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 8 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
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 8 5
Rank change year-on-year -1 -3 +5
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 306 294 387
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 12.52% 14.87% 15.99%
As % of the Vendors category 30.12% 32.92% 37.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 220 187 304
10th Percentile £307 £263 £258
25th Percentile £413 £375 £429
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £539
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -7.19% +2.62%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £668
90th Percentile £753 £711 £771
London median daily rate £515 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.95% +0.05% -6.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 4 4
10th Percentile £22.67 £23.34 -
25th Percentile £25.43 £25.34 £12.75
Median hourly rate £31.38 £27.76 £15.25
Median % change year-on-year +13.05% +82.03% -70.95%
75th Percentile £37.24 £68.68 £20.25
90th Percentile £39.95 £139.97 £24.30
London median hourly rate £27.36 £23.80 £19.50
% change year-on-year +14.94% +22.05% -29.09%

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 1,016 893 1,038
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 41.57% 45.17% 42.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 652 570 765
10th Percentile £356 £305 £294
25th Percentile £431 £439 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% - -
75th Percentile £672 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £750 £775
London median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 11 6
10th Percentile - £26.45 £12.75
25th Percentile £18.75 £28.23 £13.56
Median hourly rate £22.27 £31.00 £19.75
Median % change year-on-year -28.18% +56.96% -8.14%
75th Percentile £34.13 £53.75 £23.75
90th Percentile £41.86 £100.00 £25.38
London median hourly rate £35.50 £29.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +22.41% +28.89% -23.40%

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 8 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in Central London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in Central London over the 6 months to 8 May 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 8 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 +4 291 £525 +5.00% 207
West End of London +2 7 £500 +11.11% 6
Kensington and Chelsea +2 4 £588 - 1
City of Westminster -3 4 £560 -11.11% 7
Southwark -3 1 £188 -21.33% 1
Lambeth - 1 £350 - 2
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 (10.13%) SharePoint
2 14 (4.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.61%) Confluence
4 5 (1.63%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.33%) Apache
5 1 (0.33%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.33%) SAS
Applications
1 30 (9.80%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (8.17%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (5.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (5.23%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.98%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.33%) Adobe After Effects
6 1 (0.33%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.33%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.33%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (2.94%) Aladdin
1 9 (2.94%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.65%) Exchequer
2 2 (0.65%) NetSuite
2 2 (0.65%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.33%) BASE24
3 1 (0.33%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.33%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.33%) SAP FI-AR
3 1 (0.33%) SAP MM
3 1 (0.33%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.33%) Veritas eDiscovery
3 1 (0.33%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 121 (39.54%) Azure
2 68 (22.22%) Microsoft 365
3 62 (20.26%) Power Platform
4 28 (9.15%) Entra ID
5 27 (8.82%) Dynamics 365
6 24 (7.84%) Power Automate
7 23 (7.52%) Azure DevOps
8 22 (7.19%) AWS
9 21 (6.86%) PowerApps
10 15 (4.90%) Microsoft Copilot
11 14 (4.58%) GitHub
