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 20 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 56 58
Rank change year-on-year -24 +2 +8
Contract jobs citing Service Management 708 549 664
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.74% 4.09% 3.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.34% 4.52% 3.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 469 325 484
10th Percentile £212 £208 £252
25th Percentile £385 £317 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% +2.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 50 15
10th Percentile £16.09 - £12.53
25th Percentile £20.31 £12.62 £14.65
Median hourly rate £60.00 £21.28 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +181.95% +12.00% -15.18%
75th Percentile £84.00 £22.46 £26.75
90th Percentile £108.00 £33.75 £28.75
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £21.71 £19.00
% change year-on-year +176.37% +14.26% -46.10%

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 21,178 12,152 17,679
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.83% 90.50% 82.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,590 7,494 10,337
10th Percentile £302 £235 £250
25th Percentile £405 £368 £379
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £590 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £502 £525
% change year-on-year +2.19% -4.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,237 971 2,221
10th Percentile £14.25 £14.20 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.33 £16.95 £15.50
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -34.02% +17.29%
75th Percentile £68.00 £57.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £81.24 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +72.39% -32.00% +7.05%

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 20 June 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 20 June 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 20 June 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 +23 205 £531 +31.14% 98
North of England -28 203 £481 +2.39% 91
South West -28 119 £500 -11.31% 37
North West -24 113 £513 +3.12% 50
Yorkshire -27 83 £450 - 35
Midlands -48 77 £474 -6.60% 51
West Midlands -49 66 £475 -9.52% 37
Scotland -19 53 £500 -1.23% 6
East of England -30 41 £475 -13.64% 27
Wales -7 13 £800 +188.29% 7
East Midlands -17 11 £200 -54.13% 14
North East -32 7 £440 +125.64% 8
Northern Ireland +4 4 - - 15
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 36 (5.08%) SharePoint
2 29 (4.10%) Microsoft Exchange
3 24 (3.39%) Confluence
4 11 (1.55%) Skype for Business
5 6 (0.85%) Mattermost
6 2 (0.28%) IIS
7 1 (0.14%) Apache
7 1 (0.14%) CMS
7 1 (0.14%) JBoss
7 1 (0.14%) LiveCycle
7 1 (0.14%) OpenStack
Applications
1 49 (6.92%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (2.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (1.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.56%) Chatbot
4 4 (0.56%) PTC Creo
5 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.28%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.14%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 47 (6.64%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (1.41%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (1.13%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.28%) ContrOCC
4 2 (0.28%) Oracle Applications
4 2 (0.28%) Primavera
5 1 (0.14%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.14%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.14%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 102 (14.41%) Azure
2 64 (9.04%) Microsoft 365
3 42 (5.93%) Power Platform
4 33 (4.66%) AWS
5 32 (4.52%) Entra ID
6 18 (2.54%) GCP
6 18 (2.54%) SaaS
7 17 (2.40%) Azure DevOps
7 17 (2.40%) OneDrive
8 9 (1.27%) PaaS
9 7 (0.99%) GitHub
9 7 (0.99%) OCI
10 6 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
11 5 (0.71%) Azure Machine Learning
11 5 (0.71%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 5 (0.71%) Google App Engine
12 4 (0.56%) Azure AKS
12 4 (0.56%) IaaS
13 3 (0.42%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 3 (0.42%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 34 (4.80%) Firewall
2 30 (4.24%) DNS
3 25 (3.53%) LAN
4 20 (2.82%) WAN
5 19 (2.68%) DHCP
6 15 (2.12%) Network Security
6 15 (2.12%) VPN
