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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 15 15
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 0
Contract jobs citing DevOps 311 213 190
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.92% 9.85% 8.06%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.60% 11.12% 9.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 212 185 103
10th Percentile £388 £318 £356
25th Percentile £413 £381 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £453 £550
Median % change year-on-year +16.45% -17.64% +4.76%
75th Percentile £640 £575 £600
90th Percentile £724 £675 £688
England median daily rate £525 £525 £555
% change year-on-year - -5.41% -4.31%
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 3,239 1,916 1,965
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 82.50% 88.58% 83.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,843 1,276 1,088
10th Percentile £295 £270 £294
25th Percentile £403 £369 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £452 £489
Median % change year-on-year +10.74% -7.67% -2.20%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £578
90th Percentile £675 £680 £675
England median daily rate £525 £511 £525
% change year-on-year +2.71% -2.64% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 344 133 107
10th Percentile £14.74 £13.58 £16.40
25th Percentile £21.22 £17.30 £29.75
Median hourly rate £46.62 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +85.35% -40.82% +21.43%
75th Percentile £71.91 £47.12 £63.75
90th Percentile £82.28 £66.80 £73.94
England median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +63.02% -41.51% -3.37%

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 30 September 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 30 September 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 30 September 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 £535 +4.39% 264
Cheshire -22 46 £464 +13.05% 34
Lancashire -3 34 £640 +16.36% 31
Merseyside -18 8 £625 +23.76% 23
Cumbria - 2 £310 - 3
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 (7.07%) Confluence
2 7 (2.25%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.61%) Camunda
3 5 (1.61%) SAS
4 4 (1.29%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.64%) Apache
5 2 (0.64%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.32%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.32%) CMS
6 1 (0.32%) Drupal
6 1 (0.32%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.32%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.32%) nginx
6 1 (0.32%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.32%) Traefik
6 1 (0.32%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.32%) WordPress
Applications
1 6 (1.93%) MS Visio
2 4 (1.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.96%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (1.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.32%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (0.32%) SAP PM
2 1 (0.32%) SAP QM
2 1 (0.32%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.32%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 154 (49.52%) Azure
2 144 (46.30%) AWS
3 80 (25.72%) Azure DevOps
4 52 (16.72%) GCP
5 47 (15.11%) GitHub
6 28 (9.00%) Power Platform
7 27 (8.68%) Serverless
8 26 (8.36%) GitHub Actions
9 23 (7.40%) AWS Lambda
9 23 (7.40%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 21 (6.75%) Azure AKS
11 18 (5.79%) Amazon ECS
11 18 (5.79%) Azure Monitor
12 15 (4.82%) AWS CloudFormation
12 15 (4.82%) OCI
13 14 (4.50%) Amazon EKS
14 13 (4.18%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 13 (4.18%) Entra ID
15 12 (3.86%) OpenShift
15 12 (3.86%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 30 (9.65%) Firewall
2 12 (3.86%) SSL
3 11 (3.54%) BGP
3 11 (3.54%) Ethernet VPN
3 11 (3.54%) OSPF
3 11 (3.54%) SD-WAN
3 11 (3.54%) VXLAN
3 11 (3.54%) WAN
4 10 (3.22%) BIG-IP
