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 2 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 355 358 334
Rank change year-on-year +3 -24 -5
Permanent jobs citing Virtual Machines 106 67 164
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.43% 0.40% 0.73%
As % of the System Software category 5.61% 3.50% 5.84%
Number of salaries quoted 69 41 116
10th Percentile £36,250 £41,500 £39,750
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £60,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £118,750 £85,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £137,000 £102,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £60,459
% change year-on-year -4.35% -4.89% -3.27%

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 1,891 1,917 2,810
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 7.58% 11.36% 12.50%
Number of salaries quoted 1,404 1,014 1,698
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,575 £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 £75,000 £72,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £85,000 £88,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% -

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 2 October 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 11 (10.38%) IIS
2 6 (5.66%) SharePoint
3 5 (4.72%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (4.72%) nginx
4 3 (2.83%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (3.77%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 64 (60.38%) Azure
2 30 (28.30%) Serverless
3 25 (23.58%) Entra ID
4 21 (19.81%) Azure AI
4 21 (19.81%) Azure Machine Learning
4 21 (19.81%) Azure Synapse Analytics
4 21 (19.81%) Snowflake
5 17 (16.04%) Microsoft 365
6 15 (14.15%) AWS
7 14 (13.21%) Azure Monitor
8 12 (11.32%) Azure DevOps
9 9 (8.49%) Azure AKS
10 7 (6.60%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 6 (5.66%) Azure Pipelines
11 6 (5.66%) GCP
11 6 (5.66%) IaaS
12 5 (4.72%) Azure Storage
12 5 (4.72%) GitHub
12 5 (4.72%) PaaS
12 5 (4.72%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (21.70%) Firewall
2 18 (16.98%) TCP/IP
3 16 (15.09%) DNS
3 16 (15.09%) VPN
4 13 (12.26%) DHCP
5 8 (7.55%) VLAN
6 5 (4.72%) Network Security
7 4 (3.77%) Wireless
8 2 (1.89%) HTTP
8 2 (1.89%) WAN
9 1 (0.94%) BGP
9 1 (0.94%) FCoE
9 1 (0.94%) Fibre Channel
9 1 (0.94%) iSCSI
9 1 (0.94%) LAN
9 1 (0.94%) NX-OS
9 1 (0.94%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (33.02%) SQL Server
2 14 (13.21%) Azure SQL Database
3 3 (2.83%) MySQL
4 2 (1.89%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 25 (23.58%) Snyk
2 6 (5.66%) Jenkins
3 5 (4.72%) Octopus Deploy
4 4 (3.77%) Git
4 4 (3.77%) TeamCity
5 2 (1.89%) GitLab
5 2 (1.89%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.94%) JIRA
General
1 28 (26.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 26 (24.53%) Finance
3 19 (17.92%) Social Skills
4 11 (10.38%) Banking
5 10 (9.43%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (6.60%) Law
7 4 (3.77%) Retail
8 2 (1.89%) Back Office
8 2 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.89%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.94%) Advertising
9 1 (0.94%) Automotive
9 1 (0.94%) Police
Job Titles
1 40 (37.74%) Senior
2 32 (30.19%) Architect
3 27 (25.47%) Cloud Architect
3 27 (25.47%) Senior Architect
3 27 (25.47%) Senior Cloud Architect
4 25 (23.58%) Cloud Security Architect
4 25 (23.58%) Security Architect
4 25 (23.58%) Senior Security Architect
5 15 (14.15%) Azure Engineer
5 15 (14.15%) Support Engineer
6 11 (10.38%) Data Manager
6 11 (10.38%) Engineering Manager
6 11 (10.38%) Finance Manager
6 11 (10.38%) IT Engineer
6 11 (10.38%) IT Support
6 11 (10.38%) IT Support Engineer
7 10 (9.43%) Cloud Engineer
8 8 (7.55%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
8 8 (7.55%) DevOps Engineer
8 8 (7.55%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (16.98%) Terraform
2 9 (8.49%) ARM Templates
3 6 (5.66%) .NET
3 6 (5.66%) LDAP
4 5 (4.72%) Loki
4 5 (4.72%) Middleware
5 4 (3.77%) COM
5 4 (3.77%) DCOM
6 2 (1.89%) JSON
6 2 (1.89%) Regular Expression
