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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 23 15
Rank change year-on-year +1 -8 0
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,559 2,225 3,460
As % of all contract jobs in England 7.79% 8.36% 9.29%
As % of the Operating Systems category 60.90% 58.99% 63.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,781 1,466 2,358
10th Percentile £161 £182 £158
25th Percentile £204 £225 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £388 £400 £396
Median % change year-on-year -3.13% +0.95% -6.76%
75th Percentile £538 £572 £575
90th Percentile £638 £658 £675
UK median daily rate £400 £405 £400
% change year-on-year -1.23% +1.25% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 238 74 233
10th Percentile £12.97 £15.07 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.67 £17.11 £16.00
Median hourly rate £21.90 £23.15 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.40% +10.24% -4.55%
75th Percentile £43.50 £57.62 £40.31
90th Percentile £67.00 £73.93 £62.50
UK median hourly rate £21.90 £24.18 £21.00
% change year-on-year -9.43% +15.14% -

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 4,202 3,772 5,425
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 12.79% 14.18% 14.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,814 2,369 3,733
10th Percentile £173 £200 £178
25th Percentile £263 £313 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £466
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +1.93% -9.07%
75th Percentile £567 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £447 £475 £473
% change year-on-year -5.89% +0.53% -7.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 308 124 337
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.33 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.25 £51.50 £25.25
Median % change year-on-year -54.85% +103.96% -1.94%
75th Percentile £60.00 £67.25 £63.75
90th Percentile £68.00 £73.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £34.00 £25.90
% change year-on-year -26.47% +31.30% +0.72%

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 January 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 January 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 January 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 -14 748 £450 +5.88% 237
South East 0 511 £400 -4.82% 382
North of England -4 457 £263 -25.00% 199
South West +3 318 £425 +6.18% 130
Midlands -6 305 £275 -15.38% 136
North West -5 256 £280 -20.14% 92
East of England +8 213 £275 -5.17% 130
West Midlands -11 186 £400 +23.08% 77
Yorkshire -15 172 £300 -16.67% 88
East Midlands +2 118 £220 -37.68% 59
North East -5 32 £184 -43.46% 26
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
1 216 (8.44%) Microsoft Exchange
2 175 (6.84%) SharePoint
3 70 (2.74%) Confluence
4 44 (1.72%) IIS
5 38 (1.48%) Apache
6 21 (0.82%) WebLogic
7 20 (0.78%) Skype for Business
8 16 (0.63%) WebSphere
9 12 (0.47%) JBoss
10 11 (0.43%) nginx
10 11 (0.43%) TPMS
10 11 (0.43%) WebSphere Application Server
11 10 (0.39%) iPlanet
12 9 (0.35%) SharePoint Server
13 8 (0.31%) Tuxedo
14 7 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2010
15 5 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2013
15 5 (0.20%) SAS
16 4 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2003
16 4 (0.16%) Office Communications Server
Applications
1 235 (9.18%) Microsoft Office
