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 14 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 22 24 24
Rank change year-on-year +2 0 -5
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 260 345 412
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.25% 8.09% 7.49%
As % of the System Software category 51.38% 53.65% 48.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 195 251 252
10th Percentile £161 £200 £148
25th Percentile £200 £287 £187
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £475 £325
Median % change year-on-year -21.05% +46.15% -
75th Percentile £581 £625 £519
90th Percentile £608 £671 £615
England median daily rate £425 £425 £400
% change year-on-year - +6.25% +12.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 6 27
10th Percentile £45.49 £22.33 £15.50
25th Percentile £64.58 £23.36 £19.25
Median hourly rate £96.39 £27.50 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year +250.49% +1.85% +54.29%
75th Percentile £128.19 £46.94 £55.00
90th Percentile £147.28 £61.34 £68.63
England median hourly rate £22.00 £23.80 £19.50
% change year-on-year -7.56% +22.05% +8.33%

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 506 643 856
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 14.12% 15.08% 15.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 358 431 540
10th Percentile £190 £219 £172
25th Percentile £256 £360 £274
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £496 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% - +4.17%
75th Percentile £575 £613 £595
90th Percentile £638 £672 £663
England median daily rate £500 £513 £500
% change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 24 66
10th Percentile £56.75 £26.25 £15.50
25th Percentile £76.00 £52.44 £25.01
Median hourly rate £81.00 £58.49 £56.95
Median % change year-on-year +38.49% +2.70% +7.69%
75th Percentile £82.00 £70.00 £70.94
90th Percentile £89.63 - £76.53
England median hourly rate £34.50 £31.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +11.29% -34.74% +111.11%

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 14 October 2025.

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 14 October 2025.

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 14 October 2025. 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 -6 102 £274 -54.79% 94
Hampshire +2 88 £500 -9.09% 38
Berkshire -15 55 £313 -48.35% 56
Buckinghamshire +8 33 £274 -28.03% 23
Surrey -5 30 £233 -10.58% 14
Kent +6 20 £263 +64.06% 24
Oxfordshire -7 14 £263 -36.36% 24
West Sussex -17 10 £200 - 16
East Sussex +8 9 £180 -56.36% 10
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 61 (23.46%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (10.77%) SharePoint
3 17 (6.54%) Skype for Business
4 11 (4.23%) Exchange Server 2010
5 10 (3.85%) Exchange Server 2003
5 10 (3.85%) Exchange Server 2007
5 10 (3.85%) Exchange Server 2013
5 10 (3.85%) Office Communications Server
5 10 (3.85%) SharePoint Server
6 8 (3.08%) Apache
7 7 (2.69%) Mattermost
8 4 (1.54%) IIS
9 2 (0.77%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 32 (12.31%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.38%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 1 (0.38%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.69%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 112 (43.08%) Microsoft 365
2 65 (25.00%) Azure
3 58 (22.31%) Entra ID
4 13 (5.00%) AWS
4 13 (5.00%) OneDrive
5 12 (4.62%) IaaS
6 9 (3.46%) GCP
6 9 (3.46%) PaaS
7 7 (2.69%) GitHub
8 5 (1.92%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.54%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (1.54%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (1.54%) SaaS
10 3 (1.15%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (1.15%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (1.15%) PowerApps
