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 21 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 77 39 32
Rank change year-on-year -38 -7 +19
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 49 91 133
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 2.50% 4.97% 5.56%
As % of the System Software category 30.82% 41.55% 51.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 55 93
10th Percentile £185 £196 £206
25th Percentile £263 £301 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +11.11% +22.03%
75th Percentile £575 £644 £588
90th Percentile £679 £698 £769
Central London median daily rate £450 £500 £431
% change year-on-year -10.00% +15.94% +13.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 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% +56.25%
75th Percentile £23.71 £149.75 £40.00
90th Percentile - £172.40 -
Central London median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £31.25
% change year-on-year -77.26% +258.40% +47.06%

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 159 219 260
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 8.12% 11.95% 10.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 114 139 187
10th Percentile £254 £263 £246
25th Percentile £402 £416 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £552 £488
Median % change year-on-year -4.89% +13.23% -11.36%
75th Percentile £625 £644 £638
90th Percentile £713 £728 £738
Central London median daily rate £525 £550 £475
% change year-on-year -4.55% +15.79% -13.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 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% +100.00%
75th Percentile £50.72 £149.75 -
90th Percentile £56.12 £172.40 £46.15
Central London median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -77.26% +180.00% +88.24%

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 21 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 (20.41%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (12.24%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (2.04%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (2.04%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 36 (73.47%) Microsoft 365
2 30 (61.22%) Azure
3 28 (57.14%) Entra ID
4 5 (10.20%) Microsoft Purview
4 5 (10.20%) OneDrive
5 3 (6.12%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (6.12%) Power Platform
5 3 (6.12%) PowerApps
6 2 (4.08%) AWS
7 1 (2.04%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 1 (2.04%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (2.04%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (2.04%) Google Workspace
7 1 (2.04%) IaaS
7 1 (2.04%) Mimecast
7 1 (2.04%) Power Automate
7 1 (2.04%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 11 (22.45%) DNS
2 9 (18.37%) Firewall
2 9 (18.37%) VPN
3 6 (12.24%) DHCP
4 2 (4.08%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (2.04%) Extranet
5 1 (2.04%) IPv4
5 1 (2.04%) IPv6
5 1 (2.04%) Kerberos
5 1 (2.04%) LAN
5 1 (2.04%) MPLS
5 1 (2.04%) TCP/IP
5 1 (2.04%) Unified Communications
5 1 (2.04%) WAN
5 1 (2.04%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.04%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 3 (6.12%) JIRA
2 1 (2.04%) Cypress.io
2 1 (2.04%) Oracle Forms
2 1 (2.04%) Selenium
2 1 (2.04%) SpecFlow
General
1 26 (53.06%) Social Skills
2 9 (18.37%) Finance
3 4 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (8.16%) Banking
4 3 (6.12%) Public Sector
5 2 (4.08%) Legal
5 2 (4.08%) Telecoms
6 1 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (2.04%) French Language
6 1 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (2.04%) International Banking
6 1 (2.04%) Investment Banking
6 1 (2.04%) Law
6 1 (2.04%) Manufacturing
6 1 (2.04%) Military
Job Titles
1 10 (20.41%) Support Engineer
2 9 (18.37%) IT Support
3 7 (14.29%) IT Engineer
3 7 (14.29%) IT Support Engineer
4 6 (12.24%) Analyst
4 6 (12.24%) Senior
5 4 (8.16%) Service Desk Engineer
6 3 (6.12%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 3 (6.12%) Architect
