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 9 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 7 10
Rank change year-on-year +2 +3 -7
Contract jobs citing Azure 449 270 292
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 14.11% 13.94% 10.51%
As % of the Cloud Services category 43.98% 41.03% 32.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 359 205 228
10th Percentile £313 £255 £314
25th Percentile £400 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.00% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £581 £580 £582
90th Percentile £643 £700 £650
England median daily rate £525 £525 £540
% change year-on-year - -2.78% -4.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 3 3
10th Percentile £24.77 £67.75 £16.55
25th Percentile £25.38 £68.13 £17.00
Median hourly rate £34.03 £72.50 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -53.06% +291.89% -57.95%
75th Percentile £67.15 £76.88 £32.72
90th Percentile £90.00 £77.25 £40.79
England median hourly rate £57.50 £53.50 £36.75
% change year-on-year +7.48% +45.58% -27.59%

All Cloud Computing 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 1,021 658 892
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 32.08% 33.97% 32.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 712 507 651
10th Percentile £221 £245 £284
25th Percentile £374 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year -3.58% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £563
90th Percentile £650 £650 £638
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 14 67
10th Percentile £22.23 £24.99 £13.00
25th Percentile £25.38 £26.88 -
Median hourly rate £62.50 £28.88 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +116.45% +79.79% -54.11%
75th Percentile £77.50 £65.22 £22.13
90th Percentile £95.00 £77.13 £43.75
England median hourly rate £42.69 £26.50 £20.87
% change year-on-year +61.08% +26.98% -21.19%

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 9 April 2026.

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 9 April 2026.

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 9 April 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
Manchester -2 239 £476 -9.33% 177
Cheshire +6 127 £536 +26.06% 55
Merseyside +7 54 £140 -68.89% 29
Lancashire -11 19 £500 +2.56% 81
Cumbria -10 3 £525 - 6
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 33 (7.35%) SharePoint
2 28 (6.24%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (4.23%) Confluence
4 5 (1.11%) OpenStack
4 5 (1.11%) SAS
5 4 (0.89%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.67%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.45%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
7 2 (0.45%) IIS
8 1 (0.22%) Apache
8 1 (0.22%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.22%) CMS
8 1 (0.22%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.22%) Jupyter
Applications
1 8 (1.78%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.11%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (0.67%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.45%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.45%) Trello
5 1 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 4 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.67%) Payment Gateway
3 2 (0.45%) Elite 3E
3 2 (0.45%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.45%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 187 (41.65%) AWS
2 102 (22.72%) GCP
3 87 (19.38%) Microsoft 365
4 73 (16.26%) Entra ID
5 64 (14.25%) Azure DevOps
6 59 (13.14%) Power Platform
7 27 (6.01%) GitHub
8 24 (5.35%) Power Automate
9 23 (5.12%) Dynamics 365
10 22 (4.90%) PowerApps
11 21 (4.68%) Azure Data Factory
12 19 (4.23%) GitHub Actions
12 19 (4.23%) Serverless
13 16 (3.56%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 16 (3.56%) OneDrive
14 14 (3.12%) Azure Logic Apps
15 13 (2.90%) Azure AKS
15 13 (2.90%) Azure Monitor
16 12 (2.67%) Microsoft Copilot
17 11 (2.45%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 48 (10.69%) Firewall
2 27 (6.01%) DNS
3 15 (3.34%) Network Security
4 13 (2.90%) VPN
5 10 (2.23%) Kerberos
6 9 (2.00%) TCP/IP
7 8 (1.78%) DHCP
7 8 (1.78%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (1.56%) VLAN
