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 4 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 184 159 96
Rank change year-on-year -25 -63 -19
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 690 474 793
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.53% 1.72% 2.37%
As % of the Operating Systems category 15.83% 12.72% 16.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 452 334 584
10th Percentile £261 £325 £250
25th Percentile £380 £425 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £482 £534 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.87% +6.85% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £668 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £488 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -7.14% +5.00% +1.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 5 10
10th Percentile £16.25 £14.32 £33.60
25th Percentile £20.64 £15.33 £40.69
Median hourly rate £38.72 £30.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +29.07% -51.30% +54.00%
75th Percentile £67.84 £32.77 £70.86
90th Percentile £74.00 £59.61 £80.20
UK median hourly rate £28.68 £17.75 £61.60
% change year-on-year +61.58% -71.19% +54.00%

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 4,360 3,726 4,742
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.66% 13.50% 14.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,792 2,480 3,161
10th Percentile £190 £200 £200
25th Percentile £313 £313 £330
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £460 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.96% -5.64% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £663 £681 £690
UK median daily rate £470 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +1.62% -2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 303 230 296
10th Percentile £16.03 £15.50 £12.46
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.13 £16.97
Median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £30.50
Median % change year-on-year +41.30% -24.59% -26.59%
75th Percentile £67.25 £58.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £24.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +8.33% -12.73% -35.29%

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 4 August 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 4 August 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 4 August 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 -11 212 £475 -5.00% 77
South East -14 187 £515 -6.36% 123
North of England -37 98 £485 +3.19% 77
Midlands -21 67 £450 -12.20% 56
East of England -1 63 £450 -18.18% 36
South West -38 59 £490 -10.91% 39
North West -42 51 £450 -1.10% 49
Yorkshire -30 43 £510 -0.49% 16
West Midlands -44 40 £440 -16.19% 31
East Midlands +8 25 £450 -5.26% 25
North East -39 4 £213 -57.50% 14
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 83 (12.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 39 (5.65%) SharePoint
3 27 (3.91%) IIS
4 10 (1.45%) nginx
4 10 (1.45%) Tomcat
5 5 (0.72%) Apache
6 4 (0.58%) FactoryTalk
7 3 (0.43%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.43%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.29%) Confluence
8 2 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.29%) SAS
8 2 (0.29%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.14%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.14%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 17 (2.46%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 17 (2.46%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.29%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.29%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 286 (41.45%) Azure
2 135 (19.57%) Entra ID
3 131 (18.99%) Microsoft 365
4 86 (12.46%) AWS
5 39 (5.65%) Azure Monitor
6 25 (3.62%) Azure DevOps
6 25 (3.62%) Power Platform
7 23 (3.33%) IaaS
8 22 (3.19%) GCP
9 20 (2.90%) GitHub
10 16 (2.32%) Azure Sentinel
11 12 (1.74%) PaaS
12 11 (1.59%) OpenShift
13 10 (1.45%) OneDrive
14 9 (1.30%) Amazon EC2
15 8 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
16 7 (1.01%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 7 (1.01%) Datadog
16 7 (1.01%) Nutanix
16 7 (1.01%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 224 (32.46%) DNS
2 136 (19.71%) DHCP
3 121 (17.54%) Firewall
4 64 (9.28%) VPN
5 58 (8.41%) TCP/IP
6 43 (6.23%) SAN
7 42 (6.09%) WAN
8 40 (5.80%) LAN
