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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 24 32
Rank change year-on-year -13 +8 -15
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 138 126 164
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.06% 7.40% 5.05%
As % of the System Software category 43.13% 44.21% 41.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 103 127
10th Percentile £156 £184 £143
25th Percentile £210 £213 £179
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £413 £439
Median % change year-on-year -3.03% -6.09% -12.15%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £613 £638 £696
England median daily rate £450 £450 £425
% change year-on-year - +5.88% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 2 11
10th Percentile £12.43 £15.45 £14.00
25th Percentile £13.65 £15.90 -
Median hourly rate £19.50 £16.78 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.21% -58.05% +116.22%
75th Percentile £26.00 £17.65 -
90th Percentile £80.80 £18.08 -
England median hourly rate £26.00 £18.76 £17.50
% change year-on-year +38.59% +7.20% -12.50%

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 320 285 395
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 9.41% 16.75% 12.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 192 231 295
10th Percentile £205 £208 £174
25th Percentile £384 £403 £439
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.33% +4.88%
75th Percentile £602 £623 £600
90th Percentile £661 £695 £675
England median daily rate £500 £513 £500
% change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 4 32
10th Percentile £13.65 £16.05 -
25th Percentile £20.58 £17.38 £40.00
Median hourly rate £54.25 £48.48 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year +11.91% -29.49% +13.92%
75th Percentile £65.00 £79.03 £86.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £79.61 £90.00
England median hourly rate £53.00 £28.41 £22.15
% change year-on-year +86.55% +28.26% -57.81%

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 30 May 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 30 May 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 30 May 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
Gloucestershire +2 41 £210 -22.94% 6
Bristol -13 41 £350 +48.94% 13
Wiltshire -21 24 £575 +4.55% 4
Somerset -15 12 £575 +130.00% 15
Devon -13 10 £148 -26.25% 4
Dorset -18 3 £550 +31.34% 9
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 20 (14.49%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (13.77%) SharePoint
3 6 (4.35%) Mattermost
4 5 (3.62%) IIS
5 2 (1.45%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 3 (2.17%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 11 (7.97%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.45%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 54 (39.13%) Azure
2 34 (24.64%) Microsoft 365
3 28 (20.29%) Entra ID
4 11 (7.97%) AWS
5 10 (7.25%) SaaS
6 9 (6.52%) GCP
7 6 (4.35%) Google Workspace
7 6 (4.35%) PaaS
8 5 (3.62%) Google Drive
8 5 (3.62%) IaaS
8 5 (3.62%) Power Platform
9 4 (2.90%) OCI
10 3 (2.17%) Asana
10 3 (2.17%) Azure Monitor
10 3 (2.17%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (1.45%) Cloud Computing
12 1 (0.72%) Amazon EC2
12 1 (0.72%) Amazon S3
12 1 (0.72%) OpenShift
12 1 (0.72%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 33 (23.91%) DNS
2 24 (17.39%) DHCP
3 19 (13.77%) Firewall
4 15 (10.87%) VPN
5 7 (5.07%) Network Security
5 7 (5.07%) Wi-Fi
6 6 (4.35%) LAN
7 5 (3.62%) VLAN
8 4 (2.90%) TCP/IP
9 3 (2.17%) DKIM
9 3 (2.17%) DMARC
9 3 (2.17%) SAN
9 3 (2.17%) WAN
10 2 (1.45%) Cisco Nexus
10 2 (1.45%) NAS
10 2 (1.45%) Skype
10 2 (1.45%) Wireless
11 1 (0.72%) BIG-IP
11 1 (0.72%) EIGRP
11 1 (0.72%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.35%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.62%) Power BI
3 3 (2.17%) Oracle BI EE
3 3 (2.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.72%) Metadata
4 1 (0.72%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.72%) Power Query
4 1 (0.72%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 23 (16.67%) JIRA
2 2 (1.45%) AdminStudio
2 2 (1.45%) Git
2 2 (1.45%) InstallShield
3 1 (0.72%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.72%) GitLab
3 1 (0.72%) Jenkins
General
1 54 (39.13%) Social Skills
2 16 (11.59%) Public Sector
3 12 (8.70%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (7.25%) Finance
5 6 (4.35%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (3.62%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.90%) Police
8 3 (2.17%) Legal
9 2 (1.45%) Law
10 1 (0.72%) Advertising
10 1 (0.72%) Back Office
10 1 (0.72%) Electronics
10 1 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.72%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.72%) Marketing
10 1 (0.72%) Military
10 1 (0.72%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 23 (16.67%) Support Engineer
2 18 (13.04%) IT Support
3 17 (12.32%) Analyst
4 16 (11.59%) Desktop Engineer
