Observability Job Trends

Observability
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Observability skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 204 413 600
Rank change year-on-year +209 +187 -56
Permanent jobs citing Observability 770 275 222
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.07% 0.60% 0.28%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.36% 0.64% 0.32%
Number of salaries quoted 465 145 146
10th Percentile £52,500 £51,250 £52,500
25th Percentile £62,500 £63,630 £65,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £70,000 £78,500
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -10.83% +1.29%
75th Percentile £96,250 £93,778 £97,500
90th Percentile £122,500 £112,000 £111,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £73,801 £69,308 £70,576
% change year-on-year +6.48% -1.80% +5.67%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Observability falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 56,435 42,676 68,967
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 78.59% 93.36% 87.81%
Number of salaries quoted 33,915 21,866 52,740
10th Percentile £29,250 £32,500 £29,329
25th Percentile £38,750 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £76,463 £81,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%

Observability
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Observability relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Observability job vacancy trend in the UK

Observability
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Observability.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Observability

Observability
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Observability over the 6 months to 5 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Observability in the UK

Observability
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Observability within the UK over the 6 months to 5 March 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +184 608 £80,000 +6.67% 521
UK excluding London +173 372 £73,801 +6.48% 331
Work from Home +174 340 £80,000 +14.29% 333
London +146 330 £90,000 +9.09% 256
North of England +43 124 £73,801 +6.37% 118
Scotland +64 95 £84,750 +54.09% 14
Yorkshire +16 66 £67,500 -11.62% 57
South East +27 63 £62,500 -16.67% 105
North West +2 45 £74,651 -0.47% 48
Midlands +27 41 £70,542 +9.20% 28
West Midlands +12 21 £65,000 +0.62% 18
East of England +17 19 £60,100 - 27
East Midlands - 19 £80,000 - 10
South West -16 15 £83,750 +6.35% 27
North East -7 13 £73,801 +6.37% 14
Wales -1 11 £70,079 +2.35% 11
Northern Ireland -31 6 £73,801 +6.48% 3

