Active Directory Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Microsoft Active Directory
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring Active Directory skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 30 23
Rank change year-on-year -36 -7 -7
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 31 55 100
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 2.48% 5.26% 6.15%
As % of the System Software category 21.83% 42.31% 48.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 45 80
10th Percentile £166 £159 £206
25th Percentile £206 £200 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £360 £383 £400
Median % change year-on-year -6.01% -4.25% +14.29%
75th Percentile £405 £488 £475
90th Percentile £482 £548 £689
North West median daily rate £300 £325 £375
% change year-on-year -7.69% -13.33% +5.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 9
10th Percentile - - £15.40
25th Percentile - - £17.75
Median hourly rate £20.00 £29.00 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.03% +61.11% -58.14%
75th Percentile - - £19.75
90th Percentile - - £28.38
North West median hourly rate £19.00 £22.09 £17.50
% change year-on-year -13.99% +26.23% -12.50%

All System Software Skills
Manchester

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 Manchester.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 142 130 206
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 11.36% 12.43% 12.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 90 177
10th Percentile £312 £177 £248
25th Percentile £360 £329 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £431 £450
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% -4.17% -10.00%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £550
90th Percentile £638 £588 £700
North West median daily rate £435 £400 £450
% change year-on-year +8.75% -11.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 11
10th Percentile £35.75 - £16.25
25th Percentile £59.38 - £17.88
Median hourly rate £85.00 £29.00 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year +193.10% +56.76% -71.54%
75th Percentile £95.00 - £35.31
90th Percentile - - £46.88
North West median hourly rate £41.94 £22.09 £18.00
% change year-on-year +89.86% +22.72% -63.87%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

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

Active Directory job vacancy trend in Manchester

Active Directory
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

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

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

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in Manchester over the 6 months to 1 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in Manchester

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

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

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

Active Directory
Contract Job Locations in Manchester

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 Manchester region over the 6 months to 1 February 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
Bolton -3 3 - -
Ashton-under-Lyne - 1 - - 1
Oldham - 1 £225 -
Active Directory
North West

