Windows Server Contracts

Microsoft Windows Server
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Windows Server skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Windows Server over the 6 months to 15 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
15 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 98 82 119
Rank change year-on-year -16 +37 -9
Contract jobs citing Windows Server 969 1,634 1,998
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 2.28% 2.86% 2.28%
As % of the Operating Systems category 17.13% 17.65% 15.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 711 1,182 1,455
10th Percentile £206 £206 £190
25th Percentile £313 £360 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £500 £425
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% +17.65% +3.03%
75th Percentile £594 £600 £569
90th Percentile £690 £700 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £400
% change year-on-year +2.70% +15.63% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 58 67
10th Percentile £14.89 £20.00 £15.58
25th Percentile £16.06 £24.62 £18.00
Median hourly rate £46.75 £32.00 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.09% +39.13% -8.00%
75th Percentile £61.60 £49.49 £47.54
90th Percentile £66.88 £61.74 £66.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.00 £37.50 £22.25
% change year-on-year +54.67% +68.54% -7.29%

All Operating Systems
UK

Windows Server is in the Operating Systems category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 5,658 9,258 13,082
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.30% 16.21% 14.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,818 6,479 8,883
10th Percentile £185 £190 £175
25th Percentile £300 £331 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £501 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.09% +0.10% +11.11%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £613
90th Percentile £700 £719 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £425
% change year-on-year -5.26% +11.76% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 390 404 604
10th Percentile £12.73 £14.25 £13.38
25th Percentile £15.31 £17.97 £16.08
Median hourly rate £22.00 £38.50 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.86% +67.39% +29.50%
75th Percentile £60.56 £64.50 £52.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £29.30 £20.00
% change year-on-year -23.21% +46.50% +21.21%

Windows Server
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Windows Server as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Windows Server.

Daily rate trend for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows Server over the 6 months to 15 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Windows Server.

Hourly rate trend for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Windows Server over the 6 months to 15 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Windows Server in the UK

Windows Server
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Windows Server within the UK over the 6 months to 15 May 2024. 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
England -7 878 £475 -5.00% 655
UK excluding London -7 603 £475 +2.70% 552
London +7 314 £450 -10.00% 133
Work from Home -32 249 £464 -6.78% 210
South East +11 222 £550 +6.54% 150
North of England 0 136 £475 +16.92% 110
Midlands -4 86 £350 -12.50% 109
North West -9 74 £800 +64.10% 52
South West -34 70 £500 -9.09% 75
West Midlands +4 54 £350 -26.32% 66
Yorkshire +11 46 £325 -13.33% 47
Scotland +6 46 £450 -2.70% 27
East of England -31 34 £250 -38.46% 76
East Midlands -7 30 £325 - 43
North East +12 16 £525 +94.44% 12
Wales -5 12 £223 -47.65% 11

