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 4 May 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
4 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 7 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 658 448 810
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 11.30% 14.93% 14.68%
As % of the Vendors category 26.53% 28.35% 31.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 463 302 541
10th Percentile £204 £220 £190
25th Percentile £374 £350 £334
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £490 £465
Median % change year-on-year -2.60% +5.43% -2.11%
75th Percentile £576 £580 £575
90th Percentile £658 £630 £675
England median daily rate £494 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.89% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 31 72
10th Percentile £12.29 - £11.71
25th Percentile £13.27 £14.20 £11.95
Median hourly rate £24.50 £15.00 £20.25
Median % change year-on-year +63.33% -25.93% -1.07%
75th Percentile £53.75 £24.38 £50.94
90th Percentile £92.20 £32.05 £61.48
England median hourly rate £20.09 £18.85 £15.00
% change year-on-year +6.58% +25.67% -28.57%

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 2,480 1,580 2,592
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 42.60% 52.65% 46.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,724 1,057 1,596
10th Percentile £300 £250 £213
25th Percentile £413 £406 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £515 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.42% +2.93% -
75th Percentile £610 £613 £600
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -2.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 159 91 183
10th Percentile £13.48 £14.20 £12.00
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.95 £17.06
Median hourly rate £47.54 £24.66 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +92.78% -53.03% +16.67%
75th Percentile £87.00 £59.44 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £71.25 £67.02
England median hourly rate £30.96 £27.13 £22.50
% change year-on-year +14.15% +20.56% -43.75%

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 4 May 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 4 May 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 4 May 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 +1 337 £478 -3.05% 222
Berkshire -11 160 £500 +3.36% 91
Hampshire -7 141 £550 +8.64% 133
Buckinghamshire -5 113 £481 -12.64% 84
Surrey +12 98 £456 -7.14% 75
Oxfordshire 0 64 £338 -10.00% 51
West Sussex -5 35 £475 +23.38% 28
Kent -2 28 £400 +52.38% 47
East Sussex -6 8 £600 +9.09% 17
Home Counties +1 4 - -
Sussex -1 3 £525 +5.00% 2
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 68 (10.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 65 (9.88%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.52%) Confluence
4 3 (0.46%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.46%) MS Project Server
4 3 (0.46%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.30%) GeoServer
6 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.15%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.15%) SharePoint 2010
6 1 (0.15%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 89 (13.53%) Microsoft Office
2 87 (13.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 33 (5.02%) Microsoft Project
4 31 (4.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (1.82%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.30%) SOLIDWORKS
6 2 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.15%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.15%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.15%) InDesign
7 1 (0.15%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.15%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (1.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.61%) SAP Business One
4 1 (0.15%) iTrent
4 1 (0.15%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 248 (37.69%) Azure
2 184 (27.96%) Microsoft 365
3 113 (17.17%) Entra ID
4 83 (12.61%) Power Platform
5 65 (9.88%) AWS
6 38 (5.78%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (4.71%) Power Automate
8 28 (4.26%) Dynamics 365
9 26 (3.95%) OneDrive
10 25 (3.80%) Microsoft Purview
10 25 (3.80%) SaaS
11 22 (3.34%) PowerApps
12 20 (3.04%) IaaS
13 19 (2.89%) GitHub
14 18 (2.74%) Microsoft Copilot
15 16 (2.43%) Serverless
16 15 (2.28%) Azure Functions
17 14 (2.13%) Azure Logic Apps
