £16.00 - £16.00
25th Percentile £21.67 £28.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £48.13 £30.39 £17.80
Median % change year-on-year +58.40% +70.70% -20.89%
75th Percentile £54.69 £64.58 £28.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £121.83 £50.00
England median hourly rate £26.55 £23.00 £17.72
% change year-on-year +15.43% +29.80% -11.40%

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 722 459 820
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.11% 13.67% 14.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 526 319 519
10th Percentile £266 £207 £219
25th Percentile £415 £323 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £501 £540
Median % change year-on-year +4.90% -7.31% +8.00%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £700 £675 £650
England median daily rate £500 £500 £505
% change year-on-year - -0.99% -3.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 10 51
10th Percentile £16.00 £28.00 £17.69
25th Percentile £27.88 £37.34 £20.03
Median hourly rate £50.00 £57.50 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +4.78% +9.75%
75th Percentile £60.00 £81.00 £67.34
90th Percentile £77.50 £90.70 £70.00
England median hourly rate £55.00 £34.50 £22.23
% change year-on-year +59.42% +55.23% -50.47%

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 July 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 15 July 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 15 July 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 -5 195 £475 -9.52% 69
Hampshire -6 118 £538 -6.52% 39
Berkshire -18 86 £492 -16.26% 35
Oxfordshire +5 78 £250 - 14
Buckinghamshire -25 31 £560 +54.48% 20
Surrey -14 26 £525 +144.19% 13
Kent -2 18 £200 -53.49% 8
West Sussex -15 12 £600 +200.00% 14
East Sussex +9 9 £360 - 4
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 65 (17.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 35 (9.26%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.32%) Apache
3 5 (1.32%) Confluence
3 5 (1.32%) IIS
3 5 (1.32%) nginx
4 3 (0.79%) Tomcat
Applications
1 16 (4.23%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.06%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.53%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 15 (3.97%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.53%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 172 (45.50%) Azure
2 160 (42.33%) Entra ID
3 112 (29.63%) Microsoft 365
4 33 (8.73%) AWS
5 19 (5.03%) OneDrive
5 19 (5.03%) Power Platform
6 13 (3.44%) GCP
6 13 (3.44%) IaaS
7 9 (2.38%) Azure Logic Apps
7 9 (2.38%) SaaS
8 8 (2.12%) Azure DevOps
9 7 (1.85%) PaaS
10 6 (1.59%) Power Automate
11 5 (1.32%) Microsoft Purview
12 4 (1.06%) Azure Monitor
12 4 (1.06%) PowerApps
13 3 (0.79%) Cloudflare
13 3 (0.79%) Mimecast
13 3 (0.79%) Nutanix
13 3 (0.79%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 91 (24.07%) DNS
2 49 (12.96%) DHCP
3 32 (8.47%) Firewall
4 30 (7.94%) Wi-Fi
5 29 (7.67%) VPN
6 18 (4.76%) LAN
7 14 (3.70%) SSL
8 12 (3.17%) Kerberos
8 12 (3.17%) Network Security
9 11 (2.91%) WAN
10 10 (2.65%) IPsec
11 9 (2.38%) SAN
12 8 (2.12%) FTP
12 8 (2.12%) SSH
13 7 (1.85%) NAS
13 7 (1.85%) SD-WAN
14 6 (1.59%) Cisco ASA
14 6 (1.59%) Cisco Firepower
14 6 (1.59%) TCP/IP
15 5 (1.32%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (11.38%) SQL Server
2 16 (4.23%) Power BI
3 5 (1.32%) MySQL
4 3 (0.79%) Data Mining
5 2 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.26%) MariaDB
