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

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 29 10 13
Rank change year-on-year -19 +3 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 178 167 175
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 6.66% 11.50% 9.26%
As % of the Operating Systems category 53.45% 71.37% 73.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 125 105 123
10th Percentile £150 £160 £167
25th Percentile £185 £200 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £325 £375
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% -13.33% -10.71%
75th Percentile £540 £551 £509
90th Percentile £619 £653 £638
England median daily rate £400 £400 £390
% change year-on-year - +2.56% -11.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 13 15
10th Percentile - £15.22 £16.01
25th Percentile £17.14 £16.67 £17.13
Median hourly rate £18.23 £18.13 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +0.52% +2.31% +4.64%
75th Percentile £22.48 £20.00 £23.75
90th Percentile £35.00 £22.89 -
England median hourly rate £21.90 £21.59 £20.00
% change year-on-year +1.44% +7.95% -11.11%

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 333 234 239
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 12.46% 16.12% 12.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 233 144 165
10th Percentile £163 £175 £174
25th Percentile £300 £210 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £449 £434 £400
Median % change year-on-year +3.40% +8.53% -19.19%
75th Percentile £545 £550 £500
90th Percentile £619 £648 £638
England median daily rate £450 £471 £450
% change year-on-year -4.51% +4.72% -13.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 14 18
10th Percentile - £15.22 £16.27
25th Percentile £17.14 £16.67 £17.72
Median hourly rate £19.84 £18.13 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.45% -19.42% +32.86%
75th Percentile £26.38 £22.16 £23.75
90th Percentile £66.49 £23.79 £56.75
England median hourly rate £22.50 £35.00 £25.22
% change year-on-year -35.71% +38.81% -5.15%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -18 54 £425 +30.77% 22
Warwickshire -20 32 £350 -38.22% 11
Shropshire -27 28 £483 +130.07% 11
Worcestershire -8 23 £550 +279.31% 7
Staffordshire +5 12 £205 +2.50% 9
Coventry -23 12 £388 +93.75% 4
Wolverhampton +3 3 £188 - 3
Herefordshire - 3 £625 - 4
Solihull -11 1 - - 1
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 (10.11%) WebLogic
2 13 (7.30%) Confluence
3 9 (5.06%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (5.06%) Tuxedo
4 8 (4.49%) Apache
5 6 (3.37%) SharePoint
6 4 (2.25%) nginx
7 2 (1.12%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.56%) IIS
Applications
1 18 (10.11%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.37%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.25%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 2 (1.12%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.12%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 50 (28.09%) Azure
2 49 (27.53%) Microsoft 365
3 30 (16.85%) AWS
4 11 (6.18%) Entra ID
5 7 (3.93%) Amazon ELB
5 7 (3.93%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 6 (3.37%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 6 (3.37%) Amazon EC2
6 6 (3.37%) Amazon S3
6 6 (3.37%) AWS KMS
7 5 (2.81%) Route 53
8 4 (2.25%) Amazon ECS
8 4 (2.25%) Azure Monitor
8 4 (2.25%) GitHub
8 4 (2.25%) SaaS
8 4 (2.25%) Tricentis Tosca
9 3 (1.69%) Azure Sentinel
9 3 (1.69%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (1.12%) Amazon EKS
10 2 (1.12%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 33 (18.54%) DNS
2 26 (14.61%) Firewall
2 26 (14.61%) VPN
