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 25 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
25 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 7 5
Rank change year-on-year -2 -2 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 648 442 850
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 11.99% 15.08% 15.11%
As % of the Vendors category 26.09% 28.89% 31.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 444 301 579
10th Percentile £204 £213 £181
25th Percentile £339 £363 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £463
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +8.11% -2.63%
75th Percentile £579 £590 £575
90th Percentile £650 £650 £675
England median daily rate £496 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +4.46% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 21 66
10th Percentile £12.46 £13.08 £11.71
25th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £12.72
Median hourly rate £17.50 £16.36 £22.54
Median % change year-on-year +6.97% -27.42% +15.59%
75th Percentile £29.00 £23.75 £54.69
90th Percentile £67.00 £26.50 £61.60
England median hourly rate £19.91 £23.59 £16.00
% change year-on-year -15.60% +47.44% -23.85%

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 2,484 1,530 2,729
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.95% 52.20% 48.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,746 1,025 1,672
10th Percentile £301 £241 £208
25th Percentile £413 £406 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% +5.00% -0.40%
75th Percentile £600 £618 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £514
% change year-on-year -4.76% +2.14% -4.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 174 85 166
10th Percentile £13.24 £14.52 £12.81
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.50 £17.70
Median hourly rate £36.71 £25.30 £45.11
Median % change year-on-year +45.10% -43.91% +0.23%
75th Percentile £83.56 £62.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £88.00 £76.31 £68.63
England median hourly rate £25.15 £30.00 £24.10
% change year-on-year -16.17% +24.48% -31.20%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 +1 342 £475 -5.00% 240
Berkshire -5 201 £491 -1.80% 103
Hampshire -8 140 £550 +8.91% 139
Buckinghamshire -5 92 £475 -1.55% 88
Surrey +17 73 £450 +28.57% 87
Oxfordshire -1 49 £275 -12.00% 57
West Sussex -7 30 £400 -5.39% 42
Kent 0 29 £438 +21.53% 47
East Sussex +2 19 £600 +9.09% 29
Sussex +2 9 £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 65 (10.03%) SharePoint
2 57 (8.80%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.70%) 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%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 106 (16.36%) Microsoft Office
2 84 (12.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 31 (4.78%) Microsoft Project
4 29 (4.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (1.70%) 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 (1.08%) 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
1 206 (31.79%) Azure
2 179 (27.62%) Microsoft 365
3 100 (15.43%) Entra ID
4 62 (9.57%) Power Platform
5 58 (8.95%) AWS
6 33 (5.09%) OneDrive
7 31 (4.78%) Azure DevOps
8 27 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
9 26 (4.01%) Power Automate
10 25 (3.86%) Microsoft Purview
11 23 (3.55%) PowerApps
12 22 (3.40%) SaaS
13 20 (3.09%) GitHub
14 17 (2.62%) Serverless
15 16 (2.47%) Azure Functions
16 15 (2.31%) Microsoft Copilot
17 13 (2.01%) Google Workspace
17 13 (2.01%) IaaS
18 12 (1.85%) Azure Logic Apps
18 12 (1.85%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 56 (8.64%) DNS
2 39 (6.02%) DHCP
3 37 (5.71%) Firewall
4 35 (5.40%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (3.24%) VPN
6 15 (2.31%) TCP/IP
7 13 (2.01%) Unified Communications
7 13 (2.01%) Wireless
8 12 (1.85%) Kerberos
8 12 (1.85%) LAN
9 11 (1.70%) Network Security
10 9 (1.39%) WAN
11 8 (1.23%) 4G
11 8 (1.23%) BGP
12 7 (1.08%) MPLS
12 7 (1.08%) SAN
13 6 (0.93%) SNMP
13 6 (0.93%) SSL
13 6 (0.93%) VLAN
