Service Management Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Service Management
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Service Management skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 51 73 64
Rank change year-on-year +22 -9 0
Contract jobs citing Service Management 737 471 677
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.18% 2.91% 3.32%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.80% 3.41% 3.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 494 304 508
10th Percentile £185 £200 £230
25th Percentile £305 £361 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £503 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.55% -4.24% +10.53%
75th Percentile £575 £601 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £528
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.57% +5.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 24 9
10th Percentile £12.62 £21.05 £19.49
25th Percentile £16.48 £27.80 £20.50
Median hourly rate £20.79 £34.25 £21.31
Median % change year-on-year -39.30% +60.72% -0.88%
75th Percentile £60.00 £49.06 £48.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £63.75 £58.00
UK median hourly rate £20.83 £32.25 £47.50
% change year-on-year -35.40% -32.12% +117.14%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Service Management 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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 15,370 13,829 18,000
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 87.09% 85.40% 88.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,367 7,946 11,685
10th Percentile £215 £244 £250
25th Percentile £368 £384 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,736 890 1,264
10th Percentile £14.29 £15.10 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £19.32 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.74 £32.50 £44.25
Median % change year-on-year -30.05% -26.55% +38.28%
75th Percentile £45.46 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £72.50 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £43.63
% change year-on-year -23.79% -24.36% +24.64%

Service Management
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Service Management relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Service Management job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Service Management
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Service Management.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Service Management

Service Management
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Management in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 30 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Service Management in the UK excluding London

Service Management
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Service Management.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Service Management

Service Management
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Service Management in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 30 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Service Management in the UK excluding London

Service Management
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Service Management within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 30 November 2025. 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
South East +32 191 £500 -4.76% 92
North of England +4 189 £439 +3.24% 48
South West +20 143 £560 -2.61% 39
Midlands +18 128 £450 -20.57% 52
North West +16 116 £466 +16.38% 28
West Midlands +15 104 £500 -11.74% 33
Yorkshire -18 58 £355 -29.07% 13
Scotland +10 41 £470 +5.62% 22
East of England -5 38 £454 -17.45% 25
East Midlands -2 24 £413 -25.84% 19
North East 0 18 £260 -56.39% 7
Wales -15 5 £175 -12.50% 12
Northern Ireland - 5 £325 - 6
Channel Islands - 3 £725 -
Service Management
UK

