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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 10 9
Rank change year-on-year +5 -1 -2
Contract jobs citing Azure 398 207 365
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 11.74% 12.42% 11.40%
As % of the Cloud Services category 45.38% 40.83% 45.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 248 166 300
10th Percentile £317 £319 £215
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.48% +5.00% -11.31%
75th Percentile £613 £623 £591
90th Percentile £689 £700 £676
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 3 0
10th Percentile - £16.60 -
25th Percentile £56.25 £19.75 -
Median hourly rate £57.50 £25.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +130.00% - -
75th Percentile £58.75 £51.85 -
90th Percentile - £67.96 -
England median hourly rate £57.50 £37.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year +53.33% +7.14% -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 877 507 811
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 25.88% 30.41% 25.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 558 368 618
10th Percentile £281 £225 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £613 £616 £600
90th Percentile £688 £682 £675
England median daily rate £513 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -1.44% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 29 35
10th Percentile £14.12 £18.13 £12.60
25th Percentile £17.75 £18.13 £14.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £18.87 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +204.72% -10.14% -60.64%
75th Percentile £58.75 £34.50 £70.00
90th Percentile - £43.75 -
England median hourly rate £39.50 £25.50 £21.37
% change year-on-year +54.90% +19.33% -38.76%

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 May 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 May 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 +5 107 £525 -1.18% 43
Bristol -2 91 £550 +23.04% 96
Gloucestershire -2 63 £450 -21.74% 44
Wiltshire +5 49 £500 -15.79% 30
Devon +7 42 £513 +2.68% 35
Dorset +3 30 £675 +38.46% 18
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 18 (4.52%) SharePoint
2 11 (2.76%) IIS
3 8 (2.01%) Apache Spark
4 7 (1.76%) Apache
5 6 (1.51%) Confluence
6 5 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
7 4 (1.01%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.50%) nginx
9 1 (0.25%) Apache Superset
9 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%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.50%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.50%) Unit4 Business World
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
1 149 (37.44%) AWS
2 64 (16.08%) Azure DevOps
3 63 (15.83%) GCP
4 38 (9.55%) Entra ID
5 31 (7.79%) GitHub
6 25 (6.28%) Power Platform
7 22 (5.53%) Azure Data Factory
8 21 (5.28%) Microsoft 365
9 17 (4.27%) Azure Monitor
10 12 (3.02%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 12 (3.02%) GitHub Actions
11 11 (2.76%) OpenShift
11 11 (2.76%) PaaS
12 10 (2.51%) Azure AKS
12 10 (2.51%) Azure Key Vault
12 10 (2.51%) Azure Sentinel
12 10 (2.51%) Serverless
13 8 (2.01%) SaaS
14 7 (1.76%) Cloud Computing
14 7 (1.76%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.27%) Firewall
1 17 (4.27%) VPN
2 11 (2.76%) DHCP
2 11 (2.76%) DNS
3 5 (1.26%) Network Security
4 4 (1.01%) LAN
4 4 (1.01%) TCP/IP
4 4 (1.01%) WAN
5 3 (0.75%) SAN
6 2 (0.50%) BGP
6 2 (0.50%) HTTP
6 2 (0.50%) NAS
6 2 (0.50%) OSPF
6 2 (0.50%) Reverse Proxy
6 2 (0.50%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.50%) VLAN
7 1 (0.25%) AMQP
7 1 (0.25%) Calico
7 1 (0.25%) NGFW
7 1 (0.25%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (5.78%) Power BI
2 22 (5.53%) SQL Server
3 17 (4.27%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (2.26%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (2.01%) MongoDB
6 6 (1.51%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (1.51%) NoSQL
7 5 (1.26%) Delta Lake
7 5 (1.26%) Metadata
8 4 (1.01%) Redis
8 4 (1.01%) Star Schema
9 3 (0.75%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.75%) Big Data
9 3 (0.75%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.75%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (0.75%) GIS
9 3 (0.75%) Power Query
9 3 (0.75%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.75%) Tableau
10 2 (0.50%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 22 (5.53%) Git
2 20 (5.03%) GitLab
3 19 (4.77%) JIRA
4 12 (3.02%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.75%) AdminStudio
5 3 (0.75%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.75%) InstallShield
5 3 (0.75%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.50%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.50%) JUnit
6 2 (0.50%) MLflow
6 2 (0.50%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.50%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.50%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.50%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.25%) Gradle
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle APEX
7 1 (0.25%) Selenium