11 2 (0.77%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.77%) Google Workspace
11 2 (0.77%) OpenShift
11 2 (0.77%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 45 (17.31%) DNS
2 38 (14.62%) Firewall
3 30 (11.54%) Cisco IOS
4 29 (11.15%) DHCP
5 25 (9.62%) VPN
6 16 (6.15%) SAN
7 15 (5.77%) WebEx
8 14 (5.38%) Cisco Firepower
8 14 (5.38%) Cisco ISE
8 14 (5.38%) Junos
9 11 (4.23%) TCP/IP
9 11 (4.23%) Wi-Fi
10 10 (3.85%) DDNS
11 7 (2.69%) LAN
11 7 (2.69%) Skype
11 7 (2.69%) WAN
12 6 (2.31%) 4G
12 6 (2.31%) Remote Desktop
12 6 (2.31%) SMTP
13 3 (1.15%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (3.46%) SQL Server
2 4 (1.54%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (0.77%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (0.77%) Big Data
3 2 (0.77%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (1.54%) MSI
1 4 (1.54%) Robot Framework
1 4 (1.54%) Sonatype Nexus
2 3 (1.15%) Git
3 2 (0.77%) Fiddler
General
1 88 (33.85%) Social Skills
2 36 (13.85%) Finance
3 16 (6.15%) Games
4 11 (4.23%) Public Sector
5 7 (2.69%) Legal
6 6 (2.31%) Analytical Skills
7 5 (1.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (1.92%) Law
8 2 (0.77%) Manufacturing
8 2 (0.77%) Retail
9 1 (0.38%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.38%) Back Office
9 1 (0.38%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.38%) French Language
9 1 (0.38%) Front Office
9 1 (0.38%) German Language
9 1 (0.38%) Local Government
9 1 (0.38%) Marketing
9 1 (0.38%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.38%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 65 (25.00%) Support Engineer
2 38 (14.62%) Analyst
3 29 (11.15%) IT Support
4 27 (10.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 26 (10.00%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 25 (9.62%) Support Analyst
7 24 (9.23%) Architect
8 20 (7.69%) IT Engineer
9 19 (7.31%) 3rd Line Support
9 19 (7.31%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
10 18 (6.92%) 2nd Line Support
10 18 (6.92%) Deployment Engineer
10 18 (6.92%) Platform Engineer
11 17 (6.54%) IT Support Engineer
12 15 (5.77%) Desktop Support
13 14 (5.38%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
13 14 (5.38%) Cloud Engineer
13 14 (5.38%) Cloud Network Engineer
13 14 (5.38%) Desktop Engineer
13 14 (5.38%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (3.85%) SailPoint
2 7 (2.69%) OAuth
3 5 (1.92%) Middleware
4 4 (1.54%) SAML
4 4 (1.54%) YAML
5 3 (1.15%) LDAP
6 2 (0.77%) .NET
6 2 (0.77%) Jinja
6 2 (0.77%) Kafka
6 2 (0.77%) Microsoft Graph
6 2 (0.77%) OpenID
7 1 (0.38%) .NET Core
7 1 (0.38%) .NET Framework
7 1 (0.38%) CSS
7 1 (0.38%) Entity Framework
7 1 (0.38%) HTML
7 1 (0.38%) Razor View Engine
7 1 (0.38%) React
7 1 (0.38%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.38%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 18 (6.92%) PKI
2 11 (4.23%) Replication
3 10 (3.85%) Onboarding
4 8 (3.08%) Data Centre
4 8 (3.08%) Fat Client
4 8 (3.08%) Thin Client
4 8 (3.08%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (1.92%) Public Cloud
6 4 (1.54%) Clustering
6 4 (1.54%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (1.54%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (1.54%) Operational Technology
7 3 (1.15%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.15%) Private Cloud
7 3 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.15%) Virtual Team
8 2 (0.77%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (0.77%) NHS
8 2 (0.77%) SCADA
8 2 (0.77%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 180 (69.23%) Windows
2 67 (25.77%) Windows 10
3 46 (17.69%) Windows Server
4 28 (10.77%) Linux
5 21 (8.08%) Mac OS
6 17 (6.54%) Android
7 10 (3.85%) Windows Server 2003
8 9 (3.46%) Windows 7
9 6 (2.31%) Windows Server 2016
