Virtual Machines Contract Job Trends

Virtual Machine (VM)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Virtual Machines skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
15 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 358 370 323
Rank change year-on-year +12 -47 +16
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 318 191 287
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.59% 0.67%
As % of the System Software category 6.14% 4.97% 6.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 215 130 200
10th Percentile £363 £350 £344
25th Percentile £425 £421 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -6.54% +1.90%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £670
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £494 £575
% change year-on-year -2.23% -14.09% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 7 24
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £26.00 £34.50 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year -24.64% +135.90% -77.84%
75th Percentile - £65.25 £15.19
90th Percentile - £66.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £64.50 £14.63
% change year-on-year -59.69% +341.03% -77.84%

All System Software Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 5,181 3,843 4,784
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.85% 11.84% 11.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,442 2,486 3,301
10th Percentile £218 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £380 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £670 £688 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £494
% change year-on-year - -3.85% +4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 102 210
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.87 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.33 £15.50
Median hourly rate £51.00 £29.25 £23.99
Median % change year-on-year +74.36% +21.93% -52.02%
75th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £58.69
90th Percentile £79.50 £91.23 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £57.50 £24.18
% change year-on-year -11.30% +137.80% -10.44%

Virtual Machines
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Virtual Machines job vacancy trend in the UK

Virtual Machines
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Virtual Machines.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Virtual Machines over the 6 months to 15 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Virtual Machines.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 15 July 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 +11 295 £500 - 81
UK excluding London -5 183 £483 -2.23% 71
London -42 111 £525 -4.55% 20
North of England +3 101 £483 +17.09% 16
Work from Home -49 91 £500 - 43
Yorkshire -10 57 £500 +13.06% 5
South East -32 47 £475 -17.39% 30
North West -12 42 £463 +23.17% 11
Midlands -57 17 £438 -9.79% 4
South West -17 16 £540 +20.00% 8
West Midlands -69 11 £375 -18.48% 3
East Midlands -11 4 £500 -4.76% 1
Scotland -15 4 - -
East of England -22 4 £425 -19.12% 8
North East -39 2 £400 +10.34%

