Virtual Machines Contract Job Trends in England

Virtual Machine (VM)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Virtual Machines skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
19 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 367 374 297
Rank change year-on-year +7 -77 +35
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 277 130 238
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.61% 0.47% 0.72%
As % of the System Software category 5.98% 3.96% 6.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 170 90 164
10th Percentile £391 £349 £334
25th Percentile £425 £408 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £495 £535
Median % change year-on-year +1.11% -7.57% +1.90%
75th Percentile £588 £598 £608
90th Percentile £678 £675 £670
UK median daily rate £500 £495 £535
% change year-on-year +1.11% -7.57% +1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 14
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £26.00 £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £35.00 £34.50 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year +1.45% +135.90% -78.65%
75th Percentile £68.75 £35.75 £15.19
90th Percentile £69.50 - £63.04
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £34.50 £14.63
% change year-on-year +1.45% +135.90% -77.84%

All System Software Skills
England

Virtual Machines falls under the System Software category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring system software skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,632 3,280 3,885
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.13% 11.89% 11.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,060 2,119 2,688
10th Percentile £218 £225 £229
25th Percentile £400 £382 £387
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £685 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 94 128
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.02 £14.06
25th Percentile £28.75 £23.00 £15.70
Median hourly rate £60.17 £40.73 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +47.73% +68.42% -35.52%
75th Percentile £74.26 £81.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £89.28 £91.50 £74.68
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £34.50 £24.18
% change year-on-year +59.42% +42.68% -49.45%

Virtual Machines
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Virtual Machines relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Virtual Machines job vacancy trend in England

Virtual Machines
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Virtual Machines.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Virtual Machines in England over the 6 months to 19 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Virtual Machines in England

Virtual Machines
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Virtual Machines.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Virtual Machines in England over the 6 months to 19 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Virtual Machines in England

Virtual Machines
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Virtual Machines within the England region over the 6 months to 19 August 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
London -39 110 £532 +6.40% 38
North of England -20 75 £497 +19.35% 6
South East -29 54 £475 -20.83% 21
Yorkshire -16 40 £515 +16.45% 2
North West -22 34 £480 +42.22% 3
South West -28 17 £540 -8.09% 11
Midlands -42 17 £487 -1.62% 7
West Midlands -61 11 £406 -18.47% 7
East of England -22 6 £425 +41.67% 7
East Midlands -13 4 £500 +5.26%
North East - 1 £400 - 1
Virtual Machines
UK