18 13 (1.98%) Azure Monitor
18 13 (1.98%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 55 (8.36%) DNS
2 40 (6.08%) DHCP
3 35 (5.32%) Firewall
4 32 (4.86%) Wi-Fi
5 19 (2.89%) VPN
6 16 (2.43%) LAN
7 14 (2.13%) WAN
8 13 (1.98%) TCP/IP
9 12 (1.82%) Kerberos
10 11 (1.67%) Network Security
11 9 (1.37%) MPLS
11 9 (1.37%) Unified Communications
12 8 (1.22%) BGP
12 8 (1.22%) Wireless
13 7 (1.06%) SD-WAN
14 6 (0.91%) SAN
14 6 (0.91%) SNMP
14 6 (0.91%) SSL
15 5 (0.76%) IPsec
15 5 (0.76%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (9.27%) Power BI
2 32 (4.86%) SQL Server
3 16 (2.43%) Azure SQL Database
4 13 (1.98%) MySQL
4 13 (1.98%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (1.52%) Metadata
5 10 (1.52%) Relational Database
6 7 (1.06%) Data Lake
6 7 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (0.91%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7 6 (0.91%) Oracle Database
7 6 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 4 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.61%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (0.46%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.46%) GIS
9 3 (0.46%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.46%) RDBMS
9 3 (0.46%) Star Schema
10 2 (0.30%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 18 (2.74%) JIRA
2 13 (1.98%) Git
3 9 (1.37%) Android Studio
4 6 (0.91%) Browser DevTools
4 6 (0.91%) Eclipse
4 6 (0.91%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.91%) Xcode
5 5 (0.76%) JUnit
5 5 (0.76%) MSI
6 4 (0.61%) Gradle
6 4 (0.61%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.46%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.46%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.46%) Maven
7 3 (0.46%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.46%) Subversion
8 2 (0.30%) JMeter
9 1 (0.15%) Oracle APEX
9 1 (0.15%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio
General
1 189 (28.72%) Social Skills
2 69 (10.49%) Finance
3 67 (10.18%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (10.03%) Public Sector
5 53 (8.05%) Organisational Skills
6 17 (2.58%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (2.43%) Legal
8 15 (2.28%) Military
9 11 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
11 8 (1.22%) Manufacturing
11 8 (1.22%) Telecoms
12 7 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
13 6 (0.91%) Marketing
14 5 (0.76%) Aerospace
14 5 (0.76%) Retail
15 4 (0.61%) Advertising
15 4 (0.61%) General Ledger
15 4 (0.61%) Police
16 3 (0.46%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 93 (14.13%) Architect
2 58 (8.81%) Analyst
3 56 (8.51%) Senior
4 54 (8.21%) IT Support
5 50 (7.60%) Support Engineer
6 47 (7.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 39 (5.93%) IT Engineer
8 36 (5.47%) Lead
9 32 (4.86%) Developer
9 32 (4.86%) IT Support Engineer
10 27 (4.10%) Consultant
11 24 (3.65%) Azure Engineer
11 24 (3.65%) Solutions Architect
12 19 (2.89%) Administrator
13 17 (2.58%) Project Manager
14 16 (2.43%) DevOps Engineer
14 16 (2.43%) Infrastructure Architect
14 16 (2.43%) IT Analyst
14 16 (2.43%) Technical Architect
15 13 (1.98%) Product Owner
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (3.50%) .NET
2 18 (2.74%) LDAP
3 13 (1.98%) OAuth
4 12 (1.82%) OpenID
4 12 (1.82%) SAML
5 11 (1.67%) REST
6 10 (1.52%) OAuth2
7 9 (1.37%) ARM Templates
7 9 (1.37%) CSS
7 9 (1.37%) React
7 9 (1.37%) SailPoint
7 9 (1.37%) Web Services
8 7 (1.06%) ADO
8 7 (1.06%) Microsoft Graph
9 6 (0.91%) Ajax
9 6 (0.91%) AngularJS
9 6 (0.91%) GraphQL
9 6 (0.91%) Spring
9 6 (0.91%) XML
10 5 (0.76%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 49 (7.45%) Onboarding
2 33 (5.02%) PKI
3 20 (3.04%) Cloud Native
3 20 (3.04%) Product Ownership
4 17 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
5 16 (2.43%) Hybrid Cloud
6 15 (2.28%) Data Centre
6 15 (2.28%) Operational Technology
6 15 (2.28%) Replication
7 14 (2.13%) Analytical Mindset
7 14 (2.13%) Public Cloud
7 14 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
8 10 (1.52%) Cyber Defence
9 9 (1.37%) Driving Licence
9 9 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (1.37%) Mobile App
10 8 (1.22%) Virtual Team
11 6 (0.91%) Data Structures
11 6 (0.91%) Management Information System
11 6 (0.91%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 184 (27.96%) Windows
2 66 (10.03%) Linux
3 50 (7.60%) Windows Server
