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

 6 months to
9 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 184 119 82
Rank change year-on-year -65 -37 +9
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 577 564 946
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.48% 2.32% 2.52%
As % of the Operating Systems category 13.91% 16.51% 18.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 438 395 661
10th Percentile £257 £302 £194
25th Percentile £408 £406 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £450
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +16.67% -10.00%
75th Percentile £587 £608 £588
90th Percentile £711 £683 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £450
% change year-on-year -4.76% +16.67% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 4 25
10th Percentile £20.37 £16.17 £15.86
25th Percentile £20.91 £17.43 £16.25
Median hourly rate £24.97 £35.88 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year -30.40% -6.82% +31.40%
75th Percentile £64.32 £58.19 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.18 £67.53 £68.63
UK median hourly rate £24.97 £18.25 £38.50
% change year-on-year +36.82% -52.60% +31.40%

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 4,147 3,416 5,195
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.60% 14.03% 13.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,751 2,351 3,526
10th Percentile £181 £200 £179
25th Percentile £300 £313 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -12.62%
75th Percentile £569 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -9.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 293 144 378
10th Percentile £15.10 £16.55 £12.83
25th Percentile £19.00 £18.13 £15.31
Median hourly rate £26.00 £28.00 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +30.23% -25.86%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £53.29
90th Percentile £74.26 £68.75 £68.67
UK median hourly rate £25.52 £24.66 £22.00
% change year-on-year +3.47% +12.09% -24.91%

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 9 April 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 9 April 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 9 April 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 -80 172 £500 -4.76% 76
South East -34 121 £510 -7.27% 111
North of England -84 83 £420 -16.00% 91
Midlands -26 71 £438 +42.28% 48
South West -35 67 £563 -2.17% 43
North West -34 63 £404 -9.27% 59
East of England -2 60 £450 - 39
West Midlands -34 47 £438 +45.83% 27
East Midlands -22 22 £450 -10.00% 21
Yorkshire -71 17 £419 -23.86% 26
North East -14 6 £550 -8.33% 8
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 76 (13.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (4.68%) IIS
3 24 (4.16%) SharePoint
4 6 (1.04%) Apache
5 5 (0.87%) nginx
5 5 (0.87%) SAS
5 5 (0.87%) Tomcat
6 3 (0.52%) Confluence
6 3 (0.52%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.35%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.35%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.35%) WordPress
8 1 (0.17%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.17%) SharePoint 2010
8 1 (0.17%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 20 (3.47%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.17%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 7 (1.21%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.52%) Veritas eDiscovery
3 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle FAH
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.17%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (0.17%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 205 (35.53%) Azure
2 106 (18.37%) Microsoft 365
3 102 (17.68%) Entra ID
4 55 (9.53%) AWS
5 21 (3.64%) IaaS
6 15 (2.60%) Azure Monitor
6 15 (2.60%) PaaS
7 12 (2.08%) Nutanix
8 11 (1.91%) Power Platform
8 11 (1.91%) SaaS
9 9 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (1.21%) GitHub
11 6 (1.04%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (1.04%) GCP
12 5 (0.87%) Amazon EC2
12 5 (0.87%) Mimecast
12 5 (0.87%) OCI
13 4 (0.69%) Azure Logic Apps
13 4 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
14 3 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 195 (33.80%) DNS
