DevOps Contract Job Trends in the North West

DevOps
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring DevOps skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 15 16
Rank change year-on-year -5 +1 -1
Contract jobs citing DevOps 294 211 197
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.50% 9.66% 8.20%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.07% 10.87% 9.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 199 179 114
10th Percentile £388 £317 £356
25th Percentile £413 £385 £426
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £463 £525
Median % change year-on-year +13.51% -11.90% -
75th Percentile £640 £575 £611
90th Percentile £713 £679 £734
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -5.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 1 2
10th Percentile £34.88 - -
25th Percentile £37.25 - -
Median hourly rate £66.66 £95.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -29.83% +105.72% -
75th Percentile £73.00 - -
90th Percentile £73.40 - -
England median hourly rate £68.00 £67.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +1.49% -4.29% +7.69%

All Process & Methodology Skills
North West

DevOps falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,242 1,942 2,004
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.68% 88.92% 83.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,860 1,285 1,158
10th Percentile £295 £299 £294
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £594 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £679 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 343 134 109
10th Percentile £16.00 £13.61 £16.45
25th Percentile £24.18 £17.39 £28.50
Median hourly rate £46.80 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +86.08% -40.82% +21.43%
75th Percentile £73.00 £49.84 £58.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £71.06 £71.02
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -3.37%

DevOps
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing DevOps relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

DevOps job vacancy trend in the North West

DevOps
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing DevOps.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing DevOps

DevOps
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DevOps in the North West over the 6 months to 19 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for DevOps in the North West

DevOps
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing DevOps.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing DevOps

DevOps
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DevOps in the North West over the 6 months to 19 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for DevOps in the North West

DevOps
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing DevOps within the North West region over the 6 months to 19 September 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester 0 201 £525 - 336
Cheshire -17 46 £453 +8.50% 44
Lancashire -1 32 £640 +16.36% 34
Merseyside -20 7 £538 +6.44% 14
Cumbria - 1 - - 3
DevOps
England

