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

6 months to
8 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 2,242 2,873
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.02% 8.12% 8.62%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.80% 60.69% 60.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,761 1,514 1,961
10th Percentile £170 £171 £178
25th Percentile £225 £225 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £411 £450
Median % change year-on-year +3.34% -8.61% +2.86%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £673 £663
UK median daily rate £425 £415 £449
% change year-on-year +2.39% -7.55% +2.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 245 185 202
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.21 £11.07
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.33 £15.22
Median hourly rate £25.75 £18.87 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.46% -10.14% -14.70%
75th Percentile £59.00 £28.00 £57.19
90th Percentile £74.00 £65.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.51 £19.36 £21.59
% change year-on-year +31.74% -10.33% -10.04%

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 4,456 3,694 4,725
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.73% 13.38% 14.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,856 2,448 3,153
10th Percentile £190 £198 £200
25th Percentile £313 £308 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £455 £488
Median % change year-on-year +3.17% -6.67% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £669 £682 £688
UK median daily rate £472 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.00% -2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 309 231 295
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.45
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.13 £17.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +41.30% -32.35% -20.00%
75th Percentile £67.25 £58.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £25.92 £24.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +8.00% -12.73% -35.29%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 -15 917 £422 -0.71% 370
South East -7 595 £475 -3.06% 292
North of England -7 475 £326 +0.38% 217
South West -10 283 £488 +21.88% 110
Midlands -20 267 £400 - 117
North West -3 263 £331 -6.43% 135
East of England -3 200 £339 +35.50% 123
Yorkshire -16 187 £355 +18.33% 58
West Midlands -27 172 £450 +7.78% 73
East Midlands +7 91 £270 +36.71% 44
North East -37 29 £250 -4.76% 30
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
1 235 (8.53%) Microsoft Exchange
2 224 (8.13%) SharePoint
3 58 (2.11%) Confluence
4 57 (2.07%) IIS
5 18 (0.65%) nginx
6 16 (0.58%) Apache
7 14 (0.51%) Tomcat
8 11 (0.40%) Skype for Business
9 9 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
10 8 (0.29%) WebLogic
11 6 (0.22%) Appian
11 6 (0.22%) Documentum
12 5 (0.18%) Camunda
13 4 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 4 (0.15%) Apache Solr
13 4 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
14 3 (0.11%) CloudStack
14 3 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
14 3 (0.11%) NetWeaver
15 2 (0.073%) OpenStack
Applications
1 163 (5.92%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (2.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.15%) Acrobat
6 4 (0.15%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.11%) Houdini
7 3 (0.11%) NUKE
8 2 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.036%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.036%) CINEMA 4D
9 1 (0.036%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 58 (2.11%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.36%) Finacle
3 7 (0.25%) OpenText MBPM
3 7 (0.25%) Oracle BPM
3 7 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
4 5 (0.18%) Teamcenter
5 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.073%) assyst
7 1 (0.036%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.036%) Oracle BRM
7 1 (0.036%) SAP BRIM
7 1 (0.036%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.036%) SAP EWM
7 1 (0.036%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.036%) SAP FI-CA
7 1 (0.036%) SAP FS
7 1 (0.036%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 877 (31.84%) Azure
2 873 (31.70%) Microsoft 365
3 436 (15.83%) Entra ID
4 303 (11.00%) AWS
5 126 (4.58%) OneDrive
6 95 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
7 91 (3.30%) GCP
8 71 (2.58%) SaaS
9 69 (2.51%) Azure Monitor
10 65 (2.36%) IaaS
11 64 (2.32%) GitHub
