Microsoft Contract Job Trends in Reading

Microsoft
Berkshire > Reading

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Reading 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 10 May 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
10 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 17 8
Rank change year-on-year +3 -9 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 89 54 189
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 8.79% 9.11% 16.22%
As % of the Vendors category 17.21% 16.67% 33.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 37 149
10th Percentile £280 £189 £205
25th Percentile £375 £381 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £455 £533
Median % change year-on-year +9.89% -14.63% -3.09%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £608
90th Percentile £700 £638 -
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £478 £500
% change year-on-year +4.71% -4.50% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 0 12
10th Percentile £54.38 - £51.75
25th Percentile £59.50 - £56.44
Median hourly rate £86.00 - £58.30
75th Percentile £100.63 - £60.69
90th Percentile £104.60 - £64.66
Berkshire median hourly rate £79.25 £32.05 £58.30
% change year-on-year +147.27% -45.03% +45.75%

All Vendors
Reading

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 Reading.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 517 324 564
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 51.04% 54.64% 48.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 338 218 349
10th Percentile £303 £350 £213
25th Percentile £437 £458 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £555 £581 £563
Median % change year-on-year -4.39% +3.20% -2.17%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £716 £700 £688
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £550 £513
% change year-on-year -9.09% +7.32% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 2 26
10th Percentile £55.40 £33.82 £34.43
25th Percentile £82.00 £41.05 £53.74
Median hourly rate £88.00 £53.10 £59.22
Median % change year-on-year +65.74% -10.34% -8.43%
75th Percentile - £65.14 £61.60
90th Percentile £100.68 £72.37 £64.15
Berkshire median hourly rate £88.00 £42.78 £58.30
% change year-on-year +105.73% -26.63% -7.46%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in Reading

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

Microsoft job vacancy trend in Reading

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in Reading

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in Reading

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in Reading over the 6 months to 10 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in Reading

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in Reading

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in Reading

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in Reading over the 6 months to 10 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in Reading

