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

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 404 399 338
Rank change year-on-year -5 -61 -11
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 310 169 237
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.56% 0.51% 0.63%
As % of the System Software category 5.66% 4.15% 5.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 184 114 161
10th Percentile £390 £352 £350
25th Percentile £425 £425 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £503 £520
Median % change year-on-year -0.50% -3.37% -0.95%
75th Percentile £588 £584 £608
90th Percentile £731 £640 £663
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £500 £519
% change year-on-year -3.00% -3.66% -1.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 5 2
10th Percentile £26.90 - £83.77
25th Percentile £58.44 £33.25 £84.11
Median hourly rate £77.50 £34.50 £84.67
Median % change year-on-year +124.64% -59.25% +7.55%
75th Percentile £92.11 £35.75 £85.22
90th Percentile - £50.45 £85.56
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.00 £58.50 £84.67
% change year-on-year +45.30% -30.90% +7.55%

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 5,478 4,071 4,312
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.90% 12.24% 11.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,615 2,579 2,811
10th Percentile £225 £208 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £600 £588 £608
90th Percentile £688 £670 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
Number of hourly rates quoted 256 129 90
10th Percentile £16.50 £14.74 £15.38
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.50 £21.05
Median hourly rate £60.00 £28.50 £30.50
Median % change year-on-year +110.53% -6.56% -39.00%
75th Percentile £73.81 £67.00 £68.20
90th Percentile £90.00 £88.15 £80.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £54.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year +15.74% +8.00% +25.00%

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 16 October 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 16 October 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 16 October 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 -14 282 £500 - 186
UK excluding London +14 185 £485 -3.00% 121
Work from Home -38 97 £487 +2.53% 74
London -61 97 £532 +4.93% 72
North of England -7 75 £497 +11.14% 32
South East -15 63 £475 -9.52% 34
Yorkshire -4 44 £515 +8.42% 14
North West -18 29 £484 +33.52% 17
East of England -15 16 £377 -20.74% 20
South West -38 15 £575 +4.55% 11
Midlands -44 13 £487 -4.04% 15
West Midlands -42 10 £487 -4.51% 11
Scotland -29 5 £425 -19.05% 7
East Midlands -5 3 £500 +5.26% 4
North East - 2 £413 - 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 10 (3.23%) IIS
2 7 (2.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.94%) Confluence
3 6 (1.94%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.65%) CMS
4 2 (0.65%) Umbraco
5 1 (0.32%) Apache
5 1 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.32%) NetWeaver
5 1 (0.32%) nginx
5 1 (0.32%) OpenStack
Applications
1 3 (0.97%) Adobe Illustrator
1 3 (0.97%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.65%) InDesign
2 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.65%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.32%) SAP BPC
2 1 (0.32%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 152 (49.03%) Azure
2 79 (25.48%) Entra ID
3 38 (12.26%) Azure Monitor
4 37 (11.94%) AWS
5 36 (11.61%) Azure DevOps
5 36 (11.61%) IaaS
6 27 (8.71%) Microsoft 365
7 25 (8.06%) GitHub
8 24 (7.74%) Azure AKS
9 23 (7.42%) OpenShift
10 19 (6.13%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (4.19%) Azure Key Vault
11 13 (4.19%) GCP
12 12 (3.87%) PaaS
13 11 (3.55%) Power Platform
14 10 (3.23%) Cohesity
14 10 (3.23%) Datadog
14 10 (3.23%) SaaS
15 9 (2.90%) Azure Storage
15 9 (2.90%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 51 (16.45%) DNS
2 41 (13.23%) Firewall
3 29 (9.35%) VPN
4 20 (6.45%) WAN
5 19 (6.13%) DHCP
5 19 (6.13%) Network Security
6 18 (5.81%) VLAN
7 17 (5.48%) SSL