11 14 (4.58%) Microsoft Purview
12 12 (3.92%) GCP
12 12 (3.92%) SaaS
13 10 (3.27%) Azure Data Factory
13 10 (3.27%) Snowflake
14 9 (2.94%) Azure AI
15 7 (2.29%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 7 (2.29%) Copilot Studio
15 7 (2.29%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 13 (4.25%) Firewall
2 11 (3.59%) DNS
3 7 (2.29%) Network Security
3 7 (2.29%) VPN
4 4 (1.31%) DHCP
5 3 (0.98%) LAN
5 3 (0.98%) WAN
5 3 (0.98%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.65%) Intranet
6 2 (0.65%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.33%) Hyperconnected
7 1 (0.33%) IPsec
7 1 (0.33%) IPv4
7 1 (0.33%) IPv6
7 1 (0.33%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.33%) Reverse Proxy
7 1 (0.33%) SAN
7 1 (0.33%) SSL
7 1 (0.33%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.33%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (11.44%) Power BI
2 15 (4.90%) SQL Server
3 13 (4.25%) Data Warehouse
3 13 (4.25%) Metadata
4 8 (2.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 8 (2.61%) Tableau
5 6 (1.96%) Data Lake
5 6 (1.96%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (1.96%) Relational Database
6 5 (1.63%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (1.63%) Snowflake Schema
7 3 (0.98%) MySQL
8 2 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.65%) Metadata Repository
8 2 (0.65%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.65%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.65%) RDBMS
8 2 (0.65%) Semantic Layer
8 2 (0.65%) SQLPlus
8 2 (0.65%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 12 (3.92%) JIRA
2 6 (1.96%) Git
3 3 (0.98%) GitLab
3 3 (0.98%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.65%) ERwin
4 2 (0.65%) Postman
4 2 (0.65%) Toad
5 1 (0.33%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.33%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.33%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.33%) Oracle Forms
5 1 (0.33%) PowerBuilder
5 1 (0.33%) Selenium
5 1 (0.33%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.33%) SpecFlow
5 1 (0.33%) Terragrunt
5 1 (0.33%) TestRail
5 1 (0.33%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.33%) Zephyr
General
1 100 (32.68%) Social Skills
2 85 (27.78%) Finance
3 50 (16.34%) Analytical Skills
4 23 (7.52%) Public Sector
5 20 (6.54%) Banking
6 10 (3.27%) Legal
7 8 (2.61%) Investment Banking
7 8 (2.61%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (1.96%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (1.96%) Telecoms
9 5 (1.63%) Front Office
9 5 (1.63%) Military
9 5 (1.63%) Retail
10 4 (1.31%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.31%) Law
10 4 (1.31%) Marketing
11 3 (0.98%) Back Office
11 3 (0.98%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 44 (14.38%) Analyst
2 42 (13.73%) Architect
3 40 (13.07%) Senior
4 27 (8.82%) Developer
5 25 (8.17%) Consultant
6 24 (7.84%) Business Analyst
7 15 (4.90%) Data Engineer
8 14 (4.58%) Support Engineer
9 12 (3.92%) Azure Engineer
9 12 (3.92%) Project Manager
10 10 (3.27%) IT Support
10 10 (3.27%) Lead
11 9 (2.94%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 9 (2.94%) Cloud Engineer
11 9 (2.94%) Data Architect
11 9 (2.94%) IT Engineer
11 9 (2.94%) Microsoft Engineer
12 8 (2.61%) Technical Architect
13 7 (2.29%) IT Support Engineer
13 7 (2.29%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.96%) JSON
2 5 (1.63%) Kafka
2 5 (1.63%) Middleware
2 5 (1.63%) PySpark
2 5 (1.63%) REST
3 4 (1.31%) .NET
3 4 (1.31%) CSS
3 4 (1.31%) HTML
3 4 (1.31%) RESTful
4 3 (0.98%) Microsoft Graph
4 3 (0.98%) OAuth
4 3 (0.98%) Playwright
4 3 (0.98%) SAML
4 3 (0.98%) XML
4 3 (0.98%) YAML
5 2 (0.65%) GraphQL
5 2 (0.65%) LangChain
5 2 (0.65%) LangGraph
5 2 (0.65%) Pandas
5 2 (0.65%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 16 (5.23%) Onboarding
2 14 (4.58%) Cloud Native
3 9 (2.94%) AI Agents
4 8 (2.61%) Product Ownership
4 8 (2.61%) Security Posture
5 7 (2.29%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (1.96%) Management Information System
7 5 (1.63%) Data Structures
7 5 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (1.63%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.63%) PMI
