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 6 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
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 7 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 662 443 810
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 11.29% 14.79% 14.67%
As % of the Vendors category 26.47% 28.25% 31.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 467 297 541
10th Percentile £203 £218 £190
25th Percentile £368 £350 £334
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £490 £465
Median % change year-on-year -2.55% +5.38% -2.11%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £575
90th Percentile £654 £625 £675
England median daily rate £494 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.89% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 31 72
10th Percentile £12.29 - £11.71
25th Percentile £13.20 £14.20 £11.95
Median hourly rate £26.00 £15.00 £20.25
Median % change year-on-year +73.33% -25.93% +0.07%
75th Percentile £53.75 £24.38 £50.94
90th Percentile £92.90 £32.05 £61.48
England median hourly rate £20.09 £18.86 £15.00
% change year-on-year +6.52% +25.73% -28.45%

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 2,501 1,568 2,593
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 42.64% 52.34% 46.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,743 1,047 1,596
10th Percentile £300 £250 £213
25th Percentile £413 £406 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £514 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.78% +2.80% -
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% -2.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 157 91 183
10th Percentile £13.46 £14.20 £12.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £16.95 £17.06
Median hourly rate £48.72 £24.66 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +97.57% -53.03% +16.67%
75th Percentile £88.00 £59.44 £61.30
90th Percentile - £71.25 £67.02
England median hourly rate £31.25 £27.13 £22.50
% change year-on-year +15.21% +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 6 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 6 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 6 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 +1 338 £480 -1.29% 273
Berkshire -10 160 £500 +4.71% 130
Hampshire -7 141 £544 +8.75% 140
Buckinghamshire -3 113 £484 -12.09% 93
Surrey +13 99 £450 -10.00% 83
Oxfordshire 0 65 £338 -10.00% 53
West Sussex -5 37 £475 +23.38% 34
Kent -2 27 £400 +52.38% 55
East Sussex -4 9 £600 +11.63% 20
Home Counties +2 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 (10.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 67 (10.12%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.51%) Confluence
4 3 (0.45%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.45%) MS Project Server
4 3 (0.45%) 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 87 (13.14%) Microsoft Office
2 84 (12.69%) Microsoft Excel
3 33 (4.98%) Microsoft Project
4 29 (4.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (1.81%) 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 (0.60%) 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
4 1 (0.15%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 250 (37.76%) Azure
2 187 (28.25%) Microsoft 365
3 114 (17.22%) Entra ID
4 85 (12.84%) Power Platform
5 64 (9.67%) AWS
6 38 (5.74%) Azure DevOps
7 33 (4.98%) Power Automate
8 29 (4.38%) Dynamics 365
9 26 (3.93%) OneDrive
10 25 (3.78%) SaaS
11 24 (3.63%) Microsoft Purview
12 22 (3.32%) IaaS
12 22 (3.32%) PowerApps
13 19 (2.87%) GitHub
14 18 (2.72%) Microsoft Copilot
15 16 (2.42%) Serverless
16 15 (2.27%) Azure Functions
16 15 (2.27%) PaaS
17 14 (2.11%) Azure Logic Apps
18 13 (1.96%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 55 (8.31%) DNS
2 40 (6.04%) DHCP
3 35 (5.29%) Firewall
4 33 (4.98%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (3.02%) VPN
6 17 (2.57%) LAN
7 15 (2.27%) WAN
8 12 (1.81%) Kerberos
8 12 (1.81%) TCP/IP
9 10 (1.51%) Network Security
10 9 (1.36%) MPLS
10 9 (1.36%) Unified Communications