DevOps
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 21 (7.14%) Confluence
2 8 (2.72%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.70%) SAS
4 4 (1.36%) Camunda
5 3 (1.02%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.68%) Apache
6 2 (0.68%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.34%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.34%) CMS
7 1 (0.34%) Drupal
7 1 (0.34%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.34%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.34%) nginx
7 1 (0.34%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.34%) Traefik
7 1 (0.34%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.34%) WordPress
Applications
1 6 (2.04%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.02%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.34%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.34%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (0.34%) SAP PM
2 1 (0.34%) SAP QM
2 1 (0.34%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.34%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 149 (50.68%) Azure
2 139 (47.28%) AWS
3 75 (25.51%) Azure DevOps
4 47 (15.99%) GCP
5 43 (14.63%) GitHub
6 24 (8.16%) GitHub Actions
6 24 (8.16%) Power Platform
6 24 (8.16%) Serverless
7 21 (7.14%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 20 (6.80%) AWS Lambda
9 19 (6.46%) Azure AKS
10 17 (5.78%) Azure Monitor
11 16 (5.44%) Amazon ECS
12 15 (5.10%) AWS CloudFormation
12 15 (5.10%) OCI
13 14 (4.76%) Amazon EKS
14 12 (4.08%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 12 (4.08%) Entra ID
14 12 (4.08%) SaaS
15 11 (3.74%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 30 (10.20%) Firewall
2 12 (4.08%) SSL
3 11 (3.74%) BGP
3 11 (3.74%) Ethernet VPN
3 11 (3.74%) OSPF
3 11 (3.74%) SD-WAN
3 11 (3.74%) VXLAN
3 11 (3.74%) WAN
4 10 (3.40%) BIG-IP
4 10 (3.40%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 9 (3.06%) Wi-Fi
5 9 (3.06%) WLAN
6 8 (2.72%) Network Security
7 7 (2.38%) DNS
8 5 (1.70%) VPN
9 3 (1.02%) TCP/IP
10 2 (0.68%) DHCP
11 1 (0.34%) Cisco Nexus
11 1 (0.34%) HTTP
11 1 (0.34%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (12.24%) SQL Server
2 20 (6.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 18 (6.12%) Relational Database
4 16 (5.44%) MongoDB
4 16 (5.44%) MySQL
5 15 (5.10%) Power BI
6 10 (3.40%) PostgreSQL
6 10 (3.40%) RDBMS
7 9 (3.06%) Oracle Database
8 8 (2.72%) NoSQL
9 7 (2.38%) Ataccama
9 7 (2.38%) Data Lake
9 7 (2.38%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (1.70%) BigQuery
11 4 (1.36%) Azure SQL Database
11 4 (1.36%) DynamoDB
11 4 (1.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 3 (1.02%) Amazon Redshift
12 3 (1.02%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (1.02%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 53 (18.03%) GitLab
2 40 (13.61%) Jenkins
3 39 (13.27%) Git
4 27 (9.18%) JIRA
5 14 (4.76%) Claude Code
6 13 (4.42%) Selenium
7 12 (4.08%) JUnit
7 12 (4.08%) REST Assured
8 11 (3.74%) Postman
8 11 (3.74%) Sonatype Nexus
9 10 (3.40%) SonarQube
10 9 (3.06%) Cucumber
11 8 (2.72%) Mockito
12 6 (2.04%) Gatling
12 6 (2.04%) Gradle
12 6 (2.04%) Maven
13 3 (1.02%) Bitbucket Server
13 3 (1.02%) Serenity BDD
13 3 (1.02%) TestRail
13 3 (1.02%) Zephyr
General
1 62 (21.09%) Finance
2 44 (14.97%) Social Skills
3 33 (11.22%) Public Sector
4 26 (8.84%) Banking
5 24 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (4.76%) Retail
7 10 (3.40%) Military
8 3 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.02%) Health Technology
8 3 (1.02%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.68%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.34%) iGaming
10 1 (0.34%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.34%) Law
10 1 (0.34%) Legal
10 1 (0.34%) Local Government
10 1 (0.34%) Police
10 1 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.34%) Publishing
10 1 (0.34%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 61 (20.75%) DevOps Engineer
1 61 (20.75%) Senior
2 40 (13.61%) Developer
3 39 (13.27%) Lead
4 28 (9.52%) Architect
5 23 (7.82%) Cloud Engineer
6 17 (5.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 17 (5.78%) Senior DevOps
6 17 (5.78%) Software Engineer
7 16 (5.44%) Security Engineer
7 16 (5.44%) Senior DevOps Engineer
8 15 (5.10%) AWS Engineer
8 15 (5.10%) DBA
9 14 (4.76%) Solutions Architect
10 13 (4.42%) Analyst
11 12 (4.08%) Azure Engineer
11 12 (4.08%) Consultant
11 12 (4.08%) SQL DBA
12 10 (3.40%) Java Developer
13 9 (3.06%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 109 (37.07%) Terraform
2 29 (9.86%) Spring Boot
3 27 (9.18%) Kafka
3 27 (9.18%) REST
3 27 (9.18%) Spring
4 25 (8.50%) React
5 21 (7.14%) Node.js
6 17 (5.78%) JSON
7 15 (5.10%) Playwright
8 13 (4.42%) .NET
9 10 (3.40%) PySpark
10 8 (2.72%) HTML
10 8 (2.72%) Next.js
10 8 (2.72%) RESTful
10 8 (2.72%) XML
11 7 (2.38%) AngularJS