6 1 (0.26%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.26%) Parquet
6 1 (0.26%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 14 (3.70%) JIRA
2 3 (0.79%) MSI
2 3 (0.79%) Robot Framework
3 2 (0.53%) Atlassian Bamboo
3 2 (0.53%) Bitbucket
3 2 (0.53%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.26%) Browser DevTools
4 1 (0.26%) Git
4 1 (0.26%) GitLab
General
1 115 (30.42%) Social Skills
2 48 (12.70%) Public Sector
3 38 (10.05%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (9.79%) Documentation Skills
5 14 (3.70%) Military
6 13 (3.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 13 (3.44%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (2.65%) Finance
7 10 (2.65%) Marketing
8 7 (1.85%) Legal
9 5 (1.32%) Manufacturing
9 5 (1.32%) Police
10 4 (1.06%) Retail
11 3 (0.79%) Aerospace
12 2 (0.53%) French Language
12 2 (0.53%) Games
12 2 (0.53%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.26%) Health Technology
13 1 (0.26%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 56 (14.81%) Support Engineer
2 52 (13.76%) IT Support
3 43 (11.38%) Senior
4 42 (11.11%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 40 (10.58%) IT Engineer
6 35 (9.26%) Architect
7 34 (8.99%) IT Support Engineer
8 30 (7.94%) Analyst
9 21 (5.56%) Cloud Engineer
10 18 (4.76%) Lead
11 16 (4.23%) 3rd Line Engineer
12 14 (3.70%) IT Analyst
13 13 (3.44%) IT Support Analyst
13 13 (3.44%) Support Analyst
14 12 (3.17%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 11 (2.91%) IAM Specialist
16 10 (2.65%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
17 9 (2.38%) Administrator
17 9 (2.38%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
17 9 (2.38%) Product Owner
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (12.43%) LDAP
2 28 (7.41%) OAuth
2 28 (7.41%) SAML
3 27 (7.14%) OpenID
4 19 (5.03%) REST
5 18 (4.76%) OAuth2
6 16 (4.23%) SailPoint
7 15 (3.97%) Web Services
8 9 (2.38%) Microsoft Graph
9 5 (1.32%) .NET
10 4 (1.06%) 802.1X
11 3 (0.79%) ADO
11 3 (0.79%) FIDO
11 3 (0.79%) JSON
11 3 (0.79%) LAMP
11 3 (0.79%) LEMP Stack
11 3 (0.79%) Software Packaging
11 3 (0.79%) YAML
12 2 (0.53%) .NET Framework
12 2 (0.53%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 48 (12.70%) Onboarding
2 37 (9.79%) PKI
3 19 (5.03%) Management Information System
4 16 (4.23%) Replication
5 12 (3.17%) Data Centre
5 12 (3.17%) Legacy Systems
6 9 (2.38%) Clustering
6 9 (2.38%) Product Ownership
7 8 (2.12%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (2.12%) Hybrid Cloud
7 8 (2.12%) Operational Technology
7 8 (2.12%) Security Posture
8 7 (1.85%) Driving Licence
9 5 (1.32%) Cyber Defence
10 4 (1.06%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.06%) CMDB
10 4 (1.06%) SCADA
11 3 (0.79%) Cloud Native
11 3 (0.79%) Fibre Optics
11 3 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 240 (63.49%) Windows
2 107 (28.31%) Windows Server
3 77 (20.37%) Linux
4 31 (8.20%) Windows 10
5 30 (7.94%) Unix
6 20 (5.29%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (1.85%) Mac OS
8 6 (1.59%) Windows 7
9 5 (1.32%) CentOS
9 5 (1.32%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (1.06%) Apple iOS
10 4 (1.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.79%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.79%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.53%) VMS
13 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (23.81%) Problem-Solving
