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

6 months to
14 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 21 17
Rank change year-on-year -6 -4 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,434 2,065 3,146
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.99% 8.56% 8.61%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.37% 60.95% 63.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,617 1,473 2,184
10th Percentile £161 £178 £160
25th Percentile £213 £231 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £416 £400
Median % change year-on-year -0.24% +4.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £688 £675
UK median daily rate £415 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -2.29% +6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 111 260
10th Percentile £15.06 £14.20 £11.73
25th Percentile £17.98 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £26.75 £18.75 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +42.67% +5.81% -21.24%
75th Percentile £65.00 £24.83 £24.16
90th Percentile £75.00 £42.16 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.52 £18.82 £18.00
% change year-on-year +35.57% +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 3,966 3,388 4,983
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.76% 14.05% 13.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,609 2,303 3,406
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £310 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £468
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +1.50% -8.68%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £456 £470 £465
% change year-on-year -2.98% +1.08% -7.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 266 151 360
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.13 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.38 £17.38 £14.72
Median hourly rate £47.50 £21.90 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +116.89% -0.45% -41.21%
75th Percentile £67.84 £60.81 £60.40
90th Percentile £74.84 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £47.50 £22.94 £22.00
% change year-on-year +107.08% +4.26% -42.86%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -27 744 £443 -1.67% 246
South East -6 514 £467 -4.79% 305
North of England -12 448 £335 +3.08% 197
Midlands -18 267 £316 +31.36% 116
North West -3 255 £300 -7.69% 115
South West -15 222 £450 -14.29% 133
East of England -2 215 £350 +40.00% 111
Yorkshire -20 178 £375 +17.19% 67
West Midlands -26 154 £442 +70.92% 60
East Midlands +8 108 £225 +9.09% 56
North East -23 19 £225 -25.00% 18
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
1 211 (8.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 152 (6.24%) SharePoint
3 53 (2.18%) IIS
4 50 (2.05%) Confluence
5 18 (0.74%) Apache
6 17 (0.70%) WebLogic
7 12 (0.49%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.45%) Tuxedo
9 9 (0.37%) nginx
9 9 (0.37%) Tomcat
10 7 (0.29%) TPMS
11 5 (0.21%) 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 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
14 2 (0.082%) ArcGIS
14 2 (0.082%) IBM HTTP Server
14 2 (0.082%) Oracle HTTP Server
Applications
1 163 (6.70%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (2.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 26 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.37%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.21%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.16%) Acrobat
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.041%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 43 (1.77%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.37%) Teamcenter
4 4 (0.16%) assyst
4 4 (0.16%) Finacle
5 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 2 (0.082%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.082%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.082%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 1 (0.041%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle 11i
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle FAH
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.041%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 702 (28.84%) Azure
2 700 (28.76%) Microsoft 365
3 294 (12.08%) Entra ID
4 215 (8.83%) AWS
5 69 (2.83%) OneDrive
6 68 (2.79%) Azure DevOps
6 68 (2.79%) SaaS
