Virtual Machines Contracts

Virtual Machine (VM)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Virtual Machines skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Virtual Machines over the 6 months to 27 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 331 325 390
Rank change year-on-year -6 +65 -3
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 287 467 587
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.66% 0.78% 0.66%
As % of the System Software category 6.17% 5.91% 4.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 191 319 395
10th Percentile £300 £363 £350
25th Percentile £400 £463 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £540 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.31% +2.86% +5.00%
75th Percentile £608 £592 £626
90th Percentile £675 £695 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +12.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 18 12
10th Percentile - £23.63 £10.82
25th Percentile £14.06 £26.75 £26.31
Median hourly rate £14.63 £66.00 £47.73
Median % change year-on-year -77.84% +38.28% +12.31%
75th Percentile £15.19 £70.19 £83.81
90th Percentile £88.75 £79.50 £84.68
UK excluding London median hourly rate £14.63 £63.00 £50.77
% change year-on-year -76.79% +24.09% +15.39%

All System Software Skills
UK

Virtual Machines is in the System Software category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for system software skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,653 7,900 12,040
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.75% 13.21% 13.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,179 5,646 8,623
10th Percentile £197 £205 £200
25th Percentile £331 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% - +9.38%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £625
90th Percentile £688 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £460 £485 £450
% change year-on-year -5.13% +7.75% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 232 284 318
10th Percentile £14.06 £14.83 £13.21
25th Percentile £15.50 £18.25 £15.00
Median hourly rate £22.50 £53.75 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -58.14% +168.75% -
75th Percentile £60.19 £66.00 £44.07
90th Percentile £77.95 £75.35 £60.92
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.50 £44.93 £18.12
% change year-on-year -52.15% +148.01% +2.06%

Virtual Machines
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Virtual Machines as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Virtual Machines.

Daily rate trend for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Virtual Machines over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Virtual Machines.

Hourly rate trend for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Virtual Machines over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Top 15 Contract 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 27 April 2024. 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 +36 268 £513 -5.96% 119
UK excluding London +4 131 £500 -4.76% 72
London +39 118 £535 -2.73% 56
Work from Home +21 102 £500 -8.26% 56
South East +10 46 £538 -2.27% 18
North of England +36 41 £588 +11.90% 12
Yorkshire +37 27 £340 -35.24% 6
East of England +9 14 £602 +20.40% 13
North West +3 14 £618 +14.93% 6
South West +16 13 £439 -14.30% 13
Midlands +8 13 £400 +6.67% 15
West Midlands +19 11 £400 +6.67% 5
Scotland +1 3 £525 +2.39% 3
East Midlands +14 2 £325 -38.10% 10
Wales +15 1 £425 -19.05% 2

