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

 6 months to
3 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 21 16
Rank change year-on-year -6 -5 -2
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,643 2,228 3,208
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.02% 8.54% 8.58%
As % of the Operating Systems category 62.14% 61.26% 61.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,721 1,520 2,169
10th Percentile £163 £181 £170
25th Percentile £220 £243 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £421 £425
Median % change year-on-year +0.95% -0.94% -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 220 162 274
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.09 £11.86
25th Percentile £18.88 £16.95 £14.27
Median hourly rate £25.75 £18.87 £19.09
Median % change year-on-year +36.46% -1.15% -22.46%
75th Percentile £56.00 £25.15 £40.00
90th Percentile £70.26 £63.75 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.13 £18.87 £20.00
% change year-on-year +33.17% -5.65% -16.18%

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 4,253 3,637 5,205
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.68% 13.94% 13.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,767 2,434 3,439
10th Percentile £188 £200 £190
25th Percentile £313 £313 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £464 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.02% -2.37% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £465 £465 £475
% change year-on-year - -2.11% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 282 197 394
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.25 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.33 £16.00
Median hourly rate £28.74 £20.00 £24.68
Median % change year-on-year +43.70% -18.95% -41.94%
75th Percentile £65.00 £49.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.41 £66.70 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £22.53 £24.68
% change year-on-year +15.40% -8.70% -41.94%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -19 864 £425 -3.13% 272
South East -8 533 £475 -3.06% 289
North of England -6 475 £363 +3.57% 193
Midlands -17 274 £339 +22.07% 136
South West -12 260 £488 +8.33% 153
North West -7 253 £363 -1.36% 108
East of England 0 220 £300 +8.08% 101
Yorkshire -14 201 £365 -8.75% 60
West Midlands -25 173 £450 +50.00% 64
East Midlands +9 96 £263 +31.25% 72
North East -38 25 £275 -4.35% 31
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
1 222 (8.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 182 (6.89%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.04%) Confluence
3 54 (2.04%) IIS
4 14 (0.53%) Skype for Business
4 14 (0.53%) Tomcat
5 13 (0.49%) Apache
5 13 (0.49%) nginx
6 9 (0.34%) Oracle Workflow
6 9 (0.34%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.26%) Appian
8 6 (0.23%) Documentum
9 5 (0.19%) Camunda
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%) ArcGIS
12 2 (0.076%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 163 (6.17%) Microsoft Office
2 66 (2.50%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.26%) 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%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.038%) Houdini
8 1 (0.038%) InDesign
8 1 (0.038%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 40 (1.51%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.45%) 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
1 810 (30.65%) Azure
2 758 (28.68%) Microsoft 365
3 361 (13.66%) Entra ID
4 278 (10.52%) AWS
5 102 (3.86%) OneDrive
6 82 (3.10%) Azure DevOps
6 82 (3.10%) GCP
7 71 (2.69%) SaaS
8 59 (2.23%) GitHub
8 59 (2.23%) IaaS
9 52 (1.97%) Power Platform
10 51 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
11 49 (1.85%) PaaS
12 34 (1.29%) Azure Sentinel
13 28 (1.06%) Google Workspace
14 27 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
15 26 (0.98%) AWS CloudFormation
