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 23 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 13 19 16
Rank change year-on-year +6 -3 -3
Contract jobs citing DevOps 258 184 237
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.62% 7.80% 8.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.06% 9.26% 9.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 96 171
10th Percentile £318 £356 £425
25th Percentile £393 £422 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £457 £533 £545
Median % change year-on-year -14.27% -2.29% -4.55%
75th Percentile £597 £589 £625
90th Percentile £664 £650 £673
England median daily rate £525 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 5 20
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £46.18 -
Median hourly rate £45.46 £63.79 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -28.73% +38.12% -12.87%
75th Percentile - £77.50 -
90th Percentile £56.98 £83.50 £46.76
England median hourly rate £61.25 £70.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -12.50% +7.69% -0.92%

All Process and 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 2,140 1,988 2,432
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 88.07% 84.24% 88.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,418 1,070 1,670
10th Percentile £213 £294 £270
25th Percentile £358 £390 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £675 £650 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -3.81% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 188 121 159
10th Percentile £15.18 £16.25 £16.00
25th Percentile £19.07 £23.65 £18.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.43% - +55.56%
75th Percentile £45.88 £51.91 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.55 £70.90 £64.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.75 £44.50
% change year-on-year -29.65% -19.66% +25.35%

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 23 November 2025.

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 23 November 2025.

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 23 November 2025. 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 -3 126 £500 -9.09% 72
Cheshire +20 84 £430 +16.06% 21
Lancashire +5 31 £575 +9.52% 61
Merseyside +2 10 £510 +2.00% 7
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 (8.14%) Confluence
2 16 (6.20%) JBoss
3 15 (5.81%) Apache
4 13 (5.04%) WebSphere
5 12 (4.65%) IIS
6 11 (4.26%) WebSphere Application Server
7 9 (3.49%) Apache Airflow
7 9 (3.49%) iPlanet
8 7 (2.71%) CICS
9 4 (1.55%) OpenStack
10 3 (1.16%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.78%) NetWeaver
11 2 (0.78%) nginx
11 2 (0.78%) Tomcat
12 1 (0.39%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.39%) Mule
12 1 (0.39%) Mule ESB
12 1 (0.39%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (2.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.78%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.39%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (1.94%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.39%) Maximo
2 1 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 133 (51.55%) AWS
2 102 (39.53%) Azure
3 46 (17.83%) Azure DevOps
4 33 (12.79%) GitHub
5 31 (12.02%) GCP
6 29 (11.24%) AWS CloudFormation
7 28 (10.85%) Serverless
8 22 (8.53%) OpenShift
9 20 (7.75%) AWS Lambda
10 19 (7.36%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (5.43%) Power Platform
12 12 (4.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 12 (4.65%) Amazon ECS
13 11 (4.26%) Amazon EKS
14 10 (3.88%) Amazon SQS
14 10 (3.88%) SaaS
15 9 (3.49%) Amazon S3
15 9 (3.49%) Figma
16 8 (3.10%) Kong
16 8 (3.10%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.20%) Firewall
