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

 6 months to
26 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 171 179 102
Rank change year-on-year +8 -77 -27
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 744 452 759
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.63% 1.64% 2.28%
As % of the Operating Systems category 16.79% 12.06% 16.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 491 316 557
10th Percentile £261 £302 £250
25th Percentile £375 £406 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% +1.01%
75th Percentile £568 £588 £591
90th Percentile £668 £650 £677
UK median daily rate £485 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -7.62% +5.00% +2.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 6 10
10th Percentile £16.25 £12.97 £33.60
25th Percentile £23.00 £13.14 £40.06
Median hourly rate £52.50 £22.03 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year +138.37% -62.22% +45.75%
75th Percentile £70.50 £32.08 £70.86
90th Percentile £74.00 £55.14 £80.20
UK median hourly rate £38.72 £17.63 £58.30
% change year-on-year +119.69% -69.77% +45.75%

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 4,431 3,749 4,705
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.70% 13.61% 14.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,847 2,475 3,080
10th Percentile £190 £190 £200
25th Percentile £310 £305 £330
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £585 £588
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £469 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.22% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 304 242 281
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.51 £12.38
25th Percentile £19.16 £18.19 £17.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £24.00 £36.17
Median % change year-on-year +35.42% -33.64% -10.32%
75th Percentile £67.25 £58.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £25.77 £25.08 £30.00
% change year-on-year +2.77% -16.42% -29.41%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -1 225 £475 -5.00% 60
South East -12 193 £515 -3.74% 83
North of England -30 121 £450 +3.21% 52
Midlands -14 73 £428 -18.57% 48
North West -25 66 £448 +6.67% 24
East of England -7 65 £450 -18.18% 45
South West -32 63 £500 -7.41% 34
Yorkshire -21 45 £510 +18.67% 20
West Midlands -43 43 £425 -19.05% 32
East Midlands +7 28 £450 - 16
North East -34 10 £213 -57.50% 10
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 85 (11.42%) Microsoft Exchange
2 49 (6.59%) SharePoint
3 28 (3.76%) IIS
4 8 (1.08%) nginx
5 7 (0.94%) Tomcat
6 5 (0.67%) Apache
6 5 (0.67%) Confluence
7 4 (0.54%) FactoryTalk
8 3 (0.40%) CloudStack
8 3 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.27%) SAS
9 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.13%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.13%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.13%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.13%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (2.42%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 15 (2.02%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.27%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.27%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 319 (42.88%) Azure
2 156 (20.97%) Microsoft 365
3 151 (20.30%) Entra ID
4 95 (12.77%) AWS
5 47 (6.32%) Azure Monitor
6 29 (3.90%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (3.49%) GCP
8 25 (3.36%) IaaS
9 22 (2.96%) Power Platform
10 19 (2.55%) GitHub
11 18 (2.42%) Azure Sentinel
12 15 (2.02%) OpenShift
13 13 (1.75%) OneDrive
14 11 (1.48%) Nutanix
14 11 (1.48%) PaaS
15 10 (1.34%) Amazon EC2
16 8 (1.08%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 8 (1.08%) Datadog
17 7 (0.94%) Azure Stack
17 7 (0.94%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 246 (33.06%) DNS
2 158 (21.24%) DHCP
3 133 (17.88%) Firewall
4 71 (9.54%) VPN
5 63 (8.47%) TCP/IP
6 51 (6.85%) SAN
7 45 (6.05%) WAN
8 43 (5.78%) VLAN
9 40 (5.38%) LAN
10 29 (3.90%) Network Security
11 21 (2.82%) NAS
11 21 (2.82%) SSL
12 19 (2.55%) Wi-Fi
13 14 (1.88%) NetScaler
13 14 (1.88%) VoIP
14 13 (1.75%) SSH
15 12 (1.61%) SMTP
15 12 (1.61%) Wireless
