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

6 months to
3 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 39 31 22
Rank change year-on-year -8 -9 -6
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 125 118 185
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.07% 5.23% 6.97%
As % of the System Software category 35.31% 45.38% 54.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 83 64 138
10th Percentile £134 £152 £174
25th Percentile £178 £183 £211
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £305 £378 £325
Median % change year-on-year -19.31% +16.31% -7.14%
75th Percentile £488 £500 £438
90th Percentile £550 £581 £548
England median daily rate £447 £423 £400
% change year-on-year +5.73% +5.70% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 10 19
10th Percentile - £16.73 £16.25
25th Percentile £15.50 £17.44 £17.74
Median hourly rate £18.87 £22.09 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.58% +19.41% -7.50%
75th Percentile £36.46 £24.18 £19.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £29.35 £25.25
England median hourly rate £23.00 £23.80 £19.31
% change year-on-year -3.36% +23.27% +0.14%

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 354 260 341
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.35% 11.53% 12.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 234 147 262
10th Percentile £190 £175 £200
25th Percentile £325 £356 £270
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £428 £475 £431
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +10.14% -3.09%
75th Percentile £539 £566 £538
90th Percentile £639 £593 £645
England median daily rate £500 £515 £500
% change year-on-year -2.91% +3.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 11 31
10th Percentile - £17.00 £15.75
25th Percentile £15.50 £17.44 £16.88
Median hourly rate £18.94 £22.09 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.28% +19.41% -39.05%
75th Percentile £69.00 £26.59 £37.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £32.50 £63.75
England median hourly rate £37.73 £43.08 £40.00
% change year-on-year -12.44% +7.71% +60.00%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 +4 56 £305 -35.79% 24
Manchester -26 29 £400 -8.57% 36
Merseyside -9 20 £138 -21.43% 17
Lancashire +1 18 £550 +120.00% 32
Cumbria -2 2 £513 - 1
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 34 (27.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 29 (23.20%) SharePoint
3 13 (10.40%) JBoss
4 12 (9.60%) IIS
5 11 (8.80%) Apache
5 11 (8.80%) WebSphere
6 10 (8.00%) iPlanet
6 10 (8.00%) WebSphere Application Server
7 7 (5.60%) Exchange Server 2013
7 7 (5.60%) Skype for Business
8 5 (4.00%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.80%) Confluence
9 1 (0.80%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 11 (8.80%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (5.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (5.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (5.60%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 72 (57.60%) Microsoft 365
2 50 (40.00%) Azure
3 30 (24.00%) Entra ID
4 21 (16.80%) AWS
5 15 (12.00%) OneDrive
6 11 (8.80%) OpenShift
7 8 (6.40%) SaaS
8 5 (4.00%) Power Platform
9 4 (3.20%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (2.40%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (2.40%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (1.60%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (1.60%) GCP
12 1 (0.80%) Azure Stack
12 1 (0.80%) Google Workspace
12 1 (0.80%) IaaS
12 1 (0.80%) Nutanix
12 1 (0.80%) PaaS
12 1 (0.80%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 17 (13.60%) DNS
2 15 (12.00%) Firewall
3 10 (8.00%) Kerberos
4 9 (7.20%) Wi-Fi
5 8 (6.40%) TCP/IP
5 8 (6.40%) WebEx
6 7 (5.60%) Internet
6 7 (5.60%) Skype
7 6 (4.80%) Unified Communications
7 6 (4.80%) VLAN
8 5 (4.00%) VPN
9 4 (3.20%) SSL
9 4 (3.20%) WAN
10 3 (2.40%) BGP
10 3 (2.40%) LAN
10 3 (2.40%) Remote Desktop
10 3 (2.40%) SAN
10 3 (2.40%) Software-Defined Networking
11 2 (1.60%) IPsec
11 2 (1.60%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (8.00%) Oracle Database
2 3 (2.40%) RDBMS
2 3 (2.40%) Relational Database
3 2 (1.60%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (1.60%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (10.40%) Git
1 13 (10.40%) Jenkins
2 12 (9.60%) Bitbucket Server
2 12 (9.60%) CA Release Automation
3 11 (8.80%) Sonatype Nexus
4 4 (3.20%) JIRA
5 3 (2.40%) SonarQube
5 3 (2.40%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.80%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.80%) MSI
General
1 56 (44.80%) Social Skills
2 17 (13.60%) Analytical Skills
2 17 (13.60%) Finance
3 14 (11.20%) Legal
4 8 (6.40%) Public Sector
5 6 (4.80%) Manufacturing
6 5 (4.00%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (3.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (2.40%) Japanese Language
8 3 (2.40%) Military
9 2 (1.60%) Banking
9 2 (1.60%) Retail
10 1 (0.80%) Automotive
10 1 (0.80%) Electronics
10 1 (0.80%) Italian Language
10 1 (0.80%) Marketing
