MCSE Contracts in England

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for MCSE qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 429 467 516
Rank change year-on-year +38 +49 +43
Contract jobs citing MCSE 56 75 137
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.23% 0.20% 0.27%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.73% 0.65% 0.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 39 58 110
10th Percentile £219 £250 £107
25th Percentile £350 £300 £223
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £375 £463
Median % change year-on-year +46.67% -18.92% +8.82%
75th Percentile £644 £556 £583
90th Percentile £729 £601 £650
UK median daily rate £550 £363 £475
% change year-on-year +51.72% -23.68% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 7 5
10th Percentile £18.79 £14.45 -
25th Percentile £19.24 £17.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £19.97 £30.00 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -33.43% +62.16% -20.32%
75th Percentile £19.99 £39.77 £20.00
90th Percentile £19.99 £44.95 £23.89
UK median hourly rate £19.97 £17.50 £18.50
% change year-on-year +14.11% -5.41% -20.32%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England

MCSE falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 7,629 11,624 13,999
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.33% 31.25% 27.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,849 7,135 9,365
10th Percentile £290 £306 £330
25th Percentile £415 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% +4.76%
75th Percentile £629 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £535 £550
% change year-on-year -1.87% -2.73% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 435 985 748
10th Percentile £18.13 £14.00 £15.15
25th Percentile £22.39 £18.13 £20.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £40.00 £52.40
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -23.66% +39.73%
75th Percentile £67.75 £62.50 £68.25
90th Percentile £81.74 £75.25 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £40.00 £54.00
% change year-on-year - -25.93% +29.16%

MCSE
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing MCSE as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for MCSE in England

MCSE
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing MCSE in England.

Daily rate trend for MCSE in England

MCSE
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MCSE in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MCSE in England

MCSE
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing MCSE in England.

Hourly rate trend for MCSE in England

MCSE
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCSE within the England region over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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
South East +47 22 £650 +20.93% 19
South West +48 15 £550 +2.33% 3
Midlands +25 8 £218 +85.90% 9
West Midlands +20 8 £218 +85.90% 6
North West +12 6 £400 +33.33% 7
North of England +10 6 £400 - 8
London +28 5 £350 +7.69% 12
MCSE
UK

