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

 6 months to
13 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 19 17
Rank change year-on-year -8 -2 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,536 2,164 3,170
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.94% 8.80% 8.45%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.94% 61.95% 61.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,655 1,512 2,179
10th Percentile £163 £183 £165
25th Percentile £220 £250 £226
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year - - -5.56%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £425 £425 £420
% change year-on-year - +1.19% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 215 144 260
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £11.73
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.75 £18.82 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.82% +4.56% -28.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £25.04 £25.07
90th Percentile £70.44 £62.28 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £18.87 £18.13
% change year-on-year +33.28% +4.08% -26.36%

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 4,094 3,493 5,164
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.59% 14.20% 13.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,662 2,361 3,456
10th Percentile £188 £200 £188
25th Percentile £313 £313 £310
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £465 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.04% -2.11% -5.00%
75th Percentile £570 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £689 £700
UK median daily rate £460 £465 £475
% change year-on-year -1.08% -2.11% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 282 173 378
10th Percentile £15.77 £15.12 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.25 £15.53
Median hourly rate £32.50 £18.87 £22.51
Median % change year-on-year +72.23% -16.17% -50.04%
75th Percentile £65.00 £49.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £71.41 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £27.94 £21.95 £23.00
% change year-on-year +27.29% -4.57% -50.80%

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 13 June 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 13 June 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 13 June 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 -20 803 £425 -5.56% 209
South East -8 522 £475 -4.09% 292
North of England -8 471 £365 +4.29% 185
Midlands -17 271 £325 +12.07% 121
North West -5 250 £350 -6.67% 110
South West -14 239 £484 -1.28% 153
East of England -2 214 £341 -9.00% 86
Yorkshire -14 203 £370 -8.07% 52
West Midlands -25 166 £450 +50.00% 68
East Midlands +8 100 £200 -3.03% 53
North East -38 22 £283 -1.74% 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
1 218 (8.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 167 (6.59%) SharePoint
3 55 (2.17%) Confluence
4 53 (2.09%) IIS
5 15 (0.59%) Apache
6 14 (0.55%) Skype for Business
6 14 (0.55%) Tomcat
7 13 (0.51%) nginx
8 10 (0.39%) WebLogic
9 8 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
10 5 (0.20%) Appian
10 5 (0.20%) TPMS
11 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.16%) Tuxedo
11 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
12 3 (0.12%) Camunda
12 3 (0.12%) Documentum
12 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
13 2 (0.079%) Apache Pulsar
13 2 (0.079%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 155 (6.11%) Microsoft Office
2 61 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.32%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.16%) Acrobat
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.039%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 44 (1.74%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.43%) Teamcenter
3 6 (0.24%) Finacle
4 3 (0.12%) OpenText MBPM
4 3 (0.12%) Oracle BPM
4 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
5 2 (0.079%) assyst
5 2 (0.079%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.079%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.079%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.039%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 772 (30.44%) Azure
2 734 (28.94%) Microsoft 365
3 327 (12.89%) Entra ID
4 251 (9.90%) AWS
5 92 (3.63%) OneDrive
6 79 (3.12%) GCP
7 69 (2.72%) Azure DevOps
8 67 (2.64%) SaaS
9 63 (2.48%) GitHub
9 63 (2.48%) IaaS
10 50 (1.97%) PaaS
11 47 (1.85%) Power Platform
