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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 371 355 323
Rank change year-on-year -16 -32 +21
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 303 179 294
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.59% 0.68%
As % of the System Software category 6.09% 4.85% 6.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 118 204
10th Percentile £358 £350 £345
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £507 £535
Median % change year-on-year -1.65% -5.28% +1.90%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £550
% change year-on-year -3.50% -9.09% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 7 25
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 £48.00 £65.25 £15.19
90th Percentile £61.20 £66.00 £56.21
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £64.50 £14.63
% change year-on-year -59.69% +341.03% -77.84%

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 4,978 3,693 4,801
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.78% 12.21% 11.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,305 2,412 3,310
10th Percentile £213 £221 £205
25th Percentile £400 £384 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £607
90th Percentile £675 £694 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -1.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 85 224
10th Percentile £14.15 £14.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.25 £15.44 £15.50
Median hourly rate £51.00 £28.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +82.14% +15.80% -55.22%
75th Percentile £73.00 £66.00 £60.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £90.40 £71.07
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £39.48 £26.00
% change year-on-year +29.20% +51.83% -34.34%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -12 281 £500 -1.33% 69
UK excluding London -16 172 £483 -3.50% 56
London -44 108 £525 -4.55% 20
North of England +11 96 £483 +27.78% 9
Work from Home -33 94 £500 - 34
Yorkshire +3 56 £500 +5.26% 3
South East -33 41 £475 -17.39% 26
North West -15 38 £463 +23.17% 6
Midlands -64 18 £450 -9.64% 5
South West -21 14 £470 -1.05% 7
West Midlands -62 12 £425 -14.66% 4
East of England -29 5 £425 -19.12% 8
East Midlands -8 4 £500 -4.76% 1
Scotland -15 4 - - 1
North East -31 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 4 (1.32%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.99%) Apache
2 3 (0.99%) Apache Spark
2 3 (0.99%) Confluence
2 3 (0.99%) Palantir Foundry
3 2 (0.66%) CMS
3 2 (0.66%) IIS
3 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.66%) nginx
3 2 (0.66%) OpenStack
3 2 (0.66%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.33%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.33%) JBoss
4 1 (0.33%) WebLogic
Applications
1 5 (1.65%) Adobe Illustrator
1 5 (1.65%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.66%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.66%) InDesign
3 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.66%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.33%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 129 (42.57%) Azure
2 49 (16.17%) AWS
3 38 (12.54%) OpenShift
4 35 (11.55%) Entra ID
5 28 (9.24%) GitHub
6 26 (8.58%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (8.58%) Azure Monitor
7 24 (7.92%) Azure AKS
8 21 (6.93%) GCP
9 19 (6.27%) Serverless
10 18 (5.94%) GitHub Actions
11 15 (4.95%) Azure Key Vault
12 14 (4.62%) Azure Storage
13 12 (3.96%) Azure Functions
14 11 (3.63%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 11 (3.63%) Microsoft 365
15 10 (3.30%) Nutanix
16 9 (2.97%) IaaS
16 9 (2.97%) PaaS
17 8 (2.64%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (13.86%) DNS
2 39 (12.87%) Firewall
3 26 (8.58%) VPN
4 24 (7.92%) Network Security
5 21 (6.93%) VLAN
6 19 (6.27%) DHCP
7 18 (5.94%) WAN
8 17 (5.61%) SSL
9 15 (4.95%) VSAN
10 11 (3.63%) SD-WAN
11 9 (2.97%) SAN
12 8 (2.64%) FTP
13 7 (2.31%) LAN
13 7 (2.31%) SSH
14 5 (1.65%) Wi-Fi
15 4 (1.32%) HTTPS
15 4 (1.32%) Reverse Proxy
15 4 (1.32%) TCP/IP
