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 21 August 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
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 6 7
Rank change year-on-year +2 +1 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 940 547 625
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 14.06% 15.52% 12.96%
As % of the Vendors category 32.21% 29.78% 26.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 580 375 410
10th Percentile £203 £200 £200
25th Percentile £355 £256 £343
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £468 £470
Median % change year-on-year +1.50% -0.43% +3.87%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £593
90th Percentile £675 £623 £670
England median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 112 43 39
10th Percentile £13.46 £14.00 £11.71
25th Percentile £15.69 £14.20 £11.80
Median hourly rate £29.91 £17.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +75.94% -60.00% +142.86%
75th Percentile £69.99 £32.05 £56.80
90th Percentile £102.43 £81.15 £61.17
England median hourly rate £21.00 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -7.20% +39.43% -24.51%

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 2,918 1,837 2,337
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.65% 52.13% 48.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,830 1,226 1,420
10th Percentile £281 £208 £250
25th Percentile £425 £365 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.50% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £634
90th Percentile £700 £650 £700
England median daily rate £513 £502 £525
% change year-on-year +2.07% -4.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 236 117 136
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.20 £14.50
25th Percentile £20.88 £15.25 £25.21
Median hourly rate £52.00 £19.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +173.68% -66.87% +27.44%
75th Percentile £77.50 £40.65 £61.38
90th Percentile £88.00 £76.65 £70.00
England median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £29.00
% change year-on-year +29.22% -13.28% -26.68%

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 21 August 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 21 August 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 21 August 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 +1 482 £500 +11.11% 295
Berkshire +3 260 £500 +3.36% 106
Hampshire -1 215 £500 -5.21% 153
Surrey +5 127 £450 +80.00% 131
Buckinghamshire -4 122 £515 +31.21% 102
Oxfordshire 0 100 £450 +80.00% 90
West Sussex -6 56 £380 +79.25% 48
Kent -1 35 £450 +71.43% 92
East Sussex -1 10 £298 -48.26% 42
Middlesex - 4 - - 23
Home Counties +1 2 - -
Sussex - 1 - - 13
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 96 (10.21%) SharePoint
2 55 (5.85%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.49%) Confluence
4 3 (0.32%) ArcGIS
5 2 (0.21%) Apache
5 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.21%) IIS
5 2 (0.21%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.11%) Apache Superset
6 1 (0.11%) nginx
6 1 (0.11%) SharePoint 2010
6 1 (0.11%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.11%) Smallworld
6 1 (0.11%) Tomcat
Applications
1 119 (12.66%) Microsoft Excel
2 118 (12.55%) Microsoft Office
3 55 (5.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 46 (4.89%) Microsoft Project
5 14 (1.49%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.11%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.11%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.11%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.11%) InDesign
7 1 (0.11%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.11%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (2.02%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.17%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.53%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.43%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.43%) Primavera
4 4 (0.43%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.43%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.21%) Maximo
5 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.11%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.11%) iTrent
6 1 (0.11%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Cash Management
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.11%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 381 (40.53%) Azure
2 232 (24.68%) Microsoft 365
3 166 (17.66%) Entra ID
4 103 (10.96%) Power Platform
5 87 (9.26%) AWS
