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

6 months to
30 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 12 13
Rank change year-on-year -12 +1 -3
Contract jobs citing Windows 188 161 166
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 7.65% 10.38% 8.97%
As % of the Operating Systems category 56.97% 64.66% 71.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 101 117
10th Percentile £150 £174 £170
25th Percentile £190 £200 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £325 £375
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% -13.33% -6.25%
75th Percentile £538 £573 £500
90th Percentile £618 £656 £643
England median daily rate £388 £400 £399
% change year-on-year -3.13% +0.31% -6.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 11 14
10th Percentile - £15.22 £16.54
25th Percentile £17.14 £16.68 £17.72
Median hourly rate £19.84 £18.13 £18.11
Median % change year-on-year +9.45% +0.11% +4.52%
75th Percentile £22.99 £21.44 £23.75
90th Percentile £39.25 £22.89 -
England median hourly rate £21.80 £22.50 £20.71
% change year-on-year -3.11% +8.67% -5.89%

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 330 249 231
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 13.43% 16.05% 12.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 229 154 160
10th Percentile £163 £188 £170
25th Percentile £263 £222 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £443 £400
Median % change year-on-year +0.56% +10.63% -19.19%
75th Percentile £550 £583 £500
90th Percentile £619 £700 £638
England median daily rate £447 £475 £466
% change year-on-year -5.89% +1.93% -9.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 12 17
10th Percentile - £15.22 £16.54
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% +26.98%
75th Percentile £29.25 £22.89 £23.75
90th Percentile £69.99 £24.05 £59.00
England median hourly rate £22.79 £50.00 £25.25
% change year-on-year -54.43% +98.02% -1.79%

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 30 January 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 30 January 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 30 January 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 -8 60 £425 +54.55% 16
Warwickshire -14 33 £350 -39.47% 15
Shropshire -20 31 £483 +130.00% 6
Worcestershire -8 24 £575 +350.98% 7
Staffordshire +6 14 £203 +1.25% 12
Coventry -21 8 £275 +37.50% 7
Wolverhampton +5 3 £188 - 3
Herefordshire - 3 £625 - 1
Solihull -5 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 20 (10.64%) WebLogic
2 18 (9.57%) Confluence
3 11 (5.85%) Apache
4 10 (5.32%) Microsoft Exchange
5 8 (4.26%) nginx
5 8 (4.26%) Tuxedo
6 6 (3.19%) SharePoint
7 2 (1.06%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.53%) IIS
Applications
1 15 (7.98%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (4.26%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 5 (2.66%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.53%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.06%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 55 (29.26%) Azure
2 52 (27.66%) Microsoft 365
3 39 (20.74%) AWS
4 13 (6.91%) Amazon ELB
4 13 (6.91%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 12 (6.38%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 12 (6.38%) Amazon EC2
5 12 (6.38%) Amazon S3
5 12 (6.38%) AWS KMS
6 9 (4.79%) Entra ID
6 9 (4.79%) Route 53
7 8 (4.26%) Amazon ECS
8 7 (3.72%) Azure Monitor
9 4 (2.13%) Amazon Glacier
9 4 (2.13%) Tricentis Tosca
10 3 (1.60%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (1.60%) GitHub
10 3 (1.60%) SaaS
11 2 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
11 2 (1.06%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 38 (20.21%) DNS
2 31 (16.49%) Firewall
