The short version: Remote hiring slowed in 2023 but has picked back up in specific sectors including tech support, customer success, marketing, and finance. The companies paying well for fully remote roles right now include Automattic, GitLab, Deel, and dozens of mid-size SaaS firms. Knowing where to look and how to present yourself for async work is the difference between 40 rejections and an offer.
The remote job market is not dead, it just got selective
I hear people say remote work is over. Big banks calling people back in. Amazon mandating five days. The headlines make it sound like 2019 is back.
It is not.
What changed is that the lazy remote hiring is over. The 2021 era where companies hired anyone with a pulse and a laptop because they were panicking about talent shortages, that window has closed. What replaced it is something better for people who are good at their jobs: selective, well-structured remote roles at companies that have been doing this for years and have the systems to prove it.
I have been fully remote since 2013. I have hired remote contractors and full-timers. I have also spent the last two years rebuilding my own business mostly from my kitchen table in the UK. I know what this market looks like from both sides of the table.
Let me tell you where the real jobs are.
The sectors actively remote-hiring right now
Customer success and support
This is the single biggest category of remote hiring across the English-speaking world right now. Companies like Intercom, HubSpot, Freshworks, and dozens of smaller SaaS businesses are constantly hiring customer success managers and support specialists on fully remote contracts.
Pay ranges for customer success managers sit between $50,000 and $90,000 USD annually depending on the product complexity and whether you are carrying a renewal quota. Senior roles at enterprise SaaS companies can clear $110,000.
If you have ever worked in account management, retail management, or even hospitality, you have more transferable skills here than you think.
Marketing, content, and SEO
Marketing has always had a strong freelance and remote culture, and that has not changed. What has changed is that companies are now hiring for very specific skills rather than generalists. Right now the high-demand specialisms include:
- SEO content writers who understand topical authority (not just keyword stuffing)
- Paid media specialists across Meta and Google
- Email marketing managers who know Klaviyo or Iterable
- Marketing operations people who can work in HubSpot or Marketo
- AI-assisted content producers who can maintain quality at scale
Salary bands for remote marketing roles run from around $45,000 for junior content roles up to $130,000 for senior marketing operations or demand gen managers at funded startups.
Finance and accounting
This one surprises people but it should not. Bookkeepers, management accountants, and financial controllers have been working remotely for years through firms like Bench (now operating under new ownership after a dramatic closure and acquisition in late 2024), Pilot, and Paro. Paro in particular runs a marketplace of freelance finance professionals and pays well for senior talent.
A remote controller or senior accountant can earn between $80,000 and $140,000 fully remote. These roles require qualifications but the work is almost entirely async by nature.
Software development and engineering
Yes, big tech is doing return-to-office. But the mid-market, the 50 to 500 person SaaS companies, the funded startups, the agencies, they are still hiring remote engineers aggressively. Toptal, Arc.dev, and Turing connect developers with remote roles globally. Senior full-stack developers on these platforms earn $80 to $200 per hour depending on the stack and the client.
Where to find remote jobs that are hiring
The generic job boards are mostly noise. Here are the ones worth your time.
- We Work Remotely: My personal favourite. High signal, low noise, paid listings so employers are serious.
- Remote OK: Good for tech and marketing. Updated daily.
- Himalayas: Newer but excellent. Company culture info is more detailed than most boards.
- LinkedIn with the "remote" filter on: Still powerful when you search correctly. Filter by "remote," sort by "most recent," and set job alerts for your specific title.
- Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent): Best for startup roles, often equity included.
- Contra: For freelance and fractional remote work specifically.
Do not apply through Indeed for remote roles unless you have nothing else to do with your afternoon. The remote listings on Indeed are full of misclassified jobs and the interface buries you with irrelevant results.
What remote-first companies want to see
Here is what most job seekers get wrong. They apply with a CV built for an in-person role and then wonder why they are not getting callbacks.
