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 30 March 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
30 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 7 4
Rank change year-on-year -2 -3 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 641 448 839
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 11.70% 15.04% 14.88%
As % of the Vendors category 25.95% 28.75% 30.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 436 309 572
10th Percentile £204 £215 £185
25th Percentile £355 £363 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £463
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +8.11% -2.63%
75th Percentile £588 £590 £575
90th Percentile £655 £650 £675
England median daily rate £492 £477 £488
% change year-on-year +3.14% -2.15% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 22 67
10th Percentile £12.46 £13.19 £11.71
25th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £12.45
Median hourly rate £17.50 £15.93 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.86% -29.20% +15.38%
75th Percentile £31.88 £22.81 £54.38
90th Percentile £67.00 £26.50 £61.60
England median hourly rate £19.91 £22.39 £15.58
% change year-on-year -11.06% +43.72% -25.83%

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 2,470 1,558 2,717
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.08% 52.30% 48.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,743 1,046 1,663
10th Percentile £305 £244 £213
25th Percentile £413 £403 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% +5.00% -0.40%
75th Percentile £609 £615 £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 166 87 174
10th Percentile £13.31 £14.20 £12.74
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.85 £18.00
Median hourly rate £37.69 £25.00 £46.36
Median % change year-on-year +50.74% -46.07% +3.01%
75th Percentile £85.81 £62.50 £61.53
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.88 £67.36
England median hourly rate £25.38 £29.07 £24.00
% change year-on-year -12.69% +21.13% -31.43%

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 30 March 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 30 March 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 30 March 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 0 340 £475 -5.00% 240
Berkshire -2 200 £496 -0.80% 103
Hampshire -8 139 £550 +7.32% 139
Buckinghamshire -7 88 £475 +2.15% 88
Surrey +11 72 £463 +5.71% 87
Oxfordshire -1 52 £275 +10.00% 57
West Sussex -7 30 £400 -5.21% 42
Kent 0 27 £425 +18.06% 47
East Sussex +2 19 £600 +9.09% 29
Sussex +2 8 £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 62 (9.67%) SharePoint
2 55 (8.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.72%) Confluence
4 3 (0.47%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.47%) MS Project Server
4 3 (0.47%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.31%) GeoServer
6 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.16%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.16%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 101 (15.76%) Microsoft Office
2 84 (13.10%) Microsoft Excel
3 31 (4.84%) Microsoft Project
4 29 (4.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (1.72%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.31%) SOLIDWORKS
6 2 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.16%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.16%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.16%) InDesign
7 1 (0.16%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.16%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.16%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (0.16%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.16%) Sage 50
2 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 207 (32.29%) Azure
2 177 (27.61%) Microsoft 365
3 100 (15.60%) Entra ID
4 62 (9.67%) Power Platform
5 57 (8.89%) AWS
6 32 (4.99%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (4.84%) OneDrive
8 29 (4.52%) Dynamics 365
9 27 (4.21%) Power Automate
10 23 (3.59%) Microsoft Purview
10 23 (3.59%) PowerApps
11 21 (3.28%) GitHub
11 21 (3.28%) SaaS
12 18 (2.81%) Serverless
13 17 (2.65%) Azure Functions
14 15 (2.34%) Microsoft Copilot
15 13 (2.03%) Azure Logic Apps
15 13 (2.03%) Azure Monitor
15 13 (2.03%) IaaS
