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 26 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 50 38
Rank change year-on-year -19 -12 -1
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 68 74 111
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 2.83% 3.93% 5.33%
As % of the System Software category 37.99% 45.96% 46.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 50 48 84
10th Percentile £175 £215 £229
25th Percentile £195 £301 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £536 £419
Median % change year-on-year -14.88% +28.00% -16.29%
75th Percentile £617 £623 £560
90th Percentile £658 £691 £688
Central London median daily rate £403 £536 £425
% change year-on-year -24.91% +26.12% -9.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 2
10th Percentile - £22.95 £43.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £24.38 £49.38
Median hourly rate £19.50 £28.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -31.58% -54.40% -
75th Percentile £19.75 £108.88 £79.38
90th Percentile - £156.05 £87.25
Central London median hourly rate £19.50 £27.48 £62.50
% change year-on-year -29.03% -56.04% +150.00%

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 179 161 239
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 7.46% 8.55% 11.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 114 173
10th Percentile £210 £263 £313
25th Percentile £410 £414 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £625 £658 £663
90th Percentile £679 £698 £729
Central London median daily rate £525 £536 £520
% change year-on-year -2.05% +3.08% -9.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 2
10th Percentile £21.20 £22.95 £43.75
25th Percentile £24.13 £24.38 £49.38
Median hourly rate £30.00 £28.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -54.40% +72.41%
75th Percentile £45.36 £108.88 £79.38
90th Percentile £53.98 £156.05 £87.25
Central London median hourly rate £32.50 £27.48 £62.50
% change year-on-year +18.29% -56.04% +150.00%

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 26 July 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 11 (16.18%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (11.76%) SharePoint
3 2 (2.94%) IIS
4 1 (1.47%) Apache Spark
4 1 (1.47%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (1.47%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (1.47%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (4.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (1.47%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 34 (50.00%) Entra ID
2 32 (47.06%) Azure
3 27 (39.71%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (11.76%) AWS
5 7 (10.29%) Azure DevOps
5 7 (10.29%) Power Platform
6 5 (7.35%) GitHub
7 4 (5.88%) OneDrive
8 3 (4.41%) GCP
8 3 (4.41%) IaaS
8 3 (4.41%) OpenShift
8 3 (4.41%) PaaS
8 3 (4.41%) Power Automate
8 3 (4.41%) PowerApps
8 3 (4.41%) Serverless
9 2 (2.94%) Azure Functions
9 2 (2.94%) Azure Stack
9 2 (2.94%) Dynamics 365
9 2 (2.94%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (2.94%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 24 (35.29%) DNS
2 19 (27.94%) DHCP
3 14 (20.59%) VPN
4 9 (13.24%) Firewall
5 6 (8.82%) TCP/IP
6 4 (5.88%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (4.41%) SMTP
8 2 (2.94%) Cisco ISE
8 2 (2.94%) DMZ
8 2 (2.94%) LAN
8 2 (2.94%) Network Security
9 1 (1.47%) BGP
9 1 (1.47%) Internet
9 1 (1.47%) MPLS
9 1 (1.47%) OSPF
9 1 (1.47%) Reverse Proxy
9 1 (1.47%) TACACS
9 1 (1.47%) WAN
9 1 (1.47%) Wireless
9 1 (1.47%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (8.82%) Power BI
2 5 (7.35%) SQL Server
3 4 (5.88%) Big Data
4 3 (4.41%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (4.41%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (4.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (1.47%) Amazon Athena
5 1 (1.47%) Amazon QuickSight
5 1 (1.47%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (1.47%) Delta Lake
5 1 (1.47%) NoSQL
5 1 (1.47%) Oracle BI EE
5 1 (1.47%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (1.47%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 1 (1.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 7 (10.29%) JIRA
2 2 (2.94%) Git
3 1 (1.47%) Artifactory
3 1 (1.47%) GitLab
3 1 (1.47%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 25 (36.76%) Social Skills
2 10 (14.71%) Finance
3 7 (10.29%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (4.41%) Presentation Skills
4 3 (4.41%) Telecoms
5 2 (2.94%) Front Office
5 2 (2.94%) Public Sector
6 1 (1.47%) Banking
6 1 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (1.47%) Financial Institution
6 1 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (1.47%) Law
6 1 (1.47%) Mandarin Language
6 1 (1.47%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.47%) Marketing
6 1 (1.47%) Military
6 1 (1.47%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.47%) Police
Job Titles
1 19 (27.94%) Support Engineer
2 10 (14.71%) IT Support
3 9 (13.24%) Analyst
