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 11 April 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
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 3 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 +3 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 125 89 104
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 13.90% 17.25% 13.81%
As % of the Vendors category 31.09% 35.74% 32.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 78 76
10th Percentile £213 £190 £195
25th Percentile £325 £316 £359
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £444 £444
Median % change year-on-year +1.41% - -2.74%
75th Percentile £525 £540 £569
90th Percentile £600 £665 £638
West Midlands median daily rate £463 £425 £438
% change year-on-year +8.82% -2.86% -7.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 4 14
10th Percentile £19.91 £29.37 £11.08
25th Percentile £20.76 £29.92 £13.25
Median hourly rate £22.17 £30.45 £16.98
Median % change year-on-year -27.19% +79.38% +6.19%
75th Percentile £23.59 £38.16 £26.50
90th Percentile £24.43 £51.64 £55.88
West Midlands median hourly rate £25.00 £24.50 £14.00
% change year-on-year +2.04% +75.00% -12.34%

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 402 249 322
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 44.72% 48.26% 42.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 242 190 211
10th Percentile £281 £189 £263
25th Percentile £400 £366 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £517 £428
Median % change year-on-year -8.03% +20.82% -10.00%
75th Percentile £541 £617 £575
90th Percentile £618 £700 £675
West Midlands median daily rate £475 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 7 22
10th Percentile £15.11 £20.15 £11.34
25th Percentile £18.53 £25.13 £14.00
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £25.33
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +18.46% +36.89%
75th Percentile £28.62 £30.68 £35.31
90th Percentile £46.80 £42.66 £55.00
West Midlands median hourly rate £30.00 £18.76 £19.95
% change year-on-year +59.96% -5.99% +10.83%

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 11 April 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 7 (5.60%) SharePoint
2 3 (2.40%) Apache Spark
3 2 (1.60%) SAS
4 1 (0.80%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.80%) Confluence
4 1 (0.80%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 10 (8.00%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (7.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.80%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (9.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (7.20%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.80%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.80%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.80%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.80%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 43 (34.40%) Azure
2 29 (23.20%) Power Platform
3 26 (20.80%) Dynamics 365
4 25 (20.00%) Microsoft 365
5 14 (11.20%) Entra ID
6 11 (8.80%) AWS
7 8 (6.40%) Azure Sentinel
8 7 (5.60%) Azure DevOps
8 7 (5.60%) Microsoft Purview
8 7 (5.60%) PowerApps
9 6 (4.80%) Power Automate
10 4 (3.20%) Copilot Studio
10 4 (3.20%) OpenShift
11 3 (2.40%) Amazon S3
11 3 (2.40%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 3 (2.40%) GitHub
11 3 (2.40%) Microsoft Copilot
11 3 (2.40%) OneDrive
11 3 (2.40%) SaaS
12 2 (1.60%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 12 (9.60%) VPN
2 10 (8.00%) DNS
2 10 (8.00%) Network Security
3 9 (7.20%) Firewall
4 7 (5.60%) DHCP
5 5 (4.00%) TCP/IP
6 3 (2.40%) Unified Communications
7 2 (1.60%) SSL
8 1 (0.80%) BIG-IP
8 1 (0.80%) Fibre Channel
8 1 (0.80%) iSCSI
8 1 (0.80%) NAS
8 1 (0.80%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (11.20%) Power BI
2 6 (4.80%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (2.40%) Amazon Redshift
3 3 (2.40%) Data Lake
3 3 (2.40%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (2.40%) Power Query
3 3 (2.40%) SQL Server
4 2 (1.60%) Data Vault
4 2 (1.60%) GIS
4 2 (1.60%) Metadata
4 2 (1.60%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.80%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.80%) Delta Lake
5 1 (0.80%) Hadoop
5 1 (0.80%) Parquet
5 1 (0.80%) Spark SQL
5 1 (0.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.80%) Tableau
5 1 (0.80%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 9 (7.20%) JIRA
2 7 (5.60%) Git
3 2 (1.60%) JMeter
4 1 (0.80%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.80%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.80%) Maven
4 1 (0.80%) Selenium
4 1 (0.80%) SonarQube
General
1 41 (32.80%) Social Skills
2 11 (8.80%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (8.00%) Finance
4 7 (5.60%) Games
4 7 (5.60%) Legal
5 6 (4.80%) Banking
6 3 (2.40%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (2.40%) Law
6 3 (2.40%) Public Sector
