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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 351 343 321
Rank change year-on-year -8 -22 +35
Permanent jobs citing Virtual Machines 121 78 164
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.49% 0.48% 0.73%
As % of the System Software category 6.40% 4.01% 6.09%
Number of salaries quoted 86 55 118
10th Percentile £36,500 £44,000 £39,850
25th Percentile £55,313 £52,500 £51,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £90,000 £57,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +56.52% -11.54% -
75th Percentile £118,750 £85,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £143,750 £110,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £60,918
% change year-on-year +4.35% -5.61% -6.28%

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 1,947 2,693
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 7.69% 12.05% 11.94%
Number of salaries quoted 1,413 1,061 1,688
10th Percentile £31,250 £29,000 £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 £91,250 £85,000 £87,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £54,835
% change year-on-year +10.00% -8.82% -0.30%

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 23 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 10 (8.26%) IIS
2 6 (4.96%) SharePoint
3 5 (4.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (4.13%) nginx
4 4 (3.31%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (4.13%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.83%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 82 (67.77%) Azure
2 40 (33.06%) Azure AI
2 40 (33.06%) Azure Machine Learning
2 40 (33.06%) Azure Synapse Analytics
2 40 (33.06%) Snowflake
3 30 (24.79%) Serverless
4 24 (19.83%) Entra ID
5 18 (14.88%) Microsoft 365
6 14 (11.57%) AWS
6 14 (11.57%) Azure Monitor
7 12 (9.92%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (7.44%) Azure AKS
9 7 (5.79%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 6 (4.96%) Azure Pipelines
10 6 (4.96%) IaaS
11 5 (4.13%) Cloudflare
11 5 (4.13%) GCP
11 5 (4.13%) GitHub
11 5 (4.13%) PaaS
11 5 (4.13%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (19.01%) Firewall
2 17 (14.05%) TCP/IP
3 15 (12.40%) DNS
3 15 (12.40%) VPN
4 12 (9.92%) DHCP
5 7 (5.79%) VLAN
6 5 (4.13%) Network Security
7 4 (3.31%) Wireless
8 2 (1.65%) WAN
9 1 (0.83%) BGP
9 1 (0.83%) FCoE
9 1 (0.83%) Fibre Channel
9 1 (0.83%) HTTP
9 1 (0.83%) iSCSI
9 1 (0.83%) LAN
9 1 (0.83%) NX-OS
9 1 (0.83%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (45.45%) SQL Server
2 18 (14.88%) Azure SQL Database
3 4 (3.31%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 25 (20.66%) Snyk
2 5 (4.13%) Jenkins
2 5 (4.13%) Octopus Deploy
3 4 (3.31%) Git
4 3 (2.48%) TeamCity
5 2 (1.65%) GitLab
5 2 (1.65%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.83%) JIRA
General
1 45 (37.19%) Finance
2 27 (22.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 18 (14.88%) Social Skills
4 14 (11.57%) Banking
5 9 (7.44%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (4.96%) Law
7 3 (2.48%) Retail
8 2 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.65%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.83%) Advertising
9 1 (0.83%) Automotive
9 1 (0.83%) Back Office
9 1 (0.83%) Police
Job Titles
1 38 (31.40%) Senior
2 36 (29.75%) Architect
3 27 (22.31%) Cloud Architect
3 27 (22.31%) Senior Architect
3 27 (22.31%) Senior Cloud Architect
4 25 (20.66%) Cloud Security Architect
4 25 (20.66%) Security Architect
4 25 (20.66%) Senior Security Architect
5 22 (18.18%) Data Manager
5 22 (18.18%) Engineering Manager
5 22 (18.18%) Finance Manager
6 15 (12.40%) Azure Engineer
6 15 (12.40%) Support Engineer
7 11 (9.09%) IT Engineer
7 11 (9.09%) IT Support
7 11 (9.09%) IT Support Engineer
8 10 (8.26%) Cloud Engineer
8 10 (8.26%) Head of AI
8 10 (8.26%) Head of Finance
9 9 (7.44%) Azure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (14.05%) Terraform
2 9 (7.44%) ARM Templates
3 6 (4.96%) .NET
4 5 (4.13%) LDAP
4 5 (4.13%) Loki
