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 4 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
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 7 5
Rank change year-on-year +2 -2 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 121 71 94
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 13.22% 13.05% 13.74%
As % of the Vendors category 29.16% 29.71% 28.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 84 57 70
10th Percentile £259 £133 £190
25th Percentile £375 £263 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £363 £450
Median % change year-on-year +24.14% -19.44% +5.88%
75th Percentile £588 £431 £494
90th Percentile £676 £600 £592
West Midlands median daily rate £450 £400 £415
% change year-on-year +12.50% -3.61% +0.61%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 6
10th Percentile - £21.89 £13.63
25th Percentile - £27.72 £14.00
Median hourly rate £19.34 £38.38 £34.50
Median % change year-on-year -49.60% +11.23% +86.49%
75th Percentile - £49.97 £55.94
90th Percentile - £56.36 £56.25
West Midlands median hourly rate £21.50 £30.00 £14.83
% change year-on-year -28.33% +102.36% -23.97%

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 415 239 329
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 45.36% 43.93% 48.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 249 164 244
10th Percentile £313 £150 £263
25th Percentile £400 £291 £372
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £427 £475
Median % change year-on-year +17.10% -10.11% -
75th Percentile £563 £560 £626
90th Percentile £638 £632 £738
West Midlands median daily rate £469 £472 £475
% change year-on-year -0.64% -0.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 5 11
10th Percentile £14.78 £18.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.72 £18.51 £14.06
Median hourly rate £19.34 £22.50 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year -14.04% -6.25% +3.23%
75th Percentile £39.08 £30.29 £50.25
90th Percentile £51.25 £48.49 £56.25
West Midlands median hourly rate £30.25 £30.00 £16.82
% change year-on-year +0.82% +78.36% -27.66%

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 4 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 14 (11.57%) SharePoint
2 8 (6.61%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (2.48%) Apache Spark
3 3 (2.48%) SAS
4 2 (1.65%) Apache
4 2 (1.65%) CloudStack
5 1 (0.83%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 5 (4.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (3.31%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (2.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.65%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.83%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.83%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.83%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.83%) Revit
Business Applications
1 9 (7.44%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.65%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.83%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.83%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.83%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 48 (39.67%) Azure
2 32 (26.45%) Microsoft 365
3 22 (18.18%) Entra ID
4 20 (16.53%) Dynamics 365
5 19 (15.70%) Power Platform
6 12 (9.92%) AWS
7 10 (8.26%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (7.44%) OneDrive
9 8 (6.61%) Microsoft Purview
10 6 (4.96%) Azure Data Factory
11 5 (4.13%) Azure Sentinel
12 4 (3.31%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 4 (3.31%) Power Automate
13 3 (2.48%) Azure AKS
13 3 (2.48%) IaaS
13 3 (2.48%) Microsoft Copilot
14 2 (1.65%) Amazon S3
14 2 (1.65%) Amazon SageMaker
14 2 (1.65%) GCP
14 2 (1.65%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 11 (9.09%) DNS
2 10 (8.26%) DHCP
3 8 (6.61%) VPN
4 5 (4.13%) Firewall
4 5 (4.13%) TCP/IP
5 4 (3.31%) Network Security
5 4 (3.31%) SAN
6 3 (2.48%) NAS
7 2 (1.65%) Remote Desktop
7 2 (1.65%) Structured Cabling
8 1 (0.83%) BIG-IP
8 1 (0.83%) Fibre Channel
8 1 (0.83%) iSCSI
8 1 (0.83%) LAN
8 1 (0.83%) VLAN
8 1 (0.83%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (9.92%) Power BI
2 5 (4.13%) Data Lake
2 5 (4.13%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (3.31%) SQL Server
4 3 (2.48%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (2.48%) Metadata
5 2 (1.65%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (1.65%) Data Vault
5 2 (1.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.83%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.83%) Base SAS
6 1 (0.83%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.83%) GIS
6 1 (0.83%) Hadoop
6 1 (0.83%) Parquet
6 1 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.83%) PowerPivot
6 1 (0.83%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.83%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 1 (0.83%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 3 (2.48%) Git
1 3 (2.48%) JIRA
2 2 (1.65%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.83%) Maven
3 1 (0.83%) SonarQube
3 1 (0.83%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 24 (19.83%) Finance
2 19 (15.70%) Social Skills
3 10 (8.26%) Banking
4 9 (7.44%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (5.79%) Public Sector
6 6 (4.96%) Games
6 6 (4.96%) Legal
7 4 (3.31%) Influencing Skills
