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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 20 17
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,751 2,312 2,833
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.02% 8.33% 8.53%
As % of the Operating Systems category 62.23% 61.07% 60.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,767 1,566 1,897
10th Percentile £170 £170 £179
25th Percentile £225 £220 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £408 £438
Median % change year-on-year +1.84% -6.86% +1.74%
75th Percentile £556 £572 £575
90th Percentile £650 £663 £650
UK median daily rate £425 £410 £430
% change year-on-year +3.66% -4.65% -2.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 243 196 195
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.31 £11.00
25th Percentile £17.55 £17.44 £15.22
Median hourly rate £25.75 £18.87 £21.59
Median % change year-on-year +36.46% -12.60% -4.04%
75th Percentile £60.00 £30.00 £59.38
90th Percentile £74.00 £65.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £24.88 £21.28 £22.00
% change year-on-year +16.89% -3.27% -2.22%

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 4,421 3,786 4,711
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.68% 13.65% 14.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,837 2,496 3,088
10th Percentile £190 £190 £200
25th Percentile £313 £306 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £586 £588
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £469 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.22% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 311 244 281
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.52 £12.38
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.32 £17.00
Median hourly rate £35.22 £24.00 £36.17
Median % change year-on-year +46.75% -33.64% -9.59%
75th Percentile £66.63 £58.81 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.70 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £25.08 £30.00
% change year-on-year +3.69% -16.42% -27.56%

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 24 August 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 24 August 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 24 August 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 -13 918 £425 +1.19% 235
South East -8 568 £475 -3.26% 310
North of England -5 506 £325 - 190
North West +3 297 £335 -4.29% 91
South West -15 283 £478 +36.43% 119
Midlands -20 260 £385 -3.75% 140
East of England -4 198 £335 +5.43% 130
Yorkshire -16 181 £313 +4.17% 72
West Midlands -28 165 £425 -1.16% 95
East Midlands +6 91 £273 +36.25% 45
North East -31 32 £260 -0.95% 37
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
1 230 (8.36%) Microsoft Exchange
2 227 (8.25%) SharePoint
3 58 (2.11%) IIS
4 56 (2.04%) Confluence
5 18 (0.65%) Skype for Business
6 16 (0.58%) nginx
7 15 (0.55%) Apache
8 11 (0.40%) Tomcat
9 9 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
10 7 (0.25%) WebLogic
11 6 (0.22%) Documentum
12 5 (0.18%) Apache Solr
12 5 (0.18%) Appian
12 5 (0.18%) Camunda
13 4 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
14 3 (0.11%) CloudStack
14 3 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
14 3 (0.11%) NetWeaver
14 3 (0.11%) OpenStack
15 2 (0.073%) SAS
Applications
1 173 (6.29%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (2.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.18%) Acrobat
5 5 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.11%) Houdini
6 3 (0.11%) NUKE
7 2 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.073%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.036%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.036%) CINEMA 4D
8 1 (0.036%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 57 (2.07%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.36%) Finacle
3 7 (0.25%) OpenText MBPM
3 7 (0.25%) Oracle BPM
4 6 (0.22%) SAP S/4HANA
5 5 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
6 4 (0.15%) Teamcenter
7 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.073%) assyst
9 1 (0.036%) Dynamics NAV
9 1 (0.036%) Oracle BRM
9 1 (0.036%) SAP BRIM
9 1 (0.036%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.036%) SAP EWM
9 1 (0.036%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.036%) SAP FI-CA
9 1 (0.036%) SAP FS
9 1 (0.036%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 888 (32.28%) Microsoft 365
2 874 (31.77%) Azure
3 442 (16.07%) Entra ID
4 306 (11.12%) AWS
5 130 (4.73%) OneDrive
6 103 (3.74%) Azure DevOps
7 89 (3.24%) GCP
8 74 (2.69%) Azure Monitor
9 69 (2.51%) SaaS
