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 17 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 13 16
Rank change year-on-year -3 +3 -2
Contract jobs citing DevOps 330 196 229
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 9.00% 9.12% 8.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.76% 10.38% 10.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 155 157
10th Percentile £391 £334 £413
25th Percentile £413 £397 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +10.11% -9.52% -
75th Percentile £621 £575 £650
90th Percentile £700 £645 £850
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 2 2
10th Percentile - £70.25 -
25th Percentile £25.38 £74.38 -
Median hourly rate £46.80 £82.50 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -43.27% +79.82% -0.65%
75th Percentile £75.00 £89.38 -
90th Percentile £88.00 £92.75 -
England median hourly rate £67.50 £67.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +0.75% -4.29% +6.87%

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 3,067 1,889 2,254
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 83.62% 87.86% 84.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,813 1,236 1,385
10th Percentile £300 £279 £300
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £486 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +7.90% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £588 £563 £582
90th Percentile £675 £668 £671
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 121 244
10th Percentile £17.25 £13.50 £10.97
25th Percentile £25.38 £18.87 £15.50
Median hourly rate £55.00 £28.75 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year +91.30% +6.48% -7.85%
75th Percentile £76.00 £59.90 £46.51
90th Percentile £85.00 £76.25 £68.38
England median hourly rate £47.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +86.88% -34.02% -8.14%

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 17 July 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 17 July 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 17 July 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 +6 219 £500 -4.76% 143
Cheshire -11 62 £505 +25.59% 20
Lancashire +7 28 £640 +18.52% 41
Merseyside -13 12 £510 -2.63% 16
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 22 (6.67%) Confluence
2 9 (2.73%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.52%) Apache Spark
4 4 (1.21%) SAS
5 3 (0.91%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.61%) Apache
7 1 (0.30%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.30%) Camunda
7 1 (0.30%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.30%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.30%) nginx
7 1 (0.30%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 6 (1.82%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.61%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.61%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.61%) Trello
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (1.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (0.30%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.30%) SAP PM
2 1 (0.30%) SAP QM
2 1 (0.30%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.30%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 180 (54.55%) Azure
2 149 (45.15%) AWS
3 82 (24.85%) Azure DevOps
4 54 (16.36%) GCP
5 52 (15.76%) GitHub
6 40 (12.12%) Serverless
7 31 (9.39%) GitHub Actions
8 24 (7.27%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 23 (6.97%) AWS Lambda
10 20 (6.06%) Azure AKS
11 16 (4.85%) Amazon S3
12 15 (4.55%) Amazon EC2
12 15 (4.55%) SaaS
12 15 (4.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 14 (4.24%) Dynamics 365
13 14 (4.24%) Power Platform
14 13 (3.94%) Entra ID
14 13 (3.94%) OCI
15 11 (3.33%) Azure Monitor
15 11 (3.33%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 35 (10.61%) Firewall
2 10 (3.03%) BGP
2 10 (3.03%) BIG-IP
2 10 (3.03%) Ethernet VPN
