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 8 April 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
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 7 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 654 454 836
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 11.59% 15.20% 14.88%
As % of the Vendors category 26.22% 28.81% 30.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 447 309 564
10th Percentile £204 £215 £200
25th Percentile £363 £363 £280
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £465
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +7.53% -3.13%
75th Percentile £582 £590 £575
90th Percentile £666 £650 £671
England median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.58% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 27 71
10th Percentile £12.44 £13.75 £11.71
25th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £12.13
Median hourly rate £17.50 £15.50 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.90% -26.19% +3.78%
75th Percentile £32.91 £24.38 £51.88
90th Percentile £68.63 £29.87 £61.60
England median hourly rate £20.09 £22.18 £15.00
% change year-on-year -9.42% +47.87% -30.23%

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 2,494 1,576 2,700
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.20% 52.78% 48.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,750 1,054 1,644
10th Percentile £306 £242 £213
25th Percentile £415 £408 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £609 £613 £600
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -4.76% +1.94% -4.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 167 89 187
10th Percentile £13.80 £14.20 £12.48
25th Percentile £17.25 £16.95 £18.00
Median hourly rate £37.12 £25.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +48.48% -47.37% +5.56%
75th Percentile £85.63 £61.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.44 £65.81
England median hourly rate £27.00 £29.00 £23.22
% change year-on-year -6.90% +24.92% -39.70%

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 8 April 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 8 April 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 8 April 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 +1 348 £475 -5.00% 240
Berkshire -5 196 £490 -2.00% 103
Hampshire -7 139 £550 +5.01% 139
Buckinghamshire -5 101 £475 +2.15% 88
Surrey +13 77 £444 -4.67% 87
Oxfordshire -1 51 £275 +10.00% 57
West Sussex -7 31 £445 +10.15% 42
Kent 0 28 £413 -6.25% 47
East Sussex +3 18 £600 +9.09% 29
Sussex +2 7 £463 -7.50% 11
Home Counties +1 4 - -
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 63 (9.63%) Microsoft Exchange
2 60 (9.17%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.53%) Confluence
4 3 (0.46%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.46%) MS Project Server
4 3 (0.46%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.31%) GeoServer
6 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.15%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 103 (15.75%) Microsoft Office
2 85 (13.00%) Microsoft Excel
3 31 (4.74%) Microsoft Project
4 28 (4.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (1.53%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.31%) SOLIDWORKS
6 2 (0.31%) 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 (1.07%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.15%) iTrent
2 1 (0.15%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.15%) Sage 50
2 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.15%) SAP Business One
2 1 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.15%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 222 (33.94%) Azure
2 181 (27.68%) Microsoft 365
3 103 (15.75%) Entra ID
4 66 (10.09%) AWS
5 65 (9.94%) Power Platform
6 36 (5.50%) Azure DevOps
7 30 (4.59%) OneDrive
8 29 (4.43%) Dynamics 365
9 27 (4.13%) Power Automate
10 23 (3.52%) Microsoft Purview
10 23 (3.52%) SaaS
11 22 (3.36%) PowerApps
12 21 (3.21%) GitHub
13 18 (2.75%) Serverless
14 17 (2.60%) Azure Functions
15 16 (2.45%) Microsoft Copilot
16 15 (2.29%) Azure Logic Apps
16 15 (2.29%) IaaS
17 13 (1.99%) Azure Monitor
18 12 (1.83%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 58 (8.87%) DNS
2 40 (6.12%) DHCP
3 37 (5.66%) Firewall
