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 28 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
28 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 193 131 92
Rank change year-on-year -62 -39 -8
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 583 526 888
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.40% 2.21% 2.42%
As % of the Operating Systems category 14.31% 15.71% 17.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 403 375 665
10th Percentile £251 £350 £206
25th Percentile £400 £428 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +15.79% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £595
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £475 £525 £463
% change year-on-year -9.52% +13.51% -7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 4 17
10th Percentile £19.25 £14.15 £14.60
25th Percentile £20.91 £14.91 £16.00
Median hourly rate £26.22 £17.04 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.87% -55.74% +7.69%
75th Percentile £59.62 £32.97 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.00 £57.44 £65.46
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £17.63 £38.50
% change year-on-year +41.84% -54.22% +20.31%

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 4,074 3,348 5,052
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.76% 14.05% 13.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,650 2,287 3,451
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.19% -1.05% -6.86%
75th Percentile £570 £592 £588
90th Percentile £650 £695 £700
UK median daily rate £459 £469 £474
% change year-on-year -2.08% -1.11% -5.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 154 371
10th Percentile £15.91 £15.10 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.27 £15.50
Median hourly rate £37.50 £20.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +87.50% -11.11% -44.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £56.88 £61.80
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £35.11 £22.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +59.59% -2.22% -47.06%

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 28 May 2026.

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 28 May 2026.

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 28 May 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
London -66 170 £490 -6.76% 56
South East -31 137 £525 -1.69% 89
North of England -84 87 £445 -7.29% 59
Midlands -25 67 £438 -2.78% 43
East of England -12 63 £450 -18.18% 32
North West -41 63 £425 - 35
South West -35 57 £511 -12.98% 42
West Midlands -41 41 £430 +7.50% 22
East Midlands -10 24 £450 -10.00% 21
Yorkshire -68 22 £500 -6.98% 20
North East -32 2 £330 -34.00% 5
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 70 (12.01%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (5.49%) IIS
3 26 (4.46%) SharePoint
4 9 (1.54%) nginx
4 9 (1.54%) Tomcat
5 7 (1.20%) Apache
6 3 (0.51%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.34%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.34%) SAS
7 2 (0.34%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.17%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.17%) Confluence
8 1 (0.17%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 11 (1.89%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 11 (1.89%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.51%) Veritas eDiscovery
3 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle FAH
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
Cloud Services
1 216 (37.05%) Azure
2 104 (17.84%) Microsoft 365
3 95 (16.30%) Entra ID
4 61 (10.46%) AWS
5 26 (4.46%) IaaS
6 20 (3.43%) Azure Monitor
7 17 (2.92%) Power Platform
8 15 (2.57%) PaaS
9 11 (1.89%) GCP
10 10 (1.72%) GitHub
10 10 (1.72%) Nutanix
11 9 (1.54%) Azure DevOps
12 8 (1.37%) SaaS
13 7 (1.20%) Amazon EC2
14 6 (1.03%) Azure Sentinel
14 6 (1.03%) Cohesity
15 5 (0.86%) GitHub Actions
15 5 (0.86%) Microsoft Copilot
16 4 (0.69%) Azure Stack
16 4 (0.69%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 197 (33.79%) DNS
2 136 (23.33%) DHCP
3 100 (17.15%) Firewall
4 52 (8.92%) VPN
5 46 (7.89%) WAN
6 42 (7.20%) TCP/IP
7 39 (6.69%) LAN