9 37 (5.36%) VLAN
10 23 (3.33%) Network Security
10 23 (3.33%) SSL
11 17 (2.46%) Wi-Fi
12 16 (2.32%) NAS
13 15 (2.17%) SSH
13 15 (2.17%) VoIP
14 11 (1.59%) SMTP
15 10 (1.45%) Wireless
16 8 (1.16%) Skype
16 8 (1.16%) VSAN
17 7 (1.01%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 151 (21.88%) SQL Server
2 25 (3.62%) Power BI
3 15 (2.17%) Oracle Database
4 13 (1.88%) Amazon RDS
4 13 (1.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 12 (1.74%) Elasticsearch
5 12 (1.74%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (1.30%) MySQL
7 8 (1.16%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.72%) Big Data
9 4 (0.58%) GIS
9 4 (0.58%) Oracle BI EE
10 3 (0.43%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.43%) Db2
10 3 (0.43%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.43%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.29%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 1 (0.14%) Oracle Database 11g
12 1 (0.14%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 12 (1.74%) Git
1 12 (1.74%) Jenkins
2 9 (1.30%) JIRA
3 8 (1.16%) GitLab
4 4 (0.58%) Visual Studio
5 3 (0.43%) MSI
5 3 (0.43%) Octopus Deploy
5 3 (0.43%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.29%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.29%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.29%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.29%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.29%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.14%) eggPlant
7 1 (0.14%) MSBuild
7 1 (0.14%) Postman
7 1 (0.14%) Subversion
7 1 (0.14%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.14%) VSS/SourceSafe
General
1 173 (25.07%) Social Skills
2 80 (11.59%) Analytical Skills
3 72 (10.43%) Finance
4 58 (8.41%) Public Sector
5 36 (5.22%) Documentation Skills
6 35 (5.07%) Banking
7 18 (2.61%) Military
8 15 (2.17%) Law
9 14 (2.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 11 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (1.45%) Telecoms
12 9 (1.30%) Legal
13 7 (1.01%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.87%) Pharmaceutical
15 5 (0.72%) Games
15 5 (0.72%) Retail
16 4 (0.58%) Financial Institution
16 4 (0.58%) Local Government
16 4 (0.58%) Marketing
16 4 (0.58%) Police
Job Titles
1 177 (25.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 73 (10.58%) Senior
3 57 (8.26%) Support Engineer
4 50 (7.25%) Cloud Engineer
5 46 (6.67%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 45 (6.52%) Lead
7 33 (4.78%) Architect
7 33 (4.78%) IT Engineer
8 29 (4.20%) Administrator
8 29 (4.20%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 27 (3.91%) Azure Engineer
10 26 (3.77%) IT Support
11 25 (3.62%) Server Engineer
12 24 (3.48%) Infrastructure Support
13 23 (3.33%) Storage Engineer
13 23 (3.33%) Windows Engineer
14 20 (2.90%) Analyst
14 20 (2.90%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
14 20 (2.90%) Platform Engineer
15 19 (2.75%) Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (4.49%) .NET
2 24 (3.48%) .NET Framework
3 23 (3.33%) REST
4 14 (2.03%) ARM Templates
5 9 (1.30%) Elastic Stack
5 9 (1.30%) JSON
6 7 (1.01%) RabbitMQ
7 6 (0.87%) OAuth
7 6 (0.87%) Software Packaging
7 6 (0.87%) YAML
8 5 (0.72%) LDAP
8 5 (0.72%) SailPoint
9 4 (0.58%) ADO
9 4 (0.58%) ASP.NET
9 4 (0.58%) Azure Blueprints
9 4 (0.58%) EJB
9 4 (0.58%) Spring
10 3 (0.43%) Jakarta EE
10 3 (0.43%) OpenID
10 3 (0.43%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 71 (10.29%) PKI
2 53 (7.68%) Onboarding
3 52 (7.54%) Hybrid Cloud
4 48 (6.96%) Clustering
5 41 (5.94%) Data Centre
6 37 (5.36%) Management Information System
7 32 (4.64%) Replication
8 18 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
9 14 (2.03%) Self-Motivation
9 14 (2.03%) Virtual Team
10 13 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
10 13 (1.88%) Enterprise Storage
11 12 (1.74%) Driving Licence
11 12 (1.74%) Security Posture
12 11 (1.59%) Cloud Native
13 10 (1.45%) Linux Command Line
14 9 (1.30%) Operational Technology
14 9 (1.30%) Smartcard
15 7 (1.01%) ARM Cortex
15 7 (1.01%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 690 (100.00%) Windows
2 201 (29.13%) Linux
3 56 (8.12%) Windows Server 2019
4 55 (7.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 49 (7.10%) Windows 10
6 35 (5.07%) Unix
6 35 (5.07%) Windows Server 2016
7 29 (4.20%) Ubuntu
8 27 (3.91%) Windows Server 2012
