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

 6 months to
15 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 187 139 96
Rank change year-on-year -48 -43 -16
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 647 530 879
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.45% 1.95% 2.40%
As % of the Operating Systems category 14.92% 14.19% 17.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 430 373 640
10th Percentile £263 £326 £225
25th Percentile £400 £425 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £482 £540 £492
Median % change year-on-year -10.83% +9.76% -1.60%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £675 £688 £679
UK median daily rate £486 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -7.38% +10.53% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 5 18
10th Percentile £16.85 £14.32 £14.89
25th Percentile £20.77 £15.33 £16.25
Median hourly rate £26.00 £30.00 £46.75
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% -35.83% +59.56%
75th Percentile £64.08 £32.77 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.00 £59.61 £70.16
UK median hourly rate £24.00 £17.75 £46.75
% change year-on-year +35.21% -62.03% +61.21%

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 4,337 3,734 5,126
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.69% 13.76% 13.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,807 2,489 3,361
10th Percentile £190 £200 £193
25th Percentile £313 £313 £319
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £465 £475
Median % change year-on-year -0.43% -2.21% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £688 £695
UK median daily rate £465 £465 £475
% change year-on-year - -2.11% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 292 215 396
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.24 £17.79 £16.25
Median hourly rate £31.75 £22.56 £24.68
Median % change year-on-year +40.74% -8.58% -41.94%
75th Percentile £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.90 £67.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £23.00 £24.86
% change year-on-year +13.04% -7.46% -41.52%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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 -43 196 £475 -9.52% 57
South East -33 153 £525 -4.55% 144
North of England -65 98 £483 -3.40% 95
Midlands -14 74 £450 - 54
East of England -7 62 £450 -18.18% 37
South West -33 60 £495 -13.91% 34
North West -44 54 £448 -6.18% 52
West Midlands -45 43 £438 +2.94% 28
Yorkshire -48 40 £568 +8.10% 28
East Midlands +9 29 £450 -10.00% 26
North East -39 4 £350 -30.00% 18
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 75 (11.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 38 (5.87%) SharePoint
3 26 (4.02%) IIS
4 10 (1.55%) nginx
4 10 (1.55%) Tomcat
5 5 (0.77%) Apache
6 3 (0.46%) CloudStack
6 3 (0.46%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.31%) FactoryTalk
7 2 (0.31%) SAS
7 2 (0.31%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.15%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.15%) Confluence
8 1 (0.15%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.15%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 10 (1.55%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 16 (2.47%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.15%) OpenText MBPM
2 1 (0.15%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 258 (39.88%) Azure
2 114 (17.62%) Entra ID
3 111 (17.16%) Microsoft 365
4 83 (12.83%) AWS
5 27 (4.17%) Azure Monitor
6 23 (3.55%) IaaS
7 22 (3.40%) Power Platform
8 19 (2.94%) GCP
9 15 (2.32%) Azure DevOps
10 12 (1.85%) GitHub
10 12 (1.85%) PaaS
11 9 (1.39%) Amazon EC2
11 9 (1.39%) Nutanix
12 8 (1.24%) Azure Sentinel
13 7 (1.08%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 7 (1.08%) Datadog
13 7 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.08%) SaaS
14 6 (0.93%) Cohesity
14 6 (0.93%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 211 (32.61%) DNS
2 132 (20.40%) DHCP
3 97 (14.99%) Firewall
4 49 (7.57%) VPN
5 46 (7.11%) TCP/IP
6 42 (6.49%) WAN
7 40 (6.18%) LAN
8 39 (6.03%) SAN
9 27 (4.17%) VLAN
10 22 (3.40%) SSL
