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 12 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
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 6 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 908 553 634
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.57% 15.75% 12.87%
As % of the Vendors category 31.11% 29.81% 26.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 566 373 417
10th Percentile £203 £200 £200
25th Percentile £353 £256 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £469 £474
Median % change year-on-year +1.20% -0.93% +3.33%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £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 £13.93 £13.70 £11.71
25th Percentile £16.25 £14.20 £11.80
Median hourly rate £32.50 £17.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +91.18% -60.00% +139.44%
75th Percentile £77.50 £32.05 £58.49
90th Percentile £106.90 £79.30 £61.60
England median hourly rate £21.50 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -4.99% +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 2,919 1,855 2,376
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.63% 52.82% 48.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,827 1,233 1,443
10th Percentile £281 £211 £255
25th Percentile £425 £375 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.99% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £628
90th Percentile £700 £650 £700
England median daily rate £510 £510 £525
% change year-on-year - -2.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 119 139
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £14.50
25th Percentile £29.07 £15.00 £24.39
Median hourly rate £55.00 £19.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +189.47% -66.87% +27.44%
75th Percentile £82.37 £35.54 £61.45
90th Percentile £88.00 £71.75 £70.00
England median hourly rate £33.99 £25.15 £30.30
% change year-on-year +35.15% -16.98% -19.21%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 +1 473 £500 +11.11% 421
Berkshire +2 252 £500 +5.26% 186
Hampshire -4 202 £500 -6.28% 203
Surrey +5 125 £450 +80.00% 180
Buckinghamshire -4 121 £512 +24.88% 147
Oxfordshire 0 100 £450 +80.00% 91
West Sussex -6 54 £380 +72.73% 57
Kent -1 31 £375 +42.86% 95
East Sussex +4 10 £298 -53.33% 47
Middlesex - 3 - - 23
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 93 (10.24%) SharePoint
2 61 (6.72%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.65%) 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
1 113 (12.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 105 (11.56%) Microsoft Office
3 54 (5.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 43 (4.74%) 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
1 367 (40.42%) Azure
2 232 (25.55%) Microsoft 365
3 174 (19.16%) Entra ID
4 96 (10.57%) Power Platform
5 89 (9.80%) AWS
6 52 (5.73%) Azure DevOps
6 52 (5.73%) Dynamics 365
7 36 (3.96%) SaaS
8 35 (3.85%) Azure Monitor
9 31 (3.41%) GCP
10 30 (3.30%) IaaS
11 27 (2.97%) OneDrive
11 27 (2.97%) Power Automate
12 26 (2.86%) Azure Logic Apps
13 23 (2.53%) Microsoft Purview
14 17 (1.87%) Azure Sentinel
15 16 (1.76%) Microsoft Copilot
15 16 (1.76%) PowerApps
16 13 (1.43%) Azure Functions
16 13 (1.43%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 83 (9.14%) DNS
2 58 (6.39%) Firewall
3 54 (5.95%) DHCP
4 43 (4.74%) TCP/IP
5 41 (4.52%) VPN
6 37 (4.07%) Wi-Fi
7 33 (3.63%) LAN
8 29 (3.19%) WAN
9 17 (1.87%) VLAN
10 16 (1.76%) Network Security
11 15 (1.65%) MPLS
12 13 (1.43%) SD-WAN
13 10 (1.10%) BGP
13 10 (1.10%) Unified Communications
14 9 (0.99%) DNSSEC
15 8 (0.88%) Internet
15 8 (0.88%) Wireless
16 6 (0.66%) FTP
16 6 (0.66%) IPsec
16 6 (0.66%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (7.71%) Power BI
2 34 (3.74%) SQL Server
3 15 (1.65%) MySQL
4 14 (1.54%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (1.10%) Data Warehouse
6 9 (0.99%) Metadata
