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 4 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 404 389 341
Rank change year-on-year -15 -48 -5
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 301 160 240
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.56% 0.50% 0.63%
As % of the System Software category 5.64% 4.26% 5.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 186 108 160
10th Percentile £391 £348 £345
25th Percentile £428 £411 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £489 £535
Median % change year-on-year +2.25% -8.60% +1.90%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £609
90th Percentile £711 £650 £671
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £557
% change year-on-year +5.26% -14.72% +6.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 4 11
10th Percentile £26.00 - -
25th Percentile £35.00 £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £70.00 £34.50 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year +102.90% +135.90% -79.40%
75th Percentile £92.11 £35.75 £15.19
90th Percentile - - £83.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 - £14.63
% change year-on-year - - -81.42%

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 5,341 3,758 4,374
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.96% 11.63% 11.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,522 2,371 2,976
10th Percentile £218 £225 £220
25th Percentile £400 £380 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.44%
75th Percentile £590 £592 £600
90th Percentile £675 £670 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £486
% change year-on-year - -2.31% +2.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 234 109 126
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £14.06
25th Percentile £25.75 £19.46 £17.50
Median hourly rate £60.17 £34.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +76.96% +40.61% -51.64%
75th Percentile £75.00 £80.00 £61.84
90th Percentile £90.00 £91.50 £72.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year -2.87% +136.36% -11.29%

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 4 September 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 4 September 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 4 September 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 +18 281 £500 +3.09% 190
UK excluding London +8 173 £500 +5.26% 103
London -52 108 £532 +6.40% 97
North of England -16 79 £500 +20.12% 22
Work from Home -44 79 £500 +7.24% 76
South East -30 53 £483 -19.58% 32
Yorkshire -18 40 £519 +17.35% 5
North West -12 38 £483 +43.11% 12
Midlands -45 17 £487 -1.62% 9
South West -38 16 £558 +11.50% 8
West Midlands -48 11 £406 -19.00% 7
East of England -10 10 £425 +9.68% 31
East Midlands -19 4 £500 +5.26% 2
Scotland -25 3 £375 -26.83% 3
North East - 1 £400 - 5

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 8 (2.66%) IIS
2 6 (1.99%) Confluence
3 4 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.33%) SharePoint
4 3 (1.00%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.66%) Apache
5 2 (0.66%) CMS
5 2 (0.66%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.33%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.33%) nginx
6 1 (0.33%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.33%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.33%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.33%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.66%) InDesign
3 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.66%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.33%) SAP BPC
2 1 (0.33%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 140 (46.51%) Azure
2 53 (17.61%) Entra ID
3 46 (15.28%) AWS
4 38 (12.62%) Azure Monitor
5 34 (11.30%) Azure DevOps
6 25 (8.31%) Azure AKS
7 24 (7.97%) GitHub
7 24 (7.97%) OpenShift
8 23 (7.64%) IaaS
9 18 (5.98%) GitHub Actions
10 13 (4.32%) Azure Key Vault
10 13 (4.32%) Microsoft 365
10 13 (4.32%) PaaS
11 12 (3.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 12 (3.99%) GCP
11 12 (3.99%) Power Platform
11 12 (3.99%) Serverless
12 10 (3.32%) SaaS
13 9 (2.99%) Amazon EC2
14 8 (2.66%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 44 (14.62%) DNS
