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

 6 months to
18 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 181 123 83
Rank change year-on-year -58 -40 +6
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 583 550 940
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.48% 2.25% 2.52%
As % of the Operating Systems category 14.36% 16.11% 18.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 435 382 672
10th Percentile £253 £301 £200
25th Percentile £409 £406 £312
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £450
Median % change year-on-year -4.81% +16.72% -10.00%
75th Percentile £588 £606 £594
90th Percentile £711 £686 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £465
% change year-on-year -4.76% +12.90% -7.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 4 23
10th Percentile £20.60 £16.17 £15.81
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.43 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.88 £35.88 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.29% +10.38% +10.92%
75th Percentile £67.84 £58.19 £60.55
90th Percentile £74.16 £67.53 £64.32
UK median hourly rate £27.88 £18.25 £32.50
% change year-on-year +52.77% -43.85% +13.24%

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 4,060 3,413 5,135
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.30% 13.94% 13.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,689 2,342 3,498
10th Percentile £182 £200 £180
25th Percentile £305 £313 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -13.04%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £664 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -9.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 277 144 378
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.25 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.10 £14.83
Median hourly rate £35.00 £24.66 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +41.93% +17.43% -27.59%
75th Percentile £67.84 £64.06 £56.56
90th Percentile £74.81 £68.00 £69.13
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £24.18 £22.00
% change year-on-year +40.61% +9.91% -26.67%

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 18 April 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 18 April 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 18 April 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 -65 176 £500 -4.76% 71
South East -26 119 £513 -6.82% 92
North of England -76 87 £425 -15.00% 73
Midlands -27 72 £450 +33.33% 47
South West -34 66 £560 -2.61% 44
North West -46 63 £423 -4.25% 35
East of England +3 61 £450 - 37
West Midlands -38 48 £450 +50.00% 18
East Midlands -22 22 £450 -10.00% 28
Yorkshire -68 21 £419 -23.86% 27
North East -11 6 £550 -8.33% 13
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 78 (13.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (4.63%) IIS
3 23 (3.95%) SharePoint
4 6 (1.03%) Apache
4 6 (1.03%) nginx
4 6 (1.03%) Tomcat
5 5 (0.86%) SAS
6 3 (0.51%) Confluence
6 3 (0.51%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.34%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.34%) WordPress
8 1 (0.17%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.17%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 19 (3.26%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.03%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 7 (1.20%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.51%) Veritas eDiscovery
3 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle FAH
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (0.17%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 208 (35.68%) Azure
2 105 (18.01%) Microsoft 365
3 102 (17.50%) Entra ID
4 56 (9.61%) AWS
5 21 (3.60%) IaaS
6 15 (2.57%) Azure Monitor
6 15 (2.57%) PaaS
7 12 (2.06%) Nutanix
8 11 (1.89%) SaaS
9 10 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.72%) Power Platform
10 7 (1.20%) GitHub
11 6 (1.03%) Amazon EC2
11 6 (1.03%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (1.03%) GCP
12 5 (0.86%) Mimecast
12 5 (0.86%) OCI
13 4 (0.69%) Cohesity
13 4 (0.69%) Google Workspace
