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

 6 months to
28 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 180 118 83
Rank change year-on-year -62 -35 +9
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 535 586 958
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.51% 2.28% 2.53%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.64% 16.04% 17.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 415 402 649
10th Percentile £215 £264 £190
25th Percentile £404 £400 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £440
Median % change year-on-year - +13.64% -9.28%
75th Percentile £597 £600 £575
90th Percentile £715 £675 £658
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £450
% change year-on-year - +11.11% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 7 35
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.01 £16.00
25th Percentile £19.79 £31.56 £24.39
Median hourly rate £22.50 £53.00 £58.00
Median % change year-on-year -57.55% -8.62% +70.59%
75th Percentile £29.06 £92.88 £74.21
90th Percentile £48.32 £112.00 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £22.50 £45.00 £58.00
% change year-on-year -50.00% -22.41% +78.46%

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 4,232 3,654 5,380
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.91% 14.23% 14.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,827 2,383 3,666
10th Percentile £180 £200 £178
25th Percentile £266 £313 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -12.62%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £465
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.15% -9.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 318 119 356
10th Percentile £14.70 £16.25 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.11 £19.26 £16.54
Median hourly rate £22.81 £44.50 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -48.74% +78.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £60.00 £67.38 £62.13
90th Percentile £68.00 £71.75 £70.95
UK median hourly rate £23.50 £30.78 £25.06
% change year-on-year -23.65% +22.84% -5.75%

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 28 February 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 28 February 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 28 February 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 -73 167 £500 - 82
South East -28 109 £500 - 127
North of England -65 83 £375 -19.35% 74
South West -34 68 £565 -1.74% 34
North West -34 62 £370 -18.68% 46
Midlands -44 54 £438 +25.00% 34
East of England -4 50 £475 +7.95% 30
West Midlands -39 39 £438 +68.27% 19
Yorkshire -63 17 £375 -28.57% 28
East Midlands -20 15 £415 +0.58% 15
North East -15 7 £550 -8.33% 1
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 77 (14.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (5.98%) SharePoint
3 20 (3.74%) IIS
4 9 (1.68%) Apache
5 7 (1.31%) Confluence
6 6 (1.12%) Skype for Business
7 4 (0.75%) nginx
7 4 (0.75%) Tomcat
7 4 (0.75%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.56%) iPlanet
8 3 (0.56%) JBoss
8 3 (0.56%) SAS
8 3 (0.56%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2010
9 2 (0.37%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.37%) WordPress
10 1 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.19%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.19%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 27 (5.05%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.19%) InfoPath
4 1 (0.19%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.19%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.56%) Remedy ITSM
1 3 (0.56%) Veritas eDiscovery
2 1 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.19%) Oracle FAH
2 1 (0.19%) Oracle General Ledger
2 1 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.19%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.19%) SystmOne
2 1 (0.19%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 182 (34.02%) Azure
2 113 (21.12%) Microsoft 365
3 98 (18.32%) Entra ID
4 44 (8.22%) AWS
5 17 (3.18%) IaaS
6 12 (2.24%) SaaS
7 11 (2.06%) Nutanix
7 11 (2.06%) PaaS
8 7 (1.31%) Azure DevOps
8 7 (1.31%) Power Platform
9 6 (1.12%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (0.93%) Mimecast
10 5 (0.93%) OCI
