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 24 July 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
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 12
Rank change year-on-year -7 +9 -7
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 74 88 68
As % of all contract jobs in Hertfordshire 9.02% 21.10% 8.87%
As % of the Vendors category 22.56% 43.14% 24.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 33 55 29
10th Percentile £167 £255 £166
25th Percentile £248 £463 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £550 £540
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +1.85% +23.43%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £701
90th Percentile £698 - £725
East of England median daily rate £375 £500 £419
% change year-on-year -25.00% +19.40% +14.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 19 25
10th Percentile £14.41 £17.68 £14.31
25th Percentile £17.17 £22.63 £15.00
Median hourly rate £20.09 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -69.09% - +250.88%
75th Percentile £64.69 - -
90th Percentile £65.00 - -
East of England median hourly rate £20.09 £18.85 £15.74
% change year-on-year +6.58% +19.76% +7.44%

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 328 204 274
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire 40.00% 48.92% 35.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 169 118 150
10th Percentile £255 £359 £175
25th Percentile £425 £458 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% -
75th Percentile £650 £575 £575
90th Percentile £750 £679 £678
East of England median daily rate £507 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -3.43% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 80 41 67
10th Percentile £16.71 £16.25 £14.42
25th Percentile £20.09 £16.95 £32.50
Median hourly rate £33.44 £22.63 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +47.75% -65.18% +32.65%
75th Percentile £64.06 £65.00 £80.00
90th Percentile £70.50 - £85.00
East of England median hourly rate £22.68 £21.28 £16.30
% change year-on-year +6.58% +30.55% -26.74%

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 24 July 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 24 July 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 24 July 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 -13 28 £511 -7.05% 9
Hatfield +2 18 £400 -18.26% 5
Hemel Hempstead - 7 £588 - 12
Watford -11 5 £538 -2.27% 20
Welwyn Garden City -5 2 £470 -16.44% 1
Hertford - 2 £475 - 2
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 6 (8.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (5.41%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.35%) Apache
3 1 (1.35%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (1.35%) Confluence
Applications
1 16 (21.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (13.51%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (13.51%) Spreadsheet
3 4 (5.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (2.70%) MS Visio
5 1 (1.35%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (4.05%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (1.35%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 18 (24.32%) Microsoft 365
2 12 (16.22%) Azure
3 9 (12.16%) Entra ID
4 5 (6.76%) OneDrive
5 4 (5.41%) AWS
5 4 (5.41%) Microsoft Copilot
5 4 (5.41%) Microsoft Purview
5 4 (5.41%) Power Platform
5 4 (5.41%) SaaS
6 3 (4.05%) Mimecast
7 2 (2.70%) Google Workspace
7 2 (2.70%) Serverless
8 1 (1.35%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 1 (1.35%) Amazon S3
8 1 (1.35%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (1.35%) Copilot Studio
8 1 (1.35%) IaaS
8 1 (1.35%) OCI
8 1 (1.35%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (13.51%) Firewall
1 10 (13.51%) TCP/IP
2 7 (9.46%) Ethernet
3 5 (6.76%) DNS
3 5 (6.76%) NAS
4 4 (5.41%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (4.05%) DHCP
5 3 (4.05%) WAN
6 2 (2.70%) iSCSI
6 2 (2.70%) LAN
6 2 (2.70%) SAN
7 1 (1.35%) HTTPS
7 1 (1.35%) Intranet
7 1 (1.35%) Network Security
7 1 (1.35%) SSL
7 1 (1.35%) Structured Cabling
7 1 (1.35%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.41%) Power BI
2 2 (2.70%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.35%) Data Lake
3 1 (1.35%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.35%) Metadata
3 1 (1.35%) MS Access
3 1 (1.35%) NoSQL
3 1 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (1.35%) Snowflake Schema
3 1 (1.35%) SQL Server
3 1 (1.35%) Star Schema
3 1 (1.35%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (10.81%) Eclipse
1 8 (10.81%) Visual Studio
2 2 (2.70%) Git
2 2 (2.70%) GitLab
3 1 (1.35%) Jenkins
3 1 (1.35%) JIRA
3 1 (1.35%) Snyk
General
1 28 (37.84%) Social Skills
2 10 (13.51%) Organisational Skills
3 9 (12.16%) Presentation Skills
4 8 (10.81%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (9.46%) Military
