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 11 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
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 6 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 909 545 634
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.58% 15.55% 12.87%
As % of the Vendors category 31.12% 29.43% 26.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 566 366 417
10th Percentile £203 £200 £200
25th Percentile £356 £256 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £474
Median % change year-on-year - +0.26% +2.99%
75th Percentile £588 £587 £600
90th Percentile £675 £625 £670
England median daily rate £490 £475 £498
% change year-on-year +3.16% -4.62% -0.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 103 45 43
10th Percentile £13.50 £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 £77.50 £32.05 £58.49
90th Percentile £106.90 £79.30 £61.60
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 2,921 1,852 2,375
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.63% 52.84% 48.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,828 1,230 1,442
10th Percentile £281 £213 £255
25th Percentile £425 £375 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £628
90th Percentile £700 £650 £700
England median daily rate £510 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.52% -3.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 119 139
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £14.50
25th Percentile £29.07 £15.00 £24.39
Median hourly rate £55.00 £19.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +189.47% -66.87% +27.44%
75th Percentile £82.50 £35.54 £61.45
90th Percentile £88.00 £71.75 £70.00
England median hourly rate £34.00 £25.15 £30.00
% change year-on-year +35.19% -16.17% -20.00%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 +1 473 £500 +11.11% 360
Berkshire +3 254 £500 +5.26% 161
Hampshire -3 202 £500 -9.09% 163
Surrey +6 125 £450 +80.00% 128
Buckinghamshire -4 120 £510 +10.27% 117
Oxfordshire 0 99 £450 +80.00% 85
West Sussex -6 55 £380 +72.73% 53
Kent -1 31 £375 +42.86% 84
East Sussex +4 10 £298 -53.33% 37
Middlesex - 3 - - 25
Home Counties 0 1 - -
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 95 (10.45%) SharePoint
2 64 (7.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.65%) Confluence
4 2 (0.22%) Apache
4 2 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.22%) ArcGIS
4 2 (0.22%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.11%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.11%) IIS
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
1 112 (12.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 103 (11.33%) Microsoft Office
3 54 (5.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 43 (4.73%) Microsoft Project
5 14 (1.54%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.33%) 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 18 (1.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.10%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.55%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.44%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.44%) Primavera
4 4 (0.44%) SAP Business One
5 3 (0.33%) Remedy ITSM
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.11%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.11%) iTrent
7 1 (0.11%) Maximo
7 1 (0.11%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Cash Management
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 1 (0.11%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 367 (40.37%) Azure
2 234 (25.74%) Microsoft 365
3 175 (19.25%) Entra ID
4 98 (10.78%) Power Platform
5 89 (9.79%) AWS
6 52 (5.72%) Dynamics 365
7 51 (5.61%) Azure DevOps
8 35 (3.85%) SaaS
9 34 (3.74%) Azure Monitor
10 31 (3.41%) GCP
11 30 (3.30%) IaaS
12 29 (3.19%) OneDrive
12 29 (3.19%) Power Automate
13 26 (2.86%) Azure Logic Apps
14 23 (2.53%) Microsoft Purview
15 18 (1.98%) PowerApps
16 16 (1.76%) Azure Sentinel
16 16 (1.76%) Microsoft Copilot
17 13 (1.43%) Azure Functions
17 13 (1.43%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 83 (9.13%) DNS
2 58 (6.38%) Firewall
3 54 (5.94%) DHCP
