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

6 months to
1 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 20 16
Rank change year-on-year -7 -4 -2
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,515 2,097 3,126
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.01% 8.65% 8.49%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.36% 61.62% 61.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,651 1,478 2,164
10th Percentile £163 £181 £163
25th Percentile £215 £250 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £422 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year -0.82% +6.25% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £425 £425 £400
% change year-on-year - +6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 214 131 261
10th Percentile £15.80 £14.20 £11.80
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% -24.34%
75th Percentile £60.00 £24.83 £25.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £53.75 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £18.87 £18.00
% change year-on-year +33.28% +4.83% -24.34%

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 4,099 3,403 5,066
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.80% 14.04% 13.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,670 2,318 3,436
10th Percentile £188 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £468 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.67% -1.58% -6.86%
75th Percentile £570 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £691 £700
UK median daily rate £459 £467 £470
% change year-on-year -1.71% -0.64% -6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 289 164 373
10th Percentile £15.72 £15.12 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.31 £15.50
Median hourly rate £35.22 £20.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +76.10% -11.11% -48.99%
75th Percentile £65.00 £54.06 £62.50
90th Percentile £72.40 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £22.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +47.73% -2.22% -51.09%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -21 775 £430 -4.44% 292
South East -6 522 £475 -2.06% 303
North of England -8 473 £365 +4.29% 202
Midlands -16 276 £325 +18.18% 121
North West +2 264 £344 -1.71% 118
South West -13 229 £457 -3.89% 146
East of England -1 222 £350 -8.50% 93
Yorkshire -18 192 £365 -8.75% 64
West Midlands -23 163 £450 +57.89% 70
East Midlands +9 108 £213 - 51
North East -30 21 £290 -3.33% 23
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
1 214 (8.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 166 (6.60%) SharePoint
3 56 (2.23%) IIS
4 52 (2.07%) Confluence
5 19 (0.76%) Apache
6 17 (0.68%) WebLogic
7 14 (0.56%) Skype for Business
8 12 (0.48%) nginx
8 12 (0.48%) Tomcat
9 11 (0.44%) Tuxedo
10 8 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
11 5 (0.20%) Appian
11 5 (0.20%) TPMS
12 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
13 3 (0.12%) Camunda
13 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
14 2 (0.080%) Apache Pulsar
14 2 (0.080%) OpenStack
14 2 (0.080%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 161 (6.40%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (2.50%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.36%) 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 (0.040%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 44 (1.75%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.48%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
4 5 (0.20%) Finacle
5 3 (0.12%) assyst
5 3 (0.12%) OpenText MBPM
5 3 (0.12%) Oracle BPM
5 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 2 (0.080%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.080%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.080%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 1 (0.040%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.040%) Oracle FAH
7 1 (0.040%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.040%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.040%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 744 (29.58%) Azure
2 730 (29.03%) Microsoft 365
3 323 (12.84%) Entra ID
4 239 (9.50%) AWS
5 83 (3.30%) OneDrive
6 80 (3.18%) GCP
7 70 (2.78%) SaaS
8 66 (2.62%) Azure DevOps
9 62 (2.47%) IaaS
10 57 (2.27%) GitHub
11 51 (2.03%) PaaS
12 46 (1.83%) Power Platform
