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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 19 20
Rank change year-on-year +6 +1 -6
Contract jobs citing DevOps 293 172 221
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.25% 8.42% 7.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.02% 9.36% 8.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 112 157
10th Percentile £363 £368 £425
25th Percentile £413 £447 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £496 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.52% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £582
90th Percentile £650 £650 £665
England median daily rate £525 £565 £560
% change year-on-year -7.08% +0.84% -6.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 3 8
10th Percentile £39.53 £62.01 -
25th Percentile - £65.95 £45.88
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 £80.50 £85.50 £51.45
England median hourly rate £62.75 £74.44 £65.00
% change year-on-year -15.70% +14.52% -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 2,437 1,837 2,468
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 85.24% 89.96% 86.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,540 1,135 1,602
10th Percentile £213 £291 £306
25th Percentile £362 £385 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £452 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.74% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £659 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 211 115 265
10th Percentile £17.13 £16.14 £11.00
25th Percentile £24.63 £22.85 £14.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £31.76 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +41.69% +41.16% -39.84%
75th Percentile £63.63 £59.08 £45.88
90th Percentile £75.79 £79.35 £56.82
England median hourly rate £30.00 £34.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -13.04% +6.15% -7.22%

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 9 March 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 9 March 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 9 March 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 +3 166 £500 - 125
Cheshire +8 82 £455 -3.19% 40
Lancashire -5 26 £660 +14.78% 46
Merseyside -18 12 £510 -11.11% 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 28 (9.56%) Confluence
2 7 (2.39%) Apache Airflow
3 5 (1.71%) SharePoint
4 4 (1.37%) OpenStack
5 3 (1.02%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 3 (1.02%) Apache
5 3 (1.02%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.68%) IIS
6 2 (0.68%) iPlanet
6 2 (0.68%) JBoss
6 2 (0.68%) WebSphere
6 2 (0.68%) WebSphere Application Server
7 1 (0.34%) CICS
7 1 (0.34%) nginx
Applications
1 15 (5.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (4.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.02%) Chatbot
3 3 (1.02%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.68%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.37%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.68%) NEC Housing
Cloud Services
1 151 (51.54%) AWS
2 128 (43.69%) Azure
3 51 (17.41%) Azure DevOps
3 51 (17.41%) Serverless
4 44 (15.02%) GCP
4 44 (15.02%) GitHub
5 32 (10.92%) GitHub Actions
6 30 (10.24%) AWS CloudFormation
7 24 (8.19%) AWS Lambda
8 21 (7.17%) Amazon EKS
9 19 (6.48%) Power Platform
10 18 (6.14%) Amazon S3
11 17 (5.80%) Amazon ECS
12 15 (5.12%) Amazon EC2
12 15 (5.12%) Azure AKS
13 14 (4.78%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 13 (4.44%) Dynamics 365
15 11 (3.75%) OpenShift
16 10 (3.41%) Amazon SQS
16 10 (3.41%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 25 (8.53%) Firewall
2 6 (2.05%) DHCP
2 6 (2.05%) DNS
3 4 (1.37%) NetScaler
3 4 (1.37%) Network Security
3 4 (1.37%) TCP/IP
3 4 (1.37%) VPN
4 3 (1.02%) HTTPS
5 2 (0.68%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.34%) Fibre Channel
