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 17 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 77 57 59
Rank change year-on-year -20 +2 +5
Contract jobs citing Service Management 789 592 650
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.93% 4.00% 3.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.58% 4.48% 3.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 519 348 465
10th Percentile £224 £200 £213
25th Percentile £400 £308 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £492 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.56% -6.29% +9.38%
75th Percentile £599 £588 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £520 £495 £525
% change year-on-year +5.05% -5.71% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 64 17
10th Percentile £14.65 - £16.14
25th Percentile £16.17 £12.62 £19.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £20.79 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year +188.60% -23.00% +26.70%
75th Percentile £85.00 £23.92 £48.75
90th Percentile £96.75 £56.45 £51.50
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £20.79 £27.00
% change year-on-year +188.60% -23.00% -35.52%

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 22,061 13,215 16,927
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 82.00% 89.26% 82.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,086 8,029 10,061
10th Percentile £300 £235 £250
25th Percentile £406 £368 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £600
90th Percentile £675 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,281 1,211 1,972
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.00 £12.74
25th Percentile £19.34 £16.95 £15.75
Median hourly rate £45.00 £24.33 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +84.96% -36.18% -4.70%
75th Percentile £68.75 £50.00 £62.59
90th Percentile £82.37 £71.50 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -5.88%

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 17 July 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 17 July 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 17 July 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 +35 259 £538 +32.72% 100
North of England -34 201 £475 +3.32% 96
South West -29 127 £500 -9.09% 44
North West -36 110 £500 +1.63% 52
Midlands -41 91 £486 +0.21% 52
Yorkshire -14 85 £447 +19.07% 36
West Midlands -44 80 £500 -2.91% 28
Scotland -22 58 £500 - 11
East of England -20 40 £525 -4.55% 28
Wales -5 13 £800 +188.29% 11
East Midlands -16 11 £250 -32.07% 24
Northern Ireland +7 7 - - 11
North East -37 6 £440 +125.64% 12
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 46 (5.83%) SharePoint
2 29 (3.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 25 (3.17%) Confluence
4 8 (1.01%) Skype for Business
5 6 (0.76%) Mattermost
6 3 (0.38%) CMS
6 3 (0.38%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.25%) IIS
8 1 (0.13%) Apache
8 1 (0.13%) JBoss
8 1 (0.13%) LiveCycle
Applications
1 53 (6.72%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (2.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.51%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.38%) PTC Creo
6 2 (0.25%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.13%) Camtasia
7 1 (0.13%) Maple
Business Applications
1 49 (6.21%) Remedy ITSM
2 8 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.89%) Teamcenter
4 5 (0.63%) ContrOCC
5 2 (0.25%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.25%) Primavera
6 1 (0.13%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.13%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.13%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 116 (14.70%) Azure
2 78 (9.89%) Microsoft 365
3 48 (6.08%) Power Platform
4 42 (5.32%) Entra ID
5 37 (4.69%) AWS
6 22 (2.79%) Azure DevOps
6 22 (2.79%) OneDrive
6 22 (2.79%) SaaS
7 17 (2.15%) GCP
8 8 (1.01%) Microsoft Copilot
8 8 (1.01%) OCI
8 8 (1.01%) PaaS
9 7 (0.89%) GitHub
10 6 (0.76%) Azure AKS
10 6 (0.76%) Azure Monitor
11 5 (0.63%) Azure Machine Learning
11 5 (0.63%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 5 (0.63%) Google App Engine
11 5 (0.63%) IaaS
12 3 (0.38%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 36 (4.56%) Firewall
2 33 (4.18%) DNS
3 27 (3.42%) LAN
4 20 (2.53%) DHCP
5 18 (2.28%) Network Security
5 18 (2.28%) WAN
