Windows Contract Job Trends

Microsoft Windows
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Windows skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 22 18
Rank change year-on-year -5 -4 -4
Contract jobs citing Windows 3,034 2,591 3,588
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.88% 8.21% 8.26%
As % of the Operating Systems category 61.03% 59.95% 60.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,953 1,732 2,409
10th Percentile £163 £181 £165
25th Percentile £221 £235 £239
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year - - -5.56%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £575
90th Percentile £650 £663 £670
UK excluding London median daily rate £415 £400 £447
% change year-on-year +3.75% -10.51% +11.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 257 185 296
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.12 £12.00
25th Percentile £18.00 £16.95 £14.46
Median hourly rate £25.26 £18.87 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +33.86% -5.65% -16.18%
75th Percentile £55.00 £25.15 £40.00
90th Percentile £67.90 £63.75 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.75 £18.87 £18.00
% change year-on-year +36.46% +4.83% -18.18%

All Operating Systems
UK

Windows 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 4,971 4,322 5,921
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.63% 13.70% 13.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,182 2,798 3,884
10th Percentile £190 £200 £190
25th Percentile £313 £313 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £465 £475
Median % change year-on-year +0.11% -2.21% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £580 £588
90th Percentile £650 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £463
% change year-on-year - -2.70% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 334 222 433
10th Percentile £14.80 £15.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £18.63 £17.44 £16.25
Median hourly rate £26.00 £22.53 £24.86
Median % change year-on-year +15.40% -9.35% -41.52%
75th Percentile £63.75 £41.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £65.98 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.89 £19.27 £31.13
% change year-on-year +34.33% -38.09% -7.09%

Windows
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Windows job vacancy trend in the UK

Windows
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Windows
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows over the 6 months to 4 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Windows in the UK

Windows
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Windows
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Windows over the 6 months to 4 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Windows in the UK

Windows
Top 18 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 within the UK over the 6 months to 4 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 -6 2,647 £425 +0.83% 1,051
UK excluding London -13 1,997 £415 +3.75% 933
London -17 868 £425 -3.41% 272
Work from Home -10 645 £475 +0.53% 369
South East -8 533 £475 -3.06% 289
North of England -7 474 £364 +4.00% 193
Midlands -17 276 £339 +16.81% 136
South West -13 260 £488 +8.33% 153
North West -5 250 £363 -1.36% 108
East of England -1 219 £300 +18.90% 101
Yorkshire -15 203 £365 -8.75% 60
Scotland -2 176 £425 -2.86% 43
West Midlands -24 175 £450 +50.00% 64
East Midlands +8 96 £263 +31.25% 72
Wales +8 56 £383 +33.04% 30
North East -36 25 £275 -4.35% 31
Northern Ireland -5 15 £139 -28.97% 28
Channel Islands +3 3 £518 -

