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 31 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
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 9 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 363 308 382
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 13.96% 15.02% 16.62%
As % of the Vendors category 33.43% 31.98% 38.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 270 196 299
10th Percentile £230 £278 £277
25th Percentile £425 £375 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £533
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -6.10% -1.84%
75th Percentile £652 £630 £643
90th Percentile £750 £722 £728
London median daily rate £510 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.00% - -7.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 5 4
10th Percentile £21.05 £23.78 £19.30
25th Percentile £23.38 £26.45 £24.25
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 £43.38
90th Percentile £33.75 £124.60 £72.85
London median hourly rate £25.50 £23.73 £23.80
% change year-on-year +7.48% -0.32% -23.44%

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 1,086 963 1,003
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 41.77% 46.95% 43.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 743 620 720
10th Percentile £338 £325 £349
25th Percentile £450 £424 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £540
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% +1.85% -1.82%
75th Percentile £652 £675 £653
90th Percentile £750 £763 £750
London median daily rate £525 £525 £530
% change year-on-year - -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 18 11
10th Percentile - £23.23 £18.50
25th Percentile £18.75 £26.91 £23.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £32.83 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year -31.45% -20.90% +66.00%
75th Percentile £41.25 £62.00 £115.00
90th Percentile £63.75 £75.90 £137.50
London median hourly rate £35.50 £26.30 £27.50
% change year-on-year +34.98% -4.36% -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 31 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 31 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 31 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 +2 331 £550 +10.00% 179
Southwark +2 9 £600 - 1
West End of London -7 7 £475 +90.00% 5
City of Westminster -14 5 £543 -1.36% 8
Kensington and Chelsea 0 3 £150 - 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 47 (12.95%) SharePoint
2 25 (6.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (1.93%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.65%) Apache
5 5 (1.38%) Apache Spark
5 5 (1.38%) Confluence
6 2 (0.55%) IIS
7 1 (0.28%) Exchange Server 2013
7 1 (0.28%) nginx
Applications
1 28 (7.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (4.68%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (2.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.83%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.28%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.28%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.28%) Final Cut Pro
6 1 (0.28%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 14 (3.86%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (2.48%) Aladdin
3 3 (0.83%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.55%) iTrent
4 2 (0.55%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.55%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.55%) 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
1 150 (41.32%) Azure
2 77 (21.21%) Microsoft 365
3 70 (19.28%) Power Platform
4 49 (13.50%) Entra ID
5 36 (9.92%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (8.26%) AWS
7 28 (7.71%) Dynamics 365
8 27 (7.44%) Power Automate
9 24 (6.61%) PowerApps
10 22 (6.06%) Microsoft Copilot
11 20 (5.51%) Azure Data Factory
12 19 (5.23%) GCP
12 19 (5.23%) SaaS
13 18 (4.96%) Microsoft Purview
14 17 (4.68%) GitHub
15 14 (3.86%) OneDrive
16 13 (3.58%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 13 (3.58%) Serverless
17 10 (2.75%) Azure Logic Apps
17 10 (2.75%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 27 (7.44%) DNS
2 20 (5.51%) DHCP
3 17 (4.68%) Firewall
4 13 (3.58%) TCP/IP
5 12 (3.31%) VPN
