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 18 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
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 6 7
Rank change year-on-year +2 +1 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 946 554 624
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 14.05% 15.63% 12.91%
As % of the Vendors category 32.08% 29.88% 26.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 586 371 412
10th Percentile £203 £200 £200
25th Percentile £356 £256 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £470
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% - +3.30%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £591
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 111 45 39
10th Percentile £13.88 £13.70 £11.71
25th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £11.80
Median hourly rate £32.50 £17.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +91.18% -60.00% +139.44%
75th Percentile £74.47 £32.05 £56.80
90th Percentile £102.50 £79.30 £61.17
England median hourly rate £21.50 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -4.99% +39.43% -26.23%

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 2,949 1,854 2,347
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.79% 52.30% 48.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,853 1,233 1,435
10th Percentile £280 £209 £251
25th Percentile £425 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £630
90th Percentile £700 £650 £700
England median daily rate £513 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 118 136
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.20 £14.50
25th Percentile £23.99 £14.88 £25.21
Median hourly rate £52.50 £18.94 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +177.26% -66.98% +27.44%
75th Percentile £82.40 £37.88 £61.38
90th Percentile £88.00 £72.00 £70.00
England median hourly rate £33.98 £25.15 £29.39
% change year-on-year +35.11% -14.41% -21.64%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 +1 489 £500 +11.11% 361
Berkshire +3 264 £500 +1.52% 147
Hampshire -2 217 £500 -4.76% 188
Surrey +6 126 £450 +80.00% 170
Buckinghamshire -3 125 £515 +25.61% 130
Oxfordshire 0 100 £450 +80.00% 87
West Sussex -7 55 £380 +75.12% 55
Kent -1 35 £450 +71.43% 102
East Sussex -2 10 £298 -51.92% 42
Middlesex - 4 - - 32
Home Counties 0 1 - -
Sussex - 1 - - 12
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 (10.15%) SharePoint
2 58 (6.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.59%) Confluence
4 2 (0.21%) Apache
4 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.21%) ArcGIS
4 2 (0.21%) IIS
4 2 (0.21%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.11%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.11%) nginx
5 1 (0.11%) SharePoint 2010
5 1 (0.11%) SharePoint 2013
5 1 (0.11%) Smallworld
5 1 (0.11%) Tomcat
Applications
1 119 (12.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 116 (12.26%) Microsoft Office
3 58 (6.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 46 (4.86%) Microsoft Project
5 14 (1.48%) 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 (2.01%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.16%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.53%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.42%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.42%) Primavera
4 4 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.42%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.11%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.11%) iTrent
6 1 (0.11%) Maximo
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
1 385 (40.70%) Azure
2 235 (24.84%) Microsoft 365
3 173 (18.29%) Entra ID
4 100 (10.57%) Power Platform
5 92 (9.73%) AWS
6 58 (6.13%) Azure DevOps
7 56 (5.92%) Dynamics 365
8 37 (3.91%) SaaS
9 35 (3.70%) Azure Monitor
10 33 (3.49%) GCP
11 30 (3.17%) Azure Logic Apps
11 30 (3.17%) IaaS
12 29 (3.07%) Power Automate
13 26 (2.75%) OneDrive
14 22 (2.33%) Microsoft Purview
15 20 (2.11%) Azure Sentinel
16 18 (1.90%) PowerApps
17 17 (1.80%) Microsoft Copilot
18 14 (1.48%) Azure Functions
