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 4 March 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
4 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 5
Rank change year-on-year -9 +3 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 343 248 259
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 12.39% 18.17% 13.60%
As % of the Vendors category 25.31% 35.73% 29.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 252 188 182
10th Percentile £203 £186 £190
25th Percentile £322 £261 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £434 £432
Median % change year-on-year +9.42% +0.49% -4.00%
75th Percentile £575 £567 £575
90th Percentile £675 £629 £674
England median daily rate £490 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +3.16% -2.81% -2.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 12 27
10th Percentile £15.21 £12.19 £10.76
25th Percentile £15.73 £16.94 £11.24
Median hourly rate £23.50 £29.73 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.94% +60.68% +17.61%
75th Percentile £26.25 £35.00 £24.75
90th Percentile £31.50 - £36.20
England median hourly rate £19.91 £23.99 £16.28
% change year-on-year -17.01% +47.36% -22.48%

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 1,355 694 871
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 48.93% 50.84% 45.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 883 463 545
10th Percentile £274 £200 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £700 £676
England median daily rate £508 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -3.33% +1.94% -4.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 24 56
10th Percentile £15.52 £13.14 £11.09
25th Percentile £17.74 £18.13 £13.81
Median hourly rate £25.08 £21.25 £21.23
Median % change year-on-year +18.00% +0.12% +19.78%
75th Percentile £30.56 £30.95 £26.98
90th Percentile £49.75 £35.00 £48.75
England median hourly rate £24.00 £31.35 £25.28
% change year-on-year -23.43% +24.02% -27.79%

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 4 March 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 4 March 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 4 March 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 -1 129 £473 -0.53% 69
Warwickshire -10 65 £550 +9.78% 15
Shropshire -32 36 £459 +5.46% 19
Coventry -8 30 £325 +51.16% 17
Worcestershire +3 28 £650 -27.78% 18
Staffordshire -1 17 £220 -45.00% 33
Herefordshire -8 12 £675 -25.00% 12
Solihull -3 7 £487 +178.80% 4
Wolverhampton -1 3 £346 +99.69% 9
Smethwick - 3 - -
Dudley - 2 £400 - 5
Brierley Hill - 2 £446 - 4
Walsall - 1 £160 - 4
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 19 (5.54%) SharePoint
2 10 (2.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.04%) Confluence
4 1 (0.29%) HCL Notes
4 1 (0.29%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.29%) SAS
Applications
1 39 (11.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 38 (11.08%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (4.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (3.50%) Microsoft Project
5 10 (2.92%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.29%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.29%) Trello
Business Applications
1 17 (4.96%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (3.21%) Dynamics NAV
3 4 (1.17%) Workday HCM
4 3 (0.87%) Maximo
5 2 (0.58%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.29%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.29%) MIS ActiveH
6 1 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
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
1 128 (37.32%) Azure
2 61 (17.78%) Microsoft 365
2 61 (17.78%) Power Platform
3 50 (14.58%) AWS
4 41 (11.95%) Dynamics 365
5 38 (11.08%) Entra ID
6 26 (7.58%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (6.12%) Power Automate
8 20 (5.83%) Azure Data Factory
8 20 (5.83%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 17 (4.96%) Serverless
