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

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 14 15
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 -1
Contract jobs citing DevOps 312 212 208
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.85% 9.76% 8.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.46% 10.99% 10.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 216 178 126
10th Percentile £390 £317 £374
25th Percentile £413 £382 £452
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £452 £550
Median % change year-on-year +15.41% -17.91% +4.76%
75th Percentile £640 £569 £650
90th Percentile £712 £673 £850
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 2 2
10th Percentile £25.38 £70.25 -
25th Percentile £37.25 £74.38 -
Median hourly rate £56.73 £82.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -31.24% +78.65% -
75th Percentile £72.92 £89.38 -
90th Percentile £73.20 £92.75 -
England median hourly rate £67.00 £67.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year - -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 3,299 1,929 2,000
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 83.06% 88.77% 83.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,931 1,267 1,175
10th Percentile £300 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £373 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £499
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -9.82% -0.20%
75th Percentile £596 £554 £588
90th Percentile £676 £661 £688
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 334 129 110
10th Percentile £16.01 £13.51 £16.82
25th Percentile £24.89 £17.38 £26.44
Median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £41.41
Median % change year-on-year +88.87% -39.27% +18.32%
75th Percentile £73.25 £52.50 £57.07
90th Percentile £85.00 £72.75 £70.96
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +0.58%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 +1 207 £525 - 195
Cheshire -10 59 £475 +17.60% 20
Lancashire -3 31 £640 +21.90% 40
Merseyside -17 7 £625 +23.76% 6
Cumbria - 1 - - 1
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 23 (7.37%) Confluence
2 8 (2.56%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.60%) SAS
4 4 (1.28%) Camunda
5 3 (0.96%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.64%) Apache
6 2 (0.64%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.32%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.32%) CMS
7 1 (0.32%) Drupal
7 1 (0.32%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.32%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.32%) nginx
7 1 (0.32%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.32%) Traefik
7 1 (0.32%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.32%) WordPress
Applications
1 5 (1.60%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.28%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.96%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.64%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (1.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.32%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (0.32%) SAP PM
2 1 (0.32%) SAP QM
2 1 (0.32%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.32%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 162 (51.92%) Azure
2 141 (45.19%) AWS
3 84 (26.92%) Azure DevOps
4 51 (16.35%) GCP
5 48 (15.38%) GitHub
6 29 (9.29%) Serverless
7 28 (8.97%) GitHub Actions
8 22 (7.05%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 22 (7.05%) Power Platform
9 21 (6.73%) AWS Lambda
10 19 (6.09%) Azure AKS
11 17 (5.45%) Amazon ECS
11 17 (5.45%) Azure Monitor
12 15 (4.81%) Amazon EKS
12 15 (4.81%) OCI
13 14 (4.49%) AWS CloudFormation
13 14 (4.49%) Entra ID
14 13 (4.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 12 (3.85%) OpenShift
15 12 (3.85%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 31 (9.94%) Firewall
2 12 (3.85%) SSL
3 11 (3.53%) BGP
3 11 (3.53%) Ethernet VPN
3 11 (3.53%) OSPF
3 11 (3.53%) SD-WAN
3 11 (3.53%) VXLAN
