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

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 10 12
Rank change year-on-year -10 +2 +1
Contract jobs citing DevOps 263 211 242
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 8.36% 12.59% 10.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.40% 13.79% 12.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 184 126 180
10th Percentile £363 £352 £450
25th Percentile £454 £413 £505
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £603
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -17.01% +0.42%
75th Percentile £609 £569 £650
90th Percentile £675 £625 £688
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £575
% change year-on-year +5.00% -13.04% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 1 8
10th Percentile £65.00 - £75.71
25th Percentile £71.00 £30.25 £81.85
Median hourly rate £81.50 £31.50 £87.46
Median % change year-on-year +158.73% -63.98% +15.58%
75th Percentile £88.00 £32.75 -
90th Percentile £104.00 - -
South East median hourly rate £67.50 £31.50 £87.46
% change year-on-year +114.29% -63.98% +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 2,529 1,530 1,908
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 80.36% 91.29% 84.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,608 919 1,086
10th Percentile £325 £293 £279
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -2.58%
75th Percentile £607 £600 £625
90th Percentile £713 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £515
% change year-on-year +5.00% -2.91% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 245 103 98
10th Percentile £13.84 £14.20 £14.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £15.12 £26.09
Median hourly rate £62.50 £24.00 £58.34
Median % change year-on-year +160.42% -58.86% +16.68%
75th Percentile £85.36 £38.42 £70.06
90th Percentile £103.65 £76.30 £86.49
South East median hourly rate £52.50 £22.29 £57.35
% change year-on-year +135.58% -61.14% +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 29 August 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 29 August 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 29 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
Berkshire -9 190 £525 +5.00% 72
Buckinghamshire -7 68 £492 +19.27% 30
Oxfordshire -28 5 £800 +45.45% 45
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 (3.04%) Confluence
2 5 (1.90%) Apache Spark
2 5 (1.90%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.52%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.52%) WebSphere
3 4 (1.52%) WebSphere Application Server
4 3 (1.14%) IIS
5 2 (0.76%) Apache
5 2 (0.76%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.76%) Apache Superset
5 2 (0.76%) IBM HTTP Server
5 2 (0.76%) JBoss
5 2 (0.76%) Oracle HTTP Server
5 2 (0.76%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.76%) WebSphere Portal
6 1 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.38%) CIMPLICITY
6 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.38%) Predix
Applications
1 7 (2.66%) CPLEX
2 6 (2.28%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.76%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (1.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (1.14%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.38%) Oracle EBS R12
3 1 (0.38%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.38%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 205 (77.95%) Azure
2 110 (41.83%) Azure DevOps
3 78 (29.66%) AWS
4 39 (14.83%) GCP
5 26 (9.89%) Power Platform
6 25 (9.51%) GitHub
7 24 (9.13%) Entra ID
8 23 (8.75%) GitHub Actions
8 23 (8.75%) OpenShift
9 22 (8.37%) Azure Monitor
10 13 (4.94%) Azure Sentinel
11 12 (4.56%) Azure AKS
12 10 (3.80%) Azure Key Vault
12 10 (3.80%) SaaS
13 9 (3.42%) Azure Logic Apps
14 7 (2.66%) AWS CloudFormation
14 7 (2.66%) Azure App Service
