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

 6 months to
19 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 374 385 306
Rank change year-on-year +11 -79 +23
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 284 135 227
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.61% 0.49% 0.69%
As % of the System Software category 6.09% 3.97% 5.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 173 96 163
10th Percentile £394 £350 £339
25th Percentile £443 £413 £414
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £498 £535
Median % change year-on-year +0.50% -7.01% +1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £608
90th Percentile £714 £644 £669
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £535
% change year-on-year - -6.54% +1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 4 7
10th Percentile £26.90 - -
25th Percentile £58.44 £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £77.50 £34.50 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year +124.64% +135.90% -81.42%
75th Percentile £92.11 £35.75 £49.37
90th Percentile - - £84.44
UK median hourly rate £77.50 £34.50 £14.63
% change year-on-year +124.64% +135.90% -81.42%

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 4,662 3,401 3,851
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.02% 12.23% 11.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,035 2,184 2,586
10th Percentile £215 £214 £220
25th Percentile £389 £375 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £611
90th Percentile £688 £675 £694
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 97 99
10th Percentile £17.55 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £33.70 £22.50 £17.44
Median hourly rate £65.00 £37.50 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.33% +50.00% -47.77%
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £92.11 £90.60 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £34.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year +85.69% +36.00% -50.00%

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 September 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 September 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 September 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 -39 109 £529 +4.24% 87
North of England -12 81 £500 +16.62% 26
South East -19 53 £483 -17.87% 43
Yorkshire -10 45 £519 +16.11% 5
North West -24 34 £485 +49.23% 20
South West -32 16 £558 +1.36% 6
Midlands -48 14 £487 +0.41% 11
East of England -15 13 £300 -36.84% 34
West Midlands -51 9 £487 -1.62% 8
East Midlands -12 4 £500 +5.26% 3
North East - 2 £413 - 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 9 (3.17%) IIS
2 6 (2.11%) Confluence
3 5 (1.76%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (1.41%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.70%) Apache
5 2 (0.70%) CMS
5 2 (0.70%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.35%) nginx
6 1 (0.35%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.35%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.41%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.41%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.70%) InDesign
2 2 (0.70%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.35%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.70%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 133 (46.83%) Azure
2 52 (18.31%) Entra ID
3 42 (14.79%) AWS
4 38 (13.38%) Azure Monitor
5 30 (10.56%) Azure DevOps
6 25 (8.80%) Azure AKS
6 25 (8.80%) IaaS
7 24 (8.45%) OpenShift
8 20 (7.04%) GitHub
9 15 (5.28%) GitHub Actions
10 14 (4.93%) Microsoft 365
11 12 (4.23%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 11 (3.87%) PaaS
12 11 (3.87%) Power Platform
13 10 (3.52%) Azure Key Vault
13 10 (3.52%) GCP
13 10 (3.52%) SaaS
14 9 (3.17%) Azure Storage
14 9 (3.17%) Serverless
15 8 (2.82%) Cohesity
Communications & Networking
1 46 (16.20%) DNS
2 41 (14.44%) Firewall
3 26 (9.15%) VPN
4 21 (7.39%) DHCP
5 20 (7.04%) Network Security
5 20 (7.04%) VLAN
6 18 (6.34%) SSL
6 18 (6.34%) WAN
7 15 (5.28%) VSAN
8 10 (3.52%) SD-WAN
9 9 (3.17%) HTTP
9 9 (3.17%) LAN
