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 18 January 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
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 3 3
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 131 70 110
As % of all contract jobs in Hertfordshire 20.15% 18.13% 15.45%
As % of the Vendors category 42.39% 45.16% 34.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 32 73
10th Percentile £203 £189 £303
25th Percentile £388 £472 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £575
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% -6.52% +4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £738
90th Percentile £790 £635 £845
East of England median daily rate £425 £438 £500
% change year-on-year -2.86% -12.50% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 10 13
10th Percentile £16.42 £17.15 £30.00
25th Percentile £17.96 £37.81 £42.25
Median hourly rate £18.50 £65.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -71.54% +46.07% -31.54%
75th Percentile £20.09 - £46.75
90th Percentile £65.00 £69.25 £48.55
East of England median hourly rate £18.50 £16.23 £14.50
% change year-on-year +13.99% +11.93% -43.18%

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 309 155 323
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire 47.54% 40.16% 45.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 129 67 180
10th Percentile £360 £262 £284
25th Percentile £450 £394 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.60% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £775 £638 £775
East of England median daily rate £492 £481 £500
% change year-on-year +2.41% -3.90% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 114 36 51
10th Percentile £16.38 £16.58 £30.00
25th Percentile £17.54 £64.06 £42.25
Median hourly rate £18.50 £74.25 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -75.08% +14.23% -
75th Percentile £20.35 £85.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £65.00 £95.00 £84.36
East of England median hourly rate £19.34 £20.19 £25.59
% change year-on-year -4.21% -21.11% -0.18%

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 18 January 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 18 January 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 18 January 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
Hatfield +1 81 £544 +8.75% 7
Stevenage -5 29 £550 +7.32% 27
Hemel Hempstead 0 7 £450 -24.96% 28
Welwyn Garden City +5 5 £488 -22.00% 2
Watford - 4 £180 - 17
Hoddesdon -1 1 £200 - 6
St Albans -4 1 £375 - 4
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 1 (0.76%) Exchange Server 2010
1 1 (0.76%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (0.76%) SharePoint
Applications
1 43 (32.82%) Spreadsheet
2 20 (15.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (14.50%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (1.53%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (1.53%) Trello
5 1 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (2.29%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 12 (9.16%) Azure
2 11 (8.40%) Power Platform
3 4 (3.05%) Azure DevOps
3 4 (3.05%) Entra ID
4 3 (2.29%) Dynamics 365
4 3 (2.29%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (2.29%) PowerApps
5 2 (1.53%) Asana
5 2 (1.53%) GitHub
5 2 (1.53%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.76%) Azure Logic Apps
6 1 (0.76%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (0.76%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 15 (11.45%) TCP/IP
2 13 (9.92%) Ethernet
3 5 (3.82%) DNS
4 4 (3.05%) DHCP
5 2 (1.53%) Firewall
5 2 (1.53%) SAN
6 1 (0.76%) LAN
6 1 (0.76%) WAN
6 1 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (8.40%) Power BI
2 4 (3.05%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.05%) Tableau
3 1 (0.76%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 13 (9.92%) Eclipse
1 13 (9.92%) Visual Studio
2 3 (2.29%) GitLab
3 1 (0.76%) Git
3 1 (0.76%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.76%) JIRA
General
1 102 (77.86%) Social Skills
2 30 (22.90%) Organisational Skills
3 14 (10.69%) Presentation Skills
4 13 (9.92%) Military
5 12 (9.16%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (9.16%) Public Sector
6 11 (8.40%) Legal
7 8 (6.11%) Finance
8 4 (3.05%) Telecoms
9 3 (2.29%) Banking
9 3 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (2.29%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.53%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.53%) Electronics