13 4 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 201 (34.48%) DNS
2 138 (23.67%) DHCP
3 131 (22.47%) Firewall
4 56 (9.61%) VPN
5 51 (8.75%) TCP/IP
6 47 (8.06%) WAN
7 41 (7.03%) LAN
8 29 (4.97%) Network Security
9 24 (4.12%) VLAN
10 17 (2.92%) FTP
11 15 (2.57%) Kerberos
11 15 (2.57%) SAN
12 14 (2.40%) SMTP
12 14 (2.40%) VoIP
12 14 (2.40%) Wi-Fi
13 13 (2.23%) SSL
14 10 (1.72%) Wireless
15 9 (1.54%) BGP
15 9 (1.54%) IPv4
15 9 (1.54%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 93 (15.95%) SQL Server
2 15 (2.57%) Oracle Database
3 11 (1.89%) Elasticsearch
4 10 (1.72%) Power BI
5 6 (1.03%) DB2
5 6 (1.03%) NoSQL
6 5 (0.86%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (0.69%) Relational Database
7 4 (0.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.51%) Data Mining
9 2 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.34%) Big Data
9 2 (0.34%) GIS
9 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.17%) Electronic Patient Records
10 1 (0.17%) MongoDB
10 1 (0.17%) Oracle BI EE
10 1 (0.17%) Oracle Database 11g
10 1 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 11 (1.89%) Visual Studio
2 10 (1.72%) JIRA
3 9 (1.54%) GitLab
4 8 (1.37%) Git
4 8 (1.37%) Jenkins
5 6 (1.03%) Robot Framework
6 5 (0.86%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.51%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.34%) Octopus Deploy
9 1 (0.17%) AdminStudio
9 1 (0.17%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.17%) eggPlant
9 1 (0.17%) GoCD
9 1 (0.17%) InstallShield
9 1 (0.17%) MSI
9 1 (0.17%) Postman
9 1 (0.17%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 139 (23.84%) Social Skills
2 65 (11.15%) Finance
3 61 (10.46%) Public Sector
4 53 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (6.17%) Documentation Skills
6 25 (4.29%) Legal
7 22 (3.77%) Banking
8 13 (2.23%) Military
9 9 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.03%) Local Government
12 5 (0.86%) Law
12 5 (0.86%) Retail
12 5 (0.86%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.69%) Front Office
14 3 (0.51%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.51%) Financial Institution
15 2 (0.34%) Back Office
15 2 (0.34%) Manufacturing
15 2 (0.34%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 114 (19.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 51 (8.75%) Analyst
3 37 (6.35%) Architect
4 36 (6.17%) Senior
5 35 (6.00%) IT Support
6 33 (5.66%) Platform Engineer
7 31 (5.32%) Support Engineer
8 27 (4.63%) Windows Engineer
9 25 (4.29%) Developer
10 24 (4.12%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 24 (4.12%) Lead
11 23 (3.95%) Wintel Engineer
12 21 (3.60%) IT Engineer
12 21 (3.60%) Server Engineer
13 20 (3.43%) Support Analyst
14 19 (3.26%) C# Developer
15 17 (2.92%) 3rd Line Support
16 16 (2.74%) Technical Analyst
17 15 (2.57%) 2nd Line Support
18 14 (2.40%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (5.66%) .NET
2 32 (5.49%) OAuth
3 31 (5.32%) SAML
4 27 (4.63%) .NET Framework
5 22 (3.77%) REST
6 18 (3.09%) LDAP
6 18 (3.09%) OAuth2
6 18 (3.09%) OpenID
7 8 (1.37%) XMPP
8 6 (1.03%) Middleware
8 6 (1.03%) React
9 5 (0.86%) AngularJS
10 4 (0.69%) ISPF
10 4 (0.69%) JSON
10 4 (0.69%) Keycloak
11 3 (0.51%) ADO
11 3 (0.51%) EJB
11 3 (0.51%) Vue
11 3 (0.51%) Web Services
11 3 (0.51%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 44 (7.55%) PKI
1 44 (7.55%) Replication
2 38 (6.52%) Data Centre
3 31 (5.32%) Clustering
3 31 (5.32%) Onboarding
4 22 (3.77%) Hybrid Cloud
5 21 (3.60%) Product Ownership
6 20 (3.43%) Legacy Systems
7 17 (2.92%) Self-Motivation
8 15 (2.57%) Enterprise Software
8 15 (2.57%) Private Cloud
9 13 (2.23%) Enterprise Storage
10 12 (2.06%) Management Information System
11 11 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
11 11 (1.89%) NHS
12 9 (1.54%) Driving Licence
13 8 (1.37%) Legacy Code
14 6 (1.03%) iPhone
14 6 (1.03%) Linux Command Line
14 6 (1.03%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 581 (99.66%) Windows
2 158 (27.10%) Linux
3 45 (7.72%) Windows Server 2016
4 44 (7.55%) Windows Server 2019
5 40 (6.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 38 (6.52%) Windows 10
7 34 (5.83%) Windows Server 2012
