Microsoft Contracts 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 4 July 2025, 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
4 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 6 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 530 792 885
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 16.31% 13.85% 15.20%
As % of the Vendors category 30.44% 29.50% 29.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 351 511 580
10th Percentile £200 £200 £185
25th Percentile £288 £355 £264
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £475 £468
Median % change year-on-year -1.19% +1.60% +3.77%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £623 £675 £676
England median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 74 40
10th Percentile £13.75 £11.71 £14.00
25th Percentile £14.20 £12.00 £15.50
Median hourly rate £15.63 £23.51 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year -33.52% +20.54% +18.18%
75th Percentile £28.81 £59.25 £46.84
90th Percentile £32.54 £61.60 £64.93
England median hourly rate £22.41 £16.06 £22.25
% change year-on-year +39.52% -27.82% +27.14%

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 1,741 2,685 2,981
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 53.57% 46.96% 51.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,135 1,584 2,000
10th Percentile £220 £247 £205
25th Percentile £375 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £512 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.30% +2.35% -
75th Percentile £600 £608 £600
90th Percentile £650 £700 £688
England median daily rate £513 £518 £525
% change year-on-year -0.97% -1.43% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 110 190 128
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.00 £15.50
25th Percentile £15.41 £18.00 £18.50
Median hourly rate £20.33 £51.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -60.52% +14.44% +125.00%
75th Percentile £37.88 £61.30 £60.00
90th Percentile £67.72 £70.00 £71.59
England median hourly rate £25.50 £24.65 £32.30
% change year-on-year +3.45% -23.68% +50.23%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Microsoft as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 4 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 4 July 2025.

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 4 July 2025. 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 -1 275 £450 -6.44% 879
Berkshire -2 176 £493 -3.90% 462
Hampshire +2 138 £525 -9.79% 464
Buckinghamshire +1 59 £413 -8.10% 256
Kent +4 40 £313 +10.62% 248
Oxfordshire 0 40 £250 -33.33% 176
Surrey -4 35 £243 -39.38% 357
West Sussex -2 29 £255 -43.33% 148
East Sussex +1 8 £619 +65.00% 104
Home Counties 0 2 £550 +15.79%
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 60 (11.32%) SharePoint
2 56 (10.57%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (3.02%) IBM Domino
4 15 (2.83%) Confluence
5 8 (1.51%) Apache
6 7 (1.32%) Exchange Server 2003
6 7 (1.32%) Exchange Server 2007
6 7 (1.32%) Exchange Server 2010
6 7 (1.32%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (1.32%) IIS
6 7 (1.32%) Office Communications Server
6 7 (1.32%) SharePoint Server
6 7 (1.32%) Skype for Business
7 6 (1.13%) CMS
8 5 (0.94%) BizTalk Server
9 4 (0.75%) Drupal
9 4 (0.75%) WordPress
10 3 (0.57%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.57%) Mule
10 3 (0.57%) Mule ESB
Applications
1 80 (15.09%) Microsoft Office
2 52 (9.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (3.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.51%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (1.51%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.19%) CATIA
5 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.75%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 2 (0.38%) SAP ECC
4 1 (0.19%) BPCS
4 1 (0.19%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle ASCP
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle BPM
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Payroll
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle SCM
4 1 (0.19%) Primavera
4 1 (0.19%) Remedy AR System
4 1 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.19%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.19%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.19%) SAP GTS
4 1 (0.19%) SAP Payroll
4 1 (0.19%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 164 (30.94%) Azure
2 137 (25.85%) Microsoft 365
3 53 (10.00%) Power Platform
4 37 (6.98%) Entra ID