1 44 (14.62%) Firewall
2 24 (7.97%) VPN
3 22 (7.31%) SSL
4 21 (6.98%) Network Security
4 21 (6.98%) VLAN
5 20 (6.64%) VSAN
6 18 (5.98%) DHCP
6 18 (5.98%) WAN
7 10 (3.32%) SD-WAN
8 8 (2.66%) LAN
9 7 (2.33%) FTP
9 7 (2.33%) HTTP
10 6 (1.99%) SAN
11 5 (1.66%) HTTPS
11 5 (1.66%) SSH
11 5 (1.66%) TCP/IP
11 5 (1.66%) Wi-Fi
12 3 (1.00%) Cisco Nexus
12 3 (1.00%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (10.96%) SQL Server
2 15 (4.98%) MySQL
3 12 (3.99%) Power BI
4 11 (3.65%) Azure SQL Database
4 11 (3.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 10 (3.32%) PostgreSQL
6 8 (2.66%) Data Lake
7 3 (1.00%) Amazon Athena
7 3 (1.00%) Amazon Redshift
7 3 (1.00%) Apache Hive
7 3 (1.00%) Big Data
7 3 (1.00%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (1.00%) DynamoDB
7 3 (1.00%) Hadoop
7 3 (1.00%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.33%) MariaDB
8 1 (0.33%) Neo4j
8 1 (0.33%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.33%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 15 (4.98%) Jenkins
2 14 (4.65%) Git
3 9 (2.99%) GitLab
4 7 (2.33%) JIRA
5 6 (1.99%) SonarQube
6 4 (1.33%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (1.00%) PVCS
7 3 (1.00%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.66%) CppUnit
8 2 (0.66%) Maven
8 2 (0.66%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.66%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.66%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.33%) Selenium
9 1 (0.33%) Vagrant
9 1 (0.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 44 (14.62%) Social Skills
2 27 (8.97%) Finance
3 12 (3.99%) Legal
4 10 (3.32%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (2.66%) Banking
5 8 (2.66%) Public Sector
6 6 (1.99%) Front Office
7 5 (1.66%) Manufacturing
7 5 (1.66%) Retail
8 4 (1.33%) Back Office
8 4 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (1.33%) Marketing
9 3 (1.00%) Law
10 2 (0.66%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.66%) Local Government
10 2 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.66%) Publishing
11 1 (0.33%) Advertising
11 1 (0.33%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 45 (14.95%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 35 (11.63%) Azure Engineer
3 32 (10.63%) Cloud Engineer
3 32 (10.63%) DevOps Engineer
4 27 (8.97%) Senior
5 25 (8.31%) Lead
6 19 (6.31%) Architect
7 17 (5.65%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
8 14 (4.65%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (4.32%) DBA
10 12 (3.99%) Analyst
11 11 (3.65%) Administrator
11 11 (3.65%) Consultant
11 11 (3.65%) Platform Engineer
11 11 (3.65%) SQL DBA
12 10 (3.32%) Linux Engineer
13 9 (2.99%) Security Engineer
13 9 (2.99%) Solutions Architect
13 9 (2.99%) VMware Engineer
13 9 (2.99%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (21.93%) Terraform
2 10 (3.32%) ARM Templates
3 8 (2.66%) REST
4 7 (2.33%) JSON
4 7 (2.33%) YAML
5 5 (1.66%) LDAP
5 5 (1.66%) Middleware
5 5 (1.66%) Regular Expression
6 3 (1.00%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (0.66%) SOAP
7 2 (0.66%) Web Services
8 1 (0.33%) ADO
8 1 (0.33%) Java SE
8 1 (0.33%) Node.js
8 1 (0.33%) NumPy
8 1 (0.33%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 1 (0.33%) Pandas
8 1 (0.33%) SAP Basis
8 1 (0.33%) SciPy
8 1 (0.33%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 41 (13.62%) Replication
2 30 (9.97%) Clustering
3 19 (6.31%) Hybrid Cloud
4 15 (4.98%) Data Centre
5 11 (3.65%) Linux Command Line
6 10 (3.32%) Cloud Native
7 9 (2.99%) Mainframe
7 9 (2.99%) Public Cloud
8 8 (2.66%) Enterprise Storage
8 8 (2.66%) Onboarding
8 8 (2.66%) Product Ownership
9 6 (1.99%) Fixed Income
9 6 (1.99%) Market Risk
9 6 (1.99%) Operational Technology
9 6 (1.99%) PKI
9 6 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (1.66%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.66%) Security Posture
11 4 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
12 3 (1.00%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 106 (35.22%) Windows
2 77 (25.58%) Linux
3 62 (20.60%) Windows Server
4 32 (10.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (9.97%) VMS
6 9 (2.99%) Unix
7 8 (2.66%) Ubuntu
8 5 (1.66%) SUSE