10 2 (1.53%) Law
10 2 (1.53%) Marketing
11 1 (0.76%) Billing
11 1 (0.76%) Local Government
11 1 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.76%) Retail
Job Titles
1 47 (35.88%) IT Support
2 16 (12.21%) Technical Support
3 14 (10.69%) Desktop Support
4 11 (8.40%) C# Software Engineer
4 11 (8.40%) Security Officer
4 11 (8.40%) Software Engineer
5 10 (7.63%) Administrator
6 8 (6.11%) IT Administrator
7 7 (5.34%) C++ Software Engineer
7 7 (5.34%) Senior
8 6 (4.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 5 (3.82%) IT Engineer
9 5 (3.82%) Lead
9 5 (3.82%) Project Manager
9 5 (3.82%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 3 (2.29%) Architect
10 3 (2.29%) Consultant
10 3 (2.29%) IAM Project Manager
10 3 (2.29%) Identity Management Manager
10 3 (2.29%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (9.92%) Node.js
1 13 (9.92%) Web Services
2 4 (3.05%) Oracle Fusion
3 3 (2.29%) REST
4 1 (0.76%) LDAP
4 1 (0.76%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 11 (8.40%) Insider Threat
2 3 (2.29%) Management Information System
2 3 (2.29%) Onboarding
2 3 (2.29%) PKI
3 2 (1.53%) Analytical Mindset
3 2 (1.53%) Data Centre
3 2 (1.53%) Driving Licence
3 2 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (0.76%) Cloud Security Posture
4 1 (0.76%) Linux Command Line
4 1 (0.76%) PDA
4 1 (0.76%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 25 (19.08%) Windows
2 17 (12.98%) Linux
3 7 (5.34%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.53%) VMS
4 2 (1.53%) Windows Server 2016
4 2 (1.53%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (0.76%) Android
5 1 (0.76%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.76%) CentOS
5 1 (0.76%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.76%) Mac OS X
5 1 (0.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.76%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.76%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (47.33%) Time Management
2 25 (19.08%) Customer Service
3 23 (17.56%) Agile
4 19 (14.50%) Visualisation
5 18 (13.74%) Problem-Solving
6 15 (11.45%) Asset Management
6 15 (11.45%) CI/CD
6 15 (11.45%) Continuous Improvement
7 14 (10.69%) ITIL
7 14 (10.69%) Validation
8 13 (9.92%) Synthetic Environment
8 13 (9.92%) Verification and Validation
9 12 (9.16%) Business Intelligence
9 12 (9.16%) Continuous Delivery
9 12 (9.16%) Continuous Integration
9 12 (9.16%) Digital Twin
9 12 (9.16%) Kalman Filter
9 12 (9.16%) TDD
9 12 (9.16%) Unit Testing
10 11 (8.40%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 13 (9.92%) C#
1 13 (9.92%) C++
1 13 (9.92%) JavaScript
2 6 (4.58%) PowerShell
3 4 (3.05%) Python
3 4 (3.05%) SQL
4 1 (0.76%) Bash
4 1 (0.76%) Bicep
4 1 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 1 (0.76%) MATLAB
4 1 (0.76%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 43 (32.82%) Security Cleared
2 39 (29.77%) SC Cleared
3 13 (9.92%) DV Cleared
4 11 (8.40%) CTC Cleared
5 5 (3.82%) Degree
6 3 (2.29%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.53%) CompTIA Security+
7 2 (1.53%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (1.53%) PMI Certification
7 2 (1.53%) PMP
8 1 (0.76%) ACCA
8 1 (0.76%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.76%) CCAB
8 1 (0.76%) CIMA
8 1 (0.76%) CIPFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (46.56%) SLA
2 3 (2.29%) Actionable Recommendations
3 1 (0.76%) GMP
3 1 (0.76%) GxP
3 1 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.76%) NIST
System Software
1 14 (10.69%) Active Directory
2 7 (5.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.53%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.76%) Docker
4 1 (0.76%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 5 (3.82%) ServiceCenter
2 4 (3.05%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (2.29%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (2.29%) PingFederate
3 3 (2.29%) SCCM
3 3 (2.29%) Terraform
4 2 (1.53%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
4 2 (1.53%) vCenter Server
5 1 (0.76%) Ansible
5 1 (0.76%) Check_MK
5 1 (0.76%) Podman
5 1 (0.76%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 8 (6.11%) VMware
2 6 (4.58%) Apple
3 5 (3.82%) Dell
3 5 (3.82%) HP
4 4 (3.05%) Oracle
5 3 (2.29%) SAP
6 2 (1.53%) Citrix
6 2 (1.53%) Google
6 2 (1.53%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.53%) ServiceNow
6 2 (1.53%) Veeam
6 2 (1.53%) Wyse
7 1 (0.76%) Computacenter
7 1 (0.76%) Cribl.io
7 1 (0.76%) Databricks
7 1 (0.76%) Red Hat