Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the South East

Microsoft
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 31 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 6 3
Rank change year-on-year -1 -3 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 628 481 910
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.69% 14.97% 16.79%
As % of the Vendors category 28.25% 29.82% 33.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 450 328 636
10th Percentile £200 £200 £166
25th Percentile £263 £350 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £468 £450
Median % change year-on-year +1.60% +3.89% -0.06%
75th Percentile £568 £582 £575
90th Percentile £641 £650 £650
England median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 15 52
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.10 £11.51
25th Percentile £13.13 £18.35 £14.00
Median hourly rate £17.44 £25.00 £23.82
Median % change year-on-year -30.26% +4.94% +28.77%
75th Percentile £21.00 £36.46 £57.18
90th Percentile £46.35 £57.62 £61.60
England median hourly rate £19.00 £22.27 £18.50
% change year-on-year -14.68% +20.38% -11.61%

All Vendors
South East

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 2,223 1,613 2,746
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 48.46% 50.19% 50.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,605 1,031 1,747
10th Percentile £255 £235 £205
25th Percentile £406 £401 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £505 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +1.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 139 50 156
10th Percentile £12.50 £18.50 £13.17
25th Percentile £16.00 £24.18 £20.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £36.46 £51.24
Median % change year-on-year -38.28% -28.85% +36.63%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.44 £63.41
90th Percentile £82.80 £74.88 £76.53
England median hourly rate £23.50 £30.00 £30.50
% change year-on-year -21.67% -1.64% -6.15%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the South East

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 31 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 31 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the South East region over the 6 months to 31 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
Thames Valley +1 299 £475 -1.81% 234
Berkshire 0 195 £480 -4.00% 121
Hampshire -1 144 £538 +7.50% 126
Surrey +6 82 £425 +34.92% 89
Buckinghamshire -3 73 £475 +10.47% 73
West Sussex -7 34 £354 -18.55% 55
Oxfordshire 0 31 £275 +10.00% 42
Kent -1 31 £425 +4.29% 80
East Sussex +7 25 £600 +14.29% 39
Sussex 0 11 £463 +5.11% 10
Home Counties - 2 - -
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 63 (10.03%) SharePoint
2 49 (7.80%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.75%) Skype for Business
4 8 (1.27%) Confluence
5 7 (1.11%) Mattermost
6 4 (0.64%) Exchange Server 2010
6 4 (0.64%) Exchange Server 2013
6 4 (0.64%) SharePoint Server
7 3 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2003
7 3 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2007
7 3 (0.48%) MS Project Server
7 3 (0.48%) Office Communications Server
8 2 (0.32%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.32%) CMS
8 2 (0.32%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.32%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.16%) BizTalk Server
9 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 121 (19.27%) Microsoft Office
2 66 (10.51%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (3.98%) Microsoft Project
4 20 (3.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.43%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.32%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.75%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.11%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.48%) Dynamics AX
3 3 (0.48%) SAP S/4HANA
4 2 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.16%) iTrent
5 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.16%) Sage 50
5 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.16%) SAP CO
5 1 (0.16%) SAP EWM
5 1 (0.16%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.16%) SAP FI/CO
5 1 (0.16%) SAP WM
5 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 186 (29.62%) Azure
2 149 (23.73%) Microsoft 365
3 87 (13.85%) Entra ID
4 63 (10.03%) Power Platform
5 62 (9.87%) AWS
6 33 (5.25%) Dynamics 365
