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 9 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 20 17
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,535 2,108 3,137
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.98% 8.65% 8.44%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.71% 61.62% 61.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,660 1,478 2,168
10th Percentile £163 £181 £163
25th Percentile £220 £250 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £412
Median % change year-on-year - +3.22% -8.50%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £425 £425 £410
% change year-on-year - +3.66% -8.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 215 139 258
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £11.58
25th Percentile £18.75 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.77 £18.82 £17.86
Median % change year-on-year +36.93% +5.38% -26.53%
75th Percentile £60.00 £25.08 £25.00
90th Percentile £74.00 £59.20 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.75 £18.87 £18.00
% change year-on-year +36.46% +4.83% -24.78%

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 4,108 3,421 5,118
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.69% 14.04% 13.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,667 2,321 3,448
10th Percentile £188 £200 £188
25th Percentile £313 £313 £303
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £465 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% -2.11% -5.09%
75th Percentile £570 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £460 £465 £470
% change year-on-year -1.08% -1.06% -6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 288 168 373
10th Percentile £15.88 £15.11 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.31 £16.95 £15.50
Median hourly rate £34.68 £19.27 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +79.94% -14.36% -47.06%
75th Percentile £65.00 £49.56 £63.75
90th Percentile £72.60 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £22.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +47.73% -2.22% -48.57%

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 9 June 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 9 June 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 9 June 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 -20 797 £434 -3.61% 198
South East -7 525 £475 -3.06% 290
North of England -7 470 £365 +4.29% 190
Midlands -16 276 £325 +16.07% 104
North West -2 251 £354 -3.49% 111
South West -14 231 £475 +2.70% 143
East of England -2 218 £350 -13.31% 71
Yorkshire -18 200 £365 -8.75% 59
West Midlands -26 165 £450 +50.00% 60
East Midlands +5 106 £225 +5.88% 44
North East -28 23 £290 +0.87% 22
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
1 220 (8.68%) Microsoft Exchange
2 164 (6.47%) SharePoint
3 55 (2.17%) IIS
4 52 (2.05%) Confluence
5 19 (0.75%) Apache
6 14 (0.55%) nginx
6 14 (0.55%) Skype for Business
6 14 (0.55%) Tomcat
7 10 (0.39%) WebLogic
8 8 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (0.20%) Appian
9 5 (0.20%) TPMS
10 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.16%) Tuxedo
10 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
11 3 (0.12%) Camunda
11 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
12 2 (0.079%) Apache Pulsar
12 2 (0.079%) CloudStack
12 2 (0.079%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 157 (6.19%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (2.49%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.32%) 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 (0.039%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 44 (1.74%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.47%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.43%) Teamcenter
4 6 (0.24%) Finacle
5 3 (0.12%) OpenText MBPM
5 3 (0.12%) Oracle BPM
5 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 2 (0.079%) assyst
6 2 (0.079%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.079%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.079%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 1 (0.039%) Oracle FAH
7 1 (0.039%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.039%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.039%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 761 (30.02%) Azure
2 737 (29.07%) Microsoft 365
3 329 (12.98%) Entra ID
4 248 (9.78%) AWS
5 88 (3.47%) OneDrive
6 85 (3.35%) GCP
