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

6 months to
30 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 22 16
Rank change year-on-year -5 -6 -2
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,511 2,101 3,364
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.62% 8.59% 8.93%
As % of the Operating Systems category 60.89% 60.41% 64.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,688 1,509 2,297
10th Percentile £160 £181 £156
25th Percentile £206 £243 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £411 £420 £395
Median % change year-on-year -2.08% +6.33% -12.22%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £640 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £413 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -2.94% +6.25% -10.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 221 92 276
10th Percentile £13.65 £15.22 £12.19
25th Percentile £16.62 £16.95 £14.16
Median hourly rate £21.80 £18.82 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +15.83% +6.21% -16.85%
75th Percentile £52.58 £28.10 £24.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £64.88 £60.00
UK median hourly rate £21.50 £21.64 £18.00
% change year-on-year -0.65% +20.22% -16.88%

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 4,124 3,478 5,230
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.87% 14.22% 13.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,731 2,387 3,558
10th Percentile £181 £200 £180
25th Percentile £300 £313 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -13.46%
75th Percentile £569 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -10.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 298 140 376
10th Percentile £14.00 £16.48 £13.06
25th Percentile £17.69 £18.13 £15.50
Median hourly rate £23.50 £28.00 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.07% +27.27% -23.34%
75th Percentile £64.69 £65.00 £56.33
90th Percentile £72.60 £69.00 £68.32
UK median hourly rate £23.58 £24.66 £22.00
% change year-on-year -4.40% +12.09% -24.91%

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 30 March 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 30 March 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 30 March 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 -17 775 £443 +0.57% 231
South East -4 511 £466 -1.89% 277
North of England -8 478 £295 -15.71% 201
Midlands -14 273 £325 - 130
North West -4 262 £261 -25.36% 130
South West -8 247 £450 -15.89% 129
East of England +4 212 £275 +22.22% 97
Yorkshire -17 192 £358 -4.73% 58
West Midlands -24 163 £447 +37.54% 76
East Midlands -1 106 £200 -20.00% 54
North East -10 27 £188 -27.88% 17
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
1 215 (8.56%) Microsoft Exchange
2 160 (6.37%) SharePoint
3 51 (2.03%) Confluence
4 44 (1.75%) IIS
5 21 (0.84%) Apache
5 21 (0.84%) WebLogic
6 12 (0.48%) Skype for Business
7 11 (0.44%) Tuxedo
8 10 (0.40%) TPMS
9 7 (0.28%) Tomcat
10 6 (0.24%) nginx
11 5 (0.20%) WebSphere
12 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.16%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
13 3 (0.12%) SAS
14 2 (0.080%) IBM HTTP Server
14 2 (0.080%) NetWeaver
14 2 (0.080%) Oracle HTTP Server
14 2 (0.080%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 193 (7.69%) Microsoft Office
2 67 (2.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (1.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (0.48%) MS Visio
5 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.20%) Acrobat
6 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.040%) InDesign
8 1 (0.040%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 31 (1.23%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.28%) Teamcenter
4 5 (0.20%) assyst
5 4 (0.16%) Oracle 11i
6 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 2 (0.080%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.080%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.080%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.080%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.080%) SystmOne
8 1 (0.040%) Aladdin
8 1 (0.040%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.040%) Eikon
8 1 (0.040%) Fidessa
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.040%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 730 (29.07%) Microsoft 365
2 669 (26.64%) Azure
3 287 (11.43%) Entra ID
4 193 (7.69%) AWS
5 78 (3.11%) OneDrive
6 64 (2.55%) GCP
