Virtual Desktop Job Trends

Virtual Desktop
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Virtual Desktop skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 532 515 491
Rank change year-on-year -17 -24 +239
Permanent jobs citing Virtual Desktop 123 241 232
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.38% 0.46%
As % of the System Software category 2.72% 3.20% 2.73%
Number of salaries quoted 50 159 200
10th Percentile £29,500 £32,000 £33,250
25th Percentile £36,625 £42,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £57,750
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +10.00%
75th Percentile £68,063 £77,500 £74,250
90th Percentile £83,250 £86,250 £106,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £38,500 £52,008 £47,500
% change year-on-year -25.97% +9.49% -5.00%

All System Software Skills
UK

Virtual Desktop falls under the System Software category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring system software skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,521 7,523 8,510
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 8.13% 11.89% 16.99%
Number of salaries quoted 3,305 4,541 7,089
10th Percentile £27,500 £30,279 £29,000
25th Percentile £32,000 £40,000 £37,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £56,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.71% +1.82% -1.79%
75th Percentile £74,762 £76,250 £73,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £95,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £50,000 £47,557
% change year-on-year -15.00% +5.14% -4.89%

Virtual Desktop
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Virtual Desktop relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Virtual Desktop job vacancy trend in the UK

Virtual Desktop
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Virtual Desktop.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Virtual Desktop

Virtual Desktop
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Virtual Desktop over the 6 months to 5 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Virtual Desktop in the UK

Virtual Desktop
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Virtual Desktop within the UK over the 6 months to 5 December 2025. 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
UK excluding London +26 92 £38,500 -25.97% 26
England -25 85 £56,250 +6.13% 37
Work from Home +45 44 £64,475 -6.22% 19
Scotland +42 36 £31,000 -53.38% 2
London +12 29 £65,250 +17.02% 19
East of England +30 19 £33,500 -33.66% 5
Midlands +36 14 £55,000 +15.17%
North of England +24 11 £60,000 +13.21% 5
East Midlands +13 9 - -
South East +2 9 £38,500 -18.95% 11
North West +36 8 £60,000 +87.50% 4
West Midlands +18 5 £55,000 +26.44%
South West +13 3 £63,950 +16.27% 3
Yorkshire -14 2 £32,500 -59.38%
North East - 1 - - 1

