DevOps Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

DevOps
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring DevOps skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 10 23
Rank change year-on-year -8 +13 -1
Contract jobs citing DevOps 328 227 136
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 9.25% 12.29% 7.17%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.90% 13.73% 8.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 221 159 90
10th Percentile £400 £411 £350
25th Percentile £416 £463 £498
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -8.70% +9.52%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £613
90th Percentile £700 £700 £685
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.59% -4.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 1 1
10th Percentile £21.25 - -
25th Percentile £43.13 - £65.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £82.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -14.63% +17.14% -
75th Percentile £75.00 - £75.00
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £68.75 £67.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +2.61% -4.29% +7.69%

All Process & Methodology Skills
West Midlands

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 West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,009 1,653 1,571
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 84.83% 89.50% 82.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,839 1,050 988
10th Percentile £315 £250 £231
25th Percentile £413 £400 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £519
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -3.66% +3.80%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £625
90th Percentile £675 £675 £725
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 225 113 40
10th Percentile £13.45 £12.62 £14.70
25th Percentile £17.48 £16.30 £16.81
Median hourly rate £25.54 £23.00 £25.15
Median % change year-on-year +11.04% -8.56% -8.54%
75th Percentile £47.50 £33.88 £35.00
90th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £55.45
England median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -3.37%

DevOps
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

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

DevOps job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

DevOps
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing DevOps.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing DevOps

DevOps
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DevOps in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 5 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for DevOps in the West Midlands

DevOps
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing DevOps.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing DevOps

DevOps
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DevOps in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 5 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for DevOps in the West Midlands

DevOps
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing DevOps within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 5 October 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
Birmingham -3 85 £513 +7.89% 107
Shropshire -23 80 £513 -1.16% 30
Coventry +11 57 £425 -14.14% 12
Warwickshire -3 41 £488 -2.50% 29
Solihull -8 24 £488 -8.24% 9
Herefordshire -1 12 £700 +7.69% 5
Worcestershire -8 8 £700 +12.00% 6
Staffordshire -11 3 £489 - 11
DevOps
England

