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 25 June 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
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 10 6
Rank change year-on-year +5 -4 -4
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 117 56 104
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 12.47% 10.75% 13.54%
As % of the Vendors category 28.40% 24.67% 30.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 43 76
10th Percentile £210 £106 £189
25th Percentile £325 £243 £283
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £440 £400 £423
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -5.33% -8.65%
75th Percentile £538 £478 £494
90th Percentile £619 £588 £638
West Midlands median daily rate £450 £398 £405
% change year-on-year +13.07% -1.73% -6.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 12
10th Percentile - - £11.28
25th Percentile - £56.88 £13.81
Median hourly rate £19.34 £58.75 £22.98
Median % change year-on-year -67.08% +155.71% +43.73%
75th Percentile £22.17 £60.63 £33.63
90th Percentile £23.87 - £56.13
West Midlands median hourly rate £25.00 £33.88 £14.44
% change year-on-year -26.21% +134.71% -17.36%

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 412 227 337
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 43.92% 43.57% 43.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 154 234
10th Percentile £311 £153 £237
25th Percentile £400 £301 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +5.56% -7.69%
75th Percentile £542 £600 £586
90th Percentile £616 £689 £675
West Midlands median daily rate £469 £465 £450
% change year-on-year +0.86% +3.33% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 4 21
10th Percentile £15.11 £19.33 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.53 £20.57 £14.13
Median hourly rate £22.17 £26.40 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.01% +1.52% +20.36%
75th Percentile £32.99 £37.87 £37.50
90th Percentile £51.25 £51.52 £55.00
West Midlands median hourly rate £33.99 £30.00 £18.39
% change year-on-year +13.30% +63.18% -14.89%

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 25 June 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 11 (9.40%) SharePoint
2 7 (5.98%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (2.56%) Apache Spark
3 3 (2.56%) SAS
4 2 (1.71%) Apache
4 2 (1.71%) CloudStack
5 1 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.85%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (6.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (5.13%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (4.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.71%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 13 (11.11%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.71%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.85%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.85%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 50 (42.74%) Azure
2 29 (24.79%) Microsoft 365
3 20 (17.09%) Dynamics 365
3 20 (17.09%) Power Platform
4 18 (15.38%) Entra ID
5 13 (11.11%) AWS
6 9 (7.69%) Azure DevOps
7 7 (5.98%) Microsoft Purview
8 6 (5.13%) OneDrive
9 5 (4.27%) Azure Data Factory
9 5 (4.27%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (2.56%) Amazon S3
10 3 (2.56%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 3 (2.56%) IaaS
10 3 (2.56%) Microsoft Copilot
11 2 (1.71%) Azure AKS
11 2 (1.71%) GCP
11 2 (1.71%) GitHub
11 2 (1.71%) OpenShift
11 2 (1.71%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 12 (10.26%) DNS
2 11 (9.40%) DHCP
2 11 (9.40%) VPN
3 8 (6.84%) Firewall
4 7 (5.98%) Network Security
5 4 (3.42%) SAN
5 4 (3.42%) TCP/IP
6 3 (2.56%) NAS
7 2 (1.71%) Remote Desktop
7 2 (1.71%) Structured Cabling
8 1 (0.85%) BIG-IP
8 1 (0.85%) Fibre Channel
8 1 (0.85%) iSCSI
8 1 (0.85%) LAN
8 1 (0.85%) VLAN
8 1 (0.85%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (8.55%) Power BI
2 6 (5.13%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (3.42%) Data Lake
4 3 (2.56%) Amazon Redshift
4 3 (2.56%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (2.56%) Metadata
4 3 (2.56%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (2.56%) Relational Database
4 3 (2.56%) SQL Server
5 2 (1.71%) Data Vault
6 1 (0.85%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.85%) Base SAS
6 1 (0.85%) GIS
6 1 (0.85%) Hadoop
6 1 (0.85%) Parquet
6 1 (0.85%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 1 (0.85%) Spark SQL
6 1 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.85%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 7 (5.98%) JIRA
2 4 (3.42%) Git
3 2 (1.71%) JMeter
4 1 (0.85%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.85%) Maven
4 1 (0.85%) SonarQube
4 1 (0.85%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 28 (23.93%) Social Skills
2 14 (11.97%) Analytical Skills
2 14 (11.97%) Finance
3 10 (8.55%) Banking
4 7 (5.98%) Games
5 6 (5.13%) Public Sector
6 4 (3.42%) Influencing Skills
6 4 (3.42%) Legal
6 4 (3.42%) Retail
7 2 (1.71%) Investment Banking
7 2 (1.71%) Law
7 2 (1.71%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.71%) Publishing
8 1 (0.85%) Automotive
8 1 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 18 (15.38%) Analyst
