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 20 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 29 19 26
Rank change year-on-year -10 +7 -10
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 166 172 186
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.99% 8.29% 6.63%
As % of the System Software category 40.49% 57.33% 60.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 108 130
10th Percentile £133 £149 £160
25th Percentile £151 £185 £202
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £330 £350 £350
Median % change year-on-year -5.71% - -0.71%
75th Percentile £492 £469 £475
90th Percentile £630 £538 £587
England median daily rate £450 £425 £388
% change year-on-year +5.88% +9.68% -6.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 9 27
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.45 -
25th Percentile £16.91 £17.44 £15.50
Median hourly rate £30.97 £22.09 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +40.20% +24.66% -11.40%
75th Percentile £74.26 £24.18 £18.38
90th Percentile - £25.14 £20.45
England median hourly rate £22.27 £22.09 £18.00
% change year-on-year +0.79% +22.72% -6.49%

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 410 300 310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.80% 14.46% 11.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 187 231
10th Percentile £151 £163 £178
25th Percentile £328 £250 £302
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +11.75% -11.11% -1.21%
75th Percentile £550 £525 £547
90th Percentile £632 £581 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 10 34
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.73 £15.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £17.44 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £22.09 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +89.86% +24.66% -61.57%
75th Percentile £74.26 £24.18 £23.19
90th Percentile £76.20 £33.85 £46.18
England median hourly rate £31.86 £29.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +9.86% -27.50% +1.91%

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 20 February 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 20 February 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 20 February 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
Cheshire -8 57 £449 +18.47% 22
Merseyside -4 50 £138 -21.43% 3
Manchester -38 37 £400 +3.90% 41
Lancashire -4 20 £550 +83.33% 19
Cumbria -15 2 £513 -2.38% 2
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 38 (22.89%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (16.87%) SharePoint
3 9 (5.42%) IIS
4 7 (4.22%) Apache
5 6 (3.61%) iPlanet
5 6 (3.61%) JBoss
5 6 (3.61%) WebSphere
5 6 (3.61%) WebSphere Application Server
6 5 (3.01%) Exchange Server 2013
6 5 (3.01%) Skype for Business
7 4 (2.41%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.60%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 10 (6.02%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (3.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (3.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (3.01%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 98 (59.04%) Microsoft 365
2 81 (48.80%) Azure
3 48 (28.92%) Entra ID
4 16 (9.64%) AWS
5 14 (8.43%) OneDrive
6 7 (4.22%) Power Platform
6 7 (4.22%) SaaS
7 5 (3.01%) Nutanix
7 5 (3.01%) OpenShift
8 4 (2.41%) GCP
9 3 (1.81%) Azure Sentinel
9 3 (1.81%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.20%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
11 1 (0.60%) Azure DevOps
11 1 (0.60%) Dynamics 365
11 1 (0.60%) IaaS
11 1 (0.60%) Mimecast
11 1 (0.60%) PowerApps
11 1 (0.60%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 28 (16.87%) Firewall
2 27 (16.27%) DNS
3 16 (9.64%) Wi-Fi
4 15 (9.04%) TCP/IP
5 13 (7.83%) Kerberos
6 11 (6.63%) VLAN
7 10 (6.02%) DHCP
8 9 (5.42%) WebEx
9 8 (4.82%) Network Security
10 7 (4.22%) VPN
11 6 (3.61%) Internet
11 6 (3.61%) NetScaler
11 6 (3.61%) Unified Communications
11 6 (3.61%) WAN
12 5 (3.01%) LAN
12 5 (3.01%) Skype
12 5 (3.01%) SSL
13 4 (2.41%) BGP
13 4 (2.41%) Wireless
14 3 (1.81%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.61%) Oracle Database
2 2 (1.20%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (4.22%) Git
2 6 (3.61%) Bitbucket Server
2 6 (3.61%) CA Release Automation
2 6 (3.61%) Jenkins
3 5 (3.01%) Sonatype Nexus
4 4 (2.41%) JIRA
5 1 (0.60%) MSI
General
1 61 (36.75%) Social Skills
2 29 (17.47%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (14.46%) Legal
4 23 (13.86%) Finance
5 10 (6.02%) Public Sector
6 5 (3.01%) Manufacturing
6 5 (3.01%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (2.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (2.41%) Telecoms
8 3 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.20%) Military
9 2 (1.20%) Retail
10 1 (0.60%) Banking
10 1 (0.60%) Electronics
10 1 (0.60%) Marketing
