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

 6 months to
4 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 348 359 314
Rank change year-on-year +11 -45 +13
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 289 146 232
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.64% 0.53% 0.69%
As % of the System Software category 6.40% 4.44% 5.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 180 104 160
10th Percentile £389 £350 £332
25th Percentile £425 £417 £424
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £583 £602 £608
90th Percentile £675 £738 £666
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £535
% change year-on-year - -6.54% +1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 16
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 - £49.37
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 4,517 3,291 3,880
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.01% 11.92% 11.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,973 2,158 2,700
10th Percentile £218 £220 £225
25th Percentile £400 £375 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £684 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 190 85 135
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.12 £14.06
25th Percentile £28.00 £22.50 £14.48
Median hourly rate £60.00 £37.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% +57.56% -40.50%
75th Percentile £74.20 £80.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £83.88 £90.90 £72.45
UK median hourly rate £52.50 £31.39 £23.80
% change year-on-year +67.28% +31.87% -52.40%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -35 113 £525 - 41
North of England +9 85 £492 +18.23% 11
South East -24 55 £475 -15.56% 23
Yorkshire -8 48 £500 +11.86% 4
North West -21 35 £480 +37.14% 7
Midlands -51 17 £487 +2.53% 4
South West -30 15 £540 -8.09% 11
West Midlands -60 11 £406 -11.74% 4
East of England -12 6 £425 +41.67% 14
East Midlands -6 4 £500 +5.26%
North East - 2 £400 -
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 (1.73%) Confluence
1 5 (1.73%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.69%) Apache
3 2 (0.69%) CMS
3 2 (0.69%) Palantir Foundry
3 2 (0.69%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.35%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.35%) IIS
4 1 (0.35%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.35%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.38%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.38%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.69%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.69%) InDesign
3 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.35%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.69%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 136 (47.06%) Azure
2 45 (15.57%) Entra ID
3 42 (14.53%) AWS
4 34 (11.76%) Azure Monitor
5 33 (11.42%) Azure DevOps
6 28 (9.69%) OpenShift
7 23 (7.96%) GitHub
8 22 (7.61%) Azure AKS
9 20 (6.92%) IaaS
10 17 (5.88%) Microsoft 365
11 16 (5.54%) GitHub Actions
12 15 (5.19%) GCP
13 13 (4.50%) Serverless
14 12 (4.15%) Azure Key Vault
15 11 (3.81%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 11 (3.81%) Power Platform
16 10 (3.46%) Azure Storage
17 9 (3.11%) Azure Functions
17 9 (3.11%) Azure Logic Apps
18 8 (2.77%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (14.53%) DNS
2 40 (13.84%) Firewall
3 26 (9.00%) VPN
4 20 (6.92%) DHCP
4 20 (6.92%) Network Security
4 20 (6.92%) SSL
5 19 (6.57%) VLAN
6 17 (5.88%) VSAN
7 16 (5.54%) WAN
8 10 (3.46%) SD-WAN
9 8 (2.77%) FTP
10 7 (2.42%) LAN
10 7 (2.42%) SAN
11 6 (2.08%) TCP/IP
12 5 (1.73%) SSH
12 5 (1.73%) Wi-Fi
13 4 (1.38%) HTTPS
14 3 (1.04%) Cisco Nexus
15 2 (0.69%) NAS
15 2 (0.69%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (10.38%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.81%) Power BI
