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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 371 337 301
Rank change year-on-year -34 -36 +14
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 277 188 291
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 0.65% 0.68%
As % of the System Software category 5.77% 5.22% 6.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 187 118 199
10th Percentile £356 £350 £312
25th Percentile £418 £451 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £513 £523
Median % change year-on-year -4.39% -1.91% -2.79%
75th Percentile £550 £613 £608
90th Percentile £650 £750 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -3.80% -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 9 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 - £64.50 £15.19
90th Percentile - £66.00 £86.97
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £63.00 £14.63
% change year-on-year +11.11% +330.77% -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 4,800 3,599 4,619
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.91% 12.50% 10.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,203 2,425 3,208
10th Percentile £220 £213 £200
25th Percentile £400 £388 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £503 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.50% +0.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £594 £606 £600
90th Percentile £679 £700 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -1.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 83 225
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.25 £15.44 £14.48
Median hourly rate £51.00 £28.41 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +79.51% +26.27% -58.76%
75th Percentile £70.50 £64.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £78.70 £88.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £37.07 £22.00
% change year-on-year +37.57% +68.51% -51.03%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -30 257 £490 -4.39% 64
UK excluding London -28 161 £481 -3.80% 45
Work from Home -12 93 £500 -2.44% 36
London -72 92 £525 -8.70% 20
North of England -11 91 £475 +26.67% 10
Yorkshire -18 48 £500 +5.26% 4
North West -16 41 £460 +22.67% 6
South East -32 39 £514 -10.61% 17
Midlands -66 15 £425 -14.66% 7
West Midlands -68 12 £375 -24.70% 4
South West -23 9 £360 -28.00% 4
East of England -34 8 £425 -19.05% 5
Scotland -4 5 £550 +7.32% 3
North East -25 2 £400 +10.34%
East Midlands -25 1 £500 -4.76% 3

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 (1.81%) OpenStack
1 5 (1.81%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.08%) Apache
2 3 (1.08%) Apache Spark
2 3 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.08%) Palantir Foundry
3 2 (0.72%) CMS
3 2 (0.72%) Confluence
3 2 (0.72%) nginx
3 2 (0.72%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.36%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.36%) IIS
4 1 (0.36%) JBoss
4 1 (0.36%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.44%) Adobe Illustrator
1 4 (1.44%) Photoshop
2 2 (0.72%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.36%) InDesign
3 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.36%) SAP SD
1 1 (0.36%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 110 (39.71%) Azure
2 48 (17.33%) AWS
3 37 (13.36%) OpenShift
4 27 (9.75%) Azure DevOps
4 27 (9.75%) GitHub
5 23 (8.30%) Entra ID
6 18 (6.50%) Azure Monitor
6 18 (6.50%) GCP
7 17 (6.14%) GitHub Actions
7 17 (6.14%) Serverless
8 16 (5.78%) Azure AKS
9 13 (4.69%) Microsoft 365
10 11 (3.97%) Azure Storage
11 10 (3.61%) Azure Key Vault
11 10 (3.61%) Nutanix
12 8 (2.89%) PaaS
13 7 (2.53%) Amazon EC2
13 7 (2.53%) AWS Lambda
13 7 (2.53%) Azure Functions
14 6 (2.17%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 35 (12.64%) DNS
2 33 (11.91%) Firewall
3 21 (7.58%) VLAN
3 21 (7.58%) VPN
4 20 (7.22%) Network Security
5 18 (6.50%) DHCP
6 15 (5.42%) VSAN
7 11 (3.97%) SSL
