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

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 54 70
Rank change year-on-year -9 +16 -5
Contract jobs citing Service Management 957 639 495
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.38% 4.07% 2.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.18% 4.56% 3.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 646 374 338
10th Percentile £263 £185 £196
25th Percentile £433 £293 £352
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.25% -3.00% -
75th Percentile £625 £562 £600
90th Percentile £725 £619 £654
UK median daily rate £525 £490 £513
% change year-on-year +7.20% -4.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 83 15
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £17.52
25th Percentile £16.11 £13.31 £25.22
Median hourly rate £35.53 £20.83 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.57% -42.14% +60.00%
75th Percentile £84.38 £33.75 £48.75
90th Percentile £92.50 £60.00 £52.25
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £21.28 £36.00
% change year-on-year +158.46% -40.89% -33.94%

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 22,903 14,005 14,599
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 80.96% 89.24% 83.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,816 8,417 8,259
10th Percentile £300 £230 £239
25th Percentile £410 £369 £381
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% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,830 1,518 1,100
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.11 £14.84
25th Percentile £16.72 £17.14 £18.11
Median hourly rate £39.02 £22.32 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.86% -48.10% +1.18%
75th Percentile £66.00 £40.60 £66.61
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £73.78
UK median hourly rate £38.72 £25.15 £42.27
% change year-on-year +53.96% -40.49% -0.55%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 +15 303 £575 +30.02% 293
North of England -13 275 £480 +5.96% 250
North West -15 162 £483 +5.17% 137
Midlands -31 127 £525 +3.96% 138
West Midlands -9 120 £525 +1.94% 87
Yorkshire -10 108 £463 +23.33% 96
Scotland +18 100 £581 +24.61% 89
South West -36 97 £565 +2.73% 116
East of England +3 63 £550 - 117
Wales -7 13 £800 +247.83% 22
Northern Ireland +8 8 - - 15
East Midlands -31 7 £206 -34.83% 50
North East -49 5 £600 +207.69% 21
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 (6.27%) SharePoint
2 38 (3.97%) Confluence
3 37 (3.87%) Microsoft Exchange
4 15 (1.57%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.42%) CMS
5 4 (0.42%) IBM Transformation Extender
6 3 (0.31%) IIS
6 3 (0.31%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.21%) Apache
7 2 (0.21%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.10%) CICS
8 1 (0.10%) Mattermost
Applications
1 62 (6.48%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (2.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.52%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.10%) Maple
Business Applications
1 43 (4.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 8 (0.84%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.52%) ContrOCC
3 5 (0.52%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.42%) Workday HCM
5 3 (0.31%) NEC Housing
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.21%) Primavera
6 2 (0.21%) Remedy AR System
6 2 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.21%) SAP CX
6 2 (0.21%) SystmOne
6 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.10%) Cloudability
7 1 (0.10%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 155 (16.20%) Azure
2 110 (11.49%) Microsoft 365
3 78 (8.15%) Entra ID
4 63 (6.58%) AWS
5 47 (4.91%) Power Platform
6 37 (3.87%) SaaS
7 27 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
7 27 (2.82%) GCP
8 23 (2.40%) OneDrive
9 14 (1.46%) Azure Monitor
10 13 (1.36%) Dynamics 365
11 10 (1.04%) GitHub
11 10 (1.04%) Microsoft Copilot
12 9 (0.94%) Power Automate
12 9 (0.94%) Serverless
13 8 (0.84%) Azure Functions
13 8 (0.84%) IaaS
14 6 (0.63%) Azure Sentinel
14 6 (0.63%) Google Workspace
14 6 (0.63%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 44 (4.60%) DNS
2 40 (4.18%) Firewall
3 39 (4.08%) VPN
4 32 (3.34%) DHCP
5 29 (3.03%) Network Security
6 25 (2.61%) TCP/IP
7 22 (2.30%) LAN
8 17 (1.78%) WAN
9 16 (1.67%) Skype
10 14 (1.46%) Wi-Fi
11 12 (1.25%) VLAN
12 10 (1.04%) SSH
12 10 (1.04%) Wireless
13 8 (0.84%) BGP
14 7 (0.73%) Intrusion Detection
14 7 (0.73%) NetScaler
15 6 (0.63%) OSPF
15 6 (0.63%) Software-Defined Networking
16 5 (0.52%) MPLS
16 5 (0.52%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (2.93%) Power BI
2 24 (2.51%) SQL Server
3 20 (2.09%) Metadata
4 7 (0.73%) Looker
5 6 (0.63%) MySQL
5 6 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 5 (0.52%) BigQuery
6 5 (0.52%) MariaDB
7 4 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.42%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.31%) Amazon Aurora
8 3 (0.31%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.21%) EDRMS