16 9 (1.21%) VSAN
17 6 (0.81%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 143 (19.22%) SQL Server
2 22 (2.96%) Power BI
3 13 (1.75%) Amazon RDS
4 12 (1.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 11 (1.48%) Oracle Database
5 11 (1.48%) PostgreSQL
6 10 (1.34%) Elasticsearch
7 9 (1.21%) MySQL
8 7 (0.94%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.67%) Big Data
10 3 (0.40%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.40%) GIS
10 3 (0.40%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.40%) Oracle BI EE
10 3 (0.40%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 1 (0.13%) Amazon Aurora
12 1 (0.13%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 14 (1.88%) Git
1 14 (1.88%) Jenkins
2 12 (1.61%) JIRA
3 8 (1.08%) GitLab
4 4 (0.54%) Visual Studio
5 3 (0.40%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.40%) MSI
5 3 (0.40%) Octopus Deploy
6 2 (0.27%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.27%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.27%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.27%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.13%) eggPlant
7 1 (0.13%) Postman
7 1 (0.13%) Subversion
7 1 (0.13%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.13%) Vagrant
7 1 (0.13%) VSS/SourceSafe
General
1 190 (25.54%) Social Skills
2 93 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (10.62%) Finance
4 44 (5.91%) Public Sector
5 43 (5.78%) Documentation Skills
6 41 (5.51%) Banking
7 15 (2.02%) Law
8 14 (1.88%) Military
9 13 (1.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 12 (1.61%) Legal
11 11 (1.48%) Telecoms
12 10 (1.34%) Pharmaceutical
13 9 (1.21%) Manufacturing
14 8 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
15 6 (0.81%) Aerospace
15 6 (0.81%) Games
15 6 (0.81%) Local Government
16 5 (0.67%) Retail
17 4 (0.54%) Financial Institution
17 4 (0.54%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 193 (25.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 84 (11.29%) Senior
3 69 (9.27%) Support Engineer
4 54 (7.26%) Cloud Engineer
5 51 (6.85%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 48 (6.45%) Lead
7 38 (5.11%) IT Engineer
8 35 (4.70%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 34 (4.57%) Architect
10 31 (4.17%) Azure Engineer
11 30 (4.03%) IT Support
11 30 (4.03%) Windows Engineer
12 29 (3.90%) Administrator
12 29 (3.90%) Server Engineer
13 26 (3.49%) Infrastructure Support
14 25 (3.36%) Storage Engineer
15 23 (3.09%) Systems Engineer
16 22 (2.96%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
16 22 (2.96%) Wintel Engineer
17 21 (2.82%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (11.42%) Terraform
2 32 (4.30%) .NET
3 23 (3.09%) .NET Framework
4 21 (2.82%) REST
5 17 (2.28%) ARM Templates
6 11 (1.48%) JSON
7 9 (1.21%) Elastic Stack
7 9 (1.21%) LDAP
8 8 (1.08%) OAuth
9 7 (0.94%) RabbitMQ
9 7 (0.94%) YAML
10 6 (0.81%) Software Packaging
11 5 (0.67%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.67%) SAML
12 4 (0.54%) ADO
12 4 (0.54%) ASP.NET
12 4 (0.54%) Azure Blueprints
12 4 (0.54%) Middleware
12 4 (0.54%) OAuth2
12 4 (0.54%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 74 (9.95%) PKI
2 61 (8.20%) Hybrid Cloud
3 54 (7.26%) Clustering
3 54 (7.26%) Onboarding
4 44 (5.91%) Data Centre
5 39 (5.24%) Management Information System
6 37 (4.97%) Replication
7 20 (2.69%) Enterprise Storage
8 17 (2.28%) Driving Licence
9 14 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
9 14 (1.88%) Virtual Team
10 11 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (1.48%) Security Posture
11 10 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
12 9 (1.21%) Cloud Native
13 8 (1.08%) ARM Cortex
13 8 (1.08%) Smartcard
14 7 (0.94%) Data Protection Act
14 7 (0.94%) Operational Technology
14 7 (0.94%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 744 (100.00%) Windows
2 212 (28.49%) Linux
3 58 (7.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 55 (7.39%) Windows 10
4 55 (7.39%) Windows Server 2019
5 38 (5.11%) Windows Server 2016
6 34 (4.57%) Ubuntu
7 29 (3.90%) Windows Server 2012
8 25 (3.36%) CentOS
8 25 (3.36%) Unix
9 13 (1.75%) Mac OS
