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 7 February 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
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 6 3
Rank change year-on-year -1 -3 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 640 479 916
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.78% 15.17% 16.62%
As % of the Vendors category 28.60% 30.45% 33.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 458 324 638
10th Percentile £200 £206 £174
25th Percentile £271 £359 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £461
Median % change year-on-year - +2.98% +0.82%
75th Percentile £563 £583 £575
90th Percentile £640 £650 £675
England median daily rate £477 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +0.32% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 14 59
10th Percentile £12.39 £15.08 £11.89
25th Percentile £12.66 £18.28 £14.00
Median hourly rate £17.47 £22.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.37% - +16.88%
75th Percentile £21.00 £29.43 £55.70
90th Percentile £44.79 £57.62 £61.60
England median hourly rate £19.14 £22.27 £18.00
% change year-on-year -14.08% +23.72% -12.20%

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 2,238 1,573 2,756
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 48.20% 49.81% 50.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,616 1,004 1,746
10th Percentile £255 £247 £205
25th Percentile £406 £408 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -0.99%
75th Percentile £600 £618 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 143 49 162
10th Percentile £12.50 £18.50 £13.06
25th Percentile £15.75 £24.18 £19.21
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.41 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -26.01% -35.98% +18.48%
75th Percentile £61.88 £63.75 £63.22
90th Percentile £89.67 £75.44 £76.38
England median hourly rate £23.83 £30.45 £30.00
% change year-on-year -21.76% +1.50% -6.25%

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 7 February 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 7 February 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 7 February 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 +1 309 £475 -5.00% 235
Berkshire +2 205 £480 -4.00% 118
Hampshire -2 142 £536 +8.28% 133
Surrey +6 83 £425 +22.30% 79
Buckinghamshire -3 72 £465 +5.68% 67
West Sussex -5 36 £355 -18.25% 50
Oxfordshire 0 32 £275 +10.00% 53
Kent 0 31 £425 -24.78% 65
East Sussex +5 24 £600 +14.29% 28
Sussex 0 11 £463 +5.11% 9
Home Counties - 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 63 (9.84%) SharePoint
2 46 (7.19%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.41%) Skype for Business
4 8 (1.25%) Confluence
5 7 (1.09%) Mattermost
6 3 (0.47%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.31%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.31%) CMS
7 2 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.31%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.31%) SharePoint Server
7 2 (0.31%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.16%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2003
8 1 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2007
8 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.16%) Office Communications Server
Applications
1 120 (18.75%) Microsoft Office
2 74 (11.56%) Microsoft Excel
3 28 (4.38%) Microsoft Project
4 22 (3.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.41%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.31%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.72%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.09%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.47%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
4 2 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.16%) iTrent
5 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
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 EWM
5 1 (0.16%) SAP WM
5 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 191 (29.84%) Azure
2 150 (23.44%) Microsoft 365
3 85 (13.28%) Entra ID
4 67 (10.47%) Power Platform
5 66 (10.31%) AWS
6 33 (5.16%) Dynamics 365
7 30 (4.69%) OneDrive
8 28 (4.38%) SaaS
9 27 (4.22%) Microsoft Purview
10 25 (3.91%) Power Automate
11 24 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
12 22 (3.44%) PowerApps
13 19 (2.97%) GitHub
14 16 (2.50%) GCP
14 16 (2.50%) Google Workspace
14 16 (2.50%) Serverless
