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 6 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
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 6 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 688 460 812
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 11.44% 15.58% 14.38%
As % of the Vendors category 27.70% 29.41% 30.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 463 312 524
10th Percentile £202 £206 £200
25th Percentile £363 £284 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £456 £465
Median % change year-on-year +4.11% -1.88% +3.33%
75th Percentile £575 £550 £588
90th Percentile £644 £615 £675
England median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 30 75
10th Percentile £12.78 £14.09 £11.71
25th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £12.00
Median hourly rate £29.07 £14.90 £23.22
Median % change year-on-year +95.10% -35.82% +23.81%
75th Percentile £53.75 £27.56 £58.49
90th Percentile £109.65 £32.08 £61.60
England median hourly rate £21.00 £18.87 £15.00
% change year-on-year +11.29% +25.80% -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 2,484 1,564 2,645
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 41.32% 52.98% 46.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,664 1,051 1,564
10th Percentile £300 £220 £232
25th Percentile £413 £378 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% - -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £694 £660 £688
England median daily rate £505 £515 £515
% change year-on-year -1.94% - -2.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 174 85 190
10th Percentile £15.66 £14.20 £12.00
25th Percentile £21.28 £15.56 £17.03
Median hourly rate £47.50 £24.66 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +92.62% -48.08% -
75th Percentile £84.69 £53.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £70.75 £68.88
England median hourly rate £33.99 £27.40 £23.80
% change year-on-year +24.03% +15.13% -39.82%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 0 354 £476 +5.83% 283
Berkshire -5 187 £490 +2.62% 121
Hampshire -9 135 £531 +4.68% 151
Surrey +7 105 £438 +29.63% 95
Buckinghamshire -5 97 £500 +5.26% 97
Oxfordshire -2 70 £433 +73.00% 71
West Sussex -2 47 £475 +44.82% 51
Kent -3 23 £275 -11.65% 68
East Sussex -4 8 £600 - 26
Home Counties +2 4 - - 1
Sussex - 1 - - 18
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 77 (11.19%) SharePoint
2 67 (9.74%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (2.18%) Confluence
4 3 (0.44%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.44%) MS Project Server
4 3 (0.44%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.29%) GeoServer
6 1 (0.15%) Apache
6 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.15%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.15%) IIS
6 1 (0.15%) nginx
6 1 (0.15%) SharePoint 2010
6 1 (0.15%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.15%) Tomcat
Applications
1 74 (10.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 70 (10.17%) Microsoft Office
3 29 (4.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 27 (3.92%) Microsoft Project
5 11 (1.60%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.29%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.15%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.15%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.15%) InDesign
7 1 (0.15%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.15%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 12 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.58%) NEC Housing
2 4 (0.58%) SAP Business One
3 3 (0.44%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.15%) iTrent
5 1 (0.15%) SAP PSCD
5 1 (0.15%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 1 (0.15%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 270 (39.24%) Azure
2 180 (26.16%) Microsoft 365
3 127 (18.46%) Entra ID
4 83 (12.06%) Power Platform
5 58 (8.43%) AWS
6 40 (5.81%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (4.51%) Dynamics 365
7 31 (4.51%) Power Automate
8 27 (3.92%) OneDrive
9 26 (3.78%) SaaS
10 21 (3.05%) Microsoft Purview
10 21 (3.05%) PowerApps
11 19 (2.76%) IaaS
12 18 (2.62%) Microsoft Copilot
