Windows Server Contracts

Microsoft Windows Server
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Windows Server skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Windows Server over the 6 months to 11 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
11 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 96 81 117
Rank change year-on-year -15 +36 -8
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 989 1,642 2,001
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 2.30% 2.84% 2.29%
As % of the Operating Systems category 17.25% 17.45% 15.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 717 1,189 1,454
10th Percentile £210 £206 £190
25th Percentile £313 £357 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £500 £427
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% +17.10% +3.52%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £572
90th Percentile £694 £700 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £405
% change year-on-year +2.70% +14.20% +6.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 60 69
10th Percentile £14.89 £20.00 £15.60
25th Percentile £16.06 £24.62 £17.50
Median hourly rate £46.75 £32.00 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.09% +39.13% -8.00%
75th Percentile £61.60 £49.52 £46.50
90th Percentile £66.88 £60.06 £66.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.00 £37.50 £22.00
% change year-on-year +54.67% +70.45% -2.22%

All Operating Systems
UK

Windows Server is in the Operating Systems category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 5,733 9,408 13,095
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.33% 16.27% 14.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,878 6,587 8,883
10th Percentile £185 £190 £175
25th Percentile £300 £338 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £468 £505 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.43% +1.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £613
90th Percentile £700 £719 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £425
% change year-on-year -5.26% +11.76% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 392 419 606
10th Percentile £12.75 £13.99 £13.38
25th Percentile £15.44 £17.74 £16.00
Median hourly rate £22.00 £38.50 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.86% +67.39% +29.50%
75th Percentile £60.75 £64.50 £53.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £65.54
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £29.30 £20.00
% change year-on-year -23.21% +46.50% +21.21%

Windows Server
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows Server over the 6 months to 11 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Windows Server over the 6 months to 11 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Top 16 Contract 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 11 May 2024. 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 -1 895 £470 -6.00% 631
UK excluding London -4 607 £475 +2.70% 536
London +9 329 £450 -10.00% 120
Work from Home -35 253 £465 -6.53% 216
South East +11 221 £550 +7.32% 146
North of England +4 140 £463 +15.63% 114
Midlands -4 85 £350 -12.50% 102
North West -13 74 £800 +64.10% 55
South West -40 70 £500 -9.09% 72
West Midlands -3 53 £350 -26.32% 63
Yorkshire +12 50 £325 -13.33% 45
Scotland +1 46 £475 +2.70% 25
East of England -27 34 £250 -41.18% 74
East Midlands -5 29 £338 +3.85% 39
North East +16 16 £525 +94.44% 15
Wales -5 14 £225 -47.06% 11

