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 June 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 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 5 6
Rank change year-on-year -2 +1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 732 491 804
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 11.83% 16.16% 13.87%
As % of the Vendors category 28.42% 30.16% 29.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 325 518
10th Percentile £203 £200 £200
25th Percentile £363 £288 £357
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £468 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.50% -1.47% +3.26%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £673 £623 £675
England median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 32 77
10th Percentile £12.78 £14.02 £11.71
25th Percentile £16.38 £14.20 £12.00
Median hourly rate £29.91 £14.90 £23.22
Median % change year-on-year +100.74% -35.82% +19.05%
75th Percentile £53.81 £28.81 £58.49
90th Percentile £110.75 £32.28 £61.60
England median hourly rate £22.50 £19.00 £15.89
% change year-on-year +18.42% +19.57% -28.58%

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 2,576 1,628 2,699
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 41.64% 53.59% 46.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,697 1,068 1,581
10th Percentile £288 £220 £243
25th Percentile £414 £379 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £511
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -2.15% +2.20%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £694 £660 £698
England median daily rate £505 £513 £520
% change year-on-year -1.46% -1.44% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 96 199
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £12.21
25th Percentile £21.35 £15.34 £17.06
Median hourly rate £47.54 £23.25 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +104.47% -51.05% -0.94%
75th Percentile £85.13 £46.30 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £69.83 £70.00
England median hourly rate £34.87 £27.17 £24.19
% change year-on-year +28.35% +12.33% -38.85%

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 June 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 June 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 June 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 0 388 £494 +9.72% 230
Berkshire -3 210 £500 +4.99% 95
Hampshire -8 146 £550 +5.26% 116
Surrey +6 108 £438 +75.00% 75
Buckinghamshire -6 104 £505 +3.59% 72
Oxfordshire -1 74 £415 +66.00% 68
West Sussex -1 48 £430 +68.63% 41
Kent -4 21 £275 -18.22% 54
East Sussex -4 7 £358 -42.22% 20
Home Counties +1 4 - - 1
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 78 (10.66%) SharePoint
2 66 (9.02%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (2.05%) Confluence
4 3 (0.41%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.41%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.27%) GeoServer
5 2 (0.27%) MS Project Server
6 1 (0.14%) Apache
6 1 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.14%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.14%) IIS
6 1 (0.14%) nginx
6 1 (0.14%) SharePoint 2010
6 1 (0.14%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
Applications
1 86 (11.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 79 (10.79%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (4.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 32 (4.37%) Microsoft Project
5 11 (1.50%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.27%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.14%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.14%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.14%) InDesign
7 1 (0.14%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.14%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.14%) Trello
Business Applications
1 12 (1.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.82%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.68%) NEC Housing
4 4 (0.55%) SAP Business One
5 3 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.14%) iTrent
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.14%) SAP PSCD
6 1 (0.14%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 294 (40.16%) Azure
2 180 (24.59%) Microsoft 365
3 137 (18.72%) Entra ID
4 90 (12.30%) Power Platform
5 70 (9.56%) AWS
6 42 (5.74%) Azure DevOps
7 39 (5.33%) Dynamics 365
8 33 (4.51%) Power Automate
