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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 390 360 332
Rank change year-on-year -30 -28 -14
Permanent jobs citing Virtual Machines 76 61 152
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.30% 0.37% 0.72%
As % of the System Software category 4.05% 3.30% 5.52%
Number of salaries quoted 49 33 108
10th Percentile £36,250 £42,200 £39,850
25th Percentile £46,250 £51,250 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £70,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +7.69% -
75th Percentile £74,750 £85,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,800 £90,000
UK median annual salary £50,000 £57,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -13.04% -4.17% -5.88%

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 1,850 2,755
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 7.49% 11.19% 13.12%
Number of salaries quoted 1,386 972 1,630
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 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -8.70% -4.17%
75th Percentile £73,750 £72,500 £73,971
90th Percentile £87,500 £85,000 £90,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £49,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -

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 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 (14.47%) IIS
2 7 (9.21%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (7.89%) SharePoint
4 5 (6.58%) nginx
5 1 (1.32%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 47 (61.84%) Azure
2 28 (36.84%) Entra ID
3 20 (26.32%) Serverless
4 18 (23.68%) Microsoft 365
5 16 (21.05%) Azure Monitor
6 15 (19.74%) AWS
7 13 (17.11%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (13.16%) Azure AKS
8 10 (13.16%) IaaS
9 8 (10.53%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 7 (9.21%) Azure Key Vault
10 7 (9.21%) Azure Pipelines
10 7 (9.21%) SaaS
11 6 (7.89%) Azure Functions
11 6 (7.89%) Azure Storage
11 6 (7.89%) Cloudflare
11 6 (7.89%) GCP
11 6 (7.89%) GitHub
11 6 (7.89%) PaaS
12 5 (6.58%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 23 (30.26%) Firewall
2 20 (26.32%) DNS
3 18 (23.68%) TCP/IP
4 17 (22.37%) VPN
5 15 (19.74%) DHCP
6 8 (10.53%) VLAN
7 6 (7.89%) Network Security
8 4 (5.26%) Wireless
9 3 (3.95%) HTTP
10 2 (2.63%) Remote Desktop
10 2 (2.63%) SNMP
10 2 (2.63%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (2.63%) WAN
11 1 (1.32%) BGP
11 1 (1.32%) FCoE
11 1 (1.32%) Fibre Channel
11 1 (1.32%) iSCSI
11 1 (1.32%) LAN
11 1 (1.32%) NX-OS
11 1 (1.32%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (17.11%) SQL Server
2 9 (11.84%) Azure SQL Database
3 2 (2.63%) Big Data
4 1 (1.32%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 14 (18.42%) Snyk
2 6 (7.89%) Jenkins
3 5 (6.58%) Octopus Deploy
4 4 (5.26%) Git
4 4 (5.26%) TeamCity
5 2 (2.63%) GitLab
5 2 (2.63%) Terragrunt
6 1 (1.32%) JIRA
General
1 21 (27.63%) Social Skills
2 17 (22.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 12 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (9.21%) Law
5 6 (7.89%) Finance
6 5 (6.58%) Banking
7 4 (5.26%) Public Sector
7 4 (5.26%) Retail
8 2 (2.63%) Back Office
8 2 (2.63%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (2.63%) Police
9 1 (1.32%) Advertising
9 1 (1.32%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 30 (39.47%) Senior
2 18 (23.68%) Architect
3 17 (22.37%) Cloud Architect
3 17 (22.37%) Senior Architect
3 17 (22.37%) Senior Cloud Architect
4 15 (19.74%) Azure Engineer
5 14 (18.42%) Cloud Security Architect
5 14 (18.42%) Security Architect
5 14 (18.42%) Senior Security Architect
6 13 (17.11%) Support Engineer
7 11 (14.47%) Cloud Engineer
8 9 (11.84%) Analyst
8 9 (11.84%) DevOps Engineer
8 9 (11.84%) IT Engineer
8 9 (11.84%) IT Support
8 9 (11.84%) IT Support Engineer
9 8 (10.53%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 8 (10.53%) 3rd Line Support
9 8 (10.53%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 8 (10.53%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (26.32%) Terraform
2 9 (11.84%) ARM Templates
3 7 (9.21%) .NET
4 6 (7.89%) LDAP
4 6 (7.89%) Middleware
5 5 (6.58%) Loki
6 4 (5.26%) COM
6 4 (5.26%) DCOM
7 2 (2.63%) JSON
