Microsoft Contracts in the Thames Valley

Microsoft
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the Thames Valley requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 3 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

6 months to
3 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -1 +3 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 273 407 413
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 17.34% 15.27% 14.04%
As % of the Vendors category 30.50% 32.72% 28.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 150 250 270
10th Percentile £189 £165 £185
25th Percentile £331 £355 £323
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -4.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £594
90th Percentile £588 £608 £688
South East median daily rate £469 £475 £465
% change year-on-year -1.33% +2.15% +3.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 40 15
10th Percentile £13.35 £15.92 £13.74
25th Percentile - £21.72 £15.13
Median hourly rate £14.20 £51.29 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -72.31% +193.07% +53.11%
75th Percentile £21.26 £59.95 £41.00
90th Percentile £32.05 £61.60 £69.20
South East median hourly rate £15.75 £23.22 £19.00
% change year-on-year -32.16% +22.18% +15.15%

All Vendors
Thames Valley

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in the Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 895 1,244 1,443
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 56.86% 46.68% 49.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 523 709 957
10th Percentile £303 £213 £288
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £501 £520
Median % change year-on-year +1.30% -3.65% +4.00%
75th Percentile £600 £608 £623
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
South East median daily rate £500 £513 £500
% change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 77 52
10th Percentile £14.08 £15.61 £14.23
25th Percentile £14.20 £18.75 £18.08
Median hourly rate £18.87 £47.50 £32.30
Median % change year-on-year -60.27% +47.06% +104.43%
75th Percentile £38.42 £61.60 £66.00
90th Percentile £64.00 £62.00 £76.52
South East median hourly rate £20.33 £48.75 £45.00
% change year-on-year -58.30% +8.33% +125.00%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Job postings citing Microsoft as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft in the Thames Valley

Microsoft
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the Thames Valley.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft in the Thames Valley

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the Thames Valley

Microsoft
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the Thames Valley.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft in the Thames Valley

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the Thames Valley

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 3 July 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
Berkshire -2 174 £478 -7.51% 255
Buckinghamshire +1 59 £413 -5.17% 145
Oxfordshire 0 40 £250 -33.33% 104
Microsoft
South East

