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 25 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 22 14
Rank change year-on-year +6 -8 -1
Contract jobs citing DevOps 309 132 266
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 8.48% 6.84% 9.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.79% 7.61% 11.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 207 100 163
10th Percentile £400 £324 £450
25th Percentile £449 £425 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £518 £563
Median % change year-on-year +1.45% -8.00% -6.25%
75th Percentile £610 £625 £638
90th Percentile £688 £696 £690
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -6.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 3 42
10th Percentile £64.15 £83.37 -
25th Percentile £76.00 £83.98 -
Median hourly rate £92.50 £90.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% +28.57% -4.11%
75th Percentile £102.50 £95.00 £74.33
90th Percentile £102.95 - £85.00
England median hourly rate £67.00 £67.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year - -4.29% +6.87%

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 2,864 1,735 2,280
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 78.62% 89.85% 83.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,614 1,014 1,452
10th Percentile £325 £213 £263
25th Percentile £425 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £620 £613 £630
90th Percentile £725 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £511 £525
% change year-on-year +2.74% -2.67% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 434 217 246
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.94 £13.86
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.51 £39.15
Median hourly rate £62.25 £25.15 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +147.51% -62.74% +3.85%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £72.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +1.18%

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 25 August 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DevOps in the South West over the 6 months to 25 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for DevOps in the South West

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 25 August 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
Bristol +12 109 £525 +5.00% 68
Somerset +16 64 £475 -9.05% 12
Wiltshire +13 61 £563 +2.27% 14
Gloucestershire +7 47 £575 +3.37% 101
Devon -15 15 £560 +7.69% 6
Dorset -16 2 £665 +77.33% 9
Cornwall -5 1 £505 -12.17% 1
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 25 (8.09%) Confluence
2 9 (2.91%) SharePoint
3 8 (2.59%) IIS
4 5 (1.62%) Apache Spark
5 4 (1.29%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.65%) Apache
7 1 (0.32%) JBoss
7 1 (0.32%) Mattermost
7 1 (0.32%) Oracle Coherence
7 1 (0.32%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.32%) Tomcat
Applications
1 7 (2.27%) Spreadsheet
2 5 (1.62%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.97%) Trello
4 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.32%) InDesign
5 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
5 1 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (1.29%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.65%) Oracle Payroll
3 1 (0.32%) Maximo
3 1 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.32%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.32%) SAP Hybris
3 1 (0.32%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.32%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 139 (44.98%) Azure
2 100 (32.36%) AWS
3 72 (23.30%) Azure DevOps
4 50 (16.18%) GCP
5 24 (7.77%) GitHub
6 15 (4.85%) Serverless
7 13 (4.21%) AWS CloudFormation
7 13 (4.21%) GitHub Actions
8 11 (3.56%) dbt
9 10 (3.24%) Azure Key Vault
9 10 (3.24%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 8 (2.59%) Azure AKS
10 8 (2.59%) Entra ID
10 8 (2.59%) SaaS
11 7 (2.27%) AWS Lambda
11 7 (2.27%) Azure Monitor
