Active Directory Contract Job Trends in the South West

Microsoft Active Directory
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Active Directory skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 20 26
Rank change year-on-year -17 +6 -10
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 140 151 182
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.72% 8.88% 5.69%
As % of the System Software category 45.02% 45.90% 52.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 103 123 132
10th Percentile £156 £192 £143
25th Percentile £288 £223 £194
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £425 £363
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% +17.24% -19.44%
75th Percentile £581 £575 £597
90th Percentile £714 £675 £700
England median daily rate £450 £450 £400
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 3 12
10th Percentile - £15.75 £14.03
25th Percentile £12.43 £16.64 £33.56
Median hourly rate £19.50 £18.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.85% -54.38% -12.12%
75th Percentile £197.50 £41.44 -
90th Percentile - £55.28 -
England median hourly rate £22.50 £22.30 £17.72
% change year-on-year +0.92% +25.82% -4.22%

All System Software Skills
South West

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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 311 329 344
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 10.47% 19.35% 10.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 221 271 246
10th Percentile £206 £213 £170
25th Percentile £413 £413 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% +10.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £713 £725
England median daily rate £500 £525 £478
% change year-on-year -4.76% +9.95% -9.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 4 31
10th Percentile £12.67 £16.05 -
25th Percentile £46.00 £17.38 £40.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £40.63 £67.25
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -39.59% +12.08%
75th Percentile £72.54 £68.05 £77.13
90th Percentile £173.80 £74.44 £90.00
England median hourly rate £48.72 £28.71 £22.15
% change year-on-year +69.73% +29.59% -44.63%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Active Directory relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Active Directory job vacancy trend in the South West

Active Directory
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Active Directory.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in the South West over the 6 months to 26 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in the South West

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Active Directory.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Active Directory in the South West over the 6 months to 26 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Active Directory in the South West

Active Directory
Contract Job Locations in the South West

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 West region over the 6 months to 26 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
Wiltshire -18 42 £575 +4.55% 8
Gloucestershire -4 38 £210 -50.59% 23
Bristol -24 24 £506 +124.78% 10
Somerset -1 19 £506 +102.50% 13
Devon 0 12 £161 -35.50% 7
Active Directory
England

