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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 20 17
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,439 2,089 3,103
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.93% 8.60% 8.52%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.27% 61.33% 62.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,609 1,484 2,159
10th Percentile £162 £180 £163
25th Percentile £213 £233 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £423 £400
Median % change year-on-year -1.89% +5.75% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £425 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -0.12% +6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 194 116 261
10th Percentile £15.19 £14.20 £11.80
25th Percentile £17.32 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.77 £18.79 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +37.13% +6.05% -21.24%
75th Percentile £63.75 £24.75 £24.18
90th Percentile £74.18 £47.96 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £24.58 £18.82 £18.00
% change year-on-year +30.58% +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 3,981 3,406 4,965
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.68% 14.03% 13.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,607 2,316 3,392
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £473 £473
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.16% -7.66%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £660 £699 £700
UK median daily rate £456 £469 £470
% change year-on-year -2.72% -0.27% -6.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 154 362
10th Percentile £15.98 £15.15 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.35 £14.83
Median hourly rate £42.60 £21.28 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +100.20% -3.27% -42.11%
75th Percentile £67.40 £58.75 £61.20
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £22.25 £22.00
% change year-on-year +88.49% +1.14% -43.66%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -26 744 £430 -4.44% 208
South East -3 522 £475 -3.06% 267
North of England -11 452 £350 +7.69% 195
Midlands -18 261 £325 +30.00% 105
North West -3 252 £300 -14.29% 109
South West -15 224 £453 -13.67% 123
East of England -1 213 £350 -3.45% 93
Yorkshire -20 186 £375 +13.21% 69
West Midlands -25 150 £450 +65.90% 55
East Midlands +7 106 £225 +9.09% 50
North East -29 18 £345 +15.00% 20
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
1 207 (8.49%) Microsoft Exchange
2 148 (6.07%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.21%) IIS
4 48 (1.97%) Confluence
5 17 (0.70%) Apache
5 17 (0.70%) WebLogic
6 12 (0.49%) Skype for Business
7 11 (0.45%) Tuxedo
8 9 (0.37%) nginx
8 9 (0.37%) Tomcat
9 6 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
9 6 (0.25%) TPMS
10 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.16%) SAS
10 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
11 3 (0.12%) Appian
11 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
12 2 (0.082%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.082%) IBM HTTP Server
12 2 (0.082%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 157 (6.44%) Microsoft Office
2 62 (2.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (1.03%) 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 40 (1.64%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.45%) Teamcenter
4 4 (0.16%) Finacle
5 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 2 (0.082%) assyst
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%) OpenText MBPM
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle 11i
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle BPM
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
1 703 (28.82%) Azure
2 696 (28.54%) Microsoft 365
3 294 (12.05%) Entra ID
4 218 (8.94%) AWS
5 69 (2.83%) OneDrive
6 67 (2.75%) Azure DevOps
6 67 (2.75%) SaaS
7 64 (2.62%) GCP
8 61 (2.50%) IaaS
9 52 (2.13%) GitHub
10 50 (2.05%) PaaS
11 42 (1.72%) Power Platform
12 38 (1.56%) Azure Monitor
13 32 (1.31%) Google Workspace
14 28 (1.15%) Azure Sentinel
15 24 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
16 23 (0.94%) OpenShift
17 18 (0.74%) Azure AKS
18 16 (0.66%) Microsoft Purview
