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

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 21 17
Rank change year-on-year -6 -4 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,735 2,253 2,883
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.99% 8.17% 8.64%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.91% 60.84% 60.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,750 1,526 1,966
10th Percentile £170 £171 £178
25th Percentile £225 £225 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £413 £450
Median % change year-on-year +3.03% -8.33% +2.27%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £673 £656
UK median daily rate £425 £416 £449
% change year-on-year +2.16% -7.35% +2.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 242 183 203
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.17 £11.07
25th Percentile £18.13 £17.33 £15.22
Median hourly rate £25.76 £18.87 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.51% -10.14% -14.70%
75th Percentile £59.75 £28.00 £56.88
90th Percentile £74.00 £65.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £19.27 £21.59
% change year-on-year +29.74% -10.75% -9.09%

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 4,418 3,703 4,735
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.68% 13.42% 14.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,831 2,460 3,157
10th Percentile £190 £200 £200
25th Percentile £313 £308 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £460 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.96% -5.64% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £669 £681 £688
UK median daily rate £472 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.11% -2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 229 295
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.45
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.13 £17.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +41.30% -25.81% -25.38%
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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -14 910 £425 - 367
South East -8 594 £475 -3.06% 305
North of England -8 470 £328 +0.77% 225
South West -11 282 £488 +8.33% 113
Midlands -21 264 £400 +3.23% 119
North West -3 258 £328 -6.43% 140
East of England -3 198 £338 +35.00% 128
Yorkshire -16 188 £360 +15.20% 59
West Midlands -29 171 £450 +9.76% 75
East Midlands +5 89 £270 +36.71% 44
North East -39 28 £260 -5.45% 32
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
1 232 (8.48%) Microsoft Exchange
2 223 (8.15%) SharePoint
3 58 (2.12%) Confluence
4 57 (2.08%) IIS
5 18 (0.66%) nginx
6 16 (0.59%) 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%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 163 (5.96%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (2.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.15%) Acrobat
5 4 (0.15%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.11%) Houdini
6 3 (0.11%) NUKE
7 2 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.037%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.037%) CINEMA 4D
8 1 (0.037%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 58 (2.12%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.37%) Finacle
3 7 (0.26%) OpenText MBPM
3 7 (0.26%) Oracle BPM
3 7 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.18%) Teamcenter
5 4 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
6 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.073%) assyst
8 1 (0.037%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.037%) Oracle BRM
8 1 (0.037%) SAP BRIM
8 1 (0.037%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.037%) SAP EWM
8 1 (0.037%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.037%) SAP FI-CA
8 1 (0.037%) SAP FS
8 1 (0.037%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 871 (31.85%) Azure
2 864 (31.59%) Microsoft 365
3 431 (15.76%) Entra ID
4 303 (11.08%) AWS
5 125 (4.57%) OneDrive
6 94 (3.44%) Azure DevOps
7 91 (3.33%) GCP
8 70 (2.56%) SaaS
9 69 (2.52%) Azure Monitor
10 64 (2.34%) Power Platform
11 63 (2.30%) GitHub
12 61 (2.23%) IaaS
13 49 (1.79%) PaaS
14 40 (1.46%) Azure Sentinel
15 26 (0.95%) AWS CloudFormation
16 25 (0.91%) OpenShift
17 24 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
