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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 375 341 307
Rank change year-on-year -34 -34 +13
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 287 186 299
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.64% 0.70%
As % of the System Software category 5.83% 5.17% 6.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 197 122 204
10th Percentile £357 £351 £313
25th Percentile £425 £451 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
75th Percentile £569 £611 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -3.40% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 8 27
10th Percentile £26.00 - -
25th Percentile £48.00 £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 - £64.88 £15.19
90th Percentile - £66.00 £86.97
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 4,919 3,596 4,679
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.01% 12.45% 10.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,279 2,416 3,253
10th Percentile £218 £223 £200
25th Percentile £400 £393 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £590 £600 £606
90th Percentile £675 £700 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 189 81 229
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.25 £15.44 £15.50
Median hourly rate £52.50 £28.41 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +84.79% +17.49% -56.04%
75th Percentile £72.54 £62.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £79.00 £88.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £32.32 £24.18
% change year-on-year +57.78% +33.67% -50.85%

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 May 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 30 May 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 30 May 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 -30 267 £500 -3.43% 49
UK excluding London -10 164 £483 -3.40% 41
London -56 99 £525 -8.70% 11
Work from Home -38 94 £500 -2.44% 28
North of England -6 93 £475 +26.67% 6
Yorkshire -20 49 £500 +5.26% 1
North West -19 42 £463 +23.33% 5
South East -38 39 £532 -3.27% 20
Midlands -62 16 £438 -12.15% 4
West Midlands -71 13 £425 -14.66% 3
South West -29 9 £360 -24.21% 4
East of England -31 8 £425 -19.05% 5
Scotland -6 5 £550 +7.32% 2
North East -24 2 £400 +10.34%
East Midlands -24 1 £500 -4.76% 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 5 (1.74%) OpenStack
1 5 (1.74%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.05%) Apache
2 3 (1.05%) Apache Spark
2 3 (1.05%) Confluence
2 3 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.05%) Palantir Foundry
3 2 (0.70%) CMS
3 2 (0.70%) nginx
3 2 (0.70%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.35%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.35%) IIS
4 1 (0.35%) JBoss
4 1 (0.35%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.39%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.39%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.70%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.35%) InDesign
3 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.35%) SAP SD
1 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 110 (38.33%) Azure
2 51 (17.77%) AWS
3 37 (12.89%) OpenShift
4 29 (10.10%) GitHub
5 27 (9.41%) Azure DevOps
6 23 (8.01%) Entra ID
7 19 (6.62%) GCP
7 19 (6.62%) GitHub Actions
8 18 (6.27%) Azure Monitor
9 17 (5.92%) Serverless
10 16 (5.57%) Azure AKS
11 12 (4.18%) Microsoft 365
12 11 (3.83%) Azure Storage
13 10 (3.48%) Azure Key Vault
13 10 (3.48%) Nutanix
14 8 (2.79%) PaaS
15 7 (2.44%) Amazon EC2
15 7 (2.44%) AWS Lambda
15 7 (2.44%) Azure Functions
15 7 (2.44%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 36 (12.54%) DNS
2 34 (11.85%) Firewall
3 23 (8.01%) VPN
4 21 (7.32%) VLAN
5 20 (6.97%) Network Security
6 17 (5.92%) DHCP
7 15 (5.23%) VSAN
8 12 (4.18%) SSL
8 12 (4.18%) WAN
9 10 (3.48%) SD-WAN
10 9 (3.14%) SAN
11 7 (2.44%) LAN
11 7 (2.44%) TCP/IP
