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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 20 17
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,432 2,077 3,112
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.90% 8.58% 8.55%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.21% 61.30% 62.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,602 1,476 2,171
10th Percentile £162 £180 £163
25th Percentile £213 £230 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £420 £400
Median % change year-on-year -1.19% +5.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £425 £425 £400
% change year-on-year - +6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 193 116 261
10th Percentile £15.12 £14.20 £11.80
25th Percentile £17.92 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.77 £18.79 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +37.13% +6.05% -21.24%
75th Percentile £63.75 £24.75 £25.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £47.96 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £18.82 £18.00
% change year-on-year +33.63% +4.56% -20.00%

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 3,973 3,388 4,981
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.64% 13.99% 13.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,596 2,303 3,407
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £468 £470
Median % change year-on-year -3.74% -0.53% -8.29%
75th Percentile £571 £588 £588
90th Percentile £659 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £456 £467 £466
% change year-on-year -2.25% +0.11% -7.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 265 153 363
10th Percentile £15.96 £15.10 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.33 £15.21
Median hourly rate £42.50 £21.28 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +99.72% -3.27% -42.11%
75th Percentile £67.25 £58.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £22.00 £22.15
% change year-on-year +90.64% -0.68% -43.28%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 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 -25 740 £430 -4.44% 205
South East -4 524 £475 -1.96% 266
North of England -10 452 £353 +8.46% 192
Midlands -16 261 £313 +25.00% 104
North West -2 250 £305 -12.86% 108
South West -13 222 £453 -9.35% 124
East of England -2 211 £350 - 91
Yorkshire -18 188 £375 +13.21% 67
West Midlands -27 151 £442 +60.82% 55
East Midlands +8 105 £225 +9.09% 49
North East -28 18 £345 +15.00% 20
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
1 208 (8.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 149 (6.13%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.22%) IIS
4 48 (1.97%) Confluence
5 17 (0.70%) Apache
5 17 (0.70%) WebLogic
6 12 (0.49%) Skype for Business
7 11 (0.45%) Tuxedo
8 10 (0.41%) nginx
8 10 (0.41%) Tomcat
9 6 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.25%) TPMS
10 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.16%) SAS
10 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
11 3 (0.12%) Appian
11 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
12 2 (0.082%) IBM HTTP Server
12 2 (0.082%) Oracle HTTP Server
12 2 (0.082%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 157 (6.46%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (2.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (1.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.37%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.21%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.16%) Acrobat
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.041%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 40 (1.64%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.45%) Teamcenter
4 4 (0.16%) Finacle
5 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 2 (0.082%) assyst
6 2 (0.082%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.082%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.082%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 1 (0.041%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.041%) OpenText MBPM
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle 11i
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle BPM
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle FAH
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.041%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 705 (28.99%) Azure
2 697 (28.66%) Microsoft 365
3 297 (12.21%) Entra ID
4 219 (9.00%) AWS
5 71 (2.92%) OneDrive
