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

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 25 32
Rank change year-on-year -6 +7 -13
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 179 150 145
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.64% 7.74% 5.29%
As % of the System Software category 41.06% 53.96% 54.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 122 107 102
10th Percentile £133 £147 £143
25th Percentile £151 £186 £202
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £329 £350 £350
Median % change year-on-year -6.07% - -
75th Percentile £550 £447 £475
90th Percentile £639 £525 £649
England median daily rate £450 £450 £400
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 1 19
10th Percentile £17.55 - -
25th Percentile £41.94 - £15.50
Median hourly rate £74.26 £29.00 £17.29
Median % change year-on-year +156.07% +67.78% -13.58%
75th Percentile - - £17.75
90th Percentile £178.75 - £18.85
England median hourly rate £26.44 £21.46 £17.69
% change year-on-year +23.21% +21.31% -4.38%

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 436 278 264
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.74% 14.34% 9.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 284 183 193
10th Percentile £151 £156 £178
25th Percentile £326 £250 £302
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 £564 £674
England median daily rate £500 £525 £488
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 3 24
10th Percentile £24.40 £37.70 -
25th Percentile £41.94 £50.75 £15.50
Median hourly rate £74.26 £75.00 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +323.25% -20.93%
75th Percentile £81.88 £83.13 £19.81
90th Percentile £178.75 £86.50 £45.19
England median hourly rate £56.25 £28.41 £21.00
% change year-on-year +97.99% +35.29% -54.45%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -9 71 £400 +4.16% 29
Merseyside 0 51 £139 -7.50% 5
Cheshire -17 36 £508 +30.97% 10
Lancashire -7 21 £550 +57.14% 23
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 44 (24.58%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (17.32%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.68%) IIS
4 1 (0.56%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 7 (3.91%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.12%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 108 (60.34%) Microsoft 365
2 91 (50.84%) Azure
3 72 (40.22%) Entra ID
4 11 (6.15%) OneDrive
5 10 (5.59%) AWS
5 10 (5.59%) Power Platform
6 8 (4.47%) PowerApps
7 7 (3.91%) GCP
7 7 (3.91%) Power Automate
7 7 (3.91%) SaaS
8 6 (3.35%) Microsoft Copilot
9 5 (2.79%) Google Workspace
10 4 (2.23%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (2.23%) Azure Logic Apps
10 4 (2.23%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (2.23%) Azure Sentinel
10 4 (2.23%) Google Drive
10 4 (2.23%) Nutanix
11 3 (1.68%) GitHub
11 3 (1.68%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 27 (15.08%) DNS
2 26 (14.53%) Firewall
3 15 (8.38%) TCP/IP
4 12 (6.70%) DHCP
5 10 (5.59%) VLAN
5 10 (5.59%) WebEx
5 10 (5.59%) Wi-Fi
6 9 (5.03%) Network Security
7 8 (4.47%) Kerberos
8 7 (3.91%) LAN
8 7 (3.91%) WAN
9 5 (2.79%) SSL
9 5 (2.79%) VPN
10 4 (2.23%) BGP
10 4 (2.23%) NetScaler
11 3 (1.68%) Software-Defined Networking
11 3 (1.68%) Wireless
12 2 (1.12%) DKIM
12 2 (1.12%) DMARC
13 1 (0.56%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.56%) Power BI
1 1 (0.56%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 6 (3.35%) JIRA
2 3 (1.68%) Git
General
1 57 (31.84%) Social Skills
2 31 (17.32%) Analytical Skills
3 30 (16.76%) Legal
4 24 (13.41%) Finance
5 21 (11.73%) Public Sector
6 7 (3.91%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.79%) Banking
7 5 (2.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (2.23%) Retail
9 3 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.12%) Military
10 2 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 36 (20.11%) IT Support
2 31 (17.32%) Analyst
3 24 (13.41%) Support Engineer
4 22 (12.29%) Support Analyst
5 19 (10.61%) IT Analyst
6 18 (10.06%) IT Engineer
6 18 (10.06%) IT Support Engineer
7 17 (9.50%) 1st Line Support
7 17 (9.50%) IT Support Analyst
8 15 (8.38%) Administrator
9 13 (7.26%) Architect
9 13 (7.26%) Platform Engineer
10 8 (4.47%) Deployment Engineer
11 7 (3.91%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
11 7 (3.91%) Microsoft Engineer