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 27 (19.29%) Microsoft Exchange
2 16 (11.43%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.57%) Mattermost
4 3 (2.14%) IIS
5 2 (1.43%) Confluence
5 2 (1.43%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.71%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 9 (6.43%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (3.57%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.71%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 59 (42.14%) Azure
2 36 (25.71%) Entra ID
2 36 (25.71%) Microsoft 365
3 12 (8.57%) AWS
4 7 (5.00%) Azure Monitor
4 7 (5.00%) OneDrive
5 6 (4.29%) Azure Sentinel
5 6 (4.29%) PaaS
6 5 (3.57%) GCP
6 5 (3.57%) IaaS
6 5 (3.57%) OCI
7 3 (2.14%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (2.14%) Azure Key Vault
7 3 (2.14%) Power Platform
7 3 (2.14%) ShareGate
8 2 (1.43%) Azure AKS
8 2 (1.43%) Azure Logic Apps
8 2 (1.43%) Microsoft Copilot
8 2 (1.43%) Serverless
9 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 31 (22.14%) Firewall
2 29 (20.71%) DNS
3 16 (11.43%) VPN
4 15 (10.71%) DHCP
5 8 (5.71%) Network Security
6 6 (4.29%) LAN
6 6 (4.29%) Skype
7 5 (3.57%) VLAN
8 4 (2.86%) WAN
8 4 (2.86%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (2.14%) TCP/IP
10 2 (1.43%) NAS
10 2 (1.43%) SAN
10 2 (1.43%) Wireless
11 1 (0.71%) BGP
11 1 (0.71%) BIG-IP
11 1 (0.71%) Cisco Nexus
11 1 (0.71%) EIGRP
11 1 (0.71%) OSPF
11 1 (0.71%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (5.00%) SQL Server
2 3 (2.14%) Power BI
3 1 (0.71%) Metadata
3 1 (0.71%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.71%) Oracle BI EE
3 1 (0.71%) Power Query
3 1 (0.71%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.71%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 16 (11.43%) JIRA
2 3 (2.14%) Git
3 2 (1.43%) AdminStudio
3 2 (1.43%) InstallShield
4 1 (0.71%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.71%) GitLab
4 1 (0.71%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.71%) MSI
General
1 66 (47.14%) Social Skills
2 13 (9.29%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (8.57%) Documentation Skills
4 10 (7.14%) Finance
4 10 (7.14%) Public Sector
5 5 (3.57%) Organisational Skills
6 3 (2.14%) Legal
7 2 (1.43%) Military
8 1 (0.71%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.71%) Back Office
8 1 (0.71%) Electronics
8 1 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.71%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.71%) Marketing
8 1 (0.71%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 19 (13.57%) Support Engineer
2 17 (12.14%) Architect
3 15 (10.71%) Analyst
4 14 (10.00%) Desktop Engineer
4 14 (10.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 13 (9.29%) Desktop Support
5 13 (9.29%) Desktop Support Engineer
5 13 (9.29%) IT Support
6 9 (6.43%) IT Support Specialist
6 9 (6.43%) Support Specialist
7 7 (5.00%) Consultant
7 7 (5.00%) Solutions Architect
8 6 (4.29%) Applications Packager
8 6 (4.29%) IT Engineer
8 6 (4.29%) Service Analyst
8 6 (4.29%) Service Desk Analyst
8 6 (4.29%) Technical Architect
8 6 (4.29%) Wintel Engineer
9 5 (3.57%) 2nd Line Support
9 5 (3.57%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (15.71%) OAuth
1 22 (15.71%) SAML
2 20 (14.29%) OpenID
3 19 (13.57%) OAuth2
4 4 (2.86%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.43%) .NET
5 2 (1.43%) RESTful
5 2 (1.43%) YAML
6 1 (0.71%) Apache NiFi
6 1 (0.71%) LDAP
6 1 (0.71%) REST
6 1 (0.71%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.71%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 15 (10.71%) Hybrid Cloud
2 10 (7.14%) Driving Licence
3 7 (5.00%) PKI
3 7 (5.00%) Private Cloud
3 7 (5.00%) Replication
4 6 (4.29%) Data Centre
4 6 (4.29%) Onboarding
5 4 (2.86%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (2.14%) Cloud Native
6 3 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (2.14%) Product Ownership
6 3 (2.14%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.43%) Legacy Applications
7 2 (1.43%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.71%) Device Driver
8 1 (0.71%) iPad
8 1 (0.71%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.71%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.71%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 93 (66.43%) Windows
2 44 (31.43%) Windows Server
3 20 (14.29%) Windows 10
4 17 (12.14%) Linux
5 5 (3.57%) Windows Server 2012
5 5 (3.57%) Windows Server 2016
6 3 (2.14%) CentOS
7 2 (1.43%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.71%) Android
8 1 (0.71%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (22.86%) Problem-Solving
2 30 (21.43%) ITIL
3 26 (18.57%) RBAC
4 24 (17.14%) Change Management
4 24 (17.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 23 (16.43%) Identity Access Management
6 20 (14.29%) DevOps
7 19 (13.57%) Customer Service
8 16 (11.43%) Agile
8 16 (11.43%) Infrastructure as Code
8 16 (11.43%) Technical Leadership
9 15 (10.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 13 (9.29%) Continuous Improvement
10 13 (9.29%) Load Balancing
11 12 (8.57%) Identity Management
11 12 (8.57%) Migration
12 11 (7.86%) Configuration Management
12 11 (7.86%) Mentoring
12 11 (7.86%) Service Management
13 10 (7.14%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 58 (41.43%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.71%) Bicep
3 7 (5.00%) Python
4 6 (4.29%) SQL
5 2 (1.43%) C#
5 2 (1.43%) JavaScript
5 2 (1.43%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.71%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 77 (55.00%) Security Cleared
2 41 (29.29%) SC Cleared
3 33 (23.57%) DV Cleared
4 28 (20.00%) Microsoft Certification
5 11 (7.86%) Azure Certification
6 4 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (2.86%) Degree
6 4 (2.86%) ITIL Certification
6 4 (2.86%) MCSE
7 1 (0.71%) ACSP
7 1 (0.71%) MCSA
7 1 (0.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (3.57%) GDPR
3 4 (2.86%) NCSC
4 2 (1.43%) NIST
4 2 (1.43%) PSD2
4 2 (1.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.71%) Government Security Classifications
5 1 (0.71%) SLA
System Software
1 22 (15.71%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (9.29%) Hyper-V
3 7 (5.00%) VMware NSX
4 3 (2.14%) Docker
4 3 (2.14%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (1.43%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.71%) Firmware
6 1 (0.71%) UAG
6 1 (0.71%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.71%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 35 (25.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 31 (22.14%) Single Sign-On
3 24 (17.14%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (11.43%) Terraform
5 15 (10.71%) SCCM
6 6 (4.29%) Ansible
7 5 (3.57%) Kubernetes
7 5 (3.57%) WSUS
8 2 (1.43%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (1.43%) McAfee ePO
8 2 (1.43%) NetBackup
8 2 (1.43%) Puppet
9 1 (0.71%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.71%) Grafana
9 1 (0.71%) Kibana
9 1 (0.71%) logstash
9 1 (0.71%) SCOM
9 1 (0.71%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 91 (65.00%) Microsoft
2 30 (21.43%) VMware
3 6 (4.29%) McAfee
3 6 (4.29%) Remedy
4 4 (2.86%) Cisco
4 4 (2.86%) Starlink
5 3 (2.14%) Citrix
5 3 (2.14%) Google
5 3 (2.14%) Red Hat
6 2 (1.43%) Broadcom
6 2 (1.43%) CheckPoint
6 2 (1.43%) Commvault
6 2 (1.43%) ForgeRock
6 2 (1.43%) NetApp
6 2 (1.43%) Ping Identity
6 2 (1.43%) SolarWinds
6 2 (1.43%) Veeam
6 2 (1.43%) Veritas
7 1 (0.71%) IFS
7 1 (0.71%) Palo Alto