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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 20 17
Rank change year-on-year -6 -3 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,447 2,103 3,100
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.97% 8.59% 8.51%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.28% 61.13% 62.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,620 1,498 2,155
10th Percentile £162 £178 £163
25th Percentile £213 £232 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £415 £400
Median % change year-on-year -0.04% +3.79% -11.11%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £416 £425 £400
% change year-on-year -2.12% +6.25% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 113 261
10th Percentile £15.06 £14.20 £11.80
25th Percentile £17.86 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £26.47 £18.77 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +41.06% +5.90% -21.24%
75th Percentile £65.00 £24.66 £24.18
90th Percentile £75.00 £41.23 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.21 £18.82 £18.00
% change year-on-year +33.93% +4.56% -20.00%

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 3,993 3,440 4,959
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.74% 14.06% 13.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,620 2,339 3,385
10th Percentile £185 £200 £185
25th Percentile £312 £313 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £468 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.74% -1.58% -7.32%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £663 £696 £700
UK median daily rate £456 £467 £470
% change year-on-year -2.15% -0.74% -6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 267 152 362
10th Percentile £15.97 £15.13 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.41 £14.83
Median hourly rate £47.50 £21.59 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +120.01% -1.86% -41.33%
75th Percentile £67.84 £59.09 £61.20
90th Percentile £74.81 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £47.50 £22.53 £22.00
% change year-on-year +110.83% +2.41% -42.86%

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 18 May 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 18 May 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 18 May 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 -26 750 £425 -5.56% 219
South East -5 521 £475 -3.06% 300
North of England -9 451 £344 +5.85% 192
Midlands -17 265 £325 +30.00% 115
North West -4 256 £300 -7.69% 110
South West -12 223 £453 -13.67% 131
East of England -1 214 £350 +7.69% 99
Yorkshire -20 183 £375 +15.38% 65
West Midlands -27 154 £449 +67.66% 62
East Midlands +5 106 £225 +9.09% 53
North East -30 16 £400 +33.33% 20
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
1 211 (8.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 149 (6.09%) SharePoint
3 54 (2.21%) IIS
4 51 (2.08%) Confluence
5 19 (0.78%) Apache
6 17 (0.69%) WebLogic
7 12 (0.49%) Skype for Business
8 11 (0.45%) Tuxedo
9 9 (0.37%) nginx
9 9 (0.37%) Tomcat
10 7 (0.29%) TPMS
11 5 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
12 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.16%) SAS
12 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
13 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
13 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
14 2 (0.082%) ArcGIS
14 2 (0.082%) IBM HTTP Server
14 2 (0.082%) Oracle HTTP Server
Applications
1 159 (6.50%) Microsoft Office
2 63 (2.57%) Microsoft Excel
3 26 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.37%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.16%) Acrobat
7 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.041%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 43 (1.76%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.41%) Teamcenter
4 4 (0.16%) Finacle
5 3 (0.12%) assyst
5 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 2 (0.082%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.082%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.082%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 1 (0.041%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle 11i
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle FAH
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.041%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.041%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 707 (28.89%) Azure
2 702 (28.69%) Microsoft 365
3 299 (12.22%) Entra ID
4 220 (8.99%) AWS
5 70 (2.86%) OneDrive
