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 15 October 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
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 4 3
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 142 107 108
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 16.15% 16.54% 14.96%
As % of the Vendors category 36.32% 29.32% 28.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 100 88 81
10th Percentile £210 £128 £190
25th Percentile £375 £275 £206
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year +20.75% -5.88% -
75th Percentile £638 £545 £525
90th Percentile £684 £625 £573
West Midlands median daily rate £425 £447 £425
% change year-on-year -4.92% +5.18% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 2
10th Percentile £14.51 - £12.85
25th Percentile £15.32 - £14.97
Median hourly rate £16.72 £18.00 £18.78
Median % change year-on-year -7.10% -4.17% +2.92%
75th Percentile £18.06 - £22.88
90th Percentile £18.83 - £25.16
West Midlands median hourly rate £19.41 £30.00 £30.56
% change year-on-year -35.30% -1.84% +42.15%

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 391 365 380
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 44.48% 56.41% 52.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 224 238 266
10th Percentile £261 £247 £196
25th Percentile £375 £366 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +8.11%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £627
90th Percentile £684 £638 £750
West Midlands median daily rate £463 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -7.50% - +8.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 5 5
10th Percentile £15.59 £16.98 £12.95
25th Percentile £18.00 £17.69 £15.22
Median hourly rate £33.42 £18.00 £24.00
Median % change year-on-year +85.67% -25.00% -33.33%
75th Percentile £51.25 £20.75 £26.69
90th Percentile - £26.47 £46.68
West Midlands median hourly rate £20.62 £30.00 £26.13
% change year-on-year -31.28% +14.83% +13.59%

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 15 October 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 19 (13.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (12.68%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.41%) Apache
3 2 (1.41%) CloudStack
4 1 (0.70%) CMS
4 1 (0.70%) SAS
Applications
1 9 (6.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (4.23%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (2.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.41%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.70%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.70%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.70%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.70%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.70%) Revit
Business Applications
1 4 (2.82%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (2.11%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.70%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.70%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 72 (50.70%) Azure
2 63 (44.37%) Microsoft 365
3 43 (30.28%) Entra ID
4 17 (11.97%) Dynamics 365
5 16 (11.27%) OneDrive
5 16 (11.27%) Power Platform
6 13 (9.15%) AWS
7 10 (7.04%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (5.63%) IaaS
8 8 (5.63%) Microsoft Purview
9 7 (4.93%) Azure Sentinel
9 7 (4.93%) PaaS
10 5 (3.52%) Azure Data Factory
10 5 (3.52%) GCP
11 4 (2.82%) Power Automate
12 3 (2.11%) Azure AKS
13 2 (1.41%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 2 (1.41%) SaaS
14 1 (0.70%) Azure Service Bus
14 1 (0.70%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 12 (8.45%) Firewall
2 11 (7.75%) DNS
3 10 (7.04%) DHCP
3 10 (7.04%) VPN
4 7 (4.93%) TCP/IP
5 6 (4.23%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (2.82%) VLAN
6 4 (2.82%) Wireless
7 3 (2.11%) SAN
7 3 (2.11%) Structured Cabling
8 2 (1.41%) NAS
8 2 (1.41%) Network Security
8 2 (1.41%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (1.41%) Unified Communications
8 2 (1.41%) VoIP
8 2 (1.41%) WAN
9 1 (0.70%) Broadband
9 1 (0.70%) LAN
9 1 (0.70%) PSTN
9 1 (0.70%) Value-Added Service
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (7.04%) Power BI
2 3 (2.11%) Azure SQL Database
2 3 (2.11%) Data Lake
3 2 (1.41%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (1.41%) Metadata
3 2 (1.41%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.70%) Base SAS
4 1 (0.70%) BigQuery
4 1 (0.70%) Data Mining
4 1 (0.70%) PowerPivot
4 1 (0.70%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.70%) SAS Enterprise Guide
4 1 (0.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 1 (0.70%) Git
1 1 (0.70%) Jenkins
1 1 (0.70%) JIRA
1 1 (0.70%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 34 (23.94%) Social Skills
2 29 (20.42%) Finance
3 13 (9.15%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (7.75%) Legal
5 9 (6.34%) Public Sector
6 5 (3.52%) Banking
7 4 (2.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.11%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (2.11%) Retail
9 2 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.41%) Investment Banking
9 2 (1.41%) Law
9 2 (1.41%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.41%) Marketing
