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 1 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
1 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 346 334 287
Rank change year-on-year -12 -47 +28
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 265 159 276
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.63% 0.66% 0.75%
As % of the System Software category 6.20% 5.14% 6.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 184 108 194
10th Percentile £357 £350 £313
25th Percentile £425 £425 £421
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £524 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.58% -2.06% -1.15%
75th Percentile £570 £616 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 7 27
10th Percentile £26.00 - -
25th Percentile £37.00 £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £70.00 £34.50 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year +102.90% +135.90% -77.84%
75th Percentile - £50.13 £15.19
90th Percentile - £65.10 £86.97
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £34.50 £14.63
% change year-on-year +102.90% +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 4,277 3,091 4,088
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.23% 12.75% 11.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,874 2,103 2,871
10th Percentile £213 £214 £204
25th Percentile £400 £385 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £620 £608
90th Percentile £688 £700 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 164 71 206
10th Percentile £17.28 £14.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £25.58 £17.73 £14.48
Median hourly rate £52.75 £28.00 £22.23
Median % change year-on-year +88.39% +25.98% -57.67%
75th Percentile £72.66 £62.38 £58.69
90th Percentile £77.50 £88.00 £76.50
UK median hourly rate £51.75 £28.00 £24.18
% change year-on-year +84.82% +15.80% -56.04%

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 1 June 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 1 June 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 1 June 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 -58 99 £525 -8.70% 18
North of England -5 93 £475 +26.67% 9
Yorkshire -15 49 £500 +5.26% 3
North West -17 42 £463 +23.33% 6
South East -37 38 £550 -4.35% 21
Midlands -55 16 £438 -12.15% 3
West Midlands -58 13 £425 -14.66% 3
South West -21 9 £360 -24.21% 5
East of England -33 7 £425 -19.05% 5
North East -26 2 £400 +10.34%
East Midlands -28 1 £500 -4.76%
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 (1.89%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.51%) OpenStack
3 3 (1.13%) Confluence
3 3 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.13%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.75%) Apache
4 2 (0.75%) CMS
4 2 (0.75%) Umbraco
5 1 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.38%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.38%) IIS
5 1 (0.38%) nginx
5 1 (0.38%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.51%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.51%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.75%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.38%) InDesign
3 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.38%) SAP SD
1 1 (0.38%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 103 (38.87%) Azure
2 42 (15.85%) AWS
3 33 (12.45%) OpenShift
4 26 (9.81%) Azure DevOps
4 26 (9.81%) GitHub
5 23 (8.68%) Entra ID
6 18 (6.79%) Azure Monitor
6 18 (6.79%) GitHub Actions
7 17 (6.42%) GCP
8 16 (6.04%) Azure AKS
9 13 (4.91%) Serverless
10 12 (4.53%) Microsoft 365
11 11 (4.15%) Azure Storage
12 10 (3.77%) Azure Key Vault
13 9 (3.40%) Nutanix
14 7 (2.64%) Azure Functions
14 7 (2.64%) IaaS
15 6 (2.26%) Azure Logic Apps
15 6 (2.26%) Cohesity
15 6 (2.26%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 34 (12.83%) DNS
2 33 (12.45%) Firewall
3 23 (8.68%) VPN
4 20 (7.55%) Network Security
5 18 (6.79%) VLAN
6 17 (6.42%) DHCP
7 15 (5.66%) VSAN
8 12 (4.53%) WAN
9 11 (4.15%) SSL
10 10 (3.77%) SD-WAN