4 35 (5.35%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (3.06%) VPN
6 16 (2.45%) LAN
6 16 (2.45%) Unified Communications
7 13 (1.99%) TCP/IP
7 13 (1.99%) WAN
8 12 (1.83%) Kerberos
8 12 (1.83%) Network Security
9 11 (1.68%) Wireless
10 8 (1.22%) BGP
10 8 (1.22%) MPLS
10 8 (1.22%) SSL
11 7 (1.07%) SD-WAN
12 6 (0.92%) SAN
12 6 (0.92%) SNMP
12 6 (0.92%) VLAN
13 5 (0.76%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (7.80%) Power BI
2 36 (5.50%) SQL Server
3 15 (2.29%) Azure SQL Database
4 13 (1.99%) Relational Database
5 12 (1.83%) MySQL
6 11 (1.68%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (1.53%) Metadata
8 8 (1.22%) Oracle Database
9 7 (1.07%) Data Lake
9 7 (1.07%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.92%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
10 6 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 5 (0.76%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (0.76%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 4 (0.61%) GIS
12 4 (0.61%) RDBMS
13 3 (0.46%) Amazon RDS
13 3 (0.46%) Data Mining
13 3 (0.46%) Star Schema
14 2 (0.31%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 16 (2.45%) JIRA
2 14 (2.14%) Git
3 10 (1.53%) Android Studio
4 9 (1.38%) Jenkins
5 7 (1.07%) Browser DevTools
5 7 (1.07%) Eclipse
5 7 (1.07%) Xcode
6 5 (0.76%) JUnit
7 4 (0.61%) Gradle
7 4 (0.61%) MSI
8 3 (0.46%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.46%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.46%) Maven
8 3 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.46%) Subversion
9 2 (0.31%) JMeter
9 2 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.31%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.31%) Robot Framework
10 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 219 (33.49%) Social Skills
2 71 (10.86%) Finance
3 65 (9.94%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (9.63%) Organisational Skills
5 56 (8.56%) Public Sector
6 14 (2.14%) Legal
6 14 (2.14%) Manufacturing
7 13 (1.99%) Military
8 12 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
8 12 (1.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (1.38%) Retail
10 8 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.07%) Telecoms
12 5 (0.76%) Marketing
13 4 (0.61%) Advertising
13 4 (0.61%) Billing
13 4 (0.61%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.61%) Police
14 3 (0.46%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 95 (14.53%) Architect
2 63 (9.63%) IT Support
3 62 (9.48%) Analyst
4 56 (8.56%) Support Engineer
5 52 (7.95%) Senior
6 46 (7.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 41 (6.27%) IT Engineer
8 34 (5.20%) IT Support Engineer
9 31 (4.74%) Developer
9 31 (4.74%) Lead
10 25 (3.82%) Solutions Architect
11 23 (3.52%) Consultant
12 21 (3.21%) Azure Engineer
13 20 (3.06%) Administrator
14 18 (2.75%) Infrastructure Architect
15 16 (2.45%) IT Analyst
16 15 (2.29%) Project Manager
17 14 (2.14%) DevOps Engineer
17 14 (2.14%) Support Officer
17 14 (2.14%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.82%) .NET
2 13 (1.99%) LDAP
2 13 (1.99%) REST
3 11 (1.68%) ARM Templates
3 11 (1.68%) React
4 10 (1.53%) CSS
5 9 (1.38%) GraphQL
5 9 (1.38%) OAuth
6 8 (1.22%) OpenID
6 8 (1.22%) SAML
7 7 (1.07%) ADO
7 7 (1.07%) Ajax
7 7 (1.07%) AngularJS
8 6 (0.92%) OAuth2
8 6 (0.92%) Spring
8 6 (0.92%) XML
9 5 (0.76%) .NET Core
9 5 (0.76%) .NET Framework
9 5 (0.76%) Middleware
9 5 (0.76%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 37 (5.66%) Onboarding
2 36 (5.50%) PKI
3 20 (3.06%) Product Ownership
4 19 (2.91%) Cloud Native
5 17 (2.60%) Analytical Mindset
5 17 (2.60%) Legacy Systems
5 17 (2.60%) Replication
6 16 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
7 15 (2.29%) Hybrid Cloud
8 14 (2.14%) Data Centre
9 13 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
10 12 (1.83%) Driving Licence
11 11 (1.68%) Operational Technology
11 11 (1.68%) Public Cloud
12 10 (1.53%) Mobile App
13 9 (1.38%) Management Information System
14 8 (1.22%) Fat Client
14 8 (1.22%) Thin Client
15 6 (0.92%) Security Operations Centre
15 6 (0.92%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 187 (28.59%) Windows
2 63 (9.63%) Linux
3 46 (7.03%) Windows Server
4 25 (3.82%) Windows 10
5 17 (2.60%) Mac OS
6 12 (1.83%) Android
