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

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 363 358 316
Rank change year-on-year -5 -42 +13
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 295 175 293
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.59% 0.59% 0.67%
As % of the System Software category 6.01% 4.81% 6.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 201 117 204
10th Percentile £358 £350 £345
25th Percentile £424 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £496 £501 £535
Median % change year-on-year -0.96% -6.36% +1.90%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £500 £552
% change year-on-year -3.80% -9.42% +5.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 7 25
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 £56.21
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 4,908 3,636 4,728
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.75% 12.25% 10.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,268 2,390 3,261
10th Percentile £213 £215 £205
25th Percentile £400 £388 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £694 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -0.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 89 227
10th Percentile £15.97 £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% -55.68%
75th Percentile £73.00 £70.00 £60.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £91.50 £76.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £37.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year +36.00% +36.36% -39.94%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 -4 272 £496 -2.08% 91
UK excluding London 0 168 £481 -3.80% 92
London -44 103 £538 -2.27% 17
North of England +6 93 £481 +27.25% 15
Work from Home -30 91 £500 - 79
Yorkshire -10 51 £500 +5.26% 9
South East -31 41 £475 -13.64% 30
North West -8 40 £467 +24.39% 6
Midlands -60 15 £438 -12.15% 10
South West -16 13 £500 +5.26% 8
West Midlands -58 12 £425 -14.66% 6
East of England -25 7 £425 -19.12% 13
Scotland -15 5 £550 +7.32% 9
North East -32 2 £400 +10.34%
East Midlands -21 1 £500 -4.76% 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 4 (1.36%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.02%) Apache
2 3 (1.02%) Apache Spark
2 3 (1.02%) Confluence
2 3 (1.02%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.02%) Palantir Foundry
3 2 (0.68%) CMS
3 2 (0.68%) IIS
3 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.68%) nginx
3 2 (0.68%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.34%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.34%) JBoss
4 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%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 120 (40.68%) Azure
2 45 (15.25%) AWS
3 37 (12.54%) OpenShift
4 32 (10.85%) Entra ID
5 28 (9.49%) GitHub
6 26 (8.81%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (7.12%) Azure Monitor
8 19 (6.44%) Azure AKS
8 19 (6.44%) Serverless
9 18 (6.10%) GCP
9 18 (6.10%) GitHub Actions
10 16 (5.42%) Azure Key Vault
11 13 (4.41%) Azure Storage
12 12 (4.07%) Azure Functions
13 11 (3.73%) Microsoft 365
14 10 (3.39%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 10 (3.39%) Nutanix
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 34 (11.53%) Firewall
3 24 (8.14%) VPN
4 22 (7.46%) Network Security
5 21 (7.12%) VLAN
6 18 (6.10%) DHCP
7 17 (5.76%) SSL
7 17 (5.76%) WAN
8 15 (5.08%) VSAN
9 10 (3.39%) SD-WAN
10 9 (3.05%) SAN
11 8 (2.71%) FTP
12 6 (2.03%) LAN
13 4 (1.36%) SSH
13 4 (1.36%) TCP/IP
13 4 (1.36%) Wi-Fi
14 3 (1.02%) Reverse Proxy
15 2 (0.68%) IPsec
15 2 (0.68%) NAS
15 2 (0.68%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (7.46%) SQL Server
2 12 (4.07%) Azure SQL Database
3 7 (2.37%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (2.03%) Db2
4 6 (2.03%) Power BI
5 5 (1.69%) Data Lake
6 4 (1.36%) Oracle Database
7 3 (1.02%) Amazon Athena
7 3 (1.02%) Amazon Redshift
7 3 (1.02%) Apache Hive
7 3 (1.02%) Big Data
7 3 (1.02%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (1.02%) DynamoDB
7 3 (1.02%) Hadoop
7 3 (1.02%) MySQL
8 1 (0.34%) Neo4j
8 1 (0.34%) Oracle Exadata
8 1 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.34%) Power Query
8 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 28 (9.49%) Finance
3 14 (4.75%) Legal
4 13 (4.41%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (4.07%) Banking
5 12 (4.07%) Public Sector
6 11 (3.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (2.03%) Retail
8 5 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.36%) Front Office
10 3 (1.02%) Electronics
10 3 (1.02%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.02%) Marketing
11 2 (0.68%) Law
11 2 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.68%) Publishing
12 1 (0.34%) Advertising
12 1 (0.34%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.34%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 37 (12.54%) DevOps Engineer
