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 15 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 42 34 21
Rank change year-on-year -8 -13 -6
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 123 111 197
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.06% 4.68% 7.12%
As % of the System Software category 37.50% 43.02% 51.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 78 59 149
10th Percentile £146 £161 £175
25th Percentile £193 £191 £206
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £342 £400 £302
Median % change year-on-year -14.56% +32.45% -7.08%
75th Percentile £491 £500 £425
90th Percentile £550 £628 £542
England median daily rate £450 £425 £400
% change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 10 19
10th Percentile - £16.73 £16.25
25th Percentile £15.50 £17.44 £17.61
Median hourly rate £18.87 £22.09 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.58% +19.41% -5.13%
75th Percentile £36.46 £24.18 £20.63
90th Percentile £74.26 £29.35 £34.38
England median hourly rate £22.00 £23.80 £19.50
% change year-on-year -7.56% +22.05% +4.00%

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 328 258 384
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.49% 10.88% 13.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 209 146 294
10th Percentile £200 £191 £200
25th Percentile £325 £376 £270
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £495 £450
Median % change year-on-year -14.10% +9.94% +5.14%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £538
90th Percentile £640 £640 £645
England median daily rate £500 £515 £500
% change year-on-year -2.91% +3.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 11 31
10th Percentile - £17.00 £15.75
25th Percentile £15.50 £17.44 £16.27
Median hourly rate £18.94 £22.09 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -14.28% +16.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £69.00 £26.59 £44.49
90th Percentile £74.26 £32.50 £63.75
England median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £43.84
% change year-on-year -40.00% +14.06% +78.02%

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 15 November 2025.

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 15 November 2025.

