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

6 months to
20 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 25 15
Rank change year-on-year -6 -10 +12
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 323 227 438
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 5.65% 7.58% 7.81%
As % of the System Software category 53.21% 51.71% 55.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 220 175 289
10th Percentile £200 £200 £158
25th Percentile £300 £263 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £540 £475
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% +13.68% +5.56%
75th Percentile £599 £628 £608
90th Percentile £700 £700 £638
England median daily rate £450 £450 £400
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 3 18
10th Percentile £26.80 £21.58 £14.74
25th Percentile £43.81 £23.99 £16.61
Median hourly rate £52.50 £28.00 £17.69
Median % change year-on-year +87.50% +58.28% -4.38%
75th Percentile £88.25 - £18.51
90th Percentile £102.75 - £43.18
England median hourly rate £26.44 £21.46 £17.69
% change year-on-year +23.21% +21.31% -4.38%

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 607 439 786
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 10.62% 14.67% 14.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 455 317 491
10th Percentile £258 £250 £200
25th Percentile £406 £400 £330
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £538 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.13% +7.60% -
75th Percentile £606 £625 £608
90th Percentile £700 £680 £650
England median daily rate £500 £525 £488
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 12 48
10th Percentile £27.66 £28.00 £17.26
25th Percentile £44.60 £40.75 £17.80
Median hourly rate £51.25 £57.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.87% +15.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £84.31 £66.56 £62.81
90th Percentile £100.55 £81.38 £65.00
England median hourly rate £55.00 £28.41 £21.00
% change year-on-year +93.59% +35.29% -47.50%

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 20 April 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 20 April 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 20 April 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 -7 166 £467 -18.78% 41
Berkshire -14 101 £478 -23.50% 11
Hampshire -18 80 £555 -0.22% 37
Oxfordshire +7 43 £275 +4.76% 12
Surrey +7 39 £500 +6.38% 6
Buckinghamshire 0 22 £560 +104.25% 18
Kent -3 19 £190 -62.00% 6
West Sussex -8 10 £600 +140.00% 5
East Sussex -1 6 £600 +14.29%
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 69 (21.36%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (8.98%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.55%) Confluence
4 2 (0.62%) IIS
4 2 (0.62%) WordPress
5 1 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.31%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 22 (6.81%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.24%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.62%) SOLIDWORKS
4 1 (0.31%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (2.17%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.31%) assyst
2 1 (0.31%) Remedy AR System
Cloud Services
1 153 (47.37%) Azure
2 128 (39.63%) Entra ID
3 101 (31.27%) Microsoft 365
4 40 (12.38%) AWS
5 21 (6.50%) GCP
6 17 (5.26%) Power Platform
7 16 (4.95%) OneDrive
8 12 (3.72%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (3.10%) SaaS
10 9 (2.79%) IaaS
11 8 (2.48%) Power Automate
12 7 (2.17%) Azure Logic Apps
12 7 (2.17%) Azure Monitor
13 6 (1.86%) PowerApps
13 6 (1.86%) Serverless
14 5 (1.55%) Azure Functions
14 5 (1.55%) GitHub
14 5 (1.55%) Nutanix
15 4 (1.24%) AWS CloudFormation
15 4 (1.24%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 84 (26.01%) DNS
2 63 (19.50%) DHCP
3 35 (10.84%) Firewall
