Windows Server Contract Job Trends in England

Microsoft Windows Server
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Windows Server skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 2 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
2 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 176 126 74
Rank change year-on-year -50 -52 +27
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 494 608 1,115
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.61% 2.00% 2.89%
As % of the Operating Systems category 11.88% 14.22% 18.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 374 397 722
10th Percentile £225 £250 £200
25th Percentile £382 £360 £343
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £467
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +1.82% -1.79%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £696 £641 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £468
% change year-on-year +5.26% +1.50% -0.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 8 37
10th Percentile £12.97 £42.17 £20.95
25th Percentile £15.50 £48.75 £31.25
Median hourly rate £21.00 £61.19 £49.73
Median % change year-on-year -65.68% +23.04% +98.92%
75th Percentile £32.77 £103.00 £68.63
90th Percentile £74.26 £112.00 £77.12
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £51.50 £49.73
% change year-on-year -59.22% +3.56% +95.98%

All Operating Systems
England

Windows Server 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 England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 4,159 4,276 5,949
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 13.56% 14.09% 15.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,726 2,628 4,095
10th Percentile £181 £200 £181
25th Percentile £263 £325 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -5.88%
75th Percentile £572 £588 £613
90th Percentile £675 £699 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £480
% change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -6.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 335 163 319
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.52 £15.45
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.15 £18.50
Median hourly rate £24.00 £60.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -60.00% +84.62% +30.00%
75th Percentile £60.75 £68.46 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.84 £70.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £50.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year -50.00% +66.67% +20.00%

Windows Server
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Windows Server job vacancy trend in England

Windows Server
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Windows Server.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Windows Server

Windows Server
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows Server in England over the 6 months to 2 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Windows Server in England

Windows Server
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Windows Server.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Windows Server

Windows Server
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Windows Server in England over the 6 months to 2 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Windows Server in England

Windows Server
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 Windows Server within the England region over the 6 months to 2 December 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
London -33 161 £500 +5.26% 87
South East -28 98 £500 - 161
South West -9 70 £550 +15.79% 48
North of England -34 66 £416 -5.40% 107
Midlands -43 50 £513 +36.67% 54
North West -1 45 £453 -4.63% 56
East of England +7 44 £438 -20.45% 57
West Midlands -26 40 £525 +101.92% 33
Yorkshire -35 19 £375 -14.77% 45
East Midlands -36 10 £415 +3.75% 20
North East -8 5 £550 +76.00% 10
Windows Server
UK