7 29 (4.62%) SaaS
8 28 (4.46%) Microsoft Purview
9 27 (4.30%) OneDrive
10 24 (3.82%) Azure DevOps
10 24 (3.82%) Power Automate
11 22 (3.50%) PowerApps
12 19 (3.03%) GitHub
13 16 (2.55%) Google Workspace
13 16 (2.55%) Sauce Labs
14 14 (2.23%) Serverless
15 13 (2.07%) GCP
16 12 (1.91%) Azure Functions
16 12 (1.91%) Copilot Studio
16 12 (1.91%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 58 (9.24%) DNS
2 49 (7.80%) DHCP
3 36 (5.73%) Firewall
4 23 (3.66%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (3.50%) TCP/IP
6 19 (3.03%) VPN
7 17 (2.71%) Wireless
8 15 (2.39%) VLAN
9 13 (2.07%) Kerberos
10 12 (1.91%) Unified Communications
11 9 (1.43%) 4G
11 9 (1.43%) Network Security
11 9 (1.43%) SAN
12 8 (1.27%) Skype
13 7 (1.11%) WebEx
14 6 (0.96%) VSAN
15 5 (0.80%) IPsec
15 5 (0.80%) LAN
15 5 (0.80%) SD-WAN
15 5 (0.80%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (7.01%) Power BI
2 38 (6.05%) SQL Server
3 26 (4.14%) Relational Database
4 19 (3.03%) MySQL
5 14 (2.23%) Oracle Database
6 12 (1.91%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (1.59%) Metadata
8 9 (1.43%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9 8 (1.27%) Data Warehouse
10 7 (1.11%) PostgreSQL
11 6 (0.96%) RDBMS
12 5 (0.80%) Data Lake
13 4 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.64%) MongoDB
13 4 (0.64%) Oracle Reports
13 4 (0.64%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 3 (0.48%) GIS
14 3 (0.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 3 (0.48%) Star Schema
15 2 (0.32%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 19 (3.03%) Android Studio
2 17 (2.71%) Browser DevTools
3 16 (2.55%) Eclipse
3 16 (2.55%) Xcode
4 13 (2.07%) JIRA
5 11 (1.75%) Git
6 9 (1.43%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.80%) JUnit
8 4 (0.64%) Gradle
9 3 (0.48%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.48%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.48%) Maven
9 3 (0.48%) MSI
9 3 (0.48%) Subversion
10 2 (0.32%) JMeter
10 2 (0.32%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.16%) Gatling
11 1 (0.16%) Postman
General
1 231 (36.78%) Social Skills
2 96 (15.29%) Finance
3 72 (11.46%) Analytical Skills
4 61 (9.71%) Organisational Skills
5 49 (7.80%) Public Sector
6 18 (2.87%) Manufacturing
7 13 (2.07%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (1.59%) Influencing Skills
8 10 (1.59%) Legal
8 10 (1.59%) Retail
9 8 (1.27%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.11%) Marketing
10 7 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (0.96%) Military
12 4 (0.64%) Banking
12 4 (0.64%) Billing
12 4 (0.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.48%) Automotive
13 3 (0.48%) Aviation
13 3 (0.48%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 97 (15.45%) Architect
2 76 (12.10%) Support Engineer
3 72 (11.46%) Analyst
4 56 (8.92%) IT Support
5 42 (6.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 42 (6.69%) Senior
6 28 (4.46%) Developer
6 28 (4.46%) IT Engineer
7 24 (3.82%) IT Support Engineer
7 24 (3.82%) Solutions Architect
8 22 (3.50%) Consultant
8 22 (3.50%) Lead
9 21 (3.34%) Infrastructure Support
9 21 (3.34%) Technical Support
10 20 (3.18%) Infrastructure Architect
10 20 (3.18%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
11 19 (3.03%) Support Officer
11 19 (3.03%) Technical Engineer
11 19 (3.03%) Technical Support Engineer
12 17 (2.71%) UX Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (3.18%) .NET
1 20 (3.18%) React
2 19 (3.03%) CSS
2 19 (3.03%) GraphQL
3 17 (2.71%) Ajax
3 17 (2.71%) AngularJS
4 16 (2.55%) LDAP
5 10 (1.59%) ARM Templates
5 10 (1.59%) REST
6 8 (1.27%) OAuth
7 7 (1.11%) SAML
8 6 (0.96%) ADO
8 6 (0.96%) Spring
9 5 (0.80%) Middleware
9 5 (0.80%) OpenID
10 4 (0.64%) Microsoft Graph
10 4 (0.64%) OAuth2
10 4 (0.64%) PySpark
10 4 (0.64%) SailPoint
11 3 (0.48%) Vert.x
Miscellaneous
1 32 (5.10%) PKI
2 30 (4.78%) Analytical Mindset
3 29 (4.62%) Onboarding
4 21 (3.34%) Mobile App
5 20 (3.18%) Replication
6 17 (2.71%) Enterprise Software
6 17 (2.71%) Product Ownership
7 16 (2.55%) Self-Motivation
8 15 (2.39%) Driving Licence
9 14 (2.23%) Management Information System
9 14 (2.23%) Operational Technology
10 13 (2.07%) Fat Client
10 13 (2.07%) Thin Client
11 10 (1.59%) Cloud Native
12 9 (1.43%) Security Operations Centre
12 9 (1.43%) Video Conferencing
13 8 (1.27%) Data Centre
14 7 (1.11%) Cyber Defence
15 6 (0.96%) Legacy Systems