7 1 (0.25%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.25%) TestNG
General
1 69 (17.34%) Social Skills
2 27 (6.78%) Analytical Skills
3 25 (6.28%) Public Sector
4 24 (6.03%) Finance
5 13 (3.27%) Legal
6 7 (1.76%) Banking
7 6 (1.51%) Marketing
7 6 (1.51%) Military
8 5 (1.26%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (0.75%) Investment Banking
9 3 (0.75%) Retail
10 2 (0.50%) Local Government
11 1 (0.25%) Back Office
11 1 (0.25%) Electronics
11 1 (0.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.25%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.25%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.25%) Publishing
11 1 (0.25%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 54 (13.57%) Consultant
2 50 (12.56%) Architect
3 40 (10.05%) Implementation Consultant
4 33 (8.29%) Data Engineer
5 31 (7.79%) DevOps Engineer
6 28 (7.04%) Azure Engineer
7 26 (6.53%) Product Manager
8 25 (6.28%) Developer
9 23 (5.78%) Digital Product Manager
9 23 (5.78%) Senior
10 22 (5.53%) Lead
11 17 (4.27%) Support Engineer
12 16 (4.02%) Desktop Engineer
12 16 (4.02%) Desktop Support
12 16 (4.02%) Desktop Support Engineer
13 15 (3.77%) Azure Specialist
14 13 (3.27%) Site Engineer
14 13 (3.27%) Site Reliability Engineer
14 13 (3.27%) Technical Architect
15 12 (3.02%) Data Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (7.54%) .NET
2 18 (4.52%) .NET Framework
3 16 (4.02%) Kafka
4 15 (3.77%) REST
5 11 (2.76%) React
6 10 (2.51%) Node.js
7 9 (2.26%) SailPoint
8 8 (2.01%) GraphQL
8 8 (2.01%) LDAP
8 8 (2.01%) Playwright
9 7 (1.76%) RabbitMQ
9 7 (1.76%) RESTful
9 7 (1.76%) Spring Boot
10 6 (1.51%) ARM Templates
10 6 (1.51%) PySpark
10 6 (1.51%) Spring
10 6 (1.51%) WebSockets
11 5 (1.26%) Flask
11 5 (1.26%) Keycloak
11 5 (1.26%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 36 (9.05%) Cloud Native
2 32 (8.04%) Legacy Systems
3 22 (5.53%) Hybrid Cloud
4 20 (5.03%) Product Ownership
5 19 (4.77%) Public Cloud
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%) 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%) Linux Command Line
12 3 (0.75%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 53 (13.32%) Windows
2 29 (7.29%) 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
9 2 (0.50%) 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
1 121 (30.40%) DevOps
2 96 (24.12%) Agile
3 87 (21.86%) CI/CD
4 49 (12.31%) Problem-Solving
5 47 (11.81%) Roadmaps
6 46 (11.56%) Analytics
6 46 (11.56%) Continuous Improvement
6 46 (11.56%) ERP
7 43 (10.80%) Data Modelling
7 43 (10.80%) Infrastructure as Code
8 41 (10.30%) PLM
9 35 (8.79%) Containerisation
9 35 (8.79%) Migration
10 32 (8.04%) Business Intelligence
10 32 (8.04%) ITIL
11 31 (7.79%) Data Pipeline
11 31 (7.79%) Stakeholder Management
12 29 (7.29%) Data Engineering
12 29 (7.29%) Decision-Making
12 29 (7.29%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 62 (15.58%) Python
2 52 (13.07%) SQL
3 41 (10.30%) PowerShell
4 24 (6.03%) Java
5 18 (4.52%) Bash
6 16 (4.02%) C#
6 16 (4.02%) JavaScript
7 15 (3.77%) Go
8 13 (3.27%) Bicep
9 11 (2.76%) TypeScript
10 4 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (1.01%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.01%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.75%) BeanShell
11 3 (0.75%) C++
12 2 (0.50%) R
13 1 (0.25%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.25%) Scala
13 1 (0.25%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 162 (40.70%) Security Cleared
2 133 (33.42%) SC Cleared
3 32 (8.04%) DV Cleared
4 25 (6.28%) 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 19 (4.77%) Data Quality
3 14 (3.52%) GDPR
4 12 (3.02%) NIST
5 11 (2.76%) 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%) 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%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.25%) PMO
System Software
1 53 (13.32%) Active Directory
2 34 (8.54%) Docker
3 13 (3.27%) 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%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.50%) vSphere
7 1 (0.25%) NFS
7 1 (0.25%) VirtualBox
7 1 (0.25%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 54 (13.57%) Kubernetes
2 50 (12.56%) Terraform
3 25 (6.28%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (5.03%) Ansible
5 13 (3.27%) Grafana
6 11 (2.76%) Prometheus
7 8 (2.01%) Argo
8 7 (1.76%) SCCM
8 7 (1.76%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (1.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 3 (0.75%) Istio
11 2 (0.50%) CASB
11 2 (0.50%) Cilium
11 2 (0.50%) Podman
11 2 (0.50%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.50%) Puppet
12 1 (0.25%) Data Guard
12 1 (0.25%) logstash
12 1 (0.25%) Nagios
12 1 (0.25%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 127 (31.91%) Microsoft
2 40 (10.05%) Siemens
3 21 (5.28%) Databricks
4 14 (3.52%) Google
5 11 (2.76%) VMware
6 9 (2.26%) Oracle
6 9 (2.26%) SAP
7 8 (2.01%) Red Hat
8 7 (1.76%) IBM
8 7 (1.76%) InterSystems
8 7 (1.76%) NetApp
8 7 (1.76%) Starlink
9 6 (1.51%) McAfee
10 5 (1.26%) CyberArk
11 4 (1.01%) Apple
11 4 (1.01%) Cisco
11 4 (1.01%) MuleSoft
11 4 (1.01%) NEC
11 4 (1.01%) ServiceNow
11 4 (1.01%) Splunk