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 26 January 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
26 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 7 3
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 612 469 906
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.69% 14.55% 16.86%
As % of the Vendors category 27.91% 29.04% 33.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 438 319 628
10th Percentile £200 £200 £163
25th Percentile £268 £344 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £465 £450
Median % change year-on-year +2.15% +3.33% -
75th Percentile £569 £575 £575
90th Percentile £643 £650 £650
England median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 15 51
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.10 £11.45
25th Percentile £13.13 £18.35 £14.00
Median hourly rate £17.44 £25.00 £24.43
Median % change year-on-year -30.26% +2.33% +32.05%
75th Percentile £21.00 £36.46 £57.95
90th Percentile £46.35 £57.62 £61.60
England median hourly rate £19.08 £22.39 £18.95
% change year-on-year -14.75% +18.13% -9.76%

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 2,193 1,615 2,731
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 49.06% 50.11% 50.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,580 1,031 1,739
10th Percentile £255 £235 £205
25th Percentile £406 £402 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £511 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.19% +2.24% -0.40%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
England median daily rate £508 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.33% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 140 50 153
10th Percentile £12.50 £18.50 £13.16
25th Percentile £16.33 £24.18 £21.00
Median hourly rate £22.25 £36.46 £54.50
Median % change year-on-year -38.97% -33.11% +45.33%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.44 £63.75
90th Percentile £82.40 £74.88 £76.53
England median hourly rate £23.50 £30.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year -21.67% -7.69% +1.56%

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 26 January 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 26 January 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 26 January 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 +2 294 £475 -1.04% 322
Berkshire +2 196 £480 -4.00% 186
Hampshire -1 140 £536 +7.25% 148
Surrey +7 78 £425 +29.28% 114
Buckinghamshire -2 71 £470 +9.30% 88
West Sussex -7 34 £290 -33.18% 69
Kent 0 28 £450 +111.76% 100
Oxfordshire 0 27 £275 -35.29% 49
East Sussex +7 26 £600 +14.29% 55
Sussex 0 11 £463 +5.11% 9
Home Counties - 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 61 (9.97%) SharePoint
2 48 (7.84%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.96%) Skype for Business
4 8 (1.31%) Confluence
5 7 (1.14%) Mattermost
6 6 (0.98%) Exchange Server 2010
7 5 (0.82%) Exchange Server 2013
7 5 (0.82%) SharePoint Server
8 4 (0.65%) Exchange Server 2003
8 4 (0.65%) Exchange Server 2007
8 4 (0.65%) Office Communications Server
9 3 (0.49%) MS Project Server
10 2 (0.33%) ArcGIS
10 2 (0.33%) CMS
10 2 (0.33%) GeoServer
10 2 (0.33%) Smallworld
11 1 (0.16%) BizTalk Server
11 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 121 (19.77%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (10.46%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (4.08%) Microsoft Project
4 20 (3.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.47%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.16%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.14%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.65%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.49%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.33%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.16%) iTrent
6 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.16%) Sage 50
6 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.16%) SAP EWM
6 1 (0.16%) SAP WM
6 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 176 (28.76%) Azure
2 143 (23.37%) Microsoft 365
3 78 (12.75%) Entra ID
4 64 (10.46%) AWS
5 60 (9.80%) Power Platform
6 32 (5.23%) Dynamics 365
7 29 (4.74%) SaaS
8 27 (4.41%) Microsoft Purview
9 25 (4.08%) OneDrive
10 23 (3.76%) Power Automate
11 21 (3.43%) Azure DevOps
