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 1 December 2025, 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
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 8 5
Rank change year-on-year +3 -3 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 634 566 845
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 15.27% 14.19% 16.10%
As % of the Vendors category 29.23% 28.51% 30.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 428 403 565
10th Percentile £200 £200 £160
25th Percentile £255 £350 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £475 £470
Median % change year-on-year -4.21% +1.06% +0.73%
75th Percentile £550 £600 £588
90th Percentile £638 £674 £650
England median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -0.94% -4.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 17 34
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.13 £14.07
25th Percentile £14.50 £19.38 £16.25
Median hourly rate £17.50 £35.00 £21.68
Median % change year-on-year -50.00% +61.48% +17.16%
75th Percentile £24.00 £57.62 £50.53
90th Percentile £86.73 £58.40 £61.43
England median hourly rate £21.00 £23.59 £23.00
% change year-on-year -10.98% +2.57% +15.00%

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 2,169 1,985 2,748
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 52.24% 49.77% 52.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,498 1,282 1,737
10th Percentile £219 £250 £205
25th Percentile £400 £406 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £515
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +1.94% +3.00%
75th Percentile £600 £630 £610
90th Percentile £675 £688 £678
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 158 66 123
10th Percentile £14.00 £18.63 £16.25
25th Percentile £15.65 £23.67 £23.81
Median hourly rate £20.77 £40.25 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -48.40% -23.33% +108.79%
75th Percentile £51.41 £65.75 £66.25
90th Percentile £89.63 £70.63 £76.53
England median hourly rate £24.00 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -26.15% -26.97% +71.15%

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 1 December 2025.

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 1 December 2025.

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 1 December 2025. 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 0 315 £475 -3.31% 269
Berkshire +3 195 £480 -8.57% 113
Hampshire 0 144 £525 -4.55% 142
Buckinghamshire 0 78 £453 +5.23% 95
Surrey +7 68 £215 -32.81% 106
Oxfordshire 0 42 £275 -35.29% 73
West Sussex -2 40 £210 -51.61% 61
Kent +1 29 £425 +58.14% 112
East Sussex +8 22 £550 +4.76% 47
Sussex -1 10 £463 +5.11% 27
Home Counties - 1 £550 -
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 65 (10.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 49 (7.73%) SharePoint
3 18 (2.84%) Skype for Business
4 12 (1.89%) Exchange Server 2010
5 11 (1.74%) Exchange Server 2013
5 11 (1.74%) SharePoint Server
6 10 (1.58%) Exchange Server 2003
6 10 (1.58%) Exchange Server 2007
6 10 (1.58%) Office Communications Server
7 7 (1.10%) Mattermost
8 2 (0.32%) Apache
8 2 (0.32%) CMS
8 2 (0.32%) Confluence
9 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 127 (20.03%) Microsoft Office
2 74 (11.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (3.15%) Microsoft Project
4 16 (2.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (1.10%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (1.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.10%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (1.10%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.63%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.47%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.32%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.32%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.32%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.32%) SAP Oil and Gas
6 1 (0.16%) iTrent
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.16%) Primavera
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
6 1 (0.16%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 160 (25.24%) Microsoft 365
2 158 (24.92%) Azure
3 61 (9.62%) AWS
4 59 (9.31%) Entra ID
5 49 (7.73%) Power Platform
6 41 (6.47%) Dynamics 365
7 29 (4.57%) SaaS
8 21 (3.31%) OneDrive
9 20 (3.15%) Microsoft Purview
10 18 (2.84%) Sauce Labs
11 17 (2.68%) GCP
12 16 (2.52%) Google Workspace
