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 30 September 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
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 9 6
Rank change year-on-year +4 -3 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 418 299 367
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 17.13% 15.55% 15.83%
As % of the Vendors category 37.69% 32.19% 36.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 309 217 254
10th Percentile £231 £275 £250
25th Percentile £408 £363 £434
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £496 £528
Median % change year-on-year +5.95% -6.20% -3.07%
75th Percentile £644 £627 £635
90th Percentile £750 £725 £710
London median daily rate £520 £500 £513
% change year-on-year +4.00% -2.44% -3.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 3 6
10th Percentile £20.85 £19.50 £21.50
25th Percentile £22.88 £20.44 £27.00
Median hourly rate £25.07 £22.00 £56.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.93% -60.71% -
75th Percentile £28.35 £26.13 £107.13
90th Percentile £32.34 £28.60 £112.00
London median hourly rate £22.07 £24.00 £26.75
% change year-on-year -8.05% -10.28% -22.46%

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 1,109 929 1,003
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 45.45% 48.31% 43.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 787 638 644
10th Percentile £313 £315 £333
25th Percentile £438 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.46% -1.82% -
75th Percentile £650 £675 £659
90th Percentile £750 £750 £750
London median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 13 16
10th Percentile £18.17 £19.05 £17.25
25th Percentile £19.31 £22.00 £24.17
Median hourly rate £25.07 £28.50 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.05% -32.14% +102.41%
75th Percentile £42.56 £56.75 £112.00
90th Percentile £64.13 £65.21 £137.50
London median hourly rate £36.50 £25.58 £34.25
% change year-on-year +42.72% -25.33% -8.67%

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 30 September 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 30 September 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 30 September 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 +3 373 £528 +6.51% 321
City of Westminster -7 11 £335 -41.74% 61
Southwark +2 8 £600 +14.29% 6
West End of London -8 7 £475 +26.67% 21
Kensington and Chelsea - 7 £475 - 4
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 51 (12.20%) SharePoint
2 36 (8.61%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (2.63%) Confluence
4 7 (1.67%) Apache Spark
5 6 (1.44%) Apache
6 4 (0.96%) IIS
7 3 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.48%) CMS
8 2 (0.48%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.24%) nginx
9 1 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 36 (8.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 30 (7.18%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (3.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (1.44%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.96%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.24%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.24%) Adobe Premiere
7 1 (0.24%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.24%) Final Cut Pro
7 1 (0.24%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 20 (4.78%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.67%) Aladdin
3 3 (0.72%) iTrent
3 3 (0.72%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.72%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.48%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.48%) Payment Gateway
4 2 (0.48%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.48%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.24%) Advent Moxy
5 1 (0.24%) Advent Portfolio Exchange
5 1 (0.24%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.24%) Exchequer
5 1 (0.24%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.24%) Monis
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle Retail
5 1 (0.24%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.24%) SAP FI-AR
Cloud Services
1 185 (44.26%) Azure
2 96 (22.97%) Microsoft 365
3 81 (19.38%) Power Platform
4 65 (15.55%) Entra ID
5 49 (11.72%) Azure DevOps
6 35 (8.37%) Dynamics 365
7 33 (7.89%) AWS
8 29 (6.94%) Azure Data Factory
9 25 (5.98%) Power Automate
10 24 (5.74%) Microsoft Copilot
10 24 (5.74%) PowerApps
10 24 (5.74%) SaaS
11 23 (5.50%) GitHub
11 23 (5.50%) OneDrive
11 23 (5.50%) Serverless
12 21 (5.02%) GCP