11 7 (2.27%) OCI
11 7 (2.27%) Power Platform
12 6 (1.94%) Amazon S3
12 6 (1.94%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (4.53%) DNS
2 12 (3.88%) Firewall
3 6 (1.94%) VPN
4 4 (1.29%) VSAN
5 3 (0.97%) 3GPP
5 3 (0.97%) TETRA
6 2 (0.65%) CTI
7 1 (0.32%) AMQP
7 1 (0.32%) HTTP
7 1 (0.32%) Network Security
7 1 (0.32%) SMTP
7 1 (0.32%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.32%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (4.85%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.56%) Geospatial Data
3 8 (2.59%) MongoDB
4 7 (2.27%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (2.27%) Power BI
4 7 (2.27%) SAP HANA
5 6 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
6 5 (1.62%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 4 (1.29%) NoSQL
7 4 (1.29%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.97%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.97%) Big Data
8 3 (0.97%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.97%) DynamoDB
8 3 (0.97%) EDRMS
8 3 (0.97%) Metadata
8 3 (0.97%) SQLite
9 2 (0.65%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.65%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.65%) Redis
Development Applications
1 44 (14.24%) Git
2 36 (11.65%) JIRA
3 29 (9.39%) GitLab
3 29 (9.39%) Jenkins
4 12 (3.88%) Gatling
4 12 (3.88%) LoadRunner
4 12 (3.88%) MSI
5 11 (3.56%) JMeter
6 7 (2.27%) Cucumber
6 7 (2.27%) REST Assured
7 6 (1.94%) Postman
8 3 (0.97%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.65%) AdminStudio
9 2 (0.65%) Claude Code
9 2 (0.65%) InstallShield
9 2 (0.65%) IntelliJ
9 2 (0.65%) JUnit
9 2 (0.65%) Selenium
9 2 (0.65%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.65%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 66 (21.36%) Social Skills
2 39 (12.62%) Public Sector
3 20 (6.47%) Finance
4 18 (5.83%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (2.27%) Banking
5 7 (2.27%) Legal
6 6 (1.94%) Military
7 5 (1.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (1.62%) Retail
8 4 (1.29%) Aerospace
8 4 (1.29%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.29%) Police
9 3 (0.97%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (0.97%) Local Government
10 1 (0.32%) Aviation
10 1 (0.32%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.32%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 80 (25.89%) DevOps Engineer
2 47 (15.21%) Developer
3 28 (9.06%) Architect
4 24 (7.77%) Senior
5 21 (6.80%) Data Engineer
6 19 (6.15%) GCP Engineer
6 19 (6.15%) Lead
7 18 (5.83%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 17 (5.50%) Site Engineer
9 15 (4.85%) Software Developer
10 14 (4.53%) Analyst
10 14 (4.53%) Platform Engineer
11 13 (4.21%) GCP DevOps
11 13 (4.21%) GCP DevOps Engineer
12 12 (3.88%) Azure Engineer
12 12 (3.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 11 (3.56%) Performance Engineer
14 10 (3.24%) Senior DevOps
14 10 (3.24%) Senior DevOps Engineer
15 9 (2.91%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (33.33%) Terraform
2 37 (11.97%) .NET
3 29 (9.39%) REST
4 23 (7.44%) .NET Framework
5 18 (5.83%) RESTful
6 15 (4.85%) .NET Core
6 15 (4.85%) React
7 14 (4.53%) Playwright
8 12 (3.88%) ATL
8 12 (3.88%) COM
8 12 (3.88%) CSS
8 12 (3.88%) GeoJSON
8 12 (3.88%) HTML
8 12 (3.88%) Kafka
8 12 (3.88%) MFC
8 12 (3.88%) Spring Boot
9 11 (3.56%) CSS3
9 11 (3.56%) HTML5
9 11 (3.56%) WPF
10 10 (3.24%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 54 (17.48%) Cloud Native
2 22 (7.12%) Legacy Systems
3 21 (6.80%) Enterprise Software
4 19 (6.15%) Onboarding
5 15 (4.85%) Hybrid Cloud
6 14 (4.53%) Product Ownership
7 8 (2.59%) Wiki
8 6 (1.94%) Distributed Systems
9 5 (1.62%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.62%) Legacy Code
9 5 (1.62%) Self-Motivation
10 4 (1.29%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (0.97%) EPoS
11 3 (0.97%) Legacy Applications
11 3 (0.97%) Replication
12 2 (0.65%) Clustering
12 2 (0.65%) Enterprise Cloud
