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 27 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
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -2 +4 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 121 94 114
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 14.05% 18.15% 14.88%
As % of the Vendors category 30.10% 37.75% 34.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 81 83 86
10th Percentile £213 £190 £195
25th Percentile £325 £319 £364
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% - -2.70%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £575
90th Percentile £600 £648 £663
West Midlands median daily rate £475 £425 £427
% change year-on-year +11.76% -0.35% -6.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 4 13
10th Percentile £19.91 £29.37 £11.07
25th Percentile £20.76 £29.92 £13.25
Median hourly rate £22.17 £30.45 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.19% +117.50% -9.62%
75th Percentile £23.59 £38.16 £26.50
90th Percentile £24.43 £51.64 £50.30
West Midlands median hourly rate £22.17 £29.00 £14.87
% change year-on-year -23.55% +95.02% -6.89%

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 402 249 326
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 46.69% 48.07% 42.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 242 192 212
10th Percentile £263 £183 £263
25th Percentile £400 £353 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £513 £427
Median % change year-on-year -7.32% +20.02% -8.17%
75th Percentile £557 £614 £575
90th Percentile £618 £700 £686
West Midlands median daily rate £475 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 7 21
10th Percentile £18.37 £20.15 £11.13
25th Percentile £19.84 £25.13 £14.00
Median hourly rate £22.75 £30.00 £24.65
Median % change year-on-year -24.17% +21.70% +32.58%
75th Percentile £28.62 £30.68 £28.75
90th Percentile £46.80 £42.66 £55.00
West Midlands median hourly rate £25.15 £19.50 £18.50
% change year-on-year +28.97% +5.41% +4.40%

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 27 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 5 (4.13%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.83%) Confluence
2 1 (0.83%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.83%) SAS
Applications
1 10 (8.26%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (7.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.83%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 13 (10.74%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (8.26%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.83%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.83%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.83%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.83%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 43 (35.54%) Azure
2 31 (25.62%) Power Platform
3 30 (24.79%) Dynamics 365
4 22 (18.18%) Microsoft 365
5 13 (10.74%) AWS
6 11 (9.09%) Entra ID
7 9 (7.44%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (4.96%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (4.96%) Microsoft Purview
8 6 (4.96%) Power Automate
9 5 (4.13%) PowerApps
10 4 (3.31%) Azure Data Factory
10 4 (3.31%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 4 (3.31%) Copilot Studio
11 3 (2.48%) Azure Key Vault
11 3 (2.48%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (2.48%) GitHub
11 3 (2.48%) Microsoft Copilot
11 3 (2.48%) OpenShift
11 3 (2.48%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (9.09%) VPN
2 10 (8.26%) Network Security
3 9 (7.44%) Firewall
4 7 (5.79%) DNS
5 4 (3.31%) DHCP
5 4 (3.31%) TCP/IP
6 3 (2.48%) Unified Communications
7 2 (1.65%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (12.40%) Power BI
2 5 (4.13%) Data Warehouse
2 5 (4.13%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (2.48%) Power Query
4 2 (1.65%) Amazon Redshift
4 2 (1.65%) GIS
4 2 (1.65%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.83%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.83%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.83%) Data Vault
5 1 (0.83%) Delta Lake
5 1 (0.83%) Metadata
5 1 (0.83%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.83%) Tableau
5 1 (0.83%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 8 (6.61%) JIRA
2 6 (4.96%) Git
3 3 (2.48%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.65%) GitLab
4 2 (1.65%) JMeter
5 1 (0.83%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.83%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.83%) Selenium
General
1 43 (35.54%) Social Skills
2 14 (11.57%) Finance
3 13 (10.74%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (5.79%) Games
4 7 (5.79%) Legal
5 4 (3.31%) Banking
5 4 (3.31%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.48%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (2.48%) Law
6 3 (2.48%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.65%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.83%) Automotive
