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

 6 months to
21 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 176 168 102
Rank change year-on-year -8 -66 -25
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 735 452 768
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.61% 1.64% 2.31%
As % of the Operating Systems category 16.61% 12.07% 16.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 490 315 568
10th Percentile £261 £304 £250
25th Percentile £375 £406 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% +2.56%
75th Percentile £568 £588 £592
90th Percentile £668 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £488 £525 £497
% change year-on-year -7.14% +5.58% +2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 6 10
10th Percentile £16.25 £12.97 £33.60
25th Percentile £19.25 £13.14 £40.06
Median hourly rate £52.50 £22.03 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year +138.37% -62.22% +98.98%
75th Percentile £70.50 £32.08 £70.86
90th Percentile £74.00 £55.14 £80.20
UK median hourly rate £38.72 £17.63 £58.30
% change year-on-year +119.69% -69.77% +98.98%

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 4,425 3,744 4,727
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.69% 13.59% 14.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,845 2,469 3,110
10th Percentile £190 £191 £200
25th Percentile £313 £306 £338
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £450 £488
Median % change year-on-year +4.22% -7.69% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £586 £588
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £470 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 240 288
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.41
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.13 £16.97
Median hourly rate £35.22 £23.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +49.87% -27.69% -12.96%
75th Percentile £67.25 £58.75 £68.19
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £24.83 £27.50
% change year-on-year +4.71% -9.71% -31.25%

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 21 August 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 21 August 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 21 August 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 -9 220 £475 -5.00% 68
South East -13 194 £515 -4.10% 124
North of England -34 118 £472 +5.24% 69
Midlands -13 72 £430 -18.10% 54
East of England -2 64 £450 -18.18% 40
North West -22 63 £450 +14.65% 35
South West -34 63 £490 -9.26% 40
Yorkshire -24 45 £510 +14.09% 21
West Midlands -37 42 £428 -18.57% 38
East Midlands +4 28 £450 - 16
North East -29 10 £213 -57.50% 16
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 87 (11.84%) Microsoft Exchange
2 47 (6.39%) SharePoint
3 29 (3.95%) IIS
4 7 (0.95%) nginx
4 7 (0.95%) Tomcat
5 5 (0.68%) Apache
5 5 (0.68%) Confluence
6 4 (0.54%) FactoryTalk
7 3 (0.41%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.27%) SAS
8 2 (0.27%) Skype for Business
8 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.14%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.14%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 18 (2.45%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 17 (2.31%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.27%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.27%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 314 (42.72%) Azure
2 155 (21.09%) Microsoft 365
3 147 (20.00%) Entra ID
4 92 (12.52%) AWS
5 47 (6.39%) Azure Monitor
6 29 (3.95%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (3.54%) GCP
7 26 (3.54%) IaaS
8 25 (3.40%) Power Platform
9 19 (2.59%) GitHub
10 18 (2.45%) Azure Sentinel
11 15 (2.04%) OpenShift
12 12 (1.63%) OneDrive
13 11 (1.50%) PaaS
14 10 (1.36%) Nutanix
15 9 (1.22%) Amazon EC2
16 8 (1.09%) Datadog
17 7 (0.95%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 7 (0.95%) GitHub Actions
17 7 (0.95%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 243 (33.06%) DNS
2 156 (21.22%) DHCP
3 133 (18.10%) Firewall
4 71 (9.66%) VPN
5 63 (8.57%) TCP/IP
6 49 (6.67%) SAN
7 43 (5.85%) VLAN
8 42 (5.71%) WAN
9 39 (5.31%) LAN
10 26 (3.54%) Network Security
11 21 (2.86%) SSL
12 20 (2.72%) NAS
13 18 (2.45%) Wi-Fi
14 13 (1.77%) VoIP
