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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 370 361 313
Rank change year-on-year -9 -48 +17
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 318 194 277
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.60% 0.67%
As % of the System Software category 6.10% 5.06% 5.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 210 133 195
10th Percentile £362 £350 £332
25th Percentile £425 £425 £423
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -6.54% +1.90%
75th Percentile £573 £600 £608
90th Percentile £650 £748 £670
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £494 £570
% change year-on-year -1.82% -13.33% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 7 21
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £33.25 £14.06
Median hourly rate £26.00 £34.50 £14.63
Median % change year-on-year -24.64% +135.90% -77.84%
75th Percentile - £65.25 £15.19
90th Percentile - £66.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £64.50 £14.63
% change year-on-year -59.69% +341.03% -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 5,214 3,836 4,675
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.89% 11.77% 11.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,446 2,466 3,246
10th Percentile £219 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £380 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £671 £688 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 200 102 188
10th Percentile £13.97 £13.87 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.19 £17.33 £15.50
Median hourly rate £52.50 £31.39 £23.15
Median % change year-on-year +67.28% +35.57% -53.70%
75th Percentile £74.00 £71.13 £58.69
90th Percentile £79.93 £91.31 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.75 £59.50 £22.00
% change year-on-year -13.03% +170.45% -18.52%

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 July 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
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 July 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 +23 295 £500 -0.20% 61
UK excluding London -5 184 £485 -1.82% 46
London -42 112 £525 -4.55% 24
North of England -1 97 £485 +17.58% 12
Work from Home -42 93 £494 -1.25% 39
Yorkshire -9 57 £500 +13.06% 4
South East -35 50 £475 -17.39% 17
North West -19 38 £472 +25.70% 8
Midlands -47 19 £469 -3.40% 2
South West -23 16 £540 -8.09% 4
West Midlands -56 13 £438 -4.89% 2
East Midlands -11 4 £500 -4.76%
Scotland -22 4 - - 2
East of England -23 4 £425 -19.12% 6
North East -42 2 £400 +10.34%

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 (1.57%) Confluence
1 5 (1.57%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.94%) Apache
2 3 (0.94%) Apache Spark
2 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.63%) CMS
3 2 (0.63%) IIS
3 2 (0.63%) nginx
3 2 (0.63%) OpenStack
3 2 (0.63%) Palantir Foundry
3 2 (0.63%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.31%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.31%) JBoss
4 1 (0.31%) WebLogic
Applications
1 5 (1.57%) Adobe Illustrator
1 5 (1.57%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.63%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.63%) InDesign
3 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.31%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 136 (42.77%) Azure
2 49 (15.41%) AWS
3 41 (12.89%) Entra ID
4 39 (12.26%) OpenShift
5 33 (10.38%) Azure Monitor
6 32 (10.06%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (8.18%) GitHub
8 25 (7.86%) Azure AKS
9 18 (5.66%) GCP
9 18 (5.66%) GitHub Actions
10 16 (5.03%) Serverless
11 14 (4.40%) Microsoft 365
12 13 (4.09%) Azure Storage
12 13 (4.09%) IaaS
13 12 (3.77%) Azure Key Vault
14 11 (3.46%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 10 (3.14%) Nutanix
15 10 (3.14%) PaaS
16 9 (2.83%) Azure Logic Apps
16 9 (2.83%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 45 (14.15%) DNS
2 40 (12.58%) Firewall
3 27 (8.49%) VPN
4 22 (6.92%) Network Security
4 22 (6.92%) VLAN
5 20 (6.29%) DHCP
5 20 (6.29%) SSL
6 17 (5.35%) WAN