7 1 (0.94%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 27 (25.47%) Data Centre
2 7 (6.60%) Cloud Native
3 6 (5.66%) Hybrid Cloud
3 6 (5.66%) PKI
4 4 (3.77%) Management Information System
4 4 (3.77%) Mobile App
4 4 (3.77%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (3.77%) Smartcard
5 3 (2.83%) Raspberry Pi
6 2 (1.89%) CSOC
6 2 (1.89%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (1.89%) Security Operations Centre
7 1 (0.94%) Cloud Security Posture
7 1 (0.94%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (0.94%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.94%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (0.94%) Private Cloud
7 1 (0.94%) Public Cloud
7 1 (0.94%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 36 (33.96%) Windows
2 20 (18.87%) Windows Server
3 18 (16.98%) Linux
4 3 (2.83%) Ubuntu
5 2 (1.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.89%) Rocky
6 1 (0.94%) Debian
6 1 (0.94%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (53.77%) AI
2 46 (43.40%) CI/CD
3 37 (34.91%) Cloud Security
4 31 (29.25%) Cybersecurity
5 30 (28.30%) Security Architecture
6 26 (24.53%) DevSecOps
7 25 (23.58%) Application Security
7 25 (23.58%) Migration
7 25 (23.58%) SDLC
7 25 (23.58%) Security Testing
7 25 (23.58%) Threat Modelling
8 24 (22.64%) Roadmaps
9 23 (21.70%) Agile
9 23 (21.70%) Data Architecture
9 23 (21.70%) IT Strategy
9 23 (21.70%) Machine Learning
9 23 (21.70%) Technology Strategy
10 22 (20.75%) Data Engineering
10 22 (20.75%) Validation
11 21 (19.81%) Regulatory Compliance
Programming Languages
1 40 (37.74%) SQL
2 26 (24.53%) PowerShell
3 13 (12.26%) Bicep
4 11 (10.38%) Python
5 9 (8.49%) C#
6 8 (7.55%) Bash
7 4 (3.77%) Go
7 4 (3.77%) Java
8 3 (2.83%) C
9 2 (1.89%) C++
9 2 (1.89%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.94%) Rust
10 1 (0.94%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 14 (13.21%) Degree
2 10 (9.43%) Azure Certification
2 10 (9.43%) Security Cleared
3 6 (5.66%) Microsoft Certification
4 5 (4.72%) CCNA
4 5 (4.72%) Cisco Certification
5 4 (3.77%) DV Cleared
5 4 (3.77%) SC Cleared
6 3 (2.83%) HNC
6 3 (2.83%) HND
7 2 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.94%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.94%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.94%) ISEB
8 1 (0.94%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.94%) MCSE
8 1 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.94%) TOGAF Certification
8 1 (0.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (23.58%) GRC
2 6 (5.66%) QA
3 4 (3.77%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (3.77%) NIST
3 4 (3.77%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.89%) AUTOSAR
4 2 (1.89%) MISRA
4 2 (1.89%) MISRA C
5 1 (0.94%) SLA
5 1 (0.94%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 32 (30.19%) Active Directory
2 24 (22.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (11.32%) Hyper-V
4 11 (10.38%) Docker
5 8 (7.55%) vSphere
6 4 (3.77%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (2.83%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (1.89%) NFS
9 1 (0.94%) Firmware
9 1 (0.94%) KVM
Systems Management
1 17 (16.04%) Kubernetes
2 9 (8.49%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (5.66%) Grafana
4 5 (4.72%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.89%) Ansible
5 2 (1.89%) SCCM
6 1 (0.94%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.94%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.94%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 1 (0.94%) Packer
6 1 (0.94%) Podman
6 1 (0.94%) SCOM
6 1 (0.94%) WSUS
Vendors
1 61 (57.55%) Microsoft
2 29 (27.36%) Palo Alto
3 25 (23.58%) CrowdStrike
3 25 (23.58%) Tenable
4 24 (22.64%) VMware
5 21 (19.81%) Databricks
6 8 (7.55%) Veeam
7 7 (6.60%) Synology
8 5 (4.72%) Cisco
8 5 (4.72%) Dell
9 4 (3.77%) Acronis
9 4 (3.77%) Fortinet
9 4 (3.77%) Juniper
9 4 (3.77%) Salesforce
9 4 (3.77%) Sophos
9 4 (3.77%) WatchGuard
10 3 (2.83%) Meraki
11 1 (0.94%) Google
11 1 (0.94%) Rackspace
11 1 (0.94%) SonicWALL