10 63 (2.29%) Power Platform
11 62 (2.25%) GitHub
12 61 (2.22%) IaaS
13 46 (1.67%) PaaS
14 41 (1.49%) Azure Sentinel
15 28 (1.02%) OpenShift
16 26 (0.95%) Google Workspace
17 25 (0.91%) AWS CloudFormation
18 24 (0.87%) Azure AKS
19 23 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
20 21 (0.76%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 433 (15.74%) DNS
2 319 (11.60%) Firewall
3 312 (11.34%) DHCP
4 229 (8.32%) VPN
5 211 (7.67%) TCP/IP
6 130 (4.73%) WAN
7 128 (4.65%) LAN
8 125 (4.54%) Wi-Fi
9 87 (3.16%) SAN
10 81 (2.94%) VLAN
11 75 (2.73%) Network Security
12 43 (1.56%) NAS
13 41 (1.49%) SSL
14 39 (1.42%) Internet
14 39 (1.42%) VSAN
14 39 (1.42%) Wireless
15 33 (1.20%) Skype
16 30 (1.09%) BGP
17 27 (0.98%) VoIP
18 24 (0.87%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 260 (9.45%) SQL Server
2 52 (1.89%) Oracle Database
3 51 (1.85%) Power BI
4 25 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 23 (0.84%) Relational Database
6 22 (0.80%) PostgreSQL
7 21 (0.76%) MySQL
8 18 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
9 15 (0.55%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 15 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 11 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
10 11 (0.40%) Geospatial Data
10 11 (0.40%) RDBMS
11 10 (0.36%) Db2
12 8 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
12 8 (0.29%) MongoDB
13 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
14 5 (0.18%) Big Data
14 5 (0.18%) ObjectStore
14 5 (0.18%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 157 (5.71%) JIRA
2 66 (2.40%) Git
3 46 (1.67%) MSI
4 44 (1.60%) Jenkins
5 38 (1.38%) GitLab
6 31 (1.13%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.62%) Bitbucket
7 17 (0.62%) Eclipse
8 10 (0.36%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 9 (0.33%) Selenium
10 7 (0.25%) Artifactory
10 7 (0.25%) Browser DevTools
10 7 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
11 6 (0.22%) Chocolatey
12 5 (0.18%) AdminStudio
12 5 (0.18%) InstallShield
13 4 (0.15%) Claude Code
13 4 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
13 4 (0.15%) Robot Framework
14 3 (0.11%) Appium
General
1 1,009 (36.68%) Social Skills
2 340 (12.36%) Finance
3 336 (12.21%) Analytical Skills
4 154 (5.60%) Banking
5 140 (5.09%) Public Sector
6 97 (3.53%) Documentation Skills
7 74 (2.69%) Legal
8 72 (2.62%) Organisational Skills
9 60 (2.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 53 (1.93%) Retail
11 52 (1.89%) Manufacturing
12 42 (1.53%) Telecoms
13 40 (1.45%) Front Office
14 37 (1.34%) Military
15 36 (1.31%) Law
16 33 (1.20%) Investment Banking
17 28 (1.02%) Spanish Language
18 25 (0.91%) French Language
19 24 (0.87%) Financial Institution
20 20 (0.73%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 445 (16.18%) Support Engineer
2 377 (13.70%) IT Support
3 294 (10.69%) IT Engineer
4 285 (10.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 247 (8.98%) IT Support Engineer
6 234 (8.51%) Analyst
7 219 (7.96%) Senior
8 124 (4.51%) 2nd Line Support
9 121 (4.40%) Desktop Support
10 106 (3.85%) Desktop Engineer
11 104 (3.78%) Cloud Engineer
12 102 (3.71%) Lead
13 101 (3.67%) Architect
14 92 (3.34%) Support Analyst
15 90 (3.27%) Developer
16 85 (3.09%) Windows Engineer
17 80 (2.91%) Consultant
18 78 (2.84%) 1st Line Support
19 75 (2.73%) IT Analyst
20 72 (2.62%) 2nd Line Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 243 (8.83%) Terraform
2 114 (4.14%) .NET
3 98 (3.56%) REST
4 65 (2.36%) .NET Framework
5 30 (1.09%) Middleware
5 30 (1.09%) WPF
6 28 (1.02%) JSON
6 28 (1.02%) LDAP
7 26 (0.95%) WinForms
8 22 (0.80%) ARM Templates
9 21 (0.76%) CSS
9 21 (0.76%) Software Packaging
10 20 (0.73%) HTML
10 20 (0.73%) Web Services
11 19 (0.69%) Elastic Stack
11 19 (0.69%) Microsoft Graph
12 18 (0.65%) .NET Core
12 18 (0.65%) Kafka
13 17 (0.62%) RESTful
13 17 (0.62%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 333 (12.10%) Onboarding
2 149 (5.42%) Data Centre
3 144 (5.23%) PKI
4 86 (3.13%) Management Information System
5 84 (3.05%) Clustering
6 79 (2.87%) Hybrid Cloud
7 72 (2.62%) Enterprise Software
8 69 (2.51%) Cloud Native
9 65 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
10 64 (2.33%) Video Conferencing
11 56 (2.04%) Driving Licence
12 51 (1.85%) Replication
13 45 (1.64%) Security Posture
14 43 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
15 39 (1.42%) Virtual Team
16 38 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
17 37 (1.34%) Enterprise Storage
18 34 (1.24%) CMDB
19 30 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
