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 14 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
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 6 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 924 550 639
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.73% 15.63% 12.99%
As % of the Vendors category 31.38% 29.73% 26.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 574 369 423
10th Percentile £203 £200 £200
25th Percentile £355 £256 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £470
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% - +2.17%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £597
90th Percentile £675 £625 £671
England median daily rate £490 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +3.16% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 105 45 42
10th Percentile £13.60 £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 £105.80 £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 2,945 1,850 2,382
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.76% 52.56% 48.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,846 1,230 1,450
10th Percentile £281 £210 £254
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 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 235 117 139
10th Percentile £15.85 £14.20 £14.50
25th Percentile £28.54 £14.75 £24.39
Median hourly rate £54.00 £18.87 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +186.17% -67.10% +27.44%
75th Percentile £81.21 £36.25 £61.60
90th Percentile £88.00 £72.25 £70.00
England median hourly rate £33.99 £25.15 £30.00
% change year-on-year +35.15% -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 14 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 14 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 14 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 +1 481 £500 +11.11% 335
Berkshire +2 260 £500 +3.36% 150
Hampshire -3 210 £500 -6.28% 167
Surrey +8 124 £450 +80.00% 129
Buckinghamshire -4 119 £512 +30.45% 110
Oxfordshire 0 102 £450 +80.00% 78
West Sussex -6 54 £380 +75.12% 45
Kent -1 33 £400 +52.38% 88
East Sussex +3 10 £298 -53.33% 38
Middlesex - 3 - - 24
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 (10.28%) SharePoint
2 59 (6.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.62%) 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
1 116 (12.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 107 (11.58%) Microsoft Office
3 55 (5.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 44 (4.76%) Microsoft Project
5 14 (1.52%) 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 18 (1.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.54%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.43%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.43%) Primavera
4 4 (0.43%) SAP Business One
5 3 (0.32%) 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
1 378 (40.91%) Azure
2 232 (25.11%) Microsoft 365
3 174 (18.83%) Entra ID
4 98 (10.61%) Power Platform
5 89 (9.63%) AWS
6 58 (6.28%) Azure DevOps
7 54 (5.84%) Dynamics 365
8 37 (4.00%) SaaS
9 35 (3.79%) Azure Monitor
10 31 (3.35%) GCP
11 30 (3.25%) Azure Logic Apps
11 30 (3.25%) IaaS
12 29 (3.14%) Power Automate
13 27 (2.92%) OneDrive
14 23 (2.49%) Microsoft Purview
15 20 (2.16%) Azure Sentinel
16 18 (1.95%) PowerApps
17 16 (1.73%) Microsoft Copilot
18 14 (1.52%) Azure Functions
18 14 (1.52%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 82 (8.87%) DNS
2 58 (6.28%) Firewall
3 54 (5.84%) DHCP
4 43 (4.65%) TCP/IP
5 41 (4.44%) VPN
6 36 (3.90%) Wi-Fi
7 33 (3.57%) LAN
8 29 (3.14%) WAN
9 17 (1.84%) VLAN
10 16 (1.73%) Network Security
11 15 (1.62%) MPLS
12 13 (1.41%) SD-WAN
13 10 (1.08%) BGP
14 9 (0.97%) DNSSEC
14 9 (0.97%) Unified Communications
15 8 (0.87%) Internet
16 7 (0.76%) Wireless
17 6 (0.65%) BIG-IP
17 6 (0.65%) IPsec
