MCSE Contracts in the UK excluding London

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London with a requirement for MCSE qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 294 303 346
Rank change year-on-year +9 +43 +33
Contract jobs citing MCSE 45 92 99
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.35% 0.45% 0.43%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.97% 1.25% 1.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 32 69 82
10th Percentile £167 £300 £105
25th Percentile £300 £313 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £438 £475
Median % change year-on-year +21.43% -7.89% +26.67%
75th Percentile £638 £556 £575
90th Percentile £650 £621 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £388 £485
% change year-on-year +35.48% -20.10% +14.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 11 4
10th Percentile £18.79 £12.00 -
25th Percentile £19.24 £12.63 £16.25
Median hourly rate £19.97 £17.50 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.11% - -18.03%
75th Percentile £19.99 £18.75 £20.68
90th Percentile £19.99 £19.25 £24.16
UK median hourly rate £19.97 £17.50 £17.50
% change year-on-year +14.11% - -24.63%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK excluding London

MCSE falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 4,641 7,369 7,567
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 35.92% 36.36% 32.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,812 4,304 5,055
10th Percentile £206 £270 £288
25th Percentile £375 £425 £424
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £530 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% +0.95% +5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £631
90th Percentile £675 £725 £706
UK median daily rate £525 £530 £550
% change year-on-year -0.94% -3.64% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 416 921 600
10th Percentile £17.71 £13.50 £13.89
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.50 £20.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £40.94 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.62% -18.12% +42.86%
75th Percentile £66.00 £63.75 £65.81
90th Percentile £78.53 £77.50 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £40.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -12.50% -27.27% +25.14%

MCSE
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing MCSE as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for MCSE in the UK excluding London

MCSE
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing MCSE in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for MCSE in the UK excluding London

MCSE
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MCSE in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 21 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MCSE in the UK excluding London

MCSE
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing MCSE in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for MCSE in the UK excluding London

MCSE
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCSE within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 21 May 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
South West +38 15 £550 +2.33% 3
South East +33 13 £650 +20.93% 22
Midlands +20 9 £196 +67.74% 10
West Midlands +17 9 £196 +67.74% 7
North of England +12 6 £400 -11.11% 8
North West +4 6 £400 +31.15% 4
Scotland -24 2 £463 +36.03% 2
MCSE
UK

