Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the City of London

Microsoft
Central London > City of London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the City of 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 5 March 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
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 7 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 294 276 334
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 14.44% 15.21% 14.32%
As % of the Vendors category 31.44% 35.43% 33.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 176 255
10th Percentile £319 £248 £325
25th Percentile £413 £381 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +1.34%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £675
90th Percentile £738 £711 £775
Central London median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 2
10th Percentile £22.67 - -
25th Percentile £25.43 - £12.75
Median hourly rate £31.38 £112.00 £13.50
Median % change year-on-year -71.98% +729.63% -49.06%
75th Percentile £37.24 £149.75 £14.25
90th Percentile £39.95 £172.40 -
Central London median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £13.50
% change year-on-year -77.26% +729.63% -49.06%

All Vendors
City of 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 the City of London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 935 779 990
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 45.92% 42.94% 42.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 625 493 714
10th Percentile £356 £313 £312
25th Percentile £425 £456 £436
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - -1.79%
75th Percentile £675 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £750 £775
Central London median daily rate £550 £550 £543
% change year-on-year - +1.38% -1.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 5 8
10th Percentile - £35.10 £12.75
25th Percentile £18.75 £41.25 £15.94
Median hourly rate £21.31 £112.00 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -80.97% +489.47% -8.88%
75th Percentile £37.76 - £23.75
90th Percentile £42.50 £157.30 £31.25
Central London median hourly rate £25.47 £77.25 £19.00
% change year-on-year -67.03% +306.58% -9.52%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

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

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the City of London

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the City of London over the 6 months to 5 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the City of London

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the City of London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the City of London over the 6 months to 5 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the City of London