8 23 (3.95%) Unix
9 14 (2.40%) Ubuntu
10 12 (2.06%) VMS
11 10 (1.72%) AIX
11 10 (1.72%) Windows Server 2003
12 8 (1.37%) Android
13 7 (1.20%) Solaris
13 7 (1.20%) Windows Server 2008
14 6 (1.03%) CentOS
15 4 (0.69%) zOS
16 3 (0.51%) Mac OS
17 2 (0.34%) Apple iOS
17 2 (0.34%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 154 (26.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 93 (15.95%) Disaster Recovery
2 93 (15.95%) ITIL
2 93 (15.95%) Problem-Solving
3 86 (14.75%) High Availability
4 66 (11.32%) Agile
5 65 (11.15%) Migration
6 56 (9.61%) Change Management
7 52 (8.92%) Service Management
8 50 (8.58%) ITSM
9 45 (7.72%) Identity Access Management
10 42 (7.20%) Continuous Improvement
11 41 (7.03%) Cybersecurity
11 41 (7.03%) RBAC
12 40 (6.86%) Project Delivery
13 38 (6.52%) DevOps
14 36 (6.17%) Change Control
15 34 (5.83%) Platform Engineering
16 32 (5.49%) Runbook
17 31 (5.32%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 231 (39.62%) PowerShell
2 75 (12.86%) SQL
3 57 (9.78%) Python
4 37 (6.35%) Bash
5 32 (5.49%) C#
6 27 (4.63%) PL/SQL
7 23 (3.95%) T-SQL
8 13 (2.23%) JavaScript
9 11 (1.89%) Java
9 11 (1.89%) Perl
10 4 (0.69%) Bicep
10 4 (0.69%) JCL
10 4 (0.69%) REXX
11 3 (0.51%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.34%) Delphi
12 2 (0.34%) PHP
13 1 (0.17%) Ladder Logic
13 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.17%) VB
13 1 (0.17%) VBA
Qualifications
1 239 (40.99%) Security Cleared
2 155 (26.59%) SC Cleared
3 88 (15.09%) DV Cleared
4 72 (12.35%) Degree
5 59 (10.12%) Microsoft Certification
6 21 (3.60%) MCSE
7 20 (3.43%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (3.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 17 (2.92%) CCNA
10 14 (2.40%) Azure Certification
10 14 (2.40%) CCNP
11 12 (2.06%) MCSA
12 10 (1.72%) VCAP
13 9 (1.54%) CCDP
14 8 (1.37%) BPSS Clearance
15 7 (1.20%) AWS Certification
15 7 (1.20%) CISSP
16 5 (0.86%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 5 (0.86%) CISM
16 5 (0.86%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (5.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 29 (4.97%) QA
3 27 (4.63%) GDPR
4 20 (3.43%) NIST
5 15 (2.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 11 (1.89%) Cyber Essentials
7 8 (1.37%) SLA
8 4 (0.69%) NIST 800
9 3 (0.51%) NCSC
10 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.17%) Basel III
11 1 (0.17%) DICOM
11 1 (0.17%) GAAP
11 1 (0.17%) HL7
11 1 (0.17%) IFRS
11 1 (0.17%) IFRS 17
11 1 (0.17%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.17%) JSP 440
System Software
1 355 (60.89%) Active Directory
2 189 (32.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 85 (14.58%) Hyper-V
4 53 (9.09%) vSphere
5 44 (7.55%) VMware ESXi
6 34 (5.83%) Docker
7 31 (5.32%) Virtual Machines
8 25 (4.29%) VMware NSX
9 11 (1.89%) KVM
10 10 (1.72%) Virtual Desktop
11 9 (1.54%) Microsoft App-V
12 8 (1.37%) BitLocker
13 6 (1.03%) XenApp
14 5 (0.86%) Terminal Services
14 5 (0.86%) XenDesktop
15 4 (0.69%) Job Entry Subsystem
16 3 (0.51%) Firmware
16 3 (0.51%) NFS
16 3 (0.51%) Oracle RAC
16 3 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 77 (13.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 73 (12.52%) SCCM
3 69 (11.84%) Ansible
4 52 (8.92%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 47 (8.06%) vCenter Server
6 46 (7.89%) Single Sign-On
7 43 (7.38%) Terraform
8 29 (4.97%) Kubernetes
9 23 (3.95%) SCOM
10 21 (3.60%) WSUS
11 10 (1.72%) Puppet
11 10 (1.72%) vMotion
12 7 (1.20%) Nessus
13 6 (1.03%) IBM BigFix
14 5 (0.86%) Control-M
14 5 (0.86%) FortiGate
14 5 (0.86%) VxRail
15 4 (0.69%) Backup Exec
15 4 (0.69%) Oracle RMAN
15 4 (0.69%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 260 (44.60%) Microsoft
2 235 (40.31%) VMware
3 74 (12.69%) Citrix
4 61 (10.46%) Cisco
5 51 (8.75%) Oracle
6 34 (5.83%) ServiceNow
7 33 (5.66%) Red Hat
8 23 (3.95%) Veeam
9 21 (3.60%) Dell
10 18 (3.09%) SolarWinds
11 16 (2.74%) CyberArk
12 15 (2.57%) BeyondTrust
12 15 (2.57%) Okta
13 14 (2.40%) NetApp
13 14 (2.40%) Palo Alto
14 13 (2.23%) IBM
15 12 (2.06%) HP
16 11 (1.89%) BMC
17 10 (1.72%) Tenable
18 8 (1.37%) F5
337 Windows Server jobs in England