13 15 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
14 12 (1.89%) PowerApps
15 10 (1.58%) Azure Sentinel
15 10 (1.58%) IaaS
15 10 (1.58%) Power Automate
16 9 (1.42%) GitHub
16 9 (1.42%) OpenShift
17 7 (1.10%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 60 (9.46%) Firewall
2 56 (8.83%) DNS
3 42 (6.62%) DHCP
4 33 (5.21%) TCP/IP
5 29 (4.57%) VPN
6 27 (4.26%) Wireless
7 17 (2.68%) SAN
8 16 (2.52%) Wi-Fi
9 15 (2.37%) Cisco IOS
10 14 (2.21%) Fibre Channel
10 14 (2.21%) VLAN
11 12 (1.89%) iSCSI
11 12 (1.89%) Unified Communications
12 10 (1.58%) DDNS
13 9 (1.42%) 4G
13 9 (1.42%) Network Security
14 8 (1.26%) Skype
15 7 (1.10%) VSAN
16 6 (0.95%) Remote Desktop
16 6 (0.95%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (6.94%) SQL Server
2 31 (4.89%) Power BI
3 29 (4.57%) Relational Database
4 22 (3.47%) MySQL
5 18 (2.84%) Oracle Database
6 8 (1.26%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (1.26%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7 7 (1.10%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (0.79%) Crystal Reports
8 5 (0.79%) Metadata
8 5 (0.79%) Oracle Reports
8 5 (0.79%) RDBMS
9 4 (0.63%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.47%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.32%) Apache Cassandra
11 2 (0.32%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.16%) Big Data
12 1 (0.16%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 19 (3.00%) Android Studio
1 19 (3.00%) Browser DevTools
2 18 (2.84%) Eclipse
2 18 (2.84%) Xcode
3 16 (2.52%) JIRA
4 12 (1.89%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.79%) Git
5 5 (0.79%) MSI
6 4 (0.63%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.47%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.32%) Fiddler
8 2 (0.32%) JMeter
8 2 (0.32%) JUnit
8 2 (0.32%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.32%) Robot Framework
9 1 (0.16%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.16%) Gradle
9 1 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.16%) Subversion
General
1 257 (40.54%) Social Skills
2 105 (16.56%) Finance
3 86 (13.56%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (9.46%) Organisational Skills
5 40 (6.31%) Public Sector
6 21 (3.31%) Manufacturing
7 18 (2.84%) Legal
8 14 (2.21%) Games
9 11 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
10 10 (1.58%) Marketing
11 8 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
11 8 (1.26%) Retail
11 8 (1.26%) Telecoms
12 7 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 6 (0.95%) Automotive
13 6 (0.95%) Billing
13 6 (0.95%) Electronics
14 5 (0.79%) Banking
14 5 (0.79%) Law
14 5 (0.79%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 92 (14.51%) Analyst
1 92 (14.51%) Support Engineer
2 75 (11.83%) Architect
3 58 (9.15%) IT Support
4 46 (7.26%) Senior
5 37 (5.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 29 (4.57%) Consultant
7 27 (4.26%) Technical Support
8 26 (4.10%) IT Engineer
9 24 (3.79%) Developer
9 24 (3.79%) Technical Engineer
9 24 (3.79%) Technical Support Engineer
10 22 (3.47%) Support Officer
11 21 (3.31%) Infrastructure Architect
11 21 (3.31%) Infrastructure Support
11 21 (3.31%) Platform Engineer
12 20 (3.15%) IT Support Engineer
13 19 (3.00%) Data Analyst
13 19 (3.00%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
13 19 (3.00%) UX Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (4.57%) React
2 21 (3.31%) GraphQL
3 20 (3.15%) CSS
4 19 (3.00%) Ajax
4 19 (3.00%) AngularJS
5 15 (2.37%) .NET
6 11 (1.74%) OAuth
7 9 (1.42%) Middleware
8 8 (1.26%) SAML
9 6 (0.95%) OpenID
10 5 (0.79%) SailPoint
11 4 (0.63%) LDAP
11 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Graph
11 4 (0.63%) OAuth2
11 4 (0.63%) REST
11 4 (0.63%) Spring
12 3 (0.47%) Kafka
12 3 (0.47%) Web Services
12 3 (0.47%) WebdriverIO
13 2 (0.32%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 31 (4.89%) PKI
2 27 (4.26%) Analytical Mindset
2 27 (4.26%) Onboarding
3 21 (3.31%) Mobile App
4 20 (3.15%) Management Information System
5 15 (2.37%) Replication
5 15 (2.37%) Security Operations Centre
6 14 (2.21%) Enterprise Software
6 14 (2.21%) Self-Motivation
7 11 (1.74%) Driving Licence
7 11 (1.74%) Fat Client
7 11 (1.74%) Operational Technology
7 11 (1.74%) Thin Client
8 10 (1.58%) Data Centre
8 10 (1.58%) Video Conferencing
9 9 (1.42%) Cyber Defence
9 9 (1.42%) Cyber Threat
9 9 (1.42%) Private Cloud
9 9 (1.42%) Product Ownership
10 8 (1.26%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 241 (38.01%) Windows
