Windows Server Contract Job Trends

Microsoft Windows Server
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Windows Server skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 188 117 89
Rank change year-on-year -71 -28 +3
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 631 702 1,068
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.46% 2.39% 2.40%
As % of the Operating Systems category 13.30% 16.67% 17.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 474 468 734
10th Percentile £238 £313 £190
25th Percentile £400 £400 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £505 £450
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +12.22% -9.77%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £575
90th Percentile £693 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £425
% change year-on-year -4.76% +23.53% -10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 8 28
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.29 £15.85
25th Percentile £19.25 £35.47 £19.44
Median hourly rate £22.50 £49.00 £53.53
Median % change year-on-year -54.08% -8.46% +82.70%
75th Percentile £30.24 £83.31 £65.56
90th Percentile £61.25 £112.00 £72.83
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £35.88 £59.80
% change year-on-year -37.28% -40.01% +70.86%

All Operating Systems
UK

Windows Server 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 4,744 4,212 6,020
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.99% 14.34% 13.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,107 2,764 4,024
10th Percentile £180 £200 £181
25th Percentile £283 £318 £280
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £475 £452
Median % change year-on-year -5.89% +5.20% -12.33%
75th Percentile £565 £600 £588
90th Percentile £657 £700 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £413 £450 £430
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.65% -9.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 352 157 403
10th Percentile £15.00 £16.60 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.69 £18.51 £15.50
Median hourly rate £22.81 £28.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.54% +24.44% -15.09%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £59.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £24.66 £22.50
% change year-on-year -8.76% +9.60% -13.46%

Windows Server
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Windows Server job vacancy trend in the UK

Windows Server
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Windows Server
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows Server over the 6 months to 17 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Windows Server
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Windows Server over the 6 months to 17 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Top 17 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 within the UK over the 6 months to 17 March 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 -66 554 £500 -4.76% 340
UK excluding London -54 410 £500 -4.76% 324
London -65 180 £500 - 71
Work from Home -60 144 £484 -3.25% 121
South East -21 118 £503 -8.64% 114
North of England -83 81 £375 -21.05% 76
South West -36 68 £570 -0.87% 31
North West -35 62 £364 -20.00% 46
East of England -2 53 £438 -2.78% 37
Midlands -41 50 £450 +30.43% 43
Scotland -27 34 £475 -5.00% 21
West Midlands -51 34 £500 +138.10% 22
Yorkshire -68 16 £375 -28.57% 24
East Midlands -31 15 £415 +3.75% 21
Wales -10 7 £543 +41.83% 8
North East -15 6 £550 +2.33% 9
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 1