15 12 (1.63%) NetScaler
15 12 (1.63%) SSH
15 12 (1.63%) Wireless
16 11 (1.50%) SMTP
17 10 (1.36%) VSAN
18 8 (1.09%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (20.00%) SQL Server
2 25 (3.40%) Power BI
3 13 (1.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 12 (1.63%) Amazon RDS
4 12 (1.63%) Oracle Database
5 10 (1.36%) Elasticsearch
5 10 (1.36%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (1.22%) MySQL
7 7 (0.95%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.68%) Big Data
9 4 (0.54%) Oracle BI EE
10 3 (0.41%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.41%) GIS
10 3 (0.41%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.41%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 1 (0.14%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 14 (1.90%) Git
1 14 (1.90%) Jenkins
2 13 (1.77%) JIRA
3 8 (1.09%) GitLab
4 4 (0.54%) Visual Studio
5 3 (0.41%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.41%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.41%) MSI
5 3 (0.41%) Octopus Deploy
5 3 (0.41%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.27%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.27%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.14%) eggPlant
7 1 (0.14%) MSBuild
7 1 (0.14%) Postman
7 1 (0.14%) Subversion
7 1 (0.14%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.14%) VSS/SourceSafe
General
1 183 (24.90%) Social Skills
2 88 (11.97%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (10.75%) Finance
4 45 (6.12%) Public Sector
5 41 (5.58%) Documentation Skills
6 40 (5.44%) Banking
7 15 (2.04%) Law
8 13 (1.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 13 (1.77%) Military
9 11 (1.50%) Legal
9 11 (1.50%) Telecoms
10 10 (1.36%) Pharmaceutical
11 9 (1.22%) Manufacturing
12 8 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (0.82%) Aerospace
13 6 (0.82%) Games
13 6 (0.82%) Local Government
14 5 (0.68%) Retail
15 4 (0.54%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.54%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 194 (26.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 84 (11.43%) Senior
3 68 (9.25%) Support Engineer
4 53 (7.21%) Cloud Engineer
5 50 (6.80%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 47 (6.39%) Lead
7 38 (5.17%) IT Engineer
8 36 (4.90%) Architect
9 35 (4.76%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 32 (4.35%) Azure Engineer
11 30 (4.08%) IT Support
11 30 (4.08%) Windows Engineer
12 29 (3.95%) Administrator
12 29 (3.95%) Server Engineer
13 26 (3.54%) Infrastructure Support
14 24 (3.27%) Storage Engineer
15 23 (3.13%) Systems Engineer
16 22 (2.99%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
17 21 (2.86%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
17 21 (2.86%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (11.56%) Terraform
2 32 (4.35%) .NET
3 24 (3.27%) .NET Framework
4 23 (3.13%) REST
5 17 (2.31%) ARM Templates
6 11 (1.50%) JSON
7 9 (1.22%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (1.09%) LDAP
9 7 (0.95%) OAuth
9 7 (0.95%) RabbitMQ
9 7 (0.95%) YAML
10 6 (0.82%) Software Packaging
11 5 (0.68%) SailPoint
12 4 (0.54%) ADO
12 4 (0.54%) ASP.NET
12 4 (0.54%) Azure Blueprints
12 4 (0.54%) Middleware
12 4 (0.54%) SAML
13 3 (0.41%) EJB
13 3 (0.41%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 77 (10.48%) PKI
2 61 (8.30%) Hybrid Cloud
3 55 (7.48%) Clustering
4 53 (7.21%) Onboarding
5 44 (5.99%) Data Centre
6 35 (4.76%) Management Information System
7 34 (4.63%) Replication
8 18 (2.45%) Enterprise Storage
9 16 (2.18%) Driving Licence
10 15 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (1.90%) Virtual Team
12 11 (1.50%) Enterprise Software
12 11 (1.50%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (1.50%) Security Posture
13 9 (1.22%) Cloud Native
13 9 (1.22%) Smartcard
14 8 (1.09%) ARM Cortex
15 7 (0.95%) Operational Technology
15 7 (0.95%) SCADA
15 7 (0.95%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 735 (100.00%) Windows
2 209 (28.44%) Linux
3 56 (7.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 56 (7.62%) Windows Server 2019
4 54 (7.35%) Windows 10
5 38 (5.17%) Windows Server 2016
6 33 (4.49%) Ubuntu
7 29 (3.95%) Windows Server 2012
8 25 (3.40%) CentOS
8 25 (3.40%) Unix
