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 1 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
1 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 160 186 113
Rank change year-on-year +26 -73 -36
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 824 430 684
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.77% 1.54% 2.12%
As % of the Operating Systems category 17.93% 11.13% 14.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 531 318 472
10th Percentile £261 £259 £250
25th Percentile £375 £400 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £510 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.29% +7.37% -1.04%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £650 £638
UK median daily rate £488 £508 £470
% change year-on-year -3.94% +7.98% -1.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 12 8
10th Percentile £16.25 £12.97 £42.17
25th Percentile £26.00 £13.48 £48.75
Median hourly rate £63.14 £16.00 £62.19
Median % change year-on-year +294.59% -74.27% +28.49%
75th Percentile £72.25 £30.69 £103.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £41.02 £112.00
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £16.75 £52.50
% change year-on-year +276.93% -68.10% +8.47%

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 4,595 3,862 4,589
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.87% 13.82% 14.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,933 2,537 2,856
10th Percentile £193 £188 £200
25th Percentile £313 £276 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.22% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £580
90th Percentile £675 £675 £683
UK median daily rate £470 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 351 268 218
10th Percentile £16.25 £15.50 £16.00
25th Percentile £19.42 £18.87 £22.00
Median hourly rate £35.22 £25.15 £59.25
Median % change year-on-year +40.04% -57.55% +24.73%
75th Percentile £67.47 £59.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.00 -
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +3.38% -52.10% +20.00%

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 1 October 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 1 October 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 1 October 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 +17 254 £475 -5.00% 188
South East +4 197 £515 -1.90% 143
North of England +11 139 £450 +8.11% 120
East of England +2 85 £488 -11.36% 67
Midlands -4 80 £431 -17.86% 84
North West -10 74 £425 - 64
South West -31 58 £567 +8.05% 49
West Midlands -16 48 £425 -19.05% 53
Yorkshire -6 46 £525 +37.70% 40
East Midlands +10 32 £450 -10.00% 30
North East -20 20 £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 92 (11.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 58 (7.04%) SharePoint
3 25 (3.03%) IIS
4 7 (0.85%) Confluence
4 7 (0.85%) nginx
5 6 (0.73%) Apache
5 6 (0.73%) Tomcat
6 4 (0.49%) FactoryTalk
7 3 (0.36%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.36%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.24%) SAS
8 2 (0.24%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.12%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.12%) SharePoint 2010
9 1 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 17 (2.06%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (1.58%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.24%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.24%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 345 (41.87%) Azure
2 178 (21.60%) Microsoft 365
3 176 (21.36%) Entra ID
4 101 (12.26%) AWS
5 46 (5.58%) Azure Monitor
6 35 (4.25%) GCP
7 33 (4.00%) Azure DevOps
8 26 (3.16%) IaaS
9 23 (2.79%) Power Platform
10 20 (2.43%) OpenShift
11 19 (2.31%) Azure Sentinel
11 19 (2.31%) GitHub
12 12 (1.46%) OneDrive
12 12 (1.46%) PaaS
13 9 (1.09%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 9 (1.09%) Amazon EC2
13 9 (1.09%) Nutanix
13 9 (1.09%) SaaS
14 8 (0.97%) Datadog
14 8 (0.97%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 257 (31.19%) DNS
2 169 (20.51%) DHCP
3 141 (17.11%) Firewall
4 76 (9.22%) TCP/IP
5 70 (8.50%) VPN
6 57 (6.92%) SAN
7 46 (5.58%) WAN
8 45 (5.46%) LAN
9 43 (5.22%) Network Security
10 42 (5.10%) VLAN
11 31 (3.76%) SSL
12 21 (2.55%) NetScaler
12 21 (2.55%) Wireless
13 20 (2.43%) NAS
13 20 (2.43%) Wi-Fi
14 15 (1.82%) SSH
15 13 (1.58%) VoIP
16 11 (1.33%) BGP
16 11 (1.33%) HTTP
