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 9 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 8 14 7
Rank change year-on-year +6 -7 +1
Contract jobs citing Azure 308 228 412
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 13.43% 10.30% 13.38%
As % of the Cloud Services category 45.29% 34.86% 44.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 244 163 321
10th Percentile £335 £376 £356
25th Percentile £431 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £509 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.25% -7.27% +0.09%
75th Percentile £650 £614 £675
90th Percentile £704 £748 £725
England median daily rate £520 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -3.26% -2.27% -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 1
10th Percentile £64.80 - -
25th Percentile £69.75 £77.50 £14.93
Median hourly rate £83.75 £85.00 £15.35
Median % change year-on-year -1.47% +453.75% -78.07%
75th Percentile £93.75 £92.50 £15.78
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £45.46 £35.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +29.89% -24.21% -6.71%

All Cloud 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 680 654 920
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 29.66% 29.54% 29.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 488 426 703
10th Percentile £225 £263 £250
25th Percentile £404 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £530 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% -3.64% +4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £648
90th Percentile £700 £734 £701
England median daily rate £500 £538 £525
% change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 18 39
10th Percentile - £14.60 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.26 £14.36
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +50.00% -65.37%
75th Percentile £35.69 £70.00 £33.00
90th Percentile £76.20 - £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.47 £31.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -17.84% +24.00% +11.11%

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 9 December 2025.

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 9 December 2025.

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 9 December 2025. 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 +10 118 £488 -7.14% 109
Bristol -3 69 £511 -2.71% 130
Wiltshire +7 44 £550 +4.76% 53
Somerset +5 39 £475 -17.39% 52
Dorset +3 15 £500 -6.98% 22
Devon -5 11 £563 +36.36% 49
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 (7.47%) SharePoint
2 13 (4.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.30%) Confluence
4 3 (0.97%) Apache
4 3 (0.97%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.65%) Documentum
5 2 (0.65%) nginx
6 1 (0.32%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.32%) CMS
6 1 (0.32%) IIS
6 1 (0.32%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 4 (1.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.97%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.65%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (1.62%) NEC Housing
2 3 (0.97%) Maximo
2 3 (0.97%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.65%) Primavera
3 2 (0.65%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.32%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 104 (33.77%) AWS
2 75 (24.35%) Azure DevOps
3 48 (15.58%) Entra ID
4 46 (14.94%) GitHub
5 43 (13.96%) GCP
6 37 (12.01%) Microsoft 365
7 18 (5.84%) Power Platform
8 17 (5.52%) Azure Sentinel
9 14 (4.55%) Azure Data Factory
10 12 (3.90%) GitHub Actions
10 12 (3.90%) Serverless
11 11 (3.57%) Azure Key Vault
11 11 (3.57%) Power Automate
12 9 (2.92%) Azure Monitor
12 9 (2.92%) OpenShift
13 8 (2.60%) Azure AKS
13 8 (2.60%) Azure Stack
14 7 (2.27%) Dynamics 365
14 7 (2.27%) OneDrive
15 6 (1.95%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 18 (5.84%) VPN
2 14 (4.55%) Firewall
3 8 (2.60%) Network Security
4 6 (1.95%) HTTP
4 6 (1.95%) WAN
5 5 (1.62%) DNS
5 5 (1.62%) SD-WAN
6 3 (0.97%) DHCP
6 3 (0.97%) Kerberos
