Microsoft Contract Job Trends in Oxfordshire

Microsoft
South East > Oxfordshire

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Oxfordshire 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 25 September 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
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 2 4
Rank change year-on-year -1 +2 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 95 43 18
As % of all contract jobs in Oxfordshire 20.70% 29.66% 11.18%
As % of the Vendors category 60.13% 54.43% 38.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 43 28 14
10th Percentile £203 £160 £160
25th Percentile £226 £183 £165
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £238 £388
Median % change year-on-year +89.47% -38.71% +103.95%
75th Percentile £500 £475 £484
90th Percentile £538 £498 £601
South East median daily rate £475 £450 £463
% change year-on-year +5.56% -2.70% +0.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 4 1
10th Percentile £12.78 £76.59 -
25th Percentile £14.74 £84.97 -
Median hourly rate £29.07 £89.63 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -67.57% +460.19% -
75th Percentile £53.75 - -
90th Percentile £77.50 - -
South East median hourly rate £19.79 £17.60 £45.00
% change year-on-year +12.41% -60.89% +157.14%

All Vendors
Oxfordshire

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 Oxfordshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 158 79 47
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Oxfordshire 34.42% 54.48% 29.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 75 40 30
10th Percentile £218 £162 £160
25th Percentile £340 £216 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £350 £475
Median % change year-on-year +42.86% -26.32% +5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £475 £500
90th Percentile £675 £578 £650
South East median daily rate £514 £500 £515
% change year-on-year +2.80% -2.91% +3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 5 4
10th Percentile £13.25 £43.85 £17.95
25th Percentile £18.25 £71.00 £20.88
Median hourly rate £29.07 £89.63 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -67.57% +99.18% +39.32%
75th Percentile £53.75 - £74.06
90th Percentile £77.50 - £85.88
South East median hourly rate £37.37 £20.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +86.85% -65.13% +9.24%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in Oxfordshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Oxfordshire.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in Oxfordshire

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in Oxfordshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Oxfordshire citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Oxfordshire citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in Oxfordshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in Oxfordshire over the 6 months to 25 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in Oxfordshire

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in Oxfordshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Oxfordshire citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Oxfordshire citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in Oxfordshire

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in Oxfordshire over the 6 months to 25 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in Oxfordshire

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in Oxfordshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the Oxfordshire region over the 6 months to 25 September 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
Oxford -6 14 £513 +127.78% 62
Kidlington +1 11 £328 -27.22% 6
Abingdon -8 10 £500 - 7
Witney 0 7 - - 6
Carterton -2 6 - - 2
Wantage - 4 £250 - 3
Bicester - 1 £630 - 3
Microsoft
South East

