Virtual Desktop Contracts

Virtual Desktop
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Virtual Desktop skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Virtual Desktop over the 6 months leading up to 7 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 430 460 473
Rank change year-on-year +30 +13 +124
Contract jobs citing Virtual Desktop 113 136 215
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.35% 0.31% 0.38%
As % of the System Software category 2.95% 2.81% 2.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 96 146
10th Percentile £250 £290 £313
25th Percentile £375 £409 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £538 £536
Median % change year-on-year -11.63% +0.23% +7.25%
75th Percentile £594 £608 £647
90th Percentile £675 £614 £726
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £605 £550
% change year-on-year -20.66% +10.00% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 6
10th Percentile - £18.35 £15.72
25th Percentile - £18.88 £15.73
Median hourly rate - £25.09 £16.50
Median % change year-on-year - +52.03% -79.38%
75th Percentile - £37.63 £17.39
90th Percentile - £46.85 £21.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £25.09 £16.50
% change year-on-year - +52.03% -79.38%

All System Software Skills
UK

Virtual Desktop 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 3,826 4,836 7,418
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.00% 11.18% 13.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,488 3,331 5,171
10th Percentile £225 £210 £200
25th Percentile £381 £370 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £638
90th Percentile £688 £688 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £475
% change year-on-year -1.04% +1.05% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 215 261
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.06 £15.21
25th Percentile £16.39 £15.50 £19.00
Median hourly rate £28.00 £23.80 £53.35
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -55.39% +166.75%
75th Percentile £66.00 £58.69 £67.50
90th Percentile £88.75 £70.00 £75.99
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.88 £23.34 £27.50
% change year-on-year +135.11% -15.13% +48.65%

Virtual Desktop
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Virtual Desktop as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Virtual Desktop in the UK

Virtual Desktop
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Virtual Desktop.

Daily rate trend for Virtual Desktop in the UK

Virtual Desktop
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Virtual Desktop over the 6 months to 7 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Virtual Desktop in the UK

Virtual Desktop
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Virtual Desktop.

Hourly rate trend for Virtual Desktop in the UK

Virtual Desktop
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Virtual Desktop within the UK over the 6 months to 7 July 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
England +36 107 £475 -9.52% 93
London +37 56 £447 -0.67% 39
UK excluding London +19 45 £480 -20.66% 58
Work from Home +6 36 £450 -25.00% 48
North of England +8 16 £500 -16.67% 25
South East +29 14 £430 -28.93% 17
South West +34 7 £600 -
Yorkshire - 6 £525 - 6
North West -1 5 £438 -28.57% 19
North East - 5 £500 -
East of England +22 3 £95 - 4
West Midlands 0 3 £416 -5.93% 6
Midlands -1 3 £416 -7.50% 9
Wales +8 1 £415 - 1
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 1

