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 26 August 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
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 9 5
Rank change year-on-year +3 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 385 309 402
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 15.25% 15.51% 17.42%
As % of the Vendors category 35.29% 32.49% 40.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 287 199 305
10th Percentile £250 £275 £278
25th Percentile £413 £356 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year +7.00% -6.98% -1.38%
75th Percentile £650 £625 £645
90th Percentile £750 £708 £712
London median daily rate £515 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +3.00% -0.05% -9.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 4 4
10th Percentile £20.85 £19.81 £19.30
25th Percentile £22.88 £21.22 £24.25
Median hourly rate £25.07 £24.23 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.47% -10.28% -
75th Percentile £28.35 £27.40 £43.38
90th Percentile £32.34 £29.11 £72.85
London median hourly rate £24.75 £23.73 £23.80
% change year-on-year +4.32% -0.32% -25.44%

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 1,091 951 1,003
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 43.23% 47.74% 43.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 768 620 690
10th Percentile £324 £313 £338
25th Percentile £445 £409 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £538 £545
Median % change year-on-year - -1.33% -0.95%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £652
90th Percentile £750 £750 £750
London median daily rate £525 £525 £535
% change year-on-year - -1.87% -4.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 17 13
10th Percentile £18.75 £19.42 £16.50
25th Percentile £18.88 £23.75 £20.50
Median hourly rate £23.58 £29.07 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.89% +7.67% -25.52%
75th Percentile £39.69 £56.75 £92.50
90th Percentile £64.13 £64.48 £137.50
London median hourly rate £35.50 £26.30 £28.25
% change year-on-year +34.98% -6.90% -24.67%

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 26 August 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 26 August 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 26 August 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 +3 352 £550 +10.00% 161
Southwark 0 8 £600 +14.29% 5
City of Westminster -15 6 £338 -41.30% 6
Kensington and Chelsea - 5 £150 - 4
West End of London -12 3 £475 +26.67% 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 47 (12.21%) SharePoint
2 32 (8.31%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (1.82%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.56%) Apache
4 6 (1.56%) Apache Spark
4 6 (1.56%) Confluence
5 2 (0.52%) IIS
6 1 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
6 1 (0.26%) nginx
6 1 (0.26%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 31 (8.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (5.97%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (3.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.04%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.52%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.26%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.26%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.26%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.26%) Final Cut Pro
6 1 (0.26%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 19 (4.94%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.56%) Aladdin
3 3 (0.78%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.78%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.52%) iTrent
4 2 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.52%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.52%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.26%) Advent Moxy
5 1 (0.26%) Advent Portfolio Exchange
5 1 (0.26%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.26%) Exchequer
5 1 (0.26%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.26%) Oracle Retail
5 1 (0.26%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.26%) SAP FI-AR
5 1 (0.26%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.26%) SAP Oil and Gas
5 1 (0.26%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 174 (45.19%) Azure
2 84 (21.82%) Microsoft 365
3 73 (18.96%) Power Platform
4 57 (14.81%) Entra ID
5 45 (11.69%) Azure DevOps
6 37 (9.61%) Dynamics 365
7 32 (8.31%) AWS
8 27 (7.01%) Azure Data Factory
