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

 6 months to
2 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 158 188 115
Rank change year-on-year +30 -73 -39
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 820 430 686
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.76% 1.54% 2.11%
As % of the Operating Systems category 17.89% 11.09% 14.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 530 318 475
10th Percentile £261 £259 £250
25th Percentile £375 £400 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £508 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.78% +6.84% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £650 £638
UK median daily rate £488 £508 £470
% change year-on-year -3.94% +7.98% -1.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 12 8
10th Percentile £16.25 £12.97 £42.17
25th Percentile £26.00 £13.48 £48.75
Median hourly rate £63.14 £16.00 £62.19
Median % change year-on-year +294.59% -74.27% +28.49%
75th Percentile £72.25 £30.69 £103.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £41.02 £112.00
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £16.75 £52.50
% change year-on-year +276.93% -68.10% +8.47%

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 4,583 3,877 4,618
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.85% 13.85% 14.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,925 2,537 2,877
10th Percentile £193 £188 £200
25th Percentile £313 £280 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.42% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £582
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 352 271 218
10th Percentile £16.25 £15.50 £16.00
25th Percentile £19.46 £18.87 £22.00
Median hourly rate £35.79 £25.15 £59.25
Median % change year-on-year +42.30% -57.55% +24.73%
75th Percentile £67.84 £58.88 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.00 -
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +3.38% -52.10% +20.00%

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 2 October 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 2 October 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 2 October 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 +13 254 £475 -5.00% 261
South East -2 195 £515 -1.90% 186
North of England +7 139 £450 +9.09% 140
East of England +2 83 £500 -9.09% 79
Midlands -7 80 £431 -17.86% 98
North West -10 75 £425 - 78
South West -31 58 £575 +9.52% 52
West Midlands -18 48 £425 -19.05% 60
Yorkshire -1 45 £525 +40.00% 46
East Midlands +11 32 £450 -10.00% 37
North East -25 20 £350 -30.00% 17
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 90 (10.98%) Microsoft Exchange
2 58 (7.07%) SharePoint
3 25 (3.05%) IIS
4 7 (0.85%) Confluence
4 7 (0.85%) nginx
5 6 (0.73%) Apache
5 6 (0.73%) Tomcat
6 4 (0.49%) FactoryTalk
7 3 (0.37%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.24%) SAS
8 2 (0.24%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.12%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.12%) SharePoint 2010
9 1 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 17 (2.07%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 12 (1.46%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.24%) OpenText MBPM
2 2 (0.24%) Oracle BPM
Cloud Services
1 346 (42.20%) Azure
2 178 (21.71%) Microsoft 365
3 176 (21.46%) Entra ID
4 102 (12.44%) AWS
5 46 (5.61%) Azure Monitor
6 35 (4.27%) GCP
7 33 (4.02%) Azure DevOps
8 25 (3.05%) IaaS
9 22 (2.68%) Power Platform
10 20 (2.44%) OpenShift
11 19 (2.32%) Azure Sentinel
11 19 (2.32%) GitHub
12 12 (1.46%) OneDrive
13 11 (1.34%) PaaS
14 9 (1.10%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 9 (1.10%) Amazon EC2
14 9 (1.10%) Nutanix
14 9 (1.10%) SaaS
15 8 (0.98%) Datadog
15 8 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 253 (30.85%) DNS
2 168 (20.49%) DHCP
3 139 (16.95%) Firewall
4 76 (9.27%) TCP/IP
5 68 (8.29%) VPN
6 56 (6.83%) SAN
7 46 (5.61%) WAN
8 45 (5.49%) LAN
9 43 (5.24%) Network Security
10 42 (5.12%) VLAN
11 31 (3.78%) SSL
12 22 (2.68%) NetScaler
13 21 (2.56%) Wireless
14 20 (2.44%) Wi-Fi
15 19 (2.32%) NAS
16 15 (1.83%) SSH
17 13 (1.59%) VoIP
18 11 (1.34%) BGP
18 11 (1.34%) HTTP
19 9 (1.10%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 151 (18.41%) SQL Server
