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 15 March 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
15 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 6 8
Rank change year-on-year +3 +2 -5
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 149 53 97
As % of all contract jobs in Hertfordshire 19.35% 14.25% 12.39%
As % of the Vendors category 43.44% 32.72% 30.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 28 27 67
10th Percentile £197 £408 £275
25th Percentile £375 £475 £374
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -11.36% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £606 £600 £725
90th Percentile £703 £623 £830
East of England median daily rate £400 £425 £488
% change year-on-year -5.88% -12.95% +8.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 101 8 10
10th Percentile £16.35 £40.28 £14.21
25th Percentile £18.17 £58.44 £18.20
Median hourly rate £18.50 £65.00 £37.25
Median % change year-on-year -71.54% +74.50% -35.22%
75th Percentile £20.09 £66.50 £46.75
90th Percentile £24.55 £70.25 -
East of England median hourly rate £18.50 £16.92 £14.80
% change year-on-year +9.34% +14.32% -17.20%

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 343 162 319
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire 44.55% 43.55% 40.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 84 174
10th Percentile £348 £334 £208
25th Percentile £425 £453 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £494
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% +8.86% -10.23%
75th Percentile £648 £600 £650
90th Percentile £762 £668 £750
East of England median daily rate £490 £513 £500
% change year-on-year -4.39% +2.50% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 149 44 62
10th Percentile £16.35 £16.95 £24.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £23.66 £42.25
Median hourly rate £19.38 £67.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -71.30% +3.85% -
75th Percentile £22.63 £85.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £65.00 £92.00 £85.00
East of England median hourly rate £20.09 £30.00 £21.50
% change year-on-year -33.03% +39.53% -2.27%

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 15 March 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 15 March 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 15 March 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 +2 94 £419 -16.25% 9
Stevenage -5 34 £550 +2.33% 13
Hemel Hempstead -5 6 £526 -12.42% 8
Welwyn Garden City +3 4 £563 -10.00% 1
Watford -1 4 £190 -55.29% 18
Hoddesdon -3 1 £200 -6.98% 4
St Albans - 1 £375 - 5
Hertford - 1 £475 - 6
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 2 (1.34%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.67%) Exchange Server 2010
2 1 (0.67%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 49 (32.89%) Spreadsheet
2 28 (18.79%) Microsoft Excel
3 26 (17.45%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (2.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (1.34%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (1.34%) Trello
6 1 (0.67%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 3 (2.01%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 13 (8.72%) Azure
2 11 (7.38%) Power Platform
3 6 (4.03%) Entra ID
4 5 (3.36%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (2.68%) PowerApps
6 3 (2.01%) AWS
6 3 (2.01%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (2.01%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (1.34%) Asana
7 2 (1.34%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.67%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 1 (0.67%) Azure Logic Apps
8 1 (0.67%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (0.67%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.67%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.67%) IaaS
8 1 (0.67%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (0.67%) OCI
8 1 (0.67%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.67%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (8.05%) TCP/IP
2 10 (6.71%) Ethernet
3 5 (3.36%) DNS
4 4 (2.68%) DHCP
4 4 (2.68%) Firewall
5 2 (1.34%) LAN
5 2 (1.34%) SAN
5 2 (1.34%) WAN
6 1 (0.67%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.67%) Intranet
6 1 (0.67%) SSL
6 1 (0.67%) Structured Cabling
6 1 (0.67%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (7.38%) Power BI
2 2 (1.34%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.34%) Tableau
3 1 (0.67%) MS Access
3 1 (0.67%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.67%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 11 (7.38%) Eclipse
1 11 (7.38%) Visual Studio
2 3 (2.01%) GitLab
3 1 (0.67%) Git
3 1 (0.67%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.67%) JIRA
3 1 (0.67%) Snyk
General
1 118 (79.19%) Social Skills
2 39 (26.17%) Organisational Skills
3 18 (12.08%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (8.72%) Legal
5 12 (8.05%) Presentation Skills
6 11 (7.38%) Public Sector
7 10 (6.71%) Finance
7 10 (6.71%) Military