9 4 (0.89%) HTTP
9 4 (0.89%) NetScaler
9 4 (0.89%) WAN
9 4 (0.89%) Wireshark
10 3 (0.67%) BGP
10 3 (0.67%) Internet
10 3 (0.67%) OSPF
10 3 (0.67%) SD-WAN
11 2 (0.45%) LAN
11 2 (0.45%) SAN
11 2 (0.45%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (5.57%) Power BI
2 22 (4.90%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (4.01%) SQL Server
4 14 (3.12%) PostgreSQL
5 12 (2.67%) Metadata
6 9 (2.00%) Data Lake
7 7 (1.56%) MySQL
7 7 (1.56%) NoSQL
8 6 (1.34%) Azure SQL Database
8 6 (1.34%) Looker
8 6 (1.34%) MongoDB
9 5 (1.11%) BigQuery
10 4 (0.89%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.89%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (0.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.67%) Relational Database
12 2 (0.45%) Data Vault
12 2 (0.45%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.45%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.45%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 41 (9.13%) JIRA
2 22 (4.90%) Git
3 16 (3.56%) GitLab
4 11 (2.45%) Jenkins
5 10 (2.23%) Postman
6 7 (1.56%) Cucumber
7 6 (1.34%) Selenium
8 3 (0.67%) JMeter
8 3 (0.67%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.45%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.45%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.45%) Fiddler
9 2 (0.45%) Snyk
10 1 (0.22%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.22%) JUnit
10 1 (0.22%) Mockito
10 1 (0.22%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.22%) Spinnaker
10 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.22%) Visual Studio
General
1 110 (24.50%) Social Skills
2 84 (18.71%) Finance
2 84 (18.71%) Public Sector
3 47 (10.47%) Banking
4 42 (9.35%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (5.57%) Legal
6 13 (2.90%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (2.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 10 (2.23%) Law
8 9 (2.00%) Retail
9 5 (1.11%) Military
9 5 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (0.89%) Local Government
11 3 (0.67%) Financial Institution
12 2 (0.45%) Games
12 2 (0.45%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.45%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.22%) Advertising
13 1 (0.22%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 76 (16.93%) Architect
2 69 (15.37%) Developer
3 42 (9.35%) Analyst
3 42 (9.35%) Senior
4 39 (8.69%) Lead
5 31 (6.90%) Security Engineer
6 29 (6.46%) Azure Engineer
7 24 (5.35%) Java Developer
8 23 (5.12%) Data Engineer
9 20 (4.45%) Platform Engineer
10 18 (4.01%) Solutions Architect
11 17 (3.79%) 1st Line Support
12 16 (3.56%) DevOps Engineer
13 15 (3.34%) Azure Developer
14 12 (2.67%) Lead Developer
15 11 (2.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 11 (2.45%) IT Support
15 11 (2.45%) Security Architect
15 11 (2.45%) Systems Analyst
16 10 (2.23%) .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (8.46%) Spring
2 35 (7.80%) Spring Boot
3 32 (7.13%) REST
4 21 (4.68%) .NET
4 21 (4.68%) RESTful
5 20 (4.45%) React
6 19 (4.23%) OAuth
7 14 (3.12%) Node.js
8 12 (2.67%) Kafka
9 11 (2.45%) HTML
9 11 (2.45%) OpenID
10 10 (2.23%) JSON
10 10 (2.23%) SAML
11 9 (2.00%) AngularJS
11 9 (2.00%) ARM Templates
11 9 (2.00%) LDAP
12 8 (1.78%) PySpark
12 8 (1.78%) RabbitMQ
13 7 (1.56%) Nunjucks
13 7 (1.56%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 43 (9.58%) Cloud Native
2 32 (7.13%) Onboarding
3 15 (3.34%) Product Ownership
3 15 (3.34%) Security Posture
4 14 (3.12%) Distributed Systems
5 10 (2.23%) Data Centre
5 10 (2.23%) Enterprise Cloud
5 10 (2.23%) Hybrid Cloud
5 10 (2.23%) Private Cloud
6 9 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (1.78%) Management Information System
8 7 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (1.56%) Public Cloud
8 7 (1.56%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 6 (1.34%) Cloud Security Posture
10 5 (1.11%) Credit Risk
10 5 (1.11%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 5 (1.11%) Linux Command Line
10 5 (1.11%) Operational Technology
10 5 (1.11%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 58 (12.92%) Windows
2 30 (6.68%) Windows 10
3 21 (4.68%) Linux
4 9 (2.00%) Windows Server
