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 17 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
17 Nov 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 21 19 13
Rank change year-on-year -2 -6 +2
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,500 2,558 4,038
As % of all contract jobs in England 8.37% 8.28% 10.13%
As % of the Operating Systems category 60.28% 58.26% 64.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,681 1,611 2,702
10th Percentile £163 £188 £161
25th Percentile £204 £250 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £395 £413 £415
Median % change year-on-year -4.24% -0.60% -2.35%
75th Percentile £538 £568 £575
90th Percentile £638 £640 £675
UK median daily rate £400 £425 £420
% change year-on-year -5.88% +1.19% -1.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 270 107 238
10th Percentile £13.59 £15.22 £14.23
25th Percentile £17.69 £17.44 £17.72
Median hourly rate £21.46 £24.20 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.32% +7.56% +4.65%
75th Percentile £34.31 £65.00 £55.46
90th Percentile £65.00 £74.00 £68.63
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £24.18 £22.39
% change year-on-year -9.02% +8.01% +9.21%

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 4,391 6,225
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 13.88% 14.21% 15.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,713 2,706 4,269
10th Percentile £185 £203 £185
25th Percentile £263 £325 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -2.56% -4.41%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £613
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £480
% change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 336 181 328
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.25 £15.43
25th Percentile £18.87 £23.10 £18.93
Median hourly rate £23.00 £57.50 £39.08
Median % change year-on-year -60.00% +47.14% +56.31%
75th Percentile £48.75 £68.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £71.00 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £24.00 £51.25 £35.92
% change year-on-year -53.17% +42.68% +45.13%

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 17 November 2025.

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 17 November 2025.

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 17 November 2025. 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 -12 783 £438 +9.38% 649
South East +3 504 £344 -19.12% 529
North of England -4 390 £289 -27.81% 320
South West +5 326 £425 -2.86% 229
Midlands -7 299 £400 +4.85% 214
North West -6 215 £328 -27.22% 195
East of England 0 212 £225 -44.79% 157
West Midlands -7 209 £427 +10.91% 122
Yorkshire -9 149 £250 -29.58% 99
East Midlands -2 89 £210 -44.00% 91
North East -1 29 £198 -36.29% 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
1 236 (9.44%) Microsoft Exchange
2 164 (6.56%) SharePoint
3 78 (3.12%) Confluence
4 51 (2.04%) Apache
5 40 (1.60%) IIS
6 25 (1.00%) WebSphere
7 22 (0.88%) Skype for Business
8 20 (0.80%) JBoss
9 17 (0.68%) WebLogic
10 15 (0.60%) SharePoint Server
11 12 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2010
11 12 (0.48%) nginx
12 11 (0.44%) Exchange Server 2013
12 11 (0.44%) WebSphere Application Server
13 10 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2003
13 10 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2007
13 10 (0.40%) iPlanet