16 25 (0.95%) OpenShift
17 22 (0.83%) Azure AKS
18 21 (0.79%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 366 (13.85%) DNS
2 271 (10.25%) Firewall
3 256 (9.69%) DHCP
4 179 (6.77%) VPN
5 156 (5.90%) LAN
6 151 (5.71%) WAN
7 150 (5.68%) TCP/IP
8 126 (4.77%) Wi-Fi
9 78 (2.95%) SAN
10 58 (2.19%) Network Security
11 54 (2.04%) VLAN
12 45 (1.70%) BGP
13 39 (1.48%) SSL
14 37 (1.40%) Internet
14 37 (1.40%) OSPF
15 34 (1.29%) NAS
16 32 (1.21%) Skype
17 31 (1.17%) Wireless
18 30 (1.14%) SNMP
18 30 (1.14%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 230 (8.70%) SQL Server
2 54 (2.04%) Oracle Database
3 36 (1.36%) Power BI
4 29 (1.10%) Relational Database
5 26 (0.98%) MySQL
5 26 (0.98%) 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 (0.26%) GIS
11 7 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 6 (0.23%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.19%) Big Data
13 5 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 167 (6.32%) JIRA
2 47 (1.78%) Git
3 45 (1.70%) MSI
4 42 (1.59%) Jenkins
5 38 (1.44%) GitLab
6 36 (1.36%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.64%) Eclipse
8 9 (0.34%) Chocolatey
9 7 (0.26%) Bitbucket
9 7 (0.26%) Burp Suite
9 7 (0.26%) 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%) Maven
General
1 935 (35.38%) Social Skills
2 290 (10.97%) Finance
3 286 (10.82%) Analytical Skills
4 171 (6.47%) Public Sector
5 148 (5.60%) Banking
6 100 (3.78%) Documentation Skills
7 80 (3.03%) Legal
7 80 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
8 53 (2.01%) Retail
9 51 (1.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 43 (1.63%) Military
11 36 (1.36%) Front Office
11 36 (1.36%) Manufacturing
12 34 (1.29%) Investment Banking
13 31 (1.17%) Telecoms
14 28 (1.06%) Law
15 26 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
16 24 (0.91%) Spanish Language
17 21 (0.79%) French Language
18 18 (0.68%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 367 (13.89%) Support Engineer
2 359 (13.58%) IT Support
3 270 (10.22%) Analyst
4 246 (9.31%) IT Engineer
5 235 (8.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 206 (7.79%) IT Support Engineer
7 175 (6.62%) Senior
8 128 (4.84%) Architect
9 112 (4.24%) 2nd Line Support
10 103 (3.90%) Desktop Support
11 101 (3.82%) Developer
12 100 (3.78%) Desktop Engineer
12 100 (3.78%) Support Analyst
13 92 (3.48%) Lead
14 89 (3.37%) IT Analyst
15 81 (3.06%) Cloud Engineer
16 79 (2.99%) Technical Support
17 74 (2.80%) Consultant
18 70 (2.65%) Service Analyst
19 69 (2.61%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (3.71%) .NET
2 85 (3.22%) REST
3 61 (2.31%) .NET Framework
4 38 (1.44%) LDAP
5 31 (1.17%) 802.1X
6 30 (1.14%) SAML
7 29 (1.10%) Microsoft Graph
7 29 (1.10%) WPF
8 26 (0.98%) Middleware
8 26 (0.98%) WinForms
9 25 (0.95%) Web Services
10 24 (0.91%) OAuth
11 23 (0.87%) Elastic Stack
12 22 (0.83%) CSS
13 21 (0.79%) Software Packaging
14 16 (0.61%) JSON
14 16 (0.61%) Kafka
14 16 (0.61%) Node.js
15 15 (0.57%) ADO
15 15 (0.57%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 262 (9.91%) Onboarding
2 132 (4.99%) Data Centre
3 123 (4.65%) PKI
4 77 (2.91%) Clustering
5 74 (2.80%) Enterprise Software
6 68 (2.57%) Management Information System
7 66 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
8 57 (2.16%) Cloud Native
8 57 (2.16%) Replication
9 48 (1.82%) Security Posture
10 47 (1.78%) Hybrid Cloud
11 46 (1.74%) Legacy Systems
12 45 (1.70%) Virtual Team
13 44 (1.66%) Driving Licence
14 42 (1.59%) Video Conferencing
15 32 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
15 32 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
16 29 (1.10%) Linux Command Line
17 28 (1.06%) CMDB
17 28 (1.06%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 635 (24.03%) Windows Server
2 629 (23.80%) Linux
3 454 (17.18%) Windows 10
4 175 (6.62%) Mac OS
5 127 (4.81%) Apple iOS
6 126 (4.77%) Unix
7 122 (4.62%) Android
8 95 (3.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 64 (2.42%) Windows Server 2019
