Windows Server 2016 Contract Job Trends

Microsoft Windows Server 2016
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Windows Server 2016 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 524 433 354
Rank change year-on-year -91 -79 +88
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 2016 77 105 245
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.34% 0.56%
As % of the Operating Systems category 1.60% 2.41% 3.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 58 78 168
10th Percentile £147 £205 £208
25th Percentile £345 £350 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £413 £465
Median % change year-on-year +18.11% -11.24% -7.00%
75th Percentile £575 £611 £575
90th Percentile £651 £675 £608
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £500
% change year-on-year +5.88% -15.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 10
10th Percentile - - £48.40
25th Percentile £16.25 - £55.05
Median hourly rate £17.50 - £59.80
75th Percentile £18.75 - £65.84
90th Percentile - - £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 - £59.80
% change year-on-year - - +55.32%

All Operating Systems
UK

Windows Server 2016 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 4,820 4,357 6,137
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.67% 14.30% 13.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,193 2,765 4,113
10th Percentile £178 £200 £180
25th Percentile £275 £317 £280
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £465
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +2.15% -9.27%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £594
90th Percentile £675 £695 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £420 £425 £430
% change year-on-year -1.18% -1.16% -9.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 346 151 380
10th Percentile £15.00 £16.10 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.05 £20.62 £16.44
Median hourly rate £23.54 £29.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.84% +16.00% -5.59%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £69.37 £68.75 £70.19
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.69 £27.75 £24.00
% change year-on-year -18.23% +15.63% -9.37%

Windows Server 2016
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Windows Server 2016 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Windows Server 2016 job vacancy trend in the UK

Windows Server 2016
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Windows Server 2016.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Windows Server 2016

Windows Server 2016
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows Server 2016 over the 6 months to 25 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Windows Server 2016 in the UK

Windows Server 2016
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Windows Server 2016.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Windows Server 2016

Windows Server 2016
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Windows Server 2016 within the UK over the 6 months to 25 February 2026. 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 -92 67 £450 +5.88% 33
UK excluding London -106 45 £450 +5.88% 29
London -46 25 £513 +41.38% 10
Work from Home -26 17 £127 -68.38% 9
East of England - 17 £173 - 3
South West -25 10 £525 -10.64% 7
South East -55 8 £505 -12.17% 8
North of England -81 3 £356 +1.79% 5
Midlands - 3 £450 - 1
East Midlands - 3 £450 -
Scotland +5 2 £319 +63.46% 4
Wales -8 2 £546 +42.81% 1
North West -56 2 £300 -14.29% 5
Yorkshire -60 1 £413 +17.77%

