Azure Contract Job Trends in the North West

Microsoft Azure
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Azure skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 12 8 4
Rank change year-on-year -4 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Azure 240 271 472
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 10.99% 11.29% 16.70%
As % of the Cloud Services category 33.15% 37.48% 46.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 170 183 363
10th Percentile £359 £356 £319
25th Percentile £405 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £581 £575
90th Percentile £638 £673 £650
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 3 27
10th Percentile - £32.84 £17.60
25th Percentile £15.50 £37.84 £28.88
Median hourly rate £17.44 £46.18 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -62.25% - +126.87%
75th Percentile £55.16 - -
90th Percentile £67.25 - £70.00
England median hourly rate £33.39 £38.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -13.29% -16.63% +9.30%

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 724 723 1,017
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 33.15% 30.11% 35.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 546 468 750
10th Percentile £313 £300 £265
25th Percentile £376 £384 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £525 £575 £575
90th Percentile £634 £650 £664
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 13 57
10th Percentile £12.82 £13.09 £15.75
25th Percentile £14.75 £17.44 £18.50
Median hourly rate £18.87 £36.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -47.58% +2.86% +29.88%
75th Percentile £62.22 £58.00 £46.18
90th Percentile £73.52 £71.15 £70.00
England median hourly rate £26.00 £33.00 £33.00
% change year-on-year -21.21% - +53.49%

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
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Azure.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Azure

Azure
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Azure in the North West over the 6 months to 19 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Azure in the North West

Azure
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Azure.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Azure