Virtual Machines
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 5 (1.57%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.26%) Confluence
3 3 (0.94%) Apache
3 3 (0.94%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.94%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.63%) CMS
4 2 (0.63%) IIS
4 2 (0.63%) nginx
4 2 (0.63%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.63%) Umbraco
5 1 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.31%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.31%) JBoss
5 1 (0.31%) WebLogic
Applications
1 5 (1.57%) Adobe Illustrator
1 5 (1.57%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.63%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.63%) InDesign
3 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 135 (42.45%) Azure
2 50 (15.72%) AWS
3 39 (12.26%) OpenShift
4 38 (11.95%) Entra ID
5 32 (10.06%) Azure Monitor
6 30 (9.43%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (8.18%) GitHub
8 23 (7.23%) Azure AKS
9 20 (6.29%) GCP
10 18 (5.66%) Serverless
11 17 (5.35%) GitHub Actions
12 13 (4.09%) Azure Key Vault
12 13 (4.09%) Azure Storage
12 13 (4.09%) Microsoft 365
13 11 (3.46%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 11 (3.46%) Azure Functions
13 11 (3.46%) IaaS
14 10 (3.14%) Nutanix
14 10 (3.14%) PaaS
14 10 (3.14%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 45 (14.15%) DNS
2 39 (12.26%) Firewall
3 28 (8.81%) VPN
4 23 (7.23%) Network Security
5 22 (6.92%) VLAN
6 21 (6.60%) SSL
7 20 (6.29%) DHCP
8 18 (5.66%) WAN
9 16 (5.03%) VSAN
10 11 (3.46%) SD-WAN
11 9 (2.83%) SAN
12 8 (2.52%) FTP
13 7 (2.20%) LAN
13 7 (2.20%) SSH
14 6 (1.89%) TCP/IP
15 5 (1.57%) Wi-Fi
16 4 (1.26%) HTTPS
16 4 (1.26%) Reverse Proxy
17 3 (0.94%) Cisco Nexus
18 2 (0.63%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (9.43%) SQL Server
2 12 (3.77%) Azure SQL Database
3 11 (3.46%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (3.14%) Power BI
5 8 (2.52%) Data Lake
6 7 (2.20%) MySQL
7 6 (1.89%) Db2
8 5 (1.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.94%) Amazon Athena
9 3 (0.94%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.94%) Apache Hive
9 3 (0.94%) Big Data
9 3 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (0.94%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.94%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.94%) Oracle Database
10 1 (0.31%) Neo4j
10 1 (0.31%) OpenStack Swift
10 1 (0.31%) Oracle Exadata
10 1 (0.31%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 18 (5.66%) Git
2 14 (4.40%) Jenkins
3 13 (4.09%) GitLab
4 6 (1.89%) JIRA
5 3 (0.94%) SonarQube
5 3 (0.94%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.63%) JMeter
6 2 (0.63%) Postman
6 2 (0.63%) Selenium
6 2 (0.63%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.63%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.31%) PVCS
General
1 41 (12.89%) Social Skills
2 32 (10.06%) Finance
3 15 (4.72%) Legal
4 14 (4.40%) Banking
5 12 (3.77%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (3.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 11 (3.46%) Public Sector
7 7 (2.20%) Retail
8 6 (1.89%) Front Office
9 5 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (1.57%) Manufacturing
10 4 (1.26%) Marketing
11 2 (0.63%) Law
11 2 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.63%) Publishing
12 1 (0.31%) Advertising
12 1 (0.31%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.31%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 37 (11.64%) DevOps Engineer
2 35 (11.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 31 (9.75%) Azure Engineer
4 25 (7.86%) Cloud Engineer
5 23 (7.23%) Senior
6 20 (6.29%) Lead
7 16 (5.03%) Analyst
8 15 (4.72%) Architect
9 14 (4.40%) Wintel Engineer
10 11 (3.46%) Consultant
11 10 (3.14%) Administrator
11 10 (3.14%) Linux Engineer
11 10 (3.14%) Technical Specialist
11 10 (3.14%) VMware Engineer
12 9 (2.83%) Migration Engineer
13 8 (2.52%) Azure DevOps Engineer
13 8 (2.52%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
13 8 (2.52%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
14 7 (2.20%) Platform Engineer
14 7 (2.20%) Storage Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (3.77%) ARM Templates
2 9 (2.83%) REST
3 7 (2.20%) YAML
4 5 (1.57%) Middleware
5 3 (0.94%) Elastic Stack
5 3 (0.94%) JSON
6 2 (0.63%) Hugging Face
6 2 (0.63%) PySpark
6 2 (0.63%) SOAP
7 1 (0.31%) Java SE
7 1 (0.31%) Kafka
7 1 (0.31%) LDAP
7 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.31%) OpenCV
7 1 (0.31%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 1 (0.31%) Pandas
7 1 (0.31%) Regular Expression
7 1 (0.31%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.31%) TensorFlow
7 1 (0.31%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 33 (10.38%) Replication
2 23 (7.23%) Clustering
3 22 (6.92%) Data Centre
4 19 (5.97%) Hybrid Cloud
5 17 (5.35%) Linux Command Line
6 11 (3.46%) Cloud Native
