Azure Contracts in the North West

Microsoft Azure
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West requiring Azure skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Azure over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 8 13 4
Rank change year-on-year +5 -9 0
Contract jobs citing Azure 257 290 579
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 13.06% 10.53% 18.13%
As % of the Cloud Services category 40.22% 32.81% 48.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 201 222 441
10th Percentile £263 £326 £363
25th Percentile £405 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £586 £588
90th Percentile £671 £650 £675
England median daily rate £525 £545 £563
% change year-on-year -3.67% -3.11% +2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 13
10th Percentile £67.63 £16.40 £16.55
25th Percentile £67.81 £16.63 £20.00
Median hourly rate £71.25 £18.00 £65.50
Median % change year-on-year +295.83% -72.52% +191.11%
75th Percentile £75.31 £19.13 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.88 £19.20 -
England median hourly rate £44.25 £35.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +26.43% -36.36% +10.00%

All Cloud Skills
North West

Azure falls under the Cloud Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring cloud computing skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for cloud computing skills 639 884 1,198
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 32.47% 32.09% 37.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 498 640 887
10th Percentile £244 £284 £311
25th Percentile £400 £391 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £487 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.03% -2.55% -
75th Percentile £558 £575 £588
90th Percentile £638 £638 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 65 32
10th Percentile - £13.00 £16.19
25th Percentile £26.88 - £20.00
Median hourly rate £28.88 £16.06 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year +79.79% -56.94% +100.62%
75th Percentile £50.66 £20.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.88 £43.75 £70.00
England median hourly rate £25.50 £20.77 £32.30
% change year-on-year +22.77% -35.70% +53.81%

Azure
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Azure as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Azure in the North West

Azure
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Azure in the North West.

Daily rate trend for Azure in the North West

Azure
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Azure in the North West over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Azure in the North West

Azure
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Azure in the North West.

Hourly rate trend for Azure in the North West

Azure
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Azure within the North West region over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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
Manchester +2 155 £510 +2.00% 344
Cheshire 0 52 £425 -13.57% 74
Cumbria +12 15 £525 +0.67% 5
Merseyside +8 14 £400 -3.03% 49
Lancashire 0 14 £488 -25.00% 152
Azure
England

