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 30 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 414 322 324
Rank change year-on-year -92 +2 +53
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 163 240 344
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.48% 0.65% 0.73%
As % of the System Software category 3.87% 5.59% 5.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 111 159 237
10th Percentile £350 £349 £290
25th Percentile £425 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £581 £608 £615
90th Percentile £641 £665 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 4 11
10th Percentile - £56.90 £66.00
25th Percentile £33.25 £62.75 £73.09
Median hourly rate £34.50 £66.00 £78.73
Median % change year-on-year -47.73% -16.16% +15.77%
75th Percentile £41.88 £70.95 £87.18
90th Percentile £52.90 £79.85 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £58.50 £66.00 £78.73
% change year-on-year -11.36% -16.16% +12.46%

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 4,210 4,291 6,148
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.30% 11.69% 13.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,700 2,769 4,193
10th Percentile £207 £213 £198
25th Percentile £379 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £608 £625
90th Percentile £670 £700 £706
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 132 89 256
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.35 £15.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £18.50
Median hourly rate £26.75 £50.00 £45.94
Median % change year-on-year -46.50% +8.84% +95.49%
75th Percentile £67.06 £69.69 £66.31
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.00 £50.00 £38.75
% change year-on-year +8.00% +29.03% +98.72%

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 30 October 2025.

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 30 October 2025.

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 30 October 2025. 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 -80 141 £500 -3.29% 63
UK excluding London -95 74 £500 -2.44% 57
London -2 68 £507 -1.55% 25
Work from Home -1 58 £475 -10.38% 34
South East -28 20 £525 +0.57% 21
South West -7 18 £550 -3.51% 5
North of England -46 17 £447 -8.78% 15
Yorkshire -32 15 £475 +7.95% 2
Midlands -44 8 £508 -11.74% 4
Scotland -3 6 £525 +21.74% 5
West Midlands -48 6 £510 -12.37% 3
East of England -23 4 £475 +15.85% 4
East Midlands -6 2 £475 -7.32% 1
North West -32 2 £363 -36.96% 13
Wales - 1 - - 4

