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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 336 337 282
Rank change year-on-year +1 -55 +52
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 275 147 282
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.65% 0.60% 0.75%
As % of the System Software category 6.40% 4.78% 6.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 191 100 203
10th Percentile £356 £350 £314
25th Percentile £415 £413 £423
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £507 £535
Median % change year-on-year -3.31% -5.28% -1.15%
75th Percentile £575 £613 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £675
UK median daily rate £490 £507 £525
% change year-on-year -3.31% -3.48% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 6 26
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £26.00 £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 - £57.31 £15.19
90th Percentile - £65.25 £84.67
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 4,296 3,077 4,150
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.09% 12.58% 11.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,887 2,068 2,909
10th Percentile £213 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £381 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £608
90th Percentile £688 £700 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 163 71 202
10th Percentile £16.20 £14.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £25.44 £17.73 £14.48
Median hourly rate £52.50 £28.00 £22.23
Median % change year-on-year +87.50% +25.98% -57.37%
75th Percentile £73.00 £69.25 £58.69
90th Percentile £77.50 £88.00 £74.83
UK median hourly rate £51.00 £28.00 £24.18
% change year-on-year +82.14% +15.80% -55.90%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -55 103 £525 -4.55% 19
North of England -2 94 £478 +26.32% 6
Yorkshire -7 50 £500 +5.26% 2
North West -11 42 £463 +23.17% 4
South East -32 42 £483 -12.27% 21
Midlands -67 16 £438 -12.15% 4
South West -12 13 £500 +5.26% 5
West Midlands -62 13 £425 -14.66% 4
East of England -23 6 £425 -19.12% 4
North East -28 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 (1.82%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.09%) Confluence
2 3 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.09%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.09%) Palantir Foundry
3 2 (0.73%) Apache
3 2 (0.73%) CMS
3 2 (0.73%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.36%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.36%) IIS
4 1 (0.36%) nginx
4 1 (0.36%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.45%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.45%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.73%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.36%) InDesign
3 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.73%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.36%) SAP SD
2 1 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 110 (40.00%) Azure
2 38 (13.82%) AWS
3 33 (12.00%) OpenShift
4 30 (10.91%) Entra ID
5 26 (9.45%) GitHub
6 25 (9.09%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (7.64%) Azure Monitor
8 18 (6.55%) Azure AKS
8 18 (6.55%) GitHub Actions
9 16 (5.82%) GCP
10 15 (5.45%) Serverless
11 14 (5.09%) Azure Key Vault
12 12 (4.36%) Azure Storage
12 12 (4.36%) Microsoft 365
13 11 (4.00%) Azure Functions
14 9 (3.27%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 9 (3.27%) Nutanix
15 7 (2.55%) Azure Logic Apps
16 6 (2.18%) Cohesity
16 6 (2.18%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 39 (14.18%) DNS
2 35 (12.73%) Firewall
3 25 (9.09%) VPN
4 21 (7.64%) Network Security
5 19 (6.91%) DHCP
5 19 (6.91%) VLAN
6 16 (5.82%) WAN
7 15 (5.45%) VSAN
8 14 (5.09%) SSL
9 10 (3.64%) SD-WAN
10 8 (2.91%) FTP
10 8 (2.91%) SAN
11 7 (2.55%) LAN
12 5 (1.82%) TCP/IP