11 19 (2.94%) Network Security
12 15 (2.32%) NAS
13 14 (2.16%) VoIP
13 14 (2.16%) Wi-Fi
14 13 (2.01%) SMTP
15 11 (1.70%) Kerberos
15 11 (1.70%) SSH
16 10 (1.55%) FTP
17 8 (1.24%) NetScaler
17 8 (1.24%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 139 (21.48%) SQL Server
2 22 (3.40%) Power BI
3 14 (2.16%) Oracle Database
4 13 (2.01%) Amazon RDS
5 12 (1.85%) Elasticsearch
5 12 (1.85%) PostgreSQL
6 11 (1.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 8 (1.24%) NoSQL
8 7 (1.08%) MySQL
9 6 (0.93%) Db2
10 5 (0.77%) Big Data
11 4 (0.62%) GIS
11 4 (0.62%) Oracle BI EE
11 4 (0.62%) Relational Database
12 3 (0.46%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.46%) MongoDB
12 3 (0.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 2 (0.31%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 1 (0.15%) Oracle Database 11g
14 1 (0.15%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 8 (1.24%) Git
1 8 (1.24%) Jenkins
2 7 (1.08%) JIRA
3 6 (0.93%) Visual Studio
4 4 (0.62%) GitLab
5 3 (0.46%) MSI
5 3 (0.46%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.31%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.31%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.15%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.15%) eggPlant
7 1 (0.15%) GoCD
7 1 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
7 1 (0.15%) Postman
General
1 145 (22.41%) Social Skills
2 65 (10.05%) Finance
3 60 (9.27%) Analytical Skills
3 60 (9.27%) Public Sector
4 33 (5.10%) Banking
5 31 (4.79%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 15 (2.32%) Military
8 12 (1.85%) Law
9 11 (1.70%) Legal
10 9 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (0.77%) Local Government
11 5 (0.77%) Manufacturing
11 5 (0.77%) Retail
11 5 (0.77%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.62%) Marketing
12 4 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.62%) Police
13 2 (0.31%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.31%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 164 (25.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 53 (8.19%) Senior
3 50 (7.73%) Support Engineer
4 48 (7.42%) Cloud Engineer
5 36 (5.56%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 36 (5.56%) Lead
6 35 (5.41%) Architect
7 29 (4.48%) Analyst
8 28 (4.33%) Administrator
8 28 (4.33%) IT Engineer
9 25 (3.86%) IT Support
10 23 (3.55%) Infrastructure Support
10 23 (3.55%) Wintel Engineer
11 22 (3.40%) Server Engineer
12 21 (3.25%) Azure Engineer
12 21 (3.25%) Windows Engineer
13 20 (3.09%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
14 19 (2.94%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 18 (2.78%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
15 18 (2.78%) Storage Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (4.79%) .NET
2 26 (4.02%) .NET Framework
3 19 (2.94%) REST
4 15 (2.32%) LDAP
4 15 (2.32%) OAuth
5 12 (1.85%) SAML
6 9 (1.39%) Elastic Stack
7 7 (1.08%) JSON
7 7 (1.08%) RabbitMQ
8 6 (0.93%) Software Packaging
9 5 (0.77%) YAML
10 4 (0.62%) ADO
10 4 (0.62%) Azure Blueprints
10 4 (0.62%) EJB
10 4 (0.62%) Spring
11 3 (0.46%) ARM Templates
11 3 (0.46%) ASP.NET
11 3 (0.46%) Java EE
11 3 (0.46%) Middleware
11 3 (0.46%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 66 (10.20%) PKI
2 47 (7.26%) Clustering
3 40 (6.18%) Replication
4 39 (6.03%) Data Centre
5 37 (5.72%) Onboarding
6 33 (5.10%) Hybrid Cloud
7 28 (4.33%) Management Information System
8 20 (3.09%) Legacy Systems
9 13 (2.01%) Linux Command Line
10 12 (1.85%) Self-Motivation
10 12 (1.85%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.70%) Enterprise Software
11 11 (1.70%) Security Posture
12 10 (1.55%) Driving Licence
13 9 (1.39%) Cloud Native
13 9 (1.39%) Enterprise Storage
13 9 (1.39%) Smartcard
14 8 (1.24%) NHS
14 8 (1.24%) Product Ownership
15 7 (1.08%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 647 (100.00%) Windows
2 168 (25.97%) Linux
3 57 (8.81%) Windows Server 2019
4 51 (7.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 40 (6.18%) Windows 10
6 37 (5.72%) Windows Server 2016
7 34 (5.26%) Unix
8 29 (4.48%) Windows Server 2012
9 25 (3.86%) Ubuntu
