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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 366 354 310
Rank change year-on-year -12 -44 +22
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 295 175 303
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.59% 0.60% 0.69%
As % of the System Software category 6.01% 4.85% 6.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 202 116 211
10th Percentile £358 £350 £320
25th Percentile £424 £425 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £507 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.31% -3.48% -2.33%
75th Percentile £573 £600 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £500 £530
% change year-on-year -4.00% -5.66% +0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 7 26
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £26.00 £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £70.00 £34.50 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year +102.90% +135.90% -77.84%
75th Percentile - £65.25 £15.19
90th Percentile - £66.00 £84.67
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £64.50 £14.63
% change year-on-year +8.53% +341.03% -77.33%

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 4,911 3,605 4,758
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.84% 12.27% 10.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,268 2,387 3,299
10th Percentile £219 £214 £205
25th Percentile £400 £386 £359
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £590 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £697 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -0.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 184 85 226
10th Percentile £15.95 £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% -55.90%
75th Percentile £73.00 £66.00 £60.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £88.45 £79.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £37.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year +36.00% +36.36% -43.18%

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 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 11 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 11 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 +1 275 £490 -3.31% 58
UK excluding London +1 170 £480 -4.00% 42
London -55 103 £525 -4.55% 19
North of England -2 94 £478 +26.32% 6
Work from Home -28 91 £500 - 28
Yorkshire -7 50 £500 +5.26% 2
North West -11 42 £463 +23.17% 4
South East -32 42 £483 -12.27% 21
Midlands -67 16 £438 -12.15% 4
South West -12 13 £500 +5.26% 5
West Midlands -62 13 £425 -14.66% 4
East of England -23 6 £425 -19.12% 4
Scotland -16 5 £550 +7.32% 3
North East -28 2 £400 +10.34%
East Midlands -28 1 £500 -4.76%

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%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.36%) OpenStack
3 3 (1.02%) Apache
3 3 (1.02%) Apache Spark
3 3 (1.02%) Confluence
3 3 (1.02%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.02%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.68%) CMS
4 2 (0.68%) nginx
4 2 (0.68%) Umbraco
5 1 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.34%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.34%) IIS
5 1 (0.34%) JBoss
5 1 (0.34%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.36%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.36%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.68%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.34%) InDesign
3 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.34%) SAP SD
2 1 (0.34%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 117 (39.66%) Azure
2 46 (15.59%) AWS
3 37 (12.54%) OpenShift
4 30 (10.17%) Entra ID
5 28 (9.49%) GitHub
6 26 (8.81%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (7.12%) Azure Monitor
8 19 (6.44%) GCP
9 18 (6.10%) Azure AKS
9 18 (6.10%) GitHub Actions
9 18 (6.10%) Serverless
10 14 (4.75%) Azure Key Vault
11 12 (4.07%) Azure Storage
11 12 (4.07%) Microsoft 365
12 11 (3.73%) Azure Functions
13 10 (3.39%) Nutanix
