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 contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 9 8 3
Rank change year-on-year -1 -5 0
Contract jobs citing Azure 292 263 419
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 11.92% 11.43% 15.58%
As % of the Cloud Services category 34.23% 37.09% 42.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 220 170 323
10th Percentile £313 £312 £286
25th Percentile £400 £401 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £500 £495
Median % change year-on-year -7.00% +1.01% -5.71%
75th Percentile £575 £585 £575
90th Percentile £635 £675 £650
England median daily rate £520 £530 £550
% change year-on-year -1.89% -3.64% -3.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 4 25
10th Percentile - £34.50 £18.05
25th Percentile £15.50 £42.01 £21.25
Median hourly rate £17.44 £46.18 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -62.25% - -30.03%
75th Percentile £61.80 £54.01 -
90th Percentile £67.95 £68.10 -
England median hourly rate £53.00 £35.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +51.43% -24.21% -5.76%

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 853 709 983
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 34.82% 30.81% 36.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 659 451 742
10th Percentile £300 £291 £265
25th Percentile £363 £383 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year -5.89% -4.04% -1.00%
75th Percentile £540 £575 £575
90th Percentile £638 £650 £650
England median daily rate £500 £538 £525
% change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 16 48
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.44 £16.10
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.05 £18.31
Median hourly rate £25.83 £30.00 £40.59
Median % change year-on-year -13.92% -26.09% +80.40%
75th Percentile £67.75 £49.14 £46.18
90th Percentile £73.52 £73.63 £66.23
England median hourly rate £25.47 £32.00 £25.45
% change year-on-year -20.41% +25.74% +13.11%

Azure
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Azure relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Azure job vacancy trend 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 30 November 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 30 November 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 30 November 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 -3 156 £500 -2.68% 137
Cheshire +3 86 £481 -1.58% 50
Merseyside -7 29 £413 +3.13% 30
Lancashire -8 15 £450 -4.26% 115
Azure
England

Azure
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 26 (8.90%) SharePoint
2 11 (3.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.74%) Confluence
4 7 (2.40%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (2.40%) SAS
4 7 (2.40%) Skype for Business
5 4 (1.37%) Apache Spark
5 4 (1.37%) OpenStack
6 3 (1.03%) Apache
6 3 (1.03%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.68%) IIS
7 2 (0.68%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 16 (5.48%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (2.74%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (2.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (2.40%) MS Visio
4 6 (2.05%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 6 (2.05%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (1.71%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.34%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 121 (41.44%) AWS
2 83 (28.42%) GCP
3 63 (21.58%) Microsoft 365
4 48 (16.44%) Azure DevOps
5 44 (15.07%) Power Platform
6 29 (9.93%) GitHub
7 26 (8.90%) Entra ID
8 19 (6.51%) SaaS
9 15 (5.14%) Serverless
10 13 (4.45%) Power Automate
10 13 (4.45%) PowerApps
11 12 (4.11%) GitHub Actions
12 10 (3.42%) Azure Logic Apps
12 10 (3.42%) Datadog
12 10 (3.42%) Figma
12 10 (3.42%) Google Tag Manager
