Active Directory Contract Job Trends in the North West

Microsoft Active Directory
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Active Directory skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 32 40
Rank change year-on-year -10 +8 -18
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 168 110 104
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.53% 5.06% 4.13%
As % of the System Software category 38.18% 45.45% 43.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 68 77
10th Percentile £135 £149 £173
25th Percentile £185 £200 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £328 £342 £425
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% -19.59% +41.67%
75th Percentile £538 £473 £515
90th Percentile £639 £538 £643
England median daily rate £450 £450 £450
% change year-on-year - - +8.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 0 13
10th Percentile £17.18 - £15.50
25th Percentile - - £16.25
Median hourly rate £74.26 - £17.72
75th Percentile £178.75 - £18.75
90th Percentile - - £26.84
England median hourly rate £27.44 £23.00 £17.72
% change year-on-year +19.30% +29.80% -9.13%

All System Software Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 440 242 240
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 11.87% 11.13% 9.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 282 154 170
10th Percentile £185 £200 £213
25th Percentile £316 £314 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £596
90th Percentile £643 £622 £670
England median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 1 15
10th Percentile £22.35 - £15.50
25th Percentile £65.00 £76.25 £16.52
Median hourly rate £74.26 £82.50 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -9.99% +365.58% +1.26%
75th Percentile £95.00 £88.75 £23.97
90th Percentile £178.75 - £63.13
England median hourly rate £55.00 £35.57 £22.00
% change year-on-year +54.61% +61.69% -45.00%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Active Directory job vacancy trend in the North West

Active Directory
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Active Directory.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in the North West over the 6 months to 25 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in the North West

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Active Directory.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Active Directory in the North West over the 6 months to 25 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Active Directory in the North West

Active Directory
Contract Job Locations in the North West

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 North West region over the 6 months to 25 July 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
Manchester +9 80 £450 +5.88% 48
Cheshire -4 42 £457 +30.48% 9
Merseyside -4 26 £148 -1.67% 12
Lancashire -4 15 £343 +24.55% 17
Cumbria -13 5 £400 -15.79% 1
Active Directory
England

