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 August 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 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 11 12
Rank change year-on-year -2 +1 -4
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 132 71 152
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 11.68% 11.89% 13.46%
As % of the Vendors category 23.04% 19.61% 25.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 72 46 98
10th Percentile £201 £183 £213
25th Percentile £450 £400 £448
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £579 £494 £575
Median % change year-on-year +17.16% -14.09% +7.98%
75th Percentile £653 £564 £608
90th Percentile £700 £638 £663
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 2 5
10th Percentile £30.81 £27.69 £33.06
25th Percentile £55.50 £29.10 £56.25
Median hourly rate £87.08 £32.89 £60.60
Median % change year-on-year +164.76% -45.73% +67.54%
75th Percentile £110.75 £36.38 £61.06
90th Percentile - £37.60 £65.67
Berkshire median hourly rate £80.00 £23.69 £58.05
% change year-on-year +237.77% -59.20% +132.18%

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 573 362 599
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 50.71% 60.64% 53.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 321 242 333
10th Percentile £310 £350 £333
25th Percentile £450 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £563 £550 £605
Median % change year-on-year +2.27% -9.09% +10.00%
75th Percentile £648 £625 £675
90th Percentile £733 £700 £765
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £525 £575
% change year-on-year -4.76% -8.70% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 14 19
10th Percentile £31.38 - £14.50
25th Percentile £77.26 £14.75 £19.18
Median hourly rate £88.00 £18.13 £61.06
Median % change year-on-year +385.52% -70.32% -5.59%
75th Percentile - £36.38 £61.60
90th Percentile £110.75 £44.78 £70.40
Berkshire median hourly rate £85.00 £20.75 £58.49
% change year-on-year +309.64% -64.52% +5.33%

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 August 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 August 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 (13.64%) SharePoint
2 4 (3.03%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.52%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.76%) Apache
4 1 (0.76%) Apache Superset
4 1 (0.76%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.76%) Confluence
Applications
1 28 (21.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (17.42%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (12.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (4.55%) MS Visio
5 3 (2.27%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 12 (9.09%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.76%) iTrent
2 1 (0.76%) Maximo
2 1 (0.76%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 60 (45.45%) Azure
2 18 (13.64%) Power Platform
3 17 (12.88%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (12.12%) AWS
5 15 (11.36%) Entra ID
6 11 (8.33%) Azure DevOps
7 9 (6.82%) OneDrive
8 6 (4.55%) OpenShift
9 5 (3.79%) PowerApps
10 4 (3.03%) Azure Logic Apps
10 4 (3.03%) Azure Sentinel
10 4 (3.03%) GCP
10 4 (3.03%) Microsoft Purview
11 3 (2.27%) Azure Data Factory
11 3 (2.27%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (2.27%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (2.27%) GitHub
11 3 (2.27%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (2.27%) Power Automate
11 3 (2.27%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (10.61%) TCP/IP
2 10 (7.58%) DHCP
2 10 (7.58%) DNS
3 6 (4.55%) LAN
4 5 (3.79%) Firewall
4 5 (3.79%) MPLS
4 5 (3.79%) WAN
5 4 (3.03%) BGP
5 4 (3.03%) Internet
5 4 (3.03%) SNMP
5 4 (3.03%) TACACS
5 4 (3.03%) VPN
6 3 (2.27%) Unified Communications
6 3 (2.27%) Wireless
7 2 (1.52%) SD-WAN
7 2 (1.52%) Software-Defined Networking
7 2 (1.52%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.76%) DNSSEC
8 1 (0.76%) IPsec
8 1 (0.76%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (9.09%) Power BI
2 6 (4.55%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.52%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.76%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.76%) GIS
4 1 (0.76%) MS Access
4 1 (0.76%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.76%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 2 (1.52%) Git
2 1 (0.76%) GitLab
2 1 (0.76%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.76%) JIRA
General
1 46 (34.85%) Social Skills
2 27 (20.45%) Aerospace
3 18 (13.64%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (9.09%) Finance
5 8 (6.06%) Public Sector
5 8 (6.06%) Telecoms
6 6 (4.55%) Influencing Skills
6 6 (4.55%) Legal
7 4 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (1.52%) Advertising
8 2 (1.52%) Aviation
8 2 (1.52%) Police
9 1 (0.76%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.76%) Local Government
9 1 (0.76%) Marketing
