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 17 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 43 29
Rank change year-on-year -45 -14 +12
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 41 79 123
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 1.77% 4.52% 5.69%
As % of the System Software category 26.97% 47.31% 50.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 25 52 92
10th Percentile £181 £214 £205
25th Percentile £188 £263 £344
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £365 £539 £450
Median % change year-on-year -32.31% +19.83% -4.76%
75th Percentile £538 £616 £643
90th Percentile £613 £680 £775
Central London median daily rate £365 £536 £425
% change year-on-year -31.90% +26.12% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 4
10th Percentile £19.41 £36.05 -
25th Percentile £19.64 £57.13 £21.25
Median hourly rate £20.88 £98.50 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year -78.80% +215.20% -
75th Percentile £22.72 £146.13 £40.00
90th Percentile £23.31 £170.95 -
Central London median hourly rate £20.88 £24.48 £31.25
% change year-on-year -14.68% -21.68% +25.00%

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 152 167 245
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 6.58% 9.56% 11.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 105 118 180
10th Percentile £215 £242 £250
25th Percentile £410 £392 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £482 £543 £500
Median % change year-on-year -11.24% +8.50% -13.04%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £670
90th Percentile £709 £696 £746
Central London median daily rate £525 £525 £488
% change year-on-year - +7.69% -13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 5
10th Percentile £19.56 £36.05 -
25th Percentile £20.04 £57.13 £21.25
Median hourly rate £22.27 £98.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -77.40% +146.25% -
75th Percentile £41.72 £146.13 -
90th Percentile £52.52 £170.95 £46.15
Central London median hourly rate £22.27 £24.48 £40.00
% change year-on-year -9.03% -38.81% +60.00%

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 17 May 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 7 (17.07%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (9.76%) SharePoint
3 1 (2.44%) Apache Spark
3 1 (2.44%) IIS
Applications
1 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (2.44%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 26 (63.41%) Microsoft 365
2 22 (53.66%) Azure
3 21 (51.22%) Entra ID
4 6 (14.63%) Power Platform
5 5 (12.20%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (9.76%) GitHub
6 4 (9.76%) PowerApps
7 2 (4.88%) AWS
7 2 (4.88%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (4.88%) Azure Stack
7 2 (4.88%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (4.88%) Power Automate
7 2 (4.88%) Serverless
8 1 (2.44%) AWS Control Tower
8 1 (2.44%) Azure Event Grid
8 1 (2.44%) Azure Functions
8 1 (2.44%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (2.44%) Azure Logic Apps
8 1 (2.44%) Azure Service Bus
8 1 (2.44%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 11 (26.83%) DNS
2 9 (21.95%) VPN
3 8 (19.51%) DHCP
4 5 (12.20%) Firewall
5 3 (7.32%) TCP/IP
6 1 (2.44%) IPv4
6 1 (2.44%) IPv6
6 1 (2.44%) Reverse Proxy
6 1 (2.44%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (7.32%) Power BI
2 1 (2.44%) Amazon Athena
2 1 (2.44%) Amazon QuickSight
2 1 (2.44%) Amazon Redshift
2 1 (2.44%) Big Data
2 1 (2.44%) Delta Lake
2 1 (2.44%) Oracle BI EE
2 1 (2.44%) SQL Server
2 1 (2.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 5 (12.20%) JIRA
2 1 (2.44%) Artifactory
2 1 (2.44%) Cypress.io
2 1 (2.44%) Git
2 1 (2.44%) GitLab
2 1 (2.44%) Selenium
2 1 (2.44%) SpecFlow
General
1 23 (56.10%) Social Skills
2 9 (21.95%) Finance
3 4 (9.76%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (7.32%) Public Sector
5 2 (4.88%) Banking
5 2 (4.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 2 (4.88%) Law
5 2 (4.88%) Military
5 2 (4.88%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (2.44%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (2.44%) International Banking