6 9 (0.99%) Oracle Database
7 8 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
8 6 (0.66%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.66%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.44%) Data Mining
9 4 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.33%) MS Access
11 2 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.22%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.22%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.22%) GIS
11 2 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
11 2 (0.22%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 29 (3.19%) JIRA
2 12 (1.32%) Git
3 7 (0.77%) Jenkins
3 7 (0.77%) MSI
4 6 (0.66%) GitLab
5 3 (0.33%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.33%) Browser DevTools
5 3 (0.33%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.33%) Robot Framework
5 3 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.33%) Xcode
6 2 (0.22%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.22%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.11%) ERwin
7 1 (0.11%) JUnit
7 1 (0.11%) NUnit
General
1 308 (33.92%) Social Skills
2 134 (14.76%) Analytical Skills
3 87 (9.58%) Finance
4 86 (9.47%) Public Sector
5 64 (7.05%) Organisational Skills
6 40 (4.41%) Aerospace
7 35 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
8 29 (3.19%) Legal
9 25 (2.75%) Telecoms
10 22 (2.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 17 (1.87%) Marketing
12 15 (1.65%) Manufacturing
12 15 (1.65%) Military
13 14 (1.54%) Influencing Skills
14 9 (0.99%) French Language
14 9 (0.99%) Retail
15 8 (0.88%) Aviation
16 7 (0.77%) Billing
16 7 (0.77%) Local Government
16 7 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 98 (10.79%) Architect
2 92 (10.13%) Analyst
2 92 (10.13%) IT Support
3 79 (8.70%) Senior
4 69 (7.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 56 (6.17%) IT Engineer
6 54 (5.95%) Lead
6 54 (5.95%) Support Engineer
7 52 (5.73%) Consultant
8 45 (4.96%) Cloud Engineer
9 43 (4.74%) Developer
10 41 (4.52%) Azure Engineer
10 41 (4.52%) IT Support Engineer
11 34 (3.74%) IT Analyst
12 32 (3.52%) Administrator
13 29 (3.19%) Support Analyst
14 28 (3.08%) Solutions Architect
15 27 (2.97%) Project Manager
16 25 (2.75%) IT Support Analyst
16 25 (2.75%) Microsoft Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (4.41%) OAuth
2 37 (4.07%) SAML
3 36 (3.96%) OpenID
4 32 (3.52%) .NET
5 25 (2.75%) OAuth2
5 25 (2.75%) REST
6 24 (2.64%) LDAP
7 22 (2.42%) Web Services
8 20 (2.20%) SailPoint
9 19 (2.09%) Microsoft Graph
10 17 (1.87%) ARM Templates
11 12 (1.32%) JSON
12 11 (1.21%) Middleware
12 11 (1.21%) React
13 10 (1.10%) .NET Framework
14 9 (0.99%) Entity Framework
14 9 (0.99%) XML
15 8 (0.88%) .NET Core
15 8 (0.88%) SOAP
16 7 (0.77%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 84 (9.25%) Onboarding
2 49 (5.40%) Hybrid Cloud
3 33 (3.63%) Cloud Native
4 32 (3.52%) PKI
5 31 (3.41%) Data Centre
6 22 (2.42%) Product Ownership
7 21 (2.31%) Security Posture
8 20 (2.20%) Public Cloud
9 19 (2.09%) Legacy Systems
10 18 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
10 18 (1.98%) Management Information System
10 18 (1.98%) Operational Technology
11 13 (1.43%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 13 (1.43%) Driving Licence
12 11 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.21%) Data Structures
12 11 (1.21%) Private Cloud
13 10 (1.10%) Cyber Defence
13 10 (1.10%) Enterprise Cloud
14 9 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 254 (27.97%) Windows
2 98 (10.79%) Windows Server
3 75 (8.26%) Linux
4 40 (4.41%) Windows 10
5 22 (2.42%) Apple iOS
5 22 (2.42%) Mac OS
6 16 (1.76%) Unix
7 15 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 12 (1.32%) Android
9 8 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.66%) CentOS
10 6 (0.66%) Windows 7