16 3 (0.99%) Cisco Nexus
17 2 (0.66%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (8.25%) SQL Server
2 14 (4.62%) Azure SQL Database
3 12 (3.96%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (2.64%) Data Lake
5 6 (1.98%) Db2
5 6 (1.98%) Power BI
6 3 (0.99%) Amazon Athena
6 3 (0.99%) Amazon Redshift
6 3 (0.99%) Apache Hive
6 3 (0.99%) Big Data
6 3 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (0.99%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.99%) Hadoop
6 3 (0.99%) MySQL
6 3 (0.99%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.33%) Neo4j
7 1 (0.33%) OpenStack Swift
7 1 (0.33%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.33%) Power Query
7 1 (0.33%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 18 (5.94%) Git
2 13 (4.29%) GitLab
3 12 (3.96%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.98%) JIRA
5 3 (0.99%) SonarQube
5 3 (0.99%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.66%) JMeter
6 2 (0.66%) Postman
6 2 (0.66%) PVCS
6 2 (0.66%) Selenium
6 2 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.66%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.33%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.33%) RStudio
General
1 40 (13.20%) Social Skills
2 29 (9.57%) Finance
3 15 (4.95%) Legal
4 13 (4.29%) Banking
5 12 (3.96%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (3.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 11 (3.63%) Public Sector
7 7 (2.31%) Retail
8 5 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.65%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.32%) Front Office
9 4 (1.32%) Marketing
10 2 (0.66%) Law
10 2 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.66%) Publishing
11 1 (0.33%) Advertising
11 1 (0.33%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.33%) Electronics
11 1 (0.33%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.33%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 38 (12.54%) DevOps Engineer
2 28 (9.24%) Azure Engineer
2 28 (9.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 24 (7.92%) Senior
4 23 (7.59%) Cloud Engineer
5 17 (5.61%) Architect
6 16 (5.28%) Lead
7 14 (4.62%) Analyst
7 14 (4.62%) Wintel Engineer
8 11 (3.63%) Consultant
9 10 (3.30%) Technical Specialist
9 10 (3.30%) VMware Engineer
10 9 (2.97%) Administrator
10 9 (2.97%) Linux Engineer
10 9 (2.97%) Migration Engineer
11 8 (2.64%) Azure DevOps Engineer
12 7 (2.31%) Azure Architect
12 7 (2.31%) Platform Engineer
12 7 (2.31%) Solutions Architect
13 6 (1.98%) Senior VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (3.63%) ARM Templates
2 9 (2.97%) REST
3 7 (2.31%) YAML
4 4 (1.32%) Middleware
5 3 (0.99%) Hugging Face
5 3 (0.99%) JSON
6 2 (0.66%) Elastic Stack
6 2 (0.66%) OpenCV
6 2 (0.66%) PySpark
6 2 (0.66%) PyTorch
6 2 (0.66%) Regular Expression
6 2 (0.66%) SOAP
6 2 (0.66%) SpaCy
6 2 (0.66%) TensorFlow
7 1 (0.33%) Kafka
7 1 (0.33%) Node.js
7 1 (0.33%) NumPy
7 1 (0.33%) OpenID
7 1 (0.33%) SciPy
7 1 (0.33%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 27 (8.91%) Replication
2 23 (7.59%) Data Centre
3 19 (6.27%) Clustering
3 19 (6.27%) Hybrid Cloud
4 15 (4.95%) Linux Command Line
5 13 (4.29%) Cloud Native
6 12 (3.96%) Onboarding
7 9 (2.97%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.64%) PKI
9 7 (2.31%) Public Cloud
10 6 (1.98%) FlexPod
10 6 (1.98%) Mainframe
10 6 (1.98%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.65%) Private Cloud
12 4 (1.32%) Cyber Threat
12 4 (1.32%) Fixed Income
12 4 (1.32%) Market Risk
12 4 (1.32%) Security Posture
12 4 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (0.99%) Celerra
Operating Systems
1 99 (32.67%) Windows
2 89 (29.37%) Linux
3 53 (17.49%) Windows Server
4 37 (12.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (9.90%) VMS
6 11 (3.63%) Unix
7 9 (2.97%) AIX
8 8 (2.64%) CoreOS
9 7 (2.31%) Data ONTAP
9 7 (2.31%) Ubuntu
10 4 (1.32%) SUSE
11 3 (0.99%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.99%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.99%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.66%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.33%) Rocky