6 57 (6.06%) Azure DevOps
7 56 (5.96%) Dynamics 365
8 37 (3.94%) SaaS
9 36 (3.83%) Azure Monitor
10 33 (3.51%) GCP
11 29 (3.09%) IaaS
11 29 (3.09%) Power Automate
12 28 (2.98%) Azure Logic Apps
13 25 (2.66%) OneDrive
14 22 (2.34%) Microsoft Purview
15 20 (2.13%) Azure Sentinel
16 18 (1.91%) PowerApps
17 17 (1.81%) Microsoft Copilot
18 14 (1.49%) Azure Functions
18 14 (1.49%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 80 (8.51%) DNS
2 58 (6.17%) Firewall
3 54 (5.74%) DHCP
4 45 (4.79%) TCP/IP
5 43 (4.57%) VPN
6 33 (3.51%) LAN
6 33 (3.51%) Wi-Fi
7 29 (3.09%) WAN
8 17 (1.81%) Network Security
8 17 (1.81%) VLAN
9 15 (1.60%) MPLS
10 12 (1.28%) SD-WAN
11 10 (1.06%) BGP
12 9 (0.96%) DNSSEC
12 9 (0.96%) Unified Communications
13 8 (0.85%) Internet
14 7 (0.74%) Intranet
14 7 (0.74%) Wireless
15 6 (0.64%) OSPF
15 6 (0.64%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (8.09%) Power BI
2 36 (3.83%) SQL Server
3 12 (1.28%) Azure SQL Database
3 12 (1.28%) MySQL
4 11 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
6 9 (0.96%) Oracle Database
7 8 (0.85%) Metadata
7 8 (0.85%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.64%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.43%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.32%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.32%) GIS
10 3 (0.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.21%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.21%) MS Access
11 2 (0.21%) Oracle Reports
11 2 (0.21%) Parquet
11 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 1 (0.11%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 29 (3.09%) JIRA
2 12 (1.28%) Git
3 8 (0.85%) Jenkins
3 8 (0.85%) MSI
4 7 (0.74%) GitLab
5 3 (0.32%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.32%) Browser DevTools
5 3 (0.32%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.32%) Robot Framework
5 3 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.32%) Xcode
6 2 (0.21%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.21%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.11%) ERwin
7 1 (0.11%) JUnit
7 1 (0.11%) NUnit
General
1 325 (34.57%) Social Skills
2 143 (15.21%) Analytical Skills
3 94 (10.00%) Finance
4 83 (8.83%) Public Sector
5 74 (7.87%) Organisational Skills
6 43 (4.57%) Aerospace
7 35 (3.72%) Documentation Skills
8 31 (3.30%) Legal
9 24 (2.55%) Telecoms
10 22 (2.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 17 (1.81%) Manufacturing
11 17 (1.81%) Marketing
12 15 (1.60%) Influencing Skills
13 13 (1.38%) Military
14 9 (0.96%) French Language
14 9 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
15 8 (0.85%) Aviation
15 8 (0.85%) Retail
16 7 (0.74%) Billing
16 7 (0.74%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 110 (11.70%) Architect
2 95 (10.11%) Analyst
3 89 (9.47%) IT Support
4 78 (8.30%) Senior
5 69 (7.34%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 54 (5.74%) Lead
7 53 (5.64%) Consultant
8 52 (5.53%) IT Engineer
8 52 (5.53%) Support Engineer
9 46 (4.89%) Cloud Engineer
10 44 (4.68%) Developer
11 42 (4.47%) Azure Engineer
12 37 (3.94%) IT Support Engineer
13 34 (3.62%) IT Analyst
14 32 (3.40%) Administrator
15 29 (3.09%) Solutions Architect
16 28 (2.98%) Project Manager
17 27 (2.87%) Support Analyst
18 26 (2.77%) Technical Architect
19 25 (2.66%) Microsoft Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (7.87%) Terraform
2 39 (4.15%) OAuth
3 37 (3.94%) .NET
4 36 (3.83%) SAML
5 35 (3.72%) OpenID
6 25 (2.66%) OAuth2
7 24 (2.55%) LDAP
7 24 (2.55%) REST
8 22 (2.34%) Web Services
9 21 (2.23%) SailPoint
10 19 (2.02%) Microsoft Graph
11 17 (1.81%) ARM Templates
12 12 (1.28%) JSON
12 12 (1.28%) Middleware
13 10 (1.06%) .NET Framework
13 10 (1.06%) React
14 9 (0.96%) XML
15 8 (0.85%) Entity Framework
15 8 (0.85%) PySpark
15 8 (0.85%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 96 (10.21%) Onboarding
2 51 (5.43%) Hybrid Cloud
3 33 (3.51%) Cloud Native
4 32 (3.40%) PKI
5 31 (3.30%) Data Centre
6 23 (2.45%) Security Posture
7 22 (2.34%) Enterprise Software
8 20 (2.13%) Product Ownership
9 19 (2.02%) Management Information System
9 19 (2.02%) Public Cloud
10 16 (1.70%) Operational Technology
11 15 (1.60%) Legacy Systems
12 14 (1.49%) Driving Licence
13 13 (1.38%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
14 12 (1.28%) Data Structures
15 11 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
15 11 (1.17%) Enterprise Cloud
15 11 (1.17%) Private Cloud
16 10 (1.06%) Cyber Defence
17 9 (0.96%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 254 (27.02%) Windows
