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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 63 64 45
Rank change year-on-year +1 -19 +17
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 52 82 135
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West 2.63% 3.08% 4.20%
As % of the Operating Systems category 14.21% 14.77% 22.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 54 74
10th Percentile £321 £325 £169
25th Percentile £375 £461 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £540 £495
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% +9.09% +5.32%
75th Percentile £584 £613 £600
90th Percentile £650 £679 £662
England median daily rate £508 £488 £483
% change year-on-year +4.10% +0.93% +7.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 6
10th Percentile - - £39.50
25th Percentile £72.50 - £60.00
Median hourly rate £75.00 - £61.50
75th Percentile £77.50 - £64.50
90th Percentile - - £119.75
England median hourly rate £30.00 £50.00 £48.40
% change year-on-year -40.00% +3.31% +115.11%

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 366 555 611
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 18.53% 20.87% 19.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 340 404
10th Percentile £188 £173 £173
25th Percentile £233 £322 £348
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £435 £523 £520
Median % change year-on-year -16.75% +0.48% +9.47%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £630
90th Percentile £670 £672 £707
England median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 62 55
10th Percentile £18.28 £65.00 £20.10
25th Percentile £18.87 £66.25 £48.32
Median hourly rate £25.15 £70.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -64.07% +7.69% -
75th Percentile £65.00 - £78.00
90th Percentile £68.00 - -
England median hourly rate £25.15 £57.25 £47.67
% change year-on-year -56.07% +20.11% +99.35%

Windows Server
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Job postings citing Windows Server as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Job vacancy trend for Windows Server 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 18 September 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 18 September 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
Bristol +7 14 £550 +15.79% 6
Wiltshire +1 14 £563 +2.27% 5
Somerset +6 12 £350 -27.27% 9
Gloucestershire +12 8 £338 -42.55% 17
Dorset -1 3 £540 +27.06% 4
Devon +7 1 £155 -71.82% 6
Windows Server
England

