Active Directory Contracts

Microsoft Active Directory
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Active Directory skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Active Directory over the 6 months to 29 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
29 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 33 32 48
Rank change year-on-year -1 +16 -2
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 2,237 3,235 4,321
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 5.21% 5.76% 4.93%
As % of the System Software category 47.81% 44.23% 37.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,572 2,341 3,104
10th Percentile £163 £163 £150
25th Percentile £220 £225 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £430 £400
Median % change year-on-year -1.16% +7.50% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £538
90th Percentile £675 £675 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £351 £282
% change year-on-year +14.12% +24.51% -13.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 128 232
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.74 £12.51
25th Percentile £14.16 £15.80 £14.00
Median hourly rate £17.50 £21.50 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.60% +22.86% +8.17%
75th Percentile £23.75 £54.00 £22.25
90th Percentile £40.00 £66.00 £37.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.00 £18.50 £16.75
% change year-on-year -13.51% +10.45% +8.06%

All System Software Skills
UK

Active Directory is in the System Software category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for system software skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,679 7,314 11,643
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.90% 13.03% 13.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,253 5,153 8,355
10th Percentile £200 £200 £200
25th Percentile £350 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - +6.06%
75th Percentile £606 £638 £625
90th Percentile £688 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £450
% change year-on-year -0.94% +6.56% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 229 255 299
10th Percentile £14.06 £15.25 £13.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £19.50 £14.75
Median hourly rate £24.18 £55.00 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.04% +189.47% -10.59%
75th Percentile £60.75 £67.50 £40.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £76.30 £57.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.18 £49.20 £17.50
% change year-on-year -50.85% +181.14% -4.21%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Active Directory as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Active Directory.

Daily rate trend for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory over the 6 months to 29 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Active Directory.

Hourly rate trend for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Active Directory over the 6 months to 29 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Top 17 Contract Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 29 May 2024. 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
England 0 1,994 £425 -2.86% 1,016
UK excluding London -1 1,281 £400 +14.12% 822
London +6 837 £440 -11.11% 243
Work from Home +1 622 £475 - 363
South East +14 454 £513 +14.53% 205
North of England -10 248 £300 -4.00% 211
Midlands -2 168 £338 -10.00% 138
South West -15 164 £439 -12.15% 127
Scotland +18 139 £340 +21.43% 49
North West -15 135 £350 - 114
West Midlands -5 104 £350 -7.28% 81
Yorkshire -9 96 £282 +9.85% 81
