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

 6 months to
13 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 11 13
Rank change year-on-year -13 +2 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 184 162 171
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 7.13% 11.09% 9.09%
As % of the Operating Systems category 54.44% 70.13% 72.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 132 104 121
10th Percentile £150 £161 £165
25th Percentile £185 £200 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £388 £325 £388
Median % change year-on-year +19.23% -16.13% -7.74%
75th Percentile £528 £556 £519
90th Percentile £618 £654 £638
England median daily rate £400 £400 £390
% change year-on-year - +2.56% -10.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 11 15
10th Percentile - £15.22 £16.01
25th Percentile £17.14 £16.68 £17.13
Median hourly rate £19.84 £18.13 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +9.45% +2.31% +4.64%
75th Percentile £22.99 £21.44 £23.75
90th Percentile £39.25 £22.89 -
England median hourly rate £22.00 £21.84 £20.00
% change year-on-year +0.73% +9.20% -9.26%

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 338 231 235
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 13.10% 15.81% 12.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 237 143 163
10th Percentile £163 £178 £174
25th Percentile £290 £210 £203
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £449 £426 £400
Median % change year-on-year +5.37% +6.50% -19.19%
75th Percentile £544 £574 £500
90th Percentile £619 £655 £600
England median daily rate £449 £475 £452
% change year-on-year -5.50% +5.20% -13.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 12 18
10th Percentile - £15.22 £16.27
25th Percentile £17.14 £17.40 £17.72
Median hourly rate £21.46 £18.57 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.59% -17.49% +32.86%
75th Percentile £29.25 £22.89 £23.75
90th Percentile £69.99 £24.05 £56.75
England median hourly rate £22.50 £42.75 £25.18
% change year-on-year -47.37% +69.78% -3.15%

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 13 February 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 13 February 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 13 February 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 -14 54 £425 +40.73% 22
Warwickshire -17 36 £350 -39.13% 12
Shropshire -23 26 £483 +130.00% 11
Worcestershire -9 23 £550 +303.67% 5
Staffordshire +5 14 £203 +1.25% 13
Coventry -18 12 £388 +93.75% 4
Wolverhampton +2 3 £188 - 2
Herefordshire - 3 £625 - 4
Solihull -9 1 - - 2
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 18 (9.78%) WebLogic
2 13 (7.07%) Confluence
3 10 (5.43%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (4.89%) Tuxedo
5 8 (4.35%) Apache
6 6 (3.26%) nginx
6 6 (3.26%) SharePoint
7 2 (1.09%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.54%) IIS
Applications
1 14 (7.61%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (3.26%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 1 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.09%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 53 (28.80%) Microsoft 365
2 50 (27.17%) Azure
3 33 (17.93%) AWS
4 10 (5.43%) Entra ID
5 9 (4.89%) Amazon ELB
5 9 (4.89%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 8 (4.35%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 8 (4.35%) Amazon EC2
6 8 (4.35%) Amazon S3
6 8 (4.35%) AWS KMS
7 7 (3.80%) Route 53
8 6 (3.26%) Amazon ECS
9 4 (2.17%) Azure Monitor
9 4 (2.17%) GitHub
9 4 (2.17%) Tricentis Tosca
10 3 (1.63%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (1.63%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (1.63%) SaaS
11 2 (1.09%) Amazon EKS
11 2 (1.09%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 34 (18.48%) DNS
