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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 26 23
Rank change year-on-year +13 -3 -13
Contract jobs citing DevOps 249 142 201
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 9.08% 7.73% 6.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.14% 8.67% 7.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 182 107 143
10th Percentile £400 £450 £401
25th Percentile £450 £506 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +4.35% -1.71%
75th Percentile £613 £685 £697
90th Percentile £700 £706 £750
England median daily rate £525 £575 £568
% change year-on-year -8.70% +1.19% -5.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 3 8
10th Percentile £84.80 - £35.00
25th Percentile £87.50 £66.25 £64.06
Median hourly rate £90.75 £67.50 £77.75
Median % change year-on-year +34.44% -13.18% +18.51%
75th Percentile £93.75 £71.60 £78.81
90th Percentile - £73.30 £81.25
England median hourly rate £51.25 £70.97 £65.00
% change year-on-year -27.79% +9.18% -0.76%

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 2,236 1,638 2,619
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 81.52% 89.17% 84.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 1,005 1,665
10th Percentile £275 £225 £275
25th Percentile £409 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year - -0.94% -2.75%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £720
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 395 99 336
10th Percentile £16.25 £20.35 £14.54
25th Percentile £22.77 £47.75 £31.60
Median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 £51.14
Median % change year-on-year -11.54% +27.11% -16.85%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £68.75
90th Percentile - £70.00 £78.18
England median hourly rate £25.89 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -26.04% - -

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 18 February 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 18 February 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 +16 99 £475 -22.61% 32
Bristol -1 61 £550 - 47
Wiltshire +10 54 £538 -10.42% 16
Dorset - 18 £500 - 9
Somerset -4 12 £500 -20.00% 12
Devon -18 4 £550 -19.71% 14
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 21 (8.43%) Confluence
2 10 (4.02%) Apache
3 9 (3.61%) SharePoint
4 8 (3.21%) Apache Spark
5 3 (1.20%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (1.20%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (0.80%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.80%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (2.41%) NEC Housing
2 5 (2.01%) Maximo
3 2 (0.80%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 139 (55.82%) Azure
2 85 (34.14%) Azure DevOps
3 59 (23.69%) AWS
4 49 (19.68%) GitHub
5 24 (9.64%) GCP
6 17 (6.83%) Serverless
7 16 (6.43%) GitHub Actions
8 14 (5.62%) Azure Data Factory
8 14 (5.62%) Entra ID
9 11 (4.42%) Azure Key Vault
9 11 (4.42%) OpenShift
10 10 (4.02%) Amazon EKS
10 10 (4.02%) AWS CloudFormation
10 10 (4.02%) Azure AKS
11 9 (3.61%) Azure Monitor
12 8 (3.21%) IaaS
13 7 (2.81%) Amazon ECS
13 7 (2.81%) Amazon S3
13 7 (2.81%) Dynamics 365
14 6 (2.41%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 8 (3.21%) VPN
2 5 (2.01%) Firewall
3 4 (1.61%) DNS
3 4 (1.61%) Network Security
4 3 (1.20%) DHCP
4 3 (1.20%) TCP/IP
4 3 (1.20%) WAN
5 2 (0.80%) HTTP
5 2 (0.80%) LAN
5 2 (0.80%) NAS
5 2 (0.80%) SAN
5 2 (0.80%) WAAS
6 1 (0.40%) NGFW
6 1 (0.40%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.40%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.40%) SSL
6 1 (0.40%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (9.64%) PostgreSQL
