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

 6 months to
19 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 21 17
Rank change year-on-year -6 -4 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,754 2,249 2,844
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.02% 8.15% 8.55%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.92% 60.98% 60.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,775 1,521 1,925
10th Percentile £171 £168 £178
25th Percentile £225 £220 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £408 £450
Median % change year-on-year +4.29% -9.44% +5.88%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £669 £659
UK median daily rate £425 £413 £450
% change year-on-year +3.03% -8.33% +4.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 187 200
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.12 £11.06
25th Percentile £17.84 £17.33 £15.04
Median hourly rate £25.75 £18.87 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.46% -10.14% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.08 £28.00 £58.56
90th Percentile £74.10 £65.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.75 £19.68 £21.80
% change year-on-year +30.84% -9.72% -3.11%

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 4,448 3,688 4,728
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.73% 13.37% 14.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,864 2,433 3,128
10th Percentile £191 £190 £200
25th Percentile £313 £306 £338
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £450 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.22% -8.16% -2.00%
75th Percentile £575 £586 £588
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £475 £460 £475
% change year-on-year +3.26% -3.16% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 235 288
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.41
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.13 £16.77
Median hourly rate £34.13 £23.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +48.39% -29.23% -15.52%
75th Percentile £67.25 £58.88 £67.63
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £24.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year +6.12% -10.91% -31.25%

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 19 August 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 19 August 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 19 August 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 -12 922 £425 - 645
South East -7 573 £475 -3.06% 353
North of England -6 503 £328 +0.77% 234
North West +3 293 £344 -1.71% 124
South West -13 287 £488 +39.29% 144
Midlands -22 259 £385 -3.75% 132
East of England -5 192 £340 +1.49% 149
Yorkshire -17 183 £324 +7.92% 81
West Midlands -29 164 £425 - 87
East Midlands +6 91 £270 +35.00% 45
North East -30 31 £250 -4.76% 41
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
1 234 (8.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 229 (8.32%) SharePoint
3 57 (2.07%) IIS
4 56 (2.03%) Confluence
5 19 (0.69%) Skype for Business
6 17 (0.62%) nginx
7 15 (0.54%) Apache
8 13 (0.47%) Tomcat
9 9 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
10 8 (0.29%) WebLogic
11 6 (0.22%) Documentum
12 5 (0.18%) Apache Solr
12 5 (0.18%) Appian
12 5 (0.18%) Camunda
13 4 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
14 3 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 3 (0.11%) CloudStack
14 3 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
14 3 (0.11%) NetWeaver
14 3 (0.11%) OpenStack
Applications
1 171 (6.21%) Microsoft Office
2 61 (2.21%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.18%) Acrobat
5 5 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.11%) Houdini
6 3 (0.11%) NUKE
7 2 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.036%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.036%) CINEMA 4D
8 1 (0.036%) InDesign
8 1 (0.036%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 57 (2.07%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.36%) Finacle
3 7 (0.25%) OpenText MBPM
3 7 (0.25%) Oracle BPM
4 6 (0.22%) SAP S/4HANA
5 5 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
6 4 (0.15%) Teamcenter
7 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.073%) assyst
9 1 (0.036%) Dynamics NAV
9 1 (0.036%) Oracle BRM
9 1 (0.036%) SAP BRIM
9 1 (0.036%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.036%) SAP EWM
9 1 (0.036%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.036%) SAP FI-CA
9 1 (0.036%) SAP FS
9 1 (0.036%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 882 (32.03%) Azure
2 872 (31.66%) Microsoft 365
3 446 (16.19%) Entra ID
4 314 (11.40%) AWS
