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

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 18 19
Rank change year-on-year +3 +1 -5
Contract jobs citing DevOps 281 176 220
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.20% 8.61% 7.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.79% 9.68% 9.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 197 108 154
10th Percentile £359 £356 £425
25th Percentile £410 £422 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £476 £500 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.80% -6.19% -3.09%
75th Percentile £572 £588 £586
90th Percentile £650 £638 £659
England median daily rate £525 £575 £573
% change year-on-year -8.70% +0.44% -4.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 3 10
10th Percentile £39.53 £62.01 £45.88
25th Percentile - £65.95 £45.96
Median hourly rate £45.46 £75.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -39.39% +62.41% -2.78%
75th Percentile £45.84 £82.50 -
90th Percentile £82.00 £85.50 £47.94
England median hourly rate £60.00 £70.97 £65.00
% change year-on-year -15.46% +9.18% -0.76%

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 2,384 1,818 2,438
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 86.50% 88.99% 86.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,535 1,090 1,602
10th Percentile £213 £275 £306
25th Percentile £358 £380 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £563 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £656 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 198 104 228
10th Percentile £16.46 £18.04 £12.67
25th Percentile £22.85 £23.36 £16.05
Median hourly rate £44.00 £31.64 £26.53
Median % change year-on-year +39.06% +19.28% -29.27%
75th Percentile £63.40 £56.51 £46.18
90th Percentile £76.00 £79.66 £54.13
England median hourly rate £27.21 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -22.26% - -

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 February 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 23 February 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 23 February 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 +1 162 £500 - 125
Cheshire +6 74 £447 +10.51% 31
Lancashire -2 26 £660 +10.00% 42
Merseyside -19 12 £500 -4.31% 17
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 25 (8.90%) Confluence
2 7 (2.49%) Apache
2 7 (2.49%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (2.14%) JBoss
4 5 (1.78%) IIS
4 5 (1.78%) iPlanet
4 5 (1.78%) WebSphere
4 5 (1.78%) WebSphere Application Server
5 4 (1.42%) OpenStack
6 3 (1.07%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (1.07%) Apache Spark
6 3 (1.07%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.36%) CICS
7 1 (0.36%) nginx
Applications
1 14 (4.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (4.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.07%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.71%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.42%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.71%) NEC Housing
Cloud Services
1 148 (52.67%) AWS
2 116 (41.28%) Azure
3 47 (16.73%) Serverless
4 44 (15.66%) Azure DevOps
5 39 (13.88%) GitHub
6 38 (13.52%) GCP
7 31 (11.03%) AWS CloudFormation
8 28 (9.96%) GitHub Actions
9 25 (8.90%) AWS Lambda
10 19 (6.76%) Amazon S3
10 19 (6.76%) Power Platform
11 18 (6.41%) Amazon EKS
12 16 (5.69%) Amazon EC2
12 16 (5.69%) Amazon ECS
13 13 (4.63%) OpenShift
14 12 (4.27%) Amazon SQS
15 11 (3.91%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 11 (3.91%) Azure AKS
15 11 (3.91%) Dynamics 365
16 10 (3.56%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 22 (7.83%) Firewall
2 7 (2.49%) DNS
3 6 (2.14%) DHCP
3 6 (2.14%) Network Security
4 5 (1.78%) Kerberos
4 5 (1.78%) TCP/IP
4 5 (1.78%) VPN
5 4 (1.42%) NetScaler
6 3 (1.07%) HTTPS