12 6 (2.09%) FTP
12 6 (2.09%) Reverse Proxy
13 4 (1.39%) SSH
13 4 (1.39%) Wi-Fi
14 2 (0.70%) Cisco Nexus
14 2 (0.70%) IPsec
14 2 (0.70%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (6.97%) SQL Server
2 7 (2.44%) Azure SQL Database
2 7 (2.44%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (2.09%) DB2
3 6 (2.09%) Oracle Database
3 6 (2.09%) Power BI
4 4 (1.39%) Oracle Reports
5 3 (1.05%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (1.05%) Amazon RDS
5 3 (1.05%) Amazon Redshift
5 3 (1.05%) Apache Hive
5 3 (1.05%) Big Data
5 3 (1.05%) Data Warehouse
5 3 (1.05%) DynamoDB
5 3 (1.05%) Hadoop
5 3 (1.05%) MySQL
6 2 (0.70%) Data Hub
7 1 (0.35%) OpenStack Swift
7 1 (0.35%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.35%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 26 (9.06%) Git
2 15 (5.23%) GitLab
3 14 (4.88%) Jenkins
4 10 (3.48%) JIRA
5 6 (2.09%) PVCS
6 5 (1.74%) Rational DOORS
7 3 (1.05%) SonarQube
7 3 (1.05%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.70%) JMeter
8 2 (0.70%) Postman
8 2 (0.70%) Selenium
8 2 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.70%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.35%) Gradle
9 1 (0.35%) RStudio
General
1 36 (12.54%) Social Skills
2 23 (8.01%) Finance
3 14 (4.88%) Public Sector
4 13 (4.53%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (3.83%) Banking
5 11 (3.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 11 (3.83%) Legal
6 6 (2.09%) Retail
7 5 (1.74%) Electronics
8 4 (1.39%) Front Office
9 3 (1.05%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.05%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.05%) Marketing
10 2 (0.70%) Law
10 2 (0.70%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.35%) Advertising
11 1 (0.35%) Back Office
11 1 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.35%) Publishing
11 1 (0.35%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 36 (12.54%) DevOps Engineer
2 23 (8.01%) Azure Engineer
2 23 (8.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 20 (6.97%) Senior
4 18 (6.27%) Wintel Engineer
5 16 (5.57%) Lead
6 15 (5.23%) Cloud Engineer
7 14 (4.88%) Analyst
8 12 (4.18%) Architect
9 11 (3.83%) Consultant
10 10 (3.48%) Administrator
10 10 (3.48%) VMware Engineer
11 9 (3.14%) Linux Engineer
12 8 (2.79%) Azure DevOps Engineer
12 8 (2.79%) Security Engineer
13 7 (2.44%) Migration Engineer
14 6 (2.09%) Data Engineer
14 6 (2.09%) DBA
14 6 (2.09%) Product Owner
14 6 (2.09%) Senior VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.14%) REST
2 8 (2.79%) ARM Templates
3 6 (2.09%) YAML
4 5 (1.74%) Middleware
5 3 (1.05%) Hugging Face
5 3 (1.05%) JSON
6 2 (0.70%) OpenCV
6 2 (0.70%) PySpark
6 2 (0.70%) PyTorch
6 2 (0.70%) Regular Expression
6 2 (0.70%) SOAP
6 2 (0.70%) SpaCy
6 2 (0.70%) TensorFlow
7 1 (0.35%) .NET
7 1 (0.35%) cloud-init
7 1 (0.35%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.35%) Java SE
7 1 (0.35%) LDAP
7 1 (0.35%) Retrofit
7 1 (0.35%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 31 (10.80%) Replication
2 26 (9.06%) Data Centre
3 23 (8.01%) Clustering
4 16 (5.57%) Hybrid Cloud
5 11 (3.83%) Cloud Native
5 11 (3.83%) Linux Command Line
6 9 (3.14%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.44%) Onboarding
7 7 (2.44%) PKI
7 7 (2.44%) Private Cloud
8 6 (2.09%) FlexPod
8 6 (2.09%) Operational Technology
9 5 (1.74%) Cyber Threat
10 4 (1.39%) Mainframe
10 4 (1.39%) Public Cloud
10 4 (1.39%) Security Posture
11 3 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (1.05%) Enterprise Storage
11 3 (1.05%) Market Risk
11 3 (1.05%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 90 (31.36%) Windows
2 81 (28.22%) Linux
3 52 (18.12%) Windows Server
4 36 (12.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 32 (11.15%) VMS
6 9 (3.14%) AIX
6 9 (3.14%) Unix
7 8 (2.79%) CoreOS
8 7 (2.44%) Data ONTAP
9 4 (1.39%) SUSE
9 4 (1.39%) Ubuntu
