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

 6 months to
24 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 191 132 93
Rank change year-on-year -59 -39 -8
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 580 527 883
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.40% 2.20% 2.42%
As % of the Operating Systems category 14.41% 15.69% 17.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 402 375 663
10th Percentile £256 £350 £205
25th Percentile £400 £425 £311
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £550 £465
Median % change year-on-year -12.73% +18.28% -7.00%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £594
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £475 £525 £450
% change year-on-year -9.52% +16.67% -10.00%
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% +7.69%
75th Percentile £59.62 £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% +20.31%

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 4,025 3,359 5,013
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.68% 14.00% 13.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,624 2,292 3,426
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £465 £470
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% -1.06% -8.29%
75th Percentile £573 £594 £588
90th Percentile £658 £696 £700
UK median daily rate £457 £465 £465
% change year-on-year -1.83% - -7.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 279 150 371
10th Percentile £15.90 £15.12 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.35 £15.50
Median hourly rate £41.71 £20.64 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +102.08% -8.27% -43.47%
75th Percentile £65.50 £58.39 £61.80
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £22.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +70.45% -2.22% -44.16%

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 24 May 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 24 May 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 24 May 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 -60 168 £491 -6.47% 68
South East -31 139 £525 -2.78% 83
North of England -83 88 £435 -9.38% 71
Midlands -35 66 £438 -2.78% 46
North West -44 63 £425 - 41
East of England -16 62 £450 -18.18% 31
South West -40 56 £511 -11.09% 42
West Midlands -45 40 £428 +6.88% 21
East Midlands -12 24 £450 -10.00% 25
Yorkshire -67 23 £500 -6.98% 25
North East -31 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 (12.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (5.34%) IIS
3 23 (3.97%) SharePoint
4 7 (1.21%) nginx
4 7 (1.21%) Tomcat
5 5 (0.86%) Apache
6 4 (0.69%) SAS
7 3 (0.52%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.34%) CloudStack
8 2 (0.34%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.17%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.17%) Confluence
9 1 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.17%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 11 (1.90%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 10 (1.72%) 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
Cloud Services
1 212 (36.55%) Azure
2 102 (17.59%) Microsoft 365
3 95 (16.38%) Entra ID
4 56 (9.66%) AWS
5 27 (4.66%) IaaS
6 20 (3.45%) Azure Monitor
7 15 (2.59%) PaaS
7 15 (2.59%) Power Platform
8 11 (1.90%) GitHub
9 10 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.72%) Nutanix
10 9 (1.55%) SaaS
11 8 (1.38%) Amazon EC2
11 8 (1.38%) GCP
12 6 (1.03%) Cohesity
13 5 (0.86%) GitHub Actions
13 5 (0.86%) Microsoft Copilot
14 4 (0.69%) Azure AKS
14 4 (0.69%) Azure Logic Apps
14 4 (0.69%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 194 (33.45%) DNS
2 133 (22.93%) DHCP
3 100 (17.24%) Firewall
4 52 (8.97%) VPN
5 46 (7.93%) WAN
6 41 (7.07%) TCP/IP
7 38 (6.55%) LAN
8 26 (4.48%) Network Security
9 20 (3.45%) SAN
10 16 (2.76%) VLAN
11 15 (2.59%) Kerberos
12 14 (2.41%) FTP
12 14 (2.41%) SMTP
13 13 (2.24%) SSL
13 13 (2.24%) Wi-Fi
14 12 (2.07%) VoIP
15 9 (1.55%) NAS
16 8 (1.38%) Skype