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Oxfordshire 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 5 (5.26%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (2.11%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (7.37%) Microsoft Excel
1 7 (7.37%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 46 (48.42%) Microsoft 365
2 45 (47.37%) Entra ID
3 44 (46.32%) Azure
4 10 (10.53%) IaaS
4 10 (10.53%) SaaS
5 7 (7.37%) Microsoft Purview
6 6 (6.32%) PaaS
7 4 (4.21%) Google Sheets
8 3 (3.16%) OneDrive
9 2 (2.11%) Azure Functions
9 2 (2.11%) Azure Logic Apps
9 2 (2.11%) Azure Monitor
9 2 (2.11%) Azure Storage
9 2 (2.11%) Azure Table
9 2 (2.11%) Google Workspace
9 2 (2.11%) Power Automate
9 2 (2.11%) Serverless
10 1 (1.05%) AWS
10 1 (1.05%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (1.05%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 3 (3.16%) VPN
2 2 (2.11%) DHCP
2 2 (2.11%) DNS
2 2 (2.11%) Firewall
2 2 (2.11%) HTTPS
2 2 (2.11%) TCP/IP
2 2 (2.11%) VLAN
3 1 (1.05%) Kerberos
3 1 (1.05%) LAN
3 1 (1.05%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.21%) MS Access
2 1 (1.05%) MySQL
2 1 (1.05%) Relational Database
2 1 (1.05%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (1.05%) JIRA
1 1 (1.05%) Visual Studio
General
1 33 (34.74%) Social Skills
2 22 (23.16%) Public Sector
3 18 (18.95%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (14.74%) Documentation Skills
5 11 (11.58%) Organisational Skills
6 7 (7.37%) Military
7 6 (6.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (5.26%) Aviation
9 4 (4.21%) Aerospace
9 4 (4.21%) Marketing
10 2 (2.11%) Finance
10 2 (2.11%) Retail
11 1 (1.05%) Legal
11 1 (1.05%) Local Government
11 1 (1.05%) Manufacturing
11 1 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (1.05%) Police
11 1 (1.05%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 17 (17.89%) IT Support
2 15 (15.79%) Analyst
2 15 (15.79%) Security Engineer
3 14 (14.74%) IAM Specialist
4 13 (13.68%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 12 (12.63%) Cloud Engineer
6 11 (11.58%) Senior
7 10 (10.53%) IT Engineer
8 9 (9.47%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 8 (8.42%) Support Engineer
10 7 (7.37%) Azure Engineer
10 7 (7.37%) IT Analyst
10 7 (7.37%) IT Support Engineer
11 6 (6.32%) Administrator
11 6 (6.32%) Cybersecurity Specialist
11 6 (6.32%) IT Support Analyst
11 6 (6.32%) Security Specialist
11 6 (6.32%) Senior Security Engineer
11 6 (6.32%) Support Analyst
12 5 (5.26%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (18.95%) SailPoint
2 16 (16.84%) OAuth
2 16 (16.84%) OAuth2
2 16 (16.84%) OpenID
2 16 (16.84%) SAML
3 15 (15.79%) Web Services
4 14 (14.74%) LDAP
5 5 (5.26%) XML
6 2 (2.11%) JSON
6 2 (2.11%) REST
7 1 (1.05%) .NET
7 1 (1.05%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 12 (12.63%) Onboarding
2 8 (8.42%) Security Posture
3 7 (7.37%) Cloud Security Posture
3 7 (7.37%) Operational Technology
4 5 (5.26%) Cyber Defence
5 4 (4.21%) Management Information System
5 4 (4.21%) SCADA
6 2 (2.11%) Driving Licence
6 2 (2.11%) Replication
7 1 (1.05%) AI Agents
7 1 (1.05%) Biopharmaceutical
7 1 (1.05%) CMDB
7 1 (1.05%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (1.05%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (1.05%) Microsoft Licensing
Operating Systems
1 26 (27.37%) Windows
2 9 (9.47%) Linux
3 7 (7.37%) Unix
3 7 (7.37%) Windows Server
4 6 (6.32%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (28.42%) ITSM
2 21 (22.11%) RBAC
3 19 (20.00%) Change Control
3 19 (20.00%) Information Security
3 19 (20.00%) Runbook
4 17 (17.89%) Cybersecurity
5 16 (16.84%) Customer Service
6 15 (15.79%) Analytics
6 15 (15.79%) API Integration
7 14 (14.74%) SIEM
8 13 (13.68%) Attestation
8 13 (13.68%) Computer Science
8 13 (13.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 13 (13.68%) Risk Analytics
9 12 (12.63%) Zero Trust
10 10 (10.53%) Vulnerability Management
11 9 (9.47%) ITIL
11 9 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
11 9 (9.47%) Vulnerability Remediation
12 8 (8.42%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 32 (33.68%) PowerShell
2 15 (15.79%) Python
3 1 (1.05%) C#
Qualifications
1 29 (30.53%) Security Cleared
2 25 (26.32%) Degree
3 24 (25.26%) SC Cleared
4 17 (17.89%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (5.26%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 5 (5.26%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (5.26%) CESG Certified Professional
5 5 (5.26%) Cisco Certification
5 5 (5.26%) CISM
5 5 (5.26%) CISSP
5 5 (5.26%) CRISC
5 5 (5.26%) GIAC
5 5 (5.26%) SANS
6 4 (4.21%) GSEC
6 4 (4.21%) SSCP
7 1 (1.05%) CAPM
7 1 (1.05%) CCSP
7 1 (1.05%) City & Guilds
7 1 (1.05%) PMI Certification
7 1 (1.05%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (23.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 22 (23.16%) NIST
2 6 (6.32%) Cyber Essentials
2 6 (6.32%) Data Quality
2 6 (6.32%) ISO 31000
3 4 (4.21%) NCSC
4 1 (1.05%) GDPR
4 1 (1.05%) GxP
4 1 (1.05%) SLA
System Software
1 39 (41.05%) Active Directory
2 4 (4.21%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (2.11%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 11 (11.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (6.32%) Single Sign-On
3 4 (4.21%) SCCM
4 2 (2.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 10 (10.53%) ServiceNow
2 6 (6.32%) Google
3 4 (4.21%) OpenAI
4 3 (3.16%) BeyondTrust
5 2 (2.11%) Veeam
5 2 (2.11%) VMware
6 1 (1.05%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (1.05%) CyberArk
6 1 (1.05%) Dell
6 1 (1.05%) MuleSoft
6 1 (1.05%) New Relic
6 1 (1.05%) Oracle
6 1 (1.05%) Salesforce
6 1 (1.05%) Samsung
6 1 (1.05%) Snow