2 84 (13.25%) Linux
3 52 (8.20%) Windows 10
4 41 (6.47%) Windows Server
5 35 (5.52%) Android
6 30 (4.73%) Mac OS
7 24 (3.79%) Unix
8 16 (2.52%) Windows Server 2019
9 10 (1.58%) Windows 7
9 10 (1.58%) Windows Server 2003
10 9 (1.42%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (1.26%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 3 (0.47%) Apple iOS
14 2 (0.32%) CentOS
14 2 (0.32%) Debian
14 2 (0.32%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (19.40%) Problem-Solving
2 101 (15.93%) ITIL
3 74 (11.67%) Agile
4 70 (11.04%) Customer Service
5 67 (10.57%) Cybersecurity
6 56 (8.83%) Migration
7 54 (8.52%) Stakeholder Management
8 51 (8.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 49 (7.73%) Business Intelligence
10 47 (7.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 40 (6.31%) Project Management
12 39 (6.15%) DevOps
12 39 (6.15%) Time Management
13 38 (5.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 36 (5.68%) SIEM
15 35 (5.52%) Change Management
16 34 (5.36%) ITSM
16 34 (5.36%) Project Delivery
17 33 (5.21%) CI/CD
18 32 (5.05%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 91 (14.35%) PowerShell
2 77 (12.15%) SQL
3 69 (10.88%) Python
4 35 (5.52%) Java
5 30 (4.73%) JavaScript
6 20 (3.15%) Perl
7 16 (2.52%) C#
8 13 (2.05%) Bash
9 6 (0.95%) X++
10 5 (0.79%) VB
11 4 (0.63%) PHP
12 3 (0.47%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.32%) Bicep
13 2 (0.32%) Go
13 2 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.32%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.16%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 194 (30.60%) Security Cleared
2 117 (18.45%) SC Cleared
3 69 (10.88%) DV Cleared
4 67 (10.57%) Degree
5 54 (8.52%) Microsoft Certification
6 21 (3.31%) CISSP
7 19 (3.00%) Azure Certification
8 15 (2.37%) MCSE
8 15 (2.37%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 11 (1.74%) A+ Certification
9 11 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (1.74%) GCFA
9 11 (1.74%) GCIH
9 11 (1.74%) ITIL Certification
9 11 (1.74%) Network+ Certification
9 11 (1.74%) Server+ Certification
10 10 (1.58%) Cisco Certification
10 10 (1.58%) PMI Certification
11 9 (1.42%) GCIA
11 9 (1.42%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (6.62%) GDPR
2 26 (4.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 25 (3.94%) NIST
4 18 (2.84%) SLA
5 16 (2.52%) PMO
6 15 (2.37%) Data Quality
7 11 (1.74%) QA
8 5 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.63%) Accessibility
9 4 (0.63%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.47%) ECSS
10 3 (0.47%) P3O
10 3 (0.47%) RMADS
11 2 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.32%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 19770
11 2 (0.32%) NCSC
11 2 (0.32%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.16%) GRC
System Software
1 178 (28.08%) Active Directory
2 61 (9.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (3.94%) Hyper-V
4 21 (3.31%) vSphere
5 18 (2.84%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (1.89%) NFS
7 10 (1.58%) Brightmail
7 10 (1.58%) ISA Server
8 8 (1.26%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (1.10%) Docker
10 5 (0.79%) Terminal Services
11 3 (0.47%) DFS Replication
11 3 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.47%) VMware NSX
12 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 61 (9.62%) SCCM
2 54 (8.52%) Microsoft Intune
3 20 (3.15%) Ansible
4 18 (2.84%) Terraform
5 16 (2.52%) Kubernetes
6 15 (2.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 15 (2.37%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (2.05%) WMI
8 11 (1.74%) Microsoft Clustering
9 7 (1.10%) HP SiteScope
9 7 (1.10%) Jamf Pro
9 7 (1.10%) SCOM
9 7 (1.10%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.63%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 3 (0.47%) Cisco CUCM
11 3 (0.47%) PaperCut
12 2 (0.32%) EnCase
12 2 (0.32%) FTK
12 2 (0.32%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.32%) QRadar
Vendors
1 82 (12.93%) VMware
2 66 (10.41%) Splunk
3 60 (9.46%) ServiceNow
4 47 (7.41%) Oracle
5 41 (6.47%) Cisco
6 28 (4.42%) SAP
7 20 (3.15%) Citrix
8 17 (2.68%) Meraki
9 14 (2.21%) NetApp
9 14 (2.21%) Veeam
10 13 (2.05%) CrowdStrike
11 11 (1.74%) Remedy
12 9 (1.42%) Google
12 9 (1.42%) Red Hat
13 8 (1.26%) CyberArk
13 8 (1.26%) Palo Alto
13 8 (1.26%) Salesforce
14 6 (0.95%) ArcSight
14 6 (0.95%) Databricks
14 6 (0.95%) LogRhythm