10 7 (2.46%) FTP
10 7 (2.46%) SAN
10 7 (2.46%) TCP/IP
11 5 (1.76%) HTTPS
11 5 (1.76%) SSH
11 5 (1.76%) Wi-Fi
12 3 (1.06%) NAS
12 3 (1.06%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (11.62%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.87%) MySQL
2 11 (3.87%) Power BI
2 11 (3.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 9 (3.17%) Azure SQL Database
4 8 (2.82%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.46%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.70%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.35%) Amazon Aurora
7 1 (0.35%) Amazon QuickSight
7 1 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.35%) Neo4j
7 1 (0.35%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.35%) Power Query
7 1 (0.35%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 16 (5.63%) Jenkins
2 14 (4.93%) Git
3 7 (2.46%) GitLab
3 7 (2.46%) JIRA
4 4 (1.41%) CppUnit
4 4 (1.41%) PVCS
4 4 (1.41%) Rational DOORS
4 4 (1.41%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (1.06%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.70%) Maven
6 2 (0.70%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.70%) Team Foundation Server
6 2 (0.70%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.35%) Selenium
7 1 (0.35%) Vagrant
7 1 (0.35%) Visual Studio
General
1 49 (17.25%) Social Skills
2 26 (9.15%) Finance
3 13 (4.58%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (3.52%) Legal
5 8 (2.82%) Banking
6 7 (2.46%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (2.11%) Back Office
7 6 (2.11%) Front Office
7 6 (2.11%) Manufacturing
8 5 (1.76%) Retail
9 4 (1.41%) Law
9 4 (1.41%) Marketing
9 4 (1.41%) Public Sector
10 2 (0.70%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.70%) Local Government
10 2 (0.70%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.70%) Publishing
11 1 (0.35%) Advertising
11 1 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.35%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 42 (14.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 37 (13.03%) Azure Engineer
3 32 (11.27%) Cloud Engineer
4 29 (10.21%) DevOps Engineer
5 23 (8.10%) Senior
6 22 (7.75%) Lead
7 17 (5.99%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
8 16 (5.63%) Architect
9 14 (4.93%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
10 13 (4.58%) Analyst
10 13 (4.58%) DBA
11 11 (3.87%) Security Engineer
11 11 (3.87%) SQL DBA
12 10 (3.52%) Administrator
12 10 (3.52%) Wintel Engineer
13 9 (3.17%) Platform Engineer
13 9 (3.17%) Solutions Architect
13 9 (3.17%) Storage Engineer
14 8 (2.82%) Linux Engineer
14 8 (2.82%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (21.13%) Terraform
2 13 (4.58%) ARM Templates
3 9 (3.17%) JSON
4 8 (2.82%) REST
5 7 (2.46%) LDAP
5 7 (2.46%) Regular Expression
6 5 (1.76%) Middleware
6 5 (1.76%) YAML
7 3 (1.06%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (0.70%) SOAP
8 2 (0.70%) Web Services
9 1 (0.35%) Java SE
9 1 (0.35%) Lambda Expressions
9 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
9 1 (0.35%) Node.js
9 1 (0.35%) NumPy
9 1 (0.35%) Oracle GoldenGate
9 1 (0.35%) Pandas
9 1 (0.35%) SciPy
9 1 (0.35%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 39 (13.73%) Replication
2 33 (11.62%) Clustering
3 19 (6.69%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (4.58%) Data Centre
5 12 (4.23%) Linux Command Line
6 11 (3.87%) Cloud Native
6 11 (3.87%) Enterprise Storage
7 9 (3.17%) Mainframe
8 8 (2.82%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.82%) Public Cloud
9 7 (2.46%) Cyber Threat
9 7 (2.46%) Operational Technology
10 6 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
10 6 (2.11%) Fixed Income
10 6 (2.11%) Market Risk
10 6 (2.11%) Onboarding
10 6 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.76%) Security Posture
12 4 (1.41%) EMC VNX
12 4 (1.41%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 103 (36.27%) Windows
2 66 (23.24%) Linux
3 59 (20.77%) Windows Server
4 31 (10.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 24 (8.45%) VMS
6 9 (3.17%) Unix
7 8 (2.82%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.41%) SUSE
