Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Microsoft
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the West Midlands requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 11 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -7 +2 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 347 224 236
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.50% 16.57% 12.16%
As % of the Vendors category 24.68% 34.09% 28.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 249 166 165
10th Percentile £258 £190 £199
25th Percentile £338 £235 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £425 £438
Median % change year-on-year +8.82% -2.86% -7.70%
75th Percentile £550 £542 £575
90th Percentile £638 £644 £654
England median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.58% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 12 23
10th Percentile £14.08 £12.19 £10.59
25th Percentile £18.04 £12.25 £11.09
Median hourly rate £25.00 £24.50 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.04% +75.00% -12.34%
75th Percentile £40.00 £31.76 £26.50
90th Percentile £70.18 £41.28 £51.75
England median hourly rate £20.09 £21.46 £15.00
% change year-on-year -6.38% +43.07% -30.23%

All Vendors
West Midlands

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 1,406 657 834
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 46.59% 48.59% 42.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 935 442 536
10th Percentile £305 £200 £258
25th Percentile £400 £366 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -9.09%
75th Percentile £550 £600 £600
90th Percentile £640 £689 £698
England median daily rate £500 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -4.76% +1.94% -4.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 24 53
10th Percentile £17.39 £12.25 £11.07
25th Percentile £22.50 £15.22 £13.25
Median hourly rate £30.00 £18.76 £19.95
Median % change year-on-year +59.96% -5.99% +10.83%
75th Percentile £53.75 £30.17 £26.98
90th Percentile £70.35 £34.03 £55.00
England median hourly rate £27.50 £28.75 £22.50
% change year-on-year -4.35% +27.78% -41.75%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

