Active Directory Federation Services Contract Job Trends

Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Active Directory Federation Services skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 470 484 410
Rank change year-on-year +14 -74 +82
Contract jobs citing Active Directory Federation Services 114 45 173
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.30% 0.14% 0.40%
As % of the Systems Management category 1.91% 0.95% 3.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 32 123
10th Percentile £425 £400 £363
25th Percentile £492 £422 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £519 £550
Median % change year-on-year +10.84% -5.68% +10.00%
75th Percentile £613 £650 £615
90th Percentile £701 £673 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £615 £600
% change year-on-year -10.57% +2.50% +23.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 4
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £55.00
Median hourly rate - - £55.70
75th Percentile - - £57.93
90th Percentile - - £60.67
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £55.70

All Systems Management Skills
UK

Active Directory Federation Services falls under the Systems Management category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring systems management skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 5,959 4,746 5,572
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.72% 14.98% 12.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,128 3,060 3,978
10th Percentile £313 £312 £269
25th Percentile £413 £418 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -9.48%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £688 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -0.05% -0.05% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 124 65 167
10th Percentile £18.33 £15.33 £15.65
25th Percentile £20.82 £21.25 £22.00
Median hourly rate £51.25 £26.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +93.40% -42.62% +19.95%
75th Percentile £63.32 £58.75 £65.63
90th Percentile £82.70 £74.26 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.50 £24.18 £46.18
% change year-on-year +125.39% -47.64% +13.81%

Active Directory Federation Services
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Active Directory Federation Services relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Active Directory Federation Services job vacancy trend in the UK

Active Directory Federation Services
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Active Directory Federation Services.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Active Directory Federation Services

Active Directory Federation Services
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory Federation Services over the 6 months to 23 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory Federation Services in the UK

Active Directory Federation Services
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Active Directory Federation Services.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Active Directory Federation Services

Active Directory Federation Services
Top 10 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Active Directory Federation Services within the UK over the 6 months to 23 January 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
England +15 105 £553 +7.80% 18
UK excluding London -19 65 £550 -10.57% 16
South West +28 38 £575 -11.54% 7
London -5 38 £600 +33.33% 4
Work from Home +15 33 £600 +33.33% 5
North of England -46 14 £510 +27.42% 2
South East -15 13 £525 -17.65% 6
North West -24 9 £550 +37.50%
Yorkshire -46 4 £469 -35.31% 2
North East - 2 £550 -

