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 5 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 10 9
Rank change year-on-year +5 -1 -2
Contract jobs citing Azure 398 217 361
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 11.68% 12.54% 11.09%
As % of the Cloud Services category 45.38% 40.71% 45.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 245 172 294
10th Percentile £327 £314 £213
25th Percentile £425 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £523 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.48% +4.50% -10.31%
75th Percentile £613 £623 £593
90th Percentile £694 £700 £684
England median daily rate £525 £525 £548
% change year-on-year - -4.11% -2.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 4 0
10th Percentile - £17.65 -
25th Percentile £56.25 £22.38 -
Median hourly rate £57.50 £45.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +27.78% - -
75th Percentile £58.75 £74.05 -
90th Percentile - £76.84 -
England median hourly rate £57.50 £40.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +43.75% +14.29% -44.44%

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 877 533 801
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 25.73% 30.81% 24.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 552 385 603
10th Percentile £281 £225 £213
25th Percentile £408 £363 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £613 £619 £600
90th Percentile £688 £684 £675
England median daily rate £513 £518 £525
% change year-on-year -0.97% -1.43% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 35 40
10th Percentile £14.25 £18.13 £12.73
25th Percentile £17.75 £18.51 £14.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £18.87 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +204.72% -44.50% -38.18%
75th Percentile £58.75 £34.92 £70.00
90th Percentile - £56.25 -
England median hourly rate £40.28 £25.26 £21.37
% change year-on-year +59.49% +18.18% -38.94%

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 5 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 5 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 +5 109 £525 +2.44% 62
Bristol -1 92 £550 +23.04% 116
Gloucestershire -3 60 £450 -21.74% 57
Wiltshire +2 50 £500 -15.79% 41
Devon +6 42 £513 -1.27% 35
Dorset +2 28 £675 +58.82% 31
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 19 (4.77%) SharePoint
2 11 (2.76%) IIS
3 8 (2.01%) Apache Spark
4 6 (1.51%) Apache
4 6 (1.51%) Confluence
4 6 (1.51%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.50%) nginx
7 1 (0.25%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 4 (1.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.25%) InDesign
2 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.25%) PTC Creo
2 1 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (0.25%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (1.76%) Maximo
2 2 (0.50%) Unit4 Business World
3 1 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.25%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.25%) SAP EHS
3 1 (0.25%) SAP Hybris
3 1 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.25%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 152 (38.19%) AWS
2 63 (15.83%) Azure DevOps
3 62 (15.58%) GCP
4 41 (10.30%) Entra ID
5 28 (7.04%) GitHub
6 25 (6.28%) Power Platform
7 24 (6.03%) Microsoft 365
8 21 (5.28%) Azure Data Factory
9 16 (4.02%) Azure Monitor
10 13 (3.27%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 13 (3.27%) GitHub Actions
11 12 (3.02%) OpenShift
12 11 (2.76%) Cloud Computing
12 11 (2.76%) Serverless
13 10 (2.51%) Azure AKS
13 10 (2.51%) Azure Key Vault
13 10 (2.51%) PaaS
14 9 (2.26%) Azure Sentinel
15 7 (1.76%) SaaS
15 7 (1.76%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.27%) Firewall
2 16 (4.02%) VPN
3 12 (3.02%) DNS
4 11 (2.76%) DHCP
5 5 (1.26%) Network Security
5 5 (1.26%) TCP/IP
6 4 (1.01%) LAN
6 4 (1.01%) WAN
7 3 (0.75%) SAN
7 3 (0.75%) VLAN
8 2 (0.50%) BGP
8 2 (0.50%) HTTP
8 2 (0.50%) NAS
8 2 (0.50%) OSPF
8 2 (0.50%) Reverse Proxy
8 2 (0.50%) SD-WAN
9 1 (0.25%) Calico
9 1 (0.25%) Kerberos