8 11 (3.55%) LAN
9 10 (3.23%) SD-WAN
10 9 (2.90%) HTTP
11 7 (2.26%) TCP/IP
11 7 (2.26%) Wi-Fi
12 6 (1.94%) SAN
12 6 (1.94%) VSAN
13 5 (1.61%) HTTPS
14 4 (1.29%) FTP
14 4 (1.29%) SSH
15 3 (0.97%) Kerberos
15 3 (0.97%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (10.97%) SQL Server
2 12 (3.87%) Azure SQL Database
2 12 (3.87%) MySQL
3 11 (3.55%) Power BI
4 10 (3.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 8 (2.58%) Data Lake
5 8 (2.58%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (1.29%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (0.97%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.65%) SAP HANA
9 1 (0.32%) Amazon Aurora
9 1 (0.32%) Amazon QuickSight
9 1 (0.32%) MariaDB
9 1 (0.32%) Neo4j
9 1 (0.32%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 17 (5.48%) Jenkins
2 14 (4.52%) Git
3 8 (2.58%) GitLab
3 8 (2.58%) JIRA
4 5 (1.61%) SonarQube
5 4 (1.29%) CppUnit
5 4 (1.29%) PVCS
5 4 (1.29%) Rational DOORS
6 3 (0.97%) Maven
6 3 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.97%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.65%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.65%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.32%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.32%) Selenium
8 1 (0.32%) Vagrant
8 1 (0.32%) Visual Studio
General
1 52 (16.77%) Social Skills
2 26 (8.39%) Finance
3 15 (4.84%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (3.55%) Banking
5 10 (3.23%) Legal
6 9 (2.90%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (2.90%) Manufacturing
7 8 (2.58%) Public Sector
8 6 (1.94%) Back Office
8 6 (1.94%) Front Office
9 4 (1.29%) Law
9 4 (1.29%) Retail
10 3 (0.97%) Marketing
11 2 (0.65%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.65%) Automotive
11 2 (0.65%) Investment Banking
11 2 (0.65%) Local Government
11 2 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.65%) Publishing
12 1 (0.32%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 58 (18.71%) Azure Engineer
2 54 (17.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 47 (15.16%) Cloud Engineer
4 30 (9.68%) DevOps Engineer
5 28 (9.03%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
6 26 (8.39%) Senior
7 25 (8.06%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
8 22 (7.10%) Lead
9 20 (6.45%) Architect
10 15 (4.84%) Platform Engineer
11 13 (4.19%) Analyst
12 12 (3.87%) Administrator
12 12 (3.87%) DBA
12 12 (3.87%) Security Engineer
12 12 (3.87%) Wintel Engineer
13 11 (3.55%) Cloud Platform Engineer
13 11 (3.55%) SQL DBA
14 10 (3.23%) Azure Platform Engineer
15 9 (2.90%) Consultant
15 9 (2.90%) Storage Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (23.55%) Terraform
2 17 (5.48%) ARM Templates
3 8 (2.58%) JSON
3 8 (2.58%) Regular Expression
4 7 (2.26%) LDAP
5 6 (1.94%) Middleware
6 3 (0.97%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (0.97%) REST
6 3 (0.97%) Web Services
7 2 (0.65%) ADO
7 2 (0.65%) SAP Basis
7 2 (0.65%) YAML
8 1 (0.32%) Lambda Expressions
8 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.32%) OpenTofu
8 1 (0.32%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 40 (12.90%) Replication
2 31 (10.00%) Clustering
3 19 (6.13%) Hybrid Cloud
4 17 (5.48%) Onboarding
5 16 (5.16%) Data Centre
6 14 (4.52%) Enterprise Storage
7 13 (4.19%) Cloud Native
7 13 (4.19%) Mainframe
8 10 (3.23%) Data Protection Act
9 9 (2.90%) Linux Command Line
9 9 (2.90%) PKI
9 9 (2.90%) Public Cloud
10 8 (2.58%) Cyber Threat
11 7 (2.26%) Operational Technology
11 7 (2.26%) Security Posture
11 7 (2.26%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.94%) Fixed Income
12 6 (1.94%) Market Risk
13 4 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
13 4 (1.29%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 107 (34.52%) Windows
2 69 (22.26%) Linux
3 62 (20.00%) Windows Server
4 28 (9.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 25 (8.06%) VMS
6 10 (3.23%) Unix
7 6 (1.94%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.29%) Data ONTAP
8 4 (1.29%) Windows 10
