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 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 19 16
Rank change year-on-year +7 -3 -3
Contract jobs citing DevOps 271 169 226
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.84% 7.86% 8.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.30% 9.02% 9.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 209 90 158
10th Percentile £351 £349 £425
25th Percentile £400 £407 £483
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £500 £536
Median % change year-on-year -9.00% -6.76% -6.74%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £609
90th Percentile £651 £651 £670
England median daily rate £525 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 5 19
10th Percentile £44.27 - -
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 £51.52 £83.50 £47.34
England median hourly rate £50.00 £67.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -25.93% +3.85% -0.92%

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 2,203 1,873 2,343
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 88.12% 87.12% 88.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,435 1,062 1,603
10th Percentile £213 £264 £305
25th Percentile £358 £390 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +1.01%
75th Percentile £550 £568 £600
90th Percentile £650 £656 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 96 155
10th Percentile £16.50 £16.00 £15.85
25th Percentile £21.13 £21.05 £18.25
Median hourly rate £40.00 £30.20 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.45% -20.53% +39.45%
75th Percentile £56.69 £47.39 £46.89
90th Percentile £70.00 £68.96 £64.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +26.76%

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 1 January 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 1 January 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 1 January 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 0 140 £500 -2.44% 186
Cheshire +12 79 £447 +25.56% 28
Lancashire +5 31 £630 +20.00% 49
Merseyside 0 14 £505 +1.00% 14
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 20 (7.38%) Confluence
2 12 (4.43%) Apache
2 12 (4.43%) JBoss
3 11 (4.06%) IIS
4 10 (3.69%) WebSphere
5 9 (3.32%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (3.32%) iPlanet
5 9 (3.32%) WebSphere Application Server
6 4 (1.48%) OpenStack
7 3 (1.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.74%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.74%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.37%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.37%) CICS
9 1 (0.37%) Mule
9 1 (0.37%) Mule ESB
9 1 (0.37%) nginx
9 1 (0.37%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (3.69%) Microsoft Excel
1 10 (3.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.74%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.37%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.37%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (1.85%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.37%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.37%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 145 (53.51%) AWS
2 111 (40.96%) Azure
3 48 (17.71%) Azure DevOps
4 38 (14.02%) GitHub
5 35 (12.92%) GCP
5 35 (12.92%) Serverless
6 31 (11.44%) AWS CloudFormation
7 23 (8.49%) GitHub Actions
8 20 (7.38%) AWS Lambda
9 18 (6.64%) OpenShift
10 15 (5.54%) Power Platform
11 13 (4.80%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 13 (4.80%) Amazon ECS
11 13 (4.80%) Amazon EKS
11 13 (4.80%) Amazon S3
12 10 (3.69%) Amazon SQS
12 10 (3.69%) Kong
13 9 (3.32%) Datadog
13 9 (3.32%) Figma
14 8 (2.95%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 18 (6.64%) Firewall
2 9 (3.32%) Kerberos
3 5 (1.85%) HTTPS