11 21 (3.43%) PowerApps
12 18 (2.94%) GitHub
13 16 (2.61%) Google Workspace
13 16 (2.61%) Sauce Labs
14 15 (2.45%) GCP
15 14 (2.29%) Serverless
16 12 (1.96%) Azure Functions
17 11 (1.80%) Copilot Studio
17 11 (1.80%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 54 (8.82%) DNS
2 47 (7.68%) DHCP
3 35 (5.72%) Firewall
4 22 (3.59%) TCP/IP
5 20 (3.27%) Wi-Fi
6 17 (2.78%) VPN
6 17 (2.78%) Wireless
7 15 (2.45%) VLAN
8 12 (1.96%) Unified Communications
9 10 (1.63%) Kerberos
9 10 (1.63%) SAN
10 9 (1.47%) 4G
10 9 (1.47%) Network Security
11 8 (1.31%) Skype
12 7 (1.14%) WebEx
13 6 (0.98%) VSAN
14 5 (0.82%) IPsec
14 5 (0.82%) SD-WAN
14 5 (0.82%) WAN
15 4 (0.65%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (6.70%) Power BI
2 39 (6.37%) SQL Server
3 26 (4.25%) Relational Database
4 19 (3.10%) MySQL
5 15 (2.45%) Oracle Database
6 12 (1.96%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (1.63%) Metadata
8 9 (1.47%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9 8 (1.31%) Data Warehouse
10 7 (1.14%) PostgreSQL
11 6 (0.98%) RDBMS
12 5 (0.82%) Data Lake
13 4 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.65%) MongoDB
13 4 (0.65%) Oracle Reports
14 3 (0.49%) GIS
14 3 (0.49%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 3 (0.49%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 2 (0.33%) Apache Cassandra
15 2 (0.33%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 19 (3.10%) Android Studio
2 17 (2.78%) Browser DevTools
3 16 (2.61%) Eclipse
3 16 (2.61%) Xcode
4 13 (2.12%) JIRA
5 9 (1.47%) Jenkins
6 8 (1.31%) Git
7 5 (0.82%) JUnit
8 4 (0.65%) Gradle
9 3 (0.49%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.49%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.49%) Maven
9 3 (0.49%) MSI
9 3 (0.49%) Subversion
10 2 (0.33%) JMeter
10 2 (0.33%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.33%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.16%) Gatling
11 1 (0.16%) Postman
General
1 229 (37.42%) Social Skills
2 95 (15.52%) Finance
3 72 (11.76%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (9.80%) Organisational Skills
5 48 (7.84%) Public Sector
6 18 (2.94%) Manufacturing
7 13 (2.12%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
8 10 (1.63%) Retail
9 8 (1.31%) Legal
9 8 (1.31%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.14%) Marketing
10 7 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.82%) Military
12 4 (0.65%) Banking
12 4 (0.65%) Billing
12 4 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.49%) Automotive
13 3 (0.49%) Aviation
13 3 (0.49%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 95 (15.52%) Architect
2 76 (12.42%) Support Engineer
3 72 (11.76%) Analyst
4 54 (8.82%) IT Support
5 44 (7.19%) Senior
6 42 (6.86%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 28 (4.58%) Developer
8 26 (4.25%) IT Engineer
9 23 (3.76%) Solutions Architect
10 22 (3.59%) IT Support Engineer
11 21 (3.43%) Consultant
11 21 (3.43%) Infrastructure Support
11 21 (3.43%) Technical Support
12 20 (3.27%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
12 20 (3.27%) Lead
13 19 (3.10%) Infrastructure Architect
13 19 (3.10%) Support Officer
13 19 (3.10%) Technical Engineer
13 19 (3.10%) Technical Support Engineer
14 17 (2.78%) UX Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (3.27%) React
2 19 (3.10%) .NET
2 19 (3.10%) GraphQL
3 17 (2.78%) Ajax
3 17 (2.78%) AngularJS
3 17 (2.78%) CSS
4 13 (2.12%) LDAP
5 10 (1.63%) REST
6 8 (1.31%) OAuth
7 7 (1.14%) ARM Templates
7 7 (1.14%) SAML
8 6 (0.98%) ADO
8 6 (0.98%) Spring
9 5 (0.82%) Middleware
9 5 (0.82%) OpenID
10 4 (0.65%) OAuth2
10 4 (0.65%) SailPoint
11 3 (0.49%) Microsoft Graph
11 3 (0.49%) PySpark
11 3 (0.49%) Vert.x
Miscellaneous
1 32 (5.23%) PKI
2 30 (4.90%) Onboarding
3 29 (4.74%) Analytical Mindset
4 21 (3.43%) Mobile App
5 18 (2.94%) Replication
6 16 (2.61%) Enterprise Software
6 16 (2.61%) Product Ownership
6 16 (2.61%) Self-Motivation
7 15 (2.45%) Driving Licence
7 15 (2.45%) Management Information System
8 14 (2.29%) Operational Technology
9 13 (2.12%) Fat Client
9 13 (2.12%) Thin Client
10 10 (1.63%) Video Conferencing
11 9 (1.47%) Security Operations Centre
12 8 (1.31%) Cloud Native
12 8 (1.31%) Data Centre
13 7 (1.14%) Cyber Defence
14 5 (0.82%) CMDB
14 5 (0.82%) Handset
Operating Systems
1 191 (31.21%) Windows
2 76 (12.42%) Linux