2 22 (2.68%) Power BI
3 16 (1.95%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 13 (1.59%) MySQL
5 12 (1.46%) Amazon RDS
6 11 (1.34%) Oracle Database
6 11 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
7 7 (0.85%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.73%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (0.73%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.37%) Big Data
10 3 (0.37%) GIS
10 3 (0.37%) Metadata
10 3 (0.37%) Oracle BI EE
10 3 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.24%) Data Mining
11 2 (0.24%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.24%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 16 (1.95%) Jenkins
2 15 (1.83%) Git
2 15 (1.83%) JIRA
3 10 (1.22%) GitLab
4 5 (0.61%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 5 (0.61%) Visual Studio
5 3 (0.37%) Artifactory
5 3 (0.37%) MSI
5 3 (0.37%) Octopus Deploy
6 2 (0.24%) AdminStudio
6 2 (0.24%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.24%) InstallShield
6 2 (0.24%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.12%) JMeter
7 1 (0.12%) MSBuild
7 1 (0.12%) Subversion
7 1 (0.12%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.12%) TestCafe
7 1 (0.12%) Vagrant
General
1 206 (25.12%) Social Skills
2 103 (12.56%) Analytical Skills
3 86 (10.49%) Finance
4 48 (5.85%) Documentation Skills
5 45 (5.49%) Banking
6 38 (4.63%) Public Sector
7 20 (2.44%) Law
8 14 (1.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 13 (1.59%) Aerospace
9 13 (1.59%) Legal
9 13 (1.59%) Military
9 13 (1.59%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.10%) Manufacturing
11 8 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
12 6 (0.73%) Games
13 5 (0.61%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.61%) Local Government
13 5 (0.61%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (0.61%) Police
14 4 (0.49%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 202 (24.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 97 (11.83%) Senior
3 76 (9.27%) Support Engineer
4 60 (7.32%) Cloud Engineer
5 49 (5.98%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 47 (5.73%) Lead
7 45 (5.49%) Windows Engineer
8 43 (5.24%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 42 (5.12%) IT Engineer
10 41 (5.00%) Architect
11 34 (4.15%) IT Support
12 32 (3.90%) Administrator
13 29 (3.54%) Azure Engineer
14 28 (3.41%) Server Engineer
15 27 (3.29%) Storage Engineer
15 27 (3.29%) Systems Engineer
15 27 (3.29%) Wintel Engineer
16 26 (3.17%) VMware Engineer
17 24 (2.93%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
17 24 (2.93%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 90 (10.98%) Terraform
2 33 (4.02%) .NET
3 25 (3.05%) REST
4 17 (2.07%) ARM Templates
5 15 (1.83%) .NET Framework
6 14 (1.71%) LDAP
7 10 (1.22%) JSON
8 8 (0.98%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (0.98%) OAuth
9 7 (0.85%) RabbitMQ
9 7 (0.85%) YAML
10 6 (0.73%) Middleware
10 6 (0.73%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.61%) SAML
11 5 (0.61%) Software Packaging
12 4 (0.49%) ASP.NET
12 4 (0.49%) OAuth2
12 4 (0.49%) OpenID
12 4 (0.49%) React
12 4 (0.49%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 74 (9.02%) PKI
2 68 (8.29%) Data Centre
3 62 (7.56%) Hybrid Cloud
4 56 (6.83%) Onboarding
5 54 (6.59%) Clustering
6 46 (5.61%) Management Information System
7 43 (5.24%) Replication
8 26 (3.17%) Security Posture
9 18 (2.20%) Driving Licence
9 18 (2.20%) Enterprise Storage
10 14 (1.71%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (1.71%) Smartcard
11 13 (1.59%) Cloud Native
12 12 (1.46%) Public Cloud
12 12 (1.46%) Virtual Team
13 11 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
13 11 (1.34%) Linux Command Line
14 9 (1.10%) Operational Technology
15 8 (0.98%) ARM Cortex
15 8 (0.98%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 820 (100.00%) Windows
2 230 (28.05%) Linux
3 71 (8.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 55 (6.71%) Windows 10
5 51 (6.22%) Windows Server 2019
6 32 (3.90%) Windows Server 2016
7 30 (3.66%) Unix
8 29 (3.54%) CentOS
8 29 (3.54%) Ubuntu
8 29 (3.54%) Windows Server 2012
9 14 (1.71%) Mac OS
9 14 (1.71%) Rocky
10 10 (1.22%) Windows Server 2008
11 8 (0.98%) VMS
11 8 (0.98%) Windows 7