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 12 (7.36%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (4.29%) IIS
3 5 (3.07%) Confluence
4 4 (2.45%) Apache
4 4 (2.45%) SharePoint
5 3 (1.84%) SharePoint Server
6 2 (1.23%) Ethereum
6 2 (1.23%) Hyperledger
7 1 (0.61%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.61%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.61%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.61%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.61%) nginx
7 1 (0.61%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 1 (0.61%) MS Visio
1 1 (0.61%) OmniGraffle
Cloud Services
1 72 (44.17%) Azure
2 27 (16.56%) Azure DevOps
3 20 (12.27%) Entra ID
4 17 (10.43%) AWS
5 16 (9.82%) GitHub
6 12 (7.36%) Azure Monitor
6 12 (7.36%) Cloud Computing
7 10 (6.13%) Serverless
8 9 (5.52%) Azure Key Vault
8 9 (5.52%) Azure Logic Apps
8 9 (5.52%) Azure Service Bus
8 9 (5.52%) Azure Storage
9 8 (4.91%) Azure AKS
9 8 (4.91%) Azure API Management
9 8 (4.91%) Azure Functions
9 8 (4.91%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (4.29%) IaaS
10 7 (4.29%) Microsoft 365
11 5 (3.07%) GCP
11 5 (3.07%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 32 (19.63%) Firewall
2 22 (13.50%) DNS
3 17 (10.43%) VPN
4 13 (7.98%) WAN
5 9 (5.52%) DHCP
5 9 (5.52%) Network Security
6 7 (4.29%) Skype
7 6 (3.68%) VSAN
8 5 (3.07%) Intrusion Detection
8 5 (3.07%) TCP/IP
8 5 (3.07%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (2.45%) SAN
9 4 (2.45%) VLAN
10 3 (1.84%) NAS
11 2 (1.23%) Modbus
12 1 (0.61%) Cisco IOS
12 1 (0.61%) Cisco Wireless
12 1 (0.61%) iSCSI
12 1 (0.61%) NX-OS
12 1 (0.61%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (10.43%) SQL Server
2 8 (4.91%) PostgreSQL
3 7 (4.29%) Data Lake
4 5 (3.07%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (2.45%) OLTP
6 3 (1.84%) Data Mining
6 3 (1.84%) Relational Database
6 3 (1.84%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 2 (1.23%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.61%) Big Data
8 1 (0.61%) Data Vault
8 1 (0.61%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.61%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.61%) Redis
Development Applications
1 16 (9.82%) JIRA
2 11 (6.75%) Git
3 10 (6.13%) Jenkins
4 6 (3.68%) GitLab
5 2 (1.23%) Artifactory
5 2 (1.23%) Hardhat
5 2 (1.23%) RStudio
5 2 (1.23%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.61%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.61%) EasyMock
6 1 (0.61%) GDB
6 1 (0.61%) JBehave
6 1 (0.61%) JUnit
6 1 (0.61%) Mockito
6 1 (0.61%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.61%) Snyk
6 1 (0.61%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.61%) VisualVM
6 1 (0.61%) YourKit
General
1 31 (19.02%) Social Skills
2 19 (11.66%) Public Sector
3 12 (7.36%) Finance
4 8 (4.91%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (4.29%) Documentation Skills
5 7 (4.29%) Law
6 6 (3.68%) Banking
6 6 (3.68%) Telecoms
7 4 (2.45%) Spanish Language
8 3 (1.84%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.84%) Marketing
9 2 (1.23%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.23%) Social Science
10 1 (0.61%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.61%) Back Office
10 1 (0.61%) Electronics
10 1 (0.61%) Front Office
10 1 (0.61%) Legal
10 1 (0.61%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 17 (10.43%) DevOps Engineer
2 16 (9.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 13 (7.98%) Azure Engineer
3 13 (7.98%) Security Engineer
4 12 (7.36%) Developer
4 12 (7.36%) Senior
5 11 (6.75%) Platform Engineer
6 10 (6.13%) Architect
7 8 (4.91%) Data Engineer
8 7 (4.29%) Azure DevOps Engineer
8 7 (4.29%) Project Manager
9 6 (3.68%) Cloud Engineer
9 6 (3.68%) Consultant
9 6 (3.68%) Network Engineer
9 6 (3.68%) Network Security Engineer
9 6 (3.68%) Software Engineer
9 6 (3.68%) Technical Architect
10 5 (3.07%) Embedded C++ Engineer
10 5 (3.07%) Embedded Engineer
10 5 (3.07%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (8.59%) ARM Templates
2 11 (6.75%) Middleware
3 7 (4.29%) TensorFlow
4 6 (3.68%) Hugging Face
4 6 (3.68%) OpenCV
4 6 (3.68%) OpenTelemetry
4 6 (3.68%) PyTorch
4 6 (3.68%) Regular Expression
4 6 (3.68%) SpaCy
4 6 (3.68%) YAML
5 5 (3.07%) ADO
5 5 (3.07%) RESTful
5 5 (3.07%) Web Services
6 4 (2.45%) .NET
6 4 (2.45%) Kafka
7 3 (1.84%) CSS
7 3 (1.84%) HTML
7 3 (1.84%) RabbitMQ
7 3 (1.84%) XHTML
8 2 (1.23%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.36%) Data Centre
