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

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 15 14
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 -1
Contract jobs citing DevOps 338 195 220
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 9.09% 8.94% 8.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.96% 10.17% 10.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 155 147
10th Percentile £393 £326 £413
25th Percentile £413 £397 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £550
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -13.64% +4.76%
75th Percentile £634 £575 £650
90th Percentile £700 £650 £850
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 2 2
10th Percentile - £70.25 £45.91
25th Percentile £25.38 £74.38 £45.96
Median hourly rate £39.50 £82.50 £46.03
Median % change year-on-year -52.12% +79.23% -0.32%
75th Percentile £73.00 £89.38 £46.11
90th Percentile £74.60 £92.75 £46.15
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 3,083 1,918 2,102
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.94% 87.90% 84.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,812 1,240 1,286
10th Percentile £291 £275 £300
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £453 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.55% -9.35% -
75th Percentile £594 £575 £588
90th Percentile £675 £671 £675
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 301 124 203
10th Percentile £17.25 £13.50 £10.95
25th Percentile £25.38 £18.87 £16.06
Median hourly rate £50.00 £28.75 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.91% -4.17% -1.77%
75th Percentile £75.00 £56.19 £51.44
90th Percentile £85.00 £74.63 £70.67
England median hourly rate £46.90 £25.15 £40.33
% change year-on-year +86.48% -37.63% -5.12%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 +4 224 £500 -4.76% 145
Cheshire -7 65 £500 +24.38% 20
Lancashire +7 30 £640 +21.33% 33
Merseyside -10 12 £568 +21.07% 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 23 (6.80%) Confluence
2 8 (2.37%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.48%) Apache Spark
4 4 (1.18%) SAS
5 3 (0.89%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.59%) Apache
7 1 (0.30%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.30%) Camunda
7 1 (0.30%) CMS
7 1 (0.30%) Drupal
7 1 (0.30%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.30%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.30%) nginx
7 1 (0.30%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.30%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.30%) WordPress
Applications
1 6 (1.78%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.89%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.59%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.59%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.59%) Trello
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (1.48%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
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
1 178 (52.66%) Azure
2 159 (47.04%) AWS
3 84 (24.85%) Azure DevOps
4 55 (16.27%) GCP
5 51 (15.09%) GitHub
6 38 (11.24%) Serverless
7 31 (9.17%) GitHub Actions
8 27 (7.99%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 20 (5.92%) AWS Lambda
9 20 (5.92%) Azure AKS
10 15 (4.44%) Amazon EKS
10 15 (4.44%) OCI
10 15 (4.44%) Power Platform
10 15 (4.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 14 (4.14%) Azure Monitor
11 14 (4.14%) SaaS
12 13 (3.85%) Dynamics 365
12 13 (3.85%) Entra ID
13 11 (3.25%) Amazon ECS
13 11 (3.25%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 37 (10.95%) Firewall
2 11 (3.25%) BGP
2 11 (3.25%) Ethernet VPN
2 11 (3.25%) OSPF
2 11 (3.25%) SD-WAN
2 11 (3.25%) VXLAN
2 11 (3.25%) WAN
3 10 (2.96%) BIG-IP
3 10 (2.96%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 10 (2.96%) Network Security
