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 10 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 68 53 72
Rank change year-on-year -15 +19 -4
Contract jobs citing Service Management 925 625 511
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.29% 4.05% 2.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.06% 4.54% 3.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 629 365 352
10th Percentile £250 £188 £200
25th Percentile £413 £293 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year +6.49% -1.40% -
75th Percentile £625 £575 £600
90th Percentile £725 £638 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £495 £501
% change year-on-year +6.06% -1.10% -4.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 72 14
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £16.84
25th Percentile £16.09 £12.77 £25.69
Median hourly rate £35.53 £18.73 £36.25
Median % change year-on-year +89.70% -48.33% +61.11%
75th Percentile £85.00 £31.40 £48.75
90th Percentile £94.51 £51.98 £52.63
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £18.73 £36.25
% change year-on-year +193.65% -48.33% -34.09%

All Process & 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 22,790 13,758 14,793
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.16% 89.14% 82.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,122 8,260 8,587
10th Percentile £300 £238 £250
25th Percentile £408 £368 £391
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £656 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,631 1,413 1,254
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.00 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.01 £16.95 £18.17
Median hourly rate £40.03 £22.63 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +76.89% -47.37% +8.65%
75th Percentile £67.84 £43.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +2.87%

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 10 September 2026.

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 10 September 2026.

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 10 September 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
South East +11 303 £574 +20.74% 203
North of England -17 259 £475 +4.06% 134
North West -17 157 £481 +3.39% 70
Midlands -50 110 £513 +2.50% 78
South West -30 108 £575 +6.48% 69
West Midlands -24 103 £525 +1.94% 47
Yorkshire -15 94 £443 +21.37% 53
Scotland -2 93 £520 +11.53% 18
East of England -14 49 £510 -7.27% 52
Wales -6 13 £800 +247.83% 12
Northern Ireland +8 8 - - 10
North East -47 8 £535 +174.36% 11
East Midlands -33 7 £206 -31.25% 31
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 52 (5.62%) SharePoint
2 33 (3.57%) Microsoft Exchange
3 32 (3.46%) Confluence
4 15 (1.62%) Skype for Business
5 3 (0.32%) CMS
5 3 (0.32%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.11%) CICS
6 1 (0.11%) Mattermost
Applications
1 67 (7.24%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (2.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.54%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.54%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.11%) Maple
Business Applications
1 46 (4.97%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.54%) ContrOCC
3 4 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.43%) Workday HCM
4 3 (0.32%) NEC Housing
5 2 (0.22%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.22%) Primavera
5 2 (0.22%) Remedy AR System
5 2 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.22%) SAP CX
5 2 (0.22%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.11%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.11%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.11%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 151 (16.32%) Azure
2 98 (10.59%) Microsoft 365
3 67 (7.24%) Entra ID
4 58 (6.27%) AWS
5 48 (5.19%) Power Platform
6 36 (3.89%) SaaS
7 24 (2.59%) Azure DevOps
8 21 (2.27%) GCP
8 21 (2.27%) OneDrive
9 11 (1.19%) Azure Monitor
9 11 (1.19%) Microsoft Copilot
10 9 (0.97%) GitHub
11 8 (0.86%) IaaS
11 8 (0.86%) OCI
12 7 (0.76%) Dynamics 365
12 7 (0.76%) PaaS
13 6 (0.65%) Azure Sentinel
14 5 (0.54%) Azure AKS
14 5 (0.54%) Power Automate
14 5 (0.54%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 45 (4.86%) Firewall