7 2 (2.63%) Regular Expression
7 2 (2.63%) SAML
8 1 (1.32%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 19 (25.00%) Data Centre
2 8 (10.53%) Cloud Native
3 7 (9.21%) PKI
4 6 (7.89%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (6.58%) Management Information System
6 4 (5.26%) Mobile App
6 4 (5.26%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (5.26%) Smartcard
7 3 (3.95%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (2.63%) Cloud Security Posture
8 2 (2.63%) Clustering
8 2 (2.63%) CSOC
8 2 (2.63%) Cyber Threat
8 2 (2.63%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (2.63%) Replication
8 2 (2.63%) Security Operations Centre
8 2 (2.63%) Security Posture
9 1 (1.32%) Distributed Systems
9 1 (1.32%) Driving Licence
9 1 (1.32%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 37 (48.68%) Windows
2 21 (27.63%) Windows Server
3 17 (22.37%) Linux
4 2 (2.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (2.63%) Rocky
4 2 (2.63%) Windows Server 2016
4 2 (2.63%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (1.32%) Debian
5 1 (1.32%) Ubuntu
5 1 (1.32%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (48.68%) CI/CD
2 27 (35.53%) AI
2 27 (35.53%) Cloud Security
3 23 (30.26%) Cybersecurity
4 22 (28.95%) Problem-Solving
5 21 (27.63%) DevOps
5 21 (27.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 20 (26.32%) Disaster Recovery
6 20 (26.32%) Infrastructure as Code
6 20 (26.32%) Security Architecture
7 18 (23.68%) Mentoring
8 15 (19.74%) DevSecOps
9 14 (18.42%) Application Security
9 14 (18.42%) High Availability
9 14 (18.42%) Infrastructure Automation
9 14 (18.42%) IT Strategy
9 14 (18.42%) SDLC
9 14 (18.42%) Security Testing
9 14 (18.42%) Technology Strategy
9 14 (18.42%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 29 (38.16%) PowerShell
2 17 (22.37%) SQL
3 15 (19.74%) Bicep
4 11 (14.47%) Python
5 9 (11.84%) C#
6 8 (10.53%) Bash
7 4 (5.26%) Go
7 4 (5.26%) Java
8 3 (3.95%) C
9 2 (2.63%) C++
9 2 (2.63%) Shell Script
10 1 (1.32%) Rust
10 1 (1.32%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 13 (17.11%) Azure Certification
2 12 (15.79%) Degree
3 11 (14.47%) Security Cleared
4 6 (7.89%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (6.58%) CCNA
5 5 (6.58%) Cisco Certification
5 5 (6.58%) SC Cleared
6 4 (5.26%) DV Cleared
7 2 (2.63%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (2.63%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (2.63%) DBS Check
7 2 (2.63%) TOGAF Certification
8 1 (1.32%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (1.32%) HNC
8 1 (1.32%) HND
8 1 (1.32%) ISEB
8 1 (1.32%) ISTQB
8 1 (1.32%) MCSE
8 1 (1.32%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (1.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (18.42%) GRC
2 6 (7.89%) QA
3 4 (5.26%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (5.26%) NIST
3 4 (5.26%) PCI DSS
4 2 (2.63%) AUTOSAR
4 2 (2.63%) MISRA
4 2 (2.63%) MISRA C
5 1 (1.32%) SLA
5 1 (1.32%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 33 (43.42%) Active Directory
2 24 (31.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (19.74%) Hyper-V
4 12 (15.79%) Docker
5 6 (7.89%) vSphere
6 4 (5.26%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (3.95%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (2.63%) DFS Replication
8 2 (2.63%) NFS
9 1 (1.32%) Firmware
9 1 (1.32%) KVM
Systems Management
1 18 (23.68%) Kubernetes
2 12 (15.79%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (9.21%) Grafana
4 5 (6.58%) Prometheus
5 3 (3.95%) FortiGate
6 2 (2.63%) Ansible
6 2 (2.63%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (2.63%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 2 (2.63%) SCCM
6 2 (2.63%) SCOM
6 2 (2.63%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (1.32%) Packer
7 1 (1.32%) Podman
7 1 (1.32%) WSUS
Vendors
1 43 (56.58%) Microsoft
2 24 (31.58%) VMware
3 18 (23.68%) Palo Alto
4 14 (18.42%) CrowdStrike
4 14 (18.42%) Tenable
5 6 (7.89%) Veeam
6 5 (6.58%) Dell
6 5 (6.58%) Synology
7 4 (5.26%) Acronis
7 4 (5.26%) Fortinet
7 4 (5.26%) Juniper
7 4 (5.26%) Salesforce
7 4 (5.26%) Sophos
7 4 (5.26%) WatchGuard
8 3 (3.95%) Cisco
9 2 (2.63%) Aruba
9 2 (2.63%) Dynatrace
9 2 (2.63%) SolarWinds
9 2 (2.63%) Zscaler
10 1 (1.32%) FIS