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 13 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 609 499 435
Rank change year-on-year -110 -64 +125
Contract jobs citing WSUS 51 56 133
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.096% 0.17% 0.34%
As % of the Systems Management category 0.72% 1.09% 2.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 44 106
10th Percentile £185 £358 £262
25th Percentile £375 £496 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% - +12.82%
75th Percentile £475 £578 £608
90th Percentile £585 £611 £613
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -18.18% - +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 5
10th Percentile £44.86 - -
25th Percentile £64.84 - £20.50
Median hourly rate £74.00 - £21.00
75th Percentile - - £21.50
90th Percentile £74.75 - -
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 7,063 5,143 5,196
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.24% 15.62% 13.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,783 3,391 3,654
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £425 £408 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.90% -4.67% -4.55%
75th Percentile £601 £600 £625
90th Percentile £699 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £491 £500
% change year-on-year +1.83% -1.80% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 195 80 73
10th Percentile £18.25 £13.75 £20.50
25th Percentile £28.13 £19.91 £24.18
Median hourly rate £63.14 £34.39 £36.17
Median % change year-on-year +83.61% -4.92% -35.71%
75th Percentile £70.36 £63.49 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.55 £78.83 £74.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.14 £55.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +14.79% +19.10% -

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 13 August 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 13 August 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 13 August 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 -104 48 £450 -18.18% 13
UK excluding London -114 36 £450 -18.18% 11
London -74 14 £380 -36.75% 2
Midlands - 8 £450 -
East of England -37 7 £450 -18.18%
North of England -59 7 £400 +22.14% 3
South East -60 7 £600 +8.60% 6
North West -42 6 £295 -9.92% 1
East Midlands - 6 - -
South West -45 5 £560 -2.70% 2
Work from Home -64 3 £450 -21.74% 3
Wales - 2 £170 -
West Midlands - 2 £450 -
Yorkshire - 1 £500 - 2

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 23 (45.10%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (5.88%) IIS
2 3 (5.88%) SharePoint
3 2 (3.92%) Confluence
3 2 (3.92%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 1 (1.96%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 15 (29.41%) Microsoft 365
2 7 (13.73%) Azure
3 6 (11.76%) Cohesity
3 6 (11.76%) Google Workspace
4 3 (5.88%) Entra ID
4 3 (5.88%) IaaS
4 3 (5.88%) OneDrive
5 1 (1.96%) AWS
5 1 (1.96%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 32 (62.75%) DNS
2 18 (35.29%) DHCP
3 10 (19.61%) VPN
4 9 (17.65%) TCP/IP
5 8 (15.69%) Firewall
5 8 (15.69%) SAN
5 8 (15.69%) VLAN
6 6 (11.76%) IPv4
6 6 (11.76%) IPv6
6 6 (11.76%) Skype
7 5 (9.80%) DMZ
7 5 (9.80%) Network Security
7 5 (9.80%) VoIP
8 3 (5.88%) LAN
8 3 (5.88%) VSAN
9 2 (3.92%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (19.61%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.96%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (3.92%) JIRA
General
1 19 (37.25%) Social Skills
2 7 (13.73%) Finance
3 6 (11.76%) Banking
3 6 (11.76%) Documentation Skills
3 6 (11.76%) Investment Banking
4 5 (9.80%) Front Office
5 4 (7.84%) Organisational Skills
6 3 (5.88%) Military
7 2 (3.92%) Legal
7 2 (3.92%) Public Sector
7 2 (3.92%) Spanish Language
8 1 (1.96%) Analytical Skills
8 1 (1.96%) Manufacturing
8 1 (1.96%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 20 (39.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 9 (17.65%) IT Engineer
3 6 (11.76%) Analyst