6 67 (2.75%) SaaS
7 66 (2.71%) Azure DevOps
8 65 (2.67%) GCP
9 63 (2.59%) IaaS
10 53 (2.18%) GitHub
11 50 (2.06%) PaaS
12 42 (1.73%) Power Platform
13 38 (1.56%) Azure Monitor
14 32 (1.32%) Google Workspace
15 28 (1.15%) Azure Sentinel
16 24 (0.99%) GitHub Actions
17 23 (0.95%) OpenShift
18 18 (0.74%) Azure AKS
19 16 (0.66%) Microsoft Purview
20 15 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 322 (13.24%) DNS
2 260 (10.69%) Firewall
3 223 (9.17%) DHCP
4 161 (6.62%) VPN
5 147 (6.04%) LAN
6 142 (5.84%) WAN
7 130 (5.35%) TCP/IP
8 109 (4.48%) Wi-Fi
9 62 (2.55%) Network Security
10 60 (2.47%) SAN
11 53 (2.18%) VLAN
12 40 (1.64%) Wireless
13 37 (1.52%) BGP
14 34 (1.40%) OSPF
15 33 (1.36%) Skype
16 32 (1.32%) SNMP
17 30 (1.23%) BIG-IP
17 30 (1.23%) VoIP
18 29 (1.19%) SSL
19 28 (1.15%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 190 (7.81%) SQL Server
2 39 (1.60%) Oracle Database
3 32 (1.32%) Relational Database
4 28 (1.15%) MySQL
5 25 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
5 25 (1.03%) Power BI
6 15 (0.62%) DB2
7 14 (0.58%) MongoDB
8 13 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
9 11 (0.45%) NoSQL
10 10 (0.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 7 (0.29%) RDBMS
12 6 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
12 6 (0.25%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.25%) GIS
12 6 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
13 5 (0.21%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.16%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 160 (6.58%) JIRA
2 42 (1.73%) MSI
3 40 (1.64%) GitLab
4 39 (1.60%) Jenkins
5 34 (1.40%) Visual Studio
6 29 (1.19%) Git
7 19 (0.78%) Eclipse
8 18 (0.74%) Burp Suite
9 17 (0.70%) Metasploit
10 10 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
11 9 (0.37%) Android Studio
11 9 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
11 9 (0.37%) Chocolatey
11 9 (0.37%) Xcode
12 8 (0.33%) Artifactory
13 7 (0.29%) Bitbucket
13 7 (0.29%) InstallShield
13 7 (0.29%) Robot Framework
13 7 (0.29%) Selenium
14 5 (0.21%) AdminStudio
General
1 818 (33.63%) Social Skills
2 241 (9.91%) Finance
3 217 (8.92%) Analytical Skills
4 168 (6.91%) Public Sector
5 136 (5.59%) Banking
6 90 (3.70%) Legal
7 89 (3.66%) Documentation Skills
8 73 (3.00%) Organisational Skills
9 53 (2.18%) Military
10 46 (1.89%) Retail
11 36 (1.48%) Manufacturing
12 35 (1.44%) Law
13 33 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 30 (1.23%) Investment Banking
14 30 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
15 27 (1.11%) Front Office
16 26 (1.07%) Telecoms
17 20 (0.82%) Local Government
18 17 (0.70%) Police
19 16 (0.66%) French Language
Job Titles
1 317 (13.03%) IT Support
2 301 (12.38%) Support Engineer
3 275 (11.31%) Analyst
4 205 (8.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 192 (7.89%) IT Engineer
6 159 (6.54%) IT Support Engineer
7 157 (6.46%) Senior
8 130 (5.35%) Architect
9 111 (4.56%) Support Analyst
10 104 (4.28%) Desktop Support
11 93 (3.82%) Desktop Engineer
12 91 (3.74%) 2nd Line Support
13 89 (3.66%) Technical Support
14 87 (3.58%) IT Analyst
15 86 (3.54%) Lead
16 84 (3.45%) Developer
17 65 (2.67%) Windows Engineer
18 64 (2.63%) 1st Line Support
18 64 (2.63%) IT Support Analyst
19 61 (2.51%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.29%) .NET
2 73 (3.00%) REST
3 47 (1.93%) .NET Framework
4 36 (1.48%) LDAP
5 31 (1.27%) SAML
6 30 (1.23%) Microsoft Graph
7 27 (1.11%) 802.1X
7 27 (1.11%) Middleware
8 25 (1.03%) WinForms
9 24 (0.99%) OAuth
10 22 (0.90%) Kafka
10 22 (0.90%) Web Services
11 21 (0.86%) WPF
12 19 (0.78%) CSS
12 19 (0.78%) React
13 17 (0.70%) AngularJS
13 17 (0.70%) Node.js
13 17 (0.70%) Software Packaging
14 15 (0.62%) Elastic Stack
14 15 (0.62%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 206 (8.47%) Onboarding
2 110 (4.52%) Data Centre
3 102 (4.19%) PKI
4 78 (3.21%) Clustering
5 72 (2.96%) Enterprise Software
6 54 (2.22%) Self-Motivation
7 53 (2.18%) Replication
8 49 (2.01%) Driving Licence
9 47 (1.93%) Hybrid Cloud
10 46 (1.89%) Management Information System
11 40 (1.64%) Smartphone
11 40 (1.64%) Virtual Team
12 38 (1.56%) Security Posture
13 36 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
14 33 (1.36%) Cloud Native
15 29 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
16 28 (1.15%) Product Ownership
17 27 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
17 27 (1.11%) Enterprise Storage
18 25 (1.03%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 596 (24.51%) Linux
