Windows Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Microsoft Windows
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring Windows skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
9 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 11 12
Rank change year-on-year -21 +1 -1
Contract jobs citing Windows 170 151 189
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 5.66% 11.23% 9.82%
As % of the Operating Systems category 51.83% 78.24% 76.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 110 108 125
10th Percentile £162 £150 £178
25th Percentile £219 £190 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £449 £313 £400
Median % change year-on-year +43.52% -21.88% -9.60%
75th Percentile £550 £528 £550
90th Percentile £619 £638 £675
England median daily rate £413 £425 £395
% change year-on-year -2.94% +7.59% -12.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 11 19
10th Percentile £17.03 £15.22 £15.32
25th Percentile £18.22 £16.67 £17.13
Median hourly rate £42.30 £18.13 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +133.30% -4.58% +12.19%
75th Percentile £69.46 £19.01 £23.75
90th Percentile £71.28 £20.00 -
England median hourly rate £22.50 £18.82 £17.72
% change year-on-year +19.55% +6.21% -16.85%

All Operating Systems
West Midlands

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 in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 328 193 246
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 10.92% 14.35% 12.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 220 133 165
10th Percentile £200 £152 £185
25th Percentile £346 £200 £219
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £443 £400 £425
Median % change year-on-year +10.81% -5.88% -15.84%
75th Percentile £537 £537 £538
90th Percentile £609 £638 £660
England median daily rate £450 £475 £450
% change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -12.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 12 21
10th Percentile £17.14 £15.36 £15.65
25th Percentile £20.38 £16.67 £17.72
Median hourly rate £57.82 £18.13 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +218.91% -4.58% +9.65%
75th Percentile £70.15 £19.63 £23.75
90th Percentile £76.81 £24.19 -
England median hourly rate £26.00 £28.00 £21.50
% change year-on-year -7.14% +30.23% -25.86%

Windows
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

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

Windows job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Windows
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

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

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

Windows
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 9 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Windows in the West Midlands

Windows
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

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

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

Windows
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Windows in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 9 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Windows in the West Midlands

Windows
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 Windows within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 9 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 -21 47 £461 +67.73% 19
Warwickshire -21 31 £450 -16.20% 11
Shropshire -33 26 £472 +124.76% 5
Worcestershire -6 20 £555 +282.76% 10
Coventry -23 16 £438 +118.75% 4
Staffordshire +4 9 £180 -62.11% 12
Herefordshire - 6 - - 5
Wolverhampton -2 2 £214 - 2
Windows
England