2 10 (3.03%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
2 10 (3.03%) OSPF
2 10 (3.03%) SD-WAN
2 10 (3.03%) VXLAN
2 10 (3.03%) WAN
3 9 (2.73%) DNS
3 9 (2.73%) Wi-Fi
3 9 (2.73%) WLAN
4 8 (2.42%) Network Security
5 6 (1.82%) SSL
6 4 (1.21%) DHCP
7 3 (0.91%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.91%) VPN
8 2 (0.61%) NetScaler
9 1 (0.30%) iSCSI
9 1 (0.30%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.18%) SQL Server
2 24 (7.27%) MongoDB
3 21 (6.36%) Relational Database
4 18 (5.45%) PostgreSQL
5 13 (3.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 12 (3.64%) NoSQL
7 11 (3.33%) RDBMS
8 9 (2.73%) Oracle Database
9 8 (2.42%) Data Lake
9 8 (2.42%) MySQL
10 7 (2.12%) Amazon RDS
10 7 (2.12%) Ataccama
10 7 (2.12%) DocumentDB
10 7 (2.12%) DynamoDB
10 7 (2.12%) Elasticsearch
10 7 (2.12%) Power BI
11 5 (1.52%) BigQuery
11 5 (1.52%) Data Vault
12 4 (1.21%) Oracle Reports
13 3 (0.91%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 55 (16.67%) GitLab
2 47 (14.24%) Git
3 44 (13.33%) Jenkins
4 36 (10.91%) JIRA
5 14 (4.24%) Selenium
6 10 (3.03%) Postman
6 10 (3.03%) REST Assured
7 9 (2.73%) Claude Code
8 8 (2.42%) Cucumber
8 8 (2.42%) Gatling
8 8 (2.42%) SonarQube
9 6 (1.82%) JUnit
9 6 (1.82%) Sonatype Nexus
10 5 (1.52%) Gradle
10 5 (1.52%) Serenity BDD
11 4 (1.21%) Mocha
12 3 (0.91%) ClearCase
12 3 (0.91%) Cypress.io
12 3 (0.91%) Maven
12 3 (0.91%) Zephyr
General
1 65 (19.70%) Finance
2 57 (17.27%) Social Skills
3 53 (16.06%) Public Sector
4 25 (7.58%) Banking
5 22 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (4.24%) Retail
7 7 (2.12%) Military
8 4 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.91%) Health Technology
9 3 (0.91%) Local Government
9 3 (0.91%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.61%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.61%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.61%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.61%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.61%) Publishing
11 1 (0.30%) Advertising
11 1 (0.30%) Law
11 1 (0.30%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.30%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 59 (17.88%) DevOps Engineer
1 59 (17.88%) Senior
2 54 (16.36%) Developer
3 49 (14.85%) Lead
4 29 (8.79%) Architect
5 19 (5.76%) Software Engineer
6 17 (5.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 16 (4.85%) Azure Engineer
7 16 (4.85%) Cloud Engineer
7 16 (4.85%) Java Developer
7 16 (4.85%) Lead Developer
7 16 (4.85%) Security Engineer
8 15 (4.55%) Software Developer
8 15 (4.55%) Solutions Architect
9 14 (4.24%) Analyst
9 14 (4.24%) Senior Developer
10 13 (3.94%) DBA
11 12 (3.64%) Platform Engineer
11 12 (3.64%) Senior DevOps
12 11 (3.33%) Azure DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (12.73%) Spring
2 41 (12.42%) Spring Boot
3 29 (8.79%) Kafka
3 29 (8.79%) REST
4 28 (8.48%) Node.js
5 27 (8.18%) React
6 17 (5.15%) .NET
6 17 (5.15%) Playwright
7 15 (4.55%) JSON
8 12 (3.64%) PySpark
8 12 (3.64%) XML
9 11 (3.33%) AngularJS
10 9 (2.73%) RESTful
11 8 (2.42%) ARM Templates
11 8 (2.42%) GraphQL
12 6 (1.82%) Next.js
13 5 (1.52%) LangChain
13 5 (1.52%) Langfuse
13 5 (1.52%) Spring Cloud
14 4 (1.21%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 75 (22.73%) Cloud Native
2 20 (6.06%) Product Ownership
3 17 (5.15%) Security Posture
4 15 (4.55%) Hybrid Cloud
4 15 (4.55%) Management Information System
5 12 (3.64%) Data Centre
5 12 (3.64%) Replication
6 11 (3.33%) Legacy Systems
7 10 (3.03%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (2.42%) Clustering
8 8 (2.42%) Onboarding
9 7 (2.12%) AI Agents
9 7 (2.12%) Data Structures
9 7 (2.12%) Private Cloud
9 7 (2.12%) Public Cloud
10 6 (1.82%) Algorithms
11 5 (1.52%) Distributed Systems
11 5 (1.52%) Linux Command Line
11 5 (1.52%) Mainframe
11 5 (1.52%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 36 (10.91%) Linux
2 24 (7.27%) Windows
