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

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 185 117 83
Rank change year-on-year -68 -34 +10
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 535 586 979
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.53% 2.27% 2.58%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.64% 15.92% 18.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 413 400 659
10th Percentile £214 £255 £190
25th Percentile £400 £400 £285
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +11.11% -7.69%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £575
90th Percentile £712 £675 £658
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £450
% change year-on-year - +11.11% -6.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 7 35
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.01 £16.00
25th Percentile £20.37 £31.56 £24.39
Median hourly rate £22.50 £53.00 £54.56
Median % change year-on-year -57.55% -2.86% +60.47%
75th Percentile £29.65 £92.88 £70.26
90th Percentile £49.39 £112.00 £77.41
UK median hourly rate £22.50 £45.00 £54.56
% change year-on-year -50.00% -17.52% +60.47%

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 3,680 5,427
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 12.11% 14.23% 14.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,820 2,382 3,688
10th Percentile £178 £200 £178
25th Percentile £263 £313 £265
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £471 £454
Median % change year-on-year -4.51% +3.80% -12.69%
75th Percentile £574 £600 £590
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £447 £474 £465
% change year-on-year -5.65% +1.88% -9.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 310 120 364
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.26 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £18.43 £17.16
Median hourly rate £22.50 £38.00 £25.22
Median % change year-on-year -40.79% +50.70% -8.31%
75th Percentile £52.51 £67.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £68.00 £71.50 £71.90
UK median hourly rate £23.00 £29.00 £25.25
% change year-on-year -20.69% +14.85% -4.68%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -71 173 £500 - 66
South East -26 103 £500 - 118
North of England -60 85 £375 -19.35% 74
South West -34 67 £570 -0.87% 33
North West -27 63 £379 -16.76% 45
Midlands -43 55 £431 +26.84% 31
East of England -2 48 £475 +5.56% 36
West Midlands -44 40 £438 +68.27% 18
Yorkshire -60 18 £375 -28.57% 27
East Midlands -23 15 £415 +0.58% 13
North East -21 7 £550 -8.33% 4
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 72 (13.46%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (5.79%) SharePoint
3 21 (3.93%) IIS
4 10 (1.87%) Apache
5 7 (1.31%) Confluence
6 5 (0.93%) nginx
6 5 (0.93%) Skype for Business
6 5 (0.93%) WebSphere
7 4 (0.75%) iPlanet
7 4 (0.75%) JBoss
7 4 (0.75%) Tomcat
7 4 (0.75%) WebSphere Application Server
8 3 (0.56%) SAS
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 26 (4.86%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.37%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.19%) InfoPath
4 1 (0.19%) OmniGraffle
4 1 (0.19%) Windchill
Business Applications
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%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.19%) SystmOne
2 1 (0.19%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 185 (34.58%) Azure
2 111 (20.75%) Microsoft 365
3 97 (18.13%) Entra ID
4 45 (8.41%) AWS
5 20 (3.74%) IaaS
6 13 (2.43%) SaaS
7 12 (2.24%) PaaS
8 10 (1.87%) Nutanix
9 7 (1.31%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (1.12%) Azure Sentinel
11 5 (0.93%) OCI
12 4 (0.75%) Azure Monitor
12 4 (0.75%) GCP
12 4 (0.75%) GitHub
12 4 (0.75%) Power Platform
12 4 (0.75%) Serverless
13 3 (0.56%) Amazon EKS
13 3 (0.56%) Amazon S3
13 3 (0.56%) Mimecast
13 3 (0.56%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 174 (32.52%) DNS
2 123 (22.99%) DHCP
3 112 (20.93%) Firewall
4 50 (9.35%) TCP/IP
5 47 (8.79%) WAN
6 44 (8.22%) VPN
7 43 (8.04%) LAN
8 31 (5.79%) Network Security
