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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 21 18
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 -5
Contract jobs citing Windows 2,858 2,305 2,710
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.14% 8.35% 8.42%
As % of the Operating Systems category 62.43% 60.67% 58.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,818 1,565 1,760
10th Percentile £173 £163 £183
25th Percentile £225 £213 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £420 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -5.88% -
75th Percentile £556 £550 £575
90th Percentile £668 £650 £638
UK median daily rate £425 £400 £425
% change year-on-year +6.25% -5.88% -2.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 295 215 138
10th Percentile £16.11 £15.12 £15.01
25th Percentile £19.11 £18.10 £17.44
Median hourly rate £25.77 £22.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +17.14% -9.02% -3.28%
75th Percentile £65.22 £39.47 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.30 £65.00 £67.50
UK median hourly rate £25.75 £23.00 £24.18
% change year-on-year +11.96% -4.88% -3.28%

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 4,578 3,799 4,609
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.84% 13.76% 14.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,910 2,496 2,917
10th Percentile £190 £190 £202
25th Percentile £313 £290 £329
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £584
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £470 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 356 262 221
10th Percentile £16.13 £15.50 £16.00
25th Percentile £19.46 £18.87 £22.00
Median hourly rate £38.50 £25.08 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +53.54% -58.21% +25.36%
75th Percentile £67.84 £59.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.25 £67.00 -
UK median hourly rate £27.33 £25.15 £54.00
% change year-on-year +8.67% -53.43% +15.66%

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 23 September 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 23 September 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 23 September 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 -9 961 £420 -1.18% 811
South East -7 561 £492 +31.07% 470
North of England -8 507 £325 +7.47% 338
North West +8 304 £344 +5.04% 192
Midlands -15 296 £400 +6.67% 312
South West -18 265 £528 +50.71% 200
East of England -1 246 £240 -31.43% 230
West Midlands -22 198 £402 +0.50% 202
Yorkshire -18 166 £245 +21.59% 111
East Midlands +1 97 £275 +22.22% 110
North East -23 42 £283 +7.62% 40
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
1 238 (8.33%) SharePoint
2 232 (8.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 58 (2.03%) IIS
4 53 (1.85%) Confluence
5 20 (0.70%) nginx
6 19 (0.66%) Skype for Business
7 16 (0.56%) Apache
8 10 (0.35%) Tomcat
9 7 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (0.21%) Documentum
11 5 (0.17%) Apache Solr
11 5 (0.17%) Appian
11 5 (0.17%) Camunda
11 5 (0.17%) WebLogic
12 4 (0.14%) FactoryTalk
13 3 (0.10%) CloudStack
13 3 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2013
13 3 (0.10%) IBM Transformation Extender
13 3 (0.10%) OpenStack
14 2 (0.070%) CMS
Applications
1 194 (6.79%) Microsoft Office
2 62 (2.17%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.17%) Acrobat
