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 4 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 21 17
Rank change year-on-year -7 -4 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,693 2,262 2,899
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.97% 8.19% 8.65%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.77% 60.71% 61.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,720 1,532 1,974
10th Percentile £170 £175 £178
25th Percentile £225 £225 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £411 £450
Median % change year-on-year +3.22% -8.61% +2.27%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £656
UK median daily rate £425 £415 £448
% change year-on-year +2.41% -7.42% +1.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 184 205
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.19 £11.07
25th Percentile £18.38 £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 £59.25 £28.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £74.00 £65.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.75 £19.32 £21.59
% change year-on-year +33.32% -10.54% -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 4,360 3,726 4,742
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.66% 13.50% 14.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,792 2,480 3,161
10th Percentile £190 £200 £200
25th Percentile £313 £313 £330
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £460 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.96% -5.64% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £663 £681 £690
UK median daily rate £470 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +1.62% -2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 303 230 296
10th Percentile £16.03 £15.50 £12.46
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.13 £16.97
Median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £30.50
Median % change year-on-year +41.30% -24.59% -26.59%
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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -14 892 £424 -0.24% 328
South East -7 581 £475 -3.06% 312
North of England -8 463 £331 -1.85% 212
South West -11 279 £488 +8.33% 122
Midlands -23 260 £400 +3.23% 137
North West -4 253 £335 -6.42% 124
East of England -2 201 £335 +41.05% 119
Yorkshire -15 188 £360 +10.77% 56
West Midlands -30 169 £450 +12.50% 83
East Midlands +9 87 £270 +35.00% 54
North East -39 26 £270 -1.82% 37
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
1 226 (8.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 213 (7.91%) SharePoint
3 58 (2.15%) Confluence
4 55 (2.04%) IIS
5 18 (0.67%) nginx
6 16 (0.59%) Apache
7 14 (0.52%) Tomcat
8 11 (0.41%) 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 (0.19%) Camunda
12 4 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
13 3 (0.11%) Apache Solr
13 3 (0.11%) CloudStack
13 3 (0.11%) NetWeaver
13 3 (0.11%) Tuxedo
14 2 (0.074%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 162 (6.02%) Microsoft Office
2 62 (2.30%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.15%) Acrobat
5 4 (0.15%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.11%) Houdini
6 3 (0.11%) NUKE
7 2 (0.074%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.037%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.037%) CINEMA 4D
8 1 (0.037%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 57 (2.12%) 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 (0.19%) Teamcenter
5 4 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
6 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.074%) assyst
8 1 (0.037%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.037%) Oracle BRM
8 1 (0.037%) SAP BRIM
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
1 850 (31.56%) Azure
2 837 (31.08%) Microsoft 365
3 414 (15.37%) Entra ID
4 301 (11.18%) AWS
5 120 (4.46%) OneDrive
6 94 (3.49%) Azure DevOps
7 91 (3.38%) GCP
8 70 (2.60%) SaaS
9 63 (2.34%) Azure Monitor
10 62 (2.30%) GitHub
11 61 (2.27%) IaaS
12 60 (2.23%) Power Platform
13 50 (1.86%) PaaS
14 40 (1.49%) Azure Sentinel
15 26 (0.97%) AWS CloudFormation
16 23 (0.85%) Google Workspace
17 22 (0.82%) GitHub Actions
17 22 (0.82%) OpenShift
18 21 (0.78%) Azure AKS