8 5 (3.36%) Manufacturing
9 4 (2.68%) Telecoms
10 3 (2.01%) Banking
10 3 (2.01%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (1.34%) Aerospace
11 2 (1.34%) Electronics
11 2 (1.34%) Law
11 2 (1.34%) Marketing
12 1 (0.67%) Billing
12 1 (0.67%) Local Government
12 1 (0.67%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 56 (37.58%) IT Support
2 20 (13.42%) Technical Support
3 15 (10.07%) Administrator
4 14 (9.40%) Desktop Support
5 13 (8.72%) Security Officer
6 9 (6.04%) IT Administrator
7 8 (5.37%) Senior
8 7 (4.70%) C# Software Engineer
8 7 (4.70%) Software Engineer
9 6 (4.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 5 (3.36%) IT Engineer
10 5 (3.36%) Lead
10 5 (3.36%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 4 (2.68%) Analyst
11 4 (2.68%) Architect
11 4 (2.68%) Consultant
11 4 (2.68%) Developer
12 3 (2.01%) C# Developer
12 3 (2.01%) Project Manager
12 3 (2.01%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (6.71%) Node.js
1 10 (6.71%) Web Services
2 3 (2.01%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (2.01%) REST
3 1 (0.67%) LDAP
3 1 (0.67%) Middleware
3 1 (0.67%) Spring
3 1 (0.67%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 13 (8.72%) Insider Threat
2 3 (2.01%) Data Centre
2 3 (2.01%) Management Information System
2 3 (2.01%) PKI
2 3 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (0.67%) Cloud Security Posture
3 1 (0.67%) Clustering
3 1 (0.67%) Driving Licence
3 1 (0.67%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (0.67%) Enterprise Storage
3 1 (0.67%) Hybrid Cloud
3 1 (0.67%) Linux Command Line
3 1 (0.67%) Onboarding
3 1 (0.67%) Operational Technology
3 1 (0.67%) PDA
3 1 (0.67%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 25 (16.78%) Windows
2 16 (10.74%) Linux
3 7 (4.70%) Windows Server
4 3 (2.01%) Windows Server 2019
5 2 (1.34%) VMS
5 2 (1.34%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.34%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.67%) Android
6 1 (0.67%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.67%) CentOS
6 1 (0.67%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (0.67%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.67%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.67%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (48.99%) Time Management
2 26 (17.45%) Customer Service
3 18 (12.08%) Problem-Solving
4 17 (11.41%) Continuous Improvement
5 16 (10.74%) Agile
6 15 (10.07%) CI/CD
7 14 (9.40%) Data Protection
7 14 (9.40%) ITIL
7 14 (9.40%) Visualisation
8 13 (8.72%) Asset Management
8 13 (8.72%) Business Intelligence
8 13 (8.72%) Information Security
9 12 (8.05%) Analytical Thinking
9 12 (8.05%) Continuous Integration
10 11 (7.38%) Continuous Delivery
10 11 (7.38%) Digital Twin
10 11 (7.38%) Kalman Filter
10 11 (7.38%) Synthetic Environment
10 11 (7.38%) TDD
10 11 (7.38%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 11 (7.38%) C#
1 11 (7.38%) C++
1 11 (7.38%) JavaScript
2 8 (5.37%) PowerShell
3 5 (3.36%) SQL
4 4 (2.68%) Python
5 1 (0.67%) Bash
5 1 (0.67%) Bicep
5 1 (0.67%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 1 (0.67%) Java
5 1 (0.67%) MATLAB
5 1 (0.67%) Shell Script
5 1 (0.67%) TypeScript
5 1 (0.67%) VB
Qualifications
1 48 (32.21%) Security Cleared
2 44 (29.53%) SC Cleared
3 16 (10.74%) DV Cleared
4 13 (8.72%) CTC Cleared
5 5 (3.36%) Degree
6 3 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (2.01%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (1.34%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.34%) CompTIA Security+
7 2 (1.34%) PMI Certification
7 2 (1.34%) PMP
8 1 (0.67%) ACCA
8 1 (0.67%) CCAB
8 1 (0.67%) CIMA
8 1 (0.67%) CIPFA
8 1 (0.67%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.67%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.67%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (47.65%) SLA
2 2 (1.34%) GxP
2 2 (1.34%) PMO
3 1 (0.67%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
3 1 (0.67%) GDPR
3 1 (0.67%) GMP
3 1 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.67%) NIST
3 1 (0.67%) QA
System Software
1 15 (10.07%) Active Directory
2 8 (5.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.34%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.67%) Sendmail
4 1 (0.67%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (7.38%) ServiceCenter
2 5 (3.36%) Terraform
3 3 (2.01%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (2.01%) SCCM
3 3 (2.01%) vCenter Server
4 2 (1.34%) Ansible
4 2 (1.34%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
4 2 (1.34%) TeamSite
5 1 (0.67%) Check_MK
5 1 (0.67%) Podman
5 1 (0.67%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 12 (8.05%) Apple
2 11 (7.38%) Dell
2 11 (7.38%) HP
3 9 (6.04%) VMware
4 6 (4.03%) SAP
5 5 (3.36%) Oracle
6 4 (2.68%) Salesforce
7 3 (2.01%) ServiceNow
8 2 (1.34%) Citrix
8 2 (1.34%) Google
8 2 (1.34%) Veeam
8 2 (1.34%) Wyse
9 1 (0.67%) Computacenter
9 1 (0.67%) Cribl.io
9 1 (0.67%) Facebook
9 1 (0.67%) NetApp
9 1 (0.67%) New Relic
9 1 (0.67%) Red Hat
9 1 (0.67%) Remedy
9 1 (0.67%) Splunk