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

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 21 17
Rank change year-on-year -6 -4 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,636 2,196 3,190
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.01% 8.50% 8.55%
As % of the Operating Systems category 62.16% 61.05% 61.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,718 1,507 2,164
10th Percentile £163 £181 £168
25th Percentile £220 £243 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year - - -5.56%
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 221 158 273
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.82 £11.84
25th Percentile £19.00 £16.95 £14.27
Median hourly rate £25.75 £18.87 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.46% -0.68% -22.83%
75th Percentile £55.50 £25.15 £40.00
90th Percentile £70.23 £64.13 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.51 £18.87 £19.59
% change year-on-year +35.16% -3.68% -17.90%

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 4,241 3,597 5,191
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.67% 13.93% 13.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,757 2,417 3,440
10th Percentile £189 £200 £190
25th Percentile £313 £313 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £465 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.29% -2.11% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £465 £465 £475
% change year-on-year +0.05% -2.16% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 283 193 394
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.17 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.33 £16.00
Median hourly rate £29.48 £19.36 £24.93
Median % change year-on-year +52.27% -22.33% -41.35%
75th Percentile £65.00 £49.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.32 £66.90 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.22 £22.25 £24.93
% change year-on-year +17.84% -10.74% -41.35%

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 2 July 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 2 July 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 2 July 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 -17 862 £425 -3.13% 275
South East -8 530 £475 -5.00% 295
North of England -8 470 £365 +4.29% 194
Midlands -17 276 £339 +23.18% 130
South West -11 262 £488 +8.33% 156
North West -5 249 £363 -1.49% 111
East of England 0 219 £300 +8.08% 100
Yorkshire -12 202 £365 -8.75% 60
West Midlands -24 174 £450 +50.00% 61
East Midlands +8 97 £263 +31.25% 69
North East -35 23 £290 +0.87% 30
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
1 220 (8.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 180 (6.83%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.05%) Confluence
4 53 (2.01%) IIS
5 14 (0.53%) Apache
5 14 (0.53%) Skype for Business
5 14 (0.53%) Tomcat
6 13 (0.49%) nginx
7 9 (0.34%) Oracle Workflow
7 9 (0.34%) WebLogic
8 7 (0.27%) Appian
9 5 (0.19%) Camunda
9 5 (0.19%) Documentum
10 4 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.11%) CloudStack
11 3 (0.11%) NetWeaver
11 3 (0.11%) TPMS
11 3 (0.11%) Tuxedo
12 2 (0.076%) WebSphere
12 2 (0.076%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 163 (6.18%) Microsoft Office
2 65 (2.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (0.23%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.19%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.038%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.038%) Houdini
8 1 (0.038%) InDesign
8 1 (0.038%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 38 (1.44%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.42%) Teamcenter
4 10 (0.38%) Finacle
5 6 (0.23%) OpenText MBPM
5 6 (0.23%) Oracle BPM
6 2 (0.076%) assyst
7 1 (0.038%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.038%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.038%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.038%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 808 (30.65%) Azure
2 750 (28.45%) Microsoft 365
3 362 (13.73%) Entra ID
4 278 (10.55%) AWS
5 103 (3.91%) OneDrive
6 82 (3.11%) GCP
7 81 (3.07%) Azure DevOps
8 71 (2.69%) SaaS
9 59 (2.24%) GitHub
9 59 (2.24%) IaaS
10 51 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
10 51 (1.93%) Power Platform
11 49 (1.86%) PaaS
12 34 (1.29%) Azure Sentinel