8 1 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.83%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 17 (14.05%) Analyst
2 16 (13.22%) Architect
3 14 (11.57%) Developer
4 7 (5.79%) Business Analyst
4 7 (5.79%) CRM Specialist
4 7 (5.79%) Support Engineer
5 6 (4.96%) IT Support
5 6 (4.96%) Solutions Architect
6 5 (4.13%) Administrator
6 5 (4.13%) Dynamics 365 Analyst
6 5 (4.13%) Dynamics 365 Business Analyst
6 5 (4.13%) IT Engineer
7 4 (3.31%) Consultant
7 4 (3.31%) IT Support Engineer
7 4 (3.31%) Project Manager
7 4 (3.31%) Security Architect
7 4 (3.31%) Senior
8 3 (2.48%) Data Analyst
8 3 (2.48%) Enterprise Architect
8 3 (2.48%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.48%) FastAPI
1 3 (2.48%) OpenTelemetry
2 2 (1.65%) .NET
2 2 (1.65%) ADO
2 2 (1.65%) REST
3 1 (0.83%) .NET Core
3 1 (0.83%) Azure Blueprints
3 1 (0.83%) Middleware
3 1 (0.83%) OAuth
3 1 (0.83%) Playwright
3 1 (0.83%) PySpark
3 1 (0.83%) RESTful
3 1 (0.83%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 8 (6.61%) Onboarding
2 7 (5.79%) Security Posture
3 4 (3.31%) Cloud Native
3 4 (3.31%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (2.48%) Driving Licence
4 3 (2.48%) e-Learning
4 3 (2.48%) Handset
4 3 (2.48%) Security Operations Centre
5 2 (1.65%) Cyber Defence
5 2 (1.65%) Distributed Systems
5 2 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (1.65%) Life Science
5 2 (1.65%) PKI
5 2 (1.65%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (0.83%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.83%) Data Structures
6 1 (0.83%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.83%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.83%) Manufacturing Execution System
Operating Systems
1 19 (15.70%) Windows
2 8 (6.61%) Windows Server
3 7 (5.79%) Windows 10
4 2 (1.65%) Linux
4 2 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (17.36%) Agile
2 18 (14.88%) CI/CD
3 16 (13.22%) Business Intelligence
3 16 (13.22%) DevOps
4 15 (12.40%) Continuous Improvement
4 15 (12.40%) CRM
5 13 (10.74%) Analytics
6 12 (9.92%) Migration
6 12 (9.92%) Problem-Solving
7 10 (8.26%) Customer Service
7 10 (8.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 9 (7.44%) Change Management
8 9 (7.44%) Decision-Making
9 8 (6.61%) Containerisation
9 8 (6.61%) Data Modelling
9 8 (6.61%) SIEM
10 7 (5.79%) ITSM
10 7 (5.79%) Roadmaps
10 7 (5.79%) Security Architecture
10 7 (5.79%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 15 (12.40%) Python
2 9 (7.44%) SQL
3 8 (6.61%) PowerShell
4 5 (4.13%) C#
5 4 (3.31%) R
6 3 (2.48%) Bicep
6 3 (2.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 3 (2.48%) PL/SQL
7 2 (1.65%) Bash
7 2 (1.65%) Go
7 2 (1.65%) Java
7 2 (1.65%) Kusto Query Language
7 2 (1.65%) Scala
7 2 (1.65%) VB
8 1 (0.83%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.83%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 12 (9.92%) Security Cleared
2 11 (9.09%) SC Cleared
3 8 (6.61%) Degree
4 6 (4.96%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (3.31%) CISSP
6 3 (2.48%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (2.48%) ISTQB
7 2 (1.65%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.65%) CISM
7 2 (1.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 2 (1.65%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 1 (0.83%) AAT
8 1 (0.83%) ACCA
8 1 (0.83%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.83%) CIMA
8 1 (0.83%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.83%) IIBA
8 1 (0.83%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.83%) MCDST
8 1 (0.83%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (3.31%) GDPR
3 3 (2.48%) SLA
4 2 (1.65%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.65%) Data Quality
4 2 (1.65%) GxP
4 2 (1.65%) NIST
4 2 (1.65%) QA
5 1 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.83%) NCSC
5 1 (0.83%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.83%) PMO
System Software
1 16 (13.22%) Active Directory
2 5 (4.13%) Docker
3 1 (0.83%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 10 (8.26%) Terraform
2 9 (7.44%) Microsoft Intune
3 8 (6.61%) Kubernetes
4 4 (3.31%) Ansible
4 4 (3.31%) Grafana
5 3 (2.48%) Control-M
5 3 (2.48%) IBM Guardium
5 3 (2.48%) Nessus
5 3 (2.48%) Prometheus
6 2 (1.65%) HP ALM
6 2 (1.65%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.83%) SCCM
7 1 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 8 (6.61%) ServiceNow
2 5 (4.13%) Tenable
3 4 (3.31%) Databricks
3 4 (3.31%) Okta
3 4 (3.31%) SAP
4 3 (2.48%) Informatica
4 3 (2.48%) Oracle
4 3 (2.48%) Splunk
4 3 (2.48%) Workday
5 2 (1.65%) Barracuda Networks
5 2 (1.65%) Google
5 2 (1.65%) HP
6 1 (0.83%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.83%) Cisco
6 1 (0.83%) Cognos
6 1 (0.83%) Mitel
6 1 (0.83%) Red Hat
6 1 (0.83%) Sage
6 1 (0.83%) SolarWinds
6 1 (0.83%) Veeam