Azure
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Azure in the North West over the 6 months to 19 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram 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 19 September 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 -6 122 £500 - 252
Cheshire -14 63 £461 -2.95% 55
Merseyside +5 29 £425 -1.45% 36
Lancashire +2 15 £463 -11.90% 175
Cumbria +6 1 - - 1
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 14 (5.83%) SharePoint
2 11 (4.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (4.17%) Confluence
4 7 (2.92%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (2.92%) Skype for Business
5 5 (2.08%) WebSphere
6 4 (1.67%) Apache Spark
7 3 (1.25%) Apache
7 3 (1.25%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.83%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.83%) WebSphere Application Server
9 1 (0.42%) IIS
Applications
1 13 (5.42%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (3.75%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (2.92%) Chatbot
3 7 (2.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (2.92%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.42%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (2.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.42%) Kondor
3 1 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.42%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 85 (35.42%) AWS
2 56 (23.33%) GCP
3 48 (20.00%) Microsoft 365
4 39 (16.25%) Azure DevOps
5 31 (12.92%) Power Platform
6 20 (8.33%) Entra ID
7 19 (7.92%) GitHub
8 17 (7.08%) SaaS
8 17 (7.08%) Serverless
9 11 (4.58%) Azure Data Factory
10 10 (4.17%) Azure AI
10 10 (4.17%) Azure Logic Apps
10 10 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
10 10 (4.17%) Figma
11 9 (3.75%) AWS Lambda
12 8 (3.33%) Azure Sentinel
12 8 (3.33%) OneDrive
13 7 (2.92%) Cloud Computing
14 6 (2.50%) IaaS
14 6 (2.50%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (9.17%) Firewall
2 13 (5.42%) Network Security
3 10 (4.17%) DNS
4 9 (3.75%) VPN
5 8 (3.33%) BGP
5 8 (3.33%) VLAN
6 7 (2.92%) Skype
6 7 (2.92%) TCP/IP
7 6 (2.50%) SAN
8 5 (2.08%) Internet
8 5 (2.08%) OSPF
9 4 (1.67%) MPLS
9 4 (1.67%) WAN
9 4 (1.67%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (1.25%) Cisco IOS
10 3 (1.25%) iSCSI
10 3 (1.25%) NetScaler
10 3 (1.25%) NX-OS
10 3 (1.25%) Unified Communications
10 3 (1.25%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (9.17%) Power BI
2 15 (6.25%) SQL Server
3 11 (4.58%) Azure SQL Database
4 10 (4.17%) PostgreSQL
5 9 (3.75%) Data Warehouse
5 9 (3.75%) Relational Database
6 8 (3.33%) BigQuery
6 8 (3.33%) Data Lake
7 7 (2.92%) MySQL
7 7 (2.92%) NoSQL
8 6 (2.50%) RDBMS
9 5 (2.08%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (2.08%) Delta Lake
9 5 (2.08%) DynamoDB
9 5 (2.08%) Looker
9 5 (2.08%) MongoDB
9 5 (2.08%) Redis
10 4 (1.67%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (1.67%) Big Data
10 4 (1.67%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 29 (12.08%) Git
2 25 (10.42%) JIRA
3 17 (7.08%) Jenkins
4 11 (4.58%) GitLab
5 10 (4.17%) Gradle
6 6 (2.50%) Maven
6 6 (2.50%) Postman
6 6 (2.50%) Selenium
6 6 (2.50%) Storybook
6 6 (2.50%) Xcode
7 5 (2.08%) SonarQube
8 4 (1.67%) JUnit
8 4 (1.67%) SonarLint
9 3 (1.25%) Cypress.io
9 3 (1.25%) Hudson
9 3 (1.25%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 3 (1.25%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.83%) ERwin
10 2 (0.83%) git-flow
11 1 (0.42%) JMeter
General
1 70 (29.17%) Social Skills
2 45 (18.75%) Public Sector
3 38 (15.83%) Finance
4 32 (13.33%) Banking
5 29 (12.08%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (3.75%) Military
7 6 (2.50%) Legal
7 6 (2.50%) Manufacturing
7 6 (2.50%) Retail
8 5 (2.08%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.08%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (1.67%) Marketing
9 4 (1.67%) Pharmaceutical
9 4 (1.67%) Telecoms
10 3 (1.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.25%) Japanese Language
10 3 (1.25%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.83%) Games
12 1 (0.42%) Automotive
12 1 (0.42%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 41 (17.08%) Developer
2 36 (15.00%) Architect
3 25 (10.42%) Analyst
4 23 (9.58%) Senior
5 15 (6.25%) Cloud Engineer
5 15 (6.25%) Security Engineer
6 14 (5.83%) Azure Engineer
7 12 (5.00%) Java Developer
8 11 (4.58%) Solutions Architect
9 10 (4.17%) Data Engineer
9 10 (4.17%) Lead
9 10 (4.17%) Security Architect
9 10 (4.17%) Technical Architect
10 8 (3.33%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 8 (3.33%) Business Analyst
10 8 (3.33%) Change Manager
10 8 (3.33%) Operations Analyst
10 8 (3.33%) Senior Developer
11 7 (2.92%) Operations Support Analyst
11 7 (2.92%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (7.08%) Spring Boot
2 14 (5.83%) .NET
2 14 (5.83%) RESTful
3 12 (5.00%) Spring
4 11 (4.58%) REST
5 10 (4.17%) React