17 24 (0.88%) Google Workspace
18 23 (0.84%) Azure AKS
19 21 (0.77%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 433 (15.83%) DNS
2 328 (11.99%) Firewall
3 301 (11.01%) DHCP
4 213 (7.79%) VPN
5 202 (7.39%) TCP/IP
6 139 (5.08%) LAN
7 133 (4.86%) WAN
8 121 (4.42%) Wi-Fi
9 85 (3.11%) SAN
10 68 (2.49%) Network Security
11 67 (2.45%) VLAN
12 47 (1.72%) SSL
13 45 (1.65%) BGP
14 40 (1.46%) NAS
15 38 (1.39%) Internet
16 37 (1.35%) VSAN
16 37 (1.35%) Wireless
17 36 (1.32%) OSPF
18 28 (1.02%) BIG-IP
18 28 (1.02%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 267 (9.76%) SQL Server
2 53 (1.94%) Oracle Database
3 50 (1.83%) Power BI
4 24 (0.88%) MySQL
4 24 (0.88%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (0.88%) Relational Database
4 24 (0.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 19 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
6 15 (0.55%) Db2
7 14 (0.51%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 14 (0.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 13 (0.48%) Elasticsearch
9 12 (0.44%) RDBMS
10 11 (0.40%) Geospatial Data
11 10 (0.37%) MongoDB
11 10 (0.37%) 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
1 161 (5.89%) JIRA
2 62 (2.27%) Git
3 47 (1.72%) MSI
4 42 (1.54%) Jenkins
5 36 (1.32%) GitLab
6 32 (1.17%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.62%) Eclipse
8 15 (0.55%) Bitbucket
9 10 (0.37%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 8 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
11 7 (0.26%) Artifactory
11 7 (0.26%) Browser DevTools
11 7 (0.26%) 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 1,006 (36.78%) Social Skills
2 330 (12.07%) Finance
3 328 (11.99%) Analytical Skills
4 157 (5.74%) Public Sector
5 155 (5.67%) Banking
6 95 (3.47%) Documentation Skills
7 79 (2.89%) Organisational Skills
8 76 (2.78%) Legal
9 56 (2.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 55 (2.01%) Retail
11 48 (1.76%) Manufacturing
12 44 (1.61%) Military
13 40 (1.46%) Front Office
13 40 (1.46%) Telecoms
14 35 (1.28%) Law
15 34 (1.24%) Investment Banking
16 28 (1.02%) Spanish Language
17 26 (0.95%) Financial Institution
18 23 (0.84%) French Language
19 20 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 424 (15.50%) Support Engineer
2 380 (13.89%) IT Support
3 289 (10.57%) IT Engineer
4 274 (10.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 248 (9.07%) Analyst
6 244 (8.92%) IT Support Engineer
7 220 (8.04%) Senior
8 123 (4.50%) 2nd Line Support
9 112 (4.10%) Desktop Support
10 110 (4.02%) Architect
11 101 (3.69%) Cloud Engineer
12 100 (3.66%) Desktop Engineer
12 100 (3.66%) Lead
13 98 (3.58%) Developer
14 93 (3.40%) Support Analyst
15 81 (2.96%) IT Analyst
16 77 (2.82%) 1st Line Support
16 77 (2.82%) Windows Engineer
17 74 (2.71%) Consultant
18 71 (2.60%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 110 (4.02%) .NET
2 98 (3.58%) REST
3 63 (2.30%) .NET Framework
4 31 (1.13%) 802.1X
5 30 (1.10%) WPF
6 28 (1.02%) Middleware
7 27 (0.99%) LDAP
7 27 (0.99%) WinForms
8 26 (0.95%) CSS
9 23 (0.84%) HTML
9 23 (0.84%) JSON
9 23 (0.84%) Web Services
10 22 (0.80%) Microsoft Graph
11 19 (0.69%) Elastic Stack
12 18 (0.66%) ARM Templates
12 18 (0.66%) Software Packaging
13 17 (0.62%) .NET Core
13 17 (0.62%) RESTful
13 17 (0.62%) XML
14 16 (0.59%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 314 (11.48%) Onboarding
2 150 (5.48%) Data Centre
3 149 (5.45%) PKI
4 92 (3.36%) Clustering
5 79 (2.89%) Management Information System
6 73 (2.67%) Enterprise Software
6 73 (2.67%) Hybrid Cloud
7 71 (2.60%) Cloud Native
8 63 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
9 57 (2.08%) Video Conferencing
10 53 (1.94%) Driving Licence
11 52 (1.90%) Replication
12 50 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
13 49 (1.79%) Security Posture
14 41 (1.50%) Virtual Team
15 37 (1.35%) Analytical Mindset
16 32 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
17 30 (1.10%) Enterprise Storage
18 29 (1.06%) CMDB
18 29 (1.06%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 707 (25.85%) Windows Server
2 665 (24.31%) Linux
3 477 (17.44%) Windows 10
4 178 (6.51%) Mac OS
5 123 (4.50%) Apple iOS
6 121 (4.42%) Unix
7 120 (4.39%) Android
8 109 (3.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 69 (2.52%) Windows Server 2019
