Microsoft Certification Contracts

Microsoft Certification
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 3 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 242 266 343
Rank change year-on-year +24 +77 +65
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 335 388 379
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.07% 0.89% 0.68%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.46% 2.99% 2.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 246 293
10th Percentile £200 £188 £200
25th Percentile £260 £325 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £493 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.09% -6.19% +16.67%
75th Percentile £588 £592 £592
90th Percentile £660 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £450 £525
% change year-on-year -11.11% -14.29% +31.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 61 14
10th Percentile £14.99 £13.50 -
25th Percentile £15.44 £14.16 £15.25
Median hourly rate £17.44 £16.30 £15.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.99% +5.16% -
75th Percentile £32.63 £21.37 £18.75
90th Percentile £36.38 - £24.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.44 £16.30 £15.50
% change year-on-year +6.99% +5.16% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

Microsoft Certification 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.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 9,677 12,964 14,983
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.89% 29.82% 26.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,985 8,024 9,929
10th Percentile £278 £313 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.48% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £706 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £530 £525
% change year-on-year -5.66% +0.95% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 647 1,107 731
10th Percentile £17.87 £14.00 £15.25
25th Percentile £20.19 £20.00 £22.50
Median hourly rate £27.94 £40.94 £55.85
Median % change year-on-year -31.75% -26.70% +25.51%
75th Percentile £59.95 £65.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.25 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.32 £43.00 £54.11
% change year-on-year -41.12% -20.54% +53.73%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Microsoft Certification as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram

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

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Histogram

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

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Top 18 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification within the UK 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
England +21 279 £475 -5.00% 1,557
UK excluding London +19 209 £400 -11.11% 1,160
Work from Home +23 101 £500 -0.50% 527
London +23 99 £500 - 572
North of England +21 54 £425 -4.49% 297
North West +22 46 £425 +6.25% 148
South East +44 39 £540 +16.76% 293
East of England +2 32 £225 +66.67% 136
South West +16 26 £498 -7.44% 92
Scotland -7 26 £315 -7.35% 70
Midlands +14 23 £279 -50.88% 226
West Midlands +18 19 £246 -61.30% 136
Wales - 6 £236 - 44
Yorkshire +6 5 £413 -13.16% 127
East Midlands -7 4 £496 +22.32% 83
North East -1 3 £200 -57.89% 28
Northern Ireland - 2 £200 - 15
Channel Islands - 2 £725 -