Azure
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 56 (21.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 48 (18.68%) SharePoint
3 7 (2.72%) Apache Spark
4 5 (1.95%) Confluence
5 4 (1.56%) Apache
5 4 (1.56%) Camunda
5 4 (1.56%) SAS
6 3 (1.17%) CMS
6 3 (1.17%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.78%) BizTalk Server
7 2 (0.78%) WebSphere Application Server
8 1 (0.39%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 1 (0.39%) JBoss
8 1 (0.39%) Liferay
8 1 (0.39%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.39%) Sitecore CMS
8 1 (0.39%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.39%) Umbraco
Applications
1 17 (6.61%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 10 (3.89%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (2.33%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (1.95%) Kondor
4 2 (0.78%) Unit4 Business World
5 1 (0.39%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.39%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 80 (31.13%) Microsoft 365
2 72 (28.02%) Entra ID
3 53 (20.62%) AWS
4 42 (16.34%) GCP
5 32 (12.45%) Power Platform
6 22 (8.56%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (7.39%) SaaS
8 18 (7.00%) Azure Data Factory
8 18 (7.00%) IaaS
9 15 (5.84%) OneDrive
10 14 (5.45%) Dynamics 365
11 11 (4.28%) PowerApps
12 8 (3.11%) Serverless
12 8 (3.11%) Snowflake
13 7 (2.72%) Microsoft Purview
14 6 (2.33%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 6 (2.33%) Cloud Computing
15 5 (1.95%) Azure AKS
15 5 (1.95%) PaaS
15 5 (1.95%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 29 (11.28%) Firewall
2 17 (6.61%) DNS
3 16 (6.23%) DHCP
4 15 (5.84%) Network Security
5 11 (4.28%) Intrusion Detection
6 9 (3.50%) VPN
7 7 (2.72%) WAN
7 7 (2.72%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (2.33%) SAN
9 5 (1.95%) Wireless
10 4 (1.56%) LAN
10 4 (1.56%) Remote Desktop
11 3 (1.17%) BGP
11 3 (1.17%) Internet
11 3 (1.17%) iSCSI
11 3 (1.17%) OSPF
11 3 (1.17%) SD-WAN
11 3 (1.17%) TCP/IP
11 3 (1.17%) VLAN
12 2 (0.78%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (13.23%) SQL Server
2 29 (11.28%) Power BI
3 16 (6.23%) Data Warehouse
4 11 (4.28%) Data Lake
4 11 (4.28%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (3.89%) NoSQL
5 10 (3.89%) Relational Database
6 9 (3.50%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (2.33%) Delta Lake
7 6 (2.33%) MongoDB
7 6 (2.33%) MySQL
7 6 (2.33%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 6 (2.33%) Tableau
8 5 (1.95%) Big Data
9 4 (1.56%) Metadata
9 4 (1.56%) Neo4j
10 3 (1.17%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (1.17%) Bigtable
10 3 (1.17%) Data Vault
10 3 (1.17%) Dremio
Development Applications
1 15 (5.84%) Git
2 8 (3.11%) JIRA
3 7 (2.72%) ERwin
4 6 (2.33%) GitLab
5 5 (1.95%) Babel
5 5 (1.95%) Jenkins
5 5 (1.95%) Visual Studio
5 5 (1.95%) webpack
6 3 (1.17%) ER Studio
6 3 (1.17%) Maven
6 3 (1.17%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.78%) Postman
7 2 (0.78%) Selenium
8 1 (0.39%) Appium
8 1 (0.39%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.39%) Gradle
8 1 (0.39%) Hudson
8 1 (0.39%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.39%) SpecFlow
8 1 (0.39%) WebDriver
General
1 62 (24.12%) Social Skills
2 39 (15.18%) Finance
3 35 (13.62%) Public Sector
4 26 (10.12%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (7.39%) Legal
6 18 (7.00%) Telecoms
7 14 (5.45%) Banking
8 11 (4.28%) Manufacturing
8 11 (4.28%) Retail
9 8 (3.11%) Pharmaceutical
10 7 (2.72%) Military
11 6 (2.33%) Marketing
12 2 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.39%) Advertising
13 1 (0.39%) Automotive
13 1 (0.39%) Aviation
13 1 (0.39%) Documentation Skills
13 1 (0.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.39%) Law
13 1 (0.39%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 36 (14.01%) Architect
2 32 (12.45%) Developer
3 25 (9.73%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
4 20 (7.78%) Support Engineer
5 19 (7.39%) Senior
6 18 (7.00%) Data Engineer
7 16 (6.23%) Azure Engineer
8 15 (5.84%) Solutions Architect
9 14 (5.45%) Analyst
10 12 (4.67%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 9 (3.50%) DevOps Engineer
12 8 (3.11%) Full-Stack Developer
13 7 (2.72%) Azure Architect
13 7 (2.72%) Azure Developer
14 6 (2.33%) Cloud Engineer
14 6 (2.33%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
14 6 (2.33%) Full-Stack Java Developer
14 6 (2.33%) IT Engineer
14 6 (2.33%) Java Developer
14 6 (2.33%) Node.js Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (7.39%) .NET
2 14 (5.45%) REST
3 12 (4.67%) Node.js
4 9 (3.50%) RESTful
5 8 (3.11%) React
6 7 (2.72%) CSS
6 7 (2.72%) HTML
6 7 (2.72%) SOAP
7 6 (2.33%) ADO
7 6 (2.33%) HTML5
7 6 (2.33%) PySpark
7 6 (2.33%) TensorFlow
8 5 (1.95%) ARM Templates
8 5 (1.95%) Kafka
8 5 (1.95%) PyTorch
9 4 (1.56%) ASP.NET
9 4 (1.56%) Express.js
9 4 (1.56%) FastAPI
10 3 (1.17%) .NET Core
10 3 (1.17%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 10 (3.89%) Hybrid Cloud
2 7 (2.72%) Data Centre