11 5 (0.55%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.11%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (21.26%) Problem-Solving
2 127 (13.99%) Agile
3 126 (13.88%) ITIL
4 123 (13.55%) Stakeholder Management
5 107 (11.78%) DevOps
6 105 (11.56%) Continuous Improvement
7 101 (11.12%) Customer Service
8 98 (10.79%) Cybersecurity
9 97 (10.68%) CI/CD
10 94 (10.35%) ITSM
11 92 (10.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 90 (9.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 85 (9.36%) Analytics
14 77 (8.48%) Migration
15 76 (8.37%) Business Intelligence
16 70 (7.71%) Decision-Making
17 66 (7.27%) Project Delivery
18 62 (6.83%) Infrastructure as Code
18 62 (6.83%) RBAC
19 61 (6.72%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 149 (16.41%) PowerShell
2 90 (9.91%) Python
3 79 (8.70%) SQL
4 38 (4.19%) Bash
5 26 (2.86%) Bicep
5 26 (2.86%) T-SQL
6 21 (2.31%) C#
6 21 (2.31%) JavaScript
7 15 (1.65%) Java
8 12 (1.32%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 8 (0.88%) X++
10 7 (0.77%) TypeScript
11 4 (0.44%) ABAP
12 3 (0.33%) Perl
12 3 (0.33%) VBA
13 2 (0.22%) Korn
14 1 (0.11%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.11%) Groovy
14 1 (0.11%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 331 (36.45%) Security Cleared
2 225 (24.78%) SC Cleared
3 129 (14.21%) Degree
4 116 (12.78%) DV Cleared
5 52 (5.73%) Microsoft Certification
6 45 (4.96%) Azure Certification
7 20 (2.20%) AWS Certification
8 19 (2.09%) 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%) CISSP
13 9 (0.99%) MCSE
13 9 (0.99%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
14 8 (0.88%) CCNP
15 7 (0.77%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (4.96%) NIST
2 43 (4.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (3.63%) PMO
4 32 (3.52%) Data Quality
4 32 (3.52%) GDPR
5 31 (3.41%) NCSC
6 28 (3.08%) SLA
7 22 (2.42%) Cyber Essentials
8 19 (2.09%) QA
9 8 (0.88%) GRC
10 6 (0.66%) ISO 31000
11 4 (0.44%) ISO 19650
11 4 (0.44%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.44%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.33%) Accessibility
12 3 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 3 (0.33%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 226 (24.89%) Active Directory
2 78 (8.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 34 (3.74%) Hyper-V
4 25 (2.75%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (1.98%) vSphere
6 15 (1.65%) Docker
6 15 (1.65%) VMware ESXi
7 13 (1.43%) VMware NSX
8 11 (1.21%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (0.55%) Firmware
10 3 (0.33%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 2 (0.22%) UAG
11 2 (0.22%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.11%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.11%) Dovecot
12 1 (0.11%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.11%) Postfix
12 1 (0.11%) vCloud
12 1 (0.11%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 72 (7.93%) Terraform
2 70 (7.71%) Microsoft Intune
3 36 (3.96%) Kubernetes
4 35 (3.85%) Ansible
5 32 (3.52%) SCCM
6 26 (2.86%) SCOM
7 22 (2.42%) vCenter Server
8 14 (1.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 13 (1.43%) Avamar
9 13 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (1.21%) Jamf Pro
11 7 (0.77%) WMI
12 6 (0.66%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.66%) Grafana
12 6 (0.66%) QRadar
13 5 (0.55%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.55%) Puppet
14 4 (0.44%) Clonezilla
15 3 (0.33%) Dell DRAC
15 3 (0.33%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 98 (10.79%) VMware
2 58 (6.39%) ServiceNow
3 48 (5.29%) SAP
4 42 (4.63%) Cisco
5 33 (3.63%) Google
6 25 (2.75%) Oracle
7 21 (2.31%) Dell
7 21 (2.31%) Meraki
8 16 (1.76%) Databricks
9 15 (1.65%) 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%) Splunk
13 11 (1.21%) Palo Alto
14 10 (1.10%) CrowdStrike
15 9 (0.99%) Fortinet
15 9 (0.99%) Infoblox
15 9 (0.99%) Veeam