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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 21 16
Rank change year-on-year -6 -5 -2
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,692 2,284 3,241
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.02% 8.46% 8.70%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.93% 61.36% 62.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,746 1,553 2,179
10th Percentile £164 £181 £174
25th Percentile £225 £243 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £415 £425
Median % change year-on-year +2.41% -2.35% -5.56%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £670
UK median daily rate £425 £421 £425
% change year-on-year +0.95% -0.94% -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 229 171 282
10th Percentile £16.07 £15.12 £12.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £16.95 £14.31
Median hourly rate £25.77 £18.87 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.57% -5.65% -18.77%
75th Percentile £57.50 £25.15 £40.00
90th Percentile £70.87 £63.75 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.75 £18.87 £20.00
% change year-on-year +36.46% -5.65% -15.93%

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 4,347 3,722 5,227
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.72% 13.79% 14.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,831 2,484 3,436
10th Percentile £190 £200 £193
25th Percentile £313 £313 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -2.63% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £663 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £465 £465 £475
% change year-on-year +0.05% -2.16% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 291 213 402
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £12.76
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.44 £16.25
Median hourly rate £32.50 £22.00 £24.93
Median % change year-on-year +47.73% -11.74% -41.35%
75th Percentile £65.00 £54.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.00 £67.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.50 £23.00 £24.86
% change year-on-year +15.22% -7.46% -41.52%

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 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 9 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 9 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 -19 878 £425 -2.86% 239
South East -9 551 £475 -3.06% 324
North of England -9 477 £363 +3.57% 256
Midlands -17 280 £340 +15.25% 123
South West -12 270 £489 +8.61% 171
North West -6 254 £358 +1.23% 137
East of England 0 218 £300 +17.82% 109
Yorkshire -16 202 £365 -10.70% 85
West Midlands -25 176 £450 +50.00% 64
East Midlands +9 99 £273 +36.25% 59
North East -35 25 £275 -4.35% 42
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
1 224 (8.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 189 (7.02%) SharePoint
3 56 (2.08%) Confluence
4 54 (2.01%) IIS
5 15 (0.56%) Apache
5 15 (0.56%) nginx
6 14 (0.52%) Skype for Business
6 14 (0.52%) Tomcat
7 9 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
7 9 (0.33%) WebLogic
8 7 (0.26%) Appian
9 6 (0.22%) Documentum
10 5 (0.19%) Camunda
11 4 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 3 (0.11%) CloudStack
12 3 (0.11%) NetWeaver
12 3 (0.11%) Tuxedo
13 2 (0.074%) ArcGIS
13 2 (0.074%) CMS
13 2 (0.074%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 160 (5.94%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.19%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.19%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.037%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.037%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.037%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.037%) Houdini
7 1 (0.037%) InDesign
7 1 (0.037%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 43 (1.60%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (0.48%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (0.41%) Teamcenter
4 10 (0.37%) Finacle
5 6 (0.22%) OpenText MBPM
5 6 (0.22%) Oracle BPM
6 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.074%) assyst
8 1 (0.037%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.037%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.037%) SAP EWM
8 1 (0.037%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 822 (30.53%) Azure
2 779 (28.94%) Microsoft 365
3 376 (13.97%) Entra ID
4 282 (10.48%) AWS
5 105 (3.90%) OneDrive
6 84 (3.12%) Azure DevOps
7 82 (3.05%) GCP
8 73 (2.71%) SaaS
