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 22 April 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
22 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 7 6
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 638 457 814
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 11.12% 15.21% 14.63%
As % of the Vendors category 25.77% 29.00% 30.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 442 308 546
10th Percentile £204 £220 £195
25th Percentile £377 £362 £303
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £486 £465
Median % change year-on-year -1.29% +4.57% -2.11%
75th Percentile £585 £582 £575
90th Percentile £674 £630 £675
England median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.63% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 30 73
10th Percentile £12.29 - £11.71
25th Percentile £13.20 £14.20 £12.00
Median hourly rate £18.13 £15.25 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.85% -27.38% +3.78%
75th Percentile £37.00 £24.69 £50.00
90th Percentile £81.58 £32.05 £61.36
England median hourly rate £20.20 £20.00 £15.00
% change year-on-year +0.98% +33.33% -29.78%

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 2,476 1,576 2,663
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.17% 52.46% 47.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,731 1,054 1,621
10th Percentile £306 £248 £213
25th Percentile £413 £406 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year - +2.50% -
75th Percentile £610 £610 £600
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -3.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 163 90 182
10th Percentile £13.43 £14.20 £12.00
25th Percentile £20.41 £16.95 £17.03
Median hourly rate £47.50 £24.83 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +91.30% -47.73% +5.56%
75th Percentile £85.63 £61.16 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £74.09 £65.00
England median hourly rate £30.00 £28.75 £22.50
% change year-on-year +4.35% +27.78% -44.44%

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 22 April 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 22 April 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 22 April 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 -1 331 £475 -2.56% 199
Berkshire -9 170 £500 +2.56% 79
Hampshire -8 138 £550 +10.00% 122
Buckinghamshire -4 108 £475 -12.44% 80
Surrey +17 86 £438 -6.02% 81
Oxfordshire -2 53 £275 -33.33% 44
West Sussex -7 33 £445 +15.43% 34
Kent -1 27 £400 +52.38% 57
East Sussex -2 10 £600 +9.09% 18
Sussex 0 5 £525 +5.00% 4
Home Counties +1 4 - - 1
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 67 (10.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 61 (9.56%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.57%) Confluence
4 3 (0.47%) ArcGIS
4 3 (0.47%) MS Project Server
4 3 (0.47%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.31%) GeoServer
6 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.16%) BizTalk Server
6 1 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.16%) SharePoint 2010
6 1 (0.16%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 102 (15.99%) Microsoft Office
2 88 (13.79%) Microsoft Excel
3 31 (4.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 31 (4.86%) Microsoft Project
4 12 (1.88%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.31%) SOLIDWORKS
5 2 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.16%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.16%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.16%) InDesign
6 1 (0.16%) MicroStation
6 1 (0.16%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.16%) Trello
Business Applications
1 6 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.63%) SAP Business One
2 4 (0.63%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.16%) iTrent
3 1 (0.16%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.16%) Sage 50
Cloud Services
1 233 (36.52%) Azure
2 178 (27.90%) Microsoft 365
3 105 (16.46%) Entra ID
4 68 (10.66%) Power Platform
5 67 (10.50%) AWS
6 38 (5.96%) Azure DevOps
7 27 (4.23%) OneDrive
7 27 (4.23%) Power Automate
8 26 (4.08%) Dynamics 365
9 25 (3.92%) Microsoft Purview
10 22 (3.45%) PowerApps
11 21 (3.29%) SaaS
12 20 (3.13%) GitHub
13 18 (2.82%) Serverless
14 17 (2.66%) Azure Functions
15 16 (2.51%) IaaS
16 15 (2.35%) Azure Logic Apps
16 15 (2.35%) Azure Monitor
16 15 (2.35%) Microsoft Copilot