8 4 (1.29%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (1.29%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.97%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.97%) zOS
10 2 (0.65%) AIX
10 2 (0.65%) Android
10 2 (0.65%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.65%) CoreOS
11 1 (0.32%) Rocky
11 1 (0.32%) Solaris
11 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (25.81%) DevOps
2 74 (23.87%) CI/CD
2 74 (23.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 71 (22.90%) Infrastructure as Code
4 69 (22.26%) Migration
5 49 (15.81%) Disaster Recovery
6 42 (13.55%) RBAC
7 38 (12.26%) Continuous Improvement
8 36 (11.61%) Runbook
9 35 (11.29%) Validation
10 32 (10.32%) High Availability
11 31 (10.00%) ITIL
11 31 (10.00%) Stakeholder Management
12 30 (9.68%) Performance Tuning
12 30 (9.68%) Platform Engineering
13 29 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
14 27 (8.71%) Cybersecurity
15 25 (8.06%) Network Virtualisation
16 24 (7.74%) AI
17 23 (7.42%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 113 (36.45%) PowerShell
2 65 (20.97%) Python
3 36 (11.61%) SQL
4 30 (9.68%) Bash
5 20 (6.45%) Bicep
6 11 (3.55%) T-SQL
7 8 (2.58%) C
7 8 (2.58%) C#
8 6 (1.94%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.61%) Groovy
9 5 (1.61%) Java
10 4 (1.29%) C++
11 3 (0.97%) Embedded C
12 2 (0.65%) Korn
13 1 (0.32%) Cypher
13 1 (0.32%) Go
13 1 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 91 (29.35%) Security Cleared
2 76 (24.52%) SC Cleared
3 26 (8.39%) Azure Certification
3 26 (8.39%) Microsoft Certification
4 21 (6.77%) Degree
5 13 (4.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 12 (3.87%) DV Cleared
6 12 (3.87%) MCSA
6 12 (3.87%) MCSE
7 11 (3.55%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 10 (3.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 8 (2.58%) VCAP
10 6 (1.94%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (1.94%) ISTQB
11 5 (1.61%) CCNA
11 5 (1.61%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 4 (1.29%) CISSP
12 4 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.97%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.97%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.87%) QA
2 4 (1.29%) SLA
3 3 (0.97%) PCI DSS
4 2 (0.65%) Accessibility
4 2 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (0.65%) GMP
4 2 (0.65%) GxP
4 2 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.32%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.32%) NIST
5 1 (0.32%) SOC 2
System Software
1 92 (29.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 64 (20.65%) Active Directory
3 39 (12.58%) vSphere
4 28 (9.03%) Hyper-V
4 28 (9.03%) VMware ESXi
5 27 (8.71%) Docker
6 12 (3.87%) NFS
7 10 (3.23%) KVM
8 9 (2.90%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (2.58%) VMware NSX
10 6 (1.94%) Firmware
11 4 (1.29%) BitLocker
11 4 (1.29%) DFS Replication
12 3 (0.97%) Ceph
12 3 (0.97%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.32%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 1 (0.32%) Postfix
13 1 (0.32%) Squid
13 1 (0.32%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 1 (0.32%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 42 (13.55%) Kubernetes
2 41 (13.23%) Ansible
3 22 (7.10%) vCenter Server
4 16 (5.16%) SCOM
5 14 (4.52%) Grafana
6 13 (4.19%) Microsoft Intune
7 10 (3.23%) Packer
7 10 (3.23%) SCCM
8 9 (2.90%) Failover Clustering
8 9 (2.90%) Prometheus
9 7 (2.26%) Podman
10 6 (1.94%) Proxmox
11 5 (1.61%) Microsoft Clustering
11 5 (1.61%) vMotion
11 5 (1.61%) WSUS
12 4 (1.29%) Argo
12 4 (1.29%) OPNET
12 4 (1.29%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (0.97%) PowerCLI
13 3 (0.97%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 123 (39.68%) Microsoft
2 98 (31.61%) VMware
3 28 (9.03%) Cisco
4 24 (7.74%) ServiceNow
5 18 (5.81%) Oracle
6 15 (4.84%) CyberArk
6 15 (4.84%) NetApp
7 14 (4.52%) Dell
7 14 (4.52%) IBM
8 12 (3.87%) Red Hat
9 11 (3.55%) Google
9 11 (3.55%) Veeam
10 10 (3.23%) Commvault
11 9 (2.90%) SolarWinds
12 8 (2.58%) Splunk
13 7 (2.26%) Citrix
14 6 (1.94%) Databricks
14 6 (1.94%) Meraki
14 6 (1.94%) Palo Alto
14 6 (1.94%) Qualys