7 66 (2.71%) GCP
8 59 (2.42%) IaaS
9 52 (2.14%) GitHub
10 50 (2.05%) PaaS
11 43 (1.77%) Power Platform
12 35 (1.44%) Azure Monitor
12 35 (1.44%) Google Workspace
13 28 (1.15%) Azure Sentinel
14 26 (1.07%) GitHub Actions
15 22 (0.90%) OpenShift
16 18 (0.74%) AWS CloudFormation
16 18 (0.74%) Azure AKS
17 16 (0.66%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 332 (13.64%) DNS
2 266 (10.93%) Firewall
3 233 (9.57%) DHCP
4 163 (6.70%) VPN
5 145 (5.96%) LAN
6 141 (5.79%) WAN
7 138 (5.67%) TCP/IP
8 111 (4.56%) Wi-Fi
9 61 (2.51%) Network Security
10 55 (2.26%) SAN
11 54 (2.22%) VLAN
12 42 (1.73%) Wireless
13 37 (1.52%) BGP
14 34 (1.40%) OSPF
14 34 (1.40%) Skype
15 30 (1.23%) SSL
15 30 (1.23%) VoIP
16 29 (1.19%) BIG-IP
17 28 (1.15%) Internet
17 28 (1.15%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 183 (7.52%) SQL Server
2 39 (1.60%) Oracle Database
3 32 (1.31%) Relational Database
4 27 (1.11%) MySQL
5 26 (1.07%) Power BI
6 25 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
7 14 (0.58%) 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%) GIS
13 5 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
13 5 (0.21%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.21%) Oracle Reports
13 5 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 4 (0.16%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 163 (6.70%) JIRA
2 45 (1.85%) GitLab
3 44 (1.81%) MSI
4 40 (1.64%) Jenkins
5 35 (1.44%) Visual Studio
6 29 (1.19%) Git
7 20 (0.82%) Eclipse
8 18 (0.74%) Burp Suite
9 17 (0.70%) Metasploit
10 10 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
11 9 (0.37%) Android Studio
11 9 (0.37%) Artifactory
11 9 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
11 9 (0.37%) Chocolatey
11 9 (0.37%) InstallShield
11 9 (0.37%) Xcode
12 8 (0.33%) Bitbucket
13 7 (0.29%) Robot Framework
13 7 (0.29%) Selenium
14 6 (0.25%) AdminStudio
General
1 822 (33.77%) Social Skills
2 238 (9.78%) Finance
3 214 (8.79%) Analytical Skills
4 177 (7.27%) Public Sector
5 134 (5.51%) Banking
6 96 (3.94%) Documentation Skills
7 93 (3.82%) Legal
8 72 (2.96%) Organisational Skills
9 59 (2.42%) Military
10 43 (1.77%) Retail
11 37 (1.52%) Law
12 33 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 33 (1.36%) Manufacturing
13 31 (1.27%) Presentation Skills
14 29 (1.19%) Telecoms
15 28 (1.15%) Investment Banking
16 26 (1.07%) Front Office
17 20 (0.82%) Local Government
18 19 (0.78%) Police
19 15 (0.62%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 319 (13.11%) IT Support
2 301 (12.37%) Support Engineer
3 280 (11.50%) Analyst
4 199 (8.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 192 (7.89%) IT Engineer
6 159 (6.53%) IT Support Engineer
6 159 (6.53%) Senior
7 140 (5.75%) Architect
8 113 (4.64%) Support Analyst
9 105 (4.31%) Desktop Support
10 95 (3.90%) Desktop Engineer
11 89 (3.66%) 2nd Line Support
12 87 (3.57%) Technical Support
13 86 (3.53%) IT Analyst
14 85 (3.49%) Developer
15 82 (3.37%) Lead
16 68 (2.79%) Windows Engineer
17 64 (2.63%) 1st Line Support
17 64 (2.63%) IT Support Analyst
18 63 (2.59%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 81 (3.33%) .NET
2 72 (2.96%) REST
3 48 (1.97%) .NET Framework
4 36 (1.48%) LDAP
5 33 (1.36%) SAML
6 29 (1.19%) Middleware
7 27 (1.11%) 802.1X
8 26 (1.07%) Microsoft Graph
8 26 (1.07%) OAuth
9 25 (1.03%) Kafka
9 25 (1.03%) WinForms
10 24 (0.99%) Web Services
11 23 (0.94%) WPF
12 20 (0.82%) React
13 19 (0.78%) CSS
13 19 (0.78%) Node.js
14 18 (0.74%) AngularJS
15 17 (0.70%) Software Packaging
16 16 (0.66%) Elastic Stack
17 15 (0.62%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 200 (8.22%) Onboarding
2 108 (4.44%) Data Centre
3 104 (4.27%) PKI
4 78 (3.20%) Clustering
4 78 (3.20%) Enterprise Software
5 55 (2.26%) Replication
5 55 (2.26%) Self-Motivation
6 51 (2.10%) Driving Licence
7 45 (1.85%) Hybrid Cloud
8 43 (1.77%) Management Information System
9 41 (1.68%) Smartphone
10 38 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
11 37 (1.52%) Virtual Team
12 36 (1.48%) Security Posture
13 33 (1.36%) Cloud Native
14 31 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
15 30 (1.23%) Product Ownership
16 26 (1.07%) Data Protection Act
17 25 (1.03%) CMDB
17 25 (1.03%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 592 (24.32%) Linux
2 574 (23.58%) Windows Server
3 455 (18.69%) Windows 10
