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

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 29 28
Rank change year-on-year -7 -1 -4
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 158 107 168
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.31% 5.52% 6.18%
As % of the System Software category 44.38% 44.03% 38.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 91 79 125
10th Percentile £185 £187 £143
25th Percentile £228 £213 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £275 £475
Median % change year-on-year +81.82% -42.11% -2.56%
75th Percentile £588 £494 £600
90th Percentile £715 £588 £675
England median daily rate £450 £444 £450
% change year-on-year +1.41% -1.39% +12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 1 3
10th Percentile £13.65 - £13.10
25th Percentile £19.25 £57.50 £14.00
Median hourly rate £52.00 £65.00 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +306.25% -5.60%
75th Percentile £98.82 £72.50 £54.50
90th Percentile £100.00 - £77.30
England median hourly rate £48.13 £23.00 £19.18
% change year-on-year +109.26% +19.92% +0.95%

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 356 243 441
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 9.71% 12.53% 16.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 214 180 322
10th Percentile £215 £207 £206
25th Percentile £406 £283 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% -6.98% +4.88%
75th Percentile £623 £613 £600
90th Percentile £725 £693 £672
England median daily rate £500 £500 £515
% change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 5 12
10th Percentile £18.69 £65.98 £18.95
25th Percentile £46.88 £78.70 £56.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £80.00 £73.75
Median % change year-on-year -18.75% +8.47% +27.18%
75th Percentile £75.75 £95.00 £85.00
90th Percentile £98.82 - £89.50
England median hourly rate £62.50 £37.50 £24.18
% change year-on-year +66.67% +55.09% -44.73%

