MCSE Contracts with Hybrid/Remote/WFH Options

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics for remote or hybrid contract work with a requirement for MCSE qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 286 329 422
Rank change year-on-year +43 +93 +128
Contract jobs citing MCSE 18 16 55
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 0.18% 0.10% 0.21%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.65% 0.38% 0.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 12 47
10th Percentile £456 £293 £306
25th Percentile £503 £388 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £475 £520
Median % change year-on-year +30.53% -8.65% +12.43%
75th Percentile £630 £500 £575
90th Percentile £638 £534 £620
UK median daily rate £550 £363 £475
% change year-on-year +51.72% -23.68% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £40.31 -
UK median hourly rate £19.97 £17.50 £18.50
% change year-on-year +14.11% -5.41% -20.32%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Work from Home

MCSE falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with remote or hybrid options requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 2,762 4,242 6,586
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 27.88% 27.64% 25.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,865 2,651 4,417
10th Percentile £350 £325 £381
25th Percentile £425 £440 £454
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.80%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £730 £745
UK median daily rate £525 £535 £550
% change year-on-year -1.87% -2.73% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 269 292
10th Percentile £19.10 £15.85 £20.00
25th Percentile £26.25 £25.00 £42.50
Median hourly rate £54.51 £43.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +26.76% -33.85% +33.22%
75th Percentile £67.75 £65.00 £73.75
90th Percentile £85.78 £83.84 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £40.00 £54.00
% change year-on-year - -25.93% +29.16%

MCSE
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with remote working options citing MCSE as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

MCSE trend for jobs with Hybrid/Remote/WFH options

MCSE
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing MCSE.

MCSE daily rate for jobs with a WFH option

MCSE
Daily Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Daily rate distribution for jobs with remote working options citing MCSE over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

MCSE daily rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

MCSE
Hourly Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average hourly rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing MCSE.

MCSE hourly rate for jobs with a WFH option

MCSE
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities with WFH Options by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 7 (38.89%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (11.11%) SharePoint
2 2 (11.11%) Skype for Business
3 1 (5.56%) Confluence
3 1 (5.56%) IIS
Applications
1 5 (27.78%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 7 (38.89%) IaaS
1 7 (38.89%) PaaS
1 7 (38.89%) SaaS
2 4 (22.22%) Azure
3 2 (11.11%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (5.56%) AWS
4 1 (5.56%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (5.56%) Azure Monitor
4 1 (5.56%) Entra ID
4 1 (5.56%) Power Platform
4 1 (5.56%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 7 (38.89%) VSAN
2 6 (33.33%) Skype
3 4 (22.22%) DHCP
3 4 (22.22%) DNS
4 3 (16.67%) VPN
5 1 (5.56%) BGP
5 1 (5.56%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (5.56%) H.323
5 1 (5.56%) Kerberos
5 1 (5.56%) MPLS
5 1 (5.56%) NGFW
5 1 (5.56%) OSPF
5 1 (5.56%) SD-WAN
5 1 (5.56%) TCP/IP
5 1 (5.56%) Unified Communications
5 1 (5.56%) WAN
5 1 (5.56%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (11.11%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (11.11%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (5.56%) Bitbucket
1 1 (5.56%) Git
1 1 (5.56%) Jenkins
1 1 (5.56%) JIRA
General
1 7 (38.89%) Public Sector
1 7 (38.89%) Social Skills
2 5 (27.78%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (5.56%) Finance
Job Titles
1 12 (66.67%) Senior
2 9 (50.00%) Architect
3 8 (44.44%) Technical Architect
4 7 (38.89%) Senior Architect
4 7 (38.89%) Senior Technical Architect
5 4 (22.22%) Infrastructure Technical Architect
5 4 (22.22%) Senior Wintel Engineer
5 4 (22.22%) Technical Infrastructure Architect
5 4 (22.22%) Wintel Engineer
6 2 (11.11%) Senior VMware Architect
6 2 (11.11%) VMware Architect
7 1 (5.56%) Active Directory Engineer
7 1 (5.56%) Automation Engineer
7 1 (5.56%) Cybersecurity Specialist
7 1 (5.56%) Platform Engineer
7 1 (5.56%) Security Specialist
7 1 (5.56%) Service Architect
7 1 (5.56%) Unified Communications Engineer
7 1 (5.56%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (5.56%) Elastic Stack
1 1 (5.56%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 12 (66.67%) PKI
2 7 (38.89%) Hybrid Cloud
3 3 (16.67%) Video Conferencing
4 1 (5.56%) Cyber Threat
4 1 (5.56%) Data Centre
4 1 (5.56%) Onboarding
4 1 (5.56%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 9 (50.00%) Windows
1 9 (50.00%) Windows Server
2 7 (38.89%) Windows 10
3 6 (33.33%) Windows Server 2012
4 2 (11.11%) Windows Server 2016
4 2 (11.11%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (5.56%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (66.67%) ITIL
2 7 (38.89%) CI/CD
2 7 (38.89%) DevSecOps
2 7 (38.89%) Infrastructure as Code
2 7 (38.89%) TOGAF
3 6 (33.33%) Containerisation
3 6 (33.33%) Continuous Delivery
3 6 (33.33%) Continuous Integration
3 6 (33.33%) Microservices
3 6 (33.33%) Use Case
3 6 (33.33%) Zachman Framework
4 5 (27.78%) Critical Thinking
4 5 (27.78%) IT Strategy
4 5 (27.78%) NsoIT
4 5 (27.78%) Technology Strategy
5 4 (22.22%) Service Management
5 4 (22.22%) System Testing
6 3 (16.67%) Matrix Organization
6 3 (16.67%) Requirements Management
6 3 (16.67%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 7 (38.89%) PowerShell
2 4 (22.22%) SQL
3 1 (5.56%) Python
Qualifications
1 18 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 14 (77.78%) SC Cleared
2 14 (77.78%) Security Cleared
3 8 (44.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 7 (38.89%) Degree
5 5 (27.78%) MCSA
6 3 (16.67%) DV Cleared
7 1 (5.56%) Azure Certification
7 1 (5.56%) CCNP
7 1 (5.56%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (5.56%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (5.56%) MCP
7 1 (5.56%) OCA
7 1 (5.56%) Oracle Certification
7 1 (5.56%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (38.89%) Cyber Essentials
1 7 (38.89%) NCSC
1 7 (38.89%) NIST
System Software
1 8 (44.44%) Active Directory
1 8 (44.44%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (38.89%) VMware NSX
3 1 (5.56%) Hyper-V
3 1 (5.56%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 4 (22.22%) WSUS
2 3 (16.67%) SCCM
3 2 (11.11%) OPNET
3 2 (11.11%) Terraform
4 1 (5.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (5.56%) Ansible
4 1 (5.56%) PowerCLI
4 1 (5.56%) SCOM
4 1 (5.56%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 10 (55.56%) Microsoft
2 8 (44.44%) VMware
3 7 (38.89%) Cisco
3 7 (38.89%) Palo Alto
4 2 (11.11%) Veeam
5 1 (5.56%) Atlassian
5 1 (5.56%) Google
5 1 (5.56%) Oracle
5 1 (5.56%) SolarWinds