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 31 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 36 33 32
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 +16
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 1,524 2,235 3,238
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 5.23% 5.21% 5.77%
As % of the System Software category 41.97% 47.69% 44.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,015 1,569 2,341
10th Percentile £185 £163 £163
25th Percentile £236 £220 £223
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £428
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -0.70% +7.00%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £400 £350
% change year-on-year - +14.29% +26.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 107 129
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.00 £13.81
25th Percentile £14.99 £14.16 £15.90
Median hourly rate £19.27 £17.50 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.11% -20.45% +25.71%
75th Percentile £28.00 £23.75 £54.00
90th Percentile £41.25 £40.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.82 £16.00 £18.50
% change year-on-year -1.16% -13.51% +8.82%

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 3,631 4,687 7,333
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.45% 10.93% 13.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,434 3,257 5,169
10th Percentile £220 £200 £200
25th Percentile £391 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £606 £638
90th Percentile £700 £688 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £480
% change year-on-year - -0.94% +6.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 227 253
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.06 £15.25
25th Percentile £15.44 £14.99 £19.00
Median hourly rate £28.21 £24.18 £54.83
Median % change year-on-year +16.65% -55.90% +174.15%
75th Percentile £63.00 £60.75 £66.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.00 £75.94
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.32 £24.18 £48.40
% change year-on-year +33.67% -50.04% +176.57%

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 31 May 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 31 May 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 31 May 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 -1 1,365 £450 +4.65% 1,293
UK excluding London 0 914 £400 - 990
London -21 496 £500 +13.64% 396
Work from Home -27 341 £500 +5.26% 557
North of England +8 254 £350 +14.75% 252
South East -7 229 £500 -2.44% 253
North West +6 132 £350 -3.45% 131
Midlands -2 129 £400 +18.52% 155
South West +7 127 £394 -10.35% 149
East of England +23 117 £500 +100.00% 108
Yorkshire +10 102 £400 +42.10% 81
West Midlands +4 101 £400 +14.29% 81
Scotland -43 50 £415 +22.06% 55
East Midlands -16 28 £400 +23.08% 74
North East +6 20 £325 -35.00% 45
Wales +3 18 £288 +51.32% 24
Northern Ireland -3 11 £160 -55.86% 13
Channel Islands - 3 £298 - 4

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
1 278 (18.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 193 (12.66%) SharePoint
3 31 (2.03%) IIS
4 30 (1.97%) Confluence
5 28 (1.84%) Skype for Business
6 16 (1.05%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 15 (0.98%) JBoss
8 11 (0.72%) Apache
9 10 (0.66%) Mattermost
10 7 (0.46%) Exchange Server 2013