9 30 (4.10%) OneDrive
10 27 (3.69%) SaaS
11 23 (3.14%) PowerApps
12 20 (2.73%) Azure Logic Apps
12 20 (2.73%) Microsoft Purview
13 19 (2.60%) Serverless
14 18 (2.46%) Azure Functions
14 18 (2.46%) Azure Monitor
14 18 (2.46%) Microsoft Copilot
15 17 (2.32%) GitHub
16 15 (2.05%) GCP
16 15 (2.05%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 69 (9.43%) DNS
2 47 (6.42%) DHCP
3 35 (4.78%) Wi-Fi
4 30 (4.10%) Firewall
5 27 (3.69%) LAN
5 27 (3.69%) VPN
6 21 (2.87%) WAN
7 19 (2.60%) TCP/IP
8 14 (1.91%) SD-WAN
9 12 (1.64%) Kerberos
10 11 (1.50%) MPLS
10 11 (1.50%) Unified Communications
11 9 (1.23%) Network Security
12 8 (1.09%) VLAN
13 7 (0.96%) BGP
13 7 (0.96%) IPsec
14 6 (0.82%) BIG-IP
14 6 (0.82%) FTP
14 6 (0.82%) Internet
14 6 (0.82%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (9.56%) Power BI
2 28 (3.83%) SQL Server
3 12 (1.64%) MySQL
3 12 (1.64%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.50%) Azure SQL Database
5 7 (0.96%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (0.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (0.82%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 5 (0.68%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.68%) Metadata
7 5 (0.68%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.41%) Data Mining
8 3 (0.41%) Geospatial Data
8 3 (0.41%) GIS
8 3 (0.41%) MS Access
8 3 (0.41%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.41%) Star Schema
9 2 (0.27%) BusinessObjects
9 2 (0.27%) Oracle Reports
9 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 26 (3.55%) JIRA
2 11 (1.50%) Git
3 5 (0.68%) Android Studio
4 4 (0.55%) JUnit
5 3 (0.41%) Browser DevTools
5 3 (0.41%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.41%) Gradle
5 3 (0.41%) Maven
5 3 (0.41%) MSI
5 3 (0.41%) Robot Framework
5 3 (0.41%) Xcode
6 2 (0.27%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.27%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.27%) Subversion
7 1 (0.14%) ERwin
7 1 (0.14%) NUnit
7 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 216 (29.51%) Social Skills
2 72 (9.84%) Public Sector
3 70 (9.56%) Finance
4 66 (9.02%) Analytical Skills
5 45 (6.15%) Organisational Skills
6 27 (3.69%) Legal
7 24 (3.28%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (2.87%) Aerospace
9 16 (2.19%) Military
10 15 (2.05%) Telecoms
11 12 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (1.50%) Marketing
13 7 (0.96%) Local Government
13 7 (0.96%) Retail
14 6 (0.82%) Billing
14 6 (0.82%) Influencing Skills
14 6 (0.82%) Manufacturing
15 5 (0.68%) Arabic Language
15 5 (0.68%) Aviation
15 5 (0.68%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 87 (11.89%) Architect
2 73 (9.97%) IT Support
3 65 (8.88%) Analyst
4 57 (7.79%) Senior
5 48 (6.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 48 (6.56%) Support Engineer
6 46 (6.28%) Lead
7 44 (6.01%) IT Engineer
8 39 (5.33%) Consultant
9 36 (4.92%) Developer
9 36 (4.92%) IT Support Engineer
10 27 (3.69%) Solutions Architect
11 26 (3.55%) Azure Engineer
12 25 (3.42%) Administrator
13 23 (3.14%) IT Analyst
13 23 (3.14%) Project Manager
14 21 (2.87%) Cloud Engineer
15 20 (2.73%) Support Analyst
16 19 (2.60%) Microsoft Engineer
17 18 (2.46%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (4.23%) .NET
2 28 (3.83%) LDAP
3 25 (3.42%) OAuth
4 24 (3.28%) SAML
5 23 (3.14%) OpenID
6 18 (2.46%) Web Services
7 17 (2.32%) OAuth2
8 16 (2.19%) REST
9 14 (1.91%) Microsoft Graph
9 14 (1.91%) SailPoint
10 10 (1.37%) JSON
11 9 (1.23%) ARM Templates
12 8 (1.09%) React
12 8 (1.09%) XML
13 7 (0.96%) AngularJS
13 7 (0.96%) CSS
14 6 (0.82%) ADO
14 6 (0.82%) Middleware
14 6 (0.82%) Software Packaging
15 5 (0.68%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 49 (6.69%) Onboarding
2 30 (4.10%) PKI
3 29 (3.96%) Data Centre
4 27 (3.69%) Cloud Native
5 26 (3.55%) Product Ownership
6 20 (2.73%) Hybrid Cloud
7 19 (2.60%) Legacy Systems
8 16 (2.19%) Public Cloud
9 15 (2.05%) Replication
10 14 (1.91%) Operational Technology
11 10 (1.37%) Driving Licence
11 10 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
12 9 (1.23%) Data Structures
12 9 (1.23%) Security Posture
12 9 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
13 8 (1.09%) Cyber Defence
13 8 (1.09%) Virtual Team
14 7 (0.96%) Analytical Mindset
14 7 (0.96%) CMDB
14 7 (0.96%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 201 (27.46%) Windows
2 64 (8.74%) Windows Server
3 52 (7.10%) Linux
4 26 (3.55%) Windows 10
