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

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 22 17
Rank change year-on-year -5 -5 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,466 2,084 3,283
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.21% 8.47% 8.82%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.12% 60.53% 64.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,656 1,481 2,275
10th Percentile £161 £180 £160
25th Percentile £213 £235 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £413 £400
Median % change year-on-year +0.61% +3.13% -11.11%
75th Percentile £540 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £685 £675
UK median daily rate £415 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -2.35% +6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 196 104 270
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.13 £11.80
25th Percentile £17.86 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.00 £18.82 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +32.84% +6.21% -21.09%
75th Percentile £65.00 £28.00 £25.00
90th Percentile £74.84 £64.63 £61.60
UK median hourly rate £23.75 £19.50 £18.00
% change year-on-year +21.79% +8.33% -20.00%

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 4,035 3,443 5,107
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.16% 14.00% 13.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,678 2,347 3,487
10th Percentile £185 £200 £181
25th Percentile £310 £313 £280
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £460
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +3.26% -10.68%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £465
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.15% -9.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 277 149 372
10th Percentile £15.98 £16.07 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.10 £15.06
Median hourly rate £41.94 £24.66 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.07% +12.09% -37.14%
75th Percentile £67.84 £65.00 £59.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £36.93 £24.18 £22.00
% change year-on-year +52.72% +9.91% -41.33%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 -23 767 £443 -0.34% 165
South East -7 499 £473 -3.67% 261
North of England -11 467 £308 -5.15% 162
Midlands -13 278 £335 +23.50% 104
North West -4 256 £230 -34.29% 93
South West -12 227 £450 -14.29% 110
East of England +4 207 £350 +54.87% 105
Yorkshire -18 193 £365 +12.31% 49
West Midlands -23 162 £463 +66.67% 51
East Midlands +6 111 £215 +4.24% 53
North East -19 22 £188 -14.77% 25
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
1 210 (8.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 133 (5.39%) SharePoint
3 49 (1.99%) IIS
4 48 (1.95%) Confluence
5 21 (0.85%) WebLogic
6 16 (0.65%) Apache
7 12 (0.49%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.45%) Tuxedo
9 8 (0.32%) nginx
9 8 (0.32%) Tomcat
9 8 (0.32%) TPMS
10 5 (0.20%) SAS
11 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
11 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
13 2 (0.081%) Apache Pulsar
13 2 (0.081%) Appian
13 2 (0.081%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.081%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 180 (7.30%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (2.55%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.45%) 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 (0.041%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.041%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 37 (1.50%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.32%) Teamcenter
4 5 (0.20%) assyst
5 3 (0.12%) Finacle
5 3 (0.12%) Oracle 11i
5 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 2 (0.081%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.081%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.081%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.081%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.041%) Aladdin
7 1 (0.041%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.041%) Eikon
7 1 (0.041%) Fidessa
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle FAH
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.041%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 697 (28.26%) Microsoft 365
2 682 (27.66%) Azure
3 282 (11.44%) Entra ID
4 203 (8.23%) AWS
5 69 (2.80%) SaaS
6 68 (2.76%) GCP