4 17 (2.58%) Windows 10
5 15 (2.28%) Mac OS
6 12 (1.82%) Android
6 12 (1.82%) Unix
7 10 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.37%) Windows 7
9 7 (1.06%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (1.06%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (0.76%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.61%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.61%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.46%) CentOS
13 1 (0.15%) Debian
13 1 (0.15%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 99 (15.05%) Problem-Solving
2 86 (13.07%) Agile
3 78 (11.85%) DevOps
4 74 (11.25%) Customer Service
5 73 (11.09%) Business Intelligence
6 69 (10.49%) ITIL
6 69 (10.49%) Migration
7 64 (9.73%) Cybersecurity
8 63 (9.57%) CI/CD
9 58 (8.81%) Stakeholder Management
10 55 (8.36%) Project Management
11 54 (8.21%) Analytics
11 54 (8.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 48 (7.29%) Project Delivery
13 39 (5.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 39 (5.93%) Time Management
14 38 (5.78%) SIEM
15 37 (5.62%) Decision-Making
16 36 (5.47%) Roadmaps
17 34 (5.17%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 98 (14.89%) PowerShell
2 69 (10.49%) Python
3 54 (8.21%) SQL
4 18 (2.74%) Bash
4 18 (2.74%) C#
5 16 (2.43%) JavaScript
5 16 (2.43%) T-SQL
6 13 (1.98%) Java
7 10 (1.52%) Bicep
8 7 (1.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 7 (1.06%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (0.91%) Perl
10 2 (0.30%) Korn
10 2 (0.30%) PL/SQL
10 2 (0.30%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.30%) X++
11 1 (0.15%) Google Apps Script
11 1 (0.15%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 232 (35.26%) Security Cleared
2 163 (24.77%) SC Cleared
3 73 (11.09%) DV Cleared
4 69 (10.49%) Degree
5 26 (3.95%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (2.28%) CISSP
7 13 (1.98%) Azure Certification
8 12 (1.82%) GIAC
9 11 (1.67%) Computer Science Degree
10 10 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (1.52%) PMI Certification
10 10 (1.52%) PMP
11 8 (1.22%) BPSS Clearance
11 8 (1.22%) DBS Check
12 7 (1.06%) CISM
12 7 (1.06%) Master's Degree
13 6 (0.91%) AWS Certification
13 6 (0.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 5 (0.76%) CCIE
14 5 (0.76%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (5.02%) NIST
2 22 (3.34%) PMO
3 21 (3.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 19 (2.89%) Cyber Essentials
4 19 (2.89%) SLA
5 17 (2.58%) GDPR
5 17 (2.58%) NCSC
6 16 (2.43%) Data Quality
7 11 (1.67%) QA
8 6 (0.91%) NIST 800
9 5 (0.76%) Accessibility
10 4 (0.61%) ISO 31000
11 3 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 2 (0.30%) JSP 440
12 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
13 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
13 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 197 (29.94%) Active Directory
2 63 (9.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (4.10%) Hyper-V
4 14 (2.13%) Docker
5 12 (1.82%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (1.52%) VMware NSX
7 9 (1.37%) VMware ESXi
7 9 (1.37%) vSphere
8 8 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (0.76%) Firmware
10 3 (0.46%) DFS Replication
11 2 (0.30%) UAG
12 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.15%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.15%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 58 (8.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (5.02%) Terraform
3 31 (4.71%) SCCM
4 20 (3.04%) Single Sign-On
5 19 (2.89%) Ansible
6 16 (2.43%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 13 (1.98%) Kubernetes
8 9 (1.37%) WMI
9 8 (1.22%) Jamf Pro
10 7 (1.06%) SCOM
11 5 (0.76%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.46%) Grafana
12 3 (0.46%) Nessus
12 3 (0.46%) PaperCut
12 3 (0.46%) Puppet
12 3 (0.46%) QRadar
12 3 (0.46%) SCSM
12 3 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.46%) WSUS
13 2 (0.30%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 76 (11.55%) VMware
2 29 (4.41%) Cisco
3 28 (4.26%) SAP
4 19 (2.89%) ServiceNow
5 16 (2.43%) Citrix
5 16 (2.43%) Meraki
5 16 (2.43%) Oracle
6 15 (2.28%) Databricks
7 12 (1.82%) Splunk
8 11 (1.67%) Fortinet
9 10 (1.52%) Avaya
9 10 (1.52%) Thales
10 9 (1.37%) Mitel
11 8 (1.22%) F5
11 8 (1.22%) Google
11 8 (1.22%) Tenable
12 7 (1.06%) Palo Alto
12 7 (1.06%) Red Hat
13 6 (0.91%) Juniper
14 5 (0.76%) Dell