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 6 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 22 33
Rank change year-on-year -12 +11 -13
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 171 147 139
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.35% 7.48% 5.15%
As % of the System Software category 39.86% 54.04% 54.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 115 100 96
10th Percentile £133 £143 £143
25th Percentile £151 £197 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £300 £350 £350
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% - -
75th Percentile £523 £439 £478
90th Percentile £639 £524 £647
England median daily rate £450 £450 £413
% change year-on-year - +9.09% -2.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 1 20
10th Percentile £17.55 - -
25th Percentile £41.94 - £15.50
Median hourly rate £74.26 £29.00 £17.39
Median % change year-on-year +156.07% +66.74% -9.65%
75th Percentile £178.75 - £17.83
90th Percentile - - £19.19
England median hourly rate £27.50 £21.46 £17.60
% change year-on-year +28.15% +21.97% -7.39%

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 429 272 255
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.41% 13.84% 9.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 280 179 180
10th Percentile £151 £161 £177
25th Percentile £315 £256 £301
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -8.86%
75th Percentile £570 £525 £575
90th Percentile £634 £563 £670
England median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 2 27
10th Percentile £24.40 £33.73 -
25th Percentile £41.94 £40.81 £15.50
Median hourly rate £74.26 £55.75 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +33.20% +214.62% -20.93%
75th Percentile £115.94 £73.81 £35.81
90th Percentile £178.75 £82.78 £46.18
England median hourly rate £57.77 £28.00 £21.00
% change year-on-year +106.30% +33.33% -58.00%

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 6 May 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 6 May 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 6 May 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 -13 70 £413 +8.84% 27
Merseyside +1 51 £140 -6.67% 7
Cheshire -12 36 £508 +38.28% 11
Lancashire -4 14 £285 -18.57% 17
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 (23.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 23 (13.45%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.34%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (5.26%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.17%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 106 (61.99%) Microsoft 365
2 85 (49.71%) Azure
3 63 (36.84%) Entra ID
4 11 (6.43%) AWS
4 11 (6.43%) OneDrive
5 10 (5.85%) Power Platform
6 9 (5.26%) SaaS
7 8 (4.68%) GCP
7 8 (4.68%) PowerApps
8 7 (4.09%) Google Workspace
8 7 (4.09%) Power Automate
9 6 (3.51%) Google Drive
9 6 (3.51%) Microsoft Copilot
10 4 (2.34%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (2.34%) Nutanix
11 3 (1.75%) Azure Logic Apps
11 3 (1.75%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (1.75%) GitHub
11 3 (1.75%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (1.17%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 28 (16.37%) DNS
2 22 (12.87%) Firewall
3 15 (8.77%) TCP/IP
4 13 (7.60%) DHCP
5 9 (5.26%) Network Security
5 9 (5.26%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (4.68%) Kerberos
7 7 (4.09%) VLAN
8 6 (3.51%) LAN
8 6 (3.51%) VPN
8 6 (3.51%) WAN
9 5 (2.92%) SSL
10 4 (2.34%) NetScaler
10 4 (2.34%) WebEx
11 3 (1.75%) Wireless
12 2 (1.17%) DKIM
12 2 (1.17%) DMARC
12 2 (1.17%) Internet
12 2 (1.17%) SAN
13 1 (0.58%) BGP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.58%) Power BI
1 1 (0.58%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (2.92%) JIRA
2 3 (1.75%) Git
General
1 51 (29.82%) Social Skills
2 26 (15.20%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (14.04%) Finance
3 24 (14.04%) Legal
4 22 (12.87%) Public Sector
5 9 (5.26%) Telecoms
6 5 (2.92%) Banking
7 4 (2.34%) Retail
8 3 (1.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.17%) Military
9 2 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.58%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 33 (19.30%) IT Support
2 32 (18.71%) Analyst
3 23 (13.45%) Support Analyst
4 20 (11.70%) IT Analyst
4 20 (11.70%) Support Engineer
5 18 (10.53%) IT Support Analyst
6 17 (9.94%) 1st Line Support
7 15 (8.77%) Administrator
8 14 (8.19%) IT Engineer
8 14 (8.19%) IT Support Engineer
9 13 (7.60%) Architect
10 8 (4.68%) Deployment Engineer
10 8 (4.68%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
10 8 (4.68%) Microsoft Engineer
