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

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 23 32
Rank change year-on-year -10 +9 -13
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 165 161 149
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.37% 8.15% 5.30%
As % of the System Software category 37.76% 56.49% 52.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 111 105
10th Percentile £133 £145 £148
25th Percentile £151 £186 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £328 £350 £350
Median % change year-on-year -6.43% - -3.45%
75th Percentile £550 £459 £488
90th Percentile £638 £525 £640
England median daily rate £450 £450 £395
% change year-on-year - +13.92% -7.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 5 20
10th Percentile £17.28 - -
25th Percentile £24.74 £21.05 £15.50
Median hourly rate £58.10 £24.18 £17.39
Median % change year-on-year +140.28% +39.03% -13.04%
75th Percentile £74.26 - £17.83
90th Percentile - £27.07 £19.30
England median hourly rate £22.50 £22.09 £17.72
% change year-on-year +1.86% +24.66% -4.22%

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 437 285 286
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.23% 14.43% 10.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 284 184 214
10th Percentile £140 £156 £182
25th Percentile £326 £250 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £456
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -12.33% -6.41%
75th Percentile £571 £535 £550
90th Percentile £638 £582 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 6 26
10th Percentile £17.92 £21.05 -
25th Percentile £41.94 £21.83 £15.50
Median hourly rate £74.26 £24.18 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +207.11% +36.46% -48.64%
75th Percentile - £27.80 £21.06
90th Percentile £77.50 £53.25 £46.18
England median hourly rate £47.00 £29.00 £22.15
% change year-on-year +62.07% +30.93% -44.63%

