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 13 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 481 491 442
Rank change year-on-year +10 -49 +58
Contract jobs citing Active Directory Federation Services 132 41 169
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.13% 0.38%
As % of the Systems Management category 2.13% 0.86% 3.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 111 31 119
10th Percentile £425 £400 £355
25th Percentile £488 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £605 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +15.24% +5.00%
75th Percentile £613 £651 £615
90th Percentile £700 £675 £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 6,186 4,753 5,520
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.46% 15.35% 12.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,281 3,086 3,962
10th Percentile £313 £313 £263
25th Percentile £413 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -8.70%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £688 £738 £718
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 129 59 163
10th Percentile £17.24 £15.22 £14.15
25th Percentile £20.18 £21.05 £20.75
Median hourly rate £52.50 £25.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +105.88% -44.78% +2.79%
75th Percentile £63.32 £59.38 £60.63
90th Percentile £80.40 £70.89 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.25 £23.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +122.83% -50.19% +7.08%

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 13 February 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 13 February 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 +6 123 £550 -6.78% 11
UK excluding London -8 79 £550 -10.57% 10
London +3 42 £581 +25.62% 1
South West +23 40 £575 -6.12% 3
Work from Home +11 33 £600 +33.33% 4
South East -23 21 £525 -17.65% 4
North of England -43 20 £510 +27.42% 3
North West -23 15 £550 +37.50% 2
Yorkshire -59 4 £469 -35.31% 1
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 28 (21.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (15.91%) SharePoint
3 4 (3.03%) SharePoint Server
4 1 (0.76%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.76%) Confluence
4 1 (0.76%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 8 (6.06%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (5.30%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 73 (55.30%) Azure
2 71 (53.79%) Entra ID
3 34 (25.76%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (7.58%) OneDrive
5 9 (6.82%) AWS
5 9 (6.82%) PaaS
6 8 (6.06%) SaaS
7 7 (5.30%) Azure Service Fabric
8 4 (3.03%) GCP
8 4 (3.03%) Nutanix
8 4 (3.03%) ShareGate
9 3 (2.27%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (2.27%) Azure Logic Apps
9 3 (2.27%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (2.27%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (1.52%) IaaS
11 1 (0.76%) GitHub
11 1 (0.76%) GitHub Copilot
11 1 (0.76%) Microsoft Copilot
11 1 (0.76%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 63 (47.73%) DNS
2 36 (27.27%) Kerberos
3 35 (26.52%) DHCP
4 27 (20.45%) Firewall
5 6 (4.55%) Skype
6 5 (3.79%) TCP/IP
6 5 (3.79%) WebEx
7 4 (3.03%) NetScaler
7 4 (3.03%) Network Security
8 3 (2.27%) HTTP
9 2 (1.52%) DKIM
9 2 (1.52%) DMARC
9 2 (1.52%) Wireshark
9 2 (1.52%) X.500
10 1 (0.76%) Internet
10 1 (0.76%) Intranet
10 1 (0.76%) SMTP
10 1 (0.76%) Unified Communications
10 1 (0.76%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (5.30%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.76%) GIS
2 1 (0.76%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 4 (3.03%) JIRA
2 2 (1.52%) Fiddler
2 2 (1.52%) Git
General
1 32 (24.24%) Social Skills
2 17 (12.88%) Documentation Skills
3 14 (10.61%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (5.30%) Public Sector
5 6 (4.55%) Finance
6 5 (3.79%) Legal
7 2 (1.52%) Military
8 1 (0.76%) Banking
8 1 (0.76%) International Banking
8 1 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 17 (12.88%) Architect
2 14 (10.61%) Platform Engineer
3 9 (6.82%) DevOps Engineer
4 8 (6.06%) Azure Engineer
5 7 (5.30%) Consultant
5 7 (5.30%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
5 7 (5.30%) Solutions Architect
