Hybrid/Remote Virtual Desktop Job Trends

Virtual Desktop
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for remote or hybrid work requiring Virtual Desktop skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 411 371 402
Rank change year-on-year -40 +31 -12
Permanent jobs citing Virtual Desktop 55 53 87
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.22% 0.31% 0.39%
As % of the System Software category 2.92% 2.77% 3.11%
Number of salaries quoted 38 23 63
10th Percentile £38,875 - £38,850
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,170 £54,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year - -11.11% +14.41%
75th Percentile £76,563 £67,875 £85,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,000 -
UK median annual salary £47,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -14.55% - -8.33%

All System Software Skills
Work from Home

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 with remote or hybrid options requiring system software skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 1,883 1,914 2,801
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 7.57% 11.37% 12.53%
Number of salaries quoted 1,397 1,015 1,689
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £36,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £52,500 £57,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -7.89% -5.00%
75th Percentile £74,985 £72,500 £73,750
90th Percentile £89,250 £85,000 £88,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% -

Virtual Desktop
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

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

Virtual Desktop job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid jobs

Virtual Desktop
Salary Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

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

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

Virtual Desktop
Salary Histogram for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Virtual Desktop over the 6 months to 3 October 2026.

Virtual Desktop salary histogram for jobs with remote/hybrid work options

Virtual Desktop
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 33 (60.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (38.18%) SharePoint
3 3 (5.45%) IIS
4 2 (3.64%) nginx
Business Applications
1 1 (1.82%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 52 (94.55%) Azure
2 38 (69.09%) Microsoft 365
3 22 (40.00%) OneDrive
4 18 (32.73%) Azure DevOps
4 18 (32.73%) Azure Monitor
4 18 (32.73%) Entra ID
5 17 (30.91%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 16 (29.09%) PaaS
7 14 (25.45%) GitHub
8 12 (21.82%) Azure Functions
8 12 (21.82%) Azure Key Vault
8 12 (21.82%) IaaS
8 12 (21.82%) Serverless
9 6 (10.91%) Microsoft Copilot
10 5 (9.09%) Azure Storage
10 5 (9.09%) Microsoft Purview
10 5 (9.09%) ShareGate
11 3 (5.45%) AWS
12 2 (3.64%) Amazon EC2
12 2 (3.64%) Amazon SageMaker
Communications & Networking
1 23 (41.82%) VPN
2 16 (29.09%) Firewall
3 10 (18.18%) DNS
4 9 (16.36%) DHCP
5 5 (9.09%) LAN
6 4 (7.27%) TCP/IP
7 3 (5.45%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (3.64%) OpenVPN
8 2 (3.64%) WAN
9 1 (1.82%) Internet
9 1 (1.82%) Network Security
9 1 (1.82%) SD-WAN
9 1 (1.82%) Software-Defined Networking
9 1 (1.82%) VoIP
9 1 (1.82%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (1.82%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (21.82%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (3.64%) Amazon RDS
2 2 (3.64%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (3.64%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 12 (21.82%) Git
2 2 (3.64%) GitLab
2 2 (3.64%) Jenkins
General
1 34 (61.82%) Social Skills
2 14 (25.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 12 (21.82%) Law
4 10 (18.18%) Organisational Skills
5 4 (7.27%) Banking
6 2 (3.64%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (3.64%) Finance
