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 27 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
27 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 6 5
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 656 483 868
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.39% 15.40% 15.85%
As % of the Vendors category 28.00% 30.55% 32.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 464 326 605
10th Percentile £201 £208 £177
25th Percentile £279 £360 £215
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £485 £460
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +5.33% -3.16%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £575
90th Percentile £650 £650 £658
England median daily rate £490 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +3.16% -2.81% -2.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 17 62
10th Percentile £12.46 £14.23 £12.00
25th Percentile £13.13 £18.20 £14.00
Median hourly rate £17.50 £22.50 £23.82
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% -5.55% +19.11%
75th Percentile £23.75 £28.42 £56.08
90th Percentile £67.00 £57.62 £61.60
England median hourly rate £19.91 £24.18 £17.50
% change year-on-year -17.66% +38.17% -14.63%

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 2,343 1,581 2,712
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 47.83% 50.41% 49.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,662 1,027 1,696
10th Percentile £263 £243 £205
25th Percentile £413 £406 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -0.50%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £600
90th Percentile £687 £675 £688
England median daily rate £505 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -3.81% +0.96% -3.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 154 59 156
10th Percentile £12.50 £18.44 £13.05
25th Percentile £16.28 £23.84 £18.44
Median hourly rate £26.97 £27.76 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -2.85% -41.56% +5.56%
75th Percentile £66.88 £63.13 £62.66
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.44 £76.53
England median hourly rate £24.00 £30.78 £26.00
% change year-on-year -22.03% +18.38% -21.21%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 +1 341 £475 -3.85% 174
Berkshire +1 223 £490 -2.00% 78
Hampshire -4 145 £550 +10.00% 81
Buckinghamshire -4 78 £475 +10.47% 50
Surrey +13 76 £425 +41.67% 46
Oxfordshire -1 40 £275 +10.00% 49
West Sussex -6 34 £382 -12.00% 24
Kent -1 27 £425 -25.24% 30
East Sussex +5 19 £600 +11.63% 14
Sussex +2 11 £463 -7.50% 9
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 (10.37%) SharePoint
2 51 (7.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.52%) Confluence
4 4 (0.61%) Skype for Business
5 3 (0.46%) Mattermost
5 3 (0.46%) MS Project Server
6 2 (0.30%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.30%) GeoServer
6 2 (0.30%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.15%) BizTalk Server
7 1 (0.15%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.15%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 114 (17.38%) Microsoft Office
2 77 (11.74%) Microsoft Excel
3 27 (4.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 27 (4.12%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (1.37%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.30%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (0.15%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.15%) InDesign
6 1 (0.15%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.37%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.46%) Dynamics AX
2 3 (0.46%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.15%) iTrent
3 1 (0.15%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.15%) Sage 50
3 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.15%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 209 (31.86%) Azure
2 166 (25.30%) Microsoft 365
3 101 (15.40%) Entra ID
4 67 (10.21%) AWS
5 65 (9.91%) Power Platform
6 37 (5.64%) OneDrive
7 34 (5.18%) Dynamics 365
8 28 (4.27%) Azure DevOps
8 28 (4.27%) Microsoft Purview
8 28 (4.27%) SaaS
9 26 (3.96%) Power Automate
10 24 (3.66%) PowerApps
11 20 (3.05%) GitHub
12 15 (2.29%) Google Workspace
12 15 (2.29%) Serverless
13 14 (2.13%) Azure Functions
13 14 (2.13%) Microsoft Copilot
14 13 (1.98%) GCP
14 13 (1.98%) IaaS
14 13 (1.98%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 63 (9.60%) DNS
2 49 (7.47%) DHCP
3 35 (5.34%) Firewall
