Active Directory Contract Job Trends in London

Microsoft Active Directory
England > London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in London requiring Active Directory skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 62 37
Rank change year-on-year -27 -25 +13
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 541 494 839
As % of all contract jobs in London 3.12% 3.89% 4.69%
As % of the System Software category 31.40% 35.14% 46.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 394 340 583
10th Percentile £185 £206 £183
25th Percentile £285 £297 £236
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £491 £500 £410
Median % change year-on-year -1.80% +21.95% -9.87%
75th Percentile £613 £613 £556
90th Percentile £750 £700 £697
England median daily rate £450 £450 £400
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 11 23
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.25 £16.00
25th Percentile £21.91 £23.70 £17.78
Median hourly rate £25.31 £26.45 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.31% +17.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £25.85 £28.71 £25.00
90th Percentile £28.69 £34.00 £38.75
England median hourly rate £25.96 £21.98 £17.69
% change year-on-year +18.08% +24.25% -4.38%

All System Software Skills
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 London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 1,723 1,406 1,794
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 9.92% 11.07% 10.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,169 990 1,271
10th Percentile £300 £300 £213
25th Percentile £425 £429 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% -13.04%
75th Percentile £627 £668 £615
90th Percentile £726 £800 £719
England median daily rate £500 £525 £485
% change year-on-year -4.76% +8.36% -7.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 13 40
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.72 £16.77
25th Percentile £23.10 £23.80 £20.50
Median hourly rate £26.24 £26.45 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -0.81% +17.56% -18.18%
75th Percentile £58.42 £34.00 £35.31
90th Percentile £68.39 £83.15 £57.75
England median hourly rate £55.00 £28.71 £21.00
% change year-on-year +91.60% +36.69% -49.85%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

Active Directory job vacancy trend in London

Active Directory
Daily Rate Trend in London

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

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

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in London over the 6 months to 18 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in London

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Trend in London

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

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

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Active Directory in London over the 6 months to 18 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Active Directory in London

Active Directory
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Active Directory within the London region over the 6 months to 18 April 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Central London -52 52 £425 -15.00% 32
South London -4 23 £492 +96.41% 3
West London -31 10 £205 -48.69% 11
East London -5 8 £200 -51.81% 5
North London +3 3 £313 -48.98% 2
Active Directory
England

