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

6 months to
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 22 15
Rank change year-on-year -5 -7 -1
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,543 2,062 3,337
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.50% 8.47% 8.91%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.32% 60.36% 64.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,719 1,477 2,276
10th Percentile £160 £182 £156
25th Percentile £206 £243 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £425 £395
Median % change year-on-year -2.94% +7.59% -12.22%
75th Percentile £549 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £413 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -2.94% +6.25% -9.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 211 95 277
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.24 £12.00
25th Percentile £16.68 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £22.50 £18.82 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +19.55% +6.21% -16.85%
75th Percentile £60.00 £28.00 £23.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £65.00 £60.00
UK median hourly rate £22.27 £21.00 £17.72
% change year-on-year +6.02% +18.51% -19.45%

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 4,147 3,416 5,195
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.60% 14.03% 13.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,751 2,351 3,526
10th Percentile £181 £200 £179
25th Percentile £300 £313 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -12.62%
75th Percentile £569 £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 293 144 378
10th Percentile £15.10 £16.55 £12.83
25th Percentile £19.00 £18.13 £15.31
Median hourly rate £26.00 £28.00 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +30.23% -25.86%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £53.29
90th Percentile £74.26 £68.75 £68.67
UK median hourly rate £25.52 £24.66 £22.00
% change year-on-year +3.47% +12.09% -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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -20 782 £425 -5.56% 231
South East -6 511 £475 - 277
North of England -11 478 £300 -14.29% 201
Midlands -12 291 £325 +12.07% 130
North West -3 263 £260 -25.71% 130
South West -8 242 £463 -15.91% 129
East of England +8 221 £300 +33.33% 97
Yorkshire -16 193 £365 +4.14% 58
West Midlands -21 170 £449 +43.52% 76
East Midlands +1 117 £210 -1.18% 54
North East -10 28 £206 +3.13% 17
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
1 220 (8.65%) Microsoft Exchange
2 157 (6.17%) SharePoint
3 48 (1.89%) Confluence
4 45 (1.77%) IIS
5 21 (0.83%) WebLogic
6 18 (0.71%) Apache
7 12 (0.47%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.43%) Tuxedo
9 9 (0.35%) TPMS
10 7 (0.28%) nginx
10 7 (0.28%) Tomcat
11 5 (0.20%) SAS
12 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.16%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
12 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
13 2 (0.079%) Apache Pulsar
13 2 (0.079%) Appian
13 2 (0.079%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.079%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 189 (7.43%) Microsoft Office
2 69 (2.71%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 9 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.20%) Acrobat
6 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.039%) InDesign
8 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 37 (1.45%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.31%) Teamcenter
4 5 (0.20%) assyst
5 4 (0.16%) Oracle 11i
6 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 2 (0.079%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.079%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.079%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.079%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.079%) SystmOne
8 1 (0.039%) Aladdin
8 1 (0.039%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.039%) Eikon
8 1 (0.039%) Fidessa
8 1 (0.039%) Finacle
8 1 (0.039%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.039%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.039%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.039%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 725 (28.51%) Microsoft 365
2 682 (26.82%) Azure
3 297 (11.68%) Entra ID
