DevOps Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

DevOps
South East > Thames Valley

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

6 months to
6 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 9 11
Rank change year-on-year -11 +2 +2
Contract jobs citing DevOps 255 214 248
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 8.25% 13.04% 11.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.30% 14.32% 12.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 177 129 183
10th Percentile £363 £353 £456
25th Percentile £462 £413 £508
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £605
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -17.36% +0.83%
75th Percentile £610 £575 £650
90th Percentile £693 £628 £675
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £593
% change year-on-year +5.00% -15.61% -1.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 0 7
10th Percentile £65.15 - £81.83
25th Percentile £68.80 - £84.67
Median hourly rate £81.50 - £87.46
75th Percentile £88.00 - -
90th Percentile £104.00 - -
South East median hourly rate £67.50 - £87.46
% change year-on-year - - +15.58%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,475 1,494 1,915
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 80.07% 91.04% 85.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,569 907 1,088
10th Percentile £325 £293 £286
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.44% -1.44%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £625
90th Percentile £713 £664 £688
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £514
% change year-on-year +5.00% -2.72% -0.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 236 98 91
10th Percentile £13.41 £14.20 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.44 £15.12 £27.63
Median hourly rate £60.00 £24.58 £58.49
Median % change year-on-year +144.15% -57.98% +16.98%
75th Percentile £85.00 £40.09 £70.39
90th Percentile £103.88 £78.25 £87.46
South East median hourly rate £52.46 £21.90 £57.35
% change year-on-year +139.55% -61.81% +10.80%

DevOps
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

DevOps job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

DevOps
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing DevOps.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing DevOps

DevOps
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DevOps in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 6 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for DevOps in the Thames Valley

DevOps
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing DevOps.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing DevOps

DevOps
Hourly Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DevOps in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 6 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for DevOps in the Thames Valley

DevOps
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing DevOps within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 6 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
Berkshire -9 186 £525 +5.00% 57
Buckinghamshire -2 64 £492 +19.27% 23
Oxfordshire -26 5 £800 +45.45% 32
DevOps
South East

