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 2 March 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
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 7 5
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 645 477 878
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.13% 15.50% 15.77%
As % of the Vendors category 27.55% 30.66% 31.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 455 324 612
10th Percentile £201 £207 £179
25th Percentile £281 £358 £215
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £489 £461
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% +6.02% -2.90%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £575
90th Percentile £650 £651 £661
England median daily rate £490 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.16% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 18 64
10th Percentile £12.46 £13.08 £11.74
25th Percentile £13.13 £15.99 £13.80
Median hourly rate £17.50 £21.25 £23.22
Median % change year-on-year -17.65% -8.46% +20.60%
75th Percentile £23.75 £27.94 £55.03
90th Percentile £67.00 £57.62 £61.24
England median hourly rate £19.91 £24.18 £17.00
% change year-on-year -17.66% +42.24% -18.91%

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 2,341 1,556 2,750
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 47.64% 50.57% 49.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,661 1,020 1,719
10th Percentile £271 £240 £205
25th Percentile £413 £406 £371
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £523 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.31% +4.50% -0.40%
75th Percentile £600 £615 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £678
England median daily rate £508 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -3.33% +1.94% -4.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 158 67 158
10th Percentile £12.50 £17.92 £13.05
25th Percentile £16.45 £23.84 £18.00
Median hourly rate £27.69 £29.00 £45.21
Median % change year-on-year -4.52% -35.85% +0.47%
75th Percentile £70.87 £63.13 £62.54
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.88 £76.53
England median hourly rate £24.00 £31.50 £26.00
% change year-on-year -23.81% +21.15% -23.62%

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 2 March 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 2 March 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 2 March 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 +1 328 £475 -5.00% 276
Berkshire -1 210 £490 -2.00% 127
Hampshire -5 146 £550 +10.00% 146
Buckinghamshire -3 78 £470 +4.44% 84
Surrey +15 77 £425 +41.67% 77
Oxfordshire -1 40 £275 +10.00% 67
West Sussex -6 33 £400 -7.83% 59
Kent 0 28 £425 -25.24% 59
East Sussex +5 19 £600 +11.63% 26
Sussex +2 11 £463 -7.50% 7
Home Counties +1 3 - -
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 68 (10.54%) SharePoint
2 54 (8.37%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.55%) Confluence
4 4 (0.62%) Skype for Business
5 3 (0.47%) Mattermost
5 3 (0.47%) MS Project Server
6 2 (0.31%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.31%) GeoServer
6 2 (0.31%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.16%) BizTalk Server
7 1 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.16%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 113 (17.52%) Microsoft Office
2 76 (11.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 26 (4.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 26 (4.03%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (1.40%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.31%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (0.16%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.16%) InDesign
6 1 (0.16%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (1.24%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.47%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.16%) Dynamics AX
3 1 (0.16%) iTrent
3 1 (0.16%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.16%) Sage 50
3 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 201 (31.16%) Azure
2 166 (25.74%) Microsoft 365
3 103 (15.97%) Entra ID
4 62 (9.61%) Power Platform
5 61 (9.46%) AWS
6 37 (5.74%) OneDrive
7 28 (4.34%) Azure DevOps
7 28 (4.34%) Microsoft Purview
7 28 (4.34%) SaaS
8 27 (4.19%) Power Automate
9 25 (3.88%) Dynamics 365
10 24 (3.72%) PowerApps
11 20 (3.10%) GitHub
12 16 (2.48%) Serverless
13 15 (2.33%) Azure Functions
13 15 (2.33%) Google Workspace
