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 19 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 56 75 60
Rank change year-on-year +19 -15 +4
Contract jobs citing Service Management 711 446 674
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.92% 2.97% 3.43%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.55% 3.42% 3.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 479 280 503
10th Percentile £185 £200 £229
25th Percentile £313 £361 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £576 £600 £600
90th Percentile £710 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £528
% change year-on-year -3.85% -1.52% +5.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 25 12
10th Percentile £12.62 £21.05 £15.57
25th Percentile £16.23 £29.00 £17.43
Median hourly rate £20.79 £32.50 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.03% +54.76% -18.64%
75th Percentile £60.00 £48.75 £22.06
90th Percentile £75.98 £62.50 £46.25
UK median hourly rate £20.81 £31.35 £21.31
% change year-on-year -33.62% +47.10% -6.70%

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 15,617 13,041 17,394
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 86.01% 86.97% 88.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,535 7,668 11,224
10th Percentile £220 £235 £250
25th Percentile £375 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £477 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.60% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,767 762 1,227
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.50 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.03 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.50 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -27.69% -26.97% +39.06%
75th Percentile £48.75 £64.01 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £71.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.33
% change year-on-year -22.62% -24.99% +23.80%

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 19 December 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 19 December 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 19 December 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 +27 194 £500 - 112
North of England -2 170 £470 +17.56% 96
South West +17 145 £575 +4.55% 52
Midlands +11 127 £500 -4.76% 77
West Midlands +3 100 £510 -7.27% 44
North West +3 98 £500 +25.00% 46
Yorkshire -12 57 £375 +25.52% 38
Scotland -3 37 £463 +2.78% 22
East of England -14 37 £452 -14.80% 43
East Midlands +4 27 £425 -15.00% 32
North East +1 18 £270 -54.72% 13
Northern Ireland - 4 £325 - 8
Wales -8 3 £170 -61.47% 20
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 (8.44%) Confluence
2 52 (7.31%) Microsoft Exchange
3 44 (6.19%) SharePoint
4 16 (2.25%) Apache
5 14 (1.97%) WebLogic
6 10 (1.41%) Skype for Business
7 5 (0.70%) SharePoint Server
8 2 (0.28%) IIS
8 2 (0.28%) JBoss
8 2 (0.28%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.14%) CMS
9 1 (0.14%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.14%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 83 (11.67%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (5.06%) Microsoft Project
3 21 (2.95%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (1.13%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 15 (2.11%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (1.83%) Oracle EBS
3 3 (0.42%) assyst
3 3 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.28%) Maximo
4 2 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.14%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.14%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.14%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.14%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 107 (15.05%) Azure
2 78 (10.97%) AWS
3 64 (9.00%) Microsoft 365
4 34 (4.78%) GCP
5 23 (3.23%) Power Platform
6 22 (3.09%) Entra ID
7 16 (2.25%) OneDrive
8 14 (1.97%) Azure Monitor
9 12 (1.69%) SaaS
10 10 (1.41%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (1.41%) PowerApps
11 7 (0.98%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 6 (0.84%) Power Automate
