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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 57 70
Rank change year-on-year -1 +13 -4
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,004 634 486
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.53% 3.98% 2.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.34% 4.47% 3.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 672 376 324
10th Percentile £275 £185 £200
25th Percentile £439 £279 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £486 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.97% -2.80% -2.39%
75th Percentile £625 £557 £600
90th Percentile £725 £617 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £492 £515
% change year-on-year +6.71% -4.47% -2.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 86 14
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £24.18
25th Percentile £15.00 £13.86 £26.25
Median hourly rate £28.00 £20.77 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +34.81% -48.72% +84.89%
75th Percentile £83.62 £33.75 £48.75
90th Percentile £88.00 £60.00 £52.63
UK median hourly rate £35.53 £20.81 £36.00
% change year-on-year +70.74% -42.19% -19.33%

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 23,124 14,185 14,408
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.20% 89.15% 83.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,816 8,537 8,147
10th Percentile £300 £225 £243
25th Percentile £408 £369 £380
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% -2.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,932 1,553 1,009
10th Percentile £13.48 £14.02 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.62 £17.08 £18.40
Median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +68.43% -44.79% -8.14%
75th Percentile £65.88 £39.43 £66.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £65.25 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 +9 319 £575 +27.78% 240
North of England -11 288 £480 +7.38% 179
North West -9 169 £483 +7.33% 96
Midlands -30 128 £525 +2.94% 104
West Midlands -14 119 £525 +0.96% 60
Yorkshire -1 113 £463 +26.71% 69
Scotland +21 103 £566 +21.39% 63
South West -31 103 £558 +1.36% 96
East of England +8 72 £600 +11.01% 89
Wales -8 13 £800 +247.83% 12
East Midlands -33 9 £206 -52.09% 42
Northern Ireland +9 7 - - 17
North East -44 6 £600 +207.69% 14
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 64 (6.37%) SharePoint
2 40 (3.98%) Confluence
2 40 (3.98%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.49%) Skype for Business
4 5 (0.50%) CMS
5 4 (0.40%) IBM Transformation Extender
6 3 (0.30%) IIS
6 3 (0.30%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.20%) Apache
7 2 (0.20%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.100%) CICS
8 1 (0.100%) Documentum
8 1 (0.100%) Mattermost
8 1 (0.100%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.100%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 60 (5.98%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (2.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.50%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.50%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.30%) PTC Creo
6 2 (0.20%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.100%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.100%) Maple
Business Applications
1 45 (4.48%) Remedy ITSM
2 9 (0.90%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
4 5 (0.50%) ContrOCC
4 5 (0.50%) Teamcenter
5 4 (0.40%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.30%) NEC Housing
6 3 (0.30%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.20%) Primavera
7 2 (0.20%) Remedy AR System
7 2 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.20%) SAP CX
8 1 (0.100%) Cloudability
8 1 (0.100%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 161 (16.04%) Azure
2 121 (12.05%) Microsoft 365
3 82 (8.17%) Entra ID
4 62 (6.18%) AWS
5 51 (5.08%) Power Platform
6 37 (3.69%) SaaS
7 28 (2.79%) Azure DevOps
8 27 (2.69%) GCP
9 24 (2.39%) OneDrive
10 17 (1.69%) Azure Monitor
11 13 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
12 9 (0.90%) GitHub
12 9 (0.90%) IaaS
12 9 (0.90%) Microsoft Copilot
12 9 (0.90%) Power Automate
12 9 (0.90%) Serverless
13 8 (0.80%) Azure Functions
13 8 (0.80%) Azure Sentinel
13 8 (0.80%) Google Workspace