East of England -17 96 £250 -28.57% 90
East Midlands -2 61 £325 +45.74% 57
Wales -9 18 £190 +2.01% 18
North East +10 15 £500 +78.57% 19
Northern Ireland -17 2 £363 +16.00% 3

Active Directory
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 463 (20.70%) Microsoft Exchange
2 193 (8.63%) SharePoint
3 56 (2.50%) IIS
4 45 (2.01%) Confluence
5 34 (1.52%) Skype for Business
6 29 (1.30%) Exchange Server 2010
7 28 (1.25%) Exchange Server 2013
8 18 (0.80%) CMS
9 15 (0.67%) Exchange Server 2007
10 11 (0.49%) Exchange Server 2003
11 9 (0.40%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
12 8 (0.36%) Apache
13 7 (0.31%) Tomcat
14 5 (0.22%) JBoss
14 5 (0.22%) nginx
15 4 (0.18%) Oracle Self-Service HR
16 2 (0.089%) OpenStack
16 2 (0.089%) WordPress
17 1 (0.045%) Oracle SOA Suite
17 1 (0.045%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 238 (10.64%) Microsoft Office
2 73 (3.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 31 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.40%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.18%) Acrobat
6 3 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.089%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.089%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.089%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.045%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.045%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.045%) Trello
8 1 (0.045%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (0.49%) Teamcenter
2 8 (0.36%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.18%) Dynamics GP
5 3 (0.13%) SystmOne
6 2 (0.089%) ION MarketView
7 1 (0.045%) assyst
7 1 (0.045%) BusinessWorks
7 1 (0.045%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.045%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.045%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 909 (40.63%) Azure
2 862 (38.53%) Microsoft 365
3 549 (24.54%) Entra ID
4 211 (9.43%) AWS
5 135 (6.03%) Azure DevOps
6 96 (4.29%) Azure Monitor
7 93 (4.16%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 92 (4.11%) OneDrive
9 70 (3.13%) PaaS
10 65 (2.91%) Power Platform
11 64 (2.86%) Azure Service Bus
12 52 (2.32%) IaaS
13 46 (2.06%) GCP
14 45 (2.01%) Azure Storage
14 45 (2.01%) GitHub
15 44 (1.97%) SaaS
16 43 (1.92%) Dynamics 365
17 38 (1.70%) Serverless
18 33 (1.48%) Azure Functions
18 33 (1.48%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 363 (16.23%) DNS
2 243 (10.86%) Firewall
3 240 (10.73%) DHCP
4 132 (5.90%) VPN
5 106 (4.74%) SAN
6 95 (4.25%) LAN
7 93 (4.16%) WAN
8 76 (3.40%) TCP/IP
9 67 (3.00%) Wi-Fi
10 56 (2.50%) SSL
10 56 (2.50%) Wireless
11 43 (1.92%) Skype
12 37 (1.65%) Network Security
13 35 (1.56%) NAS
13 35 (1.56%) Remote Desktop
13 35 (1.56%) VLAN
14 28 (1.25%) VoIP
15 26 (1.16%) Kerberos
16 24 (1.07%) MPLS
17 20 (0.89%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 279 (12.47%) SQL Server
2 47 (2.10%) MySQL
3 34 (1.52%) Power BI
4 29 (1.30%) Amazon RDS
4 29 (1.30%) Oracle Reports
5 27 (1.21%) Azure SQL Database
5 27 (1.21%) Relational Database
6 24 (1.07%) NoSQL
7 21 (0.94%) Elasticsearch
8 19 (0.85%) PostgreSQL
9 16 (0.72%) Hadoop
10 15 (0.67%) Oracle Database
10 15 (0.67%) RDBMS
10 15 (0.67%) Redis
11 8 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 7 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 5 (0.22%) Data Lake
14 4 (0.18%) Big Data
15 3 (0.13%) Amazon Redshift
15 3 (0.13%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 97 (4.34%) Git
2 77 (3.44%) JIRA
3 33 (1.48%) Jenkins
4 27 (1.21%) Selenium
5 23 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