10 41 (1.50%) Ubuntu
11 39 (1.43%) Windows Server 2016
12 37 (1.35%) Windows Server 2012
13 35 (1.28%) Windows 7
14 30 (1.10%) AIX
15 24 (0.88%) CentOS
16 21 (0.77%) VMS
16 21 (0.77%) Windows Server 2008
17 20 (0.73%) Solaris
18 10 (0.37%) Rocky
19 9 (0.33%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 663 (24.24%) Problem-Solving
2 497 (18.17%) ITIL
3 432 (15.80%) Customer Service
4 356 (13.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 335 (12.25%) ITSM
6 317 (11.59%) Migration
7 278 (10.16%) Continuous Improvement
8 271 (9.91%) DevOps
9 251 (9.18%) Agile
10 241 (8.81%) CI/CD
11 232 (8.48%) Service Management
12 214 (7.82%) Infrastructure as Code
13 201 (7.35%) Change Management
14 181 (6.62%) High Availability
14 181 (6.62%) Stakeholder Management
15 161 (5.89%) Cybersecurity
16 160 (5.85%) Disaster Recovery
17 158 (5.78%) Service Delivery
18 152 (5.56%) SIEM
19 150 (5.48%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 663 (24.24%) PowerShell
2 301 (11.01%) Python
3 278 (10.16%) SQL
4 164 (6.00%) Bash
5 143 (5.23%) C#
6 72 (2.63%) JavaScript
7 66 (2.41%) Java
8 51 (1.86%) T-SQL
9 49 (1.79%) PL/SQL
10 48 (1.76%) C++
11 42 (1.54%) Bicep
12 24 (0.88%) Search Processing Language
13 21 (0.77%) VB
14 18 (0.66%) TypeScript
15 17 (0.62%) Perl
15 17 (0.62%) VBScript
16 16 (0.59%) Shell Script
17 15 (0.55%) C
18 13 (0.48%) VBA
19 11 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 856 (31.30%) Security Cleared
2 517 (18.90%) SC Cleared
3 317 (11.59%) DV Cleared
4 290 (10.60%) Degree
5 112 (4.10%) Microsoft Certification
6 81 (2.96%) Cisco Certification
7 73 (2.67%) Computer Science Degree
8 71 (2.60%) Azure Certification
9 61 (2.23%) CISSP
10 49 (1.79%) AWS Certification
11 47 (1.72%) BPSS Clearance
12 44 (1.61%) A+ Certification
13 34 (1.24%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 33 (1.21%) MCSE
15 32 (1.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 29 (1.06%) CCNA
17 28 (1.02%) CCNP
18 25 (0.91%) ITIL Certification
19 23 (0.84%) DBS Check
19 23 (0.84%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 134 (4.90%) SLA
2 117 (4.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 84 (3.07%) NIST
4 77 (2.82%) QA
5 28 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
5 28 (1.02%) GDPR
6 26 (0.95%) NCSC
7 24 (0.88%) PCI DSS
8 16 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 13 (0.48%) Accessibility
10 12 (0.44%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.40%) HIPAA
11 11 (0.40%) WCAG
12 10 (0.37%) GRC
12 10 (0.37%) PMO
13 8 (0.29%) GxP
13 8 (0.29%) NIST 800
13 8 (0.29%) SOC 2
14 6 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 6 (0.22%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 1,114 (40.73%) Active Directory
2 384 (14.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 160 (5.85%) Hyper-V
4 132 (4.83%) VMware ESXi
5 112 (4.10%) vSphere
6 102 (3.73%) Docker
7 94 (3.44%) Virtual Machines
8 78 (2.85%) VMware NSX
9 70 (2.56%) Virtual Desktop
10 34 (1.24%) Firmware
11 32 (1.17%) BitLocker
12 21 (0.77%) Microsoft App-V
13 18 (0.66%) vCloud
14 13 (0.48%) KVM
15 10 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
16 8 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
17 7 (0.26%) NFS
17 7 (0.26%) XenApp
17 7 (0.26%) XenDesktop
18 6 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 404 (14.77%) Microsoft Intune
2 247 (9.03%) SCCM
3 241 (8.81%) Terraform
4 212 (7.75%) Ansible
5 153 (5.59%) Kubernetes
6 114 (4.17%) vCenter Server
7 74 (2.71%) SCOM
8 46 (1.68%) Jamf Pro
9 41 (1.50%) WSUS
10 38 (1.39%) FortiGate
11 35 (1.28%) Progress Chef
12 32 (1.17%) Single Sign-On
13 30 (1.10%) Puppet
14 25 (0.91%) Packer
15 23 (0.84%) Nagios
16 22 (0.80%) WMI
17 21 (0.77%) Grafana
17 21 (0.77%) Prometheus
17 21 (0.77%) VxRail
18 20 (0.73%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,237 (45.23%) Microsoft
2 519 (18.98%) VMware
3 310 (11.33%) ServiceNow
4 182 (6.65%) Cisco
5 173 (6.33%) Citrix
6 162 (5.92%) Oracle
7 119 (4.35%) Splunk
8 85 (3.11%) Apple
9 82 (3.00%) CyberArk
9 82 (3.00%) SolarWinds
10 69 (2.52%) Remedy
11 67 (2.45%) Google
12 66 (2.41%) HP
13 62 (2.27%) Red Hat
14 60 (2.19%) BeyondTrust
15 54 (1.97%) Juniper
16 53 (1.94%) Dell
17 46 (1.68%) BMC
18 43 (1.57%) F5
19 42 (1.54%) IBM