6 6 (1.65%) LAN
6 6 (1.65%) WAN
7 5 (1.38%) Unified Communications
8 4 (1.10%) Network Security
9 3 (0.83%) Internet
9 3 (0.83%) SMTP
9 3 (0.83%) Structured Cabling
9 3 (0.83%) VLAN
9 3 (0.83%) Wi-Fi
10 2 (0.55%) DKIM
10 2 (0.55%) DMARC
10 2 (0.55%) Intranet
10 2 (0.55%) Multicast
10 2 (0.55%) Reverse Proxy
10 2 (0.55%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (12.40%) Power BI
2 23 (6.34%) Data Warehouse
3 20 (5.51%) SQL Server
4 11 (3.03%) Azure SQL Database
5 8 (2.20%) Data Lake
5 8 (2.20%) Star Schema
6 7 (1.93%) Power Query
6 7 (1.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 6 (1.65%) Metadata
8 5 (1.38%) Semantic Layer
8 5 (1.38%) Tableau
9 4 (1.10%) Amazon RDS
9 4 (1.10%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (1.10%) Big Data
9 4 (1.10%) NoSQL
9 4 (1.10%) Snowflake Schema
10 3 (0.83%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.83%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.83%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 15 (4.13%) JIRA
2 9 (2.48%) Git
3 6 (1.65%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.10%) GitLab
4 4 (1.10%) Visual Studio
5 3 (0.83%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.83%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.83%) JUnit
6 2 (0.55%) Fiddler
6 2 (0.55%) MSI
6 2 (0.55%) Selenium
6 2 (0.55%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.28%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.28%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.28%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.28%) ERwin
7 1 (0.28%) Jasmine
7 1 (0.28%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.28%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.28%) WebDriver
General
1 112 (30.85%) Social Skills
2 107 (29.48%) Finance
3 49 (13.50%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (8.82%) Banking
5 19 (5.23%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.31%) Retail
7 10 (2.75%) General Ledger
8 9 (2.48%) Law
8 9 (2.48%) Telecoms
9 7 (1.93%) Investment Banking
10 6 (1.65%) Front Office
10 6 (1.65%) Legal
10 6 (1.65%) Marketing
11 5 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (1.10%) Back Office
12 4 (1.10%) Financial Institution
12 4 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.10%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.83%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 54 (14.88%) Architect
2 43 (11.85%) Analyst
3 40 (11.02%) Developer
4 32 (8.82%) Consultant
5 31 (8.54%) Senior
6 26 (7.16%) Support Engineer
7 18 (4.96%) Data Architect
8 17 (4.68%) Lead
8 17 (4.68%) Solutions Architect
9 15 (4.13%) Data Engineer
10 13 (3.58%) IT Support
11 11 (3.03%) Business Analyst
11 11 (3.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 11 (3.03%) Project Manager
12 10 (2.75%) Dynamics 365 Developer
12 10 (2.75%) IT Engineer
12 10 (2.75%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
13 9 (2.48%) Cloud Engineer
13 9 (2.48%) IT Support Engineer
13 9 (2.48%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (3.58%) .NET
1 13 (3.58%) PySpark
1 13 (3.58%) REST
2 11 (3.03%) Middleware
3 7 (1.93%) JSON
3 7 (1.93%) SAML
4 6 (1.65%) .NET Framework
4 6 (1.65%) HTML
4 6 (1.65%) OAuth
4 6 (1.65%) XML
5 5 (1.38%) CSS
5 5 (1.38%) Kafka
5 5 (1.38%) OpenID
5 5 (1.38%) SOAP
5 5 (1.38%) Spring
6 4 (1.10%) HTML5 Canvas
6 4 (1.10%) XSLT
7 3 (0.83%) ASP.NET
7 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Graph
7 3 (0.83%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.34%) Onboarding
2 18 (4.96%) Cloud Native
3 12 (3.31%) AI Agents
4 11 (3.03%) Legacy Systems
5 10 (2.75%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.75%) Video Conferencing
6 9 (2.48%) Enterprise Software
6 9 (2.48%) PKI
6 9 (2.48%) Product Ownership
7 8 (2.20%) Data Structures
7 8 (2.20%) Distributed Systems
8 7 (1.93%) Security Posture
9 6 (1.65%) Clustering
9 6 (1.65%) Low-Code
9 6 (1.65%) Virtual Team
10 5 (1.38%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 4 (1.10%) Data Centre
11 4 (1.10%) Equities
11 4 (1.10%) PMI
12 3 (0.83%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 63 (17.36%) Windows
2 18 (4.96%) Windows Server
3 14 (3.86%) Mac OS
4 10 (2.75%) Linux
4 10 (2.75%) Windows 10
