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

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 22 17
Rank change year-on-year -5 -5 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,471 2,062 3,254
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.10% 8.46% 8.77%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.25% 60.12% 64.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,659 1,467 2,255
10th Percentile £162 £180 £160
25th Percentile £213 £240 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £415 £400
Median % change year-on-year -0.04% +3.79% -11.11%
75th Percentile £544 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £688 £675
UK median daily rate £415 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -2.35% +6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 108 269
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.76 £11.80
25th Percentile £17.98 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.46 £18.76 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.73% +4.21% -20.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £25.04 £25.00
90th Percentile £74.97 £63.40 £62.75
UK median hourly rate £24.58 £18.82 £18.00
% change year-on-year +30.58% +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 4,034 3,430 5,079
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.97% 14.07% 13.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,671 2,333 3,465
10th Percentile £185 £200 £181
25th Percentile £310 £313 £289
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -9.76%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £465
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.15% -7.74%
Number of hourly rates quoted 271 154 372
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.23 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.44 £15.44
Median hourly rate £47.50 £24.09 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +97.18% +9.50% -42.11%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.68 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £42.60 £24.09 £22.00
% change year-on-year +76.85% +9.50% -44.02%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -23 773 £439 -0.28% 223
South East -6 504 £470 -6.00% 298
North of England -13 461 £328 +0.77% 208
Midlands -16 275 £325 +21.50% 107
North West -4 259 £263 -25.00% 112
South West -13 227 £450 -14.29% 141
East of England +2 208 £350 +55.56% 110
Yorkshire -24 186 £365 +12.31% 76
West Midlands -25 158 £450 +63.64% 55
East Midlands +6 112 £220 +6.67% 52
North East -25 20 £206 -20.67% 26
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
1 213 (8.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 142 (5.75%) SharePoint
3 53 (2.14%) IIS
4 49 (1.98%) Confluence
5 17 (0.69%) WebLogic
6 16 (0.65%) Apache
7 13 (0.53%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.45%) 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%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.081%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 170 (6.88%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (2.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.45%) MS Visio
5 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.20%) Acrobat
6 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.040%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 41 (1.66%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.32%) Teamcenter
4 6 (0.24%) assyst
5 4 (0.16%) Finacle
6 3 (0.12%) Oracle 11i
6 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 2 (0.081%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.081%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.081%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 1 (0.040%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.040%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 711 (28.77%) Microsoft 365
2 691 (27.96%) Azure
3 287 (11.61%) Entra ID
4 209 (8.46%) AWS
5 71 (2.87%) SaaS
6 69 (2.79%) GCP
7 66 (2.67%) Azure DevOps
8 61 (2.47%) OneDrive
9 58 (2.35%) IaaS
10 51 (2.06%) GitHub
11 49 (1.98%) PaaS
12 40 (1.62%) Google Workspace
13 39 (1.58%) Power Platform
14 37 (1.50%) Azure Monitor
15 25 (1.01%) Azure Sentinel
16 24 (0.97%) GitHub Actions
17 21 (0.85%) OpenShift
18 18 (0.73%) AWS CloudFormation
