Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the South East

Microsoft
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East 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 30 September 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
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 4 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 +2 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 1,056 577 611
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 16.06% 16.38% 13.92%
As % of the Vendors category 36.55% 31.74% 28.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 622 409 399
10th Percentile £204 £183 £200
25th Percentile £326 £220 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £463
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -2.70% +0.13%
75th Percentile £588 £550 £588
90th Percentile £675 £623 £660
England median daily rate £490 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +3.16% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 160 43 27
10th Percentile £13.49 £13.03 £11.80
25th Percentile £15.50 £14.20 £19.06
Median hourly rate £19.12 £17.60 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.64% -60.89% +157.14%
75th Percentile £66.29 £32.05 £59.03
90th Percentile £96.00 £81.15 £61.64
England median hourly rate £18.58 £22.63 £16.81
% change year-on-year -17.92% +34.66% -25.41%

All Vendors
South East

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 the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 2,889 1,818 2,174
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.95% 51.62% 49.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,752 1,221 1,314
10th Percentile £263 £204 £255
25th Percentile £425 £353 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £514
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -2.68% +2.75%
75th Percentile £610 £588 £629
90th Percentile £680 £650 £700
England median daily rate £514 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +1.28% -3.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 260 113 92
10th Percentile £14.12 £14.20 £16.00
25th Percentile £16.25 £15.50 £26.25
Median hourly rate £37.24 £20.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +79.47% -63.82% +11.53%
75th Percentile £70.00 £34.83 £63.17
90th Percentile £88.45 £76.75 £70.00
England median hourly rate £26.14 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +3.94% -28.14% -20.16%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the South East

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 30 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 30 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
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 within the South East region over the 6 months to 30 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 0 513 £500 +11.11% 470
Berkshire +1 292 £500 +6.53% 226
Hampshire -2 251 £500 -4.76% 245
Surrey +2 156 £455 +111.63% 165
Buckinghamshire -2 129 £514 +30.96% 149
Oxfordshire -1 92 £450 +100.00% 101
West Sussex -6 62 £378 +79.76% 64
Kent -1 37 £525 +82.61% 81
East Sussex +4 16 £220 -48.99% 52
Middlesex - 7 £450 - 7
Sussex -1 4 - - 18
Home Counties 0 2 £600 +9.09%
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
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
1 120 (11.36%) SharePoint
2 49 (4.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.23%) Confluence
4 6 (0.57%) IIS
5 3 (0.28%) Apache
5 3 (0.28%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.19%) Apache Superset
6 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.095%) nginx
7 1 (0.095%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.095%) SharePoint 2010
7 1 (0.095%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.095%) Tomcat
Applications
1 161 (15.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 139 (13.16%) Microsoft Office
3 72 (6.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 48 (4.55%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (1.23%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.19%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.095%) Adobe Captivate
Business Applications
1 20 (1.89%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (1.61%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.47%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.38%) Maximo
4 4 (0.38%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.38%) Primavera
4 4 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.38%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.095%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.095%) iTrent
