DevOps Contract Job Trends in the South West

DevOps
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring DevOps skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 28 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 23 20
Rank change year-on-year +9 -3 -10
Contract jobs citing DevOps 242 152 200
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 9.30% 8.11% 6.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.40% 9.17% 7.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 178 109 147
10th Percentile £404 £450 £406
25th Percentile £450 £500 £493
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - +4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £685 £700
90th Percentile £708 £725 £751
England median daily rate £525 £575 £571
% change year-on-year -8.70% +0.66% -4.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 8
10th Percentile £84.00 - £35.00
25th Percentile £85.00 £66.25 £64.06
Median hourly rate £90.00 £70.75 £77.75
Median % change year-on-year +27.21% -9.00% +18.51%
75th Percentile £94.69 £74.11 £78.81
90th Percentile £95.00 £74.31 £81.25
England median hourly rate £48.75 £67.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -27.78% +3.85% -0.92%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South 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 South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,123 1,658 2,595
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 81.59% 88.43% 84.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,215 1,008 1,696
10th Percentile £275 £229 £275
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year - -3.67% +0.93%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £706 £725
England median daily rate £501 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.53% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 358 101 313
10th Percentile £15.97 £18.51 £15.16
25th Percentile £22.69 £46.25 £33.00
Median hourly rate £51.21 £65.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.22% +18.18% -10.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £69.62
90th Percentile - £70.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year -26.03% -6.85% +4.29%

DevOps
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing DevOps relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

DevOps job vacancy trend in the South West

DevOps
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing DevOps.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing DevOps

DevOps
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DevOps in the South West over the 6 months to 28 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for DevOps in the South West

DevOps
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing DevOps.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing DevOps

DevOps
Contract Job Locations in the South 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 South West region over the 6 months to 28 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
Gloucestershire +12 98 £500 -18.53% 38
Bristol -2 59 £538 -2.27% 40
Wiltshire +3 52 £550 -8.33% 21
Dorset - 13 £525 - 16
Somerset +1 12 £519 -15.99% 15
Devon -14 5 £550 -19.71% 10
DevOps
England

