Windows Contract Job Trends in England

Microsoft Windows
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Windows skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 6 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 21 17
Rank change year-on-year -6 -4 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,723 2,260 2,895
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.98% 8.18% 8.65%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.83% 60.82% 61.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,740 1,529 1,975
10th Percentile £170 £171 £178
25th Percentile £225 £225 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £409 £450
Median % change year-on-year +3.79% -9.11% +2.27%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £673 £659
UK median daily rate £425 £415 £448
% change year-on-year +2.41% -7.31% +1.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 242 183 203
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.17 £11.07
25th Percentile £18.13 £17.33 £15.22
Median hourly rate £25.77 £18.87 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.57% -10.14% -14.70%
75th Percentile £59.75 £28.00 £56.88
90th Percentile £74.00 £65.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.75 £19.27 £21.59
% change year-on-year +33.63% -10.75% -8.13%

All Operating Systems
England

Windows 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 4,404 3,716 4,740
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.67% 13.45% 14.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,818 2,469 3,160
10th Percentile £190 £200 £200
25th Percentile £313 £308 £330
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 £668 £682 £695
UK median daily rate £470 £460 £475
% change year-on-year +2.17% -3.16% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 229 295
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.45
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.13 £17.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +41.30% -25.81% -25.38%
75th Percentile £67.25 £58.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £24.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +8.33% -12.73% -35.29%

Windows
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Windows relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Windows job vacancy trend in England

Windows
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Windows.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Windows

Windows
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows in England over the 6 months to 6 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Windows in England

Windows
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Windows.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Windows

Windows
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Windows in England over the 6 months to 6 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Windows in England

Windows
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 within the England region over the 6 months to 6 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 -14 904 £425 -0.12% 365
South East -8 588 £475 -3.06% 309
North of England -8 470 £325 -1.29% 223
South West -11 281 £488 +21.88% 118
Midlands -22 263 £400 +6.67% 128
North West -4 259 £328 -6.43% 135
East of England -2 200 £336 +34.50% 126
Yorkshire -17 187 £355 +9.23% 61
West Midlands -29 171 £450 +12.50% 79
East Midlands +8 88 £270 +36.71% 49
North East -37 28 £260 -5.45% 33
Windows
UK

