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

 6 months to
5 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 181 133 92
Rank change year-on-year -48 -41 -11
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 611 520 878
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.46% 2.16% 2.39%
As % of the Operating Systems category 14.88% 15.38% 17.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 421 371 656
10th Percentile £258 £350 £210
25th Percentile £400 £425 £321
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £540 £480
Median % change year-on-year -12.04% +12.50% -4.00%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £595
90th Percentile £660 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £475 £525 £468
% change year-on-year -9.52% +12.30% -6.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 4 17
10th Percentile £19.25 £14.15 £14.60
25th Percentile £20.91 £14.91 £16.00
Median hourly rate £26.22 £17.04 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.87% -55.74% +2.67%
75th Percentile £65.96 £32.97 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.00 £57.44 £65.46
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £17.63 £38.50
% change year-on-year +41.84% -54.22% +28.33%

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 4,107 3,380 5,053
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.79% 14.04% 13.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,669 2,293 3,426
10th Percentile £188 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £467 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.47% -1.79% -6.86%
75th Percentile £570 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £689 £700
UK median daily rate £460 £467 £470
% change year-on-year -1.45% -0.74% -6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 165 369
10th Percentile £15.74 £15.10 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.27 £17.25 £15.50
Median hourly rate £34.68 £20.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +73.38% -11.11% -47.06%
75th Percentile £65.00 £55.00 £62.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £22.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +47.73% -2.22% -47.06%

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 June 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 5 June 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 5 June 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 -48 185 £490 -6.67% 75
South East -31 146 £525 -2.60% 103
North of England -87 87 £448 -7.63% 65
Midlands -12 70 £438 -2.78% 40
East of England -11 63 £450 -18.18% 29
North West -40 61 £425 -1.45% 37
South West -39 58 £515 -12.34% 55
West Midlands -35 43 £438 +9.38% 23
East Midlands -7 25 £450 -10.00% 17
Yorkshire -59 24 £500 -6.98% 23
North East -32 2 £330 -34.00% 6
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 73 (11.95%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (5.07%) IIS
3 27 (4.42%) SharePoint
4 10 (1.64%) nginx
4 10 (1.64%) Tomcat
5 7 (1.15%) Apache
6 3 (0.49%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.33%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.33%) SAS
7 2 (0.33%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.16%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.16%) Confluence
8 1 (0.16%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.16%) WebSphere
Applications
1 10 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 14 (2.29%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.49%) Veritas eDiscovery
3 1 (0.16%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle FAH
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
Cloud Services
1 230 (37.64%) Azure
2 108 (17.68%) Microsoft 365
3 101 (16.53%) Entra ID
4 71 (11.62%) AWS
5 27 (4.42%) IaaS
6 20 (3.27%) Azure Monitor
7 17 (2.78%) PaaS
7 17 (2.78%) Power Platform
8 15 (2.45%) GCP
9 11 (1.80%) GitHub
9 11 (1.80%) Nutanix
10 8 (1.31%) Azure DevOps
10 8 (1.31%) SaaS
11 7 (1.15%) Amazon EC2
11 7 (1.15%) Azure Sentinel
12 6 (0.98%) Cohesity
12 6 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
13 5 (0.82%) Azure Stack
13 5 (0.82%) Microsoft Copilot
13 5 (0.82%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 203 (33.22%) DNS
