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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 57 57
Rank change year-on-year -23 0 +5
Contract jobs citing Service Management 734 552 662
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.79% 4.01% 3.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.41% 4.45% 3.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 324 480
10th Percentile £213 £205 £224
25th Percentile £400 £308 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £499 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.30% -5.05% +9.38%
75th Percentile £593 £588 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% +0.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 53 17
10th Percentile £15.00 - £13.49
25th Percentile £16.17 £12.62 £16.79
Median hourly rate £57.50 £20.75 £20.74
Median % change year-on-year +177.11% +0.05% -2.67%
75th Percentile £83.75 £22.14 £28.75
90th Percentile £102.75 £33.75 £49.25
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £20.75 £23.37
% change year-on-year +189.16% -11.21% -33.70%

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 21,519 12,418 17,449
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.92% 90.13% 82.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,760 7,607 10,251
10th Percentile £300 £235 £250
25th Percentile £405 £365 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £591 £575 £600
90th Percentile £686 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £515 £504 £525
% change year-on-year +2.18% -4.00% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,267 1,049 2,168
10th Percentile £14.25 £14.19 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.33 £16.95 £15.50
Median hourly rate £44.50 £25.00 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +78.00% -34.42% +8.91%
75th Percentile £68.00 £54.01 £61.60
90th Percentile £81.05 £72.75 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% +4.17%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 +26 216 £525 +40.00% 93
North of England -23 205 £488 +3.72% 82
South West -27 122 £500 -11.11% 44
North West -20 115 £513 +4.17% 43
Yorkshire -20 83 £456 -3.95% 30
Midlands -47 82 £475 -3.55% 43
West Midlands -41 71 £477 -7.38% 29
Scotland -24 54 £500 - 7
East of England -23 44 £475 -13.64% 24
Wales -7 13 £800 +188.29% 6
East Midlands -16 11 £200 -54.13% 14
North East -32 7 £440 +125.64% 10
Northern Ireland +6 5 - - 3
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 38 (5.18%) SharePoint
2 29 (3.95%) Microsoft Exchange
3 24 (3.27%) Confluence
4 11 (1.50%) Skype for Business
5 6 (0.82%) Mattermost
6 2 (0.27%) IIS
6 2 (0.27%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.14%) Apache
7 1 (0.14%) CMS
7 1 (0.14%) JBoss
7 1 (0.14%) LiveCycle
Applications
1 50 (6.81%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (2.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.54%) Chatbot
4 4 (0.54%) PTC Creo
5 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.27%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.14%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 46 (6.27%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (1.36%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (1.09%) Teamcenter
4 4 (0.54%) ContrOCC
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.27%) Primavera
6 1 (0.14%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.14%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.14%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 105 (14.31%) Azure
2 71 (9.67%) Microsoft 365
3 43 (5.86%) Power Platform
4 34 (4.63%) Entra ID
5 32 (4.36%) AWS
6 18 (2.45%) Azure DevOps
6 18 (2.45%) OneDrive
6 18 (2.45%) SaaS
7 17 (2.32%) GCP
8 9 (1.23%) PaaS
9 7 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
9 7 (0.95%) OCI
10 5 (0.68%) Azure Machine Learning
10 5 (0.68%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 5 (0.68%) GitHub
10 5 (0.68%) Google App Engine
11 4 (0.54%) Azure AKS
11 4 (0.54%) IaaS
12 3 (0.41%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 3 (0.41%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 33 (4.50%) Firewall
