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

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 18 22
Rank change year-on-year -8 +4 -5
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 162 174 197
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 6.34% 9.04% 6.53%
As % of the System Software category 51.43% 49.01% 51.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 124 125 130
10th Percentile £173 £194 £142
25th Percentile £275 £223 £193
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £425 £300
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% +41.67% -32.13%
75th Percentile £578 £550 £647
90th Percentile £699 £638 £701
England median daily rate £450 £405 £400
% change year-on-year +11.11% +1.25% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 20
10th Percentile £41.16 - £14.23
25th Percentile £94.25 £12.50 £17.44
Median hourly rate £195.00 £14.50 £21.75
Median % change year-on-year +1244.83% -33.33% -46.99%
75th Percentile £197.50 £28.50 £41.60
90th Percentile - £50.10 £69.62
England median hourly rate £22.27 £22.09 £18.53
% change year-on-year +0.79% +19.21% +0.16%

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 315 355 381
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 12.33% 18.44% 12.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 240 255 244
10th Percentile £219 £213 £170
25th Percentile £425 £413 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -2.33% +2.38%
75th Percentile £649 £625 £675
90th Percentile £715 £725 £738
England median daily rate £500 £525 £488
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -8.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 5 45
10th Percentile £61.25 - £16.27
25th Percentile £61.50 £12.50 £40.00
Median hourly rate £66.50 £16.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +315.63% -75.75% +9.97%
75th Percentile £95.00 £58.00 £70.66
90th Percentile £197.50 £61.90 £90.00
England median hourly rate £34.00 £28.71 £45.01
% change year-on-year +18.45% -36.23% +16.91%

