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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 577 431 483
Rank change year-on-year -146 +52 +148
Contract jobs citing WSUS 35 91 119
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.083% 0.31% 0.27%
As % of the Systems Management category 0.56% 1.91% 2.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 72 99
10th Percentile £340 £350 £313
25th Percentile £450 £463 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year +2.38% -8.70% +15.00%
75th Percentile £575 £577 £608
90th Percentile £705 £612 £613
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £525 £575
% change year-on-year +4.76% -8.70% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 8
10th Percentile £50.89 - -
25th Percentile £59.93 - £20.50
Median hourly rate £80.00 - £26.50
75th Percentile £86.25 - £37.44
90th Percentile £87.00 - £39.56
UK excluding London median hourly rate £80.00 - £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 6,287 4,767 5,347
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.89% 16.02% 11.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,342 3,158 3,820
10th Percentile £315 £313 £263
25th Percentile £413 £419 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -8.70%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £630
90th Percentile £688 £738 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £495
% change year-on-year -1.60% +1.01% -5.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 54 152
10th Percentile £18.78 £16.09 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.30 £21.56 £20.00
Median hourly rate £54.00 £25.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +111.76% -32.00% -28.90%
75th Percentile £63.61 £56.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £79.75 £76.58 £76.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.50 £24.09 £40.00
% change year-on-year +126.23% -39.78% -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 9 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 9 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for WSUS in the UK

WSUS
Top 12 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 9 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 -120 29 £538 +2.38% 11
UK excluding London -136 21 £550 +4.76% 10
South West -34 9 £550 -4.35%
London -36 9 £538 -2.27% 1
Work from Home -41 9 £538 +0.94% 3
South East -58 5 £545 +1.82% 6
Wales - 3 £165 -
East of England -32 2 £413 -8.33% 2
West Midlands -57 1 £300 -48.41%
Midlands -63 1 £300 -48.41% 1
North of England -81 1 £375 -23.08% 1
Yorkshire - 1 £375 - 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 (40.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (14.29%) SharePoint
3 3 (8.57%) nginx
3 3 (8.57%) SharePoint Server
4 2 (5.71%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 6 (17.14%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.86%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 9 (25.71%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (17.14%) AWS
2 6 (17.14%) Azure
3 3 (8.57%) Google Workspace
4 2 (5.71%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (2.86%) Cohesity
5 1 (2.86%) Entra ID
5 1 (2.86%) GCP
5 1 (2.86%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 15 (42.86%) DNS
2 9 (25.71%) Skype
3 8 (22.86%) DHCP
3 8 (22.86%) TCP/IP
4 7 (20.00%) Firewall
5 4 (11.43%) LAN
5 4 (11.43%) VPN
5 4 (11.43%) VSAN
6 3 (8.57%) DMZ
6 3 (8.57%) WAN
7 2 (5.71%) Unified Communications
8 1 (2.86%) Network Security
8 1 (2.86%) SNMP
8 1 (2.86%) VLAN
8 1 (2.86%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (11.43%) SQL Server
2 3 (8.57%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (5.71%) MariaDB
4 1 (2.86%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (8.57%) GitLab
1 3 (8.57%) JIRA
2 1 (2.86%) AdminStudio
2 1 (2.86%) InstallShield
2 1 (2.86%) Metasploit
2 1 (2.86%) MSI
General
1 15 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 5 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
2 5 (14.29%) Finance
3 4 (11.43%) Banking
3 4 (11.43%) Investment Banking
4 3 (8.57%) Front Office
5 2 (5.71%) Legal
5 2 (5.71%) Public Sector
6 1 (2.86%) Military
6 1 (2.86%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (2.86%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 6 (17.14%) Security Engineer
1 6 (17.14%) Wintel Engineer