8 4 (1.41%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (1.41%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (1.06%) AIX
9 3 (1.06%) Data ONTAP
9 3 (1.06%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.70%) Android
10 2 (0.70%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.70%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.70%) zOS
11 1 (0.35%) Amazon Linux
11 1 (0.35%) Rocky
11 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (25.00%) DevOps
2 69 (24.30%) CI/CD
3 64 (22.54%) Migration
4 59 (20.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 56 (19.72%) Infrastructure as Code
6 44 (15.49%) Disaster Recovery
7 42 (14.79%) Performance Tuning
8 39 (13.73%) High Availability
9 38 (13.38%) Continuous Improvement
10 36 (12.68%) RBAC
11 30 (10.56%) Problem-Solving
11 30 (10.56%) Validation
12 27 (9.51%) ITIL
12 27 (9.51%) Runbook
13 26 (9.15%) Cybersecurity
14 25 (8.80%) Capacity Planning
14 25 (8.80%) Root Cause Analysis
14 25 (8.80%) Stakeholder Management
15 24 (8.45%) AI
15 24 (8.45%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 96 (33.80%) PowerShell
2 60 (21.13%) Python
3 37 (13.03%) SQL
4 31 (10.92%) Bash
5 11 (3.87%) Bicep
5 11 (3.87%) T-SQL
6 8 (2.82%) C
6 8 (2.82%) C#
7 6 (2.11%) Java
7 6 (2.11%) Shell Script
8 4 (1.41%) C++
8 4 (1.41%) Groovy
9 3 (1.06%) Embedded C
10 2 (0.70%) Korn
10 2 (0.70%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.35%) Go
11 1 (0.35%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.35%) RPG
11 1 (0.35%) VBA
Qualifications
1 85 (29.93%) Security Cleared
2 68 (23.94%) SC Cleared
3 23 (8.10%) Azure Certification
4 22 (7.75%) Degree
4 22 (7.75%) Microsoft Certification
5 13 (4.58%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (4.58%) DV Cleared
5 13 (4.58%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 10 (3.52%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 10 (3.52%) MCSA
6 10 (3.52%) MCSE
6 10 (3.52%) VCAP
7 6 (2.11%) ISTQB
8 5 (1.76%) CCNA
8 5 (1.76%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (1.76%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 3 (1.06%) CISSP
9 3 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (1.06%) PMI Certification
9 3 (1.06%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (3.52%) QA
2 3 (1.06%) Accessibility
2 3 (1.06%) PCI DSS
2 3 (1.06%) SLA
3 2 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
3 2 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 2 (0.70%) GMP
3 2 (0.70%) GxP
3 2 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.70%) NIST
4 1 (0.35%) GDPR
4 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.35%) WCAG
System Software
1 93 (32.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 51 (17.96%) Active Directory
3 43 (15.14%) vSphere
4 36 (12.68%) VMware ESXi
5 29 (10.21%) Hyper-V
6 24 (8.45%) Docker
7 13 (4.58%) NFS
8 11 (3.87%) VMware NSX
9 8 (2.82%) Virtual Desktop
10 7 (2.46%) Ceph
10 7 (2.46%) Firmware
11 5 (1.76%) KVM
12 3 (1.06%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (1.06%) VMware Workstation
13 2 (0.70%) Veritas Volume Manager
14 1 (0.35%) DFS Replication
14 1 (0.35%) Dovecot
14 1 (0.35%) Oracle RAC
14 1 (0.35%) Postfix
14 1 (0.35%) Squid
Systems Management
1 44 (15.49%) Ansible
2 40 (14.08%) Kubernetes
3 29 (10.21%) vCenter Server
4 16 (5.63%) SCOM
5 14 (4.93%) Grafana
6 11 (3.87%) Failover Clustering
7 9 (3.17%) PowerCLI
7 9 (3.17%) Prometheus
7 9 (3.17%) SCCM
8 7 (2.46%) Microsoft Intune
8 7 (2.46%) Podman
9 6 (2.11%) Microsoft Clustering
9 6 (2.11%) Packer
9 6 (2.11%) vMotion
9 6 (2.11%) VxRail
10 5 (1.76%) Proxmox
11 4 (1.41%) Avamar
11 4 (1.41%) OPNET
12 3 (1.06%) Argo
12 3 (1.06%) WSUS
Vendors
1 98 (34.51%) Microsoft
1 98 (34.51%) VMware
2 29 (10.21%) Cisco
3 23 (8.10%) ServiceNow
4 19 (6.69%) Oracle
5 16 (5.63%) Dell
6 15 (5.28%) NetApp
7 12 (4.23%) IBM
7 12 (4.23%) Veeam
8 9 (3.17%) CyberArk
9 8 (2.82%) Qualys
9 8 (2.82%) Red Hat
9 8 (2.82%) SolarWinds
10 7 (2.46%) Google
10 7 (2.46%) Splunk
11 5 (1.76%) Commvault
11 5 (1.76%) EMC
11 5 (1.76%) Meraki
11 5 (1.76%) Okta
11 5 (1.76%) Palo Alto
206 Virtual Machines jobs in England