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 21 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
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 11
Rank change year-on-year -5 +8 -6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 77 88 68
As % of all contract jobs in Hertfordshire 9.37% 20.90% 8.89%
As % of the Vendors category 23.62% 42.51% 24.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 33 56 27
10th Percentile £167 £269 £177
25th Percentile £320 £463 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -12.27% - +22.22%
75th Percentile £601 £575 £707
90th Percentile £713 £588 £725
East of England median daily rate £375 £500 £425
% change year-on-year -25.00% +17.65% +18.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 17 26
10th Percentile £14.43 £20.20 £14.26
25th Percentile £17.61 £22.63 £14.67
Median hourly rate £20.09 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -69.09% - +250.88%
75th Percentile £43.19 - -
90th Percentile £65.00 - -
East of England median hourly rate £20.09 £18.85 £15.73
% change year-on-year +6.58% +19.83% +15.83%

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 326 207 273
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Hertfordshire 39.66% 49.17% 35.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 170 119 147
10th Percentile £265 £360 £192
25th Percentile £425 £459 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.18% +10.00% -
75th Percentile £658 £575 £575
90th Percentile £750 £678 £685
East of England median daily rate £509 £528 £500
% change year-on-year -3.60% +5.60% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 40 68
10th Percentile £16.92 £16.23 £14.37
25th Percentile £20.09 £16.95 £29.00
Median hourly rate £22.68 £22.63 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.22% -65.18% +32.65%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £80.00
90th Percentile £70.00 - £85.00
East of England median hourly rate £22.66 £21.14 £16.30
% change year-on-year +7.17% +29.69% -25.91%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -11 30 £558 +1.36% 7
Hatfield +2 22 £438 -12.50% 8
Watford -12 5 £538 -2.27% 15
Hemel Hempstead - 5 £588 - 10
Hertford - 2 £475 - 3
Welwyn Garden City -2 1 £675 +20.00% 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 4 (5.19%) Microsoft Exchange
1 4 (5.19%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.30%) Apache
2 1 (1.30%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 16 (20.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (12.99%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (12.99%) Spreadsheet
3 3 (3.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (2.60%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.30%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (1.30%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 16 (20.78%) Microsoft 365
2 14 (18.18%) Azure
3 7 (9.09%) Entra ID
4 6 (7.79%) AWS
5 5 (6.49%) OneDrive
6 4 (5.19%) Microsoft Purview
6 4 (5.19%) Power Platform
6 4 (5.19%) SaaS
7 3 (3.90%) Microsoft Copilot
8 2 (2.60%) Google Workspace
8 2 (2.60%) OCI
8 2 (2.60%) Serverless
9 1 (1.30%) Amazon Bedrock
9 1 (1.30%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 1 (1.30%) Amazon S3
9 1 (1.30%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (1.30%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (1.30%) IaaS
9 1 (1.30%) Mimecast
9 1 (1.30%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (12.99%) TCP/IP
2 8 (10.39%) Firewall
3 7 (9.09%) Ethernet
4 5 (6.49%) DNS
5 3 (3.90%) DHCP
5 3 (3.90%) NAS
5 3 (3.90%) WAN
6 2 (2.60%) iSCSI
6 2 (2.60%) LAN
6 2 (2.60%) SAN
6 2 (2.60%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (1.30%) HTTPS
7 1 (1.30%) Intranet
7 1 (1.30%) Network Security
7 1 (1.30%) SSL
7 1 (1.30%) Structured Cabling
7 1 (1.30%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.19%) Power BI
2 2 (2.60%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.30%) Data Lake
3 1 (1.30%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.30%) Metadata
3 1 (1.30%) MS Access
3 1 (1.30%) NoSQL
3 1 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (1.30%) Snowflake Schema
3 1 (1.30%) SQL Server
3 1 (1.30%) Star Schema
3 1 (1.30%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (10.39%) Eclipse
1 8 (10.39%) Visual Studio
2 2 (2.60%) Git
2 2 (2.60%) GitLab
3 1 (1.30%) Jenkins
3 1 (1.30%) Snyk
General
1 33 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 11 (14.29%) Organisational Skills
3 10 (12.99%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (10.39%) Presentation Skills
5 7 (9.09%) Military
6 4 (5.19%) Finance
7 3 (3.90%) Legal