Windows
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
1 238 (7.84%) Microsoft Exchange
2 201 (6.62%) SharePoint
3 61 (2.01%) IIS
4 57 (1.88%) Confluence
5 19 (0.63%) Tomcat
6 18 (0.59%) Apache
7 17 (0.56%) nginx
8 14 (0.46%) Skype for Business
9 13 (0.43%) Oracle Workflow
10 10 (0.33%) WebLogic
11 9 (0.30%) HCL Notes
11 9 (0.30%) NetWeaver
12 7 (0.23%) Appian
13 6 (0.20%) Documentum
14 5 (0.16%) Camunda
14 5 (0.16%) SAS
15 4 (0.13%) Adobe Experience Manager
16 3 (0.099%) CloudStack
16 3 (0.099%) Exchange Server 2010
16 3 (0.099%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 187 (6.16%) Microsoft Office
2 67 (2.21%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (0.20%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) PTC Creo
6 5 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.099%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.033%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.033%) Houdini
8 1 (0.033%) InDesign
8 1 (0.033%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 41 (1.35%) Remedy ITSM
2 19 (0.63%) SAP S/4HANA
3 12 (0.40%) Teamcenter
4 10 (0.33%) Finacle
5 6 (0.20%) OpenText MBPM
5 6 (0.20%) Oracle BPM
6 3 (0.099%) assyst
7 2 (0.066%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.033%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.033%) Dynamics GP
8 1 (0.033%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.033%) Infor LN
8 1 (0.033%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.033%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 911 (30.03%) Azure
2 851 (28.05%) Microsoft 365
3 398 (13.12%) Entra ID
4 308 (10.15%) AWS
5 118 (3.89%) OneDrive
6 93 (3.07%) GCP
7 88 (2.90%) Azure DevOps
8 76 (2.50%) SaaS
9 67 (2.21%) GitHub
10 63 (2.08%) Power Platform
11 61 (2.01%) IaaS
12 54 (1.78%) Azure Monitor
13 52 (1.71%) PaaS
14 39 (1.29%) OpenShift
15 38 (1.25%) Azure Sentinel
16 32 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
17 30 (0.99%) Google Workspace
18 28 (0.92%) AWS CloudFormation
19 24 (0.79%) Amazon EC2
19 24 (0.79%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 423 (13.94%) DNS
2 309 (10.18%) Firewall
3 288 (9.49%) DHCP
4 226 (7.45%) VPN
5 183 (6.03%) WAN
6 181 (5.97%) LAN
6 181 (5.97%) TCP/IP
7 150 (4.94%) Wi-Fi
8 96 (3.16%) SAN
9 70 (2.31%) Network Security
10 60 (1.98%) VLAN
11 48 (1.58%) BGP
12 46 (1.52%) SSL
13 45 (1.48%) NAS
14 44 (1.45%) Internet
14 44 (1.45%) SD-WAN
15 38 (1.25%) OSPF
16 37 (1.22%) VoIP
17 34 (1.12%) SNMP
17 34 (1.12%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 259 (8.54%) SQL Server
2 62 (2.04%) Oracle Database
3 41 (1.35%) Power BI
4 34 (1.12%) Relational Database
5 29 (0.96%) PostgreSQL
6 28 (0.92%) MySQL
7 20 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
8 19 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 18 (0.59%) Db2
9 18 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
10 14 (0.46%) NoSQL
10 14 (0.46%) RDBMS
11 13 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
12 11 (0.36%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.33%) GIS
13 10 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
14 9 (0.30%) SAP HANA
15 8 (0.26%) Azure SQL Database
15 8 (0.26%) Oracle BI EE
15 8 (0.26%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 183 (6.03%) JIRA
2 60 (1.98%) Git
3 54 (1.78%) Jenkins
4 47 (1.55%) MSI
5 42 (1.38%) GitLab
6 37 (1.22%) Visual Studio
7 17 (0.56%) Eclipse
8 9 (0.30%) Chocolatey
9 8 (0.26%) Bitbucket
9 8 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
10 7 (0.23%) Browser DevTools
