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 4 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 169 105 166
Rank change year-on-year -64 +61 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 35 50 41
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.63% 1.68% 0.73%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.36% 4.18% 1.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 26 37 35
10th Percentile £176 £215 £215
25th Percentile £231 £372 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £500 £375
Median % change year-on-year +0.50% +33.33% -31.82%
75th Percentile £636 £650 £556
90th Percentile £650 £732 £579
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 2
10th Percentile - £12.80 -
25th Percentile - £13.99 £16.25
Median hourly rate £38.25 £15.99 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year +139.29% -8.66% -
75th Percentile - £17.98 £18.75
90th Percentile - £19.17 -
England median hourly rate £23.50 £19.99 £16.30
% change year-on-year +17.59% +22.61% +5.16%

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 2,575 1,197 2,532
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.30% 40.11% 44.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,710 776 1,429
10th Percentile £306 £304 £279
25th Percentile £429 £437 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £544 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.45% -1.14% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 267 83 206
10th Percentile £15.70 £18.80 £17.80
25th Percentile £20.79 £27.55 £27.50
Median hourly rate £52.50 £55.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.10% +9.24%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £67.02
90th Percentile £88.84 £76.85 £84.42
England median hourly rate £37.50 £50.00 £38.45
% change year-on-year -25.00% +30.03% -26.05%

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 4 April 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
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 4 April 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 -54 21 £525 - 23
Hampshire -24 12 £268 -58.85% 12
Berkshire -21 9 £480 -8.57% 11
Oxfordshire -13 6 £238 -52.50% 4
Buckinghamshire -42 6 £628 +2.03% 8
Surrey -10 1 - - 5
Home Counties - 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 5 (14.29%) SharePoint
2 2 (5.71%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (2.86%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 1 (2.86%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 23 (65.71%) Azure
2 11 (31.43%) AWS
3 9 (25.71%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (20.00%) Entra ID
5 5 (14.29%) OneDrive
6 4 (11.43%) IaaS
6 4 (11.43%) PaaS
6 4 (11.43%) SaaS
7 3 (8.57%) Microsoft Purview
7 3 (8.57%) Power Platform
8 2 (5.71%) Azure Data Factory
8 2 (5.71%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (5.71%) Azure Functions
8 2 (5.71%) Azure Logic Apps
8 2 (5.71%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (5.71%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 2 (5.71%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (5.71%) Serverless
9 1 (2.86%) Power Automate
9 1 (2.86%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 6 (17.14%) SAN
1 6 (17.14%) VPN
1 6 (17.14%) Wi-Fi
2 5 (14.29%) LAN
3 4 (11.43%) Firewall
4 3 (8.57%) DNS
5 2 (5.71%) Network Security
5 2 (5.71%) SSL
6 1 (2.86%) BGP
6 1 (2.86%) DHCP
6 1 (2.86%) IPsec
6 1 (2.86%) IPv6
6 1 (2.86%) MPLS
6 1 (2.86%) OSPF
6 1 (2.86%) Skype
6 1 (2.86%) SNMP
6 1 (2.86%) VoIP
6 1 (2.86%) WAN
6 1 (2.86%) Wireless
6 1 (2.86%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.71%) Data Lake
1 2 (5.71%) Metadata
1 2 (5.71%) SQL Server
2 1 (2.86%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (2.86%) Oracle Database
2 1 (2.86%) Oracle Database 12c
2 1 (2.86%) Power BI
2 1 (2.86%) Semantic Layer
2 1 (2.86%) Snowflake Schema
2 1 (2.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 1 (2.86%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 1 (2.86%) MLflow
1 1 (2.86%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 9 (25.71%) Social Skills
2 7 (20.00%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (8.57%) Public Sector
4 1 (2.86%) Aerospace
4 1 (2.86%) Finance
4 1 (2.86%) Manufacturing
4 1 (2.86%) Military
