Hybrid/Remote PhD Job Trends

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil, EngD, Doctorate)
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics for remote or hybrid work with a requirement for PhD qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 26 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 36 351 437
Rank change year-on-year +315 +86 +65
Permanent jobs citing PhD 913 120 50
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 5.99% 0.60% 0.24%
As % of the Qualifications category 17.13% 2.27% 0.85%
Number of salaries quoted 29 48 36
10th Percentile £41,003 £43,000 £37,328
25th Percentile £52,145 £45,000 £47,788
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £45,500 £66,250
Median % change year-on-year +75.82% -31.32% -5.36%
75th Percentile £115,000 £65,625 £107,500
90th Percentile £117,000 £95,750 £136,250
UK median annual salary £91,250 £63,000 £63,750
% change year-on-year +44.84% -1.18% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Work from Home

PhD falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with remote or hybrid options requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 5,329 5,281 5,854
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 34.95% 26.57% 27.83%
Number of salaries quoted 2,472 2,661 4,344
10th Percentile £29,750 £35,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £45,750 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £60,000
75th Percentile £78,750 £76,250 £76,250
90th Percentile £92,950 £88,750 £92,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £58,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -5.17% +0.87% +0.77%

PhD
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

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

PhD job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid jobs

PhD
Salary Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

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

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

PhD
Salary Histogram for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing PhD over the 6 months to 26 November 2025.

PhD salary histogram for jobs with remote/hybrid work options

PhD
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 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
1 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 871 (95.40%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 5 (0.55%) Azure
1 5 (0.55%) GCP
2 4 (0.44%) AWS
2 4 (0.44%) OpenShift
3 3 (0.33%) Power Automate
4 2 (0.22%) Power Platform
4 2 (0.22%) Zapier
5 1 (0.11%) Azure Logic Apps
5 1 (0.11%) Cloud Computing
5 1 (0.11%) dbt
5 1 (0.11%) Google Analytics
5 1 (0.11%) iPaaS
5 1 (0.11%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.11%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.11%) Cisco IPT
1 1 (0.11%) LAN
1 1 (0.11%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.22%) Power BI
2 1 (0.11%) Apache Hive
2 1 (0.11%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.11%) Data Mining
2 1 (0.11%) Hadoop
2 1 (0.11%) Mixpanel
2 1 (0.11%) Power Query
2 1 (0.11%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.11%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
General
1 547 (59.91%) Analytical Skills
2 20 (2.19%) Agriculture
3 12 (1.31%) Social Skills
4 11 (1.20%) Aerospace
5 8 (0.88%) Finance
6 3 (0.33%) Banking
6 3 (0.33%) Presentation Skills
7 2 (0.22%) Electronics
7 2 (0.22%) Pharmaceutical
7 2 (0.22%) Retail
8 1 (0.11%) Billing
8 1 (0.11%) Front Office
8 1 (0.11%) Games
8 1 (0.11%) Health Technology
8 1 (0.11%) Law
8 1 (0.11%) Legal
8 1 (0.11%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.11%) Marketing
8 1 (0.11%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.11%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 871 (95.40%) Trainer
2 96 (10.51%) Research Scientist
3 45 (4.93%) Biostatistician
4 24 (2.63%) Lecturer
5 17 (1.86%) Biologist
6 16 (1.75%) Developer
7 10 (1.10%) Physicist
8 9 (0.99%) Senior
8 9 (0.99%) Software Engineer
9 8 (0.88%) Statistician
10 7 (0.77%) Instructor
10 7 (0.77%) Mathematician
11 4 (0.44%) Data Scientist
11 4 (0.44%) Haskell Programmer
11 4 (0.44%) Programmer
11 4 (0.44%) Senior Programmer
12 3 (0.33%) Lead
13 2 (0.22%) Integration Developer
13 2 (0.22%) Java Quantitative Developer
13 2 (0.22%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (0.44%) TensorFlow
2 3 (0.33%) PyTorch
2 3 (0.33%) REST
2 3 (0.33%) scikit-learn
3 2 (0.22%) .NET
3 2 (0.22%) ASP.NET Web API
3 2 (0.22%) Kafka
3 2 (0.22%) OpenAPI
3 2 (0.22%) Swagger
4 1 (0.11%) JSON
4 1 (0.11%) Keras
4 1 (0.11%) LightGBM
4 1 (0.11%) Node.js
4 1 (0.11%) Pandas
4 1 (0.11%) React
4 1 (0.11%) XGBoost
4 1 (0.11%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 119 (13.03%) Molecular Biology
2 11 (1.20%) Algorithms
3 5 (0.55%) Derivative
4 4 (0.44%) IoT
5 2 (0.22%) ASIC
5 2 (0.22%) Cloud Native
5 2 (0.22%) Data Structures
5 2 (0.22%) Distributed Systems
5 2 (0.22%) Life Science
5 2 (0.22%) Management Information System
5 2 (0.22%) Public Cloud
6 1 (0.11%) 3D Graphics
6 1 (0.11%) Autonomous Agent
6 1 (0.11%) Biopharmaceutical
6 1 (0.11%) Driving Licence
6 1 (0.11%) Genomics
6 1 (0.11%) Omics
6 1 (0.11%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.11%) Verilog
6 1 (0.11%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 8 (0.88%) Linux
2 4 (0.44%) Unix
3 1 (0.11%) Windows
3 1 (0.11%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 879 (96.28%) AI
2 871 (95.40%) Conversational UI
3 561 (61.45%) Chemistry
4 194 (21.25%) Mathematics
5 156 (17.09%) Physics
6 120 (13.14%) Data Interpretation
6 120 (13.14%) Experimental Design
7 119 (13.03%) Biochemistry
7 119 (13.03%) Biology
7 119 (13.03%) Biotechnology
8 86 (9.42%) Computer Science
9 71 (7.78%) Statistics
10 45 (4.93%) Biostatistics
11 20 (2.19%) Economics
12 12 (1.31%) Software Engineering
13 9 (0.99%) Content Development
14 8 (0.88%) Customer Requirements
14 8 (0.88%) Data Analysis
14 8 (0.88%) Systems Engineering
14 8 (0.88%) Systems Thinking
Programming Languages
1 18 (1.97%) Python
2 6 (0.66%) C++
2 6 (0.66%) SQL
3 5 (0.55%) Java
3 5 (0.55%) Scala
4 4 (0.44%) Bash
4 4 (0.44%) C
4 4 (0.44%) F#
4 4 (0.44%) Fortran
4 4 (0.44%) Haskell
4 4 (0.44%) OCaml
5 3 (0.33%) C#
5 3 (0.33%) R
6 1 (0.11%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 1 (0.11%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.11%) Tcl
6 1 (0.11%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 912 (99.89%) Degree
2 901 (98.69%) Master's Degree
3 8 (0.88%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (0.22%) Computer Science Degree
4 2 (0.22%) DBS Check
5 1 (0.11%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 3 (0.33%) GDPR
3 1 (0.11%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 2 (0.22%) Docker
2 1 (0.11%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 6 (0.66%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 871 (95.40%) PayPal
2 3 (0.33%) Microsoft
3 2 (0.22%) Google
4 1 (0.11%) Amplitude
4 1 (0.11%) Cadence
4 1 (0.11%) Cisco