6 9 (3.75%) AngularJS
7 8 (3.33%) JSON
7 8 (3.33%) Node.js
7 8 (3.33%) OAuth
8 7 (2.92%) .NET Framework
8 7 (2.92%) D3.js
8 7 (2.92%) HTML
8 7 (2.92%) React Native
8 7 (2.92%) Streamlit
9 6 (2.50%) JMS
9 6 (2.50%) SVG
9 6 (2.50%) TensorFlow
10 5 (2.08%) J2EE
10 5 (2.08%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 23 (9.58%) Cloud Native
2 13 (5.42%) Onboarding
3 11 (4.58%) Mobile App
3 11 (4.58%) Product Ownership
4 7 (2.92%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (2.50%) Enterprise Software
5 6 (2.50%) Low-Code
5 6 (2.50%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 5 (2.08%) Clustering
6 5 (2.08%) Data Centre
6 5 (2.08%) Distributed Computing
6 5 (2.08%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (2.08%) N-Tier
6 5 (2.08%) Replication
7 4 (1.67%) Algorithms
7 4 (1.67%) Autonomous Agent
7 4 (1.67%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (1.67%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.25%) AI Agents
8 3 (1.25%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 36 (15.00%) Windows
2 16 (6.67%) Windows Server
3 11 (4.58%) Android
3 11 (4.58%) Linux
4 9 (3.75%) Apple iOS
5 4 (1.67%) Unix
5 4 (1.67%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.83%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (31.67%) DevOps
2 60 (25.00%) CI/CD
3 54 (22.50%) Agile
4 53 (22.08%) Problem-Solving
5 33 (13.75%) Artificial Intelligence
5 33 (13.75%) Stakeholder Management
6 31 (12.92%) Containerisation
6 31 (12.92%) Machine Learning
7 27 (11.25%) Analytics
7 27 (11.25%) Migration
8 24 (10.00%) Cybersecurity
9 23 (9.58%) Business Intelligence
9 23 (9.58%) Roadmaps
10 22 (9.17%) Infrastructure as Code
10 22 (9.17%) Microservices
11 21 (8.75%) ITIL
11 21 (8.75%) Mentoring
12 18 (7.50%) Scrum
12 18 (7.50%) User Experience
13 17 (7.08%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 46 (19.17%) SQL
2 45 (18.75%) Python
3 22 (9.17%) Java
4 16 (6.67%) TypeScript
5 13 (5.42%) C#
5 13 (5.42%) JavaScript
5 13 (5.42%) PowerShell
6 6 (2.50%) Scala
6 6 (2.50%) T-SQL
7 4 (1.67%) Bicep
7 4 (1.67%) Kusto Query Language
8 3 (1.25%) Bash
8 3 (1.25%) Perl
9 2 (0.83%) Go
9 2 (0.83%) PHP
9 2 (0.83%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.42%) Korn
10 1 (0.42%) R
10 1 (0.42%) Ruby
10 1 (0.42%) VBA
Qualifications
1 36 (15.00%) Security Cleared
2 27 (11.25%) Degree
3 22 (9.17%) Azure Certification
3 22 (9.17%) SC Cleared
4 12 (5.00%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (4.17%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (3.75%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (3.33%) CCNP
8 7 (2.92%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (2.08%) CCIE
9 5 (2.08%) CISSP
9 5 (2.08%) Master's Degree
10 4 (1.67%) CISM
10 4 (1.67%) JNCIE
11 3 (1.25%) AWS Certification
11 3 (1.25%) CCDP
11 3 (1.25%) MCP
12 2 (0.83%) CBAP
12 2 (0.83%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.83%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (8.75%) Accessibility
2 15 (6.25%) QA
3 12 (5.00%) GDPR
4 9 (3.75%) Data Quality
4 9 (3.75%) NIST
4 9 (3.75%) PSD2
5 6 (2.50%) ISO 20022
5 6 (2.50%) SEPA
6 5 (2.08%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 5 (2.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (1.25%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.42%) Basel III
8 1 (0.42%) COBIT
8 1 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.42%) GRC
8 1 (0.42%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.42%) MiFID
8 1 (0.42%) NCSC
8 1 (0.42%) SOC 1
8 1 (0.42%) WCAG
System Software
1 34 (14.17%) Docker
2 31 (12.92%) Active Directory
3 7 (2.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.25%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (1.25%) vSphere
5 2 (0.83%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.42%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.42%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 37 (15.42%) Kubernetes
2 27 (11.25%) Terraform
3 19 (7.92%) Microsoft Intune
4 11 (4.58%) SCCM
5 6 (2.50%) Ansible
6 3 (1.25%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (0.83%) Fluentd
7 2 (0.83%) Grafana
7 2 (0.83%) Istio
7 2 (0.83%) Microsoft Clustering
7 2 (0.83%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.42%) AirWatch
8 1 (0.42%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.42%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.42%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.42%) QRadar
8 1 (0.42%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 89 (37.08%) Microsoft
2 14 (5.83%) Google
3 13 (5.42%) Cisco
3 13 (5.42%) Databricks
3 13 (5.42%) VMware
4 11 (4.58%) Oracle
4 11 (4.58%) ServiceNow
5 10 (4.17%) F5
6 9 (3.75%) Citrix
6 9 (3.75%) Zscaler
7 6 (2.50%) IBM
7 6 (2.50%) SolarWinds
7 6 (2.50%) Veeam
8 5 (2.08%) Darktrace
8 5 (2.08%) SAP
9 4 (1.67%) Fortinet
9 4 (1.67%) Gigya
9 4 (1.67%) Meraki
9 4 (1.67%) Palo Alto
9 4 (1.67%) Virgin Media