2 15 (6.02%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (3.21%) Redis
4 7 (2.81%) NoSQL
5 5 (2.01%) Flink
5 5 (2.01%) Relational Database
6 4 (1.61%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (1.61%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (1.61%) Metadata
6 4 (1.61%) Power BI
7 3 (1.20%) Oracle Database
7 3 (1.20%) SQL Server
8 2 (0.80%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.80%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.80%) Big Data
8 2 (0.80%) DynamoDB
8 2 (0.80%) Hadoop
8 2 (0.80%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.80%) Power Query
9 1 (0.40%) Apache Hive
Development Applications
1 33 (13.25%) JIRA
2 32 (12.85%) GitLab
3 30 (12.05%) Oracle APEX
4 25 (10.04%) Git
5 22 (8.84%) Jenkins
6 12 (4.82%) SonarQube
7 9 (3.61%) Artifactory
8 4 (1.61%) MSI
9 3 (1.20%) Bitbucket
9 3 (1.20%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.80%) AdminStudio
10 2 (0.80%) InstallShield
10 2 (0.80%) Maven
11 1 (0.40%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.40%) JUnit
11 1 (0.40%) Mocha
11 1 (0.40%) Oracle Forms
11 1 (0.40%) Postman
11 1 (0.40%) REST Assured
11 1 (0.40%) TestNG
General
1 71 (28.51%) Social Skills
2 24 (9.64%) Public Sector
3 16 (6.43%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (5.62%) Finance
5 4 (1.61%) Aerospace
5 4 (1.61%) Back Office
5 4 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (1.61%) Legal
5 4 (1.61%) Military
5 4 (1.61%) Telecoms
6 2 (0.80%) Local Government
7 1 (0.40%) Banking
7 1 (0.40%) Electronics
7 1 (0.40%) Law
7 1 (0.40%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.40%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 64 (25.70%) Developer
1 64 (25.70%) Senior
2 54 (21.69%) DevOps Engineer
3 35 (14.06%) Senior Developer
4 17 (6.83%) Data Engineer
5 12 (4.82%) Architect
5 12 (4.82%) Backend Developer
5 12 (4.82%) Senior Data Engineer
6 11 (4.42%) Analyst
7 10 (4.02%) Azure Engineer
7 10 (4.02%) Cloud Engineer
7 10 (4.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 10 (4.02%) Java Developer
8 9 (3.61%) DevSecOps Engineer
8 9 (3.61%) GCP Engineer
9 8 (3.21%) Azure DevOps Engineer
9 8 (3.21%) Consultant
9 8 (3.21%) Lead
9 8 (3.21%) Platform Engineer
9 8 (3.21%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (13.25%) REST
2 21 (8.43%) Kafka
3 15 (6.02%) ARM Templates
3 15 (6.02%) Node.js
3 15 (6.02%) React
4 13 (5.22%) Keycloak
5 12 (4.82%) YAML
6 11 (4.42%) Spring
7 9 (3.61%) Apache NiFi
7 9 (3.61%) GraphQL
7 9 (3.61%) RESTful
7 9 (3.61%) Spring Boot
8 8 (3.21%) FastAPI
8 8 (3.21%) Flask
8 8 (3.21%) gRPC
8 8 (3.21%) WebSockets
9 6 (2.41%) .NET
9 6 (2.41%) CSS
9 6 (2.41%) Elastic Stack
9 6 (2.41%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (11.65%) Cloud Native
2 17 (6.83%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (5.62%) Product Ownership
4 8 (3.21%) Legacy Systems
4 8 (3.21%) Public Cloud
5 6 (2.41%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (2.01%) Mobile App
7 3 (1.20%) CMDB
7 3 (1.20%) Operational Technology
8 2 (0.80%) Distributed Computing
8 2 (0.80%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (0.80%) Onboarding
8 2 (0.80%) Private Cloud
8 2 (0.80%) Security Posture
8 2 (0.80%) Wiki
9 1 (0.40%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.40%) Distributed Systems
9 1 (0.40%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (0.40%) Raspberry Pi
9 1 (0.40%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 35 (14.06%) Windows
2 22 (8.84%) Linux
3 7 (2.81%) Windows 10
4 4 (1.61%) Ubuntu
4 4 (1.61%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.80%) Unix
5 2 (0.80%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (44.58%) Agile
