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

6 months to
7 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 19 25
Rank change year-on-year -13 +6 -8
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 164 172 177
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.70% 8.10% 6.21%
As % of the System Software category 39.23% 55.84% 59.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 112 110 125
10th Percentile £133 £145 £157
25th Percentile £146 £176 £206
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £306 £338 £370
Median % change year-on-year -9.26% -8.78% -1.33%
75th Percentile £509 £471 £475
90th Percentile £630 £538 £601
England median daily rate £450 £450 £380
% change year-on-year - +18.42% -10.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 7 26
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.90 -
25th Percentile £16.38 £19.02 £15.50
Median hourly rate £41.94 £22.09 £17.61
Median % change year-on-year +89.86% +25.44% -11.95%
75th Percentile £74.26 £24.18 £18.00
90th Percentile - £26.11 £19.50
England median hourly rate £22.29 £22.09 £17.80
% change year-on-year +0.91% +24.10% -8.72%

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 418 308 296
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.52% 14.50% 10.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 267 193 222
10th Percentile £135 £156 £179
25th Percentile £325 £250 £305
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £565 £538 £548
90th Percentile £638 £585 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 8 32
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.18 £15.50
25th Percentile £19.75 £20.03 £16.06
Median hourly rate £52.34 £23.14 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +126.25% +30.56% -59.55%
75th Percentile £74.26 £25.39 £20.19
90th Percentile £76.53 £43.55 £45.85
England median hourly rate £34.00 £29.00 £25.06
% change year-on-year +17.24% +15.73% -34.92%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -3 52 £138 -8.33% 5
Cheshire -15 46 £453 +19.53% 20
Manchester -37 43 £400 +3.90% 30
Lancashire -4 21 £550 +83.33% 26
Cumbria -12 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 42 (25.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (18.29%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.05%) IIS
4 4 (2.44%) Apache
5 3 (1.83%) iPlanet
5 3 (1.83%) JBoss
5 3 (1.83%) WebSphere
5 3 (1.83%) WebSphere Application Server
6 2 (1.22%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (1.22%) Exchange Server 2013
6 2 (1.22%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.61%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 5 (3.05%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.22%) Chatbot
2 2 (1.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (1.22%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 99 (60.37%) Microsoft 365
2 88 (53.66%) Azure
3 58 (35.37%) Entra ID
4 13 (7.93%) OneDrive
5 12 (7.32%) Power Platform
6 10 (6.10%) AWS
7 7 (4.27%) SaaS
8 6 (3.66%) PowerApps
9 5 (3.05%) Microsoft Copilot
9 5 (3.05%) Nutanix
9 5 (3.05%) Power Automate
10 4 (2.44%) Azure Logic Apps
10 4 (2.44%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (1.83%) Azure DevOps
11 3 (1.83%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (1.83%) Cloud Computing
11 3 (1.83%) GCP
11 3 (1.83%) OpenShift
12 2 (1.22%) GitHub
12 2 (1.22%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 28 (17.07%) DNS
1 28 (17.07%) Firewall
2 15 (9.15%) Wi-Fi
3 14 (8.54%) TCP/IP
4 10 (6.10%) DHCP
4 10 (6.10%) Kerberos
4 10 (6.10%) VLAN
4 10 (6.10%) WebEx
5 8 (4.88%) Network Security
6 6 (3.66%) Internet
6 6 (3.66%) NetScaler
6 6 (3.66%) Unified Communications
6 6 (3.66%) WAN
7 5 (3.05%) SSL
7 5 (3.05%) VPN
8 4 (2.44%) BGP
8 4 (2.44%) LAN
8 4 (2.44%) Wireless
9 3 (1.83%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (1.22%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.83%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.61%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 6 (3.66%) Git
2 4 (2.44%) JIRA
3 3 (1.83%) Bitbucket Server
3 3 (1.83%) CA Release Automation
3 3 (1.83%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.83%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.61%) MSI
General
1 54 (32.93%) Social Skills
2 27 (16.46%) Legal
3 26 (15.85%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (10.37%) Finance
5 14 (8.54%) Public Sector
6 4 (2.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (2.44%) Retail
7 3 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.83%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.83%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.22%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.22%) Military
9 1 (0.61%) Banking
Job Titles
1 34 (20.73%) IT Support
2 30 (18.29%) Analyst
