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 28 July 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
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 6 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 849 546 688
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 12.83% 15.89% 13.32%
As % of the Vendors category 29.67% 29.93% 28.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 545 367 450
10th Percentile £203 £200 £200
25th Percentile £360 £256 £357
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £478
Median % change year-on-year - -0.52% +3.80%
75th Percentile £588 £581 £600
90th Percentile £675 £623 £675
England median daily rate £492 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +3.58% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 42 52
10th Percentile £15.78 £14.00 £11.71
25th Percentile £18.50 £14.20 £12.47
Median hourly rate £32.50 £16.68 £25.29
Median % change year-on-year +94.84% -34.05% +36.70%
75th Percentile £84.38 £32.05 £55.96
90th Percentile £110.75 £82.08 £61.55
England median hourly rate £24.33 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year +7.51% +39.43% -25.38%

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 2,861 1,824 2,451
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.22% 53.08% 47.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,819 1,204 1,475
10th Percentile £285 £209 £262
25th Percentile £425 £375 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.80% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £606 £600 £625
90th Percentile £696 £650 £700
England median daily rate £510 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -3.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 212 116 151
10th Percentile £17.66 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £31.09 £15.13 £20.75
Median hourly rate £61.16 £19.46 £55.80
Median % change year-on-year +214.37% -65.13% +24.00%
75th Percentile £85.00 £40.39 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £77.38 £70.00
England median hourly rate £35.91 £25.15 £27.50
% change year-on-year +42.78% -8.55% -30.47%

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 28 July 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 28 July 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 28 July 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 0 454 £500 +11.11% 274
Berkshire +1 248 £500 +5.26% 130
Hampshire -4 178 £506 -6.25% 126
Surrey +5 115 £438 +66.67% 121
Buckinghamshire -5 113 £510 +10.27% 76
Oxfordshire 0 93 £433 +73.00% 71
West Sussex -5 52 £430 +95.45% 48
Kent -3 28 £350 +12.00% 69
East Sussex +3 9 £298 -53.33% 31
Home Counties +1 3 - -
Middlesex - 2 - - 22
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 87 (10.25%) SharePoint
2 70 (8.24%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.77%) Confluence
4 2 (0.24%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.12%) Apache
5 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.12%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.12%) IIS
5 1 (0.12%) nginx
5 1 (0.12%) SharePoint 2010
5 1 (0.12%) SharePoint 2013
5 1 (0.12%) Smallworld
5 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 109 (12.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 90 (10.60%) Microsoft Office
3 46 (5.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 43 (5.06%) Microsoft Project
5 14 (1.65%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.12%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.12%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.12%) InDesign
6 1 (0.12%) MicroStation
6 1 (0.12%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.12%) Trello
Business Applications
1 17 (2.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.59%) NEC Housing
3 5 (0.59%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.47%) Primavera
4 4 (0.47%) SAP Business One
5 3 (0.35%) Remedy ITSM
6 2 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.12%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.12%) iTrent
7 1 (0.12%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Cash Management
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.12%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 1 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 341 (40.16%) Azure
2 213 (25.09%) Microsoft 365
3 167 (19.67%) Entra ID
4 91 (10.72%) Power Platform
5 86 (10.13%) AWS
6 52 (6.12%) Dynamics 365
7 48 (5.65%) Azure DevOps
