High Availability Contract Job Trends

High Availability
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring High Availability skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 139 200
Rank change year-on-year +9 +61 +18
Contract jobs citing High Availability 944 609 498
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.98% 2.09% 1.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.34% 2.30% 1.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 641 392 328
10th Percentile £375 £350 £313
25th Percentile £425 £450 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £534 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.28% -3.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £626 £650
90th Percentile £675 £750 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £516 £500
% change year-on-year -6.03% +3.22% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 6 9
10th Percentile £20.79 £24.90 £23.80
25th Percentile £50.00 £26.11 £28.00
Median hourly rate £57.77 £26.73 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +116.15% -56.62% -12.00%
75th Percentile £76.50 £61.38 -
90th Percentile £83.00 £75.60 £63.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £74.35 £61.60
% change year-on-year -26.03% +20.70% -2.22%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

High Availability falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 40,321 26,530 37,209
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.49% 90.95% 86.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,358 17,078 23,948
10th Percentile £321 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.70% -1.00% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £479 £500
% change year-on-year +2.30% -4.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,401 1,077 2,439
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.47 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.85 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.00 £28.75 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +46.09% -21.23% +1.39%
75th Percentile £67.25 £61.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.00 £27.13 £37.50
% change year-on-year +62.21% -27.67% +7.14%

High Availability
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing High Availability relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

High Availability job vacancy trend in the UK

High Availability
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing High Availability.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing High Availability

High Availability
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing High Availability over the 6 months to 9 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for High Availability in the UK

High Availability
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing High Availability.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing High Availability

High Availability
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing High Availability over the 6 months to 9 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for High Availability in the UK

High Availability
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing High Availability within the UK over the 6 months to 9 May 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
England +16 804 £500 -9.09% 281
UK excluding London +21 530 £485 -6.03% 210
London -31 299 £525 -11.39% 104
Work from Home -12 238 £520 -5.45% 112
North of England +13 189 £475 -2.56% 51
South East +12 145 £550 +10.00% 88
North West +6 92 £481 +1.32% 29
Yorkshire +2 92 £475 -9.52% 16
Midlands -13 73 £500 -7.61% 29
West Midlands -19 59 £500 -9.09% 20
South West -25 47 £500 -9.09% 14
Scotland +3 45 £425 -15.00% 9
East of England -14 30 £425 -10.05% 17
East Midlands -23 13 £540 +10.77% 9
Wales -9 8 £500 +69.49% 3
North East -11 8 £425 -22.73% 6
Northern Ireland -1 1 - - 3

