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 6 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 25 20 25
Rank change year-on-year -5 +5 +1
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 144 176 199
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 6.76% 7.33% 6.38%
As % of the System Software category 50.70% 41.22% 45.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 110 120 121
10th Percentile £199 £200 £158
25th Percentile £228 £297 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £470 £488
Median % change year-on-year -9.57% -3.59% +14.71%
75th Percentile £575 £556 £625
90th Percentile £603 £619 £675
England median daily rate £438 £425 £400
% change year-on-year +2.94% +6.25% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 4 22
10th Percentile £57.90 - £13.25
25th Percentile £58.50 £12.50 £13.50
Median hourly rate £64.00 £14.50 £17.23
Median % change year-on-year +341.38% -15.84% -58.01%
75th Percentile £70.50 £35.50 £21.50
90th Percentile £71.70 £69.70 £69.62
England median hourly rate £22.00 £23.80 £19.50
% change year-on-year -7.56% +22.05% +5.41%

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 284 427 439
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 13.34% 17.78% 14.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 222 281 292
10th Percentile £213 £250 £191
25th Percentile £366 £450 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £538 £548
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% -1.83% +6.83%
75th Percentile £649 £625 £632
90th Percentile £706 £675 £700
England median daily rate £500 £515 £500
% change year-on-year -2.91% +3.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 5 44
10th Percentile £60.50 - £13.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £12.50 £17.69
Median hourly rate £66.50 £16.00 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +315.63% -73.88% +22.50%
75th Percentile £80.00 £58.00 £69.62
90th Percentile £95.00 £78.70 £76.25
England median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -40.00% +14.29% +86.17%

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 6 November 2025.