17 6 (0.65%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (7.68%) Power BI
2 34 (3.68%) SQL Server
3 15 (1.62%) MySQL
4 14 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
6 9 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (0.97%) Metadata
6 9 (0.97%) Oracle Database
7 7 (0.76%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.65%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.43%) Data Mining
9 4 (0.43%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.32%) MS Access
10 3 (0.32%) Parquet
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
Development Applications
1 29 (3.14%) JIRA
2 13 (1.41%) Git
3 8 (0.87%) Jenkins
3 8 (0.87%) MSI
4 7 (0.76%) 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 (0.22%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.22%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.11%) ERwin
7 1 (0.11%) JUnit
7 1 (0.11%) NUnit
General
1 315 (34.09%) Social Skills
2 136 (14.72%) Analytical Skills
3 88 (9.52%) Finance
4 85 (9.20%) Public Sector
5 67 (7.25%) Organisational Skills
6 42 (4.55%) Aerospace
7 35 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
8 29 (3.14%) Legal
9 25 (2.71%) Telecoms
10 23 (2.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 17 (1.84%) Manufacturing
11 17 (1.84%) Marketing
12 14 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
12 14 (1.52%) Military
13 9 (0.97%) French Language
14 8 (0.87%) Aviation
14 8 (0.87%) Retail
15 7 (0.76%) Billing
15 7 (0.76%) Local Government
15 7 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 100 (10.82%) Architect
2 91 (9.85%) Analyst
2 91 (9.85%) IT Support
3 79 (8.55%) Senior
4 69 (7.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 56 (6.06%) IT Engineer
6 54 (5.84%) Lead
6 54 (5.84%) Support Engineer
7 52 (5.63%) Consultant
8 46 (4.98%) Cloud Engineer
9 45 (4.87%) Developer
10 42 (4.55%) Azure Engineer
11 41 (4.44%) IT Support Engineer
12 33 (3.57%) IT Analyst
13 32 (3.46%) Administrator
14 28 (3.03%) Solutions Architect
14 28 (3.03%) Support Analyst
15 27 (2.92%) Project Manager
16 25 (2.71%) Microsoft Engineer
17 24 (2.60%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (4.33%) OAuth
2 37 (4.00%) SAML
3 36 (3.90%) OpenID
4 33 (3.57%) .NET
5 25 (2.71%) OAuth2
5 25 (2.71%) REST
6 24 (2.60%) LDAP
7 22 (2.38%) Web Services
8 20 (2.16%) SailPoint
9 19 (2.06%) Microsoft Graph
10 17 (1.84%) ARM Templates
11 13 (1.41%) JSON
12 12 (1.30%) Middleware
13 11 (1.19%) React
14 10 (1.08%) .NET Framework
15 9 (0.97%) Entity Framework
15 9 (0.97%) XML
16 8 (0.87%) .NET Core
16 8 (0.87%) SOAP
17 7 (0.76%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 89 (9.63%) Onboarding
2 50 (5.41%) Hybrid Cloud
3 34 (3.68%) Cloud Native
4 32 (3.46%) PKI
5 31 (3.35%) Data Centre
6 22 (2.38%) Security Posture
7 21 (2.27%) Product Ownership
8 20 (2.16%) Enterprise Software
8 20 (2.16%) Public Cloud
9 18 (1.95%) Legacy Systems
9 18 (1.95%) Management Information System
9 18 (1.95%) Operational Technology
10 13 (1.41%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 13 (1.41%) Driving Licence
11 12 (1.30%) Data Structures
12 11 (1.19%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.19%) Private Cloud
13 10 (1.08%) Cyber Defence
13 10 (1.08%) Enterprise Cloud
14 9 (0.97%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 253 (27.38%) Windows
2 97 (10.50%) Windows Server
3 75 (8.12%) Linux
4 41 (4.44%) Windows 10
5 23 (2.49%) Mac OS
6 22 (2.38%) Apple iOS
7 16 (1.73%) Unix
8 14 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (1.30%) Android
10 8 (0.87%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (0.76%) CentOS
12 6 (0.65%) Windows 7
13 5 (0.54%) Ubuntu
14 4 (0.43%) Windows Server 2016
15 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
16 1 (0.11%) OpenVMS
16 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 197 (21.32%) Problem-Solving