13 36 (1.43%) Azure Monitor
14 32 (1.27%) Azure Sentinel
15 31 (1.23%) Google Workspace
16 27 (1.07%) GitHub Actions
17 23 (0.91%) OpenShift
18 18 (0.72%) AWS CloudFormation
19 17 (0.68%) Azure AKS
20 16 (0.64%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 346 (13.76%) DNS
2 266 (10.58%) Firewall
3 243 (9.66%) DHCP
4 169 (6.72%) VPN
5 151 (6.00%) LAN
6 144 (5.73%) WAN
7 142 (5.65%) TCP/IP
8 115 (4.57%) Wi-Fi
9 64 (2.54%) Network Security
10 63 (2.50%) SAN
11 53 (2.11%) VLAN
12 38 (1.51%) BGP
13 37 (1.47%) Wireless
14 36 (1.43%) Skype
15 34 (1.35%) OSPF
16 31 (1.23%) BIG-IP
16 31 (1.23%) SSL
17 30 (1.19%) Internet
17 30 (1.19%) SNMP
17 30 (1.19%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 202 (8.03%) SQL Server
2 43 (1.71%) Oracle Database
3 33 (1.31%) Relational Database
4 29 (1.15%) MySQL
4 29 (1.15%) Power BI
5 24 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
6 15 (0.60%) DB2
7 14 (0.56%) MongoDB
8 13 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
8 13 (0.52%) NoSQL
9 10 (0.40%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 8 (0.32%) RDBMS
11 7 (0.28%) Amazon RDS
12 6 (0.24%) BigQuery
12 6 (0.24%) GIS
12 6 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
13 5 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 169 (6.72%) JIRA
2 41 (1.63%) Jenkins
2 41 (1.63%) MSI
3 40 (1.59%) GitLab
4 36 (1.43%) Visual Studio
5 30 (1.19%) Git
6 20 (0.80%) Eclipse
7 12 (0.48%) Burp Suite
8 11 (0.44%) Metasploit
9 9 (0.36%) Android Studio
9 9 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
9 9 (0.36%) Chocolatey
9 9 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
9 9 (0.36%) Xcode
10 8 (0.32%) Artifactory
11 7 (0.28%) Bitbucket
11 7 (0.28%) Selenium
12 6 (0.24%) InstallShield
12 6 (0.24%) Robot Framework
13 5 (0.20%) AdminStudio
General
1 851 (33.84%) Social Skills
2 262 (10.42%) Finance
3 231 (9.18%) Analytical Skills
4 165 (6.56%) Public Sector
5 146 (5.81%) Banking
6 92 (3.66%) Documentation Skills
7 88 (3.50%) Legal
8 75 (2.98%) Organisational Skills
9 52 (2.07%) Military
10 47 (1.87%) Retail
11 41 (1.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 38 (1.51%) Law
13 37 (1.47%) Manufacturing
14 32 (1.27%) Investment Banking
15 30 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
16 27 (1.07%) Front Office
17 26 (1.03%) Telecoms
18 21 (0.83%) Local Government
19 18 (0.72%) French Language
19 18 (0.72%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 328 (13.04%) IT Support
2 319 (12.68%) Support Engineer
3 280 (11.13%) Analyst
4 215 (8.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 202 (8.03%) IT Engineer
6 169 (6.72%) Senior
7 167 (6.64%) IT Support Engineer
8 132 (5.25%) Architect
9 114 (4.53%) Support Analyst
10 112 (4.45%) Desktop Support
11 101 (4.02%) Desktop Engineer
12 97 (3.86%) 2nd Line Support
13 91 (3.62%) IT Analyst
14 89 (3.54%) Lead
15 87 (3.46%) Technical Support
16 82 (3.26%) Developer
17 66 (2.62%) 1st Line Support
17 66 (2.62%) Desktop Support Engineer
17 66 (2.62%) IT Support Analyst
17 66 (2.62%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (3.38%) .NET
2 71 (2.82%) REST
3 50 (1.99%) .NET Framework
4 37 (1.47%) LDAP
5 32 (1.27%) Microsoft Graph
6 31 (1.23%) SAML
7 28 (1.11%) 802.1X
8 26 (1.03%) WinForms
9 25 (0.99%) Middleware
10 24 (0.95%) OAuth
10 24 (0.95%) Web Services
11 21 (0.83%) WPF
12 20 (0.80%) Kafka
13 18 (0.72%) Software Packaging
14 17 (0.68%) AngularJS
14 17 (0.68%) CSS
14 17 (0.68%) Elastic Stack
14 17 (0.68%) React
15 16 (0.64%) Node.js
16 14 (0.56%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 231 (9.18%) Onboarding
2 116 (4.61%) Data Centre
3 112 (4.45%) PKI
4 80 (3.18%) Clustering
5 75 (2.98%) Enterprise Software
6 58 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
7 56 (2.23%) Replication
8 55 (2.19%) Management Information System
9 49 (1.95%) Hybrid Cloud
10 47 (1.87%) Driving Licence
11 46 (1.83%) Security Posture
12 44 (1.75%) Virtual Team
13 43 (1.71%) Cloud Native
14 40 (1.59%) Smartphone
15 38 (1.51%) Legacy Systems
16 32 (1.27%) CMDB
17 31 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
18 30 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
19 29 (1.15%) Enterprise Storage
19 29 (1.15%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 617 (24.53%) Linux
2 596 (23.70%) Windows Server
3 464 (18.45%) Windows 10
4 161 (6.40%) Mac OS