7 16 (5.03%) VSAN
8 10 (3.14%) SD-WAN
9 9 (2.83%) SAN
10 8 (2.52%) FTP
11 7 (2.20%) LAN
11 7 (2.20%) SSH
12 6 (1.89%) TCP/IP
13 5 (1.57%) Wi-Fi
14 4 (1.26%) HTTPS
14 4 (1.26%) Reverse Proxy
15 3 (0.94%) Cisco Nexus
16 2 (0.63%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (9.75%) SQL Server
2 12 (3.77%) Azure SQL Database
3 11 (3.46%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (2.83%) Power BI
5 8 (2.52%) Data Lake
6 7 (2.20%) MySQL
7 6 (1.89%) Db2
8 5 (1.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.94%) Amazon Athena
9 3 (0.94%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.94%) Apache Hive
9 3 (0.94%) Big Data
9 3 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (0.94%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.94%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.94%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.63%) Relational Database
11 1 (0.31%) Neo4j
11 1 (0.31%) Oracle Exadata
11 1 (0.31%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 18 (5.66%) Git
2 16 (5.03%) Jenkins
3 13 (4.09%) GitLab
4 7 (2.20%) JIRA
5 3 (0.94%) Selenium
5 3 (0.94%) SonarQube
5 3 (0.94%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.63%) JMeter
6 2 (0.63%) Postman
6 2 (0.63%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.63%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.31%) PVCS
7 1 (0.31%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.31%) Visual Studio
General
1 42 (13.21%) Social Skills
2 32 (10.06%) Finance
3 15 (4.72%) Legal
4 14 (4.40%) Banking
5 13 (4.09%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (3.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 10 (3.14%) Public Sector
8 7 (2.20%) Retail
9 6 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (1.89%) Front Office
10 5 (1.57%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.26%) Marketing
12 2 (0.63%) Law
12 2 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (0.63%) Publishing
13 1 (0.31%) Advertising
13 1 (0.31%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.31%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 39 (12.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 37 (11.64%) DevOps Engineer
3 34 (10.69%) Azure Engineer
4 26 (8.18%) Cloud Engineer
5 23 (7.23%) Senior
6 20 (6.29%) Lead
7 17 (5.35%) Analyst
8 15 (4.72%) Architect
9 11 (3.46%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (3.46%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (3.46%) Consultant
10 10 (3.14%) Administrator
10 10 (3.14%) Linux Engineer
10 10 (3.14%) Technical Specialist
10 10 (3.14%) VMware Engineer
10 10 (3.14%) Wintel Engineer
11 9 (2.83%) Migration Engineer
12 8 (2.52%) Azure DevOps Engineer
12 8 (2.52%) Storage Engineer
13 7 (2.20%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (3.77%) ARM Templates
2 9 (2.83%) REST
3 8 (2.52%) YAML
4 5 (1.57%) Middleware
5 3 (0.94%) Elastic Stack
5 3 (0.94%) JSON
6 2 (0.63%) Hugging Face
6 2 (0.63%) SOAP
7 1 (0.31%) .NET
7 1 (0.31%) Java SE
7 1 (0.31%) Lambda Expressions
7 1 (0.31%) LangChain
7 1 (0.31%) LDAP
7 1 (0.31%) Node.js
7 1 (0.31%) NumPy
7 1 (0.31%) OpenID
7 1 (0.31%) PySpark
7 1 (0.31%) SciPy
7 1 (0.31%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.31%) vLLM
Miscellaneous
1 30 (9.43%) Replication
2 21 (6.60%) Data Centre
3 20 (6.29%) Hybrid Cloud
4 19 (5.97%) Clustering
5 17 (5.35%) Linux Command Line
6 11 (3.46%) Cloud Native
7 10 (3.14%) Onboarding
8 9 (2.83%) Product Ownership
9 8 (2.52%) PKI
10 7 (2.20%) Mainframe
11 6 (1.89%) Enterprise Storage
11 6 (1.89%) Fixed Income
11 6 (1.89%) FlexPod
11 6 (1.89%) Market Risk
11 6 (1.89%) Operational Technology
11 6 (1.89%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.57%) Security Posture
12 5 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (0.94%) IBM XIV
13 3 (0.94%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 103 (32.39%) Windows
2 94 (29.56%) Linux
3 56 (17.61%) Windows Server
4 39 (12.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 34 (10.69%) VMS
6 11 (3.46%) Unix
7 9 (2.83%) AIX
8 8 (2.52%) CoreOS
8 8 (2.52%) Ubuntu
