VMware ESXi Contract Job Trends

VMware ESXi (formerly ESX Server)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring VMware ESXi skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 418 368 410
Rank change year-on-year -50 +42 -3
Contract jobs citing VMware ESXi 243 169 184
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.46% 0.52% 0.43%
As % of the System Software category 4.68% 4.40% 3.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 158 104 129
10th Percentile £355 £366 £319
25th Percentile £450 £425 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £522 £550 £513
Median % change year-on-year -5.09% +7.32% +2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £602 £575
90th Percentile £638 £650 £608
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -8.70% +9.52% +11.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 2 2
10th Percentile £46.00 £72.86 £65.18
25th Percentile £48.25 £75.66 £67.31
Median hourly rate £51.00 £83.32 £72.75
Median % change year-on-year -38.79% +14.52% +16.40%
75th Percentile - £87.97 £76.31
90th Percentile £63.10 £88.97 £77.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £83.32 £72.75
% change year-on-year -38.79% +14.52% -9.06%

All System Software Skills
UK

VMware ESXi 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 5,189 3,845 4,769
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.86% 11.83% 11.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,436 2,480 3,292
10th Percentile £219 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £379 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £671 £688 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £495
% change year-on-year - -4.04% +4.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 103 208
10th Percentile £14.33 £13.99 £14.06
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.33 £15.50
Median hourly rate £51.00 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year +70.00% +26.05% -52.40%
75th Percentile £74.00 £69.75 £58.69
90th Percentile £79.40 £91.13 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £51.00 £59.50 £23.34
% change year-on-year -14.29% +154.93% -13.56%

VMware ESXi
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing VMware ESXi relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

VMware ESXi job vacancy trend in the UK

VMware ESXi
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing VMware ESXi.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing VMware ESXi

VMware ESXi
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing VMware ESXi over the 6 months to 16 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for VMware ESXi in the UK

VMware ESXi
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing VMware ESXi.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing VMware ESXi

VMware ESXi
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing VMware ESXi over the 6 months to 16 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for VMware ESXi in the UK

VMware ESXi
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing VMware ESXi within the UK over the 6 months to 16 July 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 -36 230 £525 -4.55% 39
UK excluding London -41 190 £525 -8.70% 31
South East -42 76 £556 -7.29% 19
Work from Home -53 57 £500 -9.09% 15
North of England -55 46 £482 +13.41% 2
London -57 43 £500 +11.11% 8
North West -30 31 £466 +9.65% 1
South West -27 28 £538 -6.52% 3
Midlands -45 27 £450 -25.00% 5
West Midlands -41 24 £450 -18.18% 2
Yorkshire -47 14 £503 +3.23%
East of England -15 8 £563 +2.27% 3
Scotland -9 5 £400 -9.60%
East Midlands -11 3 £450 -30.77% 3
North East - 1 £500 - 1
Wales - 1 £165 -