6 3 (0.97%) TCP/IP
6 3 (0.97%) VLAN
7 2 (0.65%) NetScaler
7 2 (0.65%) SMTP
8 1 (0.32%) LAN
8 1 (0.32%) MPLS
8 1 (0.32%) MQTT
8 1 (0.32%) NAS
8 1 (0.32%) OSPF
8 1 (0.32%) Radio Access Network
8 1 (0.32%) WAAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (8.12%) PostgreSQL
2 16 (5.19%) Elasticsearch
3 15 (4.87%) Power BI
4 12 (3.90%) SQL Server
5 7 (2.27%) Redis
6 6 (1.95%) Metadata
6 6 (1.95%) Oracle Database
6 6 (1.95%) Relational Database
7 4 (1.30%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.30%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (1.30%) MongoDB
7 4 (1.30%) MySQL
7 4 (1.30%) NoSQL
8 3 (0.97%) Tableau
9 2 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.65%) Big Data
9 2 (0.65%) ClickHouse
9 2 (0.65%) Looker
9 2 (0.65%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 30 (9.74%) Oracle APEX
2 23 (7.47%) Git
3 21 (6.82%) JIRA
4 15 (4.87%) SonarQube
5 10 (3.25%) Jenkins
6 8 (2.60%) GitLab
7 1 (0.32%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.32%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.32%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.32%) CMake
7 1 (0.32%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.32%) GoogleTest
7 1 (0.32%) JUnit
7 1 (0.32%) Maven
7 1 (0.32%) Mocha
7 1 (0.32%) Postman
7 1 (0.32%) REST Assured
7 1 (0.32%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.32%) TestNG
General
1 113 (36.69%) Social Skills
2 38 (12.34%) Public Sector
3 32 (10.39%) Finance
4 13 (4.22%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (4.22%) Documentation Skills
5 12 (3.90%) Telecoms
6 8 (2.60%) Manufacturing
7 6 (1.95%) Military
8 5 (1.62%) Electronics
8 5 (1.62%) Marketing
9 4 (1.30%) Local Government
10 3 (0.97%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.97%) Back Office
10 3 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (0.65%) Banking
11 2 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.65%) Law
11 2 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.65%) Tech for Good
12 1 (0.32%) Legal
Job Titles
1 74 (24.03%) Developer
2 61 (19.81%) Senior
3 39 (12.66%) Architect
4 31 (10.06%) Senior Developer
5 25 (8.12%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 23 (7.47%) Analyst
7 19 (6.17%) Data Engineer
8 18 (5.84%) Azure Engineer
9 15 (4.87%) Lead
10 13 (4.22%) Senior Data Engineer
11 12 (3.90%) DevSecOps Engineer
11 12 (3.90%) Solutions Architect
12 11 (3.57%) Desktop Engineer
12 11 (3.57%) Support Engineer
13 10 (3.25%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
13 10 (3.25%) Cloud Engineer
13 10 (3.25%) Consultant
14 9 (2.92%) Azure Architect
14 9 (2.92%) Backend Developer
14 9 (2.92%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (6.17%) REST
2 18 (5.84%) SOAP
3 16 (5.19%) Kafka
3 16 (5.19%) OAuth
4 15 (4.87%) React
5 14 (4.55%) ARM Templates
5 14 (4.55%) YAML
6 13 (4.22%) OAuth2
7 12 (3.90%) AngularJS
8 11 (3.57%) Keycloak
9 10 (3.25%) Node.js
9 10 (3.25%) RESTful
9 10 (3.25%) SAML
9 10 (3.25%) XML
10 9 (2.92%) .NET
10 9 (2.92%) OpenID
10 9 (2.92%) Spring
11 8 (2.60%) Elastic Stack
11 8 (2.60%) Middleware
12 7 (2.27%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 35 (11.36%) Hybrid Cloud
2 32 (10.39%) Cloud Native
3 12 (3.90%) Data Centre
3 12 (3.90%) Product Ownership
4 10 (3.25%) Onboarding
5 6 (1.95%) Security Posture
6 5 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (1.62%) IoT
6 5 (1.62%) Management Information System
7 4 (1.30%) CMDB
7 4 (1.30%) Cyber Defence
7 4 (1.30%) FMCG
7 4 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (1.30%) PKI
8 3 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (0.97%) Enterprise Cloud
8 3 (0.97%) iPad
8 3 (0.97%) iPhone
8 3 (0.97%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (0.97%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 53 (17.21%) Windows
2 21 (6.82%) Windows Server
3 18 (5.84%) Linux
4 12 (3.90%) Windows 10
5 6 (1.95%) Apple iOS
6 4 (1.30%) Android
6 4 (1.30%) Unix