Windows Server
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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
1 187 (19.30%) Microsoft Exchange
2 72 (7.43%) SharePoint
3 35 (3.61%) IIS
4 27 (2.79%) Confluence
5 26 (2.68%) Exchange Server 2013
6 25 (2.58%) Exchange Server 2010
7 15 (1.55%) Apache
8 12 (1.24%) nginx
8 12 (1.24%) Skype for Business
8 12 (1.24%) Tomcat
9 11 (1.14%) Exchange Server 2003
9 11 (1.14%) Exchange Server 2007
10 9 (0.93%) JBoss
11 4 (0.41%) SAS
12 3 (0.31%) WordPress
13 1 (0.10%) IBM Domino
13 1 (0.10%) IBM Notes
13 1 (0.10%) OpenStack
Applications
1 57 (5.88%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.21%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.21%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.10%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 9 (0.93%) Temenos T24
2 6 (0.62%) Teamcenter
3 5 (0.52%) Dynamics GP
3 5 (0.52%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.21%) Remedy AR System
5 1 (0.10%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.10%) Eikon
5 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.10%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
5 1 (0.10%) RMDS
5 1 (0.10%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.10%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 312 (32.20%) Azure
2 288 (29.72%) Microsoft 365
3 116 (11.97%) AWS
4 99 (10.22%) Entra ID
5 42 (4.33%) IaaS
6 38 (3.92%) Azure DevOps
7 30 (3.10%) Azure Monitor
8 26 (2.68%) OneDrive
9 22 (2.27%) Azure Storage
10 20 (2.06%) GCP
11 19 (1.96%) GitHub
11 19 (1.96%) Power Platform
12 18 (1.86%) OCI
12 18 (1.86%) PaaS
13 17 (1.75%) Amazon EC2
14 16 (1.65%) Cloud Computing
15 13 (1.34%) OpenShift
15 13 (1.34%) SaaS
16 11 (1.14%) Nutanix
17 9 (0.93%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 250 (25.80%) Firewall
2 239 (24.66%) DNS
3 158 (16.31%) DHCP
4 116 (11.97%) VPN
5 91 (9.39%) SAN
6 71 (7.33%) LAN
7 66 (6.81%) WAN
8 37 (3.82%) TCP/IP
9 32 (3.30%) NAS
10 24 (2.48%) VLAN
11 21 (2.17%) Skype
12 20 (2.06%) Wireless
13 19 (1.96%) Wi-Fi
14 18 (1.86%) Remote Desktop
15 17 (1.75%) SMTP
16 15 (1.55%) MPLS
17 14 (1.44%) Fibre Channel
18 13 (1.34%) Internet
19 12 (1.24%) Unified Communications
19 12 (1.24%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 134 (13.83%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.96%) MySQL
3 17 (1.75%) Elasticsearch
3 17 (1.75%) Relational Database
4 16 (1.65%) PostgreSQL
5 15 (1.55%) Amazon RDS
5 15 (1.55%) RDBMS
6 12 (1.24%) Power BI
7 6 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
8 5 (0.52%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (0.41%) Big Data
9 4 (0.41%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.41%) DB2
9 4 (0.41%) MongoDB
10 2 (0.21%) BigQuery
10 2 (0.21%) Looker
10 2 (0.21%) MariaDB
10 2 (0.21%) Tableau
11 1 (0.10%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 51 (5.26%) JIRA
2 35 (3.61%) Jenkins
3 24 (2.48%) Git
4 20 (2.06%) Robot Framework
5 16 (1.65%) Sonatype Nexus
6 14 (1.44%) Artifactory
6 14 (1.44%) GitLab
6 14 (1.44%) Subversion
7 12 (1.24%) TeamCity
8 8 (0.83%) Selenium
9 7 (0.72%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 4 (0.41%) Octopus Deploy
10 4 (0.41%) SonarQube
11 3 (0.31%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.31%) Burp Suite
11 3 (0.31%) Visual Studio
12 2 (0.21%) AppScan
12 2 (0.21%) JMeter
