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 20 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 54 26 30
Rank change year-on-year -28 +4 -12
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 52 61 74
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 3.43% 6.35% 4.69%
As % of the System Software category 30.95% 48.03% 42.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 39 44 63
10th Percentile £181 £158 £208
25th Percentile £213 £200 £282
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £385 £450
Median % change year-on-year +3.90% -14.44% +5.88%
75th Percentile £608 £491 £538
90th Percentile £635 £520 £700
North West median daily rate £328 £350 £375
% change year-on-year -6.43% -6.67% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 4
10th Percentile - - £13.28
25th Percentile - - £15.19
Median hourly rate - £29.00 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year - +61.11% -32.71%
75th Percentile - - £20.75
90th Percentile - - £22.55
North West median hourly rate £58.10 £24.18 £17.39
% change year-on-year +140.28% +39.03% -13.04%

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 168 127 173
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 11.07% 13.23% 10.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 127 86 151
10th Percentile £294 £185 £275
25th Percentile £400 £359 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £458 £480
Median % change year-on-year +2.73% -4.69% -4.00%
75th Percentile £587 £549 £584
90th Percentile £638 £575 £700
North West median daily rate £450 £400 £463
% change year-on-year +12.50% -13.51% -5.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 5
10th Percentile £61.55 - £13.70
25th Percentile £62.00 - £16.25
Median hourly rate £75.00 £29.00 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year +158.62% +48.72% -70.00%
75th Percentile £95.00 - £23.75
90th Percentile - - £47.75
North West median hourly rate £74.26 £24.18 £17.72
% change year-on-year +207.11% +36.46% -59.55%

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 20 March 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 20 March 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
Oldham +1 3 £205 -
Bolton -3 3 - - 3
Ashton-under-Lyne - 1 - -
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 14 (26.92%) SharePoint
2 12 (23.08%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.92%) IIS
Applications
1 3 (5.77%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (3.85%) Chatbot
3 1 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 37 (71.15%) Entra ID
2 35 (67.31%) Azure
3 34 (65.38%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (19.23%) OneDrive
5 9 (17.31%) Power Platform
6 8 (15.38%) PowerApps
7 7 (13.46%) Power Automate
8 6 (11.54%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (7.69%) AWS
10 3 (5.77%) GCP
11 2 (3.85%) Azure AKS
11 2 (3.85%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (3.85%) Azure Functions
11 2 (3.85%) Azure Logic Apps
11 2 (3.85%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (3.85%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (3.85%) Azure Storage
11 2 (3.85%) GitHub
11 2 (3.85%) GitHub Actions
11 2 (3.85%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 6 (11.54%) DNS
1 6 (11.54%) Firewall
2 5 (9.62%) TCP/IP
3 3 (5.77%) SSL
3 3 (5.77%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (3.85%) DHCP
4 2 (3.85%) Kerberos
4 2 (3.85%) LAN
4 2 (3.85%) Network Security
4 2 (3.85%) VPN
4 2 (3.85%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.92%) Power BI
1 1 (1.92%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (3.85%) Git
2 1 (1.92%) JIRA
2 1 (1.92%) MSI
General
1 20 (38.46%) Social Skills
2 10 (19.23%) Public Sector
3 9 (17.31%) Finance
4 5 (9.62%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (7.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 4 (7.69%) Retail
6 3 (5.77%) Banking
6 3 (5.77%) Telecoms
7 2 (3.85%) Legal
7 2 (3.85%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.92%) Military
Job Titles