13 10 (0.40%) Office Communications Server
14 6 (0.24%) Tomcat
15 5 (0.20%) Documentum
Applications
1 227 (9.08%) Microsoft Office
2 79 (3.16%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.40%) Mozilla Thunderbird
5 8 (0.32%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.080%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.080%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.080%) Windchill
9 1 (0.040%) Acrobat
9 1 (0.040%) Adobe After Effects
9 1 (0.040%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.040%) Adobe Premiere
9 1 (0.040%) InDesign
9 1 (0.040%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.040%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 15 (0.60%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (0.28%) Maximo
3 5 (0.20%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.12%) assyst
4 3 (0.12%) ION MarketView
4 3 (0.12%) Oracle 11i
5 2 (0.080%) Eikon
5 2 (0.080%) Fidessa
5 2 (0.080%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.080%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.080%) SystmOne
5 2 (0.080%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.040%) Aladdin
6 1 (0.040%) Eze OMS
6 1 (0.040%) OpenText MBPM
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle BPM
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.040%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 678 (27.12%) Microsoft 365
2 544 (21.76%) Azure
3 217 (8.68%) Entra ID
4 212 (8.48%) AWS
5 83 (3.32%) OneDrive
6 75 (3.00%) SaaS
7 58 (2.32%) GCP
8 49 (1.96%) IaaS
9 47 (1.88%) Google Workspace
10 43 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
11 39 (1.56%) GitHub
12 37 (1.48%) PaaS
12 37 (1.48%) Power Platform
13 35 (1.40%) Amazon S3
14 33 (1.32%) Amazon EC2
15 32 (1.28%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 30 (1.20%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 30 (1.20%) Azure Sentinel
17 28 (1.12%) Azure Monitor
18 27 (1.08%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 312 (12.48%) DNS
2 278 (11.12%) Firewall
3 195 (7.80%) DHCP
4 187 (7.48%) TCP/IP
5 151 (6.04%) VPN
6 90 (3.60%) WAN
7 89 (3.56%) LAN
8 88 (3.52%) Wi-Fi
9 75 (3.00%) Network Security
10 66 (2.64%) VLAN
11 63 (2.52%) SAN
12 55 (2.20%) SSH
12 55 (2.20%) Wireless
13 48 (1.92%) Cisco IOS
14 41 (1.64%) HTTP
15 31 (1.24%) SMTP
16 29 (1.16%) Internet
17 27 (1.08%) FTP
17 27 (1.08%) SSL
18 24 (0.96%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (4.52%) SQL Server
2 69 (2.76%) Oracle Database
3 62 (2.48%) Relational Database
4 43 (1.72%) MySQL
5 34 (1.36%) Amazon RDS
6 21 (0.84%) PostgreSQL
7 16 (0.64%) Power BI
8 13 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
9 11 (0.44%) Amazon Aurora
9 11 (0.44%) DB2
10 10 (0.40%) NoSQL
11 9 (0.36%) BigQuery
12 8 (0.32%) GIS
12 8 (0.32%) RDBMS
12 8 (0.32%) SAP HANA
13 6 (0.24%) Big Data
13 6 (0.24%) Elasticsearch
13 6 (0.24%) MongoDB
14 5 (0.20%) HPCC
14 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 136 (5.44%) JIRA
2 104 (4.16%) Git
3 91 (3.64%) Jenkins
4 41 (1.64%) Eclipse
5 39 (1.56%) GitLab
6 27 (1.08%) MSI
7 26 (1.04%) Visual Studio
8 25 (1.00%) Vagrant
9 20 (0.80%) Android Studio
9 20 (0.80%) Sonatype Nexus
10 19 (0.76%) Browser DevTools
11 18 (0.72%) Xcode
12 17 (0.68%) Bitbucket
13 15 (0.60%) Bitbucket Server
13 15 (0.60%) CA Release Automation
14 13 (0.52%) Artifactory
14 13 (0.52%) Postman
15 12 (0.48%) AdminStudio