12 6 (3.35%) 2nd Line Engineer
12 6 (3.35%) 2nd Line Support
12 6 (3.35%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
12 6 (3.35%) Server Engineer
13 5 (2.79%) IT Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.26%) LDAP
2 10 (5.59%) XMPP
3 7 (3.91%) OAuth
3 7 (3.91%) SailPoint
4 5 (2.79%) SAML
5 4 (2.23%) OpenID
6 3 (1.68%) ARM Templates
6 3 (1.68%) JDBC
6 3 (1.68%) REST
6 3 (1.68%) Web Services
7 2 (1.12%) JSON
7 2 (1.12%) OAuth2
7 2 (1.12%) Software Packaging
8 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 23 (12.85%) Onboarding
2 14 (7.82%) Product Ownership
3 11 (6.15%) Driving Licence
4 6 (3.35%) Clustering
4 6 (3.35%) Security Posture
5 5 (2.79%) Cloud Security Posture
5 5 (2.79%) Fat Client
5 5 (2.79%) Private Cloud
5 5 (2.79%) Thin Client
6 4 (2.23%) Data Centre
6 4 (2.23%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.23%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.68%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (1.12%) AI Agents
8 2 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.12%) Freedom of Information
8 2 (1.12%) iPhone
8 2 (1.12%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.12%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 109 (60.89%) Windows
2 54 (30.17%) Windows 10
3 29 (16.20%) Windows Server
4 19 (10.61%) Linux
5 9 (5.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (4.47%) Windows Server 2019
7 6 (3.35%) Windows Server 2012
8 5 (2.79%) Unix
9 4 (2.23%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.56%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (26.26%) Customer Service
2 44 (24.58%) Problem-Solving
3 37 (20.67%) Identity Access Management
4 35 (19.55%) ITIL
5 19 (10.61%) Service Management
6 18 (10.06%) Cybersecurity
7 17 (9.50%) Platform Engineering
8 16 (8.94%) Continuous Improvement
8 16 (8.94%) Migration
9 14 (7.82%) ITSM
9 14 (7.82%) Knowledge Management
10 13 (7.26%) Project Delivery
11 11 (6.15%) Acceptance Criteria
11 11 (6.15%) Change Management
11 11 (6.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 11 (6.15%) User Stories
12 10 (5.59%) Change Control
12 10 (5.59%) Computer Science
12 10 (5.59%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 10 (5.59%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 54 (30.17%) PowerShell
2 14 (7.82%) Python
3 12 (6.70%) Bash
4 9 (5.03%) Perl
5 3 (1.68%) Bicep
5 3 (1.68%) SQL
6 2 (1.12%) BeanShell
6 2 (1.12%) Java
6 2 (1.12%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 33 (18.44%) Security Cleared
2 28 (15.64%) SC Cleared
3 22 (12.29%) Degree
4 20 (11.17%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (4.47%) A+ Certification
5 8 (4.47%) CCDP
5 8 (4.47%) CCNA
5 8 (4.47%) CCNP
5 8 (4.47%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (4.47%) CISSP
5 8 (4.47%) CompTIA Security+
6 7 (3.91%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (3.91%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (3.91%) Network+ Certification
7 6 (3.35%) DBS Check
8 5 (2.79%) Azure Certification
8 5 (2.79%) MCSA
8 5 (2.79%) MCSE
9 3 (1.68%) CISM
9 3 (1.68%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (3.91%) GDPR
3 6 (3.35%) NIST
4 4 (2.23%) SLA
5 1 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 15 (8.38%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (5.03%) Hyper-V
3 6 (3.35%) Docker
4 5 (2.79%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (2.79%) vSphere
5 3 (1.68%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 34 (18.99%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (10.06%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 14 (7.82%) SCCM
3 14 (7.82%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (5.59%) Terraform
5 7 (3.91%) Ansible
6 6 (3.35%) Kubernetes
6 6 (3.35%) Microsoft Clustering
6 6 (3.35%) Nagios
7 5 (2.79%) CASB
7 5 (2.79%) Nessus
8 4 (2.23%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (1.12%) AirWatch
9 2 (1.12%) CA Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 121 (67.60%) Microsoft
2 27 (15.08%) ServiceNow
3 20 (11.17%) VMware
4 18 (10.06%) Citrix
5 17 (9.50%) Bomgar
5 17 (9.50%) iManage
6 14 (7.82%) Cisco
7 9 (5.03%) Red Hat
8 8 (4.47%) CyberArk
8 8 (4.47%) Google
9 7 (3.91%) SolarWinds
10 6 (3.35%) Remedy
11 5 (2.79%) Tenable
12 4 (2.23%) F5
12 4 (2.23%) Meraki
12 4 (2.23%) Splunk
12 4 (2.23%) Veeam
13 2 (1.12%) Bloomberg
13 2 (1.12%) HP
13 2 (1.12%) LogRhythm