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 4 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 30 17
Rank change year-on-year +18 -13 -8
Contract jobs citing DevOps 294 107 275
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 8.27% 5.90% 8.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.32% 6.54% 10.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 189 84 172
10th Percentile £375 £363 £403
25th Percentile £413 £449 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.45% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £630
90th Percentile £650 £668 £688
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 41
10th Percentile £64.15 - -
25th Percentile £76.00 - -
Median hourly rate £92.50 £82.96 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.50% +18.51% +6.70%
75th Percentile £102.50 - £74.44
90th Percentile £102.95 - £85.00
England median hourly rate £68.75 £62.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year +10.00% -10.71% +6.78%

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 2,849 1,637 2,709
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 80.12% 90.19% 82.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,546 981 1,712
10th Percentile £325 £220 £260
25th Percentile £413 £363 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £606 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £688 £700
England median daily rate £523 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +1.46% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 473 182 380
10th Percentile £16.62 £15.25 £13.86
25th Percentile £32.50 £18.51 £29.75
Median hourly rate £57.50 £28.10 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +104.66% -48.92% -10.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £70.25
90th Percentile £72.54 £70.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £47.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +86.88% -34.02% +1.65%

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 4 July 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 4 July 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 4 July 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 +10 107 £531 -3.41% 37
Wiltshire +15 61 £500 -6.98% 14
Gloucestershire +13 52 £575 -6.50% 56
Somerset +16 46 £444 -29.00% 15
Devon -18 14 £560 +7.69% 7
Dorset -12 6 £350 -36.36% 3
Cornwall -4 1 £505 -12.17%
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 19 (6.46%) Confluence
2 10 (3.40%) Apache Spark
3 8 (2.72%) IIS
3 8 (2.72%) SharePoint
4 6 (2.04%) Mattermost
5 4 (1.36%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (1.02%) Apache
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle Coherence
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.34%) Tomcat
Applications
1 3 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.02%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (0.34%) InDesign
2 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.34%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.34%) Trello
Business Applications
1 6 (2.04%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (1.36%) Payment Gateway
3 2 (0.68%) Maximo
4 1 (0.34%) SAP Hybris
4 1 (0.34%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.34%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 120 (40.82%) Azure
2 98 (33.33%) AWS
3 65 (22.11%) Azure DevOps
4 45 (15.31%) GCP
5 30 (10.20%) GitHub
6 19 (6.46%) Serverless
7 18 (6.12%) GitHub Actions
8 12 (4.08%) AWS CloudFormation
8 12 (4.08%) SaaS
9 11 (3.74%) Amazon EKS
9 11 (3.74%) Azure Key Vault
9 11 (3.74%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 10 (3.40%) Amazon S3
10 10 (3.40%) AWS Lambda
10 10 (3.40%) Datadog
11 9 (3.06%) dbt
11 9 (3.06%) Power Platform
12 8 (2.72%) Entra ID
13 7 (2.38%) Azure Monitor
14 6 (2.04%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (3.74%) DNS
2 9 (3.06%) Firewall
3 5 (1.70%) VPN
4 3 (1.02%) 3GPP
4 3 (1.02%) TETRA
5 2 (0.68%) DHCP
6 1 (0.34%) AMQP
6 1 (0.34%) HTTP
6 1 (0.34%) LAN
6 1 (0.34%) NAS
6 1 (0.34%) Network Security
6 1 (0.34%) SAN
6 1 (0.34%) SMTP
6 1 (0.34%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (4.42%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.74%) Relational Database
3 10 (3.40%) NoSQL
4 9 (3.06%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (2.72%) MongoDB
5 8 (2.72%) Power BI
6 7 (2.38%) Geospatial Data
6 7 (2.38%) SAP HANA
7 6 (2.04%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (2.04%) Flink
8 4 (1.36%) Redis
9 3 (1.02%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (1.02%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 2 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.68%) Big Data
10 2 (0.68%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.68%) SQLite
11 1 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.34%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 35 (11.90%) Git
1 35 (11.90%) JIRA
2 25 (8.50%) GitLab
3 24 (8.16%) Jenkins
4 12 (4.08%) Gatling
4 12 (4.08%) LoadRunner
5 11 (3.74%) JMeter
6 8 (2.72%) MSI
7 7 (2.38%) Cucumber
7 7 (2.38%) REST Assured
8 6 (2.04%) Postman
9 4 (1.36%) IntelliJ
10 3 (1.02%) SonarQube
10 3 (1.02%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (1.02%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 2 (0.68%) AdminStudio
11 2 (0.68%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.68%) InstallShield
12 1 (0.34%) JUnit
12 1 (0.34%) Visual Studio
General
1 60 (20.41%) Social Skills
2 28 (9.52%) Public Sector
3 19 (6.46%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (4.08%) Finance
5 10 (3.40%) Legal
6 6 (2.04%) Military
7 5 (1.70%) Aerospace
7 5 (1.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (1.36%) Banking
