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

6 months to
25 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 21 16
Rank change year-on-year -7 -5 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,692 2,260 3,024
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.96% 8.25% 8.71%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.63% 60.65% 61.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,724 1,535 2,047
10th Percentile £170 £178 £175
25th Percentile £225 £225 £252
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £421 £413 £440
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -6.25% -2.22%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £658
UK median daily rate £425 £415 £430
% change year-on-year +2.37% -3.45% -4.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 235 180 243
10th Percentile £16.04 £15.12 £11.22
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.18 £14.45
Median hourly rate £25.77 £18.87 £19.18
Median % change year-on-year +36.57% -1.62% -22.10%
75th Percentile £55.25 £28.00 £38.37
90th Percentile £73.20 £65.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.26 £18.87 £20.00
% change year-on-year +33.86% -5.65% -16.67%

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 4,368 3,726 4,928
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.68% 13.60% 14.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,814 2,489 3,269
10th Percentile £190 £200 £200
25th Percentile £313 £313 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £460 £475
Median % change year-on-year +0.54% -3.16% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £656 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £468 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +1.19% -2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 295 223 348
10th Percentile £16.04 £15.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.04 £16.25
Median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +41.30% -8.00% -41.18%
75th Percentile £65.00 £58.09 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.60 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £23.00 £24.18
% change year-on-year +13.04% -4.88% -43.11%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -18 876 £418 -4.51% 247
South East -8 575 £475 -4.23% 286
North of England -9 478 £344 -1.71% 188
Midlands -19 274 £379 +26.17% 105
South West -12 266 £488 +23.42% 104
North West -8 252 £347 -3.07% 93
East of England -2 206 £335 +34.00% 109
Yorkshire -12 203 £358 +4.00% 67
West Midlands -26 173 £450 +20.00% 61
East Midlands +11 96 £270 +35.00% 44
North East -41 27 £270 -1.82% 34
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
1 226 (8.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 214 (7.95%) SharePoint
3 61 (2.27%) Confluence
4 56 (2.08%) IIS
5 17 (0.63%) nginx
6 15 (0.56%) Apache
7 14 (0.52%) Tomcat
8 11 (0.41%) Skype for Business
9 9 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
9 9 (0.33%) WebLogic
10 6 (0.22%) Appian
10 6 (0.22%) Documentum
11 5 (0.19%) Camunda
12 4 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.15%) FactoryTalk
13 3 (0.11%) CloudStack
13 3 (0.11%) NetWeaver
13 3 (0.11%) Tuxedo
14 2 (0.074%) Oracle HTTP Server
14 2 (0.074%) SAS
Applications
1 162 (6.02%) Microsoft Office
2 65 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.15%) Acrobat
5 4 (0.15%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.11%) Houdini
6 3 (0.11%) NUKE
7 2 (0.074%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.074%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.037%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.037%) CINEMA 4D
8 1 (0.037%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 53 (1.97%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.37%) Finacle
3 9 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (0.26%) Teamcenter
5 6 (0.22%) OpenText MBPM
5 6 (0.22%) Oracle BPM
6 3 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
6 3 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.074%) assyst
8 1 (0.037%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.037%) Oracle BRM
8 1 (0.037%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.037%) SAP BRIM
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
1 834 (30.98%) Azure
2 818 (30.39%) Microsoft 365
3 399 (14.82%) Entra ID
4 297 (11.03%) AWS
5 119 (4.42%) OneDrive
6 90 (3.34%) GCP
7 89 (3.31%) Azure DevOps
8 76 (2.82%) SaaS