4 9 (2.66%) Wi-Fi
4 9 (2.66%) WLAN
5 8 (2.37%) DNS
6 7 (2.07%) SSL
7 5 (1.48%) VPN
8 3 (0.89%) DHCP
8 3 (0.89%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.30%) MPLS
9 1 (0.30%) SAN
9 1 (0.30%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (8.58%) SQL Server
2 25 (7.40%) MongoDB
3 23 (6.80%) Relational Database
4 20 (5.92%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (4.14%) NoSQL
5 14 (4.14%) RDBMS
5 14 (4.14%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 12 (3.55%) MySQL
7 10 (2.96%) Oracle Database
8 9 (2.66%) Elasticsearch
9 8 (2.37%) Data Lake
9 8 (2.37%) Power BI
10 7 (2.07%) Ataccama
11 6 (1.78%) DynamoDB
12 5 (1.48%) BigQuery
12 5 (1.48%) Data Vault
12 5 (1.48%) DocumentDB
13 4 (1.18%) Oracle Exadata
13 4 (1.18%) Oracle Reports
14 3 (0.89%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 56 (16.57%) GitLab
2 44 (13.02%) Jenkins
3 43 (12.72%) Git
4 34 (10.06%) JIRA
5 13 (3.85%) Claude Code
5 13 (3.85%) Selenium
6 10 (2.96%) Postman
7 9 (2.66%) REST Assured
8 8 (2.37%) Cucumber
8 8 (2.37%) SonarQube
9 7 (2.07%) Gatling
9 7 (2.07%) Sonatype Nexus
10 6 (1.78%) JUnit
11 4 (1.18%) Serenity BDD
12 3 (0.89%) ClearCase
12 3 (0.89%) LoadRunner
12 3 (0.89%) Mockito
12 3 (0.89%) TestRail
12 3 (0.89%) Zephyr
13 2 (0.59%) JMeter
General
1 71 (21.01%) Finance
2 56 (16.57%) Social Skills
3 47 (13.91%) Public Sector
4 29 (8.58%) Banking
5 22 (6.51%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (4.44%) Retail
7 8 (2.37%) Military
8 3 (0.89%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (0.89%) Health Technology
8 3 (0.89%) Local Government
8 3 (0.89%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.59%) Aerospace
9 2 (0.59%) Financial Institution
9 2 (0.59%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (0.59%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (0.59%) Publishing
10 1 (0.30%) Corporate Banking
10 1 (0.30%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.30%) Law
10 1 (0.30%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 63 (18.64%) Senior
2 61 (18.05%) DevOps Engineer
3 49 (14.50%) Developer
3 49 (14.50%) Lead
4 29 (8.58%) Architect
5 22 (6.51%) Software Engineer
6 19 (5.62%) Cloud Engineer
6 19 (5.62%) Security Engineer
7 16 (4.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 16 (4.73%) Solutions Architect
8 15 (4.44%) Azure Engineer
8 15 (4.44%) Senior Developer
8 15 (4.44%) Senior DevOps
9 14 (4.14%) Analyst
9 14 (4.14%) DBA
9 14 (4.14%) Java Developer
9 14 (4.14%) Senior DevOps Engineer
10 13 (3.85%) AWS Engineer
10 13 (3.85%) Lead Developer
11 12 (3.55%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (9.76%) Spring
2 32 (9.47%) Kafka
2 32 (9.47%) Spring Boot
3 28 (8.28%) REST
4 25 (7.40%) Node.js
4 25 (7.40%) React
5 18 (5.33%) .NET
5 18 (5.33%) JSON
6 14 (4.14%) Playwright
7 12 (3.55%) PySpark
8 11 (3.25%) AngularJS
8 11 (3.25%) RESTful
8 11 (3.25%) XML
9 8 (2.37%) ARM Templates
10 7 (2.07%) Next.js
11 5 (1.48%) LangChain
11 5 (1.48%) Langfuse
11 5 (1.48%) YAML
12 4 (1.18%) Entity Framework
12 4 (1.18%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 80 (23.67%) Cloud Native
2 20 (5.92%) Product Ownership
2 20 (5.92%) Security Posture
3 16 (4.73%) Hybrid Cloud
3 16 (4.73%) Management Information System
4 14 (4.14%) Replication
5 12 (3.55%) Data Centre
6 11 (3.25%) Legacy Systems
7 10 (2.96%) Data Protection Act
8 9 (2.66%) Clustering
8 9 (2.66%) Data Structures
8 9 (2.66%) Distributed Systems
9 8 (2.37%) Algorithms
9 8 (2.37%) Onboarding
10 7 (2.07%) AI Agents
11 6 (1.78%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.48%) Cloud Security Posture
12 5 (1.48%) Linux Command Line
12 5 (1.48%) Mainframe
12 5 (1.48%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 41 (12.13%) Linux
2 28 (8.28%) Windows
3 17 (5.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (2.07%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.89%) VMS