2 9 (3.49%) Kerberos
3 5 (1.94%) HTTPS
4 4 (1.55%) SSL
4 4 (1.55%) VPN
5 3 (1.16%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.78%) Calico
6 2 (0.78%) DNS
6 2 (0.78%) Network Security
7 1 (0.39%) DHCP
7 1 (0.39%) VLAN
7 1 (0.39%) VoIP
7 1 (0.39%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (4.65%) SQL Server
2 11 (4.26%) Oracle Database
3 9 (3.49%) Amazon RDS
3 9 (3.49%) Data Lake
3 9 (3.49%) Relational Database
4 8 (3.10%) DynamoDB
4 8 (3.10%) Power BI
5 7 (2.71%) MongoDB
5 7 (2.71%) NoSQL
5 7 (2.71%) Tableau
6 6 (2.33%) RDBMS
7 5 (1.94%) Amazon Aurora
7 5 (1.94%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (1.55%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (1.55%) DocumentDB
9 3 (1.16%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (1.16%) Metadata
9 3 (1.16%) MySQL
10 2 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.78%) DB2
Development Applications
1 56 (21.71%) JIRA
2 50 (19.38%) Git
2 50 (19.38%) Jenkins
3 42 (16.28%) GitLab
4 18 (6.98%) Sonatype Nexus
5 13 (5.04%) Bitbucket Server
5 13 (5.04%) CA Release Automation
6 9 (3.49%) JUnit
6 9 (3.49%) Selenium
6 9 (3.49%) SonarQube
7 8 (3.10%) Bitbucket
8 7 (2.71%) Gradle
8 7 (2.71%) Maven
9 6 (2.33%) Cucumber
9 6 (2.33%) Storybook
9 6 (2.33%) Xcode
10 5 (1.94%) Postman
11 4 (1.55%) TeamCity
12 3 (1.16%) Cypress.io
12 3 (1.16%) Rational DOORS
General
1 62 (24.03%) Social Skills
2 57 (22.09%) Finance
3 39 (15.12%) Public Sector
4 32 (12.40%) Banking
5 26 (10.08%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (2.71%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (2.33%) Presentation Skills
8 5 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.94%) Publishing
9 4 (1.55%) Games
10 3 (1.16%) Military
10 3 (1.16%) Retail
11 2 (0.78%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.78%) Law
11 2 (0.78%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.78%) Telecoms
12 1 (0.39%) Digital Healthcare
12 1 (0.39%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 53 (20.54%) Developer
2 39 (15.12%) DevOps Engineer
3 38 (14.73%) Senior
4 36 (13.95%) Lead
5 24 (9.30%) Platform Engineer
6 19 (7.36%) AWS Engineer
7 17 (6.59%) AWS DevOps
8 15 (5.81%) Java Developer
9 14 (5.43%) AWS DevOps Engineer
9 14 (5.43%) Software Engineer
10 13 (5.04%) Architect
11 11 (4.26%) Analyst
12 10 (3.88%) Cloud Engineer
12 10 (3.88%) Senior Developer
13 9 (3.49%) Business Analyst
13 9 (3.49%) Senior DevOps
14 8 (3.10%) Solutions Architect
15 7 (2.71%) React Developer
15 7 (2.71%) Security Engineer
15 7 (2.71%) Senior DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (11.24%) REST
1 29 (11.24%) Spring Boot
2 26 (10.08%) OAuth
3 24 (9.30%) JSON
4 22 (8.53%) Spring
5 19 (7.36%) React
6 16 (6.20%) Node.js
7 15 (5.81%) Kafka
7 15 (5.81%) XML
8 14 (5.43%) HTML
8 14 (5.43%) SOAP
9 13 (5.04%) .NET
9 13 (5.04%) JMS
9 13 (5.04%) RESTful
10 11 (4.26%) Elastic Stack
11 10 (3.88%) OpenID
11 10 (3.88%) SAML
12 9 (3.49%) LDAP
13 7 (2.71%) CSS
13 7 (2.71%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 28 (10.85%) Cloud Native
2 15 (5.81%) Virtual Team
3 11 (4.26%) Product Ownership
4 10 (3.88%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 8 (3.10%) Mobile App
6 7 (2.71%) Distributed Systems
6 7 (2.71%) Mainframe
6 7 (2.71%) VSAM
7 6 (2.33%) Onboarding
8 5 (1.94%) IBM Mainframe
8 5 (1.94%) Management Information System
9 4 (1.55%) Low-Code
10 3 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (1.16%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (1.16%) Synthetic Data
10 3 (1.16%) Taxonomies
11 2 (0.78%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
11 2 (0.78%) PKI