9 64 (2.38%) Azure Monitor
10 62 (2.30%) IaaS
11 60 (2.23%) GitHub
12 56 (2.08%) Power Platform
13 53 (1.97%) PaaS
14 41 (1.52%) Azure Sentinel
15 28 (1.04%) AWS CloudFormation
16 25 (0.93%) Azure AKS
17 24 (0.89%) Google Workspace
17 24 (0.89%) OpenShift
18 23 (0.85%) GitHub Actions
18 23 (0.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 402 (14.93%) DNS
2 307 (11.40%) Firewall
3 279 (10.36%) DHCP
4 201 (7.47%) VPN
5 189 (7.02%) TCP/IP
6 153 (5.68%) LAN
7 140 (5.20%) WAN
8 129 (4.79%) Wi-Fi
9 86 (3.19%) SAN
10 64 (2.38%) Network Security
11 61 (2.27%) VLAN
12 46 (1.71%) BGP
13 45 (1.67%) SSL
14 40 (1.49%) NAS
15 38 (1.41%) Internet
16 37 (1.37%) OSPF
17 35 (1.30%) Wireless
18 29 (1.08%) Skype
18 29 (1.08%) VoIP
18 29 (1.08%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 256 (9.51%) SQL Server
2 53 (1.97%) Oracle Database
3 43 (1.60%) Power BI
4 27 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
5 24 (0.89%) Relational Database
6 22 (0.82%) MySQL
7 20 (0.74%) Amazon RDS
7 20 (0.74%) Db2
8 19 (0.71%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 13 (0.48%) Elasticsearch
10 12 (0.45%) RDBMS
11 11 (0.41%) NoSQL
11 11 (0.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 10 (0.37%) Geospatial Data
12 10 (0.37%) MongoDB
12 10 (0.37%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 8 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
14 6 (0.22%) GIS
15 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
15 5 (0.19%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 173 (6.43%) JIRA
2 57 (2.12%) Git
3 46 (1.71%) MSI
4 44 (1.63%) Jenkins
5 36 (1.34%) GitLab
6 33 (1.23%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.63%) Eclipse
8 12 (0.45%) Bitbucket
9 8 (0.30%) Chocolatey
10 7 (0.26%) Artifactory
10 7 (0.26%) Atlassian Bamboo
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%) Selenium
13 4 (0.15%) JUnit
13 4 (0.15%) Maven
General
1 980 (36.40%) Social Skills
2 318 (11.81%) Finance
3 309 (11.48%) Analytical Skills
4 167 (6.20%) Public Sector
5 155 (5.76%) Banking
6 97 (3.60%) Documentation Skills
7 81 (3.01%) Organisational Skills
8 79 (2.93%) Legal
9 55 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 54 (2.01%) Retail
11 45 (1.67%) Military
12 44 (1.63%) Manufacturing
13 37 (1.37%) Front Office
14 36 (1.34%) Telecoms
15 34 (1.26%) Investment Banking
16 33 (1.23%) Law
17 27 (1.00%) Spanish Language
18 25 (0.93%) Financial Institution
19 22 (0.82%) French Language
20 20 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 392 (14.56%) Support Engineer
2 362 (13.45%) IT Support
3 265 (9.84%) IT Engineer
4 257 (9.55%) Analyst
5 256 (9.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 222 (8.25%) IT Support Engineer
7 206 (7.65%) Senior
8 123 (4.57%) 2nd Line Support
9 111 (4.12%) Architect
10 108 (4.01%) Desktop Support
11 100 (3.71%) Developer
12 97 (3.60%) Desktop Engineer
13 96 (3.57%) Cloud Engineer
14 95 (3.53%) Support Analyst
15 91 (3.38%) Lead
16 83 (3.08%) IT Analyst
17 76 (2.82%) Consultant
18 72 (2.67%) 1st Line Support
18 72 (2.67%) Windows Engineer
19 70 (2.60%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (3.75%) .NET
2 95 (3.53%) REST
3 61 (2.27%) .NET Framework
4 31 (1.15%) 802.1X
5 28 (1.04%) Microsoft Graph
5 28 (1.04%) WPF
6 27 (1.00%) LDAP
6 27 (1.00%) Middleware
6 27 (1.00%) WinForms
7 25 (0.93%) Web Services
8 24 (0.89%) CSS
9 22 (0.82%) JSON
10 20 (0.74%) Software Packaging
11 19 (0.71%) Elastic Stack
11 19 (0.71%) HTML
12 18 (0.67%) Kafka
12 18 (0.67%) RESTful
13 16 (0.59%) Node.js
14 15 (0.56%) ARM Templates
14 15 (0.56%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 292 (10.85%) Onboarding
2 143 (5.31%) Data Centre
2 143 (5.31%) PKI
3 83 (3.08%) Clustering
4 73 (2.71%) Management Information System
5 71 (2.64%) Enterprise Software
6 68 (2.53%) Cloud Native
7 62 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
8 55 (2.04%) Driving Licence
8 55 (2.04%) Hybrid Cloud
9 52 (1.93%) Video Conferencing
10 51 (1.89%) Security Posture
11 50 (1.86%) Replication
12 48 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
13 40 (1.49%) Virtual Team
14 35 (1.30%) Analytical Mindset
14 35 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
15 32 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
16 28 (1.04%) CMDB
16 28 (1.04%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 655 (24.33%) Windows Server
2 654 (24.29%) Linux
3 464 (17.24%) Windows 10
4 183 (6.80%) Mac OS
