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

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 19 17
Rank change year-on-year -8 -2 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,529 2,156 3,169
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.93% 8.79% 8.46%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.82% 61.83% 61.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,654 1,509 2,185
10th Percentile £163 £183 £165
25th Percentile £220 £250 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £421
Median % change year-on-year - +0.91% -6.40%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £425 £425 £413
% change year-on-year - +3.03% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 214 143 258
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £11.58
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.95 £14.00
Median hourly rate £25.75 £18.82 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.82% +4.56% -28.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £25.00 £25.00
90th Percentile £70.48 £59.80 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £18.87 £18.13
% change year-on-year +33.28% +4.08% -26.36%

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 4,091 3,487 5,165
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.59% 14.22% 13.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,661 2,359 3,473
10th Percentile £188 £200 £188
25th Percentile £313 £313 £306
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £465 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.15% -2.11% -5.00%
75th Percentile £570 £588 £588
90th Percentile £650 £689 £700
UK median daily rate £460 £465 £475
% change year-on-year -1.08% -2.11% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 283 172 373
10th Percentile £15.79 £15.12 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.18 £15.50
Median hourly rate £32.50 £18.87 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +72.23% -16.13% -48.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £49.56 £63.75
90th Percentile £71.32 £68.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £29.48 £21.59 £22.79
% change year-on-year +36.54% -5.27% -48.33%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -23 797 £428 -5.00% 200
South East -8 520 £475 -3.16% 287
North of England -9 467 £365 +4.29% 184
Midlands -16 275 £325 +12.07% 111
North West -5 247 £352 -2.87% 110
South West -13 239 £484 -1.28% 153
East of England -2 216 £340 -10.23% 83
Yorkshire -16 202 £365 -9.32% 52
West Midlands -23 167 £450 +50.00% 60
East Midlands +6 103 £213 +3.03% 51
North East -36 22 £283 -1.74% 24
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
1 216 (8.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 167 (6.60%) SharePoint
3 55 (2.17%) IIS
4 54 (2.14%) Confluence
5 15 (0.59%) Apache
6 14 (0.55%) Skype for Business
6 14 (0.55%) Tomcat
7 13 (0.51%) nginx
8 10 (0.40%) WebLogic
9 8 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
10 5 (0.20%) Appian
10 5 (0.20%) TPMS
11 4 (0.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.16%) Tuxedo
11 4 (0.16%) WebSphere
12 3 (0.12%) Camunda
12 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
13 2 (0.079%) Apache Pulsar
13 2 (0.079%) CloudStack
13 2 (0.079%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 156 (6.17%) Microsoft Office
2 62 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (0.83%) 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 (0.040%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 44 (1.74%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.43%) Teamcenter
3 6 (0.24%) Finacle
4 3 (0.12%) OpenText MBPM
4 3 (0.12%) Oracle BPM
4 3 (0.12%) Veritas eDiscovery
5 2 (0.079%) assyst
5 2 (0.079%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.079%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.079%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle FAH
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.040%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 767 (30.33%) Azure
2 732 (28.94%) Microsoft 365
3 324 (12.81%) Entra ID
4 250 (9.89%) AWS
5 91 (3.60%) OneDrive
6 81 (3.20%) GCP
7 68 (2.69%) Azure DevOps
8 67 (2.65%) SaaS
9 63 (2.49%) GitHub
9 63 (2.49%) IaaS
10 50 (1.98%) PaaS
11 47 (1.86%) Power Platform
12 42 (1.66%) Azure Monitor
13 33 (1.30%) Azure Sentinel
14 32 (1.27%) Google Workspace
