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 7 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 41 45 45
Rank change year-on-year +4 0 -23
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 176 99 84
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.66% 4.51% 3.54%
As % of the System Software category 40.46% 40.08% 39.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 127 62 67
10th Percentile £140 £150 £191
25th Percentile £185 £201 £221
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £282 £329 £425
Median % change year-on-year -14.35% -22.53% +57.41%
75th Percentile £525 £463 £520
90th Percentile £632 £513 £643
England median daily rate £450 £445 £450
% change year-on-year +1.12% -1.11% +12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 0 4
10th Percentile £17.09 - £18.35
25th Percentile £60.18 - £18.89
Median hourly rate £123.38 - £23.34
75th Percentile £178.75 - £29.69
90th Percentile - - £31.38
England median hourly rate £47.54 £23.00 £17.80
% change year-on-year +106.70% +29.21% -6.32%

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 435 247 213
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 11.51% 11.24% 8.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 285 161 151
10th Percentile £181 £200 £213
25th Percentile £278 £339 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £572 £538 £593
90th Percentile £642 £625 £670
England median daily rate £500 £500 £515
% change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 1 6
10th Percentile £17.92 - £18.59
25th Percentile £62.00 £76.25 £20.95
Median hourly rate £74.26 £82.50 £29.25
Median % change year-on-year -9.99% +182.05% +53.95%
75th Percentile £178.75 £88.75 £70.79
90th Percentile - - £84.67
England median hourly rate £60.00 £38.75 £23.80
% change year-on-year +54.84% +62.82% -40.50%

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 7 August 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 7 August 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 7 August 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 +21 89 £450 -5.26% 49
Cheshire -11 38 £363 +8.70% 11
Merseyside +2 30 £148 -1.67% 13
Lancashire -7 14 £343 +30.48% 19
Cumbria -10 5 £400 +68.42% 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 37 (21.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (16.48%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.70%) IIS
Applications
1 10 (5.68%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.70%) Chatbot
2 3 (1.70%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (2.84%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 112 (63.64%) Microsoft 365
2 80 (45.45%) Azure
3 69 (39.20%) Entra ID
4 14 (7.95%) GCP
5 12 (6.82%) Power Platform
6 11 (6.25%) AWS
7 9 (5.11%) Google Workspace
7 9 (5.11%) Power Automate
7 9 (5.11%) PowerApps
8 8 (4.55%) OneDrive
8 8 (4.55%) SaaS
9 7 (3.98%) Google Drive
10 6 (3.41%) Microsoft Copilot
11 5 (2.84%) Azure DevOps
11 5 (2.84%) Mimecast
12 4 (2.27%) Azure Monitor
12 4 (2.27%) Serverless
13 3 (1.70%) Asana
13 3 (1.70%) GitHub
13 3 (1.70%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 28 (15.91%) DNS
2 20 (11.36%) VPN
3 15 (8.52%) TCP/IP
4 13 (7.39%) DHCP
5 11 (6.25%) Firewall
6 7 (3.98%) SAN
7 6 (3.41%) LAN
7 6 (3.41%) VLAN
8 5 (2.84%) Network Security
9 4 (2.27%) NAS
9 4 (2.27%) SSL
9 4 (2.27%) WAN
9 4 (2.27%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (1.70%) DKIM
10 3 (1.70%) DMARC
10 3 (1.70%) WebEx
11 2 (1.14%) PABX
11 2 (1.14%) VoIP
11 2 (1.14%) Wireless
12 1 (0.57%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.27%) Power BI
1 4 (2.27%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 10 (5.68%) JIRA
2 2 (1.14%) Git
2 2 (1.14%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 55 (31.25%) Social Skills
2 28 (15.91%) Legal
3 26 (14.77%) Finance
4 23 (13.07%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (10.23%) Public Sector
6 6 (3.41%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.84%) Banking
7 5 (2.84%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.84%) Games
8 3 (1.70%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.70%) Retail
9 2 (1.14%) Advertising
9 2 (1.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.57%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.57%) Military
Job Titles
1 38 (21.59%) IT Support
2 36 (20.45%) Support Engineer
3 29 (16.48%) IT Engineer
3 29 (16.48%) IT Support Engineer
4 28 (15.91%) Analyst
5 19 (10.80%) Service Analyst
5 19 (10.80%) Service Desk Analyst
6 13 (7.39%) 1st Line Support
6 13 (7.39%) Administrator
7 11 (6.25%) IT Analyst
8 10 (5.68%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 10 (5.68%) 2nd Line Support
9 9 (5.11%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
10 8 (4.55%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
11 7 (3.98%) Architect
11 7 (3.98%) Microsoft Engineer
