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 4 April 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
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 13 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 -8 +7
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 111 61 214
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 10.83% 9.81% 17.54%
As % of the Vendors category 19.72% 19.43% 35.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 82 45 177
10th Percentile £255 £370 £205
25th Percentile £366 £409 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £596 £630 £575
90th Percentile £624 £650 £608
Berkshire median daily rate £491 £500 £482
% change year-on-year -1.80% +3.73% -8.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 0 12
10th Percentile £14.50 - £51.75
25th Percentile £22.44 - £56.44
Median hourly rate £59.50 - £58.30
75th Percentile £87.00 - £60.69
90th Percentile £98.00 - £64.66
Berkshire median hourly rate £24.50 £56.75 £58.30
% change year-on-year -56.82% -2.67% +133.20%

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 563 314 597
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 54.93% 50.48% 48.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 398 212 383
10th Percentile £306 £357 £213
25th Percentile £446 £492 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £533
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +12.57% -9.04%
75th Percentile £624 £650 £624
90th Percentile £679 £700 £688
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £550 £506
% change year-on-year -9.09% +8.70% -8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 2 24
10th Percentile £40.50 £33.82 £52.90
25th Percentile £76.50 £41.05 £56.44
Median hourly rate £88.00 £53.10 £60.87
Median % change year-on-year +65.74% -12.77% +1.73%
75th Percentile - £65.14 £62.73
90th Percentile £96.50 £72.37 £64.49
Berkshire median hourly rate £82.75 £57.12 £58.65
% change year-on-year +44.86% -2.60% +3.12%

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 4 April 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 4 April 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 (10.81%) SharePoint
2 6 (5.41%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (2.70%) Confluence
4 1 (0.90%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 17 (15.32%) Microsoft Excel
1 17 (15.32%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (6.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (3.60%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (3.60%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.90%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.90%) iTrent
2 1 (0.90%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.90%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 26 (23.42%) Azure
2 18 (16.22%) Microsoft 365
3 13 (11.71%) Entra ID
4 12 (10.81%) AWS
4 12 (10.81%) SaaS
5 10 (9.01%) OneDrive
5 10 (9.01%) Power Platform
6 9 (8.11%) Microsoft Purview
7 6 (5.41%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (4.50%) Power Automate
9 4 (3.60%) AWS CloudFormation
10 3 (2.70%) GitHub
10 3 (2.70%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (2.70%) IaaS
10 3 (2.70%) PaaS
11 2 (1.80%) Azure Data Factory
11 2 (1.80%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (1.80%) PowerApps
12 1 (0.90%) Dynamics 365
12 1 (0.90%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 10 (9.01%) Unified Communications
2 8 (7.21%) Firewall
2 8 (7.21%) TCP/IP
3 5 (4.50%) 4G
3 5 (4.50%) DNS
3 5 (4.50%) MPLS
3 5 (4.50%) SD-WAN
3 5 (4.50%) WAN
3 5 (4.50%) Wi-Fi
4 4 (3.60%) BGP
4 4 (3.60%) DHCP
4 4 (3.60%) IPsec
4 4 (3.60%) LAN
4 4 (3.60%) MQTT
4 4 (3.60%) SNMP
4 4 (3.60%) TACACS
5 3 (2.70%) Network Security
5 3 (2.70%) Wireless
6 2 (1.80%) WebEx
7 1 (0.90%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (4.50%) Power BI
2 3 (2.70%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.80%) Metadata
3 2 (1.80%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.90%) GIS
4 1 (0.90%) MS Access
4 1 (0.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 4 (3.60%) Jenkins
2 3 (2.70%) Android Studio
2 3 (2.70%) Bitbucket
2 3 (2.70%) JIRA
2 3 (2.70%) Subversion
General
1 38 (34.23%) Social Skills
2 14 (12.61%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (9.01%) Finance
4 9 (8.11%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (6.31%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.70%) Advertising
6 3 (2.70%) Legal
7 2 (1.80%) Police
7 2 (1.80%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.90%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.90%) Billing
8 1 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.90%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 15 (13.51%) Architect
2 13 (11.71%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 12 (10.81%) Senior
4 10 (9.01%) Solutions Architect
5 8 (7.21%) Consultant