16 5 (0.80%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 194 (30.89%) Windows
2 79 (12.58%) Linux
3 39 (6.21%) Windows 10
4 28 (4.46%) Windows Server
5 21 (3.34%) Android
5 21 (3.34%) Unix
6 13 (2.07%) Mac OS
7 11 (1.75%) Windows 7
8 7 (1.11%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.96%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.80%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 3 (0.48%) Windows Server 2003
13 2 (0.32%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.32%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.16%) CentOS
14 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (15.92%) Problem-Solving
2 79 (12.58%) Agile
3 73 (11.62%) ITIL
4 72 (11.46%) Customer Service
5 67 (10.67%) Cybersecurity
6 56 (8.92%) Business Intelligence
7 55 (8.76%) Stakeholder Management
8 52 (8.28%) DevOps
9 51 (8.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 51 (8.12%) Migration
10 47 (7.48%) Project Management
11 42 (6.69%) Continuous Improvement
11 42 (6.69%) Project Delivery
12 41 (6.53%) Time Management
13 39 (6.21%) CI/CD
14 34 (5.41%) Analytics
14 34 (5.41%) Roadmaps
14 34 (5.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 33 (5.25%) ITSM
15 33 (5.25%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 82 (13.06%) PowerShell
2 69 (10.99%) Python
3 63 (10.03%) SQL
4 28 (4.46%) Java
5 27 (4.30%) JavaScript
6 18 (2.87%) Perl
7 15 (2.39%) Bash
8 13 (2.07%) C#
9 4 (0.64%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.64%) PL/SQL
9 4 (0.64%) X++
10 2 (0.32%) Bicep
10 2 (0.32%) PHP
10 2 (0.32%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.16%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.16%) VB
Qualifications
1 214 (34.08%) Security Cleared
2 137 (21.82%) SC Cleared
3 68 (10.83%) DV Cleared
4 59 (9.39%) Degree
5 38 (6.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (3.50%) Azure Certification
7 20 (3.18%) CISSP
8 11 (1.75%) ITIL Certification
8 11 (1.75%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (1.75%) Server+ Certification
9 10 (1.59%) GIAC
9 10 (1.59%) PMI Certification
10 9 (1.43%) CISM
10 9 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (1.43%) DBS Check
11 8 (1.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.11%) Master's Degree
12 7 (1.11%) PMP
13 6 (0.96%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (3.98%) PMO
2 24 (3.82%) GDPR
3 23 (3.66%) NIST
4 18 (2.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 17 (2.71%) SLA
6 14 (2.23%) Data Quality
7 9 (1.43%) QA
8 6 (0.96%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.64%) Accessibility
9 4 (0.64%) NCSC
10 3 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.48%) NIST 800
10 3 (0.48%) P3O
10 3 (0.48%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.48%) RMADS
11 2 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 1 (0.16%) COSHH
12 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 177 (28.18%) Active Directory
2 49 (7.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (3.18%) Hyper-V
4 11 (1.75%) vSphere
5 9 (1.43%) Docker
5 9 (1.43%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (1.27%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.64%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.48%) Brightmail
8 3 (0.48%) DFS Replication
8 3 (0.48%) ISA Server
8 3 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.32%) NFS
10 1 (0.16%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 44 (7.01%) Microsoft Intune
2 42 (6.69%) SCCM
3 21 (3.34%) Single Sign-On
4 20 (3.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 19 (3.03%) Terraform
6 14 (2.23%) Ansible
6 14 (2.23%) WMI
7 9 (1.43%) Jamf Pro
7 9 (1.43%) Kubernetes
8 8 (1.27%) SCOM
9 7 (1.11%) HP SiteScope
10 6 (0.96%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.64%) Microsoft Clustering
12 3 (0.48%) Cisco CUCM
12 3 (0.48%) Grafana
12 3 (0.48%) PaperCut
12 3 (0.48%) Puppet
12 3 (0.48%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
13 2 (0.32%) FTK
13 2 (0.32%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 68 (10.83%) VMware
2 51 (8.12%) ServiceNow
3 41 (6.53%) Oracle
4 35 (5.57%) Splunk
5 23 (3.66%) SAP
6 22 (3.50%) Cisco
7 16 (2.55%) Citrix
7 16 (2.55%) Databricks
8 9 (1.43%) CrowdStrike
8 9 (1.43%) Thales
9 7 (1.11%) CyberArk
9 7 (1.11%) Remedy
9 7 (1.11%) Tenable
10 6 (0.96%) Fortinet
10 6 (0.96%) Informatica
10 6 (0.96%) Red Hat
11 5 (0.80%) F5
11 5 (0.80%) Google
11 5 (0.80%) Virgin Media
12 4 (0.64%) Workday