15 29 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
16 23 (0.91%) OpenShift
17 19 (0.75%) AWS CloudFormation
17 19 (0.75%) Azure AKS
17 19 (0.75%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 353 (13.96%) DNS
2 265 (10.48%) Firewall
3 250 (9.89%) DHCP
4 169 (6.68%) VPN
5 150 (5.93%) LAN
6 149 (5.89%) TCP/IP
6 149 (5.89%) WAN
7 115 (4.55%) Wi-Fi
8 66 (2.61%) SAN
9 57 (2.25%) Network Security
10 50 (1.98%) VLAN
11 41 (1.62%) BGP
12 34 (1.34%) Skype
12 34 (1.34%) SSL
13 33 (1.30%) OSPF
14 32 (1.27%) Wireless
15 31 (1.23%) SNMP
15 31 (1.23%) VoIP
16 30 (1.19%) BIG-IP
16 30 (1.19%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 215 (8.50%) SQL Server
2 43 (1.70%) Oracle Database
3 31 (1.23%) Power BI
4 29 (1.15%) Relational Database
5 28 (1.11%) PostgreSQL
6 25 (0.99%) MySQL
7 14 (0.55%) Db2
7 14 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
7 14 (0.55%) MongoDB
8 13 (0.51%) NoSQL
9 12 (0.47%) Amazon RDS
10 10 (0.40%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 9 (0.36%) RDBMS
12 7 (0.28%) GIS
13 6 (0.24%) BigQuery
13 6 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
13 6 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 5 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
15 4 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 172 (6.80%) JIRA
2 42 (1.66%) Jenkins
3 39 (1.54%) Git
4 38 (1.50%) MSI
5 35 (1.38%) GitLab
5 35 (1.38%) Visual Studio
6 18 (0.71%) Eclipse
7 10 (0.40%) Burp Suite
8 9 (0.36%) Chocolatey
8 9 (0.36%) Metasploit
9 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
10 7 (0.28%) Android Studio
10 7 (0.28%) Bitbucket
10 7 (0.28%) Browser DevTools
10 7 (0.28%) Xcode
11 6 (0.24%) InstallShield
12 5 (0.20%) AdminStudio
12 5 (0.20%) Robot Framework
12 5 (0.20%) Selenium
13 4 (0.16%) Artifactory
General
1 869 (34.36%) Social Skills
2 281 (11.11%) Finance
3 250 (9.89%) Analytical Skills
4 165 (6.52%) Public Sector
5 149 (5.89%) Banking
6 97 (3.84%) Documentation Skills
7 85 (3.36%) Legal
8 74 (2.93%) Organisational Skills
9 51 (2.02%) Retail
10 49 (1.94%) Military
11 48 (1.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 37 (1.46%) Investment Banking
13 36 (1.42%) Manufacturing
14 35 (1.38%) Law
15 32 (1.27%) Front Office
16 30 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
17 25 (0.99%) Telecoms
18 22 (0.87%) Spanish Language
19 20 (0.79%) French Language
19 20 (0.79%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 333 (13.17%) IT Support
2 332 (13.13%) Support Engineer
3 277 (10.95%) Analyst
4 226 (8.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 214 (8.46%) IT Engineer
6 179 (7.08%) IT Support Engineer
7 171 (6.76%) Senior
8 124 (4.90%) Architect
9 107 (4.23%) Desktop Support
10 106 (4.19%) Support Analyst
11 103 (4.07%) Desktop Engineer
12 95 (3.76%) 2nd Line Support
13 89 (3.52%) IT Analyst
13 89 (3.52%) Lead
14 85 (3.36%) Developer
15 82 (3.24%) Technical Support
16 67 (2.65%) Consultant
17 66 (2.61%) Cloud Engineer
18 65 (2.57%) Windows Engineer
19 63 (2.49%) Desktop Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (3.44%) .NET
2 74 (2.93%) REST
3 52 (2.06%) .NET Framework
4 36 (1.42%) LDAP
5 32 (1.27%) Microsoft Graph
6 29 (1.15%) SAML
7 28 (1.11%) 802.1X
8 27 (1.07%) Middleware
9 25 (0.99%) Web Services
9 25 (0.99%) WinForms
10 23 (0.91%) WPF
11 22 (0.87%) OAuth
12 20 (0.79%) Kafka
13 19 (0.75%) CSS
13 19 (0.75%) Software Packaging
14 18 (0.71%) Elastic Stack
15 16 (0.63%) Node.js
16 15 (0.59%) AngularJS
17 14 (0.55%) React
18 13 (0.51%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 244 (9.65%) Onboarding
2 128 (5.06%) Data Centre
3 117 (4.63%) PKI
4 74 (2.93%) Clustering
5 71 (2.81%) Enterprise Software
6 58 (2.29%) Management Information System
6 58 (2.29%) Self-Motivation
7 54 (2.14%) Replication
8 50 (1.98%) Cloud Native
8 50 (1.98%) Hybrid Cloud
9 45 (1.78%) Security Posture
10 44 (1.74%) Virtual Team
11 43 (1.70%) Driving Licence
11 43 (1.70%) Legacy Systems
12 33 (1.30%) CMDB
12 33 (1.30%) Smartphone
13 31 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
14 30 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
14 30 (1.19%) Product Ownership
15 28 (1.11%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 617 (24.40%) Linux
2 612 (24.20%) Windows Server
3 452 (17.87%) Windows 10
4 164 (6.48%) Mac OS
5 132 (5.22%) Apple iOS
6 123 (4.86%) Unix
7 121 (4.78%) Android
