Microsoft Contracts 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 11 July 2025, 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
11 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 6 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 550 787 901
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 16.34% 14.02% 15.32%
As % of the Vendors category 30.44% 29.71% 29.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 365 506 588
10th Percentile £200 £200 £185
25th Percentile £274 £355 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £466 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.88% -1.84% +3.26%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £623 £675 £676
England median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 74 40
10th Percentile £13.85 £11.71 £14.00
25th Percentile £14.20 £12.00 £15.50
Median hourly rate £16.06 £26.22 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year -38.76% +34.44% +22.22%
75th Percentile £30.19 £59.50 £46.84
90th Percentile £48.27 £61.60 £64.93
England median hourly rate £22.50 £16.06 £22.00
% change year-on-year +40.10% -27.00% +25.71%

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 1,807 2,649 3,033
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 53.67% 47.19% 51.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,177 1,563 2,027
10th Percentile £213 £250 £205
25th Percentile £375 £405 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £608 £600
90th Percentile £650 £699 £688
England median daily rate £513 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -0.49% -1.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 183 128
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.00 £15.50
25th Percentile £15.31 £18.00 £18.50
Median hourly rate £20.75 £53.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -60.85% +17.78% +130.53%
75th Percentile £42.36 £61.30 £60.16
90th Percentile £70.75 £70.00 £70.38
England median hourly rate £25.15 £25.00 £32.30
% change year-on-year +0.60% -22.60% +50.23%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Microsoft as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 11 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 11 July 2025.

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 11 July 2025. 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 -1 287 £450 -5.26% 426
Berkshire -2 184 £478 -4.50% 223
Hampshire +2 143 £525 -8.70% 226
Buckinghamshire -2 59 £413 -8.10% 124
Oxfordshire 0 44 £250 -33.33% 92
Kent +5 39 £313 -3.85% 146
Surrey -4 38 £250 -37.50% 199
West Sussex -1 30 £240 -46.67% 64
East Sussex +1 7 £638 +70.00% 45
Home Counties -2 2 £550 +15.79%
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 60 (10.91%) SharePoint
2 56 (10.18%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (2.91%) IBM Domino
4 14 (2.55%) Confluence
5 8 (1.45%) Apache
6 7 (1.27%) Exchange Server 2003
6 7 (1.27%) Exchange Server 2007
6 7 (1.27%) Exchange Server 2010
6 7 (1.27%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (1.27%) IIS
6 7 (1.27%) Office Communications Server
6 7 (1.27%) SharePoint Server
6 7 (1.27%) Skype for Business
7 6 (1.09%) CMS
8 5 (0.91%) BizTalk Server
9 4 (0.73%) Drupal
9 4 (0.73%) WordPress
10 3 (0.55%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.55%) Mule
10 3 (0.55%) Mule ESB
Applications
1 83 (15.09%) Microsoft Office
2 55 (10.00%) Microsoft Excel
3 20 (3.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (1.64%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (1.45%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.73%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.73%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 2 (0.36%) SAP ECC
4 1 (0.18%) BPCS
4 1 (0.18%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.18%) Oracle ASCP
4 1 (0.18%) Oracle BPM
4 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.18%) Oracle SCM
4 1 (0.18%) Remedy AR System
4 1 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.18%) SAP CO
4 1 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.18%) SAP GTS
4 1 (0.18%) SAP HCM
4 1 (0.18%) SAP Payroll
4 1 (0.18%) SAP SD
4 1 (0.18%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 169 (30.73%) Azure
2 140 (25.45%) Microsoft 365
3 54 (9.82%) Power Platform
4 38 (6.91%) Entra ID
5 36 (6.55%) AWS
5 36 (6.55%) Azure DevOps
6 25 (4.55%) IaaS
7 24 (4.36%) Dynamics 365
8 20 (3.64%) PaaS
9 16 (2.91%) SaaS
10 13 (2.36%) Microsoft Copilot
