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

 6 months to
17 Mar 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 11 12
Rank change year-on-year -26 +1 -1
Contract jobs citing Windows 153 157 196
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 5.39% 11.90% 10.04%
As % of the Operating Systems category 49.68% 75.12% 76.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 102 134
10th Percentile £151 £151 £168
25th Percentile £202 £193 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £330 £375
Median % change year-on-year +37.88% -12.00% -11.76%
75th Percentile £551 £551 £547
90th Percentile £619 £638 £646
England median daily rate £408 £415 £385
% change year-on-year -1.81% +7.79% -14.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 13 17
10th Percentile £17.03 £15.51 £14.99
25th Percentile £17.14 £16.67 £16.54
Median hourly rate £18.23 £18.13 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +0.52% +2.31% +4.64%
75th Percentile £21.46 £20.00 £23.75
90th Percentile £28.90 £23.92 -
England median hourly rate £21.50 £21.28 £17.72
% change year-on-year +1.03% +20.09% -20.34%

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 308 209 256
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 10.84% 15.85% 13.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 215 133 177
10th Percentile £200 £164 £177
25th Percentile £359 £200 £206
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £460 £400
Median % change year-on-year -2.17% +15.00% -20.00%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £536
90th Percentile £618 £638 £638
England median daily rate £450 £475 £450
% change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% -13.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 14 19
10th Percentile - £15.65 £15.32
25th Percentile £17.14 £17.03 £17.13
Median hourly rate £18.23 £18.32 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.52% -16.73% +29.91%
75th Percentile £22.48 £22.16 £23.75
90th Percentile £69.99 £24.52 £33.50
England median hourly rate £22.79 £29.00 £22.21
% change year-on-year -21.43% +30.56% -17.73%