13 28 (1.06%) Google Workspace
14 27 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
15 26 (0.99%) AWS CloudFormation
16 25 (0.95%) OpenShift
17 22 (0.83%) Azure AKS
18 21 (0.80%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 362 (13.73%) DNS
2 271 (10.28%) Firewall
3 255 (9.67%) DHCP
4 176 (6.68%) VPN
5 157 (5.96%) LAN
6 152 (5.77%) WAN
7 150 (5.69%) TCP/IP
8 125 (4.74%) Wi-Fi
9 77 (2.92%) SAN
10 59 (2.24%) Network Security
11 54 (2.05%) VLAN
12 45 (1.71%) BGP
13 39 (1.48%) SSL
14 37 (1.40%) OSPF
15 36 (1.37%) Internet
16 34 (1.29%) NAS
17 32 (1.21%) Skype
18 31 (1.18%) VoIP
19 30 (1.14%) SNMP
19 30 (1.14%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 228 (8.65%) SQL Server
2 52 (1.97%) Oracle Database
3 35 (1.33%) Power BI
4 29 (1.10%) Relational Database
5 26 (0.99%) MySQL
5 26 (0.99%) PostgreSQL
6 17 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
6 17 (0.64%) Db2
7 14 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
7 14 (0.53%) NoSQL
8 13 (0.49%) RDBMS
8 13 (0.49%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 11 (0.42%) MongoDB
10 8 (0.30%) Geospatial Data
11 7 (0.27%) GIS
11 7 (0.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 6 (0.23%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 168 (6.37%) JIRA
2 46 (1.75%) Git
3 45 (1.71%) MSI
4 42 (1.59%) Jenkins
5 38 (1.44%) GitLab
6 36 (1.37%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.64%) Eclipse
8 9 (0.34%) Chocolatey
9 7 (0.27%) Bitbucket
9 7 (0.27%) Burp Suite
9 7 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
10 6 (0.23%) Android Studio
10 6 (0.23%) Browser DevTools
10 6 (0.23%) InstallShield
10 6 (0.23%) Metasploit
10 6 (0.23%) Xcode
11 5 (0.19%) AdminStudio
11 5 (0.19%) Artifactory
11 5 (0.19%) Selenium
12 4 (0.15%) Appium
General
1 928 (35.20%) Social Skills
2 288 (10.93%) Finance
3 284 (10.77%) Analytical Skills
4 171 (6.49%) Public Sector
5 147 (5.58%) Banking
6 100 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
7 80 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
8 79 (3.00%) Legal
9 53 (2.01%) Retail
10 50 (1.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 43 (1.63%) Military
12 36 (1.37%) Manufacturing
13 35 (1.33%) Front Office
14 34 (1.29%) Investment Banking
15 31 (1.18%) Telecoms
16 28 (1.06%) Law
17 26 (0.99%) Presentation Skills
18 24 (0.91%) Spanish Language
19 21 (0.80%) French Language
20 18 (0.68%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 365 (13.85%) Support Engineer
2 356 (13.51%) IT Support
3 267 (10.13%) Analyst
4 244 (9.26%) IT Engineer
5 235 (8.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 204 (7.74%) IT Support Engineer
7 175 (6.64%) Senior
8 130 (4.93%) Architect
9 111 (4.21%) 2nd Line Support
10 105 (3.98%) Desktop Support
11 102 (3.87%) Support Analyst
12 99 (3.76%) Desktop Engineer
13 98 (3.72%) Developer
14 93 (3.53%) Lead
15 87 (3.30%) IT Analyst
16 81 (3.07%) Technical Support
17 79 (3.00%) Cloud Engineer
18 73 (2.77%) Consultant
19 67 (2.54%) Windows Engineer
20 64 (2.43%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 96 (3.64%) .NET
2 84 (3.19%) REST
3 59 (2.24%) .NET Framework
4 38 (1.44%) LDAP
5 31 (1.18%) 802.1X
6 30 (1.14%) Microsoft Graph
6 30 (1.14%) SAML
7 28 (1.06%) WPF
8 27 (1.02%) Middleware
9 25 (0.95%) Web Services
9 25 (0.95%) WinForms
10 24 (0.91%) OAuth
11 23 (0.87%) Elastic Stack
12 22 (0.83%) CSS
13 21 (0.80%) Software Packaging
14 16 (0.61%) JSON
14 16 (0.61%) Kafka
14 16 (0.61%) Node.js
15 15 (0.57%) HTML
15 15 (0.57%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 262 (9.94%) Onboarding
2 132 (5.01%) Data Centre
3 124 (4.70%) PKI
4 77 (2.92%) Clustering
5 72 (2.73%) Enterprise Software
6 67 (2.54%) Management Information System
6 67 (2.54%) Self-Motivation
7 57 (2.16%) Cloud Native
8 56 (2.12%) Replication
9 48 (1.82%) Hybrid Cloud
9 48 (1.82%) Security Posture
10 46 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
11 45 (1.71%) Virtual Team
12 44 (1.67%) Driving Licence
13 41 (1.56%) Video Conferencing
14 32 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
15 31 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
16 29 (1.10%) Linux Command Line
17 28 (1.06%) CMDB
17 28 (1.06%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 634 (24.05%) Windows Server
2 630 (23.90%) Linux
3 452 (17.15%) Windows 10
4 174 (6.60%) Mac OS
5 128 (4.86%) Apple iOS
