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 8 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
8 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 181 120 84
Rank change year-on-year -61 -36 +7
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 577 567 944
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.48% 2.33% 2.53%
As % of the Operating Systems category 13.82% 16.57% 18.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 438 396 659
10th Percentile £254 £302 £194
25th Percentile £407 £406 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £450
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +16.67% -10.00%
75th Percentile £583 £608 £588
90th Percentile £711 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £524 £450
% change year-on-year -4.53% +16.39% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 4 25
10th Percentile £17.45 £16.17 £15.86
25th Percentile £20.79 £17.43 £16.25
Median hourly rate £22.50 £35.88 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.28% -6.82% +31.40%
75th Percentile £60.21 £58.19 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.16 £67.53 £68.63
UK median hourly rate £22.50 £18.75 £38.50
% change year-on-year +20.00% -51.30% +31.40%

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 4,176 3,421 5,186
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.68% 14.05% 13.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,771 2,354 3,519
10th Percentile £181 £200 £180
25th Percentile £300 £313 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -12.62%
75th Percentile £568 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -9.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 295 142 377
10th Percentile £15.00 £16.52 £12.82
25th Percentile £18.87 £18.13 £15.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £28.00 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.18% +33.33% -28.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £53.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £68.75 £68.68
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £24.66 £22.00
% change year-on-year +1.99% +12.09% -26.67%

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 8 April 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 8 April 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 8 April 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 -85 173 £500 -4.76% 76
South East -33 119 £510 -7.27% 111
North of England -75 84 £416 -16.75% 91
Midlands -27 69 £438 +42.28% 48
South West -40 67 £563 -2.17% 43
North West -33 63 £404 -9.27% 59
East of England +3 62 £450 - 39
West Midlands -40 47 £438 +45.83% 27
East Midlands -21 20 £433 -13.50% 21
Yorkshire -67 18 £413 -25.00% 26
North East -16 6 £550 -8.33% 8
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 76 (13.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (4.68%) IIS
3 25 (4.33%) SharePoint
4 6 (1.04%) Apache
5 5 (0.87%) nginx
5 5 (0.87%) Tomcat
6 4 (0.69%) SAS
7 3 (0.52%) Confluence
7 3 (0.52%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.35%) Skype for Business
8 2 (0.35%) WordPress
9 1 (0.17%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.17%) SharePoint 2010
9 1 (0.17%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 20 (3.47%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.17%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 7 (1.21%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.52%) 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
3 1 (0.17%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 206 (35.70%) Azure
2 107 (18.54%) Microsoft 365
3 101 (17.50%) Entra ID
4 55 (9.53%) AWS
5 21 (3.64%) IaaS
6 15 (2.60%) Azure Monitor
6 15 (2.60%) PaaS
7 12 (2.08%) Nutanix
8 11 (1.91%) Power Platform
8 11 (1.91%) SaaS
9 9 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (1.21%) GitHub
11 6 (1.04%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (1.04%) GCP
12 5 (0.87%) Amazon EC2
12 5 (0.87%) Mimecast
12 5 (0.87%) OCI
13 4 (0.69%) Azure Logic Apps
13 4 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
14 3 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 195 (33.80%) DNS