2 105 (42.17%) CI/CD
3 64 (25.70%) Containerisation
4 54 (21.69%) Infrastructure as Code
5 47 (18.88%) Scrum
6 41 (16.47%) Problem-Solving
7 37 (14.86%) Collaborative Working
8 36 (14.46%) Validation
9 33 (13.25%) ITIL
10 32 (12.85%) Microservices
11 30 (12.05%) Software Delivery
12 28 (11.24%) Requirements Analysis
13 27 (10.84%) Web Application Development
14 25 (10.04%) Continuous Improvement
15 23 (9.24%) Data Engineering
15 23 (9.24%) Data Pipeline
16 22 (8.84%) Service Management
17 21 (8.43%) Analytics
18 19 (7.63%) DevSecOps
18 19 (7.63%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 86 (34.54%) Python
2 65 (26.10%) SQL
3 48 (19.28%) JavaScript
4 47 (18.88%) PowerShell
5 36 (14.46%) PL/SQL
6 25 (10.04%) Java
7 24 (9.64%) Go
8 17 (6.83%) Bash
9 15 (6.02%) TypeScript
10 13 (5.22%) Bicep
11 7 (2.81%) C#
12 4 (1.61%) VBScript
13 3 (1.20%) Ruby
13 3 (1.20%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.80%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.40%) Apex Code
15 1 (0.40%) C
15 1 (0.40%) Scala
15 1 (0.40%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 172 (69.08%) Security Cleared
2 150 (60.24%) SC Cleared
3 48 (19.28%) DV Cleared
4 25 (10.04%) Azure Certification
5 17 (6.83%) Degree
6 13 (5.22%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (3.21%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (2.81%) AWS Certification
9 5 (2.01%) CISM
9 5 (2.01%) CISSP
9 5 (2.01%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 4 (1.61%) MCSA
11 3 (1.20%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 3 (1.20%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.80%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.80%) BPSS Clearance
13 1 (0.40%) CBAP
13 1 (0.40%) CSPO
13 1 (0.40%) IIBA
13 1 (0.40%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (6.83%) QA
2 14 (5.62%) NCSC
3 13 (5.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (4.42%) NIST
5 5 (2.01%) GDPR
5 5 (2.01%) NIST 800
6 2 (0.80%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.80%) Data Quality
6 2 (0.80%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (0.80%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.40%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.40%) SLA
7 1 (0.40%) WCAG
System Software
1 67 (26.91%) Docker
2 19 (7.63%) Active Directory
3 11 (4.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.01%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (2.01%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.61%) Microsoft App-V
6 3 (1.20%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.80%) vSphere
8 1 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.40%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 90 (36.14%) Kubernetes
2 74 (29.72%) Terraform
3 36 (14.46%) Ansible
4 23 (9.24%) Prometheus
5 20 (8.03%) Grafana
6 8 (3.21%) Packer
7 7 (2.81%) Argo
7 7 (2.81%) SCCM
7 7 (2.81%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (1.61%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (1.61%) Nessus
9 3 (1.20%) Nagios
9 3 (1.20%) Podman
9 3 (1.20%) Proxmox
10 2 (0.80%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.80%) Istio
10 2 (0.80%) Kibana
10 2 (0.80%) Rancher
11 1 (0.40%) Icinga
11 1 (0.40%) logstash
Vendors
1 41 (16.47%) Microsoft
2 39 (15.66%) Oracle
3 18 (7.23%) VMware
4 17 (6.83%) Google
4 17 (6.83%) Red Hat
5 14 (5.62%) Atlassian
6 9 (3.61%) Databricks
7 6 (2.41%) Cisco
7 6 (2.41%) NEC
8 5 (2.01%) IBM
8 5 (2.01%) NetApp
9 4 (1.61%) ServiceNow
10 3 (1.20%) Salesforce
11 2 (0.80%) Dell
11 2 (0.80%) HP
12 1 (0.40%) CheckPoint
12 1 (0.40%) EMC
12 1 (0.40%) Informatica
12 1 (0.40%) SAP
12 1 (0.40%) TOWER Software