17 9 (1.09%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 151 (18.33%) SQL Server
2 23 (2.79%) Power BI
3 16 (1.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 13 (1.58%) MySQL
5 12 (1.46%) Amazon RDS
6 11 (1.33%) Oracle Database
6 11 (1.33%) PostgreSQL
7 7 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
7 7 (0.85%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.73%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.36%) Big Data
10 3 (0.36%) GIS
10 3 (0.36%) Metadata
10 3 (0.36%) Oracle BI EE
10 3 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.24%) Data Mining
11 2 (0.24%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.24%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 16 (1.94%) Jenkins
2 15 (1.82%) Git
2 15 (1.82%) JIRA
3 10 (1.21%) GitLab
4 5 (0.61%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 5 (0.61%) Visual Studio
5 3 (0.36%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.36%) MSI
5 3 (0.36%) Octopus Deploy
6 2 (0.24%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.24%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.24%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.24%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.12%) JMeter
7 1 (0.12%) MSBuild
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.12%) Subversion
7 1 (0.12%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.12%) VSS/SourceSafe
General
1 206 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 103 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
3 87 (10.56%) Finance
4 47 (5.70%) Documentation Skills
5 45 (5.46%) Banking
6 38 (4.61%) Public Sector
7 20 (2.43%) Law
8 14 (1.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 13 (1.58%) Aerospace
9 13 (1.58%) Legal
9 13 (1.58%) Military
9 13 (1.58%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.09%) Manufacturing
11 8 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
12 6 (0.73%) Games
13 5 (0.61%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.61%) Local Government
13 5 (0.61%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (0.61%) Police
14 4 (0.49%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 206 (25.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 98 (11.89%) Senior
3 76 (9.22%) Support Engineer
4 60 (7.28%) Cloud Engineer
5 50 (6.07%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 47 (5.70%) Lead
7 45 (5.46%) Windows Engineer
8 43 (5.22%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 42 (5.10%) Architect
9 42 (5.10%) IT Engineer
10 34 (4.13%) IT Support
11 33 (4.00%) Administrator
12 28 (3.40%) Azure Engineer
12 28 (3.40%) Storage Engineer
13 27 (3.28%) Server Engineer
13 27 (3.28%) Systems Engineer
14 26 (3.16%) VMware Engineer
14 26 (3.16%) Wintel Engineer
15 24 (2.91%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
15 24 (2.91%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (10.80%) Terraform
2 33 (4.00%) .NET
3 26 (3.16%) REST
4 17 (2.06%) ARM Templates
5 15 (1.82%) .NET Framework
6 14 (1.70%) LDAP
7 10 (1.21%) JSON
8 8 (0.97%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (0.97%) OAuth
9 7 (0.85%) RabbitMQ
9 7 (0.85%) YAML
10 6 (0.73%) Middleware
10 6 (0.73%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.61%) SAML
11 5 (0.61%) Software Packaging
12 4 (0.49%) ASP.NET
12 4 (0.49%) OAuth2
12 4 (0.49%) OpenID
12 4 (0.49%) React
12 4 (0.49%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 77 (9.34%) PKI
2 69 (8.37%) Data Centre
3 62 (7.52%) Hybrid Cloud
4 56 (6.80%) Clustering
4 56 (6.80%) Onboarding
5 46 (5.58%) Management Information System
6 43 (5.22%) Replication
7 26 (3.16%) Security Posture
8 20 (2.43%) Enterprise Storage
9 18 (2.18%) Driving Licence
10 15 (1.82%) Smartcard
11 14 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (1.58%) Cloud Native
13 12 (1.46%) Public Cloud
13 12 (1.46%) Virtual Team
14 11 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
14 11 (1.33%) Linux Command Line
15 9 (1.09%) Operational Technology
16 8 (0.97%) ARM Cortex
16 8 (0.97%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 824 (100.00%) Windows
2 231 (28.03%) Linux
3 71 (8.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 55 (6.67%) Windows 10
5 51 (6.19%) Windows Server 2019
6 32 (3.88%) Windows Server 2016
7 30 (3.64%) Unix
8 29 (3.52%) CentOS
8 29 (3.52%) Ubuntu
8 29 (3.52%) Windows Server 2012
9 14 (1.70%) Mac OS
9 14 (1.70%) Rocky
10 10 (1.21%) Windows Server 2008
