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

6 months to
6 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 42 36 21
Rank change year-on-year -6 -15 -7
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 117 107 194
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.88% 4.52% 7.06%
As % of the System Software category 38.49% 42.97% 48.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 73 58 145
10th Percentile £146 £171 £172
25th Percentile £200 £206 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £438 £270
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +62.04% -16.92%
75th Percentile £500 £500 £420
90th Percentile £550 £638 £533
England median daily rate £438 £425 £400
% change year-on-year +2.94% +6.25% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 9 20
10th Percentile - £16.45 £16.25
25th Percentile £15.50 £17.44 £17.16
Median hourly rate £18.87 £22.09 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.58% +19.41% -5.13%
75th Percentile £20.00 £24.18 £20.19
90th Percentile £67.80 £25.84 £32.81
England median hourly rate £22.00 £23.80 £19.50
% change year-on-year -7.56% +22.05% +5.41%

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 304 249 403
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.68% 10.52% 14.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 193 142 301
10th Percentile £201 £205 £200
25th Percentile £339 £389 £270
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £435 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -13.00% +11.11% +5.14%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £538
90th Percentile £650 £643 £644
England median daily rate £500 £515 £500
% change year-on-year -2.91% +3.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 10 33
10th Percentile - £16.73 £15.75
25th Percentile £15.50 £17.44 £16.25
Median hourly rate £18.87 £22.09 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.58% +19.41% -7.50%
75th Percentile £54.60 £24.18 £43.10
90th Percentile £74.26 £37.00 £60.57
England median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -40.00% +14.29% +86.17%