3 26 (13.83%) VPN
4 22 (11.70%) DHCP
5 20 (10.64%) SSH
6 15 (7.98%) TCP/IP
7 14 (7.45%) FTP
7 14 (7.45%) HTTP
7 14 (7.45%) SMTP
8 8 (4.26%) IMAP
8 8 (4.26%) OpenLDAP
9 7 (3.72%) Network Security
10 5 (2.66%) Structured Cabling
10 5 (2.66%) WAN
11 4 (2.13%) Intrusion Detection
11 4 (2.13%) Kerberos
11 4 (2.13%) Wi-Fi
12 3 (1.60%) LAN
13 2 (1.06%) SNMP
13 2 (1.06%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (6.38%) Amazon RDS
2 9 (4.79%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (4.26%) Amazon Aurora
4 2 (1.06%) Oracle Database
4 2 (1.06%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.53%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 31 (16.49%) JIRA
2 14 (7.45%) Git
2 14 (7.45%) Jenkins
3 12 (6.38%) Vagrant
4 11 (5.85%) MSI
5 6 (3.19%) GitLab
6 4 (2.13%) Toad
7 3 (1.60%) Chocolatey
7 3 (1.60%) InstallShield
8 2 (1.06%) CircleCI
9 1 (0.53%) AdminStudio
9 1 (0.53%) AppScan
9 1 (0.53%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.53%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.53%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.53%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.53%) REST Assured
General
1 87 (46.28%) Social Skills
2 25 (13.30%) Analytical Skills
3 21 (11.17%) Public Sector
4 15 (7.98%) Documentation Skills
5 13 (6.91%) Presentation Skills
6 8 (4.26%) Legal
7 7 (3.72%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.66%) Finance
9 3 (1.60%) Telecoms
10 2 (1.06%) Aeronautics
10 2 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.06%) Law
11 1 (0.53%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.53%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.53%) Police
Job Titles
1 31 (16.49%) Support Engineer
2 18 (9.57%) Analyst
3 16 (8.51%) Platform Engineer
4 15 (7.98%) IT Support
5 14 (7.45%) AWS Engineer
6 13 (6.91%) Architect
6 13 (6.91%) Cloud Platform Engineer
6 13 (6.91%) Desktop Engineer
6 13 (6.91%) DevOps Engineer
7 11 (5.85%) Deployment Engineer
7 11 (5.85%) Desktop Support
7 11 (5.85%) Desktop Support Engineer
7 11 (5.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 11 (5.85%) Windows Engineer
8 10 (5.32%) AWS DevOps
8 10 (5.32%) AWS DevOps Engineer
8 10 (5.32%) IT Engineer
9 9 (4.79%) 2nd Line Support
10 8 (4.26%) 1st/2nd Line Support
10 8 (4.26%) AWS Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.45%) LDAP
2 4 (2.13%) Middleware
2 4 (2.13%) OAuth
2 4 (2.13%) SAML
2 4 (2.13%) XML
3 2 (1.06%) CSS
3 2 (1.06%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (1.06%) Kafka
3 2 (1.06%) Node.js
3 2 (1.06%) RabbitMQ
3 2 (1.06%) React
3 2 (1.06%) YAML
4 1 (0.53%) .NET
4 1 (0.53%) Apache NiFi
4 1 (0.53%) REST
4 1 (0.53%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 13 (6.91%) Replication
2 10 (5.32%) Onboarding
3 8 (4.26%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (3.19%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (3.19%) Team-Oriented Environment
5 4 (2.13%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.13%) Hybrid Cloud
6 3 (1.60%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.60%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.60%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.60%) PKI
6 3 (1.60%) Product Ownership
6 3 (1.60%) Security Operations Centre
6 3 (1.60%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.06%) Client/Server
7 2 (1.06%) Legacy Applications
7 2 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.06%) NHS
7 2 (1.06%) Video Conferencing
8 1 (0.53%) HP Storage
Operating Systems
1 67 (35.64%) Linux
2 43 (22.87%) Windows 10
3 39 (20.74%) Windows Server
4 25 (13.30%) Unix
5 13 (6.91%) VMS
6 12 (6.38%) Amazon Linux
7 8 (4.26%) AIX
7 8 (4.26%) Apple iOS
7 8 (4.26%) Solaris
7 8 (4.26%) Ubuntu
