Microsoft Contract Job Trends in Hertfordshire

Microsoft
East of England > Hertfordshire

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Hertfordshire requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 26 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -10 +2 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 66 93 71
As % of all contract jobs in Hertfordshire 7.95% 20.67% 10.64%
As % of the Vendors category 20.89% 43.66% 29.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 36 55 13
10th Percentile £193 £345 £101
25th Percentile £304 £463 £156
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £550 £450
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +22.22% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £500
90th Percentile £706 - £562
East of England median daily rate £375 £525 £325
% change year-on-year -28.57% +61.54% -13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 22 29
10th Percentile £14.40 £16.69 £14.17
25th Percentile £14.45 £22.63 £15.00
Median hourly rate £16.17 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -75.12% - +246.44%
75th Percentile £19.34 - -
90th Percentile £65.00 - -
East of England median hourly rate £17.39 £18.85 £16.23
% change year-on-year -7.77% +16.14% -12.27%

All Vendors
Hertfordshire

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in Hertfordshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 316 213 238
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire 38.07% 47.33% 35.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 163 118 115
10th Percentile £258 £350 £177
25th Percentile £425 £463 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.27% +10.00% -
75th Percentile £638 £588 £575
90th Percentile £748 £691 £595
East of England median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 43 54
10th Percentile £14.45 £16.31 £13.98
25th Percentile £22.63 £16.95 £21.94
Median hourly rate £40.00 £22.63 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +76.76% -65.18% +32.65%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £80.00
90th Percentile £75.00 - £85.00
East of England median hourly rate £27.50 £21.89 £16.23
% change year-on-year +25.63% +34.87% -34.59%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in Hertfordshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in Hertfordshire

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in Hertfordshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in Hertfordshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in Hertfordshire over the 6 months to 26 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in Hertfordshire

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in Hertfordshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Hertfordshire citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in Hertfordshire

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in Hertfordshire over the 6 months to 26 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in Hertfordshire

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in Hertfordshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the Hertfordshire region over the 6 months to 26 August 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
Stevenage -20 19 £483 -12.27% 15
Hemel Hempstead -2 15 £488 +30.00% 9
Hatfield -2 12 £475 -2.94% 3
Watford -12 5 £550 - 15
Hertford - 2 £475 - 1
Welwyn Garden City -4 1 £265 -49.52%
St Albans - 1 £400 - 1
Microsoft
East of England

