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

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 11 9
Rank change year-on-year +5 -2 -3
Contract jobs citing Azure 348 230 384
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.03% 13.35% 12.19%
As % of the Cloud Services category 45.61% 40.85% 46.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 229 184 305
10th Percentile £347 £330 £297
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £515
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% +1.94% -10.43%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £700 £700 £717
England median daily rate £525 £536 £549
% change year-on-year -2.10% -2.28% -2.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £56.25 - £14.93
Median hourly rate £57.50 £25.00 £15.35
Median % change year-on-year +130.00% +62.87% -78.07%
75th Percentile £58.75 - £15.78
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £57.50 £35.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +64.29% -24.21% -22.78%

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 763 563 832
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 26.38% 32.68% 26.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 516 408 636
10th Percentile £239 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £413 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £591 £638 £630
90th Percentile £700 £700 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 11 24
10th Percentile £18.91 £15.16 -
25th Percentile £51.91 £18.32 £14.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £26.50 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year +116.98% +82.76% -71.00%
75th Percentile £58.75 £28.99 £18.75
90th Percentile - £68.75 £40.62
England median hourly rate £39.50 £27.38 £21.37
% change year-on-year +44.29% +28.10% -14.52%

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 March 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Azure in the South West over the 6 months to 5 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Azure in the South West

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 March 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
Gloucestershire 0 106 £475 -20.83% 55
Somerset +6 80 £525 -10.64% 43
Bristol -6 67 £525 - 70
Wiltshire +3 53 £525 -13.40% 31
Dorset 0 19 £650 +30.00% 18
Devon -5 14 £513 +24.24% 40
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 (6.32%) SharePoint
2 16 (4.60%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.72%) Confluence
4 5 (1.44%) Apache
5 3 (0.86%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.57%) Documentum
7 1 (0.29%) CMS
7 1 (0.29%) IIS
7 1 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.29%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 5 (1.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.29%) InDesign
3 1 (0.29%) PTC Creo
3 1 (0.29%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (2.59%) Maximo
2 6 (1.72%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.57%) Primavera
3 2 (0.57%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.29%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.29%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 96 (27.59%) AWS
2 88 (25.29%) Azure DevOps
3 47 (13.51%) GitHub
4 46 (13.22%) Entra ID
5 39 (11.21%) GCP
6 37 (10.63%) Microsoft 365
7 25 (7.18%) Power Platform
8 24 (6.90%) Azure Data Factory
9 19 (5.46%) Azure Sentinel
10 15 (4.31%) Azure Monitor
10 15 (4.31%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (4.02%) Azure Key Vault
11 14 (4.02%) OpenShift
12 12 (3.45%) Serverless
13 11 (3.16%) Azure AKS
14 9 (2.59%) Dynamics 365
15 8 (2.30%) OneDrive
16 7 (2.01%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 6 (1.72%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 6 (1.72%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 18 (5.17%) VPN
2 14 (4.02%) Firewall
3 9 (2.59%) DHCP
4 6 (1.72%) DNS
4 6 (1.72%) Network Security
5 4 (1.15%) LAN
5 4 (1.15%) TCP/IP
5 4 (1.15%) WAN
6 3 (0.86%) HTTP
6 3 (0.86%) Kerberos
7 2 (0.57%) NAS
7 2 (0.57%) SAN
7 2 (0.57%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.57%) VLAN
8 1 (0.29%) Cisco ISE