11 7 (3.98%) Support Analyst
12 6 (3.41%) 1st/2nd Line Support Engineer
12 6 (3.41%) IT Support Analyst
12 6 (3.41%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (6.82%) SailPoint
2 9 (5.11%) OAuth
3 8 (4.55%) SAML
4 6 (3.41%) LDAP
5 5 (2.84%) REST
6 4 (2.27%) ARM Templates
7 3 (1.70%) JDBC
7 3 (1.70%) OpenID
7 3 (1.70%) Web Services
7 3 (1.70%) XMPP
8 2 (1.14%) Azure Blueprints
8 2 (1.14%) JSON
8 2 (1.14%) ODBC
8 2 (1.14%) Software Packaging
8 2 (1.14%) XML
9 1 (0.57%) 802.1X
9 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Graph
9 1 (0.57%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 26 (14.77%) Onboarding
2 9 (5.11%) Security Posture
3 8 (4.55%) Driving Licence
3 8 (4.55%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (3.41%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.84%) Animation
5 5 (2.84%) Cloud Security Posture
6 4 (2.27%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (2.27%) Product Ownership
7 3 (1.70%) Cloud Native
7 3 (1.70%) Fat Client
7 3 (1.70%) Freedom of Information
7 3 (1.70%) PKI
7 3 (1.70%) Thin Client
8 2 (1.14%) AI Agents
8 2 (1.14%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.14%) Handset
8 2 (1.14%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (1.14%) iPhone
8 2 (1.14%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 111 (63.07%) Windows
2 57 (32.39%) Windows 10
3 24 (13.64%) Windows Server
4 10 (5.68%) Linux
5 5 (2.84%) Unix
6 4 (2.27%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.70%) Android
7 3 (1.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (1.70%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (1.14%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.57%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (33.52%) ITIL
2 50 (28.41%) Customer Service
3 39 (22.16%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (16.48%) Identity Access Management
5 25 (14.20%) Continuous Improvement
6 19 (10.80%) Migration
7 16 (9.09%) RBAC
7 16 (9.09%) Service Management
8 14 (7.95%) ITSM
9 13 (7.39%) Infrastructure as Code
10 12 (6.82%) Knowledge Transfer
11 10 (5.68%) Cloud Security
11 10 (5.68%) Cybersecurity
11 10 (5.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 10 (5.68%) Project Delivery
12 9 (5.11%) CI/CD
12 9 (5.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 9 (5.11%) Ticket Management
13 8 (4.55%) Digital Transformation Programme
13 8 (4.55%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 23 (13.07%) PowerShell
2 9 (5.11%) Bicep
3 8 (4.55%) Python
4 4 (2.27%) Java
4 4 (2.27%) SQL
5 3 (1.70%) Bash
6 2 (1.14%) BeanShell
6 2 (1.14%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.57%) Google Apps Script
7 1 (0.57%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 29 (16.48%) Security Cleared
2 22 (12.50%) SC Cleared
3 21 (11.93%) Microsoft Certification
4 15 (8.52%) Degree
5 7 (3.98%) A+ Certification
5 7 (3.98%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (3.98%) CISSP
6 6 (3.41%) Azure Certification
6 6 (3.41%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (3.41%) MCSE
6 6 (3.41%) Network+ Certification
7 5 (2.84%) CompTIA Security+
7 5 (2.84%) DBS Check
7 5 (2.84%) ITIL Certification
7 5 (2.84%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 5 (2.84%) MCSA
8 2 (1.14%) AWS Certification
8 2 (1.14%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.57%) CCIE
9 1 (0.57%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.25%) SLA
2 7 (3.98%) NIST
3 4 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.70%) GDPR
5 1 (0.57%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 6 (3.41%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (2.84%) Docker
2 5 (2.84%) Hyper-V
2 5 (2.84%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (1.14%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.57%) Microsoft App-V
4 1 (0.57%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 36 (20.45%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (9.66%) SCCM
3 16 (9.09%) Single Sign-On
4 11 (6.25%) Terraform
5 7 (3.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (2.84%) CASB
6 5 (2.84%) Kubernetes
6 5 (2.84%) Nessus
7 4 (2.27%) Ansible
8 3 (1.70%) McAfee ePO
8 3 (1.70%) WSUS
9 2 (1.14%) AirWatch
9 2 (1.14%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (1.14%) Progress Chef
9 2 (1.14%) vCenter Server
9 2 (1.14%) WMI
10 1 (0.57%) CA Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Clustering
10 1 (0.57%) NetApp OnCommand
10 1 (0.57%) vMotion
Vendors
1 131 (74.43%) Microsoft
2 47 (26.70%) ServiceNow
3 19 (10.80%) iManage
4 12 (6.82%) Bomgar
4 12 (6.82%) Google
5 10 (5.68%) BeyondTrust
5 10 (5.68%) CyberArk
5 10 (5.68%) Remedy
6 9 (5.11%) VMware
7 7 (3.98%) Cisco
8 6 (3.41%) Perforce
9 5 (2.84%) Citrix
9 5 (2.84%) Okta
9 5 (2.84%) Sophos
9 5 (2.84%) Tenable
10 4 (2.27%) Splunk
11 3 (1.70%) McAfee
11 3 (1.70%) Red Hat
12 2 (1.14%) Bloomberg
12 2 (1.14%) HP