8 26 (4.46%) Network Security
9 21 (3.60%) SAN
10 15 (2.57%) Kerberos
10 15 (2.57%) VLAN
11 14 (2.40%) SMTP
12 13 (2.23%) FTP
12 13 (2.23%) SSL
13 12 (2.06%) VoIP
14 11 (1.89%) Wi-Fi
15 9 (1.54%) NAS
15 9 (1.54%) SSH
16 8 (1.37%) Skype
16 8 (1.37%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 115 (19.73%) SQL Server
2 17 (2.92%) Power BI
3 11 (1.89%) Elasticsearch
3 11 (1.89%) Oracle Database
4 8 (1.37%) NoSQL
5 7 (1.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (1.03%) DB2
6 6 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (0.86%) Relational Database
8 4 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.69%) Oracle BI EE
9 3 (0.51%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.51%) GIS
9 3 (0.51%) MySQL
10 2 (0.34%) Big Data
10 2 (0.34%) MongoDB
10 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.17%) Oracle Database 11g
11 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 12 (2.06%) JIRA
2 10 (1.72%) Visual Studio
3 6 (1.03%) Jenkins
3 6 (1.03%) Robot Framework
4 5 (0.86%) Git
4 5 (0.86%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.51%) GitLab
5 3 (0.51%) MSI
6 2 (0.34%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.34%) InstallShield
7 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.17%) eggPlant
7 1 (0.17%) GoCD
7 1 (0.17%) Octopus Deploy
7 1 (0.17%) Postman
7 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 114 (19.55%) Social Skills
2 63 (10.81%) Finance
3 57 (9.78%) Public Sector
4 46 (7.89%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (3.77%) Banking
5 22 (3.77%) Documentation Skills
6 17 (2.92%) Legal
7 14 (2.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 12 (2.06%) Military
9 9 (1.54%) Law
9 9 (1.54%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (1.20%) Local Government
11 5 (0.86%) Marketing
11 5 (0.86%) Retail
12 4 (0.69%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.69%) Police
13 3 (0.51%) Front Office
13 3 (0.51%) Telecoms
14 2 (0.34%) Aerospace
14 2 (0.34%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 140 (24.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 42 (7.20%) Senior
3 39 (6.69%) Support Engineer
4 38 (6.52%) Analyst
5 31 (5.32%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 31 (5.32%) Cloud Engineer
5 31 (5.32%) Wintel Engineer
6 30 (5.15%) IT Support
7 27 (4.63%) Architect
7 27 (4.63%) Lead
8 22 (3.77%) Windows Engineer
9 21 (3.60%) IT Engineer
10 20 (3.43%) Administrator
10 20 (3.43%) Developer
11 19 (3.26%) Server Engineer
12 17 (2.92%) 3rd Line Support
13 16 (2.74%) Azure Engineer
13 16 (2.74%) C# Developer
13 16 (2.74%) Systems Administrator
14 15 (2.57%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (5.15%) .NET
2 26 (4.46%) .NET Framework
3 19 (3.26%) LDAP
3 19 (3.26%) OAuth
4 18 (3.09%) REST
4 18 (3.09%) SAML
5 5 (0.86%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (0.86%) JSON
5 5 (0.86%) OAuth2
5 5 (0.86%) OpenID
5 5 (0.86%) React
6 4 (0.69%) ADO
6 4 (0.69%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.69%) EJB
6 4 (0.69%) Keycloak
6 4 (0.69%) Middleware
6 4 (0.69%) RabbitMQ
6 4 (0.69%) Software Packaging
6 4 (0.69%) Vue
7 3 (0.51%) Java EE
Miscellaneous
1 53 (9.09%) PKI
2 44 (7.55%) Clustering
3 40 (6.86%) Replication
4 33 (5.66%) Onboarding
5 30 (5.15%) Data Centre
6 28 (4.80%) Hybrid Cloud
7 19 (3.26%) Legacy Systems
8 17 (2.92%) Management Information System
9 14 (2.40%) Enterprise Storage
9 14 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
10 13 (2.23%) Enterprise Software
11 11 (1.89%) Linux Command Line
12 10 (1.72%) Virtual Team
13 9 (1.54%) Product Ownership
14 8 (1.37%) Driving Licence
14 8 (1.37%) NHS
14 8 (1.37%) Private Cloud
14 8 (1.37%) Public Cloud
15 7 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
15 7 (1.20%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 583 (100.00%) Windows
2 154 (26.42%) Linux
3 58 (9.95%) Windows Server 2019
4 48 (8.23%) Windows Server 2016
5 39 (6.69%) Windows 10
6 34 (5.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 30 (5.15%) Windows Server 2012
8 24 (4.12%) Unix
9 20 (3.43%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.89%) Windows Server 2003
11 9 (1.54%) AIX