11 5 (0.33%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
11 5 (0.33%) SharePoint Server
11 5 (0.33%) Tomcat
11 5 (0.33%) WebSphere
12 4 (0.26%) nginx
12 4 (0.26%) OpenStack
13 3 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2003
13 3 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2007
13 3 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2010
13 3 (0.20%) Office Communications Server
Applications
1 176 (11.55%) Microsoft Office
2 54 (3.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 44 (2.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 34 (2.23%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.066%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.066%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.066%) CANalyzer
6 1 (0.066%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.066%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (0.39%) Dynamics CRM
1 6 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.13%) Alphatax
2 2 (0.13%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.066%) Fidessa
3 1 (0.066%) SAP MM
3 1 (0.066%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 605 (39.70%) Azure
2 599 (39.30%) Microsoft 365
3 470 (30.84%) Entra ID
4 133 (8.73%) AWS
5 83 (5.45%) OneDrive
6 78 (5.12%) IaaS
7 54 (3.54%) SaaS
8 46 (3.02%) GCP
9 43 (2.82%) PaaS
10 39 (2.56%) Azure DevOps
10 39 (2.56%) Power Platform
11 31 (2.03%) GitHub
12 28 (1.84%) Cohesity
13 25 (1.64%) Serverless
14 21 (1.38%) Azure Sentinel
15 20 (1.31%) OpenShift
16 19 (1.25%) Azure Monitor
16 19 (1.25%) Google Workspace
17 18 (1.18%) Cloud Computing
17 18 (1.18%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 272 (17.85%) DNS
2 169 (11.09%) Firewall
3 149 (9.78%) DHCP
4 132 (8.66%) VPN
5 77 (5.05%) Wi-Fi
6 60 (3.94%) TCP/IP
7 59 (3.87%) WAN
8 58 (3.81%) SAN
9 57 (3.74%) LAN
10 47 (3.08%) SMTP
11 42 (2.76%) Network Security
11 42 (2.76%) Skype
12 35 (2.30%) Remote Desktop
13 32 (2.10%) WebEx
14 22 (1.44%) VLAN
15 19 (1.25%) Unified Communications
16 16 (1.05%) Intrusion Detection
16 16 (1.05%) NAS
16 16 (1.05%) VoIP
17 15 (0.98%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (5.18%) SQL Server
2 29 (1.90%) Elasticsearch
3 25 (1.64%) Oracle Database
4 24 (1.57%) Relational Database
5 21 (1.38%) Amazon RDS
6 13 (0.85%) Power BI
7 12 (0.79%) Azure SQL Database
7 12 (0.79%) Big Data
7 12 (0.79%) NoSQL
8 10 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
8 10 (0.66%) RDBMS
9 6 (0.39%) MongoDB
10 4 (0.26%) DB2
10 4 (0.26%) Redis
11 3 (0.20%) Data Lake
11 3 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.20%) MySQL
11 3 (0.20%) Neo4j
11 3 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 63 (4.13%) JIRA
2 36 (2.36%) Git
3 32 (2.10%) Jenkins
4 20 (1.31%) GitLab
5 19 (1.25%) TeamCity
6 17 (1.12%) SonarQube
7 16 (1.05%) Sonatype Nexus
8 11 (0.72%) Bitbucket Server
8 11 (0.72%) CA Release Automation
9 10 (0.66%) Bitbucket
10 9 (0.59%) MSI
11 5 (0.33%) Selenium
12 3 (0.20%) JUnit
12 3 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
12 3 (0.20%) Subversion
12 3 (0.20%) Visual Studio
13 2 (0.13%) Robot Framework
14 1 (0.066%) Burp Suite
14 1 (0.066%) CANoe
14 1 (0.066%) Vagrant
General
1 495 (32.48%) Social Skills
2 208 (13.65%) Finance
3 155 (10.17%) Public Sector
4 108 (7.09%) Analytical Skills