Virtual Desktop
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 6 (5.31%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (4.42%) SharePoint
2 5 (4.42%) Skype for Business
3 2 (1.77%) IIS
4 1 (0.88%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (7.08%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (6.19%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.88%) Trello
Business Applications
1 3 (2.65%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.88%) SAP HCM
2 1 (0.88%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 74 (65.49%) Azure
2 28 (24.78%) Microsoft 365
3 20 (17.70%) Entra ID
4 14 (12.39%) IaaS
5 8 (7.08%) PaaS
6 7 (6.19%) AWS
7 6 (5.31%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (4.42%) Asana
9 4 (3.54%) Azure Monitor
9 4 (3.54%) GitHub
9 4 (3.54%) OneDrive
9 4 (3.54%) SaaS
10 2 (1.77%) Azure Storage
10 2 (1.77%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.77%) GitHub Actions
11 1 (0.88%) Azure Key Vault
11 1 (0.88%) Azure Logic Apps
11 1 (0.88%) Nutanix
11 1 (0.88%) Power Automate
11 1 (0.88%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 10 (8.85%) DNS
2 8 (7.08%) NetScaler
3 7 (6.19%) VPN
4 6 (5.31%) TCP/IP
5 5 (4.42%) DHCP
5 5 (4.42%) Firewall
5 5 (4.42%) LAN
5 5 (4.42%) Remote Desktop
5 5 (4.42%) WAN
6 4 (3.54%) Skype
7 3 (2.65%) VoIP
8 2 (1.77%) IP Telephony
8 2 (1.77%) WebEx
8 2 (1.77%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (1.77%) Wireless
9 1 (0.88%) FTP
9 1 (0.88%) HTTP
9 1 (0.88%) Intranet
9 1 (0.88%) SD-WAN
9 1 (0.88%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (5.31%) SQL Server
2 3 (2.65%) Amazon RDS
2 3 (2.65%) MySQL
3 1 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.88%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.88%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 9 (7.96%) JIRA
2 3 (2.65%) Hudson
2 3 (2.65%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.88%) AdminStudio
3 1 (0.88%) Atlassian Bamboo
3 1 (0.88%) Git
3 1 (0.88%) JIRA Agile
3 1 (0.88%) Mercurial
3 1 (0.88%) MSI
General
1 46 (40.71%) Social Skills
2 21 (18.58%) Finance
3 10 (8.85%) Banking
4 8 (7.08%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (5.31%) Local Government
5 6 (5.31%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.65%) Investment Banking
7 2 (1.77%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.77%) Law
7 2 (1.77%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.88%) Marketing
8 1 (0.88%) Military
8 1 (0.88%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 18 (15.93%) Support Engineer
2 15 (13.27%) Architect
3 12 (10.62%) Azure Engineer
4 9 (7.96%) Lead
5 8 (7.08%) Cloud Engineer
5 8 (7.08%) Desktop Engineer
5 8 (7.08%) IT Engineer
5 8 (7.08%) Senior
6 7 (6.19%) 2nd Line Engineer
6 7 (6.19%) 2nd Line Support
6 7 (6.19%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
6 7 (6.19%) IT Support
6 7 (6.19%) IT Support Engineer
6 7 (6.19%) Project Manager
7 6 (5.31%) Linux Engineer
7 6 (5.31%) Technical Architect
7 6 (5.31%) Windows Engineer
8 4 (3.54%) Senior Architect
8 4 (3.54%) Senior Infrastructure Architect
8 4 (3.54%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (4.42%) ARM Templates
2 1 (0.88%) .NET
2 1 (0.88%) ADO
2 1 (0.88%) Elastic Stack
2 1 (0.88%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 4 (3.54%) Hybrid Cloud
1 4 (3.54%) Private Cloud
1 4 (3.54%) Public Cloud
2 3 (2.65%) Video Conferencing
3 2 (1.77%) Data Centre
3 2 (1.77%) Low-Code
3 2 (1.77%) Onboarding
3 2 (1.77%) PKI
4 1 (0.88%) Blockchain
4 1 (0.88%) BYOD
4 1 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
4 1 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (0.88%) Linux Command Line
4 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Licensing
4 1 (0.88%) Mobile App
4 1 (0.88%) Replication
4 1 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (0.88%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 56 (49.56%) Windows
2 22 (19.47%) Windows 10
3 19 (16.81%) Windows Server
4 14 (12.39%) Linux
5 8 (7.08%) VMS
6 6 (5.31%) Android
6 6 (5.31%) Apple iOS
7 4 (3.54%) Windows Server 2012
8 3 (2.65%) Windows 7
8 3 (2.65%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (1.77%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.88%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.88%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.88%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (23.01%) ITIL
2 23 (20.35%) Problem-Solving
3 22 (19.47%) Agile
4 17 (15.04%) Migration
5 15 (13.27%) Project Management
6 13 (11.50%) Change Management
7 12 (10.62%) Roadmaps
8 11 (9.73%) ITSM
8 11 (9.73%) Service Management
8 11 (9.73%) Stakeholder Management
9 10 (8.85%) Customer Service
10 8 (7.08%) DevOps
10 8 (7.08%) Technical Leadership
11 7 (6.19%) CI/CD
11 7 (6.19%) Scrum
11 7 (6.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 7 (6.19%) TOGAF
12 6 (5.31%) Asset Management
12 6 (5.31%) Capacity Planning
12 6 (5.31%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 32 (28.32%) PowerShell
2 7 (6.19%) Bicep
3 6 (5.31%) SQL
4 3 (2.65%) VBScript
5 2 (1.77%) Python
6 1 (0.88%) C#
6 1 (0.88%) VB
Qualifications
1 16 (14.16%) Security Cleared
2 9 (7.96%) DV Cleared
3 8 (7.08%) SC Cleared
4 7 (6.19%) Degree
5 6 (5.31%) Azure Certification
6 4 (3.54%) VCAP
7 3 (2.65%) MCSA
7 3 (2.65%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (2.65%) PMI Certification
7 3 (2.65%) PMP
8 2 (1.77%) DBS Check
8 2 (1.77%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 2 (1.77%) MCSE
8 2 (1.77%) MOS
8 2 (1.77%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 1 (0.88%) A+ Certification
9 1 (0.88%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.88%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.88%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.88%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (5.31%) SLA
2 2 (1.77%) GDPR
3 1 (0.88%) HIPAA
3 1 (0.88%) QA
System Software
1 46 (40.71%) Active Directory
2 21 (18.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (7.08%) vSphere
4 7 (6.19%) XenDesktop
5 6 (5.31%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (5.31%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (2.65%) KVM
6 3 (2.65%) Microsoft App-V
6 3 (2.65%) XenApp
7 1 (0.88%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.88%) Docker
7 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.88%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 36 (31.86%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (15.04%) SCCM
3 14 (12.39%) Terraform
4 2 (1.77%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 2 (1.77%) Ansible
4 2 (1.77%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (1.77%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.77%) SCOM
4 2 (1.77%) WMI
4 2 (1.77%) WSUS
5 1 (0.88%) Consul
5 1 (0.88%) SysTrack
Vendors
1 43 (38.05%) Citrix
1 43 (38.05%) Microsoft
2 21 (18.58%) VMware
3 6 (5.31%) Cisco
4 5 (4.42%) SolarWinds
5 4 (3.54%) ServiceNow
5 4 (3.54%) Wyse
6 3 (2.65%) Ivanti
6 3 (2.65%) Remedy
6 3 (2.65%) Zscaler
7 2 (1.77%) Apple
7 2 (1.77%) Avaya
7 2 (1.77%) Polycom
7 2 (1.77%) Sage
8 1 (0.88%) Atlassian
8 1 (0.88%) F5
8 1 (0.88%) Meraki
8 1 (0.88%) NetApp
8 1 (0.88%) SAP
8 1 (0.88%) Splunk