7 11 (3.97%) WAN
8 9 (3.25%) SAN
8 9 (3.25%) SD-WAN
9 8 (2.89%) TCP/IP
10 7 (2.53%) LAN
11 6 (2.17%) Reverse Proxy
12 5 (1.81%) FTP
13 4 (1.44%) SSH
13 4 (1.44%) Wi-Fi
14 2 (0.72%) Cisco Nexus
14 2 (0.72%) IPsec
14 2 (0.72%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (6.50%) SQL Server
2 7 (2.53%) Azure SQL Database
2 7 (2.53%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (2.17%) DB2
3 6 (2.17%) Oracle Database
3 6 (2.17%) Power BI
4 4 (1.44%) Oracle Reports
5 3 (1.08%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
5 3 (1.08%) Amazon Redshift
5 3 (1.08%) Apache Hive
5 3 (1.08%) Big Data
5 3 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
5 3 (1.08%) DynamoDB
5 3 (1.08%) Hadoop
5 3 (1.08%) MySQL
6 2 (0.72%) Data Hub
7 1 (0.36%) Amazon QuickSight
7 1 (0.36%) Power Query
7 1 (0.36%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 25 (9.03%) Git
2 14 (5.05%) GitLab
3 11 (3.97%) Jenkins
4 8 (2.89%) JIRA
5 6 (2.17%) PVCS
6 5 (1.81%) Rational DOORS
7 3 (1.08%) SonarQube
7 3 (1.08%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.72%) JMeter
8 2 (0.72%) Postman
8 2 (0.72%) Selenium
8 2 (0.72%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.72%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.36%) Gradle
9 1 (0.36%) RStudio
General
1 35 (12.64%) Social Skills
2 19 (6.86%) Finance
3 14 (5.05%) Public Sector
4 12 (4.33%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (3.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 11 (3.97%) Legal
6 10 (3.61%) Banking
7 6 (2.17%) Retail
8 5 (1.81%) Electronics
9 3 (1.08%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.08%) Front Office
9 3 (1.08%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.08%) Marketing
10 2 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.36%) Advertising
11 1 (0.36%) Back Office
11 1 (0.36%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.36%) Social Science
Job Titles
1 33 (11.91%) DevOps Engineer
2 23 (8.30%) Azure Engineer
2 23 (8.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 20 (7.22%) Senior
4 18 (6.50%) Wintel Engineer
5 14 (5.05%) Analyst
6 13 (4.69%) Cloud Engineer
6 13 (4.69%) Lead
7 12 (4.33%) Architect
8 11 (3.97%) Consultant
9 10 (3.61%) Administrator
9 10 (3.61%) VMware Engineer
10 8 (2.89%) Azure DevOps Engineer
10 8 (2.89%) Linux Engineer
10 8 (2.89%) Security Engineer
11 7 (2.53%) Migration Engineer
12 6 (2.17%) Data Engineer
12 6 (2.17%) DBA
12 6 (2.17%) Senior VMware Engineer
12 6 (2.17%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.25%) REST
2 8 (2.89%) ARM Templates
3 6 (2.17%) YAML
4 5 (1.81%) Middleware
5 3 (1.08%) Hugging Face
5 3 (1.08%) JSON
6 2 (0.72%) OpenCV
6 2 (0.72%) PySpark
6 2 (0.72%) PyTorch
6 2 (0.72%) Regular Expression
6 2 (0.72%) SOAP
6 2 (0.72%) SpaCy
6 2 (0.72%) TensorFlow
7 1 (0.36%) .NET
7 1 (0.36%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.36%) Kafka
7 1 (0.36%) Lambda Expressions
7 1 (0.36%) LDAP
7 1 (0.36%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 1 (0.36%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 31 (11.19%) Replication
2 23 (8.30%) Clustering
2 23 (8.30%) Data Centre
3 16 (5.78%) Hybrid Cloud
4 11 (3.97%) Cloud Native
4 11 (3.97%) Linux Command Line
5 8 (2.89%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.53%) Onboarding
6 7 (2.53%) PKI
6 7 (2.53%) Private Cloud
7 6 (2.17%) FlexPod
7 6 (2.17%) Operational Technology
8 5 (1.81%) Cyber Threat
9 4 (1.44%) Mainframe
10 3 (1.08%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (1.08%) Public Cloud
10 3 (1.08%) SCADA
10 3 (1.08%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.08%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (0.72%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 86 (31.05%) Windows
2 77 (27.80%) Linux
3 51 (18.41%) Windows Server
4 32 (11.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (10.83%) VMS
6 8 (2.89%) AIX
6 8 (2.89%) CoreOS
6 8 (2.89%) Unix
7 7 (2.53%) Data ONTAP