5 128 (4.75%) Apple iOS
6 124 (4.61%) Android
6 124 (4.61%) Unix
7 109 (4.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 64 (2.38%) Windows Server 2019
9 40 (1.49%) Ubuntu
9 40 (1.49%) Windows Server 2016
10 32 (1.19%) AIX
10 32 (1.19%) Windows Server 2012
11 29 (1.08%) Windows 7
12 22 (0.82%) CentOS
13 19 (0.71%) Solaris
14 17 (0.63%) VMS
15 14 (0.52%) Windows Server 2008
16 10 (0.37%) Windows Server 2003
17 9 (0.33%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 625 (23.22%) Problem-Solving
2 464 (17.24%) ITIL
3 411 (15.27%) Customer Service
4 334 (12.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 314 (11.66%) Migration
6 301 (11.18%) ITSM
7 256 (9.51%) Continuous Improvement
7 256 (9.51%) DevOps
8 247 (9.18%) Agile
9 240 (8.92%) CI/CD
10 214 (7.95%) Service Management
11 195 (7.24%) Infrastructure as Code
12 183 (6.80%) Change Management
13 176 (6.54%) Stakeholder Management
14 173 (6.43%) High Availability
15 150 (5.57%) Cybersecurity
16 145 (5.39%) SIEM
17 143 (5.31%) Disaster Recovery
18 140 (5.20%) Service Delivery
19 139 (5.16%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 616 (22.88%) PowerShell
2 291 (10.81%) Python
3 277 (10.29%) SQL
4 151 (5.61%) Bash
5 133 (4.94%) C#
6 68 (2.53%) Java
6 68 (2.53%) JavaScript
7 51 (1.89%) PL/SQL
7 51 (1.89%) T-SQL
8 45 (1.67%) C++
9 39 (1.45%) Bicep
10 24 (0.89%) Search Processing Language
11 22 (0.82%) VB
12 18 (0.67%) Shell Script
13 17 (0.63%) TypeScript
13 17 (0.63%) VBScript
14 16 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
14 16 (0.59%) Perl
15 15 (0.56%) C
16 14 (0.52%) VBA
Qualifications
1 820 (30.46%) Security Cleared
2 497 (18.46%) SC Cleared
3 294 (10.92%) Degree
4 293 (10.88%) DV Cleared
5 103 (3.83%) Microsoft Certification
6 82 (3.05%) Cisco Certification
7 69 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
8 64 (2.38%) Azure Certification
9 63 (2.34%) CISSP
10 49 (1.82%) AWS Certification
11 46 (1.71%) BPSS Clearance
12 36 (1.34%) A+ Certification
13 33 (1.23%) MCSE
14 30 (1.11%) CCNA
15 28 (1.04%) CCNP
16 27 (1.00%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 25 (0.93%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
18 24 (0.89%) CISM
18 24 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
19 22 (0.82%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 121 (4.49%) SLA
2 114 (4.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 83 (3.08%) NIST
4 71 (2.64%) QA
5 31 (1.15%) GDPR
6 27 (1.00%) Cyber Essentials
7 26 (0.97%) PCI DSS
8 22 (0.82%) NCSC
9 16 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 13 (0.48%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.41%) Accessibility
11 11 (0.41%) HIPAA
12 10 (0.37%) GRC
12 10 (0.37%) PMO
13 9 (0.33%) WCAG
14 8 (0.30%) GxP
14 8 (0.30%) NIST 800
14 8 (0.30%) SOC 2
15 6 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 6 (0.22%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 1,060 (39.38%) Active Directory
2 360 (13.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 142 (5.27%) Hyper-V
4 122 (4.53%) VMware ESXi
5 101 (3.75%) vSphere
6 96 (3.57%) Docker
7 95 (3.53%) Virtual Machines
8 71 (2.64%) Virtual Desktop
9 67 (2.49%) VMware NSX
10 35 (1.30%) Firmware
11 32 (1.19%) BitLocker
12 24 (0.89%) Microsoft App-V
13 17 (0.63%) KVM
14 15 (0.56%) vCloud
15 8 (0.30%) VMware Workstation
15 8 (0.30%) XenDesktop
16 7 (0.26%) NFS
16 7 (0.26%) XenApp
17 6 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
17 6 (0.22%) UAG
Systems Management
1 395 (14.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 249 (9.25%) SCCM
3 227 (8.43%) Terraform
4 193 (7.17%) Ansible
5 145 (5.39%) Kubernetes
6 107 (3.97%) vCenter Server
7 61 (2.27%) SCOM
8 48 (1.78%) Jamf Pro
9 38 (1.41%) FortiGate
10 37 (1.37%) WSUS
11 35 (1.30%) Progress Chef
12 29 (1.08%) Puppet
12 29 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
13 26 (0.97%) Grafana
14 25 (0.93%) Prometheus
15 23 (0.85%) Nagios
15 23 (0.85%) Packer
16 20 (0.74%) Nessus
16 20 (0.74%) ZABBIX
17 19 (0.71%) WMI
Vendors
1 1,178 (43.76%) Microsoft
2 481 (17.87%) VMware
3 286 (10.62%) ServiceNow
4 179 (6.65%) Citrix
5 176 (6.54%) Cisco
6 155 (5.76%) Oracle
7 118 (4.38%) Splunk
8 81 (3.01%) Apple
9 80 (2.97%) SolarWinds
10 77 (2.86%) CyberArk
11 69 (2.56%) Red Hat
12 67 (2.49%) Google
13 65 (2.41%) HP
14 64 (2.38%) Remedy
15 58 (2.15%) BeyondTrust
16 54 (2.01%) Dell
17 51 (1.89%) Juniper
18 47 (1.75%) IBM
19 43 (1.60%) F5
20 41 (1.52%) BMC