5 7 (1.56%) VMS
6 6 (1.34%) Mac OS
6 6 (1.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (1.11%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (0.89%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.67%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.45%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.22%) Unix
11 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (31.85%) DevOps
2 122 (27.17%) CI/CD
3 117 (26.06%) Agile
4 81 (18.04%) Problem-Solving
5 66 (14.70%) Analytics
6 57 (12.69%) Containerisation
7 53 (11.80%) Microservices
8 51 (11.36%) Continuous Improvement
9 50 (11.14%) Migration
10 46 (10.24%) Infrastructure as Code
11 43 (9.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 40 (8.91%) Data Modelling
13 38 (8.46%) Observability
14 37 (8.24%) Roadmaps
15 36 (8.02%) Cloud Security
15 36 (8.02%) Stakeholder Management
16 35 (7.80%) Mentoring
17 33 (7.35%) ETL
17 33 (7.35%) Test Automation
18 30 (6.68%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 100 (22.27%) Python
2 67 (14.92%) Java
3 65 (14.48%) SQL
4 54 (12.03%) PowerShell
5 28 (6.24%) JavaScript
6 27 (6.01%) C#
7 23 (5.12%) Bash
8 18 (4.01%) Bicep
9 13 (2.90%) TypeScript
10 9 (2.00%) Go
11 5 (1.11%) R
12 4 (0.89%) C++
12 4 (0.89%) T-SQL
13 3 (0.67%) Shell Script
14 2 (0.45%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.45%) Scala
15 1 (0.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.22%) PHP
15 1 (0.22%) PL/SQL
15 1 (0.22%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 52 (11.58%) Security Cleared
2 30 (6.68%) SC Cleared
3 28 (6.24%) Azure Certification
4 24 (5.35%) Degree
5 21 (4.68%) BPSS Clearance
5 21 (4.68%) CISSP
6 20 (4.45%) Cisco Certification
7 18 (4.01%) AWS Certification
8 12 (2.67%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (2.23%) CCNA
9 10 (2.23%) CISM
10 9 (2.00%) CCNP
11 5 (1.11%) ITIL Certification
11 5 (1.11%) PMI Certification
11 5 (1.11%) PMP
12 4 (0.89%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (0.89%) CCIE
12 4 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.89%) GIAC
12 4 (0.89%) IBM Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (6.24%) Data Quality
1 28 (6.24%) NIST
2 23 (5.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (4.68%) QA
4 17 (3.79%) GDPR
5 15 (3.34%) Accessibility
6 13 (2.90%) ISO 20022
7 8 (1.78%) PSD2
8 7 (1.56%) SEPA
9 5 (1.11%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 5 (1.11%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.67%) GRC
10 3 (0.67%) NCSC
10 3 (0.67%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.45%) SLA
11 2 (0.45%) Solvency II
11 2 (0.45%) WCAG
12 1 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 92 (20.49%) Active Directory
2 72 (16.04%) Docker
3 15 (3.34%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (2.67%) vSphere
5 9 (2.00%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (1.78%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.67%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.67%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.45%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.22%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 77 (17.15%) Kubernetes
2 59 (13.14%) Terraform
3 27 (6.01%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (3.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 14 (3.12%) Ansible
6 13 (2.90%) Grafana
6 13 (2.90%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (2.67%) Prometheus
8 11 (2.45%) SCCM
9 6 (1.34%) Argo
10 5 (1.11%) Jamf Pro
11 4 (0.89%) Progress Chef
12 3 (0.67%) Fluentd
12 3 (0.67%) Istio
12 3 (0.67%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.45%) CA Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.45%) linkerd
13 2 (0.45%) PowerCLI
13 2 (0.45%) vMotion
13 2 (0.45%) vRealize
Vendors
1 156 (34.74%) Microsoft
2 35 (7.80%) Google
3 29 (6.46%) ServiceNow
4 18 (4.01%) Databricks
4 18 (4.01%) VMware
5 17 (3.79%) Bomgar
5 17 (3.79%) iManage
6 14 (3.12%) Oracle
6 14 (3.12%) Splunk
7 12 (2.67%) Virgin Media
8 11 (2.45%) Infoblox
9 9 (2.00%) Cisco
10 8 (1.78%) F5
10 8 (1.78%) IBM
11 6 (1.34%) CyberArk
11 6 (1.34%) Foundry
11 6 (1.34%) Meraki
11 6 (1.34%) OpenAI
11 6 (1.34%) Red Hat
11 6 (1.34%) SAP