10 13 (2.36%) PowerApps
11 11 (2.00%) GCP
11 11 (2.00%) OpenShift
12 10 (1.82%) Azure AKS
12 10 (1.82%) GitHub
13 9 (1.64%) Azure Monitor
13 9 (1.64%) Azure Sentinel
14 8 (1.45%) Power Automate
14 8 (1.45%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 71 (12.91%) Firewall
2 52 (9.45%) VPN
3 40 (7.27%) DNS
4 33 (6.00%) SAN
5 31 (5.64%) DHCP
6 20 (3.64%) Fibre Channel
7 19 (3.45%) WAN
8 18 (3.27%) Internet
9 17 (3.09%) LAN
9 17 (3.09%) Network Security
10 16 (2.91%) Cisco IOS
11 15 (2.73%) iSCSI
11 15 (2.73%) MPLS
12 14 (2.55%) Ethernet
12 14 (2.55%) Wireshark
13 13 (2.36%) ATM
13 13 (2.36%) GPRS
13 13 (2.36%) GSM
13 13 (2.36%) SDH
13 13 (2.36%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (7.45%) SQL Server
2 37 (6.73%) Power BI
3 17 (3.09%) Big Data
4 14 (2.55%) Relational Database
5 12 (2.18%) Data Warehouse
6 11 (2.00%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (1.82%) Amazon RDS
7 10 (1.82%) Metadata
8 8 (1.45%) Elasticsearch
8 8 (1.45%) MySQL
9 7 (1.27%) Oracle Database
10 6 (1.09%) Data Lake
11 5 (0.91%) PostgreSQL
11 5 (0.91%) Power Query
12 4 (0.73%) NoSQL
13 3 (0.55%) Crystal Reports
13 3 (0.55%) GIS
13 3 (0.55%) MS Access
13 3 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 25 (4.55%) JIRA
2 16 (2.91%) MSI
3 15 (2.73%) Git
4 11 (2.00%) Visual Studio
5 8 (1.45%) Jenkins
6 5 (0.91%) ERwin
6 5 (0.91%) PowerDesigner
7 4 (0.73%) Bitbucket Server
7 4 (0.73%) Robot Framework
7 4 (0.73%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.55%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.55%) Postman
8 3 (0.55%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.36%) Android Studio
9 2 (0.36%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.36%) Eclipse
9 2 (0.36%) Moq
9 2 (0.36%) Team Foundation Server
9 2 (0.36%) WinRunner
9 2 (0.36%) Xcode
General
1 209 (38.00%) Social Skills
2 69 (12.55%) Finance
3 65 (11.82%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (7.82%) Telecoms
5 38 (6.91%) Public Sector
6 25 (4.55%) Organisational Skills
7 16 (2.91%) Games
8 14 (2.55%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (2.55%) Manufacturing
9 13 (2.36%) Legal
10 12 (2.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (2.00%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (1.82%) Automotive
13 9 (1.64%) Marketing
14 6 (1.09%) Billing
15 5 (0.91%) Law
16 4 (0.73%) Electronics
17 3 (0.55%) Aerospace
17 3 (0.55%) Military
17 3 (0.55%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 80 (14.55%) Analyst
2 59 (10.73%) Support Engineer
3 51 (9.27%) Architect
4 43 (7.82%) Developer
5 33 (6.00%) Senior
6 31 (5.64%) Consultant
7 28 (5.09%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 27 (4.91%) 2nd Line Support
9 26 (4.73%) IT Support
10 25 (4.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 22 (4.00%) Platform Engineer
12 21 (3.82%) Azure Engineer
13 20 (3.64%) 3rd Line Support
13 20 (3.64%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
13 20 (3.64%) Infrastructure Architect
14 18 (3.27%) Support Analyst
15 17 (3.09%) Desktop Engineer
15 17 (3.09%) Desktop Support
16 15 (2.73%) Service Analyst
16 15 (2.73%) VMware Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (3.64%) .NET
2 14 (2.55%) Web Services
3 13 (2.36%) CSS
4 12 (2.18%) AngularJS
4 12 (2.18%) HTML
4 12 (2.18%) React
4 12 (2.18%) SOAP
5 11 (2.00%) JSON
6 10 (1.82%) XML
7 9 (1.64%) .NET Core
8 8 (1.45%) RESTful
9 7 (1.27%) OAuth
9 7 (1.27%) REST
10 6 (1.09%) Ajax
10 6 (1.09%) Middleware
11 5 (0.91%) .NET Framework
11 5 (0.91%) ADO
11 5 (0.91%) ARM Templates
11 5 (0.91%) jQuery
11 5 (0.91%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (5.27%) Self-Motivation
2 24 (4.36%) PKI
3 22 (4.00%) Onboarding
4 15 (2.73%) Data Centre
5 14 (2.55%) Clustering
6 12 (2.18%) Security Posture
7 11 (2.00%) Replication
8 10 (1.82%) Management Information System
8 10 (1.82%) Product Ownership
9 9 (1.64%) Video Conferencing
10 7 (1.27%) Cloud Native
10 7 (1.27%) Cyber Threat
10 7 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.27%) Driving Licence
10 7 (1.27%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (1.27%) Legacy Systems
10 7 (1.27%) Security Operations Centre
11 6 (1.09%) Life Science
11 6 (1.09%) Operational Technology
11 6 (1.09%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 208 (37.82%) Windows
2 59 (10.73%) Windows Server
3 55 (10.00%) Linux
4 41 (7.45%) Windows 10
5 27 (4.91%) Mac OS
6 24 (4.36%) Unix