13 6 (0.93%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (7.41%) Power BI
2 35 (5.40%) SQL Server
3 16 (2.47%) Relational Database
4 15 (2.31%) Azure SQL Database
5 13 (2.01%) MySQL
6 10 (1.54%) Metadata
6 10 (1.54%) PostgreSQL
7 8 (1.23%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (1.23%) Oracle Database
8 7 (1.08%) Data Lake
9 6 (0.93%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9 6 (0.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 6 (0.93%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 4 (0.62%) GIS
10 4 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (0.62%) RDBMS
11 3 (0.46%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.46%) Star Schema
12 2 (0.31%) MongoDB
12 2 (0.31%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 17 (2.62%) JIRA
2 14 (2.16%) Git
3 12 (1.85%) Android Studio
4 9 (1.39%) Browser DevTools
4 9 (1.39%) Eclipse
4 9 (1.39%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.39%) Xcode
5 5 (0.77%) JUnit
6 4 (0.62%) Gradle
7 3 (0.46%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.46%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.46%) Maven
7 3 (0.46%) MSI
7 3 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.46%) Subversion
8 2 (0.31%) JMeter
8 2 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.31%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.31%) Robot Framework
9 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 227 (35.03%) Social Skills
2 72 (11.11%) Finance
3 68 (10.49%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (10.19%) Organisational Skills
5 55 (8.49%) Public Sector
6 15 (2.31%) Manufacturing
7 13 (2.01%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (2.01%) Legal
7 13 (2.01%) Military
8 12 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (1.39%) Retail
10 8 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.08%) Telecoms
12 5 (0.77%) Marketing
13 4 (0.62%) Advertising
13 4 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.46%) Banking
14 3 (0.46%) Billing
15 2 (0.31%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 100 (15.43%) Architect
2 67 (10.34%) Analyst
3 64 (9.88%) IT Support
4 59 (9.10%) Support Engineer
5 52 (8.02%) Senior
6 43 (6.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 40 (6.17%) IT Engineer
8 33 (5.09%) IT Support Engineer
9 28 (4.32%) Developer
10 25 (3.86%) Lead
11 23 (3.55%) Consultant
11 23 (3.55%) Solutions Architect
12 20 (3.09%) Administrator
13 19 (2.93%) Infrastructure Architect
14 17 (2.62%) IT Analyst
14 17 (2.62%) Support Analyst
15 16 (2.47%) Azure Engineer
15 16 (2.47%) Support Officer
16 15 (2.31%) Project Manager
17 13 (2.01%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.24%) .NET
2 13 (2.01%) LDAP
3 12 (1.85%) CSS
3 12 (1.85%) React
3 12 (1.85%) REST
4 11 (1.70%) ARM Templates
4 11 (1.70%) GraphQL
5 9 (1.39%) Ajax
5 9 (1.39%) AngularJS
5 9 (1.39%) OAuth
6 8 (1.23%) OpenID
6 8 (1.23%) SAML
7 7 (1.08%) ADO
8 6 (0.93%) OAuth2
8 6 (0.93%) Spring
8 6 (0.93%) XML
9 5 (0.77%) Microsoft Graph
9 5 (0.77%) PySpark
10 4 (0.62%) .NET Core
10 4 (0.62%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 38 (5.86%) PKI
2 35 (5.40%) Onboarding
3 20 (3.09%) Product Ownership
4 19 (2.93%) Analytical Mindset
5 17 (2.62%) Replication
6 16 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
6 16 (2.47%) Self-Motivation
7 15 (2.31%) Cloud Native
7 15 (2.31%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.01%) Driving Licence
8 13 (2.01%) Mobile App
9 12 (1.85%) Hybrid Cloud
10 11 (1.70%) Operational Technology
10 11 (1.70%) Video Conferencing
11 10 (1.54%) Data Centre
11 10 (1.54%) Fat Client
11 10 (1.54%) Management Information System
11 10 (1.54%) Thin Client
12 7 (1.08%) Security Operations Centre
13 6 (0.93%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 192 (29.63%) Windows
2 68 (10.49%) Linux
3 44 (6.79%) Windows Server
4 34 (5.25%) Windows 10
5 17 (2.62%) Mac OS
6 14 (2.16%) Android
7 10 (1.54%) Unix
8 9 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.39%) Windows 7
