Hybrid/Remote Cost Optimisation Job Trends

Cost Optimization
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for remote or hybrid work requiring Cost Optimisation skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 329 365 435
Rank change year-on-year +36 +70 +34
Permanent jobs citing Cost Optimisation 138 49 43
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.55% 0.30% 0.20%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.68% 0.32% 0.23%
Number of salaries quoted 89 45 30
10th Percentile £50,200 £55,200 £57,745
25th Percentile £58,541 £67,000 £66,438
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,000 £80,000 £88,750
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -9.86% +42.00%
75th Percentile £97,500 £110,000 £111,250
90th Percentile £120,000 £130,000 £119,050
UK median annual salary £75,000 £68,000 £74,000
% change year-on-year +10.29% -8.11% +3.86%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Work from Home

Cost Optimisation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with remote or hybrid options requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 20,151 15,479 18,778
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 80.63% 93.83% 88.19%
Number of salaries quoted 14,312 8,360 11,026
10th Percentile £34,000 £29,750 £35,500
25th Percentile £44,447 £40,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% -4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £81,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £102,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -

Cost Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Cost Optimisation and offering remote or hybrid work options relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Cost Optimisation job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid jobs

Cost Optimisation
Salary Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Cost Optimisation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Cost Optimisation

Cost Optimisation
Salary Histogram for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Cost Optimisation over the 6 months to 13 October 2026.