13 15 (2.33%) Microsoft Copilot
14 13 (2.02%) GCP
14 13 (2.02%) IaaS
14 13 (2.02%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 58 (8.99%) DNS
2 43 (6.67%) DHCP
3 35 (5.43%) Firewall
4 31 (4.81%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (3.10%) VPN
6 17 (2.64%) TCP/IP
7 16 (2.48%) Wireless
8 15 (2.33%) Unified Communications
9 13 (2.02%) Kerberos
10 9 (1.40%) 4G
10 9 (1.40%) Network Security
10 9 (1.40%) VLAN
11 8 (1.24%) WebEx
12 7 (1.09%) LAN
12 7 (1.09%) SAN
13 6 (0.93%) BGP
13 6 (0.93%) SSL
13 6 (0.93%) VSAN
13 6 (0.93%) WAN
14 5 (0.78%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (7.44%) Power BI
2 39 (6.05%) SQL Server
3 22 (3.41%) Relational Database
4 19 (2.95%) MySQL
5 17 (2.64%) Azure SQL Database
6 12 (1.86%) PostgreSQL
7 11 (1.71%) Oracle Database
8 10 (1.55%) Data Warehouse
8 10 (1.55%) Metadata
9 7 (1.09%) Data Lake
10 6 (0.93%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
10 6 (0.93%) RDBMS
10 6 (0.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 6 (0.93%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 5 (0.78%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (0.62%) MongoDB
12 4 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
13 3 (0.47%) GIS
13 3 (0.47%) NoSQL
13 3 (0.47%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 16 (2.48%) Android Studio
2 14 (2.17%) Git
3 13 (2.02%) Browser DevTools
3 13 (2.02%) Eclipse
3 13 (2.02%) JIRA
3 13 (2.02%) Xcode
4 9 (1.40%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.78%) JUnit
6 4 (0.62%) Gradle
7 3 (0.47%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.47%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.47%) Maven
7 3 (0.47%) MSI
7 3 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.47%) Subversion
8 2 (0.31%) JMeter
8 2 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.31%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.16%) Fiddler
9 1 (0.16%) Visual Studio
General
1 232 (35.97%) Social Skills
2 77 (11.94%) Finance
3 68 (10.54%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (9.77%) Organisational Skills
5 55 (8.53%) Public Sector
6 12 (1.86%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (1.86%) Manufacturing
6 12 (1.86%) Military
7 11 (1.71%) Legal
8 9 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 9 (1.40%) Influencing Skills
8 9 (1.40%) Retail
9 7 (1.09%) Telecoms
10 5 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.62%) Banking
11 4 (0.62%) Marketing
11 4 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.47%) Billing
13 2 (0.31%) Electronics
13 2 (0.31%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 100 (15.50%) Architect
2 69 (10.70%) Support Engineer
3 67 (10.39%) Analyst
4 65 (10.08%) IT Support
5 46 (7.13%) Senior
6 41 (6.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 38 (5.89%) IT Engineer
8 32 (4.96%) IT Support Engineer
9 27 (4.19%) Developer
10 22 (3.41%) Lead
10 22 (3.41%) Solutions Architect
11 21 (3.26%) Infrastructure Architect
12 19 (2.95%) Administrator
12 19 (2.95%) Consultant
12 19 (2.95%) Support Officer
13 17 (2.64%) Support Analyst
14 15 (2.33%) Infrastructure Support
14 15 (2.33%) Technical Support
15 14 (2.17%) Technical Engineer
15 14 (2.17%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (3.10%) .NET
2 16 (2.48%) CSS
3 15 (2.33%) GraphQL
3 15 (2.33%) React
4 14 (2.17%) LDAP
5 13 (2.02%) Ajax
5 13 (2.02%) AngularJS
6 12 (1.86%) REST
7 11 (1.71%) ARM Templates
8 10 (1.55%) OAuth
9 8 (1.24%) OpenID
9 8 (1.24%) SAML
10 7 (1.09%) ADO
11 6 (0.93%) Spring
12 5 (0.78%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.78%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.78%) PySpark
12 5 (0.78%) SailPoint
13 4 (0.62%) .NET Core
13 4 (0.62%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 37 (5.74%) Onboarding
2 36 (5.58%) PKI
3 23 (3.57%) Analytical Mindset
4 20 (3.10%) Replication
5 18 (2.79%) Enterprise Software
5 18 (2.79%) Product Ownership
6 17 (2.64%) Mobile App
7 15 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
7 15 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (2.17%) Cloud Native
8 14 (2.17%) Driving Licence
9 12 (1.86%) Fat Client
9 12 (1.86%) Thin Client
9 12 (1.86%) Video Conferencing
10 11 (1.71%) Management Information System
10 11 (1.71%) Operational Technology
11 9 (1.40%) Data Centre
12 8 (1.24%) Hybrid Cloud
12 8 (1.24%) Security Operations Centre
13 7 (1.09%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 198 (30.70%) Windows