8 33 (3.89%) OneDrive
9 32 (3.77%) SaaS
10 29 (3.42%) Azure Monitor
11 28 (3.30%) GCP
12 27 (3.18%) IaaS
12 27 (3.18%) Power Automate
13 24 (2.83%) Azure Logic Apps
14 22 (2.59%) Microsoft Purview
15 16 (1.88%) PowerApps
16 15 (1.77%) Azure Sentinel
17 13 (1.53%) Azure Functions
17 13 (1.53%) PaaS
17 13 (1.53%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 79 (9.31%) DNS
2 49 (5.77%) DHCP
2 49 (5.77%) Firewall
3 41 (4.83%) Wi-Fi
4 38 (4.48%) TCP/IP
4 38 (4.48%) VPN
5 31 (3.65%) LAN
6 25 (2.94%) WAN
7 16 (1.88%) Network Security
8 15 (1.77%) MPLS
9 14 (1.65%) SD-WAN
9 14 (1.65%) VLAN
10 11 (1.30%) BGP
10 11 (1.30%) Unified Communications
11 9 (1.06%) DNSSEC
12 8 (0.94%) Wireless
13 7 (0.82%) Internet
13 7 (0.82%) IPsec
13 7 (0.82%) OSPF
14 6 (0.71%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (8.01%) Power BI
2 34 (4.00%) SQL Server
3 13 (1.53%) MySQL
4 12 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (1.30%) Azure SQL Database
6 10 (1.18%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (0.94%) Oracle Database
8 7 (0.82%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 6 (0.71%) Metadata
9 6 (0.71%) NoSQL
10 5 (0.59%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.59%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.35%) Data Lake
11 3 (0.35%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.35%) MS Access
11 3 (0.35%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 2 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (0.24%) BusinessObjects
12 2 (0.24%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 28 (3.30%) JIRA
2 11 (1.30%) Git
3 5 (0.59%) MSI
4 4 (0.47%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.35%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.35%) Browser DevTools
5 3 (0.35%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.35%) GitLab
5 3 (0.35%) Robot Framework
5 3 (0.35%) Xcode
6 2 (0.24%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.12%) ERwin
7 1 (0.12%) JUnit
7 1 (0.12%) MLflow
7 1 (0.12%) NUnit
7 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio
General
1 278 (32.74%) Social Skills
2 108 (12.72%) Analytical Skills
3 88 (10.37%) Finance
4 85 (10.01%) Public Sector
5 57 (6.71%) Organisational Skills
6 33 (3.89%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (3.42%) Aerospace
8 28 (3.30%) Legal
9 23 (2.71%) Telecoms
10 18 (2.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (2.12%) Military
11 17 (2.00%) Marketing
12 11 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
13 10 (1.18%) Manufacturing
14 9 (1.06%) Retail
15 8 (0.94%) Aviation
15 8 (0.94%) Billing
15 8 (0.94%) French Language
16 7 (0.82%) Local Government
17 6 (0.71%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 88 (10.37%) Architect
2 87 (10.25%) Analyst
2 87 (10.25%) IT Support
3 67 (7.89%) Senior
4 62 (7.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 51 (6.01%) Consultant
5 51 (6.01%) IT Engineer
5 51 (6.01%) Lead
5 51 (6.01%) Support Engineer
6 40 (4.71%) Developer
6 40 (4.71%) IT Support Engineer
7 38 (4.48%) Cloud Engineer
8 36 (4.24%) Azure Engineer
9 31 (3.65%) IT Analyst
10 28 (3.30%) Project Manager
11 27 (3.18%) Support Analyst
12 25 (2.94%) Administrator
12 25 (2.94%) Solutions Architect
13 23 (2.71%) IT Support Analyst
13 23 (2.71%) Microsoft Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (4.48%) OAuth
2 36 (4.24%) OpenID
2 36 (4.24%) SAML
3 33 (3.89%) .NET
4 24 (2.83%) LDAP
5 23 (2.71%) OAuth2
5 23 (2.71%) REST
6 21 (2.47%) Web Services
7 19 (2.24%) Microsoft Graph
7 19 (2.24%) SailPoint
8 13 (1.53%) ARM Templates
9 12 (1.41%) JSON
10 11 (1.30%) .NET Framework
11 10 (1.18%) Entity Framework
11 10 (1.18%) React
12 9 (1.06%) .NET Core
13 8 (0.94%) Middleware
13 8 (0.94%) XML
14 7 (0.82%) CSS
14 7 (0.82%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 78 (9.19%) Onboarding
2 36 (4.24%) Hybrid Cloud
3 32 (3.77%) Data Centre
4 31 (3.65%) PKI
5 30 (3.53%) Cloud Native
6 24 (2.83%) Product Ownership
7 22 (2.59%) Legacy Systems
8 20 (2.36%) Public Cloud
9 18 (2.12%) Security Posture
10 17 (2.00%) Enterprise Software
10 17 (2.00%) Operational Technology
11 15 (1.77%) Management Information System
12 13 (1.53%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 11 (1.30%) Data Structures
14 10 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
14 10 (1.18%) Cyber Defence
14 10 (1.18%) Driving Licence
14 10 (1.18%) Self-Motivation
15 9 (1.06%) Private Cloud