5 3 (0.83%) Android
5 3 (0.83%) Windows 7
5 3 (0.83%) Windows Server 2012
6 2 (0.55%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.55%) Unix
6 2 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.28%) OpenVMS
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%) VMS
7 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2003
7 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (19.83%) DevOps
2 60 (16.53%) Analytics
3 59 (16.25%) Problem-Solving
3 59 (16.25%) Stakeholder Management
4 56 (15.43%) CI/CD
4 56 (15.43%) Migration
5 54 (14.88%) Business Intelligence
6 52 (14.33%) Agile
7 49 (13.50%) Data Modelling
8 46 (12.67%) AI
9 43 (11.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 36 (9.92%) Data Governance
11 29 (7.99%) Continuous Improvement
11 29 (7.99%) ITIL
11 29 (7.99%) Roadmaps
12 26 (7.16%) Data Engineering
12 26 (7.16%) Decision-Making
12 26 (7.16%) Project Delivery
12 26 (7.16%) Validation
13 25 (6.89%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 60 (16.53%) SQL
2 39 (10.74%) Python
3 30 (8.26%) PowerShell
4 16 (4.41%) Java
5 13 (3.58%) C#
6 10 (2.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 9 (2.48%) JavaScript
8 8 (2.20%) T-SQL
9 7 (1.93%) Bash
10 6 (1.65%) Bicep
11 5 (1.38%) Kusto Query Language
11 5 (1.38%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.55%) C++
12 2 (0.55%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.28%) COBOL
13 1 (0.28%) Google Apps Script
13 1 (0.28%) R
13 1 (0.28%) RPG
13 1 (0.28%) X++
Qualifications
1 66 (18.18%) Security Cleared
2 47 (12.95%) SC Cleared
3 27 (7.44%) Degree
4 20 (5.51%) DV Cleared
5 14 (3.86%) Microsoft Certification
6 8 (2.20%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.93%) CISSP
8 6 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (1.65%) CISM
8 6 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (1.65%) PMI Certification
9 5 (1.38%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (1.38%) DBS Check
10 4 (1.10%) A+ Certification
11 3 (0.83%) CCNP
11 3 (0.83%) CompTIA Security+
12 2 (0.55%) CCNA
12 2 (0.55%) CompTIA CySA+
12 2 (0.55%) PMP
12 2 (0.55%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (7.71%) Data Quality
2 22 (6.06%) QA
3 16 (4.41%) GDPR
4 12 (3.31%) SLA
5 11 (3.03%) NIST
6 9 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 7 (1.93%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (1.93%) NCSC
8 6 (1.65%) Accessibility
8 6 (1.65%) PMO
9 5 (1.38%) GRC
10 4 (1.10%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.55%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.55%) P3O
11 2 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.28%) GAAP
12 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 60 (16.53%) Active Directory
2 13 (3.58%) Docker
3 6 (1.65%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (1.10%) BitLocker
5 4 (1.10%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.83%) Microsoft App-V
6 3 (0.83%) Terminal Services
6 3 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.83%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.55%) IAG
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.28%) zsh
Systems Management
1 33 (9.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (5.23%) Terraform
3 15 (4.13%) Kubernetes
4 11 (3.03%) SCCM
5 9 (2.48%) Ansible
5 9 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (1.38%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (1.10%) Puppet
8 3 (0.83%) Grafana
8 3 (0.83%) Nagios
8 3 (0.83%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.83%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.83%) vMotion
9 2 (0.55%) WSUS
10 1 (0.28%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.28%) ITRS Geneos
10 1 (0.28%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.28%) PingFederate
10 1 (0.28%) Salt
10 1 (0.28%) SELinux
Vendors
1 29 (7.99%) ServiceNow
2 23 (6.34%) Databricks
3 20 (5.51%) Google
4 17 (4.68%) SAP
5 16 (4.41%) Oracle
6 11 (3.03%) Citrix
6 11 (3.03%) Salesforce
7 9 (2.48%) Cisco
8 8 (2.20%) Apple
8 8 (2.20%) VMware
9 7 (1.93%) OpenAI
9 7 (1.93%) Workday
10 6 (1.65%) Foundry
11 5 (1.38%) Bloomberg
11 5 (1.38%) HP
11 5 (1.38%) Informatica
12 4 (1.10%) Okta
12 4 (1.10%) Remedy
12 4 (1.10%) Splunk
12 4 (1.10%) Zscaler