2 133 (23.05%) DHCP
3 125 (21.66%) Firewall
4 55 (9.53%) VPN
5 52 (9.01%) TCP/IP
6 45 (7.80%) WAN
7 42 (7.28%) LAN
8 27 (4.68%) Network Security
9 22 (3.81%) VLAN
10 17 (2.95%) FTP
11 16 (2.77%) Kerberos
11 16 (2.77%) SSL
12 15 (2.60%) SAN
13 14 (2.43%) SMTP
13 14 (2.43%) VoIP
13 14 (2.43%) Wi-Fi
14 12 (2.08%) Wireless
15 9 (1.56%) BGP
15 9 (1.56%) NetScaler
16 8 (1.39%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (15.08%) SQL Server
2 14 (2.43%) Oracle Database
3 10 (1.73%) Elasticsearch
3 10 (1.73%) Power BI
4 6 (1.04%) DB2
5 5 (0.87%) NoSQL
5 5 (0.87%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.69%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (0.52%) Data Mining
7 3 (0.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 2 (0.35%) Big Data
8 2 (0.35%) GIS
8 2 (0.35%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 2 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.17%) Electronic Patient Records
9 1 (0.17%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 11 (1.91%) Visual Studio
2 10 (1.73%) JIRA
3 9 (1.56%) GitLab
3 9 (1.56%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.39%) Git
5 6 (1.04%) Robot Framework
6 5 (0.87%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.52%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.52%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.17%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.17%) eggPlant
8 1 (0.17%) GoCD
8 1 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 143 (24.78%) Social Skills
2 59 (10.23%) Finance
2 59 (10.23%) Public Sector
3 56 (9.71%) Analytical Skills
4 31 (5.37%) Documentation Skills
5 25 (4.33%) Legal
6 22 (3.81%) Banking
7 12 (2.08%) Military
8 10 (1.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.04%) Local Government
11 5 (0.87%) Front Office
11 5 (0.87%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.69%) Law
12 4 (0.69%) Retail
13 3 (0.52%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.52%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.52%) Spanish Language
14 2 (0.35%) Back Office
14 2 (0.35%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 109 (18.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 54 (9.36%) Analyst
3 38 (6.59%) Senior
4 37 (6.41%) Architect
5 34 (5.89%) IT Support
6 33 (5.72%) Platform Engineer
6 33 (5.72%) Support Engineer
7 26 (4.51%) Developer
7 26 (4.51%) Windows Engineer
7 26 (4.51%) Wintel Engineer
8 25 (4.33%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 23 (3.99%) Support Analyst
10 22 (3.81%) Lead
11 21 (3.64%) Server Engineer
12 19 (3.29%) 3rd Line Support
12 19 (3.29%) IT Engineer
12 19 (3.29%) Technical Analyst
13 18 (3.12%) C# Developer
14 17 (2.95%) 2nd Line Support
15 15 (2.60%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (5.72%) .NET
2 31 (5.37%) OAuth
3 30 (5.20%) SAML
4 26 (4.51%) .NET Framework
5 22 (3.81%) LDAP
6 20 (3.47%) REST
7 17 (2.95%) OAuth2
7 17 (2.95%) OpenID
8 8 (1.39%) XMPP
9 7 (1.21%) Middleware
9 7 (1.21%) React
10 5 (0.87%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.69%) Keycloak
12 3 (0.52%) ASP.NET Web API
12 3 (0.52%) ISPF
12 3 (0.52%) Vue
12 3 (0.52%) WCF
12 3 (0.52%) Web Services
12 3 (0.52%) WinForms
13 2 (0.35%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 45 (7.80%) PKI
2 44 (7.63%) Replication
3 39 (6.76%) Data Centre
4 28 (4.85%) Clustering
5 24 (4.16%) Onboarding
6 23 (3.99%) Hybrid Cloud
7 21 (3.64%) Legacy Systems
7 21 (3.64%) Product Ownership
8 16 (2.77%) Self-Motivation
9 15 (2.60%) NHS
9 15 (2.60%) Private Cloud
10 14 (2.43%) Enterprise Software
11 13 (2.25%) Enterprise Storage
12 11 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.91%) Management Information System
13 10 (1.73%) Driving Licence
14 8 (1.39%) Legacy Code
15 7 (1.21%) iPhone
15 7 (1.21%) Linux Command Line
16 6 (1.04%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 575 (99.65%) Windows
2 151 (26.17%) Linux
3 41 (7.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 41 (7.11%) Windows 10
4 40 (6.93%) Windows Server 2019
5 39 (6.76%) Windows Server 2016
6 33 (5.72%) Windows Server 2012
7 19 (3.29%) Unix
