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

6 months to
13 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 25 22 26
Rank change year-on-year -3 +4 0
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 149 176 205
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 6.77% 7.35% 6.59%
As % of the System Software category 49.83% 41.61% 47.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 116 120 124
10th Percentile £201 £200 £148
25th Percentile £275 £250 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £470 £488
Median % change year-on-year -4.26% -3.59% +14.71%
75th Percentile £575 £553 £618
90th Percentile £631 £619 £675
England median daily rate £447 £425 £400
% change year-on-year +5.18% +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 299 423 435
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 13.58% 17.66% 13.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 279 286
10th Percentile £223 £225 £186
25th Percentile £413 £450 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% +7.32%
75th Percentile £649 £625 £638
90th Percentile £715 £692 £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 43
10th Percentile £60.50 - £13.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £12.50 £17.09
Median hourly rate £66.50 £16.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +315.63% -73.33% +20.00%
75th Percentile £80.00 £58.00 £69.62
90th Percentile £95.00 £78.70 £76.25
England median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £43.84
% change year-on-year -40.00% +14.05% +82.36%

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 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 13 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 -4 40 £565 +11.60% 29
Gloucestershire +6 37 £325 -30.85% 27
Somerset +5 34 £263 +5.00% 15
Bristol -18 24 £531 +17.94% 27
Devon 0 11 £275 -31.68% 8
Dorset -9 3 £205 -13.68% 8
Avon - 2 £275 - 13
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 38 (25.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (22.82%) SharePoint
3 7 (4.70%) Skype for Business
4 4 (2.68%) Confluence
4 4 (2.68%) IIS
4 4 (2.68%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.67%) nginx
Applications
1 19 (12.75%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.34%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (1.34%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.67%) assyst
2 1 (0.67%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 57 (38.26%) Azure
2 50 (33.56%) Microsoft 365
3 37 (24.83%) Entra ID
4 11 (7.38%) AWS
5 10 (6.71%) OneDrive
6 6 (4.03%) Power Platform
6 6 (4.03%) ShareGate
7 5 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (3.36%) Azure Sentinel
7 5 (3.36%) GCP
8 4 (2.68%) Azure AKS
8 4 (2.68%) Azure Monitor
8 4 (2.68%) SaaS
9 3 (2.01%) Azure Key Vault
10 2 (1.34%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 2 (1.34%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (1.34%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (1.34%) Microsoft Purview
10 2 (1.34%) Serverless
11 1 (0.67%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 40 (26.85%) DNS
2 21 (14.09%) Firewall
3 16 (10.74%) DHCP
3 16 (10.74%) VPN
4 14 (9.40%) Skype
5 9 (6.04%) VoIP
6 6 (4.03%) WAN
7 5 (3.36%) LAN
7 5 (3.36%) Unified Communications
8 4 (2.68%) Network Security
8 4 (2.68%) TCP/IP
8 4 (2.68%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (2.01%) Kerberos
9 3 (2.01%) NetScaler
9 3 (2.01%) VLAN
10 2 (1.34%) SMTP
11 1 (0.67%) Cisco IOS
11 1 (0.67%) NAS
11 1 (0.67%) SAN
11 1 (0.67%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (7.38%) SQL Server
2 6 (4.03%) Power BI
3 3 (2.01%) Metadata
4 2 (1.34%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (1.34%) Looker
4 2 (1.34%) MySQL
4 2 (1.34%) Relational Database
4 2 (1.34%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 10 (6.71%) MSI
2 8 (5.37%) JIRA
3 5 (3.36%) AdminStudio
3 5 (3.36%) InstallShield
4 2 (1.34%) Git
General
1 62 (41.61%) Social Skills
2 20 (13.42%) Public Sector
3 17 (11.41%) Documentation Skills
4 16 (10.74%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (7.38%) Finance
6 3 (2.01%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.34%) Aerospace
7 2 (1.34%) Billing
7 2 (1.34%) Law
7 2 (1.34%) Legal
7 2 (1.34%) Military
7 2 (1.34%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.67%) Electronics
8 1 (0.67%) Marketing
8 1 (0.67%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 25 (16.78%) Support Engineer
2 13 (8.72%) Analyst
3 11 (7.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 10 (6.71%) Architect
4 10 (6.71%) Consultant
4 10 (6.71%) IT Engineer
5 9 (6.04%) Applications Engineer
5 9 (6.04%) Deployment Engineer
5 9 (6.04%) Desktop Engineer
5 9 (6.04%) Desktop Support
5 9 (6.04%) Desktop Support Engineer
5 9 (6.04%) IT Support
6 8 (5.37%) Field Engineer
6 8 (5.37%) Platform Engineer
6 8 (5.37%) Wintel Engineer
7 6 (4.03%) IT Support Engineer
7 6 (4.03%) Technical Engineer
7 6 (4.03%) Technical Support