6 126 (4.78%) Unix
7 122 (4.63%) Android
8 94 (3.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 64 (2.43%) Windows Server 2019
10 48 (1.82%) Windows Server 2016
11 45 (1.71%) Windows 7
12 38 (1.44%) Windows Server 2012
13 34 (1.29%) Ubuntu
14 31 (1.18%) AIX
15 18 (0.68%) Solaris
15 18 (0.68%) VMS
16 16 (0.61%) Windows Server 2003
17 15 (0.57%) CentOS
18 13 (0.49%) Windows Server 2008
19 9 (0.34%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 586 (22.23%) Problem-Solving
2 421 (15.97%) ITIL
3 393 (14.91%) Customer Service
4 307 (11.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 288 (10.93%) Migration
6 268 (10.17%) ITSM
7 254 (9.64%) DevOps
8 241 (9.14%) Agile
9 232 (8.80%) Continuous Improvement
10 227 (8.61%) CI/CD
11 191 (7.25%) Service Management
12 184 (6.98%) High Availability
13 177 (6.71%) Change Management
14 164 (6.22%) Infrastructure as Code
15 152 (5.77%) Stakeholder Management
16 147 (5.58%) Disaster Recovery
17 134 (5.08%) Cybersecurity
18 133 (5.05%) Runbook
18 133 (5.05%) SIEM
19 131 (4.97%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 562 (21.32%) PowerShell
2 266 (10.09%) Python
3 265 (10.05%) SQL
4 131 (4.97%) C#
5 107 (4.06%) Bash
6 67 (2.54%) Java
7 64 (2.43%) JavaScript
8 48 (1.82%) C++
8 48 (1.82%) PL/SQL
9 47 (1.78%) T-SQL
10 24 (0.91%) VB
11 22 (0.83%) Bicep
11 22 (0.83%) Search Processing Language
12 21 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
13 20 (0.76%) VBScript
14 18 (0.68%) Shell Script
15 17 (0.64%) Perl
16 16 (0.61%) TypeScript
17 14 (0.53%) C
18 12 (0.46%) VBA
Qualifications
1 794 (30.12%) Security Cleared
2 499 (18.93%) SC Cleared
3 297 (11.27%) Degree
4 261 (9.90%) DV Cleared
5 107 (4.06%) Microsoft Certification
6 81 (3.07%) Cisco Certification
7 72 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
8 60 (2.28%) CISSP
9 57 (2.16%) Azure Certification
10 43 (1.63%) AWS Certification
10 43 (1.63%) BPSS Clearance
11 39 (1.48%) MCSE
12 31 (1.18%) CCNA
13 29 (1.10%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 28 (1.06%) CCNP
15 26 (0.99%) A+ Certification
15 26 (0.99%) ITIL Certification
16 25 (0.95%) MCSA
17 24 (0.91%) CISM
18 21 (0.80%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 119 (4.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 103 (3.91%) SLA
3 86 (3.26%) NIST
4 74 (2.81%) QA
5 57 (2.16%) GDPR
6 34 (1.29%) PCI DSS
7 31 (1.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 26 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials
9 18 (0.68%) NCSC
10 11 (0.42%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.42%) HIPAA
11 10 (0.38%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.38%) NIST 800
12 9 (0.34%) GRC
13 8 (0.30%) SOC 2
13 8 (0.30%) WCAG
14 7 (0.27%) PMO
15 6 (0.23%) FINRA
15 6 (0.23%) ISO 31000
15 6 (0.23%) MiFID
System Software
1 1,004 (38.09%) Active Directory
2 334 (12.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 134 (5.08%) Hyper-V
4 111 (4.21%) VMware ESXi
5 99 (3.76%) Virtual Machines
6 97 (3.68%) vSphere
7 86 (3.26%) Docker
8 64 (2.43%) Virtual Desktop
9 53 (2.01%) VMware NSX
10 37 (1.40%) BitLocker
10 37 (1.40%) Firmware
11 28 (1.06%) Microsoft App-V
12 17 (0.64%) KVM
13 12 (0.46%) vCloud
14 9 (0.34%) XenDesktop
15 8 (0.30%) VMware Workstation
15 8 (0.30%) XenApp
16 6 (0.23%) NFS
16 6 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
16 6 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 381 (14.45%) Microsoft Intune
2 234 (8.88%) SCCM
3 189 (7.17%) Terraform
4 172 (6.53%) Ansible
5 131 (4.97%) Kubernetes
6 93 (3.53%) vCenter Server
7 49 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
8 48 (1.82%) SCOM
9 46 (1.75%) Jamf Pro
10 41 (1.56%) FortiGate
11 38 (1.44%) WSUS
12 34 (1.29%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 30 (1.14%) Progress Chef
14 29 (1.10%) Prometheus
15 28 (1.06%) Puppet
16 26 (0.99%) Grafana
17 23 (0.87%) Nagios
18 21 (0.80%) Nessus
19 20 (0.76%) ZABBIX
20 19 (0.72%) Packer
Vendors
1 1,144 (43.40%) Microsoft
2 434 (16.46%) VMware
3 246 (9.33%) ServiceNow
4 182 (6.90%) Citrix
5 178 (6.75%) Cisco
6 151 (5.73%) Oracle
7 119 (4.51%) Splunk
8 74 (2.81%) SolarWinds
9 72 (2.73%) Apple
10 69 (2.62%) HP
11 63 (2.39%) CyberArk
11 63 (2.39%) Red Hat
12 62 (2.35%) Google
13 57 (2.16%) Dell
14 51 (1.93%) BeyondTrust
15 49 (1.86%) Juniper
15 49 (1.86%) Remedy
16 47 (1.78%) IBM
17 45 (1.71%) F5
18 37 (1.40%) Tenable