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 28 July 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
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 9 5
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 355 305 386
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 13.69% 14.90% 16.74%
As % of the Vendors category 33.24% 31.70% 38.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 261 195 301
10th Percentile £263 £278 £263
25th Percentile £425 £375 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £656 £638 £641
90th Percentile £750 £725 £725
London median daily rate £510 £501 £500
% change year-on-year +1.90% +0.10% -7.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 5 5
10th Percentile £21.05 £23.78 £14.05
25th Percentile £23.38 £26.45 £16.00
Median hourly rate £28.00 £28.50 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.75% +5.56% -48.57%
75th Percentile £31.88 £30.25 -
90th Percentile £33.75 £124.60 £66.30
London median hourly rate £26.25 £23.73 £23.15
% change year-on-year +10.64% +2.48% -25.53%

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 1,068 962 1,013
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 41.17% 47.00% 43.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 729 615 726
10th Percentile £338 £325 £338
25th Percentile £450 £424 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% +2.23% -2.18%
75th Percentile £656 £675 £650
90th Percentile £750 £762 £750
London median daily rate £525 £525 £530
% change year-on-year - -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 18 12
10th Percentile - £23.23 £16.25
25th Percentile £18.75 £26.91 £20.00
Median hourly rate £22.50 £32.83 £34.25
Median % change year-on-year -31.45% -4.16% +37.00%
75th Percentile £41.25 £62.00 £103.75
90th Percentile £63.75 £75.90 £137.50
London median hourly rate £35.50 £26.31 £27.50
% change year-on-year +34.93% -4.33% -13.95%

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 28 July 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 28 July 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 28 July 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 +1 327 £550 +10.00% 174
Southwark +2 9 £600 - 1
West End of London -7 5 £395 +58.00% 7
City of Westminster -15 5 £543 -1.36% 5
Kensington and Chelsea -2 1 £525 - 2
Lambeth - 1 £350 -
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 43 (12.11%) SharePoint
2 22 (6.20%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (1.97%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (1.41%) Apache
4 5 (1.41%) Confluence
5 4 (1.13%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.56%) IIS
7 1 (0.28%) nginx
Applications
1 26 (7.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (4.23%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (2.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.13%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (1.13%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
5 1 (0.28%) Adobe Premiere
5 1 (0.28%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.28%) Final Cut Pro
5 1 (0.28%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 13 (3.66%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (2.82%) Aladdin
3 3 (0.85%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.85%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.56%) iTrent
4 2 (0.56%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.56%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.56%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.28%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.28%) Exchequer
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle Retail
5 1 (0.28%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.28%) SAP FI-AR
5 1 (0.28%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.28%) SAP Oil and Gas
5 1 (0.28%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 142 (40.00%) Azure
2 78 (21.97%) Microsoft 365
3 66 (18.59%) Power Platform
4 48 (13.52%) Entra ID
5 30 (8.45%) Azure DevOps
6 28 (7.89%) AWS
7 27 (7.61%) Dynamics 365
8 23 (6.48%) Power Automate
9 22 (6.20%) Microsoft Copilot
10 20 (5.63%) Microsoft Purview
10 20 (5.63%) SaaS
11 19 (5.35%) PowerApps
12 17 (4.79%) GCP
12 17 (4.79%) GitHub
13 15 (4.23%) Azure Data Factory
14 14 (3.94%) OneDrive
15 12 (3.38%) Serverless
