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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 20 32
Rank change year-on-year -16 +12 -16
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 141 150 160
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 4.83% 9.03% 4.98%
As % of the System Software category 45.63% 45.18% 49.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 105 123 108
10th Percentile £156 £192 £140
25th Percentile £275 £223 £206
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £425 £342
Median % change year-on-year +19.41% +24.36% -26.11%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £578
90th Percentile £714 £675 £704
England median daily rate £450 £450 £386
% change year-on-year - +16.58% -9.18%
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% -20.00%
75th Percentile £197.50 £29.91 -
90th Percentile - £50.66 £43.83
England median hourly rate £22.41 £22.50 £17.72
% change year-on-year -0.40% +26.98% -6.56%

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 309 332 326
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 10.59% 19.99% 10.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 223 271 221
10th Percentile £205 £213 £198
25th Percentile £413 £413 £295
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.91% +10.00% -2.68%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £625
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 32 5 36
10th Percentile £13.11 £13.56 £14.71
25th Percentile £49.00 £15.16 £40.00
Median hourly rate £64.00 £18.25 £66.62
Median % change year-on-year +250.68% -72.60% +11.03%
75th Percentile £68.57 £64.50 £76.25
90th Percentile £185.65 £73.02 £90.00
England median hourly rate £42.69 £29.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +47.19% +28.89% -42.68%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -15 43 £575 +4.55% 5
Gloucestershire -7 35 £210 -50.59% 18
Bristol -31 24 £512 +127.33% 11
Somerset -2 21 £525 +110.00% 10
Devon +1 13 £175 -39.13% 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 30 (21.28%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (12.77%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.55%) Mattermost
4 3 (2.13%) IIS
4 3 (2.13%) Skype for Business
5 2 (1.42%) Confluence
5 2 (1.42%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 10 (7.09%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (3.55%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.71%) assyst
2 1 (0.71%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 57 (40.43%) Azure
2 37 (26.24%) Microsoft 365
3 35 (24.82%) Entra ID
4 11 (7.80%) AWS
5 7 (4.96%) Azure Monitor
5 7 (4.96%) OneDrive
6 6 (4.26%) Azure Sentinel
6 6 (4.26%) PaaS
7 5 (3.55%) GCP
7 5 (3.55%) IaaS
7 5 (3.55%) OCI
8 4 (2.84%) Power Platform
8 4 (2.84%) ShareGate
9 3 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (2.13%) Azure Key Vault
10 2 (1.42%) Azure AKS
10 2 (1.42%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (1.42%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (1.42%) SaaS
10 2 (1.42%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 32 (22.70%) DNS
2 31 (21.99%) Firewall
3 16 (11.35%) DHCP
3 16 (11.35%) VPN
4 8 (5.67%) Network Security
4 8 (5.67%) Skype
5 6 (4.26%) LAN
6 4 (2.84%) VLAN
6 4 (2.84%) WAN
6 4 (2.84%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (2.13%) TCP/IP
8 2 (1.42%) NAS
8 2 (1.42%) SAN
9 1 (0.71%) Kerberos
9 1 (0.71%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.71%) SD-WAN
9 1 (0.71%) Unified Communications
9 1 (0.71%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.67%) SQL Server
2 4 (2.84%) Power BI
3 2 (1.42%) Metadata
4 1 (0.71%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.71%) Oracle BI EE
4 1 (0.71%) Power Query
4 1 (0.71%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.71%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 16 (11.35%) JIRA
2 3 (2.13%) Git
3 2 (1.42%) AdminStudio
3 2 (1.42%) InstallShield
4 1 (0.71%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.71%) GitLab
4 1 (0.71%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.71%) MSI
General
1 68 (48.23%) Social Skills
2 14 (9.93%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (9.22%) Documentation Skills
4 11 (7.80%) Public Sector
5 10 (7.09%) Finance
6 5 (3.55%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.42%) Legal
7 2 (1.42%) Military
8 1 (0.71%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.71%) Back Office
8 1 (0.71%) Electronics
8 1 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.71%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.71%) Marketing
8 1 (0.71%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 18 (12.77%) Support Engineer
2 16 (11.35%) Analyst
2 16 (11.35%) Architect
3 14 (9.93%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 13 (9.22%) Desktop Engineer
5 12 (8.51%) Desktop Support
5 12 (8.51%) Desktop Support Engineer
6 11 (7.80%) IT Support