15 15 (2.34%) Sauce Labs
16 14 (2.19%) Azure Functions
17 12 (1.88%) Copilot Studio
17 12 (1.88%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 55 (8.59%) DNS
2 46 (7.19%) DHCP
3 35 (5.47%) Firewall
4 24 (3.75%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (3.44%) TCP/IP
6 17 (2.66%) VPN
6 17 (2.66%) Wireless
7 15 (2.34%) VLAN
8 13 (2.03%) Kerberos
8 13 (2.03%) Unified Communications
9 9 (1.41%) 4G
9 9 (1.41%) Network Security
10 8 (1.25%) Skype
11 7 (1.09%) SAN
11 7 (1.09%) WebEx
12 6 (0.94%) VSAN
13 5 (0.78%) LAN
13 5 (0.78%) WAN
14 4 (0.63%) SSL
14 4 (0.63%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (7.50%) Power BI
2 37 (5.78%) SQL Server
3 25 (3.91%) Relational Database
4 18 (2.81%) MySQL
5 14 (2.19%) Azure SQL Database
6 13 (2.03%) Oracle Database
7 10 (1.56%) Data Warehouse
7 10 (1.56%) Metadata
8 9 (1.41%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9 7 (1.09%) Data Lake
9 7 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
10 6 (0.94%) RDBMS
10 6 (0.94%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 5 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 4 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
12 4 (0.63%) MongoDB
12 4 (0.63%) Oracle Reports
13 3 (0.47%) GIS
13 3 (0.47%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 3 (0.47%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 18 (2.81%) Android Studio
2 16 (2.50%) Browser DevTools
3 15 (2.34%) Eclipse
3 15 (2.34%) Xcode
4 14 (2.19%) JIRA
5 13 (2.03%) Git
6 9 (1.41%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.78%) JUnit
8 4 (0.63%) Gradle
9 3 (0.47%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.47%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.47%) Maven
9 3 (0.47%) MSI
9 3 (0.47%) Subversion
10 2 (0.31%) JMeter
10 2 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.31%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.16%) Gatling
11 1 (0.16%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 235 (36.72%) Social Skills
2 99 (15.47%) Finance
3 79 (12.34%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (9.69%) Organisational Skills
5 51 (7.97%) Public Sector
6 18 (2.81%) Manufacturing
7 14 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
8 12 (1.88%) Legal
9 10 (1.56%) Influencing Skills
9 10 (1.56%) Retail
10 8 (1.25%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.09%) Marketing
11 7 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (0.94%) Military
13 5 (0.78%) Billing
14 4 (0.63%) Banking
14 4 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 3 (0.47%) Automotive
15 3 (0.47%) Aviation
15 3 (0.47%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 94 (14.69%) Architect
2 78 (12.19%) Analyst
3 71 (11.09%) Support Engineer
4 54 (8.44%) IT Support
5 45 (7.03%) Senior
6 44 (6.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 29 (4.53%) Developer
8 27 (4.22%) IT Engineer
9 23 (3.59%) IT Support Engineer
9 23 (3.59%) Lead
10 22 (3.44%) Consultant
10 22 (3.44%) Solutions Architect
11 21 (3.28%) Infrastructure Support
12 20 (3.13%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
12 20 (3.13%) Technical Support
13 19 (2.97%) Infrastructure Architect
13 19 (2.97%) Support Officer
14 18 (2.81%) Technical Engineer
14 18 (2.81%) Technical Support Engineer
15 17 (2.66%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.28%) .NET
2 19 (2.97%) CSS
2 19 (2.97%) React
3 18 (2.81%) GraphQL
4 16 (2.50%) Ajax
4 16 (2.50%) AngularJS
4 16 (2.50%) LDAP
5 10 (1.56%) ARM Templates
5 10 (1.56%) REST
6 8 (1.25%) OAuth
7 7 (1.09%) SAML
8 6 (0.94%) ADO
8 6 (0.94%) Spring
9 5 (0.78%) OpenID
10 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Graph
10 4 (0.63%) OAuth2
10 4 (0.63%) PySpark
10 4 (0.63%) SailPoint
10 4 (0.63%) Software Packaging
11 3 (0.47%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 32 (5.00%) Onboarding
1 32 (5.00%) PKI
2 30 (4.69%) Analytical Mindset
3 20 (3.13%) Mobile App
4 18 (2.81%) Product Ownership
4 18 (2.81%) Replication
5 17 (2.66%) Enterprise Software
6 16 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
7 15 (2.34%) Driving Licence
8 13 (2.03%) Fat Client
8 13 (2.03%) Management Information System
8 13 (2.03%) Thin Client
9 12 (1.88%) Operational Technology
10 11 (1.72%) Cloud Native
11 10 (1.56%) Video Conferencing
12 8 (1.25%) Security Operations Centre
13 7 (1.09%) Cyber Defence
13 7 (1.09%) Data Centre
14 6 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
