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 24 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 569 425 483
Rank change year-on-year -144 +58 +134
Contract jobs citing WSUS 40 95 114
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.091% 0.33% 0.26%
As % of the Systems Management category 0.63% 2.01% 2.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 30 74 91
10th Percentile £345 £350 £263
25th Percentile £393 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -8.70% +21.05%
75th Percentile £575 £580 £608
90th Percentile £703 £607 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £575
% change year-on-year -4.76% -8.70% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 9
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £44.86 - £20.50
Median hourly rate £74.00 - £21.00
75th Percentile £85.00 - £36.84
90th Percentile £86.50 - £39.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.00 - £40.31
% change year-on-year - - +4.70%

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 6,387 4,721 5,248
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.58% 16.21% 11.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,408 3,186 3,772
10th Percentile £315 £313 £259
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -8.70%
75th Percentile £600 £626 £625
90th Percentile £688 £738 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £495
% change year-on-year -1.60% +1.01% -5.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 142 50 139
10th Percentile £19.11 £17.84 £14.00
25th Percentile £25.00 £22.50 £20.00
Median hourly rate £55.00 £25.50 £32.00
Median % change year-on-year +115.69% -20.31% -41.82%
75th Percentile £68.75 £52.75 £58.38
90th Percentile £79.95 £70.75 £70.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £24.18 £40.00
% change year-on-year +127.46% -39.55% -13.14%

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 24 March 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 24 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for WSUS in the UK

WSUS
Top 13 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 24 March 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 -152 34 £538 +2.38% 13
UK excluding London -149 22 £500 -4.76% 10
London -53 13 £538 +2.38% 3
Work from Home -54 9 £538 +0.94% 4
South East -62 7 £600 +12.10% 4
South West -40 6 £625 +8.70%
Wales - 3 £165 -
East of England -29 2 £413 -8.33% 5
Midlands -69 2 £300 -48.41% 1
North of England -92 2 £438 -10.26% 2
Yorkshire - 2 £438 - 1
West Midlands -64 1 £300 -48.41%
East Midlands - 1 - - 1

