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

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 10 8
Rank change year-on-year +4 -2 -2
Contract jobs citing Azure 344 230 390
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.14% 12.96% 12.41%
As % of the Cloud Services category 45.56% 40.28% 46.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 225 182 312
10th Percentile £342 £330 £296
25th Percentile £425 £425 £437
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £512 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.57% - -7.08%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £700 £700 £712
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -2.65%
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% -19.69%

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 755 571 835
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 26.64% 32.17% 26.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 509 410 635
10th Percentile £227 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £413 £384
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £625
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 61 10 25
10th Percentile £19.25 £14.89 -
25th Percentile £54.00 £19.84 £14.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £26.81 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year +114.45% +84.91% -65.88%
75th Percentile £58.75 £28.99 £21.00
90th Percentile - £68.75 £42.45
England median hourly rate £40.00 £27.50 £21.42
% change year-on-year +45.45% +28.41% -14.34%

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 28 February 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 28 February 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 28 February 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 0 103 £475 -20.83% 41
Somerset +5 81 £525 -10.64% 28
Bristol -8 63 £523 -0.38% 70
Wiltshire +6 53 £525 -13.40% 25
Dorset 0 19 £650 +20.93% 16
Devon -3 15 £550 +33.33% 27
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 20 (5.81%) SharePoint
2 16 (4.65%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.74%) Confluence
4 5 (1.45%) Apache
5 3 (0.87%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.58%) 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 (1.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.29%) InDesign
3 1 (0.29%) PTC Creo
3 1 (0.29%) Trello
3 1 (0.29%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 9 (2.62%) Maximo
2 6 (1.74%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.58%) Primavera
3 2 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.58%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.29%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 98 (28.49%) AWS
2 87 (25.29%) Azure DevOps
3 46 (13.37%) GitHub
4 44 (12.79%) Entra ID
5 39 (11.34%) GCP
6 37 (10.76%) Microsoft 365
7 24 (6.98%) Azure Data Factory
7 24 (6.98%) Power Platform
8 20 (5.81%) Azure Sentinel
9 16 (4.65%) Azure Monitor
10 15 (4.36%) OpenShift
11 14 (4.07%) Azure Key Vault
11 14 (4.07%) GitHub Actions
12 12 (3.49%) Azure AKS
12 12 (3.49%) Serverless
13 9 (2.62%) Dynamics 365
14 8 (2.33%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 8 (2.33%) OneDrive
15 6 (1.74%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 6 (1.74%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.94%) VPN
2 14 (4.07%) Firewall
3 9 (2.62%) DHCP
4 7 (2.03%) DNS
5 6 (1.74%) Network Security
6 4 (1.16%) LAN
6 4 (1.16%) TCP/IP
6 4 (1.16%) WAN
7 3 (0.87%) HTTP
7 3 (0.87%) Kerberos
8 2 (0.58%) NAS
8 2 (0.58%) SAN
8 2 (0.58%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.58%) SMTP
8 2 (0.58%) VLAN
9 1 (0.29%) 5G
9 1 (0.29%) DKIM
9 1 (0.29%) DMARC
9 1 (0.29%) Hyperconnected
9 1 (0.29%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (7.56%) PostgreSQL
2 21 (6.10%) Power BI
3 13 (3.78%) Elasticsearch
4 11 (3.20%) Data Warehouse
4 11 (3.20%) SQL Server
5 9 (2.62%) Redis
6 8 (2.33%) Metadata
7 6 (1.74%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (1.16%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.16%) MongoDB
8 4 (1.16%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.87%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.58%) GIS
10 2 (0.58%) Looker
10 2 (0.58%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.58%) Power Query
10 2 (0.58%) Star Schema
10 2 (0.58%) Tableau
11 1 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 30 (8.72%) Oracle APEX
2 21 (6.10%) Git
3 16 (4.65%) JIRA
4 10 (2.91%) SonarQube
5 9 (2.62%) GitLab
6 8 (2.33%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.58%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.29%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.29%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.29%) Maven
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 98 (28.49%) Social Skills
2 28 (8.14%) Public Sector
3 25 (7.27%) Finance
4 15 (4.36%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (2.91%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (1.74%) Telecoms
7 5 (1.45%) Banking
7 5 (1.45%) Legal
7 5 (1.45%) Marketing
8 4 (1.16%) Back Office
8 4 (1.16%) Military
9 3 (0.87%) Local Government
9 3 (0.87%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.58%) Electronics
10 2 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.58%) Retail
11 1 (0.29%) Law
11 1 (0.29%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.29%) Publishing
11 1 (0.29%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 65 (18.90%) Developer
2 57 (16.57%) Senior
3 49 (14.24%) Consultant
4 40 (11.63%) Implementation Consultant
5 33 (9.59%) Architect
6 31 (9.01%) Senior Developer