14 9 (3.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 7 (2.37%) Azure Logic Apps
16 6 (2.03%) Cohesity
16 6 (2.03%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 40 (13.56%) DNS
2 36 (12.20%) Firewall
3 25 (8.47%) VPN
4 22 (7.46%) VLAN
5 21 (7.12%) Network Security
6 19 (6.44%) DHCP
7 16 (5.42%) WAN
8 15 (5.08%) SSL
8 15 (5.08%) VSAN
9 10 (3.39%) SD-WAN
10 9 (3.05%) SAN
11 8 (2.71%) FTP
12 7 (2.37%) LAN
13 5 (1.69%) TCP/IP
14 4 (1.36%) SSH
14 4 (1.36%) Wi-Fi
15 3 (1.02%) Reverse Proxy
16 2 (0.68%) IPsec
16 2 (0.68%) NAS
16 2 (0.68%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (7.80%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.73%) Azure SQL Database
3 7 (2.37%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (2.03%) Db2
4 6 (2.03%) Power BI
5 4 (1.36%) Data Lake
6 3 (1.02%) Amazon Athena
6 3 (1.02%) Amazon Redshift
6 3 (1.02%) Apache Hive
6 3 (1.02%) Big Data
6 3 (1.02%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (1.02%) DynamoDB
6 3 (1.02%) Hadoop
6 3 (1.02%) MySQL
6 3 (1.02%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.34%) OpenStack Swift
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.34%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 21 (7.12%) Git
2 14 (4.75%) GitLab
3 13 (4.41%) Jenkins
4 8 (2.71%) JIRA
5 4 (1.36%) PVCS
6 3 (1.02%) Rational DOORS
6 3 (1.02%) SonarQube
6 3 (1.02%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.68%) JMeter
7 2 (0.68%) Postman
7 2 (0.68%) Selenium
7 2 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.68%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.34%) Gradle
8 1 (0.34%) RStudio
General
1 40 (13.56%) Social Skills
2 27 (9.15%) Finance
3 14 (4.75%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (4.07%) Banking
4 12 (4.07%) Legal
4 12 (4.07%) Public Sector
5 11 (3.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 6 (2.03%) Retail
7 5 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.36%) Front Office
9 3 (1.02%) Electronics
9 3 (1.02%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.02%) Marketing
10 2 (0.68%) Law
10 2 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.68%) Publishing
11 1 (0.34%) Advertising
11 1 (0.34%) Back Office
11 1 (0.34%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.34%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 37 (12.54%) DevOps Engineer
2 25 (8.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 24 (8.14%) Azure Engineer
4 21 (7.12%) Senior
5 18 (6.10%) Wintel Engineer
6 17 (5.76%) Architect
6 17 (5.76%) Cloud Engineer
7 15 (5.08%) Lead
8 13 (4.41%) Analyst
9 12 (4.07%) Consultant
10 10 (3.39%) Administrator
10 10 (3.39%) VMware Engineer
11 9 (3.05%) Technical Specialist
12 8 (2.71%) Azure DevOps Engineer
12 8 (2.71%) Linux Engineer
13 7 (2.37%) Azure Architect
13 7 (2.37%) Migration Engineer
13 7 (2.37%) Platform Engineer
14 6 (2.03%) Security Engineer
14 6 (2.03%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.05%) REST
2 8 (2.71%) ARM Templates
3 6 (2.03%) YAML
4 5 (1.69%) Middleware
5 3 (1.02%) Hugging Face
5 3 (1.02%) JSON
6 2 (0.68%) OpenCV
6 2 (0.68%) PySpark
6 2 (0.68%) PyTorch
6 2 (0.68%) Regular Expression
6 2 (0.68%) SOAP
6 2 (0.68%) SpaCy
6 2 (0.68%) TensorFlow
7 1 (0.34%) .NET
7 1 (0.34%) cloud-init
7 1 (0.34%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.34%) Java SE
7 1 (0.34%) LDAP
7 1 (0.34%) Retrofit
7 1 (0.34%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 31 (10.51%) Replication
2 26 (8.81%) Data Centre
3 23 (7.80%) Clustering
4 18 (6.10%) Hybrid Cloud
5 11 (3.73%) Linux Command Line
6 10 (3.39%) Cloud Native
7 9 (3.05%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.71%) Onboarding
9 7 (2.37%) PKI
10 6 (2.03%) FlexPod
10 6 (2.03%) Operational Technology
10 6 (2.03%) Private Cloud
11 5 (1.69%) Cyber Threat
11 5 (1.69%) Mainframe
12 4 (1.36%) Public Cloud
12 4 (1.36%) Security Posture
12 4 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (1.02%) Data Protection Act
13 3 (1.02%) Fixed Income
13 3 (1.02%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 96 (32.54%) Windows
2 78 (26.44%) Linux