Windows Server
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 90 (14.26%) Microsoft Exchange
2 30 (4.75%) SharePoint
3 28 (4.44%) IIS
4 9 (1.43%) Apache
5 8 (1.27%) nginx
6 7 (1.11%) SAS
6 7 (1.11%) Tomcat
7 6 (0.95%) Confluence
8 3 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2010
8 3 (0.48%) Skype for Business
8 3 (0.48%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.32%) WordPress
10 1 (0.16%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2013
10 1 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.16%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.16%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.16%) WebSphere
Applications
1 22 (3.49%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.16%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 4 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.48%) Veritas eDiscovery
3 1 (0.16%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle FAH
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 1 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 222 (35.18%) Azure
2 122 (19.33%) Microsoft 365
3 103 (16.32%) Entra ID
4 54 (8.56%) AWS
5 22 (3.49%) IaaS
6 17 (2.69%) PaaS
7 14 (2.22%) SaaS
8 13 (2.06%) Azure Monitor
9 12 (1.90%) Nutanix
10 11 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
11 10 (1.58%) Power Platform
12 7 (1.11%) Amazon S3
12 7 (1.11%) Azure Sentinel
12 7 (1.11%) GCP
13 6 (0.95%) GitHub
13 6 (0.95%) OCI
13 6 (0.95%) OpenShift
14 5 (0.79%) Amazon EC2
14 5 (0.79%) Mimecast
15 4 (0.63%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 201 (31.85%) DNS
2 143 (22.66%) Firewall
3 142 (22.50%) DHCP
4 62 (9.83%) WAN
5 57 (9.03%) VPN
6 56 (8.87%) TCP/IP
7 53 (8.40%) LAN
8 27 (4.28%) Network Security
9 22 (3.49%) VLAN
10 19 (3.01%) Kerberos
11 17 (2.69%) SAN
12 16 (2.54%) Wi-Fi
12 16 (2.54%) Wireless
13 15 (2.38%) FTP
14 14 (2.22%) VoIP
15 13 (2.06%) SMTP
15 13 (2.06%) SSL
16 12 (1.90%) HTTP
17 11 (1.74%) Cisco IOS
18 10 (1.58%) BGP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (13.63%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.85%) Oracle Database
3 12 (1.90%) Elasticsearch
4 9 (1.43%) Power BI
5 7 (1.11%) DB2
6 6 (0.95%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (0.79%) GIS
7 5 (0.79%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (0.63%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.63%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.32%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.32%) Big Data
10 2 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 1 (0.16%) Oracle BI EE
11 1 (0.16%) Oracle Database 11g
11 1 (0.16%) QlikView
11 1 (0.16%) Redis
11 1 (0.16%) SAP HANA
11 1 (0.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 19 (3.01%) Jenkins
1 19 (3.01%) JIRA
2 17 (2.69%) Git
3 16 (2.54%) GitLab
4 11 (1.74%) Visual Studio
5 6 (0.95%) Robot Framework
5 6 (0.95%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.63%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.48%) Octopus Deploy
8 2 (0.32%) Fiddler
9 1 (0.16%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.16%) eggPlant
9 1 (0.16%) GoCD
9 1 (0.16%) Maven
9 1 (0.16%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.16%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.16%) Terragrunt
General
1 158 (25.04%) Social Skills
2 82 (13.00%) Analytical Skills
3 65 (10.30%) Public Sector
4 64 (10.14%) Finance
5 38 (6.02%) Legal
6 36 (5.71%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (3.33%) Banking
8 13 (2.06%) Military
9 11 (1.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (0.95%) Local Government
11 6 (0.95%) Spanish Language
12 5 (0.79%) Aerospace
12 5 (0.79%) Front Office
12 5 (0.79%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.48%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.48%) Law
13 3 (0.48%) Retail
14 2 (0.32%) Back Office
14 2 (0.32%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 107 (16.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 65 (10.30%) Analyst
3 42 (6.66%) Architect
4 40 (6.34%) Support Engineer
5 39 (6.18%) Senior
6 36 (5.71%) Platform Engineer
7 32 (5.07%) IT Support
8 29 (4.60%) Developer
8 29 (4.60%) Support Analyst
8 29 (4.60%) Windows Engineer
9 28 (4.44%) Wintel Engineer
10 25 (3.96%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 24 (3.80%) Lead
11 24 (3.80%) Server Engineer
11 24 (3.80%) Technical Analyst
12 23 (3.65%) 2nd Line Support
12 23 (3.65%) Network Engineer
13 22 (3.49%) 3rd Line Support
14 19 (3.01%) Technical Support
15 18 (2.85%) C# Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (5.23%) OAuth
2 32 (5.07%) .NET
3 30 (4.75%) SAML
4 27 (4.28%) LDAP
5 26 (4.12%) REST
6 23 (3.65%) .NET Framework
7 17 (2.69%) OAuth2
7 17 (2.69%) OpenID
8 8 (1.27%) Middleware
8 8 (1.27%) XMPP
9 7 (1.11%) React
10 6 (0.95%) Loki
11 5 (0.79%) AngularJS
11 5 (0.79%) EJB
11 5 (0.79%) OpenLayers
12 4 (0.63%) Elastic Stack
12 4 (0.63%) Keycloak
13 3 (0.48%) ASP.NET Web API
13 3 (0.48%) Vue
13 3 (0.48%) WCF
Miscellaneous