Windows Server
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
1 188 (19.01%) Microsoft Exchange
2 76 (7.68%) SharePoint
3 41 (4.15%) IIS
4 28 (2.83%) Confluence
5 26 (2.63%) Exchange Server 2013
6 25 (2.53%) Exchange Server 2010
7 13 (1.31%) Apache
7 13 (1.31%) nginx
8 12 (1.21%) Skype for Business
8 12 (1.21%) Tomcat
9 11 (1.11%) Exchange Server 2003
9 11 (1.11%) Exchange Server 2007
10 9 (0.91%) JBoss
11 4 (0.40%) SAS
12 3 (0.30%) WordPress
13 1 (0.10%) IBM Domino
13 1 (0.10%) IBM Notes
13 1 (0.10%) OpenStack
13 1 (0.10%) WebSphere
Applications
1 57 (5.76%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.20%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.20%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.10%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 9 (0.91%) Temenos T24
2 6 (0.61%) Teamcenter
3 5 (0.51%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.40%) Dynamics GP
5 2 (0.20%) Remedy AR System
6 1 (0.10%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.10%) Eikon
6 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.10%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
6 1 (0.10%) RMDS
6 1 (0.10%) Sage X3
6 1 (0.10%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.10%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 325 (32.86%) Azure
2 294 (29.73%) Microsoft 365
3 127 (12.84%) AWS
4 102 (10.31%) Entra ID
5 46 (4.65%) IaaS
6 44 (4.45%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (2.93%) Azure Monitor
8 27 (2.73%) OneDrive
9 23 (2.33%) GCP
10 21 (2.12%) Azure Storage
11 20 (2.02%) PaaS
12 19 (1.92%) Amazon EC2
12 19 (1.92%) Cloud Computing
12 19 (1.92%) GitHub
13 18 (1.82%) OCI
14 16 (1.62%) Power Platform
15 15 (1.52%) SaaS
16 13 (1.31%) Nutanix
16 13 (1.31%) OpenShift
17 10 (1.01%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 257 (25.99%) Firewall
2 251 (25.38%) DNS
3 165 (16.68%) DHCP
4 122 (12.34%) VPN
5 97 (9.81%) SAN
6 78 (7.89%) LAN
7 73 (7.38%) WAN
8 41 (4.15%) TCP/IP
9 35 (3.54%) NAS
10 26 (2.63%) VLAN
11 24 (2.43%) Wireless
12 21 (2.12%) Skype
13 20 (2.02%) Wi-Fi
14 17 (1.72%) Remote Desktop
15 16 (1.62%) SMTP
16 15 (1.52%) MPLS
17 14 (1.42%) Fibre Channel
18 13 (1.31%) Internet
19 12 (1.21%) iSCSI
19 12 (1.21%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (13.75%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.02%) MySQL
3 18 (1.82%) Amazon RDS
4 17 (1.72%) Relational Database
5 16 (1.62%) PostgreSQL
6 15 (1.52%) Elasticsearch
6 15 (1.52%) RDBMS
7 11 (1.11%) Power BI
8 7 (0.71%) Oracle Database
9 6 (0.61%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
10 4 (0.40%) Big Data
10 4 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.40%) DB2
10 4 (0.40%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.20%) BigQuery
11 2 (0.20%) Looker
11 2 (0.20%) MariaDB
12 1 (0.10%) Data Lake
12 1 (0.10%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 52 (5.26%) JIRA
2 37 (3.74%) Jenkins
3 27 (2.73%) Git
4 20 (2.02%) Robot Framework
5 16 (1.62%) Sonatype Nexus
6 14 (1.42%) Artifactory
6 14 (1.42%) Subversion
6 14 (1.42%) TeamCity
7 12 (1.21%) GitLab
8 8 (0.81%) Selenium
9 7 (0.71%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 4 (0.40%) Octopus Deploy
10 4 (0.40%) SonarQube
11 3 (0.30%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.30%) Burp Suite
11 3 (0.30%) Visual Studio
12 2 (0.20%) AppScan
12 2 (0.20%) JMeter
12 2 (0.20%) Team Foundation Server
13 1 (0.10%) Gradle
General
1 270 (27.30%) Social Skills
2 107 (10.82%) Finance
3 97 (9.81%) Analytical Skills
4 90 (9.10%) Public Sector
5 26 (2.63%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (2.22%) Banking
7 21 (2.12%) Military
8 18 (1.82%) Legal
9 17 (1.72%) Telecoms
10 12 (1.21%) Manufacturing
11 11 (1.11%) Mandarin Language
12 8 (0.81%) Marketing
12 8 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (0.71%) French Language
14 6 (0.61%) Electronics
14 6 (0.61%) Investment Banking
14 6 (0.61%) Law
15 4 (0.40%) Front Office
15 4 (0.40%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 184 (18.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 90 (9.10%) Support Engineer
3 89 (9.00%) Architect
4 68 (6.88%) Windows Engineer
5 64 (6.47%) Senior
6 60 (6.07%) Administrator
7 59 (5.97%) Analyst
8 51 (5.16%) IT Support
9 50 (5.06%) Wintel Engineer
10 46 (4.65%) Lead
10 46 (4.65%) Technical Architect
11 45 (4.55%) IT Engineer
12 38 (3.84%) Integration Engineer
12 38 (3.84%) Server Engineer
13 36 (3.64%) Lead Architect
14 34 (3.44%) Technical Leader
15 33 (3.34%) Systems Administrator
16 32 (3.24%) Azure Engineer
17 31 (3.13%) 3rd Line Support
17 31 (3.13%) Support Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (4.85%) Node.js
2 34 (3.44%) .NET
3 20 (2.02%) ARM Templates
3 20 (2.02%) LDAP
3 20 (2.02%) Middleware
4 10 (1.01%) REST
5 9 (0.91%) IBM Integration Bus
6 7 (0.71%) ASP.NET
6 7 (0.71%) CSS
6 7 (0.71%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.71%) XML
7 6 (0.61%) Itk
7 6 (0.61%) Web Services
7 6 (0.61%) YAML
8 5 (0.51%) HTML
9 4 (0.40%) Flash
9 4 (0.40%) JSON
9 4 (0.40%) LAMP
9 4 (0.40%) POSIX
9 4 (0.40%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 106 (10.72%) PKI
