2. • Mortimer Spinks is a leading innovator in technology recruitment. Our business consultants, organised into specialist
technology teams, are genuine experts in what they do.
• Being part of the Harvey Nash Group, we offer the stability, infrastructure and quality of a major plc, whilst remaining true
to our technology roots. Our clients benefit from access to our unique portfolio of services, including technology skills inVietnam,
recruitment solutions from managed service provision, contractor payrolling and business process outsourcing.
•We work with some of the most innovative companies in the world.The majority of our customers are defined
as entrepreneurial technology organisations, where technology is core to the growth of their businesses.
• If you have any questions about how we can help you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Bradley Gladden
at Bradley.Gladden@mortimerspinks.com or visit our website - www.mortimerspinks.com
About
About
• Launched in 2006, we provide Business Intelligence throughVacancy Data on subscription.
•We publish vacancy data daily, tailored to your needs, so you can be informed of client activity.
• Primarily used by recruiters, our service enables consultants to have a rapid response when organisations post jobs,
thus facilitating Business Development and Client Management.
• Our data sets are also used by Executive Search, Consulting Firms, Business Services and Strategy Managers to facilitate
a more client centric approach.
• For more information about us please contact James Chaplin by email: James.Chaplin@vacancysoft.com
Vacancysoft LLP is a limited liability partnership.Registered in England andWales.
Partnership no. OC327354.
Registered office:Vicarage House, 58-60 Kensington Church St, London,W8 4DB
VAT: GB 886 1961 74
MortimerSpinks
Vacancysoft
3. Contents
About Mortimer Spinks
AboutVacancysoft
What is DevOps?
Summary
Volumes by Month
Changes in Salaries
Breakdown by Sector
page 02
page 02
page 04
page 05
page 06
page 07
page 08
We are delighted to be partnering withVacancysoft to provide insight on recruitment
activity within theTechnology industry.
For this report we have been looking at activity in DevOps in London, where we’ve
witnessed exponential growth this year.
What we have found particularly interesting is how increasingly roles are appearing
across all industries, where demand for people is clearly outstripping supply,
and leading to salaries on offer increasing.
I hope you find this report as interesting as we did. Feel free to contact me about
current market activity at Bradley.Gladden@mortimerspinks.com
4. www.mortimerspinks.com | www.vacancysoft.compage | 4
What is
DevOps?
DevOps is responsible for ensuring Development and Operations (and sometimes QA) work together
more effectively, thus improving efficiency and quality.
The DevOps function has emerged due to the need to improve communications between Development
and Operations Support teams.
There are three elements to DevOps:
- Coding (historically software would be coded and written from scratch by developers)
- Process re-engineering
- Communications and enabling collaboration across teams
There are a variety of suitable backgrounds for DevOps, including being a developer keen to move into
deployment and operations, or a sysadmin who wants to utilise their scripting skills.
Continuous Integration and automation are integral to DevOps. For CI, technologies and experience
in demand include Ansible or Slapstick, while for Automation the most popular tools are Chef or Puppet,
with Linux being the dominant system used.
Experience of working on cloud platforms is important, specifically AmazonWeb Services, which over
the last six months has started to dominate. Bash or Python are also required as scripting languages.
5. www.mortimerspinks.com | www.vacancysoft.compage | 5
Regional London
DevOps Vacancies per month: London v Regional
Total DevOps Vacancies in the UK, 2014 v 2015
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2014 2015
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2015*
2014
*2015 is an estimate on the basis of current activity year to date
800700600500100 200 300 400
With budgets under pressure there has been an increased
emphasis on productivity and efficiency, leading
to the rise of DevOps.This trend is likely to increase,
especially within start-ups, where this multi dimensional
approach generates significant value.
Typically there is a preference for a DevOps engineer
who has good coding experience as it gives them
the opportunity to understand and directly liaise
with the development team.This in turns increases
the communication and quality of the work.
The more managers and teams realise the potential
of having a DevOps engineer and the versatility of the skills
they can bring to the project, the more demand will rise.
Therefore what we anticipate is:
- Demand outstripping supply
DevOps roles become much more widespread across all
sectors with opportunities becoming available in a wide
range of businesses.
- Big increases in salaries
Companies needing permanent staff will need to ensure
their pay levels are competitive or risk losing key people.
- More opportunities for contracting
With DevOps professionals in high demand they can choose
to turn down permanent positions to maximise their
earnings.