8 1 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (1.30%) Law
8 1 (1.30%) Retail
Job Titles
1 12 (15.58%) Administrator
1 12 (15.58%) IT Support
2 9 (11.69%) Analyst
3 6 (7.79%) Architect
3 6 (7.79%) Lead
3 6 (7.79%) Technical Support
4 5 (6.49%) C# Software Engineer
4 5 (6.49%) Consultant
4 5 (6.49%) Service Analyst
4 5 (6.49%) Service Desk Analyst
4 5 (6.49%) Software Engineer
5 4 (5.19%) Microsoft Consultant
6 3 (3.90%) Business Consultant
6 3 (3.90%) C++ Software Engineer
6 3 (3.90%) Developer
6 3 (3.90%) IT Administrator
7 2 (2.60%) Business Analyst
7 2 (2.60%) Solutions Architect
7 2 (2.60%) Systems Administrator
7 2 (2.60%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (9.09%) Node.js
1 7 (9.09%) Web Services
2 2 (2.60%) LDAP
2 2 (2.60%) Oracle Fusion
2 2 (2.60%) SailPoint
3 1 (1.30%) Middleware
3 1 (1.30%) OAuth
3 1 (1.30%) OAuth2
3 1 (1.30%) OpenID
3 1 (1.30%) REST
3 1 (1.30%) SAML
3 1 (1.30%) Spring
3 1 (1.30%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 4 (5.19%) Onboarding
2 2 (2.60%) Data Centre
2 2 (2.60%) Insider Threat
2 2 (2.60%) Management Information System
3 1 (1.30%) Clustering
3 1 (1.30%) e-Learning
3 1 (1.30%) Enterprise Storage
3 1 (1.30%) Hybrid Cloud
3 1 (1.30%) LIMS
3 1 (1.30%) NHS
3 1 (1.30%) Operational Technology
3 1 (1.30%) PKI
3 1 (1.30%) Product Ownership
3 1 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (1.30%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 23 (29.87%) Windows
2 15 (19.48%) Linux
3 6 (7.79%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.30%) Android
4 1 (1.30%) CentOS
4 1 (1.30%) Data ONTAP
4 1 (1.30%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (1.30%) VMS
4 1 (1.30%) Windows 10
4 1 (1.30%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (16.88%) Time Management
2 12 (15.58%) Customer Service
3 11 (14.29%) Agile
3 11 (14.29%) CI/CD
4 10 (12.99%) ITIL
4 10 (12.99%) Stakeholder Management
5 9 (11.69%) Continuous Integration
5 9 (11.69%) Problem-Solving
6 8 (10.39%) Continuous Delivery
6 8 (10.39%) Digital Twin
6 8 (10.39%) Synthetic Environment
6 8 (10.39%) TDD
6 8 (10.39%) Unit Testing
7 7 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 7 (9.09%) Technical Leadership
8 6 (7.79%) Continuous Improvement
8 6 (7.79%) Software Engineering
8 6 (7.79%) Validation
8 6 (7.79%) Verification and Validation
8 6 (7.79%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 8 (10.39%) C#
1 8 (10.39%) C++
1 8 (10.39%) JavaScript
2 6 (7.79%) PowerShell
3 4 (5.19%) Python
3 4 (5.19%) SQL
4 1 (1.30%) Bash
4 1 (1.30%) Java
4 1 (1.30%) MATLAB
4 1 (1.30%) R
4 1 (1.30%) Shell Script
4 1 (1.30%) TypeScript
4 1 (1.30%) VB
Qualifications
1 19 (24.68%) Security Cleared
2 16 (20.78%) SC Cleared
3 7 (9.09%) DV Cleared
4 5 (6.49%) Degree
5 3 (3.90%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (2.60%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (2.60%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (2.60%) CTC Cleared
6 2 (2.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (2.60%) Master's Degree
6 2 (2.60%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 1 (1.30%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 1 (1.30%) Azure Certification
7 1 (1.30%) CCSP
7 1 (1.30%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (1.30%) CISSP
7 1 (1.30%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (23.38%) SLA
2 3 (3.90%) GDPR
3 2 (2.60%) GxP
3 2 (2.60%) PMO
4 1 (1.30%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.30%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (1.30%) QA
4 1 (1.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 12 (15.58%) Active Directory
2 6 (7.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (2.60%) Hyper-V
3 2 (2.60%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (1.30%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (1.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (7.79%) ServiceCenter
2 4 (5.19%) Ansible
2 4 (5.19%) vCenter Server
3 3 (3.90%) Terraform
4 2 (2.60%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (2.60%) SCCM
4 2 (2.60%) TeamSite
5 1 (1.30%) Check_MK
5 1 (1.30%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (1.30%) Podman
5 1 (1.30%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (1.30%) SCOM
Vendors
1 8 (10.39%) Apple
2 7 (9.09%) VMware
3 6 (7.79%) Dell
3 6 (7.79%) HP
3 6 (7.79%) ServiceNow
4 5 (6.49%) Oracle
4 5 (6.49%) Salesforce
5 3 (3.90%) Freshdesk
5 3 (3.90%) Google
5 3 (3.90%) SAP
6 2 (2.60%) Citrix
6 2 (2.60%) CyberArk
7 1 (1.30%) Adobe
7 1 (1.30%) Meraki
7 1 (1.30%) NetApp
7 1 (1.30%) New Relic
7 1 (1.30%) Red Hat
7 1 (1.30%) Remedy
7 1 (1.30%) Sophos
7 1 (1.30%) Wyse