4 10 (3.22%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 9 (2.89%) Network Security
5 9 (2.89%) Wi-Fi
5 9 (2.89%) WLAN
6 8 (2.57%) DNS
7 5 (1.61%) VPN
8 3 (0.96%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.64%) DHCP
10 1 (0.32%) Cisco Nexus
10 1 (0.32%) HTTP
10 1 (0.32%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (11.58%) SQL Server
2 20 (6.43%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 18 (5.79%) MongoDB
3 18 (5.79%) Relational Database
4 17 (5.47%) Power BI
5 16 (5.14%) MySQL
6 11 (3.54%) PostgreSQL
7 10 (3.22%) Oracle Database
7 10 (3.22%) RDBMS
8 8 (2.57%) NoSQL
9 7 (2.25%) Ataccama
9 7 (2.25%) Data Lake
9 7 (2.25%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (1.93%) DynamoDB
11 5 (1.61%) BigQuery
12 4 (1.29%) Azure SQL Database
12 4 (1.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 3 (0.96%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.96%) Elasticsearch
13 3 (0.96%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 57 (18.33%) GitLab
2 46 (14.79%) Jenkins
3 43 (13.83%) Git
4 26 (8.36%) JIRA
5 15 (4.82%) JUnit
5 15 (4.82%) REST Assured
5 15 (4.82%) Selenium
6 14 (4.50%) Claude Code
7 13 (4.18%) Sonatype Nexus
8 11 (3.54%) Cucumber
8 11 (3.54%) Postman
8 11 (3.54%) SonarQube
9 9 (2.89%) Mockito
10 8 (2.57%) Maven
11 7 (2.25%) Gradle
12 6 (1.93%) Gatling
13 4 (1.29%) Bitbucket Server
13 4 (1.29%) ClearCase
14 3 (0.96%) LoadRunner
14 3 (0.96%) Zephyr
General
1 63 (20.26%) Finance
2 46 (14.79%) Social Skills
3 38 (12.22%) Public Sector
4 27 (8.68%) Banking
5 25 (8.04%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (4.82%) Retail
7 11 (3.54%) Military
8 4 (1.29%) Manufacturing
9 3 (0.96%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.96%) Health Technology
10 2 (0.64%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.64%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.64%) Publishing
11 1 (0.32%) Billing
11 1 (0.32%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.32%) iGaming
11 1 (0.32%) Law
11 1 (0.32%) Legal
11 1 (0.32%) Police
11 1 (0.32%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 66 (21.22%) DevOps Engineer
1 66 (21.22%) Senior
2 44 (14.15%) Developer
3 41 (13.18%) Lead
4 28 (9.00%) Architect
5 25 (8.04%) Cloud Engineer
6 20 (6.43%) Senior DevOps
7 19 (6.11%) Senior DevOps Engineer
7 19 (6.11%) Software Engineer
8 17 (5.47%) AWS Engineer
8 17 (5.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 16 (5.14%) Security Engineer
10 14 (4.50%) Analyst
10 14 (4.50%) DBA
11 13 (4.18%) Solutions Architect
12 12 (3.86%) Azure Engineer
12 12 (3.86%) Consultant
12 12 (3.86%) SQL DBA
13 10 (3.22%) Lead DevOps
13 10 (3.22%) Lead DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 114 (36.66%) Terraform
2 32 (10.29%) Spring Boot
3 31 (9.97%) REST
4 29 (9.32%) Spring
5 28 (9.00%) Kafka
6 26 (8.36%) React
7 23 (7.40%) Node.js
8 17 (5.47%) JSON
8 17 (5.47%) Playwright
9 13 (4.18%) .NET
10 12 (3.86%) RESTful
11 10 (3.22%) PySpark
12 9 (2.89%) HTML
12 9 (2.89%) XML
13 8 (2.57%) Next.js
14 7 (2.25%) AngularJS
14 7 (2.25%) CSS
15 6 (1.93%) ARM Templates
16 5 (1.61%) Azure Blueprints
16 5 (1.61%) Langfuse
Miscellaneous
1 76 (24.44%) Cloud Native
2 18 (5.79%) Security Posture
3 16 (5.14%) Replication
4 15 (4.82%) Management Information System
5 13 (4.18%) Clustering
5 13 (4.18%) Data Structures
5 13 (4.18%) Hybrid Cloud
5 13 (4.18%) Onboarding
6 12 (3.86%) Product Ownership
7 11 (3.54%) Distributed Systems
8 10 (3.22%) Data Centre
9 9 (2.89%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (2.57%) Algorithms
11 6 (1.93%) Cloud Security Posture
11 6 (1.93%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.61%) AI Agents
12 5 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
12 5 (1.61%) Enterprise Cloud
12 5 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
13 4 (1.29%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 40 (12.86%) Linux
2 34 (10.93%) Windows
3 18 (5.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (4.18%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.96%) AIX
