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 4 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 55 72
Rank change year-on-year -8 +17 -11
Contract jobs citing Service Management 953 640 499
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.38% 4.06% 2.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.18% 4.55% 3.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 642 375 339
10th Percentile £264 £185 £188
25th Percentile £435 £293 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.25% -3.00% -0.25%
75th Percentile £625 £560 £600
90th Percentile £725 £619 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £488 £514
% change year-on-year +7.69% -5.11% -2.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 83 14
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £21.99
25th Percentile £16.11 £13.31 £26.25
Median hourly rate £35.53 £20.83 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +70.57% -48.57% +80.00%
75th Percentile £84.38 £33.75 £48.75
90th Percentile £92.50 £60.00 £52.63
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £21.28 £36.00
% change year-on-year +158.46% -40.89% -33.94%

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 22,798 14,054 14,604
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 80.88% 89.23% 83.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,714 8,434 8,274
10th Percentile £300 £229 £240
25th Percentile £409 £368 £381
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 £671 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,844 1,528 1,094
10th Percentile £13.48 £14.05 £14.99
25th Percentile £16.65 £17.14 £18.50
Median hourly rate £39.00 £22.32 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.77% -48.10% +1.18%
75th Percentile £65.88 £40.51 £66.46
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £38.62 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +53.57% -40.82% -

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 4 October 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 4 October 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 4 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
South East +12 304 £575 +28.64% 293
North of England -19 272 £480 +6.67% 242
North West -13 161 £483 +5.92% 130
Midlands -26 126 £525 +3.96% 134
West Midlands -16 119 £525 +1.94% 86
Yorkshire -10 106 £456 +21.67% 93
Scotland +21 100 £581 +24.61% 92
South West -39 96 £558 +1.36% 111
East of England +7 63 £550 - 112
Wales -8 13 £800 +247.83% 22
Northern Ireland +8 8 - - 17
East Midlands -23 7 £206 -34.83% 47
North East -43 5 £600 +207.69% 21
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 60 (6.30%) SharePoint
2 38 (3.99%) Confluence
3 37 (3.88%) Microsoft Exchange
4 15 (1.57%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.42%) CMS
5 4 (0.42%) IBM Transformation Extender
6 3 (0.31%) IIS
6 3 (0.31%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.21%) Apache
7 2 (0.21%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.10%) CICS
8 1 (0.10%) Mattermost
Applications
1 62 (6.51%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (2.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.52%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.10%) Maple
Business Applications
1 42 (4.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 8 (0.84%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.52%) ContrOCC
3 5 (0.52%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.42%) Workday HCM
5 3 (0.31%) NEC Housing
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.21%) Primavera
6 2 (0.21%) Remedy AR System
6 2 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.21%) SAP CX
6 2 (0.21%) SystmOne
6 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.10%) Cloudability
7 1 (0.10%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 154 (16.16%) Azure
2 110 (11.54%) Microsoft 365
3 77 (8.08%) Entra ID
4 63 (6.61%) AWS
5 48 (5.04%) Power Platform
6 36 (3.78%) SaaS
7 27 (2.83%) Azure DevOps
7 27 (2.83%) GCP
8 22 (2.31%) OneDrive
9 14 (1.47%) Azure Monitor
10 13 (1.36%) Dynamics 365
11 10 (1.05%) GitHub
11 10 (1.05%) Microsoft Copilot
12 9 (0.94%) Power Automate
12 9 (0.94%) Serverless
13 8 (0.84%) Azure Functions
13 8 (0.84%) IaaS
14 6 (0.63%) Azure Sentinel
14 6 (0.63%) Google Workspace
14 6 (0.63%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 43 (4.51%) DNS