5 36 (6.79%) AWS
6 35 (6.60%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (4.91%) Dynamics 365
8 25 (4.72%) IaaS
9 20 (3.77%) PaaS
10 15 (2.83%) SaaS
11 12 (2.26%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (2.26%) PowerApps
12 11 (2.08%) GCP
13 10 (1.89%) Azure AKS
13 10 (1.89%) GitHub
13 10 (1.89%) OpenShift
14 8 (1.51%) Azure Monitor
14 8 (1.51%) OneDrive
14 8 (1.51%) Power Automate
15 7 (1.32%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 69 (13.02%) Firewall
2 49 (9.25%) VPN
3 37 (6.98%) DNS
4 34 (6.42%) SAN
5 30 (5.66%) DHCP
6 20 (3.77%) WAN
7 19 (3.58%) Internet
8 18 (3.40%) Fibre Channel
8 18 (3.40%) LAN
9 16 (3.02%) Cisco IOS
9 16 (3.02%) MPLS
10 15 (2.83%) Ethernet
10 15 (2.83%) Network Security
10 15 (2.83%) Wireshark
11 14 (2.64%) Frame Relay
11 14 (2.64%) GPRS
11 14 (2.64%) GSM
11 14 (2.64%) LTE
11 14 (2.64%) SDH
11 14 (2.64%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (7.36%) SQL Server
2 36 (6.79%) Power BI
3 18 (3.40%) Big Data
4 13 (2.45%) Relational Database
5 11 (2.08%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (1.89%) Amazon RDS
6 10 (1.89%) Azure SQL Database
6 10 (1.89%) Metadata
7 8 (1.51%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (1.13%) MySQL
8 6 (1.13%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.94%) Data Lake
9 5 (0.94%) Power Query
10 4 (0.75%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.57%) Crystal Reports
11 3 (0.57%) GIS
11 3 (0.57%) MS Access
11 3 (0.57%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 25 (4.72%) JIRA
2 16 (3.02%) MSI
3 14 (2.64%) Git
4 12 (2.26%) Visual Studio
5 7 (1.32%) Jenkins
6 5 (0.94%) ERwin
6 5 (0.94%) PowerDesigner
7 4 (0.75%) Bitbucket Server
7 4 (0.75%) Robot Framework
7 4 (0.75%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.57%) Postman
8 3 (0.57%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.38%) Browser DevTools
9 2 (0.38%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.38%) Moq
9 2 (0.38%) Team Foundation Server
9 2 (0.38%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.38%) Toad
9 2 (0.38%) Vite
9 2 (0.38%) WinRunner
General
1 201 (37.92%) Social Skills
2 66 (12.45%) Finance
3 61 (11.51%) Analytical Skills
4 44 (8.30%) Telecoms
5 37 (6.98%) Public Sector
6 25 (4.72%) Organisational Skills
7 16 (3.02%) Games
8 15 (2.83%) Manufacturing
9 14 (2.64%) Documentation Skills
10 12 (2.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (1.89%) Automotive
13 9 (1.70%) Marketing
14 8 (1.51%) Legal
15 5 (0.94%) Billing
16 4 (0.75%) Law
17 3 (0.57%) Influencing Skills
17 3 (0.57%) Military
17 3 (0.57%) Publishing
17 3 (0.57%) Retail
Job Titles
1 77 (14.53%) Analyst
2 55 (10.38%) Support Engineer
3 47 (8.87%) Architect
4 43 (8.11%) Developer
5 31 (5.85%) Consultant
6 30 (5.66%) Senior
7 27 (5.09%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 26 (4.91%) 2nd Line Support
9 25 (4.72%) IT Support
10 24 (4.53%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 21 (3.96%) Platform Engineer
12 19 (3.58%) 3rd Line Support
12 19 (3.58%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
12 19 (3.58%) Azure Engineer
13 18 (3.40%) Support Analyst
14 17 (3.21%) Desktop Engineer
14 17 (3.21%) Desktop Support
14 17 (3.21%) Infrastructure Architect
15 16 (3.02%) Service Analyst
16 14 (2.64%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (3.77%) .NET
2 14 (2.64%) Web Services
3 12 (2.26%) CSS
3 12 (2.26%) HTML
3 12 (2.26%) SOAP
4 11 (2.08%) AngularJS
4 11 (2.08%) JSON
5 10 (1.89%) React
5 10 (1.89%) XML
6 9 (1.70%) .NET Core
7 8 (1.51%) OAuth
7 8 (1.51%) RESTful
8 7 (1.32%) REST
9 6 (1.13%) SAML
10 5 (0.94%) .NET Framework
10 5 (0.94%) ADO
10 5 (0.94%) Ajax
10 5 (0.94%) jQuery
10 5 (0.94%) Middleware
10 5 (0.94%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 29 (5.47%) Self-Motivation
2 23 (4.34%) Onboarding
2 23 (4.34%) PKI
3 14 (2.64%) Clustering
4 13 (2.45%) Data Centre
5 11 (2.08%) Replication
6 10 (1.89%) Management Information System
6 10 (1.89%) Product Ownership
6 10 (1.89%) Security Posture
7 9 (1.70%) Video Conferencing
8 7 (1.32%) Cloud Native
8 7 (1.32%) Driving Licence
8 7 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
8 7 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
9 6 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (1.13%) Life Science
9 6 (1.13%) Operational Technology
9 6 (1.13%) Renewable Energy
10 5 (0.94%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (0.94%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 201 (37.92%) Windows
