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 17 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 10 16
Rank change year-on-year -2 +6 +1
Contract jobs citing DevOps 227 217 238
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 10.77% 12.26% 9.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.58% 13.50% 10.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 152 160 194
10th Percentile £384 £409 £425
25th Percentile £425 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £578 £656 £663
90th Percentile £652 £688 £700
South East median daily rate £525 £600 £550
% change year-on-year -12.50% +9.09% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 7
10th Percentile £77.10 - £59.62
25th Percentile £80.25 - £61.60
Median hourly rate £86.00 - £70.00
75th Percentile £97.63 - £79.39
90th Percentile £102.35 - £84.11
South East median hourly rate £48.75 - £70.00
% change year-on-year - - +16.67%

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 1,804 1,608 2,251
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 85.62% 90.85% 91.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,200 936 1,425
10th Percentile £267 £250 £213
25th Percentile £400 £402 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £638 £600
90th Percentile £650 £666 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £506 £513
% change year-on-year -1.23% -1.27% +1.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 109 47 114
10th Percentile £15.62 £23.31 £18.97
25th Percentile £18.87 £39.63 £25.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.50 £49.07
Median % change year-on-year -56.26% +17.19% +80.06%
75th Percentile £58.00 £64.73 £63.00
90th Percentile £95.00 £75.44 £72.23
South East median hourly rate £23.58 £43.94 £54.44
% change year-on-year -46.35% -19.29% +20.98%

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 17 January 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 17 January 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 17 January 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 -2 196 £500 -16.67% 111
Buckinghamshire -7 19 £563 - 34
Oxfordshire -1 12 £550 - 29
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 13 (5.73%) SharePoint
2 8 (3.52%) GeoServer
2 8 (3.52%) Smallworld
3 7 (3.08%) Confluence
4 6 (2.64%) OpenStack
5 3 (1.32%) Anypoint
6 2 (0.88%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.88%) CMS
6 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.88%) nginx
7 1 (0.44%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.44%) Apache
7 1 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.44%) Camunda
7 1 (0.44%) Drupal
7 1 (0.44%) Gunicorn
7 1 (0.44%) WordPress
Applications
1 6 (2.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (1.76%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.44%) Maximo
2 1 (0.44%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 175 (77.09%) Azure
2 94 (41.41%) Azure DevOps
3 79 (34.80%) AWS
4 46 (20.26%) GCP
5 29 (12.78%) GitHub
6 26 (11.45%) SaaS
7 22 (9.69%) Power Platform
8 20 (8.81%) Entra ID
8 20 (8.81%) IaaS
9 17 (7.49%) Azure AKS
10 15 (6.61%) Microsoft 365
11 14 (6.17%) Azure Monitor
11 14 (6.17%) PaaS
12 12 (5.29%) GitHub Actions
12 12 (5.29%) OpenShift
12 12 (5.29%) Serverless
13 10 (4.41%) OCI
14 8 (3.52%) Azure Key Vault
15 7 (3.08%) Azure Functions
15 7 (3.08%) Azure Storage
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.96%) DNS
2 6 (2.64%) BGP
2 6 (2.64%) Firewall
2 6 (2.64%) LAN
2 6 (2.64%) MPLS
2 6 (2.64%) WAN