9 1 (0.25%) NGFW
9 1 (0.25%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (5.78%) SQL Server
2 22 (5.53%) Power BI
3 16 (4.02%) Data Warehouse
4 11 (2.76%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (2.01%) MongoDB
6 6 (1.51%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (1.51%) Delta Lake
6 6 (1.51%) NoSQL
7 5 (1.26%) Amazon RDS
7 5 (1.26%) Metadata
8 4 (1.01%) Big Data
8 4 (1.01%) Redis
8 4 (1.01%) Relational Database
8 4 (1.01%) Star Schema
9 3 (0.75%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.75%) Data Vault
9 3 (0.75%) GIS
9 3 (0.75%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.75%) Power Query
9 3 (0.75%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 20 (5.03%) Git
1 20 (5.03%) GitLab
2 18 (4.52%) JIRA
3 13 (3.27%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.75%) AdminStudio
4 3 (0.75%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.75%) InstallShield
4 3 (0.75%) Visual Studio Code
5 2 (0.50%) MLflow
5 2 (0.50%) SonarQube
5 2 (0.50%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.50%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.25%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.25%) Gradle
6 1 (0.25%) JUnit
6 1 (0.25%) LoadRunner
6 1 (0.25%) MSI
6 1 (0.25%) NUnit
6 1 (0.25%) Oracle APEX
6 1 (0.25%) Selenium
General
1 66 (16.58%) Social Skills
2 24 (6.03%) Analytical Skills
3 23 (5.78%) Finance
4 20 (5.03%) Public Sector
5 13 (3.27%) Legal
6 7 (1.76%) Banking
6 7 (1.76%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (1.51%) Marketing
8 5 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.01%) Military
10 3 (0.75%) Investment Banking
10 3 (0.75%) Retail
11 2 (0.50%) Advertising
11 2 (0.50%) Local Government
12 1 (0.25%) Back Office
12 1 (0.25%) Electronics
12 1 (0.25%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.25%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.25%) Publishing
12 1 (0.25%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 59 (14.82%) Consultant
2 49 (12.31%) Architect
3 40 (10.05%) Implementation Consultant
4 30 (7.54%) Data Engineer
5 28 (7.04%) DevOps Engineer
6 27 (6.78%) Azure Engineer
6 27 (6.78%) Product Manager
7 25 (6.28%) Lead
8 24 (6.03%) Developer
8 24 (6.03%) Digital Product Manager
9 18 (4.52%) Senior
10 16 (4.02%) Support Engineer
11 15 (3.77%) Azure Specialist
11 15 (3.77%) Desktop Engineer
11 15 (3.77%) Desktop Support
11 15 (3.77%) Desktop Support Engineer
12 13 (3.27%) Data Architect
12 13 (3.27%) Technical Architect
13 12 (3.02%) Analyst
13 12 (3.02%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (7.54%) .NET
2 18 (4.52%) .NET Framework
3 12 (3.02%) Kafka
3 12 (3.02%) REST
4 11 (2.76%) React
5 10 (2.51%) Node.js
6 9 (2.26%) SailPoint
7 8 (2.01%) GraphQL
7 8 (2.01%) LDAP
7 8 (2.01%) Playwright
8 7 (1.76%) PySpark
8 7 (1.76%) RabbitMQ
8 7 (1.76%) RESTful
8 7 (1.76%) Spring Boot
9 6 (1.51%) ARM Templates
9 6 (1.51%) Spring
9 6 (1.51%) WebSockets
10 5 (1.26%) Flask
10 5 (1.26%) OAuth
10 5 (1.26%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 35 (8.79%) Cloud Native
2 33 (8.29%) Legacy Systems
3 21 (5.28%) Hybrid Cloud
4 19 (4.77%) Public Cloud
5 18 (4.52%) Product Ownership
6 17 (4.27%) Enterprise Software
7 12 (3.02%) Data Structures
8 11 (2.76%) Self-Motivation
9 9 (2.26%) Onboarding
10 6 (1.51%) Legacy Code
11 4 (1.01%) Augmented Reality
11 4 (1.01%) Enterprise Cloud
11 4 (1.01%) Legacy Applications
11 4 (1.01%) Linux Command Line
11 4 (1.01%) Management Information System
11 4 (1.01%) Virtual Reality
11 4 (1.01%) Wiki
12 3 (0.75%) Data Centre
12 3 (0.75%) EPoS
12 3 (0.75%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 52 (13.07%) Windows
2 32 (8.04%) Linux
3 20 (5.03%) Windows Server
4 15 (3.77%) Windows 10
5 8 (2.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (1.26%) Rocky
6 5 (1.26%) Ubuntu
7 4 (1.01%) Android
7 4 (1.01%) Debian
8 3 (0.75%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.75%) Unix
9 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.25%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.25%) CentOS