12 42 (1.66%) Azure Monitor
13 34 (1.34%) Azure Sentinel
14 29 (1.14%) GitHub Actions
14 29 (1.14%) Google Workspace
15 23 (0.91%) OpenShift
16 19 (0.75%) AWS CloudFormation
16 19 (0.75%) Azure AKS
16 19 (0.75%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 353 (13.92%) DNS
2 265 (10.45%) Firewall
3 249 (9.82%) DHCP
4 171 (6.74%) VPN
5 151 (5.95%) TCP/IP
6 150 (5.91%) LAN
7 149 (5.88%) WAN
8 117 (4.61%) Wi-Fi
9 66 (2.60%) SAN
10 57 (2.25%) Network Security
11 50 (1.97%) VLAN
12 41 (1.62%) BGP
13 34 (1.34%) Skype
13 34 (1.34%) SSL
14 33 (1.30%) OSPF
15 32 (1.26%) Wireless
16 31 (1.22%) SNMP
17 30 (1.18%) BIG-IP
17 30 (1.18%) Internet
18 28 (1.10%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 213 (8.40%) SQL Server
2 43 (1.70%) Oracle Database
3 31 (1.22%) Power BI
4 28 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
5 27 (1.06%) Relational Database
6 25 (0.99%) MySQL
7 14 (0.55%) Db2
7 14 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
7 14 (0.55%) MongoDB
8 13 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
8 13 (0.51%) NoSQL
9 10 (0.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 9 (0.35%) RDBMS
11 7 (0.28%) GIS
12 6 (0.24%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
12 6 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 5 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
14 4 (0.16%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 173 (6.82%) JIRA
2 43 (1.70%) Jenkins
3 40 (1.58%) Git
4 39 (1.54%) MSI
5 35 (1.38%) GitLab
5 35 (1.38%) Visual Studio
6 18 (0.71%) Eclipse
7 10 (0.39%) Burp Suite
8 9 (0.35%) Chocolatey
8 9 (0.35%) Metasploit
9 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
10 7 (0.28%) Android Studio
10 7 (0.28%) Bitbucket
10 7 (0.28%) Browser DevTools
10 7 (0.28%) Xcode
11 6 (0.24%) InstallShield
12 5 (0.20%) AdminStudio
12 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.20%) Robot Framework
12 5 (0.20%) Selenium
General
1 875 (34.50%) Social Skills
2 282 (11.12%) Finance
3 257 (10.13%) Analytical Skills
4 165 (6.51%) Public Sector
5 150 (5.91%) Banking
6 97 (3.82%) Documentation Skills
7 88 (3.47%) Legal
8 74 (2.92%) Organisational Skills
9 50 (1.97%) Retail
10 48 (1.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 48 (1.89%) Military
11 37 (1.46%) Investment Banking
12 36 (1.42%) Manufacturing
13 34 (1.34%) Law
14 32 (1.26%) Front Office
15 30 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
16 26 (1.03%) Telecoms
17 22 (0.87%) Spanish Language
18 20 (0.79%) French Language
18 20 (0.79%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 335 (13.21%) IT Support
1 335 (13.21%) Support Engineer
2 277 (10.92%) Analyst
3 225 (8.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 216 (8.52%) IT Engineer
5 181 (7.14%) IT Support Engineer
6 170 (6.70%) Senior
7 126 (4.97%) Architect
8 107 (4.22%) Desktop Support
9 106 (4.18%) Support Analyst
10 103 (4.06%) Desktop Engineer
11 96 (3.79%) 2nd Line Support
12 89 (3.51%) IT Analyst
12 89 (3.51%) Lead
13 86 (3.39%) Developer
14 82 (3.23%) Technical Support
15 67 (2.64%) Cloud Engineer
15 67 (2.64%) Consultant
16 65 (2.56%) Windows Engineer
17 62 (2.44%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (3.47%) .NET
2 73 (2.88%) REST
3 52 (2.05%) .NET Framework
4 36 (1.42%) LDAP
5 32 (1.26%) Microsoft Graph
6 29 (1.14%) SAML
7 28 (1.10%) 802.1X
8 27 (1.06%) Middleware
9 25 (0.99%) Web Services
9 25 (0.99%) WinForms
10 23 (0.91%) WPF
11 22 (0.87%) OAuth
12 20 (0.79%) Kafka
12 20 (0.79%) Software Packaging
13 19 (0.75%) CSS
13 19 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
14 16 (0.63%) Node.js
15 13 (0.51%) AngularJS
15 13 (0.51%) JSON
15 13 (0.51%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 246 (9.70%) Onboarding
2 128 (5.05%) Data Centre
3 117 (4.61%) PKI
4 74 (2.92%) Clustering
5 72 (2.84%) Enterprise Software
6 60 (2.37%) Self-Motivation
7 59 (2.33%) Management Information System
8 54 (2.13%) Replication
9 50 (1.97%) Cloud Native
9 50 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
10 46 (1.81%) Security Posture
11 45 (1.77%) Virtual Team
12 43 (1.70%) Driving Licence
12 43 (1.70%) Legacy Systems
13 33 (1.30%) CMDB
14 31 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
15 30 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
15 30 (1.18%) Product Ownership
16 29 (1.14%) Smartphone
17 28 (1.10%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 623 (24.57%) Linux
2 611 (24.09%) Windows Server
3 454 (17.90%) Windows 10