3 9 (13.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 9 (13.24%) IT Engineer
3 9 (13.24%) IT Support Engineer
4 6 (8.82%) Active Directory Engineer
5 5 (7.35%) Architect
5 5 (7.35%) Infrastructure Support
5 5 (7.35%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
6 4 (5.88%) Desktop Support
6 4 (5.88%) Platform Engineer
6 4 (5.88%) Support Analyst
7 3 (4.41%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 3 (4.41%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
7 3 (4.41%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Support
7 3 (4.41%) 3rd Line Support
7 3 (4.41%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
7 3 (4.41%) IT Analyst
7 3 (4.41%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (7.35%) OpenID
1 5 (7.35%) REST
1 5 (7.35%) SAML
2 3 (4.41%) 802.1X
3 2 (2.94%) .NET
3 2 (2.94%) LDAP
3 2 (2.94%) OAuth
3 2 (2.94%) SailPoint
4 1 (1.47%) .NET Core
4 1 (1.47%) ASP.NET
4 1 (1.47%) Blazor
4 1 (1.47%) Bootstrap
4 1 (1.47%) CSS
4 1 (1.47%) HTML
4 1 (1.47%) HTML5 Canvas
4 1 (1.47%) Jakarta EE
4 1 (1.47%) JDBC
4 1 (1.47%) JSON
4 1 (1.47%) RESTful
4 1 (1.47%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 14 (20.59%) Onboarding
2 9 (13.24%) PKI
3 7 (10.29%) Video Conferencing
4 4 (5.88%) Clustering
4 4 (5.88%) Data Centre
4 4 (5.88%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (2.94%) Fat Client
5 2 (2.94%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (2.94%) Thin Client
5 2 (2.94%) Virtual Team
6 1 (1.47%) BYOD
6 1 (1.47%) IoT
6 1 (1.47%) iPad
6 1 (1.47%) iPhone
6 1 (1.47%) Life Science
6 1 (1.47%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 45 (66.18%) Windows
2 17 (25.00%) Windows Server
3 12 (17.65%) Mac OS
4 7 (10.29%) Windows 10
5 6 (8.82%) Linux
6 3 (4.41%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (1.47%) Android
7 1 (1.47%) Mac OS X
7 1 (1.47%) VMS
7 1 (1.47%) Windows 7
7 1 (1.47%) Windows Server 2003
7 1 (1.47%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (1.47%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (29.41%) Problem-Solving
2 12 (17.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 11 (16.18%) DevOps
3 11 (16.18%) ITIL
3 11 (16.18%) Migration
4 9 (13.24%) Customer Service
4 9 (13.24%) High Availability
5 8 (11.76%) AI
5 8 (11.76%) CI/CD
5 8 (11.76%) Identity Access Management
6 7 (10.29%) Agile
6 7 (10.29%) Identity Management
6 7 (10.29%) Project Delivery
6 7 (10.29%) Service Delivery
6 7 (10.29%) Stakeholder Management
7 6 (8.82%) Asset Management
7 6 (8.82%) Continuous Improvement
7 6 (8.82%) Process Improvement
8 5 (7.35%) Business Intelligence
8 5 (7.35%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 14 (20.59%) PowerShell
2 5 (7.35%) Python
3 4 (5.88%) Bash
3 4 (5.88%) SQL
4 2 (2.94%) C#
5 1 (1.47%) Java
5 1 (1.47%) JavaScript
5 1 (1.47%) TypeScript
5 1 (1.47%) VB
Qualifications
1 11 (16.18%) Security Cleared
2 6 (8.82%) Degree
3 5 (7.35%) SC Cleared
4 4 (5.88%) DV Cleared
4 4 (5.88%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (4.41%) Azure Certification
5 3 (4.41%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (2.94%) CCNA
6 2 (2.94%) CCNP
6 2 (2.94%) CISM
6 2 (2.94%) CISSP
7 1 (1.47%) CCIE
7 1 (1.47%) CESG Certified Professional
7 1 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (1.47%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (1.47%) MCSE
7 1 (1.47%) PMI Certification
7 1 (1.47%) PMP
7 1 (1.47%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (4.41%) QA
2 2 (2.94%) Cyber Essentials
2 2 (2.94%) GRC
2 2 (2.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 1 (1.47%) Data Quality
3 1 (1.47%) GDPR
3 1 (1.47%) Government Security Classifications
3 1 (1.47%) HIPAA
3 1 (1.47%) SLA
System Software
1 10 (14.71%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (10.29%) VMware ESXi
3 6 (8.82%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (7.35%) Docker
4 5 (7.35%) Hyper-V
5 3 (4.41%) BitLocker
5 3 (4.41%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (4.41%) Terminal Services
6 2 (2.94%) vSphere
7 1 (1.47%) Firmware
7 1 (1.47%) UAG
7 1 (1.47%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 19 (27.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (11.76%) SCCM
3 7 (10.29%) Ansible
4 6 (8.82%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (8.82%) vCenter Server
5 5 (7.35%) Kubernetes
5 5 (7.35%) Terraform
6 4 (5.88%) Puppet
7 3 (4.41%) Jamf Pro
7 3 (4.41%) Nagios
7 3 (4.41%) vMotion
8 2 (2.94%) FortiGate
8 2 (2.94%) Nessus
9 1 (1.47%) Grafana
9 1 (1.47%) Microsoft Clustering
9 1 (1.47%) Prometheus
9 1 (1.47%) Salt
9 1 (1.47%) SCOM
9 1 (1.47%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 51 (75.00%) Microsoft
2 13 (19.12%) VMware
3 12 (17.65%) Citrix
4 9 (13.24%) ServiceNow
5 6 (8.82%) Apple
5 6 (8.82%) Cisco
6 5 (7.35%) Google
7 4 (5.88%) Bloomberg
7 4 (5.88%) HP
8 3 (4.41%) CyberArk
8 3 (4.41%) Remedy
8 3 (4.41%) Symantec
8 3 (4.41%) Zscaler
9 2 (2.94%) BeyondTrust
9 2 (2.94%) Oracle
9 2 (2.94%) SAP
9 2 (2.94%) Tenable
10 1 (1.47%) BMC
10 1 (1.47%) Commvault
10 1 (1.47%) Juniper