Observability
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 28 (3.64%) Apache Airflow
2 27 (3.51%) Apache Spark
3 21 (2.73%) Apache
4 13 (1.69%) Confluence
5 10 (1.30%) SharePoint
6 8 (1.04%) Palantir Foundry
7 4 (0.52%) Appian
8 3 (0.39%) nginx
9 2 (0.26%) Apache Solr
9 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.13%) Camunda
10 1 (0.13%) CICS
10 1 (0.13%) Ethereum
10 1 (0.13%) Hyperledger
10 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.13%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.13%) TPMS
10 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
Applications
1 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (2.21%) Oracle ERP
2 4 (0.52%) SAP FS
3 2 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.13%) Distributed Ledger
4 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.13%) Endur
4 1 (0.13%) Primavera
4 1 (0.13%) R3 Corda
4 1 (0.13%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 379 (49.22%) Azure
2 359 (46.62%) AWS
3 173 (22.47%) GitHub
4 135 (17.53%) Azure DevOps
5 129 (16.75%) GCP
6 112 (14.55%) GitHub Actions
7 96 (12.47%) Serverless
8 90 (11.69%) Datadog
9 69 (8.96%) Amazon EKS
10 68 (8.83%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 67 (8.70%) AWS CloudFormation
12 63 (8.18%) Amazon S3
13 61 (7.92%) SaaS
14 60 (7.79%) AWS Lambda
15 57 (7.40%) dbt
16 56 (7.27%) Azure Monitor
17 53 (6.88%) Amazon ECS
18 50 (6.49%) Entra ID
19 40 (5.19%) PaaS
20 36 (4.68%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 50 (6.49%) Firewall
2 39 (5.06%) VPN
3 36 (4.68%) Broadband
4 32 (4.16%) TCP/IP
5 26 (3.38%) WAN
6 20 (2.60%) BGP
7 18 (2.34%) LAN
8 15 (1.95%) DNS
9 11 (1.43%) MPLS
10 10 (1.30%) Cisco Nexus
11 9 (1.17%) DHCP
11 9 (1.17%) Network Security
11 9 (1.17%) VLAN
12 8 (1.04%) SD-WAN
13 7 (0.91%) Software-Defined Networking
14 6 (0.78%) Ethernet VPN
14 6 (0.78%) HTTP
14 6 (0.78%) OSPF
14 6 (0.78%) VXLAN
14 6 (0.78%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (7.53%) Amazon RDS
2 53 (6.88%) PostgreSQL
3 43 (5.58%) Redis
4 36 (4.68%) Elasticsearch
5 31 (4.03%) Data Lake
6 27 (3.51%) Metadata
7 25 (3.25%) DynamoDB
7 25 (3.25%) SQL Server
8 23 (2.99%) Power BI
9 22 (2.86%) Data Warehouse
10 21 (2.73%) NoSQL
11 20 (2.60%) Big Data
11 20 (2.60%) MongoDB
12 17 (2.21%) Azure SQL Database
13 13 (1.69%) Relational Database
14 10 (1.30%) Amazon Aurora
14 10 (1.30%) Apache Iceberg
15 9 (1.17%) MySQL
16 7 (0.91%) Amazon Redshift
16 7 (0.91%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 76 (9.87%) Jenkins
2 71 (9.22%) GitLab
3 68 (8.83%) Git
4 33 (4.29%) JIRA
5 17 (2.21%) JMeter
5 17 (2.21%) Oracle Forms
6 16 (2.08%) Cucumber
7 11 (1.43%) Locust
8 10 (1.30%) CircleCI
8 10 (1.30%) Selenium
9 5 (0.65%) Artifactory
9 5 (0.65%) MLflow
10 4 (0.52%) Jaeger
10 4 (0.52%) JUnit
10 4 (0.52%) LoadRunner
10 4 (0.52%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.52%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.52%) XCUITest
11 3 (0.39%) NUnit
11 3 (0.39%) TeamCity
General
1 239 (31.04%) Finance
2 216 (28.05%) Social Skills
3 67 (8.70%) Analytical Skills
4 52 (6.75%) Banking
5 48 (6.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 45 (5.84%) Retail
7 41 (5.32%) Games
8 21 (2.73%) Law
9 20 (2.60%) Legal
10 17 (2.21%) Public Sector
11 16 (2.08%) Financial Institution
12 14 (1.82%) Manufacturing
12 14 (1.82%) Marketing
12 14 (1.82%) Telecoms
13 12 (1.56%) Back Office
13 12 (1.56%) Influencing Skills
14 11 (1.43%) Billing
15 10 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
16 8 (1.04%) Advertising
17 5 (0.65%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 191 (24.81%) Senior
2 132 (17.14%) Lead
3 72 (9.35%) Platform Engineer
4 62 (8.05%) DevOps Engineer
5 57 (7.40%) Developer
6 54 (7.01%) Cloud Engineer
7 47 (6.10%) Software Engineer
8 44 (5.71%) AWS Engineer
9 38 (4.94%) Data Engineer
9 38 (4.94%) Operations Engineer
10 33 (4.29%) Architect
11 31 (4.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 30 (3.90%) Senior Platform Engineer
13 27 (3.51%) Azure Engineer
13 27 (3.51%) Consultant
14 26 (3.38%) Applications Engineer
14 26 (3.38%) Engineering Manager
15 25 (3.25%) Site Reliability Engineer
16 23 (2.99%) Technical Leader
17 22 (2.86%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (9.22%) RESTful
2 56 (7.27%) Kafka
3 49 (6.36%) REST
4 48 (6.23%) .NET
5 47 (6.10%) React
6 43 (5.58%) SOAP
7 40 (5.19%) Node.js
8 39 (5.06%) OAuth
9 36 (4.68%) JSON
10 35 (4.55%) Django
11 28 (3.64%) RabbitMQ
12 27 (3.51%) SAML
13 24 (3.12%) Spring
14 23 (2.99%) ADO
14 23 (2.99%) OpenTelemetry
15 22 (2.86%) Lightning Web Components
15 22 (2.86%) OAuth2
15 22 (2.86%) PyTorch