7 14 (1.98%) BGP
8 13 (1.84%) OSPF
9 12 (1.69%) BIG-IP
9 12 (1.69%) Cisco ISE
9 12 (1.69%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (1.69%) Wireless
10 11 (1.55%) Skype
10 11 (1.55%) VLAN
11 9 (1.27%) Junos
11 9 (1.27%) TCP/IP
11 9 (1.27%) VXLAN
12 8 (1.13%) Ethernet VPN
13 4 (0.56%) ATM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (5.23%) Power BI
2 13 (1.84%) SQL Server
3 6 (0.85%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (0.85%) Relational Database
4 5 (0.71%) Oracle Reports
5 3 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
5 3 (0.42%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 3 (0.42%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 3 (0.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 2 (0.28%) MariaDB
6 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Analysis Services
6 2 (0.28%) MySQL
6 2 (0.28%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.14%) DTS
7 1 (0.14%) GIS
7 1 (0.14%) InfluxDB
7 1 (0.14%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.14%) OpenStack Swift
7 1 (0.14%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 71 (10.03%) JIRA
2 13 (1.84%) Git
3 8 (1.13%) Bitbucket
4 7 (0.99%) GitLab
4 7 (0.99%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.71%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 5 (0.71%) Browser DevTools
6 4 (0.56%) MLflow
7 3 (0.42%) Fiddler
8 2 (0.28%) Firebug
8 2 (0.28%) IntelliJ
8 2 (0.28%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.14%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.14%) Gemini Tracker
9 1 (0.14%) Hudson
9 1 (0.14%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.14%) MSI
9 1 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
9 1 (0.14%) webpack
General
1 237 (33.47%) Social Skills
2 101 (14.27%) Finance
3 90 (12.71%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (8.90%) Public Sector
5 38 (5.37%) Legal
6 22 (3.11%) Influencing Skills
7 21 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (2.97%) Organisational Skills
8 18 (2.54%) Military
8 18 (2.54%) Telecoms
9 14 (1.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 13 (1.84%) Aerospace
11 12 (1.69%) Banking
11 12 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
12 8 (1.13%) Retail
13 7 (0.99%) Local Government
14 4 (0.56%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.42%) Publishing
16 1 (0.14%) Games
16 1 (0.14%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 92 (12.99%) Service Manager
2 91 (12.85%) Analyst
3 68 (9.60%) Lead
4 56 (7.91%) Senior
5 46 (6.50%) Architect
6 44 (6.21%) IT Manager
7 42 (5.93%) Service Analyst
8 29 (4.10%) Delivery Manager
9 28 (3.95%) Project Manager
10 25 (3.53%) Network Engineer
11 23 (3.25%) Consultant
11 23 (3.25%) IT Analyst
12 22 (3.11%) Support Engineer
13 21 (2.97%) IT Services Manager
13 21 (2.97%) Service Delivery Manager
14 19 (2.68%) Hardware Engineer
14 19 (2.68%) Service Transition Manager
14 19 (2.68%) Transition Manager
15 17 (2.40%) Administrator
15 17 (2.40%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (2.97%) REST
2 9 (1.27%) OAuth
2 9 (1.27%) SOAP
3 8 (1.13%) 802.1X
4 5 (0.71%) OpenID
4 5 (0.71%) Oracle Fusion
4 5 (0.71%) SAML
4 5 (0.71%) XML
5 4 (0.56%) Middleware
5 4 (0.56%) OAuth2
5 4 (0.56%) Software Packaging
5 4 (0.56%) XMPP
6 3 (0.42%) CSS
6 3 (0.42%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (0.42%) FIDO
6 3 (0.42%) Flash
6 3 (0.42%) HTML
6 3 (0.42%) JSON
6 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Graph
7 2 (0.28%) Redfish
Miscellaneous
1 46 (6.50%) Onboarding
2 44 (6.21%) CMDB
3 36 (5.08%) Product Ownership
4 28 (3.95%) Data Centre
5 25 (3.53%) PKI
6 24 (3.39%) Management Information System
7 21 (2.97%) Clustering
8 19 (2.68%) Enterprise Software
9 17 (2.40%) Virtual Team
10 15 (2.12%) Data Protection Act
11 12 (1.69%) Driving Licence
12 11 (1.55%) Operational Technology
12 11 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
14 8 (1.13%) Cyber Threat
14 8 (1.13%) Security Posture
15 7 (0.99%) PMI
15 7 (0.99%) Replication
16 6 (0.85%) Cloud Native
16 6 (0.85%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 159 (22.46%) Windows
2 37 (5.23%) Windows 10
3 36 (5.08%) Linux
4 32 (4.52%) Windows Server
5 15 (2.12%) Windows 7
6 11 (1.55%) Unix
7 7 (0.99%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.71%) Android