9 60 (2.23%) IaaS
10 59 (2.19%) GitHub
11 53 (1.97%) Power Platform
12 52 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
12 52 (1.93%) PaaS
13 34 (1.26%) Azure Sentinel
14 28 (1.04%) Google Workspace
15 27 (1.00%) GitHub Actions
16 26 (0.97%) AWS CloudFormation
17 25 (0.93%) OpenShift
18 23 (0.85%) Azure AKS
19 21 (0.78%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 390 (14.49%) DNS
2 279 (10.36%) Firewall
3 270 (10.03%) DHCP
4 183 (6.80%) VPN
5 164 (6.09%) TCP/IP
6 161 (5.98%) LAN
7 151 (5.61%) WAN
8 124 (4.61%) Wi-Fi
9 79 (2.93%) SAN
10 59 (2.19%) Network Security
11 56 (2.08%) VLAN
12 45 (1.67%) BGP
13 40 (1.49%) SSL
14 38 (1.41%) Internet
15 37 (1.37%) OSPF
16 35 (1.30%) NAS
17 32 (1.19%) Skype
18 31 (1.15%) Wireless
19 30 (1.11%) VoIP
20 29 (1.08%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 233 (8.66%) SQL Server
2 54 (2.01%) Oracle Database
3 37 (1.37%) Power BI
4 29 (1.08%) Relational Database
5 27 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (0.97%) MySQL
7 18 (0.67%) Amazon RDS
7 18 (0.67%) Db2
8 14 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
8 14 (0.52%) NoSQL
9 13 (0.48%) RDBMS
9 13 (0.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 11 (0.41%) MongoDB
11 8 (0.30%) Geospatial Data
12 7 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
12 7 (0.26%) GIS
12 7 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 6 (0.22%) SQL Server Analysis Services
14 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (0.19%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 170 (6.32%) JIRA
2 48 (1.78%) Git
3 46 (1.71%) MSI
4 43 (1.60%) Jenkins
5 39 (1.45%) GitLab
6 35 (1.30%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.63%) Eclipse
8 9 (0.33%) Bitbucket
9 8 (0.30%) Chocolatey
10 7 (0.26%) Browser DevTools
10 7 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
11 6 (0.22%) Android Studio
11 6 (0.22%) InstallShield
11 6 (0.22%) Xcode
12 5 (0.19%) AdminStudio
12 5 (0.19%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.19%) Selenium
13 4 (0.15%) Appium
13 4 (0.15%) Burp Suite
13 4 (0.15%) Robot Framework
General
1 953 (35.40%) Social Skills
2 293 (10.88%) Finance
3 288 (10.70%) Analytical Skills
4 174 (6.46%) Public Sector
5 151 (5.61%) Banking
6 100 (3.71%) Documentation Skills
7 87 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
8 83 (3.08%) Legal
9 54 (2.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 52 (1.93%) Retail
11 42 (1.56%) Military
12 39 (1.45%) Manufacturing
13 37 (1.37%) Front Office
14 35 (1.30%) Investment Banking
15 32 (1.19%) Telecoms
16 30 (1.11%) Law
17 25 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
17 25 (0.93%) Spanish Language
18 21 (0.78%) French Language
19 20 (0.74%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 381 (14.15%) Support Engineer
2 362 (13.45%) IT Support
3 269 (9.99%) Analyst
4 252 (9.36%) IT Engineer
5 245 (9.10%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 213 (7.91%) IT Support Engineer
7 182 (6.76%) Senior
8 129 (4.79%) Architect
9 115 (4.27%) 2nd Line Support
10 106 (3.94%) Desktop Support
11 101 (3.75%) Desktop Engineer
11 101 (3.75%) Developer
12 98 (3.64%) Support Analyst
13 95 (3.53%) Lead
14 87 (3.23%) IT Analyst
15 84 (3.12%) Cloud Engineer
16 79 (2.93%) Technical Support
17 76 (2.82%) Consultant
18 71 (2.64%) Service Analyst
19 70 (2.60%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (3.64%) .NET
2 88 (3.27%) REST
3 60 (2.23%) .NET Framework
4 37 (1.37%) LDAP
5 31 (1.15%) 802.1X
6 30 (1.11%) SAML
7 29 (1.08%) Microsoft Graph
7 29 (1.08%) WPF
8 27 (1.00%) Middleware
9 26 (0.97%) WinForms
10 25 (0.93%) Web Services
11 23 (0.85%) Elastic Stack
11 23 (0.85%) OAuth
12 22 (0.82%) CSS
12 22 (0.82%) Software Packaging
13 17 (0.63%) Kafka
14 16 (0.59%) JSON
14 16 (0.59%) Node.js
14 16 (0.59%) RESTful
15 15 (0.56%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 269 (9.99%) Onboarding
2 135 (5.01%) Data Centre
3 132 (4.90%) PKI
4 79 (2.93%) Clustering
5 74 (2.75%) Enterprise Software
6 69 (2.56%) Management Information System
7 67 (2.49%) Self-Motivation
8 59 (2.19%) Cloud Native
8 59 (2.19%) Replication
9 49 (1.82%) Driving Licence
10 47 (1.75%) Hybrid Cloud
10 47 (1.75%) Security Posture
11 46 (1.71%) Legacy Systems
12 45 (1.67%) Virtual Team
13 43 (1.60%) Video Conferencing
14 33 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
15 32 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
16 31 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
17 28 (1.04%) CMDB
