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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 21 17
Rank change year-on-year -10 -4 +14
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 349 231 447
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.85% 7.89% 8.08%
As % of the System Software category 53.04% 53.47% 56.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 232 177 308
10th Percentile £200 £200 £181
25th Percentile £281 £250 £310
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £507
Median % change year-on-year - -1.33% +19.24%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £608
90th Percentile £700 £700 £640
England median daily rate £450 £450 £425
% change year-on-year - +5.88% -1.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 3 17
10th Percentile £16.00 £21.58 £14.32
25th Percentile £26.80 £23.99 -
Median hourly rate £47.54 £28.00 £17.69
Median % change year-on-year +69.79% +58.28% -4.38%
75th Percentile £53.75 - £17.80
90th Percentile £54.00 - £33.35
England median hourly rate £26.00 £18.25 £17.39
% change year-on-year +42.47% +4.93% -13.04%

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 658 432 797
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.03% 14.76% 14.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 497 319 507
10th Percentile £250 £208 £204
25th Percentile £406 £325 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -3.85% +4.00%
75th Percentile £606 £603 £608
90th Percentile £713 £688 £650
England median daily rate £500 £521 £500
% change year-on-year -4.08% +4.25% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 10 47
10th Percentile £17.73 £27.20 £17.69
25th Percentile £43.81 £32.25 £17.80
Median hourly rate £48.72 £56.25 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year -13.39% +2.51% +0.58%
75th Percentile £53.75 £61.91 £64.38
90th Percentile £60.00 £67.13 £70.00
England median hourly rate £52.50 £28.71 £22.00
% change year-on-year +82.89% +30.48% -56.92%

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 25 May 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 25 May 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 25 May 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 -6 174 £465 -2.11% 38
Hampshire -10 97 £575 - 33
Berkshire -19 83 £487 -15.37% 15
Oxfordshire +5 67 £250 - 8
Surrey -9 35 £525 +144.19% 10
Buckinghamshire -24 24 £560 +136.20% 15
Kent -3 23 £200 -23.81% 9
West Sussex -12 10 £600 +200.00% 1
East Sussex +5 9 £550 +100.00%
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 72 (20.63%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (9.74%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.43%) Confluence
4 3 (0.86%) IIS
5 1 (0.29%) Apache
5 1 (0.29%) nginx
5 1 (0.29%) Tomcat
Applications
1 24 (6.88%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.15%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (0.86%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.29%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (2.87%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.29%) Remedy AR System
2 1 (0.29%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 172 (49.28%) Azure
2 146 (41.83%) Entra ID
3 112 (32.09%) Microsoft 365
4 30 (8.60%) AWS
5 17 (4.87%) Power Platform
6 16 (4.58%) OneDrive
7 15 (4.30%) IaaS
8 14 (4.01%) GCP
9 11 (3.15%) Azure DevOps
10 9 (2.58%) PaaS
10 9 (2.58%) SaaS
11 7 (2.01%) Azure Logic Apps
12 6 (1.72%) Azure Monitor
12 6 (1.72%) PowerApps
13 5 (1.43%) Azure Key Vault
13 5 (1.43%) Mimecast
13 5 (1.43%) Nutanix
13 5 (1.43%) Power Automate
14 4 (1.15%) GitHub
14 4 (1.15%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 80 (22.92%) DNS
2 52 (14.90%) DHCP
3 29 (8.31%) Firewall
