Virtual Environments Contracts

Virtual Environments
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Virtual Environments skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Virtual Environments over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 475 516 634
Rank change year-on-year +41 +118 +147
Contract jobs citing Virtual Environments 45 66 84
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.15% 0.15% 0.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.17% 0.18% 0.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 36 41 65
10th Percentile £291 £245 £363
25th Percentile £380 £375 £454
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -5.25% -2.44% +28.13%
75th Percentile £541 £575 £600
90th Percentile £629 £613 £703
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £510
% change year-on-year - -1.96% +36.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 3
10th Percentile - £65.18 £28.58
25th Percentile - £67.31 £47.41
Median hourly rate - £72.75 £78.80
Median % change year-on-year - -7.68% -
75th Percentile - £76.31 £82.40
90th Percentile - £77.33 £84.56
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £72.75 £84.00
% change year-on-year - -13.39% -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Virtual Environments 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 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

Virtual Environments
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Virtual Environments in the UK

Virtual Environments
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Virtual Environments in the UK

Virtual Environments
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Virtual Environments over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Virtual Environments in the UK

Virtual Environments
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Virtual Environments in the UK

Virtual Environments
Top 14 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Virtual Environments within the UK over the 6 months to 1 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
England +30 37 £475 -5.00% 48
UK excluding London +51 25 £500 - 36
Work from Home +38 14 £628 +57.02% 37
London +29 14 £375 -25.00% 17
South East +50 10 £602 +39.51% 12
North of England +23 6 £475 +61.70% 8
East of England +32 4 £467 +86.60% 1
Yorkshire - 4 £475 -
Scotland - 3 £475 - 4
South West +35 1 £400 -20.00% 3
North West +16 1 £523 +77.87% 7
Midlands +8 1 £300 -45.45% 8
North East - 1 - - 1
East Midlands - 1 £300 - 6