7 66 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
8 54 (2.19%) IaaS
9 53 (2.15%) OneDrive
10 50 (2.03%) GitHub
11 46 (1.87%) PaaS
12 45 (1.82%) Google Workspace
13 39 (1.58%) Azure Monitor
14 37 (1.50%) Power Platform
15 26 (1.05%) Azure Sentinel
16 24 (0.97%) GitHub Actions
17 21 (0.85%) OpenShift
18 18 (0.73%) AWS CloudFormation
18 18 (0.73%) Azure AKS
19 17 (0.69%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 334 (13.54%) DNS
2 286 (11.60%) Firewall
3 234 (9.49%) DHCP
4 172 (6.97%) VPN
5 152 (6.16%) LAN
6 149 (6.04%) WAN
7 146 (5.92%) TCP/IP
8 123 (4.99%) Wi-Fi
9 71 (2.88%) Network Security
10 60 (2.43%) VLAN
11 53 (2.15%) SAN
12 47 (1.91%) Wireless
13 37 (1.50%) BGP
14 34 (1.38%) OSPF
15 31 (1.26%) Skype
16 30 (1.22%) SSL
16 30 (1.22%) VoIP
17 29 (1.18%) BIG-IP
17 29 (1.18%) Internet
18 27 (1.09%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 174 (7.06%) SQL Server
2 44 (1.78%) Oracle Database
3 34 (1.38%) Relational Database
4 28 (1.14%) MySQL
5 23 (0.93%) PostgreSQL
6 20 (0.81%) Power BI
7 14 (0.57%) DB2
8 13 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
8 13 (0.53%) MongoDB
9 10 (0.41%) NoSQL
10 9 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 8 (0.32%) BigQuery
11 8 (0.32%) Oracle Reports
12 6 (0.24%) RDBMS
13 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.20%) GIS
13 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (0.16%) Amazon RDS
14 4 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 167 (6.77%) JIRA
2 48 (1.95%) GitLab
3 46 (1.87%) MSI
4 42 (1.70%) Jenkins
5 39 (1.58%) Git
6 34 (1.38%) Visual Studio
7 21 (0.85%) Eclipse
8 18 (0.73%) Burp Suite
9 17 (0.69%) Metasploit
10 11 (0.45%) Android Studio
10 11 (0.45%) Chocolatey
11 10 (0.41%) Artifactory
11 10 (0.41%) Bitbucket
12 9 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
12 9 (0.36%) InstallShield
12 9 (0.36%) Xcode
13 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
14 7 (0.28%) JUnit
15 6 (0.24%) AdminStudio
15 6 (0.24%) Toad
General
1 860 (34.87%) Social Skills
2 244 (9.89%) Finance
3 208 (8.43%) Analytical Skills
4 197 (7.99%) Public Sector
5 147 (5.96%) Banking
6 102 (4.14%) Documentation Skills
7 96 (3.89%) Legal
8 72 (2.92%) Organisational Skills
9 61 (2.47%) Military
10 36 (1.46%) Presentation Skills
10 36 (1.46%) Retail
11 33 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 32 (1.30%) Law
13 31 (1.26%) Manufacturing
14 30 (1.22%) Telecoms
15 29 (1.18%) Investment Banking
16 27 (1.09%) Front Office
17 20 (0.81%) Local Government
18 16 (0.65%) Police
19 15 (0.61%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 331 (13.42%) IT Support
2 306 (12.41%) Support Engineer
3 291 (11.80%) Analyst
4 205 (8.31%) IT Engineer
5 191 (7.75%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 166 (6.73%) IT Support Engineer
7 165 (6.69%) Senior
8 155 (6.29%) Architect
9 117 (4.74%) Support Analyst
10 101 (4.10%) Developer
11 98 (3.97%) Desktop Support
12 91 (3.69%) Technical Support
13 88 (3.57%) Desktop Engineer
13 88 (3.57%) IT Analyst
14 83 (3.37%) Windows Engineer
15 82 (3.33%) 2nd Line Support
16 78 (3.16%) Lead
17 69 (2.80%) IT Support Analyst
18 66 (2.68%) 1st Line Support
19 60 (2.43%) Desktop Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (3.49%) .NET
2 65 (2.64%) REST
3 53 (2.15%) .NET Framework
4 35 (1.42%) SAML
5 34 (1.38%) LDAP
6 33 (1.34%) Middleware
7 28 (1.14%) OAuth
7 28 (1.14%) WinForms
7 28 (1.14%) WPF
8 26 (1.05%) 802.1X
8 26 (1.05%) Kafka
8 26 (1.05%) Microsoft Graph
9 25 (1.01%) Web Services
10 20 (0.81%) Node.js
11 19 (0.77%) CSS
11 19 (0.77%) React
12 17 (0.69%) AngularJS
12 17 (0.69%) Software Packaging
13 16 (0.65%) XML
14 15 (0.61%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 190 (7.70%) Onboarding
2 102 (4.14%) Data Centre
3 94 (3.81%) PKI
4 81 (3.28%) Enterprise Software
5 74 (3.00%) Clustering
6 63 (2.55%) Self-Motivation
7 61 (2.47%) Driving Licence
8 58 (2.35%) Replication
9 44 (1.78%) Hybrid Cloud
10 39 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
11 38 (1.54%) Smartphone
12 37 (1.50%) Management Information System
12 37 (1.50%) Security Posture
13 30 (1.22%) Virtual Team
14 29 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
15 28 (1.14%) Cloud Native
15 28 (1.14%) CMDB
15 28 (1.14%) Product Ownership
16 26 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
17 24 (0.97%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 599 (24.29%) Linux
2 576 (23.36%) Windows Server
