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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 22 14
Rank change year-on-year +8 -8 +1
Contract jobs citing DevOps 317 125 253
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 8.64% 6.59% 9.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.00% 7.30% 11.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 216 97 154
10th Percentile £400 £351 £456
25th Percentile £449 £447 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £546 £520 £578
Median % change year-on-year +5.05% -9.96% -3.75%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £652
90th Percentile £700 £697 £701
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -6.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 3 40
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% -10.26%
75th Percentile £98.75 £95.00 £74.00
90th Percentile £101.00 - £85.00
England median hourly rate £67.50 £67.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +0.75% -4.29% +7.69%

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 2,881 1,712 2,205
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 78.57% 90.20% 83.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,632 984 1,368
10th Percentile £325 £214 £266
25th Percentile £425 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £630
90th Percentile £725 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 445 221 227
10th Percentile £16.25 £14.84 £15.06
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.51 £43.13
Median hourly rate £62.25 £25.15 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +147.51% -62.74% +5.23%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £72.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £43.56 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +73.20% -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 4 September 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 September 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 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
Bristol +11 114 £543 +10.26% 99
Somerset +16 64 £475 -9.05% 20
Wiltshire +12 58 £563 -5.26% 17
Gloucestershire +10 50 £575 -8.00% 104
Devon -15 17 £560 +7.69% 18
Dorset -14 3 £430 +14.67% 13
Cornwall - 1 £505 - 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 26 (8.20%) Confluence
2 10 (3.15%) SharePoint
3 7 (2.21%) IIS
4 5 (1.58%) Apache Spark
5 4 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.63%) Apache
7 1 (0.32%) JBoss
7 1 (0.32%) Mattermost
7 1 (0.32%) Oracle Coherence
7 1 (0.32%) Tomcat
Applications
1 7 (2.21%) Spreadsheet
2 5 (1.58%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.95%) Trello
4 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.32%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 4 (1.26%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.63%) Oracle Payroll
3 1 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.32%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.32%) SAP Hybris
3 1 (0.32%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.32%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 143 (45.11%) Azure
2 103 (32.49%) AWS
3 73 (23.03%) Azure DevOps
4 53 (16.72%) GCP
5 24 (7.57%) GitHub
6 15 (4.73%) Serverless
7 13 (4.10%) AWS CloudFormation
8 12 (3.79%) GitHub Actions
9 11 (3.47%) dbt
10 10 (3.15%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 9 (2.84%) Azure AKS
12 8 (2.52%) Azure Key Vault
12 8 (2.52%) Power Platform
12 8 (2.52%) SaaS
13 7 (2.21%) AWS Lambda
13 7 (2.21%) Entra ID
13 7 (2.21%) OCI
14 6 (1.89%) Azure Monitor
14 6 (1.89%) OpenShift
14 6 (1.89%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (4.42%) DNS
2 12 (3.79%) Firewall
3 6 (1.89%) VPN
4 4 (1.26%) VSAN
5 2 (0.63%) 3GPP
5 2 (0.63%) CTI
5 2 (0.63%) TETRA
6 1 (0.32%) AMQP
6 1 (0.32%) Network Security
6 1 (0.32%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.32%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (4.42%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.47%) Geospatial Data
3 8 (2.52%) MongoDB
3 8 (2.52%) Power BI
4 7 (2.21%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (2.21%) SAP HANA
5 6 (1.89%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (1.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 4 (1.26%) NoSQL
7 4 (1.26%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.95%) Big Data
8 3 (0.95%) BigQuery
8 3 (0.95%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.95%) DynamoDB
8 3 (0.95%) EDRMS
8 3 (0.95%) Metadata
8 3 (0.95%) SQLite
9 2 (0.63%) Looker
9 2 (0.63%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 47 (14.83%) Git
2 38 (11.99%) JIRA
3 35 (11.04%) GitLab
4 33 (10.41%) Jenkins
5 12 (3.79%) Gatling
5 12 (3.79%) LoadRunner
6 11 (3.47%) JMeter
6 11 (3.47%) MSI
7 7 (2.21%) Cucumber
7 7 (2.21%) REST Assured
8 6 (1.89%) Postman
9 3 (0.95%) Claude Code
9 3 (0.95%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 2 (0.63%) AdminStudio
10 2 (0.63%) InstallShield
10 2 (0.63%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.63%) JUnit
10 2 (0.63%) Selenium
10 2 (0.63%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.63%) Visual Studio Team System
General
1 67 (21.14%) Social Skills
2 39 (12.30%) Public Sector
3 21 (6.62%) Finance
4 18 (5.68%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (1.89%) Banking
5 6 (1.89%) Legal
5 6 (1.89%) Military
6 5 (1.58%) Aerospace
6 5 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (1.58%) Retail
7 4 (1.26%) Local Government
7 4 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (1.26%) Police
8 3 (0.95%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.32%) Aviation