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of 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 (10.54%) SharePoint
2 12 (4.08%) Confluence
3 10 (3.40%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (1.02%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.68%) Apache
6 1 (0.34%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.34%) CMS
6 1 (0.34%) Ethereum
6 1 (0.34%) Hyperledger
6 1 (0.34%) SAS
Applications
1 34 (11.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (7.82%) MS Visio
3 21 (7.14%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (7.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (1.02%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.34%) Adobe After Effects
6 1 (0.34%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.34%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.34%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (2.38%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (2.04%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.68%) Exchequer
3 2 (0.68%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.68%) Payment Gateway
3 2 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.34%) BASE24
4 1 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.34%) Veritas eDiscovery
4 1 (0.34%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 109 (37.07%) Azure
2 72 (24.49%) Microsoft 365
3 52 (17.69%) Power Platform
4 31 (10.54%) Entra ID
5 27 (9.18%) AWS
6 22 (7.48%) Power Automate
7 21 (7.14%) Microsoft Purview
8 19 (6.46%) PowerApps
9 17 (5.78%) Dynamics 365
10 14 (4.76%) GitHub
11 13 (4.42%) Microsoft Copilot
12 11 (3.74%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (3.74%) SaaS
13 10 (3.40%) Azure Sentinel
13 10 (3.40%) Snowflake
14 9 (3.06%) AWS Lambda
14 9 (3.06%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (3.06%) Copilot Studio
14 9 (3.06%) GCP
14 9 (3.06%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 12 (4.08%) DNS
2 10 (3.40%) Firewall
2 10 (3.40%) VPN
3 7 (2.38%) Network Security
4 6 (2.04%) WAN
5 5 (1.70%) DHCP
5 5 (1.70%) LAN
6 3 (1.02%) Structured Cabling
6 3 (1.02%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.68%) Intranet
7 2 (0.68%) Intrusion Detection
7 2 (0.68%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.68%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.34%) Extranet
8 1 (0.34%) Hyperconnected
8 1 (0.34%) IPsec
8 1 (0.34%) IPv4
8 1 (0.34%) iSCSI
8 1 (0.34%) SSL
8 1 (0.34%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (10.88%) Power BI
2 15 (5.10%) Metadata
3 10 (3.40%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (3.06%) SQL Server
5 7 (2.38%) Data Lake
5 7 (2.38%) Tableau
6 6 (2.04%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (2.04%) Relational Database
7 4 (1.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (1.02%) Amazon Redshift
8 3 (1.02%) MySQL
8 3 (1.02%) Snowflake Schema
9 2 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.68%) Metadata Repository
9 2 (0.68%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.68%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.68%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.68%) SQLPlus
10 1 (0.34%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
10 1 (0.34%) Kdb+
Development Applications
1 14 (4.76%) JIRA
2 7 (2.38%) Git
3 5 (1.70%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.36%) GitLab
5 2 (0.68%) ERwin
5 2 (0.68%) Toad
6 1 (0.34%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.34%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.34%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.34%) gulp
6 1 (0.34%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.34%) Postman
6 1 (0.34%) PowerBuilder
6 1 (0.34%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.34%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.34%) SpecFlow
6 1 (0.34%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.34%) TestRail
6 1 (0.34%) Visual Studio Code
6 1 (0.34%) webpack
General
1 99 (33.67%) Social Skills
2 84 (28.57%) Finance
3 54 (18.37%) Analytical Skills
4 29 (9.86%) Banking
5 24 (8.16%) Public Sector
6 13 (4.42%) Investment Banking
7 10 (3.40%) Legal
7 10 (3.40%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (3.06%) Front Office
8 9 (3.06%) Presentation Skills
9 8 (2.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (2.38%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (1.36%) Military
12 4 (1.36%) Telecoms
13 3 (1.02%) Financial Institution
13 3 (1.02%) Manufacturing
14 2 (0.68%) International Banking
14 2 (0.68%) Local Government
14 2 (0.68%) Retail
Job Titles
1 43 (14.63%) Analyst
2 36 (12.24%) Architect
3 33 (11.22%) Senior
4 30 (10.20%) Developer
5 25 (8.50%) Business Analyst
6 17 (5.78%) Consultant
6 17 (5.78%) Data Engineer
7 15 (5.10%) Lead
8 13 (4.42%) Project Manager
9 12 (4.08%) IT Engineer
9 12 (4.08%) Support Engineer
10 10 (3.40%) IT Support
10 10 (3.40%) Microsoft Engineer
10 10 (3.40%) Solutions Architect
11 9 (3.06%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 9 (3.06%) IT Support Engineer
12 8 (2.72%) Azure Engineer
13 7 (2.38%) Azure Architect
13 7 (2.38%) Programme Manager