13 20 (4.78%) Microsoft Purview
14 18 (4.31%) Azure Functions
14 18 (4.31%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 14 (3.35%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 37 (8.85%) DNS
2 28 (6.70%) DHCP
3 19 (4.55%) Firewall
4 18 (4.31%) TCP/IP
5 17 (4.07%) VPN
6 8 (1.91%) Wi-Fi
7 7 (1.67%) Unified Communications
8 5 (1.20%) LAN
8 5 (1.20%) WAN
9 4 (0.96%) Internet
9 4 (0.96%) Network Security
9 4 (0.96%) Reverse Proxy
9 4 (0.96%) SMTP
9 4 (0.96%) VLAN
10 3 (0.72%) Multicast
10 3 (0.72%) Structured Cabling
11 2 (0.48%) DKIM
11 2 (0.48%) DMARC
11 2 (0.48%) Value-Added Service
11 2 (0.48%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (11.72%) Power BI
2 22 (5.26%) Data Warehouse
3 21 (5.02%) SQL Server
4 14 (3.35%) Azure SQL Database
5 12 (2.87%) Data Lake
5 12 (2.87%) Metadata
6 11 (2.63%) Star Schema
7 9 (2.15%) Power Query
8 8 (1.91%) Semantic Layer
9 6 (1.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 5 (1.20%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (1.20%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 5 (1.20%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.96%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.96%) Big Data
11 4 (0.96%) Data Hub
11 4 (0.96%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 3 (0.72%) BusinessObjects
12 3 (0.72%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.72%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 28 (6.70%) JIRA
2 10 (2.39%) Git
3 7 (1.67%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.44%) Visual Studio
5 5 (1.20%) Selenium
6 4 (0.96%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.72%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.72%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.72%) GitLab
7 3 (0.72%) JUnit
7 3 (0.72%) MSI
7 3 (0.72%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.48%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.48%) Fiddler
8 2 (0.48%) Postman
8 2 (0.48%) SoapUI
8 2 (0.48%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.24%) Appium
9 1 (0.24%) Jasmine
9 1 (0.24%) SpecFlow
General
1 137 (32.78%) Social Skills
2 125 (29.90%) Finance
3 54 (12.92%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (9.81%) Banking
5 27 (6.46%) Public Sector
6 16 (3.83%) Retail
7 11 (2.63%) General Ledger
7 11 (2.63%) Organisational Skills
8 10 (2.39%) Law
8 10 (2.39%) Legal
9 9 (2.15%) Front Office
10 8 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (1.91%) Marketing
10 8 (1.91%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.67%) Investment Banking
11 7 (1.67%) Manufacturing
12 6 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.20%) Military
14 4 (0.96%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 63 (15.07%) Architect
2 46 (11.00%) Analyst
2 46 (11.00%) Developer
3 33 (7.89%) Consultant
3 33 (7.89%) Senior
3 33 (7.89%) Support Engineer
4 23 (5.50%) Lead
4 23 (5.50%) Solutions Architect
5 22 (5.26%) IT Support
6 20 (4.78%) Data Architect
7 16 (3.83%) IT Engineer
8 15 (3.59%) Data Engineer
9 14 (3.35%) Dynamics 365 Developer
10 13 (3.11%) Business Analyst
10 13 (3.11%) IT Support Engineer
11 12 (2.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (2.87%) Project Manager
12 10 (2.39%) Azure Engineer
13 9 (2.15%) Cloud Engineer
13 9 (2.15%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (6.46%) Terraform
2 22 (5.26%) .NET
3 21 (5.02%) PySpark
4 18 (4.31%) REST
5 11 (2.63%) JSON
6 10 (2.39%) Middleware
6 10 (2.39%) SAML
7 9 (2.15%) .NET Framework
7 9 (2.15%) OAuth
7 9 (2.15%) XML
8 8 (1.91%) HTML
8 8 (1.91%) OpenID
8 8 (1.91%) SOAP
9 7 (1.67%) Web Services
10 5 (1.20%) ASP.NET Web API
10 5 (1.20%) Kafka
10 5 (1.20%) Microsoft Graph
11 4 (0.96%) CSS
11 4 (0.96%) GraphQL
11 4 (0.96%) HTML5 Canvas
Miscellaneous
1 44 (10.53%) Onboarding
2 24 (5.74%) Cloud Native
3 17 (4.07%) AI Agents
4 16 (3.83%) Video Conferencing
5 15 (3.59%) Management Information System
6 13 (3.11%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (3.11%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (2.87%) PKI
8 11 (2.63%) Distributed Systems
9 9 (2.15%) Product Ownership
10 8 (1.91%) Data Structures
11 7 (1.67%) Data Centre
11 7 (1.67%) Low-Code
12 6 (1.44%) Security Posture
13 5 (1.20%) PMI
13 5 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
14 4 (0.96%) CMDB
15 3 (0.72%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 3 (0.72%) iPhone
15 3 (0.72%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 88 (21.05%) Windows
2 22 (5.26%) Mac OS
3 21 (5.02%) Windows Server