2 40 (4.20%) Firewall
3 38 (3.99%) VPN
4 31 (3.25%) DHCP
5 29 (3.04%) Network Security
6 24 (2.52%) TCP/IP
7 22 (2.31%) LAN
8 17 (1.78%) WAN
9 16 (1.68%) Skype
10 13 (1.36%) Wi-Fi
11 11 (1.15%) VLAN
12 10 (1.05%) SSH
13 9 (0.94%) Wireless
14 8 (0.84%) BGP
15 7 (0.73%) Intrusion Detection
15 7 (0.73%) NetScaler
16 6 (0.63%) OSPF
16 6 (0.63%) Software-Defined Networking
17 5 (0.52%) MPLS
17 5 (0.52%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (3.04%) Power BI
2 24 (2.52%) SQL Server
3 20 (2.10%) Metadata
4 7 (0.73%) Looker
5 6 (0.63%) MySQL
5 6 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 5 (0.52%) BigQuery
6 5 (0.52%) MariaDB
7 4 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.42%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.31%) Amazon Aurora
8 3 (0.31%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.21%) EDRMS
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.21%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 1 (0.10%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Analysis Services
10 1 (0.10%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 70 (7.35%) JIRA
2 22 (2.31%) Git
3 9 (0.94%) Atlassian Bamboo
3 9 (0.94%) Bitbucket
3 9 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.42%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (0.42%) webpack
5 3 (0.31%) GitLab
5 3 (0.31%) Gradle
5 3 (0.31%) Maven
5 3 (0.31%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.21%) Fiddler
6 2 (0.21%) Firebug
6 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.10%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.10%) eggPlant
7 1 (0.10%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.10%) MLflow
7 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 393 (41.24%) Social Skills
2 157 (16.47%) Analytical Skills
3 139 (14.59%) Finance
4 103 (10.81%) Public Sector
5 49 (5.14%) Organisational Skills
6 47 (4.93%) Documentation Skills
7 41 (4.30%) Influencing Skills
8 34 (3.57%) Aerospace
9 27 (2.83%) Legal
10 24 (2.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 23 (2.41%) Banking
12 19 (1.99%) Military
12 19 (1.99%) Telecoms
13 18 (1.89%) Presentation Skills
14 17 (1.78%) Manufacturing
15 16 (1.68%) Local Government
16 5 (0.52%) Law
16 5 (0.52%) Retail
17 3 (0.31%) Police
18 2 (0.21%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 108 (11.33%) Lead
2 102 (10.70%) Analyst
3 86 (9.02%) Architect
4 68 (7.14%) Senior
5 60 (6.30%) Service Manager
6 52 (5.46%) Delivery Manager
7 42 (4.41%) Service Analyst
7 42 (4.41%) Support Engineer
8 40 (4.20%) Consultant
8 40 (4.20%) Developer
9 35 (3.67%) Service Architect
10 33 (3.46%) IT Manager
11 29 (3.04%) Project Manager
12 26 (2.73%) Administrator
12 26 (2.73%) Desktop Engineer
12 26 (2.73%) Technical Leader
13 24 (2.52%) Change Manager
14 23 (2.41%) Service Delivery Manager
15 22 (2.31%) 2nd Line Support
15 22 (2.31%) Desktop Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (4.09%) Terraform
2 31 (3.25%) REST
3 19 (1.99%) Middleware
4 17 (1.78%) XML
5 12 (1.26%) JSON
6 10 (1.05%) Web Services
7 9 (0.94%) SAML
8 8 (0.84%) SOAP
8 8 (0.84%) XSLT
9 6 (0.63%) .NET
9 6 (0.63%) ARM Templates
9 6 (0.63%) LDAP
9 6 (0.63%) OAuth
10 5 (0.52%) SailPoint
11 4 (0.42%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.42%) Node.js
11 4 (0.42%) OpenID
11 4 (0.42%) React
11 4 (0.42%) Redux
11 4 (0.42%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 86 (9.02%) Onboarding
2 66 (6.93%) Management Information System
3 57 (5.98%) CMDB
4 38 (3.99%) Data Centre
4 38 (3.99%) Enterprise Software
5 28 (2.94%) PKI
6 24 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
6 24 (2.52%) Product Ownership
7 21 (2.20%) Hybrid Cloud
8 16 (1.68%) Security Operations Centre
9 14 (1.47%) Cyber Threat
10 13 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.36%) Operational Technology
10 13 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
10 13 (1.36%) Virtual Team
11 12 (1.26%) Security Posture
12 10 (1.05%) Clustering
13 9 (0.94%) Taxonomies
14 8 (0.84%) Cloud Native
14 8 (0.84%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 217 (22.77%) Windows
2 59 (6.19%) Windows Server
3 58 (6.09%) Linux
4 47 (4.93%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.78%) Windows 7
6 16 (1.68%) Unix
7 13 (1.36%) Android
7 13 (1.36%) Apple iOS
7 13 (1.36%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.31%) AIX
