Virtual Machines Contracts in the UK excluding London

Virtual Machine (VM)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Virtual Machines skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Virtual Machines over the 6 months leading up to 18 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 259 260 256
Rank change year-on-year +1 -4 +68
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 81 127 196
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.62% 0.62% 0.85%
As % of the System Software category 4.43% 5.30% 5.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 55 95 142
10th Percentile £318 £337 £315
25th Percentile £372 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £538 £608 £575
90th Percentile £600 £650 £600
UK median daily rate £513 £513 £540
% change year-on-year - -5.09% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 27 12
10th Percentile - - £21.64
25th Percentile £61.50 £14.06 £24.62
Median hourly rate £63.00 £14.63 £64.50
Median % change year-on-year +330.77% -77.33% -21.82%
75th Percentile £65.63 £15.19 £67.00
90th Percentile £66.00 £86.97 £74.50
UK median hourly rate £63.00 £14.63 £66.00
% change year-on-year +330.77% -77.84% +13.04%

All System Software Skills
UK excluding London

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 the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 1,827 2,397 3,487
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 14.06% 11.80% 15.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,255 1,627 2,493
10th Percentile £190 £178 £181
25th Percentile £313 £300 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £465 £480
Median % change year-on-year +2.16% -3.13% +6.67%
75th Percentile £575 £587 £588
90th Percentile £650 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 190 175
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £15.28 £14.16 £16.58
Median hourly rate £36.65 £19.18 £46.11
Median % change year-on-year +91.11% -58.41% +163.46%
75th Percentile £64.75 £60.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.00 £74.50
UK median hourly rate £28.21 £22.40 £54.00
% change year-on-year +25.92% -58.52% +170.00%

Virtual Machines
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Virtual Machines as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Virtual Machines in the UK excluding London

Virtual Machines
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Virtual Machines in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Virtual Machines in the UK excluding London

Virtual Machines
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Virtual Machines in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 18 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Virtual Machines in the UK excluding London

Virtual Machines
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Virtual Machines in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Virtual Machines in the UK excluding London

Virtual Machines
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 18 May 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
North of England +6 23 £375 -36.84% 29
Midlands +24 20 £500 +25.00% 33
West Midlands +12 18 £500 +25.00% 17
North West +11 15 £375 -37.50% 13
East of England +24 12 £525 -12.79% 26
South East +7 12 £575 +4.55% 49
Scotland +10 9 £513 +15.49% 9
Yorkshire -1 5 £475 +40.74% 13
South West +32 4 £535 +21.80% 29
North East - 3 £363 - 3
East Midlands +12 2 £525 +61.54% 14
Wales +4 2 £300 -29.41% 6
Virtual Machines
UK