9 13 (1.75%) VMS
10 11 (1.48%) Rocky
11 10 (1.34%) Windows Server 2008
12 7 (0.94%) Windows 7
13 5 (0.67%) Solaris
13 5 (0.67%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.54%) Alpine Linux
14 4 (0.54%) Android
15 3 (0.40%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 243 (32.66%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 182 (24.46%) Problem-Solving
3 145 (19.49%) ITIL
4 115 (15.46%) Disaster Recovery
5 94 (12.63%) Migration
6 87 (11.69%) High Availability
7 86 (11.56%) Change Management
8 83 (11.16%) Infrastructure as Code
8 83 (11.16%) Root Cause Analysis
9 82 (11.02%) ITSM
10 76 (10.22%) DevOps
11 75 (10.08%) Service Management
12 69 (9.27%) Continuous Improvement
13 68 (9.14%) Technical Leadership
14 65 (8.74%) Project Delivery
15 61 (8.20%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 56 (7.53%) Runbook
17 55 (7.39%) Agile
17 55 (7.39%) CI/CD
18 53 (7.12%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 294 (39.52%) PowerShell
2 98 (13.17%) SQL
3 75 (10.08%) Python
4 61 (8.20%) Bash
5 27 (3.63%) Bicep
6 25 (3.36%) T-SQL
7 22 (2.96%) C#
8 21 (2.82%) PL/SQL
9 12 (1.61%) JavaScript
10 11 (1.48%) Java
11 4 (0.54%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.40%) Korn
13 2 (0.27%) Groovy
13 2 (0.27%) JCL
13 2 (0.27%) REXX
14 1 (0.13%) CodeQL
14 1 (0.13%) Go
14 1 (0.13%) Ladder Logic
14 1 (0.13%) VB
Qualifications
1 320 (43.01%) Security Cleared
2 175 (23.52%) SC Cleared
3 156 (20.97%) DV Cleared
4 67 (9.01%) Degree
5 51 (6.85%) Microsoft Certification
6 32 (4.30%) Azure Certification
7 26 (3.49%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 19 (2.55%) MCSE
9 17 (2.28%) Cisco Certification
10 14 (1.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 14 (1.88%) MCSA
11 11 (1.48%) BPSS Clearance
12 10 (1.34%) AWS Certification
12 10 (1.34%) CCNA
12 10 (1.34%) CISSP
12 10 (1.34%) VCAP
13 9 (1.21%) ITIL Certification
14 7 (0.94%) CCNP
14 7 (0.94%) CISM
15 6 (0.81%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (4.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (4.30%) SLA
3 26 (3.49%) QA
4 22 (2.96%) NIST
5 13 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.08%) GDPR
7 7 (0.94%) NCSC
8 5 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 5 (0.67%) GxP
8 5 (0.67%) SOC 2
9 4 (0.54%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 3 (0.40%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.27%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.13%) Accessibility
12 1 (0.13%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.13%) ISO 9001
12 1 (0.13%) NIST 800
System Software
1 429 (57.66%) Active Directory
2 272 (36.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 138 (18.55%) Hyper-V
4 105 (14.11%) VMware ESXi
5 88 (11.83%) vSphere
6 51 (6.85%) Virtual Machines
7 42 (5.65%) VMware NSX
8 40 (5.38%) Docker
9 33 (4.44%) Virtual Desktop
10 22 (2.96%) vCloud
11 14 (1.88%) Virtual Servers
12 10 (1.34%) Firmware
12 10 (1.34%) Microsoft App-V
12 10 (1.34%) XenApp
13 9 (1.21%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 9 (1.21%) XenDesktop
14 8 (1.08%) BitLocker
15 6 (0.81%) KVM
16 5 (0.67%) Terminal Services
16 5 (0.67%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 101 (13.58%) Ansible
2 92 (12.37%) vCenter Server
3 88 (11.83%) Microsoft Intune
4 76 (10.22%) SCCM
5 64 (8.60%) SCOM
6 47 (6.32%) Kubernetes
7 35 (4.70%) WSUS
8 16 (2.15%) Grafana
9 15 (2.02%) NetBackup
9 15 (2.02%) vMotion
10 14 (1.88%) Prometheus
11 13 (1.75%) Avamar
12 12 (1.61%) Failover Clustering
13 10 (1.34%) Nessus
13 10 (1.34%) Puppet
14 7 (0.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 7 (0.94%) Jamf Pro
14 7 (0.94%) Microsoft Clustering
14 7 (0.94%) Single Sign-On
14 7 (0.94%) WMI
Vendors
1 383 (51.48%) Microsoft
2 349 (46.91%) VMware
3 80 (10.75%) Cisco
4 74 (9.95%) Citrix
5 56 (7.53%) Oracle
6 50 (6.72%) ServiceNow
7 31 (4.17%) CyberArk
8 29 (3.90%) Red Hat
9 27 (3.63%) BeyondTrust
9 27 (3.63%) Dell
9 27 (3.63%) NetApp
9 27 (3.63%) Veeam
10 23 (3.09%) Splunk
11 19 (2.55%) HP
12 18 (2.42%) Fortinet
12 18 (2.42%) Tenable
13 17 (2.28%) Google
13 17 (2.28%) Remedy
13 17 (2.28%) Zscaler
14 16 (2.15%) CrowdStrike
302 Windows Server jobs in England