10 1 (0.80%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.80%) Polish Language
10 1 (0.80%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 28 (22.40%) Support Engineer
2 23 (18.40%) IT Support
3 16 (12.80%) IT Engineer
4 15 (12.00%) Analyst
4 15 (12.00%) IT Support Engineer
5 12 (9.60%) IT Technician
5 12 (9.60%) Senior
5 12 (9.60%) Support Technician
6 11 (8.80%) Platform Engineer
7 10 (8.00%) 2nd Line Support
7 10 (8.00%) Support Analyst
8 8 (6.40%) DevOps Engineer
8 8 (6.40%) Operations Analyst
9 7 (5.60%) Deployment Engineer
9 7 (5.60%) Desktop Engineer
9 7 (5.60%) IT Support Technician
9 7 (5.60%) Operational Support Analyst
9 7 (5.60%) Operations Support Analyst
10 6 (4.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 6 (4.80%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (11.20%) LDAP
2 12 (9.60%) OAuth
2 12 (9.60%) SAML
3 11 (8.80%) OpenID
4 8 (6.40%) XMPP
5 3 (2.40%) Elastic Stack
5 3 (2.40%) JSON
5 3 (2.40%) Spring Boot
6 2 (1.60%) Middleware
7 1 (0.80%) 802.1X
7 1 (0.80%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.80%) OAuth2
7 1 (0.80%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 13 (10.40%) Onboarding
2 11 (8.80%) Product Ownership
3 9 (7.20%) Data Centre
4 8 (6.40%) Driving Licence
4 8 (6.40%) Enterprise Software
5 6 (4.80%) Video Conferencing
6 5 (4.00%) Low-Code
7 3 (2.40%) Cloud Security Posture
7 3 (2.40%) Clustering
7 3 (2.40%) Replication
7 3 (2.40%) Security Posture
8 2 (1.60%) CMDB
8 2 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.60%) Fat Client
8 2 (1.60%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (1.60%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.60%) Thin Client
9 1 (0.80%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.80%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.80%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 85 (68.00%) Windows
2 29 (23.20%) Windows Server
3 27 (21.60%) Linux
4 16 (12.80%) Windows 10
5 12 (9.60%) Unix
6 11 (8.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (6.40%) Apple iOS
8 4 (3.20%) Android
9 3 (2.40%) Mac OS
10 2 (1.60%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.80%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.80%) Windows 8
11 1 (0.80%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (24.00%) Customer Service
2 23 (18.40%) Problem-Solving
3 22 (17.60%) Migration
4 18 (14.40%) Cybersecurity
4 18 (14.40%) Identity Access Management
5 16 (12.80%) Problem Management
6 15 (12.00%) ITIL
7 13 (10.40%) DevOps
7 13 (10.40%) Validation
8 12 (9.60%) CI/CD
8 12 (9.60%) ITSM
8 12 (9.60%) Platform Engineering
8 12 (9.60%) Service Delivery
9 9 (7.20%) Asset Management
9 9 (7.20%) Ticket Management
10 8 (6.40%) Change Control
10 8 (6.40%) Continuous Improvement
10 8 (6.40%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 8 (6.40%) Stakeholder Management
11 7 (5.60%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (18.40%) PowerShell
2 12 (9.60%) Python
3 11 (8.80%) Perl
4 10 (8.00%) Groovy
5 8 (6.40%) Bash
5 8 (6.40%) Shell Script
6 3 (2.40%) Kusto Query Language
7 2 (1.60%) Java
7 2 (1.60%) SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (19.20%) Security Cleared
2 22 (17.60%) Degree
3 16 (12.80%) SC Cleared
4 7 (5.60%) BPSS Clearance
4 7 (5.60%) CCDP
4 7 (5.60%) CCNA
4 7 (5.60%) CCNP
4 7 (5.60%) Cisco Certification
4 7 (5.60%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (4.80%) DBS Check
6 5 (4.00%) AWS Certification
7 4 (3.20%) Azure Certification
7 4 (3.20%) CISSP
7 4 (3.20%) CompTIA Security+
8 3 (2.40%) MCSA
8 3 (2.40%) MCSE
9 2 (1.60%) A+ Certification
10 1 (0.80%) CBAP
10 1 (0.80%) CISM
10 1 (0.80%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.40%) GDPR
1 3 (2.40%) NIST
2 2 (1.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (1.60%) SLA
3 1 (0.80%) HIPAA
3 1 (0.80%) NCSC
3 1 (0.80%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 11 (8.80%) Docker
2 8 (6.40%) Tivoli Directory Server
3 7 (5.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.60%) Virtual Servers
5 1 (0.80%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.80%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 32 (25.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (20.00%) SCCM
3 11 (8.80%) Progress Chef
4 10 (8.00%) CA Single Sign-On
4 10 (8.00%) CA Wily
5 9 (7.20%) Single Sign-On
6 8 (6.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 8 (6.40%) Tivoli
7 6 (4.80%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (3.20%) Kubernetes
9 3 (2.40%) CASB
9 3 (2.40%) Kibana
9 3 (2.40%) Nessus
9 3 (2.40%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 1 (0.80%) Ansible
10 1 (0.80%) Terraform
Vendors
1 91 (72.80%) Microsoft
2 23 (18.40%) ServiceNow
3 16 (12.80%) Citrix
3 16 (12.80%) Splunk
4 15 (12.00%) Cisco
5 14 (11.20%) VMware
6 13 (10.40%) AppDynamics
7 12 (9.60%) IBM
8 11 (8.80%) Oracle
8 11 (8.80%) Red Hat
9 10 (8.00%) Broadcom
10 6 (4.80%) Remedy
11 5 (4.00%) Meraki
12 4 (3.20%) Apple
13 3 (2.40%) Cloudera
13 3 (2.40%) CyberArk
13 3 (2.40%) LogRhythm
13 3 (2.40%) Tenable
13 3 (2.40%) Zscaler
14 2 (1.60%) Bomgar