5 68 (4.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 49 (3.22%) Legal
7 48 (3.15%) Telecoms
8 42 (2.76%) Manufacturing
9 40 (2.62%) Documentation Skills
10 39 (2.56%) Banking
11 34 (2.23%) Marketing
12 30 (1.97%) Electronics
13 27 (1.77%) Retail
14 21 (1.38%) Law
15 17 (1.12%) Local Government
16 13 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
17 12 (0.79%) Military
18 11 (0.72%) Presentation Skills
19 8 (0.52%) Games
19 8 (0.52%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 225 (14.76%) Analyst
2 222 (14.57%) Support Engineer
3 173 (11.35%) Architect
4 164 (10.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 118 (7.74%) IT Support
6 95 (6.23%) Service Analyst
7 94 (6.17%) Service Desk Analyst
8 92 (6.04%) 2nd Line Support
9 90 (5.91%) Desktop Support
10 88 (5.77%) IT Engineer
11 86 (5.64%) Desktop Engineer
11 86 (5.64%) Support Analyst
12 68 (4.46%) Desktop Support Engineer
13 67 (4.40%) Senior
14 60 (3.94%) IT Support Engineer
15 54 (3.54%) Developer
15 54 (3.54%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
16 50 (3.28%) Azure Engineer
16 50 (3.28%) Windows Engineer
17 48 (3.15%) 2nd Line Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (3.81%) LDAP
2 49 (3.22%) SailPoint
3 48 (3.15%) .NET
4 44 (2.89%) REST
5 37 (2.43%) OAuth
6 29 (1.90%) SAML
7 27 (1.77%) HTML
8 26 (1.71%) OpenID
9 25 (1.64%) CSS
10 21 (1.38%) AngularJS
10 21 (1.38%) React
11 20 (1.31%) ASP.NET
11 20 (1.31%) Middleware
11 20 (1.31%) Web Services
12 15 (0.98%) SOAP
13 14 (0.92%) Spring Boot
14 12 (0.79%) .NET Core
14 12 (0.79%) Microsoft Graph
15 11 (0.72%) ARM Templates
15 11 (0.72%) Bootstrap
Miscellaneous
1 76 (4.99%) PKI
2 73 (4.79%) Onboarding
3 58 (3.81%) Data Centre
4 48 (3.15%) Management Information System
5 43 (2.82%) Self-Motivation
6 42 (2.76%) Hybrid Cloud
7 38 (2.49%) Clustering
8 36 (2.36%) iPhone
9 32 (2.10%) Smartphone
10 29 (1.90%) Driving Licence
11 28 (1.84%) Video Conferencing
12 26 (1.71%) Linux Command Line
13 23 (1.51%) Enterprise Software
14 20 (1.31%) Replication
14 20 (1.31%) Security Posture
15 18 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
16 16 (1.05%) iPad
17 13 (0.85%) Product Ownership
18 11 (0.72%) Cloud Native
18 11 (0.72%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 906 (59.45%) Windows
2 348 (22.83%) Windows Server
3 267 (17.52%) Windows 10
4 195 (12.80%) Linux
5 81 (5.31%) Windows Server 2016
6 63 (4.13%) Windows Server 2019
7 60 (3.94%) Apple iOS
8 58 (3.81%) Mac OS
9 55 (3.61%) Android
10 50 (3.28%) Windows Server 2012
11 33 (2.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 32 (2.10%) Unix
13 24 (1.57%) Windows Server 2003
14 19 (1.25%) VMS
15 18 (1.18%) Windows 7
16 16 (1.05%) CentOS
17 12 (0.79%) Ubuntu
18 10 (0.66%) Windows Server 2008
19 9 (0.59%) Windows 8
20 8 (0.52%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 364 (23.88%) Problem-Solving
2 318 (20.87%) ITIL
3 232 (15.22%) Customer Service
4 219 (14.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 179 (11.75%) Migration
6 175 (11.48%) Agile
7 157 (10.30%) Identity Access Management
8 141 (9.25%) ITSM
9 139 (9.12%) DevOps
10 104 (6.82%) Incident Management
11 101 (6.63%) Cybersecurity
12 96 (6.30%) Service Delivery
13 84 (5.51%) RBAC
14 81 (5.31%) Service Management
15 72 (4.72%) Roadmaps
16 71 (4.66%) Stakeholder Management
17 70 (4.59%) Multi-Factor Authentication
