Active Directory Job Trends in the South West

Microsoft Active Directory
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Active Directory skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 26 35
Rank change year-on-year -23 +9 +10
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 293 238 390
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 3.26% 6.85% 4.86%
As % of the System Software category 49.33% 60.56% 42.95%
Number of salaries quoted 160 179 311
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,000 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,750 £29,225
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,750 £34,500 £37,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.42% -6.76% +2.78%
75th Percentile £53,750 £47,500 £53,750
90th Percentile £71,250 £57,000 £57,500
England median annual salary £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% -6.25% -

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 permanent job vacancies requiring system software skills in the South West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 594 393 908
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 6.61% 11.31% 11.32%
Number of salaries quoted 361 288 686
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £30,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £45,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -14.29% +5.00%
75th Percentile £65,000 £62,500 £65,938
90th Percentile £82,500 £82,575 £85,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -10.71%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Active Directory relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Active Directory job vacancy trend in the South West

Active Directory
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Active Directory.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in the South West over the 6 months to 15 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Active Directory in the South West

Active Directory
Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Active Directory within the South West region over the 6 months to 15 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Somerset -2 72 £38,000 -5.00% 5
Wiltshire +12 64 £37,500 +8.70% 12
Gloucestershire -26 59 £50,000 +33.33% 15
Bristol -9 54 £50,000 +5.26% 16
Devon -31 28 £28,125 -10.71% 10
Dorset -40 10 £37,500 +25.00% 8
Cornwall 0 6 £32,500 -35.00% 1
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
1 151 (51.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 40 (13.65%) SharePoint
3 13 (4.44%) Confluence
4 4 (1.37%) IIS
5 3 (1.02%) nginx
6 1 (0.34%) Apache
6 1 (0.34%) Drupal
6 1 (0.34%) Site Server
6 1 (0.34%) WordPress
Applications
1 11 (3.75%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.02%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 3 (1.02%) NetSuite
1 3 (1.02%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.34%) Magento
2 1 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 213 (72.70%) Azure
2 211 (72.01%) Microsoft 365
3 127 (43.34%) Entra ID
4 45 (15.36%) AWS
5 26 (8.87%) Azure DevOps
6 21 (7.17%) PaaS
7 20 (6.83%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 20 (6.83%) Serverless
8 18 (6.14%) IaaS
9 13 (4.44%) Azure Monitor
9 13 (4.44%) GitHub
10 12 (4.10%) Azure Functions
10 12 (4.10%) Azure Key Vault
11 10 (3.41%) OneDrive
12 9 (3.07%) Azure AKS
13 8 (2.73%) Amazon EC2
14 6 (2.05%) Amazon S3
14 6 (2.05%) AWS Lambda
14 6 (2.05%) Microsoft Purview
15 5 (1.71%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 129 (44.03%) DNS
2 123 (41.98%) DHCP
3 50 (17.06%) VPN
4 37 (12.63%) Wi-Fi
5 35 (11.95%) Firewall
6 27 (9.22%) Network Security
6 27 (9.22%) TCP/IP
7 22 (7.51%) VLAN
7 22 (7.51%) WAN
8 20 (6.83%) LAN
9 9 (3.07%) Wireless
10 4 (1.37%) DMZ
10 4 (1.37%) IPv4
10 4 (1.37%) SAN
10 4 (1.37%) SD-WAN
10 4 (1.37%) Software-Defined Networking
10 4 (1.37%) VoIP
10 4 (1.37%) Wireshark
11 3 (1.02%) 3GPP
11 3 (1.02%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (26.28%) Amazon RDS
2 12 (4.10%) Azure SQL Database
3 4 (1.37%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
4 1 (0.34%) InterSystems Cache
4 1 (0.34%) RDBMS
4 1 (0.34%) Redis
4 1 (0.34%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 27 (9.22%) JIRA
2 20 (6.83%) Git
3 6 (2.05%) Bitbucket
3 6 (2.05%) Jenkins
4 5 (1.71%) GitLab
5 2 (0.68%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 2 (0.68%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.68%) git-flow
5 2 (0.68%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.34%) Gatling
6 1 (0.34%) JMeter
6 1 (0.34%) Vagrant
General
1 170 (58.02%) Social Skills
2 88 (30.03%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (6.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 18 (6.14%) Finance
5 17 (5.80%) Public Sector
6 16 (5.46%) Advertising
6 16 (5.46%) Law
7 9 (3.07%) Automotive
8 8 (2.73%) Aerospace
8 8 (2.73%) Manufacturing
8 8 (2.73%) Organisational Skills
9 7 (2.39%) Retail
10 6 (2.05%) Legal
11 3 (1.02%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.34%) Fire and Rescue
12 1 (0.34%) Local Government
12 1 (0.34%) Police
Job Titles
1 96 (32.76%) IT Support
2 91 (31.06%) Support Engineer
3 88 (30.03%) IT Engineer
