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 7 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 553 436 481
Rank change year-on-year -117 +45 +149
Contract jobs citing WSUS 38 91 126
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.097% 0.29% 0.28%
As % of the Systems Management category 0.63% 1.92% 2.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 31 73 105
10th Percentile £325 £352 £285
25th Percentile £406 £425 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £515 £575
Median % change year-on-year +4.37% -10.43% +21.05%
75th Percentile £575 £549 £608
90th Percentile £700 £603 £615
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £515 £575
% change year-on-year +6.80% -10.43% +21.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 7
10th Percentile £50.89 - £34.90
25th Percentile £59.93 - £36.96
Median hourly rate £80.00 - £40.31
75th Percentile £86.25 - £69.00
90th Percentile £87.00 - £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £80.00 - £78.00
% change year-on-year - - +102.60%

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 6,042 4,743 5,607
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.48% 15.25% 12.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,173 3,068 4,039
10th Percentile £313 £313 £263
25th Percentile £413 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -8.70%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £634
90th Percentile £688 £738 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 60 162
10th Percentile £17.90 £15.22 £14.08
25th Percentile £20.82 £21.05 £20.50
Median hourly rate £52.50 £25.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +105.88% -44.78% +8.66%
75th Percentile £63.32 £59.06 £60.94
90th Percentile £82.40 £70.44 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £53.25 £23.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +126.60% -49.11% +11.18%

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 7 February 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 7 February 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 7 February 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 -111 33 £538 +2.38% 9
UK excluding London -122 23 £550 +6.80% 8
South West -11 15 £550 -
Work from Home -18 12 £531 +1.19% 3
London -26 10 £538 +2.38% 2
South East -47 2 £300 -42.86% 3
North of England -83 2 £353 -29.50% 4
Wales - 2 - -
East of England -22 1 - - 1
West Midlands -46 1 £300 -48.41%
North West -49 1 £330 -35.61%
Midlands -52 1 £300 -48.41%
Yorkshire - 1 £375 - 4