7 68 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
7 68 (2.68%) SaaS
8 65 (2.56%) IaaS
9 60 (2.37%) GitHub
10 53 (2.09%) PaaS
11 46 (1.81%) Power Platform
12 36 (1.42%) Azure Monitor
13 33 (1.30%) Google Workspace
14 30 (1.18%) Azure Sentinel
15 28 (1.10%) GitHub Actions
16 25 (0.99%) OpenShift
17 18 (0.71%) AWS CloudFormation
17 18 (0.71%) Azure AKS
18 17 (0.67%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 353 (13.93%) DNS
2 267 (10.53%) Firewall
3 248 (9.78%) DHCP
4 172 (6.79%) VPN
5 148 (5.84%) LAN
5 148 (5.84%) TCP/IP
6 142 (5.60%) WAN
7 115 (4.54%) Wi-Fi
8 66 (2.60%) SAN
9 59 (2.33%) Network Security
10 54 (2.13%) VLAN
11 37 (1.46%) BGP
12 34 (1.34%) Skype
13 33 (1.30%) OSPF
13 33 (1.30%) SSL
13 33 (1.30%) Wireless
14 32 (1.26%) VoIP
15 31 (1.22%) SNMP
16 30 (1.18%) BIG-IP
16 30 (1.18%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 209 (8.24%) SQL Server
2 44 (1.74%) Oracle Database
3 32 (1.26%) Relational Database
4 30 (1.18%) Power BI
5 27 (1.07%) MySQL
6 26 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
7 16 (0.63%) Elasticsearch
8 14 (0.55%) Db2
8 14 (0.55%) MongoDB
9 13 (0.51%) NoSQL
10 11 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
11 10 (0.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 9 (0.36%) RDBMS
13 7 (0.28%) GIS
14 6 (0.24%) BigQuery
14 6 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
14 6 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
15 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
16 4 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 168 (6.63%) JIRA
2 43 (1.70%) Jenkins
3 40 (1.58%) GitLab
4 35 (1.38%) Visual Studio
5 34 (1.34%) Git
5 34 (1.34%) MSI
6 19 (0.75%) Eclipse
7 11 (0.43%) Burp Suite
8 10 (0.39%) Metasploit
9 9 (0.36%) Chocolatey
9 9 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
10 8 (0.32%) Android Studio
10 8 (0.32%) Artifactory
10 8 (0.32%) Browser DevTools
10 8 (0.32%) Xcode
11 7 (0.28%) Bitbucket
11 7 (0.28%) Selenium
12 6 (0.24%) InstallShield
12 6 (0.24%) Robot Framework
13 5 (0.20%) AdminStudio
General
1 864 (34.08%) Social Skills
2 275 (10.85%) Finance
3 243 (9.59%) Analytical Skills
4 167 (6.59%) Public Sector
5 152 (6.00%) Banking
6 96 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
7 86 (3.39%) Legal
8 73 (2.88%) Organisational Skills
9 50 (1.97%) Military
10 49 (1.93%) Retail
11 42 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 37 (1.46%) Investment Banking
12 37 (1.46%) Law
12 37 (1.46%) Manufacturing
13 32 (1.26%) Front Office
14 31 (1.22%) Presentation Skills
15 25 (0.99%) Telecoms
16 22 (0.87%) Local Government
17 21 (0.83%) Spanish Language
18 19 (0.75%) French Language
Job Titles
1 330 (13.02%) IT Support
2 329 (12.98%) Support Engineer
3 276 (10.89%) Analyst
4 228 (8.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 211 (8.32%) IT Engineer
6 175 (6.90%) IT Support Engineer
7 171 (6.75%) Senior
8 130 (5.13%) Architect
9 109 (4.30%) Desktop Support
9 109 (4.30%) Support Analyst
10 102 (4.02%) Desktop Engineer
11 94 (3.71%) 2nd Line Support
12 91 (3.59%) Lead
13 90 (3.55%) IT Analyst
14 84 (3.31%) Technical Support
15 82 (3.23%) Developer
16 70 (2.76%) Windows Engineer
17 64 (2.52%) Desktop Support Engineer
18 63 (2.49%) Consultant
19 62 (2.45%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (3.27%) .NET
2 75 (2.96%) REST
3 48 (1.89%) .NET Framework
4 37 (1.46%) LDAP
5 32 (1.26%) Microsoft Graph
6 29 (1.14%) SAML
7 28 (1.10%) 802.1X
8 26 (1.03%) Middleware
8 26 (1.03%) WinForms
9 25 (0.99%) Web Services
10 22 (0.87%) OAuth
11 21 (0.83%) WPF
12 20 (0.79%) Kafka
13 19 (0.75%) Software Packaging
14 17 (0.67%) AngularJS
14 17 (0.67%) CSS
14 17 (0.67%) Elastic Stack
15 16 (0.63%) Node.js
15 16 (0.63%) React
16 14 (0.55%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 241 (9.51%) Onboarding
2 122 (4.81%) Data Centre
3 119 (4.69%) PKI
4 76 (3.00%) Clustering
5 72 (2.84%) Enterprise Software
6 57 (2.25%) Management Information System
6 57 (2.25%) Self-Motivation
7 55 (2.17%) Replication
8 48 (1.89%) Hybrid Cloud
9 46 (1.81%) Security Posture
10 44 (1.74%) Driving Licence
10 44 (1.74%) Virtual Team
11 43 (1.70%) Cloud Native
12 41 (1.62%) Legacy Systems
13 36 (1.42%) Smartphone
14 32 (1.26%) Analytical Mindset
14 32 (1.26%) CMDB
15 31 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
16 29 (1.14%) Enterprise Storage
16 29 (1.14%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 620 (24.46%) Linux