6 67 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
6 67 (2.74%) SaaS
7 64 (2.62%) GCP
8 60 (2.45%) IaaS
9 53 (2.17%) GitHub
10 50 (2.04%) PaaS
11 43 (1.76%) Power Platform
12 37 (1.51%) Azure Monitor
13 32 (1.31%) Google Workspace
14 28 (1.14%) Azure Sentinel
15 25 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
16 23 (0.94%) OpenShift
17 18 (0.74%) AWS CloudFormation
17 18 (0.74%) Azure AKS
18 16 (0.65%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 327 (13.36%) DNS
2 264 (10.79%) Firewall
3 228 (9.32%) DHCP
4 163 (6.66%) VPN
5 148 (6.05%) LAN
6 142 (5.80%) WAN
7 138 (5.64%) TCP/IP
8 112 (4.58%) Wi-Fi
9 61 (2.49%) Network Security
10 57 (2.33%) SAN
11 53 (2.17%) VLAN
12 41 (1.68%) Wireless
13 37 (1.51%) BGP
14 34 (1.39%) OSPF
14 34 (1.39%) Skype
15 33 (1.35%) SNMP
16 30 (1.23%) SSL
17 29 (1.19%) BIG-IP
18 28 (1.14%) Internet
18 28 (1.14%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 186 (7.60%) SQL Server
2 40 (1.63%) Oracle Database
3 32 (1.31%) Relational Database
4 27 (1.10%) MySQL
5 26 (1.06%) Power BI
6 25 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
7 15 (0.61%) DB2
8 14 (0.57%) MongoDB
9 13 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
10 11 (0.45%) NoSQL
11 10 (0.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 7 (0.29%) BigQuery
12 7 (0.29%) RDBMS
13 6 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (0.25%) GIS
13 6 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
14 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
14 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 4 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
15 4 (0.16%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 162 (6.62%) JIRA
2 44 (1.80%) GitLab
3 43 (1.76%) MSI
4 39 (1.59%) Jenkins
5 34 (1.39%) Visual Studio
6 29 (1.19%) Git
7 19 (0.78%) Eclipse
8 18 (0.74%) Burp Suite
9 17 (0.69%) Metasploit
10 10 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
11 9 (0.37%) Android Studio
11 9 (0.37%) Artifactory
11 9 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
11 9 (0.37%) Chocolatey
11 9 (0.37%) Xcode
12 8 (0.33%) InstallShield
13 7 (0.29%) Bitbucket
13 7 (0.29%) Robot Framework
13 7 (0.29%) Selenium
14 5 (0.20%) AdminStudio
General
1 826 (33.76%) Social Skills
2 242 (9.89%) Finance
3 213 (8.70%) Analytical Skills
4 173 (7.07%) Public Sector
5 136 (5.56%) Banking
6 95 (3.88%) Documentation Skills
7 92 (3.76%) Legal
8 74 (3.02%) Organisational Skills
9 55 (2.25%) Military
10 44 (1.80%) Retail
11 37 (1.51%) Law
12 35 (1.43%) Manufacturing
13 33 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 30 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
15 29 (1.19%) Investment Banking
15 29 (1.19%) Telecoms
16 26 (1.06%) Front Office
17 20 (0.82%) Local Government
18 17 (0.69%) Police
19 14 (0.57%) French Language
Job Titles
1 320 (13.08%) IT Support
2 306 (12.51%) Support Engineer
3 277 (11.32%) Analyst
4 203 (8.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 195 (7.97%) IT Engineer
6 161 (6.58%) IT Support Engineer
7 157 (6.42%) Senior
8 136 (5.56%) Architect
9 112 (4.58%) Support Analyst
10 108 (4.41%) Desktop Support
11 97 (3.96%) Desktop Engineer
12 90 (3.68%) 2nd Line Support
13 87 (3.56%) Developer
13 87 (3.56%) IT Analyst
13 87 (3.56%) Technical Support
14 85 (3.47%) Lead
15 67 (2.74%) Windows Engineer
16 65 (2.66%) 1st Line Support
16 65 (2.66%) IT Support Analyst
17 63 (2.57%) Desktop Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.35%) .NET
2 75 (3.06%) REST
3 47 (1.92%) .NET Framework
4 36 (1.47%) LDAP
5 33 (1.35%) SAML
6 28 (1.14%) Microsoft Graph
6 28 (1.14%) Middleware
7 27 (1.10%) 802.1X
8 26 (1.06%) OAuth
8 26 (1.06%) WinForms
9 24 (0.98%) Kafka
10 23 (0.94%) Web Services
10 23 (0.94%) WPF
11 20 (0.82%) React
12 19 (0.78%) CSS
13 18 (0.74%) AngularJS
14 17 (0.69%) Node.js
14 17 (0.69%) Software Packaging
15 16 (0.65%) Elastic Stack
16 15 (0.61%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 205 (8.38%) Onboarding
2 108 (4.41%) Data Centre
3 105 (4.29%) PKI
4 78 (3.19%) Clustering
5 76 (3.11%) Enterprise Software
6 57 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
7 54 (2.21%) Replication
8 50 (2.04%) Driving Licence
9 47 (1.92%) Hybrid Cloud
10 43 (1.76%) Management Information System
11 39 (1.59%) Smartphone
12 38 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
13 37 (1.51%) Security Posture
13 37 (1.51%) Virtual Team
14 33 (1.35%) Cloud Native
15 29 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
15 29 (1.19%) Product Ownership
16 27 (1.10%) Data Protection Act
