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 29 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
29 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 175 117 74
Rank change year-on-year -58 -43 +24
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 529 578 1,016
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.61% 2.17% 2.73%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.59% 15.32% 18.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 419 388 679
10th Percentile £234 £250 £193
25th Percentile £388 £380 £288
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £438
Median % change year-on-year - +14.29% -7.89%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £575
90th Percentile £700 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £450
% change year-on-year - +11.11% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 7 33
10th Percentile £14.49 £34.25 £16.05
25th Percentile £15.50 £47.50 £24.43
Median hourly rate £21.80 £53.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -58.87% +0.95% +57.89%
75th Percentile £33.10 £92.88 £71.90
90th Percentile £46.20 £112.00 £77.71
UK median hourly rate £21.80 £50.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year -56.40% -4.76% +68.00%

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 4,202 3,772 5,425
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 12.79% 14.18% 14.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,814 2,369 3,733
10th Percentile £173 £200 £178
25th Percentile £263 £313 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £466
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +1.93% -9.07%
75th Percentile £567 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £447 £475 £473
% change year-on-year -5.89% +0.53% -7.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 308 124 337
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.33 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.25 £51.50 £25.25
Median % change year-on-year -54.85% +103.96% -1.94%
75th Percentile £60.00 £67.25 £63.75
90th Percentile £68.00 £73.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £34.00 £25.90
% change year-on-year -26.47% +31.30% +0.72%

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 29 January 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 29 January 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 29 January 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 -47 175 £500 - 72
South East -37 94 £500 - 142
North of England -54 80 £370 -16.85% 67
South West -20 74 £560 -2.61% 48
North West -8 63 £365 -14.12% 26
Midlands -51 52 £444 +26.79% 44
East of England +12 50 £450 +4.65% 32
West Midlands -29 39 £500 +92.31% 21
Yorkshire -56 15 £375 -21.05% 35
East Midlands -28 13 £415 +3.75% 23
North East -18 5 £550 -8.33% 7
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 73 (13.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (6.05%) SharePoint
3 29 (5.48%) IIS
4 15 (2.84%) Apache
5 10 (1.89%) WebSphere
6 9 (1.70%) Confluence
6 9 (1.70%) JBoss
7 8 (1.51%) iPlanet
7 8 (1.51%) WebSphere Application Server
8 5 (0.95%) SAS
8 5 (0.95%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.38%) Exchange Server 2010
9 2 (0.38%) WordPress
10 1 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2013
10 1 (0.19%) nginx
10 1 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.19%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.19%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 26 (4.91%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.38%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.38%) Windchill
4 1 (0.19%) InfoPath
4 1 (0.19%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 3 (0.57%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 2 (0.38%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle FAH
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.19%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 188 (35.54%) Azure
2 108 (20.42%) Microsoft 365
3 90 (17.01%) Entra ID
4 52 (9.83%) AWS
5 21 (3.97%) IaaS
6 14 (2.65%) SaaS
7 11 (2.08%) PaaS
8 9 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (1.70%) Nutanix
9 7 (1.32%) Azure Monitor
9 7 (1.32%) OpenShift
10 6 (1.13%) Azure Sentinel
11 5 (0.95%) Amazon S3
11 5 (0.95%) GCP
11 5 (0.95%) GitHub
11 5 (0.95%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 4 (0.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 4 (0.76%) OCI
