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 1 July 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
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 5 6
Rank change year-on-year -2 +1 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 751 515 789
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 11.91% 16.38% 13.90%
As % of the Vendors category 28.33% 30.55% 29.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 488 343 507
10th Percentile £201 £200 £200
25th Percentile £355 £291 £355
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £469 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.20% -1.19% +2.15%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £623 £675
England median daily rate £498 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +4.74% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 34 77
10th Percentile £12.78 £14.06 £11.71
25th Percentile £16.38 £14.20 £12.00
Median hourly rate £29.91 £15.63 £22.58
Median % change year-on-year +91.42% -30.80% +18.84%
75th Percentile £53.81 £29.60 £58.49
90th Percentile £110.75 £32.63 £61.60
England median hourly rate £22.63 £22.50 £16.00
% change year-on-year +0.59% +40.63% -27.27%

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 2,651 1,686 2,659
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 42.04% 53.61% 46.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,724 1,104 1,564
10th Percentile £283 £220 £243
25th Percentile £418 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £512
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -2.30% +2.35%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £689 £654 £700
England median daily rate £508 £513 £520
% change year-on-year -0.98% -1.44% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 190 105 195
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £12.11
25th Percentile £21.35 £15.50 £17.61
Median hourly rate £49.36 £21.39 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +130.76% -54.97% +5.56%
75th Percentile £85.00 £38.42 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £68.79 £70.00
England median hourly rate £35.00 £26.04 £24.65
% change year-on-year +34.41% +5.64% -33.38%

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 1 July 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 1 July 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 1 July 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 0 397 £493 +9.44% 273
Berkshire -2 216 £500 +4.71% 127
Hampshire -9 150 £544 +3.82% 152
Surrey +3 107 £438 +80.41% 118
Buckinghamshire -4 104 £505 +22.42% 75
Oxfordshire -2 77 £405 +62.00% 79
West Sussex 0 49 £395 +54.90% 46
Kent -3 26 £275 -18.22% 57
East Sussex -3 7 £358 -42.22% 34
Home Counties +1 4 - -
Middlesex - 1 - - 21
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 72 (9.59%) SharePoint
2 68 (9.05%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.73%) Confluence
4 2 (0.27%) ArcGIS
4 2 (0.27%) MS Project Server
4 2 (0.27%) Smallworld
5 1 (0.13%) Apache
5 1 (0.13%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.13%) BizTalk Server
5 1 (0.13%) GeoServer
5 1 (0.13%) IIS
5 1 (0.13%) nginx
5 1 (0.13%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.13%) SharePoint 2010
5 1 (0.13%) SharePoint 2013
5 1 (0.13%) Tomcat
Applications
1 86 (11.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 81 (10.79%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (4.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 31 (4.13%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (1.73%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.27%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.13%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.13%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.13%) InDesign
7 1 (0.13%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.13%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.13%) Trello
Business Applications
1 12 (1.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.67%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.53%) SAP Business One
5 3 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.13%) iTrent
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.13%) SAP PSCD
6 1 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.13%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 308 (41.01%) Azure
2 185 (24.63%) Microsoft 365
3 145 (19.31%) Entra ID
4 90 (11.98%) Power Platform
5 79 (10.52%) AWS
6 42 (5.59%) Azure DevOps
7 39 (5.19%) Dynamics 365
8 32 (4.26%) Power Automate
