Active Directory Contracts in the UK excluding London

Microsoft Active Directory
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Active Directory skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Active Directory over the 6 months leading up to 24 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 26 25 24
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 -3
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 909 1,296 1,628
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 6.71% 6.10% 7.13%
As % of the System Software category 48.98% 51.02% 48.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 614 903 1,167
10th Percentile £178 £153 £157
25th Percentile £208 £205 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £420 £350
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +20.00% +21.74%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £538
90th Percentile £638 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £450 £445 £425
% change year-on-year +1.12% +4.71% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 87 97
10th Percentile - £14.00 £13.25
25th Percentile £14.99 £14.16 £14.61
Median hourly rate £15.44 £17.00 £18.06
Median % change year-on-year -9.18% -5.87% +6.24%
75th Percentile £30.39 £22.00 £28.75
90th Percentile £50.67 £40.00 £62.22
UK median hourly rate £22.25 £17.69 £22.00
% change year-on-year +25.78% -19.59% +25.71%

All System Software Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 1,856 2,540 3,385
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 13.70% 11.96% 14.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,243 1,715 2,370
10th Percentile £200 £185 £181
25th Percentile £317 £319 £306
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year - -1.04% +6.67%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 188 173
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.06 £14.05
25th Percentile £15.41 £14.40 £16.25
Median hourly rate £39.48 £27.50 £39.60
Median % change year-on-year +43.55% -30.56% +118.60%
75th Percentile £81.56 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £91.50 £73.78 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £28.00 £24.18 £54.00
% change year-on-year +15.80% -55.22% +170.00%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Active Directory as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Active Directory in the UK excluding London

Active Directory
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Active Directory in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Active Directory in the UK excluding London

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 24 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in the UK excluding London

Active Directory
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Active Directory in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Active Directory in the UK excluding London

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Active Directory in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 24 June 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Active Directory in the UK excluding London

Active Directory
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 24 June 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
North of England +9 247 £391 +13.33% 274
South East -6 238 £525 - 303
Midlands -5 129 £400 +14.29% 128
East of England +28 122 £467 +76.04% 76
North West +4 115 £367 -5.90% 133
Yorkshire +10 112 £400 +35.59% 112
South West +9 111 £275 -41.49% 111
West Midlands -1 97 £400 +25.49% 69
Scotland -40 55 £438 +34.77% 36
East Midlands -19 32 £375 +9.09% 59
North East +5 20 £325 -18.75% 32
Wales -3 14 £200 +21.21% 26
Northern Ireland +2 11 £160 -55.86% 14
Channel Islands - 1 - -
Active Directory
UK