11 64 (2.32%) Power Platform
12 50 (1.82%) PaaS
13 40 (1.45%) Azure Sentinel
14 26 (0.94%) AWS CloudFormation
15 25 (0.91%) Google Workspace
15 25 (0.91%) OpenShift
16 24 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
17 23 (0.84%) Azure AKS
18 21 (0.76%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 440 (15.98%) DNS
2 332 (12.06%) Firewall
3 306 (11.11%) DHCP
4 219 (7.95%) VPN
5 204 (7.41%) TCP/IP
6 141 (5.12%) LAN
7 136 (4.94%) WAN
8 123 (4.47%) Wi-Fi
9 86 (3.12%) SAN
10 69 (2.51%) Network Security
11 67 (2.43%) VLAN
12 47 (1.71%) SSL
13 46 (1.67%) BGP
14 41 (1.49%) NAS
15 39 (1.42%) Internet
16 38 (1.38%) VSAN
16 38 (1.38%) Wireless
17 36 (1.31%) OSPF
18 28 (1.02%) BIG-IP
18 28 (1.02%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 267 (9.69%) SQL Server
2 53 (1.92%) Oracle Database
3 50 (1.82%) Power BI
4 24 (0.87%) MySQL
4 24 (0.87%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (0.87%) Relational Database
4 24 (0.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 19 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
6 15 (0.54%) Db2
7 14 (0.51%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 14 (0.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 13 (0.47%) Elasticsearch
9 12 (0.44%) RDBMS
10 11 (0.40%) Geospatial Data
11 10 (0.36%) MongoDB
11 10 (0.36%) NoSQL
12 8 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.18%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.18%) Big Data
13 5 (0.18%) GIS
Development Applications
1 160 (5.81%) JIRA
2 63 (2.29%) Git
3 48 (1.74%) MSI
4 42 (1.53%) Jenkins
5 37 (1.34%) GitLab
6 32 (1.16%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.62%) Eclipse
8 15 (0.54%) Bitbucket
9 10 (0.36%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 8 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
11 7 (0.25%) Artifactory
11 7 (0.25%) Browser DevTools
11 7 (0.25%) Chocolatey
12 5 (0.18%) AdminStudio
12 5 (0.18%) InstallShield
12 5 (0.18%) Selenium
13 4 (0.15%) Android Studio
13 4 (0.15%) Maven
13 4 (0.15%) Robot Framework
13 4 (0.15%) Xcode
General
1 1,013 (36.78%) Social Skills
2 331 (12.02%) Analytical Skills
2 331 (12.02%) Finance
3 159 (5.77%) Public Sector
4 155 (5.63%) Banking
5 96 (3.49%) Documentation Skills
6 79 (2.87%) Legal
6 79 (2.87%) Organisational Skills
7 56 (2.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 55 (2.00%) Retail
9 52 (1.89%) Manufacturing
10 44 (1.60%) Military
11 41 (1.49%) Front Office
12 40 (1.45%) Telecoms
13 35 (1.27%) Law
14 34 (1.23%) Investment Banking
15 28 (1.02%) Spanish Language
16 26 (0.94%) Financial Institution
17 23 (0.84%) French Language
18 20 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 430 (15.61%) Support Engineer
2 382 (13.87%) IT Support
3 292 (10.60%) IT Engineer
4 275 (9.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 249 (9.04%) Analyst
6 246 (8.93%) IT Support Engineer
7 220 (7.99%) Senior
8 126 (4.58%) 2nd Line Support
9 115 (4.18%) Desktop Support
10 113 (4.10%) Architect
11 102 (3.70%) Cloud Engineer
11 102 (3.70%) Desktop Engineer
12 101 (3.67%) Lead
13 97 (3.52%) Developer
14 94 (3.41%) Support Analyst
15 80 (2.90%) IT Analyst
16 79 (2.87%) Windows Engineer
17 78 (2.83%) 1st Line Support
18 76 (2.76%) Consultant
19 72 (2.61%) 2nd Line Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 110 (3.99%) .NET
2 100 (3.63%) REST
3 63 (2.29%) .NET Framework
4 31 (1.13%) 802.1X
5 30 (1.09%) Middleware
5 30 (1.09%) WPF
6 28 (1.02%) LDAP
7 27 (0.98%) JSON
7 27 (0.98%) WinForms
8 26 (0.94%) CSS
9 23 (0.84%) HTML
9 23 (0.84%) Web Services
10 22 (0.80%) Microsoft Graph
11 19 (0.69%) Elastic Stack
11 19 (0.69%) Software Packaging
12 18 (0.65%) ARM Templates
13 17 (0.62%) .NET Core
13 17 (0.62%) RESTful
13 17 (0.62%) XML
14 16 (0.58%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 314 (11.40%) Onboarding
2 153 (5.56%) Data Centre
3 150 (5.45%) PKI
4 93 (3.38%) Clustering
5 80 (2.90%) Management Information System
6 74 (2.69%) Enterprise Software
7 73 (2.65%) Hybrid Cloud
8 71 (2.58%) Cloud Native
9 62 (2.25%) Self-Motivation
10 57 (2.07%) Video Conferencing
11 53 (1.92%) Driving Licence
12 52 (1.89%) Replication
13 50 (1.82%) Legacy Systems
14 49 (1.78%) Security Posture
15 41 (1.49%) Virtual Team
16 37 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
17 34 (1.23%) CMDB
18 32 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
19 30 (1.09%) Enterprise Storage
20 29 (1.05%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 716 (26.00%) Windows Server
2 671 (24.36%) Linux