7 27 (7.85%) Data Engineer
8 23 (6.69%) Analyst
8 23 (6.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 22 (6.40%) Azure Engineer
10 20 (5.81%) DevOps Engineer
11 13 (3.78%) Lead
12 12 (3.49%) Data Architect
12 12 (3.49%) Senior Data Engineer
13 11 (3.20%) Cloud Engineer
14 10 (2.91%) Backend Developer
14 10 (2.91%) Desktop Engineer
14 10 (2.91%) Desktop Support
14 10 (2.91%) Desktop Support Engineer
14 10 (2.91%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (6.10%) REST
2 17 (4.94%) Kafka
3 15 (4.36%) ARM Templates
4 13 (3.78%) OAuth
5 12 (3.49%) Keycloak
6 11 (3.20%) SOAP
7 10 (2.91%) .NET
7 10 (2.91%) OAuth2
7 10 (2.91%) SAML
7 10 (2.91%) YAML
8 9 (2.62%) FastAPI
8 9 (2.62%) Flask
8 9 (2.62%) GraphQL
8 9 (2.62%) gRPC
8 9 (2.62%) Node.js
8 9 (2.62%) React
8 9 (2.62%) WebSockets
9 8 (2.33%) OpenID
9 8 (2.33%) RESTful
10 7 (2.03%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 33 (9.59%) Hybrid Cloud
2 25 (7.27%) Cloud Native
3 15 (4.36%) Product Ownership
4 11 (3.20%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.62%) Public Cloud
6 8 (2.33%) Data Centre
7 7 (2.03%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.74%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (1.74%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.16%) CMDB
9 4 (1.16%) FMCG
10 3 (0.87%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.87%) Data Structures
10 3 (0.87%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.87%) Private Cloud
10 3 (0.87%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.58%) Cyber Defence
11 2 (0.58%) Data Fabric
11 2 (0.58%) Distributed Computing
11 2 (0.58%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 45 (13.08%) Windows
2 21 (6.10%) Linux
3 16 (4.65%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.16%) Windows 10
4 4 (1.16%) Windows Server 2016
5 3 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.87%) Unix
6 2 (0.58%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.58%) Debian
6 2 (0.58%) Rocky
6 2 (0.58%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 138 (40.12%) DevOps
2 88 (25.58%) Agile
3 59 (17.15%) CI/CD
4 48 (13.95%) Scrum
5 47 (13.66%) ERP
6 46 (13.37%) Validation
7 41 (11.92%) PLM
7 41 (11.92%) Problem-Solving
8 39 (11.34%) Containerisation
9 33 (9.59%) Infrastructure as Code
9 33 (9.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 32 (9.30%) Analytics
10 32 (9.30%) Collaborative Working
11 31 (9.01%) ETL
11 31 (9.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 29 (8.43%) Software Delivery
13 28 (8.14%) ITIL
13 28 (8.14%) Migration
14 27 (7.85%) Business Intelligence
14 27 (7.85%) Requirements Analysis
Programming Languages
1 80 (23.26%) SQL
2 63 (18.31%) Python
3 51 (14.83%) JavaScript
4 43 (12.50%) PowerShell
5 37 (10.76%) PL/SQL
6 24 (6.98%) Go
7 20 (5.81%) Bicep
8 13 (3.78%) Java
8 13 (3.78%) TypeScript
9 9 (2.62%) C#
10 7 (2.03%) Bash
11 4 (1.16%) T-SQL
12 3 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.87%) Ruby
13 1 (0.29%) C++
13 1 (0.29%) Scala
Qualifications
1 163 (47.38%) Security Cleared
2 150 (43.60%) SC Cleared
3 37 (10.76%) Azure Certification
4 32 (9.30%) DV Cleared
5 15 (4.36%) Degree
6 13 (3.78%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (2.91%) CISM
7 10 (2.91%) CISSP
8 8 (2.33%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 7 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.74%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.87%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 2 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.58%) BPSS Clearance
13 1 (0.29%) CBAP
13 1 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
13 1 (0.29%) CSPO
13 1 (0.29%) IIBA
13 1 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 1 (0.29%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (6.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (6.10%) GDPR
3 17 (4.94%) NIST
4 16 (4.65%) NCSC
5 14 (4.07%) QA
6 11 (3.20%) Data Quality
7 9 (2.62%) NIST 800
8 3 (0.87%) Government Security Classifications
8 3 (0.87%) PSD2
8 3 (0.87%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.58%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.58%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.58%) SLA
9 2 (0.58%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.29%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.29%) GRC
10 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 63 (18.31%) Active Directory
2 44 (12.79%) Docker
3 12 (3.49%) Hyper-V
4 8 (2.33%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (1.45%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.58%) vSphere
8 1 (0.29%) KVM
8 1 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.29%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 59 (17.15%) Kubernetes
2 46 (13.37%) Terraform
3 22 (6.40%) Microsoft Intune
4 18 (5.23%) Single Sign-On
5 13 (3.78%) Grafana
6 11 (3.20%) Prometheus
6 11 (3.20%) SCCM
7 10 (2.91%) Ansible
8 9 (2.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (0.87%) Argo
10 2 (0.58%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.58%) Kibana
10 2 (0.58%) PingFederate
10 2 (0.58%) 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
1 109 (31.69%) Microsoft
2 44 (12.79%) Oracle
3 40 (11.63%) Siemens
4 19 (5.52%) Databricks
5 13 (3.78%) Google
6 11 (3.20%) Red Hat
7 10 (2.91%) VMware
8 9 (2.62%) IBM
8 9 (2.62%) ServiceNow
9 8 (2.33%) SAP
10 7 (2.03%) NEC
11 5 (1.45%) Cisco
11 5 (1.45%) ForgeRock
11 5 (1.45%) Ping Identity
11 5 (1.45%) Salesforce
12 4 (1.16%) NetApp
13 2 (0.58%) Citrix
13 2 (0.58%) Dell
13 2 (0.58%) Micro Focus
13 2 (0.58%) NetIQ