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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 30 35
Rank change year-on-year -8 +5 -8
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 154 96 156
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.33% 5.13% 5.00%
As % of the System Software category 44.90% 39.51% 37.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 90 75 117
10th Percentile £176 £183 £143
25th Percentile £227 £210 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £275 £488
Median % change year-on-year +65.91% -43.59% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £630 £610 £675
England median daily rate £450 £450 £450
% change year-on-year - - +7.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 3 10
10th Percentile £12.43 £15.75 £14.00
25th Percentile £13.65 £16.64 -
Median hourly rate £19.50 £18.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.85% -54.38% +151.57%
75th Percentile £65.96 £45.44 -
90th Percentile £99.88 £61.68 £45.25
England median hourly rate £26.66 £23.00 £17.72
% change year-on-year +15.91% +29.80% -11.40%

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 343 243 419
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 9.64% 12.98% 13.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 190 309
10th Percentile £210 £207 £212
25th Percentile £400 £373 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +2.33% +7.50%
75th Percentile £613 £622 £600
90th Percentile £674 £693 £672
England median daily rate £500 £500 £508
% change year-on-year - -1.48% -3.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 5 20
10th Percentile £13.65 £16.34 £37.40
25th Percentile £19.88 £18.13 £40.00
Median hourly rate £51.00 £65.00 £58.63
Median % change year-on-year -21.54% +10.87% -2.13%
75th Percentile £69.67 £78.70 £85.00
90th Percentile £88.01 £79.48 £85.50
England median hourly rate £55.00 £34.50 £22.15
% change year-on-year +59.42% +55.76% -49.37%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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
Bristol 0 47 £500 +112.77% 12
Gloucestershire +1 36 £269 -8.90% 16
Wiltshire -16 26 £568 +8.10% 7
Somerset -19 19 £478 +91.00% 12
Dorset -8 9 £540 +163.41% 3
Devon -11 8 £325 +62.50% 6
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 24 (15.58%) SharePoint
2 23 (14.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (3.90%) Mattermost
4 5 (3.25%) IIS
5 2 (1.30%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (3.25%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.65%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 11 (7.14%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.30%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 63 (40.91%) Azure
2 44 (28.57%) Entra ID
3 38 (24.68%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (10.39%) AWS
5 12 (7.79%) SaaS
6 7 (4.55%) Google Workspace
7 6 (3.90%) GCP
8 5 (3.25%) Google Drive
8 5 (3.25%) Power Platform
9 3 (1.95%) Asana
9 3 (1.95%) OCI
9 3 (1.95%) OneDrive
9 3 (1.95%) PaaS
10 2 (1.30%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (1.30%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.30%) IaaS
10 2 (1.30%) OpenShift
11 1 (0.65%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 1 (0.65%) Azure Key Vault
11 1 (0.65%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 46 (29.87%) DNS
2 35 (22.73%) DHCP
3 25 (16.23%) Firewall
4 17 (11.04%) TCP/IP
5 14 (9.09%) VPN
6 9 (5.84%) SAN
7 8 (5.19%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (4.55%) LAN
8 7 (4.55%) Network Security
8 7 (4.55%) VLAN
9 6 (3.90%) VSAN
9 6 (3.90%) WAN
10 5 (3.25%) VoIP
11 4 (2.60%) NAS
12 3 (1.95%) DKIM
12 3 (1.95%) DMARC
13 2 (1.30%) BGP
13 2 (1.30%) Cisco Nexus
13 2 (1.30%) Skype
13 2 (1.30%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.90%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.25%) Power BI
3 3 (1.95%) Oracle BI EE
3 3 (1.95%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.65%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.65%) Metadata
4 1 (0.65%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.65%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.65%) Power Query
4 1 (0.65%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 24 (15.58%) JIRA
2 2 (1.30%) AdminStudio
2 2 (1.30%) Git
2 2 (1.30%) InstallShield
3 1 (0.65%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.65%) GitLab
3 1 (0.65%) Jenkins
General
1 44 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 22 (14.29%) Public Sector
3 11 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (4.55%) Documentation Skills
4 7 (4.55%) Finance
5 6 (3.90%) Legal
5 6 (3.90%) Organisational Skills
6 4 (2.60%) Military
6 4 (2.60%) Police
7 2 (1.30%) Law
8 1 (0.65%) Advertising
8 1 (0.65%) Back Office
8 1 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 23 (14.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 19 (12.34%) Support Engineer
3 17 (11.04%) Analyst
3 17 (11.04%) IT Support
4 15 (9.74%) Architect
5 11 (7.14%) Administrator
5 11 (7.14%) Senior