6 11 (3.46%) Onboarding
7 9 (2.83%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.52%) PKI
9 7 (2.20%) Mainframe
9 7 (2.20%) Public Cloud
10 6 (1.89%) Fixed Income
10 6 (1.89%) FlexPod
10 6 (1.89%) Market Risk
10 6 (1.89%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.57%) Enterprise Storage
11 5 (1.57%) Security Posture
12 4 (1.26%) Private Cloud
12 4 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (0.94%) Celerra
Operating Systems
1 107 (33.65%) Windows
2 95 (29.87%) Linux
3 60 (18.87%) Windows Server
4 39 (12.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 33 (10.38%) VMS
6 11 (3.46%) Unix
7 9 (2.83%) AIX
8 8 (2.52%) CoreOS
8 8 (2.52%) Ubuntu
9 7 (2.20%) Data ONTAP
10 4 (1.26%) SUSE
10 4 (1.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.94%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.94%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.94%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.31%) Rocky
12 1 (0.31%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (25.79%) DevOps
2 80 (25.16%) CI/CD
3 70 (22.01%) Migration
4 56 (17.61%) Infrastructure as Code
5 51 (16.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 45 (14.15%) High Availability
7 44 (13.84%) Disaster Recovery
8 40 (12.58%) Performance Tuning
9 35 (11.01%) Network Virtualisation
10 33 (10.38%) Validation
11 31 (9.75%) Continuous Improvement
11 31 (9.75%) RBAC
12 29 (9.12%) Problem-Solving
13 28 (8.81%) Capacity Planning
13 28 (8.81%) Vulnerability Management
14 24 (7.55%) Platform Engineering
15 23 (7.23%) Analytics
15 23 (7.23%) Vulnerability Remediation
16 22 (6.92%) AI
16 22 (6.92%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 88 (27.67%) PowerShell
2 77 (24.21%) Python
3 47 (14.78%) Bash
4 46 (14.47%) SQL
5 8 (2.52%) Bicep
6 7 (2.20%) C#
6 7 (2.20%) Shell Script
7 6 (1.89%) C
8 4 (1.26%) PL/SQL
8 4 (1.26%) T-SQL
9 3 (0.94%) Java
9 3 (0.94%) Korn
10 1 (0.31%) Cypher
10 1 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.31%) Go
10 1 (0.31%) Groovy
10 1 (0.31%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.31%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.31%) RPG
10 1 (0.31%) VBA
Qualifications
1 85 (26.73%) Security Cleared
2 68 (21.38%) SC Cleared
3 20 (6.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 19 (5.97%) Microsoft Certification
5 16 (5.03%) Azure Certification
6 15 (4.72%) VCAP
7 14 (4.40%) Degree
7 14 (4.40%) MCSA
7 14 (4.40%) MCSE
8 9 (2.83%) OCP
8 9 (2.83%) Oracle Certification
9 8 (2.52%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.89%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (1.89%) DV Cleared
11 5 (1.57%) CCNA
11 5 (1.57%) ISTQB
11 5 (1.57%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 4 (1.26%) CISSP
12 4 (1.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 3 (0.94%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.46%) QA
2 4 (1.26%) SLA
3 2 (0.63%) GMP
3 2 (0.63%) GxP
3 2 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.63%) NIST
3 2 (0.63%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.31%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.31%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.31%) GDPR
4 1 (0.31%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.31%) WCAG
System Software
1 97 (30.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 55 (17.30%) vSphere
3 49 (15.41%) Active Directory
4 47 (14.78%) VMware ESXi
5 32 (10.06%) Hyper-V
6 26 (8.18%) Docker
7 19 (5.97%) KVM
8 11 (3.46%) NFS
9 10 (3.14%) VMware NSX
10 9 (2.83%) Firmware
11 8 (2.52%) Virtual Desktop
12 7 (2.20%) Ceph
13 3 (0.94%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 3 (0.94%) VMware Workstation
14 2 (0.63%) HDFS
14 2 (0.63%) Veritas Volume Manager
15 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
15 1 (0.31%) iptables
15 1 (0.31%) NLBS
15 1 (0.31%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 72 (22.64%) Terraform
2 59 (18.55%) Ansible
3 58 (18.24%) Kubernetes
4 39 (12.26%) vCenter Server
5 16 (5.03%) Grafana
6 15 (4.72%) PowerCLI
7 12 (3.77%) Prometheus
8 8 (2.52%) SCCM
8 8 (2.52%) SCOM
9 7 (2.20%) SnapMirror
10 6 (1.89%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (1.89%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (1.89%) vMotion
10 6 (1.89%) VxRail
11 5 (1.57%) Podman
11 5 (1.57%) Proxmox
12 4 (1.26%) Argo
12 4 (1.26%) Avamar
12 4 (1.26%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (1.26%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 102 (32.08%) VMware
2 88 (27.67%) Microsoft
3 35 (11.01%) Cisco
4 21 (6.60%) ServiceNow
5 19 (5.97%) Oracle
5 19 (5.97%) Red Hat
6 16 (5.03%) IBM
6 16 (5.03%) NetApp
7 14 (4.40%) Google
8 12 (3.77%) Dell
9 11 (3.46%) Tenable
9 11 (3.46%) Veeam
10 10 (3.14%) Qualys
11 9 (2.83%) CyberArk
12 8 (2.52%) Databricks
12 8 (2.52%) Splunk
13 7 (2.20%) Commvault
13 7 (2.20%) Palo Alto
13 7 (2.20%) SolarWinds
14 5 (1.57%) EMC
92 Virtual Machines jobs Nationwide