Active Directory Contracts in the North West

Microsoft Active Directory
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West requiring Active Directory skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Active Directory over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 21 35 20
Rank change year-on-year +14 -15 +5
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 152 140 239
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 7.72% 5.08% 7.48%
As % of the System Software category 54.87% 54.69% 47.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 97 163
10th Percentile £145 £143 £148
25th Percentile £187 £206 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £350 £350
Median % change year-on-year - - +40.00%
75th Percentile £445 £475 £506
90th Percentile £525 £646 £564
England median daily rate £450 £413 £425
% change year-on-year +9.09% -2.94% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 20 23
10th Percentile - - £13.96
25th Percentile - £15.50 £16.22
Median hourly rate £29.00 £17.39 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.74% -13.04% +10.41%
75th Percentile - £17.83 £34.18
90th Percentile - £19.19 £52.13
England median hourly rate £21.46 £17.69 £19.00
% change year-on-year +21.31% -6.89% +8.57%

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 277 256 504
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.08% 9.29% 15.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 182 182 366
10th Percentile £157 £178 £200
25th Percentile £250 £299 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% -10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £525 £575 £575
90th Percentile £564 £670 £650
England median daily rate £525 £494 £525
% change year-on-year +6.33% -5.95% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 26 29
10th Percentile £33.73 - £13.99
25th Percentile £40.81 £15.50 £16.25
Median hourly rate £55.75 £17.72 £22.41
Median % change year-on-year +214.62% -20.93% +23.71%
75th Percentile £73.81 £26.38 £52.13
90th Percentile £82.78 £46.18 £65.00
England median hourly rate £27.94 £21.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year +33.05% -58.00% +163.16%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Active Directory as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Active Directory in the North West

Active Directory
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Active Directory in the North West.

Daily rate trend for Active Directory in the North West

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 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in the North West

Active Directory
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Active Directory in the North West.

Hourly rate trend 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 May 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
Manchester +14 60 £383 -14.88% 104
Cheshire +2 37 £367 +4.86% 56
Merseyside 0 25 £150 -33.33% 23
Cumbria - 14 £525 - 9
Lancashire +5 13 £350 +84.21% 45
Active Directory
England

