Active Directory Contract Job Trends in the City of London

Microsoft Active Directory
Central London > City of London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the City of London requiring Active Directory skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 72 43 33
Rank change year-on-year -29 -10 +21
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 53 86 136
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 2.75% 4.72% 5.65%
As % of the System Software category 33.33% 40.38% 51.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 52 96
10th Percentile £184 £200 £206
25th Percentile £248 £307 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +11.11% +22.03%
75th Percentile £575 £650 £578
90th Percentile £678 £699 £760
Central London median daily rate £425 £500 £444
% change year-on-year -15.00% +12.68% +16.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 4
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £20.82 - £21.25
Median hourly rate £22.27 £112.00 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year -80.12% +258.40% +60.26%
75th Percentile £23.71 - £40.00
90th Percentile - - -
Central London median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £31.25
% change year-on-year -77.26% +258.40% +52.44%

All System Software Skills
City of 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 the City of London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 159 213 265
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 8.26% 11.68% 11.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 114 132 193
10th Percentile £246 £263 £250
25th Percentile £400 £435 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £570 £488
Median % change year-on-year -9.65% +16.92% -11.36%
75th Percentile £625 £651 £625
90th Percentile £713 £730 £738
Central London median daily rate £525 £559 £475
% change year-on-year -6.00% +17.58% -13.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 5
10th Percentile £24.32 - -
25th Percentile £29.57 - £21.25
Median hourly rate £40.02 £112.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -64.27% +180.00% +105.13%
75th Percentile £50.72 - -
90th Percentile £56.12 - £46.15
Central London median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -77.26% +180.00% +95.12%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

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

Active Directory job vacancy trend in the City of London

Active Directory
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Active Directory.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in the City of London over the 6 months to 14 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in the City of London