11 8 (1.21%) SD-WAN
12 7 (1.06%) BGP
12 7 (1.06%) Wireless
13 6 (0.91%) SAN
13 6 (0.91%) SNMP
13 6 (0.91%) SSL
13 6 (0.91%) VLAN
14 5 (0.76%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (9.37%) Power BI
2 32 (4.83%) SQL Server
3 16 (2.42%) Azure SQL Database
4 13 (1.96%) MySQL
4 13 (1.96%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (1.51%) Metadata
5 10 (1.51%) 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 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
8 4 (0.60%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (0.45%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.45%) GIS
9 3 (0.45%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.45%) RDBMS
9 3 (0.45%) Star Schema
10 2 (0.30%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 19 (2.87%) JIRA
2 13 (1.96%) Git
3 9 (1.36%) 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 (0.60%) Gradle
6 4 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.45%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.45%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.45%) Maven
7 3 (0.45%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.45%) 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
1 190 (28.70%) Social Skills
2 71 (10.73%) Finance
3 69 (10.42%) Public Sector
4 68 (10.27%) Analytical Skills
5 53 (8.01%) Organisational Skills
6 17 (2.57%) Documentation Skills
6 17 (2.57%) Legal
7 16 (2.42%) Military
8 11 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (1.36%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (1.36%) Telecoms
10 8 (1.21%) Manufacturing
11 7 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (0.91%) Marketing
12 6 (0.91%) Retail
13 5 (0.76%) Aerospace
14 4 (0.60%) Advertising
14 4 (0.60%) General Ledger
14 4 (0.60%) Police
15 3 (0.45%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 93 (14.05%) Architect
2 57 (8.61%) Analyst
2 57 (8.61%) Senior
3 54 (8.16%) IT Support
4 50 (7.55%) Support Engineer
5 47 (7.10%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 39 (5.89%) IT Engineer
7 36 (5.44%) Lead
8 32 (4.83%) Developer
8 32 (4.83%) IT Support Engineer
9 30 (4.53%) Consultant
10 24 (3.63%) Azure Engineer
10 24 (3.63%) Solutions Architect
11 19 (2.87%) Administrator
12 17 (2.57%) Project Manager
13 16 (2.42%) DevOps Engineer
13 16 (2.42%) Infrastructure Architect
13 16 (2.42%) IT Analyst
13 16 (2.42%) Technical Architect
14 13 (1.96%) Product Owner
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (3.47%) .NET
2 18 (2.72%) LDAP
3 13 (1.96%) OAuth
4 12 (1.81%) OpenID
4 12 (1.81%) SAML
5 11 (1.66%) REST
6 10 (1.51%) OAuth2
7 9 (1.36%) ARM Templates
7 9 (1.36%) CSS
7 9 (1.36%) React
7 9 (1.36%) SailPoint
7 9 (1.36%) Web Services
8 8 (1.21%) Microsoft Graph
9 7 (1.06%) ADO
10 6 (0.91%) Ajax
10 6 (0.91%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.91%) GraphQL
10 6 (0.91%) Spring
10 6 (0.91%) XML
11 5 (0.76%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 49 (7.40%) Onboarding
2 33 (4.98%) PKI
3 20 (3.02%) Cloud Native
3 20 (3.02%) Product Ownership
4 17 (2.57%) Legacy Systems
5 16 (2.42%) Data Centre
5 16 (2.42%) Hybrid Cloud
5 16 (2.42%) Operational Technology
6 15 (2.27%) Replication
7 14 (2.11%) Analytical Mindset
7 14 (2.11%) Public Cloud
8 12 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
9 11 (1.66%) Cyber Defence
10 9 (1.36%) Driving Licence
10 9 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (1.36%) Mobile App
11 8 (1.21%) Virtual Team
12 7 (1.06%) Security Posture
13 6 (0.91%) Data Structures
13 6 (0.91%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 187 (28.25%) Windows
2 68 (10.27%) Linux
3 51 (7.70%) Windows Server
4 18 (2.72%) Windows 10
5 15 (2.27%) Mac OS
6 14 (2.11%) Unix
7 12 (1.81%) Android
8 10 (1.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 9 (1.36%) Windows 7
10 7 (1.06%) Windows Server 2012
10 7 (1.06%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.76%) Apple iOS
11 5 (0.76%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.60%) Ubuntu
13 3 (0.45%) CentOS
14 1 (0.15%) Debian