16 11 (0.44%) InstallShield
16 11 (0.44%) SonarQube
General
1 933 (37.32%) Social Skills
2 341 (13.64%) Finance
3 237 (9.48%) Public Sector
4 224 (8.96%) Analytical Skills
5 124 (4.96%) Banking
6 103 (4.12%) Documentation Skills
7 63 (2.52%) Legal
8 58 (2.32%) Manufacturing
9 57 (2.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 49 (1.96%) Organisational Skills
11 47 (1.88%) Military
11 47 (1.88%) Presentation Skills
12 41 (1.64%) Telecoms
13 38 (1.52%) Retail
14 31 (1.24%) Games
15 28 (1.12%) Marketing
16 25 (1.00%) Front Office
17 23 (0.92%) Aerospace
18 20 (0.80%) Electronics
18 20 (0.80%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 416 (16.64%) Support Engineer
2 303 (12.12%) Analyst
3 281 (11.24%) IT Support
4 179 (7.16%) IT Engineer
5 150 (6.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 150 (6.00%) Windows Engineer
6 143 (5.72%) Desktop Engineer
7 138 (5.52%) Desktop Support
8 134 (5.36%) Support Analyst
9 126 (5.04%) Architect
9 126 (5.04%) Senior
10 123 (4.92%) IT Support Engineer
11 120 (4.80%) Deployment Engineer
12 115 (4.60%) 2nd Line Support
13 106 (4.24%) Technical Support
14 104 (4.16%) Desktop Support Engineer
15 101 (4.04%) Platform Engineer
16 96 (3.84%) Developer
17 84 (3.36%) Administrator
18 74 (2.96%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (2.68%) .NET
2 45 (1.80%) Middleware
3 42 (1.68%) LDAP
4 40 (1.60%) Web Services
4 40 (1.60%) WPF
5 39 (1.56%) .NET Framework
6 36 (1.44%) Node.js
6 36 (1.44%) REST
7 34 (1.36%) OAuth
8 33 (1.32%) AngularJS
9 32 (1.28%) SAML
9 32 (1.28%) XML
10 28 (1.12%) React
11 26 (1.04%) OpenID
12 25 (1.00%) SOAP
13 22 (0.88%) CSS
14 20 (0.80%) Ajax
15 19 (0.76%) GraphQL
15 19 (0.76%) RESTful
16 15 (0.60%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 99 (3.96%) Onboarding
2 91 (3.64%) Data Centre
3 80 (3.20%) PKI
4 67 (2.68%) Driving Licence
5 66 (2.64%) Replication
6 60 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
7 53 (2.12%) Management Information System
8 52 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
9 37 (1.48%) iPhone
10 33 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
10 33 (1.32%) iPad
10 33 (1.32%) NHS
11 32 (1.28%) Video Conferencing
12 31 (1.24%) Security Posture
13 29 (1.16%) Smartphone
14 26 (1.04%) Analytical Mindset
15 25 (1.00%) Hybrid Cloud
16 23 (0.92%) Mobile App
16 23 (0.92%) Private Cloud
17 22 (0.88%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 599 (23.96%) Linux
2 553 (22.12%) Windows 10
3 473 (18.92%) Windows Server
4 162 (6.48%) Unix
5 139 (5.56%) Android
6 138 (5.52%) Mac OS
7 101 (4.04%) Apple iOS
8 71 (2.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 68 (2.72%) Windows 7
10 59 (2.36%) Windows Server 2016
11 57 (2.28%) Windows Server 2019
12 40 (1.60%) Windows Server 2012
13 37 (1.48%) Windows Server 2003
14 36 (1.44%) Ubuntu
15 35 (1.40%) VMS
16 26 (1.04%) AIX
17 24 (0.96%) CentOS
18 23 (0.92%) Amazon Linux
19 14 (0.56%) Windows Server 2008
20 13 (0.52%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 447 (17.88%) Problem-Solving
2 375 (15.00%) ITIL
3 338 (13.52%) Customer Service
4 255 (10.20%) Migration
5 236 (9.44%) Agile
6 214 (8.56%) DevOps
7 206 (8.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 202 (8.08%) Service Management
9 193 (7.72%) ITSM
10 168 (6.72%) Cybersecurity
11 166 (6.64%) CI/CD
12 147 (5.88%) Change Management
13 146 (5.84%) Continuous Improvement