4 202 (7.94%) AWS
5 77 (3.03%) OneDrive
6 72 (2.83%) SaaS
7 71 (2.79%) GCP
8 62 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
9 53 (2.08%) IaaS
10 48 (1.89%) Google Workspace
11 46 (1.81%) PaaS
12 43 (1.69%) GitHub
13 37 (1.45%) Power Platform
14 34 (1.34%) Azure Monitor
15 26 (1.02%) Azure Sentinel
16 20 (0.79%) GitHub Actions
17 19 (0.75%) AWS CloudFormation
17 19 (0.75%) OpenShift
18 18 (0.71%) Nutanix
19 17 (0.67%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 341 (13.41%) DNS
2 306 (12.03%) Firewall
3 233 (9.16%) DHCP
4 176 (6.92%) VPN
5 157 (6.17%) TCP/IP
6 150 (5.90%) LAN
7 145 (5.70%) WAN
8 129 (5.07%) Wi-Fi
9 76 (2.99%) Network Security
10 65 (2.56%) VLAN
11 52 (2.04%) SAN
12 51 (2.01%) Wireless
13 39 (1.53%) BGP
14 34 (1.34%) SSL
15 30 (1.18%) OSPF
15 30 (1.18%) VoIP
16 29 (1.14%) Skype
17 28 (1.10%) SNMP
18 27 (1.06%) BIG-IP
19 26 (1.02%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 163 (6.41%) SQL Server
2 44 (1.73%) Oracle Database
3 35 (1.38%) Relational Database
4 32 (1.26%) MySQL
5 23 (0.90%) PostgreSQL
6 19 (0.75%) Power BI
7 14 (0.55%) DB2
8 13 (0.51%) BigQuery
9 12 (0.47%) Elasticsearch
9 12 (0.47%) MongoDB
10 11 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
11 9 (0.35%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 6 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
13 6 (0.24%) GIS
13 6 (0.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 4 (0.16%) Oracle Database 10g
14 4 (0.16%) RDBMS
14 4 (0.16%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 157 (6.17%) JIRA
2 53 (2.08%) GitLab
3 48 (1.89%) Jenkins
4 42 (1.65%) Git
4 42 (1.65%) MSI
5 34 (1.34%) Visual Studio
6 22 (0.87%) Eclipse
7 17 (0.67%) Burp Suite
7 17 (0.67%) Metasploit
8 12 (0.47%) Android Studio
8 12 (0.47%) Artifactory
9 11 (0.43%) Chocolatey
10 10 (0.39%) Browser DevTools
10 10 (0.39%) Xcode
11 9 (0.35%) Bitbucket
12 8 (0.31%) InstallShield
12 8 (0.31%) JUnit
12 8 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
13 7 (0.28%) Robot Framework
13 7 (0.28%) Selenium
General
1 887 (34.88%) Social Skills
2 238 (9.36%) Finance
3 215 (8.45%) Analytical Skills
4 201 (7.90%) Public Sector
5 144 (5.66%) Banking
6 103 (4.05%) Legal
7 102 (4.01%) Documentation Skills
8 82 (3.22%) Organisational Skills
9 59 (2.32%) Military
10 40 (1.57%) Presentation Skills
11 37 (1.45%) Manufacturing
11 37 (1.45%) Retail
12 36 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 30 (1.18%) Law
13 30 (1.18%) Telecoms
14 28 (1.10%) Investment Banking
15 25 (0.98%) Front Office
16 20 (0.79%) Local Government
17 16 (0.63%) Aerospace
18 14 (0.55%) Police
Job Titles
1 349 (13.72%) IT Support
2 333 (13.09%) Support Engineer
3 318 (12.50%) Analyst
4 212 (8.34%) IT Engineer
5 178 (7.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 177 (6.96%) IT Support Engineer
7 163 (6.41%) Senior
8 162 (6.37%) Architect
9 130 (5.11%) Support Analyst
10 107 (4.21%) Developer
11 106 (4.17%) Desktop Support
12 103 (4.05%) Technical Support
13 95 (3.74%) Desktop Engineer
14 94 (3.70%) 2nd Line Support
15 90 (3.54%) IT Analyst
16 84 (3.30%) Windows Engineer
17 78 (3.07%) Lead
18 71 (2.79%) IT Support Analyst
19 68 (2.67%) Desktop Support Engineer
20 67 (2.63%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (3.30%) .NET
2 67 (2.63%) REST
3 51 (2.01%) .NET Framework
4 48 (1.89%) SAML
5 41 (1.61%) LDAP
5 41 (1.61%) OAuth
6 38 (1.49%) Middleware
7 30 (1.18%) WPF
8 28 (1.10%) WinForms
9 26 (1.02%) Kafka
9 26 (1.02%) Web Services
10 25 (0.98%) Microsoft Graph
10 25 (0.98%) OpenID
11 24 (0.94%) 802.1X
12 22 (0.87%) CSS
12 22 (0.87%) React
13 21 (0.83%) Node.js
14 20 (0.79%) AngularJS
15 19 (0.75%) OAuth2
16 18 (0.71%) Apache NiFi
Miscellaneous
1 189 (7.43%) Onboarding
2 106 (4.17%) Data Centre
3 98 (3.85%) PKI
4 78 (3.07%) Enterprise Software
5 64 (2.52%) Driving Licence
5 64 (2.52%) Self-Motivation
6 62 (2.44%) Clustering
7 59 (2.32%) Replication
8 43 (1.69%) Hybrid Cloud
8 43 (1.69%) Smartphone
9 42 (1.65%) Management Information System
10 40 (1.57%) Product Ownership
11 38 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
11 38 (1.49%) Security Posture
12 32 (1.26%) Data Protection Act
13 30 (1.18%) CMDB
14 29 (1.14%) NHS
15 28 (1.10%) Cloud Native
16 26 (1.02%) Analytical Mindset
17 25 (0.98%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 621 (24.42%) Linux