9 31 (4.13%) OneDrive
10 27 (3.60%) SaaS
11 22 (2.93%) GCP
12 21 (2.80%) PowerApps
13 20 (2.66%) Azure Logic Apps
14 19 (2.53%) Microsoft Purview
15 18 (2.40%) Azure Monitor
16 17 (2.26%) GitHub
16 17 (2.26%) Serverless
17 16 (2.13%) Azure Functions
18 15 (2.00%) IaaS
18 15 (2.00%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 76 (10.12%) DNS
2 50 (6.66%) DHCP
3 39 (5.19%) Wi-Fi
4 38 (5.06%) Firewall
5 31 (4.13%) LAN
6 29 (3.86%) VPN
7 28 (3.73%) TCP/IP
8 24 (3.20%) WAN
9 16 (2.13%) SD-WAN
10 14 (1.86%) MPLS
11 12 (1.60%) Kerberos
12 11 (1.46%) Unified Communications
13 10 (1.33%) BGP
13 10 (1.33%) Network Security
13 10 (1.33%) VLAN
14 9 (1.20%) DNSSEC
14 9 (1.20%) IPsec
15 7 (0.93%) BIG-IP
15 7 (0.93%) OSPF
16 6 (0.80%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (9.19%) Power BI
2 29 (3.86%) SQL Server
3 12 (1.60%) MySQL
3 12 (1.60%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (1.33%) Azure SQL Database
5 7 (0.93%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (0.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (0.80%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 5 (0.67%) Metadata
7 5 (0.67%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.40%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.40%) Data Mining
8 3 (0.40%) Geospatial Data
8 3 (0.40%) MS Access
8 3 (0.40%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.40%) Star Schema
9 2 (0.27%) BusinessObjects
9 2 (0.27%) GIS
9 2 (0.27%) Oracle Reports
9 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 27 (3.60%) JIRA
2 11 (1.46%) Git
3 4 (0.53%) Android Studio
3 4 (0.53%) JUnit
3 4 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
4 3 (0.40%) Browser DevTools
4 3 (0.40%) Eclipse
4 3 (0.40%) Gradle
4 3 (0.40%) Maven
4 3 (0.40%) MSI
4 3 (0.40%) Robot Framework
4 3 (0.40%) Xcode
5 2 (0.27%) GitLab
5 2 (0.27%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.13%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.13%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.13%) Subversion
6 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 233 (31.03%) Social Skills
2 74 (9.85%) Public Sector
3 73 (9.72%) Analytical Skills
4 68 (9.05%) Finance
5 47 (6.26%) Organisational Skills
6 28 (3.73%) Legal
7 26 (3.46%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (2.80%) Aerospace
9 19 (2.53%) Telecoms
10 16 (2.13%) Military
11 14 (1.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (1.60%) Marketing
13 8 (1.07%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (0.93%) Local Government
15 6 (0.80%) Billing
15 6 (0.80%) Manufacturing
15 6 (0.80%) Retail
16 5 (0.67%) Arabic Language
16 5 (0.67%) French Language
16 5 (0.67%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 88 (11.72%) Architect
2 77 (10.25%) IT Support
3 71 (9.45%) Analyst
4 58 (7.72%) Senior
5 47 (6.26%) Support Engineer
6 46 (6.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 46 (6.13%) Lead
7 45 (5.99%) IT Engineer
8 43 (5.73%) Consultant
9 36 (4.79%) IT Support Engineer
10 35 (4.66%) Developer
11 28 (3.73%) Azure Engineer
12 27 (3.60%) IT Analyst
13 26 (3.46%) Solutions Architect
14 25 (3.33%) Administrator
15 24 (3.20%) Project Manager
15 24 (3.20%) Support Analyst
16 23 (3.06%) Cloud Engineer
17 20 (2.66%) Technical Architect
18 19 (2.53%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (3.99%) .NET
1 30 (3.99%) LDAP
2 27 (3.60%) OAuth
3 26 (3.46%) SAML
4 25 (3.33%) OpenID
5 18 (2.40%) Web Services
6 17 (2.26%) Microsoft Graph
6 17 (2.26%) OAuth2
7 15 (2.00%) REST
8 14 (1.86%) SailPoint
9 10 (1.33%) JSON
10 9 (1.20%) ARM Templates
11 8 (1.07%) React
11 8 (1.07%) XML
12 7 (0.93%) AngularJS
12 7 (0.93%) CSS
13 6 (0.80%) Middleware
13 6 (0.80%) PySpark
13 6 (0.80%) Software Packaging
14 5 (0.67%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 50 (6.66%) Onboarding
2 31 (4.13%) Data Centre
3 30 (3.99%) PKI
4 29 (3.86%) Cloud Native
5 24 (3.20%) Hybrid Cloud
5 24 (3.20%) Product Ownership
6 21 (2.80%) Legacy Systems
7 17 (2.26%) Public Cloud
8 15 (2.00%) Replication
9 14 (1.86%) Operational Technology
10 13 (1.73%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 12 (1.60%) Security Posture
12 11 (1.46%) Enterprise Software
12 11 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
13 10 (1.33%) Data Structures
14 9 (1.20%) Cyber Defence
14 9 (1.20%) Driving Licence
14 9 (1.20%) Management Information System
15 8 (1.07%) Private Cloud
15 8 (1.07%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 209 (27.83%) Windows
2 62 (8.26%) Windows Server