2 29 (3.95%) DNS
3 28 (3.81%) LAN
4 21 (2.86%) WAN
5 19 (2.59%) DHCP
6 16 (2.18%) VPN
7 14 (1.91%) BGP
7 14 (1.91%) Network Security
7 14 (1.91%) Wireless
8 13 (1.77%) OSPF
9 12 (1.63%) BIG-IP
9 12 (1.63%) Cisco ISE
9 12 (1.63%) Wi-Fi
10 11 (1.50%) Skype
10 11 (1.50%) VLAN
11 10 (1.36%) Junos
12 9 (1.23%) TCP/IP
12 9 (1.23%) VXLAN
13 8 (1.09%) Ethernet VPN
14 5 (0.68%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (5.18%) Power BI
2 14 (1.91%) SQL Server
3 5 (0.68%) Oracle Reports
3 5 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (0.68%) Relational Database
4 4 (0.54%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 3 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
5 3 (0.41%) MySQL
5 3 (0.41%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 3 (0.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 2 (0.27%) MariaDB
6 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Analysis Services
6 2 (0.27%) 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%) OpenStack Swift
7 1 (0.14%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 71 (9.67%) JIRA
2 13 (1.77%) Git
3 7 (0.95%) Bitbucket
4 6 (0.82%) GitLab
4 6 (0.82%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.68%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 5 (0.68%) Browser DevTools
6 4 (0.54%) MLflow
7 3 (0.41%) Fiddler
8 2 (0.27%) Firebug
8 2 (0.27%) IntelliJ
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%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
9 1 (0.14%) webpack
General
1 252 (34.33%) Social Skills
2 108 (14.71%) Finance
3 98 (13.35%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (9.40%) Public Sector
5 38 (5.18%) Legal
6 24 (3.27%) Influencing Skills
7 21 (2.86%) Organisational Skills
8 20 (2.72%) Documentation Skills
8 20 (2.72%) Telecoms
9 18 (2.45%) Military
10 15 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 13 (1.77%) Aerospace
12 12 (1.63%) Banking
12 12 (1.63%) Presentation Skills
13 10 (1.36%) Local Government
14 9 (1.23%) Retail
15 5 (0.68%) Financial Institution
16 3 (0.41%) Publishing
17 1 (0.14%) Automotive
17 1 (0.14%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 96 (13.08%) Analyst
2 91 (12.40%) Service Manager
3 76 (10.35%) Lead
4 58 (7.90%) Senior
5 46 (6.27%) Architect
6 45 (6.13%) IT Manager
6 45 (6.13%) Service Analyst
7 29 (3.95%) Project Manager
8 28 (3.81%) Delivery Manager
9 25 (3.41%) Network Engineer
10 23 (3.13%) Consultant
10 23 (3.13%) IT Analyst
11 22 (3.00%) IT Services Manager
12 21 (2.86%) Support Engineer
13 20 (2.72%) Service Delivery Manager
14 19 (2.59%) Administrator
14 19 (2.59%) Service Transition Manager
14 19 (2.59%) Transition Manager
15 18 (2.45%) Designer
15 18 (2.45%) Service Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (2.86%) REST
2 9 (1.23%) OAuth
2 9 (1.23%) SOAP
3 8 (1.09%) 802.1X
4 5 (0.68%) OpenID
4 5 (0.68%) Oracle Fusion
4 5 (0.68%) SAML
4 5 (0.68%) XML
5 4 (0.54%) Middleware
5 4 (0.54%) OAuth2
5 4 (0.54%) Software Packaging
5 4 (0.54%) XMPP
6 3 (0.41%) .NET
6 3 (0.41%) CSS
6 3 (0.41%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (0.41%) FIDO
6 3 (0.41%) Flash
6 3 (0.41%) HTML
6 3 (0.41%) JSON
6 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 53 (7.22%) Onboarding
2 45 (6.13%) CMDB
3 37 (5.04%) Product Ownership
4 29 (3.95%) Data Centre
4 29 (3.95%) Management Information System
5 26 (3.54%) PKI
6 22 (3.00%) Clustering
7 19 (2.59%) Virtual Team
8 17 (2.32%) Enterprise Software
9 15 (2.04%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (1.63%) Driving Licence
10 12 (1.63%) Operational Technology
11 11 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
12 9 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
13 8 (1.09%) Cyber Threat
13 8 (1.09%) PMI
13 8 (1.09%) Replication
13 8 (1.09%) Security Posture
14 6 (0.82%) Distributed Systems
14 6 (0.82%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 166 (22.62%) Windows
2 38 (5.18%) Windows 10
3 35 (4.77%) Linux
4 32 (4.36%) Windows Server
5 15 (2.04%) Windows 7
6 11 (1.50%) Unix
