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

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 18 18
Rank change year-on-year +4 0 -4
Contract jobs citing DevOps 271 170 215
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.72% 8.22% 7.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.25% 9.33% 8.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 91 155
10th Percentile £354 £350 £425
25th Percentile £400 £408 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £500 £534
Median % change year-on-year -9.00% -6.37% -9.11%
75th Percentile £551 £586 £599
90th Percentile £650 £650 £671
England median daily rate £525 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 5 17
10th Percentile £39.53 - -
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 £45.84 £77.50 -
90th Percentile - £83.50 £48.51
England median hourly rate £47.50 £67.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -29.63% +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 2,213 1,823 2,400
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 87.54% 88.11% 87.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,448 1,037 1,615
10th Percentile £213 £281 £313
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 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £656 £684
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 187 95 174
10th Percentile £16.44 £16.03 £13.04
25th Percentile £21.75 £21.15 £18.00
Median hourly rate £41.86 £30.40 £37.75
Median % change year-on-year +37.68% -19.47% +4.86%
75th Percentile £57.50 £48.59 £46.91
90th Percentile £69.67 £74.28 £65.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -12.50% +14.29%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -4 134 £500 -1.38% 113
Cheshire +17 84 £447 +25.56% 34
Lancashire +5 31 £665 +20.91% 47
Merseyside -11 15 £505 -10.22% 21
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 26 (9.59%) Confluence
2 12 (4.43%) Apache
3 11 (4.06%) IIS
3 11 (4.06%) JBoss
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%) SharePoint
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
Applications
1 14 (5.17%) Microsoft Excel
1 14 (5.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.74%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.74%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (0.74%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.37%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (1.48%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.37%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.37%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 145 (53.51%) AWS
2 108 (39.85%) Azure
3 48 (17.71%) Azure DevOps
4 40 (14.76%) GitHub
5 39 (14.39%) Serverless
6 34 (12.55%) GCP
7 31 (11.44%) AWS CloudFormation
8 24 (8.86%) GitHub Actions
9 20 (7.38%) AWS Lambda
10 17 (6.27%) OpenShift
11 16 (5.90%) Power Platform
12 15 (5.54%) Amazon EKS
13 13 (4.80%) Amazon ECS
14 12 (4.43%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 12 (4.43%) Amazon S3
15 11 (4.06%) Kong
16 10 (3.69%) Amazon SQS
16 10 (3.69%) Azure AKS
17 9 (3.32%) Datadog
17 9 (3.32%) Figma
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 14 (5.17%) DynamoDB
1 14 (5.17%) Tableau
2 13 (4.80%) NoSQL
3 11 (4.06%) MongoDB
4 10 (3.69%) Oracle Database
4 10 (3.69%) PostgreSQL
5 9 (3.32%) Data Lake
5 9 (3.32%) Power BI
6 8 (2.95%) Relational Database
6 8 (2.95%) SQL Server
7 7 (2.58%) Amazon RDS
8 6 (2.21%) DocumentDB
8 6 (2.21%) RDBMS
9 5 (1.85%) Amazon Aurora
9 5 (1.85%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (1.48%) Azure SQL Database
11 3 (1.11%) Metadata
12 2 (0.74%) Apache Cassandra
12 2 (0.74%) MySQL
13 1 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 56 (20.66%) JIRA
2 46 (16.97%) Git
3 44 (16.24%) GitLab
4 37 (13.65%) Jenkins
5 10 (3.69%) Bitbucket Server
5 10 (3.69%) CA Release Automation
5 10 (3.69%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (3.32%) JUnit
7 8 (2.95%) 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
11 4 (1.48%) Mocha
11 4 (1.48%) Selenium
12 3 (1.11%) Bitbucket
12 3 (1.11%) Cucumber
12 3 (1.11%) Jasmine
13 2 (0.74%) SonarQube
General
1 65 (23.99%) Finance
2 60 (22.14%) Social Skills
3 51 (18.82%) Public Sector
4 39 (14.39%) Banking
5 25 (9.23%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (1.48%) Games
6 4 (1.48%) Influencing Skills
6 4 (1.48%) Military
7 3 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.11%) Law
7 3 (1.11%) Telecoms
8 2 (0.74%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (0.74%) Financial Institution
8 2 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.37%) Digital Healthcare
9 1 (0.37%) Electronics
9 1 (0.37%) Legal
9 1 (0.37%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.37%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 57 (21.03%) Developer
2 45 (16.61%) DevOps Engineer
3 38 (14.02%) Senior
4 34 (12.55%) Lead
5 24 (8.86%) Architect
6 18 (6.64%) AWS Engineer
6 18 (6.64%) Platform Engineer
7 17 (6.27%) AWS DevOps
7 17 (6.27%) Solutions Architect
8 16 (5.90%) Java Developer
9 14 (5.17%) Analyst