2 27 (9.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 25 (8.47%) Azure Engineer
4 21 (7.12%) Senior
5 17 (5.76%) Architect
5 17 (5.76%) Cloud Engineer
6 16 (5.42%) Wintel Engineer
7 15 (5.08%) Lead
8 14 (4.75%) Analyst
9 11 (3.73%) Consultant
10 10 (3.39%) Technical Specialist
11 9 (3.05%) Administrator
11 9 (3.05%) VMware Engineer
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%) Product Owner
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 4 (1.36%) Middleware
5 3 (1.02%) Hugging Face
5 3 (1.02%) JSON
6 2 (0.68%) Elastic Stack
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%) Java SE
7 1 (0.34%) LDAP
7 1 (0.34%) Node.js
7 1 (0.34%) NumPy
7 1 (0.34%) OpenID
7 1 (0.34%) SciPy
Miscellaneous
1 29 (9.83%) Replication
2 25 (8.47%) Data Centre
3 21 (7.12%) Clustering
4 19 (6.44%) Hybrid Cloud
5 12 (4.07%) Linux Command Line
6 10 (3.39%) Cloud Native
7 9 (3.05%) Onboarding
7 9 (3.05%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.71%) PKI
9 6 (2.03%) FlexPod
9 6 (2.03%) Operational Technology
9 6 (2.03%) Private Cloud
10 5 (1.69%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.69%) Mainframe
11 4 (1.36%) Fixed Income
11 4 (1.36%) Market Risk
11 4 (1.36%) Public Cloud
11 4 (1.36%) Security Posture
12 3 (1.02%) Enterprise Storage
12 3 (1.02%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 94 (31.86%) Windows
2 78 (26.44%) Linux
3 55 (18.64%) Windows Server
4 33 (11.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (10.17%) VMS
6 11 (3.73%) 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
12 2 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.68%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.34%) Android
13 1 (0.34%) Rocky
13 1 (0.34%) Solaris
13 1 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (27.12%) CI/CD
2 76 (25.76%) DevOps
3 67 (22.71%) Migration
4 54 (18.31%) Infrastructure as Code
5 43 (14.58%) High Availability
5 43 (14.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 41 (13.90%) Disaster Recovery
7 35 (11.86%) Network Virtualisation
8 34 (11.53%) Performance Tuning
9 32 (10.85%) Continuous Improvement
10 30 (10.17%) Capacity Planning
11 28 (9.49%) RBAC
12 27 (9.15%) Validation
13 25 (8.47%) Problem-Solving
13 25 (8.47%) Vulnerability Management
14 24 (8.14%) Containerisation
14 24 (8.14%) Cybersecurity
15 22 (7.46%) Platform Engineering
16 20 (6.78%) AI
16 20 (6.78%) Storage Management
Programming Languages
1 77 (26.10%) PowerShell
2 73 (24.75%) Python
3 46 (15.59%) Bash
4 40 (13.56%) 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%) PL/SQL
9 3 (1.02%) C++
9 3 (1.02%) Embedded C
9 3 (1.02%) Embedded C++
9 3 (1.02%) Java
10 2 (0.68%) Korn
11 1 (0.34%) Cypher
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%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 75 (25.42%) Security Cleared
2 58 (19.66%) SC Cleared
3 22 (7.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 17 (5.76%) Microsoft Certification
4 17 (5.76%) VCAP
5 16 (5.42%) MCSA
5 16 (5.42%) MCSE
6 13 (4.41%) 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 3 (1.02%) SLA
3 2 (0.68%) GMP
3 2 (0.68%) GxP
3 2 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.68%) NIST
4 1 (0.34%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.34%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.34%) GDPR
4 1 (0.34%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.34%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.34%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.34%) WCAG
System Software
1 97 (32.88%) VMware Infrastructure
2 53 (17.97%) vSphere
3 47 (15.93%) VMware ESXi
4 41 (13.90%) Active Directory
5 33 (11.19%) Hyper-V
6 21 (7.12%) Docker
7 17 (5.76%) KVM
8 11 (3.73%) NFS
8 11 (3.73%) Virtual Desktop
9 10 (3.39%) Firmware
9 10 (3.39%) VMware NSX
10 7 (2.37%) 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%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.34%) iptables
13 1 (0.34%) NLBS
13 1 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 69 (23.39%) Terraform
2 62 (21.02%) Ansible
3 53 (17.97%) Kubernetes
4 39 (13.22%) vCenter Server
5 15 (5.08%) Grafana
6 14 (4.75%) PowerCLI
7 12 (4.07%) Prometheus
8 8 (2.71%) SCCM
9 7 (2.37%) SnapMirror
10 6 (2.03%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (2.03%) vMotion
10 6 (2.03%) VxRail
11 5 (1.69%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (1.36%) Argo
12 4 (1.36%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (1.36%) Microsoft Clustering
12 4 (1.36%) SCOM
13 3 (1.02%) Podman
13 3 (1.02%) Progress Chef
13 3 (1.02%) SELinux
Vendors
1 101 (34.24%) VMware
2 80 (27.12%) Microsoft
3 35 (11.86%) Cisco
4 18 (6.10%) Red Hat
5 16 (5.42%) IBM
6 14 (4.75%) Google
7 13 (4.41%) NetApp
7 13 (4.41%) ServiceNow
8 12 (4.07%) Oracle
9 11 (3.73%) Tenable
10 10 (3.39%) Dell
10 10 (3.39%) Qualys
11 9 (3.05%) Veeam
12 8 (2.71%) Splunk
13 7 (2.37%) Commvault
13 7 (2.37%) SolarWinds
14 6 (2.03%) CyberArk
14 6 (2.03%) Palo Alto
15 5 (1.69%) Databricks
16 4 (1.36%) Xerox