18 14 (1.48%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 83 (8.77%) DNS
2 58 (6.13%) Firewall
3 55 (5.81%) DHCP
4 44 (4.65%) TCP/IP
5 42 (4.44%) VPN
6 35 (3.70%) Wi-Fi
7 33 (3.49%) LAN
8 29 (3.07%) WAN
9 17 (1.80%) VLAN
10 16 (1.69%) Network Security
11 15 (1.59%) MPLS
12 13 (1.37%) SD-WAN
13 10 (1.06%) BGP
14 9 (0.95%) DNSSEC
14 9 (0.95%) Unified Communications
15 8 (0.85%) Internet
16 7 (0.74%) Intranet
16 7 (0.74%) Wireless
17 6 (0.63%) IPsec
17 6 (0.63%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (7.72%) Power BI
2 38 (4.02%) SQL Server
3 15 (1.59%) MySQL
4 14 (1.48%) PostgreSQL
5 13 (1.37%) Azure SQL Database
6 10 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
7 9 (0.95%) Metadata
7 9 (0.95%) Oracle Database
8 7 (0.74%) NoSQL
8 7 (0.74%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.42%) Data Mining
10 3 (0.32%) Parquet
10 3 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.21%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.21%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.21%) GIS
11 2 (0.21%) MS Access
11 2 (0.21%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 30 (3.17%) JIRA
2 13 (1.37%) 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 (34.36%) Social Skills
2 144 (15.22%) Analytical Skills
3 94 (9.94%) Finance
4 84 (8.88%) Public Sector
5 72 (7.61%) Organisational Skills
6 42 (4.44%) Aerospace
7 35 (3.70%) Documentation Skills
8 30 (3.17%) Legal
9 25 (2.64%) Telecoms
10 22 (2.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 17 (1.80%) Manufacturing
11 17 (1.80%) Marketing
12 15 (1.59%) Influencing Skills
13 14 (1.48%) Military
14 9 (0.95%) French Language
14 9 (0.95%) 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 (11.63%) Architect
2 95 (10.04%) Analyst
3 90 (9.51%) IT Support
4 79 (8.35%) Senior
5 68 (7.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 54 (5.71%) Lead
7 53 (5.60%) Consultant
7 53 (5.60%) IT Engineer
8 52 (5.50%) Support Engineer
9 46 (4.86%) Cloud Engineer
10 45 (4.76%) Developer
11 42 (4.44%) Azure Engineer
12 38 (4.02%) IT Support Engineer
13 36 (3.81%) IT Analyst
14 33 (3.49%) Administrator
15 29 (3.07%) Solutions Architect
15 29 (3.07%) Support Analyst
16 28 (2.96%) Project Manager
17 27 (2.85%) Technical Architect
18 25 (2.64%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (4.23%) OAuth
2 37 (3.91%) .NET
2 37 (3.91%) SAML
3 36 (3.81%) OpenID
4 25 (2.64%) OAuth2
4 25 (2.64%) REST
5 24 (2.54%) LDAP
6 22 (2.33%) Web Services
7 21 (2.22%) SailPoint
8 19 (2.01%) Microsoft Graph
9 17 (1.80%) ARM Templates
10 13 (1.37%) JSON
11 12 (1.27%) Middleware
12 11 (1.16%) .NET Framework
12 11 (1.16%) React
13 9 (0.95%) Entity Framework
13 9 (0.95%) XML
14 8 (0.85%) .NET Core
14 8 (0.85%) PySpark
14 8 (0.85%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 93 (9.83%) Onboarding
2 52 (5.50%) Hybrid Cloud
3 34 (3.59%) Cloud Native
4 33 (3.49%) PKI
5 31 (3.28%) Data Centre
6 23 (2.43%) Enterprise Software
6 23 (2.43%) Security Posture
7 21 (2.22%) Product Ownership
8 20 (2.11%) Management Information System
8 20 (2.11%) Public Cloud
9 17 (1.80%) Operational Technology
10 16 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
11 14 (1.48%) Driving Licence
12 13 (1.37%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 12 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
13 12 (1.27%) Data Structures
14 11 (1.16%) Enterprise Cloud
14 11 (1.16%) Private Cloud
15 10 (1.06%) Cyber Defence
16 9 (0.95%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 257 (27.17%) Windows
2 98 (10.36%) Windows Server
3 78 (8.25%) Linux
4 44 (4.65%) Windows 10
5 23 (2.43%) Mac OS
6 22 (2.33%) Apple iOS
7 15 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 15 (1.59%) Unix
8 12 (1.27%) Android
9 9 (0.95%) CentOS
10 8 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (0.74%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.74%) Windows 7
12 4 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.11%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (21.78%) Problem-Solving
2 137 (14.48%) Stakeholder Management
3 133 (14.06%) Agile
4 130 (13.74%) ITIL