2 73 (2.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.31%) Mozilla Thunderbird
6 5 (0.20%) Acrobat
7 4 (0.16%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.078%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.078%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.078%) Windchill
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe After Effects
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe Premiere
9 1 (0.039%) InDesign
9 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.039%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 24 (0.94%) Remedy ITSM
2 9 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.27%) Teamcenter
4 5 (0.20%) assyst
5 4 (0.16%) Oracle 11i
6 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 2 (0.078%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.078%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.078%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.078%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.078%) SAP MDG
7 2 (0.078%) SystmOne
8 1 (0.039%) Aladdin
8 1 (0.039%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.039%) Eikon
8 1 (0.039%) Fidessa
8 1 (0.039%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.039%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.039%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.039%) RMDS
Cloud Services
1 716 (27.98%) Microsoft 365
2 619 (24.19%) Azure
3 253 (9.89%) Entra ID
4 215 (8.40%) AWS
5 85 (3.32%) OneDrive
6 67 (2.62%) SaaS
7 65 (2.54%) GCP
8 50 (1.95%) Google Workspace
9 46 (1.80%) Azure DevOps
10 42 (1.64%) IaaS
11 39 (1.52%) GitHub
12 34 (1.33%) Power Platform
13 29 (1.13%) PaaS
14 25 (0.98%) Azure Monitor
15 20 (0.78%) Azure Sentinel
15 20 (0.78%) OpenShift
16 19 (0.74%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 19 (0.74%) Amazon S3
16 19 (0.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 18 (0.70%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 329 (12.86%) DNS
2 253 (9.89%) Firewall
3 218 (8.52%) DHCP
4 174 (6.80%) TCP/IP
5 159 (6.21%) VPN
6 109 (4.26%) WAN
7 101 (3.95%) Wi-Fi
8 100 (3.91%) LAN
9 79 (3.09%) Network Security
10 67 (2.62%) VLAN
11 62 (2.42%) Wireless
12 51 (1.99%) SSH
13 34 (1.33%) SAN
14 33 (1.29%) HTTP
14 33 (1.29%) Kerberos
14 33 (1.29%) Skype
15 31 (1.21%) FTP
16 28 (1.09%) SMTP
17 25 (0.98%) Internet
18 24 (0.94%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 113 (4.42%) SQL Server
2 57 (2.23%) Oracle Database
3 56 (2.19%) Relational Database
4 45 (1.76%) MySQL
5 29 (1.13%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
7 13 (0.51%) BigQuery
8 12 (0.47%) NoSQL
8 12 (0.47%) Power BI
9 11 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
10 10 (0.39%) Amazon Aurora
11 9 (0.35%) MongoDB
12 8 (0.31%) GIS
13 6 (0.23%) Elasticsearch
13 6 (0.23%) SAP HANA
14 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 4 (0.16%) DB2
15 4 (0.16%) Oracle Database 10g
15 4 (0.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 3 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 143 (5.59%) JIRA
2 75 (2.93%) Jenkins
3 67 (2.62%) Git
4 47 (1.84%) GitLab
5 34 (1.33%) MSI
6 29 (1.13%) Eclipse
7 28 (1.09%) Visual Studio
8 19 (0.74%) Burp Suite
8 19 (0.74%) Metasploit
9 18 (0.70%) Android Studio
10 17 (0.66%) Browser DevTools
11 16 (0.63%) Xcode
12 15 (0.59%) Artifactory
12 15 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
13 12 (0.47%) Bitbucket
13 12 (0.47%) Vagrant
14 11 (0.43%) Bitbucket Server