17 12 (1.88%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 56 (8.78%) DNS
2 41 (6.43%) DHCP
3 34 (5.33%) Firewall
4 33 (5.17%) Wi-Fi
5 20 (3.13%) VPN
6 16 (2.51%) LAN
7 14 (2.19%) WAN
8 13 (2.04%) Network Security
8 13 (2.04%) TCP/IP
9 12 (1.88%) Kerberos
10 11 (1.72%) Unified Communications
11 9 (1.41%) MPLS
11 9 (1.41%) Wireless
12 8 (1.25%) BGP
12 8 (1.25%) SSL
13 7 (1.10%) SD-WAN
14 6 (0.94%) SAN
14 6 (0.94%) SNMP
15 5 (0.78%) IPsec
15 5 (0.78%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (8.78%) Power BI
2 34 (5.33%) SQL Server
3 16 (2.51%) Azure SQL Database
4 13 (2.04%) PostgreSQL
5 12 (1.88%) MySQL
6 11 (1.72%) Relational Database
7 10 (1.57%) Metadata
8 7 (1.10%) Data Lake
8 7 (1.10%) Data Warehouse
8 7 (1.10%) Oracle Database
9 6 (0.94%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9 6 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
10 4 (0.63%) RDBMS
10 4 (0.63%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.47%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.47%) GIS
11 3 (0.47%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.47%) Star Schema
12 2 (0.31%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 17 (2.66%) JIRA
2 13 (2.04%) Git
3 8 (1.25%) Android Studio
3 8 (1.25%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.78%) Browser DevTools
4 5 (0.78%) Eclipse
4 5 (0.78%) JUnit
4 5 (0.78%) Xcode
5 4 (0.63%) Gradle
5 4 (0.63%) MSI
6 3 (0.47%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.47%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.47%) Maven
6 3 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.47%) Subversion
7 2 (0.31%) JMeter
7 2 (0.31%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.16%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.16%) GitLab
8 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
General
1 199 (31.19%) Social Skills
2 72 (11.29%) Finance
3 70 (10.97%) Analytical Skills
4 58 (9.09%) Organisational Skills
5 57 (8.93%) Public Sector
6 14 (2.19%) Legal
7 13 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (2.04%) Manufacturing
7 13 (2.04%) Military
8 11 (1.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (1.25%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
10 7 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.78%) Marketing
11 5 (0.78%) Retail
12 4 (0.63%) Advertising
12 4 (0.63%) General Ledger
12 4 (0.63%) Police
13 3 (0.47%) Automotive
13 3 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 93 (14.58%) Architect
2 57 (8.93%) IT Support
3 55 (8.62%) Senior
4 53 (8.31%) Analyst
5 50 (7.84%) Support Engineer
6 47 (7.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 38 (5.96%) IT Engineer
8 32 (5.02%) IT Support Engineer
8 32 (5.02%) Lead
9 31 (4.86%) Developer
10 26 (4.08%) Azure Engineer
11 24 (3.76%) Solutions Architect
12 22 (3.45%) Consultant
13 20 (3.13%) Administrator
14 18 (2.82%) DevOps Engineer
15 17 (2.66%) Infrastructure Architect
15 17 (2.66%) IT Analyst
16 15 (2.35%) Technical Architect
17 13 (2.04%) Azure DevOps Engineer
17 13 (2.04%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (3.76%) .NET
2 13 (2.04%) LDAP
2 13 (2.04%) REST
3 11 (1.72%) ARM Templates
4 9 (1.41%) OAuth
5 8 (1.25%) CSS
5 8 (1.25%) OpenID
5 8 (1.25%) React
5 8 (1.25%) SAML
6 7 (1.10%) ADO
6 7 (1.10%) GraphQL
7 6 (0.94%) Microsoft Graph
7 6 (0.94%) OAuth2
7 6 (0.94%) PySpark
7 6 (0.94%) Spring
7 6 (0.94%) XML
8 5 (0.78%) .NET Core
8 5 (0.78%) Ajax
8 5 (0.78%) AngularJS
8 5 (0.78%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 44 (6.90%) Onboarding
2 32 (5.02%) PKI
3 20 (3.13%) Cloud Native
3 20 (3.13%) Product Ownership
4 17 (2.66%) Legacy Systems
5 16 (2.51%) Analytical Mindset
5 16 (2.51%) Hybrid Cloud
5 16 (2.51%) Self-Motivation
6 15 (2.35%) Data Centre
6 15 (2.35%) Replication
7 14 (2.19%) Public Cloud
8 11 (1.72%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (1.57%) Operational Technology
10 9 (1.41%) Driving Licence
11 8 (1.25%) Management Information System
11 8 (1.25%) Mobile App
12 6 (0.94%) Fat Client
12 6 (0.94%) Security Posture
12 6 (0.94%) Thin Client
13 5 (0.78%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 177 (27.74%) Windows
2 61 (9.56%) Linux
3 47 (7.37%) Windows Server
4 18 (2.82%) Windows 10
5 16 (2.51%) Mac OS
6 10 (1.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 9 (1.41%) Android
7 9 (1.41%) Windows 7
8 7 (1.10%) Unix
8 7 (1.10%) Windows Server 2012