Windows Server 2016
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 13 (16.88%) SharePoint
2 10 (12.99%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (6.49%) nginx
3 5 (6.49%) Tomcat
4 4 (5.19%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (3.90%) Apache
5 3 (3.90%) LiveLink
5 3 (3.90%) SAS
5 3 (3.90%) WebLogic
6 1 (1.30%) IIS
6 1 (1.30%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (16.88%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (6.49%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (2.60%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 23 (29.87%) Microsoft 365
2 20 (25.97%) Azure
3 8 (10.39%) Entra ID
4 5 (6.49%) AWS
5 4 (5.19%) GitHub
6 3 (3.90%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (3.90%) Cloud Computing
6 3 (3.90%) Nutanix
7 2 (2.60%) GCP
8 1 (1.30%) AWS CodePipeline
8 1 (1.30%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (1.30%) IaaS
8 1 (1.30%) MinIO
8 1 (1.30%) OCI
8 1 (1.30%) PaaS
8 1 (1.30%) Power Platform
8 1 (1.30%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (22.08%) DNS
2 14 (18.18%) DHCP
3 11 (14.29%) LAN
4 9 (11.69%) WAN
5 8 (10.39%) VPN
6 7 (9.09%) Firewall
6 7 (9.09%) TCP/IP
7 5 (6.49%) HTTP
7 5 (6.49%) NetScaler
7 5 (6.49%) Skype
8 4 (5.19%) SAN
9 3 (3.90%) Kerberos
10 2 (2.60%) BIG-IP
10 2 (2.60%) Internet
11 1 (1.30%) Cisco IOS
11 1 (1.30%) Network Security
11 1 (1.30%) SSL
11 1 (1.30%) VLAN
11 1 (1.30%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (20.78%) Oracle Database
2 15 (19.48%) SQL Server
3 7 (9.09%) Oracle Reports
4 5 (6.49%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (5.19%) Data Warehouse
5 4 (5.19%) EDRMS
6 3 (3.90%) GIS
7 1 (1.30%) Data Lake
7 1 (1.30%) Power BI
7 1 (1.30%) Power Query
7 1 (1.30%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 3 (3.90%) GitLab
1 3 (3.90%) JIRA
General
1 19 (24.68%) Social Skills
2 10 (12.99%) Public Sector
3 8 (10.39%) Documentation Skills
4 4 (5.19%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (5.19%) Finance
5 3 (3.90%) Aerospace
5 3 (3.90%) Banking
5 3 (3.90%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.30%) Back Office
6 1 (1.30%) Electronics
6 1 (1.30%) Front Office
6 1 (1.30%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.30%) Marketing
6 1 (1.30%) Publishing
6 1 (1.30%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 15 (19.48%) Analyst
1 15 (19.48%) Support Analyst
2 12 (15.58%) Technical Analyst
2 12 (15.58%) Technical Support
2 12 (15.58%) Technical Support Analyst
3 11 (14.29%) Architect
4 10 (12.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 9 (11.69%) IT Support
6 8 (10.39%) Infrastructure Architect
6 8 (10.39%) Platform Engineer
7 7 (9.09%) 3rd Line Support
8 6 (7.79%) Support Engineer
9 5 (6.49%) Citrix Support
9 5 (6.49%) Developer
10 4 (5.19%) 2nd Line Support
10 4 (5.19%) Lead
10 4 (5.19%) Senior
10 4 (5.19%) Windows Engineer
11 3 (3.90%) IT Analyst
11 3 (3.90%) VMware Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (6.49%) REST
2 3 (3.90%) ARM Templates
2 3 (3.90%) EJB
2 3 (3.90%) Java SE
2 3 (3.90%) JSP
2 3 (3.90%) Middleware
2 3 (3.90%) OpenLayers
3 2 (2.60%) LDAP
4 1 (1.30%) Java EE
4 1 (1.30%) JDBC
4 1 (1.30%) ODBC
4 1 (1.30%) SAML
4 1 (1.30%) Servlets
Miscellaneous
1 8 (10.39%) Client/Server
2 5 (6.49%) Legacy Applications
2 5 (6.49%) Legacy Systems
2 5 (6.49%) PKI
3 3 (3.90%) Public Cloud
3 3 (3.90%) Replication
3 3 (3.90%) Video Conferencing
4 2 (2.60%) Data Centre
4 2 (2.60%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (1.30%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.30%) Clustering
5 1 (1.30%) Data Structures
5 1 (1.30%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 1 (1.30%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.30%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (1.30%) iPhone
5 1 (1.30%) NHS
5 1 (1.30%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.30%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 71 (92.21%) Windows
2 39 (50.65%) Windows Server
3 33 (42.86%) Windows Server 2019
4 31 (40.26%) Windows 10
5 23 (29.87%) Linux
6 13 (16.88%) Windows Server 2003
7 12 (15.58%) Windows 7
8 10 (12.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 7 (9.09%) AIX
9 7 (9.09%) Windows Server 2008
9 7 (9.09%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (6.49%) Solaris
11 4 (5.19%) Ubuntu
12 1 (1.30%) Android
12 1 (1.30%) CentOS
12 1 (1.30%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (19.48%) Migration
1 15 (19.48%) Proactive Monitoring
2 12 (15.58%) Disaster Recovery
2 12 (15.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 9 (11.69%) Agile
3 9 (11.69%) Platform Engineering
4 8 (10.39%) Change Management
4 8 (10.39%) DevOps
5 7 (9.09%) CI/CD
5 7 (9.09%) ETL
6 6 (7.79%) High Availability
6 6 (7.79%) ITIL
6 6 (7.79%) Server Management
6 6 (7.79%) User Acceptance Testing
7 5 (6.49%) Data Migration
7 5 (6.49%) Refactoring
7 5 (6.49%) Root Cause Analysis
7 5 (6.49%) Service Management
7 5 (6.49%) Test Automation
7 5 (6.49%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 20 (25.97%) PowerShell
2 19 (24.68%) SQL
3 10 (12.99%) Java
4 5 (6.49%) PL/SQL
5 4 (5.19%) Python
6 1 (1.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 1 (1.30%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 30 (38.96%) Security Cleared
2 24 (31.17%) SC Cleared
3 17 (22.08%) Degree
4 8 (10.39%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (6.49%) CCA
5 5 (6.49%) Citrix Certification
5 5 (6.49%) MCSE
5 5 (6.49%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 3 (3.90%) CompTIA Security+
6 3 (3.90%) DV Cleared
7 1 (1.30%) Azure Certification
7 1 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (1.30%) QA
System Software
1 30 (38.96%) Active Directory
2 22 (28.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (14.29%) Hyper-V
4 10 (12.99%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (11.69%) vSphere
6 8 (10.39%) Docker
7 7 (9.09%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (9.09%) VMware NSX
8 6 (7.79%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (6.49%) XenApp
9 5 (6.49%) XenDesktop
10 4 (5.19%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (1.30%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (1.30%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 16 (20.78%) SCCM
2 9 (11.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 8 (10.39%) vCenter Server
4 5 (6.49%) SCVMM
4 5 (6.49%) Terraform
5 4 (5.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (5.19%) Oracle RMAN
5 4 (5.19%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (3.90%) Ansible
6 3 (3.90%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 3 (3.90%) WSUS
7 2 (2.60%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (1.30%) Kubernetes
8 1 (1.30%) McAfee ePO
8 1 (1.30%) Microsoft Clustering
8 1 (1.30%) Nessus
8 1 (1.30%) Norton AntiVirus
8 1 (1.30%) SCOM
8 1 (1.30%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 41 (53.25%) Microsoft
2 31 (40.26%) VMware
3 21 (27.27%) Oracle
4 15 (19.48%) Citrix
5 12 (15.58%) IBM
6 11 (14.29%) Veeam
7 6 (7.79%) Cisco
8 5 (6.49%) NetApp
8 5 (6.49%) Red Hat
8 5 (6.49%) ServiceNow
8 5 (6.49%) SolarWinds
9 3 (3.90%) Dell
10 2 (2.60%) F5
10 2 (2.60%) McAfee
10 2 (2.60%) OpenText
10 2 (2.60%) Veritas
11 1 (1.30%) Fortinet
11 1 (1.30%) Google
11 1 (1.30%) HP
11 1 (1.30%) Symantec