6 3 (6.12%) Citrix Engineer
6 3 (6.12%) Consultant
6 3 (6.12%) Cybersecurity Manager
6 3 (6.12%) Programme Manager
6 3 (6.12%) Security Manager
7 2 (4.08%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
7 2 (4.08%) Deployment Engineer
7 2 (4.08%) Infrastructure Specialist
7 2 (4.08%) Security Analyst
7 2 (4.08%) Security Engineer
7 2 (4.08%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (6.12%) SailPoint
2 2 (4.08%) OAuth
2 2 (4.08%) OpenID
2 2 (4.08%) SAML
3 1 (2.04%) .NET
3 1 (2.04%) AngularJS
3 1 (2.04%) HTML
3 1 (2.04%) LDAP
3 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (2.04%) Playwright
3 1 (2.04%) REST
3 1 (2.04%) SPFx
3 1 (2.04%) Web Services
3 1 (2.04%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 8 (16.33%) Onboarding
2 3 (6.12%) BYOD
2 3 (6.12%) Security Posture
3 2 (4.08%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (4.08%) Management Information System
3 2 (4.08%) Video Conferencing
4 1 (2.04%) CMDB
4 1 (2.04%) Data Centre
4 1 (2.04%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (2.04%) Security Operations Centre
4 1 (2.04%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 29 (59.18%) Windows
2 11 (22.45%) Windows 10
3 9 (18.37%) Windows Server
4 5 (10.20%) Mac OS
5 2 (4.08%) Android
5 2 (4.08%) Apple iOS
6 1 (2.04%) Linux
6 1 (2.04%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (24.49%) ITIL
2 9 (18.37%) Change Management
2 9 (18.37%) Customer Service
2 9 (18.37%) Problem-Solving
3 8 (16.33%) Cybersecurity
4 7 (14.29%) Identity Access Management
4 7 (14.29%) ITSM
4 7 (14.29%) Service Delivery
5 6 (12.24%) Continuous Improvement
5 6 (12.24%) Migration
6 5 (10.20%) Data Loss Prevention
6 5 (10.20%) Performance Metrics
6 5 (10.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 5 (10.20%) User Experience
7 4 (8.16%) Change Control
7 4 (8.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 4 (8.16%) Mentoring
7 4 (8.16%) Security Operations
7 4 (8.16%) SIEM
7 4 (8.16%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 12 (24.49%) PowerShell
2 4 (8.16%) Java
2 4 (8.16%) Python
3 3 (6.12%) SQL
4 2 (4.08%) C#
5 1 (2.04%) BeanShell
5 1 (2.04%) C++
5 1 (2.04%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 6 (12.24%) Microsoft Certification
2 5 (10.20%) CISSP
2 5 (10.20%) SC Cleared
2 5 (10.20%) Security Cleared
3 4 (8.16%) CISM
3 4 (8.16%) Degree
4 3 (6.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 2 (4.08%) CISMP
5 2 (4.08%) CompTIA CySA+
5 2 (4.08%) CompTIA Security+
5 2 (4.08%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
5 2 (4.08%) Network+ Certification
6 1 (2.04%) A+ Certification
6 1 (2.04%) Azure Certification
6 1 (2.04%) ISTQB
6 1 (2.04%) MCSA
6 1 (2.04%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (20.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (16.33%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (12.24%) GDPR
4 3 (6.12%) NIST
5 2 (4.08%) NCSC
6 1 (2.04%) Accessibility
6 1 (2.04%) QA
6 1 (2.04%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 4 (8.16%) Virtual Desktop
2 2 (4.08%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (4.08%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 20 (40.82%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (20.41%) SCCM
3 2 (4.08%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
4 1 (2.04%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (2.04%) AirWatch
4 1 (2.04%) Ansible
4 1 (2.04%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (2.04%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (2.04%) Terraform
Vendors
1 37 (75.51%) Microsoft
2 7 (14.29%) Citrix
2 7 (14.29%) ServiceNow
3 4 (8.16%) VMware
4 3 (6.12%) Altiris
4 3 (6.12%) CyberArk
5 2 (4.08%) Apple
5 2 (4.08%) Fortinet
5 2 (4.08%) Ivanti
5 2 (4.08%) LogRhythm
5 2 (4.08%) Palo Alto
5 2 (4.08%) Symantec
6 1 (2.04%) Bomgar
6 1 (2.04%) CheckPoint
6 1 (2.04%) Datto
6 1 (2.04%) Google
6 1 (2.04%) Oracle
6 1 (2.04%) Remedy
6 1 (2.04%) SAP
6 1 (2.04%) Veeam