Azure Contract Job Trends in the South West

Microsoft Azure
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Azure skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 11 9
Rank change year-on-year +7 -2 -2
Contract jobs citing Azure 429 216 367
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.04% 12.27% 11.17%
As % of the Cloud Services category 45.74% 39.56% 43.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 168 284
10th Percentile £363 £311 £283
25th Percentile £431 £372 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £503 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.98% +0.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £613 £623 £594
90th Percentile £727 £715 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £540
% change year-on-year - -2.78% -3.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 5 0
10th Percentile - £18.70 -
25th Percentile £56.25 £25.00 -
Median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -11.54% - -
75th Percentile £58.75 £77.50 -
90th Percentile - £78.22 -
England median hourly rate £57.50 £43.23 £36.75
% change year-on-year +33.02% +17.62% -41.67%

All Cloud Computing Skills
South West

Azure falls under the Cloud Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring cloud computing skills in the South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for cloud computing skills 938 546 840
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 26.33% 31.02% 25.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 590 392 599
10th Percentile £305 £221 £215
25th Percentile £413 £355 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £503
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.57% -8.55%
75th Percentile £613 £606 £600
90th Percentile £700 £675 £675
England median daily rate £515 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +0.34% -2.24% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 37 50
10th Percentile £14.25 £18.13 £13.74
25th Percentile £17.75 £18.51 £14.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £18.87 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year +204.72% -72.55% +30.95%
75th Percentile £58.75 £34.50 £70.00
90th Percentile - £37.50 -
England median hourly rate £42.69 £25.15 £22.00
% change year-on-year +69.72% +14.32% -31.89%

Azure
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Azure relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Azure job vacancy trend in the South West

Azure
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Azure.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Azure

Azure
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Azure in the South West over the 6 months to 26 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Azure in the South West

Azure
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Azure.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Azure

Azure
Contract Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Azure within the South West region over the 6 months to 26 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
Somerset +3 117 £501 +0.10% 42
Bristol +3 109 £550 +25.71% 54
Gloucestershire 0 58 £450 -26.53% 47
Devon +6 48 £513 -1.27% 31
Wiltshire +2 46 £500 -12.09% 30
Dorset +2 31 £675 +54.29% 14
Azure
England