Active Directory Federation Services
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 30 (26.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (15.79%) SharePoint
3 4 (3.51%) SharePoint Server
4 1 (0.88%) Confluence
4 1 (0.88%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 8 (7.02%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (6.14%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 55 (48.25%) Entra ID
2 54 (47.37%) Azure
3 27 (23.68%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (8.77%) OneDrive
5 6 (5.26%) AWS
5 6 (5.26%) Azure Service Fabric
5 6 (5.26%) PaaS
5 6 (5.26%) SaaS
6 4 (3.51%) GCP
6 4 (3.51%) ShareGate
7 2 (1.75%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (1.75%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (1.75%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (1.75%) Nutanix
8 1 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.88%) GitHub
8 1 (0.88%) GitHub Copilot
8 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Copilot
8 1 (0.88%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 50 (43.86%) DNS
2 28 (24.56%) Kerberos
3 25 (21.93%) Firewall
4 23 (20.18%) DHCP
5 8 (7.02%) Skype
6 5 (4.39%) WebEx
7 3 (2.63%) HTTP
7 3 (2.63%) Network Security
7 3 (2.63%) TCP/IP
7 3 (2.63%) VSAN
8 2 (1.75%) DKIM
8 2 (1.75%) DMARC
8 2 (1.75%) NetScaler
8 2 (1.75%) Wireshark
8 2 (1.75%) X.500
9 1 (0.88%) Internet
9 1 (0.88%) Intranet
9 1 (0.88%) SMTP
9 1 (0.88%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (6.14%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.88%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 3 (2.63%) JIRA
2 2 (1.75%) Fiddler
3 1 (0.88%) MSI
General
1 32 (28.07%) Social Skills
2 13 (11.40%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (10.53%) Documentation Skills
4 8 (7.02%) Public Sector
5 5 (4.39%) Legal
6 4 (3.51%) Finance
7 1 (0.88%) Banking
7 1 (0.88%) International Banking
7 1 (0.88%) Military
7 1 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 17 (14.91%) Architect
2 12 (10.53%) Platform Engineer
3 7 (6.14%) Consultant
3 7 (6.14%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
4 6 (5.26%) DevOps Engineer
4 6 (5.26%) Solutions Architect
5 5 (4.39%) Microsoft 365 Consultant
5 5 (4.39%) Technical Architect
6 4 (3.51%) Azure Engineer
6 4 (3.51%) Migration Consultant
6 4 (3.51%) Senior
7 3 (2.63%) Analyst
7 3 (2.63%) Data Analyst
7 3 (2.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 3 (2.63%) Microsoft Consultant
7 3 (2.63%) Security Architect
7 3 (2.63%) Support Engineer
8 2 (1.75%) 3rd Line Support
8 2 (1.75%) Technical Engineer
8 2 (1.75%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (40.35%) OAuth
2 44 (38.60%) SAML
3 30 (26.32%) LDAP
4 26 (22.81%) OpenID
5 18 (15.79%) OAuth2
6 10 (8.77%) SailPoint
7 6 (5.26%) ARM Templates
7 6 (5.26%) Entity Framework
7 6 (5.26%) YAML
8 5 (4.39%) XMPP
9 3 (2.63%) Microsoft Graph
10 2 (1.75%) JSON
10 2 (1.75%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 31 (27.19%) Replication
2 13 (11.40%) PKI
2 13 (11.40%) Private Cloud
3 10 (8.77%) Onboarding
4 7 (6.14%) BYOD
5 6 (5.26%) Data Centre
6 5 (4.39%) Product Ownership
7 3 (2.63%) Cyber Defence
7 3 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.75%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.88%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.88%) Driving Licence
9 1 (0.88%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 68 (59.65%) Windows
2 47 (41.23%) Windows Server
3 16 (14.04%) Linux
4 8 (7.02%) Windows 10
5 5 (4.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (3.51%) Windows Server 2016
6 4 (3.51%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (2.63%) Windows Server 2008
8 2 (1.75%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.88%) Android
9 1 (0.88%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.88%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (42.11%) RBAC
2 46 (40.35%) Identity Access Management
3 24 (21.05%) Migration
4 21 (18.42%) Disaster Recovery
4 21 (18.42%) High Availability
5 20 (17.54%) Problem-Solving
6 16 (14.04%) Root Cause Analysis
6 16 (14.04%) Task Automation
7 15 (13.16%) Identity Management
7 15 (13.16%) Load Balancing
7 15 (13.16%) Roadmaps
8 13 (11.40%) Zero Trust
9 12 (10.53%) DevOps
9 12 (10.53%) Mentoring
10 11 (9.65%) Service Management
10 11 (9.65%) Technical Leadership
11 10 (8.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 10 (8.77%) Platform Engineering
11 10 (8.77%) Validation
12 9 (7.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 73 (64.04%) PowerShell
2 9 (7.89%) SQL
3 6 (5.26%) Python
4 5 (4.39%) Bash
4 5 (4.39%) Perl
5 3 (2.63%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 84 (73.68%) Security Cleared
2 53 (46.49%) SC Cleared
3 32 (28.07%) DV Cleared
4 30 (26.32%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (8.77%) Degree
6 8 (7.02%) MCSA
6 8 (7.02%) MCSE
7 5 (4.39%) CCDP
7 5 (4.39%) CCNA
7 5 (4.39%) CCNP
7 5 (4.39%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (2.63%) Azure Certification
8 3 (2.63%) CISM
8 3 (2.63%) CISSP
9 2 (1.75%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.88%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.88%) MCITP
10 1 (0.88%) MCP
10 1 (0.88%) MCTS
10 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Certified Master
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (17.54%) GDPR
2 15 (13.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 9 (7.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (6.14%) NCSC
5 3 (2.63%) NIST
6 1 (0.88%) SLA
System Software
1 104 (91.23%) Active Directory
2 17 (14.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (7.02%) VMware NSX
4 7 (6.14%) Docker
5 4 (3.51%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (2.63%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.75%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 2 (1.75%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (1.75%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 56 (49.12%) Single Sign-On
2 13 (11.40%) Microsoft Intune
3 8 (7.02%) vCenter Server
4 3 (2.63%) OPNET
4 3 (2.63%) WSUS
5 2 (1.75%) Kubernetes
5 2 (1.75%) SCCM
5 2 (1.75%) Terraform
6 1 (0.88%) Ansible
6 1 (0.88%) CA Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 92 (80.70%) Microsoft
2 29 (25.44%) VMware
3 18 (15.79%) Okta
4 10 (8.77%) Cisco
5 7 (6.14%) Veeam
6 5 (4.39%) Citrix
6 5 (4.39%) Red Hat
6 5 (4.39%) SolarWinds
7 2 (1.75%) CyberArk
7 2 (1.75%) F5
7 2 (1.75%) LogRhythm
8 1 (0.88%) BeyondTrust
8 1 (0.88%) Proofpoint