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 16 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 188 145 94
Rank change year-on-year -43 -51 -14
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 646 523 872
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.44% 1.92% 2.39%
As % of the Operating Systems category 14.89% 14.04% 17.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 429 368 639
10th Percentile £263 £325 £230
25th Percentile £400 £425 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £536 £497
Median % change year-on-year -10.49% +8.01% -0.70%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £675 £675 £676
UK median daily rate £485 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -7.62% +10.53% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 5 17
10th Percentile £16.85 £14.32 £14.60
25th Percentile £20.77 £15.33 £16.25
Median hourly rate £26.00 £30.00 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% -22.08% +31.40%
75th Percentile £64.08 £32.77 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.00 £59.61 £70.31
UK median hourly rate £24.00 £17.75 £38.50
% change year-on-year +35.21% -53.90% +32.76%

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 4,338 3,726 5,103
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.69% 13.71% 13.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,809 2,479 3,352
10th Percentile £190 £200 £193
25th Percentile £313 £313 £320
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -2.63% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £653 £688 £690
UK median daily rate £465 £464 £475
% change year-on-year +0.27% -2.37% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 220 394
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.93 £16.24
Median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £24.34
Median % change year-on-year +41.30% -5.51% -42.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.80 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.10 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £23.00 £24.50
% change year-on-year +13.04% -6.12% -42.35%

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 16 July 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 16 July 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 16 July 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 -49 193 £475 -9.52% 53
South East -30 154 £531 -3.41% 130
North of England -69 99 £482 -2.23% 83
Midlands -18 74 £450 - 46
East of England -7 62 £450 -18.18% 38
South West -29 60 £495 -13.91% 30
North West -52 54 £448 -4.68% 46
West Midlands -37 43 £438 +2.94% 26
Yorkshire -42 41 £510 -0.49% 23
East Midlands +10 29 £450 -10.00% 20
North East -37 4 £350 -30.00% 17
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 75 (11.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 38 (5.88%) SharePoint
3 26 (4.02%) IIS
4 10 (1.55%) nginx
4 10 (1.55%) Tomcat
5 5 (0.77%) Apache
6 3 (0.46%) CloudStack
6 3 (0.46%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.31%) FactoryTalk
7 2 (0.31%) SAS
7 2 (0.31%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.15%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.15%) Confluence
8 1 (0.15%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.15%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 10 (1.55%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 16 (2.48%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.15%) OpenText MBPM
2 1 (0.15%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 256 (39.63%) Azure
2 114 (17.65%) Entra ID
3 110 (17.03%) Microsoft 365
4 83 (12.85%) AWS
5 27 (4.18%) Azure Monitor
6 23 (3.56%) IaaS
7 22 (3.41%) Power Platform
8 19 (2.94%) GCP
9 15 (2.32%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (1.86%) GitHub
10 12 (1.86%) PaaS
11 9 (1.39%) Amazon EC2
11 9 (1.39%) Nutanix
12 8 (1.24%) Azure Sentinel
13 7 (1.08%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 7 (1.08%) Datadog
13 7 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.08%) SaaS
14 6 (0.93%) Cohesity
14 6 (0.93%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 209 (32.35%) DNS
2 130 (20.12%) DHCP
3 97 (15.02%) Firewall
4 49 (7.59%) VPN
5 46 (7.12%) TCP/IP
6 41 (6.35%) WAN