2 575 (22.61%) Windows Server
3 522 (20.53%) Windows 10
4 146 (5.74%) Mac OS
5 143 (5.62%) Android
6 122 (4.80%) Apple iOS
7 120 (4.72%) Unix
8 75 (2.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 60 (2.36%) Windows Server 2016
10 50 (1.97%) Windows 7
11 44 (1.73%) Windows Server 2019
12 39 (1.53%) AIX
13 38 (1.49%) Windows Server 2012
14 28 (1.10%) Windows Server 2003
15 19 (0.75%) VMS
16 18 (0.71%) Ubuntu
17 14 (0.55%) Solaris
18 11 (0.43%) Windows Server 2008
19 10 (0.39%) CentOS
19 10 (0.39%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 529 (20.80%) Problem-Solving
2 437 (17.18%) Customer Service
3 369 (14.51%) ITIL
4 271 (10.66%) Agile
5 270 (10.62%) Migration
6 255 (10.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 226 (8.89%) DevOps
8 216 (8.49%) ITSM
9 201 (7.90%) CI/CD
10 181 (7.12%) Service Management
11 179 (7.04%) Continuous Improvement
12 165 (6.49%) Change Management
12 165 (6.49%) Cybersecurity
13 154 (6.06%) Disaster Recovery
14 137 (5.39%) High Availability
15 126 (4.95%) Stakeholder Management
16 111 (4.36%) User Experience
17 110 (4.33%) Identity Access Management
18 109 (4.29%) Infrastructure as Code
19 106 (4.17%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 548 (21.55%) PowerShell
2 251 (9.87%) Python
3 239 (9.40%) SQL
4 124 (4.88%) C#
5 110 (4.33%) Bash
6 78 (3.07%) Java
7 73 (2.87%) JavaScript
8 54 (2.12%) PL/SQL
9 48 (1.89%) C++
10 44 (1.73%) Perl
11 42 (1.65%) T-SQL
12 29 (1.14%) Kusto Query Language
13 24 (0.94%) VB
14 19 (0.75%) VBScript
15 17 (0.67%) Shell Script
16 15 (0.59%) Search Processing Language
16 15 (0.59%) VBA
17 13 (0.51%) TypeScript
18 12 (0.47%) Bicep
19 11 (0.43%) Go
Qualifications
1 806 (31.69%) Security Cleared
2 533 (20.96%) SC Cleared
3 256 (10.07%) Degree
4 239 (9.40%) DV Cleared
5 115 (4.52%) Microsoft Certification
6 71 (2.79%) Computer Science Degree
7 62 (2.44%) Cisco Certification
8 46 (1.81%) Azure Certification
9 41 (1.61%) MCSE
10 34 (1.34%) CISSP
11 31 (1.22%) CCNA
12 30 (1.18%) ITIL Certification
13 29 (1.14%) AWS Certification
13 29 (1.14%) BPSS Clearance
14 24 (0.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 22 (0.87%) CCNP
16 20 (0.79%) A+ Certification
16 20 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
16 20 (0.79%) MCSA
17 17 (0.67%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (3.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 87 (3.42%) GDPR
3 83 (3.26%) QA
4 76 (2.99%) SLA
5 62 (2.44%) NIST
6 42 (1.65%) PCI DSS
7 26 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 18 (0.71%) Cyber Essentials
9 12 (0.47%) MiFID
9 12 (0.47%) NCSC
10 11 (0.43%) NIST 800
10 11 (0.43%) PMO
11 10 (0.39%) FINRA
12 9 (0.35%) Data Quality
12 9 (0.35%) GLBA
13 6 (0.24%) DICOM
13 6 (0.24%) HL7
14 5 (0.20%) HIPAA
15 4 (0.16%) GMP
15 4 (0.16%) GxP
System Software
1 964 (37.91%) Active Directory
2 280 (11.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 119 (4.68%) Hyper-V
4 89 (3.50%) Docker
5 75 (2.95%) vSphere
6 65 (2.56%) VMware ESXi
7 56 (2.20%) Virtual Machines
8 47 (1.85%) Virtual Desktop
9 36 (1.42%) VMware NSX
10 32 (1.26%) BitLocker
10 32 (1.26%) Firmware
11 24 (0.94%) Microsoft App-V
12 17 (0.67%) KVM
13 10 (0.39%) XenDesktop
14 9 (0.35%) XenApp
15 6 (0.24%) NFS
16 5 (0.20%) etcd
16 5 (0.20%) Terminal Services
16 5 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
17 4 (0.16%) Job Entry Subsystem
Systems Management
1 353 (13.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 276 (10.85%) SCCM
3 152 (5.98%) Ansible
4 151 (5.94%) Terraform
5 117 (4.60%) Kubernetes
6 67 (2.63%) Single Sign-On
7 62 (2.44%) vCenter Server
8 60 (2.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 39 (1.53%) Jamf Pro
10 32 (1.26%) FortiGate
11 29 (1.14%) WSUS
12 25 (0.98%) SCOM
13 24 (0.94%) Grafana
14 21 (0.83%) Prometheus
15 19 (0.75%) Nagios
16 18 (0.71%) Nessus
16 18 (0.71%) Progress Chef
17 17 (0.67%) Puppet
18 16 (0.63%) Nmap
19 15 (0.59%) WMI
Vendors
1 1,090 (42.86%) Microsoft
2 382 (15.02%) VMware
3 220 (8.65%) ServiceNow
4 202 (7.94%) Citrix
5 155 (6.10%) Oracle
6 150 (5.90%) Cisco
7 117 (4.60%) Splunk
8 70 (2.75%) HP
9 61 (2.40%) SolarWinds
10 60 (2.36%) Red Hat
11 59 (2.32%) Dell
12 54 (2.12%) Google
13 51 (2.01%) Remedy
14 48 (1.89%) IBM
15 46 (1.81%) Apple
15 46 (1.81%) CyberArk
16 40 (1.57%) Juniper
17 37 (1.45%) Veeam
18 34 (1.34%) F5
19 28 (1.10%) Palo Alto