16 12 (1.87%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 54 (8.42%) DNS
2 37 (5.77%) DHCP
3 34 (5.30%) Firewall
3 34 (5.30%) Wi-Fi
4 19 (2.96%) VPN
5 14 (2.18%) TCP/IP
6 13 (2.03%) LAN
6 13 (2.03%) Unified Communications
7 12 (1.87%) Kerberos
7 12 (1.87%) Wireless
8 11 (1.72%) Network Security
9 10 (1.56%) WAN
10 8 (1.25%) BGP
10 8 (1.25%) MPLS
11 7 (1.09%) SAN
12 6 (0.94%) 4G
12 6 (0.94%) SD-WAN
12 6 (0.94%) SNMP
12 6 (0.94%) SSL
12 6 (0.94%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (7.49%) Power BI
2 35 (5.46%) SQL Server
3 15 (2.34%) Azure SQL Database
3 15 (2.34%) Relational Database
4 12 (1.87%) MySQL
5 10 (1.56%) Metadata
5 10 (1.56%) PostgreSQL
6 8 (1.25%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (1.25%) Oracle Database
7 7 (1.09%) Data Lake
8 6 (0.94%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 6 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 6 (0.94%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 4 (0.62%) GIS
9 4 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.62%) RDBMS
10 3 (0.47%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.47%) Star Schema
11 2 (0.31%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.31%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 17 (2.65%) JIRA
2 14 (2.18%) Git
3 11 (1.72%) Android Studio
4 9 (1.40%) Jenkins
5 8 (1.25%) Browser DevTools
5 8 (1.25%) Eclipse
5 8 (1.25%) Xcode
6 5 (0.78%) JUnit
7 4 (0.62%) Gradle
7 4 (0.62%) MSI
8 3 (0.47%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.47%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.47%) Maven
8 3 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.47%) 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 (0.16%) SonarQube
General
1 224 (34.95%) Social Skills
2 70 (10.92%) Finance
3 66 (10.30%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (9.98%) Organisational Skills
5 55 (8.58%) Public Sector
6 15 (2.34%) Manufacturing
7 13 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (2.03%) Legal
7 13 (2.03%) Military
8 12 (1.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (1.56%) Retail
10 8 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.09%) Telecoms
12 5 (0.78%) Marketing
13 4 (0.62%) Advertising
13 4 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.62%) Police
14 3 (0.47%) Banking
14 3 (0.47%) Billing
Job Titles
1 99 (15.44%) Architect
2 66 (10.30%) IT Support
3 65 (10.14%) Analyst
4 57 (8.89%) Support Engineer
5 54 (8.42%) Senior
6 41 (6.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 41 (6.40%) IT Engineer
7 34 (5.30%) IT Support Engineer
8 29 (4.52%) Developer
9 25 (3.90%) Lead
9 25 (3.90%) Solutions Architect
10 23 (3.59%) Consultant
11 20 (3.12%) Administrator
12 19 (2.96%) Infrastructure Architect
13 18 (2.81%) IT Analyst
14 16 (2.50%) Azure Engineer
14 16 (2.50%) Support Analyst
15 15 (2.34%) Project Manager
15 15 (2.34%) Support Officer
16 14 (2.18%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (3.59%) .NET
2 13 (2.03%) LDAP
3 12 (1.87%) REST
4 11 (1.72%) ARM Templates
4 11 (1.72%) CSS
4 11 (1.72%) React
5 10 (1.56%) GraphQL
6 9 (1.40%) OAuth
7 8 (1.25%) Ajax
7 8 (1.25%) AngularJS
7 8 (1.25%) OpenID
7 8 (1.25%) SAML
8 7 (1.09%) ADO
9 6 (0.94%) OAuth2
9 6 (0.94%) Spring
9 6 (0.94%) XML
10 5 (0.78%) Microsoft Graph
10 5 (0.78%) Middleware
10 5 (0.78%) PySpark
10 5 (0.78%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 37 (5.77%) PKI
2 35 (5.46%) Onboarding
3 20 (3.12%) Product Ownership
4 17 (2.65%) Analytical Mindset
4 17 (2.65%) Replication
5 16 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
6 15 (2.34%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.34%) Legacy Systems
7 14 (2.18%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.03%) Hybrid Cloud
9 12 (1.87%) Driving Licence
9 12 (1.87%) Mobile App
10 11 (1.72%) Operational Technology
11 10 (1.56%) Data Centre
11 10 (1.56%) Management Information System
12 9 (1.40%) Fat Client
12 9 (1.40%) Thin Client
12 9 (1.40%) Video Conferencing
13 7 (1.09%) Security Operations Centre
14 5 (0.78%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 187 (29.17%) Windows
2 65 (10.14%) Linux
3 43 (6.71%) Windows Server
4 30 (4.68%) Windows 10
5 17 (2.65%) Mac OS
6 13 (2.03%) Android
7 9 (1.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 9 (1.40%) Unix
8 8 (1.25%) Windows 7