10 1 (0.25%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 110 (27.64%) DevOps
2 92 (23.12%) Agile
3 85 (21.36%) CI/CD
4 48 (12.06%) Roadmaps
5 46 (11.56%) Analytics
5 46 (11.56%) ERP
6 45 (11.31%) Continuous Improvement
7 44 (11.06%) Problem-Solving
8 43 (10.80%) Data Modelling
9 41 (10.30%) Infrastructure as Code
9 41 (10.30%) PLM
10 36 (9.05%) Migration
11 35 (8.79%) Containerisation
12 32 (8.04%) Stakeholder Management
13 31 (7.79%) Business Intelligence
14 30 (7.54%) Decision-Making
14 30 (7.54%) Microservices
15 29 (7.29%) Data Engineering
15 29 (7.29%) ETL
15 29 (7.29%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 58 (14.57%) Python
2 56 (14.07%) SQL
3 38 (9.55%) PowerShell
4 22 (5.53%) Java
5 18 (4.52%) Bash
6 15 (3.77%) C#
6 15 (3.77%) Go
7 12 (3.02%) JavaScript
8 11 (2.76%) Bicep
9 9 (2.26%) TypeScript
10 4 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (1.01%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.75%) BeanShell
11 3 (0.75%) C++
11 3 (0.75%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.50%) R
12 2 (0.50%) Scala
12 2 (0.50%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.25%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 160 (40.20%) Security Cleared
2 125 (31.41%) SC Cleared
3 37 (9.30%) DV Cleared
4 22 (5.53%) Azure Certification
5 20 (5.03%) Degree
6 16 (4.02%) Microsoft Certification
7 12 (3.02%) CISSP
8 9 (2.26%) CISM
9 7 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.51%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.51%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (1.26%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 4 (1.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (1.01%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (0.75%) ACSP
13 3 (0.75%) ISTQB
13 3 (0.75%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 3 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
14 2 (0.50%) AWS Certification
14 2 (0.50%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.03%) QA
2 20 (5.03%) Data Quality
3 14 (3.52%) GDPR
4 11 (2.76%) NIST
5 10 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.76%) NIST 800
7 5 (1.26%) NCSC
8 4 (1.01%) SLA
9 3 (0.75%) SNOMED CT
10 2 (0.50%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.50%) HL7
10 2 (0.50%) ISO 9000
10 2 (0.50%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.25%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.25%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.25%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.25%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.25%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.25%) PMO
System Software
1 54 (13.57%) Active Directory
2 35 (8.79%) Docker
3 12 (3.02%) Hyper-V
4 11 (2.76%) Virtual Desktop
5 10 (2.51%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.50%) KVM
6 2 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.50%) VirtualBox
6 2 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.50%) vSphere
7 1 (0.25%) NFS
7 1 (0.25%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 55 (13.82%) Kubernetes
2 50 (12.56%) Terraform
3 25 (6.28%) Microsoft Intune
4 23 (5.78%) Ansible
5 15 (3.77%) Grafana
6 13 (3.27%) Prometheus
7 8 (2.01%) Argo
7 8 (2.01%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (1.76%) SCCM
9 4 (1.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 3 (0.75%) Istio
10 3 (0.75%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 3 (0.75%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.50%) CASB
11 2 (0.50%) Cilium
11 2 (0.50%) Docker Swarm
11 2 (0.50%) Podman
11 2 (0.50%) Puppet
12 1 (0.25%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.25%) Kustomize
Vendors
1 133 (33.42%) Microsoft
2 40 (10.05%) Siemens
3 23 (5.78%) Databricks
4 13 (3.27%) Google
5 11 (2.76%) VMware
6 10 (2.51%) Oracle
7 9 (2.26%) SAP
8 8 (2.01%) Red Hat
9 7 (1.76%) IBM
9 7 (1.76%) InterSystems
9 7 (1.76%) NetApp
9 7 (1.76%) Starlink
10 6 (1.51%) McAfee
11 5 (1.26%) CyberArk
12 4 (1.01%) Apple
12 4 (1.01%) Cisco
12 4 (1.01%) MuleSoft
12 4 (1.01%) Splunk
13 3 (0.75%) Dynatrace
13 3 (0.75%) NEC