2 133 (23.05%) DHCP
3 125 (21.66%) Firewall
4 54 (9.36%) VPN
5 51 (8.84%) TCP/IP
6 44 (7.63%) WAN
7 41 (7.11%) LAN
8 27 (4.68%) Network Security
9 22 (3.81%) VLAN
10 17 (2.95%) FTP
11 16 (2.77%) Kerberos
11 16 (2.77%) SSL
12 15 (2.60%) SAN
13 14 (2.43%) SMTP
13 14 (2.43%) VoIP
13 14 (2.43%) Wi-Fi
14 11 (1.91%) Wireless
15 9 (1.56%) BGP
15 9 (1.56%) NetScaler
16 8 (1.39%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (15.60%) SQL Server
2 14 (2.43%) Oracle Database
3 10 (1.73%) Elasticsearch
3 10 (1.73%) Power BI
4 6 (1.04%) DB2
5 5 (0.87%) NoSQL
5 5 (0.87%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.69%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (0.52%) Data Mining
7 3 (0.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 2 (0.35%) Big Data
8 2 (0.35%) GIS
8 2 (0.35%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 2 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.17%) Electronic Patient Records
9 1 (0.17%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 11 (1.91%) Visual Studio
2 10 (1.73%) JIRA
3 9 (1.56%) GitLab
3 9 (1.56%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.39%) Git
5 6 (1.04%) Robot Framework
6 5 (0.87%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.52%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.52%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.17%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.17%) eggPlant
8 1 (0.17%) GoCD
8 1 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 141 (24.44%) Social Skills
2 60 (10.40%) Finance
2 60 (10.40%) Public Sector
3 56 (9.71%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (5.89%) Documentation Skills
5 25 (4.33%) Legal
6 22 (3.81%) Banking
7 13 (2.25%) Military
8 9 (1.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.04%) Local Government
11 5 (0.87%) Front Office
11 5 (0.87%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.69%) Law
12 4 (0.69%) Retail
13 3 (0.52%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.52%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.52%) Spanish Language
14 2 (0.35%) Back Office
14 2 (0.35%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 109 (18.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 53 (9.19%) Analyst
3 37 (6.41%) Architect
3 37 (6.41%) Senior
4 33 (5.72%) IT Support
4 33 (5.72%) Platform Engineer
5 32 (5.55%) Support Engineer
6 26 (4.51%) Developer
6 26 (4.51%) Windows Engineer
6 26 (4.51%) Wintel Engineer
7 25 (4.33%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 22 (3.81%) Lead
8 22 (3.81%) Support Analyst
9 21 (3.64%) Server Engineer
10 19 (3.29%) 3rd Line Support
10 19 (3.29%) IT Engineer
11 18 (3.12%) C# Developer
11 18 (3.12%) Technical Analyst
12 16 (2.77%) 2nd Line Support
13 14 (2.43%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (5.72%) .NET
2 31 (5.37%) OAuth
3 30 (5.20%) SAML
4 26 (4.51%) .NET Framework
5 22 (3.81%) LDAP
6 21 (3.64%) REST
7 17 (2.95%) OAuth2
7 17 (2.95%) OpenID
8 8 (1.39%) XMPP
9 7 (1.21%) Middleware
9 7 (1.21%) React
10 5 (0.87%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.69%) ISPF
11 4 (0.69%) Keycloak
12 3 (0.52%) ASP.NET Web API
12 3 (0.52%) Vue
12 3 (0.52%) WCF
12 3 (0.52%) Web Services
12 3 (0.52%) WinForms
13 2 (0.35%) OpenLayers
Miscellaneous
1 45 (7.80%) PKI
2 44 (7.63%) Replication
3 38 (6.59%) Data Centre
4 28 (4.85%) Clustering
5 27 (4.68%) Onboarding
6 22 (3.81%) Hybrid Cloud
7 21 (3.64%) Product Ownership
8 20 (3.47%) Legacy Systems
9 15 (2.60%) Private Cloud
9 15 (2.60%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (2.43%) Enterprise Software
10 14 (2.43%) NHS
11 13 (2.25%) Enterprise Storage
11 13 (2.25%) Management Information System
12 11 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
13 9 (1.56%) Driving Licence
14 8 (1.39%) Legacy Code
15 7 (1.21%) Linux Command Line
16 6 (1.04%) iPhone
16 6 (1.04%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 575 (99.65%) Windows
2 153 (26.52%) Linux
3 41 (7.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 39 (6.76%) Windows 10
4 39 (6.76%) Windows Server 2016
4 39 (6.76%) Windows Server 2019
5 33 (5.72%) Windows Server 2012
6 22 (3.81%) Unix
7 13 (2.25%) Ubuntu
8 11 (1.91%) Windows Server 2003