Microsoft Certification
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 51 (15.22%) SharePoint
2 39 (11.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.19%) Confluence
4 2 (0.60%) IIS
4 2 (0.60%) OpenEdge
4 2 (0.60%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.30%) IBM Notes
5 1 (0.30%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 28 (8.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (7.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 20 (5.97%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (2.69%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.30%) Trello
Business Applications
1 12 (3.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.60%) Alphatax
3 1 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
3 1 (0.30%) Dynamics GP
3 1 (0.30%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 161 (48.06%) Azure
2 134 (40.00%) Microsoft 365
3 64 (19.10%) Entra ID
4 38 (11.34%) Power Platform
5 33 (9.85%) AWS
6 28 (8.36%) Microsoft Purview
6 28 (8.36%) OneDrive
7 26 (7.76%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (5.37%) Dynamics 365
8 18 (5.37%) GCP
9 16 (4.78%) Azure Data Factory
9 16 (4.78%) PowerApps
10 15 (4.48%) Azure Sentinel
10 15 (4.48%) Power Automate
11 13 (3.88%) IaaS
12 11 (3.28%) Azure Monitor
12 11 (3.28%) Azure Service Bus
13 9 (2.69%) Azure AKS
13 9 (2.69%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 8 (2.39%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 29 (8.66%) Firewall
1 29 (8.66%) VPN
2 27 (8.06%) Wi-Fi
3 14 (4.18%) LAN
4 13 (3.88%) Fibre Channel
4 13 (3.88%) iSCSI
5 12 (3.58%) DNS
6 11 (3.28%) Network Security
6 11 (3.28%) SAN
7 10 (2.99%) TCP/IP
8 9 (2.69%) DHCP
9 8 (2.39%) Intrusion Detection
9 8 (2.39%) Remote Desktop
9 8 (2.39%) WAN
10 6 (1.79%) Skype
11 5 (1.49%) NAS
12 4 (1.19%) SSL
12 4 (1.19%) VSAN
13 3 (0.90%) S/MIME
13 3 (0.90%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (7.46%) SQL Server
2 20 (5.97%) Power BI
3 17 (5.07%) Azure SQL Database
4 10 (2.99%) Relational Database
5 7 (2.09%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (2.09%) Metadata
6 6 (1.79%) Data Lake
7 5 (1.49%) MySQL
7 5 (1.49%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.90%) NoSQL
8 3 (0.90%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.60%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.60%) Metadata Repository
9 2 (0.60%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.60%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.30%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Analysis Services
10 1 (0.30%) Power Query
10 1 (0.30%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 13 (3.88%) JIRA
2 7 (2.09%) Git
3 3 (0.90%) ERwin
4 2 (0.60%) GitLab
4 2 (0.60%) MSI
4 2 (0.60%) Visual Studio Code
5 1 (0.30%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 1 (0.30%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.30%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.30%) NUnit
5 1 (0.30%) Octopus Deploy
5 1 (0.30%) Subversion
5 1 (0.30%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (0.30%) Visual Studio
General
1 144 (42.99%) Social Skills
2 58 (17.31%) Analytical Skills
3 46 (13.73%) Finance
4 30 (8.96%) Public Sector
5 29 (8.66%) Documentation Skills
6 27 (8.06%) Legal
7 26 (7.76%) Banking
8 12 (3.58%) Telecoms
9 8 (2.39%) Manufacturing
9 8 (2.39%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (2.09%) Retail
11 6 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.19%) French Language
12 4 (1.19%) Investment Banking
12 4 (1.19%) Marketing
12 4 (1.19%) Military
13 3 (0.90%) Local Government
14 2 (0.60%) Retail Banking
15 1 (0.30%) Aerospace
15 1 (0.30%) International Banking
Job Titles
1 69 (20.60%) Analyst
2 53 (15.82%) Architect
3 27 (8.06%) Service Analyst
3 27 (8.06%) Service Desk Analyst
3 27 (8.06%) Support Engineer
4 22 (6.57%) Deployment Engineer
5 20 (5.97%) Desktop Support
6 19 (5.67%) Senior
7 18 (5.37%) Lead
7 18 (5.37%) Support Analyst
7 18 (5.37%) Technical Analyst
8 17 (5.07%) Azure Engineer
8 17 (5.07%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 16 (4.78%) Consultant
9 16 (4.78%) Infrastructure Architect
9 16 (4.78%) IT Support
9 16 (4.78%) Security Engineer
10 15 (4.48%) Technical Services Analyst
11 14 (4.18%) Developer
11 14 (4.18%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (5.07%) .NET
2 10 (2.99%) .NET Core
2 10 (2.99%) ARM Templates
2 10 (2.99%) ASP.NET Web API
3 8 (2.39%) ADO
3 8 (2.39%) REST
4 7 (2.09%) .NET Framework
5 6 (1.79%) ASP.NET
5 6 (1.79%) WCF
5 6 (1.79%) Web Services
6 5 (1.49%) ASP.NET MVC
6 5 (1.49%) Autofac
6 5 (1.49%) Dapper ORM
6 5 (1.49%) Entity Framework
6 5 (1.49%) StructureMap
7 4 (1.19%) HTML5 Canvas
7 4 (1.19%) Microsoft Graph
8 3 (0.90%) JSON
8 3 (0.90%) SailPoint
8 3 (0.90%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 19 (5.67%) Management Information System
2 14 (4.18%) PKI
3 11 (3.28%) Data Centre
