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 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
9 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 13 8
Rank change year-on-year -25 -5 +2
Contract jobs citing Windows 176 156 225
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 5.14% 9.91% 10.89%
As % of the Operating Systems category 53.99% 73.93% 76.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 124 119 141
10th Percentile £163 £149 £158
25th Percentile £213 £200 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £300 £400
Median % change year-on-year +50.00% -25.00% +6.67%
75th Percentile £538 £488 £575
90th Percentile £588 £575 £675
England median daily rate £425 £415 £425
% change year-on-year +2.41% -2.35% -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 6 15
10th Percentile £41.50 £15.90 £14.66
25th Percentile £58.43 £16.67 £17.25
Median hourly rate £63.14 £17.83 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +254.04% -18.94% +14.29%
75th Percentile £70.11 £23.12 £23.75
90th Percentile £70.37 £24.83 -
England median hourly rate £25.77 £18.87 £20.00
% change year-on-year +36.57% -5.65% -18.77%

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 326 211 293
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 9.52% 13.41% 14.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 240 152 188
10th Percentile £200 £150 £176
25th Percentile £381 £209 £261
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £401 £439
Median % change year-on-year +14.52% -8.65% +3.24%
75th Percentile £538 £500 £571
90th Percentile £600 £614 £675
England median daily rate £463 £463 £475
% change year-on-year - -2.63% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 6 17
10th Percentile £44.22 £15.90 £14.99
25th Percentile £58.43 £16.67 £18.50
Median hourly rate £63.14 £17.83 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +254.04% -20.74% +12.50%
75th Percentile £70.23 £23.12 £23.75
90th Percentile £71.97 £24.83 £72.50
England median hourly rate £32.50 £22.00 £24.93
% change year-on-year +47.73% -11.74% -41.35%

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 July 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 July 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 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
Warwickshire +5 54 £525 +20.00% 6
Birmingham -27 40 £300 +9.09% 20
Coventry -17 24 £325 +47.73% 1
Shropshire -45 12 £465 +15.78% 5
Staffordshire +2 11 £185 -26.00% 15
Worcestershire -4 9 £368 +118.75% 5
Herefordshire +2 6 - - 3
Solihull -22 3 £105 -72.00% 4
Wolverhampton -5 1 £250 -37.50%
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 11 (6.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (3.98%) Apache
2 7 (3.98%) Confluence
2 7 (3.98%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.41%) WebLogic
4 3 (1.70%) Tuxedo
5 2 (1.14%) CloudStack
5 2 (1.14%) IIS
6 1 (0.57%) SAS
Applications
1 19 (10.80%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (6.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.14%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.14%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 69 (39.20%) Azure
2 64 (36.36%) Microsoft 365
3 36 (20.45%) Entra ID
4 27 (15.34%) AWS
5 16 (9.09%) OneDrive
6 7 (3.98%) Power Platform
7 6 (3.41%) GCP
8 5 (2.84%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.84%) SaaS
9 4 (2.27%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (2.27%) GitHub
10 3 (1.70%) OpenShift
10 3 (1.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 2 (1.14%) Amazon EC2
11 2 (1.14%) Amazon S3
11 2 (1.14%) AWS CloudFormation
11 2 (1.14%) Azure Logic Apps
11 2 (1.14%) IaaS
11 2 (1.14%) Lucidchart
11 2 (1.14%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 31 (17.61%) DNS
2 30 (17.05%) VPN
