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

6 months to
16 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 27 20 24
Rank change year-on-year -7 +4 -1
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 151 176 199
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 6.52% 8.37% 6.66%
As % of the System Software category 50.84% 48.62% 50.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 116 126 132
10th Percentile £182 £195 £134
25th Percentile £275 £250 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £470 £460
Median % change year-on-year +2.39% +2.17% +6.11%
75th Percentile £575 £554 £632
90th Percentile £691 £638 £700
England median daily rate £450 £423 £400
% change year-on-year +6.51% +5.63% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 5 18
10th Percentile £41.16 - £13.25
25th Percentile £94.25 £12.50 £14.61
Median hourly rate £195.00 £16.00 £19.31
Median % change year-on-year +1118.75% -17.14% -38.73%
75th Percentile £197.50 £64.50 £40.98
90th Percentile - £81.30 £69.62
England median hourly rate £22.32 £23.80 £19.31
% change year-on-year -6.24% +23.27% +2.97%

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 297 362 398
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 12.83% 17.21% 13.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 229 248 269
10th Percentile £220 £218 £175
25th Percentile £425 £423 £317
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +7.32%
75th Percentile £650 £613 £674
90th Percentile £715 £725 £719
England median daily rate £500 £516 £500
% change year-on-year -3.15% +3.25% -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 6 36
10th Percentile £61.25 £12.50 £14.38
25th Percentile £64.13 £13.25 £19.22
Median hourly rate £66.50 £37.00 £64.24
Median % change year-on-year +79.73% -42.40% +11.72%
75th Percentile £95.00 £62.88 £69.62
90th Percentile £197.50 £78.50 £73.46
England median hourly rate £48.11 £31.75 £42.04
% change year-on-year +51.53% -24.47% +68.15%

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 16 December 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Active Directory in the South West over the 6 months to 16 December 2025.

