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 25 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 359 352 321
Rank change year-on-year -7 -31 +21
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 304 178 294
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.59% 0.67%
As % of the System Software category 6.11% 4.83% 6.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 207 117 204
10th Percentile £357 £350 £345
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £497 £513 £535
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% -4.21% +1.90%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £550
% change year-on-year -3.50% -9.09% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 7 25
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £26.00 £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £48.00 £34.50 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year +39.13% +135.90% -77.84%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.25 £15.19
90th Percentile - £66.00 £56.21
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.00 £64.50 £14.63
% change year-on-year -25.58% +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 4,974 3,688 4,780
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.77% 12.25% 10.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,304 2,416 3,296
10th Percentile £213 £223 £205
25th Percentile £400 £388 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £590 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £694 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -1.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 85 227
10th Percentile £14.15 £14.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.25 £15.44 £15.50
Median hourly rate £51.00 £28.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +82.14% +15.80% -55.22%
75th Percentile £73.00 £66.00 £60.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £90.40 £72.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £39.48 £27.50
% change year-on-year +29.20% +43.55% -30.56%

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 25 June 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 25 June 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 25 June 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 -4 282 £498 -2.75% 57
UK excluding London -10 173 £483 -3.50% 48
London -46 108 £525 -4.55% 18
North of England +3 96 £483 +27.78% 8
Work from Home -26 95 £500 - 32
Yorkshire -4 56 £500 +5.26% 3
South East -38 41 £475 -17.39% 23
North West -11 38 £463 +23.17% 5
Midlands -60 18 £450 -9.64% 5
South West -32 14 £470 -1.05% 7
West Midlands -61 12 £425 -14.66% 4
East of England -25 6 £425 -19.12% 3
Scotland -15 4 - - 2
East Midlands -16 4 £500 -4.76% 1
North East -35 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 4 (1.32%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.99%) Apache
2 3 (0.99%) Apache Spark
2 3 (0.99%) Confluence
2 3 (0.99%) Palantir Foundry
3 2 (0.66%) CMS
3 2 (0.66%) IIS
3 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.66%) nginx
3 2 (0.66%) OpenStack
3 2 (0.66%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.33%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.33%) JBoss
4 1 (0.33%) WebLogic
Applications
1 5 (1.64%) Adobe Illustrator
1 5 (1.64%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.66%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.66%) InDesign
3 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.66%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.33%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 129 (42.43%) Azure
2 49 (16.12%) AWS
3 38 (12.50%) OpenShift
4 36 (11.84%) Entra ID
5 28 (9.21%) GitHub
6 26 (8.55%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (8.55%) Azure Monitor
7 24 (7.89%) Azure AKS
8 21 (6.91%) GCP
9 19 (6.25%) Serverless
10 18 (5.92%) GitHub Actions
11 16 (5.26%) Azure Key Vault
12 14 (4.61%) Azure Storage
13 12 (3.95%) Azure Functions
14 11 (3.62%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 11 (3.62%) Microsoft 365
15 10 (3.29%) Nutanix
16 9 (2.96%) IaaS
16 9 (2.96%) PaaS
17 8 (2.63%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 41 (13.49%) DNS