6 2 (0.59%) AIX
6 2 (0.59%) Unix
7 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (59.76%) CI/CD
2 123 (36.39%) Agile
3 93 (27.51%) Infrastructure as Code
4 69 (20.41%) Observability
5 62 (18.34%) Microservices
6 59 (17.46%) Continuous Improvement
7 56 (16.57%) Test Automation
8 55 (16.27%) Containerisation
9 53 (15.68%) AI
10 48 (14.20%) Software Engineering
11 47 (13.91%) Mentoring
12 39 (11.54%) Platform Engineering
12 39 (11.54%) Problem-Solving
12 39 (11.54%) Scrum
13 37 (10.95%) Event-Driven
13 37 (10.95%) Migration
13 37 (10.95%) SDLC
14 36 (10.65%) Cloud Security
14 36 (10.65%) Technical Leadership
15 34 (10.06%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 106 (31.36%) Python
2 82 (24.26%) Java
3 53 (15.68%) PowerShell
4 50 (14.79%) SQL
5 42 (12.43%) Bash
6 26 (7.69%) JavaScript
7 23 (6.80%) C#
7 23 (6.80%) TypeScript
8 16 (4.73%) Bicep
9 11 (3.25%) T-SQL
10 9 (2.66%) Rust
11 6 (1.78%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.89%) Go
12 3 (0.89%) VB
12 3 (0.89%) VB6
13 2 (0.59%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.59%) PROC SQL
13 2 (0.59%) Scala
14 1 (0.30%) C++
14 1 (0.30%) PHP
Qualifications
1 81 (23.96%) Security Cleared
2 61 (18.05%) SC Cleared
3 33 (9.76%) Degree
4 31 (9.17%) AWS Certification
4 31 (9.17%) Azure Certification
5 21 (6.21%) BPSS Clearance
6 20 (5.92%) CISSP
7 12 (3.55%) DV Cleared
8 10 (2.96%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 10 (2.96%) Microsoft Certification
9 6 (1.78%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (1.18%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 3 (0.89%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 3 (0.89%) CCIE
11 3 (0.89%) CCNP
11 3 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.89%) PMI Certification
12 2 (0.59%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 2 (0.59%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (8.88%) QA
2 14 (4.14%) Data Quality
3 13 (3.85%) Accessibility
4 9 (2.66%) GDPR
5 5 (1.48%) NIST
6 3 (0.89%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 3 (0.89%) GRC
6 3 (0.89%) HIPAA
6 3 (0.89%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (0.89%) SLA
7 2 (0.59%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.59%) PSD2
7 2 (0.59%) SEPA
7 2 (0.59%) WCAG
8 1 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.30%) Software Quality Assurance
8 1 (0.30%) Solvency II
System Software
1 83 (24.56%) Docker
2 11 (3.25%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (2.07%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.18%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.59%) Apache ZooKeeper
5 2 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.59%) VMware NSX
5 2 (0.59%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 133 (39.35%) Terraform
2 99 (29.29%) Kubernetes
3 40 (11.83%) Ansible
4 22 (6.51%) Grafana
5 17 (5.03%) Prometheus
6 15 (4.44%) Progress Chef
7 11 (3.25%) Argo
8 8 (2.37%) Istio
9 5 (1.48%) SCOM
10 4 (1.18%) Data Guard
10 4 (1.18%) Oracle RMAN
11 3 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
12 2 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (0.59%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.59%) linkerd
12 2 (0.59%) Packer
13 1 (0.30%) HP Fortify
13 1 (0.30%) vCenter Server
13 1 (0.30%) vRealize
13 1 (0.30%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 63 (18.64%) Microsoft
2 28 (8.28%) Google
3 21 (6.21%) Oracle
4 18 (5.33%) Red Hat
5 17 (5.03%) Splunk
6 16 (4.73%) ServiceNow
7 12 (3.55%) F5
7 12 (3.55%) Palo Alto
8 10 (2.96%) Aruba
9 9 (2.66%) Arista
9 9 (2.66%) Databricks
9 9 (2.66%) Dynatrace
9 9 (2.66%) OpenAI
9 9 (2.66%) SAP
10 5 (1.48%) Salesforce
11 4 (1.18%) Atlassian
11 4 (1.18%) CyberArk
11 4 (1.18%) VMware
12 3 (0.89%) AppDynamics
12 3 (0.89%) MuleSoft