8 13 (2.25%) Ubuntu
9 11 (1.91%) Windows Server 2003
10 10 (1.73%) AIX
10 10 (1.73%) VMS
11 9 (1.56%) Android
12 8 (1.39%) CentOS
13 7 (1.21%) Solaris
13 7 (1.21%) Windows Server 2008
14 3 (0.52%) zOS
15 2 (0.35%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.35%) Mac OS
15 2 (0.35%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (25.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 93 (16.12%) Problem-Solving
3 92 (15.94%) Disaster Recovery
4 90 (15.60%) ITIL
5 86 (14.90%) High Availability
6 68 (11.79%) Agile
7 64 (11.09%) Migration
8 57 (9.88%) Change Management
9 56 (9.71%) Service Management
10 47 (8.15%) Continuous Improvement
10 47 (8.15%) Identity Access Management
10 47 (8.15%) ITSM
11 44 (7.63%) Project Delivery
12 41 (7.11%) Cybersecurity
12 41 (7.11%) RBAC
13 38 (6.59%) DevOps
14 33 (5.72%) Change Control
14 33 (5.72%) Platform Engineering
15 30 (5.20%) Infrastructure as Code
16 29 (5.03%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 229 (39.69%) PowerShell
2 77 (13.34%) SQL
3 52 (9.01%) Python
4 38 (6.59%) Bash
5 32 (5.55%) C#
6 26 (4.51%) PL/SQL
7 22 (3.81%) T-SQL
8 14 (2.43%) JavaScript
9 11 (1.91%) Java
9 11 (1.91%) Perl
10 4 (0.69%) Bicep
11 3 (0.52%) JCL
11 3 (0.52%) REXX
12 2 (0.35%) Delphi
12 2 (0.35%) PHP
12 2 (0.35%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.17%) VBA
Qualifications
1 234 (40.55%) Security Cleared
2 153 (26.52%) SC Cleared
3 83 (14.38%) DV Cleared
4 66 (11.44%) Degree
5 61 (10.57%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (3.81%) MCSE
7 19 (3.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 18 (3.12%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (2.77%) CCNA
10 15 (2.60%) Azure Certification
11 13 (2.25%) CCNP
12 12 (2.08%) MCSA
13 11 (1.91%) VCAP
14 9 (1.56%) CCDP
15 8 (1.39%) AWS Certification
16 7 (1.21%) CISSP
17 6 (1.04%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 6 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
18 5 (0.87%) CompTIA Security+
18 5 (0.87%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (5.03%) QA
2 27 (4.68%) GDPR
2 27 (4.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (2.60%) NIST
3 15 (2.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 12 (2.08%) Cyber Essentials
5 7 (1.21%) SLA
6 3 (0.52%) NIST 800
7 2 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 1 (0.17%) Basel III
8 1 (0.17%) DICOM
8 1 (0.17%) GAAP
8 1 (0.17%) HL7
8 1 (0.17%) IFRS
8 1 (0.17%) IFRS 17
8 1 (0.17%) IFRS 9
8 1 (0.17%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.17%) NCSC
System Software
1 350 (60.66%) Active Directory
2 179 (31.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 78 (13.52%) Hyper-V
4 54 (9.36%) vSphere
5 43 (7.45%) VMware ESXi
6 34 (5.89%) Docker
7 32 (5.55%) Virtual Machines
8 26 (4.51%) VMware NSX
9 10 (1.73%) Virtual Desktop
10 8 (1.39%) BitLocker
10 8 (1.39%) KVM
10 8 (1.39%) Microsoft App-V
11 5 (0.87%) Terminal Services
12 4 (0.69%) XenApp
13 3 (0.52%) Firmware
13 3 (0.52%) Job Entry Subsystem
13 3 (0.52%) NFS
13 3 (0.52%) Oracle RAC
13 3 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
13 3 (0.52%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 76 (13.17%) Microsoft Intune
2 68 (11.79%) SCCM
3 67 (11.61%) Ansible
4 52 (9.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 47 (8.15%) Single Sign-On
5 47 (8.15%) vCenter Server
6 43 (7.45%) Terraform
7 29 (5.03%) Kubernetes
8 23 (3.99%) SCOM
9 18 (3.12%) WSUS
10 11 (1.91%) Puppet
11 10 (1.73%) vMotion
12 6 (1.04%) IBM BigFix
13 5 (0.87%) FortiGate
13 5 (0.87%) Nessus
13 5 (0.87%) VxRail
14 4 (0.69%) Backup Exec
14 4 (0.69%) Control-M
14 4 (0.69%) Oracle RMAN
14 4 (0.69%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 258 (44.71%) Microsoft
2 228 (39.51%) VMware
3 70 (12.13%) Citrix
4 60 (10.40%) Cisco
5 46 (7.97%) Oracle
6 33 (5.72%) Red Hat
6 33 (5.72%) ServiceNow
7 23 (3.99%) Dell
7 23 (3.99%) Veeam
8 20 (3.47%) SolarWinds
9 15 (2.60%) Okta
10 14 (2.43%) NetApp
11 13 (2.25%) HP
11 13 (2.25%) Palo Alto
12 12 (2.08%) IBM
13 10 (1.73%) BeyondTrust
13 10 (1.73%) BMC
13 10 (1.73%) CyberArk
14 9 (1.56%) Tenable
15 8 (1.39%) F5
381 Windows Server jobs in England