MCSE Contract Job Trends in Scotland

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
UK > Scotland

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Scotland with a requirement for MCSE qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 18 October 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 113 98 129
Rank change year-on-year -15 +31 +36
Contract jobs citing MCSE 3 21 12
As % of all contract jobs in Scotland 0.19% 1.13% 0.52%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.74% 4.34% 2.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 14 6
10th Percentile £168 £123 £257
25th Percentile £226 £190 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £328 £340 £438
Median % change year-on-year -3.68% -22.29% +297.73%
75th Percentile £436 £516 £461
90th Percentile £497 £555 £508
UK median daily rate £600 £450 £455
% change year-on-year +33.33% -1.10% +7.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 1
Median hourly rate - £14.00 £56.40
Median % change year-on-year - -75.18% -
UK median hourly rate £6.00 £14.00 £17.50
% change year-on-year -57.14% -20.00% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Scotland

MCSE falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in Scotland.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 406 484 595
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Scotland 25.66% 26.13% 25.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 295 352
10th Percentile £174 £177 £192
25th Percentile £310 £322 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -10.53% +2.15%
75th Percentile £532 £550 £581
90th Percentile £612 £645 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 19 21
10th Percentile £16.84 £12.24 £32.14
25th Percentile £19.38 £14.00 £45.00
Median hourly rate £20.00 £18.00 £56.40
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -68.09% +89.77%
75th Percentile £25.15 £32.63 £73.75
90th Percentile £28.77 £53.00 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £47.50 £53.70
% change year-on-year -47.05% -11.55% +19.33%

MCSE
Job Vacancy Trend in Scotland

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing MCSE relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Scotland.

MCSE job vacancy trend in Scotland

MCSE
Daily Rate Trend in Scotland

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing MCSE.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing MCSE

MCSE
Daily Rate Histogram in Scotland

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MCSE in Scotland over the 6 months to 18 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MCSE in Scotland

MCSE
Hourly Rate Trend in Scotland

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing MCSE.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing MCSE

MCSE
Contract Job Locations in Scotland

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCSE within the Scotland region over the 6 months to 18 October 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Edinburgh 0 2 £525 +32.91% 1
Fife -4 1 £130 +1.96%
MCSE
UK

MCSE
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Scotland 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 1 (33.33%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 1 (33.33%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 1 (33.33%) Azure
1 1 (33.33%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 2 (66.67%) Firewall
2 1 (33.33%) Intrusion Detection
2 1 (33.33%) SSL
2 1 (33.33%) VPN
General
1 2 (66.67%) Analytical Skills
2 1 (33.33%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 1 (33.33%) Cloud Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Desktop Support
1 1 (33.33%) Lead
Miscellaneous
1 2 (66.67%) PKI
2 1 (33.33%) Blackberry
2 1 (33.33%) Cyber Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 3 (100.00%) Windows
2 1 (33.33%) Linux
2 1 (33.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 1 (33.33%) Windows 10
2 1 (33.33%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
1 2 (66.67%) ITIL
2 1 (33.33%) Configuration Management
2 1 (33.33%) Email Filtering
2 1 (33.33%) Identity Access Management
2 1 (33.33%) Inventory Management
2 1 (33.33%) Kalman Filter
2 1 (33.33%) Knowledge Transfer
2 1 (33.33%) Mobile Device Management
2 1 (33.33%) Network Design
2 1 (33.33%) Network Planning
2 1 (33.33%) Patch Management
2 1 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 1 (33.33%) Security Operations
2 1 (33.33%) SIEM
Qualifications
1 3 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 2 (66.67%) Degree
3 1 (33.33%) A+ Certification
3 1 (33.33%) CCNP
3 1 (33.33%) Cisco Certification
3 1 (33.33%) CISM
3 1 (33.33%) CISSP
3 1 (33.33%) Dell Certification
3 1 (33.33%) ITIL Certification
3 1 (33.33%) MCP
3 1 (33.33%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (33.33%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (33.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 2 (66.67%) Active Directory
2 1 (33.33%) Hyper-V
2 1 (33.33%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (66.67%) SCCM
2 1 (33.33%) Host Intrusion Detection System
2 1 (33.33%) Nagios
Vendors
1 3 (100.00%) Microsoft
2 1 (33.33%) Dell
2 1 (33.33%) Fortinet
2 1 (33.33%) Lotus
2 1 (33.33%) McAfee
2 1 (33.33%) Veeam
2 1 (33.33%) VMware