12 2 (0.21%) Team Foundation Server
13 1 (0.10%) Gradle
General
1 264 (27.24%) Social Skills
2 107 (11.04%) Finance
3 96 (9.91%) Analytical Skills
4 90 (9.29%) Public Sector
5 27 (2.79%) Documentation Skills
6 23 (2.37%) Banking
7 22 (2.27%) Military
8 18 (1.86%) Legal
9 17 (1.75%) Telecoms
10 11 (1.14%) Mandarin Language
10 11 (1.14%) Manufacturing
11 8 (0.83%) Marketing
11 8 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (0.72%) French Language
12 7 (0.72%) Presentation Skills
13 6 (0.62%) Electronics
13 6 (0.62%) Investment Banking
13 6 (0.62%) Law
14 4 (0.41%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.41%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 179 (18.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 91 (9.39%) Support Engineer
3 87 (8.98%) Architect
4 66 (6.81%) Windows Engineer
5 62 (6.40%) Senior
6 59 (6.09%) Administrator
6 59 (6.09%) Analyst
7 51 (5.26%) IT Support
8 49 (5.06%) Wintel Engineer
9 47 (4.85%) IT Engineer
10 46 (4.75%) Technical Architect
11 41 (4.23%) Lead
12 38 (3.92%) Server Engineer
13 37 (3.82%) Integration Engineer
14 34 (3.51%) Lead Architect
14 34 (3.51%) Technical Leader
15 32 (3.30%) Systems Administrator
16 31 (3.20%) 3rd Line Support
16 31 (3.20%) Azure Engineer
17 30 (3.10%) 3rd Line Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (4.95%) Node.js
2 32 (3.30%) .NET
3 21 (2.17%) ARM Templates
4 20 (2.06%) Middleware
5 16 (1.65%) LDAP
6 11 (1.14%) REST
7 9 (0.93%) IBM Integration Bus
8 8 (0.83%) CSS
9 7 (0.72%) ASP.NET
9 7 (0.72%) Elastic Stack
9 7 (0.72%) Web Services
9 7 (0.72%) XML
10 6 (0.62%) HTML
10 6 (0.62%) Itk
11 5 (0.52%) YAML
12 4 (0.41%) FIX Protocol
12 4 (0.41%) Flash
12 4 (0.41%) JSON
12 4 (0.41%) POSIX
12 4 (0.41%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 105 (10.84%) PKI
2 53 (5.47%) Data Centre
3 48 (4.95%) Clustering
3 48 (4.95%) Public Cloud
4 39 (4.02%) Replication
5 32 (3.30%) Self-Motivation
6 27 (2.79%) Client/Server
7 25 (2.58%) NHS
8 19 (1.96%) Video Conferencing
9 18 (1.86%) Management Information System
10 15 (1.55%) Onboarding
10 15 (1.55%) Product Ownership
11 13 (1.34%) Driving Licence
12 10 (1.03%) Mobile App
13 9 (0.93%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 9 (0.93%) Fat Client
13 9 (0.93%) Thin Client
14 8 (0.83%) Data Protection Act
15 6 (0.62%) Digital Signage
15 6 (0.62%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 965 (99.59%) Windows
2 210 (21.67%) Linux
3 191 (19.71%) Windows Server 2012
4 170 (17.54%) Windows 10
5 165 (17.03%) Windows Server 2019
6 156 (16.10%) Windows Server 2016
7 67 (6.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 56 (5.78%) Apple iOS
9 53 (5.47%) Android
10 48 (4.95%) Windows Server 2008
11 42 (4.33%) Unix
12 29 (2.99%) Windows 7
13 24 (2.48%) VMS
14 19 (1.96%) Mac OS
14 19 (1.96%) Windows NT
14 19 (1.96%) Windows Server 2003
15 17 (1.75%) CentOS
16 15 (1.55%) Ubuntu
16 15 (1.55%) Windows XP
17 7 (0.72%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 229 (23.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 170 (17.54%) ITIL
3 152 (15.69%) DevOps
4 142 (14.65%) Agile
5 123 (12.69%) Problem-Solving
6 104 (10.73%) Migration
7 99 (10.22%) CI/CD
8 98 (10.11%) Customer Service
9 84 (8.67%) Mobile Device Management
10 70 (7.22%) Disaster Recovery
11 69 (7.12%) Service Management
12 62 (6.40%) Change Management
13 58 (5.99%) High Availability
13 58 (5.99%) Server Management