9 10 (1.73%) AIX
9 10 (1.73%) VMS
10 8 (1.39%) Android
10 8 (1.39%) CentOS
11 7 (1.21%) Solaris
11 7 (1.21%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (0.69%) zOS
13 2 (0.35%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.35%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.35%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (25.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 93 (16.12%) Problem-Solving
3 92 (15.94%) Disaster Recovery
4 90 (15.60%) ITIL
5 86 (14.90%) High Availability
6 69 (11.96%) Agile
7 64 (11.09%) Migration
8 57 (9.88%) Change Management
9 56 (9.71%) Service Management
10 50 (8.67%) ITSM
11 47 (8.15%) Identity Access Management
12 46 (7.97%) Continuous Improvement
13 43 (7.45%) Project Delivery
14 41 (7.11%) Cybersecurity
14 41 (7.11%) RBAC
15 38 (6.59%) DevOps
16 35 (6.07%) Change Control
17 33 (5.72%) Platform Engineering
18 30 (5.20%) Infrastructure as Code
19 29 (5.03%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 231 (40.03%) PowerShell
2 77 (13.34%) SQL
3 54 (9.36%) Python
4 37 (6.41%) Bash
5 32 (5.55%) C#
6 26 (4.51%) PL/SQL
7 22 (3.81%) T-SQL
8 14 (2.43%) JavaScript
9 11 (1.91%) Java
9 11 (1.91%) Perl
10 4 (0.69%) Bicep
10 4 (0.69%) JCL
10 4 (0.69%) REXX
11 2 (0.35%) Delphi
11 2 (0.35%) PHP
11 2 (0.35%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.17%) VBA
Qualifications
1 234 (40.55%) Security Cleared
2 153 (26.52%) SC Cleared
3 83 (14.38%) DV Cleared
4 70 (12.13%) Degree
5 61 (10.57%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (3.81%) MCSE
7 19 (3.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 18 (3.12%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (2.77%) CCNA
10 15 (2.60%) Azure Certification
11 13 (2.25%) CCNP
12 12 (2.08%) MCSA
13 11 (1.91%) VCAP
14 9 (1.56%) CCDP
15 8 (1.39%) AWS Certification
16 7 (1.21%) CISSP
17 6 (1.04%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 6 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
18 5 (0.87%) CISM
18 5 (0.87%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (5.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 28 (4.85%) QA
3 27 (4.68%) GDPR
4 18 (3.12%) NIST
5 15 (2.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 11 (1.91%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (1.21%) SLA
8 3 (0.52%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.17%) Basel III
10 1 (0.17%) DICOM
10 1 (0.17%) GAAP
10 1 (0.17%) HL7
10 1 (0.17%) IFRS
10 1 (0.17%) IFRS 17
10 1 (0.17%) IFRS 9
10 1 (0.17%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.17%) NCSC
System Software
1 351 (60.83%) Active Directory
2 179 (31.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 78 (13.52%) Hyper-V
4 53 (9.19%) vSphere
5 42 (7.28%) VMware ESXi
6 34 (5.89%) Docker
7 32 (5.55%) Virtual Machines
8 26 (4.51%) VMware NSX
9 10 (1.73%) Virtual Desktop
10 8 (1.39%) BitLocker
10 8 (1.39%) KVM
10 8 (1.39%) Microsoft App-V
11 5 (0.87%) Terminal Services
12 4 (0.69%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 4 (0.69%) XenApp
13 3 (0.52%) Firmware
13 3 (0.52%) NFS
13 3 (0.52%) Oracle RAC
13 3 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
13 3 (0.52%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 75 (13.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 67 (11.61%) SCCM
3 66 (11.44%) Ansible
4 52 (9.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 47 (8.15%) Single Sign-On
5 47 (8.15%) vCenter Server
6 43 (7.45%) Terraform
7 29 (5.03%) Kubernetes
8 23 (3.99%) SCOM
9 17 (2.95%) WSUS
10 11 (1.91%) Puppet
11 10 (1.73%) vMotion
12 6 (1.04%) IBM BigFix
13 5 (0.87%) Control-M
13 5 (0.87%) FortiGate
13 5 (0.87%) Nessus
13 5 (0.87%) VxRail
14 4 (0.69%) Backup Exec
14 4 (0.69%) Oracle RMAN
14 4 (0.69%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 257 (44.54%) Microsoft
2 227 (39.34%) VMware
3 70 (12.13%) Citrix
4 59 (10.23%) Cisco
5 48 (8.32%) Oracle
6 34 (5.89%) ServiceNow
7 33 (5.72%) Red Hat
8 23 (3.99%) Dell
8 23 (3.99%) Veeam
9 20 (3.47%) SolarWinds
10 15 (2.60%) Okta
11 14 (2.43%) CyberArk
11 14 (2.43%) NetApp
12 13 (2.25%) BeyondTrust
12 13 (2.25%) HP
12 13 (2.25%) Palo Alto
13 12 (2.08%) IBM
14 11 (1.91%) BMC
15 9 (1.56%) Tenable
16 8 (1.39%) F5
381 Windows Server jobs in England