MCSE
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 16 (28.57%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (17.86%) SharePoint
3 5 (8.93%) Confluence
4 3 (5.36%) Skype for Business
5 2 (3.57%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (1.79%) IBM Notes
Applications
1 14 (25.00%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (3.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (3.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 21 (37.50%) Azure
2 16 (28.57%) Microsoft 365
3 9 (16.07%) AWS
4 8 (14.29%) IaaS
4 8 (14.29%) OneDrive
4 8 (14.29%) PaaS
4 8 (14.29%) SaaS
5 7 (12.50%) Entra ID
6 2 (3.57%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.79%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 11 (19.64%) VSAN
2 10 (17.86%) VPN
3 9 (16.07%) DNS
4 8 (14.29%) SAN
5 7 (12.50%) Skype
6 6 (10.71%) iSCSI
7 5 (8.93%) DHCP
7 5 (8.93%) WAN
8 4 (7.14%) Fibre Channel
8 4 (7.14%) VLAN
9 3 (5.36%) BGP
9 3 (5.36%) Cisco Nexus
9 3 (5.36%) Firewall
9 3 (5.36%) MPLS
9 3 (5.36%) NGFW
9 3 (5.36%) OSPF
9 3 (5.36%) SD-WAN
9 3 (5.36%) TCP/IP
10 2 (3.57%) LAN
10 2 (3.57%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (5.36%) SQL Server
2 2 (3.57%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (1.79%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (1.79%) DTS
3 1 (1.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (1.79%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 7 (12.50%) JIRA
2 1 (1.79%) Bitbucket
2 1 (1.79%) Git
2 1 (1.79%) Jenkins
General
1 24 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 12 (21.43%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (16.07%) Public Sector
4 6 (10.71%) Legal
5 2 (3.57%) Finance
5 2 (3.57%) Military
5 2 (3.57%) Publishing
6 1 (1.79%) Banking
6 1 (1.79%) Financial Institution
6 1 (1.79%) International Banking
6 1 (1.79%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 24 (42.86%) Architect
2 15 (26.79%) Senior
3 14 (25.00%) Technical Architect
4 10 (17.86%) Senior Architect
4 10 (17.86%) Senior Technical Architect
5 7 (12.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 6 (10.71%) VMware Architect
7 5 (8.93%) Infrastructure Architect
8 4 (7.14%) Infrastructure Technical Architect
8 4 (7.14%) Principal Architect
8 4 (7.14%) Senior Wintel Engineer
8 4 (7.14%) Technical Infrastructure Architect
8 4 (7.14%) Wintel Engineer
9 3 (5.36%) Deployment Engineer
9 3 (5.36%) Desktop Engineer
10 2 (3.57%) 3rd Line Support
10 2 (3.57%) Rollout Engineer
10 2 (3.57%) Test Engineer
10 2 (3.57%) Virtualisation Engineer
10 2 (3.57%) Wintel Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.57%) Flash
2 1 (1.79%) .NET
2 1 (1.79%) Elastic Stack
2 1 (1.79%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 20 (35.71%) PKI
2 13 (23.21%) Hybrid Cloud
3 7 (12.50%) Public Cloud
4 5 (8.93%) Data Centre
5 3 (5.36%) Clustering
5 3 (5.36%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (3.57%) Driving Licence
6 2 (3.57%) Management Information System
7 1 (1.79%) Blackberry
7 1 (1.79%) Cyber Threat
7 1 (1.79%) NHS
7 1 (1.79%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 35 (62.50%) Windows
2 24 (42.86%) Windows Server
3 14 (25.00%) Windows Server 2012
4 12 (21.43%) Windows 10
4 12 (21.43%) Windows Server 2019
5 8 (14.29%) Windows Server 2016
6 6 (10.71%) Linux
7 4 (7.14%) Mac OS
7 4 (7.14%) Unix
8 2 (3.57%) Android
8 2 (3.57%) Apple iOS
8 2 (3.57%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (57.14%) ITIL
2 16 (28.57%) TOGAF
3 15 (26.79%) CI/CD
3 15 (26.79%) Infrastructure as Code
4 14 (25.00%) Containerisation
4 14 (25.00%) Continuous Delivery
4 14 (25.00%) Continuous Integration
4 14 (25.00%) Microservices
4 14 (25.00%) Zachman Framework
5 12 (21.43%) IT Strategy
5 12 (21.43%) Technology Strategy
6 11 (19.64%) Agile
6 11 (19.64%) DevSecOps
6 11 (19.64%) Problem-Solving
7 10 (17.86%) Matrix Organization
7 10 (17.86%) Use Case
8 9 (16.07%) Critical Thinking
9 8 (14.29%) High Availability
9 8 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 7 (12.50%) NsoIT
Programming Languages
1 12 (21.43%) PowerShell
1 12 (21.43%) SQL
2 2 (3.57%) Python
2 2 (3.57%) VB
2 2 (3.57%) VBScript
3 1 (1.79%) Bash
3 1 (1.79%) Bicep
3 1 (1.79%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 56 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 33 (58.93%) Security Cleared
3 27 (48.21%) SC Cleared
4 24 (42.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 16 (28.57%) Degree
6 10 (17.86%) MCSA
7 9 (16.07%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (16.07%) DV Cleared
8 7 (12.50%) CCNP
9 4 (7.14%) CCNA
9 4 (7.14%) MCP
9 4 (7.14%) VCP5
9 4 (7.14%) VCP6
10 2 (3.57%) A+ Certification
10 2 (3.57%) Azure Certification
10 2 (3.57%) Master's Degree
11 1 (1.79%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (1.79%) Dell Certification
11 1 (1.79%) OCA
11 1 (1.79%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (28.57%) NCSC
2 14 (25.00%) NIST
3 10 (17.86%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (3.57%) SLA
5 1 (1.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 30 (53.57%) VMware Infrastructure
2 20 (35.71%) Active Directory
3 13 (23.21%) VMware NSX
4 10 (17.86%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (7.14%) NFS
5 4 (7.14%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (7.14%) vSphere
6 3 (5.36%) Hyper-V
7 2 (3.57%) BitLocker
7 2 (3.57%) Microsoft App-V
7 2 (3.57%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 9 (16.07%) SCCM
2 8 (14.29%) WSUS
3 7 (12.50%) vCenter Server
4 4 (7.14%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (5.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (3.57%) OPNET
6 2 (3.57%) SCOM
7 1 (1.79%) Ansible
7 1 (1.79%) CSIRT
7 1 (1.79%) PowerCLI
7 1 (1.79%) SolarWinds Orion
7 1 (1.79%) Terraform
Vendors
1 41 (73.21%) Microsoft
2 35 (62.50%) VMware
3 16 (28.57%) Cisco
4 11 (19.64%) Palo Alto
5 7 (12.50%) Veeam
6 5 (8.93%) Splunk
7 4 (7.14%) Citrix
7 4 (7.14%) NetApp
8 3 (5.36%) Atlassian
8 3 (5.36%) ServiceNow
9 2 (3.57%) Apple
9 2 (3.57%) McAfee
9 2 (3.57%) SolarWinds
9 2 (3.57%) Symantec
10 1 (1.79%) Dell
10 1 (1.79%) Google
10 1 (1.79%) Lotus
10 1 (1.79%) Oracle