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 (39.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (21.05%) SharePoint
3 5 (13.16%) Skype for Business
4 3 (7.89%) IIS
4 3 (7.89%) nginx
4 3 (7.89%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 8 (21.05%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.63%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 9 (23.68%) Microsoft 365
2 7 (18.42%) AWS
2 7 (18.42%) Azure
3 3 (7.89%) Google Workspace
4 2 (5.26%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (2.63%) Entra ID
5 1 (2.63%) GCP
5 1 (2.63%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 20 (52.63%) DNS
2 14 (36.84%) DHCP
3 11 (28.95%) Skype
4 8 (21.05%) TCP/IP
5 7 (18.42%) Firewall
6 5 (13.16%) Unified Communications
7 4 (10.53%) VPN
8 3 (7.89%) DMZ
8 3 (7.89%) LAN
8 3 (7.89%) WAN
9 2 (5.26%) VSAN
10 1 (2.63%) Network Security
10 1 (2.63%) SNMP
10 1 (2.63%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (10.53%) SQL Server
2 3 (7.89%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (5.26%) MariaDB
4 1 (2.63%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (7.89%) GitLab
1 3 (7.89%) JIRA
2 1 (2.63%) AdminStudio
2 1 (2.63%) InstallShield
2 1 (2.63%) Metasploit
2 1 (2.63%) MSI
General
1 16 (42.11%) Social Skills
2 8 (21.05%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (15.79%) Public Sector
4 5 (13.16%) Finance
5 4 (10.53%) Banking
5 4 (10.53%) Investment Banking
6 3 (7.89%) Front Office
7 2 (5.26%) Legal
8 1 (2.63%) Military
8 1 (2.63%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (2.63%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 8 (21.05%) Wintel Engineer
2 7 (18.42%) Security Engineer
3 5 (13.16%) IT Engineer
4 4 (10.53%) Analyst
4 4 (10.53%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 4 (10.53%) Platform Engineer
5 3 (7.89%) Help Desk Analyst
5 3 (7.89%) Help Desk Support
5 3 (7.89%) IT Analyst
5 3 (7.89%) IT Security Engineer
5 3 (7.89%) IT Support
5 3 (7.89%) Operations Engineer
6 2 (5.26%) Help Desk Engineer
6 2 (5.26%) Help Desk Support Analyst
6 2 (5.26%) Help Desk Support Engineer
6 2 (5.26%) IT Support Analyst
6 2 (5.26%) IT Support Engineer
6 2 (5.26%) Senior
6 2 (5.26%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 2 (5.26%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (13.16%) LDAP
2 3 (7.89%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (2.63%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 14 (36.84%) PKI
2 2 (5.26%) Cyber Defence
2 2 (5.26%) Data Centre
2 2 (5.26%) Onboarding
2 2 (5.26%) Security Posture
3 1 (2.63%) Client/Server
3 1 (2.63%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (2.63%) Enterprise Storage
3 1 (2.63%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (2.63%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 31 (81.58%) Windows
2 17 (44.74%) Windows Server
3 15 (39.47%) Linux
4 8 (21.05%) Windows 10
5 7 (18.42%) Windows Server 2012
6 3 (7.89%) CentOS
6 3 (7.89%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (5.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (2.63%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (55.26%) ITIL
2 17 (44.74%) Service Management
3 13 (34.21%) Patch Management
3 13 (34.21%) SIEM
4 9 (23.68%) Continuous Improvement
5 8 (21.05%) Critical Thinking
5 8 (21.05%) System Testing
6 7 (18.42%) Cybersecurity
6 7 (18.42%) Root Cause Analysis
7 6 (15.79%) Analytics
7 6 (15.79%) Computer Science
7 6 (15.79%) Problem-Solving
7 6 (15.79%) Security Operations
7 6 (15.79%) Threat Detection
7 6 (15.79%) Vulnerability Management
7 6 (15.79%) Vulnerability Scanning
8 5 (13.16%) Change Management
8 5 (13.16%) Incident Response
8 5 (13.16%) Platform Engineering
8 5 (13.16%) Server Management
Programming Languages
1 18 (47.37%) PowerShell
2 15 (39.47%) SQL
3 3 (7.89%) Bash
3 3 (7.89%) Python
4 1 (2.63%) Java
4 1 (2.63%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 19 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 17 (44.74%) SC Cleared
3 9 (23.68%) Degree
3 9 (23.68%) Microsoft Certification
4 8 (21.05%) MCSE
5 5 (13.16%) CCNA
5 5 (13.16%) CCNP
5 5 (13.16%) Cisco Certification
5 5 (13.16%) ITIL Certification
5 5 (13.16%) Master's Degree
6 2 (5.26%) DV Cleared
7 1 (2.63%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (2.63%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (10.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (7.89%) Cyber Essentials
2 3 (7.89%) SLA
3 1 (2.63%) GDPR
3 1 (2.63%) JSP 440
3 1 (2.63%) NIST
System Software
1 23 (60.53%) Active Directory
2 13 (34.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (28.95%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (15.79%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (13.16%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 5 (13.16%) Virtual Servers
6 3 (7.89%) Docker
6 3 (7.89%) Hyper-V
6 3 (7.89%) VMware NSX
7 1 (2.63%) KVM
7 1 (2.63%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 21 (55.26%) SCCM
2 8 (21.05%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (21.05%) vCenter Server
3 5 (13.16%) Ansible
4 3 (7.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (5.26%) Check_MK
5 2 (5.26%) Microsoft Clustering
5 2 (5.26%) Nessus
5 2 (5.26%) NetApp OnCommand
5 2 (5.26%) vMotion
6 1 (2.63%) Backup Exec
6 1 (2.63%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (2.63%) Kubernetes
6 1 (2.63%) Norton AntiVirus
6 1 (2.63%) SCOM
6 1 (2.63%) Terraform
6 1 (2.63%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 21 (55.26%) Microsoft
2 17 (44.74%) VMware
3 11 (28.95%) Cisco
4 9 (23.68%) SolarWinds
5 8 (21.05%) Veeam
6 7 (18.42%) Splunk
7 6 (15.79%) Red Hat
8 5 (13.16%) Sophos
9 4 (10.53%) Tenable
10 3 (7.89%) Bloomberg
10 3 (7.89%) Citrix
10 3 (7.89%) ION Trading
10 3 (7.89%) Reuters
11 2 (5.26%) Fortinet
11 2 (5.26%) McAfee
11 2 (5.26%) Palo Alto
11 2 (5.26%) Qualys
11 2 (5.26%) Rapid7
12 1 (2.63%) ServiceNow
12 1 (2.63%) Veracode