7 62 (2.47%) SaaS
8 60 (2.39%) Azure DevOps
9 51 (2.03%) Google Workspace
10 47 (1.87%) IaaS
11 43 (1.71%) GitHub
12 39 (1.55%) PaaS
13 38 (1.51%) Power Platform
14 33 (1.31%) Azure Monitor
15 24 (0.96%) Azure Sentinel
16 23 (0.92%) AWS CloudFormation
17 21 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
18 19 (0.76%) OpenShift
19 17 (0.68%) Nutanix
20 16 (0.64%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 325 (12.94%) DNS
2 301 (11.99%) Firewall
3 217 (8.64%) DHCP
4 171 (6.81%) VPN
5 157 (6.25%) TCP/IP
6 149 (5.93%) LAN
7 145 (5.77%) WAN
8 136 (5.42%) Wi-Fi
9 75 (2.99%) Network Security
10 64 (2.55%) VLAN
11 55 (2.19%) Wireless
12 48 (1.91%) SAN
13 39 (1.55%) BGP
14 30 (1.19%) SSL
15 29 (1.15%) OSPF
15 29 (1.15%) Skype
15 29 (1.15%) VoIP
16 27 (1.08%) Cisco ISE
16 27 (1.08%) SNMP
16 27 (1.08%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 153 (6.09%) SQL Server
2 42 (1.67%) Oracle Database
3 36 (1.43%) Relational Database
4 34 (1.35%) MySQL
5 22 (0.88%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (0.64%) Power BI
7 14 (0.56%) DB2
8 13 (0.52%) BigQuery
8 13 (0.52%) MongoDB
9 11 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
10 10 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
11 8 (0.32%) NoSQL
12 6 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
12 6 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
12 6 (0.24%) GIS
12 6 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 5 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 4 (0.16%) Oracle Database 10g
14 4 (0.16%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 160 (6.37%) JIRA
2 53 (2.11%) GitLab
3 52 (2.07%) Jenkins
4 42 (1.67%) Git
5 41 (1.63%) MSI
6 34 (1.35%) Visual Studio
7 23 (0.92%) Eclipse
8 17 (0.68%) Burp Suite
8 17 (0.68%) Metasploit
9 14 (0.56%) Artifactory
10 13 (0.52%) Android Studio
11 11 (0.44%) Chocolatey
11 11 (0.44%) Xcode
12 9 (0.36%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
13 8 (0.32%) InstallShield
13 8 (0.32%) JUnit
13 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
14 7 (0.28%) Robot Framework
14 7 (0.28%) Selenium
General
1 895 (35.64%) Social Skills
2 236 (9.40%) Finance
3 205 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
4 204 (8.12%) Public Sector
5 138 (5.50%) Banking
6 103 (4.10%) Legal
7 100 (3.98%) Documentation Skills
8 82 (3.27%) Organisational Skills
9 56 (2.23%) Military
10 41 (1.63%) Presentation Skills
11 40 (1.59%) Manufacturing
12 36 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 36 (1.43%) Retail
13 28 (1.12%) Telecoms
14 27 (1.08%) Law
15 24 (0.96%) Investment Banking
16 21 (0.84%) Front Office
17 20 (0.80%) Local Government
18 15 (0.60%) Aerospace
18 15 (0.60%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 356 (14.18%) IT Support
2 341 (13.58%) Support Engineer
3 329 (13.10%) Analyst
4 211 (8.40%) IT Engineer
5 179 (7.13%) IT Support Engineer
6 162 (6.45%) Architect
7 156 (6.21%) Senior
8 151 (6.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 141 (5.62%) Support Analyst
10 106 (4.22%) Desktop Support
10 106 (4.22%) Technical Support
11 102 (4.06%) Developer
12 101 (4.02%) 2nd Line Support
13 97 (3.86%) Desktop Engineer
14 92 (3.66%) IT Analyst
15 84 (3.35%) Windows Engineer
16 79 (3.15%) Lead
17 74 (2.95%) IT Support Analyst
18 70 (2.79%) 1st Line Support
19 69 (2.75%) Desktop Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (3.15%) .NET
2 64 (2.55%) REST
3 49 (1.95%) .NET Framework
4 43 (1.71%) OAuth
5 41 (1.63%) SAML
6 39 (1.55%) LDAP
7 37 (1.47%) Middleware
8 28 (1.12%) WPF
9 27 (1.08%) Web Services
10 26 (1.04%) Kafka
10 26 (1.04%) WinForms
11 24 (0.96%) Microsoft Graph
12 23 (0.92%) 802.1X
13 22 (0.88%) CSS
13 22 (0.88%) React
14 21 (0.84%) AngularJS
14 21 (0.84%) OpenID
15 20 (0.80%) Node.js
15 20 (0.80%) OAuth2
16 19 (0.76%) Apache NiFi
Miscellaneous
1 180 (7.17%) Onboarding
2 103 (4.10%) Data Centre
3 97 (3.86%) PKI
4 75 (2.99%) Enterprise Software
5 67 (2.67%) Driving Licence
6 60 (2.39%) Self-Motivation
7 58 (2.31%) Clustering
7 58 (2.31%) Replication
8 45 (1.79%) Management Information System
9 44 (1.75%) Hybrid Cloud
9 44 (1.75%) Smartphone
10 42 (1.67%) Security Posture
11 40 (1.59%) Product Ownership
12 35 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
13 34 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
14 32 (1.27%) CMDB
15 31 (1.23%) NHS
16 26 (1.04%) Cloud Native
17 25 (1.00%) Analytical Mindset
