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 21 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
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 7 5
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 659 441 851
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 12.23% 14.89% 15.12%
As % of the Vendors category 26.57% 28.67% 31.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 455 299 581
10th Percentile £204 £212 £180
25th Percentile £311 £370 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £463
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +8.11% -2.63%
75th Percentile £575 £589 £575
90th Percentile £648 £650 £675
England median daily rate £494 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +4.00% -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 20 65
10th Percentile £12.44 £13.08 £11.71
25th Percentile £14.16 £14.20 £13.00
Median hourly rate £17.50 £17.33 £22.58
Median % change year-on-year +0.97% -23.24% +12.90%
75th Percentile £27.88 £24.06 £55.11
90th Percentile £68.63 £26.69 £61.60
England median hourly rate £19.91 £23.80 £16.06
% change year-on-year -16.34% +48.19% -24.17%

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 2,480 1,538 2,741
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.01% 51.92% 48.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,746 1,024 1,687
10th Percentile £289 £247 £211
25th Percentile £413 £408 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% +5.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £501 £525 £514
% change year-on-year -4.67% +2.19% -4.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 173 83 163
10th Percentile £13.20 £15.05 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £19.21 £17.80
Median hourly rate £36.00 £26.34 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.70% -41.48% -
75th Percentile £83.00 £62.50 £61.80
90th Percentile £88.00 £76.75 £69.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £30.45 £24.65
% change year-on-year -17.41% +23.53% -29.57%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 +2 355 £475 -5.00% 247
Berkshire 0 211 £496 -0.80% 106
Hampshire -7 138 £550 +10.00% 141
Buckinghamshire -6 94 £475 -1.55% 90
Surrey +15 72 £425 +41.67% 79
Oxfordshire -1 50 £275 -12.00% 59
West Sussex -7 31 £400 -5.64% 42
Kent 0 29 £438 -19.61% 47
East Sussex +5 19 £600 +9.09% 33
Sussex +2 9 £463 -7.50% 15
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 68 (10.32%) SharePoint
2 59 (8.95%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.52%) Confluence
4 3 (0.46%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.46%) MS Project Server
4 3 (0.46%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.30%) GeoServer
6 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.15%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.15%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 107 (16.24%) Microsoft Office
2 82 (12.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 30 (4.55%) Microsoft Project
4 27 (4.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.37%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.30%) SOLIDWORKS
6 2 (0.30%) 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 8 (1.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
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%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 210 (31.87%) Azure
2 183 (27.77%) Microsoft 365
3 105 (15.93%) Entra ID
4 66 (10.02%) Power Platform
5 59 (8.95%) AWS
6 38 (5.77%) OneDrive
7 31 (4.70%) Azure DevOps
8 28 (4.25%) Power Automate
9 27 (4.10%) Dynamics 365
10 26 (3.95%) Microsoft Purview
10 26 (3.95%) PowerApps
11 24 (3.64%) SaaS
12 20 (3.03%) GitHub
13 17 (2.58%) Serverless
14 16 (2.43%) Azure Functions
15 15 (2.28%) Microsoft Copilot
16 13 (1.97%) Google Workspace
16 13 (1.97%) IaaS
17 12 (1.82%) Azure Logic Apps
17 12 (1.82%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 57 (8.65%) DNS
2 41 (6.22%) DHCP
3 36 (5.46%) Firewall
4 35 (5.31%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (3.19%) VPN
6 16 (2.43%) TCP/IP
7 14 (2.12%) Unified Communications
7 14 (2.12%) Wireless
