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 30 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 604 447 389
Rank change year-on-year -157 -58 +21
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 2016 52 97 188
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.098% 0.30% 0.47%
As % of the Operating Systems category 1.02% 2.21% 3.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 70 146
10th Percentile £267 £169 £200
25th Percentile £408 £353 £262
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £527 £475
Median % change year-on-year -14.57% +10.89% +5.56%
75th Percentile £547 £575 £608
90th Percentile £636 £588 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% +18.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 3
10th Percentile - - £57.52
25th Percentile £15.75 - £59.05
Median hourly rate £16.50 - £61.60
75th Percentile £17.25 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.50 - £61.60
% change year-on-year - - +23.87%

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 5,097 4,382 5,550
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.62% 13.35% 13.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,231 2,824 3,671
10th Percentile £193 £200 £193
25th Percentile £319 £313 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.62% -2.63% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £455 £450 £468
% change year-on-year +1.11% -3.76% +3.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 345 252 368
10th Percentile £15.60 £15.50 £12.68
25th Percentile £18.00 £18.13 £17.00
Median hourly rate £26.00 £23.50 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.64% -12.96% -36.47%
75th Percentile £63.75 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.44 £67.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.58 £22.20 £37.08
% change year-on-year +19.73% -40.13% +7.49%

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 30 July 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 16 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 30 July 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 -157 42 £450 -18.18% 26
UK excluding London -139 32 £450 -18.18% 24
London -66 17 £475 +18.75% 4
Work from Home -57 11 £450 -15.09% 7
Midlands -55 9 £450 +12.50% 4
East Midlands -5 7 £450 -
South East -85 7 £600 +20.00% 6
North of England -75 5 £294 -16.07% 10
Wales - 5 £425 - 1
Yorkshire -45 3 £294 -26.56% 1
East of England -38 2 £173 -68.64% 3
South West -41 2 £490 -14.78% 1
North West -58 2 - - 7
West Midlands -67 2 £450 +12.50% 4
Northern Ireland -5 1 - -
Scotland -15 1 £163 -2.26%