7 39 (6.04%) LAN
7 39 (6.04%) SAN
8 27 (4.18%) VLAN
9 22 (3.41%) SSL
10 19 (2.94%) Network Security
11 15 (2.32%) NAS
12 14 (2.17%) VoIP
12 14 (2.17%) Wi-Fi
13 13 (2.01%) SMTP
14 11 (1.70%) SSH
15 10 (1.55%) FTP
15 10 (1.55%) Kerberos
16 8 (1.24%) NetScaler
16 8 (1.24%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 139 (21.52%) SQL Server
2 22 (3.41%) Power BI
3 14 (2.17%) Oracle Database
4 13 (2.01%) Amazon RDS
5 12 (1.86%) Elasticsearch
5 12 (1.86%) PostgreSQL
6 11 (1.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 8 (1.24%) NoSQL
8 7 (1.08%) MySQL
9 6 (0.93%) Db2
10 5 (0.77%) Big Data
11 4 (0.62%) GIS
11 4 (0.62%) Oracle BI EE
11 4 (0.62%) Relational Database
12 3 (0.46%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.46%) MongoDB
12 3 (0.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 2 (0.31%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 1 (0.15%) Oracle Database 11g
14 1 (0.15%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 8 (1.24%) Git
1 8 (1.24%) Jenkins
2 7 (1.08%) JIRA
3 6 (0.93%) Visual Studio
4 4 (0.62%) GitLab
5 3 (0.46%) MSI
5 3 (0.46%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.31%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.31%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.15%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.15%) eggPlant
7 1 (0.15%) GoCD
7 1 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
7 1 (0.15%) Postman
General
1 145 (22.45%) Social Skills
2 66 (10.22%) Finance
3 62 (9.60%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (9.29%) Public Sector
5 33 (5.11%) Banking
6 31 (4.80%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 15 (2.32%) Military
9 12 (1.86%) Law
10 10 (1.55%) Legal
11 9 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (0.77%) Local Government
12 5 (0.77%) Manufacturing
12 5 (0.77%) Retail
12 5 (0.77%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.62%) Marketing
13 4 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.62%) Police
14 2 (0.31%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.31%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 163 (25.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 53 (8.20%) Senior
3 50 (7.74%) Support Engineer
4 48 (7.43%) Cloud Engineer
5 37 (5.73%) Lead
6 36 (5.57%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 35 (5.42%) Architect
8 28 (4.33%) Administrator
8 28 (4.33%) Analyst
8 28 (4.33%) IT Engineer
9 25 (3.87%) IT Support
10 23 (3.56%) Infrastructure Support
10 23 (3.56%) Server Engineer
10 23 (3.56%) Wintel Engineer
11 21 (3.25%) Azure Engineer
11 21 (3.25%) Windows Engineer
12 20 (3.10%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
13 19 (2.94%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 18 (2.79%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
14 18 (2.79%) Storage Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (4.80%) .NET
2 26 (4.02%) .NET Framework
3 20 (3.10%) REST
4 15 (2.32%) OAuth
5 14 (2.17%) LDAP
6 11 (1.70%) SAML
7 9 (1.39%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (1.24%) JSON
9 7 (1.08%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (0.93%) Software Packaging
11 5 (0.77%) YAML
12 4 (0.62%) ADO
12 4 (0.62%) Azure Blueprints
12 4 (0.62%) EJB
12 4 (0.62%) SailPoint
12 4 (0.62%) Spring
13 3 (0.46%) ARM Templates
13 3 (0.46%) ASP.NET
13 3 (0.46%) Middleware
13 3 (0.46%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 66 (10.22%) PKI
2 47 (7.28%) Clustering
3 39 (6.04%) Data Centre
3 39 (6.04%) Replication
4 37 (5.73%) Onboarding
5 33 (5.11%) Hybrid Cloud
6 28 (4.33%) Management Information System
7 20 (3.10%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (2.01%) Linux Command Line
9 12 (1.86%) Security Posture
9 12 (1.86%) Self-Motivation
9 12 (1.86%) Virtual Team
10 11 (1.70%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (1.55%) Driving Licence
12 9 (1.39%) Cloud Native
12 9 (1.39%) Enterprise Storage
12 9 (1.39%) Smartcard
13 8 (1.24%) NHS
13 8 (1.24%) Product Ownership
14 7 (1.08%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 646 (100.00%) Windows
2 168 (26.01%) Linux
3 56 (8.67%) Windows Server 2019
4 51 (7.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 40 (6.19%) Windows 10
