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 14 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 22 32
Rank change year-on-year -9 +10 -14
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 173 149 150
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.46% 7.72% 5.48%
As % of the System Software category 39.05% 53.60% 55.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 125 107 107
10th Percentile £133 £147 £144
25th Percentile £151 £186 £203
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £330 £350 £350
Median % change year-on-year -5.71% - -
75th Percentile £550 £447 £475
90th Percentile £636 £525 £665
England median daily rate £450 £450 £400
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 2 19
10th Percentile £29.93 £21.84 -
25th Percentile £41.94 £23.03 £15.50
Median hourly rate £74.26 £25.55 £17.29
Median % change year-on-year +190.70% +47.79% -13.58%
75th Percentile £100.38 £27.53 £17.75
90th Percentile £178.75 £28.41 £18.85
England median hourly rate £25.31 £22.09 £17.69
% change year-on-year +14.58% +24.87% -5.65%

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 443 278 268
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.99% 14.41% 9.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 293 185 196
10th Percentile £151 £156 £178
25th Percentile £326 £250 £294
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £575 £525 £550
90th Percentile £638 £575 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £480
% change year-on-year -4.76% +9.38% -8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 4 24
10th Percentile £40.01 £23.43 -
25th Percentile £51.60 £27.01 £15.50
Median hourly rate £74.26 £52.00 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +42.81% +193.45% -26.79%
75th Percentile £86.25 £80.31 £19.81
90th Percentile £178.75 £85.38 £45.19
England median hourly rate £52.50 £29.00 £21.00
% change year-on-year +81.03% +38.10% -53.26%

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 14 April 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 14 April 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 14 April 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 -16 63 £400 +4.16% 40
Merseyside -1 52 £138 -8.33% 4
Cheshire -20 35 £465 +20.00% 11
Lancashire -5 21 £550 +57.14% 26
Cumbria -9 2 £513 -2.38% 6
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 40 (23.12%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (15.61%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.16%) IIS
4 1 (0.58%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 7 (4.05%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.16%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 104 (60.12%) Microsoft 365
2 90 (52.02%) Azure
3 71 (41.04%) Entra ID
4 12 (6.94%) OneDrive
5 10 (5.78%) Power Platform
6 9 (5.20%) AWS
7 8 (4.62%) PowerApps
8 7 (4.05%) Power Automate
9 6 (3.47%) Microsoft Copilot
10 4 (2.31%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (2.31%) Azure Logic Apps
10 4 (2.31%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (2.31%) Azure Sentinel
10 4 (2.31%) GCP
10 4 (2.31%) Nutanix
11 3 (1.73%) Cloud Computing
11 3 (1.73%) GitHub
11 3 (1.73%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (1.16%) Azure Key Vault
12 2 (1.16%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 28 (16.18%) Firewall
2 24 (13.87%) DNS
3 14 (8.09%) TCP/IP
4 11 (6.36%) DHCP
4 11 (6.36%) Wi-Fi
5 10 (5.78%) VLAN
5 10 (5.78%) WebEx
6 9 (5.20%) Network Security
7 8 (4.62%) Kerberos
7 8 (4.62%) WAN
8 6 (3.47%) LAN
8 6 (3.47%) NetScaler
9 5 (2.89%) SSL
9 5 (2.89%) VPN
10 4 (2.31%) BGP
11 3 (1.73%) Software-Defined Networking
11 3 (1.73%) Wireless
12 1 (0.58%) Cisco ISE
12 1 (0.58%) Internet
12 1 (0.58%) NGN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.58%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (2.31%) JIRA
2 3 (1.73%) Git
General
1 56 (32.37%) Social Skills
2 31 (17.92%) Analytical Skills
3 30 (17.34%) Legal
4 22 (12.72%) Finance
5 15 (8.67%) Public Sector
6 7 (4.05%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (2.31%) Banking
8 4 (2.31%) Retail
9 3 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.58%) Military
Job Titles
1 37 (21.39%) IT Support
2 30 (17.34%) Analyst
3 24 (13.87%) Support Engineer
4 21 (12.14%) Support Analyst
5 19 (10.98%) IT Analyst
5 19 (10.98%) IT Engineer
5 19 (10.98%) IT Support Engineer
6 17 (9.83%) 1st Line Support
6 17 (9.83%) IT Support Analyst
7 14 (8.09%) Architect
8 13 (7.51%) Platform Engineer
9 11 (6.36%) Administrator
10 8 (4.62%) Deployment Engineer
11 7 (4.05%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
