Active Directory Contracts

Microsoft Active Directory
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Active Directory skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Active Directory over the 6 months to 24 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
24 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 33 32 47
Rank change year-on-year -1 +15 -1
Contract jobs citing Active Directory 2,213 3,276 4,337
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 5.19% 5.80% 4.95%
As % of the System Software category 47.91% 44.44% 37.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,557 2,377 3,116
10th Percentile £163 £163 £150
25th Percentile £215 £225 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £428 £400
Median % change year-on-year -0.70% +7.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £538
90th Percentile £675 £675 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £363 £285
% change year-on-year +10.34% +27.19% -12.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 131 234
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.96 £12.68
25th Percentile £14.16 £15.70 £14.25
Median hourly rate £17.39 £20.00 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +14.29% +7.83%
75th Percentile £23.75 £54.00 £22.25
90th Percentile £40.00 £66.00 £37.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.00 £18.28 £16.88
% change year-on-year -12.47% +8.33% +7.48%

All System Software Skills
UK

Active Directory is in the System Software category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for system software skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,619 7,372 11,671
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.84% 13.05% 13.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,208 5,217 8,382
10th Percentile £200 £204 £200
25th Percentile £350 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - +7.14%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £625
90th Percentile £688 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £450
% change year-on-year -1.04% +6.67% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 225 255 299
10th Percentile £14.06 £15.25 £13.00
25th Percentile £14.48 £18.25 £15.00
Median hourly rate £22.50 £54.56 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -58.76% +187.16% -10.59%
75th Percentile £60.75 £66.00 £40.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.89 £59.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £44.93 £17.50
% change year-on-year -51.03% +156.73% -4.21%

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 24 May 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 24 May 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 24 May 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 -1 1,975 £425 -1.16% 1,159
UK excluding London -1 1,268 £400 +10.34% 972
London +7 826 £425 -10.53% 334
Work from Home -3 622 £475 - 406
South East +15 447 £507 +19.24% 315
North of England -9 250 £300 -6.25% 211
Midlands +1 161 £338 -10.00% 148
South West -13 161 £439 -12.15% 129
Scotland +11 136 £333 +13.10% 45
North West -11 133 £350 - 113
Yorkshire -8 100 £300 +14.29% 79
East of England -11 98 £250 -28.57% 123
West Midlands -7 97 £350 -6.67% 86
East Midlands +2 60 £300 +34.53% 60
North East +12 15 £500 +78.57% 22
Wales -12 14 £220 +18.12% 19
Northern Ireland -16 4 £363 +16.00% 3

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
1 460 (20.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 196 (8.86%) SharePoint