Virtual Machines
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 30 (10.45%) Microsoft Exchange
2 27 (9.41%) OpenStack
3 9 (3.14%) Confluence
4 7 (2.44%) IIS
5 6 (2.09%) nginx
6 5 (1.74%) Apache
7 3 (1.05%) SharePoint
8 2 (0.70%) CICS
8 2 (0.70%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.35%) CMS
9 1 (0.35%) Umbraco
Applications
1 6 (2.09%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (1.05%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 124 (43.21%) Azure
2 52 (18.12%) Entra ID
3 39 (13.59%) Microsoft 365
4 37 (12.89%) AWS
5 28 (9.76%) Azure DevOps
6 25 (8.71%) Azure Storage
7 22 (7.67%) PaaS
8 21 (7.32%) Azure Monitor
9 17 (5.92%) Power Platform
10 16 (5.57%) Azure Logic Apps
10 16 (5.57%) IaaS
11 12 (4.18%) Azure Key Vault
11 12 (4.18%) Serverless
12 10 (3.48%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 10 (3.48%) GCP
12 10 (3.48%) Slack
13 9 (3.14%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 8 (2.79%) Azure Data Factory
14 8 (2.79%) Cloud Computing
14 8 (2.79%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 60 (20.91%) Firewall
2 53 (18.47%) DNS
3 38 (13.24%) DHCP
4 23 (8.01%) VPN
5 15 (5.23%) TCP/IP
6 10 (3.48%) Network Security
7 9 (3.14%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (2.44%) Remote Desktop
9 6 (2.09%) BGP
9 6 (2.09%) IPsec
9 6 (2.09%) SAN
10 5 (1.74%) NAS
10 5 (1.74%) WAN
11 4 (1.39%) Internet
11 4 (1.39%) OpenLDAP
12 3 (1.05%) LAN
12 3 (1.05%) MPLS
12 3 (1.05%) SD-WAN
13 2 (0.70%) 5G
13 2 (0.70%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (7.67%) SQL Server
2 18 (6.27%) Azure SQL Database
3 16 (5.57%) Power BI
4 15 (5.23%) Elasticsearch
5 10 (3.48%) PostgreSQL
6 8 (2.79%) Data Lake
6 8 (2.79%) Oracle Database
7 6 (2.09%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (2.09%) NoSQL
7 6 (2.09%) Redis
8 5 (1.74%) Couchbase
9 4 (1.39%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (1.39%) MongoDB
9 4 (1.39%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.70%) DB2
10 2 (0.70%) Metadata
10 2 (0.70%) MySQL
10 2 (0.70%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.35%) Scylla
Development Applications
1 23 (8.01%) Jenkins
2 20 (6.97%) Git
3 18 (6.27%) GitLab
4 11 (3.83%) JIRA
5 8 (2.79%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 7 (2.44%) Artifactory
7 6 (2.09%) Visual Studio
8 5 (1.74%) Selenium
9 4 (1.39%) Bitbucket
9 4 (1.39%) CppUnit
9 4 (1.39%) PVCS
9 4 (1.39%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.70%) JMeter
10 2 (0.70%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.70%) Maven
10 2 (0.70%) Terragrunt
11 1 (0.35%) ERwin
11 1 (0.35%) IntelliJ
11 1 (0.35%) JUnit
11 1 (0.35%) Spinnaker
General
1 80 (27.87%) Social Skills
2 38 (13.24%) Finance
3 26 (9.06%) Public Sector
4 15 (5.23%) Banking
5 10 (3.48%) Financial Institution
5 10 (3.48%) Telecoms
6 9 (3.14%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (2.79%) Electronics
8 6 (2.09%) German Language
9 4 (1.39%) Analytical Skills
9 4 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.39%) Local Government
10 3 (1.05%) Aerospace
10 3 (1.05%) Front Office
10 3 (1.05%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.05%) Marketing
10 3 (1.05%) Retail
11 2 (0.70%) Legal
12 1 (0.35%) Automotive
12 1 (0.35%) Billing
Job Titles
1 41 (14.29%) Architect
2 29 (10.10%) Senior
3 22 (7.67%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 21 (7.32%) Azure Engineer
5 20 (6.97%) Developer
6 18 (6.27%) DevOps Engineer
7 15 (5.23%) Active Directory Support
7 15 (5.23%) Azure Specialist
7 15 (5.23%) Support Specialist
8 14 (4.88%) Active Directory Specialist
8 14 (4.88%) Analyst
9 12 (4.18%) Cloud Engineer
9 12 (4.18%) Lead
10 10 (3.48%) Azure Architect
10 10 (3.48%) Azure DevOps Engineer
10 10 (3.48%) Software Engineer
11 9 (3.14%) Linux Engineer
11 9 (3.14%) Network Engineer
11 9 (3.14%) Platform Engineer
11 9 (3.14%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (8.01%) ARM Templates
2 19 (6.62%) Elastic Stack
3 18 (6.27%) XML
4 13 (4.53%) .NET
5 10 (3.48%) JSON
5 10 (3.48%) YAML
6 7 (2.44%) http4s
6 7 (2.44%) Microsoft Graph
6 7 (2.44%) REST
6 7 (2.44%) Web Services
7 6 (2.09%) Lambda Expressions
7 6 (2.09%) LDAP
7 6 (2.09%) Spring
8 5 (1.74%) LAPP Stack
8 5 (1.74%) Node.js
8 5 (1.74%) RESTful
9 4 (1.39%) ASP.NET
9 4 (1.39%) JWT
9 4 (1.39%) pytest
9 4 (1.39%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 24 (8.36%) PKI
2 21 (7.32%) Driving Licence
3 20 (6.97%) Self-Motivation
4 18 (6.27%) Data Centre
5 13 (4.53%) Public Cloud
6 10 (3.48%) Management Information System
6 10 (3.48%) Onboarding
7 9 (3.14%) Linux Command Line
8 6 (2.09%) Distributed Architecture
8 6 (2.09%) Distributed Systems
9 5 (1.74%) Replication
10 4 (1.39%) Contactless