Windows
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 17 (10.00%) WebLogic
2 11 (6.47%) Tuxedo
3 8 (4.71%) Confluence
4 6 (3.53%) Apache
4 6 (3.53%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (2.35%) SharePoint
6 2 (1.18%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.59%) SAS
Applications
1 9 (5.29%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (2.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.18%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.18%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 52 (30.59%) Azure
2 41 (24.12%) Microsoft 365
3 26 (15.29%) AWS
4 18 (10.59%) Entra ID
5 6 (3.53%) GitHub
6 5 (2.94%) Azure Sentinel
6 5 (2.94%) SaaS
7 4 (2.35%) OneDrive
7 4 (2.35%) Tricentis Tosca
8 3 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (1.76%) GitHub Actions
8 3 (1.76%) Power Platform
9 2 (1.18%) Amazon EKS
9 2 (1.18%) Lucidchart
9 2 (1.18%) OpenShift
9 2 (1.18%) PaaS
10 1 (0.59%) Amazon ELB
10 1 (0.59%) CloudFront
10 1 (0.59%) IaaS
10 1 (0.59%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 27 (15.88%) DNS
2 26 (15.29%) VPN
3 23 (13.53%) Firewall
4 22 (12.94%) DHCP
5 11 (6.47%) Network Security
5 11 (6.47%) TCP/IP
6 8 (4.71%) LAN
7 7 (4.12%) Intrusion Detection
7 7 (4.12%) SSL
7 7 (4.12%) WAN
8 6 (3.53%) SSH
8 6 (3.53%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (2.94%) Internet
10 4 (2.35%) Kerberos
11 3 (1.76%) NAS
11 3 (1.76%) SAN
11 3 (1.76%) SD-WAN
11 3 (1.76%) WAAS
12 2 (1.18%) NetScaler
12 2 (1.18%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.18%) Data Warehouse
1 2 (1.18%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.59%) Power BI
2 1 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 22 (12.94%) JIRA
2 17 (10.00%) MSI
3 8 (4.71%) GitLab
4 4 (2.35%) InstallShield
4 4 (2.35%) Toad
5 3 (1.76%) Chocolatey
6 2 (1.18%) Artifactory
6 2 (1.18%) Browser DevTools
6 2 (1.18%) CircleCI
6 2 (1.18%) Git
6 2 (1.18%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.59%) AdminStudio
7 1 (0.59%) AppScan
7 1 (0.59%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.59%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.59%) REST Assured
General
1 63 (37.06%) Social Skills
2 17 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (5.29%) Documentation Skills
3 9 (5.29%) Public Sector
4 8 (4.71%) Legal
5 6 (3.53%) Finance
5 6 (3.53%) Presentation Skills
6 4 (2.35%) Banking
6 4 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
6 4 (2.35%) Telecoms
7 3 (1.76%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.18%) Aeronautics
8 2 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.18%) Investment Banking
8 2 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.59%) Law
Job Titles
1 25 (14.71%) Analyst
2 21 (12.35%) Support Engineer
3 15 (8.82%) IT Support
4 14 (8.24%) Architect
5 13 (7.65%) IT Engineer
6 12 (7.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 10 (5.88%) IT Support Engineer
8 8 (4.71%) Network Engineer
9 6 (3.53%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 6 (3.53%) Senior
10 5 (2.94%) 1st Line Support
10 5 (2.94%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 5 (2.94%) Desktop Engineer
10 5 (2.94%) IT Technician
10 5 (2.94%) Test Analyst
10 5 (2.94%) Test Engineer
11 4 (2.35%) Desktop Support Engineer
11 4 (2.35%) Migration Engineer
11 4 (2.35%) SAP Analyst
11 4 (2.35%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.53%) SAML
2 4 (2.35%) Kafka
2 4 (2.35%) LDAP
2 4 (2.35%) Middleware
2 4 (2.35%) OAuth
2 4 (2.35%) XML
3 3 (1.76%) REST
4 2 (1.18%) Apache NiFi
4 2 (1.18%) CSS
4 2 (1.18%) Elastic Stack
4 2 (1.18%) Fluent Bit
4 2 (1.18%) Node.js
4 2 (1.18%) OpenTelemetry
4 2 (1.18%) RabbitMQ
4 2 (1.18%) React
4 2 (1.18%) Software Packaging
5 1 (0.59%) .NET
5 1 (0.59%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.59%) ISPF
5 1 (0.59%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.06%) Onboarding
2 9 (5.29%) Enterprise Software
2 9 (5.29%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (4.71%) Data Protection Act
4 7 (4.12%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (2.94%) Cloud Native
6 4 (2.35%) CSOC
6 4 (2.35%) Mainframe
