Microsoft Contracts 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 28 June 2025, 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
28 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 6 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 507 795 869
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 16.32% 13.94% 15.19%
As % of the Vendors category 30.45% 29.64% 29.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 336 512 570
10th Percentile £200 £200 £185
25th Percentile £293 £355 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £475 £465
Median % change year-on-year -1.33% +2.15% +3.33%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £623 £675 £676
England median daily rate £475 £498 £500
% change year-on-year -4.52% -0.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 77 37
10th Percentile £14.02 £11.71 £14.00
25th Percentile £14.20 £12.00 £15.50
Median hourly rate £14.90 £22.58 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.01% +18.84% +17.94%
75th Percentile £30.06 £58.49 £43.75
90th Percentile £32.72 £61.60 £66.20
England median hourly rate £22.32 £16.00 £22.00
% change year-on-year +39.47% -27.27% +25.71%

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 1,665 2,682 2,909
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 53.61% 47.04% 50.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,088 1,572 1,953
10th Percentile £220 £243 £205
25th Percentile £375 £400 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £511 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.06% +2.10% -
75th Percentile £600 £608 £600
90th Percentile £656 £700 £688
England median daily rate £513 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -1.44% -0.95% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 102 194 127
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.08 £15.50
25th Percentile £15.41 £17.61 £18.50
Median hourly rate £23.25 £47.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -51.05% +5.56% +130.65%
75th Percentile £44.33 £61.30 £60.31
90th Percentile £69.44 £70.00 £72.88
England median hourly rate £26.50 £24.47 £32.50
% change year-on-year +8.32% -24.72% +51.16%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Microsoft as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 28 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 28 June 2025.

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 28 June 2025. 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 0 264 £450 -6.25% 415
Berkshire -2 169 £478 -5.68% 225
Hampshire +3 132 £523 -12.92% 226
Buckinghamshire +2 55 £450 +3.45% 115
Oxfordshire 0 40 £250 -33.33% 87
Kent +3 38 £336 +15.95% 90
Surrey -4 34 £250 -37.50% 156
West Sussex -2 26 £255 -43.33% 57
East Sussex +1 8 £619 +65.00% 41
Home Counties +1 2 £550 +15.79%
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 58 (11.44%) SharePoint
2 53 (10.45%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (2.96%) Confluence
4 14 (2.76%) IBM Domino
5 8 (1.58%) Apache
6 7 (1.38%) IIS
7 6 (1.18%) CMS
7 6 (1.18%) Exchange Server 2003
7 6 (1.18%) Exchange Server 2007
7 6 (1.18%) Exchange Server 2010
7 6 (1.18%) Exchange Server 2013
7 6 (1.18%) Office Communications Server
7 6 (1.18%) SharePoint Server
7 6 (1.18%) Skype for Business
8 5 (0.99%) BizTalk Server
9 4 (0.79%) Drupal
9 4 (0.79%) WordPress
10 3 (0.59%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.59%) Mule
10 3 (0.59%) Mule ESB
Applications
1 76 (14.99%) Microsoft Office
2 51 (10.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (3.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (1.38%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (1.38%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.20%) CATIA
5 1 (0.20%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (1.58%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.79%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 2 (0.39%) SAP ECC
4 1 (0.20%) BPCS
4 1 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle ASCP
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle BPM
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle Payroll
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle SCM
4 1 (0.20%) Remedy AR System
4 1 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.20%) SAP CO
4 1 (0.20%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.20%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.20%) SAP GTS
4 1 (0.20%) SAP Payroll
4 1 (0.20%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 160 (31.56%) Azure
2 126 (24.85%) Microsoft 365