High Availability
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 40 (4.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 25 (2.65%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.69%) Confluence
4 11 (1.17%) IIS
5 10 (1.06%) OpenStack
6 8 (0.85%) Apache Spark
6 8 (0.85%) Oracle Workflow
7 5 (0.53%) Apache
7 5 (0.53%) Apache Airflow
7 5 (0.53%) SAS
8 3 (0.32%) CICS
9 2 (0.21%) Apache Pulsar
9 2 (0.21%) Drupal
9 2 (0.21%) NetWeaver
9 2 (0.21%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.21%) WordPress
10 1 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
10 1 (0.11%) FactoryTalk
10 1 (0.11%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.11%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 17 (1.80%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.21%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.11%) InDesign
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.11%) Weka
Business Applications
1 11 (1.17%) Payment Gateway
2 8 (0.85%) Veritas eDiscovery
3 5 (0.53%) BASE24
3 5 (0.53%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.42%) Oracle Applications
4 4 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
5 3 (0.32%) Distributed Ledger
5 3 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.21%) DELMIA
7 1 (0.11%) Actimize
7 1 (0.11%) ION MarketView
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.11%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 279 (29.56%) AWS
2 278 (29.45%) Azure
3 88 (9.32%) GCP
4 75 (7.94%) GitHub
5 58 (6.14%) OpenShift
6 57 (6.04%) Entra ID
7 52 (5.51%) AWS CloudFormation
8 48 (5.08%) Serverless
9 45 (4.77%) Azure DevOps
10 42 (4.45%) Microsoft 365
11 36 (3.81%) GitHub Actions
12 35 (3.71%) AWS Lambda
13 33 (3.50%) Amazon S3
14 31 (3.28%) Azure Monitor
15 30 (3.18%) Amazon EKS
16 24 (2.54%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 23 (2.44%) Azure AKS
18 22 (2.33%) Azure Data Factory
18 22 (2.33%) SaaS
19 18 (1.91%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 160 (16.95%) Firewall
2 138 (14.62%) DNS
3 89 (9.43%) WAN
4 80 (8.47%) LAN
5 79 (8.37%) Network Security
6 74 (7.84%) DHCP
7 67 (7.10%) VPN
8 64 (6.78%) BGP
9 61 (6.46%) OSPF
10 47 (4.98%) BIG-IP
11 40 (4.24%) SAN
11 40 (4.24%) SD-WAN
12 38 (4.03%) VXLAN
13 36 (3.81%) Ethernet VPN
14 31 (3.28%) Cisco ISE
15 30 (3.18%) TCP/IP
16 27 (2.86%) Junos
16 27 (2.86%) NAS
17 26 (2.75%) SSL
17 26 (2.75%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (7.63%) SQL Server
2 60 (6.36%) PostgreSQL
3 52 (5.51%) Oracle Database
4 32 (3.39%) Azure SQL Database
5 29 (3.07%) Amazon RDS
6 23 (2.44%) NoSQL
6 23 (2.44%) Relational Database
7 19 (2.01%) Delta Lake
7 19 (2.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 17 (1.80%) Data Lake
9 16 (1.69%) MongoDB
10 14 (1.48%) DB2
10 14 (1.48%) MySQL
10 14 (1.48%) Oracle Database 12c
11 12 (1.27%) DynamoDB
12 11 (1.17%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 10 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
13 10 (1.06%) SAP HANA
14 9 (0.95%) Big Data
14 9 (0.95%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 65 (6.89%) Git
2 61 (6.46%) Jenkins
3 34 (3.60%) GitLab
4 19 (2.01%) JIRA
5 9 (0.95%) Gradle
5 9 (0.95%) JUnit
6 8 (0.85%) Maven
7 6 (0.64%) IBM UrbanCode
8 5 (0.53%) Flyway
9 4 (0.42%) Artifactory
9 4 (0.42%) Cucumber
9 4 (0.42%) Liquibase
10 3 (0.32%) MLflow
10 3 (0.32%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.32%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 2 (0.21%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.21%) Gatling