13 17 (2.47%) Azure Logic Apps
13 17 (2.47%) GitHub
13 17 (2.47%) Serverless
14 16 (2.33%) Azure Functions
14 16 (2.33%) Azure Monitor
15 13 (1.89%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 63 (9.16%) DNS
2 45 (6.54%) DHCP
3 32 (4.65%) Wi-Fi
4 29 (4.22%) Firewall
5 25 (3.63%) VPN
6 22 (3.20%) LAN
7 16 (2.33%) WAN
8 12 (1.74%) Kerberos
9 11 (1.60%) TCP/IP
10 10 (1.45%) SD-WAN
11 9 (1.31%) MPLS
11 9 (1.31%) Unified Communications
12 8 (1.16%) Network Security
13 7 (1.02%) VLAN
14 6 (0.87%) IPsec
15 5 (0.73%) BGP
15 5 (0.73%) SAN
15 5 (0.73%) VSAN
15 5 (0.73%) Wireless
16 4 (0.58%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (9.45%) Power BI
2 28 (4.07%) SQL Server
3 14 (2.03%) MySQL
4 11 (1.60%) Azure SQL Database
4 11 (1.60%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (1.16%) Relational Database
6 6 (0.87%) Data Lake
6 6 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (0.87%) Metadata
6 6 (0.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 5 (0.73%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 4 (0.58%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.44%) Data Mining
9 3 (0.44%) GIS
9 3 (0.44%) MS Access
9 3 (0.44%) Star Schema
10 2 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.29%) Oracle Reports
10 2 (0.29%) Spatial Data
10 2 (0.29%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 22 (3.20%) JIRA
2 11 (1.60%) Git
3 7 (1.02%) Android Studio
4 5 (0.73%) Browser DevTools
4 5 (0.73%) Eclipse
4 5 (0.73%) Xcode
5 3 (0.44%) Gradle
5 3 (0.44%) JUnit
5 3 (0.44%) Maven
5 3 (0.44%) MSI
5 3 (0.44%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.29%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.29%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.29%) Subversion
7 1 (0.15%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.15%) ERwin
7 1 (0.15%) NUnit
7 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 196 (28.49%) Social Skills
2 63 (9.16%) Analytical Skills
3 62 (9.01%) Finance
3 62 (9.01%) Public Sector
4 42 (6.10%) Organisational Skills
5 26 (3.78%) Legal
6 18 (2.62%) Documentation Skills
7 17 (2.47%) Aerospace
8 16 (2.33%) Military
9 12 (1.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 11 (1.60%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.02%) Local Government
11 7 (1.02%) Retail
12 6 (0.87%) Marketing
13 5 (0.73%) Aviation
13 5 (0.73%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.73%) Manufacturing
13 5 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
14 4 (0.58%) Advertising
14 4 (0.58%) Police
Job Titles
1 81 (11.77%) Architect
2 70 (10.17%) IT Support
3 64 (9.30%) Analyst
4 56 (8.14%) Senior
5 51 (7.41%) Support Engineer
6 48 (6.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 44 (6.40%) IT Engineer
8 41 (5.96%) Lead
9 38 (5.52%) Consultant
10 36 (5.23%) IT Support Engineer
11 33 (4.80%) Developer
12 24 (3.49%) Azure Engineer
13 23 (3.34%) Administrator
14 21 (3.05%) IT Analyst
14 21 (3.05%) Project Manager
14 21 (3.05%) Solutions Architect
15 19 (2.76%) Microsoft Engineer
16 18 (2.62%) Support Analyst
17 17 (2.47%) 3rd Line Engineer
18 16 (2.33%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (4.22%) .NET
2 25 (3.63%) LDAP
3 22 (3.20%) OAuth
4 21 (3.05%) SAML
5 20 (2.91%) OpenID
6 16 (2.33%) REST
7 15 (2.18%) OAuth2
7 15 (2.18%) Web Services
8 12 (1.74%) SailPoint
9 11 (1.60%) Microsoft Graph
10 10 (1.45%) React
11 9 (1.31%) AngularJS
11 9 (1.31%) ARM Templates
11 9 (1.31%) CSS
11 9 (1.31%) JSON
12 8 (1.16%) XML
13 6 (0.87%) ADO
13 6 (0.87%) GraphQL
13 6 (0.87%) Software Packaging
14 5 (0.73%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 46 (6.69%) Onboarding
2 27 (3.92%) PKI
3 25 (3.63%) Product Ownership
4 23 (3.34%) Data Centre
5 20 (2.91%) Cloud Native
6 18 (2.62%) Legacy Systems
7 17 (2.47%) Hybrid Cloud
8 15 (2.18%) Public Cloud
8 15 (2.18%) Replication
9 12 (1.74%) Operational Technology
10 11 (1.60%) Driving Licence
10 11 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
12 8 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (1.16%) Cyber Defence
12 8 (1.16%) Security Posture
12 8 (1.16%) Virtual Team
13 7 (1.02%) CMDB
13 7 (1.02%) Mobile App
14 6 (0.87%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 200 (29.07%) Windows
