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 19 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
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 9 5
Rank change year-on-year +3 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 376 316 398
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 14.80% 15.48% 17.27%
As % of the Vendors category 34.50% 32.54% 39.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 279 205 307
10th Percentile £256 £278 £300
25th Percentile £413 £363 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £500 £533
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% -6.10% -1.84%
75th Percentile £650 £625 £639
90th Percentile £750 £702 £710
London median daily rate £515 £500 £502
% change year-on-year +3.00% -0.42% -8.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 5 4
10th Percentile £20.83 £20.12 £19.30
25th Percentile £22.82 £22.00 £24.25
Median hourly rate £26.13 £26.45 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.21% -2.04% -
75th Percentile £30.57 £29.07 £43.38
90th Percentile £33.23 £29.78 £72.85
London median hourly rate £25.50 £23.73 £23.80
% change year-on-year +7.48% -0.32% -19.32%

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 1,090 971 1,006
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 42.91% 47.57% 43.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 759 632 704
10th Percentile £330 £313 £338
25th Percentile £449 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £543 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.46% +0.84% -2.18%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £650
90th Percentile £750 £750 £750
London median daily rate £525 £525 £530
% change year-on-year - -0.94% -3.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 19 13
10th Percentile - £19.60 £16.50
25th Percentile £18.75 £25.10 £20.50
Median hourly rate £23.16 £29.07 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.33% +7.67% +20.00%
75th Percentile £38.13 £54.46 £92.50
90th Percentile £64.00 £64.11 £137.50
London median hourly rate £35.50 £26.30 £27.50
% change year-on-year +34.98% -4.36% -21.43%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +3 345 £550 +10.00% 226
Southwark +1 8 £600 - 7
City of Westminster -16 5 £500 -13.04% 12
Kensington and Chelsea 0 4 £150 - 2
West End of London -11 4 £475 +26.67% 9
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 49 (13.03%) SharePoint
2 29 (7.71%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.13%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (1.86%) Apache
5 6 (1.60%) Apache Spark
5 6 (1.60%) Confluence
6 2 (0.53%) IIS
7 1 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2013
7 1 (0.27%) nginx
7 1 (0.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 32 (8.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 22 (5.85%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (3.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.06%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.53%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.27%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.27%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.27%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.27%) Final Cut Pro
6 1 (0.27%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 18 (4.79%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.60%) Aladdin
3 3 (0.80%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.80%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.53%) Dynamics NAV
4 2 (0.53%) iTrent
4 2 (0.53%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.53%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.53%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.27%) Advent Moxy
5 1 (0.27%) Advent Portfolio Exchange
5 1 (0.27%) Exchequer
5 1 (0.27%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle Retail
5 1 (0.27%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.27%) SAP FI-AR
5 1 (0.27%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.27%) SAP Oil and Gas
5 1 (0.27%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 162 (43.09%) Azure
2 80 (21.28%) Microsoft 365
3 74 (19.68%) Power Platform
4 49 (13.03%) Entra ID
5 40 (10.64%) Azure DevOps
6 35 (9.31%) Dynamics 365
7 31 (8.24%) AWS
8 27 (7.18%) Power Automate
9 25 (6.65%) Azure Data Factory
10 24 (6.38%) PowerApps
11 23 (6.12%) Microsoft Copilot
