Hybrid/Remote Virtual Machines Job Trends

Virtual Machine (VM)
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for remote or hybrid work requiring Virtual Machines skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 313 337 332
Rank change year-on-year +24 -5 +36
Permanent jobs citing Virtual Machines 142 79 168
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.59% 0.49% 0.72%
As % of the System Software category 7.56% 3.97% 6.11%
Number of salaries quoted 105 57 121
10th Percentile £40,550 £46,250 £41,250
25th Percentile £60,000 £52,500 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £95,000 £60,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +58.33% -4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £118,750 £85,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £143,750 £107,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £65,000 £57,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +13.04% -4.17% -4.00%

All System Software Skills
Work from Home

Virtual Machines 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 1,878 1,992 2,749
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 7.86% 12.24% 11.80%
Number of salaries quoted 1,418 1,111 1,767
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,750 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £36,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £52,500 £56,525
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -7.12% -5.79%
75th Percentile £75,000 £72,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £85,000 £87,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% -5.66% -3.64%

Virtual Machines
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

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

Virtual Machines job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid jobs

Virtual Machines
Salary Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

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

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

Virtual Machines
Salary Histogram for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing Virtual Machines over the 6 months to 14 September 2026.

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

Virtual Machines
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 (6.34%) IIS
2 7 (4.93%) SharePoint
3 6 (4.23%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (3.52%) Confluence
4 5 (3.52%) nginx
Applications
1 6 (4.23%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 103 (72.54%) Azure
2 55 (38.73%) Azure AI
2 55 (38.73%) Azure Machine Learning
2 55 (38.73%) Azure Synapse Analytics
2 55 (38.73%) Snowflake
3 28 (19.72%) Serverless
4 23 (16.20%) Entra ID
5 20 (14.08%) AWS
5 20 (14.08%) Microsoft 365
6 14 (9.86%) Azure Monitor
7 12 (8.45%) GCP
8 11 (7.75%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (5.63%) Amazon EKS
9 8 (5.63%) Azure AKS
10 6 (4.23%) Amazon MSK
10 6 (4.23%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 6 (4.23%) OpenShift
11 5 (3.52%) Cloudflare
11 5 (3.52%) GitHub
11 5 (3.52%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 21 (14.79%) Firewall
2 16 (11.27%) TCP/IP
3 13 (9.15%) DNS
4 12 (8.45%) VPN
5 11 (7.75%) DHCP
6 6 (4.23%) VLAN
7 4 (2.82%) Wireless
8 3 (2.11%) Network Security
9 2 (1.41%) Broadband
9 2 (1.41%) WAN
10 1 (0.70%) BGP
10 1 (0.70%) FCoE
10 1 (0.70%) Fibre Channel
10 1 (0.70%) iSCSI
10 1 (0.70%) LAN
10 1 (0.70%) NX-OS
10 1 (0.70%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (50.00%) SQL Server
2 17 (11.97%) Azure SQL Database
3 5 (3.52%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 25 (17.61%) Snyk
2 6 (4.23%) Git
2 6 (4.23%) Jenkins
3 5 (3.52%) Octopus Deploy
4 2 (1.41%) GitLab
4 2 (1.41%) TeamCity
4 2 (1.41%) Terragrunt
5 1 (0.70%) JIRA
General
1 65 (45.77%) Finance
2 26 (18.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 19 (13.38%) Banking
4 18 (12.68%) Social Skills
5 9 (6.34%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (3.52%) Law
7 2 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.41%) Retail
8 1 (0.70%) Advertising
8 1 (0.70%) Automotive
8 1 (0.70%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 41 (28.87%) Senior
2 39 (27.46%) Architect
3 33 (23.24%) Data Manager
3 33 (23.24%) Engineering Manager
3 33 (23.24%) Finance Manager
4 26 (18.31%) Cloud Architect
4 26 (18.31%) Senior Architect
4 26 (18.31%) Senior Cloud Architect
5 25 (17.61%) Cloud Security Architect