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 10 (19.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (11.54%) SharePoint
3 4 (7.69%) nginx
3 4 (7.69%) Tomcat
4 3 (5.77%) IIS
4 3 (5.77%) SAS
4 3 (5.77%) WebLogic
5 2 (3.85%) Skype for Business
6 1 (1.92%) Apache
6 1 (1.92%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 3 (5.77%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.92%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.92%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 14 (26.92%) Azure
2 8 (15.38%) Microsoft 365
3 6 (11.54%) Entra ID
4 4 (7.69%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (3.85%) GitHub
6 1 (1.92%) AWS
6 1 (1.92%) Nutanix
6 1 (1.92%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 14 (26.92%) DNS
2 12 (23.08%) DHCP
3 9 (17.31%) Firewall
4 4 (7.69%) HTTP
4 4 (7.69%) SAN
4 4 (7.69%) Skype
4 4 (7.69%) WAN
5 3 (5.77%) Kerberos
5 3 (5.77%) VPN
5 3 (5.77%) VSAN
6 2 (3.85%) LAN
6 2 (3.85%) TCP/IP
7 1 (1.92%) BGP
7 1 (1.92%) BIG-IP
7 1 (1.92%) DSL
7 1 (1.92%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (1.92%) MPLS
7 1 (1.92%) OSPF
7 1 (1.92%) SD-WAN
7 1 (1.92%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (11.54%) SQL Server
2 5 (9.62%) Oracle Database
3 4 (7.69%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (7.69%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (1.92%) DTS
4 1 (1.92%) Microsoft Analysis Services
4 1 (1.92%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 1 (1.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (1.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 2 (3.85%) AdminStudio
1 2 (3.85%) InstallShield
1 2 (3.85%) MSI
General
1 10 (19.23%) Social Skills
2 6 (11.54%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (5.77%) Public Sector
4 2 (3.85%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (3.85%) Military
5 1 (1.92%) Banking
5 1 (1.92%) Finance
5 1 (1.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (1.92%) Investment Banking
5 1 (1.92%) Legal
5 1 (1.92%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 18 (34.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 6 (11.54%) Support Engineer
3 5 (9.62%) Senior
4 4 (7.69%) Administrator
4 4 (7.69%) Applications Engineer
4 4 (7.69%) Architect
4 4 (7.69%) Server Engineer
5 3 (5.77%) 3rd Line Support
5 3 (5.77%) Analyst
5 3 (5.77%) Platform Engineer
5 3 (5.77%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
5 3 (5.77%) Solutions Architect
6 2 (3.85%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Active Directory Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Applications Support Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) DevOps Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Lead
6 2 (3.85%) Support Analyst
6 2 (3.85%) Windows Engineer
6 2 (3.85%) Wintel Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (5.77%) JSON
2 2 (3.85%) ADO
2 2 (3.85%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (3.85%) Middleware
3 1 (1.92%) EJB
3 1 (1.92%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (1.92%) JavaBeans
3 1 (1.92%) JSP
Miscellaneous
1 8 (15.38%) PKI
2 4 (7.69%) Legacy Applications
3 3 (5.77%) Clustering
3 3 (5.77%) Onboarding
3 3 (5.77%) Public Cloud
3 3 (5.77%) Security Posture
4 2 (3.85%) Enterprise Cloud
4 2 (3.85%) Enterprise Software
4 2 (3.85%) Legacy Systems
4 2 (3.85%) Replication
5 1 (1.92%) Client/Server
5 1 (1.92%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.92%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.92%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (1.92%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.92%) Video Conferencing
5 1 (1.92%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 50 (96.15%) Windows
2 45 (86.54%) Windows Server
3 29 (55.77%) Windows Server 2019
4 14 (26.92%) Linux
5 8 (15.38%) Windows Server 2012
6 7 (13.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (9.62%) Windows 10
7 5 (9.62%) Windows Server 2008
8 4 (7.69%) Solaris
9 3 (5.77%) Ubuntu
10 2 (3.85%) Windows 7
10 2 (3.85%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (1.92%) Android
11 1 (1.92%) Apple iOS
11 1 (1.92%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (38.46%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 11 (21.15%) ITIL
2 11 (21.15%) Migration
3 8 (15.38%) DevOps
4 5 (9.62%) CI/CD
4 5 (9.62%) High Availability
4 5 (9.62%) Mentoring
4 5 (9.62%) Performance Tuning
4 5 (9.62%) Root Cause Analysis
4 5 (9.62%) Technical Leadership
4 5 (9.62%) User Experience
4 5 (9.62%) Vulnerability Remediation
5 4 (7.69%) Agile
5 4 (7.69%) Application Virtualisation
5 4 (7.69%) Infrastructure as Code
5 4 (7.69%) ITSM
5 4 (7.69%) Patch Management
5 4 (7.69%) Problem-Solving
5 4 (7.69%) Server Migrations
6 3 (5.77%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 21 (40.38%) PowerShell
2 6 (11.54%) SQL
3 3 (5.77%) PL/SQL
4 2 (3.85%) Java
5 1 (1.92%) Bicep
5 1 (1.92%) Shell Script
5 1 (1.92%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 21 (40.38%) Security Cleared
2 18 (34.62%) SC Cleared
3 8 (15.38%) Microsoft Certification
4 5 (9.62%) DV Cleared
5 4 (7.69%) Degree
6 3 (5.77%) MCSE
7 2 (3.85%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (1.92%) Azure Certification
8 1 (1.92%) CCA
8 1 (1.92%) CCNA
8 1 (1.92%) CCNP
8 1 (1.92%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (1.92%) Citrix Certification
8 1 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (1.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (1.92%) ISO 9001
1 1 (1.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (1.92%) SLA
System Software
1 29 (55.77%) Active Directory
2 25 (48.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (21.15%) vSphere
4 10 (19.23%) Hyper-V
5 9 (17.31%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (11.54%) VMware NSX
7 4 (7.69%) Docker
8 3 (5.77%) Oracle RAC
8 3 (5.77%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (5.77%) XenApp
8 3 (5.77%) XenDesktop
9 2 (3.85%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (3.85%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (3.85%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (1.92%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 10 (19.23%) SCCM
2 6 (11.54%) WSUS
3 5 (9.62%) Ansible
3 5 (9.62%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (9.62%) Terraform
4 3 (5.77%) Oracle RMAN
5 2 (3.85%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (3.85%) McAfee ePO
5 2 (3.85%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (3.85%) vCenter Server
6 1 (1.92%) Forefront Identity Manager
6 1 (1.92%) Kibana
6 1 (1.92%) logstash
6 1 (1.92%) Microsoft Clustering
6 1 (1.92%) NetApp OnCommand
6 1 (1.92%) SCOM
6 1 (1.92%) SCVMM
6 1 (1.92%) vMotion
6 1 (1.92%) vRealize
Vendors
1 36 (69.23%) Microsoft
2 27 (51.92%) VMware
3 8 (15.38%) Citrix
4 7 (13.46%) Oracle
4 7 (13.46%) Red Hat
5 4 (7.69%) IBM
6 3 (5.77%) Cisco
6 3 (5.77%) NVIDIA
7 2 (3.85%) Dell
7 2 (3.85%) McAfee
7 2 (3.85%) NetApp
7 2 (3.85%) ServiceNow
8 1 (1.92%) BMC
8 1 (1.92%) Forcepoint
8 1 (1.92%) HP
8 1 (1.92%) Juniper
8 1 (1.92%) Meraki
8 1 (1.92%) Palo Alto
8 1 (1.92%) Remedy
8 1 (1.92%) Sybase