WSUS Contract Job Trends

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring WSUS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 604 436 452
Rank change year-on-year -168 +16 +110
Contract jobs citing WSUS 41 86 135
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.084% 0.30% 0.31%
As % of the Systems Management category 0.63% 1.88% 2.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 25 69 109
10th Percentile £185 £350 £266
25th Percentile £382 £500 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% -4.35% +21.05%
75th Percentile £525 £575 £608
90th Percentile £605 £613 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -18.18% -4.35% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 5
10th Percentile £63.51 - -
25th Percentile £73.38 - £20.50
Median hourly rate £74.00 - £21.00
75th Percentile £74.63 - £21.50
90th Percentile £79.80 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.00 - -

All Systems Management Skills
UK

WSUS falls under the Systems Management category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring systems management skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 6,543 4,567 5,191
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.37% 15.84% 12.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,465 3,093 3,760
10th Percentile £325 £308 £275
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £513 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.34% -0.49% -6.36%
75th Percentile £600 £603 £625
90th Percentile £686 £700 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £498 £494
% change year-on-year -1.09% +0.71% -5.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 173 49 97
10th Percentile £19.25 £13.75 £14.66
25th Percentile £25.75 £19.97 £20.50
Median hourly rate £55.00 £29.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +89.66% -3.33% -47.83%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.25 £50.25
90th Percentile £76.40 £78.96 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £37.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +46.67% -6.25% -5.88%

WSUS
Job Vacancy Trend

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

WSUS job vacancy trend in the UK

WSUS
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing WSUS

WSUS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WSUS over the 6 months to 4 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for WSUS in the UK

WSUS
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing WSUS

WSUS
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WSUS over the 6 months to 4 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for WSUS in the UK

WSUS
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing WSUS within the UK over the 6 months to 4 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 -164 36 £450 -18.18% 15
UK excluding London -145 29 £450 -18.18% 11
Midlands -54 8 £450 -15.89% 2
London -75 8 £460 -20.04% 4
East of England -50 7 £450 -18.18% 1
Work from Home -60 6 £513 -4.16% 6
East Midlands - 6 - - 2
South East -68 5 £600 +12.10% 6
North of England -87 5 £190 -56.57% 2
North West -43 4 £190 -63.81% 2
Wales - 3 £170 -
West Midlands -58 2 £450 -15.89%
South West -45 1 - -
Yorkshire - 1 £500 -