Windows Server
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 11 (21.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (15.38%) SharePoint
3 7 (13.46%) Skype for Business
4 4 (7.69%) Confluence
4 4 (7.69%) IIS
5 2 (3.85%) Documentum
6 1 (1.92%) nginx
6 1 (1.92%) Tomcat
Applications
1 6 (11.54%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (3.85%) Windchill
3 1 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (3.85%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 20 (38.46%) Azure
2 4 (7.69%) Microsoft 365
3 3 (5.77%) AWS
4 1 (1.92%) AWS Direct Connect
4 1 (1.92%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 1 (1.92%) Entra ID
4 1 (1.92%) IaaS
4 1 (1.92%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 15 (28.85%) DNS
2 13 (25.00%) DHCP
3 9 (17.31%) Firewall
4 8 (15.38%) Skype
5 5 (9.62%) Unified Communications
6 4 (7.69%) TCP/IP
6 4 (7.69%) VPN
6 4 (7.69%) WAN
7 3 (5.77%) 4G
7 3 (5.77%) 5G
7 3 (5.77%) NetScaler
8 2 (3.85%) LAN
8 2 (3.85%) SMTP
9 1 (1.92%) BGP
9 1 (1.92%) DKIM
9 1 (1.92%) Network Security
9 1 (1.92%) OSPF
9 1 (1.92%) SAN
9 1 (1.92%) VLAN
9 1 (1.92%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (11.54%) SQL Server
2 3 (5.77%) MySQL
3 2 (3.85%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (1.92%) MS Access
4 1 (1.92%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 4 (7.69%) JIRA
2 2 (3.85%) Bitbucket
2 2 (3.85%) GitLab
2 2 (3.85%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (1.92%) Artifactory
3 1 (1.92%) Git
3 1 (1.92%) GoCD
3 1 (1.92%) Maven
3 1 (1.92%) SonarQube
3 1 (1.92%) Visual Studio
General
1 17 (32.69%) Public Sector
2 15 (28.85%) Social Skills
3 7 (13.46%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (13.46%) Manufacturing
3 7 (13.46%) Military
4 6 (11.54%) Finance
5 3 (5.77%) Electronics
5 3 (5.77%) Marketing
5 3 (5.77%) Telecoms
6 2 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.92%) Fire and Rescue
7 1 (1.92%) Police
Job Titles
1 7 (13.46%) Analyst
2 6 (11.54%) Architect
2 6 (11.54%) Security Analyst
2 6 (11.54%) Wintel Engineer
3 5 (9.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 4 (7.69%) Applications Engineer
4 4 (7.69%) Infrastructure Analyst
4 4 (7.69%) Infrastructure Architect
5 3 (5.77%) Engineering Specialist
5 3 (5.77%) Test Specialist
6 2 (3.85%) Administrator
6 2 (3.85%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 2 (3.85%) Data Migration Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Desktop Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) DevOps Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Linux Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Migration Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Network Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Operations Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (5.77%) .NET
2 2 (3.85%) React
3 1 (1.92%) AngularJS
3 1 (1.92%) ASP.NET Web API
3 1 (1.92%) Bootstrap
3 1 (1.92%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (1.92%) Express.js
3 1 (1.92%) Middleware
3 1 (1.92%) ODBC
3 1 (1.92%) SOAP
3 1 (1.92%) WCF
3 1 (1.92%) Web Services
3 1 (1.92%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 13 (25.00%) PKI
2 5 (9.62%) Legacy Applications
3 3 (5.77%) Data Centre
4 1 (1.92%) Cloud Native
4 1 (1.92%) Cyber Defence
4 1 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (1.92%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (1.92%) iPad
4 1 (1.92%) iPhone
4 1 (1.92%) Management Information System
4 1 (1.92%) NHS
4 1 (1.92%) Private Cloud
4 1 (1.92%) Product Ownership
4 1 (1.92%) Public Cloud
4 1 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 52 (100.00%) Windows
2 9 (17.31%) Windows Server 2012
3 8 (15.38%) Linux
4 7 (13.46%) Windows 10
5 4 (7.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (7.69%) Windows Server 2016
6 3 (5.77%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (3.85%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (3.85%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (1.92%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (21.15%) Agile
1 11 (21.15%) ITIL
2 10 (19.23%) Migration
2 10 (19.23%) Patch Management
3 9 (17.31%) Service Management
4 8 (15.38%) Disaster Recovery
4 8 (15.38%) High Availability
5 7 (13.46%) Critical Thinking
5 7 (13.46%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 7 (13.46%) Problem-Solving
5 7 (13.46%) Security Hardening
5 7 (13.46%) Vulnerability Management
6 6 (11.54%) Business Continuity
6 6 (11.54%) Cloud Security
6 6 (11.54%) Incident Response
7 5 (9.62%) Root Cause Analysis
7 5 (9.62%) System Testing
7 5 (9.62%) Test Scripting
7 5 (9.62%) Virtual Environments
8 4 (7.69%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 13 (25.00%) PowerShell
2 12 (23.08%) SQL
3 2 (3.85%) C#
3 2 (3.85%) Python
4 1 (1.92%) Bash
4 1 (1.92%) Java
4 1 (1.92%) T-SQL
4 1 (1.92%) TypeScript
4 1 (1.92%) VB
4 1 (1.92%) VB.NET
4 1 (1.92%) VB6
4 1 (1.92%) VBA
Qualifications
1 33 (63.46%) Security Cleared
2 27 (51.92%) SC Cleared
3 9 (17.31%) DV Cleared
4 7 (13.46%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (11.54%) MCSE
6 5 (9.62%) CCNA
6 5 (9.62%) CCNP
6 5 (9.62%) Cisco Certification
6 5 (9.62%) Degree
6 5 (9.62%) ITIL Certification
7 4 (7.69%) Master's Degree
8 2 (3.85%) MCSA
8 2 (3.85%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (7.69%) NCSC
2 2 (3.85%) Accessibility
2 2 (3.85%) SLA
3 1 (1.92%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 24 (46.15%) Active Directory
2 17 (32.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (13.46%) Hyper-V
3 7 (13.46%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (9.62%) Microsoft Virtual Server
4 5 (9.62%) Virtual Servers
5 3 (5.77%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (5.77%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (5.77%) XenDesktop
6 2 (3.85%) vSphere
7 1 (1.92%) Docker
7 1 (1.92%) Firmware
7 1 (1.92%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 13 (25.00%) SCCM
2 12 (23.08%) WSUS
3 5 (9.62%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (7.69%) Nessus
5 3 (5.77%) Check_MK
5 3 (5.77%) vCenter Server
6 2 (3.85%) Ansible
6 2 (3.85%) Microsoft Clustering
6 2 (3.85%) NetApp OnCommand
6 2 (3.85%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (3.85%) vMotion
7 1 (1.92%) Data Guard
7 1 (1.92%) FreeIPA
7 1 (1.92%) Kubernetes
7 1 (1.92%) OPNET
7 1 (1.92%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 1 (1.92%) Oracle RMAN
7 1 (1.92%) Prometheus
7 1 (1.92%) Rancher
7 1 (1.92%) SCOM
Vendors
1 27 (51.92%) Microsoft
2 22 (42.31%) VMware
3 9 (17.31%) Cisco
4 7 (13.46%) Splunk
5 5 (9.62%) Juniper
5 5 (9.62%) Oracle
5 5 (9.62%) Qualys
5 5 (9.62%) Veeam
6 4 (7.69%) Citrix
6 4 (7.69%) SolarWinds
7 3 (5.77%) Atlassian
7 3 (5.77%) Fortinet
7 3 (5.77%) McAfee
7 3 (5.77%) SAP
8 2 (3.85%) CyberArk
8 2 (3.85%) EMC
8 2 (3.85%) Ivanti
8 2 (3.85%) PTC
8 2 (3.85%) Sophos
9 1 (1.92%) F5