19 15 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 324 (13.28%) DNS
2 259 (10.62%) Firewall
3 226 (9.27%) DHCP
4 160 (6.56%) VPN
5 148 (6.07%) LAN
6 143 (5.86%) WAN
7 133 (5.45%) TCP/IP
8 110 (4.51%) Wi-Fi
9 62 (2.54%) Network Security
10 59 (2.42%) SAN
11 53 (2.17%) VLAN
12 39 (1.60%) Wireless
13 37 (1.52%) BGP
14 34 (1.39%) OSPF
15 33 (1.35%) Skype
16 32 (1.31%) SNMP
17 29 (1.19%) BIG-IP
17 29 (1.19%) SSL
18 28 (1.15%) Internet
18 28 (1.15%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 191 (7.83%) SQL Server
2 41 (1.68%) Oracle Database
3 32 (1.31%) Relational Database
4 27 (1.11%) MySQL
5 25 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
5 25 (1.03%) Power BI
6 15 (0.62%) DB2
7 14 (0.57%) MongoDB
8 13 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
9 11 (0.45%) NoSQL
10 10 (0.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 7 (0.29%) RDBMS
12 6 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
12 6 (0.25%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.25%) GIS
12 6 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
13 5 (0.21%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.16%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 160 (6.56%) JIRA
2 42 (1.72%) GitLab
2 42 (1.72%) MSI
3 39 (1.60%) Jenkins
4 34 (1.39%) Visual Studio
5 30 (1.23%) Git
6 19 (0.78%) Eclipse
7 18 (0.74%) Burp Suite
8 17 (0.70%) Metasploit
9 10 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
10 9 (0.37%) Android Studio
10 9 (0.37%) Artifactory
10 9 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
10 9 (0.37%) Chocolatey
10 9 (0.37%) Xcode
11 7 (0.29%) Bitbucket
11 7 (0.29%) InstallShield
11 7 (0.29%) Robot Framework
11 7 (0.29%) Selenium
12 5 (0.21%) AdminStudio
General
1 816 (33.46%) Social Skills
2 241 (9.88%) Finance
3 217 (8.90%) Analytical Skills
4 169 (6.93%) Public Sector
5 135 (5.54%) Banking
6 90 (3.69%) Documentation Skills
6 90 (3.69%) Legal
7 74 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
8 53 (2.17%) Military
9 47 (1.93%) Retail
10 36 (1.48%) Manufacturing
11 35 (1.44%) Law
12 33 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 30 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
14 29 (1.19%) Investment Banking
15 28 (1.15%) Telecoms
16 26 (1.07%) Front Office
17 20 (0.82%) Local Government
18 17 (0.70%) Police
19 16 (0.66%) French Language
Job Titles
1 320 (13.12%) IT Support
2 305 (12.51%) Support Engineer
3 278 (11.40%) Analyst
4 204 (8.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 195 (8.00%) IT Engineer
6 162 (6.64%) IT Support Engineer
7 155 (6.36%) Senior
8 133 (5.45%) Architect
9 111 (4.55%) Support Analyst
10 105 (4.31%) Desktop Support
11 94 (3.85%) Desktop Engineer
12 91 (3.73%) 2nd Line Support
13 89 (3.65%) Technical Support
14 87 (3.57%) Developer
14 87 (3.57%) IT Analyst
15 85 (3.49%) Lead
16 65 (2.67%) Windows Engineer
17 64 (2.62%) 1st Line Support
17 64 (2.62%) IT Support Analyst
18 62 (2.54%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (3.40%) .NET
2 75 (3.08%) REST
3 48 (1.97%) .NET Framework
4 36 (1.48%) LDAP
5 31 (1.27%) SAML
6 30 (1.23%) Microsoft Graph
7 29 (1.19%) Middleware
8 27 (1.11%) 802.1X
9 26 (1.07%) WinForms
10 24 (0.98%) OAuth
11 23 (0.94%) Web Services
11 23 (0.94%) WPF
12 22 (0.90%) Kafka
13 20 (0.82%) React
14 19 (0.78%) CSS
15 18 (0.74%) AngularJS
16 17 (0.70%) Node.js
16 17 (0.70%) Software Packaging
17 15 (0.62%) Elastic Stack
17 15 (0.62%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 206 (8.45%) Onboarding
2 109 (4.47%) Data Centre
3 100 (4.10%) PKI
4 78 (3.20%) Clustering
5 73 (2.99%) Enterprise Software
6 54 (2.21%) Replication
6 54 (2.21%) Self-Motivation
7 49 (2.01%) Driving Licence
8 48 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
9 45 (1.85%) Management Information System
10 40 (1.64%) Virtual Team
11 39 (1.60%) Smartphone
12 38 (1.56%) Security Posture
13 36 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
14 33 (1.35%) Cloud Native
15 29 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
16 28 (1.15%) Product Ownership
17 27 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
17 27 (1.11%) Enterprise Storage
18 25 (1.03%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 597 (24.48%) Linux
