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

 6 months to
27 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 21 16
Rank change year-on-year -6 -5 -2
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,584 2,182 3,195
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.94% 8.64% 8.57%
As % of the Operating Systems category 62.03% 61.21% 61.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,686 1,506 2,163
10th Percentile £165 £181 £169
25th Percentile £220 £243 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £430
Median % change year-on-year - -1.16% -4.44%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £425 £425 £425
% change year-on-year - - -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 215 153 274
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.38 £11.86
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.95 £14.27
Median hourly rate £25.75 £18.87 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.46% -0.68% -24.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £25.15 £40.00
90th Percentile £70.44 £63.75 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.26 £18.87 £19.00
% change year-on-year +33.86% -0.68% -22.83%

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 4,166 3,565 5,177
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.58% 14.11% 13.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,712 2,403 3,424
10th Percentile £190 £200 £190
25th Percentile £313 £313 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year -0.76% -2.63% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £652 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £463 £463 £475
% change year-on-year - -2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 277 186 396
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.12 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.22 £17.27 £16.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £19.32 £24.34
Median % change year-on-year +68.26% -20.65% -44.37%
75th Percentile £65.00 £48.06 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.70 £67.50 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.83 £22.25 £24.34
% change year-on-year +20.58% -8.59% -44.59%

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 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 27 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 27 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 -20 835 £425 -2.86% 200
South East -8 525 £475 -3.06% 261
North of England -7 458 £365 +1.96% 171
Midlands -17 276 £335 +21.82% 119
South West -13 257 £488 +8.33% 128
North West -7 237 £364 -1.69% 97
East of England -1 216 £318 +14.39% 85
Yorkshire -12 202 £365 -8.75% 53
West Midlands -24 171 £450 +50.00% 55
East Midlands +10 100 £244 +21.88% 64
North East -38 23 £290 -3.33% 27
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
1 218 (8.44%) Microsoft Exchange
2 173 (6.70%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.09%) Confluence
4 53 (2.05%) IIS
5 14 (0.54%) Apache
5 14 (0.54%) Skype for Business
5 14 (0.54%) Tomcat
6 13 (0.50%) nginx
7 10 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
8 9 (0.35%) WebLogic
9 7 (0.27%) Appian
10 5 (0.19%) Camunda
11 4 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.15%) Documentum
11 4 (0.15%) TPMS
12 3 (0.12%) CloudStack
12 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
12 3 (0.12%) Tuxedo
12 3 (0.12%) WebSphere
13 2 (0.077%) Apache Pulsar
Applications
1 165 (6.39%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (2.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (0.27%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.19%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.077%) Acrobat
8 1 (0.039%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 40 (1.55%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.43%) Teamcenter
3 10 (0.39%) Finacle
4 5 (0.19%) OpenText MBPM
4 5 (0.19%) Oracle BPM
5 2 (0.077%) assyst
6 1 (0.039%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.039%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.039%) Payment Gateway
6 1 (0.039%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 781 (30.22%) Azure
2 736 (28.48%) Microsoft 365
3 347 (13.43%) Entra ID
4 270 (10.45%) AWS
5 100 (3.87%) OneDrive
6 80 (3.10%) GCP
7 75 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
8 71 (2.75%) SaaS
9 60 (2.32%) GitHub
9 60 (2.32%) IaaS
10 49 (1.90%) PaaS