11 2 (0.21%) git-flow
11 2 (0.21%) Mockito
General
1 235 (24.89%) Social Skills
2 144 (15.25%) Finance
3 73 (7.73%) Banking
3 73 (7.73%) Public Sector
4 61 (6.46%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (3.92%) Documentation Skills
6 25 (2.65%) Telecoms
7 20 (2.12%) Legal
8 13 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 13 (1.38%) Military
8 13 (1.38%) Retail
9 11 (1.17%) Manufacturing
10 8 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (0.74%) Electronics
11 7 (0.74%) Financial Institution
12 6 (0.64%) Investment Banking
13 5 (0.53%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (0.53%) Police
14 4 (0.42%) Advertising
14 4 (0.42%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 120 (12.71%) Senior
2 114 (12.08%) Architect
3 86 (9.11%) Developer
4 85 (9.00%) Network Engineer
5 70 (7.42%) DBA
6 53 (5.61%) DevOps Engineer
6 53 (5.61%) Lead
7 49 (5.19%) Administrator
8 44 (4.66%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 35 (3.71%) Oracle DBA
10 32 (3.39%) SQL DBA
11 29 (3.07%) Senior Network Engineer
12 26 (2.75%) AWS Engineer
12 26 (2.75%) Java Developer
12 26 (2.75%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 25 (2.65%) Network Specialist
13 25 (2.65%) Platform Engineer
14 23 (2.44%) Data Engineer
15 22 (2.33%) AWS DevOps
15 22 (2.33%) Unix Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (5.08%) Kafka
2 47 (4.98%) Spring
3 40 (4.24%) Spring Boot
4 36 (3.81%) REST
5 34 (3.60%) LDAP
6 32 (3.39%) .NET
7 31 (3.28%) 802.1X
8 27 (2.86%) OAuth
8 27 (2.86%) RESTful
9 23 (2.44%) OpenTelemetry
9 23 (2.44%) SAML
10 20 (2.12%) Elastic Stack
11 18 (1.91%) Node.js
12 15 (1.59%) React
13 13 (1.38%) AngularJS
14 11 (1.17%) .NET Framework
14 11 (1.17%) ARM Templates
15 10 (1.06%) PySpark
16 9 (0.95%) AWS CDK
17 8 (0.85%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 123 (13.03%) Cloud Native
2 97 (10.28%) Data Centre
3 83 (8.79%) Replication
4 80 (8.47%) Clustering
5 65 (6.89%) Distributed Systems
6 41 (4.34%) PKI
7 37 (3.92%) Hybrid Cloud
8 29 (3.07%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (2.75%) Enterprise Storage
10 24 (2.54%) Mainframe
11 23 (2.44%) Data Protection Act
12 18 (1.91%) Product Ownership
13 17 (1.80%) Onboarding
14 14 (1.48%) NHS
15 13 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
16 12 (1.27%) Management Information System
17 11 (1.17%) BYOD
18 10 (1.06%) Analytical Mindset
18 10 (1.06%) SCADA
19 9 (0.95%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 169 (17.90%) Windows
2 146 (15.47%) Linux
3 99 (10.49%) Windows Server
4 65 (6.89%) Unix
5 38 (4.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 25 (2.65%) Solaris
7 14 (1.48%) VMS
8 11 (1.17%) zOS
9 10 (1.06%) Ubuntu
10 9 (0.95%) CentOS
11 8 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.74%) Windows Server 2012
13 6 (0.64%) Windows Server 2016
14 5 (0.53%) SUSE
15 4 (0.42%) Data ONTAP
15 4 (0.42%) Oracle Linux
16 3 (0.32%) Windows 10
17 2 (0.21%) Debian
17 2 (0.21%) Mac OS
17 2 (0.21%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 265 (28.07%) CI/CD
2 249 (26.38%) Disaster Recovery
3 246 (26.06%) DevOps
4 175 (18.54%) Infrastructure as Code
5 168 (17.80%) Migration
5 168 (17.80%) Problem-Solving
6 156 (16.53%) Performance Tuning
7 153 (16.21%) Containerisation
8 118 (12.50%) Observability
9 102 (10.81%) Load Balancing
10 101 (10.70%) Agile
11 97 (10.28%) ITIL
12 95 (10.06%) Root Cause Analysis
