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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 20 16
Rank change year-on-year -7 -4 -2
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,510 2,061 3,148
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.00% 8.61% 8.58%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.35% 61.56% 61.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,647 1,459 2,185
10th Percentile £163 £181 £163
25th Percentile £214 £250 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £420 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year -1.18% +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 216 123 264
10th Percentile £15.84 £14.20 £11.80
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.76 £18.82 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.88% +4.56% -21.96%
75th Percentile £60.00 £25.00 £25.07
90th Percentile £74.00 £51.43 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.26 £18.82 £18.07
% change year-on-year +34.22% +4.18% -21.68%

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 4,091 3,348 5,078
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.78% 13.99% 13.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,665 2,290 3,468
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £313 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £467 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.62% -1.63% -6.86%
75th Percentile £570 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £694 £700
UK median daily rate £459 £467 £475
% change year-on-year -1.66% -1.74% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 156 370
10th Percentile £15.91 £15.11 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.33 £15.50
Median hourly rate £37.50 £20.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +87.50% -11.11% -47.06%
75th Percentile £65.00 £55.63 £61.90
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £22.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +59.09% -2.22% -47.06%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -26 768 £428 -5.00% 226
South East -5 526 £475 - 273
North of England -8 465 £363 +3.57% 175
Midlands -17 278 £325 +18.18% 104
North West 0 262 £335 -4.29% 105
South West -14 232 £466 -0.64% 120
East of England -1 222 £350 -8.50% 90
Yorkshire -18 187 £370 -7.50% 53
West Midlands -22 164 £450 +57.89% 58
East Midlands +8 109 £213 - 46
North East -33 20 £290 -3.33% 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
1 213 (8.49%) Microsoft Exchange
2 165 (6.57%) SharePoint
3 56 (2.23%) IIS
4 51 (2.03%) 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
1 162 (6.45%) Microsoft Office
2 62 (2.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (1.00%) 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
1 740 (29.48%) Azure
2 728 (29.00%) Microsoft 365
3 319 (12.71%) Entra ID
4 235 (9.36%) AWS
5 79 (3.15%) OneDrive
6 77 (3.07%) GCP
7 68 (2.71%) SaaS
8 66 (2.63%) Azure DevOps
9 63 (2.51%) IaaS
10 54 (2.15%) GitHub
11 51 (2.03%) PaaS
12 46 (1.83%) Power Platform
13 37 (1.47%) Azure Monitor
14 33 (1.31%) Azure Sentinel
15 31 (1.24%) Google Workspace
16 26 (1.04%) GitHub Actions
17 23 (0.92%) OpenShift
18 17 (0.68%) AWS CloudFormation
18 17 (0.68%) Azure AKS
19 16 (0.64%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 343 (13.67%) DNS
2 267 (10.64%) Firewall
3 242 (9.64%) DHCP
4 170 (6.77%) VPN
5 153 (6.10%) LAN
6 146 (5.82%) WAN
7 139 (5.54%) TCP/IP
8 113 (4.50%) Wi-Fi
9 65 (2.59%) Network Security
10 63 (2.51%) SAN
11 53 (2.11%) VLAN
12 39 (1.55%) Wireless
13 38 (1.51%) BGP
14 36 (1.43%) Skype
15 34 (1.35%) OSPF
16 31 (1.24%) BIG-IP
16 31 (1.24%) SNMP
16 31 (1.24%) SSL
16 31 (1.24%) VoIP