8 12 (1.82%) Kerberos
9 11 (1.67%) LAN
9 11 (1.67%) Network Security
10 9 (1.37%) 4G
11 8 (1.21%) BGP
11 8 (1.21%) WAN
12 7 (1.06%) MPLS
12 7 (1.06%) SAN
12 7 (1.06%) VLAN
12 7 (1.06%) WebEx
13 6 (0.91%) SSL
13 6 (0.91%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (7.89%) Power BI
2 37 (5.61%) SQL Server
3 17 (2.58%) Relational Database
4 15 (2.28%) Azure SQL Database
5 14 (2.12%) MySQL
6 10 (1.52%) Metadata
6 10 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (1.37%) Oracle Database
8 8 (1.21%) Data Warehouse
9 7 (1.06%) Data Lake
10 6 (0.91%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
10 6 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 6 (0.91%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 4 (0.61%) GIS
11 4 (0.61%) Oracle Reports
11 4 (0.61%) RDBMS
12 3 (0.46%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.46%) Star Schema
13 2 (0.30%) MongoDB
13 2 (0.30%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 15 (2.28%) JIRA
2 14 (2.12%) Git
3 13 (1.97%) Android Studio
4 10 (1.52%) Browser DevTools
4 10 (1.52%) Eclipse
4 10 (1.52%) Xcode
5 9 (1.37%) Jenkins
6 5 (0.76%) JUnit
7 4 (0.61%) Gradle
8 3 (0.46%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.46%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.46%) Maven
8 3 (0.46%) MSI
8 3 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.46%) Subversion
9 2 (0.30%) JMeter
9 2 (0.30%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.30%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.30%) Robot Framework
10 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 232 (35.20%) Social Skills
2 73 (11.08%) Analytical Skills
3 72 (10.93%) Finance
4 64 (9.71%) Organisational Skills
5 56 (8.50%) Public Sector
6 15 (2.28%) Manufacturing
7 13 (1.97%) Legal
7 13 (1.97%) Military
8 12 (1.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 11 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
10 9 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
10 9 (1.37%) Retail
11 7 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.06%) Telecoms
12 5 (0.76%) Marketing
13 4 (0.61%) Advertising
13 4 (0.61%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.46%) Banking
14 3 (0.46%) Billing
15 2 (0.30%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 101 (15.33%) Architect
2 69 (10.47%) Analyst
3 63 (9.56%) IT Support
3 63 (9.56%) Support Engineer
4 52 (7.89%) Senior
5 46 (6.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 41 (6.22%) IT Engineer
7 33 (5.01%) IT Support Engineer
8 29 (4.40%) Developer
9 25 (3.79%) Lead
10 23 (3.49%) Consultant
10 23 (3.49%) Solutions Architect
11 21 (3.19%) Administrator
12 19 (2.88%) Infrastructure Architect
13 16 (2.43%) Azure Engineer
13 16 (2.43%) Support Analyst
13 16 (2.43%) Support Officer
14 15 (2.28%) IT Analyst
14 15 (2.28%) Project Manager
15 13 (1.97%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.19%) .NET
2 13 (1.97%) CSS
2 13 (1.97%) LDAP
2 13 (1.97%) React
3 12 (1.82%) GraphQL
3 12 (1.82%) REST
4 11 (1.67%) ARM Templates
5 10 (1.52%) Ajax
5 10 (1.52%) AngularJS
5 10 (1.52%) OAuth
6 8 (1.21%) OpenID
6 8 (1.21%) SAML
7 7 (1.06%) ADO
8 6 (0.91%) Microsoft Graph
8 6 (0.91%) OAuth2
8 6 (0.91%) Spring
8 6 (0.91%) XML
9 5 (0.76%) PySpark
9 5 (0.76%) SailPoint
10 4 (0.61%) .NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 38 (5.77%) PKI
2 36 (5.46%) Onboarding
3 21 (3.19%) Analytical Mindset
4 20 (3.03%) Product Ownership
5 17 (2.58%) Replication
6 16 (2.43%) Legacy Systems
6 16 (2.43%) Self-Motivation
7 15 (2.28%) Cloud Native
7 15 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
8 14 (2.12%) Driving Licence
8 14 (2.12%) Mobile App
9 12 (1.82%) Hybrid Cloud
10 11 (1.67%) Operational Technology
10 11 (1.67%) Video Conferencing
11 10 (1.52%) Data Centre
11 10 (1.52%) Fat Client
11 10 (1.52%) Management Information System
11 10 (1.52%) Thin Client
12 7 (1.06%) Security Operations Centre
13 6 (0.91%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 196 (29.74%) Windows
2 69 (10.47%) Linux
3 45 (6.83%) Windows Server
4 36 (5.46%) Windows 10
5 17 (2.58%) Mac OS
6 15 (2.28%) Android
7 11 (1.67%) Unix
