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

6 months to
4 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 22 17
Rank change year-on-year -5 -5 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,444 2,064 3,214
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.07% 8.47% 8.72%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.31% 60.10% 63.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,640 1,468 2,230
10th Percentile £162 £180 £160
25th Percentile £213 £240 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £416 £400
Median % change year-on-year -0.14% +3.90% -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 189 109 267
10th Percentile £14.80 £14.84 £11.80
25th Percentile £18.00 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.77 £18.77 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.33% +4.25% -19.84%
75th Percentile £65.00 £25.00 £25.00
90th Percentile £75.30 £63.35 £64.25
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 3,986 3,434 5,039
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.89% 14.09% 13.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,637 2,334 3,443
10th Percentile £185 £200 £183
25th Percentile £310 £313 £294
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £465
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +2.15% -9.27%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £470
% change year-on-year -5.26% +1.06% -6.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 267 156 368
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.24 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.44 £15.23
Median hourly rate £47.50 £24.09 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +97.18% +9.50% -41.33%
75th Percentile £67.84 £64.06 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.81 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £45.10 £24.09 £22.08
% change year-on-year +87.22% +9.13% -43.40%

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 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 4 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 4 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 -24 765 £439 -0.28% 230
South East -6 500 £475 -5.00% 305
North of England -13 454 £328 +0.77% 201
Midlands -16 275 £325 +21.50% 108
North West -4 256 £263 -25.00% 109
South West -14 223 £453 -13.67% 137
East of England +3 205 £350 +55.21% 107
Yorkshire -23 183 £365 +12.31% 72
West Midlands -26 158 £450 +63.64% 58
East Midlands +6 112 £220 +6.67% 50
North East -27 19 £188 -27.88% 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
1 209 (8.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 142 (5.81%) SharePoint
3 52 (2.13%) IIS
4 49 (2.00%) Confluence
5 17 (0.70%) WebLogic
6 16 (0.65%) Apache
7 11 (0.45%) Tuxedo
8 10 (0.41%) Skype for Business
9 8 (0.33%) nginx
9 8 (0.33%) Tomcat
9 8 (0.33%) 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 (0.082%) Apache Pulsar
13 2 (0.082%) Appian
13 2 (0.082%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.082%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 164 (6.71%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (2.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.45%) MS Visio
5 9 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.20%) Acrobat
6 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.041%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 41 (1.68%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.33%) Teamcenter
4 6 (0.25%) assyst
5 4 (0.16%) Finacle
6 3 (0.12%) Oracle 11i
6 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 2 (0.082%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.082%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.082%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 1 (0.041%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.041%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.041%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.041%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.041%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 702 (28.72%) Microsoft 365
2 688 (28.15%) Azure
3 282 (11.54%) Entra ID
4 209 (8.55%) AWS
5 70 (2.86%) SaaS
6 68 (2.78%) GCP
7 66 (2.70%) Azure DevOps
8 60 (2.45%) OneDrive
9 57 (2.33%) IaaS
10 51 (2.09%) GitHub
11 48 (1.96%) PaaS
