Active Directory Specialist Contract Job Trends

Microsoft Active Directory Specialist
UK

The median Microsoft Active Directory Specialist daily rate in the UK is £510, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 583 539 583
Rank change year-on-year -44 +44 +213
Contract jobs requiring an Active Directory Specialist 8 2 14
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.022% 0.006% 0.032%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.024% 0.006% 0.034%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 1 13
10th Percentile £504 - £364
25th Percentile £506 £650 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £700 £500
Median % change year-on-year -27.14% +40.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £607 £750 £549
90th Percentile £665 - £596
UK excluding London median daily rate £508 £700 £450
% change year-on-year -27.50% +55.56% -11.76%

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 33,545 31,624 41,095
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.00% 92.80% 93.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,197 19,461 27,642
10th Percentile £293 £300 £288
25th Percentile £404 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £643
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,986 989 1,457
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.60 £15.14
25th Percentile £18.08 £21.22 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.93% -25.56% +50.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.44 £72.55 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -27.78% +82.48%

Active Directory Specialist
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Active Directory Specialist' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Active Directory Specialist job vacancy trend in the UK

Active Directory Specialist
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Active Directory Specialist job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Active Directory Specialist job vacancies in the UK

Active Directory Specialist
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory Specialist over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory Specialist in the UK

Active Directory Specialist
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Active Directory Specialist job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Active Directory Specialist job vacancies in the UK

Active Directory Specialist
Top 7 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 Specialist within the UK over the 6 months to 20 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
England -36 7 £510 -27.14%
UK excluding London -30 6 £508 -27.50%
South East - 5 £508 -
Work from Home -1 2 - -
London +1 1 £704 -
East Midlands - 1 - -
Midlands - 1 - -

Active Directory Specialist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 20 December 2025, Active Directory Specialist contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Active Directory Specialist in the job title.

1 7 (87.50%) Active Directory
2 6 (75.00%) Azure
3 5 (62.50%) SC Cleared
3 5 (62.50%) Security Cleared
4 4 (50.00%) DNS
4 4 (50.00%) PowerShell
4 4 (50.00%) Windows
5 3 (37.50%) Entra ID
5 3 (37.50%) RBAC
5 3 (37.50%) Windows Server
6 2 (25.00%) Change Management
6 2 (25.00%) CyberArk
6 2 (25.00%) DHCP
6 2 (25.00%) Microsoft
6 2 (25.00%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (25.00%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (25.00%) OAuth
6 2 (25.00%) OpenID
6 2 (25.00%) Privileged Access Management
6 2 (25.00%) SAML
6 2 (25.00%) Service Management
7 1 (12.50%) Azure Certification
7 1 (12.50%) B2C
7 1 (12.50%) Collaborative Working
7 1 (12.50%) CSS
7 1 (12.50%) Cybersecurity
7 1 (12.50%) DevOps
7 1 (12.50%) HTML
7 1 (12.50%) Hyper-V
7 1 (12.50%) Infrastructure as Code

Active Directory Specialist Skill Set
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:

Cloud Services
1 6 (75.00%) Azure
2 3 (37.50%) Entra ID
3 1 (12.50%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 4 (50.00%) DNS
2 2 (25.00%) DHCP
3 1 (12.50%) Kerberos
General
1 2 (25.00%) Finance
2 1 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
2 1 (12.50%) Banking
2 1 (12.50%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (25.00%) OAuth
1 2 (25.00%) OpenID
1 2 (25.00%) SAML
2 1 (12.50%) CSS
2 1 (12.50%) HTML
2 1 (12.50%) JWT
2 1 (12.50%) OAuth2
2 1 (12.50%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 2 (25.00%) Onboarding
2 1 (12.50%) Enterprise Software
2 1 (12.50%) PKI
2 1 (12.50%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 4 (50.00%) Windows
2 3 (37.50%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (37.50%) RBAC
2 2 (25.00%) Change Management
2 2 (25.00%) Privileged Access Management
2 2 (25.00%) Service Management
3 1 (12.50%) B2C
3 1 (12.50%) Collaborative Working
3 1 (12.50%) Cybersecurity
3 1 (12.50%) DevOps
3 1 (12.50%) Infrastructure as Code
3 1 (12.50%) ITIL
3 1 (12.50%) ITSM
3 1 (12.50%) Performance Metrics
3 1 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
3 1 (12.50%) Runbook
3 1 (12.50%) Security Hardening
3 1 (12.50%) Stakeholder Management
3 1 (12.50%) Task Automation
3 1 (12.50%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 4 (50.00%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 5 (62.50%) SC Cleared
1 5 (62.50%) Security Cleared
2 2 (25.00%) Microsoft Certification
3 1 (12.50%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (12.50%) SLA
System Software
1 7 (87.50%) Active Directory
2 1 (12.50%) Hyper-V
2 1 (12.50%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (25.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (12.50%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 2 (25.00%) CyberArk
1 2 (25.00%) Microsoft
2 1 (12.50%) ServiceNow
2 1 (12.50%) VMware