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 5 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 178 121 76
Rank change year-on-year -57 -45 +23
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 499 622 1,092
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.60% 2.03% 2.86%
As % of the Operating Systems category 11.81% 14.34% 18.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 377 405 707
10th Percentile £231 £250 £200
25th Percentile £381 £363 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +2.70% -2.22%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £700 £648 £682
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £468
% change year-on-year +5.26% +1.50% -0.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 8 37
10th Percentile £12.97 £42.17 £20.95
25th Percentile £15.50 £48.75 £31.25
Median hourly rate £21.00 £61.19 £49.73
Median % change year-on-year -65.68% +23.04% +95.98%
75th Percentile £32.77 £103.00 £68.63
90th Percentile £74.26 £112.00 £77.12
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £51.50 £49.73
% change year-on-year -59.22% +3.56% +93.13%

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 4,224 4,337 5,874
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 13.56% 14.13% 15.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,773 2,674 4,042
10th Percentile £181 £200 £181
25th Percentile £263 £325 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -6.34%
75th Percentile £573 £588 £613
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 335 164 317
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.53 £15.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.20 £18.50
Median hourly rate £25.00 £60.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -58.33% +84.62% +30.00%
75th Percentile £59.63 £68.32 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.84 £70.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £25.08 £50.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year -49.85% +66.67% +20.00%

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025. 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 -50 165 £500 +5.26% 79
South East -29 98 £500 - 160
South West -13 71 £550 +15.79% 46
North of England -26 66 £413 -6.25% 106
Midlands -45 50 £513 +36.67% 48
North West +2 45 £452 -4.95% 55
East of England +4 44 £438 -20.45% 62
West Midlands -24 40 £525 +101.92% 31
Yorkshire -31 19 £375 -14.77% 45
East Midlands -34 10 £415 +3.75% 17
North East -7 5 £550 +76.00% 9
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 64 (12.83%) Microsoft Exchange
2 39 (7.82%) SharePoint
3 28 (5.61%) IIS
4 18 (3.61%) Apache
5 17 (3.41%) WebSphere
6 9 (1.80%) Confluence
6 9 (1.80%) JBoss
7 8 (1.60%) iPlanet
7 8 (1.60%) 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%) Documentum
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%) SharePoint 2010
12 1 (0.20%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 31 (6.21%) 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 4 (0.80%) Maximo
2 2 (0.40%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.20%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.20%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 177 (35.47%) Azure
2 100 (20.04%) Microsoft 365
3 70 (14.03%) Entra ID
4 51 (10.22%) AWS
5 22 (4.41%) IaaS
6 21 (4.21%) SaaS
7 13 (2.61%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (2.40%) PaaS
9 8 (1.60%) GCP
10 7 (1.40%) Amazon S3
10 7 (1.40%) GitHub
10 7 (1.40%) OpenShift
10 7 (1.40%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 6 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
11 6 (1.20%) Nutanix
11 6 (1.20%) Power Platform
12 5 (1.00%) Amazon EC2
12 5 (1.00%) Amazon EKS
12 5 (1.00%) Azure Sentinel
12 5 (1.00%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 129 (25.85%) DNS
2 102 (20.44%) Firewall
3 85 (17.03%) DHCP
4 53 (10.62%) TCP/IP
5 38 (7.62%) VPN
6 32 (6.41%) LAN
7 31 (6.21%) WAN
8 24 (4.81%) SAN
9 23 (4.61%) VLAN
10 19 (3.81%) Cisco IOS
11 17 (3.41%) Cisco Firepower
11 17 (3.41%) Cisco ISE
11 17 (3.41%) Junos
11 17 (3.41%) Network Security
12 16 (3.21%) iSCSI