6 6 (4.55%) Technical Architect
7 5 (3.79%) Azure DevOps Engineer
7 5 (3.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 5 (3.79%) Microsoft 365 Consultant
8 4 (3.03%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
8 4 (3.03%) Migration Consultant
8 4 (3.03%) Senior
9 3 (2.27%) Azure Security Engineer
9 3 (2.27%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 3 (2.27%) Data Analyst
9 3 (2.27%) IT Support
9 3 (2.27%) IT Technician
9 3 (2.27%) Microsoft Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (34.85%) OAuth
2 44 (33.33%) SAML
3 37 (28.03%) LDAP
4 26 (19.70%) OpenID
5 18 (13.64%) OAuth2
6 11 (8.33%) SailPoint
7 9 (6.82%) ARM Templates
8 7 (5.30%) Entity Framework
8 7 (5.30%) YAML
9 5 (3.79%) XMPP
10 3 (2.27%) JSON
10 3 (2.27%) Microsoft Graph
11 1 (0.76%) CSS
11 1 (0.76%) CSS3
11 1 (0.76%) HTML
11 1 (0.76%) HTML5
11 1 (0.76%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 39 (29.55%) Replication
2 13 (9.85%) Private Cloud
3 11 (8.33%) PKI
4 10 (7.58%) Onboarding
5 7 (5.30%) BYOD
6 5 (3.79%) Data Centre
6 5 (3.79%) Product Ownership
7 4 (3.03%) Public Cloud
8 3 (2.27%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (2.27%) Educational Technology
9 2 (1.52%) Hybrid Cloud
10 1 (0.76%) Cloud Native
10 1 (0.76%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.76%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 74 (56.06%) Windows
2 54 (40.91%) Windows Server
3 17 (12.88%) Linux
4 6 (4.55%) Windows 10
5 5 (3.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (3.03%) Windows Server 2012
6 4 (3.03%) Windows Server 2016
6 4 (3.03%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.76%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (37.12%) Identity Access Management
1 49 (37.12%) RBAC
2 34 (25.76%) Migration
3 25 (18.94%) Problem-Solving
4 22 (16.67%) High Availability
5 21 (15.91%) Disaster Recovery
6 19 (14.39%) Root Cause Analysis
7 17 (12.88%) DevOps
7 17 (12.88%) Load Balancing
8 16 (12.12%) Task Automation
9 14 (10.61%) Digital Identity
9 14 (10.61%) Identity Management
9 14 (10.61%) Mentoring
9 14 (10.61%) Roadmaps
10 13 (9.85%) Infrastructure as Code
10 13 (9.85%) Zero Trust
11 12 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 12 (9.09%) Platform Engineering
11 12 (9.09%) Technical Leadership
12 11 (8.33%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 88 (66.67%) PowerShell
2 9 (6.82%) SQL
3 7 (5.30%) Python
4 5 (3.79%) Bash
4 5 (3.79%) Perl
5 4 (3.03%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.76%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 94 (71.21%) Security Cleared
2 61 (46.21%) SC Cleared
3 34 (25.76%) DV Cleared
4 30 (22.73%) Microsoft Certification
5 15 (11.36%) Degree
6 7 (5.30%) MCSA
6 7 (5.30%) MCSE
7 5 (3.79%) Azure Certification
7 5 (3.79%) CCDP
7 5 (3.79%) CCNA
7 5 (3.79%) CCNP
7 5 (3.79%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (2.27%) CISM
8 3 (2.27%) CISSP
9 2 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (1.52%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (15.15%) GDPR
2 15 (11.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 9 (6.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (3.79%) NCSC
5 4 (3.03%) NIST
6 3 (2.27%) SLA
System Software
1 123 (93.18%) Active Directory
2 22 (16.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (7.58%) Docker
4 9 (6.82%) VMware NSX
5 4 (3.03%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (3.03%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (3.03%) vSphere
6 2 (1.52%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 1 (0.76%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 60 (45.45%) Single Sign-On
2 17 (12.88%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (5.30%) SCCM
4 6 (4.55%) vCenter Server
5 4 (3.03%) Kubernetes
6 3 (2.27%) Terraform
6 3 (2.27%) WSUS
7 2 (1.52%) Ansible
7 2 (1.52%) CA Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.76%) OPNET
Vendors
1 106 (80.30%) Microsoft
2 33 (25.00%) VMware
3 18 (13.64%) Okta
4 10 (7.58%) Cisco
5 9 (6.82%) Veeam
6 5 (3.79%) Citrix
6 5 (3.79%) Red Hat
6 5 (3.79%) SolarWinds
7 4 (3.03%) F5
8 3 (2.27%) LogRhythm
9 2 (1.52%) CyberArk
10 1 (0.76%) BeyondTrust
10 1 (0.76%) ESRI
10 1 (0.76%) Proofpoint