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 15 July 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
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 0 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 403 252 273
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.89% 15.70% 13.36%
As % of the Vendors category 26.53% 33.56% 30.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 307 160 185
10th Percentile £258 £190 £171
25th Percentile £363 £246 £298
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £392 £420
Median % change year-on-year +14.87% -6.73% -1.18%
75th Percentile £526 £538 £520
90th Percentile £617 £613 £648
England median daily rate £495 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +4.21% -2.66% -2.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 21 19
10th Percentile £18.27 £15.13 £10.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £29.00 £11.06
Median hourly rate £25.00 £30.00 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +114.29% -22.22%
75th Percentile £70.00 £50.00 £26.50
90th Percentile £70.30 - £55.25
England median hourly rate £22.79 £22.63 £16.06
% change year-on-year +0.68% +40.91% -23.52%

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 1,519 751 908
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 44.81% 46.79% 44.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,042 473 615
10th Percentile £315 £208 £250
25th Percentile £402 £325 £355
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £460 £450
Median % change year-on-year +1.96% +2.22% -5.26%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
England median daily rate £510 £513 £515
% change year-on-year -0.49% -0.49% -1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 31 51
10th Percentile £17.87 £15.13 £11.06
25th Percentile £21.95 £24.83 £13.63
Median hourly rate £33.98 £30.00 £16.82
Median % change year-on-year +13.27% +78.36% -17.36%
75th Percentile £51.88 £42.61 £27.86
90th Percentile £66.03 £50.00 £56.25
England median hourly rate £35.50 £25.15 £25.25
% change year-on-year +41.15% -0.40% -29.86%

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 15 July 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 15 July 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 15 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
Birmingham +2 122 £450 +20.00% 137
Warwickshire -2 95 £500 +42.86% 33
Coventry -2 65 £425 +47.83% 13
Shropshire -33 41 £440 +2.33% 32
Worcestershire +2 15 £475 -34.48% 15
Staffordshire -3 11 £388 +176.79% 41
Solihull -22 11 £425 -9.67% 6
Herefordshire +2 9 £700 -22.22% 5
Dudley - 5 £400 - 8
Walsall +2 4 £600 - 1
West Bromwich - 3 - - 3
Brierley Hill - 2 £446 -
Wolverhampton -5 1 - - 18
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 36 (8.93%) SharePoint
2 15 (3.72%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.99%) Confluence
4 6 (1.49%) SAS
5 4 (0.99%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.74%) Apache
6 3 (0.74%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.74%) IIS
6 3 (0.74%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.50%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
8 1 (0.25%) Appian
8 1 (0.25%) CMS
Applications
1 46 (11.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 43 (10.67%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (4.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (2.73%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (2.73%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.25%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.25%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.25%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.25%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.25%) Revit
Business Applications
1 22 (5.46%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (1.24%) SAP PSCD
3 3 (0.74%) Primavera
4 2 (0.50%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.25%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.25%) SAP EHS
5 1 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.25%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 154 (38.21%) Azure
2 81 (20.10%) Microsoft 365
3 66 (16.38%) Power Platform
4 45 (11.17%) Entra ID
5 38 (9.43%) Azure DevOps
5 38 (9.43%) Dynamics 365
6 37 (9.18%) AWS
7 29 (7.20%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 27 (6.70%) Microsoft Purview