Virtual Machines
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 9 (11.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (9.88%) WebSphere
3 6 (7.41%) SharePoint
4 5 (6.17%) IIS
5 4 (4.94%) Confluence
6 3 (3.70%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
6 3 (3.70%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (3.70%) Skype for Business
7 2 (2.47%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (2.47%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (1.23%) Apache
8 1 (1.23%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 2 (2.47%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.23%) Final Cut Pro
2 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (1.23%) QuarkXPress
Cloud Services
1 28 (34.57%) Azure
2 12 (14.81%) Entra ID
3 11 (13.58%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (12.35%) AWS
5 8 (9.88%) Serverless
6 7 (8.64%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (7.41%) Azure Event Grid
7 6 (7.41%) Azure Logic Apps
7 6 (7.41%) Azure Monitor
8 5 (6.17%) Azure API Management
8 5 (6.17%) Azure Service Bus
9 4 (4.94%) Azure AKS
9 4 (4.94%) Azure Functions
9 4 (4.94%) OneDrive
10 3 (3.70%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (3.70%) Azure Storage
10 3 (3.70%) Cohesity
10 3 (3.70%) GCP
10 3 (3.70%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (3.70%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (12.35%) DNS
1 10 (12.35%) SAN
2 7 (8.64%) DHCP
3 5 (6.17%) Firewall
3 5 (6.17%) SNA
3 5 (6.17%) TCP/IP
3 5 (6.17%) VPN
4 3 (3.70%) IMAP
4 3 (3.70%) NAS
4 3 (3.70%) Skype
4 3 (3.70%) SMTP
5 2 (2.47%) Broadband
5 2 (2.47%) Network Security
5 2 (2.47%) NGFW
5 2 (2.47%) VLAN
5 2 (2.47%) WAN
6 1 (1.23%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (1.23%) IPsec
6 1 (1.23%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (9.88%) DB2
2 5 (6.17%) Azure SQL Database
3 4 (4.94%) Relational Database
3 4 (4.94%) SQL Server
4 3 (3.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (1.23%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (1.23%) Apache Cassandra
5 1 (1.23%) Apache Hive
5 1 (1.23%) Big Data
5 1 (1.23%) Data Lake
5 1 (1.23%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (1.23%) Hadoop
5 1 (1.23%) HBase
5 1 (1.23%) HDInsight
5 1 (1.23%) Impala
5 1 (1.23%) InfluxDB
5 1 (1.23%) MongoDB
5 1 (1.23%) Oracle Database
5 1 (1.23%) Power BI
5 1 (1.23%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 5 (6.17%) Git
1 5 (6.17%) Jenkins
2 4 (4.94%) GitLab
2 4 (4.94%) JIRA
3 1 (1.23%) Artifactory
General
1 17 (20.99%) Social Skills
2 10 (12.35%) Public Sector
3 8 (9.88%) Finance
4 7 (8.64%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (4.94%) Legal
5 4 (4.94%) Telecoms
6 2 (2.47%) Banking
6 2 (2.47%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.47%) Electronics
6 2 (2.47%) Law
6 2 (2.47%) Manufacturing
6 2 (2.47%) Marketing
7 1 (1.23%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 12 (14.81%) Architect
2 7 (8.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 7 (8.64%) Solutions Architect
3 6 (7.41%) Administrator
3 6 (7.41%) Azure Engineer
3 6 (7.41%) Systems Architect
4 5 (6.17%) Consultant
4 5 (6.17%) Developer
4 5 (6.17%) Information Architect
4 5 (6.17%) Information Systems Architect
4 5 (6.17%) VMWare Administrator
4 5 (6.17%) Wintel Administrator
5 4 (4.94%) Analyst
5 4 (4.94%) Azure Architect
5 4 (4.94%) Cloud Engineer
5 4 (4.94%) Support Engineer
6 3 (3.70%) Deployment Engineer
6 3 (3.70%) Messaging Engineer
6 3 (3.70%) Senior
7 2 (2.47%) Solutions Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.70%) .NET
1 3 (3.70%) ARM Templates
1 3 (3.70%) Middleware
1 3 (3.70%) RESTful
1 3 (3.70%) Web Services
2 2 (2.47%) OAuth
2 2 (2.47%) OpenID
2 2 (2.47%) SAML
3 1 (1.23%) ADO
3 1 (1.23%) Anaconda
3 1 (1.23%) Azure Blueprints
3 1 (1.23%) Kafka
3 1 (1.23%) Keycloak
3 1 (1.23%) PySpark
3 1 (1.23%) REST
3 1 (1.23%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (13.58%) Mainframe