8 7 (3.72%) Android
8 7 (3.72%) Mac OS
8 7 (3.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (1.06%) Mac OS X
9 2 (1.06%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.53%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (16.49%) Cloud Security
2 30 (15.96%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (14.89%) ITIL
4 27 (14.36%) Customer Service
5 26 (13.83%) Change Management
6 23 (12.23%) DevOps
7 22 (11.70%) CI/CD
8 21 (11.17%) Agile
8 21 (11.17%) Continuous Improvement
8 21 (11.17%) Service Management
9 20 (10.64%) SIEM
10 18 (9.57%) Migration
11 17 (9.04%) Incident Response
12 16 (8.51%) Platform Engineering
13 14 (7.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 13 (6.91%) Configuration Management
14 13 (6.91%) Patch Management
15 12 (6.38%) SOAR
16 10 (5.32%) Identity Access Management
16 10 (5.32%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 46 (24.47%) PowerShell
2 33 (17.55%) SQL
3 32 (17.02%) Python
4 12 (6.38%) Groovy
5 9 (4.79%) Java
6 5 (2.66%) Bash
7 4 (2.13%) Perl
7 4 (2.13%) VBScript
8 2 (1.06%) Bicep
8 2 (1.06%) C++
8 2 (1.06%) Go
8 2 (1.06%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.06%) TypeScript
8 2 (1.06%) VB
9 1 (0.53%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.53%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 67 (35.64%) Security Cleared
2 57 (30.32%) SC Cleared
3 15 (7.98%) AWS Certification
3 15 (7.98%) Degree
3 15 (7.98%) Microsoft Certification
4 13 (6.91%) Azure Certification
5 8 (4.26%) DV Cleared
6 6 (3.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (3.19%) CCNA
6 6 (3.19%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (3.19%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 5 (2.66%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 5 (2.66%) MCDST
8 3 (1.60%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (1.06%) DBS Check
9 2 (1.06%) ISEB
9 2 (1.06%) ISTQB
9 2 (1.06%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (1.06%) MCSE
9 2 (1.06%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 9 (4.79%) NIST
2 8 (4.26%) SLA
3 4 (2.13%) QA
4 3 (1.60%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.60%) SOC 2
5 2 (1.06%) GMP
5 2 (1.06%) GxP
6 1 (0.53%) COBIT
6 1 (0.53%) GDPR
System Software
1 75 (39.89%) Active Directory
2 20 (10.64%) Docker
3 12 (6.38%) DFS Replication
4 9 (4.79%) VMware Infrastructure
5 8 (4.26%) Dovecot
5 8 (4.26%) Postfix
5 8 (4.26%) Squid
6 5 (2.66%) Hyper-V
7 4 (2.13%) Terminal Services
7 4 (2.13%) vSphere
8 2 (1.06%) Firmware
8 2 (1.06%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (1.06%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.53%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.53%) Snort
Systems Management
1 24 (12.77%) SCCM
2 20 (10.64%) Terraform
3 18 (9.57%) Microsoft Intune
4 14 (7.45%) Grafana
5 13 (6.91%) Kubernetes
6 12 (6.38%) Prometheus
7 10 (5.32%) Nessus
8 8 (4.26%) Ansible
8 8 (4.26%) Proxmox
9 3 (1.60%) SCOM
10 2 (1.06%) Argo
11 1 (0.53%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.53%) CSIRT
11 1 (0.53%) Dell DRAC
11 1 (0.53%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.53%) NetBackup
11 1 (0.53%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.53%) SolarWinds Orion
11 1 (0.53%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.53%) WSUS
Vendors
1 64 (34.04%) Microsoft
2 21 (11.17%) ServiceNow
3 17 (9.04%) CyberArk
4 16 (8.51%) Oracle
5 15 (7.98%) Splunk
6 14 (7.45%) BeyondTrust
7 11 (5.85%) Cisco
7 11 (5.85%) VMware
8 10 (5.32%) Dynatrace
9 8 (4.26%) Jaspersoft
10 7 (3.72%) AppDynamics
11 6 (3.19%) Fujitsu
12 5 (2.66%) iManage
12 5 (2.66%) Mitel
13 4 (2.13%) Dell
13 4 (2.13%) SAP
14 3 (1.60%) CheckPoint
14 3 (1.60%) SolarWinds
14 3 (1.60%) Veeam
15 2 (1.06%) MobileIron