9 20 (2.90%) CentOS
10 11 (1.59%) Mac OS
10 11 (1.59%) Windows Server 2008
11 10 (1.45%) Rocky
11 10 (1.45%) VMS
12 8 (1.16%) Solaris
13 7 (1.01%) Windows Server 2003
14 6 (0.87%) Windows 7
15 5 (0.72%) AIX
16 4 (0.58%) Alpine Linux
17 2 (0.29%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 223 (32.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 150 (21.74%) Problem-Solving
3 115 (16.67%) ITIL
4 94 (13.62%) Disaster Recovery
5 85 (12.32%) High Availability
6 84 (12.17%) Migration
7 76 (11.01%) Change Management
8 75 (10.87%) ITSM
9 70 (10.14%) DevOps
9 70 (10.14%) Infrastructure as Code
10 65 (9.42%) Continuous Improvement
10 65 (9.42%) Service Management
11 60 (8.70%) Root Cause Analysis
12 58 (8.41%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 56 (8.12%) Agile
14 54 (7.83%) Project Delivery
15 53 (7.68%) Technical Leadership
16 52 (7.54%) CI/CD
17 51 (7.39%) Runbook
18 50 (7.25%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 270 (39.13%) PowerShell
2 106 (15.36%) SQL
3 72 (10.43%) Python
4 54 (7.83%) Bash
5 27 (3.91%) T-SQL
6 26 (3.77%) C#
7 25 (3.62%) PL/SQL
8 23 (3.33%) Bicep
9 17 (2.46%) JavaScript
10 12 (1.74%) Java
11 3 (0.43%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.29%) JCL
12 2 (0.29%) Korn
12 2 (0.29%) REXX
13 1 (0.14%) CodeQL
13 1 (0.14%) Groovy
13 1 (0.14%) Ladder Logic
13 1 (0.14%) Perl
13 1 (0.14%) VB
Qualifications
1 293 (42.46%) Security Cleared
2 153 (22.17%) SC Cleared
3 143 (20.72%) DV Cleared
4 74 (10.72%) Degree
5 49 (7.10%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (3.62%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 24 (3.48%) Azure Certification
8 20 (2.90%) MCSE
9 17 (2.46%) Cisco Certification
10 13 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
10 13 (1.88%) MCSA
11 11 (1.59%) CCNA
12 10 (1.45%) VCAP
13 8 (1.16%) CCNP
13 8 (1.16%) CISSP
13 8 (1.16%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 7 (1.01%) AWS Certification
14 7 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
15 6 (0.87%) Computer Science Degree
15 6 (0.87%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (5.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 30 (4.35%) SLA
3 27 (3.91%) NIST
4 26 (3.77%) QA
5 13 (1.88%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.16%) GDPR
7 5 (0.72%) GxP
7 5 (0.72%) SOC 2
8 4 (0.58%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 4 (0.58%) NCSC
9 2 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.29%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.29%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.29%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.29%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.14%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.14%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.14%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 393 (56.96%) Active Directory
2 231 (33.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 111 (16.09%) Hyper-V
4 94 (13.62%) VMware ESXi
5 74 (10.72%) vSphere
6 49 (7.10%) Virtual Machines
7 41 (5.94%) VMware NSX
8 40 (5.80%) Docker
9 28 (4.06%) Virtual Desktop
10 17 (2.46%) vCloud
11 10 (1.45%) Microsoft App-V
12 9 (1.30%) BitLocker
12 9 (1.30%) Virtual Servers
13 8 (1.16%) KVM
14 6 (0.87%) Firmware
14 6 (0.87%) VMware Workstation
14 6 (0.87%) XenApp
15 5 (0.72%) Terminal Services
15 5 (0.72%) XenDesktop
16 4 (0.58%) UAG
Systems Management
1 99 (14.35%) Ansible
2 86 (12.46%) vCenter Server
3 77 (11.16%) Microsoft Intune
3 77 (11.16%) Terraform
4 63 (9.13%) SCCM
5 54 (7.83%) SCOM
6 46 (6.67%) Kubernetes
7 29 (4.20%) WSUS
8 14 (2.03%) vMotion
9 13 (1.88%) Avamar
10 12 (1.74%) Grafana
10 12 (1.74%) Nessus
10 12 (1.74%) NetBackup
11 11 (1.59%) Puppet
12 10 (1.45%) Prometheus
13 7 (1.01%) Failover Clustering
13 7 (1.01%) Jamf Pro
13 7 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
13 7 (1.01%) WMI
14 6 (0.87%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 328 (47.54%) Microsoft
2 298 (43.19%) VMware
3 70 (10.14%) Cisco
4 65 (9.42%) Citrix
5 63 (9.13%) Oracle
6 50 (7.25%) ServiceNow
7 31 (4.49%) CyberArk
7 31 (4.49%) Red Hat
8 30 (4.35%) BeyondTrust
9 26 (3.77%) Dell
10 24 (3.48%) Veeam
11 23 (3.33%) NetApp
12 22 (3.19%) Tenable
13 20 (2.90%) Splunk
14 19 (2.75%) HP
15 18 (2.61%) Remedy
16 16 (2.32%) BMC
16 16 (2.32%) CrowdStrike
16 16 (2.32%) Juniper
16 16 (2.32%) Zscaler