3 21 (12.80%) Support Engineer
4 19 (11.59%) Support Analyst
5 16 (9.76%) 1st Line Support
6 15 (9.15%) IT Analyst
6 15 (9.15%) IT Engineer
6 15 (9.15%) IT Support Engineer
7 13 (7.93%) IT Support Analyst
8 12 (7.32%) Architect
8 12 (7.32%) Platform Engineer
9 10 (6.10%) Administrator
10 9 (5.49%) IT Technician
10 9 (5.49%) Senior
11 8 (4.88%) Deployment Engineer
11 8 (4.88%) Support Technician
12 6 (3.66%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 6 (3.66%) IT Support Technician
12 6 (3.66%) Operations Analyst
12 6 (3.66%) Server Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (9.15%) LDAP
2 10 (6.10%) XMPP
3 4 (2.44%) OAuth
3 4 (2.44%) OpenID
3 4 (2.44%) SAML
4 3 (1.83%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.22%) JSON
6 1 (0.61%) 802.1X
6 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.61%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.54%) Onboarding
1 14 (8.54%) Product Ownership
2 11 (6.71%) Driving Licence
3 9 (5.49%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (3.66%) Clustering
4 6 (3.66%) Security Posture
4 6 (3.66%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (3.05%) Cloud Security Posture
5 5 (3.05%) Data Centre
5 5 (3.05%) Fat Client
5 5 (3.05%) Low-Code
5 5 (3.05%) Private Cloud
5 5 (3.05%) Thin Client
6 4 (2.44%) Cyber Threat
6 4 (2.44%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.83%) PKI
8 2 (1.22%) AI Agents
8 2 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.22%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.61%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 108 (65.85%) Windows
2 42 (25.61%) Windows 10
3 31 (18.90%) Windows Server
4 22 (13.41%) Linux
5 9 (5.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (5.49%) Windows Server 2019
6 8 (4.88%) Unix
7 4 (2.44%) Mac OS
7 4 (2.44%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (1.22%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.22%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (29.88%) Customer Service
2 41 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
3 33 (20.12%) Identity Access Management
4 25 (15.24%) ITIL
5 18 (10.98%) Cybersecurity
6 16 (9.76%) Platform Engineering
7 15 (9.15%) Service Management
8 13 (7.93%) User Experience
9 12 (7.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 11 (6.71%) Acceptance Criteria
10 11 (6.71%) DevOps
10 11 (6.71%) Disaster Recovery
10 11 (6.71%) ITSM
10 11 (6.71%) Migration
10 11 (6.71%) Ticket Management
10 11 (6.71%) User Stories
11 10 (6.10%) Change Control
11 10 (6.10%) Continuous Improvement
11 10 (6.10%) Digital Transformation Programme
11 10 (6.10%) Knowledge Management
Programming Languages
1 52 (31.71%) PowerShell
2 15 (9.15%) Python
3 12 (7.32%) Bash
4 9 (5.49%) Perl
5 3 (1.83%) Groovy
5 3 (1.83%) Shell Script
6 2 (1.22%) Bicep
6 2 (1.22%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (1.22%) SQL
Qualifications
1 34 (20.73%) Security Cleared
2 25 (15.24%) SC Cleared
3 24 (14.63%) Degree
4 14 (8.54%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (5.49%) CISSP
5 9 (5.49%) CompTIA Security+
6 8 (4.88%) CCDP
6 8 (4.88%) CCNA
6 8 (4.88%) CCNP
6 8 (4.88%) Cisco Certification
7 7 (4.27%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (3.05%) Azure Certification
8 5 (3.05%) MCSA
8 5 (3.05%) MCSE
9 4 (2.44%) CISM
10 3 (1.83%) A+ Certification
10 3 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (1.83%) Network+ Certification
11 2 (1.22%) DBS Check
12 1 (0.61%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.66%) GDPR
1 6 (3.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.83%) SLA
3 2 (1.22%) NIST
System Software
1 15 (9.15%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (5.49%) Docker
2 9 (5.49%) Hyper-V
3 5 (3.05%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (3.05%) vSphere
4 3 (1.83%) Tivoli Directory Server
5 2 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 34 (20.73%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (13.41%) SCCM
3 15 (9.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 13 (7.93%) Single Sign-On
5 9 (5.49%) Terraform
6 7 (4.27%) Ansible
7 6 (3.66%) Kubernetes
7 6 (3.66%) Microsoft Clustering
7 6 (3.66%) Nagios
8 5 (3.05%) CA Single Sign-On
8 5 (3.05%) CASB
8 5 (3.05%) Nessus
9 3 (1.83%) CA Wily
9 3 (1.83%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (1.83%) Progress Chef
9 3 (1.83%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 111 (67.68%) Microsoft
2 34 (20.73%) ServiceNow
3 21 (12.80%) VMware
4 20 (12.20%) Citrix
5 15 (9.15%) Bomgar
5 15 (9.15%) Cisco
5 15 (9.15%) iManage
6 9 (5.49%) Red Hat
7 7 (4.27%) SolarWinds
7 7 (4.27%) Splunk
8 6 (3.66%) Remedy
9 5 (3.05%) CyberArk
9 5 (3.05%) Meraki
9 5 (3.05%) Tenable
10 4 (2.44%) F5
10 4 (2.44%) Google
10 4 (2.44%) Veeam
11 3 (1.83%) Broadcom
11 3 (1.83%) IBM
11 3 (1.83%) Oracle