3 51 (2.30%) IIS
4 46 (2.08%) Confluence
5 37 (1.67%) Skype for Business
6 29 (1.31%) Exchange Server 2010
7 28 (1.27%) Exchange Server 2013
8 18 (0.81%) CMS
9 15 (0.68%) Exchange Server 2007
10 11 (0.50%) Exchange Server 2003
11 8 (0.36%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
12 7 (0.32%) Apache
12 7 (0.32%) Tomcat
13 5 (0.23%) JBoss
14 4 (0.18%) nginx
14 4 (0.18%) Oracle Self-Service HR
15 3 (0.14%) WordPress
16 2 (0.090%) OpenStack
17 1 (0.045%) Oracle SOA Suite
17 1 (0.045%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 236 (10.66%) Microsoft Office
2 72 (3.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 32 (1.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.36%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.14%) Acrobat
5 3 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.090%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.090%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.045%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.045%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.045%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.045%) Trello
7 1 (0.045%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (0.50%) Teamcenter
2 8 (0.36%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.18%) Dynamics GP
5 2 (0.090%) ION MarketView
5 2 (0.090%) SystmOne
6 1 (0.045%) assyst
6 1 (0.045%) BusinessWorks
6 1 (0.045%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.045%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.045%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.045%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 901 (40.71%) Azure
2 859 (38.82%) Microsoft 365
3 534 (24.13%) Entra ID
4 210 (9.49%) AWS
5 129 (5.83%) Azure DevOps
6 94 (4.25%) Azure Cosmos DB
6 94 (4.25%) OneDrive
7 93 (4.20%) Azure Monitor
8 69 (3.12%) PaaS
9 67 (3.03%) Power Platform
10 63 (2.85%) Azure Service Bus
11 54 (2.44%) IaaS
12 46 (2.08%) GCP
13 44 (1.99%) Dynamics 365
13 44 (1.99%) SaaS
14 43 (1.94%) GitHub
15 41 (1.85%) Azure Storage
16 34 (1.54%) Serverless
17 32 (1.45%) Azure Sentinel
18 29 (1.31%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 373 (16.85%) DNS
2 247 (11.16%) DHCP
3 241 (10.89%) Firewall
4 134 (6.06%) VPN
5 106 (4.79%) SAN
6 96 (4.34%) LAN
7 92 (4.16%) WAN
8 78 (3.52%) TCP/IP
9 68 (3.07%) Wi-Fi
10 55 (2.49%) SSL
11 54 (2.44%) Wireless
12 47 (2.12%) Skype
13 37 (1.67%) NAS
14 36 (1.63%) Network Security
14 36 (1.63%) Remote Desktop
15 35 (1.58%) VLAN
16 28 (1.27%) VoIP
17 24 (1.08%) MPLS
18 22 (0.99%) Kerberos
19 21 (0.95%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 275 (12.43%) SQL Server
2 45 (2.03%) MySQL
3 34 (1.54%) Power BI
4 31 (1.40%) Amazon RDS
5 29 (1.31%) Oracle Reports
6 25 (1.13%) NoSQL
6 25 (1.13%) Relational Database
7 24 (1.08%) Azure SQL Database
8 21 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
9 18 (0.81%) PostgreSQL
10 16 (0.72%) Hadoop
11 15 (0.68%) Oracle Database
11 15 (0.68%) Redis
12 14 (0.63%) RDBMS
13 7 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 6 (0.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.23%) Data Lake
16 4 (0.18%) Big Data
17 3 (0.14%) Amazon Redshift
17 3 (0.14%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 96 (4.34%) Git
2 76 (3.43%) JIRA
3 32 (1.45%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.13%) Selenium
5 23 (1.04%) Sonatype Nexus
6 19 (0.86%) TeamCity
7 18 (0.81%) Robot Framework
8 15 (0.68%) Visual Studio
