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 1 June 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
1 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 3 2
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 71 33 30
As % of all contract jobs in Oxfordshire 21.58% 28.21% 13.27%
As % of the Vendors category 57.72% 48.53% 35.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 40 23 18
10th Percentile £203 £160 -
25th Percentile £230 £178 £128
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £250 £369
Median % change year-on-year +80.00% -32.20% +11.74%
75th Percentile £538 £475 £474
90th Percentile £604 £495 £506
South East median daily rate £475 £465 £465
% change year-on-year +2.15% - +3.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 3 1
10th Percentile £12.78 - -
25th Percentile £16.46 £13.08 -
Median hourly rate £28.29 £14.08 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +100.96% -12.03% -
75th Percentile £47.58 £21.74 -
90th Percentile £53.75 £25.75 -
South East median hourly rate £27.50 £14.90 £23.22
% change year-on-year +84.56% -35.82% +22.18%

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 123 68 84
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Oxfordshire 37.39% 58.12% 37.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 33 56
10th Percentile £225 £161 £128
25th Percentile £250 £200 £319
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £375 £444
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -15.49% +4.41%
75th Percentile £538 £500 £511
90th Percentile £638 £540 £566
South East median daily rate £513 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 7 8
10th Percentile £14.27 £13.08 £16.08
25th Percentile £18.25 £19.11 £16.59
Median hourly rate £27.69 £27.76 £22.63
Median % change year-on-year -0.25% +22.68% -14.87%
75th Percentile £51.27 £46.30 £27.15
90th Percentile £53.75 - £49.48
South East median hourly rate £47.50 £24.66 £50.00
% change year-on-year +92.62% -50.68% +11.11%

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 1 June 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 1 June 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 1 June 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 +2 13 £525 +78.72% 20
Abingdon -7 7 £451 - 14
Carterton -3 6 - - 1
Kidlington -4 5 £238 -47.22% 3
Witney 0 4 - - 4
Bicester - 4 £210 - 2
Wantage - 4 £250 - 2
Banbury +1 2 £358 +78.75% 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 7 (9.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (7.04%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.41%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 5 (7.04%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.41%) MS Visio
2 1 (1.41%) Trello
Cloud Services
1 38 (53.52%) Microsoft 365
2 31 (43.66%) Azure
2 31 (43.66%) Entra ID
3 8 (11.27%) OneDrive
4 6 (8.45%) IaaS
4 6 (8.45%) Microsoft Purview
4 6 (8.45%) PaaS
5 4 (5.63%) SaaS
6 3 (4.23%) Azure Functions
6 3 (4.23%) Azure Logic Apps
6 3 (4.23%) Serverless
7 2 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (2.82%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (2.82%) Azure Storage
7 2 (2.82%) Azure Table
7 2 (2.82%) GitHub
7 2 (2.82%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (2.82%) Google Sheets
7 2 (2.82%) Power Automate
8 1 (1.41%) Lucidchart
Communications & Networking
1 6 (8.45%) Wi-Fi
2 5 (7.04%) LAN
2 5 (7.04%) VPN
3 2 (2.82%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.82%) MS Access
2 1 (1.41%) Data Lake
2 1 (1.41%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (1.41%) Delta Lake
2 1 (1.41%) Metadata
2 1 (1.41%) Power BI
2 1 (1.41%) Semantic Layer
2 1 (1.41%) Spark SQL
2 1 (1.41%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 1 (1.41%) Git
1 1 (1.41%) JIRA
1 1 (1.41%) Visual Studio
General
1 25 (35.21%) Social Skills
2 11 (15.49%) Public Sector
3 8 (11.27%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (7.04%) Aviation
