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 30 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
30 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 4 6
Rank change year-on-year +1 +2 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 128 85 101
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 13.73% 16.25% 13.07%
As % of the Vendors category 31.60% 34.41% 30.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 70 71
10th Percentile £206 £188 £190
25th Percentile £319 £285 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £430 £425
Median % change year-on-year +4.65% +1.18% -6.85%
75th Percentile £525 £534 £505
90th Percentile £600 £614 £638
West Midlands median daily rate £450 £400 £425
% change year-on-year +12.50% -5.88% -6.85%
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 £20.00 £14.00
% change year-on-year +25.00% +42.86% -13.71%

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 405 247 333
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 43.45% 47.23% 43.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 244 177 219
10th Percentile £281 £163 £262
25th Percentile £400 £363 £330
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £513 £425
Median % change year-on-year -7.32% +20.59% -10.53%
75th Percentile £538 £613 £575
90th Percentile £617 £696 £692
West Midlands median daily rate £469 £488 £450
% change year-on-year -3.79% +8.33% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 7 23
10th Percentile £15.44 £20.15 £11.55
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.13 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.00 £30.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +15.38% +32.64%
75th Percentile £33.75 £30.68 £39.63
90th Percentile £56.45 £42.66 £55.00
West Midlands median hourly rate £33.98 £18.51 £19.95
% change year-on-year +83.58% -7.22% +7.84%

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 30 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 12 (9.38%) SharePoint
2 3 (2.34%) Apache Spark
2 3 (2.34%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.56%) SAS
4 1 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.78%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (7.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (7.03%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (3.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.56%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.78%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (9.38%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (7.03%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.78%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.78%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.78%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 43 (33.59%) Azure
2 31 (24.22%) Microsoft 365
3 27 (21.09%) Power Platform
4 25 (19.53%) Dynamics 365
5 16 (12.50%) Entra ID
6 10 (7.81%) AWS
7 8 (6.25%) Azure Sentinel
7 8 (6.25%) Microsoft Purview
8 7 (5.47%) Azure DevOps
8 7 (5.47%) PowerApps
9 6 (4.69%) OneDrive
9 6 (4.69%) Power Automate
10 4 (3.13%) Copilot Studio
10 4 (3.13%) OpenShift
11 3 (2.34%) Amazon S3
11 3 (2.34%) GitHub
11 3 (2.34%) Microsoft Copilot
12 2 (1.56%) Azure AKS
12 2 (1.56%) Azure Key Vault
12 2 (1.56%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 13 (10.16%) VPN
2 12 (9.38%) DNS
3 9 (7.03%) DHCP
3 9 (7.03%) Network Security
4 8 (6.25%) Firewall
5 5 (3.91%) TCP/IP
6 2 (1.56%) SSL
7 1 (0.78%) BIG-IP
7 1 (0.78%) Fibre Channel
7 1 (0.78%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.78%) LAN
7 1 (0.78%) NAS
7 1 (0.78%) SAN
7 1 (0.78%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (9.38%) Power BI
2 5 (3.91%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (2.34%) Amazon Redshift
3 3 (2.34%) Data Lake
3 3 (2.34%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (2.34%) Power Query
3 3 (2.34%) SQL Server
4 2 (1.56%) Data Vault
4 2 (1.56%) Metadata
4 2 (1.56%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.78%) Delta Lake
5 1 (0.78%) GIS
5 1 (0.78%) Hadoop
5 1 (0.78%) Parquet
5 1 (0.78%) Spark SQL
5 1 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.78%) Tableau
5 1 (0.78%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 9 (7.03%) JIRA
2 6 (4.69%) Git
3 2 (1.56%) JMeter
4 1 (0.78%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.78%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.78%) Maven
4 1 (0.78%) Selenium
4 1 (0.78%) SonarQube
General
1 41 (32.03%) Social Skills
2 12 (9.38%) Finance
3 11 (8.59%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (6.25%) Legal
5 7 (5.47%) Games
6 6 (4.69%) Banking
7 4 (3.13%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (2.34%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.56%) Law
9 2 (1.56%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.56%) Retail
10 1 (0.78%) Automotive