3 53 (10.45%) Power Platform
4 35 (6.90%) Azure DevOps
5 34 (6.71%) Entra ID
6 33 (6.51%) AWS
7 25 (4.93%) Dynamics 365
7 25 (4.93%) IaaS
8 20 (3.94%) PaaS
9 14 (2.76%) SaaS
10 12 (2.37%) Microsoft Copilot
10 12 (2.37%) PowerApps
11 10 (1.97%) Azure AKS
11 10 (1.97%) GitHub
11 10 (1.97%) OpenShift
12 9 (1.78%) GCP
13 8 (1.58%) Azure Monitor
13 8 (1.58%) OneDrive
13 8 (1.58%) Power Automate
14 7 (1.38%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 66 (13.02%) Firewall
2 48 (9.47%) VPN
3 35 (6.90%) DNS
4 34 (6.71%) SAN
5 29 (5.72%) DHCP
6 21 (4.14%) WAN
7 19 (3.75%) Internet
7 19 (3.75%) LAN
8 17 (3.35%) Fibre Channel
8 17 (3.35%) MPLS
9 16 (3.16%) Ethernet
9 16 (3.16%) Wireshark
10 15 (2.96%) ATM
10 15 (2.96%) Frame Relay
10 15 (2.96%) GPRS
10 15 (2.96%) GSM
10 15 (2.96%) LTE
10 15 (2.96%) Network Security
10 15 (2.96%) SDH
10 15 (2.96%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (7.30%) SQL Server
2 36 (7.10%) Power BI
3 18 (3.55%) Big Data
4 12 (2.37%) Relational Database
5 11 (2.17%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (1.97%) Amazon RDS
6 10 (1.97%) Azure SQL Database
6 10 (1.97%) Metadata
7 8 (1.58%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (0.99%) Data Lake
8 5 (0.99%) MySQL
8 5 (0.99%) Oracle Database
8 5 (0.99%) Power Query
9 4 (0.79%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.79%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.59%) Crystal Reports
10 3 (0.59%) GIS
10 3 (0.59%) MS Access
10 3 (0.59%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 25 (4.93%) JIRA
2 16 (3.16%) MSI
3 14 (2.76%) Git
4 12 (2.37%) Visual Studio
5 7 (1.38%) Jenkins
6 5 (0.99%) ERwin
6 5 (0.99%) PowerDesigner
7 4 (0.79%) Bitbucket Server
7 4 (0.79%) Robot Framework
7 4 (0.79%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.59%) Postman
8 3 (0.59%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.39%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.39%) Moq
9 2 (0.39%) QARun
9 2 (0.39%) Team Foundation Server
9 2 (0.39%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.39%) Toad
9 2 (0.39%) Vite
9 2 (0.39%) WinRunner
General
1 190 (37.48%) Social Skills
2 65 (12.82%) Finance
3 60 (11.83%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (8.88%) Telecoms
5 34 (6.71%) Public Sector
6 24 (4.73%) Organisational Skills
7 15 (2.96%) Manufacturing
8 14 (2.76%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (2.76%) Games
9 12 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 11 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
11 10 (1.97%) Automotive
12 9 (1.78%) Marketing
13 5 (0.99%) Billing
13 5 (0.99%) Legal
14 3 (0.59%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.59%) Electronics
14 3 (0.59%) Law
14 3 (0.59%) Military
14 3 (0.59%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 73 (14.40%) Analyst
2 50 (9.86%) Support Engineer
3 43 (8.48%) Architect
3 43 (8.48%) Developer
4 30 (5.92%) Consultant
5 29 (5.72%) Senior
6 25 (4.93%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 24 (4.73%) 2nd Line Support
7 24 (4.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 24 (4.73%) IT Support
8 19 (3.75%) Azure Engineer
8 19 (3.75%) Platform Engineer
9 18 (3.55%) 3rd Line Support
9 18 (3.55%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 18 (3.55%) Support Analyst
10 16 (3.16%) Desktop Engineer
10 16 (3.16%) Desktop Support
10 16 (3.16%) Infrastructure Architect
10 16 (3.16%) Service Analyst
11 14 (2.76%) IP Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (3.94%) .NET
2 14 (2.76%) Web Services
3 12 (2.37%) HTML
4 11 (2.17%) CSS
4 11 (2.17%) JSON
4 11 (2.17%) SOAP
5 10 (1.97%) AngularJS
6 9 (1.78%) .NET Core
6 9 (1.78%) React
6 9 (1.78%) XML
7 8 (1.58%) OAuth
7 8 (1.58%) RESTful
8 7 (1.38%) REST
9 6 (1.18%) SAML
10 5 (0.99%) .NET Framework
10 5 (0.99%) ADO
10 5 (0.99%) ARM Templates
10 5 (0.99%) jQuery
10 5 (0.99%) Middleware
10 5 (0.99%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 30 (5.92%) Self-Motivation
2 22 (4.34%) PKI
3 21 (4.14%) Onboarding
4 14 (2.76%) Clustering
5 13 (2.56%) Data Centre
6 10 (1.97%) Product Ownership
6 10 (1.97%) Replication
7 9 (1.78%) Management Information System
7 9 (1.78%) Security Posture
7 9 (1.78%) Video Conferencing
8 7 (1.38%) Cloud Native
8 7 (1.38%) Driving Licence
8 7 (1.38%) Hybrid Cloud
8 7 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
9 6 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (1.18%) Life Science
9 6 (1.18%) Operational Technology
9 6 (1.18%) Renewable Energy
10 5 (0.99%) Low-Code