8 1 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
8 1 (0.29%) MQTT
8 1 (0.29%) Radio Access Network
8 1 (0.29%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.29%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (7.47%) PostgreSQL
2 22 (6.32%) Power BI
3 13 (3.74%) Elasticsearch
4 11 (3.16%) Data Warehouse
5 10 (2.87%) SQL Server
6 9 (2.59%) Metadata
6 9 (2.59%) Redis
7 6 (1.72%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (1.15%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.15%) MongoDB
8 4 (1.15%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.86%) Delta Lake
9 3 (0.86%) GIS
9 3 (0.86%) Power Query
9 3 (0.86%) Star Schema
10 2 (0.57%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.57%) Looker
10 2 (0.57%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.57%) Spatial Data
10 2 (0.57%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 29 (8.33%) Oracle APEX
2 22 (6.32%) Git
3 16 (4.60%) JIRA
4 10 (2.87%) SonarQube
5 9 (2.59%) GitLab
6 8 (2.30%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.57%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.57%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.29%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.29%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.29%) JUnit
8 1 (0.29%) Mocha
8 1 (0.29%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.29%) Postman
8 1 (0.29%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.29%) Snyk
8 1 (0.29%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.29%) TestNG
8 1 (0.29%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.29%) webpack
General
1 99 (28.45%) Social Skills
2 29 (8.33%) Public Sector
3 26 (7.47%) Finance
4 15 (4.31%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (2.59%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (1.72%) Legal
6 6 (1.72%) Telecoms
7 5 (1.44%) Banking
7 5 (1.44%) Marketing
8 4 (1.15%) Back Office
8 4 (1.15%) Local Government
8 4 (1.15%) Military
9 3 (0.86%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.57%) Electronics
10 2 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.57%) Retail
11 1 (0.29%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.29%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.29%) Publishing
11 1 (0.29%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 65 (18.68%) Developer
2 57 (16.38%) Senior
3 49 (14.08%) Consultant
4 40 (11.49%) Implementation Consultant
5 35 (10.06%) Architect
6 31 (8.91%) Senior Developer
7 27 (7.76%) Data Engineer
8 24 (6.90%) Analyst
9 22 (6.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 21 (6.03%) Azure Engineer
10 21 (6.03%) DevOps Engineer
11 14 (4.02%) Lead
12 12 (3.45%) Data Architect
12 12 (3.45%) Desktop Engineer
12 12 (3.45%) Desktop Support
12 12 (3.45%) Desktop Support Engineer
12 12 (3.45%) Senior Data Engineer
12 12 (3.45%) Support Engineer
13 11 (3.16%) Cloud Engineer
14 10 (2.87%) Backend Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (6.32%) REST
2 17 (4.89%) Kafka
3 14 (4.02%) ARM Templates
4 13 (3.74%) OAuth
5 12 (3.45%) Keycloak
6 11 (3.16%) .NET
6 11 (3.16%) SOAP
7 10 (2.87%) OAuth2
7 10 (2.87%) React
7 10 (2.87%) SAML
7 10 (2.87%) YAML
8 9 (2.59%) FastAPI
8 9 (2.59%) Flask
8 9 (2.59%) GraphQL
8 9 (2.59%) gRPC
8 9 (2.59%) Node.js
8 9 (2.59%) RESTful
8 9 (2.59%) WebSockets
9 8 (2.30%) OpenID
10 7 (2.01%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 32 (9.20%) Hybrid Cloud
2 25 (7.18%) Cloud Native
3 15 (4.31%) Product Ownership
4 10 (2.87%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.59%) Public Cloud
6 8 (2.30%) Onboarding
7 6 (1.72%) Data Centre
7 6 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (1.72%) Security Posture
8 4 (1.15%) CMDB
8 4 (1.15%) FMCG
8 4 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (0.86%) Data Structures
9 3 (0.86%) Management Information System
9 3 (0.86%) Private Cloud
9 3 (0.86%) Virtual Team
10 2 (0.57%) Cyber Defence
10 2 (0.57%) Greenfield Project
10 2 (0.57%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 44 (12.64%) Windows
2 21 (6.03%) Linux
3 15 (4.31%) Windows Server
4 6 (1.72%) Windows 10