13 9 (3.08%) Dynamics 365
13 9 (3.08%) Google Analytics
13 9 (3.08%) OneDrive
13 9 (3.08%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 21 (7.19%) Firewall
2 12 (4.11%) DNS
3 7 (2.40%) Internet
3 7 (2.40%) Skype
3 7 (2.40%) TCP/IP
3 7 (2.40%) Wi-Fi
4 6 (2.05%) SAN
5 5 (1.71%) Network Security
5 5 (1.71%) Unified Communications
5 5 (1.71%) VPN
6 4 (1.37%) LAN
6 4 (1.37%) VLAN
6 4 (1.37%) WAN
7 3 (1.03%) BGP
7 3 (1.03%) Cisco IOS
7 3 (1.03%) iSCSI
7 3 (1.03%) NX-OS
7 3 (1.03%) WLAN
8 2 (0.68%) NetScaler
8 2 (0.68%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (8.56%) Power BI
2 14 (4.79%) Data Warehouse
3 11 (3.77%) BigQuery
4 10 (3.42%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (3.42%) SQL Server
5 9 (3.08%) Looker
6 8 (2.74%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (2.74%) Relational Database
7 7 (2.40%) MySQL
8 6 (2.05%) Amazon RDS
8 6 (2.05%) Data Lake
8 6 (2.05%) Metadata
8 6 (2.05%) NoSQL
9 5 (1.71%) DynamoDB
9 5 (1.71%) Redis
10 4 (1.37%) Amazon Aurora
10 4 (1.37%) Pinecone
10 4 (1.37%) RDBMS
11 3 (1.03%) Delta Lake
12 2 (0.68%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 30 (10.27%) JIRA
2 28 (9.59%) Git
3 23 (7.88%) Jenkins
4 15 (5.14%) GitLab
5 10 (3.42%) Gradle
6 8 (2.74%) SonarQube
7 6 (2.05%) Postman
7 6 (2.05%) Storybook
7 6 (2.05%) Xcode
8 5 (1.71%) Selenium
9 4 (1.37%) Bitbucket
9 4 (1.37%) JUnit
9 4 (1.37%) Maven
9 4 (1.37%) Snyk
9 4 (1.37%) SonarLint
10 3 (1.03%) Cucumber
11 2 (0.68%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.68%) Cypress.io
11 2 (0.68%) Fiddler
11 2 (0.68%) Hudson
General
1 92 (31.51%) Social Skills
2 67 (22.95%) Public Sector
3 46 (15.75%) Finance
4 41 (14.04%) Banking
5 37 (12.67%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (3.77%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (2.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (2.74%) Military
8 6 (2.05%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (2.05%) Retail
9 5 (1.71%) Marketing
10 4 (1.37%) Games
10 4 (1.37%) Law
11 3 (1.03%) Japanese Language
11 3 (1.03%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.03%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.68%) Legal
13 1 (0.34%) Automotive
13 1 (0.34%) Electronics
13 1 (0.34%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 53 (18.15%) Developer
2 51 (17.47%) Architect
3 29 (9.93%) Analyst
4 25 (8.56%) Senior
5 19 (6.51%) Security Engineer
6 17 (5.82%) Azure Engineer
6 17 (5.82%) Java Developer
7 16 (5.48%) Solutions Architect
8 13 (4.45%) Cloud Engineer
8 13 (4.45%) IT Support
8 13 (4.45%) Lead
8 13 (4.45%) Technical Architect
9 12 (4.11%) Support Engineer
10 11 (3.77%) Data Engineer
11 10 (3.42%) Platform Engineer
11 10 (3.42%) Senior Developer
12 9 (3.08%) DevOps Engineer
13 8 (2.74%) Change Manager
13 8 (2.74%) IT Engineer
13 8 (2.74%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (9.93%) Spring Boot
2 24 (8.22%) Spring
3 17 (5.82%) REST
4 14 (4.79%) .NET
4 14 (4.79%) RESTful
5 13 (4.45%) JSON
6 12 (4.11%) OAuth
7 10 (3.42%) HTML
7 10 (3.42%) React
8 9 (3.08%) AngularJS
8 9 (3.08%) JMS
8 9 (3.08%) Node.js
9 7 (2.40%) D3.js
9 7 (2.40%) React Native
10 6 (2.05%) Elastic Stack
10 6 (2.05%) HTML5 Canvas
10 6 (2.05%) Kafka
10 6 (2.05%) LangChain
10 6 (2.05%) Middleware
10 6 (2.05%) SVG
Miscellaneous
1 25 (8.56%) Cloud Native
1 25 (8.56%) Onboarding
2 14 (4.79%) Distributed Systems
3 12 (4.11%) Product Ownership
4 11 (3.77%) Data Protection Act
4 11 (3.77%) Low-Code
5 9 (3.08%) Mobile App
5 9 (3.08%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 7 (2.40%) Credit Risk
6 7 (2.40%) Data Centre
6 7 (2.40%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (2.40%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.71%) Clustering
7 5 (1.71%) NHS
7 5 (1.71%) N-Tier
7 5 (1.71%) Replication
