Microsoft Contract Job Trends in Central London

Microsoft
London > Central London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Central London 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 15 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
15 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 5 6
Rank change year-on-year -2 +1 +5
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 313 322 375
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 14.00% 15.70% 14.58%
As % of the Vendors category 30.99% 34.92% 34.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 239 210 293
10th Percentile £318 £238 £263
25th Percentile £413 £395 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £502 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.58% -8.73% +4.76%
75th Percentile £601 £625 £675
90th Percentile £738 £710 £760
London median daily rate £510 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.00% - -6.54%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 2
10th Percentile £19.66 £53.95 -
25th Percentile £21.98 £91.27 £12.75
Median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £13.50
Median % change year-on-year -77.26% +729.63% -48.08%
75th Percentile - £130.88 £14.25
90th Percentile £33.61 £164.85 -
London median hourly rate £22.34 £26.32 £19.50
% change year-on-year -15.13% +34.97% -18.75%

All Vendors
Central London

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 Central London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 1,010 922 1,100
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 45.19% 44.95% 42.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 672 609 792
10th Percentile £353 £313 £282
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.77% +2.23% -2.18%
75th Percentile £653 £664 £675
90th Percentile £775 £738 £775
London median daily rate £525 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -2.78% -1.82% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 7 9
10th Percentile - £29.07 £12.65
25th Percentile £18.75 £30.04 £12.75
Median hourly rate £25.47 £42.50 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.07% +123.68% -9.52%
75th Percentile £27.00 £112.00 £23.75
90th Percentile £44.16 £142.20 £28.75
London median hourly rate £26.50 £31.42 £25.00
% change year-on-year -15.67% +25.69% -2.76%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in Central London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in Central London

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in Central London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in Central London over the 6 months to 15 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in Central London

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in Central London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in Central London over the 6 months to 15 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in Central London

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in Central London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the Central London region over the 6 months to 15 March 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
City of London -1 288 £525 +5.00% 212
West End of London +9 7 £500 +11.11% 3
City of Westminster +3 5 £560 +31.76% 3
Camden +4 4 £400 -11.11% 6
Kensington and Chelsea +3 4 £588 - 1
Southwark -1 1 £188 -54.78% 2
Lambeth - 1 £350 - 3
Microsoft
London

