Active Directory Contracts

Microsoft Active Directory
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies 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 8 December 2024, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Dec 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 37 32 42
Rank change year-on-year -5 +10 +7
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 1,779 2,617 4,283
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 5.07% 5.83% 5.58%
As % of the System Software category 42.67% 46.00% 40.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,122 1,780 3,035
10th Percentile £170 £158 £155
25th Percentile £220 £208 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% - -
75th Percentile £573 £556 £550
90th Percentile £642 £675 £649
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £350 £329
% change year-on-year +14.29% +6.46% +19.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 125 227
10th Percentile £16.55 £13.28 £13.41
25th Percentile £20.13 £16.25 £14.95
Median hourly rate £23.59 £19.50 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year +21.01% +5.38% +15.63%
75th Percentile £31.88 £27.25 £34.00
90th Percentile £66.00 £60.00 £68.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.09 £19.00 £17.50
% change year-on-year +16.26% +8.57% +15.74%

All System Software Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,169 5,689 10,577
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.89% 12.68% 13.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,680 3,867 7,473
10th Percentile £207 £198 £200
25th Percentile £375 £359 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +2.44%
75th Percentile £614 £613 £638
90th Percentile £710 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £471 £475 £460
% change year-on-year -0.84% +3.26% +7.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 90 241 326
10th Percentile £17.44 £15.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £21.30 £18.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.50 £43.75 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.57% +75.00% +42.86%
75th Percentile £64.50 £66.00 £62.88
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.75 £37.50 £21.50
% change year-on-year -15.33% +74.42% +34.38%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Active Directory as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Active Directory over the 6 months to 8 December 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Active Directory over the 6 months to 8 December 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Top 17 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 within the UK over the 6 months to 8 December 2024. 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 -9 1,514 £425 +6.25% 767
UK excluding London -2 1,052 £400 +14.29% 611
London -19 573 £425 - 216
Work from Home -12 479 £488 +8.50% 456
South East -4 309 £466 +49.20% 148
North of England -8 210 £250 -19.61% 149
South West +4 172 £470 -1.05% 88
Midlands -7 134 £340 -2.86% 87
North West -10 121 £250 -22.48% 86
Scotland 0 104 £425 -9.73% 43
West Midlands -15 91 £225 -35.71% 53
East of England -1 83 £363 -34.83% 96
Yorkshire -3 69 £245 -24.62% 48
East Midlands -2 42 £375 +66.67% 34
Wales -3 35 £220 +10.00% 18
North East -14 19 £325 +85.71% 17
Northern Ireland -5 9 £150 -64.71% 8

Active Directory
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
1 413 (23.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 231 (12.98%) SharePoint