DevOps
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 38 (11.59%) Confluence
2 30 (9.15%) SAS
3 20 (6.10%) SharePoint
4 11 (3.35%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (1.83%) Apache
6 2 (0.61%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.61%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.61%) OpenROAD
7 1 (0.30%) CMS
7 1 (0.30%) IIS
7 1 (0.30%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.30%) OpenStack
Applications
1 6 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (1.83%) Microsoft Project
2 4 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.91%) Chatbot
3 3 (0.91%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.30%) Trello
Business Applications
1 22 (6.71%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.91%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.30%) Aladdin
3 1 (0.30%) MIS ActiveH
3 1 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP IS-U
3 1 (0.30%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 183 (55.79%) Azure
2 115 (35.06%) Azure DevOps
3 107 (32.62%) AWS
4 53 (16.16%) Power Platform
5 50 (15.24%) GitHub
5 50 (15.24%) Serverless
6 42 (12.80%) GitHub Actions
7 37 (11.28%) Dynamics 365
8 34 (10.37%) Amazon S3
8 34 (10.37%) Power Automate
9 30 (9.15%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 30 (9.15%) Amazon EC2
10 26 (7.93%) AWS Lambda
11 23 (7.01%) Amazon EKS
12 22 (6.71%) Azure Data Factory
13 21 (6.40%) Azure Functions
14 20 (6.10%) Amazon ECS
15 14 (4.27%) PowerApps
16 13 (3.96%) GCP
16 13 (3.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 13 (3.96%) Firewall
2 5 (1.52%) SD-WAN
2 5 (1.52%) WAN
3 4 (1.22%) Ethernet VPN
3 4 (1.22%) NetScaler
3 4 (1.22%) VXLAN
4 3 (0.91%) BGP
4 3 (0.91%) BIG-IP
4 3 (0.91%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 3 (0.91%) OSPF
4 3 (0.91%) Wi-Fi
4 3 (0.91%) WLAN
5 2 (0.61%) DNS
5 2 (0.61%) LAN
5 2 (0.61%) NAS
5 2 (0.61%) Network Security
5 2 (0.61%) SAN
5 2 (0.61%) Structured Cabling
5 2 (0.61%) VPN
6 1 (0.30%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (7.93%) Power BI
2 25 (7.62%) SQL Server
3 22 (6.71%) Data Warehouse
4 20 (6.10%) Pentaho
5 17 (5.18%) Data Lake
5 17 (5.18%) Metadata
5 17 (5.18%) NoSQL
6 14 (4.27%) Amazon RDS
7 12 (3.66%) PostgreSQL
8 11 (3.35%) SAS Enterprise Guide
8 11 (3.35%) SAS Visual Analytics
9 10 (3.05%) Oracle Database
10 9 (2.74%) MongoDB
11 8 (2.44%) DynamoDB
12 7 (2.13%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (1.52%) Amazon Aurora
13 5 (1.52%) Data Vault
13 5 (1.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 4 (1.22%) Elasticsearch
15 3 (0.91%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 60 (18.29%) JIRA
2 55 (16.77%) Jenkins
3 42 (12.80%) Git
4 35 (10.67%) GitLab
5 18 (5.49%) Bitbucket
5 18 (5.49%) Selenium
6 13 (3.96%) Cypress.io
6 13 (3.96%) Postman
7 11 (3.35%) WebDriver
8 10 (3.05%) SonarQube
9 9 (2.74%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 9 (2.74%) Cucumber
10 8 (2.44%) Maven
11 7 (2.13%) JUnit
12 6 (1.83%) LoadRunner
13 5 (1.52%) Mockito
13 5 (1.52%) REST Assured
14 4 (1.22%) Artifactory
14 4 (1.22%) Serenity BDD
15 3 (0.91%) Protractor
General
1 123 (37.50%) Social Skills
2 110 (33.54%) Public Sector
3 50 (15.24%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (12.20%) Finance
4 40 (12.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 16 (4.88%) Influencing Skills
6 8 (2.44%) Legal
7 7 (2.13%) Banking
8 5 (1.52%) Local Government
8 5 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (0.61%) Billing
9 2 (0.61%) Military
9 2 (0.61%) Publishing
9 2 (0.61%) Telecoms
10 1 (0.30%) Advertising
10 1 (0.30%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.30%) Front Office
10 1 (0.30%) Police
10 1 (0.30%) Retail
Job Titles
1 60 (18.29%) Senior
2 54 (16.46%) Architect
3 39 (11.89%) Developer
3 39 (11.89%) DevOps Engineer
4 37 (11.28%) Lead
5 36 (10.98%) Data Engineer
6 26 (7.93%) Scrum Master
7 23 (7.01%) Analyst
8 20 (6.10%) Azure Engineer
9 19 (5.79%) Dynamics 365 Developer
10 14 (4.27%) Data Architect
11 13 (3.96%) Senior Data Engineer
11 13 (3.96%) Senior Developer
11 13 (3.96%) Test Analyst
12 11 (3.35%) Azure DevOps Engineer
12 11 (3.35%) Solutions Architect
13 10 (3.05%) Senior Analyst
13 10 (3.05%) Senior DevOps
13 10 (3.05%) Senior DevOps Engineer
14 9 (2.74%) JIRA Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (16.46%) Terraform
2 32 (9.76%) REST
3 31 (9.45%) JSON
4 25 (7.62%) Spring
