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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 387 400 329
Rank change year-on-year +13 -71 +3
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 296 159 254
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.55% 0.49% 0.65%
As % of the System Software category 5.56% 4.14% 5.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 184 108 170
10th Percentile £391 £348 £344
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £486 £535
Median % change year-on-year +2.83% -9.11% +1.90%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £608
90th Percentile £696 £650 £670
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £570
% change year-on-year +3.16% -16.67% +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 5,326 3,841 4,444
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.94% 11.72% 11.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,517 2,439 3,039
10th Percentile £220 £225 £220
25th Percentile £400 £381 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.44%
75th Percentile £592 £600 £606
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 218 110 144
10th Percentile £15.79 £13.75 £14.06
25th Percentile £23.00 £18.87 £16.00
Median hourly rate £55.00 £31.39 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +75.24% +29.80% -49.75%
75th Percentile £74.00 £79.68 £58.98
90th Percentile £85.00 £91.50 £72.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £63.50 £26.00
% change year-on-year -5.51% +144.23% +5.61%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 +6 275 £500 +4.17% 57
UK excluding London 0 165 £490 +3.16% 52
London -44 111 £532 +6.40% 15
Work from Home -49 84 £500 +5.26% 30
North of England -20 74 £498 +18.67% 7
South East -23 52 £475 -20.83% 18
Yorkshire -15 40 £514 +14.93% 3
North West -13 33 £480 +42.22% 3
South West -37 17 £540 +27.06% 13
Midlands -50 17 £487 -2.21% 8
West Midlands -56 11 £406 -18.96% 8
East of England -9 6 £425 +41.67% 5
East Midlands -16 4 £500 +5.26%
Scotland -20 4 £375 -25.93% 2
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 (1.69%) Confluence
1 5 (1.69%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.35%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.01%) Apache
3 3 (1.01%) Apache Spark
3 3 (1.01%) IIS
4 2 (0.68%) CMS
4 2 (0.68%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.68%) Umbraco
5 1 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.34%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.34%) JBoss
5 1 (0.34%) Palantir Foundry
5 1 (0.34%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.35%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.35%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.68%) InDesign
3 1 (0.34%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.34%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.34%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 141 (47.64%) Azure
2 51 (17.23%) Entra ID
3 48 (16.22%) AWS
4 36 (12.16%) Azure Monitor
5 32 (10.81%) Azure DevOps
6 28 (9.46%) OpenShift
7 27 (9.12%) Azure AKS
8 26 (8.78%) GitHub
9 23 (7.77%) IaaS
10 19 (6.42%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (4.73%) Microsoft 365
11 14 (4.73%) Serverless
12 13 (4.39%) Azure Key Vault
12 13 (4.39%) GCP
12 13 (4.39%) PaaS
13 12 (4.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 10 (3.38%) Power Platform
14 10 (3.38%) SaaS
15 9 (3.04%) Azure Storage
16 8 (2.70%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (14.19%) DNS
2 41 (13.85%) Firewall
3 25 (8.45%) VPN
4 22 (7.43%) VLAN
5 21 (7.09%) Network Security
6 20 (6.76%) VSAN
7 19 (6.42%) SSL
8 18 (6.08%) DHCP
9 17 (5.74%) WAN
10 10 (3.38%) SD-WAN
11 8 (2.70%) SAN
12 7 (2.36%) LAN
13 6 (2.03%) FTP
14 5 (1.69%) SSH
14 5 (1.69%) Wi-Fi
15 4 (1.35%) HTTPS
16 3 (1.01%) Cisco Nexus
16 3 (1.01%) NAS
16 3 (1.01%) TCP/IP
17 2 (0.68%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (10.14%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.72%) Azure SQL Database
