Microsoft 365 Engineer Contract Job Trends

Microsoft 365 Engineer (M365 Engineer)
UK

The median Microsoft 365 Engineer (M365 Engineer) daily rate in the UK is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 January 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 530 403 498
Rank change year-on-year -127 +95 +86
Contract jobs requiring a Microsoft 365 Engineer 63 115 104
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.37% 0.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.18% 0.40% 0.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 45 75 81
10th Percentile £292 £150 £163
25th Percentile £413 £225 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year +11.76% +6.25% +10.34%
75th Percentile £530 £519 £518
90th Percentile £583 £626 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £413 £400
% change year-on-year +15.15% +3.13% +14.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £21.46 - -
Median hourly rate £21.84 - -
75th Percentile £34.02 - -
90th Percentile £55.27 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.63 - -

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 35,104 29,073 41,093
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.45% 92.88% 93.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,171 17,758 27,208
10th Percentile £300 £291 £275
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £495
% change year-on-year -0.42% -3.64% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,077 858 2,114
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.98 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.23
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -13.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.53 £73.93
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £30.98 £40.00
% change year-on-year -11.23% -22.56% +33.33%

Microsoft 365 Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Microsoft 365 Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Microsoft 365 Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Microsoft 365 Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Microsoft 365 Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Microsoft 365 Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Microsoft 365 Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft 365 Engineer over the 6 months to 28 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft 365 Engineer in the UK

Microsoft 365 Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Microsoft 365 Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Microsoft 365 Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Microsoft 365 Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft 365 Engineer over the 6 months to 28 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft 365 Engineer in the UK

Microsoft 365 Engineer
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft 365 Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 28 January 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
England -122 58 £475 +5.56% 9
UK excluding London -68 33 £475 +15.15% 7
London -64 29 £450 -5.26% 3
South East +2 22 £475 +163.89% 6
Work from Home -35 17 £475 +8.57% 1
Scotland +5 4 £550 +271.62%
North West -41 3 £96 -77.34%
North of England -70 3 £96 -77.34% 1
Midlands -49 2 £420 +5.00%
East of England -13 1 - -
East Midlands -31 1 £450 +150.00%
West Midlands -37 1 £390 -17.13%
South West -39 1 £171 -59.76%

Microsoft 365 Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 28 January 2026, Microsoft 365 Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Microsoft 365 Engineer in the job title.

1 57 (90.48%) Microsoft 365
2 46 (73.02%) Microsoft
3 37 (58.73%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (39.68%) Active Directory
4 25 (39.68%) PowerShell
4 25 (39.68%) Security Cleared
5 24 (38.10%) Entra ID
6 23 (36.51%) SharePoint
7 19 (30.16%) DV Cleared
8 18 (28.57%) Azure
8 18 (28.57%) Microsoft Intune
9 16 (25.40%) Microsoft Office
10 15 (23.81%) Migration
11 14 (22.22%) Windows
12 12 (19.05%) Degree
13 11 (17.46%) OneDrive
13 11 (17.46%) Roadmaps
14 10 (15.87%) Microsoft Certification
15 9 (14.29%) Microsoft Purview
15 9 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
16 8 (12.70%) High Availability
16 8 (12.70%) ITIL
16 8 (12.70%) SC Cleared
17 7 (11.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
17 7 (11.11%) Disaster Recovery
17 7 (11.11%) E-Discovery
17 7 (11.11%) MCSA
17 7 (11.11%) MCSE
17 7 (11.11%) Power Platform
17 7 (11.11%) Root Cause Analysis

