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

6 months to
15 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 185 120 84
Rank change year-on-year -65 -36 +7
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 557 586 930
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.51% 2.35% 2.45%
As % of the Operating Systems category 13.28% 16.48% 17.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 422 409 640
10th Percentile £226 £313 £190
25th Percentile £400 £400 £279
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £440
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +19.32% -12.00%
75th Percentile £598 £606 £575
90th Percentile £712 £678 £650
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £450
% change year-on-year -1.96% +13.33% -9.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 7 28
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.01 £15.85
25th Percentile £19.79 £31.56 £19.44
Median hourly rate £22.50 £53.00 £53.53
Median % change year-on-year -57.55% -0.99% +82.70%
75th Percentile £29.06 £92.88 £65.56
90th Percentile £48.32 £112.00 £72.83
UK median hourly rate £22.50 £49.00 £53.53
% change year-on-year -54.08% -8.46% +82.70%

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 4,194 3,556 5,277
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.37% 14.29% 13.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,773 2,383 3,579
10th Percentile £180 £200 £178
25th Percentile £275 £313 £266
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -13.46%
75th Percentile £565 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £447 £475 £450
% change year-on-year -5.89% +5.56% -12.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 312 129 376
10th Percentile £14.10 £16.45 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.69 £18.38 £15.50
Median hourly rate £22.68 £29.00 £22.21
Median % change year-on-year -21.79% +30.56% -16.18%
75th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £58.00
90th Percentile £68.68 £71.05 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £22.81 £28.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year -18.54% +24.44% -15.09%

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 15 March 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 15 March 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 15 March 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 -70 179 £500 - 74
South East -26 117 £500 -9.09% 117
North of England -79 83 £375 -21.05% 78
South West -39 69 £565 -1.74% 31
North West -30 63 £370 -18.68% 48
East of England +1 53 £438 -2.78% 35
Midlands -41 52 £438 +26.81% 47
West Midlands -49 36 £475 +126.19% 25
Yorkshire -70 16 £375 -28.57% 24
East Midlands -30 15 £415 +3.75% 22
North East -15 7 £550 +2.33% 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 81 (14.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (5.57%) SharePoint
3 25 (4.49%) IIS
4 7 (1.26%) Apache
5 6 (1.08%) Confluence
6 4 (0.72%) nginx
6 4 (0.72%) Skype for Business
6 4 (0.72%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.54%) SAS
8 2 (0.36%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.36%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.36%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.36%) WordPress
9 1 (0.18%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.18%) iPlanet
9 1 (0.18%) JBoss
9 1 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.18%) SharePoint 2010
9 1 (0.18%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.18%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 23 (4.13%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.18%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 4 (0.72%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.54%) Veritas eDiscovery
3 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.18%) Oracle FAH
3 1 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.18%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.18%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 195 (35.01%) Azure
2 113 (20.29%) Microsoft 365
3 98 (17.59%) Entra ID
4 46 (8.26%) AWS
5 20 (3.59%) IaaS
6 15 (2.69%) PaaS
7 13 (2.33%) SaaS
8 11 (1.97%) Azure Monitor
8 11 (1.97%) Nutanix
9 9 (1.62%) Azure DevOps
9 9 (1.62%) Power Platform
10 6 (1.08%) GCP
11 5 (0.90%) Azure Sentinel
11 5 (0.90%) Mimecast