11 2 (0.78%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 43 (16.67%) Linux
2 20 (7.75%) Windows
3 9 (3.49%) Unix
3 9 (3.49%) Windows Server
4 8 (3.10%) Android
4 8 (3.10%) Apple iOS
5 6 (2.33%) zOS
6 5 (1.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.39%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 144 (55.81%) CI/CD
2 99 (38.37%) Agile
3 62 (24.03%) Infrastructure as Code
4 51 (19.77%) Containerisation
5 39 (15.12%) Microservices
5 39 (15.12%) Problem-Solving
6 37 (14.34%) Continuous Improvement
7 36 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
8 34 (13.18%) Test Automation
9 33 (12.79%) Change Management
9 33 (12.79%) ITIL
10 30 (11.63%) Observability
10 30 (11.63%) Project Delivery
11 25 (9.69%) Cloud Security
11 25 (9.69%) SDLC
12 24 (9.30%) Infrastructure Automation
13 23 (8.91%) Platform Engineering
14 22 (8.53%) Service Delivery
15 21 (8.14%) Release Management
15 21 (8.14%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 59 (22.87%) Python
2 46 (17.83%) SQL
3 45 (17.44%) Java
4 24 (9.30%) Bash
5 19 (7.36%) TypeScript
6 18 (6.98%) JavaScript
7 14 (5.43%) Shell Script
8 13 (5.04%) C#
9 12 (4.65%) Groovy
10 9 (3.49%) Go
10 9 (3.49%) Perl
11 7 (2.71%) JCL
11 7 (2.71%) PowerShell
12 6 (2.33%) CLIST
12 6 (2.33%) REXX
13 4 (1.55%) C++
13 4 (1.55%) Ruby
13 4 (1.55%) T-SQL
14 3 (1.16%) Bicep
14 3 (1.16%) Scala
Qualifications
1 46 (17.83%) Security Cleared
2 37 (14.34%) SC Cleared
3 30 (11.63%) Degree
4 15 (5.81%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
5 14 (5.43%) AWS Certification
6 11 (4.26%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (3.49%) Azure Certification
8 8 (3.10%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (3.10%) ITIL Certification
9 7 (2.71%) CISSP
10 6 (2.33%) CISM
11 2 (0.78%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.78%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.39%) CompTIA Security+
12 1 (0.39%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.39%) PMP
12 1 (0.39%) SAFe Agilist
12 1 (0.39%) Tableau Certification
12 1 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (10.08%) QA
2 19 (7.36%) Accessibility
3 13 (5.04%) PSD2
4 11 (4.26%) SEPA
5 10 (3.88%) ISO 20022
6 8 (3.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (3.10%) NIST
7 4 (1.55%) PCI DSS
8 3 (1.16%) GDPR
9 2 (0.78%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.39%) GRC
10 1 (0.39%) SOC 1
10 1 (0.39%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.39%) WCAG
System Software
1 70 (27.13%) Docker
2 14 (5.43%) Active Directory
3 8 (3.10%) Tivoli Directory Server
3 8 (3.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (3.10%) vSphere
4 6 (2.33%) Time Sharing Option
5 2 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.78%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 75 (29.07%) Kubernetes
2 74 (28.68%) Terraform
3 21 (8.14%) Ansible
4 17 (6.59%) Progress Chef
5 12 (4.65%) Prometheus
6 10 (3.88%) CA Single Sign-On
7 9 (3.49%) CA Wily
7 9 (3.49%) Grafana
8 8 (3.10%) Tivoli
9 7 (2.71%) Single Sign-On
10 6 (2.33%) OMEGAMON
11 5 (1.94%) CA Endevor
12 4 (1.55%) Fluentd
12 4 (1.55%) Kibana
13 3 (1.16%) Istio
13 3 (1.16%) Packer
13 3 (1.16%) Podman
13 3 (1.16%) SELinux
14 1 (0.39%) Puppet
14 1 (0.39%) SCCM
Vendors
1 50 (19.38%) Microsoft
2 27 (10.47%) Oracle
3 25 (9.69%) Splunk
4 23 (8.91%) IBM
5 15 (5.81%) ServiceNow
6 14 (5.43%) AppDynamics
7 10 (3.88%) Broadcom
8 9 (3.49%) VMware
9 8 (3.10%) SAP
10 6 (2.33%) Cribl.io
10 6 (2.33%) Dynatrace
10 6 (2.33%) F5
10 6 (2.33%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.94%) Axway
11 5 (1.94%) Cloudera
11 5 (1.94%) Databricks
12 4 (1.55%) MuleSoft
12 4 (1.55%) Red Hat
12 4 (1.55%) Veracode
13 3 (1.16%) Software AG