Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for MCSE qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 27 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 495 552 599
Rank change year-on-year +57 +47 -95
Contract jobs citing MCSE 103 168 256
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.24% 0.28% 0.29%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.78% 1.03% 1.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 75 137 173
10th Percentile £256 £105 £163
25th Percentile £303 £219 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £475 £425
Median % change year-on-year -26.32% +11.76% -
75th Percentile £547 £575 £538
90th Percentile £556 £650 £598
UK excluding London median daily rate £388 £450 £375
% change year-on-year -13.89% +20.00% -14.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 5 8
10th Percentile £13.28 - £15.31
25th Percentile £15.56 £16.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £17.50 £18.50 £23.22
Median % change year-on-year -5.41% -20.32% -
75th Percentile £32.31 £20.00 £38.83
90th Percentile £40.20 £23.89 £69.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £18.50 £21.35
% change year-on-year -5.41% -13.35% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

MCSE is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,270 16,337 19,076
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.65% 27.32% 21.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,165 10,899 12,575
10th Percentile £300 £325 £325
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% +4.76% +8.25%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £625
90th Percentile £738 £743 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £530 £500
% change year-on-year - +6.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,067 858 776
10th Percentile £13.86 £15.25 £13.46
25th Percentile £17.80 £20.06 £19.33
Median hourly rate £40.00 £54.00 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.93% +30.12% +5.06%
75th Percentile £61.60 £68.25 £56.31
90th Percentile £75.25 £80.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.28 £50.00 £31.89
% change year-on-year -19.45% +56.79% -14.39%

MCSE
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for MCSE in the UK

MCSE
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for MCSE in the UK

MCSE
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MCSE over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for MCSE in the UK

MCSE
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for MCSE in the UK

MCSE
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing MCSE over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for MCSE in the UK

MCSE
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCSE within the UK over the 6 months to 27 April 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
UK excluding London +31 82 £388 -13.89% 47
England +66 76 £375 -18.92% 40
South East +27 21 £538 -3.59% 9
Scotland +45 20 £325 +195.45% 10
Work from Home +91 16 £475 -8.65% 10
London +82 15 £325 -31.58% 6
North of England +16 15 £400 -27.27% 7
South West +18 14 £538 +16.22% 9
North West 0 11 £300 -53.85% 3
East of England +16 6 £425 +286.36% 3
Midlands +10 5 £117 -47.53% 5
North East +22 4 £488 +343.18% 1
East Midlands +9 3 £130 -41.70% 1
West Midlands +26 2 £117 -43.27% 4
Northern Ireland +9 2 - - 5