12 22 (5.85%) GCP
13 21 (5.59%) SaaS
14 20 (5.32%) GitHub
15 19 (5.05%) Microsoft Purview
16 18 (4.79%) OneDrive
17 16 (4.26%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 15 (3.99%) Serverless
19 12 (3.19%) Azure Logic Apps
20 11 (2.93%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 27 (7.18%) DNS
2 22 (5.85%) DHCP
3 18 (4.79%) Firewall
4 14 (3.72%) TCP/IP
5 13 (3.46%) VPN
6 5 (1.33%) LAN
6 5 (1.33%) Unified Communications
6 5 (1.33%) WAN
7 4 (1.06%) Network Security
7 4 (1.06%) VLAN
8 3 (0.80%) Internet
8 3 (0.80%) SMTP
8 3 (0.80%) Structured Cabling
8 3 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (0.53%) DKIM
9 2 (0.53%) DMARC
9 2 (0.53%) Intranet
9 2 (0.53%) Multicast
9 2 (0.53%) Reverse Proxy
9 2 (0.53%) Value-Added Service
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (12.50%) Power BI
2 26 (6.91%) Data Warehouse
3 19 (5.05%) SQL Server
4 13 (3.46%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (2.66%) Data Lake
6 9 (2.39%) Metadata
6 9 (2.39%) Star Schema
7 8 (2.13%) Power Query
8 5 (1.33%) Amazon RDS
8 5 (1.33%) Amazon Redshift
8 5 (1.33%) Semantic Layer
8 5 (1.33%) Tableau
9 4 (1.06%) Big Data
9 4 (1.06%) Snowflake Schema
9 4 (1.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.80%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.80%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.80%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.80%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.80%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 17 (4.52%) JIRA
2 9 (2.39%) Git
3 7 (1.86%) Jenkins
4 5 (1.33%) Visual Studio
5 4 (1.06%) Bitbucket
5 4 (1.06%) GitLab
5 4 (1.06%) Selenium
6 3 (0.80%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.80%) JUnit
7 2 (0.53%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.53%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.53%) Fiddler
7 2 (0.53%) MSI
7 2 (0.53%) TeamCity
7 2 (0.53%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.27%) Appium
8 1 (0.27%) eggPlant
8 1 (0.27%) Jasmine
8 1 (0.27%) Karma Test Runner
8 1 (0.27%) SoapUI
General
1 116 (30.85%) Social Skills
2 111 (29.52%) Finance
3 49 (13.03%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (9.04%) Banking
5 22 (5.85%) Public Sector
6 13 (3.46%) Retail
7 11 (2.93%) General Ledger
7 11 (2.93%) Telecoms
8 9 (2.39%) Law
8 9 (2.39%) Legal
8 9 (2.39%) Organisational Skills
9 7 (1.86%) Influencing Skills
9 7 (1.86%) Marketing
10 6 (1.60%) Front Office
10 6 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (1.60%) Investment Banking
11 5 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (1.06%) Back Office
12 4 (1.06%) Financial Institution
12 4 (1.06%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 57 (15.16%) Architect
2 43 (11.44%) Developer
3 41 (10.90%) Analyst
4 34 (9.04%) Consultant
5 30 (7.98%) Support Engineer
6 29 (7.71%) Senior
7 20 (5.32%) Data Architect
8 17 (4.52%) Lead
8 17 (4.52%) Solutions Architect
9 15 (3.99%) Data Engineer
10 14 (3.72%) IT Support
11 12 (3.19%) Dynamics 365 Developer
11 12 (3.19%) IT Engineer
12 11 (2.93%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 11 (2.93%) Platform Engineer
13 10 (2.66%) IT Support Engineer
13 10 (2.66%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
13 10 (2.66%) Project Manager
14 9 (2.39%) Azure Engineer
14 9 (2.39%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (4.79%) PySpark
2 15 (3.99%) .NET
3 13 (3.46%) REST
4 9 (2.39%) Middleware
5 8 (2.13%) HTML
6 7 (1.86%) .NET Framework
6 7 (1.86%) JSON
6 7 (1.86%) SAML
6 7 (1.86%) XML
7 6 (1.60%) Kafka
7 6 (1.60%) OAuth
7 6 (1.60%) SOAP
8 5 (1.33%) CSS
8 5 (1.33%) OpenID
9 4 (1.06%) Spring
9 4 (1.06%) XSLT
10 3 (0.80%) ASP.NET
10 3 (0.80%) OAuth2
10 3 (0.80%) RESTful
10 3 (0.80%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 26 (6.91%) Onboarding
2 19 (5.05%) Cloud Native
3 14 (3.72%) AI Agents
3 14 (3.72%) Video Conferencing
4 12 (3.19%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.66%) Legacy Systems
6 9 (2.39%) Enterprise Software
6 9 (2.39%) PKI
6 9 (2.39%) Product Ownership
7 7 (1.86%) Data Structures
7 7 (1.86%) Distributed Systems
7 7 (1.86%) Low-Code
8 6 (1.60%) Clustering
8 6 (1.60%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.06%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (1.06%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.06%) Equities
9 4 (1.06%) PMI
9 4 (1.06%) Virtual Team