Remote-first companies are screening for a completely different set of signals. They want to know before they ever speak to you that you can work without hand-holding, communicate clearly in writing, and manage your own time.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
Your application needs to show this, not just claim it.
Write a cover letter that reads like good async communication
Remote companies live and die by written communication. Your cover letter is a live sample of how you will communicate on Slack or in Notion. Short paragraphs. Specific details. No waffle. Answer the actual brief rather than writing a generic "I am passionate about your mission" paragraph that every other candidate is sending.
List your remote tools
Explicitly. Mention Notion, Linear, Loom, Slack, Asana, Figma, or whatever is relevant to your field. Do not assume they will infer this from your job titles. Spell it out in a skills section or weave it into your bullet points.
Show outcomes, not activities
In-office culture often rewards presence. Remote culture rewards output. Your CV should be full of numbers. "Grew organic traffic by 140% in nine months." "Managed a $2M ARR renewal book." "Reduced customer onboarding time from 14 days to 6." This is the language remote hiring managers are looking for.
The thing nobody tells you about getting hired remotely faster
Apply to companies that have been remote-first from the start, not companies that went reluctant-remote during the pandemic and are now quietly trying to pull people back in.
The remote-first companies are transparent about it. Check their handbook if they have one published (GitLab's is public and is essentially the bible of remote work culture). Look at their Glassdoor reviews specifically for mentions of flexibility and management style. Check whether their leadership team is distributed across time zones. If the CEO and all three co-founders are in San Francisco and everyone else is "remote," that is a red flag worth investigating.
Companies like Automattic (WordPress parent company), Doist (makers of Todoist), Buffer, Basecamp, and Hotjar have been remote-only for years. Their hiring processes are better designed, their onboarding is more structured, and their managers are trained to manage people they cannot see. Your day-to-day experience at these places is different from a company that went remote by accident.
One last thing
The fastest route to a remote job in 2025 is not spray-and-pray applying to 200 listings. It is picking 20 companies you want to work for, following their content on LinkedIn, engaging with their team members' posts, and applying the moment a relevant role goes live.
Warm applications convert at a significantly higher rate than cold ones. That is not a soft fluffy tip, it is just how hiring works. Remote hiring managers are often overwhelmed with applications because the pool is global. Anything that makes you recognisable before you apply cuts through the noise.
Remote work changed my career and my life. It can do the same for you. But you have to go after it with the same specificity and professionalism that the best remote companies bring to their own operations.
Frequently asked questions
Which companies are currently hiring fully remote workers?
Companies with consistent fully remote hiring in 2025 include Automattic, GitLab, Deel, Hotjar, Doist, Buffer, HubSpot (for certain roles), and hundreds of mid-size SaaS companies. Job boards like We Work Remotely and Himalayas list verified remote-only roles updated daily.
What remote jobs pay the most without a degree?
High-paying remote roles that often do not require a formal degree include software development (self-taught developers routinely earn $80,000 to $150,000), paid media management, SEO consulting, customer success management, and UX writing. A strong portfolio and demonstrable results outweigh credentials in most of these fields.
How do I know if a remote job listing is real or a scam?
Legitimate remote job listings will have a real company website, a verifiable LinkedIn presence, and will never ask you to pay for equipment upfront or accept a cheque to forward funds. Stick to boards like We Work Remotely or Himalayas where employers pay to list, and always verify the company independently before sharing personal details.
Is remote hiring increasing or decreasing in 2025?
Remote hiring contracted sharply in 2023 as over-hired tech companies did mass layoffs, but it has stabilised and is growing again in 2025, particularly in customer success, marketing, finance, and software development. The difference is that companies are now far more selective, favouring candidates with a clear track record of working independently and communicating well in writing.
Related reading: Virtual Assistant Work From Home: The Real Money, The Brutal Commute Savings, and Why You'll Quit in 9 Months and Indeed Virtual Assistant Jobs: The Real Money, The Catch, And How To Land One.
