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

6 months to
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 370 341 306
Rank change year-on-year -29 -35 +9
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 283 181 298
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.63% 0.69%
As % of the System Software category 5.83% 5.07% 6.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 194 118 203
10th Percentile £358 £350 £314
25th Percentile £424 £450 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £493 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.79% -2.38% -2.33%
75th Percentile £558 £600 £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 6 8 27
10th Percentile £26.00 - -
25th Percentile £37.00 £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 4,852 3,567 4,701
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.93% 12.40% 10.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,234 2,390 3,266
10th Percentile £219 £215 £200
25th Percentile £400 £388 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £607
90th Percentile £675 £700 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -0.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 185 85 228
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.25 £15.44 £15.25
Median hourly rate £52.50 £28.41 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +84.79% +17.49% -55.97%
75th Percentile £72.54 £64.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £78.40 £88.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £32.32 £27.50
% change year-on-year +57.78% +17.54% -42.85%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -23 264 £496 -3.18% 63
UK excluding London -14 162 £483 -3.40% 49
London -69 99 £525 -8.70% 18
North of England -8 92 £475 +26.67% 9
Work from Home -19 91 £500 - 32
Yorkshire -16 48 £500 +5.26% 3
North West -8 42 £463 +23.33% 6
South East -36 39 £532 -7.48% 21
Midlands -57 16 £438 -12.15% 4
West Midlands -60 13 £425 -14.66% 4
South West -21 9 £360 -24.21% 5
East of England -30 7 £425 -20.93% 6
Scotland -5 5 £550 +7.32% 5
North East -30 2 £400 +10.34%
East Midlands -28 1 £500 -4.76%

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 (1.77%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.41%) OpenStack
3 3 (1.06%) Apache
3 3 (1.06%) Apache Spark
3 3 (1.06%) Confluence
3 3 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.06%) Palantir Foundry
4 2 (0.71%) CMS
4 2 (0.71%) nginx
4 2 (0.71%) Umbraco
5 1 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.35%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.35%) IIS
5 1 (0.35%) JBoss
5 1 (0.35%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.41%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.41%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.71%) 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 (38.87%) Azure
2 49 (17.31%) AWS
3 35 (12.37%) OpenShift
4 27 (9.54%) Azure DevOps
5 26 (9.19%) GitHub
6 23 (8.13%) Entra ID
7 18 (6.36%) Azure Monitor
7 18 (6.36%) GCP
8 16 (5.65%) Azure AKS
8 16 (5.65%) GitHub Actions
9 15 (5.30%) Serverless
10 11 (3.89%) Azure Storage
10 11 (3.89%) Microsoft 365
11 10 (3.53%) Azure Key Vault
11 10 (3.53%) Nutanix
12 8 (2.83%) PaaS
13 7 (2.47%) Amazon EC2
13 7 (2.47%) Azure Functions
13 7 (2.47%) IaaS
14 6 (2.12%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 33 (11.66%) DNS
1 33 (11.66%) Firewall
2 23 (8.13%) VPN
3 21 (7.42%) VLAN
4 20 (7.07%) Network Security
5 16 (5.65%) DHCP
6 15 (5.30%) VSAN
7 12 (4.24%) SSL
7 12 (4.24%) WAN
8 10 (3.53%) SD-WAN
9 9 (3.18%) SAN
10 7 (2.47%) LAN
11 6 (2.12%) FTP
11 6 (2.12%) TCP/IP
12 4 (1.41%) Reverse Proxy
12 4 (1.41%) SSH
12 4 (1.41%) Wi-Fi
13 2 (0.71%) Cisco Nexus
13 2 (0.71%) IPsec
13 2 (0.71%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (7.07%) SQL Server