Windows
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
1 231 (8.48%) Microsoft Exchange
2 222 (8.15%) SharePoint
3 59 (2.17%) Confluence
4 56 (2.06%) IIS
5 18 (0.66%) nginx
6 16 (0.59%) Apache
7 14 (0.51%) Tomcat
8 11 (0.40%) Skype for Business
9 9 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
9 9 (0.33%) WebLogic
10 6 (0.22%) Appian
10 6 (0.22%) Documentum
11 5 (0.18%) Camunda
12 4 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.15%) Apache Solr
12 4 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
13 3 (0.11%) CloudStack
13 3 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
13 3 (0.11%) NetWeaver
13 3 (0.11%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 163 (5.99%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (2.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.15%) Acrobat
5 4 (0.15%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.11%) Houdini
6 3 (0.11%) NUKE
7 2 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.037%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.037%) CINEMA 4D
8 1 (0.037%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 58 (2.13%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.37%) Finacle
3 7 (0.26%) OpenText MBPM
3 7 (0.26%) Oracle BPM
3 7 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.18%) Teamcenter
5 4 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
6 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.073%) assyst
8 1 (0.037%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.037%) Oracle BRM
8 1 (0.037%) SAP BRIM
8 1 (0.037%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.037%) SAP EWM
8 1 (0.037%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.037%) SAP FI-CA
8 1 (0.037%) SAP FS
8 1 (0.037%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 861 (31.62%) Azure
2 854 (31.36%) Microsoft 365
3 424 (15.57%) Entra ID
4 304 (11.16%) AWS
5 124 (4.55%) OneDrive
6 94 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
7 93 (3.42%) GCP
8 71 (2.61%) SaaS
9 63 (2.31%) Azure Monitor
9 63 (2.31%) Power Platform
10 62 (2.28%) GitHub
10 62 (2.28%) IaaS
11 50 (1.84%) PaaS
12 40 (1.47%) Azure Sentinel
13 26 (0.95%) AWS CloudFormation
14 23 (0.84%) Google Workspace
14 23 (0.84%) OpenShift
15 22 (0.81%) GitHub Actions
16 21 (0.77%) Azure AKS
16 21 (0.77%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 427 (15.68%) DNS
2 324 (11.90%) Firewall
3 296 (10.87%) DHCP
4 209 (7.68%) VPN
5 198 (7.27%) TCP/IP
6 140 (5.14%) LAN
7 131 (4.81%) WAN
8 119 (4.37%) Wi-Fi
9 86 (3.16%) SAN
10 68 (2.50%) Network Security
10 68 (2.50%) VLAN
11 47 (1.73%) SSL
12 46 (1.69%) BGP
13 40 (1.47%) NAS
14 38 (1.40%) Internet
15 37 (1.36%) Wireless
16 36 (1.32%) OSPF
17 35 (1.29%) VSAN
18 29 (1.07%) VoIP
19 28 (1.03%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 266 (9.77%) SQL Server
2 53 (1.95%) Oracle Database
3 50 (1.84%) Power BI
4 25 (0.92%) PostgreSQL
4 25 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 24 (0.88%) MySQL
5 24 (0.88%) Relational Database
6 19 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
7 16 (0.59%) Db2
8 15 (0.55%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 15 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 13 (0.48%) Elasticsearch
10 12 (0.44%) RDBMS
11 11 (0.40%) Geospatial Data
11 11 (0.40%) MongoDB
11 11 (0.40%) NoSQL
12 8 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.18%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.18%) Big Data
13 5 (0.18%) GIS
Development Applications
1 164 (6.02%) JIRA
2 62 (2.28%) Git
3 48 (1.76%) MSI
4 42 (1.54%) Jenkins
5 36 (1.32%) GitLab
6 32 (1.18%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.62%) Eclipse
8 15 (0.55%) Bitbucket
9 10 (0.37%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 8 (0.29%) Chocolatey
10 8 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
11 7 (0.26%) Artifactory
11 7 (0.26%) Browser DevTools
12 5 (0.18%) AdminStudio
12 5 (0.18%) Android Studio
12 5 (0.18%) InstallShield
12 5 (0.18%) Selenium
12 5 (0.18%) Xcode
13 4 (0.15%) Maven
13 4 (0.15%) Robot Framework
General
1 1,002 (36.80%) Social Skills
2 328 (12.05%) Finance
3 325 (11.94%) Analytical Skills
4 157 (5.77%) Public Sector
5 155 (5.69%) Banking
6 96 (3.53%) Documentation Skills
7 78 (2.86%) Organisational Skills
8 77 (2.83%) Legal
9 56 (2.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 53 (1.95%) Retail
11 46 (1.69%) Manufacturing
12 45 (1.65%) Military
13 40 (1.47%) Front Office
14 39 (1.43%) Telecoms
15 35 (1.29%) Law
16 34 (1.25%) Investment Banking
17 28 (1.03%) Spanish Language
18 26 (0.95%) Financial Institution
19 23 (0.84%) French Language
20 20 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 419 (15.39%) Support Engineer
2 376 (13.81%) IT Support
3 286 (10.50%) IT Engineer
4 270 (9.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 250 (9.18%) Analyst
6 241 (8.85%) IT Support Engineer
7 216 (7.93%) Senior
8 124 (4.55%) 2nd Line Support
9 113 (4.15%) Desktop Support
10 109 (4.00%) Architect
11 101 (3.71%) Desktop Engineer
12 100 (3.67%) Cloud Engineer
13 99 (3.64%) Lead
14 98 (3.60%) Developer
15 94 (3.45%) Support Analyst
16 81 (2.97%) IT Analyst
17 76 (2.79%) 1st Line Support
18 74 (2.72%) Windows Engineer
19 73 (2.68%) Consultant
20 72 (2.64%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 110 (4.04%) .NET
2 98 (3.60%) REST
3 63 (2.31%) .NET Framework
4 31 (1.14%) 802.1X
5 30 (1.10%) WPF
6 28 (1.03%) Middleware
7 27 (0.99%) LDAP
7 27 (0.99%) WinForms