8 4 (1.31%) Equities
8 4 (1.31%) Fixed Income
8 4 (1.31%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 4 (1.31%) Virtual Team
9 3 (0.98%) Analytical Mindset
9 3 (0.98%) BYOD
9 3 (0.98%) Clustering
9 3 (0.98%) Distributed Systems
9 3 (0.98%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 31 (10.13%) Windows
2 8 (2.61%) Windows 10
3 6 (1.96%) Mac OS
4 3 (0.98%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.65%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.65%) Linux
5 2 (0.65%) Unix
6 1 (0.33%) Android
6 1 (0.33%) VMS
6 1 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (15.69%) Stakeholder Management
2 46 (15.03%) AI
3 45 (14.71%) Problem-Solving
4 43 (14.05%) Analytics
5 42 (13.73%) Migration
6 41 (13.40%) Agile
6 41 (13.40%) Business Intelligence
7 40 (13.07%) CI/CD
8 38 (12.42%) DevOps
9 34 (11.11%) Data Modelling
10 32 (10.46%) Data Governance
11 29 (9.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 25 (8.17%) Decision-Making
12 25 (8.17%) Roadmaps
13 22 (7.19%) Data Engineering
14 21 (6.86%) Continuous Improvement
14 21 (6.86%) ETL
15 19 (6.21%) Business Strategy
15 19 (6.21%) Machine Learning
15 19 (6.21%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 51 (16.67%) SQL
2 33 (10.78%) Python
3 25 (8.17%) PowerShell
4 9 (2.94%) C#
4 9 (2.94%) Java
5 5 (1.63%) Kusto Query Language
6 4 (1.31%) Bash
6 4 (1.31%) Bicep
7 3 (0.98%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 3 (0.98%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.98%) PL/SQL
7 3 (0.98%) T-SQL
8 2 (0.65%) C
8 2 (0.65%) Perl
8 2 (0.65%) PHP
8 2 (0.65%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.65%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.33%) COBOL
9 1 (0.33%) ProC
9 1 (0.33%) VB
Qualifications
1 41 (13.40%) Security Cleared
2 26 (8.50%) SC Cleared
3 20 (6.54%) Degree
4 11 (3.59%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (2.61%) DV Cleared
6 7 (2.29%) Azure Certification
6 7 (2.29%) PMI Certification
7 5 (1.63%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (1.63%) CISM
7 5 (1.63%) CISSP
8 4 (1.31%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.98%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 3 (0.98%) PMP
9 3 (0.98%) TOGAF Certification
10 2 (0.65%) CompTIA CySA+
10 2 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (0.65%) GIAC
10 2 (0.65%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (0.65%) SnowPro
11 1 (0.33%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (7.84%) Data Quality
2 19 (6.21%) GDPR
3 12 (3.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (3.92%) QA
4 9 (2.94%) Cyber Essentials
5 8 (2.61%) PMO
6 6 (1.96%) NIST
7 5 (1.63%) Accessibility
8 4 (1.31%) SLA
9 3 (0.98%) GRC
9 3 (0.98%) IFRS
9 3 (0.98%) MiFID
9 3 (0.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.65%) ISO 20022
10 2 (0.65%) ISO 8583
10 2 (0.65%) NCSC
10 2 (0.65%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.33%) COBIT
11 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.33%) Solvency II
System Software
1 32 (10.46%) Active Directory
2 12 (3.92%) Docker
3 7 (2.29%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (1.63%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.33%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 23 (7.52%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (3.92%) Terraform
3 11 (3.59%) Kubernetes
4 8 (2.61%) SCCM
5 3 (0.98%) Ansible
5 3 (0.98%) Jamf Pro
6 2 (0.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.65%) Grafana
6 2 (0.65%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.33%) AirWatch
7 1 (0.33%) Autotask
7 1 (0.33%) Kibana
7 1 (0.33%) Opsgenie
7 1 (0.33%) Puppet
7 1 (0.33%) Salt
7 1 (0.33%) WSUS
Vendors
1 23 (7.52%) Databricks
2 13 (4.25%) Salesforce
3 11 (3.59%) Oracle
4 10 (3.27%) Google
4 10 (3.27%) SAP
4 10 (3.27%) ServiceNow
5 7 (2.29%) Foundry
5 7 (2.29%) Informatica
6 6 (1.96%) OpenAI
7 5 (1.63%) Charles River
7 5 (1.63%) Citrix
7 5 (1.63%) Palo Alto
7 5 (1.63%) Workday
8 4 (1.31%) iManage
9 3 (0.98%) Anaplan
9 3 (0.98%) Apple
9 3 (0.98%) Cisco
9 3 (0.98%) Splunk
9 3 (0.98%) Trend Micro
10 2 (0.65%) Guidewire