3 10 (3.38%) MySQL
3 10 (3.38%) Power BI
4 8 (2.70%) Data Lake
4 8 (2.70%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 3 (1.01%) Amazon Athena
6 3 (1.01%) Amazon Redshift
6 3 (1.01%) Apache Hive
6 3 (1.01%) Big Data
6 3 (1.01%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (1.01%) DynamoDB
6 3 (1.01%) Hadoop
6 3 (1.01%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.34%) MariaDB
7 1 (0.34%) Neo4j
7 1 (0.34%) OpenStack Swift
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.34%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 15 (5.07%) Git
2 12 (4.05%) Jenkins
3 9 (3.04%) GitLab
4 6 (2.03%) JIRA
5 4 (1.35%) SonarQube
6 3 (1.01%) PVCS
6 3 (1.01%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.68%) CppUnit
7 2 (0.68%) Rational DOORS
7 2 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.68%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.34%) Selenium
8 1 (0.34%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.34%) Visual Studio
General
1 43 (14.53%) Social Skills
2 27 (9.12%) Finance
3 13 (4.39%) Legal
4 11 (3.72%) Banking
4 11 (3.72%) Public Sector
5 9 (3.04%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (2.03%) Front Office
6 6 (2.03%) Retail
7 5 (1.69%) Manufacturing
8 4 (1.35%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (1.35%) Marketing
9 2 (0.68%) Law
9 2 (0.68%) Local Government
9 2 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (0.68%) Publishing
10 1 (0.34%) Advertising
10 1 (0.34%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.34%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.34%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 45 (15.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 35 (11.82%) Azure Engineer
3 32 (10.81%) Cloud Engineer
4 31 (10.47%) DevOps Engineer
5 27 (9.12%) Senior
6 22 (7.43%) Lead
7 19 (6.42%) Architect
8 17 (5.74%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
9 15 (5.07%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
10 14 (4.73%) Analyst
11 12 (4.05%) Consultant
12 10 (3.38%) Administrator
12 10 (3.38%) Linux Engineer
13 9 (3.04%) DBA
13 9 (3.04%) Platform Engineer
13 9 (3.04%) Solutions Architect
13 9 (3.04%) VMware Engineer
13 9 (3.04%) Wintel Engineer
14 8 (2.70%) Migration Engineer
14 8 (2.70%) Storage Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (23.31%) Terraform
2 10 (3.38%) ARM Templates
3 8 (2.70%) REST
3 8 (2.70%) YAML
4 5 (1.69%) Middleware
5 3 (1.01%) Elastic Stack
5 3 (1.01%) JSON
6 2 (0.68%) OpenTofu
6 2 (0.68%) SOAP
7 1 (0.34%) ADO
7 1 (0.34%) cloud-init
7 1 (0.34%) Java SE
7 1 (0.34%) Lambda Expressions
7 1 (0.34%) LDAP
7 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.34%) OpenID
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 1 (0.34%) Pandas
7 1 (0.34%) SciPy
7 1 (0.34%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 33 (11.15%) Replication
2 25 (8.45%) Clustering
3 20 (6.76%) Hybrid Cloud
4 14 (4.73%) Data Centre
5 11 (3.72%) Linux Command Line
6 9 (3.04%) Cloud Native
7 8 (2.70%) Enterprise Storage
7 8 (2.70%) PKI
7 8 (2.70%) Product Ownership
8 7 (2.36%) Mainframe
8 7 (2.36%) Onboarding
8 7 (2.36%) Public Cloud
8 7 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (2.03%) Fixed Income
9 6 (2.03%) Market Risk
9 6 (2.03%) Operational Technology
10 5 (1.69%) Security Posture
11 3 (1.01%) Celerra
11 3 (1.01%) EMC VMAX
11 3 (1.01%) EMC VNX
Operating Systems
1 96 (32.43%) Windows
2 77 (26.01%) Linux
3 55 (18.58%) Windows Server
4 36 (12.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 32 (10.81%) VMS
6 8 (2.70%) Ubuntu
7 5 (1.69%) CoreOS
7 5 (1.69%) SUSE
7 5 (1.69%) Unix
8 4 (1.35%) Data ONTAP
8 4 (1.35%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (1.35%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (1.01%) AIX
9 3 (1.01%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.68%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.34%) Android