12 39 (1.60%) Google Workspace
12 39 (1.60%) Power Platform
13 37 (1.51%) Azure Monitor
14 25 (1.02%) Azure Sentinel
15 24 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
16 21 (0.86%) OpenShift
17 18 (0.74%) AWS CloudFormation
17 18 (0.74%) Azure AKS
18 16 (0.65%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 329 (13.46%) DNS
2 275 (11.25%) Firewall
3 228 (9.33%) DHCP
4 163 (6.67%) VPN
5 143 (5.85%) LAN
6 141 (5.77%) WAN
7 137 (5.61%) TCP/IP
8 111 (4.54%) Wi-Fi
9 66 (2.70%) Network Security
10 55 (2.25%) SAN
10 55 (2.25%) VLAN
11 46 (1.88%) Wireless
12 37 (1.51%) BGP
13 34 (1.39%) OSPF
14 31 (1.27%) SSL
15 30 (1.23%) Skype
16 29 (1.19%) BIG-IP
16 29 (1.19%) SNMP
17 28 (1.15%) Internet
17 28 (1.15%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 181 (7.41%) SQL Server
2 44 (1.80%) Oracle Database
3 34 (1.39%) Relational Database
4 27 (1.10%) MySQL
5 23 (0.94%) PostgreSQL
6 21 (0.86%) Power BI
7 14 (0.57%) DB2
8 13 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
8 13 (0.53%) MongoDB
9 11 (0.45%) NoSQL
10 10 (0.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 7 (0.29%) BigQuery
11 7 (0.29%) RDBMS
12 6 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
13 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.20%) GIS
13 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (0.16%) Amazon RDS
14 4 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 161 (6.59%) JIRA
2 49 (2.00%) GitLab
3 45 (1.84%) MSI
4 43 (1.76%) Jenkins
5 39 (1.60%) Git
6 34 (1.39%) Visual Studio
7 21 (0.86%) Eclipse
8 18 (0.74%) Burp Suite
9 17 (0.70%) Metasploit
10 11 (0.45%) Android Studio
10 11 (0.45%) Artifactory
10 11 (0.45%) Chocolatey
11 10 (0.41%) Bitbucket
11 10 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
12 9 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
12 9 (0.37%) InstallShield
12 9 (0.37%) Xcode
13 7 (0.29%) JUnit
13 7 (0.29%) Robot Framework
13 7 (0.29%) Selenium
General
1 851 (34.82%) Social Skills
2 246 (10.07%) Finance
3 210 (8.59%) Analytical Skills
4 185 (7.57%) Public Sector
5 142 (5.81%) Banking
6 101 (4.13%) Documentation Skills
7 95 (3.89%) Legal
8 70 (2.86%) Organisational Skills
9 61 (2.50%) Military
10 37 (1.51%) Retail
11 36 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
12 35 (1.43%) Law
13 34 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 30 (1.23%) Telecoms
15 28 (1.15%) Front Office
15 28 (1.15%) Investment Banking
15 28 (1.15%) Manufacturing
16 20 (0.82%) Local Government
17 19 (0.78%) Police
18 15 (0.61%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 312 (12.77%) IT Support
2 299 (12.23%) Support Engineer
3 275 (11.25%) Analyst
4 191 (7.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 189 (7.73%) IT Engineer
6 163 (6.67%) Senior
7 155 (6.34%) IT Support Engineer
8 150 (6.14%) Architect
9 111 (4.54%) Support Analyst
10 108 (4.42%) Desktop Support
11 98 (4.01%) Desktop Engineer
11 98 (4.01%) Developer
12 89 (3.64%) Technical Support
13 86 (3.52%) IT Analyst
14 85 (3.48%) 2nd Line Support
15 80 (3.27%) Windows Engineer
16 78 (3.19%) Lead
17 67 (2.74%) 1st Line Support
18 65 (2.66%) Desktop Support Engineer
19 64 (2.62%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (3.56%) .NET
2 73 (2.99%) REST
3 53 (2.17%) .NET Framework
4 34 (1.39%) SAML
5 33 (1.35%) LDAP
6 32 (1.31%) Middleware
7 28 (1.15%) Kafka
7 28 (1.15%) WinForms
7 28 (1.15%) WPF
8 27 (1.10%) 802.1X
8 27 (1.10%) OAuth
9 26 (1.06%) Microsoft Graph
10 25 (1.02%) Web Services
11 20 (0.82%) Node.js
12 19 (0.78%) CSS
12 19 (0.78%) React
13 17 (0.70%) AngularJS
13 17 (0.70%) Software Packaging
14 15 (0.61%) Elastic Stack
15 14 (0.57%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 199 (8.14%) Onboarding
2 104 (4.26%) Data Centre
3 100 (4.09%) PKI
4 79 (3.23%) Enterprise Software
5 76 (3.11%) Clustering
6 59 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
7 58 (2.37%) Driving Licence
8 57 (2.33%) Replication
9 44 (1.80%) Hybrid Cloud
10 39 (1.60%) Legacy Systems
10 39 (1.60%) Smartphone
11 38 (1.55%) Management Information System
12 37 (1.51%) Security Posture
13 33 (1.35%) Virtual Team
14 31 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
15 29 (1.19%) Cloud Native
15 29 (1.19%) Product Ownership
16 27 (1.10%) CMDB
17 25 (1.02%) Data Protection Act
18 24 (0.98%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 600 (24.55%) Linux