18 27 (1.00%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 653 (24.26%) Windows Server
2 640 (23.77%) Linux
3 474 (17.61%) Windows 10
4 178 (6.61%) Mac OS
5 128 (4.75%) Apple iOS
6 127 (4.72%) Unix
7 124 (4.61%) Android
8 97 (3.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 65 (2.41%) Windows Server 2019
10 46 (1.71%) Windows Server 2016
11 44 (1.63%) Windows 7
12 37 (1.37%) Windows Server 2012
13 36 (1.34%) Ubuntu
14 31 (1.15%) AIX
15 18 (0.67%) Solaris
15 18 (0.67%) VMS
16 17 (0.63%) CentOS
17 16 (0.59%) Windows Server 2003
18 13 (0.48%) Windows Server 2008
19 9 (0.33%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 606 (22.51%) Problem-Solving
2 438 (16.27%) ITIL
3 400 (14.86%) Customer Service
4 318 (11.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 292 (10.85%) Migration
6 277 (10.29%) ITSM
7 258 (9.58%) DevOps
8 242 (8.99%) Agile
9 241 (8.95%) Continuous Improvement
10 232 (8.62%) CI/CD
11 197 (7.32%) Service Management
12 185 (6.87%) High Availability
13 173 (6.43%) Change Management
13 173 (6.43%) Infrastructure as Code
14 158 (5.87%) Stakeholder Management
15 145 (5.39%) Disaster Recovery
16 139 (5.16%) Cybersecurity
17 137 (5.09%) SIEM
18 136 (5.05%) Runbook
19 134 (4.98%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 584 (21.69%) PowerShell
2 274 (10.18%) Python
3 271 (10.07%) SQL
4 133 (4.94%) C#
5 116 (4.31%) Bash
6 68 (2.53%) Java
7 66 (2.45%) JavaScript
8 50 (1.86%) PL/SQL
9 49 (1.82%) T-SQL
10 48 (1.78%) C++
11 25 (0.93%) VB
12 23 (0.85%) Bicep
12 23 (0.85%) Search Processing Language
13 20 (0.74%) Kusto Query Language
13 20 (0.74%) VBScript
14 17 (0.63%) Perl
14 17 (0.63%) Shell Script
15 16 (0.59%) TypeScript
16 14 (0.52%) C
17 13 (0.48%) VBA
Qualifications
1 816 (30.31%) Security Cleared
2 504 (18.72%) SC Cleared
3 298 (11.07%) Degree
4 279 (10.36%) DV Cleared
5 110 (4.09%) Microsoft Certification
6 81 (3.01%) Cisco Certification
7 75 (2.79%) Computer Science Degree
8 59 (2.19%) CISSP
9 58 (2.15%) Azure Certification
10 44 (1.63%) AWS Certification
11 43 (1.60%) BPSS Clearance
12 40 (1.49%) MCSE
13 31 (1.15%) CCNA
14 30 (1.11%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 28 (1.04%) A+ Certification
15 28 (1.04%) CCNP
16 25 (0.93%) ITIL Certification
16 25 (0.93%) MCSA
17 23 (0.85%) CISM
18 20 (0.74%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (4.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 107 (3.97%) SLA
3 84 (3.12%) NIST
4 73 (2.71%) QA
5 49 (1.82%) GDPR
6 29 (1.08%) PCI DSS
6 29 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 25 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials
8 21 (0.78%) NCSC
9 12 (0.45%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.41%) HIPAA
11 10 (0.37%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.37%) NIST 800
12 9 (0.33%) GRC
13 8 (0.30%) PMO
13 8 (0.30%) SOC 2
13 8 (0.30%) WCAG
14 6 (0.22%) ISO 31000
15 5 (0.19%) GxP
15 5 (0.19%) HL7
System Software
1 1,039 (38.60%) Active Directory
2 346 (12.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 140 (5.20%) Hyper-V
4 116 (4.31%) VMware ESXi
5 104 (3.86%) vSphere
6 100 (3.71%) Virtual Machines
7 91 (3.38%) Docker
8 69 (2.56%) Virtual Desktop
9 61 (2.27%) VMware NSX
10 37 (1.37%) BitLocker
10 37 (1.37%) Firmware
11 28 (1.04%) Microsoft App-V
12 17 (0.63%) KVM
13 14 (0.52%) vCloud
14 8 (0.30%) VMware Workstation
14 8 (0.30%) XenDesktop
15 7 (0.26%) NFS
15 7 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
15 7 (0.26%) XenApp
16 6 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 392 (14.56%) Microsoft Intune
2 243 (9.03%) SCCM
3 199 (7.39%) Terraform
4 178 (6.61%) Ansible
5 139 (5.16%) Kubernetes
6 99 (3.68%) vCenter Server
7 52 (1.93%) SCOM
8 49 (1.82%) Single Sign-On
9 48 (1.78%) Jamf Pro
10 40 (1.49%) FortiGate
11 38 (1.41%) WSUS
12 33 (1.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 30 (1.11%) Progress Chef
14 29 (1.08%) Prometheus
15 28 (1.04%) Puppet
16 26 (0.97%) Grafana
17 23 (0.85%) Nagios
18 21 (0.78%) Nessus
18 21 (0.78%) Packer
19 20 (0.74%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,171 (43.50%) Microsoft
2 456 (16.94%) VMware
3 259 (9.62%) ServiceNow
4 189 (7.02%) Citrix
5 174 (6.46%) Cisco
6 155 (5.76%) Oracle
7 119 (4.42%) Splunk
8 77 (2.86%) Apple
9 73 (2.71%) SolarWinds
10 68 (2.53%) HP
11 67 (2.49%) CyberArk
12 64 (2.38%) Red Hat
13 63 (2.34%) Google
14 58 (2.15%) Dell
15 54 (2.01%) BeyondTrust
15 54 (2.01%) Remedy
16 50 (1.86%) Juniper
17 47 (1.75%) IBM
18 45 (1.67%) F5
19 37 (1.37%) Tenable