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 11 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
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 13 11
Rank change year-on-year +5 -2 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 151 63 140
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 13.98% 10.75% 12.53%
As % of the Vendors category 28.12% 17.80% 23.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 84 43 84
10th Percentile £222 £164 £351
25th Percentile £460 £406 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £513 £574
Median % change year-on-year +17.07% -10.68% +9.29%
75th Percentile £671 £587 £608
90th Percentile £718 £660 £674
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% +8.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 2 4
10th Percentile £30.99 £27.69 £47.30
25th Percentile £62.18 £29.10 £54.49
Median hourly rate £87.08 £32.89 £59.55
Median % change year-on-year +164.76% -44.76% +64.63%
75th Percentile £110.06 £36.38 £60.72
90th Percentile £110.75 £37.60 £60.92
Berkshire median hourly rate £63.48 £28.50 £58.05
% change year-on-year +122.74% -50.90% +5.54%

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 537 354 594
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 49.72% 60.41% 53.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 316 236 327
10th Percentile £357 £350 £358
25th Percentile £455 £450 £482
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -8.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £656 £625 £675
90th Percentile £785 £688 £765
Berkshire median daily rate £513 £525 £563
% change year-on-year -2.38% -6.67% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 14 19
10th Percentile £30.73 - £14.50
25th Percentile £65.00 £14.75 £31.63
Median hourly rate £85.00 £18.13 £61.06
Median % change year-on-year +368.97% -70.32% -4.72%
75th Percentile £101.30 £36.38 £61.60
90th Percentile £110.75 £44.78 £75.29
Berkshire median hourly rate £73.60 £19.81 £58.49
% change year-on-year +271.53% -66.13% -2.52%

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 11 September 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 11 September 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 18 (11.92%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.99%) ArcGIS
3 2 (1.32%) Apache
3 2 (1.32%) Apache Superset
3 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.32%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.66%) Confluence
Applications
1 24 (15.89%) Microsoft Excel
1 24 (15.89%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (8.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (3.31%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (2.65%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (7.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (1.99%) Maximo
3 1 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.66%) iTrent
3 1 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 84 (55.63%) Azure
2 25 (16.56%) Power Platform
3 21 (13.91%) AWS
4 18 (11.92%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (11.26%) Azure DevOps
6 16 (10.60%) OpenShift
7 14 (9.27%) Entra ID
8 8 (5.30%) Azure Logic Apps
8 8 (5.30%) Azure Sentinel
9 7 (4.64%) OneDrive
10 6 (3.97%) GCP
11 5 (3.31%) Azure Monitor
12 4 (2.65%) Microsoft Purview
13 3 (1.99%) Azure Data Factory
13 3 (1.99%) Dynamics 365
13 3 (1.99%) PowerApps
13 3 (1.99%) SaaS
14 2 (1.32%) AWS CloudFormation
14 2 (1.32%) GitHub
14 2 (1.32%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 16 (10.60%) TCP/IP
2 14 (9.27%) DHCP
2 14 (9.27%) DNS
3 8 (5.30%) Firewall
3 8 (5.30%) VPN
4 5 (3.31%) LAN
5 4 (2.65%) Internet
5 4 (2.65%) WAN
6 3 (1.99%) MPLS
6 3 (1.99%) Software-Defined Networking
7 2 (1.32%) BGP
7 2 (1.32%) SNMP
7 2 (1.32%) TACACS
7 2 (1.32%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.66%) DMVPN
8 1 (0.66%) ISDN
8 1 (0.66%) Kerberos
8 1 (0.66%) PBX
8 1 (0.66%) PSTN
8 1 (0.66%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (11.92%) Power BI
2 5 (3.31%) SQL Server
3 3 (1.99%) GIS
3 3 (1.99%) Tableau
4 2 (1.32%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.32%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.66%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.66%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.66%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 4 (2.65%) Git
1 4 (2.65%) GitLab
1 4 (2.65%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.66%) JIRA
General
1 55 (36.42%) Social Skills
2 38 (25.17%) Aerospace
3 18 (11.92%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (6.62%) Finance
5 7 (4.64%) Influencing Skills
5 7 (4.64%) Public Sector
5 7 (4.64%) Telecoms
6 5 (3.31%) Legal
6 5 (3.31%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.32%) Aviation
7 2 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.32%) Police
8 1 (0.66%) Advertising
8 1 (0.66%) Marketing
8 1 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 29 (19.21%) Architect
2 26 (17.22%) Lead
3 16 (10.60%) Analyst