5 8 (7.21%) Cybersecurity Architect
5 8 (7.21%) Security Architect
6 7 (6.31%) Security Solutions Architect
7 6 (5.41%) Analyst
7 6 (5.41%) E-Discovery Specialist
7 6 (5.41%) Infrastructure Support
7 6 (5.41%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
7 6 (5.41%) Lead
7 6 (5.41%) SIEM Engineer
7 6 (5.41%) Support Engineer
8 4 (3.60%) Accounts Payable Clerk
8 4 (3.60%) IP Specialist
8 4 (3.60%) PMO Lead
8 4 (3.60%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 4 (3.60%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.60%) ADO
1 4 (3.60%) NETCONF
1 4 (3.60%) OpenConfig
1 4 (3.60%) RESTCONF
1 4 (3.60%) Software Packaging
1 4 (3.60%) YANG
2 3 (2.70%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (1.80%) .NET
3 2 (1.80%) OAuth
3 2 (1.80%) OAuth2
3 2 (1.80%) OpenID
3 2 (1.80%) PySpark
3 2 (1.80%) SAML
3 2 (1.80%) XML
4 1 (0.90%) .NET Framework
4 1 (0.90%) ASP.NET
4 1 (0.90%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.90%) Oracle Fusion
4 1 (0.90%) REST
4 1 (0.90%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (9.91%) PKI
2 10 (9.01%) Operational Technology
3 7 (6.31%) Onboarding
4 6 (5.41%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (4.50%) Driving Licence
5 5 (4.50%) Handset
5 5 (4.50%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (4.50%) Security Operations Centre
6 4 (3.60%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (3.60%) Data Centre
7 3 (2.70%) Cyber Defence
7 3 (2.70%) Mobile App
7 3 (2.70%) Security Posture
7 3 (2.70%) Video Conferencing
8 2 (1.80%) Cyber Security Posture
8 2 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.80%) Replication
9 1 (0.90%) Cloud Native
9 1 (0.90%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (0.90%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 24 (21.62%) Windows
2 13 (11.71%) Linux
3 8 (7.21%) Mac OS
4 5 (4.50%) Windows 10
5 3 (2.70%) Android
6 1 (0.90%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (21.62%) Cybersecurity
2 21 (18.92%) Problem-Solving
3 18 (16.22%) SIEM
4 16 (14.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 14 (12.61%) Validation
6 13 (11.71%) DevOps
7 12 (10.81%) Continuous Improvement
8 11 (9.91%) ITIL
9 10 (9.01%) Analytics
9 10 (9.01%) CI/CD
9 10 (9.01%) Risk Management
9 10 (9.01%) Security Operations
9 10 (9.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 9 (8.11%) Platform Engineering
10 9 (8.11%) Project Management
11 8 (7.21%) PRINCE2
11 8 (7.21%) Risk Assessment
11 8 (7.21%) Roadmaps
11 8 (7.21%) Service Delivery
11 8 (7.21%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 22 (19.82%) Python
2 19 (17.12%) PowerShell
3 7 (6.31%) SQL
4 6 (5.41%) Bash
5 2 (1.80%) C#
5 2 (1.80%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.90%) Java
6 1 (0.90%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.90%) Perl
6 1 (0.90%) PHP
6 1 (0.90%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 42 (37.84%) Security Cleared
2 35 (31.53%) SC Cleared
3 9 (8.11%) CISSP
3 9 (8.11%) Degree
4 8 (7.21%) DV Cleared
5 7 (6.31%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (5.41%) PMI Certification
6 6 (5.41%) PMP
7 5 (4.50%) AWS Certification
7 5 (4.50%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (3.60%) Azure Certification
8 4 (3.60%) BPSS Clearance
8 4 (3.60%) CCIE
8 4 (3.60%) JNCIE
8 4 (3.60%) TOGAF Certification
9 3 (2.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 3 (2.70%) CEH
9 3 (2.70%) CREST Certified
9 3 (2.70%) GIAC
9 3 (2.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.11%) NIST
2 6 (5.41%) GDPR
2 6 (5.41%) SLA
3 5 (4.50%) PMO
4 4 (3.60%) NCSC
4 4 (3.60%) NIST 800
5 2 (1.80%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.80%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.80%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.90%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.90%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.90%) QA
System Software
1 23 (20.72%) Active Directory
2 9 (8.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (4.50%) Hyper-V
4 4 (3.60%) Docker
5 3 (2.70%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (12.61%) SCCM
2 12 (10.81%) Microsoft Intune
3 8 (7.21%) Ansible
3 8 (7.21%) Terraform
4 7 (6.31%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (3.60%) Kubernetes
6 3 (2.70%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 1 (0.90%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.90%) Cisco CUCM
Vendors
1 11 (9.91%) VMware
2 10 (9.01%) Cisco
2 10 (9.01%) ServiceNow
3 7 (6.31%) Fortinet
4 4 (3.60%) BiZZdesign
4 4 (3.60%) Citrix
4 4 (3.60%) F5
4 4 (3.60%) Juniper
5 3 (2.70%) Atlassian
5 3 (2.70%) Coverity
5 3 (2.70%) CrowdStrike
5 3 (2.70%) Databricks
5 3 (2.70%) Splunk
5 3 (2.70%) Tanium
5 3 (2.70%) Tenable
5 3 (2.70%) Thales
6 2 (1.80%) CheckPoint
6 2 (1.80%) Oracle
6 2 (1.80%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.90%) SAP