5 24 (7.32%) Spring Boot
6 20 (6.10%) RESTful
7 15 (4.57%) Kafka
8 12 (3.66%) .NET
8 12 (3.66%) Gherkin
8 12 (3.66%) Web Services
9 11 (3.35%) XML
9 11 (3.35%) XSLT
10 10 (3.05%) Elastic Stack
10 10 (3.05%) SOAP
11 8 (2.44%) YAML
12 7 (2.13%) AWS CDK
12 7 (2.13%) CSS
12 7 (2.13%) Node.js
12 7 (2.13%) Spring Cloud
13 6 (1.83%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 70 (21.34%) Cloud Native
2 40 (12.20%) Product Ownership
3 16 (4.88%) Management Information System
4 14 (4.27%) Distributed Systems
5 13 (3.96%) Hybrid Cloud
6 11 (3.35%) Taxonomies
6 11 (3.35%) Virtual Team
7 10 (3.05%) Enterprise Software
8 9 (2.74%) Analytical Mindset
8 9 (2.74%) Mobile App
9 8 (2.44%) Autonomous Agent
9 8 (2.44%) Data Centre
9 8 (2.44%) Onboarding
10 7 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
10 7 (2.13%) Private Cloud
11 6 (1.83%) AI Agents
11 6 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
12 5 (1.52%) SCADA
12 5 (1.52%) Security Posture
12 5 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 20 (6.10%) Linux
2 11 (3.35%) Windows
3 4 (1.22%) AIX
4 3 (0.91%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.61%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.30%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.30%) Unix
6 1 (0.30%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (58.84%) CI/CD
2 182 (55.49%) Agile
3 98 (29.88%) Continuous Improvement
4 91 (27.74%) Scrum
5 81 (24.70%) Technical Leadership
6 79 (24.09%) Test Automation
7 74 (22.56%) Stakeholder Management
8 68 (20.73%) Infrastructure as Code
9 67 (20.43%) Problem-Solving
10 64 (19.51%) Analytics
11 59 (17.99%) Migration
12 56 (17.07%) Data Modelling
13 55 (16.77%) AI
13 55 (16.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 53 (16.16%) Platform Engineering
15 52 (15.85%) Microservices
16 50 (15.24%) Containerisation
17 48 (14.63%) ETL
18 43 (13.11%) Observability
19 39 (11.89%) Backlog Refinement
Programming Languages
1 55 (16.77%) Java
2 47 (14.33%) Python
3 44 (13.41%) SQL
4 41 (12.50%) C#
5 33 (10.06%) JavaScript
6 18 (5.49%) PowerShell
7 11 (3.35%) Bash
7 11 (3.35%) Go
8 10 (3.05%) Bicep
9 6 (1.83%) Scala
10 5 (1.52%) TypeScript
11 4 (1.22%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.61%) Groovy
12 2 (0.61%) VB
12 2 (0.61%) VB6
13 1 (0.30%) Apex Code
13 1 (0.30%) R
Qualifications
1 131 (39.94%) Security Cleared
2 104 (31.71%) SC Cleared
3 31 (9.45%) BPSS Clearance
4 28 (8.54%) Microsoft Certification
5 18 (5.49%) AWS Certification
6 17 (5.18%) Azure Certification
6 17 (5.18%) Degree
7 16 (4.88%) ISTQB
8 15 (4.57%) DV Cleared
9 8 (2.44%) SAFe Agilist
10 6 (1.83%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 6 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
11 4 (1.22%) SAS Certification
12 3 (0.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.91%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 2 (0.61%) CCNP
13 2 (0.61%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (0.61%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 1 (0.30%) CISM
14 1 (0.30%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (13.11%) Accessibility
2 36 (10.98%) QA
3 30 (9.15%) Data Quality
4 22 (6.71%) WCAG
5 21 (6.40%) GDPR
6 5 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (1.22%) ISO 19650
7 4 (1.22%) PMO
8 2 (0.61%) NIST
9 1 (0.30%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.30%) NCSC
9 1 (0.30%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 65 (19.82%) Docker
2 3 (0.91%) Postfix
3 2 (0.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.61%) vSphere
4 1 (0.30%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 55 (16.77%) Kubernetes
2 27 (8.23%) Grafana
3 21 (6.40%) Ansible
4 20 (6.10%) Prometheus
5 8 (2.44%) Progress Chef
5 8 (2.44%) Puppet
6 5 (1.52%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.91%) Argo
8 3 (0.91%) HP ALM
8 3 (0.91%) HP Quality Center
9 2 (0.61%) Check_MK
10 1 (0.30%) Control-M
10 1 (0.30%) Istio
10 1 (0.30%) Kustomize
10 1 (0.30%) Podman
10 1 (0.30%) SCCM
Vendors
1 75 (22.87%) Microsoft
2 20 (6.10%) Oracle
3 19 (5.79%) Denodo
4 13 (3.96%) Splunk
5 12 (3.66%) Atlassian
6 11 (3.35%) ServiceNow
7 10 (3.05%) Databricks
8 8 (2.44%) Cisco
8 8 (2.44%) Talend
9 7 (2.13%) SAP
10 6 (1.83%) OpenAI
10 6 (1.83%) VMware
11 5 (1.52%) Google
11 5 (1.52%) Informatica
11 5 (1.52%) Jaspersoft
12 4 (1.22%) Dynatrace
12 4 (1.22%) F5
13 3 (0.91%) Arista
13 3 (0.91%) Fortinet
13 3 (0.91%) Palo Alto