5 128 (4.65%) OneDrive
6 102 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
7 93 (3.38%) GCP
8 73 (2.65%) Azure Monitor
9 71 (2.58%) SaaS
10 64 (2.32%) Power Platform
11 63 (2.29%) GitHub
11 63 (2.29%) IaaS
12 48 (1.74%) PaaS
13 41 (1.49%) Azure Sentinel
14 28 (1.02%) AWS CloudFormation
14 28 (1.02%) OpenShift
15 26 (0.94%) Google Workspace
16 24 (0.87%) Azure AKS
17 23 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
18 22 (0.80%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 440 (15.98%) DNS
2 321 (11.66%) Firewall
3 317 (11.51%) DHCP
4 229 (8.32%) VPN
5 209 (7.59%) TCP/IP
6 131 (4.76%) LAN
6 131 (4.76%) WAN
7 126 (4.58%) Wi-Fi
8 90 (3.27%) SAN
9 79 (2.87%) VLAN
10 73 (2.65%) Network Security
11 43 (1.56%) NAS
11 43 (1.56%) SSL
12 39 (1.42%) Internet
12 39 (1.42%) VSAN
13 38 (1.38%) Wireless
14 35 (1.27%) Skype
15 33 (1.20%) BGP
16 25 (0.91%) VoIP
17 24 (0.87%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 263 (9.55%) SQL Server
2 52 (1.89%) Power BI
3 51 (1.85%) Oracle Database
4 25 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 23 (0.84%) Relational Database
6 22 (0.80%) MySQL
6 22 (0.80%) PostgreSQL
7 19 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
8 15 (0.54%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 15 (0.54%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 12 (0.44%) Elasticsearch
10 11 (0.40%) Geospatial Data
10 11 (0.40%) RDBMS
11 10 (0.36%) Db2
12 8 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
12 8 (0.29%) MongoDB
13 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
14 5 (0.18%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (0.18%) GIS
14 5 (0.18%) ObjectStore
Development Applications
1 158 (5.74%) JIRA
2 66 (2.40%) Git
3 46 (1.67%) Jenkins
3 46 (1.67%) MSI
4 38 (1.38%) GitLab
5 31 (1.13%) Visual Studio
6 17 (0.62%) Bitbucket
6 17 (0.62%) Eclipse
7 10 (0.36%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 7 (0.25%) Artifactory
8 7 (0.25%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (0.25%) Chocolatey
8 7 (0.25%) Selenium
8 7 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.18%) AdminStudio
9 5 (0.18%) InstallShield
9 5 (0.18%) Robot Framework
10 4 (0.15%) Claude Code
10 4 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
11 3 (0.11%) Appium
General
1 1,007 (36.56%) Social Skills
2 344 (12.49%) Finance
3 338 (12.27%) Analytical Skills
4 157 (5.70%) Banking
5 146 (5.30%) Public Sector
6 94 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
7 73 (2.65%) Legal
8 71 (2.58%) Organisational Skills
9 58 (2.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 54 (1.96%) Retail
11 52 (1.89%) Manufacturing
12 42 (1.53%) Telecoms
13 40 (1.45%) Front Office
14 38 (1.38%) Military
15 36 (1.31%) Law
16 33 (1.20%) Investment Banking
17 28 (1.02%) Spanish Language
18 25 (0.91%) Financial Institution
19 24 (0.87%) French Language
20 19 (0.69%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 437 (15.87%) Support Engineer
2 376 (13.65%) IT Support
3 293 (10.64%) IT Engineer
4 285 (10.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 245 (8.90%) IT Support Engineer
6 239 (8.68%) Analyst
7 221 (8.02%) Senior
8 125 (4.54%) 2nd Line Support
9 120 (4.36%) Desktop Support
10 111 (4.03%) Architect
11 106 (3.85%) Cloud Engineer
12 105 (3.81%) Desktop Engineer
13 101 (3.67%) Lead
14 95 (3.45%) Support Analyst
15 89 (3.23%) Developer
16 85 (3.09%) Windows Engineer
17 80 (2.90%) Consultant
18 77 (2.80%) 1st Line Support
19 75 (2.72%) IT Analyst
20 72 (2.61%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 110 (3.99%) .NET
2 99 (3.59%) REST
3 62 (2.25%) .NET Framework
4 29 (1.05%) Middleware
4 29 (1.05%) WPF
5 28 (1.02%) JSON
6 26 (0.94%) LDAP
7 25 (0.91%) WinForms
8 22 (0.80%) CSS
9 21 (0.76%) ARM Templates
9 21 (0.76%) Web Services
10 20 (0.73%) HTML
10 20 (0.73%) Software Packaging
11 19 (0.69%) Elastic Stack
11 19 (0.69%) Microsoft Graph
12 18 (0.65%) .NET Core
12 18 (0.65%) 802.1X
12 18 (0.65%) Kafka
13 17 (0.62%) RESTful
13 17 (0.62%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 326 (11.84%) Onboarding
2 150 (5.45%) Data Centre
3 144 (5.23%) PKI
4 85 (3.09%) Clustering
5 84 (3.05%) Management Information System
6 79 (2.87%) Hybrid Cloud
7 75 (2.72%) Cloud Native
8 72 (2.61%) Enterprise Software
9 64 (2.32%) Video Conferencing
10 62 (2.25%) Self-Motivation
11 54 (1.96%) Driving Licence
11 54 (1.96%) Replication
12 46 (1.67%) Legacy Systems
12 46 (1.67%) Security Posture
13 40 (1.45%) Virtual Team
14 39 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
15 35 (1.27%) Enterprise Storage
16 34 (1.23%) CMDB
17 30 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