Azure
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 22 (5.13%) SharePoint
2 11 (2.56%) Confluence
2 11 (2.56%) IIS
3 8 (1.86%) Apache Spark
4 6 (1.40%) Apache
5 3 (0.70%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.47%) nginx
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.23%) ColdFusion
7 1 (0.23%) Oracle Coherence
7 1 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 4 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.70%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.23%) InDesign
3 1 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.23%) PTC Creo
3 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.23%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (0.93%) Maximo
2 2 (0.47%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.23%) SAP EHS
3 1 (0.23%) SAP Hybris
3 1 (0.23%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.23%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 164 (38.23%) AWS
2 65 (15.15%) Azure DevOps
3 62 (14.45%) GCP
4 55 (12.82%) Entra ID
5 29 (6.76%) GitHub
5 29 (6.76%) Microsoft 365
5 29 (6.76%) Power Platform
6 19 (4.43%) Azure Data Factory
7 18 (4.20%) Azure Monitor
8 16 (3.73%) Azure Key Vault
9 15 (3.50%) Serverless
10 14 (3.26%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (3.03%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 11 (2.56%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 11 (2.56%) Cloud Computing
13 10 (2.33%) Azure Sentinel
14 9 (2.10%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 9 (2.10%) OpenShift
14 9 (2.10%) SaaS
15 8 (1.86%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 20 (4.66%) Firewall
2 16 (3.73%) DNS
3 13 (3.03%) VPN
3 13 (3.03%) WAN
4 7 (1.63%) DHCP
5 6 (1.40%) BGP
5 6 (1.40%) TCP/IP
6 5 (1.17%) SAN
7 4 (0.93%) NAS
7 4 (0.93%) VLAN
8 3 (0.70%) LAN
8 3 (0.70%) Network Security
9 2 (0.47%) Reverse Proxy
9 2 (0.47%) SSL
10 1 (0.23%) AMQP
10 1 (0.23%) DMVPN
10 1 (0.23%) Intrusion Detection
10 1 (0.23%) IPsec
10 1 (0.23%) SSH
10 1 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (6.29%) SQL Server
2 26 (6.06%) Power BI
3 15 (3.50%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (3.50%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (2.80%) Azure SQL Database
5 8 (1.86%) Data Lake
6 7 (1.63%) Geospatial Data
6 7 (1.63%) MongoDB
6 7 (1.63%) Oracle Database
7 6 (1.40%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (1.40%) NoSQL
8 5 (1.17%) Delta Lake
8 5 (1.17%) Metadata
9 4 (0.93%) Big Data
9 4 (0.93%) Redis
9 4 (0.93%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.93%) Star Schema
10 3 (0.70%) GIS
10 3 (0.70%) Power Query
10 3 (0.70%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 26 (6.06%) Git
2 24 (5.59%) JIRA
3 21 (4.90%) GitLab
4 13 (3.03%) Jenkins
5 6 (1.40%) MSI
6 3 (0.70%) AdminStudio
6 3 (0.70%) InstallShield
6 3 (0.70%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.47%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.47%) MLflow
7 2 (0.47%) Spinnaker
7 2 (0.47%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.47%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.23%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.23%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.23%) Gradle
8 1 (0.23%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.23%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.23%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.23%) webpack
General
1 65 (15.15%) Social Skills
2 31 (7.23%) Public Sector
3 26 (6.06%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (4.66%) Finance
5 15 (3.50%) Legal
6 9 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.40%) Banking
8 6 (1.40%) Military
8 6 (1.40%) Organisational Skills
9 5 (1.17%) Local Government
9 5 (1.17%) Marketing
10 3 (0.70%) Investment Banking
10 3 (0.70%) Police
10 3 (0.70%) Retail
11 2 (0.47%) Advertising
11 2 (0.47%) Publishing
12 1 (0.23%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.23%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 66 (15.38%) Consultant
2 59 (13.75%) Architect
3 40 (9.32%) Implementation Consultant
4 33 (7.69%) Developer
4 33 (7.69%) Lead
5 27 (6.29%) Product Manager
6 26 (6.06%) Data Engineer
6 26 (6.06%) DevOps Engineer
7 24 (5.59%) Azure Engineer
7 24 (5.59%) Digital Product Manager
7 24 (5.59%) Senior
8 20 (4.66%) Technical Architect
9 16 (3.73%) Azure Specialist
10 15 (3.50%) Support Engineer
11 14 (3.26%) Azure Architect
11 14 (3.26%) Solutions Architect
12 13 (3.03%) Analyst
12 13 (3.03%) Azure Consultant
12 13 (3.03%) Data Architect
12 13 (3.03%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (8.62%) .NET
2 23 (5.36%) .NET Framework
3 18 (4.20%) REST
4 14 (3.26%) RESTful
5 12 (2.80%) React
6 11 (2.56%) Kafka
6 11 (2.56%) SailPoint
7 10 (2.33%) LDAP
8 9 (2.10%) .NET Core
8 9 (2.10%) Node.js
9 8 (1.86%) GeoJSON
9 8 (1.86%) GraphQL
9 8 (1.86%) Playwright
9 8 (1.86%) Spring Boot
10 7 (1.63%) PySpark
10 7 (1.63%) RabbitMQ
11 6 (1.40%) ATL
11 6 (1.40%) MFC
11 6 (1.40%) Spring