2 63 (9.16%) Windows Server
3 58 (8.43%) Linux
4 27 (3.92%) Windows 10
5 22 (3.20%) Mac OS
6 17 (2.47%) Apple iOS
7 14 (2.03%) Android
8 13 (1.89%) Unix
9 10 (1.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 9 (1.31%) Windows Server 2019
11 8 (1.16%) Windows 7
12 7 (1.02%) Windows Server 2016
13 6 (0.87%) Windows Server 2012
14 4 (0.58%) CentOS
14 4 (0.58%) Ubuntu
15 1 (0.15%) OpenVMS
15 1 (0.15%) VMS
15 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (15.26%) Problem-Solving
2 86 (12.50%) DevOps
3 83 (12.06%) Agile
4 82 (11.92%) Customer Service
5 78 (11.34%) ITIL
6 70 (10.17%) Migration
7 69 (10.03%) Business Intelligence
8 68 (9.88%) CI/CD
9 62 (9.01%) Cybersecurity
9 62 (9.01%) Stakeholder Management
10 56 (8.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 55 (7.99%) Analytics
12 53 (7.70%) ITSM
13 50 (7.27%) Project Delivery
14 49 (7.12%) Project Management
15 45 (6.54%) Decision-Making
15 45 (6.54%) Roadmaps
16 44 (6.40%) User Experience
17 41 (5.96%) Continuous Improvement
17 41 (5.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 101 (14.68%) PowerShell
2 60 (8.72%) Python
3 59 (8.58%) SQL
4 29 (4.22%) T-SQL
5 20 (2.91%) C#
6 16 (2.33%) JavaScript
7 14 (2.03%) Java
8 13 (1.89%) Bash
9 10 (1.45%) Bicep
10 8 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 7 (1.02%) Kusto Query Language
12 5 (0.73%) Perl
13 4 (0.58%) X++
14 3 (0.44%) TypeScript
15 2 (0.29%) Korn
16 1 (0.15%) Google Apps Script
16 1 (0.15%) PL/SQL
16 1 (0.15%) Shell Script
16 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 244 (35.47%) Security Cleared
2 174 (25.29%) SC Cleared
3 78 (11.34%) Degree
4 69 (10.03%) DV Cleared
5 27 (3.92%) Microsoft Certification
6 21 (3.05%) Azure Certification
7 14 (2.03%) CISSP
8 12 (1.74%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (1.60%) GIAC
10 10 (1.45%) CISM
11 9 (1.31%) BPSS Clearance
11 9 (1.31%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.87%) AWS Certification
12 6 (0.87%) MCSA
12 6 (0.87%) MCSE
12 6 (0.87%) PMI Certification
12 6 (0.87%) PMP
13 5 (0.73%) CCNP
13 5 (0.73%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (4.80%) NIST
2 28 (4.07%) SLA
3 26 (3.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 25 (3.63%) GDPR
5 23 (3.34%) NCSC
6 20 (2.91%) Cyber Essentials
7 18 (2.62%) Data Quality
7 18 (2.62%) PMO
8 13 (1.89%) QA
9 6 (0.87%) ISO 31000
9 6 (0.87%) NIST 800
10 4 (0.58%) Accessibility
10 4 (0.58%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.15%) GRC
12 1 (0.15%) ISO 9001
12 1 (0.15%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 210 (30.52%) Active Directory
2 69 (10.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (3.63%) Hyper-V
4 19 (2.76%) vSphere
5 15 (2.18%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (2.03%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (1.45%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (1.45%) VMware NSX
8 9 (1.31%) Docker
9 5 (0.73%) Firmware
10 3 (0.44%) DFS Replication
11 2 (0.29%) UAG
12 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.15%) Dovecot
12 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.15%) Postfix
12 1 (0.15%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 63 (9.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (4.36%) Terraform
3 28 (4.07%) SCCM
4 23 (3.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 18 (2.62%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (2.47%) SCOM
7 15 (2.18%) vCenter Server
8 11 (1.60%) Jamf Pro
8 11 (1.60%) Kubernetes
9 10 (1.45%) Ansible
10 8 (1.16%) Avamar
11 4 (0.58%) QRadar
11 4 (0.58%) WMI
12 3 (0.44%) Clonezilla
12 3 (0.44%) Nessus
12 3 (0.44%) SCSM
13 2 (0.29%) Oracle RMAN
13 2 (0.29%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.29%) vMotion
13 2 (0.29%) WSUS
Vendors
1 81 (11.77%) VMware
2 34 (4.94%) Cisco
3 30 (4.36%) SAP
4 28 (4.07%) ServiceNow
5 18 (2.62%) Meraki
6 16 (2.33%) Citrix
7 14 (2.03%) Databricks
7 14 (2.03%) Dell
7 14 (2.03%) Oracle
8 13 (1.89%) Thales
9 11 (1.60%) SolarWinds
9 11 (1.60%) Splunk
10 10 (1.45%) Avaya
10 10 (1.45%) Fortinet
11 9 (1.31%) Google
11 9 (1.31%) Mitel
12 8 (1.16%) F5
12 8 (1.16%) Juniper
13 7 (1.02%) Red Hat
13 7 (1.02%) Veeam