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 9 January 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
9 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 5 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 38 11 26
As % of all contract jobs in Oxfordshire 21.47% 11.96% 15.20%
As % of the Vendors category 46.91% 29.73% 36.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 26 6 15
10th Percentile £187 £160 £124
25th Percentile £205 £183 £128
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £275 £338 £200
Median % change year-on-year -18.52% +68.75% -50.00%
75th Percentile £525 £597 £541
90th Percentile £600 £663 £575
South East median daily rate £475 £451 £465
% change year-on-year +5.44% -3.11% +3.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 2 2
10th Percentile £27.50 - -
25th Percentile £38.38 £23.50 £16.25
Median hourly rate £83.32 £25.00 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year +233.26% +42.86% +20.69%
75th Percentile £89.63 £26.50 £18.75
90th Percentile - - -
South East median hourly rate £17.50 £25.00 £22.00
% change year-on-year -30.00% +13.64% +18.92%

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 81 37 72
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Oxfordshire 45.76% 40.22% 42.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 19 51
10th Percentile £190 £182 £140
25th Percentile £263 £413 £281
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% +2.56% +10.80%
75th Percentile £525 £588 £575
90th Percentile £675 £680 £625
South East median daily rate £500 £515 £511
% change year-on-year -2.91% +0.78% +2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 3 5
10th Percentile £15.53 - -
25th Percentile £20.50 £23.50 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.50 £25.00 £32.32
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -22.65% +90.12%
75th Percentile £87.97 £47.00 -
90th Percentile £89.63 £59.30 £48.63
South East median hourly rate £22.50 £40.25 £55.53
% change year-on-year -44.10% -27.52% +76.12%

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 9 January 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 9 January 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 9 January 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 0 12 £450 +80.00% 38
Carterton - 8 £178 - 2
Bicester - 4 £521 - 1
Banbury - 2 £190 - 2
Thame - 1 £425 -
Kidlington - 1 £200 - 1
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 1 (2.63%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (28.95%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (7.89%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (5.26%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 12 (31.58%) Microsoft 365
2 7 (18.42%) Azure
3 5 (13.16%) Entra ID
4 4 (10.53%) Power Platform
5 3 (7.89%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (5.26%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 2 (5.26%) Microsoft Purview
6 2 (5.26%) OneDrive
6 2 (5.26%) PowerApps
7 1 (2.63%) Azure Data Factory
7 1 (2.63%) Azure Functions
7 1 (2.63%) Azure Key Vault
7 1 (2.63%) Azure Logic Apps
7 1 (2.63%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 1 (2.63%) IaaS
7 1 (2.63%) Lucidchart
7 1 (2.63%) PaaS
7 1 (2.63%) SaaS
7 1 (2.63%) Serverless
7 1 (2.63%) Viva Engage
Communications & Networking
1 7 (18.42%) VPN
2 5 (13.16%) DHCP
2 5 (13.16%) DNS
3 4 (10.53%) Firewall
3 4 (10.53%) TCP/IP
3 4 (10.53%) Wireless
4 2 (5.26%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (2.63%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (10.53%) Power BI
2 1 (2.63%) Data Lake
2 1 (2.63%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (2.63%) Metadata
2 1 (2.63%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 5 (13.16%) JIRA
General
1 19 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 5 (13.16%) Analytical Skills
2 5 (13.16%) Organisational Skills
3 4 (10.53%) Retail
4 2 (5.26%) Aerospace
4 2 (5.26%) Aviation
4 2 (5.26%) Finance
4 2 (5.26%) Legal
4 2 (5.26%) Local Government
4 2 (5.26%) Military
5 1 (2.63%) Influencing Skills
5 1 (2.63%) Manufacturing
5 1 (2.63%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 9 (23.68%) Analyst
1 9 (23.68%) Support Engineer
2 7 (18.42%) Data Analyst
3 6 (15.79%) IT Engineer
4 5 (13.16%) IT Support
4 5 (13.16%) IT Support Engineer
5 4 (10.53%) Architect
6 3 (7.89%) Senior
7 2 (5.26%) 1st Line Engineer
7 2 (5.26%) Accountant
7 2 (5.26%) Business Analyst
7 2 (5.26%) Financial Accountant
7 2 (5.26%) Migration Architect
7 2 (5.26%) Project Manager
7 2 (5.26%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 2 (5.26%) Senior Accountant
7 2 (5.26%) Senior Systems Accountant
7 2 (5.26%) Service Delivery Engineer
7 2 (5.26%) Service Delivery Manager
7 2 (5.26%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.63%) OAuth
1 1 (2.63%) OAuth2
1 1 (2.63%) OpenID
1 1 (2.63%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (15.79%) Driving Licence
1 6 (15.79%) Self-Motivation
2 4 (10.53%) Onboarding
3 2 (5.26%) Data Centre
4 1 (2.63%) CMDB
4 1 (2.63%) Data Fabric
4 1 (2.63%) IoT
4 1 (2.63%) Life Science
4 1 (2.63%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 13 (34.21%) Windows
2 4 (10.53%) Mac OS
3 1 (2.63%) Windows 10
3 1 (2.63%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (26.32%) Customer Service
2 9 (23.68%) Data Management
2 9 (23.68%) Problem-Solving
3 7 (18.42%) Process Improvement
4 6 (15.79%) Asset Management
4 6 (15.79%) Cybersecurity
5 5 (13.16%) Break/Fix
5 5 (13.16%) Identity Access Management
5 5 (13.16%) Inventory Management
5 5 (13.16%) ITIL
5 5 (13.16%) Project Management
5 5 (13.16%) Time Management
6 4 (10.53%) Computer Science
6 4 (10.53%) ITSM
6 4 (10.53%) Service Management
6 4 (10.53%) Stakeholder Management
7 3 (7.89%) Business Intelligence
7 3 (7.89%) Migration
7 3 (7.89%) RBAC
7 3 (7.89%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 3 (7.89%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.63%) Python
2 1 (2.63%) SQL
Qualifications
1 18 (47.37%) SC Cleared
1 18 (47.37%) Security Cleared
2 6 (15.79%) Degree
3 5 (13.16%) Microsoft Certification
4 4 (10.53%) A+ Certification
5 2 (5.26%) CCAB
5 2 (5.26%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (2.63%) Azure Certification
6 1 (2.63%) DBS Check
6 1 (2.63%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (13.16%) GDPR
2 4 (10.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (5.26%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (5.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 2 (5.26%) Data Quality
3 2 (5.26%) NIST
System Software
1 11 (28.95%) Active Directory
2 2 (5.26%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 6 (15.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 5 (13.16%) Jamf Pro
2 5 (13.16%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (5.26%) vCenter Server
4 1 (2.63%) SCCM
Vendors
1 6 (15.79%) Cisco
2 4 (10.53%) CheckPoint
2 4 (10.53%) Palo Alto
2 4 (10.53%) ServiceNow
3 2 (5.26%) Sophos
4 1 (2.63%) Ariba
4 1 (2.63%) BeyondTrust
4 1 (2.63%) CyberArk
4 1 (2.63%) Databricks
4 1 (2.63%) Planon
4 1 (2.63%) Salesforce
4 1 (2.63%) SAP
4 1 (2.63%) Splunk
4 1 (2.63%) Xero