3 37 (2.08%) IIS
4 28 (1.57%) Confluence
4 28 (1.57%) Skype for Business
5 17 (0.96%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
6 16 (0.90%) Exchange Server 2013
7 15 (0.84%) Exchange Server 2010
8 14 (0.79%) WebSphere
9 6 (0.34%) JBoss
9 6 (0.34%) Site Server
10 5 (0.28%) WebLogic
11 4 (0.22%) Apache
11 4 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 4 (0.22%) Tomcat
12 3 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2007
12 3 (0.17%) IBM Notes
12 3 (0.17%) nginx
12 3 (0.17%) Traefik
13 2 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2003
Applications
1 215 (12.09%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (1.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (1.18%) MS Visio
4 15 (0.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.28%) Acrobat
6 4 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.056%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.056%) Final Cut Pro
7 1 (0.056%) PlantUML
7 1 (0.056%) QuarkXPress
Business Applications
1 10 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.51%) SAP HR
3 7 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.34%) Dynamics GP
5 4 (0.22%) Elite 3E
6 3 (0.17%) assyst
7 2 (0.11%) SAP S/4HANA
8 1 (0.056%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.056%) Fidessa
8 1 (0.056%) Raiser’s Edge
8 1 (0.056%) SAP MM
8 1 (0.056%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 719 (40.42%) Azure
2 691 (38.84%) Microsoft 365
3 505 (28.39%) Entra ID
4 152 (8.54%) AWS
5 130 (7.31%) OneDrive
6 62 (3.49%) GCP
7 57 (3.20%) Power Platform
8 56 (3.15%) Azure Monitor
9 54 (3.04%) IaaS
10 46 (2.59%) Serverless
11 43 (2.42%) SaaS
12 41 (2.30%) PaaS
13 38 (2.14%) Azure Functions
14 37 (2.08%) Azure DevOps
15 35 (1.97%) Google Workspace
16 33 (1.85%) Azure Cosmos DB
17 32 (1.80%) WhatsApp
18 30 (1.69%) Power Automate
19 27 (1.52%) Azure Storage
19 27 (1.52%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 333 (18.72%) DNS
2 260 (14.61%) DHCP
3 218 (12.25%) Firewall
4 187 (10.51%) VPN
5 114 (6.41%) TCP/IP
6 99 (5.56%) LAN
7 92 (5.17%) WAN
8 85 (4.78%) Network Security
9 75 (4.22%) Wi-Fi
10 58 (3.26%) VLAN
11 57 (3.20%) SAN
12 54 (3.04%) SMTP
12 54 (3.04%) SSL
13 46 (2.59%) Wireless
14 44 (2.47%) Skype
15 40 (2.25%) Remote Desktop
16 33 (1.85%) VoIP
17 27 (1.52%) Internet
18 20 (1.12%) HTTP
18 20 (1.12%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 124 (6.97%) SQL Server
2 36 (2.02%) Relational Database
3 29 (1.63%) RDBMS
4 19 (1.07%) MySQL
5 18 (1.01%) NoSQL
5 18 (1.01%) Power BI
6 14 (0.79%) Azure SQL Database
7 11 (0.62%) DB2
8 9 (0.51%) MongoDB
8 9 (0.51%) Oracle Database
9 7 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
9 7 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
10 6 (0.34%) Data Lake
10 6 (0.34%) MariaDB
10 6 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 4 (0.22%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.22%) Big Data
12 3 (0.17%) DynamoDB
12 3 (0.17%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.17%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 59 (3.32%) JIRA
2 46 (2.59%) Git
3 20 (1.12%) MSI
4 19 (1.07%) Selenium
5 14 (0.79%) TeamCity
6 12 (0.67%) GitLab
6 12 (0.67%) Jenkins
6 12 (0.67%) Sonatype Nexus
7 9 (0.51%) Robot Framework
8 8 (0.45%) Subversion
9 7 (0.39%) Postman
9 7 (0.39%) Visual Studio
10 4 (0.22%) Maven
10 4 (0.22%) SpecFlow
10 4 (0.22%) Toad
11 3 (0.17%) Hudson
12 2 (0.11%) Eclipse
