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

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 16 12
Rank change year-on-year -3 -4 +4
Contract jobs citing DevOps 258 149 291
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 8.89% 9.95% 10.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.70% 10.72% 11.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 189 104 187
10th Percentile £380 £363 £456
25th Percentile £417 £413 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -16.67% +6.67%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £675
90th Percentile £656 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £525 £550 £555
% change year-on-year -4.55% -0.90% -4.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 2 29
10th Percentile £75.00 £35.98 £56.65
25th Percentile £80.75 £44.56 £61.60
Median hourly rate £81.50 £60.75 £83.77
Median % change year-on-year +34.16% -27.48% +5.78%
75th Percentile £83.75 £77.56 £87.46
90th Percentile £95.00 £86.53 £87.53
South East median hourly rate £63.73 £60.75 £83.77
% change year-on-year +4.91% -27.48% +50.93%

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 2,411 1,390 2,436
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 83.08% 92.85% 88.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,595 844 1,363
10th Percentile £300 £300 £213
25th Percentile £401 £413 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £600 £611 £600
90th Percentile £661 £675 £675
South East median daily rate £513 £501 £500
% change year-on-year +2.40% +0.10% -0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 199 55 178
10th Percentile £16.28 £14.20 £14.94
25th Percentile £20.79 £14.78 £19.25
Median hourly rate £80.00 £32.05 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +149.61% -24.59% -12.73%
75th Percentile £85.50 £62.24 £63.29
90th Percentile £95.00 £76.51 £85.37
South East median hourly rate £47.50 £28.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +69.64% -37.78% -5.26%

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 16 April 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 16 April 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 16 April 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 -1 194 £500 - 47
Buckinghamshire +9 56 £550 +31.26% 30
Oxfordshire -11 8 £513 - 15
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 14 (5.43%) SharePoint
2 11 (4.26%) Confluence
3 4 (1.55%) IIS
3 4 (1.55%) WebSphere
3 4 (1.55%) WebSphere Application Server
4 3 (1.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 3 (1.16%) Anypoint
4 3 (1.16%) ArcGIS
5 2 (0.78%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.78%) CMS
5 2 (0.78%) GeoServer
5 2 (0.78%) IBM HTTP Server
5 2 (0.78%) JBoss
5 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.78%) OpenStack
5 2 (0.78%) Oracle HTTP Server
5 2 (0.78%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.78%) WebSphere Portal
6 1 (0.39%) Apache
Applications
1 10 (3.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.55%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (1.16%) CPLEX
3 3 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
5 1 (0.39%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.55%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 206 (79.84%) Azure
2 120 (46.51%) Azure DevOps
3 76 (29.46%) AWS
4 44 (17.05%) GCP
5 34 (13.18%) Power Platform
6 29 (11.24%) GitHub
7 28 (10.85%) Entra ID
8 23 (8.91%) GitHub Actions
9 22 (8.53%) Azure Monitor
10 20 (7.75%) SaaS
11 17 (6.59%) OpenShift
12 16 (6.20%) IaaS
12 16 (6.20%) Microsoft 365
13 15 (5.81%) OCI
14 14 (5.43%) Serverless
15 13 (5.04%) Azure Key Vault
16 12 (4.65%) Azure AKS
16 12 (4.65%) PaaS
17 11 (4.26%) Azure Functions
18 7 (2.71%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 17 (6.59%) Firewall
2 13 (5.04%) DNS