9 14 (5.17%) AWS DevOps Engineer
9 14 (5.17%) Software Engineer
10 10 (3.69%) Business Analyst
11 9 (3.32%) Full-Stack Developer
11 9 (3.32%) Senior Developer
12 8 (2.95%) Azure Engineer
12 8 (2.95%) DBA
12 8 (2.95%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 8 (2.95%) Senior DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (14.76%) REST
2 34 (12.55%) Spring
2 34 (12.55%) Spring Boot
3 31 (11.44%) OAuth
4 30 (11.07%) JSON
5 25 (9.23%) React
6 22 (8.12%) XML
7 20 (7.38%) Kafka
8 19 (7.01%) Node.js
9 17 (6.27%) AngularJS
10 16 (5.90%) JMS
10 16 (5.90%) RESTful
11 15 (5.54%) SOAP
12 14 (5.17%) HTML
13 13 (4.80%) .NET
14 11 (4.06%) OpenID
14 11 (4.06%) SAML
15 10 (3.69%) Jest
15 10 (3.69%) Playwright
16 9 (3.32%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 32 (11.81%) Cloud Native
2 19 (7.01%) Product Ownership
2 19 (7.01%) Virtual Team
3 13 (4.80%) Distributed Systems
3 13 (4.80%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 12 (4.43%) Onboarding
5 7 (2.58%) Mobile App
6 6 (2.21%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (2.21%) Private Cloud
7 5 (1.85%) Data Structures
7 5 (1.85%) Public Cloud
8 4 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.48%) Low-Code
9 3 (1.11%) e-Learning
9 3 (1.11%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (1.11%) Taxonomies
10 2 (0.74%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (0.74%) PKI
10 2 (0.74%) Replication
11 1 (0.37%) Data Fabric
Operating Systems
1 34 (12.55%) Linux
2 17 (6.27%) 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%) Windows Server 2012
6 2 (0.74%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.37%) VMS
7 1 (0.37%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (55.35%) CI/CD
2 110 (40.59%) Agile
3 65 (23.99%) Containerisation
4 61 (22.51%) Infrastructure as Code
5 51 (18.82%) Microservices
6 49 (18.08%) Problem-Solving
7 39 (14.39%) Continuous Improvement
8 37 (13.65%) Test Automation
9 36 (13.28%) Project Delivery
10 34 (12.55%) Stakeholder Management
11 32 (11.81%) Observability
12 27 (9.96%) Mentoring
13 26 (9.59%) Full-Stack Development
13 26 (9.59%) ITIL
14 25 (9.23%) Cloud Security
14 25 (9.23%) SDLC
15 23 (8.49%) Change Management
16 21 (7.75%) Cybersecurity
16 21 (7.75%) Infrastructure Automation
16 21 (7.75%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 54 (19.93%) Python
2 53 (19.56%) Java
3 49 (18.08%) SQL
4 31 (11.44%) TypeScript
5 22 (8.12%) Bash
5 22 (8.12%) JavaScript
6 13 (4.80%) C#
7 12 (4.43%) Groovy
8 10 (3.69%) Shell Script
9 9 (3.32%) Go
9 9 (3.32%) PowerShell
10 5 (1.85%) Bicep
10 5 (1.85%) Ruby
11 4 (1.48%) Perl
11 4 (1.48%) T-SQL
12 3 (1.11%) C++
13 2 (0.74%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.74%) Scala
14 1 (0.37%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.37%) JCL
Qualifications
1 48 (17.71%) Security Cleared
2 31 (11.44%) SC Cleared
3 30 (11.07%) Degree
4 20 (7.38%) AWS Certification
5 18 (6.64%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (5.54%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 9 (3.32%) Azure Certification
7 9 (3.32%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (2.58%) CISSP
9 6 (2.21%) CISM
10 5 (1.85%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 5 (1.85%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (1.11%) IBM Certification
12 2 (0.74%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 2 (0.74%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (0.74%) TOGAF Certification
13 1 (0.37%) CBAP
13 1 (0.37%) CompTIA Security+
13 1 (0.37%) SAFe Agilist
13 1 (0.37%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (8.49%) Accessibility
1 23 (8.49%) QA
2 17 (6.27%) PSD2
3 14 (5.17%) ISO 20022
4 13 (4.80%) SEPA
5 8 (2.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (2.95%) NIST
6 5 (1.85%) GDPR
6 5 (1.85%) WCAG
7 4 (1.48%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.74%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.37%) GRC
9 1 (0.37%) HL7
9 1 (0.37%) NEBOSH
9 1 (0.37%) SOC 1
9 1 (0.37%) SOC 2
System Software
1 76 (28.04%) Docker
2 12 (4.43%) 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 77 (28.41%) Terraform
2 76 (28.04%) Kubernetes
3 15 (5.54%) Ansible
4 13 (4.80%) Progress Chef
4 13 (4.80%) Prometheus
5 10 (3.69%) CA Single Sign-On
5 10 (3.69%) Grafana
6 9 (3.32%) CA Wily
7 8 (2.95%) Tivoli
8 7 (2.58%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (1.48%) Fluentd
10 3 (1.11%) Istio
10 3 (1.11%) SCCM
11 2 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 2 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
11 2 (0.74%) Packer
12 1 (0.37%) Argo
12 1 (0.37%) Podman
12 1 (0.37%) Puppet
12 1 (0.37%) SELinux
Vendors
1 41 (15.13%) Microsoft
2 33 (12.18%) Oracle
3 23 (8.49%) Splunk
4 18 (6.64%) IBM
5 10 (3.69%) AppDynamics
5 10 (3.69%) Broadcom
5 10 (3.69%) VMware
6 9 (3.32%) ServiceNow
7 8 (2.95%) F5
7 8 (2.95%) Google
8 6 (2.21%) Cribl.io
8 6 (2.21%) MuleSoft
8 6 (2.21%) Palo Alto
9 5 (1.85%) Dynatrace
9 5 (1.85%) SAP
10 4 (1.48%) Databricks
11 3 (1.11%) Adobe
11 3 (1.11%) Software AG
11 3 (1.11%) webMethods
12 2 (0.74%) CheckPoint