8 27 (7.01%) Power Automate
9 24 (6.23%) PowerApps
9 24 (6.23%) SaaS
10 23 (5.97%) Microsoft Copilot
11 22 (5.71%) GCP
12 20 (5.19%) GitHub
12 20 (5.19%) Microsoft Purview
13 18 (4.68%) OneDrive
14 17 (4.42%) Serverless
15 16 (4.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 13 (3.38%) Azure Logic Apps
17 11 (2.86%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 32 (8.31%) DNS
2 25 (6.49%) DHCP
3 18 (4.68%) Firewall
4 16 (4.16%) TCP/IP
5 13 (3.38%) VPN
6 6 (1.56%) Unified Communications
7 5 (1.30%) LAN
7 5 (1.30%) Network Security
7 5 (1.30%) WAN
8 4 (1.04%) Internet
8 4 (1.04%) SMTP
8 4 (1.04%) VLAN
9 3 (0.78%) Multicast
9 3 (0.78%) Structured Cabling
9 3 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
10 2 (0.52%) BGP
10 2 (0.52%) DKIM
10 2 (0.52%) DMARC
10 2 (0.52%) Intranet
10 2 (0.52%) Value-Added Service
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (12.47%) Power BI
2 25 (6.49%) Data Warehouse
3 19 (4.94%) SQL Server
4 13 (3.38%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (2.60%) Data Lake
5 10 (2.60%) Metadata
5 10 (2.60%) Star Schema
6 8 (2.08%) Power Query
7 6 (1.56%) Semantic Layer
8 5 (1.30%) Amazon RDS
8 5 (1.30%) Amazon Redshift
8 5 (1.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (1.30%) Tableau
9 4 (1.04%) Big Data
9 4 (1.04%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.78%) BigQuery
10 3 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.78%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.78%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 20 (5.19%) JIRA
2 9 (2.34%) Git
3 7 (1.82%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.56%) Visual Studio
5 4 (1.04%) Bitbucket
5 4 (1.04%) GitLab
5 4 (1.04%) Selenium
6 3 (0.78%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.78%) JUnit
6 3 (0.78%) MSI
6 3 (0.78%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.52%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.52%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.52%) Fiddler
7 2 (0.52%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.26%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.26%) Rational Functional Tester
8 1 (0.26%) SilkTest
8 1 (0.26%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.26%) WebDriver
General
1 118 (30.65%) Social Skills
2 114 (29.61%) Finance
3 49 (12.73%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (9.35%) Banking
5 24 (6.23%) Public Sector
6 13 (3.38%) Retail
7 11 (2.86%) General Ledger
7 11 (2.86%) Telecoms
8 9 (2.34%) Law
8 9 (2.34%) Legal
8 9 (2.34%) Organisational Skills
9 8 (2.08%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.82%) Front Office
10 7 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
10 7 (1.82%) Marketing
11 6 (1.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (1.04%) Back Office
13 4 (1.04%) Manufacturing
13 4 (1.04%) Military
Job Titles
1 57 (14.81%) Architect
2 45 (11.69%) Developer
3 39 (10.13%) Analyst
4 38 (9.87%) Consultant
5 33 (8.57%) Support Engineer
6 29 (7.53%) Senior
7 19 (4.94%) Data Architect
7 19 (4.94%) Lead
8 17 (4.42%) IT Support
8 17 (4.42%) Solutions Architect
9 15 (3.90%) IT Engineer
10 14 (3.64%) Dynamics 365 Developer
11 13 (3.38%) Data Engineer
11 13 (3.38%) IT Support Engineer
12 11 (2.86%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 10 (2.60%) Platform Engineer
13 10 (2.60%) Project Manager
14 9 (2.34%) Azure Engineer
14 9 (2.34%) Cloud Engineer
14 9 (2.34%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (6.23%) Terraform
2 19 (4.94%) .NET
2 19 (4.94%) PySpark
3 16 (4.16%) REST
4 9 (2.34%) Middleware
5 8 (2.08%) .NET Framework
5 8 (2.08%) HTML
5 8 (2.08%) JSON
5 8 (2.08%) SOAP
6 7 (1.82%) SAML
6 7 (1.82%) XML
7 6 (1.56%) Kafka
7 6 (1.56%) OAuth
8 5 (1.30%) CSS
8 5 (1.30%) OpenID
8 5 (1.30%) Web Services
9 4 (1.04%) ASP.NET Web API
9 4 (1.04%) HTML5 Canvas
9 4 (1.04%) Spring
9 4 (1.04%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 29 (7.53%) Onboarding
2 20 (5.19%) Cloud Native
3 15 (3.90%) AI Agents
3 15 (3.90%) Video Conferencing
4 12 (3.12%) Legacy Systems
4 12 (3.12%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.60%) PKI
6 9 (2.34%) Enterprise Software
6 9 (2.34%) Product Ownership
7 7 (1.82%) Data Structures
7 7 (1.82%) Distributed Systems
7 7 (1.82%) Low-Code
7 7 (1.82%) Security Posture
8 6 (1.56%) Data Centre
9 5 (1.30%) Clustering
10 4 (1.04%) Equities
10 4 (1.04%) PMI
11 3 (0.78%) Fixed Income
11 3 (0.78%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 3 (0.78%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 76 (19.74%) Windows