16 8 (1.38%) SSH
16 8 (1.38%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (19.48%) SQL Server
2 15 (2.59%) Power BI
3 12 (2.07%) Oracle Database
4 11 (1.90%) Elasticsearch
5 7 (1.21%) NoSQL
5 7 (1.21%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (1.03%) DB2
6 6 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (0.86%) Relational Database
8 4 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.69%) Oracle BI EE
9 3 (0.52%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.52%) GIS
10 2 (0.34%) Big Data
10 2 (0.34%) MongoDB
10 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.17%) Oracle Database 11g
11 1 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 12 (2.07%) JIRA
2 11 (1.90%) Visual Studio
3 7 (1.21%) Jenkins
3 7 (1.21%) Robot Framework
4 6 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
5 5 (0.86%) Git
6 3 (0.52%) GitLab
6 3 (0.52%) MSI
7 2 (0.34%) AdminStudio
7 2 (0.34%) InstallShield
8 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.17%) eggPlant
8 1 (0.17%) GoCD
8 1 (0.17%) Postman
8 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 113 (19.48%) Social Skills
2 63 (10.86%) Finance
3 57 (9.83%) Public Sector
4 46 (7.93%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (3.79%) Banking
5 22 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
6 17 (2.93%) Legal
7 13 (2.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 12 (2.07%) Military
9 9 (1.55%) Law
9 9 (1.55%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (1.21%) Local Government
11 5 (0.86%) Marketing
11 5 (0.86%) Retail
12 4 (0.69%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.69%) Police
13 3 (0.52%) Front Office
13 3 (0.52%) Telecoms
14 2 (0.34%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.34%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 139 (23.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 39 (6.72%) Analyst
2 39 (6.72%) Senior
3 37 (6.38%) Support Engineer
4 31 (5.34%) 3rd Line Engineer
4 31 (5.34%) IT Support
4 31 (5.34%) Wintel Engineer
5 28 (4.83%) Cloud Engineer
6 27 (4.66%) Lead
7 24 (4.14%) Architect
8 22 (3.79%) Developer
8 22 (3.79%) Windows Engineer
9 21 (3.62%) IT Engineer
10 20 (3.45%) Administrator
11 19 (3.28%) Server Engineer
12 18 (3.10%) C# Developer
13 17 (2.93%) 3rd Line Support
14 16 (2.76%) Azure Engineer
14 16 (2.76%) Systems Administrator
15 15 (2.59%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (5.34%) .NET
2 28 (4.83%) .NET Framework
3 19 (3.28%) OAuth
3 19 (3.28%) REST
4 18 (3.10%) LDAP
4 18 (3.10%) SAML
5 5 (0.86%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (0.86%) JSON
5 5 (0.86%) OAuth2
5 5 (0.86%) OpenID
5 5 (0.86%) React
6 4 (0.69%) ADO
6 4 (0.69%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.69%) EJB
6 4 (0.69%) Keycloak
6 4 (0.69%) Middleware
6 4 (0.69%) RabbitMQ
6 4 (0.69%) Software Packaging
6 4 (0.69%) Vue
7 3 (0.52%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 51 (8.79%) PKI
2 43 (7.41%) Clustering
3 40 (6.90%) Replication
4 32 (5.52%) Data Centre
5 31 (5.34%) Onboarding
6 27 (4.66%) Hybrid Cloud
7 19 (3.28%) Legacy Systems
8 15 (2.59%) Enterprise Storage
8 15 (2.59%) Management Information System
8 15 (2.59%) Self-Motivation
9 14 (2.41%) Enterprise Software
10 11 (1.90%) Linux Command Line
11 9 (1.55%) Product Ownership
12 8 (1.38%) Driving Licence
12 8 (1.38%) NHS
12 8 (1.38%) Private Cloud
12 8 (1.38%) Virtual Team
13 7 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
13 7 (1.21%) Legacy Code
14 6 (1.03%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 580 (100.00%) Windows
2 148 (25.52%) Linux
3 57 (9.83%) Windows Server 2019
4 48 (8.28%) Windows Server 2016
5 38 (6.55%) Windows 10
6 32 (5.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 29 (5.00%) Windows Server 2012
8 24 (4.14%) Unix
9 16 (2.76%) Ubuntu
10 11 (1.90%) Windows Server 2003
11 9 (1.55%) AIX
11 9 (1.55%) VMS
11 9 (1.55%) Windows Server 2008
12 7 (1.21%) Solaris
13 6 (1.03%) CentOS
14 3 (0.52%) Android
14 3 (0.52%) Windows 7