4 5 (4.13%) Middleware
5 4 (3.31%) COM
5 4 (3.31%) DCOM
6 1 (0.83%) JSON
6 1 (0.83%) Regular Expression
6 1 (0.83%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 27 (22.31%) Data Centre
2 6 (4.96%) Cloud Native
2 6 (4.96%) Hybrid Cloud
2 6 (4.96%) PKI
3 4 (3.31%) Management Information System
3 4 (3.31%) Mobile App
3 4 (3.31%) Raspberry Pi
3 4 (3.31%) Self-Motivation
3 4 (3.31%) Smartcard
4 1 (0.83%) Cloud Security Posture
4 1 (0.83%) CSOC
4 1 (0.83%) Cyber Threat
4 1 (0.83%) Distributed Systems
4 1 (0.83%) Driving Licence
4 1 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (0.83%) Greenfield Project
4 1 (0.83%) Legacy Applications
4 1 (0.83%) Linux Command Line
4 1 (0.83%) Security Operations Centre
4 1 (0.83%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 33 (27.27%) Windows
2 18 (14.88%) Windows Server
3 17 (14.05%) Linux
4 4 (3.31%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.83%) Debian
5 1 (0.83%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (61.98%) AI
2 44 (36.36%) Migration
3 43 (35.54%) CI/CD
4 42 (34.71%) Agile
4 42 (34.71%) Data Architecture
4 42 (34.71%) Roadmaps
5 41 (33.88%) Data Engineering
5 41 (33.88%) Machine Learning
6 40 (33.06%) Data Development
6 40 (33.06%) Data Governance
6 40 (33.06%) Line Management
6 40 (33.06%) Regulatory Compliance
7 36 (29.75%) Cloud Security
8 29 (23.97%) Security Architecture
9 28 (23.14%) Cybersecurity
10 26 (21.49%) DevSecOps
11 25 (20.66%) Application Security
11 25 (20.66%) SDLC
11 25 (20.66%) Security Testing
11 25 (20.66%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 60 (49.59%) SQL
2 25 (20.66%) PowerShell
3 13 (10.74%) Bicep
4 9 (7.44%) C#
4 9 (7.44%) Python
5 5 (4.13%) Bash
6 3 (2.48%) C
6 3 (2.48%) Go
6 3 (2.48%) Java
7 2 (1.65%) C++
8 1 (0.83%) Rust
8 1 (0.83%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 15 (12.40%) Degree
2 10 (8.26%) Azure Certification
3 8 (6.61%) Security Cleared
4 6 (4.96%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (4.13%) CCNA
5 5 (4.13%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (3.31%) HNC
6 4 (3.31%) HND
6 4 (3.31%) SC Cleared
7 2 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.65%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.83%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.83%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.83%) ISEB
8 1 (0.83%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.83%) MCSE
8 1 (0.83%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.83%) TOGAF Certification
8 1 (0.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (20.66%) GRC
2 6 (4.96%) QA
3 4 (3.31%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (2.48%) NIST
4 3 (2.48%) PCI DSS
5 2 (1.65%) AUTOSAR
5 2 (1.65%) MISRA
5 2 (1.65%) MISRA C
6 1 (0.83%) SLA
6 1 (0.83%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 31 (25.62%) Active Directory
2 21 (17.36%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (9.09%) Docker
4 10 (8.26%) Hyper-V
5 7 (5.79%) vSphere
6 4 (3.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.83%) Firmware
7 1 (0.83%) KVM
7 1 (0.83%) NFS
7 1 (0.83%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 16 (13.22%) Kubernetes
2 9 (7.44%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (4.96%) Grafana
4 5 (4.13%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.65%) SCCM
6 1 (0.83%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.83%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.83%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 1 (0.83%) Packer
6 1 (0.83%) Podman
6 1 (0.83%) SCOM
6 1 (0.83%) WSUS
Vendors
1 80 (66.12%) Microsoft
2 40 (33.06%) Databricks
3 28 (23.14%) Palo Alto
4 25 (20.66%) CrowdStrike
4 25 (20.66%) Tenable
5 21 (17.36%) VMware
6 8 (6.61%) Veeam
7 7 (5.79%) Synology
8 6 (4.96%) Cisco
9 4 (3.31%) Dell
9 4 (3.31%) Meraki
9 4 (3.31%) Salesforce
10 3 (2.48%) Acronis
10 3 (2.48%) Fortinet
10 3 (2.48%) Juniper
10 3 (2.48%) Sophos
10 3 (2.48%) WatchGuard
11 1 (0.83%) Apple
11 1 (0.83%) Citrix
11 1 (0.83%) Commvault