MCSE Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the West Midlands with a requirement for MCSE qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 8 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 152 92 113
Rank change year-on-year -60 +21 +8
Contract jobs citing MCSE 6 8 2
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 0.19% 0.56% 0.10%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.56% 1.69% 0.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 6 2
10th Percentile £119 £158 -
25th Percentile £120 £161 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £123 £196 £117
Median % change year-on-year -37.58% +67.74% -57.45%
75th Percentile £198 £269 -
90th Percentile £243 £289 -
England median daily rate £456 £520 £438
% change year-on-year -12.31% +18.86% -10.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £58.43 £18.50 -
Median hourly rate £63.14 £19.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +232.29% - -
75th Percentile £67.84 £19.50 -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £43.32 £19.00 £17.50
% change year-on-year +127.99% +8.57% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
West Midlands

MCSE falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,066 472 669
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 33.17% 32.76% 33.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 743 313 428
10th Percentile £325 £150 £298
25th Percentile £408 £315 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% -1.60% -7.41%
75th Percentile £544 £588 £596
90th Percentile £655 £689 £688
England median daily rate £525 £525 £537
% change year-on-year - -2.23% -2.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 26 37
10th Percentile £16.45 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £24.06 £20.13 £21.25
Median hourly rate £52.50 £32.65 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.82% +14.54% +42.50%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £55.75 £58.75
England median hourly rate £50.00 £32.50 £40.13
% change year-on-year +53.85% -19.00% -27.05%

MCSE
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing MCSE relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

MCSE job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

MCSE
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing MCSE.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing MCSE

MCSE
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MCSE in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 8 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for MCSE in the West Midlands

MCSE
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing MCSE.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing MCSE

MCSE
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCSE within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 8 June 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
Herefordshire - 3 - -
Coventry -20 1 £265 +21.84%
Shropshire -46 1 £119 -
Birmingham - 1 £123 -
MCSE
England

MCSE
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 1 (16.67%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (16.67%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (16.67%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (16.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 5 (83.33%) Microsoft 365
2 3 (50.00%) GitHub
3 1 (16.67%) Azure
3 1 (16.67%) OneDrive
3 1 (16.67%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (16.67%) SAN
1 1 (16.67%) VPN
1 1 (16.67%) Wi-Fi
General
1 5 (83.33%) Analytical Skills
1 5 (83.33%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 4 (66.67%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Desktop Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Field Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Field Service Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) IT Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 4 (66.67%) Analytical Mindset
2 1 (16.67%) Data Centre
2 1 (16.67%) Management Information System
2 1 (16.67%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 5 (83.33%) Windows
2 4 (66.67%) Windows Server
3 3 (50.00%) Linux
4 1 (16.67%) Mac OS
4 1 (16.67%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (83.33%) Problem-Solving
2 4 (66.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 3 (50.00%) Containerisation
3 3 (50.00%) Customer Service
3 3 (50.00%) Information Security
3 3 (50.00%) Infrastructure as Code
3 3 (50.00%) Problem Management
3 3 (50.00%) Strategic Thinking
3 3 (50.00%) User Experience
4 1 (16.67%) Asset Management
4 1 (16.67%) Break/Fix
4 1 (16.67%) Incident Management
4 1 (16.67%) ITIL
4 1 (16.67%) PRINCE2
4 1 (16.67%) Project Management
4 1 (16.67%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (50.00%) Bash
1 3 (50.00%) PowerShell
1 3 (50.00%) Python
2 1 (16.67%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 5 (83.33%) Cisco Certification
3 4 (66.67%) CCNA
4 3 (50.00%) DV Cleared
4 3 (50.00%) RHCA
4 3 (50.00%) SC Cleared
4 3 (50.00%) Security Cleared
4 3 (50.00%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 2 (33.33%) Degree
6 1 (16.67%) A+ Certification
6 1 (16.67%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (50.00%) Cyber Essentials
1 3 (50.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (16.67%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (50.00%) Docker
1 3 (50.00%) Hyper-V
1 3 (50.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (33.33%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 3 (50.00%) Ansible
1 3 (50.00%) Kubernetes
1 3 (50.00%) Podman
1 3 (50.00%) Terraform
2 1 (16.67%) SCCM
2 1 (16.67%) SCOM
Vendors
1 5 (83.33%) Cisco
2 4 (66.67%) VMware
3 3 (50.00%) Atlassian
4 2 (33.33%) Microsoft
4 2 (33.33%) ServiceNow
5 1 (16.67%) Apple
5 1 (16.67%) Citrix
5 1 (16.67%) Dell