6 1 (0.095%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.095%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.095%) Oracle Cash Management
6 1 (0.095%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.095%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.095%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.095%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 405 (38.35%) Azure
2 249 (23.58%) Microsoft 365
3 167 (15.81%) Entra ID
4 125 (11.84%) Power Platform
5 99 (9.38%) AWS
6 61 (5.78%) Azure DevOps
7 58 (5.49%) Dynamics 365
8 39 (3.69%) SaaS
9 37 (3.50%) GCP
10 33 (3.13%) Azure Monitor
11 31 (2.94%) IaaS
11 31 (2.94%) Power Automate
12 27 (2.56%) Microsoft Copilot
13 26 (2.46%) Azure Logic Apps
14 24 (2.27%) OneDrive
15 22 (2.08%) Azure Sentinel
15 22 (2.08%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (1.89%) PowerApps
17 18 (1.70%) OpenShift
18 15 (1.42%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 81 (7.67%) DNS
2 60 (5.68%) Firewall
3 56 (5.30%) DHCP
4 54 (5.11%) VPN
5 46 (4.36%) TCP/IP
6 29 (2.75%) LAN
7 27 (2.56%) WAN
7 27 (2.56%) Wi-Fi
8 17 (1.61%) VLAN
9 15 (1.42%) Network Security
10 13 (1.23%) SD-WAN
11 11 (1.04%) MPLS
12 9 (0.85%) DNSSEC
13 8 (0.76%) SMTP
13 8 (0.76%) Wireless
14 7 (0.66%) BGP
14 7 (0.66%) Intranet
15 6 (0.57%) BIG-IP
15 6 (0.57%) Broadband
15 6 (0.57%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (8.62%) Power BI
2 34 (3.22%) SQL Server
3 14 (1.33%) Azure SQL Database
4 12 (1.14%) MySQL
4 12 (1.14%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
5 11 (1.04%) Relational Database
6 10 (0.95%) Oracle Database
7 8 (0.76%) Metadata
8 7 (0.66%) Data Lake
8 7 (0.66%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.47%) Data Mining
10 4 (0.38%) MS Access
10 4 (0.38%) Tableau
11 3 (0.28%) GIS
11 3 (0.28%) Power Query
11 3 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 2 (0.19%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 28 (2.65%) JIRA
2 13 (1.23%) Git
3 12 (1.14%) MSI
4 8 (0.76%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.66%) GitLab
6 3 (0.28%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.28%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.28%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.28%) Xcode
7 2 (0.19%) REST Assured
7 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.095%) ERwin
8 1 (0.095%) JUnit
8 1 (0.095%) NUnit
8 1 (0.095%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.095%) Visual Studio
General
1 386 (36.55%) Social Skills
2 162 (15.34%) Analytical Skills
3 124 (11.74%) Finance
4 106 (10.04%) Organisational Skills
5 83 (7.86%) Public Sector
6 54 (5.11%) Aerospace
7 38 (3.60%) Documentation Skills
8 28 (2.65%) Legal
9 23 (2.18%) Telecoms
10 22 (2.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 22 (2.08%) Marketing
11 21 (1.99%) Manufacturing
12 16 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
13 14 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
14 13 (1.23%) Military
15 11 (1.04%) Billing
15 11 (1.04%) General Ledger
15 11 (1.04%) Retail
16 10 (0.95%) Aviation
16 10 (0.95%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 130 (12.31%) Architect
2 94 (8.90%) Analyst
3 85 (8.05%) IT Support
4 75 (7.10%) Senior
5 72 (6.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 58 (5.49%) Lead
7 57 (5.40%) Administrator
8 53 (5.02%) Developer
8 53 (5.02%) Support Engineer
9 52 (4.92%) Cloud Engineer
10 49 (4.64%) Consultant
11 46 (4.36%) Azure Engineer
12 45 (4.26%) IT Engineer
13 33 (3.13%) Solutions Architect
14 31 (2.94%) IT Support Engineer
15 28 (2.65%) IT Analyst
16 25 (2.37%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
16 25 (2.37%) Microsoft Engineer
17 24 (2.27%) Project Manager
17 24 (2.27%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (7.10%) Terraform
2 37 (3.50%) .NET
2 37 (3.50%) OAuth
3 35 (3.31%) SAML
4 34 (3.22%) OpenID
5 27 (2.56%) REST
6 24 (2.27%) LDAP
6 24 (2.27%) OAuth2
6 24 (2.27%) Web Services
7 19 (1.80%) ARM Templates
7 19 (1.80%) SailPoint
8 17 (1.61%) Microsoft Graph
9 15 (1.42%) JSON
10 14 (1.33%) React
11 11 (1.04%) RESTful
12 10 (0.95%) .NET Framework
12 10 (0.95%) Middleware
13 8 (0.76%) Entity Framework
13 8 (0.76%) SOAP
13 8 (0.76%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 108 (10.23%) Onboarding
2 52 (4.92%) Hybrid Cloud
3 41 (3.88%) Management Information System
4 39 (3.69%) Data Centre
5 35 (3.31%) Cloud Native
5 35 (3.31%) PKI
6 24 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
6 24 (2.27%) Security Posture
7 21 (1.99%) Product Ownership
7 21 (1.99%) Public Cloud
8 19 (1.80%) Driving Licence
9 16 (1.52%) Operational Technology
10 14 (1.33%) Enterprise Cloud