20 29 (1.05%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 737 (26.79%) Windows Server
2 671 (24.39%) Linux
3 489 (17.78%) Windows 10
4 179 (6.51%) Mac OS
5 122 (4.43%) Apple iOS
6 118 (4.29%) Android
7 107 (3.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 103 (3.74%) Unix
9 66 (2.40%) Windows Server 2019
10 46 (1.67%) Ubuntu
10 46 (1.67%) Windows 7
11 40 (1.45%) Windows Server 2016
12 37 (1.34%) Windows Server 2012
13 29 (1.05%) CentOS
14 24 (0.87%) AIX
15 20 (0.73%) VMS
16 17 (0.62%) Windows Server 2008
17 15 (0.55%) Solaris
18 11 (0.40%) Debian
18 11 (0.40%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 671 (24.39%) Problem-Solving
2 513 (18.65%) ITIL
3 438 (15.92%) Customer Service
4 365 (13.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 362 (13.16%) ITSM
6 322 (11.70%) Migration
7 291 (10.58%) Continuous Improvement
8 271 (9.85%) DevOps
9 258 (9.38%) Service Management
10 245 (8.91%) Agile
11 241 (8.76%) CI/CD
12 226 (8.22%) Infrastructure as Code
13 200 (7.27%) Change Management
14 183 (6.65%) Stakeholder Management
15 174 (6.32%) Disaster Recovery
16 169 (6.14%) High Availability
17 162 (5.89%) Root Cause Analysis
18 161 (5.85%) Cybersecurity
19 157 (5.71%) Service Delivery
20 154 (5.60%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 698 (25.37%) PowerShell
2 307 (11.16%) Python
3 278 (10.11%) SQL
4 168 (6.11%) Bash
5 142 (5.16%) C#
6 65 (2.36%) Java
7 64 (2.33%) JavaScript
8 51 (1.85%) T-SQL
9 47 (1.71%) Bicep
10 46 (1.67%) PL/SQL
11 43 (1.56%) C++
12 29 (1.05%) VB
13 26 (0.95%) VBScript
14 24 (0.87%) Search Processing Language
15 17 (0.62%) Perl
16 16 (0.58%) TypeScript
17 15 (0.55%) Shell Script
18 12 (0.44%) VBA
19 11 (0.40%) C
20 10 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 868 (31.55%) Security Cleared
2 523 (19.01%) SC Cleared
3 327 (11.89%) DV Cleared
4 282 (10.25%) Degree
5 107 (3.89%) Microsoft Certification
6 81 (2.94%) Azure Certification
7 75 (2.73%) Cisco Certification
7 75 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
8 58 (2.11%) CISSP
9 52 (1.89%) AWS Certification
10 48 (1.74%) A+ Certification
11 46 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
12 39 (1.42%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 32 (1.16%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 30 (1.09%) CCNA
15 29 (1.05%) CCNP
16 26 (0.95%) MCSE
17 25 (0.91%) DBS Check
18 24 (0.87%) CISM
18 24 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 143 (5.20%) SLA
2 109 (3.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 82 (2.98%) QA
4 80 (2.91%) NIST
5 27 (0.98%) Cyber Essentials
5 27 (0.98%) NCSC
6 24 (0.87%) GDPR
7 22 (0.80%) PCI DSS
8 15 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 14 (0.51%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.47%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.40%) GRC
11 11 (0.40%) HIPAA
11 11 (0.40%) WCAG
12 9 (0.33%) PMO
13 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 7 (0.25%) GxP
14 7 (0.25%) NIST 800
15 6 (0.22%) ISO 31000
15 6 (0.22%) SOC 2
System Software
1 1,137 (41.33%) Active Directory
2 409 (14.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 173 (6.29%) Hyper-V
4 135 (4.91%) VMware ESXi
5 121 (4.40%) vSphere
6 102 (3.71%) Docker
7 89 (3.24%) Virtual Machines
8 82 (2.98%) VMware NSX
9 80 (2.91%) Virtual Desktop
10 40 (1.45%) BitLocker
11 36 (1.31%) Firmware
12 22 (0.80%) vCloud
13 17 (0.62%) Microsoft App-V
14 14 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
15 10 (0.36%) KVM
16 9 (0.33%) XenApp
16 9 (0.33%) XenDesktop
17 8 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
18 7 (0.25%) Citrix Hypervisor
18 7 (0.25%) NFS
Systems Management
1 405 (14.72%) Microsoft Intune
2 286 (10.40%) SCCM
3 216 (7.85%) Ansible
4 148 (5.38%) Kubernetes
5 117 (4.25%) vCenter Server
6 79 (2.87%) SCOM
7 45 (1.64%) WSUS
8 44 (1.60%) Jamf Pro
9 34 (1.24%) Progress Chef
10 31 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
11 28 (1.02%) Puppet
12 27 (0.98%) FortiGate
13 26 (0.95%) WMI
14 24 (0.87%) Grafana
14 24 (0.87%) Nagios
14 24 (0.87%) Packer
14 24 (0.87%) Prometheus
15 23 (0.84%) VxRail
16 20 (0.73%) Microsoft Clustering
16 20 (0.73%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 1,296 (47.11%) Microsoft
2 543 (19.74%) VMware
3 329 (11.96%) ServiceNow
4 177 (6.43%) Cisco
5 162 (5.89%) Citrix
6 159 (5.78%) Oracle
7 103 (3.74%) Splunk
8 92 (3.34%) Apple
9 86 (3.13%) CyberArk
10 73 (2.65%) Google
11 68 (2.47%) SolarWinds
12 61 (2.22%) BeyondTrust
12 61 (2.22%) HP
12 61 (2.22%) Remedy
13 60 (2.18%) Red Hat
14 48 (1.74%) Dell
15 47 (1.71%) BMC
16 40 (1.45%) NetApp
17 39 (1.42%) Meraki
18 37 (1.34%) Juniper