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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 20 17
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,749 2,305 2,831
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.01% 8.35% 8.53%
As % of the Operating Systems category 62.01% 61.38% 60.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,770 1,559 1,890
10th Percentile £171 £170 £178
25th Percentile £225 £220 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £408 £426
Median % change year-on-year +1.84% -4.23% -2.18%
75th Percentile £556 £573 £575
90th Percentile £650 £663 £650
UK median daily rate £425 £413 £425
% change year-on-year +3.03% -2.94% -3.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 236 195 194
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.28 £10.99
25th Percentile £17.44 £17.44 £15.18
Median hourly rate £25.75 £19.27 £21.34
Median % change year-on-year +33.63% -9.70% -5.16%
75th Percentile £55.13 £30.13 £58.24
90th Percentile £74.50 £65.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £24.00 £21.64 £22.00
% change year-on-year +10.91% -1.64% -2.22%

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 4,433 3,755 4,701
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.70% 13.61% 14.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,843 2,472 3,073
10th Percentile £190 £190 £200
25th Percentile £310 £307 £330
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £585 £588
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £469 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.22% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 304 242 280
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.51 £12.34
25th Percentile £19.16 £18.41 £17.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £24.00 £34.50
Median % change year-on-year +35.42% -30.43% -13.75%
75th Percentile £67.25 £58.75 £67.63
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £25.77 £25.15 £27.50
% change year-on-year +2.47% -8.55% -33.59%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -14 934 £425 - 818
South East -8 562 £475 -3.26% 423
North of England -5 502 £325 - 296
North West +3 299 £340 -3.00% 162
South West -14 279 £475 +35.71% 174
Midlands -16 263 £384 -4.13% 185
East of England -5 193 £330 -1.49% 213
Yorkshire -16 176 £282 -13.23% 94
West Midlands -26 166 £419 -2.50% 120
East Midlands +3 93 £273 +36.25% 65
North East -35 31 £250 -4.76% 52
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
1 233 (8.48%) SharePoint
2 230 (8.37%) Microsoft Exchange
3 56 (2.04%) IIS
4 54 (1.96%) Confluence
5 19 (0.69%) Skype for Business
6 18 (0.65%) nginx
7 15 (0.55%) Apache
8 11 (0.40%) Tomcat
9 8 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (0.22%) Documentum
11 5 (0.18%) Apache Solr
11 5 (0.18%) Appian
11 5 (0.18%) Camunda
11 5 (0.18%) WebLogic
12 4 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
13 3 (0.11%) CloudStack
13 3 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
13 3 (0.11%) OpenStack
14 2 (0.073%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 2 (0.073%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 176 (6.40%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (2.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.18%) Acrobat
5 5 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.11%) Houdini
6 3 (0.11%) NUKE
7 2 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.073%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.036%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.036%) CINEMA 4D
8 1 (0.036%) InDesign
8 1 (0.036%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 56 (2.04%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.36%) Finacle
3 7 (0.25%) OpenText MBPM
3 7 (0.25%) Oracle BPM
4 5 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
5 4 (0.15%) Teamcenter
6 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.073%) assyst
8 1 (0.036%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.036%) Oracle BRM
8 1 (0.036%) SAP BRIM
8 1 (0.036%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.036%) SAP EWM
8 1 (0.036%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.036%) SAP FI-CA
8 1 (0.036%) SAP FS
8 1 (0.036%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 897 (32.63%) Microsoft 365
2 878 (31.94%) Azure
3 447 (16.26%) Entra ID
4 307 (11.17%) AWS
5 133 (4.84%) OneDrive
6 103 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
7 88 (3.20%) GCP
8 74 (2.69%) Azure Monitor
9 69 (2.51%) SaaS
10 62 (2.26%) GitHub
11 61 (2.22%) Power Platform