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 36 (21.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (16.67%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.79%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (5.36%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.79%) Chatbot
3 2 (1.19%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (1.79%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 98 (58.33%) Microsoft 365
2 86 (51.19%) Azure
3 71 (42.26%) Entra ID
4 13 (7.74%) Power Platform
5 12 (7.14%) GCP
6 11 (6.55%) AWS
7 9 (5.36%) OneDrive
7 9 (5.36%) Power Automate
7 9 (5.36%) PowerApps
7 9 (5.36%) SaaS
8 8 (4.76%) Google Workspace
9 7 (4.17%) Google Drive
10 6 (3.57%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (3.57%) Microsoft Copilot
11 5 (2.98%) Azure Monitor
12 4 (2.38%) Mimecast
12 4 (2.38%) Serverless
13 3 (1.79%) Asana
13 3 (1.79%) Azure Logic Apps
13 3 (1.79%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 30 (17.86%) DNS
2 19 (11.31%) Firewall
3 17 (10.12%) VPN
4 16 (9.52%) TCP/IP
5 14 (8.33%) DHCP
6 7 (4.17%) Kerberos
7 6 (3.57%) Network Security
7 6 (3.57%) SAN
8 5 (2.98%) LAN
8 5 (2.98%) VLAN
9 4 (2.38%) SSL
9 4 (2.38%) WAN
9 4 (2.38%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (1.79%) DKIM
10 3 (1.79%) DMARC
10 3 (1.79%) NAS
10 3 (1.79%) WebEx
11 2 (1.19%) BGP
11 2 (1.19%) Wireless
12 1 (0.60%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.38%) Power BI
2 3 (1.79%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (6.55%) JIRA
2 3 (1.79%) Git
3 1 (0.60%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 51 (30.36%) Social Skills
2 28 (16.67%) Legal
3 27 (16.07%) Finance
4 22 (13.10%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (11.90%) Public Sector
6 6 (3.57%) Banking
6 6 (3.57%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.98%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.38%) Games
9 3 (1.79%) Retail
10 2 (1.19%) Advertising
10 2 (1.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.19%) Military
10 2 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.60%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 30 (17.86%) IT Support
2 27 (16.07%) Support Engineer
3 24 (14.29%) Analyst
4 22 (13.10%) IT Engineer
4 22 (13.10%) IT Support Engineer
5 14 (8.33%) Service Analyst
5 14 (8.33%) Service Desk Analyst
6 13 (7.74%) Administrator
7 12 (7.14%) 1st Line Support
8 10 (5.95%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 10 (5.95%) 2nd Line Support
8 10 (5.95%) Architect
8 10 (5.95%) IT Analyst
9 9 (5.36%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
10 8 (4.76%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
10 8 (4.76%) Microsoft Engineer
10 8 (4.76%) Support Analyst
11 6 (3.57%) 1st/2nd Line Support
11 6 (3.57%) 1st/2nd Line Support Engineer
11 6 (3.57%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.14%) LDAP
1 12 (7.14%) SailPoint
2 9 (5.36%) OAuth
3 7 (4.17%) SAML
4 5 (2.98%) ARM Templates
4 5 (2.98%) REST
5 3 (1.79%) JDBC
5 3 (1.79%) JSON
5 3 (1.79%) OpenID
5 3 (1.79%) Web Services
5 3 (1.79%) XMPP
6 2 (1.19%) Azure Blueprints
6 2 (1.19%) Software Packaging
6 2 (1.19%) XML
7 1 (0.60%) 802.1X
7 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.60%) OAuth2
7 1 (0.60%) ODBC
Miscellaneous
1 27 (16.07%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.95%) Security Posture
3 7 (4.17%) Driving Licence
4 6 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
5 5 (2.98%) Cloud Security Posture
5 5 (2.98%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.98%) Product Ownership
6 4 (2.38%) Animation
7 3 (1.79%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.79%) Cloud Native
7 3 (1.79%) Data Centre
7 3 (1.79%) Fat Client
7 3 (1.79%) Freedom of Information
7 3 (1.79%) Thin Client
8 2 (1.19%) AI Agents
8 2 (1.19%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (1.19%) iPhone
8 2 (1.19%) Operational Technology
9 1 (0.60%) PKI
9 1 (0.60%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 99 (58.93%) Windows
2 54 (32.14%) Windows 10
3 22 (13.10%) Windows Server
4 12 (7.14%) Linux
5 5 (2.98%) Unix
6 4 (2.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (2.38%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (1.79%) Android
7 3 (1.79%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.79%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.60%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2003
8 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (34.52%) ITIL
2 42 (25.00%) Customer Service
2 42 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (17.26%) Identity Access Management
4 24 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
5 20 (11.90%) Migration
6 16 (9.52%) Service Management
7 15 (8.93%) RBAC
8 14 (8.33%) ITSM
9 13 (7.74%) Change Management
9 13 (7.74%) Infrastructure as Code
10 12 (7.14%) Cybersecurity
11 11 (6.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 11 (6.55%) Knowledge Transfer
11 11 (6.55%) Project Delivery
12 10 (5.95%) CI/CD
12 10 (5.95%) Cloud Security
13 9 (5.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 9 (5.36%) Ticket Management
13 9 (5.36%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 33 (19.64%) PowerShell
2 9 (5.36%) Bicep
2 9 (5.36%) Python
3 4 (2.38%) Bash
3 4 (2.38%) Java
4 3 (1.79%) SQL
5 2 (1.19%) BeanShell
6 1 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.60%) Lisp
6 1 (0.60%) Perl
6 1 (0.60%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 28 (16.67%) Security Cleared
2 22 (13.10%) SC Cleared
3 21 (12.50%) Microsoft Certification
4 17 (10.12%) Degree
5 7 (4.17%) A+ Certification
5 7 (4.17%) Azure Certification
5 7 (4.17%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (3.57%) CISSP
6 6 (3.57%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (3.57%) MCSE
6 6 (3.57%) Network+ Certification
7 5 (2.98%) CompTIA Security+
7 5 (2.98%) DBS Check
7 5 (2.98%) ITIL Certification
7 5 (2.98%) MCSA
8 3 (1.79%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (1.79%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 2 (1.19%) AWS Certification
9 2 (1.19%) CCNA
9 2 (1.19%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.36%) SLA
2 8 (4.76%) NIST
3 4 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.79%) GDPR
5 1 (0.60%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 7 (4.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (3.57%) Docker
3 5 (2.98%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (2.38%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.79%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.60%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.60%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 35 (20.83%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (10.12%) SCCM
3 14 (8.33%) Single Sign-On
4 12 (7.14%) Terraform
5 10 (5.95%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 6 (3.57%) Kubernetes
7 5 (2.98%) Ansible
7 5 (2.98%) CASB
7 5 (2.98%) Nessus
8 3 (1.79%) McAfee ePO
8 3 (1.79%) WSUS
9 2 (1.19%) AirWatch
9 2 (1.19%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (1.19%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (1.19%) Progress Chef
9 2 (1.19%) vCenter Server
9 2 (1.19%) WMI
10 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Clustering
10 1 (0.60%) NetApp OnCommand
10 1 (0.60%) vMotion
Vendors
1 118 (70.24%) Microsoft
2 40 (23.81%) ServiceNow
3 15 (8.93%) iManage
4 12 (7.14%) Bomgar
5 11 (6.55%) Google
6 10 (5.95%) CyberArk
6 10 (5.95%) VMware
7 8 (4.76%) Remedy
8 7 (4.17%) BeyondTrust
8 7 (4.17%) Cisco
9 6 (3.57%) Citrix
10 5 (2.98%) Perforce
10 5 (2.98%) Tenable
11 4 (2.38%) Red Hat
11 4 (2.38%) Sophos
11 4 (2.38%) Splunk
12 3 (1.79%) McAfee
12 3 (1.79%) Okta
13 2 (1.19%) Meraki
13 2 (1.19%) Thycotic