9 7 (1.08%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.93%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.93%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.62%) 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 96 (14.81%) Problem-Solving
2 84 (12.96%) Customer Service
3 73 (11.27%) Agile
4 72 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
5 67 (10.34%) DevOps
6 65 (10.03%) Migration
7 60 (9.26%) ITIL
8 58 (8.95%) Business Intelligence
8 58 (8.95%) Project Management
9 54 (8.33%) Project Delivery
10 53 (8.18%) Stakeholder Management
11 52 (8.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 48 (7.41%) CI/CD
13 44 (6.79%) Time Management
14 41 (6.33%) Analytics
15 38 (5.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 37 (5.71%) Continuous Improvement
17 33 (5.09%) Roadmaps
17 33 (5.09%) SIEM
17 33 (5.09%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 89 (13.73%) PowerShell
2 72 (11.11%) Python
3 50 (7.72%) SQL
4 20 (3.09%) JavaScript
5 19 (2.93%) Java
6 18 (2.78%) Bash
6 18 (2.78%) C#
7 10 (1.54%) Perl
7 10 (1.54%) T-SQL
8 7 (1.08%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (0.93%) Bicep
10 4 (0.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (0.62%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.31%) Korn
11 2 (0.31%) PHP
11 2 (0.31%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.31%) X++
12 1 (0.15%) Google Apps Script
12 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 221 (34.10%) Security Cleared
2 147 (22.69%) SC Cleared
3 69 (10.65%) DV Cleared
4 66 (10.19%) Degree
5 24 (3.70%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (2.47%) CISSP
7 14 (2.16%) Azure Certification
8 12 (1.85%) DBS Check
8 12 (1.85%) PMI Certification
9 11 (1.70%) PMP
10 10 (1.54%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (1.39%) GIAC
12 8 (1.23%) A+ Certification
13 7 (1.08%) Cisco Certification
13 7 (1.08%) Master's Degree
14 6 (0.93%) AWS Certification
14 6 (0.93%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (0.93%) CISM
14 6 (0.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 5 (0.77%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.01%) NIST
2 25 (3.86%) PMO
3 20 (3.09%) SLA
4 18 (2.78%) GDPR
5 15 (2.31%) Data Quality
6 13 (2.01%) Cyber Essentials
7 12 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 10 (1.54%) NCSC
9 9 (1.39%) QA
10 5 (0.77%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.62%) Accessibility
12 3 (0.46%) P3O
13 2 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.31%) JSP 440
14 1 (0.15%) COSHH
14 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
14 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 192 (29.63%) Active Directory
2 55 (8.49%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (3.55%) Hyper-V
4 12 (1.85%) Docker
5 11 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (1.23%) VMware NSX
6 8 (1.23%) vSphere
7 7 (1.08%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.46%) DFS Replication
10 2 (0.31%) 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 58 (8.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 44 (6.79%) SCCM
3 26 (4.01%) Terraform
4 19 (2.93%) Ansible
4 19 (2.93%) Single Sign-On
5 16 (2.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 12 (1.85%) Kubernetes
6 12 (1.85%) WMI
7 10 (1.54%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.46%) Cisco CUCM
8 3 (0.46%) Grafana
8 3 (0.46%) Nessus
8 3 (0.46%) PaperCut
8 3 (0.46%) Puppet
8 3 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
8 3 (0.46%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.46%) WSUS
9 2 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.31%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.31%) SCOM
Vendors
1 70 (10.80%) VMware
2 35 (5.40%) ServiceNow
3 26 (4.01%) Cisco
4 20 (3.09%) Oracle
5 19 (2.93%) SAP
6 18 (2.78%) Splunk
7 17 (2.62%) Databricks
8 16 (2.47%) Citrix
9 10 (1.54%) Fortinet
9 10 (1.54%) Meraki
9 10 (1.54%) Tenable
10 9 (1.39%) Palo Alto
10 9 (1.39%) Thales
11 8 (1.23%) F5
11 8 (1.23%) Red Hat
12 7 (1.08%) Avaya
12 7 (1.08%) Mitel
13 6 (0.93%) CrowdStrike
13 6 (0.93%) Google
13 6 (0.93%) Juniper