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 March 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 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 +4 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 126 96 122
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 14.65% 18.36% 15.97%
As % of the Vendors category 30.66% 36.64% 36.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 88 84 94
10th Percentile £213 £190 £200
25th Percentile £325 £325 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £444 £450
Median % change year-on-year +6.48% -1.39% -1.37%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £575
90th Percentile £616 £646 £663
West Midlands median daily rate £475 £425 £438
% change year-on-year +11.76% -2.86% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 13
10th Percentile - £29.25 £11.07
25th Percentile - £29.61 £13.25
Median hourly rate £25.00 £30.45 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.90% +117.50% -9.62%
75th Percentile - £30.68 £26.50
90th Percentile - - £50.30
West Midlands median hourly rate £22.00 £24.50 £16.83
% change year-on-year -10.20% +45.62% +5.35%

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 411 262 333
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 47.79% 50.10% 43.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 241 197 216
10th Percentile £263 £196 £260
25th Percentile £381 £375 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £521 £425
Median % change year-on-year -8.74% +22.47% -5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £575
90th Percentile £625 £700 £675
West Midlands median daily rate £475 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 6 21
10th Percentile £16.42 £19.88 £11.13
25th Percentile £17.69 £23.19 £14.00
Median hourly rate £20.50 £29.50 £24.65
Median % change year-on-year -30.51% +19.68% +32.58%
75th Percentile £26.91 £30.51 £28.75
90th Percentile £42.45 £30.68 £55.00
West Midlands median hourly rate £25.08 £19.50 £19.23
% change year-on-year +28.59% +1.43% +8.49%

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 March 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 8 (6.35%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.79%) Confluence
2 1 (0.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.79%) SAS
Applications
1 13 (10.32%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (9.52%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (3.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.79%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.79%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 13 (10.32%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (8.73%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.79%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.79%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.79%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.79%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 46 (36.51%) Azure
2 34 (26.98%) Power Platform
3 32 (25.40%) Dynamics 365
4 22 (17.46%) Microsoft 365
5 14 (11.11%) AWS
6 11 (8.73%) Azure DevOps
6 11 (8.73%) Entra ID
7 7 (5.56%) Azure Data Factory
7 7 (5.56%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 7 (5.56%) Power Automate
8 6 (4.76%) Azure Sentinel
9 5 (3.97%) Microsoft Purview
9 5 (3.97%) PowerApps
10 4 (3.17%) Azure Key Vault
10 4 (3.17%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (3.17%) Copilot Studio
10 4 (3.17%) GitHub
10 4 (3.17%) SaaS
11 3 (2.38%) Azure AKS
11 3 (2.38%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 12 (9.52%) VPN
2 9 (7.14%) Firewall
3 8 (6.35%) Network Security
4 7 (5.56%) DNS
5 5 (3.97%) DHCP
5 5 (3.97%) TCP/IP
6 3 (2.38%) Unified Communications
7 2 (1.59%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (14.29%) Power BI
2 7 (5.56%) Data Warehouse
3 5 (3.97%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (2.38%) Power Query
5 2 (1.59%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (1.59%) Data Mining
5 2 (1.59%) GIS
5 2 (1.59%) Relational Database
5 2 (1.59%) SQL Server
5 2 (1.59%) Tableau
6 1 (0.79%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.79%) Data Vault
6 1 (0.79%) Delta Lake
6 1 (0.79%) Metadata
6 1 (0.79%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 1 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.79%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 1 (0.79%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 8 (6.35%) JIRA
2 6 (4.76%) Git
3 4 (3.17%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.59%) CircleCI
4 2 (1.59%) GitLab
4 2 (1.59%) JMeter
5 1 (0.79%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.79%) Selenium
General
1 48 (38.10%) Social Skills
2 20 (15.87%) Finance
3 14 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (5.56%) Games
4 7 (5.56%) Legal
5 6 (4.76%) Public Sector
6 4 (3.17%) Manufacturing
6 4 (3.17%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (2.38%) Banking