3 22 (12.36%) DHCP
4 14 (7.87%) TCP/IP
5 12 (6.74%) SSH
6 8 (4.49%) FTP
6 8 (4.49%) HTTP
6 8 (4.49%) Network Security
6 8 (4.49%) SMTP
7 7 (3.93%) Intrusion Detection
8 5 (2.81%) Structured Cabling
8 5 (2.81%) WAN
8 5 (2.81%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (2.25%) IMAP
9 4 (2.25%) Kerberos
9 4 (2.25%) OpenLDAP
10 3 (1.69%) LAN
10 3 (1.69%) NAS
10 3 (1.69%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.37%) Amazon RDS
2 5 (2.81%) PostgreSQL
3 4 (2.25%) Amazon Aurora
4 2 (1.12%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.12%) Oracle Database
4 2 (1.12%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.56%) Power BI
5 1 (0.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 25 (14.04%) JIRA
2 13 (7.30%) MSI
3 8 (4.49%) Git
3 8 (4.49%) Jenkins
4 7 (3.93%) GitLab
5 6 (3.37%) Vagrant
6 4 (2.25%) InstallShield
6 4 (2.25%) Toad
7 3 (1.69%) Chocolatey
8 2 (1.12%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.56%) AdminStudio
9 1 (0.56%) AppScan
9 1 (0.56%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.56%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.56%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.56%) REST Assured
General
1 74 (41.57%) Social Skills
2 20 (11.24%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (7.30%) Documentation Skills
3 13 (7.30%) Public Sector
4 11 (6.18%) Presentation Skills
5 10 (5.62%) Legal
6 7 (3.93%) Manufacturing
7 5 (2.81%) Finance
7 5 (2.81%) Telecoms
8 3 (1.69%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.12%) Aeronautics
9 2 (1.12%) Banking
9 2 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.12%) Investment Banking
9 2 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.56%) Law
Job Titles
1 32 (17.98%) Support Engineer
2 25 (14.04%) Analyst
3 16 (8.99%) IT Support
4 14 (7.87%) Architect
5 13 (7.30%) Desktop Engineer
6 11 (6.18%) Desktop Support
6 11 (6.18%) Desktop Support Engineer
6 11 (6.18%) IT Engineer
7 10 (5.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 10 (5.62%) Platform Engineer
8 9 (5.06%) 2nd Line Support
8 9 (5.06%) DevOps Engineer
8 9 (5.06%) Windows Engineer
9 8 (4.49%) 1st/2nd Line Support
9 8 (4.49%) AWS Engineer
9 8 (4.49%) Deployment Engineer
9 8 (4.49%) IT Support Engineer
10 7 (3.93%) Cloud Platform Engineer
10 7 (3.93%) Senior
10 7 (3.93%) Server Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.49%) LDAP
2 4 (2.25%) Middleware
2 4 (2.25%) OAuth
2 4 (2.25%) SAML
2 4 (2.25%) XML
3 2 (1.12%) CSS
3 2 (1.12%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (1.12%) Kafka
3 2 (1.12%) Node.js
3 2 (1.12%) RabbitMQ
3 2 (1.12%) React
3 2 (1.12%) YAML
4 1 (0.56%) .NET
4 1 (0.56%) Apache NiFi
4 1 (0.56%) REST
4 1 (0.56%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 11 (6.18%) Onboarding
2 8 (4.49%) Self-Motivation
3 7 (3.93%) Enterprise Software
3 7 (3.93%) Replication
4 6 (3.37%) Team-Oriented Environment
5 5 (2.81%) Data Centre
5 5 (2.81%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (2.81%) Security Operations Centre
6 4 (2.25%) Cloud Native
6 4 (2.25%) CSOC
6 4 (2.25%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (2.25%) Operational Technology
7 3 (1.69%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.69%) Mainframe
7 3 (1.69%) PKI
7 3 (1.69%) Product Ownership
7 3 (1.69%) Security Posture
8 2 (1.12%) NHS
8 2 (1.12%) PMI
8 2 (1.12%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 53 (29.78%) Linux
2 44 (24.72%) Windows 10
3 41 (23.03%) Windows Server
4 19 (10.67%) Unix
5 7 (3.93%) Android
5 7 (3.93%) Apple iOS
5 7 (3.93%) Mac OS
5 7 (3.93%) VMS
6 6 (3.37%) AIX
6 6 (3.37%) Amazon Linux
6 6 (3.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (3.37%) Solaris