9 11 (0.50%) SpecFlow
9 11 (0.50%) WebDriver
10 10 (0.45%) Postman
10 10 (0.45%) SonarQube
11 9 (0.41%) Bitbucket
11 9 (0.41%) GitLab
12 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket Server
12 5 (0.23%) CA Release Automation
12 5 (0.23%) Fiddler
12 5 (0.23%) Hudson
13 4 (0.18%) MSI
14 3 (0.14%) Cucumber
General
1 598 (27.02%) Social Skills
2 266 (12.02%) Finance
3 227 (10.26%) Public Sector
4 151 (6.82%) Analytical Skills
5 93 (4.20%) Banking
6 53 (2.39%) Documentation Skills
7 46 (2.08%) Organisational Skills
8 43 (1.94%) Financial Institution
9 42 (1.90%) Manufacturing
10 40 (1.81%) Telecoms
11 30 (1.36%) Legal
11 30 (1.36%) Presentation Skills
12 29 (1.31%) Retail
13 28 (1.27%) Marketing
14 23 (1.04%) Back Office
15 20 (0.90%) Military
16 19 (0.86%) Law
17 17 (0.77%) Electronics
17 17 (0.77%) French Language
18 16 (0.72%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 277 (12.52%) Analyst
2 272 (12.29%) Support Engineer
3 242 (10.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 208 (9.40%) Senior
5 195 (8.81%) Architect
6 180 (8.13%) IT Support
7 141 (6.37%) Developer
8 124 (5.60%) Service Analyst
9 121 (5.47%) IT Engineer
9 121 (5.47%) Service Desk Analyst
10 104 (4.70%) Desktop Support
11 101 (4.56%) 2nd Line Support
12 86 (3.89%) Desktop Engineer
13 82 (3.71%) Support Analyst
14 78 (3.52%) Consultant
15 76 (3.43%) Senior Developer
16 72 (3.25%) Windows Engineer
17 71 (3.21%) IT Support Engineer
18 70 (3.16%) Active Directory Engineer
18 70 (3.16%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 140 (6.33%) .NET
2 122 (5.51%) XML
3 112 (5.06%) LDAP
4 97 (4.38%) Web Services
5 92 (4.16%) SailPoint
6 85 (3.84%) HTML
7 74 (3.34%) .NET Core
8 62 (2.80%) React
9 50 (2.26%) SAML
10 44 (1.99%) CSS
11 42 (1.90%) SOAP
12 40 (1.81%) JSP
13 39 (1.76%) Servlets
13 39 (1.76%) SPML
14 35 (1.58%) ASP.NET
15 34 (1.54%) OpenID
16 33 (1.49%) .NET Framework
17 32 (1.45%) AngularJS
18 28 (1.27%) JDBC
19 25 (1.13%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 182 (8.22%) PKI
2 91 (4.11%) Data Centre
3 77 (3.48%) Onboarding
4 71 (3.21%) Product Ownership
5 70 (3.16%) Replication
6 58 (2.62%) Clustering
7 53 (2.39%) Self-Motivation
8 50 (2.26%) Management Information System
9 44 (1.99%) Video Conferencing
10 35 (1.58%) iPhone
11 25 (1.13%) Driving Licence
11 25 (1.13%) Smartphone
12 24 (1.08%) Data Protection Act
13 23 (1.04%) iPad
14 20 (0.90%) CMDB
15 19 (0.86%) Public Cloud
16 18 (0.81%) Mobile App
17 17 (0.77%) Linux Command Line
18 16 (0.72%) NHS
19 15 (0.68%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 1,371 (61.95%) Windows
2 583 (26.34%) Windows Server
3 488 (22.05%) Windows 10
4 255 (11.52%) Linux
5 183 (8.27%) Windows Server 2012
6 172 (7.77%) Windows Server 2016
7 159 (7.18%) Windows Server 2019
8 93 (4.20%) Windows 7
9 90 (4.07%) Apple iOS
10 63 (2.85%) Unix
11 56 (2.53%) Mac OS
12 53 (2.39%) Windows Server 2008
13 52 (2.35%) Android
14 41 (1.85%) Ubuntu
15 39 (1.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 34 (1.54%) VMS
17 25 (1.13%) Windows Server 2003
18 18 (0.81%) Windows NT
18 18 (0.81%) Windows XP
19 16 (0.72%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 345 (15.59%) Customer Service
2 341 (15.41%) ITIL
3 288 (13.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 287 (12.97%) Problem-Solving
5 266 (12.02%) Migration
6 256 (11.57%) Agile
7 253 (11.43%) DevOps
8 181 (8.18%) CI/CD
9 121 (5.47%) Identity Access Management
10 110 (4.97%) Cybersecurity