3 57 (19.32%) Windows Server
4 35 (11.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (10.17%) VMS
6 10 (3.39%) Unix
7 9 (3.05%) AIX
8 8 (2.71%) CoreOS
9 7 (2.37%) Data ONTAP
10 4 (1.36%) SUSE
10 4 (1.36%) Ubuntu
11 3 (1.02%) Apple iOS
11 3 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.34%) Android
13 1 (0.34%) Rocky
13 1 (0.34%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (26.78%) CI/CD
2 75 (25.42%) DevOps
3 66 (22.37%) Migration
4 54 (18.31%) Infrastructure as Code
5 43 (14.58%) High Availability
6 42 (14.24%) Disaster Recovery
6 42 (14.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 37 (12.54%) Network Virtualisation
8 35 (11.86%) Performance Tuning
9 33 (11.19%) Capacity Planning
9 33 (11.19%) Continuous Improvement
10 26 (8.81%) RBAC
11 24 (8.14%) Problem-Solving
11 24 (8.14%) Validation
11 24 (8.14%) Vulnerability Management
12 23 (7.80%) Containerisation
12 23 (7.80%) Cybersecurity
13 22 (7.46%) Platform Engineering
14 20 (6.78%) Storage Management
15 19 (6.44%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 78 (26.44%) PowerShell
2 72 (24.41%) Python
3 46 (15.59%) Bash
4 39 (13.22%) SQL
5 8 (2.71%) Bicep
6 7 (2.37%) Shell Script
7 6 (2.03%) C
7 6 (2.03%) C#
8 4 (1.36%) Java
8 4 (1.36%) PL/SQL
9 3 (1.02%) C++
9 3 (1.02%) Embedded C
9 3 (1.02%) Embedded C++
10 2 (0.68%) Go
10 2 (0.68%) Korn
11 1 (0.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.34%) Groovy
11 1 (0.34%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.34%) RPG
11 1 (0.34%) VBA
Qualifications
1 77 (26.10%) Security Cleared
2 61 (20.68%) SC Cleared
3 24 (8.14%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 19 (6.44%) Microsoft Certification
4 19 (6.44%) VCAP
5 18 (6.10%) MCSA
5 18 (6.10%) MCSE
6 12 (4.07%) Azure Certification
7 9 (3.05%) OCP
7 9 (3.05%) Oracle Certification
8 8 (2.71%) Degree
9 6 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (1.69%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.69%) ISTQB
10 5 (1.69%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 4 (1.36%) CISSP
12 3 (1.02%) CISM
12 3 (1.02%) PMI Certification
12 3 (1.02%) PMP
13 2 (0.68%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.07%) QA
2 2 (0.68%) GMP
2 2 (0.68%) GxP
2 2 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (0.68%) NIST
2 2 (0.68%) SLA
3 1 (0.34%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.34%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.34%) GDPR
3 1 (0.34%) HIPAA
3 1 (0.34%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.34%) SOC 2
3 1 (0.34%) WCAG
System Software
1 99 (33.56%) VMware Infrastructure
2 55 (18.64%) vSphere
3 50 (16.95%) VMware ESXi
4 43 (14.58%) Active Directory
5 34 (11.53%) Hyper-V
6 20 (6.78%) Docker
7 18 (6.10%) KVM
8 11 (3.73%) NFS
9 10 (3.39%) Firmware
9 10 (3.39%) Virtual Desktop
9 10 (3.39%) VMware NSX
10 8 (2.71%) Ceph
11 3 (1.02%) VMware Workstation
12 2 (0.68%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 2 (0.68%) HDFS
12 2 (0.68%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.34%) iptables
13 1 (0.34%) NLBS
13 1 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.34%) Samba
Systems Management
1 69 (23.39%) Terraform
2 66 (22.37%) Ansible
3 51 (17.29%) Kubernetes
4 42 (14.24%) vCenter Server
5 14 (4.75%) Grafana
5 14 (4.75%) PowerCLI
6 11 (3.73%) Prometheus
7 9 (3.05%) SCCM
8 7 (2.37%) SnapMirror
9 6 (2.03%) IBM BigFix
9 6 (2.03%) vMotion
9 6 (2.03%) VxRail
10 5 (1.69%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (1.36%) Argo
11 4 (1.36%) Failover Clustering
11 4 (1.36%) Microsoft Clustering
11 4 (1.36%) SCOM
12 3 (1.02%) Packer
12 3 (1.02%) Podman
12 3 (1.02%) systemd
Vendors
1 104 (35.25%) VMware
2 82 (27.80%) Microsoft
3 37 (12.54%) Cisco
4 20 (6.78%) Red Hat
5 16 (5.42%) IBM
6 15 (5.08%) Google
7 13 (4.41%) NetApp
8 12 (4.07%) Oracle
8 12 (4.07%) ServiceNow
9 11 (3.73%) Tenable
10 10 (3.39%) Dell
10 10 (3.39%) Qualys
10 10 (3.39%) Veeam
11 8 (2.71%) SolarWinds
11 8 (2.71%) Splunk
12 7 (2.37%) Commvault
13 6 (2.03%) CyberArk
13 6 (2.03%) Palo Alto
14 5 (1.69%) Databricks
15 4 (1.36%) Meraki