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 20 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 424 457 525
Rank change year-on-year +33 +68 +39
Contract jobs citing MCSE 47 76 115
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.19% 0.21% 0.24%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.61% 0.68% 0.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 33 62 91
10th Percentile £172 £270 £107
25th Percentile £300 £301 £219
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £400 £475
Median % change year-on-year +31.25% -15.79% +11.76%
75th Percentile £638 £556 £575
90th Percentile £650 £630 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £388 £485
% change year-on-year +35.48% -20.10% +14.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 4
10th Percentile £18.79 £13.10 -
25th Percentile £19.24 £15.13 £16.25
Median hourly rate £19.97 £18.00 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.94% +2.86% -24.63%
75th Percentile £19.99 £27.41 £20.68
90th Percentile £19.99 £42.11 £24.16
UK median hourly rate £19.97 £17.50 £17.50
% change year-on-year +14.11% - -24.63%

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 7,654 11,195 13,355
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.50% 30.75% 27.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,863 6,954 8,953
10th Percentile £281 £313 £335
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £713 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £533 £550
% change year-on-year -1.50% -3.09% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 439 970 676
10th Percentile £18.13 £14.00 £14.38
25th Percentile £22.40 £17.91 £21.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £40.00 £52.93
Median % change year-on-year - -24.42% +27.98%
75th Percentile £67.50 £61.60 £68.25
90th Percentile £81.48 £77.50 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £40.00 £54.99
% change year-on-year -6.25% -27.26% +24.34%

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 20 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 20 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 West +42 15 £550 +2.33% 13
South East +34 13 £650 +20.93% 38
Midlands +19 9 £196 +67.74% 25
West Midlands +11 9 £196 +67.74% 15
North West +10 6 £400 +31.15% 13
North of England +6 6 £400 -11.11% 29
London +41 4 £287 -11.85% 17
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 (34.04%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (21.28%) SharePoint
3 5 (10.64%) Confluence
4 3 (6.38%) Skype for Business
5 2 (4.26%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (2.13%) IBM Notes
Applications
1 14 (29.79%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (4.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (4.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 16 (34.04%) Azure
2 15 (31.91%) Microsoft 365
3 8 (17.02%) OneDrive
4 6 (12.77%) Entra ID
5 5 (10.64%) AWS
6 2 (4.26%) IaaS
6 2 (4.26%) PaaS
6 2 (4.26%) Power Platform
6 2 (4.26%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (21.28%) VPN
2 8 (17.02%) DNS
2 8 (17.02%) SAN
3 7 (14.89%) iSCSI
3 7 (14.89%) Skype
4 5 (10.64%) Fibre Channel
4 5 (10.64%) VSAN
4 5 (10.64%) WAN
5 4 (8.51%) DHCP
5 4 (8.51%) VLAN
6 3 (6.38%) BGP
6 3 (6.38%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (6.38%) Firewall
6 3 (6.38%) MPLS
6 3 (6.38%) NGFW
6 3 (6.38%) OSPF
6 3 (6.38%) SD-WAN
6 3 (6.38%) TCP/IP
7 2 (4.26%) Cisco ASA
7 2 (4.26%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (6.38%) SQL Server
2 2 (4.26%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (2.13%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (2.13%) DTS
3 1 (2.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (2.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 7 (14.89%) JIRA
2 1 (2.13%) Bitbucket
2 1 (2.13%) Git
2 1 (2.13%) Jenkins
General
1 24 (51.06%) Social Skills
2 12 (25.53%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (14.89%) Public Sector
4 6 (12.77%) Legal
5 2 (4.26%) Military
5 2 (4.26%) Publishing
6 1 (2.13%) Banking
6 1 (2.13%) Finance
6 1 (2.13%) Financial Institution
6 1 (2.13%) International Banking
6 1 (2.13%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 15 (31.91%) Architect
2 9 (19.15%) Senior
3 8 (17.02%) Technical Architect
