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 21 September 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
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 +3 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 1,008 566 630
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 15.31% 16.39% 13.81%
As % of the Vendors category 35.06% 31.91% 27.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 604 397 413
10th Percentile £204 £185 £200
25th Percentile £341 £220 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £463
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -2.70% +1.20%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £625 £662
England median daily rate £490 £471 £500
% change year-on-year +4.03% -5.80% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 150 44 31
10th Percentile £13.41 £13.24 £11.71
25th Percentile £15.50 £14.20 £17.38
Median hourly rate £20.50 £17.30 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.50% -61.56% +157.14%
75th Percentile £70.14 £32.05 £58.49
90th Percentile £96.48 £80.23 £61.06
England median hourly rate £19.14 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -15.44% +39.43% -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 2,875 1,774 2,256
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.65% 51.38% 49.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,770 1,193 1,364
10th Percentile £270 £205 £250
25th Percentile £430 £363 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £516 £500 £516
Median % change year-on-year +3.25% -3.15% +3.25%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £626
90th Percentile £700 £650 £700
England median daily rate £513 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +1.49% -3.81% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 250 104 110
10th Percentile £14.12 £14.20 £15.92
25th Percentile £16.38 £15.22 £27.00
Median hourly rate £38.25 £20.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +91.25% -65.13% +9.24%
75th Percentile £70.00 £35.73 £61.60
90th Percentile £92.69 £79.95 £70.00
England median hourly rate £29.07 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +15.59% -28.14% -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 21 September 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 21 September 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 21 September 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 0 494 £500 +11.11% 485
Berkshire +1 280 £500 +6.53% 233
Hampshire -2 235 £500 -6.28% 260
Surrey +1 149 £455 +102.22% 170
Buckinghamshire -2 121 £515 +25.61% 155
Oxfordshire -1 93 £428 +80.00% 103
West Sussex -6 60 £380 +80.95% 73
Kent -1 36 £525 +100.00% 88
East Sussex +3 14 £220 -48.99% 64
Middlesex - 7 £450 - 20
Sussex -1 4 - - 14
Home Counties 0 2 £600 +9.09%
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
1 111 (11.01%) SharePoint
2 50 (4.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.39%) Confluence
4 6 (0.60%) IIS
5 3 (0.30%) Apache
5 3 (0.30%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.20%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.20%) Apache Superset
6 2 (0.20%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.099%) nginx
7 1 (0.099%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.099%) SharePoint 2010
7 1 (0.099%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.099%) Tomcat
Applications
1 147 (14.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 134 (13.29%) Microsoft Office
3 70 (6.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 46 (4.56%) Microsoft Project
5 15 (1.49%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.099%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.099%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 20 (1.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.59%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.50%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.40%) Maximo
4 4 (0.40%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.40%) Primavera
4 4 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.40%) SAP Business One
5 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
5 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.099%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.099%) iTrent
6 1 (0.099%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.099%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.099%) Oracle Cash Management
6 1 (0.099%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.099%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.099%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.099%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 389 (38.59%) Azure