8 9 (1.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.37%) Windows 7
9 7 (1.06%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.91%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.91%) 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 98 (14.87%) Problem-Solving
2 82 (12.44%) Customer Service
3 73 (11.08%) Agile
4 72 (10.93%) Cybersecurity
5 66 (10.02%) DevOps
5 66 (10.02%) Migration
6 61 (9.26%) Business Intelligence
6 61 (9.26%) ITIL
7 56 (8.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 56 (8.50%) Stakeholder Management
8 55 (8.35%) Project Management
9 52 (7.89%) Project Delivery
10 47 (7.13%) CI/CD
11 44 (6.68%) Time Management
12 43 (6.53%) Analytics
13 38 (5.77%) Continuous Improvement
13 38 (5.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 34 (5.16%) Roadmaps
15 33 (5.01%) SIEM
15 33 (5.01%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 94 (14.26%) PowerShell
2 73 (11.08%) Python
3 51 (7.74%) SQL
4 21 (3.19%) JavaScript
5 20 (3.03%) Java
6 18 (2.73%) Bash
6 18 (2.73%) C#
7 11 (1.67%) Perl
8 10 (1.52%) T-SQL
9 7 (1.06%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.91%) Bicep
11 4 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 4 (0.61%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.46%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.30%) Korn
13 2 (0.30%) PHP
13 2 (0.30%) X++
14 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.15%) VB
14 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 228 (34.60%) Security Cleared
2 153 (23.22%) SC Cleared
3 70 (10.62%) DV Cleared
4 67 (10.17%) Degree
5 26 (3.95%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (2.43%) CISSP
7 15 (2.28%) Azure Certification
8 12 (1.82%) DBS Check
9 11 (1.67%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (1.67%) PMI Certification
9 11 (1.67%) PMP
10 9 (1.37%) GIAC
11 8 (1.21%) A+ Certification
12 7 (1.06%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.06%) Master's Degree
13 6 (0.91%) AWS Certification
13 6 (0.91%) BPSS Clearance
13 6 (0.91%) CISM
13 6 (0.91%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 5 (0.76%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (3.95%) NIST
2 25 (3.79%) PMO
3 21 (3.19%) SLA
4 19 (2.88%) GDPR
5 15 (2.28%) Data Quality
6 13 (1.97%) Cyber Essentials
7 12 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (1.52%) NCSC
9 9 (1.37%) QA
10 5 (0.76%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.61%) Accessibility
12 3 (0.46%) P3O
13 2 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
14 1 (0.15%) COSHH
14 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
14 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 1 (0.15%) JSP 440
14 1 (0.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 198 (30.05%) Active Directory
2 56 (8.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (3.64%) Hyper-V
4 11 (1.67%) Docker
4 11 (1.67%) Virtual Desktop
5 9 (1.37%) vSphere
6 8 (1.21%) VMware NSX
7 7 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.46%) DFS Replication
10 2 (0.30%) Firmware
11 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.15%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 59 (8.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 46 (6.98%) SCCM
3 27 (4.10%) Terraform
4 23 (3.49%) Single Sign-On
5 20 (3.03%) Ansible
6 18 (2.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 12 (1.82%) WMI
8 11 (1.67%) Kubernetes
9 10 (1.52%) Jamf Pro
10 4 (0.61%) Cisco CUCM
10 4 (0.61%) vCenter Server
11 3 (0.46%) Grafana
11 3 (0.46%) Nessus
11 3 (0.46%) PaperCut
11 3 (0.46%) Puppet
11 3 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 2 (0.30%) Oracle RMAN
12 2 (0.30%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.30%) SCOM
12 2 (0.30%) WSUS
Vendors
1 72 (10.93%) VMware
2 38 (5.77%) ServiceNow
3 26 (3.95%) Cisco
4 22 (3.34%) Oracle
5 18 (2.73%) SAP
5 18 (2.73%) Splunk
6 16 (2.43%) Citrix
6 16 (2.43%) Databricks
7 10 (1.52%) Fortinet
7 10 (1.52%) Tenable
8 9 (1.37%) Meraki
8 9 (1.37%) Palo Alto
8 9 (1.37%) Thales
9 8 (1.21%) F5
9 8 (1.21%) Red Hat
10 6 (0.91%) Avaya
10 6 (0.91%) CrowdStrike
10 6 (0.91%) Google
10 6 (0.91%) Juniper
10 6 (0.91%) Mitel