2 28 (15.22%) Firewall
3 26 (14.13%) VPN
4 22 (11.96%) DHCP
5 15 (8.15%) TCP/IP
6 14 (7.61%) SSH
7 10 (5.43%) FTP
7 10 (5.43%) HTTP
7 10 (5.43%) SMTP
8 8 (4.35%) Network Security
9 6 (3.26%) IMAP
9 6 (3.26%) OpenLDAP
10 5 (2.72%) Intrusion Detection
10 5 (2.72%) Structured Cabling
10 5 (2.72%) WAN
10 5 (2.72%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (2.17%) Kerberos
12 3 (1.63%) LAN
13 2 (1.09%) SNMP
13 2 (1.09%) Telnet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.35%) Amazon RDS
2 7 (3.80%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (3.26%) Amazon Aurora
4 2 (1.09%) Oracle Database
4 2 (1.09%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.54%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 27 (14.67%) JIRA
2 13 (7.07%) MSI
3 10 (5.43%) Git
3 10 (5.43%) Jenkins
4 8 (4.35%) Vagrant
5 7 (3.80%) GitLab
6 4 (2.17%) InstallShield
6 4 (2.17%) Toad
7 3 (1.63%) Chocolatey
8 2 (1.09%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.54%) AdminStudio
9 1 (0.54%) AppScan
9 1 (0.54%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.54%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.54%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.54%) REST Assured
General
1 83 (45.11%) Social Skills
2 26 (14.13%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (9.24%) Public Sector
4 12 (6.52%) Documentation Skills
5 11 (5.98%) Presentation Skills
6 8 (4.35%) Legal
7 7 (3.80%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.72%) Finance
9 3 (1.63%) Telecoms
10 2 (1.09%) Aeronautics
10 2 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.09%) Law
11 1 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.54%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.54%) Police
Job Titles
1 32 (17.39%) Support Engineer
2 19 (10.33%) Analyst
3 16 (8.70%) IT Support
4 14 (7.61%) Architect
5 13 (7.07%) Desktop Engineer
6 12 (6.52%) Platform Engineer
7 11 (5.98%) Desktop Support
7 11 (5.98%) Desktop Support Engineer
7 11 (5.98%) IT Engineer
7 11 (5.98%) Windows Engineer
8 10 (5.43%) AWS Engineer
8 10 (5.43%) Deployment Engineer
8 10 (5.43%) DevOps Engineer
8 10 (5.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 9 (4.89%) 2nd Line Support
9 9 (4.89%) Cloud Platform Engineer
10 8 (4.35%) 1st/2nd Line Support
10 8 (4.35%) IT Support Engineer
11 7 (3.80%) Senior
11 7 (3.80%) Server Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.43%) LDAP
2 4 (2.17%) Middleware
2 4 (2.17%) OAuth
2 4 (2.17%) SAML
2 4 (2.17%) XML
3 2 (1.09%) CSS
3 2 (1.09%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (1.09%) Kafka
3 2 (1.09%) Node.js
3 2 (1.09%) RabbitMQ
3 2 (1.09%) React
3 2 (1.09%) YAML
4 1 (0.54%) .NET
4 1 (0.54%) Apache NiFi
4 1 (0.54%) REST
4 1 (0.54%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 11 (5.98%) Onboarding
2 9 (4.89%) Replication
3 8 (4.35%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (3.26%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (3.26%) Team-Oriented Environment
5 5 (2.72%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (2.17%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (2.17%) Operational Technology
6 4 (2.17%) Security Operations Centre
7 3 (1.63%) Data Centre
7 3 (1.63%) PKI
7 3 (1.63%) Product Ownership
7 3 (1.63%) Security Posture
8 2 (1.09%) CCTV
8 2 (1.09%) CSOC
8 2 (1.09%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.09%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (1.09%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.09%) NHS
8 2 (1.09%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 59 (32.07%) Linux
2 46 (25.00%) Windows 10
3 40 (21.74%) Windows Server
4 23 (12.50%) Unix
5 9 (4.89%) VMS
6 8 (4.35%) Amazon Linux
6 8 (4.35%) Apple iOS
7 7 (3.80%) Android
7 7 (3.80%) Mac OS
8 6 (3.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (3.26%) Ubuntu