18 68 (4.46%) Identity Management
19 66 (4.33%) High Availability
20 64 (4.20%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 366 (24.02%) PowerShell
2 119 (7.81%) SQL
3 90 (5.91%) Python
4 50 (3.28%) JavaScript
5 46 (3.02%) C#
6 41 (2.69%) Bash
7 38 (2.49%) Java
8 33 (2.17%) Perl
9 24 (1.57%) Shell Script
10 22 (1.44%) PL/SQL
11 21 (1.38%) Bicep
12 10 (0.66%) Ruby
13 9 (0.59%) TypeScript
14 7 (0.46%) BeanShell
15 6 (0.39%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.39%) VBScript
16 5 (0.33%) C
16 5 (0.33%) VB
17 3 (0.20%) PHP
17 3 (0.20%) VBA
Qualifications
1 373 (24.48%) Security Cleared
2 220 (14.44%) SC Cleared
3 152 (9.97%) DV Cleared
4 151 (9.91%) Degree
5 121 (7.94%) Microsoft Certification
6 48 (3.15%) Azure Certification
7 46 (3.02%) A+ Certification
8 38 (2.49%) ITIL Certification
9 35 (2.30%) Cisco Certification
10 30 (1.97%) MCSA
11 25 (1.64%) CISSP
12 21 (1.38%) DBS Check
12 21 (1.38%) MCSE
13 19 (1.25%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 17 (1.12%) AWS Certification
15 15 (0.98%) Computer Science Degree
16 14 (0.92%) CISM
17 13 (0.85%) PMP
18 12 (0.79%) CCNA
19 11 (0.72%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (4.00%) SLA
2 44 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 42 (2.76%) GDPR
4 31 (2.03%) NIST
5 21 (1.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 19 (1.25%) HIPAA
7 15 (0.98%) PCI DSS
8 13 (0.85%) NCSC
8 13 (0.85%) QA
9 10 (0.66%) SOC 2
10 9 (0.59%) GxP
11 7 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.39%) PMO
13 5 (0.33%) Accessibility
13 5 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 4 (0.26%) Data Quality
14 4 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
14 4 (0.26%) GRC
14 4 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 2 (0.13%) NIST 800
System Software
1 200 (13.12%) VMware Infrastructure
2 85 (5.58%) Hyper-V
3 69 (4.53%) VMware ESXi
4 63 (4.13%) vSphere
5 51 (3.35%) Virtual Machines
6 46 (3.02%) Docker
7 40 (2.62%) Virtual Desktop
8 36 (2.36%) BitLocker
9 33 (2.17%) Virtual Servers
10 29 (1.90%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 23 (1.51%) Microsoft App-V
12 19 (1.25%) VMware NSX
13 12 (0.79%) Terminal Services
13 12 (0.79%) XenApp
14 10 (0.66%) XenDesktop
15 7 (0.46%) DFS Replication
16 6 (0.39%) NFS
17 5 (0.33%) VMware Workstation
18 4 (0.26%) OpenAM
19 3 (0.20%) Brightmail
Systems Management
1 288 (18.90%) Microsoft Intune
2 205 (13.45%) SCCM
3 97 (6.36%) Single Sign-On
4 93 (6.10%) Ansible
5 74 (4.86%) WSUS
6 66 (4.33%) Terraform
7 59 (3.87%) Kubernetes
8 46 (3.02%) vCenter Server
9 44 (2.89%) Jamf Pro
10 19 (1.25%) SCOM
11 17 (1.12%) Progress Chef
11 17 (1.12%) Puppet
12 16 (1.05%) Microsoft Clustering
13 15 (0.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 15 (0.98%) Kibana
13 15 (0.98%) vMotion
14 11 (0.72%) Nagios
15 10 (0.66%) vRealize
15 10 (0.66%) VxRail
16 8 (0.52%) AirWatch
Vendors
1 914 (59.97%) Microsoft
2 293 (19.23%) VMware
3 206 (13.52%) ServiceNow
4 133 (8.73%) Citrix
5 123 (8.07%) Cisco
6 56 (3.67%) Apple
6 56 (3.67%) CyberArk
7 55 (3.61%) Splunk
8 50 (3.28%) Oracle
9 45 (2.95%) Google
9 45 (2.95%) SAP
10 44 (2.89%) Dell
11 36 (2.36%) Red Hat
12 35 (2.30%) HP
13 29 (1.90%) NetApp
14 27 (1.77%) Okta
15 25 (1.64%) SolarWinds
16 23 (1.51%) Symantec
16 23 (1.51%) Zscaler
17 21 (1.38%) Veeam