16 8 (0.94%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 240 (28.27%) Windows
2 80 (9.42%) Windows Server
3 67 (7.89%) Linux
4 37 (4.36%) Windows 10
5 24 (2.83%) Mac OS
6 22 (2.59%) Apple iOS
7 15 (1.77%) Unix
8 14 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (1.41%) Android
10 7 (0.82%) Windows Server 2019
11 6 (0.71%) Windows 7
12 5 (0.59%) CentOS
12 5 (0.59%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
13 4 (0.47%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.12%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.12%) VMS
14 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (19.91%) Problem-Solving
2 114 (13.43%) Agile
3 113 (13.31%) ITIL
4 105 (12.37%) Stakeholder Management
5 100 (11.78%) Customer Service
6 94 (11.07%) DevOps
7 88 (10.37%) CI/CD
8 86 (10.13%) Continuous Improvement
9 85 (10.01%) ITSM
10 84 (9.89%) Cybersecurity
10 84 (9.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 81 (9.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 80 (9.42%) Analytics
13 73 (8.60%) Business Intelligence
13 73 (8.60%) Decision-Making
13 73 (8.60%) Migration
14 68 (8.01%) Project Delivery
15 67 (7.89%) Project Management
16 60 (7.07%) AI
17 58 (6.83%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 137 (16.14%) PowerShell
2 80 (9.42%) Python
3 75 (8.83%) SQL
4 31 (3.65%) Bash
5 28 (3.30%) T-SQL
6 24 (2.83%) Bicep
7 22 (2.59%) C#
8 16 (1.88%) JavaScript
9 13 (1.53%) Java
10 12 (1.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 9 (1.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 8 (0.94%) X++
13 4 (0.47%) ABAP
13 4 (0.47%) TypeScript
14 3 (0.35%) Perl
15 2 (0.24%) Korn
15 2 (0.24%) VBA
16 1 (0.12%) Google Apps Script
16 1 (0.12%) Groovy
16 1 (0.12%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 305 (35.92%) Security Cleared
2 206 (24.26%) SC Cleared
3 122 (14.37%) Degree
4 104 (12.25%) DV Cleared
5 50 (5.89%) Microsoft Certification
6 38 (4.48%) Azure Certification
7 19 (2.24%) Cisco Certification
8 18 (2.12%) AWS Certification
9 16 (1.88%) PMI Certification
9 16 (1.88%) PMP
10 13 (1.53%) BPSS Clearance
11 12 (1.41%) Computer Science Degree
11 12 (1.41%) DBS Check
12 9 (1.06%) CCNP
12 9 (1.06%) MCSA
12 9 (1.06%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 9 (1.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 8 (0.94%) CISSP
13 8 (0.94%) MCSE
14 7 (0.82%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (4.71%) NIST
2 37 (4.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 31 (3.65%) PMO
4 29 (3.42%) GDPR
5 28 (3.30%) Data Quality
5 28 (3.30%) NCSC
6 27 (3.18%) SLA
7 22 (2.59%) QA
8 20 (2.36%) Cyber Essentials
9 6 (0.71%) GRC
9 6 (0.71%) ISO 31000
10 4 (0.47%) Accessibility
10 4 (0.47%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 3 (0.35%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.24%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.12%) GAAP
13 1 (0.12%) JSP 440
System Software
1 225 (26.50%) Active Directory
2 74 (8.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (3.65%) Hyper-V
4 24 (2.83%) Virtual Machines
5 18 (2.12%) vSphere
6 14 (1.65%) VMware ESXi
7 13 (1.53%) Virtual Desktop
7 13 (1.53%) VMware NSX
8 10 (1.18%) Docker
9 5 (0.59%) Firmware
10 3 (0.35%) OpenAM
11 2 (0.24%) UAG
12 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.12%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.12%) Dovecot
12 1 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.12%) Postfix
12 1 (0.12%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 72 (8.48%) Microsoft Intune
2 61 (7.18%) Terraform
3 36 (4.24%) SCCM
4 26 (3.06%) Ansible
5 22 (2.59%) Kubernetes
6 21 (2.47%) SCOM
7 19 (2.24%) vCenter Server
8 15 (1.77%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 14 (1.65%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (1.41%) Avamar
11 11 (1.30%) Jamf Pro
12 6 (0.71%) QRadar
13 5 (0.59%) FortiGate
13 5 (0.59%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.59%) Puppet
14 4 (0.47%) Clonezilla
14 4 (0.47%) WMI
15 3 (0.35%) Grafana
15 3 (0.35%) SCSM
16 2 (0.24%) WSUS
Vendors
1 93 (10.95%) VMware
2 57 (6.71%) ServiceNow
3 44 (5.18%) SAP
4 42 (4.95%) Cisco
5 29 (3.42%) Google
6 23 (2.71%) Oracle
7 22 (2.59%) Meraki
8 19 (2.24%) Dell
9 15 (1.77%) SolarWinds
10 14 (1.65%) Avaya
11 13 (1.53%) Mitel
12 12 (1.41%) Databricks
12 12 (1.41%) F5
12 12 (1.41%) Thales
13 11 (1.30%) Citrix
13 11 (1.30%) Splunk
14 10 (1.18%) Fortinet
14 10 (1.18%) Juniper
14 10 (1.18%) Palo Alto
15 9 (1.06%) Veeam