9 2 (1.41%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.70%) Military
10 1 (0.70%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 22 (15.49%) Architect
2 17 (11.97%) Solutions Architect
3 16 (11.27%) Analyst
4 15 (10.56%) Lead
4 15 (10.56%) Support Engineer
5 11 (7.75%) Senior
6 10 (7.04%) Azure Engineer
6 10 (7.04%) Consultant
7 9 (6.34%) IT Engineer
7 9 (6.34%) IT Support
8 8 (5.63%) IT Support Engineer
9 7 (4.93%) Data Engineer
10 6 (4.23%) Desktop Engineer
10 6 (4.23%) Security Engineer
10 6 (4.23%) Team Leader
11 5 (3.52%) 1st Line Support
11 5 (3.52%) 2nd Line Support
11 5 (3.52%) Developer
11 5 (3.52%) Microsoft Consultant
11 5 (3.52%) Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (5.63%) Terraform
2 5 (3.52%) REST
3 4 (2.82%) Microsoft Graph
4 3 (2.11%) JSON
5 2 (1.41%) .NET
5 2 (1.41%) ADO
5 2 (1.41%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.70%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.70%) ASP.NET
6 1 (0.70%) Loki
6 1 (0.70%) OAuth
6 1 (0.70%) OpenID
6 1 (0.70%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.70%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.70%) SAML
6 1 (0.70%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 14 (9.86%) Onboarding
2 12 (8.45%) Management Information System
3 6 (4.23%) iPhone
3 6 (4.23%) Mobile App
4 5 (3.52%) Hybrid Cloud
4 5 (3.52%) Security Operations Centre
5 4 (2.82%) Cloud Native
5 4 (2.82%) Cyber Threat
5 4 (2.82%) Public Cloud
5 4 (2.82%) Security Posture
6 3 (2.11%) Data Centre
6 3 (2.11%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (2.11%) Video Conferencing
7 2 (1.41%) Acoustics
7 2 (1.41%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.41%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.41%) IVR
7 2 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.41%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 39 (27.46%) Windows
2 9 (6.34%) macOS
2 9 (6.34%) Windows Server
3 8 (5.63%) Windows 10
4 3 (2.11%) Linux
5 2 (1.41%) Android
5 2 (1.41%) Apple iOS
5 2 (1.41%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (18.31%) DevOps
1 26 (18.31%) ITSM
2 21 (14.79%) Problem-Solving
3 20 (14.08%) ITIL
4 19 (13.38%) Customer Service
4 19 (13.38%) Migration
5 18 (12.68%) Service Management
6 17 (11.97%) Stakeholder Management
7 16 (11.27%) Mentoring
8 14 (9.86%) Project Delivery
9 13 (9.15%) Cybersecurity
9 13 (9.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 12 (8.45%) Analytics
10 12 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
10 12 (8.45%) Roadmaps
11 11 (7.75%) AI
11 11 (7.75%) Coaching
11 11 (7.75%) Information Security
12 10 (7.04%) Disaster Recovery
12 10 (7.04%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 9 (6.34%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.63%) SQL
3 6 (4.23%) Python
4 5 (3.52%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (2.11%) C#
6 2 (1.41%) Bash
6 2 (1.41%) Bicep
6 2 (1.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 2 (1.41%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.70%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 13 (9.15%) Degree
2 8 (5.63%) CISSP
2 8 (5.63%) Security Cleared
3 6 (4.23%) Microsoft Certification
4 5 (3.52%) CISM
4 5 (3.52%) Network+ Certification
4 5 (3.52%) SC Cleared
5 4 (2.82%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.82%) AWS Certification
6 3 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (2.11%) Cisco Certification
7 2 (1.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 2 (1.41%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.41%) CCNP
7 2 (1.41%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (1.41%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 1 (0.70%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.70%) GCIH
8 1 (0.70%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 1 (0.70%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (8.45%) NIST
2 8 (5.63%) PCI DSS
3 7 (4.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (4.23%) GDPR
5 5 (3.52%) GRC
5 5 (3.52%) SLA
6 4 (2.82%) Data Quality
6 4 (2.82%) PMO
7 3 (2.11%) QA
8 1 (0.70%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.70%) Basel III
8 1 (0.70%) ISO 19650
8 1 (0.70%) NCSC
System Software
1 31 (21.83%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (2.11%) Hyper-V
3 3 (2.11%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.41%) Docker
4 2 (1.41%) Firmware
4 2 (1.41%) vSphere
5 1 (0.70%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 28 (19.72%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (4.93%) SCCM
3 6 (4.23%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (2.82%) Kubernetes
5 3 (2.11%) Grafana
5 3 (2.11%) Prometheus
5 3 (2.11%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.41%) Check_MK
7 1 (0.70%) Ansible
7 1 (0.70%) Argo
Vendors
1 24 (16.90%) ServiceNow
2 8 (5.63%) Cisco
2 8 (5.63%) Splunk
3 7 (4.93%) Samsung
4 6 (4.23%) Apple
5 5 (3.52%) Palo Alto
6 4 (2.82%) VMware
7 3 (2.11%) Fortinet
7 3 (2.11%) Remedy
7 3 (2.11%) Ribbon
7 3 (2.11%) Veeam
8 2 (1.41%) Autodesk
8 2 (1.41%) Citrix
8 2 (1.41%) Commvault
8 2 (1.41%) CrowdStrike
8 2 (1.41%) Databricks
8 2 (1.41%) Genesys
8 2 (1.41%) Google
8 2 (1.41%) LogRhythm
8 2 (1.41%) Rapid7