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

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 168 168 105
Rank change year-on-year 0 -63 -30
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 760 456 755
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.66% 1.64% 2.29%
As % of the Operating Systems category 17.02% 12.00% 16.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 498 320 554
10th Percentile £262 £303 £248
25th Percentile £375 £408 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% +1.52%
75th Percentile £568 £588 £588
90th Percentile £668 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £485 £525 £488
% change year-on-year -7.62% +7.69% -0.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 6 9
10th Percentile £16.25 £12.97 £31.62
25th Percentile £23.00 £13.14 £36.75
Median hourly rate £52.50 £22.03 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +138.37% -59.95% +37.50%
75th Percentile £70.00 £32.08 £69.69
90th Percentile £74.00 £55.14 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £52.00 £17.63 £55.00
% change year-on-year +195.04% -67.95% +37.50%

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 4,466 3,801 4,682
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.73% 13.70% 14.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,867 2,502 3,055
10th Percentile £190 £190 £200
25th Percentile £310 £307 £331
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 £451 £475
% change year-on-year +4.11% -5.16% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 308 243 266
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.51 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.16 £18.51 £17.69
Median hourly rate £32.50 £24.00 £39.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.42% -38.46% -8.24%
75th Percentile £67.47 £58.88 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.78 £67.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £25.77 £25.15 £35.58
% change year-on-year +2.47% -29.32% -16.28%

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 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 29 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 29 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 -2 232 £475 -5.00% 200
South East -10 195 £515 -3.92% 148
North of England -25 121 £450 +0.33% 99
Midlands -4 76 £428 -18.57% 79
North West -32 66 £448 +6.67% 52
East of England -6 65 £450 -18.18% 69
South West -29 64 £500 -7.41% 45
Yorkshire -26 45 £510 +7.71% 29
West Midlands -22 44 £425 -19.05% 47
East Midlands +11 30 £450 - 32
North East -30 10 £213 -57.50% 23
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 (11.18%) Microsoft Exchange
2 50 (6.58%) SharePoint
3 28 (3.68%) IIS
4 8 (1.05%) nginx
5 7 (0.92%) Tomcat
6 5 (0.66%) Apache
6 5 (0.66%) Confluence
7 4 (0.53%) FactoryTalk
8 3 (0.39%) CloudStack
8 3 (0.39%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.26%) SAS
9 2 (0.26%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.13%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.13%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.13%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 17 (2.24%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 15 (1.97%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.26%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.26%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 324 (42.63%) Azure
2 155 (20.39%) Microsoft 365
3 153 (20.13%) Entra ID
4 96 (12.63%) AWS
5 48 (6.32%) Azure Monitor
6 31 (4.08%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (3.42%) GCP
8 25 (3.29%) IaaS
9 22 (2.89%) Power Platform
10 21 (2.76%) GitHub
11 19 (2.50%) Azure Sentinel
12 17 (2.24%) OpenShift
13 13 (1.71%) OneDrive
14 11 (1.45%) PaaS
15 10 (1.32%) Amazon EC2
15 10 (1.32%) Nutanix
16 8 (1.05%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 8 (1.05%) Datadog
16 8 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
16 8 (1.05%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 250 (32.89%) DNS
2 163 (21.45%) DHCP
3 135 (17.76%) Firewall
4 72 (9.47%) VPN
5 67 (8.82%) TCP/IP
6 52 (6.84%) SAN
7 44 (5.79%) VLAN
7 44 (5.79%) WAN
8 39 (5.13%) LAN
9 30 (3.95%) Network Security
10 21 (2.76%) NAS
10 21 (2.76%) SSL
11 18 (2.37%) Wi-Fi
12 14 (1.84%) NetScaler
12 14 (1.84%) VoIP
13 13 (1.71%) SSH
13 13 (1.71%) Wireless
14 11 (1.45%) SMTP
15 9 (1.18%) VSAN