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 17 March 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 17 March 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 17 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 -19 44 £485 +49.23% 18
Shropshire -30 27 £469 +123.10% 11
Worcestershire -10 23 £550 +279.31% 9
Warwickshire -27 23 £540 -4.42% 2
Staffordshire 0 11 £200 - 12
Coventry -25 11 £475 +137.50% 2
Wolverhampton -2 2 £214 - 3
Herefordshire - 2 - - 5
West Bromwich - 1 £170 -
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 (11.11%) WebLogic
2 11 (7.19%) Tuxedo
3 9 (5.88%) Confluence
4 5 (3.27%) Apache
4 5 (3.27%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (1.96%) SharePoint
6 2 (1.31%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.65%) IIS
Applications
1 12 (7.84%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.31%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.31%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 40 (26.14%) Azure
2 33 (21.57%) Microsoft 365
3 24 (15.69%) AWS
4 10 (6.54%) Entra ID
5 5 (3.27%) SaaS
6 4 (2.61%) GitHub
6 4 (2.61%) Power Platform
6 4 (2.61%) Tricentis Tosca
7 3 (1.96%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (1.96%) GitHub Actions
7 3 (1.96%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.31%) Amazon EKS
8 2 (1.31%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (1.31%) Lucidchart
8 2 (1.31%) OpenShift
8 2 (1.31%) PaaS
9 1 (0.65%) Amazon Macie
9 1 (0.65%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 1 (0.65%) Power Automate
9 1 (0.65%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 26 (16.99%) VPN
2 24 (15.69%) DNS
3 19 (12.42%) DHCP
4 17 (11.11%) Firewall
5 11 (7.19%) TCP/IP
6 9 (5.88%) Network Security
7 7 (4.58%) Intrusion Detection
7 7 (4.58%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (3.92%) SSH
8 6 (3.92%) WAN
9 5 (3.27%) LAN
10 4 (2.61%) Kerberos
11 3 (1.96%) NAS
11 3 (1.96%) SAN
12 2 (1.31%) FTP
12 2 (1.31%) HTTP
12 2 (1.31%) Internet
12 2 (1.31%) SMTP
12 2 (1.31%) SNMP
12 2 (1.31%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.31%) Data Warehouse
1 2 (1.31%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.65%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.65%) Power BI
2 1 (0.65%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 22 (14.38%) JIRA
2 17 (11.11%) MSI
3 7 (4.58%) GitLab
4 4 (2.61%) InstallShield
4 4 (2.61%) Toad
5 3 (1.96%) Chocolatey
6 2 (1.31%) CircleCI
6 2 (1.31%) Git
6 2 (1.31%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.65%) AdminStudio
7 1 (0.65%) AppScan
7 1 (0.65%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.65%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.65%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.65%) REST Assured
General
1 60 (39.22%) Social Skills
2 14 (9.15%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (6.54%) Documentation Skills
3 10 (6.54%) Legal
4 8 (5.23%) Public Sector
5 6 (3.92%) Finance
5 6 (3.92%) Manufacturing
5 6 (3.92%) Presentation Skills
6 5 (3.27%) Telecoms
7 4 (2.61%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.96%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.31%) Aeronautics
9 2 (1.31%) Banking
9 2 (1.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.31%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.65%) Law
Job Titles
1 22 (14.38%) Support Engineer
2 21 (13.73%) Analyst
3 14 (9.15%) Architect
4 13 (8.50%) IT Support
5 10 (6.54%) IT Engineer
6 8 (5.23%) Desktop Engineer
6 8 (5.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 8 (5.23%) IT Support Engineer
7 6 (3.92%) DevSecOps Engineer
7 6 (3.92%) Network Engineer
8 5 (3.27%) 1st/2nd Line Support
8 5 (3.27%) 2nd Line Support
8 5 (3.27%) Consultant
8 5 (3.27%) Deployment Engineer
8 5 (3.27%) Desktop Support
8 5 (3.27%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 5 (3.27%) IT Technician
8 5 (3.27%) Technical Engineer
8 5 (3.27%) Technical Support
8 5 (3.27%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.61%) Kafka
1 4 (2.61%) LDAP
1 4 (2.61%) Middleware
1 4 (2.61%) OAuth
1 4 (2.61%) SAML
1 4 (2.61%) XML
2 2 (1.31%) CSS
2 2 (1.31%) Elastic Stack
2 2 (1.31%) Fluent Bit
2 2 (1.31%) Node.js
2 2 (1.31%) OpenTelemetry
2 2 (1.31%) RabbitMQ
2 2 (1.31%) React
2 2 (1.31%) YAML
3 1 (0.65%) .NET
3 1 (0.65%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.65%) Apache NiFi
3 1 (0.65%) REST
3 1 (0.65%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.84%) Onboarding
2 7 (4.58%) Enterprise Software
3 6 (3.92%) Data Protection Act
3 6 (3.92%) Hybrid Cloud
4 5 (3.27%) Security Operations Centre
4 5 (3.27%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.61%) Cloud Native
5 4 (2.61%) CSOC
5 4 (2.61%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.96%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.96%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.96%) Mainframe
6 3 (1.96%) Product Ownership
6 3 (1.96%) Security Posture
6 3 (1.96%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 2 (1.31%) CCTV
7 2 (1.31%) CMDB
7 2 (1.31%) NHS
7 2 (1.31%) PMI
7 2 (1.31%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 44 (28.76%) Linux
2 34 (22.22%) Windows Server
3 30 (19.61%) Windows 10
4 17 (11.11%) Unix
5 6 (3.92%) AIX
5 6 (3.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (3.92%) Solaris
6 4 (2.61%) Mac OS
7 2 (1.31%) Android
7 2 (1.31%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.65%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.65%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.65%) VMS
8 1 (0.65%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.65%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (15.69%) Agile
2 23 (15.03%) ITIL
2 23 (15.03%) Problem-Solving
3 21 (13.73%) Customer Service
4 19 (12.42%) Continuous Improvement
5 18 (11.76%) CI/CD
6 15 (9.80%) SIEM
7 14 (9.15%) Incident Response
7 14 (9.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 13 (8.50%) Migration
9 12 (7.84%) DevOps
9 12 (7.84%) Infrastructure as Code
10 11 (7.19%) Change Management
10 11 (7.19%) Cloud Security
11 9 (5.88%) Customer Requirements
11 9 (5.88%) Cybersecurity
11 9 (5.88%) Privileged Access Management
11 9 (5.88%) Roadmaps
11 9 (5.88%) Stakeholder Management
12 8 (5.23%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 26 (16.99%) PowerShell
2 25 (16.34%) SQL
3 12 (7.84%) Python
4 6 (3.92%) VBScript
5 5 (3.27%) Bash
6 4 (2.61%) Java
6 4 (2.61%) Kusto Query Language
7 3 (1.96%) Bicep
7 3 (1.96%) VB
8 2 (1.31%) C++
8 2 (1.31%) Go
8 2 (1.31%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.31%) Search Processing Language
8 2 (1.31%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.65%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 55 (35.95%) Security Cleared
2 43 (28.10%) SC Cleared
3 11 (7.19%) Microsoft Certification
4 10 (6.54%) AWS Certification
5 8 (5.23%) CCNA
5 8 (5.23%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (5.23%) Degree
5 8 (5.23%) DV Cleared
6 5 (3.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 5 (3.27%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (2.61%) Azure Certification
8 3 (1.96%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (1.96%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 2 (1.31%) CAPM
9 2 (1.31%) ISEB
9 2 (1.31%) ISTQB
9 2 (1.31%) MCDST
9 2 (1.31%) MCSE
9 2 (1.31%) PMI Certification
9 2 (1.31%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (5.88%) NIST
3 4 (2.61%) QA
3 4 (2.61%) SLA
3 4 (2.61%) SOC 2
4 3 (1.96%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.31%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.31%) GMP
5 2 (1.31%) GxP
6 1 (0.65%) COBIT
6 1 (0.65%) GDPR
System Software
1 56 (36.60%) Active Directory
2 11 (7.19%) Docker
3 7 (4.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (3.27%) Microsoft App-V
5 4 (2.61%) Snort
6 3 (1.96%) Hyper-V
6 3 (1.96%) Terminal Services
7 2 (1.31%) etcd
7 2 (1.31%) vSphere
8 1 (0.65%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.65%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 21 (13.73%) Kubernetes
2 18 (11.76%) Microsoft Intune
3 16 (10.46%) SCCM
4 12 (7.84%) Terraform
5 9 (5.88%) Ansible
6 4 (2.61%) CSIRT
7 2 (1.31%) Argo
7 2 (1.31%) Fluentd
7 2 (1.31%) Grafana
7 2 (1.31%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.65%) AirWatch
8 1 (0.65%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.65%) Nessus
8 1 (0.65%) Packer
8 1 (0.65%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.65%) SCOM
8 1 (0.65%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.65%) WSUS
Vendors
1 58 (37.91%) Microsoft
2 15 (9.80%) Splunk
3 10 (6.54%) Oracle
4 9 (5.88%) Fujitsu
5 8 (5.23%) CyberArk
5 8 (5.23%) ServiceNow
5 8 (5.23%) VMware
6 5 (3.27%) BeyondTrust
6 5 (3.27%) Cisco
6 5 (3.27%) Citrix
7 4 (2.61%) Dynatrace
7 4 (2.61%) SAP
8 3 (1.96%) Remedy
9 2 (1.31%) Apple
9 2 (1.31%) Ariba
9 2 (1.31%) Dell
9 2 (1.31%) HP
9 2 (1.31%) Mitel
9 2 (1.31%) Red Hat
9 2 (1.31%) webMethods
68 Windows jobs in the West Midlands