13 93 (9.85%) Capacity Planning
14 88 (9.32%) Microservices
15 87 (9.22%) Technical Leadership
16 78 (8.26%) Continuous Improvement
16 78 (8.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 73 (7.73%) Roadmaps
18 70 (7.42%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 229 (24.26%) Python
2 145 (15.36%) SQL
3 118 (12.50%) PowerShell
4 99 (10.49%) Java
5 79 (8.37%) Bash
6 29 (3.07%) Bicep
7 28 (2.97%) Go
8 25 (2.65%) JavaScript
8 25 (2.65%) Shell Script
9 23 (2.44%) C#
10 17 (1.80%) C++
10 17 (1.80%) TypeScript
11 14 (1.48%) PL/SQL
11 14 (1.48%) Scala
12 11 (1.17%) Korn
13 9 (0.95%) Groovy
14 8 (0.85%) COBOL
14 8 (0.85%) Perl
15 7 (0.74%) C
15 7 (0.74%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 329 (34.85%) Security Cleared
2 247 (26.17%) SC Cleared
3 68 (7.20%) DV Cleared
4 64 (6.78%) Cisco Certification
5 62 (6.57%) Degree
6 37 (3.92%) Azure Certification
7 35 (3.71%) CCNP
8 33 (3.50%) Microsoft Certification
9 27 (2.86%) AWS Certification
10 25 (2.65%) Computer Science Degree
11 24 (2.54%) CCNA
12 23 (2.44%) MCSE
13 22 (2.33%) MCSA
13 22 (2.33%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 19 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
15 17 (1.80%) VCAP
16 12 (1.27%) JNCIP
17 11 (1.17%) JNCIS
18 10 (1.06%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 10 (1.06%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (5.30%) GDPR
2 37 (3.92%) QA
3 26 (2.75%) Data Quality
4 17 (1.80%) SLA
5 14 (1.48%) PCI DSS
5 14 (1.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 10 (1.06%) NCSC
7 8 (0.85%) Disclosure Scotland
7 8 (0.85%) ISO 8583
7 8 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.64%) NIST
9 5 (0.53%) Accessibility
9 5 (0.53%) ISO 20022
10 4 (0.42%) DICOM
10 4 (0.42%) HL7
11 3 (0.32%) GRC
11 3 (0.32%) SEPA
12 2 (0.21%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
13 1 (0.11%) HIPAA
System Software
1 113 (11.97%) Active Directory
2 106 (11.23%) Docker
3 101 (10.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 56 (5.93%) vSphere
5 45 (4.77%) VMware ESXi
6 43 (4.56%) Virtual Machines
7 40 (4.24%) Hyper-V
8 33 (3.50%) VMware NSX
9 18 (1.91%) Oracle RAC
10 12 (1.27%) Firmware
10 12 (1.27%) NFS
11 6 (0.64%) Corosync
12 5 (0.53%) KVM
12 5 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.42%) Postfix
14 3 (0.32%) XenApp
14 3 (0.32%) XenDesktop
15 2 (0.21%) Citrix Hypervisor
15 2 (0.21%) SRDF
16 1 (0.11%) RACF
Systems Management
1 196 (20.76%) Kubernetes
2 191 (20.23%) Terraform
3 126 (13.35%) Ansible
4 58 (6.14%) Grafana
5 53 (5.61%) vCenter Server
6 42 (4.45%) Prometheus
7 32 (3.39%) FortiGate
7 32 (3.39%) Single Sign-On
8 28 (2.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 28 (2.97%) Oracle RMAN
9 25 (2.65%) Argo
10 17 (1.80%) Microsoft Intune
11 16 (1.69%) Failover Clustering
12 14 (1.48%) Data Guard
13 12 (1.27%) PowerCLI
14 10 (1.06%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
15 8 (0.85%) Microsoft Clustering
15 8 (0.85%) SCCM
15 8 (0.85%) VxRail
16 7 (0.74%) Pacemaker
Vendors
1 190 (20.13%) Microsoft
2 125 (13.24%) VMware
3 115 (12.18%) Cisco
4 106 (11.23%) Oracle
5 73 (7.73%) Splunk
6 68 (7.20%) F5
7 48 (5.08%) Palo Alto
8 46 (4.87%) Red Hat
9 39 (4.13%) Juniper
10 37 (3.92%) SolarWinds
11 30 (3.18%) Databricks
11 30 (3.18%) Pure Storage
12 24 (2.54%) Extreme Networks
12 24 (2.54%) ServiceNow
13 23 (2.44%) SAP
14 21 (2.22%) Fortinet
15 17 (1.80%) Dell
16 16 (1.69%) IBM
16 16 (1.69%) NetApp
16 16 (1.69%) Okta