Cost Optimisation salary histogram for jobs with remote/hybrid work options

Cost Optimisation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Remote/Hybrid Jobs 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 9 (6.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (2.17%) IIS
3 1 (0.72%) Confluence
Applications
1 13 (9.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (7.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.45%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (1.45%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 15 (10.87%) Cloudability
2 5 (3.62%) SAP PSCD
2 5 (3.62%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 76 (55.07%) Azure
2 33 (23.91%) AWS
3 28 (20.29%) Azure DevOps
4 27 (19.57%) PaaS
5 17 (12.32%) Azure Monitor
5 17 (12.32%) IaaS
5 17 (12.32%) Power Platform
5 17 (12.32%) Serverless
6 16 (11.59%) GCP
6 16 (11.59%) GitHub
7 15 (10.87%) Azure Functions
8 14 (10.14%) Entra ID
9 13 (9.42%) Azure AKS
9 13 (9.42%) Azure Key Vault
10 11 (7.97%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 10 (7.25%) SaaS
12 9 (6.52%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 9 (6.52%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 9 (6.52%) Microsoft 365
13 7 (5.07%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 12 (8.70%) Firewall
2 9 (6.52%) VPN
3 8 (5.80%) DNS
4 3 (2.17%) VLAN
5 2 (1.45%) Network Security
6 1 (0.72%) HTTP
6 1 (0.72%) LAN
6 1 (0.72%) WAN
6 1 (0.72%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (10.87%) Power BI
2 8 (5.80%) Azure SQL Database
3 3 (2.17%) Big Data
3 3 (2.17%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (2.17%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (2.17%) SQL Server
4 2 (1.45%) ThoughtSpot
5 1 (0.72%) Amazon Athena
5 1 (0.72%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.72%) Metadata
5 1 (0.72%) Redis
Development Applications
1 8 (5.80%) GitLab
2 7 (5.07%) Git
3 2 (1.45%) JIRA
4 1 (0.72%) Claude Code
General
1 43 (31.16%) Finance
2 36 (26.09%) Social Skills
3 33 (23.91%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (15.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 14 (10.14%) Public Sector
6 12 (8.70%) Influencing Skills
7 11 (7.97%) Banking
8 10 (7.25%) Law
8 10 (7.25%) Legal
9 9 (6.52%) Retail
10 8 (5.80%) Marketing
11 2 (1.45%) Electronics
11 2 (1.45%) Manufacturing
11 2 (1.45%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (1.45%) Police
12 1 (0.72%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 27 (19.57%) Senior
2 23 (16.67%) Analyst
3 21 (15.22%) Senior Analyst
4 18 (13.04%) Architect
5 16 (11.59%) Lead
6 15 (10.87%) Cloud Engineer
7 12 (8.70%) Azure Engineer
7 12 (8.70%) IT Manager
8 11 (7.97%) Enterprise Architect
9 10 (7.25%) Platform Engineer
10 9 (6.52%) Cloud Platform Engineer
10 9 (6.52%) DevOps Engineer
11 8 (5.80%) Data Manager
11 8 (5.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 7 (5.07%) Azure Architect
12 7 (5.07%) Azure Platform Engineer
12 7 (5.07%) Commercial Manager
12 7 (5.07%) Microsoft Enterprise Architect
12 7 (5.07%) Vendor Manager
13 6 (4.35%) Lead Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (34.78%) Terraform
2 9 (6.52%) ARM Templates
3 5 (3.62%) SAP Fiori
4 2 (1.45%) .NET
4 2 (1.45%) AWS CDK
4 2 (1.45%) JSON
4 2 (1.45%) Middleware
5 1 (0.72%) FastAPI
5 1 (0.72%) OpenID
5 1 (0.72%) OpenTelemetry
5 1 (0.72%) SAML
5 1 (0.72%) Snowpark
5 1 (0.72%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (10.87%) Blog
1 15 (10.87%) Greenfield Project
2 14 (10.14%) Management Information System
3 12 (8.70%) Cloud Native
3 12 (8.70%) Security Posture
4 11 (7.97%) Onboarding
5 9 (6.52%) Hybrid Cloud
6 7 (5.07%) Analytical Mindset
6 7 (5.07%) Credit Risk
7 6 (4.35%) Cloud Security Posture
7 6 (4.35%) Podcast
7 6 (4.35%) Public Cloud
7 6 (4.35%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (3.62%) Data Centre
8 5 (3.62%) Product Ownership
9 3 (2.17%) Client/Server
9 3 (2.17%) Legacy Applications
10 2 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (1.45%) Enterprise Cloud
10 2 (1.45%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 8 (5.80%) Windows
2 6 (4.35%) Linux
2 6 (4.35%) VMS
3 1 (0.72%) macOS
3 1 (0.72%) Ubuntu
3 1 (0.72%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (41.30%) CI/CD
2 53 (38.41%) AI
3 50 (36.23%) Infrastructure as Code
4 48 (34.78%) FinOps
5 46 (33.33%) DevOps
6 41 (29.71%) Roadmaps
7 39 (28.26%) Mentoring
8 38 (27.54%) Continuous Improvement
9 37 (26.81%) Stakeholder Management
10 35 (25.36%) Cost Management
11 31 (22.46%) Observability
11 31 (22.46%) Problem-Solving
12 30 (21.74%) Platform Engineering
13 27 (19.57%) Analytics
14 26 (18.84%) Migration
15 25 (18.12%) Cloud Security
16 23 (16.67%) Cybersecurity
16 23 (16.67%) Technology Strategy
17 22 (15.94%) IT Strategy
18 20 (14.49%) Software Licensing
Programming Languages
1 31 (22.46%) SQL
2 30 (21.74%) Bicep
3 23 (16.67%) Python
4 16 (11.59%) PowerShell
5 14 (10.14%) Bash
6 6 (4.35%) Kusto Query Language
7 5 (3.62%) ABAP
8 3 (2.17%) T-SQL
9 2 (1.45%) C#
9 2 (1.45%) Go
10 1 (0.72%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 16 (11.59%) AWS Certification
1 16 (11.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
1 16 (11.59%) Security Cleared
2 15 (10.87%) SC Cleared
3 12 (8.70%) Azure Certification
4 8 (5.80%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (3.62%) SAP Certification
6 2 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (1.45%) Degree
6 2 (1.45%) TOGAF Certification
7 1 (0.72%) CCIE
7 1 (0.72%) CCNA
7 1 (0.72%) CCNP
7 1 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.72%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.72%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (7.97%) Data Quality
1 11 (7.97%) SLA
2 3 (2.17%) PMO
3 2 (1.45%) GDPR
4 1 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.72%) SOC 2
System Software
1 17 (12.32%) Active Directory
2 10 (7.25%) Virtual Desktop
3 9 (6.52%) Docker
4 6 (4.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (4.35%) vSphere
5 3 (2.17%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (2.17%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 9 (6.52%) Kubernetes
2 4 (2.90%) Grafana
2 4 (2.90%) Prometheus
3 1 (0.72%) Ansible
3 1 (0.72%) Argo
3 1 (0.72%) Istio
3 1 (0.72%) linkerd
3 1 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.72%) Thomson Reuters DACS
Vendors
1 52 (37.68%) Microsoft
2 21 (15.22%) ServiceNow
3 15 (10.87%) Adobe
3 15 (10.87%) Apple
4 13 (9.42%) Databricks
5 9 (6.52%) VMware
6 8 (5.80%) YouTube
7 6 (4.35%) ScienceLogic
8 5 (3.62%) Dynatrace
8 5 (3.62%) SAP
9 3 (2.17%) Veeam
10 1 (0.72%) Atlassian
10 1 (0.72%) Cisco
10 1 (0.72%) Google
10 1 (0.72%) Juniper
10 1 (0.72%) Okta
10 1 (0.72%) Palo Alto
10 1 (0.72%) Salesforce