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

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 14 10
Rank change year-on-year -2 -4 +6
Contract jobs citing DevOps 264 147 296
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 8.96% 9.82% 11.04%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.84% 10.58% 12.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 200 96 192
10th Percentile £362 £368 £460
25th Percentile £413 £419 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £600
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% -16.67% +4.35%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £675
90th Percentile £653 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £510 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -7.27% -4.35% -1.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 2 29
10th Percentile - £35.98 £56.65
25th Percentile £80.75 £44.56 £61.60
Median hourly rate £82.50 £60.75 £83.77
Median % change year-on-year +35.80% -27.48% +5.78%
75th Percentile £102.09 £77.56 £87.46
90th Percentile £105.05 £86.53 £87.53
South East median hourly rate £63.73 £60.75 £83.77
% change year-on-year +4.91% -27.48% +24.38%

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 2,435 1,390 2,334
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 82.68% 92.85% 87.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,610 844 1,308
10th Percentile £300 £300 £213
25th Percentile £400 £413 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £600 £601 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
South East median daily rate £513 £500 £501
% change year-on-year +2.50% -0.10% -1.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 202 58 170
10th Percentile £16.35 £14.20 £14.42
25th Percentile £25.07 £14.54 £19.25
Median hourly rate £80.00 £32.05 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +149.61% -28.78% -12.20%
75th Percentile £85.88 £62.44 £65.00
90th Percentile £97.50 £78.03 £85.65
South East median hourly rate £52.50 £28.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +87.50% -41.05% -5.00%

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 3 May 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 3 May 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 3 May 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 0 190 £500 -0.05% 52
Buckinghamshire +9 67 £492 +17.42% 17
Oxfordshire -18 7 £513 - 27
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 (5.30%) SharePoint
2 11 (4.17%) Confluence
3 4 (1.52%) IIS
3 4 (1.52%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.52%) WebSphere
3 4 (1.52%) WebSphere Application Server
4 3 (1.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 3 (1.14%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.14%) ArcGIS
5 2 (0.76%) CMS
5 2 (0.76%) GeoServer
5 2 (0.76%) IBM HTTP Server
5 2 (0.76%) JBoss
5 2 (0.76%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.76%) Oracle HTTP Server
5 2 (0.76%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.76%) WebSphere Portal
6 1 (0.38%) Apache
Applications
1 9 (3.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.52%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (1.14%) CPLEX
4 2 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.76%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (1.52%) Oracle EBS
2 3 (1.14%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 211 (79.92%) Azure
2 123 (46.59%) Azure DevOps
3 78 (29.55%) AWS
4 43 (16.29%) GCP
5 41 (15.53%) Power Platform
6 26 (9.85%) GitHub
7 24 (9.09%) Entra ID
8 20 (7.58%) Azure Monitor
9 19 (7.20%) GitHub Actions
10 17 (6.44%) SaaS
11 15 (5.68%) Microsoft 365
12 13 (4.92%) Azure Key Vault
12 13 (4.92%) OCI
13 12 (4.55%) Azure AKS
14 11 (4.17%) OpenShift
14 11 (4.17%) PaaS
