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 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 15 16
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 0
Contract jobs citing DevOps 318 216 191
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.99% 9.82% 7.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.65% 11.10% 9.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 214 185 103
10th Percentile £384 £321 £356
25th Percentile £413 £385 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £450 £525
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -14.29% -1.18%
75th Percentile £640 £550 £600
90th Percentile £713 £663 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 1 3
10th Percentile £37.25 - -
25th Percentile £46.80 - -
Median hourly rate £66.66 £95.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -29.83% +105.72% -
75th Percentile £73.00 - £66.84
90th Percentile £73.40 - £79.24
England median hourly rate £68.75 £67.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +2.61% -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 3,297 1,946 2,020
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.80% 88.45% 83.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,868 1,286 1,101
10th Percentile £300 £264 £294
25th Percentile £403 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £477
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -5.66% -4.60%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £680 £663
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 361 142 110
10th Percentile £14.32 £13.88 £16.48
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £28.75
Median hourly rate £46.80 £25.15 £41.41
Median % change year-on-year +86.10% -39.28% +21.80%
75th Percentile £71.91 £47.12 £62.50
90th Percentile £83.75 £67.25 £73.66
England median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.69
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.09% -4.07%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 8 October 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 +2 213 £525 +5.00% 299
Cheshire -18 47 £474 +11.53% 34
Lancashire -2 37 £640 +16.36% 26
Merseyside -11 9 £625 +23.76% 11
Cumbria - 3 £353 - 4
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 (6.92%) Confluence
2 8 (2.52%) SharePoint
3 7 (2.20%) SAS
4 5 (1.57%) Camunda
5 3 (0.94%) Apache
5 3 (0.94%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.94%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.31%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.31%) CMS
6 1 (0.31%) Drupal
6 1 (0.31%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.31%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.31%) nginx
6 1 (0.31%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.31%) Traefik
6 1 (0.31%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.31%) WordPress
Applications
1 5 (1.57%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (2.20%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.31%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (0.31%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.31%) SAP MM
2 1 (0.31%) SAP PM
2 1 (0.31%) SAP QM
2 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.31%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 155 (48.74%) Azure
2 141 (44.34%) AWS
3 85 (26.73%) Azure DevOps
4 53 (16.67%) GCP
5 49 (15.41%) GitHub
6 32 (10.06%) Power Platform
7 28 (8.81%) GitHub Actions
7 28 (8.81%) Serverless
8 24 (7.55%) AWS Lambda
9 23 (7.23%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 21 (6.60%) Azure AKS
11 19 (5.97%) Amazon ECS
12 18 (5.66%) Azure Monitor
13 16 (5.03%) AWS CloudFormation
14 15 (4.72%) Amazon EKS
14 15 (4.72%) OCI
15 14 (4.40%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 14 (4.40%) Entra ID
16 13 (4.09%) OpenShift
16 13 (4.09%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 30 (9.43%) Firewall
2 12 (3.77%) SSL
3 11 (3.46%) BGP
3 11 (3.46%) Ethernet VPN