3 28 (15.91%) DHCP
4 20 (11.36%) Firewall
5 13 (7.39%) LAN
6 11 (6.25%) Wi-Fi
7 10 (5.68%) TCP/IP
8 9 (5.11%) SNMP
8 9 (5.11%) SSL
9 7 (3.98%) Network Security
9 7 (3.98%) WAN
10 6 (3.41%) Cisco IOS
10 6 (3.41%) Internet
11 5 (2.84%) NAS
11 5 (2.84%) SAN
12 4 (2.27%) Intrusion Detection
12 4 (2.27%) NetScaler
12 4 (2.27%) SD-WAN
13 3 (1.70%) WAAS
14 2 (1.14%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.70%) Amazon RDS
1 3 (1.70%) Power BI
2 2 (1.14%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.57%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.57%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.57%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 14 (7.95%) JIRA
2 6 (3.41%) MSI
3 3 (1.70%) Browser DevTools
3 3 (1.70%) GitLab
4 2 (1.14%) Artifactory
4 2 (1.14%) Chocolatey
5 1 (0.57%) AppScan
5 1 (0.57%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.57%) InstallShield
5 1 (0.57%) Metasploit
General
1 72 (40.91%) Social Skills
2 24 (13.64%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (11.36%) Finance
4 10 (5.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 8 (4.55%) Banking
6 6 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.84%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (2.84%) Public Sector
8 4 (2.27%) Investment Banking
9 3 (1.70%) Legal
9 3 (1.70%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.70%) Telecoms
10 2 (1.14%) Law
10 2 (1.14%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.57%) Billing
Job Titles
1 28 (15.91%) Analyst
2 21 (11.93%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 21 (11.93%) Support Engineer
3 15 (8.52%) IT Support
4 11 (6.25%) IT Engineer
5 10 (5.68%) IT Support Engineer
6 9 (5.11%) Administrator
6 9 (5.11%) Senior
6 9 (5.11%) Service Analyst
6 9 (5.11%) Service Desk Analyst
6 9 (5.11%) Support Technician
7 8 (4.55%) Infrastructure Manager
8 7 (3.98%) Architect
8 7 (3.98%) Business Analyst
8 7 (3.98%) Desktop Engineer
8 7 (3.98%) Infrastructure Project Manager
8 7 (3.98%) Lead
8 7 (3.98%) Network Engineer
8 7 (3.98%) Project Manager
9 6 (3.41%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.70%) REST
1 3 (1.70%) SAML
2 2 (1.14%) Apache NiFi
2 2 (1.14%) Elastic Stack
2 2 (1.14%) FIDO
2 2 (1.14%) Fluent Bit
2 2 (1.14%) Kafka
2 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (1.14%) OpenTelemetry
3 1 (0.57%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.57%) ISPF
3 1 (0.57%) Middleware
3 1 (0.57%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 18 (10.23%) Onboarding
2 15 (8.52%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (5.11%) Smartphone
4 8 (4.55%) Data Centre
5 7 (3.98%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (3.98%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (3.41%) Cloud Native
7 5 (2.84%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (2.27%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (2.27%) CSOC
8 4 (2.27%) Mainframe
8 4 (2.27%) PKI
8 4 (2.27%) SCADA
8 4 (2.27%) Security Operations Centre
9 3 (1.70%) Cyber Threat
9 3 (1.70%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.70%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.70%) Operational Technology
9 3 (1.70%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.70%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 49 (27.84%) Linux
2 44 (25.00%) Windows Server
3 36 (20.45%) Windows 10
4 15 (8.52%) Mac OS
5 10 (5.68%) Unix
6 7 (3.98%) Android
7 5 (2.84%) Apple iOS
8 4 (2.27%) AIX
8 4 (2.27%) Ubuntu
8 4 (2.27%) Windows 7
9 3 (1.70%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (1.70%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (1.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (1.14%) Solaris
10 2 (1.14%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.57%) HPUX