17 26 (1.06%) Enterprise Storage
18 25 (1.02%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 603 (24.64%) Linux
2 575 (23.50%) Windows Server
3 454 (18.55%) Windows 10
4 159 (6.50%) Mac OS
5 125 (5.11%) Apple iOS
5 125 (5.11%) Unix
6 124 (5.07%) Android
7 70 (2.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 61 (2.49%) Windows Server 2016
9 59 (2.41%) Windows Server 2019
10 47 (1.92%) Windows 7
11 32 (1.31%) Windows Server 2012
12 30 (1.23%) AIX
13 22 (0.90%) Ubuntu
14 18 (0.74%) Windows Server 2003
15 16 (0.65%) VMS
16 14 (0.57%) Solaris
17 12 (0.49%) Windows Server 2008
18 9 (0.37%) CentOS
18 9 (0.37%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 507 (20.72%) Problem-Solving
2 385 (15.73%) Customer Service
3 362 (14.79%) ITIL
4 271 (11.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 260 (10.63%) Migration
6 246 (10.05%) Agile
7 219 (8.95%) DevOps
8 217 (8.87%) ITSM
9 208 (8.50%) CI/CD
10 166 (6.78%) Disaster Recovery
11 165 (6.74%) Continuous Improvement
12 157 (6.42%) Change Management
13 151 (6.17%) High Availability
14 147 (6.01%) Service Management
15 139 (5.68%) Cybersecurity
16 123 (5.03%) SIEM
16 123 (5.03%) Stakeholder Management
17 117 (4.78%) Infrastructure as Code
18 106 (4.33%) Computer Science
19 102 (4.17%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 524 (21.41%) PowerShell
2 247 (10.09%) SQL
3 238 (9.73%) Python
4 121 (4.94%) C#
5 87 (3.56%) Bash
6 69 (2.82%) JavaScript
7 66 (2.70%) Java
8 50 (2.04%) PL/SQL
9 44 (1.80%) C++
10 43 (1.76%) T-SQL
11 26 (1.06%) Kusto Query Language
12 24 (0.98%) VB
13 22 (0.90%) Search Processing Language
14 21 (0.86%) Perl
15 20 (0.82%) Shell Script
16 16 (0.65%) VBScript
17 14 (0.57%) VBA
18 12 (0.49%) Bicep
19 11 (0.45%) C
19 11 (0.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 762 (31.14%) Security Cleared
2 482 (19.70%) SC Cleared
3 259 (10.58%) Degree
4 248 (10.13%) DV Cleared
5 98 (4.00%) Microsoft Certification
6 75 (3.06%) Computer Science Degree
7 70 (2.86%) Cisco Certification
8 46 (1.88%) Azure Certification
9 42 (1.72%) CISSP
10 40 (1.63%) MCSE
11 34 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
12 33 (1.35%) AWS Certification
13 31 (1.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 26 (1.06%) ITIL Certification
14 26 (1.06%) MCSA
15 25 (1.02%) CCNA
16 20 (0.82%) CCNP
17 19 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
18 18 (0.74%) A+ Certification
19 17 (0.69%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (4.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 83 (3.39%) GDPR
2 83 (3.39%) SLA
3 80 (3.27%) QA
4 71 (2.90%) NIST
5 42 (1.72%) PCI DSS
6 30 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 25 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
8 13 (0.53%) NCSC
8 13 (0.53%) PMO
9 12 (0.49%) NIST 800
10 11 (0.45%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.45%) MiFID
11 10 (0.41%) FINRA
12 7 (0.29%) GLBA
12 7 (0.29%) HIPAA
13 6 (0.25%) DICOM
13 6 (0.25%) GRC
13 6 (0.25%) HL7
13 6 (0.25%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 915 (37.39%) Active Directory
2 299 (12.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 135 (5.52%) Hyper-V
4 84 (3.43%) Docker
4 84 (3.43%) vSphere
5 82 (3.35%) VMware ESXi
6 74 (3.02%) Virtual Machines
7 51 (2.08%) Virtual Desktop
8 42 (1.72%) VMware NSX
9 33 (1.35%) Firmware
10 28 (1.14%) BitLocker
11 27 (1.10%) Microsoft App-V
12 20 (0.82%) KVM
13 11 (0.45%) XenDesktop
14 10 (0.41%) XenApp
15 6 (0.25%) vCloud
15 6 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
15 6 (0.25%) VMware Workstation
16 5 (0.20%) etcd
17 4 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 329 (13.45%) Microsoft Intune
2 237 (9.69%) SCCM
3 165 (6.74%) Ansible
4 143 (5.84%) Terraform
5 124 (5.07%) Kubernetes
6 73 (2.98%) vCenter Server
7 46 (1.88%) Single Sign-On
8 40 (1.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 35 (1.43%) FortiGate
9 35 (1.43%) WSUS
10 34 (1.39%) Jamf Pro
11 31 (1.27%) SCOM
12 27 (1.10%) Grafana
13 25 (1.02%) Nagios
14 23 (0.94%) Prometheus
15 20 (0.82%) Nessus
16 18 (0.74%) Progress Chef
16 18 (0.74%) ZABBIX
17 17 (0.69%) Puppet
17 17 (0.69%) WMI
Vendors
1 1,044 (42.66%) Microsoft
2 395 (16.14%) VMware
3 216 (8.83%) ServiceNow
4 187 (7.64%) Citrix
5 159 (6.50%) Cisco
6 143 (5.84%) Oracle
7 128 (5.23%) Splunk
8 70 (2.86%) HP
9 68 (2.78%) SolarWinds
10 56 (2.29%) Remedy
11 53 (2.17%) Dell
12 50 (2.04%) Red Hat
13 49 (2.00%) Apple
14 45 (1.84%) IBM
15 43 (1.76%) CyberArk
16 42 (1.72%) F5
17 41 (1.68%) Google
18 40 (1.63%) Juniper
19 35 (1.43%) BeyondTrust
19 35 (1.43%) Palo Alto