6 4 (2.35%) Operational Technology
6 4 (2.35%) SCADA
6 4 (2.35%) Security Operations Centre
6 4 (2.35%) Security Posture
7 3 (1.76%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.76%) Data Centre
7 3 (1.76%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.76%) Product Ownership
8 2 (1.18%) Cyber Threat
8 2 (1.18%) NHS
8 2 (1.18%) PMI
8 2 (1.18%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 52 (30.59%) Linux
2 47 (27.65%) Windows Server
3 35 (20.59%) Windows 10
4 17 (10.00%) Unix
5 7 (4.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (3.53%) AIX
6 6 (3.53%) Mac OS
6 6 (3.53%) Solaris
7 3 (1.76%) Apple iOS
8 2 (1.18%) Android
9 1 (0.59%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.59%) VMS
9 1 (0.59%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.59%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (17.06%) Problem-Solving
2 26 (15.29%) Agile
3 25 (14.71%) ITIL
4 21 (12.35%) Continuous Improvement
5 19 (11.18%) CI/CD
5 19 (11.18%) Customer Service
6 18 (10.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 16 (9.41%) SIEM
8 15 (8.82%) Incident Response
8 15 (8.82%) Infrastructure as Code
9 14 (8.24%) DevOps
9 14 (8.24%) Migration
10 13 (7.65%) Change Management
11 12 (7.06%) ITSM
11 12 (7.06%) Service Management
12 11 (6.47%) Cloud Security
12 11 (6.47%) Containerisation
12 11 (6.47%) Incident Management
12 11 (6.47%) Roadmaps
13 10 (5.88%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 31 (18.24%) PowerShell
2 29 (17.06%) SQL
3 15 (8.82%) Python
4 7 (4.12%) Bash
5 6 (3.53%) VBScript
6 4 (2.35%) Java
6 4 (2.35%) Kusto Query Language
7 3 (1.76%) PL/SQL
7 3 (1.76%) VB
8 2 (1.18%) Bicep
8 2 (1.18%) C++
8 2 (1.18%) Go
8 2 (1.18%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.18%) Search Processing Language
8 2 (1.18%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.59%) JCL
9 1 (0.59%) Lisp
9 1 (0.59%) REXX
Qualifications
1 68 (40.00%) Security Cleared
2 55 (32.35%) SC Cleared
3 11 (6.47%) Cisco Certification
3 11 (6.47%) Microsoft Certification
4 10 (5.88%) AWS Certification
4 10 (5.88%) CCNA
4 10 (5.88%) DV Cleared
5 9 (5.29%) Degree
6 5 (2.94%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 5 (2.94%) Azure Certification
6 5 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (2.35%) ITIL Certification
7 4 (2.35%) MCSE
8 2 (1.18%) CAPM
8 2 (1.18%) ISEB
8 2 (1.18%) ISTQB
8 2 (1.18%) PMI Certification
8 2 (1.18%) PMP
8 2 (1.18%) RHCA
8 2 (1.18%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (7.65%) NIST
3 4 (2.35%) QA
3 4 (2.35%) SLA
3 4 (2.35%) SOC 2
4 3 (1.76%) GDPR
4 3 (1.76%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.18%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.18%) GMP
5 2 (1.18%) GxP
6 1 (0.59%) COBIT
System Software
1 70 (41.18%) Active Directory
2 13 (7.65%) Docker
3 12 (7.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (3.53%) Hyper-V
5 5 (2.94%) Microsoft App-V
6 4 (2.35%) Snort
6 4 (2.35%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (1.76%) Terminal Services
8 2 (1.18%) BitLocker
8 2 (1.18%) etcd
8 2 (1.18%) vSphere
8 2 (1.18%) XenApp
8 2 (1.18%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.59%) Job Entry Subsystem
Systems Management
1 24 (14.12%) Kubernetes
2 21 (12.35%) Microsoft Intune
3 17 (10.00%) SCCM
4 16 (9.41%) Terraform
5 13 (7.65%) Ansible
6 4 (2.35%) CSIRT
7 3 (1.76%) AirWatch
7 3 (1.76%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (1.18%) Argo
8 2 (1.18%) Fluentd
8 2 (1.18%) Grafana
8 2 (1.18%) Podman
8 2 (1.18%) Prometheus
8 2 (1.18%) QRadar
8 2 (1.18%) SCOM
8 2 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.59%) Backup Exec
9 1 (0.59%) Control-M
9 1 (0.59%) Nessus
9 1 (0.59%) WSUS
Vendors
1 64 (37.65%) Microsoft
2 17 (10.00%) Splunk
3 15 (8.82%) VMware
4 13 (7.65%) Oracle
5 12 (7.06%) ServiceNow
6 10 (5.88%) Citrix
7 9 (5.29%) Fujitsu
8 8 (4.71%) CyberArk
9 7 (4.12%) Cisco
10 5 (2.94%) BeyondTrust
11 4 (2.35%) Dynatrace
11 4 (2.35%) HP
11 4 (2.35%) SAP
12 3 (1.76%) Atlassian
12 3 (1.76%) MobileIron
12 3 (1.76%) Red Hat
12 3 (1.76%) Remedy
13 2 (1.18%) SolarWinds
13 2 (1.18%) Veeam
13 2 (1.18%) Zscaler
76 Windows jobs in the West Midlands