7 2 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.60%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.60%) Retail
8 1 (0.80%) Automotive
8 1 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.80%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 17 (13.60%) Analyst
2 16 (12.80%) Architect
3 15 (12.00%) Developer
4 7 (5.60%) CRM Specialist
4 7 (5.60%) IT Support
4 7 (5.60%) Support Engineer
5 6 (4.80%) Business Analyst
5 6 (4.80%) Solutions Architect
6 5 (4.00%) Administrator
6 5 (4.00%) Consultant
6 5 (4.00%) Data Engineer
6 5 (4.00%) Dynamics 365 Analyst
6 5 (4.00%) Dynamics 365 Business Analyst
6 5 (4.00%) IT Engineer
6 5 (4.00%) Senior
7 4 (3.20%) IT Support Engineer
7 4 (3.20%) Project Manager
7 4 (3.20%) Security Architect
8 3 (2.40%) Network Engineer
8 3 (2.40%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.40%) FastAPI
1 3 (2.40%) JSON
1 3 (2.40%) OpenTelemetry
2 2 (1.60%) .NET
2 2 (1.60%) ADO
2 2 (1.60%) PySpark
2 2 (1.60%) YAML
3 1 (0.80%) .NET Core
3 1 (0.80%) Apache Avro
3 1 (0.80%) Azure Blueprints
3 1 (0.80%) JSON Schema
3 1 (0.80%) Kafka
3 1 (0.80%) Node.js
3 1 (0.80%) OAuth
3 1 (0.80%) Playwright
3 1 (0.80%) Protocol Buffers
3 1 (0.80%) RESTful
3 1 (0.80%) SailPoint
3 1 (0.80%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 10 (8.00%) Onboarding
2 7 (5.60%) Security Posture
3 3 (2.40%) Cloud Native
3 3 (2.40%) Driving Licence
3 3 (2.40%) e-Learning
3 3 (2.40%) Handset
3 3 (2.40%) Security Operations Centre
3 3 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
4 2 (1.60%) Cyber Defence
4 2 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
4 2 (1.60%) Hybrid Cloud
4 2 (1.60%) Life Science
4 2 (1.60%) PKI
5 1 (0.80%) Algorithms
5 1 (0.80%) Data Centre
5 1 (0.80%) Data Structures
5 1 (0.80%) Learning Management System
5 1 (0.80%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (0.80%) Manufacturing Execution System
5 1 (0.80%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 22 (17.60%) Windows
2 10 (8.00%) Windows 10
3 9 (7.20%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.60%) Linux
4 2 (1.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (16.00%) Agile
2 17 (13.60%) CI/CD
3 15 (12.00%) Business Intelligence
4 14 (11.20%) DevOps
5 13 (10.40%) CRM
5 13 (10.40%) Migration
6 12 (9.60%) Analytics
7 11 (8.80%) Continuous Improvement
7 11 (8.80%) Problem-Solving
8 10 (8.00%) Customer Service
8 10 (8.00%) ITSM
8 10 (8.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 9 (7.20%) Data Modelling
10 8 (6.40%) Change Management
10 8 (6.40%) Decision-Making
10 8 (6.40%) Roadmaps
10 8 (6.40%) Security Architecture
10 8 (6.40%) SIEM
11 7 (5.60%) Containerisation
11 7 (5.60%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 19 (15.20%) Python
2 12 (9.60%) SQL
3 8 (6.40%) PowerShell
4 5 (4.00%) C#
5 4 (3.20%) R
6 3 (2.40%) Bicep
6 3 (2.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 3 (2.40%) Java
6 3 (2.40%) PL/SQL
6 3 (2.40%) Scala
7 2 (1.60%) Bash
7 2 (1.60%) JavaScript
7 2 (1.60%) Kusto Query Language
7 2 (1.60%) VB
8 1 (0.80%) Groovy
8 1 (0.80%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.80%) VBA
Qualifications
1 11 (8.80%) Security Cleared
2 10 (8.00%) SC Cleared
3 6 (4.80%) Degree
4 5 (4.00%) CISSP
5 4 (3.20%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (2.40%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (2.40%) CISM
6 3 (2.40%) ISTQB
7 2 (1.60%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 2 (1.60%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (1.60%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 1 (0.80%) AAT
8 1 (0.80%) ACCA
8 1 (0.80%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.80%) CIMA
8 1 (0.80%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (3.20%) GDPR
2 4 (3.20%) SLA
3 3 (2.40%) Data Quality
3 3 (2.40%) NIST
4 2 (1.60%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.60%) GxP
4 2 (1.60%) QA
5 1 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.80%) GRC
5 1 (0.80%) NCSC
5 1 (0.80%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.80%) PMO
System Software
1 20 (16.00%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.20%) Docker
3 1 (0.80%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.80%) NFS
Systems Management
1 11 (8.80%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (8.00%) Terraform
3 8 (6.40%) Kubernetes
4 5 (4.00%) Ansible
5 4 (3.20%) Grafana
6 3 (2.40%) Control-M
6 3 (2.40%) IBM Guardium
6 3 (2.40%) Nessus
6 3 (2.40%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.60%) HP ALM
7 2 (1.60%) HP Quality Center
7 2 (1.60%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 11 (8.80%) ServiceNow
2 5 (4.00%) Okta
2 5 (4.00%) Tenable
3 4 (3.20%) Informatica
3 4 (3.20%) SAP
4 3 (2.40%) Databricks
4 3 (2.40%) Oracle
4 3 (2.40%) Splunk
4 3 (2.40%) Workday
5 2 (1.60%) Barracuda Networks
5 2 (1.60%) Cisco
5 2 (1.60%) HP
6 1 (0.80%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.80%) Brocade
6 1 (0.80%) Cognos
6 1 (0.80%) Dell
6 1 (0.80%) Fortinet
6 1 (0.80%) Google
6 1 (0.80%) Red Hat
6 1 (0.80%) Sage