3 52 (6.92%) Linux
4 27 (3.60%) Windows 10
5 25 (3.33%) Mac OS
6 22 (2.93%) Apple iOS
7 13 (1.73%) Android
8 11 (1.46%) Unix
9 8 (1.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 7 (0.93%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.93%) Windows Server 2019
11 6 (0.80%) Windows Server 2012
12 5 (0.67%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.40%) CentOS
13 3 (0.40%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.13%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.13%) VMS
14 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (17.44%) Problem-Solving
2 94 (12.52%) ITIL
3 92 (12.25%) Customer Service
4 91 (12.12%) Agile
5 88 (11.72%) DevOps
6 80 (10.65%) Stakeholder Management
7 76 (10.12%) CI/CD
8 72 (9.59%) Business Intelligence
8 72 (9.59%) Migration
9 69 (9.19%) Cybersecurity
10 62 (8.26%) ITSM
10 62 (8.26%) Project Delivery
11 58 (7.72%) Analytics
12 57 (7.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 55 (7.32%) Project Management
14 54 (7.19%) Decision-Making
14 54 (7.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 51 (6.79%) AI
16 50 (6.66%) Continuous Improvement
16 50 (6.66%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 118 (15.71%) PowerShell
2 72 (9.59%) Python
3 69 (9.19%) SQL
4 28 (3.73%) T-SQL
5 22 (2.93%) Bash
6 20 (2.66%) C#
7 16 (2.13%) JavaScript
8 13 (1.73%) Bicep
9 12 (1.60%) Java
10 8 (1.07%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 7 (0.93%) X++
12 6 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (0.40%) Perl
13 3 (0.40%) TypeScript
14 2 (0.27%) Korn
15 1 (0.13%) Google Apps Script
15 1 (0.13%) Groovy
15 1 (0.13%) Shell Script
15 1 (0.13%) VBA
Qualifications
1 261 (34.75%) Security Cleared
2 187 (24.90%) SC Cleared
3 95 (12.65%) Degree
4 78 (10.39%) DV Cleared
5 35 (4.66%) Microsoft Certification
6 28 (3.73%) Azure Certification
7 17 (2.26%) Cisco Certification
8 13 (1.73%) AWS Certification
9 12 (1.60%) DBS Check
10 11 (1.46%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (1.33%) BPSS Clearance
11 10 (1.33%) CISSP
12 9 (1.20%) CCNP
12 9 (1.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 8 (1.07%) CISM
13 8 (1.07%) GIAC
13 8 (1.07%) MCSA
13 8 (1.07%) MCSE
14 6 (0.80%) CCIE
14 6 (0.80%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (4.53%) NIST
2 29 (3.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (3.73%) NCSC
4 26 (3.46%) GDPR
5 24 (3.20%) SLA
6 19 (2.53%) Cyber Essentials
6 19 (2.53%) Data Quality
7 18 (2.40%) PMO
8 16 (2.13%) QA
9 6 (0.80%) ISO 31000
10 5 (0.67%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.53%) Accessibility
11 4 (0.53%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 2 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.13%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.13%) ISO 19650
14 1 (0.13%) ISO 9001
14 1 (0.13%) JSP 440
System Software
1 211 (28.10%) Active Directory
2 68 (9.05%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (3.73%) Hyper-V
4 18 (2.40%) vSphere
5 16 (2.13%) Virtual Machines
6 15 (2.00%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (1.86%) VMware NSX
8 11 (1.46%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (1.20%) Docker
10 5 (0.67%) Firmware
11 3 (0.40%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.27%) UAG
13 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.13%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 1 (0.13%) Dovecot
13 1 (0.13%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.13%) Postfix
13 1 (0.13%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 66 (8.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 46 (6.13%) Terraform
3 26 (3.46%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 26 (3.46%) SCCM
4 18 (2.40%) SCOM
5 17 (2.26%) Ansible
6 15 (2.00%) vCenter Server
7 14 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (1.73%) Jamf Pro
9 12 (1.60%) Kubernetes
10 9 (1.20%) Avamar
11 4 (0.53%) Clonezilla
11 4 (0.53%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.53%) Puppet
11 4 (0.53%) QRadar
12 3 (0.40%) Progress Chef
12 3 (0.40%) SCSM
12 3 (0.40%) WMI
13 2 (0.27%) Nessus
13 2 (0.27%) WSUS
Vendors
1 85 (11.32%) VMware
2 42 (5.59%) Cisco
3 38 (5.06%) ServiceNow
4 30 (3.99%) SAP
5 21 (2.80%) Google
6 20 (2.66%) Meraki
7 15 (2.00%) Databricks
7 15 (2.00%) Dell
7 15 (2.00%) SolarWinds
8 13 (1.73%) Citrix
8 13 (1.73%) Oracle
9 12 (1.60%) Avaya
9 12 (1.60%) F5
10 11 (1.46%) Fortinet
10 11 (1.46%) Mitel
10 11 (1.46%) Thales
11 10 (1.33%) Palo Alto
12 9 (1.20%) Infoblox
12 9 (1.20%) Juniper
12 9 (1.20%) Splunk