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Reading 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 12 (13.48%) SharePoint
2 5 (5.62%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (3.37%) Confluence
Applications
1 17 (19.10%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (15.73%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (8.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (4.49%) MS Visio
5 3 (3.37%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (1.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (3.37%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (2.25%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (1.12%) iTrent
3 1 (1.12%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (1.12%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 24 (26.97%) Azure
2 13 (14.61%) Microsoft 365
3 10 (11.24%) AWS
3 10 (11.24%) Power Platform
4 9 (10.11%) Entra ID
4 9 (10.11%) SaaS
5 7 (7.87%) Azure DevOps
5 7 (7.87%) Microsoft Purview
6 5 (5.62%) Power Automate
7 4 (4.49%) AWS CloudFormation
7 4 (4.49%) OneDrive
8 2 (2.25%) GitHub
8 2 (2.25%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (2.25%) PowerApps
9 1 (1.12%) Azure Data Factory
9 1 (1.12%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (1.12%) Azure Pipelines
9 1 (1.12%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (1.12%) IaaS
9 1 (1.12%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 8 (8.99%) TCP/IP
2 5 (5.62%) Firewall
2 5 (5.62%) MPLS
2 5 (5.62%) SD-WAN
2 5 (5.62%) WAN
3 4 (4.49%) BGP
3 4 (4.49%) DHCP
3 4 (4.49%) DNS
3 4 (4.49%) IPsec
3 4 (4.49%) LAN
3 4 (4.49%) MQTT
3 4 (4.49%) SNMP
3 4 (4.49%) TACACS
4 3 (3.37%) Unified Communications
4 3 (3.37%) Wireless
5 1 (1.12%) ISDN
5 1 (1.12%) Network Security
5 1 (1.12%) PBX
5 1 (1.12%) PSTN
5 1 (1.12%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (5.62%) Power BI
2 2 (2.25%) Metadata
2 2 (2.25%) Oracle Reports
2 2 (2.25%) SQL Server
3 1 (1.12%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 3 (3.37%) Android Studio
1 3 (3.37%) Bitbucket
1 3 (3.37%) Jenkins
1 3 (3.37%) JIRA
1 3 (3.37%) Subversion
General
1 23 (25.84%) Social Skills
2 12 (13.48%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (10.11%) Finance
4 7 (7.87%) Public Sector
5 5 (5.62%) Legal
6 4 (4.49%) Aerospace
6 4 (4.49%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (3.37%) Advertising
7 3 (3.37%) Telecoms
8 2 (2.25%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (2.25%) Police
9 1 (1.12%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 13 (14.61%) Architect
2 12 (13.48%) Senior
3 9 (10.11%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 8 (8.99%) Lead
4 8 (8.99%) Solutions Architect
5 6 (6.74%) Analyst
5 6 (6.74%) Cybersecurity Architect
5 6 (6.74%) E-Discovery Specialist
5 6 (6.74%) Security Architect
5 6 (6.74%) Security Solutions Architect
5 6 (6.74%) SIEM Engineer
6 5 (5.62%) Consultant
7 4 (4.49%) IP Specialist
7 4 (4.49%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (4.49%) Systems Engineer
8 3 (3.37%) Change Manager
8 3 (3.37%) Delivery Manager
8 3 (3.37%) Operations Manager
8 3 (3.37%) Service Delivery Manager
8 3 (3.37%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (4.49%) ADO
1 4 (4.49%) NETCONF
1 4 (4.49%) OpenConfig
1 4 (4.49%) RESTCONF
1 4 (4.49%) Software Packaging
1 4 (4.49%) YANG
2 3 (3.37%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (2.25%) XML
4 1 (1.12%) .NET
4 1 (1.12%) Oracle Fusion
4 1 (1.12%) PySpark
4 1 (1.12%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 9 (10.11%) PKI
2 8 (8.99%) Operational Technology
3 7 (7.87%) Onboarding
4 6 (6.74%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (5.62%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (4.49%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (4.49%) Data Centre
7 3 (3.37%) Cyber Defence
7 3 (3.37%) Mobile App
7 3 (3.37%) Video Conferencing
8 2 (2.25%) Cyber Security Posture
8 2 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (2.25%) Security Posture
9 1 (1.12%) Cloud Native
9 1 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (1.12%) Data Structures
9 1 (1.12%) Management Information System
9 1 (1.12%) Product Ownership
9 1 (1.12%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 15 (16.85%) Windows
2 10 (11.24%) Linux
3 8 (8.99%) Mac OS
4 3 (3.37%) Android
5 1 (1.12%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (22.47%) Cybersecurity
2 16 (17.98%) SIEM
3 15 (16.85%) Problem-Solving
4 13 (14.61%) DevOps
4 13 (14.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 10 (11.24%) Agile
5 10 (11.24%) Risk Management
6 9 (10.11%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 9 (10.11%) ITIL
6 9 (10.11%) Stakeholder Management
6 9 (10.11%) Validation
7 8 (8.99%) Analytics
7 8 (8.99%) CI/CD
7 8 (8.99%) Continuous Improvement
7 8 (8.99%) Decision-Making
7 8 (8.99%) Platform Engineering
7 8 (8.99%) Risk Assessment
7 8 (8.99%) Service Delivery
8 7 (7.87%) PRINCE2
8 7 (7.87%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 18 (20.22%) Python
2 15 (16.85%) PowerShell
3 5 (5.62%) Bash
3 5 (5.62%) SQL
4 2 (2.25%) T-SQL
5 1 (1.12%) C#
Qualifications
1 31 (34.83%) Security Cleared
2 26 (29.21%) SC Cleared
3 6 (6.74%) DV Cleared
4 5 (5.62%) AWS Certification
4 5 (5.62%) CISSP
4 5 (5.62%) PMI Certification
4 5 (5.62%) PMP
5 4 (4.49%) CCIE
5 4 (4.49%) Cisco Certification
5 4 (4.49%) JNCIE
6 3 (3.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 3 (3.37%) CEH
6 3 (3.37%) CREST Certified
6 3 (3.37%) Degree
6 3 (3.37%) GIAC
6 3 (3.37%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 2 (2.25%) Azure Certification
7 2 (2.25%) DBS Check
7 2 (2.25%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (2.25%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (5.62%) NIST
2 4 (4.49%) NCSC
2 4 (4.49%) NIST 800
2 4 (4.49%) PMO
2 4 (4.49%) SLA
3 3 (3.37%) GDPR
4 2 (2.25%) Accessibility
5 1 (1.12%) Data Quality
5 1 (1.12%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (1.12%) ISO 9001
5 1 (1.12%) QA
System Software
1 14 (15.73%) Active Directory
2 8 (8.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (6.74%) Hyper-V
4 4 (4.49%) Docker
5 3 (3.37%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (1.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 9 (10.11%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (8.99%) Ansible
3 6 (6.74%) SCCM
3 6 (6.74%) Terraform
4 4 (4.49%) Kubernetes
5 3 (3.37%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (3.37%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 10 (11.24%) VMware
2 8 (8.99%) Cisco
3 5 (5.62%) Citrix
3 5 (5.62%) Fortinet
3 5 (5.62%) SAP
3 5 (5.62%) ServiceNow
4 4 (4.49%) BiZZdesign
4 4 (4.49%) F5
4 4 (4.49%) Juniper
5 3 (3.37%) Atlassian
5 3 (3.37%) Coverity
5 3 (3.37%) Oracle
5 3 (3.37%) Tanium
5 3 (3.37%) Thales
6 2 (2.25%) Avaya
6 2 (2.25%) Salesforce
7 1 (1.12%) Databricks
7 1 (1.12%) IBM
7 1 (1.12%) Mitel
7 1 (1.12%) Splunk