3 489 (19.83%) Windows 10
4 146 (5.92%) Mac OS
5 138 (5.60%) Android
6 118 (4.79%) Unix
7 116 (4.70%) Apple iOS
8 67 (2.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 63 (2.55%) Windows Server 2016
10 51 (2.07%) Windows Server 2019
11 47 (1.91%) Windows 7
12 39 (1.58%) Windows Server 2012
13 33 (1.34%) AIX
14 22 (0.89%) Windows Server 2003
15 20 (0.81%) Ubuntu
16 18 (0.73%) VMS
17 11 (0.45%) Solaris
17 11 (0.45%) Windows Server 2008
18 10 (0.41%) CentOS
19 9 (0.36%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 509 (20.64%) Problem-Solving
2 412 (16.71%) Customer Service
3 361 (14.64%) ITIL
4 268 (10.87%) Migration
5 259 (10.50%) Agile
6 257 (10.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 220 (8.92%) DevOps
8 204 (8.27%) CI/CD
9 192 (7.79%) ITSM
10 163 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
10 163 (6.61%) Disaster Recovery
11 159 (6.45%) Service Management
12 157 (6.37%) Change Management
13 149 (6.04%) Cybersecurity
14 140 (5.68%) High Availability
15 123 (4.99%) Stakeholder Management
16 114 (4.62%) Infrastructure as Code
17 113 (4.58%) SIEM
18 100 (4.06%) Computer Science
19 96 (3.89%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 529 (21.45%) PowerShell
2 244 (9.89%) SQL
3 228 (9.25%) Python
4 131 (5.31%) C#
5 85 (3.45%) Bash
6 75 (3.04%) Java
7 71 (2.88%) JavaScript
8 54 (2.19%) PL/SQL
9 47 (1.91%) C++
10 44 (1.78%) T-SQL
11 29 (1.18%) Kusto Query Language
12 26 (1.05%) Perl
13 24 (0.97%) VB
14 18 (0.73%) Shell Script
15 17 (0.69%) VBScript
16 16 (0.65%) Search Processing Language
17 14 (0.57%) VBA
18 12 (0.49%) Go
18 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
19 11 (0.45%) C
Qualifications
1 774 (31.39%) Security Cleared
2 511 (20.72%) SC Cleared
3 247 (10.02%) Degree
4 231 (9.37%) DV Cleared
5 110 (4.46%) Microsoft Certification
6 71 (2.88%) Computer Science Degree
7 56 (2.27%) Cisco Certification
8 45 (1.82%) MCSE
9 44 (1.78%) Azure Certification
10 32 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
10 32 (1.30%) CISSP
11 29 (1.18%) AWS Certification
11 29 (1.18%) ITIL Certification
11 29 (1.18%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 28 (1.14%) MCSA
13 24 (0.97%) CCNA
14 19 (0.77%) A+ Certification
14 19 (0.77%) CompTIA Security+
15 16 (0.65%) CHECK Team Member
15 16 (0.65%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (3.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 82 (3.33%) GDPR
3 81 (3.28%) QA
4 72 (2.92%) SLA
5 62 (2.51%) NIST
6 39 (1.58%) PCI DSS
7 27 (1.09%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 17 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
9 13 (0.53%) NCSC
9 13 (0.53%) PMO
10 12 (0.49%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.45%) MiFID
12 10 (0.41%) Data Quality
12 10 (0.41%) FINRA
13 8 (0.32%) GLBA
14 6 (0.24%) DICOM
14 6 (0.24%) HL7
15 5 (0.20%) HIPAA
16 4 (0.16%) GMP
16 4 (0.16%) GxP
System Software
1 931 (37.75%) Active Directory
2 290 (11.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 127 (5.15%) Hyper-V
4 80 (3.24%) vSphere
5 78 (3.16%) Docker
6 73 (2.96%) VMware ESXi
7 67 (2.72%) Virtual Machines
8 49 (1.99%) Virtual Desktop
9 35 (1.42%) Firmware
10 34 (1.38%) VMware NSX
11 29 (1.18%) BitLocker
12 25 (1.01%) Microsoft App-V
13 20 (0.81%) KVM
14 12 (0.49%) XenApp
14 12 (0.49%) XenDesktop
15 5 (0.20%) etcd
15 5 (0.20%) NFS
15 5 (0.20%) Terminal Services
16 4 (0.16%) Job Entry Subsystem
16 4 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 338 (13.71%) Microsoft Intune
2 271 (10.99%) SCCM
3 160 (6.49%) Ansible
4 149 (6.04%) Terraform
5 117 (4.74%) Kubernetes
6 67 (2.72%) vCenter Server
7 54 (2.19%) Single Sign-On
8 44 (1.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 35 (1.42%) Jamf Pro
9 35 (1.42%) WSUS
10 34 (1.38%) FortiGate
11 26 (1.05%) SCOM
12 25 (1.01%) Grafana
13 22 (0.89%) Prometheus
14 20 (0.81%) Nessus
15 19 (0.77%) Nagios
16 18 (0.73%) Progress Chef
17 16 (0.65%) Nmap
17 16 (0.65%) Puppet
18 13 (0.53%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,056 (42.82%) Microsoft
2 379 (15.37%) VMware
3 201 (8.15%) ServiceNow
4 196 (7.95%) Citrix
5 154 (6.24%) Cisco
5 154 (6.24%) Oracle
6 116 (4.70%) Splunk
7 70 (2.84%) HP
8 61 (2.47%) SolarWinds
9 57 (2.31%) Dell
10 52 (2.11%) Google
11 51 (2.07%) Remedy
12 48 (1.95%) Red Hat
13 45 (1.82%) Apple
13 45 (1.82%) IBM
14 44 (1.78%) CyberArk
15 38 (1.54%) Juniper
16 37 (1.50%) F5
16 37 (1.50%) Veeam
17 28 (1.14%) Palo Alto