4 15 (9.93%) Solutions Architect
5 12 (7.95%) Senior
6 10 (6.62%) Consultant
7 9 (5.96%) Business Analyst
8 8 (5.30%) Systems Engineer
9 7 (4.64%) Change Manager
9 7 (4.64%) Cloud Engineer
9 7 (4.64%) SIEM Engineer
10 6 (3.97%) IT Support
11 5 (3.31%) Data Engineer
11 5 (3.31%) Lead Architect
11 5 (3.31%) Lead Solutions Architect
12 4 (2.65%) Enterprise Architect
12 4 (2.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 4 (2.65%) Senior Systems Engineer
12 4 (2.65%) Support Assistant
12 4 (2.65%) Systems Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (13.91%) Terraform
2 5 (3.31%) PySpark
2 5 (3.31%) Streamlit
3 4 (2.65%) 802.1X
3 4 (2.65%) ARM Templates
4 3 (1.99%) .NET
4 3 (1.99%) Microsoft Graph
4 3 (1.99%) OAuth
4 3 (1.99%) SAML
5 2 (1.32%) NETCONF
5 2 (1.32%) OpenConfig
5 2 (1.32%) OpenID
5 2 (1.32%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (1.32%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.32%) YANG
6 1 (0.66%) .NET Framework
6 1 (0.66%) Entity Framework
6 1 (0.66%) REST
6 1 (0.66%) RESTful
6 1 (0.66%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 24 (15.89%) Onboarding
2 17 (11.26%) Hybrid Cloud
3 12 (7.95%) Cloud Native
4 9 (5.96%) Data Centre
5 8 (5.30%) Operational Technology
6 6 (3.97%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (3.97%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (3.31%) Product Ownership
8 4 (2.65%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (1.32%) CMDB
9 2 (1.32%) Distributed Architecture
9 2 (1.32%) Distributed Computing
9 2 (1.32%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.32%) Public Cloud
10 1 (0.66%) Cyber Threat
10 1 (0.66%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.66%) Fat Client
10 1 (0.66%) iPhone
10 1 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 25 (16.56%) Windows
2 15 (9.93%) Linux
3 9 (5.96%) Windows Server
4 7 (4.64%) Apple iOS
5 6 (3.97%) Mac OS
6 2 (1.32%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.66%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (29.80%) Stakeholder Management
2 41 (27.15%) DevOps
3 30 (19.87%) Roadmaps
4 27 (17.88%) Cybersecurity
4 27 (17.88%) Problem-Solving
4 27 (17.88%) Technical Leadership
5 23 (15.23%) Agile
5 23 (15.23%) Infrastructure as Code
6 22 (14.57%) CI/CD
6 22 (14.57%) Digital Transformation Programme
6 22 (14.57%) ITIL
6 22 (14.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 21 (13.91%) Enterprise Architecture
8 19 (12.58%) Analytics
9 18 (11.92%) Business Intelligence
9 18 (11.92%) Continuous Improvement
9 18 (11.92%) ITSM
10 17 (11.26%) Risk Management
11 16 (10.60%) Project Management
12 15 (9.93%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 27 (17.88%) Python
2 22 (14.57%) PowerShell
3 16 (10.60%) SQL
4 12 (7.95%) Bash
5 10 (6.62%) Kusto Query Language
6 5 (3.31%) Bicep
7 2 (1.32%) C#
8 1 (0.66%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 78 (51.66%) Security Cleared
2 71 (47.02%) SC Cleared
3 27 (17.88%) Degree
4 25 (16.56%) Azure Certification
5 10 (6.62%) PMI Certification
5 10 (6.62%) PMP
6 7 (4.64%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (3.31%) AWS Certification
8 3 (1.99%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (1.99%) CISSP
8 3 (1.99%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.99%) DV Cleared
8 3 (1.99%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 3 (1.99%) TOGAF Certification
8 3 (1.99%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 2 (1.32%) CCIE
9 2 (1.32%) JNCIE
9 2 (1.32%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.66%) APMG
10 1 (0.66%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.64%) Data Quality
2 6 (3.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.65%) GRC
4 3 (1.99%) NIST
4 3 (1.99%) PMO
4 3 (1.99%) SLA
5 2 (1.32%) GDPR
5 2 (1.32%) NCSC
6 1 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.66%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.66%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.66%) QA
6 1 (0.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 13 (8.61%) Active Directory
2 9 (5.96%) Docker
2 9 (5.96%) Hyper-V
3 7 (4.64%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.66%) Firmware
4 1 (0.66%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.66%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 19 (12.58%) Kubernetes
2 18 (11.92%) Ansible
3 15 (9.93%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (3.97%) Jamf Pro
5 5 (3.31%) Grafana
6 4 (2.65%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.99%) Istio
7 3 (1.99%) Progress Chef
7 3 (1.99%) Prometheus
7 3 (1.99%) Puppet
8 1 (0.66%) QRadar
8 1 (0.66%) SCCM
Vendors
1 23 (15.23%) SAP
2 17 (11.26%) ServiceNow
3 10 (6.62%) VMware
4 8 (5.30%) Google
5 7 (4.64%) Databricks
6 5 (3.31%) Oracle
7 4 (2.65%) IBM
8 3 (1.99%) Cisco
8 3 (1.99%) CyberArk
8 3 (1.99%) ESRI
8 3 (1.99%) Fortinet
8 3 (1.99%) Red Hat
9 2 (1.32%) Avaya
9 2 (1.32%) F5
9 2 (1.32%) Juniper
9 2 (1.32%) Salesforce
9 2 (1.32%) Splunk
9 2 (1.32%) Workday
10 1 (0.66%) Apple
10 1 (0.66%) McAfee