9 6 (2.31%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (1.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (1.92%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (1.54%) CentOS
12 3 (1.15%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.38%) Rocky
13 1 (0.38%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (18.46%) ITIL
2 40 (15.38%) Problem-Solving
3 31 (11.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 29 (11.15%) ITSM
5 24 (9.23%) Customer Service
6 23 (8.85%) DevOps
6 23 (8.85%) Migration
7 21 (8.08%) Service Management
8 18 (6.92%) Identity Access Management
9 17 (6.54%) Agile
9 17 (6.54%) Mobile Device Management
10 16 (6.15%) Cybersecurity
10 16 (6.15%) E-Commerce
11 15 (5.77%) High Availability
12 14 (5.38%) Prototyping
13 13 (5.00%) Architectural Design
14 12 (4.62%) Business Intelligence
14 12 (4.62%) Continuous Improvement
14 12 (4.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 12 (4.62%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 69 (26.54%) PowerShell
2 13 (5.00%) Python
3 11 (4.23%) SQL
4 7 (2.69%) Java
5 6 (2.31%) BeanShell
6 4 (1.54%) Bash
6 4 (1.54%) PHP
7 3 (1.15%) Bicep
8 2 (0.77%) C#
8 2 (0.77%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.77%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.38%) VB
Qualifications
1 85 (32.69%) Security Cleared
2 49 (18.85%) DV Cleared
3 32 (12.31%) SC Cleared
4 18 (6.92%) Degree
5 14 (5.38%) Microsoft Certification
6 8 (3.08%) DBS Check
6 8 (3.08%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (2.31%) A+ Certification
8 5 (1.92%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 4 (1.54%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.54%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (1.15%) Master's Degree
10 3 (1.15%) MCSA
11 2 (0.77%) Citrix Certification
11 2 (0.77%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 1 (0.38%) CCIE
12 1 (0.38%) CCNP
12 1 (0.38%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.38%) MCP
12 1 (0.38%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (4.23%) GDPR
2 9 (3.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (3.08%) SLA
4 2 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (0.77%) NIST
5 1 (0.38%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.38%) Government Security Classifications
5 1 (0.38%) JSP 440
5 1 (0.38%) NCSC
5 1 (0.38%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 37 (14.23%) VMware Infrastructure
2 16 (6.15%) VMware NSX
3 12 (4.62%) Hyper-V
4 10 (3.85%) Brightmail
4 10 (3.85%) ISA Server
4 10 (3.85%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (3.08%) Terminal Services
5 8 (3.08%) Virtual Desktop
5 8 (3.08%) vSphere
6 3 (1.15%) DFS Replication
7 2 (0.77%) BitLocker
7 2 (0.77%) Docker
7 2 (0.77%) Microsoft App-V
7 2 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.38%) NFS
8 1 (0.38%) UAG
8 1 (0.38%) XenApp
8 1 (0.38%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 52 (20.00%) SCCM
2 48 (18.46%) Microsoft Intune
3 18 (6.92%) Terraform
4 17 (6.54%) vCenter Server
5 14 (5.38%) Ansible
6 10 (3.85%) Microsoft Clustering
7 9 (3.46%) WMI
8 8 (3.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 7 (2.69%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (2.69%) SCOM
9 7 (2.69%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (1.92%) Kubernetes
11 2 (0.77%) logstash
11 2 (0.77%) Nagios
11 2 (0.77%) Puppet
11 2 (0.77%) SCVMM
11 2 (0.77%) vMotion
12 1 (0.38%) Cisco CUCM
12 1 (0.38%) Cisco UCCE
12 1 (0.38%) EMC NetWorker
Vendors
1 178 (68.46%) Microsoft
2 53 (20.38%) VMware
3 44 (16.92%) Cisco
4 36 (13.85%) Citrix
5 31 (11.92%) ServiceNow
6 24 (9.23%) Splunk
7 17 (6.54%) Meraki
8 14 (5.38%) Juniper
8 14 (5.38%) SolarWinds
9 13 (5.00%) Sage
10 9 (3.46%) Remedy
11 7 (2.69%) Dell
12 6 (2.31%) Google
13 5 (1.92%) CyberArk
13 5 (1.92%) Wyse
14 4 (1.54%) MuleSoft
15 3 (1.15%) Apple
15 3 (1.15%) McAfee
15 3 (1.15%) Veeam
16 2 (0.77%) Sophos