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 29 August 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 29 August 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 29 August 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 43 £520 +121.17% 23
Wiltshire -1 32 £525 - 17
Somerset -13 32 £575 +130.00% 19
Gloucestershire -9 28 £300 -7.69% 21
Dorset -5 10 £540 +163.41% 6
Devon -20 4 £350 +33.33% 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 29 (18.35%) SharePoint
2 23 (14.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.53%) IIS
4 1 (0.63%) Mattermost
4 1 (0.63%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (3.16%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.53%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 6 (3.80%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.27%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 61 (38.61%) Azure
2 47 (29.75%) Entra ID
3 40 (25.32%) Microsoft 365
4 21 (13.29%) AWS
5 12 (7.59%) SaaS
6 7 (4.43%) Google Workspace
7 6 (3.80%) GCP
7 6 (3.80%) OneDrive
7 6 (3.80%) Power Platform
8 5 (3.16%) Google Drive
9 3 (1.90%) Asana
9 3 (1.90%) PowerApps
10 2 (1.27%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (1.27%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (1.27%) OpenShift
10 2 (1.27%) Power Automate
11 1 (0.63%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 1 (0.63%) Azure Key Vault
11 1 (0.63%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 55 (34.81%) DNS
2 40 (25.32%) DHCP
3 30 (18.99%) Firewall
4 24 (15.19%) TCP/IP
5 14 (8.86%) VSAN
6 12 (7.59%) VPN
7 8 (5.06%) SAN
8 5 (3.16%) VoIP
8 5 (3.16%) WAN
8 5 (3.16%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (2.53%) Cisco Nexus
9 4 (2.53%) Kerberos
9 4 (2.53%) VLAN
10 3 (1.90%) BGP
10 3 (1.90%) DKIM
10 3 (1.90%) DMARC
10 3 (1.90%) LAN
10 3 (1.90%) NAS
11 2 (1.27%) MPLS
11 2 (1.27%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.16%) Power BI
1 5 (3.16%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.27%) Oracle BI EE
2 2 (1.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.63%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.63%) Metadata
3 1 (0.63%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.63%) Power Query
3 1 (0.63%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 11 (6.96%) JIRA
2 2 (1.27%) AdminStudio
2 2 (1.27%) InstallShield
3 1 (0.63%) Git
General
1 44 (27.85%) Social Skills
2 26 (16.46%) Public Sector
3 12 (7.59%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (6.33%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (3.80%) Legal
5 6 (3.80%) Military
6 5 (3.16%) Aerospace
6 5 (3.16%) Finance
7 4 (2.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (2.53%) Police
8 2 (1.27%) Law
8 2 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.63%) Advertising
9 1 (0.63%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.63%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 24 (15.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 23 (14.56%) Architect
3 18 (11.39%) Support Engineer
4 17 (10.76%) Senior
5 12 (7.59%) Administrator
6 10 (6.33%) Consultant
6 10 (6.33%) Desktop Engineer
6 10 (6.33%) IT Support
6 10 (6.33%) Platform Engineer
7 9 (5.70%) Desktop Support
7 9 (5.70%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 8 (5.06%) IT Engineer
8 8 (5.06%) Principal Engineer
8 8 (5.06%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 8 (5.06%) Service Desk Support
9 7 (4.43%) 1st Line Support
9 7 (4.43%) Active Directory Consultant
9 7 (4.43%) Service Analyst
9 7 (4.43%) Service Desk Analyst
9 7 (4.43%) Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (12.66%) Terraform
2 17 (10.76%) LDAP
3 10 (6.33%) OAuth
4 8 (5.06%) SailPoint
5 7 (4.43%) SAML
6 5 (3.16%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (2.53%) OpenID
8 3 (1.90%) OAuth2
8 3 (1.90%) REST
9 2 (1.27%) HTML5 Canvas
9 2 (1.27%) JSON
10 1 (0.63%) .NET
10 1 (0.63%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 27 (17.09%) PKI
2 18 (11.39%) Data Centre
3 13 (8.23%) Onboarding
4 11 (6.96%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (5.70%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (5.70%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.80%) Product Ownership
6 6 (3.80%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (3.16%) Public Cloud
8 4 (2.53%) Augmented Reality
8 4 (2.53%) Clustering
8 4 (2.53%) Linux Command Line
8 4 (2.53%) Replication
8 4 (2.53%) Virtual Reality
9 3 (1.90%) Driving Licence
9 3 (1.90%) Fat Client
9 3 (1.90%) Freedom of Information
9 3 (1.90%) Smartcard
9 3 (1.90%) Thin Client
9 3 (1.90%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 107 (67.72%) Windows
2 41 (25.95%) Linux
3 36 (22.78%) Windows Server
4 28 (17.72%) Windows 10
5 11 (6.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (4.43%) Android
7 3 (1.90%) CentOS
7 3 (1.90%) Data ONTAP
7 3 (1.90%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.90%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.27%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.27%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (1.27%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.63%) Rocky
9 1 (0.63%) SUSE
9 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (25.95%) Problem-Solving
2 35 (22.15%) Technical Leadership
3 32 (20.25%) Continuous Improvement
4 28 (17.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 28 (17.72%) ITIL
4 28 (17.72%) SIEM
5 26 (16.46%) Mentoring
6 25 (15.82%) Customer Service
6 25 (15.82%) Cybersecurity
7 23 (14.56%) Infrastructure as Code
8 22 (13.92%) DevSecOps
9 20 (12.66%) ITSM
9 20 (12.66%) Platform Engineering
10 18 (11.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 18 (11.39%) Systems Engineering
11 17 (10.76%) Migration
12 16 (10.13%) Identity Access Management
13 15 (9.49%) Change Management
13 15 (9.49%) Privileged Access Management
13 15 (9.49%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 44 (27.85%) PowerShell
2 20 (12.66%) Python
3 19 (12.03%) Bash
4 6 (3.80%) Java
5 5 (3.16%) BeanShell
6 3 (1.90%) SQL
7 1 (0.63%) C#
7 1 (0.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 99 (62.66%) Security Cleared
2 53 (33.54%) DV Cleared
3 49 (31.01%) SC Cleared
4 12 (7.59%) VCAP
5 7 (4.43%) AWS Certification
5 7 (4.43%) Cisco Certification
5 7 (4.43%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (3.80%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (3.80%) CISSP
6 6 (3.80%) Degree
7 4 (2.53%) CCNA
8 3 (1.90%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 3 (1.90%) ACSP
8 3 (1.90%) Azure Certification
8 3 (1.90%) CISM
9 2 (1.27%) A+ Certification
9 2 (1.27%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (1.27%) TOGAF Certification
9 2 (1.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 1 (0.63%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (4.43%) SLA
3 6 (3.80%) NIST
4 3 (1.90%) NCSC
5 2 (1.27%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.27%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.63%) JSP 440
System Software
1 38 (24.05%) VMware Infrastructure
2 33 (20.89%) Hyper-V
3 18 (11.39%) VMware NSX
4 16 (10.13%) vSphere
5 13 (8.23%) Docker
6 9 (5.70%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (5.06%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (1.90%) VMware Workstation
9 2 (1.27%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.63%) KVM
10 1 (0.63%) NFS
Systems Management
1 22 (13.92%) Kubernetes
1 22 (13.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 21 (13.29%) Ansible
3 14 (8.86%) VxRail
4 7 (4.43%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 6 (3.80%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (3.80%) WSUS
6 5 (3.16%) OPNET
6 5 (3.16%) SCCM
7 4 (2.53%) Proxmox
8 3 (1.90%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.63%) Grafana
9 1 (0.63%) McAfee ePO
9 1 (0.63%) Nagios
9 1 (0.63%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.63%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.63%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 81 (51.27%) Microsoft
2 44 (27.85%) VMware
3 17 (10.76%) CyberArk
4 14 (8.86%) Cisco
5 11 (6.96%) McAfee
6 7 (4.43%) Google
6 7 (4.43%) Red Hat
6 7 (4.43%) Starlink
7 6 (3.80%) Oracle
7 6 (3.80%) Remedy
7 6 (3.80%) ServiceNow
8 4 (2.53%) Apple
8 4 (2.53%) Clearswift
8 4 (2.53%) Tanium
8 4 (2.53%) Trend Micro
9 3 (1.90%) NetApp
9 3 (1.90%) Thales
10 2 (1.27%) Juniper
11 1 (0.63%) Adobe
11 1 (0.63%) BMC