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 17 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 22 14
Rank change year-on-year -5 -8 0
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,481 2,072 3,325
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.31% 8.48% 8.90%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.14% 60.69% 64.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,684 1,480 2,288
10th Percentile £161 £180 £158
25th Percentile £212 £238 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £418 £400
Median % change year-on-year -0.72% +4.50% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £415 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -2.35% +6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 199 100 278
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.21 £11.94
25th Percentile £17.41 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £22.81 £18.82 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +21.20% +6.21% -16.65%
75th Percentile £64.38 £28.00 £23.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £65.00 £60.00
UK median hourly rate £22.81 £20.00 £17.72
% change year-on-year +14.05% +12.87% -16.85%

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 4,058 3,414 5,165
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.31% 13.97% 13.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,695 2,345 3,514
10th Percentile £184 £200 £180
25th Percentile £305 £313 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -12.62%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -9.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 278 145 379
10th Percentile £15.00 £16.25 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.81 £18.10 £14.95
Median hourly rate £32.57 £24.66 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.06% +17.43% -27.34%
75th Percentile £67.84 £65.00 £55.63
90th Percentile £74.78 £68.45 £68.15
UK median hourly rate £30.24 £24.42 £22.00
% change year-on-year +23.83% +11.00% -24.91%

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 17 April 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 17 April 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 17 April 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 -22 776 £425 -3.41% 164
South East -8 494 £473 -4.59% 256
North of England -12 464 £314 -2.64% 198
Midlands -14 281 £330 +20.00% 114
North West -6 256 £260 -25.71% 117
South West -10 235 £485 -9.77% 110
East of England +7 214 £328 +45.56% 100
Yorkshire -18 187 £365 +12.31% 60
West Midlands -25 166 £455 +62.50% 56
East Midlands +4 111 £210 +1.82% 58
North East -13 27 £225 +12.50% 27
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
1 215 (8.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 145 (5.84%) SharePoint
3 48 (1.93%) Confluence
4 46 (1.85%) IIS
5 21 (0.85%) WebLogic
6 17 (0.69%) Apache
7 12 (0.48%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.44%) Tuxedo
9 8 (0.32%) nginx
9 8 (0.32%) Tomcat
9 8 (0.32%) TPMS
10 5 (0.20%) SAS
11 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
11 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
13 2 (0.081%) Apache Pulsar
13 2 (0.081%) Appian
13 2 (0.081%) Exchange Server 2010
13 2 (0.081%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 181 (7.30%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (2.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
5 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.20%) Acrobat
6 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.040%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 37 (1.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.32%) Teamcenter
4 5 (0.20%) assyst
5 3 (0.12%) Oracle 11i
5 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 2 (0.081%) Finacle
6 2 (0.081%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.081%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.081%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.081%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.040%) Aladdin
7 1 (0.040%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.040%) Eikon
7 1 (0.040%) Fidessa
7 1 (0.040%) Oracle FAH
7 1 (0.040%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.040%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.040%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.040%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 705 (28.42%) Microsoft 365
2 670 (27.01%) Azure
