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 27 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
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 10 12
Rank change year-on-year +1 +2 -6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 157 76 132
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 14.36% 12.75% 11.97%
As % of the Vendors category 30.31% 21.23% 22.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 56 82
10th Percentile £201 £160 £334
25th Percentile £451 £359 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £500 £580
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -13.79% +10.48%
75th Percentile £666 £588 £608
90th Percentile £710 £656 £688
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £469 £523
% change year-on-year +6.53% -10.17% +4.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 2 4
10th Percentile £31.16 £27.69 £47.30
25th Percentile £63.06 £29.10 £54.49
Median hourly rate £86.00 £32.89 £59.55
Median % change year-on-year +161.48% -44.76% +64.63%
75th Percentile £108.69 £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 518 358 577
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 47.39% 60.07% 52.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 307 242 323
10th Percentile £354 £295 £363
25th Percentile £454 £450 £484
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £538 £600
Median % change year-on-year +6.98% -10.42% +9.09%
75th Percentile £650 £614 £673
90th Percentile £775 £661 £738
Berkshire median daily rate £513 £525 £573
% change year-on-year -2.38% -8.30% +9.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 14 16
10th Percentile £30.64 - £14.50
25th Percentile £64.25 £14.75 £19.19
Median hourly rate £85.00 £18.13 £60.83
Median % change year-on-year +368.97% -70.20% -5.41%
75th Percentile £101.52 £36.38 £61.60
90th Percentile £110.75 £44.78 £75.93
Berkshire median hourly rate £68.11 £20.75 £58.49
% change year-on-year +228.23% -64.52% -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 27 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 27 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 21 (13.38%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.91%) ArcGIS
3 2 (1.27%) Apache
3 2 (1.27%) Apache Superset
3 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.27%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.64%) Confluence
Applications
1 27 (17.20%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (14.65%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (8.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (5.10%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (2.55%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (7.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (1.91%) Maximo
3 1 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.64%) iTrent
3 1 (0.64%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 87 (55.41%) Azure
2 25 (15.92%) Power Platform
3 21 (13.38%) Azure DevOps
4 20 (12.74%) AWS
5 17 (10.83%) Microsoft 365
6 16 (10.19%) Entra ID
6 16 (10.19%) OpenShift
7 9 (5.73%) Azure Logic Apps
7 9 (5.73%) Azure Sentinel
8 7 (4.46%) OneDrive
9 6 (3.82%) GCP
10 5 (3.18%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (2.55%) Microsoft Purview
12 3 (1.91%) Azure Data Factory
12 3 (1.91%) Dynamics 365
12 3 (1.91%) PowerApps
12 3 (1.91%) SaaS
13 2 (1.27%) AWS CloudFormation
14 1 (0.64%) GitHub
14 1 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 17 (10.83%) TCP/IP
2 14 (8.92%) DHCP
2 14 (8.92%) DNS
3 8 (5.10%) Firewall
3 8 (5.10%) VPN
4 4 (2.55%) Internet
4 4 (2.55%) LAN
5 3 (1.91%) Software-Defined Networking
5 3 (1.91%) WAN
5 3 (1.91%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (1.27%) BGP
6 2 (1.27%) MPLS
6 2 (1.27%) SNMP
6 2 (1.27%) TACACS
7 1 (0.64%) DNSSEC
7 1 (0.64%) ISDN
7 1 (0.64%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.64%) Network Security
7 1 (0.64%) PBX
7 1 (0.64%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (11.46%) Power BI
2 4 (2.55%) SQL Server
3 3 (1.91%) GIS
3 3 (1.91%) Tableau
4 2 (1.27%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.27%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.64%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.64%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.64%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 4 (2.55%) Git
1 4 (2.55%) GitLab
1 4 (2.55%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.64%) JIRA
General
1 57 (36.31%) Social Skills
2 41 (26.11%) Aerospace
3 17 (10.83%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (5.73%) Finance
5 8 (5.10%) Organisational Skills
6 7 (4.46%) Influencing Skills
6 7 (4.46%) Public Sector
6 7 (4.46%) Telecoms
7 4 (2.55%) Legal
8 2 (1.27%) Automotive
8 2 (1.27%) Aviation
8 2 (1.27%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.64%) Marketing
9 1 (0.64%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 27 (17.20%) Architect
1 27 (17.20%) Lead
2 16 (10.19%) Analyst
3 13 (8.28%) Solutions Architect
4 10 (6.37%) Senior