8 26 (0.95%) CSS
9 23 (0.84%) HTML
9 23 (0.84%) JSON
9 23 (0.84%) Web Services
10 22 (0.81%) Microsoft Graph
11 19 (0.70%) Elastic Stack
12 18 (0.66%) ARM Templates
12 18 (0.66%) Software Packaging
13 17 (0.62%) .NET Core
13 17 (0.62%) RESTful
13 17 (0.62%) XML
14 16 (0.59%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 313 (11.49%) Onboarding
2 149 (5.47%) Data Centre
3 147 (5.40%) PKI
4 91 (3.34%) Clustering
5 77 (2.83%) Management Information System
6 73 (2.68%) Enterprise Software
7 71 (2.61%) Cloud Native
8 67 (2.46%) Hybrid Cloud
9 61 (2.24%) Self-Motivation
10 58 (2.13%) Video Conferencing
11 53 (1.95%) Driving Licence
12 52 (1.91%) Replication
13 50 (1.84%) Security Posture
14 49 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
15 41 (1.51%) Virtual Team
16 37 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
17 32 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
18 29 (1.07%) CMDB
18 29 (1.07%) Enterprise Storage
18 29 (1.07%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 699 (25.67%) Windows Server
2 662 (24.31%) Linux
3 478 (17.55%) Windows 10
4 176 (6.46%) Mac OS
5 125 (4.59%) Apple iOS
6 123 (4.52%) Android
6 123 (4.52%) Unix
7 109 (4.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 70 (2.57%) Windows Server 2019
9 41 (1.51%) Ubuntu
10 39 (1.43%) Windows Server 2016
11 36 (1.32%) Windows Server 2012
12 35 (1.29%) Windows 7
13 30 (1.10%) AIX
14 24 (0.88%) CentOS
15 20 (0.73%) Solaris
15 20 (0.73%) VMS
15 20 (0.73%) Windows Server 2008
16 10 (0.37%) Rocky
17 9 (0.33%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 660 (24.24%) Problem-Solving
2 493 (18.11%) ITIL
3 426 (15.64%) Customer Service
4 351 (12.89%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 331 (12.16%) ITSM
6 318 (11.68%) Migration
7 275 (10.10%) Continuous Improvement
8 267 (9.81%) DevOps
9 253 (9.29%) Agile
10 239 (8.78%) CI/CD
11 230 (8.45%) Service Management
12 208 (7.64%) Infrastructure as Code
13 199 (7.31%) Change Management
14 181 (6.65%) Stakeholder Management
15 180 (6.61%) High Availability
16 158 (5.80%) Cybersecurity
17 155 (5.69%) Disaster Recovery
17 155 (5.69%) Service Delivery
18 150 (5.51%) SIEM
19 147 (5.40%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 652 (23.94%) PowerShell
2 298 (10.94%) Python
3 279 (10.25%) SQL
4 160 (5.88%) Bash
5 141 (5.18%) C#
6 73 (2.68%) JavaScript
7 67 (2.46%) Java
8 52 (1.91%) T-SQL
9 49 (1.80%) PL/SQL
10 48 (1.76%) C++
11 41 (1.51%) Bicep
12 24 (0.88%) Search Processing Language
13 21 (0.77%) VB
14 18 (0.66%) Perl
14 18 (0.66%) TypeScript
15 17 (0.62%) VBScript
16 16 (0.59%) Shell Script
17 15 (0.55%) C
18 13 (0.48%) VBA
19 11 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 851 (31.25%) Security Cleared
2 510 (18.73%) SC Cleared
3 315 (11.57%) DV Cleared
4 290 (10.65%) Degree
5 112 (4.11%) Microsoft Certification
6 83 (3.05%) Cisco Certification
7 72 (2.64%) Computer Science Degree
8 71 (2.61%) Azure Certification
9 61 (2.24%) CISSP
10 49 (1.80%) AWS Certification
11 48 (1.76%) BPSS Clearance
12 44 (1.62%) A+ Certification
13 33 (1.21%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 33 (1.21%) MCSE
14 31 (1.14%) CCNA
14 31 (1.14%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 29 (1.07%) CCNP
16 25 (0.92%) ITIL Certification
17 23 (0.84%) DBS Check
17 23 (0.84%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 135 (4.96%) SLA
2 116 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 83 (3.05%) NIST
4 77 (2.83%) QA
5 29 (1.07%) GDPR
6 28 (1.03%) Cyber Essentials
7 25 (0.92%) NCSC
8 23 (0.84%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 13 (0.48%) Accessibility
11 12 (0.44%) Data Quality
12 11 (0.40%) HIPAA
12 11 (0.40%) WCAG
13 10 (0.37%) GRC
13 10 (0.37%) PMO
14 8 (0.29%) GxP
14 8 (0.29%) SOC 2
15 7 (0.26%) NIST 800
16 6 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 6 (0.22%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 1,109 (40.73%) Active Directory
2 375 (13.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 155 (5.69%) Hyper-V
4 131 (4.81%) VMware ESXi
5 110 (4.04%) vSphere
6 102 (3.75%) Docker
7 90 (3.31%) Virtual Machines
8 77 (2.83%) VMware NSX
9 70 (2.57%) Virtual Desktop
10 34 (1.25%) Firmware
11 32 (1.18%) BitLocker
12 21 (0.77%) Microsoft App-V
13 18 (0.66%) vCloud
14 13 (0.48%) KVM
15 10 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
16 8 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
17 7 (0.26%) NFS
17 7 (0.26%) XenApp
17 7 (0.26%) XenDesktop
18 6 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 398 (14.62%) Microsoft Intune
2 247 (9.07%) SCCM
3 236 (8.67%) Terraform
4 209 (7.68%) Ansible
5 150 (5.51%) Kubernetes
6 114 (4.19%) vCenter Server
7 71 (2.61%) SCOM
8 44 (1.62%) Jamf Pro
9 40 (1.47%) WSUS
10 38 (1.40%) FortiGate
11 35 (1.29%) Progress Chef
12 30 (1.10%) Puppet
12 30 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
13 24 (0.88%) Packer
14 23 (0.84%) Nagios
15 22 (0.81%) WMI
16 20 (0.73%) Grafana
16 20 (0.73%) Prometheus
16 20 (0.73%) ZABBIX
17 19 (0.70%) VxRail
Vendors
1 1,221 (44.84%) Microsoft
2 511 (18.77%) VMware
3 307 (11.27%) ServiceNow
4 182 (6.68%) Cisco
5 174 (6.39%) Citrix
6 162 (5.95%) Oracle
7 119 (4.37%) Splunk
8 82 (3.01%) CyberArk
8 82 (3.01%) SolarWinds
9 81 (2.97%) Apple
10 69 (2.53%) Remedy
11 66 (2.42%) Google
11 66 (2.42%) HP
12 63 (2.31%) Red Hat
13 61 (2.24%) BeyondTrust
14 54 (1.98%) Juniper
15 53 (1.95%) Dell
16 46 (1.69%) BMC
17 43 (1.58%) F5
17 43 (1.58%) IBM