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

 6 months to
23 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 184 126 86
Rank change year-on-year -58 -40 +1
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 588 547 927
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.48% 2.23% 2.49%
As % of the Operating Systems category 14.53% 15.90% 18.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 435 382 670
10th Percentile £257 £313 £200
25th Percentile £410 £413 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £536 £450
Median % change year-on-year -6.76% +19.17% -10.00%
75th Percentile £578 £606 £594
90th Percentile £707 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £493 £525 £450
% change year-on-year -6.19% +16.67% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 4 23
10th Percentile £20.63 £16.17 £15.81
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.43 £16.25
Median hourly rate £28.68 £35.88 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.06% +10.38% +10.92%
75th Percentile £69.38 £58.19 £60.55
90th Percentile £74.13 £67.53 £64.32
UK median hourly rate £28.68 £18.25 £32.50
% change year-on-year +57.15% -43.85% +10.92%

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 4,046 3,440 5,120
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.19% 14.00% 13.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,685 2,342 3,500
10th Percentile £185 £200 £181
25th Percentile £310 £313 £280
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £459
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +3.49% -10.87%
75th Percentile £575 £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 277 151 373
10th Percentile £15.81 £16.25 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.11 £14.72
Median hourly rate £37.50 £24.66 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +52.07% +12.09% -37.14%
75th Percentile £67.84 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £74.81 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £34.57 £24.18 £22.00
% change year-on-year +42.95% +9.91% -41.33%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 -66 178 £500 -4.76% 61
South East -32 122 £510 -7.27% 93
North of England -71 95 £448 -10.40% 57
Midlands -20 72 £450 +33.33% 41
North West -28 71 £448 +1.53% 24
East of England +8 60 £450 -1.80% 32
South West -43 59 £545 -5.22% 44
West Midlands -35 47 £450 +50.00% 18
East Midlands -19 23 £450 -10.00% 22
Yorkshire -64 21 £419 -23.86% 22
North East -17 6 £550 -8.33% 12
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 80 (13.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 28 (4.76%) IIS
3 23 (3.91%) SharePoint
4 6 (1.02%) Apache
4 6 (1.02%) nginx
4 6 (1.02%) Tomcat
5 5 (0.85%) SAS
6 3 (0.51%) Confluence
6 3 (0.51%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.34%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.34%) WordPress
8 1 (0.17%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.17%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 19 (3.23%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 8 (1.36%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.51%) 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
1 212 (36.05%) Azure
2 107 (18.20%) Microsoft 365
3 102 (17.35%) Entra ID
4 56 (9.52%) AWS
5 21 (3.57%) IaaS
6 19 (3.23%) Azure Monitor
7 15 (2.55%) PaaS
8 12 (2.04%) Nutanix
9 11 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (1.70%) Power Platform
11 9 (1.53%) GitHub
11 9 (1.53%) SaaS
12 7 (1.19%) Amazon EC2
12 7 (1.19%) GCP
13 6 (1.02%) Azure Sentinel
14 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
14 5 (0.85%) Mimecast
14 5 (0.85%) OCI
15 4 (0.68%) Cohesity
15 4 (0.68%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 193 (32.82%) DNS
2 137 (23.30%) DHCP
3 121 (20.58%) Firewall
4 56 (9.52%) VPN
5 49 (8.33%) TCP/IP
6 48 (8.16%) WAN
7 42 (7.14%) LAN
8 30 (5.10%) Network Security
9 25 (4.25%) VLAN
10 17 (2.89%) FTP
11 15 (2.55%) Kerberos
11 15 (2.55%) SAN
11 15 (2.55%) SMTP