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in 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 90 (16.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 65 (12.01%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.48%) Confluence
4 2 (0.37%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.18%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.18%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.18%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 30 (5.55%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (2.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.29%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.55%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 10 (1.85%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 2 (0.37%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.18%) SAP Business One
Cloud Services
1 366 (67.65%) Azure
2 262 (48.43%) Entra ID
3 254 (46.95%) Microsoft 365
4 79 (14.60%) AWS
5 48 (8.87%) GCP
6 46 (8.50%) Azure DevOps
7 28 (5.18%) SaaS
8 27 (4.99%) Power Platform
9 26 (4.81%) OneDrive
9 26 (4.81%) PaaS
10 25 (4.62%) IaaS
11 24 (4.44%) Azure Logic Apps
12 23 (4.25%) GitHub
13 21 (3.88%) Azure Monitor
14 20 (3.70%) Serverless
15 19 (3.51%) PowerApps
16 17 (3.14%) Microsoft Copilot
17 16 (2.96%) Power Automate
18 15 (2.77%) Azure Functions
18 15 (2.77%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 114 (21.07%) DNS
2 81 (14.97%) DHCP
3 77 (14.23%) Firewall
4 51 (9.43%) VPN
5 32 (5.91%) WAN
6 23 (4.25%) Kerberos
6 23 (4.25%) Wi-Fi
7 21 (3.88%) LAN
8 16 (2.96%) TCP/IP
9 14 (2.59%) SD-WAN
10 13 (2.40%) Wireless
11 12 (2.22%) VLAN
12 10 (1.85%) Remote Desktop
12 10 (1.85%) SAN
13 9 (1.66%) MPLS
13 9 (1.66%) SMTP
14 8 (1.48%) DKIM
14 8 (1.48%) DMARC
14 8 (1.48%) Internet
14 8 (1.48%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (3.88%) SQL Server
2 13 (2.40%) Power BI
3 8 (1.48%) Azure SQL Database
4 7 (1.29%) Elasticsearch
5 5 (0.92%) Metadata
6 4 (0.74%) Amazon QuickSight
6 4 (0.74%) Data Lake
7 3 (0.55%) Amazon Athena
7 3 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
7 3 (0.55%) Big Data
7 3 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.37%) ImageNet
8 2 (0.37%) MySQL
8 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.18%) Delta Lake
9 1 (0.18%) KNIME
9 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.18%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.18%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 39 (7.21%) JIRA
2 12 (2.22%) Git
3 6 (1.11%) Chocolatey
3 6 (1.11%) GitLab
4 4 (0.74%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.18%) AdminStudio
5 1 (0.18%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.18%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.18%) InstallShield
5 1 (0.18%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.18%) JUnit
5 1 (0.18%) Metasploit
5 1 (0.18%) MSI
5 1 (0.18%) Postman
5 1 (0.18%) ScriptRunner
5 1 (0.18%) Selenium
5 1 (0.18%) SpecFlow
5 1 (0.18%) sqlmap
5 1 (0.18%) Vite
5 1 (0.18%) webpack
General
1 194 (35.86%) Social Skills
2 72 (13.31%) Finance
3 43 (7.95%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (7.39%) Banking
5 32 (5.91%) Public Sector
6 22 (4.07%) Organisational Skills
7 20 (3.70%) Legal
8 19 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
9 12 (2.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.66%) Law
11 8 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (1.29%) Investment Banking
12 7 (1.29%) Retail
13 6 (1.11%) Front Office
14 5 (0.92%) French Language
14 5 (0.92%) Local Government
14 5 (0.92%) Military
14 5 (0.92%) Telecoms
15 4 (0.74%) Financial Institution
16 3 (0.55%) Billing
Job Titles
1 79 (14.60%) Architect
2 76 (14.05%) IT Support
3 71 (13.12%) Support Engineer
4 59 (10.91%) IT Engineer
5 50 (9.24%) IT Support Engineer
6 42 (7.76%) Analyst
7 40 (7.39%) CyberArk Architect
8 39 (7.21%) Senior
9 34 (6.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 28 (5.18%) Azure Engineer
11 23 (4.25%) Developer
12 22 (4.07%) Technical Support
13 21 (3.88%) Consultant
14 20 (3.70%) Support Specialist
15 19 (3.51%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
15 19 (3.51%) Support Analyst
16 17 (3.14%) Lead
17 16 (2.96%) 2nd Line Support
17 16 (2.96%) Technical Specialist
17 16 (2.96%) Technical Support Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (13.68%) LDAP
2 49 (9.06%) REST
3 37 (6.84%) OAuth
3 37 (6.84%) SOAP
4 29 (5.36%) SAML
5 20 (3.70%) .NET
6 19 (3.51%) SailPoint
7 18 (3.33%) Microsoft Graph
8 13 (2.40%) ARM Templates
8 13 (2.40%) OpenID
9 12 (2.22%) React
10 11 (2.03%) YAML
11 9 (1.66%) .NET Core
11 9 (1.66%) AngularJS
12 8 (1.48%) OAuth2
13 7 (1.29%) Entity Framework
13 7 (1.29%) Web Services
14 6 (1.11%) Node.js
14 6 (1.11%) TensorFlow
14 6 (1.11%) X-Windows
Miscellaneous
1 60 (11.09%) Enterprise Software
2 59 (10.91%) Onboarding
3 47 (8.69%) Security Posture
4 26 (4.81%) Replication
5 23 (4.25%) PKI
6 19 (3.51%) Data Centre
7 16 (2.96%) Clustering
8 14 (2.59%) AI Agents
9 13 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
10 12 (2.22%) BYOD
11 11 (2.03%) Hybrid Cloud