4 9 (2.69%) Device Driver
5 8 (2.39%) Insider Threat
6 6 (1.79%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (1.79%) NHS
7 5 (1.49%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 5 (1.49%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (1.49%) N-Tier
7 5 (1.49%) Onboarding
7 5 (1.49%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (1.19%) Cloud Native
8 4 (1.19%) Cyber Threat
8 4 (1.19%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 3 (0.90%) iPad
9 3 (0.90%) iPhone
9 3 (0.90%) Mobile App
10 2 (0.60%) Life Science
10 2 (0.60%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 157 (46.87%) Windows
2 57 (17.01%) Windows Server
3 37 (11.04%) Windows 10
4 21 (6.27%) Windows Server 2019
5 17 (5.07%) Windows Server 2012
6 15 (4.48%) Linux
7 12 (3.58%) Mac OS
8 9 (2.69%) Windows Server 2016
9 8 (2.39%) Windows Server 2003
10 5 (1.49%) VMS
10 5 (1.49%) Windows 8
10 5 (1.49%) Windows Server 2008
10 5 (1.49%) Windows XP
11 4 (1.19%) Unix
12 2 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 1 (0.30%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.30%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (37.91%) Problem-Solving
2 100 (29.85%) ITIL
3 55 (16.42%) Customer Service
4 42 (12.54%) Migration
5 41 (12.24%) Agile
5 41 (12.24%) Computer Science
6 40 (11.94%) DevOps
7 36 (10.75%) Incident Management
8 33 (9.85%) Analytics
9 30 (8.96%) Service Delivery
10 29 (8.66%) Data Loss Prevention
11 27 (8.06%) Cloud Security
11 27 (8.06%) Cybersecurity
11 27 (8.06%) Data Protection
11 27 (8.06%) Project Management
12 26 (7.76%) Information Security
13 25 (7.46%) Identity Access Management
14 24 (7.16%) CI/CD
14 24 (7.16%) Roadmaps
15 22 (6.57%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 73 (21.79%) PowerShell
2 53 (15.82%) SQL
3 19 (5.67%) Python
4 18 (5.37%) C#
5 15 (4.48%) Bash
6 13 (3.88%) T-SQL
7 11 (3.28%) JavaScript
8 10 (2.99%) Bicep
9 3 (0.90%) Java
9 3 (0.90%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.60%) Groovy
10 2 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.30%) Korn
11 1 (0.30%) VBA
11 1 (0.30%) VBScript
11 1 (0.30%) X++
Qualifications
1 89 (26.57%) Degree
2 84 (25.07%) Azure Certification
3 74 (22.09%) Security Cleared
4 54 (16.12%) A+ Certification
5 52 (15.52%) SC Cleared
6 46 (13.73%) MCSE
7 40 (11.94%) MCSA
8 26 (7.76%) Computer Science Degree
9 25 (7.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 23 (6.87%) AWS Certification
11 17 (5.07%) MCP
12 16 (4.78%) CISSP
13 13 (3.88%) DV Cleared
14 11 (3.28%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 11 (3.28%) CISM
14 11 (3.28%) VCP5
14 11 (3.28%) VCP6
15 10 (2.99%) Master's Degree
16 8 (2.39%) Cisco Certification
17 6 (1.79%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (7.16%) GDPR
2 18 (5.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (3.88%) HIPAA
4 11 (3.28%) NIST
4 11 (3.28%) QA
5 10 (2.99%) SLA
6 9 (2.69%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 8 (2.39%) SOC 2
8 4 (1.19%) Accessibility
8 4 (1.19%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.90%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.90%) NCSC
10 2 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.60%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.30%) HL7
11 1 (0.30%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.30%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 121 (36.12%) Active Directory
2 41 (12.24%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (6.57%) vSphere
4 20 (5.97%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (3.88%) NFS
6 12 (3.58%) Hyper-V
7 10 (2.99%) Docker
8 7 (2.09%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.90%) Firmware
9 3 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.60%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.60%) Microsoft App-V
10 2 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.60%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.30%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 50 (14.93%) SCCM
2 33 (9.85%) Microsoft Intune
3 21 (6.27%) Kubernetes
4 17 (5.07%) Terraform
5 10 (2.99%) vCenter Server
6 8 (2.39%) CASB
6 8 (2.39%) WSUS
7 5 (1.49%) Prometheus
8 4 (1.19%) Grafana
9 3 (0.90%) Ansible
9 3 (0.90%) Backup Exec
9 3 (0.90%) QRadar
10 2 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.60%) Malwarebytes
10 2 (0.60%) PowerCLI
11 1 (0.30%) Argo
11 1 (0.30%) CSIRT
11 1 (0.30%) Istio
11 1 (0.30%) logstash
11 1 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 323 (96.42%) Microsoft
2 51 (15.22%) VMware
3 47 (14.03%) ServiceNow
4 36 (10.75%) Citrix
5 23 (6.87%) Veeam
6 18 (5.37%) Google
7 16 (4.78%) Cisco
8 15 (4.48%) Splunk
9 13 (3.88%) NetApp
10 9 (2.69%) Zscaler
11 8 (2.39%) Databricks
12 7 (2.09%) Darktrace
12 7 (2.09%) Oracle
13 6 (1.79%) Dell
14 5 (1.49%) Apple
14 5 (1.49%) Canon
15 4 (1.19%) Red Hat
15 4 (1.19%) SolarWinds
16 3 (0.90%) Symantec
16 3 (0.90%) Varonis