Virtual Environments
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 5 (11.11%) IIS
2 1 (2.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (2.22%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (4.44%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 12 (26.67%) Microsoft 365
2 10 (22.22%) Azure
3 5 (11.11%) IaaS
3 5 (11.11%) PaaS
3 5 (11.11%) SaaS
4 3 (6.67%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 3 (6.67%) Nutanix
5 1 (2.22%) AWS
5 1 (2.22%) Entra ID
5 1 (2.22%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 8 (17.78%) VSAN
2 5 (11.11%) HTTP
2 5 (11.11%) HTTPS
2 5 (11.11%) Network Security
2 5 (11.11%) SSL
3 4 (8.89%) Fibre Channel
3 4 (8.89%) Firewall
4 3 (6.67%) DNS
4 3 (6.67%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (4.44%) BIG-IP
5 2 (4.44%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 2 (4.44%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 2 (4.44%) NAS
5 2 (4.44%) SAN
5 2 (4.44%) TCP/IP
5 2 (4.44%) VLAN
6 1 (2.22%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (8.89%) SQL Server
2 3 (6.67%) Oracle Database
3 1 (2.22%) DB2
3 1 (2.22%) Informix
3 1 (2.22%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (4.44%) Jenkins
2 1 (2.22%) Git
2 1 (2.22%) Maven
General
1 17 (37.78%) Social Skills
2 6 (13.33%) Finance
3 4 (8.89%) Public Sector
4 2 (4.44%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (4.44%) Back Office
4 2 (4.44%) Banking
4 2 (4.44%) Front Office
4 2 (4.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 2 (4.44%) Influencing Skills
4 2 (4.44%) Japanese Language
4 2 (4.44%) Marketing
5 1 (2.22%) Arabic Language
5 1 (2.22%) Billing
5 1 (2.22%) French Language
5 1 (2.22%) German Language
5 1 (2.22%) Investment Banking
5 1 (2.22%) Korean Language
5 1 (2.22%) Local Government
5 1 (2.22%) Spanish Language
5 1 (2.22%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 10 (22.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 7 (15.56%) Architect
3 6 (13.33%) Senior
3 6 (13.33%) VMware Engineer
4 5 (11.11%) Analyst
4 5 (11.11%) Senior Architect
4 5 (11.11%) Senior Technical Architect
4 5 (11.11%) Technical Architect
5 4 (8.89%) Project Manager
5 4 (8.89%) Support Engineer
5 4 (8.89%) VMware Infrastructure Engineer
6 3 (6.67%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 3 (6.67%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
6 3 (6.67%) Active Directory Engineer
6 3 (6.67%) Active Directory Support
6 3 (6.67%) Active Directory Support Engineer
6 3 (6.67%) Azure Engineer
6 3 (6.67%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
6 3 (6.67%) Service Desk Engineer
6 3 (6.67%) Service Desk Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.22%) EJB
1 1 (2.22%) Hibernate
1 1 (2.22%) Java EE
1 1 (2.22%) JSP
Miscellaneous
1 8 (17.78%) Clustering
2 6 (13.33%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (11.11%) PKI
3 5 (11.11%) Replication
4 4 (8.89%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (6.67%) Data Centre
5 3 (6.67%) Smartphone
5 3 (6.67%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 2 (4.44%) Onboarding
6 2 (4.44%) PMI
6 2 (4.44%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (4.44%) Virtual Team
7 1 (2.22%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (2.22%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (2.22%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 21 (46.67%) Windows
2 15 (33.33%) Windows Server
3 5 (11.11%) Linux
4 4 (8.89%) Windows 10
4 4 (8.89%) Windows 7
4 4 (8.89%) Windows Server 2012
5 1 (2.22%) Ubuntu
5 1 (2.22%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (33.33%) ITIL
2 14 (31.11%) Problem-Solving
3 11 (24.44%) CI/CD
4 10 (22.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 8 (17.78%) IT Strategy
5 8 (17.78%) Technology Strategy
6 7 (15.56%) Customer Service
6 7 (15.56%) Matrix Organization
7 6 (13.33%) Containerisation
7 6 (13.33%) Migration
8 5 (11.11%) Configuration Management
8 5 (11.11%) Continuous Integration
8 5 (11.11%) DevSecOps
8 5 (11.11%) Prototyping
8 5 (11.11%) Requirements Management
8 5 (11.11%) Service Design
8 5 (11.11%) TOGAF
8 5 (11.11%) Use Case
8 5 (11.11%) Virtual Infrastructure
8 5 (11.11%) Zachman Framework
Programming Languages
1 10 (22.22%) SQL
2 8 (17.78%) PowerShell
3 4 (8.89%) Shell Script
4 3 (6.67%) Python
5 2 (4.44%) Bash
6 1 (2.22%) Java
6 1 (2.22%) Korn
6 1 (2.22%) Perl
Qualifications
1 14 (31.11%) Security Cleared
2 9 (20.00%) DV Cleared
3 8 (17.78%) SC Cleared
3 8 (17.78%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 5 (11.11%) MCSE
4 5 (11.11%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (8.89%) Degree
5 4 (8.89%) PMI Certification
6 3 (6.67%) DBS Check
6 3 (6.67%) VCAP
7 2 (4.44%) PMP
8 1 (2.22%) APMP
8 1 (2.22%) Azure Certification
8 1 (2.22%) CEH
8 1 (2.22%) CISM
8 1 (2.22%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (13.33%) NIST
2 5 (11.11%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (11.11%) NCSC
3 2 (4.44%) PMO
3 2 (4.44%) SLA
4 1 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 22 (48.89%) VMware Infrastructure
2 15 (33.33%) Active Directory
3 10 (22.22%) VMware NSX
4 6 (13.33%) vSphere
5 5 (11.11%) Docker
5 5 (11.11%) Hyper-V
5 5 (11.11%) Microsoft App-V
6 3 (6.67%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (2.22%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
7 1 (2.22%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (13.33%) SCCM
1 6 (13.33%) WSUS
2 5 (11.11%) Podman
3 4 (8.89%) Failover Clustering
4 3 (6.67%) Ansible
4 3 (6.67%) FortiGate
5 2 (4.44%) Dell DRAC
5 2 (4.44%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (2.22%) Kubernetes
6 1 (2.22%) Nessus
6 1 (2.22%) PowerCLI
6 1 (2.22%) TADDM
6 1 (2.22%) Tivoli
6 1 (2.22%) vCenter Server
6 1 (2.22%) vRealize
Vendors
1 22 (48.89%) VMware
2 9 (20.00%) Microsoft
3 6 (13.33%) F5
4 5 (11.11%) Cisco
4 5 (11.11%) Palo Alto
5 4 (8.89%) LogicMonitor
6 3 (6.67%) Atempo
6 3 (6.67%) Databricks
6 3 (6.67%) HP
6 3 (6.67%) Mellanox
6 3 (6.67%) Oracle
6 3 (6.67%) Splunk
7 2 (4.44%) Dell
7 2 (4.44%) Fortinet
7 2 (4.44%) Interwoven
8 1 (2.22%) Google
8 1 (2.22%) IBM
8 1 (2.22%) Qualys
8 1 (2.22%) Red Hat
8 1 (2.22%) Sophos