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 26 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 35 32 31
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 +16
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 1,565 2,306 3,563
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 5.33% 5.28% 5.93%
As % of the System Software category 42.45% 49.06% 44.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,067 1,607 2,596
10th Percentile £181 £160 £163
25th Percentile £243 £213 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £413 £425
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -2.94% +3.03%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £375 £375
% change year-on-year +6.67% - +30.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 116 162
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.00 £13.25
25th Percentile £15.22 £14.40 £15.45
Median hourly rate £22.00 £17.69 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year +24.36% -9.28% +11.43%
75th Percentile £29.00 £23.76 £53.53
90th Percentile £64.50 £40.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.73 £17.29 £17.72
% change year-on-year +19.93% -2.45% +2.72%

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 3,687 4,700 7,960
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.55% 10.77% 13.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,523 3,215 5,688
10th Percentile £213 £195 £205
25th Percentile £400 £325 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £488 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% -7.14% -
75th Percentile £623 £600 £638
90th Percentile £700 £688 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £460 £488
% change year-on-year +4.73% -5.64% +8.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 235 293
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.06 £14.30
25th Percentile £18.13 £15.50 £17.79
Median hourly rate £28.00 £22.50 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +24.44% -57.14% +162.50%
75th Percentile £64.75 £60.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £76.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.07 £21.00 £39.80
% change year-on-year +76.54% -47.24% +119.71%

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 26 April 2025.

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 26 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Active Directory in the UK

Active Directory
Top 18 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 26 April 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 -2 1,383 £450 +12.50% 1,172
UK excluding London -1 929 £400 +6.67% 800
London -19 498 £500 +18.34% 440
Work from Home -12 395 £496 +6.56% 472
North of England +7 274 £350 +10.67% 223
South East -9 230 £525 +10.53% 231
North West +11 153 £350 +7.69% 99
South West +3 135 £450 +50.00% 99
Midlands +2 125 £413 +22.22% 115
Yorkshire +6 104 £400 +33.33% 105
West Midlands +10 101 £400 +14.29% 54
East of England +14 100 £375 +41.51% 93
Scotland -30 55 £430 +8.86% 39
East Midlands -7 24 £463 +98.92% 60
Wales +4 22 £383 +81.28% 14
North East -7 16 £300 +44.58% 24
Northern Ireland -2 8 £160 -63.43% 10
Channel Islands - 2 £298 -

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
1 298 (19.04%) Microsoft Exchange
2 226 (14.44%) SharePoint
3 32 (2.04%) IIS
4 29 (1.85%) Confluence
5 25 (1.60%) Skype for Business