3 8 (3.10%) SD-WAN
4 7 (2.71%) Network Security
5 6 (2.33%) LAN
5 6 (2.33%) VPN
5 6 (2.33%) WAN
6 5 (1.94%) SSL
7 4 (1.55%) BGP
7 4 (1.55%) IPsec
7 4 (1.55%) MQTT
7 4 (1.55%) TCP/IP
8 3 (1.16%) DHCP
8 3 (1.16%) MPLS
9 2 (0.78%) 5G
9 2 (0.78%) HTTP
9 2 (0.78%) Internet
9 2 (0.78%) OSPF
10 1 (0.39%) Mobile Backhaul
10 1 (0.39%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (11.24%) Power BI
2 9 (3.49%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (3.10%) NoSQL
3 8 (3.10%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 8 (3.10%) Oracle Reports
3 8 (3.10%) SQL Server
4 7 (2.71%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (2.71%) Tableau
5 6 (2.33%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (1.55%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (1.16%) Delta Lake
7 3 (1.16%) GIS
7 3 (1.16%) MongoDB
7 3 (1.16%) MySQL
7 3 (1.16%) Oracle Database
7 3 (1.16%) Parquet
7 3 (1.16%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.78%) Geospatial Data
8 2 (0.78%) Metadata
8 2 (0.78%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 35 (13.57%) Jenkins
2 29 (11.24%) JIRA
3 26 (10.08%) Git
4 11 (4.26%) GitLab
5 6 (2.33%) JUnit
6 5 (1.94%) HP UFT
7 4 (1.55%) Bitbucket
7 4 (1.55%) Selenium
7 4 (1.55%) Storybook
7 4 (1.55%) Visual Studio
8 3 (1.16%) Cucumber
8 3 (1.16%) Jaeger
9 2 (0.78%) Balsamiq
9 2 (0.78%) Introscope
9 2 (0.78%) Mockito
9 2 (0.78%) Postman
9 2 (0.78%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.39%) Browser DevTools
10 1 (0.39%) JMeter
10 1 (0.39%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 80 (31.01%) Social Skills
2 35 (13.57%) Analytical Skills
3 28 (10.85%) Public Sector
4 26 (10.08%) Documentation Skills
5 15 (5.81%) Finance
6 12 (4.65%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (2.71%) Marketing
7 7 (2.71%) Telecoms
8 6 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (1.55%) Aerospace
9 4 (1.55%) Billing
9 4 (1.55%) Retail
10 3 (1.16%) Electronics
10 3 (1.16%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.39%) Advertising
12 1 (0.39%) Health Technology
12 1 (0.39%) Law
12 1 (0.39%) Legal
12 1 (0.39%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 39 (15.12%) DevOps Engineer
2 37 (14.34%) Architect
3 35 (13.57%) Azure Engineer
4 31 (12.02%) Analyst
5 29 (11.24%) Developer
6 28 (10.85%) Senior
7 22 (8.53%) Azure DevOps Engineer
8 17 (6.59%) Cloud Engineer
8 17 (6.59%) Test Analyst
9 14 (5.43%) Lead
10 11 (4.26%) Platform Engineer
10 11 (4.26%) Senior DevOps
10 11 (4.26%) Senior DevOps Engineer
11 10 (3.88%) Oracle Analyst
11 10 (3.88%) Solutions Architect
12 8 (3.10%) Full-Stack Developer
12 8 (3.10%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 8 (3.10%) Project Manager
12 8 (3.10%) Test Engineer
13 7 (2.71%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (8.14%) .NET
1 21 (8.14%) REST
2 20 (7.75%) LDAP
3 15 (5.81%) ADO
4 14 (5.43%) React
5 12 (4.65%) RESTful
6 11 (4.26%) ARM Templates
6 11 (4.26%) CSS
6 11 (4.26%) OAuth
7 9 (3.49%) .NET Core
7 9 (3.49%) Middleware
7 9 (3.49%) SOAP
8 8 (3.10%) .NET Framework
8 8 (3.10%) HTML
9 7 (2.71%) SAML
10 6 (2.33%) JSON
10 6 (2.33%) Kafka
11 5 (1.94%) Entity Framework
11 5 (1.94%) Spring Boot
11 5 (1.94%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 31 (12.02%) Cloud Native
2 11 (4.26%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (3.10%) Product Ownership
4 7 (2.71%) Hybrid Cloud
4 7 (2.71%) Public Cloud
5 6 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
5 6 (2.33%) Operational Technology
6 5 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (1.94%) Onboarding
6 5 (1.94%) Security Posture
6 5 (1.94%) Virtual Team
7 4 (1.55%) Algorithms
7 4 (1.55%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.16%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.16%) Data Structures