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Hertfordshire 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 8 (12.12%) Microsoft Exchange
1 8 (12.12%) SharePoint
2 2 (3.03%) Confluence
3 1 (1.52%) Apache
3 1 (1.52%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 9 (13.64%) Spreadsheet
2 8 (12.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (7.58%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (3.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (3.03%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (1.52%) AutoCAD
5 1 (1.52%) MicroStation
5 1 (1.52%) MS Visio
5 1 (1.52%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 5 (7.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (1.52%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 26 (39.39%) Microsoft 365
2 13 (19.70%) Azure
3 9 (13.64%) Entra ID
4 7 (10.61%) Power Platform
5 5 (7.58%) Microsoft Copilot
5 5 (7.58%) Mimecast
5 5 (7.58%) OneDrive
5 5 (7.58%) PowerApps
6 4 (6.06%) AWS
6 4 (6.06%) Power Automate
6 4 (6.06%) SaaS
7 3 (4.55%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (3.03%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (3.03%) Google Workspace
8 2 (3.03%) Serverless
9 1 (1.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 1 (1.52%) Amazon S3
9 1 (1.52%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (1.52%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (1.52%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (18.18%) Firewall
2 7 (10.61%) NAS
3 6 (9.09%) DNS
3 6 (9.09%) TCP/IP
3 6 (9.09%) Wi-Fi
4 4 (6.06%) DHCP
5 2 (3.03%) Ethernet
5 2 (3.03%) iSCSI
5 2 (3.03%) SAN
5 2 (3.03%) VPN
5 2 (3.03%) WAN
6 1 (1.52%) HTTPS
6 1 (1.52%) Intranet
6 1 (1.52%) LAN
6 1 (1.52%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (4.55%) Power BI
2 2 (3.03%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (3.03%) SQL Server
3 1 (1.52%) Data Lake
3 1 (1.52%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.52%) Metadata
3 1 (1.52%) Snowflake Schema
3 1 (1.52%) Star Schema
3 1 (1.52%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (3.03%) Eclipse
1 2 (3.03%) Git
1 2 (3.03%) GitLab
1 2 (3.03%) JIRA
1 2 (3.03%) Visual Studio
2 1 (1.52%) Jenkins
General
1 21 (31.82%) Social Skills
2 6 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
2 6 (9.09%) Finance
2 6 (9.09%) Organisational Skills
3 4 (6.06%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (4.55%) Presentation Skills
5 2 (3.03%) Influencing Skills
5 2 (3.03%) Legal
5 2 (3.03%) Military
5 2 (3.03%) Retail
Job Titles
1 9 (13.64%) Analyst
2 8 (12.12%) Administrator
2 8 (12.12%) Consultant
3 5 (7.58%) Developer
3 5 (7.58%) Lead
3 5 (7.58%) Service Analyst
3 5 (7.58%) Service Desk Analyst
4 4 (6.06%) Applications Support
4 4 (6.06%) Microsoft Consultant
5 3 (4.55%) Architect
5 3 (4.55%) Business Consultant
5 3 (4.55%) IT Support
5 3 (4.55%) Power Platform Developer
6 2 (3.03%) Business Analyst
6 2 (3.03%) IT Analyst
6 2 (3.03%) IT Engineer
6 2 (3.03%) Microsoft 365 Developer
6 2 (3.03%) Power Apps Developer
6 2 (3.03%) Programme Manager
6 2 (3.03%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (7.58%) LDAP
2 2 (3.03%) Middleware
2 2 (3.03%) Node.js
2 2 (3.03%) SailPoint
2 2 (3.03%) Web Services
3 1 (1.52%) OAuth
3 1 (1.52%) OAuth2
3 1 (1.52%) OpenID
3 1 (1.52%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (1.52%) REST
3 1 (1.52%) SAML
3 1 (1.52%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 4 (6.06%) PKI
2 3 (4.55%) Onboarding
3 2 (3.03%) Product Ownership
4 1 (1.52%) Data Centre
4 1 (1.52%) Driving Licence
4 1 (1.52%) e-Learning
4 1 (1.52%) FMCG
4 1 (1.52%) Insider Threat
4 1 (1.52%) LIMS
4 1 (1.52%) Management Information System
4 1 (1.52%) NHS
4 1 (1.52%) Operational Technology
4 1 (1.52%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 25 (37.88%) Windows
2 11 (16.67%) Windows Server
3 10 (15.15%) Linux
4 5 (7.58%) Mac OS
5 3 (4.55%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (1.52%) Android
6 1 (1.52%) CentOS
6 1 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (1.52%) VMS
6 1 (1.52%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (18.18%) ITIL
2 11 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
2 11 (16.67%) Stakeholder Management
3 10 (15.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 7 (10.61%) Agile
4 7 (10.61%) Customer Service
4 7 (10.61%) Decision-Making
5 6 (9.09%) Continuous Improvement
5 6 (9.09%) CRM
6 5 (7.58%) Analytics
6 5 (7.58%) Antivirus Management
6 5 (7.58%) Change Management
6 5 (7.58%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (7.58%) Migration
7 4 (6.06%) AI
7 4 (6.06%) CI/CD
7 4 (6.06%) Information Management
7 4 (6.06%) Project Delivery
7 4 (6.06%) Service Management
7 4 (6.06%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 7 (10.61%) PowerShell
2 3 (4.55%) Python
3 2 (3.03%) Bash
3 2 (3.03%) C#
3 2 (3.03%) C++
3 2 (3.03%) JavaScript
4 1 (1.52%) MATLAB
4 1 (1.52%) R
4 1 (1.52%) Shell Script
4 1 (1.52%) SQL
Qualifications
1 18 (27.27%) Security Cleared
2 14 (21.21%) SC Cleared
3 6 (9.09%) DV Cleared
4 4 (6.06%) Degree
5 2 (3.03%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 2 (3.03%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (3.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 1 (1.52%) (ISC)2 CCSP
6 1 (1.52%) CCSP
6 1 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (1.52%) CISSP
6 1 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (1.52%) CTC Cleared
6 1 (1.52%) Master's Degree
6 1 (1.52%) Network+ Certification
6 1 (1.52%) PMI Certification
6 1 (1.52%) PMP
6 1 (1.52%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (13.64%) SLA
2 4 (6.06%) PMO
3 3 (4.55%) GDPR
4 2 (3.03%) GxP
5 1 (1.52%) Accessibility
5 1 (1.52%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (1.52%) P3O
5 1 (1.52%) QA
5 1 (1.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 19 (28.79%) Active Directory
2 6 (9.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (3.03%) Hyper-V
3 2 (3.03%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (1.52%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (1.52%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 3 (4.55%) Ansible
1 3 (4.55%) Microsoft Intune
1 3 (4.55%) SCCM
1 3 (4.55%) vCenter Server
2 2 (3.03%) SCOM
2 2 (3.03%) ServiceCenter
3 1 (1.52%) Check_MK
3 1 (1.52%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (1.52%) Podman
3 1 (1.52%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 7 (10.61%) VMware
2 6 (9.09%) ServiceNow
3 5 (7.58%) Adobe
3 5 (7.58%) Meraki
3 5 (7.58%) Sophos
3 5 (7.58%) Synology
3 5 (7.58%) Ubiquiti
4 4 (6.06%) Apple
5 3 (4.55%) Freshdesk
5 3 (4.55%) Google
6 2 (3.03%) Citrix
6 2 (3.03%) CyberArk
6 2 (3.03%) Dell
6 2 (3.03%) HP
6 2 (3.03%) Oracle
6 2 (3.03%) SAP
7 1 (1.52%) Autodesk
7 1 (1.52%) Red Hat
7 1 (1.52%) Salesforce
7 1 (1.52%) Wyse