4 27 (8.36%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (6.19%) VPN
6 15 (4.64%) FTP
7 13 (4.02%) Kerberos
7 13 (4.02%) TCP/IP
8 10 (3.10%) LAN
8 10 (3.10%) SAN
8 10 (3.10%) SSL
9 8 (2.48%) SD-WAN
10 7 (2.17%) SSH
10 7 (2.17%) Unified Communications
10 7 (2.17%) VLAN
10 7 (2.17%) WAN
11 6 (1.86%) NAS
11 6 (1.86%) Network Security
12 5 (1.55%) IPsec
13 4 (1.24%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (9.60%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.41%) Power BI
3 6 (1.86%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (0.93%) Data Mining
5 2 (0.62%) MySQL
6 1 (0.31%) Amazon Athena
6 1 (0.31%) Amazon QuickSight
6 1 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.31%) MariaDB
6 1 (0.31%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.31%) Parquet
6 1 (0.31%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 15 (4.64%) JIRA
2 6 (1.86%) Robot Framework
3 5 (1.55%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.62%) Git
4 2 (0.62%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.31%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.31%) Browser DevTools
5 1 (0.31%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.31%) GitLab
5 1 (0.31%) MSI
General
1 101 (31.27%) Social Skills
2 40 (12.38%) Public Sector
3 34 (10.53%) Documentation Skills
4 15 (4.64%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (4.02%) Military
6 12 (3.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 12 (3.72%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (2.79%) Finance
8 8 (2.48%) Legal
9 6 (1.86%) Police
10 5 (1.55%) Retail
11 4 (1.24%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.62%) Games
13 1 (0.31%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.31%) Back Office
13 1 (0.31%) Electronics
13 1 (0.31%) Front Office
13 1 (0.31%) Law
13 1 (0.31%) Publishing
13 1 (0.31%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 41 (12.69%) Architect
2 35 (10.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 35 (10.84%) IT Support
2 35 (10.84%) Support Engineer
3 32 (9.91%) Analyst
4 29 (8.98%) IT Engineer
5 28 (8.67%) Senior
6 24 (7.43%) IT Support Engineer
7 15 (4.64%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 12 (3.72%) Lead
9 11 (3.41%) Support Analyst
10 10 (3.10%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 10 (3.10%) Service Analyst
10 10 (3.10%) Service Desk Analyst
10 10 (3.10%) Wintel Analyst
11 9 (2.79%) Infrastructure Architect
11 9 (2.79%) IT Analyst
11 9 (2.79%) IT Support Analyst
11 9 (2.79%) Senior Architect
12 8 (2.48%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (10.53%) LDAP
2 11 (3.41%) OAuth
2 11 (3.41%) REST
2 11 (3.41%) SAML
3 10 (3.10%) OpenID
4 8 (2.48%) .NET
4 8 (2.48%) OAuth2
5 6 (1.86%) ADO
6 5 (1.55%) Microsoft Graph
6 5 (1.55%) SailPoint
7 4 (1.24%) .NET Core
7 4 (1.24%) .NET Framework
8 3 (0.93%) ARM Templates
9 2 (0.62%) ASP.NET
9 2 (0.62%) Entity Framework
9 2 (0.62%) GraphQL
9 2 (0.62%) Middleware
9 2 (0.62%) Unreal Engine
9 2 (0.62%) Web Services
10 1 (0.31%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 38 (11.76%) Onboarding
2 35 (10.84%) PKI
3 17 (5.26%) Replication
4 11 (3.41%) Data Centre
5 10 (3.10%) Product Ownership
6 9 (2.79%) Driving Licence
6 9 (2.79%) Legacy Systems
7 8 (2.48%) Management Information System
8 7 (2.17%) Analytical Mindset
8 7 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
9 5 (1.55%) CMDB
9 5 (1.55%) Fat Client
9 5 (1.55%) Operational Technology
9 5 (1.55%) Thin Client
10 4 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.24%) Hybrid Cloud
11 3 (0.93%) Clustering
11 3 (0.93%) Security Posture
12 2 (0.62%) Cloud Native
12 2 (0.62%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 195 (60.37%) Windows
2 93 (28.79%) Windows Server
3 49 (15.17%) Linux
4 27 (8.36%) Windows 10
5 15 (4.64%) Unix
6 8 (2.48%) Mac OS
6 8 (2.48%) Windows 7