8 3 (1.16%) Greenfield Project
8 3 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
8 3 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.78%) Clustering
9 2 (0.78%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 34 (13.18%) Linux
2 20 (7.75%) Windows
3 9 (3.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.78%) Oracle Linux
4 2 (0.78%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
4 2 (0.78%) Unix
5 1 (0.39%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 132 (51.16%) CI/CD
2 82 (31.78%) Agile
3 71 (27.52%) Problem-Solving
4 50 (19.38%) Infrastructure as Code
5 42 (16.28%) Cybersecurity
6 35 (13.57%) DevSecOps
7 34 (13.18%) Analytics
8 33 (12.79%) Containerisation
9 32 (12.40%) Business Intelligence
10 31 (12.02%) Root Cause Analysis
11 28 (10.85%) Microservices
12 27 (10.47%) Stakeholder Management
13 26 (10.08%) Migration
14 24 (9.30%) ITIL
14 24 (9.30%) Test Automation
15 23 (8.91%) Observability
16 22 (8.53%) Data Modelling
16 22 (8.53%) Platform Engineering
17 21 (8.14%) Mentoring
17 21 (8.14%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 80 (31.01%) Python
2 52 (20.16%) PowerShell
3 39 (15.12%) SQL
4 32 (12.40%) Bash
5 30 (11.63%) JavaScript
6 21 (8.14%) C#
7 16 (6.20%) Bicep
7 16 (6.20%) Java
8 13 (5.04%) TypeScript
9 6 (2.33%) Go
10 5 (1.94%) PHP
10 5 (1.94%) Shell Script
10 5 (1.94%) VBScript
11 4 (1.55%) Perl
12 3 (1.16%) DataWeave
12 3 (1.16%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.78%) BeanShell
13 2 (0.78%) C++
13 2 (0.78%) Jython
14 1 (0.39%) R
Qualifications
1 108 (41.86%) Security Cleared
2 90 (34.88%) SC Cleared
3 20 (7.75%) CISSP
4 19 (7.36%) CISM
5 13 (5.04%) Degree
5 13 (5.04%) DV Cleared
6 12 (4.65%) Azure Certification
7 9 (3.49%) RHCE
8 7 (2.71%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (1.94%) CCNP
9 5 (1.94%) MCSE
9 5 (1.94%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (1.94%) PMP
10 4 (1.55%) Computer Science Degree
10 4 (1.55%) OCP
10 4 (1.55%) Oracle Certification
10 4 (1.55%) PMI Certification
11 3 (1.16%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (1.16%) ISTQB
11 3 (1.16%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (12.02%) NIST
2 29 (11.24%) GDPR
3 24 (9.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 20 (7.75%) QA
5 16 (6.20%) NCSC
6 9 (3.49%) Data Quality
7 4 (1.55%) Accessibility
7 4 (1.55%) GRC
7 4 (1.55%) NIST 800
7 4 (1.55%) PCI DSS
7 4 (1.55%) PMO
8 1 (0.39%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.39%) OpenSCAP
System Software
1 39 (15.12%) Active Directory
2 30 (11.63%) Docker
3 8 (3.10%) VMware NSX
4 6 (2.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (2.33%) vSphere
5 3 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.78%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.39%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 55 (21.32%) Terraform
2 46 (17.83%) Kubernetes
3 23 (8.91%) Ansible
4 13 (5.04%) Grafana
4 13 (5.04%) Prometheus
5 6 (2.33%) Argo
5 6 (2.33%) vCenter Server
6 4 (1.55%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.16%) CloudHub
7 3 (1.16%) Data Guard
7 3 (1.16%) Istio
7 3 (1.16%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 3 (1.16%) Oracle RMAN
7 3 (1.16%) Rancher
8 2 (0.78%) CA Wily
8 2 (0.78%) HP ALM
8 2 (0.78%) systemd
8 2 (0.78%) Tivoli
9 1 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.39%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 42 (16.28%) Microsoft
2 29 (11.24%) Oracle
3 23 (8.91%) Red Hat
4 20 (7.75%) BeyondTrust
4 20 (7.75%) CyberArk
5 15 (5.81%) ServiceNow
5 15 (5.81%) VMware
6 10 (3.88%) Databricks
7 7 (2.71%) Splunk
8 6 (2.33%) AppDynamics
8 6 (2.33%) Pure Storage
9 5 (1.94%) BiZZdesign
10 4 (1.55%) Dynatrace
10 4 (1.55%) Google
10 4 (1.55%) IBM
11 3 (1.16%) Adobe
11 3 (1.16%) ESRI
11 3 (1.16%) HP
11 3 (1.16%) MuleSoft
11 3 (1.16%) SAP