9 13 (1.77%) Mac OS
9 13 (1.77%) VMS
10 10 (1.36%) Rocky
10 10 (1.36%) Windows Server 2008
11 7 (0.95%) Windows 7
12 5 (0.68%) Solaris
12 5 (0.68%) Windows Server 2003
13 4 (0.54%) Alpine Linux
13 4 (0.54%) Android
14 3 (0.41%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 242 (32.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 176 (23.95%) Problem-Solving
3 143 (19.46%) ITIL
4 110 (14.97%) Disaster Recovery
5 90 (12.24%) Migration
6 86 (11.70%) High Availability
7 83 (11.29%) Change Management
7 83 (11.29%) ITSM
8 82 (11.16%) Infrastructure as Code
9 80 (10.88%) Root Cause Analysis
10 76 (10.34%) DevOps
11 75 (10.20%) Service Management
12 65 (8.84%) Continuous Improvement
13 62 (8.44%) Technical Leadership
14 61 (8.30%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 60 (8.16%) Project Delivery
16 58 (7.89%) Agile
17 54 (7.35%) CI/CD
17 54 (7.35%) Runbook
18 51 (6.94%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 294 (40.00%) PowerShell
2 99 (13.47%) SQL
3 77 (10.48%) Python
4 62 (8.44%) Bash
5 27 (3.67%) Bicep
6 26 (3.54%) T-SQL
7 25 (3.40%) C#
8 22 (2.99%) PL/SQL
9 14 (1.90%) JavaScript
10 11 (1.50%) Java
11 4 (0.54%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.41%) Korn
13 2 (0.27%) JCL
13 2 (0.27%) REXX
14 1 (0.14%) CodeQL
14 1 (0.14%) Go
14 1 (0.14%) Groovy
14 1 (0.14%) Ladder Logic
14 1 (0.14%) VB
Qualifications
1 317 (43.13%) Security Cleared
2 171 (23.27%) SC Cleared
3 158 (21.50%) DV Cleared
4 67 (9.12%) Degree
5 51 (6.94%) Microsoft Certification
6 31 (4.22%) Azure Certification
7 26 (3.54%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 19 (2.59%) MCSE
9 17 (2.31%) Cisco Certification
10 14 (1.90%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 14 (1.90%) MCSA
11 11 (1.50%) BPSS Clearance
12 10 (1.36%) CCNA
12 10 (1.36%) CISSP
12 10 (1.36%) VCAP
13 9 (1.22%) AWS Certification
14 8 (1.09%) ITIL Certification
15 7 (0.95%) CCNP
15 7 (0.95%) CISM
16 6 (0.82%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (4.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (4.35%) SLA
3 27 (3.67%) QA
4 23 (3.13%) NIST
5 10 (1.36%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.09%) GDPR
6 8 (1.09%) NCSC
7 5 (0.68%) GxP
7 5 (0.68%) SOC 2
8 4 (0.54%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 3 (0.41%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.27%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.27%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.14%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.14%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.14%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 424 (57.69%) Active Directory
2 269 (36.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 138 (18.78%) Hyper-V
4 100 (13.61%) VMware ESXi
5 87 (11.84%) vSphere
6 50 (6.80%) Virtual Machines
7 42 (5.71%) VMware NSX
8 40 (5.44%) Docker
9 33 (4.49%) Virtual Desktop
10 20 (2.72%) vCloud
11 14 (1.90%) Virtual Servers
12 10 (1.36%) Firmware
12 10 (1.36%) Microsoft App-V
13 9 (1.22%) XenApp
14 8 (1.09%) BitLocker
14 8 (1.09%) XenDesktop
15 7 (0.95%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 6 (0.82%) KVM
16 6 (0.82%) VMware Workstation
17 5 (0.68%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 103 (14.01%) Ansible
2 89 (12.11%) vCenter Server
3 88 (11.97%) Microsoft Intune
4 75 (10.20%) SCCM
5 62 (8.44%) SCOM
6 48 (6.53%) Kubernetes
7 34 (4.63%) WSUS
8 15 (2.04%) Grafana
8 15 (2.04%) vMotion
9 14 (1.90%) NetBackup
10 13 (1.77%) Avamar
10 13 (1.77%) Prometheus
11 12 (1.63%) Failover Clustering
12 11 (1.50%) Puppet
13 10 (1.36%) Nessus
14 7 (0.95%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 7 (0.95%) Jamf Pro
14 7 (0.95%) Microsoft Clustering
14 7 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
14 7 (0.95%) WMI
Vendors
1 377 (51.29%) Microsoft
2 343 (46.67%) VMware
3 78 (10.61%) Cisco
4 74 (10.07%) Citrix
5 58 (7.89%) Oracle
6 51 (6.94%) ServiceNow
7 30 (4.08%) CyberArk
8 27 (3.67%) Dell
8 27 (3.67%) Red Hat
9 26 (3.54%) BeyondTrust
9 26 (3.54%) Veeam
10 25 (3.40%) NetApp
11 24 (3.27%) Splunk
12 19 (2.59%) HP
12 19 (2.59%) Remedy
12 19 (2.59%) Tenable
13 17 (2.31%) Google
13 17 (2.31%) Zscaler
14 16 (2.18%) CrowdStrike
14 16 (2.18%) Juniper
353 Windows Server jobs in England