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 17 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 36 27 22
Rank change year-on-year -9 -5 -7
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 142 130 189
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.70% 6.03% 7.23%
As % of the System Software category 38.17% 50.00% 56.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 94 75 139
10th Percentile £134 £147 £165
25th Percentile £157 £175 £207
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £321 £275 £325
Median % change year-on-year +16.82% -15.38% -7.14%
75th Percentile £480 £463 £438
90th Percentile £550 £555 £548
England median daily rate £450 £423 £400
% change year-on-year +6.51% +5.63% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 10 20
10th Percentile - £16.73 £16.25
25th Percentile £15.50 £17.44 £17.66
Median hourly rate £18.87 £22.09 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.58% +19.41% -7.50%
75th Percentile £41.94 £24.18 £19.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £29.35 £24.50
England median hourly rate £22.41 £23.80 £19.31
% change year-on-year -5.85% +23.27% +3.66%

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 372 260 337
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.93% 12.05% 12.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 241 150 256
10th Percentile £163 £163 £191
25th Percentile £315 £281 £270
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.17%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £538
90th Percentile £638 £588 £645
England median daily rate £500 £515 £500
% change year-on-year -2.91% +3.00% -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 11 32
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.00 £15.80
25th Percentile £15.97 £17.44 £16.48
Median hourly rate £19.50 £22.09 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.72% +19.41% -57.76%
75th Percentile £61.90 £26.59 £34.21
90th Percentile £74.26 £32.50 £62.06
England median hourly rate £47.50 £31.75 £40.33
% change year-on-year +49.61% -21.26% +61.30%

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 17 December 2025.

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 17 December 2025.