9 3 (0.31%) Solaris
9 3 (0.31%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.21%) Windows XP
10 2 (0.21%) zOS
11 1 (0.10%) SUSE
11 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 541 (56.77%) ITIL
2 389 (40.82%) ITSM
3 299 (31.37%) Stakeholder Management
4 283 (29.70%) Continuous Improvement
5 214 (22.46%) Service Delivery
6 186 (19.52%) Agile
7 183 (19.20%) Problem-Solving
8 146 (15.32%) Change Management
8 146 (15.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 133 (13.96%) Roadmaps
10 127 (13.33%) Cybersecurity
11 114 (11.96%) Incident Management
12 110 (11.54%) Customer Service
13 92 (9.65%) Project Delivery
14 87 (9.13%) DevOps
15 79 (8.29%) Decision-Making
16 77 (8.08%) Data Protection
17 75 (7.87%) Risk Management
18 73 (7.66%) Service Design
19 72 (7.56%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 100 (10.49%) PowerShell
2 63 (6.61%) Python
3 35 (3.67%) Bash
4 34 (3.57%) SQL
5 29 (3.04%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.99%) VBScript
7 15 (1.57%) VB
8 12 (1.26%) Java
9 11 (1.15%) C#
10 7 (0.73%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.63%) Bicep
12 4 (0.42%) C
12 4 (0.42%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.31%) Google Apps Script
13 3 (0.31%) Groovy
13 3 (0.31%) Lua
13 3 (0.31%) Perl
14 2 (0.21%) Go
14 2 (0.21%) Search Processing Language
14 2 (0.21%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 448 (47.01%) Security Cleared
2 289 (30.33%) SC Cleared
3 135 (14.17%) DV Cleared
4 99 (10.39%) Degree
5 38 (3.99%) BPSS Clearance
6 31 (3.25%) PMP
7 30 (3.15%) PMI Certification
8 28 (2.94%) ITIL Certification
9 27 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
10 23 (2.41%) DBS Check
11 15 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
11 15 (1.57%) CISSP
11 15 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
12 14 (1.47%) Azure Certification
13 13 (1.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 12 (1.26%) CISM
15 11 (1.15%) A+ Certification
16 8 (0.84%) AWS Certification
16 8 (0.84%) BC Cleared
17 7 (0.73%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 81 (8.50%) SLA
2 39 (4.09%) Data Quality
3 31 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 31 (3.25%) QA
4 27 (2.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 26 (2.73%) GRC
6 22 (2.31%) GDPR
7 20 (2.10%) NCSC
8 18 (1.89%) ISO 9001
8 18 (1.89%) NIST
8 18 (1.89%) PMO
9 10 (1.05%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.84%) Disclosure Scotland
10 8 (0.84%) WCAG
11 6 (0.63%) COBIT
11 6 (0.63%) ISO 22301
12 5 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
12 5 (0.52%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.52%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.42%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 110 (11.54%) Active Directory
2 62 (6.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (2.41%) Hyper-V
3 23 (2.41%) VMware ESXi
4 17 (1.78%) VMware NSX
5 16 (1.68%) BitLocker
5 16 (1.68%) Docker
6 15 (1.57%) Virtual Desktop
7 14 (1.47%) vSphere
8 13 (1.36%) vCloud
9 9 (0.94%) Firmware
10 7 (0.73%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 7 (0.73%) XenApp
10 7 (0.73%) XenDesktop
11 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 3 (0.31%) NFS
11 3 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
12 2 (0.21%) GPFS
12 2 (0.21%) UAG
12 2 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 61 (6.40%) SCCM
2 54 (5.67%) Microsoft Intune
3 34 (3.57%) Ansible
4 20 (2.10%) SCOM
5 17 (1.78%) vCenter Server
6 15 (1.57%) Kubernetes
7 13 (1.36%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.73%) Jamf Pro
8 7 (0.73%) Progress Chef
9 5 (0.52%) NetBackup
10 4 (0.42%) PowerCLI
10 4 (0.42%) Tivoli
10 4 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
10 4 (0.42%) vMotion
10 4 (0.42%) WSUS
11 3 (0.31%) Dell DRAC
11 3 (0.31%) OPNET
11 3 (0.31%) vRealize
12 2 (0.21%) Istio
12 2 (0.21%) SysTrack
Vendors
1 238 (24.97%) Microsoft
2 226 (23.71%) ServiceNow
3 81 (8.50%) VMware
4 46 (4.83%) Remedy
5 29 (3.04%) BMC
6 28 (2.94%) Cisco
7 19 (1.99%) Oracle
8 18 (1.89%) Atlassian
8 18 (1.89%) IBM
9 17 (1.78%) SAP
10 16 (1.68%) CyberArk
11 15 (1.57%) Dynatrace
12 14 (1.47%) Citrix
13 13 (1.36%) Apple
13 13 (1.36%) SolarWinds
14 12 (1.26%) Google
15 10 (1.05%) Palo Alto
15 10 (1.05%) Qualys
16 8 (0.84%) Red Hat
16 8 (0.84%) Splunk