4 1 (2.86%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 15 (42.86%) Architect
2 11 (31.43%) IT Engineer
3 8 (22.86%) IT Support
3 8 (22.86%) IT Support Engineer
3 8 (22.86%) Support Engineer
4 6 (17.14%) Field Engineer
4 6 (17.14%) Field Service Engineer
5 5 (14.29%) Technical Architect
6 4 (11.43%) Cybersecurity Architect
6 4 (11.43%) Security Architect
6 4 (11.43%) Solutions Architect
7 3 (8.57%) Field Support Engineer
7 3 (8.57%) Security Solutions Architect
8 2 (5.71%) Cloud Architect
8 2 (5.71%) Data Architect
8 2 (5.71%) Senior
8 2 (5.71%) VMware Architect
9 1 (2.86%) Platform Engineer
9 1 (2.86%) Senior Architect
9 1 (2.86%) Service Desk Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (5.71%) .NET
2 1 (2.86%) 802.1X
2 1 (2.86%) ARM Templates
2 1 (2.86%) Middleware
2 1 (2.86%) OAuth
2 1 (2.86%) OAuth2
2 1 (2.86%) OpenID
2 1 (2.86%) PySpark
2 1 (2.86%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 7 (20.00%) Data Centre
2 6 (17.14%) Analytical Mindset
3 4 (11.43%) Public Cloud
4 3 (8.57%) Operational Technology
4 3 (8.57%) PKI
4 3 (8.57%) Security Operations Centre
5 2 (5.71%) Cloud Native
5 2 (5.71%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (5.71%) Private Cloud
5 2 (5.71%) Replication
6 1 (2.86%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 1 (2.86%) Data Fabric
6 1 (2.86%) Data Structures
6 1 (2.86%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (2.86%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (2.86%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (2.86%) IoT
6 1 (2.86%) Life Science
6 1 (2.86%) SCADA
6 1 (2.86%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 9 (25.71%) Windows
2 2 (5.71%) Linux
2 2 (5.71%) Windows Server
3 1 (2.86%) Unix
3 1 (2.86%) VMS
3 1 (2.86%) Windows 10
3 1 (2.86%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (34.29%) Customer Service
2 10 (28.57%) TOGAF
3 8 (22.86%) DevOps
3 8 (22.86%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (20.00%) Agile
5 6 (17.14%) Break/Fix
5 6 (17.14%) CI/CD
5 6 (17.14%) Cybersecurity
5 6 (17.14%) Enterprise Architecture
5 6 (17.14%) Infrastructure as Code
6 5 (14.29%) Containerisation
6 5 (14.29%) Microservices
7 4 (11.43%) Analytics
7 4 (11.43%) Continuous Improvement
7 4 (11.43%) Cyber Resilience
7 4 (11.43%) IT Strategy
7 4 (11.43%) Security Operations
7 4 (11.43%) Stakeholder Management
7 4 (11.43%) Technology Strategy
8 3 (8.57%) Zachman Framework
Programming Languages
1 6 (17.14%) PowerShell
2 5 (14.29%) SQL
3 3 (8.57%) Python
4 1 (2.86%) C#
4 1 (2.86%) JavaScript
4 1 (2.86%) PL/SQL
4 1 (2.86%) T-SQL
4 1 (2.86%) X++
Qualifications
1 13 (37.14%) Cisco Certification
1 13 (37.14%) MCSE
2 12 (34.29%) Security Cleared
3 8 (22.86%) CCNA
3 8 (22.86%) SC Cleared
4 7 (20.00%) Azure Certification
4 7 (20.00%) CCNP
5 6 (17.14%) A+ Certification
5 6 (17.14%) DV Cleared
5 6 (17.14%) Network+ Certification
6 4 (11.43%) CISSP
6 4 (11.43%) Degree
6 4 (11.43%) TOGAF Certification
7 1 (2.86%) AWS Certification
7 1 (2.86%) CCDA
7 1 (2.86%) CCDP
7 1 (2.86%) CCIP
7 1 (2.86%) MCSA
7 1 (2.86%) OCP
7 1 (2.86%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (25.71%) NIST
2 6 (17.14%) NCSC
3 2 (5.71%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (5.71%) GDPR
4 1 (2.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (2.86%) NIST 800
4 1 (2.86%) PMO
System Software
1 13 (37.14%) Active Directory
2 3 (8.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (5.71%) VMware ESXi
3 2 (5.71%) VMware NSX
4 1 (2.86%) Docker
4 1 (2.86%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 6 (17.14%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (8.57%) SCCM
3 2 (5.71%) Terraform
4 1 (2.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (2.86%) Ansible
4 1 (2.86%) CASB
4 1 (2.86%) Cisco CUCM
4 1 (2.86%) Kubeflow
4 1 (2.86%) Kubernetes
4 1 (2.86%) Oracle RMAN
4 1 (2.86%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 23 (65.71%) Microsoft
2 8 (22.86%) VMware
3 6 (17.14%) Dell
4 3 (8.57%) CheckPoint
4 3 (8.57%) Fortinet
4 3 (8.57%) Tenable
5 2 (5.71%) Cisco
5 2 (5.71%) Databricks
5 2 (5.71%) Thales
6 1 (2.86%) Arista
6 1 (2.86%) Aruba
6 1 (2.86%) HP
6 1 (2.86%) Informatica
6 1 (2.86%) Juniper
6 1 (2.86%) Meraki
6 1 (2.86%) Oracle
6 1 (2.86%) Palo Alto
6 1 (2.86%) ServiceNow
6 1 (2.86%) SolarWinds
6 1 (2.86%) Zscaler