9 7 (1.09%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.94%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.62%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.47%) CentOS
13 1 (0.16%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.16%) Debian
13 1 (0.16%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.16%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (14.98%) Problem-Solving
2 85 (13.26%) Customer Service
3 73 (11.39%) Agile
4 72 (11.23%) Cybersecurity
5 69 (10.76%) DevOps
6 65 (10.14%) Migration
7 58 (9.05%) Business Intelligence
7 58 (9.05%) Project Management
8 57 (8.89%) ITIL
9 54 (8.42%) Project Delivery
10 53 (8.27%) Stakeholder Management
11 50 (7.80%) CI/CD
12 49 (7.64%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 44 (6.86%) Analytics
13 44 (6.86%) Time Management
14 38 (5.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 35 (5.46%) Continuous Improvement
16 33 (5.15%) Roadmaps
16 33 (5.15%) SIEM
16 33 (5.15%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 88 (13.73%) PowerShell
2 71 (11.08%) Python
3 51 (7.96%) SQL
4 20 (3.12%) C#
4 20 (3.12%) JavaScript
5 18 (2.81%) Bash
5 18 (2.81%) Java
6 10 (1.56%) T-SQL
7 9 (1.40%) Perl
8 7 (1.09%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (0.94%) Bicep
10 4 (0.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (0.62%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.47%) X++
12 2 (0.31%) Korn
12 2 (0.31%) PHP
12 2 (0.31%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.16%) Google Apps Script
13 1 (0.16%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 214 (33.39%) Security Cleared
2 142 (22.15%) SC Cleared
3 67 (10.45%) DV Cleared
4 65 (10.14%) Degree
5 24 (3.74%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (2.50%) CISSP
7 12 (1.87%) Azure Certification
7 12 (1.87%) DBS Check
7 12 (1.87%) PMI Certification
8 11 (1.72%) PMP
9 10 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (1.40%) GIAC
11 8 (1.25%) A+ Certification
12 7 (1.09%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.09%) Master's Degree
13 6 (0.94%) AWS Certification
13 6 (0.94%) BPSS Clearance
13 6 (0.94%) CISM
14 5 (0.78%) CCIE
14 5 (0.78%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.06%) NIST
2 25 (3.90%) PMO
3 20 (3.12%) SLA
4 18 (2.81%) GDPR
5 15 (2.34%) Data Quality
6 13 (2.03%) Cyber Essentials
7 12 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (1.56%) NCSC
9 9 (1.40%) QA
10 5 (0.78%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.62%) Accessibility
12 3 (0.47%) P3O
13 2 (0.31%) JSP 440
14 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
14 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.16%) GRC
14 1 (0.16%) ISO 9001
14 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 1 (0.16%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 189 (29.49%) Active Directory
2 53 (8.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (3.59%) Hyper-V
4 12 (1.87%) Docker
5 11 (1.72%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (1.25%) VMware NSX
7 7 (1.09%) vSphere
8 6 (0.94%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.47%) DFS Replication
11 2 (0.31%) Firmware
12 1 (0.16%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.16%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 61 (9.52%) Microsoft Intune
2 41 (6.40%) SCCM
3 27 (4.21%) Terraform
4 19 (2.96%) Ansible
4 19 (2.96%) Single Sign-On
5 15 (2.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 12 (1.87%) Kubernetes
7 11 (1.72%) WMI
8 10 (1.56%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.47%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.47%) Grafana
9 3 (0.47%) Nessus
9 3 (0.47%) PaperCut
9 3 (0.47%) Puppet
9 3 (0.47%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.47%) WSUS
10 2 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
10 2 (0.31%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.31%) SCOM
10 2 (0.31%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 68 (10.61%) VMware
2 32 (4.99%) ServiceNow
3 26 (4.06%) Cisco
4 19 (2.96%) Oracle
4 19 (2.96%) SAP
5 18 (2.81%) Splunk
6 17 (2.65%) Databricks
7 16 (2.50%) Citrix
8 11 (1.72%) Fortinet
8 11 (1.72%) Meraki
9 10 (1.56%) Tenable
10 9 (1.40%) Avaya
10 9 (1.40%) Thales
11 8 (1.25%) F5
11 8 (1.25%) Mitel
11 8 (1.25%) Palo Alto
11 8 (1.25%) Red Hat
12 6 (0.94%) CrowdStrike
12 6 (0.94%) Google
12 6 (0.94%) Juniper