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

 6 months to
1 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 175 126 74
Rank change year-on-year -49 -52 +23
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 502 578 1,041
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.58% 2.06% 2.87%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.07% 14.73% 18.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 392 385 682
10th Percentile £213 £250 £198
25th Percentile £375 £360 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +5.56% -5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £575
90th Percentile £688 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £450
% change year-on-year +5.26% +5.56% -4.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 8 29
10th Percentile £12.97 £36.94 £29.87
25th Percentile £15.50 £48.75 £48.40
Median hourly rate £21.00 £62.75 £56.06
Median % change year-on-year -66.53% +11.93% +124.24%
75th Percentile £41.94 £103.00 £76.53
90th Percentile £52.58 £112.00 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £51.50 £56.06
% change year-on-year -59.22% -8.13% +124.24%

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 4,159 3,925 5,542
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 13.12% 13.96% 15.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,756 2,471 3,817
10th Percentile £175 £200 £180
25th Percentile £263 £313 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.26% -1.05% -6.86%
75th Percentile £565 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £699 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - -7.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 321 139 291
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.00 £18.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -49.70% +53.85% +30.00%
75th Percentile £63.50 £67.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £71.75 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% +7.69% +30.00%

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 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 1 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 1 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 -44 163 £500 - 77
South East -28 97 £500 +0.96% 129
North of England -41 75 £370 -7.50% 83
South West -27 65 £550 - 44
North West -8 55 £360 -10.00% 41
East of England +13 50 £425 +12.58% 26
Midlands -39 49 £525 +48.94% 38
West Midlands -27 39 £529 +103.56% 24
Yorkshire -52 18 £375 -14.77% 33
East Midlands -24 10 £415 +6.00% 14
North East -9 5 £550 +69.23% 11
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 71 (14.14%) Microsoft Exchange
2 40 (7.97%) SharePoint
3 30 (5.98%) IIS
4 15 (2.99%) Apache
5 11 (2.19%) WebSphere
6 9 (1.79%) Confluence
6 9 (1.79%) JBoss
7 8 (1.59%) iPlanet
7 8 (1.59%) WebSphere Application Server
8 6 (1.20%) SAS
9 5 (1.00%) Skype for Business
10 3 (0.60%) HCL Notes
11 2 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
11 2 (0.40%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.40%) WordPress
12 1 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2013
12 1 (0.20%) nginx
12 1 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 1 (0.20%) SharePoint 2010
12 1 (0.20%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 30 (5.98%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.40%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.40%) Windchill
4 1 (0.20%) InfoPath
4 1 (0.20%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 2 (0.40%) Teamcenter
1 2 (0.40%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 1 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.20%) Maximo
2 1 (0.20%) Oracle FAH
2 1 (0.20%) Oracle General Ledger
2 1 (0.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.20%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 1 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.20%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.20%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 170 (33.86%) Azure
2 115 (22.91%) Microsoft 365
3 76 (15.14%) Entra ID
4 54 (10.76%) AWS
5 24 (4.78%) IaaS
6 16 (3.19%) SaaS
7 13 (2.59%) PaaS
8 11 (2.19%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (1.59%) Azure Monitor
10 7 (1.39%) Azure Sentinel
10 7 (1.39%) GCP
10 7 (1.39%) GitHub
10 7 (1.39%) Nutanix
10 7 (1.39%) OpenShift
10 7 (1.39%) Power Platform
11 6 (1.20%) Amazon S3
11 6 (1.20%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 4 (0.80%) Amazon EC2
