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

6 months to
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 19 32
Rank change year-on-year -13 +13 -15
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 147 152 163
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 5.07% 9.14% 5.04%
As % of the System Software category 48.20% 45.51% 49.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 125 111
10th Percentile £156 £194 £143
25th Percentile £275 £223 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £425 £375
Median % change year-on-year +19.41% +13.33% -20.21%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £584
90th Percentile £712 £675 £700
England median daily rate £450 £450 £385
% change year-on-year - +16.88% -9.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 4 15
10th Percentile - £13.30 £14.10
25th Percentile £12.43 £14.49 £14.71
Median hourly rate £22.27 £16.78 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.69% -58.05% -22.59%
75th Percentile £197.50 £29.91 -
90th Percentile - £50.66 £43.83
England median hourly rate £22.36 £22.50 £17.72
% change year-on-year -0.61% +26.98% -9.13%

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 305 334 330
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 10.53% 20.08% 10.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 224 270 222
10th Percentile £205 £213 £198
25th Percentile £413 £413 £296
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% +10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £636
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
England median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 5 37
10th Percentile £12.43 £13.56 £14.76
25th Percentile £61.25 £15.16 £40.00
Median hourly rate £65.75 £18.25 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +260.27% -72.34% +9.97%
75th Percentile £71.22 £64.50 £76.25
90th Percentile £197.50 £73.02 £90.00
England median hourly rate £37.97 £33.25 £22.50
% change year-on-year +14.20% +47.78% -41.56%

