Windows Server Contract Job Trends in the South West

Microsoft Windows Server
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Windows Server skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 72 54 70
Rank change year-on-year -18 +16 -20
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 66 82 83
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 2.83% 3.92% 2.83%
As % of the Operating Systems category 15.71% 18.89% 16.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 55 53
10th Percentile £340 £309 £176
25th Percentile £500 £339 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -2.56% +3.72%
75th Percentile £688 £630 £630
90th Percentile £715 £733 £695
England median daily rate £500 £475 £450
% change year-on-year +5.26% +5.56% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £89.00 - -
England median hourly rate £19.25 £53.00 £55.28
% change year-on-year -63.68% -4.12% +121.12%

All Operating Systems
South West

Windows Server falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring operating system skills in the South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 420 434 506
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 18.02% 20.73% 17.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 267 271 339
10th Percentile £184 £200 £169
25th Percentile £263 £224 £269
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £606
90th Percentile £700 £725 £695
England median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - -7.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 67 28 50
10th Percentile £17.69 £65.00 £20.23
25th Percentile £18.87 £65.75 £46.87
Median hourly rate £38.94 £67.75 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -42.52% +8.40% -3.85%
75th Percentile £67.84 £69.06 £70.00
90th Percentile £101.00 £71.20 £71.39
England median hourly rate £25.15 £55.33 £32.50
% change year-on-year -54.54% +70.23% +30.00%

Windows Server
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Windows Server relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Windows Server job vacancy trend in the South West

Windows Server
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Windows Server.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Windows Server

Windows Server
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows Server in the South West over the 6 months to 21 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Windows Server in the South West

Windows Server
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Windows Server.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Windows Server

Windows Server
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 Windows Server within the South West region over the 6 months to 21 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
Wiltshire -5 29 £653 +13.48% 11
Somerset -7 13 £575 - 9
Gloucestershire -17 9 £350 -25.93% 10
Bristol -21 9 £550 +15.79% 12
Dorset +8 3 £540 +66.15% 3
Devon +5 2 £263 -20.45% 5
Windows Server
England