7 3 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (2.38%) Law
8 2 (1.59%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.79%) Automotive
9 1 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 19 (15.08%) Analyst
2 14 (11.11%) Architect
2 14 (11.11%) Developer
3 7 (5.56%) Business Analyst
3 7 (5.56%) CRM Specialist
3 7 (5.56%) Project Manager
3 7 (5.56%) Support Engineer
4 6 (4.76%) IT Support
5 5 (3.97%) Administrator
5 5 (3.97%) Consultant
5 5 (3.97%) Dynamics 365 Analyst
5 5 (3.97%) Dynamics 365 Business Analyst
5 5 (3.97%) Enterprise Architect
5 5 (3.97%) Lead
5 5 (3.97%) Senior
6 4 (3.17%) Data Analyst
6 4 (3.17%) Data Engineer
6 4 (3.17%) IT Engineer
6 4 (3.17%) IT Support Engineer
6 4 (3.17%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.38%) FastAPI
1 3 (2.38%) OpenTelemetry
1 3 (2.38%) REST
2 2 (1.59%) .NET
2 2 (1.59%) ADO
2 2 (1.59%) Middleware
3 1 (0.79%) .NET Core
3 1 (0.79%) Azure Blueprints
3 1 (0.79%) OAuth
3 1 (0.79%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.79%) Playwright
3 1 (0.79%) PySpark
3 1 (0.79%) RESTful
3 1 (0.79%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 8 (6.35%) Onboarding
2 7 (5.56%) Security Posture
3 5 (3.97%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (2.38%) Cloud Native
4 3 (2.38%) Driving Licence
4 3 (2.38%) e-Learning
4 3 (2.38%) Handset
4 3 (2.38%) Security Operations Centre
4 3 (2.38%) Team-Oriented Environment
5 2 (1.59%) Cyber Defence
5 2 (1.59%) Distributed Systems
5 2 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.59%) Legacy Applications
5 2 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (1.59%) Life Science
5 2 (1.59%) PKI
6 1 (0.79%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.79%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.79%) Data Structures
6 1 (0.79%) Manufacturing Execution System
Operating Systems
1 18 (14.29%) Windows
2 7 (5.56%) Windows 10
2 7 (5.56%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.59%) Linux
3 2 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (17.46%) Agile
2 20 (15.87%) Business Intelligence
3 18 (14.29%) CI/CD
4 17 (13.49%) DevOps
5 16 (12.70%) Continuous Improvement
5 16 (12.70%) CRM
6 15 (11.90%) Analytics
7 13 (10.32%) Migration
7 13 (10.32%) Problem-Solving
8 12 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 11 (8.73%) Change Management
9 11 (8.73%) Data Modelling
10 10 (7.94%) Customer Service
11 9 (7.14%) Decision-Making
12 8 (6.35%) Cloud Security
12 8 (6.35%) Containerisation
13 7 (5.56%) ITSM
13 7 (5.56%) Roadmaps
13 7 (5.56%) Stakeholder Management
14 6 (4.76%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 15 (11.90%) Python
2 9 (7.14%) SQL
3 7 (5.56%) PowerShell
4 5 (3.97%) C#
5 4 (3.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 4 (3.17%) R
6 3 (2.38%) PL/SQL
7 2 (1.59%) Bicep
7 2 (1.59%) Go
7 2 (1.59%) Java
7 2 (1.59%) JavaScript
7 2 (1.59%) Kusto Query Language
7 2 (1.59%) Scala
7 2 (1.59%) VB
8 1 (0.79%) Bash
8 1 (0.79%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 11 (8.73%) Security Cleared
2 10 (7.94%) SC Cleared
3 8 (6.35%) Degree
3 8 (6.35%) Microsoft Certification
4 3 (2.38%) Azure Certification
4 3 (2.38%) BPSS Clearance
4 3 (2.38%) CISSP
4 3 (2.38%) ISTQB
5 2 (1.59%) AWS Certification
5 2 (1.59%) CISM
5 2 (1.59%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 2 (1.59%) MCDST
5 2 (1.59%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 2 (1.59%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 1 (0.79%) AAT
6 1 (0.79%) ACCA
6 1 (0.79%) CIMA
6 1 (0.79%) IIBA
6 1 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.79%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.97%) GDPR
2 4 (3.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (2.38%) SLA
4 2 (1.59%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.59%) Data Quality
4 2 (1.59%) GxP
4 2 (1.59%) QA
5 1 (0.79%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.79%) NCSC
5 1 (0.79%) NIST
5 1 (0.79%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.79%) PMO
System Software
1 15 (11.90%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.76%) Docker
Systems Management
1 9 (7.14%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (6.35%) Kubernetes
3 7 (5.56%) Terraform
4 3 (2.38%) Control-M
4 3 (2.38%) Grafana
4 3 (2.38%) IBM Guardium
4 3 (2.38%) Nessus
4 3 (2.38%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.59%) Ansible
5 2 (1.59%) HP ALM
5 2 (1.59%) HP Quality Center
5 2 (1.59%) SCCM
6 1 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 7 (5.56%) ServiceNow
2 5 (3.97%) Tenable
3 4 (3.17%) Databricks
3 4 (3.17%) Oracle
3 4 (3.17%) SAP
4 3 (2.38%) Informatica
4 3 (2.38%) Splunk
4 3 (2.38%) Workday
5 2 (1.59%) Barracuda Networks
5 2 (1.59%) Google
5 2 (1.59%) HP
5 2 (1.59%) iManage
5 2 (1.59%) Mitel
5 2 (1.59%) Okta
5 2 (1.59%) Sage
6 1 (0.79%) Cisco
6 1 (0.79%) Cognos
6 1 (0.79%) Fortinet
6 1 (0.79%) SolarWinds
6 1 (0.79%) Veeam