17 25 (1.00%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 599 (23.86%) Linux
2 552 (21.98%) Windows Server
3 522 (20.79%) Windows 10
4 139 (5.54%) Android
5 131 (5.22%) Mac OS
6 128 (5.10%) Unix
7 108 (4.30%) Apple iOS
8 74 (2.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 61 (2.43%) Windows Server 2016
10 45 (1.79%) Windows 7
10 45 (1.79%) Windows Server 2019
11 37 (1.47%) AIX
12 36 (1.43%) Windows Server 2012
13 27 (1.08%) Windows Server 2003
14 19 (0.76%) Ubuntu
15 18 (0.72%) VMS
16 13 (0.52%) Solaris
17 10 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
18 9 (0.36%) CentOS
18 9 (0.36%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 505 (20.11%) Problem-Solving
2 444 (17.68%) Customer Service
3 358 (14.26%) ITIL
4 274 (10.91%) Agile
5 256 (10.20%) Migration
6 231 (9.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 225 (8.96%) DevOps
8 207 (8.24%) ITSM
9 203 (8.08%) CI/CD
10 180 (7.17%) Continuous Improvement
11 178 (7.09%) Service Management
12 173 (6.89%) Cybersecurity
13 162 (6.45%) Change Management
14 153 (6.09%) Disaster Recovery
15 133 (5.30%) High Availability
16 128 (5.10%) Stakeholder Management
17 115 (4.58%) User Experience
18 112 (4.46%) Infrastructure as Code
19 108 (4.30%) Identity Access Management
20 106 (4.22%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 535 (21.31%) PowerShell
2 253 (10.08%) Python
3 226 (9.00%) SQL
4 118 (4.70%) C#
5 106 (4.22%) Bash
6 82 (3.27%) Java
7 73 (2.91%) JavaScript
8 52 (2.07%) C++
9 51 (2.03%) PL/SQL
10 46 (1.83%) Perl
11 39 (1.55%) T-SQL
12 31 (1.23%) Kusto Query Language
13 23 (0.92%) VB
14 20 (0.80%) VBScript
15 17 (0.68%) Shell Script
16 14 (0.56%) VBA
17 13 (0.52%) Bicep
17 13 (0.52%) Search Processing Language
18 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
19 11 (0.44%) Go
Qualifications
1 795 (31.66%) Security Cleared
2 522 (20.79%) SC Cleared
3 255 (10.16%) Degree
4 231 (9.20%) DV Cleared
5 117 (4.66%) Microsoft Certification
6 73 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
7 63 (2.51%) Cisco Certification
8 43 (1.71%) Azure Certification
9 41 (1.63%) MCSE
10 34 (1.35%) CISSP
11 30 (1.19%) CCNA
11 30 (1.19%) ITIL Certification
12 29 (1.15%) BPSS Clearance
13 28 (1.12%) AWS Certification
14 25 (1.00%) CCNP
15 21 (0.84%) MCSA
16 20 (0.80%) A+ Certification
16 20 (0.80%) CompTIA Security+
16 20 (0.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 18 (0.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (3.50%) GDPR
2 83 (3.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 82 (3.27%) QA
3 82 (3.27%) SLA
4 60 (2.39%) NIST
5 42 (1.67%) PCI DSS
6 24 (0.96%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 16 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials
8 13 (0.52%) PMO
9 12 (0.48%) MiFID
9 12 (0.48%) NCSC
9 12 (0.48%) NIST 800
10 10 (0.40%) FINRA
10 10 (0.40%) GLBA
11 9 (0.36%) Data Quality
12 4 (0.16%) GMP
12 4 (0.16%) GxP
12 4 (0.16%) SOC 2
13 3 (0.12%) COBIT
13 3 (0.12%) HL7
System Software
1 938 (37.36%) Active Directory
2 264 (10.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 108 (4.30%) Hyper-V
4 93 (3.70%) Docker
5 69 (2.75%) vSphere
6 59 (2.35%) Virtual Machines
7 58 (2.31%) VMware ESXi
8 50 (1.99%) Virtual Desktop
9 33 (1.31%) VMware NSX
10 30 (1.19%) Firmware
11 27 (1.08%) BitLocker
12 23 (0.92%) Microsoft App-V
13 16 (0.64%) KVM
14 9 (0.36%) XenDesktop
15 8 (0.32%) XenApp
16 6 (0.24%) NFS
17 5 (0.20%) etcd
17 5 (0.20%) Terminal Services
17 5 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
18 4 (0.16%) Snort
Systems Management
1 347 (13.82%) Microsoft Intune
2 281 (11.19%) SCCM
3 159 (6.33%) Terraform
4 152 (6.05%) Ansible
5 118 (4.70%) Kubernetes
6 66 (2.63%) Single Sign-On
7 59 (2.35%) vCenter Server
8 58 (2.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 38 (1.51%) Jamf Pro
10 33 (1.31%) FortiGate
11 27 (1.08%) WSUS
12 25 (1.00%) Grafana
13 23 (0.92%) SCOM
14 22 (0.88%) Prometheus
15 18 (0.72%) Progress Chef
16 16 (0.64%) Nagios
16 16 (0.64%) Nmap
16 16 (0.64%) Puppet
16 16 (0.64%) WMI
17 15 (0.60%) Nessus
Vendors
1 1,085 (43.21%) Microsoft
2 362 (14.42%) VMware
3 227 (9.04%) ServiceNow
4 196 (7.81%) Citrix
5 153 (6.09%) Cisco
6 151 (6.01%) Oracle
7 112 (4.46%) Splunk
8 72 (2.87%) HP
9 60 (2.39%) SolarWinds
10 59 (2.35%) Red Hat
11 58 (2.31%) Dell
12 56 (2.23%) Google
13 49 (1.95%) IBM
14 48 (1.91%) Apple
15 47 (1.87%) Remedy
16 41 (1.63%) Juniper
17 39 (1.55%) Veeam
18 37 (1.47%) CyberArk
19 34 (1.35%) F5
20 31 (1.23%) Palo Alto