10 4 (1.39%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.39%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (1.39%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 4 (1.39%) Video\Live Streaming
11 3 (1.05%) Cyber Threat
11 3 (1.05%) Private Cloud
12 2 (0.70%) Data Structures
12 2 (0.70%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 97 (33.80%) Linux
2 88 (30.66%) Windows
3 39 (13.59%) Windows Server
4 28 (9.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 24 (8.36%) VMS
6 23 (8.01%) Windows Server 2016
6 23 (8.01%) Windows Server 2019
7 20 (6.97%) CentOS
8 13 (4.53%) Windows 10
9 11 (3.83%) Unix
10 9 (3.14%) Ubuntu
11 7 (2.44%) Windows 7
12 6 (2.09%) Oracle Linux
12 6 (2.09%) Solaris
13 5 (1.74%) Mac OS
13 5 (1.74%) Windows Server 2012
14 4 (1.39%) Alpine Linux
14 4 (1.39%) Embedded Linux
15 2 (0.70%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.70%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (26.48%) CI/CD
2 63 (21.95%) DevOps
3 59 (20.56%) Agile
4 55 (19.16%) Infrastructure as Code
5 52 (18.12%) Migration
6 30 (10.45%) Disaster Recovery
7 29 (10.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 27 (9.41%) Analytics
8 27 (9.41%) ITIL
9 25 (8.71%) Problem-Solving
10 24 (8.36%) Computer Science
10 24 (8.36%) RBAC
11 23 (8.01%) High Availability
11 23 (8.01%) Release Management
12 22 (7.67%) Containerisation
13 19 (6.62%) Multi-Factor Authentication
13 19 (6.62%) Scrum
14 18 (6.27%) Business Intelligence
14 18 (6.27%) Log Analytics
15 17 (5.92%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 54 (18.82%) SQL
2 50 (17.42%) PowerShell
3 49 (17.07%) Python
4 27 (9.41%) Bicep
5 21 (7.32%) Shell Script
6 20 (6.97%) C#
6 20 (6.97%) Java
6 20 (6.97%) VB
7 16 (5.57%) VBScript
8 14 (4.88%) Bash
9 10 (3.48%) C++
10 9 (3.14%) Scala
11 7 (2.44%) Go
12 4 (1.39%) C
13 3 (1.05%) Kotlin
13 3 (1.05%) VB.NET
14 2 (0.70%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.70%) PHP
14 2 (0.70%) Ruby
15 1 (0.35%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 62 (21.60%) Security Cleared
2 52 (18.12%) Degree
3 47 (16.38%) SC Cleared
4 29 (10.10%) DV Cleared
5 18 (6.27%) Azure Certification
6 16 (5.57%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 15 (5.23%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (3.14%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 7 (2.44%) CCNA
9 7 (2.44%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (2.09%) AWS Certification
11 5 (1.74%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (1.39%) A+ Certification
12 4 (1.39%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 4 (1.39%) ITIL Certification
12 4 (1.39%) Network+ Certification
13 3 (1.05%) CCNP
13 3 (1.05%) ISEB
13 3 (1.05%) ISTQB
14 2 (0.70%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (4.88%) QA
2 7 (2.44%) SLA
3 3 (1.05%) ISO 9001
3 3 (1.05%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 2 (0.70%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.35%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.35%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.35%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.35%) GDPR
5 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.35%) NIST
System Software
1 85 (29.62%) Active Directory
2 46 (16.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (7.67%) Docker
4 17 (5.92%) Hyper-V
4 17 (5.92%) Virtual Desktop
5 15 (5.23%) KVM
6 13 (4.53%) vSphere
7 8 (2.79%) Firmware
7 8 (2.79%) VMware ESXi
8 7 (2.44%) VMware Workstation
9 4 (1.39%) VirtualBox
10 3 (1.05%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.70%) Ceph
11 2 (0.70%) PowerDNS
11 2 (0.70%) Terminal Services
11 2 (0.70%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.35%) iptables
12 1 (0.35%) LXC
12 1 (0.35%) RACF
12 1 (0.35%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 50 (17.42%) Kubernetes
2 44 (15.33%) Terraform
3 37 (12.89%) Ansible
4 24 (8.36%) Grafana
4 24 (8.36%) Prometheus
4 24 (8.36%) WSUS
5 21 (7.32%) Microsoft Intune
6 20 (6.97%) SCCM
7 18 (6.27%) SCOM
8 16 (5.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 14 (4.88%) Kibana
9 14 (4.88%) logstash
9 14 (4.88%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (4.88%) vCenter Server
10 5 (1.74%) Packer
10 5 (1.74%) ZABBIX
11 3 (1.05%) Nessus
12 2 (0.70%) Pacemaker
12 2 (0.70%) QRadar
12 2 (0.70%) vRealize
Vendors
1 81 (28.22%) Microsoft
2 54 (18.82%) VMware
3 23 (8.01%) Red Hat
4 21 (7.32%) Oracle
5 20 (6.97%) BT
5 20 (6.97%) Virgin Media
6 13 (4.53%) Google
7 9 (3.14%) Amdocs
7 9 (3.14%) Dell
8 8 (2.79%) CA
8 8 (2.79%) Cisco
8 8 (2.79%) Okta
9 7 (2.44%) Palo Alto
10 5 (1.74%) SEEBURGER
11 4 (1.39%) Roku
11 4 (1.39%) SAP
12 3 (1.05%) Databricks
12 3 (1.05%) F5
12 3 (1.05%) Juniper
12 3 (1.05%) New Relic