11 6 (0.20%) Android Studio
11 6 (0.20%) Artifactory
11 6 (0.20%) InstallShield
11 6 (0.20%) Xcode
12 5 (0.16%) AdminStudio
12 5 (0.16%) Maven
12 5 (0.16%) Selenium
13 4 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
13 4 (0.13%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 1,066 (35.14%) Social Skills
2 342 (11.27%) Analytical Skills
3 324 (10.68%) Finance
4 212 (6.99%) Public Sector
5 151 (4.98%) Banking
6 114 (3.76%) Legal
7 107 (3.53%) Documentation Skills
8 83 (2.74%) Organisational Skills
9 60 (1.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 53 (1.75%) Retail
11 44 (1.45%) Military
12 40 (1.32%) Manufacturing
13 37 (1.22%) Front Office
14 34 (1.12%) Investment Banking
15 32 (1.05%) Telecoms
16 30 (0.99%) Law
17 25 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
18 24 (0.79%) Spanish Language
19 22 (0.73%) French Language
20 18 (0.59%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 411 (13.55%) Support Engineer
2 391 (12.89%) IT Support
3 296 (9.76%) Analyst
4 277 (9.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 273 (9.00%) IT Engineer
6 228 (7.51%) IT Support Engineer
7 190 (6.26%) Senior
8 153 (5.04%) Architect
9 121 (3.99%) Desktop Support
10 114 (3.76%) 2nd Line Support
11 112 (3.69%) Developer
12 108 (3.56%) Desktop Engineer
12 108 (3.56%) Lead
13 105 (3.46%) Support Analyst
14 94 (3.10%) Consultant
15 92 (3.03%) IT Analyst
15 92 (3.03%) Windows Engineer
16 90 (2.97%) Cloud Engineer
17 83 (2.74%) Service Analyst
18 80 (2.64%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (3.66%) .NET
2 105 (3.46%) REST
3 65 (2.14%) .NET Framework
4 43 (1.42%) LDAP
5 35 (1.15%) SAML
6 34 (1.12%) Middleware
7 31 (1.02%) 802.1X
8 29 (0.96%) Microsoft Graph
8 29 (0.96%) WPF
9 28 (0.92%) Software Packaging
9 28 (0.92%) Web Services
9 28 (0.92%) WinForms
10 25 (0.82%) Elastic Stack
10 25 (0.82%) Kafka
10 25 (0.82%) OAuth
11 22 (0.73%) CSS
12 19 (0.63%) JSON
12 19 (0.63%) RESTful
13 17 (0.56%) Node.js
13 17 (0.56%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 286 (9.43%) Onboarding
2 160 (5.27%) Data Centre
3 137 (4.52%) PKI
4 88 (2.90%) Enterprise Software
5 79 (2.60%) Clustering
6 75 (2.47%) Management Information System
7 73 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
8 65 (2.14%) Driving Licence
9 64 (2.11%) Cloud Native
9 64 (2.11%) Replication
10 58 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
11 52 (1.71%) Security Posture
12 51 (1.68%) Hybrid Cloud
12 51 (1.68%) Virtual Team
13 42 (1.38%) Video Conferencing
14 40 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
15 34 (1.12%) Smartphone
16 33 (1.09%) Linux Command Line
17 31 (1.02%) Analytical Mindset
17 31 (1.02%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 739 (24.36%) Windows Server
2 738 (24.32%) Linux
3 500 (16.48%) Windows 10
4 195 (6.43%) Mac OS
5 160 (5.27%) Unix
6 140 (4.61%) Apple iOS
7 138 (4.55%) Android
8 115 (3.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 79 (2.60%) Windows Server 2019
10 58 (1.91%) Windows Server 2016
11 51 (1.68%) Windows 7
12 40 (1.32%) Windows Server 2012
13 36 (1.19%) AIX
14 34 (1.12%) Ubuntu
15 24 (0.79%) Solaris
16 22 (0.73%) VMS
17 17 (0.56%) Windows Server 2008
18 16 (0.53%) CentOS
18 16 (0.53%) Windows Server 2003
19 9 (0.30%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 676 (22.28%) Problem-Solving
2 481 (15.85%) ITIL
3 445 (14.67%) Customer Service
4 358 (11.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 356 (11.73%) Migration
6 320 (10.55%) ITSM
7 289 (9.53%) DevOps
8 270 (8.90%) Agile