Virtual Desktop
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 30 (24.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 25 (20.33%) SharePoint
3 9 (7.32%) Skype for Business
4 2 (1.63%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (4.88%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.63%) Acrobat
2 2 (1.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 103 (83.74%) Azure
2 95 (77.24%) Microsoft 365
3 64 (52.03%) Entra ID
4 16 (13.01%) Azure DevOps
5 15 (12.20%) Azure Monitor
6 14 (11.38%) AWS
7 11 (8.94%) GCP
7 11 (8.94%) Microsoft Purview
8 9 (7.32%) Azure Sentinel
8 9 (7.32%) Microsoft Copilot
9 7 (5.69%) AWS CloudFormation
10 6 (4.88%) Power Automate
10 6 (4.88%) SaaS
11 5 (4.07%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 5 (4.07%) OpenShift
12 4 (3.25%) Copilot Studio
12 4 (3.25%) OneDrive
13 1 (0.81%) Asana
13 1 (0.81%) Azure Key Vault
13 1 (0.81%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 31 (25.20%) Firewall
2 9 (7.32%) Skype
3 8 (6.50%) DNS
4 7 (5.69%) DHCP
4 7 (5.69%) LAN
4 7 (5.69%) WAN
5 5 (4.07%) Broadband
5 5 (4.07%) VoIP
6 4 (3.25%) VPN
7 3 (2.44%) NetScaler
8 2 (1.63%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.81%) Fibre Channel
9 1 (0.81%) IP Telephony
9 1 (0.81%) iSCSI
9 1 (0.81%) Network Security
9 1 (0.81%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.81%) SAN
9 1 (0.81%) VLAN
9 1 (0.81%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (7.32%) DTS
2 1 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.81%) Amazon Redshift
2 1 (0.81%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.81%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (2.44%) JIRA
General
1 47 (38.21%) Finance
2 34 (27.64%) Social Skills
3 12 (9.76%) Manufacturing
4 11 (8.94%) Retail
5 7 (5.69%) Financial Institution
6 6 (4.88%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (3.25%) Law
8 2 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.81%) Advertising
9 1 (0.81%) Analytical Skills
9 1 (0.81%) Banking
9 1 (0.81%) Electronics
9 1 (0.81%) Marketing
9 1 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.81%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.81%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 28 (22.76%) Analyst
2 22 (17.89%) Senior
3 21 (17.07%) IT Support
4 19 (15.45%) Support Analyst
5 18 (14.63%) Support Engineer
6 16 (13.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 14 (11.38%) 1st Line Support
7 14 (11.38%) 1st Line Support Analyst
7 14 (11.38%) IT Analyst
8 11 (8.94%) IT Support Analyst
9 10 (8.13%) Infrastructure Support
10 9 (7.32%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
10 9 (7.32%) IT Engineer
11 8 (6.50%) 1st Line Technical Support
11 8 (6.50%) Cloud Engineer
11 8 (6.50%) IT Support Engineer
11 8 (6.50%) Technical Analyst
11 8 (6.50%) Technical Support
11 8 (6.50%) Technical Support Analyst
12 7 (5.69%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.63%) OAuth
1 2 (1.63%) React
1 2 (1.63%) SAML
1 2 (1.63%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.81%) WSH
Miscellaneous
1 27 (21.95%) Product Ownership
2 18 (14.63%) Onboarding
3 16 (13.01%) Security Posture
4 9 (7.32%) CMDB
4 9 (7.32%) Video Conferencing
5 8 (6.50%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (4.07%) PKI
6 5 (4.07%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 4 (3.25%) AI Agents
7 4 (3.25%) Cloud Native
8 2 (1.63%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.63%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.63%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.63%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.81%) CCTV
9 1 (0.81%) Clustering
9 1 (0.81%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (0.81%) Legacy Applications
9 1 (0.81%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 77 (62.60%) Windows
2 42 (34.15%) Windows Server
3 21 (17.07%) Windows Server 2019
4 14 (11.38%) Mac OS
5 10 (8.13%) Windows 10
6 9 (7.32%) Windows Server 2008
7 7 (5.69%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (4.88%) Apple iOS
8 6 (4.88%) Linux
9 5 (4.07%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (34.15%) ITIL
2 38 (30.89%) Roadmaps
3 33 (26.83%) Technology Roadmap
4 31 (25.20%) Continuous Improvement
4 31 (25.20%) Customer Service
5 29 (23.58%) Asset Management
6 28 (22.76%) Coaching
7 27 (21.95%) Infrastructure as Code
8 22 (17.89%) AI
8 22 (17.89%) Problem-Solving
9 21 (17.07%) Agile
10 19 (15.45%) Analytics
10 19 (15.45%) Server Management
11 18 (14.63%) DevOps
11 18 (14.63%) FinOps
11 18 (14.63%) Machine Learning
12 17 (13.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 17 (13.82%) User Experience
13 16 (13.01%) Preventative Maintenance
14 14 (11.38%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 51 (41.46%) PowerShell
2 12 (9.76%) Python
3 11 (8.94%) Bash
4 2 (1.63%) Java
4 2 (1.63%) JavaScript
4 2 (1.63%) SQL
5 1 (0.81%) Korn
5 1 (0.81%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 23 (18.70%) Microsoft Certification
2 5 (4.07%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
3 4 (3.25%) Azure Certification
4 3 (2.44%) A+ Certification
4 3 (2.44%) Citrix Certification
5 2 (1.63%) AWS Certification
5 2 (1.63%) Degree
5 2 (1.63%) Security Cleared
6 1 (0.81%) AWS Certified Developer
6 1 (0.81%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 1 (0.81%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
6 1 (0.81%) CCA
6 1 (0.81%) DBS Check
6 1 (0.81%) MCITP
6 1 (0.81%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (6.50%) NIST
2 2 (1.63%) SLA
3 1 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 65 (52.85%) Active Directory
2 20 (16.26%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (9.76%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (8.13%) XenDesktop
5 5 (4.07%) Hyper-V
5 5 (4.07%) vSphere
5 5 (4.07%) XenApp
6 3 (2.44%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.63%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 1 (0.81%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 74 (60.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 26 (21.14%) Terraform
3 24 (19.51%) SCCM
4 9 (7.32%) Nagios
4 9 (7.32%) ZABBIX
5 5 (4.07%) Prometheus
5 5 (4.07%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (2.44%) Ansible
7 1 (0.81%) Backup Exec
7 1 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 85 (69.11%) Microsoft
2 33 (26.83%) Citrix
3 20 (16.26%) VMware
4 11 (8.94%) Google
5 9 (7.32%) BMC
5 9 (7.32%) Cisco
5 9 (7.32%) Darktrace
5 9 (7.32%) Proofpoint
5 9 (7.32%) Red Hat
5 9 (7.32%) SolarWinds
5 9 (7.32%) Tanium
5 9 (7.32%) Trend Micro
6 6 (4.88%) Apple
7 5 (4.07%) Freshdesk
7 5 (4.07%) Meraki
8 4 (3.25%) Foundry
9 2 (1.63%) Atlassian
9 2 (1.63%) Pure Storage
9 2 (1.63%) ServiceNow
9 2 (1.63%) Veeam