18 29 (1.05%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 736 (26.72%) Windows Server
2 675 (24.51%) Linux
3 490 (17.79%) Windows 10
4 180 (6.54%) Mac OS
5 125 (4.54%) Apple iOS
6 123 (4.47%) Android
7 114 (4.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 109 (3.96%) Unix
9 69 (2.51%) Windows Server 2019
10 46 (1.67%) Windows 7
11 45 (1.63%) Ubuntu
12 41 (1.49%) Windows Server 2016
13 36 (1.31%) Windows Server 2012
14 30 (1.09%) CentOS
15 24 (0.87%) AIX
16 20 (0.73%) VMS
17 19 (0.69%) Windows Server 2008
18 17 (0.62%) Solaris
19 11 (0.40%) Windows Server 2003
20 10 (0.36%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 675 (24.51%) Problem-Solving
2 511 (18.55%) ITIL
3 435 (15.80%) Customer Service
4 367 (13.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 359 (13.04%) ITSM
6 328 (11.91%) Migration
7 286 (10.38%) Continuous Improvement
8 279 (10.13%) DevOps
9 255 (9.26%) Service Management
10 250 (9.08%) Agile
11 248 (9.01%) CI/CD
12 229 (8.32%) Infrastructure as Code
13 208 (7.55%) Change Management
14 191 (6.94%) Stakeholder Management
15 173 (6.28%) Disaster Recovery
15 173 (6.28%) High Availability
16 164 (5.95%) Root Cause Analysis
17 160 (5.81%) Cybersecurity
18 159 (5.77%) Service Delivery
19 154 (5.59%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 699 (25.38%) PowerShell
2 311 (11.29%) Python
3 278 (10.09%) SQL
4 170 (6.17%) Bash
5 139 (5.05%) C#
6 69 (2.51%) Java
7 66 (2.40%) JavaScript
8 50 (1.82%) T-SQL
9 47 (1.71%) PL/SQL
10 46 (1.67%) Bicep
11 43 (1.56%) C++
12 28 (1.02%) VB
13 26 (0.94%) VBScript
14 24 (0.87%) Search Processing Language
15 17 (0.62%) Perl
15 17 (0.62%) Shell Script
16 16 (0.58%) TypeScript
17 11 (0.40%) C
17 11 (0.40%) VBA
18 10 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 877 (31.84%) Security Cleared
2 538 (19.54%) SC Cleared
3 323 (11.73%) DV Cleared
4 282 (10.24%) Degree
5 108 (3.92%) Microsoft Certification
6 84 (3.05%) Azure Certification
7 76 (2.76%) Cisco Certification
8 75 (2.72%) Computer Science Degree
9 61 (2.21%) CISSP
10 54 (1.96%) AWS Certification
11 48 (1.74%) A+ Certification
12 46 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
13 38 (1.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 32 (1.16%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 29 (1.05%) CCNA
16 28 (1.02%) CCNP
17 26 (0.94%) MCSE
18 25 (0.91%) CISM
19 24 (0.87%) ITIL Certification
19 24 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 142 (5.16%) SLA
2 110 (3.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 81 (2.94%) NIST
4 79 (2.87%) QA
5 28 (1.02%) NCSC
6 26 (0.94%) Cyber Essentials
6 26 (0.94%) GDPR
7 24 (0.87%) PCI DSS
8 16 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 13 (0.47%) Accessibility
10 12 (0.44%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.40%) HIPAA
11 11 (0.40%) WCAG
12 10 (0.36%) GRC
13 9 (0.33%) PMO
14 8 (0.29%) NIST 800
15 7 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 7 (0.25%) GxP
16 6 (0.22%) ISO 31000
16 6 (0.22%) SOC 2
System Software
1 1,136 (41.25%) Active Directory
2 411 (14.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 173 (6.28%) Hyper-V
4 136 (4.94%) VMware ESXi
5 120 (4.36%) vSphere
6 105 (3.81%) Docker
7 92 (3.34%) Virtual Machines
8 82 (2.98%) VMware NSX
9 79 (2.87%) Virtual Desktop
10 40 (1.45%) BitLocker
11 34 (1.23%) Firmware
12 20 (0.73%) vCloud
13 18 (0.65%) Microsoft App-V
14 14 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
15 9 (0.33%) KVM
15 9 (0.33%) XenApp
15 9 (0.33%) XenDesktop
16 8 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
17 7 (0.25%) Citrix Hypervisor
17 7 (0.25%) NFS
Systems Management
1 411 (14.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 286 (10.38%) SCCM
3 249 (9.04%) Terraform
4 220 (7.99%) Ansible
5 152 (5.52%) Kubernetes
6 114 (4.14%) vCenter Server
7 78 (2.83%) SCOM
8 46 (1.67%) WSUS
9 44 (1.60%) Jamf Pro
10 38 (1.38%) Progress Chef
11 32 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
12 30 (1.09%) Puppet
13 27 (0.98%) FortiGate
14 25 (0.91%) WMI
15 24 (0.87%) Grafana
15 24 (0.87%) Nagios
15 24 (0.87%) Packer
15 24 (0.87%) Prometheus
16 23 (0.84%) VxRail
17 20 (0.73%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 1,292 (46.91%) Microsoft
2 550 (19.97%) VMware
3 328 (11.91%) ServiceNow
4 177 (6.43%) Cisco
5 165 (5.99%) Citrix
6 158 (5.74%) Oracle
7 103 (3.74%) Splunk
8 92 (3.34%) Apple
9 85 (3.09%) CyberArk
10 76 (2.76%) Google
11 70 (2.54%) SolarWinds
12 65 (2.36%) HP
12 65 (2.36%) Red Hat
13 61 (2.21%) Remedy
14 60 (2.18%) BeyondTrust
15 51 (1.85%) Dell
16 47 (1.71%) BMC
17 40 (1.45%) Juniper
18 39 (1.42%) Meraki
18 39 (1.42%) NetApp
1,557 Windows jobs in England