12 4 (0.76%) Power Platform
12 4 (0.76%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 168 (31.76%) DNS
2 125 (23.63%) DHCP
3 108 (20.42%) Firewall
4 50 (9.45%) TCP/IP
5 46 (8.70%) VPN
6 45 (8.51%) WAN
7 39 (7.37%) LAN
8 28 (5.29%) Network Security
9 25 (4.73%) Kerberos
10 21 (3.97%) Cisco IOS
10 21 (3.97%) VLAN
11 17 (3.21%) Cisco Firepower
11 17 (3.21%) Cisco ISE
11 17 (3.21%) Junos
11 17 (3.21%) Wireless
12 13 (2.46%) FTP
13 11 (2.08%) SMTP
13 11 (2.08%) VoIP
14 10 (1.89%) SAN
14 10 (1.89%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (10.78%) SQL Server
2 18 (3.40%) Oracle Database
3 5 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.76%) NoSQL
4 4 (0.76%) Relational Database
5 3 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (0.57%) Power BI
6 2 (0.38%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.38%) Apache Hive
6 2 (0.38%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.38%) Impala
6 2 (0.38%) MySQL
6 2 (0.38%) SAP HANA
7 1 (0.19%) Amazon Aurora
7 1 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.19%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
7 1 (0.19%) Redis
7 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 21 (3.97%) Jenkins
2 19 (3.59%) Git
3 13 (2.46%) JIRA
4 12 (2.27%) GitLab
4 12 (2.27%) Sonatype Nexus
5 11 (2.08%) Visual Studio
6 9 (1.70%) Bitbucket Server
6 9 (1.70%) CA Release Automation
7 5 (0.95%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.76%) Robot Framework
9 3 (0.57%) Octopus Deploy
9 3 (0.57%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.57%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.38%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.38%) Fiddler
10 2 (0.38%) REST Assured
11 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.19%) GoCD
11 1 (0.19%) Maven
11 1 (0.19%) Selenium
General
1 125 (23.63%) Social Skills
2 60 (11.34%) Finance
3 56 (10.59%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (8.51%) Public Sector
5 32 (6.05%) Documentation Skills
6 20 (3.78%) Banking
7 18 (3.40%) Legal
8 12 (2.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.32%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.13%) Spanish Language
11 5 (0.95%) Front Office
12 4 (0.76%) Aerospace
12 4 (0.76%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.76%) Marketing
13 3 (0.57%) Back Office
13 3 (0.57%) Local Government
13 3 (0.57%) Military
13 3 (0.57%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.57%) Retail
14 2 (0.38%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 85 (16.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 59 (11.15%) Analyst
3 47 (8.88%) Support Engineer
4 40 (7.56%) Architect
5 36 (6.81%) Platform Engineer
6 35 (6.62%) Senior
7 31 (5.86%) Network Engineer
7 31 (5.86%) Wintel Engineer
8 30 (5.67%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 29 (5.48%) 3rd Line Support
9 29 (5.48%) Support Analyst
10 26 (4.91%) IT Support
11 25 (4.73%) Technical Analyst
12 24 (4.54%) Developer
13 23 (4.35%) 2nd Line Support
13 23 (4.35%) Windows Engineer
14 19 (3.59%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
14 19 (3.59%) Cloud Engineer
14 19 (3.59%) Technical Support
15 18 (3.40%) Server Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (7.94%) OAuth
2 40 (7.56%) SAML
3 30 (5.67%) LDAP
4 26 (4.91%) OpenID
5 24 (4.54%) .NET
6 17 (3.21%) OAuth2
7 15 (2.84%) .NET Framework
7 15 (2.84%) REST
8 9 (1.70%) React
9 8 (1.51%) Middleware
9 8 (1.51%) XMPP
10 6 (1.13%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.76%) ASP.NET Web API
11 4 (0.76%) Keycloak
11 4 (0.76%) SOAP
11 4 (0.76%) WCF
11 4 (0.76%) YAML
12 3 (0.57%) RESTful
12 3 (0.57%) WinForms
12 3 (0.57%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 42 (7.94%) PKI
2 41 (7.75%) Data Centre
2 41 (7.75%) Replication
3 20 (3.78%) Hybrid Cloud
4 19 (3.59%) Clustering
5 18 (3.40%) NHS
6 16 (3.02%) Private Cloud
7 15 (2.84%) Product Ownership
8 13 (2.46%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.46%) Onboarding
9 12 (2.27%) Driving Licence
10 10 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (1.70%) CMDB
11 9 (1.70%) Enterprise Storage
11 9 (1.70%) Management Information System
12 8 (1.51%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (1.51%) iPhone
13 7 (1.32%) Cloud Native
14 6 (1.13%) Client/Server
14 6 (1.13%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 527 (99.62%) Windows
2 127 (24.01%) Linux
3 37 (6.99%) Windows Server 2019
