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 17 July 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
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 12 8
Rank change year-on-year -1 -4 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 128 71 176
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 11.23% 12.18% 14.53%
As % of the Vendors category 22.07% 20.29% 28.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 79 46 114
10th Percentile £201 £183 £205
25th Percentile £447 £400 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £485 £539
Median % change year-on-year +13.52% -10.07% -2.05%
75th Percentile £650 £550 £608
90th Percentile £700 £638 -
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £493 £516
% change year-on-year +1.52% -4.60% -1.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 2 10
10th Percentile £29.30 £27.69 £52.39
25th Percentile £35.22 £29.10 £56.50
Median hourly rate £87.16 £32.89 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year +165.00% -43.58% +6.00%
75th Percentile £110.75 £36.38 £60.44
90th Percentile - £37.60 £61.83
Berkshire median hourly rate £57.00 £23.69 £58.17
% change year-on-year +140.66% -59.28% +132.69%

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 580 350 609
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 50.88% 60.03% 50.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 346 234 332
10th Percentile £310 £350 £243
25th Percentile £450 £451 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £582
Median % change year-on-year - -5.50% +2.11%
75th Percentile £639 £638 £666
90th Percentile £733 £700 £738
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 14 24
10th Percentile £31.25 - £14.50
25th Percentile £79.25 £14.75 £44.86
Median hourly rate £88.00 £18.13 £58.40
Median % change year-on-year +385.52% -68.96% -9.71%
75th Percentile - £36.38 £61.60
90th Percentile £110.75 £44.78 £66.61
Berkshire median hourly rate £87.00 £22.71 £58.30
% change year-on-year +283.18% -61.05% +2.51%

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 17 July 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 17 July 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 19 (14.84%) SharePoint
2 4 (3.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.56%) OpenStack
Applications
1 26 (20.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (15.63%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (10.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (3.91%) MS Visio
5 2 (1.56%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.78%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (7.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (2.34%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.78%) iTrent
Cloud Services
1 52 (40.63%) Azure
2 16 (12.50%) Microsoft 365
3 15 (11.72%) Power Platform
4 13 (10.16%) AWS
4 13 (10.16%) Entra ID
5 11 (8.59%) OneDrive
6 10 (7.81%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (4.69%) Microsoft Purview
8 5 (3.91%) PowerApps
9 4 (3.13%) Azure Logic Apps
9 4 (3.13%) SaaS
10 3 (2.34%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (2.34%) Power Automate
11 2 (1.56%) Azure Data Factory
11 2 (1.56%) GCP
11 2 (1.56%) GitHub
11 2 (1.56%) GitHub Actions
11 2 (1.56%) OpenShift
12 1 (0.78%) Azure Monitor
12 1 (0.78%) Azure Pipelines
Communications & Networking
1 11 (8.59%) TCP/IP
2 7 (5.47%) DHCP
2 7 (5.47%) DNS
3 6 (4.69%) LAN
4 5 (3.91%) MPLS
4 5 (3.91%) WAN
5 4 (3.13%) BGP
5 4 (3.13%) SNMP
5 4 (3.13%) TACACS
6 3 (2.34%) Internet
6 3 (2.34%) SD-WAN
6 3 (2.34%) Unified Communications
6 3 (2.34%) Wireless
7 2 (1.56%) Firewall
7 2 (1.56%) IPsec
7 2 (1.56%) MQTT
7 2 (1.56%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.78%) DMVPN
8 1 (0.78%) TETRA
8 1 (0.78%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (8.59%) Power BI
2 6 (4.69%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.56%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.78%) Metadata
4 1 (0.78%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 1 (0.78%) JIRA
General
1 42 (32.81%) Social Skills
2 20 (15.63%) Aerospace
3 17 (13.28%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (8.59%) Public Sector
5 10 (7.81%) Finance
6 7 (5.47%) Telecoms
7 6 (4.69%) Legal
8 3 (2.34%) Advertising
8 3 (2.34%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (2.34%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.56%) Police
10 1 (0.78%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.78%) Local Government
10 1 (0.78%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 22 (17.19%) Architect
2 21 (16.41%) Lead
3 14 (10.94%) Analyst