2 95 (10.11%) Windows Server
3 75 (7.98%) Linux
4 42 (4.47%) Windows 10
5 24 (2.55%) Apple iOS
6 23 (2.45%) Mac OS
7 15 (1.60%) Unix
8 14 (1.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (1.28%) Android
10 9 (0.96%) CentOS
11 8 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.74%) Ubuntu
12 7 (0.74%) Windows 7
13 4 (0.43%) Windows Server 2016
14 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
15 1 (0.11%) OpenVMS
15 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (21.49%) Problem-Solving
2 140 (14.89%) Stakeholder Management
3 134 (14.26%) Agile
4 124 (13.19%) ITIL
5 117 (12.45%) DevOps
6 112 (11.91%) Continuous Improvement
7 102 (10.85%) Customer Service
7 102 (10.85%) Cybersecurity
8 101 (10.74%) CI/CD
9 98 (10.43%) ITSM
10 94 (10.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 88 (9.36%) Analytics
11 88 (9.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 83 (8.83%) Business Intelligence
13 75 (7.98%) Migration
14 74 (7.87%) Decision-Making
15 67 (7.13%) Project Delivery
16 64 (6.81%) Infrastructure as Code
16 64 (6.81%) Technical Leadership
17 63 (6.70%) AI
Programming Languages
1 147 (15.64%) PowerShell
2 93 (9.89%) Python
3 88 (9.36%) SQL
4 36 (3.83%) Bash
5 26 (2.77%) Bicep
6 23 (2.45%) T-SQL
7 22 (2.34%) JavaScript
8 21 (2.23%) C#
9 15 (1.60%) Java
9 15 (1.60%) Kusto Query Language
10 8 (0.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 8 (0.85%) X++
11 7 (0.74%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.43%) ABAP
13 3 (0.32%) Perl
13 3 (0.32%) VBA
14 1 (0.11%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.11%) Groovy
14 1 (0.11%) Korn
14 1 (0.11%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 348 (37.02%) Security Cleared
2 232 (24.68%) SC Cleared
3 132 (14.04%) Degree
4 127 (13.51%) DV Cleared
5 52 (5.53%) Microsoft Certification
6 44 (4.68%) Azure Certification
7 20 (2.13%) AWS Certification
8 19 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (1.81%) DBS Check
10 16 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
11 15 (1.60%) BPSS Clearance
11 15 (1.60%) PMI Certification
11 15 (1.60%) PMP
12 12 (1.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 10 (1.06%) MCSA
14 9 (0.96%) CISSP
14 9 (0.96%) MCSE
14 9 (0.96%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 8 (0.85%) CCNP
16 7 (0.74%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (4.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 42 (4.47%) NIST
3 38 (4.04%) Data Quality
4 35 (3.72%) PMO
5 31 (3.30%) GDPR
6 29 (3.09%) NCSC
7 28 (2.98%) SLA
8 21 (2.23%) QA
9 20 (2.13%) Cyber Essentials
10 9 (0.96%) GRC
11 6 (0.64%) ISO 31000
12 5 (0.53%) JSP 440
13 4 (0.43%) ISO 19650
13 4 (0.43%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.32%) Accessibility
14 3 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
14 3 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 2 (0.21%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 224 (23.83%) Active Directory
2 72 (7.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (3.19%) Hyper-V
4 23 (2.45%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.91%) vSphere
6 17 (1.81%) Docker
7 16 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
8 13 (1.38%) VMware ESXi
9 11 (1.17%) VMware NSX
10 6 (0.64%) Firmware
11 3 (0.32%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 2 (0.21%) UAG
12 2 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.11%) Dovecot
13 1 (0.11%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.11%) Postfix
13 1 (0.11%) vCloud
13 1 (0.11%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 66 (7.02%) Microsoft Intune
2 38 (4.04%) Kubernetes
3 36 (3.83%) Ansible
4 32 (3.40%) SCCM
5 26 (2.77%) SCOM
6 22 (2.34%) vCenter Server
7 14 (1.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 13 (1.38%) Avamar
8 13 (1.38%) Single Sign-On
9 10 (1.06%) Jamf Pro
10 9 (0.96%) WMI
11 6 (0.64%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.64%) Grafana
11 6 (0.64%) QRadar
12 5 (0.53%) Progress Chef
12 5 (0.53%) Puppet
13 4 (0.43%) Clonezilla
14 3 (0.32%) Dell DRAC
14 3 (0.32%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.32%) SCSM
Vendors
1 91 (9.68%) VMware
2 57 (6.06%) ServiceNow
3 51 (5.43%) SAP
4 39 (4.15%) Cisco
5 36 (3.83%) Google
6 25 (2.66%) Oracle
7 20 (2.13%) Dell
8 19 (2.02%) Databricks
9 18 (1.91%) Meraki
10 14 (1.49%) SolarWinds
11 13 (1.38%) Thales
12 12 (1.28%) F5
12 12 (1.28%) Splunk
13 11 (1.17%) Avaya
14 10 (1.06%) CrowdStrike
14 10 (1.06%) Mitel
15 9 (0.96%) Fortinet
15 9 (0.96%) Infoblox
15 9 (0.96%) Juniper
15 9 (0.96%) Veeam