6 18 (1.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 14 (0.89%) JBoss
7 14 (0.89%) WebSphere
8 7 (0.45%) Apache
8 7 (0.45%) Exchange Server 2013
9 5 (0.32%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
9 5 (0.32%) Exchange Server 2010
9 5 (0.32%) Mattermost
9 5 (0.32%) SharePoint Server
9 5 (0.32%) Tomcat
10 4 (0.26%) BizTalk Server
10 4 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2003
10 4 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2007
10 4 (0.26%) nginx
11 3 (0.19%) Office Communications Server
Applications
1 189 (12.08%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (4.03%) Microsoft Excel
3 45 (2.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 36 (2.30%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.064%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.064%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.064%) CANalyzer
6 1 (0.064%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.064%) Final Cut Pro
6 1 (0.064%) QuarkXPress
Business Applications
1 8 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.32%) Dynamics GP
2 5 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.13%) Alphatax
4 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.13%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.064%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 642 (41.02%) Azure
2 620 (39.62%) Microsoft 365
3 491 (31.37%) Entra ID
4 131 (8.37%) AWS
5 106 (6.77%) OneDrive
6 79 (5.05%) IaaS
7 57 (3.64%) SaaS
8 45 (2.88%) PaaS
9 44 (2.81%) GCP
9 44 (2.81%) Power Platform
10 30 (1.92%) Azure DevOps
11 28 (1.79%) GitHub
11 28 (1.79%) Serverless
12 22 (1.41%) Google Workspace
13 21 (1.34%) Azure Monitor
14 20 (1.28%) Power Automate
15 19 (1.21%) Nutanix
15 19 (1.21%) OpenShift
16 18 (1.15%) Amazon EC2
17 17 (1.09%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 277 (17.70%) DNS
2 180 (11.50%) DHCP
3 177 (11.31%) Firewall
4 156 (9.97%) VPN
5 93 (5.94%) Wi-Fi
6 67 (4.28%) LAN
7 66 (4.22%) WAN
8 60 (3.83%) Network Security
9 58 (3.71%) TCP/IP
10 48 (3.07%) SMTP
11 40 (2.56%) Remote Desktop
11 40 (2.56%) SAN
11 40 (2.56%) Skype
12 36 (2.30%) VLAN
13 24 (1.53%) SSL
14 19 (1.21%) NAS
14 19 (1.21%) VoIP
15 18 (1.15%) WebEx
16 17 (1.09%) Wireless
17 16 (1.02%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 93 (5.94%) SQL Server
2 26 (1.66%) Elasticsearch
2 26 (1.66%) Oracle Database
2 26 (1.66%) Relational Database
3 20 (1.28%) Amazon RDS
4 14 (0.89%) NoSQL
5 13 (0.83%) DB2
6 12 (0.77%) Big Data
6 12 (0.77%) RDBMS
7 11 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
8 9 (0.58%) Power BI
9 8 (0.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 6 (0.38%) MongoDB
11 5 (0.32%) MySQL
11 5 (0.32%) PostgreSQL
12 4 (0.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 3 (0.19%) BigQuery
13 3 (0.19%) Neo4j
14 2 (0.13%) Hadoop
14 2 (0.13%) IDMS
Development Applications
1 59 (3.77%) JIRA
2 37 (2.36%) Git
3 25 (1.60%) Jenkins
4 16 (1.02%) SonarQube
5 15 (0.96%) GitLab
5 15 (0.96%) Sonatype Nexus
6 14 (0.89%) TeamCity
7 10 (0.64%) Bitbucket Server
7 10 (0.64%) CA Release Automation
8 9 (0.58%) Bitbucket
8 9 (0.58%) Selenium
9 8 (0.51%) MSI
10 3 (0.19%) Hudson
10 3 (0.19%) JUnit
10 3 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
10 3 (0.19%) Subversion
11 2 (0.13%) Maven
12 1 (0.064%) Moq
12 1 (0.064%) Serena SBM
12 1 (0.064%) Visual Studio
General
1 474 (30.29%) Social Skills
