Active Directory Contract Job Trends in Central London

Microsoft Active Directory
London > Central London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Central London requiring Active Directory skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 22 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 31 32
Rank change year-on-year -42 +1 +16
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 56 117 155
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 2.63% 5.61% 5.96%
As % of the System Software category 31.11% 46.25% 54.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 76 114
10th Percentile £188 £202 £182
25th Percentile £266 £274 £265
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £425
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +17.65% +9.68%
75th Percentile £584 £613 £569
90th Percentile £673 £684 £729
London median daily rate £500 £475 £406
% change year-on-year +5.26% +16.92% -4.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 4 4
10th Percentile £22.22 £48.48 -
25th Percentile £24.31 £89.31 £21.25
Median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year -77.26% +258.40% +47.06%
75th Percentile - £130.88 £40.00
90th Percentile - £164.85 -
London median hourly rate £24.00 £26.11 £22.50
% change year-on-year -8.06% +16.02% -10.00%

All System Software Skills
Central London

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 Central London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 180 253 285
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 8.45% 12.14% 10.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 132 165 211
10th Percentile £264 £246 £219
25th Percentile £413 £407 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +15.79% -13.64%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £622
90th Percentile £684 £723 £730
London median daily rate £525 £565 £500
% change year-on-year -7.08% +13.00% -13.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 5
10th Percentile £22.68 £48.48 -
25th Percentile - £89.31 £21.25
Median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -77.26% +180.00% +88.24%
75th Percentile - £130.88 -
90th Percentile £46.02 £164.85 £46.15
London median hourly rate £25.31 £29.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -12.72% +16.00% -18.70%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in Central London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Active Directory relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London.

Active Directory job vacancy trend in Central London

Active Directory
Daily Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Active Directory.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram in Central London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in Central London over the 6 months to 22 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in Central London

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Active Directory.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Contract Job Locations in Central London

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 Central London region over the 6 months to 22 February 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
City of London -36 48 £425 -15.00% 32
Camden - 3 - - 2
Kensington and Chelsea - 2 £575 -
Lambeth - 1 £350 -
Active Directory
London