6 4 (0.14%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.10%) Houdini
7 3 (0.10%) NUKE
8 2 (0.070%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.035%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.035%) CINEMA 4D
9 1 (0.035%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 55 (1.92%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (0.35%) Finacle
3 7 (0.24%) OpenText MBPM
3 7 (0.24%) Oracle BPM
4 5 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (0.14%) SAP S/4HANA
5 4 (0.14%) Teamcenter
6 3 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.10%) ResourceLink
7 2 (0.070%) assyst
8 1 (0.035%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.035%) Monis
8 1 (0.035%) Oracle BRM
8 1 (0.035%) SAP BRIM
8 1 (0.035%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.035%) SAP EWM
8 1 (0.035%) SAP FI
8 1 (0.035%) SAP FI-CA
8 1 (0.035%) SAP FS
8 1 (0.035%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 929 (32.51%) Microsoft 365
2 891 (31.18%) Azure
3 481 (16.83%) Entra ID
4 316 (11.06%) AWS
5 138 (4.83%) OneDrive
6 102 (3.57%) Azure DevOps
6 102 (3.57%) GCP
7 73 (2.55%) SaaS
8 71 (2.48%) Azure Monitor
9 62 (2.17%) GitHub
10 60 (2.10%) Power Platform
11 58 (2.03%) IaaS
12 44 (1.54%) PaaS
13 39 (1.36%) Azure Sentinel
14 27 (0.94%) AWS CloudFormation
15 26 (0.91%) OpenShift
16 24 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (0.84%) Google Workspace
17 22 (0.77%) Datadog
18 21 (0.73%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 457 (15.99%) DNS
2 327 (11.44%) DHCP
3 316 (11.06%) Firewall
4 242 (8.47%) VPN
5 227 (7.94%) TCP/IP
6 116 (4.06%) Wi-Fi
7 115 (4.02%) WAN
8 111 (3.88%) LAN
9 94 (3.29%) Network Security
10 87 (3.04%) SAN
11 85 (2.97%) VLAN
12 51 (1.78%) Wireless
13 49 (1.71%) SSL
14 40 (1.40%) Internet
15 39 (1.36%) NAS
16 35 (1.22%) Skype
17 33 (1.15%) BGP
18 32 (1.12%) VSAN
19 29 (1.01%) VoIP
20 26 (0.91%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 254 (8.89%) SQL Server
2 56 (1.96%) Oracle Database
3 51 (1.78%) Power BI
4 29 (1.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 27 (0.94%) PostgreSQL
6 23 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
6 23 (0.80%) Relational Database
7 22 (0.77%) MySQL
8 15 (0.52%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 15 (0.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.38%) Db2
9 11 (0.38%) Geospatial Data
10 10 (0.35%) RDBMS
11 9 (0.31%) Elasticsearch
12 8 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
12 8 (0.28%) NoSQL
12 8 (0.28%) Oracle Reports
13 7 (0.24%) MongoDB
14 5 (0.17%) ObjectStore
15 4 (0.14%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 142 (4.97%) JIRA
2 69 (2.41%) Git
3 49 (1.71%) Jenkins
4 48 (1.68%) MSI
5 45 (1.57%) GitLab
6 32 (1.12%) Visual Studio
7 15 (0.52%) Bitbucket
7 15 (0.52%) Eclipse
8 13 (0.45%) Artifactory
9 11 (0.38%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 10 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
11 6 (0.21%) Browser DevTools
11 6 (0.21%) Rational DOORS
11 6 (0.21%) Selenium
12 5 (0.17%) Chocolatey
12 5 (0.17%) Robot Framework
12 5 (0.17%) SonarQube
12 5 (0.17%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 4 (0.14%) Octopus Deploy
13 4 (0.14%) Zephyr
General
1 1,057 (36.98%) Social Skills
2 350 (12.25%) Analytical Skills
2 350 (12.25%) Finance
3 149 (5.21%) Banking
4 126 (4.41%) Public Sector