Windows Server
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 64 (12.96%) Microsoft Exchange
2 39 (7.89%) SharePoint
3 26 (5.26%) IIS
4 18 (3.64%) Apache
5 17 (3.44%) WebSphere
6 9 (1.82%) Confluence
6 9 (1.82%) JBoss
7 8 (1.62%) iPlanet
7 8 (1.62%) WebSphere Application Server
8 6 (1.21%) SAS
9 5 (1.01%) Skype for Business
10 3 (0.61%) HCL Notes
11 2 (0.40%) Documentum
11 2 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
11 2 (0.40%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.40%) WordPress
12 1 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2013
12 1 (0.20%) nginx
12 1 (0.20%) SharePoint 2010
12 1 (0.20%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 30 (6.07%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.40%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.40%) Windchill
4 1 (0.20%) InfoPath
4 1 (0.20%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 4 (0.81%) Maximo
2 2 (0.40%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.20%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.20%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 175 (35.43%) Azure
2 100 (20.24%) Microsoft 365
3 70 (14.17%) Entra ID
4 52 (10.53%) AWS
5 22 (4.45%) IaaS
6 21 (4.25%) SaaS
7 12 (2.43%) Azure DevOps
7 12 (2.43%) PaaS
8 8 (1.62%) GCP
9 7 (1.42%) Amazon S3
9 7 (1.42%) GitHub
9 7 (1.42%) OpenShift
9 7 (1.42%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 6 (1.21%) Azure Monitor
10 6 (1.21%) Nutanix
10 6 (1.21%) Power Platform
11 5 (1.01%) Amazon EC2
11 5 (1.01%) Amazon EKS
11 5 (1.01%) Azure Sentinel
11 5 (1.01%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 128 (25.91%) DNS
2 101 (20.45%) Firewall
3 86 (17.41%) DHCP
4 52 (10.53%) TCP/IP
5 38 (7.69%) VPN
6 31 (6.28%) LAN
6 31 (6.28%) WAN
7 24 (4.86%) SAN
8 23 (4.66%) VLAN
9 19 (3.85%) Cisco IOS
10 17 (3.44%) Cisco Firepower
10 17 (3.44%) Cisco ISE
10 17 (3.44%) Junos
10 17 (3.44%) Network Security
11 16 (3.24%) iSCSI
12 15 (3.04%) Wireless
13 12 (2.43%) Fibre Channel
13 12 (2.43%) Wi-Fi
14 11 (2.23%) Kerberos
15 9 (1.82%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (11.74%) SQL Server
2 25 (5.06%) Oracle Database
3 7 (1.42%) Amazon RDS
4 5 (1.01%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.81%) DB2
5 4 (0.81%) Power BI
6 3 (0.61%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.40%) Apache Hive
7 2 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.40%) Hadoop
7 2 (0.40%) Impala
7 2 (0.40%) MySQL
7 2 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.40%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.20%) BusinessObjects
8 1 (0.20%) Oracle Discoverer
8 1 (0.20%) Redis
8 1 (0.20%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 27 (5.47%) Git
2 26 (5.26%) Jenkins
3 18 (3.64%) GitLab
4 11 (2.23%) Sonatype Nexus
5 9 (1.82%) Bitbucket Server
5 9 (1.82%) CA Release Automation
5 9 (1.82%) JIRA
6 5 (1.01%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.81%) Visual Studio
8 3 (0.61%) Fiddler
8 3 (0.61%) MSI
8 3 (0.61%) Octopus Deploy
8 3 (0.61%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.61%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.40%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.40%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.40%) TeamCity
10 1 (0.20%) Maven
10 1 (0.20%) Postman
10 1 (0.20%) Selenium
General
1 126 (25.51%) Social Skills
2 53 (10.73%) Finance
3 46 (9.31%) Analytical Skills
3 46 (9.31%) Public Sector
4 32 (6.48%) Documentation Skills
5 21 (4.25%) Banking
6 19 (3.85%) Legal
7 13 (2.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 10 (2.02%) Telecoms
9 8 (1.62%) Law
10 6 (1.21%) Manufacturing
10 6 (1.21%) Military
10 6 (1.21%) Spanish Language
11 5 (1.01%) Front Office
11 5 (1.01%) Local Government
11 5 (1.01%) Marketing
12 3 (0.61%) Electronics
12 3 (0.61%) Financial Institution
12 3 (0.61%) Japanese Language
12 3 (0.61%) Retail
Job Titles
1 78 (15.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 51 (10.32%) Support Engineer
3 45 (9.11%) Analyst
4 44 (8.91%) Architect
5 34 (6.88%) Senior
6 33 (6.68%) Platform Engineer
7 27 (5.47%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 27 (5.47%) Network Engineer
8 24 (4.86%) 2nd Line Support
8 24 (4.86%) Support Analyst
9 23 (4.66%) IT Support
10 22 (4.45%) 3rd Line Support
11 21 (4.25%) Cloud Engineer
11 21 (4.25%) Technical Analyst
11 21 (4.25%) Windows Engineer
12 20 (4.05%) Developer
13 19 (3.85%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
13 19 (3.85%) IT Engineer
13 19 (3.85%) Technical Support
13 19 (3.85%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (5.06%) OAuth
2 23 (4.66%) SAML
3 22 (4.45%) OpenID
4 16 (3.24%) .NET
5 15 (3.04%) Middleware
6 14 (2.83%) LDAP
7 13 (2.63%) OAuth2
8 11 (2.23%) REST
9 9 (1.82%) SOAP
10 8 (1.62%) Web Services
11 7 (1.42%) .NET Framework
12 6 (1.21%) XML
12 6 (1.21%) XMPP
13 5 (1.01%) ASP.NET Web API
13 5 (1.01%) React
13 5 (1.01%) YAML
14 4 (0.81%) RESTful
14 4 (0.81%) WCF
15 3 (0.61%) FIX Protocol