2 132 (14.29%) Agile
3 129 (13.96%) Stakeholder Management
4 125 (13.53%) ITIL
5 115 (12.45%) DevOps
6 109 (11.80%) Continuous Improvement
7 103 (11.15%) CI/CD
8 101 (10.93%) Customer Service
9 100 (10.82%) Cybersecurity
10 95 (10.28%) ITSM
11 93 (10.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 90 (9.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 87 (9.42%) Analytics
14 78 (8.44%) Business Intelligence
14 78 (8.44%) Migration
15 72 (7.79%) Decision-Making
16 67 (7.25%) Project Delivery
17 63 (6.82%) Infrastructure as Code
17 63 (6.82%) RBAC
18 62 (6.71%) AI
Programming Languages
1 151 (16.34%) PowerShell
2 94 (10.17%) Python
3 84 (9.09%) SQL
4 38 (4.11%) Bash
5 26 (2.81%) T-SQL
6 25 (2.71%) Bicep
7 22 (2.38%) C#
7 22 (2.38%) JavaScript
8 15 (1.62%) Java
8 15 (1.62%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 8 (0.87%) X++
10 7 (0.76%) TypeScript
11 4 (0.43%) ABAP
12 3 (0.32%) Perl
12 3 (0.32%) VBA
13 2 (0.22%) Korn
14 1 (0.11%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.11%) Groovy
14 1 (0.11%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 340 (36.80%) Security Cleared
2 230 (24.89%) SC Cleared
3 130 (14.07%) Degree
4 121 (13.10%) DV Cleared
5 53 (5.74%) Microsoft Certification
6 46 (4.98%) Azure Certification
7 20 (2.16%) AWS Certification
8 19 (2.06%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (1.73%) PMI Certification
9 16 (1.73%) PMP
10 15 (1.62%) Computer Science Degree
10 15 (1.62%) DBS Check
11 14 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
12 12 (1.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 10 (1.08%) MCSA
14 9 (0.97%) CISSP
14 9 (0.97%) MCSE
14 9 (0.97%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 8 (0.87%) CCNP
16 7 (0.76%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (4.98%) NIST
2 44 (4.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 35 (3.79%) PMO
4 33 (3.57%) Data Quality
5 32 (3.46%) GDPR
6 31 (3.35%) NCSC
7 28 (3.03%) SLA
8 21 (2.27%) Cyber Essentials
9 19 (2.06%) QA
10 9 (0.97%) GRC
11 6 (0.65%) ISO 31000
12 4 (0.43%) ISO 19650
12 4 (0.43%) JSP 440
12 4 (0.43%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.32%) Accessibility
13 3 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 3 (0.32%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 224 (24.24%) Active Directory
2 76 (8.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 33 (3.57%) Hyper-V
4 25 (2.71%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.95%) vSphere
6 17 (1.84%) Docker
7 15 (1.62%) VMware ESXi
8 13 (1.41%) VMware NSX
9 10 (1.08%) Virtual Desktop
10 5 (0.54%) Firmware
11 3 (0.32%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 2 (0.22%) UAG
12 2 (0.22%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.11%) Citrix Hypervisor
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 73 (7.90%) Terraform
2 69 (7.47%) Microsoft Intune
3 37 (4.00%) Kubernetes
4 36 (3.90%) Ansible
5 32 (3.46%) SCCM
6 26 (2.81%) SCOM
7 22 (2.38%) vCenter Server
8 14 (1.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 13 (1.41%) Avamar
9 13 (1.41%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (1.19%) Jamf Pro
11 8 (0.87%) WMI
12 6 (0.65%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.65%) Grafana
12 6 (0.65%) QRadar
13 5 (0.54%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.54%) Puppet
14 4 (0.43%) Clonezilla
15 3 (0.32%) Dell DRAC
15 3 (0.32%) WSUS
Vendors
1 96 (10.39%) VMware
2 58 (6.28%) ServiceNow
3 49 (5.30%) SAP
4 41 (4.44%) Cisco
5 33 (3.57%) Google
6 25 (2.71%) Oracle
7 21 (2.27%) Dell
8 20 (2.16%) Meraki
9 18 (1.95%) Databricks
10 15 (1.62%) SolarWinds
11 13 (1.41%) Avaya
11 13 (1.41%) Thales
12 12 (1.30%) F5
12 12 (1.30%) Mitel
12 12 (1.30%) Splunk
13 11 (1.19%) Palo Alto
14 10 (1.08%) CrowdStrike
15 9 (0.97%) Fortinet
15 9 (0.97%) Infoblox
15 9 (0.97%) Veeam