14 119 (4.76%) User Experience
15 109 (4.36%) Stakeholder Management
16 104 (4.16%) Incident Response
17 101 (4.04%) Cloud Security
18 92 (3.68%) Service Delivery
19 90 (3.60%) Computer Science
19 90 (3.60%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 477 (19.08%) PowerShell
2 320 (12.80%) Python
3 239 (9.56%) SQL
4 127 (5.08%) C#
5 118 (4.72%) Java
6 107 (4.28%) Bash
7 85 (3.40%) JavaScript
8 74 (2.96%) Perl
9 73 (2.92%) C++
10 39 (1.56%) PL/SQL
11 38 (1.52%) VB
12 33 (1.32%) Groovy
13 31 (1.24%) Shell Script
14 30 (1.20%) VBA
15 29 (1.16%) Kusto Query Language
16 26 (1.04%) VBScript
17 21 (0.84%) T-SQL
18 20 (0.80%) C
18 20 (0.80%) PHP
19 13 (0.52%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 727 (29.08%) Security Cleared
2 501 (20.04%) SC Cleared
3 219 (8.76%) Degree
4 188 (7.52%) DV Cleared
5 175 (7.00%) Microsoft Certification
6 64 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
7 56 (2.24%) Azure Certification
8 49 (1.96%) Cisco Certification
8 49 (1.96%) MCSE
9 48 (1.92%) A+ Certification
10 34 (1.36%) CISSP
10 34 (1.36%) DBS Check
11 32 (1.28%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 30 (1.20%) AWS Certification
12 30 (1.20%) CCNA
12 30 (1.20%) CCNP
12 30 (1.20%) ITIL Certification
13 22 (0.88%) BPSS Clearance
13 22 (0.88%) MCP
14 20 (0.80%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (3.48%) SLA
2 65 (2.60%) QA
3 58 (2.32%) GDPR
4 56 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 53 (2.12%) NIST
6 16 (0.64%) HIPAA
7 13 (0.52%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
8 11 (0.44%) NCSC
9 9 (0.36%) Accessibility
9 9 (0.36%) PMO
10 4 (0.16%) GLBA
10 4 (0.16%) SOC 2
11 3 (0.12%) ECSS
11 3 (0.12%) GxP
11 3 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.080%) COBIT
12 2 (0.080%) ISO 9001
12 2 (0.080%) MiFID
12 2 (0.080%) SEPA
System Software
1 916 (36.64%) Active Directory
2 234 (9.36%) VMware Infrastructure
3 105 (4.20%) Docker
4 71 (2.84%) Hyper-V
5 64 (2.56%) Virtual Desktop
6 55 (2.20%) vSphere
7 54 (2.16%) Virtual Machines
8 48 (1.92%) VMware ESXi
9 31 (1.24%) VMware NSX
10 25 (1.00%) DFS Replication
11 24 (0.96%) Microsoft App-V
12 20 (0.80%) BitLocker
13 19 (0.76%) NFS
14 17 (0.68%) Firmware
15 16 (0.64%) Virtual Servers
16 13 (0.52%) Terminal Services
17 10 (0.40%) Brightmail
17 10 (0.40%) Dovecot
17 10 (0.40%) ISA Server
17 10 (0.40%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 387 (15.48%) SCCM
2 285 (11.40%) Microsoft Intune
3 140 (5.60%) Terraform
4 110 (4.40%) Ansible
5 62 (2.48%) Kubernetes
6 53 (2.12%) vCenter Server
7 42 (1.68%) Grafana
8 40 (1.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 39 (1.56%) Jamf Pro
10 38 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
11 35 (1.40%) WSUS
12 30 (1.20%) Prometheus
13 28 (1.12%) SCOM
14 25 (1.00%) Nessus
15 24 (0.96%) Microsoft Clustering
16 23 (0.92%) Puppet
17 22 (0.88%) Progress Chef
18 16 (0.64%) Proxmox
19 13 (0.52%) NetBackup
19 13 (0.52%) WMI
Vendors
1 1,123 (44.92%) Microsoft
2 334 (13.36%) VMware
3 233 (9.32%) ServiceNow
4 199 (7.96%) Oracle
5 167 (6.68%) Cisco
6 157 (6.28%) Citrix
7 137 (5.48%) Splunk
8 68 (2.72%) Apple
9 67 (2.68%) Red Hat
10 61 (2.44%) IBM
11 57 (2.28%) HP
12 52 (2.08%) Dell
13 50 (2.00%) Veeam
14 49 (1.96%) Google
15 43 (1.72%) SolarWinds
16 42 (1.68%) AppDynamics
16 42 (1.68%) SAP
17 41 (1.64%) CyberArk
17 41 (1.64%) NetApp
18 35 (1.40%) Remedy
1,997 Windows jobs in England