4 81 (27.65%) Systems Engineer
5 79 (26.96%) IT Support Engineer
6 30 (10.24%) Senior
7 27 (9.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 25 (8.53%) Analyst
9 20 (6.83%) IT Technician
10 15 (5.12%) Field Engineer
10 15 (5.12%) Field Support Engineer
11 14 (4.78%) Architect
11 14 (4.78%) Infrastructure Analyst
12 13 (4.44%) Azure Engineer
12 13 (4.44%) Server Engineer
13 12 (4.10%) IT Support Technician
13 12 (4.10%) Support Technician
14 11 (3.75%) 2nd Line Support
14 11 (3.75%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
14 11 (3.75%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.71%) LDAP
1 5 (1.71%) OAuth
1 5 (1.71%) OpenID
1 5 (1.71%) SailPoint
2 4 (1.37%) boto
3 2 (0.68%) 802.1X
3 2 (0.68%) AWS CDK
3 2 (0.68%) OAuth2
3 2 (0.68%) SAML
4 1 (0.34%) .NET
4 1 (0.34%) .NET Framework
4 1 (0.34%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.34%) Memcached
Miscellaneous
1 71 (24.23%) Legacy Systems
2 28 (9.56%) Driving Licence
3 19 (6.48%) Onboarding
4 17 (5.80%) Hybrid Cloud
5 16 (5.46%) Public Cloud
6 13 (4.44%) Self-Motivation
7 12 (4.10%) Podcast
7 12 (4.10%) Security Posture
8 10 (3.41%) Management Information System
9 9 (3.07%) Data Centre
10 8 (2.73%) Cloud Native
10 8 (2.73%) Replication
11 5 (1.71%) Blog
11 5 (1.71%) Enterprise Software
12 4 (1.37%) Cyber Threat
12 4 (1.37%) Video Conferencing
13 3 (1.02%) Digital Signage
13 3 (1.02%) Educational Technology
14 2 (0.68%) Cyberattack
14 2 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 234 (79.86%) Windows
2 153 (52.22%) Windows Server
3 109 (37.20%) Linux
4 85 (29.01%) Windows Server 2016
5 33 (11.26%) Mac OS
6 26 (8.87%) Windows 10
7 17 (5.80%) VMS
8 11 (3.75%) Apple iOS
9 8 (2.73%) Windows Server 2019
10 7 (2.39%) Android
11 4 (1.37%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.68%) CentOS
12 2 (0.68%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (46.76%) Problem-Solving
2 111 (37.88%) Customer Service
3 83 (28.33%) Migration
4 80 (27.30%) Customer Experience
5 74 (25.26%) Vulnerability Remediation
6 73 (24.91%) Email Filtering
6 73 (24.91%) Kalman Filter
6 73 (24.91%) Web Filtering
7 70 (23.89%) Vulnerability Scanning
8 56 (19.11%) Cybersecurity
9 43 (14.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 37 (12.63%) Continuous Improvement
10 37 (12.63%) DevOps
11 35 (11.95%) ITIL
12 34 (11.60%) CI/CD
12 34 (11.60%) Cloud Security
13 29 (9.90%) Disaster Recovery
14 28 (9.56%) Infrastructure as Code
15 26 (8.87%) DevSecOps
15 26 (8.87%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 40 (13.65%) PowerShell
2 25 (8.53%) SQL
3 23 (7.85%) Bash
4 20 (6.83%) Bicep
5 12 (4.10%) Kusto Query Language
6 11 (3.75%) Python
7 6 (2.05%) Java
8 1 (0.34%) PHP
8 1 (0.34%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.34%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 112 (38.23%) Security Cleared
2 101 (34.47%) SC Cleared
3 26 (8.87%) Microsoft Certification
4 25 (8.53%) DV Cleared
5 19 (6.48%) Azure Certification
6 15 (5.12%) AWS Certification
7 8 (2.73%) CCNA
7 8 (2.73%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (2.73%) CREST Certified
7 8 (2.73%) Degree
8 6 (2.05%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (2.05%) OSCP
9 4 (1.37%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 4 (1.37%) ISTQB
9 4 (1.37%) MCSA
9 4 (1.37%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 4 (1.37%) RHCE
9 4 (1.37%) RHCSA
10 3 (1.02%) A+ Certification
10 3 (1.02%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (34.13%) Cyber Essentials
2 75 (25.60%) PCI DSS
3 13 (4.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (2.73%) GDPR
5 7 (2.39%) SLA
6 6 (2.05%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 5 (1.71%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.68%) NCSC
8 2 (0.68%) PMO
8 2 (0.68%) SOC 2
System Software
1 112 (38.23%) Hyper-V
2 70 (23.89%) Terminal Server
3 59 (20.14%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (6.14%) Virtual Desktop
5 17 (5.80%) vSphere
6 16 (5.46%) Docker
7 7 (2.39%) BitLocker
8 5 (1.71%) NDS
9 4 (1.37%) Squid
9 4 (1.37%) VMware NSX
10 3 (1.02%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (1.02%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 65 (22.18%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (9.90%) Terraform
3 12 (4.10%) Kubernetes
4 11 (3.75%) SCCM
5 8 (2.73%) Ansible
6 7 (2.39%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (2.05%) FortiGate
8 5 (1.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 5 (1.71%) Packer
9 4 (1.37%) Iperf
9 4 (1.37%) ZABBIX
10 3 (1.02%) Puppet
11 2 (0.68%) McAfee ePO
11 2 (0.68%) Nessus
11 2 (0.68%) Nmap
11 2 (0.68%) PaperCut
11 2 (0.68%) Proxmox
11 2 (0.68%) SCVMM
11 2 (0.68%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.34%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 251 (85.67%) Microsoft
2 130 (44.37%) VMware
3 88 (30.03%) Veeam
4 75 (25.60%) Splunk
5 73 (24.91%) SolarWinds
6 70 (23.89%) Brocade
6 70 (23.89%) Nimble Storage
6 70 (23.89%) Tanium
7 17 (5.80%) Cisco
8 15 (5.12%) Ubiquiti
9 12 (4.10%) ScienceLogic
10 8 (2.73%) Apple
10 8 (2.73%) Fortinet
10 8 (2.73%) Red Hat
11 7 (2.39%) HP
12 6 (2.05%) Citrix
13 5 (1.71%) Adobe
13 5 (1.71%) Dell
13 5 (1.71%) NetIQ
13 5 (1.71%) Oracle