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 8 (25.81%) SharePoint
2 7 (22.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (9.68%) IIS
4 2 (6.45%) Apache
4 2 (6.45%) iPlanet
4 2 (6.45%) JBoss
4 2 (6.45%) WebSphere
4 2 (6.45%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 3 (9.68%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 22 (70.97%) Microsoft 365
2 20 (64.52%) Azure
3 19 (61.29%) Entra ID
4 8 (25.81%) AWS
5 4 (12.90%) GCP
6 3 (9.68%) OneDrive
7 2 (6.45%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (3.23%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (3.23%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (3.23%) Nutanix
8 1 (3.23%) OpenShift
8 1 (3.23%) Power Platform
8 1 (3.23%) PowerApps
8 1 (3.23%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 4 (12.90%) VPN
2 3 (9.68%) Kerberos
2 3 (9.68%) Wi-Fi
3 2 (6.45%) Remote Desktop
4 1 (3.23%) DHCP
4 1 (3.23%) DNS
4 1 (3.23%) Firewall
4 1 (3.23%) IP Telephony
4 1 (3.23%) LAN
4 1 (3.23%) TCP/IP
4 1 (3.23%) VLAN
4 1 (3.23%) VoIP
4 1 (3.23%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (6.45%) Oracle Database
1 2 (6.45%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (6.45%) Bitbucket Server
1 2 (6.45%) CA Release Automation
1 2 (6.45%) Git
1 2 (6.45%) Jenkins
2 1 (3.23%) JIRA
2 1 (3.23%) MSI
2 1 (3.23%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 12 (38.71%) Social Skills
2 5 (16.13%) Finance
3 4 (12.90%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (12.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 3 (9.68%) Public Sector
4 3 (9.68%) Telecoms
5 2 (6.45%) Retail
6 1 (3.23%) Military
6 1 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 8 (25.81%) Support Engineer
2 7 (22.58%) IT Support
3 4 (12.90%) 2nd Line Engineer
3 4 (12.90%) 2nd Line Support
3 4 (12.90%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
3 4 (12.90%) Analyst
3 4 (12.90%) IT Analyst
3 4 (12.90%) IT Support Analyst
3 4 (12.90%) Lead
3 4 (12.90%) Support Analyst
4 3 (9.68%) Administrator
4 3 (9.68%) Architect
4 3 (9.68%) IT Engineer
4 3 (9.68%) IT Support Engineer
4 3 (9.68%) Senior
5 2 (6.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 2 (6.45%) Lead Architect
5 2 (6.45%) Microsoft 365 Administrator
5 2 (6.45%) Platform Engineer
6 1 (3.23%) Windows Deployment Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (9.68%) LDAP
1 3 (9.68%) OAuth
1 3 (9.68%) OpenID
1 3 (9.68%) SAML
2 1 (3.23%) Microsoft Graph
2 1 (3.23%) Middleware
2 1 (3.23%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 7 (22.58%) Onboarding
2 2 (6.45%) Data Centre
2 2 (6.45%) Data Protection Act
2 2 (6.45%) Driving Licence
3 1 (3.23%) Clustering
3 1 (3.23%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (3.23%) Enterprise Storage
3 1 (3.23%) IBM XIV
3 1 (3.23%) Legacy Applications
3 1 (3.23%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 15 (48.39%) Windows
2 9 (29.03%) Windows 10
3 4 (12.90%) Mac OS
4 3 (9.68%) Windows Server
5 2 (6.45%) Apple iOS
5 2 (6.45%) Linux
6 1 (3.23%) Unix
6 1 (3.23%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (3.23%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (22.58%) Problem-Solving
2 6 (19.35%) Identity Access Management
3 5 (16.13%) Customer Service
3 5 (16.13%) Data Protection
3 5 (16.13%) ITIL
3 5 (16.13%) Stakeholder Management
4 4 (12.90%) Application Packaging
4 4 (12.90%) Kalman Filter
4 4 (12.90%) Migration
4 4 (12.90%) Task Automation
4 4 (12.90%) User Experience
4 4 (12.90%) Web Filtering
4 4 (12.90%) Zero Trust
5 3 (9.68%) Conflict Resolution
5 3 (9.68%) Creative Problem-Solving
5 3 (9.68%) Decision-Making
5 3 (9.68%) DevOps
5 3 (9.68%) Inventory Management
5 3 (9.68%) IT Strategy
5 3 (9.68%) Thought Leadership
Programming Languages
1 9 (29.03%) PowerShell
2 3 (9.68%) Bash
3 2 (6.45%) Groovy
4 1 (3.23%) Shell Script
4 1 (3.23%) SQL
Qualifications
1 5 (16.13%) Microsoft Certification
2 3 (9.68%) A+ Certification
2 3 (9.68%) Computer Science Degree
2 3 (9.68%) Degree
2 3 (9.68%) Network+ Certification
3 2 (6.45%) Security Cleared
4 1 (3.23%) AWS Certification
4 1 (3.23%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (16.13%) GDPR
1 5 (16.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (3.23%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 4 (12.90%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (3.23%) Docker
2 1 (3.23%) Tivoli Directory Server
2 1 (3.23%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (3.23%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 15 (48.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (22.58%) SCCM
3 5 (16.13%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (9.68%) Jamf Pro
5 2 (6.45%) CA Single Sign-On
5 2 (6.45%) CA Wily
6 1 (3.23%) Ansible
6 1 (3.23%) Kubernetes
6 1 (3.23%) Progress Chef
6 1 (3.23%) Terraform
6 1 (3.23%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 22 (70.97%) Microsoft
2 7 (22.58%) Citrix
3 5 (16.13%) VMware
4 3 (9.68%) Cisco
4 3 (9.68%) Google
4 3 (9.68%) IBM
4 3 (9.68%) Meraki
5 2 (6.45%) AppDynamics
5 2 (6.45%) Blue Prism
5 2 (6.45%) Broadcom
5 2 (6.45%) Oracle
5 2 (6.45%) Splunk
6 1 (3.23%) Apple
6 1 (3.23%) Ivanti
6 1 (3.23%) QNAP