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

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 12 18 15
Rank change year-on-year +6 -3 -2
Contract jobs citing DevOps 263 188 237
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.70% 8.33% 8.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.12% 9.83% 9.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 210 100 172
10th Percentile £319 £355 £414
25th Percentile £393 £422 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £454 £533 £545
Median % change year-on-year -14.74% -2.29% -5.22%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £625
90th Percentile £656 £658 £672
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% -12.87%
75th Percentile - £77.50 -
90th Percentile £56.98 £83.50 £47.34
England median hourly rate £61.25 £70.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -12.50% +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 2,170 1,913 2,374
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 88.28% 84.72% 88.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,445 1,044 1,624
10th Percentile £213 £294 £271
25th Percentile £358 £395 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £563 £575 £600
90th Percentile £667 £656 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -4.76% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 115 156
10th Percentile £15.52 £16.14 £15.88
25th Percentile £19.60 £22.22 £17.75
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% -7.14% +45.83%
75th Percentile £48.94 £51.91 £46.18
90th Percentile £71.19 £69.12 £64.38
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +19.14%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 -2 133 £500 -9.09% 96
Cheshire +12 82 £430 +20.79% 27
Lancashire -1 31 £575 +9.52% 50
Merseyside 0 10 £510 +2.00% 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 21 (7.98%) Confluence
2 15 (5.70%) Apache
2 15 (5.70%) JBoss
3 12 (4.56%) IIS
4 11 (4.18%) WebSphere
5 9 (3.42%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (3.42%) iPlanet
5 9 (3.42%) WebSphere Application Server
6 7 (2.66%) CICS
7 4 (1.52%) OpenStack
8 3 (1.14%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.76%) NetWeaver
9 2 (0.76%) nginx
9 2 (0.76%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.38%) Anypoint
10 1 (0.38%) Mule
10 1 (0.38%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.38%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (2.28%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (2.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (1.14%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.76%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.38%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (1.90%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.38%) Maximo
2 1 (0.38%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 134 (50.95%) AWS
2 104 (39.54%) Azure
3 47 (17.87%) Azure DevOps
4 33 (12.55%) Serverless
5 31 (11.79%) GitHub
6 30 (11.41%) GCP
7 29 (11.03%) AWS CloudFormation
8 21 (7.98%) OpenShift
9 19 (7.22%) AWS Lambda
10 18 (6.84%) GitHub Actions
11 15 (5.70%) Power Platform
12 12 (4.56%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 12 (4.56%) Amazon ECS
13 11 (4.18%) Amazon EKS
14 10 (3.80%) Amazon S3
14 10 (3.80%) Amazon SQS
15 9 (3.42%) Figma
16 8 (3.04%) Kong
16 8 (3.04%) PowerApps
16 8 (3.04%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.08%) Firewall
2 9 (3.42%) Kerberos
3 5 (1.90%) HTTPS
4 4 (1.52%) SSL