11 7 (4.05%) Microsoft Engineer
12 6 (3.47%) Server Engineer
13 5 (2.89%) 2nd Line Engineer
13 5 (2.89%) 2nd Line Support
13 5 (2.89%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
13 5 (2.89%) IT Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.51%) LDAP
2 10 (5.78%) XMPP
3 6 (3.47%) SailPoint
4 5 (2.89%) OAuth
4 5 (2.89%) SAML
5 4 (2.31%) OpenID
6 3 (1.73%) ARM Templates
7 2 (1.16%) JDBC
7 2 (1.16%) JSON
7 2 (1.16%) OAuth2
7 2 (1.16%) REST
7 2 (1.16%) Web Services
8 1 (0.58%) 802.1X
8 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.58%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 22 (12.72%) Onboarding
2 14 (8.09%) Product Ownership
3 11 (6.36%) Driving Licence
4 6 (3.47%) Clustering
4 6 (3.47%) Security Posture
5 5 (2.89%) Cloud Security Posture
5 5 (2.89%) Data Centre
5 5 (2.89%) Fat Client
5 5 (2.89%) Private Cloud
5 5 (2.89%) Thin Client
6 4 (2.31%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.73%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.73%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.73%) PKI
8 2 (1.16%) AI Agents
8 2 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.16%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.16%) Operational Technology
9 1 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.58%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 109 (63.01%) Windows
2 54 (31.21%) Windows 10
3 28 (16.18%) Windows Server
4 18 (10.40%) Linux
5 9 (5.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (4.62%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (2.89%) Unix
7 5 (2.89%) Windows Server 2012
8 4 (2.31%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.58%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (27.75%) Customer Service
2 44 (25.43%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (21.97%) Identity Access Management
4 34 (19.65%) ITIL
5 19 (10.98%) Service Management
6 17 (9.83%) Platform Engineering
7 16 (9.25%) Cybersecurity
8 14 (8.09%) Knowledge Management
9 13 (7.51%) Continuous Improvement
10 12 (6.94%) ITSM
11 11 (6.36%) Acceptance Criteria
11 11 (6.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 11 (6.36%) Migration
11 11 (6.36%) Project Delivery
11 11 (6.36%) User Stories
12 10 (5.78%) Change Control
12 10 (5.78%) Computer Science
12 10 (5.78%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 10 (5.78%) Disaster Recovery
12 10 (5.78%) Product Requirements
Programming Languages
1 54 (31.21%) PowerShell
2 14 (8.09%) Python
3 12 (6.94%) Bash
4 9 (5.20%) Perl
5 3 (1.73%) Bicep
6 2 (1.16%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (1.16%) SQL
7 1 (0.58%) BeanShell
7 1 (0.58%) Java
Qualifications
1 28 (16.18%) Security Cleared
2 25 (14.45%) SC Cleared
3 23 (13.29%) Degree
4 20 (11.56%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (4.62%) A+ Certification
5 8 (4.62%) CCDP
5 8 (4.62%) CCNA
5 8 (4.62%) CCNP
5 8 (4.62%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (4.62%) CISSP
5 8 (4.62%) CompTIA Security+
6 7 (4.05%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (4.05%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (4.05%) Network+ Certification
7 6 (3.47%) DBS Check
8 5 (2.89%) Azure Certification
8 5 (2.89%) MCSA
8 5 (2.89%) MCSE
9 3 (1.73%) CISM
10 2 (1.16%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (4.05%) GDPR
3 6 (3.47%) NIST
4 3 (1.73%) SLA
5 1 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 15 (8.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (5.20%) Hyper-V
3 6 (3.47%) Docker
4 5 (2.89%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (2.89%) vSphere
5 3 (1.73%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 34 (19.65%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (10.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 13 (7.51%) SCCM
3 13 (7.51%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (5.78%) Terraform
5 7 (4.05%) Ansible
6 6 (3.47%) Kubernetes
6 6 (3.47%) Microsoft Clustering
6 6 (3.47%) Nagios
7 5 (2.89%) CASB
7 5 (2.89%) Nessus
8 4 (2.31%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (1.16%) CA Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.58%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 120 (69.36%) Microsoft
2 27 (15.61%) ServiceNow
3 20 (11.56%) VMware
4 19 (10.98%) Citrix
5 17 (9.83%) Bomgar
5 17 (9.83%) iManage
6 16 (9.25%) Cisco
7 9 (5.20%) Red Hat
8 8 (4.62%) CyberArk
9 7 (4.05%) SolarWinds
10 6 (3.47%) Meraki
10 6 (3.47%) Remedy
11 5 (2.89%) Tenable
12 4 (2.31%) F5
12 4 (2.31%) Splunk
12 4 (2.31%) Veeam
13 3 (1.73%) Google
14 2 (1.16%) BeyondTrust
14 2 (1.16%) LogRhythm
14 2 (1.16%) Palo Alto