Remote Jobs for IT Analysts Are Shrinking: Share Falls From 33% to 26%

The share of remote job postings for IT analysts fell from 33% to 26% over the past year. For system administrators and DevOps engineers, it dropped from 20% to 12%. The figures come from a study by the online university Zerocoder, which Russian Business has seen. A market that was considered a stronghold of flexible work for several years is gradually bringing people back to office desks.

What the numbers show

In absolute percentage points, the decline looks moderate: seven points for analysts and eight for infrastructure specialists. In relative terms, the picture is harsher. Remote offers for analysts are down by roughly a fifth, and for sysadmins and DevOps by almost 40%. In 2025, one in every five DevOps postings was remote. Now it is slightly more than one in ten.

Key data from the study:

• Analysts: the share of remote postings fell from 33% to 26% (down 7 percentage points, about 21% in relative terms).
• System administrators and DevOps engineers: from 20% to 12% (down 8 percentage points, about 40%).
• Moscow: for a number of IT specialists, remote jobs offer higher salaries than office ones.
• Source: the Zerocoder study as retold by Russian Business. The sample and the list of job platforms are not named in the available material.

Why infrastructure was hit harder

As retold, the study does not analyze the causes, so what follows is hypothesis. Sysadmins and DevOps engineers work with servers, closed environments and access rights that companies are reluctant to hand out beyond the office network. The stricter the security requirements, the easier it is to meet them with physical presence. Analysts have less of this dependency, but employers increasingly want them nearby, too: an analyst lives in constant coordination with product teams and the business, and an office cuts the time that takes.

There is also a market factor. When there are enough candidates, an employer has no need to widen its terms to attract them. Remote work goes from a perk companies are ready to compete on to a concession they can choose not to make.

The Moscow paradox

The most curious detail of the study: in Moscow, remote jobs for some IT specialists pay more than office ones. Logic suggests the opposite. A remote position is open to candidates from every region, competition is higher, and salaries should drift down.

The likely explanation is a selection effect. As remote positions become scarcer, they are kept mainly for experienced specialists who do not need constant supervision and can run tasks on their own. Such people cost more regardless of format. The second possibility is that the company builds a premium into the rate for an option that is rare on the market. Open data cannot show which version is correct; that would require a breakdown by seniority grade.

How to use this

For job seekers, the takeaway is practical. The "remote" filter on a job search site now cuts out noticeably more offers than a year ago, especially in infrastructure. It makes sense to look at hybrid positions in parallel and to find out in advance how many days a week people actually spend in the office. Terms are usually negotiated at the offer stage, and experienced candidates in Moscow have more arguments for that.

For employers, remote work remains a tool for competing for strong specialists, and the market, judging by Moscow salaries, is ready to pay for it.

One last point: Zerocoder is an education company that sells courses, and the topic of the IT job market is directly tied to its business. The figures themselves are best treated as a rough guide until the methodology is published: how many postings were analyzed, over what period and from which platforms.