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 20 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
20 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 338 304 290
Rank change year-on-year -34 -14 +33
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 260 166 259
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.63% 0.68% 0.71%
As % of the System Software category 6.20% 5.43% 6.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 178 108 183
10th Percentile £356 £350 £308
25th Percentile £413 £444 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £493 £518 £523
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.91% -4.13%
75th Percentile £566 £625 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £675
UK median daily rate £493 £513 £513
% change year-on-year -3.79% - -5.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 10 27
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £70.00 £63.00 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% +330.77% -77.84%
75th Percentile - £64.50 £15.19
90th Percentile - £66.00 £86.97
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £63.00 £14.63
% change year-on-year +11.11% +330.77% -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 4,194 3,056 3,976
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.20% 12.58% 10.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,842 2,099 2,784
10th Percentile £213 £213 £200
25th Percentile £400 £381 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £600
90th Percentile £688 £700 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £512 £500
% change year-on-year -2.39% +2.45% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 159 71 209
10th Percentile £16.93 £14.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £25.44 £18.13 £14.48
Median hourly rate £52.50 £29.00 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.03% +38.10% -58.00%
75th Percentile £71.00 £64.50 £58.69
90th Percentile £77.80 £88.00 £75.60
UK median hourly rate £51.75 £28.41 £22.40
% change year-on-year +82.15% +26.83% -58.52%

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 20 May 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
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 20 May 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 -53 96 £525 -8.70% 22
North of England +1 89 £480 +28.00% 10
Yorkshire -14 48 £500 +5.26% 4
North West -15 40 £465 +23.89% 6
South East -38 38 £514 -10.61% 15
Midlands -70 15 £425 -15.00% 6
West Midlands -58 12 £375 -25.00% 4
East of England -32 9 £425 -19.05% 4
South West -32 9 £450 -15.89% 6
North East -24 1 £400 +10.34%
East Midlands -30 1 £500 -4.76% 2
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 (1.92%) OpenStack
1 5 (1.92%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.15%) Palantir Foundry
3 2 (0.77%) CMS
3 2 (0.77%) Confluence
3 2 (0.77%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.38%) Apache
4 1 (0.38%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.38%) IIS
4 1 (0.38%) nginx
4 1 (0.38%) WebLogic
Applications
1 3 (1.15%) Adobe Illustrator
1 3 (1.15%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.77%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.38%) SAP SD
1 1 (0.38%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 105 (40.38%) Azure
2 41 (15.77%) AWS
3 35 (13.46%) OpenShift
4 28 (10.77%) GitHub
5 26 (10.00%) Azure DevOps
6 22 (8.46%) Entra ID
7 21 (8.08%) GitHub Actions
8 19 (7.31%) Azure Monitor
9 16 (6.15%) Azure AKS
10 15 (5.77%) GCP
10 15 (5.77%) Serverless
11 12 (4.62%) Microsoft 365
12 11 (4.23%) Azure Storage
13 10 (3.85%) Azure Key Vault
14 9 (3.46%) Nutanix
15 7 (2.69%) Azure Functions
16 6 (2.31%) Azure Logic Apps
16 6 (2.31%) Cohesity
17 5 (1.92%) Microsoft Purview
17 5 (1.92%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 34 (13.08%) Firewall
2 33 (12.69%) DNS
3 21 (8.08%) VPN
4 19 (7.31%) Network Security
5 18 (6.92%) VLAN
6 16 (6.15%) DHCP
7 15 (5.77%) VSAN
8 12 (4.62%) WAN
9 10 (3.85%) SSL
10 9 (3.46%) SD-WAN