16 10 (2.82%) Azure AI
16 10 (2.82%) Azure Logic Apps
16 10 (2.82%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 24 (6.76%) DNS
2 20 (5.63%) DHCP
3 15 (4.23%) Firewall
4 13 (3.66%) TCP/IP
5 12 (3.38%) VPN
6 6 (1.69%) LAN
6 6 (1.69%) WAN
7 5 (1.41%) Unified Communications
8 4 (1.13%) Network Security
9 3 (0.85%) Internet
9 3 (0.85%) SMTP
9 3 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
9 3 (0.85%) VLAN
9 3 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
10 2 (0.56%) DKIM
10 2 (0.56%) DMARC
10 2 (0.56%) Intranet
10 2 (0.56%) Multicast
10 2 (0.56%) Reverse Proxy
10 2 (0.56%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (11.83%) Power BI
2 19 (5.35%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (4.79%) SQL Server
4 8 (2.25%) Data Lake
4 8 (2.25%) Metadata
5 7 (1.97%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (1.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 5 (1.41%) Semantic Layer
7 5 (1.41%) Tableau
8 4 (1.13%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (1.13%) Amazon Redshift
8 4 (1.13%) Big Data
8 4 (1.13%) NoSQL
8 4 (1.13%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (1.13%) Star Schema
9 3 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (0.85%) PostgreSQL
9 3 (0.85%) Power Query
9 3 (0.85%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 15 (4.23%) JIRA
2 8 (2.25%) Git
3 4 (1.13%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.85%) Artifactory
4 3 (0.85%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.85%) JUnit
4 3 (0.85%) Visual Studio
5 2 (0.56%) ERwin
5 2 (0.56%) Fiddler
5 2 (0.56%) GitLab
5 2 (0.56%) MSI
5 2 (0.56%) Selenium
5 2 (0.56%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.28%) Appium
6 1 (0.28%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.28%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.28%) ER Studio
6 1 (0.28%) Karma Test Runner
6 1 (0.28%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.28%) WebDriver
General
1 107 (30.14%) Social Skills
2 102 (28.73%) Finance
3 48 (13.52%) Analytical Skills
4 31 (8.73%) Banking
5 20 (5.63%) Public Sector
6 10 (2.82%) General Ledger
7 9 (2.54%) Law
7 9 (2.54%) Telecoms
8 8 (2.25%) Retail
9 6 (1.69%) Front Office
9 6 (1.69%) Investment Banking
9 6 (1.69%) Legal
10 5 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.41%) Marketing
11 4 (1.13%) Back Office
11 4 (1.13%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 4 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.85%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 54 (15.21%) Architect
2 43 (12.11%) Analyst
3 35 (9.86%) Developer
4 33 (9.30%) Consultant
5 30 (8.45%) Senior
6 25 (7.04%) Support Engineer
7 19 (5.35%) Data Architect
8 17 (4.79%) Lead
9 16 (4.51%) Solutions Architect
10 15 (4.23%) Data Engineer
11 13 (3.66%) IT Support
12 11 (3.10%) Business Analyst
12 11 (3.10%) Project Manager
13 10 (2.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 10 (2.82%) IT Engineer
13 10 (2.82%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
14 9 (2.54%) Cloud Engineer
14 9 (2.54%) Dynamics 365 Developer
14 9 (2.54%) IT Support Engineer
14 9 (2.54%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (3.38%) .NET
1 12 (3.38%) PySpark
1 12 (3.38%) REST
2 10 (2.82%) Middleware
3 7 (1.97%) JSON
4 6 (1.69%) HTML
4 6 (1.69%) SAML
4 6 (1.69%) XML
5 5 (1.41%) .NET Framework
5 5 (1.41%) CSS
5 5 (1.41%) Kafka
5 5 (1.41%) OAuth
5 5 (1.41%) SOAP
5 5 (1.41%) Spring
6 4 (1.13%) Microsoft Graph
6 4 (1.13%) OpenID
6 4 (1.13%) XSLT
7 3 (0.85%) ASP.NET
7 3 (0.85%) GraphQL
7 3 (0.85%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 21 (5.92%) Onboarding
2 19 (5.35%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.10%) Legacy Systems
4 10 (2.82%) AI Agents
4 10 (2.82%) Video Conferencing
5 9 (2.54%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.54%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.54%) PKI
5 9 (2.54%) Product Ownership
6 8 (2.25%) Distributed Systems
7 7 (1.97%) Data Structures
7 7 (1.97%) Security Posture
8 6 (1.69%) Clustering
8 6 (1.69%) Low-Code
8 6 (1.69%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 4 (1.13%) Data Centre
10 4 (1.13%) Equities
10 4 (1.13%) PMI
10 4 (1.13%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 58 (16.34%) Windows
2 14 (3.94%) Mac OS