2 142 (23.24%) DHCP
3 100 (16.37%) Firewall
4 54 (8.84%) VPN
5 45 (7.36%) WAN
6 42 (6.87%) TCP/IP
7 37 (6.06%) LAN
8 26 (4.26%) Network Security
9 22 (3.60%) SAN
10 16 (2.62%) SMTP
10 16 (2.62%) VLAN
11 15 (2.45%) Kerberos
12 13 (2.13%) FTP
13 12 (1.96%) SSL
13 12 (1.96%) VoIP
14 11 (1.80%) Wi-Fi
15 10 (1.64%) NetScaler
15 10 (1.64%) SSH
16 9 (1.47%) NAS
17 8 (1.31%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (19.80%) SQL Server
2 17 (2.78%) Power BI
3 14 (2.29%) Elasticsearch
4 11 (1.80%) Oracle Database
5 10 (1.64%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (1.47%) NoSQL
7 7 (1.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 6 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
8 6 (0.98%) Db2
9 5 (0.82%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.65%) Big Data
10 4 (0.65%) GIS
10 4 (0.65%) Oracle BI EE
11 3 (0.49%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.49%) MySQL
11 3 (0.49%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 2 (0.33%) MongoDB
12 2 (0.33%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 1 (0.16%) Data Warehouse
13 1 (0.16%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 11 (1.80%) JIRA
2 9 (1.47%) Visual Studio
3 6 (0.98%) Jenkins
3 6 (0.98%) Robot Framework
4 5 (0.82%) Git
4 5 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.49%) GitLab
5 3 (0.49%) MSI
6 2 (0.33%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.33%) InstallShield
7 1 (0.16%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.16%) eggPlant
7 1 (0.16%) GoCD
7 1 (0.16%) Octopus Deploy
7 1 (0.16%) Postman
7 1 (0.16%) TeamCity
General
1 121 (19.80%) Social Skills
2 63 (10.31%) Finance
3 61 (9.98%) Public Sector
4 50 (8.18%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (3.93%) Banking
6 21 (3.44%) Documentation Skills
7 17 (2.78%) Legal
8 15 (2.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (1.96%) Military
10 11 (1.80%) Law
11 8 (1.31%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (1.15%) Local Government
13 5 (0.82%) Marketing
13 5 (0.82%) Retail
14 4 (0.65%) Manufacturing
14 4 (0.65%) Police
15 3 (0.49%) Front Office
15 3 (0.49%) Telecoms
16 2 (0.33%) Aerospace
16 2 (0.33%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 147 (24.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 45 (7.36%) Support Engineer
3 44 (7.20%) Senior
4 39 (6.38%) Analyst
5 34 (5.56%) Cloud Engineer
6 33 (5.40%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 30 (4.91%) Wintel Engineer
8 29 (4.75%) Architect
8 29 (4.75%) IT Support
8 29 (4.75%) Lead
9 25 (4.09%) Administrator
10 21 (3.44%) IT Engineer
10 21 (3.44%) Windows Engineer
11 19 (3.11%) Developer
11 19 (3.11%) Infrastructure Support
11 19 (3.11%) Server Engineer
12 18 (2.95%) 3rd Line Support
13 17 (2.78%) Azure Engineer
13 17 (2.78%) Systems Administrator
14 16 (2.62%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (4.91%) .NET
2 25 (4.09%) .NET Framework
3 19 (3.11%) LDAP
4 18 (2.95%) OAuth
4 18 (2.95%) REST
5 17 (2.78%) SAML
6 6 (0.98%) Elastic Stack
7 5 (0.82%) JSON
7 5 (0.82%) RabbitMQ
7 5 (0.82%) React
7 5 (0.82%) Software Packaging
8 4 (0.65%) ADO
8 4 (0.65%) AngularJS
8 4 (0.65%) Azure Blueprints
8 4 (0.65%) EJB
8 4 (0.65%) Keycloak
8 4 (0.65%) Middleware
8 4 (0.65%) OAuth2
8 4 (0.65%) OpenID
8 4 (0.65%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 58 (9.49%) PKI
2 46 (7.53%) Clustering
3 39 (6.38%) Replication
4 34 (5.56%) Onboarding
5 32 (5.24%) Data Centre
6 29 (4.75%) Hybrid Cloud
7 19 (3.11%) Legacy Systems
7 19 (3.11%) Management Information System
8 14 (2.29%) Enterprise Storage
8 14 (2.29%) Self-Motivation
9 12 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
9 12 (1.96%) Linux Command Line
10 10 (1.64%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.47%) Cloud Native
11 9 (1.47%) Product Ownership
12 8 (1.31%) Driving Licence
12 8 (1.31%) NHS
12 8 (1.31%) Private Cloud
12 8 (1.31%) Public Cloud
12 8 (1.31%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 611 (100.00%) Windows
2 165 (27.00%) Linux
3 58 (9.49%) Windows Server 2019
4 46 (7.53%) Windows Server 2016
5 41 (6.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 41 (6.71%) Windows 10