11 9 (1.54%) VMS
11 9 (1.54%) Windows Server 2008
12 8 (1.37%) CentOS
13 7 (1.20%) Solaris
14 4 (0.69%) Mac OS
15 3 (0.51%) Android
15 3 (0.51%) Windows 7
16 2 (0.34%) Alpine Linux
16 2 (0.34%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (28.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 105 (18.01%) Disaster Recovery
3 97 (16.64%) High Availability
4 90 (15.44%) Problem-Solving
5 87 (14.92%) ITIL
6 65 (11.15%) Migration
7 60 (10.29%) Change Management
8 52 (8.92%) Agile
9 51 (8.75%) ITSM
10 47 (8.06%) Project Delivery
11 44 (7.55%) DevOps
12 40 (6.86%) Infrastructure as Code
13 39 (6.69%) Root Cause Analysis
14 36 (6.17%) Service Management
15 35 (6.00%) Runbook
15 35 (6.00%) Technical Leadership
16 33 (5.66%) Identity Access Management
17 32 (5.49%) Business Intelligence
18 31 (5.32%) Information Security
18 31 (5.32%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 220 (37.74%) PowerShell
2 84 (14.41%) SQL
3 55 (9.43%) Python
4 30 (5.15%) Bash
5 29 (4.97%) C#
6 25 (4.29%) PL/SQL
7 20 (3.43%) T-SQL
8 19 (3.26%) JavaScript
9 13 (2.23%) Java
10 8 (1.37%) Bicep
11 3 (0.51%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.34%) JCL
12 2 (0.34%) REXX
13 1 (0.17%) Groovy
13 1 (0.17%) Ladder Logic
13 1 (0.17%) Perl
13 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.17%) VB
Qualifications
1 230 (39.45%) Security Cleared
2 143 (24.53%) SC Cleared
3 92 (15.78%) DV Cleared
4 66 (11.32%) Degree
5 44 (7.55%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (4.29%) MCSE
6 25 (4.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 18 (3.09%) VCAP
8 17 (2.92%) MCSA
9 14 (2.40%) Cisco Certification
10 11 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
11 10 (1.72%) Azure Certification
12 9 (1.54%) CCNA
12 9 (1.54%) CISSP
13 7 (1.20%) CCNP
13 7 (1.20%) CISM
14 6 (1.03%) AWS Certification
15 4 (0.69%) CompTIA Security+
15 4 (0.69%) MCITP
15 4 (0.69%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (5.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 25 (4.29%) QA
3 24 (4.12%) GDPR
4 21 (3.60%) NIST
5 15 (2.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 13 (2.23%) SLA
7 11 (1.89%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (0.69%) SOC 2
9 3 (0.51%) NCSC
9 3 (0.51%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.34%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.17%) Basel III
11 1 (0.17%) DICOM
11 1 (0.17%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.17%) GAAP
11 1 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.17%) HL7
11 1 (0.17%) IFRS
11 1 (0.17%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 339 (58.15%) Active Directory
2 207 (35.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 97 (16.64%) Hyper-V
4 70 (12.01%) vSphere
5 64 (10.98%) VMware ESXi
6 48 (8.23%) Virtual Machines
7 34 (5.83%) Docker
8 31 (5.32%) VMware NSX
9 11 (1.89%) KVM
10 10 (1.72%) Microsoft App-V
10 10 (1.72%) Virtual Desktop
11 9 (1.54%) BitLocker
12 8 (1.37%) vCloud
13 6 (1.03%) Virtual Servers
13 6 (1.03%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (1.03%) XenApp
14 5 (0.86%) XenDesktop
15 3 (0.51%) Firmware
15 3 (0.51%) Oracle RAC
15 3 (0.51%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 76 (13.04%) Ansible
2 66 (11.32%) Microsoft Intune
3 63 (10.81%) vCenter Server
4 58 (9.95%) SCCM
5 47 (8.06%) Terraform
6 35 (6.00%) Kubernetes
7 34 (5.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 32 (5.49%) SCOM
9 28 (4.80%) Single Sign-On
10 25 (4.29%) WSUS
11 11 (1.89%) vMotion
12 10 (1.72%) Nessus
12 10 (1.72%) Puppet
13 7 (1.20%) Avamar
14 6 (1.03%) IBM BigFix
15 5 (0.86%) Backup Exec
15 5 (0.86%) Grafana
15 5 (0.86%) Oracle RMAN
15 5 (0.86%) Prometheus
15 5 (0.86%) VxRail
Vendors
1 253 (43.40%) Microsoft
2 252 (43.22%) VMware
3 65 (11.15%) Cisco
4 61 (10.46%) Citrix
5 48 (8.23%) Oracle
6 36 (6.17%) ServiceNow
7 25 (4.29%) Dell
8 22 (3.77%) Red Hat
9 18 (3.09%) Okta
10 17 (2.92%) Veeam
11 15 (2.57%) BeyondTrust
11 15 (2.57%) IBM
12 14 (2.40%) NetApp
12 14 (2.40%) Tenable
13 13 (2.23%) BMC
14 12 (2.06%) CyberArk
14 12 (2.06%) Palo Alto
14 12 (2.06%) SolarWinds
15 11 (1.89%) HP
15 11 (1.89%) Thales
299 Windows Server jobs in England