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 11 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
11 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 383 393 322
Rank change year-on-year +10 -71 +2
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 309 174 255
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.53% 0.65%
As % of the System Software category 5.84% 4.52% 5.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 187 122 170
10th Percentile £388 £351 £337
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -6.54% +1.90%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £725 £666
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £494 £570
% change year-on-year -1.06% -13.33% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 14
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £26.00 £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £35.00 £34.50 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year +1.45% +135.90% -77.84%
75th Percentile £68.75 £35.75 £15.19
90th Percentile £69.50 - £63.04
UK excluding London median hourly rate £46.75 - £14.63
% change year-on-year - - -69.09%

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 5,288 3,851 4,458
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.90% 11.70% 11.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,480 2,465 3,076
10th Percentile £225 £230 £220
25th Percentile £400 £388 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £594 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 214 104 145
10th Percentile £15.81 £14.12 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.49 £18.03 £16.00
Median hourly rate £52.75 £33.64 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +56.83% +39.10% -50.04%
75th Percentile £74.00 £80.00 £58.69
90th Percentile £81.95 £91.50 £70.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.25 £62.50 £26.00
% change year-on-year -10.00% +140.38% +3.07%

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 11 August 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Virtual Machines over the 6 months to 11 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Virtual Machines in the UK

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 11 August 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 +8 286 £500 - 92
UK excluding London +15 174 £489 -1.06% 58
London -57 114 £525 - 45
Work from Home -38 93 £500 - 54
North of England -13 80 £492 +17.18% 11
South East -31 54 £475 -15.56% 19
Yorkshire -15 43 £508 +13.53% 1
North West -6 36 £480 +42.22% 9
South West -21 17 £540 -8.09% 7
Midlands -54 17 £487 +2.53% 4
West Midlands -59 11 £406 -11.74% 4
East of England -15 6 £425 +41.67% 11
Scotland -16 5 £375 -26.83% 6
East Midlands -8 4 £500 +5.26%
North East - 1 £400 - 1

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 (1.62%) Confluence
1 5 (1.62%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.97%) Apache
3 3 (0.97%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.97%) IIS
4 2 (0.65%) CMS
4 2 (0.65%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.65%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.65%) Umbraco
5 1 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.32%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.32%) JBoss
5 1 (0.32%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.29%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.29%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.65%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.65%) InDesign
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.65%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.32%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 147 (47.57%) Azure
2 51 (16.50%) Entra ID
3 49 (15.86%) AWS
4 36 (11.65%) Azure Monitor
5 34 (11.00%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (9.71%) OpenShift
7 27 (8.74%) Azure AKS
7 27 (8.74%) GitHub
8 21 (6.80%) IaaS
9 19 (6.15%) GitHub Actions
10 16 (5.18%) Microsoft 365
10 16 (5.18%) Serverless
11 15 (4.85%) GCP
12 13 (4.21%) Azure Key Vault
13 12 (3.88%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 11 (3.56%) PaaS
14 11 (3.56%) Power Platform
15 10 (3.24%) Azure Storage
16 9 (2.91%) Azure Functions