3 4 (1.76%) Network Security
3 4 (1.76%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.88%) 2G
4 2 (0.88%) 5G
4 2 (0.88%) IPsec
4 2 (0.88%) LTE
4 2 (0.88%) Mobile Backhaul
4 2 (0.88%) MQTT
4 2 (0.88%) SSL
4 2 (0.88%) VoIP
4 2 (0.88%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (8.37%) Power BI
2 9 (3.96%) Oracle Reports
3 8 (3.52%) Geospatial Data
3 8 (3.52%) GIS
3 8 (3.52%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 8 (3.52%) QGIS
4 6 (2.64%) NoSQL
5 5 (2.20%) Azure SQL Database
5 5 (2.20%) Metadata
5 5 (2.20%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (1.76%) MySQL
7 3 (1.32%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (1.32%) Oracle Database
7 3 (1.32%) SQL Server
8 2 (0.88%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.88%) Delta Lake
8 2 (0.88%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.88%) Redis
8 2 (0.88%) Spatial Data
8 2 (0.88%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 29 (12.78%) JIRA
2 27 (11.89%) Jenkins
3 20 (8.81%) Git
4 6 (2.64%) Bitbucket
5 5 (2.20%) GitLab
5 5 (2.20%) Selenium
6 4 (1.76%) HP UFT
7 3 (1.32%) Cucumber
7 3 (1.32%) JUnit
7 3 (1.32%) Storybook
8 2 (0.88%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.88%) NUnit
8 2 (0.88%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.44%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.44%) JMeter
9 1 (0.44%) Mocha
9 1 (0.44%) MSTest
9 1 (0.44%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.44%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.44%) WebDriver
General
1 88 (38.77%) Social Skills
2 36 (15.86%) Analytical Skills
3 23 (10.13%) Documentation Skills
4 14 (6.17%) Public Sector
5 9 (3.96%) Billing
5 9 (3.96%) Finance
5 9 (3.96%) Retail
6 8 (3.52%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (3.08%) Telecoms
8 6 (2.64%) Marketing
8 6 (2.64%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.32%) Electronics
9 3 (1.32%) Law
9 3 (1.32%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.44%) Digital Healthcare
11 1 (0.44%) Health Technology
11 1 (0.44%) Legal
Job Titles
1 37 (16.30%) Architect
2 28 (12.33%) Analyst
3 25 (11.01%) DevOps Engineer
4 24 (10.57%) Azure Engineer
5 22 (9.69%) Senior
6 14 (6.17%) Cloud Engineer
6 14 (6.17%) Developer
7 13 (5.73%) Test Analyst
8 12 (5.29%) Solutions Architect
9 10 (4.41%) Azure DevOps Engineer
9 10 (4.41%) Lead
10 9 (3.96%) Senior DevOps
10 9 (3.96%) Senior DevOps Engineer
11 8 (3.52%) Project Manager
12 7 (3.08%) Business Analyst
13 6 (2.64%) Delivery Manager
13 6 (2.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 6 (2.64%) Integration Manager
13 6 (2.64%) IP Architect
13 6 (2.64%) IP Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (11.89%) ADO
2 20 (8.81%) LDAP
2 20 (8.81%) REST
3 13 (5.73%) .NET
4 8 (3.52%) ARM Templates
4 8 (3.52%) RESTful
5 7 (3.08%) Middleware
5 7 (3.08%) React
5 7 (3.08%) SOAP
6 6 (2.64%) CSS
6 6 (2.64%) GraphQL
6 6 (2.64%) HTML
6 6 (2.64%) NETCONF
6 6 (2.64%) SailPoint
6 6 (2.64%) YANG
7 5 (2.20%) .NET Core
7 5 (2.20%) Node.js
7 5 (2.20%) OAuth
7 5 (2.20%) OAuth2
8 4 (1.76%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 27 (11.89%) Cloud Native
2 9 (3.96%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (3.52%) Legacy Systems
3 8 (3.52%) Onboarding
3 8 (3.52%) Product Ownership
4 6 (2.64%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (2.64%) Security Posture
4 6 (2.64%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (2.20%) Data Centre
5 5 (2.20%) PKI
6 4 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (1.76%) Linux Command Line
