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 4 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
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 6 3
Rank change year-on-year -1 -3 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 633 481 930
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 13.69% 15.21% 16.96%
As % of the Vendors category 28.27% 30.39% 33.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 452 327 646
10th Percentile £200 £206 £171
25th Percentile £266 £356 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £453
Median % change year-on-year - +4.80% +0.61%
75th Percentile £563 £585 £575
90th Percentile £640 £650 £663
England median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 67 15 57
10th Percentile £12.41 £15.10 £11.78
25th Percentile £12.81 £18.35 £14.00
Median hourly rate £17.44 £25.00 £23.22
Median % change year-on-year -30.26% +7.69% +20.60%
75th Percentile £21.00 £36.46 £56.40
90th Percentile £43.23 £57.62 £61.60
England median hourly rate £19.07 £22.50 £18.00
% change year-on-year -15.24% +25.00% -13.11%

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 2,239 1,583 2,757
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 48.43% 50.06% 50.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,613 1,015 1,745
10th Percentile £255 £239 £205
25th Percentile £406 £408 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -0.30%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £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 144 50 162
10th Percentile £12.50 £18.50 £13.15
25th Percentile £15.75 £24.18 £20.31
Median hourly rate £22.50 £36.46 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -38.28% -23.25% +26.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.44 £63.22
90th Percentile £88.86 £74.88 £76.38
England median hourly rate £23.75 £30.41 £30.00
% change year-on-year -21.89% +1.35% -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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +1 306 £475 -2.56% 220
Berkshire +2 202 £485 -3.00% 96
Hampshire -2 143 £538 +7.50% 124
Surrey +5 82 £425 +21.43% 84
Buckinghamshire -3 73 £470 +6.82% 76
West Sussex -6 35 £354 -18.59% 48
Oxfordshire 0 31 £275 +10.00% 51
Kent 0 30 £413 -10.81% 65
East Sussex +5 25 £600 +14.29% 27
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 64 (10.11%) SharePoint
2 48 (7.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.58%) Skype for Business
4 8 (1.26%) Confluence
5 7 (1.11%) Mattermost
6 3 (0.47%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.47%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.47%) MS Project Server
6 3 (0.47%) SharePoint Server
7 2 (0.32%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.32%) CMS
7 2 (0.32%) Exchange Server 2003
7 2 (0.32%) Exchange Server 2007
7 2 (0.32%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.32%) Office Communications Server
7 2 (0.32%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.16%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 121 (19.12%) Microsoft Office
2 69 (10.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (3.95%) Microsoft Project
4 21 (3.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.42%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.32%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (1.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.11%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.47%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
4 2 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
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 EWM
5 1 (0.16%) SAP WM
5 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 185 (29.23%) Azure
2 149 (23.54%) Microsoft 365
3 87 (13.74%) Entra ID
4 65 (10.27%) Power Platform
5 62 (9.79%) AWS
6 32 (5.06%) Dynamics 365
7 29 (4.58%) OneDrive
7 29 (4.58%) SaaS
8 28 (4.42%) Microsoft Purview
9 24 (3.79%) Azure DevOps
9 24 (3.79%) Power Automate
10 22 (3.48%) PowerApps
11 19 (3.00%) GitHub
12 16 (2.53%) Google Workspace
12 16 (2.53%) Sauce Labs
13 14 (2.21%) Serverless
14 13 (2.05%) GCP