18 21 (0.78%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 422 (15.67%) DNS
2 323 (11.99%) Firewall
3 291 (10.81%) DHCP
4 206 (7.65%) VPN
5 197 (7.32%) TCP/IP
6 142 (5.27%) LAN
7 133 (4.94%) WAN
8 118 (4.38%) Wi-Fi
9 85 (3.16%) SAN
10 67 (2.49%) Network Security
11 66 (2.45%) VLAN
12 46 (1.71%) BGP
12 46 (1.71%) SSL
13 39 (1.45%) NAS
14 37 (1.37%) Internet
14 37 (1.37%) Wireless
15 36 (1.34%) OSPF
16 35 (1.30%) VSAN
17 29 (1.08%) VoIP
18 28 (1.04%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 262 (9.73%) SQL Server
2 52 (1.93%) Oracle Database
3 48 (1.78%) Power BI
4 25 (0.93%) PostgreSQL
5 24 (0.89%) MySQL
5 24 (0.89%) Relational Database
5 24 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 19 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
7 16 (0.59%) Db2
8 14 (0.52%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 14 (0.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 13 (0.48%) Elasticsearch
10 12 (0.45%) RDBMS
11 11 (0.41%) Geospatial Data
11 11 (0.41%) MongoDB
11 11 (0.41%) NoSQL
12 8 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.19%) Big Data
13 5 (0.19%) GIS
Development Applications
1 163 (6.05%) JIRA
2 62 (2.30%) Git
3 48 (1.78%) MSI
4 42 (1.56%) Jenkins
5 36 (1.34%) GitLab
6 32 (1.19%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.63%) Eclipse
8 15 (0.56%) Bitbucket
9 10 (0.37%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 8 (0.30%) Chocolatey
10 8 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
11 7 (0.26%) Artifactory
11 7 (0.26%) Browser DevTools
12 6 (0.22%) Android Studio
12 6 (0.22%) InstallShield
12 6 (0.22%) Xcode
13 5 (0.19%) AdminStudio
13 5 (0.19%) Selenium
14 4 (0.15%) Maven
14 4 (0.15%) Robot Framework
General
1 988 (36.69%) Social Skills
2 326 (12.11%) Finance
3 321 (11.92%) Analytical Skills
4 158 (5.87%) Public Sector
5 155 (5.76%) Banking
6 95 (3.53%) Documentation Skills
7 77 (2.86%) Organisational Skills
8 75 (2.78%) Legal
9 56 (2.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 53 (1.97%) Retail
11 45 (1.67%) Manufacturing
11 45 (1.67%) Military
12 40 (1.49%) Front Office
13 38 (1.41%) Telecoms
14 35 (1.30%) Law
15 34 (1.26%) Investment Banking
16 28 (1.04%) Spanish Language
17 26 (0.97%) Financial Institution
18 23 (0.85%) French Language
19 20 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 411 (15.26%) Support Engineer
2 368 (13.67%) IT Support
3 277 (10.29%) IT Engineer
4 265 (9.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 247 (9.17%) Analyst
6 233 (8.65%) IT Support Engineer
7 215 (7.98%) Senior
8 125 (4.64%) 2nd Line Support
9 112 (4.16%) Desktop Support
10 106 (3.94%) Architect
11 100 (3.71%) Cloud Engineer
11 100 (3.71%) Desktop Engineer
12 98 (3.64%) Lead
13 97 (3.60%) Developer
14 93 (3.45%) Support Analyst
15 80 (2.97%) IT Analyst
16 75 (2.78%) 1st Line Support
17 73 (2.71%) Consultant
17 73 (2.71%) Windows Engineer
18 69 (2.56%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 107 (3.97%) .NET
2 97 (3.60%) REST
3 62 (2.30%) .NET Framework
4 31 (1.15%) 802.1X
5 29 (1.08%) WPF
6 27 (1.00%) LDAP
6 27 (1.00%) Middleware
7 26 (0.97%) CSS
7 26 (0.97%) WinForms
8 23 (0.85%) Web Services
9 22 (0.82%) HTML
9 22 (0.82%) JSON
9 22 (0.82%) Microsoft Graph
10 19 (0.71%) Elastic Stack
11 18 (0.67%) ARM Templates
11 18 (0.67%) Software Packaging
12 17 (0.63%) .NET Core
12 17 (0.63%) RESTful
13 16 (0.59%) SAML
13 16 (0.59%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 306 (11.36%) Onboarding
2 148 (5.50%) Data Centre
2 148 (5.50%) PKI
3 90 (3.34%) Clustering
4 77 (2.86%) Management Information System
5 72 (2.67%) Enterprise Software
6 71 (2.64%) Cloud Native
7 65 (2.41%) Hybrid Cloud
8 61 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
9 55 (2.04%) Video Conferencing
10 53 (1.97%) Driving Licence
11 52 (1.93%) Replication
12 50 (1.86%) Security Posture
13 49 (1.82%) Legacy Systems
14 41 (1.52%) Virtual Team
15 37 (1.37%) Analytical Mindset
16 32 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
17 30 (1.11%) Enterprise Storage
18 29 (1.08%) Linux Command Line
19 28 (1.04%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 690 (25.62%) Windows Server
2 657 (24.40%) Linux
3 472 (17.53%) Windows 10
4 176 (6.54%) Mac OS
5 125 (4.64%) Apple iOS