9 1 (0.32%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 80 (25.24%) DevOps Engineer
2 47 (14.83%) Developer
3 30 (9.46%) Architect
4 26 (8.20%) Senior
5 21 (6.62%) Data Engineer
6 19 (5.99%) GCP Engineer
6 19 (5.99%) Lead
7 18 (5.68%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 17 (5.36%) Site Engineer
8 17 (5.36%) Software Developer
9 15 (4.73%) Analyst
9 15 (4.73%) Platform Engineer
10 13 (4.10%) Azure Engineer
11 12 (3.79%) GCP DevOps
11 12 (3.79%) GCP DevOps Engineer
11 12 (3.79%) Senior DevOps
11 12 (3.79%) Senior DevOps Engineer
12 11 (3.47%) Performance Engineer
13 10 (3.15%) AWS Engineer
14 9 (2.84%) Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 109 (34.38%) Terraform
2 36 (11.36%) .NET
3 26 (8.20%) REST
4 22 (6.94%) .NET Framework
5 19 (5.99%) RESTful
6 15 (4.73%) .NET Core
6 15 (4.73%) React
7 14 (4.42%) Playwright
8 12 (3.79%) CSS
8 12 (3.79%) HTML
8 12 (3.79%) Kafka
8 12 (3.79%) Spring Boot
9 11 (3.47%) ATL
9 11 (3.47%) COM
9 11 (3.47%) CSS3
9 11 (3.47%) GeoJSON
9 11 (3.47%) HTML5
9 11 (3.47%) MFC
9 11 (3.47%) WPF
10 10 (3.15%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 56 (17.67%) Cloud Native
2 22 (6.94%) Legacy Systems
3 20 (6.31%) Enterprise Software
4 19 (5.99%) Onboarding
5 17 (5.36%) Product Ownership
6 14 (4.42%) Hybrid Cloud
7 9 (2.84%) Wiki
8 6 (1.89%) Distributed Systems
9 5 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.58%) Legacy Code
9 5 (1.58%) Linux Command Line
9 5 (1.58%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (0.95%) Enterprise Cloud
10 3 (0.95%) EPoS
10 3 (0.95%) Legacy Applications
10 3 (0.95%) Replication
11 2 (0.63%) Data Centre
11 2 (0.63%) Management Information System
11 2 (0.63%) Private Cloud
11 2 (0.63%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 47 (14.83%) Linux
2 37 (11.67%) Windows
3 16 (5.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 11 (3.47%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.26%) CentOS
5 4 (1.26%) Unix
6 2 (0.63%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.32%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 164 (51.74%) CI/CD
2 107 (33.75%) Infrastructure as Code
3 106 (33.44%) Agile
4 71 (22.40%) Containerisation
4 71 (22.40%) Continuous Improvement
5 47 (14.83%) Site Reliability Engineering
5 47 (14.83%) Test Automation
6 43 (13.56%) Platform Engineering
6 43 (13.56%) Stakeholder Management
7 39 (12.30%) Problem-Solving
8 36 (11.36%) Microservices
9 35 (11.04%) Deployment Automation
9 35 (11.04%) DevSecOps
10 32 (10.09%) Software Engineering
11 28 (8.83%) Observability
12 26 (8.20%) AI
12 26 (8.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 26 (8.20%) Migration
12 26 (8.20%) Technical Leadership
13 25 (7.89%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 86 (27.13%) Python
2 44 (13.88%) SQL
3 43 (13.56%) Bash
4 36 (11.36%) Java
5 34 (10.73%) JavaScript
6 31 (9.78%) C#
7 20 (6.31%) Bicep
7 20 (6.31%) PowerShell
8 17 (5.36%) TypeScript
9 12 (3.79%) PL/SQL
10 8 (2.52%) Go
11 4 (1.26%) Apex Code
11 4 (1.26%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.95%) Groovy
12 3 (0.95%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.32%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 159 (50.16%) Security Cleared
2 114 (35.96%) SC Cleared
3 50 (15.77%) DV Cleared
4 11 (3.47%) Degree
5 9 (2.84%) AWS Certification
6 7 (2.21%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 5 (1.58%) ISTQB
7 5 (1.58%) TOGAF Certification
8 4 (1.26%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 3 (0.95%) AWS Certified Developer
9 3 (0.95%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.95%) VCAP
9 3 (0.95%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 2 (0.63%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 2 (0.63%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 2 (0.63%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.32%) CompTIA Security+
11 1 (0.32%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.32%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 1 (0.32%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (5.36%) Accessibility
1 17 (5.36%) QA
2 16 (5.05%) WCAG
3 15 (4.73%) NCSC
4 10 (3.15%) Data Quality
5 7 (2.21%) SLA
6 6 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (0.95%) GDPR
7 3 (0.95%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.63%) GRC
8 2 (0.63%) NIST
8 2 (0.63%) PMO
9 1 (0.32%) JSP 440
System Software
1 70 (22.08%) Docker
2 6 (1.89%) Corosync
2 6 (1.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (1.58%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.58%) VMware NSX
4 4 (1.26%) VMware ESXi
4 4 (1.26%) vSphere
5 2 (0.63%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.32%) zsh
Systems Management
1 116 (36.59%) Kubernetes
2 53 (16.72%) Ansible
3 14 (4.42%) Grafana
4 12 (3.79%) Prometheus
5 10 (3.15%) Argo
6 7 (2.21%) Failover Clustering
6 7 (2.21%) Pacemaker
7 4 (1.26%) PowerCLI
7 4 (1.26%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.95%) Istio
8 3 (0.95%) Puppet
9 2 (0.63%) Docker Swarm
9 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.63%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.63%) SCCM
9 2 (0.63%) 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 51 (16.09%) Microsoft
2 28 (8.83%) Google
3 16 (5.05%) Dynatrace
4 14 (4.42%) Red Hat
4 14 (4.42%) Splunk
5 12 (3.79%) Oracle
5 12 (3.79%) VMware
6 11 (3.47%) AppDynamics
6 11 (3.47%) New Relic
7 9 (2.84%) SAP
8 8 (2.52%) Salesforce
9 6 (1.89%) Databricks
10 5 (1.58%) InterSystems
11 4 (1.26%) Atlassian
11 4 (1.26%) Conga
11 4 (1.26%) GoCardless
11 4 (1.26%) MuleSoft
11 4 (1.26%) SaltStack
12 3 (0.95%) Dell
12 3 (0.95%) Informatica