10 16 (4.66%) PowerApps
11 15 (4.37%) GCP
12 14 (4.08%) GitHub
13 13 (3.79%) Azure Key Vault
13 13 (3.79%) GitHub Actions
13 13 (3.79%) Microsoft Purview
14 9 (2.62%) Azure Logic Apps
14 9 (2.62%) Azure Sentinel
14 9 (2.62%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 27 (7.87%) VPN
2 23 (6.71%) DNS
3 21 (6.12%) Firewall
4 15 (4.37%) Network Security
5 14 (4.08%) DHCP
6 13 (3.79%) TCP/IP
7 9 (2.62%) LAN
7 9 (2.62%) SSL
8 7 (2.04%) HTTP
8 7 (2.04%) WAN
8 7 (2.04%) Wireless
9 6 (1.75%) HTTPS
10 5 (1.46%) BIG-IP
10 5 (1.46%) Cisco ASA
10 5 (1.46%) Cisco Nexus
10 5 (1.46%) Ethereal
10 5 (1.46%) Intrusion Detection
10 5 (1.46%) IPsec
10 5 (1.46%) Wireshark
11 4 (1.17%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (10.79%) Power BI
2 22 (6.41%) Data Warehouse
3 21 (6.12%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (4.96%) SQL Server
5 9 (2.62%) Redis
6 7 (2.04%) Relational Database
6 7 (2.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 5 (1.46%) Data Lake
7 5 (1.46%) MySQL
7 5 (1.46%) NoSQL
8 4 (1.17%) Data Mining
8 4 (1.17%) Metadata
8 4 (1.17%) Oracle Database
8 4 (1.17%) Power Query
9 2 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.58%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.58%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.58%) GIS
9 2 (0.58%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 23 (6.71%) JIRA
2 13 (3.79%) Git
3 9 (2.62%) GitLab
4 6 (1.75%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.87%) InstallShield
5 3 (0.87%) MSI
6 2 (0.58%) CircleCI
6 2 (0.58%) JMeter
6 2 (0.58%) Selenium
7 1 (0.29%) AdminStudio
7 1 (0.29%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.29%) Liquibase
7 1 (0.29%) MLflow
7 1 (0.29%) WebDriver
General
1 124 (36.15%) Social Skills
2 53 (15.45%) Finance
3 47 (13.70%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (6.12%) Public Sector
5 16 (4.66%) Organisational Skills
6 9 (2.62%) Legal
7 8 (2.33%) Manufacturing
8 7 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.04%) Games
8 7 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.75%) Law
9 6 (1.75%) Police
10 4 (1.17%) Banking
10 4 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.87%) Local Government
11 3 (0.87%) Marketing
12 2 (0.58%) Automotive
12 2 (0.58%) Electronics
12 2 (0.58%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 41 (11.95%) Analyst
2 38 (11.08%) Developer
3 37 (10.79%) Architect
4 21 (6.12%) Senior
5 18 (5.25%) Administrator
5 18 (5.25%) Support Engineer
6 15 (4.37%) IT Support
7 13 (3.79%) Consultant
7 13 (3.79%) Lead
7 13 (3.79%) Python Developer
8 12 (3.50%) Project Manager
9 10 (2.92%) Business Analyst
9 10 (2.92%) Engagement Manager
9 10 (2.92%) SAP Manager
10 9 (2.62%) 2nd Line Support
10 9 (2.62%) Backend Developer
10 9 (2.62%) Data Engineer
10 9 (2.62%) Enterprise Architect
10 9 (2.62%) Network Engineer
11 8 (2.33%) SAP Engagement Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.96%) REST
2 15 (4.37%) FastAPI
3 12 (3.50%) Flask
4 11 (3.21%) SailPoint
5 10 (2.92%) LDAP
6 9 (2.62%) GraphQL
6 9 (2.62%) gRPC
6 9 (2.62%) WebSockets
7 8 (2.33%) .NET
8 7 (2.04%) SAML
9 5 (1.46%) Middleware
10 4 (1.17%) ADO
10 4 (1.17%) NumPy
10 4 (1.17%) Pandas
10 4 (1.17%) PySpark
11 3 (0.87%) OAuth
11 3 (0.87%) OpenTelemetry
12 2 (0.58%) .NET Framework
12 2 (0.58%) Oracle Fusion
12 2 (0.58%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 34 (9.91%) Onboarding
2 18 (5.25%) Cloud Native
3 12 (3.50%) Security Posture
3 12 (3.50%) Self-Motivation
4 9 (2.62%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (2.33%) Driving Licence
5 8 (2.33%) Security Operations Centre
6 7 (2.04%) Product Ownership
7 6 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.75%) Operational Technology
7 6 (1.75%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 5 (1.46%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.17%) CSOC
9 4 (1.17%) Legacy Applications
9 4 (1.17%) PKI
9 4 (1.17%) SCADA
10 3 (0.87%) CCTV
10 3 (0.87%) e-Learning
