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 10 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 588 414 461
Rank change year-on-year -174 +47 +156
Contract jobs citing WSUS 41 95 116
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.089% 0.33% 0.26%
As % of the Systems Management category 0.63% 2.04% 2.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 73 93
10th Percentile £330 £350 £259
25th Percentile £404 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -8.70% +21.05%
75th Percentile £563 £582 £608
90th Percentile £665 £607 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £525 £575
% change year-on-year -6.67% -8.70% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 9
10th Percentile £44.86 - -
25th Percentile £64.84 - £20.50
Median hourly rate £74.00 - £21.00
75th Percentile £78.63 - £36.84
90th Percentile £85.75 - £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 6,480 4,661 5,227
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.13% 15.95% 11.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,455 3,191 3,768
10th Percentile £319 £313 £261
25th Percentile £413 £419 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £519
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +1.11% -9.70%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £625
90th Percentile £688 £734 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £495
% change year-on-year - +1.01% -5.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 160 51 134
10th Percentile £20.09 £15.22 £14.00
25th Percentile £26.09 £21.77 £17.76
Median hourly rate £55.00 £26.45 £30.75
Median % change year-on-year +107.94% -13.98% -46.52%
75th Percentile £69.06 £47.13 £55.00
90th Percentile £79.05 £72.50 £69.59
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £24.18 £30.00
% change year-on-year +127.46% -19.40% -34.86%

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 10 April 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 10 April 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 10 April 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 -144 35 £525 - 12
UK excluding London -162 24 £490 -6.67% 9
London -63 12 £538 +4.88% 3
Work from Home -56 8 £531 -0.65% 3
South East -64 7 £600 +12.10% 3
South West -39 5 £700 +21.74%
Midlands -64 5 £300 -48.41% 1
East Midlands - 4 - - 1
East of England -36 3 £450 - 4
Wales - 3 £165 -
West Midlands -67 1 £300 -48.41%
North of England -100 1 £500 - 2
Yorkshire - 1 £500 - 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 14 (34.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (7.32%) nginx
3 1 (2.44%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (9.76%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 11 (26.83%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (14.63%) Azure
3 5 (12.20%) AWS
3 5 (12.20%) Google Workspace
4 2 (4.88%) Cohesity
5 1 (2.44%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (2.44%) Entra ID
5 1 (2.44%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 17 (41.46%) DNS
2 11 (26.83%) DHCP
3 10 (24.39%) Firewall
3 10 (24.39%) TCP/IP
4 6 (14.63%) VPN
5 5 (12.20%) DMZ
5 5 (12.20%) LAN
5 5 (12.20%) Skype
5 5 (12.20%) VLAN
5 5 (12.20%) VSAN
6 4 (9.76%) IPv4
6 4 (9.76%) IPv6
6 4 (9.76%) WAN
7 3 (7.32%) Network Security
8 2 (4.88%) VoIP
9 1 (2.44%) SAN
9 1 (2.44%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (12.20%) SQL Server
2 3 (7.32%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (4.88%) MariaDB
4 1 (2.44%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (7.32%) GitLab
1 3 (7.32%) JIRA
2 1 (2.44%) AdminStudio
2 1 (2.44%) InstallShield
2 1 (2.44%) MSI
General
1 20 (48.78%) Social Skills
2 7 (17.07%) Banking
2 7 (17.07%) Investment Banking
3 6 (14.63%) Finance
4 5 (12.20%) Front Office
5 3 (7.32%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (7.32%) Spanish Language
6 2 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (4.88%) Legal
6 2 (4.88%) Military
