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 2 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
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 +4 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 128 108 118
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 15.02% 20.15% 15.55%
As % of the Vendors category 31.22% 38.03% 35.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 91 94 93
10th Percentile £200 £190 £200
25th Percentile £325 £325 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.05% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £540 £567 £575
90th Percentile £625 £646 £663
West Midlands median daily rate £475 £434 £425
% change year-on-year +9.42% +2.14% -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 10
10th Percentile - £29.25 £11.06
25th Percentile - £29.61 £11.66
Median hourly rate £25.00 £30.45 £16.98
Median % change year-on-year -17.90% +79.38% +19.16%
75th Percentile - £30.68 £26.50
90th Percentile - - £29.48
West Midlands median hourly rate £23.50 £29.73 £18.25
% change year-on-year -20.94% +62.88% +16.02%

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 410 284 334
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 48.12% 52.99% 44.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 235 213 211
10th Percentile £260 £201 £225
25th Percentile £365 £375 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £525 £425
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +23.53% -5.56%
75th Percentile £578 £625 £575
90th Percentile £633 £700 £663
West Midlands median daily rate £480 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -4.00% +11.11% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 7 17
10th Percentile £16.42 £20.15 £11.10
25th Percentile £17.69 £25.13 £14.00
Median hourly rate £20.50 £30.00 £24.65
Median % change year-on-year -31.67% +21.70% +64.33%
75th Percentile £26.91 £30.68 £28.75
90th Percentile £42.45 £42.41 £47.05
West Midlands median hourly rate £25.00 £21.25 £19.95
% change year-on-year +17.65% +6.52% +12.58%

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 2 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 8 (6.25%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.78%) Confluence
Applications
1 13 (10.16%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (9.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (3.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.78%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.78%) Oracle Smart View
4 1 (0.78%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (10.16%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (8.59%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.78%) Elite 3E
3 1 (0.78%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.78%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.78%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 50 (39.06%) Azure
2 32 (25.00%) Dynamics 365
2 32 (25.00%) Power Platform
3 25 (19.53%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (10.94%) AWS
5 12 (9.38%) Azure DevOps
5 12 (9.38%) Entra ID
6 10 (7.81%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 9 (7.03%) Azure Data Factory
8 7 (5.47%) Azure Sentinel
8 7 (5.47%) Power Automate
8 7 (5.47%) SaaS
9 6 (4.69%) Microsoft Purview
10 5 (3.91%) PowerApps
11 4 (3.13%) Azure Key Vault
11 4 (3.13%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (3.13%) GitHub
12 3 (2.34%) Azure AKS
12 3 (2.34%) Azure API Management
12 3 (2.34%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 15 (11.72%) VPN
2 10 (7.81%) DNS
2 10 (7.81%) Firewall
3 9 (7.03%) Network Security
4 8 (6.25%) DHCP
4 8 (6.25%) TCP/IP
5 3 (2.34%) Unified Communications
6 2 (1.56%) SSL
7 1 (0.78%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (14.84%) Power BI
2 8 (6.25%) Data Warehouse
3 5 (3.91%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (3.13%) Data Mining
5 3 (2.34%) Power Query
6 2 (1.56%) GIS
6 2 (1.56%) Relational Database
6 2 (1.56%) SQL Server
6 2 (1.56%) Tableau
7 1 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
7 1 (0.78%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.78%) Delta Lake
7 1 (0.78%) Metadata
7 1 (0.78%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.78%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 1 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.78%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 9 (7.03%) JIRA
2 6 (4.69%) Git
3 4 (3.13%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.56%) CircleCI
4 2 (1.56%) GitLab
4 2 (1.56%) JMeter
5 1 (0.78%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.78%) Liquibase
5 1 (0.78%) Selenium
General
1 52 (40.63%) Social Skills
2 19 (14.84%) Finance
3 17 (13.28%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (5.47%) Games
5 6 (4.69%) Legal
5 6 (4.69%) Public Sector
6 4 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (3.13%) Manufacturing