15 22 (2.86%) Spring Boot
16 21 (2.73%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 189 (24.55%) Cloud Native
2 81 (10.52%) Distributed Systems
3 71 (9.22%) Onboarding
4 63 (8.18%) Product Ownership
5 41 (5.32%) Enterprise Software
6 35 (4.55%) Mobile App
7 25 (3.25%) Data Centre
8 22 (2.86%) Linux Command Line
9 18 (2.34%) Management Information System
10 17 (2.21%) Hybrid Cloud
11 15 (1.95%) Public Cloud
12 14 (1.82%) Legacy Applications
13 13 (1.69%) Blockchain
14 11 (1.43%) Self-Motivation
15 10 (1.30%) PKI
15 10 (1.30%) Web3
16 9 (1.17%) Blog
17 8 (1.04%) Legacy Systems
17 8 (1.04%) Social Media
18 7 (0.91%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 108 (14.03%) Linux
2 37 (4.81%) Android
3 35 (4.55%) Windows
4 33 (4.29%) Unix
5 30 (3.90%) Apple iOS
6 19 (2.47%) VMS
7 11 (1.43%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.65%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.39%) CentOS
9 3 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.39%) SUSE
10 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 526 (68.31%) CI/CD
2 415 (53.90%) DevOps
3 319 (41.43%) Infrastructure as Code
4 268 (34.81%) Agile
5 208 (27.01%) Continuous Improvement
6 189 (24.55%) Test Automation
7 187 (24.29%) AI
8 169 (21.95%) Mentoring
9 155 (20.13%) Problem-Solving
10 151 (19.61%) Platform Engineering
11 145 (18.83%) Analytics
12 142 (18.44%) Containerisation
13 135 (17.53%) Incident Response
13 135 (17.53%) Site Reliability Engineering
14 131 (17.01%) Software Engineering
15 120 (15.58%) Coaching
16 112 (14.55%) Roadmaps
17 99 (12.86%) Microservices
18 94 (12.21%) Data Pipeline
19 89 (11.56%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 285 (37.01%) Python
2 123 (15.97%) Java
3 102 (13.25%) SQL
4 67 (8.70%) Go
5 61 (7.92%) Bash
6 57 (7.40%) TypeScript
7 54 (7.01%) JavaScript
8 47 (6.10%) PowerShell
9 46 (5.97%) Bicep
10 40 (5.19%) C#
11 23 (2.99%) Apex Code
12 18 (2.34%) Shell Script
13 17 (2.21%) PL/SQL
14 16 (2.08%) Kotlin
14 16 (2.08%) Rust
15 15 (1.95%) Kusto Query Language
16 9 (1.17%) C++
17 8 (1.04%) T-SQL
18 5 (0.65%) Scala
19 3 (0.39%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 82 (10.65%) Security Cleared
2 63 (8.18%) Degree
3 46 (5.97%) SC Cleared
4 27 (3.51%) Computer Science Degree
5 24 (3.12%) AWS Certification
6 21 (2.73%) Master's Degree
7 19 (2.47%) Cisco Certification
8 17 (2.21%) Azure Certification
9 15 (1.95%) CCNP
10 12 (1.56%) DV Cleared
11 10 (1.30%) Microsoft Certification
12 8 (1.04%) DBS Check
13 7 (0.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 7 (0.91%) PhD
14 6 (0.78%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 6 (0.78%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 5 (0.65%) CCNA
15 5 (0.65%) ISTQB
16 2 (0.26%) CISSP
16 2 (0.26%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (7.66%) Data Quality
1 59 (7.66%) QA
2 43 (5.58%) Accessibility
3 40 (5.19%) GDPR
4 34 (4.42%) SLA
5 29 (3.77%) SOC 2
6 28 (3.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 14 (1.82%) PCI DSS
8 12 (1.56%) WCAG
9 9 (1.17%) GRC
10 6 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 4 (0.52%) IFRS
12 4 (0.52%) IFRS 17
12 4 (0.52%) Solvency II
13 3 (0.39%) NIST
14 2 (0.26%) MiFID
14 2 (0.26%) NCSC
15 1 (0.13%) HIPAA
15 1 (0.13%) PMO
System Software
1 206 (26.75%) Docker
2 51 (6.62%) Active Directory
3 16 (2.08%) Virtual Machines
4 11 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.78%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.78%) vSphere
6 4 (0.52%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.52%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.26%) vCloud
8 1 (0.13%) Firmware
8 1 (0.13%) iptables
8 1 (0.13%) RACF
8 1 (0.13%) Squid
Systems Management
1 351 (45.58%) Terraform
2 236 (30.65%) Kubernetes
3 166 (21.56%) Grafana
4 134 (17.40%) Prometheus
5 99 (12.86%) Ansible
6 35 (4.55%) Single Sign-On
7 17 (2.21%) AWS Copilot
8 15 (1.95%) Argo
9 13 (1.69%) Kibana
10 10 (1.30%) Microsoft Intune
10 10 (1.30%) Nagios
11 8 (1.04%) logstash
12 6 (0.78%) Proxmox
13 5 (0.65%) Docker Swarm
14 4 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 4 (0.52%) Istio
14 4 (0.52%) Progress Chef
14 4 (0.52%) WSUS
15 3 (0.39%) linkerd
15 3 (0.39%) Mesos
Vendors
1 89 (11.56%) Microsoft
2 50 (6.49%) Databricks
3 44 (5.71%) Splunk
4 43 (5.58%) Google
5 26 (3.38%) Salesforce
6 25 (3.25%) Dynatrace
7 24 (3.12%) VMware
8 23 (2.99%) New Relic
9 20 (2.60%) Oracle
10 19 (2.47%) Cisco
11 18 (2.34%) Fortinet
11 18 (2.34%) Okta
12 17 (2.21%) AppDynamics
13 16 (2.08%) Palo Alto
14 14 (1.82%) Ab Initio
15 13 (1.69%) ServiceNow
16 12 (1.56%) SolarWinds
16 12 (1.56%) Zscaler
17 9 (1.17%) Dell
17 9 (1.17%) NVIDIA