5 128 (5.09%) Apple iOS
6 127 (5.05%) Unix
7 123 (4.89%) Android
8 88 (3.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 66 (2.62%) Windows Server 2019
10 60 (2.39%) Windows Server 2016
11 48 (1.91%) Windows 7
12 36 (1.43%) Windows Server 2012
13 29 (1.15%) AIX
14 27 (1.07%) Ubuntu
15 18 (0.72%) VMS
15 18 (0.72%) Windows Server 2003
16 15 (0.60%) Solaris
17 12 (0.48%) CentOS
17 12 (0.48%) Windows Server 2008
18 8 (0.32%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 524 (20.83%) Problem-Solving
2 390 (15.51%) Customer Service
3 374 (14.87%) ITIL
4 282 (11.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 269 (10.70%) Migration
6 247 (9.82%) Agile
7 239 (9.50%) ITSM
8 233 (9.26%) DevOps
9 219 (8.71%) CI/CD
10 179 (7.12%) Continuous Improvement
11 178 (7.08%) Change Management
12 167 (6.64%) Disaster Recovery
13 164 (6.52%) Service Management
14 162 (6.44%) High Availability
15 136 (5.41%) Stakeholder Management
16 132 (5.25%) SIEM
17 130 (5.17%) Cybersecurity
18 127 (5.05%) Infrastructure as Code
19 115 (4.57%) Computer Science
20 109 (4.33%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 550 (21.87%) PowerShell
2 252 (10.02%) SQL
3 245 (9.74%) Python
4 121 (4.81%) C#
5 97 (3.86%) Bash
6 69 (2.74%) Java
7 68 (2.70%) JavaScript
8 49 (1.95%) PL/SQL
9 44 (1.75%) C++
9 44 (1.75%) T-SQL
10 26 (1.03%) Kusto Query Language
11 24 (0.95%) VB
12 22 (0.87%) Search Processing Language
13 19 (0.76%) Shell Script
14 18 (0.72%) Perl
14 18 (0.72%) VBScript
15 16 (0.64%) Bicep
16 13 (0.52%) C
16 13 (0.52%) VBA
17 9 (0.36%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 757 (30.10%) Security Cleared
2 476 (18.93%) SC Cleared
3 283 (11.25%) Degree
4 251 (9.98%) DV Cleared
5 98 (3.90%) Microsoft Certification
6 78 (3.10%) Computer Science Degree
7 75 (2.98%) Cisco Certification
8 58 (2.31%) CISSP
9 51 (2.03%) Azure Certification
10 41 (1.63%) MCSE
11 35 (1.39%) AWS Certification
12 34 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
13 29 (1.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 27 (1.07%) MCSA
15 26 (1.03%) CCNA
15 26 (1.03%) ITIL Certification
16 25 (0.99%) CCNP
17 24 (0.95%) CISM
18 22 (0.87%) CompTIA Security+
19 19 (0.76%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 109 (4.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 95 (3.78%) SLA
3 79 (3.14%) NIST
4 75 (2.98%) QA
5 72 (2.86%) GDPR
6 34 (1.35%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 25 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials
9 12 (0.48%) NCSC
9 12 (0.48%) NIST 800
10 11 (0.44%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.44%) MiFID
11 10 (0.40%) FINRA
11 10 (0.40%) PMO
12 9 (0.36%) HIPAA
13 7 (0.28%) SOC 2
14 6 (0.24%) GRC
14 6 (0.24%) ISO 31000
15 5 (0.20%) DICOM
15 5 (0.20%) GLBA
System Software
1 950 (37.77%) Active Directory
2 316 (12.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 138 (5.49%) Hyper-V
4 92 (3.66%) VMware ESXi
5 91 (3.62%) vSphere
6 85 (3.38%) Virtual Machines
7 83 (3.30%) Docker
8 52 (2.07%) Virtual Desktop
9 48 (1.91%) VMware NSX
10 35 (1.39%) Firmware
11 33 (1.31%) BitLocker
12 26 (1.03%) Microsoft App-V
13 20 (0.80%) KVM
14 11 (0.44%) XenDesktop
15 10 (0.40%) XenApp
16 9 (0.36%) vCloud
17 8 (0.32%) VMware Workstation
18 6 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
19 5 (0.20%) etcd
19 5 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 349 (13.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 228 (9.07%) SCCM
3 166 (6.60%) Ansible
4 157 (6.24%) Terraform
5 119 (4.73%) Kubernetes
6 80 (3.18%) vCenter Server
7 47 (1.87%) Single Sign-On
8 40 (1.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 37 (1.47%) Jamf Pro
10 36 (1.43%) FortiGate
10 36 (1.43%) SCOM
11 32 (1.27%) WSUS
12 28 (1.11%) Grafana
13 25 (0.99%) Nagios
13 25 (0.99%) Progress Chef
13 25 (0.99%) Prometheus
14 19 (0.76%) Nessus
15 18 (0.72%) Puppet
15 18 (0.72%) Tivoli
15 18 (0.72%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,082 (43.02%) Microsoft
2 413 (16.42%) VMware
3 227 (9.03%) ServiceNow
4 181 (7.20%) Citrix
5 176 (7.00%) Cisco
6 144 (5.73%) Oracle
7 129 (5.13%) Splunk
8 70 (2.78%) HP
9 68 (2.70%) SolarWinds
10 62 (2.47%) Red Hat
11 59 (2.35%) Dell
12 57 (2.27%) Remedy
13 56 (2.23%) Google
14 49 (1.95%) Apple
15 46 (1.83%) CyberArk
16 45 (1.79%) F5
17 44 (1.75%) IBM
17 44 (1.75%) Juniper
18 37 (1.47%) BeyondTrust
19 34 (1.35%) Palo Alto