12 4 (0.80%) Amazon EKS
12 4 (0.80%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 146 (29.08%) DNS
2 106 (21.12%) Firewall
3 100 (19.92%) DHCP
4 52 (10.36%) TCP/IP
5 46 (9.16%) VPN
6 35 (6.97%) LAN
7 33 (6.57%) WAN
8 22 (4.38%) Network Security
9 21 (4.18%) VLAN
10 20 (3.98%) Cisco IOS
11 18 (3.59%) Wireless
12 17 (3.39%) Cisco Firepower
12 17 (3.39%) Cisco ISE
12 17 (3.39%) Junos
13 14 (2.79%) SAN
14 12 (2.39%) Kerberos
15 11 (2.19%) iSCSI
15 11 (2.19%) Wi-Fi
16 9 (1.79%) Skype
16 9 (1.79%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (11.55%) SQL Server
2 25 (4.98%) Oracle Database
3 5 (1.00%) Power BI
4 4 (0.80%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.80%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
5 3 (0.60%) Relational Database
6 2 (0.40%) Apache Hive
6 2 (0.40%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.40%) Impala
6 2 (0.40%) MySQL
6 2 (0.40%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.40%) SAP HANA
7 1 (0.20%) BusinessObjects
7 1 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.20%) DB2
7 1 (0.20%) Oracle Discoverer
7 1 (0.20%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 25 (4.98%) Jenkins
2 23 (4.58%) Git
3 16 (3.19%) GitLab
4 12 (2.39%) JIRA
5 11 (2.19%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (1.79%) Bitbucket Server
6 9 (1.79%) CA Release Automation
7 7 (1.39%) Visual Studio
8 5 (1.00%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.60%) Octopus Deploy
9 3 (0.60%) Robot Framework
9 3 (0.60%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.60%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.40%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.40%) Fiddler
10 2 (0.40%) REST Assured
11 1 (0.20%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.20%) GoCD
11 1 (0.20%) Maven
11 1 (0.20%) Selenium
General
1 131 (26.10%) Social Skills
2 58 (11.55%) Finance
3 54 (10.76%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (8.37%) Public Sector
5 33 (6.57%) Documentation Skills
6 21 (4.18%) Banking
7 17 (3.39%) Legal
8 11 (2.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (1.79%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.20%) Front Office
10 6 (1.20%) Law
10 6 (1.20%) Local Government
10 6 (1.20%) Spanish Language
11 5 (1.00%) Marketing
12 4 (0.80%) Aerospace
12 4 (0.80%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.80%) Military
13 3 (0.60%) Back Office
13 3 (0.60%) Electronics
13 3 (0.60%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 81 (16.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 51 (10.16%) Analyst
3 50 (9.96%) Support Engineer
4 38 (7.57%) Architect
5 37 (7.37%) Platform Engineer
6 33 (6.57%) Senior
7 29 (5.78%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 29 (5.78%) Support Analyst
8 27 (5.38%) IT Support
8 27 (5.38%) Network Engineer
9 25 (4.98%) 2nd Line Support
9 25 (4.98%) 3rd Line Support
9 25 (4.98%) Windows Engineer
10 24 (4.78%) Wintel Engineer
11 23 (4.58%) Technical Analyst
12 20 (3.98%) Cloud Engineer
13 19 (3.78%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
13 19 (3.78%) Developer
14 18 (3.59%) Technical Support
15 17 (3.39%) Server Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (5.18%) OAuth
2 25 (4.98%) SAML
3 23 (4.58%) OpenID
4 20 (3.98%) .NET
5 16 (3.19%) LDAP
6 15 (2.99%) REST
7 14 (2.79%) OAuth2
8 12 (2.39%) Middleware
9 10 (1.99%) .NET Framework
10 8 (1.59%) React
11 7 (1.39%) XMPP
12 6 (1.20%) AngularJS
13 5 (1.00%) SOAP
13 5 (1.00%) YAML
14 4 (0.80%) ASP.NET Web API
14 4 (0.80%) WCF
14 4 (0.80%) Web Services
15 3 (0.60%) Express.js
15 3 (0.60%) HTML5 Canvas
15 3 (0.60%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 40 (7.97%) PKI
2 39 (7.77%) Data Centre
3 25 (4.98%) Replication
4 21 (4.18%) Hybrid Cloud
5 19 (3.78%) NHS
6 15 (2.99%) Private Cloud
7 14 (2.79%) Clustering
7 14 (2.79%) Product Ownership
8 12 (2.39%) Driving Licence
8 12 (2.39%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (2.39%) Onboarding
9 11 (2.19%) Management Information System
10 10 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (1.79%) Cloud Native
11 9 (1.79%) CMDB
11 9 (1.79%) Enterprise Storage
12 8 (1.59%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (1.59%) Client/Server
13 7 (1.39%) iPhone
14 5 (1.00%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 500 (99.60%) Windows
2 130 (25.90%) Linux
3 38 (7.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 36 (7.17%) Windows 10