4 4 (1.52%) VPN
5 3 (1.14%) 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 12 (4.56%) Relational Database
1 12 (4.56%) SQL Server
2 11 (4.18%) MongoDB
2 11 (4.18%) NoSQL
2 11 (4.18%) Oracle Database
3 9 (3.42%) Amazon RDS
3 9 (3.42%) Data Lake
3 9 (3.42%) DynamoDB
3 9 (3.42%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (3.42%) Power BI
3 9 (3.42%) RDBMS
4 7 (2.66%) Tableau
5 5 (1.90%) Amazon Aurora
5 5 (1.90%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (1.52%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (1.52%) DocumentDB
7 3 (1.14%) Metadata
7 3 (1.14%) MySQL
8 2 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.76%) DB2
Development Applications
1 54 (20.53%) JIRA
2 48 (18.25%) Git
3 45 (17.11%) Jenkins
4 39 (14.83%) GitLab
5 17 (6.46%) Sonatype Nexus
6 12 (4.56%) Bitbucket Server
6 12 (4.56%) CA Release Automation
7 9 (3.42%) JUnit
7 9 (3.42%) Selenium
8 8 (3.04%) SonarQube
9 7 (2.66%) Bitbucket
9 7 (2.66%) Gradle
10 6 (2.28%) Cucumber
10 6 (2.28%) Storybook
10 6 (2.28%) Xcode
11 5 (1.90%) Maven
11 5 (1.90%) Postman
12 3 (1.14%) Mockito
12 3 (1.14%) Rational DOORS
12 3 (1.14%) TeamCity
General
1 59 (22.43%) Social Skills
2 56 (21.29%) Finance
3 42 (15.97%) Public Sector
4 31 (11.79%) Banking
5 21 (7.98%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
7 4 (1.52%) Games
7 4 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.14%) Military
8 3 (1.14%) 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%) Retail
9 2 (0.76%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.38%) Digital Healthcare
10 1 (0.38%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 56 (21.29%) Developer
2 40 (15.21%) DevOps Engineer
3 36 (13.69%) Senior
4 35 (13.31%) Lead
5 22 (8.37%) Platform Engineer
6 20 (7.60%) AWS Engineer
7 18 (6.84%) AWS DevOps
8 16 (6.08%) Java Developer
9 15 (5.70%) AWS DevOps Engineer
9 15 (5.70%) Software Engineer
10 13 (4.94%) Architect
11 11 (4.18%) Analyst
12 10 (3.80%) Cloud Engineer
12 10 (3.80%) Senior Developer
13 9 (3.42%) Business Analyst
13 9 (3.42%) Senior DevOps
14 8 (3.04%) Azure Engineer
14 8 (3.04%) DBA
14 8 (3.04%) Solutions Architect
15 7 (2.66%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (11.79%) Spring Boot
2 30 (11.41%) REST
3 28 (10.65%) JSON
4 26 (9.89%) OAuth
5 25 (9.51%) Spring
6 20 (7.60%) React
7 19 (7.22%) XML
8 18 (6.84%) Kafka
9 17 (6.46%) Node.js
10 15 (5.70%) .NET
10 15 (5.70%) HTML
10 15 (5.70%) RESTful
11 14 (5.32%) JMS
11 14 (5.32%) SOAP
12 10 (3.80%) AngularJS
12 10 (3.80%) Elastic Stack
12 10 (3.80%) OpenID
12 10 (3.80%) SAML
13 9 (3.42%) LDAP
14 8 (3.04%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 28 (10.65%) Cloud Native
2 15 (5.70%) Virtual Team
3 11 (4.18%) Product Ownership
3 11 (4.18%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 9 (3.42%) Distributed Systems
5 8 (3.04%) Mobile App
6 7 (2.66%) Mainframe
6 7 (2.66%) Onboarding
6 7 (2.66%) VSAM
7 5 (1.90%) Data Structures
7 5 (1.90%) IBM Mainframe
8 4 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.52%) Low-Code
9 3 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (1.14%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.14%) Synthetic Data
9 3 (1.14%) Taxonomies
10 2 (0.76%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (0.76%) PKI
10 2 (0.76%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 40 (15.21%) Linux
2 19 (7.22%) Windows
3 9 (3.42%) Unix
3 9 (3.42%) Windows Server
4 6 (2.28%) Android
4 6 (2.28%) Apple iOS
4 6 (2.28%) zOS