11 5 (0.90%) OCI
12 4 (0.72%) GitHub
13 3 (0.54%) Amazon EKS
13 3 (0.54%) Google Workspace
13 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Copilot
13 3 (0.54%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 181 (32.50%) DNS
2 125 (22.44%) DHCP
2 125 (22.44%) Firewall
3 53 (9.52%) TCP/IP
4 51 (9.16%) WAN
5 50 (8.98%) VPN
6 45 (8.08%) LAN
7 26 (4.67%) Network Security
8 20 (3.59%) VLAN
9 16 (2.87%) Kerberos
10 15 (2.69%) Wi-Fi
10 15 (2.69%) Wireless
11 14 (2.51%) FTP
11 14 (2.51%) VoIP
12 12 (2.15%) SMTP
13 11 (1.97%) Cisco IOS
14 10 (1.80%) BGP
14 10 (1.80%) SSL
15 9 (1.62%) SAN
16 8 (1.44%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (14.18%) SQL Server
2 15 (2.69%) Oracle Database
3 8 (1.44%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (1.44%) Power BI
4 6 (1.08%) DB2
5 4 (0.72%) NoSQL
5 4 (0.72%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.72%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.36%) Big Data
7 2 (0.36%) GIS
7 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.18%) Data Mining
8 1 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.18%) Oracle BI EE
8 1 (0.18%) Oracle Database 11g
8 1 (0.18%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.18%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 13 (2.33%) JIRA
2 12 (2.15%) GitLab
3 11 (1.97%) Git
3 11 (1.97%) Jenkins
3 11 (1.97%) Visual Studio
4 7 (1.26%) Sonatype Nexus
5 6 (1.08%) Robot Framework
6 4 (0.72%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.54%) Octopus Deploy
8 2 (0.36%) Fiddler
9 1 (0.18%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket Server
9 1 (0.18%) CA Release Automation
9 1 (0.18%) eggPlant
9 1 (0.18%) GoCD
9 1 (0.18%) Maven
9 1 (0.18%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.18%) TeamCity
General
1 137 (24.60%) Social Skills
2 59 (10.59%) Analytical Skills
3 58 (10.41%) Finance
4 56 (10.05%) Public Sector
5 36 (6.46%) Documentation Skills
6 26 (4.67%) Legal
7 20 (3.59%) Banking
8 12 (2.15%) Military
9 11 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.08%) Spanish Language
12 5 (0.90%) Front Office
12 5 (0.90%) Local Government
12 5 (0.90%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.72%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.54%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.54%) Law
14 3 (0.54%) Retail
15 2 (0.36%) Back Office
15 2 (0.36%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 93 (16.70%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 62 (11.13%) Analyst
3 38 (6.82%) Senior
4 37 (6.64%) Support Engineer
5 35 (6.28%) Architect
6 34 (6.10%) Platform Engineer
7 32 (5.75%) IT Support
8 29 (5.21%) Wintel Engineer
9 28 (5.03%) Support Analyst
10 27 (4.85%) Developer
11 25 (4.49%) 3rd Line Engineer
12 24 (4.31%) Technical Analyst
13 23 (4.13%) Windows Engineer
14 22 (3.95%) 2nd Line Support
14 22 (3.95%) Network Engineer
15 21 (3.77%) 3rd Line Support
15 21 (3.77%) Lead
16 20 (3.59%) Server Engineer
17 19 (3.41%) Technical Support
18 18 (3.23%) C# Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (6.10%) OAuth
2 31 (5.57%) SAML
3 29 (5.21%) .NET
4 22 (3.95%) .NET Framework
4 22 (3.95%) LDAP
5 18 (3.23%) OpenID
5 18 (3.23%) REST
6 17 (3.05%) OAuth2
7 8 (1.44%) XMPP
8 7 (1.26%) Middleware
8 7 (1.26%) React
9 5 (0.90%) AngularJS
10 4 (0.72%) Keycloak
11 3 (0.54%) ASP.NET Web API
11 3 (0.54%) Elastic Stack
11 3 (0.54%) Vue
11 3 (0.54%) WCF
11 3 (0.54%) Web Services
11 3 (0.54%) WinForms
12 2 (0.36%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 46 (8.26%) PKI
2 42 (7.54%) Data Centre
3 39 (7.00%) Replication
4 25 (4.49%) Clustering
5 22 (3.95%) Onboarding
5 22 (3.95%) Product Ownership
6 18 (3.23%) Legacy Systems
6 18 (3.23%) NHS
7 16 (2.87%) Hybrid Cloud
8 15 (2.69%) Enterprise Software
8 15 (2.69%) Private Cloud
9 14 (2.51%) Driving Licence
10 13 (2.33%) Management Information System
11 11 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
12 9 (1.62%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (1.62%) Enterprise Storage
13 7 (1.26%) CMDB
13 7 (1.26%) iPhone
13 7 (1.26%) Linux Command Line
14 6 (1.08%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 555 (99.64%) Windows
2 139 (24.96%) Linux
3 38 (6.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 38 (6.82%) Windows Server 2019
4 35 (6.28%) Windows 10