10 1 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.78%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 21 (16.41%) Analyst
2 15 (11.72%) Developer
3 14 (10.94%) Architect
4 8 (6.25%) IT Support
4 8 (6.25%) Support Engineer
5 7 (5.47%) CRM Specialist
5 7 (5.47%) IT Engineer
6 6 (4.69%) Business Analyst
6 6 (4.69%) Consultant
6 6 (4.69%) Solutions Architect
7 5 (3.91%) Administrator
7 5 (3.91%) Data Engineer
7 5 (3.91%) Dynamics 365 Analyst
7 5 (3.91%) Dynamics 365 Business Analyst
7 5 (3.91%) IT Support Engineer
7 5 (3.91%) Senior
7 5 (3.91%) Service Analyst
7 5 (3.91%) Service Desk Analyst
8 4 (3.13%) IT Analyst
8 4 (3.13%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.13%) OpenTelemetry
2 3 (2.34%) ADO
2 3 (2.34%) FastAPI
2 3 (2.34%) JSON
3 2 (1.56%) .NET
3 2 (1.56%) PySpark
3 2 (1.56%) YAML
4 1 (0.78%) .NET Core
4 1 (0.78%) Apache Avro
4 1 (0.78%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.78%) JSON Schema
4 1 (0.78%) Kafka
4 1 (0.78%) Loki
4 1 (0.78%) Node.js
4 1 (0.78%) Playwright
4 1 (0.78%) Protocol Buffers
4 1 (0.78%) RESTful
4 1 (0.78%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.78%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 11 (8.59%) Onboarding
2 7 (5.47%) Security Posture
3 4 (3.13%) Cloud Native
3 4 (3.13%) Security Operations Centre
4 3 (2.34%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.56%) Cyber Defence
5 2 (1.56%) e-Learning
5 2 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.56%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (1.56%) Life Science
5 2 (1.56%) PKI
6 1 (0.78%) Algorithms
6 1 (0.78%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.78%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.78%) Data Structures
6 1 (0.78%) Enterprise Storage
6 1 (0.78%) Learning Management System
6 1 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.78%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.78%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 24 (18.75%) Windows
2 12 (9.38%) Windows 10
3 8 (6.25%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.56%) Linux
4 2 (1.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (14.84%) Agile
2 18 (14.06%) CI/CD
3 14 (10.94%) DevOps
4 13 (10.16%) Business Intelligence
4 13 (10.16%) CRM
4 13 (10.16%) Migration
5 11 (8.59%) Continuous Improvement
5 11 (8.59%) Customer Service
5 11 (8.59%) ITSM
5 11 (8.59%) Problem-Solving
5 11 (8.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 10 (7.81%) Roadmaps
7 9 (7.03%) Analytics
7 9 (7.03%) Change Management
8 8 (6.25%) Containerisation
8 8 (6.25%) Data Modelling
8 8 (6.25%) Decision-Making
8 8 (6.25%) Security Operations
8 8 (6.25%) Service Management
8 8 (6.25%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 18 (14.06%) Python
2 12 (9.38%) SQL
3 7 (5.47%) PowerShell
4 5 (3.91%) C#
5 4 (3.13%) Bicep
5 4 (3.13%) R
6 3 (2.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 3 (2.34%) Java
6 3 (2.34%) PL/SQL
6 3 (2.34%) Scala
7 2 (1.56%) JavaScript
7 2 (1.56%) Kusto Query Language
7 2 (1.56%) VB
8 1 (0.78%) Bash
8 1 (0.78%) Groovy
8 1 (0.78%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.78%) VBA
Qualifications
1 10 (7.81%) Security Cleared
2 9 (7.03%) SC Cleared
3 7 (5.47%) CISSP
4 6 (4.69%) Degree
5 5 (3.91%) CISM
6 3 (2.34%) ISTQB
6 3 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (1.56%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 2 (1.56%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (1.56%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 1 (0.78%) AAT
8 1 (0.78%) ACCA
8 1 (0.78%) CIMA
8 1 (0.78%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.69%) GDPR
1 6 (4.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 6 (4.69%) SLA
2 5 (3.91%) NIST
3 3 (2.34%) Data Quality
3 3 (2.34%) GRC
3 3 (2.34%) PMO
3 3 (2.34%) QA
4 2 (1.56%) GxP
5 1 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.78%) P3O
5 1 (0.78%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 22 (17.19%) Active Directory
2 5 (3.91%) Docker
3 2 (1.56%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.78%) NFS
Systems Management
1 14 (10.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (8.59%) Terraform
3 8 (6.25%) Kubernetes
4 5 (3.91%) Ansible
4 5 (3.91%) Grafana
5 4 (3.13%) Prometheus
6 3 (2.34%) Control-M
6 3 (2.34%) IBM Guardium
6 3 (2.34%) Nessus
7 2 (1.56%) HP ALM
7 2 (1.56%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.78%) Argo
8 1 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 13 (10.16%) ServiceNow
2 5 (3.91%) Okta
2 5 (3.91%) Tenable
3 4 (3.13%) Informatica
3 4 (3.13%) SAP
4 3 (2.34%) Databricks
4 3 (2.34%) Oracle
4 3 (2.34%) Splunk
4 3 (2.34%) Workday
5 2 (1.56%) Barracuda Networks
5 2 (1.56%) Cisco
5 2 (1.56%) HP
6 1 (0.78%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.78%) Brocade
6 1 (0.78%) Cognos
6 1 (0.78%) Dell
6 1 (0.78%) Fortinet
6 1 (0.78%) Google
6 1 (0.78%) Red Hat
6 1 (0.78%) Sage