2 569 (23.40%) Windows Server
3 452 (18.59%) Windows 10
4 156 (6.41%) Mac OS
5 125 (5.14%) Unix
6 123 (5.06%) Apple iOS
7 119 (4.89%) Android
8 69 (2.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 61 (2.51%) Windows Server 2016
9 61 (2.51%) Windows Server 2019
10 47 (1.93%) Windows 7
11 33 (1.36%) Windows Server 2012
12 30 (1.23%) AIX
13 24 (0.99%) Ubuntu
14 18 (0.74%) Windows Server 2003
15 15 (0.62%) VMS
16 13 (0.53%) Solaris
17 12 (0.49%) Windows Server 2008
18 10 (0.41%) CentOS
19 8 (0.33%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 505 (20.76%) Problem-Solving
2 385 (15.83%) Customer Service
3 358 (14.72%) ITIL
4 272 (11.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 258 (10.61%) Migration
6 239 (9.83%) Agile
7 218 (8.96%) DevOps
8 216 (8.88%) ITSM
9 200 (8.22%) CI/CD
10 169 (6.95%) Continuous Improvement
11 165 (6.78%) Disaster Recovery
12 157 (6.46%) Change Management
13 150 (6.17%) High Availability
14 146 (6.00%) Service Management
15 132 (5.43%) Cybersecurity
16 120 (4.93%) Stakeholder Management
17 117 (4.81%) SIEM
18 115 (4.73%) Infrastructure as Code
19 110 (4.52%) Computer Science
20 102 (4.19%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 522 (21.46%) PowerShell
2 250 (10.28%) SQL
3 233 (9.58%) Python
4 119 (4.89%) C#
5 85 (3.50%) Bash
6 67 (2.75%) JavaScript
7 65 (2.67%) Java
8 51 (2.10%) PL/SQL
9 44 (1.81%) C++
10 43 (1.77%) T-SQL
11 26 (1.07%) Kusto Query Language
12 23 (0.95%) VB
13 22 (0.90%) Search Processing Language
14 21 (0.86%) Perl
15 20 (0.82%) Shell Script
16 16 (0.66%) VBScript
17 14 (0.58%) VBA
18 12 (0.49%) Bicep
19 11 (0.45%) C
19 11 (0.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 749 (30.80%) Security Cleared
2 475 (19.53%) SC Cleared
3 263 (10.81%) Degree
4 244 (10.03%) DV Cleared
5 94 (3.87%) Microsoft Certification
6 76 (3.13%) Computer Science Degree
7 72 (2.96%) Cisco Certification
8 45 (1.85%) Azure Certification
9 42 (1.73%) CISSP
10 40 (1.64%) MCSE
11 34 (1.40%) BPSS Clearance
12 28 (1.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 27 (1.11%) AWS Certification
14 26 (1.07%) ITIL Certification
14 26 (1.07%) MCSA
15 25 (1.03%) CCNA
16 22 (0.90%) CCNP
17 19 (0.78%) A+ Certification
17 19 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
18 17 (0.70%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (4.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 83 (3.41%) SLA
3 80 (3.29%) GDPR
4 75 (3.08%) QA
5 70 (2.88%) NIST
6 41 (1.69%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 25 (1.03%) Cyber Essentials
9 13 (0.53%) NCSC
9 13 (0.53%) PMO
10 12 (0.49%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.45%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.45%) MiFID
12 10 (0.41%) FINRA
13 7 (0.29%) HIPAA
14 6 (0.25%) DICOM
14 6 (0.25%) GLBA
14 6 (0.25%) GRC
14 6 (0.25%) HL7
14 6 (0.25%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 909 (37.38%) Active Directory
2 301 (12.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 133 (5.47%) Hyper-V
4 87 (3.58%) vSphere
5 85 (3.50%) VMware ESXi
6 79 (3.25%) Virtual Machines
7 78 (3.21%) Docker
8 49 (2.01%) Virtual Desktop
9 43 (1.77%) VMware NSX
10 33 (1.36%) Firmware
11 28 (1.15%) BitLocker
12 26 (1.07%) Microsoft App-V
13 20 (0.82%) KVM
14 11 (0.45%) XenDesktop
15 10 (0.41%) XenApp
16 7 (0.29%) vCloud
16 7 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
17 5 (0.21%) etcd
17 5 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
18 4 (0.16%) Snort
Systems Management
1 331 (13.61%) Microsoft Intune
2 231 (9.50%) SCCM
3 158 (6.50%) Ansible
4 142 (5.84%) Terraform
5 115 (4.73%) Kubernetes
6 75 (3.08%) vCenter Server
7 44 (1.81%) Single Sign-On
8 38 (1.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 35 (1.44%) FortiGate
9 35 (1.44%) WSUS
10 33 (1.36%) Jamf Pro
10 33 (1.36%) SCOM
11 26 (1.07%) Grafana
12 25 (1.03%) Nagios
13 23 (0.95%) Prometheus
14 20 (0.82%) Nessus
15 18 (0.74%) Puppet
15 18 (0.74%) Tivoli
15 18 (0.74%) WMI
15 18 (0.74%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,038 (42.68%) Microsoft
2 399 (16.41%) VMware
3 215 (8.84%) ServiceNow
4 180 (7.40%) Citrix
5 161 (6.62%) Cisco
6 141 (5.80%) Oracle
7 126 (5.18%) Splunk
8 70 (2.88%) HP
9 67 (2.75%) SolarWinds
10 54 (2.22%) Dell
11 53 (2.18%) Remedy
12 49 (2.01%) Red Hat
13 48 (1.97%) Apple
14 44 (1.81%) CyberArk
14 44 (1.81%) IBM
15 43 (1.77%) F5
16 42 (1.73%) Google
16 42 (1.73%) Juniper
17 36 (1.48%) BeyondTrust
18 32 (1.32%) Palo Alto