Windows Server
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 16 (24.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (10.61%) SharePoint
3 5 (7.58%) Confluence
3 5 (7.58%) Skype for Business
4 4 (6.06%) IIS
5 1 (1.52%) Apache
5 1 (1.52%) nginx
Applications
1 8 (12.12%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (3.03%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (3.03%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 22 (33.33%) Azure
2 9 (13.64%) Microsoft 365
3 5 (7.58%) AWS
3 5 (7.58%) Azure Sentinel
3 5 (7.58%) Entra ID
4 4 (6.06%) GCP
4 4 (6.06%) IaaS
5 3 (4.55%) Azure Monitor
5 3 (4.55%) PaaS
6 1 (1.52%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (1.52%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (1.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 29 (43.94%) DNS
2 21 (31.82%) Firewall
3 17 (25.76%) DHCP
4 9 (13.64%) Skype
5 7 (10.61%) VPN
6 5 (7.58%) Unified Communications
7 3 (4.55%) 4G
7 3 (4.55%) 5G
7 3 (4.55%) TCP/IP
8 2 (3.03%) SMTP
8 2 (3.03%) VLAN
8 2 (3.03%) WAN
9 1 (1.52%) DKIM
9 1 (1.52%) DMARC
9 1 (1.52%) LAN
9 1 (1.52%) MQTT
9 1 (1.52%) Network Security
9 1 (1.52%) SD-WAN
9 1 (1.52%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (9.09%) SQL Server
2 2 (3.03%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 5 (7.58%) JIRA
2 4 (6.06%) Bitbucket
2 4 (6.06%) Git
3 3 (4.55%) GitLab
3 3 (4.55%) Jenkins
4 2 (3.03%) Artifactory
4 2 (3.03%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (1.52%) GoCD
5 1 (1.52%) Maven
5 1 (1.52%) SonarQube
General
1 31 (46.97%) Social Skills
2 16 (24.24%) Public Sector
3 13 (19.70%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (18.18%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (6.06%) Finance
5 4 (6.06%) Military
6 3 (4.55%) Electronics
6 3 (4.55%) Manufacturing
6 3 (4.55%) Marketing
6 3 (4.55%) Telecoms
7 1 (1.52%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 13 (19.70%) Architect
2 11 (16.67%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 8 (12.12%) Wintel Engineer
4 6 (9.09%) Solutions Architect
5 4 (6.06%) Administrator
6 3 (4.55%) Engineering Specialist
6 3 (4.55%) IT Engineer
6 3 (4.55%) Lead
6 3 (4.55%) Senior
6 3 (4.55%) Systems Administrator
6 3 (4.55%) Test Specialist
7 2 (3.03%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Support
7 2 (3.03%) Applications Engineer
7 2 (3.03%) DevOps Engineer
7 2 (3.03%) Infrastructure Architect
7 2 (3.03%) Infrastructure Support
7 2 (3.03%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
7 2 (3.03%) Platform Engineer
7 2 (3.03%) Senior Systems Administrator
7 2 (3.03%) Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (19.70%) OAuth
1 13 (19.70%) OAuth2
1 13 (19.70%) OpenID
1 13 (19.70%) SAML
2 2 (3.03%) .NET
2 2 (3.03%) Elastic Stack
2 2 (3.03%) React
2 2 (3.03%) REST
3 1 (1.52%) AngularJS
3 1 (1.52%) Apache NiFi
3 1 (1.52%) ASP.NET Web API
3 1 (1.52%) Bootstrap
3 1 (1.52%) Express.js
3 1 (1.52%) Middleware
3 1 (1.52%) SOAP
3 1 (1.52%) WCF
3 1 (1.52%) Web Services
3 1 (1.52%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 14 (21.21%) PKI
2 6 (9.09%) Private Cloud
2 6 (9.09%) Replication
3 3 (4.55%) Data Centre
3 3 (4.55%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (1.52%) Client/Server
4 1 (1.52%) Cloud Native
4 1 (1.52%) Cyber Defence
4 1 (1.52%) Driving Licence
4 1 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (1.52%) Enterprise Storage
4 1 (1.52%) iPad
4 1 (1.52%) iPhone
4 1 (1.52%) Management Information System
4 1 (1.52%) NHS
4 1 (1.52%) Operational Technology
4 1 (1.52%) Product Ownership
4 1 (1.52%) Public Cloud
4 1 (1.52%) Security Posture
4 1 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 66 (100.00%) Windows
2 16 (24.24%) Linux
3 8 (12.12%) Windows Server 2012
4 6 (9.09%) Windows 10
5 5 (7.58%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (4.55%) CentOS
6 3 (4.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (4.55%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (3.03%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (28.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 18 (27.27%) ITIL
2 18 (27.27%) Problem-Solving
3 15 (22.73%) Service Management
4 13 (19.70%) RBAC
5 12 (18.18%) Change Management
6 11 (16.67%) Critical Thinking
6 11 (16.67%) System Testing
7 10 (15.15%) Load Balancing
8 9 (13.64%) High Availability
8 9 (13.64%) Identity Access Management
8 9 (13.64%) Mentoring
9 8 (12.12%) Agile
10 7 (10.61%) Identity Management
10 7 (10.61%) Migration
10 7 (10.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 6 (9.09%) Business Continuity
11 6 (9.09%) Technical Leadership
12 5 (7.58%) Computer Science
12 5 (7.58%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 36 (54.55%) PowerShell
2 11 (16.67%) SQL
3 5 (7.58%) Python
4 3 (4.55%) Bicep
5 2 (3.03%) C#
6 1 (1.52%) Bash
6 1 (1.52%) T-SQL
6 1 (1.52%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 48 (72.73%) Security Cleared
2 30 (45.45%) SC Cleared
3 28 (42.42%) Microsoft Certification
4 19 (28.79%) DV Cleared
5 12 (18.18%) MCSE
6 8 (12.12%) Degree
7 6 (9.09%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (7.58%) CCNA
8 5 (7.58%) CCNP
8 5 (7.58%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (7.58%) Master's Degree
9 4 (6.06%) MCSA
9 4 (6.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 3 (4.55%) Azure Certification
10 3 (4.55%) OCA
10 3 (4.55%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (6.06%) NCSC
2 2 (3.03%) SLA
System Software
1 48 (72.73%) Active Directory
2 26 (39.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (19.70%) Hyper-V
4 5 (7.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
4 5 (7.58%) Virtual Servers
5 4 (6.06%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (6.06%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (3.03%) vSphere
7 1 (1.52%) Docker
7 1 (1.52%) Firmware
7 1 (1.52%) KVM
Systems Management
1 16 (24.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 15 (22.73%) Single Sign-On
3 12 (18.18%) WSUS
4 11 (16.67%) SCCM
5 7 (10.61%) Terraform
6 6 (9.09%) Ansible
7 5 (7.58%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (4.55%) Check_MK
8 3 (4.55%) vCenter Server
9 2 (3.03%) Kubernetes
9 2 (3.03%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (3.03%) NetApp OnCommand
9 2 (3.03%) PowerCLI
9 2 (3.03%) vMotion
10 1 (1.52%) FreeIPA
10 1 (1.52%) Grafana
10 1 (1.52%) OPNET
10 1 (1.52%) Rancher
10 1 (1.52%) SCOM
10 1 (1.52%) vRealize
Vendors
1 51 (77.27%) Microsoft
2 33 (50.00%) VMware
3 10 (15.15%) Cisco
4 8 (12.12%) SolarWinds
4 8 (12.12%) Splunk
4 8 (12.12%) Veeam
5 5 (7.58%) Atlassian
5 5 (7.58%) Oracle
6 4 (6.06%) Juniper
6 4 (6.06%) Red Hat
7 3 (4.55%) Fortinet
7 3 (4.55%) SAP
8 2 (3.03%) CyberArk
8 2 (3.03%) Google
8 2 (3.03%) NetApp
8 2 (3.03%) PTC
9 1 (1.52%) Citrix
9 1 (1.52%) Dell
9 1 (1.52%) Extreme Networks
9 1 (1.52%) F5