4 27 (7.74%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (6.02%) VPN
6 13 (3.72%) Kerberos
7 12 (3.44%) FTP
7 12 (3.44%) LAN
8 11 (3.15%) SAN
9 8 (2.29%) SD-WAN
9 8 (2.29%) WAN
10 7 (2.01%) NAS
10 7 (2.01%) SSH
10 7 (2.01%) SSL
11 6 (1.72%) IPsec
11 6 (1.72%) Network Security
12 5 (1.43%) TCP/IP
12 5 (1.43%) Unified Communications
13 4 (1.15%) BIG-IP
13 4 (1.15%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (10.89%) SQL Server
2 14 (4.01%) Power BI
3 6 (1.72%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (0.86%) Data Mining
4 3 (0.86%) MySQL
5 1 (0.29%) Amazon Athena
5 1 (0.29%) Amazon QuickSight
5 1 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
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 14 (4.01%) JIRA
2 7 (2.01%) Robot Framework
3 6 (1.72%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.57%) Git
4 2 (0.57%) GitLab
4 2 (0.57%) MSI
5 1 (0.29%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.29%) Browser DevTools
5 1 (0.29%) Jenkins
General
1 100 (28.65%) Social Skills
2 51 (14.61%) Public Sector
3 36 (10.32%) Documentation Skills
4 18 (5.16%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (4.01%) Military
5 14 (4.01%) Organisational Skills
6 12 (3.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (2.29%) Marketing
8 7 (2.01%) Legal
9 6 (1.72%) Finance
9 6 (1.72%) Police
10 4 (1.15%) Retail
11 3 (0.86%) Games
11 3 (0.86%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.29%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.29%) Back Office
12 1 (0.29%) Front Office
12 1 (0.29%) Health Technology
12 1 (0.29%) Local Government
12 1 (0.29%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 48 (13.75%) Support Engineer
2 44 (12.61%) IT Support
3 41 (11.75%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 40 (11.46%) Architect
5 37 (10.60%) IT Engineer
6 34 (9.74%) Analyst
7 33 (9.46%) Senior
8 31 (8.88%) IT Support Engineer
9 15 (4.30%) Lead
10 14 (4.01%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 13 (3.72%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 11 (3.15%) Support Analyst
13 10 (2.87%) Cloud Engineer
14 9 (2.58%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
14 9 (2.58%) Desktop Support
14 9 (2.58%) IT Analyst
14 9 (2.58%) IT Support Analyst
14 9 (2.58%) Product Owner
14 9 (2.58%) Senior Architect
14 9 (2.58%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (10.60%) LDAP
2 19 (5.44%) OAuth
2 19 (5.44%) SAML
3 18 (5.16%) OpenID
4 15 (4.30%) OAuth2
5 13 (3.72%) REST
5 13 (3.72%) SailPoint
6 11 (3.15%) Web Services
7 8 (2.29%) .NET
8 6 (1.72%) ADO
9 3 (0.86%) Microsoft Graph
9 3 (0.86%) Unreal Engine
10 2 (0.57%) .NET Core
10 2 (0.57%) .NET Framework
10 2 (0.57%) 802.1X
10 2 (0.57%) Entity Framework
10 2 (0.57%) JSON
10 2 (0.57%) Middleware
11 1 (0.29%) LAMP
11 1 (0.29%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 41 (11.75%) Onboarding
2 27 (7.74%) PKI
3 16 (4.58%) Replication
4 13 (3.72%) Data Centre
5 11 (3.15%) Driving Licence
5 11 (3.15%) Management Information System
5 11 (3.15%) Product Ownership
6 9 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
6 9 (2.58%) Operational Technology
7 7 (2.01%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (1.72%) Clustering
9 5 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
9 5 (1.43%) Security Posture
10 4 (1.15%) Cyber Defence
10 4 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.15%) SCADA
11 3 (0.86%) CMDB
11 3 (0.86%) Self-Motivation
12 2 (0.57%) Cloud Native
12 2 (0.57%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 219 (62.75%) Windows
2 102 (29.23%) Windows Server
3 57 (16.33%) Linux
4 31 (8.88%) Windows 10
5 24 (6.88%) Unix
6 13 (3.72%) Windows Server 2019
7 9 (2.58%) Mac OS
8 8 (2.29%) Windows 7