14 11 (0.43%) CA Release Automation
14 11 (0.43%) InstallShield
15 8 (0.31%) AdminStudio
General
1 957 (37.40%) Social Skills
2 273 (10.67%) Finance
3 214 (8.36%) Public Sector
4 202 (7.89%) Analytical Skills
5 119 (4.65%) Banking
6 106 (4.14%) Documentation Skills
7 82 (3.20%) Legal
8 71 (2.77%) Organisational Skills
9 51 (1.99%) Military
10 47 (1.84%) Manufacturing
11 44 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
12 42 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 33 (1.29%) Retail
14 28 (1.09%) Telecoms
15 24 (0.94%) Front Office
16 21 (0.82%) Aerospace
16 21 (0.82%) Law
17 18 (0.70%) Investment Banking
18 16 (0.63%) Financial Institution
18 16 (0.63%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 381 (14.89%) Support Engineer
2 326 (12.74%) IT Support
3 325 (12.70%) Analyst
4 176 (6.88%) IT Engineer
5 158 (6.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 143 (5.59%) Architect
7 142 (5.55%) Support Analyst
8 139 (5.43%) IT Support Engineer
9 135 (5.28%) Desktop Support
10 134 (5.24%) Senior
11 124 (4.85%) Windows Engineer
12 122 (4.77%) Technical Support
13 120 (4.69%) Desktop Engineer
14 116 (4.53%) 2nd Line Support
15 107 (4.18%) Deployment Engineer
16 97 (3.79%) Developer
17 95 (3.71%) Desktop Support Engineer
18 81 (3.17%) Lead
19 80 (3.13%) IT Analyst
20 73 (2.85%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (2.93%) .NET
2 53 (2.07%) OAuth
3 52 (2.03%) LDAP
3 52 (2.03%) REST
4 51 (1.99%) SAML
5 44 (1.72%) .NET Framework
6 37 (1.45%) Middleware
7 34 (1.33%) React
8 33 (1.29%) OpenID
8 33 (1.29%) WPF
9 30 (1.17%) AngularJS
10 24 (0.94%) CSS
11 23 (0.90%) Web Services
12 22 (0.86%) Node.js
13 20 (0.78%) RESTful
13 20 (0.78%) SOAP
14 19 (0.74%) OAuth2
15 18 (0.70%) Kafka
15 18 (0.70%) Microsoft Graph
15 18 (0.70%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 139 (5.43%) Onboarding
2 88 (3.44%) Driving Licence
2 88 (3.44%) PKI
3 80 (3.13%) Data Centre
4 69 (2.70%) Enterprise Software
4 69 (2.70%) Replication
5 58 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
6 56 (2.19%) Smartphone
7 53 (2.07%) Management Information System
8 37 (1.45%) Hybrid Cloud
8 37 (1.45%) Security Posture
9 32 (1.25%) NHS
10 31 (1.21%) Clustering
11 28 (1.09%) Analytical Mindset
12 27 (1.06%) Product Ownership
12 27 (1.06%) Video Conferencing
13 25 (0.98%) Data Protection Act
14 24 (0.94%) CMDB
14 24 (0.94%) Virtual Team
15 21 (0.82%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 621 (24.27%) Linux
2 594 (23.21%) Windows 10
3 527 (20.59%) Windows Server
4 151 (5.90%) Unix
5 131 (5.12%) Mac OS
6 130 (5.08%) Android
7 106 (4.14%) Apple iOS
8 60 (2.34%) Windows Server 2016
9 54 (2.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 53 (2.07%) Windows 7
11 49 (1.91%) Windows Server 2019
12 36 (1.41%) Windows Server 2012
13 30 (1.17%) Windows Server 2003
14 25 (0.98%) AIX
15 21 (0.82%) VMS
16 18 (0.70%) Ubuntu
17 12 (0.47%) Amazon Linux
17 12 (0.47%) Solaris
17 12 (0.47%) Windows Server 2008
18 8 (0.31%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 463 (18.09%) Problem-Solving
2 434 (16.96%) Customer Service
3 370 (14.46%) ITIL
4 268 (10.47%) Agile
5 229 (8.95%) Migration
6 228 (8.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 219 (8.56%) DevOps
8 214 (8.36%) Service Management
9 201 (7.85%) ITSM
10 191 (7.46%) CI/CD
11 182 (7.11%) Continuous Improvement
12 175 (6.84%) Cybersecurity
13 154 (6.02%) Change Management