8 4 (1.44%) SUSE
8 4 (1.44%) Ubuntu
9 3 (1.08%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.36%) Android
11 1 (0.36%) Rocky
11 1 (0.36%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (27.08%) CI/CD
2 74 (26.71%) DevOps
3 63 (22.74%) Migration
4 49 (17.69%) Infrastructure as Code
5 42 (15.16%) Disaster Recovery
5 42 (15.16%) High Availability
6 37 (13.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 37 (13.36%) Network Virtualisation
6 37 (13.36%) Performance Tuning
7 34 (12.27%) Continuous Improvement
8 32 (11.55%) Capacity Planning
9 25 (9.03%) Containerisation
10 23 (8.30%) Validation
11 22 (7.94%) Cybersecurity
12 21 (7.58%) Platform Engineering
12 21 (7.58%) RBAC
12 21 (7.58%) Vulnerability Management
13 19 (6.86%) Problem-Solving
13 19 (6.86%) Storage Management
14 18 (6.50%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 71 (25.63%) Python
2 70 (25.27%) PowerShell
3 43 (15.52%) Bash
4 35 (12.64%) SQL
5 9 (3.25%) Bicep
6 8 (2.89%) Shell Script
7 7 (2.53%) C
8 5 (1.81%) C++
8 5 (1.81%) Embedded C
8 5 (1.81%) Embedded C++
9 4 (1.44%) C#
9 4 (1.44%) Java
9 4 (1.44%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.08%) Ruby
11 2 (0.72%) Go
11 2 (0.72%) Korn
12 1 (0.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.36%) Groovy
12 1 (0.36%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.36%) VBA
Qualifications
1 69 (24.91%) Security Cleared
2 55 (19.86%) SC Cleared
3 22 (7.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 19 (6.86%) VCAP
5 17 (6.14%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (5.78%) MCSA
6 16 (5.78%) MCSE
7 14 (5.05%) Azure Certification
8 13 (4.69%) OCP
8 13 (4.69%) Oracle Certification
9 7 (2.53%) Degree
10 5 (1.81%) DV Cleared
11 4 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
12 3 (1.08%) CISSP
12 3 (1.08%) ISTQB
12 3 (1.08%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 3 (1.08%) PMI Certification
12 3 (1.08%) PMP
13 2 (0.72%) CISM
13 2 (0.72%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.97%) QA
2 4 (1.44%) GDPR
3 3 (1.08%) Accessibility
4 2 (0.72%) GMP
4 2 (0.72%) GxP
5 1 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.36%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.36%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.36%) NIST
5 1 (0.36%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.36%) SLA
5 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.36%) WCAG
System Software
1 93 (33.57%) VMware Infrastructure
2 52 (18.77%) vSphere
3 46 (16.61%) VMware ESXi
4 38 (13.72%) Active Directory
5 33 (11.91%) Hyper-V
6 18 (6.50%) Docker
7 17 (6.14%) KVM
8 10 (3.61%) Firmware
8 10 (3.61%) NFS
9 9 (3.25%) VMware NSX
10 8 (2.89%) Ceph
11 5 (1.81%) Virtual Desktop
12 3 (1.08%) VMware Workstation
13 2 (0.72%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 2 (0.72%) HDFS
14 1 (0.36%) BitLocker
14 1 (0.36%) iptables
14 1 (0.36%) NLBS
14 1 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
14 1 (0.36%) Samba
Systems Management
1 65 (23.47%) Terraform
2 61 (22.02%) Ansible
3 52 (18.77%) Kubernetes
4 40 (14.44%) vCenter Server
5 12 (4.33%) PowerCLI
6 11 (3.97%) Grafana
7 9 (3.25%) SCCM
8 8 (2.89%) Prometheus
9 7 (2.53%) SnapMirror
10 6 (2.17%) IBM BigFix
10 6 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (2.17%) VxRail
10 6 (2.17%) WSUS
11 4 (1.44%) Argo
11 4 (1.44%) Data Guard
11 4 (1.44%) Failover Clustering
11 4 (1.44%) Microsoft Clustering
11 4 (1.44%) Oracle RMAN
11 4 (1.44%) systemd
11 4 (1.44%) vMotion
Vendors
1 97 (35.02%) VMware
2 69 (24.91%) Microsoft
3 32 (11.55%) Cisco
4 22 (7.94%) Red Hat
5 17 (6.14%) IBM
6 13 (4.69%) Google
6 13 (4.69%) NetApp
6 13 (4.69%) Oracle
7 10 (3.61%) Tenable
7 10 (3.61%) Veeam
8 8 (2.89%) Dell
9 7 (2.53%) Commvault
10 6 (2.17%) ServiceNow
10 6 (2.17%) SolarWinds
11 5 (1.81%) ANSYS
11 5 (1.81%) CyberArk
11 5 (1.81%) Databricks
11 5 (1.81%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.81%) Qualys
11 5 (1.81%) Splunk