6 2 (4.88%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (2.44%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 10 (24.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 6 (14.63%) Analyst
2 6 (14.63%) Help Desk Analyst
2 6 (14.63%) IT Analyst
2 6 (14.63%) IT Engineer
3 5 (12.20%) Security Engineer
4 4 (9.76%) Wintel Engineer
5 3 (7.32%) Help Desk Support
5 3 (7.32%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
5 3 (7.32%) IT Support
5 3 (7.32%) Senior
5 3 (7.32%) Server Engineer
6 2 (4.88%) Help Desk Engineer
6 2 (4.88%) Help Desk Support Analyst
6 2 (4.88%) Help Desk Support Engineer
6 2 (4.88%) IT Support Analyst
6 2 (4.88%) IT Support Engineer
6 2 (4.88%) Network Engineer
6 2 (4.88%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 2 (4.88%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (12.20%) LDAP
2 3 (7.32%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (2.44%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 6 (14.63%) Onboarding
1 6 (14.63%) PKI
2 4 (9.76%) Self-Motivation
3 3 (7.32%) Virtual Team
4 2 (4.88%) Client/Server
4 2 (4.88%) Cyber Defence
4 2 (4.88%) Data Centre
4 2 (4.88%) Security Posture
4 2 (4.88%) Smartcard
4 2 (4.88%) YubiKey
5 1 (2.44%) CCTV
5 1 (2.44%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (2.44%) Enterprise Storage
5 1 (2.44%) Fat Client
5 1 (2.44%) Security Operations Centre
5 1 (2.44%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 35 (85.37%) Windows
2 20 (48.78%) Windows Server
3 14 (34.15%) Linux
4 11 (26.83%) Windows 10
5 5 (12.20%) Windows Server 2012
5 5 (12.20%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (7.32%) CentOS
6 3 (7.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (7.32%) Ubuntu
6 3 (7.32%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (41.46%) ITIL
2 12 (29.27%) Problem-Solving
3 11 (26.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 11 (26.83%) Service Management
4 10 (24.39%) SIEM
5 9 (21.95%) Patch Management
6 7 (17.07%) Agile
7 6 (14.63%) Continuous Improvement
7 6 (14.63%) Cybersecurity
7 6 (14.63%) Technical Leadership
8 5 (12.20%) Analytics
8 5 (12.20%) Security Operations
8 5 (12.20%) Threat Detection
9 4 (9.76%) CI/CD
9 4 (9.76%) Data Security
9 4 (9.76%) Information Security
9 4 (9.76%) Security Architecture
9 4 (9.76%) Service Delivery
9 4 (9.76%) Software Deployment
9 4 (9.76%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 17 (41.46%) PowerShell
2 10 (24.39%) SQL
3 1 (2.44%) Bash
3 1 (2.44%) Python
3 1 (2.44%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 19 (46.34%) Security Cleared
2 15 (36.59%) SC Cleared
3 8 (19.51%) Degree
4 7 (17.07%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (14.63%) DV Cleared
6 4 (9.76%) MCSE
7 3 (7.32%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (4.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 2 (4.88%) MCSA
9 1 (2.44%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (4.88%) Cyber Essentials
1 2 (4.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 2 (4.88%) JSP 440
System Software
1 19 (46.34%) Active Directory
2 12 (29.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (12.20%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (9.76%) VMware ESXi
4 4 (9.76%) vSphere
5 3 (7.32%) Docker
5 3 (7.32%) Hyper-V
5 3 (7.32%) VMware NSX
6 1 (2.44%) Citrix Presentation Server
6 1 (2.44%) KVM
Systems Management
1 17 (41.46%) SCCM
2 6 (14.63%) Microsoft Intune
3 4 (9.76%) Nessus
4 3 (7.32%) Ansible
4 3 (7.32%) vCenter Server
5 2 (4.88%) Check_MK
6 1 (2.44%) Backup Exec
6 1 (2.44%) FortiGate
6 1 (2.44%) Kubernetes
6 1 (2.44%) Norton AntiVirus
6 1 (2.44%) Progress Chef
6 1 (2.44%) SCOM
6 1 (2.44%) Terraform
6 1 (2.44%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 16 (39.02%) Microsoft
2 15 (36.59%) VMware
3 10 (24.39%) Citrix
4 7 (17.07%) Red Hat
5 6 (14.63%) Cisco
6 5 (12.20%) Bloomberg
6 5 (12.20%) ION Trading
6 5 (12.20%) Reuters
7 4 (9.76%) Sophos
7 4 (9.76%) Tenable
8 3 (7.32%) NVIDIA
8 3 (7.32%) SolarWinds
8 3 (7.32%) Splunk
9 2 (4.88%) Ariba
9 2 (4.88%) Fortinet
9 2 (4.88%) McAfee
9 2 (4.88%) Palo Alto
9 2 (4.88%) SAP
10 1 (2.44%) HP
10 1 (2.44%) Qualys