3 290 (11.69%) Entra ID
4 204 (8.22%) AWS
5 72 (2.90%) GCP
6 69 (2.78%) SaaS
7 64 (2.58%) Azure DevOps
7 64 (2.58%) OneDrive
8 53 (2.14%) IaaS
9 47 (1.89%) Google Workspace
10 46 (1.85%) PaaS
11 43 (1.73%) GitHub
12 36 (1.45%) Power Platform
13 33 (1.33%) Azure Monitor
14 26 (1.05%) Azure Sentinel
15 20 (0.81%) GitHub Actions
16 19 (0.77%) OpenShift
17 18 (0.73%) AWS CloudFormation
18 17 (0.69%) Microsoft Purview
19 16 (0.64%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 344 (13.87%) DNS
2 303 (12.21%) Firewall
3 238 (9.59%) DHCP
4 172 (6.93%) VPN
5 153 (6.17%) TCP/IP
6 151 (6.09%) LAN
7 149 (6.01%) WAN
8 126 (5.08%) Wi-Fi
9 75 (3.02%) Network Security
10 69 (2.78%) VLAN
11 52 (2.10%) SAN
12 51 (2.06%) Wireless
13 42 (1.69%) BGP
14 33 (1.33%) OSPF
15 31 (1.25%) SSL
16 30 (1.21%) Skype
16 30 (1.21%) VoIP
17 29 (1.17%) Internet
18 28 (1.13%) BIG-IP
19 27 (1.09%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 167 (6.73%) SQL Server
2 43 (1.73%) Oracle Database
3 34 (1.37%) Relational Database
4 29 (1.17%) MySQL
5 23 (0.93%) PostgreSQL
6 19 (0.77%) Power BI
7 14 (0.56%) DB2
8 13 (0.52%) BigQuery
8 13 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
9 12 (0.48%) MongoDB
10 9 (0.36%) NoSQL
10 9 (0.36%) Oracle Reports
11 7 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 5 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
12 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.20%) GIS
12 5 (0.20%) RDBMS
12 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 4 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
14 3 (0.12%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 161 (6.49%) JIRA
2 50 (2.02%) GitLab
3 43 (1.73%) Jenkins
4 42 (1.69%) MSI
5 40 (1.61%) Git
6 34 (1.37%) Visual Studio
7 21 (0.85%) Eclipse
8 18 (0.73%) Burp Suite
9 17 (0.69%) Metasploit
10 11 (0.44%) Android Studio
10 11 (0.44%) Artifactory
10 11 (0.44%) Chocolatey
11 10 (0.40%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
12 9 (0.36%) Xcode
13 8 (0.32%) InstallShield
13 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
14 7 (0.28%) JUnit
15 6 (0.24%) Selenium
15 6 (0.24%) Toad
General
1 863 (34.78%) Social Skills
2 243 (9.79%) Finance
3 211 (8.50%) Analytical Skills
4 198 (7.98%) Public Sector
5 144 (5.80%) Banking
6 103 (4.15%) Documentation Skills
6 103 (4.15%) Legal
7 78 (3.14%) Organisational Skills
8 59 (2.38%) Military
9 37 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
10 36 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 34 (1.37%) Retail
12 33 (1.33%) Manufacturing
13 30 (1.21%) Law
14 29 (1.17%) Investment Banking
14 29 (1.17%) Telecoms
15 26 (1.05%) Front Office
16 20 (0.81%) Local Government
17 14 (0.56%) Aerospace
17 14 (0.56%) Police
Job Titles
1 338 (13.62%) IT Support
2 318 (12.82%) Support Engineer
3 305 (12.29%) Analyst
4 210 (8.46%) IT Engineer
5 178 (7.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 173 (6.97%) IT Support Engineer
7 163 (6.57%) Senior
8 160 (6.45%) Architect
9 120 (4.84%) Support Analyst
10 104 (4.19%) Developer
11 100 (4.03%) Desktop Support
12 95 (3.83%) Technical Support
13 90 (3.63%) Desktop Engineer
14 89 (3.59%) IT Analyst
15 84 (3.39%) Windows Engineer
16 83 (3.35%) 2nd Line Support
17 78 (3.14%) Lead
18 69 (2.78%) IT Support Analyst
19 64 (2.58%) 1st Line Support
20 62 (2.50%) Desktop Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (3.43%) .NET
2 67 (2.70%) REST
3 52 (2.10%) .NET Framework
4 48 (1.93%) SAML
5 41 (1.65%) OAuth
6 37 (1.49%) LDAP
7 34 (1.37%) Middleware
8 29 (1.17%) WPF
9 28 (1.13%) WinForms
10 26 (1.05%) OpenID
10 26 (1.05%) Web Services
11 25 (1.01%) 802.1X
11 25 (1.01%) Kafka
11 25 (1.01%) Microsoft Graph
12 20 (0.81%) Node.js
12 20 (0.81%) OAuth2
12 20 (0.81%) React
13 19 (0.77%) CSS
14 18 (0.73%) AngularJS
15 17 (0.69%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 191 (7.70%) Onboarding
2 107 (4.31%) Data Centre
3 96 (3.87%) PKI
4 80 (3.22%) Enterprise Software
5 65 (2.62%) Clustering
6 64 (2.58%) Driving Licence
7 62 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
8 57 (2.30%) Replication
9 41 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
10 40 (1.61%) Product Ownership
11 39 (1.57%) Management Information System
12 38 (1.53%) Legacy Systems
13 37 (1.49%) Security Posture
13 37 (1.49%) Smartphone
14 29 (1.17%) CMDB
14 29 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
14 29 (1.17%) Virtual Team
15 28 (1.13%) Analytical Mindset