9 5 (2.72%) AIX
9 5 (2.72%) Solaris
10 2 (1.09%) Mac OS X
10 2 (1.09%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.54%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.54%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (17.39%) Problem-Solving
2 27 (14.67%) Cloud Security
2 27 (14.67%) Customer Service
2 27 (14.67%) ITIL
3 22 (11.96%) Agile
3 22 (11.96%) CI/CD
4 21 (11.41%) Change Management
5 20 (10.87%) Continuous Improvement
5 20 (10.87%) Migration
5 20 (10.87%) SIEM
6 19 (10.33%) DevOps
7 18 (9.78%) Service Management
8 16 (8.70%) Incident Response
9 15 (8.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 13 (7.07%) Platform Engineering
11 12 (6.52%) SOAR
12 10 (5.43%) Identity Access Management
12 10 (5.43%) Infrastructure as Code
12 10 (5.43%) Roadmaps
12 10 (5.43%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 41 (22.28%) PowerShell
2 29 (15.76%) SQL
3 27 (14.67%) Python
4 8 (4.35%) Groovy
5 7 (3.80%) Java
6 5 (2.72%) Bash
7 4 (2.17%) VBScript
8 3 (1.63%) Bicep
8 3 (1.63%) VB
9 2 (1.09%) C++
9 2 (1.09%) Go
9 2 (1.09%) JavaScript
9 2 (1.09%) Kusto Query Language
9 2 (1.09%) Perl
9 2 (1.09%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.54%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 61 (33.15%) Security Cleared
2 51 (27.72%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.15%) Microsoft Certification
4 14 (7.61%) AWS Certification
5 12 (6.52%) Degree
6 11 (5.98%) Azure Certification
7 8 (4.35%) DV Cleared
8 7 (3.80%) CCNA
8 7 (3.80%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (3.26%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (3.26%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 5 (2.72%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 5 (2.72%) MCDST
11 3 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (1.09%) A+ Certification
12 2 (1.09%) DBS Check
12 2 (1.09%) ISTQB
12 2 (1.09%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 2 (1.09%) MCSE
12 2 (1.09%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 8 (4.35%) NIST
1 8 (4.35%) SLA
2 4 (2.17%) QA
3 3 (1.63%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.09%) GMP
4 2 (1.09%) GxP
4 2 (1.09%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.54%) COBIT
5 1 (0.54%) GDPR
System Software
1 72 (39.13%) Active Directory
2 17 (9.24%) Docker
3 9 (4.89%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (4.35%) DFS Replication
5 6 (3.26%) Dovecot
5 6 (3.26%) Postfix
5 6 (3.26%) Squid
6 5 (2.72%) Hyper-V
7 4 (2.17%) Terminal Services
7 4 (2.17%) vSphere
8 3 (1.63%) Microsoft App-V
9 2 (1.09%) Snort
9 2 (1.09%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.54%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.54%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 24 (13.04%) SCCM
2 19 (10.33%) Microsoft Intune
3 18 (9.78%) Terraform
4 15 (8.15%) Kubernetes
5 10 (5.43%) Grafana
6 9 (4.89%) Ansible
7 8 (4.35%) Nessus
7 8 (4.35%) Prometheus
8 6 (3.26%) Proxmox
9 3 (1.63%) SCOM
10 2 (1.09%) Argo
10 2 (1.09%) CSIRT
11 1 (0.54%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.54%) Dell DRAC
11 1 (0.54%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.54%) Packer
11 1 (0.54%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.54%) SolarWinds Orion
11 1 (0.54%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.54%) WSUS
Vendors
1 67 (36.41%) Microsoft
2 17 (9.24%) ServiceNow
3 15 (8.15%) CyberArk
4 13 (7.07%) Oracle
4 13 (7.07%) Splunk
5 12 (6.52%) BeyondTrust
6 10 (5.43%) VMware
7 9 (4.89%) Cisco
8 7 (3.80%) Dynatrace
8 7 (3.80%) Fujitsu
9 6 (3.26%) Jaspersoft
10 5 (2.72%) iManage
10 5 (2.72%) Mitel
11 4 (2.17%) AppDynamics
11 4 (2.17%) Dell
11 4 (2.17%) SAP
12 3 (1.63%) CheckPoint
12 3 (1.63%) Citrix
12 3 (1.63%) SolarWinds
12 3 (1.63%) Veeam
84 Windows jobs in the West Midlands