9 21 (3.93%) Kerberos
10 20 (3.74%) VLAN
11 17 (3.18%) Cisco IOS
12 16 (2.99%) Wireless
13 15 (2.80%) FTP
14 13 (2.43%) Cisco Firepower
14 13 (2.43%) Cisco ISE
14 13 (2.43%) Junos
15 12 (2.24%) VoIP
15 12 (2.24%) Wi-Fi
16 9 (1.68%) BGP
16 9 (1.68%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (12.15%) SQL Server
2 15 (2.80%) Oracle Database
3 6 (1.12%) DB2
3 6 (1.12%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.75%) NoSQL
4 4 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.75%) Relational Database
5 3 (0.56%) Power BI
6 2 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.37%) GIS
7 1 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.19%) MySQL
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle Database 11g
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.19%) Redis
7 1 (0.19%) SAP HANA
7 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 13 (2.43%) Git
1 13 (2.43%) GitLab
2 12 (2.24%) Jenkins
3 11 (2.06%) JIRA
3 11 (2.06%) Visual Studio
4 9 (1.68%) Sonatype Nexus
5 4 (0.75%) Bitbucket Server
5 4 (0.75%) CA Release Automation
5 4 (0.75%) Robot Framework
6 3 (0.56%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.56%) Octopus Deploy
7 2 (0.37%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.37%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.19%) GoCD
8 1 (0.19%) Maven
8 1 (0.19%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.19%) TeamCity
General
1 134 (25.05%) Social Skills
2 61 (11.40%) Analytical Skills
3 55 (10.28%) Public Sector
4 50 (9.35%) Finance
5 34 (6.36%) Documentation Skills
6 23 (4.30%) Legal
7 19 (3.55%) Banking
8 16 (2.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (1.87%) Military
10 6 (1.12%) Spanish Language
10 6 (1.12%) Telecoms
11 5 (0.93%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (0.75%) Aerospace
12 4 (0.75%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.75%) Front Office
12 4 (0.75%) Local Government
12 4 (0.75%) Marketing
13 3 (0.56%) Retail
14 2 (0.37%) International Banking
14 2 (0.37%) Law
Job Titles
1 89 (16.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 61 (11.40%) Analyst
3 42 (7.85%) Support Engineer
4 36 (6.73%) Architect
5 35 (6.54%) Senior
6 34 (6.36%) Platform Engineer
7 30 (5.61%) Wintel Engineer
8 29 (5.42%) IT Support
9 27 (5.05%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 27 (5.05%) 3rd Line Support
9 27 (5.05%) Network Engineer
9 27 (5.05%) Support Analyst
10 26 (4.86%) Technical Analyst
11 25 (4.67%) Developer
12 22 (4.11%) 2nd Line Support
12 22 (4.11%) Windows Engineer
13 19 (3.55%) Technical Support
14 17 (3.18%) Lead
14 17 (3.18%) Server Engineer
14 17 (3.18%) Technical Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (6.92%) OAuth
2 35 (6.54%) SAML
3 26 (4.86%) LDAP
4 23 (4.30%) .NET
5 21 (3.93%) OpenID
6 17 (3.18%) OAuth2
7 15 (2.80%) .NET Framework
7 15 (2.80%) REST
8 9 (1.68%) Middleware
8 9 (1.68%) React
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
12 3 (0.56%) Express.js
12 3 (0.56%) SOAP
12 3 (0.56%) Web Services
12 3 (0.56%) WinForms
12 3 (0.56%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 41 (7.66%) PKI
2 39 (7.29%) Replication
3 38 (7.10%) Data Centre
4 21 (3.93%) Onboarding
5 20 (3.74%) NHS
5 20 (3.74%) Product Ownership
6 18 (3.36%) Clustering
7 17 (3.18%) Hybrid Cloud
8 15 (2.80%) Enterprise Software
9 14 (2.62%) Private Cloud
10 13 (2.43%) Legacy Systems
10 13 (2.43%) Management Information System
11 11 (2.06%) Driving Licence
12 9 (1.68%) Analytical Mindset
13 8 (1.50%) Linux Command Line
13 8 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
14 7 (1.31%) CMDB
14 7 (1.31%) Enterprise Storage
15 6 (1.12%) iPhone
16 5 (0.93%) Client/Server
Operating Systems
1 533 (99.63%) Windows
2 138 (25.79%) Linux
3 39 (7.29%) Windows Server 2019
4 36 (6.73%) Windows 10
5 35 (6.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 32 (5.98%) Windows Server 2012
7 28 (5.23%) 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 8 (1.50%) Android
12 7 (1.31%) Ubuntu
13 6 (1.12%) CentOS
13 6 (1.12%) Solaris