2 57 (5.76%) Data Centre
3 50 (5.06%) Clustering
4 49 (4.95%) Public Cloud
5 43 (4.35%) Replication
6 30 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
7 27 (2.73%) Client/Server
8 25 (2.53%) NHS
9 19 (1.92%) Video Conferencing
10 16 (1.62%) Management Information System
11 15 (1.52%) Onboarding
11 15 (1.52%) Product Ownership
12 14 (1.42%) Driving Licence
13 10 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
13 10 (1.01%) Mobile App
14 9 (0.91%) Fat Client
14 9 (0.91%) Thin Client
15 8 (0.81%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
16 7 (0.71%) Enterprise Software
16 7 (0.71%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 986 (99.70%) Windows
2 213 (21.54%) Linux
3 198 (20.02%) Windows Server 2012
4 174 (17.59%) Windows 10
5 170 (17.19%) Windows Server 2019
6 159 (16.08%) Windows Server 2016
7 69 (6.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 56 (5.66%) Apple iOS
9 54 (5.46%) Android
10 50 (5.06%) Windows Server 2008
11 39 (3.94%) Unix
12 29 (2.93%) Windows 7
13 24 (2.43%) VMS
14 20 (2.02%) Mac OS
14 20 (2.02%) Windows NT
15 19 (1.92%) CentOS
15 19 (1.92%) Windows Server 2003
16 18 (1.82%) Ubuntu
17 15 (1.52%) Windows XP
18 9 (0.91%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (23.76%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 168 (16.99%) ITIL
3 158 (15.98%) DevOps
4 145 (14.66%) Agile
5 126 (12.74%) Problem-Solving
6 110 (11.12%) Migration
7 100 (10.11%) Customer Service
8 99 (10.01%) CI/CD
9 84 (8.49%) Mobile Device Management
10 72 (7.28%) Disaster Recovery
11 69 (6.98%) Service Management
12 64 (6.47%) Change Management
13 60 (6.07%) High Availability
13 60 (6.07%) Server Management
14 58 (5.86%) Infrastructure as Code
15 57 (5.76%) Release Management
16 51 (5.16%) Security Architecture
17 46 (4.65%) Risk Management
18 43 (4.35%) Vulnerability Management
18 43 (4.35%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 296 (29.93%) PowerShell
2 138 (13.95%) SQL
3 105 (10.62%) Python
4 46 (4.65%) C#
5 36 (3.64%) Bash
6 35 (3.54%) VBScript
7 26 (2.63%) Java
8 22 (2.22%) VB
9 20 (2.02%) Bicep
10 15 (1.52%) Shell Script
11 13 (1.31%) C++
12 11 (1.11%) Perl
13 9 (0.91%) F#
14 7 (0.71%) T-SQL
15 5 (0.51%) C
15 5 (0.51%) PHP
16 4 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
16 4 (0.40%) Ruby
17 3 (0.30%) VBA
18 2 (0.20%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 332 (33.57%) Security Cleared
2 179 (18.10%) DV Cleared
3 156 (15.77%) SC Cleared
4 118 (11.93%) Degree
5 96 (9.71%) Microsoft Certification
6 55 (5.56%) MCSE
7 33 (3.34%) MCSA
8 27 (2.73%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 26 (2.63%) CCNA
9 26 (2.63%) Cisco Certification
10 20 (2.02%) CCNP
10 20 (2.02%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 18 (1.82%) Azure Certification
11 18 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
12 12 (1.21%) DBS Check
13 10 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
14 7 (0.71%) BPSS Clearance
14 7 (0.71%) MCITP
15 6 (0.61%) RHCT
16 5 (0.51%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.74%) QA
2 27 (2.73%) SLA
3 12 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.11%) GDPR
5 10 (1.01%) NIST
6 8 (0.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 7 (0.71%) Disclosure Scotland
7 7 (0.71%) RMADS
8 6 (0.61%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.20%) NCSC
10 1 (0.10%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.10%) COBIT
10 1 (0.10%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.10%) Data Quality
System Software
1 595 (60.16%) Active Directory
2 281 (28.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 107 (10.82%) Hyper-V
4 80 (8.09%) VMware ESXi
5 48 (4.85%) vSphere
6 43 (4.35%) VMware NSX
7 39 (3.94%) Virtual Machines
8 37 (3.74%) Docker
9 35 (3.54%) Virtual Desktop
10 27 (2.73%) Firmware
11 25 (2.53%) XenApp
12 17 (1.72%) Virtual Servers
13 14 (1.42%) XenDesktop
14 13 (1.31%) Terminal Services
15 9 (0.91%) BitLocker
15 9 (0.91%) KVM
16 8 (0.81%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 8 (0.81%) NFS
17 7 (0.71%) Microsoft App-V
17 7 (0.71%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 189 (19.11%) SCCM
2 102 (10.31%) WSUS
3 73 (7.38%) Microsoft Intune
4 67 (6.77%) Ansible
4 67 (6.77%) vCenter Server
5 63 (6.37%) Kubernetes
6 60 (6.07%) SCOM
7 57 (5.76%) Terraform
8 51 (5.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 24 (2.43%) EMC NetWorker
10 21 (2.12%) NetBackup
11 20 (2.02%) Sysprep
12 15 (1.52%) Puppet
13 13 (1.31%) Prometheus
14 12 (1.21%) Nessus
14 12 (1.21%) Progress Chef
15 11 (1.11%) Failover Clustering
15 11 (1.11%) Grafana
16 10 (1.01%) Autotask
16 10 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 474 (47.93%) Microsoft
2 409 (41.35%) VMware
3 97 (9.81%) Citrix
4 88 (8.90%) Veeam
5 79 (7.99%) Cisco
6 63 (6.37%) Oracle
7 53 (5.36%) Dell
8 46 (4.65%) HP
9 43 (4.35%) Red Hat
10 38 (3.84%) ServiceNow
11 35 (3.54%) Palo Alto
12 34 (3.44%) EMC
13 24 (2.43%) Apple
13 24 (2.43%) Google
13 24 (2.43%) IBM
13 24 (2.43%) Juniper
14 23 (2.33%) Splunk
15 20 (2.02%) Qualys
16 18 (1.82%) NetApp
16 18 (1.82%) Symantec