7 23 (4.18%) Android
8 21 (3.82%) Windows Server 2019
9 14 (2.55%) Windows Server 2003
10 7 (1.27%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (1.09%) Apple iOS
11 6 (1.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 5 (0.91%) Ubuntu
13 4 (0.73%) CentOS
13 4 (0.73%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.55%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.36%) Debian
16 1 (0.18%) VMS
16 1 (0.18%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (24.91%) Problem-Solving
2 74 (13.45%) DevOps
3 70 (12.73%) Agile
3 70 (12.73%) Migration
4 67 (12.18%) ITIL
5 49 (8.91%) Business Intelligence
6 44 (8.00%) Cybersecurity
7 41 (7.45%) Customer Service
8 40 (7.27%) Project Management
9 38 (6.91%) Continuous Improvement
10 35 (6.36%) Analytics
11 33 (6.00%) Stakeholder Management
12 29 (5.27%) CI/CD
13 28 (5.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 27 (4.91%) Change Management
14 27 (4.91%) Infrastructure as Code
15 26 (4.73%) Collaborative Working
16 25 (4.55%) Roadmaps
17 23 (4.18%) Data Modelling
17 23 (4.18%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 101 (18.36%) PowerShell
2 86 (15.64%) SQL
3 45 (8.18%) Python
4 41 (7.45%) C#
5 37 (6.73%) Java
6 21 (3.82%) JavaScript
7 15 (2.73%) VB
8 13 (2.36%) Bash
9 11 (2.00%) Bicep
10 8 (1.45%) PHP
10 8 (1.45%) PL/SQL
10 8 (1.45%) TypeScript
11 6 (1.09%) Delphi
12 5 (0.91%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.73%) Kusto Query Language
13 4 (0.73%) Perl
13 4 (0.73%) R
14 3 (0.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 3 (0.55%) DataWeave
14 3 (0.55%) VBA
Qualifications
1 112 (20.36%) Security Cleared
2 63 (11.45%) Degree
3 56 (10.18%) SC Cleared
4 46 (8.36%) DV Cleared
5 41 (7.45%) Microsoft Certification
6 18 (3.27%) Cisco Certification
7 16 (2.91%) CCNP
7 16 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
7 16 (2.91%) MCSE
8 15 (2.73%) ISEB
8 15 (2.73%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 14 (2.55%) ISTQB
10 13 (2.36%) CISSP
10 13 (2.36%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 12 (2.18%) VCP5
11 12 (2.18%) VCP6
12 11 (2.00%) A+ Certification
13 8 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
14 7 (1.27%) GCIH
14 7 (1.27%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (4.36%) GDPR
2 18 (3.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (2.91%) SLA
4 12 (2.18%) NIST
5 11 (2.00%) Data Quality
6 9 (1.64%) HIPAA
7 6 (1.09%) Cyber Essentials
8 5 (0.91%) PMO
9 4 (0.73%) QA
10 3 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.55%) ECSS
10 3 (0.55%) ISO 9001
10 3 (0.55%) NCSC
11 2 (0.36%) GRC
11 2 (0.36%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.36%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.18%) Accessibility
12 1 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.18%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.18%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 142 (25.82%) Active Directory
2 53 (9.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (5.45%) vSphere
4 26 (4.73%) VMware ESXi
5 17 (3.09%) Hyper-V
6 15 (2.73%) NFS
7 12 (2.18%) Docker
8 11 (2.00%) Terminal Services
9 9 (1.64%) DFS Replication
10 8 (1.45%) BitLocker
10 8 (1.45%) Microsoft App-V
11 7 (1.27%) Brightmail
11 7 (1.27%) ISA Server
11 7 (1.27%) Virtual Desktop
11 7 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
12 6 (1.09%) XenApp
13 5 (0.91%) XenDesktop
14 1 (0.18%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 60 (10.91%) Microsoft Intune
2 52 (9.45%) SCCM
3 31 (5.64%) Terraform
4 25 (4.55%) Ansible
5 20 (3.64%) Kubernetes
6 11 (2.00%) Microsoft Clustering
6 11 (2.00%) Puppet
7 10 (1.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 9 (1.64%) vCenter Server
9 8 (1.45%) Nagios
9 8 (1.45%) SCOM
9 8 (1.45%) vMotion
10 7 (1.27%) WMI
11 5 (0.91%) WSUS
12 4 (0.73%) Prometheus
13 3 (0.55%) CloudHub
13 3 (0.55%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
13 3 (0.55%) Grafana
13 3 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
14 2 (0.36%) Malwarebytes
Vendors
1 65 (11.82%) VMware
2 47 (8.55%) Splunk
3 44 (8.00%) Cisco
4 42 (7.64%) Citrix
5 32 (5.82%) ServiceNow
6 29 (5.27%) SAP
7 23 (4.18%) Oracle
8 18 (3.27%) Meraki
9 16 (2.91%) NetApp
9 16 (2.91%) Veeam
10 14 (2.55%) Google
10 14 (2.55%) HP
11 13 (2.36%) Juniper
11 13 (2.36%) Sage
11 13 (2.36%) Salesforce
12 11 (2.00%) CrowdStrike
12 11 (2.00%) Symantec
13 9 (1.64%) Databricks
14 7 (1.27%) CyberArk
14 7 (1.27%) Red Hat