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 24 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
24 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 161 181 108
Rank change year-on-year +20 -73 -34
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 808 439 703
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.73% 1.58% 2.16%
As % of the Operating Systems category 17.64% 11.42% 15.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 519 323 498
10th Percentile £261 £253 £248
25th Percentile £375 £400 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £513 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.34% +7.89% -1.04%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £650 £652
UK median daily rate £488 £508 £475
% change year-on-year -3.94% +6.84% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 11 8
10th Percentile £16.25 £12.97 £36.40
25th Percentile £26.00 £13.31 £46.69
Median hourly rate £63.14 £16.00 £62.19
Median % change year-on-year +294.59% -74.27% +27.02%
75th Percentile £72.44 £31.39 £103.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £41.94 £112.00
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £17.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +260.77% -68.18% +12.34%

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 4,581 3,844 4,660
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.83% 13.81% 14.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,915 2,520 2,931
10th Percentile £190 £190 £200
25th Percentile £310 £289 £329
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.42% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £584
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £470 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 355 270 222
10th Percentile £16.11 £15.50 £16.03
25th Percentile £19.42 £18.87 £22.00
Median hourly rate £38.50 £25.08 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +53.54% -58.21% +25.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £58.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.80 £67.00 -
UK median hourly rate £26.66 £25.15 £53.00
% change year-on-year +6.00% -52.55% +15.52%

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 24 September 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 24 September 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 24 September 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 -6 242 £475 -5.00% 243
South East 0 194 £515 -1.90% 167
North of England +5 135 £450 +8.11% 125
Midlands +6 85 £425 -19.05% 120
East of England -1 85 £475 -13.64% 82
North West -17 73 £448 +5.41% 74
South West -32 57 £567 +8.05% 46
West Midlands -19 52 £425 -19.05% 79
Yorkshire -5 45 £525 +37.70% 38
East Midlands +10 33 £450 - 41
North East -29 18 £350 -30.00% 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 89 (11.01%) Microsoft Exchange
2 54 (6.68%) SharePoint
3 23 (2.85%) IIS
4 8 (0.99%) nginx
5 7 (0.87%) Confluence
5 7 (0.87%) Tomcat
6 6 (0.74%) Apache
7 4 (0.50%) FactoryTalk
8 3 (0.37%) CloudStack
8 3 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.25%) SAS
9 2 (0.25%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.25%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.12%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 17 (2.10%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 12 (1.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.25%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.25%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 340 (42.08%) Azure
2 172 (21.29%) Microsoft 365
3 167 (20.67%) Entra ID
4 104 (12.87%) AWS
5 44 (5.45%) Azure Monitor
6 33 (4.08%) Azure DevOps
6 33 (4.08%) GCP
7 24 (2.97%) IaaS
8 23 (2.85%) Power Platform
9 20 (2.48%) GitHub
9 20 (2.48%) OpenShift
10 19 (2.35%) Azure Sentinel
11 12 (1.49%) OneDrive
12 10 (1.24%) Amazon EC2
12 10 (1.24%) Nutanix
12 10 (1.24%) PaaS
13 9 (1.11%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 8 (0.99%) Datadog
14 8 (0.99%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (0.99%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 257 (31.81%) DNS
2 170 (21.04%) DHCP
3 139 (17.20%) Firewall
4 75 (9.28%) TCP/IP
5 70 (8.66%) VPN
6 59 (7.30%) SAN
7 47 (5.82%) WAN
8 44 (5.45%) LAN
9 43 (5.32%) VLAN
10 40 (4.95%) Network Security
11 30 (3.71%) SSL
12 22 (2.72%) NAS
13 21 (2.60%) Wi-Fi
13 21 (2.60%) Wireless