6 1 (0.34%) iSCSI
6 1 (0.34%) NAS
6 1 (0.34%) Reverse Proxy
6 1 (0.34%) SAN
6 1 (0.34%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (6.83%) NoSQL
2 19 (6.48%) DynamoDB
2 19 (6.48%) MongoDB
2 19 (6.48%) PostgreSQL
3 15 (5.12%) Relational Database
4 13 (4.44%) Tableau
5 11 (3.75%) Amazon RDS
5 11 (3.75%) DocumentDB
5 11 (3.75%) RDBMS
6 9 (3.07%) Data Lake
6 9 (3.07%) Oracle Reports
7 8 (2.73%) Power BI
8 7 (2.39%) Elasticsearch
8 7 (2.39%) SQL Server
9 5 (1.71%) Amazon Aurora
9 5 (1.71%) Oracle Database
10 3 (1.02%) MySQL
11 2 (0.68%) Apache Cassandra
11 2 (0.68%) Metadata
11 2 (0.68%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 54 (18.43%) GitLab
2 48 (16.38%) JIRA
3 43 (14.68%) Git
4 35 (11.95%) Jenkins
5 10 (3.41%) CircleCI
6 8 (2.73%) Cypress.io
6 8 (2.73%) Mocha
7 7 (2.39%) JUnit
8 4 (1.37%) Selenium
8 4 (1.37%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (1.02%) Bitbucket
9 3 (1.02%) Gradle
9 3 (1.02%) Jasmine
9 3 (1.02%) Maven
10 2 (0.68%) Bitbucket Server
10 2 (0.68%) CA Release Automation
10 2 (0.68%) Gatling
10 2 (0.68%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.68%) Serenity BDD
10 2 (0.68%) SonarQube
General
1 63 (21.50%) Social Skills
2 62 (21.16%) Finance
3 60 (20.48%) Public Sector
4 32 (10.92%) Banking
5 29 (9.90%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
6 4 (1.37%) Law
6 4 (1.37%) Retail
7 3 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.02%) Financial Institution
7 3 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (0.68%) Games
8 2 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (0.68%) Publishing
8 2 (0.68%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.34%) Legal
9 1 (0.34%) Local Government
9 1 (0.34%) Marketing
9 1 (0.34%) Military
Job Titles
1 61 (20.82%) Developer
2 44 (15.02%) Lead
3 43 (14.68%) DevOps Engineer
4 36 (12.29%) Senior
5 27 (9.22%) Architect
6 21 (7.17%) Software Engineer
7 17 (5.80%) Platform Engineer
8 16 (5.46%) Security Engineer
8 16 (5.46%) Solutions Architect
9 14 (4.78%) Full-Stack Developer
10 13 (4.44%) AWS DevOps
10 13 (4.44%) AWS Engineer
10 13 (4.44%) Java Developer
11 11 (3.75%) Analyst
11 11 (3.75%) Azure Engineer
12 10 (3.41%) AWS DevOps Engineer
12 10 (3.41%) Cloud Engineer
13 9 (3.07%) DBA
14 8 (2.73%) Payments Architect
14 8 (2.73%) PostgreSQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (13.99%) REST
2 39 (13.31%) Spring
2 39 (13.31%) Spring Boot
3 26 (8.87%) React
4 25 (8.53%) JSON
4 25 (8.53%) Node.js
5 24 (8.19%) XML
6 22 (7.51%) Kafka
7 19 (6.48%) .NET
8 16 (5.46%) AngularJS
9 15 (5.12%) HTML
9 15 (5.12%) RESTful
10 14 (4.78%) OAuth
11 13 (4.44%) Jest
11 13 (4.44%) Playwright
12 12 (4.10%) SOAP
13 10 (3.41%) JMS
14 8 (2.73%) HTML5 Canvas
14 8 (2.73%) JWT
15 7 (2.39%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 45 (15.36%) Cloud Native
2 25 (8.53%) Product Ownership
3 21 (7.17%) Virtual Team
4 12 (4.10%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (4.10%) Onboarding
5 11 (3.75%) Private Cloud
6 10 (3.41%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (2.73%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 7 (2.39%) Public Cloud
9 6 (2.05%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.71%) Data Structures
10 5 (1.71%) e-Learning
11 4 (1.37%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (1.37%) Low-Code
11 4 (1.37%) Management Information System
12 3 (1.02%) Greenfield Project
12 3 (1.02%) IoT
12 3 (1.02%) NHS
12 3 (1.02%) Taxonomies
13 2 (0.68%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 38 (12.97%) Linux
2 14 (4.78%) Windows
3 6 (2.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 6 (2.05%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.37%) Windows Server 2012
4 4 (1.37%) Windows Server 2019
5 2 (0.68%) Unix
6 1 (0.34%) VMS
6 1 (0.34%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (59.04%) CI/CD
