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

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 22 16
Rank change year-on-year -5 -6 -2
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,526 2,093 3,377
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.80% 8.56% 8.95%
As % of the Operating Systems category 60.96% 60.06% 64.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,699 1,484 2,294
10th Percentile £161 £181 £155
25th Percentile £205 £231 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £408 £414 £386
Median % change year-on-year -1.51% +7.33% -14.33%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £639 £675 £655
UK median daily rate £408 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -4.12% +6.25% -9.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 226 84 269
10th Percentile £13.59 £15.22 £12.20
25th Percentile £16.53 £16.95 £14.16
Median hourly rate £21.48 £20.50 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +4.78% +15.69% -20.34%
75th Percentile £41.94 £30.19 £24.00
90th Percentile £67.84 £67.85 £61.60
UK median hourly rate £21.46 £22.09 £17.72
% change year-on-year -2.85% +24.66% -19.45%

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 4,144 3,485 5,248
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.16% 14.26% 13.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,748 2,356 3,557
10th Percentile £181 £200 £178
25th Percentile £281 £313 £266
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -13.46%
75th Percentile £565 £600 £588
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £450 £475 £457
% change year-on-year -5.26% +3.94% -11.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 299 132 375
10th Percentile £14.00 £16.28 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.69 £18.34 £15.50
Median hourly rate £22.58 £29.00 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.16% +31.82% -16.98%
75th Percentile £60.00 £67.25 £57.50
90th Percentile £69.00 £73.50 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £22.80 £27.75 £22.08
% change year-on-year -17.85% +25.71% -16.70%

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 20 March 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 20 March 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 20 March 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 -21 761 £430 +1.18% 232
South East -2 532 £450 -4.76% 290
North of England -8 477 £290 -17.14% 208
Midlands -16 265 £325 - 127
South West -4 259 £450 -16.28% 115
North West -6 257 £260 -25.71% 135
East of England +5 213 £240 +6.43% 104
Yorkshire -14 193 £355 -11.25% 60
West Midlands -27 156 £449 +38.00% 73
East Midlands -2 106 £200 -20.00% 54
North East -12 30 £184 -38.75% 19
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
1 215 (8.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 164 (6.49%) SharePoint
3 57 (2.26%) Confluence
4 43 (1.70%) IIS
5 22 (0.87%) Apache
6 20 (0.79%) WebLogic
7 13 (0.51%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.44%) Tuxedo
9 10 (0.40%) TPMS
10 6 (0.24%) Tomcat
11 5 (0.20%) nginx
12 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.16%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
12 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
13 3 (0.12%) SAS
13 3 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
14 2 (0.079%) Exchange Server 2010
14 2 (0.079%) Sitecore CMS
14 2 (0.079%) WordPress
Applications
1 203 (8.04%) Microsoft Office
2 66 (2.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (0.48%) MS Visio
5 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.20%) Acrobat
6 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.040%) InDesign
8 1 (0.040%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 28 (1.11%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (0.51%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.28%) Teamcenter
4 5 (0.20%) assyst
5 4 (0.16%) Oracle 11i
6 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 2 (0.079%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.079%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.079%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 2 (0.079%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.079%) SAP MDG
7 2 (0.079%) SystmOne
8 1 (0.040%) Aladdin
8 1 (0.040%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.040%) Eikon
8 1 (0.040%) Fidessa
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle FAH
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle Payables
