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 18 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 39 25 29
Rank change year-on-year -14 +4 -5
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 167 128 154
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.52% 6.36% 6.20%
As % of the System Software category 46.78% 48.48% 38.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 96 101
10th Percentile £185 £200 £140
25th Percentile £331 £225 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £345 £470
Median % change year-on-year +52.17% -26.60% -4.08%
75th Percentile £588 £550 £575
90th Percentile £716 £588 £638
England median daily rate £450 £425 £425
% change year-on-year +5.88% - +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 2 4
10th Percentile £20.25 £57.90 -
25th Percentile £37.00 £58.50 £12.50
Median hourly rate £63.14 £64.00 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.35% +341.38% -8.81%
75th Percentile £98.82 £70.50 £35.50
90th Percentile £100.00 £71.70 £69.70
England median hourly rate £52.50 £22.00 £23.10
% change year-on-year +138.64% -4.76% +18.46%

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.

6 months to
18 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 357 264 397
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 9.67% 13.11% 15.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 225 204 258
10th Percentile £228 £215 £224
25th Percentile £425 £341 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £625
90th Percentile £725 £700 £693
England median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 8 7
10th Percentile £26.00 £60.13 £12.50
25th Percentile £54.00 £61.25 £14.00
Median hourly rate £64.07 £65.75 £58.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% +13.36% -5.31%
75th Percentile £90.00 £83.75 £85.00
90th Percentile £98.82 £95.00 £88.00
England median hourly rate £62.50 £32.77 £50.00
% change year-on-year +90.72% -34.46% +5.26%

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 18 October 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 18 October 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 18 October 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 +12 56 £525 -4.55% 25
Bristol 0 36 £525 +2.64% 12
Somerset -18 31 £575 +130.00% 20
Gloucestershire -11 20 £226 -30.38% 17
Dorset -3 11 £540 +163.41% 14
Avon -2 3 - - 5
Devon -18 2 £473 +71.82% 10
Active Directory
England

Active Directory Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

System Software

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1VMware Infrastructure25.7%43
2Hyper-V20.4%34
3vSphere10.8%18
4VMware NSX9.6%16
5Docker9.0%15
6Virtual Desktop7.2%12
7Virtual Machines5.4%9
8VMware Workstation2.4%4
9VMware ESXi1.8%3
10BitLocker1.2%2
11KVM0.6%1
11Microsoft App-V0.6%1
11NFS0.6%1