15 3 (0.61%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 40 (8.10%) Data Centre
1 40 (8.10%) PKI
2 21 (4.25%) Hybrid Cloud
3 20 (4.05%) NHS
3 20 (4.05%) Replication
4 17 (3.44%) Private Cloud
5 13 (2.63%) Product Ownership
6 12 (2.43%) Driving Licence
6 12 (2.43%) Enterprise Software
7 11 (2.23%) Management Information System
8 10 (2.02%) Onboarding
9 9 (1.82%) CMDB
10 8 (1.62%) Cloud Native
10 8 (1.62%) Self-Motivation
11 7 (1.42%) Client/Server
11 7 (1.42%) iPhone
12 6 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
12 6 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
12 6 (1.21%) Enterprise Storage
12 6 (1.21%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 492 (99.60%) Windows
2 136 (27.53%) Linux
3 43 (8.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 36 (7.29%) Windows 10
5 35 (7.09%) Windows Server 2019
6 29 (5.87%) Windows Server 2012
7 22 (4.45%) Windows Server 2016
8 18 (3.64%) Unix
9 16 (3.24%) Ubuntu
10 15 (3.04%) CentOS
11 8 (1.62%) Windows Server 2003
11 8 (1.62%) Windows Server 2008
12 7 (1.42%) VMS
13 6 (1.21%) Android
14 5 (1.01%) Debian
14 5 (1.01%) Mac OS
15 3 (0.61%) Oracle Linux
15 3 (0.61%) Windows 7
16 2 (0.40%) Apple iOS
16 2 (0.40%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (22.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 86 (17.41%) ITIL
2 86 (17.41%) Problem-Solving
3 74 (14.98%) Agile
4 65 (13.16%) Migration
5 63 (12.75%) Service Management
6 55 (11.13%) DevOps
7 53 (10.73%) CI/CD
8 46 (9.31%) Continuous Improvement
9 44 (8.91%) ITSM
10 39 (7.89%) Identity Access Management
11 35 (7.09%) Disaster Recovery
12 34 (6.88%) Change Management
12 34 (6.88%) Infrastructure as Code
13 33 (6.68%) High Availability
13 33 (6.68%) Project Delivery
14 32 (6.48%) Change Control
14 32 (6.48%) Cybersecurity
15 31 (6.28%) Platform Engineering
16 27 (5.47%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 169 (34.21%) PowerShell
2 75 (15.18%) SQL
3 62 (12.55%) Python
4 30 (6.07%) Bash
5 18 (3.64%) C#
6 11 (2.23%) Shell Script
7 10 (2.02%) Perl
7 10 (2.02%) T-SQL
8 9 (1.82%) Groovy
9 8 (1.62%) JavaScript
10 7 (1.42%) Bicep
11 6 (1.21%) PL/SQL
12 5 (1.01%) Java
13 4 (0.81%) PHP
14 3 (0.61%) VBScript
15 2 (0.40%) Delphi
15 2 (0.40%) JCL
15 2 (0.40%) LotusScript
15 2 (0.40%) REXX
15 2 (0.40%) VBA
Qualifications
1 177 (35.83%) Security Cleared
2 108 (21.86%) SC Cleared
3 73 (14.78%) DV Cleared
4 67 (13.56%) Microsoft Certification
5 52 (10.53%) Degree
6 30 (6.07%) MCSE
7 22 (4.45%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (4.05%) CCNA
9 19 (3.85%) CCNP
10 18 (3.64%) AWS Certification
11 17 (3.44%) Azure Certification
12 13 (2.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 12 (2.43%) ITIL Certification
14 10 (2.02%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 9 (1.82%) CCDP
16 8 (1.62%) Computer Science Degree
17 7 (1.42%) Master's Degree
18 6 (1.21%) HNC
18 6 (1.21%) MCP
18 6 (1.21%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (3.44%) QA
2 12 (2.43%) SLA
3 10 (2.02%) GDPR
4 9 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (1.62%) NIST
6 6 (1.21%) NCSC
7 3 (0.61%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.61%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.40%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.20%) DICOM
9 1 (0.20%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.20%) HL7
9 1 (0.20%) IEC 61131
9 1 (0.20%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.20%) RMADS
System Software
1 295 (59.72%) Active Directory
2 128 (25.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 48 (9.72%) Hyper-V
4 31 (6.28%) vSphere
5 29 (5.87%) Docker
6 28 (5.67%) VMware ESXi
7 27 (5.47%) Virtual Machines
8 25 (5.06%) VMware NSX
9 15 (3.04%) NFS
10 13 (2.63%) Terminal Services
11 12 (2.43%) Virtual Servers
12 9 (1.82%) Virtual Desktop
13 6 (1.21%) Tivoli Directory Server
14 5 (1.01%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.81%) Firmware
16 2 (0.40%) HDFS
16 2 (0.40%) Job Entry Subsystem
16 2 (0.40%) Sendmail
16 2 (0.40%) XenDesktop
17 1 (0.20%) KVM
Systems Management
1 65 (13.16%) SCCM
2 58 (11.74%) Microsoft Intune
3 44 (8.91%) Terraform
4 43 (8.70%) Ansible
5 33 (6.68%) vCenter Server
6 29 (5.87%) Single Sign-On
7 26 (5.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 24 (4.86%) SCOM
9 19 (3.85%) WSUS
10 17 (3.44%) Kubernetes
11 10 (2.02%) Progress Chef
12 9 (1.82%) CA Single Sign-On
13 8 (1.62%) CA Wily
13 8 (1.62%) SCOrch
14 7 (1.42%) CASB
14 7 (1.42%) vRealize
15 6 (1.21%) Puppet
15 6 (1.21%) Tivoli
16 4 (0.81%) NetBackup
16 4 (0.81%) Packer
Vendors
1 248 (50.20%) Microsoft
2 182 (36.84%) VMware
3 62 (12.55%) Cisco
4 54 (10.93%) Citrix
5 47 (9.51%) Oracle
6 39 (7.89%) Red Hat
7 32 (6.48%) Splunk
7 32 (6.48%) Veeam
8 30 (6.07%) SolarWinds
9 22 (4.45%) Juniper
10 21 (4.25%) Dell
11 16 (3.24%) IBM
12 15 (3.04%) NetApp
13 11 (2.23%) Broadcom
13 11 (2.23%) HP
14 9 (1.82%) Atlassian
14 9 (1.82%) F5
15 8 (1.62%) CyberArk
15 8 (1.62%) McAfee
15 8 (1.62%) ServiceNow
458 Windows Server jobs in England