DevOps
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South 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 20 (8.26%) Confluence
2 10 (4.13%) Apache
3 7 (2.89%) SharePoint
4 3 (1.24%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (1.24%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.24%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (0.83%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (2.48%) NEC Housing
2 5 (2.07%) Maximo
3 2 (0.83%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 142 (58.68%) Azure
2 85 (35.12%) Azure DevOps
3 55 (22.73%) AWS
4 50 (20.66%) GitHub
5 21 (8.68%) GCP
6 15 (6.20%) Entra ID
6 15 (6.20%) GitHub Actions
7 14 (5.79%) Azure Data Factory
8 13 (5.37%) Serverless
9 11 (4.55%) AWS CloudFormation
9 11 (4.55%) Azure Key Vault
9 11 (4.55%) OpenShift
10 10 (4.13%) Azure AKS
11 9 (3.72%) Azure Monitor
12 8 (3.31%) IaaS
13 7 (2.89%) Azure Sentinel
13 7 (2.89%) Dynamics 365
14 5 (2.07%) Amazon EC2
14 5 (2.07%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 5 (2.07%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.72%) VPN
2 6 (2.48%) Firewall
2 6 (2.48%) Network Security
3 4 (1.65%) DNS
3 4 (1.65%) TCP/IP
4 3 (1.24%) WAN
5 2 (0.83%) DHCP
5 2 (0.83%) HTTP
5 2 (0.83%) LAN
5 2 (0.83%) NAS
5 2 (0.83%) SAN
5 2 (0.83%) SSL
5 2 (0.83%) WAAS
6 1 (0.41%) NGFW
6 1 (0.41%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.41%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.41%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (9.92%) PostgreSQL
2 15 (6.20%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (3.31%) Redis
4 4 (1.65%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (1.65%) Data Warehouse
4 4 (1.65%) Metadata
5 3 (1.24%) NoSQL
5 3 (1.24%) Oracle Database
5 3 (1.24%) Power BI
5 3 (1.24%) SQL Server
6 2 (0.83%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (0.83%) Big Data
6 2 (0.83%) DynamoDB
6 2 (0.83%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.83%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.83%) Power Query
7 1 (0.41%) Apache Hive
7 1 (0.41%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.41%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 32 (13.22%) JIRA
2 31 (12.81%) GitLab
3 30 (12.40%) Oracle APEX
4 26 (10.74%) Git
5 22 (9.09%) Jenkins
6 14 (5.79%) SonarQube
7 9 (3.72%) Artifactory
8 4 (1.65%) MSI
9 3 (1.24%) Bitbucket
9 3 (1.24%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.83%) AdminStudio
10 2 (0.83%) InstallShield
10 2 (0.83%) Maven
11 1 (0.41%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.41%) JUnit
11 1 (0.41%) Mocha
11 1 (0.41%) Oracle Forms
11 1 (0.41%) REST Assured
11 1 (0.41%) SoapUI
11 1 (0.41%) TestNG
General
1 73 (30.17%) Social Skills
2 25 (10.33%) Public Sector
3 16 (6.61%) Finance
4 15 (6.20%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (2.48%) Telecoms
6 5 (2.07%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.07%) Military
7 4 (1.65%) Aerospace
7 4 (1.65%) Back Office
8 2 (0.83%) Law
8 2 (0.83%) Local Government
9 1 (0.41%) Banking
9 1 (0.41%) Electronics
9 1 (0.41%) Legal
9 1 (0.41%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.41%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 62 (25.62%) Senior
2 60 (24.79%) Developer
3 48 (19.83%) DevOps Engineer
4 36 (14.88%) Senior Developer
5 17 (7.02%) Data Engineer
6 13 (5.37%) Architect
7 12 (4.96%) Senior Data Engineer
8 11 (4.55%) DevSecOps Engineer
8 11 (4.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 10 (4.13%) Azure Engineer
9 10 (4.13%) Python Developer
10 9 (3.72%) Consultant
11 8 (3.31%) Analyst
11 8 (3.31%) Azure DevOps Engineer
11 8 (3.31%) Backend Developer
11 8 (3.31%) GCP Engineer
11 8 (3.31%) Lead
11 8 (3.31%) Platform Engineer
12 7 (2.89%) AWS Engineer
12 7 (2.89%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (13.64%) REST
2 16 (6.61%) Kafka
3 15 (6.20%) ARM Templates
4 14 (5.79%) Node.js
4 14 (5.79%) React
4 14 (5.79%) YAML
5 13 (5.37%) Keycloak
6 9 (3.72%) Apache NiFi
6 9 (3.72%) GraphQL
7 8 (3.31%) FastAPI
7 8 (3.31%) Flask
7 8 (3.31%) gRPC
7 8 (3.31%) WebSockets
8 7 (2.89%) RESTful
9 6 (2.48%) .NET
9 6 (2.48%) CSS
9 6 (2.48%) Elastic Stack
9 6 (2.48%) HTML
9 6 (2.48%) Spring
10 5 (2.07%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 27 (11.16%) Cloud Native
2 19 (7.85%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (6.20%) Product Ownership
4 7 (2.89%) Legacy Systems
5 6 (2.48%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (2.07%) Mobile App
