VMS Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

VMS
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring VMS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 27 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 116 109 139
Rank change year-on-year -7 +30 +43
Contract jobs citing VMS 5 19 4
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 0.25% 0.88% 0.16%
As % of the Operating Systems category 1.76% 6.60% 0.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 17 2
10th Percentile £466 £325 £659
25th Percentile £472 £330 £672
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £350 £725
Median % change year-on-year +39.29% -51.72% -
75th Percentile £497 £380 £759
90th Percentile £499 £550 £761
South East median daily rate £500 £365 £645
% change year-on-year +36.99% -43.41% +1.57%

All Operating Systems
Thames Valley

VMS falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring operating system skills in the Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 284 288 437
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 14.40% 13.38% 17.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 175 195 323
10th Percentile £190 £200 £151
25th Percentile £255 £253 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £395 £406 £400
Median % change year-on-year -2.77% +1.56% -20.00%
75th Percentile £519 £550 £569
90th Percentile £575 £650 £625
South East median daily rate £435 £450 £415
% change year-on-year -3.33% +8.43% -12.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 11 26
10th Percentile £16.53 £16.32 £18.10
25th Percentile £18.87 £24.16 £21.84
Median hourly rate £20.79 £38.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.29% +26.67% +76.47%
75th Percentile £25.08 £57.62 £55.64
90th Percentile £87.45 £58.49 £66.13
South East median hourly rate £20.00 £60.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year -66.94% +10.00% +193.33%

VMS
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing VMS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

VMS job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

VMS
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VMS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VMS

VMS
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VMS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VMS

VMS
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing VMS within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 27 November 2025. 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
Berkshire -18 4 £488 +39.29% 3
Buckinghamshire - 1 - - 3
VMS
South East

VMS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 1 (20.00%) Anypoint
Cloud Services
1 3 (60.00%) Azure
2 1 (20.00%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (20.00%) Entra ID
2 1 (20.00%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 1 (20.00%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (20.00%) Azure SQL Database
1 1 (20.00%) Oracle Database
1 1 (20.00%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 1 (20.00%) Jenkins
General
1 1 (20.00%) Documentation Skills
1 1 (20.00%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (40.00%) Azure Engineer
2 1 (20.00%) Architect
2 1 (20.00%) Azure Architect
2 1 (20.00%) Azure Platform Engineer
2 1 (20.00%) Cloud Architect
2 1 (20.00%) Cloud Platform Engineer
2 1 (20.00%) Consultant
2 1 (20.00%) Infrastructure Consultant
2 1 (20.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 1 (20.00%) Integration Engineer
2 1 (20.00%) Migration Architect
2 1 (20.00%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (20.00%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 2 (40.00%) Legacy Systems
2 1 (20.00%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 2 (40.00%) Windows
2 1 (20.00%) CentOS
2 1 (20.00%) Linux
2 1 (20.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 1 (20.00%) Ubuntu
2 1 (20.00%) Windows 7
2 1 (20.00%) Windows Server
2 1 (20.00%) Windows Server 2008
2 1 (20.00%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (40.00%) API Management
1 2 (40.00%) Migration
2 1 (20.00%) Agile
2 1 (20.00%) Analytics
2 1 (20.00%) Cloud Security
2 1 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (20.00%) DevOps
2 1 (20.00%) Disaster Recovery
2 1 (20.00%) High Availability
2 1 (20.00%) Patch Management
2 1 (20.00%) Performance Metrics
2 1 (20.00%) Project Management
2 1 (20.00%) Refactoring
2 1 (20.00%) Remediation Plan
2 1 (20.00%) Re-Platforming
2 1 (20.00%) Resource Allocation
2 1 (20.00%) Risk Assessment
2 1 (20.00%) Risk Management
2 1 (20.00%) Translating Business Requirements
2 1 (20.00%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1 (20.00%) Python
1 1 (20.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (40.00%) SC Cleared
1 2 (40.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (20.00%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (20.00%) RMADS
System Software
1 2 (40.00%) Virtual Machines
1 2 (40.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (20.00%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (20.00%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 2 (40.00%) Terraform
2 1 (20.00%) Ansible
2 1 (20.00%) Kubernetes
2 1 (20.00%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 2 (40.00%) VMware
2 1 (20.00%) IBM
2 1 (20.00%) MuleSoft
2 1 (20.00%) Oracle