3 5 (1.85%) TCP/IP
4 4 (1.48%) DNS
4 4 (1.48%) SSL
4 4 (1.48%) VPN
5 3 (1.11%) DHCP
6 2 (0.74%) NetScaler
6 2 (0.74%) Network Security
7 1 (0.37%) VLAN
7 1 (0.37%) VoIP
7 1 (0.37%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (4.43%) DynamoDB
2 11 (4.06%) MongoDB
2 11 (4.06%) NoSQL
2 11 (4.06%) Tableau
3 10 (3.69%) Oracle Database
3 10 (3.69%) Relational Database
4 9 (3.32%) Data Lake
4 9 (3.32%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (3.32%) Power BI
5 8 (2.95%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (2.95%) RDBMS
5 8 (2.95%) SQL Server
6 5 (1.85%) Amazon Aurora
6 5 (1.85%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (1.48%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (1.48%) DocumentDB
7 4 (1.48%) MySQL
8 3 (1.11%) Metadata
9 2 (0.74%) Apache Cassandra
9 2 (0.74%) Redis
Development Applications
1 51 (18.82%) JIRA
2 48 (17.71%) Git
3 43 (15.87%) GitLab
4 40 (14.76%) Jenkins
5 11 (4.06%) Sonatype Nexus
6 10 (3.69%) Bitbucket Server
6 10 (3.69%) CA Release Automation
7 8 (2.95%) JUnit
8 7 (2.58%) CircleCI
8 7 (2.58%) Cypress.io
9 6 (2.21%) Gradle
9 6 (2.21%) Storybook
9 6 (2.21%) Xcode
10 5 (1.85%) Postman
10 5 (1.85%) Selenium
11 4 (1.48%) Bitbucket
12 3 (1.11%) Cucumber
12 3 (1.11%) Jasmine
12 3 (1.11%) Mocha
12 3 (1.11%) Rational DOORS
General
1 62 (22.88%) Social Skills
2 61 (22.51%) Finance
3 50 (18.45%) Public Sector
4 34 (12.55%) Banking
5 24 (8.86%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (1.48%) Games
7 3 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.11%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (1.11%) Law
7 3 (1.11%) Military
8 2 (0.74%) Financial Institution
8 2 (0.74%) Manufacturing
8 2 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (0.74%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.37%) Digital Healthcare
9 1 (0.37%) Electronics
9 1 (0.37%) Legal
9 1 (0.37%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 55 (20.30%) Developer
2 44 (16.24%) DevOps Engineer
3 38 (14.02%) Senior
4 35 (12.92%) Lead
5 20 (7.38%) AWS Engineer
6 19 (7.01%) AWS DevOps
7 18 (6.64%) Architect
7 18 (6.64%) Platform Engineer
8 15 (5.54%) AWS DevOps Engineer
8 15 (5.54%) Software Engineer
9 14 (5.17%) Java Developer
9 14 (5.17%) Solutions Architect
10 13 (4.80%) Analyst
11 10 (3.69%) Business Analyst
11 10 (3.69%) Senior Developer
12 9 (3.32%) Cloud Engineer
12 9 (3.32%) Senior DevOps
13 8 (2.95%) Azure Engineer
13 8 (2.95%) DBA
13 8 (2.95%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (13.28%) REST
2 32 (11.81%) Spring Boot
3 31 (11.44%) Spring
4 29 (10.70%) JSON
5 28 (10.33%) OAuth
6 24 (8.86%) React
7 21 (7.75%) XML
8 20 (7.38%) Node.js
9 18 (6.64%) Kafka
10 17 (6.27%) AngularJS
10 17 (6.27%) RESTful
11 15 (5.54%) .NET
11 15 (5.54%) HTML
12 14 (5.17%) JMS
12 14 (5.17%) SOAP
13 10 (3.69%) OpenID
13 10 (3.69%) Playwright
13 10 (3.69%) SAML
14 9 (3.32%) Jest
14 9 (3.32%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 28 (10.33%) Cloud Native
2 17 (6.27%) Product Ownership
2 17 (6.27%) Virtual Team
3 11 (4.06%) Distributed Systems
3 11 (4.06%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 10 (3.69%) Onboarding
5 7 (2.58%) Mobile App
6 6 (2.21%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.85%) Data Structures
7 5 (1.85%) Private Cloud
8 4 (1.48%) Low-Code
9 3 (1.11%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (1.11%) Legacy Systems
9 3 (1.11%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.11%) Synthetic Data
9 3 (1.11%) Taxonomies
10 2 (0.74%) e-Learning
10 2 (0.74%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (0.74%) PKI
10 2 (0.74%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 37 (13.65%) Linux
2 18 (6.64%) Windows
3 10 (3.69%) Windows Server
4 8 (2.95%) Unix
5 6 (2.21%) Android