5 108 (3.78%) Documentation Skills
6 75 (2.62%) Legal
7 69 (2.41%) Organisational Skills
8 67 (2.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 56 (1.96%) Manufacturing
10 50 (1.75%) Retail
11 49 (1.71%) Telecoms
12 41 (1.43%) Front Office
13 40 (1.40%) Law
14 39 (1.36%) Military
15 34 (1.19%) Investment Banking
16 26 (0.91%) Spanish Language
17 25 (0.87%) French Language
18 24 (0.84%) Financial Institution
18 24 (0.84%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 468 (16.38%) Support Engineer
2 395 (13.82%) IT Support
3 303 (10.60%) IT Engineer
4 302 (10.57%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 253 (8.85%) IT Support Engineer
6 242 (8.47%) Analyst
7 228 (7.98%) Senior
8 128 (4.48%) Desktop Support
9 122 (4.27%) 2nd Line Support
10 118 (4.13%) Desktop Engineer
11 109 (3.81%) Cloud Engineer
11 109 (3.81%) Lead
12 107 (3.74%) Architect
13 97 (3.39%) Windows Engineer
14 92 (3.22%) Support Analyst
15 85 (2.97%) Developer
16 77 (2.69%) Consultant
17 74 (2.59%) 1st Line Support
18 73 (2.55%) Desktop Support Engineer
19 72 (2.52%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 247 (8.64%) Terraform
2 117 (4.09%) .NET
3 104 (3.64%) REST
4 57 (1.99%) .NET Framework
5 40 (1.40%) LDAP
6 37 (1.29%) Middleware
6 37 (1.29%) WPF
7 36 (1.26%) JSON
8 27 (0.94%) WinForms
9 23 (0.80%) ARM Templates
9 23 (0.80%) Software Packaging
10 21 (0.73%) .NET Core
11 19 (0.66%) Elastic Stack
11 19 (0.66%) HTML
11 19 (0.66%) Microsoft Graph
11 19 (0.66%) Web Services
12 18 (0.63%) CSS
13 17 (0.59%) RESTful
13 17 (0.59%) SAML
13 17 (0.59%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 357 (12.49%) Onboarding
2 163 (5.70%) Data Centre
3 145 (5.07%) PKI
4 101 (3.53%) Management Information System
5 87 (3.04%) Hybrid Cloud
6 78 (2.73%) Clustering
7 75 (2.62%) Enterprise Software
8 71 (2.48%) Cloud Native
9 70 (2.45%) Video Conferencing
10 67 (2.34%) Driving Licence
11 60 (2.10%) Replication
12 55 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
13 54 (1.89%) Security Posture
14 41 (1.43%) Virtual Team
15 37 (1.29%) CMDB
16 36 (1.26%) Legacy Systems
17 34 (1.19%) Enterprise Storage
18 33 (1.15%) Linux Command Line
19 32 (1.12%) Operational Technology
20 31 (1.08%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 809 (28.31%) Windows Server
2 695 (24.32%) Linux
3 516 (18.05%) Windows 10
4 190 (6.65%) Mac OS
5 133 (4.65%) Apple iOS
6 132 (4.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 127 (4.44%) Android
8 107 (3.74%) Unix
9 67 (2.34%) Windows Server 2019
10 51 (1.78%) Ubuntu
11 46 (1.61%) Windows 7
12 39 (1.36%) CentOS
12 39 (1.36%) Windows Server 2012
13 35 (1.22%) Windows Server 2016
14 20 (0.70%) AIX
14 20 (0.70%) Solaris
14 20 (0.70%) VMS
15 18 (0.63%) Windows Server 2008
16 15 (0.52%) Rocky
17 12 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 699 (24.46%) Problem-Solving
2 552 (19.31%) ITIL
3 479 (16.76%) Customer Service
4 387 (13.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 387 (13.54%) ITSM
5 354 (12.39%) Migration
6 334 (11.69%) Continuous Improvement
7 289 (10.11%) Service Management
8 277 (9.69%) DevOps
9 257 (8.99%) CI/CD
10 251 (8.78%) Infrastructure as Code
11 236 (8.26%) Agile
12 229 (8.01%) Stakeholder Management
13 210 (7.35%) Change Management
14 208 (7.28%) Root Cause Analysis
15 197 (6.89%) Disaster Recovery
16 182 (6.37%) Cybersecurity
17 165 (5.77%) Technical Leadership
