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 3 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 26 34
Rank change year-on-year -25 +8 -15
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 60 60 70
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 3.75% 6.36% 4.47%
As % of the System Software category 33.71% 44.12% 43.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 45 41 62
10th Percentile £174 £156 £210
25th Percentile £198 £200 £288
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £385 £450
Median % change year-on-year +3.90% -14.44% +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £488 £575
90th Percentile £632 £510 £700
North West median daily rate £328 £350 £350
% change year-on-year -6.43% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £166.25 - -
Median hourly rate £172.50 £29.00 £12.00
Median % change year-on-year +494.83% +141.67% -40.00%
75th Percentile £178.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
North West median hourly rate £74.26 £24.18 £17.29
% change year-on-year +207.11% +39.89% -10.21%

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 178 136 160
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 11.12% 14.41% 10.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 136 91 140
10th Percentile £213 £200 £275
25th Percentile £373 £363 £359
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £462 £475 £469
Median % change year-on-year -2.74% +1.33% -6.25%
75th Percentile £575 £545 £584
90th Percentile £636 £575 £700
North West median daily rate £450 £400 £450
% change year-on-year +12.43% -11.06% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 2
10th Percentile £61.70 £33.73 £16.93
25th Percentile £67.25 £40.81 £24.31
Median hourly rate £95.00 £55.75 £37.25
Median % change year-on-year +70.40% +49.66% -36.32%
75th Percentile £136.88 £73.81 £50.81
90th Percentile £178.75 £82.78 £58.58
North West median hourly rate £74.26 £29.00 £17.72
% change year-on-year +156.07% +63.66% -33.76%

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 3 April 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 3 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
Bolton -1 5 - - 2
Oldham 0 3 £205 -
Wigan +2 1 £450 +176.92% 1
Salford - 1 £168 - 5
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 16 (26.67%) SharePoint
2 12 (20.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.67%) IIS
Applications
1 5 (8.33%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (3.33%) Chatbot
3 1 (1.67%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 41 (68.33%) Microsoft 365
2 40 (66.67%) Entra ID
3 36 (60.00%) Azure
4 10 (16.67%) OneDrive
5 9 (15.00%) Power Platform
6 8 (13.33%) PowerApps
7 7 (11.67%) Power Automate
8 6 (10.00%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (6.67%) AWS
10 3 (5.00%) GCP
11 2 (3.33%) Azure AKS
11 2 (3.33%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (3.33%) Azure Functions
11 2 (3.33%) Azure Logic Apps
11 2 (3.33%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (3.33%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (3.33%) Azure Storage
11 2 (3.33%) GitHub
11 2 (3.33%) GitHub Actions
11 2 (3.33%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 6 (10.00%) DNS
1 6 (10.00%) Firewall
2 5 (8.33%) TCP/IP
3 3 (5.00%) SSL
3 3 (5.00%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (3.33%) DHCP
4 2 (3.33%) Kerberos
4 2 (3.33%) LAN
4 2 (3.33%) Network Security
4 2 (3.33%) VPN
4 2 (3.33%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.67%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (3.33%) Git
2 1 (1.67%) JIRA
General
1 26 (43.33%) Social Skills
2 9 (15.00%) Finance
3 8 (13.33%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (13.33%) Public Sector
4 6 (10.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 5 (8.33%) Telecoms