3 11 (3.46%) OSPF
3 11 (3.46%) SD-WAN
3 11 (3.46%) VXLAN
3 11 (3.46%) WAN
4 10 (3.14%) BIG-IP
4 10 (3.14%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 9 (2.83%) Network Security
5 9 (2.83%) Wi-Fi
5 9 (2.83%) WLAN
6 8 (2.52%) DNS
7 5 (1.57%) VPN
8 3 (0.94%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.63%) DHCP
10 1 (0.31%) Cisco Nexus
10 1 (0.31%) HTTP
10 1 (0.31%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (11.01%) SQL Server
2 20 (6.29%) Power BI
3 19 (5.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 18 (5.66%) MongoDB
4 18 (5.66%) Relational Database
5 16 (5.03%) MySQL
6 11 (3.46%) Data Warehouse
7 10 (3.14%) Oracle Database
7 10 (3.14%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (3.14%) RDBMS
8 9 (2.83%) NoSQL
9 7 (2.20%) Ataccama
10 6 (1.89%) BigQuery
10 6 (1.89%) Data Lake
10 6 (1.89%) DynamoDB
11 5 (1.57%) Azure SQL Database
12 4 (1.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 3 (0.94%) Amazon RDS
13 3 (0.94%) Elasticsearch
13 3 (0.94%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 58 (18.24%) GitLab
2 48 (15.09%) Jenkins
3 45 (14.15%) Git
4 27 (8.49%) JIRA
5 15 (4.72%) JUnit
5 15 (4.72%) Selenium
6 14 (4.40%) Claude Code
6 14 (4.40%) REST Assured
7 13 (4.09%) Sonatype Nexus
8 11 (3.46%) Cucumber
8 11 (3.46%) Postman
8 11 (3.46%) SonarQube
9 9 (2.83%) Mockito
10 8 (2.52%) Maven
11 7 (2.20%) Gradle
12 6 (1.89%) Gatling
13 4 (1.26%) Bitbucket Server
13 4 (1.26%) ClearCase
14 3 (0.94%) LoadRunner
14 3 (0.94%) TestNG
General
1 65 (20.44%) Finance
2 51 (16.04%) Social Skills
3 40 (12.58%) Public Sector
4 27 (8.49%) Banking
5 26 (8.18%) Analytical Skills
6 16 (5.03%) Retail
7 12 (3.77%) Military
8 5 (1.57%) Manufacturing
9 3 (0.94%) Aerospace
9 3 (0.94%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.94%) Health Technology
10 2 (0.63%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.63%) Law
10 2 (0.63%) Publishing
11 1 (0.31%) Billing
11 1 (0.31%) iGaming
11 1 (0.31%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.31%) Police
11 1 (0.31%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.31%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 68 (21.38%) Senior
2 67 (21.07%) DevOps Engineer
3 46 (14.47%) Developer
4 40 (12.58%) Lead
5 27 (8.49%) Architect
6 25 (7.86%) Cloud Engineer
7 20 (6.29%) Senior DevOps
8 19 (5.97%) Senior DevOps Engineer
8 19 (5.97%) Software Engineer
9 17 (5.35%) AWS Engineer
9 17 (5.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 16 (5.03%) Security Engineer
11 14 (4.40%) Analyst
11 14 (4.40%) DBA
12 12 (3.77%) Azure Engineer
12 12 (3.77%) Consultant
12 12 (3.77%) SQL DBA
13 11 (3.46%) Java Developer
13 11 (3.46%) Solutions Architect
14 10 (3.14%) Lead DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 118 (37.11%) Terraform
2 33 (10.38%) REST
3 31 (9.75%) Spring Boot
4 30 (9.43%) Kafka
5 28 (8.81%) Spring
6 25 (7.86%) React
7 21 (6.60%) Node.js
8 17 (5.35%) JSON
9 16 (5.03%) Playwright
10 13 (4.09%) .NET
10 13 (4.09%) RESTful
11 10 (3.14%) PySpark
12 9 (2.83%) HTML
12 9 (2.83%) XML
13 8 (2.52%) Next.js
14 7 (2.20%) CSS
15 6 (1.89%) ADO
15 6 (1.89%) AngularJS
15 6 (1.89%) ARM Templates
16 5 (1.57%) JPA
Miscellaneous
1 78 (24.53%) Cloud Native
2 18 (5.66%) Security Posture
3 16 (5.03%) Replication
4 15 (4.72%) Management Information System
5 14 (4.40%) Clustering
5 14 (4.40%) Product Ownership
6 13 (4.09%) Data Structures
6 13 (4.09%) Distributed Systems
6 13 (4.09%) Hybrid Cloud
6 13 (4.09%) Onboarding
7 10 (3.14%) Data Centre
8 9 (2.83%) Algorithms
9 7 (2.20%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (1.89%) Cloud Security Posture
10 6 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (1.89%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.57%) AI Agents
11 5 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
11 5 (1.57%) Enterprise Cloud
12 4 (1.26%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 40 (12.58%) Linux
2 34 (10.69%) Windows