3 6 (11.76%) Help Desk Analyst
3 6 (11.76%) IT Analyst
3 6 (11.76%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
3 6 (11.76%) Senior
3 6 (11.76%) Support Engineer
4 5 (9.80%) Administrator
5 4 (7.84%) Operations Engineer
5 4 (7.84%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 3 (5.88%) Server Engineer
6 3 (5.88%) Windows Engineer
7 2 (3.92%) 2nd Line Support
7 2 (3.92%) Citrix Administrator
7 2 (3.92%) Desktop Engineer
7 2 (3.92%) IT Administrator
7 2 (3.92%) IT Support
7 2 (3.92%) Senior Wintel Engineer
7 2 (3.92%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.92%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 11 (21.57%) Onboarding
2 9 (17.65%) Smartcard
3 6 (11.76%) Self-Motivation
3 6 (11.76%) Virtual Team
3 6 (11.76%) YubiKey
4 5 (9.80%) Clustering
4 5 (9.80%) PKI
5 4 (7.84%) Data Centre
5 4 (7.84%) Fat Client
5 4 (7.84%) Thin Client
6 3 (5.88%) Client/Server
7 1 (1.96%) CCTV
7 1 (1.96%) Driving Licence
7 1 (1.96%) Enterprise Storage
7 1 (1.96%) Life Science
7 1 (1.96%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 48 (94.12%) Windows
2 37 (72.55%) Windows Server
3 13 (25.49%) Linux
4 11 (21.57%) Windows Server 2019
5 10 (19.61%) Windows 10
6 8 (15.69%) Windows Server 2012
6 8 (15.69%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (9.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (5.88%) Ubuntu
9 2 (3.92%) Apple iOS
9 2 (3.92%) Mac OS
9 2 (3.92%) OpenVMS
9 2 (3.92%) VMS
9 2 (3.92%) Windows 7
9 2 (3.92%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (1.96%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (45.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 21 (41.18%) Problem-Solving
3 14 (27.45%) ITIL
4 11 (21.57%) Patch Management
5 8 (15.69%) Service Management
6 7 (13.73%) Agile
6 7 (13.73%) Service Delivery
6 7 (13.73%) Software Deployment
7 6 (11.76%) Decision-Making
7 6 (11.76%) Server Management
8 5 (9.80%) Deployment Automation
8 5 (9.80%) ITSM
9 4 (7.84%) High Availability
9 4 (7.84%) Internal Audit
9 4 (7.84%) Virtual Environments
10 3 (5.88%) Antivirus Management
10 3 (5.88%) Performance Tuning
10 3 (5.88%) Task Automation
10 3 (5.88%) Technical Leadership
10 3 (5.88%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 10 (19.61%) PowerShell
2 2 (3.92%) SQL
Qualifications
1 28 (54.90%) Security Cleared
2 15 (29.41%) SC Cleared
3 14 (27.45%) DV Cleared
4 9 (17.65%) Degree
5 5 (9.80%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (5.88%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (5.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 3 (5.88%) MCSA
7 2 (3.92%) MCSE
8 1 (1.96%) Azure Certification
8 1 (1.96%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (1.96%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (3.92%) JSP 440
1 2 (3.92%) SLA
System Software
1 31 (60.78%) Active Directory
2 20 (39.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (23.53%) Hyper-V
4 4 (7.84%) vSphere
5 3 (5.88%) VMware NSX
6 2 (3.92%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (3.92%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (3.92%) XenApp
6 2 (3.92%) XenDesktop
7 1 (1.96%) BitLocker
7 1 (1.96%) Citrix Presentation Server
7 1 (1.96%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 23 (45.10%) SCCM
2 6 (11.76%) Nessus
3 5 (9.80%) Failover Clustering
4 2 (3.92%) FortiGate
4 2 (3.92%) NetBackup
5 1 (1.96%) Ansible
5 1 (1.96%) Microsoft Clustering
5 1 (1.96%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.96%) NetApp OnCommand
5 1 (1.96%) Progress Chef
5 1 (1.96%) vCenter Server
5 1 (1.96%) vMotion
Vendors
1 25 (49.02%) Microsoft
2 23 (45.10%) VMware
3 21 (41.18%) Citrix
4 8 (15.69%) Cisco
5 6 (11.76%) Tenable
6 5 (9.80%) Bloomberg
6 5 (9.80%) ION Trading
6 5 (9.80%) Red Hat
6 5 (9.80%) Reuters
7 3 (5.88%) McAfee
7 3 (5.88%) NVIDIA
7 3 (5.88%) SolarWinds
8 2 (3.92%) Apple
8 2 (3.92%) Google
8 2 (3.92%) Oracle
8 2 (3.92%) Splunk
8 2 (3.92%) Tanium
8 2 (3.92%) Veeam
8 2 (3.92%) Veritas
9 1 (1.96%) SAP