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Active Directory.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of 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 10 (18.87%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (15.09%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (3.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.89%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (1.89%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (1.89%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 39 (73.58%) Microsoft 365
2 31 (58.49%) Azure
3 28 (52.83%) Entra ID
4 6 (11.32%) OneDrive
5 5 (9.43%) Microsoft Purview
5 5 (9.43%) Power Platform
6 4 (7.55%) PowerApps
7 3 (5.66%) AWS
7 3 (5.66%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (5.66%) Power Automate
8 2 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (3.77%) Copilot Studio
8 2 (3.77%) Microsoft Copilot
9 1 (1.89%) Azure AI
9 1 (1.89%) Azure AKS
9 1 (1.89%) Azure Key Vault
9 1 (1.89%) Azure Logic Apps
9 1 (1.89%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (1.89%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (1.89%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 11 (20.75%) DNS
2 10 (18.87%) Firewall
3 9 (16.98%) VPN
4 7 (13.21%) DHCP
5 2 (3.77%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (1.89%) Extranet
6 1 (1.89%) IPv4
6 1 (1.89%) IPv6
6 1 (1.89%) Kerberos
6 1 (1.89%) LAN
6 1 (1.89%) MPLS
6 1 (1.89%) Softphone
6 1 (1.89%) TCP/IP
6 1 (1.89%) Unified Communications
6 1 (1.89%) VSAN
6 1 (1.89%) WAN
6 1 (1.89%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (1.89%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
1 1 (1.89%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (5.66%) JIRA
2 1 (1.89%) Cypress.io
2 1 (1.89%) Oracle Forms
2 1 (1.89%) Selenium
2 1 (1.89%) SpecFlow
General
1 27 (50.94%) Social Skills
2 12 (22.64%) Finance
3 5 (9.43%) Banking
4 4 (7.55%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (5.66%) Public Sector
5 3 (5.66%) Telecoms
6 2 (3.77%) Legal
7 1 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.89%) French Language
7 1 (1.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.89%) International Banking
7 1 (1.89%) Investment Banking
7 1 (1.89%) Law
7 1 (1.89%) Military
Job Titles
1 11 (20.75%) Support Engineer
2 9 (16.98%) IT Support
3 7 (13.21%) IT Engineer
3 7 (13.21%) IT Support Engineer
4 6 (11.32%) Analyst
5 5 (9.43%) Senior
6 4 (7.55%) 2nd Line Support
6 4 (7.55%) Service Desk Engineer
7 3 (5.66%) 2nd Line Engineer
7 3 (5.66%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
7 3 (5.66%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 3 (5.66%) Architect
7 3 (5.66%) Consultant
7 3 (5.66%) Cybersecurity Manager
7 3 (5.66%) Lead
7 3 (5.66%) Programme Manager
7 3 (5.66%) Security Manager
8 2 (3.77%) Citrix Engineer
8 2 (3.77%) Infrastructure Specialist
8 2 (3.77%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.77%) Microsoft Graph
1 2 (3.77%) OAuth
1 2 (3.77%) OpenID
1 2 (3.77%) SailPoint
1 2 (3.77%) SAML
2 1 (1.89%) .NET
2 1 (1.89%) AngularJS
2 1 (1.89%) HTML
2 1 (1.89%) LangChain
2 1 (1.89%) LDAP
2 1 (1.89%) Playwright
2 1 (1.89%) REST
2 1 (1.89%) Semantic Kernel
2 1 (1.89%) SPFx
2 1 (1.89%) Web Services
2 1 (1.89%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (18.87%) Onboarding
2 3 (5.66%) BYOD
2 3 (5.66%) Management Information System
2 3 (5.66%) Security Posture
2 3 (5.66%) Video Conferencing
3 2 (3.77%) Cyber Threat
4 1 (1.89%) AI Agents
4 1 (1.89%) CMDB
4 1 (1.89%) Data Centre
4 1 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (1.89%) iPad
4 1 (1.89%) Low-Code
4 1 (1.89%) Security Operations Centre
4 1 (1.89%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 32 (60.38%) Windows
2 11 (20.75%) Windows 10
2 11 (20.75%) Windows Server
3 5 (9.43%) Mac OS
4 2 (3.77%) Android
4 2 (3.77%) Apple iOS
5 1 (1.89%) Linux
5 1 (1.89%) Mac OS X
5 1 (1.89%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (1.89%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (26.42%) ITIL
2 11 (20.75%) Problem-Solving
3 10 (18.87%) Change Management
4 8 (15.09%) Customer Service
4 8 (15.09%) Cybersecurity
4 8 (15.09%) ITSM
5 7 (13.21%) Continuous Improvement
5 7 (13.21%) Service Delivery
6 6 (11.32%) Data Loss Prevention
6 6 (11.32%) Identity Access Management
6 6 (11.32%) Migration
6 6 (11.32%) User Experience
7 5 (9.43%) Change Control
7 5 (9.43%) Performance Metrics
7 5 (9.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 4 (7.55%) Identity Management
8 4 (7.55%) Mentoring
8 4 (7.55%) Security Operations
8 4 (7.55%) SIEM
8 4 (7.55%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 11 (20.75%) PowerShell
2 4 (7.55%) Java
2 4 (7.55%) Python
3 3 (5.66%) C#
3 3 (5.66%) SQL
4 1 (1.89%) BeanShell
4 1 (1.89%) Bicep
4 1 (1.89%) C++
4 1 (1.89%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 7 (13.21%) Degree
1 7 (13.21%) Microsoft Certification
2 6 (11.32%) SC Cleared
2 6 (11.32%) Security Cleared
3 4 (7.55%) CISSP
4 3 (5.66%) CISM
4 3 (5.66%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 2 (3.77%) CISMP
5 2 (3.77%) CompTIA CySA+
5 2 (3.77%) CompTIA Security+
5 2 (3.77%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
5 2 (3.77%) MCSA
5 2 (3.77%) MCSE
5 2 (3.77%) Network+ Certification
6 1 (1.89%) A+ Certification
6 1 (1.89%) Azure Certification
6 1 (1.89%) CCNA
6 1 (1.89%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (1.89%) ISTQB
6 1 (1.89%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (18.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (15.09%) Cyber Essentials
3 7 (13.21%) GDPR
4 4 (7.55%) NIST
5 2 (3.77%) NCSC
6 1 (1.89%) Accessibility
6 1 (1.89%) EU AI Act
6 1 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 42001
6 1 (1.89%) QA
System Software
1 3 (5.66%) Virtual Desktop
2 2 (3.77%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (3.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.89%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.89%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 19 (35.85%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (18.87%) SCCM
3 2 (3.77%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
3 2 (3.77%) Terraform
4 1 (1.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (1.89%) AirWatch
4 1 (1.89%) Ansible
4 1 (1.89%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (1.89%) Kubernetes
4 1 (1.89%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 40 (75.47%) Microsoft
2 7 (13.21%) Citrix
2 7 (13.21%) ServiceNow
3 5 (9.43%) VMware
4 3 (5.66%) Altiris
4 3 (5.66%) CyberArk
5 2 (3.77%) Apple
5 2 (3.77%) Fortinet
5 2 (3.77%) Ivanti
5 2 (3.77%) LogRhythm
5 2 (3.77%) OpenAI
5 2 (3.77%) Palo Alto
5 2 (3.77%) Symantec
6 1 (1.89%) CheckPoint
6 1 (1.89%) Datto
6 1 (1.89%) Dell
6 1 (1.89%) Logitech
6 1 (1.89%) Remedy
6 1 (1.89%) SAP
6 1 (1.89%) Tenable