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Central London 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 12 (21.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (16.07%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (7.14%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (7.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (5.36%) Microsoft Project
2 3 (5.36%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.79%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (1.79%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 43 (76.79%) Microsoft 365
2 36 (64.29%) Azure
3 34 (60.71%) Entra ID
4 6 (10.71%) Microsoft Purview
4 6 (10.71%) OneDrive
5 3 (5.36%) AWS
5 3 (5.36%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (5.36%) Power Platform
5 3 (5.36%) PowerApps
6 1 (1.79%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 1 (1.79%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (1.79%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (1.79%) Google Workspace
6 1 (1.79%) Mimecast
6 1 (1.79%) Power Automate
6 1 (1.79%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 12 (21.43%) VPN
2 11 (19.64%) DNS
3 10 (17.86%) Firewall
4 7 (12.50%) DHCP
5 3 (5.36%) Softphone
6 2 (3.57%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (1.79%) Extranet
7 1 (1.79%) IPv4
7 1 (1.79%) IPv6
7 1 (1.79%) Kerberos
7 1 (1.79%) LAN
7 1 (1.79%) TCP/IP
7 1 (1.79%) Unified Communications
7 1 (1.79%) WAN
7 1 (1.79%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.57%) SQL Server
1 2 (3.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 1 (1.79%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 3 (5.36%) JIRA
2 1 (1.79%) Cypress.io
2 1 (1.79%) Oracle Forms
2 1 (1.79%) Selenium
2 1 (1.79%) SpecFlow
General
1 28 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 9 (16.07%) Finance
3 5 (8.93%) Banking
4 4 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (5.36%) Public Sector
6 2 (3.57%) Legal
6 2 (3.57%) Telecoms
7 1 (1.79%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.79%) French Language
7 1 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.79%) International Banking
7 1 (1.79%) Investment Banking
7 1 (1.79%) Law
7 1 (1.79%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.79%) Military
Job Titles
1 11 (19.64%) Support Engineer
2 10 (17.86%) IT Support
3 9 (16.07%) Analyst
4 8 (14.29%) IT Engineer
4 8 (14.29%) IT Support Engineer
4 8 (14.29%) Senior
5 4 (7.14%) Consultant
5 4 (7.14%) Service Desk Engineer
6 3 (5.36%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 3 (5.36%) Architect
6 3 (5.36%) Citrix Engineer
6 3 (5.36%) Cybersecurity Manager
6 3 (5.36%) Help Desk Analyst
6 3 (5.36%) Microsoft 365 Consultant
6 3 (5.36%) Programme Manager
6 3 (5.36%) Security Engineer
6 3 (5.36%) Security Manager
7 2 (3.57%) 2nd Line Engineer
7 2 (3.57%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
7 2 (3.57%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (5.36%) SailPoint
2 2 (3.57%) OAuth
2 2 (3.57%) OpenID
2 2 (3.57%) SAML
3 1 (1.79%) .NET
3 1 (1.79%) AngularJS
3 1 (1.79%) HTML
3 1 (1.79%) LDAP
3 1 (1.79%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (1.79%) Playwright
3 1 (1.79%) REST
3 1 (1.79%) SPFx
3 1 (1.79%) Web Services
3 1 (1.79%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (19.64%) Onboarding
2 4 (7.14%) BYOD
2 4 (7.14%) Security Posture
3 2 (3.57%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (3.57%) Hybrid Cloud
3 2 (3.57%) Management Information System
3 2 (3.57%) Video Conferencing
4 1 (1.79%) CMDB
4 1 (1.79%) Data Centre
4 1 (1.79%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (1.79%) Security Operations Centre
4 1 (1.79%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 29 (51.79%) Windows
2 12 (21.43%) Windows 10
3 8 (14.29%) Windows Server
4 5 (8.93%) Mac OS
5 2 (3.57%) Android
5 2 (3.57%) Apple iOS
6 1 (1.79%) Linux
6 1 (1.79%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (21.43%) ITIL
1 12 (21.43%) Problem-Solving
2 10 (17.86%) Identity Access Management
3 9 (16.07%) Change Management
3 9 (16.07%) Customer Service
3 9 (16.07%) Cybersecurity
4 7 (12.50%) Cloud Security
4 7 (12.50%) ITSM
4 7 (12.50%) Migration
4 7 (12.50%) Service Delivery
5 6 (10.71%) Continuous Improvement
5 6 (10.71%) Data Loss Prevention
6 5 (8.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 5 (8.93%) Performance Metrics
6 5 (8.93%) Security Operations
6 5 (8.93%) SIEM
6 5 (8.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 5 (8.93%) User Experience
7 4 (7.14%) Change Control
7 4 (7.14%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 15 (26.79%) PowerShell
2 4 (7.14%) Java
2 4 (7.14%) Python
3 3 (5.36%) SQL
4 2 (3.57%) C#
5 1 (1.79%) BeanShell
5 1 (1.79%) C++
5 1 (1.79%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (1.79%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 9 (16.07%) Microsoft Certification
2 7 (12.50%) Degree
3 5 (8.93%) CISSP
3 5 (8.93%) SC Cleared
3 5 (8.93%) Security Cleared
4 4 (7.14%) CISM
4 4 (7.14%) MCSE
5 3 (5.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 3 (5.36%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 2 (3.57%) CISMP
6 2 (3.57%) CompTIA CySA+
6 2 (3.57%) CompTIA Security+
6 2 (3.57%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
6 2 (3.57%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (1.79%) A+ Certification
7 1 (1.79%) Azure Certification
7 1 (1.79%) ISTQB
7 1 (1.79%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (17.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (14.29%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (10.71%) GDPR
4 3 (5.36%) NIST
5 2 (3.57%) NCSC
6 1 (1.79%) Accessibility
6 1 (1.79%) QA
6 1 (1.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 6 (10.71%) Virtual Desktop
2 2 (3.57%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (3.57%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 24 (42.86%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (17.86%) SCCM
3 2 (3.57%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
4 1 (1.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (1.79%) AirWatch
4 1 (1.79%) Ansible
4 1 (1.79%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (1.79%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (1.79%) Terraform
Vendors
1 44 (78.57%) Microsoft
2 7 (12.50%) Citrix
2 7 (12.50%) ServiceNow
3 4 (7.14%) Palo Alto
3 4 (7.14%) VMware
4 3 (5.36%) Altiris
4 3 (5.36%) CyberArk
5 2 (3.57%) Apple
5 2 (3.57%) Fortinet
5 2 (3.57%) Ivanti
5 2 (3.57%) LogRhythm
5 2 (3.57%) Symantec
6 1 (1.79%) Bomgar
6 1 (1.79%) CheckPoint
6 1 (1.79%) Google
6 1 (1.79%) Oracle
6 1 (1.79%) Qualys
6 1 (1.79%) Remedy
6 1 (1.79%) SAP
6 1 (1.79%) Veeam