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 11 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
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 4 6
Rank change year-on-year 0 +2 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 998 566 633
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 15.01% 16.15% 13.58%
As % of the Vendors category 34.22% 31.34% 27.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 599 391 407
10th Percentile £204 £188 £200
25th Percentile £358 £236 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £463
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -2.70% +2.78%
75th Percentile £588 £572 £588
90th Percentile £675 £625 £654
England median daily rate £490 £475 £498
% change year-on-year +3.16% -4.57% -0.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 142 42 31
10th Percentile £13.37 £14.02 £11.71
25th Percentile £15.50 £14.20 £17.38
Median hourly rate £21.35 £17.30 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +23.41% -61.56% +157.14%
75th Percentile £70.14 £32.05 £58.49
90th Percentile £100.36 £82.08 £61.06
England median hourly rate £19.33 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -14.58% +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 2,916 1,806 2,296
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.85% 51.53% 49.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,809 1,209 1,374
10th Percentile £280 £205 £255
25th Percentile £430 £363 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £519
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -3.62% +3.75%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £633
90th Percentile £700 £650 £700
England median daily rate £513 £501 £525
% change year-on-year +2.40% -4.67% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 247 107 123
10th Percentile £14.37 £14.20 £16.05
25th Percentile £16.63 £15.31 £27.25
Median hourly rate £38.25 £20.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +91.25% -65.13% +11.53%
75th Percentile £70.00 £38.42 £61.60
90th Percentile £93.25 £81.00 £70.00
England median hourly rate £30.00 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +19.28% -28.14% -17.31%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 0 501 £500 +11.11% 352
Berkshire +2 270 £500 +5.26% 176
Hampshire -1 227 £500 -6.28% 180
Surrey +2 143 £450 +91.49% 148
Buckinghamshire -1 128 £520 +32.48% 104
Oxfordshire +1 103 £450 +80.00% 79
West Sussex -7 58 £380 +80.95% 55
Kent -1 38 £525 +100.00% 75
East Sussex 0 12 £220 -48.99% 47
Middlesex - 6 - - 26
Sussex - 4 - - 15
Home Counties 0 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
1 102 (10.22%) SharePoint
2 49 (4.91%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.40%) Confluence
4 4 (0.40%) 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 (0.10%) nginx
7 1 (0.10%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.10%) SharePoint 2010
7 1 (0.10%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.10%) Tomcat
Applications
1 142 (14.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 132 (13.23%) Microsoft Office
3 69 (6.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 51 (5.11%) Microsoft Project
5 15 (1.50%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.10%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.10%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.10%) Trello
Business Applications
1 20 (2.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.50%) 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%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.10%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.10%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.10%) iTrent
6 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.10%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.10%) Oracle Cash Management
6 1 (0.10%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.10%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 393 (39.38%) Azure
2 232 (23.25%) Microsoft 365
3 159 (15.93%) Entra ID
4 121 (12.12%) Power Platform
5 98 (9.82%) AWS
6 58 (5.81%) Azure DevOps
7 56 (5.61%) Dynamics 365
8 39 (3.91%) SaaS
9 36 (3.61%) Azure Monitor
