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 2 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 19 25
Rank change year-on-year -13 +6 -7
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 166 171 179
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.91% 8.31% 6.35%
As % of the System Software category 39.81% 56.81% 59.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 112 107 127
10th Percentile £133 £148 £158
25th Percentile £151 £185 £207
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £320 £350 £350
Median % change year-on-year -8.57% - -1.41%
75th Percentile £509 £470 £475
90th Percentile £630 £538 £595
England median daily rate £450 £425 £385
% change year-on-year +5.88% +10.39% -7.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 8 26
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.18 -
25th Percentile £16.38 £17.33 £15.50
Median hourly rate £41.94 £22.09 £17.61
Median % change year-on-year +89.86% +25.44% -11.95%
75th Percentile £74.26 £24.18 £18.00
90th Percentile - £25.63 £19.50
England median hourly rate £22.27 £22.09 £18.00
% change year-on-year +0.79% +22.72% -7.69%

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 417 301 299
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.84% 14.62% 10.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 271 185 225
10th Percentile £150 £163 £180
25th Percentile £329 £250 £302
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £565 £538 £550
90th Percentile £638 £585 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 9 32
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.45 £15.50
25th Percentile £19.50 £17.44 £16.06
Median hourly rate £42.69 £22.09 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +93.23% +24.66% -59.55%
75th Percentile £74.26 £24.18 £20.19
90th Percentile £76.85 £38.70 £45.85
England median hourly rate £34.00 £30.75 £31.50
% change year-on-year +10.57% -2.38% -18.18%

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 2 March 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 2 March 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 2 March 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
Merseyside -4 51 £138 -8.33% 5
Cheshire -12 50 £453 +25.31% 20
Manchester -32 42 £400 +3.90% 27
Lancashire -3 21 £550 +83.33% 17
Cumbria -11 2 £513 -2.38% 4
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 43 (25.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (19.28%) SharePoint
3 7 (4.22%) IIS
4 6 (3.61%) Apache
5 5 (3.01%) iPlanet
5 5 (3.01%) JBoss
5 5 (3.01%) WebSphere
5 5 (3.01%) WebSphere Application Server
6 4 (2.41%) Exchange Server 2013
6 4 (2.41%) Skype for Business
7 3 (1.81%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.60%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 7 (4.22%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (2.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 4 (2.41%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.60%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 99 (59.64%) Microsoft 365
2 88 (53.01%) Azure
3 56 (33.73%) Entra ID
4 15 (9.04%) OneDrive
5 12 (7.23%) AWS
5 12 (7.23%) Power Platform
6 7 (4.22%) SaaS
7 6 (3.61%) PowerApps
8 5 (3.01%) Microsoft Copilot
8 5 (3.01%) Nutanix
8 5 (3.01%) OpenShift
8 5 (3.01%) Power Automate
9 3 (1.81%) Azure Logic Apps
9 3 (1.81%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (1.81%) Azure Sentinel
9 3 (1.81%) Cloud Computing
9 3 (1.81%) GCP
10 2 (1.20%) Azure DevOps
11 1 (0.60%) Dynamics 365
11 1 (0.60%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 28 (16.87%) DNS
1 28 (16.87%) Firewall
2 15 (9.04%) Wi-Fi
3 14 (8.43%) TCP/IP
4 12 (7.23%) Kerberos
5 10 (6.02%) DHCP
5 10 (6.02%) VLAN
5 10 (6.02%) WebEx
6 8 (4.82%) Network Security
7 6 (3.61%) Internet
7 6 (3.61%) NetScaler
7 6 (3.61%) Unified Communications
7 6 (3.61%) WAN
8 5 (3.01%) SSL
8 5 (3.01%) VPN
9 4 (2.41%) BGP
9 4 (2.41%) LAN
9 4 (2.41%) Skype
9 4 (2.41%) Wireless
10 3 (1.81%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.01%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.60%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (4.22%) Git
2 5 (3.01%) Bitbucket Server
2 5 (3.01%) CA Release Automation
2 5 (3.01%) Jenkins
2 5 (3.01%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (2.41%) JIRA
4 1 (0.60%) MSI
General
1 56 (33.73%) Social Skills
2 28 (16.87%) Analytical Skills
3 26 (15.66%) Legal
4 19 (11.45%) Finance
5 13 (7.83%) Public Sector
6 4 (2.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (2.41%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.81%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.81%) Retail
7 3 (1.81%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.20%) Military
9 1 (0.60%) Banking
Job Titles
1 34 (20.48%) IT Support