VMware ESXi
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 12 (4.94%) nginx
2 10 (4.12%) Tomcat
3 8 (3.29%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (2.06%) SharePoint
5 4 (1.65%) Apache
5 4 (1.65%) OpenStack
5 4 (1.65%) WebLogic
6 3 (1.23%) Confluence
7 1 (0.41%) IIS
Applications
1 3 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (1.23%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 53 (21.81%) Azure
2 42 (17.28%) AWS
3 13 (5.35%) GCP
4 10 (4.12%) Entra ID
5 9 (3.70%) Microsoft 365
5 9 (3.70%) OpenShift
6 7 (2.88%) IaaS
6 7 (2.88%) PaaS
7 5 (2.06%) Azure Logic Apps
7 5 (2.06%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.65%) Azure Stack
8 4 (1.65%) Nutanix
9 3 (1.23%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 3 (1.23%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (1.23%) Rubrik
9 3 (1.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 2 (0.82%) Azure Storage
10 2 (0.82%) Datadog
10 2 (0.82%) GitHub
10 2 (0.82%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 62 (25.51%) DNS
2 53 (21.81%) VSAN
3 38 (15.64%) Firewall
4 37 (15.23%) DHCP
5 26 (10.70%) SAN
6 21 (8.64%) VPN
7 19 (7.82%) VLAN
8 15 (6.17%) NAS
9 12 (4.94%) Cisco Nexus
9 12 (4.94%) Network Security
10 10 (4.12%) Cisco ASA
10 10 (4.12%) Cisco IOS
10 10 (4.12%) HTTP
11 9 (3.70%) BGP
12 8 (3.29%) SMTP
13 7 (2.88%) Cisco ISE
14 6 (2.47%) FTP
14 6 (2.47%) MPLS
14 6 (2.47%) SSL
15 5 (2.06%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (6.58%) Elasticsearch
2 8 (3.29%) NonStop SQL
3 4 (1.65%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (1.65%) GIS
4 3 (1.23%) Big Data
5 2 (0.82%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.82%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.41%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 10 (4.12%) JIRA
2 5 (2.06%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.23%) Bitbucket
3 3 (1.23%) Git
4 2 (0.82%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 2 (0.82%) GitLab
4 2 (0.82%) Subversion
General
1 35 (14.40%) Social Skills
2 24 (9.88%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (6.58%) Public Sector
4 15 (6.17%) Finance
5 7 (2.88%) Legal
6 5 (2.06%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.06%) Manufacturing
6 5 (2.06%) Retail
7 4 (1.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (1.65%) Telecoms
8 3 (1.23%) Banking
9 1 (0.41%) Advertising
9 1 (0.41%) Mandarin Language
Job Titles
1 68 (27.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 34 (13.99%) VMware Engineer
3 23 (9.47%) Cloud Engineer
4 22 (9.05%) Senior
4 22 (9.05%) Support Engineer
5 16 (6.58%) Network Engineer
6 15 (6.17%) Senior VMware Engineer
7 14 (5.76%) Virtualisation Engineer
7 14 (5.76%) Wintel Engineer
8 13 (5.35%) Consultant
9 12 (4.94%) VMware Consultant
10 11 (4.53%) Analyst
10 11 (4.53%) Architect
10 11 (4.53%) Storage Engineer
11 10 (4.12%) Lead
12 9 (3.70%) Platform Engineer
12 9 (3.70%) VMware Infrastructure Engineer
13 8 (3.29%) 3rd Line Engineer
13 8 (3.29%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
13 8 (3.29%) Storage Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (4.94%) Flash
2 6 (2.47%) LDAP
3 5 (2.06%) Java SE
4 4 (1.65%) EJB
4 4 (1.65%) JSP
5 3 (1.23%) 802.1X
5 3 (1.23%) OpenLayers
6 2 (0.82%) JSON
6 2 (0.82%) Middleware
6 2 (0.82%) REST
7 1 (0.41%) Apache NiFi
7 1 (0.41%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.41%) Java EE
7 1 (0.41%) JavaBeans
7 1 (0.41%) JDBC
7 1 (0.41%) ODBC
7 1 (0.41%) Servlets
Miscellaneous
1 40 (16.46%) Replication
2 37 (15.23%) Data Centre
3 28 (11.52%) Clustering
4 16 (6.58%) Enterprise Storage
5 15 (6.17%) PKI
6 14 (5.76%) Hybrid Cloud
6 14 (5.76%) Linux Command Line
7 10 (4.12%) Legacy Applications
8 9 (3.70%) Public Cloud
9 6 (2.47%) Management Information System
9 6 (2.47%) Private Cloud
10 5 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (1.65%) Cloud Native
12 3 (1.23%) EMC VMAX
12 3 (1.23%) EMC VNX
13 2 (0.82%) Data Protection Act
13 2 (0.82%) Operational Technology