2 20 (5.19%) Windows Server
3 19 (4.94%) Mac OS
4 18 (4.68%) Windows 10
5 13 (3.38%) Linux
6 6 (1.56%) Android
7 4 (1.04%) Apple iOS
7 4 (1.04%) Windows 7
8 3 (0.78%) Unix
8 3 (0.78%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.26%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.26%) SUSE
10 1 (0.26%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.26%) VMS
10 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (22.34%) DevOps
2 73 (18.96%) Stakeholder Management
3 68 (17.66%) Problem-Solving
4 65 (16.88%) Analytics
4 65 (16.88%) Migration
5 64 (16.62%) Agile
6 62 (16.10%) CI/CD
7 53 (13.77%) Business Intelligence
8 50 (12.99%) Data Modelling
9 49 (12.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 48 (12.47%) AI
11 41 (10.65%) Data Governance
12 32 (8.31%) Continuous Improvement
12 32 (8.31%) ITIL
13 29 (7.53%) Integration Patterns
14 28 (7.27%) Customer Service
14 28 (7.27%) Project Delivery
14 28 (7.27%) Roadmaps
15 27 (7.01%) Validation
16 26 (6.75%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 66 (17.14%) SQL
2 49 (12.73%) Python
3 29 (7.53%) PowerShell
4 17 (4.42%) C#
5 16 (4.16%) Java
6 15 (3.90%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 11 (2.86%) JavaScript
8 8 (2.08%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.82%) Bash
9 7 (1.82%) Bicep
10 6 (1.56%) T-SQL
11 4 (1.04%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.52%) C++
12 2 (0.52%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.52%) R
13 1 (0.26%) COBOL
13 1 (0.26%) RPG
13 1 (0.26%) VB.NET
13 1 (0.26%) X++
13 1 (0.26%) XMLA
Qualifications
1 73 (18.96%) Security Cleared
2 51 (13.25%) SC Cleared
3 24 (6.23%) Degree
4 19 (4.94%) DV Cleared
4 19 (4.94%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (2.60%) Azure Certification
6 7 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (1.56%) CISSP
7 6 (1.56%) DBS Check
7 6 (1.56%) PMI Certification
8 5 (1.30%) A+ Certification
9 4 (1.04%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (1.04%) CISM
9 4 (1.04%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.52%) CCNA
10 2 (0.52%) CCNP
10 2 (0.52%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (0.52%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (0.52%) PMP
10 2 (0.52%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (8.57%) Data Quality
2 23 (5.97%) QA
3 15 (3.90%) GDPR
3 15 (3.90%) SLA
4 12 (3.12%) NIST
5 11 (2.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 10 (2.60%) PMO
7 9 (2.34%) Accessibility
8 7 (1.82%) NCSC
9 6 (1.56%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (1.30%) GRC
11 3 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.52%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.52%) P3O
13 1 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
13 1 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.26%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 19770
13 1 (0.26%) UCITS
System Software
1 73 (18.96%) Active Directory
2 15 (3.90%) Docker
3 6 (1.56%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.30%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (1.04%) BitLocker
5 4 (1.04%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.04%) Microsoft App-V
6 3 (0.78%) Terminal Services
6 3 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.78%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.52%) IAG
8 1 (0.26%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.26%) zsh
Systems Management
1 41 (10.65%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (4.68%) SCCM
3 16 (4.16%) Kubernetes
4 10 (2.60%) Ansible
4 10 (2.60%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (1.30%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (1.04%) Grafana
6 4 (1.04%) Prometheus
6 4 (1.04%) Puppet
7 3 (0.78%) Nagios
7 3 (0.78%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.78%) vMotion
7 3 (0.78%) WSUS
8 1 (0.26%) AirWatch
8 1 (0.26%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.26%) ITRS Geneos
8 1 (0.26%) NetBackup
8 1 (0.26%) PingFederate
8 1 (0.26%) Salt
8 1 (0.26%) SELinux
Vendors
1 35 (9.09%) ServiceNow
2 24 (6.23%) Databricks
3 20 (5.19%) Google
4 19 (4.94%) Oracle
4 19 (4.94%) SAP
5 12 (3.12%) Cisco
6 10 (2.60%) Apple
6 10 (2.60%) VMware
7 9 (2.34%) Citrix
8 8 (2.08%) Bloomberg
9 7 (1.82%) Foundry
9 7 (1.82%) Salesforce
9 7 (1.82%) Workday
10 6 (1.56%) OpenAI
11 5 (1.30%) HP
11 5 (1.30%) Symantec
12 4 (1.04%) IBM
12 4 (1.04%) iManage
12 4 (1.04%) Informatica
12 4 (1.04%) Okta