7 6 (4.03%) Technical Support Engineer
8 5 (3.36%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (14.09%) OAuth
1 21 (14.09%) SAML
2 19 (12.75%) OpenID
3 17 (11.41%) OAuth2
4 6 (4.03%) LDAP
5 4 (2.68%) SailPoint
6 3 (2.01%) .NET
6 3 (2.01%) ARM Templates
6 3 (2.01%) Express.js
6 3 (2.01%) React
7 2 (1.34%) Next.js
7 2 (1.34%) Node.js
7 2 (1.34%) RESTful
7 2 (1.34%) YAML
8 1 (0.67%) AngularJS
8 1 (0.67%) ASP.NET Web API
8 1 (0.67%) Bootstrap
8 1 (0.67%) Middleware
8 1 (0.67%) Software Packaging
8 1 (0.67%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 15 (10.07%) PKI
2 8 (5.37%) Driving Licence
3 7 (4.70%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (4.03%) Onboarding
5 5 (3.36%) Legacy Applications
5 5 (3.36%) Private Cloud
5 5 (3.36%) Replication
6 4 (2.68%) Cloud Native
6 4 (2.68%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (2.68%) Security Posture
7 3 (2.01%) iPad
7 3 (2.01%) iPhone
7 3 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.34%) Blackberry
8 2 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.34%) Operational Technology
9 1 (0.67%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.67%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.67%) Device Driver
9 1 (0.67%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 101 (67.79%) Windows
2 52 (34.90%) Windows 10
3 42 (28.19%) Windows Server
4 19 (12.75%) Linux
5 11 (7.38%) Windows Server 2012
6 7 (4.70%) Android
6 7 (4.70%) Apple iOS
7 5 (3.36%) Mac OS
8 4 (2.68%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (2.01%) CentOS
10 2 (1.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (1.34%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.67%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (25.50%) ITIL
2 30 (20.13%) Problem-Solving
3 25 (16.78%) RBAC
4 21 (14.09%) Customer Service
5 20 (13.42%) Agile
6 19 (12.75%) Migration
7 18 (12.08%) Change Management
7 18 (12.08%) Root Cause Analysis
7 18 (12.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 17 (11.41%) DevOps
9 16 (10.74%) Identity Access Management
9 16 (10.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 15 (10.07%) Service Management
11 12 (8.05%) Knowledge Transfer
12 10 (6.71%) Application Packaging
12 10 (6.71%) Runbook
13 9 (6.04%) Critical Thinking
13 9 (6.04%) High Availability
13 9 (6.04%) Identity Management
13 9 (6.04%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 51 (34.23%) PowerShell
2 12 (8.05%) SQL
3 8 (5.37%) VBScript
4 7 (4.70%) Bicep
4 7 (4.70%) Python
5 4 (2.68%) JavaScript
5 4 (2.68%) TypeScript
6 3 (2.01%) C#
7 1 (0.67%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 91 (61.07%) Security Cleared
2 63 (42.28%) SC Cleared
3 39 (26.17%) Microsoft Certification
4 22 (14.77%) DV Cleared
5 12 (8.05%) Degree
6 10 (6.71%) ITIL Certification
6 10 (6.71%) MCSE
7 8 (5.37%) A+ Certification
8 6 (4.03%) Azure Certification
8 6 (4.03%) MCSA
9 5 (3.36%) CCNA
9 5 (3.36%) CCNP
9 5 (3.36%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (3.36%) Master's Degree
10 2 (1.34%) CISM
10 2 (1.34%) CISSP
10 2 (1.34%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.67%) MCP
11 1 (0.67%) MCTS
11 1 (0.67%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (8.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (8.05%) GDPR
3 9 (6.04%) SLA
4 4 (2.68%) NCSC
4 4 (2.68%) NIST
5 3 (2.01%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (1.34%) PSD2
6 2 (1.34%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.67%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.67%) HIPAA
System Software
1 34 (22.82%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (7.38%) Virtual Machines
3 8 (5.37%) Hyper-V
3 8 (5.37%) Microsoft App-V
4 6 (4.03%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (3.36%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 5 (3.36%) Virtual Servers
5 5 (3.36%) VMware NSX
6 4 (2.68%) Docker
6 4 (2.68%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (2.01%) XenDesktop
8 1 (0.67%) UAG
Systems Management
1 28 (18.79%) SCCM
2 27 (18.12%) Single Sign-On
3 26 (17.45%) Microsoft Intune
4 24 (16.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 15 (10.07%) WSUS
6 12 (8.05%) vCenter Server
7 8 (5.37%) Terraform
8 5 (3.36%) Kubernetes
9 2 (1.34%) Ansible
9 2 (1.34%) AppManager
9 2 (1.34%) Kibana
9 2 (1.34%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (1.34%) NetApp OnCommand
9 2 (1.34%) NetBackup
9 2 (1.34%) PingFederate
9 2 (1.34%) vMotion
9 2 (1.34%) VxRail
10 1 (0.67%) AirWatch
10 1 (0.67%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.67%) SCOM
Vendors
1 115 (77.18%) Microsoft
2 41 (27.52%) VMware
3 20 (13.42%) Cisco
4 11 (7.38%) ServiceNow
5 10 (6.71%) SolarWinds
5 10 (6.71%) Veeam
6 7 (4.70%) Citrix
7 5 (3.36%) Ivanti
7 5 (3.36%) Splunk
8 4 (2.68%) ForgeRock
8 4 (2.68%) Ping Identity
8 4 (2.68%) Remedy
9 3 (2.01%) McAfee
9 3 (2.01%) Okta
9 3 (2.01%) Red Hat
9 3 (2.01%) Starlink
10 2 (1.34%) CyberArk
10 2 (1.34%) Meraki
10 2 (1.34%) Micro Focus
10 2 (1.34%) PTC