14 18 (2.23%) NetScaler
15 14 (1.73%) SSH
16 13 (1.61%) VoIP
17 10 (1.24%) HTTP
18 9 (1.11%) BGP
18 9 (1.11%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 146 (18.07%) SQL Server
2 23 (2.85%) Power BI
3 15 (1.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 14 (1.73%) MySQL
5 12 (1.49%) Amazon RDS
5 12 (1.49%) PostgreSQL
6 11 (1.36%) Oracle Database
7 8 (0.99%) Elasticsearch
8 7 (0.87%) NoSQL
9 6 (0.74%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.37%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.37%) Big Data
10 3 (0.37%) GIS
10 3 (0.37%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.37%) Oracle BI EE
11 2 (0.25%) Data Mining
11 2 (0.25%) Metadata
11 2 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
12 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 16 (1.98%) Jenkins
2 15 (1.86%) Git
2 15 (1.86%) JIRA
3 10 (1.24%) GitLab
4 5 (0.62%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 5 (0.62%) Visual Studio
5 3 (0.37%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.37%) MSI
5 3 (0.37%) Octopus Deploy
6 2 (0.25%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.25%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.25%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.25%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.12%) JMeter
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.12%) Subversion
7 1 (0.12%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.12%) Vagrant
7 1 (0.12%) VSS/SourceSafe
General
1 207 (25.62%) Social Skills
2 103 (12.75%) Analytical Skills
3 83 (10.27%) Finance
4 46 (5.69%) Documentation Skills
5 44 (5.45%) Banking
6 39 (4.83%) Public Sector
7 20 (2.48%) Law
8 13 (1.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 13 (1.61%) Military
9 12 (1.49%) Aerospace
9 12 (1.49%) Telecoms
10 11 (1.36%) Legal
11 9 (1.11%) Manufacturing
11 9 (1.11%) Pharmaceutical
12 6 (0.74%) Games
13 5 (0.62%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.62%) Local Government
13 5 (0.62%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (0.62%) Police
14 4 (0.50%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 208 (25.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 97 (12.00%) Senior
3 74 (9.16%) Support Engineer
4 58 (7.18%) Cloud Engineer
5 49 (6.06%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 49 (6.06%) Lead
6 42 (5.20%) IT Engineer
6 42 (5.20%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 41 (5.07%) Architect
7 41 (5.07%) Windows Engineer
8 34 (4.21%) IT Support
9 32 (3.96%) Administrator
10 28 (3.47%) Storage Engineer
10 28 (3.47%) VMware Engineer
11 27 (3.34%) Azure Engineer
11 27 (3.34%) Systems Engineer
12 26 (3.22%) Wintel Engineer
13 25 (3.09%) Platform Engineer
13 25 (3.09%) Server Engineer
14 23 (2.85%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (10.89%) Terraform
2 30 (3.71%) .NET
3 25 (3.09%) REST
4 17 (2.10%) ARM Templates
5 15 (1.86%) .NET Framework
6 13 (1.61%) LDAP
7 10 (1.24%) JSON
8 8 (0.99%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (0.99%) OAuth
9 7 (0.87%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (0.74%) Middleware
10 6 (0.74%) YAML
11 5 (0.62%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.62%) SAML
11 5 (0.62%) Software Packaging
12 4 (0.50%) 802.1X
12 4 (0.50%) ASP.NET
12 4 (0.50%) OAuth2
12 4 (0.50%) OpenID
12 4 (0.50%) React
Miscellaneous
1 77 (9.53%) PKI
2 67 (8.29%) Hybrid Cloud
3 63 (7.80%) Data Centre
4 55 (6.81%) Onboarding
5 54 (6.68%) Clustering
6 46 (5.69%) Management Information System
7 45 (5.57%) Replication
8 23 (2.85%) Security Posture
9 19 (2.35%) Enterprise Storage
10 18 (2.23%) Driving Licence
11 15 (1.86%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (1.61%) Smartcard
12 13 (1.61%) Virtual Team
13 11 (1.36%) Cloud Native
13 11 (1.36%) Linux Command Line
13 11 (1.36%) Public Cloud
14 10 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
15 9 (1.11%) Operational Technology
16 8 (0.99%) ARM Cortex
17 7 (0.87%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 808 (100.00%) Windows
2 236 (29.21%) Linux
3 71 (8.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 57 (7.05%) Windows 10
5 51 (6.31%) Windows Server 2019
6 33 (4.08%) Windows Server 2016
7 32 (3.96%) Ubuntu
8 29 (3.59%) CentOS
8 29 (3.59%) Unix
8 29 (3.59%) Windows Server 2012
9 14 (1.73%) Mac OS
9 14 (1.73%) Rocky
10 11 (1.36%) VMS