6 31 (5.07%) Windows Server 2012
7 29 (4.75%) Unix
8 21 (3.44%) Ubuntu
9 12 (1.96%) Windows Server 2003
10 10 (1.64%) Windows Server 2008
11 9 (1.47%) AIX
11 9 (1.47%) VMS
12 8 (1.31%) CentOS
12 8 (1.31%) Solaris
13 4 (0.65%) Alpine Linux
13 4 (0.65%) Mac OS
14 3 (0.49%) Android
14 3 (0.49%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.33%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 175 (28.64%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 103 (16.86%) Disaster Recovery
3 100 (16.37%) High Availability
4 97 (15.88%) Problem-Solving
5 86 (14.08%) ITIL
6 66 (10.80%) Migration
7 61 (9.98%) Change Management
8 57 (9.33%) ITSM
9 51 (8.35%) Agile
10 49 (8.02%) DevOps
10 49 (8.02%) Project Delivery
11 44 (7.20%) Infrastructure as Code
12 42 (6.87%) Root Cause Analysis
13 39 (6.38%) Technical Leadership
14 38 (6.22%) Service Management
15 37 (6.06%) Runbook
16 36 (5.89%) Cybersecurity
17 34 (5.56%) Continuous Improvement
17 34 (5.56%) Identity Access Management
17 34 (5.56%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 233 (38.13%) PowerShell
2 86 (14.08%) SQL
3 63 (10.31%) Python
4 32 (5.24%) Bash
5 28 (4.58%) C#
6 24 (3.93%) PL/SQL
7 19 (3.11%) JavaScript
7 19 (3.11%) T-SQL
8 14 (2.29%) Java
9 9 (1.47%) Bicep
10 3 (0.49%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.33%) JCL
11 2 (0.33%) REXX
12 1 (0.16%) Groovy
12 1 (0.16%) Ladder Logic
12 1 (0.16%) Perl
12 1 (0.16%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.16%) VB
Qualifications
1 247 (40.43%) Security Cleared
2 146 (23.90%) SC Cleared
3 100 (16.37%) DV Cleared
4 67 (10.97%) Degree
5 47 (7.69%) Microsoft Certification
6 28 (4.58%) MCSE
6 28 (4.58%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 20 (3.27%) MCSA
8 18 (2.95%) VCAP
9 14 (2.29%) Cisco Certification
10 12 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
11 11 (1.80%) Azure Certification
11 11 (1.80%) CISSP
12 9 (1.47%) CCNA
12 9 (1.47%) CISM
13 7 (1.15%) CCNP
14 5 (0.82%) AWS Certification
14 5 (0.82%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
15 4 (0.65%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 27 (4.42%) QA
3 24 (3.93%) GDPR
3 24 (3.93%) NIST
4 15 (2.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 14 (2.29%) SLA
6 11 (1.80%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.65%) SOC 2
8 3 (0.49%) NCSC
8 3 (0.49%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.33%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.33%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.16%) Basel III
10 1 (0.16%) GAAP
10 1 (0.16%) IFRS
10 1 (0.16%) IFRS 17
10 1 (0.16%) IFRS 9
10 1 (0.16%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 353 (57.77%) Active Directory
2 217 (35.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 101 (16.53%) Hyper-V
4 74 (12.11%) VMware ESXi
5 73 (11.95%) vSphere
6 51 (8.35%) Virtual Machines
7 37 (6.06%) Docker
8 34 (5.56%) VMware NSX
9 12 (1.96%) Microsoft App-V
10 11 (1.80%) BitLocker
10 11 (1.80%) KVM
10 11 (1.80%) Virtual Desktop
11 10 (1.64%) vCloud
12 6 (0.98%) Virtual Servers
12 6 (0.98%) VMware Workstation
12 6 (0.98%) XenApp
13 5 (0.82%) Terminal Services
13 5 (0.82%) XenDesktop
14 4 (0.65%) Oracle RAC
15 3 (0.49%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 84 (13.75%) Ansible
2 72 (11.78%) vCenter Server
3 68 (11.13%) Microsoft Intune
4 61 (9.98%) SCCM
5 52 (8.51%) Terraform
6 39 (6.38%) Kubernetes
7 38 (6.22%) SCOM
8 33 (5.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 26 (4.26%) Single Sign-On
10 24 (3.93%) WSUS
11 15 (2.45%) vMotion
12 12 (1.96%) Puppet
13 10 (1.64%) Nessus
14 8 (1.31%) Avamar
15 6 (0.98%) Grafana
15 6 (0.98%) IBM BigFix
15 6 (0.98%) Oracle RMAN
15 6 (0.98%) Prometheus
16 5 (0.82%) Nagios
16 5 (0.82%) VxRail
Vendors
1 269 (44.03%) Microsoft
2 263 (43.04%) VMware
3 65 (10.64%) Cisco
4 64 (10.47%) Citrix
5 53 (8.67%) Oracle
6 43 (7.04%) ServiceNow
7 26 (4.26%) Dell
8 24 (3.93%) Red Hat
9 20 (3.27%) Okta
10 18 (2.95%) Tenable
11 16 (2.62%) BeyondTrust
11 16 (2.62%) IBM
11 16 (2.62%) Veeam
12 15 (2.45%) Qualys
13 14 (2.29%) NetApp
13 14 (2.29%) Remedy
13 14 (2.29%) SolarWinds
14 13 (2.13%) BMC
14 13 (2.13%) CyberArk
14 13 (2.13%) HP
344 Windows Server jobs in England