Active Directory Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Microsoft Active Directory
North West > Cheshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Cheshire requiring Active Directory skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 24 22 19
Rank change year-on-year -2 -3 -7
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 57 35 41
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 8.84% 7.64% 10.15%
As % of the System Software category 45.60% 62.50% 82.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 30 17 31
10th Percentile £211 £232 £132
25th Percentile £228 £313 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £348 £400 £320
Median % change year-on-year -13.13% +25.00% -8.57%
75th Percentile £464 £425 £510
90th Percentile £494 £499 £548
North West median daily rate £305 £263 £325
% change year-on-year +16.19% -19.23% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 4 2
10th Percentile - - £16.66
25th Percentile £15.50 £21.05 £16.84
Median hourly rate £16.00 £23.14 £17.33
Median % change year-on-year -30.84% +33.52% +23.77%
75th Percentile £18.87 £24.18 £17.62
90th Percentile £18.90 - £17.68
North West median hourly rate £18.94 £22.09 £18.50
% change year-on-year -14.28% +19.41% -7.50%

All System Software Skills
Cheshire

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 Cheshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 125 56 50
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 19.38% 12.23% 12.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 78 32 37
10th Percentile £242 £278 £143
25th Percentile £331 £343 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £388 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year -3.19% +0.06% -5.88%
75th Percentile £488 £488 £540
90th Percentile £585 £550 £566
North West median daily rate £425 £413 £431
% change year-on-year +3.03% -4.35% -1.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 5 2
10th Percentile - - £16.66
25th Percentile £15.50 £21.05 £16.84
Median hourly rate £16.88 £24.18 £17.33
Median % change year-on-year -30.21% +39.55% -37.56%
75th Percentile £18.87 - £17.62
90th Percentile £23.83 £56.17 £17.68
North West median hourly rate £20.00 £22.09 £18.50
% change year-on-year -9.46% +19.41% -57.76%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

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

Active Directory job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Active Directory
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in Cheshire over the 6 months to 26 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in Cheshire

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Trend in Cheshire

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

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 Cheshire region over the 6 months to 26 December 2025. 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
Warrington 0 16 £228 -43.20% 11
Knutsford -10 15 £450 +3.93% 1
Chester -2 10 £190 -52.50% 4
Crewe - 5 £351 - 4
Macclesfield -3 3 - -
Active Directory
North West