16 7 (0.92%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (19.34%) SQL Server
2 22 (2.89%) Power BI
3 13 (1.71%) Amazon RDS
4 12 (1.58%) Oracle Database
4 12 (1.58%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (1.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 10 (1.32%) Elasticsearch
5 10 (1.32%) MySQL
6 7 (0.92%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.66%) Big Data
8 4 (0.53%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.39%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.39%) GIS
9 3 (0.39%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.39%) Oracle BI EE
9 3 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 1 (0.13%) Amazon Aurora
11 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.13%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 15 (1.97%) Git
1 15 (1.97%) Jenkins
2 12 (1.58%) JIRA
3 9 (1.18%) GitLab
4 5 (0.66%) Visual Studio
5 4 (0.53%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 3 (0.39%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.39%) MSI
6 3 (0.39%) Octopus Deploy
7 2 (0.26%) AdminStudio
7 2 (0.26%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.26%) InstallShield
7 2 (0.26%) Robot Framework
7 2 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.13%) eggPlant
8 1 (0.13%) MSBuild
8 1 (0.13%) Postman
8 1 (0.13%) Subversion
8 1 (0.13%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.13%) Vagrant
General
1 196 (25.79%) Social Skills
2 97 (12.76%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (10.39%) Finance
4 45 (5.92%) Public Sector
5 44 (5.79%) Documentation Skills
6 41 (5.39%) Banking
7 16 (2.11%) Law
8 14 (1.84%) Military
9 13 (1.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 12 (1.58%) Legal
11 11 (1.45%) Telecoms
12 10 (1.32%) Pharmaceutical
13 9 (1.18%) Manufacturing
14 8 (1.05%) Aerospace
14 8 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
15 6 (0.79%) Games
15 6 (0.79%) Local Government
16 5 (0.66%) Retail
17 4 (0.53%) Marketing
17 4 (0.53%) Police
Job Titles
1 200 (26.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 88 (11.58%) Senior
3 70 (9.21%) Support Engineer
4 55 (7.24%) Cloud Engineer
5 51 (6.71%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 47 (6.18%) Lead
7 39 (5.13%) IT Engineer
8 38 (5.00%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 33 (4.34%) Architect
10 32 (4.21%) Server Engineer
11 31 (4.08%) Administrator
11 31 (4.08%) Azure Engineer
11 31 (4.08%) Windows Engineer
12 29 (3.82%) IT Support
13 27 (3.55%) Storage Engineer
14 26 (3.42%) Infrastructure Support
15 25 (3.29%) Systems Engineer
16 24 (3.16%) Wintel Engineer
17 23 (3.03%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
17 23 (3.03%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (11.58%) Terraform
2 32 (4.21%) .NET
3 23 (3.03%) .NET Framework
4 22 (2.89%) REST
5 18 (2.37%) ARM Templates
6 11 (1.45%) JSON
6 11 (1.45%) LDAP
7 9 (1.18%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (1.05%) OAuth
9 7 (0.92%) RabbitMQ
9 7 (0.92%) YAML
10 6 (0.79%) Software Packaging
11 5 (0.66%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.66%) SAML
12 4 (0.53%) ADO
12 4 (0.53%) ASP.NET
12 4 (0.53%) Azure Blueprints
12 4 (0.53%) Middleware
12 4 (0.53%) OAuth2
12 4 (0.53%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 77 (10.13%) PKI
2 66 (8.68%) Hybrid Cloud
3 56 (7.37%) Clustering
4 54 (7.11%) Onboarding
5 46 (6.05%) Data Centre
6 40 (5.26%) Replication
7 39 (5.13%) Management Information System
8 21 (2.76%) Enterprise Storage
9 16 (2.11%) Driving Licence
10 14 (1.84%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (1.84%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.45%) Security Posture
12 10 (1.32%) Cloud Native
12 10 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
12 10 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
13 9 (1.18%) Linux Command Line
14 8 (1.05%) ARM Cortex
14 8 (1.05%) Smartcard
15 7 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
15 7 (0.92%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 760 (100.00%) Windows
2 217 (28.55%) Linux
3 58 (7.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 55 (7.24%) Windows Server 2019
5 54 (7.11%) Windows 10
6 38 (5.00%) Windows Server 2016
7 35 (4.61%) Ubuntu
8 29 (3.82%) Windows Server 2012
9 26 (3.42%) CentOS
9 26 (3.42%) Unix
10 13 (1.71%) Mac OS
10 13 (1.71%) VMS
11 11 (1.45%) Rocky
12 10 (1.32%) Windows Server 2008