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 15 November 2025. 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
Cheshire +8 59 £305 -35.79% 14
Manchester -15 29 £400 -11.11% 41
Lancashire +2 18 £550 +120.00% 25
Merseyside -10 15 £145 -17.43% 7
Cumbria +3 2 £513 - 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 33 (26.83%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (23.58%) SharePoint
3 14 (11.38%) JBoss
4 12 (9.76%) IIS
5 11 (8.94%) Apache
5 11 (8.94%) WebSphere
6 10 (8.13%) iPlanet
6 10 (8.13%) Skype for Business
6 10 (8.13%) WebSphere Application Server
7 7 (5.69%) Exchange Server 2013
8 5 (4.07%) Exchange Server 2010
9 2 (1.63%) Mattermost
10 1 (0.81%) Confluence
10 1 (0.81%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 11 (8.94%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (5.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (5.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (5.69%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 67 (54.47%) Microsoft 365
2 47 (38.21%) Azure
3 29 (23.58%) Entra ID
4 22 (17.89%) AWS
5 16 (13.01%) OneDrive
6 12 (9.76%) OpenShift
7 8 (6.50%) SaaS
8 5 (4.07%) Power Platform
9 4 (3.25%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (2.44%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (2.44%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (1.63%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (1.63%) GCP
12 1 (0.81%) Azure Stack
12 1 (0.81%) Google Workspace
12 1 (0.81%) IaaS
12 1 (0.81%) Nutanix
12 1 (0.81%) PaaS
12 1 (0.81%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 17 (13.82%) DNS
2 15 (12.20%) Firewall
3 11 (8.94%) WebEx
4 10 (8.13%) Kerberos
4 10 (8.13%) Skype
5 9 (7.32%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (6.50%) TCP/IP
6 8 (6.50%) Unified Communications
7 7 (5.69%) Internet
8 6 (4.88%) VLAN
9 4 (3.25%) SSL
9 4 (3.25%) VPN
9 4 (3.25%) WAN
10 3 (2.44%) BGP
10 3 (2.44%) LAN
10 3 (2.44%) Remote Desktop
10 3 (2.44%) SAN
10 3 (2.44%) Software-Defined Networking
11 2 (1.63%) iSCSI
11 2 (1.63%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (8.13%) Oracle Database
2 4 (3.25%) RDBMS
2 4 (3.25%) Relational Database
3 3 (2.44%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (1.63%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 14 (11.38%) Git
1 14 (11.38%) Jenkins
2 13 (10.57%) Bitbucket Server
2 13 (10.57%) CA Release Automation
3 12 (9.76%) Sonatype Nexus
4 5 (4.07%) JIRA
5 4 (3.25%) SonarQube
5 4 (3.25%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.81%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.81%) MSI
General
1 57 (46.34%) Social Skills
2 17 (13.82%) Finance
3 16 (13.01%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (9.76%) Legal
5 8 (6.50%) Public Sector
6 6 (4.88%) Manufacturing
7 5 (4.07%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (3.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (2.44%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (2.44%) Japanese Language
9 3 (2.44%) Military
10 2 (1.63%) Banking
10 2 (1.63%) Retail
11 1 (0.81%) Automotive
11 1 (0.81%) Electronics
11 1 (0.81%) Italian Language
11 1 (0.81%) Marketing
11 1 (0.81%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.81%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.81%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 29 (23.58%) Support Engineer
2 21 (17.07%) IT Support
3 17 (13.82%) Analyst
4 14 (11.38%) IT Engineer
5 13 (10.57%) IT Support Engineer
6 12 (9.76%) Senior
6 12 (9.76%) Support Analyst
6 12 (9.76%) Support Technician
7 11 (8.94%) IT Technician
7 11 (8.94%) Platform Engineer
8 10 (8.13%) 2nd Line Support
8 10 (8.13%) Operations Analyst
9 9 (7.32%) Operational Support Analyst
9 9 (7.32%) Operations Support Analyst
10 8 (6.50%) Desktop Engineer
10 8 (6.50%) DevOps Engineer
11 7 (5.69%) IT Support Technician
12 6 (4.88%) Desktop Support Engineer
12 6 (4.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 6 (4.88%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (11.38%) LDAP
2 12 (9.76%) OAuth
2 12 (9.76%) SAML
3 11 (8.94%) OpenID
4 10 (8.13%) XMPP
5 4 (3.25%) Elastic Stack
5 4 (3.25%) Spring Boot
6 3 (2.44%) JSON
7 2 (1.63%) Middleware
8 1 (0.81%) 802.1X
8 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.81%) OAuth2
8 1 (0.81%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 12 (9.76%) Onboarding
2 11 (8.94%) Product Ownership
3 9 (7.32%) Data Centre
4 8 (6.50%) Enterprise Software
5 6 (4.88%) Driving Licence
5 6 (4.88%) Video Conferencing
6 5 (4.07%) Low-Code
7 3 (2.44%) Cloud Security Posture
7 3 (2.44%) Clustering
7 3 (2.44%) Replication
7 3 (2.44%) Security Posture
8 2 (1.63%) CMDB
8 2 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.63%) Fat Client
8 2 (1.63%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (1.63%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.63%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.63%) Thin Client
9 1 (0.81%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.81%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 82 (66.67%) Windows
2 30 (24.39%) Linux
3 29 (23.58%) Windows Server
4 13 (10.57%) Windows 10
5 12 (9.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (9.76%) Unix
6 8 (6.50%) Apple iOS
7 4 (3.25%) Android
8 3 (2.44%) Mac OS
9 2 (1.63%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.81%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.81%) Windows 8
10 1 (0.81%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (20.33%) Customer Service
2 24 (19.51%) Problem-Solving
3 23 (18.70%) Migration
4 18 (14.63%) Cybersecurity
4 18 (14.63%) Identity Access Management
4 18 (14.63%) Problem Management
5 17 (13.82%) ITIL
6 14 (11.38%) DevOps
7 13 (10.57%) CI/CD
7 13 (10.57%) Validation
8 12 (9.76%) ITSM
8 12 (9.76%) Platform Engineering
8 12 (9.76%) Service Delivery
9 9 (7.32%) Stakeholder Management
9 9 (7.32%) Ticket Management
10 8 (6.50%) Change Control
10 8 (6.50%) Continuous Improvement
10 8 (6.50%) Deployment Automation
10 8 (6.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 7 (5.69%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 25 (20.33%) PowerShell
2 13 (10.57%) Python
3 12 (9.76%) Perl
4 10 (8.13%) Groovy
5 8 (6.50%) Bash
5 8 (6.50%) Shell Script
6 4 (3.25%) SQL
7 3 (2.44%) Java
7 3 (2.44%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 24 (19.51%) Security Cleared
2 22 (17.89%) Degree
3 16 (13.01%) SC Cleared
4 7 (5.69%) BPSS Clearance
4 7 (5.69%) CCDP
4 7 (5.69%) CCNA
4 7 (5.69%) CCNP
4 7 (5.69%) Cisco Certification
4 7 (5.69%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (4.07%) AWS Certification
5 5 (4.07%) DBS Check
6 4 (3.25%) Azure Certification
6 4 (3.25%) CISSP
6 4 (3.25%) CompTIA Security+
7 3 (2.44%) MCSA
7 3 (2.44%) MCSE
8 2 (1.63%) A+ Certification
8 2 (1.63%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.81%) CISM
9 1 (0.81%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.44%) GDPR
1 3 (2.44%) NIST
2 2 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (1.63%) SLA
3 1 (0.81%) HIPAA
3 1 (0.81%) NCSC
3 1 (0.81%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 12 (9.76%) Docker
2 8 (6.50%) Tivoli Directory Server
3 7 (5.69%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.63%) Virtual Servers
5 1 (0.81%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.81%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 32 (26.02%) Microsoft Intune
2 26 (21.14%) SCCM
3 12 (9.76%) Progress Chef
4 10 (8.13%) CA Single Sign-On
4 10 (8.13%) CA Wily
5 9 (7.32%) Single Sign-On
6 8 (6.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 8 (6.50%) Tivoli
7 6 (4.88%) Jamf Pro
8 5 (4.07%) Kubernetes
9 4 (3.25%) Kibana
10 3 (2.44%) CASB
10 3 (2.44%) Nessus
10 3 (2.44%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (1.63%) SCOM
12 1 (0.81%) Ansible
12 1 (0.81%) Terraform
Vendors
1 88 (71.54%) Microsoft
2 21 (17.07%) ServiceNow
3 19 (15.45%) Splunk
4 17 (13.82%) Cisco
5 16 (13.01%) Citrix
6 14 (11.38%) AppDynamics
6 14 (11.38%) Red Hat
6 14 (11.38%) VMware
7 12 (9.76%) IBM
8 11 (8.94%) Oracle
9 10 (8.13%) Broadcom
10 6 (4.88%) Remedy
11 5 (4.07%) Meraki
12 4 (3.25%) Apple
12 4 (3.25%) Cloudera
13 3 (2.44%) CyberArk
13 3 (2.44%) LogRhythm
13 3 (2.44%) Tenable
13 3 (2.44%) Zscaler
14 2 (1.63%) Veeam