6 4 (3.13%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (2.34%) Law
8 2 (1.56%) Banking
8 2 (1.56%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.78%) Automotive
9 1 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 21 (16.41%) Analyst
2 16 (12.50%) Architect
3 13 (10.16%) Developer
4 9 (7.03%) IT Support
5 7 (5.47%) Business Analyst
5 7 (5.47%) CRM Specialist
5 7 (5.47%) Enterprise Architect
5 7 (5.47%) Project Manager
5 7 (5.47%) Support Engineer
6 6 (4.69%) 1st/2nd Line Support
6 6 (4.69%) 2nd Line Support
6 6 (4.69%) Senior
7 5 (3.91%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
7 5 (3.91%) Administrator
7 5 (3.91%) Business Architect
7 5 (3.91%) Dynamics 365 Architect
7 5 (3.91%) Dynamics 365 Business Analyst
7 5 (3.91%) IT Support Analyst
7 5 (3.91%) Lead
7 5 (3.91%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.13%) REST
2 3 (2.34%) FastAPI
2 3 (2.34%) OpenTelemetry
3 2 (1.56%) .NET
3 2 (1.56%) ADO
3 2 (1.56%) Middleware
3 2 (1.56%) RESTful
4 1 (0.78%) .NET Core
4 1 (0.78%) Azure Blueprints
4 1 (0.78%) Elastic Stack
4 1 (0.78%) OAuth
4 1 (0.78%) Oracle Fusion
4 1 (0.78%) Playwright
4 1 (0.78%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 8 (6.25%) Onboarding
1 8 (6.25%) Security Posture
1 8 (6.25%) Self-Motivation
2 6 (4.69%) Team-Oriented Environment
3 4 (3.13%) Cloud Native
4 3 (2.34%) Driving Licence
4 3 (2.34%) e-Learning
4 3 (2.34%) Handset
4 3 (2.34%) Security Operations Centre
5 2 (1.56%) Cyber Defence
5 2 (1.56%) Distributed Systems
5 2 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.56%) Legacy Applications
5 2 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (1.56%) Life Science
5 2 (1.56%) PKI
6 1 (0.78%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.78%) Data Structures
6 1 (0.78%) Manufacturing Execution System
6 1 (0.78%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 21 (16.41%) Windows
2 10 (7.81%) Windows 10
3 7 (5.47%) Windows Server
4 3 (2.34%) Linux
5 2 (1.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (16.41%) Agile
1 21 (16.41%) Business Intelligence
2 19 (14.84%) CI/CD
2 19 (14.84%) CRM
2 19 (14.84%) DevOps
3 17 (13.28%) Analytics
3 17 (13.28%) Problem-Solving
4 15 (11.72%) Continuous Improvement
5 14 (10.94%) Migration
6 13 (10.16%) Change Management
7 12 (9.38%) Customer Service
7 12 (9.38%) Data Modelling
7 12 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 9 (7.03%) Cloud Security
8 9 (7.03%) Containerisation
8 9 (7.03%) ITIL
9 8 (6.25%) Business Analysis
9 8 (6.25%) Decision-Making
10 7 (5.47%) Enterprise Architecture
10 7 (5.47%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 15 (11.72%) Python
2 8 (6.25%) SQL
3 7 (5.47%) PowerShell
4 5 (3.91%) C#
5 4 (3.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 4 (3.13%) R
6 3 (2.34%) Go
6 3 (2.34%) PL/SQL
7 2 (1.56%) Bicep
7 2 (1.56%) Java
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%) Scala
8 1 (0.78%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 11 (8.59%) Microsoft Certification
1 11 (8.59%) Security Cleared
2 10 (7.81%) SC Cleared
3 9 (7.03%) Degree
4 5 (3.91%) MCDST
4 5 (3.91%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 3 (2.34%) Azure Certification
5 3 (2.34%) BPSS Clearance
5 3 (2.34%) CISSP
6 2 (1.56%) AWS Certification
6 2 (1.56%) CISM
6 2 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.56%) ISTQB
6 2 (1.56%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 2 (1.56%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 1 (0.78%) ACCA
7 1 (0.78%) CIMA
7 1 (0.78%) IIBA
7 1 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.78%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (3.13%) GDPR
3 3 (2.34%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (2.34%) SLA
4 2 (1.56%) Data Quality
4 2 (1.56%) GxP
4 2 (1.56%) NCSC
4 2 (1.56%) NIST
5 1 (0.78%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.78%) ISO 22301
5 1 (0.78%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.78%) PMO
5 1 (0.78%) QA
System Software
1 19 (14.84%) Active Directory
2 7 (5.47%) Docker
3 1 (0.78%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 9 (7.03%) Kubernetes
1 9 (7.03%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (6.25%) Terraform
3 5 (3.91%) SCCM
4 4 (3.13%) Grafana
4 4 (3.13%) Prometheus
5 3 (2.34%) Ansible
5 3 (2.34%) Control-M
5 3 (2.34%) IBM Guardium
5 3 (2.34%) Nessus
6 2 (1.56%) HP ALM
6 2 (1.56%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 7 (5.47%) ServiceNow
2 5 (3.91%) iManage
2 5 (3.91%) Mitel
2 5 (3.91%) Tenable
3 4 (3.13%) Oracle
3 4 (3.13%) SAP
3 4 (3.13%) Splunk
4 3 (2.34%) Databricks
4 3 (2.34%) Workday
5 2 (1.56%) Barracuda Networks
5 2 (1.56%) Cisco
5 2 (1.56%) Google
5 2 (1.56%) HP
5 2 (1.56%) Informatica
5 2 (1.56%) Okta
5 2 (1.56%) Sage
6 1 (0.78%) Cognos
6 1 (0.78%) Fortinet
6 1 (0.78%) SolarWinds
6 1 (0.78%) Veeam