Microsoft Contract Job Trends in Birmingham

Microsoft
West Midlands > Birmingham

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Birmingham requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 16 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 5 5
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 123 77 93
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 13.47% 13.68% 13.64%
As % of the Vendors category 29.93% 30.08% 28.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 62 67
10th Percentile £266 £150 £190
25th Percentile £375 £263 £266
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £373 £450
Median % change year-on-year +20.50% -17.01% +5.88%
75th Percentile £588 £456 £497
90th Percentile £669 £600 £565
West Midlands median daily rate £448 £400 £415
% change year-on-year +11.88% -3.61% +0.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 6
10th Percentile - £21.89 £13.63
25th Percentile - £27.72 £16.89
Median hourly rate £19.34 £38.38 £40.56
Median % change year-on-year -49.60% -5.39% +119.26%
75th Percentile - £49.97 £55.94
90th Percentile - £56.36 £56.25
West Midlands median hourly rate £19.41 £30.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -35.30% -20.00% +102.70%

All Vendors
Birmingham

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in Birmingham.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 411 256 331
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 45.02% 45.47% 48.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 247 176 249
10th Percentile £313 £150 £260
25th Percentile £400 £299 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £445 £475
Median % change year-on-year +12.36% -6.32% -
75th Percentile £566 £560 £627
90th Percentile £638 £616 £750
West Midlands median daily rate £463 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -2.63% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 5 10
10th Percentile £14.46 £18.20 £13.93
25th Percentile £16.90 £18.51 £17.42
Median hourly rate £19.34 £22.50 £31.81
Median % change year-on-year -14.04% -29.27% +36.83%
75th Percentile £43.27 £30.29 £52.63
90th Percentile £51.25 £48.49 £56.25
West Midlands median hourly rate £25.30 £30.00 £28.81
% change year-on-year -15.68% +4.12% +28.06%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in Birmingham

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in Birmingham

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in Birmingham

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Birmingham citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Birmingham citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in Birmingham

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in Birmingham over the 6 months to 16 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in Birmingham