2 38 (12.50%) Firewall
3 25 (8.22%) VPN
4 24 (7.89%) Network Security
5 21 (6.91%) VLAN
6 18 (5.92%) DHCP
7 17 (5.59%) SSL
7 17 (5.59%) WAN
8 15 (4.93%) VSAN
9 10 (3.29%) SD-WAN
10 9 (2.96%) SAN
11 8 (2.63%) FTP
12 7 (2.30%) SSH
13 6 (1.97%) LAN
14 4 (1.32%) HTTPS
14 4 (1.32%) Reverse Proxy
14 4 (1.32%) TCP/IP
14 4 (1.32%) Wi-Fi
15 3 (0.99%) Cisco Nexus
16 2 (0.66%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (8.22%) SQL Server
2 14 (4.61%) Azure SQL Database
3 12 (3.95%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (2.63%) Data Lake
5 6 (1.97%) Db2
5 6 (1.97%) Power BI
6 3 (0.99%) Amazon Athena
6 3 (0.99%) Amazon Redshift
6 3 (0.99%) Apache Hive
6 3 (0.99%) Big Data
6 3 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (0.99%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.99%) Hadoop
6 3 (0.99%) MySQL
6 3 (0.99%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.33%) Amazon QuickSight
7 1 (0.33%) Neo4j
7 1 (0.33%) OpenStack Swift
7 1 (0.33%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.33%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 19 (6.25%) Git
2 13 (4.28%) GitLab
3 12 (3.95%) Jenkins
4 7 (2.30%) JIRA
5 3 (0.99%) PVCS
5 3 (0.99%) SonarQube
5 3 (0.99%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.66%) JMeter
6 2 (0.66%) Postman
6 2 (0.66%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.66%) Selenium
6 2 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.66%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.33%) RStudio
General
1 40 (13.16%) Social Skills
2 29 (9.54%) Finance
3 15 (4.93%) Legal
4 13 (4.28%) Banking
5 12 (3.95%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (3.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 11 (3.62%) Public Sector
7 7 (2.30%) Retail
8 5 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.64%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.32%) Front Office
9 4 (1.32%) Marketing
10 2 (0.66%) Electronics
10 2 (0.66%) Law
10 2 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.66%) Publishing
11 1 (0.33%) Advertising
11 1 (0.33%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.33%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.33%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 38 (12.50%) DevOps Engineer
2 28 (9.21%) Azure Engineer
2 28 (9.21%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 24 (7.89%) Cloud Engineer
3 24 (7.89%) Senior
4 17 (5.59%) Architect
5 16 (5.26%) Lead
6 14 (4.61%) Analyst
6 14 (4.61%) Wintel Engineer
7 11 (3.62%) Consultant
8 10 (3.29%) Technical Specialist
8 10 (3.29%) VMware Engineer
9 9 (2.96%) Administrator
9 9 (2.96%) Linux Engineer
9 9 (2.96%) Migration Engineer
10 8 (2.63%) Azure DevOps Engineer
11 7 (2.30%) Azure Architect
11 7 (2.30%) Platform Engineer
11 7 (2.30%) Solutions Architect
12 6 (1.97%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (3.62%) ARM Templates
2 9 (2.96%) REST
3 7 (2.30%) YAML
4 4 (1.32%) Middleware
5 3 (0.99%) Hugging Face
5 3 (0.99%) JSON
6 2 (0.66%) Elastic Stack
6 2 (0.66%) OpenCV
6 2 (0.66%) PySpark
6 2 (0.66%) PyTorch
6 2 (0.66%) Regular Expression
6 2 (0.66%) SOAP
6 2 (0.66%) SpaCy
6 2 (0.66%) TensorFlow
7 1 (0.33%) .NET
7 1 (0.33%) Kafka
7 1 (0.33%) Lambda Expressions
7 1 (0.33%) LDAP
7 1 (0.33%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 1 (0.33%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 27 (8.88%) Replication
2 23 (7.57%) Data Centre
3 19 (6.25%) Clustering
3 19 (6.25%) Hybrid Cloud
4 15 (4.93%) Linux Command Line
5 13 (4.28%) Cloud Native
6 12 (3.95%) Onboarding
7 9 (2.96%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.63%) PKI
9 7 (2.30%) Public Cloud
10 6 (1.97%) FlexPod
10 6 (1.97%) Mainframe
10 6 (1.97%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.64%) Cyber Threat
11 5 (1.64%) Private Cloud
12 4 (1.32%) Fixed Income
12 4 (1.32%) Market Risk
12 4 (1.32%) Security Posture
12 4 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (0.99%) Celerra
Operating Systems
1 98 (32.24%) Windows
2 89 (29.28%) Linux
3 53 (17.43%) Windows Server
4 37 (12.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (9.87%) VMS
6 11 (3.62%) Unix
7 9 (2.96%) AIX
8 8 (2.63%) CoreOS