8 5 (0.71%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.42%) Windows XP
10 2 (0.28%) Solaris
10 2 (0.28%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.14%) Rocky
11 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.14%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 392 (55.37%) ITIL
2 309 (43.64%) ITSM
3 178 (25.14%) Continuous Improvement
4 166 (23.45%) Stakeholder Management
5 138 (19.49%) Service Delivery
6 137 (19.35%) Agile
7 133 (18.79%) Problem-Solving
8 103 (14.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 94 (13.28%) Change Management
10 77 (10.88%) Customer Service
11 74 (10.45%) DevOps
12 60 (8.47%) Problem Management
13 58 (8.19%) Configuration Management
14 56 (7.91%) Cybersecurity
14 56 (7.91%) Incident Management
15 54 (7.63%) Project Delivery
15 54 (7.63%) Roadmaps
16 44 (6.21%) Risk Management
17 43 (6.07%) Data Protection
18 41 (5.79%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 61 (8.62%) PowerShell
2 38 (5.37%) SQL
3 37 (5.23%) Python
4 20 (2.82%) JavaScript
5 12 (1.69%) Bash
6 11 (1.55%) VB
6 11 (1.55%) VBScript
7 5 (0.71%) Java
8 4 (0.56%) C#
8 4 (0.56%) Perl
8 4 (0.56%) PL/SQL
9 3 (0.42%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.28%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.28%) Search Processing Language
10 2 (0.28%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.14%) Bicep
11 1 (0.14%) C
11 1 (0.14%) REXX
11 1 (0.14%) Scala
11 1 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 325 (45.90%) Security Cleared
2 211 (29.80%) SC Cleared
3 116 (16.38%) DV Cleared
4 61 (8.62%) Degree
5 36 (5.08%) ITIL Certification
6 24 (3.39%) Cisco Certification
7 17 (2.40%) PMI Certification
8 16 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (2.26%) PMP
9 15 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
10 13 (1.84%) CCNA
11 12 (1.69%) Microsoft Certification
12 10 (1.41%) A+ Certification
12 10 (1.41%) CCNP
13 9 (1.27%) JNCIA
13 9 (1.27%) JNCIP
13 9 (1.27%) JNCIS
13 9 (1.27%) Network+ Certification
14 8 (1.13%) DBS Check
15 7 (0.99%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (6.21%) SLA
2 29 (4.10%) Data Quality
3 21 (2.97%) PMO
4 18 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 17 (2.40%) QA
6 16 (2.26%) NCSC
7 13 (1.84%) GDPR
7 13 (1.84%) GRC
7 13 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 9 (1.27%) COBIT
9 8 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.99%) Government Security Classifications
11 6 (0.85%) ISO 31000
11 6 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 5 (0.71%) Accessibility
13 4 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 4 (0.56%) Disclosure Scotland
13 4 (0.56%) GMP
13 4 (0.56%) ISO 9001
13 4 (0.56%) NIST
System Software
1 80 (11.30%) Active Directory
2 34 (4.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (2.26%) VMware ESXi
4 12 (1.69%) BitLocker
5 9 (1.27%) Docker
6 7 (0.99%) VMware NSX
6 7 (0.99%) vSphere
7 6 (0.85%) vCloud
8 4 (0.56%) NFS
8 4 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.42%) Firmware
9 3 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.28%) GPFS
10 2 (0.28%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.28%) KVM
11 1 (0.14%) iptables
11 1 (0.14%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.14%) Samba
11 1 (0.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 37 (5.23%) SCCM
2 30 (4.24%) Microsoft Intune
3 19 (2.68%) Ansible
4 10 (1.41%) Kubernetes
4 10 (1.41%) Terraform
5 8 (1.13%) FortiGate
5 8 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (1.13%) vCenter Server
6 6 (0.85%) Jamf Pro
6 6 (0.85%) SCOM
7 4 (0.56%) Grafana
7 4 (0.56%) PowerCLI
7 4 (0.56%) Progress Chef
7 4 (0.56%) vMotion
8 3 (0.42%) Cisco Prime
8 3 (0.42%) Dell DRAC
8 3 (0.42%) Puppet
8 3 (0.42%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
8 3 (0.42%) vRealize
9 2 (0.28%) Nagios
Vendors
1 168 (23.73%) ServiceNow
2 123 (17.37%) Microsoft
3 51 (7.20%) Remedy
4 46 (6.50%) VMware
5 36 (5.08%) Cisco
6 24 (3.39%) BMC
7 18 (2.54%) HP
7 18 (2.54%) Oracle
8 17 (2.40%) SolarWinds
8 17 (2.40%) Splunk
9 16 (2.26%) SAP
10 13 (1.84%) Dell
11 12 (1.69%) Atlassian
11 12 (1.69%) F5
12 11 (1.55%) Canon
12 11 (1.55%) Juniper
13 9 (1.27%) Dynatrace
13 9 (1.27%) IFS
13 9 (1.27%) Qualys
14 8 (1.13%) Extreme Networks