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 22 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
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 6 7
Rank change year-on-year +2 +1 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 944 540 619
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 14.10% 15.30% 12.95%
As % of the Vendors category 32.23% 29.44% 26.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 582 372 404
10th Percentile £203 £200 £200
25th Percentile £355 £256 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £465 £470
Median % change year-on-year +2.10% -1.01% +3.30%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £595
90th Percentile £675 £623 £671
England median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 43 39
10th Percentile £13.38 £14.00 £11.71
25th Percentile £15.63 £14.20 £11.80
Median hourly rate £30.75 £17.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +80.88% -60.00% +142.86%
75th Percentile £70.38 £32.05 £56.80
90th Percentile £102.20 £81.15 £61.17
England median hourly rate £21.00 £22.50 £16.23
% change year-on-year -6.67% +38.63% -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 2,929 1,834 2,314
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.74% 51.97% 48.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,839 1,224 1,402
10th Percentile £281 £208 £250
25th Percentile £425 £364 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £634
90th Percentile £700 £650 £700
England median daily rate £513 £501 £525
% change year-on-year +2.30% -4.57% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 116 135
10th Percentile £15.48 £14.20 £14.50
25th Percentile £20.88 £15.13 £24.39
Median hourly rate £52.50 £18.94 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +177.26% -66.98% +27.44%
75th Percentile £77.75 £38.98 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £77.38 £70.00
England median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £28.25
% change year-on-year +29.22% -10.97% -29.38%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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% 347
Berkshire +4 259 £500 +1.52% 126
Hampshire -1 216 £500 -4.76% 180
Surrey +6 130 £450 +80.00% 170
Buckinghamshire -4 123 £515 +31.21% 130
Oxfordshire 0 100 £450 +80.00% 94
West Sussex -5 56 £380 +79.25% 52
Kent -1 35 £450 +71.43% 105
East Sussex -1 10 £298 -48.26% 45
Middlesex - 4 - - 26
Home Counties +1 2 - -
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 (10.17%) SharePoint
2 55 (5.83%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.48%) 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 (12.61%) Microsoft Excel
1 119 (12.61%) Microsoft Office
2 55 (5.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 46 (4.87%) Microsoft Project
4 14 (1.48%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.11%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.11%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.11%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.11%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.11%) InDesign
6 1 (0.11%) MicroStation
6 1 (0.11%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (2.01%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.17%) 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%) 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 (40.36%) Azure
2 232 (24.58%) Microsoft 365
3 166 (17.58%) Entra ID
4 104 (11.02%) Power Platform
5 88 (9.32%) AWS
6 57 (6.04%) Azure DevOps
7 55 (5.83%) Dynamics 365
8 37 (3.92%) SaaS
9 36 (3.81%) Azure Monitor
10 33 (3.50%) GCP
11 30 (3.18%) Power Automate
12 29 (3.07%) IaaS
13 28 (2.97%) Azure Logic Apps
14 25 (2.65%) OneDrive
15 22 (2.33%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (2.12%) Azure Sentinel
17 19 (2.01%) PowerApps
18 17 (1.80%) Microsoft Copilot
19 14 (1.48%) Azure Functions
19 14 (1.48%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 80 (8.47%) DNS
2 58 (6.14%) Firewall
3 54 (5.72%) DHCP
4 45 (4.77%) TCP/IP
5 44 (4.66%) VPN
6 33 (3.50%) LAN
6 33 (3.50%) Wi-Fi
7 29 (3.07%) WAN
8 17 (1.80%) Network Security
8 17 (1.80%) VLAN
9 15 (1.59%) MPLS
10 12 (1.27%) SD-WAN
11 10 (1.06%) BGP
12 9 (0.95%) DNSSEC
12 9 (0.95%) 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 (8.05%) Power BI
2 36 (3.81%) SQL Server
3 12 (1.27%) Azure SQL Database
3 12 (1.27%) MySQL
4 11 (1.17%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
5 10 (1.06%) Oracle Database
6 8 (0.85%) Metadata
6 8 (0.85%) Relational Database
7 6 (0.64%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.42%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.32%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.32%) GIS
9 3 (0.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 2 (0.21%) Geospatial Data
10 2 (0.21%) MS Access
10 2 (0.21%) Oracle Reports
10 2 (0.21%) Parquet
10 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 1 (0.11%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 29 (3.07%) JIRA
2 12 (1.27%) 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
1 326 (34.53%) Social Skills
2 143 (15.15%) Analytical Skills
3 94 (9.96%) Finance
4 83 (8.79%) Public Sector
5 74 (7.84%) Organisational Skills
6 43 (4.56%) Aerospace
7 35 (3.71%) Documentation Skills
8 31 (3.28%) Legal
