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 21 May 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
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 11 5
Rank change year-on-year +2 -6 +5
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 312 277 391
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 12.59% 14.23% 16.18%
As % of the Vendors category 30.74% 31.48% 37.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 177 306
10th Percentile £306 £263 £255
25th Percentile £425 £375 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year +6.00% -6.98% +0.47%
75th Percentile £650 £625 £662
90th Percentile £768 £711 £756
London median daily rate £515 £510 £500
% change year-on-year +0.98% +2.00% -8.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 4 4
10th Percentile - £23.34 -
25th Percentile £20.82 £25.34 £12.75
Median hourly rate £22.27 £27.76 £15.25
Median % change year-on-year -19.79% +82.03% -70.95%
75th Percentile £23.71 £68.68 £20.25
90th Percentile - £139.97 £24.30
London median hourly rate £27.36 £23.80 £18.80
% change year-on-year +14.94% +26.63% -29.74%

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 1,015 880 1,046
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 40.96% 45.20% 43.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 660 552 775
10th Percentile £356 £306 £293
25th Percentile £439 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.82% - -
75th Percentile £675 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £751 £787
London median daily rate £525 £545 £541
% change year-on-year -3.67% +0.69% -4.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 12 6
10th Percentile - £24.02 £12.75
25th Percentile £18.75 £27.16 £13.56
Median hourly rate £19.50 £30.04 £19.75
Median % change year-on-year -35.08% +52.08% -5.95%
75th Percentile £25.77 £48.75 £23.75
90th Percentile £38.40 £96.38 £25.38
London median hourly rate £35.50 £29.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +22.41% +28.89% -13.46%

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 21 May 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
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 21 May 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 +5 296 £525 +5.00% 153
West End of London -3 7 £500 +11.11% 8
Kensington and Chelsea -1 4 £588 - 1
City of Westminster -4 4 £560 -11.11% 9
Southwark -2 1 £188 -21.33% 1
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 31 (9.94%) SharePoint
2 13 (4.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.24%) Confluence
4 5 (1.60%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.32%) Apache
5 1 (0.32%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.32%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (8.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (7.69%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (4.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (4.17%) MS Visio
5 4 (1.28%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.32%) Adobe After Effects
6 1 (0.32%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.32%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.32%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (2.88%) Aladdin
1 9 (2.88%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.64%) Exchequer
2 2 (0.64%) NetSuite
2 2 (0.64%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.32%) BASE24
3 1 (0.32%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.32%) iTrent
3 1 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.32%) SAP FI-AR
3 1 (0.32%) SAP MM
3 1 (0.32%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 1 (0.32%) Veritas eDiscovery
3 1 (0.32%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 121 (38.78%) Azure
2 67 (21.47%) Microsoft 365
3 65 (20.83%) Power Platform
4 29 (9.29%) Dynamics 365
5 26 (8.33%) Entra ID
6 23 (7.37%) Power Automate
7 22 (7.05%) Azure DevOps
8 20 (6.41%) AWS
8 20 (6.41%) PowerApps
9 19 (6.09%) Microsoft Purview
10 15 (4.81%) Microsoft Copilot
11 13 (4.17%) GitHub
11 13 (4.17%) SaaS
12 12 (3.85%) GCP
13 11 (3.53%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (2.88%) Azure AI