10 49 (1.90%) Power Platform
11 46 (1.78%) Azure Monitor
12 34 (1.32%) Azure Sentinel
13 28 (1.08%) Google Workspace
14 27 (1.04%) GitHub Actions
15 25 (0.97%) AWS CloudFormation
15 25 (0.97%) OpenShift
16 21 (0.81%) Azure AKS
17 20 (0.77%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 351 (13.58%) DNS
2 269 (10.41%) Firewall
3 251 (9.71%) DHCP
4 176 (6.81%) VPN
5 156 (6.04%) LAN
6 152 (5.88%) TCP/IP
6 152 (5.88%) WAN
7 125 (4.84%) Wi-Fi
8 74 (2.86%) SAN
9 55 (2.13%) Network Security
10 53 (2.05%) VLAN
11 43 (1.66%) BGP
12 36 (1.39%) SSL
13 35 (1.35%) Internet
13 35 (1.35%) OSPF
14 33 (1.28%) Skype
15 32 (1.24%) NAS
16 31 (1.20%) SNMP
16 31 (1.20%) VoIP
17 29 (1.12%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 224 (8.67%) SQL Server
2 51 (1.97%) Oracle Database
3 33 (1.28%) Power BI
4 29 (1.12%) Relational Database
5 27 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
6 25 (0.97%) MySQL
7 16 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
8 15 (0.58%) Db2
9 14 (0.54%) Elasticsearch
10 13 (0.50%) NoSQL
10 13 (0.50%) RDBMS
11 12 (0.46%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 10 (0.39%) MongoDB
13 7 (0.27%) GIS
14 6 (0.23%) Geospatial Data
14 6 (0.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
15 5 (0.19%) Big Data
15 5 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
15 5 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 167 (6.46%) JIRA
2 43 (1.66%) MSI
3 41 (1.59%) Git
3 41 (1.59%) Jenkins
4 38 (1.47%) GitLab
5 37 (1.43%) Visual Studio
6 17 (0.66%) Eclipse
7 9 (0.35%) Chocolatey
8 7 (0.27%) Bitbucket
8 7 (0.27%) Burp Suite
8 7 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
9 6 (0.23%) Android Studio
9 6 (0.23%) Browser DevTools
9 6 (0.23%) InstallShield
9 6 (0.23%) Metasploit
9 6 (0.23%) Xcode
10 5 (0.19%) AdminStudio
10 5 (0.19%) Artifactory
10 5 (0.19%) Selenium
11 4 (0.15%) Appium
General
1 901 (34.87%) Social Skills
2 287 (11.11%) Finance
3 274 (10.60%) Analytical Skills
4 167 (6.46%) Public Sector
5 150 (5.80%) Banking
6 101 (3.91%) Documentation Skills
7 82 (3.17%) Legal
8 80 (3.10%) Organisational Skills
9 52 (2.01%) Retail
10 51 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 45 (1.74%) Military
12 37 (1.43%) Manufacturing
13 36 (1.39%) Front Office
13 36 (1.39%) Investment Banking
14 29 (1.12%) Law
14 29 (1.12%) Telecoms
15 27 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
16 25 (0.97%) Spanish Language
17 22 (0.85%) French Language
18 18 (0.70%) Police
Job Titles
1 350 (13.54%) Support Engineer
2 345 (13.35%) IT Support
3 263 (10.18%) Analyst
4 234 (9.06%) IT Engineer
5 229 (8.86%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 194 (7.51%) IT Support Engineer
7 172 (6.66%) Senior
8 129 (4.99%) Architect
9 105 (4.06%) 2nd Line Support
10 104 (4.02%) Desktop Support
11 99 (3.83%) Desktop Engineer
11 99 (3.83%) Support Analyst
12 95 (3.68%) Developer
13 89 (3.44%) Lead
14 85 (3.29%) IT Analyst
15 79 (3.06%) Technical Support
16 75 (2.90%) Cloud Engineer
17 70 (2.71%) Consultant
18 66 (2.55%) Windows Engineer
19 61 (2.36%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 95 (3.68%) .NET
2 80 (3.10%) REST
3 58 (2.24%) .NET Framework
4 37 (1.43%) LDAP
5 31 (1.20%) 802.1X
6 30 (1.16%) Microsoft Graph
7 29 (1.12%) SAML
8 26 (1.01%) Middleware
8 26 (1.01%) Web Services
8 26 (1.01%) WPF
9 25 (0.97%) WinForms
10 24 (0.93%) OAuth
11 22 (0.85%) Elastic Stack
12 21 (0.81%) Software Packaging
13 20 (0.77%) CSS
14 16 (0.62%) JSON
14 16 (0.62%) Kafka
14 16 (0.62%) Node.js
15 14 (0.54%) SailPoint
16 13 (0.50%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 253 (9.79%) Onboarding
2 131 (5.07%) Data Centre
3 120 (4.64%) PKI
4 75 (2.90%) Clustering
5 71 (2.75%) Enterprise Software
6 65 (2.52%) Self-Motivation
7 63 (2.44%) Management Information System
8 55 (2.13%) Cloud Native
9 53 (2.05%) Replication
10 48 (1.86%) Hybrid Cloud
10 48 (1.86%) Security Posture
11 46 (1.78%) Driving Licence
11 46 (1.78%) Virtual Team
12 44 (1.70%) Legacy Systems
13 32 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
14 31 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
15 30 (1.16%) CMDB
15 30 (1.16%) Product Ownership
15 30 (1.16%) Video Conferencing
16 28 (1.08%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 626 (24.23%) Linux
2 615 (23.80%) Windows Server
3 452 (17.49%) Windows 10
4 166 (6.42%) Mac OS
5 128 (4.95%) Apple iOS
6 123 (4.76%) Unix