6 123 (4.57%) Android
7 121 (4.49%) Unix
8 109 (4.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 68 (2.53%) Windows Server 2019
10 41 (1.52%) Ubuntu
11 39 (1.45%) Windows Server 2016
12 35 (1.30%) Windows Server 2012
13 33 (1.23%) Windows 7
14 30 (1.11%) AIX
15 24 (0.89%) CentOS
16 20 (0.74%) Solaris
17 19 (0.71%) Windows Server 2008
18 18 (0.67%) VMS
19 10 (0.37%) Rocky
20 9 (0.33%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 647 (24.03%) Problem-Solving
2 482 (17.90%) ITIL
3 415 (15.41%) Customer Service
4 345 (12.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 323 (11.99%) ITSM
6 316 (11.73%) Migration
7 274 (10.17%) Continuous Improvement
8 265 (9.84%) DevOps
9 249 (9.25%) Agile
10 236 (8.76%) CI/CD
11 226 (8.39%) Service Management
12 206 (7.65%) Infrastructure as Code
13 197 (7.32%) Change Management
14 179 (6.65%) High Availability
15 178 (6.61%) Stakeholder Management
16 155 (5.76%) Cybersecurity
17 154 (5.72%) Service Delivery
18 153 (5.68%) Disaster Recovery
19 150 (5.57%) SIEM
20 145 (5.38%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 644 (23.91%) PowerShell
2 294 (10.92%) Python
3 277 (10.29%) SQL
4 157 (5.83%) Bash
5 138 (5.12%) C#
6 72 (2.67%) JavaScript
7 67 (2.49%) Java
8 51 (1.89%) T-SQL
9 48 (1.78%) PL/SQL
10 47 (1.75%) C++
11 41 (1.52%) Bicep
12 24 (0.89%) Search Processing Language
13 21 (0.78%) VB
14 18 (0.67%) TypeScript
14 18 (0.67%) VBScript
15 17 (0.63%) Perl
16 16 (0.59%) Shell Script
17 15 (0.56%) C
18 12 (0.45%) Kusto Query Language
18 12 (0.45%) VBA
Qualifications
1 842 (31.27%) Security Cleared
2 507 (18.83%) SC Cleared
3 308 (11.44%) DV Cleared
4 290 (10.77%) Degree
5 110 (4.08%) Microsoft Certification
6 83 (3.08%) Cisco Certification
7 72 (2.67%) Computer Science Degree
8 71 (2.64%) Azure Certification
9 62 (2.30%) CISSP
10 49 (1.82%) AWS Certification
11 48 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
12 43 (1.60%) A+ Certification
13 33 (1.23%) MCSE
14 31 (1.15%) CCNA
14 31 (1.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 30 (1.11%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 29 (1.08%) CCNP
17 25 (0.93%) ITIL Certification
18 23 (0.85%) CISM
18 23 (0.85%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 133 (4.94%) SLA
2 115 (4.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 82 (3.04%) NIST
4 74 (2.75%) QA
5 29 (1.08%) GDPR
6 28 (1.04%) Cyber Essentials
7 25 (0.93%) NCSC
8 23 (0.85%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 13 (0.48%) Accessibility
11 11 (0.41%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.41%) HIPAA
11 11 (0.41%) WCAG
12 10 (0.37%) GRC
12 10 (0.37%) PMO
13 8 (0.30%) GxP
13 8 (0.30%) SOC 2
14 7 (0.26%) NIST 800
15 6 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 6 (0.22%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 1,090 (40.48%) Active Directory
2 367 (13.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 149 (5.53%) Hyper-V
4 129 (4.79%) VMware ESXi
5 108 (4.01%) vSphere
6 101 (3.75%) Docker
7 90 (3.34%) Virtual Machines
8 77 (2.86%) VMware NSX
9 70 (2.60%) Virtual Desktop
10 34 (1.26%) Firmware
11 32 (1.19%) BitLocker
12 22 (0.82%) Microsoft App-V
13 17 (0.63%) vCloud
14 12 (0.45%) KVM
15 9 (0.33%) Virtual Servers
16 8 (0.30%) 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
1 393 (14.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 246 (9.13%) SCCM
3 234 (8.69%) Terraform
4 207 (7.69%) Ansible
5 150 (5.57%) Kubernetes
6 112 (4.16%) vCenter Server
7 69 (2.56%) SCOM
8 44 (1.63%) Jamf Pro
9 38 (1.41%) FortiGate
9 38 (1.41%) WSUS
10 35 (1.30%) Progress Chef
11 30 (1.11%) Puppet
11 30 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
12 24 (0.89%) Packer
13 23 (0.85%) Nagios
14 21 (0.78%) Grafana
14 21 (0.78%) Prometheus
14 21 (0.78%) WMI
15 20 (0.74%) ZABBIX
16 19 (0.71%) Nessus
Vendors
1 1,200 (44.56%) Microsoft
2 501 (18.60%) VMware
3 301 (11.18%) ServiceNow
4 180 (6.68%) Cisco
5 173 (6.42%) Citrix
6 159 (5.90%) Oracle
7 117 (4.34%) Splunk
8 81 (3.01%) SolarWinds
9 80 (2.97%) Apple
9 80 (2.97%) CyberArk
10 67 (2.49%) Remedy
11 66 (2.45%) Google
11 66 (2.45%) HP
12 63 (2.34%) Red Hat
13 59 (2.19%) BeyondTrust
14 54 (2.01%) Juniper
15 52 (1.93%) Dell
16 45 (1.67%) BMC
17 43 (1.60%) F5
17 43 (1.60%) IBM