2 11 (6.75%) Onboarding
3 8 (4.91%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (4.91%) Replication
4 7 (4.29%) Management Information System
5 6 (3.68%) CAN bus
5 6 (3.68%) PKI
5 6 (3.68%) Private Cloud
6 5 (3.07%) Linux Command Line
6 5 (3.07%) Public Cloud
6 5 (3.07%) Security Posture
7 4 (2.45%) Algorithms
7 4 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.84%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.84%) Legacy Code
8 3 (1.84%) Life Science
8 3 (1.84%) Operational Technology
8 3 (1.84%) Renewable Energy
8 3 (1.84%) SCADA
9 2 (1.23%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 60 (36.81%) Windows
2 46 (28.22%) Linux
3 29 (17.79%) Windows Server
4 12 (7.36%) VMS
5 10 (6.13%) Windows 10
5 10 (6.13%) Windows Server 2016
6 8 (4.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (3.07%) Ubuntu
7 5 (3.07%) Windows Server 2012
8 4 (2.45%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.61%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.61%) CentOS
9 1 (0.61%) SUSE
9 1 (0.61%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.61%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (31.90%) DevOps
2 47 (28.83%) CI/CD
3 33 (20.25%) Agile
3 33 (20.25%) Infrastructure as Code
3 33 (20.25%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (17.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 27 (16.56%) Analytics
5 27 (16.56%) Migration
6 16 (9.82%) Cybersecurity
7 15 (9.20%) Continuous Integration
7 15 (9.20%) High Availability
8 13 (7.98%) Cloud Security
8 13 (7.98%) Root Cause Analysis
9 12 (7.36%) Machine Learning
10 11 (6.75%) AI
10 11 (6.75%) Containerisation
10 11 (6.75%) Information Security
10 11 (6.75%) Platform Engineering
11 10 (6.13%) API Management
11 10 (6.13%) Infrastructure Automation
Programming Languages
1 34 (20.86%) Python
2 31 (19.02%) PowerShell
3 20 (12.27%) SQL
4 18 (11.04%) Bicep
5 12 (7.36%) C#
6 11 (6.75%) Java
7 10 (6.13%) Bash
8 9 (5.52%) C++
9 6 (3.68%) Embedded C++
10 5 (3.07%) JavaScript
10 5 (3.07%) Shell Script
11 4 (2.45%) Scala
12 3 (1.84%) PHP
13 2 (1.23%) Solidity
14 1 (0.61%) C
14 1 (0.61%) Go
14 1 (0.61%) Korn
14 1 (0.61%) Swift
14 1 (0.61%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 45 (27.61%) Security Cleared
2 33 (20.25%) SC Cleared
3 13 (7.98%) Degree
4 10 (6.13%) DV Cleared
5 7 (4.29%) Azure Certification
6 4 (2.45%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (1.84%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (1.84%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (1.84%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 2 (1.23%) AWS Certification
8 2 (1.23%) CCNA
8 2 (1.23%) CCNP
8 2 (1.23%) CISM
8 2 (1.23%) CISSP
8 2 (1.23%) Master's Degree
8 2 (1.23%) VCAP
9 1 (0.61%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 1 (0.61%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
9 1 (0.61%) CCSP
9 1 (0.61%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (3.68%) Accessibility
3 5 (3.07%) NIST
3 5 (3.07%) SLA
4 3 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 3 (1.84%) QA
5 2 (1.23%) GRC
6 1 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.61%) RMADS
System Software
1 39 (23.93%) VMware Infrastructure
2 37 (22.70%) Active Directory
3 16 (9.82%) Docker
4 15 (9.20%) VMware ESXi
4 15 (9.20%) vSphere
5 10 (6.13%) VMware NSX
6 9 (5.52%) Hyper-V
7 8 (4.91%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (1.84%) Firmware
9 2 (1.23%) KVM
10 1 (0.61%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 32 (19.63%) Terraform
2 25 (15.34%) vCenter Server
3 24 (14.72%) Kubernetes
4 11 (6.75%) Ansible
5 9 (5.52%) SCCM
5 9 (5.52%) WSUS
6 6 (3.68%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (3.68%) vRealize
7 5 (3.07%) CASB
7 5 (3.07%) SCOrch
7 5 (3.07%) vMotion
8 4 (2.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (1.84%) Grafana
9 3 (1.84%) Microsoft Clustering
9 3 (1.84%) NetApp OnCommand
9 3 (1.84%) Rancher
10 2 (1.23%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (1.23%) PowerCLI
10 2 (1.23%) Prometheus
10 2 (1.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 49 (30.06%) Microsoft
2 48 (29.45%) VMware
3 10 (6.13%) Cisco
3 10 (6.13%) Databricks
4 7 (4.29%) NetApp
4 7 (4.29%) Oracle
5 6 (3.68%) Veeam
6 4 (2.45%) Citrix
6 4 (2.45%) Red Hat
6 4 (2.45%) Remedy
6 4 (2.45%) SolarWinds
6 4 (2.45%) Tenable
7 3 (1.84%) F5
7 3 (1.84%) IBM
7 3 (1.84%) Rockwell
7 3 (1.84%) Sophos
8 2 (1.23%) ServiceNow
9 1 (0.61%) AppDynamics
9 1 (0.61%) MuleSoft
9 1 (0.61%) New Relic