6 3 (1.07%) SSL
7 1 (0.36%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (6.41%) DynamoDB
2 16 (5.69%) NoSQL
3 14 (4.98%) MongoDB
4 13 (4.63%) PostgreSQL
5 12 (4.27%) Tableau
6 11 (3.91%) Amazon RDS
6 11 (3.91%) DocumentDB
6 11 (3.91%) Relational Database
7 9 (3.20%) Data Lake
8 8 (2.85%) Power BI
9 7 (2.49%) Oracle Database
9 7 (2.49%) RDBMS
9 7 (2.49%) SQL Server
10 6 (2.14%) Elasticsearch
11 5 (1.78%) Amazon Aurora
11 5 (1.78%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (1.07%) MySQL
13 2 (0.71%) Apache Cassandra
13 2 (0.71%) Metadata
13 2 (0.71%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 52 (18.51%) GitLab
2 45 (16.01%) Git
2 45 (16.01%) JIRA
3 37 (13.17%) Jenkins
4 10 (3.56%) CircleCI
5 8 (2.85%) Cypress.io
5 8 (2.85%) JUnit
5 8 (2.85%) Mocha
6 7 (2.49%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (1.78%) Bitbucket Server
7 5 (1.78%) CA Release Automation
8 4 (1.42%) Gradle
8 4 (1.42%) Selenium
9 3 (1.07%) Bitbucket
9 3 (1.07%) Jasmine
9 3 (1.07%) Maven
10 2 (0.71%) Gatling
10 2 (0.71%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.71%) Serenity BDD
10 2 (0.71%) SonarQube
General
1 61 (21.71%) Social Skills
2 59 (21.00%) Public Sector
3 55 (19.57%) Finance
4 28 (9.96%) Banking
5 27 (9.61%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (1.42%) Influencing Skills
6 4 (1.42%) Law
7 3 (1.07%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.07%) Games
7 3 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.07%) Telecoms
8 2 (0.71%) Financial Institution
8 2 (0.71%) Military
8 2 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (0.71%) Retail
9 1 (0.36%) Advertising
9 1 (0.36%) Electronics
9 1 (0.36%) Legal
9 1 (0.36%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 62 (22.06%) Developer
2 43 (15.30%) DevOps Engineer
2 43 (15.30%) Lead
3 36 (12.81%) Senior
4 26 (9.25%) Architect
5 20 (7.12%) Platform Engineer
5 20 (7.12%) Software Engineer
6 16 (5.69%) AWS Engineer
6 16 (5.69%) Solutions Architect
7 15 (5.34%) AWS DevOps
8 14 (4.98%) Full-Stack Developer
8 14 (4.98%) Java Developer
9 12 (4.27%) AWS DevOps Engineer
10 11 (3.91%) Analyst
10 11 (3.91%) Azure Engineer
11 10 (3.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 10 (3.56%) Security Engineer
12 8 (2.85%) Senior Developer
13 7 (2.49%) Business Analyst
13 7 (2.49%) Lead Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (14.23%) REST
1 40 (14.23%) Spring
1 40 (14.23%) Spring Boot
2 28 (9.96%) React
3 25 (8.90%) Node.js
4 22 (7.83%) JSON
5 21 (7.47%) Kafka
6 20 (7.12%) XML
7 18 (6.41%) .NET
7 18 (6.41%) OAuth
8 16 (5.69%) AngularJS
9 15 (5.34%) HTML
9 15 (5.34%) RESTful
10 13 (4.63%) Jest
10 13 (4.63%) Playwright
11 12 (4.27%) SOAP
12 10 (3.56%) JMS
13 8 (2.85%) Elastic Stack
13 8 (2.85%) HTML5 Canvas
13 8 (2.85%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 39 (13.88%) Cloud Native
2 21 (7.47%) Virtual Team
3 20 (7.12%) Product Ownership
4 12 (4.27%) Distributed Systems
5 11 (3.91%) Onboarding
5 11 (3.91%) Private Cloud
6 8 (2.85%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (2.85%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 7 (2.49%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.78%) Data Structures
8 5 (1.78%) e-Learning
9 4 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (1.42%) Low-Code
9 4 (1.42%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (1.07%) IoT
10 3 (1.07%) Management Information System
10 3 (1.07%) NHS
10 3 (1.07%) Taxonomies
11 2 (0.71%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 40 (14.23%) Linux
2 16 (5.69%) Windows
3 7 (2.49%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.78%) Unix
5 4 (1.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (1.42%) Windows Server 2012
5 4 (1.42%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.36%) Android