5 25 (3.42%) Mac OS
6 22 (3.01%) Apple iOS
7 14 (1.91%) Android
8 11 (1.50%) Unix
9 8 (1.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 8 (1.09%) Windows Server 2019
10 7 (0.96%) Windows 7
11 6 (0.82%) Windows Server 2012
12 5 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.41%) CentOS
13 3 (0.41%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.14%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.14%) VMS
14 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (16.39%) Problem-Solving
2 88 (12.02%) DevOps
3 86 (11.75%) Agile
3 86 (11.75%) ITIL
4 84 (11.48%) Customer Service
5 76 (10.38%) Stakeholder Management
6 74 (10.11%) Business Intelligence
7 73 (9.97%) CI/CD
7 73 (9.97%) Migration
8 60 (8.20%) Cybersecurity
8 60 (8.20%) ITSM
9 57 (7.79%) Analytics
9 57 (7.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 57 (7.79%) Project Delivery
10 55 (7.51%) Project Management
11 49 (6.69%) Decision-Making
11 49 (6.69%) Roadmaps
12 48 (6.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 47 (6.42%) User Experience
14 46 (6.28%) AI
Programming Languages
1 110 (15.03%) PowerShell
2 67 (9.15%) SQL
3 63 (8.61%) Python
4 28 (3.83%) T-SQL
5 21 (2.87%) C#
6 18 (2.46%) Bash
7 17 (2.32%) JavaScript
8 12 (1.64%) Bicep
8 12 (1.64%) Java
9 9 (1.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 7 (0.96%) X++
11 5 (0.68%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.41%) Perl
12 3 (0.41%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.27%) Korn
14 1 (0.14%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.14%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 257 (35.11%) Security Cleared
2 182 (24.86%) SC Cleared
3 87 (11.89%) Degree
4 79 (10.79%) DV Cleared
5 32 (4.37%) Microsoft Certification
6 27 (3.69%) Azure Certification
7 14 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
8 13 (1.78%) AWS Certification
9 11 (1.50%) CISSP
9 11 (1.50%) Computer Science Degree
10 10 (1.37%) DBS Check
11 9 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
11 9 (1.23%) CISM
11 9 (1.23%) GIAC
12 8 (1.09%) MCSA
12 8 (1.09%) MCSE
13 7 (0.96%) CCNP
13 7 (0.96%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (0.82%) PMI Certification
14 6 (0.82%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (4.64%) NIST
2 28 (3.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (3.55%) GDPR
3 26 (3.55%) NCSC
4 25 (3.42%) SLA
5 20 (2.73%) PMO
6 19 (2.60%) Cyber Essentials
6 19 (2.60%) Data Quality
7 14 (1.91%) QA
8 6 (0.82%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.68%) NIST 800
10 4 (0.55%) Accessibility
10 4 (0.55%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 2 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.14%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.14%) GRC
13 1 (0.14%) ISO 9001
13 1 (0.14%) JSP 440
System Software
1 209 (28.55%) Active Directory
2 66 (9.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (3.69%) Hyper-V
4 16 (2.19%) Virtual Machines
4 16 (2.19%) VMware ESXi
4 16 (2.19%) vSphere
5 13 (1.78%) VMware NSX
6 11 (1.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (1.23%) Docker
8 5 (0.68%) Firmware
9 2 (0.27%) UAG
10 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.14%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 1 (0.14%) Dovecot
10 1 (0.14%) OpenAM
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.14%) Postfix
10 1 (0.14%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 67 (9.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 37 (5.05%) Terraform
3 29 (3.96%) SCCM
4 24 (3.28%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 17 (2.32%) SCOM
5 17 (2.32%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (1.91%) vCenter Server
7 13 (1.78%) Ansible
7 13 (1.78%) Jamf Pro
8 11 (1.50%) Kubernetes
9 8 (1.09%) Avamar
10 4 (0.55%) Clonezilla
10 4 (0.55%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.55%) Puppet
10 4 (0.55%) QRadar
11 3 (0.41%) Progress Chef
11 3 (0.41%) SCSM
11 3 (0.41%) WMI
12 2 (0.27%) Nessus
12 2 (0.27%) WSUS
Vendors
1 81 (11.07%) VMware
2 38 (5.19%) Cisco
3 36 (4.92%) ServiceNow
4 31 (4.23%) SAP
5 18 (2.46%) Meraki
6 15 (2.05%) Citrix
6 15 (2.05%) Databricks
7 14 (1.91%) Google
8 13 (1.78%) Dell
8 13 (1.78%) Oracle
8 13 (1.78%) SolarWinds
9 12 (1.64%) Thales
10 10 (1.37%) Avaya
10 10 (1.37%) F5
10 10 (1.37%) Fortinet
11 9 (1.23%) Mitel
11 9 (1.23%) Splunk
12 8 (1.09%) Juniper
12 8 (1.09%) Palo Alto
13 7 (0.96%) Red Hat