Microsoft
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 26 (9.52%) SharePoint
2 25 (9.16%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (5.86%) IBM Domino
4 7 (2.56%) IIS
5 5 (1.83%) BizTalk Server
6 4 (1.47%) Confluence
7 2 (0.73%) Camunda
7 2 (0.73%) CMS
8 1 (0.37%) nginx
Applications
1 41 (15.02%) Microsoft Office
2 34 (12.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (4.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (2.20%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.37%) CATIA
6 1 (0.37%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 5 (1.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (1.47%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 1 (0.37%) BPCS
3 1 (0.37%) Oracle ASCP
3 1 (0.37%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.37%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.37%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.37%) Oracle SCM
3 1 (0.37%) Remedy AR System
3 1 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.37%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 98 (35.90%) Azure
2 72 (26.37%) Microsoft 365
3 31 (11.36%) Power Platform
4 27 (9.89%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (8.06%) Entra ID
6 19 (6.96%) AWS
7 17 (6.23%) Dynamics 365
8 11 (4.03%) SaaS
9 9 (3.30%) Azure AKS
9 9 (3.30%) PowerApps
10 8 (2.93%) GitHub
10 8 (2.93%) Microsoft Copilot
11 7 (2.56%) Azure Monitor
11 7 (2.56%) OneDrive
11 7 (2.56%) PaaS
11 7 (2.56%) Power Automate
12 6 (2.20%) Serverless
13 5 (1.83%) Azure Storage
13 5 (1.83%) IaaS
14 4 (1.47%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 32 (11.72%) Firewall
2 18 (6.59%) SAN
2 18 (6.59%) VPN
3 16 (5.86%) Cisco IOS
3 16 (5.86%) MPLS
3 16 (5.86%) WAN
4 15 (5.49%) Ethernet
4 15 (5.49%) LAN
4 15 (5.49%) Wireshark
5 14 (5.13%) ATM
5 14 (5.13%) Frame Relay
5 14 (5.13%) GPRS
5 14 (5.13%) GSM
5 14 (5.13%) LTE
5 14 (5.13%) SDH
5 14 (5.13%) UMTS
6 9 (3.30%) DNS
7 8 (2.93%) Wireless
8 7 (2.56%) Internet
9 6 (2.20%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (8.06%) SQL Server
2 18 (6.59%) Power BI
3 8 (2.93%) Big Data
3 8 (2.93%) Relational Database
4 7 (2.56%) Azure SQL Database
5 6 (2.20%) Metadata
6 5 (1.83%) Data Warehouse
6 5 (1.83%) Power Query
7 4 (1.47%) PostgreSQL
8 3 (1.10%) GIS
8 3 (1.10%) MS Access
9 2 (0.73%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.73%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.73%) Redis
9 2 (0.73%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.37%) MySQL
10 1 (0.37%) NoSQL
10 1 (0.37%) Parquet
10 1 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.37%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 10 (3.66%) JIRA
2 6 (2.20%) Git
3 5 (1.83%) ERwin
3 5 (1.83%) Jenkins
3 5 (1.83%) PowerDesigner
4 3 (1.10%) Postman
5 2 (0.73%) QARun
5 2 (0.73%) Team Foundation Server
5 2 (0.73%) Terragrunt
5 2 (0.73%) Vite
5 2 (0.73%) WinRunner
6 1 (0.37%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.37%) Fiddler
6 1 (0.37%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.37%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.37%) Subversion
6 1 (0.37%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.37%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 118 (43.22%) Social Skills
2 42 (15.38%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (14.65%) Telecoms
4 29 (10.62%) Finance
5 16 (5.86%) Games
6 15 (5.49%) Organisational Skills
7 13 (4.76%) Public Sector
8 8 (2.93%) Automotive
9 7 (2.56%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (2.56%) Manufacturing
10 6 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (1.10%) Publishing
13 2 (0.73%) Electronics
13 2 (0.73%) Law
13 2 (0.73%) Legal
13 2 (0.73%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.73%) Retail
14 1 (0.37%) Aerospace
14 1 (0.37%) Billing
Job Titles
1 37 (13.55%) Analyst
2 26 (9.52%) Developer
3 25 (9.16%) Consultant
4 20 (7.33%) Architect
5 19 (6.96%) Platform Engineer
6 18 (6.59%) Senior
6 18 (6.59%) Support Engineer
7 13 (4.76%) IP Engineer
8 12 (4.40%) Test Engineer
9 11 (4.03%) Help Desk Support
10 10 (3.66%) Test Analyst
11 9 (3.30%) Desktop Support
12 8 (2.93%) Azure Engineer
12 8 (2.93%) IT Support
13 7 (2.56%) IT Analyst
14 6 (2.20%) Applications Support
14 6 (2.20%) Help Desk Agent
14 6 (2.20%) Network Engineer
14 6 (2.20%) Service Analyst
14 6 (2.20%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (5.86%) .NET
2 8 (2.93%) OAuth
3 7 (2.56%) React
3 7 (2.56%) Web Services
4 6 (2.20%) .NET Core
4 6 (2.20%) HTML
4 6 (2.20%) REST
4 6 (2.20%) SAML
5 5 (1.83%) .NET Framework
5 5 (1.83%) ARM Templates
5 5 (1.83%) CSS
5 5 (1.83%) OpenID
5 5 (1.83%) SOAP
6 4 (1.47%) ADO
6 4 (1.47%) AngularJS
6 4 (1.47%) JSON
6 4 (1.47%) WebdriverIO
6 4 (1.47%) XML
7 3 (1.10%) RESTful
8 2 (0.73%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 28 (10.26%) Self-Motivation