11 8 (0.97%) VMS
11 8 (0.97%) Windows 7
12 6 (0.73%) Windows Server 2003
13 4 (0.49%) Alpine Linux
13 4 (0.49%) Solaris
14 3 (0.36%) Data ONTAP
14 3 (0.36%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 260 (31.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 202 (24.51%) Problem-Solving
3 177 (21.48%) ITIL
4 140 (16.99%) Disaster Recovery
5 117 (14.20%) Migration
6 116 (14.08%) Root Cause Analysis
7 100 (12.14%) Continuous Improvement
8 98 (11.89%) Infrastructure as Code
9 97 (11.77%) Change Management
10 86 (10.44%) ITSM
11 84 (10.19%) DevOps
12 83 (10.07%) Service Management
13 79 (9.59%) High Availability
14 77 (9.34%) Stakeholder Management
14 77 (9.34%) Technical Leadership
15 70 (8.50%) Project Delivery
15 70 (8.50%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 64 (7.77%) Validation
17 62 (7.52%) Cybersecurity
18 60 (7.28%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 319 (38.71%) PowerShell
2 113 (13.71%) SQL
3 83 (10.07%) Python
4 67 (8.13%) Bash
5 39 (4.73%) T-SQL
6 30 (3.64%) C#
7 29 (3.52%) Bicep
8 16 (1.94%) PL/SQL
9 12 (1.46%) Java
10 10 (1.21%) JavaScript
11 5 (0.61%) Go
12 3 (0.36%) Korn
12 3 (0.36%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.24%) Groovy
13 2 (0.24%) JCL
13 2 (0.24%) REXX
13 2 (0.24%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.12%) F#
14 1 (0.12%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.12%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 353 (42.84%) Security Cleared
2 184 (22.33%) DV Cleared
3 182 (22.09%) SC Cleared
4 83 (10.07%) Degree
5 51 (6.19%) Microsoft Certification
6 41 (4.98%) Azure Certification
7 25 (3.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 24 (2.91%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (2.67%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 18 (2.18%) MCSE
11 14 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
11 14 (1.70%) CISSP
11 14 (1.70%) MCSA
12 12 (1.46%) AWS Certification
12 12 (1.46%) CCNA
12 12 (1.46%) CCNP
12 12 (1.46%) CISM
13 10 (1.21%) ITIL Certification
14 9 (1.09%) Computer Science Degree
15 8 (0.97%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (5.95%) SLA
2 33 (4.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (3.16%) NIST
4 21 (2.55%) QA
5 15 (1.82%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (0.97%) NCSC
6 8 (0.97%) PCI DSS
7 7 (0.85%) GRC
8 6 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 6 (0.73%) GDPR
8 6 (0.73%) GxP
8 6 (0.73%) ISO 9001
9 5 (0.61%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 5 (0.61%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 5 (0.61%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.24%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.24%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 487 (59.10%) Active Directory
2 305 (37.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 158 (19.17%) Hyper-V
4 117 (14.20%) VMware ESXi
5 105 (12.74%) vSphere
6 56 (6.80%) Virtual Machines
7 42 (5.10%) Docker
8 37 (4.49%) Virtual Desktop
9 35 (4.25%) VMware NSX
10 24 (2.91%) vCloud
11 18 (2.18%) Virtual Servers
12 14 (1.70%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 12 (1.46%) XenApp
14 10 (1.21%) Firmware
14 10 (1.21%) XenDesktop
15 8 (0.97%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 7 (0.85%) Microsoft App-V
17 6 (0.73%) KVM
17 6 (0.73%) VMware Server
18 5 (0.61%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 96 (11.65%) Microsoft Intune
2 95 (11.53%) Ansible
3 93 (11.29%) vCenter Server
4 89 (10.80%) SCCM
5 75 (9.10%) SCOM
6 51 (6.19%) Kubernetes
7 31 (3.76%) WSUS
8 18 (2.18%) Grafana
9 17 (2.06%) NetBackup
9 17 (2.06%) Prometheus
10 15 (1.82%) Failover Clustering
11 14 (1.70%) Avamar
12 13 (1.58%) Nagios
13 11 (1.33%) Nessus
13 11 (1.33%) vMotion
14 8 (0.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 8 (0.97%) Puppet
14 8 (0.97%) SysTrack
15 7 (0.85%) Microsoft Clustering
15 7 (0.85%) WMI
Vendors
1 438 (53.16%) Microsoft
2 386 (46.84%) VMware
3 91 (11.04%) Cisco
4 72 (8.74%) Citrix
5 62 (7.52%) Oracle
6 54 (6.55%) ServiceNow
7 36 (4.37%) CyberArk
8 35 (4.25%) Red Hat
9 31 (3.76%) BeyondTrust
9 31 (3.76%) Dell
9 31 (3.76%) Splunk
9 31 (3.76%) Veeam
10 25 (3.03%) NetApp
11 23 (2.79%) Google
12 22 (2.67%) CrowdStrike
13 21 (2.55%) Tenable
14 20 (2.43%) Qualys
14 20 (2.43%) SolarWinds
14 20 (2.43%) Zscaler
15 17 (2.06%) Fortinet
689 Windows Server jobs in England