vCenter Server Contract Job Trends

VMware vCenter Server
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring vCenter Server skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 466 418 489
Rank change year-on-year -48 +71 +35
Contract jobs citing vCenter Server 118 109 101
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.32% 0.34% 0.24%
As % of the Systems Management category 2.03% 2.32% 1.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 53 62
10th Percentile £433 £400 £313
25th Percentile £500 £463 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £550 £510
Median % change year-on-year -7.05% +7.84% -7.27%
75th Percentile £569 £661 £609
90th Percentile £638 £675 £709
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £575 £510
% change year-on-year -13.04% +12.75% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 3 1
10th Percentile £68.53 £74.40 -
25th Percentile £72.69 £88.50 -
Median hourly rate £82.50 £112.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.34% +86.67% +15.10%
75th Percentile £88.03 - -
90th Percentile £88.99 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £82.50 - £60.00
% change year-on-year - - +15.10%

All Systems Management Skills
UK

vCenter Server falls under the Systems Management category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring systems management skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 5,811 4,702 5,581
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.72% 14.88% 13.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,004 3,034 3,996
10th Percentile £313 £310 £278
25th Percentile £413 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.19% -1.64% -7.97%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £688 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 66 153
10th Percentile £17.83 £15.36 £16.25
25th Percentile £20.94 £21.10 £22.00
Median hourly rate £53.25 £24.84 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +114.37% -46.21% +31.94%
75th Percentile £63.32 £49.05 £70.00
90th Percentile £84.80 £74.22 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £24.18 £46.18
% change year-on-year +127.46% -47.64% +23.15%

vCenter Server
Job Vacancy Trend

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

vCenter Server job vacancy trend in the UK

vCenter Server
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing vCenter Server.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing vCenter Server

vCenter Server
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing vCenter Server over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for vCenter Server in the UK

vCenter Server
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing vCenter Server.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing vCenter Server

vCenter Server
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing vCenter Server over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for vCenter Server in the UK

vCenter Server
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing vCenter Server within the UK over the 6 months to 14 January 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 -19 110 £520 -5.45% 31
UK excluding London -44 96 £500 -13.04% 28
South East +16 57 £500 -13.04% 13
Work from Home -4 18 £540 +0.93% 5
South West -16 18 £555 +0.91% 5
London -24 13 £530 +6.00% 3
North of England -61 12 £456 +17.68% 8
North West -32 9 £456 +17.68% 6
East of England -10 6 £685 +14.17% 2
Yorkshire - 3 - - 2
Wales - 2 - -
West Midlands - 1 - -
Midlands - 1 - - 2