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
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 6 November 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
Wiltshire -8 36 £565 +12.44% 50
Gloucestershire +6 34 £325 -30.85% 35
Somerset +4 34 £263 +5.00% 25
Bristol -17 24 £531 +17.94% 29
Devon +6 13 £275 -31.68% 12
Dorset -4 3 £205 -18.00% 10
Avon - 2 £275 - 15
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 37 (25.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (23.61%) SharePoint
3 7 (4.86%) Skype for Business
4 4 (2.78%) Confluence
4 4 (2.78%) IIS
4 4 (2.78%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.69%) nginx
Applications
1 19 (13.19%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.39%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (1.39%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.69%) assyst
2 1 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.69%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 51 (35.42%) Azure
2 48 (33.33%) Microsoft 365
3 31 (21.53%) Entra ID
4 11 (7.64%) AWS
5 10 (6.94%) OneDrive
6 6 (4.17%) Power Platform
6 6 (4.17%) ShareGate
7 5 (3.47%) GCP
8 4 (2.78%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (2.78%) SaaS
9 3 (2.08%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (2.08%) Azure Key Vault
10 2 (1.39%) Azure AKS
10 2 (1.39%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 2 (1.39%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (1.39%) Microsoft Purview
11 1 (0.69%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (0.69%) Dynamics 365
11 1 (0.69%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 40 (27.78%) DNS
2 20 (13.89%) Firewall
3 16 (11.11%) DHCP
4 15 (10.42%) VPN
5 13 (9.03%) Skype
6 10 (6.94%) VoIP
7 7 (4.86%) WAN
8 6 (4.17%) LAN
9 5 (3.47%) Unified Communications
9 5 (3.47%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (2.78%) Network Security
10 4 (2.78%) TCP/IP
11 3 (2.08%) Kerberos
11 3 (2.08%) NetScaler
11 3 (2.08%) VLAN
12 2 (1.39%) SMTP
13 1 (0.69%) Cisco IOS
13 1 (0.69%) NAS
13 1 (0.69%) SAN
13 1 (0.69%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (7.64%) SQL Server
2 6 (4.17%) Power BI
3 3 (2.08%) Metadata
4 2 (1.39%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (1.39%) Looker
4 2 (1.39%) MySQL
4 2 (1.39%) Relational Database
4 2 (1.39%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 10 (6.94%) MSI
2 8 (5.56%) JIRA
3 5 (3.47%) AdminStudio
3 5 (3.47%) InstallShield
General
1 62 (43.06%) Social Skills
2 20 (13.89%) Public Sector
3 16 (11.11%) Documentation Skills
4 15 (10.42%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (7.64%) Finance
6 4 (2.78%) Legal
7 3 (2.08%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.39%) Aerospace
8 2 (1.39%) Billing
8 2 (1.39%) Law
8 2 (1.39%) Military
8 2 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.69%) Electronics
9 1 (0.69%) Marketing
9 1 (0.69%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 25 (17.36%) Support Engineer
2 13 (9.03%) Analyst
3 11 (7.64%) Deployment Engineer
4 10 (6.94%) Consultant
4 10 (6.94%) IT Engineer
5 9 (6.25%) Applications Engineer
5 9 (6.25%) Architect
5 9 (6.25%) Desktop Engineer
5 9 (6.25%) Desktop Support
5 9 (6.25%) Desktop Support Engineer
5 9 (6.25%) IT Support
6 8 (5.56%) Field Engineer
6 8 (5.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 8 (5.56%) Platform Engineer
7 7 (4.86%) Technical Support
7 7 (4.86%) Wintel Engineer
8 6 (4.17%) IT Support Engineer
8 6 (4.17%) Technical Engineer
8 6 (4.17%) Technical Support Engineer
9 5 (3.47%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (12.50%) OAuth
1 18 (12.50%) OpenID
1 18 (12.50%) SAML
2 14 (9.72%) OAuth2
3 6 (4.17%) LDAP
4 4 (2.78%) SailPoint
5 3 (2.08%) Express.js
5 3 (2.08%) React
6 2 (1.39%) Next.js
6 2 (1.39%) Node.js
6 2 (1.39%) RESTful
7 1 (0.69%) .NET
7 1 (0.69%) ASP.NET Web API
7 1 (0.69%) Middleware
7 1 (0.69%) SOAP
7 1 (0.69%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.69%) WCF
7 1 (0.69%) Web Services
7 1 (0.69%) WPF
7 1 (0.69%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 14 (9.72%) PKI
2 8 (5.56%) Driving Licence
2 8 (5.56%) Enterprise Software
3 6 (4.17%) Onboarding
4 5 (3.47%) Legacy Applications
4 5 (3.47%) Private Cloud
4 5 (3.47%) Replication
5 4 (2.78%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (2.78%) Security Posture
6 3 (2.08%) iPad
6 3 (2.08%) iPhone
6 3 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.39%) Blackberry
7 2 (1.39%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.39%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.69%) Cyber Threat
8 1 (0.69%) Device Driver
8 1 (0.69%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.69%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 101 (70.14%) Windows
2 52 (36.11%) Windows 10
3 39 (27.08%) Windows Server
4 18 (12.50%) Linux
5 10 (6.94%) Windows Server 2012
6 8 (5.56%) Android
7 7 (4.86%) Apple iOS
8 6 (4.17%) Mac OS
9 4 (2.78%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (1.39%) CentOS
10 2 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (1.39%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.69%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (26.39%) ITIL
2 30 (20.83%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (16.67%) RBAC
4 21 (14.58%) Customer Service
5 20 (13.89%) Agile
6 19 (13.19%) Migration
7 18 (12.50%) Root Cause Analysis
8 17 (11.81%) Change Management
9 16 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 15 (10.42%) DevOps
10 15 (10.42%) Identity Access Management
10 15 (10.42%) Service Management
11 12 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 12 (8.33%) Knowledge Transfer
12 10 (6.94%) Runbook
13 9 (6.25%) Application Packaging
13 9 (6.25%) ITSM
14 8 (5.56%) Load Balancing
14 8 (5.56%) Service Delivery
14 8 (5.56%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 48 (33.33%) PowerShell
2 11 (7.64%) SQL
3 8 (5.56%) VBScript
4 5 (3.47%) Bicep
4 5 (3.47%) Python
5 2 (1.39%) JavaScript
5 2 (1.39%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.69%) C#
6 1 (0.69%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 87 (60.42%) Security Cleared
2 60 (41.67%) SC Cleared
3 34 (23.61%) Microsoft Certification
4 21 (14.58%) DV Cleared
5 11 (7.64%) Degree
6 10 (6.94%) ITIL Certification
7 9 (6.25%) MCSE
8 8 (5.56%) A+ Certification
9 6 (4.17%) MCSA
10 5 (3.47%) CCNA
10 5 (3.47%) CCNP
10 5 (3.47%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (3.47%) Master's Degree
11 2 (1.39%) Azure Certification
11 2 (1.39%) CISM
11 2 (1.39%) CISSP
11 2 (1.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 1 (0.69%) MCITP
12 1 (0.69%) MCP
12 1 (0.69%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (9.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (8.33%) GDPR
3 10 (6.94%) SLA
4 4 (2.78%) NCSC
4 4 (2.78%) NIST
5 3 (2.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (1.39%) PSD2
6 2 (1.39%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.69%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.69%) HIPAA
System Software
1 34 (23.61%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (7.64%) Virtual Machines
3 8 (5.56%) Hyper-V
3 8 (5.56%) Microsoft App-V
4 6 (4.17%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (3.47%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 5 (3.47%) Virtual Servers
5 5 (3.47%) VMware NSX
6 4 (2.78%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (2.08%) XenDesktop
8 2 (1.39%) Docker
9 1 (0.69%) UAG
Systems Management
1 29 (20.14%) SCCM
2 24 (16.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (16.67%) Single Sign-On
3 23 (15.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 14 (9.72%) WSUS
5 12 (8.33%) vCenter Server
6 5 (3.47%) Terraform
7 3 (2.08%) Kubernetes
8 2 (1.39%) Ansible
8 2 (1.39%) AppManager
8 2 (1.39%) Kibana
8 2 (1.39%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (1.39%) NetApp OnCommand
8 2 (1.39%) NetBackup
8 2 (1.39%) PingFederate
8 2 (1.39%) vMotion
8 2 (1.39%) VxRail
9 1 (0.69%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.69%) Puppet
9 1 (0.69%) SCOM
Vendors
1 108 (75.00%) Microsoft
2 41 (28.47%) VMware
3 20 (13.89%) Cisco
4 12 (8.33%) ServiceNow
5 10 (6.94%) SolarWinds
5 10 (6.94%) Veeam
6 7 (4.86%) Citrix
7 5 (3.47%) Ivanti
7 5 (3.47%) Remedy
7 5 (3.47%) Splunk
8 4 (2.78%) ForgeRock
8 4 (2.78%) Ping Identity
9 3 (2.08%) McAfee
9 3 (2.08%) Okta
9 3 (2.08%) Starlink
10 2 (1.39%) Commvault
10 2 (1.39%) NetIQ
10 2 (1.39%) Red Hat
10 2 (1.39%) Salesforce
10 2 (1.39%) Veritas