4 30 (4.57%) Wi-Fi
5 23 (3.51%) TCP/IP
6 20 (3.05%) VPN
7 16 (2.44%) Wireless
8 15 (2.29%) Unified Communications
8 15 (2.29%) VLAN
9 13 (1.98%) Kerberos
10 9 (1.37%) 4G
10 9 (1.37%) Network Security
11 8 (1.22%) WebEx
12 7 (1.07%) LAN
12 7 (1.07%) SAN
13 6 (0.91%) BGP
13 6 (0.91%) SSL
13 6 (0.91%) VSAN
13 6 (0.91%) WAN
14 5 (0.76%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (7.62%) Power BI
2 41 (6.25%) SQL Server
3 22 (3.35%) Relational Database
4 19 (2.90%) MySQL
5 17 (2.59%) Azure SQL Database
6 12 (1.83%) Oracle Database
6 12 (1.83%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (1.52%) Data Warehouse
7 10 (1.52%) Metadata
8 7 (1.07%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 7 (1.07%) Data Lake
8 7 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (1.07%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 6 (0.91%) RDBMS
10 5 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.61%) MongoDB
11 4 (0.61%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.46%) GIS
12 3 (0.46%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 3 (0.46%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 16 (2.44%) Android Studio
2 14 (2.13%) Git
2 14 (2.13%) JIRA
3 13 (1.98%) Browser DevTools
3 13 (1.98%) Eclipse
3 13 (1.98%) Xcode
4 9 (1.37%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.76%) JUnit
6 4 (0.61%) Gradle
7 3 (0.46%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.46%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.46%) Maven
7 3 (0.46%) MSI
7 3 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.46%) Subversion
8 2 (0.30%) JMeter
8 2 (0.30%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.30%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.15%) Fiddler
9 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio
General
1 234 (35.67%) Social Skills
2 87 (13.26%) Finance
3 75 (11.43%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (9.76%) Organisational Skills
5 56 (8.54%) Public Sector
6 15 (2.29%) Manufacturing
7 12 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (1.68%) Legal
8 11 (1.68%) Military
8 11 (1.68%) Retail
9 9 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (1.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (1.22%) Telecoms
11 6 (0.91%) Marketing
11 6 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (0.76%) Billing
13 4 (0.61%) Banking
13 4 (0.61%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.46%) Electronics
15 2 (0.30%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 101 (15.40%) Architect
2 75 (11.43%) Support Engineer
3 66 (10.06%) Analyst
4 64 (9.76%) IT Support
5 48 (7.32%) Senior
6 46 (7.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 37 (5.64%) IT Engineer
8 32 (4.88%) IT Support Engineer
9 29 (4.42%) Developer
10 24 (3.66%) Consultant
10 24 (3.66%) Solutions Architect
11 22 (3.35%) Lead
12 21 (3.20%) Infrastructure Architect
12 21 (3.20%) Infrastructure Support
13 20 (3.05%) Administrator
13 20 (3.05%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
14 19 (2.90%) Support Officer
15 16 (2.44%) Support Analyst
16 15 (2.29%) Technical Support
17 14 (2.13%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.35%) .NET
2 16 (2.44%) CSS
2 16 (2.44%) React
3 15 (2.29%) GraphQL
4 14 (2.13%) LDAP
5 13 (1.98%) Ajax
5 13 (1.98%) AngularJS
6 12 (1.83%) REST
7 11 (1.68%) ARM Templates
8 9 (1.37%) OAuth
9 8 (1.22%) OpenID
9 8 (1.22%) SAML
10 7 (1.07%) ADO
11 6 (0.91%) Spring
12 5 (0.76%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.76%) PySpark
12 5 (0.76%) SailPoint
13 4 (0.61%) .NET Core
13 4 (0.61%) Microsoft Graph
13 4 (0.61%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 37 (5.64%) Onboarding
2 36 (5.49%) PKI
3 30 (4.57%) Analytical Mindset
4 20 (3.05%) Replication
5 18 (2.74%) Enterprise Software
5 18 (2.74%) Product Ownership
6 17 (2.59%) Mobile App
7 15 (2.29%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (2.13%) Driving Licence
8 14 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
9 13 (1.98%) Cloud Native
10 12 (1.83%) Fat Client
10 12 (1.83%) Management Information System
10 12 (1.83%) Operational Technology
10 12 (1.83%) Thin Client
10 12 (1.83%) Video Conferencing
11 9 (1.37%) Data Centre
12 8 (1.22%) Hybrid Cloud
12 8 (1.22%) Security Operations Centre
13 7 (1.07%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 202 (30.79%) Windows
2 83 (12.65%) Linux
3 39 (5.95%) Windows Server
4 38 (5.79%) Windows 10
5 18 (2.74%) Android