11 1 (0.34%) Rocky
11 1 (0.34%) Solaris
11 1 (0.34%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (26.01%) DevOps
2 73 (24.66%) CI/CD
3 67 (22.64%) Migration
4 61 (20.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 57 (19.26%) Infrastructure as Code
6 41 (13.85%) Performance Tuning
7 39 (13.18%) Disaster Recovery
8 37 (12.50%) High Availability
8 37 (12.50%) Validation
9 35 (11.82%) Continuous Improvement
9 35 (11.82%) RBAC
10 28 (9.46%) Problem-Solving
10 28 (9.46%) Stakeholder Management
11 27 (9.12%) Network Virtualisation
11 27 (9.12%) Runbook
12 26 (8.78%) Platform Engineering
13 25 (8.45%) Capacity Planning
14 23 (7.77%) ITIL
14 23 (7.77%) Vulnerability Management
15 21 (7.09%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 83 (28.04%) PowerShell
2 61 (20.61%) Python
3 39 (13.18%) SQL
4 33 (11.15%) Bash
5 11 (3.72%) Bicep
6 9 (3.04%) C#
7 6 (2.03%) C
7 6 (2.03%) Shell Script
7 6 (2.03%) T-SQL
8 4 (1.35%) Korn
8 4 (1.35%) PL/SQL
9 3 (1.01%) Java
10 2 (0.68%) C++
10 2 (0.68%) Embedded C
11 1 (0.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.34%) Go
11 1 (0.34%) Groovy
11 1 (0.34%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.34%) RPG
11 1 (0.34%) VBA
Qualifications
1 82 (27.70%) Security Cleared
2 67 (22.64%) SC Cleared
3 19 (6.42%) Azure Certification
4 17 (5.74%) Degree
4 17 (5.74%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (4.73%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 11 (3.72%) VCAP
7 10 (3.38%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (3.38%) MCSA
7 10 (3.38%) MCSE
8 7 (2.36%) DV Cleared
9 6 (2.03%) ISTQB
9 6 (2.03%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 6 (2.03%) OCP
9 6 (2.03%) Oracle Certification
10 5 (1.69%) CCNA
10 5 (1.69%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.69%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 3 (1.01%) CISSP
11 3 (1.01%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (3.38%) QA
2 4 (1.35%) SLA
3 3 (1.01%) PCI DSS
4 2 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (0.68%) GMP
4 2 (0.68%) GxP
4 2 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.68%) NIST
5 1 (0.34%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.34%) GDPR
5 1 (0.34%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.34%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.34%) WCAG
System Software
1 91 (30.74%) VMware Infrastructure
2 47 (15.88%) Active Directory
3 46 (15.54%) vSphere
4 38 (12.84%) VMware ESXi
5 24 (8.11%) Docker
6 22 (7.43%) Hyper-V
7 14 (4.73%) VMware NSX
8 8 (2.70%) NFS
8 8 (2.70%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (2.36%) Ceph
10 6 (2.03%) Firmware
10 6 (2.03%) KVM
11 3 (1.01%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (1.01%) VMware Workstation
12 2 (0.68%) HDFS
12 2 (0.68%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.34%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.34%) iptables
13 1 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.34%) Samba
Systems Management
1 50 (16.89%) Kubernetes
2 45 (15.20%) Ansible
3 27 (9.12%) vCenter Server
4 17 (5.74%) Grafana
5 13 (4.39%) Prometheus
6 12 (4.05%) PowerCLI
7 10 (3.38%) SCOM
8 9 (3.04%) Failover Clustering
9 8 (2.70%) SCCM
9 8 (2.70%) VxRail
10 7 (2.36%) vMotion
11 6 (2.03%) Microsoft Clustering
11 6 (2.03%) Microsoft Intune
11 6 (2.03%) Podman
12 5 (1.69%) Packer
12 5 (1.69%) Proxmox
13 4 (1.35%) Argo
13 4 (1.35%) Avamar
13 4 (1.35%) OPNET
13 4 (1.35%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 96 (32.43%) VMware
2 95 (32.09%) Microsoft
3 29 (9.80%) Cisco
4 22 (7.43%) Oracle
5 21 (7.09%) ServiceNow
6 16 (5.41%) NetApp
6 16 (5.41%) Red Hat
7 15 (5.07%) Dell
8 12 (4.05%) Veeam
9 10 (3.38%) IBM
9 10 (3.38%) Qualys
10 9 (3.04%) CyberArk
10 9 (3.04%) Google
10 9 (3.04%) Splunk
11 7 (2.36%) Commvault
11 7 (2.36%) Databricks
11 7 (2.36%) SolarWinds
12 6 (2.03%) Tenable
13 5 (1.69%) Meraki
13 5 (1.69%) Palo Alto