Service Management
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 57 (7.73%) Confluence
2 55 (7.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 45 (6.11%) SharePoint
4 18 (2.44%) Apache
5 14 (1.90%) WebLogic
6 10 (1.36%) Skype for Business
7 5 (0.68%) SharePoint Server
8 4 (0.54%) IIS
8 4 (0.54%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.27%) JBoss
10 1 (0.14%) CMS
10 1 (0.14%) HCL Notes
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 86 (11.67%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (4.34%) Microsoft Project
3 26 (3.53%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (1.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (1.36%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.14%) Trello
Business Applications
1 15 (2.04%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (1.49%) Oracle EBS
3 6 (0.81%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.54%) Maximo
5 3 (0.41%) assyst
5 3 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
6 2 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.14%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.14%) SAP LE
7 1 (0.14%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.14%) SAP WM
7 1 (0.14%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 109 (14.79%) Azure
2 78 (10.58%) AWS
3 72 (9.77%) Microsoft 365
4 31 (4.21%) GCP
5 23 (3.12%) Entra ID
6 21 (2.85%) Power Platform
7 17 (2.31%) SaaS
8 16 (2.17%) OneDrive
9 14 (1.90%) Azure Monitor
10 11 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
11 8 (1.09%) PowerApps
12 6 (0.81%) Salesforce Service Cloud
13 5 (0.68%) Power Automate
13 5 (0.68%) Serverless
14 4 (0.54%) Amazon S3
14 4 (0.54%) IaaS
15 3 (0.41%) Amazon EC2
15 3 (0.41%) AWS Lambda
15 3 (0.41%) Dynamics 365
15 3 (0.41%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 44 (5.97%) DNS
2 32 (4.34%) Firewall
3 30 (4.07%) DHCP
4 25 (3.39%) LAN
4 25 (3.39%) WAN
5 22 (2.99%) VLAN
6 20 (2.71%) Skype
6 20 (2.71%) TCP/IP
7 17 (2.31%) Cisco Firepower
7 17 (2.31%) Cisco IOS
7 17 (2.31%) Cisco ISE
7 17 (2.31%) Junos
8 16 (2.17%) VPN
9 11 (1.49%) Network Security
10 10 (1.36%) Wi-Fi
11 8 (1.09%) WebEx
12 7 (0.95%) Wireless
13 6 (0.81%) SSH
14 5 (0.68%) BGP
14 5 (0.68%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (2.44%) Relational Database
2 15 (2.04%) Power BI
3 14 (1.90%) SQL Server
4 8 (1.09%) Amazon RDS
5 6 (0.81%) DB2
6 4 (0.54%) Data Mining
6 4 (0.54%) Metadata
6 4 (0.54%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (0.41%) InfluxDB
8 2 (0.27%) Amazon Aurora
8 2 (0.27%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.27%) Big Data
8 2 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.27%) MariaDB
8 2 (0.27%) MySQL
8 2 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
9 1 (0.14%) BusinessObjects
9 1 (0.14%) GIS
9 1 (0.14%) OLTP
9 1 (0.14%) Oracle Discoverer
Development Applications
1 94 (12.75%) JIRA
2 14 (1.90%) Jenkins
3 5 (0.68%) webpack
4 4 (0.54%) Bitbucket
4 4 (0.54%) Git
5 1 (0.14%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.14%) GitLab
5 1 (0.14%) MLflow
5 1 (0.14%) Selenium
5 1 (0.14%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.14%) WebDriver
General
1 285 (38.67%) Social Skills
2 151 (20.49%) Analytical Skills
3 92 (12.48%) Finance
4 88 (11.94%) Public Sector
5 44 (5.97%) Military
6 30 (4.07%) Legal
7 29 (3.93%) Manufacturing
8 26 (3.53%) Telecoms
9 24 (3.26%) Organisational Skills
10 20 (2.71%) Banking
11 19 (2.58%) Influencing Skills
12 16 (2.17%) Documentation Skills
13 15 (2.04%) Presentation Skills
14 14 (1.90%) Marketing
15 13 (1.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 12 (1.63%) Electronics
17 11 (1.49%) Retail
18 8 (1.09%) Investment Banking
18 8 (1.09%) Police
19 5 (0.68%) Billing
Job Titles
1 105 (14.25%) Analyst
2 88 (11.94%) Architect
3 62 (8.41%) Lead
3 62 (8.41%) Support Engineer
4 58 (7.87%) Service Architect
5 54 (7.33%) Service Manager
6 38 (5.16%) 2nd Line Support
6 38 (5.16%) IT Support
6 38 (5.16%) Support Analyst
7 30 (4.07%) Desktop Support
8 28 (3.80%) Network Engineer
9 25 (3.39%) Delivery Manager
9 25 (3.39%) IT Analyst
9 25 (3.39%) Platform Engineer
10 24 (3.26%) Project Manager
11 23 (3.12%) Senior
11 23 (3.12%) Service Delivery Manager
12 22 (2.99%) Consultant
12 22 (2.99%) Service Analyst
13 21 (2.85%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (2.85%) REST
2 12 (1.63%) CSS
2 12 (1.63%) HTML
2 12 (1.63%) RFC 2544
3 11 (1.49%) SOAP
3 11 (1.49%) Web Services
4 8 (1.09%) XMPP
5 6 (0.81%) RESTful
6 5 (0.68%) .NET
6 5 (0.68%) CSS3
6 5 (0.68%) Elastic Stack
6 5 (0.68%) HTML5
6 5 (0.68%) Node.js
6 5 (0.68%) React
6 5 (0.68%) Redux
6 5 (0.68%) XML
7 4 (0.54%) AngularJS
8 3 (0.41%) LDAP
8 3 (0.41%) Middleware
8 3 (0.41%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 52 (7.06%) Product Ownership
2 37 (5.02%) Data Centre
3 34 (4.61%) Management Information System