12 2 (0.11%) IntelliJ
12 2 (0.11%) JMeter
12 2 (0.11%) NUnit
General
1 491 (27.60%) Social Skills
2 253 (14.22%) Finance
3 213 (11.97%) Public Sector
4 153 (8.60%) Analytical Skills
5 75 (4.22%) Telecoms
6 69 (3.88%) Manufacturing
6 69 (3.88%) Marketing
7 65 (3.65%) Banking
8 59 (3.32%) Legal
9 58 (3.26%) Electronics
10 29 (1.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 28 (1.57%) Retail
12 26 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
13 19 (1.07%) Military
14 14 (0.79%) Financial Institution
15 13 (0.73%) Law
15 13 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
16 12 (0.67%) Advertising
16 12 (0.67%) French Language
16 12 (0.67%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 252 (14.17%) Support Engineer
2 240 (13.49%) Analyst
3 182 (10.23%) Architect
4 165 (9.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 141 (7.93%) IT Support
6 131 (7.36%) Service Analyst
7 128 (7.20%) Service Desk Analyst
8 106 (5.96%) Senior
9 93 (5.23%) IT Engineer
10 90 (5.06%) Desktop Support
11 84 (4.72%) Desktop Engineer
12 79 (4.44%) Lead
13 78 (4.38%) 2nd Line Support
14 71 (3.99%) Active Directory Engineer
15 66 (3.71%) Support Analyst
16 65 (3.65%) IT Analyst
17 64 (3.60%) IT Support Engineer
18 63 (3.54%) Developer
19 61 (3.43%) Consultant
20 60 (3.37%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 63 (3.54%) LDAP
2 59 (3.32%) SAML
3 41 (2.30%) OAuth
4 38 (2.14%) Middleware
5 37 (2.08%) SailPoint
6 34 (1.91%) Web Services
7 30 (1.69%) REST
8 27 (1.52%) .NET
9 26 (1.46%) React
10 22 (1.24%) OpenID
11 21 (1.18%) HTML
12 16 (0.90%) AngularJS
12 16 (0.90%) Microsoft Graph
13 14 (0.79%) CSS
14 12 (0.67%) SOAP
15 10 (0.56%) ARM Templates
15 10 (0.56%) RESTful
15 10 (0.56%) Software Packaging
16 9 (0.51%) OAuth2
17 8 (0.45%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 120 (6.75%) PKI
2 85 (4.78%) Onboarding
3 69 (3.88%) Clustering
4 66 (3.71%) Management Information System
5 58 (3.26%) Video Conferencing
6 55 (3.09%) Data Centre
7 38 (2.14%) Self-Motivation
8 33 (1.85%) Smartphone
9 31 (1.74%) Product Ownership
10 30 (1.69%) Replication
11 26 (1.46%) iPad
12 23 (1.29%) iPhone
13 21 (1.18%) NHS
14 20 (1.12%) Driving Licence
15 19 (1.07%) Public Cloud
16 18 (1.01%) Blackberry
16 18 (1.01%) Hybrid Cloud
17 16 (0.90%) Security Posture
18 14 (0.79%) Mobile App
19 13 (0.73%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 1,146 (64.42%) Windows
2 417 (23.44%) Windows 10
3 411 (23.10%) Windows Server
4 198 (11.13%) Linux
5 109 (6.13%) Windows Server 2012
6 83 (4.67%) Windows Server 2016
7 72 (4.05%) Windows Server 2019
8 71 (3.99%) Apple iOS
9 65 (3.65%) Android
10 62 (3.49%) Unix
11 57 (3.20%) Windows 7
12 37 (2.08%) Mac OS
13 35 (1.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 32 (1.80%) Windows Server 2008
15 23 (1.29%) Windows Server 2003
16 16 (0.90%) Mac OS X
17 14 (0.79%) CentOS
18 11 (0.62%) Solaris
19 10 (0.56%) VMS
20 9 (0.51%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 316 (17.76%) Problem-Solving
2 314 (17.65%) ITIL
3 289 (16.25%) Customer Service
4 245 (13.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 183 (10.29%) Agile
6 174 (9.78%) Migration
7 145 (8.15%) Identity Access Management
8 142 (7.98%) DevOps
9 107 (6.01%) Identity Management
9 107 (6.01%) ITSM
10 102 (5.73%) Service Management
11 96 (5.40%) CI/CD
12 93 (5.23%) Incident Management
13 80 (4.50%) Cybersecurity
14 79 (4.44%) Disaster Recovery
15 78 (4.38%) Service Delivery
16 76 (4.27%) Business Intelligence
