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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
17 Sep 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 173 107 75
Rank change year-on-year -66 -32 +46
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 442 722 1,266
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 1.59% 2.21% 3.00%
As % of the Operating Systems category 11.55% 15.41% 18.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 323 518 879
10th Percentile £267 £248 £210
25th Percentile £400 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £483
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +3.52% +7.33%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £613
90th Percentile £650 £675 £701
UK median daily rate £508 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +6.84% -1.04% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 7 40
10th Percentile £12.97 £27.65 £21.13
25th Percentile £13.14 £36.17 £26.25
Median hourly rate £22.03 £50.00 £48.40
Median % change year-on-year -55.95% +3.31% +115.11%
75th Percentile £32.08 £63.59 £64.50
90th Percentile £55.14 £81.81 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £17.63 £44.25 £48.40
% change year-on-year -60.17% -8.57% +105.96%

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 3,826 4,686 6,698
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 13.78% 14.33% 15.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,525 2,996 4,594
10th Percentile £190 £200 £186
25th Percentile £300 £330 £315
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £631
90th Percentile £675 £688 £719
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 246 235 334
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £15.25
25th Percentile £18.59 £20.15 £18.85
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.25 £46.69
Median % change year-on-year -56.07% +22.62% +95.27%
75th Percentile £59.75 £70.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 - £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £49.25 £46.69
% change year-on-year -48.93% +5.48% +95.27%

Windows Server
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Job vacancy trend for Windows Server 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 17 September 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 17 September 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 17 September 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 -52 140 £500 +11.11% 94
South East -23 106 £525 - 147
North of England -25 62 £416 -26.00% 106
South West -1 50 £533 -1.84% 45
East of England +16 47 £550 - 36
North West -18 40 £438 -45.31% 45
Midlands -52 36 £450 +17.49% 57
West Midlands -18 32 £450 +28.57% 20
Yorkshire -19 19 £350 -20.00% 38
East Midlands -41 4 £450 +12.50% 37
North East -6 3 £500 +5.26% 26
Windows Server
UK

Windows Server
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 50 (11.31%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (7.47%) IIS
3 32 (7.24%) SharePoint
4 23 (5.20%) Apache
5 20 (4.52%) WebSphere
6 9 (2.04%) Confluence
6 9 (2.04%) JBoss
7 8 (1.81%) iPlanet
7 8 (1.81%) WebSphere Application Server
8 7 (1.58%) Skype for Business
9 4 (0.90%) SharePoint 2010
10 3 (0.68%) HCL Notes
10 3 (0.68%) SAS
10 3 (0.68%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.45%) BizTalk Server
11 2 (0.45%) Documentum
12 1 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
12 1 (0.23%) MQSeries
12 1 (0.23%) nginx
12 1 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 18 (4.07%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.58%) MS Visio
3 5 (1.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.90%) InfoPath
5 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.45%) Windchill
6 1 (0.23%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 7 (1.58%) Maximo
2 3 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.45%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 148 (33.48%) Azure
2 77 (17.42%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (13.35%) AWS
3 59 (13.35%) Entra ID
4 33 (7.47%) IaaS
5 21 (4.75%) Cohesity
5 21 (4.75%) PaaS
6 19 (4.30%) GCP
7 17 (3.85%) OpenShift
8 14 (3.17%) SaaS
9 11 (2.49%) Power Platform
10 9 (2.04%) Azure Monitor
11 8 (1.81%) GitHub
11 8 (1.81%) Power Automate
12 7 (1.58%) Nutanix
12 7 (1.58%) PowerApps
12 7 (1.58%) Serverless