MCSE
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 31 (30.10%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (16.50%) SharePoint
3 16 (15.53%) Confluence
4 7 (6.80%) IIS
5 4 (3.88%) Skype for Business
6 2 (1.94%) Exchange Server 2007
6 2 (1.94%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.97%) Exchange Server 2003
7 1 (0.97%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 5 (4.85%) Microsoft Excel
1 5 (4.85%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.97%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 3 (2.91%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (1.94%) Eikon
Cloud Services
1 27 (26.21%) Microsoft 365
2 19 (18.45%) Azure
3 8 (7.77%) AWS
4 7 (6.80%) Power Platform
5 2 (1.94%) Cloud Computing
5 2 (1.94%) IaaS
5 2 (1.94%) Mimecast
5 2 (1.94%) OneDrive
6 1 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (0.97%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (0.97%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 27 (26.21%) DNS
2 23 (22.33%) DHCP
3 20 (19.42%) SAN
4 13 (12.62%) VPN
5 10 (9.71%) TCP/IP
6 9 (8.74%) Firewall
7 7 (6.80%) NAS
7 7 (6.80%) SSL
8 6 (5.83%) Fibre Channel
9 5 (4.85%) iSCSI
9 5 (4.85%) LAN
9 5 (4.85%) VLAN
9 5 (4.85%) WAN
10 4 (3.88%) Skype
10 4 (3.88%) VoIP
10 4 (3.88%) Wi-Fi
11 2 (1.94%) HTTP
11 2 (1.94%) Network Security
11 2 (1.94%) Wireless
12 1 (0.97%) PBX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (13.59%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.94%) MySQL
2 2 (1.94%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.97%) BusinessObjects
3 1 (0.97%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.97%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 16 (15.53%) JIRA
General
1 47 (45.63%) Social Skills
2 43 (41.75%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (19.42%) Public Sector
4 16 (15.53%) Finance
5 15 (14.56%) Military
6 10 (9.71%) Banking
7 8 (7.77%) Manufacturing
8 7 (6.80%) Marketing
9 6 (5.83%) Telecoms
10 4 (3.88%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (2.91%) Electronics
11 3 (2.91%) Front Office
11 3 (2.91%) Investment Banking
12 2 (1.94%) Advertising
13 1 (0.97%) Documentation Skills
13 1 (0.97%) French Language
13 1 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.97%) Spanish Language
13 1 (0.97%) Swedish Language
Job Titles
1 15 (14.56%) Integration Engineer
1 15 (14.56%) Test and Integration Engineer
1 15 (14.56%) Test Engineer
2 14 (13.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 14 (13.59%) Support Engineer
3 9 (8.74%) Senior
4 8 (7.77%) Field Engineer
5 7 (6.80%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 7 (6.80%) Field Service Engineer
5 7 (6.80%) IT Engineer
5 7 (6.80%) Server Engineer
6 6 (5.83%) 2nd Line Support
6 6 (5.83%) 3rd Line Support
6 6 (5.83%) DBA
6 6 (5.83%) SQL DBA
7 5 (4.85%) 2nd Line Engineer
7 5 (4.85%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
7 5 (4.85%) Desktop Engineer
7 5 (4.85%) VMware Engineer
8 4 (3.88%) Service Delivery Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.94%) CSS
1 2 (1.94%) LDAP
1 2 (1.94%) Software Packaging
1 2 (1.94%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (20.39%) PKI
2 16 (15.53%) Data Centre
3 12 (11.65%) Clustering
4 7 (6.80%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (3.88%) Cyber Threat
5 4 (3.88%) Public Cloud
5 4 (3.88%) Video Conferencing
6 3 (2.91%) Management Information System
6 3 (2.91%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.94%) Blackberry
7 2 (1.94%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.94%) iPad
7 2 (1.94%) iPhone
7 2 (1.94%) Replication
8 1 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.97%) Freedom of Information
8 1 (0.97%) Freedom of Information Act
8 1 (0.97%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.97%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 77 (74.76%) Windows
2 51 (49.51%) Windows Server
3 24 (23.30%) Windows Server 2012
4 17 (16.50%) Windows 10
5 14 (13.59%) Linux
6 7 (6.80%) Windows Server 2008
7 6 (5.83%) CentOS
7 6 (5.83%) Debian
7 6 (5.83%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (4.85%) Mac OS
9 4 (3.88%) Unix
10 2 (1.94%) Android
10 2 (1.94%) Apple iOS
10 2 (1.94%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.97%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.97%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (40.78%) ITIL
2 23 (22.33%) Agile
3 22 (21.36%) Problem-Solving
4 18 (17.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 16 (15.53%) Critical Thinking
6 15 (14.56%) Customer Service
6 15 (14.56%) Regression Testing
6 15 (14.56%) Test Scripting
7 13 (12.62%) Disaster Recovery
8 12 (11.65%) Service Management
9 11 (10.68%) High Availability
10 9 (8.74%) Task Automation
11 8 (7.77%) Cybersecurity
11 8 (7.77%) Project Management
12 7 (6.80%) Server Management
12 7 (6.80%) Server Patching
13 6 (5.83%) Break/Fix
13 6 (5.83%) Infrastructure Management
13 6 (5.83%) PRINCE2
13 6 (5.83%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 27 (26.21%) SQL
2 26 (25.24%) PowerShell
3 2 (1.94%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.97%) Bash
4 1 (0.97%) Bicep
4 1 (0.97%) VB
Qualifications
1 103 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 36 (34.95%) MCSA
3 28 (27.18%) Degree
4 26 (25.24%) Security Cleared
5 25 (24.27%) Cisco Certification
5 25 (24.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 22 (21.36%) CCNA
6 22 (21.36%) SC Cleared
7 11 (10.68%) A+ Certification
7 11 (10.68%) Network+ Certification
8 9 (8.74%) MCP
9 8 (7.77%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (5.83%) DV Cleared
10 6 (5.83%) RHCT
11 5 (4.85%) CCNP
12 4 (3.88%) MCTS
13 2 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (1.94%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 2 (1.94%) MCSD
13 2 (1.94%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (10.68%) SLA
2 3 (2.91%) Cyber Essentials
2 3 (2.91%) NCSC
2 3 (2.91%) NIST
3 2 (1.94%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 2 (1.94%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.97%) GDPR
System Software
1 53 (51.46%) Active Directory
2 35 (33.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (10.68%) Hyper-V
4 8 (7.77%) vSphere
5 6 (5.83%) KVM
6 4 (3.88%) Firmware
7 3 (2.91%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (1.94%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.97%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.97%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.97%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.97%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 18 (17.48%) SCCM
2 5 (4.85%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (4.85%) WSUS
3 3 (2.91%) vCenter Server
4 2 (1.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 2 (1.94%) Backup Exec
4 2 (1.94%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (1.94%) SCOM
5 1 (0.97%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 68 (66.02%) Microsoft
2 42 (40.78%) VMware
3 13 (12.62%) ServiceNow
4 12 (11.65%) Dell
5 9 (8.74%) Citrix
6 7 (6.80%) Cisco
6 7 (6.80%) Red Hat
7 5 (4.85%) Bloomberg
8 4 (3.88%) HP
8 4 (3.88%) SolarWinds
9 3 (2.91%) Apple
9 3 (2.91%) Refinitiv
9 3 (2.91%) SAP
9 3 (2.91%) Veeam
10 2 (1.94%) CA
10 2 (1.94%) IronPort
10 2 (1.94%) Reuters
10 2 (1.94%) Sophos
11 1 (0.97%) Aruba
11 1 (0.97%) Atlassian