5 6 (2.21%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.74%) Windows Server 2012
6 2 (0.74%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.37%) VMS
7 1 (0.37%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 152 (56.09%) CI/CD
2 111 (40.96%) Agile
3 63 (23.25%) Infrastructure as Code
4 62 (22.88%) Containerisation
5 48 (17.71%) Microservices
6 47 (17.34%) Problem-Solving
7 39 (14.39%) Continuous Improvement
8 37 (13.65%) Test Automation
9 34 (12.55%) Stakeholder Management
10 33 (12.18%) Project Delivery
11 30 (11.07%) ITIL
11 30 (11.07%) Observability
12 26 (9.59%) Mentoring
13 25 (9.23%) Change Management
13 25 (9.23%) Cloud Security
13 25 (9.23%) Full-Stack Development
13 25 (9.23%) SDLC
14 24 (8.86%) Infrastructure Automation
15 23 (8.49%) Software Engineering
16 20 (7.38%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 56 (20.66%) Python
2 51 (18.82%) Java
3 47 (17.34%) SQL
4 30 (11.07%) TypeScript
5 24 (8.86%) Bash
6 19 (7.01%) JavaScript
7 14 (5.17%) C#
8 12 (4.43%) Groovy
9 11 (4.06%) Shell Script
10 10 (3.69%) Go
11 9 (3.32%) PowerShell
12 6 (2.21%) Perl
13 5 (1.85%) Bicep
13 5 (1.85%) C++
13 5 (1.85%) Ruby
14 4 (1.48%) T-SQL
15 2 (0.74%) PHP
15 2 (0.74%) PL/SQL
15 2 (0.74%) Scala
16 1 (0.37%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 53 (19.56%) Security Cleared
2 37 (13.65%) SC Cleared
3 32 (11.81%) Degree
4 17 (6.27%) AWS Certification
5 15 (5.54%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 13 (4.80%) BPSS Clearance
7 12 (4.43%) Azure Certification
8 11 (4.06%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (2.58%) CISSP
10 6 (2.21%) CISM
11 5 (1.85%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.74%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 2 (0.74%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.74%) IBM Certification
12 2 (0.74%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (0.74%) TOGAF Certification
13 1 (0.37%) CompTIA Security+
13 1 (0.37%) Postgraduate
13 1 (0.37%) SAFe Agilist
13 1 (0.37%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (10.33%) QA
2 23 (8.49%) Accessibility
3 15 (5.54%) PSD2
4 12 (4.43%) ISO 20022
5 11 (4.06%) SEPA
6 8 (2.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (2.95%) NIST
7 5 (1.85%) GDPR
7 5 (1.85%) WCAG
8 4 (1.48%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.74%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.37%) GRC
10 1 (0.37%) HL7
10 1 (0.37%) SOC 1
10 1 (0.37%) SOC 2
System Software
1 76 (28.04%) Docker
2 13 (4.80%) Active Directory
3 10 (3.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (3.69%) vSphere
4 8 (2.95%) Tivoli Directory Server
5 3 (1.11%) ISA Server
6 2 (0.74%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.74%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.37%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 76 (28.04%) Terraform
2 75 (27.68%) Kubernetes
3 21 (7.75%) Ansible
4 14 (5.17%) Progress Chef
5 13 (4.80%) Prometheus
6 10 (3.69%) CA Single Sign-On
6 10 (3.69%) Grafana
7 9 (3.32%) CA Wily
8 8 (2.95%) Tivoli
9 7 (2.58%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (1.48%) Fluentd
11 3 (1.11%) Packer
11 3 (1.11%) Podman
11 3 (1.11%) SCCM
11 3 (1.11%) SELinux
12 2 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (0.74%) Istio
12 2 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
13 1 (0.37%) Argo
13 1 (0.37%) Puppet
Vendors
1 41 (15.13%) Microsoft
2 32 (11.81%) Oracle
3 24 (8.86%) Splunk
4 17 (6.27%) IBM
5 11 (4.06%) AppDynamics
6 10 (3.69%) Broadcom
6 10 (3.69%) ServiceNow
6 10 (3.69%) VMware
7 8 (2.95%) F5
8 7 (2.58%) SAP
9 6 (2.21%) Cribl.io
9 6 (2.21%) Google
9 6 (2.21%) Palo Alto
10 5 (1.85%) Dynatrace
10 5 (1.85%) MuleSoft
11 4 (1.48%) Axway
11 4 (1.48%) Databricks
12 3 (1.11%) Adobe
12 3 (1.11%) Software AG
12 3 (1.11%) webMethods