11 1 (0.57%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.57%) VMS
11 1 (0.57%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (23.86%) Problem-Solving
2 33 (18.75%) ITSM
3 28 (15.91%) Customer Service
3 28 (15.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 28 (15.91%) ITIL
4 21 (11.93%) Migration
5 19 (10.80%) Infrastructure as Code
6 18 (10.23%) Problem Management
7 17 (9.66%) Agile
7 17 (9.66%) Service Management
8 15 (8.52%) Incident Management
8 15 (8.52%) Patch Management
9 13 (7.39%) User Experience
10 12 (6.82%) CI/CD
10 12 (6.82%) Continuous Improvement
11 11 (6.25%) DevOps
12 10 (5.68%) Containerisation
12 10 (5.68%) Root Cause Analysis
12 10 (5.68%) Stakeholder Management
12 10 (5.68%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 23 (13.07%) SQL
2 18 (10.23%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.98%) Python
4 4 (2.27%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (1.70%) Bash
5 3 (1.70%) PL/SQL
5 3 (1.70%) VBScript
6 2 (1.14%) Search Processing Language
7 1 (0.57%) Bicep
7 1 (0.57%) JCL
7 1 (0.57%) Lisp
7 1 (0.57%) REXX
7 1 (0.57%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.57%) VB
Qualifications
1 44 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 34 (19.32%) SC Cleared
3 13 (7.39%) Cisco Certification
4 11 (6.25%) Degree
5 10 (5.68%) CCNA
5 10 (5.68%) DV Cleared
6 9 (5.11%) AWS Certification
7 6 (3.41%) Azure Certification
8 5 (2.84%) MCSE
8 5 (2.84%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (2.84%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 3 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (1.70%) ITIL Certification
9 3 (1.70%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 3 (1.70%) RHCA
10 2 (1.14%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (1.14%) CBAP
10 2 (1.14%) CISSP
10 2 (1.14%) DBS Check
10 2 (1.14%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (7.39%) SLA
3 11 (6.25%) NIST
4 3 (1.70%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (1.70%) GDPR
5 2 (1.14%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.14%) QA
5 2 (1.14%) SOC 2
6 1 (0.57%) COBIT
6 1 (0.57%) GMP
6 1 (0.57%) GxP
6 1 (0.57%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 77 (43.75%) Active Directory
2 24 (13.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (7.39%) Hyper-V
4 10 (5.68%) vSphere
5 8 (4.55%) Docker
6 7 (3.98%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (2.84%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (2.27%) Snort
8 4 (2.27%) XenApp
8 4 (2.27%) XenDesktop
9 3 (1.70%) Microsoft App-V
9 3 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (1.14%) BitLocker
10 2 (1.14%) etcd
11 1 (0.57%) Firmware
11 1 (0.57%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.57%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 38 (21.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 37 (21.02%) SCCM
3 22 (12.50%) Kubernetes
4 14 (7.95%) Terraform
5 8 (4.55%) Ansible
6 7 (3.98%) WMI
7 5 (2.84%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (2.27%) CSIRT
8 4 (2.27%) Prometheus
8 4 (2.27%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (1.70%) AirWatch
9 3 (1.70%) Podman
9 3 (1.70%) QRadar
10 2 (1.14%) Check_MK
10 2 (1.14%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (1.14%) Fluentd
10 2 (1.14%) Grafana
10 2 (1.14%) SCOM
10 2 (1.14%) WSUS
11 1 (0.57%) Control-M
Vendors
1 88 (50.00%) Microsoft
2 30 (17.05%) VMware
3 27 (15.34%) Cisco
3 27 (15.34%) ServiceNow
4 21 (11.93%) Splunk
5 12 (6.82%) Citrix
6 10 (5.68%) Fortinet
7 7 (3.98%) Canon
7 7 (3.98%) F5
7 7 (3.98%) Oracle
7 7 (3.98%) Palo Alto
7 7 (3.98%) Qualys
7 7 (3.98%) SolarWinds
8 6 (3.41%) Apple
8 6 (3.41%) HP
9 5 (2.84%) Remedy
10 4 (2.27%) Dell
11 3 (1.70%) Atlassian
11 3 (1.70%) Fujitsu
11 3 (1.70%) NetApp
62 Windows jobs in the West Midlands