4 5 (7.04%) Marketing
5 4 (5.63%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (5.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 4 (5.63%) Military
5 4 (5.63%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (2.82%) Aerospace
6 2 (2.82%) Police
7 1 (1.41%) Finance
7 1 (1.41%) Legal
7 1 (1.41%) Retail
Job Titles
1 22 (30.99%) IT Support
2 19 (26.76%) IT Engineer
2 19 (26.76%) Support Engineer
3 18 (25.35%) IT Support Engineer
4 9 (12.68%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 8 (11.27%) Analyst
5 8 (11.27%) Security Engineer
5 8 (11.27%) Senior
6 7 (9.86%) IAM Specialist
7 6 (8.45%) Cybersecurity Specialist
7 6 (8.45%) Security Specialist
8 5 (7.04%) 1st/2nd Line Support
8 5 (7.04%) 2nd Line Support
8 5 (7.04%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 4 (5.63%) Administrator
9 4 (5.63%) Identity Management Analyst
9 4 (5.63%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 4 (5.63%) Senior IT Engineer
9 4 (5.63%) Senior IT Support
9 4 (5.63%) Senior Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (15.49%) SailPoint
2 9 (12.68%) OAuth
2 9 (12.68%) OAuth2
2 9 (12.68%) OpenID
2 9 (12.68%) SAML
3 8 (11.27%) Web Services
4 6 (8.45%) LDAP
5 2 (2.82%) JSON
5 2 (2.82%) REST
5 2 (2.82%) XML
6 1 (1.41%) Kafka
6 1 (1.41%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 6 (8.45%) Security Posture
2 5 (7.04%) Cloud Security Posture
2 5 (7.04%) Cyber Defence
2 5 (7.04%) Onboarding
2 5 (7.04%) Operational Technology
3 4 (5.63%) Driving Licence
3 4 (5.63%) SCADA
4 2 (2.82%) CMDB
5 1 (1.41%) AI Agents
5 1 (1.41%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.41%) Data Fabric
5 1 (1.41%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (1.41%) IoT
5 1 (1.41%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.41%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 27 (38.03%) Windows
2 10 (14.08%) Linux
3 7 (9.86%) Windows 10
4 6 (8.45%) Unix
4 6 (8.45%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (28.17%) Customer Service
2 16 (22.54%) RBAC
3 13 (18.31%) Change Control
3 13 (18.31%) Cybersecurity
3 13 (18.31%) ITSM
4 12 (16.90%) Information Security
5 11 (15.49%) Analytics
5 11 (15.49%) SIEM
6 10 (14.08%) Runbook
7 9 (12.68%) CI/CD
7 9 (12.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 8 (11.27%) API Integration
8 8 (11.27%) Computer Science
8 8 (11.27%) Identity Access Management
8 8 (11.27%) Problem-Solving
8 8 (11.27%) Risk Analytics
8 8 (11.27%) Zero Trust
9 7 (9.86%) User Experience
9 7 (9.86%) Vulnerability Management
10 6 (8.45%) OWASP
Programming Languages
1 18 (25.35%) PowerShell
2 9 (12.68%) Python
3 2 (2.82%) SQL
4 1 (1.41%) Bicep
4 1 (1.41%) C#
Qualifications
1 25 (35.21%) Security Cleared
2 19 (26.76%) SC Cleared
3 12 (16.90%) Degree
4 9 (12.68%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (7.04%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 5 (7.04%) CESG Certified Professional
5 5 (7.04%) Cisco Certification
5 5 (7.04%) CISM
5 5 (7.04%) CISSP
5 5 (7.04%) CRISC
5 5 (7.04%) GIAC
5 5 (7.04%) SANS
6 4 (5.63%) GSEC
6 4 (5.63%) SSCP
7 2 (2.82%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (1.41%) Azure Certification
8 1 (1.41%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (18.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 13 (18.31%) NIST
2 6 (8.45%) Cyber Essentials
2 6 (8.45%) ISO 31000
3 3 (4.23%) Data Quality
4 2 (2.82%) NCSC
System Software
1 36 (50.70%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.41%) Docker
2 1 (1.41%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 8 (11.27%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (4.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 3 (4.23%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (4.23%) Terraform
3 2 (2.82%) SCCM
4 1 (1.41%) Ansible
4 1 (1.41%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 3 (4.23%) Google
2 2 (2.82%) Databricks
3 1 (1.41%) Xero