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 13 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 64 50
Rank change year-on-year +13 -14 -30
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 83 22 35
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 4.12% 2.18% 2.97%
As % of the System Software category 36.56% 22.00% 31.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 16 32
10th Percentile £190 £200 £191
25th Percentile £200 £205 £226
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £438 £450
Median % change year-on-year +2.74% -2.67% +28.57%
75th Percentile £525 £506 £500
90th Percentile £540 £594 £642
North West median daily rate £325 £305 £438
% change year-on-year +6.56% -30.29% +35.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £166.25 - £29.50
Median hourly rate £172.50 £20.00 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +762.50% -35.48% +67.57%
75th Percentile £178.75 - £32.50
90th Percentile - - -
North West median hourly rate £172.50 £17.75 £20.64
% change year-on-year +871.83% -13.98% +11.54%

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 227 100 112
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 11.25% 9.92% 9.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 143 73 76
10th Percentile £194 £312 £221
25th Percentile £400 £402 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £477 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.42% -5.00% +14.29%
75th Percentile £545 £575 £588
90th Percentile £648 £650 £666
North West median daily rate £447 £435 £500
% change year-on-year +2.76% -13.00% +13.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 1 1
10th Percentile £65.60 - -
25th Percentile £71.00 - £29.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £20.00 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +285.00% -35.48% +69.86%
75th Percentile £91.25 - £32.50
90th Percentile £170.38 - -
North West median hourly rate £77.00 £18.31 £23.14
% change year-on-year +320.54% -20.86% +25.05%

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 13 October 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 13 October 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 +2 2 £160 - 3
Rochdale - 2 - -
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 13 (15.66%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (14.46%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.20%) Exchange Server 2010
3 1 (1.20%) IIS
3 1 (1.20%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 5 (6.02%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 46 (55.42%) Microsoft 365
2 42 (50.60%) Entra ID
3 33 (39.76%) Azure
4 9 (10.84%) GCP
5 8 (9.64%) Google Workspace
5 8 (9.64%) SaaS
6 7 (8.43%) AWS
6 7 (8.43%) Google Drive
7 3 (3.61%) Asana
7 3 (3.61%) OneDrive
7 3 (3.61%) Power Platform
8 2 (2.41%) IaaS
9 1 (1.20%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (1.20%) Microsoft Purview
9 1 (1.20%) OCI
9 1 (1.20%) PaaS
9 1 (1.20%) Power Automate
9 1 (1.20%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 11 (13.25%) DNS
2 9 (10.84%) VPN
3 6 (7.23%) VLAN
4 5 (6.02%) SAN
5 4 (4.82%) DHCP
5 4 (4.82%) NAS
6 3 (3.61%) DKIM
6 3 (3.61%) DMARC
6 3 (3.61%) Firewall
6 3 (3.61%) LAN
7 2 (2.41%) PABX
7 2 (2.41%) VoIP
7 2 (2.41%) WAN
8 1 (1.20%) BGP
8 1 (1.20%) Kerberos
8 1 (1.20%) OSPF
8 1 (1.20%) TCP/IP
8 1 (1.20%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (1.20%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.82%) SQL Server
2 2 (2.41%) Power BI
3 1 (1.20%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 5 (6.02%) JIRA
2 3 (3.61%) MSI
3 2 (2.41%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 32 (38.55%) Social Skills
2 13 (15.66%) Finance
3 10 (12.05%) Public Sector
4 9 (10.84%) Documentation Skills
5 7 (8.43%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (8.43%) Legal
6 5 (6.02%) Games
7 3 (3.61%) Military
7 3 (3.61%) Telecoms
8 2 (2.41%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (1.20%) Banking
Job Titles
1 23 (27.71%) Support Engineer
2 17 (20.48%) IT Support
3 12 (14.46%) IT Engineer
3 12 (14.46%) IT Support Engineer
4 10 (12.05%) Administrator
5 8 (9.64%) Applications Packager
6 7 (8.43%) Systems Engineer
7 5 (6.02%) Desktop Engineer