6 15 (2.29%) Mac OS
6 15 (2.29%) Unix
7 10 (1.52%) Windows 7
8 8 (1.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 8 (1.22%) Windows Server 2019
9 7 (1.07%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.91%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.61%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.30%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.30%) CentOS
13 1 (0.15%) Debian
13 1 (0.15%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (15.85%) Problem-Solving
2 80 (12.20%) Customer Service
3 79 (12.04%) Agile
4 74 (11.28%) Cybersecurity
5 71 (10.82%) ITIL
6 63 (9.60%) Migration
7 61 (9.30%) DevOps
8 59 (8.99%) Business Intelligence
8 59 (8.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 56 (8.54%) Project Management
10 54 (8.23%) Stakeholder Management
11 48 (7.32%) Project Delivery
12 47 (7.16%) CI/CD
13 44 (6.71%) Continuous Improvement
13 44 (6.71%) Time Management
14 39 (5.95%) Analytics
15 34 (5.18%) Roadmaps
15 34 (5.18%) SIEM
16 33 (5.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 31 (4.73%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 96 (14.63%) PowerShell
2 77 (11.74%) Python
3 60 (9.15%) SQL
4 23 (3.51%) Java
4 23 (3.51%) JavaScript
5 19 (2.90%) Bash
6 17 (2.59%) C#
7 14 (2.13%) Perl
8 7 (1.07%) T-SQL
9 6 (0.91%) Bicep
10 4 (0.61%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (0.61%) PL/SQL
10 4 (0.61%) X++
11 3 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.46%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.30%) Korn
12 2 (0.30%) PHP
13 1 (0.15%) VB
Qualifications
1 226 (34.45%) Security Cleared
2 147 (22.41%) SC Cleared
3 65 (9.91%) DV Cleared
4 63 (9.60%) Degree
5 42 (6.40%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (3.81%) Azure Certification
7 19 (2.90%) CISSP
8 12 (1.83%) PMI Certification
9 11 (1.68%) Network+ Certification
9 11 (1.68%) Server+ Certification
10 10 (1.52%) DBS Check
10 10 (1.52%) GIAC
10 10 (1.52%) PMP
11 9 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
12 8 (1.22%) CISM
13 7 (1.07%) A+ Certification
13 7 (1.07%) AWS Certification
13 7 (1.07%) Cisco Certification
13 7 (1.07%) Master's Degree
14 6 (0.91%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.12%) NIST
2 26 (3.96%) PMO
3 24 (3.66%) GDPR
4 20 (3.05%) SLA
5 17 (2.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (2.13%) Data Quality
7 13 (1.98%) QA
8 11 (1.68%) Cyber Essentials
9 8 (1.22%) NCSC
10 5 (0.76%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.46%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.46%) P3O
11 3 (0.46%) RMADS
12 2 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 19770
12 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.15%) COSHH
13 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 191 (29.12%) Active Directory
2 59 (8.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (4.42%) Hyper-V
4 12 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
5 10 (1.52%) Docker
5 10 (1.52%) vSphere
6 9 (1.37%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (1.22%) VMware NSX
8 5 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.46%) DFS Replication
10 2 (0.30%) NFS
11 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.15%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.15%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 60 (9.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 46 (7.01%) SCCM
3 23 (3.51%) Terraform
4 22 (3.35%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (2.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 16 (2.44%) Ansible
7 13 (1.98%) WMI
8 10 (1.52%) Jamf Pro
8 10 (1.52%) Kubernetes
9 4 (0.61%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (0.61%) SCOM
9 4 (0.61%) vCenter Server
10 3 (0.46%) Grafana
10 3 (0.46%) HP SiteScope
10 3 (0.46%) Nessus
10 3 (0.46%) PaperCut
10 3 (0.46%) Puppet
10 3 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.30%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.30%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 77 (11.74%) VMware
2 49 (7.47%) ServiceNow
3 32 (4.88%) Oracle
4 27 (4.12%) Splunk
5 25 (3.81%) Cisco
6 24 (3.66%) SAP
7 17 (2.59%) Citrix
7 17 (2.59%) Databricks
8 10 (1.52%) Tenable
9 9 (1.37%) Thales
10 8 (1.22%) CrowdStrike
10 8 (1.22%) Fortinet
10 8 (1.22%) Red Hat
11 7 (1.07%) CyberArk
11 7 (1.07%) F5
11 7 (1.07%) Palo Alto
12 6 (0.91%) Dell
12 6 (0.91%) Meraki
12 6 (0.91%) Virgin Media
13 5 (0.76%) Informatica