2 12 (10.26%) Architect
3 11 (9.40%) Developer
4 9 (7.69%) Consultant
4 9 (7.69%) Data Engineer
4 9 (7.69%) IT Support
5 8 (6.84%) Support Engineer
6 7 (5.98%) Azure Engineer
6 7 (5.98%) CRM Specialist
6 7 (5.98%) IT Engineer
6 7 (5.98%) Security Consultant
7 6 (5.13%) Lead
7 6 (5.13%) Security Engineer
8 5 (4.27%) Business Analyst
8 5 (4.27%) Dynamics 365 Analyst
8 5 (4.27%) Dynamics 365 Business Analyst
8 5 (4.27%) IT Support Engineer
8 5 (4.27%) Service Analyst
8 5 (4.27%) Service Desk Analyst
8 5 (4.27%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.42%) ADO
1 4 (3.42%) OpenTelemetry
2 3 (2.56%) FastAPI
2 3 (2.56%) JSON
3 2 (1.71%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (1.71%) PySpark
3 2 (1.71%) YAML
4 1 (0.85%) .NET
4 1 (0.85%) .NET Core
4 1 (0.85%) Apache Avro
4 1 (0.85%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.85%) JSON Schema
4 1 (0.85%) Kafka
4 1 (0.85%) Loki
4 1 (0.85%) Node.js
4 1 (0.85%) Protocol Buffers
4 1 (0.85%) RESTful
4 1 (0.85%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.85%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 12 (10.26%) Onboarding
2 7 (5.98%) Hybrid Cloud
3 6 (5.13%) Security Operations Centre
4 5 (4.27%) Security Posture
5 4 (3.42%) Cloud Native
5 4 (3.42%) Public Cloud
6 3 (2.56%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.71%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.71%) e-Learning
7 2 (1.71%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (1.71%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.71%) Life Science
7 2 (1.71%) Replication
7 2 (1.71%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.85%) Algorithms
8 1 (0.85%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.85%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.85%) Learning Management System
8 1 (0.85%) Manufacturing Execution System
8 1 (0.85%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 23 (19.66%) Windows
2 11 (9.40%) Windows 10
3 7 (5.98%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.71%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.71%) Linux
4 2 (1.71%) Mac OS
4 2 (1.71%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (18.80%) DevOps
2 20 (17.09%) Migration
3 16 (13.68%) Agile
4 14 (11.97%) CI/CD
4 14 (11.97%) Problem-Solving
5 13 (11.11%) CRM
6 12 (10.26%) Continuous Improvement
7 11 (9.40%) Security Operations
8 10 (8.55%) ITSM
8 10 (8.55%) Roadmaps
9 9 (7.69%) Business Intelligence
9 9 (7.69%) Customer Service
9 9 (7.69%) Infrastructure as Code
10 8 (6.84%) Data Modelling
10 8 (6.84%) Observability
10 8 (6.84%) Service Management
10 8 (6.84%) SIEM
11 7 (5.98%) High Availability
11 7 (5.98%) Information Security
11 7 (5.98%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 15 (12.82%) Python
2 12 (10.26%) SQL
3 7 (5.98%) PowerShell
4 5 (4.27%) Bicep
4 5 (4.27%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (2.56%) C#
5 3 (2.56%) Java
5 3 (2.56%) PL/SQL
6 2 (1.71%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 2 (1.71%) Scala
6 2 (1.71%) VB
7 1 (0.85%) Bash
7 1 (0.85%) Groovy
7 1 (0.85%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.85%) VBA
Qualifications
1 8 (6.84%) CISSP
1 8 (6.84%) Degree
2 6 (5.13%) Security Cleared
3 5 (4.27%) SC Cleared
4 4 (3.42%) AWS Certification
4 4 (3.42%) CISM
5 3 (2.56%) ISTQB
6 2 (1.71%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 2 (1.71%) Azure Certification
6 2 (1.71%) CCNP
6 2 (1.71%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.71%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 2 (1.71%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 2 (1.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 1 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (5.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (5.13%) NIST
2 6 (5.13%) SLA
3 5 (4.27%) GDPR
4 3 (2.56%) Data Quality
4 3 (2.56%) GRC
4 3 (2.56%) PMO
4 3 (2.56%) QA
5 2 (1.71%) GxP
6 1 (0.85%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.85%) Basel III
6 1 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.85%) NCSC
6 1 (0.85%) P3O
6 1 (0.85%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 25 (21.37%) Active Directory
2 5 (4.27%) Docker
3 3 (2.56%) Hyper-V
3 3 (2.56%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (2.56%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.71%) vSphere
5 1 (0.85%) NFS
Systems Management
1 18 (15.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (9.40%) Terraform
3 8 (6.84%) Kubernetes
4 7 (5.98%) Grafana
5 6 (5.13%) Prometheus
6 3 (2.56%) Ansible
6 3 (2.56%) Control-M
6 3 (2.56%) IBM Guardium
6 3 (2.56%) Nessus
6 3 (2.56%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.71%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.71%) HP ALM
7 2 (1.71%) HP Quality Center
7 2 (1.71%) SCCM
8 1 (0.85%) Argo
Vendors
1 14 (11.97%) ServiceNow
2 5 (4.27%) Okta
3 4 (3.42%) Cisco
4 3 (2.56%) Fortinet
4 3 (2.56%) Oracle
4 3 (2.56%) SAP
4 3 (2.56%) Splunk
4 3 (2.56%) Tenable
4 3 (2.56%) Veeam
4 3 (2.56%) VMware
5 2 (1.71%) BeyondTrust
5 2 (1.71%) Commvault
5 2 (1.71%) CrowdStrike
5 2 (1.71%) Databricks
5 2 (1.71%) HP
5 2 (1.71%) Informatica
5 2 (1.71%) Remedy
5 2 (1.71%) Workday
6 1 (0.85%) Cognos
6 1 (0.85%) Dell