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Central London 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 36 (11.50%) SharePoint
2 14 (4.47%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (3.19%) Confluence
4 4 (1.28%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.64%) Apache
6 1 (0.32%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.32%) CMS
6 1 (0.32%) Ethereum
6 1 (0.32%) Hyperledger
6 1 (0.32%) SAS
Applications
1 36 (11.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (8.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 25 (7.99%) MS Visio
4 22 (7.03%) Microsoft Office
5 7 (2.24%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.64%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.32%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.32%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.32%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.32%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (3.19%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (2.24%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.64%) Exchequer
3 2 (0.64%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.64%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.32%) BASE24
4 1 (0.32%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.32%) Veritas eDiscovery
4 1 (0.32%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 130 (41.53%) Azure
2 82 (26.20%) Microsoft 365
3 60 (19.17%) Power Platform
4 39 (12.46%) Entra ID
5 29 (9.27%) AWS
6 26 (8.31%) Power Automate
7 24 (7.67%) Dynamics 365
8 23 (7.35%) PowerApps
9 21 (6.71%) Microsoft Purview
10 19 (6.07%) Azure DevOps
11 15 (4.79%) GitHub
12 14 (4.47%) Microsoft Copilot
13 13 (4.15%) SaaS
14 11 (3.51%) GCP
15 10 (3.19%) Azure Sentinel
15 10 (3.19%) Snowflake
16 9 (2.88%) Amazon S3
16 9 (2.88%) Azure Data Factory
16 9 (2.88%) Copilot Studio
16 9 (2.88%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 14 (4.47%) Firewall
2 12 (3.83%) VPN
3 11 (3.51%) DNS
4 10 (3.19%) Network Security
5 7 (2.24%) WAN
6 6 (1.92%) LAN
7 5 (1.60%) DHCP
8 3 (0.96%) Softphone
8 3 (0.96%) Structured Cabling
8 3 (0.96%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (0.64%) HTTP
9 2 (0.64%) Intranet
9 2 (0.64%) Intrusion Detection
9 2 (0.64%) SD-WAN
9 2 (0.64%) Unified Communications
10 1 (0.32%) Extranet
10 1 (0.32%) IPv4
10 1 (0.32%) IPv6
10 1 (0.32%) iSCSI
10 1 (0.32%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (10.86%) Power BI
2 16 (5.11%) SQL Server
3 15 (4.79%) Metadata
4 10 (3.19%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (2.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 8 (2.56%) Tableau
6 7 (2.24%) Data Lake
6 7 (2.24%) PostgreSQL
7 6 (1.92%) Relational Database
8 4 (1.28%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (1.28%) Snowflake Schema
9 3 (0.96%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.96%) MySQL
9 3 (0.96%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.64%) Metadata Repository
10 2 (0.64%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.64%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.64%) SQLPlus
11 1 (0.32%) PowerCenter
11 1 (0.32%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 12 (3.83%) JIRA
2 8 (2.56%) Git
3 5 (1.60%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.28%) GitLab
5 2 (0.64%) ERwin
5 2 (0.64%) Postman
5 2 (0.64%) Toad
6 1 (0.32%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.32%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.32%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.32%) gulp
6 1 (0.32%) Hardhat
6 1 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.32%) PowerBuilder
6 1 (0.32%) Selenium
6 1 (0.32%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.32%) SpecFlow
6 1 (0.32%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.32%) webpack
6 1 (0.32%) Zephyr
General
1 107 (34.19%) Social Skills
2 85 (27.16%) Finance
3 50 (15.97%) Analytical Skills
4 29 (9.27%) Banking
5 25 (7.99%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.83%) Investment Banking
7 11 (3.51%) Legal
8 10 (3.19%) Organisational Skills
9 8 (2.56%) Front Office
9 8 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (2.56%) Presentation Skills
10 6 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (1.28%) Financial Institution
12 4 (1.28%) Marketing
12 4 (1.28%) Military
12 4 (1.28%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.96%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.96%) Retail
14 2 (0.64%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 47 (15.02%) Analyst
2 39 (12.46%) Senior
3 36 (11.50%) Architect
3 36 (11.50%) Developer
4 24 (7.67%) Business Analyst
5 19 (6.07%) Consultant
6 17 (5.43%) Data Engineer
7 15 (4.79%) Lead
8 13 (4.15%) Project Manager
9 12 (3.83%) IT Engineer
9 12 (3.83%) Support Engineer
10 11 (3.51%) IT Support
11 10 (3.19%) IT Support Engineer
11 10 (3.19%) Microsoft Engineer
12 9 (2.88%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 9 (2.88%) Azure Engineer
12 9 (2.88%) Cloud Engineer
13 8 (2.56%) Azure Architect
13 8 (2.56%) Technical Architect