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 16 December 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 -14 43 £575 +9.52% 13
Gloucestershire +4 41 £325 -30.85% 15
Somerset +4 32 £450 +80.00% 13
Bristol -27 19 £531 +17.94% 24
Devon +8 11 £275 -16.67% 4
Dorset -6 1 £525 +82.61% 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 34 (22.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (21.19%) SharePoint
3 7 (4.64%) Skype for Business
4 4 (2.65%) Confluence
4 4 (2.65%) IIS
4 4 (2.65%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.66%) nginx
Applications
1 16 (10.60%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.32%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (1.32%) assyst
1 2 (1.32%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 61 (40.40%) Azure
2 39 (25.83%) Microsoft 365
3 37 (24.50%) Entra ID
4 12 (7.95%) AWS
5 7 (4.64%) Azure Monitor
5 7 (4.64%) Azure Sentinel
5 7 (4.64%) OneDrive
6 6 (3.97%) GCP
6 6 (3.97%) Power Platform
6 6 (3.97%) ShareGate
7 5 (3.31%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (2.65%) Azure AKS
8 4 (2.65%) SaaS
9 3 (1.99%) Azure Key Vault
9 3 (1.99%) IaaS
9 3 (1.99%) PaaS
10 2 (1.32%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 2 (1.32%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (1.32%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 40 (26.49%) DNS
2 23 (15.23%) Firewall
3 17 (11.26%) VPN
4 16 (10.60%) DHCP
5 14 (9.27%) Skype
6 5 (3.31%) Unified Communications
7 4 (2.65%) Network Security
7 4 (2.65%) TCP/IP
8 3 (1.99%) Kerberos
9 2 (1.32%) LAN
9 2 (1.32%) SMTP
9 2 (1.32%) WAN
10 1 (0.66%) Cisco IOS
10 1 (0.66%) DKIM
10 1 (0.66%) NAS
10 1 (0.66%) SAN
10 1 (0.66%) VLAN
10 1 (0.66%) VoIP
10 1 (0.66%) WebEx
10 1 (0.66%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (8.61%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.97%) Power BI
3 3 (1.99%) Metadata
4 2 (1.32%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (1.32%) Looker
4 2 (1.32%) MySQL
4 2 (1.32%) Relational Database
4 2 (1.32%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 10 (6.62%) MSI
2 8 (5.30%) JIRA
3 5 (3.31%) AdminStudio
3 5 (3.31%) InstallShield
4 2 (1.32%) Git
General
1 64 (42.38%) Social Skills
2 20 (13.25%) Public Sector
3 19 (12.58%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (11.26%) Documentation Skills
5 9 (5.96%) Finance
6 3 (1.99%) Aerospace
6 3 (1.99%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.32%) Billing
7 2 (1.32%) Law
7 2 (1.32%) Legal
7 2 (1.32%) Military
8 1 (0.66%) Electronics
8 1 (0.66%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.66%) Marketing
8 1 (0.66%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 17 (11.26%) Support Engineer
2 13 (8.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 12 (7.95%) Analyst
4 11 (7.28%) Architect
4 11 (7.28%) Desktop Engineer
4 11 (7.28%) Desktop Support
4 11 (7.28%) Desktop Support Engineer
5 10 (6.62%) Consultant
6 9 (5.96%) Applications Engineer
6 9 (5.96%) Deployment Engineer
7 8 (5.30%) Field Engineer
7 8 (5.30%) Platform Engineer
7 8 (5.30%) Wintel Engineer
8 7 (4.64%) IT Engineer
9 5 (3.31%) Developer
9 5 (3.31%) IT Support
9 5 (3.31%) SC Cleared Deployment Engineer
9 5 (3.31%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
9 5 (3.31%) Solutions Architect
10 4 (2.65%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (16.56%) OAuth
1 25 (16.56%) SAML
2 23 (15.23%) OpenID
3 19 (12.58%) OAuth2
4 6 (3.97%) LDAP
5 4 (2.65%) SailPoint
6 3 (1.99%) .NET
6 3 (1.99%) ARM Templates
6 3 (1.99%) Express.js
6 3 (1.99%) React
7 2 (1.32%) Next.js
7 2 (1.32%) Node.js
7 2 (1.32%) RESTful
7 2 (1.32%) YAML
8 1 (0.66%) AngularJS
8 1 (0.66%) ASP.NET Web API
8 1 (0.66%) Bootstrap
8 1 (0.66%) Software Packaging
8 1 (0.66%) WCF
8 1 (0.66%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 15 (9.93%) PKI
2 8 (5.30%) Driving Licence
3 7 (4.64%) Hybrid Cloud
4 6 (3.97%) Onboarding
4 6 (3.97%) Replication
5 5 (3.31%) Legacy Applications
5 5 (3.31%) Private Cloud
6 4 (2.65%) Cloud Native
6 4 (2.65%) Security Posture
7 3 (1.99%) iPad
7 3 (1.99%) iPhone
7 3 (1.99%) Legacy Systems
7 3 (1.99%) Operational Technology
7 3 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.32%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.66%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.66%) Device Driver
9 1 (0.66%) FMCG
9 1 (0.66%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.66%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 104 (68.87%) Windows
2 48 (31.79%) Windows 10
3 46 (30.46%) Windows Server
4 18 (11.92%) Linux
5 8 (5.30%) Windows Server 2012
6 7 (4.64%) Apple iOS
7 5 (3.31%) Android
8 4 (2.65%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (1.99%) CentOS
9 3 (1.99%) Mac OS
10 2 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (1.32%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.66%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (24.50%) ITIL
2 34 (22.52%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (19.21%) RBAC
4 22 (14.57%) Change Management
5 21 (13.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 19 (12.58%) Migration
7 18 (11.92%) Agile
7 18 (11.92%) Customer Service
7 18 (11.92%) DevOps
7 18 (11.92%) Root Cause Analysis
7 18 (11.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 17 (11.26%) Identity Access Management
9 14 (9.27%) Service Management
10 13 (8.61%) Runbook
11 11 (7.28%) Application Packaging
11 11 (7.28%) Load Balancing
12 10 (6.62%) Identity Management
12 10 (6.62%) Infrastructure as Code
12 10 (6.62%) Knowledge Transfer
13 9 (5.96%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 56 (37.09%) PowerShell
2 12 (7.95%) SQL
3 10 (6.62%) Bicep
4 8 (5.30%) VBScript
5 7 (4.64%) Python
6 4 (2.65%) JavaScript
6 4 (2.65%) TypeScript
7 3 (1.99%) C#
8 1 (0.66%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 98 (64.90%) Security Cleared
2 62 (41.06%) SC Cleared
3 41 (27.15%) Microsoft Certification
4 25 (16.56%) DV Cleared
5 10 (6.62%) ITIL Certification
5 10 (6.62%) MCSE
6 9 (5.96%) Azure Certification
6 9 (5.96%) Degree
7 7 (4.64%) A+ Certification
8 6 (3.97%) MCSA
9 5 (3.31%) CCNA
9 5 (3.31%) CCNP
9 5 (3.31%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (3.31%) Master's Degree
10 2 (1.32%) CISM
10 2 (1.32%) CISSP
11 1 (0.66%) MCITP
11 1 (0.66%) MCP
11 1 (0.66%) MCTS
11 1 (0.66%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (7.28%) GDPR
1 11 (7.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (2.65%) NCSC
3 3 (1.99%) NIST
3 3 (1.99%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (1.32%) PSD2
4 2 (1.32%) SLA
4 2 (1.32%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.66%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 33 (21.85%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (7.95%) Hyper-V
2 12 (7.95%) Virtual Machines
3 8 (5.30%) Microsoft App-V
4 5 (3.31%) Microsoft Virtual Server
4 5 (3.31%) Virtual Servers
4 5 (3.31%) VMware NSX
5 4 (2.65%) Docker
6 3 (1.99%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.66%) Firmware
7 1 (0.66%) UAG
7 1 (0.66%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 31 (20.53%) Single Sign-On
2 29 (19.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 26 (17.22%) Microsoft Intune
4 24 (15.89%) SCCM
5 15 (9.93%) WSUS
6 12 (7.95%) vCenter Server
7 11 (7.28%) Terraform
8 5 (3.31%) Kubernetes
9 2 (1.32%) Ansible
9 2 (1.32%) Kibana
9 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (1.32%) NetApp OnCommand
9 2 (1.32%) NetBackup
9 2 (1.32%) PingFederate
9 2 (1.32%) vMotion
9 2 (1.32%) VxRail
10 1 (0.66%) CA Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.66%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.66%) Puppet
10 1 (0.66%) SCOM
Vendors
1 118 (78.15%) Microsoft
2 42 (27.81%) VMware
3 19 (12.58%) Cisco
4 11 (7.28%) SolarWinds
4 11 (7.28%) Veeam
5 5 (3.31%) Splunk
6 4 (2.65%) Citrix
6 4 (2.65%) ForgeRock
6 4 (2.65%) Ping Identity
7 3 (1.99%) McAfee
7 3 (1.99%) Okta
7 3 (1.99%) Red Hat
7 3 (1.99%) ServiceNow
7 3 (1.99%) Starlink
8 2 (1.32%) Commvault
8 2 (1.32%) HP
8 2 (1.32%) Oracle
8 2 (1.32%) Salesforce
8 2 (1.32%) SAP
8 2 (1.32%) Veritas