5 4 (1.15%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.57%) Debian
6 2 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.57%) Rocky
6 2 (0.57%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.29%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.29%) Unix
7 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 139 (39.94%) DevOps
2 88 (25.29%) Agile
3 61 (17.53%) CI/CD
4 47 (13.51%) ERP
4 47 (13.51%) Scrum
5 45 (12.93%) Validation
6 43 (12.36%) Problem-Solving
7 40 (11.49%) PLM
8 39 (11.21%) Containerisation
9 35 (10.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 33 (9.48%) Analytics
10 33 (9.48%) Infrastructure as Code
11 32 (9.20%) Collaborative Working
12 31 (8.91%) ETL
13 30 (8.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 29 (8.33%) ITIL
14 29 (8.33%) Software Delivery
15 28 (8.05%) Business Intelligence
16 27 (7.76%) Migration
16 27 (7.76%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 80 (22.99%) SQL
2 66 (18.97%) Python
3 50 (14.37%) JavaScript
4 43 (12.36%) PowerShell
5 36 (10.34%) PL/SQL
6 24 (6.90%) Go
7 19 (5.46%) Bicep
8 14 (4.02%) TypeScript
9 13 (3.74%) Java
10 10 (2.87%) C#
11 8 (2.30%) Bash
12 4 (1.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 4 (1.15%) T-SQL
13 3 (0.86%) Ruby
14 1 (0.29%) C++
14 1 (0.29%) Scala
Qualifications
1 164 (47.13%) Security Cleared
2 150 (43.10%) SC Cleared
3 37 (10.63%) Azure Certification
4 31 (8.91%) DV Cleared
5 17 (4.89%) Degree
6 14 (4.02%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (2.59%) CISM
7 9 (2.59%) CISSP
8 8 (2.30%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (2.01%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 6 (1.72%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.86%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 3 (0.86%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (0.86%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.57%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.57%) ISTQB
12 2 (0.57%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 1 (0.29%) CBAP
13 1 (0.29%) IIBA
13 1 (0.29%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (6.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (6.03%) GDPR
3 16 (4.60%) NCSC
3 16 (4.60%) NIST
4 14 (4.02%) QA
5 11 (3.16%) Data Quality
6 8 (2.30%) NIST 800
7 3 (0.86%) Government Security Classifications
7 3 (0.86%) PSD2
7 3 (0.86%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.57%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.57%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.57%) SLA
8 2 (0.57%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.29%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.29%) GRC
9 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 64 (18.39%) Active Directory
2 44 (12.64%) Docker
3 12 (3.45%) Hyper-V
4 8 (2.30%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (1.44%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (1.44%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.57%) vSphere
7 1 (0.29%) KVM
7 1 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.29%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 59 (16.95%) Kubernetes
2 46 (13.22%) Terraform
3 24 (6.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 17 (4.89%) Single Sign-On
5 13 (3.74%) Grafana
6 11 (3.16%) Prometheus
6 11 (3.16%) SCCM
7 10 (2.87%) Ansible
8 9 (2.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (0.86%) Argo
10 2 (0.57%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.57%) Kibana
10 2 (0.57%) PingFederate
10 2 (0.57%) Puppet
11 1 (0.29%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.29%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.29%) HP ALM
11 1 (0.29%) Icinga
11 1 (0.29%) logstash
11 1 (0.29%) WSUS
Vendors
1 112 (32.18%) Microsoft
2 42 (12.07%) Oracle
3 40 (11.49%) Siemens
4 20 (5.75%) Databricks
5 13 (3.74%) Google
6 10 (2.87%) Red Hat
6 10 (2.87%) VMware
7 9 (2.59%) IBM
7 9 (2.59%) ServiceNow
8 8 (2.30%) NEC
8 8 (2.30%) SAP
9 5 (1.44%) Cisco
9 5 (1.44%) ForgeRock
9 5 (1.44%) Ping Identity
9 5 (1.44%) Salesforce
10 4 (1.15%) NetApp
11 3 (0.86%) Starlink
12 2 (0.57%) Broadcom
12 2 (0.57%) Okta
12 2 (0.57%) Palo Alto