15 5 (0.78%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 190 (29.69%) Windows
2 78 (12.19%) Linux
3 37 (5.78%) Windows 10
4 27 (4.22%) Windows Server
5 20 (3.13%) Android
5 20 (3.13%) Unix
6 16 (2.50%) Mac OS
7 11 (1.72%) Windows 7
8 6 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (0.78%) Windows Server 2012
9 5 (0.78%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.31%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.31%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.16%) CentOS
12 1 (0.16%) Debian
12 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (16.41%) Problem-Solving
2 84 (13.13%) Agile
3 76 (11.88%) Customer Service
4 73 (11.41%) ITIL
5 70 (10.94%) Cybersecurity
6 60 (9.38%) Stakeholder Management
7 58 (9.06%) Business Intelligence
8 55 (8.59%) DevOps
9 54 (8.44%) Migration
9 54 (8.44%) Project Management
10 53 (8.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 47 (7.34%) Project Delivery
12 46 (7.19%) Continuous Improvement
13 43 (6.72%) Time Management
14 42 (6.56%) CI/CD
15 38 (5.94%) Analytics
15 38 (5.94%) Validation
16 36 (5.63%) User Experience
17 34 (5.31%) Roadmaps
18 33 (5.16%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 86 (13.44%) PowerShell
2 72 (11.25%) Python
3 64 (10.00%) SQL
4 26 (4.06%) Java
4 26 (4.06%) JavaScript
5 17 (2.66%) Perl
6 15 (2.34%) Bash
6 15 (2.34%) C#
7 4 (0.63%) Bicep
7 4 (0.63%) Kusto Query Language
7 4 (0.63%) PL/SQL
7 4 (0.63%) X++
8 3 (0.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 3 (0.47%) T-SQL
9 2 (0.31%) PHP
9 2 (0.31%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.16%) VB
Qualifications
1 220 (34.38%) Security Cleared
2 145 (22.66%) SC Cleared
3 65 (10.16%) DV Cleared
4 60 (9.38%) Degree
5 38 (5.94%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (3.44%) Azure Certification
7 20 (3.13%) CISSP
8 11 (1.72%) ITIL Certification
8 11 (1.72%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (1.72%) PMI Certification
8 11 (1.72%) Server+ Certification
9 10 (1.56%) DBS Check
9 10 (1.56%) GIAC
10 9 (1.41%) CISM
10 9 (1.41%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (1.25%) PMP
11 8 (1.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (1.09%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.09%) Master's Degree
13 6 (0.94%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.22%) PMO
2 25 (3.91%) GDPR
3 23 (3.59%) NIST
4 19 (2.97%) SLA
5 18 (2.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 15 (2.34%) Data Quality
7 14 (2.19%) QA
8 6 (0.94%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.63%) Accessibility
9 4 (0.63%) NCSC
10 3 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.47%) NIST 800
10 3 (0.47%) P3O
10 3 (0.47%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.47%) RMADS
11 2 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 1 (0.16%) COSHH
12 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.16%) PSD2
System Software
1 171 (26.72%) Active Directory
2 51 (7.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (3.13%) Hyper-V
4 12 (1.88%) Virtual Desktop
5 11 (1.72%) vSphere
6 9 (1.41%) Docker
7 8 (1.25%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.63%) VMware NSX
9 3 (0.47%) DFS Replication
9 3 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.31%) NFS
11 1 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.16%) Brightmail
11 1 (0.16%) ISA Server
11 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 49 (7.66%) Microsoft Intune
2 47 (7.34%) SCCM
3 22 (3.44%) Single Sign-On
4 20 (3.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 20 (3.13%) Terraform
5 14 (2.19%) Ansible
5 14 (2.19%) WMI
6 9 (1.41%) Jamf Pro
6 9 (1.41%) Kubernetes
7 8 (1.25%) SCOM
8 7 (1.09%) HP SiteScope
9 6 (0.94%) vCenter Server
10 3 (0.47%) Cisco CUCM
10 3 (0.47%) Grafana
10 3 (0.47%) PaperCut
10 3 (0.47%) Puppet
10 3 (0.47%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.31%) EnCase
11 2 (0.31%) FTK
11 2 (0.31%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 70 (10.94%) VMware
2 54 (8.44%) ServiceNow
3 37 (5.78%) Oracle
4 34 (5.31%) Splunk
5 26 (4.06%) SAP
6 23 (3.59%) Cisco
7 18 (2.81%) Citrix
8 16 (2.50%) Databricks
9 9 (1.41%) CrowdStrike
9 9 (1.41%) Thales
10 7 (1.09%) CyberArk
10 7 (1.09%) Remedy
10 7 (1.09%) Tenable
11 6 (0.94%) Fortinet
11 6 (0.94%) Informatica
11 6 (0.94%) Red Hat
12 5 (0.78%) F5
12 5 (0.78%) Google
12 5 (0.78%) Salesforce
12 5 (0.78%) Virgin Media