7 9 (1.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 9 (1.38%) Windows 7
8 8 (1.22%) Unix
9 7 (1.07%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.92%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.92%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.61%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.46%) CentOS
13 1 (0.15%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.15%) Debian
13 1 (0.15%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (15.29%) Problem-Solving
2 84 (12.84%) Customer Service
3 77 (11.77%) DevOps
4 73 (11.16%) Agile
5 71 (10.86%) Cybersecurity
6 69 (10.55%) Migration
7 62 (9.48%) Business Intelligence
8 59 (9.02%) CI/CD
8 59 (9.02%) ITIL
9 56 (8.56%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 56 (8.56%) Project Management
10 54 (8.26%) Stakeholder Management
11 53 (8.10%) Project Delivery
12 44 (6.73%) Analytics
13 43 (6.57%) Time Management
14 36 (5.50%) Continuous Improvement
14 36 (5.50%) Infrastructure as Code
14 36 (5.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 35 (5.35%) Roadmaps
16 32 (4.89%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 93 (14.22%) PowerShell
2 71 (10.86%) Python
3 52 (7.95%) SQL
4 21 (3.21%) C#
5 20 (3.06%) JavaScript
6 19 (2.91%) Bash
7 17 (2.60%) Java
8 11 (1.68%) T-SQL
9 10 (1.53%) Bicep
10 8 (1.22%) Perl
11 7 (1.07%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 4 (0.61%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.46%) X++
14 2 (0.31%) Korn
14 2 (0.31%) PHP
14 2 (0.31%) Shell Script
14 2 (0.31%) TypeScript
15 1 (0.15%) Google Apps Script
15 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 227 (34.71%) Security Cleared
2 152 (23.24%) SC Cleared
3 73 (11.16%) DV Cleared
4 67 (10.24%) Degree
5 23 (3.52%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (2.45%) CISSP
7 13 (1.99%) Azure Certification
8 11 (1.68%) DBS Check
8 11 (1.68%) PMI Certification
8 11 (1.68%) PMP
9 10 (1.53%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (1.38%) GIAC
11 8 (1.22%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.07%) A+ Certification
12 7 (1.07%) BPSS Clearance
12 7 (1.07%) Master's Degree
13 6 (0.92%) AWS Certification
13 6 (0.92%) CISM
13 6 (0.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 5 (0.76%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.13%) NIST
2 24 (3.67%) PMO
3 20 (3.06%) SLA
4 18 (2.75%) GDPR
5 15 (2.29%) Data Quality
6 13 (1.99%) Cyber Essentials
6 13 (1.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 13 (1.99%) NCSC
7 9 (1.38%) QA
8 5 (0.76%) NIST 800
9 4 (0.61%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.46%) P3O
11 2 (0.31%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.15%) GRC
12 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
12 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 193 (29.51%) Active Directory
2 56 (8.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (3.82%) Hyper-V
4 13 (1.99%) Docker
5 12 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (1.38%) vSphere
7 8 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (1.22%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (1.22%) VMware NSX
8 5 (0.76%) Firmware
9 3 (0.46%) DFS Replication
10 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.15%) Sendmail
10 1 (0.15%) UAG
Systems Management
1 61 (9.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 39 (5.96%) SCCM
3 35 (5.35%) Terraform
4 19 (2.91%) Ansible
4 19 (2.91%) Single Sign-On
5 16 (2.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 14 (2.14%) Kubernetes
7 10 (1.53%) Jamf Pro
7 10 (1.53%) WMI
8 4 (0.61%) SCOM
9 3 (0.46%) Grafana
9 3 (0.46%) Nessus
9 3 (0.46%) PaperCut
9 3 (0.46%) Puppet
9 3 (0.46%) SCSM
9 3 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.46%) WSUS
10 2 (0.31%) Cisco CUCM
10 2 (0.31%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.31%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 72 (11.01%) VMware
2 30 (4.59%) Cisco
3 29 (4.43%) ServiceNow
4 21 (3.21%) SAP
5 19 (2.91%) Oracle
6 17 (2.60%) Databricks
6 17 (2.60%) Splunk
7 15 (2.29%) Citrix
8 14 (2.14%) Meraki
9 11 (1.68%) Fortinet
10 10 (1.53%) Tenable
11 9 (1.38%) Avaya
11 9 (1.38%) Thales
12 8 (1.22%) F5
12 8 (1.22%) Mitel
12 8 (1.22%) Red Hat
13 7 (1.07%) Palo Alto
14 6 (0.92%) CrowdStrike
14 6 (0.92%) Google
14 6 (0.92%) Juniper