6 17 (2.15%) BGP
6 17 (2.15%) VPN
7 15 (1.90%) OSPF
8 14 (1.77%) TCP/IP
8 14 (1.77%) Wireless
9 12 (1.52%) BIG-IP
9 12 (1.52%) Cisco ISE
10 10 (1.27%) Junos
10 10 (1.27%) VLAN
10 10 (1.27%) Wi-Fi
11 9 (1.14%) VXLAN
12 8 (1.01%) Ethernet VPN
12 8 (1.01%) Skype
13 5 (0.63%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (5.32%) Power BI
2 16 (2.03%) SQL Server
3 5 (0.63%) Oracle Reports
3 5 (0.63%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (0.63%) Relational Database
3 5 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 4 (0.51%) MySQL
4 4 (0.51%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 4 (0.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 3 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
5 3 (0.38%) MariaDB
6 2 (0.25%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Analysis Services
6 2 (0.25%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.13%) Amazon Aurora
7 1 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.13%) DTS
7 1 (0.13%) InfluxDB
7 1 (0.13%) OpenStack Swift
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 74 (9.38%) JIRA
2 16 (2.03%) Git
3 7 (0.89%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.76%) Bitbucket
4 6 (0.76%) GitLab
5 5 (0.63%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 5 (0.63%) Browser DevTools
6 4 (0.51%) MLflow
7 3 (0.38%) Fiddler
7 3 (0.38%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.25%) Firebug
8 2 (0.25%) IntelliJ
8 2 (0.25%) webpack
9 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
9 1 (0.13%) Gradle
9 1 (0.13%) Hudson
9 1 (0.13%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.13%) Maven
9 1 (0.13%) MSI
9 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 284 (35.99%) Social Skills
2 111 (14.07%) Finance
3 109 (13.81%) Analytical Skills
4 73 (9.25%) Public Sector
5 39 (4.94%) Legal
6 32 (4.06%) Influencing Skills
7 26 (3.30%) Documentation Skills
8 23 (2.92%) Telecoms
9 21 (2.66%) Military
9 21 (2.66%) Organisational Skills
10 15 (1.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 14 (1.77%) Aerospace
12 13 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
13 12 (1.52%) Banking
14 11 (1.39%) Local Government
15 6 (0.76%) Retail
16 5 (0.63%) Financial Institution
17 3 (0.38%) Publishing
18 1 (0.13%) Automotive
18 1 (0.13%) Games
Job Titles
1 105 (13.31%) Analyst
2 90 (11.41%) Service Manager
3 81 (10.27%) Lead
4 68 (8.62%) Senior
5 51 (6.46%) Service Analyst
6 48 (6.08%) Architect
7 46 (5.83%) IT Manager
8 30 (3.80%) Delivery Manager
8 30 (3.80%) Project Manager
9 27 (3.42%) Network Engineer
10 24 (3.04%) Consultant
10 24 (3.04%) IT Analyst
10 24 (3.04%) Support Engineer
11 22 (2.79%) Service Delivery Manager
12 21 (2.66%) Transition Manager
13 20 (2.53%) Administrator
14 19 (2.41%) IT Services Manager
14 19 (2.41%) Service Architect
14 19 (2.41%) Service Transition Manager
15 18 (2.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.17%) REST
2 9 (1.14%) OAuth
2 9 (1.14%) SOAP
3 8 (1.01%) 802.1X
4 6 (0.76%) SAML
5 5 (0.63%) OpenID
5 5 (0.63%) Oracle Fusion
5 5 (0.63%) XML
6 4 (0.51%) OAuth2
6 4 (0.51%) XMPP
7 3 (0.38%) .NET
7 3 (0.38%) CSS
7 3 (0.38%) Elastic Stack
7 3 (0.38%) FIDO
7 3 (0.38%) Flash
7 3 (0.38%) HTML
7 3 (0.38%) JSON
7 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Graph
7 3 (0.38%) Software Packaging
8 2 (0.25%) Redfish
Miscellaneous
1 63 (7.98%) Onboarding
2 42 (5.32%) CMDB
3 39 (4.94%) Product Ownership
4 31 (3.93%) Management Information System
5 29 (3.68%) PKI
6 25 (3.17%) Data Centre
7 24 (3.04%) Clustering
8 18 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
9 16 (2.03%) Virtual Team
10 15 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
11 14 (1.77%) Operational Technology
12 12 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
12 12 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (1.14%) Driving Licence
14 8 (1.01%) Cloud Native
14 8 (1.01%) Cyber Threat
14 8 (1.01%) Replication
14 8 (1.01%) Security Posture
15 7 (0.89%) Video Conferencing
16 5 (0.63%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 172 (21.80%) Windows
2 36 (4.56%) Linux
2 36 (4.56%) Windows Server
3 34 (4.31%) Windows 10
4 11 (1.39%) Mac OS
4 11 (1.39%) Windows 7
5 10 (1.27%) Unix
6 5 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.51%) Android