7 5 (1.71%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (1.37%) Autonomous Agent
8 4 (1.37%) Distributed Computing
8 4 (1.37%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 40 (13.70%) Windows
2 16 (5.48%) Linux
3 10 (3.42%) Windows 10
3 10 (3.42%) Windows Server
4 9 (3.08%) Android
5 7 (2.40%) Apple iOS
6 3 (1.03%) Unix
7 1 (0.34%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (35.96%) DevOps
2 84 (28.77%) CI/CD
3 70 (23.97%) Agile
4 54 (18.49%) Problem-Solving
5 50 (17.12%) Containerisation
6 39 (13.36%) Analytics
7 35 (11.99%) Migration
8 34 (11.64%) Infrastructure as Code
9 33 (11.30%) Microservices
9 33 (11.30%) Stakeholder Management
10 31 (10.62%) Business Intelligence
10 31 (10.62%) Machine Learning
11 28 (9.59%) AI
12 27 (9.25%) User Experience
13 24 (8.22%) Mentoring
13 24 (8.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 23 (7.88%) Roadmaps
14 23 (7.88%) Validation
15 22 (7.53%) Continuous Improvement
15 22 (7.53%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 63 (21.58%) Python
2 48 (16.44%) SQL
3 42 (14.38%) Java
4 18 (6.16%) PowerShell
5 16 (5.48%) C#
5 16 (5.48%) JavaScript
6 14 (4.79%) TypeScript
7 13 (4.45%) Bash
8 7 (2.40%) R
9 5 (1.71%) Bicep
9 5 (1.71%) Go
9 5 (1.71%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (1.37%) Scala
11 3 (1.03%) Perl
11 3 (1.03%) PHP
11 3 (1.03%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.34%) C
13 1 (0.34%) C++
Qualifications
1 49 (16.78%) Security Cleared
2 34 (11.64%) SC Cleared
3 24 (8.22%) Degree
4 20 (6.85%) Azure Certification
5 13 (4.45%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (3.42%) CISSP
7 8 (2.74%) CISM
7 8 (2.74%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (2.05%) AWS Certification
8 6 (2.05%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (1.03%) CCDP
10 3 (1.03%) CCNP
10 3 (1.03%) MCP
10 3 (1.03%) PMI Certification
11 2 (0.68%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.68%) CBAP
11 2 (0.68%) GCIA
11 2 (0.68%) GCIH
11 2 (0.68%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (8.56%) QA
2 22 (7.53%) Accessibility
3 17 (5.82%) Data Quality
4 16 (5.48%) ISO 20022
5 14 (4.79%) NIST
6 12 (4.11%) PSD2
7 11 (3.77%) GDPR
7 11 (3.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 9 (3.08%) SEPA
9 7 (2.40%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.68%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.34%) GRC
11 1 (0.34%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.34%) HL7
11 1 (0.34%) NCSC
11 1 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.34%) SOC 1
11 1 (0.34%) WCAG
System Software
1 52 (17.81%) Docker
2 48 (16.44%) Active Directory
3 9 (3.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.71%) vSphere
5 2 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.68%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.34%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 53 (18.15%) Kubernetes
2 36 (12.33%) Terraform
3 27 (9.25%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (5.14%) SCCM
5 9 (3.08%) Ansible
6 6 (2.05%) Grafana
6 6 (2.05%) Prometheus
6 6 (2.05%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.71%) Fluentd
8 3 (1.03%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (1.03%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Clustering
10 1 (0.34%) AirWatch
10 1 (0.34%) Istio
10 1 (0.34%) QRadar
10 1 (0.34%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 106 (36.30%) Microsoft
2 25 (8.56%) Google
3 23 (7.88%) ServiceNow
4 15 (5.14%) Oracle
5 12 (4.11%) VMware
6 10 (3.42%) F5
6 10 (3.42%) Virgin Media
7 9 (3.08%) Cisco
7 9 (3.08%) Databricks
8 7 (2.40%) Citrix
8 7 (2.40%) Palo Alto
8 7 (2.40%) Pega
8 7 (2.40%) Zscaler
9 6 (2.05%) Meraki
9 6 (2.05%) SolarWinds
10 5 (1.71%) Cribl.io
10 5 (1.71%) SAP
10 5 (1.71%) Splunk
11 4 (1.37%) Checkmarx
11 4 (1.37%) Confluent