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 24 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 67 50 35
Rank change year-on-year -17 -15 +22
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 59 72 132
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 3.13% 3.83% 5.36%
As % of the System Software category 35.98% 35.12% 49.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 43 41 96
10th Percentile £186 £200 £206
25th Percentile £286 £313 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £463
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +8.11% +17.09%
75th Percentile £575 £613 £575
90th Percentile £683 £688 £728
Central London median daily rate £475 £488 £450
% change year-on-year -2.56% +8.33% +13.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 2
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £20.82 - £21.25
Median hourly rate £22.27 £112.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -80.12% +397.78% +12.50%
75th Percentile £23.71 - £23.75
90th Percentile - - -
Central London median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year -77.26% +397.78% +9.76%

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 164 205 265
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 8.70% 10.90% 10.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 116 127 198
10th Percentile £270 £303 £262
25th Percentile £405 £463 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £568 £493
Median % change year-on-year -7.49% +15.23% -14.35%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £634
90th Percentile £686 £727 £738
Central London median daily rate £525 £550 £488
% change year-on-year -4.55% +12.82% -15.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 3
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £20.82 - £21.25
Median hourly rate £22.27 £112.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -80.12% +397.78% +9.76%
75th Percentile £23.71 - £37.00
90th Percentile - - £44.95
Central London median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year -77.26% +397.78% +9.76%

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 24 January 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 12 (20.34%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (18.64%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (3.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.69%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (1.69%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (1.69%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 42 (71.19%) Microsoft 365
2 36 (61.02%) Azure
3 31 (52.54%) Entra ID
4 8 (13.56%) Power Platform
5 7 (11.86%) OneDrive
5 7 (11.86%) PowerApps
6 6 (10.17%) Power Automate
7 5 (8.47%) AWS
7 5 (8.47%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (5.08%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (5.08%) IaaS
9 2 (3.39%) Azure Logic Apps
9 2 (3.39%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (3.39%) Copilot Studio
9 2 (3.39%) Microsoft Copilot
9 2 (3.39%) Mimecast
9 2 (3.39%) PaaS
9 2 (3.39%) SaaS
9 2 (3.39%) ShareGate
10 1 (1.69%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 14 (23.73%) Firewall
2 10 (16.95%) DNS
3 9 (15.25%) VPN
4 7 (11.86%) DHCP
5 2 (3.39%) Intrusion Detection
5 2 (3.39%) LAN
5 2 (3.39%) WAN
5 2 (3.39%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (1.69%) Extranet
6 1 (1.69%) IP Telephony
6 1 (1.69%) IPv4
6 1 (1.69%) IPv6
6 1 (1.69%) Kerberos
6 1 (1.69%) MPLS
6 1 (1.69%) Softphone
6 1 (1.69%) TCP/IP
6 1 (1.69%) Unified Communications
6 1 (1.69%) VSAN
6 1 (1.69%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (6.78%) Power BI
2 2 (3.39%) SQL Server
3 1 (1.69%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 2 (3.39%) JIRA
2 1 (1.69%) Cypress.io
2 1 (1.69%) Oracle Forms
2 1 (1.69%) Selenium
2 1 (1.69%) SpecFlow
General
1 27 (45.76%) Social Skills
2 12 (20.34%) Finance
3 4 (6.78%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (6.78%) Banking
4 3 (5.08%) Public Sector
4 3 (5.08%) Telecoms
5 2 (3.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 2 (3.39%) Law
5 2 (3.39%) Legal
6 1 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (1.69%) French Language
6 1 (1.69%) International Banking
6 1 (1.69%) Investment Banking
6 1 (1.69%) Military
Job Titles
1 9 (15.25%) Support Engineer
2 7 (11.86%) IT Support
3 6 (10.17%) Analyst
3 6 (10.17%) IT Engineer
4 5 (8.47%) IT Support Engineer
4 5 (8.47%) Lead
4 5 (8.47%) Senior
5 4 (6.78%) 2nd Line Support