4 7 (14.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 6 (12.77%) Infrastructure Architect
6 5 (10.64%) VMware Architect
7 4 (8.51%) Deployment Engineer
7 4 (8.51%) Senior Architect
7 4 (8.51%) Senior Technical Architect
7 4 (8.51%) Senior Wintel Engineer
7 4 (8.51%) Wintel Engineer
8 3 (6.38%) Desktop Engineer
8 3 (6.38%) IT Engineer
8 3 (6.38%) Rollout Engineer
9 2 (4.26%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 2 (4.26%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
9 2 (4.26%) Azure Architect
9 2 (4.26%) Microsoft 365 Architect
9 2 (4.26%) Wintel Architect
9 2 (4.26%) Wintel Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (4.26%) Flash
2 1 (2.13%) .NET
2 1 (2.13%) Elastic Stack
2 1 (2.13%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 14 (29.79%) PKI
2 7 (14.89%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (10.64%) Data Centre
4 3 (6.38%) Clustering
4 3 (6.38%) Public Cloud
4 3 (6.38%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (4.26%) Driving Licence
5 2 (4.26%) Management Information System
6 1 (2.13%) Blackberry
6 1 (2.13%) Cyber Threat
6 1 (2.13%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 36 (76.60%) Windows
2 24 (51.06%) Windows Server
3 14 (29.79%) Windows Server 2012
4 13 (27.66%) Windows Server 2019
5 11 (23.40%) Windows 10
6 8 (17.02%) Windows Server 2016
7 6 (12.77%) Linux
8 4 (8.51%) Mac OS
8 4 (8.51%) Unix
9 2 (4.26%) Android
9 2 (4.26%) Apple iOS
9 2 (4.26%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (48.94%) ITIL
2 11 (23.40%) Problem-Solving
3 9 (19.15%) Critical Thinking
4 8 (17.02%) High Availability
4 8 (17.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 7 (14.89%) Agile
5 7 (14.89%) Collaborative Working
5 7 (14.89%) NsoIT
6 6 (12.77%) Service Management
6 6 (12.77%) System Testing
6 6 (12.77%) TOGAF
7 5 (10.64%) CI/CD
7 5 (10.64%) DevSecOps
7 5 (10.64%) Edge Virtualization
7 5 (10.64%) Infrastructure as Code
7 5 (10.64%) Performance Analysis
7 5 (10.64%) Server Management
8 4 (8.51%) Containerisation
8 4 (8.51%) RBAC
8 4 (8.51%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 13 (27.66%) SQL
2 11 (23.40%) PowerShell
3 2 (4.26%) Python
3 2 (4.26%) VB
3 2 (4.26%) VBScript
4 1 (2.13%) Bash
4 1 (2.13%) Bicep
4 1 (2.13%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 47 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 25 (53.19%) Security Cleared
3 19 (40.43%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 18 (38.30%) SC Cleared
5 16 (34.04%) Degree
6 10 (21.28%) MCSA
7 6 (12.77%) DV Cleared
8 5 (10.64%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (10.64%) VCP5
8 5 (10.64%) VCP6
9 4 (8.51%) CCNA
9 4 (8.51%) MCP
10 3 (6.38%) CCNP
11 2 (4.26%) A+ Certification
11 2 (4.26%) Azure Certification
11 2 (4.26%) Master's Degree
12 1 (2.13%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 1 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
12 1 (2.13%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (2.13%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (12.77%) NCSC
2 4 (8.51%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (8.51%) NIST
3 2 (4.26%) SLA
4 1 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 25 (53.19%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (40.43%) Active Directory
3 11 (23.40%) VMware ESXi
4 7 (14.89%) VMware NSX
5 5 (10.64%) NFS
5 5 (10.64%) vSphere
6 4 (8.51%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (6.38%) Hyper-V
8 2 (4.26%) BitLocker
8 2 (4.26%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (4.26%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 9 (19.15%) SCCM
2 8 (17.02%) WSUS
3 7 (14.89%) vCenter Server
4 4 (8.51%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (4.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (4.26%) OPNET
5 2 (4.26%) SCOM
6 1 (2.13%) Ansible
6 1 (2.13%) CSIRT
6 1 (2.13%) PowerCLI
6 1 (2.13%) SolarWinds Orion
6 1 (2.13%) Terraform
Vendors
1 42 (89.36%) Microsoft
2 26 (55.32%) VMware
3 10 (21.28%) Cisco
4 8 (17.02%) Veeam
5 6 (12.77%) Splunk
6 5 (10.64%) NetApp
6 5 (10.64%) Palo Alto
7 4 (8.51%) Citrix
8 3 (6.38%) Atlassian
8 3 (6.38%) ServiceNow
9 2 (4.26%) Apple
9 2 (4.26%) McAfee
9 2 (4.26%) SolarWinds
9 2 (4.26%) Symantec
10 1 (2.13%) Dell
10 1 (2.13%) Google
10 1 (2.13%) Lotus
10 1 (2.13%) Oracle