5 9 (5.73%) Business Analyst
5 9 (5.73%) Consultant
6 8 (5.10%) SIEM Engineer
6 8 (5.10%) Systems Engineer
7 7 (4.46%) Change Manager
8 6 (3.82%) Cloud Engineer
8 6 (3.82%) IT Support
9 5 (3.18%) Data Engineer
9 5 (3.18%) Lead Architect
9 5 (3.18%) Lead Solutions Architect
9 5 (3.18%) Project Officer
9 5 (3.18%) Project Support Officer
9 5 (3.18%) Support Officer
10 4 (2.55%) Enterprise Architect
10 4 (2.55%) Support Assistant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (12.74%) Terraform
2 5 (3.18%) PySpark
2 5 (3.18%) Streamlit
3 4 (2.55%) 802.1X
3 4 (2.55%) ARM Templates
4 3 (1.91%) Microsoft Graph
4 3 (1.91%) OAuth
4 3 (1.91%) SAML
5 2 (1.27%) .NET
5 2 (1.27%) NETCONF
5 2 (1.27%) OpenConfig
5 2 (1.27%) OpenID
5 2 (1.27%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (1.27%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.27%) YANG
6 1 (0.64%) .NET Framework
6 1 (0.64%) Entity Framework
6 1 (0.64%) REST
6 1 (0.64%) RESTful
6 1 (0.64%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 24 (15.29%) Onboarding
2 16 (10.19%) Hybrid Cloud
3 12 (7.64%) Cloud Native
4 9 (5.73%) Data Centre
5 8 (5.10%) Operational Technology
6 6 (3.82%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (3.82%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (3.82%) Management Information System
7 5 (3.18%) Product Ownership
8 2 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (1.27%) CMDB
8 2 (1.27%) Distributed Architecture
8 2 (1.27%) Distributed Computing
8 2 (1.27%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.27%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.64%) Fat Client
9 1 (0.64%) iPhone
9 1 (0.64%) PKI
9 1 (0.64%) Smartphone
9 1 (0.64%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 29 (18.47%) Windows
2 14 (8.92%) Linux
3 9 (5.73%) Windows Server
4 8 (5.10%) Apple iOS
5 7 (4.46%) Mac OS
6 5 (3.18%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.64%) Android
7 1 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.64%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (32.48%) Stakeholder Management
2 43 (27.39%) DevOps
3 33 (21.02%) Roadmaps
4 29 (18.47%) Technical Leadership
5 26 (16.56%) Cybersecurity
5 26 (16.56%) Problem-Solving
6 25 (15.92%) CI/CD
7 23 (14.65%) ITIL
8 22 (14.01%) Agile
8 22 (14.01%) Digital Transformation Programme
8 22 (14.01%) Infrastructure as Code
8 22 (14.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 21 (13.38%) Enterprise Architecture
10 20 (12.74%) Continuous Improvement
11 19 (12.10%) ITSM
11 19 (12.10%) Project Management
12 18 (11.46%) Analytics
12 18 (11.46%) Business Intelligence
13 17 (10.83%) Change Management
13 17 (10.83%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 26 (16.56%) Python
2 24 (15.29%) PowerShell
3 15 (9.55%) SQL
4 12 (7.64%) Bash
5 11 (7.01%) Kusto Query Language
6 5 (3.18%) Bicep
7 1 (0.64%) C#
Qualifications
1 83 (52.87%) Security Cleared
2 75 (47.77%) SC Cleared
3 30 (19.11%) Degree
4 28 (17.83%) Azure Certification
5 10 (6.37%) PMI Certification
5 10 (6.37%) PMP
6 7 (4.46%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (3.18%) AWS Certification
7 5 (3.18%) DV Cleared
8 3 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (1.91%) CISSP
8 3 (1.91%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.91%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 3 (1.91%) TOGAF Certification
8 3 (1.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 2 (1.27%) CCIE
9 2 (1.27%) JNCIE
9 2 (1.27%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.64%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 1 (0.64%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.46%) Data Quality
2 6 (3.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.55%) GRC
4 3 (1.91%) NIST
4 3 (1.91%) PMO
4 3 (1.91%) SLA
5 2 (1.27%) GDPR
5 2 (1.27%) NCSC
6 1 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.64%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.64%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.64%) QA
6 1 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 14 (8.92%) Active Directory
2 9 (5.73%) Docker
3 8 (5.10%) Hyper-V
4 7 (4.46%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (1.27%) Firmware
5 2 (1.27%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.64%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 19 (12.10%) Kubernetes
2 18 (11.46%) Ansible
3 17 (10.83%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (3.82%) Jamf Pro
5 5 (3.18%) Grafana
6 4 (2.55%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.91%) Istio
7 3 (1.91%) Progress Chef
7 3 (1.91%) Prometheus
7 3 (1.91%) Puppet
8 2 (1.27%) SCCM
9 1 (0.64%) QRadar
Vendors
1 23 (14.65%) SAP
2 18 (11.46%) ServiceNow
3 8 (5.10%) Google
3 8 (5.10%) VMware
4 7 (4.46%) Databricks
5 5 (3.18%) Oracle
6 3 (1.91%) CyberArk
6 3 (1.91%) ESRI
6 3 (1.91%) IBM
6 3 (1.91%) Red Hat
7 2 (1.27%) Apple
7 2 (1.27%) Cisco
7 2 (1.27%) F5
7 2 (1.27%) Fortinet
7 2 (1.27%) Juniper
7 2 (1.27%) Salesforce
7 2 (1.27%) Workday
8 1 (0.64%) Infoblox
8 1 (0.64%) Mitel
8 1 (0.64%) Splunk