3 13 (3.66%) Windows Server
4 8 (2.25%) Linux
4 8 (2.25%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.85%) Android
6 2 (0.56%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.56%) Unix
6 2 (0.56%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.28%) SUSE
7 1 (0.28%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
7 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2003
7 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (18.03%) DevOps
2 58 (16.34%) Analytics
3 57 (16.06%) Migration
3 57 (16.06%) Problem-Solving
4 56 (15.77%) Stakeholder Management
5 51 (14.37%) Agile
6 50 (14.08%) Business Intelligence
7 49 (13.80%) CI/CD
8 47 (13.24%) Data Modelling
9 45 (12.68%) AI
10 37 (10.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 34 (9.58%) Data Governance
12 29 (8.17%) Continuous Improvement
13 28 (7.89%) Data Engineering
13 28 (7.89%) Roadmaps
14 27 (7.61%) ITIL
15 26 (7.32%) Validation
16 24 (6.76%) Asset Management
16 24 (6.76%) CRM
16 24 (6.76%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 54 (15.21%) SQL
2 36 (10.14%) Python
3 28 (7.89%) PowerShell
4 16 (4.51%) Java
5 12 (3.38%) C#
6 8 (2.25%) JavaScript
7 7 (1.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (1.69%) Bicep
8 6 (1.69%) T-SQL
9 5 (1.41%) Bash
9 5 (1.41%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (1.13%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.56%) C++
11 2 (0.56%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.28%) COBOL
12 1 (0.28%) Google Apps Script
12 1 (0.28%) R
12 1 (0.28%) RPG
12 1 (0.28%) X++
Qualifications
1 64 (18.03%) Security Cleared
2 47 (13.24%) SC Cleared
3 28 (7.89%) Degree
4 21 (5.92%) DV Cleared
5 13 (3.66%) Microsoft Certification
6 8 (2.25%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.97%) CISSP
8 6 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (1.69%) CISM
8 6 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (1.69%) PMI Certification
9 5 (1.41%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (1.41%) DBS Check
10 3 (0.85%) CCNP
10 3 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (0.56%) A+ Certification
11 2 (0.56%) CCNA
11 2 (0.56%) CompTIA CySA+
11 2 (0.56%) Network+ Certification
11 2 (0.56%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (8.17%) Data Quality
2 22 (6.20%) QA
3 16 (4.51%) GDPR
4 11 (3.10%) NIST
5 9 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 9 (2.54%) SLA
6 7 (1.97%) Cyber Essentials
6 7 (1.97%) NCSC
7 6 (1.69%) Accessibility
7 6 (1.69%) PMO
8 5 (1.41%) GRC
9 4 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.56%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 2 (0.56%) P3O
10 2 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.28%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.28%) UCITS
System Software
1 56 (15.77%) Active Directory
2 11 (3.10%) Docker
3 6 (1.69%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (1.13%) BitLocker
4 4 (1.13%) Hyper-V
4 4 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.85%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (0.85%) Terminal Services
5 3 (0.85%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.85%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.56%) IAG
7 1 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.28%) zsh
Systems Management
1 33 (9.30%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (4.79%) Terraform
3 13 (3.66%) Kubernetes
4 11 (3.10%) SCCM
5 9 (2.54%) Single Sign-On
6 7 (1.97%) Ansible
7 5 (1.41%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (1.13%) Puppet
9 3 (0.85%) Grafana
9 3 (0.85%) Nagios
9 3 (0.85%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.85%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.85%) vMotion
10 1 (0.28%) Autotask
10 1 (0.28%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.28%) ITRS Geneos
10 1 (0.28%) PingFederate
10 1 (0.28%) Salt
10 1 (0.28%) SELinux
10 1 (0.28%) WSUS
Vendors
1 27 (7.61%) ServiceNow
2 20 (5.63%) Databricks
3 18 (5.07%) Google
4 17 (4.79%) SAP
5 15 (4.23%) Oracle
6 11 (3.10%) Citrix
6 11 (3.10%) Salesforce
7 9 (2.54%) Cisco
8 8 (2.25%) Apple
9 7 (1.97%) OpenAI
9 7 (1.97%) VMware
9 7 (1.97%) Workday
10 6 (1.69%) Foundry
11 5 (1.41%) Bloomberg
11 5 (1.41%) HP
11 5 (1.41%) Informatica
12 4 (1.13%) Okta
12 4 (1.13%) Remedy
12 4 (1.13%) Splunk
12 4 (1.13%) Zscaler