3 10 (3.46%) Azure SQL Database
4 8 (2.77%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.42%) Data Lake
5 7 (2.42%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (2.08%) MySQL
7 3 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (1.04%) Db2
7 3 (1.04%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.35%) Amazon QuickSight
8 1 (0.35%) Neo4j
8 1 (0.35%) Oracle Exadata
8 1 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.35%) Power Query
8 1 (0.35%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 16 (5.54%) Git
2 13 (4.50%) Jenkins
3 6 (2.08%) GitLab
3 6 (2.08%) JIRA
4 2 (0.69%) CppUnit
4 2 (0.69%) PVCS
4 2 (0.69%) Rational DOORS
4 2 (0.69%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.69%) Team Foundation Server
4 2 (0.69%) Terragrunt
5 1 (0.35%) Selenium
5 1 (0.35%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.35%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.35%) Visual Studio
General
1 43 (14.88%) Social Skills
2 27 (9.34%) Finance
3 14 (4.84%) Legal
4 13 (4.50%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (4.50%) Banking
5 7 (2.42%) Public Sector
6 6 (2.08%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (2.08%) Front Office
6 6 (2.08%) Retail
7 4 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (1.38%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.04%) Marketing
9 2 (0.69%) Law
9 2 (0.69%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (0.69%) Publishing
10 1 (0.35%) Advertising
10 1 (0.35%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.35%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 41 (14.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 37 (12.80%) Azure Engineer
3 34 (11.76%) DevOps Engineer
4 30 (10.38%) Cloud Engineer
5 23 (7.96%) Senior
6 21 (7.27%) Lead
7 17 (5.88%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
8 16 (5.54%) Analyst
8 16 (5.54%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
9 15 (5.19%) Architect
10 10 (3.46%) Administrator
11 9 (3.11%) DBA
11 9 (3.11%) Linux Engineer
11 9 (3.11%) VMware Engineer
11 9 (3.11%) Wintel Engineer
12 8 (2.77%) Azure DevOps Engineer
12 8 (2.77%) Solutions Architect
12 8 (2.77%) Storage Engineer
13 7 (2.42%) Platform Engineer
14 6 (2.08%) Market Risk Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (4.15%) ARM Templates
2 8 (2.77%) REST
2 8 (2.77%) YAML
3 5 (1.73%) Middleware
4 3 (1.04%) Elastic Stack
4 3 (1.04%) JSON
5 2 (0.69%) SOAP
6 1 (0.35%) .NET
6 1 (0.35%) cloud-init
6 1 (0.35%) Java SE
6 1 (0.35%) Kafka
6 1 (0.35%) Lambda Expressions
6 1 (0.35%) LDAP
6 1 (0.35%) Node.js
6 1 (0.35%) NumPy
6 1 (0.35%) OpenID
6 1 (0.35%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 1 (0.35%) Pandas
6 1 (0.35%) SciPy
6 1 (0.35%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 30 (10.38%) Replication
2 20 (6.92%) Clustering
3 19 (6.57%) Hybrid Cloud
4 16 (5.54%) Data Centre
5 14 (4.84%) Linux Command Line
6 8 (2.77%) Cloud Native
6 8 (2.77%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.42%) Enterprise Storage
7 7 (2.42%) Mainframe
8 6 (2.08%) Fixed Income
8 6 (2.08%) Market Risk
8 6 (2.08%) Operational Technology
9 5 (1.73%) FlexPod
9 5 (1.73%) Onboarding
9 5 (1.73%) PKI
9 5 (1.73%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.73%) Security Posture
9 5 (1.73%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.04%) SCADA
10 3 (1.04%) Symmetrix
Operating Systems
1 90 (31.14%) Windows
2 75 (25.95%) Linux
3 49 (16.96%) Windows Server
4 34 (11.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 25 (8.65%) VMS
6 8 (2.77%) Unix
7 7 (2.42%) CoreOS
7 7 (2.42%) Ubuntu
8 6 (2.08%) AIX
8 6 (2.08%) Data ONTAP
9 4 (1.38%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.38%) SUSE
10 3 (1.04%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.69%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.35%) Android