13 2 (0.82%) SCADA
14 1 (0.41%) Analytical Mindset
14 1 (0.41%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 131 (53.91%) Windows
2 98 (40.33%) Windows Server
3 69 (28.40%) Linux
4 20 (8.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 15 (6.17%) Windows Server 2019
6 14 (5.76%) Windows Server 2016
7 10 (4.12%) Solaris
7 10 (4.12%) Ubuntu
7 10 (4.12%) VMS
7 10 (4.12%) Windows Server 2008
8 6 (2.47%) Data ONTAP
8 6 (2.47%) Unix
9 5 (2.06%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (1.65%) SUSE
11 3 (1.23%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.82%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.82%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.41%) CentOS
13 1 (0.41%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (32.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 49 (20.16%) High Availability
3 44 (18.11%) Problem-Solving
4 42 (17.28%) Disaster Recovery
5 36 (14.81%) Migration
6 35 (14.40%) Network Virtualisation
7 26 (10.70%) Technical Leadership
8 25 (10.29%) Capacity Planning
8 25 (10.29%) Validation
9 24 (9.88%) Change Management
9 24 (9.88%) ITIL
10 23 (9.47%) Root Cause Analysis
11 22 (9.05%) Performance Tuning
12 21 (8.64%) Agile
13 20 (8.23%) Project Delivery
14 19 (7.82%) CI/CD
15 18 (7.41%) DevOps
15 18 (7.41%) Platform Engineering
15 18 (7.41%) Service Management
16 17 (7.00%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 62 (25.51%) PowerShell
2 25 (10.29%) Python
3 21 (8.64%) SQL
4 13 (5.35%) Bash
5 10 (4.12%) Java
6 7 (2.88%) PL/SQL
7 3 (1.23%) PHP
8 1 (0.41%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.41%) VB
Qualifications
1 133 (54.73%) Security Cleared
2 75 (30.86%) SC Cleared
3 63 (25.93%) DV Cleared
4 49 (20.16%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 30 (12.35%) VCAP
6 21 (8.64%) Microsoft Certification
7 19 (7.82%) MCSE
8 15 (6.17%) MCSA
9 14 (5.76%) Cisco Certification
10 11 (4.53%) CCNP
11 8 (3.29%) Degree
12 6 (2.47%) Azure Certification
13 5 (2.06%) CCSE
13 5 (2.06%) CCSM
14 3 (1.23%) APMG
14 3 (1.23%) CCA
14 3 (1.23%) Citrix Certification
14 3 (1.23%) CompTIA Security+
14 3 (1.23%) GIAC
14 3 (1.23%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (6.17%) SLA
2 11 (4.53%) NIST
3 6 (2.47%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (2.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (1.65%) NCSC
5 3 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (0.82%) NIST 800
6 2 (0.82%) QA
7 1 (0.41%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.41%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 197 (81.07%) VMware Infrastructure
2 118 (48.56%) vSphere
3 81 (33.33%) VMware NSX
4 74 (30.45%) Active Directory
5 47 (19.34%) Virtual Machines
6 40 (16.46%) Hyper-V
7 19 (7.82%) Docker
8 15 (6.17%) vCloud
9 13 (5.35%) NFS
10 10 (4.12%) GPFS
11 8 (3.29%) BitLocker
11 8 (3.29%) Microsoft App-V
12 7 (2.88%) Oracle RAC
13 6 (2.47%) Firmware
13 6 (2.47%) UAG
13 6 (2.47%) Virtual Desktop
14 5 (2.06%) KVM
15 4 (1.65%) Terminal Services
16 2 (0.82%) EMC RecoverPoint
16 2 (0.82%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 140 (57.61%) vCenter Server
2 50 (20.58%) Ansible
3 27 (11.11%) vRealize
4 25 (10.29%) Kubernetes
5 24 (9.88%) SCOM
6 19 (7.82%) vMotion
7 18 (7.41%) PowerCLI
8 17 (7.00%) NetBackup
9 15 (6.17%) VxRail
10 14 (5.76%) Terraform
11 10 (4.12%) Puppet
11 10 (4.12%) SCCM
12 7 (2.88%) Oracle RMAN
13 5 (2.06%) Grafana
13 5 (2.06%) Microsoft Intune
13 5 (2.06%) Prometheus
14 4 (1.65%) Failover Clustering
14 4 (1.65%) Microsoft Clustering
14 4 (1.65%) Nagios
14 4 (1.65%) Nessus
Vendors
1 238 (97.94%) VMware
2 60 (24.69%) Microsoft
3 54 (22.22%) Cisco
4 20 (8.23%) IBM
4 20 (8.23%) Oracle
5 17 (7.00%) ServiceNow
6 16 (6.58%) Zerto
7 15 (6.17%) Broadcom
7 15 (6.17%) Citrix
7 15 (6.17%) Dell
7 15 (6.17%) Veeam
8 14 (5.76%) NetApp
9 13 (5.35%) Red Hat
10 12 (4.94%) Veritas
11 11 (4.53%) Juniper
12 10 (4.12%) SolarWinds
13 7 (2.88%) 3PAR
13 7 (2.88%) EMC
13 7 (2.88%) Fortinet
13 7 (2.88%) HP