3 6 (2.33%) Data Structures
3 6 (2.33%) Onboarding
4 5 (1.95%) Derivative
4 5 (1.95%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 5 (1.95%) Management Information System
4 5 (1.95%) Mobile App
5 4 (1.56%) Algorithms
5 4 (1.56%) Cloud Native
5 4 (1.56%) Life Science
6 3 (1.17%) Clustering
6 3 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (1.17%) IoT
6 3 (1.17%) IVR
7 2 (0.78%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (0.78%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (0.78%) Driving Licence
7 2 (0.78%) Enterprise Cloud
7 2 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 59 (22.96%) Windows
2 42 (16.34%) Windows Server
3 26 (10.12%) Linux
4 13 (5.06%) VMS
5 11 (4.28%) Unix
5 11 (4.28%) Windows 10
6 8 (3.11%) Windows Server 2016
7 6 (2.33%) Android
7 6 (2.33%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (1.56%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.56%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (1.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.78%) AIX
10 2 (0.78%) CentOS
10 2 (0.78%) HPUX
10 2 (0.78%) Solaris
10 2 (0.78%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.78%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.39%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (26.07%) Problem-Solving
2 63 (24.51%) Agile
3 53 (20.62%) DevOps
4 32 (12.45%) CI/CD
5 29 (11.28%) Data Modelling
6 28 (10.89%) Analytics
7 27 (10.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 27 (10.51%) ITIL
8 26 (10.12%) Migration
9 25 (9.73%) ETL
10 24 (9.34%) ITSM
11 23 (8.95%) Business Intelligence
12 20 (7.78%) Data Pipeline
12 20 (7.78%) Disaster Recovery
12 20 (7.78%) High Availability
13 19 (7.39%) Microservices
14 18 (7.00%) Collaborative Working
14 18 (7.00%) Data Loss Prevention
14 18 (7.00%) Project Delivery
15 17 (6.61%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 49 (19.07%) Python
2 45 (17.51%) SQL
3 31 (12.06%) PowerShell
4 14 (5.45%) C#
5 13 (5.06%) Java
6 11 (4.28%) JavaScript
7 8 (3.11%) Bash
8 5 (1.95%) T-SQL
9 4 (1.56%) Shell Script
10 3 (1.17%) Bicep
10 3 (1.17%) Perl
10 3 (1.17%) Scala
10 3 (1.17%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.78%) R
12 1 (0.39%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.39%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.39%) Go
12 1 (0.39%) Ruby
12 1 (0.39%) VB
12 1 (0.39%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 49 (19.07%) Security Cleared
2 38 (14.79%) SC Cleared
3 30 (11.67%) Microsoft Certification
4 28 (10.89%) Degree
5 21 (8.17%) Azure Certification
6 12 (4.67%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (3.11%) Master's Degree
8 7 (2.72%) AWS Certification
8 7 (2.72%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 5 (1.95%) MCSE
10 4 (1.56%) DBS Check
10 4 (1.56%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (1.17%) CCIE
11 3 (1.17%) CCNP
11 3 (1.17%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (1.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 2 (0.78%) CREST Certified
12 2 (0.78%) JNCIE
12 2 (0.78%) OSCE
13 1 (0.39%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.00%) Data Quality
2 12 (4.67%) QA
3 9 (3.50%) GDPR
4 5 (1.95%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.95%) Basel III
4 5 (1.95%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 5 (1.95%) MiFID
5 4 (1.56%) PMO
6 3 (1.17%) SLA
7 2 (0.78%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.39%) COBIT
8 1 (0.39%) NCSC
8 1 (0.39%) NIST
System Software
1 71 (27.63%) Active Directory
2 24 (9.34%) Docker
3 23 (8.95%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (4.67%) vSphere
5 6 (2.33%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (1.95%) BitLocker
7 4 (1.56%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (1.56%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (1.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 2 (0.78%) KVM
9 2 (0.78%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.39%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.39%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 45 (17.51%) Microsoft Intune
2 31 (12.06%) Kubernetes
3 20 (7.78%) Terraform
4 19 (7.39%) Single Sign-On
5 16 (6.23%) WSUS
6 9 (3.50%) Ansible
7 5 (1.95%) Grafana
7 5 (1.95%) Puppet
8 4 (1.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (1.56%) Progress Chef
8 4 (1.56%) Prometheus
8 4 (1.56%) SCCM
8 4 (1.56%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.78%) Istio
9 2 (0.78%) ZABBIX
10 1 (0.39%) Docker Swarm
10 1 (0.39%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.39%) Perfmon
10 1 (0.39%) SCOM
10 1 (0.39%) VxRail
Vendors
1 132 (51.36%) Microsoft
2 35 (13.62%) VMware
3 29 (11.28%) Databricks
4 14 (5.45%) Google
5 10 (3.89%) Citrix
6 9 (3.50%) Oracle
6 9 (3.50%) Virgin Media
7 8 (3.11%) Cisco
8 7 (2.72%) SAP
9 5 (1.95%) Ariba
9 5 (1.95%) CheckPoint
9 5 (1.95%) CyberArk
9 5 (1.95%) Sybase
10 4 (1.56%) Apple
10 4 (1.56%) Informatica
10 4 (1.56%) Talend
10 4 (1.56%) Zscaler
11 3 (1.17%) IBM
11 3 (1.17%) IDERA
11 3 (1.17%) Red Hat