15 8 (2.56%) Snowflake
16 7 (2.24%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 7 (2.24%) Copilot Studio
16 7 (2.24%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 12 (3.85%) DNS
2 11 (3.53%) Firewall
3 7 (2.24%) Network Security
3 7 (2.24%) VPN
4 5 (1.60%) DHCP
5 3 (0.96%) LAN
5 3 (0.96%) TCP/IP
5 3 (0.96%) WAN
6 2 (0.64%) Intranet
6 2 (0.64%) Multicast
6 2 (0.64%) Unified Communications
6 2 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.32%) IPsec
7 1 (0.32%) IPv4
7 1 (0.32%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.32%) Reverse Proxy
7 1 (0.32%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.32%) Structured Cabling
7 1 (0.32%) Wireless
7 1 (0.32%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (12.18%) Power BI
2 15 (4.81%) SQL Server
3 13 (4.17%) Data Warehouse
3 13 (4.17%) Metadata
4 8 (2.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 8 (2.56%) Tableau
5 6 (1.92%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (1.60%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (1.60%) Relational Database
6 5 (1.60%) Snowflake Schema
7 4 (1.28%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.96%) MySQL
8 3 (0.96%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.64%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.64%) Metadata Repository
9 2 (0.64%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.64%) Power Query
9 2 (0.64%) Star Schema
10 1 (0.32%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.32%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 13 (4.17%) JIRA
2 6 (1.92%) Git
3 3 (0.96%) GitLab
3 3 (0.96%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.64%) ERwin
4 2 (0.64%) Postman
4 2 (0.64%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.32%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.32%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.32%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.32%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.32%) MSI
5 1 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
5 1 (0.32%) PowerBuilder
5 1 (0.32%) Selenium
5 1 (0.32%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.32%) SpecFlow
5 1 (0.32%) Terragrunt
5 1 (0.32%) Toad
5 1 (0.32%) Zephyr
General
1 92 (29.49%) Social Skills
2 88 (28.21%) Finance
3 47 (15.06%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (8.01%) Banking
5 22 (7.05%) Public Sector
6 10 (3.21%) Investment Banking
6 10 (3.21%) Legal
7 7 (2.24%) Front Office
7 7 (2.24%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (1.92%) Retail
8 6 (1.92%) Telecoms
9 5 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.60%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.28%) General Ledger
10 4 (1.28%) Marketing
10 4 (1.28%) Military
10 4 (1.28%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.96%) Back Office
11 3 (0.96%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 47 (15.06%) Architect
2 45 (14.42%) Analyst
3 38 (12.18%) Senior
4 28 (8.97%) Developer
5 25 (8.01%) Consultant
6 21 (6.73%) Business Analyst
7 14 (4.49%) Data Architect
7 14 (4.49%) Data Engineer
8 12 (3.85%) Project Manager
8 12 (3.85%) Support Engineer
9 11 (3.53%) Azure Engineer
9 11 (3.53%) Cloud Engineer
9 11 (3.53%) Lead
9 11 (3.53%) Solutions Architect
10 9 (2.88%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 9 (2.88%) Microsoft Engineer
11 8 (2.56%) IT Support
11 8 (2.56%) Technical Architect
12 7 (2.24%) Platform Engineer
12 7 (2.24%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (2.24%) JSON
1 7 (2.24%) Middleware
2 6 (1.92%) PySpark
3 5 (1.60%) .NET
3 5 (1.60%) Kafka
3 5 (1.60%) REST
4 4 (1.28%) CSS
4 4 (1.28%) HTML
4 4 (1.28%) RESTful
4 4 (1.28%) XML
5 3 (0.96%) Microsoft Graph
5 3 (0.96%) Playwright
6 2 (0.64%) FIX Protocol
6 2 (0.64%) GraphQL
6 2 (0.64%) HTML5 Canvas
6 2 (0.64%) OAuth
6 2 (0.64%) React
6 2 (0.64%) Ultra Messaging
6 2 (0.64%) WPF
6 2 (0.64%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 14 (4.49%) Onboarding
2 11 (3.53%) Cloud Native
3 10 (3.21%) Security Posture
4 9 (2.88%) AI Agents
5 7 (2.24%) Product Ownership