12 1 (0.35%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (25.61%) DevOps
2 69 (23.88%) CI/CD
3 58 (20.07%) Migration
4 57 (19.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 51 (17.65%) Infrastructure as Code
6 42 (14.53%) Performance Tuning
7 41 (14.19%) High Availability
8 39 (13.49%) Disaster Recovery
9 31 (10.73%) Continuous Improvement
9 31 (10.73%) Problem-Solving
10 28 (9.69%) Network Virtualisation
10 28 (9.69%) RBAC
11 27 (9.34%) Validation
12 26 (9.00%) Vulnerability Management
13 25 (8.65%) Capacity Planning
14 23 (7.96%) Analytics
14 23 (7.96%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 22 (7.61%) Stakeholder Management
16 21 (7.27%) ITIL
16 21 (7.27%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 86 (29.76%) PowerShell
2 57 (19.72%) Python
3 42 (14.53%) SQL
4 36 (12.46%) Bash
5 9 (3.11%) Bicep
6 8 (2.77%) C
7 7 (2.42%) C#
8 6 (2.08%) T-SQL
9 4 (1.38%) PL/SQL
9 4 (1.38%) Shell Script
10 3 (1.04%) Java
10 3 (1.04%) Korn
11 2 (0.69%) C++
11 2 (0.69%) Embedded C
12 1 (0.35%) Go
12 1 (0.35%) Groovy
12 1 (0.35%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.35%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.35%) RPG
12 1 (0.35%) VBA
Qualifications
1 74 (25.61%) Security Cleared
2 60 (20.76%) SC Cleared
3 19 (6.57%) Azure Certification
4 17 (5.88%) Degree
4 17 (5.88%) Microsoft Certification
5 15 (5.19%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 11 (3.81%) VCAP
7 10 (3.46%) MCSA
7 10 (3.46%) MCSE
8 9 (3.11%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (2.08%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (2.08%) DV Cleared
9 6 (2.08%) ISTQB
9 6 (2.08%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 6 (2.08%) OCP
9 6 (2.08%) Oracle Certification
10 5 (1.73%) CCNA
10 5 (1.73%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 4 (1.38%) CISSP
12 3 (1.04%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (3.46%) QA
2 3 (1.04%) SLA
3 2 (0.69%) GMP
3 2 (0.69%) GxP
3 2 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.69%) NIST
3 2 (0.69%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.35%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.35%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.35%) GDPR
4 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.35%) WCAG
System Software
1 86 (29.76%) VMware Infrastructure
2 45 (15.57%) Active Directory
2 45 (15.57%) vSphere
3 36 (12.46%) VMware ESXi
4 26 (9.00%) Docker
5 20 (6.92%) Hyper-V
6 13 (4.50%) VMware NSX
7 10 (3.46%) KVM
8 9 (3.11%) NFS
9 7 (2.42%) Ceph
10 6 (2.08%) Firmware
11 5 (1.73%) Virtual Desktop
12 3 (1.04%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (1.04%) VMware Workstation
13 2 (0.69%) Veritas Volume Manager
14 1 (0.35%) BitLocker
14 1 (0.35%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 64 (22.15%) Terraform
2 50 (17.30%) Ansible
3 46 (15.92%) Kubernetes
4 29 (10.03%) vCenter Server
5 13 (4.50%) PowerCLI
6 12 (4.15%) Grafana
7 9 (3.11%) Prometheus
7 9 (3.11%) SCOM
8 8 (2.77%) SCCM
9 6 (2.08%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (2.08%) Podman
9 6 (2.08%) SnapMirror
9 6 (2.08%) VxRail
10 5 (1.73%) vMotion
11 4 (1.38%) Argo
11 4 (1.38%) Avamar
11 4 (1.38%) Failover Clustering
11 4 (1.38%) Microsoft Clustering
11 4 (1.38%) OPNET
11 4 (1.38%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 91 (31.49%) VMware
2 88 (30.45%) Microsoft
3 29 (10.03%) Cisco
4 20 (6.92%) Oracle
4 20 (6.92%) ServiceNow
5 17 (5.88%) NetApp
6 15 (5.19%) Red Hat
7 13 (4.50%) Dell
7 13 (4.50%) IBM
8 11 (3.81%) Google
8 11 (3.81%) Veeam
9 10 (3.46%) Qualys
10 9 (3.11%) CyberArk
11 8 (2.77%) Databricks
12 7 (2.42%) SolarWinds
13 6 (2.08%) Palo Alto
13 6 (2.08%) Tenable
14 5 (1.73%) Commvault
14 5 (1.73%) EMC
14 5 (1.73%) Meraki
99 Virtual Machines jobs in England