11 4 (0.79%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 185 (36.49%) Windows
2 54 (10.65%) Windows Server
3 48 (9.47%) Linux
4 31 (6.11%) Windows 10
5 23 (4.54%) Unix
6 21 (4.14%) Mac OS
7 19 (3.75%) Android
8 18 (3.55%) Windows Server 2019
9 13 (2.56%) Windows Server 2003
10 6 (1.18%) Apple iOS
10 6 (1.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 5 (0.99%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.99%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.79%) CentOS
13 3 (0.59%) Windows 7
14 2 (0.39%) Debian
14 2 (0.39%) Windows Server 2012
15 1 (0.20%) VMS
15 1 (0.20%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (26.23%) Problem-Solving
2 71 (14.00%) DevOps
3 64 (12.62%) Agile
4 63 (12.43%) Migration
5 57 (11.24%) ITIL
6 47 (9.27%) Business Intelligence
7 41 (8.09%) Customer Service
7 41 (8.09%) Cybersecurity
8 40 (7.89%) Project Management
9 31 (6.11%) Analytics
9 31 (6.11%) Continuous Improvement
10 28 (5.52%) Stakeholder Management
11 27 (5.33%) CI/CD
12 26 (5.13%) Collaborative Working
12 26 (5.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 25 (4.93%) Change Management
14 24 (4.73%) Infrastructure as Code
15 22 (4.34%) Data Modelling
16 21 (4.14%) ERP
16 21 (4.14%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 86 (16.96%) PowerShell
2 80 (15.78%) SQL
3 41 (8.09%) C#
4 38 (7.50%) Python
5 37 (7.30%) Java
6 18 (3.55%) JavaScript
7 15 (2.96%) VB
8 11 (2.17%) Bash
8 11 (2.17%) Bicep
9 9 (1.78%) PL/SQL
10 8 (1.58%) PHP
10 8 (1.58%) TypeScript
11 7 (1.38%) Delphi
12 5 (0.99%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.79%) R
14 3 (0.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 3 (0.59%) DataWeave
14 3 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
14 3 (0.59%) VBA
14 3 (0.59%) X++
Qualifications
1 98 (19.33%) Security Cleared
2 56 (11.05%) Degree
3 51 (10.06%) SC Cleared
4 40 (7.89%) DV Cleared
5 35 (6.90%) Microsoft Certification
6 19 (3.75%) Cisco Certification
7 18 (3.55%) CCNP
8 16 (3.16%) ISEB
8 16 (3.16%) ISTQB
8 16 (3.16%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 13 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
9 13 (2.56%) MCSE
10 11 (2.17%) A+ Certification
10 11 (2.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 10 (1.97%) VCP5
11 10 (1.97%) VCP6
12 8 (1.58%) CISSP
13 7 (1.38%) Azure Certification
13 7 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
14 5 (0.99%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.76%) SLA
2 13 (2.56%) GDPR
3 9 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (1.58%) Data Quality
5 6 (1.18%) HIPAA
5 6 (1.18%) NIST
6 5 (0.99%) PMO
7 4 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.79%) QA
8 3 (0.59%) ECSS
8 3 (0.59%) ISO 9001
8 3 (0.59%) NCSC
9 2 (0.39%) GRC
9 2 (0.39%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.39%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.20%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.20%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.20%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 132 (26.04%) Active Directory
2 45 (8.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (5.33%) vSphere
4 22 (4.34%) VMware ESXi
5 15 (2.96%) Hyper-V
6 12 (2.37%) Docker
6 12 (2.37%) NFS
7 9 (1.78%) DFS Replication
7 9 (1.78%) Terminal Services
8 8 (1.58%) BitLocker
8 8 (1.58%) Microsoft App-V
9 7 (1.38%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (1.18%) Brightmail
10 6 (1.18%) ISA Server
10 6 (1.18%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (1.18%) XenApp
11 5 (0.99%) XenDesktop
12 1 (0.20%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 51 (10.06%) Microsoft Intune
2 42 (8.28%) SCCM
3 31 (6.11%) Terraform
4 24 (4.73%) Ansible
5 19 (3.75%) Kubernetes
6 11 (2.17%) Puppet
7 10 (1.97%) Microsoft Clustering
8 9 (1.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 8 (1.58%) Nagios
9 8 (1.58%) SCOM
9 8 (1.58%) vCenter Server
9 8 (1.58%) vMotion
10 7 (1.38%) WMI
11 5 (0.99%) WSUS
12 4 (0.79%) Prometheus
12 4 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (0.59%) CloudHub
13 3 (0.59%) Grafana
14 2 (0.39%) Malwarebytes
14 2 (0.39%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 56 (11.05%) VMware
2 41 (8.09%) Cisco
3 37 (7.30%) Citrix
4 34 (6.71%) Splunk
5 31 (6.11%) ServiceNow
6 27 (5.33%) SAP
7 20 (3.94%) Oracle
8 16 (3.16%) Meraki
9 15 (2.96%) Juniper
10 14 (2.76%) Google
11 13 (2.56%) HP
11 13 (2.56%) NetApp
11 13 (2.56%) Sage
11 13 (2.56%) Veeam
12 12 (2.37%) Salesforce
13 11 (2.17%) Symantec
14 8 (1.58%) Databricks
15 7 (1.38%) CyberArk
15 7 (1.38%) Dell
16 6 (1.18%) Red Hat