1 48 (7.61%) PKI
2 46 (7.29%) Data Centre
3 39 (6.18%) Replication
4 28 (4.44%) Legacy Systems
5 26 (4.12%) Clustering
6 22 (3.49%) Onboarding
6 22 (3.49%) Product Ownership
7 18 (2.85%) Enterprise Software
7 18 (2.85%) Hybrid Cloud
7 18 (2.85%) NHS
8 17 (2.69%) Driving Licence
9 15 (2.38%) Management Information System
9 15 (2.38%) Private Cloud
10 14 (2.22%) Self-Motivation
11 10 (1.58%) Enterprise Storage
12 9 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (1.43%) Public Cloud
13 8 (1.27%) Linux Command Line
14 7 (1.11%) iPhone
14 7 (1.11%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 629 (99.68%) Windows
2 160 (25.36%) Linux
3 53 (8.40%) Windows Server 2019
4 48 (7.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 46 (7.29%) Windows Server 2016
6 37 (5.86%) Windows 10
7 34 (5.39%) Windows Server 2012
8 28 (4.44%) Unix
9 14 (2.22%) Windows Server 2003
10 12 (1.90%) Windows Server 2008
11 11 (1.74%) Solaris
11 11 (1.74%) Ubuntu
12 10 (1.58%) AIX
13 9 (1.43%) Android
14 8 (1.27%) CentOS
15 7 (1.11%) VMS
16 3 (0.48%) Apple iOS
17 2 (0.32%) Mac OS
17 2 (0.32%) Windows 7
17 2 (0.32%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (23.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 110 (17.43%) Problem-Solving
3 94 (14.90%) Disaster Recovery
4 89 (14.10%) ITIL
5 83 (13.15%) High Availability
6 81 (12.84%) Agile
7 69 (10.94%) Migration
8 57 (9.03%) Change Management
9 56 (8.87%) Service Management
10 52 (8.24%) Continuous Improvement
11 50 (7.92%) Cybersecurity
12 49 (7.77%) ITSM
13 48 (7.61%) DevOps
14 46 (7.29%) Project Delivery
15 45 (7.13%) Identity Access Management
16 42 (6.66%) CI/CD
17 39 (6.18%) RBAC
18 37 (5.86%) Mentoring
18 37 (5.86%) Task Automation
19 36 (5.71%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 250 (39.62%) PowerShell
2 87 (13.79%) SQL
3 69 (10.94%) Python
4 38 (6.02%) Bash
5 31 (4.91%) C#
6 25 (3.96%) PL/SQL
7 21 (3.33%) T-SQL
8 17 (2.69%) Perl
9 16 (2.54%) Java
10 12 (1.90%) JavaScript
11 7 (1.11%) Bicep
12 4 (0.63%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.32%) C++
13 2 (0.32%) Delphi
13 2 (0.32%) JCL
13 2 (0.32%) PHP
13 2 (0.32%) REXX
14 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.16%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 239 (37.88%) Security Cleared
2 161 (25.52%) SC Cleared
3 78 (12.36%) DV Cleared
4 73 (11.57%) Degree
5 66 (10.46%) Microsoft Certification
6 24 (3.80%) MCSE
7 20 (3.17%) Azure Certification
8 18 (2.85%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (2.69%) CCNP
10 15 (2.38%) CCNA
10 15 (2.38%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 14 (2.22%) MCSA
12 10 (1.58%) CCDP
13 9 (1.43%) AWS Certification
13 9 (1.43%) CISSP
13 9 (1.43%) VCAP
14 7 (1.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 7 (1.11%) BPSS Clearance
14 7 (1.11%) CompTIA Security+
14 7 (1.11%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (4.44%) QA
2 27 (4.28%) GDPR
3 22 (3.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (2.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 12 (1.90%) Cyber Essentials
5 12 (1.90%) NIST
5 12 (1.90%) SLA
6 4 (0.63%) NCSC
6 4 (0.63%) NIST 800
7 2 (0.32%) Government Security Classifications
7 2 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 2 (0.32%) RMADS
8 1 (0.16%) Basel III
8 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.16%) GAAP
8 1 (0.16%) HL7
8 1 (0.16%) IFRS
8 1 (0.16%) IFRS 17
8 1 (0.16%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 385 (61.01%) Active Directory
2 184 (29.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 79 (12.52%) Hyper-V
4 53 (8.40%) vSphere
5 41 (6.50%) VMware ESXi
6 37 (5.86%) Docker
7 31 (4.91%) Virtual Machines
8 24 (3.80%) VMware NSX
9 10 (1.58%) Virtual Desktop
10 7 (1.11%) BitLocker
10 7 (1.11%) KVM
10 7 (1.11%) Microsoft App-V
10 7 (1.11%) Terminal Services
11 5 (0.79%) Firmware
12 4 (0.63%) Oracle RAC
12 4 (0.63%) Virtual Servers
13 3 (0.48%) Sendmail
13 3 (0.48%) XenApp
14 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.32%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 82 (13.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 74 (11.73%) Ansible
3 72 (11.41%) SCCM
4 53 (8.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 49 (7.77%) Single Sign-On
6 46 (7.29%) vCenter Server
7 45 (7.13%) Terraform
8 35 (5.55%) Kubernetes
9 22 (3.49%) SCOM
10 16 (2.54%) WSUS
11 10 (1.58%) Puppet
12 9 (1.43%) Grafana
13 8 (1.27%) Prometheus
14 7 (1.11%) FortiGate
14 7 (1.11%) NetBackup
14 7 (1.11%) SCOrch
14 7 (1.11%) vMotion
15 6 (0.95%) CASB
15 6 (0.95%) IBM BigFix
15 6 (0.95%) VxRail
Vendors
1 282 (44.69%) Microsoft
2 238 (37.72%) VMware
3 74 (11.73%) Citrix
4 63 (9.98%) Cisco
5 53 (8.40%) Oracle
6 36 (5.71%) Red Hat
7 35 (5.55%) ServiceNow
8 31 (4.91%) Dell
9 27 (4.28%) SolarWinds
10 25 (3.96%) Veeam
11 16 (2.54%) IBM
12 15 (2.38%) Okta
13 14 (2.22%) Palo Alto
14 10 (1.58%) BeyondTrust
14 10 (1.58%) CyberArk
14 10 (1.58%) HP
14 10 (1.58%) Juniper
14 10 (1.58%) NetApp
14 10 (1.58%) Tenable
14 10 (1.58%) Veritas