17 30 (1.20%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 200 (7.97%) SQL Server
2 42 (1.67%) Oracle Database
3 33 (1.31%) Relational Database
4 29 (1.16%) MySQL
4 29 (1.16%) Power BI
5 24 (0.96%) 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%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.16%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 168 (6.69%) JIRA
2 41 (1.63%) MSI
3 40 (1.59%) GitLab
3 40 (1.59%) Jenkins
4 36 (1.43%) Visual Studio
5 30 (1.20%) Git
6 20 (0.80%) Eclipse
7 14 (0.56%) Burp Suite
8 13 (0.52%) 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
1 846 (33.71%) Social Skills
2 257 (10.24%) Finance
3 230 (9.16%) Analytical Skills
4 165 (6.57%) Public Sector
5 142 (5.66%) Banking
6 92 (3.67%) Documentation Skills
7 89 (3.55%) Legal
8 76 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
9 54 (2.15%) Military
10 46 (1.83%) Retail
11 39 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 37 (1.47%) Manufacturing
13 36 (1.43%) Law
14 31 (1.24%) Investment Banking
15 30 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
16 27 (1.08%) Front Office
17 26 (1.04%) Telecoms
18 21 (0.84%) Local Government
19 18 (0.72%) Police
20 17 (0.68%) French Language
Job Titles
1 327 (13.03%) IT Support
2 318 (12.67%) Support Engineer
3 279 (11.12%) Analyst
4 217 (8.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 202 (8.05%) IT Engineer
6 168 (6.69%) Senior
7 166 (6.61%) IT Support Engineer
8 133 (5.30%) Architect
9 114 (4.54%) Support Analyst
10 113 (4.50%) Desktop Support
11 101 (4.02%) Desktop Engineer
12 95 (3.78%) 2nd Line Support
13 91 (3.63%) IT Analyst
14 88 (3.51%) Lead
15 87 (3.47%) Technical Support
16 81 (3.23%) Developer
17 67 (2.67%) 1st Line Support
18 66 (2.63%) Desktop Support Engineer
18 66 (2.63%) IT Support Analyst
18 66 (2.63%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (3.31%) .NET
2 69 (2.75%) REST
3 49 (1.95%) .NET Framework
4 37 (1.47%) LDAP
5 32 (1.27%) Microsoft Graph
6 31 (1.24%) SAML
7 28 (1.12%) 802.1X
8 26 (1.04%) Middleware
8 26 (1.04%) WinForms
9 24 (0.96%) OAuth
10 23 (0.92%) Web Services
11 21 (0.84%) WPF
12 20 (0.80%) Kafka
13 19 (0.76%) CSS
13 19 (0.76%) React
14 18 (0.72%) Node.js
14 18 (0.72%) Software Packaging
15 17 (0.68%) AngularJS
16 16 (0.64%) Elastic Stack
17 14 (0.56%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 229 (9.12%) Onboarding
2 115 (4.58%) Data Centre
3 110 (4.38%) PKI
4 80 (3.19%) Clustering
5 75 (2.99%) Enterprise Software
6 56 (2.23%) Self-Motivation
7 55 (2.19%) Replication
8 52 (2.07%) Management Information System
9 49 (1.95%) Hybrid Cloud
10 48 (1.91%) Driving Licence
11 44 (1.75%) Security Posture
11 44 (1.75%) Virtual Team
12 41 (1.63%) Cloud Native
13 40 (1.59%) Smartphone
14 37 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
15 32 (1.27%) CMDB
16 31 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
17 29 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
17 29 (1.16%) Enterprise Storage
17 29 (1.16%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 617 (24.58%) Linux
2 593 (23.63%) Windows Server
3 468 (18.65%) Windows 10
4 158 (6.29%) Mac OS
5 127 (5.06%) Apple iOS
5 127 (5.06%) Unix
6 122 (4.86%) Android
7 83 (3.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 65 (2.59%) Windows Server 2019
9 61 (2.43%) Windows Server 2016
10 48 (1.91%) Windows 7
11 35 (1.39%) Windows Server 2012
12 29 (1.16%) AIX
13 28 (1.12%) Ubuntu
14 18 (0.72%) Windows Server 2003
15 17 (0.68%) VMS
16 14 (0.56%) Solaris
17 12 (0.48%) CentOS
17 12 (0.48%) Windows Server 2008
18 8 (0.32%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 522 (20.80%) Problem-Solving
2 391 (15.58%) Customer Service
3 376 (14.98%) ITIL
4 284 (11.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 269 (10.72%) Migration