14 7 (2.66%) IaaS
14 7 (2.66%) Microsoft 365
14 7 (2.66%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 28 (10.65%) Firewall
2 23 (8.75%) DNS
3 17 (6.46%) TCP/IP
3 17 (6.46%) VPN
4 14 (5.32%) DHCP
5 13 (4.94%) Network Security
6 12 (4.56%) LAN
6 12 (4.56%) WAN
7 9 (3.42%) BGP
8 8 (3.04%) MPLS
9 6 (2.28%) SD-WAN
10 5 (1.90%) SSH
11 4 (1.52%) OSPF
12 3 (1.14%) HTTP
12 3 (1.14%) Software-Defined Networking
12 3 (1.14%) SSL
13 2 (0.76%) Internet
13 2 (0.76%) VXLAN
14 1 (0.38%) SAN
14 1 (0.38%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (6.84%) NoSQL
2 17 (6.46%) Power BI
3 10 (3.80%) SQL Server
4 9 (3.42%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (3.04%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (2.66%) MongoDB
7 6 (2.28%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (2.28%) Metadata
7 6 (2.28%) Relational Database
8 5 (1.90%) Big Data
9 4 (1.52%) DocumentDB
10 3 (1.14%) Tableau
11 2 (0.76%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.76%) Hadoop
11 2 (0.76%) Parquet
11 2 (0.76%) Spark SQL
12 1 (0.38%) Amazon Redshift
12 1 (0.38%) BigQuery
12 1 (0.38%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 33 (12.55%) Git
2 30 (11.41%) Jenkins
3 19 (7.22%) GitLab
3 19 (7.22%) JIRA
4 4 (1.52%) Bitbucket
4 4 (1.52%) NUnit
4 4 (1.52%) Selenium
5 3 (1.14%) JMeter
5 3 (1.14%) SpecFlow
5 3 (1.14%) TeamCity
5 3 (1.14%) WebDriver
6 2 (0.76%) Introscope
6 2 (0.76%) Jaeger
6 2 (0.76%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.76%) MSTest
6 2 (0.76%) NeoLoad
6 2 (0.76%) Postman
6 2 (0.76%) tSQLt
7 1 (0.38%) Liquibase
7 1 (0.38%) Mockito
General
1 74 (28.14%) Social Skills
2 35 (13.31%) Analytical Skills
3 29 (11.03%) Aerospace
4 27 (10.27%) Finance
5 17 (6.46%) Public Sector
6 12 (4.56%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (3.42%) Billing
8 7 (2.66%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (2.28%) Telecoms
10 5 (1.90%) Military
11 3 (1.14%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.14%) Publishing
12 2 (0.76%) Legal
12 2 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.38%) Health Technology
13 1 (0.38%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 44 (16.73%) Senior
2 41 (15.59%) DevOps Engineer
3 35 (13.31%) Azure Engineer
3 35 (13.31%) Developer
4 30 (11.41%) Architect
5 25 (9.51%) Azure DevOps Engineer
6 23 (8.75%) Cloud Engineer
7 22 (8.37%) Lead
8 16 (6.08%) Platform Engineer
9 14 (5.32%) Data Engineer
9 14 (5.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (4.56%) Analyst
11 11 (4.18%) Project Manager
12 10 (3.80%) .NET Developer
12 10 (3.80%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 9 (3.42%) Consultant
14 8 (3.04%) Business Analyst
14 8 (3.04%) Senior Manager
14 8 (3.04%) Senior Project Manager
14 8 (3.04%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (27.76%) Terraform
2 26 (9.89%) .NET
2 26 (9.89%) REST
3 17 (6.46%) ARM Templates
4 16 (6.08%) RESTful
5 13 (4.94%) OAuth
6 12 (4.56%) React
6 12 (4.56%) SAML
7 11 (4.18%) .NET Framework
7 11 (4.18%) Swagger
8 10 (3.80%) Entity Framework
8 10 (3.80%) OpenAPI
9 9 (3.42%) .NET Core
9 9 (3.42%) Kafka
9 9 (3.42%) LDAP
9 9 (3.42%) RabbitMQ
10 8 (3.04%) FastAPI
10 8 (3.04%) Flask
10 8 (3.04%) PySpark
11 7 (2.66%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 34 (12.93%) Cloud Native
2 32 (12.17%) Hybrid Cloud
3 16 (6.08%) Onboarding
4 13 (4.94%) Enterprise Software
5 10 (3.80%) Distributed Systems
6 9 (3.42%) Data Structures
7 7 (2.66%) Algorithms
7 7 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
7 7 (2.66%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.28%) Product Ownership
8 6 (2.28%) Public Cloud
8 6 (2.28%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (1.52%) ARM Cortex
9 4 (1.52%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.52%) Distributed Architecture
9 4 (1.52%) Operational Technology