14 5 (0.93%) VMS
15 2 (0.37%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.37%) Mac OS
15 2 (0.37%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.37%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (24.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 85 (15.89%) Problem-Solving
3 73 (13.64%) ITIL
4 71 (13.27%) Disaster Recovery
5 70 (13.08%) High Availability
6 66 (12.34%) Agile
7 59 (11.03%) Migration
8 58 (10.84%) Service Management
9 50 (9.35%) Identity Access Management
10 48 (8.97%) ITSM
11 45 (8.41%) Change Management
11 45 (8.41%) Continuous Improvement
12 40 (7.48%) DevOps
12 40 (7.48%) Project Delivery
13 39 (7.29%) Cybersecurity
13 39 (7.29%) RBAC
14 36 (6.73%) Change Control
15 34 (6.36%) CI/CD
15 34 (6.36%) Platform Engineering
16 29 (5.42%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 203 (37.94%) PowerShell
2 67 (12.52%) SQL
3 48 (8.97%) Python
4 33 (6.17%) Bash
5 26 (4.86%) C#
6 19 (3.55%) PL/SQL
6 19 (3.55%) T-SQL
7 11 (2.06%) Java
7 11 (2.06%) Perl
8 9 (1.68%) JavaScript
9 5 (0.93%) Bicep
10 4 (0.75%) Groovy
11 3 (0.56%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.37%) Delphi
12 2 (0.37%) JCL
12 2 (0.37%) PHP
12 2 (0.37%) REXX
12 2 (0.37%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.19%) VBA
Qualifications
1 206 (38.50%) Security Cleared
2 129 (24.11%) SC Cleared
3 74 (13.83%) DV Cleared
4 68 (12.71%) Degree
5 65 (12.15%) Microsoft Certification
6 28 (5.23%) MCSE
7 20 (3.74%) Cisco Certification
8 19 (3.55%) Azure Certification
8 19 (3.55%) CCNP
9 17 (3.18%) CCNA
10 15 (2.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 14 (2.62%) MCSA
12 10 (1.87%) AWS Certification
12 10 (1.87%) CCDP
13 9 (1.68%) VCAP
14 8 (1.50%) CISSP
14 8 (1.50%) ITIL Certification
15 7 (1.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 7 (1.31%) BPSS Clearance
15 7 (1.31%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (3.93%) QA
2 20 (3.74%) GDPR
3 15 (2.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (2.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 13 (2.43%) NIST
5 10 (1.87%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (0.93%) SLA
7 3 (0.56%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 1 (0.19%) Basel III
9 1 (0.19%) DICOM
9 1 (0.19%) GAAP
9 1 (0.19%) HL7
9 1 (0.19%) IFRS
9 1 (0.19%) IFRS 17
9 1 (0.19%) IFRS 9
9 1 (0.19%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.19%) NCSC
System Software
1 336 (62.80%) Active Directory
2 153 (28.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 62 (11.59%) Hyper-V
4 44 (8.22%) vSphere
5 33 (6.17%) Docker
5 33 (6.17%) VMware ESXi
6 32 (5.98%) Virtual Machines
7 23 (4.30%) VMware NSX
8 11 (2.06%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (2.06%) Virtual Servers
9 7 (1.31%) KVM
10 6 (1.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 6 (1.12%) Terminal Services
11 4 (0.75%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.75%) Microsoft App-V
11 4 (0.75%) NFS
12 3 (0.56%) Firmware
12 3 (0.56%) Tivoli Directory Server
13 2 (0.37%) Oracle RAC
13 2 (0.37%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 76 (14.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 71 (13.27%) SCCM
3 53 (9.91%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 51 (9.53%) Ansible
4 51 (9.53%) Single Sign-On
5 46 (8.60%) vCenter Server
6 43 (8.04%) Terraform
7 26 (4.86%) Kubernetes
8 23 (4.30%) SCOM
9 12 (2.24%) WSUS
10 7 (1.31%) SCOrch
11 6 (1.12%) CASB
11 6 (1.12%) IBM BigFix
11 6 (1.12%) Puppet
12 5 (0.93%) FortiGate
12 5 (0.93%) VxRail
13 4 (0.75%) CA Wily
13 4 (0.75%) Progress Chef
13 4 (0.75%) vMotion
13 4 (0.75%) vRealize
Vendors
1 256 (47.85%) Microsoft
2 202 (37.76%) VMware
3 66 (12.34%) Cisco
4 57 (10.65%) Citrix
5 42 (7.85%) Oracle
6 32 (5.98%) SolarWinds
7 30 (5.61%) Red Hat
8 28 (5.23%) Dell
9 27 (5.05%) Veeam
10 23 (4.30%) ServiceNow
11 15 (2.80%) IBM
11 15 (2.80%) Juniper
11 15 (2.80%) Okta
11 15 (2.80%) Splunk
12 13 (2.43%) Palo Alto
13 12 (2.24%) CyberArk
14 10 (1.87%) BeyondTrust
14 10 (1.87%) NetApp
15 9 (1.68%) Qualys
16 8 (1.50%) Tenable