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 October 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 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 7 7
Rank change year-on-year +2 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 418 303 367
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 17.56% 15.88% 15.70%
As % of the Vendors category 38.17% 32.79% 36.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 304 221 250
10th Percentile £230 £281 £248
25th Percentile £406 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £638 £627 £628
90th Percentile £746 £725 £708
London median daily rate £525 £500 £513
% change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% -2.38%
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 £21.50 £24.00 £26.50
% change year-on-year -10.42% -9.43% -24.29%

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 1,095 924 1,014
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 45.99% 48.43% 43.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 775 634 649
10th Percentile £313 £319 £320
25th Percentile £429 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% -2.41% -
75th Percentile £650 £675 £658
90th Percentile £750 £746 £750
London median daily rate £530 £525 £538
% change year-on-year +0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 13 16
10th Percentile £18.75 £19.05 £17.25
25th Percentile £19.50 £20.18 £24.17
Median hourly rate £26.13 £28.15 £42.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.18% -32.98% +86.67%
75th Percentile £43.00 £52.16 £112.00
90th Percentile £64.25 £62.35 £137.50
London median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £33.50
% change year-on-year +49.11% -24.93% -16.25%

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 October 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 October 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 October 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 +2 372 £525 +5.95% 333
City of Westminster -6 11 £335 -41.74% 57
Southwark +1 8 £600 +14.29% 4
West End of London -8 7 £475 +26.67% 2
Kensington and Chelsea - 7 £475 - 4
Lambeth - 1 - - 3
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 (11.72%) SharePoint
2 34 (8.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (2.63%) Confluence
4 6 (1.44%) Apache
4 6 (1.44%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.96%) IIS
6 3 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.48%) CMS
7 2 (0.48%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
8 1 (0.24%) nginx
8 1 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 35 (8.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (7.66%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (4.07%) 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 8 (1.91%) 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%) FIS Private Capital Suite
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
1 186 (44.50%) Azure
2 91 (21.77%) Microsoft 365
3 80 (19.14%) Power Platform
4 64 (15.31%) Entra ID
5 50 (11.96%) Azure DevOps
6 37 (8.85%) AWS
7 35 (8.37%) Dynamics 365
8 30 (7.18%) Azure Data Factory
9 26 (6.22%) Microsoft Copilot
10 25 (5.98%) Power Automate
11 24 (5.74%) PowerApps
12 23 (5.50%) SaaS
13 22 (5.26%) GCP
13 22 (5.26%) Microsoft Purview
13 22 (5.26%) OneDrive
13 22 (5.26%) Serverless
14 21 (5.02%) GitHub
15 19 (4.55%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 17 (4.07%) Azure Functions
17 13 (3.11%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 36 (8.61%) DNS
2 28 (6.70%) DHCP
3 18 (4.31%) Firewall
3 18 (4.31%) TCP/IP
4 17 (4.07%) VPN
5 8 (1.91%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (1.67%) Unified Communications
7 5 (1.20%) LAN
7 5 (1.20%) WAN
8 4 (0.96%) Internet
8 4 (0.96%) Network Security
8 4 (0.96%) Reverse Proxy
8 4 (0.96%) SMTP
8 4 (0.96%) VLAN
9 3 (0.72%) Multicast
9 3 (0.72%) Structured Cabling
10 2 (0.48%) DKIM
10 2 (0.48%) DMARC
10 2 (0.48%) Value-Added Service
10 2 (0.48%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (11.48%) Power BI
2 22 (5.26%) Data Warehouse
2 22 (5.26%) SQL Server
3 15 (3.59%) Azure SQL Database
4 12 (2.87%) Data Lake
4 12 (2.87%) Metadata
5 11 (2.63%) Star Schema
6 8 (1.91%) Semantic Layer
7 7 (1.67%) Power Query
8 6 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
8 6 (1.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 5 (1.20%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 5 (1.20%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.96%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (0.96%) Data Hub
10 4 (0.96%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.72%) BusinessObjects
11 3 (0.72%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.72%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.72%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 29 (6.94%) JIRA
2 11 (2.63%) 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%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.48%) Postman
8 2 (0.48%) SoapUI
8 2 (0.48%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.24%) Rational Functional Tester
9 1 (0.24%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 137 (32.78%) Social Skills
2 125 (29.90%) Finance
3 51 (12.20%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (9.81%) Banking
5 28 (6.70%) Public Sector
6 16 (3.83%) Retail
7 12 (2.87%) Organisational Skills
8 11 (2.63%) General Ledger
9 9 (2.15%) Front Office
9 9 (2.15%) Legal
9 9 (2.15%) Marketing
10 8 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (1.91%) Law
11 7 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
11 7 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.67%) Investment Banking