6 6 (8.11%) Finance
7 2 (2.70%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (2.70%) Legal
8 1 (1.35%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.35%) Law
8 1 (1.35%) Retail
Job Titles
1 11 (14.86%) Administrator
2 10 (13.51%) Analyst
3 8 (10.81%) IT Support
4 5 (6.76%) C# Software Engineer
4 5 (6.76%) Consultant
4 5 (6.76%) Lead
4 5 (6.76%) Service Analyst
4 5 (6.76%) Service Desk Analyst
4 5 (6.76%) Software Engineer
5 4 (5.41%) Architect
5 4 (5.41%) Microsoft Consultant
5 4 (5.41%) Technical Support
6 3 (4.05%) Business Consultant
6 3 (4.05%) C++ Software Engineer
6 3 (4.05%) Developer
7 2 (2.70%) C# Developer
7 2 (2.70%) Delivery Manager
7 2 (2.70%) IT Administrator
7 2 (2.70%) Project Analyst
7 2 (2.70%) Project Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (9.46%) Node.js
1 7 (9.46%) Web Services
2 2 (2.70%) LDAP
2 2 (2.70%) Middleware
2 2 (2.70%) SailPoint
3 1 (1.35%) OAuth
3 1 (1.35%) OAuth2
3 1 (1.35%) OpenID
3 1 (1.35%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (1.35%) REST
3 1 (1.35%) SAML
3 1 (1.35%) Spring
3 1 (1.35%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 4 (5.41%) Onboarding
2 2 (2.70%) Data Centre
3 1 (1.35%) Clustering
3 1 (1.35%) Driving Licence
3 1 (1.35%) e-Learning
3 1 (1.35%) Enterprise Storage
3 1 (1.35%) Hybrid Cloud
3 1 (1.35%) Insider Threat
3 1 (1.35%) LIMS
3 1 (1.35%) Management Information System
3 1 (1.35%) NHS
3 1 (1.35%) Operational Technology
3 1 (1.35%) PKI
3 1 (1.35%) Product Ownership
3 1 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (1.35%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 25 (33.78%) Windows
2 15 (20.27%) Linux
3 6 (8.11%) Windows Server
4 3 (4.05%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.35%) Android
5 1 (1.35%) CentOS
5 1 (1.35%) Data ONTAP
5 1 (1.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (1.35%) VMS
5 1 (1.35%) Windows 10
5 1 (1.35%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (16.22%) Agile
2 11 (14.86%) CI/CD
3 10 (13.51%) Customer Service
3 10 (13.51%) Stakeholder Management
4 9 (12.16%) Continuous Integration
4 9 (12.16%) ITIL
4 9 (12.16%) Time Management
5 8 (10.81%) Continuous Delivery
5 8 (10.81%) Digital Twin
5 8 (10.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 8 (10.81%) Synthetic Environment
5 8 (10.81%) TDD
5 8 (10.81%) Unit Testing
6 7 (9.46%) Problem-Solving
7 6 (8.11%) Continuous Improvement
7 6 (8.11%) Migration
7 6 (8.11%) Software Engineering
7 6 (8.11%) Validation
7 6 (8.11%) Verification and Validation
7 6 (8.11%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 8 (10.81%) C#
1 8 (10.81%) C++
1 8 (10.81%) JavaScript
2 6 (8.11%) PowerShell
3 4 (5.41%) Python
3 4 (5.41%) SQL
4 1 (1.35%) Bash
4 1 (1.35%) Java
4 1 (1.35%) MATLAB
4 1 (1.35%) R
4 1 (1.35%) Shell Script
4 1 (1.35%) TypeScript
4 1 (1.35%) VB
Qualifications
1 17 (22.97%) Security Cleared
2 14 (18.92%) SC Cleared
3 6 (8.11%) DV Cleared
4 5 (6.76%) Degree
5 2 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (2.70%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 2 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (2.70%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
5 2 (2.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 1 (1.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
6 1 (1.35%) CCSP
6 1 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (1.35%) CISSP
6 1 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (1.35%) CTC Cleared
6 1 (1.35%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (18.92%) SLA
2 4 (5.41%) PMO
3 3 (4.05%) GDPR
4 2 (2.70%) GxP
5 1 (1.35%) Accessibility
5 1 (1.35%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (1.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (1.35%) P3O
5 1 (1.35%) QA
5 1 (1.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 14 (18.92%) Active Directory
2 6 (8.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (2.70%) Hyper-V
3 2 (2.70%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (1.35%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (1.35%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 5 (6.76%) ServiceCenter
2 4 (5.41%) Ansible
2 4 (5.41%) vCenter Server
3 3 (4.05%) Terraform
4 2 (2.70%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (2.70%) SCCM
4 2 (2.70%) TeamSite
5 1 (1.35%) Check_MK
5 1 (1.35%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (1.35%) Podman
5 1 (1.35%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (1.35%) SCOM
Vendors
1 7 (9.46%) Apple
1 7 (9.46%) VMware
2 6 (8.11%) ServiceNow
3 5 (6.76%) Dell
3 5 (6.76%) HP
4 3 (4.05%) Adobe
4 3 (4.05%) Freshdesk
4 3 (4.05%) Google
4 3 (4.05%) Meraki
4 3 (4.05%) Oracle
4 3 (4.05%) Salesforce
4 3 (4.05%) SAP
4 3 (4.05%) Sophos
4 3 (4.05%) Synology
4 3 (4.05%) Ubiquiti
5 2 (2.70%) Citrix
5 2 (2.70%) CyberArk
6 1 (1.35%) NetApp
6 1 (1.35%) Red Hat
6 1 (1.35%) Remedy