18 162 (5.67%) Incident Management
18 162 (5.67%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 710 (24.84%) PowerShell
2 315 (11.02%) Python
3 276 (9.66%) SQL
4 180 (6.30%) Bash
5 141 (4.93%) C#
6 64 (2.24%) Java
6 64 (2.24%) T-SQL
7 61 (2.13%) JavaScript
8 50 (1.75%) Bicep
9 49 (1.71%) PL/SQL
10 36 (1.26%) C++
11 30 (1.05%) VB
12 25 (0.87%) VBScript
13 17 (0.59%) Perl
14 16 (0.56%) TypeScript
15 15 (0.52%) Shell Script
16 13 (0.45%) Search Processing Language
16 13 (0.45%) VBA
17 11 (0.38%) Go
17 11 (0.38%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 909 (31.81%) Security Cleared
2 527 (18.44%) SC Cleared
3 378 (13.23%) DV Cleared
4 288 (10.08%) Degree
5 112 (3.92%) Microsoft Certification
6 92 (3.22%) Azure Certification
7 68 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
7 68 (2.38%) Computer Science Degree
8 64 (2.24%) CISSP
9 54 (1.89%) AWS Certification
10 52 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
11 50 (1.75%) A+ Certification
12 44 (1.54%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 33 (1.15%) CISM
13 33 (1.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 32 (1.12%) DBS Check
14 32 (1.12%) ITIL Certification
15 30 (1.05%) CCNA
15 30 (1.05%) CCNP
16 26 (0.91%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 154 (5.39%) SLA
2 111 (3.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 83 (2.90%) NIST
4 76 (2.66%) QA
5 39 (1.36%) Cyber Essentials
6 28 (0.98%) NCSC
7 22 (0.77%) PCI DSS
8 21 (0.73%) GDPR
9 16 (0.56%) GRC
10 15 (0.52%) Accessibility
10 15 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 15 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 12 (0.42%) WCAG
12 11 (0.38%) Data Quality
13 10 (0.35%) HIPAA
13 10 (0.35%) ISO 31000
14 9 (0.31%) GxP
15 8 (0.28%) PMO
16 6 (0.21%) NIST 800
16 6 (0.21%) SOC 2
System Software
1 1,200 (41.99%) Active Directory
2 454 (15.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 197 (6.89%) Hyper-V
4 153 (5.35%) VMware ESXi
5 139 (4.86%) vSphere
6 112 (3.92%) Docker
7 103 (3.60%) Virtual Machines
8 84 (2.94%) Virtual Desktop
9 78 (2.73%) VMware NSX
10 36 (1.26%) BitLocker
11 29 (1.01%) Firmware
12 24 (0.84%) vCloud
13 17 (0.59%) Virtual Servers
14 15 (0.52%) Microsoft App-V
15 14 (0.49%) NFS
16 12 (0.42%) Citrix Hypervisor
17 11 (0.38%) XenApp
18 9 (0.31%) KVM
18 9 (0.31%) XenDesktop
19 7 (0.24%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 421 (14.73%) Microsoft Intune
2 324 (11.34%) SCCM
3 216 (7.56%) Ansible
4 149 (5.21%) Kubernetes
5 123 (4.30%) vCenter Server
6 99 (3.46%) SCOM
7 46 (1.61%) Jamf Pro
8 41 (1.43%) WSUS
9 34 (1.19%) Grafana
10 31 (1.08%) Prometheus
11 28 (0.98%) Progress Chef
11 28 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
12 27 (0.94%) WMI
13 26 (0.91%) Puppet
13 26 (0.91%) VxRail
14 24 (0.84%) NetBackup
15 23 (0.80%) Nagios
16 21 (0.73%) Packer
17 20 (0.70%) Microsoft Clustering
18 19 (0.66%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 1,385 (48.46%) Microsoft
2 595 (20.82%) VMware
3 332 (11.62%) ServiceNow
4 200 (7.00%) Cisco
5 163 (5.70%) Oracle
6 158 (5.53%) Citrix
7 97 (3.39%) Apple
8 95 (3.32%) Splunk
9 92 (3.22%) CyberArk
10 78 (2.73%) Google
11 71 (2.48%) Red Hat
12 70 (2.45%) SolarWinds
13 65 (2.27%) BeyondTrust
14 59 (2.06%) Remedy
15 57 (1.99%) Dell
16 45 (1.57%) HP
17 41 (1.43%) NetApp
18 40 (1.40%) BMC
18 40 (1.40%) Palo Alto
19 36 (1.26%) Fortinet