5 4 (6.78%) Architect
5 4 (6.78%) Consultant
5 4 (6.78%) Service Desk Engineer
6 3 (5.08%) 2nd Line Engineer
6 3 (5.08%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
6 3 (5.08%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 3 (5.08%) Cybersecurity Manager
6 3 (5.08%) Microsoft 365 Consultant
6 3 (5.08%) Programme Manager
6 3 (5.08%) Security Manager
7 2 (3.39%) Infrastructure Specialist
7 2 (3.39%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (8.47%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (3.39%) OAuth
2 2 (3.39%) OpenID
2 2 (3.39%) SailPoint
2 2 (3.39%) SAML
3 1 (1.69%) .NET
3 1 (1.69%) AngularJS
3 1 (1.69%) HTML
3 1 (1.69%) LangChain
3 1 (1.69%) LDAP
3 1 (1.69%) Playwright
3 1 (1.69%) REST
3 1 (1.69%) Semantic Kernel
3 1 (1.69%) SPFx
3 1 (1.69%) Web Services
3 1 (1.69%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 9 (15.25%) Onboarding
2 4 (6.78%) Video Conferencing
3 3 (5.08%) BYOD
3 3 (5.08%) Data Centre
3 3 (5.08%) Management Information System
3 3 (5.08%) Security Posture
4 2 (3.39%) Cyber Threat
5 1 (1.69%) AI Agents
5 1 (1.69%) CMDB
5 1 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (1.69%) Fat Client
5 1 (1.69%) iPad
5 1 (1.69%) Low-Code
5 1 (1.69%) Security Operations Centre
5 1 (1.69%) Smartphone
5 1 (1.69%) Thin Client
5 1 (1.69%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 34 (57.63%) Windows
2 14 (23.73%) Windows Server
3 12 (20.34%) Windows 10
4 4 (6.78%) Linux
4 4 (6.78%) Mac OS
5 2 (3.39%) Android
5 2 (3.39%) Apple iOS
5 2 (3.39%) Mac OS X
6 1 (1.69%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (1.69%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (28.81%) ITIL
2 12 (20.34%) Problem-Solving
3 11 (18.64%) Change Management
4 10 (16.95%) Cybersecurity
5 9 (15.25%) ITSM
6 8 (13.56%) Data Loss Prevention
6 8 (13.56%) Migration
7 7 (11.86%) Continuous Improvement
7 7 (11.86%) Customer Service
7 7 (11.86%) Identity Access Management
7 7 (11.86%) Service Delivery
8 6 (10.17%) Identity Management
8 6 (10.17%) User Experience
9 5 (8.47%) Change Control
9 5 (8.47%) Cloud Security
9 5 (8.47%) Mentoring
9 5 (8.47%) Performance Metrics
9 5 (8.47%) Roadmaps
9 5 (8.47%) Service Management
9 5 (8.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 15 (25.42%) PowerShell
2 5 (8.47%) Java
2 5 (8.47%) Python
3 2 (3.39%) C#
3 2 (3.39%) SQL
4 1 (1.69%) BeanShell
4 1 (1.69%) Bicep
4 1 (1.69%) C++
4 1 (1.69%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 12 (20.34%) Microsoft Certification
2 8 (13.56%) Degree
2 8 (13.56%) SC Cleared
2 8 (13.56%) Security Cleared
3 4 (6.78%) CISSP
4 3 (5.08%) CISM
4 3 (5.08%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 2 (3.39%) CISMP
5 2 (3.39%) CompTIA CySA+
5 2 (3.39%) CompTIA Security+
5 2 (3.39%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
5 2 (3.39%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (3.39%) MCITP
5 2 (3.39%) MCSA
5 2 (3.39%) MCSE
5 2 (3.39%) Network+ Certification
6 1 (1.69%) Azure Certification
6 1 (1.69%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (1.69%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (20.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (13.56%) Cyber Essentials
3 7 (11.86%) GDPR
4 4 (6.78%) NIST
5 2 (3.39%) NCSC
5 2 (3.39%) SLA
6 1 (1.69%) Accessibility
6 1 (1.69%) EU AI Act
6 1 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 42001
6 1 (1.69%) QA
System Software
1 3 (5.08%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (3.39%) Virtual Desktop
2 2 (3.39%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.69%) Hyper-V
3 1 (1.69%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.69%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 21 (35.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (18.64%) SCCM
3 3 (5.08%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
4 2 (3.39%) SCOM
4 2 (3.39%) Terraform
5 1 (1.69%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (1.69%) AirWatch
5 1 (1.69%) Ansible
5 1 (1.69%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (1.69%) Kubernetes
5 1 (1.69%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 43 (72.88%) Microsoft
2 8 (13.56%) Citrix
2 8 (13.56%) VMware
3 5 (8.47%) ServiceNow
4 4 (6.78%) Altiris
4 4 (6.78%) CyberArk
5 3 (5.08%) Ivanti
5 3 (5.08%) Oracle
5 3 (5.08%) Palo Alto
5 3 (5.08%) Symantec
6 2 (3.39%) Apple
6 2 (3.39%) Fortinet
6 2 (3.39%) HP
6 2 (3.39%) LogRhythm
6 2 (3.39%) OpenAI
7 1 (1.69%) Datto
7 1 (1.69%) Dell
7 1 (1.69%) Logitech
7 1 (1.69%) Okta
7 1 (1.69%) Tenable