5 118 (12.47%) DevOps
6 113 (11.95%) Continuous Improvement
7 103 (10.89%) CI/CD
7 103 (10.89%) Customer Service
8 102 (10.78%) Cybersecurity
9 100 (10.57%) ITSM
10 95 (10.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 90 (9.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 89 (9.41%) Analytics
13 80 (8.46%) Business Intelligence
13 80 (8.46%) Migration
14 74 (7.82%) Decision-Making
15 68 (7.19%) Project Delivery
16 64 (6.77%) Technical Leadership
17 63 (6.66%) Infrastructure as Code
17 63 (6.66%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 151 (15.96%) PowerShell
2 95 (10.04%) Python
3 88 (9.30%) SQL
4 38 (4.02%) Bash
5 26 (2.75%) T-SQL
6 25 (2.64%) Bicep
7 22 (2.33%) C#
7 22 (2.33%) JavaScript
8 15 (1.59%) Java
8 15 (1.59%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (0.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 8 (0.85%) X++
10 7 (0.74%) TypeScript
11 4 (0.42%) ABAP
12 3 (0.32%) Perl
12 3 (0.32%) VBA
13 2 (0.21%) Korn
14 1 (0.11%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.11%) Groovy
14 1 (0.11%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 350 (37.00%) Security Cleared
2 236 (24.95%) SC Cleared
3 132 (13.95%) Degree
4 125 (13.21%) DV Cleared
5 51 (5.39%) Microsoft Certification
6 46 (4.86%) Azure Certification
7 20 (2.11%) AWS Certification
8 19 (2.01%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (1.80%) PMI Certification
9 17 (1.80%) PMP
10 16 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
11 15 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
11 15 (1.59%) DBS Check
12 12 (1.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 10 (1.06%) MCSA
14 9 (0.95%) CISSP
14 9 (0.95%) MCSE
14 9 (0.95%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 8 (0.85%) CCNP
16 7 (0.74%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (4.76%) NIST
2 43 (4.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 36 (3.81%) Data Quality
4 35 (3.70%) PMO
5 32 (3.38%) NCSC
6 31 (3.28%) GDPR
7 28 (2.96%) SLA
8 22 (2.33%) Cyber Essentials
9 20 (2.11%) QA
10 9 (0.95%) GRC
11 6 (0.63%) ISO 31000
12 5 (0.53%) JSP 440
13 4 (0.42%) ISO 19650
13 4 (0.42%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.32%) Accessibility
14 3 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
14 3 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 2 (0.21%) ISO 9001
15 2 (0.21%) NIST 800
System Software
1 230 (24.31%) Active Directory
2 76 (8.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 33 (3.49%) Hyper-V
4 25 (2.64%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.90%) vSphere
6 17 (1.80%) Docker
7 15 (1.59%) Virtual Desktop
7 15 (1.59%) VMware ESXi
8 13 (1.37%) VMware NSX
9 6 (0.63%) Firmware
10 3 (0.32%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 2 (0.21%) UAG
11 2 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.11%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.11%) Dovecot
12 1 (0.11%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.11%) Postfix
12 1 (0.11%) vCloud
12 1 (0.11%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 73 (7.72%) Terraform
2 67 (7.08%) Microsoft Intune
3 38 (4.02%) Kubernetes
4 36 (3.81%) Ansible
5 33 (3.49%) SCCM
6 26 (2.75%) SCOM
7 22 (2.33%) vCenter Server
8 14 (1.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 13 (1.37%) Avamar
9 13 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (1.06%) Jamf Pro
11 8 (0.85%) WMI
12 6 (0.63%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.63%) Grafana
12 6 (0.63%) QRadar
13 5 (0.53%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.53%) Puppet
14 4 (0.42%) Clonezilla
15 3 (0.32%) Dell DRAC
15 3 (0.32%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 96 (10.15%) VMware
2 60 (6.34%) ServiceNow
3 51 (5.39%) SAP
4 41 (4.33%) Cisco
5 36 (3.81%) Google
6 25 (2.64%) Oracle
7 21 (2.22%) Dell
8 20 (2.11%) Meraki
9 19 (2.01%) Databricks
10 15 (1.59%) SolarWinds
11 13 (1.37%) Avaya
11 13 (1.37%) Thales
12 12 (1.27%) F5
12 12 (1.27%) Mitel
12 12 (1.27%) Splunk
13 11 (1.16%) Palo Alto
14 10 (1.06%) CrowdStrike
15 9 (0.95%) Fortinet
15 9 (0.95%) Infoblox
15 9 (0.95%) Veeam