2 571 (23.41%) Windows Server
3 453 (18.57%) Windows 10
4 158 (6.48%) Mac OS
5 125 (5.13%) Apple iOS
5 125 (5.13%) Unix
6 119 (4.88%) Android
7 68 (2.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 61 (2.50%) Windows Server 2016
8 61 (2.50%) Windows Server 2019
9 47 (1.93%) Windows 7
10 33 (1.35%) Windows Server 2012
11 30 (1.23%) AIX
12 23 (0.94%) Ubuntu
13 18 (0.74%) Windows Server 2003
14 15 (0.62%) VMS
15 13 (0.53%) Solaris
16 12 (0.49%) Windows Server 2008
17 9 (0.37%) CentOS
17 9 (0.37%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 505 (20.71%) Problem-Solving
2 385 (15.79%) Customer Service
3 358 (14.68%) ITIL
4 272 (11.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 257 (10.54%) Migration
6 243 (9.96%) Agile
7 220 (9.02%) DevOps
8 214 (8.77%) ITSM
9 203 (8.32%) CI/CD
10 169 (6.93%) Continuous Improvement
11 166 (6.81%) Disaster Recovery
12 157 (6.44%) Change Management
13 150 (6.15%) High Availability
14 145 (5.95%) Service Management
15 134 (5.49%) Cybersecurity
16 120 (4.92%) Stakeholder Management
17 117 (4.80%) SIEM
18 114 (4.67%) Infrastructure as Code
19 109 (4.47%) Computer Science
20 101 (4.14%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 520 (21.32%) PowerShell
2 250 (10.25%) SQL
3 232 (9.51%) Python
4 122 (5.00%) C#
5 84 (3.44%) Bash
6 67 (2.75%) JavaScript
7 65 (2.67%) Java
8 51 (2.09%) PL/SQL
9 45 (1.85%) T-SQL
10 44 (1.80%) C++
11 27 (1.11%) Kusto Query Language
12 23 (0.94%) VB
13 22 (0.90%) Search Processing Language
14 20 (0.82%) Perl
14 20 (0.82%) Shell Script
15 16 (0.66%) VBScript
16 14 (0.57%) VBA
17 12 (0.49%) Bicep
18 11 (0.45%) C
18 11 (0.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 751 (30.79%) Security Cleared
2 479 (19.64%) SC Cleared
3 261 (10.70%) Degree
4 243 (9.96%) DV Cleared
5 96 (3.94%) Microsoft Certification
6 76 (3.12%) Computer Science Degree
7 71 (2.91%) Cisco Certification
8 46 (1.89%) Azure Certification
9 42 (1.72%) CISSP
10 40 (1.64%) MCSE
11 34 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
12 28 (1.15%) AWS Certification
12 28 (1.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 26 (1.07%) ITIL Certification
13 26 (1.07%) MCSA
14 25 (1.03%) CCNA
15 21 (0.86%) CCNP
16 19 (0.78%) A+ Certification
16 19 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
17 17 (0.70%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 82 (3.36%) SLA
3 81 (3.32%) GDPR
4 77 (3.16%) QA
5 70 (2.87%) NIST
6 41 (1.68%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.23%) 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%) HIPAA
14 6 (0.25%) DICOM
14 6 (0.25%) GLBA
14 6 (0.25%) GRC
14 6 (0.25%) HL7
14 6 (0.25%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 910 (37.31%) Active Directory
2 300 (12.30%) VMware Infrastructure
3 132 (5.41%) Hyper-V
4 87 (3.57%) vSphere
5 85 (3.49%) VMware ESXi
6 79 (3.24%) Docker
7 77 (3.16%) Virtual Machines
8 49 (2.01%) Virtual Desktop
9 42 (1.72%) VMware NSX
10 34 (1.39%) Firmware
11 28 (1.15%) BitLocker
12 26 (1.07%) Microsoft App-V
13 20 (0.82%) KVM
14 11 (0.45%) XenDesktop
15 10 (0.41%) XenApp
16 7 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
17 6 (0.25%) vCloud
18 5 (0.21%) etcd
18 5 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
19 4 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 327 (13.41%) Microsoft Intune
2 233 (9.55%) SCCM
3 158 (6.48%) Ansible
4 140 (5.74%) Terraform
5 117 (4.80%) Kubernetes
6 73 (2.99%) vCenter Server
7 44 (1.80%) Single Sign-On
8 38 (1.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 35 (1.44%) FortiGate
9 35 (1.44%) WSUS
10 33 (1.35%) Jamf Pro
11 31 (1.27%) SCOM
12 26 (1.07%) Grafana
13 25 (1.03%) Nagios
14 23 (0.94%) Prometheus
15 20 (0.82%) Nessus
16 18 (0.74%) Progress Chef
16 18 (0.74%) Puppet
16 18 (0.74%) Tivoli
16 18 (0.74%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,043 (42.76%) Microsoft
2 396 (16.24%) VMware
3 214 (8.77%) ServiceNow
4 183 (7.50%) Citrix
5 157 (6.44%) Cisco
6 143 (5.86%) Oracle
7 126 (5.17%) Splunk
8 70 (2.87%) HP
9 67 (2.75%) SolarWinds
10 53 (2.17%) Dell
10 53 (2.17%) Remedy
11 49 (2.01%) Red Hat
12 48 (1.97%) Apple
13 44 (1.80%) IBM
14 43 (1.76%) CyberArk
15 42 (1.72%) F5
16 41 (1.68%) Google
16 41 (1.68%) Juniper
17 35 (1.44%) BeyondTrust
18 33 (1.35%) Palo Alto