3 11 (3.53%) WAN
4 10 (3.21%) BIG-IP
4 10 (3.21%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 9 (2.88%) Wi-Fi
5 9 (2.88%) WLAN
6 8 (2.56%) DNS
6 8 (2.56%) Network Security
7 5 (1.60%) VPN
8 3 (0.96%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.64%) DHCP
10 1 (0.32%) Cisco Nexus
10 1 (0.32%) HTTP
10 1 (0.32%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (11.54%) SQL Server
2 20 (6.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 18 (5.77%) MongoDB
3 18 (5.77%) Relational Database
4 17 (5.45%) MySQL
5 14 (4.49%) Power BI
6 13 (4.17%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (3.21%) Oracle Database
7 10 (3.21%) RDBMS
8 9 (2.88%) NoSQL
9 7 (2.24%) Ataccama
9 7 (2.24%) Data Lake
10 6 (1.92%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (1.60%) BigQuery
11 5 (1.60%) DynamoDB
12 4 (1.28%) Oracle Exadata
12 4 (1.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 3 (0.96%) Amazon RDS
13 3 (0.96%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 52 (16.67%) GitLab
2 42 (13.46%) Git
2 42 (13.46%) Jenkins
3 31 (9.94%) JIRA
4 14 (4.49%) Claude Code
5 13 (4.17%) Selenium
6 12 (3.85%) JUnit
6 12 (3.85%) REST Assured
7 11 (3.53%) Postman
7 11 (3.53%) SonarQube
7 11 (3.53%) Sonatype Nexus
8 9 (2.88%) Cucumber
9 8 (2.56%) Mockito
10 6 (1.92%) Gatling
10 6 (1.92%) Gradle
10 6 (1.92%) Maven
11 3 (0.96%) Bitbucket Server
11 3 (0.96%) ClearCase
11 3 (0.96%) Serenity BDD
11 3 (0.96%) TestRail
General
1 65 (20.83%) Finance
2 52 (16.67%) Social Skills
3 37 (11.86%) Public Sector
4 27 (8.65%) Banking
5 24 (7.69%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (4.49%) Retail
7 10 (3.21%) Military
8 4 (1.28%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.96%) Health Technology
9 3 (0.96%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.64%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.64%) Local Government
11 1 (0.32%) Corporate Banking
11 1 (0.32%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.32%) iGaming
11 1 (0.32%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.32%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.32%) Legal
11 1 (0.32%) Publishing
11 1 (0.32%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 62 (19.87%) DevOps Engineer
1 62 (19.87%) Senior
2 45 (14.42%) Lead
3 41 (13.14%) Developer
4 28 (8.97%) Architect
5 23 (7.37%) Cloud Engineer
6 17 (5.45%) Senior DevOps
6 17 (5.45%) Software Engineer
7 16 (5.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 16 (5.13%) Security Engineer
7 16 (5.13%) Senior DevOps Engineer
7 16 (5.13%) Solutions Architect
8 15 (4.81%) Analyst
8 15 (4.81%) DBA
9 14 (4.49%) AWS Engineer
10 13 (4.17%) Azure Engineer
11 12 (3.85%) Consultant
11 12 (3.85%) SQL DBA
12 11 (3.53%) Java Developer
12 11 (3.53%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 113 (36.22%) Terraform
2 32 (10.26%) Spring Boot
3 30 (9.62%) Spring
4 29 (9.29%) REST
5 28 (8.97%) Kafka
6 26 (8.33%) React
7 22 (7.05%) Node.js
8 17 (5.45%) JSON
9 15 (4.81%) Playwright
10 13 (4.17%) .NET
11 10 (3.21%) PySpark
12 9 (2.88%) RESTful
13 8 (2.56%) AngularJS
13 8 (2.56%) HTML
13 8 (2.56%) Next.js
13 8 (2.56%) XML
14 7 (2.24%) ARM Templates
15 6 (1.92%) CSS
16 5 (1.60%) Azure Blueprints
16 5 (1.60%) Langfuse
Miscellaneous
1 73 (23.40%) Cloud Native
2 18 (5.77%) Replication
2 18 (5.77%) Security Posture
3 15 (4.81%) Management Information System
4 14 (4.49%) Clustering
4 14 (4.49%) Hybrid Cloud
4 14 (4.49%) Product Ownership
5 12 (3.85%) Data Structures
6 11 (3.53%) Data Centre
6 11 (3.53%) Onboarding
7 10 (3.21%) Distributed Systems
8 9 (2.88%) Legacy Systems
9 8 (2.56%) Algorithms
10 7 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
11 6 (1.92%) Cloud Security Posture
11 6 (1.92%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.60%) AI Agents
12 5 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
13 4 (1.28%) Enterprise Cloud
13 4 (1.28%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 39 (12.50%) Linux
2 35 (11.22%) Windows