10 1 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 35 (21.08%) IT Support
2 34 (20.48%) Analyst
3 24 (14.46%) Support Analyst
4 22 (13.25%) Support Engineer
5 15 (9.04%) IT Analyst
5 15 (9.04%) IT Engineer
5 15 (9.04%) IT Support Engineer
6 13 (7.83%) 1st Line Support
6 13 (7.83%) IT Support Analyst
6 13 (7.83%) Platform Engineer
7 12 (7.23%) Architect
7 12 (7.23%) Senior
8 11 (6.63%) Support Technician
9 10 (6.02%) IT Technician
10 9 (5.42%) Administrator
10 9 (5.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 9 (5.42%) Operations Analyst
11 8 (4.82%) Deployment Engineer
12 7 (4.22%) 2nd Line Support
12 7 (4.22%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (10.84%) LDAP
2 9 (5.42%) XMPP
3 7 (4.22%) OAuth
3 7 (4.22%) OpenID
3 7 (4.22%) SAML
4 2 (1.20%) JSON
5 1 (0.60%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.60%) ARM Templates
5 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.60%) Middleware
5 1 (0.60%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 16 (9.64%) Onboarding
2 13 (7.83%) Product Ownership
3 9 (5.42%) Driving Licence
4 8 (4.82%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (4.22%) Clustering
5 7 (4.22%) Data Centre
6 6 (3.61%) Security Posture
6 6 (3.61%) Video Conferencing
7 5 (3.01%) Cloud Security Posture
7 5 (3.01%) Low-Code
7 5 (3.01%) Private Cloud
8 4 (2.41%) Cyber Threat
8 4 (2.41%) Fat Client
8 4 (2.41%) Public Cloud
8 4 (2.41%) Thin Client
9 3 (1.81%) PKI
10 2 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (1.20%) Enterprise Storage
10 2 (1.20%) Management Information System
11 1 (0.60%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 110 (66.27%) Windows
2 39 (23.49%) Windows 10
3 32 (19.28%) Windows Server
4 25 (15.06%) Linux
5 10 (6.02%) Unix
6 9 (5.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (5.42%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (4.22%) Mac OS
8 6 (3.61%) Apple iOS
9 4 (2.41%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (1.20%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.60%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (28.31%) Customer Service
2 42 (25.30%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (17.47%) ITIL
4 28 (16.87%) Identity Access Management
5 18 (10.84%) Cybersecurity
6 15 (9.04%) Platform Engineering
7 14 (8.43%) Migration
7 14 (8.43%) Service Management
8 13 (7.83%) ITSM
9 12 (7.23%) DevOps
9 12 (7.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 12 (7.23%) Problem Management
9 12 (7.23%) Validation
10 11 (6.63%) Continuous Improvement
10 11 (6.63%) Disaster Recovery
10 11 (6.63%) Ticket Management
10 11 (6.63%) User Experience
11 10 (6.02%) Asset Management
11 10 (6.02%) Change Control
11 10 (6.02%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 46 (27.71%) PowerShell
2 13 (7.83%) Python
3 12 (7.23%) Bash
4 9 (5.42%) Perl
5 6 (3.61%) Groovy
6 5 (3.01%) Shell Script
7 2 (1.20%) Kusto Query Language
7 2 (1.20%) SQL
Qualifications
1 34 (20.48%) Security Cleared
2 24 (14.46%) Degree
2 24 (14.46%) SC Cleared
3 11 (6.63%) Microsoft Certification
4 9 (5.42%) CISSP
4 9 (5.42%) CompTIA Security+
5 8 (4.82%) CCDP
5 8 (4.82%) CCNA
5 8 (4.82%) CCNP
5 8 (4.82%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (3.61%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (3.01%) MCSA
7 5 (3.01%) MCSE
8 4 (2.41%) A+ Certification
8 4 (2.41%) CISM
9 3 (1.81%) Azure Certification
9 3 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (1.81%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (1.20%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.61%) GDPR
1 6 (3.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.81%) SLA
3 2 (1.20%) NIST
4 1 (0.60%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 16 (9.64%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (5.42%) Docker
2 9 (5.42%) Hyper-V
3 6 (3.61%) vSphere
4 5 (3.01%) Tivoli Directory Server
4 5 (3.01%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 36 (21.69%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (18.07%) SCCM
3 15 (9.04%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 15 (9.04%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (4.82%) Ansible
4 8 (4.82%) CA Single Sign-On
4 8 (4.82%) Terraform
5 6 (3.61%) CA Wily
5 6 (3.61%) Microsoft Clustering
5 6 (3.61%) Nagios
6 5 (3.01%) CASB
6 5 (3.01%) Kubernetes
6 5 (3.01%) Nessus
6 5 (3.01%) Progress Chef
6 5 (3.01%) Tivoli
7 3 (1.81%) Jamf Pro
7 3 (1.81%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 111 (66.87%) Microsoft
2 34 (20.48%) ServiceNow
3 22 (13.25%) Citrix
3 22 (13.25%) VMware
4 14 (8.43%) Cisco
5 12 (7.23%) Bomgar
5 12 (7.23%) iManage
6 10 (6.02%) Splunk
7 9 (5.42%) Red Hat
8 7 (4.22%) IBM
8 7 (4.22%) SolarWinds
9 6 (3.61%) AppDynamics
9 6 (3.61%) Broadcom
9 6 (3.61%) Oracle
9 6 (3.61%) Remedy
10 5 (3.01%) CyberArk
10 5 (3.01%) Meraki
10 5 (3.01%) Tenable
11 4 (2.41%) F5
11 4 (2.41%) Veeam