2 56 (10.57%) Windows Server
3 51 (9.62%) Linux
4 40 (7.55%) Windows 10
5 26 (4.91%) Mac OS
6 24 (4.53%) Unix
7 22 (4.15%) Android
8 19 (3.58%) Windows Server 2019
9 14 (2.64%) Windows Server 2003
10 6 (1.13%) Apple iOS
10 6 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (1.13%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.94%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.75%) CentOS
13 3 (0.57%) Windows 7
13 3 (0.57%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.38%) Debian
15 1 (0.19%) VMS
15 1 (0.19%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (25.47%) Problem-Solving
2 71 (13.40%) DevOps
3 67 (12.64%) Agile
4 66 (12.45%) ITIL
4 66 (12.45%) Migration
5 48 (9.06%) Business Intelligence
6 42 (7.92%) Cybersecurity
7 41 (7.74%) Customer Service
8 39 (7.36%) Project Management
9 34 (6.42%) Analytics
9 34 (6.42%) Continuous Improvement
10 32 (6.04%) Stakeholder Management
11 27 (5.09%) CI/CD
11 27 (5.09%) Collaborative Working
11 27 (5.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 26 (4.91%) Change Management
13 24 (4.53%) Infrastructure as Code
13 24 (4.53%) Roadmaps
14 22 (4.15%) Data Modelling
14 22 (4.15%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 95 (17.92%) PowerShell
2 83 (15.66%) SQL
3 42 (7.92%) Python
4 41 (7.74%) C#
5 37 (6.98%) Java
6 19 (3.58%) JavaScript
7 15 (2.83%) VB
8 13 (2.45%) Bash
9 11 (2.08%) Bicep
10 9 (1.70%) PL/SQL
11 8 (1.51%) PHP
11 8 (1.51%) TypeScript
12 7 (1.32%) Delphi
13 5 (0.94%) Shell Script
14 4 (0.75%) Kusto Query Language
14 4 (0.75%) R
15 3 (0.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 3 (0.57%) DataWeave
15 3 (0.57%) VBA
15 3 (0.57%) X++
Qualifications
1 104 (19.62%) Security Cleared
2 61 (11.51%) Degree
3 52 (9.81%) SC Cleared
4 43 (8.11%) DV Cleared
5 39 (7.36%) Microsoft Certification
6 18 (3.40%) Cisco Certification
7 17 (3.21%) CCNP
8 16 (3.02%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (3.02%) ISEB
8 16 (3.02%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 15 (2.83%) ISTQB
10 14 (2.64%) MCSE
11 12 (2.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 11 (2.08%) A+ Certification
12 11 (2.08%) CISSP
12 11 (2.08%) VCP5
12 11 (2.08%) VCP6
13 8 (1.51%) BPSS Clearance
14 7 (1.32%) Azure Certification
14 7 (1.32%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (3.77%) GDPR
2 16 (3.02%) SLA
3 14 (2.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (1.70%) Data Quality
4 9 (1.70%) NIST
5 7 (1.32%) HIPAA
6 5 (0.94%) PMO
7 4 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.75%) QA
8 3 (0.57%) ECSS
8 3 (0.57%) ISO 9001
8 3 (0.57%) NCSC
9 2 (0.38%) GRC
9 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.38%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.19%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.19%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.19%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.19%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 140 (26.42%) Active Directory
2 50 (9.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (5.28%) vSphere
4 23 (4.34%) VMware ESXi
5 16 (3.02%) Hyper-V
6 13 (2.45%) NFS
7 12 (2.26%) Docker
8 10 (1.89%) Terminal Services
9 9 (1.70%) DFS Replication
10 8 (1.51%) BitLocker
10 8 (1.51%) Microsoft App-V
11 7 (1.32%) Brightmail
11 7 (1.32%) ISA Server
11 7 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
12 6 (1.13%) Virtual Desktop
12 6 (1.13%) XenApp
13 5 (0.94%) XenDesktop
14 1 (0.19%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 58 (10.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 52 (9.81%) SCCM
3 31 (5.85%) Terraform
4 24 (4.53%) Ansible
5 19 (3.58%) Kubernetes
6 11 (2.08%) Microsoft Clustering
6 11 (2.08%) Puppet
7 9 (1.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 8 (1.51%) Nagios
8 8 (1.51%) SCOM
8 8 (1.51%) vCenter Server
8 8 (1.51%) vMotion
9 7 (1.32%) WMI
10 5 (0.94%) WSUS
11 4 (0.75%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.57%) CloudHub
12 3 (0.57%) Grafana
13 2 (0.38%) Malwarebytes
13 2 (0.38%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 61 (11.51%) VMware
2 42 (7.92%) Cisco
3 41 (7.74%) Citrix
3 41 (7.74%) Splunk
4 32 (6.04%) ServiceNow
5 28 (5.28%) SAP
6 22 (4.15%) Oracle
7 18 (3.40%) Meraki
8 14 (2.64%) Google
8 14 (2.64%) HP
8 14 (2.64%) Juniper
8 14 (2.64%) NetApp
8 14 (2.64%) Veeam
9 13 (2.45%) Sage
10 12 (2.26%) Salesforce
11 11 (2.08%) Symantec
12 8 (1.51%) CrowdStrike
12 8 (1.51%) Databricks
13 7 (1.32%) CyberArk
13 7 (1.32%) Dell