12 5 (0.61%) Windows Server 2003
13 4 (0.49%) Alpine Linux
13 4 (0.49%) Solaris
14 3 (0.37%) Android
14 3 (0.37%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 257 (31.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 201 (24.51%) Problem-Solving
3 175 (21.34%) ITIL
4 140 (17.07%) Disaster Recovery
5 117 (14.27%) Migration
6 116 (14.15%) Root Cause Analysis
7 100 (12.20%) Continuous Improvement
8 99 (12.07%) Infrastructure as Code
9 97 (11.83%) Change Management
10 85 (10.37%) ITSM
11 84 (10.24%) DevOps
12 82 (10.00%) Service Management
13 79 (9.63%) High Availability
14 78 (9.51%) Stakeholder Management
15 77 (9.39%) Technical Leadership
16 71 (8.66%) Vulnerability Remediation
17 69 (8.41%) Project Delivery
18 65 (7.93%) Validation
19 61 (7.44%) Cybersecurity
20 60 (7.32%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 318 (38.78%) PowerShell
2 112 (13.66%) SQL
3 83 (10.12%) Python
4 67 (8.17%) Bash
5 39 (4.76%) T-SQL
6 30 (3.66%) C#
7 29 (3.54%) Bicep
8 16 (1.95%) PL/SQL
9 12 (1.46%) Java
10 9 (1.10%) JavaScript
11 5 (0.61%) Go
12 3 (0.37%) Korn
12 3 (0.37%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.24%) Groovy
13 2 (0.24%) JCL
13 2 (0.24%) REXX
13 2 (0.24%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.12%) CodeQL
14 1 (0.12%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.12%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 349 (42.56%) Security Cleared
2 181 (22.07%) SC Cleared
3 179 (21.83%) DV Cleared
4 82 (10.00%) Degree
5 50 (6.10%) Microsoft Certification
6 41 (5.00%) Azure Certification
7 24 (2.93%) Cisco Certification
7 24 (2.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 21 (2.56%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 18 (2.20%) MCSE
10 14 (1.71%) BPSS Clearance
10 14 (1.71%) CISSP
10 14 (1.71%) MCSA
11 12 (1.46%) AWS Certification
11 12 (1.46%) CCNA
11 12 (1.46%) CCNP
11 12 (1.46%) CISM
12 10 (1.22%) ITIL Certification
13 9 (1.10%) Computer Science Degree
14 8 (0.98%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (5.85%) SLA
2 32 (3.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (3.17%) NIST
4 21 (2.56%) QA
5 15 (1.83%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (0.98%) NCSC
6 8 (0.98%) PCI DSS
7 7 (0.85%) GRC
8 6 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 6 (0.73%) GxP
8 6 (0.73%) ISO 9001
9 5 (0.61%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 5 (0.61%) GDPR
9 5 (0.61%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 5 (0.61%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.24%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.24%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 483 (58.90%) Active Directory
2 303 (36.95%) VMware Infrastructure
3 156 (19.02%) Hyper-V
4 116 (14.15%) VMware ESXi
5 105 (12.80%) vSphere
6 56 (6.83%) Virtual Machines
7 41 (5.00%) Docker
8 38 (4.63%) Virtual Desktop
9 35 (4.27%) VMware NSX
10 24 (2.93%) vCloud
11 18 (2.20%) Virtual Servers
12 14 (1.71%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 12 (1.46%) XenApp
14 10 (1.22%) Firmware
14 10 (1.22%) XenDesktop
15 8 (0.98%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 6 (0.73%) KVM
16 6 (0.73%) Microsoft App-V
16 6 (0.73%) VMware Server
17 5 (0.61%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 95 (11.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 94 (11.46%) Ansible
3 91 (11.10%) vCenter Server
4 88 (10.73%) SCCM
5 75 (9.15%) SCOM
6 50 (6.10%) Kubernetes
7 30 (3.66%) WSUS
8 18 (2.20%) Grafana
9 17 (2.07%) NetBackup
9 17 (2.07%) Prometheus
10 15 (1.83%) Failover Clustering
11 14 (1.71%) Avamar
12 13 (1.59%) Nagios
13 10 (1.22%) Nessus
13 10 (1.22%) vMotion
14 8 (0.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 8 (0.98%) SysTrack
15 7 (0.85%) Jamf Pro
15 7 (0.85%) Puppet
15 7 (0.85%) WMI
Vendors
1 438 (53.41%) Microsoft
2 384 (46.83%) VMware
3 90 (10.98%) Cisco
4 72 (8.78%) Citrix
5 62 (7.56%) Oracle
6 53 (6.46%) ServiceNow
7 36 (4.39%) CyberArk
8 35 (4.27%) Red Hat
9 31 (3.78%) BeyondTrust
9 31 (3.78%) Dell
9 31 (3.78%) Splunk
9 31 (3.78%) Veeam
10 23 (2.80%) Google
10 23 (2.80%) NetApp
11 22 (2.68%) CrowdStrike
12 21 (2.56%) Qualys
12 21 (2.56%) Tenable
13 20 (2.44%) SolarWinds
13 20 (2.44%) Zscaler
14 17 (2.07%) Fortinet
825 Windows Server jobs in England