14 11 (4.17%) Serverless
15 9 (3.41%) IaaS
16 8 (3.03%) Azure Functions
17 7 (2.65%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 18 (6.82%) Firewall
2 9 (3.41%) LAN
2 9 (3.41%) SD-WAN
2 9 (3.41%) WAN
3 7 (2.65%) BGP
3 7 (2.65%) DNS
3 7 (2.65%) Network Security
4 6 (2.27%) MPLS
4 6 (2.27%) VPN
5 4 (1.52%) IPsec
5 4 (1.52%) MQTT
5 4 (1.52%) TCP/IP
6 3 (1.14%) DHCP
6 3 (1.14%) OSPF
6 3 (1.14%) SSL
7 2 (0.76%) 5G
7 2 (0.76%) HTTP
7 2 (0.76%) Internet
8 1 (0.38%) NGFW
8 1 (0.38%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (12.50%) Power BI
2 10 (3.79%) NoSQL
3 9 (3.41%) SQL Server
4 8 (3.03%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 8 (3.03%) Oracle Reports
5 7 (2.65%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (2.65%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.65%) Tableau
6 6 (2.27%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (1.52%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (1.14%) Delta Lake
8 3 (1.14%) GIS
8 3 (1.14%) MongoDB
8 3 (1.14%) Oracle Database
8 3 (1.14%) Parquet
8 3 (1.14%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.76%) DocumentDB
9 2 (0.76%) Metadata
9 2 (0.76%) QGIS
9 2 (0.76%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 30 (11.36%) Git
1 30 (11.36%) JIRA
2 26 (9.85%) Jenkins
3 11 (4.17%) GitLab
4 6 (2.27%) Bitbucket
5 5 (1.89%) HP UFT
6 4 (1.52%) Jaeger
6 4 (1.52%) JUnit
6 4 (1.52%) Selenium
6 4 (1.52%) Visual Studio
7 3 (1.14%) NUnit
7 3 (1.14%) SpecFlow
7 3 (1.14%) TeamCity
7 3 (1.14%) WebDriver
8 2 (0.76%) Balsamiq
8 2 (0.76%) Introscope
8 2 (0.76%) Mockito
8 2 (0.76%) MSTest
8 2 (0.76%) Postman
8 2 (0.76%) Storybook
General
1 80 (30.30%) Social Skills
2 34 (12.88%) Analytical Skills
3 29 (10.98%) Documentation Skills
4 25 (9.47%) Public Sector
5 16 (6.06%) Finance
6 11 (4.17%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (3.41%) Aerospace
8 8 (3.03%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.89%) Marketing
9 5 (1.89%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.76%) Billing
10 2 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.76%) Legal
11 1 (0.38%) Advertising
11 1 (0.38%) Electronics
11 1 (0.38%) Health Technology
11 1 (0.38%) Law
11 1 (0.38%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.38%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.38%) Retail
Job Titles
1 45 (17.05%) DevOps Engineer
2 38 (14.39%) Azure Engineer
3 33 (12.50%) Architect
4 29 (10.98%) Analyst
5 28 (10.61%) Developer
6 26 (9.85%) Senior
7 25 (9.47%) Azure DevOps Engineer
8 21 (7.95%) Cloud Engineer
9 14 (5.30%) Lead
10 13 (4.92%) Test Analyst
11 12 (4.55%) Platform Engineer
12 10 (3.79%) Solutions Architect
12 10 (3.79%) Test Engineer
13 9 (3.41%) Data Engineer
13 9 (3.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 9 (3.41%) Oracle Analyst
13 9 (3.41%) Project Manager
14 8 (3.03%) Senior DevOps
14 8 (3.03%) Senior DevOps Engineer
15 7 (2.65%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (8.33%) .NET
2 21 (7.95%) LDAP
3 18 (6.82%) REST
4 16 (6.06%) ADO
5 14 (5.30%) React
6 10 (3.79%) RESTful
7 9 (3.41%) CSS
7 9 (3.41%) Middleware
8 8 (3.03%) ARM Templates
8 8 (3.03%) OAuth
9 7 (2.65%) .NET Core
9 7 (2.65%) .NET Framework
10 6 (2.27%) Entity Framework
10 6 (2.27%) HTML
10 6 (2.27%) JSON
10 6 (2.27%) Kafka
11 5 (1.89%) RabbitMQ
11 5 (1.89%) SOAP
11 5 (1.89%) Swagger
11 5 (1.89%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 33 (12.50%) Cloud Native
2 11 (4.17%) Enterprise Software
3 10 (3.79%) Hybrid Cloud
4 8 (3.03%) Product Ownership
5 7 (2.65%) Distributed Systems
5 7 (2.65%) Onboarding
5 7 (2.65%) Public Cloud
6 6 (2.27%) Operational Technology
6 6 (2.27%) Security Posture
7 5 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.89%) Virtual Team
8 4 (1.52%) Algorithms