2 31 (18.67%) Analyst
3 21 (12.65%) Support Analyst
3 21 (12.65%) Support Engineer
4 15 (9.04%) 1st Line Support
4 15 (9.04%) IT Analyst
4 15 (9.04%) IT Engineer
4 15 (9.04%) IT Support Engineer
5 13 (7.83%) IT Support Analyst
6 12 (7.23%) Architect
6 12 (7.23%) Platform Engineer
7 11 (6.63%) Senior
8 10 (6.02%) Administrator
9 9 (5.42%) IT Technician
9 9 (5.42%) Support Technician
10 8 (4.82%) Deployment Engineer
10 8 (4.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 8 (4.82%) Operations Analyst
11 6 (3.61%) IT Support Technician
11 6 (3.61%) Server Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (10.24%) LDAP
2 10 (6.02%) XMPP
3 6 (3.61%) OAuth
3 6 (3.61%) OpenID
3 6 (3.61%) SAML
4 2 (1.20%) ARM Templates
4 2 (1.20%) JSON
5 1 (0.60%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.60%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.43%) Onboarding
1 14 (8.43%) Product Ownership
2 10 (6.02%) Driving Licence
3 8 (4.82%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (3.61%) Clustering
4 6 (3.61%) Security Posture
4 6 (3.61%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (3.01%) Cloud Security Posture
5 5 (3.01%) Data Centre
5 5 (3.01%) Fat Client
5 5 (3.01%) Low-Code
5 5 (3.01%) Private Cloud
5 5 (3.01%) Thin Client
6 4 (2.41%) Cyber Threat
6 4 (2.41%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.81%) PKI
8 2 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.20%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.60%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.60%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 108 (65.06%) Windows
2 40 (24.10%) Windows 10
3 31 (18.67%) Windows Server
4 24 (14.46%) Linux
5 10 (6.02%) Unix
6 9 (5.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (5.42%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (2.41%) Mac OS
7 4 (2.41%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (1.20%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.20%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (29.52%) Customer Service
2 42 (25.30%) Problem-Solving
3 34 (20.48%) Identity Access Management
4 27 (16.27%) ITIL
5 18 (10.84%) Cybersecurity
6 16 (9.64%) Platform Engineering
7 15 (9.04%) Service Management
8 13 (7.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 13 (7.83%) Migration
9 12 (7.23%) DevOps
9 12 (7.23%) User Experience
10 11 (6.63%) Acceptance Criteria
10 11 (6.63%) Disaster Recovery
10 11 (6.63%) ITSM
10 11 (6.63%) Problem Management
10 11 (6.63%) Ticket Management
10 11 (6.63%) User Stories
10 11 (6.63%) Validation
11 10 (6.02%) Digital Transformation Programme
11 10 (6.02%) Product Requirements
Programming Languages
1 50 (30.12%) PowerShell
2 14 (8.43%) Python
3 12 (7.23%) Bash
4 9 (5.42%) Perl
5 5 (3.01%) Groovy
5 5 (3.01%) Shell Script
6 2 (1.20%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (1.20%) SQL
7 1 (0.60%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 34 (20.48%) Security Cleared
2 26 (15.66%) Degree
3 25 (15.06%) SC Cleared
4 14 (8.43%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (5.42%) CISSP
5 9 (5.42%) CompTIA Security+
6 8 (4.82%) CCDP
6 8 (4.82%) CCNA
6 8 (4.82%) CCNP
6 8 (4.82%) Cisco Certification
7 7 (4.22%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (3.01%) MCSA
8 5 (3.01%) MCSE
9 4 (2.41%) Azure Certification
9 4 (2.41%) CISM
10 3 (1.81%) A+ Certification
10 3 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (1.81%) Network+ Certification
11 2 (1.20%) DBS Check
12 1 (0.60%) ITIL Certification
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
System Software
1 15 (9.04%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (6.02%) Docker
3 9 (5.42%) Hyper-V
4 5 (3.01%) Tivoli Directory Server
4 5 (3.01%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (3.01%) vSphere
5 1 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 35 (21.08%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (14.46%) SCCM
3 15 (9.04%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 15 (9.04%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (4.82%) Terraform
5 7 (4.22%) Ansible
5 7 (4.22%) CA Single Sign-On
6 6 (3.61%) Microsoft Clustering
6 6 (3.61%) Nagios
7 5 (3.01%) CA Wily
7 5 (3.01%) CASB
7 5 (3.01%) Kubernetes
7 5 (3.01%) Nessus
7 5 (3.01%) Progress Chef
7 5 (3.01%) Tivoli
8 3 (1.81%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 113 (68.07%) Microsoft
2 33 (19.88%) ServiceNow
3 21 (12.65%) VMware
4 20 (12.05%) Citrix
5 15 (9.04%) Cisco
6 14 (8.43%) Bomgar
6 14 (8.43%) iManage
7 9 (5.42%) Red Hat
7 9 (5.42%) Splunk
8 7 (4.22%) SolarWinds
9 6 (3.61%) Remedy
10 5 (3.01%) AppDynamics
10 5 (3.01%) Broadcom
10 5 (3.01%) CyberArk
10 5 (3.01%) IBM
10 5 (3.01%) Meraki
10 5 (3.01%) Oracle
10 5 (3.01%) Tenable
11 4 (2.41%) F5
11 4 (2.41%) Veeam