7 8 (1.09%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.68%) Android
8 5 (0.68%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.41%) Windows XP
10 2 (0.27%) Solaris
10 2 (0.27%) 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
1 413 (56.27%) ITIL
2 321 (43.73%) ITSM
3 186 (25.34%) Continuous Improvement
4 176 (23.98%) Stakeholder Management
5 152 (20.71%) Service Delivery
6 145 (19.75%) Agile
7 141 (19.21%) Problem-Solving
8 108 (14.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 101 (13.76%) Change Management
10 85 (11.58%) Customer Service
11 73 (9.95%) DevOps
12 62 (8.45%) Problem Management
13 60 (8.17%) Cybersecurity
14 59 (8.04%) Configuration Management
14 59 (8.04%) Incident Management
14 59 (8.04%) Roadmaps
15 57 (7.77%) Project Delivery
16 46 (6.27%) Decision-Making
16 46 (6.27%) Risk Management
17 45 (6.13%) Service Design
Programming Languages
1 61 (8.31%) PowerShell
2 39 (5.31%) Python
3 38 (5.18%) SQL
4 20 (2.72%) JavaScript
5 12 (1.63%) Bash
6 11 (1.50%) VB
6 11 (1.50%) VBScript
7 4 (0.54%) C#
7 4 (0.54%) Java
7 4 (0.54%) Perl
7 4 (0.54%) PL/SQL
7 4 (0.54%) T-SQL
8 2 (0.27%) Apex Code
8 2 (0.27%) Search Processing Language
8 2 (0.27%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.14%) Bicep
9 1 (0.14%) C
9 1 (0.14%) REXX
9 1 (0.14%) Scala
9 1 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 335 (45.64%) Security Cleared
2 216 (29.43%) SC Cleared
3 120 (16.35%) DV Cleared
4 64 (8.72%) Degree
5 37 (5.04%) ITIL Certification
6 24 (3.27%) Cisco Certification
7 18 (2.45%) PMI Certification
8 17 (2.32%) BPSS Clearance
9 16 (2.18%) Computer Science Degree
9 16 (2.18%) PMP
10 14 (1.91%) Microsoft Certification
11 13 (1.77%) CCNA
12 12 (1.63%) A+ Certification
13 10 (1.36%) CCNP
14 9 (1.23%) DBS Check
14 9 (1.23%) JNCIA
14 9 (1.23%) JNCIP
14 9 (1.23%) JNCIS
14 9 (1.23%) Network+ Certification
15 7 (0.95%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (6.40%) SLA
2 30 (4.09%) Data Quality
3 22 (3.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (3.00%) PMO
4 19 (2.59%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 17 (2.32%) QA
6 16 (2.18%) NCSC
7 13 (1.77%) GDPR
7 13 (1.77%) GRC
8 11 (1.50%) ISO 9001
9 9 (1.23%) COBIT
10 7 (0.95%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (0.95%) Government Security Classifications
11 6 (0.82%) ISO 31000
11 6 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 5 (0.68%) Accessibility
13 4 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 4 (0.54%) Disclosure Scotland
13 4 (0.54%) GMP
13 4 (0.54%) NIST
System Software
1 82 (11.17%) Active Directory
2 34 (4.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (2.18%) VMware ESXi
4 12 (1.63%) BitLocker
5 8 (1.09%) Docker
6 7 (0.95%) VMware NSX
6 7 (0.95%) vSphere
7 6 (0.82%) vCloud
8 5 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.54%) NFS
10 3 (0.41%) Firmware
10 3 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
11 2 (0.27%) GPFS
11 2 (0.27%) Hyper-V
11 2 (0.27%) KVM
12 1 (0.14%) iptables
12 1 (0.14%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.14%) Samba
12 1 (0.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 41 (5.59%) SCCM
2 33 (4.50%) Microsoft Intune
3 19 (2.59%) Ansible
4 11 (1.50%) Terraform
5 9 (1.23%) Kubernetes
6 8 (1.09%) FortiGate
6 8 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
6 8 (1.09%) vCenter Server
7 7 (0.95%) Jamf Pro
7 7 (0.95%) SCOM
8 4 (0.54%) PowerCLI
8 4 (0.54%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.54%) vMotion
9 3 (0.41%) Cisco Prime
9 3 (0.41%) Dell DRAC
9 3 (0.41%) Grafana
9 3 (0.41%) Puppet
9 3 (0.41%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.41%) vRealize
10 2 (0.27%) Nagios
Vendors
1 177 (24.11%) ServiceNow
2 132 (17.98%) Microsoft
3 49 (6.68%) Remedy
4 46 (6.27%) VMware
5 35 (4.77%) Cisco
6 24 (3.27%) BMC
7 17 (2.32%) Oracle
7 17 (2.32%) SolarWinds
8 16 (2.18%) HP
8 16 (2.18%) SAP
8 16 (2.18%) Splunk
9 13 (1.77%) Dell
10 12 (1.63%) F5
10 12 (1.63%) Juniper
11 11 (1.50%) Atlassian
11 11 (1.50%) Canon
12 10 (1.36%) Qualys
13 9 (1.23%) Dynatrace
13 9 (1.23%) IFS
14 8 (1.09%) Extreme Networks