9 7 (2.20%) Data ONTAP
10 4 (1.26%) SUSE
10 4 (1.26%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.94%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.94%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.94%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.31%) Rocky
12 1 (0.31%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (25.79%) DevOps
2 81 (25.47%) CI/CD
3 70 (22.01%) Migration
4 57 (17.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 56 (17.61%) Infrastructure as Code
6 43 (13.52%) High Availability
7 42 (13.21%) Disaster Recovery
7 42 (13.21%) Performance Tuning
8 33 (10.38%) Validation
9 31 (9.75%) Problem-Solving
9 31 (9.75%) RBAC
10 30 (9.43%) Continuous Improvement
10 30 (9.43%) Network Virtualisation
11 28 (8.81%) Vulnerability Management
12 26 (8.18%) Capacity Planning
13 25 (7.86%) Platform Engineering
14 23 (7.23%) Analytics
14 23 (7.23%) Runbook
14 23 (7.23%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 22 (6.92%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 88 (27.67%) PowerShell
2 75 (23.58%) Python
3 46 (14.47%) Bash
3 46 (14.47%) SQL
4 9 (2.83%) Bicep
5 7 (2.20%) C#
5 7 (2.20%) Shell Script
6 6 (1.89%) C
7 4 (1.26%) PL/SQL
7 4 (1.26%) T-SQL
8 3 (0.94%) Java
8 3 (0.94%) Korn
9 1 (0.31%) Cypher
9 1 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.31%) Go
9 1 (0.31%) Groovy
9 1 (0.31%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.31%) Kotlin
9 1 (0.31%) RPG
9 1 (0.31%) VBA
Qualifications
1 82 (25.79%) Security Cleared
2 65 (20.44%) SC Cleared
3 18 (5.66%) Azure Certification
4 17 (5.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 16 (5.03%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (4.72%) Degree
7 12 (3.77%) VCAP
8 11 (3.46%) MCSA
8 11 (3.46%) MCSE
9 9 (2.83%) OCP
9 9 (2.83%) Oracle Certification
10 8 (2.52%) BPSS Clearance
11 6 (1.89%) Cisco Certification
11 6 (1.89%) DV Cleared
11 6 (1.89%) ISTQB
12 5 (1.57%) CCNA
12 5 (1.57%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 4 (1.26%) CISSP
13 4 (1.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 3 (0.94%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.77%) QA
2 4 (1.26%) SLA
3 2 (0.63%) GMP
3 2 (0.63%) GxP
3 2 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.63%) NIST
3 2 (0.63%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.31%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.31%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.31%) GDPR
4 1 (0.31%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.31%) WCAG
System Software
1 96 (30.19%) VMware Infrastructure
2 52 (16.35%) vSphere
3 50 (15.72%) Active Directory
4 43 (13.52%) VMware ESXi
5 32 (10.06%) Hyper-V
6 28 (8.81%) Docker
7 19 (5.97%) KVM
8 12 (3.77%) VMware NSX
9 11 (3.46%) NFS
10 9 (2.83%) Firmware
11 7 (2.20%) Ceph
12 6 (1.89%) Virtual Desktop
13 3 (0.94%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 3 (0.94%) VMware Workstation
14 2 (0.63%) HDFS
14 2 (0.63%) Veritas Volume Manager
15 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
15 1 (0.31%) iptables
15 1 (0.31%) Oracle RAC
15 1 (0.31%) Samba
Systems Management
1 71 (22.33%) Terraform
2 59 (18.55%) Kubernetes
3 57 (17.92%) Ansible
4 35 (11.01%) vCenter Server
5 16 (5.03%) Grafana
6 15 (4.72%) PowerCLI
7 12 (3.77%) Prometheus
8 8 (2.52%) SCCM
8 8 (2.52%) SCOM
9 7 (2.20%) Microsoft Intune
9 7 (2.20%) SnapMirror
10 6 (1.89%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (1.89%) Podman
10 6 (1.89%) vMotion
10 6 (1.89%) VxRail
11 5 (1.57%) Proxmox
12 4 (1.26%) Argo
12 4 (1.26%) Avamar
12 4 (1.26%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (1.26%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 101 (31.76%) VMware
2 87 (27.36%) Microsoft
3 31 (9.75%) Cisco
4 21 (6.60%) ServiceNow
5 19 (5.97%) Oracle
5 19 (5.97%) Red Hat
6 17 (5.35%) NetApp
7 16 (5.03%) IBM
8 13 (4.09%) Dell
8 13 (4.09%) Google
9 11 (3.46%) Tenable
9 11 (3.46%) Veeam
10 10 (3.14%) Qualys
11 9 (2.83%) CyberArk
12 7 (2.20%) Commvault
12 7 (2.20%) Databricks
12 7 (2.20%) SolarWinds
12 7 (2.20%) Splunk
13 6 (1.89%) Palo Alto
14 5 (1.57%) Meraki