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

6 months to
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 20 17
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,460 2,077 3,104
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.00% 8.56% 8.54%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.30% 61.07% 62.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,632 1,480 2,158
10th Percentile £162 £178 £163
25th Percentile £213 £231 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £415 £400
Median % change year-on-year - +3.75% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £688 £675
UK median daily rate £416 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -2.18% +6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 194 112 260
10th Percentile £15.19 £14.20 £11.73
25th Percentile £17.94 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £26.47 £18.76 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +41.12% +5.85% -21.24%
75th Percentile £65.00 £24.75 £24.39
90th Percentile £75.00 £41.69 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.21 £18.82 £18.00
% change year-on-year +33.93% +4.56% -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 4,013 3,401 4,941
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.78% 14.02% 13.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,636 2,313 3,373
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £310 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £467 £470
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% -0.64% -8.29%
75th Percentile £570 £594 £588
90th Percentile £663 £699 £700
UK median daily rate £456 £467 £470
% change year-on-year -2.25% -0.74% -6.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 269 151 360
10th Percentile £15.99 £15.13 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.38 £14.72
Median hourly rate £47.50 £21.28 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +123.21% -3.27% -41.33%
75th Percentile £67.84 £59.44 £60.40
90th Percentile £74.74 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £47.50 £22.50 £22.00
% change year-on-year +111.11% +2.27% -42.86%

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 16 May 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 16 May 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 16 May 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 -27 754 £428 -5.00% 223
South East -6 520 £469 -4.39% 297
North of England -10 455 £340 +4.62% 188
Midlands -18 269 £325 +30.00% 112
North West -2 257 £300 -7.69% 108
South West -15 225 £450 -14.29% 141
East of England -2 214 £350 +40.00% 102
Yorkshire -21 183 £375 +15.38% 65
West Midlands -27 158 £449 +67.66% 57
East Midlands +9 106 £225 +9.09% 55
North East -25 19 £225 -25.00% 18
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
1 211 (8.58%) Microsoft Exchange
2 154 (6.26%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.20%) IIS
4 51 (2.07%) Confluence
5 19 (0.77%) Apache
6 17 (0.69%) WebLogic
7 12 (0.49%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.45%) Tuxedo
9 9 (0.37%) nginx
9 9 (0.37%) Tomcat
10 7 (0.28%) TPMS
11 5 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
11 5 (0.20%) SAS
12 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.16%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
13 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
14 2 (0.081%) ArcGIS
14 2 (0.081%) IBM HTTP Server
14 2 (0.081%) Oracle HTTP Server
Applications
1 162 (6.59%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
3 26 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.37%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.16%) Acrobat
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.041%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 43 (1.75%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.41%) Teamcenter
4 4 (0.16%) assyst
4 4 (0.16%) Finacle
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
7 1 (0.041%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle 11i
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
1 712 (28.94%) Azure
2 709 (28.82%) Microsoft 365
3 300 (12.20%) Entra ID
4 221 (8.98%) AWS
5 70 (2.85%) OneDrive
6 68 (2.76%) SaaS
7 67 (2.72%) Azure DevOps
8 64 (2.60%) GCP
9 61 (2.48%) IaaS
10 54 (2.20%) GitHub
11 50 (2.03%) PaaS
12 43 (1.75%) Power Platform
13 37 (1.50%) Azure Monitor
14 33 (1.34%) Google Workspace
