Active Directory Engineer Contracts

Microsoft Active Directory Engineer
UK

The median Microsoft Active Directory Engineer daily rate in the UK is £400, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 478 511 656
Rank change year-on-year +33 +145 +60
Contract jobs requiring an Active Directory Engineer 42 71 62
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.14% 0.16% 0.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.16% 0.18% 0.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 35 57 50
10th Percentile £190 £157 £211
25th Percentile £288 £200 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £411 £445
Median % change year-on-year -2.68% -7.64% -1.11%
75th Percentile £490 £488 £511
90th Percentile £585 £590 £563
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £225 £463
% change year-on-year +77.78% -51.35% +16.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 0
Median hourly rate £27.94 £50.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -44.12% - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.94 £50.00 -
% change year-on-year -44.12% - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Active Directory Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Active Directory Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Active Directory Engineer in the UK

Active Directory Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Active Directory Engineer.

Daily rate trend for Active Directory Engineer in the UK

Active Directory Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory Engineer over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory Engineer in the UK

Active Directory Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Active Directory Engineer.

Hourly rate trend for Active Directory Engineer in the UK

Active Directory Engineer
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Active Directory Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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
England +32 38 £400 +3.90% 7
UK excluding London +50 27 £400 +77.78% 4
Work from Home +39 18 £425 -19.05% 3
London +23 12 £400 -5.88% 2
North of England +24 10 £340 +102.99% 3
South East +35 7 £435 +5.84% 1
Midlands +25 6 £460 +119.05%
West Midlands - 5 £460 -
North West +17 4 £288 +71.64%
North East +3 4 £340 - 2
East of England +29 2 £575 +228.57%
Yorkshire - 2 £400 - 1
South West +41 1 £340 +54.55%
Scotland +9 1 £325 -31.58%
East Midlands +8 1 £180 -14.29%

Active Directory Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Active Directory Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Active Directory Engineer in the job title.

1 42 (100.00%) Active Directory
2 32 (76.19%) Microsoft
3 25 (59.52%) Windows
4 22 (52.38%) Azure
5 16 (38.10%) Microsoft 365
6 15 (35.71%) Entra ID
7 12 (28.57%) Social Skills
7 12 (28.57%) PowerShell
8 11 (26.19%) DNS
9 10 (23.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 10 (23.81%) Microsoft Intune
10 9 (21.43%) SCCM
10 9 (21.43%) Microsoft Exchange
11 8 (19.05%) Banking
12 7 (16.67%) Finance
12 7 (16.67%) Windows Server
13 6 (14.29%) Windows 10
13 6 (14.29%) Firewall
13 6 (14.29%) Identity Management
13 6 (14.29%) SC Cleared
13 6 (14.29%) Security Cleared
14 5 (11.90%) Migration
14 5 (11.90%) Linux
14 5 (11.90%) SQL Server
14 5 (11.90%) Microsoft Certification
15 4 (9.52%) HP
15 4 (9.52%) ITIL
15 4 (9.52%) VPN
15 4 (9.52%) Time Management
15 4 (9.52%) Smartphone