10 3 (1.05%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.05%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.70%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.35%) Android
12 1 (0.35%) Rocky
12 1 (0.35%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (27.53%) CI/CD
2 77 (26.83%) DevOps
3 64 (22.30%) Migration
4 52 (18.12%) Infrastructure as Code
5 43 (14.98%) High Availability
6 42 (14.63%) Disaster Recovery
7 39 (13.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 38 (13.24%) Performance Tuning
9 37 (12.89%) Network Virtualisation
10 35 (12.20%) Continuous Improvement
11 32 (11.15%) Capacity Planning
12 26 (9.06%) Containerisation
13 24 (8.36%) Validation
14 23 (8.01%) Cybersecurity
14 23 (8.01%) Vulnerability Management
15 22 (7.67%) Platform Engineering
15 22 (7.67%) Storage Management
16 21 (7.32%) Problem-Solving
16 21 (7.32%) RBAC
17 20 (6.97%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 76 (26.48%) Python
2 75 (26.13%) PowerShell
3 46 (16.03%) Bash
4 35 (12.20%) SQL
5 9 (3.14%) Bicep
6 8 (2.79%) Shell Script
7 7 (2.44%) C
8 5 (1.74%) C++
8 5 (1.74%) Embedded C
8 5 (1.74%) Embedded C++
9 4 (1.39%) C#
9 4 (1.39%) Java
9 4 (1.39%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.05%) Ruby
11 2 (0.70%) Go
11 2 (0.70%) Korn
12 1 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.35%) Groovy
12 1 (0.35%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.35%) RPG
Qualifications
1 70 (24.39%) Security Cleared
2 55 (19.16%) SC Cleared
3 22 (7.67%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 19 (6.62%) VCAP
5 17 (5.92%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (5.57%) MCSA
6 16 (5.57%) MCSE
7 14 (4.88%) Azure Certification
8 13 (4.53%) OCP
8 13 (4.53%) Oracle Certification
9 8 (2.79%) Degree
10 5 (1.74%) DV Cleared
11 4 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (1.39%) CISSP
12 3 (1.05%) CISM
12 3 (1.05%) ISTQB
12 3 (1.05%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 3 (1.05%) PMI Certification
12 3 (1.05%) PMP
13 2 (0.70%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.83%) QA
2 4 (1.39%) GDPR
3 3 (1.05%) Accessibility
4 2 (0.70%) GMP
4 2 (0.70%) GxP
4 2 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.70%) NIST
5 1 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.35%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.35%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.35%) SLA
5 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.35%) WCAG
System Software
1 95 (33.10%) VMware Infrastructure
2 52 (18.12%) vSphere
3 46 (16.03%) VMware ESXi
4 38 (13.24%) Active Directory
5 33 (11.50%) Hyper-V
6 19 (6.62%) Docker
7 17 (5.92%) KVM
8 11 (3.83%) NFS
9 10 (3.48%) Firmware
10 9 (3.14%) VMware NSX
11 8 (2.79%) Ceph
12 5 (1.74%) Virtual Desktop
13 3 (1.05%) VMware Workstation
14 2 (0.70%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 2 (0.70%) HDFS
14 2 (0.70%) Veritas Volume Manager
15 1 (0.35%) BitLocker
15 1 (0.35%) iptables
15 1 (0.35%) NLBS
15 1 (0.35%) Samba
Systems Management
1 69 (24.04%) Terraform
2 63 (21.95%) Ansible
3 54 (18.82%) Kubernetes
4 40 (13.94%) vCenter Server
5 14 (4.88%) PowerCLI
6 12 (4.18%) Grafana
7 9 (3.14%) Prometheus
8 8 (2.79%) SCCM
9 7 (2.44%) SnapMirror
10 6 (2.09%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (2.09%) VxRail
11 5 (1.74%) Microsoft Intune
11 5 (1.74%) WSUS
12 4 (1.39%) Argo
12 4 (1.39%) Data Guard
12 4 (1.39%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (1.39%) Microsoft Clustering
12 4 (1.39%) Oracle RMAN
12 4 (1.39%) systemd
12 4 (1.39%) vMotion
Vendors
1 99 (34.49%) VMware
2 72 (25.09%) Microsoft
3 34 (11.85%) Cisco
4 23 (8.01%) Red Hat
5 17 (5.92%) IBM
6 15 (5.23%) Oracle
7 14 (4.88%) Google
8 13 (4.53%) NetApp
9 11 (3.83%) Tenable
10 10 (3.48%) Dell
10 10 (3.48%) Veeam
11 9 (3.14%) ServiceNow
12 8 (2.79%) Qualys
13 7 (2.44%) Commvault
14 6 (2.09%) CyberArk
14 6 (2.09%) Palo Alto
14 6 (2.09%) SolarWinds
14 6 (2.09%) Splunk
15 5 (1.74%) ANSYS
15 5 (1.74%) Databricks