9 255 (8.40%) Continuous Improvement
10 251 (8.27%) CI/CD
11 224 (7.38%) Service Management
12 215 (7.09%) High Availability
13 192 (6.33%) Change Management
14 185 (6.10%) Infrastructure as Code
15 173 (5.70%) Disaster Recovery
16 169 (5.57%) Service Delivery
17 167 (5.50%) Stakeholder Management
18 160 (5.27%) Cybersecurity
19 146 (4.81%) SIEM
19 146 (4.81%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 634 (20.90%) PowerShell
2 310 (10.22%) Python
3 294 (9.69%) SQL
4 141 (4.65%) C#
5 125 (4.12%) Bash
6 76 (2.50%) Java
7 66 (2.18%) JavaScript
8 55 (1.81%) PL/SQL
8 55 (1.81%) T-SQL
9 51 (1.68%) C++
10 27 (0.89%) Perl
11 25 (0.82%) VB
12 24 (0.79%) Bicep
13 23 (0.76%) Search Processing Language
14 21 (0.69%) Shell Script
14 21 (0.69%) VBScript
15 20 (0.66%) Kusto Query Language
16 16 (0.53%) TypeScript
17 15 (0.49%) VBA
18 14 (0.46%) C
Qualifications
1 886 (29.20%) Security Cleared
2 577 (19.02%) SC Cleared
3 308 (10.15%) Degree
4 272 (8.97%) DV Cleared
5 120 (3.96%) Microsoft Certification
6 101 (3.33%) Cisco Certification
7 80 (2.64%) Computer Science Degree
8 65 (2.14%) CISSP
9 59 (1.94%) Azure Certification
10 53 (1.75%) BPSS Clearance
11 48 (1.58%) AWS Certification
11 48 (1.58%) MCSE
12 45 (1.48%) CCNA
13 35 (1.15%) CCNP
14 31 (1.02%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 30 (0.99%) ITIL Certification
16 28 (0.92%) A+ Certification
16 28 (0.92%) CompTIA Security+
17 25 (0.82%) MCSA
18 24 (0.79%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 127 (4.19%) SLA
2 121 (3.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 91 (3.00%) NIST
4 89 (2.93%) QA
5 58 (1.91%) GDPR
6 31 (1.02%) PCI DSS
6 31 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 27 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials
8 21 (0.69%) NCSC
9 14 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
10 13 (0.43%) Data Quality
11 11 (0.36%) Accessibility
11 11 (0.36%) HIPAA
12 10 (0.33%) GRC
12 10 (0.33%) NIST 800
12 10 (0.33%) PMO
12 10 (0.33%) SOC 2
13 8 (0.26%) WCAG
14 7 (0.23%) GMP
14 7 (0.23%) GxP
System Software
1 1,154 (38.04%) Active Directory
2 390 (12.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 157 (5.17%) Hyper-V
4 123 (4.05%) VMware ESXi
5 108 (3.56%) vSphere
6 105 (3.46%) Virtual Machines
7 93 (3.07%) Docker
8 73 (2.41%) Virtual Desktop
9 59 (1.94%) VMware NSX
10 40 (1.32%) Firmware
11 38 (1.25%) BitLocker
12 28 (0.92%) Microsoft App-V
13 17 (0.56%) KVM
14 13 (0.43%) vCloud
15 9 (0.30%) Oracle RAC
15 9 (0.30%) XenDesktop
16 8 (0.26%) NFS
16 8 (0.26%) VMware Workstation
16 8 (0.26%) XenApp
17 6 (0.20%) etcd
Systems Management
1 411 (13.55%) Microsoft Intune
2 272 (8.97%) SCCM
3 208 (6.86%) Terraform
4 196 (6.46%) Ansible
5 150 (4.94%) Kubernetes
6 96 (3.16%) vCenter Server
7 57 (1.88%) Jamf Pro
8 55 (1.81%) Single Sign-On
9 51 (1.68%) SCOM
10 44 (1.45%) FortiGate
11 40 (1.32%) WSUS
12 37 (1.22%) Progress Chef
13 34 (1.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 34 (1.12%) Grafana
13 34 (1.12%) Prometheus
14 30 (0.99%) Puppet
15 25 (0.82%) Nagios
16 22 (0.73%) ZABBIX
17 21 (0.69%) Nessus
17 21 (0.69%) Packer
Vendors
1 1,299 (42.81%) Microsoft
2 503 (16.58%) VMware
3 289 (9.53%) ServiceNow
4 220 (7.25%) Cisco
5 206 (6.79%) Citrix
6 189 (6.23%) Oracle
7 138 (4.55%) Splunk
8 83 (2.74%) Apple
9 82 (2.70%) SolarWinds
10 80 (2.64%) HP
11 72 (2.37%) Dell
11 72 (2.37%) Red Hat
12 69 (2.27%) CyberArk
13 66 (2.18%) Google
14 61 (2.01%) BeyondTrust
15 59 (1.94%) F5
16 54 (1.78%) IBM
17 52 (1.71%) Remedy
18 51 (1.68%) Juniper
19 48 (1.58%) Palo Alto