2 617 (24.34%) Windows Server
3 455 (17.95%) Windows 10
4 165 (6.51%) Mac OS
5 129 (5.09%) Apple iOS
6 123 (4.85%) Unix
7 120 (4.73%) Android
8 87 (3.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 66 (2.60%) Windows Server 2019
10 56 (2.21%) Windows Server 2016
11 48 (1.89%) Windows 7
12 38 (1.50%) Windows Server 2012
13 29 (1.14%) AIX
14 27 (1.07%) Ubuntu
15 18 (0.71%) Solaris
15 18 (0.71%) VMS
15 18 (0.71%) Windows Server 2003
16 13 (0.51%) Windows Server 2008
17 12 (0.47%) CentOS
18 8 (0.32%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 545 (21.50%) Problem-Solving
2 385 (15.19%) ITIL
3 381 (15.03%) Customer Service
4 295 (11.64%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 273 (10.77%) Migration
6 253 (9.98%) ITSM
7 248 (9.78%) Agile
8 239 (9.43%) DevOps
9 217 (8.56%) CI/CD
10 187 (7.38%) Continuous Improvement
11 176 (6.94%) Change Management
12 171 (6.75%) Service Management
13 170 (6.71%) High Availability
14 159 (6.27%) Disaster Recovery
15 143 (5.64%) Stakeholder Management
16 134 (5.29%) Cybersecurity
17 131 (5.17%) SIEM
18 129 (5.09%) Infrastructure as Code
19 116 (4.58%) Computer Science
20 115 (4.54%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 563 (22.21%) PowerShell
2 251 (9.90%) SQL
3 248 (9.78%) Python
4 122 (4.81%) C#
5 101 (3.98%) Bash
6 72 (2.84%) Java
7 67 (2.64%) JavaScript
8 47 (1.85%) PL/SQL
9 45 (1.78%) C++
10 41 (1.62%) T-SQL
11 26 (1.03%) Kusto Query Language
12 25 (0.99%) VB
13 22 (0.87%) Search Processing Language
13 22 (0.87%) Shell Script
14 18 (0.71%) VBScript
15 17 (0.67%) Perl
16 15 (0.59%) Bicep
17 13 (0.51%) C
17 13 (0.51%) VBA
18 8 (0.32%) Go
Qualifications
1 759 (29.94%) Security Cleared
2 479 (18.90%) SC Cleared
3 288 (11.36%) Degree
4 248 (9.78%) DV Cleared
5 104 (4.10%) Microsoft Certification
6 76 (3.00%) Computer Science Degree
7 75 (2.96%) Cisco Certification
8 59 (2.33%) CISSP
9 54 (2.13%) Azure Certification
10 44 (1.74%) MCSE
11 36 (1.42%) AWS Certification
11 36 (1.42%) BPSS Clearance
12 32 (1.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 30 (1.18%) MCSA
14 27 (1.07%) CCNA
14 27 (1.07%) ITIL Certification
15 25 (0.99%) CISM
16 24 (0.95%) CCNP
17 22 (0.87%) CompTIA Security+
18 20 (0.79%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 116 (4.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 97 (3.83%) SLA
3 83 (3.27%) NIST
4 72 (2.84%) GDPR
4 72 (2.84%) QA
5 34 (1.34%) PCI DSS
6 31 (1.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 25 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials
8 12 (0.47%) NCSC
8 12 (0.47%) NIST 800
9 11 (0.43%) Data Quality
9 11 (0.43%) MiFID
10 10 (0.39%) FINRA
10 10 (0.39%) HIPAA
11 9 (0.36%) PMO
12 7 (0.28%) GRC
12 7 (0.28%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.24%) ISO 31000
14 5 (0.20%) DICOM
14 5 (0.20%) GLBA
System Software
1 959 (37.83%) Active Directory
2 330 (13.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 139 (5.48%) Hyper-V
4 101 (3.98%) VMware ESXi
5 96 (3.79%) vSphere
6 89 (3.51%) Virtual Machines
7 87 (3.43%) Docker
8 53 (2.09%) Virtual Desktop
9 50 (1.97%) VMware NSX
10 37 (1.46%) BitLocker
11 36 (1.42%) Firmware
12 28 (1.10%) Microsoft App-V
13 20 (0.79%) KVM
14 11 (0.43%) XenDesktop
15 10 (0.39%) vCloud
15 10 (0.39%) XenApp
16 8 (0.32%) VMware Workstation
17 6 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
17 6 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
18 5 (0.20%) etcd
Systems Management
1 357 (14.08%) Microsoft Intune
2 226 (8.92%) SCCM
3 170 (6.71%) Ansible
4 154 (6.07%) Terraform
5 127 (5.01%) Kubernetes
6 85 (3.35%) vCenter Server
7 47 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
8 40 (1.58%) SCOM
9 39 (1.54%) Jamf Pro
10 38 (1.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 36 (1.42%) FortiGate
12 35 (1.38%) WSUS
13 27 (1.07%) Grafana
14 25 (0.99%) Progress Chef
14 25 (0.99%) Prometheus
15 22 (0.87%) Nagios
16 20 (0.79%) Puppet
17 19 (0.75%) Nessus
18 18 (0.71%) Tivoli
18 18 (0.71%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,098 (43.31%) Microsoft
2 429 (16.92%) VMware
3 231 (9.11%) ServiceNow
4 187 (7.38%) Citrix
5 174 (6.86%) Cisco
6 152 (6.00%) Oracle
7 128 (5.05%) Splunk
8 70 (2.76%) HP
9 66 (2.60%) SolarWinds
10 63 (2.49%) Red Hat
11 61 (2.41%) Google
12 57 (2.25%) Dell
13 56 (2.21%) Remedy
14 51 (2.01%) Apple
15 50 (1.97%) CyberArk
16 46 (1.81%) IBM
17 45 (1.78%) F5
17 45 (1.78%) Juniper
18 41 (1.62%) BeyondTrust
19 35 (1.38%) Palo Alto