7 1 (1.82%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 22 (40.00%) Analyst
2 12 (21.82%) Infrastructure Analyst
3 10 (18.18%) Service Analyst
3 10 (18.18%) Support Analyst
4 9 (16.36%) Consultant
4 9 (16.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 8 (14.55%) Senior
6 6 (10.91%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
6 6 (10.91%) Senior Analyst
6 6 (10.91%) Senior Infrastructure Analyst
7 5 (9.09%) Azure Engineer
7 5 (9.09%) Microsoft 365 Consultant
7 5 (9.09%) Microsoft Consultant
7 5 (9.09%) Microsoft Engineer
8 4 (7.27%) Azure Consultant
8 4 (7.27%) Cloud Engineer
8 4 (7.27%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
8 4 (7.27%) Technical Consultant
8 4 (7.27%) Technical Engineer
9 3 (5.45%) Help Desk Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (47.27%) Terraform
2 6 (10.91%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (3.64%) .NET
3 2 (3.64%) React
3 2 (3.64%) REST
4 1 (1.82%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 16 (29.09%) Security Posture
2 12 (21.82%) Podcast
2 12 (21.82%) Public Cloud
3 6 (10.91%) Self-Motivation
4 5 (9.09%) Hybrid Cloud
4 5 (9.09%) Mobile App
5 4 (7.27%) Cloud Security Posture
6 3 (5.45%) Driving Licence
6 3 (5.45%) Onboarding
6 3 (5.45%) Private Cloud
7 2 (3.64%) BYOD
8 1 (1.82%) Augmented Reality
8 1 (1.82%) CMDB
8 1 (1.82%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (1.82%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (1.82%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (1.82%) Management Information System
8 1 (1.82%) Microsoft Licensing
8 1 (1.82%) Product Ownership
8 1 (1.82%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 39 (70.91%) Windows
2 16 (29.09%) Windows Server
3 12 (21.82%) VMS
4 9 (16.36%) Apple iOS
4 9 (16.36%) Windows 10
5 6 (10.91%) Android
6 5 (9.09%) Linux
7 2 (3.64%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (50.91%) Cloud Security
1 28 (50.91%) Problem-Solving
2 25 (45.45%) Infrastructure as Code
3 22 (40.00%) Computer Science
4 21 (38.18%) DevOps
5 20 (36.36%) Analytics
5 20 (36.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 18 (32.73%) Log Analytics
7 16 (29.09%) CI/CD
7 16 (29.09%) Observability
7 16 (29.09%) Root Cause Analysis
8 15 (27.27%) AI
9 14 (25.45%) Mentoring
10 13 (23.64%) Cybersecurity
10 13 (23.64%) Generative AI
10 13 (23.64%) ITIL
10 13 (23.64%) Service Delivery
11 12 (21.82%) API Management
11 12 (21.82%) DevSecOps
11 12 (21.82%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 30 (54.55%) PowerShell
2 21 (38.18%) Bicep
3 12 (21.82%) Bash
3 12 (21.82%) Kusto Query Language
3 12 (21.82%) SQL
4 2 (3.64%) C#
4 2 (3.64%) Groovy
4 2 (3.64%) JavaScript
4 2 (3.64%) Python
Qualifications
1 21 (38.18%) Azure Certification
1 21 (38.18%) Microsoft Certification
2 18 (32.73%) Degree
3 10 (18.18%) Computer Science Degree
4 6 (10.91%) SC Cleared
4 6 (10.91%) Security Cleared
5 1 (1.82%) CompTIA Security+
5 1 (1.82%) Network+ Certification
5 1 (1.82%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (5.45%) GDPR
2 1 (1.82%) Accessibility
2 1 (1.82%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (1.82%) SLA
System Software
1 30 (54.55%) Active Directory
2 17 (30.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (21.82%) vSphere
4 8 (14.55%) Hyper-V
5 4 (7.27%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (3.64%) Docker
Systems Management
1 21 (38.18%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (14.55%) SCCM
3 2 (3.64%) Kibana
4 1 (1.82%) Grafana
Vendors
1 48 (87.27%) Microsoft
2 17 (30.91%) VMware
3 12 (21.82%) ScienceLogic
4 3 (5.45%) Apple
4 3 (5.45%) iManage
5 2 (3.64%) Cisco
5 2 (3.64%) Citrix
5 2 (3.64%) Dell
5 2 (3.64%) Nexthink
5 2 (3.64%) Samsung
6 1 (1.82%) Aruba
6 1 (1.82%) Dynatrace
6 1 (1.82%) Fortinet
6 1 (1.82%) Google
6 1 (1.82%) Juniper
6 1 (1.82%) NetApp
6 1 (1.82%) Sparx
6 1 (1.82%) Veeam