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 10 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
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 6 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 909 550 632
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.60% 15.58% 12.88%
As % of the Vendors category 31.09% 29.46% 26.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 567 368 417
10th Percentile £203 £200 £200
25th Percentile £358 £256 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £473 £474
Median % change year-on-year +0.53% -0.26% +2.56%
75th Percentile £588 £586 £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% +142.86%
75th Percentile £77.50 £32.05 £58.49
90th Percentile £106.90 £79.30 £61.60
England median hourly rate £21.75 £22.57 £16.23
% change year-on-year -3.61% +39.03% -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 2,924 1,867 2,364
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.75% 52.87% 48.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,829 1,238 1,441
10th Percentile £281 £213 £255
25th Percentile £425 £375 £403
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 £513 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 120 139
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £14.50
25th Percentile £29.07 £15.13 £24.39
Median hourly rate £57.00 £19.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +200.00% -66.87% +27.44%
75th Percentile £82.50 £36.79 £61.45
90th Percentile £88.00 £71.50 £70.00
England median hourly rate £34.30 £25.15 £30.00
% change year-on-year +36.39% -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 10 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 10 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 10 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 +1 474 £500 +11.11% 363
Berkshire +3 253 £500 +5.26% 171
Hampshire -2 202 £500 -9.09% 172
Surrey +6 124 £450 +80.00% 141
Buckinghamshire -3 122 £510 +13.33% 112
Oxfordshire 0 99 £450 +80.00% 87
West Sussex -6 55 £380 +72.73% 63
Kent -1 31 £375 +42.86% 91
East Sussex +4 10 £298 -53.33% 42
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 96 (10.56%) SharePoint
2 63 (6.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (1.76%) 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
1 114 (12.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 104 (11.44%) 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
1 366 (40.26%) Azure
2 233 (25.63%) Microsoft 365
3 175 (19.25%) Entra ID
4 98 (10.78%) Power Platform
5 90 (9.90%) AWS
6 52 (5.72%) Dynamics 365
7 50 (5.50%) Azure DevOps
8 35 (3.85%) SaaS
9 34 (3.74%) Azure Monitor
10 32 (3.52%) GCP
11 31 (3.41%) 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 17 (1.87%) Azure Sentinel
17 15 (1.65%) Microsoft Copilot
18 13 (1.43%) Azure Functions
18 13 (1.43%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 83 (9.13%) DNS
2 59 (6.49%) Firewall
3 54 (5.94%) DHCP
4 43 (4.73%) TCP/IP
5 42 (4.62%) VPN
6 37 (4.07%) Wi-Fi
7 32 (3.52%) LAN
8 28 (3.08%) WAN
9 17 (1.87%) VLAN
10 16 (1.76%) Network Security
11 15 (1.65%) MPLS
12 14 (1.54%) SD-WAN
13 11 (1.21%) BGP
14 10 (1.10%) Unified Communications
15 9 (0.99%) DNSSEC
15 9 (0.99%) Wireless
16 7 (0.77%) Internet
16 7 (0.77%) IPsec
16 7 (0.77%) 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%) Azure SQL Database
5 9 (0.99%) Metadata
5 9 (0.99%) Oracle Database
6 6 (0.66%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.55%) Relational Database
8 4 (0.44%) Data Mining
8 4 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 4 (0.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (0.33%) MS Access
10 2 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.22%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.22%) Geospatial Data
10 2 (0.22%) GIS
10 2 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
10 2 (0.22%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 28 (3.08%) JIRA
2 11 (1.21%) Git
3 7 (0.77%) MSI
4 5 (0.55%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.44%) GitLab
5 4 (0.44%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.33%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.33%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.33%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.33%) Robot Framework
6 3 (0.33%) Xcode
7 2 (0.22%) REST Assured
7 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.11%) ERwin
8 1 (0.11%) JUnit
8 1 (0.11%) NUnit
8 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 308 (33.88%) Social Skills
2 132 (14.52%) Analytical Skills
3 87 (9.57%) Finance
4 85 (9.35%) Public Sector
5 65 (7.15%) Organisational Skills
6 40 (4.40%) Aerospace
7 35 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
8 28 (3.08%) 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
16 8 (0.88%) Local Government
17 7 (0.77%) Billing
17 7 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 98 (10.78%) Architect
2 92 (10.12%) IT Support
3 90 (9.90%) Analyst
4 78 (8.58%) Senior
5 68 (7.48%) 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 43 (4.73%) Cloud Engineer
10 43 (4.73%) Developer
11 41 (4.51%) IT Support Engineer
12 40 (4.40%) Azure Engineer
13 35 (3.85%) Administrator
14 34 (3.74%) IT Analyst
15 29 (3.19%) Support Analyst
16 27 (2.97%) Project Manager
16 27 (2.97%) Solutions Architect
17 25 (2.75%) IT Support Analyst
17 25 (2.75%) Microsoft Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (4.51%) OAuth
2 38 (4.18%) SAML
3 37 (4.07%) OpenID