DevOps
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 8 (3.14%) Confluence
2 5 (1.96%) Apache Spark
2 5 (1.96%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.57%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.57%) WebSphere
3 4 (1.57%) WebSphere Application Server
4 2 (0.78%) Apache
4 2 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.78%) Apache Superset
4 2 (0.78%) IBM HTTP Server
4 2 (0.78%) JBoss
4 2 (0.78%) Oracle HTTP Server
4 2 (0.78%) Smallworld
4 2 (0.78%) WebSphere Portal
5 1 (0.39%) CIMPLICITY
5 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.39%) Predix
Applications
1 7 (2.75%) CPLEX
2 6 (2.35%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.78%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (1.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (1.18%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.39%) Oracle EBS R12
3 1 (0.39%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.39%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 199 (78.04%) Azure
2 106 (41.57%) Azure DevOps
3 75 (29.41%) AWS
4 37 (14.51%) GCP
5 26 (10.20%) Power Platform
6 23 (9.02%) GitHub
6 23 (9.02%) OpenShift
7 22 (8.63%) Entra ID
8 21 (8.24%) Azure Monitor
8 21 (8.24%) GitHub Actions
9 13 (5.10%) Azure Sentinel
10 11 (4.31%) Azure AKS
11 10 (3.92%) SaaS
12 9 (3.53%) Azure Key Vault
12 9 (3.53%) Azure Logic Apps
13 7 (2.75%) AWS CloudFormation
13 7 (2.75%) Azure App Service
13 7 (2.75%) IaaS
13 7 (2.75%) Microsoft 365
14 6 (2.35%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 25 (9.80%) Firewall
2 22 (8.63%) DNS
3 16 (6.27%) TCP/IP
4 15 (5.88%) VPN
5 13 (5.10%) DHCP
6 12 (4.71%) Network Security
7 11 (4.31%) LAN
7 11 (4.31%) WAN
8 8 (3.14%) BGP
9 7 (2.75%) MPLS
10 5 (1.96%) SD-WAN
10 5 (1.96%) SSH
11 3 (1.18%) HTTP
11 3 (1.18%) OSPF
11 3 (1.18%) Software-Defined Networking
11 3 (1.18%) SSL
12 2 (0.78%) VXLAN
13 1 (0.39%) Internet
13 1 (0.39%) NAS
13 1 (0.39%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (7.06%) NoSQL
2 17 (6.67%) Power BI
3 9 (3.53%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (3.53%) SQL Server
4 8 (3.14%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.75%) Metadata
5 7 (2.75%) MongoDB
6 6 (2.35%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (2.35%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.96%) Big Data
8 3 (1.18%) DocumentDB
8 3 (1.18%) Tableau
9 2 (0.78%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.78%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.78%) Parquet
9 2 (0.78%) Spark SQL
10 1 (0.39%) Amazon Redshift
10 1 (0.39%) BigQuery
10 1 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 31 (12.16%) Git
2 30 (11.76%) Jenkins
3 19 (7.45%) GitLab
4 18 (7.06%) JIRA
5 4 (1.57%) Bitbucket
5 4 (1.57%) Selenium
6 3 (1.18%) JMeter
6 3 (1.18%) NUnit
6 3 (1.18%) SpecFlow
6 3 (1.18%) TeamCity
6 3 (1.18%) WebDriver
7 2 (0.78%) Introscope
7 2 (0.78%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.78%) MSTest
7 2 (0.78%) NeoLoad
7 2 (0.78%) tSQLt
8 1 (0.39%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.39%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.39%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.39%) Mockito
General
1 70 (27.45%) Social Skills
2 33 (12.94%) Analytical Skills
3 29 (11.37%) Aerospace
4 26 (10.20%) Finance
5 16 (6.27%) Public Sector
6 11 (4.31%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (3.53%) Billing
8 7 (2.75%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (2.35%) Telecoms
10 5 (1.96%) Military
11 3 (1.18%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.18%) Publishing
12 2 (0.78%) Legal
12 2 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.39%) Health Technology
13 1 (0.39%) Local Government
13 1 (0.39%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 45 (17.65%) Senior
2 39 (15.29%) DevOps Engineer
3 34 (13.33%) Azure Engineer
4 32 (12.55%) Developer
5 30 (11.76%) Architect
6 24 (9.41%) Azure DevOps Engineer
7 22 (8.63%) Cloud Engineer
7 22 (8.63%) Lead
8 16 (6.27%) Data Engineer
9 15 (5.88%) Platform Engineer
10 14 (5.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (4.71%) Analyst
12 11 (4.31%) Project Manager
13 10 (3.92%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 8 (3.14%) .NET Developer
14 8 (3.14%) Business Analyst
14 8 (3.14%) Senior Manager
14 8 (3.14%) Senior Project Manager
14 8 (3.14%) Systems Engineer
15 7 (2.75%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (27.06%) Terraform
2 25 (9.80%) REST
3 23 (9.02%) .NET
4 17 (6.67%) ARM Templates
5 15 (5.88%) RESTful
6 13 (5.10%) OAuth
7 12 (4.71%) SAML
8 11 (4.31%) React
9 10 (3.92%) OpenAPI
9 10 (3.92%) Swagger
10 9 (3.53%) .NET Core
10 9 (3.53%) .NET Framework