9 1 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 24 (18.18%) Architect
1 24 (18.18%) Lead
2 15 (11.36%) Analyst
3 13 (9.85%) Solutions Architect
4 12 (9.09%) Consultant
5 10 (7.58%) Senior
6 9 (6.82%) Change Manager
7 8 (6.06%) Business Analyst
8 6 (4.55%) IT Support
9 5 (3.79%) Cloud Engineer
9 5 (3.79%) Lead Architect
9 5 (3.79%) Lead Solutions Architect
10 4 (3.03%) IT Engineer
10 4 (3.03%) Support Assistant
10 4 (3.03%) Systems Engineer
10 4 (3.03%) Systems Support
11 3 (2.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 3 (2.27%) Network Architect
11 3 (2.27%) Security Analyst
11 3 (2.27%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.03%) 802.1X
1 4 (3.03%) NETCONF
1 4 (3.03%) OpenConfig
1 4 (3.03%) RESTCONF
1 4 (3.03%) YANG
2 3 (2.27%) ARM Templates
2 3 (2.27%) Microsoft Graph
2 3 (2.27%) OAuth
2 3 (2.27%) PySpark
2 3 (2.27%) SAML
2 3 (2.27%) Streamlit
3 2 (1.52%) .NET
3 2 (1.52%) OpenID
3 2 (1.52%) Oracle Fusion
3 2 (1.52%) XML
4 1 (0.76%) .NET Framework
4 1 (0.76%) ADO
4 1 (0.76%) Entity Framework
4 1 (0.76%) REST
4 1 (0.76%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 18 (13.64%) Onboarding
2 13 (9.85%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (8.33%) Data Centre
4 9 (6.82%) Operational Technology
5 8 (6.06%) Cloud Native
6 4 (3.03%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (3.03%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (3.03%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (2.27%) Video Conferencing
8 2 (1.52%) CMDB
8 2 (1.52%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.52%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.52%) Product Ownership
8 2 (1.52%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.76%) Distributed Architecture
9 1 (0.76%) Distributed Computing
9 1 (0.76%) iPad
9 1 (0.76%) iPhone
9 1 (0.76%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 21 (15.91%) Windows
2 10 (7.58%) Mac OS
3 9 (6.82%) Linux
4 7 (5.30%) Apple iOS
5 4 (3.03%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.76%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (21.97%) Stakeholder Management
2 25 (18.94%) Roadmaps
3 24 (18.18%) DevOps
3 24 (18.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 22 (16.67%) Cybersecurity
4 22 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
5 21 (15.91%) Digital Transformation Programme
5 21 (15.91%) ITIL
6 19 (14.39%) Technical Leadership
7 18 (13.64%) ITSM
8 16 (12.12%) Agile
8 16 (12.12%) Enterprise Architecture
9 15 (11.36%) Project Management
10 14 (10.61%) Architecture Roadmap
10 14 (10.61%) Change Management
10 14 (10.61%) Service Management
11 13 (9.85%) Analytics
11 13 (9.85%) Data Protection
11 13 (9.85%) Risk Management
12 12 (9.09%) AI
Programming Languages
1 22 (16.67%) Python
2 18 (13.64%) PowerShell
3 14 (10.61%) SQL
4 8 (6.06%) Bash
5 6 (4.55%) Kusto Query Language
6 3 (2.27%) Bicep
7 2 (1.52%) C#
7 2 (1.52%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 64 (48.48%) Security Cleared
2 57 (43.18%) SC Cleared
3 20 (15.15%) Degree
4 19 (14.39%) Azure Certification
5 10 (7.58%) PMI Certification
5 10 (7.58%) PMP
6 5 (3.79%) AWS Certification
6 5 (3.79%) Microsoft Certification
7 4 (3.03%) CCIE
7 4 (3.03%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (3.03%) JNCIE
8 3 (2.27%) DV Cleared
9 2 (1.52%) DBS Check
9 2 (1.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 1 (0.76%) APMG
10 1 (0.76%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.76%) CISA
10 1 (0.76%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.76%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.76%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (3.03%) GRC
3 3 (2.27%) Data Quality
3 3 (2.27%) GDPR
3 3 (2.27%) NCSC
3 3 (2.27%) NIST
3 3 (2.27%) PMO
4 2 (1.52%) SLA
5 1 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.76%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.76%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.76%) QA
5 1 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 14 (10.61%) Active Directory
2 5 (3.79%) Hyper-V
3 3 (2.27%) Docker
3 3 (2.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.76%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 15 (11.36%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (9.09%) Terraform
3 11 (8.33%) Ansible
4 7 (5.30%) Kubernetes
5 6 (4.55%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (3.03%) FortiGate
7 3 (2.27%) Progress Chef
7 3 (2.27%) Puppet
8 2 (1.52%) Grafana
8 2 (1.52%) Istio
9 1 (0.76%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.76%) QRadar
9 1 (0.76%) SCCM
Vendors
1 20 (15.15%) SAP
2 18 (13.64%) ServiceNow
3 8 (6.06%) Cisco
4 5 (3.79%) Fortinet
4 5 (3.79%) Google
4 5 (3.79%) Oracle
4 5 (3.79%) VMware
5 4 (3.03%) Databricks
5 4 (3.03%) F5
5 4 (3.03%) Juniper
6 2 (1.52%) Avaya
6 2 (1.52%) IBM
6 2 (1.52%) Red Hat
6 2 (1.52%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.52%) Splunk
6 2 (1.52%) Workday
7 1 (0.76%) Infoblox
7 1 (0.76%) McAfee
7 1 (0.76%) Mitel
7 1 (0.76%) Planview