18 18 (0.73%) Azure AKS
19 17 (0.69%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 336 (13.60%) DNS
2 279 (11.29%) Firewall
3 235 (9.51%) DHCP
4 170 (6.88%) VPN
5 148 (5.99%) LAN
6 145 (5.87%) WAN
7 139 (5.63%) TCP/IP
8 118 (4.78%) Wi-Fi
9 68 (2.75%) Network Security
10 58 (2.35%) VLAN
11 55 (2.23%) SAN
12 46 (1.86%) Wireless
13 37 (1.50%) BGP
14 34 (1.38%) OSPF
15 33 (1.34%) Skype
16 31 (1.25%) SSL
17 29 (1.17%) BIG-IP
17 29 (1.17%) Internet
17 29 (1.17%) SNMP
17 29 (1.17%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 182 (7.37%) SQL Server
2 46 (1.86%) Oracle Database
3 34 (1.38%) Relational Database
4 27 (1.09%) MySQL
5 23 (0.93%) PostgreSQL
6 21 (0.85%) Power BI
7 14 (0.57%) DB2
8 13 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
8 13 (0.53%) MongoDB
9 11 (0.45%) NoSQL
10 10 (0.40%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 7 (0.28%) BigQuery
11 7 (0.28%) Oracle Reports
11 7 (0.28%) RDBMS
12 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.20%) GIS
12 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 4 (0.16%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
13 4 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 161 (6.52%) JIRA
2 49 (1.98%) GitLab
3 46 (1.86%) MSI
4 43 (1.74%) Jenkins
5 39 (1.58%) Git
6 34 (1.38%) Visual Studio
7 21 (0.85%) Eclipse
8 18 (0.73%) Burp Suite
9 17 (0.69%) Metasploit
10 11 (0.45%) Android Studio
10 11 (0.45%) Artifactory
10 11 (0.45%) Chocolatey
11 10 (0.40%) Bitbucket
11 10 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
12 9 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
12 9 (0.36%) InstallShield
12 9 (0.36%) Xcode
13 7 (0.28%) JUnit
13 7 (0.28%) Robot Framework
13 7 (0.28%) Selenium
General
1 866 (35.05%) Social Skills
2 247 (10.00%) Finance
3 211 (8.54%) Analytical Skills
4 189 (7.65%) Public Sector
5 142 (5.75%) Banking
6 101 (4.09%) Documentation Skills
7 95 (3.84%) Legal
8 70 (2.83%) Organisational Skills
9 61 (2.47%) Military
10 38 (1.54%) Retail
11 36 (1.46%) Presentation Skills
12 35 (1.42%) Law
13 34 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 31 (1.25%) Telecoms
15 30 (1.21%) Manufacturing
16 28 (1.13%) Front Office
16 28 (1.13%) Investment Banking
17 20 (0.81%) Local Government
18 19 (0.77%) Police
19 15 (0.61%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 322 (13.03%) IT Support
2 308 (12.46%) Support Engineer
3 278 (11.25%) Analyst
4 198 (8.01%) IT Engineer
5 191 (7.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 165 (6.68%) Senior
7 164 (6.64%) IT Support Engineer
8 153 (6.19%) Architect
9 114 (4.61%) Support Analyst
10 108 (4.37%) Desktop Support
11 100 (4.05%) Developer
12 98 (3.97%) Desktop Engineer
13 90 (3.64%) Technical Support
14 87 (3.52%) IT Analyst
15 86 (3.48%) 2nd Line Support
16 80 (3.24%) Lead
16 80 (3.24%) Windows Engineer
17 67 (2.71%) 1st Line Support
18 65 (2.63%) Desktop Support Engineer
18 65 (2.63%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (3.56%) .NET
2 73 (2.95%) REST
3 54 (2.19%) .NET Framework
4 34 (1.38%) LDAP
4 34 (1.38%) SAML
5 32 (1.30%) Middleware
6 29 (1.17%) WinForms
6 29 (1.17%) WPF
7 28 (1.13%) Kafka
8 27 (1.09%) 802.1X
8 27 (1.09%) OAuth
9 26 (1.05%) Microsoft Graph
10 25 (1.01%) Web Services
11 20 (0.81%) Node.js
12 19 (0.77%) CSS
12 19 (0.77%) React
13 17 (0.69%) AngularJS
13 17 (0.69%) Software Packaging
14 15 (0.61%) Elastic Stack
15 14 (0.57%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 201 (8.13%) Onboarding
2 104 (4.21%) Data Centre
3 100 (4.05%) PKI
4 81 (3.28%) Enterprise Software
5 76 (3.08%) Clustering
6 62 (2.51%) Self-Motivation
7 59 (2.39%) Driving Licence
8 57 (2.31%) Replication
9 44 (1.78%) Hybrid Cloud
10 39 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
10 39 (1.58%) Management Information System
10 39 (1.58%) Smartphone
11 37 (1.50%) Security Posture
12 33 (1.34%) Virtual Team
13 31 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
14 29 (1.17%) Cloud Native
14 29 (1.17%) Product Ownership
15 28 (1.13%) CMDB
16 25 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
17 24 (0.97%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 603 (24.40%) Linux
2 577 (23.35%) Windows Server
3 473 (19.14%) Windows 10
4 148 (5.99%) Mac OS
5 131 (5.30%) Android
6 121 (4.90%) Unix
