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

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 8 13
Rank change year-on-year +2 +5 -6
Contract jobs citing Azure 401 259 255
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 10.82% 13.19% 10.00%
As % of the Cloud Services category 42.43% 41.24% 36.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 270 196 179
10th Percentile £405 £310 £348
25th Percentile £463 £405 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £512 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.42% +2.40% -9.71%
75th Percentile £648 £675 £600
90th Percentile £738 £725 £700
England median daily rate £530 £525 £538
% change year-on-year +0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 1
10th Percentile £68.51 £27.40 -
25th Percentile £77.52 £46.75 £77.50
Median hourly rate £92.53 £64.00 £85.00
Median % change year-on-year +44.58% -24.71% +434.59%
75th Percentile £96.27 £73.75 £92.50
90th Percentile £98.51 £76.00 -
England median hourly rate £52.50 £33.39 £35.00
% change year-on-year +57.26% -4.61% -24.21%

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 945 628 700
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 25.49% 31.99% 27.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 607 428 441
10th Percentile £350 £213 £233
25th Percentile £450 £355 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £488 £532
Median % change year-on-year +12.82% -8.36% -3.27%
75th Percentile £650 £603 £630
90th Percentile £738 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £503 £525
% change year-on-year +4.48% -4.29% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 31 43
10th Percentile £14.36 £18.51 £25.26
25th Percentile £16.62 - £33.00
Median hourly rate £20.58 £18.87 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.04% -73.04% +112.12%
75th Percentile £54.40 £34.25 -
90th Percentile £83.50 £60.00 -
England median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +29.22% -28.14% +8.29%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 8 October 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
Bristol -3 107 £553 +14.26% 98
Somerset +2 96 £500 +17.65% 78
Devon +10 61 £530 +0.95% 60
Gloucestershire -5 45 £550 -3.30% 114
Wiltshire -5 42 £563 +0.90% 54
Dorset -2 24 £625 +24.38% 32
Avon - 2 - - 64
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 30 (7.48%) Confluence
2 25 (6.23%) SharePoint
3 10 (2.49%) Apache Spark
4 6 (1.50%) Microsoft Exchange
5 5 (1.25%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (1.00%) Apache
7 2 (0.50%) nginx
8 1 (0.25%) ColdFusion
8 1 (0.25%) JBoss
8 1 (0.25%) Oracle Coherence
8 1 (0.25%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.25%) Traefik
Applications
1 6 (1.50%) MS Visio
2 3 (0.75%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.75%) Trello
3 2 (0.50%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.25%) ResourceLink
1 1 (0.25%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 174 (43.39%) AWS
2 79 (19.70%) Azure DevOps
3 75 (18.70%) GCP
4 51 (12.72%) Entra ID
5 39 (9.73%) Microsoft 365
6 28 (6.98%) GitHub
7 27 (6.73%) Power Platform
8 16 (3.99%) Azure Data Factory
9 14 (3.49%) Azure AKS
9 14 (3.49%) GitHub Actions
9 14 (3.49%) Serverless
10 12 (2.99%) Azure Key Vault
11 11 (2.74%) SaaS
12 10 (2.49%) Azure Functions
12 10 (2.49%) Azure Sentinel
13 9 (2.24%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 9 (2.24%) Cloud Computing
14 8 (2.00%) Azure Monitor
14 8 (2.00%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 7 (1.75%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 36 (8.98%) Firewall
2 24 (5.99%) DNS
3 18 (4.49%) TCP/IP
4 16 (3.99%) DHCP
4 16 (3.99%) WAN
5 13 (3.24%) VPN
6 11 (2.74%) VLAN
7 9 (2.24%) BGP
8 8 (2.00%) VSAN
9 7 (1.75%) Network Security
10 5 (1.25%) Cisco IOS
10 5 (1.25%) LAN
10 5 (1.25%) Wireless
11 4 (1.00%) OSPF
11 4 (1.00%) SAN
12 3 (0.75%) Intrusion Detection
12 3 (0.75%) NAS
12 3 (0.75%) Software-Defined Networking
13 2 (0.50%) Asterisk PBX
13 2 (0.50%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (5.49%) Power BI
2 21 (5.24%) SQL Server