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.040%) RMDS
Cloud Services
1 734 (29.06%) Microsoft 365
2 648 (25.65%) Azure
3 279 (11.05%) Entra ID
4 182 (7.21%) AWS
5 86 (3.40%) OneDrive
6 64 (2.53%) GCP
6 64 (2.53%) SaaS
7 58 (2.30%) Azure DevOps
8 51 (2.02%) Google Workspace
9 45 (1.78%) IaaS
10 43 (1.70%) GitHub
11 40 (1.58%) Power Platform
12 38 (1.50%) PaaS
13 31 (1.23%) Azure Monitor
14 24 (0.95%) Azure Sentinel
15 23 (0.91%) AWS CloudFormation
16 21 (0.83%) GitHub Actions
17 18 (0.71%) OpenShift
18 17 (0.67%) Nutanix
19 16 (0.63%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 329 (13.02%) DNS
2 292 (11.56%) Firewall
3 218 (8.63%) DHCP
4 164 (6.49%) VPN
5 154 (6.10%) TCP/IP
6 143 (5.66%) LAN
7 141 (5.58%) WAN
8 138 (5.46%) Wi-Fi
9 72 (2.85%) Network Security
10 59 (2.34%) VLAN
11 58 (2.30%) Wireless
12 43 (1.70%) SAN
13 38 (1.50%) BGP
14 31 (1.23%) SSH
15 30 (1.19%) Skype
16 29 (1.15%) SSL
16 29 (1.15%) VoIP
17 28 (1.11%) Cisco ISE
17 28 (1.11%) Junos
17 28 (1.11%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 149 (5.90%) SQL Server
2 43 (1.70%) Oracle Database
3 39 (1.54%) Relational Database
4 35 (1.39%) MySQL
5 21 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (0.63%) Power BI
7 13 (0.51%) BigQuery
7 13 (0.51%) DB2
8 12 (0.48%) MongoDB
9 11 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
10 9 (0.36%) Elasticsearch
10 9 (0.36%) NoSQL
11 7 (0.28%) SAP HANA
12 6 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
12 6 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
12 6 (0.24%) GIS
13 5 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (0.16%) Oracle Database 10g
Development Applications
1 163 (6.45%) JIRA
2 54 (2.14%) GitLab
2 54 (2.14%) Jenkins
3 45 (1.78%) Git
4 40 (1.58%) MSI
5 33 (1.31%) Visual Studio
6 25 (0.99%) Eclipse
7 17 (0.67%) Burp Suite
7 17 (0.67%) Metasploit
8 15 (0.59%) Android Studio
8 15 (0.59%) Artifactory
9 13 (0.51%) Xcode
10 11 (0.44%) Browser DevTools
11 10 (0.40%) Chocolatey
12 9 (0.36%) Bitbucket
13 8 (0.32%) InstallShield
13 8 (0.32%) JUnit
14 7 (0.28%) Robot Framework
14 7 (0.28%) Selenium
15 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 914 (36.18%) Social Skills
2 235 (9.30%) Finance
3 211 (8.35%) Public Sector
4 206 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
5 131 (5.19%) Banking
6 105 (4.16%) Documentation Skills
7 99 (3.92%) Legal
8 80 (3.17%) Organisational Skills
9 58 (2.30%) Military
10 43 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
11 40 (1.58%) Manufacturing
12 37 (1.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 34 (1.35%) Retail
14 26 (1.03%) Law
14 26 (1.03%) Telecoms
15 20 (0.79%) Investment Banking
15 20 (0.79%) Local Government
16 18 (0.71%) Aerospace
17 17 (0.67%) Front Office
18 14 (0.55%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 352 (13.94%) Support Engineer
2 350 (13.86%) IT Support
3 324 (12.83%) Analyst
4 207 (8.19%) IT Engineer
5 175 (6.93%) IT Support Engineer
6 159 (6.29%) Architect
7 154 (6.10%) Senior
8 149 (5.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 140 (5.54%) Support Analyst
10 112 (4.43%) Desktop Support
11 108 (4.28%) Technical Support
12 104 (4.12%) 2nd Line Support
12 104 (4.12%) Developer
13 99 (3.92%) Desktop Engineer
14 90 (3.56%) Windows Engineer
15 83 (3.29%) IT Analyst
16 80 (3.17%) Lead
17 72 (2.85%) Desktop Support Engineer
18 70 (2.77%) IT Support Analyst
19 68 (2.69%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (3.13%) .NET
2 61 (2.41%) REST
3 49 (1.94%) .NET Framework
4 45 (1.78%) OAuth
5 42 (1.66%) SAML
6 39 (1.54%) LDAP
7 32 (1.27%) Middleware
8 29 (1.15%) Web Services
9 27 (1.07%) WPF
10 26 (1.03%) Microsoft Graph
11 24 (0.95%) Kafka
11 24 (0.95%) React
11 24 (0.95%) WinForms
12 23 (0.91%) AngularJS
12 23 (0.91%) CSS
13 22 (0.87%) 802.1X
13 22 (0.87%) OpenID
14 21 (0.83%) OAuth2
15 20 (0.79%) Apache NiFi
16 19 (0.75%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 173 (6.85%) Onboarding
2 102 (4.04%) Data Centre
3 101 (4.00%) PKI
4 77 (3.05%) Enterprise Software
5 70 (2.77%) Driving Licence
6 61 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
7 53 (2.10%) Clustering
8 50 (1.98%) Replication
9 48 (1.90%) Smartphone
10 46 (1.82%) Management Information System
11 41 (1.62%) Security Posture
12 40 (1.58%) Hybrid Cloud
12 40 (1.58%) Product Ownership
13 35 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
14 34 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
15 32 (1.27%) NHS
16 30 (1.19%) CMDB
17 26 (1.03%) Virtual Team
18 25 (0.99%) Analytical Mindset