14 7 (2.24%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (2.88%) REST
2 7 (2.24%) .NET
2 7 (2.24%) Middleware
3 6 (1.92%) HTML
3 6 (1.92%) Microsoft Graph
3 6 (1.92%) React
4 5 (1.60%) CSS
4 5 (1.60%) JSON
4 5 (1.60%) OAuth
5 4 (1.28%) Kafka
5 4 (1.28%) Node.js
5 4 (1.28%) PySpark
5 4 (1.28%) RESTful
5 4 (1.28%) SAML
5 4 (1.28%) XML
6 3 (0.96%) LangChain
6 3 (0.96%) NumPy
6 3 (0.96%) Pandas
6 3 (0.96%) scikit-learn
6 3 (0.96%) SPFx
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.39%) Cloud Native
2 17 (5.43%) Onboarding
3 12 (3.83%) Security Posture
4 10 (3.19%) Management Information System
5 8 (2.56%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (2.56%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.24%) AI Agents
7 6 (1.92%) Data Structures
8 5 (1.60%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 5 (1.60%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (1.28%) BYOD
9 4 (1.28%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (1.28%) Equities
9 4 (1.28%) Fixed Income
9 4 (1.28%) Virtual Team
10 3 (0.96%) Cloud Security Posture
10 3 (0.96%) Data Centre
10 3 (0.96%) Derivative
10 3 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.96%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 29 (9.27%) Windows
2 11 (3.51%) Windows 10
3 5 (1.60%) Linux
3 5 (1.60%) Mac OS
3 5 (1.60%) Unix
4 3 (0.96%) Android
4 3 (0.96%) Apple iOS
4 3 (0.96%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.32%) Mac OS X
5 1 (0.32%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (16.93%) Problem-Solving
2 49 (15.65%) Stakeholder Management
3 42 (13.42%) Business Intelligence
4 41 (13.10%) Migration
5 40 (12.78%) Agile
5 40 (12.78%) CI/CD
6 38 (12.14%) DevOps
7 37 (11.82%) AI
7 37 (11.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 36 (11.50%) Analytics
9 33 (10.54%) Data Governance
10 30 (9.58%) Data Modelling
11 25 (7.99%) Roadmaps
12 24 (7.67%) Change Management
13 21 (6.71%) Continuous Improvement
13 21 (6.71%) Project Delivery
14 20 (6.39%) Cloud Security
14 20 (6.39%) Cybersecurity
14 20 (6.39%) ETL
15 19 (6.07%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 54 (17.25%) SQL
2 37 (11.82%) Python
3 28 (8.95%) PowerShell
4 12 (3.83%) Java
5 11 (3.51%) C#
6 8 (2.56%) JavaScript
7 7 (2.24%) Kusto Query Language
8 3 (0.96%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 3 (0.96%) PL/SQL
8 3 (0.96%) Shell Script
8 3 (0.96%) T-SQL
9 2 (0.64%) Bash
9 2 (0.64%) C
9 2 (0.64%) C++
9 2 (0.64%) Perl
9 2 (0.64%) PHP
10 1 (0.32%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.32%) Korn
10 1 (0.32%) R
10 1 (0.32%) XPath
Qualifications
1 47 (15.02%) Security Cleared
2 36 (11.50%) SC Cleared
3 28 (8.95%) Degree
4 16 (5.11%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (2.88%) Azure Certification
6 8 (2.56%) CISSP
7 7 (2.24%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (1.92%) CISM
9 5 (1.60%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.60%) DV Cleared
9 5 (1.60%) PMI Certification
10 4 (1.28%) CompTIA CySA+
10 4 (1.28%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (1.28%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (1.28%) MCSE
10 4 (1.28%) PMP
11 3 (0.96%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 3 (0.96%) TOGAF Certification
12 2 (0.64%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 2 (0.64%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (7.03%) GDPR
2 21 (6.71%) Data Quality
3 17 (5.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (3.51%) Cyber Essentials
5 10 (3.19%) PMO
6 9 (2.88%) QA
7 8 (2.56%) NIST
8 4 (1.28%) Accessibility
8 4 (1.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.96%) IFRS
9 3 (0.96%) ISO 20022
9 3 (0.96%) NCSC
9 3 (0.96%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.96%) SLA
10 2 (0.64%) Basel III
10 2 (0.64%) GRC
10 2 (0.64%) ISO 8583
10 2 (0.64%) MiFID
11 1 (0.32%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.32%) WCAG
System Software
1 45 (14.38%) Active Directory
2 13 (4.15%) Docker
3 7 (2.24%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (1.60%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.32%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 30 (9.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (4.47%) Terraform
3 9 (2.88%) Kubernetes
4 6 (1.92%) SCCM
5 4 (1.28%) Ansible
6 3 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (0.64%) Kibana
8 1 (0.32%) AirWatch
8 1 (0.32%) Autotask
8 1 (0.32%) Grafana
8 1 (0.32%) ITRS Geneos
8 1 (0.32%) logstash
8 1 (0.32%) Opsgenie
8 1 (0.32%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.32%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.32%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
8 1 (0.32%) WSUS
Vendors
1 19 (6.07%) Databricks
2 13 (4.15%) Salesforce
2 13 (4.15%) ServiceNow
3 8 (2.56%) Google
3 8 (2.56%) Oracle
4 7 (2.24%) Palo Alto
4 7 (2.24%) SAP
5 6 (1.92%) CyberArk
5 6 (1.92%) Foundry
5 6 (1.92%) OpenAI
5 6 (1.92%) Zscaler
6 5 (1.60%) Cisco
6 5 (1.60%) Citrix
6 5 (1.60%) Informatica
7 4 (1.28%) Apple
7 4 (1.28%) Commvault
7 4 (1.28%) Fortinet
7 4 (1.28%) LogRhythm
7 4 (1.28%) Splunk
8 3 (0.96%) Arista