2 218 (13.93%) Finance
3 167 (10.67%) Public Sector
4 126 (8.05%) Analytical Skills
5 55 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 54 (3.45%) Legal
7 51 (3.26%) Telecoms
8 44 (2.81%) Banking
9 38 (2.43%) Manufacturing
10 33 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
10 33 (2.11%) Marketing
11 30 (1.92%) Electronics
12 24 (1.53%) Retail
13 20 (1.28%) Law
14 17 (1.09%) Local Government
15 12 (0.77%) Military
16 9 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.58%) Presentation Skills
17 8 (0.51%) Investment Banking
18 7 (0.45%) Billing
Job Titles
1 220 (14.06%) Analyst
1 220 (14.06%) Support Engineer
2 193 (12.33%) Architect
3 180 (11.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 105 (6.71%) IT Support
5 100 (6.39%) Service Analyst
6 98 (6.26%) Service Desk Analyst
7 90 (5.75%) 2nd Line Support
7 90 (5.75%) Desktop Engineer
8 89 (5.69%) Desktop Support
8 89 (5.69%) Senior
9 85 (5.43%) IT Engineer
10 71 (4.54%) Support Analyst
11 68 (4.35%) Desktop Support Engineer
12 63 (4.03%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
13 53 (3.39%) Azure Engineer
14 52 (3.32%) 2nd Line Engineer
14 52 (3.32%) IT Support Engineer
15 51 (3.26%) Developer
16 46 (2.94%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (4.35%) LDAP
2 51 (3.26%) SailPoint
3 45 (2.88%) SAML
4 43 (2.75%) REST
5 41 (2.62%) .NET
5 41 (2.62%) OAuth
6 24 (1.53%) OpenID
7 22 (1.41%) React
8 21 (1.34%) AngularJS
8 21 (1.34%) Web Services
9 20 (1.28%) HTML
9 20 (1.28%) Middleware
10 18 (1.15%) Microsoft Graph
11 17 (1.09%) CSS
11 17 (1.09%) SOAP
12 15 (0.96%) JSON
13 14 (0.89%) ASP.NET
14 13 (0.83%) Spring Boot
15 11 (0.70%) XML
16 10 (0.64%) Bootstrap
Miscellaneous
1 88 (5.62%) PKI
2 80 (5.11%) Onboarding
3 69 (4.41%) Data Centre
4 55 (3.51%) Management Information System
5 44 (2.81%) Self-Motivation
6 38 (2.43%) Hybrid Cloud
6 38 (2.43%) Video Conferencing
7 37 (2.36%) Clustering
8 28 (1.79%) iPhone
8 28 (1.79%) Security Posture
9 26 (1.66%) Product Ownership
10 24 (1.53%) Driving Licence
10 24 (1.53%) Smartphone
11 23 (1.47%) Linux Command Line
12 20 (1.28%) Replication
13 19 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
14 16 (1.02%) Enterprise Software
14 16 (1.02%) iPad
15 14 (0.89%) Cloud Native
16 13 (0.83%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 935 (59.74%) Windows
2 371 (23.71%) Windows Server
3 294 (18.79%) Windows 10
4 188 (12.01%) Linux
5 68 (4.35%) Windows Server 2016
6 64 (4.09%) Windows Server 2012
7 56 (3.58%) Windows Server 2019
8 55 (3.51%) Apple iOS
9 47 (3.00%) Android
10 44 (2.81%) Mac OS
11 39 (2.49%) Unix
12 33 (2.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 28 (1.79%) Windows Server 2003
14 22 (1.41%) Windows 7
15 21 (1.34%) VMS
16 13 (0.83%) Windows Server 2008
17 9 (0.58%) CentOS
18 7 (0.45%) Windows XP
19 6 (0.38%) Windows 8
20 5 (0.32%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 368 (23.51%) Problem-Solving
2 303 (19.36%) ITIL
3 244 (15.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 226 (14.44%) Customer Service
5 200 (12.78%) Migration
6 174 (11.12%) Agile
7 163 (10.42%) Identity Access Management
8 138 (8.82%) ITSM
9 134 (8.56%) DevOps
10 103 (6.58%) Incident Management
11 101 (6.45%) RBAC
12 100 (6.39%) Cybersecurity
13 88 (5.62%) Service Delivery
14 79 (5.05%) Roadmaps
15 78 (4.98%) Identity Management
16 75 (4.79%) Service Management
17 74 (4.73%) Multi-Factor Authentication