Active Directory
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 66 (43.42%) Microsoft Exchange
2 46 (30.26%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.29%) IIS
3 5 (3.29%) JBoss
3 5 (3.29%) Mattermost
3 5 (3.29%) Skype for Business
4 2 (1.32%) Confluence
5 1 (0.66%) BizTalk Server
5 1 (0.66%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 17 (11.18%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (3.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (3.29%) MS Visio
3 4 (2.63%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 87 (57.24%) Microsoft 365
2 71 (46.71%) Azure
3 66 (43.42%) Entra ID
4 10 (6.58%) IaaS
4 10 (6.58%) OneDrive
4 10 (6.58%) SaaS
5 9 (5.92%) AWS
6 5 (3.29%) OpenShift
7 4 (2.63%) Google Workspace
7 4 (2.63%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (1.32%) Amazon EC2
8 2 (1.32%) Amazon S3
8 2 (1.32%) AWS CloudFormation
8 2 (1.32%) Nutanix
8 2 (1.32%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 1 (0.66%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 1 (0.66%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.66%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.66%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 30 (19.74%) DHCP
2 27 (17.76%) DNS
3 26 (17.11%) Firewall
4 15 (9.87%) Network Security
5 12 (7.89%) LAN
6 11 (7.24%) Intrusion Detection
6 11 (7.24%) VPN
7 7 (4.61%) SAN
8 6 (3.95%) Remote Desktop
8 6 (3.95%) Skype
8 6 (3.95%) WAN
9 5 (3.29%) Softphone
9 5 (3.29%) Unified Communications
9 5 (3.29%) WebEx
9 5 (3.29%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (2.63%) Wireless
11 3 (1.97%) DMZ
11 3 (1.97%) Internet
11 3 (1.97%) iSCSI
11 3 (1.97%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (12.50%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.29%) Elasticsearch
2 5 (3.29%) RDBMS
2 5 (3.29%) Relational Database
3 2 (1.32%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.66%) DTS
4 1 (0.66%) GIS
4 1 (0.66%) MSDE
4 1 (0.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.66%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 8 (5.26%) JIRA
2 5 (3.29%) Bitbucket Server
2 5 (3.29%) CA Release Automation
2 5 (3.29%) Git
2 5 (3.29%) Jenkins
2 5 (3.29%) SonarQube
2 5 (3.29%) Sonatype Nexus
2 5 (3.29%) TeamCity
3 4 (2.63%) GitLab
4 3 (1.97%) Hudson
5 1 (0.66%) MSI
General
1 47 (30.92%) Social Skills
2 19 (12.50%) Public Sector
3 11 (7.24%) Telecoms
4 9 (5.92%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (3.95%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (3.29%) Finance
6 5 (3.29%) Manufacturing
6 5 (3.29%) Presentation Skills
7 4 (2.63%) Legal
7 4 (2.63%) Military
8 2 (1.32%) Banking
8 2 (1.32%) Local Government
9 1 (0.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.66%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 33 (21.71%) Support Engineer
2 27 (17.76%) Analyst
3 22 (14.47%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
4 17 (11.18%) Service Analyst
5 16 (10.53%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 16 (10.53%) Service Desk Analyst
6 12 (7.89%) 2nd Line Support
7 11 (7.24%) 1st Line Support
8 10 (6.58%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 10 (6.58%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
9 9 (5.92%) Desktop Support
9 9 (5.92%) Windows Engineer
10 8 (5.26%) Support Analyst
11 7 (4.61%) Administrator
11 7 (4.61%) Desktop Engineer
11 7 (4.61%) Desktop Support Engineer
11 7 (4.61%) IT Engineer
12 6 (3.95%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
12 6 (3.95%) Infrastructure Specialist
12 6 (3.95%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.29%) Elastic Stack
1 5 (3.29%) Spring Boot
1 5 (3.29%) XMPP
2 3 (1.97%) LDAP
2 3 (1.97%) Software Packaging
3 1 (0.66%) .NET
3 1 (0.66%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.66%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (0.66%) Next.js
3 1 (0.66%) Node.js
3 1 (0.66%) OAuth
3 1 (0.66%) OpenID
3 1 (0.66%) React
Miscellaneous
1 19 (12.50%) Management Information System
2 8 (5.26%) Hybrid Cloud
3 6 (3.95%) Onboarding
4 5 (3.29%) Data Centre
4 5 (3.29%) NHS
5 3 (1.97%) Clustering
5 3 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (1.97%) IVR
6 2 (1.32%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.66%) Blog
7 1 (0.66%) iPad
7 1 (0.66%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (0.66%) Mobile App
7 1 (0.66%) Reinsurance
7 1 (0.66%) Replication
7 1 (0.66%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.66%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 121 (79.61%) Windows
2 60 (39.47%) Windows Server
3 37 (24.34%) Windows 10
4 27 (17.76%) Linux
5 21 (13.82%) Windows Server 2016
6 15 (9.87%) Windows Server 2012
7 14 (9.21%) Windows Server 2019
8 13 (8.55%) VMS
9 8 (5.26%) Windows Server 2003
10 7 (4.61%) Android
11 5 (3.29%) Apple iOS
11 5 (3.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 5 (3.29%) Unix
11 5 (3.29%) Windows 7
11 5 (3.29%) Windows 8
11 5 (3.29%) Windows Server 2008
11 5 (3.29%) Windows XP
12 2 (1.32%) CentOS
13 1 (0.66%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (37.50%) ITIL
2 41 (26.97%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (21.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 26 (17.11%) Customer Service
5 22 (14.47%) DevOps
6 21 (13.82%) ITSM
6 21 (13.82%) Migration
7 16 (10.53%) Business Continuity
8 15 (9.87%) Change Management
8 15 (9.87%) High Availability
9 14 (9.21%) Project Delivery
10 13 (8.55%) Collaborative Working
10 13 (8.55%) Disaster Recovery
11 12 (7.89%) Agile
11 12 (7.89%) BCP
11 12 (7.89%) Information Security
11 12 (7.89%) Patch Management
12 11 (7.24%) Incident Management
12 11 (7.24%) Proactive Maintenance
12 11 (7.24%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 33 (21.71%) PowerShell
2 7 (4.61%) Python
3 6 (3.95%) SQL
4 5 (3.29%) Perl
5 3 (1.97%) Bash
5 3 (1.97%) Java
6 1 (0.66%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.66%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.66%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.66%) VB
6 1 (0.66%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 30 (19.74%) Microsoft Certification
2 28 (18.42%) SC Cleared
2 28 (18.42%) Security Cleared
3 11 (7.24%) Azure Certification
4 5 (3.29%) ITIL Certification
4 5 (3.29%) MCSE
5 4 (2.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 3 (1.97%) DBS Check
7 2 (1.32%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.66%) Degree
8 1 (0.66%) MCP
8 1 (0.66%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (10.53%) SLA
2 2 (1.32%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.66%) NCSC
System Software
1 28 (18.42%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (7.89%) VMware ESXi
3 11 (7.24%) vSphere
4 8 (5.26%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (4.61%) Hyper-V
6 5 (3.29%) BitLocker
6 5 (3.29%) Docker
7 4 (2.63%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (1.97%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 2 (1.32%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (1.32%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.66%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 44 (28.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (15.13%) SCCM
3 20 (13.16%) WSUS
4 18 (11.84%) Single Sign-On
5 13 (8.55%) vCenter Server
6 7 (4.61%) Kubernetes
7 5 (3.29%) Kibana
7 5 (3.29%) Progress Chef
7 5 (3.29%) SCOM
8 4 (2.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (2.63%) Ansible
8 4 (2.63%) Dell DRAC
8 4 (2.63%) ZABBIX
9 3 (1.97%) Backup Exec
9 3 (1.97%) Microsoft Clustering
9 3 (1.97%) NetApp OnCommand
9 3 (1.97%) vMotion
10 2 (1.32%) Grafana
10 2 (1.32%) Nagios
10 2 (1.32%) Puppet
Vendors
1 112 (73.68%) Microsoft
2 45 (29.61%) VMware
3 18 (11.84%) ServiceNow
4 11 (7.24%) Cisco
5 10 (6.58%) Red Hat
5 10 (6.58%) Splunk
6 9 (5.92%) Dell
7 8 (5.26%) Citrix
7 8 (5.26%) CyberArk
8 6 (3.95%) Tanium
9 5 (3.29%) AppDynamics
9 5 (3.29%) Canon
9 5 (3.29%) HP
10 4 (2.63%) Apple
10 4 (2.63%) Bomgar
10 4 (2.63%) CheckPoint
10 4 (2.63%) Google
10 4 (2.63%) iManage
10 4 (2.63%) Symantec
10 4 (2.63%) Zscaler