2 77 (20.37%) ITIL
3 75 (19.84%) ITSM
4 56 (14.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 55 (14.55%) Cybersecurity
6 49 (12.96%) Customer Service
7 44 (11.64%) SIEM
8 43 (11.38%) Agile
9 42 (11.11%) Runbook
10 38 (10.05%) Privileged Access Management
11 37 (9.79%) Information Security
12 36 (9.52%) Technical Leadership
13 35 (9.26%) Change Control
14 32 (8.47%) DevOps
14 32 (8.47%) RBAC
15 31 (8.20%) Identity Access Management
16 30 (7.94%) Migration
17 29 (7.67%) Computer Science
18 28 (7.41%) CI/CD
19 27 (7.14%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 142 (37.57%) PowerShell
2 61 (16.14%) Python
3 27 (7.14%) SQL
4 13 (3.44%) JavaScript
5 7 (1.85%) Bash
6 6 (1.59%) C#
7 5 (1.32%) Bicep
7 5 (1.32%) Java
8 4 (1.06%) C
9 2 (0.53%) BeanShell
10 1 (0.26%) Korn
10 1 (0.26%) PHP
10 1 (0.26%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 183 (48.41%) Security Cleared
2 105 (27.78%) SC Cleared
3 74 (19.58%) DV Cleared
4 52 (13.76%) Degree
5 28 (7.41%) Microsoft Certification
6 18 (4.76%) CISSP
7 17 (4.50%) CISM
8 12 (3.17%) Azure Certification
8 12 (3.17%) BPSS Clearance
9 9 (2.38%) MCSA
10 8 (2.12%) CESG Certified Professional
10 8 (2.12%) MCSE
11 6 (1.59%) CCA
11 6 (1.59%) Cisco Certification
11 6 (1.59%) Citrix Certification
12 5 (1.32%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 5 (1.32%) AWS Certification
12 5 (1.32%) CRISC
12 5 (1.32%) GIAC
12 5 (1.32%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (17.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 65 (17.20%) NIST
3 27 (7.14%) GDPR
4 12 (3.17%) NCSC
5 10 (2.65%) SLA
6 9 (2.38%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (1.32%) Data Quality
7 5 (1.32%) ISO 31000
8 4 (1.06%) NIST 800
9 3 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 3 (0.79%) PCI DSS
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%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.26%) QA
System Software
1 84 (22.22%) VMware Infrastructure
2 38 (10.05%) VMware ESXi
3 33 (8.73%) Hyper-V
4 26 (6.88%) VMware NSX
5 13 (3.44%) vCloud
6 12 (3.17%) Virtual Machines
6 12 (3.17%) vSphere
7 11 (2.91%) Virtual Desktop
8 8 (2.12%) Firmware
9 3 (0.79%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.79%) OpenAM
9 3 (0.79%) Postfix
10 2 (0.53%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.53%) Docker
10 2 (0.53%) UAG
11 1 (0.26%) Citrix Hypervisor
Systems Management
1 48 (12.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 32 (8.47%) vCenter Server
3 27 (7.14%) Terraform
4 26 (6.88%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 26 (6.88%) SCOM
5 25 (6.61%) SCCM
6 14 (3.70%) Ansible
6 14 (3.70%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (1.06%) Cisco CUCM
7 4 (1.06%) Clonezilla
7 4 (1.06%) WMI
8 3 (0.79%) HAProxy
8 3 (0.79%) Kubernetes
8 3 (0.79%) SCSM
9 2 (0.53%) Dell DRAC
9 2 (0.53%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.53%) Packer
9 2 (0.53%) vMotion
9 2 (0.53%) WSUS
10 1 (0.26%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 222 (58.73%) Microsoft
2 97 (25.66%) VMware
3 39 (10.32%) ServiceNow
4 37 (9.79%) BeyondTrust
4 37 (9.79%) CyberArk
5 22 (5.82%) Cisco
6 18 (4.76%) Meraki
6 18 (4.76%) Oracle
6 18 (4.76%) SolarWinds
7 17 (4.50%) Remedy
8 14 (3.70%) Citrix
9 13 (3.44%) BMC
10 12 (3.17%) Avaya
10 12 (3.17%) Mitel
11 10 (2.65%) Juniper
12 7 (1.85%) Palo Alto
13 6 (1.59%) Broadcom
13 6 (1.59%) Red Hat
14 5 (1.32%) F5
14 5 (1.32%) Veeam