14 7 (0.70%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 49 (4.88%) DNS
2 46 (4.58%) Firewall
3 45 (4.48%) VPN
4 37 (3.69%) DHCP
5 32 (3.19%) Network Security
5 32 (3.19%) TCP/IP
6 24 (2.39%) LAN
7 18 (1.79%) WAN
8 16 (1.59%) Skype
9 15 (1.49%) VLAN
10 13 (1.29%) Wi-Fi
11 12 (1.20%) SSH
12 11 (1.10%) Wireless
13 10 (1.00%) BGP
14 8 (0.80%) NetScaler
14 8 (0.80%) OSPF
15 7 (0.70%) Intrusion Detection
15 7 (0.70%) MPLS
16 6 (0.60%) Software-Defined Networking
17 5 (0.50%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (3.19%) Power BI
2 25 (2.49%) SQL Server
3 20 (1.99%) Metadata
4 8 (0.80%) Looker
5 6 (0.60%) BigQuery
5 6 (0.60%) MySQL
5 6 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 5 (0.50%) MariaDB
7 4 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.40%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.30%) Amazon Aurora
8 3 (0.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.20%) EDRMS
9 2 (0.20%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.20%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 1 (0.100%) EDMS
10 1 (0.100%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.100%) Oracle Database 11g
10 1 (0.100%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 72 (7.17%) JIRA
2 24 (2.39%) Git
3 10 (1.00%) Atlassian Bamboo
3 10 (1.00%) Bitbucket
4 9 (0.90%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.40%) Browser DevTools
5 4 (0.40%) webpack
6 3 (0.30%) GitLab
6 3 (0.30%) Gradle
6 3 (0.30%) Maven
6 3 (0.30%) Rational DOORS
7 2 (0.20%) Fiddler
7 2 (0.20%) Firebug
7 2 (0.20%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.100%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.100%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.100%) MLflow
8 1 (0.100%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.100%) Snyk
8 1 (0.100%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 413 (41.14%) Social Skills
2 162 (16.14%) Analytical Skills
3 149 (14.84%) Finance
4 107 (10.66%) Public Sector
5 55 (5.48%) Organisational Skills
6 48 (4.78%) Documentation Skills
7 43 (4.28%) Influencing Skills
8 40 (3.98%) Aerospace
9 30 (2.99%) Legal
10 26 (2.59%) Banking
10 26 (2.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 20 (1.99%) Military
11 20 (1.99%) Presentation Skills
12 18 (1.79%) Manufacturing
12 18 (1.79%) Telecoms
13 17 (1.69%) Local Government
14 5 (0.50%) Law
14 5 (0.50%) Retail
15 3 (0.30%) Police
16 2 (0.20%) German Language
Job Titles
1 112 (11.16%) Lead
2 105 (10.46%) Analyst
3 87 (8.67%) Architect
4 72 (7.17%) Senior
5 64 (6.37%) Service Manager
6 53 (5.28%) Delivery Manager
7 46 (4.58%) Consultant
8 45 (4.48%) Support Engineer
9 43 (4.28%) Developer
10 42 (4.18%) Service Analyst
11 35 (3.49%) Service Architect
12 33 (3.29%) IT Manager
13 31 (3.09%) Project Manager
14 30 (2.99%) Administrator
15 29 (2.89%) Desktop Engineer
16 26 (2.59%) Technical Leader
17 25 (2.49%) 2nd Line Support
17 25 (2.49%) Desktop Support
18 24 (2.39%) Change Manager
19 22 (2.19%) Service Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (4.18%) Terraform
2 33 (3.29%) REST
3 23 (2.29%) Middleware
4 18 (1.79%) XML
5 14 (1.39%) JSON
6 11 (1.10%) Web Services
7 9 (0.90%) ARM Templates
7 9 (0.90%) SAML
8 8 (0.80%) SOAP
8 8 (0.80%) XSLT
9 7 (0.70%) .NET
9 7 (0.70%) LDAP
10 6 (0.60%) OAuth
10 6 (0.60%) SailPoint
11 4 (0.40%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.40%) CSS
11 4 (0.40%) Node.js
11 4 (0.40%) OpenID
11 4 (0.40%) React
11 4 (0.40%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 96 (9.56%) Onboarding
2 71 (7.07%) Management Information System
3 62 (6.18%) CMDB
4 44 (4.38%) Enterprise Software
5 38 (3.78%) Data Centre
6 28 (2.79%) PKI
7 26 (2.59%) Data Protection Act
8 25 (2.49%) Product Ownership
9 24 (2.39%) Hybrid Cloud
10 16 (1.59%) Security Operations Centre
11 14 (1.39%) Cyber Threat
12 13 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (1.29%) Operational Technology
12 13 (1.29%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (1.29%) Virtual Team
13 11 (1.10%) Security Posture
14 10 (1.00%) Clustering
15 9 (0.90%) Mainframe
15 9 (0.90%) Taxonomies
15 9 (0.90%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 228 (22.71%) Windows
2 65 (6.47%) Linux
3 62 (6.18%) Windows Server
4 48 (4.78%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.69%) Windows 7
6 16 (1.59%) Android
6 16 (1.59%) Apple iOS
6 16 (1.59%) macOS