15 28 (1.14%) Azure Sentinel
16 26 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
17 23 (0.93%) OpenShift
18 18 (0.73%) AWS CloudFormation
18 18 (0.73%) Azure AKS
19 16 (0.65%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 331 (13.46%) DNS
2 266 (10.81%) Firewall
3 233 (9.47%) DHCP
4 164 (6.67%) VPN
5 148 (6.02%) LAN
6 142 (5.77%) WAN
7 140 (5.69%) TCP/IP
8 112 (4.55%) Wi-Fi
9 62 (2.52%) Network Security
10 58 (2.36%) SAN
11 55 (2.24%) VLAN
12 42 (1.71%) Wireless
13 37 (1.50%) BGP
14 34 (1.38%) OSPF
14 34 (1.38%) Skype
15 33 (1.34%) SNMP
16 30 (1.22%) SSL
17 29 (1.18%) BIG-IP
18 28 (1.14%) Internet
18 28 (1.14%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 186 (7.56%) SQL Server
2 40 (1.63%) Oracle Database
3 32 (1.30%) Relational Database
4 27 (1.10%) MySQL
5 26 (1.06%) Power BI
6 25 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
7 15 (0.61%) DB2
8 14 (0.57%) MongoDB
9 13 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
10 11 (0.45%) NoSQL
11 10 (0.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 7 (0.28%) BigQuery
12 7 (0.28%) RDBMS
13 6 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (0.24%) GIS
13 6 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
14 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
14 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 4 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
15 4 (0.16%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 164 (6.67%) JIRA
2 45 (1.83%) GitLab
3 43 (1.75%) MSI
4 40 (1.63%) Jenkins
5 35 (1.42%) Visual Studio
6 29 (1.18%) Git
7 20 (0.81%) Eclipse
8 18 (0.73%) Burp Suite
9 17 (0.69%) Metasploit
10 10 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
11 9 (0.37%) Android Studio
11 9 (0.37%) Artifactory
11 9 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
11 9 (0.37%) Chocolatey
11 9 (0.37%) Xcode
12 8 (0.33%) Bitbucket
12 8 (0.33%) InstallShield
13 7 (0.28%) Robot Framework
13 7 (0.28%) Selenium
14 5 (0.20%) JUnit
General
1 832 (33.82%) Social Skills
2 243 (9.88%) Finance
3 213 (8.66%) Analytical Skills
4 175 (7.11%) Public Sector
5 136 (5.53%) Banking
6 96 (3.90%) Documentation Skills
7 92 (3.74%) Legal
8 73 (2.97%) Organisational Skills
9 57 (2.32%) Military
10 44 (1.79%) Retail
11 37 (1.50%) Law
12 35 (1.42%) Manufacturing
13 33 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 31 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
15 30 (1.22%) Telecoms
16 29 (1.18%) Investment Banking
17 26 (1.06%) Front Office
18 20 (0.81%) Local Government
19 19 (0.77%) Police
20 14 (0.57%) French Language
Job Titles
1 322 (13.09%) IT Support
2 306 (12.44%) Support Engineer
3 280 (11.38%) Analyst
4 202 (8.21%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 195 (7.93%) IT Engineer
6 161 (6.54%) IT Support Engineer
7 158 (6.42%) Senior
8 136 (5.53%) Architect
9 114 (4.63%) Support Analyst
10 108 (4.39%) Desktop Support
11 97 (3.94%) Desktop Engineer
12 91 (3.70%) 2nd Line Support
13 88 (3.58%) IT Analyst
14 87 (3.54%) Technical Support
15 86 (3.50%) Developer
16 83 (3.37%) Lead
17 68 (2.76%) Windows Engineer
18 66 (2.68%) IT Support Analyst
19 65 (2.64%) 1st Line Support
20 63 (2.56%) Desktop Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 81 (3.29%) .NET
2 75 (3.05%) REST
3 47 (1.91%) .NET Framework
4 36 (1.46%) LDAP
5 33 (1.34%) SAML
6 28 (1.14%) Microsoft Graph
6 28 (1.14%) Middleware
7 27 (1.10%) 802.1X
8 26 (1.06%) OAuth
9 25 (1.02%) Kafka
9 25 (1.02%) WinForms
10 24 (0.98%) Web Services
11 23 (0.93%) WPF
12 20 (0.81%) React
13 19 (0.77%) CSS
13 19 (0.77%) Node.js
14 18 (0.73%) AngularJS
15 17 (0.69%) Elastic Stack
15 17 (0.69%) Software Packaging
16 15 (0.61%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 205 (8.33%) Onboarding
2 110 (4.47%) Data Centre
3 105 (4.27%) PKI
4 78 (3.17%) Clustering
5 76 (3.09%) Enterprise Software
6 57 (2.32%) Self-Motivation
7 55 (2.24%) Replication
8 50 (2.03%) Driving Licence
9 48 (1.95%) Hybrid Cloud
10 43 (1.75%) Management Information System
11 39 (1.59%) Smartphone
12 38 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
13 37 (1.50%) Security Posture
13 37 (1.50%) Virtual Team
14 33 (1.34%) Cloud Native
15 30 (1.22%) Analytical Mindset
15 30 (1.22%) Product Ownership
16 27 (1.10%) Data Protection Act
17 26 (1.06%) Enterprise Storage
18 25 (1.02%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 604 (24.55%) Linux
2 581 (23.62%) Windows Server