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 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 6 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 6 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 +6 61 £315 -33.68% 29
Manchester -21 27 £403 -10.56% 66
Lancashire +7 17 £550 +120.00% 42
Merseyside -14 10 £138 -26.67% 9
Cumbria +1 2 £513 - 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 32 (27.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (23.93%) SharePoint
3 14 (11.97%) JBoss
4 13 (11.11%) IIS
5 11 (9.40%) Apache
5 11 (9.40%) Skype for Business
5 11 (9.40%) WebSphere
6 10 (8.55%) iPlanet
6 10 (8.55%) WebSphere Application Server
7 7 (5.98%) Exchange Server 2013
8 5 (4.27%) Exchange Server 2010
9 3 (2.56%) Mattermost
10 1 (0.85%) Confluence
10 1 (0.85%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 11 (9.40%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (5.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (5.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (5.98%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 61 (52.14%) Microsoft 365
2 45 (38.46%) Azure
3 26 (22.22%) Entra ID
4 22 (18.80%) AWS
5 15 (12.82%) OneDrive
6 12 (10.26%) OpenShift
7 8 (6.84%) SaaS
8 5 (4.27%) Power Platform
9 4 (3.42%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (2.56%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (2.56%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (1.71%) GCP
12 1 (0.85%) Azure Stack
12 1 (0.85%) Cloud Computing
12 1 (0.85%) Google Workspace
12 1 (0.85%) IaaS
12 1 (0.85%) Nutanix
12 1 (0.85%) PaaS
12 1 (0.85%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 17 (14.53%) DNS
2 15 (12.82%) Firewall
3 11 (9.40%) Skype
3 11 (9.40%) WebEx
4 10 (8.55%) Kerberos
5 9 (7.69%) Unified Communications
5 9 (7.69%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (6.84%) TCP/IP
7 7 (5.98%) Internet
8 6 (5.13%) VLAN
9 5 (4.27%) VPN
10 4 (3.42%) SSL
10 4 (3.42%) WAN
11 3 (2.56%) BGP
11 3 (2.56%) DHCP
11 3 (2.56%) LAN
11 3 (2.56%) Remote Desktop
11 3 (2.56%) SAN
11 3 (2.56%) Softphone
11 3 (2.56%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (8.55%) Oracle Database
2 4 (3.42%) RDBMS
2 4 (3.42%) Relational Database
3 3 (2.56%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (1.71%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 14 (11.97%) Git
1 14 (11.97%) Jenkins
2 13 (11.11%) Bitbucket Server
2 13 (11.11%) CA Release Automation
3 12 (10.26%) Sonatype Nexus
4 5 (4.27%) JIRA
5 4 (3.42%) SonarQube
5 4 (3.42%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.85%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.85%) MSI
General
1 54 (46.15%) Social Skills
2 17 (14.53%) Finance
3 16 (13.68%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (9.40%) Legal
5 9 (7.69%) Public Sector
6 6 (5.13%) Manufacturing
6 6 (5.13%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (2.56%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (2.56%) Japanese Language
7 3 (2.56%) Military
8 2 (1.71%) Banking
9 1 (0.85%) Automotive
9 1 (0.85%) Electronics
9 1 (0.85%) Italian Language
9 1 (0.85%) Marketing
9 1 (0.85%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.85%) Polish Language
9 1 (0.85%) Retail
9 1 (0.85%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 27 (23.08%) Support Engineer
2 19 (16.24%) IT Support
3 18 (15.38%) Analyst
4 13 (11.11%) IT Engineer
4 13 (11.11%) Support Analyst
5 12 (10.26%) Senior
5 12 (10.26%) Support Technician
6 11 (9.40%) IT Support Engineer
6 11 (9.40%) Operations Analyst
6 11 (9.40%) Platform Engineer
7 10 (8.55%) 2nd Line Support
7 10 (8.55%) IT Technician
7 10 (8.55%) Operational Support Analyst
7 10 (8.55%) Operations Support Analyst
8 8 (6.84%) Desktop Engineer
8 8 (6.84%) DevOps Engineer
9 7 (5.98%) IT Support Technician
10 6 (5.13%) Desktop Support Engineer
10 6 (5.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 6 (5.13%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (11.97%) LDAP
2 12 (10.26%) OAuth
2 12 (10.26%) SAML
3 11 (9.40%) OpenID
4 10 (8.55%) XMPP
5 4 (3.42%) Elastic Stack
5 4 (3.42%) Spring Boot
6 3 (2.56%) JSON
7 2 (1.71%) Middleware
8 1 (0.85%) 802.1X
8 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.85%) OAuth2
8 1 (0.85%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 12 (10.26%) Onboarding
2 10 (8.55%) Product Ownership
3 9 (7.69%) Data Centre
4 8 (6.84%) Enterprise Software
5 6 (5.13%) Video Conferencing
6 5 (4.27%) Low-Code
7 3 (2.56%) Cloud Security Posture
7 3 (2.56%) Clustering
7 3 (2.56%) Management Information System
7 3 (2.56%) Replication
7 3 (2.56%) Security Posture
8 2 (1.71%) CMDB
8 2 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.71%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (1.71%) Private Cloud
9 1 (0.85%) Cloud Native
9 1 (0.85%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.85%) Driving Licence
9 1 (0.85%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.85%) IBM XIV
Operating Systems
1 79 (67.52%) Windows
2 31 (26.50%) Linux
2 31 (26.50%) Windows Server
3 14 (11.97%) Windows 10
4 12 (10.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 12 (10.26%) Unix
5 8 (6.84%) Apple iOS
6 4 (3.42%) Android
7 3 (2.56%) Mac OS
7 3 (2.56%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (1.71%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.85%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.85%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.85%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (20.51%) Problem-Solving
2 22 (18.80%) Migration
3 21 (17.95%) Customer Service
3 21 (17.95%) ITIL
4 19 (16.24%) Problem Management
5 18 (15.38%) Cybersecurity
6 17 (14.53%) Identity Access Management
7 14 (11.97%) DevOps
8 13 (11.11%) CI/CD
8 13 (11.11%) Validation
9 12 (10.26%) ITSM
9 12 (10.26%) Service Delivery
10 11 (9.40%) Platform Engineering
11 9 (7.69%) Stakeholder Management
11 9 (7.69%) Ticket Management
12 8 (6.84%) Change Control
12 8 (6.84%) Continuous Improvement
12 8 (6.84%) Deployment Automation
12 8 (6.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 7 (5.98%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 24 (20.51%) PowerShell
2 13 (11.11%) Python
3 12 (10.26%) Perl
4 10 (8.55%) Groovy
5 8 (6.84%) Bash
5 8 (6.84%) Shell Script
6 5 (4.27%) SQL
7 3 (2.56%) Java
7 3 (2.56%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 24 (20.51%) Security Cleared
2 23 (19.66%) Degree
3 16 (13.68%) SC Cleared
4 7 (5.98%) CCDP
4 7 (5.98%) CCNA
4 7 (5.98%) CCNP
4 7 (5.98%) Cisco Certification
4 7 (5.98%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (5.13%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (5.13%) DBS Check
6 5 (4.27%) AWS Certification
7 4 (3.42%) Azure Certification
7 4 (3.42%) CISSP
7 4 (3.42%) CompTIA Security+
8 3 (2.56%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (2.56%) MCSA
8 3 (2.56%) MCSE
9 2 (1.71%) A+ Certification
10 1 (0.85%) CISM
10 1 (0.85%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.56%) NIST
1 3 (2.56%) SLA
2 2 (1.71%) GDPR
3 1 (0.85%) HIPAA
3 1 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.85%) NCSC
3 1 (0.85%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 12 (10.26%) Docker
2 8 (6.84%) Tivoli Directory Server
2 8 (6.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.71%) Hyper-V
3 2 (1.71%) Virtual Servers
4 1 (0.85%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.85%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.85%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 30 (25.64%) Microsoft Intune
2 26 (22.22%) SCCM
3 12 (10.26%) Progress Chef
4 10 (8.55%) CA Single Sign-On
4 10 (8.55%) CA Wily
5 8 (6.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 8 (6.84%) Tivoli
6 7 (5.98%) Jamf Pro
6 7 (5.98%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (4.27%) Kubernetes
8 4 (3.42%) Kibana
9 3 (2.56%) CASB
9 3 (2.56%) Nessus
9 3 (2.56%) SCOM
9 3 (2.56%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 1 (0.85%) Ansible
10 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Clustering
10 1 (0.85%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.85%) vMotion
10 1 (0.85%) WSUS
Vendors
1 83 (70.94%) Microsoft
2 21 (17.95%) ServiceNow
3 20 (17.09%) Splunk
4 17 (14.53%) Cisco
5 15 (12.82%) Citrix
5 15 (12.82%) Red Hat
5 15 (12.82%) VMware
6 14 (11.97%) AppDynamics
7 12 (10.26%) IBM
8 11 (9.40%) Oracle
9 10 (8.55%) Broadcom
10 6 (5.13%) Remedy
11 5 (4.27%) Meraki
12 4 (3.42%) Apple
12 4 (3.42%) Cloudera
13 3 (2.56%) CyberArk
13 3 (2.56%) LogRhythm
13 3 (2.56%) Tenable
13 3 (2.56%) Zscaler
14 2 (1.71%) Blue Prism