3 18 (5.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (4.17%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.28%) Unix
6 3 (0.96%) AIX
6 3 (0.96%) VMS
7 1 (0.32%) Android
7 1 (0.32%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.32%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (61.22%) CI/CD
2 113 (36.22%) Agile
3 91 (29.17%) Infrastructure as Code
4 65 (20.83%) Observability
5 58 (18.59%) Test Automation
6 57 (18.27%) Microservices
7 54 (17.31%) Continuous Improvement
8 50 (16.03%) Containerisation
9 48 (15.38%) AI
10 46 (14.74%) Migration
10 46 (14.74%) Software Engineering
11 39 (12.50%) Scrum
11 39 (12.50%) SDLC
12 36 (11.54%) Platform Engineering
13 35 (11.22%) Technical Leadership
14 34 (10.90%) Cloud Security
15 33 (10.58%) Event-Driven
15 33 (10.58%) Problem-Solving
16 32 (10.26%) Roadmaps
16 32 (10.26%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 89 (28.53%) Python
2 75 (24.04%) Java
3 54 (17.31%) SQL
4 50 (16.03%) PowerShell
5 37 (11.86%) Bash
6 25 (8.01%) JavaScript
7 19 (6.09%) C#
8 17 (5.45%) Bicep
8 17 (5.45%) T-SQL
8 17 (5.45%) TypeScript
9 4 (1.28%) Search Processing Language
9 4 (1.28%) Shell Script
10 3 (0.96%) Rust
10 3 (0.96%) VB
10 3 (0.96%) VB6
11 2 (0.64%) Go
11 2 (0.64%) PROC SQL
11 2 (0.64%) Scala
12 1 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.32%) PHP
Qualifications
1 82 (26.28%) Security Cleared
2 71 (22.76%) SC Cleared
3 38 (12.18%) Degree
4 31 (9.94%) Azure Certification
5 27 (8.65%) BPSS Clearance
6 23 (7.37%) AWS Certification
7 17 (5.45%) CISSP
7 17 (5.45%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (2.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 7 (2.24%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (2.24%) DV Cleared
10 4 (1.28%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (0.96%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.64%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 1 (0.32%) CCIE
13 1 (0.32%) CCNP
13 1 (0.32%) Cisco Certification
13 1 (0.32%) OCP
13 1 (0.32%) Oracle Certification
13 1 (0.32%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (9.94%) QA
2 16 (5.13%) Data Quality
3 11 (3.53%) Accessibility
4 6 (1.92%) GDPR
5 3 (0.96%) NIST
5 3 (0.96%) SLA
5 3 (0.96%) WCAG
6 2 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.32%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.32%) GRC
7 1 (0.32%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.32%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.32%) NCSC
7 1 (0.32%) PSD2
7 1 (0.32%) SEPA
7 1 (0.32%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 76 (24.36%) Docker
2 13 (4.17%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (1.92%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.28%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.64%) Apache ZooKeeper
5 2 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.64%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.32%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.32%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 93 (29.81%) Kubernetes
2 37 (11.86%) Ansible
3 16 (5.13%) Grafana
4 15 (4.81%) Progress Chef
5 13 (4.17%) Prometheus
6 10 (3.21%) SCOM
7 7 (2.24%) Istio
8 5 (1.60%) Argo
8 5 (1.60%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (1.28%) Data Guard
9 4 (1.28%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (0.96%) Packer
11 2 (0.64%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.32%) Consul
12 1 (0.32%) linkerd
12 1 (0.32%) Rancher
12 1 (0.32%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.32%) vRealize
12 1 (0.32%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 56 (17.95%) Microsoft
2 26 (8.33%) Google
3 20 (6.41%) ServiceNow
4 19 (6.09%) Red Hat
5 16 (5.13%) Oracle
6 15 (4.81%) Splunk
7 12 (3.85%) Palo Alto
8 11 (3.53%) F5
9 10 (3.21%) Aruba
9 10 (3.21%) SAP
10 9 (2.88%) Arista
10 9 (2.88%) Dynatrace
11 6 (1.92%) OpenAI
12 5 (1.60%) Atlassian
12 5 (1.60%) IBM
12 5 (1.60%) Salesforce
13 4 (1.28%) Databricks
13 4 (1.28%) Veracode
13 4 (1.28%) VMware
14 3 (0.96%) MuleSoft