13 1 (0.33%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (26.73%) CI/CD
2 79 (26.07%) DevOps
3 73 (24.09%) Migration
4 56 (18.48%) Infrastructure as Code
5 45 (14.85%) High Availability
6 44 (14.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 42 (13.86%) Disaster Recovery
8 36 (11.88%) Performance Tuning
9 35 (11.55%) Network Virtualisation
10 33 (10.89%) Continuous Improvement
11 30 (9.90%) Validation
12 29 (9.57%) RBAC
13 28 (9.24%) Capacity Planning
14 27 (8.91%) Problem-Solving
15 26 (8.58%) Containerisation
15 26 (8.58%) Vulnerability Management
16 24 (7.92%) Cybersecurity
16 24 (7.92%) Platform Engineering
17 22 (7.26%) AI
18 21 (6.93%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 80 (26.40%) PowerShell
2 75 (24.75%) Python
3 46 (15.18%) Bash
4 43 (14.19%) SQL
5 8 (2.64%) Bicep
6 7 (2.31%) C#
6 7 (2.31%) Shell Script
7 4 (1.32%) C
7 4 (1.32%) PL/SQL
8 3 (0.99%) Java
9 2 (0.66%) Korn
10 1 (0.33%) Cypher
10 1 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.33%) Embedded C
10 1 (0.33%) Go
10 1 (0.33%) Groovy
10 1 (0.33%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.33%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.33%) RPG
10 1 (0.33%) VBA
Qualifications
1 78 (25.74%) Security Cleared
2 61 (20.13%) SC Cleared
3 20 (6.60%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 15 (4.95%) Microsoft Certification
4 15 (4.95%) VCAP
5 14 (4.62%) MCSA
5 14 (4.62%) MCSE
6 13 (4.29%) Azure Certification
7 10 (3.30%) Degree
8 9 (2.97%) OCP
8 9 (2.97%) Oracle Certification
9 6 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (1.65%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.65%) ISTQB
10 5 (1.65%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 4 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (1.32%) CISSP
12 3 (0.99%) CCNA
12 3 (0.99%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.99%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.63%) QA
2 3 (0.99%) SLA
3 2 (0.66%) GMP
3 2 (0.66%) GxP
3 2 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (0.66%) NIST
4 1 (0.33%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.33%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.33%) GDPR
4 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
4 1 (0.33%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.33%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.33%) WCAG
System Software
1 96 (31.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 51 (16.83%) vSphere
3 45 (14.85%) Active Directory
3 45 (14.85%) VMware ESXi
4 33 (10.89%) Hyper-V
5 24 (7.92%) Docker
6 20 (6.60%) KVM
7 11 (3.63%) NFS
8 10 (3.30%) Firmware
8 10 (3.30%) Virtual Desktop
8 10 (3.30%) VMware NSX
9 7 (2.31%) Ceph
10 3 (0.99%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (0.99%) VMware Workstation
11 2 (0.66%) HDFS
11 2 (0.66%) Veritas Volume Manager
12 1 (0.33%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.33%) iptables
12 1 (0.33%) NLBS
12 1 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 72 (23.76%) Terraform
2 60 (19.80%) Ansible
3 58 (19.14%) Kubernetes
4 37 (12.21%) vCenter Server
5 15 (4.95%) Grafana
6 14 (4.62%) PowerCLI
7 12 (3.96%) Prometheus
8 8 (2.64%) SCCM
9 7 (2.31%) SnapMirror
10 6 (1.98%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (1.98%) vMotion
10 6 (1.98%) VxRail
11 5 (1.65%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (1.32%) Argo
12 4 (1.32%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (1.32%) Microsoft Clustering
12 4 (1.32%) Podman
12 4 (1.32%) SCOM
13 3 (0.99%) Avamar
13 3 (0.99%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 101 (33.33%) VMware
2 79 (26.07%) Microsoft
3 35 (11.55%) Cisco
4 19 (6.27%) Red Hat
5 17 (5.61%) Oracle
5 17 (5.61%) ServiceNow
6 16 (5.28%) IBM
7 15 (4.95%) Google
8 14 (4.62%) NetApp
9 11 (3.63%) Tenable
10 10 (3.30%) Dell
10 10 (3.30%) Qualys
10 10 (3.30%) Veeam
11 9 (2.97%) CyberArk
12 8 (2.64%) Databricks
12 8 (2.64%) Splunk
13 7 (2.31%) Commvault
13 7 (2.31%) Palo Alto
13 7 (2.31%) SolarWinds
14 5 (1.65%) EMC