7 4 (0.51%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.25%) Solaris
8 2 (0.25%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.25%) Windows XP
9 1 (0.13%) Rocky
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.13%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 458 (58.05%) ITIL
2 350 (44.36%) ITSM
3 211 (26.74%) Continuous Improvement
4 193 (24.46%) Stakeholder Management
5 189 (23.95%) Service Delivery
6 155 (19.65%) Agile
7 152 (19.26%) Problem-Solving
8 124 (15.72%) Change Management
9 116 (14.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 92 (11.66%) Customer Service
11 78 (9.89%) DevOps
11 78 (9.89%) Incident Management
12 67 (8.49%) Project Delivery
13 65 (8.24%) Problem Management
14 62 (7.86%) Cybersecurity
15 60 (7.60%) Configuration Management
16 58 (7.35%) Roadmaps
17 53 (6.72%) Service Design
18 50 (6.34%) Risk Management
19 49 (6.21%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 69 (8.75%) PowerShell
2 49 (6.21%) Python
3 42 (5.32%) SQL
4 22 (2.79%) JavaScript
5 20 (2.53%) Bash
6 8 (1.01%) VB
6 8 (1.01%) VBScript
7 7 (0.89%) Java
8 4 (0.51%) C#
8 4 (0.51%) Perl
8 4 (0.51%) PL/SQL
8 4 (0.51%) T-SQL
9 3 (0.38%) C
9 3 (0.38%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.25%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.25%) Lua
10 2 (0.25%) Search Processing Language
10 2 (0.25%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.25%) VBA
11 1 (0.13%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 367 (46.51%) Security Cleared
2 227 (28.77%) SC Cleared
3 133 (16.86%) DV Cleared
4 73 (9.25%) Degree
5 40 (5.07%) ITIL Certification
6 24 (3.04%) Cisco Certification
7 23 (2.92%) PMP
8 22 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
8 22 (2.79%) PMI Certification
9 15 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
9 15 (1.90%) Microsoft Certification
10 13 (1.65%) CCNA
11 12 (1.52%) DBS Check
12 11 (1.39%) A+ Certification
12 11 (1.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 10 (1.27%) CCNP
14 9 (1.14%) JNCIA
14 9 (1.14%) JNCIP
14 9 (1.14%) JNCIS
15 7 (0.89%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (6.97%) SLA
2 28 (3.55%) Data Quality
3 25 (3.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 22 (2.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 22 (2.79%) PMO
4 22 (2.79%) QA
5 16 (2.03%) GRC
5 16 (2.03%) NCSC
6 14 (1.77%) ISO 9001
7 13 (1.65%) GDPR
8 10 (1.27%) COBIT
9 8 (1.01%) Disclosure Scotland
10 7 (0.89%) Government Security Classifications
11 6 (0.76%) ISO 31000
11 6 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 5 (0.63%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
13 4 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 4 (0.51%) GMP
13 4 (0.51%) NIST
System Software
1 92 (11.66%) Active Directory
2 40 (5.07%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (2.41%) VMware ESXi
4 11 (1.39%) Docker
4 11 (1.39%) VMware NSX
5 9 (1.14%) BitLocker
5 9 (1.14%) vSphere
6 8 (1.01%) vCloud
7 5 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.51%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.51%) NFS
8 4 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.38%) Firmware
10 2 (0.25%) GPFS
10 2 (0.25%) KVM
11 1 (0.13%) iptables
11 1 (0.13%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.13%) Samba
11 1 (0.13%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 41 (5.20%) SCCM
2 36 (4.56%) Microsoft Intune
3 22 (2.79%) Ansible
4 21 (2.66%) Terraform
5 12 (1.52%) SCOM
6 11 (1.39%) Kubernetes
6 11 (1.39%) vCenter Server
7 9 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (1.01%) FortiGate
8 8 (1.01%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (0.51%) PowerCLI
9 4 (0.51%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.51%) vMotion
10 3 (0.38%) Cisco Prime
10 3 (0.38%) Dell DRAC
10 3 (0.38%) Grafana
10 3 (0.38%) Puppet
10 3 (0.38%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.38%) vRealize
11 2 (0.25%) Nagios
Vendors
1 194 (24.59%) ServiceNow
2 149 (18.88%) Microsoft
3 55 (6.97%) VMware
4 51 (6.46%) Remedy
5 36 (4.56%) Cisco
6 25 (3.17%) BMC
7 18 (2.28%) Splunk
8 17 (2.15%) Oracle
8 17 (2.15%) SolarWinds
9 14 (1.77%) Juniper
10 13 (1.65%) SAP
11 12 (1.52%) F5
12 11 (1.39%) Atlassian
13 10 (1.27%) Dell
13 10 (1.27%) Dynatrace
13 10 (1.27%) IBM
13 10 (1.27%) Qualys
14 9 (1.14%) HP
14 9 (1.14%) IFS
15 8 (1.01%) Citrix