Active Directory SME

+6 months +

+Fully remote working

+SC cleared role

+£575 - £625 a day Inside IR35

Skills:

+AD design

+GPO

+AZure AD

As the Active Directory SME, you will take ownership of the design, architecture, and operational excellence of Microsoft Active Directory services. You will act as the technical authority for AD-related activities, ensuring the environment remains secure, scalable, compliant, and aligned to organisational strategy. This role includes both hands-on engineering and strategic project leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Core Technical Activities

Design & Architecture

Develop and maintain AD architecture for scalability, security, and high performance.

Plan and implement domain and forest designs, trust relationships, and OU structures.

Administration & Operations

Manage domain controllers, replication, DNS, and DHCP integration.

Create, maintain, and troubleshoot Group Policy Objects (GPOs).

Monitor AD health, diagnose replication issues, and resolve authentication failures.

Security & Compliance

Implement enterprise AD security best practices (e.g., tiered admin model, secure LDAP).

Perform audits of accounts, groups, and permissions.

Support SOX, GDPR, and other compliance requirements through logging and access control.

Identity & Access Management

Manage full user lifecycle: provisioning, deprovisioning, and RBAC.

Integrate AD with IAM and cloud platforms (Azure AD, Okta, etc.).

Support SSO and federation (ADFS, SAML, OAuth).

Migrations & Upgrades

Lead AD migrations, domain/forest consolidations, and Windows Server upgrades.

Plan schema extensions and ensure application compatibility.

Disaster Recovery & Continuity

Develop, document, and test AD backup and recovery processes.

Maintain high availability and failover strategies for critical AD components.

Automation & Scripting

Use PowerShell to automate tasks, generate reports, and streamline operations.

Build scripts for bulk user management, GPO deployment, and auditing.

Collaboration & Support

Partner with infrastructure, security, and application teams to deliver integrated services.

Provide SME-level support for escalated incidents and complex service requests.

Experience & Skills Required

The ideal contractor will bring 5+ years of hands-on experience in a similar AD-focused role, with expertise in:

Active Directory Architecture & Replication

GPO Design, Deployment & Troubleshooting

DNS/DHCP integration with AD

PowerShell scripting for automation and reporting

ADFS configuration and federation support

Azure AD - hybrid identity & sync (AAD Connect)

Kerberos and NTLM authentication

LDAP / LDAPS

Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)

++++ It is essential for this role that you hold active SC clearance.++++

If you'd like to discuss this Active Directory SME role in more detail, please send your updated CV to (url removed) and I will get in touch