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

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

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

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

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the West Midlands

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

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

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

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the West Midlands

Microsoft
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 Microsoft within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 11 April 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
Birmingham 0 125 £450 +1.41% 82
Warwickshire -2 64 £500 +17.65% 26
Coventry -5 42 £450 +119.51% 19
Shropshire -32 34 £450 +25.94% 17
Worcestershire +5 20 £700 -22.22% 19
Staffordshire -1 12 £320 -14.67% 34
Herefordshire -9 10 £700 -22.22% 10
Solihull -10 10 £425 -11.64% 6
Dudley - 5 £400 - 5
Smethwick - 3 - -
Wolverhampton -2 2 £267 - 8
Brierley Hill - 2 £446 -
Walsall - 1 £160 - 2
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
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 23 (6.63%) SharePoint
2 13 (3.75%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.31%) Confluence
4 5 (1.44%) SAS
5 3 (0.86%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.86%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.86%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.58%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.29%) CMS
7 1 (0.29%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 36 (10.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 34 (9.80%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (3.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (3.75%) MS Visio
4 10 (2.88%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 15 (4.32%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (2.59%) Dynamics NAV
3 4 (1.15%) Workday HCM
4 3 (0.86%) Maximo
5 2 (0.58%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.29%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.29%) Primavera
6 1 (0.29%) SAP BPC
6 1 (0.29%) SAP EHS
6 1 (0.29%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.29%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 126 (36.31%) Azure
2 65 (18.73%) Power Platform
3 60 (17.29%) Microsoft 365
4 42 (12.10%) AWS
5 37 (10.66%) Entra ID
6 34 (9.80%) Dynamics 365
7 24 (6.92%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 23 (6.63%) Azure DevOps
9 19 (5.48%) Power Automate
10 18 (5.19%) Azure Data Factory
11 16 (4.61%) Microsoft Purview
11 16 (4.61%) PowerApps
11 16 (4.61%) Serverless
12 13 (3.75%) GitHub
13 12 (3.46%) GitHub Actions
14 11 (3.17%) OneDrive
15 9 (2.59%) Azure Sentinel
15 9 (2.59%) GCP
16 8 (2.31%) Azure Key Vault
16 8 (2.31%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 25 (7.20%) Firewall
1 25 (7.20%) VPN
2 23 (6.63%) DNS
3 16 (4.61%) Network Security
4 12 (3.46%) SSL
5 11 (3.17%) DHCP
6 10 (2.88%) LAN
7 9 (2.59%) TCP/IP
8 8 (2.31%) HTTP
8 8 (2.31%) WAN
9 7 (2.02%) BIG-IP
9 7 (2.02%) HTTPS
9 7 (2.02%) Wireless
10 6 (1.73%) Cisco ASA
10 6 (1.73%) Cisco Nexus
10 6 (1.73%) Ethereal
10 6 (1.73%) IPsec
10 6 (1.73%) Wireshark
11 5 (1.44%) Intrusion Detection
12 4 (1.15%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (11.24%) Power BI
2 27 (7.78%) Data Warehouse
3 16 (4.61%) SQL Server
4 15 (4.32%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (2.31%) Delta Lake
6 7 (2.02%) Data Lake
6 7 (2.02%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
6 7 (2.02%) NoSQL
6 7 (2.02%) Oracle Database
6 7 (2.02%) Relational Database
7 6 (1.73%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (1.44%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (1.44%) Metadata
8 5 (1.44%) MySQL
8 5 (1.44%) Redis
9 4 (1.15%) Power Query
10 3 (0.86%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.86%) SAP Data Services
10 3 (0.86%) Tableau
11 2 (0.58%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 28 (8.07%) JIRA
2 14 (4.03%) Git
3 8 (2.31%) GitLab
4 5 (1.44%) MSI
5 4 (1.15%) MLflow
6 3 (0.86%) InstallShield
6 3 (0.86%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.86%) Selenium
7 2 (0.58%) JMeter
7 2 (0.58%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.29%) AdminStudio
8 1 (0.29%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.29%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.29%) Maven
8 1 (0.29%) NUnit
8 1 (0.29%) SonarQube
General
1 111 (31.99%) Social Skills
2 40 (11.53%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (10.95%) Finance
4 20 (5.76%) Public Sector
5 13 (3.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 13 (3.75%) Organisational Skills
6 8 (2.31%) Legal
7 7 (2.02%) Banking
7 7 (2.02%) Games
7 7 (2.02%) Manufacturing
8 6 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.73%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (1.73%) Law
8 6 (1.73%) Police
9 4 (1.15%) Electronics
9 4 (1.15%) Local Government
9 4 (1.15%) Marketing
9 4 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (0.86%) Publishing
10 3 (0.86%) Retail
Job Titles
1 42 (12.10%) Analyst
2 40 (11.53%) Architect
3 37 (10.66%) Developer
4 24 (6.92%) Senior
5 17 (4.90%) Administrator
5 17 (4.90%) Data Engineer
6 16 (4.61%) Solutions Architect
7 13 (3.75%) Consultant
7 13 (3.75%) Lead
8 12 (3.46%) IT Support