4 20 (4.78%) Windows 10
5 18 (4.31%) Linux
6 7 (1.67%) Android
7 5 (1.20%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.96%) Unix
8 4 (0.96%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.24%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.24%) SUSE
11 1 (0.24%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.24%) VMS
11 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (21.77%) Stakeholder Management
2 86 (20.57%) DevOps
3 79 (18.90%) Problem-Solving
4 74 (17.70%) Agile
5 70 (16.75%) Migration
6 68 (16.27%) CI/CD
7 64 (15.31%) Analytics
8 58 (13.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 52 (12.44%) AI
9 52 (12.44%) Business Intelligence
10 49 (11.72%) Data Modelling
11 43 (10.29%) Data Governance
12 37 (8.85%) Roadmaps
13 36 (8.61%) Continuous Improvement
13 36 (8.61%) ITIL
14 34 (8.13%) Customer Service
15 31 (7.42%) Infrastructure as Code
15 31 (7.42%) Project Delivery
15 31 (7.42%) Validation
16 30 (7.18%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 69 (16.51%) SQL
2 55 (13.16%) Python
3 32 (7.66%) PowerShell
4 20 (4.78%) C#
5 18 (4.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 16 (3.83%) Java
7 11 (2.63%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.91%) Bicep
8 8 (1.91%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.67%) T-SQL
10 5 (1.20%) Bash
11 4 (0.96%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.72%) R
13 2 (0.48%) C++
13 2 (0.48%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.24%) C
14 1 (0.24%) COBOL
14 1 (0.24%) Korn
14 1 (0.24%) RPG
14 1 (0.24%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 77 (18.42%) Security Cleared
2 57 (13.64%) SC Cleared
3 27 (6.46%) Degree
4 17 (4.07%) DV Cleared
5 16 (3.83%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (2.39%) PMI Certification
7 9 (2.15%) Azure Certification
8 7 (1.67%) A+ Certification
8 7 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (1.44%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.20%) CISSP
10 5 (1.20%) PMP
11 4 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (0.72%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (0.48%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.48%) CCNP
13 2 (0.48%) CompTIA Security+
13 2 (0.48%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 2 (0.48%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (9.09%) Data Quality
2 24 (5.74%) QA
3 18 (4.31%) PMO
4 17 (4.07%) SLA
5 13 (3.11%) NIST
6 12 (2.87%) GDPR
6 12 (2.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 10 (2.39%) Accessibility
8 7 (1.67%) NCSC
9 5 (1.20%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (1.20%) GRC
10 3 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.48%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.48%) P3O
12 1 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.24%) IFRS
12 1 (0.24%) ISO 22301
12 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 1 (0.24%) UCITS
System Software
1 78 (18.66%) Active Directory
2 15 (3.59%) Docker
3 8 (1.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.20%) Hyper-V
4 5 (1.20%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.96%) BitLocker
5 4 (0.96%) Microsoft App-V
6 3 (0.72%) Terminal Services
6 3 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.72%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.48%) IAG
8 1 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.24%) zsh
Systems Management
1 46 (11.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 19 (4.55%) SCCM
3 17 (4.07%) Kubernetes
4 13 (3.11%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (2.63%) Ansible
6 6 (1.44%) Grafana
7 5 (1.20%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.96%) Puppet
9 3 (0.72%) Nagios
9 3 (0.72%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.72%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.72%) vMotion
9 3 (0.72%) WSUS
10 1 (0.24%) AirWatch
10 1 (0.24%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.24%) EMC NetWorker
10 1 (0.24%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.24%) PingFederate
10 1 (0.24%) PowerCLI
10 1 (0.24%) SCOM
Vendors
1 43 (10.29%) ServiceNow
2 27 (6.46%) Databricks
3 21 (5.02%) Google
4 20 (4.78%) Oracle
5 19 (4.55%) SAP
6 13 (3.11%) Cisco
7 12 (2.87%) VMware
8 11 (2.63%) Apple
9 10 (2.39%) Bloomberg
10 9 (2.15%) Citrix
11 6 (1.44%) Dynatrace
11 6 (1.44%) Foundry
11 6 (1.44%) IBM
11 6 (1.44%) OpenAI
11 6 (1.44%) Salesforce
11 6 (1.44%) Workday
12 5 (1.20%) HP
12 5 (1.20%) Splunk
12 5 (1.20%) Symantec
13 4 (0.96%) Informatica