6 18 (0.80%) Robot Framework
6 18 (0.80%) TeamCity
7 16 (0.72%) Visual Studio
8 11 (0.49%) SpecFlow
8 11 (0.49%) WebDriver
9 10 (0.45%) GitLab
9 10 (0.45%) Postman
9 10 (0.45%) SonarQube
10 9 (0.40%) Bitbucket
11 5 (0.22%) Bitbucket Server
11 5 (0.22%) CA Release Automation
11 5 (0.22%) Fiddler
11 5 (0.22%) Hudson
12 4 (0.18%) MSI
12 4 (0.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 603 (26.96%) Social Skills
2 269 (12.03%) Finance
3 233 (10.42%) Public Sector
4 154 (6.88%) Analytical Skills
5 93 (4.16%) Banking
6 53 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
7 46 (2.06%) Organisational Skills
8 45 (2.01%) Financial Institution
9 42 (1.88%) Manufacturing
10 36 (1.61%) Telecoms
11 34 (1.52%) Legal
12 31 (1.39%) Presentation Skills
13 29 (1.30%) Retail
14 25 (1.12%) Marketing
15 23 (1.03%) Back Office
16 21 (0.94%) Law
17 20 (0.89%) Military
18 17 (0.76%) French Language
19 15 (0.67%) Local Government
20 14 (0.63%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 283 (12.65%) Analyst
2 277 (12.38%) Support Engineer
3 238 (10.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 204 (9.12%) Senior
5 198 (8.85%) Architect
6 186 (8.31%) IT Support
7 142 (6.35%) Developer
8 122 (5.45%) IT Engineer
8 122 (5.45%) Service Analyst
9 119 (5.32%) Service Desk Analyst
10 104 (4.65%) Desktop Support
11 102 (4.56%) 2nd Line Support
12 90 (4.02%) Desktop Engineer
13 85 (3.80%) Support Analyst
14 79 (3.53%) Consultant
15 76 (3.40%) Senior Developer
16 74 (3.31%) IT Analyst
17 72 (3.22%) Active Directory Engineer
17 72 (3.22%) IT Support Engineer
18 71 (3.17%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 142 (6.35%) .NET
2 120 (5.36%) XML
3 113 (5.05%) LDAP
4 98 (4.38%) Web Services
5 97 (4.34%) SailPoint
6 85 (3.80%) HTML
7 76 (3.40%) .NET Core
8 61 (2.73%) React
9 51 (2.28%) SAML
10 44 (1.97%) SOAP
11 43 (1.92%) CSS
12 40 (1.79%) JSP
13 39 (1.74%) Servlets
13 39 (1.74%) SPML
14 37 (1.65%) OpenID
15 35 (1.56%) .NET Framework
15 35 (1.56%) ASP.NET
16 32 (1.43%) AngularJS
17 30 (1.34%) ARM Templates
18 28 (1.25%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 189 (8.45%) PKI
2 91 (4.07%) Data Centre
3 75 (3.35%) Onboarding
4 73 (3.26%) Replication
5 70 (3.13%) Product Ownership
6 56 (2.50%) Clustering
6 56 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
7 53 (2.37%) Management Information System
8 45 (2.01%) Video Conferencing
9 34 (1.52%) iPhone
10 25 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
10 25 (1.12%) Driving Licence
10 25 (1.12%) iPad
11 24 (1.07%) Smartphone
12 20 (0.89%) CMDB
13 19 (0.85%) Mobile App
14 18 (0.80%) Public Cloud
15 17 (0.76%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
15 17 (0.76%) Linux Command Line
16 16 (0.72%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 1,374 (61.42%) Windows
2 578 (25.84%) Windows Server
3 492 (21.99%) Windows 10
4 257 (11.49%) Linux
5 180 (8.05%) Windows Server 2012
6 173 (7.73%) Windows Server 2016
7 158 (7.06%) Windows Server 2019
8 93 (4.16%) Apple iOS
9 92 (4.11%) Windows 7
10 64 (2.86%) Unix
11 57 (2.55%) Mac OS
12 53 (2.37%) Android
12 53 (2.37%) Windows Server 2008
13 40 (1.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 40 (1.79%) Ubuntu
14 34 (1.52%) VMS
15 24 (1.07%) Windows Server 2003
16 18 (0.80%) Windows XP
17 17 (0.76%) Windows NT
18 16 (0.72%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 352 (15.74%) ITIL
2 347 (15.51%) Customer Service
3 293 (13.10%) Problem-Solving
4 283 (12.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 267 (11.94%) Migration
6 266 (11.89%) Agile
7 259 (11.58%) DevOps
8 186 (8.31%) CI/CD
