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

6 months to
5 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 31 25
Rank change year-on-year -6 -6 +1
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 165 104 170
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.47% 5.45% 6.45%
As % of the System Software category 45.33% 45.61% 39.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 97 78 124
10th Percentile £194 £196 £143
25th Percentile £263 £214 £204
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £275 £475
Median % change year-on-year +90.91% -42.11% -2.56%
75th Percentile £588 £487 £600
90th Percentile £719 £579 £675
England median daily rate £450 £430 £450
% change year-on-year +4.65% -4.44% +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% +0.63%
75th Percentile £98.82 £72.50 £54.50
90th Percentile £100.00 - £77.30
England median hourly rate £52.50 £23.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +128.26% +15.00% +2.58%

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 364 228 434
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 9.87% 11.95% 16.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 221 171 310
10th Percentile £225 £208 £205
25th Percentile £413 £275 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% -6.98% +2.67%
75th Percentile £638 £603 £613
90th Percentile £725 £693 £672
England median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
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% +25.01%
75th Percentile £75.75 £95.00 £85.00
90th Percentile £98.82 - £89.50
England median hourly rate £63.48 £38.75 £24.19
% change year-on-year +63.82% +60.19% -47.41%

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 5 September 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 5 September 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 5 September 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 +8 44 £525 - 16
Bristol 0 42 £500 +78.57% 17
Somerset -16 32 £575 +130.00% 23
Gloucestershire -8 25 £300 -7.69% 14
Dorset -4 10 £540 +163.41% 5
Devon -25 3 £338 +22.73% 4
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 28 (16.97%) SharePoint
2 25 (15.15%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.42%) IIS
4 1 (0.61%) Confluence
4 1 (0.61%) Mattermost
Applications
1 5 (3.03%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 6 (3.64%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.21%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 59 (35.76%) Azure
2 47 (28.48%) Entra ID
3 41 (24.85%) Microsoft 365
4 22 (13.33%) AWS
5 12 (7.27%) SaaS
6 7 (4.24%) Google Workspace
7 6 (3.64%) GCP
7 6 (3.64%) OneDrive
8 5 (3.03%) Google Drive
8 5 (3.03%) Power Platform
9 3 (1.82%) Asana
9 3 (1.82%) PowerApps
10 2 (1.21%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (1.21%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.21%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (1.21%) OpenShift
10 2 (1.21%) Power Automate
11 1 (0.61%) IaaS
11 1 (0.61%) PaaS
11 1 (0.61%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 58 (35.15%) DNS
2 43 (26.06%) DHCP
3 30 (18.18%) Firewall
4 24 (14.55%) TCP/IP
5 14 (8.48%) VSAN
6 10 (6.06%) VPN
7 8 (4.85%) SAN
8 5 (3.03%) VoIP
8 5 (3.03%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (2.42%) Cisco Nexus
9 4 (2.42%) Kerberos
9 4 (2.42%) VLAN
9 4 (2.42%) WAN
10 3 (1.82%) BGP
10 3 (1.82%) DKIM
10 3 (1.82%) DMARC
10 3 (1.82%) LAN
10 3 (1.82%) NAS
10 3 (1.82%) Network Security
11 2 (1.21%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.03%) SQL Server
2 4 (2.42%) Power BI
3 2 (1.21%) Oracle BI EE
3 2 (1.21%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.61%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.61%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 12 (7.27%) JIRA
2 2 (1.21%) AdminStudio
2 2 (1.21%) InstallShield
3 1 (0.61%) Git
General
1 54 (32.73%) Social Skills
2 25 (15.15%) Public Sector
3 14 (8.48%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (6.67%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (3.64%) Legal
5 6 (3.64%) Military
6 5 (3.03%) Aerospace
7 4 (2.42%) Finance
7 4 (2.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (2.42%) Police
8 2 (1.21%) Law
8 2 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.61%) Advertising
9 1 (0.61%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 31 (18.79%) Architect
2 24 (14.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 17 (10.30%) Senior
4 16 (9.70%) Support Engineer
5 12 (7.27%) Administrator
6 11 (6.67%) Platform Engineer
7 10 (6.06%) Consultant
7 10 (6.06%) IT Support
8 8 (4.85%) Desktop Engineer
8 8 (4.85%) IT Engineer
8 8 (4.85%) Principal Engineer
8 8 (4.85%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 8 (4.85%) Service Desk Support
9 7 (4.24%) 1st Line Support
9 7 (4.24%) Active Directory Consultant
9 7 (4.24%) Desktop Support