11 13 (1.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 13 (1.23%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (1.04%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.04%) Data Structures
12 11 (1.04%) Private Cloud
13 10 (0.95%) Cyber Defence
13 10 (0.95%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 274 (25.95%) Windows
2 102 (9.66%) Windows Server
3 80 (7.58%) Linux
4 57 (5.40%) Windows 10
5 31 (2.94%) Apple iOS
6 21 (1.99%) Mac OS
7 15 (1.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 15 (1.42%) Unix
8 13 (1.23%) Android
9 11 (1.04%) CentOS
9 11 (1.04%) Ubuntu
10 7 (0.66%) Windows 7
11 6 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.095%) VMS
14 1 (0.095%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 239 (22.63%) Problem-Solving
2 177 (16.76%) Stakeholder Management
3 148 (14.02%) Continuous Improvement
4 140 (13.26%) Agile
5 130 (12.31%) ITIL
6 121 (11.46%) DevOps
7 107 (10.13%) CI/CD
8 105 (9.94%) Cybersecurity
9 104 (9.85%) Customer Service
9 104 (9.85%) ITSM
10 100 (9.47%) Analytics
11 97 (9.19%) Business Intelligence
12 96 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 95 (9.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 93 (8.81%) Migration
15 79 (7.48%) Decision-Making
15 79 (7.48%) Project Delivery
16 75 (7.10%) Roadmaps
17 74 (7.01%) Infrastructure as Code
18 72 (6.82%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 166 (15.72%) PowerShell
2 92 (8.71%) Python
3 85 (8.05%) SQL
4 37 (3.50%) Bash
5 30 (2.84%) Bicep
6 25 (2.37%) JavaScript
7 20 (1.89%) Java
8 19 (1.80%) C#
8 19 (1.80%) T-SQL
9 14 (1.33%) Kusto Query Language
10 10 (0.95%) TypeScript
11 8 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 7 (0.66%) X++
13 4 (0.38%) ABAP
14 3 (0.28%) Perl
15 2 (0.19%) VBA
16 1 (0.095%) C++
16 1 (0.095%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 387 (36.65%) Security Cleared
2 244 (23.11%) SC Cleared
3 151 (14.30%) DV Cleared
4 141 (13.35%) Degree
5 60 (5.68%) Microsoft Certification
6 51 (4.83%) Azure Certification
7 21 (1.99%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (1.89%) AWS Certification
8 20 (1.89%) DBS Check
9 17 (1.61%) BPSS Clearance
10 15 (1.42%) CISSP
10 15 (1.42%) Computer Science Degree
10 15 (1.42%) PMI Certification
11 14 (1.33%) PMP
12 13 (1.23%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 11 (1.04%) CISM
14 10 (0.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 10 (0.95%) MCSA
15 9 (0.85%) MCSE
15 9 (0.85%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (4.45%) Data Quality
2 46 (4.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 44 (4.17%) PMO
4 42 (3.98%) NIST
5 37 (3.50%) GDPR
6 32 (3.03%) NCSC
7 27 (2.56%) SLA
8 25 (2.37%) QA
9 19 (1.80%) Cyber Essentials
10 13 (1.23%) GRC
11 10 (0.95%) ISO 31000
12 8 (0.76%) PCI DSS
13 7 (0.66%) ISO 9001
13 7 (0.66%) JSP 440
14 4 (0.38%) ISO 19650
14 4 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 4 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 3 (0.28%) Accessibility
15 3 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 219 (20.74%) Active Directory
2 77 (7.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (3.03%) Hyper-V
4 31 (2.94%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (1.80%) Docker
5 19 (1.80%) vSphere
6 17 (1.61%) Virtual Desktop
7 14 (1.33%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.85%) VMware NSX
9 6 (0.57%) Firmware
9 6 (0.57%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 6 (0.57%) Virtual Servers
10 4 (0.38%) ISA Server
11 3 (0.28%) BitLocker
11 3 (0.28%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.19%) UAG
13 1 (0.095%) Dovecot
13 1 (0.095%) Postfix
13 1 (0.095%) vCloud
13 1 (0.095%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 70 (6.63%) Microsoft Intune
2 48 (4.55%) Kubernetes
3 33 (3.13%) Ansible
3 33 (3.13%) SCCM
4 26 (2.46%) SCOM
5 25 (2.37%) vCenter Server
6 14 (1.33%) Avamar
6 14 (1.33%) WMI
7 13 (1.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 12 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
9 10 (0.95%) Jamf Pro
10 9 (0.85%) QRadar
11 8 (0.76%) Grafana
12 5 (0.47%) FortiGate
12 5 (0.47%) Progress Chef
12 5 (0.47%) Puppet
13 4 (0.38%) CASB
13 4 (0.38%) Clonezilla
13 4 (0.38%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.28%) Istio
Vendors
1 94 (8.90%) VMware
2 66 (6.25%) ServiceNow
3 56 (5.30%) SAP
4 40 (3.79%) Google
5 36 (3.41%) Cisco
6 29 (2.75%) Oracle
7 23 (2.18%) Databricks
7 23 (2.18%) Dell
8 18 (1.70%) Splunk
9 15 (1.42%) Meraki
10 14 (1.33%) CrowdStrike
10 14 (1.33%) F5
10 14 (1.33%) SolarWinds
10 14 (1.33%) Thales
11 11 (1.04%) Veeam
12 9 (0.85%) Infoblox
12 9 (0.85%) Palo Alto
13 8 (0.76%) Citrix
13 8 (0.76%) Red Hat
13 8 (0.76%) Salesforce