10 3 (0.80%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 68 (18.09%) Windows
2 19 (5.05%) Mac OS
2 19 (5.05%) Windows Server
3 14 (3.72%) Windows 10
4 12 (3.19%) Linux
5 5 (1.33%) Android
6 4 (1.06%) Apple iOS
6 4 (1.06%) Windows 7
7 3 (0.80%) Unix
7 3 (0.80%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.27%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.27%) SUSE
9 1 (0.27%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.27%) VMS
9 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (21.54%) DevOps
2 69 (18.35%) Stakeholder Management
3 68 (18.09%) Analytics
4 62 (16.49%) Problem-Solving
5 61 (16.22%) CI/CD
6 59 (15.69%) Migration
7 58 (15.43%) Agile
8 54 (14.36%) Business Intelligence
9 50 (13.30%) Data Modelling
10 49 (13.03%) AI
11 48 (12.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 40 (10.64%) Data Governance
13 32 (8.51%) Continuous Improvement
14 31 (8.24%) ITIL
15 28 (7.45%) Roadmaps
16 27 (7.18%) Project Delivery
16 27 (7.18%) Validation
17 26 (6.91%) Data Engineering
17 26 (6.91%) Decision-Making
17 26 (6.91%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 66 (17.55%) SQL
2 47 (12.50%) Python
3 29 (7.71%) PowerShell
4 17 (4.52%) Java
5 14 (3.72%) C#
6 13 (3.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (2.66%) JavaScript
8 7 (1.86%) Bash
8 7 (1.86%) Bicep
8 7 (1.86%) TypeScript
9 6 (1.60%) T-SQL
10 4 (1.06%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.53%) C++
11 2 (0.53%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.53%) R
12 1 (0.27%) COBOL
12 1 (0.27%) Korn
12 1 (0.27%) RPG
12 1 (0.27%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.27%) XMLA
Qualifications
1 73 (19.41%) Security Cleared
2 52 (13.83%) SC Cleared
3 24 (6.38%) Degree
4 20 (5.32%) DV Cleared
5 17 (4.52%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (2.66%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (1.86%) CISSP
8 6 (1.60%) PMI Certification
9 5 (1.33%) A+ Certification
9 5 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (1.33%) CISM
9 5 (1.33%) DBS Check
10 4 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.80%) CCNP
11 3 (0.80%) CompTIA Security+
12 2 (0.53%) CCNA
12 2 (0.53%) GIAC
12 2 (0.53%) Network+ Certification
12 2 (0.53%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (9.31%) Data Quality
2 24 (6.38%) QA
3 15 (3.99%) GDPR
3 15 (3.99%) SLA
4 12 (3.19%) NIST
5 11 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 10 (2.66%) PMO
7 8 (2.13%) Accessibility
8 7 (1.86%) NCSC
9 6 (1.60%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (1.33%) GRC
11 3 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.53%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.53%) P3O
12 2 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.27%) COBIT
13 1 (0.27%) GAAP
13 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 1 (0.27%) MiFID
System Software
1 65 (17.29%) Active Directory
2 15 (3.99%) Docker
3 6 (1.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.06%) BitLocker
4 4 (1.06%) Hyper-V
4 4 (1.06%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.80%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (0.80%) Terminal Services
5 3 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.80%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.53%) IAG
7 1 (0.27%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.27%) zsh
Systems Management
1 35 (9.31%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (6.38%) Terraform
3 16 (4.26%) Kubernetes
4 15 (3.99%) SCCM
5 9 (2.39%) Ansible
5 9 (2.39%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.60%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (1.06%) Grafana
7 4 (1.06%) Prometheus
7 4 (1.06%) Puppet
8 3 (0.80%) Nagios
8 3 (0.80%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.80%) vMotion
8 3 (0.80%) WSUS
9 1 (0.27%) AirWatch
9 1 (0.27%) ITRS Geneos
9 1 (0.27%) NetBackup
9 1 (0.27%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.27%) Salt
9 1 (0.27%) SELinux
Vendors
1 33 (8.78%) ServiceNow
2 24 (6.38%) Databricks
3 21 (5.59%) Google
4 18 (4.79%) Oracle
4 18 (4.79%) SAP
5 11 (2.93%) Apple
5 11 (2.93%) Cisco
6 10 (2.66%) VMware
7 8 (2.13%) Citrix
7 8 (2.13%) Salesforce
8 7 (1.86%) Foundry
8 7 (1.86%) Workday
9 6 (1.60%) Bloomberg
9 6 (1.60%) HP
9 6 (1.60%) OpenAI
10 5 (1.33%) Symantec
11 4 (1.06%) IBM
11 4 (1.06%) iManage
11 4 (1.06%) Informatica
11 4 (1.06%) Okta