2 9 (3.30%) Onboarding
3 8 (2.93%) Management Information System
3 8 (2.93%) PKI
3 8 (2.93%) Security Posture
4 7 (2.56%) Product Ownership
5 6 (2.20%) Clustering
5 6 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (2.20%) Life Science
5 6 (2.20%) Renewable Energy
6 5 (1.83%) Cloud Native
6 5 (1.83%) Driving Licence
6 5 (1.83%) Low-Code
7 4 (1.47%) Data Centre
7 4 (1.47%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.47%) Security Operations Centre
8 3 (1.10%) Cyber Threat
8 3 (1.10%) Data Structures
8 3 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.10%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 85 (31.14%) Windows
2 28 (10.26%) Linux
3 21 (7.69%) Mac OS
4 20 (7.33%) Android
5 18 (6.59%) Unix
5 18 (6.59%) Windows Server
6 12 (4.40%) Windows 10
7 5 (1.83%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.47%) Windows Server 2003
8 4 (1.47%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (1.10%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.10%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.73%) Debian
10 2 (0.73%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.37%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (30.77%) Problem-Solving
2 41 (15.02%) DevOps
3 35 (12.82%) Migration
4 29 (10.62%) Agile
5 27 (9.89%) Customer Service
5 27 (9.89%) Project Management
6 24 (8.79%) ITIL
7 23 (8.42%) Business Intelligence
8 20 (7.33%) Stakeholder Management
9 16 (5.86%) E-Commerce
9 16 (5.86%) Regression Testing
9 16 (5.86%) Time Management
10 15 (5.49%) Collaborative Working
10 15 (5.49%) Cybersecurity
10 15 (5.49%) Roadmaps
10 15 (5.49%) Test Strategy
11 14 (5.13%) Analytics
11 14 (5.13%) CI/CD
11 14 (5.13%) Fault Management
12 13 (4.76%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 48 (17.58%) PowerShell
2 31 (11.36%) SQL
3 27 (9.89%) Python
4 22 (8.06%) Java
5 19 (6.96%) C#
6 10 (3.66%) JavaScript
7 8 (2.93%) Bicep
8 7 (2.56%) Bash
8 7 (2.56%) VB
9 6 (2.20%) TypeScript
10 5 (1.83%) Shell Script
11 4 (1.47%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (1.10%) R
12 3 (1.10%) VBA
12 3 (1.10%) X++
13 2 (0.73%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.73%) C++
13 2 (0.73%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.73%) Perl
13 2 (0.73%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (10.99%) Degree
2 29 (10.62%) Security Cleared
3 24 (8.79%) SC Cleared
4 15 (5.49%) CCNP
4 15 (5.49%) Cisco Certification
4 15 (5.49%) ISEB
4 15 (5.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
4 15 (5.49%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (5.13%) ISTQB
6 7 (2.56%) CISSP
6 7 (2.56%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (1.47%) A+ Certification
7 4 (1.47%) Azure Certification
7 4 (1.47%) CISM
8 3 (1.10%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (1.10%) DV Cleared
8 3 (1.10%) GCIH
8 3 (1.10%) MCSA
9 2 (0.73%) DBS Check
9 2 (0.73%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (2.20%) GDPR
3 5 (1.83%) Data Quality
3 5 (1.83%) NIST
3 5 (1.83%) SLA
4 4 (1.47%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (1.10%) HIPAA
5 3 (1.10%) PMO
5 3 (1.10%) QA
6 2 (0.73%) ISO 9001
6 2 (0.73%) NCSC
6 2 (0.73%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.73%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.37%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.37%) GRC
7 1 (0.37%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 54 (19.78%) Active Directory
2 10 (3.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (2.56%) vSphere
4 6 (2.20%) Hyper-V
5 5 (1.83%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (1.83%) XenApp
6 4 (1.47%) XenDesktop
7 3 (1.10%) Docker
7 3 (1.10%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.37%) NFS
8 1 (0.37%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.37%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 34 (12.45%) Microsoft Intune
2 32 (11.72%) SCCM
3 19 (6.96%) Terraform
4 8 (2.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 8 (2.93%) Kubernetes
5 7 (2.56%) SCOM
6 6 (2.20%) Ansible
7 5 (1.83%) WSUS
8 4 (1.47%) Microsoft Clustering
8 4 (1.47%) Prometheus
9 3 (1.10%) Grafana
9 3 (1.10%) Puppet
10 2 (0.73%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.73%) SCVMM
10 2 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.37%) Amdocs OSS
11 1 (0.37%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 1 (0.37%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.37%) NSN NetAct
11 1 (0.37%) QRadar
Vendors
1 38 (13.92%) Cisco
2 25 (9.16%) Splunk
3 19 (6.96%) SAP
4 16 (5.86%) Meraki
4 16 (5.86%) VMware
5 14 (5.13%) Juniper
5 14 (5.13%) ServiceNow
6 11 (4.03%) Citrix
7 9 (3.30%) Salesforce
8 6 (2.20%) CrowdStrike
8 6 (2.20%) HP
8 6 (2.20%) Oracle
9 5 (1.83%) Atlassian
9 5 (1.83%) CyberArk
9 5 (1.83%) Dell
10 4 (1.47%) Databricks
10 4 (1.47%) Dynatrace
10 4 (1.47%) IBM
11 3 (1.10%) OpenAI
11 3 (1.10%) Remedy