9 135 (6.03%) Identity Access Management
10 113 (5.05%) RBAC
11 109 (4.87%) Disaster Recovery
12 108 (4.83%) Cybersecurity
13 106 (4.74%) Service Management
14 96 (4.29%) Scrum
15 93 (4.16%) Mobile Device Management
16 89 (3.98%) Identity Management
17 87 (3.89%) Change Management
18 86 (3.84%) Service Delivery
19 77 (3.44%) Infrastructure as Code
20 73 (3.26%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 471 (21.05%) PowerShell
2 224 (10.01%) SQL
3 139 (6.21%) C#
4 127 (5.68%) Python
5 95 (4.25%) JavaScript
6 94 (4.20%) Bicep
7 78 (3.49%) Java
8 38 (1.70%) TypeScript
9 28 (1.25%) VB
10 27 (1.21%) VBScript
11 22 (0.98%) Bash
12 13 (0.58%) PL/SQL
13 11 (0.49%) C
14 10 (0.45%) C++
14 10 (0.45%) Perl
15 9 (0.40%) R
16 8 (0.36%) Go
16 8 (0.36%) PHP
16 8 (0.36%) Shell Script
16 8 (0.36%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 534 (23.87%) Security Cleared
2 338 (15.11%) SC Cleared
3 279 (12.47%) Degree
4 215 (9.61%) DV Cleared
5 148 (6.62%) Microsoft Certification
6 58 (2.59%) MCSE
7 51 (2.28%) MCSA
8 48 (2.15%) Azure Certification
9 36 (1.61%) Cisco Certification
10 35 (1.56%) A+ Certification
10 35 (1.56%) ITIL Certification
11 33 (1.48%) CCNA
12 29 (1.30%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 27 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
13 27 (1.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 26 (1.16%) DBS Check
15 25 (1.12%) AWS Certification
15 25 (1.12%) BPSS Clearance
16 20 (0.89%) CISSP
17 19 (0.85%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 105 (4.69%) SLA
2 54 (2.41%) QA
3 23 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 20 (0.89%) NIST
5 18 (0.80%) PCI DSS
6 17 (0.76%) GDPR
7 16 (0.72%) WCAG
8 14 (0.63%) Accessibility
9 13 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
10 8 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.31%) RMADS
12 6 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.27%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 4 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.13%) COBIT
16 2 (0.089%) Data Quality
16 2 (0.089%) GRC
16 2 (0.089%) NCSC
16 2 (0.089%) PMO
System Software
1 313 (13.99%) VMware Infrastructure
2 137 (6.12%) Hyper-V
3 87 (3.89%) Virtual Machines
4 66 (2.95%) Virtual Desktop
5 65 (2.91%) vSphere
6 64 (2.86%) VMware ESXi
7 44 (1.97%) Docker
8 39 (1.74%) IAG
9 38 (1.70%) ACF2
9 38 (1.70%) RACF
9 38 (1.70%) XenApp
10 24 (1.07%) Firmware
11 22 (0.98%) VMware NSX
12 21 (0.94%) XenDesktop
13 20 (0.89%) BitLocker
14 19 (0.85%) NFS
15 18 (0.80%) Virtual Servers
16 16 (0.72%) HDFS
16 16 (0.72%) VMware Workstation
17 11 (0.49%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 387 (17.30%) SCCM
2 248 (11.09%) Microsoft Intune
3 119 (5.32%) WSUS
4 88 (3.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 83 (3.71%) Single Sign-On
6 81 (3.62%) Terraform
7 79 (3.53%) Kubernetes
8 69 (3.08%) SCOM
9 60 (2.68%) Ansible
10 49 (2.19%) vCenter Server
11 41 (1.83%) Jamf Pro
12 25 (1.12%) NetBackup
13 19 (0.85%) EMC NetWorker
13 19 (0.85%) Kibana
14 18 (0.80%) Nessus
15 17 (0.76%) Failover Clustering
15 17 (0.76%) Sysprep
16 16 (0.72%) Microsoft Clustering
17 12 (0.54%) FortiGate
17 12 (0.54%) logstash
Vendors
1 1,178 (52.66%) Microsoft
2 427 (19.09%) VMware
3 200 (8.94%) Citrix
4 198 (8.85%) ServiceNow
5 124 (5.54%) Oracle
6 116 (5.19%) Cisco
7 110 (4.92%) Apple
8 84 (3.76%) CyberArk
9 61 (2.73%) HP
10 60 (2.68%) Veeam
11 58 (2.59%) Dell
12 48 (2.15%) Okta
13 40 (1.79%) SAP
14 37 (1.65%) EMC
14 37 (1.65%) Red Hat
15 32 (1.43%) CA
16 28 (1.25%) Palo Alto
17 27 (1.21%) Ivanti
18 26 (1.16%) Sybase
19 25 (1.12%) Google