Windows Contract Job Trends in Central London

Microsoft Windows
London > Central London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Central London requiring Windows skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 29 20
Rank change year-on-year -8 -9 -5
Contract jobs citing Windows 136 128 202
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 5.45% 6.51% 8.82%
As % of the Operating Systems category 58.62% 56.64% 65.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 84 136
10th Percentile £166 £218 £151
25th Percentile £220 £268 £348
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £384 £408 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.83% -9.44% -1.96%
75th Percentile £616 £563 £579
90th Percentile £668 £682 £654
London median daily rate £425 £431 £400
% change year-on-year -1.45% +7.81% -20.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 3
10th Percentile £19.30 £19.85 £23.90
25th Percentile £19.38 £21.31 £25.06
Median hourly rate £21.00 £24.50 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -9.26% +20.00%
75th Percentile £23.25 £27.75 £28.19
90th Percentile £23.70 £29.25 £28.90
London median hourly rate £21.00 £23.00 £22.90
% change year-on-year -8.70% +0.44% -10.93%

All Operating Systems
Central London

Windows falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring operating system skills in Central London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 232 226 310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 9.29% 11.50% 13.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 158 158 207
10th Percentile £175 £253 £217
25th Percentile £288 £350 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year - -1.96% +1.90%
75th Percentile £636 £667 £638
90th Percentile £688 £705 £725
London median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.14% -0.90% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 3
10th Percentile £19.30 £20.33 £23.90
25th Percentile £19.38 £22.53 £25.06
Median hourly rate £21.00 £26.00 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.23% -3.70% -25.52%
75th Percentile £23.25 £29.13 £28.19
90th Percentile £23.70 £29.80 £28.90
London median hourly rate £21.00 £25.15 £23.98
% change year-on-year -16.50% +4.90% -35.79%

Windows
Job Vacancy Trend in Central London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Windows relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London.

Windows job vacancy trend in Central London

Windows
Daily Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Windows.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Windows

Windows
Daily Rate Histogram in Central London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows in Central London over the 6 months to 3 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Windows in Central London

Windows
Hourly Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Windows.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Windows

Windows
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 Windows within the Central London region over the 6 months to 3 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 -16 109 £438 +6.06% 44
City of Westminster -9 7 £350 -22.22% 5
Kensington and Chelsea - 3 £150 -
West End of London -11 2 £453 +110.47% 5
Windows
London