7 120 (4.64%) Android
8 92 (3.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 61 (2.36%) Windows Server 2019
10 48 (1.86%) Windows Server 2016
11 45 (1.74%) Windows 7
12 37 (1.43%) Windows Server 2012
13 33 (1.28%) Ubuntu
14 30 (1.16%) AIX
15 18 (0.70%) Solaris
15 18 (0.70%) VMS
16 16 (0.62%) Windows Server 2003
17 14 (0.54%) CentOS
18 13 (0.50%) Windows Server 2008
19 9 (0.35%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 577 (22.33%) Problem-Solving
2 405 (15.67%) ITIL
3 385 (14.90%) Customer Service
4 298 (11.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 284 (10.99%) Migration
6 256 (9.91%) ITSM
7 243 (9.40%) DevOps
8 236 (9.13%) Agile
9 223 (8.63%) Continuous Improvement
10 222 (8.59%) CI/CD
11 184 (7.12%) Service Management
12 178 (6.89%) High Availability
13 174 (6.73%) Change Management
14 156 (6.04%) Infrastructure as Code
15 148 (5.73%) Stakeholder Management
16 145 (5.61%) Disaster Recovery
17 131 (5.07%) Cybersecurity
17 131 (5.07%) SIEM
18 126 (4.88%) Runbook
19 125 (4.84%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 555 (21.48%) PowerShell
2 263 (10.18%) SQL
3 256 (9.91%) Python
4 129 (4.99%) C#
5 104 (4.02%) Bash
6 64 (2.48%) JavaScript
7 61 (2.36%) Java
8 48 (1.86%) PL/SQL
9 47 (1.82%) C++
10 45 (1.74%) T-SQL
11 24 (0.93%) VB
12 22 (0.85%) Kusto Query Language
12 22 (0.85%) Search Processing Language
13 20 (0.77%) Bicep
13 20 (0.77%) VBScript
14 18 (0.70%) Shell Script
15 17 (0.66%) Perl
16 14 (0.54%) TypeScript
17 13 (0.50%) C
18 12 (0.46%) VBA
Qualifications
1 774 (29.95%) Security Cleared
2 490 (18.96%) SC Cleared
3 298 (11.53%) Degree
4 251 (9.71%) DV Cleared
5 107 (4.14%) Microsoft Certification
6 79 (3.06%) Cisco Certification
7 74 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
8 59 (2.28%) CISSP
9 55 (2.13%) Azure Certification
10 43 (1.66%) AWS Certification
11 40 (1.55%) MCSE
12 37 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
13 30 (1.16%) CCNA
14 29 (1.12%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 27 (1.04%) CCNP
16 26 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
16 26 (1.01%) MCSA
17 24 (0.93%) CISM
18 21 (0.81%) A+ Certification
19 20 (0.77%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 116 (4.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 98 (3.79%) SLA
3 85 (3.29%) NIST
4 75 (2.90%) QA
5 59 (2.28%) GDPR
6 34 (1.32%) PCI DSS
7 32 (1.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 25 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials
9 16 (0.62%) NCSC
10 11 (0.43%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.43%) HIPAA
11 10 (0.39%) NIST 800
12 9 (0.35%) GRC
13 8 (0.31%) Accessibility
13 8 (0.31%) SOC 2
14 7 (0.27%) FINRA
14 7 (0.27%) MiFID
15 6 (0.23%) ISO 31000
15 6 (0.23%) PMO
15 6 (0.23%) WCAG
System Software
1 977 (37.81%) Active Directory
2 322 (12.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 134 (5.19%) Hyper-V
4 104 (4.02%) VMware ESXi
5 95 (3.68%) Virtual Machines
6 92 (3.56%) vSphere
7 84 (3.25%) Docker
8 60 (2.32%) Virtual Desktop
9 51 (1.97%) VMware NSX
10 37 (1.43%) BitLocker
10 37 (1.43%) Firmware
11 28 (1.08%) Microsoft App-V
12 18 (0.70%) KVM
13 12 (0.46%) vCloud
14 10 (0.39%) XenDesktop
15 9 (0.35%) XenApp
16 8 (0.31%) VMware Workstation
17 6 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
17 6 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
18 5 (0.19%) etcd
Systems Management
1 365 (14.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 235 (9.09%) SCCM
3 180 (6.97%) Terraform
4 164 (6.35%) Ansible
5 124 (4.80%) Kubernetes
6 85 (3.29%) vCenter Server
7 49 (1.90%) Single Sign-On
8 42 (1.63%) FortiGate
8 42 (1.63%) Jamf Pro
8 42 (1.63%) SCOM
9 38 (1.47%) WSUS
10 34 (1.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 30 (1.16%) Progress Chef
12 27 (1.04%) Prometheus
13 25 (0.97%) Puppet
14 24 (0.93%) Grafana
15 22 (0.85%) Nagios
16 21 (0.81%) Nessus
17 19 (0.74%) Packer
17 19 (0.74%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,117 (43.23%) Microsoft
2 419 (16.22%) VMware
3 232 (8.98%) ServiceNow
4 182 (7.04%) Citrix
5 180 (6.97%) Cisco
6 151 (5.84%) Oracle
7 119 (4.61%) Splunk
8 70 (2.71%) HP
8 70 (2.71%) SolarWinds
9 64 (2.48%) Apple
10 63 (2.44%) Red Hat
11 60 (2.32%) Google
12 58 (2.24%) CyberArk
13 55 (2.13%) Dell
14 51 (1.97%) Remedy
15 47 (1.82%) BeyondTrust
15 47 (1.82%) Juniper
16 46 (1.78%) IBM
17 45 (1.74%) F5
18 35 (1.35%) Tenable
867 Windows jobs in England