vCenter Server
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 9 (7.63%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (4.24%) SharePoint
3 4 (3.39%) SharePoint Server
4 2 (1.69%) IIS
5 1 (0.85%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 3 (2.54%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 18 (15.25%) Azure
2 13 (11.02%) IaaS
3 11 (9.32%) OpenShift
4 9 (7.63%) AWS
5 8 (6.78%) PaaS
6 6 (5.08%) Microsoft 365
7 5 (4.24%) Power Platform
8 3 (2.54%) GitHub
9 2 (1.69%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (1.69%) Entra ID
9 2 (1.69%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.85%) GCP
10 1 (0.85%) Google Ads
10 1 (0.85%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 1 (0.85%) Nutanix
10 1 (0.85%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 38 (32.20%) DNS
2 26 (22.03%) Firewall
3 22 (18.64%) Cisco Firepower
3 22 (18.64%) Cisco IOS
3 22 (18.64%) Cisco ISE
3 22 (18.64%) Junos
4 14 (11.86%) VSAN
5 10 (8.47%) DHCP
5 10 (8.47%) VLAN
6 8 (6.78%) Skype
7 6 (5.08%) SAN
7 6 (5.08%) VPN
8 5 (4.24%) NX-OS
8 5 (4.24%) TCP/IP
8 5 (4.24%) WebEx
9 4 (3.39%) PCoIP
9 4 (3.39%) WAN
10 3 (2.54%) NAS
10 3 (2.54%) SMTP
11 2 (1.69%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (6.78%) SQL Server
2 5 (4.24%) Power BI
3 3 (2.54%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (1.69%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 9 (7.63%) Jenkins
2 3 (2.54%) JIRA
3 2 (1.69%) GitLab
General
1 19 (16.10%) Social Skills
2 14 (11.86%) Public Sector
3 9 (7.63%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (5.08%) Documentation Skills
4 6 (5.08%) Finance
5 3 (2.54%) Banking
6 1 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (0.85%) Legal
6 1 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (0.85%) Police
6 1 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (0.85%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 31 (26.27%) 3rd Line Engineer
2 24 (20.34%) Architect
2 24 (20.34%) Network Engineer
3 22 (18.64%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
4 21 (17.80%) Cloud Engineer
4 21 (17.80%) Cloud Network Engineer
5 19 (16.10%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
6 18 (15.25%) Support Engineer
7 16 (13.56%) 3rd Line Support
7 16 (13.56%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
8 15 (12.71%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 15 (12.71%) Network Support
8 15 (12.71%) Network Support Engineer
9 10 (8.47%) VMware Engineer
10 9 (7.63%) Platform Engineer
11 8 (6.78%) Storage Engineer
12 7 (5.93%) Senior
13 6 (5.08%) VMware Architect
14 4 (3.39%) VMware Specialist
14 4 (3.39%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.54%) OpenTelemetry
2 2 (1.69%) LDAP
2 2 (1.69%) ModSecurity
2 2 (1.69%) REST
3 1 (0.85%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (0.85%) Flash
3 1 (0.85%) JSON
3 1 (0.85%) RESTful
3 1 (0.85%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 19 (16.10%) PKI
2 11 (9.32%) Replication
3 10 (8.47%) Data Centre
4 8 (6.78%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (5.93%) Clustering
6 5 (4.24%) CMDB
6 5 (4.24%) Cyber Defence
6 5 (4.24%) Private Cloud
7 4 (3.39%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (3.39%) Enterprise Storage
8 3 (2.54%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (2.54%) Management Information System
8 3 (2.54%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.69%) Cloud Native
10 1 (0.85%) Legacy Systems
10 1 (0.85%) Security Operations Centre
10 1 (0.85%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 63 (53.39%) Windows
2 42 (35.59%) Windows Server
3 34 (28.81%) Linux
4 15 (12.71%) Windows 10
5 8 (6.78%) Windows Server 2016
6 6 (5.08%) VMS
7 5 (4.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (3.39%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (2.54%) Windows Server 2003
9 3 (2.54%) Windows Server 2008
9 3 (2.54%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.85%) CentOS
10 1 (0.85%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.85%) Solaris
10 1 (0.85%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (24.58%) ITSM
2 25 (21.19%) Service Management
3 18 (15.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 18 (15.25%) Problem-Solving
4 16 (13.56%) Migration
5 13 (11.02%) Disaster Recovery
6 12 (10.17%) CI/CD
6 12 (10.17%) DevOps
6 12 (10.17%) High Availability
6 12 (10.17%) ITIL
7 11 (9.32%) Containerisation
7 11 (9.32%) Network Virtualisation
7 11 (9.32%) Platform Engineering
7 11 (9.32%) Root Cause Analysis
8 10 (8.47%) Agile
9 9 (7.63%) Change Management
9 9 (7.63%) Load Balancing
10 8 (6.78%) Roadmaps
11 7 (5.93%) Infrastructure as Code
11 7 (5.93%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 29 (24.58%) PowerShell
2 13 (11.02%) Python
3 12 (10.17%) Bash
4 6 (5.08%) SQL
5 1 (0.85%) Perl
5 1 (0.85%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.85%) VB
5 1 (0.85%) VBA
Qualifications
1 90 (76.27%) Security Cleared
2 50 (42.37%) DV Cleared
3 36 (30.51%) SC Cleared
4 12 (10.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 7 (5.93%) VCAP
6 6 (5.08%) Microsoft Certification
7 4 (3.39%) MCSA
7 4 (3.39%) MCSE
8 2 (1.69%) Degree
9 1 (0.85%) A+ Certification
9 1 (0.85%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.85%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.54%) GDPR
1 3 (2.54%) NCSC
2 2 (1.69%) Cyber Essentials
2 2 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (1.69%) SLA
3 1 (0.85%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.85%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 65 (55.08%) VMware Infrastructure
2 49 (41.53%) Active Directory
3 44 (37.29%) VMware ESXi
4 43 (36.44%) VMware NSX
5 42 (35.59%) vSphere
6 22 (18.64%) Virtual Machines
7 11 (9.32%) Docker
8 6 (5.08%) Firmware
9 5 (4.24%) Hyper-V
10 4 (3.39%) vCloud
10 4 (3.39%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (2.54%) BitLocker
11 3 (2.54%) KVM
11 3 (2.54%) Microsoft App-V
12 2 (1.69%) NFS
12 2 (1.69%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 24 (20.34%) Ansible
2 19 (16.10%) Terraform
3 14 (11.86%) Kubernetes
4 11 (9.32%) SCCM
5 10 (8.47%) Argo
6 8 (6.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 8 (6.78%) WSUS
7 7 (5.93%) SCOM
7 7 (5.93%) vMotion
7 7 (5.93%) VxRail
8 3 (2.54%) Grafana
8 3 (2.54%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (2.54%) Nessus
8 3 (2.54%) OPNET
8 3 (2.54%) PowerCLI
8 3 (2.54%) Puppet
9 2 (1.69%) Check_MK
9 2 (1.69%) FortiGate
9 2 (1.69%) Microsoft Clustering
9 2 (1.69%) NetApp OnCommand
Vendors
1 91 (77.12%) VMware
2 47 (39.83%) Cisco
3 37 (31.36%) Microsoft
4 34 (28.81%) SolarWinds
5 22 (18.64%) Juniper
6 17 (14.41%) Veeam
7 16 (13.56%) Red Hat
8 14 (11.86%) Dell
9 9 (7.63%) Pure Storage
10 8 (6.78%) NetApp
11 6 (5.08%) ServiceNow
12 5 (4.24%) Broadcom
12 5 (4.24%) Citrix
12 5 (4.24%) LogicMonitor
12 5 (4.24%) Splunk
12 5 (4.24%) Tanium
13 4 (3.39%) Fortinet
13 4 (3.39%) Palo Alto
14 2 (1.69%) Aruba
14 2 (1.69%) Tenable