9 24 (2.54%) 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 13 (1.38%) 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
1 113 (11.97%) Architect
2 95 (10.06%) Analyst
3 89 (9.43%) IT Support
4 78 (8.26%) Senior
5 69 (7.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 54 (5.72%) Lead
7 52 (5.51%) Consultant
7 52 (5.51%) IT Engineer
7 52 (5.51%) Support Engineer
8 46 (4.87%) Cloud Engineer
9 45 (4.77%) Developer
10 42 (4.45%) Azure Engineer
11 37 (3.92%) IT Support Engineer
12 34 (3.60%) IT Analyst
13 33 (3.50%) Administrator
14 29 (3.07%) Solutions Architect
15 28 (2.97%) Project Manager
16 27 (2.86%) Support Analyst
17 26 (2.75%) Technical Architect
18 25 (2.65%) Microsoft Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (7.84%) Terraform
2 39 (4.13%) OAuth
3 37 (3.92%) .NET
4 36 (3.81%) SAML
5 35 (3.71%) OpenID
6 25 (2.65%) OAuth2
7 24 (2.54%) LDAP
7 24 (2.54%) REST
8 22 (2.33%) Web Services
9 21 (2.22%) SailPoint
10 19 (2.01%) Microsoft Graph
11 17 (1.80%) ARM Templates
12 12 (1.27%) JSON
12 12 (1.27%) Middleware
13 10 (1.06%) .NET Framework
13 10 (1.06%) React
14 9 (0.95%) XML
15 8 (0.85%) Entity Framework
15 8 (0.85%) PySpark
15 8 (0.85%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 96 (10.17%) Onboarding
2 51 (5.40%) Hybrid Cloud
3 33 (3.50%) Cloud Native
3 33 (3.50%) PKI
4 31 (3.28%) Data Centre
5 23 (2.44%) Security Posture
6 22 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
7 20 (2.12%) Product Ownership
8 19 (2.01%) Management Information System
8 19 (2.01%) Public Cloud
9 16 (1.69%) Operational Technology
10 15 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
11 14 (1.48%) Driving Licence
12 13 (1.38%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 12 (1.27%) Data Structures
13 12 (1.27%) Enterprise Cloud
14 11 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
14 11 (1.17%) Private Cloud
15 10 (1.06%) Cyber Defence
16 9 (0.95%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 254 (26.91%) Windows
2 95 (10.06%) Windows Server
3 76 (8.05%) Linux
4 42 (4.45%) Windows 10
5 24 (2.54%) Apple iOS
6 23 (2.44%) Mac OS
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
1 203 (21.50%) Problem-Solving
2 140 (14.83%) Stakeholder Management
3 134 (14.19%) Agile
4 124 (13.14%) ITIL
5 117 (12.39%) DevOps
6 112 (11.86%) Continuous Improvement
7 102 (10.81%) Customer Service
7 102 (10.81%) Cybersecurity
8 101 (10.70%) CI/CD
9 98 (10.38%) ITSM
10 94 (9.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 89 (9.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 88 (9.32%) Analytics
13 83 (8.79%) Business Intelligence
14 76 (8.05%) Migration
15 74 (7.84%) Decision-Making
16 67 (7.10%) Project Delivery
17 65 (6.89%) Technical Leadership
18 64 (6.78%) Infrastructure as Code
19 63 (6.67%) AI
Programming Languages
1 147 (15.57%) PowerShell
2 93 (9.85%) Python
3 88 (9.32%) SQL
4 36 (3.81%) Bash
5 26 (2.75%) Bicep
6 23 (2.44%) T-SQL
7 22 (2.33%) JavaScript
8 21 (2.22%) C#
9 15 (1.59%) Java
9 15 (1.59%) Kusto Query Language
10 8 (0.85%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 8 (0.85%) X++
11 7 (0.74%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.42%) 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
1 349 (36.97%) Security Cleared
2 232 (24.58%) SC Cleared
3 132 (13.98%) Degree
4 128 (13.56%) DV Cleared
5 52 (5.51%) Microsoft Certification
6 44 (4.66%) Azure Certification
7 20 (2.12%) AWS Certification
8 19 (2.01%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (1.80%) DBS Check
10 16 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
11 15 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
11 15 (1.59%) PMI Certification
11 15 (1.59%) PMP
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 43 (4.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 42 (4.45%) NIST
3 38 (4.03%) Data Quality
4 35 (3.71%) PMO
5 31 (3.28%) GDPR
6 30 (3.18%) NCSC
7 28 (2.97%) SLA
8 21 (2.22%) QA
9 20 (2.12%) Cyber Essentials
10 9 (0.95%) GRC
11 6 (0.64%) ISO 31000
11 6 (0.64%) JSP 440
12 4 (0.42%) ISO 19650
12 4 (0.42%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.32%) Accessibility
13 3 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 2 (0.21%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 225 (23.83%) Active Directory
2 72 (7.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (3.18%) Hyper-V
4 23 (2.44%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.91%) vSphere
6 17 (1.80%) Docker
7 16 (1.69%) 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 (6.99%) Microsoft Intune
2 39 (4.13%) Kubernetes
3 36 (3.81%) Ansible
4 32 (3.39%) SCCM
5 26 (2.75%) SCOM
6 22 (2.33%) vCenter Server
7 14 (1.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 13 (1.38%) Avamar
8 13 (1.38%) Single Sign-On
9 10 (1.06%) Jamf Pro
10 9 (0.95%) 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 (0.42%) Clonezilla
14 3 (0.32%) Dell DRAC
14 3 (0.32%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.32%) SCSM
Vendors
1 91 (9.64%) VMware
2 57 (6.04%) ServiceNow
3 51 (5.40%) SAP
4 39 (4.13%) Cisco
5 36 (3.81%) Google
6 26 (2.75%) Oracle
7 20 (2.12%) Dell
8 19 (2.01%) Databricks
9 18 (1.91%) Meraki
10 14 (1.48%) SolarWinds
11 13 (1.38%) Thales
12 12 (1.27%) F5
12 12 (1.27%) Splunk
13 11 (1.17%) Avaya
14 10 (1.06%) CrowdStrike
14 10 (1.06%) Mitel
15 9 (0.95%) Fortinet
15 9 (0.95%) Infoblox
15 9 (0.95%) Juniper
15 9 (0.95%) Veeam