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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 17 (29.82%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (19.30%) JBoss
3 8 (14.04%) Apache
3 8 (14.04%) IIS
3 8 (14.04%) iPlanet
3 8 (14.04%) WebSphere
3 8 (14.04%) WebSphere Application Server
4 7 (12.28%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (12.28%) SharePoint
4 7 (12.28%) Skype for Business
5 5 (8.77%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (1.75%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (15.79%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (12.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (12.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (12.28%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 31 (54.39%) Microsoft 365
2 17 (29.82%) Azure
3 13 (22.81%) AWS
4 11 (19.30%) OneDrive
5 10 (17.54%) OpenShift
6 7 (12.28%) Entra ID
7 5 (8.77%) Power Platform
7 5 (8.77%) SaaS
8 3 (5.26%) Azure Logic Apps
8 3 (5.26%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (5.26%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (1.75%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 10 (17.54%) DNS
2 8 (14.04%) Kerberos
3 7 (12.28%) Skype
4 6 (10.53%) Firewall
4 6 (10.53%) Network Security
4 6 (10.53%) Unified Communications
5 5 (8.77%) Internet
5 5 (8.77%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (3.51%) SSL
6 2 (3.51%) TCP/IP
6 2 (3.51%) VPN
7 1 (1.75%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (14.04%) Oracle Database
2 3 (5.26%) RDBMS
2 3 (5.26%) Relational Database
3 2 (3.51%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 11 (19.30%) Git
1 11 (19.30%) Jenkins
2 10 (17.54%) Bitbucket Server
2 10 (17.54%) CA Release Automation
2 10 (17.54%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (5.26%) JIRA
3 3 (5.26%) SonarQube
3 3 (5.26%) TeamCity
4 1 (1.75%) Bitbucket
General
1 26 (45.61%) Social Skills
2 10 (17.54%) Analytical Skills
2 10 (17.54%) Finance
3 6 (10.53%) Manufacturing
3 6 (10.53%) Public Sector
4 5 (8.77%) Organisational Skills
5 3 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (3.51%) Legal
6 2 (3.51%) Military
7 1 (1.75%) Banking
7 1 (1.75%) Electronics
7 1 (1.75%) Japanese Language
7 1 (1.75%) Marketing
7 1 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.75%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 13 (22.81%) Analyst
2 12 (21.05%) Support Technician
3 9 (15.79%) Support Analyst
4 8 (14.04%) IT Technician
5 7 (12.28%) DevOps Engineer
5 7 (12.28%) IT Support
5 7 (12.28%) IT Support Technician
5 7 (12.28%) Operational Support Analyst
5 7 (12.28%) Operations Analyst
5 7 (12.28%) Operations Support Analyst
6 6 (10.53%) Server Engineer
6 6 (10.53%) Service Desk Support
6 6 (10.53%) Service Desk Technician
7 5 (8.77%) 1st/2nd Line Support
7 5 (8.77%) 2nd Line Support
7 5 (8.77%) 2nd Line Support Technician
7 5 (8.77%) ICT Support
7 5 (8.77%) ICT Support Technician
7 5 (8.77%) ICT Technician
7 5 (8.77%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (19.30%) LDAP
2 9 (15.79%) OAuth
2 9 (15.79%) SAML
3 8 (14.04%) OpenID
4 3 (5.26%) Elastic Stack
4 3 (5.26%) JSON
4 3 (5.26%) Spring Boot
5 1 (1.75%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 9 (15.79%) Onboarding
2 8 (14.04%) Enterprise Software
3 6 (10.53%) Clustering
3 6 (10.53%) Video Conferencing
4 5 (8.77%) Low-Code
5 2 (3.51%) Cloud Security Posture
5 2 (3.51%) Security Posture
6 1 (1.75%) Enterprise Storage
6 1 (1.75%) PKI
6 1 (1.75%) PMI
6 1 (1.75%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 41 (71.93%) Windows
2 13 (22.81%) Linux
3 11 (19.30%) Windows Server
4 9 (15.79%) Unix
5 5 (8.77%) Windows 10
6 3 (5.26%) Apple iOS
6 3 (5.26%) Mac OS
6 3 (5.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (28.07%) Problem Management
2 13 (22.81%) Migration
3 12 (21.05%) ITIL
3 12 (21.05%) Validation
4 11 (19.30%) Customer Service
4 11 (19.30%) Problem-Solving
5 10 (17.54%) CI/CD
5 10 (17.54%) DevOps
6 8 (14.04%) Cybersecurity
6 8 (14.04%) Identity Access Management
6 8 (14.04%) Ticket Management
7 7 (12.28%) Disaster Recovery
7 7 (12.28%) Infrastructure Automation
7 7 (12.28%) Project Management
7 7 (12.28%) Six Sigma
8 6 (10.53%) Analytics
8 6 (10.53%) Business Intelligence
8 6 (10.53%) Deployment Automation
8 6 (10.53%) Proactive Management
8 6 (10.53%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 10 (17.54%) PowerShell
2 8 (14.04%) Groovy
3 7 (12.28%) Shell Script
4 3 (5.26%) Kusto Query Language
4 3 (5.26%) Perl
4 3 (5.26%) Python
5 2 (3.51%) Java
Qualifications
1 18 (31.58%) Degree
2 10 (17.54%) Security Cleared
3 5 (8.77%) BPSS Clearance
3 5 (8.77%) DBS Check
4 4 (7.02%) AWS Certification
4 4 (7.02%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (5.26%) Azure Certification
5 3 (5.26%) SC Cleared
6 2 (3.51%) A+ Certification
6 2 (3.51%) CISSP
6 2 (3.51%) CompTIA Security+
6 2 (3.51%) MCSA
6 2 (3.51%) MCSE
7 1 (1.75%) CBAP
7 1 (1.75%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (5.26%) NIST
2 1 (1.75%) GDPR
2 1 (1.75%) HIPAA
2 1 (1.75%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 10 (17.54%) Docker
2 7 (12.28%) Tivoli Directory Server
3 6 (10.53%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 18 (31.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (29.82%) SCCM
3 10 (17.54%) Progress Chef
4 8 (14.04%) CA Single Sign-On
4 8 (14.04%) CA Wily
5 7 (12.28%) Tivoli
6 6 (10.53%) Ansible
6 6 (10.53%) Microsoft Clustering
6 6 (10.53%) Nagios
6 6 (10.53%) Terraform
7 5 (8.77%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (7.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (5.26%) Kibana
9 3 (5.26%) Kubernetes
9 3 (5.26%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 2 (3.51%) CASB
10 2 (3.51%) Nessus
Vendors
1 42 (73.68%) Microsoft
2 13 (22.81%) Splunk
3 11 (19.30%) AppDynamics
3 11 (19.30%) ServiceNow
4 8 (14.04%) Broadcom
4 8 (14.04%) IBM
4 8 (14.04%) Oracle
5 6 (10.53%) SolarWinds
6 3 (5.26%) Apple
6 3 (5.26%) Cloudera
6 3 (5.26%) LogRhythm
6 3 (5.26%) Red Hat
7 2 (3.51%) CyberArk
7 2 (3.51%) Remedy
7 2 (3.51%) Tenable
8 1 (1.75%) Google
8 1 (1.75%) Okta
8 1 (1.75%) Proofpoint
8 1 (1.75%) SAP