MSI Contracts

Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring MSI skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited MSI over the 6 months leading up to 31 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 469 531 629
Rank change year-on-year +62 +98 +170
Contract jobs citing MSI 50 41 58
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.17% 0.096% 0.10%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.17% 0.80% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 34 22 45
10th Percentile £383 £300 £400
25th Percentile £428 £343 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £390 £500
Median % change year-on-year +28.21% -22.00% +25.00%
75th Percentile £600 £430 £600
90th Percentile £689 £556 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £519 £432 £500
% change year-on-year +20.08% -13.60% +15.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 0
Median hourly rate - £37.75 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £37.75 -

All Development Application Skills
UK

MSI falls under the Development Applications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring development application skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for development application skills 4,262 5,143 8,099
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.61% 11.99% 14.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,857 3,456 5,699
10th Percentile £340 £350 £375
25th Percentile £410 £425 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £663
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 223 227
10th Percentile £22.10 £26.59 £44.86
25th Percentile £47.50 £46.25 £53.75
Median hourly rate £60.00 £65.00 £61.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +5.69% +17.14%
75th Percentile £74.69 £70.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £82.07 £77.50 £81.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £61.50
% change year-on-year -3.85% +5.69% +11.82%

MSI
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for MSI in the UK

MSI
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for MSI in the UK

MSI
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MSI over the 6 months to 31 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MSI in the UK

MSI
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for MSI in the UK

MSI
Top 12 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MSI within the UK over the 6 months to 31 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
England +52 41 £500 +31.58% 21
UK excluding London +55 26 £519 +20.08% 16
Work from Home +52 23 £500 +28.21% 7
South East +40 15 £508 +6.84% 10
London +51 13 £488 +28.29% 8
Midlands - 6 £689 -
West Midlands - 6 £689 -
East of England +25 2 £350 - 2
North of England +17 2 £363 -6.45% 1
South West +45 1 - -
North West +8 1 £450 +16.13% 1
Yorkshire - 1 £275 -

MSI
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 2 (4.00%) Apache
Applications
1 1 (2.00%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 21 (42.00%) Azure
2 10 (20.00%) Entra ID
3 9 (18.00%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (16.00%) OneDrive
5 4 (8.00%) AWS
5 4 (8.00%) GCP
6 1 (2.00%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (2.00%) IaaS
6 1 (2.00%) PaaS
6 1 (2.00%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 4 (8.00%) Modbus
1 4 (8.00%) MQTT
2 2 (4.00%) Firewall
3 1 (2.00%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (6.00%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (10.00%) AdminStudio
2 2 (4.00%) InstallShield
2 2 (4.00%) Robot Framework
2 2 (4.00%) Sonatype Nexus
2 2 (4.00%) WiX
General
1 23 (46.00%) Social Skills
2 4 (8.00%) Documentation Skills
3 2 (4.00%) Finance
3 2 (4.00%) Legal
4 1 (2.00%) Local Government
4 1 (2.00%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 11 (22.00%) Applications Packager
2 7 (14.00%) Architect
3 6 (12.00%) Wintel Engineer
4 5 (10.00%) SCCM Engineer
5 4 (8.00%) Applications Engineer
5 4 (8.00%) Configuration Manager
5 4 (8.00%) Solutions Architect
6 3 (6.00%) Infrastructure Architect
6 3 (6.00%) SC Cleared Application Packager
6 3 (6.00%) Systems Manager
7 2 (4.00%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 2 (4.00%) Integration Engineer
8 1 (2.00%) Active Directory Engineer
8 1 (2.00%) Configuration and Release Manager
8 1 (2.00%) Lead
8 1 (2.00%) Migration Manager
8 1 (2.00%) Migration Project Manager
8 1 (2.00%) Senior
8 1 (2.00%) Senior Active Directory Engineer
8 1 (2.00%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (18.00%) Software Packaging
2 4 (8.00%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 8 (16.00%) Cloud Native
2 4 (8.00%) IoT
3 3 (6.00%) SCADA
4 2 (4.00%) PKI
5 1 (2.00%) Driving Licence
5 1 (2.00%) EFT
5 1 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 41 (82.00%) Windows
2 14 (28.00%) Windows 10
3 8 (16.00%) Linux
3 8 (16.00%) Windows Server
4 5 (10.00%) Windows 7
5 2 (4.00%) CentOS
5 2 (4.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (4.00%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (42.00%) Application Packaging
2 12 (24.00%) Migration
3 10 (20.00%) Compatibility Testing
3 10 (20.00%) Project Management
3 10 (20.00%) Software Deployment
4 9 (18.00%) Change Management
5 8 (16.00%) Microservices
5 8 (16.00%) Programme Management
5 8 (16.00%) Security Patching
6 7 (14.00%) Penetration Testing
6 7 (14.00%) Software Delivery
6 7 (14.00%) Software Distribution
7 6 (12.00%) Agile
7 6 (12.00%) Data Analysis
8 5 (10.00%) Deployment Automation
8 5 (10.00%) Software Engineering
8 5 (10.00%) User Acceptance Testing
9 4 (8.00%) Continuous Improvement
10 3 (6.00%) Cybersecurity
10 3 (6.00%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 30 (60.00%) PowerShell
2 8 (16.00%) C#
2 8 (16.00%) Python
3 7 (14.00%) VB
4 6 (12.00%) Bash
5 4 (8.00%) VBScript
6 3 (6.00%) SQL
7 2 (4.00%) PHP
Qualifications
1 36 (72.00%) Security Cleared
2 27 (54.00%) SC Cleared
3 8 (16.00%) DV Cleared
4 2 (4.00%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (4.00%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (2.00%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (12.00%) QA
System Software
1 13 (26.00%) Microsoft App-V
2 9 (18.00%) Active Directory
3 4 (8.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (4.00%) Hyper-V
5 1 (2.00%) BitLocker
5 1 (2.00%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 23 (46.00%) SCCM
2 18 (36.00%) Microsoft Intune
3 8 (16.00%) Ansible
4 5 (10.00%) WMI
5 2 (4.00%) Terraform
5 2 (4.00%) ThinApp
6 1 (2.00%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 34 (68.00%) Microsoft
2 6 (12.00%) Citrix
2 6 (12.00%) Tanium
3 4 (8.00%) VMware
4 2 (4.00%) Ivanti
5 1 (2.00%) Foundry
5 1 (2.00%) Globalscape
5 1 (2.00%) Symantec