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

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 12 6
Rank change year-on-year +4 -6 +2
Contract jobs citing Azure 307 205 391
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.64% 10.65% 13.40%
As % of the Cloud Services category 45.48% 36.41% 45.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 238 156 317
10th Percentile £332 £369 £300
25th Percentile £438 £425 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £524 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.19% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £642 £623 £675
90th Percentile £700 £700 £725
England median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 1
10th Percentile £67.45 - -
25th Percentile £76.38 - £14.93
Median hourly rate £92.50 - £15.35
75th Percentile £93.75 - £15.78
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £53.25 £35.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +52.14% -24.21% -8.55%

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 675 563 857
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 27.79% 29.25% 29.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 380 660
10th Percentile £227 £225 £213
25th Percentile £409 £420 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.37%
75th Percentile £606 £628 £638
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 19 10 33
10th Percentile £18.42 £12.50 £14.25
25th Percentile £19.85 £16.58 £14.50
Median hourly rate £32.50 £27.13 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.82% +35.63% -66.94%
75th Percentile £55.61 £29.75 £33.00
90th Percentile £75.32 £68.75 £78.00
England median hourly rate £27.50 £28.21 £22.50
% change year-on-year -2.50% +25.36% -0.07%

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 13 January 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 13 January 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 13 January 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 +4 116 £475 -9.52% 59
Bristol -7 58 £512 -2.57% 81
Wiltshire +15 49 £525 -4.55% 46
Somerset +8 44 £525 -4.55% 47
Dorset +1 17 £600 -2.04% 41
Devon -5 11 £550 +33.33% 44
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 23 (7.49%) SharePoint
2 17 (5.54%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.98%) Apache
3 3 (0.98%) Confluence
4 2 (0.65%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.65%) Documentum
4 2 (0.65%) nginx
5 1 (0.33%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.33%) CMS
5 1 (0.33%) IIS
5 1 (0.33%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 4 (1.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (0.65%) Windchill
3 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 8 (2.61%) Maximo
2 6 (1.95%) NEC Housing
3 3 (0.98%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.65%) Primavera
4 2 (0.65%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.33%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 97 (31.60%) AWS
2 81 (26.38%) Azure DevOps
3 49 (15.96%) GitHub
4 45 (14.66%) Entra ID
5 40 (13.03%) GCP
6 39 (12.70%) Microsoft 365
7 24 (7.82%) Azure Sentinel
8 20 (6.51%) Power Platform
9 17 (5.54%) Azure Data Factory
10 16 (5.21%) OpenShift
11 15 (4.89%) Azure Monitor
12 13 (4.23%) Azure AKS
12 13 (4.23%) Serverless
13 12 (3.91%) GitHub Actions
14 11 (3.58%) Azure Key Vault
15 9 (2.93%) Azure ExpressRoute
16 8 (2.61%) Dynamics 365
17 7 (2.28%) OneDrive
18 6 (1.95%) Power Automate
18 6 (1.95%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 25 (8.14%) VPN
2 17 (5.54%) Firewall
3 10 (3.26%) Network Security
4 8 (2.61%) DHCP
5 7 (2.28%) DNS
5 7 (2.28%) WAN
6 5 (1.63%) SD-WAN
7 4 (1.30%) LAN
8 3 (0.98%) HTTP
8 3 (0.98%) Kerberos
8 3 (0.98%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.98%) VLAN
9 2 (0.65%) SMTP
10 1 (0.33%) 2G
10 1 (0.33%) BGP
10 1 (0.33%) OSPF
10 1 (0.33%) SAN
10 1 (0.33%) Wireless
10 1 (0.33%) Wireshark
10 1 (0.33%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (8.14%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (5.54%) Power BI
