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

6 months to
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 23 34
Rank change year-on-year -19 +11 -16
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 131 128 156
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.92% 7.63% 4.96%
As % of the System Software category 42.53% 45.71% 45.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 104 122
10th Percentile £156 £186 £143
25th Percentile £208 £213 £173
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £423 £425 £411
Median % change year-on-year -0.59% +3.42% -17.81%
75th Percentile £575 £591 £588
90th Percentile £620 £675 £711
England median daily rate £450 £450 £421
% change year-on-year - +6.99% -1.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 3 11
10th Percentile £12.43 £15.75 £14.00
25th Percentile £13.65 £16.64 -
Median hourly rate £14.60 £18.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -54.38% +116.22%
75th Percentile £23.71 £41.44 -
90th Percentile £197.50 £55.28 -
England median hourly rate £27.00 £19.97 £17.50
% change year-on-year +35.20% +14.11% -7.89%

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 308 280 346
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 9.21% 16.70% 11.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 188 227 260
10th Percentile £205 £209 £162
25th Percentile £384 £403 £353
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% +2.44%
75th Percentile £602 £623 £588
90th Percentile £691 £700 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 4 32
10th Percentile £13.65 £16.05 -
25th Percentile £20.82 £17.38 £40.00
Median hourly rate £62.50 £40.63 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year +53.85% -40.91% +14.58%
75th Percentile £67.25 £68.05 £86.25
90th Percentile £75.80 £74.44 £90.00
England median hourly rate £56.25 £28.21 £21.00
% change year-on-year +99.43% +34.31% -58.00%