14 3 (0.52%) zOS
15 2 (0.34%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.34%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (29.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 105 (18.10%) Disaster Recovery
3 95 (16.38%) High Availability
4 91 (15.69%) Problem-Solving
5 87 (15.00%) ITIL
6 64 (11.03%) Migration
7 61 (10.52%) Change Management
8 54 (9.31%) Agile
9 50 (8.62%) ITSM
10 48 (8.28%) Project Delivery
11 41 (7.07%) DevOps
12 37 (6.38%) Infrastructure as Code
13 36 (6.21%) Root Cause Analysis
13 36 (6.21%) Service Management
14 34 (5.86%) Technical Leadership
15 33 (5.69%) Runbook
16 32 (5.52%) Business Intelligence
17 31 (5.34%) Capacity Planning
17 31 (5.34%) Identity Access Management
18 30 (5.17%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 218 (37.59%) PowerShell
2 86 (14.83%) SQL
3 53 (9.14%) Python
4 32 (5.52%) C#
5 27 (4.66%) Bash
5 27 (4.66%) PL/SQL
6 22 (3.79%) T-SQL
7 18 (3.10%) JavaScript
8 13 (2.24%) Java
9 6 (1.03%) Bicep
10 3 (0.52%) JCL
10 3 (0.52%) REXX
10 3 (0.52%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.17%) Delphi
11 1 (0.17%) Groovy
11 1 (0.17%) Ladder Logic
11 1 (0.17%) Perl
11 1 (0.17%) PHP
11 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.17%) VB
Qualifications
1 230 (39.66%) Security Cleared
2 144 (24.83%) SC Cleared
3 91 (15.69%) DV Cleared
4 65 (11.21%) Degree
5 42 (7.24%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (4.31%) MCSE
6 25 (4.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 18 (3.10%) VCAP
8 17 (2.93%) MCSA
9 14 (2.41%) Cisco Certification
10 11 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
11 10 (1.72%) Azure Certification
12 9 (1.55%) CCNA
13 7 (1.21%) CCNP
13 7 (1.21%) CISSP
14 5 (0.86%) CISM
15 4 (0.69%) CompTIA Security+
15 4 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
15 4 (0.69%) MCITP
15 4 (0.69%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (5.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 26 (4.48%) QA
3 24 (4.14%) GDPR
4 19 (3.28%) NIST
5 15 (2.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 12 (2.07%) SLA
7 11 (1.90%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.52%) NCSC
8 3 (0.52%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.34%) 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%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.17%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.17%) SOC 2
System Software
1 334 (57.59%) Active Directory
2 208 (35.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 96 (16.55%) Hyper-V
4 69 (11.90%) vSphere
5 63 (10.86%) VMware ESXi
6 49 (8.45%) Virtual Machines
7 34 (5.86%) Docker
8 31 (5.34%) VMware NSX
9 11 (1.90%) KVM
10 10 (1.72%) Microsoft App-V
10 10 (1.72%) Virtual Desktop
11 9 (1.55%) BitLocker
12 8 (1.38%) vCloud
13 6 (1.03%) VMware Workstation
13 6 (1.03%) XenApp
14 5 (0.86%) Virtual Servers
14 5 (0.86%) XenDesktop
15 3 (0.52%) Job Entry Subsystem
15 3 (0.52%) Oracle RAC
15 3 (0.52%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 72 (12.41%) Ansible
2 65 (11.21%) Microsoft Intune
3 63 (10.86%) vCenter Server
4 61 (10.52%) SCCM
5 44 (7.59%) Terraform
6 35 (6.03%) Kubernetes
7 32 (5.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 32 (5.52%) SCOM
8 30 (5.17%) Single Sign-On
9 25 (4.31%) WSUS
10 11 (1.90%) Puppet
10 11 (1.90%) vMotion
11 10 (1.72%) Nessus
12 6 (1.03%) Avamar
12 6 (1.03%) IBM BigFix
13 5 (0.86%) Backup Exec
13 5 (0.86%) Grafana
13 5 (0.86%) Oracle RMAN
13 5 (0.86%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.86%) VxRail
Vendors
1 254 (43.79%) VMware
2 247 (42.59%) Microsoft
3 65 (11.21%) Citrix
4 61 (10.52%) Cisco
5 50 (8.62%) Oracle
6 36 (6.21%) ServiceNow
7 24 (4.14%) Dell
8 20 (3.45%) Red Hat
9 17 (2.93%) Okta
9 17 (2.93%) Veeam
10 15 (2.59%) BeyondTrust
10 15 (2.59%) IBM
10 15 (2.59%) NetApp
11 13 (2.24%) BMC
11 13 (2.24%) Tenable
12 12 (2.07%) CyberArk
12 12 (2.07%) Palo Alto
12 12 (2.07%) SolarWinds
13 11 (1.90%) HP
14 10 (1.72%) Remedy
324 Windows Server jobs in England