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 13 March 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 13 March 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 13 March 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 47 £575 +4.55% 5
Gloucestershire -8 34 £180 -57.65% 20
Bristol -31 25 £512 +127.33% 13
Somerset +3 22 £506 +102.50% 9
Devon +5 14 £175 -39.13% 5
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 32 (21.77%) Microsoft Exchange
2 20 (13.61%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.40%) Mattermost
4 4 (2.72%) Skype for Business
5 3 (2.04%) IIS
6 2 (1.36%) Confluence
6 2 (1.36%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 11 (7.48%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (3.40%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.68%) assyst
2 1 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 59 (40.14%) Azure
2 39 (26.53%) Microsoft 365
3 36 (24.49%) Entra ID
4 12 (8.16%) AWS
5 7 (4.76%) Azure Monitor
5 7 (4.76%) OneDrive
6 6 (4.08%) Azure Sentinel
6 6 (4.08%) PaaS
6 6 (4.08%) Power Platform
7 5 (3.40%) GCP
7 5 (3.40%) IaaS
7 5 (3.40%) OCI
8 4 (2.72%) ShareGate
9 3 (2.04%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (2.04%) Azure Key Vault
10 2 (1.36%) Azure AKS
10 2 (1.36%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (1.36%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (1.36%) SaaS
10 2 (1.36%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 34 (23.13%) DNS
2 32 (21.77%) Firewall
3 17 (11.56%) DHCP
4 16 (10.88%) VPN
5 9 (6.12%) Skype
6 8 (5.44%) Network Security
7 6 (4.08%) LAN
8 4 (2.72%) TCP/IP
8 4 (2.72%) VLAN
8 4 (2.72%) WAN
8 4 (2.72%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (1.36%) NAS
9 2 (1.36%) SAN
9 2 (1.36%) Unified Communications
10 1 (0.68%) DKIM
10 1 (0.68%) DMARC
10 1 (0.68%) Kerberos
10 1 (0.68%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.68%) SD-WAN
10 1 (0.68%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.44%) SQL Server
2 6 (4.08%) Power BI
3 2 (1.36%) Looker
3 2 (1.36%) Metadata
3 2 (1.36%) Tableau
4 1 (0.68%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.68%) Oracle BI EE
4 1 (0.68%) Power Query
4 1 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.68%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 16 (10.88%) JIRA
2 3 (2.04%) Git
3 2 (1.36%) MSI
4 1 (0.68%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.68%) GitLab
4 1 (0.68%) Jenkins
General
1 68 (46.26%) Social Skills
2 15 (10.20%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (8.84%) Documentation Skills
4 11 (7.48%) Public Sector
5 10 (6.80%) Finance
6 5 (3.40%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.36%) Legal
7 2 (1.36%) Military
8 1 (0.68%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.68%) Back Office
8 1 (0.68%) Electronics
8 1 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.68%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.68%) Marketing
8 1 (0.68%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 18 (12.24%) Analyst
1 18 (12.24%) Support Engineer
2 16 (10.88%) Architect
3 15 (10.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 13 (8.84%) Desktop Engineer
5 12 (8.16%) Desktop Support
5 12 (8.16%) Desktop Support Engineer
6 11 (7.48%) IT Support
7 9 (6.12%) IT Support Specialist
7 9 (6.12%) Support Specialist
8 8 (5.44%) Consultant
8 8 (5.44%) Wintel Engineer
9 6 (4.08%) Service Analyst
9 6 (4.08%) Service Desk Analyst
9 6 (4.08%) Solutions Architect
9 6 (4.08%) Technical Architect
10 5 (3.40%) 2nd Line Support
10 5 (3.40%) IT Engineer
11 4 (2.72%) Active Directory Analyst
11 4 (2.72%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (15.65%) OAuth
1 23 (15.65%) SAML
2 21 (14.29%) OpenID
3 19 (12.93%) OAuth2
4 4 (2.72%) ARM Templates
5 3 (2.04%) SailPoint
6 2 (1.36%) .NET
6 2 (1.36%) LDAP
6 2 (1.36%) RESTful
6 2 (1.36%) YAML
7 1 (0.68%) Apache NiFi
7 1 (0.68%) REST
7 1 (0.68%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 15 (10.20%) Hybrid Cloud
2 12 (8.16%) Driving Licence
3 10 (6.80%) PKI
4 7 (4.76%) Private Cloud
4 7 (4.76%) Replication
5 6 (4.08%) Data Centre
6 5 (3.40%) Onboarding
7 3 (2.04%) Cloud Native
7 3 (2.04%) Security Posture
7 3 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.36%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.68%) CMDB
9 1 (0.68%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.68%) Device Driver
9 1 (0.68%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.68%) iPad
9 1 (0.68%) iPhone
9 1 (0.68%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.68%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 96 (65.31%) Windows
2 47 (31.97%) Windows Server
3 22 (14.97%) Windows 10
4 20 (13.61%) Linux
5 6 (4.08%) Windows Server 2016
6 5 (3.40%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (2.04%) CentOS
8 2 (1.36%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (21.09%) Problem-Solving
2 30 (20.41%) ITIL
3 29 (19.73%) RBAC
4 24 (16.33%) Change Management
4 24 (16.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 23 (15.65%) Identity Access Management
6 19 (12.93%) Customer Service
6 19 (12.93%) DevOps
7 16 (10.88%) Infrastructure as Code
8 15 (10.20%) Agile
8 15 (10.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 15 (10.20%) Technical Leadership
9 14 (9.52%) Service Management
10 13 (8.84%) Load Balancing
10 13 (8.84%) Migration
11 12 (8.16%) Identity Management
12 11 (7.48%) Configuration Management
13 10 (6.80%) Continuous Improvement
13 10 (6.80%) ITSM
13 10 (6.80%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 60 (40.82%) PowerShell
2 10 (6.80%) SQL
3 9 (6.12%) Python
4 8 (5.44%) Bicep
5 4 (2.72%) JavaScript
6 2 (1.36%) C#
6 2 (1.36%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 1 (0.68%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 81 (55.10%) Security Cleared
2 42 (28.57%) SC Cleared
3 36 (24.49%) DV Cleared
4 33 (22.45%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (6.80%) Azure Certification
6 7 (4.76%) Degree
7 6 (4.08%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (4.08%) MCSE
8 3 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (1.36%) A+ Certification
9 2 (1.36%) CCNA
9 2 (1.36%) CCNP
9 2 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (1.36%) Master's Degree
9 2 (1.36%) MCSA
10 1 (0.68%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.08%) GDPR
1 6 (4.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (2.72%) NCSC
3 2 (1.36%) NIST
3 2 (1.36%) PSD2
3 2 (1.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 1 (0.68%) Government Security Classifications
4 1 (0.68%) SLA
System Software
1 27 (18.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (9.52%) Hyper-V
3 8 (5.44%) VMware NSX
4 5 (3.40%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (2.04%) Docker
6 2 (1.36%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 2 (1.36%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (1.36%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.68%) Firmware
7 1 (0.68%) Microsoft App-V
7 1 (0.68%) UAG
7 1 (0.68%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.68%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 36 (24.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 31 (21.09%) Single Sign-On
3 21 (14.29%) Microsoft Intune
4 18 (12.24%) SCCM
5 16 (10.88%) Terraform
6 8 (5.44%) WSUS
7 6 (4.08%) Ansible
8 5 (3.40%) Kubernetes
9 4 (2.72%) vCenter Server
10 2 (1.36%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (1.36%) McAfee ePO
10 2 (1.36%) NetBackup
10 2 (1.36%) Puppet
11 1 (0.68%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.68%) Grafana
11 1 (0.68%) Kibana
11 1 (0.68%) logstash
11 1 (0.68%) SCOM
Vendors
1 100 (68.03%) Microsoft
2 35 (23.81%) VMware
3 8 (5.44%) Cisco
4 6 (4.08%) Remedy
5 5 (3.40%) McAfee
5 5 (3.40%) SolarWinds
5 5 (3.40%) Veeam
6 4 (2.72%) Citrix
6 4 (2.72%) ForgeRock
7 3 (2.04%) Google
7 3 (2.04%) Red Hat
7 3 (2.04%) Starlink
8 2 (1.36%) Broadcom
8 2 (1.36%) Commvault
8 2 (1.36%) Micro Focus
8 2 (1.36%) NetApp
8 2 (1.36%) Okta
8 2 (1.36%) Ping Identity
8 2 (1.36%) Splunk
8 2 (1.36%) Veritas