7 4 (2.25%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.12%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.56%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.56%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (16.29%) Problem-Solving
2 28 (15.73%) Customer Service
3 27 (15.17%) ITIL
4 24 (13.48%) Agile
5 22 (12.36%) Continuous Improvement
6 20 (11.24%) Change Management
6 20 (11.24%) CI/CD
7 18 (10.11%) Cloud Security
7 18 (10.11%) Migration
7 18 (10.11%) Service Management
8 17 (9.55%) DevOps
8 17 (9.55%) Incident Response
9 15 (8.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 15 (8.43%) SIEM
10 11 (6.18%) Platform Engineering
11 10 (5.62%) Cybersecurity
11 10 (5.62%) Infrastructure as Code
12 9 (5.06%) Customer Requirements
12 9 (5.06%) High Availability
12 9 (5.06%) Privileged Access Management
Programming Languages
1 32 (17.98%) PowerShell
2 28 (15.73%) SQL
3 18 (10.11%) Python
4 6 (3.37%) Groovy
4 6 (3.37%) Java
5 5 (2.81%) Bash
6 4 (2.25%) Kusto Query Language
6 4 (2.25%) VBScript
7 3 (1.69%) Bicep
7 3 (1.69%) VB
8 2 (1.12%) C++
8 2 (1.12%) Go
8 2 (1.12%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.12%) Perl
8 2 (1.12%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.56%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 59 (33.15%) Security Cleared
2 49 (27.53%) SC Cleared
3 14 (7.87%) Microsoft Certification
4 12 (6.74%) AWS Certification
4 12 (6.74%) Degree
5 9 (5.06%) Azure Certification
6 8 (4.49%) DV Cleared
7 7 (3.93%) CCNA
7 7 (3.93%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (3.37%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (3.37%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 5 (2.81%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 5 (2.81%) MCDST
10 3 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (1.69%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (1.12%) A+ Certification
11 2 (1.12%) CBAP
11 2 (1.12%) DBS Check
11 2 (1.12%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 2 (1.12%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (5.06%) NIST
3 8 (4.49%) SLA
4 4 (2.25%) QA
4 4 (2.25%) SOC 2
5 3 (1.69%) PCI DSS
6 2 (1.12%) GMP
6 2 (1.12%) GxP
7 1 (0.56%) COBIT
7 1 (0.56%) GDPR
System Software
1 70 (39.33%) Active Directory
2 15 (8.43%) Docker
3 9 (5.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (3.37%) DFS Replication
5 5 (2.81%) Hyper-V
6 4 (2.25%) Dovecot
6 4 (2.25%) Postfix
6 4 (2.25%) Snort
6 4 (2.25%) Squid
6 4 (2.25%) Terminal Services
6 4 (2.25%) vSphere
7 3 (1.69%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.56%) Firmware
8 1 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 24 (13.48%) SCCM
2 19 (10.67%) Microsoft Intune
3 17 (9.55%) Kubernetes
4 16 (8.99%) Terraform
5 9 (5.06%) Ansible
6 8 (4.49%) Grafana
7 6 (3.37%) Nessus
7 6 (3.37%) Prometheus
8 4 (2.25%) CSIRT
8 4 (2.25%) Proxmox
9 3 (1.69%) SCOM
10 2 (1.12%) Argo
11 1 (0.56%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.56%) Dell DRAC
11 1 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.56%) Packer
11 1 (0.56%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.56%) SolarWinds Orion
11 1 (0.56%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 66 (37.08%) Microsoft
2 16 (8.99%) Splunk
3 15 (8.43%) ServiceNow
4 13 (7.30%) Oracle
5 10 (5.62%) VMware
6 9 (5.06%) Cisco
7 8 (4.49%) CyberArk
8 7 (3.93%) Dynatrace
8 7 (3.93%) Fujitsu
9 5 (2.81%) BeyondTrust
9 5 (2.81%) Dell
9 5 (2.81%) iManage
9 5 (2.81%) Mitel
10 4 (2.25%) AppDynamics
10 4 (2.25%) Citrix
10 4 (2.25%) Jaspersoft
10 4 (2.25%) SAP
11 3 (1.69%) CheckPoint
11 3 (1.69%) Remedy
11 3 (1.69%) Veeam