11 4 (0.75%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (0.75%) GCP
12 3 (0.56%) Amazon EKS
12 3 (0.56%) Amazon S3
12 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Copilot
12 3 (0.56%) OpenShift
13 2 (0.37%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 176 (32.90%) DNS
2 122 (22.80%) DHCP
3 114 (21.31%) Firewall
4 50 (9.35%) TCP/IP
5 47 (8.79%) WAN
6 42 (7.85%) LAN
7 41 (7.66%) VPN
8 26 (4.86%) Network Security
9 20 (3.74%) Kerberos
10 18 (3.36%) VLAN
11 15 (2.80%) Cisco IOS
12 14 (2.62%) FTP
12 14 (2.62%) Wireless
13 13 (2.43%) Wi-Fi
14 12 (2.24%) Cisco Firepower
14 12 (2.24%) Cisco ISE
14 12 (2.24%) Junos
14 12 (2.24%) VoIP
15 10 (1.87%) Skype
15 10 (1.87%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (12.71%) SQL Server
2 15 (2.80%) Oracle Database
3 6 (1.12%) DB2
3 6 (1.12%) Elasticsearch
3 6 (1.12%) Power BI
4 4 (0.75%) NoSQL
4 4 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.75%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.37%) GIS
5 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.19%) MySQL
6 1 (0.19%) Oracle BI EE
6 1 (0.19%) Oracle Database 11g
6 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.19%) Redis
6 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 13 (2.43%) GitLab
1 13 (2.43%) JIRA
2 12 (2.24%) Git
2 12 (2.24%) Jenkins
3 11 (2.06%) Visual Studio
4 9 (1.68%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.93%) Robot Framework
6 4 (0.75%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.56%) Bitbucket Server
7 3 (0.56%) CA Release Automation
7 3 (0.56%) Octopus Deploy
8 2 (0.37%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.37%) Fiddler
9 1 (0.19%) GoCD
9 1 (0.19%) Maven
9 1 (0.19%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.19%) TeamCity
General
1 133 (24.86%) Social Skills
2 58 (10.84%) Analytical Skills
3 56 (10.47%) Public Sector
4 50 (9.35%) Finance
5 34 (6.36%) Documentation Skills
6 23 (4.30%) Legal
7 17 (3.18%) Banking
8 12 (2.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (2.06%) Military
10 6 (1.12%) Spanish Language
11 5 (0.93%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.75%) Aerospace
12 4 (0.75%) Local Government
12 4 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.56%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.56%) Front Office
13 3 (0.56%) Retail
14 2 (0.37%) Back Office
14 2 (0.37%) Law
14 2 (0.37%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 85 (15.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 62 (11.59%) Analyst
3 40 (7.48%) Support Engineer
4 37 (6.92%) Architect
5 36 (6.73%) Senior
6 34 (6.36%) Platform Engineer
7 31 (5.79%) Wintel Engineer
8 30 (5.61%) IT Support
9 27 (5.05%) Support Analyst
10 26 (4.86%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 26 (4.86%) 3rd Line Support
10 26 (4.86%) Developer
10 26 (4.86%) Network Engineer
10 26 (4.86%) Technical Analyst
11 22 (4.11%) 2nd Line Support
11 22 (4.11%) Windows Engineer
12 19 (3.55%) Technical Support
13 18 (3.36%) Lead
14 17 (3.18%) Server Engineer
14 17 (3.18%) Technical Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (6.73%) OAuth
2 33 (6.17%) SAML
3 25 (4.67%) LDAP
4 24 (4.49%) .NET
5 20 (3.74%) OpenID
6 17 (3.18%) OAuth2
6 17 (3.18%) REST
7 16 (2.99%) .NET Framework
8 9 (1.68%) React
9 8 (1.50%) Middleware
9 8 (1.50%) XMPP
10 6 (1.12%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.75%) ASP.NET Web API
11 4 (0.75%) Keycloak
11 4 (0.75%) WCF
11 4 (0.75%) Web Services
12 3 (0.56%) Express.js
12 3 (0.56%) SOAP
12 3 (0.56%) WinForms
12 3 (0.56%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 46 (8.60%) PKI
2 39 (7.29%) Data Centre
2 39 (7.29%) Replication
3 21 (3.93%) Onboarding
3 21 (3.93%) Product Ownership
4 19 (3.55%) Clustering
4 19 (3.55%) NHS
5 17 (3.18%) Hybrid Cloud
6 15 (2.80%) Enterprise Software
6 15 (2.80%) Private Cloud
7 14 (2.62%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (2.43%) Management Information System
9 12 (2.24%) Driving Licence
10 9 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.50%) Analytical Mindset
12 7 (1.31%) CMDB
12 7 (1.31%) Enterprise Storage
12 7 (1.31%) Linux Command Line
13 6 (1.12%) iPhone
14 5 (0.93%) Client/Server
Operating Systems
1 533 (99.63%) Windows
2 136 (25.42%) Linux
3 38 (7.10%) Windows Server 2019