3 484 (17.57%) Windows 10
4 181 (6.57%) Mac OS
5 123 (4.47%) Apple iOS
6 122 (4.43%) Unix
7 120 (4.36%) Android
8 110 (3.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 70 (2.54%) Windows Server 2019
10 41 (1.49%) Ubuntu
10 41 (1.49%) Windows Server 2016
11 38 (1.38%) Windows Server 2012
12 35 (1.27%) Windows 7
13 30 (1.09%) AIX
14 24 (0.87%) CentOS
15 21 (0.76%) VMS
15 21 (0.76%) Windows Server 2008
16 20 (0.73%) Solaris
17 10 (0.36%) Rocky
18 9 (0.33%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 674 (24.47%) Problem-Solving
2 501 (18.19%) ITIL
3 432 (15.69%) Customer Service
4 356 (12.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 338 (12.27%) ITSM
6 323 (11.73%) Migration
7 279 (10.13%) Continuous Improvement
8 272 (9.88%) DevOps
9 252 (9.15%) Agile
10 242 (8.79%) CI/CD
11 234 (8.50%) Service Management
12 215 (7.81%) Infrastructure as Code
13 202 (7.33%) Change Management
14 183 (6.64%) High Availability
15 182 (6.61%) Stakeholder Management
16 165 (5.99%) Cybersecurity
17 160 (5.81%) Disaster Recovery
18 158 (5.74%) Service Delivery
19 153 (5.56%) SIEM
20 151 (5.48%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 666 (24.18%) PowerShell
2 303 (11.00%) Python
3 279 (10.13%) SQL
4 164 (5.95%) Bash
5 143 (5.19%) C#
6 72 (2.61%) JavaScript
7 66 (2.40%) Java
8 51 (1.85%) T-SQL
9 49 (1.78%) PL/SQL
10 48 (1.74%) C++
11 42 (1.53%) Bicep
12 24 (0.87%) Search Processing Language
13 21 (0.76%) VB
14 18 (0.65%) TypeScript
14 18 (0.65%) VBScript
15 17 (0.62%) Perl
16 16 (0.58%) Shell Script
17 15 (0.54%) C
18 13 (0.47%) VBA
19 11 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 864 (31.37%) Security Cleared
2 523 (18.99%) SC Cleared
3 317 (11.51%) DV Cleared
4 292 (10.60%) Degree
5 112 (4.07%) Microsoft Certification
6 81 (2.94%) Cisco Certification
7 74 (2.69%) Computer Science Degree
8 71 (2.58%) Azure Certification
9 61 (2.21%) CISSP
10 49 (1.78%) AWS Certification
10 49 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
11 45 (1.63%) A+ Certification
12 35 (1.27%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 33 (1.20%) MCSE
14 32 (1.16%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 29 (1.05%) CCNA
16 28 (1.02%) CCNP
17 25 (0.91%) ITIL Certification
18 23 (0.84%) DBS Check
18 23 (0.84%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 135 (4.90%) SLA
2 117 (4.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 85 (3.09%) NIST
4 77 (2.80%) QA
5 28 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
5 28 (1.02%) GDPR
5 28 (1.02%) NCSC
6 24 (0.87%) PCI DSS
7 16 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 13 (0.47%) Accessibility
9 12 (0.44%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.40%) HIPAA
10 11 (0.40%) WCAG
11 10 (0.36%) GRC
11 10 (0.36%) PMO
12 8 (0.29%) GxP
12 8 (0.29%) NIST 800
12 8 (0.29%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 6 (0.22%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 1,126 (40.89%) Active Directory
2 390 (14.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 165 (5.99%) Hyper-V
4 132 (4.79%) VMware ESXi
5 112 (4.07%) vSphere
6 102 (3.70%) Docker
7 95 (3.45%) Virtual Machines
8 78 (2.83%) VMware NSX
9 73 (2.65%) Virtual Desktop
10 34 (1.23%) Firmware
11 32 (1.16%) BitLocker
12 21 (0.76%) Microsoft App-V
13 18 (0.65%) vCloud
14 13 (0.47%) KVM
15 12 (0.44%) Virtual Servers
16 8 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
17 7 (0.25%) NFS
17 7 (0.25%) XenApp
17 7 (0.25%) XenDesktop
18 6 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 408 (14.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 256 (9.30%) SCCM
3 241 (8.75%) Terraform
4 213 (7.73%) Ansible
5 153 (5.56%) Kubernetes
6 114 (4.14%) vCenter Server
7 74 (2.69%) SCOM
8 47 (1.71%) Jamf Pro
9 42 (1.53%) WSUS
10 38 (1.38%) FortiGate
11 35 (1.27%) Progress Chef
12 32 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
13 30 (1.09%) Puppet
14 25 (0.91%) Packer
15 23 (0.84%) Nagios
16 22 (0.80%) VxRail
16 22 (0.80%) WMI
17 21 (0.76%) Grafana
17 21 (0.76%) Prometheus
18 20 (0.73%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,253 (45.50%) Microsoft
2 525 (19.06%) VMware
3 313 (11.37%) ServiceNow
4 183 (6.64%) Cisco
5 175 (6.35%) Citrix
6 162 (5.88%) Oracle
7 119 (4.32%) Splunk
8 86 (3.12%) Apple
9 82 (2.98%) CyberArk
9 82 (2.98%) SolarWinds
10 69 (2.51%) Remedy
11 68 (2.47%) Google
12 66 (2.40%) HP
13 63 (2.29%) Red Hat
14 61 (2.21%) BeyondTrust
15 54 (1.96%) Juniper
16 53 (1.92%) Dell
17 46 (1.67%) BMC
18 43 (1.56%) F5
19 42 (1.53%) IBM