8 84 (3.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 65 (2.57%) Windows Server 2019
10 55 (2.17%) Windows Server 2016
11 47 (1.86%) Windows 7
12 38 (1.50%) Windows Server 2012
13 29 (1.15%) AIX
13 29 (1.15%) Ubuntu
14 18 (0.71%) Solaris
15 17 (0.67%) VMS
15 17 (0.67%) Windows Server 2003
16 13 (0.51%) CentOS
16 13 (0.51%) Windows Server 2008
17 8 (0.32%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 551 (21.79%) Problem-Solving
2 387 (15.30%) ITIL
3 380 (15.03%) Customer Service
4 297 (11.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 281 (11.11%) Migration
6 257 (10.16%) ITSM
7 243 (9.61%) Agile
8 230 (9.09%) DevOps
9 217 (8.58%) CI/CD
10 189 (7.47%) Continuous Improvement
11 175 (6.92%) Change Management
12 174 (6.88%) Service Management
13 168 (6.64%) High Availability
14 157 (6.21%) Disaster Recovery
15 145 (5.73%) Infrastructure as Code
16 139 (5.50%) Cybersecurity
16 139 (5.50%) Stakeholder Management
17 131 (5.18%) SIEM
18 124 (4.90%) Runbook
19 119 (4.71%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 551 (21.79%) PowerShell
2 251 (9.92%) SQL
3 247 (9.77%) Python
4 124 (4.90%) C#
5 101 (3.99%) Bash
6 67 (2.65%) Java
6 67 (2.65%) JavaScript
7 47 (1.86%) PL/SQL
8 45 (1.78%) C++
9 41 (1.62%) T-SQL
10 25 (0.99%) Kusto Query Language
11 24 (0.95%) VB
12 22 (0.87%) Search Processing Language
12 22 (0.87%) Shell Script
13 18 (0.71%) Bicep
13 18 (0.71%) VBScript
14 17 (0.67%) Perl
15 13 (0.51%) C
16 12 (0.47%) VBA
17 11 (0.43%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 749 (29.62%) Security Cleared
2 479 (18.94%) SC Cleared
3 285 (11.27%) Degree
4 240 (9.49%) DV Cleared
5 107 (4.23%) Microsoft Certification
6 75 (2.97%) Cisco Certification
7 73 (2.89%) Computer Science Degree
8 60 (2.37%) CISSP
9 53 (2.10%) Azure Certification
10 46 (1.82%) MCSE
11 41 (1.62%) AWS Certification
12 37 (1.46%) BPSS Clearance
13 32 (1.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 30 (1.19%) MCSA
15 28 (1.11%) CCNA
16 27 (1.07%) ITIL Certification
17 26 (1.03%) CISM
18 24 (0.95%) CCNP
18 24 (0.95%) CompTIA Security+
19 19 (0.75%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (4.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 99 (3.91%) SLA
3 85 (3.36%) NIST
4 68 (2.69%) QA
5 65 (2.57%) GDPR
6 37 (1.46%) PCI DSS
7 31 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 24 (0.95%) Cyber Essentials
9 14 (0.55%) NCSC
10 11 (0.43%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.43%) HIPAA
10 11 (0.43%) MiFID
11 10 (0.40%) FINRA
11 10 (0.40%) NIST 800
12 8 (0.32%) GRC
12 8 (0.32%) PMO
12 8 (0.32%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.24%) ISO 31000
14 5 (0.20%) Accessibility
14 5 (0.20%) GLBA
System Software
1 953 (37.68%) Active Directory
2 323 (12.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 136 (5.38%) Hyper-V
4 102 (4.03%) VMware ESXi
5 96 (3.80%) vSphere
6 90 (3.56%) Virtual Machines
7 87 (3.44%) Docker
8 56 (2.21%) Virtual Desktop
9 50 (1.98%) VMware NSX
10 36 (1.42%) BitLocker
10 36 (1.42%) Firmware
11 27 (1.07%) Microsoft App-V
12 19 (0.75%) KVM
13 11 (0.43%) XenDesktop
14 10 (0.40%) vCloud
14 10 (0.40%) XenApp
15 8 (0.32%) VMware Workstation
16 6 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
16 6 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
17 5 (0.20%) etcd
Systems Management
1 357 (14.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 224 (8.86%) SCCM
3 168 (6.64%) Ansible
4 161 (6.37%) Terraform
5 122 (4.82%) Kubernetes
6 84 (3.32%) vCenter Server
7 47 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
8 41 (1.62%) Jamf Pro
9 40 (1.58%) FortiGate
10 39 (1.54%) SCOM
11 36 (1.42%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 34 (1.34%) WSUS
13 29 (1.15%) Progress Chef
14 27 (1.07%) Grafana
15 25 (0.99%) Prometheus
16 24 (0.95%) Puppet
17 21 (0.83%) Nagios
18 19 (0.75%) Nessus
19 18 (0.71%) Tivoli
19 18 (0.71%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,100 (43.50%) Microsoft
2 418 (16.53%) VMware
3 235 (9.29%) ServiceNow
4 181 (7.16%) Citrix
5 174 (6.88%) Cisco
6 150 (5.93%) Oracle
7 128 (5.06%) Splunk
8 68 (2.69%) HP
8 68 (2.69%) SolarWinds
9 58 (2.29%) Google
9 58 (2.29%) Red Hat
10 56 (2.21%) Remedy
11 55 (2.17%) Dell
12 52 (2.06%) Apple
12 52 (2.06%) CyberArk
13 46 (1.82%) IBM
14 45 (1.78%) Juniper
15 44 (1.74%) F5
16 42 (1.66%) BeyondTrust
17 35 (1.38%) Palo Alto