11 6 (1.40%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 45 (10.49%) Cloud Native
2 36 (8.39%) Legacy Systems
3 19 (4.43%) Onboarding
3 19 (4.43%) Product Ownership
3 19 (4.43%) Public Cloud
4 18 (4.20%) Enterprise Software
5 17 (3.96%) Hybrid Cloud
6 11 (2.56%) Data Structures
6 11 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (1.40%) Data Centre
7 6 (1.40%) Legacy Code
7 6 (1.40%) Linux Command Line
8 4 (0.93%) Augmented Reality
8 4 (0.93%) Enterprise Cloud
8 4 (0.93%) Legacy Applications
8 4 (0.93%) Management Information System
8 4 (0.93%) Virtual Reality
8 4 (0.93%) Wiki
9 3 (0.70%) Distributed Systems
9 3 (0.70%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 64 (14.92%) Windows
2 32 (7.46%) Linux
3 20 (4.66%) Windows Server
4 17 (3.96%) Windows 10
5 8 (1.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (1.40%) Android
7 5 (1.17%) Rocky
7 5 (1.17%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.93%) Debian
9 3 (0.70%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.70%) Unix
10 2 (0.47%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.47%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.23%) CentOS
11 1 (0.23%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (27.51%) DevOps
2 108 (25.17%) Agile
3 95 (22.14%) CI/CD
4 57 (13.29%) Infrastructure as Code
5 54 (12.59%) Roadmaps
6 47 (10.96%) Analytics
6 47 (10.96%) Continuous Improvement
6 47 (10.96%) ERP
7 46 (10.72%) Containerisation
7 46 (10.72%) Problem-Solving
8 44 (10.26%) Migration
9 43 (10.02%) Data Modelling
10 41 (9.56%) PLM
11 37 (8.62%) Microservices
12 35 (8.16%) Stakeholder Management
13 34 (7.93%) Decision-Making
14 33 (7.69%) Technical Leadership
15 32 (7.46%) Business Intelligence
16 31 (7.23%) Data Pipeline
17 30 (6.99%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 69 (16.08%) SQL
2 63 (14.69%) Python
3 35 (8.16%) PowerShell
4 25 (5.83%) Java
5 22 (5.13%) C#
6 18 (4.20%) Bash
6 18 (4.20%) JavaScript
7 16 (3.73%) Go
8 14 (3.26%) TypeScript
9 13 (3.03%) Bicep
10 5 (1.17%) BeanShell
10 5 (1.17%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 4 (0.93%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.70%) C++
12 3 (0.70%) R
13 2 (0.47%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.47%) Scala
13 2 (0.47%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.23%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 178 (41.49%) Security Cleared
2 136 (31.70%) SC Cleared
3 44 (10.26%) DV Cleared
4 21 (4.90%) Degree
5 16 (3.73%) Azure Certification
6 14 (3.26%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (2.33%) CISSP
8 8 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (1.86%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.40%) CISM
11 5 (1.17%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (0.93%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (0.70%) ACSP
13 3 (0.70%) ISTQB
13 3 (0.70%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 3 (0.70%) ITIL Certification
14 2 (0.47%) A+ Certification
14 2 (0.47%) AWS Certification
14 2 (0.47%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (6.29%) QA
2 22 (5.13%) Data Quality
3 13 (3.03%) GDPR
4 12 (2.80%) NCSC
5 8 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (1.86%) SLA
6 6 (1.40%) Accessibility
6 6 (1.40%) NIST
7 5 (1.17%) WCAG
8 4 (0.93%) ISO 9000
8 4 (0.93%) NIST 800
9 3 (0.70%) SNOMED CT
10 2 (0.47%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.47%) HL7
11 1 (0.23%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.23%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.23%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.23%) PMO
System Software
1 58 (13.52%) Active Directory
2 43 (10.02%) Docker
3 18 (4.20%) Virtual Desktop
4 13 (3.03%) VMware Infrastructure
5 9 (2.10%) Hyper-V
6 7 (1.63%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.93%) vSphere
8 2 (0.47%) KVM
8 2 (0.47%) VirtualBox
8 2 (0.47%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.23%) NFS
9 1 (0.23%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 67 (15.62%) Kubernetes
2 60 (13.99%) Terraform
3 26 (6.06%) Microsoft Intune
4 23 (5.36%) Ansible
5 15 (3.50%) Grafana
6 14 (3.26%) Prometheus
7 11 (2.56%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (2.33%) Argo
9 6 (1.40%) FortiGate
9 6 (1.40%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 4 (0.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (0.93%) Istio
10 4 (0.93%) SCCM
11 3 (0.70%) OPNET
11 3 (0.70%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.47%) Cilium
12 2 (0.47%) Data Guard
12 2 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
12 2 (0.47%) Podman
12 2 (0.47%) Puppet
Vendors
1 151 (35.20%) Microsoft
2 40 (9.32%) Siemens
3 20 (4.66%) Databricks
4 18 (4.20%) Oracle
5 14 (3.26%) VMware
6 12 (2.80%) Google
7 8 (1.86%) SAP
8 7 (1.63%) CyberArk
8 7 (1.63%) InterSystems
8 7 (1.63%) Starlink
9 6 (1.40%) McAfee
9 6 (1.40%) Red Hat
10 5 (1.17%) Dynatrace
10 5 (1.17%) IBM
10 5 (1.17%) NetApp
10 5 (1.17%) Splunk
10 5 (1.17%) Zscaler
11 4 (0.93%) Apple
11 4 (0.93%) Cisco
11 4 (0.93%) MuleSoft