11 15 (2.55%) Wi-Fi
12 14 (2.38%) VoIP
13 13 (2.21%) SSL
14 9 (1.53%) BGP
14 9 (1.53%) IPv4
14 9 (1.53%) NetScaler
14 9 (1.53%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (16.33%) SQL Server
2 14 (2.38%) Oracle Database
3 11 (1.87%) Elasticsearch
4 10 (1.70%) Power BI
5 6 (1.02%) DB2
5 6 (1.02%) NoSQL
6 5 (0.85%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (0.68%) Relational Database
7 4 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.51%) Data Mining
9 2 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.34%) Big Data
9 2 (0.34%) GIS
9 2 (0.34%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.17%) Electronic Patient Records
10 1 (0.17%) Oracle BI EE
10 1 (0.17%) Oracle Database 11g
10 1 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 11 (1.87%) Visual Studio
2 10 (1.70%) JIRA
3 8 (1.36%) Git
3 8 (1.36%) GitLab
3 8 (1.36%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.02%) Robot Framework
5 5 (0.85%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.51%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.34%) AdminStudio
7 2 (0.34%) InstallShield
7 2 (0.34%) MSI
7 2 (0.34%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.17%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.17%) eggPlant
8 1 (0.17%) GoCD
8 1 (0.17%) Postman
8 1 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 139 (23.64%) Social Skills
2 67 (11.39%) Finance
3 61 (10.37%) Public Sector
4 54 (9.18%) Analytical Skills
5 32 (5.44%) Documentation Skills
6 24 (4.08%) Banking
6 24 (4.08%) Legal
7 13 (2.21%) Military
8 9 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.02%) Law
10 6 (1.02%) Local Government
11 5 (0.85%) Retail
11 5 (0.85%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.68%) Front Office
13 3 (0.51%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.51%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.51%) Police
14 2 (0.34%) Aeronautics
14 2 (0.34%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 118 (20.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 50 (8.50%) Analyst
3 39 (6.63%) Senior
4 36 (6.12%) IT Support
5 33 (5.61%) Architect
6 31 (5.27%) Support Engineer
7 30 (5.10%) Platform Engineer
7 30 (5.10%) Wintel Engineer
8 27 (4.59%) Windows Engineer
9 24 (4.08%) Developer
9 24 (4.08%) Lead
10 23 (3.91%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 23 (3.91%) IT Engineer
11 21 (3.57%) Server Engineer
12 20 (3.40%) Support Analyst
13 19 (3.23%) C# Developer
14 16 (2.72%) 3rd Line Support
14 16 (2.72%) Technical Analyst
15 15 (2.55%) 2nd Line Support
15 15 (2.55%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (5.61%) .NET
2 28 (4.76%) .NET Framework
3 23 (3.91%) OAuth
4 22 (3.74%) SAML
5 21 (3.57%) REST
6 18 (3.06%) LDAP
7 9 (1.53%) OAuth2
7 9 (1.53%) OpenID
8 8 (1.36%) XMPP
9 5 (0.85%) JSON
9 5 (0.85%) Middleware
9 5 (0.85%) React
10 4 (0.68%) ADO
10 4 (0.68%) AngularJS
10 4 (0.68%) ISPF
10 4 (0.68%) Keycloak
11 3 (0.51%) EJB
11 3 (0.51%) Software Packaging
11 3 (0.51%) Vue
11 3 (0.51%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 46 (7.82%) Replication
2 44 (7.48%) PKI
3 39 (6.63%) Clustering
4 36 (6.12%) Data Centre
5 34 (5.78%) Onboarding
6 25 (4.25%) Hybrid Cloud
7 21 (3.57%) Product Ownership
8 20 (3.40%) Legacy Systems
9 18 (3.06%) Self-Motivation
10 15 (2.55%) Enterprise Software
11 13 (2.21%) Enterprise Storage
12 11 (1.87%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.87%) Management Information System
13 10 (1.70%) Private Cloud
14 9 (1.53%) NHS
15 8 (1.36%) Driving Licence
15 8 (1.36%) Legacy Code
16 7 (1.19%) iPhone
17 6 (1.02%) Security Posture
17 6 (1.02%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 586 (99.66%) Windows
2 160 (27.21%) Linux
3 46 (7.82%) Windows Server 2016
4 45 (7.65%) Windows Server 2019
5 41 (6.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 40 (6.80%) Windows 10
7 35 (5.95%) Windows Server 2012
8 23 (3.91%) Unix
9 14 (2.38%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.87%) VMS
11 10 (1.70%) AIX