MCSE
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 15 (33.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (20.00%) SharePoint
3 5 (11.11%) Confluence
4 3 (6.67%) Skype for Business
5 2 (4.44%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (2.22%) IBM Notes
Applications
1 14 (31.11%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (4.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (4.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (2.22%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 16 (35.56%) Azure
2 15 (33.33%) Microsoft 365
3 7 (15.56%) OneDrive
4 5 (11.11%) Entra ID
5 4 (8.89%) AWS
5 4 (8.89%) Power Platform
6 2 (4.44%) IaaS
6 2 (4.44%) PaaS
6 2 (4.44%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (22.22%) VPN
2 8 (17.78%) DNS
2 8 (17.78%) SAN
3 7 (15.56%) iSCSI
3 7 (15.56%) Skype
4 5 (11.11%) Fibre Channel
4 5 (11.11%) VSAN
4 5 (11.11%) WAN
5 4 (8.89%) DHCP
5 4 (8.89%) Firewall
5 4 (8.89%) VLAN
6 3 (6.67%) BGP
6 3 (6.67%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (6.67%) MPLS
6 3 (6.67%) NGFW
6 3 (6.67%) OSPF
6 3 (6.67%) SD-WAN
6 3 (6.67%) TCP/IP
7 2 (4.44%) Cisco ASA
7 2 (4.44%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (4.44%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (4.44%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (15.56%) JIRA
2 1 (2.22%) Bitbucket
2 1 (2.22%) Git
2 1 (2.22%) Jenkins
General
1 22 (48.89%) Social Skills
2 12 (26.67%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (20.00%) Public Sector
4 6 (13.33%) Legal
5 2 (4.44%) Military
5 2 (4.44%) Publishing
6 1 (2.22%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 15 (33.33%) Architect
2 9 (20.00%) Senior
3 8 (17.78%) Technical Architect
4 6 (13.33%) Infrastructure Architect
4 6 (13.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 5 (11.11%) VMware Architect
6 4 (8.89%) Deployment Engineer
6 4 (8.89%) Senior Architect
6 4 (8.89%) Senior Technical Architect
6 4 (8.89%) Senior Wintel Engineer
6 4 (8.89%) Wintel Engineer
7 3 (6.67%) Desktop Engineer
7 3 (6.67%) IT Engineer
7 3 (6.67%) Rollout Engineer
7 3 (6.67%) Security Specialist
8 2 (4.44%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
8 2 (4.44%) Cybersecurity Specialist
8 2 (4.44%) Microsoft 365 Architect
8 2 (4.44%) Wintel Architect
8 2 (4.44%) Wintel Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (4.44%) Flash
2 1 (2.22%) Elastic Stack
2 1 (2.22%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 15 (33.33%) PKI
2 7 (15.56%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (11.11%) Data Centre
4 3 (6.67%) Cyber Threat
4 3 (6.67%) Public Cloud
4 3 (6.67%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (4.44%) Clustering
5 2 (4.44%) Management Information System
6 1 (2.22%) Blackberry
6 1 (2.22%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 35 (77.78%) Windows
2 25 (55.56%) Windows Server
3 14 (31.11%) Windows Server 2012
4 13 (28.89%) Windows Server 2019
5 11 (24.44%) Windows 10
6 8 (17.78%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (11.11%) Linux
8 4 (8.89%) Mac OS
8 4 (8.89%) Unix
9 2 (4.44%) Android
9 2 (4.44%) Apple iOS
9 2 (4.44%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (48.89%) ITIL
2 9 (20.00%) Agile
2 9 (20.00%) Critical Thinking
3 7 (15.56%) Collaborative Working
3 7 (15.56%) High Availability
3 7 (15.56%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 7 (15.56%) NsoIT
3 7 (15.56%) Problem-Solving
4 6 (13.33%) Service Management
4 6 (13.33%) System Testing
4 6 (13.33%) TOGAF
5 5 (11.11%) CI/CD
5 5 (11.11%) DevSecOps
5 5 (11.11%) Edge Virtualization
5 5 (11.11%) Infrastructure as Code
5 5 (11.11%) Performance Analysis
6 4 (8.89%) Containerisation
6 4 (8.89%) RBAC
6 4 (8.89%) Server Management
6 4 (8.89%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 12 (26.67%) SQL
2 10 (22.22%) PowerShell
3 2 (4.44%) VB
3 2 (4.44%) VBScript
4 1 (2.22%) Python
Qualifications
1 45 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 24 (53.33%) Security Cleared
3 19 (42.22%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 18 (40.00%) SC Cleared
5 16 (35.56%) Degree
6 10 (22.22%) MCSA
7 5 (11.11%) DV Cleared
7 5 (11.11%) VCP5
7 5 (11.11%) VCP6
8 4 (8.89%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (8.89%) MCP
9 3 (6.67%) CCNA
9 3 (6.67%) CCNP
10 2 (4.44%) Azure Certification
10 2 (4.44%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (4.44%) Master's Degree
11 1 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (2.22%) Dell Certification
11 1 (2.22%) OCA
11 1 (2.22%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (13.33%) NCSC
2 4 (8.89%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (8.89%) NIST
3 2 (4.44%) SLA
4 1 (2.22%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 24 (53.33%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (42.22%) Active Directory
3 11 (24.44%) VMware ESXi
4 7 (15.56%) VMware NSX
5 5 (11.11%) NFS
5 5 (11.11%) vSphere
6 4 (8.89%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (6.67%) Hyper-V
8 2 (4.44%) BitLocker
8 2 (4.44%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (4.44%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 10 (22.22%) SCCM
2 8 (17.78%) WSUS
3 7 (15.56%) vCenter Server
4 3 (6.67%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (4.44%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (4.44%) OPNET
5 2 (4.44%) SCOM
6 1 (2.22%) Ansible
6 1 (2.22%) CSIRT
6 1 (2.22%) PowerCLI
6 1 (2.22%) SolarWinds Orion
6 1 (2.22%) Terraform
Vendors
1 40 (88.89%) Microsoft
2 25 (55.56%) VMware
3 9 (20.00%) Cisco
4 8 (17.78%) Veeam
5 6 (13.33%) Splunk
6 5 (11.11%) NetApp
6 5 (11.11%) Palo Alto
7 4 (8.89%) Citrix
8 3 (6.67%) Atlassian
8 3 (6.67%) ServiceNow
9 2 (4.44%) Apple
9 2 (4.44%) McAfee
9 2 (4.44%) SolarWinds
9 2 (4.44%) Symantec
10 1 (2.22%) Dell
10 1 (2.22%) Google
10 1 (2.22%) Lotus
10 1 (2.22%) Oracle