11 8 (3.02%) SAN
12 7 (2.64%) LAN
12 7 (2.64%) TCP/IP
13 6 (2.26%) FTP
14 4 (1.51%) Reverse Proxy
14 4 (1.51%) Wi-Fi
15 2 (0.75%) Cisco Nexus
15 2 (0.75%) IPsec
15 2 (0.75%) NAS
15 2 (0.75%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (7.17%) SQL Server
2 7 (2.64%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (2.26%) DB2
3 6 (2.26%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (2.26%) Power BI
4 5 (1.89%) Oracle Database
5 4 (1.51%) Oracle Reports
6 3 (1.13%) Amazon RDS
6 3 (1.13%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.38%) Amazon QuickSight
7 1 (0.38%) Data Hub
7 1 (0.38%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.38%) Power Query
7 1 (0.38%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.38%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 23 (8.68%) Git
2 14 (5.28%) Jenkins
3 11 (4.15%) GitLab
4 9 (3.40%) JIRA
5 4 (1.51%) PVCS
5 4 (1.51%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.75%) JMeter
6 2 (0.75%) Postman
6 2 (0.75%) Selenium
6 2 (0.75%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.75%) Team Foundation Server
6 2 (0.75%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.38%) Gradle
7 1 (0.38%) RStudio
General
1 36 (13.58%) Social Skills
2 23 (8.68%) Finance
3 13 (4.91%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (4.15%) Banking
4 11 (4.15%) Legal
5 10 (3.77%) Public Sector
6 7 (2.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (2.26%) Retail
8 4 (1.51%) Electronics
8 4 (1.51%) Front Office
9 3 (1.13%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.13%) Marketing
10 2 (0.75%) Law
10 2 (0.75%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.75%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.38%) Advertising
11 1 (0.38%) Back Office
11 1 (0.38%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.38%) Publishing
11 1 (0.38%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 33 (12.45%) DevOps Engineer
2 23 (8.68%) Azure Engineer
3 21 (7.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 19 (7.17%) Senior
5 18 (6.79%) Wintel Engineer
6 15 (5.66%) Cloud Engineer
6 15 (5.66%) Lead
7 12 (4.53%) Analyst
7 12 (4.53%) Architect
8 10 (3.77%) Administrator
8 10 (3.77%) VMware Engineer
9 8 (3.02%) Azure DevOps Engineer
9 8 (3.02%) Security Engineer
10 7 (2.64%) Linux Engineer
11 6 (2.26%) Consultant
11 6 (2.26%) Data Engineer
11 6 (2.26%) Product Owner
11 6 (2.26%) Senior VMware Engineer
11 6 (2.26%) Technical Specialist
12 5 (1.89%) NetApp Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.02%) ARM Templates
1 8 (3.02%) REST
2 6 (2.26%) YAML
3 5 (1.89%) Middleware
4 3 (1.13%) Hugging Face
4 3 (1.13%) JSON
5 2 (0.75%) OpenCV
5 2 (0.75%) PySpark
5 2 (0.75%) PyTorch
5 2 (0.75%) Regular Expression
5 2 (0.75%) SOAP
5 2 (0.75%) SpaCy
5 2 (0.75%) TensorFlow
6 1 (0.38%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.38%) Kafka
6 1 (0.38%) Lambda Expressions
6 1 (0.38%) Node.js
6 1 (0.38%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 1 (0.38%) Pandas
6 1 (0.38%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 29 (10.94%) Replication
2 25 (9.43%) Data Centre
3 23 (8.68%) Clustering
4 14 (5.28%) Hybrid Cloud
5 11 (4.15%) Linux Command Line
6 10 (3.77%) Cloud Native
7 9 (3.40%) Product Ownership
8 7 (2.64%) Private Cloud
9 6 (2.26%) Operational Technology
10 5 (1.89%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.89%) FlexPod
10 5 (1.89%) Onboarding
10 5 (1.89%) PKI
11 4 (1.51%) Mainframe
11 4 (1.51%) Security Posture
12 3 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
12 3 (1.13%) Fixed Income
12 3 (1.13%) Market Risk
12 3 (1.13%) SCADA
12 3 (1.13%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 85 (32.08%) Windows
2 70 (26.42%) Linux
3 49 (18.49%) Windows Server
4 31 (11.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 27 (10.19%) VMS
6 9 (3.40%) AIX
6 9 (3.40%) Unix
7 7 (2.64%) CoreOS
8 6 (2.26%) Data ONTAP
9 4 (1.51%) SUSE
10 3 (1.13%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.13%) Ubuntu
