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 1 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 34 45
Rank change year-on-year -9 +11 -21
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 170 107 93
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.52% 4.91% 3.86%
As % of the System Software category 39.44% 45.34% 41.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 121 65 71
10th Percentile £144 £150 £185
25th Percentile £185 £200 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £285 £334 £413
Median % change year-on-year -14.54% -19.15% +58.65%
75th Percentile £525 £473 £520
90th Percentile £634 £538 £643
England median daily rate £450 £438 £450
% change year-on-year +2.86% -2.78% +12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 0 9
10th Percentile £17.18 - £17.53
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £74.26 - £17.72
75th Percentile £178.75 - £19.18
90th Percentile - - £29.50
England median hourly rate £47.54 £23.00 £17.80
% change year-on-year +106.70% +29.21% -6.32%

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 431 236 226
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 11.46% 10.84% 9.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 280 150 160
10th Percentile £185 £200 £213
25th Percentile £304 £314 £344
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% +11.05%
75th Percentile £573 £538 £600
90th Percentile £640 £627 £670
England median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 1 11
10th Percentile £19.03 - -
25th Percentile £62.75 £76.25 £17.72
Median hourly rate £74.26 £82.50 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.99% +358.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £157.81 £88.75 £30.63
90th Percentile £178.75 - £83.55
England median hourly rate £57.63 £37.50 £22.20
% change year-on-year +53.69% +68.92% -44.50%

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 1 August 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 1 August 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 1 August 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 +14 86 £450 -5.26% 47
Cheshire -12 37 £363 +8.70% 8
Merseyside -7 27 £148 -1.67% 14
Lancashire -5 15 £343 +95.71% 15
Cumbria -12 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 (21.18%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (16.47%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.76%) IIS
Applications
1 10 (5.88%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.76%) Chatbot
2 3 (1.76%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (2.94%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 104 (61.18%) Microsoft 365
2 78 (45.88%) Azure
3 67 (39.41%) Entra ID
4 12 (7.06%) GCP
4 12 (7.06%) Power Platform
5 10 (5.88%) AWS
6 9 (5.29%) OneDrive
6 9 (5.29%) Power Automate
6 9 (5.29%) PowerApps
7 8 (4.71%) Google Workspace
7 8 (4.71%) SaaS
8 7 (4.12%) Google Drive
9 6 (3.53%) Microsoft Copilot
10 5 (2.94%) Azure DevOps
11 4 (2.35%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (2.35%) Mimecast
11 4 (2.35%) Serverless
12 3 (1.76%) Asana
12 3 (1.76%) GitHub
12 3 (1.76%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 28 (16.47%) DNS
2 20 (11.76%) VPN
3 15 (8.82%) TCP/IP
4 13 (7.65%) DHCP
5 12 (7.06%) Firewall
6 6 (3.53%) LAN
6 6 (3.53%) Network Security
6 6 (3.53%) SAN
6 6 (3.53%) VLAN
7 4 (2.35%) SSL
7 4 (2.35%) WAN
7 4 (2.35%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (1.76%) DKIM
8 3 (1.76%) DMARC
8 3 (1.76%) NAS
8 3 (1.76%) WebEx
9 2 (1.18%) BGP
9 2 (1.18%) PABX
9 2 (1.18%) VoIP
9 2 (1.18%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.35%) Power BI
1 4 (2.35%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 10 (5.88%) JIRA
2 2 (1.18%) Git
2 2 (1.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 53 (31.18%) Social Skills
2 28 (16.47%) Legal
3 25 (14.71%) Finance
4 23 (13.53%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (10.59%) Public Sector
6 6 (3.53%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.94%) Banking
8 4 (2.35%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.35%) Games
9 3 (1.76%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.76%) Retail
10 2 (1.18%) Advertising
10 2 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.59%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.59%) Military
Job Titles
1 35 (20.59%) IT Support
2 33 (19.41%) Support Engineer
3 26 (15.29%) Analyst
3 26 (15.29%) IT Engineer
3 26 (15.29%) IT Support Engineer
4 16 (9.41%) Service Analyst
4 16 (9.41%) Service Desk Analyst
5 13 (7.65%) Administrator
6 12 (7.06%) 1st Line Support
7 10 (5.88%) 2nd Line Engineer
7 10 (5.88%) 2nd Line Support
7 10 (5.88%) IT Analyst
8 9 (5.29%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
9 8 (4.71%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 8 (4.71%) Support Analyst
10 7 (4.12%) Architect
