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 6 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 12 17 17
Rank change year-on-year +5 0 -4
Contract jobs citing DevOps 262 188 235
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.61% 8.28% 8.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.99% 9.73% 9.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 209 102 171
10th Percentile £318 £356 £413
25th Percentile £400 £425 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £453 £533 £538
Median % change year-on-year -14.93% -0.93% -6.52%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £616
90th Percentile £651 £656 £663
England median daily rate £525 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 5 19
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £46.18 -
Median hourly rate £45.46 £63.79 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -28.73% +38.12% -2.78%
75th Percentile - £77.50 -
90th Percentile £56.98 £83.50 £47.34
England median hourly rate £59.25 £70.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -15.36% +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 2,186 1,932 2,371
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 88.54% 85.11% 88.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,449 1,064 1,625
10th Percentile £213 £294 £275
25th Percentile £358 £395 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £565 £575 £600
90th Percentile £663 £656 £675
England median daily rate £503 £525 £548
% change year-on-year -4.29% -4.11% -0.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 116 152
10th Percentile £15.56 £16.03 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.75 £21.81 £17.75
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -8.45% +50.39%
75th Percentile £46.71 £51.23 £46.35
90th Percentile £69.80 £68.96 £64.88
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.25
% change year-on-year -28.14% -20.90% +18.00%

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 6 December 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 6 December 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 6 December 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 -1 133 £500 -9.09% 157
Cheshire +13 80 £445 +25.00% 56
Lancashire 0 31 £575 +9.52% 63
Merseyside -1 10 £510 +2.00% 24
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 19 (7.25%) Confluence
2 15 (5.73%) JBoss
3 14 (5.34%) Apache
4 12 (4.58%) IIS
5 11 (4.20%) WebSphere
6 9 (3.44%) Apache Airflow
6 9 (3.44%) iPlanet
6 9 (3.44%) WebSphere Application Server
7 6 (2.29%) CICS
8 4 (1.53%) OpenStack
9 3 (1.15%) Apache Spark
10 2 (0.76%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.76%) NetWeaver
11 1 (0.38%) Anypoint
11 1 (0.38%) Mule
11 1 (0.38%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.38%) nginx
11 1 (0.38%) SharePoint
11 1 (0.38%) Tomcat
Applications
1 6 (2.29%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (2.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.76%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.38%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (1.91%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.38%) Maximo
2 1 (0.38%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.38%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 133 (50.76%) AWS
2 104 (39.69%) Azure
3 47 (17.94%) Azure DevOps
4 34 (12.98%) Serverless
5 31 (11.83%) GitHub
6 29 (11.07%) AWS CloudFormation
6 29 (11.07%) GCP
7 21 (8.02%) OpenShift
8 19 (7.25%) AWS Lambda
9 18 (6.87%) GitHub Actions
10 15 (5.73%) Power Platform
11 12 (4.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 12 (4.58%) Amazon ECS
11 12 (4.58%) Amazon S3
12 11 (4.20%) Amazon EKS
13 10 (3.82%) Amazon SQS
14 9 (3.44%) Figma
15 8 (3.05%) Datadog