6 37 (5.73%) Windows Server 2016
7 34 (5.26%) Unix
8 29 (4.49%) Windows Server 2012
9 25 (3.87%) Ubuntu
10 14 (2.17%) CentOS
11 9 (1.39%) AIX
11 9 (1.39%) VMS
11 9 (1.39%) Windows Server 2008
12 8 (1.24%) Solaris
12 8 (1.24%) Windows Server 2003
13 7 (1.08%) Mac OS
14 6 (0.93%) Rocky
15 4 (0.62%) Alpine Linux
16 3 (0.46%) Windows 7
17 2 (0.31%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 196 (30.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 117 (18.11%) Problem-Solving
3 98 (15.17%) High Availability
4 96 (14.86%) Disaster Recovery
5 88 (13.62%) ITIL
6 72 (11.15%) Migration
7 64 (9.91%) Change Management
8 61 (9.44%) ITSM
9 56 (8.67%) DevOps
9 56 (8.67%) Infrastructure as Code
10 50 (7.74%) Project Delivery
10 50 (7.74%) Runbook
11 49 (7.59%) Continuous Improvement
12 47 (7.28%) Agile
13 46 (7.12%) Root Cause Analysis
14 44 (6.81%) CI/CD
15 43 (6.66%) Technical Leadership
15 43 (6.66%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 40 (6.19%) Patch Management
17 39 (6.04%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 238 (36.84%) PowerShell
2 101 (15.63%) SQL
3 61 (9.44%) Python
4 36 (5.57%) Bash
5 27 (4.18%) C#
6 25 (3.87%) PL/SQL
7 24 (3.72%) T-SQL
8 17 (2.63%) JavaScript
9 11 (1.70%) Bicep
10 10 (1.55%) Java
11 3 (0.46%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.31%) JCL
12 2 (0.31%) Korn
12 2 (0.31%) REXX
13 1 (0.15%) Groovy
13 1 (0.15%) Ladder Logic
13 1 (0.15%) Perl
13 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.15%) VB
Qualifications
1 261 (40.40%) Security Cleared
2 140 (21.67%) SC Cleared
3 123 (19.04%) DV Cleared
4 71 (10.99%) Degree
5 48 (7.43%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (3.87%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 23 (3.56%) MCSE
8 17 (2.63%) MCSA
9 16 (2.48%) Azure Certification
10 14 (2.17%) VCAP
11 13 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
11 13 (2.01%) Cisco Certification
12 10 (1.55%) CISSP
13 8 (1.24%) AWS Certification
13 8 (1.24%) CCNA
14 7 (1.08%) CCNP
14 7 (1.08%) CISM
15 5 (0.77%) ITIL Certification
15 5 (0.77%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 4 (0.62%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 28 (4.33%) QA
3 26 (4.02%) NIST
4 17 (2.63%) GDPR
4 17 (2.63%) SLA
5 11 (1.70%) Cyber Essentials
6 9 (1.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (0.77%) SOC 2
8 3 (0.46%) NCSC
9 2 (0.31%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 2 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.31%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.31%) GxP
9 2 (0.31%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.31%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.15%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 363 (56.19%) Active Directory
2 226 (34.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 100 (15.48%) Hyper-V
4 89 (13.78%) VMware ESXi
5 78 (12.07%) vSphere
6 56 (8.67%) Virtual Machines
7 41 (6.35%) VMware NSX
8 36 (5.57%) Docker
9 27 (4.18%) Virtual Desktop
10 15 (2.32%) vCloud
11 11 (1.70%) KVM
12 10 (1.55%) Microsoft App-V
13 9 (1.39%) BitLocker
14 7 (1.08%) Virtual Servers
15 6 (0.93%) VMware Workstation
15 6 (0.93%) XenApp
16 5 (0.77%) Terminal Services
16 5 (0.77%) XenDesktop
17 4 (0.62%) Firmware
17 4 (0.62%) UAG
Systems Management
1 85 (13.16%) Ansible
2 83 (12.85%) vCenter Server
3 68 (10.53%) Microsoft Intune
4 58 (8.98%) SCCM
5 53 (8.20%) Terraform
6 49 (7.59%) SCOM
7 40 (6.19%) Kubernetes
8 28 (4.33%) WSUS
9 23 (3.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 18 (2.79%) Single Sign-On
11 13 (2.01%) vMotion
12 12 (1.86%) Nessus
13 11 (1.70%) Avamar
14 10 (1.55%) Grafana
14 10 (1.55%) Puppet
15 9 (1.39%) Prometheus
16 7 (1.08%) Jamf Pro
16 7 (1.08%) WMI
17 6 (0.93%) NetBackup
17 6 (0.93%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 292 (45.20%) Microsoft
2 276 (42.72%) VMware
3 67 (10.37%) Citrix
4 63 (9.75%) Cisco
5 58 (8.98%) Oracle
6 42 (6.50%) ServiceNow
7 29 (4.49%) Red Hat
8 26 (4.02%) Dell
9 25 (3.87%) BeyondTrust
9 25 (3.87%) CyberArk
10 21 (3.25%) Tenable
11 19 (2.94%) Okta
11 19 (2.94%) Veeam
12 17 (2.63%) NetApp
12 17 (2.63%) Remedy
13 16 (2.48%) Splunk
14 15 (2.32%) BMC
14 15 (2.32%) HP
14 15 (2.32%) IBM
15 13 (2.01%) Qualys