9 11 (3.17%) Business Analyst
9 11 (3.17%) Data Architect
9 11 (3.17%) Support Engineer
10 10 (2.88%) Network Engineer
10 10 (2.88%) Project Manager
11 9 (2.59%) IT Engineer
11 9 (2.59%) Python Developer
12 8 (2.31%) Azure Engineer
12 8 (2.31%) Business Intelligence Developer
12 8 (2.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (4.61%) PySpark
2 11 (3.17%) FastAPI
2 11 (3.17%) SailPoint
3 9 (2.59%) REST
4 8 (2.31%) .NET
4 8 (2.31%) Flask
4 8 (2.31%) LDAP
4 8 (2.31%) SAML
5 5 (1.44%) GraphQL
5 5 (1.44%) gRPC
5 5 (1.44%) WebSockets
6 4 (1.15%) JSON
6 4 (1.15%) Kafka
6 4 (1.15%) Middleware
6 4 (1.15%) NumPy
6 4 (1.15%) Pandas
7 3 (0.86%) .NET Framework
7 3 (0.86%) ADO
7 3 (0.86%) OpenTelemetry
7 3 (0.86%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 24 (6.92%) Onboarding
2 21 (6.05%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.17%) Security Posture
4 10 (2.88%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (2.59%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.59%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (2.31%) Driving Licence
6 8 (2.31%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.02%) Operational Technology
7 7 (2.02%) Security Operations Centre
8 5 (1.44%) SCADA
9 4 (1.15%) CSOC
9 4 (1.15%) Data Centre
10 3 (0.86%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.86%) e-Learning
10 3 (0.86%) Handset
10 3 (0.86%) IoT
10 3 (0.86%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.86%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 64 (18.44%) Windows
2 23 (6.63%) Windows Server
3 22 (6.34%) Windows 10
4 20 (5.76%) Linux
5 4 (1.15%) Unix
6 3 (0.86%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.86%) CatOS
6 3 (0.86%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.29%) Android
8 1 (0.29%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (22.77%) Agile
2 64 (18.44%) Problem-Solving
3 62 (17.87%) CI/CD
4 53 (15.27%) Analytics
5 50 (14.41%) DevOps
6 47 (13.54%) Continuous Improvement
7 44 (12.68%) Migration
8 42 (12.10%) Business Intelligence
9 41 (11.82%) AI
10 34 (9.80%) Stakeholder Management
11 32 (9.22%) Cybersecurity
11 32 (9.22%) ITIL
12 30 (8.65%) Containerisation
13 29 (8.36%) Customer Service
13 29 (8.36%) Infrastructure as Code
14 28 (8.07%) ETL
15 26 (7.49%) Change Management
15 26 (7.49%) Data Modelling
15 26 (7.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 25 (7.20%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 60 (17.29%) SQL
2 43 (12.39%) Python
3 25 (7.20%) PowerShell
4 10 (2.88%) Bicep
5 9 (2.59%) Java
6 8 (2.31%) C#
7 7 (2.02%) Go
7 7 (2.02%) Kusto Query Language
7 7 (2.02%) PL/SQL
8 6 (1.73%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (1.73%) JavaScript
9 5 (1.44%) VBScript
10 4 (1.15%) R
10 4 (1.15%) Shell Script
10 4 (1.15%) VB
11 3 (0.86%) Bash
11 3 (0.86%) MATLAB
11 3 (0.86%) Scala
12 2 (0.58%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.58%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 66 (19.02%) Security Cleared
2 51 (14.70%) SC Cleared
3 38 (10.95%) Degree
4 28 (8.07%) Microsoft Certification
5 12 (3.46%) AWS Certification
6 11 (3.17%) Azure Certification
6 11 (3.17%) DV Cleared
7 10 (2.88%) CISSP
8 9 (2.59%) BPSS Clearance
8 9 (2.59%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (2.02%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (2.02%) CISM
10 6 (1.73%) ISTQB
11 5 (1.44%) CCNA
11 5 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.44%) ITIL Certification
11 5 (1.44%) Master's Degree
12 4 (1.15%) DBS Check
12 4 (1.15%) OCP
12 4 (1.15%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (5.48%) Data Quality
1 19 (5.48%) QA
2 13 (3.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (3.46%) GDPR
4 6 (1.73%) NIST
4 6 (1.73%) SLA
5 5 (1.44%) Accessibility
5 5 (1.44%) PMO
6 3 (0.86%) GRC
6 3 (0.86%) ISO 9001
6 3 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 3 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 3 (0.86%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.58%) GxP
7 2 (0.58%) NCSC
8 1 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.29%) ISO 14001
8 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 63 (18.16%) Active Directory
2 31 (8.93%) Docker
3 16 (4.61%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.73%) VMware NSX
5 4 (1.15%) Microsoft App-V
5 4 (1.15%) Snort
5 4 (1.15%) vSphere
6 3 (0.86%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.58%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.29%) NFS
Systems Management
1 41 (11.82%) Kubernetes
2 27 (7.78%) Terraform
3 20 (5.76%) Microsoft Intune
4 11 (3.17%) Ansible
4 11 (3.17%) Grafana
4 11 (3.17%) Prometheus
4 11 (3.17%) SCCM
5 10 (2.88%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (1.15%) CSIRT
7 3 (0.86%) Control-M
7 3 (0.86%) HP ALM
7 3 (0.86%) IBM Guardium
7 3 (0.86%) Nessus
7 3 (0.86%) vRealize
8 2 (0.58%) Docker Swarm
8 2 (0.58%) HP Quality Center
8 2 (0.58%) Progress Chef
8 2 (0.58%) Puppet
8 2 (0.58%) QRadar
8 2 (0.58%) SCOM
Vendors
1 29 (8.36%) ServiceNow
2 25 (7.20%) Oracle
3 23 (6.63%) Databricks
4 21 (6.05%) SAP
5 19 (5.48%) VMware
6 18 (5.19%) Cisco
7 10 (2.88%) Splunk
8 8 (2.31%) CheckPoint
8 8 (2.31%) Informatica
9 7 (2.02%) F5
9 7 (2.02%) Okta
9 7 (2.02%) SolarWinds
10 6 (1.73%) Palo Alto
10 6 (1.73%) Workday
11 5 (1.44%) Tenable
12 4 (1.15%) Citrix
13 3 (0.86%) CyberArk
13 3 (0.86%) HP
13 3 (0.86%) MobileIron
14 2 (0.58%) Verint