7 3 (0.97%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.97%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.65%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.32%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (42.53%) DevOps
2 100 (32.47%) Agile
3 64 (20.78%) CI/CD
4 58 (18.83%) Scrum
5 44 (14.29%) Containerisation
6 43 (13.96%) Infrastructure as Code
6 43 (13.96%) Problem-Solving
7 39 (12.66%) Validation
8 34 (11.04%) Collaborative Working
9 33 (10.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 30 (9.74%) Stakeholder Management
11 29 (9.42%) Migration
12 28 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 28 (9.09%) Software Delivery
13 27 (8.77%) ITIL
13 27 (8.77%) Requirements Analysis
13 27 (8.77%) Web Application Development
14 25 (8.12%) Test Automation
15 24 (7.79%) DevSecOps
16 21 (6.82%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 68 (22.08%) SQL
2 61 (19.81%) Python
3 48 (15.58%) JavaScript
4 41 (13.31%) PowerShell
5 37 (12.01%) PL/SQL
6 20 (6.49%) Go
7 16 (5.19%) Java
7 16 (5.19%) TypeScript
8 15 (4.87%) Bicep
9 13 (4.22%) Bash
10 7 (2.27%) C#
11 3 (0.97%) Ruby
12 2 (0.65%) C
12 2 (0.65%) C++
13 1 (0.32%) Apex Code
13 1 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.32%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.32%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 178 (57.79%) Security Cleared
2 163 (52.92%) SC Cleared
3 39 (12.66%) Azure Certification
4 36 (11.69%) DV Cleared
5 11 (3.57%) AWS Certification
5 11 (3.57%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (3.25%) Degree
7 9 (2.92%) CISSP
8 7 (2.27%) CISM
9 6 (1.95%) Network+ Certification
10 4 (1.30%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 4 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.97%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (0.97%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 3 (0.97%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.65%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.65%) OCA
12 2 (0.65%) OCP
12 2 (0.65%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (7.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 22 (7.14%) NCSC
3 18 (5.84%) GDPR
4 17 (5.52%) NIST
5 12 (3.90%) QA
6 4 (1.30%) NIST 800
6 4 (1.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (0.97%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.97%) Government Security Classifications
7 3 (0.97%) JSP 440
7 3 (0.97%) PSD2
8 2 (0.65%) GRC
8 2 (0.65%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.32%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.32%) SLA
9 1 (0.32%) WCAG
System Software
1 58 (18.83%) Active Directory
2 51 (16.56%) Docker
3 10 (3.25%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (2.60%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (2.27%) Hyper-V
6 6 (1.95%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.65%) Oracle RAC
7 2 (0.65%) XenDesktop
8 1 (0.32%) KVM
8 1 (0.32%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.32%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.32%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 54 (17.53%) Kubernetes
2 47 (15.26%) Terraform
3 26 (8.44%) Microsoft Intune
4 17 (5.52%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (4.55%) Grafana
5 14 (4.55%) Prometheus
6 13 (4.22%) Ansible
7 12 (3.90%) SCCM
8 6 (1.95%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 5 (1.62%) Kibana
10 4 (1.30%) Data Guard
10 4 (1.30%) Oracle RMAN
10 4 (1.30%) Puppet
11 3 (0.97%) Argo
11 3 (0.97%) logstash
12 2 (0.65%) FortiGate
12 2 (0.65%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 2 (0.65%) PingFederate
12 2 (0.65%) Podman
13 1 (0.32%) CA Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 105 (34.09%) Microsoft
2 47 (15.26%) Oracle
3 15 (4.87%) ServiceNow
4 11 (3.57%) VMware
5 10 (3.25%) Databricks
6 8 (2.60%) Google
6 8 (2.60%) Salesforce
7 7 (2.27%) Red Hat
7 7 (2.27%) SAP
8 6 (1.95%) Blue Prism
8 6 (1.95%) NetApp
9 5 (1.62%) ForgeRock
9 5 (1.62%) NEC
9 5 (1.62%) Ping Identity
10 4 (1.30%) Cisco
10 4 (1.30%) MuleSoft
10 4 (1.30%) Okta
10 4 (1.30%) Splunk
10 4 (1.30%) Starlink
11 3 (0.97%) IBM