16 9 (2.91%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 45 (14.56%) DNS
2 42 (13.59%) Firewall
3 28 (9.06%) VPN
4 22 (7.12%) Network Security
4 22 (7.12%) SSL
4 22 (7.12%) VLAN
5 20 (6.47%) DHCP
5 20 (6.47%) VSAN
6 17 (5.50%) WAN
7 10 (3.24%) SD-WAN
8 8 (2.59%) FTP
9 7 (2.27%) LAN
9 7 (2.27%) SAN
10 6 (1.94%) SSH
11 5 (1.62%) TCP/IP
11 5 (1.62%) Wi-Fi
12 4 (1.29%) HTTPS
13 3 (0.97%) Cisco Nexus
14 2 (0.65%) NAS
14 2 (0.65%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (10.68%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.56%) Azure SQL Database
2 11 (3.56%) Power BI
3 10 (3.24%) MySQL
4 8 (2.59%) Data Lake
4 8 (2.59%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 3 (0.97%) Amazon Athena
6 3 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
6 3 (0.97%) Apache Hive
6 3 (0.97%) Big Data
6 3 (0.97%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (0.97%) Db2
6 3 (0.97%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.97%) Hadoop
6 3 (0.97%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.32%) OpenStack Swift
7 1 (0.32%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.32%) Power Query
7 1 (0.32%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 16 (5.18%) Git
2 12 (3.88%) Jenkins
3 9 (2.91%) GitLab
4 6 (1.94%) JIRA
5 4 (1.29%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.97%) PVCS
6 3 (0.97%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.65%) CppUnit
7 2 (0.65%) Rational DOORS
7 2 (0.65%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.65%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.32%) Selenium
8 1 (0.32%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.32%) Visual Studio
General
1 44 (14.24%) Social Skills
2 29 (9.39%) Finance
3 13 (4.21%) Legal
4 12 (3.88%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (3.88%) Public Sector
5 11 (3.56%) Banking
6 7 (2.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 7 (2.27%) Retail
7 6 (1.94%) Front Office
7 6 (1.94%) Manufacturing
8 5 (1.62%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.29%) Marketing
10 2 (0.65%) Law
10 2 (0.65%) Local Government
10 2 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.65%) Publishing
11 1 (0.32%) Advertising
11 1 (0.32%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.32%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.32%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 43 (13.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 38 (12.30%) Azure Engineer
3 33 (10.68%) Cloud Engineer
3 33 (10.68%) DevOps Engineer
4 27 (8.74%) Senior
5 23 (7.44%) Lead
6 18 (5.83%) Architect
7 17 (5.50%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
8 16 (5.18%) Analyst
9 15 (4.85%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
10 13 (4.21%) Consultant
11 11 (3.56%) Administrator
12 10 (3.24%) Linux Engineer
13 9 (2.91%) DBA
13 9 (2.91%) VMware Engineer
13 9 (2.91%) Wintel Engineer
14 8 (2.59%) Migration Engineer
14 8 (2.59%) Platform Engineer
14 8 (2.59%) Solutions Architect
14 8 (2.59%) Storage Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (3.56%) ARM Templates
2 9 (2.91%) REST
3 8 (2.59%) YAML
4 5 (1.62%) Middleware
5 3 (0.97%) Elastic Stack
5 3 (0.97%) JSON
6 2 (0.65%) SOAP
7 1 (0.32%) cloud-init
7 1 (0.32%) Java SE
7 1 (0.32%) Kafka
7 1 (0.32%) Lambda Expressions
7 1 (0.32%) LDAP
7 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.32%) Node.js
7 1 (0.32%) NumPy
7 1 (0.32%) OpenID
7 1 (0.32%) Pandas
7 1 (0.32%) PySpark
7 1 (0.32%) SciPy
7 1 (0.32%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 32 (10.36%) Replication
2 23 (7.44%) Clustering
3 20 (6.47%) Hybrid Cloud
4 15 (4.85%) Data Centre
5 14 (4.53%) Linux Command Line
6 9 (2.91%) Cloud Native
7 8 (2.59%) PKI
7 8 (2.59%) Product Ownership
8 7 (2.27%) Enterprise Storage
8 7 (2.27%) Mainframe
8 7 (2.27%) Onboarding
8 7 (2.27%) Public Cloud
8 7 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.94%) Fixed Income
9 6 (1.94%) Market Risk
9 6 (1.94%) Operational Technology
10 5 (1.62%) Security Posture
11 4 (1.29%) FlexPod
12 3 (0.97%) IBM XIV
12 3 (0.97%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 101 (32.69%) Windows
2 81 (26.21%) Linux
3 58 (18.77%) Windows Server
4 37 (11.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 32 (10.36%) VMS