15 12 (1.90%) Azure Functions
15 12 (1.90%) Copilot Studio
15 12 (1.90%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 57 (9.00%) DNS
2 48 (7.58%) DHCP
3 36 (5.69%) Firewall
4 23 (3.63%) Wi-Fi
5 22 (3.48%) TCP/IP
6 18 (2.84%) VPN
7 17 (2.69%) Wireless
8 15 (2.37%) VLAN
9 13 (2.05%) Kerberos
10 12 (1.90%) Unified Communications
11 9 (1.42%) 4G
11 9 (1.42%) Network Security
12 8 (1.26%) SAN
12 8 (1.26%) Skype
13 7 (1.11%) WebEx
14 6 (0.95%) VSAN
15 5 (0.79%) IPsec
15 5 (0.79%) LAN
15 5 (0.79%) SD-WAN
15 5 (0.79%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (7.27%) Power BI
2 38 (6.00%) SQL Server
3 26 (4.11%) Relational Database
4 19 (3.00%) MySQL
5 14 (2.21%) Oracle Database
6 12 (1.90%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (1.58%) Metadata
8 9 (1.42%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
9 8 (1.26%) Data Warehouse
10 7 (1.11%) PostgreSQL
11 6 (0.95%) RDBMS
12 5 (0.79%) Data Lake
13 4 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.63%) MongoDB
13 4 (0.63%) Oracle Reports
13 4 (0.63%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 3 (0.47%) GIS
14 3 (0.47%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 3 (0.47%) Star Schema
15 2 (0.32%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 19 (3.00%) Android Studio
2 17 (2.69%) Browser DevTools
3 16 (2.53%) Eclipse
3 16 (2.53%) Xcode
4 13 (2.05%) JIRA
5 11 (1.74%) Git
6 9 (1.42%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.79%) 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 (0.32%) 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
1 234 (36.97%) Social Skills
2 97 (15.32%) Finance
3 74 (11.69%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (9.79%) Organisational Skills
5 50 (7.90%) Public Sector
6 18 (2.84%) Manufacturing
7 13 (2.05%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (1.74%) Legal
9 10 (1.58%) Influencing Skills
9 10 (1.58%) Retail
10 8 (1.26%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.11%) Marketing
11 7 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (0.95%) Military
13 5 (0.79%) 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 96 (15.17%) Architect
2 74 (11.69%) Support Engineer
3 73 (11.53%) Analyst
4 55 (8.69%) IT Support
5 43 (6.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 42 (6.64%) Senior
7 28 (4.42%) Developer
8 27 (4.27%) IT Engineer
9 24 (3.79%) Solutions Architect
10 23 (3.63%) IT Support Engineer
10 23 (3.63%) Lead
11 22 (3.48%) Consultant
12 21 (3.32%) Infrastructure Support
12 21 (3.32%) Technical Support
13 20 (3.16%) Infrastructure Architect
13 20 (3.16%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
14 19 (3.00%) Support Officer
14 19 (3.00%) Technical Engineer
14 19 (3.00%) Technical Support Engineer
15 17 (2.69%) UX Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (3.16%) .NET
1 20 (3.16%) React
2 19 (3.00%) CSS
2 19 (3.00%) GraphQL
3 17 (2.69%) Ajax
3 17 (2.69%) AngularJS
4 16 (2.53%) LDAP
5 10 (1.58%) ARM Templates
5 10 (1.58%) REST
6 8 (1.26%) OAuth
7 7 (1.11%) SAML
8 6 (0.95%) ADO
8 6 (0.95%) Spring
9 5 (0.79%) Middleware
9 5 (0.79%) OpenID
10 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Graph
10 4 (0.63%) OAuth2
10 4 (0.63%) PySpark
10 4 (0.63%) SailPoint
11 3 (0.47%) Vert.x
Miscellaneous
1 32 (5.06%) PKI
2 30 (4.74%) Analytical Mindset
3 29 (4.58%) Onboarding
4 21 (3.32%) Mobile App
5 19 (3.00%) Replication
6 18 (2.84%) Product Ownership
7 17 (2.69%) Enterprise Software
8 16 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
9 15 (2.37%) Driving Licence
10 14 (2.21%) Operational Technology
11 13 (2.05%) Fat Client
11 13 (2.05%) Management Information System
11 13 (2.05%) Thin Client
12 10 (1.58%) Cloud Native
13 9 (1.42%) Video Conferencing
14 8 (1.26%) Data Centre
14 8 (1.26%) Security Operations Centre
15 7 (1.11%) Cyber Defence
16 6 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
17 5 (0.79%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 194 (30.65%) Windows
2 80 (12.64%) Linux
3 38 (6.00%) Windows 10
4 28 (4.42%) Windows Server
5 21 (3.32%) Android
5 21 (3.32%) Unix
6 15 (2.37%) Mac OS
7 11 (1.74%) Windows 7