4 36 (6.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 35 (6.54%) Windows 10
6 32 (5.98%) Windows Server 2012
7 30 (5.61%) Windows Server 2016
8 22 (4.11%) Unix
9 11 (2.06%) Windows Server 2003
10 10 (1.87%) AIX
10 10 (1.87%) Windows Server 2008
11 9 (1.68%) Android
12 7 (1.31%) CentOS
12 7 (1.31%) Ubuntu
13 6 (1.12%) Solaris
14 5 (0.93%) VMS
15 3 (0.56%) Apple iOS
16 2 (0.37%) Mac OS
16 2 (0.37%) Windows 7
16 2 (0.37%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 125 (23.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 81 (15.14%) Problem-Solving
3 78 (14.58%) ITIL
4 71 (13.27%) Disaster Recovery
5 68 (12.71%) High Availability
6 64 (11.96%) Agile
7 60 (11.21%) Migration
7 60 (11.21%) Service Management
8 50 (9.35%) Identity Access Management
9 49 (9.16%) ITSM
10 46 (8.60%) Change Management
11 44 (8.22%) Continuous Improvement
12 40 (7.48%) Project Delivery
13 39 (7.29%) Cybersecurity
13 39 (7.29%) RBAC
14 36 (6.73%) Change Control
14 36 (6.73%) DevOps
15 34 (6.36%) Platform Engineering
16 31 (5.79%) CI/CD
17 29 (5.42%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 206 (38.50%) PowerShell
2 68 (12.71%) SQL
3 50 (9.35%) Python
4 34 (6.36%) Bash
5 29 (5.42%) C#
6 20 (3.74%) PL/SQL
6 20 (3.74%) T-SQL
7 11 (2.06%) JavaScript
7 11 (2.06%) Perl
8 10 (1.87%) Java
9 5 (0.93%) Bicep
10 3 (0.56%) Groovy
10 3 (0.56%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.37%) Delphi
11 2 (0.37%) JCL
11 2 (0.37%) PHP
11 2 (0.37%) REXX
11 2 (0.37%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.19%) VBA
Qualifications
1 210 (39.25%) Security Cleared
2 131 (24.49%) SC Cleared
3 78 (14.58%) DV Cleared
4 66 (12.34%) Degree
5 65 (12.15%) Microsoft Certification
6 28 (5.23%) MCSE
7 20 (3.74%) Cisco Certification
8 19 (3.55%) CCNP
9 18 (3.36%) Azure Certification
10 17 (3.18%) CCNA
11 15 (2.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 14 (2.62%) MCSA
13 10 (1.87%) CCDP
14 9 (1.68%) AWS Certification
14 9 (1.68%) VCAP
15 8 (1.50%) CISSP
15 8 (1.50%) ITIL Certification
16 7 (1.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 7 (1.31%) Master's Degree
17 6 (1.12%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (4.11%) QA
2 20 (3.74%) GDPR
3 15 (2.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (2.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 14 (2.62%) NIST
5 10 (1.87%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (0.75%) NIST 800
6 4 (0.75%) SLA
7 2 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 2 (0.37%) NCSC
8 1 (0.19%) Basel III
8 1 (0.19%) DICOM
8 1 (0.19%) GAAP
8 1 (0.19%) HL7
8 1 (0.19%) IFRS
8 1 (0.19%) IFRS 17
8 1 (0.19%) IFRS 9
8 1 (0.19%) JSP 440
System Software
1 342 (63.93%) Active Directory
2 155 (28.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 64 (11.96%) Hyper-V
4 44 (8.22%) vSphere
5 34 (6.36%) Docker
5 34 (6.36%) VMware ESXi
6 31 (5.79%) Virtual Machines
7 26 (4.86%) VMware NSX
8 11 (2.06%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (1.50%) Virtual Servers
10 7 (1.31%) KVM
11 6 (1.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 6 (1.12%) Terminal Services
12 4 (0.75%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.75%) Microsoft App-V
12 4 (0.75%) NFS
13 3 (0.56%) Tivoli Directory Server
14 2 (0.37%) Oracle RAC
14 2 (0.37%) Sendmail
14 2 (0.37%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 78 (14.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 72 (13.46%) SCCM
3 53 (9.91%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 53 (9.91%) Ansible
4 51 (9.53%) Single Sign-On
5 45 (8.41%) vCenter Server
6 40 (7.48%) Terraform
7 27 (5.05%) Kubernetes
8 23 (4.30%) SCOM
9 13 (2.43%) WSUS
10 7 (1.31%) Puppet
10 7 (1.31%) SCOrch
11 6 (1.12%) CASB
11 6 (1.12%) IBM BigFix
11 6 (1.12%) VxRail
12 5 (0.93%) FortiGate
12 5 (0.93%) Progress Chef
13 4 (0.75%) Nessus
13 4 (0.75%) vMotion
14 3 (0.56%) CA Wily
Vendors
1 259 (48.41%) Microsoft
2 206 (38.50%) VMware
3 64 (11.96%) Cisco
4 61 (11.40%) Citrix
5 43 (8.04%) Oracle
6 31 (5.79%) SolarWinds
7 30 (5.61%) Red Hat
8 28 (5.23%) Dell
9 27 (5.05%) Veeam
10 25 (4.67%) ServiceNow
11 15 (2.80%) Okta
11 15 (2.80%) Splunk
12 14 (2.62%) IBM
12 14 (2.62%) Juniper
12 14 (2.62%) Palo Alto
13 11 (2.06%) CyberArk
14 10 (1.87%) BeyondTrust
14 10 (1.87%) NetApp
15 9 (1.68%) F5
15 9 (1.68%) Qualys
341 Windows Server jobs in England