13 15 (3.01%) Wireless
14 12 (2.40%) Fibre Channel
14 12 (2.40%) Wi-Fi
15 11 (2.20%) Kerberos
16 9 (1.80%) BGP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (12.02%) SQL Server
2 26 (5.21%) Oracle Database
3 7 (1.40%) Amazon RDS
4 5 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.80%) DB2
5 4 (0.80%) Power BI
6 3 (0.60%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.40%) Apache Hive
7 2 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.40%) Hadoop
7 2 (0.40%) Impala
7 2 (0.40%) MySQL
7 2 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.40%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.20%) BusinessObjects
8 1 (0.20%) Oracle Discoverer
8 1 (0.20%) Redis
8 1 (0.20%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 27 (5.41%) Git
1 27 (5.41%) Jenkins
2 18 (3.61%) GitLab
3 11 (2.20%) Sonatype Nexus
4 10 (2.00%) JIRA
5 9 (1.80%) Bitbucket Server
5 9 (1.80%) CA Release Automation
6 5 (1.00%) Bitbucket
6 5 (1.00%) Visual Studio
7 3 (0.60%) Fiddler
7 3 (0.60%) MSI
7 3 (0.60%) Octopus Deploy
7 3 (0.60%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.60%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.40%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.40%) REST Assured
8 2 (0.40%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.20%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.20%) GoCD
9 1 (0.20%) Postman
General
1 127 (25.45%) Social Skills
2 56 (11.22%) Finance
3 46 (9.22%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (9.02%) Public Sector
5 33 (6.61%) Documentation Skills
6 23 (4.61%) Banking
7 19 (3.81%) Legal
8 13 (2.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (2.00%) Telecoms
10 8 (1.60%) Law
11 6 (1.20%) Manufacturing
11 6 (1.20%) Military
11 6 (1.20%) Spanish Language
12 5 (1.00%) Front Office
12 5 (1.00%) Local Government
12 5 (1.00%) Marketing
13 4 (0.80%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.60%) Electronics
14 3 (0.60%) Japanese Language
14 3 (0.60%) Retail
Job Titles
1 78 (15.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 51 (10.22%) Support Engineer
3 46 (9.22%) Analyst
4 45 (9.02%) Architect
5 33 (6.61%) Platform Engineer
5 33 (6.61%) Senior
6 27 (5.41%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 27 (5.41%) Network Engineer
7 25 (5.01%) Support Analyst
8 24 (4.81%) 2nd Line Support
9 23 (4.61%) IT Support
10 22 (4.41%) 3rd Line Support
10 22 (4.41%) Developer
10 22 (4.41%) Windows Engineer
11 21 (4.21%) Cloud Engineer
11 21 (4.21%) Technical Analyst
12 19 (3.81%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
12 19 (3.81%) IT Engineer
12 19 (3.81%) Technical Support
12 19 (3.81%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (5.21%) OAuth
2 24 (4.81%) SAML
3 23 (4.61%) OpenID
4 18 (3.61%) .NET
5 15 (3.01%) Middleware
6 14 (2.81%) LDAP
6 14 (2.81%) OAuth2
7 11 (2.20%) REST
8 9 (1.80%) .NET Framework
8 9 (1.80%) SOAP
9 8 (1.60%) Web Services
10 6 (1.20%) XML
10 6 (1.20%) XMPP
11 5 (1.00%) ASP.NET Web API
11 5 (1.00%) React
11 5 (1.00%) YAML
12 4 (0.80%) RESTful
12 4 (0.80%) WCF
13 3 (0.60%) FIX Protocol
13 3 (0.60%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 41 (8.22%) PKI
2 40 (8.02%) Data Centre
3 21 (4.21%) Hybrid Cloud
3 21 (4.21%) Replication
4 20 (4.01%) NHS
5 17 (3.41%) Private Cloud
6 13 (2.61%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (2.61%) Product Ownership
7 12 (2.40%) Driving Licence
8 11 (2.20%) Management Information System
9 10 (2.00%) Onboarding
10 9 (1.80%) CMDB
11 8 (1.60%) Client/Server
11 8 (1.60%) Cloud Native
11 8 (1.60%) Self-Motivation
12 7 (1.40%) iPhone
13 6 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
13 6 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
13 6 (1.20%) Enterprise Storage
13 6 (1.20%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 497 (99.60%) Windows
2 136 (27.25%) Linux
3 43 (8.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 36 (7.21%) Windows 10
4 36 (7.21%) Windows Server 2019
5 29 (5.81%) Windows Server 2012
6 24 (4.81%) Windows Server 2016
7 18 (3.61%) Unix
8 17 (3.41%) Ubuntu
9 15 (3.01%) CentOS