2 43 (4.65%) DNS
3 33 (3.57%) VPN
4 31 (3.35%) DHCP
5 26 (2.81%) Network Security
6 22 (2.38%) LAN
6 22 (2.38%) TCP/IP
7 18 (1.95%) WAN
8 16 (1.73%) Skype
9 14 (1.51%) Wireless
10 11 (1.19%) VLAN
10 11 (1.19%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (1.08%) BGP
11 10 (1.08%) SSH
12 8 (0.86%) OSPF
13 7 (0.76%) Intrusion Detection
14 6 (0.65%) Software-Defined Networking
14 6 (0.65%) SSL
15 5 (0.54%) Cisco ISE
15 5 (0.54%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (3.89%) Power BI
2 25 (2.70%) SQL Server
3 16 (1.73%) Metadata
4 8 (0.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 6 (0.65%) MySQL
6 5 (0.54%) MariaDB
6 5 (0.54%) Oracle Reports
6 5 (0.54%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 4 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (0.43%) Relational Database
7 4 (0.43%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 3 (0.32%) Amazon Aurora
9 2 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.22%) EDRMS
9 2 (0.22%) Looker
9 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Analysis Services
9 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database
10 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
10 1 (0.11%) DTS
Development Applications
1 75 (8.11%) JIRA
2 16 (1.73%) Git
3 9 (0.97%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.86%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 8 (0.86%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.54%) Browser DevTools
6 4 (0.43%) GitLab
6 4 (0.43%) webpack
7 3 (0.32%) Fiddler
7 3 (0.32%) Gradle
7 3 (0.32%) Maven
7 3 (0.32%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.22%) Firebug
8 2 (0.22%) IntelliJ
8 2 (0.22%) MLflow
8 2 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.11%) Hudson
9 1 (0.11%) MSI
9 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 366 (39.57%) Social Skills
2 144 (15.57%) Analytical Skills
3 131 (14.16%) Finance
4 103 (11.14%) Public Sector
5 44 (4.76%) Documentation Skills
6 38 (4.11%) Influencing Skills
7 36 (3.89%) Organisational Skills
8 30 (3.24%) Legal
9 25 (2.70%) Aerospace
9 25 (2.70%) Military
10 24 (2.59%) Telecoms
11 20 (2.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 18 (1.95%) Banking
13 14 (1.51%) Local Government
13 14 (1.51%) Presentation Skills
14 10 (1.08%) Manufacturing
15 5 (0.54%) Retail
16 4 (0.43%) Law
17 3 (0.32%) Police
18 2 (0.22%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 110 (11.89%) Lead
2 100 (10.81%) Analyst
3 79 (8.54%) Architect
4 68 (7.35%) Senior
4 68 (7.35%) Service Manager
5 44 (4.76%) Service Analyst
6 42 (4.54%) Delivery Manager
6 42 (4.54%) IT Manager
7 40 (4.32%) Support Engineer
8 34 (3.68%) Consultant
9 33 (3.57%) Project Manager
9 33 (3.57%) Service Architect
10 25 (2.70%) Developer
10 25 (2.70%) Technical Leader
11 23 (2.49%) Administrator
11 23 (2.49%) Desktop Engineer
11 23 (2.49%) IT Analyst
12 20 (2.16%) 2nd Line Support
12 20 (2.16%) Change Manager
12 20 (2.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (4.00%) Terraform
2 29 (3.14%) REST
3 12 (1.30%) XML
4 10 (1.08%) SAML
5 9 (0.97%) SOAP
6 8 (0.86%) Middleware
7 7 (0.76%) .NET
7 7 (0.76%) JSON
7 7 (0.76%) Web Services
8 6 (0.65%) ARM Templates
8 6 (0.65%) OAuth
9 5 (0.54%) OpenID
10 4 (0.43%) AngularJS
10 4 (0.43%) CSS
10 4 (0.43%) HTML
10 4 (0.43%) OAuth2
10 4 (0.43%) Oracle Fusion
10 4 (0.43%) React
10 4 (0.43%) RESTful
10 4 (0.43%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 83 (8.97%) Onboarding
2 52 (5.62%) Management Information System
3 49 (5.30%) CMDB
4 33 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
5 31 (3.35%) Data Centre
6 30 (3.24%) PKI
7 27 (2.92%) Product Ownership
8 23 (2.49%) Data Protection Act
9 17 (1.84%) Hybrid Cloud
9 17 (1.84%) Operational Technology
10 16 (1.73%) Clustering
10 16 (1.73%) Virtual Team
11 14 (1.51%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
13 12 (1.30%) Security Operations Centre
14 10 (1.08%) Cyber Threat
15 9 (0.97%) Cloud Native
15 9 (0.97%) NHS
16 8 (0.86%) Video Conferencing
17 7 (0.76%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 212 (22.92%) Windows
2 65 (7.03%) Windows Server
3 52 (5.62%) Linux
4 46 (4.97%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.84%) Windows 7
6 14 (1.51%) Unix
7 10 (1.08%) Mac OS
8 9 (0.97%) Android