9 23 (5.71%) Azure Data Factory
9 23 (5.71%) Power Automate
10 19 (4.71%) OneDrive
11 15 (3.72%) Microsoft Copilot
12 13 (3.23%) GCP
12 13 (3.23%) PowerApps
12 13 (3.23%) Serverless
13 11 (2.73%) GitHub
14 10 (2.48%) GitHub Actions
15 6 (1.49%) Azure Key Vault
15 6 (1.49%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (7.20%) DNS
2 26 (6.45%) VPN
3 22 (5.46%) DHCP
4 21 (5.21%) Firewall
5 11 (2.73%) LAN
6 9 (2.23%) Network Security
6 9 (2.23%) TCP/IP
6 9 (2.23%) Wi-Fi
7 7 (1.74%) SSL
7 7 (1.74%) WAN
8 6 (1.49%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (1.24%) Intrusion Detection
10 4 (0.99%) HTTP
10 4 (0.99%) SAN
10 4 (0.99%) SMTP
10 4 (0.99%) SNMP
11 3 (0.74%) BIG-IP
11 3 (0.74%) HTTPS
11 3 (0.74%) NAS
11 3 (0.74%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (10.67%) Power BI
2 26 (6.45%) SQL Server
3 25 (6.20%) Data Warehouse
4 22 (5.46%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (3.47%) Azure SQL Database
6 10 (2.48%) Delta Lake
6 10 (2.48%) MySQL
7 9 (2.23%) Data Lake
8 8 (1.99%) Metadata
8 8 (1.99%) NoSQL
8 8 (1.99%) Relational Database
9 7 (1.74%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 5 (1.24%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.99%) Redis
12 3 (0.74%) Amazon Redshift
12 3 (0.74%) Power Query
12 3 (0.74%) SAP Data Services
12 3 (0.74%) SAS Enterprise Guide
12 3 (0.74%) Tableau
13 2 (0.50%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 31 (7.69%) JIRA
2 8 (1.99%) Git
2 8 (1.99%) Selenium
2 8 (1.99%) WebDriver
3 7 (1.74%) Team Foundation Server
4 6 (1.49%) Cypress.io
4 6 (1.49%) Postman
4 6 (1.49%) Visual Studio
5 4 (0.99%) GitLab
5 4 (0.99%) MLflow
6 3 (0.74%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.74%) Protractor
7 2 (0.50%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.50%) JMeter
7 2 (0.50%) MSI
7 2 (0.50%) NUnit
8 1 (0.25%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.25%) Maven
8 1 (0.25%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.25%) Zephyr
General
1 128 (31.76%) Social Skills
2 60 (14.89%) Finance
3 47 (11.66%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (8.19%) Public Sector
5 22 (5.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 13 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (2.48%) Banking
7 10 (2.48%) Manufacturing
8 7 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (1.74%) Games
8 7 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (1.74%) Legal
9 6 (1.49%) Marketing
9 6 (1.49%) Police
10 5 (1.24%) Law
10 5 (1.24%) Retail
11 4 (0.99%) Electronics
12 3 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.50%) Automotive
13 2 (0.50%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 59 (14.64%) Analyst
2 41 (10.17%) Developer
3 40 (9.93%) Senior
4 33 (8.19%) Architect
5 28 (6.95%) Data Engineer
6 27 (6.70%) Lead
7 25 (6.20%) Consultant
8 17 (4.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 15 (3.72%) Administrator
10 14 (3.47%) Azure Engineer
11 13 (3.23%) Data Architect
12 12 (2.98%) Business Analyst
12 12 (2.98%) Solutions Architect
12 12 (2.98%) Support Engineer
13 10 (2.48%) IT Support
13 10 (2.48%) Senior Data Engineer
14 9 (2.23%) DBA
14 9 (2.23%) Dynamics 365 Developer
14 9 (2.23%) Support Technician
14 9 (2.23%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.96%) PySpark
2 13 (3.23%) JSON
3 11 (2.73%) SOAP
4 10 (2.48%) REST
4 10 (2.48%) XML
5 9 (2.23%) .NET
5 9 (2.23%) SailPoint
6 7 (1.74%) FastAPI
7 6 (1.49%) ActiveX
7 6 (1.49%) Gherkin
8 5 (1.24%) ADO
8 5 (1.24%) JDBC
8 5 (1.24%) Kafka
8 5 (1.24%) SAP PI
9 4 (0.99%) .NET Framework
9 4 (0.99%) Flask
9 4 (0.99%) IDoc
9 4 (0.99%) SAML
9 4 (0.99%) WebSockets
9 4 (0.99%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 27 (6.70%) Cloud Native
1 27 (6.70%) Onboarding
2 17 (4.22%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (2.73%) Management Information System
4 10 (2.48%) Product Ownership
4 10 (2.48%) SCADA
4 10 (2.48%) Security Operations Centre
5 9 (2.23%) Enterprise Software
6 8 (1.99%) Data Centre
6 8 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (1.74%) Operational Technology
7 7 (1.74%) Smartphone
8 6 (1.49%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.24%) CMDB
9 5 (1.24%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.24%) Virtual Team
10 4 (0.99%) Cyber Threat