5 15 (10.87%) Desktop Support
5 15 (10.87%) Desktop Support Engineer
6 14 (10.14%) Administrator
7 13 (9.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 12 (8.70%) Architect
9 9 (6.52%) IT Support Specialist
9 9 (6.52%) Service Analyst
9 9 (6.52%) Service Desk Analyst
9 9 (6.52%) Support Specialist
9 9 (6.52%) Systems Administrator
10 8 (5.80%) Service Desk Support
11 7 (5.07%) Senior
12 5 (3.62%) Junior
12 5 (3.62%) Technical Architect
13 4 (2.90%) Consultant
13 4 (2.90%) IT Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (5.80%) OAuth
2 6 (4.35%) LDAP
2 6 (4.35%) SailPoint
3 5 (3.62%) Elastic Stack
3 5 (3.62%) OpenID
3 5 (3.62%) SAML
4 3 (2.17%) OAuth2
5 2 (1.45%) REST
6 1 (0.72%) Apache NiFi
6 1 (0.72%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.72%) HTML5 Canvas
6 1 (0.72%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 16 (11.59%) Hybrid Cloud
2 12 (8.70%) Driving Licence
3 11 (7.97%) Management Information System
4 9 (6.52%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (5.07%) Onboarding
6 6 (4.35%) Data Centre
6 6 (4.35%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (3.62%) Product Ownership
8 4 (2.90%) Augmented Reality
8 4 (2.90%) Virtual Reality
9 3 (2.17%) Freedom of Information
9 3 (2.17%) PKI
9 3 (2.17%) Private Cloud
10 2 (1.45%) Legacy Applications
10 2 (1.45%) Replication
11 1 (0.72%) Enterprise Storage
11 1 (0.72%) iPad
11 1 (0.72%) iPhone
11 1 (0.72%) Legacy Systems
11 1 (0.72%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 92 (66.67%) Windows
2 33 (23.91%) Windows Server
3 23 (16.67%) Windows 10
4 21 (15.22%) Linux
5 5 (3.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (2.90%) Android
6 4 (2.90%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (2.17%) CentOS
7 3 (2.17%) Mac OS
7 3 (2.17%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.45%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.72%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.72%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.72%) Rocky
9 1 (0.72%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (23.19%) Problem-Solving
2 31 (22.46%) ITIL
3 28 (20.29%) Customer Service
4 23 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
5 20 (14.49%) Change Management
6 18 (13.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 18 (13.04%) ITSM
7 16 (11.59%) Identity Access Management
8 15 (10.87%) Migration
9 13 (9.42%) DevOps
9 13 (9.42%) Infrastructure as Code
10 12 (8.70%) Agile
10 12 (8.70%) Configuration Management
11 11 (7.97%) RBAC
11 11 (7.97%) Root Cause Analysis
11 11 (7.97%) Zero Trust
12 10 (7.25%) Technical Leadership
13 9 (6.52%) Service Management
14 8 (5.80%) Project Delivery
15 7 (5.07%) Storage Management
Programming Languages
1 36 (26.09%) PowerShell
2 4 (2.90%) Java
3 3 (2.17%) BeanShell
3 3 (2.17%) Bicep
3 3 (2.17%) Python
4 2 (1.45%) SQL
5 1 (0.72%) Bash
5 1 (0.72%) C#
5 1 (0.72%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 66 (47.83%) Security Cleared
2 36 (26.09%) SC Cleared
3 30 (21.74%) DV Cleared
4 9 (6.52%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (5.80%) Azure Certification
5 8 (5.80%) BPSS Clearance
6 5 (3.62%) Degree
7 3 (2.17%) ACSP
8 2 (1.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 2 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (1.45%) CISSP
8 2 (1.45%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.72%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.17%) SLA
2 1 (0.72%) Accessibility
2 1 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 25 (18.12%) VMware Infrastructure
2 18 (13.04%) Hyper-V
3 7 (5.07%) VMware NSX
4 6 (4.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (3.62%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (2.17%) VMware Workstation
7 2 (1.45%) Docker
8 1 (0.72%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.72%) KVM
8 1 (0.72%) NFS
8 1 (0.72%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.72%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 24 (17.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (10.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 12 (8.70%) SCCM
3 12 (8.70%) Single Sign-On
4 9 (6.52%) Terraform
5 5 (3.62%) Ansible
6 3 (2.17%) Kubernetes
7 2 (1.45%) Grafana
7 2 (1.45%) McAfee ePO
8 1 (0.72%) CA Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.72%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.72%) Kibana
8 1 (0.72%) logstash
8 1 (0.72%) Nagios
8 1 (0.72%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.72%) Puppet
8 1 (0.72%) SCOM
8 1 (0.72%) WSUS
8 1 (0.72%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 75 (54.35%) Microsoft
2 28 (20.29%) VMware
3 12 (8.70%) Remedy
4 9 (6.52%) Google
5 8 (5.80%) McAfee
6 6 (4.35%) Starlink
7 4 (2.90%) Apple
7 4 (2.90%) Cisco
7 4 (2.90%) Clearswift
7 4 (2.90%) Tanium
7 4 (2.90%) Trend Micro
8 3 (2.17%) CyberArk
8 3 (2.17%) NetApp
8 3 (2.17%) Oracle
9 2 (1.45%) Citrix
9 2 (1.45%) Red Hat
10 1 (0.72%) Adobe
10 1 (0.72%) CheckPoint
10 1 (0.72%) EMC
10 1 (0.72%) SAP