2 7 (2.47%) Azure SQL Database
2 7 (2.47%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (2.12%) DB2
3 6 (2.12%) Oracle Database
3 6 (2.12%) Power BI
4 4 (1.41%) Oracle Reports
5 3 (1.06%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (1.06%) Amazon RDS
5 3 (1.06%) Amazon Redshift
5 3 (1.06%) Apache Hive
5 3 (1.06%) Big Data
5 3 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
5 3 (1.06%) DynamoDB
5 3 (1.06%) Hadoop
5 3 (1.06%) MySQL
6 1 (0.35%) OpenStack Swift
6 1 (0.35%) Power Query
6 1 (0.35%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.35%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 22 (7.77%) Git
2 14 (4.95%) GitLab
2 14 (4.95%) Jenkins
3 9 (3.18%) JIRA
4 5 (1.77%) PVCS
5 4 (1.41%) Rational DOORS
6 3 (1.06%) SonarQube
6 3 (1.06%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.71%) JMeter
7 2 (0.71%) Postman
7 2 (0.71%) Selenium
7 2 (0.71%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.71%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.35%) Gradle
8 1 (0.35%) RStudio
General
1 36 (12.72%) Social Skills
2 23 (8.13%) Finance
3 12 (4.24%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (4.24%) Public Sector
4 11 (3.89%) Banking
4 11 (3.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 11 (3.89%) Legal
5 6 (2.12%) Retail
6 4 (1.41%) Electronics
6 4 (1.41%) Front Office
7 3 (1.06%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.06%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.06%) Marketing
8 2 (0.71%) Law
8 2 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.35%) Advertising
9 1 (0.35%) Back Office
9 1 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.35%) Publishing
9 1 (0.35%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 37 (13.07%) DevOps Engineer
2 23 (8.13%) Azure Engineer
3 22 (7.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 20 (7.07%) Senior
5 18 (6.36%) Wintel Engineer
6 15 (5.30%) Cloud Engineer
7 14 (4.95%) Lead
8 13 (4.59%) Analyst
9 12 (4.24%) Consultant
10 11 (3.89%) Architect
11 10 (3.53%) Administrator
11 10 (3.53%) VMware Engineer
12 8 (2.83%) Azure DevOps Engineer
13 7 (2.47%) Linux Engineer
13 7 (2.47%) Migration Engineer
13 7 (2.47%) Security Engineer
14 6 (2.12%) Data Engineer
14 6 (2.12%) DBA
14 6 (2.12%) Senior VMware Engineer
14 6 (2.12%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.18%) REST
2 8 (2.83%) ARM Templates
3 6 (2.12%) YAML
4 5 (1.77%) Middleware
5 3 (1.06%) Hugging Face
5 3 (1.06%) JSON
6 2 (0.71%) OpenCV
6 2 (0.71%) PySpark
6 2 (0.71%) PyTorch
6 2 (0.71%) Regular Expression
6 2 (0.71%) SOAP
6 2 (0.71%) SpaCy
6 2 (0.71%) TensorFlow
7 1 (0.35%) .NET
7 1 (0.35%) Java SE
7 1 (0.35%) LDAP
7 1 (0.35%) OpenID
7 1 (0.35%) SciPy
7 1 (0.35%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.35%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 31 (10.95%) Replication
2 25 (8.83%) Data Centre
3 23 (8.13%) Clustering
4 15 (5.30%) Hybrid Cloud
5 12 (4.24%) Cloud Native
6 11 (3.89%) Linux Command Line
7 9 (3.18%) Product Ownership
8 7 (2.47%) Onboarding
8 7 (2.47%) PKI
9 6 (2.12%) FlexPod
9 6 (2.12%) Operational Technology
9 6 (2.12%) Private Cloud
10 5 (1.77%) Cyber Threat
11 4 (1.41%) Mainframe
11 4 (1.41%) Public Cloud
11 4 (1.41%) Security Posture
12 3 (1.06%) Data Protection Act
12 3 (1.06%) Fixed Income
12 3 (1.06%) Market Risk
12 3 (1.06%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 90 (31.80%) Windows
2 78 (27.56%) Linux
3 52 (18.37%) Windows Server
4 36 (12.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (10.60%) VMS
6 9 (3.18%) AIX
6 9 (3.18%) Unix
7 8 (2.83%) CoreOS
8 7 (2.47%) Data ONTAP
9 4 (1.41%) SUSE
9 4 (1.41%) Ubuntu
10 3 (1.06%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.06%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.71%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.71%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.35%) Android