14 56 (5.78%) Release Management
15 54 (5.57%) Infrastructure as Code
16 51 (5.26%) Security Architecture
17 46 (4.75%) Risk Management
18 44 (4.54%) Vulnerability Management
19 43 (4.44%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 294 (30.34%) PowerShell
2 140 (14.45%) SQL
3 102 (10.53%) Python
4 47 (4.85%) C#
5 36 (3.72%) VBScript
6 32 (3.30%) Bash
7 29 (2.99%) Java
8 23 (2.37%) VB
9 20 (2.06%) Bicep
10 15 (1.55%) Shell Script
11 13 (1.34%) C++
11 13 (1.34%) Perl
12 9 (0.93%) F#
12 9 (0.93%) T-SQL
13 5 (0.52%) C
13 5 (0.52%) PHP
14 4 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
14 4 (0.41%) Ruby
15 3 (0.31%) VBA
16 2 (0.21%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 331 (34.16%) Security Cleared
2 181 (18.68%) DV Cleared
3 156 (16.10%) SC Cleared
4 121 (12.49%) Degree
5 97 (10.01%) Microsoft Certification
6 57 (5.88%) MCSE
7 34 (3.51%) MCSA
8 27 (2.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 23 (2.37%) CCNA
9 23 (2.37%) Cisco Certification
10 21 (2.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 19 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (1.86%) Azure Certification
12 18 (1.86%) CCNP
13 11 (1.14%) DBS Check
13 11 (1.14%) ITIL Certification
14 7 (0.72%) BPSS Clearance
14 7 (0.72%) MCITP
15 6 (0.62%) RHCT
16 5 (0.52%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (3.72%) QA
2 28 (2.89%) SLA
3 11 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (1.03%) NIST
5 9 (0.93%) GDPR
6 8 (0.83%) Disclosure Scotland
7 7 (0.72%) RMADS
8 6 (0.62%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.62%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.10%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.10%) COBIT
10 1 (0.10%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.10%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.10%) NCSC
System Software
1 575 (59.34%) Active Directory
2 273 (28.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 106 (10.94%) Hyper-V
4 78 (8.05%) VMware ESXi
5 46 (4.75%) vSphere
6 38 (3.92%) VMware NSX
7 37 (3.82%) Virtual Machines
8 36 (3.72%) Virtual Desktop
9 34 (3.51%) Docker
10 26 (2.68%) Firmware
11 25 (2.58%) XenApp
12 17 (1.75%) Virtual Servers
13 14 (1.44%) XenDesktop
14 13 (1.34%) Terminal Services
15 9 (0.93%) BitLocker
15 9 (0.93%) KVM
16 8 (0.83%) Citrix Hypervisor
17 7 (0.72%) Microsoft App-V
17 7 (0.72%) VMware Workstation
18 5 (0.52%) NFS
Systems Management
1 189 (19.50%) SCCM
2 101 (10.42%) WSUS
3 72 (7.43%) Microsoft Intune
4 65 (6.71%) Ansible
4 65 (6.71%) vCenter Server
5 62 (6.40%) SCOM
6 61 (6.30%) Kubernetes
7 52 (5.37%) Terraform
8 48 (4.95%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 22 (2.27%) EMC NetWorker
10 21 (2.17%) NetBackup
11 19 (1.96%) Sysprep
12 13 (1.34%) Prometheus
13 12 (1.24%) Nessus
13 12 (1.24%) Puppet
14 11 (1.14%) Failover Clustering
14 11 (1.14%) Grafana
14 11 (1.14%) Progress Chef
15 10 (1.03%) Autotask
15 10 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 465 (47.99%) Microsoft
2 395 (40.76%) VMware
3 97 (10.01%) Citrix
4 86 (8.88%) Veeam
5 71 (7.33%) Cisco
6 60 (6.19%) Oracle
7 51 (5.26%) Dell
8 42 (4.33%) HP
8 42 (4.33%) Red Hat
9 36 (3.72%) ServiceNow
10 31 (3.20%) EMC
10 31 (3.20%) Palo Alto
11 25 (2.58%) Juniper
12 24 (2.48%) Apple
12 24 (2.48%) Google
13 22 (2.27%) IBM
14 21 (2.17%) Splunk
15 19 (1.96%) NetApp
15 19 (1.96%) Qualys
16 18 (1.86%) Symantec