10 14 (2.16%) CentOS
11 9 (1.39%) AIX
11 9 (1.39%) VMS
11 9 (1.39%) Windows Server 2008
12 8 (1.24%) Solaris
12 8 (1.24%) Windows Server 2003
13 7 (1.08%) Mac OS
14 6 (0.93%) Rocky
15 4 (0.62%) Alpine Linux
16 3 (0.46%) Windows 7
17 2 (0.31%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 197 (30.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 115 (17.77%) Problem-Solving
3 99 (15.30%) High Availability
4 97 (14.99%) Disaster Recovery
5 88 (13.60%) ITIL
6 72 (11.13%) Migration
7 63 (9.74%) Change Management
8 60 (9.27%) ITSM
9 56 (8.66%) DevOps
9 56 (8.66%) Infrastructure as Code
10 50 (7.73%) Project Delivery
11 49 (7.57%) Runbook
12 48 (7.42%) Continuous Improvement
13 47 (7.26%) Agile
14 46 (7.11%) Root Cause Analysis
15 43 (6.65%) CI/CD
15 43 (6.65%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 42 (6.49%) Technical Leadership
17 40 (6.18%) Patch Management
18 39 (6.03%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 238 (36.79%) PowerShell
2 101 (15.61%) SQL
3 61 (9.43%) Python
4 36 (5.56%) Bash
5 27 (4.17%) C#
6 25 (3.86%) PL/SQL
7 24 (3.71%) T-SQL
8 17 (2.63%) JavaScript
9 11 (1.70%) Bicep
10 10 (1.55%) Java
11 3 (0.46%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.31%) JCL
12 2 (0.31%) Korn
12 2 (0.31%) REXX
13 1 (0.15%) Groovy
13 1 (0.15%) Ladder Logic
13 1 (0.15%) Perl
13 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.15%) VB
Qualifications
1 261 (40.34%) Security Cleared
2 141 (21.79%) SC Cleared
3 122 (18.86%) DV Cleared
4 71 (10.97%) Degree
5 48 (7.42%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (3.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 23 (3.55%) MCSE
8 17 (2.63%) MCSA
9 16 (2.47%) Azure Certification
10 14 (2.16%) VCAP
11 13 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
11 13 (2.01%) Cisco Certification
12 10 (1.55%) CISSP
13 8 (1.24%) AWS Certification
13 8 (1.24%) CCNA
14 7 (1.08%) CCNP
14 7 (1.08%) CISM
15 5 (0.77%) ITIL Certification
15 5 (0.77%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 4 (0.62%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 28 (4.33%) QA
3 26 (4.02%) NIST
4 18 (2.78%) GDPR
5 17 (2.63%) SLA
6 11 (1.70%) Cyber Essentials
7 10 (1.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 5 (0.77%) SOC 2
9 3 (0.46%) NCSC
10 2 (0.31%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 2 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.31%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.31%) GxP
10 2 (0.31%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.31%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.15%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 364 (56.26%) Active Directory
2 227 (35.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 100 (15.46%) Hyper-V
4 88 (13.60%) VMware ESXi
5 79 (12.21%) vSphere
6 56 (8.66%) Virtual Machines
7 40 (6.18%) VMware NSX
8 36 (5.56%) Docker
9 27 (4.17%) Virtual Desktop
10 14 (2.16%) vCloud
11 11 (1.70%) KVM
12 10 (1.55%) Microsoft App-V
13 9 (1.39%) BitLocker
14 7 (1.08%) Virtual Servers
15 6 (0.93%) VMware Workstation
15 6 (0.93%) XenApp
16 5 (0.77%) Terminal Services
16 5 (0.77%) XenDesktop
17 4 (0.62%) Oracle RAC
17 4 (0.62%) UAG
Systems Management
1 84 (12.98%) Ansible
2 82 (12.67%) vCenter Server
3 69 (10.66%) Microsoft Intune
4 58 (8.96%) SCCM
5 53 (8.19%) Terraform
6 48 (7.42%) SCOM
7 40 (6.18%) Kubernetes
8 28 (4.33%) WSUS
9 24 (3.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 19 (2.94%) Single Sign-On
11 13 (2.01%) vMotion
12 12 (1.85%) Nessus
13 11 (1.70%) Avamar
14 10 (1.55%) Grafana
14 10 (1.55%) Puppet
15 9 (1.39%) Prometheus
16 7 (1.08%) Jamf Pro
17 6 (0.93%) Failover Clustering
17 6 (0.93%) IBM BigFix
17 6 (0.93%) WMI
Vendors
1 294 (45.44%) Microsoft
2 276 (42.66%) VMware
3 67 (10.36%) Citrix
4 63 (9.74%) Cisco
5 58 (8.96%) Oracle
6 41 (6.34%) ServiceNow
7 29 (4.48%) Red Hat
8 27 (4.17%) Dell
9 25 (3.86%) BeyondTrust
9 25 (3.86%) CyberArk
10 21 (3.25%) Tenable
11 19 (2.94%) Okta
11 19 (2.94%) Veeam
12 17 (2.63%) NetApp
12 17 (2.63%) Remedy
13 16 (2.47%) Splunk
14 15 (2.32%) BMC
14 15 (2.32%) HP
14 15 (2.32%) IBM
15 13 (2.01%) Qualys
389 Windows Server jobs in England