12 10 (1.85%) Cloud Native
13 9 (1.66%) Cyber Threat
14 8 (1.48%) Enterprise Storage
14 8 (1.48%) Management Information System
15 7 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
15 7 (1.29%) iPhone
16 5 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
16 5 (0.92%) Smartphone
16 5 (0.92%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 285 (52.68%) Windows
2 106 (19.59%) Windows Server
3 80 (14.79%) Windows 10
4 40 (7.39%) Linux
5 22 (4.07%) Mac OS
6 21 (3.88%) Apple iOS
7 17 (3.14%) Android
8 9 (1.66%) Windows Server 2016
9 8 (1.48%) Mac OS X
9 8 (1.48%) Windows 7
9 8 (1.48%) Windows Server 2019
10 7 (1.29%) Windows Server 2003
10 7 (1.29%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.92%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.92%) VMS
12 4 (0.74%) Unix
13 3 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 1 (0.18%) CentOS
14 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 138 (25.51%) Problem-Solving
2 101 (18.67%) ITIL
3 83 (15.34%) Migration
4 78 (14.42%) DevOps
5 73 (13.49%) Task Automation
6 66 (12.20%) Identity Access Management
7 65 (12.01%) ITSM
8 62 (11.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 59 (10.91%) CI/CD
10 57 (10.54%) Privileged Access Management
11 53 (9.80%) Customer Service
12 51 (9.43%) Disaster Recovery
12 51 (9.43%) RBAC
12 51 (9.43%) SIEM
12 51 (9.43%) Technical Leadership
13 50 (9.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 49 (9.06%) High Availability
15 44 (8.13%) Change Management
15 44 (8.13%) Integration Patterns
16 41 (7.58%) AI
Programming Languages
1 168 (31.05%) PowerShell
2 63 (11.65%) Python
3 51 (9.43%) SQL
4 23 (4.25%) C#
5 18 (3.33%) JavaScript
6 14 (2.59%) Java
7 12 (2.22%) Bash
8 10 (1.85%) Bicep
9 9 (1.66%) TypeScript
10 8 (1.48%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.37%) C++
11 2 (0.37%) Go
11 2 (0.37%) Groovy
11 2 (0.37%) PHP
11 2 (0.37%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.37%) VBScript
12 1 (0.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.18%) VB
12 1 (0.18%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.18%) VBA
Qualifications
1 114 (21.07%) Security Cleared
2 96 (17.74%) SC Cleared
3 71 (13.12%) Degree
4 40 (7.39%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (4.62%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (4.07%) Azure Certification
7 19 (3.51%) DV Cleared
8 12 (2.22%) MCSE
9 11 (2.03%) Cisco Certification
9 11 (2.03%) CISSP
10 8 (1.48%) MCSA
11 7 (1.29%) CISM
12 5 (0.92%) CCNA
12 5 (0.92%) CompTIA Security+
13 4 (0.74%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 4 (0.74%) CCNP
13 4 (0.74%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.74%) MCITP
13 4 (0.74%) MCTS
13 4 (0.74%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (6.84%) GDPR
2 24 (4.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (3.88%) NIST
3 21 (3.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 18 (3.33%) SLA
5 8 (1.48%) NCSC
6 6 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (0.92%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 5 (0.92%) QA
8 4 (0.74%) NIST 800
9 3 (0.55%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.37%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.37%) DICOM
10 2 (0.37%) HL7
10 2 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.37%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.37%) PMO
11 1 (0.18%) GRC
11 1 (0.18%) ITGC
11 1 (0.18%) SOC 2
System Software
1 38 (7.02%) VMware Infrastructure
2 29 (5.36%) Docker
3 21 (3.88%) Hyper-V
4 16 (2.96%) Virtual Desktop
5 14 (2.59%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (2.03%) vSphere
7 10 (1.85%) BitLocker
7 10 (1.85%) Virtual Machines
8 9 (1.66%) Microsoft App-V
9 7 (1.29%) Firmware
10 3 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.37%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
11 2 (0.37%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.37%) VMware Workstation
11 2 (0.37%) Xen
11 2 (0.37%) XenDesktop
12 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.18%) OpenSSH
12 1 (0.18%) Squid
12 1 (0.18%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 138 (25.51%) Microsoft Intune
2 63 (11.65%) SCCM
3 50 (9.24%) Single Sign-On
4 41 (7.58%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 30 (5.55%) Terraform
6 23 (4.25%) Kubernetes
7 21 (3.88%) Ansible
8 11 (2.03%) vCenter Server
9 10 (1.85%) Puppet
10 9 (1.66%) Jamf Pro
11 8 (1.48%) vMotion
12 7 (1.29%) SCOM
13 5 (0.92%) FortiGate
14 4 (0.74%) CA Single Sign-On
14 4 (0.74%) Grafana
14 4 (0.74%) PingFederate
14 4 (0.74%) Prometheus
15 3 (0.55%) Salt
16 2 (0.37%) PowerCLI
16 2 (0.37%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 355 (65.62%) Microsoft
2 70 (12.94%) ServiceNow
3 53 (9.80%) VMware
4 51 (9.43%) CyberArk
5 37 (6.84%) BeyondTrust
6 35 (6.47%) Centrify
7 27 (4.99%) Citrix
8 23 (4.25%) Okta
9 20 (3.70%) OpenAI
10 19 (3.51%) Google
11 16 (2.96%) Apple
12 15 (2.77%) Cisco
13 11 (2.03%) Dell
13 11 (2.03%) Oracle
14 9 (1.66%) Databricks
15 8 (1.48%) Fortinet
15 8 (1.48%) Foundry
15 8 (1.48%) NetApp
16 6 (1.11%) Splunk
16 6 (1.11%) Workday