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in Birmingham

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Birmingham citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Birmingham citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Birmingham 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 16 (13.01%) SharePoint
2 11 (8.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (2.44%) Apache Spark
3 3 (2.44%) SAS
4 2 (1.63%) Apache
4 2 (1.63%) CloudStack
5 1 (0.81%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 6 (4.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (3.25%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (2.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.63%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.81%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.81%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.81%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.81%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.81%) Revit
Business Applications
1 4 (3.25%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.63%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.81%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.81%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.81%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.81%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 52 (42.28%) Azure
2 38 (30.89%) Microsoft 365
3 27 (21.95%) Entra ID
4 20 (16.26%) Power Platform
5 15 (12.20%) Dynamics 365
6 12 (9.76%) AWS
6 12 (9.76%) OneDrive
7 10 (8.13%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (6.50%) Microsoft Purview
9 6 (4.88%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (4.07%) Azure Data Factory
10 5 (4.07%) Power Automate
11 3 (2.44%) Azure AKS
11 3 (2.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 3 (2.44%) IaaS
11 3 (2.44%) Microsoft Copilot
12 2 (1.63%) Amazon S3
12 2 (1.63%) GCP
12 2 (1.63%) OpenShift
12 2 (1.63%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 12 (9.76%) DNS
2 11 (8.94%) DHCP
3 9 (7.32%) VPN
4 6 (4.88%) TCP/IP
5 5 (4.07%) Firewall
6 4 (3.25%) Network Security
6 4 (3.25%) SAN
7 3 (2.44%) NAS
8 2 (1.63%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (1.63%) Structured Cabling
9 1 (0.81%) BIG-IP
9 1 (0.81%) Fibre Channel
9 1 (0.81%) iSCSI
9 1 (0.81%) LAN
9 1 (0.81%) VLAN
9 1 (0.81%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (10.57%) Power BI
2 5 (4.07%) Data Lake
2 5 (4.07%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (3.25%) SQL Server
4 3 (2.44%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (2.44%) Metadata
5 2 (1.63%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (1.63%) Data Vault
5 2 (1.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.81%) Base SAS
6 1 (0.81%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.81%) GIS
6 1 (0.81%) Hadoop
6 1 (0.81%) Parquet
6 1 (0.81%) PowerPivot
6 1 (0.81%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.81%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 1 (0.81%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 2 (1.63%) Git
1 2 (1.63%) Jenkins
1 2 (1.63%) JIRA
2 1 (0.81%) Maven
2 1 (0.81%) SonarQube
2 1 (0.81%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 25 (20.33%) Finance
2 22 (17.89%) Social Skills
3 10 (8.13%) Banking
4 9 (7.32%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (6.50%) Legal
6 7 (5.69%) Public Sector
7 4 (3.25%) Influencing Skills
7 4 (3.25%) Retail
8 3 (2.44%) Law
9 2 (1.63%) Investment Banking
9 2 (1.63%) Marketing
9 2 (1.63%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.63%) Publishing
10 1 (0.81%) Games
10 1 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.81%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.81%) Military
Job Titles
1 16 (13.01%) Analyst
2 14 (11.38%) Architect
3 13 (10.57%) Consultant
4 11 (8.94%) Data Engineer
4 11 (8.94%) Lead
5 9 (7.32%) Azure Engineer
6 7 (5.69%) IT Support
6 7 (5.69%) Security Consultant
6 7 (5.69%) Solutions Architect
7 6 (4.88%) Developer
7 6 (4.88%) Microsoft Consultant
7 6 (4.88%) Senior
7 6 (4.88%) Support Engineer
8 5 (4.07%) DevOps Engineer
8 5 (4.07%) IT Engineer
8 5 (4.07%) Security Engineer
9 4 (3.25%) Security Architect
9 4 (3.25%) Service Desk Analyst
9 4 (3.25%) Support Analyst
9 4 (3.25%) Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.25%) JSON
2 3 (2.44%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (1.63%) .NET
3 2 (1.63%) ADO
3 2 (1.63%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (1.63%) PySpark
3 2 (1.63%) REST
3 2 (1.63%) SailPoint
3 2 (1.63%) YAML
4 1 (0.81%) Apache Avro
4 1 (0.81%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.81%) ASP.NET
4 1 (0.81%) JSON Schema
4 1 (0.81%) Kafka
4 1 (0.81%) Loki
4 1 (0.81%) Node.js
4 1 (0.81%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (0.81%) Protocol Buffers
4 1 (0.81%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 12 (9.76%) Onboarding
2 7 (5.69%) Hybrid Cloud
2 7 (5.69%) Management Information System
3 5 (4.07%) Security Operations Centre
3 5 (4.07%) Security Posture
4 4 (3.25%) iPhone
4 4 (3.25%) Mobile App
4 4 (3.25%) Public Cloud
5 3 (2.44%) Cloud Native
5 3 (2.44%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.63%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.63%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.63%) Replication
7 1 (0.81%) Algorithms
7 1 (0.81%) CMDB
7 1 (0.81%) e-Learning
7 1 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.81%) Enterprise Storage
7 1 (0.81%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 27 (21.95%) Windows
2 10 (8.13%) Windows 10
3 6 (4.88%) Mac OS
3 6 (4.88%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.63%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.63%) Linux
4 2 (1.63%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (18.70%) DevOps
2 18 (14.63%) ITSM
2 18 (14.63%) Migration
3 16 (13.01%) Problem-Solving
4 13 (10.57%) CI/CD
5 12 (9.76%) Customer Service
6 11 (8.94%) Agile
6 11 (8.94%) SDLC
6 11 (8.94%) Security Operations
6 11 (8.94%) Service Management
7 10 (8.13%) AI
7 10 (8.13%) Continuous Improvement
7 10 (8.13%) Data Modelling
7 10 (8.13%) Infrastructure as Code
7 10 (8.13%) Mentoring
7 10 (8.13%) Roadmaps
7 10 (8.13%) SIEM
8 9 (7.32%) Coaching
8 9 (7.32%) Project Delivery
8 9 (7.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 14 (11.38%) Python
2 13 (10.57%) SQL
3 7 (5.69%) PowerShell
4 5 (4.07%) Kusto Query Language
5 4 (3.25%) Bicep
6 3 (2.44%) Bash
6 3 (2.44%) JavaScript
7 2 (1.63%) C#
7 2 (1.63%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 2 (1.63%) Scala
8 1 (0.81%) Groovy
8 1 (0.81%) Java
8 1 (0.81%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.81%) VBA
Qualifications
1 9 (7.32%) CISSP
2 8 (6.50%) Degree
2 8 (6.50%) Security Cleared
3 6 (4.88%) SC Cleared
4 5 (4.07%) CISM
5 4 (3.25%) AWS Certification
6 3 (2.44%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (1.63%) A+ Certification
7 2 (1.63%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 2 (1.63%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.63%) CCNP
7 2 (1.63%) Cisco Certification
7 2 (1.63%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 1 (0.81%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.81%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.81%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (6.50%) NIST
2 5 (4.07%) GDPR
2 5 (4.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (3.25%) PCI DSS
3 4 (3.25%) QA
3 4 (3.25%) SLA
4 3 (2.44%) GRC
4 3 (2.44%) PMO
5 2 (1.63%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.81%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.81%) Basel III
6 1 (0.81%) ISO 19650
6 1 (0.81%) NCSC
6 1 (0.81%) P3O
System Software
1 25 (20.33%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.25%) Hyper-V
2 4 (3.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (2.44%) Docker
3 3 (2.44%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.63%) vSphere
5 1 (0.81%) NFS
Systems Management
1 22 (17.89%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (9.76%) Terraform
3 6 (4.88%) Kubernetes
4 5 (4.07%) SCCM
5 4 (3.25%) Ansible
5 4 (3.25%) Grafana
5 4 (3.25%) Jamf Pro
6 3 (2.44%) Prometheus
6 3 (2.44%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.63%) Check_MK
8 1 (0.81%) Argo
Vendors
1 17 (13.82%) ServiceNow
2 6 (4.88%) Okta
3 5 (4.07%) Cisco
3 5 (4.07%) Splunk
4 4 (3.25%) Apple
4 4 (3.25%) Databricks
4 4 (3.25%) Samsung
4 4 (3.25%) VMware
5 3 (2.44%) Veeam
6 2 (1.63%) BeyondTrust
6 2 (1.63%) Citrix
6 2 (1.63%) Commvault
6 2 (1.63%) CrowdStrike
6 2 (1.63%) CyberArk
6 2 (1.63%) Fortinet
6 2 (1.63%) Informatica
6 2 (1.63%) Palo Alto
6 2 (1.63%) Remedy
6 2 (1.63%) Ribbon
7 1 (0.81%) OpenAI