13 6 (1.36%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (1.36%) Cloud Computing
13 6 (1.36%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 121 (27.38%) DNS
2 81 (18.33%) Firewall
3 72 (16.29%) DHCP
4 53 (11.99%) SAN
5 50 (11.31%) VPN
6 35 (7.92%) TCP/IP
7 28 (6.33%) LAN
8 23 (5.20%) WAN
9 20 (4.52%) iSCSI
10 17 (3.85%) Fibre Channel
10 17 (3.85%) NAS
11 16 (3.62%) Network Security
12 14 (3.17%) SMTP
13 12 (2.71%) Cisco ISE
14 11 (2.49%) VLAN
15 10 (2.26%) Cisco IOS
15 10 (2.26%) Kerberos
15 10 (2.26%) Skype
16 9 (2.04%) Cisco Firepower
16 9 (2.04%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (12.22%) SQL Server
2 21 (4.75%) Amazon RDS
3 20 (4.52%) Oracle Database
4 13 (2.94%) Elasticsearch
5 11 (2.49%) Big Data
6 7 (1.58%) DB2
7 6 (1.36%) PostgreSQL
7 6 (1.36%) Power BI
8 4 (0.90%) Hadoop
8 4 (0.90%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.68%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.68%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.68%) MySQL
10 2 (0.45%) Apache Hive
10 2 (0.45%) Impala
10 2 (0.45%) Oracle Reports
11 1 (0.23%) BusinessObjects
11 1 (0.23%) MS Access
11 1 (0.23%) Oracle Discoverer
11 1 (0.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 27 (6.11%) Git
2 25 (5.66%) Jenkins
3 17 (3.85%) GitLab
4 13 (2.94%) Sonatype Nexus
5 11 (2.49%) MSI
6 9 (2.04%) Bitbucket Server
6 9 (2.04%) CA Release Automation
6 9 (2.04%) JIRA
7 7 (1.58%) Bitbucket
8 6 (1.36%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.90%) Robot Framework
10 3 (0.68%) Artifactory
10 3 (0.68%) Visual Studio
11 2 (0.45%) Selenium
11 2 (0.45%) TeamCity
12 1 (0.23%) Cucumber
12 1 (0.23%) Fiddler
12 1 (0.23%) Postman
12 1 (0.23%) REST Assured
12 1 (0.23%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 92 (20.81%) Social Skills
2 55 (12.44%) Public Sector
3 44 (9.95%) Finance
4 31 (7.01%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (4.30%) Documentation Skills
6 17 (3.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 16 (3.62%) Banking
8 13 (2.94%) Legal
8 13 (2.94%) Manufacturing
9 10 (2.26%) Telecoms
10 9 (2.04%) Law
10 9 (2.04%) Military
11 7 (1.58%) Local Government
12 6 (1.36%) Front Office
12 6 (1.36%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (0.90%) Marketing
13 4 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (0.90%) Police
14 3 (0.68%) Japanese Language
14 3 (0.68%) Retail
Job Titles
1 89 (20.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 50 (11.31%) Support Engineer
3 49 (11.09%) Architect
4 31 (7.01%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 30 (6.79%) Analyst
6 29 (6.56%) Senior
7 25 (5.66%) Infrastructure Architect
8 20 (4.52%) 3rd Line Support
8 20 (4.52%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 18 (4.07%) IT Engineer
10 17 (3.85%) Windows Engineer
11 16 (3.62%) Cloud Engineer
12 15 (3.39%) IT Support
12 15 (3.39%) Network Engineer
12 15 (3.39%) VMware Architect
13 14 (3.17%) Administrator
13 14 (3.17%) Consultant
13 14 (3.17%) Support Analyst
14 13 (2.94%) Desktop Engineer
14 13 (2.94%) Server Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (3.62%) Middleware
2 14 (3.17%) .NET
3 10 (2.26%) OAuth
3 10 (2.26%) SAML
3 10 (2.26%) SOAP
4 9 (2.04%) LDAP
4 9 (2.04%) OpenID
4 9 (2.04%) Web Services
4 9 (2.04%) XML
5 5 (1.13%) .NET Framework
6 4 (0.90%) Apache Axis
6 4 (0.90%) ASP.NET
6 4 (0.90%) CSS
6 4 (0.90%) HTML
6 4 (0.90%) React
6 4 (0.90%) YAML
7 3 (0.68%) HTML5 Canvas
7 3 (0.68%) REST
8 2 (0.45%) ASP.NET Web API
8 2 (0.45%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 48 (10.86%) PKI
2 27 (6.11%) Data Centre
3 22 (4.98%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (2.94%) Clustering
4 13 (2.94%) Management Information System
5 12 (2.71%) Onboarding
5 12 (2.71%) Self-Motivation
6 11 (2.49%) Legacy Applications
6 11 (2.49%) Private Cloud
7 9 (2.04%) Cloud Native
8 8 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (1.81%) NHS
8 8 (1.81%) Replication
9 7 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
10 6 (1.36%) Enterprise Storage
10 6 (1.36%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 6 (1.36%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.13%) Linux Command Line
12 4 (0.90%) Driving Licence
12 4 (0.90%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 440 (99.55%) Windows
2 120 (27.15%) Linux
3 71 (16.06%) Windows Server 2019