10 3 (0.87%) Handset
10 3 (0.87%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 67 (19.53%) Windows
2 24 (7.00%) Windows 10
3 23 (6.71%) Windows Server
4 17 (4.96%) Linux
5 6 (1.75%) Mac OS
6 4 (1.17%) Unix
7 3 (0.87%) CatOS
8 2 (0.58%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.29%) Android
9 1 (0.29%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (21.57%) Agile
2 67 (19.53%) Problem-Solving
3 63 (18.37%) CI/CD
4 57 (16.62%) DevOps
5 52 (15.16%) Migration
6 46 (13.41%) Continuous Improvement
7 43 (12.54%) Analytics
8 39 (11.37%) Business Intelligence
9 37 (10.79%) Cybersecurity
10 36 (10.50%) ITIL
11 33 (9.62%) AI
11 33 (9.62%) Change Management
12 32 (9.33%) Customer Service
13 31 (9.04%) Stakeholder Management
14 29 (8.45%) Containerisation
15 28 (8.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 27 (7.87%) CRM
17 25 (7.29%) Data Modelling
18 24 (7.00%) Identity Access Management
18 24 (7.00%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 46 (13.41%) SQL
2 37 (10.79%) Python
3 21 (6.12%) PowerShell
4 14 (4.08%) Go
5 9 (2.62%) C#
6 8 (2.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 8 (2.33%) JavaScript
6 8 (2.33%) Kusto Query Language
7 7 (2.04%) Java
8 5 (1.46%) Bicep
8 5 (1.46%) PL/SQL
9 4 (1.17%) R
9 4 (1.17%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.17%) VB
10 3 (0.87%) VBScript
11 2 (0.58%) Bash
11 2 (0.58%) MATLAB
11 2 (0.58%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.58%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.29%) Scala
Qualifications
1 69 (20.12%) Security Cleared
2 56 (16.33%) SC Cleared
3 36 (10.50%) Microsoft Certification
4 32 (9.33%) Degree
5 16 (4.66%) DV Cleared
6 15 (4.37%) AWS Certification
7 14 (4.08%) Azure Certification
8 10 (2.92%) CISSP
9 8 (2.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 8 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (2.33%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (2.04%) CISM
11 6 (1.75%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 5 (1.46%) CCNA
12 5 (1.46%) DBS Check
12 5 (1.46%) MCDST
13 4 (1.17%) ISTQB
13 4 (1.17%) OCP
13 4 (1.17%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (5.83%) QA
2 10 (2.92%) Data Quality
2 10 (2.92%) GDPR
3 8 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (1.75%) SLA
5 5 (1.46%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.17%) NIST
6 4 (1.17%) PMO
7 3 (0.87%) NCSC
7 3 (0.87%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.58%) GxP
8 2 (0.58%) ISO 9001
8 2 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 12207
8 2 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 1 (0.29%) GRC
9 1 (0.29%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 64 (18.66%) Active Directory
2 31 (9.04%) Docker
3 15 (4.37%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.75%) vSphere
5 5 (1.46%) VMware NSX
6 4 (1.17%) Hyper-V
6 4 (1.17%) Snort
7 2 (0.58%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.29%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 40 (11.66%) Kubernetes
2 22 (6.41%) Terraform
3 19 (5.54%) SCCM
4 17 (4.96%) Microsoft Intune
5 16 (4.66%) Prometheus
6 15 (4.37%) Grafana
7 10 (2.92%) Ansible
8 9 (2.62%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (1.17%) CSIRT
10 3 (0.87%) Control-M
10 3 (0.87%) HP ALM
10 3 (0.87%) IBM Guardium
10 3 (0.87%) Nessus
10 3 (0.87%) SCOM
10 3 (0.87%) vRealize
11 2 (0.58%) Docker Swarm
11 2 (0.58%) HP Quality Center
11 2 (0.58%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.58%) Puppet
12 1 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 31 (9.04%) ServiceNow
2 23 (6.71%) SAP
3 18 (5.25%) Cisco
3 18 (5.25%) Oracle
4 16 (4.66%) VMware
5 10 (2.92%) Databricks
5 10 (2.92%) Splunk
6 8 (2.33%) CheckPoint
7 6 (1.75%) CyberArk
7 6 (1.75%) SolarWinds
7 6 (1.75%) Tenable
7 6 (1.75%) Workday
8 5 (1.46%) F5
8 5 (1.46%) iManage
8 5 (1.46%) Mitel
8 5 (1.46%) Palo Alto
8 5 (1.46%) Virgin Media
9 4 (1.17%) HP
9 4 (1.17%) Okta
10 3 (0.87%) AppDynamics