9 4 (1.33%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (1.33%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (1.00%) AIX
10 3 (1.00%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.66%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.66%) zOS
12 1 (0.33%) Amazon Linux
12 1 (0.33%) Android
12 1 (0.33%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.33%) Rocky
12 1 (0.33%) Solaris
12 1 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (26.58%) DevOps
2 75 (24.92%) CI/CD
3 68 (22.59%) Migration
4 61 (20.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 60 (19.93%) Infrastructure as Code
6 44 (14.62%) Performance Tuning
7 38 (12.62%) Disaster Recovery
8 37 (12.29%) RBAC
9 36 (11.96%) Continuous Improvement
9 36 (11.96%) High Availability
9 36 (11.96%) Validation
10 30 (9.97%) Runbook
11 29 (9.63%) Problem-Solving
12 28 (9.30%) ITIL
13 27 (8.97%) Platform Engineering
13 27 (8.97%) Stakeholder Management
14 25 (8.31%) Network Virtualisation
15 24 (7.97%) Capacity Planning
16 23 (7.64%) Root Cause Analysis
17 22 (7.31%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 92 (30.56%) PowerShell
2 63 (20.93%) Python
3 43 (14.29%) SQL
4 34 (11.30%) Bash
5 12 (3.99%) Bicep
6 11 (3.65%) T-SQL
7 8 (2.66%) C#
7 8 (2.66%) Shell Script
8 6 (1.99%) C
9 5 (1.66%) Java
10 4 (1.33%) Groovy
10 4 (1.33%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.66%) C++
11 2 (0.66%) Embedded C
11 2 (0.66%) Korn
12 1 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.33%) Go
12 1 (0.33%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.33%) RPG
12 1 (0.33%) VBA
Qualifications
1 88 (29.24%) Security Cleared
2 71 (23.59%) SC Cleared
3 22 (7.31%) Azure Certification
4 21 (6.98%) Degree
5 20 (6.64%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (4.98%) BPSS Clearance
7 14 (4.65%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 12 (3.99%) DV Cleared
9 11 (3.65%) VCAP
10 10 (3.32%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 10 (3.32%) MCSA
10 10 (3.32%) MCSE
11 6 (1.99%) ISTQB
12 5 (1.66%) CCNA
12 5 (1.66%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (1.66%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 3 (1.00%) CISM
13 3 (1.00%) CISSP
13 3 (1.00%) PMI Certification
13 3 (1.00%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (3.32%) QA
2 4 (1.33%) SLA
3 3 (1.00%) Accessibility
3 3 (1.00%) PCI DSS
4 2 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (0.66%) GMP
4 2 (0.66%) GxP
4 2 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.66%) NIST
5 1 (0.33%) GDPR
5 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.33%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.33%) WCAG
System Software
1 94 (31.23%) VMware Infrastructure
2 50 (16.61%) Active Directory
3 45 (14.95%) vSphere
4 40 (13.29%) VMware ESXi
5 29 (9.63%) Hyper-V
6 27 (8.97%) Docker
7 14 (4.65%) VMware NSX
8 8 (2.66%) NFS
8 8 (2.66%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (2.33%) Ceph
10 6 (1.99%) KVM
11 5 (1.66%) Firmware
12 3 (1.00%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (1.00%) VMware Workstation
13 2 (0.66%) HDFS
13 2 (0.66%) Veritas Volume Manager
14 1 (0.33%) DFS Replication
14 1 (0.33%) Dovecot
14 1 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
14 1 (0.33%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 46 (15.28%) Ansible
2 45 (14.95%) Kubernetes
3 28 (9.30%) vCenter Server
4 19 (6.31%) Grafana
5 15 (4.98%) SCOM
6 14 (4.65%) Prometheus
7 12 (3.99%) PowerCLI
8 11 (3.65%) Failover Clustering
9 8 (2.66%) SCCM
9 8 (2.66%) VxRail
10 7 (2.33%) Packer
10 7 (2.33%) Podman
10 7 (2.33%) vMotion
11 6 (1.99%) Microsoft Clustering
11 6 (1.99%) Microsoft Intune
11 6 (1.99%) Proxmox
12 4 (1.33%) Avamar
12 4 (1.33%) OPNET
13 3 (1.00%) Argo
13 3 (1.00%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 99 (32.89%) VMware
2 98 (32.56%) Microsoft
3 29 (9.63%) Cisco
4 25 (8.31%) ServiceNow
5 23 (7.64%) Oracle
6 17 (5.65%) Dell
7 12 (3.99%) IBM
7 12 (3.99%) NetApp
7 12 (3.99%) Red Hat
7 12 (3.99%) Veeam
8 9 (2.99%) CyberArk
8 9 (2.99%) Splunk
9 8 (2.66%) Google
9 8 (2.66%) Qualys
9 8 (2.66%) SolarWinds
10 6 (1.99%) Commvault
11 5 (1.66%) Databricks
11 5 (1.66%) EMC
11 5 (1.66%) Meraki
11 5 (1.66%) Palo Alto