6 1 (2.44%) Legal
6 1 (2.44%) Mandarin Language
6 1 (2.44%) Manufacturing
6 1 (2.44%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (2.44%) Police
Job Titles
1 10 (24.39%) Support Engineer
2 7 (17.07%) IT Support
2 7 (17.07%) Senior
3 6 (14.63%) IT Engineer
3 6 (14.63%) IT Support Engineer
4 5 (12.20%) Analyst
5 4 (9.76%) Desktop Support
5 4 (9.76%) Service Desk Engineer
6 3 (7.32%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 3 (7.32%) Architect
6 3 (7.32%) Citrix Engineer
6 3 (7.32%) Platform Engineer
7 2 (4.88%) Azure Engineer
7 2 (4.88%) Deployment Engineer
7 2 (4.88%) Desktop Analyst
7 2 (4.88%) Desktop Support Analyst
7 2 (4.88%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
7 2 (4.88%) Project Engineer
7 2 (4.88%) Senior Analyst
7 2 (4.88%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (7.32%) REST
2 2 (4.88%) SailPoint
3 1 (2.44%) J2EE
3 1 (2.44%) JDBC
3 1 (2.44%) JSON
3 1 (2.44%) LDAP
3 1 (2.44%) OAuth
3 1 (2.44%) OpenID
3 1 (2.44%) Playwright
3 1 (2.44%) SAML
3 1 (2.44%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 8 (19.51%) Onboarding
2 4 (9.76%) Video Conferencing
3 2 (4.88%) BYOD
3 2 (4.88%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (2.44%) CMDB
4 1 (2.44%) Fat Client
4 1 (2.44%) IoT
4 1 (2.44%) Life Science
4 1 (2.44%) PKI
4 1 (2.44%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 27 (65.85%) Windows
2 8 (19.51%) Mac OS
2 8 (19.51%) Windows 10
2 8 (19.51%) Windows Server
3 1 (2.44%) Android
3 1 (2.44%) Apple iOS
3 1 (2.44%) Mac OS X
3 1 (2.44%) VMS
3 1 (2.44%) Windows 7
3 1 (2.44%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (24.39%) Customer Service
1 10 (24.39%) ITIL
2 9 (21.95%) Problem-Solving
3 7 (17.07%) CI/CD
3 7 (17.07%) DevOps
4 6 (14.63%) Change Control
4 6 (14.63%) Change Management
4 6 (14.63%) Mentoring
5 4 (9.76%) AI
5 4 (9.76%) Identity Access Management
5 4 (9.76%) Infrastructure as Code
5 4 (9.76%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 4 (9.76%) Migration
5 4 (9.76%) Performance Metrics
5 4 (9.76%) Service Delivery
6 3 (7.32%) Agile
6 3 (7.32%) API Integration
6 3 (7.32%) Application Packaging
6 3 (7.32%) Continuous Improvement
6 3 (7.32%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 13 (31.71%) PowerShell
2 5 (12.20%) Python
3 4 (9.76%) Bash
4 2 (4.88%) Java
4 2 (4.88%) SQL
5 1 (2.44%) C#
5 1 (2.44%) VB
Qualifications
1 7 (17.07%) Microsoft Certification
2 4 (9.76%) Security Cleared
3 3 (7.32%) Azure Certification
3 3 (7.32%) Degree
3 3 (7.32%) SC Cleared
4 2 (4.88%) CISM
4 2 (4.88%) CISSP
4 2 (4.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
4 2 (4.88%) MCSE
4 2 (4.88%) Network+ Certification
5 1 (2.44%) CCNA
5 1 (2.44%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (2.44%) ISTQB
5 1 (2.44%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (9.76%) Cyber Essentials
1 4 (9.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (7.32%) GDPR
3 2 (4.88%) QA
3 2 (4.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 1 (2.44%) Accessibility
4 1 (2.44%) HIPAA
System Software
1 6 (14.63%) Virtual Desktop
2 3 (7.32%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (4.88%) Docker
3 2 (4.88%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (2.44%) Firmware
4 1 (2.44%) Hyper-V
4 1 (2.44%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (2.44%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 13 (31.71%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (12.20%) SCCM
3 4 (9.76%) Terraform
4 2 (4.88%) Ansible
4 2 (4.88%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (4.88%) Kubernetes
5 1 (2.44%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (2.44%) AirWatch
5 1 (2.44%) Grafana
5 1 (2.44%) Prometheus
5 1 (2.44%) Puppet
5 1 (2.44%) Salt
Vendors
1 30 (73.17%) Microsoft
2 7 (17.07%) Citrix
3 5 (12.20%) ServiceNow
4 3 (7.32%) VMware
5 2 (4.88%) Apple
5 2 (4.88%) Bloomberg
5 2 (4.88%) Oracle
5 2 (4.88%) SAP
6 1 (2.44%) Cisco
6 1 (2.44%) Databricks
6 1 (2.44%) EMC
6 1 (2.44%) Fortinet
6 1 (2.44%) Google
6 1 (2.44%) Workday