17 73 (4.10%) High Availability
18 72 (4.05%) Project Delivery
19 71 (3.99%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 375 (21.08%) PowerShell
2 166 (9.33%) SQL
3 111 (6.24%) Python
4 36 (2.02%) Java
5 34 (1.91%) C#
6 32 (1.80%) JavaScript
7 31 (1.74%) Bash
8 18 (1.01%) Bicep
9 13 (0.73%) VB
10 12 (0.67%) VBScript
11 10 (0.56%) Perl
12 6 (0.34%) PHP
12 6 (0.34%) Shell Script
12 6 (0.34%) VBA
13 5 (0.28%) C
13 5 (0.28%) C++
13 5 (0.28%) PL/SQL
14 4 (0.22%) T-SQL
15 3 (0.17%) Kusto Query Language
16 2 (0.11%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 494 (27.77%) Security Cleared
2 303 (17.03%) SC Cleared
3 205 (11.52%) DV Cleared
4 185 (10.40%) Degree
5 100 (5.62%) Microsoft Certification
6 47 (2.64%) Azure Certification
7 36 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
8 33 (1.85%) MCSE
9 32 (1.80%) CCNA
10 28 (1.57%) ITIL Certification
11 26 (1.46%) CISSP
12 24 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
12 24 (1.35%) DBS Check
13 23 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
14 22 (1.24%) A+ Certification
15 20 (1.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 19 (1.07%) AWS Certification
17 17 (0.96%) CCNP
17 17 (0.96%) MCSA
18 15 (0.84%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (4.83%) SLA
2 31 (1.74%) QA
3 21 (1.18%) GDPR
4 16 (0.90%) PCI DSS
5 15 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (0.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 9 (0.51%) NIST
8 8 (0.45%) Disclosure Scotland
9 5 (0.28%) Accessibility
9 5 (0.28%) Government Security Classifications
9 5 (0.28%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 5 (0.28%) PMO
9 5 (0.28%) RMADS
10 4 (0.22%) Data Quality
10 4 (0.22%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.17%) NCSC
12 2 (0.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.11%) WCAG
13 1 (0.056%) COBIT
System Software
1 268 (15.06%) VMware Infrastructure
2 131 (7.36%) Hyper-V
3 92 (5.17%) VMware ESXi
4 69 (3.88%) Virtual Machines
5 61 (3.43%) Microsoft App-V
6 57 (3.20%) Virtual Desktop
7 49 (2.75%) BitLocker
7 49 (2.75%) vSphere
8 38 (2.14%) Terminal Services
9 35 (1.97%) XenApp
10 30 (1.69%) XenDesktop
11 25 (1.41%) Docker
12 19 (1.07%) Virtual Servers
13 18 (1.01%) VMware NSX
14 11 (0.62%) Firmware
14 11 (0.62%) NFS
15 5 (0.28%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 5 (0.28%) Veritas File System
15 5 (0.28%) Veritas Volume Manager
15 5 (0.28%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 313 (17.59%) SCCM
2 295 (16.58%) Microsoft Intune
3 93 (5.23%) Ansible
3 93 (5.23%) Terraform
4 86 (4.83%) Single Sign-On
5 67 (3.77%) vCenter Server
6 63 (3.54%) WSUS
7 55 (3.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 51 (2.87%) Kubernetes
9 34 (1.91%) vMotion
10 22 (1.24%) Jamf Pro
10 22 (1.24%) Puppet
10 22 (1.24%) SCOM
11 19 (1.07%) Microsoft Clustering
12 15 (0.84%) AppManager
12 15 (0.84%) Failover Clustering
13 14 (0.79%) Tivoli
14 13 (0.73%) EMC NetWorker
14 13 (0.73%) Nessus
15 12 (0.67%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 1,037 (58.29%) Microsoft
2 424 (23.83%) VMware
3 172 (9.67%) Citrix
4 125 (7.03%) ServiceNow
5 111 (6.24%) Cisco
6 85 (4.78%) Oracle
6 85 (4.78%) SAP
7 78 (4.38%) Apple
8 73 (4.10%) CyberArk
9 51 (2.87%) HP
10 49 (2.75%) Google
11 48 (2.70%) Red Hat
12 29 (1.63%) Fortinet
13 27 (1.52%) Dell
14 26 (1.46%) Ivanti
14 26 (1.46%) Qualys
15 24 (1.35%) Okta
15 24 (1.35%) Palo Alto
15 24 (1.35%) Veeam
16 23 (1.29%) Meraki