Microsoft Certification Contract Job Trends in the South East

Microsoft Certification
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 9 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 165 107 149
Rank change year-on-year -58 +42 +29
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 66 56 40
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.99% 1.61% 0.87%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.26% 4.08% 1.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 40 42 31
10th Percentile £126 £200 £300
25th Percentile £156 £224 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £288 £539 £485
Median % change year-on-year -46.61% +11.03% -3.00%
75th Percentile £588 £650 £550
90th Percentile £641 - £560
England median daily rate £450 £470 £500
% change year-on-year -4.26% -6.00% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 4 0
10th Percentile £16.38 £76.59 -
25th Percentile - £84.97 -
Median hourly rate £38.25 £89.63 -
Median % change year-on-year -57.32% - -
75th Percentile £70.00 - -
90th Percentile £77.50 - -
England median hourly rate £55.00 £17.72 £16.30
% change year-on-year +210.38% +8.71% -8.17%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

Microsoft Certification 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 the South East.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 2,924 1,374 2,007
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.02% 39.43% 43.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,980 886 1,257
10th Percentile £350 £236 £350
25th Percentile £463 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £638
90th Percentile £730 £652 £724
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 307 123 163
10th Percentile £18.25 - £22.80
25th Percentile £35.22 £18.87 £48.18
Median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +143.18% -56.15% -4.42%
75th Percentile £83.00 £69.08 £71.82
90th Percentile £97.94 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £55.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -54.27% -

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft Certification relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Microsoft Certification job vacancy trend in the South East

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft Certification.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft Certification

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Certification in the South East over the 6 months to 9 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the South East

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft Certification.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft Certification

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft Certification in the South East over the 6 months to 9 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the South East

Microsoft Certification
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification within the South East region over the 6 months to 9 September 2026. 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
Thames Valley -17 41 £500 +93.42% 29
Hampshire -37 21 £129 -80.23% 10
Oxfordshire -13 17 £233 -28.46% 6
Berkshire -26 14 £563 +130.53% 15
Buckinghamshire -26 10 £590 +24.21% 8
Surrey -24 2 £350 -20.00% 8
Kent -1 1 £248 +23.84% 7
West Sussex -24 1 £105 -48.02% 1
Microsoft Certification
England