2 235 (23.31%) Microsoft 365
3 162 (16.07%) Entra ID
4 123 (12.20%) Power Platform
5 95 (9.42%) AWS
6 59 (5.85%) Azure DevOps
7 56 (5.56%) Dynamics 365
8 39 (3.87%) SaaS
9 36 (3.57%) GCP
10 34 (3.37%) Azure Monitor
11 32 (3.17%) Power Automate
12 27 (2.68%) Azure Logic Apps
12 27 (2.68%) IaaS
13 25 (2.48%) OneDrive
14 24 (2.38%) Microsoft Copilot
15 21 (2.08%) Azure Sentinel
15 21 (2.08%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (1.98%) PowerApps
17 18 (1.79%) OpenShift
18 14 (1.39%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 77 (7.64%) DNS
2 60 (5.95%) Firewall
3 53 (5.26%) DHCP
4 50 (4.96%) VPN
5 45 (4.46%) TCP/IP
6 29 (2.88%) LAN
7 27 (2.68%) WAN
8 26 (2.58%) Wi-Fi
9 16 (1.59%) VLAN
10 15 (1.49%) Network Security
11 12 (1.19%) MPLS
11 12 (1.19%) SD-WAN
12 9 (0.89%) DNSSEC
13 8 (0.79%) SMTP
14 7 (0.69%) BGP
14 7 (0.69%) Intranet
14 7 (0.69%) Wireless
15 6 (0.60%) Broadband
15 6 (0.60%) Internet
15 6 (0.60%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (8.93%) Power BI
2 32 (3.17%) SQL Server
3 12 (1.19%) Azure SQL Database
4 11 (1.09%) Data Warehouse
4 11 (1.09%) MySQL
4 11 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (0.99%) Oracle Database
6 9 (0.89%) Relational Database
7 8 (0.79%) Metadata
8 6 (0.60%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.40%) Data Lake
9 4 (0.40%) Data Mining
9 4 (0.40%) MS Access
9 4 (0.40%) Tableau
10 3 (0.30%) GIS
10 3 (0.30%) Power Query
10 3 (0.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.20%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.20%) Oracle Reports
11 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 31 (3.08%) JIRA
2 12 (1.19%) Git
3 11 (1.09%) MSI
4 8 (0.79%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.69%) GitLab
6 3 (0.30%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.30%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.30%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.30%) Xcode
7 2 (0.20%) REST Assured
7 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.099%) ERwin
8 1 (0.099%) JUnit
8 1 (0.099%) NUnit
8 1 (0.099%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.099%) Visual Studio
General
1 368 (36.51%) Social Skills
2 157 (15.58%) Analytical Skills
3 110 (10.91%) Finance
4 95 (9.42%) Organisational Skills
5 83 (8.23%) Public Sector
6 55 (5.46%) Aerospace
7 38 (3.77%) Documentation Skills
8 27 (2.68%) Legal
9 23 (2.28%) Telecoms
10 20 (1.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 20 (1.98%) Marketing
11 17 (1.69%) Manufacturing
12 16 (1.59%) Influencing Skills
13 13 (1.29%) Military
14 11 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
15 10 (0.99%) Aviation
15 10 (0.99%) Retail
16 9 (0.89%) French Language
17 8 (0.79%) Local Government
18 7 (0.69%) Billing
Job Titles
1 127 (12.60%) Architect
2 95 (9.42%) Analyst
3 87 (8.63%) IT Support
4 77 (7.64%) Senior
5 62 (6.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 56 (5.56%) Lead
7 51 (5.06%) Developer
8 50 (4.96%) Administrator
8 50 (4.96%) Consultant
8 50 (4.96%) Support Engineer
9 47 (4.66%) Cloud Engineer
10 44 (4.37%) IT Engineer
11 39 (3.87%) Azure Engineer
12 32 (3.17%) Solutions Architect
13 31 (3.08%) IT Support Engineer
14 30 (2.98%) IT Analyst
15 25 (2.48%) Microsoft Engineer
16 24 (2.38%) Project Manager
16 24 (2.38%) Support Analyst
16 24 (2.38%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (7.44%) Terraform
2 37 (3.67%) .NET
3 36 (3.57%) OAuth
4 34 (3.37%) SAML
5 33 (3.27%) OpenID
6 25 (2.48%) REST
7 24 (2.38%) LDAP
8 23 (2.28%) OAuth2
8 23 (2.28%) Web Services
9 19 (1.88%) SailPoint
10 18 (1.79%) ARM Templates
11 17 (1.69%) Microsoft Graph
12 14 (1.39%) JSON
13 12 (1.19%) React
14 11 (1.09%) Middleware
15 10 (0.99%) .NET Framework
16 9 (0.89%) RESTful
17 8 (0.79%) 802.1X
17 8 (0.79%) Entity Framework
17 8 (0.79%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 106 (10.52%) Onboarding
2 50 (4.96%) Hybrid Cloud
3 36 (3.57%) Management Information System
4 34 (3.37%) Cloud Native
4 34 (3.37%) Data Centre
5 33 (3.27%) PKI
6 24 (2.38%) Security Posture
7 21 (2.08%) Public Cloud
8 20 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
9 19 (1.88%) Product Ownership
10 16 (1.59%) Driving Licence
10 16 (1.59%) Operational Technology
11 14 (1.39%) Enterprise Cloud
12 13 (1.29%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 13 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
13 12 (1.19%) Data Structures
14 11 (1.09%) Analytical Mindset
14 11 (1.09%) Private Cloud