Summary
6. www.mortimerspinks.com | www.vacancysoft.compage | 6
500
DevOps v All Dev/Eng Roles London only
% of DevOps Roles in London
All Dev/Eng Roles London Dev Ops London
2014 2015
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
1%
2%
6%
9%
3%
4%
5%
7%
8%
100
200
300
400
600
2014 2015
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2015 volumes are significantly higher than those in 2014
as DevOps becomes more prevalent amongst development
teams.
While overall development / engineering roles have also
been increasing DevOps vacancies have grown faster,
whereby year-on-year there has been a three-fold increase
as SMEs follow the trend of hiring for DevOps.
DevOps professionals have been invaluable in bridging
the communication gap between management
and development, where the increased responsibility
of the role is resulting in developers finding it a natural
career progression.
In 2014 Dev Ops constituted 3% of all software /
engineering roles. So far this year it is now 4.5%.
The majority of vacancies are in London.
(65% in 2014, 63% in 2015).
When looking at London trends specifically,
DevOps constitutes 5.6% of all software / engineering
roles so makes up a larger share of all positions than
regionally.
Volumes by
Month
7. www.mortimerspinks.com | www.vacancysoft.compage | 7
London has witnessed the greatest increases in salaries
for DevOps positions.
Due to increasing demand for DevOps Engineers in both
larger corporations and also amongst SMEs and start-ups,
salaries being offered are increasing.
Insofar as those companies typically have a range for salaries
when looking to hire, the biggest change has been for senior
roles in London, with the lower band increasing, up 6.7%
from last year.
With contractors being able to earn £500+ per day,
it is clearly more cost-efficient long term to have permanent
staff instead.There is currently a 50% premium for being
a contractor in terms of net income.
However, while companies want to hire permanent staff,
vacancies are typically being filled by contractors,
suggesting permanent salaries still have to climb a long
way. Indeed, the data validates this, with the upper level
salaries being offered increasing the most.
Part of the challenge for hiring managers is that DevOps
requires experience (which explains the lack of junior
positions), as the focus of the role requires both technical
expertise and excellent interpersonal skills.
People with a track record can demand a premium,
which hiring companies have no choice but to pay.
Changes in
Salaries
700
800
600
500
DevOps Day rates in London (2014 v 2015)
DevOps salaries in London (2014 v 2015)
2014 2015
100
200
300
400
900
£
£
75 000
70 000
2014 2015
55 000
60 000
65 000
Senior DevOpsMid DevOps
Senior DevOpsMid DevOps
8. www.mortimerspinks.com | www.vacancysoft.compage | 8
Software companies witnessed an explosive increase for
DevOps, up 120% from 2014, constituting 40% of all roles.
The Banking sector, in comparison, had much smaller
growth year-on-year, up only 19% and dropped from
14.29% of all roles in 2014 to 8.47% in 2015.
Typically in Banking there will be large teams with specific
requirements for every position. Conversely in a digital
start up, hybrid roles are more prevalent, which naturally
lends itself to DevOps.
There was also proportionately slower growth inTelecoms,
resulting in it dropping to being the fifth largest sector
for DevOps vacancies in 2015, down from third last year.
Sectors that have had a significant increase year-on-year
include Insurance, Retail, Digital Agencies and the big
Accounting/Consulting firms.
As their value becomes proven, DevOps roles are now
starting to appear in sectors that previously had never
hired for this skill, especially in high tech industry.
Breakdown by
Sector
TOP 10 SECTORS
Software & Computer Services
Banking
Accounting / Consulting
Advertising, Digital & Media Agencies
Telecommunications
Media Broadcasting / Publishing
Retail
Insurance
Pharmaceuticals
Industrial Engineering
Software & Computer Services
Banking
Accounting / Consulting
Advertising, Digital & Media Agencies
Telecommunications
Media Broadcasting / Publishing
Retail
Insurance
Pharmaceuticals
Industrial Engineering
37.17%
14.29%
5.16%
4.42%
13.27%
9.73%
1.77%
0.88%
0.00%
0.00%
2014
40.91%
8.47%
8.14%
7.58%
6.82%
5.30%
3.79%
3.79%
2.27%
2.27%
2015
94
36
13
11
33
25
4
2
0
0
2014 TOT
121
25
24
22
20
16
11
11
7
7
2015 TOT
2014
2015
Top 10 Sectors
Breakdown by Sector