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 23 January 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 23 January 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 23 January 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 -13 46 £575 +9.52% 22
Gloucestershire -3 43 £313 -26.47% 21
Somerset +2 33 £475 +49.02% 11
Bristol -28 24 £525 +50.00% 16
Devon +9 14 £275 -16.67% 21
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 36 (22.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (19.14%) SharePoint
3 7 (4.32%) Skype for Business
4 4 (2.47%) IIS
4 4 (2.47%) SharePoint Server
5 2 (1.23%) Confluence
6 1 (0.62%) nginx
Applications
1 14 (8.64%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.23%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (1.23%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.62%) assyst
2 1 (0.62%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 68 (41.98%) Azure
2 41 (25.31%) Microsoft 365
3 36 (22.22%) Entra ID
4 15 (9.26%) AWS
5 9 (5.56%) GCP
6 7 (4.32%) Azure Monitor
6 7 (4.32%) Azure Sentinel
6 7 (4.32%) OneDrive
7 6 (3.70%) Power Platform
7 6 (3.70%) ShareGate
8 5 (3.09%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (2.47%) Azure AKS
10 3 (1.85%) Azure Key Vault
10 3 (1.85%) IaaS
10 3 (1.85%) OCI
10 3 (1.85%) PaaS
10 3 (1.85%) SaaS
11 2 (1.23%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 2 (1.23%) Azure Logic Apps
11 2 (1.23%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 42 (25.93%) DNS
2 29 (17.90%) Firewall
3 19 (11.73%) DHCP
4 17 (10.49%) VPN
5 14 (8.64%) Skype
6 8 (4.94%) Network Security
7 5 (3.09%) TCP/IP
7 5 (3.09%) Unified Communications
8 3 (1.85%) Kerberos
8 3 (1.85%) LAN
8 3 (1.85%) WAN
9 2 (1.23%) NAS
9 2 (1.23%) SAN
9 2 (1.23%) SMTP
10 1 (0.62%) DKIM
10 1 (0.62%) DMARC
10 1 (0.62%) SD-WAN
10 1 (0.62%) VLAN
10 1 (0.62%) VoIP
10 1 (0.62%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (8.02%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.70%) Power BI
3 3 (1.85%) Metadata
4 2 (1.23%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (1.23%) Looker
4 2 (1.23%) MySQL
4 2 (1.23%) Tableau
5 1 (0.62%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 10 (6.17%) MSI
2 6 (3.70%) JIRA
3 5 (3.09%) AdminStudio
3 5 (3.09%) InstallShield
4 2 (1.23%) Git
5 1 (0.62%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.62%) GitLab
5 1 (0.62%) Jenkins
General
1 70 (43.21%) Social Skills
2 19 (11.73%) Analytical Skills
2 19 (11.73%) Public Sector
3 18 (11.11%) Documentation Skills
4 11 (6.79%) Finance
5 3 (1.85%) Aerospace
6 2 (1.23%) Electronics
6 2 (1.23%) Law
6 2 (1.23%) Legal
6 2 (1.23%) Manufacturing
6 2 (1.23%) Marketing
6 2 (1.23%) Military
6 2 (1.23%) Telecoms
7 1 (0.62%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 20 (12.35%) Support Engineer
2 16 (9.88%) Desktop Engineer
2 16 (9.88%) Desktop Support
2 16 (9.88%) Desktop Support Engineer
3 15 (9.26%) Architect
4 14 (8.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 12 (7.41%) Analyst
6 10 (6.17%) Consultant
7 9 (5.56%) Applications Engineer
7 9 (5.56%) Deployment Engineer
8 8 (4.94%) Field Engineer
8 8 (4.94%) Platform Engineer
8 8 (4.94%) Wintel Engineer
9 7 (4.32%) IT Engineer
10 6 (3.70%) Solutions Architect
11 5 (3.09%) Developer
11 5 (3.09%) IT Support
11 5 (3.09%) SC Cleared Deployment Engineer
11 5 (3.09%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
11 5 (3.09%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (16.67%) OAuth
1 27 (16.67%) SAML
2 25 (15.43%) OpenID
3 21 (12.96%) OAuth2
4 6 (3.70%) LDAP
5 3 (1.85%) .NET
5 3 (1.85%) ARM Templates
5 3 (1.85%) Express.js
5 3 (1.85%) React
5 3 (1.85%) SailPoint
6 2 (1.23%) Next.js
6 2 (1.23%) Node.js
6 2 (1.23%) RESTful
6 2 (1.23%) YAML
7 1 (0.62%) Middleware
7 1 (0.62%) SOAP
7 1 (0.62%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.62%) WCF
7 1 (0.62%) Web Services
7 1 (0.62%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 15 (9.26%) PKI
2 13 (8.02%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (6.79%) Driving Licence
4 7 (4.32%) Replication
5 6 (3.70%) Private Cloud
6 5 (3.09%) Cloud Native
6 5 (3.09%) Data Centre
6 5 (3.09%) Legacy Applications
6 5 (3.09%) Onboarding
7 4 (2.47%) Security Posture
8 3 (1.85%) iPad
8 3 (1.85%) iPhone
8 3 (1.85%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.85%) Operational Technology
8 3 (1.85%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.62%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.62%) CMDB
9 1 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.62%) Device Driver
9 1 (0.62%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 116 (71.60%) Windows
2 53 (32.72%) Windows Server
3 47 (29.01%) Windows 10
4 25 (15.43%) Linux
5 8 (4.94%) Windows Server 2012
6 6 (3.70%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (3.09%) Apple iOS
8 4 (2.47%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (1.85%) CentOS
10 2 (1.23%) Android
10 2 (1.23%) Mac OS
10 2 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.62%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (22.84%) Problem-Solving
2 36 (22.22%) ITIL
3 29 (17.90%) RBAC
4 24 (14.81%) Change Management
5 23 (14.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 20 (12.35%) Customer Service
7 19 (11.73%) DevOps
7 19 (11.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 18 (11.11%) Identity Access Management
8 18 (11.11%) Migration
9 17 (10.49%) Root Cause Analysis
10 16 (9.88%) Agile
11 14 (8.64%) Infrastructure as Code
12 13 (8.02%) Load Balancing
12 13 (8.02%) Runbook
12 13 (8.02%) Service Management
12 13 (8.02%) Technical Leadership
13 11 (6.79%) Application Packaging
13 11 (6.79%) Identity Management
14 10 (6.17%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 64 (39.51%) PowerShell
2 13 (8.02%) SQL
3 10 (6.17%) Bicep
4 8 (4.94%) VBScript
5 7 (4.32%) Python
6 4 (2.47%) JavaScript
6 4 (2.47%) TypeScript
7 3 (1.85%) C#
8 1 (0.62%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 102 (62.96%) Security Cleared
2 61 (37.65%) SC Cleared
3 43 (26.54%) Microsoft Certification
4 31 (19.14%) DV Cleared
5 10 (6.17%) ITIL Certification
5 10 (6.17%) MCSE
6 9 (5.56%) Azure Certification
6 9 (5.56%) Degree
7 7 (4.32%) A+ Certification
8 6 (3.70%) MCSA
9 5 (3.09%) CCNA
9 5 (3.09%) CCNP
9 5 (3.09%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (3.09%) Master's Degree
10 2 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (1.23%) CISM
10 2 (1.23%) CISSP
11 1 (0.62%) MCITP
11 1 (0.62%) MCP
11 1 (0.62%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.17%) GDPR
1 10 (6.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (2.47%) NCSC
3 2 (1.23%) NIST
3 2 (1.23%) PSD2
3 2 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 2 (1.23%) SLA
3 2 (1.23%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.62%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 36 (22.22%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (8.64%) Hyper-V
3 12 (7.41%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (4.94%) Microsoft App-V
4 8 (4.94%) VMware NSX
5 5 (3.09%) Docker
5 5 (3.09%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 5 (3.09%) Virtual Servers
6 4 (2.47%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.62%) Firmware
7 1 (0.62%) UAG
7 1 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 34 (20.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 32 (19.75%) Single Sign-On
3 29 (17.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 27 (16.67%) SCCM
5 15 (9.26%) WSUS
6 12 (7.41%) Terraform
6 12 (7.41%) vCenter Server
7 7 (4.32%) Kubernetes
8 3 (1.85%) Ansible
8 3 (1.85%) Kibana
9 2 (1.23%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (1.23%) NetApp OnCommand
9 2 (1.23%) NetBackup
9 2 (1.23%) PingFederate
9 2 (1.23%) Puppet
9 2 (1.23%) vMotion
10 1 (0.62%) CA Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.62%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.62%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.62%) SCOM
Vendors
1 126 (77.78%) Microsoft
2 45 (27.78%) VMware
3 19 (11.73%) Cisco
4 11 (6.79%) SolarWinds
4 11 (6.79%) Veeam
5 5 (3.09%) Splunk
6 4 (2.47%) ForgeRock
6 4 (2.47%) Ping Identity
7 3 (1.85%) Citrix
7 3 (1.85%) Google
7 3 (1.85%) McAfee
7 3 (1.85%) Red Hat
7 3 (1.85%) Starlink
8 2 (1.23%) Commvault
8 2 (1.23%) Micro Focus
8 2 (1.23%) NetApp
8 2 (1.23%) Oracle
8 2 (1.23%) Salesforce
8 2 (1.23%) SAP
8 2 (1.23%) Veritas