3 15 (3.74%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (3.24%) Elasticsearch
4 13 (3.24%) Geospatial Data
5 8 (2.00%) Data Lake
5 8 (2.00%) Oracle Database
6 7 (1.75%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (1.50%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (1.50%) Big Data
7 6 (1.50%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (1.25%) Metadata
8 5 (1.25%) NoSQL
8 5 (1.25%) Power Query
9 4 (1.00%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (1.00%) Hadoop
9 4 (1.00%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.75%) EDRMS
11 2 (0.50%) Relational Database
11 2 (0.50%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 48 (11.97%) Git
2 38 (9.48%) JIRA
3 35 (8.73%) Jenkins
4 33 (8.23%) GitLab
5 11 (2.74%) MSI
6 3 (0.75%) Claude Code
6 3 (0.75%) Selenium
6 3 (0.75%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.50%) Appium
7 2 (0.50%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.50%) JUnit
7 2 (0.50%) Postman
7 2 (0.50%) Spinnaker
7 2 (0.50%) Visual Studio Team System
8 1 (0.25%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.25%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.25%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.25%) TestNG
8 1 (0.25%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.25%) WebDriver
General
1 69 (17.21%) Social Skills
2 59 (14.71%) Public Sector
3 23 (5.74%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (5.24%) Finance
5 12 (2.99%) Local Government
6 10 (2.49%) Military
7 8 (2.00%) Banking
7 8 (2.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (1.75%) Legal
9 6 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.00%) Police
10 4 (1.00%) Retail
11 3 (0.75%) Advertising
11 3 (0.75%) Aviation
11 3 (0.75%) Investment Banking
11 3 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.50%) Marketing
13 1 (0.25%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.25%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.25%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 59 (14.71%) Architect
2 58 (14.46%) Developer
3 40 (9.98%) Senior
4 29 (7.23%) DevOps Engineer
5 28 (6.98%) Lead
6 27 (6.73%) Consultant
7 26 (6.48%) Product Manager
8 24 (5.99%) Digital Product Manager
9 21 (5.24%) Data Engineer
10 20 (4.99%) Solutions Architect
11 17 (4.24%) Azure Consultant
11 17 (4.24%) Azure Engineer
11 17 (4.24%) Software Developer
12 16 (3.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 15 (3.74%) Analyst
13 15 (3.74%) Azure DevOps Engineer
14 14 (3.49%) Technical Architect
15 13 (3.24%) DBA
16 12 (2.99%) .NET Developer
17 11 (2.74%) Data Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (23.44%) Terraform
2 34 (8.48%) .NET
3 23 (5.74%) REST
4 22 (5.49%) RESTful
5 18 (4.49%) React
6 17 (4.24%) .NET Core
6 17 (4.24%) .NET Framework
6 17 (4.24%) CSS
6 17 (4.24%) HTML
7 15 (3.74%) Kafka
8 13 (3.24%) GeoJSON
9 11 (2.74%) ATL
9 11 (2.74%) COM
9 11 (2.74%) CSS3
9 11 (2.74%) HTML5
9 11 (2.74%) MFC
9 11 (2.74%) WPF
10 10 (2.49%) ARM Templates
11 9 (2.24%) Node.js
12 8 (2.00%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 56 (13.97%) Cloud Native
2 31 (7.73%) Legacy Systems
3 26 (6.48%) Onboarding
4 24 (5.99%) Product Ownership
5 16 (3.99%) Hybrid Cloud
6 15 (3.74%) Enterprise Software
7 14 (3.49%) Wiki
8 12 (2.99%) Data Centre
8 12 (2.99%) Linux Command Line
9 9 (2.24%) Security Operations Centre
10 8 (2.00%) Enterprise Cloud
11 7 (1.75%) Cyber Threat
11 7 (1.75%) PKI
11 7 (1.75%) Public Cloud
12 6 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (1.25%) AI Agents
14 4 (1.00%) Low-Code
14 4 (1.00%) Team-Oriented Environment
15 3 (0.75%) Driving Licence
15 3 (0.75%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 58 (14.46%) Windows
2 29 (7.23%) Linux
3 20 (4.99%) Windows Server
4 8 (2.00%) Windows 10
5 7 (1.75%) Unix
6 5 (1.25%) Android
6 5 (1.25%) Mac OS
7 4 (1.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.75%) Rocky
8 3 (0.75%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.50%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.50%) Debian