18 70 (4.47%) Privileged Access Management
19 67 (4.28%) Stakeholder Management
20 62 (3.96%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 366 (23.39%) PowerShell
2 132 (8.43%) SQL
3 93 (5.94%) Python
4 45 (2.88%) JavaScript
5 41 (2.62%) Bash
6 39 (2.49%) C#
7 34 (2.17%) Java
8 31 (1.98%) Perl
9 22 (1.41%) PL/SQL
10 20 (1.28%) Shell Script
11 12 (0.77%) Bicep
12 10 (0.64%) Ruby
13 8 (0.51%) VBScript
14 7 (0.45%) BeanShell
15 6 (0.38%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.38%) VB
16 3 (0.19%) C
16 3 (0.19%) TypeScript
16 3 (0.19%) VBA
17 2 (0.13%) Go
Qualifications
1 374 (23.90%) Security Cleared
2 233 (14.89%) SC Cleared
3 151 (9.65%) Degree
4 142 (9.07%) DV Cleared
5 121 (7.73%) Microsoft Certification
6 54 (3.45%) Azure Certification
7 48 (3.07%) A+ Certification
8 34 (2.17%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (1.98%) MCSA
10 30 (1.92%) ITIL Certification
11 28 (1.79%) CISSP
12 21 (1.34%) CISM
12 21 (1.34%) MCSE
13 20 (1.28%) AWS Certification
14 18 (1.15%) Computer Science Degree
14 18 (1.15%) DBS Check
15 14 (0.89%) CCNA
16 13 (0.83%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 11 (0.70%) MCP
17 11 (0.70%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (3.51%) SLA
2 42 (2.68%) GDPR
3 32 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 24 (1.53%) NIST
4 24 (1.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 18 (1.15%) HIPAA
6 14 (0.89%) QA
7 13 (0.83%) PCI DSS
8 9 (0.58%) SOC 2
9 8 (0.51%) NCSC
9 8 (0.51%) PMO
10 7 (0.45%) GxP
11 6 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.38%) Data Quality
12 5 (0.32%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.32%) Government Security Classifications
13 4 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
13 4 (0.26%) GRC
14 2 (0.13%) FIPS 140-2
System Software
1 208 (13.29%) VMware Infrastructure
2 93 (5.94%) Hyper-V
3 75 (4.79%) VMware ESXi
4 62 (3.96%) vSphere
5 59 (3.77%) Virtual Machines
6 43 (2.75%) Docker
7 34 (2.17%) BitLocker
8 29 (1.85%) Virtual Desktop
9 26 (1.66%) Microsoft App-V
10 21 (1.34%) VMware NSX
11 16 (1.02%) Virtual Servers
12 13 (0.83%) Terminal Services
13 10 (0.64%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 10 (0.64%) XenApp
14 9 (0.58%) XenDesktop
15 8 (0.51%) NFS
16 6 (0.38%) DFS Replication
16 6 (0.38%) VMware Workstation
17 4 (0.26%) OpenAM
18 3 (0.19%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 285 (18.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 206 (13.16%) SCCM
3 91 (5.81%) Single Sign-On
4 70 (4.47%) Ansible
5 64 (4.09%) WSUS
6 58 (3.71%) Kubernetes
7 54 (3.45%) vCenter Server
8 53 (3.39%) Terraform
9 29 (1.85%) Jamf Pro
10 28 (1.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (1.15%) Microsoft Clustering
12 16 (1.02%) Puppet
13 15 (0.96%) Progress Chef
13 15 (0.96%) SCOM
13 15 (0.96%) vMotion
14 13 (0.83%) AppManager
14 13 (0.83%) Kibana
15 11 (0.70%) Nagios
16 10 (0.64%) vRealize
16 10 (0.64%) VxRail
Vendors
1 922 (58.91%) Microsoft
2 314 (20.06%) VMware
3 183 (11.69%) ServiceNow
4 125 (7.99%) Cisco
5 118 (7.54%) Citrix
6 58 (3.71%) CyberArk
6 58 (3.71%) Oracle
7 50 (3.19%) Google
8 48 (3.07%) Apple
9 46 (2.94%) SAP
10 43 (2.75%) Dell
11 41 (2.62%) HP
12 33 (2.11%) Red Hat
13 27 (1.73%) Splunk
14 25 (1.60%) Zscaler
15 24 (1.53%) SolarWinds
16 22 (1.41%) Meraki
16 22 (1.41%) Okta
16 22 (1.41%) Symantec
17 20 (1.28%) Palo Alto