10 11 (1.36%) Windows Server 2008
11 8 (0.99%) Windows 7
12 6 (0.74%) Windows Server 2003
13 5 (0.62%) Solaris
14 4 (0.50%) Alpine Linux
15 3 (0.37%) Android
15 3 (0.37%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 262 (32.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 205 (25.37%) Problem-Solving
3 177 (21.91%) ITIL
4 134 (16.58%) Disaster Recovery
5 113 (13.99%) Root Cause Analysis
6 111 (13.74%) Migration
7 96 (11.88%) Change Management
8 95 (11.76%) Continuous Improvement
8 95 (11.76%) Infrastructure as Code
9 86 (10.64%) ITSM
10 84 (10.40%) Service Management
11 82 (10.15%) DevOps
12 78 (9.65%) High Availability
13 77 (9.53%) Technical Leadership
14 72 (8.91%) Stakeholder Management
15 69 (8.54%) Project Delivery
16 66 (8.17%) Vulnerability Remediation
17 60 (7.43%) CI/CD
18 59 (7.30%) Agile
19 58 (7.18%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 309 (38.24%) PowerShell
2 109 (13.49%) SQL
3 84 (10.40%) Python
4 68 (8.42%) Bash
5 35 (4.33%) T-SQL
6 29 (3.59%) Bicep
7 27 (3.34%) C#
8 18 (2.23%) PL/SQL
9 13 (1.61%) Java
10 10 (1.24%) JavaScript
11 5 (0.62%) Go
12 3 (0.37%) Korn
12 3 (0.37%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.25%) Groovy
13 2 (0.25%) JCL
13 2 (0.25%) REXX
13 2 (0.25%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.12%) F#
14 1 (0.12%) VB
14 1 (0.12%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 348 (43.07%) Security Cleared
2 183 (22.65%) SC Cleared
3 180 (22.28%) DV Cleared
4 81 (10.02%) Degree
5 53 (6.56%) Microsoft Certification
6 41 (5.07%) Azure Certification
7 28 (3.47%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 24 (2.97%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (2.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 20 (2.48%) MCSE
11 14 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
11 14 (1.73%) MCSA
12 13 (1.61%) CISSP
13 12 (1.49%) AWS Certification
13 12 (1.49%) CCNA
14 11 (1.36%) CISM
15 10 (1.24%) CCNP
15 10 (1.24%) ITIL Certification
15 10 (1.24%) VCAP
16 8 (0.99%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (5.82%) SLA
2 35 (4.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (3.22%) NIST
4 21 (2.60%) QA
5 16 (1.98%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (0.99%) NCSC
7 7 (0.87%) GDPR
7 7 (0.87%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 6 (0.74%) GRC
8 6 (0.74%) GxP
9 5 (0.62%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 5 (0.62%) ISO 9001
9 5 (0.62%) SOC 2
10 4 (0.50%) ISO 31000
10 4 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.25%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.25%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.25%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
System Software
1 470 (58.17%) Active Directory
2 306 (37.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 154 (19.06%) Hyper-V
4 118 (14.60%) VMware ESXi
5 105 (13.00%) vSphere
6 59 (7.30%) Virtual Machines
7 44 (5.45%) Docker
8 38 (4.70%) VMware NSX
9 35 (4.33%) Virtual Desktop
10 24 (2.97%) vCloud
11 17 (2.10%) Virtual Servers
12 13 (1.61%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 12 (1.49%) XenApp
14 10 (1.24%) Firmware
14 10 (1.24%) XenDesktop
15 7 (0.87%) Microsoft App-V
15 7 (0.87%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 6 (0.74%) KVM
16 6 (0.74%) VMware Server
17 5 (0.62%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 98 (12.13%) Ansible
2 95 (11.76%) vCenter Server
3 88 (10.89%) Microsoft Intune
4 86 (10.64%) SCCM
5 76 (9.41%) SCOM
6 51 (6.31%) Kubernetes
7 32 (3.96%) WSUS
8 18 (2.23%) Grafana
9 17 (2.10%) NetBackup
9 17 (2.10%) Prometheus
10 14 (1.73%) Avamar
10 14 (1.73%) Failover Clustering
11 13 (1.61%) vMotion
12 11 (1.36%) Nagios
13 10 (1.24%) Nessus
14 8 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 8 (0.99%) Puppet
15 7 (0.87%) Jamf Pro
15 7 (0.87%) Microsoft Clustering
15 7 (0.87%) SysTrack
Vendors
1 426 (52.72%) Microsoft
2 390 (48.27%) VMware
3 92 (11.39%) Cisco
4 72 (8.91%) Citrix
5 61 (7.55%) Oracle
6 52 (6.44%) ServiceNow
7 36 (4.46%) Red Hat
8 33 (4.08%) CyberArk
9 30 (3.71%) Dell
10 29 (3.59%) BeyondTrust
10 29 (3.59%) Splunk
10 29 (3.59%) Veeam
11 26 (3.22%) NetApp
12 20 (2.48%) CrowdStrike
12 20 (2.48%) Google
13 19 (2.35%) Zscaler
14 18 (2.23%) Fortinet
14 18 (2.23%) Tenable
15 17 (2.10%) Qualys
15 17 (2.10%) SolarWinds
805 Windows Server jobs in England