6 4 (1.76%) Operational Technology
6 4 (1.76%) Smart Meter
7 3 (1.32%) Replication
8 2 (0.88%) Algorithms
8 2 (0.88%) IoT
8 2 (0.88%) Mainframe
8 2 (0.88%) Management Information System
9 1 (0.44%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 31 (13.66%) Linux
2 10 (4.41%) Windows
3 4 (1.76%) Unix
4 3 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (49.78%) CI/CD
2 74 (32.60%) Agile
3 64 (28.19%) Problem-Solving
4 37 (16.30%) Cybersecurity
5 34 (14.98%) Analytics
6 31 (13.66%) DevSecOps
7 29 (12.78%) Infrastructure as Code
8 27 (11.89%) Containerisation
8 27 (11.89%) Microservices
8 27 (11.89%) SIEM
9 24 (10.57%) Stakeholder Management
9 24 (10.57%) Test Automation
10 23 (10.13%) AI
11 21 (9.25%) Business Intelligence
12 19 (8.37%) Roadmaps
12 19 (8.37%) Scrum
13 18 (7.93%) Validation
14 17 (7.49%) Mentoring
14 17 (7.49%) Migration
15 16 (7.05%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 75 (33.04%) Python
2 51 (22.47%) PowerShell
3 35 (15.42%) SQL
4 24 (10.57%) Bash
5 22 (9.69%) JavaScript
6 20 (8.81%) Java
7 16 (7.05%) C#
8 11 (4.85%) Bicep
9 8 (3.52%) TypeScript
10 6 (2.64%) BeanShell
11 5 (2.20%) PHP
11 5 (2.20%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.76%) Search Processing Language
12 4 (1.76%) VBScript
13 3 (1.32%) DataWeave
14 2 (0.88%) Groovy
14 2 (0.88%) R
14 2 (0.88%) T-SQL
15 1 (0.44%) Rust
15 1 (0.44%) X++
Qualifications
1 57 (25.11%) Security Cleared
2 44 (19.38%) SC Cleared
3 21 (9.25%) CISSP
4 19 (8.37%) CISM
5 14 (6.17%) Degree
6 9 (3.96%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (3.08%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (2.64%) Azure Certification
8 6 (2.64%) CCIE
8 6 (2.64%) DV Cleared
8 6 (2.64%) JNCIE
9 5 (2.20%) AWS Certification
9 5 (2.20%) RHCE
10 4 (1.76%) Master's Degree
11 3 (1.32%) ISTQB
11 3 (1.32%) OCP
11 3 (1.32%) Oracle Certification
11 3 (1.32%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 2 (0.88%) GCIA
12 2 (0.88%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (11.45%) GDPR
1 26 (11.45%) NIST
2 23 (10.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (9.25%) QA
4 13 (5.73%) Data Quality
5 7 (3.08%) NCSC
6 5 (2.20%) HIPAA
7 4 (1.76%) PMO
7 4 (1.76%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.88%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 17025
9 1 (0.44%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 37 (16.30%) Active Directory
2 30 (13.22%) Docker
3 6 (2.64%) VMware NSX
3 6 (2.64%) vSphere
4 5 (2.20%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (2.20%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 52 (22.91%) Terraform
2 42 (18.50%) Kubernetes
3 31 (13.66%) Ansible
4 7 (3.08%) Grafana
5 6 (2.64%) Argo
5 6 (2.64%) Prometheus
5 6 (2.64%) vCenter Server
6 3 (1.32%) CloudHub
6 3 (1.32%) Data Guard
6 3 (1.32%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 3 (1.32%) Oracle RMAN
6 3 (1.32%) Podman
6 3 (1.32%) Proxmox
7 2 (0.88%) HP ALM
7 2 (0.88%) logstash
7 2 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.88%) systemd
8 1 (0.44%) Puppet
Vendors
1 23 (10.13%) Oracle
2 20 (8.81%) BeyondTrust
2 20 (8.81%) CyberArk
3 16 (7.05%) Microsoft
4 14 (6.17%) Red Hat
5 12 (5.29%) Splunk
6 10 (4.41%) Salesforce
7 9 (3.96%) Databricks
8 8 (3.52%) ESRI
8 8 (3.52%) Intergraph
8 8 (3.52%) MuleSoft
9 7 (3.08%) VMware
10 6 (2.64%) Pure Storage
11 5 (2.20%) ServiceNow
12 4 (1.76%) AppDynamics
12 4 (1.76%) Dynatrace
12 4 (1.76%) Foundry
12 4 (1.76%) Google
12 4 (1.76%) Palantir
13 3 (1.32%) SAP