5 4 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.38%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 144 (54.75%) CI/CD
2 103 (39.16%) Agile
3 60 (22.81%) Infrastructure as Code
4 56 (21.29%) Containerisation
5 41 (15.59%) Microservices
6 39 (14.83%) Problem-Solving
7 36 (13.69%) Continuous Improvement
7 36 (13.69%) Test Automation
8 32 (12.17%) Stakeholder Management
9 30 (11.41%) ITIL
10 29 (11.03%) Change Management
11 28 (10.65%) Observability
11 28 (10.65%) Project Delivery
12 27 (10.27%) SDLC
13 25 (9.51%) Cloud Security
14 24 (9.13%) Infrastructure Automation
15 22 (8.37%) Software Engineering
16 21 (7.98%) Mentoring
16 21 (7.98%) Platform Engineering
17 20 (7.60%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 57 (21.67%) Python
2 49 (18.63%) SQL
3 47 (17.87%) Java
4 24 (9.13%) Bash
5 21 (7.98%) TypeScript
6 17 (6.46%) JavaScript
7 14 (5.32%) C#
8 12 (4.56%) Groovy
8 12 (4.56%) Shell Script
9 9 (3.42%) Go
10 8 (3.04%) Perl
11 7 (2.66%) JCL
11 7 (2.66%) PowerShell
12 6 (2.28%) CLIST
12 6 (2.28%) REXX
13 4 (1.52%) Bicep
13 4 (1.52%) C++
13 4 (1.52%) Ruby
13 4 (1.52%) T-SQL
14 3 (1.14%) Scala
Qualifications
1 49 (18.63%) Security Cleared
2 38 (14.45%) SC Cleared
3 28 (10.65%) Degree
4 15 (5.70%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
5 14 (5.32%) AWS Certification
6 11 (4.18%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (3.42%) Azure Certification
8 8 (3.04%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (2.66%) CISSP
10 6 (2.28%) CISM
11 5 (1.90%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.76%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 2 (0.76%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
13 1 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
13 1 (0.38%) ISEB
13 1 (0.38%) Postgraduate
13 1 (0.38%) SAFe Agilist
13 1 (0.38%) Tableau Certification
13 1 (0.38%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (10.27%) QA
2 19 (7.22%) Accessibility
3 14 (5.32%) PSD2
4 12 (4.56%) SEPA
5 11 (4.18%) ISO 20022
6 8 (3.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (3.04%) NIST
7 4 (1.52%) PCI DSS
8 3 (1.14%) Data Quality
8 3 (1.14%) 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 (27.00%) Docker
2 13 (4.94%) Active Directory
3 8 (3.04%) Tivoli Directory Server
3 8 (3.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (3.04%) vSphere
4 6 (2.28%) Time Sharing Option
5 2 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.76%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.38%) ISA Server
6 1 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 72 (27.38%) Kubernetes
2 70 (26.62%) Terraform
3 20 (7.60%) Ansible
4 16 (6.08%) Progress Chef
5 12 (4.56%) Prometheus
6 10 (3.80%) CA Single Sign-On
7 9 (3.42%) CA Wily
7 9 (3.42%) Grafana
8 8 (3.04%) Tivoli
9 7 (2.66%) Single Sign-On
10 6 (2.28%) OMEGAMON
11 5 (1.90%) CA Endevor
12 4 (1.52%) Fluentd
13 3 (1.14%) Kibana
13 3 (1.14%) Packer
13 3 (1.14%) Podman
13 3 (1.14%) SELinux
14 1 (0.38%) Istio
14 1 (0.38%) Puppet
14 1 (0.38%) SCCM
Vendors
1 49 (18.63%) Microsoft
2 32 (12.17%) Oracle
3 24 (9.13%) Splunk
4 21 (7.98%) IBM
5 13 (4.94%) AppDynamics
6 12 (4.56%) ServiceNow
7 10 (3.80%) Broadcom
8 9 (3.42%) VMware
9 8 (3.04%) SAP
10 6 (2.28%) Cribl.io
10 6 (2.28%) F5
10 6 (2.28%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.90%) Axway
11 5 (1.90%) Databricks
11 5 (1.90%) Dynatrace
12 4 (1.52%) Cloudera
12 4 (1.52%) MuleSoft
12 4 (1.52%) Veracode
13 3 (1.14%) Red Hat
13 3 (1.14%) Software AG