6 6 (1.92%) Equities
6 6 (1.92%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 5 (1.60%) Data Structures
7 5 (1.60%) Distributed Systems
7 5 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (1.60%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (1.60%) Management Information System
8 4 (1.28%) Cloud Security Posture
8 4 (1.28%) Fixed Income
8 4 (1.28%) PMI
8 4 (1.28%) Reference Data
8 4 (1.28%) Virtual Team
9 3 (0.96%) Clustering
9 3 (0.96%) Low-Code
9 3 (0.96%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 32 (10.26%) Windows
2 7 (2.24%) Mac OS
3 6 (1.92%) Windows 10
4 4 (1.28%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.64%) Linux
6 1 (0.32%) Unix
6 1 (0.32%) VMS
6 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (15.71%) Analytics
2 46 (14.74%) Migration
3 44 (14.10%) Business Intelligence
3 44 (14.10%) Problem-Solving
3 44 (14.10%) Stakeholder Management
4 42 (13.46%) AI
4 42 (13.46%) CI/CD
5 40 (12.82%) Agile
5 40 (12.82%) DevOps
6 37 (11.86%) Data Modelling
7 33 (10.58%) Data Governance
7 33 (10.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 27 (8.65%) Roadmaps
9 22 (7.05%) Data Engineering
9 22 (7.05%) Decision-Making
9 22 (7.05%) Validation
10 21 (6.73%) Continuous Improvement
11 20 (6.41%) User Acceptance Testing
12 19 (6.09%) Data Migration
12 19 (6.09%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 51 (16.35%) SQL
2 33 (10.58%) Python
3 25 (8.01%) PowerShell
4 11 (3.53%) Java
5 9 (2.88%) C#
6 7 (2.24%) Kusto Query Language
7 4 (1.28%) Bash
7 4 (1.28%) Bicep
7 4 (1.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 4 (1.28%) T-SQL
8 3 (0.96%) JavaScript
9 2 (0.64%) C
9 2 (0.64%) PL/SQL
9 2 (0.64%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.32%) C++
10 1 (0.32%) COBOL
10 1 (0.32%) Google Apps Script
10 1 (0.32%) Perl
10 1 (0.32%) PHP
10 1 (0.32%) VB
Qualifications
1 45 (14.42%) Security Cleared
2 32 (10.26%) SC Cleared
3 21 (6.73%) Degree
4 11 (3.53%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (2.56%) Azure Certification
5 8 (2.56%) DV Cleared
6 6 (1.92%) CISSP
6 6 (1.92%) PMI Certification
7 5 (1.60%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (1.60%) CISM
8 4 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.96%) CompTIA Security+
9 3 (0.96%) DBS Check
9 3 (0.96%) PMP
10 2 (0.64%) CCNP
10 2 (0.64%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.64%) CompTIA CySA+
10 2 (0.64%) GIAC
10 2 (0.64%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (0.64%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (7.69%) Data Quality
2 18 (5.77%) GDPR
3 12 (3.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (3.53%) QA
5 8 (2.56%) Cyber Essentials
5 8 (2.56%) NIST
5 8 (2.56%) PMO
6 4 (1.28%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.28%) SLA
7 3 (0.96%) GRC
7 3 (0.96%) IFRS
7 3 (0.96%) MiFID
7 3 (0.96%) NCSC
7 3 (0.96%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.64%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.32%) Def Stans
9 1 (0.32%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.32%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 29 (9.29%) Active Directory
2 12 (3.85%) Docker
3 9 (2.88%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.32%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 22 (7.05%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (3.85%) Terraform
3 11 (3.53%) Kubernetes
4 7 (2.24%) SCCM
5 3 (0.96%) Ansible
6 2 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.64%) Grafana
6 2 (0.64%) Jamf Pro
6 2 (0.64%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.32%) Autotask
7 1 (0.32%) Kibana
7 1 (0.32%) Opsgenie
7 1 (0.32%) Puppet
7 1 (0.32%) Salt
7 1 (0.32%) WSUS
Vendors
1 25 (8.01%) Databricks
2 12 (3.85%) Salesforce
3 11 (3.53%) Oracle
3 11 (3.53%) SAP
4 9 (2.88%) Google
4 9 (2.88%) ServiceNow
5 7 (2.24%) Citrix
5 7 (2.24%) Foundry
5 7 (2.24%) Workday
6 6 (1.92%) Informatica
7 5 (1.60%) Charles River
7 5 (1.60%) Palo Alto
8 4 (1.28%) Cisco
8 4 (1.28%) iManage
8 4 (1.28%) OpenAI
9 3 (0.96%) Anaplan
9 3 (0.96%) Bloomberg
9 3 (0.96%) MuleSoft
9 3 (0.96%) Splunk
9 3 (0.96%) Trend Micro