4 24 (3.26%) CMDB
5 21 (2.85%) Onboarding
5 21 (2.85%) PKI
5 21 (2.85%) Self-Motivation
6 18 (2.44%) Virtual Team
7 15 (2.04%) Analytical Mindset
8 14 (1.90%) Driving Licence
9 13 (1.76%) Mainframe
10 12 (1.63%) NHS
11 9 (1.22%) Fibre Optics
12 6 (0.81%) Public Cloud
12 6 (0.81%) Tandem
12 6 (0.81%) Video Conferencing
13 5 (0.68%) Distributed Systems
13 5 (0.68%) PMI
14 4 (0.54%) Hybrid Cloud
15 3 (0.41%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 176 (23.88%) Windows
2 63 (8.55%) Linux
3 54 (7.33%) Windows Server
4 39 (5.29%) Windows 10
5 24 (3.26%) Unix
6 12 (1.63%) Mac OS
6 12 (1.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (1.09%) Apple iOS
8 7 (0.95%) Windows Server 2012
9 6 (0.81%) Android
10 5 (0.68%) Windows 7
11 4 (0.54%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.54%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.41%) CentOS
12 3 (0.41%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.41%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.14%) AIX
13 1 (0.14%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.14%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 442 (59.97%) ITIL
2 327 (44.37%) ITSM
3 157 (21.30%) Problem-Solving
4 125 (16.96%) Change Management
5 120 (16.28%) Agile
6 107 (14.52%) Stakeholder Management
7 105 (14.25%) Continuous Improvement
8 98 (13.30%) Customer Service
8 98 (13.30%) Service Design
9 96 (13.03%) Service Delivery
10 82 (11.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 71 (9.63%) Incident Management
12 70 (9.50%) Project Delivery
12 70 (9.50%) Project Management
13 55 (7.46%) DevOps
14 50 (6.78%) Acceptance Criteria
15 48 (6.51%) Knowledge Transfer
15 48 (6.51%) Problem Management
16 44 (5.97%) Analytics
16 44 (5.97%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 66 (8.96%) SQL
2 59 (8.01%) PowerShell
3 51 (6.92%) Python
4 19 (2.58%) JavaScript
5 15 (2.04%) Perl
6 14 (1.90%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.63%) Bash
7 12 (1.63%) Java
8 5 (0.68%) TypeScript
8 5 (0.68%) VB
8 5 (0.68%) VBScript
9 3 (0.41%) Go
10 2 (0.27%) Apex Code
11 1 (0.14%) C#
11 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.14%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 323 (43.83%) Security Cleared
2 261 (35.41%) SC Cleared
3 107 (14.52%) Degree
4 63 (8.55%) DV Cleared
5 47 (6.38%) ITIL Certification
6 41 (5.56%) Microsoft Certification
7 24 (3.26%) TOGAF Certification
8 19 (2.58%) A+ Certification
9 18 (2.44%) Cisco Certification
10 17 (2.31%) Computer Science Degree
11 15 (2.04%) Azure Certification
11 15 (2.04%) CCNP
11 15 (2.04%) MCSE
12 14 (1.90%) Server+ Certification
13 13 (1.76%) BPSS Clearance
13 13 (1.76%) PMP
14 12 (1.63%) CCNA
15 11 (1.49%) Network+ Certification
15 11 (1.49%) PMI Certification
16 10 (1.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (6.38%) SLA
2 32 (4.34%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 14 (1.90%) GDPR
4 10 (1.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (1.36%) PMO
4 10 (1.36%) QA
5 8 (1.09%) Data Quality
5 8 (1.09%) NCSC
6 6 (0.81%) Disclosure Scotland
7 5 (0.68%) GxP
7 5 (0.68%) ISO 9001
7 5 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.41%) COBIT
9 2 (0.27%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.14%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.14%) GRC
10 1 (0.14%) NIST
10 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 92 (12.48%) Active Directory
2 29 (3.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.85%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.90%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.81%) Docker
5 6 (0.81%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.81%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (0.68%) BitLocker
6 5 (0.68%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 4 (0.54%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 26 (3.53%) OPNET
1 26 (3.53%) vCenter Server
2 19 (2.58%) SCCM
3 15 (2.04%) Ansible
3 15 (2.04%) Terraform
4 14 (1.90%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (1.63%) Kubernetes
6 11 (1.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 11 (1.49%) WSUS
7 3 (0.41%) Check_MK
7 3 (0.41%) Grafana
7 3 (0.41%) Jamf Pro
7 3 (0.41%) Nessus
7 3 (0.41%) Packer
7 3 (0.41%) Progress Chef
7 3 (0.41%) Prometheus
7 3 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.27%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.27%) PowerCLI
8 2 (0.27%) SCOM
Vendors
1 177 (24.02%) ServiceNow
2 157 (21.30%) Microsoft
3 84 (11.40%) Cisco
4 47 (6.38%) Oracle
5 46 (6.24%) Atlassian
6 45 (6.11%) Remedy
7 41 (5.56%) VMware
8 35 (4.75%) Splunk
9 31 (4.21%) SolarWinds
10 30 (4.07%) SAP
11 29 (3.93%) Google
12 22 (2.99%) Juniper
13 19 (2.58%) AppDynamics
13 19 (2.58%) Dynatrace
14 14 (1.90%) IBM
15 13 (1.76%) Red Hat
15 13 (1.76%) Veeam
16 12 (1.63%) Salesforce
17 10 (1.36%) Citrix
18 8 (1.09%) HP