3 18 (5.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (4.09%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.94%) AIX
5 3 (0.94%) Unix
6 2 (0.63%) VMS
7 1 (0.31%) Android
7 1 (0.31%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.31%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 201 (63.21%) CI/CD
2 113 (35.53%) Agile
3 97 (30.50%) Infrastructure as Code
4 70 (22.01%) Observability
5 61 (19.18%) Test Automation
6 56 (17.61%) Continuous Improvement
6 56 (17.61%) Microservices
7 53 (16.67%) AI
7 53 (16.67%) Containerisation
8 50 (15.72%) Software Engineering
9 45 (14.15%) Migration
10 37 (11.64%) Platform Engineering
10 37 (11.64%) Scrum
10 37 (11.64%) Technical Leadership
11 35 (11.01%) Cloud Security
11 35 (11.01%) Event-Driven
12 34 (10.69%) Problem-Solving
13 33 (10.38%) Infrastructure Automation
13 33 (10.38%) Roadmaps
13 33 (10.38%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 85 (26.73%) Python
2 74 (23.27%) Java
3 61 (19.18%) SQL
4 47 (14.78%) PowerShell
5 34 (10.69%) Bash
6 25 (7.86%) JavaScript
7 21 (6.60%) C#
7 21 (6.60%) TypeScript
8 18 (5.66%) Bicep
9 17 (5.35%) T-SQL
10 6 (1.89%) Search Processing Language
11 4 (1.26%) VB
11 4 (1.26%) VB6
12 3 (0.94%) Rust
12 3 (0.94%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.63%) PROC SQL
13 2 (0.63%) Scala
14 1 (0.31%) ABAP
14 1 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.31%) Go
Qualifications
1 91 (28.62%) Security Cleared
2 77 (24.21%) SC Cleared
3 38 (11.95%) Degree
4 30 (9.43%) Azure Certification
5 28 (8.81%) BPSS Clearance
6 25 (7.86%) AWS Certification
7 17 (5.35%) CISSP
8 16 (5.03%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (2.83%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 8 (2.52%) DV Cleared
11 7 (2.20%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (1.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (0.94%) ITIL Certification
14 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
15 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
15 1 (0.31%) CCIE
15 1 (0.31%) CCNP
15 1 (0.31%) Cisco Certification
15 1 (0.31%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (10.38%) QA
2 17 (5.35%) Data Quality
3 12 (3.77%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.57%) GDPR
5 4 (1.26%) PMO
6 3 (0.94%) NCSC
7 2 (0.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 2 (0.63%) SLA
7 2 (0.63%) WCAG
8 1 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.31%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.31%) NIST
8 1 (0.31%) P3O
8 1 (0.31%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 74 (23.27%) Docker
2 11 (3.46%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (1.89%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.94%) Oracle RAC
4 3 (0.94%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.63%) Apache ZooKeeper
6 1 (0.31%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.31%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 95 (29.87%) Kubernetes
2 36 (11.32%) Ansible
3 17 (5.35%) Grafana
4 15 (4.72%) Progress Chef
5 14 (4.40%) Prometheus
6 10 (3.14%) SCOM
7 8 (2.52%) Istio
8 6 (1.89%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (1.26%) Argo
10 3 (0.94%) Data Guard
10 3 (0.94%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (0.94%) Packer
11 2 (0.63%) Failover Clustering
12 1 (0.31%) Consul
12 1 (0.31%) HAProxy
12 1 (0.31%) linkerd
12 1 (0.31%) Puppet
12 1 (0.31%) Rancher
12 1 (0.31%) vRealize
12 1 (0.31%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 55 (17.30%) Microsoft
2 29 (9.12%) Google
3 20 (6.29%) ServiceNow
4 17 (5.35%) Red Hat
5 16 (5.03%) Splunk
6 15 (4.72%) Oracle
7 12 (3.77%) Palo Alto
7 12 (3.77%) SAP
8 11 (3.46%) F5
9 10 (3.14%) Aruba
9 10 (3.14%) Dynatrace
10 9 (2.83%) Arista
11 6 (1.89%) IBM
11 6 (1.89%) OpenAI
11 6 (1.89%) Salesforce
12 5 (1.57%) Atlassian
12 5 (1.57%) Informatica
12 5 (1.57%) Veracode
13 4 (1.26%) Databricks
14 3 (0.94%) AppDynamics