4 61 (13.80%) Windows Server 2016
5 52 (11.76%) Windows 10
6 33 (7.47%) Windows Server 2012
7 26 (5.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 19 (4.30%) Unix
9 18 (4.07%) Ubuntu
10 17 (3.85%) CentOS
10 17 (3.85%) Windows Server 2003
11 9 (2.04%) Windows Server 2008
12 6 (1.36%) Windows 8
13 5 (1.13%) Debian
13 5 (1.13%) Mac OS
13 5 (1.13%) Windows XP
14 4 (0.90%) Oracle Linux
14 4 (0.90%) VMS
14 4 (0.90%) Windows 7
15 3 (0.68%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (24.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 84 (19.00%) ITIL
3 77 (17.42%) Problem-Solving
4 64 (14.48%) DevOps
5 63 (14.25%) Agile
6 59 (13.35%) Migration
7 43 (9.73%) CI/CD
8 36 (8.14%) Service Management
8 36 (8.14%) SIEM
9 35 (7.92%) Disaster Recovery
10 32 (7.24%) High Availability
11 30 (6.79%) Infrastructure as Code
12 29 (6.56%) Deployment Automation
12 29 (6.56%) Vulnerability Management
13 28 (6.33%) Identity Access Management
14 27 (6.11%) Business Continuity
15 26 (5.88%) Mentoring
16 25 (5.66%) Change Management
17 24 (5.43%) ITSM
17 24 (5.43%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 159 (35.97%) PowerShell
2 74 (16.74%) SQL
3 59 (13.35%) Python
4 25 (5.66%) C#
5 16 (3.62%) JavaScript
6 15 (3.39%) Shell Script
7 13 (2.94%) Bash
8 10 (2.26%) Java
8 10 (2.26%) VB
9 9 (2.04%) Groovy
10 6 (1.36%) Bicep
11 4 (0.90%) PHP
11 4 (0.90%) Ruby
11 4 (0.90%) VBScript
12 2 (0.45%) Formula Language
12 2 (0.45%) LotusScript
12 2 (0.45%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.45%) VBA
13 1 (0.23%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.23%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 176 (39.82%) Security Cleared
2 93 (21.04%) DV Cleared
3 90 (20.36%) SC Cleared
4 53 (11.99%) Microsoft Certification
5 50 (11.31%) Degree
6 27 (6.11%) MCSE
7 15 (3.39%) AWS Certification
8 13 (2.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 12 (2.71%) Azure Certification
10 11 (2.49%) Cisco Certification
11 10 (2.26%) CCNA
11 10 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (2.26%) ITIL Certification
11 10 (2.26%) VCP5
11 10 (2.26%) VCP6
12 8 (1.81%) CISSP
12 8 (1.81%) CompTIA Security+
13 7 (1.58%) CCNP
13 7 (1.58%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 6 (1.36%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.39%) SLA
2 13 (2.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (2.71%) QA
4 9 (2.04%) GDPR
4 9 (2.04%) NCSC
5 8 (1.81%) NIST
6 4 (0.90%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.68%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.45%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.45%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.45%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.23%) IEC 61131
9 1 (0.23%) RMADS
System Software
1 258 (58.37%) Active Directory
2 135 (30.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 61 (13.80%) Hyper-V
4 49 (11.09%) VMware ESXi
5 42 (9.50%) vSphere
6 30 (6.79%) Docker
6 30 (6.79%) Virtual Machines
6 30 (6.79%) Virtual Servers
7 25 (5.66%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 20 (4.52%) VMware NSX
9 19 (4.30%) NFS
9 19 (4.30%) Terminal Services
10 11 (2.49%) BitLocker
10 11 (2.49%) Microsoft App-V
10 11 (2.49%) Virtual Desktop
11 6 (1.36%) Tivoli Directory Server
12 4 (0.90%) XenDesktop
13 3 (0.68%) Firmware
13 3 (0.68%) VMware Workstation
14 2 (0.45%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 78 (17.65%) SCCM
2 60 (13.57%) Ansible
3 42 (9.50%) Microsoft Intune
3 42 (9.50%) WSUS
4 41 (9.28%) Terraform
5 40 (9.05%) vCenter Server
6 25 (5.66%) Kubernetes
7 15 (3.39%) Single Sign-On
8 14 (3.17%) SCOM
8 14 (3.17%) vMotion
9 13 (2.94%) Puppet
10 10 (2.26%) Progress Chef
10 10 (2.26%) vRealize
11 9 (2.04%) CA Single Sign-On
11 9 (2.04%) Nagios
12 8 (1.81%) CA Wily
13 6 (1.36%) Nessus
13 6 (1.36%) Tivoli
14 5 (1.13%) Grafana
14 5 (1.13%) Kibana
Vendors
1 247 (55.88%) Microsoft
2 183 (41.40%) VMware
3 52 (11.76%) Splunk
4 47 (10.63%) Cisco
5 44 (9.95%) Citrix
6 41 (9.28%) NetApp
7 37 (8.37%) Oracle
8 34 (7.69%) Veeam
9 22 (4.98%) Red Hat
10 21 (4.75%) IBM
11 20 (4.52%) Dell
11 20 (4.52%) SolarWinds
12 18 (4.07%) HP
13 15 (3.39%) Google
14 14 (3.17%) Juniper
15 12 (2.71%) Symantec
16 10 (2.26%) Tenable
17 9 (2.04%) Broadcom
17 9 (2.04%) F5
17 9 (2.04%) ServiceNow
439 Windows Server jobs in England