15 28 (1.13%) Cloud Native
16 24 (0.97%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 605 (24.39%) Linux
2 577 (23.26%) Windows Server
3 499 (20.11%) Windows 10
4 146 (5.88%) Mac OS
5 138 (5.56%) Android
6 119 (4.80%) Apple iOS
7 118 (4.76%) Unix
8 74 (2.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 63 (2.54%) Windows Server 2016
10 49 (1.98%) Windows Server 2019
11 48 (1.93%) Windows 7
12 38 (1.53%) Windows Server 2012
13 35 (1.41%) AIX
14 24 (0.97%) Windows Server 2003
15 20 (0.81%) VMS
16 19 (0.77%) Ubuntu
17 12 (0.48%) Solaris
18 11 (0.44%) Windows Server 2008
19 10 (0.40%) Mac OS X
20 8 (0.32%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 517 (20.84%) Problem-Solving
2 417 (16.81%) Customer Service
3 360 (14.51%) ITIL
4 268 (10.80%) Migration
5 263 (10.60%) Agile
6 253 (10.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 220 (8.87%) DevOps
8 212 (8.54%) ITSM
9 200 (8.06%) CI/CD
10 172 (6.93%) Continuous Improvement
11 171 (6.89%) Service Management
12 161 (6.49%) Change Management
13 160 (6.45%) Cybersecurity
14 155 (6.25%) Disaster Recovery
15 135 (5.44%) High Availability
16 119 (4.80%) Stakeholder Management
17 109 (4.39%) Infrastructure as Code
17 109 (4.39%) SIEM
18 107 (4.31%) Identity Access Management
19 101 (4.07%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 538 (21.68%) PowerShell
2 239 (9.63%) Python
3 237 (9.55%) SQL
4 126 (5.08%) C#
5 100 (4.03%) Bash
6 75 (3.02%) Java
7 71 (2.86%) JavaScript
8 54 (2.18%) PL/SQL
9 47 (1.89%) C++
10 44 (1.77%) T-SQL
11 37 (1.49%) Perl
12 28 (1.13%) Kusto Query Language
13 24 (0.97%) VB
14 18 (0.73%) Shell Script
14 18 (0.73%) VBScript
15 15 (0.60%) Search Processing Language
15 15 (0.60%) VBA
16 13 (0.52%) TypeScript
17 11 (0.44%) Bicep
17 11 (0.44%) C
Qualifications
1 779 (31.40%) Security Cleared
2 507 (20.44%) SC Cleared
3 254 (10.24%) Degree
4 240 (9.67%) DV Cleared
5 113 (4.55%) Microsoft Certification
6 70 (2.82%) Computer Science Degree
7 65 (2.62%) Cisco Certification
8 44 (1.77%) Azure Certification
9 39 (1.57%) MCSE
10 33 (1.33%) CCNA
10 33 (1.33%) CISSP
11 30 (1.21%) BPSS Clearance
12 29 (1.17%) AWS Certification
13 28 (1.13%) ITIL Certification
14 23 (0.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 22 (0.89%) CCNP
16 21 (0.85%) MCSA
17 20 (0.81%) A+ Certification
17 20 (0.81%) CompTIA Security+
18 17 (0.69%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (3.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 84 (3.39%) QA
3 82 (3.31%) GDPR
4 70 (2.82%) SLA
5 61 (2.46%) NIST
6 39 (1.57%) PCI DSS
7 27 (1.09%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 18 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials
9 13 (0.52%) NCSC
10 12 (0.48%) MiFID
10 12 (0.48%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.44%) PMO
12 10 (0.40%) FINRA
13 9 (0.36%) Data Quality
14 8 (0.32%) GLBA
15 6 (0.24%) DICOM
15 6 (0.24%) HL7
16 5 (0.20%) HIPAA
17 4 (0.16%) GMP
17 4 (0.16%) GxP
System Software
1 947 (38.17%) Active Directory
2 278 (11.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 122 (4.92%) Hyper-V
4 80 (3.22%) Docker
5 72 (2.90%) vSphere
6 67 (2.70%) VMware ESXi
7 53 (2.14%) Virtual Machines
8 48 (1.93%) Virtual Desktop
9 35 (1.41%) VMware NSX
10 34 (1.37%) Firmware
11 30 (1.21%) BitLocker
12 24 (0.97%) Microsoft App-V
13 19 (0.77%) KVM
14 12 (0.48%) XenDesktop
15 11 (0.44%) XenApp
16 5 (0.20%) etcd
16 5 (0.20%) NFS
16 5 (0.20%) Terminal Services
17 4 (0.16%) Job Entry Subsystem
17 4 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 345 (13.91%) Microsoft Intune
2 276 (11.12%) SCCM
3 152 (6.13%) Ansible
4 145 (5.84%) Terraform
5 115 (4.64%) Kubernetes
6 66 (2.66%) Single Sign-On
7 61 (2.46%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 61 (2.46%) vCenter Server
8 39 (1.57%) Jamf Pro
9 33 (1.33%) FortiGate
9 33 (1.33%) WSUS
10 25 (1.01%) SCOM
11 24 (0.97%) Grafana
12 21 (0.85%) Prometheus
13 19 (0.77%) Nessus
14 18 (0.73%) Nagios
14 18 (0.73%) Progress Chef
15 16 (0.64%) Nmap
15 16 (0.64%) Puppet
16 14 (0.56%) WMI
Vendors
1 1,071 (43.17%) Microsoft
2 376 (15.16%) VMware
3 215 (8.67%) ServiceNow
4 206 (8.30%) Citrix
5 154 (6.21%) Oracle
6 151 (6.09%) Cisco
7 114 (4.59%) Splunk
8 68 (2.74%) HP
9 60 (2.42%) Red Hat
9 60 (2.42%) SolarWinds
10 56 (2.26%) Dell
11 53 (2.14%) Google
12 51 (2.06%) Remedy
13 47 (1.89%) CyberArk
14 46 (1.85%) IBM
15 45 (1.81%) Apple
16 38 (1.53%) Juniper
17 37 (1.49%) Veeam
18 36 (1.45%) F5
19 29 (1.17%) BeyondTrust