6 8 (2.59%) Ubuntu
6 8 (2.59%) Unix
7 6 (1.94%) AIX
7 6 (1.94%) CoreOS
8 5 (1.62%) Data ONTAP
8 5 (1.62%) SUSE
9 4 (1.29%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.97%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.97%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.32%) Android
11 1 (0.32%) Rocky
11 1 (0.32%) Solaris
11 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (25.57%) DevOps
2 74 (23.95%) CI/CD
3 67 (21.68%) Migration
4 61 (19.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 57 (18.45%) Infrastructure as Code
6 42 (13.59%) Performance Tuning
7 41 (13.27%) High Availability
8 38 (12.30%) Disaster Recovery
9 37 (11.97%) Validation
10 34 (11.00%) Continuous Improvement
11 33 (10.68%) RBAC
12 30 (9.71%) Network Virtualisation
12 30 (9.71%) Problem-Solving
13 27 (8.74%) Vulnerability Management
14 26 (8.41%) Stakeholder Management
15 25 (8.09%) Capacity Planning
15 25 (8.09%) Runbook
16 24 (7.77%) Platform Engineering
17 23 (7.44%) Analytics
17 23 (7.44%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 89 (28.80%) PowerShell
2 65 (21.04%) Python
3 44 (14.24%) SQL
4 37 (11.97%) Bash
5 10 (3.24%) Bicep
6 9 (2.91%) C#
7 7 (2.27%) C
8 6 (1.94%) Shell Script
8 6 (1.94%) T-SQL
9 4 (1.29%) Korn
9 4 (1.29%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.97%) Java
11 2 (0.65%) C++
11 2 (0.65%) Embedded C
12 1 (0.32%) Cypher
12 1 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.32%) Go
12 1 (0.32%) Groovy
12 1 (0.32%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.32%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 83 (26.86%) Security Cleared
2 68 (22.01%) SC Cleared
3 20 (6.47%) Azure Certification
4 17 (5.50%) Degree
4 17 (5.50%) Microsoft Certification
5 15 (4.85%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 11 (3.56%) VCAP
7 10 (3.24%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (3.24%) MCSA
7 10 (3.24%) MCSE
8 7 (2.27%) OCP
8 7 (2.27%) Oracle Certification
9 6 (1.94%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (1.94%) DV Cleared
9 6 (1.94%) ISTQB
9 6 (1.94%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 5 (1.62%) CCNA
10 5 (1.62%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 4 (1.29%) CISSP
12 3 (0.97%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (3.24%) QA
2 4 (1.29%) SLA
3 3 (0.97%) PCI DSS
4 2 (0.65%) GMP
4 2 (0.65%) GxP
4 2 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.65%) NIST
5 1 (0.32%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.32%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.32%) GDPR
5 1 (0.32%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.32%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.32%) WCAG
System Software
1 94 (30.42%) VMware Infrastructure
2 52 (16.83%) Active Directory
3 47 (15.21%) vSphere
4 41 (13.27%) VMware ESXi
5 26 (8.41%) Docker
5 26 (8.41%) Hyper-V
6 14 (4.53%) VMware NSX
7 10 (3.24%) KVM
8 9 (2.91%) NFS
9 8 (2.59%) Virtual Desktop
10 7 (2.27%) Ceph
11 6 (1.94%) Firmware
12 3 (0.97%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.97%) VMware Workstation
13 2 (0.65%) HDFS
13 2 (0.65%) Veritas Volume Manager
14 1 (0.32%) BitLocker
14 1 (0.32%) iptables
14 1 (0.32%) Oracle RAC
14 1 (0.32%) Samba
Systems Management
1 70 (22.65%) Terraform
2 51 (16.50%) Kubernetes
3 48 (15.53%) Ansible
4 31 (10.03%) vCenter Server
5 16 (5.18%) Grafana
6 13 (4.21%) PowerCLI
7 12 (3.88%) Prometheus
8 9 (2.91%) SCOM
9 8 (2.59%) SCCM
9 8 (2.59%) VxRail
10 7 (2.27%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (2.27%) vMotion
11 6 (1.94%) Microsoft Intune
11 6 (1.94%) Podman
12 5 (1.62%) Microsoft Clustering
12 5 (1.62%) Proxmox
12 5 (1.62%) SnapMirror
13 4 (1.29%) Argo
13 4 (1.29%) Avamar
13 4 (1.29%) Packer
Vendors
1 99 (32.04%) VMware
2 96 (31.07%) Microsoft
3 29 (9.39%) Cisco
4 22 (7.12%) Oracle
4 22 (7.12%) ServiceNow
5 17 (5.50%) Red Hat
6 16 (5.18%) NetApp
7 14 (4.53%) Dell
8 13 (4.21%) IBM
9 11 (3.56%) Veeam
10 10 (3.24%) Google
10 10 (3.24%) Qualys
11 9 (2.91%) CyberArk
11 9 (2.91%) Tenable
12 8 (2.59%) Databricks
12 8 (2.59%) Splunk
13 7 (2.27%) Commvault
13 7 (2.27%) SolarWinds
14 6 (1.94%) Palo Alto
15 5 (1.62%) Meraki
107 Virtual Machines jobs Nationwide