1 11 (13.58%) Management Information System
1 11 (13.58%) Product Ownership
2 7 (8.64%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (6.17%) Data Centre
4 4 (4.94%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (3.70%) Blackberry
5 3 (3.70%) Cloud Native
5 3 (3.70%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (3.70%) Public Cloud
5 3 (3.70%) Replication
6 2 (2.47%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (1.23%) Cyber Threat
7 1 (1.23%) IoT
7 1 (1.23%) Operational Technology
7 1 (1.23%) Private Cloud
7 1 (1.23%) Reinsurance
7 1 (1.23%) SCADA
7 1 (1.23%) Taxonomies
7 1 (1.23%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 33 (40.74%) Windows
2 18 (22.22%) Windows Server
3 14 (17.28%) Linux
4 11 (13.58%) Unix
5 10 (12.35%) Windows Server 2016
5 10 (12.35%) Windows Server 2019
6 9 (11.11%) Windows Server 2012
7 5 (6.17%) Windows 10
7 5 (6.17%) Windows 7
7 5 (6.17%) zOS
8 3 (3.70%) Windows XP
9 2 (2.47%) VMS
10 1 (1.23%) AIX
10 1 (1.23%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (1.23%) Mac OS X
10 1 (1.23%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (34.57%) Problem-Solving
2 18 (22.22%) DevOps
3 17 (20.99%) Agile
4 15 (18.52%) Migration
5 14 (17.28%) High Availability
6 12 (14.81%) ITIL
6 12 (14.81%) Roadmaps
7 11 (13.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 10 (12.35%) CI/CD
9 9 (11.11%) Validation
10 8 (9.88%) Disaster Recovery
10 8 (9.88%) Information Management
10 8 (9.88%) RBAC
11 7 (8.64%) Project Management
11 7 (8.64%) Root Cause Analysis
12 6 (7.41%) Business Analysis
12 6 (7.41%) Change Management
12 6 (7.41%) Kanban
12 6 (7.41%) Performance Tuning
12 6 (7.41%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 15 (18.52%) SQL
2 11 (13.58%) PowerShell
3 9 (11.11%) Python
4 7 (8.64%) C#
5 5 (6.17%) JCL
5 5 (6.17%) Shell Script
6 4 (4.94%) Bash
6 4 (4.94%) Bicep
7 2 (2.47%) Java
7 2 (2.47%) JavaScript
7 2 (2.47%) Perl
7 2 (2.47%) REXX
8 1 (1.23%) PL/SQL
8 1 (1.23%) VB
8 1 (1.23%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 25 (30.86%) Security Cleared
2 23 (28.40%) SC Cleared
3 6 (7.41%) Degree
4 5 (6.17%) Azure Certification
4 5 (6.17%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (4.94%) DV Cleared
5 4 (4.94%) MCSE
5 4 (4.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 2 (2.47%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (1.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (7.41%) SLA
2 1 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 1 (1.23%) Data Quality
2 1 (1.23%) Disclosure Scotland
2 1 (1.23%) GDPR
2 1 (1.23%) SOC 2
System Software
1 36 (44.44%) Active Directory
2 25 (30.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (12.35%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (7.41%) Hyper-V
5 4 (4.94%) vSphere
6 3 (3.70%) Docker
6 3 (3.70%) VMware NSX
7 1 (1.23%) Apache Flume
7 1 (1.23%) KVM
7 1 (1.23%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 13 (16.05%) vCenter Server
2 11 (13.58%) WSUS
3 7 (8.64%) Ansible
4 5 (6.17%) Kubernetes
4 5 (6.17%) Microsoft Clustering
4 5 (6.17%) NetApp OnCommand
4 5 (6.17%) Terraform
4 5 (6.17%) Tivoli NetView
4 5 (6.17%) vMotion
5 4 (4.94%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (3.70%) vRealize
7 2 (2.47%) Proxmox
8 1 (1.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (1.23%) Grafana
8 1 (1.23%) HAProxy
8 1 (1.23%) Puppet
8 1 (1.23%) Red Hat Satellite
8 1 (1.23%) SCCM
8 1 (1.23%) SCOM
8 1 (1.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 32 (39.51%) Microsoft
2 27 (33.33%) VMware
3 11 (13.58%) IBM
4 6 (7.41%) Oracle
5 4 (4.94%) Broadcom
5 4 (4.94%) Citrix
5 4 (4.94%) NetApp
5 4 (4.94%) Palo Alto
6 2 (2.47%) Apple
6 2 (2.47%) Cisco
6 2 (2.47%) Dynatrace
6 2 (2.47%) Google
6 2 (2.47%) SAP
7 1 (1.23%) Adobe
7 1 (1.23%) Commvault
7 1 (1.23%) Fortinet
7 1 (1.23%) Fujitsu
7 1 (1.23%) Quark
7 1 (1.23%) Red Hat
7 1 (1.23%) ServiceNow