10 47 (1.78%) Windows Server 2016
11 45 (1.70%) Windows 7
12 38 (1.44%) Windows Server 2012
13 34 (1.29%) Ubuntu
14 31 (1.17%) AIX
15 18 (0.68%) Solaris
15 18 (0.68%) VMS
16 16 (0.61%) CentOS
16 16 (0.61%) Windows Server 2003
17 13 (0.49%) Windows Server 2008
18 9 (0.34%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 590 (22.32%) Problem-Solving
2 427 (16.16%) ITIL
3 396 (14.98%) Customer Service
4 308 (11.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 287 (10.86%) Migration
6 272 (10.29%) ITSM
7 255 (9.65%) DevOps
8 242 (9.16%) Agile
9 234 (8.85%) Continuous Improvement
10 226 (8.55%) CI/CD
11 192 (7.26%) Service Management
12 184 (6.96%) High Availability
13 175 (6.62%) Change Management
14 165 (6.24%) Infrastructure as Code
15 152 (5.75%) Stakeholder Management
16 148 (5.60%) Disaster Recovery
17 133 (5.03%) Cybersecurity
17 133 (5.03%) Runbook
18 132 (4.99%) SIEM
19 131 (4.96%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 560 (21.19%) PowerShell
2 268 (10.14%) SQL
3 264 (9.99%) Python
4 133 (5.03%) C#
5 107 (4.05%) Bash
6 68 (2.57%) Java
7 65 (2.46%) JavaScript
8 50 (1.89%) PL/SQL
9 49 (1.85%) T-SQL
10 48 (1.82%) C++
11 25 (0.95%) VB
12 23 (0.87%) Bicep
13 22 (0.83%) Search Processing Language
14 20 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
14 20 (0.76%) VBScript
15 18 (0.68%) Shell Script
16 17 (0.64%) Perl
17 16 (0.61%) TypeScript
18 14 (0.53%) C
19 13 (0.49%) VBA
Qualifications
1 795 (30.08%) Security Cleared
2 498 (18.84%) SC Cleared
3 298 (11.28%) Degree
4 263 (9.95%) DV Cleared
5 108 (4.09%) Microsoft Certification
6 81 (3.06%) Cisco Certification
7 72 (2.72%) Computer Science Degree
8 59 (2.23%) CISSP
9 57 (2.16%) Azure Certification
10 43 (1.63%) AWS Certification
11 42 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
12 40 (1.51%) MCSE
13 31 (1.17%) CCNA
14 29 (1.10%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 28 (1.06%) CCNP
16 26 (0.98%) A+ Certification
16 26 (0.98%) ITIL Certification
17 25 (0.95%) MCSA
18 23 (0.87%) CISM
19 20 (0.76%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 118 (4.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 106 (4.01%) SLA
3 85 (3.22%) NIST
4 75 (2.84%) QA
5 56 (2.12%) GDPR
6 34 (1.29%) PCI DSS
7 31 (1.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 26 (0.98%) 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 (0.26%) PMO
15 6 (0.23%) ISO 31000
16 5 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 5 (0.19%) FINRA
System Software
1 1,012 (38.29%) Active Directory
2 334 (12.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 135 (5.11%) Hyper-V
4 112 (4.24%) VMware ESXi
5 99 (3.75%) Virtual Machines
6 96 (3.63%) vSphere
7 86 (3.25%) Docker
8 64 (2.42%) Virtual Desktop
9 54 (2.04%) 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 13 (0.49%) 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
1 380 (14.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 236 (8.93%) SCCM
3 190 (7.19%) Terraform
4 172 (6.51%) Ansible
5 131 (4.96%) Kubernetes
6 93 (3.52%) vCenter Server
7 49 (1.85%) SCOM
7 49 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
8 46 (1.74%) Jamf Pro
9 41 (1.55%) FortiGate
10 38 (1.44%) WSUS
11 34 (1.29%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 30 (1.14%) Progress Chef
13 29 (1.10%) Prometheus
14 28 (1.06%) Puppet
15 26 (0.98%) Grafana
16 23 (0.87%) Nagios
17 21 (0.79%) Nessus
18 20 (0.76%) ZABBIX
19 19 (0.72%) Packer
Vendors
1 1,148 (43.44%) Microsoft
2 435 (16.46%) VMware
3 250 (9.46%) ServiceNow
4 186 (7.04%) Citrix
5 176 (6.66%) Cisco
6 153 (5.79%) Oracle
7 119 (4.50%) Splunk
8 73 (2.76%) SolarWinds
9 72 (2.72%) Apple
10 69 (2.61%) HP
11 63 (2.38%) Red Hat
12 62 (2.35%) CyberArk
12 62 (2.35%) Google
13 57 (2.16%) Dell
14 51 (1.93%) BeyondTrust
14 51 (1.93%) Remedy
15 49 (1.85%) Juniper
16 47 (1.78%) IBM
17 45 (1.70%) F5
18 37 (1.40%) Tenable
1,051 Windows jobs in England