10 9 (3.53%) Entity Framework
10 9 (3.53%) Kafka
10 9 (3.53%) RabbitMQ
11 8 (3.14%) FastAPI
11 8 (3.14%) Flask
11 8 (3.14%) LDAP
11 8 (3.14%) PySpark
12 7 (2.75%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 35 (13.73%) Cloud Native
2 31 (12.16%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (5.88%) Onboarding
4 13 (5.10%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (3.53%) Data Structures
5 9 (3.53%) Distributed Systems
6 8 (3.14%) Management Information System
7 7 (2.75%) Algorithms
8 6 (2.35%) Product Ownership
8 6 (2.35%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.96%) Security Posture
10 4 (1.57%) ARM Cortex
10 4 (1.57%) Data Centre
10 4 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.57%) Distributed Architecture
10 4 (1.57%) Operational Technology
10 4 (1.57%) Virtual Team
11 3 (1.18%) Cyber Threat
11 3 (1.18%) IoT
11 3 (1.18%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 30 (11.76%) Linux
2 23 (9.02%) Windows
3 15 (5.88%) Windows Server
4 12 (4.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.78%) Oracle Linux
5 2 (0.78%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
5 2 (0.78%) Unix
6 1 (0.39%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.39%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 139 (54.51%) CI/CD
2 94 (36.86%) Agile
3 71 (27.84%) Infrastructure as Code
4 54 (21.18%) Analytics
5 53 (20.78%) Problem-Solving
6 46 (18.04%) Cybersecurity
7 44 (17.25%) Stakeholder Management
8 38 (14.90%) Containerisation
8 38 (14.90%) Continuous Improvement
9 35 (13.73%) Platform Engineering
10 34 (13.33%) Test Automation
11 31 (12.16%) DevSecOps
12 30 (11.76%) ITIL
12 30 (11.76%) Validation
13 28 (10.98%) Technical Leadership
14 27 (10.59%) Deployment Automation
14 27 (10.59%) Roadmaps
15 26 (10.20%) Migration
15 26 (10.20%) SIEM
15 26 (10.20%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 81 (31.76%) Python
2 53 (20.78%) PowerShell
3 46 (18.04%) SQL
4 34 (13.33%) Bash
5 25 (9.80%) Bicep
6 19 (7.45%) C#
7 15 (5.88%) JavaScript
8 13 (5.10%) Java
9 8 (3.14%) TypeScript
10 6 (2.35%) Kusto Query Language
11 5 (1.96%) X++
12 4 (1.57%) Perl
13 3 (1.18%) Go
14 2 (0.78%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.78%) BeanShell
14 2 (0.78%) Jython
14 2 (0.78%) Magik
14 2 (0.78%) Shell Script
14 2 (0.78%) T-SQL
15 1 (0.39%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 134 (52.55%) Security Cleared
2 113 (44.31%) SC Cleared
3 23 (9.02%) Degree
4 18 (7.06%) Azure Certification
4 18 (7.06%) CISSP
5 17 (6.67%) Cisco Certification
6 16 (6.27%) DV Cleared
7 13 (5.10%) AWS Certification
8 10 (3.92%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (3.53%) CISM
10 7 (2.75%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 7 (2.75%) CCIE
10 7 (2.75%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (2.35%) RHCE
12 5 (1.96%) CCNP
12 5 (1.96%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (1.96%) JNCIE
12 5 (1.96%) PMP
13 4 (1.57%) CEH
13 4 (1.57%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (7.84%) NIST
2 19 (7.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (7.06%) QA
4 17 (6.67%) Data Quality
5 12 (4.71%) NCSC
6 11 (4.31%) GDPR
7 5 (1.96%) GRC
8 4 (1.57%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (1.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (1.18%) SLA
10 2 (0.78%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.39%) OpenSCAP
11 1 (0.39%) PMO
11 1 (0.39%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 35 (13.73%) Docker
2 23 (9.02%) Active Directory
3 11 (4.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (3.14%) Hyper-V
5 7 (2.75%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.78%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.39%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 60 (23.53%) Kubernetes
2 43 (16.86%) Ansible
3 11 (4.31%) Grafana
4 6 (2.35%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (2.35%) Prometheus
5 4 (1.57%) Istio
5 4 (1.57%) SCCM
6 3 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.78%) CA Wily
7 2 (0.78%) CASB
7 2 (0.78%) Red Hat Satellite
7 2 (0.78%) SCOM
7 2 (0.78%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.39%) Check_MK
8 1 (0.39%) Packer
8 1 (0.39%) Podman
8 1 (0.39%) QRadar
8 1 (0.39%) Rancher
Vendors
1 87 (34.12%) Microsoft
2 16 (6.27%) Red Hat
2 16 (6.27%) VMware
3 13 (5.10%) Databricks
3 13 (5.10%) Google
4 12 (4.71%) ServiceNow
5 10 (3.92%) Oracle
6 8 (3.14%) CyberArk
7 6 (2.35%) AppDynamics
7 6 (2.35%) BeyondTrust
7 6 (2.35%) Salesforce
7 6 (2.35%) Splunk
8 5 (1.96%) Dynatrace
9 4 (1.57%) Cisco
9 4 (1.57%) CrowdStrike
9 4 (1.57%) IBM
9 4 (1.57%) SAP
10 3 (1.18%) MuleSoft
11 2 (0.78%) Citrix
12 1 (0.39%) BMC