10 35 (3.51%) GCP
11 31 (3.11%) Power Automate
12 29 (2.91%) Azure Logic Apps
13 28 (2.81%) IaaS
14 23 (2.30%) Microsoft Purview
15 22 (2.20%) Azure Sentinel
15 22 (2.20%) OneDrive
16 20 (2.00%) Microsoft Copilot
17 19 (1.90%) PowerApps
18 17 (1.70%) OpenShift
19 15 (1.50%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 78 (7.82%) DNS
2 59 (5.91%) Firewall
3 54 (5.41%) DHCP
4 48 (4.81%) VPN
5 46 (4.61%) TCP/IP
6 29 (2.91%) LAN
6 29 (2.91%) Wi-Fi
7 27 (2.71%) WAN
8 16 (1.60%) VLAN
9 15 (1.50%) Network Security
10 12 (1.20%) MPLS
10 12 (1.20%) SD-WAN
11 9 (0.90%) DNSSEC
12 8 (0.80%) Wireless
13 7 (0.70%) BGP
13 7 (0.70%) Internet
14 6 (0.60%) BIG-IP
14 6 (0.60%) Broadband
14 6 (0.60%) Intranet
14 6 (0.60%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (9.02%) Power BI
2 33 (3.31%) SQL Server
3 12 (1.20%) Azure SQL Database
4 11 (1.10%) Data Warehouse
4 11 (1.10%) MySQL
5 10 (1.00%) Oracle Database
5 10 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
6 9 (0.90%) Relational Database
7 8 (0.80%) 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%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.20%) BusinessObjects
11 2 (0.20%) Oracle Reports
11 2 (0.20%) Parquet
11 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 32 (3.21%) JIRA
2 12 (1.20%) Git
3 11 (1.10%) MSI
4 8 (0.80%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.70%) 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 (0.10%) ERwin
8 1 (0.10%) JUnit
8 1 (0.10%) NUnit
8 1 (0.10%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio
General
1 367 (36.77%) Social Skills
2 158 (15.83%) Analytical Skills
3 112 (11.22%) Finance
4 90 (9.02%) Organisational Skills
5 83 (8.32%) Public Sector
6 52 (5.21%) Aerospace
7 35 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
8 30 (3.01%) Legal
9 23 (2.30%) Telecoms
10 20 (2.00%) Marketing
11 19 (1.90%) Manufacturing
12 18 (1.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 16 (1.60%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (1.30%) Military
15 11 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
15 11 (1.10%) Retail
16 10 (1.00%) Aviation
17 9 (0.90%) French Language
18 8 (0.80%) Local Government
19 7 (0.70%) Billing
Job Titles
1 129 (12.93%) Architect
2 98 (9.82%) Analyst
3 90 (9.02%) IT Support
4 84 (8.42%) Senior
5 67 (6.71%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 54 (5.41%) Lead
7 51 (5.11%) Support Engineer
8 50 (5.01%) Consultant
9 49 (4.91%) Developer
10 48 (4.81%) Cloud Engineer
11 47 (4.71%) IT Engineer
12 45 (4.51%) Administrator
13 41 (4.11%) Azure Engineer
14 33 (3.31%) IT Support Engineer
14 33 (3.31%) Solutions Architect
15 32 (3.21%) IT Analyst
15 32 (3.21%) Project Manager
16 26 (2.61%) Technical Architect
17 25 (2.51%) Microsoft Engineer
17 25 (2.51%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 76 (7.62%) Terraform
2 38 (3.81%) .NET
3 36 (3.61%) OAuth
4 34 (3.41%) SAML
5 33 (3.31%) OpenID
6 24 (2.40%) LDAP
6 24 (2.40%) REST
7 23 (2.30%) OAuth2
7 23 (2.30%) Web Services
8 19 (1.90%) SailPoint
9 18 (1.80%) ARM Templates
9 18 (1.80%) Microsoft Graph
10 13 (1.30%) JSON
11 12 (1.20%) Middleware
11 12 (1.20%) React
12 10 (1.00%) .NET Framework
13 9 (0.90%) XML
14 8 (0.80%) 802.1X
14 8 (0.80%) Entity Framework
14 8 (0.80%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 103 (10.32%) Onboarding
2 53 (5.31%) Hybrid Cloud
3 33 (3.31%) Cloud Native
4 32 (3.21%) Data Centre
4 32 (3.21%) PKI
5 31 (3.11%) Management Information System
6 24 (2.40%) Security Posture
7 22 (2.20%) Enterprise Software
7 22 (2.20%) Public Cloud
8 20 (2.00%) Product Ownership
9 16 (1.60%) Operational Technology
10 15 (1.50%) Driving Licence
11 14 (1.40%) Enterprise Cloud
12 13 (1.30%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 13 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
13 12 (1.20%) Data Structures
14 11 (1.10%) Analytical Mindset
14 11 (1.10%) Private Cloud
15 10 (1.00%) Cyber Defence
15 10 (1.00%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 256 (25.65%) Windows
2 94 (9.42%) Windows Server
3 80 (8.02%) Linux
4 44 (4.41%) Windows 10
5 28 (2.81%) Apple iOS
6 19 (1.90%) Mac OS