Active Directory
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 193 (21.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 94 (10.34%) SharePoint
3 23 (2.53%) Skype for Business
4 20 (2.20%) IIS
5 18 (1.98%) IBM Domino
6 16 (1.76%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 12 (1.32%) Confluence
8 10 (1.10%) Apache
8 10 (1.10%) JBoss
9 8 (0.88%) Mattermost
9 8 (0.88%) SharePoint Server
10 6 (0.66%) Exchange Server 2003
10 6 (0.66%) Exchange Server 2007
10 6 (0.66%) Exchange Server 2010
10 6 (0.66%) Exchange Server 2013
10 6 (0.66%) Office Communications Server
11 5 (0.55%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.44%) WebSphere
13 2 (0.22%) BizTalk Server
14 1 (0.11%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
Applications
1 128 (14.08%) Microsoft Office
2 39 (4.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 38 (4.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.21%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.11%) CANalyzer
Business Applications
1 4 (0.44%) Dynamics GP
2 3 (0.33%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 371 (40.81%) Microsoft 365
2 280 (30.80%) Azure
3 231 (25.41%) Entra ID
4 74 (8.14%) AWS
5 46 (5.06%) IaaS
6 32 (3.52%) OneDrive
7 26 (2.86%) PaaS
8 25 (2.75%) SaaS
9 24 (2.64%) Cohesity
10 22 (2.42%) GCP
11 18 (1.98%) OpenShift
12 15 (1.65%) Power Platform
13 14 (1.54%) Azure Sentinel
14 13 (1.43%) Azure AKS
15 12 (1.32%) AWS CloudFormation
16 11 (1.21%) Amazon EKS
16 11 (1.21%) GitHub
17 10 (1.10%) AWS KMS
17 10 (1.10%) Virtual Private Cloud
18 9 (0.99%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 183 (20.13%) DNS
2 111 (12.21%) Firewall
3 91 (10.01%) DHCP
4 77 (8.47%) VPN
5 57 (6.27%) SAN
6 40 (4.40%) LAN
7 36 (3.96%) Wi-Fi
8 33 (3.63%) WAN
9 32 (3.52%) Skype
10 30 (3.30%) SMTP
11 27 (2.97%) WebEx
12 24 (2.64%) TCP/IP
13 21 (2.31%) Network Security
14 18 (1.98%) Cisco IOS
15 17 (1.87%) Unified Communications
15 17 (1.87%) VLAN
16 13 (1.43%) Intrusion Detection
17 12 (1.32%) NetScaler
17 12 (1.32%) VoIP
18 11 (1.21%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (3.96%) SQL Server
2 22 (2.42%) Oracle Database
3 20 (2.20%) Elasticsearch
4 15 (1.65%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (1.10%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.99%) RDBMS
7 8 (0.88%) Big Data
8 6 (0.66%) Power BI
9 5 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.33%) DB2
10 3 (0.33%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.22%) Tableau
12 1 (0.11%) Data Lake
12 1 (0.11%) Parquet
12 1 (0.11%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 39 (4.29%) JIRA
2 24 (2.64%) Git
3 18 (1.98%) Jenkins
4 16 (1.76%) GitLab
5 15 (1.65%) TeamCity
6 14 (1.54%) Sonatype Nexus
7 10 (1.10%) Bitbucket Server
7 10 (1.10%) CA Release Automation
7 10 (1.10%) SonarQube
8 5 (0.55%) MSI
9 4 (0.44%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.44%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.44%) Vagrant
10 2 (0.22%) Oracle Forms
11 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.11%) CANoe
11 1 (0.11%) Fiddler
11 1 (0.11%) Metasploit
General
1 327 (35.97%) Social Skills
2 103 (11.33%) Public Sector
3 75 (8.25%) Finance
4 65 (7.15%) Analytical Skills
5 46 (5.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 38 (4.18%) Telecoms
7 34 (3.74%) Manufacturing
8 28 (3.08%) Legal
9 23 (2.53%) Electronics
9 23 (2.53%) Marketing
10 22 (2.42%) Retail
11 18 (1.98%) Games
12 13 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
13 12 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
14 11 (1.21%) Banking
15 9 (0.99%) Law
16 5 (0.55%) Local Government
16 5 (0.55%) Military
16 5 (0.55%) Presentation Skills
17 4 (0.44%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 155 (17.05%) Analyst
2 142 (15.62%) Support Engineer
3 107 (11.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 83 (9.13%) Architect
5 74 (8.14%) Service Analyst
5 74 (8.14%) Service Desk Analyst
6 72 (7.92%) IT Support
7 64 (7.04%) Desktop Engineer
8 55 (6.05%) 2nd Line Support
9 53 (5.83%) Support Analyst
10 51 (5.61%) Desktop Support
11 47 (5.17%) IT Engineer
12 46 (5.06%) Desktop Support Engineer
13 40 (4.40%) 3rd Line Engineer
14 32 (3.52%) Deployment Engineer
15 29 (3.19%) 1st Line Support
15 29 (3.19%) Active Directory Architect
15 29 (3.19%) IT Analyst
15 29 (3.19%) Support Manager
16 28 (3.08%) 2nd Line Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (2.20%) LDAP
2 18 (1.98%) OAuth
3 15 (1.65%) OpenID
3 15 (1.65%) REST
3 15 (1.65%) SailPoint
3 15 (1.65%) SAML
4 13 (1.43%) .NET
5 12 (1.32%) Middleware
6 10 (1.10%) Elastic Stack
6 10 (1.10%) Spring Boot
7 9 (0.99%) JSON
8 8 (0.88%) XMPP
9 6 (0.66%) OAuth2
9 6 (0.66%) Web Services
10 5 (0.55%) HTML
10 5 (0.55%) React
10 5 (0.55%) Software Packaging
11 4 (0.44%) .NET Framework
11 4 (0.44%) ASP.NET
11 4 (0.44%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 56 (6.16%) PKI