4 163 (6.43%) Mac OS
5 130 (5.13%) Apple iOS
6 123 (4.85%) Unix
7 120 (4.73%) Android
8 84 (3.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 65 (2.56%) Windows Server 2019
10 55 (2.17%) Windows Server 2016
11 47 (1.85%) Windows 7
12 38 (1.50%) Windows Server 2012
13 29 (1.14%) AIX
13 29 (1.14%) Ubuntu
14 18 (0.71%) Solaris
15 17 (0.67%) VMS
15 17 (0.67%) Windows Server 2003
16 13 (0.51%) CentOS
16 13 (0.51%) Windows Server 2008
17 9 (0.35%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 553 (21.81%) Problem-Solving
2 388 (15.30%) ITIL
3 378 (14.91%) Customer Service
4 296 (11.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 278 (10.96%) Migration
6 258 (10.17%) ITSM
7 242 (9.54%) Agile
8 231 (9.11%) DevOps
9 217 (8.56%) CI/CD
10 193 (7.61%) Continuous Improvement
11 177 (6.98%) Service Management
12 175 (6.90%) Change Management
13 170 (6.70%) High Availability
14 156 (6.15%) Disaster Recovery
15 145 (5.72%) Infrastructure as Code
16 140 (5.52%) Cybersecurity
17 138 (5.44%) Stakeholder Management
18 134 (5.28%) SIEM
19 124 (4.89%) Runbook
20 120 (4.73%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 552 (21.77%) PowerShell
2 253 (9.98%) SQL
3 247 (9.74%) Python
4 122 (4.81%) C#
5 100 (3.94%) Bash
6 67 (2.64%) Java
7 65 (2.56%) JavaScript
8 47 (1.85%) PL/SQL
9 46 (1.81%) C++
10 41 (1.62%) T-SQL
11 25 (0.99%) Kusto Query Language
12 24 (0.95%) VB
13 22 (0.87%) Search Processing Language
13 22 (0.87%) Shell Script
14 18 (0.71%) Bicep
14 18 (0.71%) Perl
14 18 (0.71%) VBScript
15 13 (0.51%) C
16 12 (0.47%) VBA
17 11 (0.43%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 751 (29.61%) Security Cleared
2 478 (18.85%) SC Cleared
3 286 (11.28%) Degree
4 244 (9.62%) DV Cleared
5 107 (4.22%) Microsoft Certification
6 75 (2.96%) Cisco Certification
7 73 (2.88%) Computer Science Degree
8 61 (2.41%) CISSP
9 53 (2.09%) Azure Certification
10 46 (1.81%) MCSE
11 41 (1.62%) AWS Certification
12 37 (1.46%) BPSS Clearance
13 32 (1.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 30 (1.18%) MCSA
15 28 (1.10%) CCNA
16 27 (1.06%) CISM
17 25 (0.99%) ITIL Certification
18 24 (0.95%) CCNP
18 24 (0.95%) CompTIA Security+
19 19 (0.75%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 116 (4.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 99 (3.90%) SLA
3 85 (3.35%) NIST
4 68 (2.68%) QA
5 65 (2.56%) GDPR
6 37 (1.46%) PCI DSS
7 31 (1.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 24 (0.95%) Cyber Essentials
9 14 (0.55%) NCSC
10 11 (0.43%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.43%) HIPAA
10 11 (0.43%) MiFID
11 10 (0.39%) FINRA
11 10 (0.39%) NIST 800
12 8 (0.32%) GRC
12 8 (0.32%) PMO
12 8 (0.32%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.24%) ISO 31000
14 5 (0.20%) Accessibility
14 5 (0.20%) GLBA
System Software
1 957 (37.74%) Active Directory
2 323 (12.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 136 (5.36%) Hyper-V
4 103 (4.06%) VMware ESXi
5 96 (3.79%) vSphere
6 90 (3.55%) Virtual Machines
7 85 (3.35%) Docker
8 56 (2.21%) Virtual Desktop
9 51 (2.01%) VMware NSX
10 36 (1.42%) BitLocker
10 36 (1.42%) Firmware
11 27 (1.06%) Microsoft App-V
12 19 (0.75%) KVM
13 11 (0.43%) vCloud
13 11 (0.43%) XenDesktop
14 10 (0.39%) XenApp
15 8 (0.32%) VMware Workstation
16 6 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
16 6 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
17 5 (0.20%) etcd
Systems Management
1 359 (14.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 223 (8.79%) SCCM
3 169 (6.66%) Ansible
4 161 (6.35%) Terraform
5 120 (4.73%) Kubernetes
6 85 (3.35%) vCenter Server
7 47 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
8 41 (1.62%) Jamf Pro
9 40 (1.58%) FortiGate
9 40 (1.58%) SCOM
10 36 (1.42%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 34 (1.34%) WSUS
12 29 (1.14%) Progress Chef
13 27 (1.06%) Grafana
14 25 (0.99%) Prometheus
15 24 (0.95%) Puppet
16 21 (0.83%) Nagios
17 19 (0.75%) Nessus
17 19 (0.75%) ZABBIX
18 18 (0.71%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 1,102 (43.45%) Microsoft
2 419 (16.52%) VMware
3 235 (9.27%) ServiceNow
4 181 (7.14%) Citrix
5 174 (6.86%) Cisco
6 150 (5.91%) Oracle
7 129 (5.09%) Splunk
8 69 (2.72%) SolarWinds
9 68 (2.68%) HP
10 58 (2.29%) Red Hat
11 56 (2.21%) Remedy
12 55 (2.17%) Dell
12 55 (2.17%) Google
13 54 (2.13%) Apple
14 52 (2.05%) CyberArk
15 46 (1.81%) IBM
16 45 (1.77%) Juniper
17 44 (1.74%) F5
18 42 (1.66%) BeyondTrust
19 35 (1.38%) Palo Alto
958 Windows jobs in England