12 58 (2.11%) IaaS
13 44 (1.60%) PaaS
14 43 (1.56%) Azure Sentinel
15 28 (1.02%) OpenShift
16 25 (0.91%) AWS CloudFormation
16 25 (0.91%) Google Workspace
17 24 (0.87%) Azure AKS
18 23 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
19 20 (0.73%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 439 (15.97%) DNS
2 322 (11.71%) Firewall
3 317 (11.53%) DHCP
4 232 (8.44%) VPN
5 208 (7.57%) TCP/IP
6 130 (4.73%) WAN
7 125 (4.55%) LAN
8 122 (4.44%) Wi-Fi
9 88 (3.20%) SAN
10 82 (2.98%) VLAN
11 80 (2.91%) Network Security
12 43 (1.56%) NAS
13 41 (1.49%) SSL
14 40 (1.46%) Internet
14 40 (1.46%) Wireless
15 38 (1.38%) VSAN
16 35 (1.27%) Skype
17 30 (1.09%) BGP
18 27 (0.98%) VoIP
19 24 (0.87%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 255 (9.28%) SQL Server
2 51 (1.86%) Oracle Database
3 49 (1.78%) Power BI
4 24 (0.87%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (0.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 22 (0.80%) Relational Database
6 20 (0.73%) Amazon RDS
7 19 (0.69%) MySQL
8 15 (0.55%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 15 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
9 11 (0.40%) Geospatial Data
9 11 (0.40%) RDBMS
10 10 (0.36%) Db2
11 8 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
11 8 (0.29%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
13 5 (0.18%) Big Data
13 5 (0.18%) ObjectStore
14 4 (0.15%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 151 (5.49%) JIRA
2 64 (2.33%) Git
3 46 (1.67%) MSI
4 44 (1.60%) Jenkins
5 38 (1.38%) GitLab
6 21 (0.76%) Visual Studio
7 15 (0.55%) Bitbucket
8 9 (0.33%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 8 (0.29%) Eclipse
9 8 (0.29%) Selenium
10 7 (0.25%) Artifactory
10 7 (0.25%) Browser DevTools
10 7 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
11 5 (0.18%) AdminStudio
11 5 (0.18%) Chocolatey
11 5 (0.18%) InstallShield
12 4 (0.15%) Claude Code
12 4 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
12 4 (0.15%) Robot Framework
13 3 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 1,010 (36.74%) Social Skills
2 347 (12.62%) Finance
3 333 (12.11%) Analytical Skills
4 152 (5.53%) Banking
5 137 (4.98%) Public Sector
6 100 (3.64%) Documentation Skills
7 75 (2.73%) Legal
8 72 (2.62%) Organisational Skills
9 63 (2.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 53 (1.93%) Manufacturing
10 53 (1.93%) Retail
11 44 (1.60%) Telecoms
12 41 (1.49%) Front Office
13 35 (1.27%) Law
14 34 (1.24%) Investment Banking
15 30 (1.09%) Military
16 28 (1.02%) Spanish Language
17 25 (0.91%) French Language
18 24 (0.87%) Financial Institution
19 20 (0.73%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 449 (16.33%) Support Engineer
2 377 (13.71%) IT Support
3 299 (10.88%) IT Engineer
4 288 (10.48%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 248 (9.02%) IT Support Engineer
6 236 (8.58%) Analyst
7 218 (7.93%) Senior
8 124 (4.51%) 2nd Line Support
9 123 (4.47%) Desktop Support
10 108 (3.93%) Desktop Engineer
11 104 (3.78%) Cloud Engineer
11 104 (3.78%) Lead
12 96 (3.49%) Architect
13 95 (3.46%) Support Analyst
14 87 (3.16%) Windows Engineer
15 84 (3.06%) Developer
16 80 (2.91%) Consultant
17 77 (2.80%) 1st Line Support
18 75 (2.73%) IT Analyst
19 72 (2.62%) 2nd Line Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 243 (8.84%) Terraform
2 110 (4.00%) .NET
3 97 (3.53%) REST
4 63 (2.29%) .NET Framework
5 29 (1.05%) Middleware
5 29 (1.05%) WPF
6 28 (1.02%) JSON
6 28 (1.02%) LDAP
7 23 (0.84%) WinForms
8 22 (0.80%) ARM Templates
8 22 (0.80%) Software Packaging
9 21 (0.76%) CSS
10 20 (0.73%) HTML
11 19 (0.69%) Elastic Stack
11 19 (0.69%) Microsoft Graph
12 18 (0.65%) .NET Core
12 18 (0.65%) Kafka
13 16 (0.58%) RESTful
13 16 (0.58%) SAML
13 16 (0.58%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 334 (12.15%) Onboarding
2 149 (5.42%) Data Centre
3 141 (5.13%) PKI
4 88 (3.20%) Management Information System
5 81 (2.95%) Clustering
6 78 (2.84%) Hybrid Cloud
7 68 (2.47%) Cloud Native
7 68 (2.47%) Enterprise Software
8 66 (2.40%) Video Conferencing
9 63 (2.29%) Self-Motivation
10 57 (2.07%) Replication
11 55 (2.00%) Driving Licence
12 43 (1.56%) Security Posture
13 41 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
14 40 (1.46%) Virtual Team
15 38 (1.38%) Enterprise Storage
16 35 (1.27%) CMDB
17 34 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
18 32 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
19 30 (1.09%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 748 (27.21%) Windows Server