8 4 (1.36%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.02%) Local Government
9 3 (1.02%) Police
10 1 (0.34%) Aviation
10 1 (0.34%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.34%) Marketing
10 1 (0.34%) Publishing
10 1 (0.34%) Retail
Job Titles
1 88 (29.93%) DevOps Engineer
2 40 (13.61%) Developer
3 28 (9.52%) Senior
4 19 (6.46%) Architect
4 19 (6.46%) GCP Engineer
5 17 (5.78%) Analyst
5 17 (5.78%) Data Engineer
6 16 (5.44%) Site Engineer
6 16 (5.44%) Site Reliability Engineer
7 15 (5.10%) Lead
8 14 (4.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (4.42%) GCP DevOps
9 13 (4.42%) GCP DevOps Engineer
9 13 (4.42%) Platform Engineer
10 12 (4.08%) Performance Engineer
11 11 (3.74%) Azure Engineer
11 11 (3.74%) Backend Developer
12 10 (3.40%) Java Developer
13 9 (3.06%) Technical Architect
13 9 (3.06%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (10.20%) .NET
2 23 (7.82%) REST
3 19 (6.46%) RESTful
3 19 (6.46%) Spring Boot
4 18 (6.12%) .NET Framework
5 17 (5.78%) React
5 17 (5.78%) Spring
6 16 (5.44%) Kafka
7 14 (4.76%) Playwright
8 10 (3.40%) .NET Core
9 8 (2.72%) ATL
9 8 (2.72%) COM
9 8 (2.72%) CSS
9 8 (2.72%) GeoJSON
9 8 (2.72%) HTML
9 8 (2.72%) MFC
9 8 (2.72%) RabbitMQ
10 7 (2.38%) CSS3
10 7 (2.38%) HTML5
10 7 (2.38%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 47 (15.99%) Cloud Native
2 18 (6.12%) Enterprise Software
2 18 (6.12%) Legacy Systems
3 12 (4.08%) Onboarding
4 8 (2.72%) Product Ownership
5 7 (2.38%) Public Cloud
6 6 (2.04%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (2.04%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (1.70%) Legacy Code
7 5 (1.70%) Management Information System
8 4 (1.36%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.36%) Wiki
9 3 (1.02%) EPoS
9 3 (1.02%) Legacy Applications
9 3 (1.02%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.02%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.02%) Replication
10 2 (0.68%) Data Centre
10 2 (0.68%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 47 (15.99%) Linux
2 40 (13.61%) Windows
3 13 (4.42%) Windows Server
4 12 (4.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (1.02%) Unix
6 2 (0.68%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.34%) CentOS
7 1 (0.34%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (46.26%) CI/CD
2 99 (33.67%) Agile
3 72 (24.49%) Infrastructure as Code
4 64 (21.77%) Containerisation
5 57 (19.39%) Continuous Improvement
6 40 (13.61%) Microservices
7 38 (12.93%) Test Automation
8 37 (12.59%) Problem-Solving
8 37 (12.59%) Site Reliability Engineering
9 28 (9.52%) Stakeholder Management
10 27 (9.18%) Platform Engineering
11 26 (8.84%) Observability
12 24 (8.16%) ITIL
12 24 (8.16%) Root Cause Analysis
13 23 (7.82%) Data Modelling
13 23 (7.82%) DevSecOps
14 22 (7.48%) Analytics
14 22 (7.48%) High Availability
14 22 (7.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 22 (7.48%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 71 (24.15%) Python
2 50 (17.01%) SQL
3 37 (12.59%) Java
4 28 (9.52%) JavaScript
5 27 (9.18%) Bash
6 19 (6.46%) C#
7 17 (5.78%) PowerShell
8 14 (4.76%) TypeScript
9 13 (4.42%) Go
10 11 (3.74%) Bicep
11 8 (2.72%) PL/SQL
12 4 (1.36%) Apex Code
12 4 (1.36%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.68%) Groovy
14 1 (0.34%) C++
14 1 (0.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.34%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.34%) PHP
14 1 (0.34%) Scala
14 1 (0.34%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 130 (44.22%) Security Cleared
2 101 (34.35%) SC Cleared
3 38 (12.93%) DV Cleared
4 14 (4.76%) Degree
5 8 (2.72%) AWS Certification
6 6 (2.04%) ISTQB
6 6 (2.04%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 6 (2.04%) TOGAF Certification
7 5 (1.70%) Azure Certification
8 4 (1.36%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
8 4 (1.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 3 (1.02%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 3 (1.02%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (1.02%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.68%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.34%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.34%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.34%) PMP
11 1 (0.34%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (6.80%) QA
2 13 (4.42%) Accessibility
3 12 (4.08%) WCAG
4 11 (3.74%) NCSC
5 8 (2.72%) Data Quality
6 7 (2.38%) SLA
7 6 (2.04%) GDPR
7 6 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (1.02%) PCI DSS
8 3 (1.02%) PMO
System Software
1 67 (22.79%) Docker
2 13 (4.42%) Active Directory
3 6 (2.04%) Corosync
4 3 (1.02%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 109 (37.07%) Kubernetes
2 80 (27.21%) Terraform
3 36 (12.24%) Ansible
4 22 (7.48%) Prometheus
5 18 (6.12%) Grafana
6 12 (4.08%) Argo
7 7 (2.38%) Failover Clustering
7 7 (2.38%) Pacemaker
8 5 (1.70%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (1.02%) Istio
9 3 (1.02%) Nagios
10 2 (0.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.68%) Docker Swarm
10 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.68%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.68%) SCCM
10 2 (0.68%) VxRail
11 1 (0.34%) CASB
11 1 (0.34%) Kibana
11 1 (0.34%) logstash
Vendors
1 44 (14.97%) Microsoft
2 24 (8.16%) Google
3 14 (4.76%) Dynatrace
3 14 (4.76%) Red Hat
4 13 (4.42%) Splunk
5 12 (4.08%) Databricks
6 11 (3.74%) AppDynamics
6 11 (3.74%) New Relic
7 9 (3.06%) SAP
8 7 (2.38%) Oracle
8 7 (2.38%) Salesforce
8 7 (2.38%) VMware
9 6 (2.04%) Atlassian
9 6 (2.04%) Remedy
10 5 (1.70%) InterSystems
11 4 (1.36%) Conga
11 4 (1.36%) Dell
11 4 (1.36%) GoCardless
12 3 (1.02%) IBM
13 2 (0.68%) MuleSoft