10 3 (1.13%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.75%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.75%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.38%) Android
12 1 (0.38%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (27.17%) CI/CD
2 69 (26.04%) DevOps
3 57 (21.51%) Migration
4 47 (17.74%) Infrastructure as Code
5 43 (16.23%) High Availability
6 41 (15.47%) Disaster Recovery
7 37 (13.96%) Network Virtualisation
7 37 (13.96%) Performance Tuning
8 35 (13.21%) Continuous Improvement
9 34 (12.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 32 (12.08%) Capacity Planning
11 23 (8.68%) Containerisation
12 22 (8.30%) Cybersecurity
12 22 (8.30%) Storage Management
13 21 (7.92%) Problem-Solving
13 21 (7.92%) Vulnerability Management
14 20 (7.55%) Validation
15 19 (7.17%) Platform Engineering
15 19 (7.17%) RBAC
16 18 (6.79%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 74 (27.92%) PowerShell
2 66 (24.91%) Python
3 44 (16.60%) Bash
4 35 (13.21%) SQL
5 9 (3.40%) Bicep
6 6 (2.26%) C
6 6 (2.26%) Shell Script
7 4 (1.51%) C#
7 4 (1.51%) C++
7 4 (1.51%) Embedded C
7 4 (1.51%) Embedded C++
7 4 (1.51%) Java
7 4 (1.51%) PL/SQL
8 2 (0.75%) Go
8 2 (0.75%) Korn
8 2 (0.75%) Ruby
9 1 (0.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.38%) Groovy
9 1 (0.38%) Kotlin
9 1 (0.38%) RPG
Qualifications
1 64 (24.15%) Security Cleared
2 50 (18.87%) SC Cleared
3 22 (8.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 19 (7.17%) VCAP
5 17 (6.42%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (6.04%) MCSA
6 16 (6.04%) MCSE
7 14 (5.28%) Azure Certification
8 10 (3.77%) OCP
8 10 (3.77%) Oracle Certification
9 8 (3.02%) Degree
10 5 (1.89%) DV Cleared
11 4 (1.51%) CISSP
12 3 (1.13%) BPSS Clearance
12 3 (1.13%) CISM
12 3 (1.13%) ISTQB
12 3 (1.13%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 3 (1.13%) PMI Certification
12 3 (1.13%) PMP
13 2 (0.75%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (4.15%) QA
2 4 (1.51%) GDPR
3 2 (0.75%) Accessibility
3 2 (0.75%) GMP
3 2 (0.75%) GxP
3 2 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.75%) NIST
4 1 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.38%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.38%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.38%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.38%) SLA
4 1 (0.38%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.38%) WCAG
System Software
1 88 (33.21%) VMware Infrastructure
2 49 (18.49%) vSphere
3 42 (15.85%) VMware ESXi
4 34 (12.83%) Active Directory
5 29 (10.94%) Hyper-V
6 18 (6.79%) Docker
7 16 (6.04%) KVM
8 9 (3.40%) Firmware
8 9 (3.40%) NFS
8 9 (3.40%) VMware NSX
9 8 (3.02%) Ceph
10 5 (1.89%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (1.13%) VMware Workstation
12 2 (0.75%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 2 (0.75%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.38%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.38%) NLBS
13 1 (0.38%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 61 (23.02%) Ansible
1 61 (23.02%) Terraform
2 47 (17.74%) Kubernetes
3 39 (14.72%) vCenter Server
4 14 (5.28%) PowerCLI
5 8 (3.02%) Grafana
5 8 (3.02%) SCCM
6 6 (2.26%) IBM BigFix
6 6 (2.26%) Prometheus
6 6 (2.26%) SnapMirror
6 6 (2.26%) VxRail
7 5 (1.89%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (1.89%) WSUS
8 4 (1.51%) Argo
8 4 (1.51%) Data Guard
8 4 (1.51%) Failover Clustering
8 4 (1.51%) Microsoft Clustering
8 4 (1.51%) Oracle RMAN
9 3 (1.13%) Podman
9 3 (1.13%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 92 (34.72%) VMware
2 70 (26.42%) Microsoft
3 34 (12.83%) Cisco
4 20 (7.55%) Red Hat
5 16 (6.04%) IBM
6 14 (5.28%) Oracle
7 13 (4.91%) Google
8 12 (4.53%) NetApp
9 10 (3.77%) Veeam
10 9 (3.40%) Dell
11 8 (3.02%) Qualys
12 7 (2.64%) ServiceNow
12 7 (2.64%) Tenable
13 6 (2.26%) CyberArk
13 6 (2.26%) Palo Alto
13 6 (2.26%) SolarWinds
14 5 (1.89%) Commvault
14 5 (1.89%) Databricks
15 4 (1.51%) CheckPoint
15 4 (1.51%) OpenAI
62 Virtual Machines jobs in England