14 1 (0.15%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 99 (14.95%) Problem-Solving
2 87 (13.14%) Agile
3 78 (11.78%) DevOps
4 74 (11.18%) Business Intelligence
5 72 (10.88%) Customer Service
6 71 (10.73%) ITIL
7 70 (10.57%) Migration
8 65 (9.82%) CI/CD
8 65 (9.82%) Cybersecurity
9 58 (8.76%) Stakeholder Management
10 55 (8.31%) Project Management
11 54 (8.16%) Analytics
11 54 (8.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 48 (7.25%) Project Delivery
13 41 (6.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 39 (5.89%) Decision-Making
14 39 (5.89%) SIEM
15 38 (5.74%) Time Management
16 36 (5.44%) Roadmaps
17 34 (5.14%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 99 (14.95%) PowerShell
2 69 (10.42%) Python
3 54 (8.16%) SQL
4 18 (2.72%) Bash
4 18 (2.72%) C#
5 16 (2.42%) JavaScript
5 16 (2.42%) T-SQL
6 13 (1.96%) Java
7 10 (1.51%) Bicep
8 8 (1.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 7 (1.06%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.91%) Perl
11 2 (0.30%) Korn
11 2 (0.30%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.30%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.30%) X++
12 1 (0.15%) Google Apps Script
12 1 (0.15%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 232 (35.05%) Security Cleared
2 162 (24.47%) SC Cleared
3 73 (11.03%) DV Cleared
4 70 (10.57%) Degree
5 26 (3.93%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (2.57%) CISSP
7 14 (2.11%) GIAC
8 13 (1.96%) Azure Certification
9 12 (1.81%) Cisco Certification
10 11 (1.66%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (1.51%) PMI Certification
11 10 (1.51%) PMP
12 9 (1.36%) CISM
13 8 (1.21%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (1.21%) DBS Check
14 7 (1.06%) Master's Degree
15 6 (0.91%) AWS Certification
15 6 (0.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 5 (0.76%) CIMA
16 5 (0.76%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (5.29%) NIST
2 23 (3.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (3.32%) PMO
4 21 (3.17%) Cyber Essentials
5 18 (2.72%) SLA
6 17 (2.57%) GDPR
6 17 (2.57%) NCSC
7 16 (2.42%) Data Quality
8 11 (1.66%) QA
9 6 (0.91%) ISO 31000
9 6 (0.91%) NIST 800
10 5 (0.76%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.45%) 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%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.15%) GRC
13 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
13 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 199 (30.06%) Active Directory
2 65 (9.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (4.08%) Hyper-V
4 14 (2.11%) Docker
5 12 (1.81%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (1.51%) VMware NSX
6 10 (1.51%) vSphere
7 9 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (1.36%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.76%) Firmware
9 3 (0.45%) DFS Replication
10 2 (0.30%) UAG
11 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.15%) Sendmail
11 1 (0.15%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 56 (8.46%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (4.98%) Terraform
3 31 (4.68%) SCCM
4 19 (2.87%) Ansible
5 18 (2.72%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (2.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 13 (1.96%) Kubernetes
8 9 (1.36%) WMI
9 8 (1.21%) SCOM
10 7 (1.06%) Jamf Pro
11 6 (0.91%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.45%) Grafana
12 3 (0.45%) Nessus
12 3 (0.45%) PaperCut
12 3 (0.45%) Puppet
12 3 (0.45%) QRadar
12 3 (0.45%) SCSM
12 3 (0.45%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.45%) WSUS
13 2 (0.30%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 78 (11.78%) VMware
2 30 (4.53%) SAP
3 29 (4.38%) Cisco
4 19 (2.87%) ServiceNow
5 16 (2.42%) Citrix
5 16 (2.42%) Meraki
5 16 (2.42%) Oracle
6 15 (2.27%) Databricks
7 12 (1.81%) Splunk
8 11 (1.66%) Fortinet
8 11 (1.66%) Thales
9 10 (1.51%) Avaya
10 9 (1.36%) Mitel
11 8 (1.21%) F5
11 8 (1.21%) Google
12 7 (1.06%) Red Hat
12 7 (1.06%) Tenable
13 6 (0.91%) CheckPoint
13 6 (0.91%) Dell
13 6 (0.91%) Juniper