7 5 (6.02%) Desktop Support
7 5 (6.02%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 4 (4.82%) Analyst
9 3 (3.61%) Consultant
9 3 (3.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 3 (3.61%) IT Analyst
9 3 (3.61%) IT Support Analyst
9 3 (3.61%) Support Analyst
10 2 (2.41%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 2 (2.41%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
10 2 (2.41%) IT Assistant
10 2 (2.41%) IT Support Assistant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (10.84%) SAML
2 4 (4.82%) SailPoint
2 4 (4.82%) Terraform
3 3 (3.61%) OAuth
4 2 (2.41%) JSON
4 2 (2.41%) Microsoft Graph
4 2 (2.41%) ODBC
5 1 (1.20%) .NET
5 1 (1.20%) JDBC
5 1 (1.20%) LDAP
5 1 (1.20%) REST
5 1 (1.20%) Software Packaging
5 1 (1.20%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 17 (20.48%) Onboarding
2 6 (7.23%) PKI
3 5 (6.02%) Animation
4 3 (3.61%) Enterprise Software
4 3 (3.61%) Freedom of Information
4 3 (3.61%) Management Information System
5 2 (2.41%) Driving Licence
5 2 (2.41%) Handset
5 2 (2.41%) Legacy Applications
5 2 (2.41%) Replication
6 1 (1.20%) Clustering
6 1 (1.20%) Data Centre
6 1 (1.20%) Enterprise Storage
6 1 (1.20%) Fat Client
6 1 (1.20%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (1.20%) iPhone
6 1 (1.20%) Thin Client
6 1 (1.20%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 43 (51.81%) Windows
2 22 (26.51%) Windows 10
3 17 (20.48%) Windows Server
4 6 (7.23%) Apple iOS
5 5 (6.02%) Android
6 4 (4.82%) Linux
7 3 (3.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (3.61%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (2.41%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (2.41%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (1.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (36.14%) ITIL
2 19 (22.89%) Problem-Solving
3 14 (16.87%) RBAC
4 13 (15.66%) Migration
5 11 (13.25%) Privileged Access Management
6 10 (12.05%) Continuous Improvement
6 10 (12.05%) Knowledge Transfer
7 9 (10.84%) Application Packaging
7 9 (10.84%) Customer Service
7 9 (10.84%) Identity Access Management
7 9 (10.84%) Root Cause Analysis
7 9 (10.84%) User Experience
8 8 (9.64%) Disaster Recovery
8 8 (9.64%) Infrastructure as Code
8 8 (9.64%) Service Management
8 8 (9.64%) Technical Leadership
9 7 (8.43%) Cloud Operations
9 7 (8.43%) Multi-Factor Authentication
10 6 (7.23%) Deployment Automation
10 6 (7.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 16 (19.28%) PowerShell
2 4 (4.82%) Python
3 3 (3.61%) SQL
4 2 (2.41%) Bicep
4 2 (2.41%) T-SQL
5 1 (1.20%) Bash
5 1 (1.20%) BeanShell
5 1 (1.20%) C#
5 1 (1.20%) Java
Qualifications
1 18 (21.69%) Security Cleared
2 9 (10.84%) SC Cleared
3 8 (9.64%) BPSS Clearance
4 4 (4.82%) Degree
5 3 (3.61%) A+ Certification
5 3 (3.61%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (3.61%) DBS Check
5 3 (3.61%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (3.61%) Network+ Certification
6 1 (1.20%) CCNA
6 1 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (1.20%) DV Cleared
6 1 (1.20%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (1.20%) PMI Certification
6 1 (1.20%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (3.61%) NIST
1 3 (3.61%) SLA
2 2 (2.41%) QA
3 1 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (1.20%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 6 (7.23%) Virtual Desktop
1 6 (7.23%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (4.82%) Hyper-V
3 2 (2.41%) Microsoft App-V
4 1 (1.20%) Docker
Systems Management
1 21 (25.30%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (19.28%) Single Sign-On
3 11 (13.25%) SCCM
4 2 (2.41%) Ansible
5 1 (1.20%) AirWatch
5 1 (1.20%) Data Guard
5 1 (1.20%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (1.20%) Kubernetes
5 1 (1.20%) PaperCut
5 1 (1.20%) WSUS
Vendors
1 63 (75.90%) Microsoft
2 19 (22.89%) BeyondTrust
3 9 (10.84%) Google
4 7 (8.43%) Okta
5 6 (7.23%) Apple
5 6 (7.23%) Perforce
5 6 (7.23%) VMware
6 5 (6.02%) Tanium
7 3 (3.61%) Citrix
7 3 (3.61%) ServiceNow
8 2 (2.41%) CyberArk
8 2 (2.41%) HP
8 2 (2.41%) Ivanti
8 2 (2.41%) Juniper
8 2 (2.41%) Red Hat
9 1 (1.20%) Bloomberg
9 1 (1.20%) Dell
9 1 (1.20%) Fortinet
9 1 (1.20%) Oracle
9 1 (1.20%) Rapid7