9 7 (2.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (1.43%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (1.15%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.86%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.86%) CentOS
13 2 (0.57%) VMS
14 1 (0.29%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (21.78%) Problem-Solving
2 66 (18.91%) ITIL
3 57 (16.33%) ITSM
4 52 (14.90%) Cybersecurity
5 51 (14.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 46 (13.18%) Customer Service
7 41 (11.75%) DevOps
8 39 (11.17%) SIEM
9 35 (10.03%) Agile
10 31 (8.88%) Privileged Access Management
10 31 (8.88%) Runbook
11 30 (8.60%) Information Security
12 29 (8.31%) Change Control
12 29 (8.31%) CI/CD
13 27 (7.74%) Migration
14 24 (6.88%) RBAC
14 24 (6.88%) Roadmaps
15 23 (6.59%) High Availability
15 23 (6.59%) Identity Access Management
16 22 (6.30%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 117 (33.52%) PowerShell
2 56 (16.05%) Python
3 25 (7.16%) SQL
4 10 (2.87%) JavaScript
5 6 (1.72%) C#
6 5 (1.43%) Bash
6 5 (1.43%) Java
7 4 (1.15%) Bicep
8 2 (0.57%) BeanShell
9 1 (0.29%) Korn
9 1 (0.29%) PHP
Qualifications
1 173 (49.57%) Security Cleared
2 107 (30.66%) SC Cleared
3 58 (16.62%) DV Cleared
4 36 (10.32%) Degree
5 20 (5.73%) CISSP
6 19 (5.44%) CISM
7 13 (3.72%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (2.29%) CESG Certified Professional
9 7 (2.01%) Azure Certification
9 7 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.72%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (1.43%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 5 (1.43%) CRISC
11 5 (1.43%) GIAC
11 5 (1.43%) SANS
12 4 (1.15%) GSEC
12 4 (1.15%) SSCP
13 3 (0.86%) A+ Certification
13 3 (0.86%) CCA
13 3 (0.86%) Citrix Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (15.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 52 (14.90%) NIST
3 28 (8.02%) GDPR
4 13 (3.72%) Cyber Essentials
5 11 (3.15%) NCSC
6 10 (2.87%) SLA
7 5 (1.43%) ISO 31000
7 5 (1.43%) NIST 800
7 5 (1.43%) PCI DSS
8 4 (1.15%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.57%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.29%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.29%) PMO
11 1 (0.29%) QA
System Software
1 71 (20.34%) VMware Infrastructure
2 26 (7.45%) Hyper-V
3 20 (5.73%) VMware ESXi
4 15 (4.30%) VMware NSX
5 12 (3.44%) Virtual Desktop
6 11 (3.15%) vSphere
7 9 (2.58%) Virtual Machines
8 8 (2.29%) Firmware
8 8 (2.29%) vCloud
9 3 (0.86%) DFS Replication
9 3 (0.86%) Docker
10 2 (0.57%) Terminal Services
10 2 (0.57%) UAG
11 1 (0.29%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.29%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.29%) Dovecot
11 1 (0.29%) NFS
11 1 (0.29%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 47 (13.47%) Microsoft Intune
2 27 (7.74%) SCCM
3 21 (6.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 20 (5.73%) Terraform
5 17 (4.87%) SCOM
6 16 (4.58%) vCenter Server
7 15 (4.30%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (3.72%) Ansible
9 5 (1.43%) Jamf Pro
9 5 (1.43%) WMI
10 4 (1.15%) Kubernetes
11 3 (0.86%) SCSM
11 3 (0.86%) WSUS
12 2 (0.57%) Clonezilla
12 2 (0.57%) Grafana
12 2 (0.57%) WhatsUp Gold
13 1 (0.29%) CASB
13 1 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
13 1 (0.29%) Dell DRAC
13 1 (0.29%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 207 (59.31%) Microsoft
2 84 (24.07%) VMware
3 34 (9.74%) BeyondTrust
4 32 (9.17%) CyberArk
5 27 (7.74%) ServiceNow
6 18 (5.16%) Citrix
7 16 (4.58%) Cisco
8 14 (4.01%) Meraki
9 12 (3.44%) Oracle
10 11 (3.15%) Remedy
11 10 (2.87%) BMC
12 8 (2.29%) Avaya
12 8 (2.29%) Mitel
13 6 (1.72%) Red Hat
14 5 (1.43%) F5
14 5 (1.43%) Fortinet
14 5 (1.43%) SolarWinds
14 5 (1.43%) Veeam
15 4 (1.15%) Broadcom
15 4 (1.15%) Juniper