10 7 (4.12%) Microsoft Engineer
11 6 (3.53%) 1st/2nd Line Support
11 6 (3.53%) 1st/2nd Line Support Engineer
11 6 (3.53%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.06%) SailPoint
2 9 (5.29%) OAuth
3 8 (4.71%) SAML
4 6 (3.53%) LDAP
5 5 (2.94%) REST
6 4 (2.35%) ARM Templates
7 3 (1.76%) JDBC
7 3 (1.76%) OpenID
7 3 (1.76%) Web Services
7 3 (1.76%) XMPP
8 2 (1.18%) Azure Blueprints
8 2 (1.18%) JSON
8 2 (1.18%) ODBC
8 2 (1.18%) Software Packaging
8 2 (1.18%) XML
9 1 (0.59%) 802.1X
9 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Graph
9 1 (0.59%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 26 (15.29%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.88%) Security Posture
3 8 (4.71%) Driving Licence
3 8 (4.71%) Enterprise Software
4 5 (2.94%) Cloud Security Posture
4 5 (2.94%) Management Information System
4 5 (2.94%) Product Ownership
5 4 (2.35%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (2.35%) Animation
6 3 (1.76%) Cloud Native
6 3 (1.76%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.76%) Fat Client
6 3 (1.76%) Freedom of Information
6 3 (1.76%) PKI
6 3 (1.76%) Thin Client
7 2 (1.18%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.18%) Handset
7 2 (1.18%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.18%) iPhone
7 2 (1.18%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 105 (61.76%) Windows
2 56 (32.94%) Windows 10
3 23 (13.53%) Windows Server
4 11 (6.47%) Linux
5 5 (2.94%) Unix
6 4 (2.35%) Mac OS
6 4 (2.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (1.76%) Android
7 3 (1.76%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (1.18%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.59%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (32.94%) ITIL
2 47 (27.65%) Customer Service
3 38 (22.35%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (16.47%) Identity Access Management
5 26 (15.29%) Continuous Improvement
6 19 (11.18%) Migration
7 17 (10.00%) Service Management
8 16 (9.41%) RBAC
9 15 (8.82%) ITSM
10 12 (7.06%) Infrastructure as Code
10 12 (7.06%) Knowledge Transfer
11 11 (6.47%) Cybersecurity
12 10 (5.88%) Cloud Security
12 10 (5.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 10 (5.88%) Project Delivery
13 9 (5.29%) CI/CD
13 9 (5.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 9 (5.29%) Ticket Management
14 8 (4.71%) High Availability
14 8 (4.71%) Identity Management
Programming Languages
1 24 (14.12%) PowerShell
2 9 (5.29%) Bicep
2 9 (5.29%) Python
3 4 (2.35%) Bash
3 4 (2.35%) Java
3 4 (2.35%) SQL
4 2 (1.18%) BeanShell
4 2 (1.18%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.59%) Lisp
5 1 (0.59%) Perl
Qualifications
1 29 (17.06%) Security Cleared
2 23 (13.53%) SC Cleared
3 21 (12.35%) Microsoft Certification
4 15 (8.82%) Degree
5 7 (4.12%) A+ Certification
5 7 (4.12%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (3.53%) Azure Certification
6 6 (3.53%) CISSP
6 6 (3.53%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (3.53%) MCSE
6 6 (3.53%) Network+ Certification
7 5 (2.94%) CompTIA Security+
7 5 (2.94%) DBS Check
7 5 (2.94%) ITIL Certification
7 5 (2.94%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 5 (2.94%) MCSA
8 3 (1.76%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (1.18%) AWS Certification
9 2 (1.18%) CCNA
9 2 (1.18%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.47%) SLA
2 7 (4.12%) NIST
3 4 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.76%) GDPR
5 1 (0.59%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 6 (3.53%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (2.94%) Docker
2 5 (2.94%) Virtual Machines
3 4 (2.35%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.18%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.59%) Microsoft App-V
5 1 (0.59%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 36 (21.18%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (9.41%) SCCM
3 15 (8.82%) Single Sign-On
4 11 (6.47%) Terraform
5 7 (4.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (2.94%) CASB
6 5 (2.94%) Kubernetes
6 5 (2.94%) Nessus
7 4 (2.35%) Ansible
8 3 (1.76%) McAfee ePO
8 3 (1.76%) WSUS
9 2 (1.18%) AirWatch
9 2 (1.18%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (1.18%) Progress Chef
9 2 (1.18%) vCenter Server
9 2 (1.18%) WMI
10 1 (0.59%) Backup Exec
10 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Clustering
10 1 (0.59%) NetApp OnCommand
10 1 (0.59%) vMotion
Vendors
1 125 (73.53%) Microsoft
2 44 (25.88%) ServiceNow
3 17 (10.00%) iManage
4 12 (7.06%) Bomgar
5 11 (6.47%) Google
6 10 (5.88%) BeyondTrust
6 10 (5.88%) CyberArk
6 10 (5.88%) Remedy
7 9 (5.29%) VMware
8 7 (4.12%) Cisco
9 6 (3.53%) Citrix
10 5 (2.94%) Okta
10 5 (2.94%) Perforce
10 5 (2.94%) Tenable
11 4 (2.35%) Red Hat
11 4 (2.35%) Sophos
11 4 (2.35%) Splunk
12 3 (1.76%) McAfee
13 2 (1.18%) Bloomberg
13 2 (1.18%) HP