Active Directory Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 9 (21.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (4.76%) Confluence
3 1 (2.38%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
3 1 (2.38%) Exchange Server 2013
3 1 (2.38%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 3 (7.14%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.38%) CANalyzer
2 1 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (2.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (2.38%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 22 (52.38%) Azure
2 16 (38.10%) Microsoft 365
3 15 (35.71%) Entra ID
4 3 (7.14%) IaaS
5 2 (4.76%) SaaS
5 2 (4.76%) WhatsApp
6 1 (2.38%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (2.38%) Azure Storage
6 1 (2.38%) Cohesity
6 1 (2.38%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (26.19%) DNS
2 6 (14.29%) Firewall
3 4 (9.52%) VPN
4 3 (7.14%) DHCP
4 3 (7.14%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (4.76%) MPLS
6 1 (2.38%) Ethernet
6 1 (2.38%) IMAP
6 1 (2.38%) Kerberos
6 1 (2.38%) Network Security
6 1 (2.38%) SAN
6 1 (2.38%) Skype
6 1 (2.38%) SMTP
6 1 (2.38%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (11.90%) SQL Server
2 2 (4.76%) RDBMS
2 2 (4.76%) Relational Database
3 1 (2.38%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 2 (4.76%) JIRA
2 1 (2.38%) CANoe
2 1 (2.38%) MSI
General
1 12 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 8 (19.05%) Banking
3 7 (16.67%) Finance
4 4 (9.52%) Public Sector
5 3 (7.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 2 (4.76%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (4.76%) Electronics
6 2 (4.76%) Manufacturing
6 2 (4.76%) Spanish Language
7 1 (2.38%) Automotive
7 1 (2.38%) Local Government
7 1 (2.38%) Marketing
7 1 (2.38%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (4.76%) Middleware
2 1 (2.38%) ARM Templates
2 1 (2.38%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 4 (9.52%) Smartphone
2 3 (7.14%) Onboarding
2 3 (7.14%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (4.76%) Legacy Systems
3 2 (4.76%) Virtual Team
4 1 (2.38%) Blackberry
4 1 (2.38%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (2.38%) EFT
4 1 (2.38%) iPhone
4 1 (2.38%) Legacy Applications
4 1 (2.38%) Linux Command Line
4 1 (2.38%) Management Information System
4 1 (2.38%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 25 (59.52%) Windows
2 7 (16.67%) Windows Server
3 6 (14.29%) Windows 10
4 5 (11.90%) Linux
5 3 (7.14%) Windows 7
6 2 (4.76%) Unix
6 2 (4.76%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (2.38%) Android
7 1 (2.38%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (23.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 6 (14.29%) Identity Management
3 5 (11.90%) Migration
4 4 (9.52%) Customer Service
4 4 (9.52%) Identity Access Management
4 4 (9.52%) ITIL
4 4 (9.52%) Multi-Factor Authentication
4 4 (9.52%) Privileged Identity Management
4 4 (9.52%) Problem-Solving
4 4 (9.52%) Time Management
5 3 (7.14%) Agile
5 3 (7.14%) Virtual Environments
5 3 (7.14%) Wealth Management
6 2 (4.76%) Analytics
6 2 (4.76%) Data Loss Prevention
6 2 (4.76%) Disaster Recovery
6 2 (4.76%) Information Security
6 2 (4.76%) Infrastructure Management
6 2 (4.76%) Kanban
6 2 (4.76%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 12 (28.57%) PowerShell
2 3 (7.14%) SQL
3 1 (2.38%) Bash
3 1 (2.38%) Bicep
3 1 (2.38%) C#
3 1 (2.38%) MATLAB
3 1 (2.38%) VB
3 1 (2.38%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 6 (14.29%) SC Cleared
1 6 (14.29%) Security Cleared
2 5 (11.90%) Microsoft Certification
3 2 (4.76%) Degree
3 2 (4.76%) DV Cleared
4 1 (2.38%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (2.38%) CompTIA Security+
4 1 (2.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
4 1 (2.38%) MCSE
4 1 (2.38%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (4.76%) QA
System Software
1 42 (100.00%) Active Directory
2 2 (4.76%) Virtual Desktop
2 2 (4.76%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (2.38%) Hyper-V
3 1 (2.38%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 10 (23.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (21.43%) SCCM
3 2 (4.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (2.38%) Kubernetes
4 1 (2.38%) SCOM
4 1 (2.38%) Terraform
4 1 (2.38%) WSUS
Vendors
1 32 (76.19%) Microsoft
2 4 (9.52%) HP
3 3 (7.14%) Oracle
4 2 (4.76%) Cisco
4 2 (4.76%) Citrix
4 2 (4.76%) CyberArk
4 2 (4.76%) VMware
5 1 (2.38%) Globalscape
5 1 (2.38%) NetApp
5 1 (2.38%) Netskope
5 1 (2.38%) Remedy
5 1 (2.38%) SAP