15 9 (0.89%) Cyber Defence
15 9 (0.89%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 261 (25.89%) Windows
2 98 (9.72%) Windows Server
3 79 (7.84%) Linux
4 51 (5.06%) Windows 10
5 31 (3.08%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.98%) Mac OS
7 15 (1.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 15 (1.49%) Unix
8 13 (1.29%) Android
9 11 (1.09%) CentOS
9 11 (1.09%) Ubuntu
10 7 (0.69%) Windows 7
11 6 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.099%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 222 (22.02%) Problem-Solving
2 170 (16.87%) Stakeholder Management
3 139 (13.79%) Continuous Improvement
4 136 (13.49%) Agile
5 129 (12.80%) ITIL
6 120 (11.90%) DevOps
7 109 (10.81%) CI/CD
8 102 (10.12%) Analytics
8 102 (10.12%) Customer Service
9 101 (10.02%) Cybersecurity
10 100 (9.92%) ITSM
11 96 (9.52%) Business Intelligence
12 92 (9.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 85 (8.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 82 (8.13%) Migration
15 79 (7.84%) Decision-Making
16 74 (7.34%) Project Delivery
17 72 (7.14%) Infrastructure as Code
17 72 (7.14%) Roadmaps
17 72 (7.14%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 156 (15.48%) PowerShell
2 92 (9.13%) Python
3 84 (8.33%) SQL
4 36 (3.57%) Bash
5 30 (2.98%) Bicep
6 23 (2.28%) JavaScript
7 19 (1.88%) C#
7 19 (1.88%) Java
7 19 (1.88%) T-SQL
8 14 (1.39%) Kusto Query Language
9 9 (0.89%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.79%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 8 (0.79%) X++
11 4 (0.40%) ABAP
12 3 (0.30%) Perl
13 2 (0.20%) VBA
14 1 (0.099%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 374 (37.10%) Security Cleared
2 237 (23.51%) SC Cleared
3 144 (14.29%) DV Cleared
4 139 (13.79%) Degree
5 58 (5.75%) Microsoft Certification
6 50 (4.96%) Azure Certification
7 21 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
8 20 (1.98%) AWS Certification
8 20 (1.98%) DBS Check
9 16 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
9 16 (1.59%) PMI Certification
10 15 (1.49%) CISSP
10 15 (1.49%) Computer Science Degree
11 14 (1.39%) PMP
12 13 (1.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 11 (1.09%) CISM
14 10 (0.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 10 (0.99%) MCSA
15 9 (0.89%) MCSE
15 9 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (4.66%) Data Quality
2 46 (4.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 42 (4.17%) NIST
3 42 (4.17%) PMO
4 35 (3.47%) GDPR
5 32 (3.17%) NCSC
6 26 (2.58%) SLA
7 22 (2.18%) QA
8 19 (1.88%) Cyber Essentials
9 13 (1.29%) GRC
10 10 (0.99%) ISO 31000
11 8 (0.79%) JSP 440
11 8 (0.79%) PCI DSS
12 6 (0.60%) ISO 9001
13 4 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 4 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 4 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.30%) Accessibility
14 3 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 3 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 210 (20.83%) Active Directory
2 70 (6.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (2.88%) Hyper-V
4 23 (2.28%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (1.88%) Docker
6 17 (1.69%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (1.69%) vSphere
7 14 (1.39%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.79%) VMware NSX
9 5 (0.50%) Firmware
10 4 (0.40%) ISA Server
11 3 (0.30%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 2 (0.20%) UAG
12 2 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.099%) Dovecot
13 1 (0.099%) Postfix
13 1 (0.099%) vCloud
13 1 (0.099%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 70 (6.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 48 (4.76%) Kubernetes
3 34 (3.37%) SCCM
4 33 (3.27%) Ansible
5 26 (2.58%) SCOM
6 25 (2.48%) vCenter Server
7 14 (1.39%) Avamar
8 13 (1.29%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 12 (1.19%) WMI
10 11 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
11 10 (0.99%) Jamf Pro
12 9 (0.89%) QRadar
13 8 (0.79%) Grafana
14 6 (0.60%) FortiGate
15 5 (0.50%) Progress Chef
15 5 (0.50%) Puppet
16 4 (0.40%) CASB
16 4 (0.40%) Clonezilla
16 4 (0.40%) Prometheus
17 3 (0.30%) Istio
Vendors
1 88 (8.73%) VMware
2 65 (6.45%) ServiceNow
3 57 (5.65%) SAP
4 39 (3.87%) Google
5 36 (3.57%) Cisco
6 29 (2.88%) Oracle
7 21 (2.08%) Databricks
8 20 (1.98%) Dell
8 20 (1.98%) Splunk
9 15 (1.49%) Meraki
10 14 (1.39%) CrowdStrike
10 14 (1.39%) F5
10 14 (1.39%) SolarWinds
10 14 (1.39%) Thales
11 9 (0.89%) Infoblox
11 9 (0.89%) Palo Alto
11 9 (0.89%) Veeam
12 8 (0.79%) Avaya
12 8 (0.79%) Citrix
12 8 (0.79%) Red Hat