11 109 (4.93%) RBAC
12 107 (4.84%) Disaster Recovery
13 102 (4.61%) Service Management
14 94 (4.25%) Mobile Device Management
15 93 (4.20%) Scrum
16 85 (3.84%) Service Delivery
17 84 (3.80%) Identity Management
18 81 (3.66%) Change Management
19 75 (3.39%) High Availability
20 73 (3.30%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 468 (21.15%) PowerShell
2 222 (10.03%) SQL
3 135 (6.10%) C#
4 129 (5.83%) Python
5 95 (4.29%) JavaScript
6 90 (4.07%) Bicep
7 77 (3.48%) Java
8 38 (1.72%) TypeScript
9 26 (1.17%) VB
10 25 (1.13%) VBScript
11 23 (1.04%) Bash
12 12 (0.54%) PL/SQL
13 11 (0.50%) C
14 10 (0.45%) C++
14 10 (0.45%) Perl
15 9 (0.41%) R
16 8 (0.36%) Go
16 8 (0.36%) PHP
17 7 (0.32%) Shell Script
18 6 (0.27%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 523 (23.63%) Security Cleared
2 326 (14.73%) SC Cleared
3 278 (12.56%) Degree
4 216 (9.76%) DV Cleared
5 149 (6.73%) Microsoft Certification
6 59 (2.67%) MCSE
7 52 (2.35%) MCSA
8 46 (2.08%) Azure Certification
9 39 (1.76%) Cisco Certification
10 38 (1.72%) A+ Certification
11 36 (1.63%) CCNA
12 35 (1.58%) ITIL Certification
13 28 (1.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 27 (1.22%) Computer Science Degree
15 25 (1.13%) AWS Certification
15 25 (1.13%) BPSS Clearance
15 25 (1.13%) DBS Check
16 23 (1.04%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 19 (0.86%) CCNP
17 19 (0.86%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 103 (4.65%) SLA
2 57 (2.58%) QA
3 22 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 19 (0.86%) NIST
5 16 (0.72%) GDPR
5 16 (0.72%) PCI DSS
5 16 (0.72%) WCAG
6 14 (0.63%) Accessibility
7 12 (0.54%) Disclosure Scotland
8 9 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 7 (0.32%) ISO 9001
9 7 (0.32%) RMADS
10 5 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 4 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.14%) COBIT
13 2 (0.090%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.090%) GRC
13 2 (0.090%) NCSC
13 2 (0.090%) PMO
System Software
1 310 (14.01%) VMware Infrastructure
2 136 (6.15%) Hyper-V
3 86 (3.89%) Virtual Machines
4 65 (2.94%) VMware ESXi
5 63 (2.85%) vSphere
6 61 (2.76%) Virtual Desktop
7 43 (1.94%) Docker
8 39 (1.76%) IAG
8 39 (1.76%) XenApp
9 38 (1.72%) ACF2
9 38 (1.72%) RACF
10 25 (1.13%) Firmware
11 22 (0.99%) VMware NSX
12 21 (0.95%) XenDesktop
13 20 (0.90%) BitLocker
14 19 (0.86%) NFS
15 17 (0.77%) Virtual Servers
15 17 (0.77%) VMware Workstation
16 16 (0.72%) HDFS
17 12 (0.54%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 385 (17.40%) SCCM
2 248 (11.21%) Microsoft Intune
3 114 (5.15%) WSUS
4 89 (4.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 86 (3.89%) Single Sign-On
6 76 (3.43%) Kubernetes
6 76 (3.43%) Terraform
7 67 (3.03%) SCOM
8 58 (2.62%) Ansible
9 52 (2.35%) vCenter Server
10 42 (1.90%) Jamf Pro
11 25 (1.13%) NetBackup
12 21 (0.95%) EMC NetWorker
13 19 (0.86%) Kibana
14 18 (0.81%) Sysprep
15 17 (0.77%) Failover Clustering
16 16 (0.72%) Microsoft Clustering
17 14 (0.63%) Nessus
18 12 (0.54%) FortiGate
18 12 (0.54%) logstash
Vendors
1 1,161 (52.46%) Microsoft
2 427 (19.30%) VMware
3 200 (9.04%) Citrix
4 190 (8.59%) ServiceNow
5 123 (5.56%) Oracle
6 118 (5.33%) Cisco
7 107 (4.84%) Apple
8 79 (3.57%) CyberArk
9 63 (2.85%) Veeam
10 60 (2.71%) HP
11 58 (2.62%) Dell
12 48 (2.17%) Okta
13 45 (2.03%) SAP
14 38 (1.72%) EMC
15 37 (1.67%) Red Hat
16 29 (1.31%) Palo Alto
17 27 (1.22%) CA
18 26 (1.17%) Ivanti
18 26 (1.17%) Sybase
19 25 (1.13%) Google