8 4 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (1.52%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.14%) Data Structures
9 3 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.76%) Clustering
10 2 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
10 2 (0.76%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 29 (10.98%) Linux
2 20 (7.58%) Windows
3 10 (3.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.76%) Oracle Linux
4 2 (0.76%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
4 2 (0.76%) Unix
5 1 (0.38%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.38%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (49.24%) CI/CD
2 85 (32.20%) Agile
3 65 (24.62%) Problem-Solving
4 51 (19.32%) Infrastructure as Code
5 45 (17.05%) Cybersecurity
6 34 (12.88%) Business Intelligence
7 33 (12.50%) Analytics
8 32 (12.12%) DevSecOps
9 29 (10.98%) Root Cause Analysis
9 29 (10.98%) Stakeholder Management
10 28 (10.61%) Microservices
11 27 (10.23%) Containerisation
11 27 (10.23%) ITIL
12 23 (8.71%) Observability
12 23 (8.71%) Platform Engineering
13 22 (8.33%) Migration
13 22 (8.33%) SIEM
13 22 (8.33%) Test Automation
14 21 (7.95%) Data Modelling
14 21 (7.95%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 73 (27.65%) Python
2 51 (19.32%) PowerShell
3 42 (15.91%) SQL
4 23 (8.71%) Bash
4 23 (8.71%) JavaScript
5 21 (7.95%) C#
6 16 (6.06%) Bicep
7 13 (4.92%) Java
7 13 (4.92%) TypeScript
8 7 (2.65%) Go
9 5 (1.89%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.89%) VBScript
10 4 (1.52%) Perl
11 2 (0.76%) BeanShell
11 2 (0.76%) C++
11 2 (0.76%) Jython
11 2 (0.76%) PHP
11 2 (0.76%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.76%) X++
12 1 (0.38%) R
Qualifications
1 116 (43.94%) Security Cleared
2 97 (36.74%) SC Cleared
3 21 (7.95%) CISSP
4 20 (7.58%) CISM
5 13 (4.92%) Azure Certification
5 13 (4.92%) DV Cleared
6 11 (4.17%) Degree
7 10 (3.79%) Cisco Certification
8 9 (3.41%) RHCE
9 6 (2.27%) CCNP
10 5 (1.89%) CCIE
10 5 (1.89%) MCSE
10 5 (1.89%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (1.89%) PMP
11 4 (1.52%) JNCIE
11 4 (1.52%) OCP
11 4 (1.52%) Oracle Certification
11 4 (1.52%) PMI Certification
12 3 (1.14%) ISTQB
12 3 (1.14%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (11.74%) NIST
2 30 (11.36%) GDPR
3 24 (9.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 17 (6.44%) QA
5 16 (6.06%) NCSC
6 7 (2.65%) Data Quality
7 5 (1.89%) GRC
7 5 (1.89%) PCI DSS
8 4 (1.52%) Accessibility
8 4 (1.52%) NIST 800
8 4 (1.52%) PMO
9 1 (0.38%) OpenSCAP
9 1 (0.38%) SLA
System Software
1 38 (14.39%) Active Directory
2 27 (10.23%) Docker
3 6 (2.27%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.76%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.76%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.38%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 50 (18.94%) Terraform
2 43 (16.29%) Kubernetes
3 21 (7.95%) Ansible
4 14 (5.30%) Grafana
4 14 (5.30%) Prometheus
5 4 (1.52%) Istio
5 4 (1.52%) Rancher
5 4 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (1.14%) Data Guard
6 3 (1.14%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 3 (1.14%) Oracle RMAN
7 2 (0.76%) CA Wily
7 2 (0.76%) HP ALM
7 2 (0.76%) systemd
7 2 (0.76%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.38%) Fluentd
8 1 (0.38%) Packer
8 1 (0.38%) Red Hat Satellite
8 1 (0.38%) SCOM
Vendors
1 45 (17.05%) Microsoft
2 29 (10.98%) Oracle
3 21 (7.95%) BeyondTrust
3 21 (7.95%) CyberArk
4 18 (6.82%) Red Hat
5 17 (6.44%) ServiceNow
6 10 (3.79%) Databricks
6 10 (3.79%) VMware
7 6 (2.27%) AppDynamics
7 6 (2.27%) Splunk
8 5 (1.89%) BiZZdesign
9 4 (1.52%) Dynatrace
9 4 (1.52%) Google
9 4 (1.52%) IBM
9 4 (1.52%) SAP
10 3 (1.14%) Adobe
10 3 (1.14%) ESRI
10 3 (1.14%) Fortinet
10 3 (1.14%) HP
10 3 (1.14%) OpenAI