Microsoft Certification
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 4 (6.06%) SharePoint
2 3 (4.55%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (3.03%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (4.55%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (3.03%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 39 (59.09%) Azure
2 20 (30.30%) Entra ID
3 19 (28.79%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (16.67%) Power Platform
5 7 (10.61%) Azure DevOps
6 6 (9.09%) Azure Functions
6 6 (9.09%) Azure Logic Apps
6 6 (9.09%) Dynamics 365
6 6 (9.09%) Power Automate
6 6 (9.09%) PowerApps
6 6 (9.09%) SaaS
6 6 (9.09%) Serverless
7 4 (6.06%) AWS
7 4 (6.06%) OneDrive
8 3 (4.55%) IaaS
9 2 (3.03%) Google Workspace
9 2 (3.03%) Microsoft Purview
9 2 (3.03%) OpenShift
10 1 (1.52%) Azure App Service
10 1 (1.52%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 12 (18.18%) DNS
2 8 (12.12%) SAN
3 7 (10.61%) VPN
4 6 (9.09%) DHCP
5 5 (7.58%) Firewall
5 5 (7.58%) TCP/IP
6 3 (4.55%) LAN
6 3 (4.55%) NetScaler
6 3 (4.55%) VLAN
7 2 (3.03%) Software-Defined Networking
7 2 (3.03%) WAN
7 2 (3.03%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (1.52%) BGP
8 1 (1.52%) BIG-IP
8 1 (1.52%) Cisco Nexus
8 1 (1.52%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 1 (1.52%) ICMP
8 1 (1.52%) IPsec
8 1 (1.52%) MPLS
8 1 (1.52%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (15.15%) Power BI
2 1 (1.52%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 1 (1.52%) Git
General
1 29 (43.94%) Social Skills
2 22 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (19.70%) Public Sector
4 10 (15.15%) Aerospace
4 10 (15.15%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (6.06%) Military
6 3 (4.55%) Pharmaceutical
7 2 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (3.03%) Presentation Skills
7 2 (3.03%) Telecoms
8 1 (1.52%) Finance
8 1 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 13 (19.70%) Analyst
2 12 (18.18%) IT Engineer
2 12 (18.18%) IT Support
3 9 (13.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 8 (12.12%) Field Engineer
4 8 (12.12%) Field Service Engineer
4 8 (12.12%) IAM Specialist
5 7 (10.61%) IT Analyst
5 7 (10.61%) IT Support Analyst
5 7 (10.61%) Support Analyst
6 6 (9.09%) Developer
6 6 (9.09%) Microsoft Developer
6 6 (9.09%) Senior
7 5 (7.58%) Architect
7 5 (7.58%) Technical Architect
8 4 (6.06%) IT Support Technician
8 4 (6.06%) IT Technician
8 4 (6.06%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 4 (6.06%) Support Technician
9 3 (4.55%) Wintel Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (12.12%) LDAP
1 8 (12.12%) OAuth
1 8 (12.12%) OAuth2
1 8 (12.12%) OpenID
1 8 (12.12%) SailPoint
1 8 (12.12%) SAML
1 8 (12.12%) Web Services
2 6 (9.09%) .NET
2 6 (9.09%) Middleware
3 4 (6.06%) Terraform
4 2 (3.03%) ARM Templates
5 1 (1.52%) Lightning Web Components
5 1 (1.52%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (1.52%) REST
5 1 (1.52%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 8 (12.12%) Analytical Mindset
1 8 (12.12%) Data Centre
1 8 (12.12%) Management Information System
2 6 (9.09%) Data Structures
2 6 (9.09%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (7.58%) Onboarding
4 4 (6.06%) Cloud Native
4 4 (6.06%) PKI
5 3 (4.55%) Driving Licence
5 3 (4.55%) Public Cloud
6 2 (3.03%) Distributed Architecture
6 2 (3.03%) Distributed Computing
6 2 (3.03%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (3.03%) Replication
7 1 (1.52%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 1 (1.52%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (1.52%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (1.52%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (1.52%) Private Cloud
7 1 (1.52%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 16 (24.24%) Windows
2 8 (12.12%) Windows Server
3 4 (6.06%) Windows Server 2019
4 3 (4.55%) Apple iOS
5 2 (3.03%) Linux
5 2 (3.03%) Windows 10
6 1 (1.52%) Mac OS
6 1 (1.52%) Windows 7
6 1 (1.52%) Windows Server 2008
6 1 (1.52%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (31.82%) Problem-Solving
2 19 (28.79%) Customer Service
3 18 (27.27%) Analytics
3 18 (27.27%) ITSM
4 17 (25.76%) Agile
5 16 (24.24%) Computer Science
6 15 (22.73%) ITIL
7 13 (19.70%) DevOps
7 13 (19.70%) RBAC
8 11 (16.67%) API Integration
8 11 (16.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 11 (16.67%) Stakeholder Management
9 10 (15.15%) Business Intelligence
9 10 (15.15%) CI/CD
9 10 (15.15%) Runbook
10 9 (13.64%) Information Security
11 8 (12.12%) Attestation
11 8 (12.12%) Change Control
11 8 (12.12%) Risk Analytics
11 8 (12.12%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 21 (31.82%) PowerShell
2 11 (16.67%) Python
3 8 (12.12%) SQL
4 6 (9.09%) C#
4 6 (9.09%) JavaScript
5 4 (6.06%) X++
6 3 (4.55%) Bash
6 3 (4.55%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 30 (45.45%) Degree
2 28 (42.42%) Security Cleared
3 22 (33.33%) SC Cleared
4 19 (28.79%) MCSE
5 12 (18.18%) Cisco Certification
6 11 (16.67%) Azure Certification
7 10 (15.15%) DV Cleared
7 10 (15.15%) MCSA
8 9 (13.64%) CCNA
9 8 (12.12%) A+ Certification
9 8 (12.12%) Network+ Certification
10 6 (9.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 4 (6.06%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
12 3 (4.55%) CCA
12 3 (4.55%) CCNP
12 3 (4.55%) Citrix Certification
12 3 (4.55%) DBS Check
12 3 (4.55%) MCITP
13 1 (1.52%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (15.15%) NIST
2 9 (13.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (12.12%) Data Quality
4 4 (6.06%) NCSC
5 3 (4.55%) SLA
6 2 (3.03%) QA
7 1 (1.52%) GDPR
7 1 (1.52%) GMP
System Software
1 27 (40.91%) Active Directory
2 12 (18.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (7.58%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (4.55%) VMware NSX
4 3 (4.55%) vSphere
5 2 (3.03%) Hyper-V
5 2 (3.03%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (1.52%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 8 (12.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (9.09%) vCenter Server
3 5 (7.58%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (6.06%) SCCM
4 4 (6.06%) SCOM
5 3 (4.55%) Dell DRAC
5 3 (4.55%) Kubernetes
5 3 (4.55%) QRadar
6 2 (3.03%) Ansible
6 2 (3.03%) Istio
6 2 (3.03%) vMotion
Vendors
1 56 (84.85%) Microsoft
2 14 (21.21%) VMware
3 11 (16.67%) Dell
4 10 (15.15%) ServiceNow
5 6 (9.09%) Remedy
6 4 (6.06%) SolarWinds
7 3 (4.55%) Citrix
7 3 (4.55%) LogRhythm
8 2 (3.03%) Cisco
8 2 (3.03%) Google
8 2 (3.03%) Red Hat
8 2 (3.03%) SAP
8 2 (3.03%) Veeam
9 1 (1.52%) Apple
9 1 (1.52%) F5
9 1 (1.52%) Juniper
9 1 (1.52%) Palo Alto
9 1 (1.52%) Salesforce