12 1 (0.35%) Rocky
12 1 (0.35%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (27.56%) CI/CD
2 75 (26.50%) DevOps
3 64 (22.61%) Migration
4 49 (17.31%) Infrastructure as Code
5 42 (14.84%) High Availability
6 41 (14.49%) Disaster Recovery
7 38 (13.43%) Performance Tuning
8 37 (13.07%) Network Virtualisation
9 36 (12.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 34 (12.01%) Continuous Improvement
11 32 (11.31%) Capacity Planning
12 24 (8.48%) Cybersecurity
12 24 (8.48%) Validation
13 23 (8.13%) Vulnerability Management
14 22 (7.77%) Containerisation
14 22 (7.77%) Storage Management
15 21 (7.42%) Problem-Solving
15 21 (7.42%) RBAC
16 20 (7.07%) Platform Engineering
17 19 (6.71%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 74 (26.15%) PowerShell
2 72 (25.44%) Python
3 44 (15.55%) Bash
4 36 (12.72%) SQL
5 9 (3.18%) Bicep
6 8 (2.83%) Shell Script
7 6 (2.12%) C
8 4 (1.41%) C#
8 4 (1.41%) C++
8 4 (1.41%) Embedded C
8 4 (1.41%) Embedded C++
8 4 (1.41%) Java
8 4 (1.41%) PL/SQL
9 2 (0.71%) Go
9 2 (0.71%) Korn
10 1 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.35%) Groovy
10 1 (0.35%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.35%) RPG
10 1 (0.35%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 71 (25.09%) Security Cleared
2 56 (19.79%) SC Cleared
3 22 (7.77%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 19 (6.71%) VCAP
5 17 (6.01%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (5.65%) MCSA
6 16 (5.65%) MCSE
7 14 (4.95%) Azure Certification
8 13 (4.59%) OCP
8 13 (4.59%) Oracle Certification
9 8 (2.83%) Degree
10 5 (1.77%) DV Cleared
11 4 (1.41%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (1.41%) CISSP
11 4 (1.41%) ISTQB
11 4 (1.41%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 3 (1.06%) CISM
12 3 (1.06%) PMI Certification
12 3 (1.06%) PMP
13 2 (0.71%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.89%) QA
2 4 (1.41%) GDPR
3 2 (0.71%) GMP
3 2 (0.71%) GxP
3 2 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.71%) NIST
4 1 (0.35%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.35%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.35%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.35%) SLA
4 1 (0.35%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.35%) WCAG
System Software
1 94 (33.22%) VMware Infrastructure
2 52 (18.37%) vSphere
3 46 (16.25%) VMware ESXi
4 38 (13.43%) Active Directory
5 32 (11.31%) Hyper-V
6 19 (6.71%) Docker
7 17 (6.01%) KVM
8 11 (3.89%) NFS
9 10 (3.53%) Firmware
10 9 (3.18%) VMware NSX
11 8 (2.83%) Ceph
12 5 (1.77%) Virtual Desktop
13 3 (1.06%) VMware Workstation
14 2 (0.71%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 2 (0.71%) HDFS
14 2 (0.71%) 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 65 (22.97%) Terraform
2 61 (21.55%) Ansible
3 50 (17.67%) Kubernetes
4 40 (14.13%) vCenter Server
5 14 (4.95%) PowerCLI
6 12 (4.24%) Grafana
7 9 (3.18%) Prometheus
8 7 (2.47%) SCCM
8 7 (2.47%) SnapMirror
9 6 (2.12%) IBM BigFix
9 6 (2.12%) VxRail
10 4 (1.41%) Argo
10 4 (1.41%) Data Guard
10 4 (1.41%) Failover Clustering
10 4 (1.41%) Microsoft Clustering
10 4 (1.41%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (1.41%) Oracle RMAN
10 4 (1.41%) systemd
10 4 (1.41%) vMotion
10 4 (1.41%) WSUS
Vendors
1 98 (34.63%) VMware
2 73 (25.80%) Microsoft
3 35 (12.37%) Cisco
4 23 (8.13%) Red Hat
5 16 (5.65%) IBM
6 15 (5.30%) Oracle
7 14 (4.95%) Google
8 13 (4.59%) NetApp
9 11 (3.89%) Tenable
10 10 (3.53%) Dell
10 10 (3.53%) Veeam
11 9 (3.18%) Qualys
11 9 (3.18%) ServiceNow
12 7 (2.47%) Commvault
13 6 (2.12%) CyberArk
13 6 (2.12%) Palo Alto
13 6 (2.12%) SolarWinds
13 6 (2.12%) Splunk
14 5 (1.77%) Databricks
15 4 (1.41%) Meraki