6 247 (9.84%) Agile
7 232 (9.24%) ITSM
8 231 (9.20%) DevOps
9 216 (8.61%) CI/CD
10 176 (7.01%) Continuous Improvement
11 172 (6.85%) Change Management
12 168 (6.69%) Disaster Recovery
13 162 (6.45%) High Availability
14 161 (6.41%) Service Management
15 134 (5.34%) Stakeholder Management
16 131 (5.22%) SIEM
17 130 (5.18%) Cybersecurity
18 125 (4.98%) Infrastructure as Code
19 114 (4.54%) Computer Science
20 108 (4.30%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 543 (21.63%) PowerShell
2 248 (9.88%) SQL
3 241 (9.60%) Python
4 119 (4.74%) C#
5 95 (3.78%) Bash
6 68 (2.71%) JavaScript
7 67 (2.67%) Java
8 49 (1.95%) PL/SQL
9 46 (1.83%) C++
10 44 (1.75%) T-SQL
11 26 (1.04%) Kusto Query Language
12 24 (0.96%) VB
13 22 (0.88%) Search Processing Language
14 19 (0.76%) Shell Script
15 18 (0.72%) Perl
15 18 (0.72%) VBScript
16 16 (0.64%) Bicep
17 13 (0.52%) C
17 13 (0.52%) VBA
18 11 (0.44%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 763 (30.40%) Security Cleared
2 481 (19.16%) SC Cleared
3 282 (11.24%) Degree
4 252 (10.04%) DV Cleared
5 98 (3.90%) Microsoft Certification
6 77 (3.07%) Computer Science Degree
7 75 (2.99%) Cisco Certification
8 55 (2.19%) CISSP
9 49 (1.95%) Azure Certification
10 41 (1.63%) MCSE
11 34 (1.35%) AWS Certification
11 34 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
12 29 (1.16%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 27 (1.08%) MCSA
14 26 (1.04%) CCNA
14 26 (1.04%) ITIL Certification
15 25 (1.00%) CCNP
16 23 (0.92%) CISM
17 22 (0.88%) CompTIA Security+
18 19 (0.76%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 110 (4.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 95 (3.78%) SLA
3 78 (3.11%) NIST
4 75 (2.99%) QA
5 74 (2.95%) GDPR
6 36 (1.43%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 25 (1.00%) Cyber Essentials
9 12 (0.48%) NCSC
9 12 (0.48%) NIST 800
10 11 (0.44%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.44%) MiFID
10 11 (0.44%) PMO
11 10 (0.40%) FINRA
12 9 (0.36%) HIPAA
13 7 (0.28%) SOC 2
14 6 (0.24%) DICOM
14 6 (0.24%) GRC
14 6 (0.24%) HL7
14 6 (0.24%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 952 (37.93%) Active Directory
2 317 (12.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 139 (5.54%) Hyper-V
4 91 (3.63%) VMware ESXi
4 91 (3.63%) vSphere
5 84 (3.35%) Virtual Machines
6 80 (3.19%) Docker
7 51 (2.03%) Virtual Desktop
8 47 (1.87%) VMware NSX
9 35 (1.39%) Firmware
10 33 (1.31%) BitLocker
11 26 (1.04%) Microsoft App-V
12 20 (0.80%) KVM
13 11 (0.44%) XenDesktop
14 10 (0.40%) XenApp
15 8 (0.32%) vCloud
15 8 (0.32%) VMware Workstation
16 6 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
17 5 (0.20%) etcd
17 5 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 345 (13.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 227 (9.04%) SCCM
3 166 (6.61%) Ansible
4 155 (6.18%) Terraform
5 117 (4.66%) Kubernetes
6 78 (3.11%) vCenter Server
7 45 (1.79%) Single Sign-On
8 40 (1.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 36 (1.43%) FortiGate
10 35 (1.39%) Jamf Pro
10 35 (1.39%) SCOM
11 34 (1.35%) WSUS
12 27 (1.08%) Grafana
13 25 (1.00%) Nagios
14 24 (0.96%) Prometheus
15 23 (0.92%) Progress Chef
16 20 (0.80%) Nessus
17 18 (0.72%) Puppet
17 18 (0.72%) Tivoli
17 18 (0.72%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,075 (42.83%) Microsoft
2 414 (16.49%) VMware
3 226 (9.00%) ServiceNow
4 180 (7.17%) Citrix
5 176 (7.01%) Cisco
6 143 (5.70%) Oracle
7 128 (5.10%) Splunk
8 70 (2.79%) HP
9 68 (2.71%) SolarWinds
10 59 (2.35%) Red Hat
11 58 (2.31%) Dell
12 57 (2.27%) Remedy
13 53 (2.11%) Google
14 49 (1.95%) Apple
15 46 (1.83%) CyberArk
16 45 (1.79%) F5
17 44 (1.75%) Juniper
18 43 (1.71%) IBM
19 37 (1.47%) BeyondTrust
20 34 (1.35%) Palo Alto