6 4 (6.67%) Retail
7 3 (5.00%) Banking
8 2 (3.33%) Legal
8 2 (3.33%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 13 (21.67%) IT Support
1 13 (21.67%) Support Engineer
2 10 (16.67%) Analyst
3 7 (11.67%) IT Analyst
3 7 (11.67%) IT Engineer
3 7 (11.67%) IT Support Engineer
3 7 (11.67%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
3 7 (11.67%) Support Analyst
4 6 (10.00%) 2nd Line Engineer
4 6 (10.00%) 2nd Line Support
4 6 (10.00%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
4 6 (10.00%) Architect
4 6 (10.00%) IT Support Analyst
4 6 (10.00%) Microsoft Engineer
5 4 (6.67%) Administrator
6 3 (5.00%) Migration Engineer
6 3 (5.00%) SailPoint Engineer
6 3 (5.00%) Windows Engineer
7 2 (3.33%) Infrastructure Analyst
7 2 (3.33%) Microsoft 365 Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (10.00%) LDAP
2 3 (5.00%) SailPoint
3 2 (3.33%) ARM Templates
3 2 (3.33%) JDBC
3 2 (3.33%) OAuth
3 2 (3.33%) REST
3 2 (3.33%) SAML
3 2 (3.33%) Web Services
4 1 (1.67%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (1.67%) OAuth2
4 1 (1.67%) OpenID
4 1 (1.67%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 12 (20.00%) Onboarding
2 4 (6.67%) Cloud Security Posture
2 4 (6.67%) Driving Licence
2 4 (6.67%) Security Posture
3 3 (5.00%) Enterprise Software
4 2 (3.33%) AI Agents
4 2 (3.33%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.67%) Cloud Native
5 1 (1.67%) iPhone
5 1 (1.67%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 29 (48.33%) Windows
2 22 (36.67%) Windows 10
3 4 (6.67%) Linux
3 4 (6.67%) Mac OS
3 4 (6.67%) Unix
4 2 (3.33%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.67%) Apple iOS
5 1 (1.67%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (28.33%) ITIL
2 16 (26.67%) Identity Access Management
3 13 (21.67%) Problem-Solving
4 9 (15.00%) Customer Service
5 7 (11.67%) Data Protection
5 7 (11.67%) Identity Management
5 7 (11.67%) Migration
5 7 (11.67%) Roadmaps
5 7 (11.67%) Zero Trust
6 6 (10.00%) Inventory Management
6 6 (10.00%) Kalman Filter
6 6 (10.00%) Knowledge Transfer
6 6 (10.00%) Project Delivery
6 6 (10.00%) User Experience
6 6 (10.00%) Web Filtering
7 5 (8.33%) Business Strategy
7 5 (8.33%) Cloud Security
7 5 (8.33%) Conflict Resolution
7 5 (8.33%) Creative Problem-Solving
7 5 (8.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 16 (26.67%) PowerShell
2 3 (5.00%) Bash
2 3 (5.00%) Bicep
3 2 (3.33%) Python
4 1 (1.67%) BeanShell
4 1 (1.67%) Java
4 1 (1.67%) SQL
Qualifications
1 17 (28.33%) Microsoft Certification
2 11 (18.33%) Degree
3 5 (8.33%) A+ Certification
3 5 (8.33%) Computer Science Degree
3 5 (8.33%) Network+ Certification
4 4 (6.67%) CISSP
4 4 (6.67%) CompTIA Security+
4 4 (6.67%) DBS Check
4 4 (6.67%) MCSA
4 4 (6.67%) MCSE
5 2 (3.33%) Azure Certification
6 1 (1.67%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (8.33%) GDPR
1 5 (8.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (3.33%) NIST
3 1 (1.67%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (5.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (3.33%) Docker
2 2 (3.33%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.67%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 27 (45.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (10.00%) Single Sign-On
3 5 (8.33%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (6.67%) CASB
4 4 (6.67%) Nessus
4 4 (6.67%) SCCM
5 3 (5.00%) Terraform
6 2 (3.33%) Kubernetes
7 1 (1.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (1.67%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 46 (76.67%) Microsoft
2 5 (8.33%) Cisco
2 5 (8.33%) Meraki
3 4 (6.67%) CyberArk
3 4 (6.67%) Remedy
3 4 (6.67%) Tenable
4 3 (5.00%) Citrix
4 3 (5.00%) Google
4 3 (5.00%) Splunk
4 3 (5.00%) VMware
5 2 (3.33%) ServiceNow
6 1 (1.67%) Apple
6 1 (1.67%) Bloomberg
6 1 (1.67%) HP