5 11 (7.14%) Service Analyst
5 11 (7.14%) Service Desk Analyst
6 9 (5.84%) Desktop Engineer
7 8 (5.19%) Consultant
7 8 (5.19%) Desktop Support
7 8 (5.19%) Desktop Support Engineer
7 8 (5.19%) IT Engineer
7 8 (5.19%) Service Desk Support
7 8 (5.19%) Technical Architect
8 7 (4.55%) Active Directory Consultant
8 7 (4.55%) IT Consultant
8 7 (4.55%) IT Support Specialist
8 7 (4.55%) Support Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (5.84%) LDAP
2 8 (5.19%) SailPoint
3 5 (3.25%) Elastic Stack
4 4 (2.60%) OAuth
5 2 (1.30%) REST
6 1 (0.65%) Apache NiFi
6 1 (0.65%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.65%) HTML5 Canvas
6 1 (0.65%) JSON
6 1 (0.65%) OpenID
6 1 (0.65%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (10.39%) PKI
2 12 (7.79%) Data Centre
2 12 (7.79%) Onboarding
3 11 (7.14%) Enterprise Software
3 11 (7.14%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (7.14%) Management Information System
4 10 (6.49%) Driving Licence
5 6 (3.90%) Self-Motivation
6 5 (3.25%) Product Ownership
7 4 (2.60%) Augmented Reality
7 4 (2.60%) Clustering
7 4 (2.60%) Linux Command Line
7 4 (2.60%) Virtual Reality
8 3 (1.95%) Fat Client
8 3 (1.95%) Freedom of Information
8 3 (1.95%) Smartcard
8 3 (1.95%) Thin Client
9 2 (1.30%) Legacy Applications
9 2 (1.30%) Private Cloud
10 1 (0.65%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 98 (63.64%) Windows
2 37 (24.03%) Linux
3 33 (21.43%) Windows Server
4 25 (16.23%) Windows 10
5 10 (6.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (4.55%) Android
7 3 (1.95%) CentOS
7 3 (1.95%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.95%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.30%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.30%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (1.30%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.65%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.65%) Rocky
9 1 (0.65%) SUSE
9 1 (0.65%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (27.27%) Problem-Solving
2 30 (19.48%) ITIL
3 29 (18.83%) Customer Service
4 26 (16.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 25 (16.23%) Continuous Improvement
6 20 (12.99%) ITSM
7 19 (12.34%) Cybersecurity
7 19 (12.34%) Identity Access Management
7 19 (12.34%) Infrastructure as Code
7 19 (12.34%) Technical Leadership
8 17 (11.04%) Change Management
9 16 (10.39%) Migration
10 14 (9.09%) Agile
11 13 (8.44%) DevOps
12 12 (7.79%) CI/CD
12 12 (7.79%) Configuration Management
12 12 (7.79%) Service Management
12 12 (7.79%) SIEM
13 11 (7.14%) AI
13 11 (7.14%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 38 (24.68%) PowerShell
2 13 (8.44%) Python
3 11 (7.14%) Bash
4 6 (3.90%) Java
5 5 (3.25%) BeanShell
6 3 (1.95%) SQL
7 1 (0.65%) C#
7 1 (0.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 83 (53.90%) Security Cleared
2 46 (29.87%) SC Cleared
3 40 (25.97%) DV Cleared
4 8 (5.19%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (4.55%) Cisco Certification
5 7 (4.55%) Microsoft Certification
6 5 (3.25%) Azure Certification
6 5 (3.25%) Degree
6 5 (3.25%) VCAP
7 4 (2.60%) CCNA
8 3 (1.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 3 (1.95%) ACSP
8 3 (1.95%) CISSP
9 2 (1.30%) A+ Certification
9 2 (1.30%) AWS Certification
9 2 (1.30%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.65%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.25%) SLA
2 3 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.65%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.65%) NCSC
System Software
1 37 (24.03%) VMware Infrastructure
2 28 (18.18%) Hyper-V
3 13 (8.44%) VMware NSX
4 10 (6.49%) Docker
5 9 (5.84%) Virtual Desktop
5 9 (5.84%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (5.84%) vSphere
6 3 (1.95%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.65%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.65%) KVM
7 1 (0.65%) NFS
7 1 (0.65%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 21 (13.64%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (10.39%) Kubernetes
3 15 (9.74%) Ansible
3 15 (9.74%) Terraform
4 10 (6.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 10 (6.49%) Single Sign-On
5 9 (5.84%) SCCM
6 6 (3.90%) VxRail
7 5 (3.25%) WSUS
8 4 (2.60%) OPNET
8 4 (2.60%) Proxmox
9 3 (1.95%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (1.30%) Grafana
10 2 (1.30%) McAfee ePO
11 1 (0.65%) CA Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.65%) Nagios
11 1 (0.65%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.65%) Puppet
11 1 (0.65%) SCOM
11 1 (0.65%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 78 (50.65%) Microsoft
2 40 (25.97%) VMware
3 12 (7.79%) Remedy
4 11 (7.14%) Cisco
4 11 (7.14%) McAfee
5 9 (5.84%) CyberArk
6 7 (4.55%) Google
6 7 (4.55%) Oracle
7 6 (3.90%) Red Hat
7 6 (3.90%) Starlink
8 5 (3.25%) ServiceNow
9 4 (2.60%) Apple
9 4 (2.60%) Clearswift
9 4 (2.60%) Tanium
9 4 (2.60%) Trend Micro
10 2 (1.30%) Thales
11 1 (0.65%) Darktrace
11 1 (0.65%) Databricks
11 1 (0.65%) Palo Alto
11 1 (0.65%) Samsung