2 41 (4.51%) Onboarding
3 36 (3.96%) Data Centre
4 30 (3.30%) iPhone
5 28 (3.08%) Management Information System
6 27 (2.97%) Self-Motivation
7 25 (2.75%) Clustering
8 23 (2.53%) Hybrid Cloud
8 23 (2.53%) Linux Command Line
9 22 (2.42%) Smartphone
10 21 (2.31%) Driving Licence
11 19 (2.09%) Replication
12 13 (1.43%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
14 11 (1.21%) Cloud Native
14 11 (1.21%) iPad
14 11 (1.21%) Security Posture
15 10 (1.10%) Operational Technology
16 7 (0.77%) Blackberry
16 7 (0.77%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 598 (65.79%) Windows
2 233 (25.63%) Windows Server
3 172 (18.92%) Windows 10
4 128 (14.08%) Linux
5 62 (6.82%) Windows Server 2016
6 61 (6.71%) Mac OS
7 49 (5.39%) Windows Server 2019
8 47 (5.17%) Android
9 35 (3.85%) Windows Server 2012
10 24 (2.64%) Windows Server 2003
11 21 (2.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 20 (2.20%) Apple iOS
13 16 (1.76%) Unix
14 15 (1.65%) VMS
15 10 (1.10%) CentOS
15 10 (1.10%) Windows 7
16 7 (0.77%) Ubuntu
16 7 (0.77%) Windows Server 2008
17 6 (0.66%) Windows 8
17 6 (0.66%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 219 (24.09%) Problem-Solving
2 215 (23.65%) ITIL
3 163 (17.93%) Customer Service
4 141 (15.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 113 (12.43%) Agile
6 94 (10.34%) ITSM
7 82 (9.02%) Migration
8 74 (8.14%) Identity Access Management
8 74 (8.14%) Incident Management
9 72 (7.92%) DevOps
10 69 (7.59%) Cybersecurity
10 69 (7.59%) Service Delivery
11 61 (6.71%) Service Management
12 52 (5.72%) Mobile Device Management
13 39 (4.29%) Deployment Automation
14 37 (4.07%) Change Management
14 37 (4.07%) Collaborative Working
15 36 (3.96%) Patch Management
15 36 (3.96%) RBAC
16 34 (3.74%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 247 (27.17%) PowerShell
2 79 (8.69%) SQL
3 42 (4.62%) Python
4 30 (3.30%) Perl
5 28 (3.08%) Bash
6 21 (2.31%) Shell Script
7 18 (1.98%) PL/SQL
8 17 (1.87%) C#
8 17 (1.87%) Java
9 10 (1.10%) JavaScript
10 8 (0.88%) Bicep
11 5 (0.55%) Ruby
12 4 (0.44%) Groovy
12 4 (0.44%) PHP
13 3 (0.33%) VB
13 3 (0.33%) VBA
13 3 (0.33%) VBScript
14 1 (0.11%) C
14 1 (0.11%) C++
14 1 (0.11%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 261 (28.71%) Security Cleared
2 141 (15.51%) SC Cleared
3 122 (13.42%) DV Cleared
4 103 (11.33%) Degree
5 78 (8.58%) Microsoft Certification
6 38 (4.18%) A+ Certification
7 27 (2.97%) Cisco Certification
8 24 (2.64%) ITIL Certification
8 24 (2.64%) MCSA
9 21 (2.31%) Azure Certification
10 18 (1.98%) DBS Check
11 16 (1.76%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 15 (1.65%) MCSE
13 9 (0.99%) ACSP
13 9 (0.99%) ACTC
14 8 (0.88%) MCP
15 7 (0.77%) CCNA
15 7 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (0.66%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 5 (0.55%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (4.95%) SLA
2 30 (3.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (1.65%) NIST
4 14 (1.54%) GDPR
5 10 (1.10%) PCI DSS
6 8 (0.88%) GxP
7 7 (0.77%) HIPAA
8 6 (0.66%) QA
8 6 (0.66%) SOC 2
9 5 (0.55%) Accessibility
9 5 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.44%) NCSC
11 3 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
11 3 (0.33%) PMO
12 2 (0.22%) FIPS 140-2
12 2 (0.22%) NIST 800
13 1 (0.11%) Government Security Classifications
13 1 (0.11%) GRC
System Software
1 136 (14.96%) VMware Infrastructure
2 59 (6.49%) Hyper-V
3 46 (5.06%) VMware ESXi
4 45 (4.95%) vSphere
5 33 (3.63%) Virtual Servers
6 32 (3.52%) Docker
7 28 (3.08%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 25 (2.75%) Virtual Machines
9 23 (2.53%) Virtual Desktop
10 18 (1.98%) VMware NSX
11 17 (1.87%) BitLocker
12 13 (1.43%) DFS Replication
13 11 (1.21%) Microsoft App-V
14 10 (1.10%) Terminal Services
15 9 (0.99%) XenDesktop
16 7 (0.77%) XenApp
17 6 (0.66%) Brightmail
17 6 (0.66%) ISA Server
18 3 (0.33%) NFS
19 1 (0.11%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 169 (18.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 156 (17.16%) SCCM
3 70 (7.70%) Ansible
4 61 (6.71%) WSUS
5 45 (4.95%) Single Sign-On
6 40 (4.40%) Terraform
7 38 (4.18%) Jamf Pro
8 36 (3.96%) Kubernetes
9 31 (3.41%) vCenter Server
10 17 (1.87%) SCOM
11 14 (1.54%) Microsoft Clustering
12 13 (1.43%) Progress Chef
12 13 (1.43%) Puppet
13 10 (1.10%) Kibana
13 10 (1.10%) Nagios
13 10 (1.10%) vMotion
14 9 (0.99%) vRealize
15 8 (0.88%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 8 (0.88%) Grafana
16 7 (0.77%) VxRail
Vendors
1 555 (61.06%) Microsoft
2 197 (21.67%) VMware
3 141 (15.51%) ServiceNow
4 92 (10.12%) Cisco
5 91 (10.01%) Citrix
6 58 (6.38%) Splunk
7 42 (4.62%) Apple
8 34 (3.74%) Oracle
9 32 (3.52%) Dell
10 29 (3.19%) CyberArk
11 28 (3.08%) SAP
12 27 (2.97%) Meraki
13 26 (2.86%) Red Hat
14 23 (2.53%) HP
15 22 (2.42%) NetApp
16 19 (2.09%) SolarWinds
17 18 (1.98%) Google
18 17 (1.87%) Symantec
18 17 (1.87%) Veeam
19 16 (1.76%) Sage