Virtual Machines
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 5 (1.81%) Confluence
1 5 (1.81%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.44%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.72%) Apache
3 2 (0.72%) CMS
3 2 (0.72%) IIS
3 2 (0.72%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.36%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.36%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.36%) Palantir Foundry
4 1 (0.36%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.44%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.44%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.72%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.72%) InDesign
3 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.36%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.72%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 134 (48.38%) Azure
2 49 (17.69%) Entra ID
3 40 (14.44%) AWS
4 36 (13.00%) Azure Monitor
5 30 (10.83%) Azure DevOps
6 27 (9.75%) Azure AKS
7 25 (9.03%) OpenShift
8 23 (8.30%) GitHub
8 23 (8.30%) IaaS
9 18 (6.50%) GitHub Actions
10 15 (5.42%) Microsoft 365
11 12 (4.33%) Azure Key Vault
12 11 (3.97%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 11 (3.97%) GCP
12 11 (3.97%) Serverless
13 10 (3.61%) PaaS
13 10 (3.61%) Power Platform
13 10 (3.61%) SaaS
14 9 (3.25%) Azure Logic Apps
14 9 (3.25%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 40 (14.44%) DNS
2 39 (14.08%) Firewall
3 24 (8.66%) VPN
4 20 (7.22%) DHCP
4 20 (7.22%) Network Security
4 20 (7.22%) VSAN
5 19 (6.86%) SSL
5 19 (6.86%) VLAN
6 16 (5.78%) WAN
7 10 (3.61%) SD-WAN
8 8 (2.89%) FTP
8 8 (2.89%) SAN
9 7 (2.53%) LAN
10 5 (1.81%) Wi-Fi
11 4 (1.44%) HTTPS
11 4 (1.44%) SSH
12 3 (1.08%) Cisco Nexus
12 3 (1.08%) NAS
12 3 (1.08%) TCP/IP
13 2 (0.72%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (10.83%) SQL Server
2 10 (3.61%) Azure SQL Database
2 10 (3.61%) Power BI
3 8 (2.89%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (2.53%) Data Lake
4 7 (2.53%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 6 (2.17%) MySQL
6 3 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (1.08%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.36%) Amazon QuickSight
7 1 (0.36%) Neo4j
7 1 (0.36%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.36%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.36%) Power Query
7 1 (0.36%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 15 (5.42%) Git
2 12 (4.33%) Jenkins
3 6 (2.17%) GitLab
3 6 (2.17%) JIRA
4 2 (0.72%) CppUnit
4 2 (0.72%) PVCS
4 2 (0.72%) Rational DOORS
4 2 (0.72%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.72%) Team Foundation Server
4 2 (0.72%) Terragrunt
5 1 (0.36%) Selenium
5 1 (0.36%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.36%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.36%) Visual Studio
General
1 44 (15.88%) Social Skills
2 26 (9.39%) Finance
3 11 (3.97%) Banking
3 11 (3.97%) Legal
4 10 (3.61%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (3.25%) Public Sector
6 7 (2.53%) Retail
7 6 (2.17%) Front Office
8 5 (1.81%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.44%) Marketing
10 2 (0.72%) Law
10 2 (0.72%) Local Government
10 2 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.72%) Publishing
11 1 (0.36%) Advertising
11 1 (0.36%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.36%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.36%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 42 (15.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 32 (11.55%) Azure Engineer
3 31 (11.19%) Cloud Engineer
4 28 (10.11%) DevOps Engineer
5 25 (9.03%) Senior
6 21 (7.58%) Lead
7 17 (6.14%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
8 16 (5.78%) Architect
9 15 (5.42%) Analyst
9 15 (5.42%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
10 9 (3.25%) Administrator
10 9 (3.25%) DBA
10 9 (3.25%) Linux Engineer
10 9 (3.25%) VMware Engineer
10 9 (3.25%) Wintel Engineer
11 8 (2.89%) Consultant
11 8 (2.89%) Solutions Architect
11 8 (2.89%) Storage Engineer
12 7 (2.53%) Platform Engineer
13 6 (2.17%) Market Risk Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (3.61%) ARM Templates
2 8 (2.89%) REST
2 8 (2.89%) YAML
3 5 (1.81%) Middleware
4 3 (1.08%) Elastic Stack
4 3 (1.08%) JSON
5 2 (0.72%) SOAP
6 1 (0.36%) ADO
6 1 (0.36%) cloud-init
6 1 (0.36%) Java SE
6 1 (0.36%) Lambda Expressions
6 1 (0.36%) LDAP
6 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.36%) Node.js
6 1 (0.36%) NumPy
6 1 (0.36%) OpenID
6 1 (0.36%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 1 (0.36%) Pandas
6 1 (0.36%) SciPy
6 1 (0.36%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 31 (11.19%) Replication
2 25 (9.03%) Clustering
3 19 (6.86%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (4.69%) Data Centre