5 34 (6.10%) Windows Server 2016
6 32 (5.75%) Windows Server 2012
7 19 (3.41%) Unix
8 13 (2.33%) Windows Server 2003
9 10 (1.80%) AIX
9 10 (1.80%) Ubuntu
10 9 (1.62%) Android
10 9 (1.62%) Windows Server 2008
11 8 (1.44%) CentOS
12 7 (1.26%) VMS
13 6 (1.08%) Solaris
14 3 (0.54%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.36%) Mac OS
15 2 (0.36%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.36%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (24.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 83 (14.90%) Disaster Recovery
3 82 (14.72%) Problem-Solving
4 78 (14.00%) ITIL
5 77 (13.82%) High Availability
6 68 (12.21%) Agile
7 61 (10.95%) Migration
8 54 (9.69%) Service Management
9 51 (9.16%) Change Management
10 47 (8.44%) Continuous Improvement
10 47 (8.44%) ITSM
11 46 (8.26%) Identity Access Management
12 45 (8.08%) Project Delivery
13 44 (7.90%) Cybersecurity
14 40 (7.18%) DevOps
15 39 (7.00%) RBAC
16 35 (6.28%) Change Control
17 34 (6.10%) Platform Engineering
18 32 (5.75%) CI/CD
19 29 (5.21%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 221 (39.68%) PowerShell
2 74 (13.29%) SQL
3 54 (9.69%) Python
4 36 (6.46%) Bash
5 31 (5.57%) C#
6 22 (3.95%) PL/SQL
7 21 (3.77%) T-SQL
8 12 (2.15%) JavaScript
9 11 (1.97%) Perl
10 10 (1.80%) Java
11 5 (0.90%) Bicep
12 3 (0.54%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.36%) Delphi
13 2 (0.36%) JCL
13 2 (0.36%) PHP
13 2 (0.36%) REXX
14 1 (0.18%) Groovy
14 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.18%) VBA
Qualifications
1 221 (39.68%) Security Cleared
2 144 (25.85%) SC Cleared
3 75 (13.46%) DV Cleared
4 67 (12.03%) Degree
5 63 (11.31%) Microsoft Certification
6 23 (4.13%) MCSE
7 19 (3.41%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (3.23%) Azure Certification
8 18 (3.23%) CCNP
9 16 (2.87%) CCNA
10 15 (2.69%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 14 (2.51%) MCSA
12 10 (1.80%) CCDP
13 9 (1.62%) AWS Certification
13 9 (1.62%) CISSP
13 9 (1.62%) VCAP
14 7 (1.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 7 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
15 6 (1.08%) CompTIA Security+
15 6 (1.08%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.67%) QA
2 24 (4.31%) GDPR
3 20 (3.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (2.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 11 (1.97%) NIST
6 10 (1.80%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (0.90%) SLA
8 4 (0.72%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 2 (0.36%) NCSC
10 1 (0.18%) Basel III
10 1 (0.18%) DICOM
10 1 (0.18%) GAAP
10 1 (0.18%) HL7
10 1 (0.18%) IFRS
10 1 (0.18%) IFRS 17
10 1 (0.18%) IFRS 9
10 1 (0.18%) JSP 440
System Software
1 350 (62.84%) Active Directory
2 161 (28.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 67 (12.03%) Hyper-V
4 45 (8.08%) vSphere
5 36 (6.46%) VMware ESXi
6 33 (5.92%) Docker
7 30 (5.39%) Virtual Machines
8 23 (4.13%) VMware NSX
9 10 (1.80%) Virtual Desktop
10 7 (1.26%) BitLocker
10 7 (1.26%) KVM
10 7 (1.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 7 (1.26%) Terminal Services
11 5 (0.90%) Virtual Servers
12 3 (0.54%) Firmware
12 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 2 (0.36%) NFS
13 2 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
13 2 (0.36%) Sendmail
13 2 (0.36%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 81 (14.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 67 (12.03%) SCCM
3 60 (10.77%) Ansible
4 53 (9.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 49 (8.80%) Single Sign-On
6 45 (8.08%) vCenter Server
7 41 (7.36%) Terraform
8 28 (5.03%) Kubernetes
9 22 (3.95%) SCOM
10 13 (2.33%) WSUS
11 10 (1.80%) Puppet
12 7 (1.26%) SCOrch
12 7 (1.26%) vMotion
13 6 (1.08%) CASB
13 6 (1.08%) FortiGate
13 6 (1.08%) IBM BigFix
13 6 (1.08%) VxRail
14 5 (0.90%) Progress Chef
15 4 (0.72%) Nessus
16 3 (0.54%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 259 (46.50%) Microsoft
2 210 (37.70%) VMware
3 67 (12.03%) Citrix
4 59 (10.59%) Cisco
5 43 (7.72%) Oracle
6 32 (5.75%) Red Hat
7 28 (5.03%) ServiceNow
8 27 (4.85%) Dell
9 25 (4.49%) SolarWinds
9 25 (4.49%) Veeam
10 15 (2.69%) Okta
11 13 (2.33%) Palo Alto
12 12 (2.15%) IBM
13 11 (1.97%) Juniper
14 10 (1.80%) BeyondTrust
14 10 (1.80%) CyberArk
14 10 (1.80%) HP
14 10 (1.80%) NetApp
15 8 (1.44%) F5
15 8 (1.44%) Tenable