9 7 (4.24%) Desktop Support Engineer
9 7 (4.24%) Service Analyst
9 7 (4.24%) Service Desk Analyst
9 7 (4.24%) Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (14.55%) LDAP
2 20 (12.12%) Terraform
3 10 (6.06%) OAuth
4 8 (4.85%) SailPoint
5 7 (4.24%) SAML
6 5 (3.03%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (2.42%) OpenID
8 3 (1.82%) OAuth2
9 2 (1.21%) HTML5 Canvas
9 2 (1.21%) JSON
9 2 (1.21%) REST
10 1 (0.61%) .NET
10 1 (0.61%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 29 (17.58%) PKI
2 18 (10.91%) Data Centre
3 12 (7.27%) Enterprise Software
3 12 (7.27%) Onboarding
4 9 (5.45%) Hybrid Cloud
4 9 (5.45%) Management Information System
5 6 (3.64%) Product Ownership
6 5 (3.03%) Public Cloud
7 4 (2.42%) Augmented Reality
7 4 (2.42%) Clustering
7 4 (2.42%) Linux Command Line
7 4 (2.42%) Replication
7 4 (2.42%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.42%) Virtual Reality
8 3 (1.82%) Enterprise Storage
8 3 (1.82%) Fat Client
8 3 (1.82%) Freedom of Information
8 3 (1.82%) Smartcard
8 3 (1.82%) Thin Client
8 3 (1.82%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 108 (65.45%) Windows
2 41 (24.85%) Linux
3 38 (23.03%) Windows Server
4 28 (16.97%) Windows 10
5 11 (6.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (4.24%) Android
7 3 (1.82%) CentOS
7 3 (1.82%) Data ONTAP
7 3 (1.82%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.82%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.21%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.21%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (1.21%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.61%) Rocky
9 1 (0.61%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (25.45%) Technical Leadership
2 41 (24.85%) Continuous Improvement
3 39 (23.64%) Problem-Solving
4 36 (21.82%) SIEM
5 33 (20.00%) Mentoring
6 29 (17.58%) DevSecOps
7 28 (16.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 28 (16.97%) ITIL
8 27 (16.36%) ITSM
9 25 (15.15%) Cybersecurity
10 23 (13.94%) Customer Service
10 23 (13.94%) Infrastructure as Code
11 21 (12.73%) Platform Engineering
11 21 (12.73%) Runbook
12 18 (10.91%) Stakeholder Management
12 18 (10.91%) Systems Engineering
13 17 (10.30%) Migration
13 17 (10.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 16 (9.70%) Customer Engagement
14 16 (9.70%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 47 (28.48%) PowerShell
2 19 (11.52%) Bash
2 19 (11.52%) Python
3 6 (3.64%) Java
4 5 (3.03%) BeanShell
5 4 (2.42%) SQL
6 1 (0.61%) C#
Qualifications
1 107 (64.85%) Security Cleared
2 62 (37.58%) DV Cleared
3 49 (29.70%) SC Cleared
4 12 (7.27%) VCAP
5 7 (4.24%) AWS Certification
5 7 (4.24%) Cisco Certification
5 7 (4.24%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (3.64%) CISSP
7 5 (3.03%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (3.03%) Degree
8 4 (2.42%) CCNA
9 3 (1.82%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 3 (1.82%) ACSP
9 3 (1.82%) Azure Certification
9 3 (1.82%) CISM
10 2 (1.21%) A+ Certification
10 2 (1.21%) TOGAF Certification
10 2 (1.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 1 (0.61%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.61%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (9.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (7.88%) NIST
3 7 (4.24%) SLA
4 3 (1.82%) NCSC
5 2 (1.21%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.21%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.61%) JSP 440
System Software
1 40 (24.24%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (19.39%) Hyper-V
3 17 (10.30%) VMware NSX
3 17 (10.30%) vSphere
4 13 (7.88%) Docker
5 10 (6.06%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (5.45%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (1.82%) VMware Workstation
8 2 (1.21%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.61%) KVM
9 1 (0.61%) NFS
Systems Management
1 22 (13.33%) Kubernetes
2 21 (12.73%) Ansible
2 21 (12.73%) Microsoft Intune
3 14 (8.48%) VxRail
4 8 (4.85%) WSUS
5 7 (4.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 7 (4.24%) OPNET
5 7 (4.24%) SCCM
6 6 (3.64%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (2.42%) Proxmox
8 3 (1.82%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.61%) Grafana
9 1 (0.61%) Nagios
9 1 (0.61%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.61%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.61%) SCOM
9 1 (0.61%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 81 (49.09%) Microsoft
2 46 (27.88%) VMware
3 24 (14.55%) CyberArk
4 16 (9.70%) Cisco
5 8 (4.85%) McAfee
6 7 (4.24%) Google
6 7 (4.24%) Red Hat
7 6 (3.64%) Oracle
7 6 (3.64%) Remedy
7 6 (3.64%) ServiceNow
8 5 (3.03%) Starlink
9 4 (2.42%) Apple
9 4 (2.42%) Clearswift
9 4 (2.42%) Tanium
9 4 (2.42%) Trend Micro
10 3 (1.82%) NetApp
10 3 (1.82%) Thales
11 2 (1.21%) Juniper
12 1 (0.61%) BMC
12 1 (0.61%) Citrix