5 3 (0.96%) Unix
6 2 (0.64%) VMS
7 1 (0.32%) Android
7 1 (0.32%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.32%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 197 (63.34%) CI/CD
2 110 (35.37%) Agile
3 93 (29.90%) Infrastructure as Code
4 69 (22.19%) Observability
5 58 (18.65%) Test Automation
6 56 (18.01%) Microservices
7 54 (17.36%) Continuous Improvement
8 53 (17.04%) Containerisation
9 50 (16.08%) AI
9 50 (16.08%) Software Engineering
10 44 (14.15%) Migration
11 38 (12.22%) Technical Leadership
12 37 (11.90%) Platform Engineering
13 36 (11.58%) Scrum
14 34 (10.93%) Cloud Security
14 34 (10.93%) Event-Driven
15 33 (10.61%) Infrastructure Automation
15 33 (10.61%) Roadmaps
15 33 (10.61%) SDLC
16 31 (9.97%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 85 (27.33%) Python
2 76 (24.44%) Java
3 55 (17.68%) SQL
4 48 (15.43%) PowerShell
5 34 (10.93%) Bash
6 27 (8.68%) JavaScript
7 21 (6.75%) C#
8 20 (6.43%) TypeScript
9 18 (5.79%) Bicep
10 17 (5.47%) T-SQL
11 6 (1.93%) Search Processing Language
12 4 (1.29%) VB
12 4 (1.29%) VB6
13 3 (0.96%) Rust
13 3 (0.96%) Shell Script
14 2 (0.64%) PROC SQL
14 2 (0.64%) Scala
15 1 (0.32%) ABAP
15 1 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.32%) Go
Qualifications
1 91 (29.26%) Security Cleared
2 80 (25.72%) SC Cleared
3 37 (11.90%) Degree
4 31 (9.97%) Azure Certification
5 27 (8.68%) BPSS Clearance
6 24 (7.72%) AWS Certification
7 17 (5.47%) CISSP
7 17 (5.47%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (2.89%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 7 (2.25%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (2.25%) DV Cleared
10 4 (1.29%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (0.96%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.64%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 1 (0.32%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 1 (0.32%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
13 1 (0.32%) CCIE
13 1 (0.32%) CCNP
13 1 (0.32%) Cisco Certification
13 1 (0.32%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (9.65%) QA
2 17 (5.47%) Data Quality
3 12 (3.86%) Accessibility
4 6 (1.93%) GDPR
5 3 (0.96%) NCSC
6 2 (0.64%) PMO
6 2 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.64%) SLA
6 2 (0.64%) WCAG
7 1 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.32%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.32%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.32%) NIST
7 1 (0.32%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 74 (23.79%) Docker
2 11 (3.54%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (1.93%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.96%) Oracle RAC
4 3 (0.96%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.64%) Apache ZooKeeper
6 1 (0.32%) Microsoft App-V
6 1 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.32%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 92 (29.58%) Kubernetes
2 34 (10.93%) Ansible
3 17 (5.47%) Grafana
4 15 (4.82%) Progress Chef
5 14 (4.50%) Prometheus
6 10 (3.22%) SCOM
7 8 (2.57%) Istio
8 6 (1.93%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (1.29%) Argo
10 3 (0.96%) Data Guard
10 3 (0.96%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (0.96%) Packer
11 2 (0.64%) Failover Clustering
12 1 (0.32%) Consul
12 1 (0.32%) linkerd
12 1 (0.32%) Puppet
12 1 (0.32%) Rancher
12 1 (0.32%) vRealize
12 1 (0.32%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 1 (0.32%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 53 (17.04%) Microsoft
2 27 (8.68%) Google
3 20 (6.43%) ServiceNow
4 17 (5.47%) Red Hat
5 16 (5.14%) Splunk
6 14 (4.50%) Oracle
7 12 (3.86%) Palo Alto
8 11 (3.54%) F5
8 11 (3.54%) SAP
9 10 (3.22%) Aruba
9 10 (3.22%) Dynatrace
10 9 (2.89%) Arista
11 6 (1.93%) IBM
11 6 (1.93%) OpenAI
12 5 (1.61%) Atlassian
12 5 (1.61%) Salesforce
12 5 (1.61%) Veracode
13 4 (1.29%) Databricks
14 3 (0.96%) Informatica
14 3 (0.96%) VMware