2 574 (23.49%) Windows Server
3 465 (19.03%) Windows 10
4 147 (6.01%) Mac OS
5 128 (5.24%) Android
6 120 (4.91%) Unix
7 112 (4.58%) Apple iOS
8 68 (2.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 64 (2.62%) Windows Server 2016
10 57 (2.33%) Windows Server 2019
11 45 (1.84%) Windows 7
12 35 (1.43%) Windows Server 2012
13 33 (1.35%) AIX
14 21 (0.86%) Ubuntu
15 17 (0.70%) Windows Server 2003
16 16 (0.65%) VMS
17 12 (0.49%) Solaris
18 10 (0.41%) CentOS
18 10 (0.41%) Windows Server 2008
19 9 (0.37%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 505 (20.66%) Problem-Solving
2 396 (16.20%) Customer Service
3 358 (14.65%) ITIL
4 267 (10.92%) Migration
5 261 (10.68%) Agile
6 259 (10.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 224 (9.17%) DevOps
8 214 (8.76%) CI/CD
9 200 (8.18%) ITSM
10 163 (6.67%) Disaster Recovery
11 162 (6.63%) Continuous Improvement
12 160 (6.55%) Change Management
13 153 (6.26%) Service Management
14 147 (6.01%) Cybersecurity
15 143 (5.85%) High Availability
16 121 (4.95%) Stakeholder Management
17 116 (4.75%) Infrastructure as Code
17 116 (4.75%) SIEM
18 104 (4.26%) Computer Science
19 97 (3.97%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 522 (21.36%) PowerShell
2 245 (10.02%) SQL
3 234 (9.57%) Python
4 131 (5.36%) C#
5 85 (3.48%) Bash
6 71 (2.91%) Java
6 71 (2.91%) JavaScript
7 54 (2.21%) PL/SQL
8 48 (1.96%) C++
9 45 (1.84%) T-SQL
10 27 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
11 25 (1.02%) Perl
12 22 (0.90%) VB
13 21 (0.86%) Search Processing Language
14 19 (0.78%) Shell Script
15 16 (0.65%) VBScript
16 14 (0.57%) VBA
17 12 (0.49%) Go
17 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
18 11 (0.45%) C
Qualifications
1 778 (31.83%) Security Cleared
2 508 (20.79%) SC Cleared
3 249 (10.19%) Degree
4 240 (9.82%) DV Cleared
5 103 (4.21%) Microsoft Certification
6 73 (2.99%) Computer Science Degree
7 61 (2.50%) Cisco Certification
8 43 (1.76%) Azure Certification
8 43 (1.76%) MCSE
9 36 (1.47%) CISSP
10 32 (1.31%) BPSS Clearance
11 30 (1.23%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 28 (1.15%) AWS Certification
12 28 (1.15%) MCSA
13 27 (1.10%) ITIL Certification
14 24 (0.98%) CCNA
15 19 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
16 17 (0.70%) A+ Certification
17 16 (0.65%) CHECK Team Member
17 16 (0.65%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (4.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 84 (3.44%) GDPR
3 81 (3.31%) QA
4 76 (3.11%) SLA
5 67 (2.74%) NIST
6 42 (1.72%) PCI DSS
7 29 (1.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 24 (0.98%) Cyber Essentials
9 14 (0.57%) NCSC
10 13 (0.53%) PMO
11 12 (0.49%) NIST 800
12 11 (0.45%) MiFID
13 10 (0.41%) Data Quality
13 10 (0.41%) FINRA
14 8 (0.33%) GLBA
15 6 (0.25%) DICOM
15 6 (0.25%) HIPAA
15 6 (0.25%) HL7
16 5 (0.20%) GRC
17 4 (0.16%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 914 (37.40%) Active Directory
2 289 (11.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 131 (5.36%) Hyper-V
4 79 (3.23%) vSphere
5 78 (3.19%) Docker
6 74 (3.03%) VMware ESXi
7 72 (2.95%) Virtual Machines
8 46 (1.88%) Virtual Desktop
9 35 (1.43%) Firmware
10 34 (1.39%) VMware NSX
11 30 (1.23%) BitLocker
12 25 (1.02%) Microsoft App-V
13 21 (0.86%) 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%) Snort
Systems Management
1 332 (13.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 263 (10.76%) SCCM
3 160 (6.55%) Ansible
4 154 (6.30%) Terraform
5 119 (4.87%) Kubernetes
6 66 (2.70%) vCenter Server
7 49 (2.00%) Single Sign-On
8 41 (1.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 38 (1.55%) WSUS
10 33 (1.35%) FortiGate
11 31 (1.27%) Jamf Pro
12 26 (1.06%) Grafana
13 25 (1.02%) SCOM
14 24 (0.98%) Nagios
15 22 (0.90%) Prometheus
16 21 (0.86%) Nessus
17 18 (0.74%) Progress Chef
17 18 (0.74%) ZABBIX
18 17 (0.70%) Tivoli
19 16 (0.65%) Netcool
Vendors
1 1,048 (42.88%) Microsoft
2 381 (15.59%) VMware
3 200 (8.18%) ServiceNow
4 197 (8.06%) Citrix
5 153 (6.26%) Cisco
6 148 (6.06%) Oracle
7 121 (4.95%) Splunk
8 72 (2.95%) HP
9 65 (2.66%) SolarWinds
10 56 (2.29%) Dell
11 54 (2.21%) Remedy
12 47 (1.92%) Google
12 47 (1.92%) IBM
12 47 (1.92%) Red Hat
13 44 (1.80%) Apple
13 44 (1.80%) CyberArk
14 37 (1.51%) F5
14 37 (1.51%) Juniper
15 35 (1.43%) Veeam
16 32 (1.31%) BMC