4 13 (10.16%) Solutions Architect
5 11 (8.59%) Consultant
6 8 (6.25%) Senior
7 7 (5.47%) Business Analyst
7 7 (5.47%) Change Manager
8 6 (4.69%) IT Support
8 6 (4.69%) SIEM Engineer
9 5 (3.91%) Cloud Engineer
9 5 (3.91%) Lead Architect
9 5 (3.91%) Lead Solutions Architect
10 4 (3.13%) IT Engineer
10 4 (3.13%) Support Assistant
10 4 (3.13%) Systems Engineer
10 4 (3.13%) Systems Support
11 3 (2.34%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
11 3 (2.34%) Project Manager
11 3 (2.34%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.13%) NETCONF
1 4 (3.13%) OpenConfig
1 4 (3.13%) RESTCONF
1 4 (3.13%) YANG
2 3 (2.34%) 802.1X
2 3 (2.34%) Microsoft Graph
2 3 (2.34%) PySpark
2 3 (2.34%) Software Packaging
2 3 (2.34%) Streamlit
3 2 (1.56%) ADO
3 2 (1.56%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (1.56%) XML
4 1 (0.78%) .NET
4 1 (0.78%) OAuth
4 1 (0.78%) OpenID
4 1 (0.78%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (14.06%) Onboarding
2 11 (8.59%) Data Centre
3 9 (7.03%) Operational Technology
4 7 (5.47%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (3.91%) Cloud Native
6 4 (3.13%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (3.13%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (3.13%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (2.34%) Product Ownership
7 3 (2.34%) Video Conferencing
8 2 (1.56%) CMDB
8 2 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (1.56%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.56%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.56%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.78%) Data Structures
9 1 (0.78%) Digital Media
9 1 (0.78%) iPad
9 1 (0.78%) iPhone
9 1 (0.78%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 22 (17.19%) Windows
2 13 (10.16%) Mac OS
3 8 (6.25%) Linux
4 7 (5.47%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.78%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.78%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (19.53%) Stakeholder Management
2 22 (17.19%) Cybersecurity
2 22 (17.19%) Roadmaps
3 21 (16.41%) Digital Transformation Programme
4 20 (15.63%) Problem-Solving
4 20 (15.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 18 (14.06%) DevOps
5 18 (14.06%) ITIL
6 16 (12.50%) Enterprise Architecture
6 16 (12.50%) Technical Leadership
7 15 (11.72%) Decision-Making
7 15 (11.72%) ITSM
8 14 (10.94%) Architecture Roadmap
8 14 (10.94%) Risk Management
8 14 (10.94%) User Experience
9 13 (10.16%) Agile
10 12 (9.38%) Data Protection
10 12 (9.38%) Project Management
11 11 (8.59%) Analytics
11 11 (8.59%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 18 (14.06%) Python
2 15 (11.72%) PowerShell
3 12 (9.38%) SQL
4 6 (4.69%) Kusto Query Language
5 4 (3.13%) Bash
6 2 (1.56%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.78%) C#
Qualifications
1 55 (42.97%) Security Cleared
2 50 (39.06%) SC Cleared
3 16 (12.50%) Degree
4 14 (10.94%) Azure Certification
5 8 (6.25%) PMI Certification
5 8 (6.25%) PMP
6 4 (3.13%) AWS Certification
6 4 (3.13%) CCIE
6 4 (3.13%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (3.13%) JNCIE
7 3 (2.34%) DV Cleared
7 3 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.56%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.78%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.78%) CISA
9 1 (0.78%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.13%) SLA
2 3 (2.34%) GDPR
2 3 (2.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (2.34%) NCSC
2 3 (2.34%) PMO
3 2 (1.56%) Data Quality
3 2 (1.56%) GRC
3 2 (1.56%) NIST
3 2 (1.56%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.78%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.78%) QA
4 1 (0.78%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 13 (10.16%) Active Directory
2 3 (2.34%) Virtual Desktop
2 3 (2.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.56%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.78%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 18 (14.06%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (5.47%) Ansible
3 6 (4.69%) Jamf Pro
3 6 (4.69%) SCCM
3 6 (4.69%) Terraform
4 3 (2.34%) FortiGate
4 3 (2.34%) Progress Chef
4 3 (2.34%) Puppet
5 1 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 14 (10.94%) SAP
1 14 (10.94%) ServiceNow
2 8 (6.25%) Cisco
3 5 (3.91%) Fortinet
3 5 (3.91%) VMware
4 4 (3.13%) Citrix
4 4 (3.13%) F5
4 4 (3.13%) Juniper
4 4 (3.13%) Salesforce
5 3 (2.34%) Databricks
5 3 (2.34%) Google
5 3 (2.34%) Oracle
6 2 (1.56%) Avaya
6 2 (1.56%) BiZZdesign
6 2 (1.56%) Tanium
7 1 (0.78%) Apple
7 1 (0.78%) IBM
7 1 (0.78%) McAfee
7 1 (0.78%) Mitel
7 1 (0.78%) Starlink