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 19 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 28 34
Rank change year-on-year -14 +6 -11
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 150 118 132
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.29% 5.93% 4.65%
As % of the System Software category 37.04% 48.56% 48.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 75 93
10th Percentile £133 £150 £161
25th Percentile £181 £200 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £328 £367 £390
Median % change year-on-year -10.76% -5.90% +20.00%
75th Percentile £575 £450 £500
90th Percentile £643 £533 £649
England median daily rate £450 £450 £450
% change year-on-year - - +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 0 17
10th Percentile £17.37 - -
25th Percentile £41.94 - £15.50
Median hourly rate £74.26 - £17.29
75th Percentile £178.75 - £17.78
90th Percentile - - £18.92
England median hourly rate £25.75 £19.46 £17.69
% change year-on-year +32.32% +10.01% -15.76%

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 405 243 274
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 11.58% 12.22% 9.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 160 195
10th Percentile £184 £200 £206
25th Percentile £346 £325 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £438 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -7.89% -
75th Percentile £575 £537 £576
90th Percentile £641 £568 £673
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 1 24
10th Percentile £22.35 - -
25th Percentile £61.25 £76.25 £15.50
Median hourly rate £74.26 £82.50 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -9.99% +365.58% +1.26%
75th Percentile £95.00 £88.75 £42.88
90th Percentile £178.75 - £46.18
England median hourly rate £52.50 £28.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +87.50% +24.44% -55.94%

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 19 June 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 19 June 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 19 June 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 -9 68 £430 +11.69% 35
Cheshire -8 35 £550 +57.14% 11
Merseyside -1 31 £140 -6.67% 4
Lancashire -6 14 £343 -2.14% 15
Cumbria -18 2 £330 -37.14% 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 37 (24.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 20 (13.33%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.00%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (6.00%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.33%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.67%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 87 (58.00%) Microsoft 365
2 77 (51.33%) Azure
3 63 (42.00%) Entra ID
4 12 (8.00%) Power Platform
5 9 (6.00%) OneDrive
5 9 (6.00%) SaaS
6 8 (5.33%) AWS
6 8 (5.33%) GCP
6 8 (5.33%) Google Workspace
6 8 (5.33%) Power Automate
6 8 (5.33%) PowerApps
7 7 (4.67%) Google Drive
8 6 (4.00%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (2.67%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (2.00%) Asana
10 3 (2.00%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (2.00%) Azure Monitor
10 3 (2.00%) GitHub
10 3 (2.00%) GitHub Actions
11 2 (1.33%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 26 (17.33%) DNS
2 20 (13.33%) Firewall
3 13 (8.67%) TCP/IP
4 12 (8.00%) DHCP
5 8 (5.33%) Kerberos
5 8 (5.33%) VPN
6 7 (4.67%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (4.00%) VLAN
8 5 (3.33%) LAN
8 5 (3.33%) WAN
9 4 (2.67%) Network Security
9 4 (2.67%) SAN
9 4 (2.67%) SSL
10 3 (2.00%) DKIM
10 3 (2.00%) DMARC
10 3 (2.00%) WebEx
10 3 (2.00%) Wireless
11 2 (1.33%) BGP
11 2 (1.33%) NetScaler
12 1 (0.67%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.00%) Power BI
2 2 (1.33%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 8 (5.33%) JIRA
2 3 (2.00%) Git
General
1 45 (30.00%) Social Skills
2 24 (16.00%) Finance
3 23 (15.33%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (14.67%) Legal
5 21 (14.00%) Public Sector
6 9 (6.00%) Telecoms
7 6 (4.00%) Banking
8 3 (2.00%) Retail
9 2 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.33%) Military
10 1 (0.67%) Games
10 1 (0.67%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.67%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 28 (18.67%) IT Support
2 27 (18.00%) Analyst
3 19 (12.67%) Support Analyst
4 17 (11.33%) IT Analyst
5 16 (10.67%) IT Support Analyst
5 16 (10.67%) Support Engineer
6 14 (9.33%) Administrator
7 13 (8.67%) 1st Line Support
8 11 (7.33%) IT Engineer
8 11 (7.33%) IT Support Engineer
9 10 (6.67%) Architect
10 8 (5.33%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
10 8 (5.33%) Microsoft Engineer
11 7 (4.67%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 7 (4.67%) 2nd Line Support
12 6 (4.00%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