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 24 March 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 24 March 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 24 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
Merseyside 0 54 £138 -8.33% 7
Manchester -29 53 £400 +3.90% 44
Cheshire -21 36 £457 +16.28% 14
Lancashire -4 20 £550 +57.14% 31
Cumbria -13 2 £513 -2.38% 4
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 40 (24.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (17.58%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.82%) IIS
4 1 (0.61%) Apache
4 1 (0.61%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 3 (1.82%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.21%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 99 (60.00%) Microsoft 365
2 92 (55.76%) Azure
3 67 (40.61%) Entra ID
4 12 (7.27%) OneDrive
5 11 (6.67%) Power Platform
6 9 (5.45%) AWS
7 8 (4.85%) PowerApps
8 7 (4.24%) Power Automate
9 6 (3.64%) Microsoft Copilot
10 5 (3.03%) Nutanix
11 4 (2.42%) Azure DevOps
11 4 (2.42%) Azure Logic Apps
11 4 (2.42%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (2.42%) Azure Sentinel
11 4 (2.42%) GCP
12 3 (1.82%) Cloud Computing
12 3 (1.82%) GitHub
12 3 (1.82%) GitHub Actions
12 3 (1.82%) SaaS
13 2 (1.21%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 28 (16.97%) Firewall
2 25 (15.15%) DNS
3 14 (8.48%) TCP/IP
4 12 (7.27%) Wi-Fi
5 11 (6.67%) DHCP
6 10 (6.06%) VLAN
6 10 (6.06%) WebEx
7 9 (5.45%) Network Security
8 8 (4.85%) Kerberos
8 8 (4.85%) WAN
9 6 (3.64%) LAN
9 6 (3.64%) NetScaler
10 5 (3.03%) SSL
10 5 (3.03%) VPN
11 4 (2.42%) BGP
11 4 (2.42%) Wireless
12 3 (1.82%) Software-Defined Networking
13 2 (1.21%) Internet
14 1 (0.61%) Cisco ISE
14 1 (0.61%) NGN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.61%) Power BI
1 1 (0.61%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.42%) JIRA
2 3 (1.82%) Git
3 1 (0.61%) MSI
General
1 52 (31.52%) Social Skills
2 29 (17.58%) Legal
3 24 (14.55%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (12.12%) Finance
5 15 (9.09%) Public Sector
6 4 (2.42%) Banking
6 4 (2.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (2.42%) Retail
7 3 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.82%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.21%) Military
8 2 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 31 (18.79%) IT Support
2 27 (16.36%) Analyst
3 23 (13.94%) Support Engineer
4 17 (10.30%) 1st Line Support
4 17 (10.30%) IT Engineer
4 17 (10.30%) IT Support Engineer
4 17 (10.30%) Support Analyst
5 15 (9.09%) IT Analyst
6 14 (8.48%) Architect
7 13 (7.88%) IT Support Analyst
7 13 (7.88%) Platform Engineer
8 11 (6.67%) Administrator
9 8 (4.85%) Deployment Engineer
10 7 (4.24%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
10 7 (4.24%) Microsoft Engineer
11 6 (3.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 6 (3.64%) IT Technician
11 6 (3.64%) Server Engineer
12 5 (3.03%) Service Analyst
12 5 (3.03%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.88%) LDAP
2 10 (6.06%) XMPP
3 3 (1.82%) ARM Templates
3 3 (1.82%) OAuth
3 3 (1.82%) SAML
4 2 (1.21%) JSON
4 2 (1.21%) Microsoft Graph
4 2 (1.21%) OAuth2
4 2 (1.21%) OpenID
4 2 (1.21%) SailPoint
5 1 (0.61%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.61%) JDBC
5 1 (0.61%) REST
5 1 (0.61%) Software Packaging
5 1 (0.61%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 16 (9.70%) Onboarding
2 14 (8.48%) Product Ownership
3 11 (6.67%) Driving Licence
4 6 (3.64%) Clustering
4 6 (3.64%) Security Posture
5 5 (3.03%) Cloud Security Posture
5 5 (3.03%) Data Centre
5 5 (3.03%) Fat Client
5 5 (3.03%) Private Cloud
5 5 (3.03%) Thin Client
6 4 (2.42%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (2.42%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.82%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.82%) PKI
8 2 (1.21%) AI Agents
8 2 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.21%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.61%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.61%) iPhone
9 1 (0.61%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 105 (63.64%) Windows
2 48 (29.09%) Windows 10
3 28 (16.97%) Windows Server
4 18 (10.91%) Linux
5 9 (5.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (5.45%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (3.03%) Unix
6 5 (3.03%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (2.42%) Mac OS
8 2 (1.21%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.61%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (27.88%) Customer Service
2 41 (24.85%) Problem-Solving
3 34 (20.61%) Identity Access Management
4 27 (16.36%) ITIL
5 17 (10.30%) Platform Engineering
6 15 (9.09%) Service Management
7 14 (8.48%) Cybersecurity
8 13 (7.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 12 (7.27%) Continuous Improvement
10 11 (6.67%) Acceptance Criteria
10 11 (6.67%) Disaster Recovery
10 11 (6.67%) Migration
10 11 (6.67%) Project Delivery
10 11 (6.67%) User Stories
11 10 (6.06%) Change Control
11 10 (6.06%) Digital Transformation Programme
11 10 (6.06%) ITSM
11 10 (6.06%) Knowledge Management
11 10 (6.06%) Product Requirements
12 9 (5.45%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 55 (33.33%) PowerShell
2 14 (8.48%) Python
3 12 (7.27%) Bash
4 9 (5.45%) Perl
5 3 (1.82%) Bicep
5 3 (1.82%) SQL
6 2 (1.21%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.61%) BeanShell
7 1 (0.61%) Java
Qualifications
1 29 (17.58%) Security Cleared
2 24 (14.55%) SC Cleared
3 20 (12.12%) Degree
4 16 (9.70%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (4.85%) CCDP
5 8 (4.85%) CCNA
5 8 (4.85%) CCNP
5 8 (4.85%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (4.85%) CISSP
5 8 (4.85%) CompTIA Security+
6 7 (4.24%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (3.03%) Azure Certification
7 5 (3.03%) MCSA
7 5 (3.03%) MCSE
8 3 (1.82%) A+ Certification
8 3 (1.82%) CISM
8 3 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.82%) DBS Check
8 3 (1.82%) Network+ Certification
9 2 (1.21%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.24%) GDPR
1 7 (4.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (2.42%) NIST
3 3 (1.82%) SLA
4 1 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 15 (9.09%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (5.45%) Hyper-V
3 6 (3.64%) Docker
4 5 (3.03%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (3.03%) vSphere
5 3 (1.82%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 32 (19.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (10.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 16 (9.70%) SCCM
4 11 (6.67%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (6.06%) Terraform
6 7 (4.24%) Ansible
7 6 (3.64%) Kubernetes
7 6 (3.64%) Microsoft Clustering
7 6 (3.64%) Nagios
8 5 (3.03%) CASB
8 5 (3.03%) Nessus
9 3 (1.82%) Jamf Pro
10 2 (1.21%) CA Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.61%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 113 (68.48%) Microsoft
2 31 (18.79%) ServiceNow
3 21 (12.73%) VMware
4 20 (12.12%) Citrix
5 16 (9.70%) Bomgar
5 16 (9.70%) iManage
6 15 (9.09%) Cisco
7 9 (5.45%) Red Hat
8 7 (4.24%) SolarWinds
9 6 (3.64%) CyberArk
9 6 (3.64%) Remedy
10 5 (3.03%) Meraki
10 5 (3.03%) Tenable
11 4 (2.42%) F5
11 4 (2.42%) Google
11 4 (2.42%) Splunk
11 4 (2.42%) Veeam
12 2 (1.21%) LogRhythm
12 2 (1.21%) Palo Alto
13 1 (0.61%) Okta