11 7 (4.09%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 7 (4.09%) 2nd Line Support
12 6 (3.51%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
12 6 (3.51%) IT Technician
12 6 (3.51%) Platform Engineer
12 6 (3.51%) Server Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.60%) LDAP
2 7 (4.09%) SailPoint
3 6 (3.51%) OAuth
4 4 (2.34%) SAML
4 4 (2.34%) XMPP
5 3 (1.75%) ARM Templates
5 3 (1.75%) JDBC
5 3 (1.75%) OpenID
5 3 (1.75%) REST
5 3 (1.75%) Web Services
6 2 (1.17%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.58%) JSON
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.58%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 24 (14.04%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.85%) Driving Licence
3 6 (3.51%) Clustering
3 6 (3.51%) Security Posture
4 5 (2.92%) Cloud Security Posture
4 5 (2.92%) Product Ownership
5 4 (2.34%) Fat Client
5 4 (2.34%) Management Information System
5 4 (2.34%) Private Cloud
5 4 (2.34%) Public Cloud
5 4 (2.34%) Thin Client
6 3 (1.75%) Cyber Threat
6 3 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (1.17%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.17%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.17%) Freedom of Information
7 2 (1.17%) iPhone
7 2 (1.17%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.17%) PKI
8 1 (0.58%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 104 (60.82%) Windows
2 52 (30.41%) Windows 10
3 24 (14.04%) Windows Server
4 11 (6.43%) Linux
5 9 (5.26%) Windows Server 2019
6 7 (4.09%) Windows Server 2012
7 5 (2.92%) Unix
8 4 (2.34%) Mac OS
9 2 (1.17%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.58%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (28.65%) Customer Service
2 38 (22.22%) ITIL
3 36 (21.05%) Problem-Solving
4 30 (17.54%) Identity Access Management
5 16 (9.36%) Migration
6 15 (8.77%) Service Management
7 13 (7.60%) Continuous Improvement
7 13 (7.60%) Cybersecurity
7 13 (7.60%) Project Delivery
8 12 (7.02%) Change Management
9 11 (6.43%) Inventory Management
10 10 (5.85%) Roadmaps
11 9 (5.26%) Conflict Resolution
11 9 (5.26%) DevOps
11 9 (5.26%) Disaster Recovery
11 9 (5.26%) Knowledge Management
11 9 (5.26%) Platform Engineering
11 9 (5.26%) Root Cause Analysis
11 9 (5.26%) Vulnerability Management
11 9 (5.26%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 43 (25.15%) PowerShell
2 6 (3.51%) Python
3 4 (2.34%) Bash
4 3 (1.75%) Bicep
4 3 (1.75%) SQL
5 2 (1.17%) BeanShell
5 2 (1.17%) Java
6 1 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.58%) Perl
Qualifications
1 26 (15.20%) Security Cleared
2 21 (12.28%) Microsoft Certification
2 21 (12.28%) SC Cleared
3 20 (11.70%) Degree
4 10 (5.85%) A+ Certification
5 9 (5.26%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (5.26%) Network+ Certification
6 8 (4.68%) CISSP
6 8 (4.68%) CompTIA Security+
7 6 (3.51%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (3.51%) DBS Check
8 5 (2.92%) MCSA
8 5 (2.92%) MCSE
9 4 (2.34%) Azure Certification
10 3 (1.75%) CISM
10 3 (1.75%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.58%) CCDP
11 1 (0.58%) CCNA
11 1 (0.58%) CCNP
11 1 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (3.51%) GDPR
2 6 (3.51%) NIST
3 5 (2.92%) SLA
4 1 (0.58%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 12 (7.02%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.85%) Hyper-V
3 6 (3.51%) Docker
3 6 (3.51%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (2.92%) vSphere
5 4 (2.34%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.58%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.58%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 34 (19.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (9.36%) SCCM
3 13 (7.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 13 (7.60%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (5.85%) Terraform
5 7 (4.09%) Ansible
5 7 (4.09%) Microsoft Clustering
6 6 (3.51%) Kubernetes
6 6 (3.51%) Nagios
7 5 (2.92%) CASB
7 5 (2.92%) Nessus
8 3 (1.75%) WSUS
9 2 (1.17%) AirWatch
9 2 (1.17%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (1.17%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.58%) NetApp OnCommand
10 1 (0.58%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.58%) vMotion
Vendors
1 111 (64.91%) Microsoft
2 24 (14.04%) ServiceNow
3 17 (9.94%) Bomgar
3 17 (9.94%) iManage
4 15 (8.77%) VMware
5 11 (6.43%) Citrix
6 10 (5.85%) Google
7 8 (4.68%) CyberArk
8 7 (4.09%) Cisco
8 7 (4.09%) SolarWinds
9 6 (3.51%) Remedy
10 5 (2.92%) Tenable
11 4 (2.34%) F5
11 4 (2.34%) Splunk
11 4 (2.34%) Veeam
12 3 (1.75%) Meraki
13 2 (1.17%) BeyondTrust
13 2 (1.17%) Bloomberg
13 2 (1.17%) Tanium
13 2 (1.17%) Thycotic