3 16 (5.21%) Elasticsearch
4 10 (3.26%) SQL Server
5 7 (2.28%) Redis
6 6 (1.95%) Metadata
7 5 (1.63%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (1.63%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (1.30%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.30%) MongoDB
8 4 (1.30%) MySQL
8 4 (1.30%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.98%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.65%) ClickHouse
10 2 (0.65%) Looker
10 2 (0.65%) Oracle Database 12c
10 2 (0.65%) Power Query
10 2 (0.65%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.65%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 31 (10.10%) Oracle APEX
2 18 (5.86%) Git
3 16 (5.21%) JIRA
4 14 (4.56%) SonarQube
5 8 (2.61%) GitLab
5 8 (2.61%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.65%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.33%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.33%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.33%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.33%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.33%) JUnit
7 1 (0.33%) Maven
7 1 (0.33%) Mocha
7 1 (0.33%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.33%) Postman
7 1 (0.33%) REST Assured
7 1 (0.33%) Snyk
7 1 (0.33%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.33%) TestNG
General
1 109 (35.50%) Social Skills
2 34 (11.07%) Public Sector
3 29 (9.45%) Finance
4 13 (4.23%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (3.91%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (2.93%) Telecoms
7 6 (1.95%) Manufacturing
8 5 (1.63%) Banking
8 5 (1.63%) Military
9 4 (1.30%) Back Office
9 4 (1.30%) Electronics
9 4 (1.30%) Marketing
10 2 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.65%) Law
10 2 (0.65%) Local Government
10 2 (0.65%) Tech for Good
11 1 (0.33%) Legal
11 1 (0.33%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.33%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 68 (22.15%) Developer
2 63 (20.52%) Senior
3 32 (10.42%) Senior Developer
4 31 (10.10%) Architect
5 26 (8.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 24 (7.82%) Data Engineer
7 20 (6.51%) Analyst
7 20 (6.51%) Azure Engineer
8 16 (5.21%) DevOps Engineer
9 14 (4.56%) Senior Data Engineer
9 14 (4.56%) Support Engineer
10 13 (4.23%) Desktop Engineer
10 13 (4.23%) DevSecOps Engineer
11 12 (3.91%) Desktop Support
11 12 (3.91%) Desktop Support Engineer
12 11 (3.58%) Cloud Engineer
13 10 (3.26%) Consultant
14 9 (2.93%) Azure Architect
14 9 (2.93%) Backend Developer
14 9 (2.93%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (6.19%) ARM Templates
2 18 (5.86%) REST
3 15 (4.89%) Kafka
4 14 (4.56%) YAML
5 13 (4.23%) OAuth
6 12 (3.91%) Keycloak
7 11 (3.58%) Node.js
7 11 (3.58%) React
7 11 (3.58%) SOAP
8 10 (3.26%) .NET
8 10 (3.26%) OAuth2
8 10 (3.26%) SAML
9 9 (2.93%) OpenID
10 8 (2.61%) AngularJS
10 8 (2.61%) RESTful
11 7 (2.28%) CSS
11 7 (2.28%) FastAPI
11 7 (2.28%) Flask
11 7 (2.28%) HTML
11 7 (2.28%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 39 (12.70%) Hybrid Cloud
2 31 (10.10%) Cloud Native
3 14 (4.56%) Product Ownership
4 12 (3.91%) Data Centre
5 10 (3.26%) Enterprise Software
6 9 (2.93%) Onboarding
7 7 (2.28%) Public Cloud
7 7 (2.28%) Security Posture
8 4 (1.30%) CMDB
8 4 (1.30%) Cyber Defence
8 4 (1.30%) FMCG
8 4 (1.30%) IoT
8 4 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.30%) Management Information System
9 3 (0.98%) Enterprise Cloud
9 3 (0.98%) iPad
9 3 (0.98%) iPhone
9 3 (0.98%) Private Cloud
9 3 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (0.98%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 53 (17.26%) Windows
2 22 (7.17%) Windows Server
3 19 (6.19%) Linux
4 11 (3.58%) Windows 10
5 5 (1.63%) Apple iOS
5 5 (1.63%) Windows Server 2016
6 4 (1.30%) Unix
6 4 (1.30%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (0.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.65%) Android
8 2 (0.65%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.33%) Debian
9 1 (0.33%) Rocky
9 1 (0.33%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 139 (45.28%) DevOps
