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 26 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 64 55 71
Rank change year-on-year -9 +16 -14
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 71 86 93
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.13% 3.67% 3.01%
As % of the Operating Systems category 16.32% 17.27% 17.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 56 50
10th Percentile £325 £313 £170
25th Percentile £425 £357 £267
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £475 £494
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -3.80% +6.90%
75th Percentile £655 £613 £629
90th Percentile £715 £731 £678
England median daily rate £500 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +5.26% - +1.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 1
10th Percentile £74.15 - -
25th Percentile £76.63 - -
Median hourly rate £82.00 - £60.00
75th Percentile £86.13 - -
90th Percentile £87.85 - -
England median hourly rate £19.25 £61.19 £49.73
% change year-on-year -68.54% +23.04% +98.92%

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 435 498 528
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 19.15% 21.27% 17.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 277 291 343
10th Percentile £187 £205 £170
25th Percentile £263 £313 £316
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £621
90th Percentile £700 £715 £700
England median daily rate £450 £475 £480
% change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 40 50
10th Percentile £17.69 £65.00 £20.23
25th Percentile £18.87 £66.25 £48.32
Median hourly rate £25.15 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -63.01% +4.62% -
75th Percentile £67.84 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £69.35 £70.40 £78.00
England median hourly rate £23.00 £60.00 £34.75
% change year-on-year -61.67% +72.66% +39.00%

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 26 November 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 26 November 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 +2 30 £625 +8.70% 10
Bristol -7 14 £550 +15.79% 14
Somerset -2 12 £350 -41.57% 5
Gloucestershire -17 9 £350 -25.93% 15
Dorset +4 3 £540 +35.00% 2
Devon +5 2 £263 -20.45% 6
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 14 (19.72%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (9.86%) SharePoint
3 5 (7.04%) Confluence
3 5 (7.04%) Skype for Business
4 4 (5.63%) IIS
5 2 (2.82%) Documentum
6 1 (1.41%) Apache
6 1 (1.41%) nginx
Applications
1 8 (11.27%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.82%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (2.82%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 24 (33.80%) Azure
2 7 (9.86%) Microsoft 365
3 5 (7.04%) Entra ID
4 3 (4.23%) AWS
5 2 (2.82%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (1.41%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (1.41%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (1.41%) GCP
6 1 (1.41%) IaaS
6 1 (1.41%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 25 (35.21%) DNS
2 20 (28.17%) Firewall
3 12 (16.90%) DHCP
4 9 (12.68%) Skype
5 5 (7.04%) Unified Communications
6 4 (5.63%) TCP/IP
6 4 (5.63%) VPN
6 4 (5.63%) WAN
7 3 (4.23%) 4G
7 3 (4.23%) 5G
7 3 (4.23%) NetScaler
8 2 (2.82%) LAN
8 2 (2.82%) SMTP
8 2 (2.82%) VLAN
9 1 (1.41%) BGP
9 1 (1.41%) MQTT
9 1 (1.41%) Network Security
9 1 (1.41%) OSPF
9 1 (1.41%) SAN
9 1 (1.41%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.63%) SQL Server
2 2 (2.82%) MySQL
3 1 (1.41%) Oracle Database
3 1 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 5 (7.04%) JIRA
2 4 (5.63%) Bitbucket
2 4 (5.63%) Git
3 3 (4.23%) GitLab
3 3 (4.23%) Jenkins
4 2 (2.82%) Artifactory
4 2 (2.82%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (1.41%) GoCD
5 1 (1.41%) Maven
5 1 (1.41%) SonarQube
General
1 31 (43.66%) Social Skills
2 16 (22.54%) Public Sector
3 11 (15.49%) Documentation Skills
4 10 (14.08%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (8.45%) Manufacturing
6 5 (7.04%) Finance
7 4 (5.63%) Military
8 3 (4.23%) Electronics
8 3 (4.23%) Marketing
8 3 (4.23%) Telecoms
9 1 (1.41%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 12 (16.90%) Architect
2 8 (11.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 8 (11.27%) Wintel Engineer
3 6 (8.45%) Solutions Architect
4 5 (7.04%) Analyst
5 4 (5.63%) Lead
6 3 (4.23%) Engineering Specialist
6 3 (4.23%) IT Engineer
6 3 (4.23%) Security Analyst
6 3 (4.23%) Test Specialist
7 2 (2.82%) Applications Engineer
7 2 (2.82%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 2 (2.82%) Cybersecurity Engineer