7 115 (4.65%) Apple iOS
8 68 (2.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 65 (2.63%) Windows Server 2016
10 57 (2.31%) Windows Server 2019
11 49 (1.98%) Windows 7
12 35 (1.42%) Windows Server 2012
13 34 (1.38%) AIX
14 21 (0.85%) Ubuntu
15 18 (0.73%) Windows Server 2003
16 16 (0.65%) VMS
17 12 (0.49%) Solaris
18 10 (0.40%) CentOS
18 10 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
19 9 (0.36%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 509 (20.60%) Problem-Solving
2 401 (16.23%) Customer Service
3 362 (14.65%) ITIL
4 270 (10.93%) Migration
5 261 (10.56%) Agile
6 260 (10.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 224 (9.07%) DevOps
8 214 (8.66%) CI/CD
9 205 (8.30%) ITSM
10 165 (6.68%) Disaster Recovery
11 163 (6.60%) Continuous Improvement
12 161 (6.52%) Change Management
13 157 (6.35%) Service Management
14 150 (6.07%) Cybersecurity
15 143 (5.79%) High Availability
16 122 (4.94%) Stakeholder Management
17 117 (4.73%) Infrastructure as Code
18 116 (4.69%) SIEM
19 105 (4.25%) Computer Science
20 98 (3.97%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 530 (21.45%) PowerShell
2 247 (10.00%) SQL
3 234 (9.47%) Python
4 132 (5.34%) C#
5 85 (3.44%) Bash
6 71 (2.87%) Java
6 71 (2.87%) JavaScript
7 55 (2.23%) PL/SQL
8 48 (1.94%) C++
9 46 (1.86%) T-SQL
10 27 (1.09%) Kusto Query Language
11 26 (1.05%) VB
12 25 (1.01%) Perl
13 21 (0.85%) Search Processing Language
14 19 (0.77%) Shell Script
14 19 (0.77%) VBScript
15 15 (0.61%) VBA
16 12 (0.49%) Go
16 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
17 11 (0.45%) C
Qualifications
1 787 (31.85%) Security Cleared
2 516 (20.88%) SC Cleared
3 251 (10.16%) Degree
4 243 (9.83%) DV Cleared
5 103 (4.17%) Microsoft Certification
6 73 (2.95%) Computer Science Degree
7 62 (2.51%) Cisco Certification
8 43 (1.74%) Azure Certification
8 43 (1.74%) MCSE
9 36 (1.46%) CISSP
10 32 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
11 30 (1.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 28 (1.13%) AWS Certification
12 28 (1.13%) MCSA
13 27 (1.09%) ITIL Certification
14 25 (1.01%) CCNA
15 19 (0.77%) CompTIA Security+
16 18 (0.73%) A+ Certification
17 16 (0.65%) CHECK Team Member
17 16 (0.65%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (4.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 84 (3.40%) GDPR
3 82 (3.32%) QA
4 77 (3.12%) SLA
5 67 (2.71%) NIST
6 42 (1.70%) PCI DSS
7 29 (1.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 24 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials
9 15 (0.61%) NCSC
10 13 (0.53%) PMO
11 12 (0.49%) NIST 800
12 11 (0.45%) MiFID
13 10 (0.40%) Data Quality
13 10 (0.40%) FINRA
14 8 (0.32%) GLBA
15 6 (0.24%) DICOM
15 6 (0.24%) HIPAA
15 6 (0.24%) HL7
16 5 (0.20%) GRC
17 4 (0.16%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 927 (37.52%) Active Directory
2 289 (11.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 131 (5.30%) Hyper-V
4 79 (3.20%) vSphere
5 78 (3.16%) Docker
6 74 (2.99%) VMware ESXi
7 72 (2.91%) Virtual Machines
8 46 (1.86%) Virtual Desktop
9 35 (1.42%) Firmware
10 34 (1.38%) VMware NSX
11 33 (1.34%) BitLocker
12 25 (1.01%) Microsoft App-V
13 21 (0.85%) KVM
14 12 (0.49%) XenApp
14 12 (0.49%) XenDesktop
15 5 (0.20%) etcd
15 5 (0.20%) Terminal Services
16 4 (0.16%) Job Entry Subsystem
16 4 (0.16%) NFS
16 4 (0.16%) UAG
Systems Management
1 334 (13.52%) Microsoft Intune
2 267 (10.81%) SCCM
3 160 (6.48%) Ansible
4 155 (6.27%) Terraform
5 119 (4.82%) Kubernetes
6 66 (2.67%) vCenter Server
7 50 (2.02%) Single Sign-On
8 41 (1.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 38 (1.54%) WSUS
10 34 (1.38%) FortiGate
11 33 (1.34%) Jamf Pro
12 26 (1.05%) Grafana
13 25 (1.01%) SCOM
14 24 (0.97%) Nagios
15 22 (0.89%) Prometheus
16 21 (0.85%) Nessus
17 18 (0.73%) Progress Chef
17 18 (0.73%) ZABBIX
18 17 (0.69%) Tivoli
19 16 (0.65%) Netcool
Vendors
1 1,063 (43.02%) Microsoft
2 381 (15.42%) VMware
3 204 (8.26%) ServiceNow
4 199 (8.05%) Citrix
5 153 (6.19%) Cisco
6 151 (6.11%) Oracle
7 121 (4.90%) Splunk
8 72 (2.91%) HP
9 65 (2.63%) SolarWinds
10 56 (2.27%) Dell
11 54 (2.19%) Remedy
12 48 (1.94%) Google
12 48 (1.94%) IBM
13 47 (1.90%) Red Hat
14 44 (1.78%) Apple
14 44 (1.78%) CyberArk
15 37 (1.50%) F5
15 37 (1.50%) Juniper
16 35 (1.42%) Veeam
17 32 (1.30%) BMC