12 2 (0.65%) IVR
12 2 (0.65%) Management Information System
12 2 (0.65%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 47 (15.21%) Linux
2 39 (12.62%) Windows
3 15 (4.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 12 (3.88%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.29%) CentOS
6 3 (0.97%) Unix
7 2 (0.65%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.32%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (50.49%) CI/CD
2 106 (34.30%) Agile
3 99 (32.04%) Infrastructure as Code
4 70 (22.65%) Continuous Improvement
5 65 (21.04%) Containerisation
6 45 (14.56%) Site Reliability Engineering
6 45 (14.56%) Test Automation
7 42 (13.59%) Stakeholder Management
8 38 (12.30%) Platform Engineering
8 38 (12.30%) Problem-Solving
9 36 (11.65%) Microservices
10 32 (10.36%) Deployment Automation
10 32 (10.36%) DevSecOps
11 30 (9.71%) Software Engineering
12 26 (8.41%) Observability
13 25 (8.09%) Migration
13 25 (8.09%) Root Cause Analysis
13 25 (8.09%) Technical Leadership
14 23 (7.44%) AI
14 23 (7.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 82 (26.54%) Python
2 45 (14.56%) SQL
3 40 (12.94%) Bash
4 35 (11.33%) Java
4 35 (11.33%) JavaScript
5 30 (9.71%) C#
6 19 (6.15%) Bicep
6 19 (6.15%) PowerShell
7 18 (5.83%) TypeScript
8 13 (4.21%) PL/SQL
9 9 (2.91%) Go
10 4 (1.29%) Apex Code
10 4 (1.29%) Shell Script
10 4 (1.29%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.97%) Groovy
12 1 (0.32%) C++
12 1 (0.32%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.32%) PHP
Qualifications
1 155 (50.16%) Security Cleared
2 118 (38.19%) SC Cleared
3 42 (13.59%) DV Cleared
4 11 (3.56%) Degree
5 10 (3.24%) AWS Certification
6 8 (2.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 6 (1.94%) ISTQB
7 6 (1.94%) TOGAF Certification
8 5 (1.62%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.97%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 3 (0.97%) AWS Certified Developer
9 3 (0.97%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.97%) VCAP
9 3 (0.97%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 2 (0.65%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 2 (0.65%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.32%) CISSP
11 1 (0.32%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.32%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (5.50%) Accessibility
2 16 (5.18%) QA
2 16 (5.18%) WCAG
3 14 (4.53%) NCSC
4 10 (3.24%) Data Quality
5 7 (2.27%) SLA
6 5 (1.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (0.97%) GDPR
8 2 (0.65%) GRC
8 2 (0.65%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.65%) PMO
9 1 (0.32%) NIST
System Software
1 68 (22.01%) Docker
2 6 (1.94%) Corosync
2 6 (1.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (1.62%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.62%) VMware NSX
4 4 (1.29%) VMware ESXi
4 4 (1.29%) vSphere
5 2 (0.65%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.32%) zsh
Systems Management
1 111 (35.92%) Kubernetes
2 51 (16.50%) Ansible
3 14 (4.53%) Grafana
4 12 (3.88%) Prometheus
5 9 (2.91%) Argo
6 7 (2.27%) Failover Clustering
6 7 (2.27%) Pacemaker
7 4 (1.29%) PowerCLI
7 4 (1.29%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.97%) Istio
8 3 (0.97%) Puppet
9 2 (0.65%) Docker Swarm
9 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.65%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.65%) SCCM
9 2 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.32%) CASB
10 1 (0.32%) Nessus
10 1 (0.32%) OPNET
10 1 (0.32%) VxRail
Vendors
1 52 (16.83%) Microsoft
2 26 (8.41%) Google
3 16 (5.18%) Dynatrace
4 13 (4.21%) Red Hat
4 13 (4.21%) Splunk
5 12 (3.88%) Oracle
6 11 (3.56%) AppDynamics
6 11 (3.56%) New Relic
6 11 (3.56%) VMware
7 9 (2.91%) SAP
8 7 (2.27%) Salesforce
9 6 (1.94%) Databricks
10 5 (1.62%) InterSystems
11 4 (1.29%) Atlassian
11 4 (1.29%) Conga
11 4 (1.29%) GoCardless
11 4 (1.29%) MuleSoft
11 4 (1.29%) SaltStack
12 3 (0.97%) Dell
12 3 (0.97%) Informatica