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 12 (30.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (7.50%) nginx
3 2 (5.00%) SharePoint
3 2 (5.00%) SharePoint Server
4 1 (2.50%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (10.00%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.50%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 11 (27.50%) Microsoft 365
2 7 (17.50%) Azure
3 6 (15.00%) AWS
4 5 (12.50%) Google Workspace
5 2 (5.00%) Azure Sentinel
5 2 (5.00%) Power Platform
6 1 (2.50%) Cohesity
6 1 (2.50%) Entra ID
6 1 (2.50%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 14 (35.00%) DNS
2 10 (25.00%) Firewall
2 10 (25.00%) TCP/IP
3 7 (17.50%) DHCP
4 6 (15.00%) Skype
4 6 (15.00%) VPN
5 5 (12.50%) DMZ
5 5 (12.50%) LAN
5 5 (12.50%) VSAN
6 4 (10.00%) WAN
7 2 (5.00%) Network Security
7 2 (5.00%) VLAN
8 1 (2.50%) IPv4
8 1 (2.50%) IPv6
8 1 (2.50%) SNMP
8 1 (2.50%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (10.00%) SQL Server
2 3 (7.50%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (5.00%) MariaDB
3 2 (5.00%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (10.00%) JIRA
2 3 (7.50%) GitLab
3 1 (2.50%) AdminStudio
3 1 (2.50%) InstallShield
3 1 (2.50%) Metasploit
3 1 (2.50%) MSI
General
1 19 (47.50%) Social Skills
2 7 (17.50%) Banking
2 7 (17.50%) Finance
2 7 (17.50%) Investment Banking
3 5 (12.50%) Front Office
4 3 (7.50%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (7.50%) Spanish Language
5 2 (5.00%) Legal
5 2 (5.00%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (2.50%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (2.50%) Military
Job Titles
1 6 (15.00%) Analyst
1 6 (15.00%) Help Desk Analyst
1 6 (15.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
1 6 (15.00%) IT Analyst
2 5 (12.50%) Security Engineer
3 4 (10.00%) IT Engineer
3 4 (10.00%) Wintel Engineer
4 3 (7.50%) Help Desk Support
4 3 (7.50%) IT Support
4 3 (7.50%) Platform Engineer
4 3 (7.50%) Senior
4 3 (7.50%) Server Engineer
5 2 (5.00%) Help Desk Engineer
5 2 (5.00%) Help Desk Support Analyst
5 2 (5.00%) Help Desk Support Engineer
5 2 (5.00%) IT Support Analyst
5 2 (5.00%) IT Support Engineer
5 2 (5.00%) Network Engineer
5 2 (5.00%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
5 2 (5.00%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (12.50%) LDAP
2 3 (7.50%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (2.50%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 8 (20.00%) PKI
2 4 (10.00%) Onboarding
3 2 (5.00%) Client/Server
3 2 (5.00%) Cyber Defence
3 2 (5.00%) Data Centre
3 2 (5.00%) Security Posture
4 1 (2.50%) CCTV
4 1 (2.50%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (2.50%) Enterprise Storage
4 1 (2.50%) Fat Client
4 1 (2.50%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (2.50%) Security Operations Centre
4 1 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (2.50%) Smartcard
4 1 (2.50%) Thin Client
4 1 (2.50%) Virtual Team
4 1 (2.50%) YubiKey
Operating Systems
1 33 (82.50%) Windows
2 16 (40.00%) Linux
2 16 (40.00%) Windows Server
3 10 (25.00%) Windows 10
4 5 (12.50%) Windows Server 2012
4 5 (12.50%) Windows Server 2016
4 5 (12.50%) Windows Server 2019
5 3 (7.50%) CentOS
5 3 (7.50%) Ubuntu
6 2 (5.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (42.50%) ITIL
2 13 (32.50%) Service Management
3 11 (27.50%) SIEM
4 8 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
4 8 (20.00%) Patch Management
4 8 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
5 7 (17.50%) Agile
5 7 (17.50%) Cybersecurity
5 7 (17.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 6 (15.00%) Technical Leadership
7 5 (12.50%) Analytics
7 5 (12.50%) Security Operations
7 5 (12.50%) Threat Detection
8 4 (10.00%) Data Security
8 4 (10.00%) Information Security
8 4 (10.00%) Security Architecture
8 4 (10.00%) Service Delivery
8 4 (10.00%) Software Deployment
8 4 (10.00%) Vulnerability Management
8 4 (10.00%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 19 (47.50%) PowerShell
2 10 (25.00%) SQL
3 3 (7.50%) Bash
3 3 (7.50%) Python
4 1 (2.50%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 18 (45.00%) Security Cleared
2 15 (37.50%) SC Cleared
3 7 (17.50%) Degree
3 7 (17.50%) Microsoft Certification
4 4 (10.00%) DV Cleared
4 4 (10.00%) MCSE
5 3 (7.50%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (5.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (5.00%) MCSA
7 1 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (2.50%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (10.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (7.50%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (5.00%) JSP 440
4 1 (2.50%) GDPR
4 1 (2.50%) NIST
4 1 (2.50%) SLA
System Software
1 19 (47.50%) Active Directory
2 11 (27.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (17.50%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (12.50%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (12.50%) VMware NSX
4 5 (12.50%) vSphere
5 3 (7.50%) Docker
6 2 (5.00%) Hyper-V
7 1 (2.50%) Citrix Presentation Server
7 1 (2.50%) KVM
Systems Management
1 18 (45.00%) SCCM
2 7 (17.50%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (12.50%) Ansible
3 5 (12.50%) vCenter Server
4 3 (7.50%) Nessus
5 2 (5.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (5.00%) Check_MK
6 1 (2.50%) Backup Exec
6 1 (2.50%) FortiGate
6 1 (2.50%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (2.50%) Kubernetes
6 1 (2.50%) Norton AntiVirus
6 1 (2.50%) Progress Chef
6 1 (2.50%) SCOM
6 1 (2.50%) Terraform
6 1 (2.50%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 18 (45.00%) Microsoft
2 15 (37.50%) VMware
3 7 (17.50%) Cisco
3 7 (17.50%) Citrix
4 6 (15.00%) Red Hat
5 5 (12.50%) Bloomberg
5 5 (12.50%) ION Trading
5 5 (12.50%) Reuters
5 5 (12.50%) SolarWinds
6 4 (10.00%) Sophos
6 4 (10.00%) Tenable
7 3 (7.50%) NVIDIA
7 3 (7.50%) Splunk
8 2 (5.00%) Ariba
8 2 (5.00%) Fortinet
8 2 (5.00%) McAfee
8 2 (5.00%) Palo Alto
8 2 (5.00%) SAP
8 2 (5.00%) Veeam
9 1 (2.50%) HP