14 6 (2.04%) Data Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.72%) REST
2 7 (2.38%) .NET
2 7 (2.38%) React
3 6 (2.04%) Microsoft Graph
3 6 (2.04%) Middleware
4 5 (1.70%) Node.js
4 5 (1.70%) OAuth
5 4 (1.36%) PySpark
5 4 (1.36%) SAML
6 3 (1.02%) AngularJS
6 3 (1.02%) HTML
6 3 (1.02%) JSON
6 3 (1.02%) Kafka
6 3 (1.02%) LangChain
6 3 (1.02%) NumPy
6 3 (1.02%) OpenID
6 3 (1.02%) Pandas
6 3 (1.02%) RESTful
6 3 (1.02%) scikit-learn
6 3 (1.02%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 19 (6.46%) Cloud Native
2 13 (4.42%) Onboarding
3 12 (4.08%) Management Information System
4 10 (3.40%) Security Posture
5 9 (3.06%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.38%) AI Agents
7 6 (2.04%) Data Structures
7 6 (2.04%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.70%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (1.36%) Equities
9 4 (1.36%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 4 (1.36%) Virtual Team
10 3 (1.02%) BYOD
10 3 (1.02%) Cloud Security Posture
10 3 (1.02%) Data Centre
10 3 (1.02%) Derivative
10 3 (1.02%) Distributed Systems
10 3 (1.02%) Fixed Income
10 3 (1.02%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 3 (1.02%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 30 (10.20%) Windows
2 11 (3.74%) Windows 10
3 5 (1.70%) Linux
3 5 (1.70%) Mac OS
3 5 (1.70%) Unix
3 5 (1.70%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.02%) Android
5 2 (0.68%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.34%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.34%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (15.99%) Problem-Solving
1 47 (15.99%) Stakeholder Management
2 40 (13.61%) Business Intelligence
3 39 (13.27%) Migration
4 37 (12.59%) Agile
5 36 (12.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 35 (11.90%) Analytics
7 34 (11.56%) AI
8 32 (10.88%) CI/CD
8 32 (10.88%) Data Governance
9 28 (9.52%) Roadmaps
10 26 (8.84%) Data Modelling
10 26 (8.84%) DevOps
11 23 (7.82%) Change Management
12 20 (6.80%) Continuous Improvement
12 20 (6.80%) Data Pipeline
12 20 (6.80%) Machine Learning
13 19 (6.46%) Decision-Making
13 19 (6.46%) ETL
14 18 (6.12%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 49 (16.67%) SQL
2 37 (12.59%) Python
3 22 (7.48%) PowerShell
4 12 (4.08%) Java
5 10 (3.40%) C#
6 6 (2.04%) Kusto Query Language
7 4 (1.36%) JavaScript
8 3 (1.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 3 (1.02%) PL/SQL
8 3 (1.02%) Shell Script
8 3 (1.02%) T-SQL
9 2 (0.68%) C
9 2 (0.68%) C++
9 2 (0.68%) Perl
9 2 (0.68%) PHP
10 1 (0.34%) COBOL
10 1 (0.34%) Google Apps Script
10 1 (0.34%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.34%) VB
10 1 (0.34%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 44 (14.97%) Security Cleared
2 35 (11.90%) SC Cleared
3 26 (8.84%) Degree
4 9 (3.06%) Microsoft Certification
5 7 (2.38%) CISSP
6 5 (1.70%) Azure Certification
6 5 (1.70%) CISM
6 5 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.70%) PMI Certification
7 4 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (1.36%) CompTIA CySA+
7 4 (1.36%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (1.36%) DV Cleared
8 3 (1.02%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 3 (1.02%) PMP
8 3 (1.02%) TOGAF Certification
9 2 (0.68%) AWS Certification
9 2 (0.68%) GIAC
9 2 (0.68%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.68%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (7.14%) Data Quality
1 21 (7.14%) GDPR
2 18 (6.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (3.74%) Cyber Essentials
3 11 (3.74%) PMO
4 9 (3.06%) QA
5 8 (2.72%) NIST
6 4 (1.36%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (1.02%) IFRS
7 3 (1.02%) ISO 20022
7 3 (1.02%) NCSC
7 3 (1.02%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.02%) SLA
8 2 (0.68%) Basel III
8 2 (0.68%) GRC
8 2 (0.68%) ISO 8583
8 2 (0.68%) MiFID
9 1 (0.34%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.34%) WCAG
System Software
1 37 (12.59%) Active Directory
2 13 (4.42%) Docker
3 5 (1.70%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (1.02%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.34%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.34%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 26 (8.84%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (4.08%) Terraform
3 8 (2.72%) Kubernetes
4 5 (1.70%) SCCM
5 4 (1.36%) Ansible
6 3 (1.02%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (0.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (0.68%) AirWatch
7 2 (0.68%) Kibana
8 1 (0.34%) Autotask
8 1 (0.34%) Grafana
8 1 (0.34%) ITRS Geneos
8 1 (0.34%) logstash
8 1 (0.34%) Opsgenie
8 1 (0.34%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 19 (6.46%) Databricks
2 14 (4.76%) Salesforce
2 14 (4.76%) ServiceNow
3 8 (2.72%) Oracle
3 8 (2.72%) SAP
4 7 (2.38%) CyberArk
4 7 (2.38%) Google
5 6 (2.04%) Foundry
5 6 (2.04%) OpenAI
6 5 (1.70%) Cisco
6 5 (1.70%) LogRhythm
6 5 (1.70%) VMware
7 4 (1.36%) Apple
7 4 (1.36%) Citrix
7 4 (1.36%) Fortinet
7 4 (1.36%) Informatica
7 4 (1.36%) Splunk
8 3 (1.02%) Palo Alto
8 3 (1.02%) Trend Micro
8 3 (1.02%) Workday