Active Directory Job Trends in Manchester

Microsoft Active Directory
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring Active Directory skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 68 77 48
Rank change year-on-year +9 -29 +26
Permanent jobs citing Active Directory 67 81 130
As % of all permanent jobs in Manchester 2.30% 3.04% 5.14%
As % of the System Software category 41.10% 34.18% 33.85%
Number of salaries quoted 55 50 120
10th Percentile £28,500 £26,725 £26,000
25th Percentile £32,500 £30,813 £28,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £39,250 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year +1.91% +4.67% -11.76%
75th Percentile £53,375 £43,750 £47,813
90th Percentile £63,040 £51,375 £68,000
North West median annual salary £36,000 £40,000 £37,500
% change year-on-year -10.00% +6.67% -

All System Software Skills
Manchester

Active Directory falls under the System Software category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring system software skills in Manchester.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 163 237 384
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Manchester 5.59% 8.89% 15.18%
Number of salaries quoted 141 137 319
10th Percentile £32,500 £31,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £38,750 £40,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -0.90% +5.71% -
75th Percentile £71,000 £74,144 £70,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £93,011 £77,500
North West median annual salary £50,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +6.24%

Active Directory
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Active Directory relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

Active Directory job vacancy trend in Manchester

Active Directory
Salary Trend in Manchester

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Active Directory.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Active Directory

Active Directory
Salary Histogram in Manchester

Salary distribution for jobs citing Active Directory in Manchester over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Active Directory in Manchester

Active Directory
Job Locations in Manchester

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Active Directory within the Manchester region over the 6 months to 14 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Bolton +15 4 £32,188 +14.96% 5
Salford +3 1 £57,500 - 2
Active Directory
North West