15 8 (3.05%) Kong
15 8 (3.05%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.11%) Firewall
2 9 (3.44%) Kerberos
3 5 (1.91%) HTTPS
4 4 (1.53%) SSL
4 4 (1.53%) VPN
5 3 (1.15%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.76%) DNS
6 2 (0.76%) Network Security
7 1 (0.38%) DHCP
7 1 (0.38%) VLAN
7 1 (0.38%) VoIP
7 1 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (4.20%) DynamoDB
1 11 (4.20%) MongoDB
1 11 (4.20%) NoSQL
1 11 (4.20%) Relational Database
1 11 (4.20%) SQL Server
2 10 (3.82%) Oracle Database
3 9 (3.44%) Amazon RDS
3 9 (3.44%) Data Lake
3 9 (3.44%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (3.44%) Power BI
3 9 (3.44%) RDBMS
4 7 (2.67%) Tableau
5 5 (1.91%) Amazon Aurora
5 5 (1.91%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (1.53%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (1.53%) DocumentDB
7 3 (1.15%) Metadata
7 3 (1.15%) MySQL
8 2 (0.76%) Apache Cassandra
8 2 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 52 (19.85%) JIRA
2 46 (17.56%) Git
3 43 (16.41%) Jenkins
4 39 (14.89%) GitLab
5 17 (6.49%) Sonatype Nexus
6 12 (4.58%) Bitbucket Server
6 12 (4.58%) CA Release Automation
7 9 (3.44%) JUnit
8 8 (3.05%) Selenium
8 8 (3.05%) SonarQube
9 7 (2.67%) Bitbucket
9 7 (2.67%) Gradle
10 6 (2.29%) Storybook
10 6 (2.29%) Xcode
11 5 (1.91%) Cucumber
11 5 (1.91%) Postman
12 4 (1.53%) Maven
13 3 (1.15%) Cypress.io
13 3 (1.15%) Rational DOORS
13 3 (1.15%) TeamCity
General
1 60 (22.90%) Social Skills
2 58 (22.14%) Finance
3 43 (16.41%) Public Sector
4 31 (11.83%) Banking
5 21 (8.02%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
7 4 (1.53%) Games
7 4 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.15%) Military
8 3 (1.15%) Publishing
9 2 (0.76%) Financial Institution
9 2 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (0.76%) Law
9 2 (0.76%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (0.76%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.38%) Electronics
10 1 (0.38%) Marketing
10 1 (0.38%) Retail
Job Titles
1 56 (21.37%) Developer
2 40 (15.27%) DevOps Engineer
3 36 (13.74%) Senior
4 34 (12.98%) Lead
5 22 (8.40%) Platform Engineer
6 20 (7.63%) AWS Engineer
7 18 (6.87%) AWS DevOps
8 16 (6.11%) Java Developer
9 15 (5.73%) AWS DevOps Engineer
9 15 (5.73%) Software Engineer
10 12 (4.58%) Architect
11 11 (4.20%) Analyst
12 10 (3.82%) Cloud Engineer
12 10 (3.82%) Senior Developer
13 9 (3.44%) Business Analyst
13 9 (3.44%) Senior DevOps
14 8 (3.05%) Azure Engineer
14 8 (3.05%) DBA
14 8 (3.05%) Solutions Architect
15 7 (2.67%) Senior DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (12.60%) Spring Boot
2 30 (11.45%) REST
3 28 (10.69%) JSON
4 27 (10.31%) Spring
5 26 (9.92%) OAuth
6 20 (7.63%) XML
7 19 (7.25%) React
8 18 (6.87%) Kafka
8 18 (6.87%) Node.js
9 17 (6.49%) HTML
9 17 (6.49%) RESTful
10 15 (5.73%) .NET
11 14 (5.34%) JMS
11 14 (5.34%) SOAP
12 12 (4.58%) AngularJS
13 10 (3.82%) Elastic Stack
13 10 (3.82%) OpenID
13 10 (3.82%) SAML
14 9 (3.44%) CSS
14 9 (3.44%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 26 (9.92%) Cloud Native
2 15 (5.73%) Virtual Team
3 12 (4.58%) Product Ownership
4 11 (4.20%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 9 (3.44%) Distributed Systems
6 8 (3.05%) Onboarding
7 7 (2.67%) Mobile App
8 6 (2.29%) Mainframe
8 6 (2.29%) VSAM
9 5 (1.91%) Data Structures
9 5 (1.91%) IBM Mainframe
10 4 (1.53%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.53%) Low-Code
11 3 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
11 3 (1.15%) Management Information System
11 3 (1.15%) Synthetic Data
11 3 (1.15%) Taxonomies
12 2 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
12 2 (0.76%) PKI
12 2 (0.76%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 40 (15.27%) Linux