8 7 (1.11%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.95%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.79%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 2 (0.32%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.32%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.32%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.16%) CentOS
13 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (16.11%) Problem-Solving
2 78 (12.32%) Agile
3 74 (11.69%) Customer Service
3 74 (11.69%) ITIL
4 68 (10.74%) Cybersecurity
5 57 (9.00%) Business Intelligence
6 55 (8.69%) Stakeholder Management
7 52 (8.21%) DevOps
7 52 (8.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 51 (8.06%) Migration
9 48 (7.58%) Project Management
10 45 (7.11%) Continuous Improvement
11 43 (6.79%) Project Delivery
12 41 (6.48%) Time Management
13 39 (6.16%) CI/CD
14 36 (5.69%) Analytics
15 35 (5.53%) Roadmaps
15 35 (5.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 35 (5.53%) User Experience
15 35 (5.53%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 83 (13.11%) PowerShell
2 70 (11.06%) Python
3 63 (9.95%) SQL
4 28 (4.42%) Java
5 27 (4.27%) JavaScript
6 18 (2.84%) Perl
7 15 (2.37%) Bash
8 13 (2.05%) C#
9 4 (0.63%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.63%) PL/SQL
9 4 (0.63%) 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
1 216 (34.12%) Security Cleared
2 140 (22.12%) SC Cleared
3 66 (10.43%) DV Cleared
4 59 (9.32%) Degree
5 38 (6.00%) Microsoft Certification
6 22 (3.48%) Azure Certification
7 20 (3.16%) CISSP
8 11 (1.74%) ITIL Certification
8 11 (1.74%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (1.74%) Server+ Certification
9 10 (1.58%) DBS Check
9 10 (1.58%) GIAC
9 10 (1.58%) PMI Certification
10 9 (1.42%) CISM
10 9 (1.42%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (1.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.11%) Master's Degree
12 7 (1.11%) PMP
13 6 (0.95%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.11%) PMO
2 24 (3.79%) GDPR
3 23 (3.63%) NIST
4 19 (3.00%) SLA
5 18 (2.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 15 (2.37%) Data Quality
7 9 (1.42%) QA
8 6 (0.95%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.79%) Accessibility
10 4 (0.63%) NCSC
11 3 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.47%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.47%) P3O
11 3 (0.47%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.47%) RMADS
12 2 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 19770
13 1 (0.16%) COSHH
13 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 175 (27.65%) Active Directory
2 51 (8.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (3.16%) Hyper-V
4 11 (1.74%) Virtual Desktop
4 11 (1.74%) vSphere
5 9 (1.42%) Docker
6 8 (1.26%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.63%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.47%) DFS Replication
8 3 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.32%) Brightmail
9 2 (0.32%) ISA Server
9 2 (0.32%) NFS
10 1 (0.16%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 46 (7.27%) Microsoft Intune
1 46 (7.27%) SCCM
2 22 (3.48%) Single Sign-On
3 20 (3.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 19 (3.00%) Terraform
5 14 (2.21%) Ansible
5 14 (2.21%) WMI
6 9 (1.42%) Jamf Pro
6 9 (1.42%) Kubernetes
7 8 (1.26%) SCOM
8 7 (1.11%) HP SiteScope
9 6 (0.95%) vCenter Server
10 3 (0.47%) Cisco CUCM
10 3 (0.47%) Grafana
10 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.47%) PaperCut
10 3 (0.47%) Puppet
10 3 (0.47%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 2 (0.32%) FTK
11 2 (0.32%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 70 (11.06%) VMware
2 51 (8.06%) ServiceNow
3 41 (6.48%) Oracle
4 35 (5.53%) Splunk
5 23 (3.63%) SAP
6 22 (3.48%) Cisco
7 18 (2.84%) Citrix
8 16 (2.53%) Databricks
9 9 (1.42%) CrowdStrike
9 9 (1.42%) Thales
10 7 (1.11%) CyberArk
10 7 (1.11%) Remedy
10 7 (1.11%) Tenable
11 6 (0.95%) Fortinet
11 6 (0.95%) Informatica
11 6 (0.95%) Red Hat
12 5 (0.79%) F5
12 5 (0.79%) Google
12 5 (0.79%) Tanium
12 5 (0.79%) Virgin Media