13 4 (1.45%) Wi-Fi
14 2 (0.73%) IPsec
14 2 (0.73%) NAS
14 2 (0.73%) NetScaler
14 2 (0.73%) Reverse Proxy
14 2 (0.73%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (8.00%) SQL Server
2 11 (4.00%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (2.18%) Db2
3 6 (2.18%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (2.18%) Power BI
4 4 (1.45%) Data Lake
5 3 (1.09%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.73%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.36%) Amazon QuickSight
7 1 (0.36%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.36%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.36%) Power Query
7 1 (0.36%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 20 (7.27%) Git
2 13 (4.73%) Jenkins
3 10 (3.64%) GitLab
4 8 (2.91%) JIRA
5 3 (1.09%) PVCS
5 3 (1.09%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.73%) JMeter
6 2 (0.73%) Postman
6 2 (0.73%) Selenium
6 2 (0.73%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.73%) Team Foundation Server
6 2 (0.73%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.36%) Gradle
7 1 (0.36%) RStudio
General
1 40 (14.55%) Social Skills
2 26 (9.45%) Finance
3 14 (5.09%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (4.36%) Banking
4 12 (4.36%) Legal
5 9 (3.27%) Public Sector
6 7 (2.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (2.18%) Retail
8 5 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.45%) Front Office
10 3 (1.09%) Electronics
10 3 (1.09%) Marketing
11 2 (0.73%) Law
11 2 (0.73%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.73%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.73%) Publishing
12 1 (0.36%) Advertising
12 1 (0.36%) Back Office
12 1 (0.36%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.36%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 34 (12.36%) DevOps Engineer
2 24 (8.73%) Azure Engineer
3 23 (8.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 20 (7.27%) Senior
5 18 (6.55%) Wintel Engineer
6 17 (6.18%) Architect
6 17 (6.18%) Cloud Engineer
7 14 (5.09%) Lead
8 12 (4.36%) Analyst
9 10 (3.64%) Administrator
9 10 (3.64%) VMware Engineer
10 9 (3.27%) Technical Specialist
11 8 (2.91%) Azure DevOps Engineer
12 7 (2.55%) Azure Architect
12 7 (2.55%) Consultant
12 7 (2.55%) Linux Engineer
13 6 (2.18%) Platform Engineer
13 6 (2.18%) Product Owner
13 6 (2.18%) Senior VMware Engineer
13 6 (2.18%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.91%) ARM Templates
1 8 (2.91%) REST
2 6 (2.18%) YAML
3 5 (1.82%) Middleware
4 3 (1.09%) Hugging Face
4 3 (1.09%) JSON
5 2 (0.73%) OpenCV
5 2 (0.73%) PySpark
5 2 (0.73%) PyTorch
5 2 (0.73%) Regular Expression
5 2 (0.73%) SOAP
5 2 (0.73%) SpaCy
5 2 (0.73%) TensorFlow
6 1 (0.36%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.36%) Kafka
6 1 (0.36%) Node.js
6 1 (0.36%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 1 (0.36%) Pandas
6 1 (0.36%) SciPy
6 1 (0.36%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 29 (10.55%) Replication
2 24 (8.73%) Data Centre
3 23 (8.36%) Clustering
4 16 (5.82%) Hybrid Cloud
5 11 (4.00%) Linux Command Line
6 9 (3.27%) Cloud Native
6 9 (3.27%) Product Ownership
7 6 (2.18%) Onboarding
7 6 (2.18%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.18%) Private Cloud
8 5 (1.82%) Cyber Threat
8 5 (1.82%) FlexPod
8 5 (1.82%) Mainframe
8 5 (1.82%) PKI
9 4 (1.45%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (1.09%) Fixed Income
10 3 (1.09%) Market Risk
10 3 (1.09%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 91 (33.09%) Windows
2 68 (24.73%) Linux
3 54 (19.64%) Windows Server
4 30 (10.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 24 (8.73%) VMS
6 10 (3.64%) Unix
7 9 (3.27%) AIX
8 7 (2.55%) CoreOS
9 6 (2.18%) Data ONTAP
10 4 (1.45%) SUSE
11 3 (1.09%) Apple iOS
11 3 (1.09%) Ubuntu