2 19 (7.25%) Windows
3 9 (3.44%) Unix
3 9 (3.44%) Windows Server
4 6 (2.29%) Android
4 6 (2.29%) Apple iOS
4 6 (2.29%) zOS
5 4 (1.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.38%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (54.20%) CI/CD
2 105 (40.08%) Agile
3 59 (22.52%) Infrastructure as Code
4 56 (21.37%) Containerisation
5 42 (16.03%) Microservices
6 40 (15.27%) Problem-Solving
7 35 (13.36%) Continuous Improvement
7 35 (13.36%) Test Automation
8 32 (12.21%) Stakeholder Management
9 30 (11.45%) ITIL
10 29 (11.07%) Change Management
11 28 (10.69%) Observability
11 28 (10.69%) Project Delivery
11 28 (10.69%) SDLC
12 24 (9.16%) Cloud Security
12 24 (9.16%) Infrastructure Automation
13 22 (8.40%) Software Engineering
14 21 (8.02%) Mentoring
14 21 (8.02%) Platform Engineering
15 20 (7.63%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 58 (22.14%) Python
2 49 (18.70%) Java
2 49 (18.70%) SQL
3 24 (9.16%) Bash
4 23 (8.78%) TypeScript
5 16 (6.11%) JavaScript
6 14 (5.34%) C#
7 12 (4.58%) Groovy
7 12 (4.58%) Shell Script
8 9 (3.44%) Go
9 8 (3.05%) Perl
10 7 (2.67%) PowerShell
11 6 (2.29%) CLIST
11 6 (2.29%) JCL
11 6 (2.29%) REXX
12 5 (1.91%) C++
13 4 (1.53%) Bicep
13 4 (1.53%) Ruby
13 4 (1.53%) T-SQL
14 3 (1.15%) Scala
Qualifications
1 50 (19.08%) Security Cleared
2 38 (14.50%) SC Cleared
3 29 (11.07%) Degree
4 15 (5.73%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
5 14 (5.34%) AWS Certification
6 11 (4.20%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (3.44%) Azure Certification
8 8 (3.05%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (2.29%) CISSP
10 5 (1.91%) CISM
10 5 (1.91%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (0.76%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.76%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.38%) CBAP
12 1 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
12 1 (0.38%) DV Cleared
12 1 (0.38%) SAFe Agilist
12 1 (0.38%) Tableau Certification
12 1 (0.38%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (10.31%) QA
2 18 (6.87%) Accessibility
3 14 (5.34%) PSD2
4 12 (4.58%) SEPA
5 11 (4.20%) ISO 20022
6 7 (2.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (2.67%) NIST
7 4 (1.53%) PCI DSS
8 3 (1.15%) Data Quality
8 3 (1.15%) GDPR
9 1 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.38%) GRC
9 1 (0.38%) HL7
9 1 (0.38%) SOC 1
9 1 (0.38%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.38%) WCAG
System Software
1 71 (27.10%) Docker
2 13 (4.96%) Active Directory
3 8 (3.05%) Tivoli Directory Server
3 8 (3.05%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (3.05%) vSphere
4 6 (2.29%) Time Sharing Option
5 2 (0.76%) ISA Server
5 2 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.76%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 71 (27.10%) Kubernetes
2 69 (26.34%) Terraform
3 20 (7.63%) Ansible
4 16 (6.11%) Progress Chef
5 12 (4.58%) Prometheus
6 10 (3.82%) CA Single Sign-On
7 9 (3.44%) CA Wily
7 9 (3.44%) Grafana
8 8 (3.05%) Tivoli
9 7 (2.67%) Single Sign-On
10 6 (2.29%) OMEGAMON
11 5 (1.91%) CA Endevor
12 4 (1.53%) Fluentd
13 3 (1.15%) Kibana
13 3 (1.15%) Packer
13 3 (1.15%) Podman
13 3 (1.15%) SELinux
14 1 (0.38%) Istio
14 1 (0.38%) Puppet
14 1 (0.38%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 49 (18.70%) Microsoft
2 32 (12.21%) Oracle
3 25 (9.54%) Splunk
4 21 (8.02%) IBM
5 13 (4.96%) AppDynamics
6 12 (4.58%) ServiceNow
7 10 (3.82%) Broadcom
8 9 (3.44%) VMware
9 8 (3.05%) SAP
10 6 (2.29%) Cribl.io
10 6 (2.29%) F5
10 6 (2.29%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.91%) Axway
11 5 (1.91%) Databricks
11 5 (1.91%) Dynatrace
12 4 (1.53%) Cloudera
12 4 (1.53%) MuleSoft
12 4 (1.53%) Veracode
13 3 (1.15%) Software AG
13 3 (1.15%) webMethods