13 5 (0.70%) IaaS
13 5 (0.70%) OpenShift
14 4 (0.56%) Amazon EC2
14 4 (0.56%) Amazon S3
14 4 (0.56%) AWS Lambda
14 4 (0.56%) Dynamics 365
14 4 (0.56%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 43 (6.05%) DNS
2 30 (4.22%) Firewall
3 29 (4.08%) DHCP
4 22 (3.09%) VLAN
5 21 (2.95%) LAN
6 20 (2.81%) Skype
6 20 (2.81%) TCP/IP
6 20 (2.81%) WAN
7 19 (2.67%) VPN
8 17 (2.39%) Cisco Firepower
8 17 (2.39%) Cisco IOS
8 17 (2.39%) Cisco ISE
8 17 (2.39%) Junos
9 13 (1.83%) Network Security
10 9 (1.27%) Wi-Fi
11 8 (1.13%) WebEx
12 6 (0.84%) SSH
12 6 (0.84%) Wireless
13 5 (0.70%) SAN
13 5 (0.70%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (2.25%) Relational Database
2 15 (2.11%) Power BI
3 10 (1.41%) SQL Server
4 7 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
5 4 (0.56%) Data Mining
5 4 (0.56%) InfluxDB
5 4 (0.56%) Metadata
6 2 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (0.28%) Big Data
6 2 (0.28%) DB2
6 2 (0.28%) Oracle Reports
6 2 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
7 1 (0.14%) Amazon Aurora
7 1 (0.14%) Electronic Patient Records
7 1 (0.14%) GIS
7 1 (0.14%) MariaDB
7 1 (0.14%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.14%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.14%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 96 (13.50%) JIRA
2 16 (2.25%) Jenkins
3 5 (0.70%) Bitbucket
3 5 (0.70%) Git
3 5 (0.70%) webpack
4 3 (0.42%) GitLab
5 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 1 (0.14%) MLflow
5 1 (0.14%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 288 (40.51%) Social Skills
2 144 (20.25%) Analytical Skills
3 90 (12.66%) Public Sector
4 82 (11.53%) Finance
5 47 (6.61%) Military
6 35 (4.92%) Legal
7 28 (3.94%) Manufacturing
8 27 (3.80%) Organisational Skills
9 24 (3.38%) Telecoms
10 17 (2.39%) Banking
11 16 (2.25%) Documentation Skills
12 14 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
13 13 (1.83%) Marketing
13 13 (1.83%) Retail
14 12 (1.69%) Electronics
15 11 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
16 9 (1.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 7 (0.98%) Investment Banking
18 5 (0.70%) Billing
18 5 (0.70%) Police
Job Titles
1 95 (13.36%) Architect
2 94 (13.22%) Analyst
3 68 (9.56%) Service Architect
4 67 (9.42%) Lead
5 57 (8.02%) Support Engineer
6 47 (6.61%) Service Manager
7 37 (5.20%) IT Support
8 33 (4.64%) 2nd Line Support
9 31 (4.36%) Support Analyst
10 25 (3.52%) Network Engineer
11 24 (3.38%) Desktop Support
12 23 (3.23%) Consultant
12 23 (3.23%) Platform Engineer
13 22 (3.09%) IT Analyst
14 21 (2.95%) Senior
15 20 (2.81%) 3rd Line Engineer
15 20 (2.81%) Data Analyst
15 20 (2.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 20 (2.81%) Project Manager
16 19 (2.67%) Service Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (2.95%) REST
2 9 (1.27%) RFC 2544
2 9 (1.27%) SOAP
3 8 (1.13%) CSS
3 8 (1.13%) HTML
3 8 (1.13%) XMPP
4 6 (0.84%) .NET
5 5 (0.70%) CSS3
5 5 (0.70%) HTML5
5 5 (0.70%) Node.js
5 5 (0.70%) React
5 5 (0.70%) Redux
5 5 (0.70%) RESTful
5 5 (0.70%) Web Services
6 4 (0.56%) Elastic Stack
6 4 (0.56%) RabbitMQ
7 3 (0.42%) Lightning Web Components
7 3 (0.42%) XML
8 2 (0.28%) GraphQL
8 2 (0.28%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 54 (7.59%) Product Ownership
2 34 (4.78%) Data Centre
3 27 (3.80%) Management Information System
4 22 (3.09%) CMDB
5 21 (2.95%) PKI
6 19 (2.67%) Onboarding
7 18 (2.53%) Driving Licence
7 18 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
8 16 (2.25%) Virtual Team
9 15 (2.11%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.83%) Mainframe
11 12 (1.69%) NHS
12 7 (0.98%) PMI
13 6 (0.84%) Fibre Optics
13 6 (0.84%) Public Cloud
13 6 (0.84%) Tandem
13 6 (0.84%) Video Conferencing
14 5 (0.70%) Distributed Systems
15 4 (0.56%) Enterprise Software
15 4 (0.56%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 169 (23.77%) Windows
2 64 (9.00%) Linux
3 54 (7.59%) Windows Server
4 36 (5.06%) Windows 10
5 24 (3.38%) Unix
6 12 (1.69%) Mac OS
6 12 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (0.98%) Apple iOS