9 4 (1.52%) Virtual Team
10 3 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (1.14%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 31 (11.79%) Linux
2 24 (9.13%) Windows
3 14 (5.32%) Windows Server
4 11 (4.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.76%) Oracle Linux
5 2 (0.76%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
5 2 (0.76%) Unix
6 1 (0.38%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (53.23%) CI/CD
2 96 (36.50%) Agile
3 74 (28.14%) Infrastructure as Code
4 54 (20.53%) Problem-Solving
5 52 (19.77%) Analytics
6 47 (17.87%) Cybersecurity
7 43 (16.35%) Stakeholder Management
8 40 (15.21%) Containerisation
9 38 (14.45%) Continuous Improvement
10 36 (13.69%) Platform Engineering
11 33 (12.55%) ITIL
11 33 (12.55%) Test Automation
12 32 (12.17%) DevSecOps
12 32 (12.17%) Validation
13 27 (10.27%) Migration
13 27 (10.27%) SIEM
14 26 (9.89%) Deployment Automation
14 26 (9.89%) Microservices
14 26 (9.89%) Roadmaps
15 25 (9.51%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 85 (32.32%) Python
2 57 (21.67%) PowerShell
3 49 (18.63%) SQL
4 35 (13.31%) Bash
5 26 (9.89%) Bicep
6 21 (7.98%) C#
7 17 (6.46%) JavaScript
8 14 (5.32%) Java
9 9 (3.42%) TypeScript
10 6 (2.28%) Kusto Query Language
11 5 (1.90%) X++
12 4 (1.52%) Go
12 4 (1.52%) Perl
13 3 (1.14%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.76%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.76%) BeanShell
14 2 (0.76%) Jython
14 2 (0.76%) Magik
14 2 (0.76%) Shell Script
15 1 (0.38%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 139 (52.85%) Security Cleared
2 118 (44.87%) SC Cleared
3 21 (7.98%) Degree
4 19 (7.22%) CISSP
5 17 (6.46%) Azure Certification
5 17 (6.46%) Cisco Certification
5 17 (6.46%) DV Cleared
6 13 (4.94%) AWS Certification
7 10 (3.80%) CISM
8 8 (3.04%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (2.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 7 (2.66%) CCIE
9 7 (2.66%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (2.28%) RHCE
11 5 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (1.90%) CCNP
11 5 (1.90%) CompTIA Security+
11 5 (1.90%) JNCIE
11 5 (1.90%) PMP
12 4 (1.52%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (7.98%) NIST
2 20 (7.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (6.84%) QA
4 15 (5.70%) Data Quality
5 13 (4.94%) GDPR
6 12 (4.56%) NCSC
7 6 (2.28%) GRC
8 4 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (1.14%) PCI DSS
9 3 (1.14%) SLA
10 2 (0.76%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.38%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.38%) OpenSCAP
11 1 (0.38%) PMO
11 1 (0.38%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 36 (13.69%) Docker
2 26 (9.89%) Active Directory
3 11 (4.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (3.04%) Hyper-V
5 7 (2.66%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.76%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.76%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 63 (23.95%) Kubernetes
2 42 (15.97%) Ansible
3 11 (4.18%) Grafana
4 6 (2.28%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (2.28%) Prometheus
5 5 (1.90%) Istio
6 4 (1.52%) SCCM
6 4 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.76%) CA Wily
7 2 (0.76%) CASB
7 2 (0.76%) SCOM
7 2 (0.76%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.38%) Packer
8 1 (0.38%) QRadar
8 1 (0.38%) Rancher
8 1 (0.38%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 87 (33.08%) Microsoft
2 15 (5.70%) Google
2 15 (5.70%) Red Hat
2 15 (5.70%) VMware
3 14 (5.32%) ServiceNow
4 12 (4.56%) Databricks
5 11 (4.18%) Oracle
6 9 (3.42%) CyberArk
7 7 (2.66%) BeyondTrust
8 6 (2.28%) AppDynamics
8 6 (2.28%) Salesforce
8 6 (2.28%) Splunk
9 5 (1.90%) Cisco
9 5 (1.90%) Dynatrace
10 4 (1.52%) CrowdStrike
10 4 (1.52%) IBM
10 4 (1.52%) SAP
11 3 (1.14%) MuleSoft
12 2 (0.76%) Citrix
12 2 (0.76%) Fortinet