7 2 (2.82%) Data Migration Engineer
7 2 (2.82%) Desktop Engineer
7 2 (2.82%) DevOps Engineer
7 2 (2.82%) Linux Engineer
7 2 (2.82%) Platform Engineer
7 2 (2.82%) Security Engineer
7 2 (2.82%) Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (16.90%) OAuth
1 12 (16.90%) OAuth2
1 12 (16.90%) OpenID
1 12 (16.90%) SAML
2 2 (2.82%) .NET
2 2 (2.82%) Elastic Stack
2 2 (2.82%) React
2 2 (2.82%) REST
3 1 (1.41%) AngularJS
3 1 (1.41%) Apache NiFi
3 1 (1.41%) ASP.NET Web API
3 1 (1.41%) Bootstrap
3 1 (1.41%) Express.js
3 1 (1.41%) Middleware
3 1 (1.41%) SOAP
3 1 (1.41%) WCF
3 1 (1.41%) Web Services
3 1 (1.41%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 14 (19.72%) PKI
2 6 (8.45%) Private Cloud
2 6 (8.45%) Replication
3 3 (4.23%) Data Centre
3 3 (4.23%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (1.41%) Client/Server
4 1 (1.41%) Cloud Native
4 1 (1.41%) Cyber Defence
4 1 (1.41%) Driving Licence
4 1 (1.41%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (1.41%) iPad
4 1 (1.41%) iPhone
4 1 (1.41%) Legacy Applications
4 1 (1.41%) Management Information System
4 1 (1.41%) NHS
4 1 (1.41%) Operational Technology
4 1 (1.41%) Product Ownership
4 1 (1.41%) Public Cloud
4 1 (1.41%) Security Posture
4 1 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 71 (100.00%) Windows
2 15 (21.13%) Linux
3 10 (14.08%) Windows Server 2012
4 8 (11.27%) Windows 10
5 4 (5.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (4.23%) CentOS
6 3 (4.23%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (2.82%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (2.82%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (1.41%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (22.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 15 (21.13%) Problem-Solving
2 15 (21.13%) Service Management
3 14 (19.72%) ITIL
4 12 (16.90%) RBAC
5 11 (15.49%) Agile
5 11 (15.49%) Critical Thinking
5 11 (15.49%) System Testing
6 10 (14.08%) High Availability
7 9 (12.68%) Load Balancing
7 9 (12.68%) Migration
8 8 (11.27%) Change Management
8 8 (11.27%) Identity Access Management
8 8 (11.27%) Mentoring
8 8 (11.27%) Patch Management
9 7 (9.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 7 (9.86%) Technical Leadership
10 6 (8.45%) Cybersecurity
10 6 (8.45%) Identity Management
11 5 (7.04%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 33 (46.48%) PowerShell
2 11 (15.49%) SQL
3 5 (7.04%) Python
4 2 (2.82%) C#
5 1 (1.41%) Bash
5 1 (1.41%) T-SQL
5 1 (1.41%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 48 (67.61%) Security Cleared
2 30 (42.25%) SC Cleared
3 27 (38.03%) Microsoft Certification
4 18 (25.35%) DV Cleared
5 12 (16.90%) MCSE
6 8 (11.27%) Degree
7 6 (8.45%) CCNA
7 6 (8.45%) CCNP
7 6 (8.45%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (8.45%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (7.04%) Master's Degree
9 4 (5.63%) MCSA
9 4 (5.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 3 (4.23%) OCA
10 3 (4.23%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (5.63%) NCSC
2 2 (2.82%) Accessibility
2 2 (2.82%) SLA
3 1 (1.41%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 44 (61.97%) Active Directory
2 24 (33.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (9.86%) Hyper-V
3 7 (9.86%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (7.04%) Microsoft Virtual Server
4 5 (7.04%) Virtual Servers
5 4 (5.63%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (4.23%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (4.23%) XenDesktop
7 2 (2.82%) vSphere
8 1 (1.41%) Docker
8 1 (1.41%) Firmware
8 1 (1.41%) KVM
Systems Management
1 15 (21.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 14 (19.72%) Single Sign-On
3 13 (18.31%) SCCM
3 13 (18.31%) WSUS
4 8 (11.27%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (8.45%) Ansible
6 4 (5.63%) Terraform
7 3 (4.23%) Check_MK
7 3 (4.23%) vCenter Server
8 2 (2.82%) Kubernetes
8 2 (2.82%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (2.82%) NetApp OnCommand
8 2 (2.82%) PowerCLI
8 2 (2.82%) vMotion
9 1 (1.41%) FreeIPA
9 1 (1.41%) Grafana
9 1 (1.41%) Prometheus
9 1 (1.41%) Rancher
9 1 (1.41%) SCOM
9 1 (1.41%) vRealize
Vendors
1 45 (63.38%) Microsoft
2 32 (45.07%) VMware
3 11 (15.49%) Cisco
4 8 (11.27%) SolarWinds
4 8 (11.27%) Splunk
4 8 (11.27%) Veeam
5 6 (8.45%) Oracle
6 5 (7.04%) Atlassian
6 5 (7.04%) Juniper
7 4 (5.63%) Citrix
7 4 (5.63%) Red Hat
8 3 (4.23%) Fortinet
8 3 (4.23%) McAfee
8 3 (4.23%) SAP
9 2 (2.82%) CyberArk
9 2 (2.82%) EMC
9 2 (2.82%) Ivanti
9 2 (2.82%) PTC
9 2 (2.82%) Qualys
9 2 (2.82%) Sophos