6 8 (2.48%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (2.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (1.55%) Windows Server 2012
9 4 (1.24%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.62%) CentOS
10 2 (0.62%) VMS
11 1 (0.31%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (23.22%) Problem-Solving
2 61 (18.89%) ITIL
3 58 (17.96%) Cybersecurity
4 47 (14.55%) Customer Service
4 47 (14.55%) DevOps
5 46 (14.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 41 (12.69%) SIEM
7 39 (12.07%) ITSM
8 32 (9.91%) Agile
9 30 (9.29%) CI/CD
10 28 (8.67%) DevSecOps
10 28 (8.67%) Privileged Access Management
11 26 (8.05%) Roadmaps
12 25 (7.74%) Migration
13 24 (7.43%) High Availability
14 20 (6.19%) Change Management
15 19 (5.88%) Disaster Recovery
15 19 (5.88%) Identity Access Management
15 19 (5.88%) Runbook
16 18 (5.57%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 103 (31.89%) PowerShell
2 55 (17.03%) Python
3 18 (5.57%) SQL
4 9 (2.79%) Bash
4 9 (2.79%) JavaScript
5 8 (2.48%) C#
6 5 (1.55%) Java
7 3 (0.93%) Bicep
7 3 (0.93%) PHP
8 2 (0.62%) BeanShell
9 1 (0.31%) Korn
Qualifications
1 166 (51.39%) Security Cleared
2 110 (34.06%) SC Cleared
3 48 (14.86%) DV Cleared
4 24 (7.43%) Degree
5 20 (6.19%) CISSP
6 19 (5.88%) CISM
7 14 (4.33%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (1.86%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.55%) AWS Certification
9 5 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.55%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 4 (1.24%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (0.93%) A+ Certification
11 3 (0.93%) CCA
11 3 (0.93%) CESG Certified Professional
11 3 (0.93%) Citrix Certification
12 2 (0.62%) CCNP
12 2 (0.62%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.62%) PMI Certification
12 2 (0.62%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (14.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 46 (14.24%) NIST
3 30 (9.29%) GDPR
4 10 (3.10%) SLA
5 7 (2.17%) NCSC
6 5 (1.55%) NIST 800
7 4 (1.24%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.24%) Data Quality
8 3 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 2 (0.62%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.62%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.31%) PMO
System Software
1 66 (20.43%) VMware Infrastructure
2 27 (8.36%) Hyper-V
3 11 (3.41%) Virtual Desktop
4 9 (2.79%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (2.48%) Firmware
5 8 (2.48%) VMware NSX
5 8 (2.48%) vSphere
6 6 (1.86%) Docker
6 6 (1.86%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.93%) DFS Replication
8 2 (0.62%) NFS
8 2 (0.62%) Terminal Services
8 2 (0.62%) UAG
9 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.31%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 1 (0.31%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 48 (14.86%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (9.29%) SCCM
3 19 (5.88%) Terraform
4 17 (5.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 15 (4.64%) Single Sign-On
6 13 (4.02%) Ansible
7 11 (3.41%) vCenter Server
8 9 (2.79%) Jamf Pro
8 9 (2.79%) SCOM
9 6 (1.86%) Kubernetes
10 5 (1.55%) WMI
11 3 (0.93%) SCSM
11 3 (0.93%) WSUS
12 2 (0.62%) WhatsUp Gold
13 1 (0.31%) Cisco CUCM
13 1 (0.31%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.31%) McAfee ePO
13 1 (0.31%) Puppet
13 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Satellite
13 1 (0.31%) Salt
Vendors
1 188 (58.20%) Microsoft
2 81 (25.08%) VMware
3 39 (12.07%) BeyondTrust
3 39 (12.07%) CyberArk
4 32 (9.91%) ServiceNow
5 21 (6.50%) Citrix
6 14 (4.33%) Cisco
7 12 (3.72%) Meraki
7 12 (3.72%) Oracle
8 8 (2.48%) Avaya
8 8 (2.48%) Mitel
8 8 (2.48%) Remedy
9 7 (2.17%) BMC
10 5 (1.55%) Fortinet
10 5 (1.55%) Red Hat
10 5 (1.55%) SolarWinds
10 5 (1.55%) Veeam
11 4 (1.24%) F5
11 4 (1.24%) Google
11 4 (1.24%) Splunk