11 8 (3.08%) SAN
11 8 (3.08%) TCP/IP
12 7 (2.69%) LAN
13 6 (2.31%) Reverse Proxy
14 5 (1.92%) FTP
14 5 (1.92%) Wi-Fi
15 2 (0.77%) Cisco Nexus
15 2 (0.77%) IPsec
15 2 (0.77%) NAS
15 2 (0.77%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (6.54%) SQL Server
2 8 (3.08%) PostgreSQL
3 7 (2.69%) Azure SQL Database
4 6 (2.31%) DB2
5 5 (1.92%) Oracle Database
5 5 (1.92%) Power BI
6 4 (1.54%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (1.15%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (1.15%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.77%) ImageNet
9 1 (0.38%) Amazon QuickSight
9 1 (0.38%) Data Hub
9 1 (0.38%) Oracle Exadata
9 1 (0.38%) Power Query
9 1 (0.38%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.38%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 27 (10.38%) Git
2 11 (4.23%) GitLab
2 11 (4.23%) Jenkins
3 9 (3.46%) JIRA
4 6 (2.31%) PVCS
4 6 (2.31%) Rational DOORS
5 2 (0.77%) JMeter
5 2 (0.77%) Postman
5 2 (0.77%) Selenium
5 2 (0.77%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.77%) Team Foundation Server
5 2 (0.77%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.38%) Gradle
6 1 (0.38%) RStudio
General
1 36 (13.85%) Social Skills
2 18 (6.92%) Finance
3 13 (5.00%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (3.85%) Legal
4 10 (3.85%) Public Sector
5 9 (3.46%) Banking
6 7 (2.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (2.31%) Electronics
8 5 (1.92%) Retail
9 3 (1.15%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.15%) Front Office
9 3 (1.15%) Marketing
10 2 (0.77%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.77%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.38%) Advertising
11 1 (0.38%) Back Office
11 1 (0.38%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.38%) Social Science
11 1 (0.38%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 30 (11.54%) DevOps Engineer
2 24 (9.23%) Azure Engineer
3 21 (8.08%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 19 (7.31%) Senior
5 18 (6.92%) Architect
6 17 (6.54%) Wintel Engineer
7 13 (5.00%) Cloud Engineer
8 12 (4.62%) Analyst
9 11 (4.23%) Lead
10 10 (3.85%) VMware Engineer
11 9 (3.46%) Azure DevOps Engineer
11 9 (3.46%) Security Engineer
12 8 (3.08%) Administrator
13 6 (2.31%) C++ Software Engineer
13 6 (2.31%) Consultant
13 6 (2.31%) Embedded C Software Engineer
13 6 (2.31%) Embedded Software Engineer
13 6 (2.31%) Software Engineer
13 6 (2.31%) Solutions Architect
13 6 (2.31%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.08%) ARM Templates
1 8 (3.08%) YAML
2 7 (2.69%) REST
3 5 (1.92%) Middleware
4 3 (1.15%) Hugging Face
4 3 (1.15%) JSON
5 2 (0.77%) .NET
5 2 (0.77%) OpenCV
5 2 (0.77%) PySpark
5 2 (0.77%) PyTorch
5 2 (0.77%) Regular Expression
5 2 (0.77%) SpaCy
5 2 (0.77%) TensorFlow
6 1 (0.38%) Java SE
6 1 (0.38%) LDAP
6 1 (0.38%) Node.js
6 1 (0.38%) NumPy
6 1 (0.38%) OpenID
6 1 (0.38%) SciPy
6 1 (0.38%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 28 (10.77%) Replication
2 23 (8.85%) Data Centre
3 22 (8.46%) Clustering
4 14 (5.38%) Hybrid Cloud
5 13 (5.00%) Linux Command Line
6 12 (4.62%) Cloud Native
7 9 (3.46%) Product Ownership
8 8 (3.08%) Private Cloud
9 6 (2.31%) Operational Technology
10 5 (1.92%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.92%) FlexPod
10 5 (1.92%) Onboarding
10 5 (1.92%) PKI
11 3 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (1.15%) Mainframe
11 3 (1.15%) SCADA
11 3 (1.15%) Security Posture
11 3 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
12 2 (0.77%) AI Agents
12 2 (0.77%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 77 (29.62%) Windows
2 68 (26.15%) Linux
3 45 (17.31%) Windows Server
4 28 (10.77%) VMS
5 25 (9.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (3.08%) AIX
6 8 (3.08%) Unix
7 7 (2.69%) CoreOS
8 6 (2.31%) Data ONTAP
9 4 (1.54%) SUSE
10 3 (1.15%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.15%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.77%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.77%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.77%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.38%) Android