5 11 (3.97%) Linux Command Line
6 8 (2.89%) Cloud Native
6 8 (2.89%) Enterprise Storage
6 8 (2.89%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.53%) Mainframe
7 7 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (2.17%) Fixed Income
8 6 (2.17%) Market Risk
8 6 (2.17%) Operational Technology
8 6 (2.17%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.81%) Onboarding
9 5 (1.81%) PKI
9 5 (1.81%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.08%) EMC Centera
10 3 (1.08%) SCADA
10 3 (1.08%) Symmetrix
Operating Systems
1 92 (33.21%) Windows
2 68 (24.55%) Linux
3 52 (18.77%) Windows Server
4 32 (11.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 25 (9.03%) VMS
6 7 (2.53%) Ubuntu
7 5 (1.81%) CoreOS
7 5 (1.81%) Unix
8 4 (1.44%) Data ONTAP
8 4 (1.44%) SUSE
8 4 (1.44%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (1.44%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (1.08%) AIX
9 3 (1.08%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.08%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.36%) Android
10 1 (0.36%) Solaris
10 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (24.91%) DevOps
2 68 (24.55%) CI/CD
3 61 (22.02%) Migration
4 60 (21.66%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 52 (18.77%) Infrastructure as Code
6 41 (14.80%) Performance Tuning
7 40 (14.44%) High Availability
8 39 (14.08%) Disaster Recovery
9 35 (12.64%) Continuous Improvement
10 31 (11.19%) Validation
11 29 (10.47%) Problem-Solving
11 29 (10.47%) RBAC
12 27 (9.75%) Network Virtualisation
13 26 (9.39%) Stakeholder Management
14 25 (9.03%) Capacity Planning
15 23 (8.30%) Platform Engineering
15 23 (8.30%) Runbook
15 23 (8.30%) Vulnerability Management
16 22 (7.94%) Vulnerability Remediation
17 21 (7.58%) Storage Management
Programming Languages
1 81 (29.24%) PowerShell
2 54 (19.49%) Python
3 38 (13.72%) SQL
4 30 (10.83%) Bash
5 10 (3.61%) Bicep
6 9 (3.25%) C#
7 6 (2.17%) C
7 6 (2.17%) T-SQL
8 4 (1.44%) Korn
8 4 (1.44%) PL/SQL
8 4 (1.44%) Shell Script
9 3 (1.08%) Java
10 2 (0.72%) C++
10 2 (0.72%) Embedded C
11 1 (0.36%) Go
11 1 (0.36%) Groovy
11 1 (0.36%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.36%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.36%) RPG
11 1 (0.36%) VBA
Qualifications
1 78 (28.16%) Security Cleared
2 62 (22.38%) SC Cleared
3 18 (6.50%) Azure Certification
4 17 (6.14%) Degree
4 17 (6.14%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (5.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 11 (3.97%) VCAP
7 10 (3.61%) MCSA
7 10 (3.61%) MCSE
8 9 (3.25%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (2.53%) DV Cleared
10 6 (2.17%) ISTQB
10 6 (2.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 5 (1.81%) CCNA
11 5 (1.81%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (1.81%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 4 (1.44%) OCP
12 4 (1.44%) Oracle Certification
13 3 (1.08%) CISSP
13 3 (1.08%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (3.61%) QA
2 3 (1.08%) PCI DSS
2 3 (1.08%) SLA
3 2 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
3 2 (0.72%) GMP
3 2 (0.72%) GxP
3 2 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.72%) NIST
4 1 (0.36%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.36%) GDPR
4 1 (0.36%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.36%) WCAG
System Software
1 87 (31.41%) VMware Infrastructure
2 45 (16.25%) Active Directory
3 44 (15.88%) vSphere
4 36 (13.00%) VMware ESXi
5 24 (8.66%) Docker
6 20 (7.22%) Hyper-V
7 14 (5.05%) VMware NSX
8 7 (2.53%) Ceph
8 7 (2.53%) NFS
8 7 (2.53%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (1.81%) Firmware
9 5 (1.81%) KVM
10 3 (1.08%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (1.08%) VMware Workstation
11 2 (0.72%) Veritas Volume Manager
12 1 (0.36%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 62 (22.38%) Terraform
2 46 (16.61%) Kubernetes
3 44 (15.88%) Ansible
4 26 (9.39%) vCenter Server
5 13 (4.69%) Grafana
6 12 (4.33%) PowerCLI
7 10 (3.61%) Prometheus
7 10 (3.61%) SCOM
8 9 (3.25%) Failover Clustering
9 8 (2.89%) SCCM
9 8 (2.89%) VxRail
10 6 (2.17%) Microsoft Clustering
10 6 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (2.17%) Podman
10 6 (2.17%) vMotion
11 4 (1.44%) Argo
11 4 (1.44%) Avamar
11 4 (1.44%) OPNET
11 4 (1.44%) Proxmox
11 4 (1.44%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 94 (33.94%) Microsoft
2 92 (33.21%) VMware
3 29 (10.47%) Cisco
4 21 (7.58%) Oracle
5 19 (6.86%) ServiceNow
6 16 (5.78%) NetApp
7 14 (5.05%) Dell
8 13 (4.69%) Red Hat
9 12 (4.33%) Veeam
10 10 (3.61%) IBM
10 10 (3.61%) Qualys
11 9 (3.25%) CyberArk
12 8 (2.89%) Google
13 7 (2.53%) Databricks
13 7 (2.53%) SolarWinds
14 6 (2.17%) Splunk
15 5 (1.81%) Commvault
15 5 (1.81%) EMC
15 5 (1.81%) Meraki
15 5 (1.81%) Palo Alto
83 Virtual Machines jobs in England