11 10 (1.70%) Windows Server 2003
12 8 (1.36%) Android
13 7 (1.19%) Solaris
13 7 (1.19%) Windows Server 2008
14 6 (1.02%) CentOS
15 4 (0.68%) zOS
16 3 (0.51%) Mac OS
17 2 (0.34%) Apple iOS
17 2 (0.34%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 155 (26.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 100 (17.01%) Disaster Recovery
3 98 (16.67%) ITIL
4 92 (15.65%) High Availability
5 90 (15.31%) Problem-Solving
6 66 (11.22%) Agile
7 64 (10.88%) Migration
8 53 (9.01%) Change Management
9 52 (8.84%) Service Management
10 51 (8.67%) ITSM
11 47 (7.99%) Project Delivery
12 41 (6.97%) Cybersecurity
13 40 (6.80%) Continuous Improvement
13 40 (6.80%) DevOps
13 40 (6.80%) Identity Access Management
14 37 (6.29%) Change Control
15 33 (5.61%) CI/CD
16 32 (5.44%) Platform Engineering
16 32 (5.44%) RBAC
16 32 (5.44%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 230 (39.12%) PowerShell
2 76 (12.93%) SQL
3 55 (9.35%) Python
4 36 (6.12%) Bash
5 33 (5.61%) C#
6 27 (4.59%) PL/SQL
7 22 (3.74%) T-SQL
8 14 (2.38%) JavaScript
9 11 (1.87%) Java
9 11 (1.87%) Perl
10 4 (0.68%) Bicep
10 4 (0.68%) JCL
10 4 (0.68%) REXX
11 3 (0.51%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.34%) Delphi
12 2 (0.34%) PHP
13 1 (0.17%) Ladder Logic
13 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.17%) VB
Qualifications
1 241 (40.99%) Security Cleared
2 164 (27.89%) SC Cleared
3 80 (13.61%) DV Cleared
4 71 (12.07%) Degree
5 56 (9.52%) Microsoft Certification
6 27 (4.59%) MCSE
7 24 (4.08%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 20 (3.40%) Cisco Certification
9 18 (3.06%) MCSA
10 17 (2.89%) CCNA
11 16 (2.72%) VCAP
12 14 (2.38%) Azure Certification
12 14 (2.38%) CCNP
13 9 (1.53%) BPSS Clearance
13 9 (1.53%) CCDP
14 7 (1.19%) AWS Certification
14 7 (1.19%) CISSP
15 5 (0.85%) CISM
15 5 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
15 5 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (5.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 29 (4.93%) QA
3 27 (4.59%) GDPR
4 20 (3.40%) NIST
5 15 (2.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 11 (1.87%) Cyber Essentials
7 9 (1.53%) SLA
8 4 (0.68%) NIST 800
9 3 (0.51%) NCSC
10 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.17%) Basel III
11 1 (0.17%) DICOM
11 1 (0.17%) GAAP
11 1 (0.17%) HL7
11 1 (0.17%) IFRS
11 1 (0.17%) IFRS 17
11 1 (0.17%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.17%) JSP 440
System Software
1 345 (58.67%) Active Directory
2 197 (33.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 86 (14.63%) Hyper-V
4 61 (10.37%) vSphere
5 50 (8.50%) VMware ESXi
6 40 (6.80%) Virtual Machines
7 35 (5.95%) Docker
8 24 (4.08%) VMware NSX
9 11 (1.87%) KVM
9 11 (1.87%) Virtual Desktop
10 10 (1.70%) Microsoft App-V
11 8 (1.36%) BitLocker
12 7 (1.19%) XenApp
13 5 (0.85%) Terminal Services
13 5 (0.85%) XenDesktop
14 4 (0.68%) Job Entry Subsystem
15 3 (0.51%) Firmware
15 3 (0.51%) NFS
15 3 (0.51%) Oracle RAC
15 3 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 78 (13.27%) Microsoft Intune
2 75 (12.76%) Ansible
3 74 (12.59%) SCCM
4 52 (8.84%) vCenter Server
5 43 (7.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 43 (7.31%) Terraform
6 37 (6.29%) Single Sign-On
7 31 (5.27%) Kubernetes
8 24 (4.08%) SCOM
9 22 (3.74%) WSUS
10 10 (1.70%) Puppet
10 10 (1.70%) vMotion
11 7 (1.19%) Nessus
12 6 (1.02%) IBM BigFix
13 5 (0.85%) Control-M
13 5 (0.85%) FortiGate
13 5 (0.85%) VxRail
14 4 (0.68%) Backup Exec
14 4 (0.68%) Failover Clustering
14 4 (0.68%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 261 (44.39%) Microsoft
2 241 (40.99%) VMware
3 75 (12.76%) Citrix
4 68 (11.56%) Cisco
5 50 (8.50%) Oracle
6 36 (6.12%) ServiceNow
7 33 (5.61%) Red Hat
8 23 (3.91%) Veeam
9 21 (3.57%) Dell
10 17 (2.89%) SolarWinds
11 16 (2.72%) CyberArk
11 16 (2.72%) Okta
12 15 (2.55%) BeyondTrust
13 14 (2.38%) NetApp
13 14 (2.38%) Palo Alto
14 13 (2.21%) HP
14 13 (2.21%) IBM
15 12 (2.04%) BMC
16 10 (1.70%) Tenable
17 8 (1.36%) F5
299 Windows Server jobs in England