2 5 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 4 (11.43%) IT Engineer
3 4 (11.43%) Platform Engineer
4 3 (8.57%) Analyst
4 3 (8.57%) Help Desk Analyst
4 3 (8.57%) Help Desk Support
4 3 (8.57%) IT Analyst
4 3 (8.57%) IT Support
4 3 (8.57%) Senior
5 2 (5.71%) Help Desk Engineer
5 2 (5.71%) Help Desk Support Analyst
5 2 (5.71%) IT Security Engineer
5 2 (5.71%) IT Support Analyst
5 2 (5.71%) IT Support Engineer
5 2 (5.71%) Network Engineer
5 2 (5.71%) Operations Engineer
5 2 (5.71%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
5 2 (5.71%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (14.29%) LDAP
2 3 (8.57%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (2.86%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 11 (31.43%) PKI
2 2 (5.71%) Cyber Defence
2 2 (5.71%) Data Centre
3 1 (2.86%) CCTV
3 1 (2.86%) Client/Server
3 1 (2.86%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (2.86%) Enterprise Storage
3 1 (2.86%) Fat Client
3 1 (2.86%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (2.86%) Onboarding
3 1 (2.86%) Security Operations Centre
3 1 (2.86%) Security Posture
3 1 (2.86%) Smartcard
3 1 (2.86%) Thin Client
3 1 (2.86%) YubiKey
Operating Systems
1 29 (82.86%) Windows
2 15 (42.86%) Linux
2 15 (42.86%) Windows Server
3 9 (25.71%) Windows 10
4 5 (14.29%) Windows Server 2016
5 4 (11.43%) Windows Server 2012
5 4 (11.43%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (8.57%) CentOS
7 2 (5.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (5.71%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (42.86%) ITIL
2 14 (40.00%) Service Management
3 11 (31.43%) SIEM
4 8 (22.86%) Continuous Improvement
4 8 (22.86%) Patch Management
5 7 (20.00%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (14.29%) Analytics
6 5 (14.29%) Critical Thinking
6 5 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 5 (14.29%) Platform Engineering
6 5 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
6 5 (14.29%) Security Operations
6 5 (14.29%) Server Management
6 5 (14.29%) System Testing
6 5 (14.29%) Technical Leadership
6 5 (14.29%) Threat Detection
7 4 (11.43%) Data Security
7 4 (11.43%) Incident Response
7 4 (11.43%) Information Security
7 4 (11.43%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 16 (45.71%) PowerShell
2 12 (34.29%) SQL
3 3 (8.57%) Bash
3 3 (8.57%) Python
4 1 (2.86%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 17 (48.57%) Security Cleared
2 15 (42.86%) SC Cleared
3 7 (20.00%) Degree
3 7 (20.00%) Microsoft Certification
4 6 (17.14%) MCSE
5 3 (8.57%) DV Cleared
6 2 (5.71%) CCNA
6 2 (5.71%) CCNP
6 2 (5.71%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (5.71%) ITIL Certification
6 2 (5.71%) Master's Degree
7 1 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (2.86%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (11.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (8.57%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (2.86%) GDPR
3 1 (2.86%) JSP 440
3 1 (2.86%) NIST
3 1 (2.86%) SLA
System Software
1 21 (60.00%) Active Directory
2 11 (31.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (22.86%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (14.29%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (14.29%) VMware NSX
5 4 (11.43%) vSphere
6 3 (8.57%) Docker
7 2 (5.71%) Hyper-V
7 2 (5.71%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (5.71%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (2.86%) Citrix Presentation Server
8 1 (2.86%) KVM
Systems Management
1 17 (48.57%) SCCM
2 7 (20.00%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (17.14%) vCenter Server
4 4 (11.43%) Ansible
5 3 (8.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (8.57%) Nessus
6 2 (5.71%) Check_MK
7 1 (2.86%) Backup Exec
7 1 (2.86%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (2.86%) Kubernetes
7 1 (2.86%) Norton AntiVirus
7 1 (2.86%) SCOM
7 1 (2.86%) Terraform
7 1 (2.86%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 17 (48.57%) Microsoft
2 15 (42.86%) VMware
3 9 (25.71%) Cisco
4 7 (20.00%) SolarWinds
5 6 (17.14%) Red Hat
6 5 (14.29%) Veeam
7 4 (11.43%) Citrix
7 4 (11.43%) Sophos
7 4 (11.43%) Splunk
7 4 (11.43%) Tenable
8 3 (8.57%) Bloomberg
8 3 (8.57%) ION Trading
8 3 (8.57%) Reuters
9 2 (5.71%) Fortinet
9 2 (5.71%) McAfee
9 2 (5.71%) NVIDIA
9 2 (5.71%) Palo Alto
10 1 (2.86%) Acronis
10 1 (2.86%) ServiceNow
10 1 (2.86%) Veracode