Active Directory
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 17 (25.37%) Microsoft Exchange
2 15 (22.39%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.49%) FactoryTalk
3 1 (1.49%) IIS
3 1 (1.49%) WinCC
Applications
1 4 (5.97%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 49 (73.13%) Microsoft 365
2 45 (67.16%) Azure
3 38 (56.72%) Entra ID
4 14 (20.90%) SaaS
5 12 (17.91%) OneDrive
6 11 (16.42%) Azure Monitor
7 9 (13.43%) Microsoft Purview
7 9 (13.43%) Power Platform
8 7 (10.45%) AWS
8 7 (10.45%) Azure Sentinel
9 6 (8.96%) Azure DevOps
10 5 (7.46%) IaaS
11 3 (4.48%) Azure AKS
11 3 (4.48%) Google Workspace
12 2 (2.99%) Azure Logic Apps
12 2 (2.99%) Azure Storage
12 2 (2.99%) GitHub
12 2 (2.99%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (2.99%) iPaaS
12 2 (2.99%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 23 (34.33%) Firewall
2 17 (25.37%) DNS
3 14 (20.90%) DHCP
4 12 (17.91%) VPN
5 11 (16.42%) VLAN
6 10 (14.93%) WAN
7 9 (13.43%) TCP/IP
8 7 (10.45%) LAN
9 6 (8.96%) SSL
10 4 (5.97%) Wi-Fi
11 1 (1.49%) Ethernet
11 1 (1.49%) FTP
11 1 (1.49%) HTTP
11 1 (1.49%) Internet
11 1 (1.49%) Network Security
11 1 (1.49%) SMTP
11 1 (1.49%) SNMP
11 1 (1.49%) SSH
11 1 (1.49%) Telnet
11 1 (1.49%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.99%) NoSQL
1 2 (2.99%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.49%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (1.49%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (1.49%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (2.99%) Git
General
1 43 (64.18%) Social Skills
2 16 (23.88%) Analytical Skills
3 11 (16.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 6 (8.96%) Organisational Skills
5 4 (5.97%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (4.48%) Finance
7 2 (2.99%) Marketing
7 2 (2.99%) Retail
8 1 (1.49%) Law
8 1 (1.49%) Legal
8 1 (1.49%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 17 (25.37%) IT Support
1 17 (25.37%) Support Engineer
2 12 (17.91%) IT Engineer
3 11 (16.42%) IT Support Engineer
4 9 (13.43%) Technical Support
5 8 (11.94%) Analyst
5 8 (11.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 8 (11.94%) Platform Engineer
6 6 (8.96%) IT Analyst
7 5 (7.46%) 2nd Line Support
7 5 (7.46%) 3rd Line Support
7 5 (7.46%) 3rd Line Support Technician
7 5 (7.46%) Desktop Support
7 5 (7.46%) Support Technician
7 5 (7.46%) Technical Engineer
7 5 (7.46%) Technical Support Engineer
8 4 (5.97%) Desktop Analyst
8 4 (5.97%) IT Support Analyst
8 4 (5.97%) Support Analyst
8 4 (5.97%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.99%) .NET
1 2 (2.99%) .NET Framework
1 2 (2.99%) ARM Templates
1 2 (2.99%) Entity Framework
1 2 (2.99%) Middleware
1 2 (2.99%) Razor View Engine
1 2 (2.99%) React
2 1 (1.49%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 13 (19.40%) Driving Licence
2 8 (11.94%) Enterprise Software
3 7 (10.45%) Cloud Native
4 6 (8.96%) Analytical Mindset
5 5 (7.46%) Management Information System
5 5 (7.46%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (5.97%) Social Media
7 3 (4.48%) Data Centre
8 2 (2.99%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (2.99%) Onboarding
9 1 (1.49%) Cyberattack
9 1 (1.49%) Educational Technology
9 1 (1.49%) Operational Technology
9 1 (1.49%) Replication
9 1 (1.49%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 38 (56.72%) Windows
2 25 (37.31%) Windows Server
3 8 (11.94%) Windows 10
4 4 (5.97%) Android
4 4 (5.97%) Apple iOS
5 1 (1.49%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (46.27%) Problem-Solving
2 22 (32.84%) Customer Service
3 17 (25.37%) ITIL
3 17 (25.37%) Service Delivery
4 15 (22.39%) Continuous Improvement
5 14 (20.90%) DevOps
5 14 (20.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 13 (19.40%) Agile
6 13 (19.40%) Data Loss Prevention
7 12 (17.91%) Identity Access Management
7 12 (17.91%) Incident Response
8 11 (16.42%) Change Management
8 11 (16.42%) Cybersecurity
8 11 (16.42%) Observability
9 9 (13.43%) Remote Monitoring and Management
9 9 (13.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 9 (13.43%) User Experience
10 8 (11.94%) Cost Optimisation
10 8 (11.94%) Platform Engineering
10 8 (11.94%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 10 (14.93%) PowerShell
2 9 (13.43%) SQL
3 4 (5.97%) Bicep
4 2 (2.99%) C#
4 2 (2.99%) Python
4 2 (2.99%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 10 (14.93%) Degree
2 9 (13.43%) DBS Check
3 6 (8.96%) CCNA
3 6 (8.96%) Cisco Certification
3 6 (8.96%) Microsoft Certification
4 5 (7.46%) Azure Certification
5 4 (5.97%) Network+ Certification
6 2 (2.99%) A+ Certification
6 2 (2.99%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (2.99%) SC Cleared
6 2 (2.99%) Security Cleared
7 1 (1.49%) AWS Certification
7 1 (1.49%) CREST Certified
7 1 (1.49%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (1.49%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (10.45%) Cyber Essentials
1 7 (10.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (1.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 1 (1.49%) GDPR
2 1 (1.49%) NIST
System Software
1 10 (14.93%) Hyper-V
2 6 (8.96%) Virtual Machines
3 4 (5.97%) Docker
3 4 (5.97%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (5.97%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (1.49%) Firmware
4 1 (1.49%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 34 (50.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (17.91%) Terraform
3 9 (13.43%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (7.46%) Autotask
4 5 (7.46%) Kubernetes
5 4 (5.97%) Jamf Pro
6 2 (2.99%) FortiGate
6 2 (2.99%) SmoothWall
7 1 (1.49%) AssetCenter
7 1 (1.49%) Prometheus
7 1 (1.49%) SCCM
Vendors
1 55 (82.09%) Microsoft
2 8 (11.94%) New Relic
2 8 (11.94%) Splunk
2 8 (11.94%) VMware
3 5 (7.46%) Cisco
4 4 (5.97%) Meraki
5 3 (4.48%) Google
5 3 (4.48%) ServiceNow
6 2 (2.99%) Citrix
6 2 (2.99%) Fortinet
6 2 (2.99%) Spotify
6 2 (2.99%) Ubiquiti
7 1 (1.49%) Apple
7 1 (1.49%) CrowdStrike
7 1 (1.49%) Dell
7 1 (1.49%) iManage
7 1 (1.49%) Rockwell
7 1 (1.49%) Sage
7 1 (1.49%) Siemens
7 1 (1.49%) Veeam