9 6 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (0.78%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.63%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.47%) CentOS
13 1 (0.16%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.16%) Debian
13 1 (0.16%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.16%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (15.99%) Problem-Solving
2 79 (12.38%) DevOps
3 78 (12.23%) Customer Service
4 75 (11.76%) Agile
5 70 (10.97%) Migration
6 68 (10.66%) Business Intelligence
7 67 (10.50%) Cybersecurity
8 63 (9.87%) ITIL
9 62 (9.72%) CI/CD
10 54 (8.46%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 54 (8.46%) Project Management
11 52 (8.15%) Stakeholder Management
12 48 (7.52%) Project Delivery
13 44 (6.90%) Analytics
14 40 (6.27%) Time Management
15 37 (5.80%) Roadmaps
16 35 (5.49%) Infrastructure as Code
17 34 (5.33%) Decision-Making
18 33 (5.17%) SIEM
18 33 (5.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 93 (14.58%) PowerShell
2 66 (10.34%) Python
3 53 (8.31%) SQL
4 20 (3.13%) Bash
4 20 (3.13%) C#
5 17 (2.66%) JavaScript
6 14 (2.19%) Java
6 14 (2.19%) T-SQL
7 10 (1.57%) Bicep
8 7 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
9 5 (0.78%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (0.78%) Perl
10 2 (0.31%) Korn
10 2 (0.31%) PHP
10 2 (0.31%) PL/SQL
10 2 (0.31%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.31%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.31%) X++
11 1 (0.16%) Google Apps Script
11 1 (0.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 219 (34.33%) Security Cleared
2 150 (23.51%) SC Cleared
3 70 (10.97%) DV Cleared
4 64 (10.03%) Degree
5 22 (3.45%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (2.19%) CISSP
7 13 (2.04%) Azure Certification
8 11 (1.72%) PMI Certification
8 11 (1.72%) PMP
9 9 (1.41%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (1.41%) GIAC
10 8 (1.25%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (1.25%) DBS Check
11 7 (1.10%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (1.10%) Master's Degree
12 6 (0.94%) A+ Certification
12 6 (0.94%) AWS Certification
12 6 (0.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (0.78%) CCIE
13 5 (0.78%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (3.92%) NIST
2 23 (3.61%) PMO
3 20 (3.13%) SLA
4 17 (2.66%) GDPR
5 16 (2.51%) Data Quality
6 14 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (2.19%) NCSC
7 13 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials
8 11 (1.72%) QA
9 6 (0.94%) NIST 800
10 4 (0.63%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 2 (0.31%) JSP 440
12 2 (0.31%) P3O
13 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
13 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.16%) ISO 9001
13 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 1 (0.16%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 189 (29.62%) Active Directory
2 58 (9.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (4.08%) Hyper-V
4 14 (2.19%) Docker
5 12 (1.88%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
6 9 (1.41%) VMware NSX
6 9 (1.41%) vSphere
7 8 (1.25%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.78%) Firmware
9 3 (0.47%) DFS Replication
10 2 (0.31%) UAG
11 1 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.16%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
11 1 (0.16%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 58 (9.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 35 (5.49%) Terraform
3 32 (5.02%) SCCM
4 18 (2.82%) Ansible
5 17 (2.66%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (2.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 13 (2.04%) Kubernetes
8 10 (1.57%) Jamf Pro
9 8 (1.25%) WMI
10 6 (0.94%) SCOM
11 4 (0.63%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.47%) Grafana
12 3 (0.47%) Nessus
12 3 (0.47%) PaperCut
12 3 (0.47%) Puppet
12 3 (0.47%) SCSM
12 3 (0.47%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.47%) WSUS
13 2 (0.31%) Oracle RMAN
13 2 (0.31%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 72 (11.29%) VMware
2 30 (4.70%) Cisco
3 25 (3.92%) SAP
4 22 (3.45%) ServiceNow
5 17 (2.66%) Databricks
6 16 (2.51%) Meraki
6 16 (2.51%) Oracle
7 15 (2.35%) Citrix
8 12 (1.88%) Splunk
9 11 (1.72%) Fortinet
10 9 (1.41%) Avaya
10 9 (1.41%) Thales
11 8 (1.25%) F5
11 8 (1.25%) Google
11 8 (1.25%) Mitel
11 8 (1.25%) Tenable
12 7 (1.10%) Palo Alto
12 7 (1.10%) Red Hat
13 6 (0.94%) Juniper
14 5 (0.78%) CheckPoint