2 659 (23.97%) Linux
3 500 (18.19%) Windows 10
4 180 (6.55%) Mac OS
5 121 (4.40%) Apple iOS
6 118 (4.29%) Android
7 109 (3.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 100 (3.64%) Unix
9 67 (2.44%) Windows Server 2019
10 50 (1.82%) Ubuntu
11 46 (1.67%) Windows 7
12 40 (1.46%) Windows Server 2016
13 36 (1.31%) Windows Server 2012
14 32 (1.16%) CentOS
15 24 (0.87%) AIX
16 21 (0.76%) VMS
17 17 (0.62%) Windows Server 2008
18 15 (0.55%) Solaris
19 12 (0.44%) Windows Server 2003
20 11 (0.40%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 667 (24.26%) Problem-Solving
2 517 (18.81%) ITIL
3 446 (16.22%) Customer Service
4 368 (13.39%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 366 (13.31%) ITSM
6 327 (11.90%) Migration
7 296 (10.77%) Continuous Improvement
8 270 (9.82%) DevOps
9 259 (9.42%) Service Management
10 229 (8.33%) Agile
11 228 (8.29%) CI/CD
12 227 (8.26%) Infrastructure as Code
13 204 (7.42%) Change Management
14 188 (6.84%) Stakeholder Management
15 175 (6.37%) Disaster Recovery
16 168 (6.11%) High Availability
17 167 (6.07%) Root Cause Analysis
18 164 (5.97%) Cybersecurity
19 158 (5.75%) Service Delivery
20 155 (5.64%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 696 (25.32%) PowerShell
2 304 (11.06%) Python
3 270 (9.82%) SQL
4 166 (6.04%) Bash
5 127 (4.62%) C#
6 62 (2.26%) Java
7 55 (2.00%) JavaScript
8 50 (1.82%) T-SQL
9 47 (1.71%) Bicep
10 44 (1.60%) PL/SQL
11 30 (1.09%) C++
12 28 (1.02%) VB
13 26 (0.95%) VBScript
14 24 (0.87%) Search Processing Language
15 17 (0.62%) Perl
16 16 (0.58%) TypeScript
17 15 (0.55%) Shell Script
18 11 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
18 11 (0.40%) VBA
19 9 (0.33%) C
Qualifications
1 861 (31.32%) Security Cleared
2 516 (18.77%) SC Cleared
3 331 (12.04%) DV Cleared
4 277 (10.08%) Degree
5 108 (3.93%) Microsoft Certification
6 82 (2.98%) Azure Certification
7 72 (2.62%) Cisco Certification
8 69 (2.51%) Computer Science Degree
9 61 (2.22%) CISSP
10 53 (1.93%) AWS Certification
11 48 (1.75%) A+ Certification
12 45 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
13 39 (1.42%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 31 (1.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 30 (1.09%) CCNA
16 29 (1.05%) CCNP
17 27 (0.98%) CISM
18 26 (0.95%) DBS Check
18 26 (0.95%) MCSE
19 25 (0.91%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 143 (5.20%) SLA
2 112 (4.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 79 (2.87%) NIST
3 79 (2.87%) QA
4 31 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials
5 26 (0.95%) NCSC
6 23 (0.84%) GDPR
7 22 (0.80%) PCI DSS
8 15 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 14 (0.51%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.47%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 11 (0.40%) GRC
11 11 (0.40%) HIPAA
11 11 (0.40%) WCAG
12 9 (0.33%) PMO
13 7 (0.25%) GxP
14 6 (0.22%) ISO 31000
14 6 (0.22%) NIST 800
14 6 (0.22%) SOC 2
System Software
1 1,144 (41.62%) Active Directory
2 413 (15.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 176 (6.40%) Hyper-V
4 138 (5.02%) VMware ESXi
5 123 (4.47%) vSphere
6 103 (3.75%) Docker
7 90 (3.27%) Virtual Machines
8 81 (2.95%) VMware NSX
9 80 (2.91%) Virtual Desktop
10 40 (1.46%) BitLocker
11 31 (1.13%) Firmware
12 22 (0.80%) vCloud
13 18 (0.65%) Microsoft App-V
14 14 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
15 10 (0.36%) KVM
15 10 (0.36%) XenApp
16 9 (0.33%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 9 (0.33%) XenDesktop
17 7 (0.25%) NFS
17 7 (0.25%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 407 (14.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 294 (10.69%) SCCM
3 213 (7.75%) Ansible
4 146 (5.31%) Kubernetes
5 119 (4.33%) vCenter Server
6 81 (2.95%) SCOM
7 46 (1.67%) WSUS
8 44 (1.60%) Jamf Pro
9 31 (1.13%) Progress Chef
10 29 (1.05%) Single Sign-On
11 27 (0.98%) Prometheus
12 26 (0.95%) Puppet
13 25 (0.91%) FortiGate
13 25 (0.91%) Grafana
13 25 (0.91%) Nagios
13 25 (0.91%) WMI
14 24 (0.87%) Packer
15 22 (0.80%) VxRail
16 21 (0.76%) NetBackup
17 20 (0.73%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,299 (47.25%) Microsoft
2 547 (19.90%) VMware
3 329 (11.97%) ServiceNow
4 181 (6.58%) Cisco
5 157 (5.71%) Citrix
6 153 (5.57%) Oracle
7 100 (3.64%) Splunk
8 94 (3.42%) Apple
9 87 (3.16%) CyberArk
10 71 (2.58%) Google
11 67 (2.44%) SolarWinds
12 63 (2.29%) HP
13 62 (2.26%) BeyondTrust
14 61 (2.22%) Red Hat
15 60 (2.18%) Remedy
16 49 (1.78%) Dell
17 46 (1.67%) BMC
18 42 (1.53%) NetApp
19 39 (1.42%) Meraki
20 37 (1.35%) Fortinet