4 36 (6.81%) Windows 10
5 34 (6.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 32 (6.05%) Windows Server 2012
7 28 (5.29%) Windows Server 2016
8 13 (2.46%) Unix
9 10 (1.89%) Windows Server 2003
10 8 (1.51%) CentOS
11 7 (1.32%) Android
11 7 (1.32%) Windows Server 2008
12 6 (1.13%) Ubuntu
13 4 (0.76%) AIX
13 4 (0.76%) VMS
14 3 (0.57%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.38%) Mac OS
15 2 (0.38%) Solaris
15 2 (0.38%) zOS
16 1 (0.19%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (23.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 88 (16.64%) Problem-Solving
3 79 (14.93%) ITIL
4 70 (13.23%) Agile
4 70 (13.23%) Disaster Recovery
5 68 (12.85%) High Availability
6 62 (11.72%) Service Management
7 60 (11.34%) Migration
8 53 (10.02%) Identity Access Management
9 50 (9.45%) DevOps
10 47 (8.88%) ITSM
11 45 (8.51%) Change Management
12 43 (8.13%) Continuous Improvement
13 40 (7.56%) CI/CD
13 40 (7.56%) Project Delivery
14 39 (7.37%) RBAC
15 35 (6.62%) Platform Engineering
16 33 (6.24%) Change Control
17 32 (6.05%) Infrastructure as Code
18 30 (5.67%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 198 (37.43%) PowerShell
2 61 (11.53%) SQL
3 51 (9.64%) Python
4 27 (5.10%) Bash
5 26 (4.91%) C#
6 19 (3.59%) T-SQL
7 15 (2.84%) PL/SQL
8 10 (1.89%) Java
8 10 (1.89%) Perl
9 9 (1.70%) Groovy
10 7 (1.32%) Bicep
10 7 (1.32%) Shell Script
11 6 (1.13%) JavaScript
12 2 (0.38%) Delphi
12 2 (0.38%) JCL
12 2 (0.38%) PHP
12 2 (0.38%) REXX
12 2 (0.38%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.38%) VBA
13 1 (0.19%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 205 (38.75%) Security Cleared
2 130 (24.57%) SC Cleared
3 76 (14.37%) DV Cleared
4 67 (12.67%) Microsoft Certification
5 65 (12.29%) Degree
6 28 (5.29%) MCSE
7 20 (3.78%) Azure Certification
7 20 (3.78%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (3.40%) CCNP
9 17 (3.21%) CCNA
10 16 (3.02%) AWS Certification
11 15 (2.84%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 14 (2.65%) MCSA
13 11 (2.08%) ITIL Certification
14 9 (1.70%) CCDP
14 9 (1.70%) VCAP
15 8 (1.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 7 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
16 7 (1.32%) Master's Degree
17 6 (1.13%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (3.97%) QA
2 20 (3.78%) GDPR
3 15 (2.84%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 11 (2.08%) SLA
5 10 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.32%) Cyber Essentials
6 7 (1.32%) NIST
7 3 (0.57%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 2 (0.38%) NCSC
9 1 (0.19%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.19%) Basel III
9 1 (0.19%) DICOM
9 1 (0.19%) GAAP
9 1 (0.19%) HL7
9 1 (0.19%) IFRS
9 1 (0.19%) IFRS 17
9 1 (0.19%) IFRS 9
9 1 (0.19%) JSP 440
System Software
1 335 (63.33%) Active Directory
2 143 (27.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 51 (9.64%) Hyper-V
4 42 (7.94%) vSphere
5 36 (6.81%) Docker
6 29 (5.48%) VMware ESXi
7 28 (5.29%) Virtual Machines
8 27 (5.10%) VMware NSX
9 12 (2.27%) Virtual Servers
10 10 (1.89%) Virtual Desktop
11 6 (1.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 6 (1.13%) Terminal Services
11 6 (1.13%) Tivoli Directory Server
12 4 (0.76%) Firmware
12 4 (0.76%) NFS
13 3 (0.57%) BitLocker
13 3 (0.57%) Microsoft App-V
14 2 (0.38%) Job Entry Subsystem
14 2 (0.38%) KVM
14 2 (0.38%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 71 (13.42%) SCCM
2 70 (13.23%) Microsoft Intune
3 52 (9.83%) Single Sign-On
4 51 (9.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 51 (9.64%) Ansible
5 47 (8.88%) vCenter Server
6 43 (8.13%) Terraform
7 25 (4.73%) Kubernetes
7 25 (4.73%) SCOM
8 15 (2.84%) WSUS
9 10 (1.89%) Progress Chef
10 9 (1.70%) CA Single Sign-On
11 8 (1.51%) CA Wily
12 7 (1.32%) Puppet
12 7 (1.32%) SCOrch
13 6 (1.13%) CASB
13 6 (1.13%) Tivoli
13 6 (1.13%) VxRail
14 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Clustering
14 5 (0.95%) vMotion
Vendors
1 264 (49.91%) Microsoft
2 196 (37.05%) VMware
3 75 (14.18%) Cisco
4 55 (10.40%) Citrix
5 43 (8.13%) Oracle
6 37 (6.99%) SolarWinds
7 28 (5.29%) Dell
8 27 (5.10%) Red Hat
8 27 (5.10%) Veeam
9 21 (3.97%) ServiceNow
10 19 (3.59%) Juniper
10 19 (3.59%) Splunk
11 15 (2.84%) Okta
12 13 (2.46%) Palo Alto
13 11 (2.08%) Broadcom
14 10 (1.89%) IBM
14 10 (1.89%) NetApp
15 9 (1.70%) CyberArk
16 8 (1.51%) AppDynamics
16 8 (1.51%) Atlassian
358 Windows Server jobs in England