2 76 (11.78%) Linux
3 41 (6.36%) Windows Server
4 38 (5.89%) Windows 10
5 18 (2.79%) Android
6 14 (2.17%) Mac OS
6 14 (2.17%) Unix
7 10 (1.55%) Windows 7
8 8 (1.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 8 (1.24%) Windows Server 2019
9 7 (1.09%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.93%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.62%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.31%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.31%) CentOS
13 1 (0.16%) Debian
13 1 (0.16%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.16%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (15.04%) Problem-Solving
2 81 (12.56%) Customer Service
3 74 (11.47%) Cybersecurity
4 72 (11.16%) Agile
5 67 (10.39%) ITIL
6 64 (9.92%) Migration
7 62 (9.61%) DevOps
8 56 (8.68%) Business Intelligence
9 55 (8.53%) Stakeholder Management
10 54 (8.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 54 (8.37%) Project Management
11 47 (7.29%) CI/CD
11 47 (7.29%) Project Delivery
12 44 (6.82%) Time Management
13 43 (6.67%) Continuous Improvement
14 40 (6.20%) Analytics
15 33 (5.12%) Roadmaps
15 33 (5.12%) SIEM
15 33 (5.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 31 (4.81%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 96 (14.88%) PowerShell
2 76 (11.78%) Python
3 57 (8.84%) SQL
4 23 (3.57%) Java
4 23 (3.57%) JavaScript
5 19 (2.95%) Bash
6 17 (2.64%) C#
7 14 (2.17%) Perl
8 7 (1.09%) T-SQL
9 6 (0.93%) Bicep
10 4 (0.62%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (0.62%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.47%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.31%) Korn
12 2 (0.31%) PHP
12 2 (0.31%) X++
13 1 (0.16%) Google Apps Script
13 1 (0.16%) VB
13 1 (0.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 222 (34.42%) Security Cleared
2 143 (22.17%) SC Cleared
3 64 (9.92%) DV Cleared
4 63 (9.77%) Degree
5 36 (5.58%) Microsoft Certification
6 20 (3.10%) Azure Certification
7 18 (2.79%) CISSP
8 11 (1.71%) PMI Certification
9 10 (1.55%) DBS Check
9 10 (1.55%) GIAC
9 10 (1.55%) PMP
10 9 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.09%) A+ Certification
11 7 (1.09%) AWS Certification
11 7 (1.09%) CISM
11 7 (1.09%) Master's Degree
12 6 (0.93%) CEH
12 6 (0.93%) Cisco Certification
12 6 (0.93%) ITIL Certification
12 6 (0.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.19%) NIST
2 25 (3.88%) PMO
3 24 (3.72%) GDPR
4 20 (3.10%) SLA
5 17 (2.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (2.17%) Data Quality
7 12 (1.86%) QA
8 11 (1.71%) Cyber Essentials
9 8 (1.24%) NCSC
10 5 (0.78%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.47%) P3O
11 3 (0.47%) RMADS
12 2 (0.31%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 2 (0.31%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.16%) COSHH
13 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.16%) GRC
13 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 195 (30.23%) Active Directory
2 54 (8.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (3.72%) Hyper-V
4 12 (1.86%) Virtual Desktop
5 10 (1.55%) Docker
5 10 (1.55%) vSphere
6 9 (1.40%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (1.24%) VMware NSX
8 5 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.47%) DFS Replication
10 2 (0.31%) NFS
11 1 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.16%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 61 (9.46%) Microsoft Intune
2 46 (7.13%) SCCM
3 23 (3.57%) Terraform
4 22 (3.41%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (2.79%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 16 (2.48%) Ansible
7 13 (2.02%) WMI
8 10 (1.55%) Jamf Pro
8 10 (1.55%) Kubernetes
9 4 (0.62%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (0.62%) SCOM
9 4 (0.62%) vCenter Server
10 3 (0.47%) Grafana
10 3 (0.47%) HP SiteScope
10 3 (0.47%) Nessus
10 3 (0.47%) PaperCut
10 3 (0.47%) Puppet
10 3 (0.47%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.31%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 72 (11.16%) VMware
2 49 (7.60%) ServiceNow
3 31 (4.81%) Oracle
4 27 (4.19%) Splunk
5 25 (3.88%) Cisco
6 22 (3.41%) SAP
7 17 (2.64%) Citrix
7 17 (2.64%) Databricks
8 10 (1.55%) Tenable
9 9 (1.40%) Thales
10 8 (1.24%) Fortinet
10 8 (1.24%) Red Hat
11 7 (1.09%) CrowdStrike
11 7 (1.09%) CyberArk
11 7 (1.09%) F5
11 7 (1.09%) Meraki
11 7 (1.09%) Palo Alto
12 6 (0.93%) Dell
12 6 (0.93%) Virgin Media
13 5 (0.78%) Informatica