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 28 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 54 324 424
Rank change year-on-year +270 +100 +74
Permanent jobs citing PhD 682 126 52
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 4.47% 0.73% 0.25%
As % of the Qualifications category 13.48% 2.62% 0.92%
Number of salaries quoted 29 59 31
10th Percentile £41,003 £43,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £52,145 - £47,788
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £45,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +77.78% -21.74% -17.86%
75th Percentile £100,000 £60,000 £87,500
90th Percentile £115,000 £73,000 £135,000
UK median annual salary £85,000 £60,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +41.67% -4.00% -

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 5,060 4,807 5,647
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 33.14% 28.00% 27.46%
Number of salaries quoted 2,465 2,507 4,084
10th Percentile £30,500 £35,000 £35,275
25th Percentile £42,500 £46,000 £46,047
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £61,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.64% +1.67% -
75th Percentile £78,750 £76,250 £75,781
90th Percentile £92,500 £90,000 £91,729
UK median annual salary £55,000 £59,430 £57,500
% change year-on-year -7.45% +3.36% -

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 28 December 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 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
1 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 639 (93.70%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 5 (0.73%) Azure
2 4 (0.59%) AWS
2 4 (0.59%) OpenShift
3 3 (0.44%) GCP
4 2 (0.29%) Power Automate
4 2 (0.29%) Zapier
5 1 (0.15%) Canva
5 1 (0.15%) Cloud Computing
5 1 (0.15%) dbt
5 1 (0.15%) Google Analytics
5 1 (0.15%) Google Workspace
5 1 (0.15%) Power Platform
5 1 (0.15%) SaaS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.15%) Apache Hive
1 1 (0.15%) Data Mining
1 1 (0.15%) Hadoop
1 1 (0.15%) Mixpanel
1 1 (0.15%) Power BI
1 1 (0.15%) SQL Server
1 1 (0.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
General
1 423 (62.02%) Analytical Skills
2 15 (2.20%) Agriculture
3 12 (1.76%) Social Skills
4 9 (1.32%) Aerospace
5 8 (1.17%) Finance
6 4 (0.59%) Presentation Skills
7 3 (0.44%) Retail
8 2 (0.29%) Electronics
8 2 (0.29%) Marketing
8 2 (0.29%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.15%) Banking
9 1 (0.15%) Digital Health
9 1 (0.15%) Front Office
9 1 (0.15%) Health Technology
9 1 (0.15%) Law
9 1 (0.15%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.15%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.15%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.15%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 639 (93.70%) Trainer
2 82 (12.02%) Research Scientist
3 27 (3.96%) Biostatistician
4 17 (2.49%) Biologist
5 14 (2.05%) Lecturer
6 10 (1.47%) Physicist
7 9 (1.32%) Developer
8 8 (1.17%) Senior
9 7 (1.03%) Software Engineer
10 4 (0.59%) Data Scientist
10 4 (0.59%) Haskell Programmer
10 4 (0.59%) Instructor
10 4 (0.59%) Programmer
10 4 (0.59%) Senior Programmer
11 3 (0.44%) Java Developer
11 3 (0.44%) Java Quantitative Developer
11 3 (0.44%) Lead
11 3 (0.44%) Mathematician
11 3 (0.44%) Quantitative Developer
12 2 (0.29%) C# Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (0.73%) TensorFlow
2 3 (0.44%) PyTorch
2 3 (0.44%) REST
2 3 (0.44%) scikit-learn
3 2 (0.29%) .NET
3 2 (0.29%) ASP.NET Web API
3 2 (0.29%) Keras
3 2 (0.29%) OpenAPI
3 2 (0.29%) Swagger
4 1 (0.15%) Java Concurrency
4 1 (0.15%) LightGBM
4 1 (0.15%) Node.js
4 1 (0.15%) Pandas
4 1 (0.15%) React
4 1 (0.15%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 98 (14.37%) Molecular Biology
2 10 (1.47%) Algorithms
3 5 (0.73%) Derivative
4 4 (0.59%) IoT
5 3 (0.44%) Life Science
6 2 (0.29%) 3D Graphics
6 2 (0.29%) ASIC
7 1 (0.15%) Acoustics
7 1 (0.15%) Analogue Electronics
7 1 (0.15%) Biopharmaceutical
7 1 (0.15%) Distributed Computing
7 1 (0.15%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (0.15%) FPGA
7 1 (0.15%) Genomics
7 1 (0.15%) Interest Rate Derivative
7 1 (0.15%) Omics
7 1 (0.15%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.15%) Robotics
7 1 (0.15%) Verilog
7 1 (0.15%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.17%) Linux
2 4 (0.59%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 646 (94.72%) AI
2 639 (93.70%) Conversational UI
3 432 (63.34%) Chemistry
4 121 (17.74%) Physics
5 114 (16.72%) Mathematics
6 100 (14.66%) Data Interpretation
7 99 (14.52%) Experimental Design
8 98 (14.37%) Biochemistry
8 98 (14.37%) Biology
8 98 (14.37%) Biotechnology
9 32 (4.69%) Computer Science
10 27 (3.96%) Biostatistics
11 19 (2.79%) Statistics
12 15 (2.20%) Economics
13 11 (1.61%) Software Engineering
14 8 (1.17%) Customer Requirements
14 8 (1.17%) Machine Learning
14 8 (1.17%) Systems Engineering
14 8 (1.17%) Systems Thinking
15 7 (1.03%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 18 (2.64%) Python
2 8 (1.17%) C++
3 6 (0.88%) C
4 5 (0.73%) Scala
5 4 (0.59%) Bash
5 4 (0.59%) F#
5 4 (0.59%) Fortran
5 4 (0.59%) Haskell
5 4 (0.59%) Java
5 4 (0.59%) OCaml
6 3 (0.44%) C#
6 3 (0.44%) R
6 3 (0.44%) SQL
7 1 (0.15%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.15%) Tcl
7 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 681 (99.85%) Degree
2 667 (97.80%) Master's Degree
3 8 (1.17%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (0.29%) DBS Check
5 1 (0.15%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.15%) Numerate Degree
5 1 (0.15%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 4 (0.59%) GDPR
3 1 (0.15%) ISO 13485
Systems Management
1 4 (0.59%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 639 (93.70%) PayPal
2 3 (0.44%) Google
3 1 (0.15%) Amplitude
3 1 (0.15%) Cadence
3 1 (0.15%) Microsoft