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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 29 32
Rank change year-on-year -9 +3 -5
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 154 95 153
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.31% 5.01% 5.33%
As % of the System Software category 45.56% 39.92% 36.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 89 73 123
10th Percentile £184 £181 £144
25th Percentile £231 £208 £211
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £275 £475
Median % change year-on-year +68.18% -42.11% -4.04%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £711 £611 £675
England median daily rate £450 £438 £450
% change year-on-year +2.86% -2.78% +12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 3 1
10th Percentile £12.67 £15.75 -
25th Percentile £13.65 £16.64 £77.50
Median hourly rate £22.00 £18.25 £85.00
Median % change year-on-year +20.55% -78.53% +465.72%
75th Percentile £91.91 £45.44 £92.50
90th Percentile £99.76 £61.68 -
England median hourly rate £47.54 £23.00 £17.80
% change year-on-year +106.70% +29.21% -6.32%

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 338 238 416
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 9.47% 12.55% 14.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 202 184 313
10th Percentile £212 £204 £213
25th Percentile £400 £395 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -8.18% +2.33% +4.88%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £600
90th Percentile £705 £699 £672
England median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 5 11
10th Percentile £13.65 £16.34 £63.75
25th Percentile £24.63 £18.13 £68.89
Median hourly rate £58.92 £65.00 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.36% -18.75% +37.95%
75th Percentile £73.16 £78.70 £85.00
90th Percentile £98.82 £79.48 £90.00
England median hourly rate £57.63 £37.50 £22.20
% change year-on-year +53.69% +68.92% -44.50%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +5 45 £500 +112.77% 15
Gloucestershire -5 33 £300 +10.09% 20
Somerset -13 27 £515 +106.00% 10
Wiltshire -16 25 £500 -4.76% 10
Dorset -9 9 £540 +157.14% 4
Devon -16 6 £445 +122.50% 8
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 26 (16.88%) SharePoint
2 24 (15.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (3.90%) Mattermost
4 5 (3.25%) IIS
5 2 (1.30%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (3.25%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 11 (7.14%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.30%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 62 (40.26%) Azure
2 45 (29.22%) Entra ID
3 39 (25.32%) Microsoft 365
4 20 (12.99%) AWS
5 12 (7.79%) SaaS
6 7 (4.55%) Google Workspace
7 6 (3.90%) GCP
7 6 (3.90%) Power Platform
8 5 (3.25%) Google Drive
8 5 (3.25%) OneDrive
9 3 (1.95%) Asana
10 2 (1.30%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (1.30%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.30%) OCI
10 2 (1.30%) OpenShift
10 2 (1.30%) PaaS
10 2 (1.30%) Power Automate
10 2 (1.30%) PowerApps
11 1 (0.65%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.65%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 51 (33.12%) DNS
2 38 (24.68%) DHCP
3 30 (19.48%) Firewall
4 22 (14.29%) TCP/IP
5 13 (8.44%) VPN
6 12 (7.79%) VSAN
7 8 (5.19%) SAN
7 8 (5.19%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (4.55%) VLAN
9 6 (3.90%) LAN
9 6 (3.90%) WAN
10 5 (3.25%) VoIP
11 3 (1.95%) BGP
11 3 (1.95%) DKIM
11 3 (1.95%) DMARC
11 3 (1.95%) NAS
11 3 (1.95%) Network Security
12 2 (1.30%) Cisco Nexus
12 2 (1.30%) MPLS
12 2 (1.30%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.90%) Power BI
1 6 (3.90%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.95%) Oracle BI EE
2 3 (1.95%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.65%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.65%) Metadata
3 1 (0.65%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.65%) Power Query
3 1 (0.65%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 22 (14.29%) JIRA
2 2 (1.30%) AdminStudio
2 2 (1.30%) InstallShield
3 1 (0.65%) Git
General
1 41 (26.62%) Social Skills
2 26 (16.88%) Public Sector
3 10 (6.49%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (4.55%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (3.90%) Legal
5 6 (3.90%) Military
6 5 (3.25%) Finance
6 5 (3.25%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (2.60%) Police
8 2 (1.30%) Law
9 1 (0.65%) Advertising
9 1 (0.65%) Back Office
9 1 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 23 (14.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 19 (12.34%) Support Engineer
3 14 (9.09%) Analyst
3 14 (9.09%) Architect
3 14 (9.09%) IT Support
4 13 (8.44%) Senior
5 12 (7.79%) Administrator
6 11 (7.14%) Service Analyst
6 11 (7.14%) Service Desk Analyst
7 9 (5.84%) Desktop Engineer
8 8 (5.19%) Consultant
8 8 (5.19%) Desktop Support