8 9 (0.97%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.22%) Solaris
10 2 (0.22%) Windows XP
10 2 (0.22%) zOS
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 521 (56.32%) ITIL
2 395 (42.70%) ITSM
3 272 (29.41%) Stakeholder Management
4 263 (28.43%) Continuous Improvement
5 208 (22.49%) Service Delivery
6 178 (19.24%) Agile
6 178 (19.24%) Problem-Solving
7 153 (16.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 150 (16.22%) Change Management
9 110 (11.89%) Customer Service
10 105 (11.35%) Incident Management
11 103 (11.14%) Roadmaps
12 102 (11.03%) Cybersecurity
13 86 (9.30%) DevOps
14 85 (9.19%) Project Delivery
15 70 (7.57%) Decision-Making
15 70 (7.57%) Risk Management
16 68 (7.35%) Service Design
17 67 (7.24%) Data Protection
18 63 (6.81%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 96 (10.38%) PowerShell
2 54 (5.84%) Python
3 41 (4.43%) SQL
4 30 (3.24%) Bash
5 24 (2.59%) JavaScript
6 17 (1.84%) VBScript
7 15 (1.62%) VB
8 11 (1.19%) Java
9 8 (0.86%) C#
10 7 (0.76%) Bicep
11 5 (0.54%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.43%) C
12 4 (0.43%) PL/SQL
12 4 (0.43%) T-SQL
12 4 (0.43%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.32%) Groovy
13 3 (0.32%) Lua
13 3 (0.32%) Perl
14 2 (0.22%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.22%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 433 (46.81%) Security Cleared
2 272 (29.41%) SC Cleared
3 138 (14.92%) DV Cleared
4 98 (10.59%) Degree
5 36 (3.89%) ITIL Certification
6 31 (3.35%) BPSS Clearance
7 30 (3.24%) PMP
8 29 (3.14%) PMI Certification
9 22 (2.38%) Microsoft Certification
10 18 (1.95%) Cisco Certification
10 18 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
11 16 (1.73%) CISSP
12 15 (1.62%) DBS Check
12 15 (1.62%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 13 (1.41%) Azure Certification
13 13 (1.41%) CISM
14 11 (1.19%) A+ Certification
15 9 (0.97%) CCNA
15 9 (0.97%) CCNP
16 8 (0.86%) BC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (7.89%) SLA
2 37 (4.00%) Data Quality
3 28 (3.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 26 (2.81%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 26 (2.81%) QA
5 23 (2.49%) PMO
6 22 (2.38%) GRC
7 19 (2.05%) NCSC
8 18 (1.95%) GDPR
9 15 (1.62%) ISO 9001
10 12 (1.30%) NIST
11 9 (0.97%) COBIT
11 9 (0.97%) Disclosure Scotland
12 8 (0.86%) Accessibility
13 7 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
14 6 (0.65%) ISO 31000
14 6 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 5 (0.54%) ISO 22301
15 5 (0.54%) JSP 440
16 4 (0.43%) WCAG
System Software
1 105 (11.35%) Active Directory
2 63 (6.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (2.49%) VMware ESXi
4 20 (2.16%) Hyper-V
5 17 (1.84%) VMware NSX
6 16 (1.73%) BitLocker
6 16 (1.73%) Docker
7 14 (1.51%) Virtual Desktop
8 13 (1.41%) vCloud
9 12 (1.30%) vSphere
10 5 (0.54%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 5 (0.54%) Firmware
10 5 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.54%) XenApp
10 5 (0.54%) XenDesktop
11 3 (0.32%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 3 (0.32%) NFS
11 3 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
12 2 (0.22%) KVM
12 2 (0.22%) UAG
Systems Management
1 55 (5.95%) SCCM
2 46 (4.97%) Microsoft Intune
3 34 (3.68%) Ansible
4 20 (2.16%) SCOM
5 17 (1.84%) vCenter Server
6 15 (1.62%) Kubernetes
7 14 (1.51%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.65%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (0.43%) PowerCLI
9 4 (0.43%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.43%) vMotion
10 3 (0.32%) Cisco Prime
10 3 (0.32%) Dell DRAC
10 3 (0.32%) NetBackup
10 3 (0.32%) OPNET
10 3 (0.32%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.32%) vRealize
10 3 (0.32%) WSUS
11 2 (0.22%) BMC PATROL
11 2 (0.22%) BMC Performance Manager
Vendors
1 227 (24.54%) ServiceNow
2 217 (23.46%) Microsoft
3 85 (9.19%) VMware
4 49 (5.30%) Remedy
5 33 (3.57%) BMC
6 31 (3.35%) Cisco
7 25 (2.70%) Oracle
8 19 (2.05%) CyberArk
9 17 (1.84%) Atlassian
10 14 (1.51%) Dynatrace
10 14 (1.51%) SAP
11 12 (1.30%) Citrix
11 12 (1.30%) IBM
11 12 (1.30%) SolarWinds
11 12 (1.30%) Splunk
12 11 (1.19%) Palo Alto
13 10 (1.08%) Qualys
14 9 (0.97%) IFS
15 8 (0.86%) Juniper
15 8 (0.86%) Salesforce