4 32 (3.52%) .NET
5 26 (2.86%) REST
6 25 (2.75%) OAuth2
7 24 (2.64%) LDAP
8 21 (2.31%) Web Services
9 20 (2.20%) SailPoint
10 19 (2.09%) Microsoft Graph
11 16 (1.76%) ARM Templates
12 12 (1.32%) JSON
13 11 (1.21%) .NET Framework
13 11 (1.21%) Middleware
13 11 (1.21%) React
14 10 (1.10%) Entity Framework
15 9 (0.99%) .NET Core
16 8 (0.88%) RESTful
16 8 (0.88%) SOAP
16 8 (0.88%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 85 (9.35%) Onboarding
2 48 (5.28%) Hybrid Cloud
3 32 (3.52%) Data Centre
3 32 (3.52%) PKI
4 31 (3.41%) Cloud Native
5 22 (2.42%) Product Ownership
6 21 (2.31%) Security Posture
7 20 (2.20%) Public Cloud
8 18 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
8 18 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
8 18 (1.98%) Management Information System
8 18 (1.98%) Operational Technology
9 13 (1.43%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 12 (1.32%) Driving Licence
11 11 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
11 11 (1.21%) Data Structures
11 11 (1.21%) Private Cloud
12 10 (1.10%) Cyber Defence
12 10 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (0.99%) Cloud Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 255 (28.05%) Windows
2 98 (10.78%) Windows Server
3 76 (8.36%) Linux
4 40 (4.40%) Windows 10
5 22 (2.42%) Apple iOS
5 22 (2.42%) Mac OS
6 16 (1.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 16 (1.76%) Unix
7 12 (1.32%) Android
8 8 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.66%) CentOS
9 6 (0.66%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.66%) Windows 7
10 5 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.11%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.11%) VMS
12 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (21.34%) Problem-Solving
2 124 (13.64%) ITIL
3 122 (13.42%) Stakeholder Management
4 121 (13.31%) Agile
5 104 (11.44%) DevOps
6 102 (11.22%) Continuous Improvement
6 102 (11.22%) Customer Service
7 96 (10.56%) CI/CD
8 95 (10.45%) Cybersecurity
9 94 (10.34%) ITSM
10 92 (10.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 89 (9.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 85 (9.35%) Analytics
13 79 (8.69%) Migration
14 78 (8.58%) Business Intelligence
15 70 (7.70%) Decision-Making
16 65 (7.15%) Project Delivery
17 63 (6.93%) RBAC
18 62 (6.82%) Roadmaps
19 61 (6.71%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 149 (16.39%) PowerShell
2 90 (9.90%) Python
3 80 (8.80%) SQL
4 37 (4.07%) Bash
5 26 (2.86%) T-SQL
6 25 (2.75%) Bicep
7 21 (2.31%) C#
7 21 (2.31%) JavaScript
8 15 (1.65%) Java
9 12 (1.32%) Kusto Query Language
10 8 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 8 (0.88%) X++
11 7 (0.77%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.44%) ABAP
13 3 (0.33%) Perl
13 3 (0.33%) VBA
14 2 (0.22%) Korn
15 1 (0.11%) Google Apps Script
15 1 (0.11%) Groovy
15 1 (0.11%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 330 (36.30%) Security Cleared
2 223 (24.53%) SC Cleared
3 129 (14.19%) Degree
4 117 (12.87%) DV Cleared
5 52 (5.72%) Microsoft Certification
6 43 (4.73%) Azure Certification
7 21 (2.31%) AWS Certification
8 20 (2.20%) Cisco Certification
9 15 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
9 15 (1.65%) PMI Certification
9 15 (1.65%) PMP
10 14 (1.54%) BPSS Clearance
10 14 (1.54%) DBS Check
11 12 (1.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 10 (1.10%) MCSA
13 9 (0.99%) CCNP
13 9 (0.99%) CISSP
13 9 (0.99%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
14 8 (0.88%) MCSE
15 7 (0.77%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (4.84%) NIST
2 43 (4.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (3.63%) PMO
4 32 (3.52%) Data Quality
4 32 (3.52%) GDPR
4 32 (3.52%) NCSC
5 27 (2.97%) SLA
6 23 (2.53%) Cyber Essentials
7 18 (1.98%) QA
8 8 (0.88%) GRC
9 6 (0.66%) ISO 31000
10 4 (0.44%) JSP 440
10 4 (0.44%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.33%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.33%) ISO 19650
11 3 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 3 (0.33%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.22%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 229 (25.19%) Active Directory
2 80 (8.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (3.96%) Hyper-V
4 25 (2.75%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.98%) vSphere
6 15 (1.65%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (1.54%) Docker
8 13 (1.43%) VMware NSX
9 11 (1.21%) Virtual Desktop
10 5 (0.55%) Firmware
11 3 (0.33%) 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 70 (7.70%) Microsoft Intune
1 70 (7.70%) Terraform
2 34 (3.74%) Ansible
2 34 (3.74%) Kubernetes
3 31 (3.41%) SCCM
4 26 (2.86%) SCOM
5 22 (2.42%) vCenter Server
6 14 (1.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 13 (1.43%) Avamar
7 13 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
8 11 (1.21%) Jamf Pro
9 7 (0.77%) WMI
10 6 (0.66%) FortiGate
10 6 (0.66%) Grafana
10 6 (0.66%) QRadar
11 5 (0.55%) Progress Chef
11 5 (0.55%) Puppet
12 4 (0.44%) Clonezilla
13 3 (0.33%) Prometheus
13 3 (0.33%) SCSM
Vendors
1 100 (11.00%) VMware
2 58 (6.38%) ServiceNow
3 48 (5.28%) SAP
4 42 (4.62%) Cisco
5 33 (3.63%) Google
6 24 (2.64%) Oracle
7 22 (2.42%) Meraki
8 21 (2.31%) Dell
9 16 (1.76%) Databricks
9 16 (1.76%) 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%) Palo Alto
12 12 (1.32%) Splunk
13 10 (1.10%) Fortinet
13 10 (1.10%) Juniper
14 9 (0.99%) CrowdStrike
14 9 (0.99%) Infoblox