3 39 (6.37%) Windows 10
4 28 (4.58%) Windows Server
5 21 (3.43%) Android
5 21 (3.43%) Unix
6 13 (2.12%) Mac OS
7 12 (1.96%) Windows 7
8 7 (1.14%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.98%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.82%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.65%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 2 (0.33%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.33%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.16%) CentOS
14 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (16.50%) Problem-Solving
2 77 (12.58%) Agile
3 72 (11.76%) ITIL
4 67 (10.95%) Cybersecurity
5 66 (10.78%) Customer Service
6 54 (8.82%) Business Intelligence
7 53 (8.66%) Stakeholder Management
8 51 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 48 (7.84%) DevOps
10 46 (7.52%) Migration
11 45 (7.35%) Project Management
12 42 (6.86%) Continuous Improvement
13 39 (6.37%) Project Delivery
13 39 (6.37%) Time Management
14 37 (6.05%) CI/CD
15 34 (5.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 33 (5.39%) Roadmaps
16 33 (5.39%) SIEM
17 32 (5.23%) ITSM
17 32 (5.23%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 74 (12.09%) PowerShell
2 71 (11.60%) Python
3 63 (10.29%) SQL
4 30 (4.90%) Java
5 27 (4.41%) JavaScript
6 18 (2.94%) Perl
7 13 (2.12%) Bash
7 13 (2.12%) C#
8 4 (0.65%) Kusto Query Language
8 4 (0.65%) PL/SQL
8 4 (0.65%) X++
9 2 (0.33%) Go
9 2 (0.33%) PHP
9 2 (0.33%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.16%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.16%) VB
Qualifications
1 207 (33.82%) Security Cleared
2 134 (21.90%) SC Cleared
3 66 (10.78%) DV Cleared
4 58 (9.48%) Degree
5 36 (5.88%) Microsoft Certification
6 20 (3.27%) Azure Certification
6 20 (3.27%) CISSP
7 11 (1.80%) ITIL Certification
7 11 (1.80%) Network+ Certification
7 11 (1.80%) Server+ Certification
8 10 (1.63%) GIAC
9 9 (1.47%) CISM
9 9 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (1.47%) DBS Check
10 8 (1.31%) PMI Certification
10 8 (1.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 7 (1.14%) A+ Certification
11 7 (1.14%) Cisco Certification
11 7 (1.14%) Master's Degree
12 6 (0.98%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.08%) PMO
2 24 (3.92%) GDPR
3 23 (3.76%) NIST
4 18 (2.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 16 (2.61%) SLA
6 13 (2.12%) Data Quality
7 9 (1.47%) QA
8 6 (0.98%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.65%) Accessibility
9 4 (0.65%) NCSC
10 3 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.49%) NIST 800
10 3 (0.49%) P3O
10 3 (0.49%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.49%) RMADS
11 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 1 (0.16%) COSHH
12 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 166 (27.12%) Active Directory
2 45 (7.35%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (3.10%) Hyper-V
4 11 (1.80%) vSphere
5 8 (1.31%) Docker
5 8 (1.31%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (1.14%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.65%) Brightmail
7 4 (0.65%) ISA Server
7 4 (0.65%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.49%) DFS Replication
8 3 (0.49%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.33%) NFS
10 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 41 (6.70%) SCCM
2 40 (6.54%) Microsoft Intune
3 20 (3.27%) Single Sign-On
4 17 (2.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 14 (2.29%) Ansible
5 14 (2.29%) Terraform
5 14 (2.29%) WMI
6 10 (1.63%) Kubernetes
7 9 (1.47%) Jamf Pro
8 8 (1.31%) SCOM
9 7 (1.14%) HP SiteScope
10 6 (0.98%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.82%) Microsoft Clustering
12 3 (0.49%) Cisco CUCM
12 3 (0.49%) Grafana
12 3 (0.49%) PaperCut
12 3 (0.49%) Puppet
12 3 (0.49%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.33%) FTK
13 2 (0.33%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 64 (10.46%) VMware
2 49 (8.01%) ServiceNow
3 42 (6.86%) Oracle
4 35 (5.72%) Splunk
5 24 (3.92%) SAP
6 22 (3.59%) Cisco
7 15 (2.45%) Citrix
7 15 (2.45%) Databricks
8 9 (1.47%) CrowdStrike
8 9 (1.47%) Thales
9 7 (1.14%) CyberArk
9 7 (1.14%) Remedy
9 7 (1.14%) Tenable
10 6 (0.98%) Fortinet
10 6 (0.98%) Informatica
11 5 (0.82%) F5
11 5 (0.82%) Google
11 5 (0.82%) Virgin Media
12 4 (0.65%) Tanium
12 4 (0.65%) Workday