3 455 (18.50%) Windows 10
4 161 (6.54%) Mac OS
5 126 (5.12%) Android
6 125 (5.08%) Apple iOS
7 124 (5.04%) Unix
8 69 (2.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 61 (2.48%) Windows Server 2016
10 57 (2.32%) Windows Server 2019
11 46 (1.87%) Windows 7
12 31 (1.26%) Windows Server 2012
13 30 (1.22%) AIX
14 23 (0.93%) Ubuntu
15 18 (0.73%) Windows Server 2003
16 16 (0.65%) VMS
17 14 (0.57%) Solaris
18 11 (0.45%) Windows Server 2008
19 9 (0.37%) CentOS
19 9 (0.37%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 510 (20.73%) Problem-Solving
2 389 (15.81%) Customer Service
3 366 (14.88%) ITIL
4 270 (10.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 260 (10.57%) Migration
6 250 (10.16%) Agile
7 222 (9.02%) DevOps
8 221 (8.98%) ITSM
9 210 (8.54%) CI/CD
10 167 (6.79%) Disaster Recovery
11 164 (6.67%) Continuous Improvement
12 159 (6.46%) Change Management
13 152 (6.18%) Service Management
14 151 (6.14%) High Availability
15 140 (5.69%) Cybersecurity
16 124 (5.04%) SIEM
17 123 (5.00%) Stakeholder Management
18 117 (4.76%) Infrastructure as Code
19 108 (4.39%) Computer Science
20 102 (4.15%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 527 (21.42%) PowerShell
2 250 (10.16%) SQL
3 240 (9.76%) Python
4 122 (4.96%) C#
5 87 (3.54%) Bash
6 71 (2.89%) JavaScript
7 67 (2.72%) Java
8 50 (2.03%) PL/SQL
9 45 (1.83%) C++
10 43 (1.75%) T-SQL
11 26 (1.06%) Kusto Query Language
12 24 (0.98%) VB
13 22 (0.89%) Search Processing Language
14 21 (0.85%) Perl
15 20 (0.81%) Shell Script
16 16 (0.65%) VBScript
17 14 (0.57%) VBA
18 12 (0.49%) Bicep
18 12 (0.49%) Go
18 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 767 (31.18%) Security Cleared
2 488 (19.84%) SC Cleared
3 261 (10.61%) Degree
4 248 (10.08%) DV Cleared
5 98 (3.98%) Microsoft Certification
6 76 (3.09%) Computer Science Degree
7 70 (2.85%) Cisco Certification
8 46 (1.87%) Azure Certification
9 42 (1.71%) CISSP
10 40 (1.63%) MCSE
11 34 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
12 33 (1.34%) AWS Certification
13 31 (1.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 26 (1.06%) ITIL Certification
14 26 (1.06%) MCSA
15 25 (1.02%) CCNA
16 20 (0.81%) CCNP
17 19 (0.77%) CompTIA Security+
18 18 (0.73%) A+ Certification
19 17 (0.69%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (4.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 83 (3.37%) GDPR
2 83 (3.37%) SLA
3 82 (3.33%) QA
4 71 (2.89%) NIST
5 42 (1.71%) PCI DSS
6 30 (1.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 25 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
8 13 (0.53%) NCSC
8 13 (0.53%) PMO
9 12 (0.49%) NIST 800
10 11 (0.45%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.45%) MiFID
11 10 (0.41%) FINRA
12 7 (0.28%) GLBA
12 7 (0.28%) HIPAA
13 6 (0.24%) DICOM
13 6 (0.24%) GRC
13 6 (0.24%) HL7
13 6 (0.24%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 921 (37.44%) Active Directory
2 300 (12.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 136 (5.53%) Hyper-V
4 86 (3.50%) Docker
5 84 (3.41%) vSphere
6 82 (3.33%) VMware ESXi
7 74 (3.01%) Virtual Machines
8 51 (2.07%) Virtual Desktop
9 42 (1.71%) VMware NSX
10 33 (1.34%) Firmware
11 28 (1.14%) BitLocker
12 27 (1.10%) Microsoft App-V
13 20 (0.81%) KVM
14 11 (0.45%) XenDesktop
15 10 (0.41%) XenApp
16 7 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
17 6 (0.24%) vCloud
17 6 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
18 5 (0.20%) etcd
19 4 (0.16%) Job Entry Subsystem
Systems Management
1 329 (13.37%) Microsoft Intune
2 239 (9.72%) SCCM
3 167 (6.79%) Ansible
4 145 (5.89%) Terraform
5 126 (5.12%) Kubernetes
6 73 (2.97%) vCenter Server
7 46 (1.87%) Single Sign-On
8 40 (1.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 35 (1.42%) FortiGate
9 35 (1.42%) Jamf Pro
9 35 (1.42%) WSUS
10 31 (1.26%) SCOM
11 28 (1.14%) Grafana
12 25 (1.02%) Nagios
13 23 (0.93%) Prometheus
14 21 (0.85%) Nessus
15 18 (0.73%) Progress Chef
15 18 (0.73%) ZABBIX
16 17 (0.69%) Puppet
16 17 (0.69%) WMI
Vendors
1 1,051 (42.72%) Microsoft
2 396 (16.10%) VMware
3 218 (8.86%) ServiceNow
4 190 (7.72%) Citrix
5 160 (6.50%) Cisco
6 143 (5.81%) Oracle
7 129 (5.24%) Splunk
8 71 (2.89%) HP
9 69 (2.80%) SolarWinds
10 56 (2.28%) Remedy
11 54 (2.20%) Dell
12 51 (2.07%) Apple
13 49 (1.99%) Red Hat
14 46 (1.87%) IBM
15 43 (1.75%) CyberArk
16 42 (1.71%) F5
16 42 (1.71%) Google
17 38 (1.54%) Juniper
18 35 (1.42%) BeyondTrust
18 35 (1.42%) Palo Alto