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 17 December 2025. 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 +2 59 £348 -13.13% 25
Manchester -22 33 £400 - 47
Merseyside -5 29 £138 -8.33% 19
Lancashire +7 19 £550 +120.00% 29
Cumbria +2 2 £513 -
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 36 (25.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (21.83%) SharePoint
3 13 (9.15%) IIS
3 13 (9.15%) JBoss
4 11 (7.75%) Apache
4 11 (7.75%) WebSphere
5 10 (7.04%) iPlanet
5 10 (7.04%) WebSphere Application Server
6 7 (4.93%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (4.93%) Skype for Business
7 5 (3.52%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.70%) Confluence
8 1 (0.70%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 11 (7.75%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (4.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (4.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (4.93%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 83 (58.45%) Microsoft 365
2 60 (42.25%) Azure
3 35 (24.65%) Entra ID
4 24 (16.90%) AWS
5 16 (11.27%) OneDrive
6 11 (7.75%) OpenShift
7 9 (6.34%) SaaS
8 6 (4.23%) Power Platform
9 5 (3.52%) GCP
10 4 (2.82%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (2.11%) Azure Logic Apps
11 3 (2.11%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (2.11%) Cloud Computing
12 2 (1.41%) Nutanix
13 1 (0.70%) Dynamics 365
13 1 (0.70%) Google Workspace
13 1 (0.70%) Mimecast
13 1 (0.70%) PaaS
13 1 (0.70%) PowerApps
13 1 (0.70%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 19 (13.38%) DNS
2 17 (11.97%) Firewall
3 12 (8.45%) Wi-Fi
4 11 (7.75%) TCP/IP
5 10 (7.04%) Kerberos
6 8 (5.63%) Internet
6 8 (5.63%) VLAN
6 8 (5.63%) WebEx
7 7 (4.93%) Network Security
7 7 (4.93%) Skype
7 7 (4.93%) VPN
8 6 (4.23%) Unified Communications
8 6 (4.23%) WAN
9 5 (3.52%) LAN
9 5 (3.52%) SSL
10 3 (2.11%) BGP
10 3 (2.11%) DHCP
10 3 (2.11%) NetScaler
10 3 (2.11%) SAN
10 3 (2.11%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (7.04%) Oracle Database
2 3 (2.11%) RDBMS
2 3 (2.11%) Relational Database
3 2 (1.41%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (1.41%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (9.15%) Git
1 13 (9.15%) Jenkins
2 12 (8.45%) Bitbucket Server
2 12 (8.45%) CA Release Automation
3 11 (7.75%) Sonatype Nexus
4 5 (3.52%) JIRA
5 3 (2.11%) SonarQube
5 3 (2.11%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.70%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.70%) MSI
General
1 58 (40.85%) Social Skills
2 21 (14.79%) Analytical Skills
3 18 (12.68%) Finance
4 15 (10.56%) Legal
5 9 (6.34%) Public Sector
6 6 (4.23%) Manufacturing
6 6 (4.23%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (2.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (2.11%) Japanese Language
8 3 (2.11%) Military
9 2 (1.41%) Banking
9 2 (1.41%) Retail
10 1 (0.70%) Electronics
10 1 (0.70%) Italian Language
10 1 (0.70%) Marketing
10 1 (0.70%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.70%) Polish Language
10 1 (0.70%) Spanish Language
10 1 (0.70%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 29 (20.42%) Support Engineer
2 26 (18.31%) IT Support
3 21 (14.79%) Analyst
4 17 (11.97%) IT Engineer
5 16 (11.27%) IT Support Engineer
6 14 (9.86%) Support Analyst
7 12 (8.45%) IT Technician
7 12 (8.45%) Platform Engineer
7 12 (8.45%) Senior
7 12 (8.45%) Support Technician
8 10 (7.04%) 2nd Line Support
9 9 (6.34%) Operations Analyst
10 8 (5.63%) Deployment Engineer
10 8 (5.63%) DevOps Engineer
10 8 (5.63%) Server Engineer
11 7 (4.93%) Architect
11 7 (4.93%) IT Support Technician
11 7 (4.93%) Operational Support Analyst
11 7 (4.93%) Operations Support Analyst
12 6 (4.23%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (9.86%) LDAP
2 12 (8.45%) OAuth
2 12 (8.45%) SAML
3 11 (7.75%) OpenID
4 8 (5.63%) XMPP
5 3 (2.11%) Elastic Stack
5 3 (2.11%) JSON
5 3 (2.11%) Spring Boot
6 2 (1.41%) Middleware
7 1 (0.70%) 802.1X
7 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.70%) OAuth2
7 1 (0.70%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 16 (11.27%) Onboarding
2 11 (7.75%) Product Ownership
3 9 (6.34%) Clustering
3 9 (6.34%) Driving Licence
3 9 (6.34%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (4.23%) Data Centre
4 6 (4.23%) Video Conferencing
5 5 (3.52%) Low-Code
6 3 (2.11%) Cloud Security Posture
6 3 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (2.11%) Private Cloud
6 3 (2.11%) Replication
6 3 (2.11%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.41%) CMDB
7 2 (1.41%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (1.41%) Enterprise Storage
7 2 (1.41%) Fat Client
7 2 (1.41%) Legacy Applications
7 2 (1.41%) PKI
7 2 (1.41%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 101 (71.13%) Windows
2 35 (24.65%) Windows Server
3 27 (19.01%) Linux
4 25 (17.61%) Windows 10
5 12 (8.45%) Unix
6 11 (7.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (4.93%) Mac OS
8 6 (4.23%) Apple iOS
9 4 (2.82%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (1.41%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.70%) Android
11 1 (0.70%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.70%) Windows 8
11 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (22.54%) Customer Service
2 25 (17.61%) Problem-Solving
3 22 (15.49%) Identity Access Management
3 22 (15.49%) Migration
4 18 (12.68%) Cybersecurity
5 17 (11.97%) ITIL
6 16 (11.27%) Problem Management
7 14 (9.86%) DevOps
7 14 (9.86%) Validation
8 13 (9.15%) Disaster Recovery
8 13 (9.15%) Platform Engineering
9 12 (8.45%) CI/CD
9 12 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
9 12 (8.45%) ITSM
9 12 (8.45%) Service Delivery
10 11 (7.75%) Stakeholder Management
10 11 (7.75%) User Experience
11 10 (7.04%) Asset Management
12 9 (6.34%) Analytics
12 9 (6.34%) Ticket Management
Programming Languages
1 31 (21.83%) PowerShell
2 13 (9.15%) Python
3 11 (7.75%) Bash
3 11 (7.75%) Perl
4 10 (7.04%) Groovy
5 8 (5.63%) Shell Script
6 3 (2.11%) Kusto Query Language
6 3 (2.11%) SQL
7 2 (1.41%) Java
Qualifications
1 26 (18.31%) Security Cleared
2 22 (15.49%) Degree
3 17 (11.97%) SC Cleared
4 8 (5.63%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (4.93%) CCDP
5 7 (4.93%) CCNA
5 7 (4.93%) CCNP
5 7 (4.93%) Cisco Certification
5 7 (4.93%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (4.23%) DBS Check
7 5 (3.52%) AWS Certification
7 5 (3.52%) CISSP
7 5 (3.52%) CompTIA Security+
8 4 (2.82%) Azure Certification
9 3 (2.11%) MCSA
9 3 (2.11%) MCSE
10 2 (1.41%) A+ Certification
10 2 (1.41%) CISM
11 1 (0.70%) CBAP
11 1 (0.70%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.23%) GDPR
2 5 (3.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (2.11%) NIST
4 2 (1.41%) SLA
5 1 (0.70%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.70%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.70%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 12 (8.45%) Docker
2 11 (7.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (5.63%) Tivoli Directory Server
4 6 (4.23%) Hyper-V
5 3 (2.11%) vSphere
6 2 (1.41%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (1.41%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 38 (26.76%) Microsoft Intune
2 28 (19.72%) SCCM
3 11 (7.75%) Progress Chef
3 11 (7.75%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (7.04%) CA Single Sign-On
4 10 (7.04%) CA Wily
5 9 (6.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 8 (5.63%) Tivoli
7 7 (4.93%) Ansible
7 7 (4.93%) Terraform
8 6 (4.23%) Microsoft Clustering
8 6 (4.23%) Nagios
9 5 (3.52%) Kubernetes
10 3 (2.11%) CASB
10 3 (2.11%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (2.11%) Kibana
10 3 (2.11%) Nessus
10 3 (2.11%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 98 (69.01%) Microsoft
2 22 (15.49%) ServiceNow
3 20 (14.08%) Citrix
4 19 (13.38%) VMware
5 16 (11.27%) Splunk
6 15 (10.56%) Cisco
7 13 (9.15%) AppDynamics
8 12 (8.45%) IBM
9 11 (7.75%) Oracle
9 11 (7.75%) Red Hat
10 10 (7.04%) Broadcom
11 9 (6.34%) SolarWinds
12 5 (3.52%) Apple
12 5 (3.52%) Meraki
13 4 (2.82%) Google
14 3 (2.11%) Bomgar
14 3 (2.11%) Cloudera
14 3 (2.11%) CyberArk
14 3 (2.11%) Remedy
14 3 (2.11%) Veeam