10 8 (1.60%) Windows Server 2003
10 8 (1.60%) Windows Server 2008
11 7 (1.40%) VMS
12 6 (1.20%) Android
13 5 (1.00%) Debian
13 5 (1.00%) Mac OS
14 3 (0.60%) Oracle Linux
14 3 (0.60%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.40%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.40%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 110 (22.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 87 (17.43%) ITIL
3 86 (17.23%) Problem-Solving
4 76 (15.23%) Agile
5 65 (13.03%) Migration
6 63 (12.63%) Service Management
7 56 (11.22%) DevOps
8 54 (10.82%) CI/CD
9 47 (9.42%) Continuous Improvement
10 44 (8.82%) ITSM
11 40 (8.02%) Identity Access Management
12 38 (7.62%) Disaster Recovery
13 36 (7.21%) Change Management
14 34 (6.81%) Infrastructure as Code
14 34 (6.81%) Project Delivery
15 33 (6.61%) Change Control
15 33 (6.61%) High Availability
16 32 (6.41%) Platform Engineering
17 31 (6.21%) Cybersecurity
18 28 (5.61%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 172 (34.47%) PowerShell
2 78 (15.63%) SQL
3 62 (12.42%) Python
4 30 (6.01%) Bash
5 20 (4.01%) C#
6 12 (2.40%) T-SQL
7 11 (2.20%) Shell Script
8 10 (2.00%) Perl
9 9 (1.80%) Groovy
10 8 (1.60%) JavaScript
10 8 (1.60%) PL/SQL
11 7 (1.40%) Bicep
12 5 (1.00%) Java
13 4 (0.80%) PHP
14 3 (0.60%) VBScript
15 2 (0.40%) Delphi
15 2 (0.40%) JCL
15 2 (0.40%) LotusScript
15 2 (0.40%) REXX
15 2 (0.40%) VBA
Qualifications
1 178 (35.67%) Security Cleared
2 108 (21.64%) SC Cleared
3 74 (14.83%) DV Cleared
4 68 (13.63%) Microsoft Certification
5 54 (10.82%) Degree
6 30 (6.01%) MCSE
7 22 (4.41%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (4.01%) CCNA
9 19 (3.81%) CCNP
10 18 (3.61%) AWS Certification
11 17 (3.41%) Azure Certification
12 13 (2.61%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 12 (2.40%) ITIL Certification
14 10 (2.00%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 9 (1.80%) CCDP
16 8 (1.60%) Computer Science Degree
17 7 (1.40%) Master's Degree
18 6 (1.20%) ECDL
18 6 (1.20%) MCP
18 6 (1.20%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.81%) QA
2 12 (2.40%) SLA
3 10 (2.00%) GDPR
4 9 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (1.60%) NIST
6 5 (1.00%) NCSC
7 3 (0.60%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.60%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.40%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.20%) DICOM
9 1 (0.20%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.20%) HL7
9 1 (0.20%) IEC 61131
9 1 (0.20%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.20%) RMADS
System Software
1 297 (59.52%) Active Directory
2 129 (25.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 47 (9.42%) Hyper-V
4 32 (6.41%) vSphere
5 30 (6.01%) Docker
6 28 (5.61%) VMware ESXi
7 27 (5.41%) Virtual Machines
8 25 (5.01%) VMware NSX
9 15 (3.01%) NFS
10 13 (2.61%) Terminal Services
11 12 (2.40%) Virtual Servers
12 10 (2.00%) Virtual Desktop
13 6 (1.20%) Tivoli Directory Server
14 5 (1.00%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.80%) Firmware
16 2 (0.40%) HDFS
16 2 (0.40%) Job Entry Subsystem
16 2 (0.40%) Sendmail
16 2 (0.40%) XenDesktop
17 1 (0.20%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 67 (13.43%) SCCM
2 60 (12.02%) Microsoft Intune
3 44 (8.82%) Terraform
4 43 (8.62%) Ansible
5 33 (6.61%) vCenter Server
6 31 (6.21%) Single Sign-On
7 27 (5.41%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 24 (4.81%) SCOM
9 19 (3.81%) WSUS
10 17 (3.41%) Kubernetes
11 10 (2.00%) Progress Chef
12 9 (1.80%) CA Single Sign-On
13 8 (1.60%) CA Wily
13 8 (1.60%) SCOrch
14 7 (1.40%) CASB
14 7 (1.40%) vRealize
15 6 (1.20%) Puppet
15 6 (1.20%) Tivoli
16 4 (0.80%) NetBackup
16 4 (0.80%) Packer
Vendors
1 250 (50.10%) Microsoft
2 184 (36.87%) VMware
3 62 (12.42%) Cisco
4 57 (11.42%) Citrix
5 49 (9.82%) Oracle
6 39 (7.82%) Red Hat
7 33 (6.61%) Veeam
8 32 (6.41%) Splunk
9 31 (6.21%) SolarWinds
10 22 (4.41%) Juniper
11 21 (4.21%) Dell
12 16 (3.21%) IBM
13 15 (3.01%) NetApp
14 11 (2.20%) Broadcom
14 11 (2.20%) HP
15 9 (1.80%) Atlassian
15 9 (1.80%) F5
16 8 (1.60%) AppDynamics
16 8 (1.60%) CyberArk
16 8 (1.60%) ServiceNow