7 7 (0.98%) Windows Server 2012
8 6 (0.84%) Android
9 5 (0.70%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.56%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.42%) CentOS
11 3 (0.42%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.14%) AIX
12 1 (0.14%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.14%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 434 (61.04%) ITIL
2 307 (43.18%) ITSM
3 145 (20.39%) Problem-Solving
4 123 (17.30%) Change Management
5 110 (15.47%) Agile
6 109 (15.33%) Continuous Improvement
7 101 (14.21%) Service Design
8 94 (13.22%) Stakeholder Management
9 92 (12.94%) Customer Service
10 87 (12.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 85 (11.95%) Service Delivery
12 70 (9.85%) Incident Management
13 65 (9.14%) Project Delivery
14 62 (8.72%) Project Management
15 55 (7.74%) Knowledge Transfer
16 53 (7.45%) Acceptance Criteria
17 50 (7.03%) DevOps
18 49 (6.89%) Problem Management
19 45 (6.33%) Business Continuity
19 45 (6.33%) Critical Thinking
Programming Languages
1 61 (8.58%) SQL
2 59 (8.30%) PowerShell
3 50 (7.03%) Python
4 15 (2.11%) Perl
4 15 (2.11%) Shell Script
5 14 (1.97%) JavaScript
6 12 (1.69%) Bash
7 8 (1.13%) Java
8 5 (0.70%) TypeScript
8 5 (0.70%) VB
8 5 (0.70%) VBScript
9 4 (0.56%) Go
10 3 (0.42%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.28%) C#
11 2 (0.28%) PHP
12 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.14%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 340 (47.82%) Security Cleared
2 275 (38.68%) SC Cleared
3 103 (14.49%) Degree
4 66 (9.28%) DV Cleared
5 47 (6.61%) ITIL Certification
6 35 (4.92%) Microsoft Certification
7 30 (4.22%) TOGAF Certification
8 17 (2.39%) A+ Certification
9 16 (2.25%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (2.25%) MCSE
10 15 (2.11%) Computer Science Degree
11 14 (1.97%) PMP
11 14 (1.97%) Server+ Certification
12 13 (1.83%) Azure Certification
12 13 (1.83%) BPSS Clearance
12 13 (1.83%) PMI Certification
13 12 (1.69%) CCNA
13 12 (1.69%) CCNP
14 11 (1.55%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 11 (1.55%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.06%) SLA
2 32 (4.50%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 12 (1.69%) GDPR
4 10 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 9 (1.27%) PMO
6 8 (1.13%) Data Quality
7 6 (0.84%) QA
8 5 (0.70%) Disclosure Scotland
8 5 (0.70%) ISO 9001
8 5 (0.70%) NCSC
9 3 (0.42%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.14%) COBIT
11 1 (0.14%) GRC
11 1 (0.14%) NIST
11 1 (0.14%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 85 (11.95%) Active Directory
2 30 (4.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.95%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.97%) Hyper-V
5 7 (0.98%) Docker
6 6 (0.84%) Virtual Desktop
6 6 (0.84%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (0.70%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.70%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 4 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 32 (4.50%) OPNET
2 26 (3.66%) vCenter Server
3 19 (2.67%) SCCM
4 18 (2.53%) Ansible
5 17 (2.39%) Terraform
6 14 (1.97%) Kubernetes
6 14 (1.97%) Microsoft Intune
7 11 (1.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 11 (1.55%) WSUS
8 4 (0.56%) Grafana
8 4 (0.56%) Nessus
8 4 (0.56%) Packer
8 4 (0.56%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.56%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.42%) Check_MK
10 2 (0.28%) Docker Swarm
10 2 (0.28%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
10 2 (0.28%) PowerCLI
10 2 (0.28%) SCOM
Vendors
1 158 (22.22%) ServiceNow
2 136 (19.13%) Microsoft
3 80 (11.25%) Cisco
4 54 (7.59%) Atlassian
5 51 (7.17%) Remedy
6 44 (6.19%) Oracle
7 42 (5.91%) VMware
8 34 (4.78%) Splunk
9 31 (4.36%) SolarWinds
10 30 (4.22%) Google
11 23 (3.23%) SAP
12 22 (3.09%) Juniper
13 19 (2.67%) AppDynamics
13 19 (2.67%) Dynatrace
14 18 (2.53%) HP
15 13 (1.83%) Red Hat
15 13 (1.83%) Salesforce
15 13 (1.83%) Veeam
16 11 (1.55%) Palo Alto
17 10 (1.41%) Citrix