7 9 (6.38%) IT Support Specialist
7 9 (6.38%) Support Specialist
8 8 (5.67%) Consultant
9 7 (4.96%) Wintel Engineer
10 6 (4.26%) Service Analyst
10 6 (4.26%) Service Desk Analyst
10 6 (4.26%) Solutions Architect
10 6 (4.26%) Technical Architect
11 5 (3.55%) 2nd Line Support
11 5 (3.55%) Applications Packager
11 5 (3.55%) IT Engineer
12 4 (2.84%) Active Directory Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (16.31%) OAuth
1 23 (16.31%) SAML
2 21 (14.89%) OpenID
3 19 (13.48%) OAuth2
4 4 (2.84%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.42%) .NET
5 2 (1.42%) LDAP
5 2 (1.42%) RESTful
5 2 (1.42%) YAML
6 1 (0.71%) Apache NiFi
6 1 (0.71%) REST
6 1 (0.71%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.71%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 15 (10.64%) Hybrid Cloud
2 11 (7.80%) Driving Licence
3 9 (6.38%) PKI
4 7 (4.96%) Private Cloud
4 7 (4.96%) Replication
5 6 (4.26%) Data Centre
5 6 (4.26%) Onboarding
6 3 (2.13%) Cloud Native
6 3 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (2.13%) Security Posture
6 3 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.42%) Legacy Applications
7 2 (1.42%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.42%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.71%) CMDB
8 1 (0.71%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.71%) Device Driver
8 1 (0.71%) iPad
8 1 (0.71%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.71%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 92 (65.25%) Windows
2 44 (31.21%) Windows Server
3 21 (14.89%) Windows 10
4 19 (13.48%) Linux
5 6 (4.26%) Windows Server 2016
6 5 (3.55%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (2.13%) CentOS
8 2 (1.42%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (21.99%) Problem-Solving
2 30 (21.28%) ITIL
3 27 (19.15%) RBAC
4 26 (18.44%) Change Management
5 23 (16.31%) Identity Access Management
5 23 (16.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 20 (14.18%) DevOps
7 18 (12.77%) Customer Service
8 16 (11.35%) Agile
8 16 (11.35%) Infrastructure as Code
9 15 (10.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 15 (10.64%) Technical Leadership
10 13 (9.22%) Load Balancing
10 13 (9.22%) Migration
10 13 (9.22%) Service Management
11 12 (8.51%) Continuous Improvement
11 12 (8.51%) Identity Management
12 11 (7.80%) Configuration Management
13 10 (7.09%) ITSM
13 10 (7.09%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 60 (42.55%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.67%) Bicep
3 7 (4.96%) Python
3 7 (4.96%) SQL
4 2 (1.42%) C#
4 2 (1.42%) JavaScript
4 2 (1.42%) TypeScript
5 1 (0.71%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 78 (55.32%) Security Cleared
2 40 (28.37%) SC Cleared
3 34 (24.11%) DV Cleared
4 30 (21.28%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (7.09%) Azure Certification
6 5 (3.55%) Degree
6 5 (3.55%) ITIL Certification
6 5 (3.55%) MCSE
7 3 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.71%) A+ Certification
8 1 (0.71%) CCNA
8 1 (0.71%) CCNP
8 1 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.71%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.71%) MCSA
8 1 (0.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.26%) GDPR
1 6 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (2.84%) NCSC
3 2 (1.42%) NIST
3 2 (1.42%) PSD2
3 2 (1.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 1 (0.71%) Government Security Classifications
4 1 (0.71%) SLA
System Software
1 25 (17.73%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (9.22%) Hyper-V
3 8 (5.67%) VMware NSX
4 4 (2.84%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (2.13%) Docker
6 2 (1.42%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.71%) Firmware
7 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.71%) UAG
7 1 (0.71%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.71%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.71%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 36 (25.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 31 (21.99%) Single Sign-On
3 22 (15.60%) Microsoft Intune
4 18 (12.77%) SCCM
5 16 (11.35%) Terraform
6 7 (4.96%) WSUS
7 6 (4.26%) Ansible
8 5 (3.55%) Kubernetes
9 3 (2.13%) vCenter Server
10 2 (1.42%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (1.42%) McAfee ePO
10 2 (1.42%) NetBackup
10 2 (1.42%) Puppet
11 1 (0.71%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.71%) Grafana
11 1 (0.71%) Kibana
11 1 (0.71%) logstash
11 1 (0.71%) SCOM
Vendors
1 94 (66.67%) Microsoft
2 33 (23.40%) VMware
3 6 (4.26%) Cisco
3 6 (4.26%) Remedy
4 5 (3.55%) McAfee
5 4 (2.84%) Citrix
5 4 (2.84%) SolarWinds
5 4 (2.84%) Veeam
6 3 (2.13%) Google
6 3 (2.13%) Red Hat
6 3 (2.13%) Starlink
7 2 (1.42%) Broadcom
7 2 (1.42%) Commvault
7 2 (1.42%) ForgeRock
7 2 (1.42%) NetApp
7 2 (1.42%) Ping Identity
7 2 (1.42%) Veritas
8 1 (0.71%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.71%) ServiceNow
8 1 (0.71%) Splunk