2 132 (45.05%) Agile
3 75 (25.60%) Infrastructure as Code
4 67 (22.87%) Containerisation
5 63 (21.50%) Microservices
6 52 (17.75%) Continuous Improvement
7 51 (17.41%) Problem-Solving
8 49 (16.72%) Observability
9 46 (15.70%) Mentoring
10 44 (15.02%) Test Automation
11 38 (12.97%) Project Delivery
12 36 (12.29%) Stakeholder Management
13 30 (10.24%) Software Engineering
14 29 (9.90%) Cloud Security
15 28 (9.56%) Full-Stack Development
16 27 (9.22%) ITIL
17 26 (8.87%) Change Management
18 25 (8.53%) Infrastructure Automation
19 22 (7.51%) Cybersecurity
19 22 (7.51%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 72 (24.57%) Python
2 66 (22.53%) Java
3 45 (15.36%) SQL
4 35 (11.95%) TypeScript
5 29 (9.90%) Bash
5 29 (9.90%) JavaScript
6 27 (9.22%) PowerShell
7 18 (6.14%) C#
8 9 (3.07%) Bicep
9 8 (2.73%) Go
10 7 (2.39%) Rust
11 6 (2.05%) Shell Script
12 5 (1.71%) Ruby
13 4 (1.37%) C++
13 4 (1.37%) Groovy
14 3 (1.02%) Perl
15 2 (0.68%) PL/SQL
15 2 (0.68%) T-SQL
16 1 (0.34%) ActionScript
16 1 (0.34%) C
Qualifications
1 52 (17.75%) Security Cleared
2 37 (12.63%) Degree
3 30 (10.24%) AWS Certification
4 27 (9.22%) SC Cleared
5 20 (6.83%) BPSS Clearance
6 18 (6.14%) Azure Certification
7 15 (5.12%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 13 (4.44%) CISSP
9 12 (4.10%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 9 (3.07%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (2.73%) ITIL Certification
12 7 (2.39%) CISM
13 5 (1.71%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 5 (1.71%) DV Cleared
14 4 (1.37%) IBM Certification
15 2 (0.68%) CCIE
15 2 (0.68%) Cisco Certification
15 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Certification
15 2 (0.68%) PMI Certification
15 2 (0.68%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (6.83%) Accessibility
1 20 (6.83%) QA
2 9 (3.07%) ISO 20022
2 9 (3.07%) NIST
2 9 (3.07%) PSD2
3 8 (2.73%) SEPA
4 7 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (2.39%) WCAG
5 5 (1.71%) GDPR
6 2 (0.68%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 2 (0.68%) GRC
6 2 (0.68%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.68%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.34%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.34%) HL7
7 1 (0.34%) NEBOSH
7 1 (0.34%) SLA
7 1 (0.34%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.34%) Solvency II
System Software
1 87 (29.69%) Docker
2 11 (3.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (3.75%) vSphere
3 10 (3.41%) Active Directory
4 4 (1.37%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (1.37%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.02%) ISA Server
6 2 (0.68%) Tivoli Directory Server
6 2 (0.68%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.34%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 98 (33.45%) Terraform
2 87 (29.69%) Kubernetes
3 17 (5.80%) Ansible
3 17 (5.80%) Grafana
4 16 (5.46%) Prometheus
5 9 (3.07%) Progress Chef
6 6 (2.05%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 6 (2.05%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.71%) Istio
8 4 (1.37%) Argo
8 4 (1.37%) CA Single Sign-On
8 4 (1.37%) Fluentd
8 4 (1.37%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (1.37%) SCCM
9 2 (0.68%) CA Wily
9 2 (0.68%) linkerd
9 2 (0.68%) Tivoli
10 1 (0.34%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.34%) HP Fortify
10 1 (0.34%) Puppet
Vendors
1 50 (17.06%) Microsoft
2 28 (9.56%) Oracle
3 20 (6.83%) Splunk
4 16 (5.46%) Google
5 11 (3.75%) VMware
6 10 (3.41%) IBM
7 9 (3.07%) F5
8 8 (2.73%) Databricks
9 6 (2.05%) Cribl.io
9 6 (2.05%) MuleSoft
10 5 (1.71%) ServiceNow
10 5 (1.71%) Veeam
11 4 (1.37%) OpenAI
11 4 (1.37%) Palo Alto
11 4 (1.37%) Red Hat
12 3 (1.02%) Adobe
12 3 (1.02%) CyberArk
12 3 (1.02%) Foundry
12 3 (1.02%) SAP
12 3 (1.02%) Virgin Media