5 25 (17.61%) Security Architect
5 25 (17.61%) Senior Security Architect
6 15 (10.56%) Support Engineer
7 14 (9.86%) Azure Engineer
8 13 (9.15%) Azure Architect
8 13 (9.15%) DevOps Engineer
9 12 (8.45%) Azure Data Architect
9 12 (8.45%) Data Architect
10 11 (7.75%) IT Engineer
10 11 (7.75%) IT Support
10 11 (7.75%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (14.08%) Terraform
2 9 (6.34%) ARM Templates
3 6 (4.23%) .NET
3 6 (4.23%) Kafka
4 5 (3.52%) Loki
5 4 (2.82%) COM
5 4 (2.82%) DCOM
5 4 (2.82%) Django
5 4 (2.82%) LDAP
5 4 (2.82%) Middleware
5 4 (2.82%) React
6 3 (2.11%) REST
7 2 (1.41%) Model Context Protocol
7 2 (1.41%) Twisted
7 2 (1.41%) Web Services
7 2 (1.41%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 26 (18.31%) Data Centre
2 6 (4.23%) Hybrid Cloud
2 6 (4.23%) PKI
2 6 (4.23%) Self-Motivation
3 5 (3.52%) Raspberry Pi
4 4 (2.82%) Cloud Native
4 4 (2.82%) Mobile App
4 4 (2.82%) Smartcard
5 3 (2.11%) Distributed Systems
5 3 (2.11%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.41%) Driving Licence
6 2 (1.41%) Product Ownership
6 2 (1.41%) Public Cloud
6 2 (1.41%) Video Conferencing
7 1 (0.70%) Clustering
7 1 (0.70%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.70%) IoT
7 1 (0.70%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (0.70%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 30 (21.13%) Windows
2 22 (15.49%) Linux
3 16 (11.27%) Windows Server
4 5 (3.52%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.70%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (64.08%) AI
2 59 (41.55%) Agile
3 58 (40.85%) Migration
4 57 (40.14%) Data Architecture
4 57 (40.14%) Roadmaps
5 56 (39.44%) Data Engineering
6 55 (38.73%) Data Development
6 55 (38.73%) Data Governance
6 55 (38.73%) Line Management
6 55 (38.73%) Machine Learning
6 55 (38.73%) Regulatory Compliance
7 42 (29.58%) CI/CD
8 34 (23.94%) Cloud Security
9 27 (19.01%) Security Architecture
10 26 (18.31%) Cybersecurity
11 25 (17.61%) Application Security
11 25 (17.61%) DevSecOps
11 25 (17.61%) SDLC
11 25 (17.61%) Security Testing
11 25 (17.61%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 76 (53.52%) SQL
2 21 (14.79%) PowerShell
3 16 (11.27%) Python
4 11 (7.75%) Bicep
5 9 (6.34%) C#
6 8 (5.63%) Go
7 3 (2.11%) Bash
7 3 (2.11%) C
8 2 (1.41%) C++
8 2 (1.41%) Java
8 2 (1.41%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.41%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.70%) Rust
9 1 (0.70%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 16 (11.27%) Degree
2 9 (6.34%) Azure Certification
3 8 (5.63%) Security Cleared
4 6 (4.23%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (3.52%) CCNA
5 5 (3.52%) Cisco Certification
5 5 (3.52%) HNC
5 5 (3.52%) HND
6 4 (2.82%) SC Cleared
7 2 (1.41%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.41%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.41%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.70%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.70%) ISEB
8 1 (0.70%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.70%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (17.61%) GRC
2 8 (5.63%) QA
3 4 (2.82%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.41%) AUTOSAR
4 2 (1.41%) MISRA
4 2 (1.41%) MISRA C
4 2 (1.41%) NIST
4 2 (1.41%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.70%) SLA
5 1 (0.70%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 29 (20.42%) Active Directory
2 18 (12.68%) Docker
2 18 (12.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (5.63%) Hyper-V
4 6 (4.23%) vSphere
5 4 (2.82%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.70%) KVM
Systems Management
1 20 (14.08%) Kubernetes
2 9 (6.34%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (4.23%) Istio
4 5 (3.52%) Grafana
4 5 (3.52%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.70%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.70%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
5 1 (0.70%) Packer
5 1 (0.70%) Podman
5 1 (0.70%) SCCM
5 1 (0.70%) SCOM
Vendors
1 94 (66.20%) Microsoft
2 55 (38.73%) Databricks
3 27 (19.01%) Palo Alto
4 25 (17.61%) CrowdStrike
4 25 (17.61%) Tenable
5 18 (12.68%) VMware
6 7 (4.93%) Cisco
6 7 (4.93%) Synology
6 7 (4.93%) Veeam
7 6 (4.23%) Confluent
8 5 (3.52%) Meraki
9 4 (2.82%) Salesforce
10 3 (2.11%) Dell
11 2 (1.41%) Acronis
11 2 (1.41%) Fortinet
11 2 (1.41%) Juniper
11 2 (1.41%) Sophos
11 2 (1.41%) WatchGuard
12 1 (0.70%) Google
12 1 (0.70%) Rackspace