13 7 (0.92%) Windows 7
14 6 (0.79%) Windows Server 2003
15 5 (0.66%) Solaris
16 4 (0.53%) Alpine Linux
17 3 (0.39%) Android
17 3 (0.39%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 251 (33.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 188 (24.74%) Problem-Solving
3 147 (19.34%) ITIL
4 122 (16.05%) Disaster Recovery
5 96 (12.63%) Migration
6 89 (11.71%) Root Cause Analysis
7 88 (11.58%) Change Management
7 88 (11.58%) High Availability
7 88 (11.58%) Infrastructure as Code
8 84 (11.05%) ITSM
9 81 (10.66%) DevOps
10 77 (10.13%) Service Management
11 72 (9.47%) Continuous Improvement
12 71 (9.34%) Technical Leadership
13 66 (8.68%) Project Delivery
14 62 (8.16%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 59 (7.76%) Runbook
16 58 (7.63%) CI/CD
17 56 (7.37%) Agile
17 56 (7.37%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 306 (40.26%) PowerShell
2 103 (13.55%) SQL
3 81 (10.66%) Python
4 65 (8.55%) Bash
5 28 (3.68%) Bicep
6 27 (3.55%) T-SQL
7 22 (2.89%) C#
8 21 (2.76%) PL/SQL
9 12 (1.58%) JavaScript
10 11 (1.45%) Java
11 4 (0.53%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.39%) Go
12 3 (0.39%) Korn
13 2 (0.26%) Groovy
13 2 (0.26%) JCL
13 2 (0.26%) REXX
14 1 (0.13%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.13%) Ladder Logic
14 1 (0.13%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.13%) VB
Qualifications
1 332 (43.68%) Security Cleared
2 185 (24.34%) SC Cleared
3 160 (21.05%) DV Cleared
4 71 (9.34%) Degree
5 53 (6.97%) Microsoft Certification
6 34 (4.47%) Azure Certification
7 27 (3.55%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 19 (2.50%) MCSE
9 18 (2.37%) Cisco Certification
10 16 (2.11%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 14 (1.84%) MCSA
12 11 (1.45%) AWS Certification
12 11 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
12 11 (1.45%) CCNA
13 10 (1.32%) CISSP
13 10 (1.32%) VCAP
14 9 (1.18%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (1.05%) CCNP
15 8 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
16 7 (0.92%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (4.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (4.21%) SLA
3 26 (3.42%) QA
4 23 (3.03%) NIST
5 15 (1.97%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.05%) GDPR
6 8 (1.05%) NCSC
7 5 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 5 (0.66%) GxP
7 5 (0.66%) SOC 2
8 4 (0.53%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 3 (0.39%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.26%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.26%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.13%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.13%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.13%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.13%) NIST 800
System Software
1 435 (57.24%) Active Directory
2 279 (36.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 144 (18.95%) Hyper-V
4 106 (13.95%) VMware ESXi
5 91 (11.97%) vSphere
6 52 (6.84%) Virtual Machines
7 43 (5.66%) Docker
8 41 (5.39%) VMware NSX
9 33 (4.34%) Virtual Desktop
10 22 (2.89%) vCloud
11 14 (1.84%) Virtual Servers
12 10 (1.32%) Firmware
12 10 (1.32%) Microsoft App-V
12 10 (1.32%) XenApp
13 9 (1.18%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 9 (1.18%) XenDesktop
14 8 (1.05%) BitLocker
15 6 (0.79%) KVM
16 5 (0.66%) Terminal Services
16 5 (0.66%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 103 (13.55%) Ansible
2 92 (12.11%) vCenter Server
3 88 (11.58%) Microsoft Intune
4 78 (10.26%) SCCM
5 66 (8.68%) SCOM
6 50 (6.58%) Kubernetes
7 35 (4.61%) WSUS
8 17 (2.24%) Grafana
9 16 (2.11%) Prometheus
10 15 (1.97%) NetBackup
10 15 (1.97%) vMotion
11 13 (1.71%) Avamar
11 13 (1.71%) Failover Clustering
12 10 (1.32%) Nessus
12 10 (1.32%) Puppet
13 8 (1.05%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 7 (0.92%) Jamf Pro
14 7 (0.92%) Microsoft Clustering
14 7 (0.92%) WMI
15 6 (0.79%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 391 (51.45%) Microsoft
2 358 (47.11%) VMware
3 82 (10.79%) Cisco
4 72 (9.47%) Citrix
5 58 (7.63%) Oracle
6 51 (6.71%) ServiceNow
7 31 (4.08%) CyberArk
7 31 (4.08%) Red Hat
8 28 (3.68%) NetApp
9 27 (3.55%) BeyondTrust
9 27 (3.55%) Dell
9 27 (3.55%) Veeam
10 24 (3.16%) Splunk
11 19 (2.50%) HP
12 18 (2.37%) Fortinet
12 18 (2.37%) Tenable
13 17 (2.24%) Google
13 17 (2.24%) Remedy
14 16 (2.11%) CrowdStrike
14 16 (2.11%) Juniper