13 5 (3.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 4 (2.67%) IT Technician
14 4 (2.67%) Service Analyst
14 4 (2.67%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (8.67%) LDAP
2 10 (6.67%) SailPoint
3 9 (6.00%) OAuth
4 5 (3.33%) REST
5 4 (2.67%) SAML
6 3 (2.00%) ARM Templates
6 3 (2.00%) JDBC
6 3 (2.00%) JSON
6 3 (2.00%) OpenID
6 3 (2.00%) Web Services
6 3 (2.00%) XMPP
7 2 (1.33%) Software Packaging
7 2 (1.33%) XML
8 1 (0.67%) 802.1X
8 1 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.67%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 25 (16.67%) Onboarding
2 8 (5.33%) Security Posture
3 5 (3.33%) Cloud Security Posture
3 5 (3.33%) Product Ownership
4 4 (2.67%) Management Information System
5 3 (2.00%) Data Centre
5 3 (2.00%) Driving Licence
5 3 (2.00%) Fat Client
5 3 (2.00%) Freedom of Information
5 3 (2.00%) Thin Client
6 2 (1.33%) AI Agents
6 2 (1.33%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.33%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (1.33%) iPhone
6 2 (1.33%) Operational Technology
6 2 (1.33%) Private Cloud
6 2 (1.33%) Public Cloud
7 1 (0.67%) Animation
7 1 (0.67%) Augmented Reality
Operating Systems
1 85 (56.67%) Windows
2 44 (29.33%) Windows 10
3 23 (15.33%) Windows Server
4 12 (8.00%) Linux
5 7 (4.67%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (3.33%) Unix
6 5 (3.33%) Windows Server 2012
7 2 (1.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.67%) Android
8 1 (0.67%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.67%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.67%) Windows Server 2003
8 1 (0.67%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (28.00%) ITIL
2 41 (27.33%) Customer Service
3 39 (26.00%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (18.67%) Identity Access Management
5 18 (12.00%) Continuous Improvement
6 17 (11.33%) Migration
7 16 (10.67%) Service Management
8 13 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
9 12 (8.00%) Change Management
10 11 (7.33%) Project Delivery
11 10 (6.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 10 (6.67%) Inventory Management
11 10 (6.67%) ITSM
12 9 (6.00%) Computer Science
12 9 (6.00%) Conflict Resolution
12 9 (6.00%) Creative Problem-Solving
12 9 (6.00%) Knowledge Management
12 9 (6.00%) Root Cause Analysis
13 8 (5.33%) Cloud Security
13 8 (5.33%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 33 (22.00%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.33%) Python
3 4 (2.67%) Bicep
4 2 (1.33%) Bash
4 2 (1.33%) BeanShell
4 2 (1.33%) Java
4 2 (1.33%) SQL
5 1 (0.67%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (0.67%) Lisp
5 1 (0.67%) Perl
Qualifications
1 27 (18.00%) Security Cleared
2 22 (14.67%) Microsoft Certification
2 22 (14.67%) SC Cleared
3 21 (14.00%) Degree
4 10 (6.67%) A+ Certification
5 9 (6.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (6.00%) Network+ Certification
6 7 (4.67%) CISSP
6 7 (4.67%) CompTIA Security+
7 5 (3.33%) Azure Certification
7 5 (3.33%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (3.33%) DBS Check
7 5 (3.33%) ITIL Certification
7 5 (3.33%) MCSA
7 5 (3.33%) MCSE
8 2 (1.33%) CCNP
8 2 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (1.33%) CISM
9 1 (0.67%) CCDP
9 1 (0.67%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.00%) NIST
1 6 (4.00%) SLA
2 5 (3.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.67%) GDPR
4 1 (0.67%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.67%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 9 (6.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (3.33%) Docker
2 5 (3.33%) Hyper-V
2 5 (3.33%) Virtual Machines
3 4 (2.67%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.33%) vSphere
5 1 (0.67%) Microsoft App-V
5 1 (0.67%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 28 (18.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (8.00%) SCCM
3 11 (7.33%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 11 (7.33%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (4.67%) Terraform
5 5 (3.33%) Ansible
5 5 (3.33%) CASB
5 5 (3.33%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.33%) Nessus
6 3 (2.00%) WSUS
7 2 (1.33%) AirWatch
7 2 (1.33%) CA Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.33%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (1.33%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.33%) WMI
8 1 (0.67%) Backup Exec
8 1 (0.67%) McAfee ePO
8 1 (0.67%) Microsoft Clustering
8 1 (0.67%) NetApp OnCommand
8 1 (0.67%) vMotion
Vendors
1 95 (63.33%) Microsoft
2 27 (18.00%) ServiceNow
3 13 (8.67%) Bomgar
3 13 (8.67%) iManage
4 12 (8.00%) VMware
5 8 (5.33%) CyberArk
5 8 (5.33%) Google
6 7 (4.67%) Cisco
7 6 (4.00%) Citrix
7 6 (4.00%) Remedy
8 5 (3.33%) Tenable
9 4 (2.67%) Splunk
10 3 (2.00%) F5
10 3 (2.00%) Okta
10 3 (2.00%) Veeam
11 2 (1.33%) Aruba
11 2 (1.33%) BeyondTrust
11 2 (1.33%) Meraki
11 2 (1.33%) Tanium
11 2 (1.33%) Thycotic