18 25 (0.99%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 594 (23.52%) Linux
2 553 (21.89%) Windows Server
3 543 (21.50%) Windows 10
4 140 (5.54%) Android
5 130 (5.15%) Unix
6 129 (5.11%) Mac OS
7 110 (4.35%) Apple iOS
8 67 (2.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 61 (2.41%) Windows Server 2016
10 48 (1.90%) Windows 7
11 44 (1.74%) Windows Server 2019
12 37 (1.46%) Windows Server 2012
13 35 (1.39%) AIX
14 30 (1.19%) Windows Server 2003
15 15 (0.59%) Ubuntu
16 13 (0.51%) VMS
17 12 (0.48%) Solaris
17 12 (0.48%) Windows Server 2008
18 10 (0.40%) Mac OS X
19 8 (0.32%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 497 (19.68%) Problem-Solving
2 443 (17.54%) Customer Service
3 356 (14.09%) ITIL
4 274 (10.85%) Agile
5 255 (10.10%) Migration
6 233 (9.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 221 (8.75%) DevOps
8 208 (8.23%) ITSM
9 202 (8.00%) CI/CD
10 181 (7.17%) Continuous Improvement
11 179 (7.09%) Service Management
12 177 (7.01%) Cybersecurity
13 164 (6.49%) Change Management
14 150 (5.94%) Disaster Recovery
15 129 (5.11%) Stakeholder Management
16 127 (5.03%) High Availability
17 119 (4.71%) User Experience
18 109 (4.32%) Infrastructure as Code
19 106 (4.20%) Service Delivery
20 102 (4.04%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 521 (20.63%) PowerShell
2 262 (10.37%) Python
3 224 (8.87%) SQL
4 120 (4.75%) C#
5 103 (4.08%) Bash
6 85 (3.37%) Java
7 74 (2.93%) JavaScript
8 54 (2.14%) C++
9 49 (1.94%) PL/SQL
10 47 (1.86%) Perl
11 38 (1.50%) T-SQL
12 32 (1.27%) Kusto Query Language
13 23 (0.91%) VB
14 20 (0.79%) VBScript
15 19 (0.75%) Shell Script
16 14 (0.55%) VBA
17 12 (0.48%) Bicep
18 11 (0.44%) Go
18 11 (0.44%) Search Processing Language
18 11 (0.44%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 815 (32.26%) Security Cleared
2 537 (21.26%) SC Cleared
3 256 (10.13%) Degree
4 232 (9.18%) DV Cleared
5 122 (4.83%) Microsoft Certification
6 73 (2.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 62 (2.45%) Cisco Certification
8 43 (1.70%) MCSE
9 42 (1.66%) Azure Certification
10 33 (1.31%) CISSP
10 33 (1.31%) ITIL Certification
11 31 (1.23%) CCNA
12 29 (1.15%) AWS Certification
12 29 (1.15%) BPSS Clearance
13 27 (1.07%) CCNP
14 21 (0.83%) MCSA
15 20 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
15 20 (0.79%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 19 (0.75%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 19 (0.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (3.40%) GDPR
2 83 (3.29%) QA
3 81 (3.21%) SLA
4 76 (3.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 51 (2.02%) NIST
6 41 (1.62%) PCI DSS
7 21 (0.83%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 15 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
9 13 (0.51%) MiFID
9 13 (0.51%) PMO
10 12 (0.48%) NCSC
11 10 (0.40%) FINRA
11 10 (0.40%) GLBA
12 9 (0.36%) NIST 800
13 7 (0.28%) Data Quality
14 4 (0.16%) GMP
14 4 (0.16%) GxP
14 4 (0.16%) SOC 2
15 3 (0.12%) COBIT
15 3 (0.12%) HL7
System Software
1 947 (37.49%) Active Directory
2 255 (10.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 103 (4.08%) Hyper-V
4 93 (3.68%) Docker
5 60 (2.38%) vSphere
6 56 (2.22%) Virtual Machines
7 52 (2.06%) Virtual Desktop
8 50 (1.98%) VMware ESXi
9 30 (1.19%) VMware NSX
10 27 (1.07%) BitLocker
11 26 (1.03%) Firmware
12 24 (0.95%) Microsoft App-V
13 16 (0.63%) KVM
14 9 (0.36%) XenDesktop
15 8 (0.32%) XenApp
16 7 (0.28%) Terminal Services
17 6 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
18 4 (0.16%) etcd
18 4 (0.16%) NFS
18 4 (0.16%) Snort
Systems Management
1 346 (13.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 298 (11.80%) SCCM
3 161 (6.37%) Terraform
4 145 (5.74%) Ansible
5 119 (4.71%) Kubernetes
6 63 (2.49%) Single Sign-On
7 61 (2.41%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 56 (2.22%) vCenter Server
9 38 (1.50%) Jamf Pro
10 32 (1.27%) FortiGate
11 26 (1.03%) Grafana
12 24 (0.95%) WSUS
13 23 (0.91%) SCOM
14 21 (0.83%) Prometheus
15 17 (0.67%) Progress Chef
15 17 (0.67%) WMI
16 16 (0.63%) Nmap
16 16 (0.63%) Puppet
17 15 (0.59%) Nessus
18 14 (0.55%) Nagios
Vendors
1 1,094 (43.31%) Microsoft
2 352 (13.94%) VMware
3 228 (9.03%) ServiceNow
4 195 (7.72%) Citrix
5 152 (6.02%) Oracle
6 149 (5.90%) Cisco
7 115 (4.55%) Splunk
8 68 (2.69%) HP
9 62 (2.45%) Red Hat
9 62 (2.45%) SolarWinds
10 56 (2.22%) Dell
10 56 (2.22%) Google
11 47 (1.86%) IBM
12 46 (1.82%) Apple
13 44 (1.74%) Remedy
14 42 (1.66%) Juniper
15 40 (1.58%) Veeam
16 34 (1.35%) CyberArk
17 33 (1.31%) F5
18 30 (1.19%) Palo Alto