1 8 (15.38%) Analyst
1 8 (15.38%) Support Engineer
2 7 (13.46%) IT Support
2 7 (13.46%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
3 6 (11.54%) Architect
3 6 (11.54%) Microsoft Engineer
4 5 (9.62%) IT Analyst
4 5 (9.62%) Support Analyst
5 4 (7.69%) 2nd Line Engineer
5 4 (7.69%) 2nd Line Support
5 4 (7.69%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
5 4 (7.69%) Administrator
5 4 (7.69%) IT Support Analyst
6 3 (5.77%) IT Engineer
6 3 (5.77%) IT Support Engineer
6 3 (5.77%) Migration Engineer
6 3 (5.77%) Windows Engineer
7 2 (3.85%) Lead Architect
7 2 (3.85%) Microsoft 365 Administrator
7 2 (3.85%) Vulnerability Management Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (11.54%) LDAP
2 2 (3.85%) ARM Templates
2 2 (3.85%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (3.85%) OAuth
2 2 (3.85%) SAML
3 1 (1.92%) JDBC
3 1 (1.92%) OAuth2
3 1 (1.92%) OpenID
3 1 (1.92%) REST
3 1 (1.92%) SailPoint
3 1 (1.92%) Software Packaging
3 1 (1.92%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 9 (17.31%) Onboarding
2 4 (7.69%) Cloud Security Posture
2 4 (7.69%) Driving Licence
2 4 (7.69%) Security Posture
3 3 (5.77%) Enterprise Software
4 2 (3.85%) AI Agents
4 2 (3.85%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.92%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.92%) Cloud Native
5 1 (1.92%) iPhone
5 1 (1.92%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 24 (46.15%) Windows
2 17 (32.69%) Windows 10
3 4 (7.69%) Linux
3 4 (7.69%) Mac OS
3 4 (7.69%) Unix
4 2 (3.85%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.92%) Apple iOS
5 1 (1.92%) Windows Server 2012
5 1 (1.92%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (1.92%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (26.92%) Identity Access Management
2 12 (23.08%) ITIL
3 10 (19.23%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (13.46%) Data Protection
4 7 (13.46%) Migration
4 7 (13.46%) Zero Trust
5 6 (11.54%) Application Packaging
5 6 (11.54%) Customer Service
5 6 (11.54%) Identity Management
5 6 (11.54%) Knowledge Transfer
5 6 (11.54%) Project Delivery
5 6 (11.54%) Roadmaps
5 6 (11.54%) User Experience
6 5 (9.62%) Analytics
6 5 (9.62%) Business Strategy
6 5 (9.62%) Cloud Security
6 5 (9.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 4 (7.69%) Continuous Improvement
7 4 (7.69%) Kalman Filter
7 4 (7.69%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 17 (32.69%) PowerShell
2 3 (5.77%) Bash
2 3 (5.77%) Bicep
3 2 (3.85%) Python
3 2 (3.85%) SQL
4 1 (1.92%) BeanShell
4 1 (1.92%) Java
Qualifications
1 15 (28.85%) Microsoft Certification
2 9 (17.31%) Degree
3 4 (7.69%) CISSP
3 4 (7.69%) CompTIA Security+
3 4 (7.69%) MCSA
3 4 (7.69%) MCSE
4 3 (5.77%) A+ Certification
4 3 (5.77%) Computer Science Degree
4 3 (5.77%) Network+ Certification
5 2 (3.85%) Azure Certification
5 2 (3.85%) Security Cleared
6 1 (1.92%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (1.92%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (9.62%) GDPR
1 5 (9.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (3.85%) NIST
3 1 (1.92%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (5.77%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (3.85%) Docker
2 2 (3.85%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.92%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 22 (42.31%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (9.62%) SCCM
3 4 (7.69%) CASB
3 4 (7.69%) Nessus
3 4 (7.69%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (5.77%) Jamf Pro
4 3 (5.77%) Terraform
5 2 (3.85%) Kubernetes
6 1 (1.92%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 1 (1.92%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 41 (78.85%) Microsoft
2 4 (7.69%) Citrix
2 4 (7.69%) CyberArk
2 4 (7.69%) Remedy
2 4 (7.69%) Tenable
2 4 (7.69%) VMware
3 3 (5.77%) Cisco
3 3 (5.77%) Google
3 3 (5.77%) Meraki
3 3 (5.77%) Splunk
4 2 (3.85%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.92%) Apple
5 1 (1.92%) Bloomberg
5 1 (1.92%) HP
5 1 (1.92%) Ivanti
5 1 (1.92%) QNAP