8 8 (5.19%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 8 (5.19%) IT Engineer
8 8 (5.19%) Platform Engineer
8 8 (5.19%) Principal Engineer
8 8 (5.19%) Service Desk Support
9 7 (4.55%) Active Directory Consultant
9 7 (4.55%) IT Consultant
9 7 (4.55%) Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (5.19%) LDAP
1 8 (5.19%) SailPoint
2 6 (3.90%) OAuth
3 5 (3.25%) Elastic Stack
4 3 (1.95%) OpenID
4 3 (1.95%) REST
4 3 (1.95%) SAML
5 2 (1.30%) HTML5 Canvas
5 2 (1.30%) JSON
5 2 (1.30%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 23 (14.94%) PKI
2 17 (11.04%) Data Centre
3 12 (7.79%) Enterprise Software
3 12 (7.79%) Onboarding
4 11 (7.14%) Management Information System
5 10 (6.49%) Hybrid Cloud
6 7 (4.55%) Driving Licence
7 6 (3.90%) Product Ownership
7 6 (3.90%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (2.60%) Augmented Reality
8 4 (2.60%) Clustering
8 4 (2.60%) Linux Command Line
8 4 (2.60%) Virtual Reality
9 3 (1.95%) Fat Client
9 3 (1.95%) Freedom of Information
9 3 (1.95%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.95%) Smartcard
9 3 (1.95%) Thin Client
9 3 (1.95%) Virtual Team
10 2 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 103 (66.88%) Windows
2 38 (24.68%) Linux
3 33 (21.43%) Windows Server
4 26 (16.88%) Windows 10
5 10 (6.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (4.55%) Android
7 3 (1.95%) CentOS
7 3 (1.95%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.95%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.30%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.30%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (1.30%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (1.30%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.65%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.65%) Rocky
9 1 (0.65%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (27.92%) Problem-Solving
2 31 (20.13%) ITIL
3 29 (18.83%) Customer Service
4 27 (17.53%) Continuous Improvement
4 27 (17.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 24 (15.58%) Technical Leadership
6 23 (14.94%) Cybersecurity
7 21 (13.64%) Infrastructure as Code
8 19 (12.34%) ITSM
9 18 (11.69%) Change Management
9 18 (11.69%) Identity Access Management
9 18 (11.69%) Platform Engineering
9 18 (11.69%) SIEM
10 17 (11.04%) Mentoring
11 16 (10.39%) Agile
11 16 (10.39%) Migration
11 16 (10.39%) Systems Engineering
12 14 (9.09%) CI/CD
12 14 (9.09%) Configuration Management
12 14 (9.09%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 44 (28.57%) PowerShell
2 19 (12.34%) Python
3 17 (11.04%) Bash
4 6 (3.90%) Java
5 5 (3.25%) BeanShell
6 2 (1.30%) SQL
7 1 (0.65%) C#
7 1 (0.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 91 (59.09%) Security Cleared
2 50 (32.47%) SC Cleared
3 44 (28.57%) DV Cleared
4 10 (6.49%) VCAP
5 7 (4.55%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (3.90%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (3.90%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (3.25%) AWS Certification
7 5 (3.25%) Degree
8 4 (2.60%) Azure Certification
8 4 (2.60%) CCNA
9 3 (1.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 3 (1.95%) ACSP
9 3 (1.95%) CISSP
10 2 (1.30%) A+ Certification
10 2 (1.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 1 (0.65%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.55%) SLA
2 3 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (1.30%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.65%) NCSC
System Software
1 38 (24.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (20.78%) Hyper-V
3 17 (11.04%) VMware NSX
4 15 (9.74%) vSphere
5 13 (8.44%) Docker
6 9 (5.84%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (5.84%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (1.95%) VMware Workstation
8 2 (1.30%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.65%) KVM
9 1 (0.65%) NFS
Systems Management
1 20 (12.99%) Kubernetes
1 20 (12.99%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (12.34%) Ansible
2 19 (12.34%) Terraform
3 12 (7.79%) VxRail
4 9 (5.84%) SCCM
4 9 (5.84%) Single Sign-On
5 7 (4.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (3.25%) WSUS
7 4 (2.60%) OPNET
7 4 (2.60%) Proxmox
8 3 (1.95%) Failover Clustering
9 2 (1.30%) McAfee ePO
10 1 (0.65%) CA Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.65%) Grafana
10 1 (0.65%) Nagios
10 1 (0.65%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.65%) SCOM
10 1 (0.65%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 78 (50.65%) Microsoft
2 43 (27.92%) VMware
3 12 (7.79%) Remedy
4 11 (7.14%) Cisco
4 11 (7.14%) McAfee
5 10 (6.49%) CyberArk
6 7 (4.55%) Google
6 7 (4.55%) Oracle
7 6 (3.90%) Red Hat
7 6 (3.90%) Starlink
8 5 (3.25%) ServiceNow
9 4 (2.60%) Apple
9 4 (2.60%) Clearswift
9 4 (2.60%) Tanium
9 4 (2.60%) Trend Micro
10 3 (1.95%) Thales
11 2 (1.30%) Juniper
12 1 (0.65%) Adobe
12 1 (0.65%) BMC
12 1 (0.65%) Citrix