11 7 (2.38%) ARM Templates
12 6 (2.04%) CSS
13 5 (1.70%) Azure Blueprints
13 5 (1.70%) Langfuse
Miscellaneous
1 71 (24.15%) Cloud Native
2 18 (6.12%) Security Posture
3 17 (5.78%) Replication
4 15 (5.10%) Management Information System
5 13 (4.42%) Clustering
5 13 (4.42%) Hybrid Cloud
5 13 (4.42%) Onboarding
6 12 (4.08%) Data Structures
6 12 (4.08%) Product Ownership
7 11 (3.74%) Distributed Systems
8 10 (3.40%) Data Centre
9 9 (3.06%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (2.72%) Algorithms
11 6 (2.04%) Cloud Security Posture
11 6 (2.04%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.70%) AI Agents
12 5 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
12 5 (1.70%) Enterprise Software
13 4 (1.36%) Enterprise Cloud
13 4 (1.36%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 41 (13.95%) Linux
2 35 (11.90%) Windows
3 18 (6.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (4.42%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.36%) Unix
6 3 (1.02%) AIX
7 2 (0.68%) VMS
8 1 (0.34%) Android
8 1 (0.34%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.34%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 183 (62.24%) CI/CD
2 104 (35.37%) Agile
3 88 (29.93%) Infrastructure as Code
4 66 (22.45%) Observability
5 53 (18.03%) Test Automation
6 52 (17.69%) Continuous Improvement
6 52 (17.69%) Microservices
7 47 (15.99%) AI
7 47 (15.99%) Containerisation
7 47 (15.99%) Software Engineering
8 44 (14.97%) Migration
9 35 (11.90%) Platform Engineering
9 35 (11.90%) Scrum
10 33 (11.22%) Cloud Security
10 33 (11.22%) Problem-Solving
10 33 (11.22%) Roadmaps
10 33 (11.22%) Technical Leadership
11 31 (10.54%) Infrastructure Automation
11 31 (10.54%) SDLC
12 30 (10.20%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 85 (28.91%) Python
2 72 (24.49%) Java
3 53 (18.03%) SQL
4 49 (16.67%) PowerShell
5 34 (11.56%) Bash
6 25 (8.50%) JavaScript
7 19 (6.46%) C#
8 17 (5.78%) T-SQL
8 17 (5.78%) TypeScript
9 16 (5.44%) Bicep
10 6 (2.04%) Search Processing Language
11 4 (1.36%) Shell Script
12 3 (1.02%) Rust
12 3 (1.02%) VB
12 3 (1.02%) VB6
13 2 (0.68%) PROC SQL
13 2 (0.68%) Scala
14 1 (0.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.34%) Go
14 1 (0.34%) PHP
Qualifications
1 79 (26.87%) Security Cleared
2 68 (23.13%) SC Cleared
3 37 (12.59%) Degree
4 31 (10.54%) Azure Certification
5 27 (9.18%) BPSS Clearance
6 24 (8.16%) AWS Certification
7 17 (5.78%) CISSP
7 17 (5.78%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (3.06%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 7 (2.38%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (2.38%) DV Cleared
10 4 (1.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (1.02%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 1 (0.34%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 1 (0.34%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
13 1 (0.34%) CCIE
13 1 (0.34%) CCNP
13 1 (0.34%) Cisco Certification
13 1 (0.34%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (9.18%) QA
2 16 (5.44%) Data Quality
3 10 (3.40%) Accessibility
4 6 (2.04%) GDPR
5 2 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.68%) SLA
5 2 (0.68%) WCAG
6 1 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.34%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 1 (0.34%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.34%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.34%) NCSC
6 1 (0.34%) NIST
6 1 (0.34%) PSD2
6 1 (0.34%) SEPA
6 1 (0.34%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 71 (24.15%) Docker
2 11 (3.74%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (1.70%) Active Directory
4 3 (1.02%) Oracle RAC
4 3 (1.02%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.68%) Apache ZooKeeper
5 2 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.34%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.34%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 88 (29.93%) Kubernetes
2 35 (11.90%) Ansible
3 15 (5.10%) Grafana
3 15 (5.10%) Progress Chef
4 12 (4.08%) Prometheus
5 10 (3.40%) SCOM
6 6 (2.04%) Istio
6 6 (2.04%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (1.36%) Argo
8 3 (1.02%) Data Guard
8 3 (1.02%) Oracle RMAN
8 3 (1.02%) Packer
9 2 (0.68%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.34%) Consul
10 1 (0.34%) HAProxy
10 1 (0.34%) Kibana
10 1 (0.34%) linkerd
10 1 (0.34%) Rancher
10 1 (0.34%) vRealize
10 1 (0.34%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 51 (17.35%) Microsoft
2 25 (8.50%) Google
3 20 (6.80%) ServiceNow
4 17 (5.78%) Red Hat
5 16 (5.44%) Splunk
6 14 (4.76%) Oracle
7 12 (4.08%) Palo Alto
8 11 (3.74%) F5
9 10 (3.40%) Aruba
9 10 (3.40%) SAP
10 9 (3.06%) Arista
11 8 (2.72%) Dynatrace
12 6 (2.04%) OpenAI
13 5 (1.70%) Atlassian
13 5 (1.70%) IBM
13 5 (1.70%) Salesforce
14 4 (1.36%) Databricks
14 4 (1.36%) Veracode
15 3 (1.02%) AppDynamics
15 3 (1.02%) MuleSoft