2 88 (28.66%) Agile
3 65 (21.17%) CI/CD
4 50 (16.29%) Scrum
5 48 (15.64%) Problem-Solving
6 41 (13.36%) Infrastructure as Code
7 40 (13.03%) Containerisation
7 40 (13.03%) Validation
8 34 (11.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 32 (10.42%) Collaborative Working
10 30 (9.77%) ITIL
10 30 (9.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 29 (9.45%) Software Delivery
12 27 (8.79%) Migration
12 27 (8.79%) Requirements Analysis
12 27 (8.79%) Web Application Development
13 26 (8.47%) Stakeholder Management
14 24 (7.82%) Analytics
14 24 (7.82%) RBAC
15 23 (7.49%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 72 (23.45%) SQL
2 61 (19.87%) Python
3 50 (16.29%) JavaScript
4 41 (13.36%) PowerShell
5 39 (12.70%) PL/SQL
6 22 (7.17%) Bicep
6 22 (7.17%) Go
7 15 (4.89%) TypeScript
8 13 (4.23%) Java
9 9 (2.93%) Bash
10 7 (2.28%) C#
11 3 (0.98%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.98%) Ruby
11 3 (0.98%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.65%) C
13 1 (0.33%) Apex Code
13 1 (0.33%) C++
13 1 (0.33%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 172 (56.03%) Security Cleared
2 163 (53.09%) SC Cleared
3 40 (13.03%) Azure Certification
4 33 (10.75%) DV Cleared
5 15 (4.89%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (3.91%) Degree
7 11 (3.58%) CISM
7 11 (3.58%) CISSP
8 8 (2.61%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 6 (1.95%) AWS Certification
10 5 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
11 4 (1.30%) Network+ Certification
12 3 (0.98%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 3 (0.98%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.65%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (0.65%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (0.65%) OCA
13 2 (0.65%) OCP
13 2 (0.65%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (7.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 20 (6.51%) NCSC
3 18 (5.86%) NIST
4 16 (5.21%) GDPR
5 8 (2.61%) NIST 800
5 8 (2.61%) QA
6 5 (1.63%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.98%) Government Security Classifications
7 3 (0.98%) PSD2
7 3 (0.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.65%) GRC
8 2 (0.65%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.65%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.33%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.33%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.33%) SLA
9 1 (0.33%) WCAG
System Software
1 63 (20.52%) Active Directory
2 47 (15.31%) Docker
3 12 (3.91%) Hyper-V
4 8 (2.61%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (2.61%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (2.28%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.65%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.33%) KVM
7 1 (0.33%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.33%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.33%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 58 (18.89%) Kubernetes
2 52 (16.94%) Terraform
3 26 (8.47%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (5.21%) Single Sign-On
5 13 (4.23%) SCCM
6 11 (3.58%) Grafana
7 10 (3.26%) Ansible
7 10 (3.26%) Prometheus
8 6 (1.95%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (1.30%) Kibana
10 3 (0.98%) Argo
10 3 (0.98%) Puppet
11 2 (0.65%) Data Guard
11 2 (0.65%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.65%) logstash
11 2 (0.65%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.65%) PingFederate
11 2 (0.65%) Podman
12 1 (0.33%) CA Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.33%) WSUS
Vendors
1 108 (35.18%) Microsoft
2 46 (14.98%) Oracle
3 15 (4.89%) Databricks
4 12 (3.91%) Red Hat
5 11 (3.58%) Google
5 11 (3.58%) VMware
6 10 (3.26%) ServiceNow
7 8 (2.61%) IBM
8 7 (2.28%) NetApp
8 7 (2.28%) Salesforce
9 6 (1.95%) NEC
9 6 (1.95%) SAP
10 5 (1.63%) Cisco
10 5 (1.63%) ForgeRock
10 5 (1.63%) Ping Identity
11 4 (1.30%) Starlink
12 3 (0.98%) Fortinet
12 3 (0.98%) McAfee
12 3 (0.98%) MuleSoft
13 2 (0.65%) OpenText