7 4 (3.31%) Retail
8 3 (2.48%) Law
9 2 (1.65%) Investment Banking
9 2 (1.65%) Marketing
9 2 (1.65%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.65%) Publishing
10 1 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.83%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.83%) Military
Job Titles
1 15 (12.40%) Analyst
2 14 (11.57%) Architect
3 12 (9.92%) Consultant
3 12 (9.92%) Data Engineer
4 10 (8.26%) Lead
5 9 (7.44%) Azure Engineer
6 7 (5.79%) Developer
6 7 (5.79%) IT Support
6 7 (5.79%) Security Consultant
6 7 (5.79%) Solutions Architect
7 6 (4.96%) CRM Specialist
7 6 (4.96%) Microsoft Consultant
7 6 (4.96%) Senior
7 6 (4.96%) Support Engineer
8 5 (4.13%) DevOps Engineer
8 5 (4.13%) IT Engineer
8 5 (4.13%) Security Engineer
9 4 (3.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 4 (3.31%) Security Architect
9 4 (3.31%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.31%) JSON
2 3 (2.48%) YAML
3 2 (1.65%) .NET
3 2 (1.65%) ADO
3 2 (1.65%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (1.65%) OpenTelemetry
3 2 (1.65%) PySpark
3 2 (1.65%) REST
3 2 (1.65%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.83%) Apache Avro
4 1 (0.83%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.83%) ASP.NET
4 1 (0.83%) FastAPI
4 1 (0.83%) JSON Schema
4 1 (0.83%) Kafka
4 1 (0.83%) Loki
4 1 (0.83%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.83%) Node.js
4 1 (0.83%) Protocol Buffers
4 1 (0.83%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 11 (9.09%) Onboarding
2 7 (5.79%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (4.13%) Security Operations Centre
3 5 (4.13%) Security Posture
4 4 (3.31%) Cloud Native
4 4 (3.31%) Management Information System
4 4 (3.31%) Public Cloud
5 3 (2.48%) Data Centre
5 3 (2.48%) iPhone
5 3 (2.48%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.65%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.65%) Replication
7 1 (0.83%) Algorithms
7 1 (0.83%) CMDB
7 1 (0.83%) Cyber Threat
7 1 (0.83%) e-Learning
7 1 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.83%) Enterprise Storage
7 1 (0.83%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 25 (20.66%) Windows
2 9 (7.44%) Windows 10
3 6 (4.96%) Windows Server
4 5 (4.13%) Mac OS
5 2 (1.65%) Apple iOS
5 2 (1.65%) Linux
5 2 (1.65%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (19.83%) DevOps
2 18 (14.88%) Migration
3 15 (12.40%) CI/CD
4 14 (11.57%) ITSM
4 14 (11.57%) Problem-Solving
5 11 (9.09%) Agile
5 11 (9.09%) Infrastructure as Code
6 10 (8.26%) Business Intelligence
6 10 (8.26%) CRM
6 10 (8.26%) Customer Service
6 10 (8.26%) Data Modelling
6 10 (8.26%) Roadmaps
6 10 (8.26%) SDLC
6 10 (8.26%) Security Operations
7 9 (7.44%) Continuous Improvement
7 9 (7.44%) Service Management
8 8 (6.61%) AI
8 8 (6.61%) Disaster Recovery
8 8 (6.61%) SIEM
8 8 (6.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 16 (13.22%) Python
2 13 (10.74%) SQL
3 6 (4.96%) PowerShell
4 5 (4.13%) Bicep
4 5 (4.13%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (2.48%) Bash
5 3 (2.48%) JavaScript
6 2 (1.65%) C#
6 2 (1.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 2 (1.65%) Scala
7 1 (0.83%) Groovy
7 1 (0.83%) Java
7 1 (0.83%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.83%) VBA
Qualifications
1 9 (7.44%) CISSP
2 8 (6.61%) Security Cleared
3 6 (4.96%) Degree
3 6 (4.96%) SC Cleared
4 5 (4.13%) CISM
5 4 (3.31%) AWS Certification
6 2 (1.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 2 (1.65%) Azure Certification
6 2 (1.65%) CCNP
6 2 (1.65%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.65%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.65%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 1 (0.83%) A+ Certification
7 1 (0.83%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.83%) ISTQB
7 1 (0.83%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.83%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.96%) NIST
2 5 (4.13%) GDPR
2 5 (4.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (3.31%) QA
3 4 (3.31%) SLA
4 3 (2.48%) Data Quality
4 3 (2.48%) GRC
4 3 (2.48%) PMO
5 2 (1.65%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.83%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.83%) Basel III
6 1 (0.83%) ISO 19650
6 1 (0.83%) NCSC
6 1 (0.83%) P3O
System Software
1 23 (19.01%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.31%) Docker
2 4 (3.31%) Hyper-V
2 4 (3.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (2.48%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.65%) vSphere
5 1 (0.83%) NFS
Systems Management
1 20 (16.53%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (10.74%) Terraform
3 7 (5.79%) Kubernetes
4 5 (4.13%) Grafana
5 4 (3.31%) Ansible
5 4 (3.31%) Prometheus
5 4 (3.31%) SCCM
6 3 (2.48%) Jamf Pro
6 3 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.65%) Check_MK
8 1 (0.83%) Argo
8 1 (0.83%) Control-M
8 1 (0.83%) IBM Guardium
8 1 (0.83%) Nessus
Vendors
1 16 (13.22%) ServiceNow
2 6 (4.96%) Okta
3 4 (3.31%) Databricks
3 4 (3.31%) VMware
4 3 (2.48%) Apple
4 3 (2.48%) Cisco
4 3 (2.48%) Samsung
4 3 (2.48%) Splunk
4 3 (2.48%) Veeam
5 2 (1.65%) BeyondTrust
5 2 (1.65%) Citrix
5 2 (1.65%) Commvault
5 2 (1.65%) CrowdStrike
5 2 (1.65%) CyberArk
5 2 (1.65%) Fortinet
5 2 (1.65%) Informatica
5 2 (1.65%) Remedy
6 1 (0.83%) Autodesk
6 1 (0.83%) Red Hat
6 1 (0.83%) Salesforce