4 43 (4.73%) TCP/IP
5 41 (4.51%) VPN
6 37 (4.07%) Wi-Fi
7 33 (3.63%) LAN
8 28 (3.08%) WAN
9 17 (1.87%) VLAN
10 16 (1.76%) Network Security
11 14 (1.54%) MPLS
12 13 (1.43%) SD-WAN
13 10 (1.10%) BGP
13 10 (1.10%) Unified Communications
14 9 (0.99%) DNSSEC
15 8 (0.88%) Wireless
16 7 (0.77%) Internet
17 6 (0.66%) FTP
17 6 (0.66%) OSPF
17 6 (0.66%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (7.92%) Power BI
2 33 (3.63%) SQL Server
3 14 (1.54%) MySQL
3 14 (1.54%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (1.10%) Data Warehouse
5 9 (0.99%) Metadata
5 9 (0.99%) Oracle Database
6 8 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (0.66%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.55%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.44%) Data Mining
9 4 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.33%) MS Access
11 2 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.22%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.22%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.22%) GIS
11 2 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
11 2 (0.22%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 28 (3.08%) JIRA
2 12 (1.32%) Git
3 7 (0.77%) Jenkins
3 7 (0.77%) MSI
4 6 (0.66%) GitLab
5 3 (0.33%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.33%) Browser DevTools
5 3 (0.33%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.33%) Robot Framework
5 3 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.33%) Xcode
6 2 (0.22%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.11%) ERwin
7 1 (0.11%) JUnit
7 1 (0.11%) NUnit
7 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 308 (33.88%) Social Skills
2 133 (14.63%) Analytical Skills
3 87 (9.57%) Finance
4 85 (9.35%) Public Sector
5 64 (7.04%) Organisational Skills
6 40 (4.40%) Aerospace
7 35 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
8 29 (3.19%) Legal
9 24 (2.64%) Telecoms
10 22 (2.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 17 (1.87%) Marketing
12 16 (1.76%) Military
13 15 (1.65%) Manufacturing
14 14 (1.54%) Influencing Skills
15 9 (0.99%) French Language
15 9 (0.99%) Retail
16 8 (0.88%) Aviation
17 7 (0.77%) Billing
17 7 (0.77%) Local Government
17 7 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 99 (10.89%) Architect
2 92 (10.12%) IT Support
3 90 (9.90%) Analyst
4 78 (8.58%) Senior
5 69 (7.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 56 (6.16%) IT Engineer
7 55 (6.05%) Lead
8 54 (5.94%) Support Engineer
9 53 (5.83%) Consultant
10 45 (4.95%) Cloud Engineer
11 42 (4.62%) Developer
12 41 (4.51%) IT Support Engineer
13 40 (4.40%) Azure Engineer
14 34 (3.74%) Administrator
14 34 (3.74%) IT Analyst
15 29 (3.19%) Support Analyst
16 28 (3.08%) Solutions Architect
17 27 (2.97%) Project Manager
18 25 (2.75%) IT Support Analyst
18 25 (2.75%) Microsoft Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (4.40%) OAuth
2 37 (4.07%) SAML
3 36 (3.96%) OpenID
4 31 (3.41%) .NET
5 25 (2.75%) OAuth2
5 25 (2.75%) REST
6 24 (2.64%) LDAP
7 21 (2.31%) Web Services
8 20 (2.20%) SailPoint
9 19 (2.09%) Microsoft Graph
10 16 (1.76%) ARM Templates
11 12 (1.32%) JSON
12 11 (1.21%) Middleware
12 11 (1.21%) React
13 10 (1.10%) .NET Framework
14 9 (0.99%) Entity Framework
15 8 (0.88%) .NET Core
15 8 (0.88%) SOAP
15 8 (0.88%) XML
16 7 (0.77%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 84 (9.24%) Onboarding
2 48 (5.28%) Hybrid Cloud
3 33 (3.63%) Cloud Native
4 32 (3.52%) PKI
5 31 (3.41%) Data Centre
6 22 (2.42%) Product Ownership
7 21 (2.31%) Security Posture
8 20 (2.20%) Public Cloud
9 18 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
9 18 (1.98%) Management Information System
9 18 (1.98%) Operational Technology
10 13 (1.43%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 12 (1.32%) Driving Licence
12 11 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.21%) Data Structures
12 11 (1.21%) Private Cloud
13 10 (1.10%) Cyber Defence
13 10 (1.10%) Enterprise Cloud
14 9 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 254 (27.94%) Windows
2 98 (10.78%) Windows Server
3 75 (8.25%) Linux
4 40 (4.40%) Windows 10
5 22 (2.42%) Apple iOS