Microsoft 365 Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 37 (58.73%) Microsoft Exchange
2 23 (36.51%) SharePoint
Applications
1 16 (25.40%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (4.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.59%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (1.59%) Trello
Business Applications
1 7 (11.11%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 57 (90.48%) Microsoft 365
2 24 (38.10%) Entra ID
3 18 (28.57%) Azure
4 11 (17.46%) OneDrive
5 9 (14.29%) Microsoft Purview
6 7 (11.11%) Power Platform
7 5 (7.94%) PowerApps
8 4 (6.35%) Microsoft Copilot
9 2 (3.17%) AWS
9 2 (3.17%) Azure Logic Apps
9 2 (3.17%) Copilot Studio
9 2 (3.17%) IaaS
9 2 (3.17%) Power Automate
9 2 (3.17%) SaaS
9 2 (3.17%) ShareGate
9 2 (3.17%) Viva Engage
10 1 (1.59%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (1.59%) Azure Storage
10 1 (1.59%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (9.52%) Firewall
2 3 (4.76%) DNS
3 2 (3.17%) TCP/IP
3 2 (3.17%) Unified Communications
3 2 (3.17%) VPN
3 2 (3.17%) Wireless
4 1 (1.59%) DHCP
4 1 (1.59%) MPLS
4 1 (1.59%) PBX
4 1 (1.59%) Remote Desktop
4 1 (1.59%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (9.52%) Power BI
2 1 (1.59%) DTS
Development Applications
1 1 (1.59%) JIRA
General
1 18 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 6 (9.52%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (6.35%) Banking
3 4 (6.35%) Finance
3 4 (6.35%) Public Sector
4 2 (3.17%) International Banking
5 1 (1.59%) Automotive
5 1 (1.59%) Corporate Banking
5 1 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (1.59%) Financial Institution
5 1 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.17%) Web Services
2 1 (1.59%) JSON
2 1 (1.59%) Microsoft Graph
2 1 (1.59%) OAuth
2 1 (1.59%) REST
2 1 (1.59%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 8 (12.70%) BYOD
2 6 (9.52%) Onboarding
3 3 (4.76%) Data Centre
4 2 (3.17%) Social Media
5 1 (1.59%) Chip and PIN
5 1 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.59%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.59%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 14 (22.22%) Windows
2 6 (9.52%) Windows 10
2 6 (9.52%) Windows Server
3 3 (4.76%) Android
4 2 (3.17%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (23.81%) Migration
2 11 (17.46%) Roadmaps
3 9 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
4 8 (12.70%) High Availability
4 8 (12.70%) ITIL
5 7 (11.11%) Disaster Recovery
5 7 (11.11%) E-Discovery
5 7 (11.11%) Root Cause Analysis
6 6 (9.52%) Agile
6 6 (9.52%) Business Intelligence
6 6 (9.52%) Security Operations
7 5 (7.94%) Contingency Planning
7 5 (7.94%) Identity Access Management
7 5 (7.94%) PLM
7 5 (7.94%) Technology Roadmap
8 4 (6.35%) Computer Science
8 4 (6.35%) Continuous Improvement
8 4 (6.35%) Cost Reduction
8 4 (6.35%) Project Management
8 4 (6.35%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 25 (39.68%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 25 (39.68%) Security Cleared
2 19 (30.16%) DV Cleared
3 12 (19.05%) Degree
4 10 (15.87%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (12.70%) SC Cleared
6 7 (11.11%) MCSA
6 7 (11.11%) MCSE
7 3 (4.76%) Azure Certification
8 2 (3.17%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (1.59%) A+ Certification
9 1 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (1.59%) CCNA
9 1 (1.59%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (6.35%) GDPR
2 3 (4.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (4.76%) NIST
3 1 (1.59%) HIPAA
3 1 (1.59%) QA
3 1 (1.59%) SLA
System Software
1 25 (39.68%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.59%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 18 (28.57%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (11.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 2 (3.17%) QRadar
4 1 (1.59%) SCCM
Vendors
1 46 (73.02%) Microsoft
2 3 (4.76%) Apple
2 3 (4.76%) Cisco
2 3 (4.76%) Dell
2 3 (4.76%) HP
3 2 (3.17%) OpenAI
3 2 (3.17%) Qualys
4 1 (1.59%) BMC
4 1 (1.59%) Remedy
4 1 (1.59%) ServiceNow
4 1 (1.59%) Varonis
4 1 (1.59%) Verint