4 161 (6.61%) Mac OS
5 127 (5.22%) Android
6 124 (5.09%) Apple iOS
7 121 (4.97%) Unix
8 71 (2.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 62 (2.55%) Windows Server 2016
10 57 (2.34%) Windows Server 2019
11 46 (1.89%) Windows 7
12 32 (1.31%) Windows Server 2012
13 30 (1.23%) AIX
14 22 (0.90%) Ubuntu
15 17 (0.70%) Windows Server 2003
16 16 (0.66%) VMS
17 14 (0.58%) Solaris
18 11 (0.45%) Windows Server 2008
19 9 (0.37%) CentOS
19 9 (0.37%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 510 (20.95%) Problem-Solving
2 391 (16.06%) Customer Service
3 367 (15.08%) ITIL
4 264 (10.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 258 (10.60%) Migration
6 251 (10.31%) Agile
7 220 (9.04%) DevOps
8 219 (9.00%) ITSM
9 212 (8.71%) CI/CD
10 163 (6.70%) Continuous Improvement
10 163 (6.70%) Disaster Recovery
11 156 (6.41%) Change Management
12 151 (6.20%) Service Management
13 148 (6.08%) High Availability
14 140 (5.75%) Cybersecurity
15 122 (5.01%) SIEM
16 121 (4.97%) Stakeholder Management
17 116 (4.77%) Infrastructure as Code
18 108 (4.44%) Computer Science
19 99 (4.07%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 522 (21.45%) PowerShell
2 243 (9.98%) SQL
3 240 (9.86%) Python
4 124 (5.09%) C#
5 86 (3.53%) Bash
6 71 (2.92%) JavaScript
7 67 (2.75%) Java
8 50 (2.05%) PL/SQL
9 47 (1.93%) C++
10 44 (1.81%) T-SQL
11 26 (1.07%) Kusto Query Language
12 24 (0.99%) VB
13 22 (0.90%) Search Processing Language
14 21 (0.86%) Perl
15 19 (0.78%) Shell Script
16 17 (0.70%) VBScript
17 14 (0.58%) VBA
18 12 (0.49%) Go
18 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
19 11 (0.45%) C
Qualifications
1 765 (31.43%) Security Cleared
2 488 (20.05%) SC Cleared
3 256 (10.52%) Degree
4 245 (10.07%) DV Cleared
5 97 (3.99%) Microsoft Certification
6 76 (3.12%) Computer Science Degree
7 69 (2.83%) Cisco Certification
8 45 (1.85%) Azure Certification
9 42 (1.73%) CISSP
10 39 (1.60%) MCSE
11 35 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
12 32 (1.31%) AWS Certification
13 29 (1.19%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 28 (1.15%) ITIL Certification
15 25 (1.03%) CCNA
15 25 (1.03%) MCSA
16 20 (0.82%) CompTIA Security+
17 19 (0.78%) CCNP
18 18 (0.74%) A+ Certification
19 17 (0.70%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (4.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 82 (3.37%) GDPR
3 81 (3.33%) SLA
4 80 (3.29%) QA
5 70 (2.88%) NIST
6 41 (1.68%) PCI DSS
7 29 (1.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 25 (1.03%) Cyber Essentials
9 13 (0.53%) NCSC
9 13 (0.53%) PMO
10 12 (0.49%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.45%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.45%) MiFID
12 10 (0.41%) FINRA
13 7 (0.29%) GLBA
14 6 (0.25%) DICOM
14 6 (0.25%) HIPAA
14 6 (0.25%) HL7
14 6 (0.25%) ISO 31000
15 5 (0.21%) GRC
System Software
1 918 (37.72%) Active Directory
2 297 (12.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 134 (5.51%) Hyper-V
4 83 (3.41%) Docker
5 81 (3.33%) VMware ESXi
5 81 (3.33%) vSphere
6 73 (3.00%) Virtual Machines
7 47 (1.93%) Virtual Desktop
8 39 (1.60%) VMware NSX
9 33 (1.36%) Firmware
10 28 (1.15%) BitLocker
11 27 (1.11%) Microsoft App-V
12 20 (0.82%) KVM
13 11 (0.45%) XenApp
13 11 (0.45%) XenDesktop
14 6 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
15 5 (0.21%) etcd
15 5 (0.21%) Terminal Services
15 5 (0.21%) vCloud
15 5 (0.21%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 323 (13.27%) Microsoft Intune
2 242 (9.94%) SCCM
3 161 (6.61%) Ansible
4 145 (5.96%) Terraform
5 122 (5.01%) Kubernetes
6 71 (2.92%) vCenter Server
7 46 (1.89%) Single Sign-On
8 40 (1.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 36 (1.48%) WSUS
10 35 (1.44%) FortiGate
11 34 (1.40%) Jamf Pro
12 31 (1.27%) SCOM
13 27 (1.11%) Grafana
14 25 (1.03%) 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%) Puppet
18 17 (0.70%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 1,040 (42.73%) Microsoft
2 392 (16.11%) VMware
3 212 (8.71%) ServiceNow
4 187 (7.68%) Citrix
5 152 (6.24%) Cisco
6 142 (5.83%) Oracle
7 126 (5.18%) Splunk
8 71 (2.92%) HP
9 64 (2.63%) SolarWinds
10 56 (2.30%) Remedy
11 53 (2.18%) Dell
12 51 (2.10%) Apple
13 49 (2.01%) Red Hat
14 46 (1.89%) IBM
15 44 (1.81%) CyberArk
15 44 (1.81%) Google
16 38 (1.56%) Juniper
17 37 (1.52%) F5
18 34 (1.40%) BeyondTrust
19 33 (1.36%) BMC