Windows
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 27 (19.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (10.29%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.21%) Confluence
4 2 (1.47%) Exchange Server 2013
4 2 (1.47%) IIS
Applications
1 12 (8.82%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (4.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 6 (4.41%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 48 (35.29%) Microsoft 365
2 41 (30.15%) Azure
3 28 (20.59%) Entra ID
4 13 (9.56%) AWS
5 12 (8.82%) OneDrive
6 10 (7.35%) SaaS
7 8 (5.88%) GitHub
8 7 (5.15%) Azure Monitor
8 7 (5.15%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (4.41%) Azure AKS
9 6 (4.41%) GCP
10 5 (3.68%) IaaS
10 5 (3.68%) OpenShift
10 5 (3.68%) PaaS
10 5 (3.68%) Power Platform
11 4 (2.94%) Azure DevOps
12 1 (0.74%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 1 (0.74%) Azure Key Vault
12 1 (0.74%) Azure Stack
12 1 (0.74%) Google Docs
Communications & Networking
1 38 (27.94%) DNS
2 28 (20.59%) DHCP
3 20 (14.71%) Firewall
3 20 (14.71%) VPN
4 16 (11.76%) TCP/IP
5 6 (4.41%) LAN
5 6 (4.41%) Wi-Fi
6 5 (3.68%) WAN
7 4 (2.94%) Unified Communications
7 4 (2.94%) VLAN
8 3 (2.21%) SMTP
8 3 (2.21%) Wireshark
9 2 (1.47%) BGP
9 2 (1.47%) DMZ
9 2 (1.47%) Network Security
9 2 (1.47%) SAN
9 2 (1.47%) SSL
9 2 (1.47%) Value-Added Service
9 2 (1.47%) VoIP
10 1 (0.74%) Intelligent Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (19.12%) SQL Server
2 6 (4.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 5 (3.68%) Oracle Database
3 5 (3.68%) Power BI
4 4 (2.94%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 4 (2.94%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 3 (2.21%) Amazon RDS
5 3 (2.21%) Big Data
5 3 (2.21%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (1.47%) PostgreSQL
7 1 (0.74%) Db2
7 1 (0.74%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.74%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.74%) Oracle BI EE
Development Applications
1 15 (11.03%) JIRA
2 7 (5.15%) Jenkins
3 4 (2.94%) GitLab
4 3 (2.21%) Artifactory
4 3 (2.21%) Git
4 3 (2.21%) MSI
5 2 (1.47%) Bitbucket
5 2 (1.47%) Fiddler
5 2 (1.47%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.74%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.74%) Gradle
6 1 (0.74%) JMeter
6 1 (0.74%) Locust
6 1 (0.74%) Newman
6 1 (0.74%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.74%) Subversion
6 1 (0.74%) TestCafe
General
1 45 (33.09%) Social Skills
2 28 (20.59%) Finance
3 17 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (5.88%) Banking
5 4 (2.94%) Front Office
5 4 (2.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 3 (2.21%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (2.21%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.21%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.47%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.47%) Law
7 2 (1.47%) Military
7 2 (1.47%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.74%) Investment Banking
8 1 (0.74%) Mandarin Language
Job Titles
1 39 (28.68%) Support Engineer
2 18 (13.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 17 (12.50%) IT Support
4 15 (11.03%) Analyst
4 15 (11.03%) IT Engineer
5 13 (9.56%) IT Support Engineer
6 12 (8.82%) Desktop Support
7 11 (8.09%) Support Analyst
8 9 (6.62%) Desktop Engineer
9 7 (5.15%) Windows Engineer
10 6 (4.41%) Active Directory Engineer
10 6 (4.41%) Cloud Engineer
10 6 (4.41%) Desktop Support Engineer
10 6 (4.41%) Developer
10 6 (4.41%) Infrastructure Support
10 6 (4.41%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
10 6 (4.41%) IT Analyst
10 6 (4.41%) Senior
11 5 (3.68%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
11 5 (3.68%) Deployment Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (9.56%) .NET
1 13 (9.56%) Terraform
2 7 (5.15%) .NET Framework
3 3 (2.21%) REST
4 2 (1.47%) .NET Core
4 2 (1.47%) 802.1X
4 2 (1.47%) ASP.NET
4 2 (1.47%) Kafka
4 2 (1.47%) LDAP
4 2 (1.47%) OpenTelemetry
4 2 (1.47%) PCRE
4 2 (1.47%) Regular Expression
5 1 (0.74%) ASP.NET Core
5 1 (0.74%) Blazor
5 1 (0.74%) OAuth
5 1 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
5 1 (0.74%) Spring
5 1 (0.74%) Spring Boot
5 1 (0.74%) Taurus
Miscellaneous
1 21 (15.44%) Onboarding
2 14 (10.29%) Video Conferencing
3 11 (8.09%) Data Centre
4 8 (5.88%) Clustering
4 8 (5.88%) PKI
5 4 (2.94%) Enterprise Software
5 4 (2.94%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (2.94%) iPhone
5 4 (2.94%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (2.21%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.47%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.47%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.47%) Enterprise Storage