5 34 (6.77%) Windows Server 2019
6 30 (5.98%) Windows Server 2012
7 26 (5.18%) Windows Server 2016
8 11 (2.19%) CentOS
9 10 (1.99%) Unix
10 9 (1.79%) Ubuntu
11 8 (1.59%) Windows Server 2003
12 7 (1.39%) Windows Server 2008
13 6 (1.20%) Android
13 6 (1.20%) VMS
14 4 (0.80%) Mac OS
15 3 (0.60%) Oracle Linux
16 2 (0.40%) AIX
16 2 (0.40%) Apple iOS
16 2 (0.40%) Solaris
16 2 (0.40%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (23.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 92 (18.33%) Problem-Solving
3 88 (17.53%) ITIL
4 73 (14.54%) Agile
5 63 (12.55%) Migration
6 62 (12.35%) Service Management
7 52 (10.36%) DevOps
8 49 (9.76%) Disaster Recovery
9 46 (9.16%) ITSM
10 45 (8.96%) CI/CD
11 44 (8.76%) Continuous Improvement
12 41 (8.17%) Change Management
13 37 (7.37%) High Availability
13 37 (7.37%) Identity Access Management
13 37 (7.37%) Project Delivery
14 34 (6.77%) Platform Engineering
15 33 (6.57%) Infrastructure as Code
16 32 (6.37%) Change Control
17 29 (5.78%) Cybersecurity
17 29 (5.78%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 185 (36.85%) PowerShell
2 66 (13.15%) SQL
3 58 (11.55%) Python
4 29 (5.78%) Bash
5 24 (4.78%) C#
6 15 (2.99%) T-SQL
7 11 (2.19%) PL/SQL
7 11 (2.19%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.99%) Perl
9 9 (1.79%) Bicep
9 9 (1.79%) Groovy
9 9 (1.79%) Java
10 8 (1.59%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.60%) VBScript
12 2 (0.40%) Delphi
12 2 (0.40%) Formula Language
12 2 (0.40%) LotusScript
12 2 (0.40%) PHP
12 2 (0.40%) REXX
12 2 (0.40%) VBA
Qualifications
1 182 (36.25%) Security Cleared
2 113 (22.51%) SC Cleared
3 71 (14.14%) DV Cleared
4 69 (13.75%) Microsoft Certification
5 60 (11.95%) Degree
6 31 (6.18%) MCSE
7 20 (3.98%) Azure Certification
7 20 (3.98%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (3.59%) CCNA
9 17 (3.39%) CCNP
10 16 (3.19%) AWS Certification
11 13 (2.59%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 12 (2.39%) ITIL Certification
13 11 (2.19%) MCSA
14 9 (1.79%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 9 (1.79%) CCDP
14 9 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
15 8 (1.59%) Master's Degree
16 6 (1.20%) BPSS Clearance
16 6 (1.20%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (3.59%) QA
2 12 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (2.39%) SLA
3 11 (2.19%) GDPR
4 9 (1.79%) NIST
5 6 (1.20%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (0.60%) NCSC
6 3 (0.60%) NIST 800
7 2 (0.40%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.20%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.20%) Basel III
8 1 (0.20%) DICOM
8 1 (0.20%) GAAP
8 1 (0.20%) HL7
8 1 (0.20%) IFRS
8 1 (0.20%) IFRS 17
8 1 (0.20%) IFRS 9
8 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 1 (0.20%) JSP 440
System Software
1 317 (63.15%) Active Directory
2 130 (25.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 51 (10.16%) Hyper-V
4 35 (6.97%) vSphere
5 34 (6.77%) Docker
6 26 (5.18%) VMware NSX
7 25 (4.98%) VMware ESXi
8 24 (4.78%) Virtual Machines
9 14 (2.79%) Terminal Services
10 12 (2.39%) Virtual Servers
11 9 (1.79%) Virtual Desktop
12 7 (1.39%) NFS
13 6 (1.20%) Tivoli Directory Server
14 5 (1.00%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.80%) Firmware
16 2 (0.40%) BitLocker
16 2 (0.40%) HDFS
16 2 (0.40%) Job Entry Subsystem
16 2 (0.40%) Microsoft App-V
16 2 (0.40%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 70 (13.94%) SCCM
2 64 (12.75%) Microsoft Intune
3 47 (9.36%) Ansible
4 44 (8.76%) Terraform
5 41 (8.17%) vCenter Server
6 31 (6.18%) Single Sign-On
7 30 (5.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 25 (4.98%) SCOM
9 22 (4.38%) Kubernetes
10 15 (2.99%) WSUS
11 10 (1.99%) Progress Chef
12 9 (1.79%) CA Single Sign-On
13 8 (1.59%) CA Wily
13 8 (1.59%) vRealize
14 7 (1.39%) Puppet
14 7 (1.39%) SCOrch
15 6 (1.20%) CASB
15 6 (1.20%) Tivoli
16 5 (1.00%) Microsoft Clustering
17 4 (0.80%) Grafana
Vendors
1 254 (50.60%) Microsoft
2 181 (36.06%) VMware
3 66 (13.15%) Cisco
4 57 (11.35%) Citrix
5 48 (9.56%) Oracle
6 36 (7.17%) SolarWinds
7 32 (6.37%) Red Hat
8 31 (6.18%) Veeam
9 25 (4.98%) Splunk
10 21 (4.18%) Dell
11 19 (3.78%) Juniper
12 15 (2.99%) ServiceNow
13 14 (2.79%) NetApp
14 11 (2.19%) Broadcom
14 11 (2.19%) Palo Alto
15 10 (1.99%) IBM
16 9 (1.79%) Atlassian
16 9 (1.79%) CyberArk
17 8 (1.59%) AppDynamics
17 8 (1.59%) F5
370 Windows Server jobs in England