6 16 (1.59%) Unix
7 10 (1.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.30%) AIX
8 3 (0.30%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 2 (0.20%) Solaris
9 2 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.20%) Windows XP
9 2 (0.20%) zOS
10 1 (0.100%) SUSE
10 1 (0.100%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 566 (56.37%) ITIL
2 418 (41.63%) ITSM
3 315 (31.37%) Stakeholder Management
4 296 (29.48%) Continuous Improvement
5 214 (21.31%) Service Delivery
6 192 (19.12%) Problem-Solving
7 191 (19.02%) Agile
8 154 (15.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 149 (14.84%) Change Management
10 148 (14.74%) Roadmaps
11 136 (13.55%) Cybersecurity
12 123 (12.25%) Customer Service
13 120 (11.95%) Incident Management
14 98 (9.76%) Project Delivery
15 90 (8.96%) DevOps
16 84 (8.37%) Data Protection
17 81 (8.07%) Decision-Making
17 81 (8.07%) Risk Management
18 75 (7.47%) Migration
19 74 (7.37%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 104 (10.36%) PowerShell
2 67 (6.67%) Python
3 38 (3.78%) Bash
4 36 (3.59%) SQL
5 30 (2.99%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.89%) VBScript
7 17 (1.69%) Java
8 15 (1.49%) VB
9 12 (1.20%) C#
10 9 (0.90%) Bicep
11 7 (0.70%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.40%) Groovy
12 4 (0.40%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.30%) C
13 3 (0.30%) Google Apps Script
13 3 (0.30%) Lua
13 3 (0.30%) Perl
14 2 (0.20%) Go
14 2 (0.20%) Search Processing Language
14 2 (0.20%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 473 (47.11%) Security Cleared
2 302 (30.08%) SC Cleared
3 147 (14.64%) DV Cleared
4 102 (10.16%) Degree
5 39 (3.88%) BPSS Clearance
6 33 (3.29%) PMP
7 32 (3.19%) PMI Certification
8 27 (2.69%) ITIL Certification
9 26 (2.59%) Microsoft Certification
10 24 (2.39%) DBS Check
11 15 (1.49%) CISSP
12 14 (1.39%) Azure Certification
12 14 (1.39%) Cisco Certification
12 14 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
13 13 (1.29%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 12 (1.20%) CISM
15 10 (1.00%) A+ Certification
16 8 (0.80%) AWS Certification
17 7 (0.70%) BC Cleared
17 7 (0.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (8.17%) SLA
2 43 (4.28%) Data Quality
3 33 (3.29%) QA
4 32 (3.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 29 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (2.39%) GRC
7 23 (2.29%) GDPR
8 20 (1.99%) NCSC
8 20 (1.99%) NIST
9 19 (1.89%) PMO
10 16 (1.59%) ISO 9001
11 10 (1.00%) Accessibility
12 8 (0.80%) WCAG
13 7 (0.70%) Disclosure Scotland
13 7 (0.70%) ISO 22301
14 6 (0.60%) COBIT
14 6 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
15 5 (0.50%) JSP 440
15 5 (0.50%) PCI DSS
16 4 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 122 (12.15%) Active Directory
2 65 (6.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (2.39%) Hyper-V
4 23 (2.29%) VMware ESXi
5 17 (1.69%) BitLocker
5 17 (1.69%) Docker
5 17 (1.69%) VMware NSX
6 15 (1.49%) Virtual Desktop
7 14 (1.39%) vSphere
8 13 (1.29%) vCloud
9 9 (0.90%) Firmware
10 8 (0.80%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 8 (0.80%) XenApp
10 8 (0.80%) XenDesktop
11 6 (0.60%) KVM
11 6 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
12 3 (0.30%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 3 (0.30%) NFS
12 3 (0.30%) Virtual Servers
13 2 (0.20%) UAG
Systems Management
1 68 (6.77%) SCCM
2 58 (5.78%) Microsoft Intune
3 39 (3.88%) Ansible
4 20 (1.99%) SCOM
5 17 (1.69%) vCenter Server
6 16 (1.59%) Kubernetes
7 14 (1.39%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.80%) Jamf Pro
9 7 (0.70%) Progress Chef
10 5 (0.50%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.40%) PowerCLI
11 4 (0.40%) Tivoli
11 4 (0.40%) Tivoli Monitoring
11 4 (0.40%) vMotion
11 4 (0.40%) WSUS
12 3 (0.30%) BMC Performance Manager
12 3 (0.30%) Dell DRAC
12 3 (0.30%) OPNET
12 3 (0.30%) Perfmon
12 3 (0.30%) vRealize
Vendors
1 257 (25.60%) Microsoft
2 234 (23.31%) ServiceNow
3 84 (8.37%) VMware
4 51 (5.08%) Remedy
5 30 (2.99%) BMC
5 30 (2.99%) Cisco
6 22 (2.19%) IBM
6 22 (2.19%) SAP
7 20 (1.99%) Oracle
8 19 (1.89%) Atlassian
9 17 (1.69%) Citrix
9 17 (1.69%) CyberArk
10 16 (1.59%) Apple
11 15 (1.49%) Dynatrace
12 14 (1.39%) Google
13 12 (1.20%) Palo Alto
13 12 (1.20%) SolarWinds
14 11 (1.10%) Splunk
15 10 (1.00%) Qualys
16 9 (0.90%) Juniper