7 2 (1.47%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.47%) Virtual Team
8 1 (0.74%) BYOD
8 1 (0.74%) iPad
8 1 (0.74%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.74%) Replication
8 1 (0.74%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 43 (31.62%) Windows Server
2 23 (16.91%) Linux
2 23 (16.91%) Mac OS
3 21 (15.44%) Windows 10
4 7 (5.15%) Android
5 6 (4.41%) VMS
5 6 (4.41%) Windows 7
6 5 (3.68%) Apple iOS
6 5 (3.68%) Unix
6 5 (3.68%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (2.21%) Windows Server 2008
7 3 (2.21%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (1.47%) OpenVMS
8 2 (1.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.74%) CentOS
9 1 (0.74%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.74%) SUSE
9 1 (0.74%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.74%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.74%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (28.68%) Problem-Solving
2 25 (18.38%) ITIL
2 25 (18.38%) Migration
3 23 (16.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 19 (13.97%) ITSM
5 18 (13.24%) Customer Service
6 14 (10.29%) CI/CD
7 13 (9.56%) DevOps
7 13 (9.56%) High Availability
7 13 (9.56%) Service Management
8 12 (8.82%) Stakeholder Management
9 11 (8.09%) Asset Management
9 11 (8.09%) Service Delivery
10 10 (7.35%) Change Control
10 10 (7.35%) Continuous Improvement
10 10 (7.35%) Incident Management
10 10 (7.35%) Infrastructure as Code
10 10 (7.35%) Root Cause Analysis
11 9 (6.62%) Problem Management
11 9 (6.62%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 38 (27.94%) PowerShell
2 20 (14.71%) SQL
3 13 (9.56%) C#
3 13 (9.56%) Python
4 6 (4.41%) Bash
5 5 (3.68%) Java
6 4 (2.94%) PL/SQL
6 4 (2.94%) T-SQL
7 3 (2.21%) C++
8 2 (1.47%) Perl
9 1 (0.74%) Korn
9 1 (0.74%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.74%) VB
Qualifications
1 31 (22.79%) Security Cleared
2 18 (13.24%) SC Cleared
3 8 (5.88%) Degree
3 8 (5.88%) DV Cleared
4 5 (3.68%) A+ Certification
5 3 (2.21%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.47%) Azure Certification
6 2 (1.47%) CCNA
6 2 (1.47%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.74%) BC Cleared
7 1 (0.74%) CCNP
7 1 (0.74%) CESG Certified Professional
7 1 (0.74%) CISA
7 1 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.74%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.74%) MCSE
7 1 (0.74%) MOS
7 1 (0.74%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (0.74%) PMI Certification
7 1 (0.74%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (11.76%) SLA
2 9 (6.62%) QA
3 2 (1.47%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.47%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.74%) GDPR
4 1 (0.74%) Government Security Classifications
4 1 (0.74%) GRC
4 1 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.74%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 70 (51.47%) Active Directory
2 21 (15.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (8.82%) VMware ESXi
4 9 (6.62%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (5.15%) Hyper-V
5 7 (5.15%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (3.68%) Docker
6 5 (3.68%) vSphere
7 4 (2.94%) BitLocker
7 4 (2.94%) Microsoft App-V
8 3 (2.21%) Terminal Services
9 2 (1.47%) Firmware
10 1 (0.74%) UAG
10 1 (0.74%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.74%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.74%) zsh
Systems Management
1 33 (24.26%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (13.24%) SCCM
3 15 (11.03%) Kubernetes
4 10 (7.35%) Ansible
4 10 (7.35%) vCenter Server
5 5 (3.68%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (2.94%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (2.94%) Microsoft Clustering
6 4 (2.94%) Puppet
6 4 (2.94%) SCOM
6 4 (2.94%) WSUS
7 3 (2.21%) Nagios
7 3 (2.21%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (2.21%) vMotion
8 2 (1.47%) FortiGate
8 2 (1.47%) Grafana
8 2 (1.47%) Nessus
8 2 (1.47%) NetBackup
8 2 (1.47%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.74%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 78 (57.35%) Microsoft
2 29 (21.32%) VMware
3 26 (19.12%) ServiceNow
4 17 (12.50%) Citrix
5 12 (8.82%) Cisco
6 11 (8.09%) Apple
6 11 (8.09%) Oracle
7 7 (5.15%) Bloomberg
8 6 (4.41%) Google
8 6 (4.41%) Remedy
9 5 (3.68%) Dynatrace
9 5 (3.68%) HP
9 5 (3.68%) Splunk
9 5 (3.68%) Symantec
10 4 (2.94%) ION Trading
11 3 (2.21%) Adobe
11 3 (2.21%) Altiris
11 3 (2.21%) BMC
11 3 (2.21%) Dell
11 3 (2.21%) EMC