12 1 (0.38%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (27.31%) CI/CD
2 68 (26.15%) DevOps
3 59 (22.69%) Migration
4 48 (18.46%) Infrastructure as Code
5 41 (15.77%) High Availability
6 40 (15.38%) Disaster Recovery
7 36 (13.85%) Network Virtualisation
7 36 (13.85%) Performance Tuning
8 32 (12.31%) Continuous Improvement
9 31 (11.92%) Capacity Planning
9 31 (11.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 25 (9.62%) Containerisation
11 22 (8.46%) Cybersecurity
12 20 (7.69%) Platform Engineering
12 20 (7.69%) Vulnerability Management
13 19 (7.31%) Problem-Solving
13 19 (7.31%) RBAC
14 18 (6.92%) Deployment Automation
14 18 (6.92%) Task Automation
15 17 (6.54%) Storage Management
Programming Languages
1 67 (25.77%) PowerShell
2 61 (23.46%) Python
3 42 (16.15%) Bash
4 36 (13.85%) SQL
5 9 (3.46%) Bicep
6 8 (3.08%) C
7 7 (2.69%) Shell Script
8 6 (2.31%) C++
8 6 (2.31%) Embedded C
8 6 (2.31%) Embedded C++
8 6 (2.31%) Java
9 5 (1.92%) C#
10 4 (1.54%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.54%) Ruby
11 2 (0.77%) Go
11 2 (0.77%) Korn
11 2 (0.77%) PHP
12 1 (0.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.38%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.38%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 65 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 52 (20.00%) SC Cleared
3 21 (8.08%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 18 (6.92%) VCAP
5 16 (6.15%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (5.77%) MCSA
6 15 (5.77%) MCSE
7 14 (5.38%) Azure Certification
8 12 (4.62%) OCP
8 12 (4.62%) Oracle Certification
9 7 (2.69%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.92%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (1.92%) Degree
11 3 (1.15%) CISSP
11 3 (1.15%) ISTQB
11 3 (1.15%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 3 (1.15%) PMI Certification
11 3 (1.15%) PMP
12 2 (0.77%) CISM
12 2 (0.77%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.62%) QA
2 4 (1.54%) GDPR
3 2 (0.77%) Accessibility
3 2 (0.77%) GMP
3 2 (0.77%) GxP
4 1 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.38%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.38%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.38%) NIST
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 84 (32.31%) VMware Infrastructure
2 48 (18.46%) vSphere
3 41 (15.77%) VMware ESXi
4 34 (13.08%) Active Directory
5 27 (10.38%) Hyper-V
6 17 (6.54%) Docker
7 16 (6.15%) KVM
8 9 (3.46%) Firmware
8 9 (3.46%) VMware NSX
9 8 (3.08%) Ceph
9 8 (3.08%) NFS
10 5 (1.92%) Virtual Desktop
11 2 (0.77%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 2 (0.77%) VMware Workstation
11 2 (0.77%) Xen
12 1 (0.38%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.38%) NLBS
12 1 (0.38%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.38%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 62 (23.85%) Ansible
1 62 (23.85%) Terraform
2 48 (18.46%) Kubernetes
3 38 (14.62%) vCenter Server
4 12 (4.62%) PowerCLI
5 10 (3.85%) SCCM
6 7 (2.69%) Grafana
7 6 (2.31%) IBM BigFix
7 6 (2.31%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (2.31%) SnapMirror
7 6 (2.31%) VxRail
7 6 (2.31%) WSUS
8 5 (1.92%) Prometheus
9 4 (1.54%) Argo
9 4 (1.54%) Data Guard
9 4 (1.54%) Failover Clustering
9 4 (1.54%) Microsoft Clustering
9 4 (1.54%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (1.15%) systemd
10 3 (1.15%) vMotion
Vendors
1 88 (33.85%) VMware
2 73 (28.08%) Microsoft
3 31 (11.92%) Cisco
4 19 (7.31%) Red Hat
5 17 (6.54%) IBM
6 12 (4.62%) NetApp
6 12 (4.62%) Oracle
7 11 (4.23%) Google
8 10 (3.85%) Veeam
9 9 (3.46%) Dell
10 6 (2.31%) ANSYS
10 6 (2.31%) SolarWinds
10 6 (2.31%) Tenable
11 5 (1.92%) Commvault
11 5 (1.92%) CyberArk
11 5 (1.92%) Databricks
11 5 (1.92%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.92%) Qualys
12 4 (1.54%) Meraki
12 4 (1.54%) ServiceNow
66 Virtual Machines jobs in England