7 4 (1.65%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.24%) CMDB
8 3 (1.24%) Onboarding
8 3 (1.24%) Operational Technology
9 2 (0.83%) Distributed Computing
9 2 (0.83%) FPGA
9 2 (0.83%) Legacy Applications
9 2 (0.83%) Private Cloud
9 2 (0.83%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.83%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.83%) Verilog
9 2 (0.83%) VHDL
9 2 (0.83%) Wiki
10 1 (0.41%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 34 (14.05%) Windows
2 20 (8.26%) Linux
3 7 (2.89%) Windows 10
4 4 (1.65%) Ubuntu
4 4 (1.65%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.83%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.41%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (46.28%) Agile
2 102 (42.15%) CI/CD
3 58 (23.97%) Containerisation
4 56 (23.14%) Infrastructure as Code
5 48 (19.83%) Scrum
6 44 (18.18%) Problem-Solving
7 37 (15.29%) Collaborative Working
8 36 (14.88%) Validation
9 31 (12.81%) ITIL
10 30 (12.40%) Software Delivery
11 28 (11.57%) Microservices
11 28 (11.57%) Requirements Analysis
12 27 (11.16%) Web Application Development
13 24 (9.92%) Continuous Improvement
14 22 (9.09%) DevSecOps
15 20 (8.26%) Platform Engineering
15 20 (8.26%) Service Management
16 19 (7.85%) ETL
16 19 (7.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 19 (7.85%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 81 (33.47%) Python
2 58 (23.97%) SQL
3 47 (19.42%) JavaScript
4 46 (19.01%) PowerShell
5 36 (14.88%) PL/SQL
6 24 (9.92%) Go
7 20 (8.26%) Java
8 16 (6.61%) Bash
8 16 (6.61%) TypeScript
9 14 (5.79%) Bicep
10 9 (3.72%) C#
11 4 (1.65%) VBScript
12 3 (1.24%) C
12 3 (1.24%) Ruby
12 3 (1.24%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.83%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.83%) C++
13 2 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.41%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 176 (72.73%) Security Cleared
2 155 (64.05%) SC Cleared
3 48 (19.83%) DV Cleared
4 26 (10.74%) Azure Certification
5 16 (6.61%) Degree
6 13 (5.37%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (3.72%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (2.89%) AWS Certification
9 5 (2.07%) CISM
9 5 (2.07%) CISSP
9 5 (2.07%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 4 (1.65%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 4 (1.65%) MCSA
11 3 (1.24%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.83%) BPSS Clearance
13 1 (0.41%) Cisco Certification
13 1 (0.41%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 1 (0.41%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (6.61%) NCSC
2 15 (6.20%) QA
3 13 (5.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 12 (4.96%) NIST
5 5 (2.07%) NIST 800
6 3 (1.24%) GDPR
7 2 (0.83%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.83%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.83%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.41%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.41%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.41%) SLA
8 1 (0.41%) WCAG
System Software
1 66 (27.27%) Docker
2 19 (7.85%) Active Directory
3 11 (4.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.07%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (2.07%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.65%) Microsoft App-V
6 3 (1.24%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.83%) vSphere
8 1 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.41%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 84 (34.71%) Kubernetes
2 76 (31.40%) Terraform
3 39 (16.12%) Ansible
4 19 (7.85%) Grafana
5 17 (7.02%) Prometheus
6 8 (3.31%) Packer
7 7 (2.89%) SCCM
8 6 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (2.07%) Argo
10 4 (1.65%) Nessus
11 3 (1.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (1.24%) Kibana
11 3 (1.24%) Podman
11 3 (1.24%) Proxmox
11 3 (1.24%) Puppet
12 2 (0.83%) Istio
12 2 (0.83%) Nagios
12 2 (0.83%) Rancher
13 1 (0.41%) Icinga
13 1 (0.41%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 42 (17.36%) Microsoft
2 39 (16.12%) Oracle
3 18 (7.44%) VMware
4 17 (7.02%) Red Hat
5 14 (5.79%) Atlassian
6 12 (4.96%) Google
7 6 (2.48%) Cisco
7 6 (2.48%) NEC
8 5 (2.07%) IBM
8 5 (2.07%) NetApp
9 4 (1.65%) Salesforce
9 4 (1.65%) ServiceNow
10 2 (0.83%) CheckPoint
10 2 (0.83%) Databricks
10 2 (0.83%) Dell
10 2 (0.83%) F5
10 2 (0.83%) HP
10 2 (0.83%) Palo Alto
11 1 (0.41%) EMC
11 1 (0.41%) Informatica