7 15 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 15 (1.50%) Unix
8 12 (1.20%) Android
9 10 (1.00%) CentOS
9 10 (1.00%) Ubuntu
10 7 (0.70%) 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 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 224 (22.44%) Problem-Solving
2 167 (16.73%) Stakeholder Management
3 143 (14.33%) Agile
4 133 (13.33%) Continuous Improvement
5 126 (12.63%) ITIL
6 119 (11.92%) DevOps
7 107 (10.72%) CI/CD
8 106 (10.62%) Cybersecurity
9 105 (10.52%) Customer Service
10 104 (10.42%) Analytics
11 99 (9.92%) ITSM
12 97 (9.72%) Business Intelligence
13 96 (9.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 88 (8.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 82 (8.22%) Migration
16 80 (8.02%) Decision-Making
17 76 (7.62%) Project Delivery
18 73 (7.31%) Infrastructure as Code
18 73 (7.31%) Technical Leadership
19 70 (7.01%) AI
Programming Languages
1 151 (15.13%) PowerShell
2 90 (9.02%) Python
3 86 (8.62%) SQL
4 36 (3.61%) Bash
5 30 (3.01%) Bicep
6 23 (2.30%) JavaScript
7 20 (2.00%) C#
7 20 (2.00%) T-SQL
8 17 (1.70%) Java
9 16 (1.60%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.90%) TypeScript
11 8 (0.80%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 8 (0.80%) X++
12 4 (0.40%) ABAP
13 3 (0.30%) Perl
14 2 (0.20%) VBA
15 1 (0.10%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 371 (37.17%) Security Cleared
2 238 (23.85%) SC Cleared
3 141 (14.13%) DV Cleared
4 140 (14.03%) Degree
5 56 (5.61%) Microsoft Certification
6 46 (4.61%) Azure Certification
7 20 (2.00%) AWS Certification
8 19 (1.90%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
9 17 (1.70%) DBS Check
10 16 (1.60%) BPSS Clearance
10 16 (1.60%) PMI Certification
11 15 (1.50%) PMP
12 13 (1.30%) CISSP
12 13 (1.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 10 (1.00%) MCSA
14 9 (0.90%) CISM
14 9 (0.90%) MCSE
14 9 (0.90%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 8 (0.80%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (4.61%) Data Quality
2 45 (4.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 44 (4.41%) NIST
4 42 (4.21%) PMO
5 34 (3.41%) NCSC
6 33 (3.31%) GDPR
7 26 (2.61%) SLA
8 22 (2.20%) QA
9 20 (2.00%) Cyber Essentials
10 11 (1.10%) GRC
11 8 (0.80%) ISO 31000
11 8 (0.80%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.60%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.40%) Accessibility
13 4 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 4 (0.40%) ISO 9001
13 4 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
14 3 (0.30%) GMP
14 3 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 210 (21.04%) Active Directory
2 70 (7.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (2.91%) Hyper-V
4 23 (2.30%) Virtual Machines
5 20 (2.00%) Docker
6 17 (1.70%) vSphere
7 16 (1.60%) Virtual Desktop
8 14 (1.40%) VMware ESXi
9 10 (1.00%) VMware NSX
10 4 (0.40%) Firmware
11 3 (0.30%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.20%) ISA Server
12 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 2 (0.20%) UAG
12 2 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.10%) Dovecot
13 1 (0.10%) Postfix
13 1 (0.10%) vCloud
13 1 (0.10%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 63 (6.31%) Microsoft Intune
2 48 (4.81%) Kubernetes
3 34 (3.41%) Ansible
3 34 (3.41%) SCCM
4 25 (2.51%) SCOM
5 24 (2.40%) vCenter Server
6 14 (1.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 13 (1.30%) Avamar
8 12 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
8 12 (1.20%) WMI
9 10 (1.00%) Jamf Pro
10 8 (0.80%) Grafana
10 8 (0.80%) QRadar
11 6 (0.60%) FortiGate
12 5 (0.50%) Progress Chef
12 5 (0.50%) Puppet
13 4 (0.40%) Clonezilla
13 4 (0.40%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.30%) Dell DRAC
14 3 (0.30%) Istio
Vendors
1 89 (8.92%) VMware
2 62 (6.21%) ServiceNow
3 57 (5.71%) SAP
4 39 (3.91%) Google
5 36 (3.61%) Cisco
6 28 (2.81%) Oracle
7 21 (2.10%) Databricks
8 19 (1.90%) Dell
9 17 (1.70%) Splunk
10 16 (1.60%) Meraki
11 14 (1.40%) SolarWinds
12 13 (1.30%) Thales
13 12 (1.20%) CrowdStrike
13 12 (1.20%) F5
14 9 (0.90%) Avaya
14 9 (0.90%) Infoblox
14 9 (0.90%) Palo Alto
15 8 (0.80%) Mitel
15 8 (0.80%) Salesforce
15 8 (0.80%) Veeam