11 3 (1.09%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.73%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.73%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.36%) Android
13 1 (0.36%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (26.55%) CI/CD
2 68 (24.73%) DevOps
3 59 (21.45%) Migration
4 49 (17.82%) Infrastructure as Code
5 43 (15.64%) High Availability
6 41 (14.91%) Disaster Recovery
7 38 (13.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 37 (13.45%) Network Virtualisation
9 34 (12.36%) Performance Tuning
10 33 (12.00%) Capacity Planning
10 33 (12.00%) Continuous Improvement
11 24 (8.73%) Problem-Solving
11 24 (8.73%) RBAC
12 23 (8.36%) Vulnerability Management
13 22 (8.00%) Cybersecurity
14 21 (7.64%) Containerisation
15 20 (7.27%) Platform Engineering
15 20 (7.27%) Storage Management
15 20 (7.27%) Validation
16 19 (6.91%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 77 (28.00%) PowerShell
2 63 (22.91%) Python
3 44 (16.00%) Bash
4 39 (14.18%) SQL
5 8 (2.91%) Bicep
6 6 (2.18%) C
6 6 (2.18%) C#
7 5 (1.82%) Shell Script
8 4 (1.45%) Java
8 4 (1.45%) PL/SQL
9 3 (1.09%) C++
9 3 (1.09%) Embedded C
9 3 (1.09%) Embedded C++
10 2 (0.73%) Go
10 2 (0.73%) Korn
11 1 (0.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.36%) Groovy
11 1 (0.36%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.36%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.36%) RPG
Qualifications
1 71 (25.82%) Security Cleared
2 56 (20.36%) SC Cleared
3 24 (8.73%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 19 (6.91%) Microsoft Certification
4 19 (6.91%) VCAP
5 18 (6.55%) MCSA
5 18 (6.55%) MCSE
6 12 (4.36%) Azure Certification
7 8 (2.91%) Degree
8 6 (2.18%) OCP
8 6 (2.18%) Oracle Certification
9 5 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.82%) DV Cleared
9 5 (1.82%) ISTQB
9 5 (1.82%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 4 (1.45%) CISSP
11 3 (1.09%) CISM
11 3 (1.09%) PMI Certification
11 3 (1.09%) PMP
12 2 (0.73%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.36%) QA
2 2 (0.73%) GMP
2 2 (0.73%) GxP
2 2 (0.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (0.73%) NIST
2 2 (0.73%) SLA
3 1 (0.36%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.36%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.36%) GDPR
3 1 (0.36%) HIPAA
3 1 (0.36%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
3 1 (0.36%) WCAG
System Software
1 93 (33.82%) VMware Infrastructure
2 52 (18.91%) vSphere
3 46 (16.73%) VMware ESXi
4 39 (14.18%) Active Directory
5 30 (10.91%) Hyper-V
6 19 (6.91%) Docker
7 17 (6.18%) KVM
8 10 (3.64%) Virtual Desktop
8 10 (3.64%) VMware NSX
9 9 (3.27%) Firmware
9 9 (3.27%) NFS
10 8 (2.91%) Ceph
11 3 (1.09%) VMware Workstation
12 2 (0.73%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 2 (0.73%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.36%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.36%) NLBS
13 1 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 64 (23.27%) Ansible
2 61 (22.18%) Terraform
3 45 (16.36%) Kubernetes
4 41 (14.91%) vCenter Server
5 14 (5.09%) PowerCLI
6 10 (3.64%) Grafana
7 9 (3.27%) SCCM
8 8 (2.91%) Prometheus
9 6 (2.18%) IBM BigFix
9 6 (2.18%) SnapMirror
9 6 (2.18%) VxRail
10 5 (1.82%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (1.82%) vMotion
11 4 (1.45%) Argo
11 4 (1.45%) Failover Clustering
11 4 (1.45%) Microsoft Clustering
11 4 (1.45%) SCOM
12 3 (1.09%) Podman
12 3 (1.09%) Progress Chef
12 3 (1.09%) WSUS
Vendors
1 98 (35.64%) VMware
2 80 (29.09%) Microsoft
3 37 (13.45%) Cisco
4 17 (6.18%) Red Hat
5 16 (5.82%) IBM
6 13 (4.73%) Google
7 12 (4.36%) NetApp
8 11 (4.00%) Oracle
9 10 (3.64%) Qualys
9 10 (3.64%) ServiceNow
9 10 (3.64%) Veeam
10 9 (3.27%) Dell
11 8 (2.91%) SolarWinds
12 7 (2.55%) Tenable
13 6 (2.18%) CyberArk
13 6 (2.18%) Palo Alto
14 5 (1.82%) Commvault
14 5 (1.82%) Databricks
14 5 (1.82%) Splunk
15 4 (1.45%) Xerox