11 7 (1.67%) Manufacturing
12 6 (1.44%) Telecoms
13 5 (1.20%) Military
14 4 (0.96%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 66 (15.79%) Architect
2 47 (11.24%) Analyst
2 47 (11.24%) Developer
3 34 (8.13%) Consultant
4 33 (7.89%) Senior
5 31 (7.42%) Support Engineer
6 26 (6.22%) Solutions Architect
7 22 (5.26%) IT Support
7 22 (5.26%) Lead
8 19 (4.55%) Data Architect
9 16 (3.83%) IT Engineer
10 15 (3.59%) Data Engineer
10 15 (3.59%) Dynamics 365 Developer
11 13 (3.11%) Business Analyst
11 13 (3.11%) IT Support Engineer
12 12 (2.87%) Project Manager
13 11 (2.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 9 (2.15%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
14 9 (2.15%) Security Engineer
14 9 (2.15%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (6.22%) Terraform
2 22 (5.26%) .NET
3 21 (5.02%) PySpark
4 18 (4.31%) REST
5 12 (2.87%) JSON
6 10 (2.39%) Middleware
6 10 (2.39%) OAuth
6 10 (2.39%) SAML
7 9 (2.15%) .NET Framework
7 9 (2.15%) XML
8 8 (1.91%) HTML
8 8 (1.91%) OpenID
8 8 (1.91%) SOAP
8 8 (1.91%) Web Services
9 6 (1.44%) Microsoft Graph
10 5 (1.20%) ASP.NET Web API
10 5 (1.20%) Kafka
11 4 (0.96%) HTML5 Canvas
11 4 (0.96%) OAuth2
11 4 (0.96%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 44 (10.53%) Onboarding
2 23 (5.50%) Cloud Native
3 19 (4.55%) AI Agents
4 16 (3.83%) Video Conferencing
5 15 (3.59%) Management Information System
6 13 (3.11%) Distributed Systems
6 13 (3.11%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (3.11%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (2.87%) PKI
8 9 (2.15%) Product Ownership
9 8 (1.91%) Data Structures
9 8 (1.91%) Low-Code
10 7 (1.67%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.44%) Security Posture
12 5 (1.20%) CMDB
12 5 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (0.72%) Clustering
13 3 (0.72%) iPad
13 3 (0.72%) iPhone
13 3 (0.72%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 87 (20.81%) Windows
2 21 (5.02%) Mac OS
2 21 (5.02%) Windows Server
3 20 (4.78%) Windows 10
4 18 (4.31%) Linux
5 7 (1.67%) Android
6 5 (1.20%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.96%) Unix
7 4 (0.96%) Windows 7
8 3 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.24%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.24%) SUSE
10 1 (0.24%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.24%) VMS
10 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (22.73%) Stakeholder Management
2 86 (20.57%) DevOps
3 80 (19.14%) Problem-Solving
4 73 (17.46%) Agile
5 70 (16.75%) Migration
6 67 (16.03%) CI/CD
7 61 (14.59%) Analytics
8 59 (14.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 55 (13.16%) AI
10 52 (12.44%) Business Intelligence
11 50 (11.96%) Data Modelling
12 42 (10.05%) Data Governance
13 38 (9.09%) Roadmaps
14 36 (8.61%) Continuous Improvement
15 35 (8.37%) ITIL
16 33 (7.89%) Customer Service
16 33 (7.89%) Project Delivery
17 31 (7.42%) Infrastructure as Code
17 31 (7.42%) Validation
18 30 (7.18%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 70 (16.75%) SQL
2 56 (13.40%) Python
3 32 (7.66%) PowerShell
4 20 (4.78%) C#
5 18 (4.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 17 (4.07%) Java
7 12 (2.87%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.91%) Bicep
8 8 (1.91%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.67%) T-SQL
10 4 (0.96%) Bash
10 4 (0.96%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.72%) R
12 2 (0.48%) C++
12 2 (0.48%) Korn
12 2 (0.48%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.24%) C
13 1 (0.24%) COBOL
13 1 (0.24%) RPG
13 1 (0.24%) X++
Qualifications
1 77 (18.42%) Security Cleared
2 57 (13.64%) SC Cleared
3 29 (6.94%) Degree
4 16 (3.83%) DV Cleared
4 16 (3.83%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (2.39%) PMI Certification
6 7 (1.67%) A+ Certification
6 7 (1.67%) Azure Certification
6 7 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (1.67%) PMP
7 6 (1.44%) DBS Check
8 5 (1.20%) CISSP
9 4 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.72%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (0.48%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.48%) CompTIA CySA+
11 2 (0.48%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (0.48%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 2 (0.48%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (10.05%) Data Quality
2 23 (5.50%) QA
3 17 (4.07%) PMO
3 17 (4.07%) SLA
4 13 (3.11%) NIST
5 12 (2.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 11 (2.63%) GDPR
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%) COBIT
12 1 (0.24%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.24%) ISO 22301
12 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 1 (0.24%) WCAG
System Software
1 75 (17.94%) Active Directory
2 14 (3.35%) 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 44 (10.53%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (4.31%) SCCM
3 16 (3.83%) Kubernetes
4 13 (3.11%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (2.63%) Ansible
6 7 (1.67%) 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%) EnCase
10 1 (0.24%) FTK
10 1 (0.24%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.24%) PingFederate
10 1 (0.24%) PowerCLI
10 1 (0.24%) SELinux
Vendors
1 44 (10.53%) ServiceNow
2 26 (6.22%) Databricks
3 22 (5.26%) Google
4 20 (4.78%) Oracle
5 19 (4.55%) SAP
6 12 (2.87%) Cisco
6 12 (2.87%) VMware
7 11 (2.63%) Apple
8 10 (2.39%) Bloomberg
9 9 (2.15%) Citrix
10 7 (1.67%) Dynatrace
10 7 (1.67%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.67%) Splunk
11 6 (1.44%) Foundry
11 6 (1.44%) IBM
11 6 (1.44%) OpenAI
11 6 (1.44%) Workday
12 5 (1.20%) HP
12 5 (1.20%) Symantec
13 4 (0.96%) Red Hat