10 4 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (0.99%) IoT
10 4 (0.99%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 87 (21.59%) Windows
2 28 (6.95%) Linux
3 26 (6.45%) Windows 10
4 24 (5.96%) Windows Server
5 12 (2.98%) Mac OS
6 8 (1.99%) Unix
7 7 (1.74%) Android
8 5 (1.24%) Apple iOS
8 5 (1.24%) SUSE
8 5 (1.24%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.99%) Windows 7
10 3 (0.74%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.74%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.25%) CentOS
12 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (21.34%) Problem-Solving
2 74 (18.36%) Agile
3 62 (15.38%) DevOps
4 59 (14.64%) CI/CD
5 54 (13.40%) AI
5 54 (13.40%) Migration
6 52 (12.90%) Continuous Improvement
7 47 (11.66%) Analytics
8 44 (10.92%) Business Intelligence
9 40 (9.93%) Stakeholder Management
10 33 (8.19%) Customer Service
10 33 (8.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 33 (8.19%) Validation
11 32 (7.94%) Data Modelling
11 32 (7.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 32 (7.94%) ITIL
12 31 (7.69%) ETL
13 30 (7.44%) Infrastructure as Code
14 29 (7.20%) CRM
15 27 (6.70%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 68 (16.87%) SQL
2 40 (9.93%) Python
3 20 (4.96%) PowerShell
4 16 (3.97%) Java
5 13 (3.23%) C#
6 12 (2.98%) Bicep
7 11 (2.73%) JavaScript
8 9 (2.23%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (1.99%) VB
9 8 (1.99%) VBA
10 6 (1.49%) PL/SQL
10 6 (1.49%) VB6
11 5 (1.24%) ABAP
11 5 (1.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 4 (0.99%) Go
13 3 (0.74%) MATLAB
13 3 (0.74%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.50%) Bash
14 2 (0.50%) Scala
14 2 (0.50%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 76 (18.86%) Security Cleared
2 62 (15.38%) SC Cleared
3 33 (8.19%) Degree
4 21 (5.21%) Microsoft Certification
5 13 (3.23%) CISSP
5 13 (3.23%) ISTQB
6 11 (2.73%) AWS Certification
7 10 (2.48%) Cisco Certification
8 9 (2.23%) BPSS Clearance
8 9 (2.23%) DV Cleared
9 8 (1.99%) CISM
9 8 (1.99%) OCP
9 8 (1.99%) Oracle Certification
10 7 (1.74%) Azure Certification
11 6 (1.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 5 (1.24%) CCNA
12 5 (1.24%) Master's Degree
13 4 (0.99%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.99%) PhD
14 3 (0.74%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (6.70%) Data Quality
2 19 (4.71%) GDPR
3 18 (4.47%) Accessibility
3 18 (4.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 17 (4.22%) QA
5 14 (3.47%) SLA
6 13 (3.23%) NIST
6 13 (3.23%) PMO
7 7 (1.74%) WCAG
8 4 (0.99%) GRC
9 3 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 12207
9 3 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 2 (0.50%) NCSC
10 2 (0.50%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.25%) Basel III
11 1 (0.25%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.25%) ISO 19650
11 1 (0.25%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 69 (17.12%) Active Directory
2 25 (6.20%) Docker
3 21 (5.21%) VMware Infrastructure
4 12 (2.98%) Hyper-V
5 10 (2.48%) vSphere
6 7 (1.74%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.99%) Snort
7 4 (0.99%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.50%) BitLocker
9 2 (0.50%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (0.50%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.50%) XenApp
9 2 (0.50%) XenDesktop
10 1 (0.25%) Firmware
10 1 (0.25%) NFS
Systems Management
1 36 (8.93%) Kubernetes
1 36 (8.93%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (5.71%) SCCM
3 22 (5.46%) Terraform
4 12 (2.98%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (2.73%) Grafana
5 11 (2.73%) Prometheus
6 5 (1.24%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (0.99%) CSIRT
8 3 (0.74%) Ansible
8 3 (0.74%) Control-M
8 3 (0.74%) HP ALM
8 3 (0.74%) IBM Guardium
8 3 (0.74%) Nessus
8 3 (0.74%) QRadar
9 2 (0.50%) Check_MK
9 2 (0.50%) HP Quality Center
9 2 (0.50%) SCOM
9 2 (0.50%) WMI
9 2 (0.50%) WSUS
Vendors
1 36 (8.93%) ServiceNow
2 35 (8.68%) Oracle
3 30 (7.44%) SAP
4 27 (6.70%) Databricks
5 26 (6.45%) VMware
6 22 (5.46%) Cisco
7 12 (2.98%) Splunk
8 9 (2.23%) UiPath
9 8 (1.99%) Red Hat
10 7 (1.74%) Apple
10 7 (1.74%) Informatica
10 7 (1.74%) Okta
11 6 (1.49%) Canon
11 6 (1.49%) Fortinet
12 5 (1.24%) Citrix
12 5 (1.24%) F5
12 5 (1.24%) IBM
12 5 (1.24%) MathWorks
12 5 (1.24%) Siemens
12 5 (1.24%) webMethods