5 22 (2.42%) Mac OS
6 16 (1.76%) Unix
7 15 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 12 (1.32%) Android
9 8 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.66%) CentOS
10 6 (0.66%) Windows 7
11 5 (0.55%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.11%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 192 (21.12%) Problem-Solving
2 125 (13.75%) Agile
2 125 (13.75%) ITIL
3 122 (13.42%) Stakeholder Management
4 106 (11.66%) DevOps
5 103 (11.33%) Continuous Improvement
6 101 (11.11%) Customer Service
7 97 (10.67%) CI/CD
7 97 (10.67%) Cybersecurity
8 94 (10.34%) ITSM
9 92 (10.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 90 (9.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 84 (9.24%) Analytics
12 78 (8.58%) Business Intelligence
13 77 (8.47%) Migration
14 70 (7.70%) Decision-Making
15 66 (7.26%) Project Delivery
16 62 (6.82%) Infrastructure as Code
16 62 (6.82%) RBAC
16 62 (6.82%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 150 (16.50%) PowerShell
2 90 (9.90%) Python
3 79 (8.69%) SQL
4 37 (4.07%) Bash
5 26 (2.86%) T-SQL
6 25 (2.75%) Bicep
7 21 (2.31%) JavaScript
8 20 (2.20%) C#
9 15 (1.65%) Java
10 12 (1.32%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 8 (0.88%) X++
12 7 (0.77%) TypeScript
13 4 (0.44%) ABAP
14 3 (0.33%) Perl
14 3 (0.33%) VBA
15 2 (0.22%) Korn
16 1 (0.11%) Google Apps Script
16 1 (0.11%) Groovy
16 1 (0.11%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 331 (36.41%) Security Cleared
2 225 (24.75%) SC Cleared
3 128 (14.08%) Degree
4 116 (12.76%) DV Cleared
5 52 (5.72%) Microsoft Certification
6 45 (4.95%) Azure Certification
7 20 (2.20%) AWS Certification
8 19 (2.09%) Cisco Certification
9 15 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
9 15 (1.65%) PMI Certification
9 15 (1.65%) PMP
10 14 (1.54%) DBS Check
11 13 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
12 12 (1.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 10 (1.10%) MCSA
14 9 (0.99%) CISSP
14 9 (0.99%) MCSE
14 9 (0.99%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 8 (0.88%) CCNP
16 7 (0.77%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (4.95%) NIST
2 43 (4.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (3.63%) GDPR
3 33 (3.63%) PMO
4 32 (3.52%) Data Quality
5 31 (3.41%) NCSC
6 27 (2.97%) SLA
7 22 (2.42%) Cyber Essentials
8 18 (1.98%) QA
9 8 (0.88%) GRC
10 6 (0.66%) ISO 31000
11 4 (0.44%) ISO 19650
11 4 (0.44%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.44%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.33%) Accessibility
12 3 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 3 (0.33%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 228 (25.08%) Active Directory
2 79 (8.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (3.85%) Hyper-V
4 25 (2.75%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.98%) vSphere
6 15 (1.65%) Docker
6 15 (1.65%) VMware ESXi
7 13 (1.43%) VMware NSX
8 11 (1.21%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (0.55%) Firmware
10 3 (0.33%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 2 (0.22%) UAG
11 2 (0.22%) 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 71 (7.81%) Microsoft Intune
1 71 (7.81%) Terraform
2 36 (3.96%) Kubernetes
3 35 (3.85%) Ansible
4 31 (3.41%) SCCM
5 26 (2.86%) SCOM
6 22 (2.42%) vCenter Server
7 14 (1.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 13 (1.43%) Avamar
8 13 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
9 11 (1.21%) Jamf Pro
10 7 (0.77%) WMI
11 6 (0.66%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.66%) Grafana
11 6 (0.66%) QRadar
12 5 (0.55%) Progress Chef
12 5 (0.55%) Puppet
13 4 (0.44%) Clonezilla
14 3 (0.33%) Dell DRAC
14 3 (0.33%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 99 (10.89%) VMware
2 58 (6.38%) ServiceNow
3 48 (5.28%) SAP
4 41 (4.51%) Cisco
5 33 (3.63%) Google
6 24 (2.64%) Oracle
7 21 (2.31%) Dell
7 21 (2.31%) Meraki
8 16 (1.76%) Databricks
9 15 (1.65%) SolarWinds
10 14 (1.54%) Avaya
11 13 (1.43%) Mitel
11 13 (1.43%) Thales
12 12 (1.32%) F5
12 12 (1.32%) Splunk
13 11 (1.21%) Palo Alto
14 9 (0.99%) Fortinet
14 9 (0.99%) Infoblox
14 9 (0.99%) Juniper
14 9 (0.99%) Veeam