6 1 (0.36%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.36%) VMS
6 1 (0.36%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 168 (59.79%) CI/CD
2 122 (43.42%) Agile
3 69 (24.56%) Infrastructure as Code
4 62 (22.06%) Containerisation
4 62 (22.06%) Microservices
5 50 (17.79%) Problem-Solving
6 47 (16.73%) Continuous Improvement
7 46 (16.37%) Observability
8 43 (15.30%) Mentoring
9 38 (13.52%) Test Automation
10 36 (12.81%) Project Delivery
11 32 (11.39%) Stakeholder Management
12 29 (10.32%) Software Engineering
13 28 (9.96%) Full-Stack Development
14 25 (8.90%) Cloud Security
14 25 (8.90%) ITIL
15 22 (7.83%) Change Management
15 22 (7.83%) Infrastructure Automation
16 21 (7.47%) SDLC
17 20 (7.12%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 66 (23.49%) Java
2 65 (23.13%) Python
3 44 (15.66%) SQL
4 35 (12.46%) TypeScript
5 28 (9.96%) JavaScript
6 24 (8.54%) Bash
7 18 (6.41%) PowerShell
8 17 (6.05%) C#
9 9 (3.20%) Go
10 8 (2.85%) Shell Script
11 7 (2.49%) Groovy
12 6 (2.14%) Rust
13 5 (1.78%) Bicep
13 5 (1.78%) Ruby
14 4 (1.42%) C++
15 3 (1.07%) Perl
16 2 (0.71%) T-SQL
17 1 (0.36%) ActionScript
17 1 (0.36%) JCL
17 1 (0.36%) REXX
Qualifications
1 53 (18.86%) Security Cleared
2 35 (12.46%) Degree
3 31 (11.03%) SC Cleared
4 23 (8.19%) AWS Certification
5 20 (7.12%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (5.34%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 13 (4.63%) Azure Certification
8 11 (3.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 9 (3.20%) CISSP
9 9 (3.20%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (2.49%) ITIL Certification
11 6 (2.14%) CISM
12 4 (1.42%) DV Cleared
12 4 (1.42%) IBM Certification
13 2 (0.71%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 2 (0.71%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.71%) TOGAF Certification
14 1 (0.36%) PMI Certification
14 1 (0.36%) PMP
14 1 (0.36%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (7.47%) Accessibility
2 19 (6.76%) QA
3 9 (3.20%) ISO 20022
3 9 (3.20%) PSD2
4 8 (2.85%) NIST
4 8 (2.85%) SEPA
5 7 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (2.49%) WCAG
6 4 (1.42%) GDPR
7 2 (0.71%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.36%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.36%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.36%) HL7
8 1 (0.36%) NEBOSH
8 1 (0.36%) PMO
8 1 (0.36%) SLA
8 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.36%) Solvency II
System Software
1 84 (29.89%) Docker
2 12 (4.27%) Active Directory
3 11 (3.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (3.91%) vSphere
4 5 (1.78%) Tivoli Directory Server
5 4 (1.42%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (1.07%) ISA Server
6 3 (1.07%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.71%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.36%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 91 (32.38%) Terraform
2 81 (28.83%) Kubernetes
3 16 (5.69%) Ansible
4 14 (4.98%) Grafana
4 14 (4.98%) Prometheus
5 11 (3.91%) Progress Chef
6 9 (3.20%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (2.49%) CA Single Sign-On
8 6 (2.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 5 (1.78%) CA Wily
9 5 (1.78%) Tivoli
10 4 (1.42%) Fluentd
10 4 (1.42%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (1.42%) SCCM
11 3 (1.07%) Istio
12 1 (0.36%) CA Endevor
12 1 (0.36%) OMEGAMON
12 1 (0.36%) Packer
12 1 (0.36%) Puppet
Vendors
1 45 (16.01%) Microsoft
2 26 (9.25%) Oracle
3 17 (6.05%) Splunk
4 13 (4.63%) IBM
5 12 (4.27%) Google
6 11 (3.91%) F5
6 11 (3.91%) VMware
7 9 (3.20%) Databricks
8 6 (2.14%) Cribl.io
8 6 (2.14%) MuleSoft
8 6 (2.14%) Palo Alto
9 5 (1.78%) AppDynamics
9 5 (1.78%) Broadcom
9 5 (1.78%) OpenAI
9 5 (1.78%) ServiceNow
10 4 (1.42%) Veeam
11 3 (1.07%) Adobe
11 3 (1.07%) Foundry
11 3 (1.07%) SAP
12 2 (0.71%) Software AG