WSUS
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 15 (36.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (7.32%) IIS
3 2 (4.88%) nginx
4 1 (2.44%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 9 (21.95%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (14.63%) Cohesity
3 5 (12.20%) Azure
4 4 (9.76%) Google Workspace
5 2 (4.88%) AWS
6 1 (2.44%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 25 (60.98%) DNS
2 15 (36.59%) DHCP
3 8 (19.51%) TCP/IP
3 8 (19.51%) VLAN
4 7 (17.07%) Firewall
4 7 (17.07%) VPN
5 6 (14.63%) IPv4
5 6 (14.63%) IPv6
5 6 (14.63%) Skype
6 5 (12.20%) Network Security
7 4 (9.76%) DMZ
7 4 (9.76%) VSAN
8 3 (7.32%) LAN
8 3 (7.32%) SAN
9 2 (4.88%) WAN
10 1 (2.44%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (17.07%) SQL Server
2 2 (4.88%) Elasticsearch
3 1 (2.44%) MariaDB
3 1 (2.44%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (4.88%) GitLab
1 2 (4.88%) JIRA
General
1 15 (36.59%) Social Skills
2 6 (14.63%) Banking
2 6 (14.63%) Investment Banking
3 4 (9.76%) Finance
3 4 (9.76%) Front Office
4 3 (7.32%) Spanish Language
5 2 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (2.44%) Legal
6 1 (2.44%) Manufacturing
6 1 (2.44%) Military
6 1 (2.44%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (2.44%) Pharmaceutical
6 1 (2.44%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 14 (34.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 6 (14.63%) IT Engineer
3 5 (12.20%) Analyst
3 5 (12.20%) Help Desk Analyst
3 5 (12.20%) IT Analyst
3 5 (12.20%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
4 4 (9.76%) Administrator
5 3 (7.32%) Server Engineer
6 2 (4.88%) Citrix Administrator
6 2 (4.88%) Desktop Engineer
6 2 (4.88%) Network Engineer
6 2 (4.88%) Senior
7 1 (2.44%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
7 1 (2.44%) Consultant
7 1 (2.44%) Desktop Support
7 1 (2.44%) IT Support
7 1 (2.44%) Operations Engineer
7 1 (2.44%) Systems Administrator
7 1 (2.44%) Windows Engineer
7 1 (2.44%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (7.32%) LDAP
2 2 (4.88%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 9 (21.95%) Onboarding
2 6 (14.63%) Self-Motivation
2 6 (14.63%) Smartcard
2 6 (14.63%) YubiKey
3 5 (12.20%) Virtual Team
4 4 (9.76%) PKI
5 3 (7.32%) Client/Server
6 2 (4.88%) Clustering
6 2 (4.88%) Data Centre
7 1 (2.44%) CCTV
7 1 (2.44%) Cyber Defence
7 1 (2.44%) Enterprise Storage
7 1 (2.44%) Fat Client
7 1 (2.44%) Life Science
7 1 (2.44%) Security Operations Centre
7 1 (2.44%) Security Posture
7 1 (2.44%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 37 (90.24%) Windows
2 28 (68.29%) Windows Server
3 8 (19.51%) Linux
3 8 (19.51%) Windows 10
4 7 (17.07%) Windows Server 2019
5 6 (14.63%) Windows Server 2016
6 4 (9.76%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (7.32%) Ubuntu
8 2 (4.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (39.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 14 (34.15%) ITIL
3 12 (29.27%) Problem-Solving
4 9 (21.95%) Patch Management
5 6 (14.63%) Agile
5 6 (14.63%) Decision-Making
5 6 (14.63%) Service Management
6 5 (12.20%) High Availability
6 5 (12.20%) Service Delivery
6 5 (12.20%) SIEM
6 5 (12.20%) Technical Leadership
7 4 (9.76%) Deployment Automation
7 4 (9.76%) Internal Audit
7 4 (9.76%) Software Deployment
8 3 (7.32%) Antivirus Management
8 3 (7.32%) CI/CD
8 3 (7.32%) Containerisation
8 3 (7.32%) Runbook
8 3 (7.32%) Virtual Environments
8 3 (7.32%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 10 (24.39%) PowerShell
2 3 (7.32%) SQL
3 1 (2.44%) Bash
3 1 (2.44%) Python
Qualifications
1 22 (53.66%) Security Cleared
2 15 (36.59%) SC Cleared
3 9 (21.95%) Degree
3 9 (21.95%) DV Cleared
4 4 (9.76%) Microsoft Certification
5 3 (7.32%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (7.32%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 3 (7.32%) MCSA
6 1 (2.44%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (2.44%) MCSE
6 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (2.44%) JSP 440
1 1 (2.44%) SLA
System Software
1 21 (51.22%) Active Directory
2 16 (39.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (19.51%) Hyper-V
4 4 (9.76%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (9.76%) VMware ESXi
4 4 (9.76%) vSphere
5 3 (7.32%) VMware NSX
6 2 (4.88%) Docker
6 2 (4.88%) XenApp
6 2 (4.88%) XenDesktop
7 1 (2.44%) BitLocker
7 1 (2.44%) Citrix Presentation Server
7 1 (2.44%) KVM
Systems Management
1 18 (43.90%) SCCM
2 7 (17.07%) Nessus
3 3 (7.32%) vCenter Server
4 2 (4.88%) Ansible
4 2 (4.88%) Failover Clustering
4 2 (4.88%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (2.44%) Check_MK
5 1 (2.44%) FortiGate
5 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Clustering
5 1 (2.44%) NetApp OnCommand
5 1 (2.44%) Progress Chef
5 1 (2.44%) vMotion
Vendors
1 21 (51.22%) VMware
2 16 (39.02%) Citrix
3 12 (29.27%) Microsoft
4 7 (17.07%) Tenable
5 4 (9.76%) Bloomberg
5 4 (9.76%) Cisco
5 4 (9.76%) ION Trading
5 4 (9.76%) Reuters
6 3 (7.32%) NVIDIA
6 3 (7.32%) Red Hat
7 2 (4.88%) Ariba
7 2 (4.88%) SAP
7 2 (4.88%) SolarWinds
7 2 (4.88%) Sophos
7 2 (4.88%) Splunk
7 2 (4.88%) Tanium
8 1 (2.44%) Fortinet
8 1 (2.44%) HP
8 1 (2.44%) Palo Alto