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 May 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 16 May 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 16 May 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
Gloucestershire +5 44 £210 -44.00% 15
Bristol -15 34 £388 +64.89% 17
Wiltshire -27 26 £581 +5.68% 6
Devon -14 10 £148 -26.25% 5
Somerset -15 10 £575 +130.00% 13
Dorset -24 1 £550 +29.41% 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 20 (15.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (12.98%) SharePoint
3 6 (4.58%) Mattermost
4 5 (3.82%) IIS
5 2 (1.53%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 6 (4.58%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 10 (7.63%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.53%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 47 (35.88%) Azure
2 31 (23.66%) Microsoft 365
3 21 (16.03%) Entra ID
4 9 (6.87%) AWS
5 7 (5.34%) GCP
5 7 (5.34%) SaaS
6 6 (4.58%) Google Workspace
6 6 (4.58%) PaaS
7 5 (3.82%) Google Drive
7 5 (3.82%) IaaS
7 5 (3.82%) Power Platform
8 4 (3.05%) OCI
9 3 (2.29%) Asana
9 3 (2.29%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (2.29%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.76%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.76%) Azure Stack
10 1 (0.76%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.76%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.76%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 29 (22.14%) DNS
2 20 (15.27%) DHCP
3 19 (14.50%) Firewall
4 14 (10.69%) VPN
5 7 (5.34%) Wi-Fi
6 6 (4.58%) LAN
7 5 (3.82%) Network Security
7 5 (3.82%) VLAN
8 3 (2.29%) DKIM
8 3 (2.29%) DMARC
8 3 (2.29%) SAN
8 3 (2.29%) TCP/IP
8 3 (2.29%) WAN
9 2 (1.53%) Cisco Nexus
9 2 (1.53%) NAS
9 2 (1.53%) Skype
9 2 (1.53%) Wireless
10 1 (0.76%) BIG-IP
10 1 (0.76%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.76%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.58%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.82%) Power BI
3 3 (2.29%) Oracle BI EE
3 3 (2.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.76%) Metadata
4 1 (0.76%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.76%) Power Query
4 1 (0.76%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 23 (17.56%) JIRA
2 2 (1.53%) AdminStudio
2 2 (1.53%) Git
2 2 (1.53%) InstallShield
3 1 (0.76%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.76%) GitLab
3 1 (0.76%) Jenkins
General
1 50 (38.17%) Social Skills
2 16 (12.21%) Public Sector
3 11 (8.40%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (7.63%) Finance
5 5 (3.82%) Documentation Skills
5 5 (3.82%) Organisational Skills
6 3 (2.29%) Legal
6 3 (2.29%) Police
7 2 (1.53%) Law
8 1 (0.76%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.76%) Back Office
8 1 (0.76%) Electronics
8 1 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.76%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.76%) Marketing
8 1 (0.76%) Military
8 1 (0.76%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 21 (16.03%) Support Engineer
2 17 (12.98%) IT Support
3 16 (12.21%) Desktop Engineer
4 15 (11.45%) Analyst
4 15 (11.45%) Desktop Support
4 15 (11.45%) Desktop Support Engineer
5 13 (9.92%) Architect
5 13 (9.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 11 (8.40%) Administrator
7 9 (6.87%) IT Support Specialist
7 9 (6.87%) Support Specialist
8 7 (5.34%) Senior
8 7 (5.34%) Service Analyst
8 7 (5.34%) Service Desk Analyst
8 7 (5.34%) Service Desk Support
9 6 (4.58%) Systems Administrator
10 5 (3.82%) Applications Packager
10 5 (3.82%) Technical Architect
11 4 (3.05%) 2nd Line Support
11 4 (3.05%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (7.63%) OAuth
2 7 (5.34%) OpenID
2 7 (5.34%) SAML
3 5 (3.82%) Elastic Stack
4 4 (3.05%) OAuth2
5 3 (2.29%) LDAP
5 3 (2.29%) SailPoint
6 2 (1.53%) REST
7 1 (0.76%) Apache NiFi
7 1 (0.76%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.76%) HTML5 Canvas
7 1 (0.76%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 12 (9.16%) Hybrid Cloud
2 11 (8.40%) Driving Licence
3 8 (6.11%) Management Information System
4 6 (4.58%) Data Centre
4 6 (4.58%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (3.82%) Enterprise Software
5 5 (3.82%) Product Ownership
6 4 (3.05%) Augmented Reality
6 4 (3.05%) Virtual Reality
7 3 (2.29%) Freedom of Information
7 3 (2.29%) Onboarding
7 3 (2.29%) PKI
7 3 (2.29%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.53%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (1.53%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.53%) Replication
9 1 (0.76%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.76%) iPad
9 1 (0.76%) iPhone
9 1 (0.76%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 91 (69.47%) Windows
2 32 (24.43%) Windows Server
3 22 (16.79%) Windows 10
4 20 (15.27%) Linux
5 4 (3.05%) Android
5 4 (3.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (3.05%) Windows Server 2016
6 3 (2.29%) CentOS
6 3 (2.29%) Mac OS
6 3 (2.29%) Ubuntu
7 2 (1.53%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.76%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.76%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.76%) Rocky
8 1 (0.76%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (23.66%) Problem-Solving
2 28 (21.37%) ITIL
3 26 (19.85%) Customer Service
4 22 (16.79%) Change Management
5 19 (14.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 18 (13.74%) Continuous Improvement
7 16 (12.21%) Identity Access Management
8 15 (11.45%) ITSM
8 15 (11.45%) Migration
9 14 (10.69%) DevOps
10 13 (9.92%) Agile
10 13 (9.92%) Infrastructure as Code
11 12 (9.16%) Configuration Management
12 11 (8.40%) Root Cause Analysis
12 11 (8.40%) Technical Leadership
13 10 (7.63%) RBAC
14 9 (6.87%) Zero Trust
15 8 (6.11%) Service Management
16 7 (5.34%) AI
16 7 (5.34%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 32 (24.43%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.29%) Bicep
2 3 (2.29%) Python
3 2 (1.53%) SQL
4 1 (0.76%) Bash
4 1 (0.76%) C#
4 1 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 1 (0.76%) Java
Qualifications
1 66 (50.38%) Security Cleared
2 32 (24.43%) SC Cleared
3 29 (22.14%) DV Cleared
4 10 (7.63%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (6.11%) Azure Certification
5 8 (6.11%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (2.29%) ACSP
7 2 (1.53%) Degree
7 2 (1.53%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (0.76%) Accessibility
1 1 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (0.76%) SLA
System Software
1 23 (17.56%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (10.69%) Hyper-V
3 7 (5.34%) VMware NSX
4 5 (3.82%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (1.53%) Docker
5 2 (1.53%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.76%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.76%) Firmware
6 1 (0.76%) KVM
6 1 (0.76%) NFS
6 1 (0.76%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.76%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.76%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 23 (17.56%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (12.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 14 (10.69%) Single Sign-On
4 13 (9.92%) SCCM
5 9 (6.87%) Terraform
6 5 (3.82%) Ansible
7 3 (2.29%) Kubernetes
8 2 (1.53%) Grafana
8 2 (1.53%) McAfee ePO
9 1 (0.76%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.76%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.76%) Kibana
9 1 (0.76%) logstash
9 1 (0.76%) Nagios
9 1 (0.76%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.76%) Puppet
9 1 (0.76%) SCOM
9 1 (0.76%) WSUS
9 1 (0.76%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 69 (52.67%) Microsoft
2 27 (20.61%) VMware
3 11 (8.40%) Remedy
4 9 (6.87%) Google
5 8 (6.11%) McAfee
6 6 (4.58%) Starlink
7 5 (3.82%) Cisco
8 4 (3.05%) Apple
8 4 (3.05%) Clearswift
8 4 (3.05%) Tanium
8 4 (3.05%) Trend Micro
9 3 (2.29%) NetApp
9 3 (2.29%) Oracle
10 2 (1.53%) Citrix
11 1 (0.76%) Atlassian
11 1 (0.76%) CheckPoint
11 1 (0.76%) EMC
11 1 (0.76%) Fortinet
11 1 (0.76%) Red Hat
11 1 (0.76%) SAP