3 14 (4.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (1.82%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.21%) VMS
6 2 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
6 2 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.30%) AIX
7 1 (0.30%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 200 (60.61%) CI/CD
2 121 (36.67%) Agile
3 88 (26.67%) Infrastructure as Code
4 64 (19.39%) Microservices
4 64 (19.39%) Observability
5 58 (17.58%) Test Automation
6 55 (16.67%) Containerisation
7 54 (16.36%) Continuous Improvement
8 45 (13.64%) AI
9 42 (12.73%) Mentoring
9 42 (12.73%) Software Engineering
10 37 (11.21%) Problem-Solving
10 37 (11.21%) Scrum
11 36 (10.91%) Platform Engineering
11 36 (10.91%) SDLC
12 34 (10.30%) Migration
12 34 (10.30%) Technical Leadership
13 32 (9.70%) Roadmaps
14 31 (9.39%) Event-Driven
15 30 (9.09%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 98 (29.70%) Python
2 87 (26.36%) Java
3 48 (14.55%) PowerShell
4 46 (13.94%) SQL
5 37 (11.21%) Bash
6 24 (7.27%) JavaScript
6 24 (7.27%) TypeScript
7 22 (6.67%) C#
8 12 (3.64%) Bicep
9 10 (3.03%) T-SQL
10 7 (2.12%) Rust
11 6 (1.82%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.91%) Go
12 3 (0.91%) VB
12 3 (0.91%) VB6
13 2 (0.61%) C++
13 2 (0.61%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.61%) PROC SQL
13 2 (0.61%) Scala
14 1 (0.30%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 77 (23.33%) Security Cleared
2 57 (17.27%) SC Cleared
3 34 (10.30%) Degree
4 28 (8.48%) Azure Certification
5 27 (8.18%) AWS Certification
6 19 (5.76%) BPSS Clearance
7 17 (5.15%) CISSP
8 12 (3.64%) DV Cleared
9 8 (2.42%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 8 (2.42%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (2.12%) ITIL Certification
11 4 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (0.91%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 3 (0.91%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 3 (0.91%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.61%) CCIE
13 2 (0.61%) CCNP
13 2 (0.61%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.61%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (8.79%) QA
2 17 (5.15%) Accessibility
3 14 (4.24%) Data Quality
4 9 (2.73%) GDPR
5 5 (1.52%) NIST
6 4 (1.21%) SLA
7 3 (0.91%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.91%) GRC
7 3 (0.91%) HIPAA
7 3 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (0.91%) WCAG
8 2 (0.61%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.61%) PSD2
8 2 (0.61%) SEPA
9 1 (0.30%) PMO
9 1 (0.30%) Solvency II
System Software
1 83 (25.15%) Docker
2 10 (3.03%) Virtual Machines
3 8 (2.42%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.21%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.91%) Oracle RAC
5 3 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.91%) vSphere
6 2 (0.61%) Apache ZooKeeper
7 1 (0.30%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 123 (37.27%) Terraform
2 91 (27.58%) Kubernetes
3 37 (11.21%) Ansible
4 23 (6.97%) Grafana
5 18 (5.45%) Prometheus
6 12 (3.64%) Progress Chef
7 11 (3.33%) Argo
8 8 (2.42%) Istio
9 4 (1.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (1.21%) SCOM
9 4 (1.21%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.91%) Data Guard
10 3 (0.91%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.61%) CA Single Sign-On
11 2 (0.61%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.61%) linkerd
11 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
11 2 (0.61%) Packer
11 2 (0.61%) SCCM
12 1 (0.30%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 65 (19.70%) Microsoft
2 28 (8.48%) Google
3 20 (6.06%) Oracle
4 16 (4.85%) Splunk
5 15 (4.55%) Red Hat
5 15 (4.55%) ServiceNow
6 13 (3.94%) F5
7 11 (3.33%) Palo Alto
8 10 (3.03%) Aruba
9 9 (2.73%) Arista
9 9 (2.73%) Databricks
9 9 (2.73%) OpenAI
10 8 (2.42%) Dynatrace
10 8 (2.42%) SAP
11 4 (1.21%) Atlassian
11 4 (1.21%) CyberArk
11 4 (1.21%) IBM
11 4 (1.21%) Salesforce
11 4 (1.21%) VMware
12 3 (0.91%) Foundry