9 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.25%) CentOS
10 1 (0.25%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (35.41%) DevOps
2 131 (32.67%) CI/CD
3 121 (30.17%) Agile
4 90 (22.44%) Infrastructure as Code
5 75 (18.70%) Containerisation
6 58 (14.46%) Roadmaps
7 57 (14.21%) DevSecOps
8 55 (13.72%) Continuous Improvement
9 53 (13.22%) Stakeholder Management
10 46 (11.47%) Problem-Solving
11 44 (10.97%) Decision-Making
12 40 (9.98%) Technical Leadership
13 39 (9.73%) Analytics
13 39 (9.73%) Platform Engineering
14 38 (9.48%) Deployment Automation
14 38 (9.48%) Software Engineering
15 36 (8.98%) Observability
16 35 (8.73%) Cybersecurity
16 35 (8.73%) Test Automation
17 34 (8.48%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 84 (20.95%) Python
2 64 (15.96%) SQL
3 41 (10.22%) C#
3 41 (10.22%) PowerShell
4 37 (9.23%) Java
5 36 (8.98%) Bash
6 27 (6.73%) JavaScript
7 26 (6.48%) Bicep
8 24 (5.99%) TypeScript
9 15 (3.74%) Go
10 5 (1.25%) BeanShell
10 5 (1.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 4 (1.00%) PL/SQL
11 4 (1.00%) R
12 3 (0.75%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.75%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.50%) C++
14 1 (0.25%) C
14 1 (0.25%) Groovy
14 1 (0.25%) Scala
Qualifications
1 214 (53.37%) Security Cleared
2 148 (36.91%) SC Cleared
3 73 (18.20%) DV Cleared
4 20 (4.99%) Degree
5 17 (4.24%) CISSP
6 15 (3.74%) Azure Certification
7 13 (3.24%) Cisco Certification
8 11 (2.74%) CISM
9 9 (2.24%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (1.50%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.50%) CCNA
10 6 (1.50%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.25%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (1.00%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
13 3 (0.75%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (0.75%) VCAP
14 2 (0.50%) CCSK
14 2 (0.50%) Master's Degree
14 2 (0.50%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (5.24%) Data Quality
2 19 (4.74%) QA
3 18 (4.49%) NCSC
4 14 (3.49%) Accessibility
5 11 (2.74%) SLA
5 11 (2.74%) WCAG
6 6 (1.50%) GDPR
6 6 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (1.25%) ISO 9000
7 5 (1.25%) NIST
8 2 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.50%) GRC
9 1 (0.25%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.25%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.25%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.25%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.25%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.25%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 73 (18.20%) Docker
2 53 (13.22%) Active Directory
3 30 (7.48%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (4.99%) Hyper-V
5 17 (4.24%) Virtual Desktop
6 11 (2.74%) vSphere
7 10 (2.49%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (1.75%) VMware NSX
9 4 (1.00%) VirtualBox
10 3 (0.75%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.50%) KVM
12 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.25%) NFS
12 1 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.25%) zsh
Systems Management
1 100 (24.94%) Kubernetes
2 44 (10.97%) Ansible
3 13 (3.24%) Microsoft Intune
4 11 (2.74%) Grafana
5 10 (2.49%) Prometheus
6 9 (2.24%) Argo
7 7 (1.75%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 6 (1.50%) FortiGate
8 6 (1.50%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (1.25%) Istio
9 5 (1.25%) OPNET
9 5 (1.25%) VxRail
10 4 (1.00%) Proxmox
11 3 (0.75%) CASB
12 2 (0.50%) Data Guard
12 2 (0.50%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.50%) Kustomize
12 2 (0.50%) linkerd
12 2 (0.50%) Oracle RMAN
12 2 (0.50%) Podman
Vendors
1 148 (36.91%) Microsoft
2 31 (7.73%) VMware
3 30 (7.48%) Google
4 22 (5.49%) Oracle
5 19 (4.74%) Databricks
6 14 (3.49%) Cisco
7 10 (2.49%) CyberArk
8 8 (2.00%) Splunk
9 6 (1.50%) Dynatrace
9 6 (1.50%) Zscaler
10 5 (1.25%) InterSystems
10 5 (1.25%) MuleSoft
10 5 (1.25%) Red Hat
11 4 (1.00%) Citrix
11 4 (1.00%) Foundry
12 3 (0.75%) Apple
12 3 (0.75%) Meraki
12 3 (0.75%) ServiceNow
12 3 (0.75%) Thales
13 2 (0.50%) BiZZdesign