9 7 (2.30%) Data ONTAP
9 7 (2.30%) Ubuntu
10 4 (1.32%) SUSE
11 3 (0.99%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.66%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.66%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.33%) Rocky
13 1 (0.33%) Solaris
13 1 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (26.64%) CI/CD
2 79 (25.99%) DevOps
3 73 (24.01%) Migration
4 56 (18.42%) Infrastructure as Code
5 45 (14.80%) High Availability
6 44 (14.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 42 (13.82%) Disaster Recovery
8 36 (11.84%) Performance Tuning
9 35 (11.51%) Network Virtualisation
10 34 (11.18%) Continuous Improvement
11 30 (9.87%) Validation
12 29 (9.54%) RBAC
13 28 (9.21%) Capacity Planning
14 27 (8.88%) Problem-Solving
15 26 (8.55%) Containerisation
15 26 (8.55%) Vulnerability Management
16 25 (8.22%) Cybersecurity
17 24 (7.89%) Platform Engineering
18 22 (7.24%) AI
19 21 (6.91%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 80 (26.32%) PowerShell
2 75 (24.67%) Python
3 46 (15.13%) Bash
4 43 (14.14%) SQL
5 8 (2.63%) Bicep
6 7 (2.30%) C#
6 7 (2.30%) Shell Script
7 5 (1.64%) C
8 4 (1.32%) PL/SQL
9 3 (0.99%) Java
10 2 (0.66%) C++
10 2 (0.66%) Embedded C
10 2 (0.66%) Embedded C++
10 2 (0.66%) Korn
11 1 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.33%) Go
11 1 (0.33%) Groovy
11 1 (0.33%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.33%) RPG
11 1 (0.33%) VBA
Qualifications
1 78 (25.66%) Security Cleared
2 61 (20.07%) SC Cleared
3 20 (6.58%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 15 (4.93%) Microsoft Certification
4 15 (4.93%) VCAP
5 14 (4.61%) MCSA
5 14 (4.61%) MCSE
6 13 (4.28%) Azure Certification
7 9 (2.96%) Degree
7 9 (2.96%) OCP
7 9 (2.96%) Oracle Certification
8 6 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.64%) DV Cleared
9 5 (1.64%) ISTQB
9 5 (1.64%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 4 (1.32%) CISSP
11 3 (0.99%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.99%) CISM
11 3 (0.99%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.99%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.62%) QA
2 3 (0.99%) SLA
3 2 (0.66%) GMP
3 2 (0.66%) GxP
3 2 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.66%) NIST
4 1 (0.33%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.33%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.33%) GDPR
4 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.33%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.33%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.33%) WCAG
System Software
1 97 (31.91%) VMware Infrastructure
2 51 (16.78%) vSphere
3 45 (14.80%) VMware ESXi
4 44 (14.47%) Active Directory
5 33 (10.86%) Hyper-V
6 24 (7.89%) Docker
7 20 (6.58%) KVM
8 11 (3.62%) NFS
8 11 (3.62%) Virtual Desktop
9 10 (3.29%) Firmware
9 10 (3.29%) VMware NSX
10 7 (2.30%) Ceph
11 3 (0.99%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.99%) VMware Workstation
12 2 (0.66%) HDFS
12 2 (0.66%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.33%) iptables
13 1 (0.33%) NLBS
13 1 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.33%) Samba
Systems Management
1 72 (23.68%) Terraform
2 60 (19.74%) Ansible
3 58 (19.08%) Kubernetes
4 37 (12.17%) vCenter Server
5 15 (4.93%) Grafana
6 14 (4.61%) PowerCLI
7 12 (3.95%) Prometheus
8 8 (2.63%) SCCM
9 7 (2.30%) SnapMirror
10 6 (1.97%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (1.97%) vMotion
10 6 (1.97%) VxRail
11 5 (1.64%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (1.32%) Argo
12 4 (1.32%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (1.32%) Microsoft Clustering
12 4 (1.32%) Podman
12 4 (1.32%) SCOM
13 3 (0.99%) Avamar
13 3 (0.99%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 101 (33.22%) VMware
2 79 (25.99%) Microsoft
3 34 (11.18%) Cisco
4 19 (6.25%) Red Hat
5 17 (5.59%) IBM
5 17 (5.59%) Oracle
6 16 (5.26%) ServiceNow
7 15 (4.93%) Google
8 14 (4.61%) NetApp
9 11 (3.62%) Tenable
10 10 (3.29%) Dell
10 10 (3.29%) Qualys
10 10 (3.29%) Veeam
11 9 (2.96%) CyberArk
12 8 (2.63%) Databricks
12 8 (2.63%) Splunk
13 7 (2.30%) Commvault
13 7 (2.30%) SolarWinds
14 6 (1.97%) Palo Alto
15 5 (1.64%) EMC