14 127 (4.96%) Disaster Recovery
15 120 (4.69%) User Experience
16 110 (4.30%) Stakeholder Management
17 108 (4.22%) Service Delivery
18 103 (4.03%) Computer Science
19 101 (3.95%) Infrastructure as Code
20 99 (3.87%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 501 (19.58%) PowerShell
2 291 (11.37%) Python
3 227 (8.87%) SQL
4 120 (4.69%) Java
5 110 (4.30%) C#
6 103 (4.03%) Bash
7 77 (3.01%) JavaScript
8 63 (2.46%) Perl
9 53 (2.07%) C++
10 46 (1.80%) PL/SQL
11 34 (1.33%) T-SQL
12 30 (1.17%) Kusto Query Language
13 29 (1.13%) VBScript
14 27 (1.06%) Shell Script
14 27 (1.06%) VB
15 23 (0.90%) Groovy
16 22 (0.86%) VBA
17 11 (0.43%) Go
18 10 (0.39%) Bicep
18 10 (0.39%) PHP
Qualifications
1 820 (32.04%) Security Cleared
2 543 (21.22%) SC Cleared
3 266 (10.39%) Degree
4 235 (9.18%) DV Cleared
5 145 (5.67%) Microsoft Certification
6 80 (3.13%) Computer Science Degree
7 60 (2.34%) Azure Certification
8 43 (1.68%) Cisco Certification
8 43 (1.68%) MCSE
9 39 (1.52%) A+ Certification
10 36 (1.41%) ITIL Certification
11 35 (1.37%) AWS Certification
12 28 (1.09%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 27 (1.06%) CCNA
14 25 (0.98%) CCNP
14 25 (0.98%) CISSP
15 24 (0.94%) BPSS Clearance
16 21 (0.82%) MCP
16 21 (0.82%) MCSA
17 19 (0.74%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (3.52%) GDPR
2 89 (3.48%) SLA
3 66 (2.58%) QA
4 63 (2.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 45 (1.76%) NIST
6 31 (1.21%) PCI DSS
7 21 (0.82%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 12 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
8 12 (0.47%) NCSC
9 11 (0.43%) GLBA
9 11 (0.43%) MiFID
9 11 (0.43%) PMO
10 8 (0.31%) FINRA
11 6 (0.23%) NIST 800
12 5 (0.20%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.20%) COBIT
12 5 (0.20%) HIPAA
13 4 (0.16%) GxP
14 3 (0.12%) SEPA
14 3 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 946 (36.97%) Active Directory
2 244 (9.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 106 (4.14%) Docker
4 92 (3.60%) Hyper-V
5 58 (2.27%) Virtual Desktop
6 55 (2.15%) Virtual Machines
7 53 (2.07%) vSphere
8 43 (1.68%) VMware ESXi
9 33 (1.29%) VMware NSX
10 27 (1.06%) BitLocker
11 19 (0.74%) Microsoft App-V
12 17 (0.66%) Firmware
13 15 (0.59%) DFS Replication
14 14 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
15 10 (0.39%) KVM
16 8 (0.31%) Dovecot
16 8 (0.31%) Postfix
16 8 (0.31%) Squid
16 8 (0.31%) Tivoli Directory Server
17 7 (0.27%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 357 (13.95%) SCCM
2 297 (11.61%) Microsoft Intune
3 151 (5.90%) Terraform
4 127 (4.96%) Ansible
5 91 (3.56%) Kubernetes
6 66 (2.58%) Single Sign-On
6 66 (2.58%) vCenter Server
7 64 (2.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 44 (1.72%) Jamf Pro
9 34 (1.33%) Grafana
10 28 (1.09%) SCOM
11 26 (1.02%) WSUS
12 22 (0.86%) Prometheus
13 20 (0.78%) Nessus
14 18 (0.70%) Nmap
15 17 (0.66%) Progress Chef
15 17 (0.66%) WMI
16 14 (0.55%) Microsoft Clustering
16 14 (0.55%) Proxmox
17 12 (0.47%) Packer
Vendors
1 1,104 (43.14%) Microsoft
2 335 (13.09%) VMware
3 242 (9.46%) ServiceNow
4 190 (7.42%) Oracle
5 154 (6.02%) Citrix
6 151 (5.90%) Cisco
7 99 (3.87%) Splunk
8 64 (2.50%) Dell
9 60 (2.34%) Apple
10 55 (2.15%) HP
11 50 (1.95%) SolarWinds
12 49 (1.91%) Google
12 49 (1.91%) Red Hat
13 47 (1.84%) Veeam
14 45 (1.76%) IBM
15 37 (1.45%) CyberArk
16 36 (1.41%) SAP
17 34 (1.33%) Remedy
18 30 (1.17%) Palo Alto
19 28 (1.09%) Juniper