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.21%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 1 (0.10%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Analysis Services
10 1 (0.10%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 71 (7.42%) JIRA
2 22 (2.30%) Git
3 9 (0.94%) Atlassian Bamboo
3 9 (0.94%) Bitbucket
3 9 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.42%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (0.42%) webpack
5 3 (0.31%) GitLab
5 3 (0.31%) Gradle
5 3 (0.31%) Maven
5 3 (0.31%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.21%) Fiddler
6 2 (0.21%) Firebug
6 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.10%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.10%) eggPlant
7 1 (0.10%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.10%) MSI
7 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 395 (41.27%) Social Skills
2 157 (16.41%) Analytical Skills
3 140 (14.63%) Finance
4 103 (10.76%) Public Sector
5 49 (5.12%) Organisational Skills
6 47 (4.91%) Documentation Skills
7 41 (4.28%) Influencing Skills
8 34 (3.55%) Aerospace
9 27 (2.82%) Legal
10 24 (2.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 23 (2.40%) Banking
12 19 (1.99%) Military
12 19 (1.99%) Presentation Skills
12 19 (1.99%) Telecoms
13 17 (1.78%) Manufacturing
14 16 (1.67%) Local Government
15 5 (0.52%) Law
15 5 (0.52%) Retail
16 3 (0.31%) Police
17 2 (0.21%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 109 (11.39%) Lead
2 102 (10.66%) Analyst
3 86 (8.99%) Architect
4 68 (7.11%) Senior
5 60 (6.27%) Service Manager
6 52 (5.43%) Delivery Manager
7 42 (4.39%) Service Analyst
7 42 (4.39%) Support Engineer
8 40 (4.18%) Consultant
8 40 (4.18%) Developer
9 35 (3.66%) Service Architect
10 33 (3.45%) IT Manager
11 29 (3.03%) Project Manager
12 26 (2.72%) Desktop Engineer
12 26 (2.72%) Technical Leader
13 25 (2.61%) Administrator
14 24 (2.51%) Change Manager
15 23 (2.40%) Service Delivery Manager
16 22 (2.30%) 2nd Line Support
16 22 (2.30%) Desktop Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (4.08%) Terraform
2 31 (3.24%) REST
3 18 (1.88%) Middleware
4 17 (1.78%) XML
5 12 (1.25%) JSON
6 10 (1.04%) Web Services
7 9 (0.94%) SAML
8 8 (0.84%) SOAP
8 8 (0.84%) XSLT
9 6 (0.63%) .NET
9 6 (0.63%) ARM Templates
9 6 (0.63%) LDAP
9 6 (0.63%) OAuth
10 5 (0.52%) SailPoint
11 4 (0.42%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.42%) Node.js
11 4 (0.42%) OpenID
11 4 (0.42%) React
11 4 (0.42%) Redux
11 4 (0.42%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 87 (9.09%) Onboarding
2 66 (6.90%) Management Information System
3 57 (5.96%) CMDB
4 38 (3.97%) Data Centre
5 37 (3.87%) Enterprise Software
6 29 (3.03%) PKI
7 25 (2.61%) Data Protection Act
7 25 (2.61%) Product Ownership
8 21 (2.19%) Hybrid Cloud
9 16 (1.67%) Security Operations Centre
10 14 (1.46%) Cyber Threat
10 14 (1.46%) Virtual Team
11 13 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
11 13 (1.36%) Operational Technology
11 13 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (1.25%) Security Posture
13 10 (1.04%) Clustering
14 9 (0.94%) Taxonomies
15 8 (0.84%) Cloud Native
15 8 (0.84%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 219 (22.88%) Windows
2 60 (6.27%) Windows Server
3 58 (6.06%) Linux
4 48 (5.02%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.78%) Windows 7
6 16 (1.67%) Unix
7 13 (1.36%) Android
7 13 (1.36%) Apple iOS
7 13 (1.36%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.31%) AIX
9 3 (0.31%) Solaris
9 3 (0.31%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.21%) Windows XP
10 2 (0.21%) zOS
11 1 (0.10%) SUSE
11 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 544 (56.84%) ITIL
2 392 (40.96%) ITSM
3 299 (31.24%) Stakeholder Management
4 282 (29.47%) Continuous Improvement
5 216 (22.57%) Service Delivery
6 187 (19.54%) Agile
7 183 (19.12%) Problem-Solving
8 147 (15.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 146 (15.26%) Change Management
10 133 (13.90%) Roadmaps
11 127 (13.27%) Cybersecurity
12 116 (12.12%) Incident Management
13 112 (11.70%) Customer Service
14 92 (9.61%) Project Delivery
15 88 (9.20%) DevOps
16 79 (8.25%) Decision-Making
17 78 (8.15%) Data Protection
18 76 (7.94%) Risk Management
19 73 (7.63%) Service Design
20 72 (7.52%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 101 (10.55%) PowerShell
2 63 (6.58%) Python
3 35 (3.66%) Bash
4 34 (3.55%) SQL
5 29 (3.03%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.99%) VBScript
7 15 (1.57%) VB
8 12 (1.25%) Java
9 11 (1.15%) C#
10 7 (0.73%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.63%) Bicep
12 4 (0.42%) C
12 4 (0.42%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.31%) Google Apps Script
13 3 (0.31%) Groovy
13 3 (0.31%) Lua
13 3 (0.31%) Perl
14 2 (0.21%) Go
14 2 (0.21%) Search Processing Language
14 2 (0.21%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 450 (47.02%) Security Cleared
2 291 (30.41%) SC Cleared
3 135 (14.11%) DV Cleared
4 100 (10.45%) Degree
5 38 (3.97%) BPSS Clearance
6 31 (3.24%) PMP
7 30 (3.13%) PMI Certification
8 29 (3.03%) ITIL Certification
9 27 (2.82%) Microsoft Certification
10 23 (2.40%) DBS Check
11 15 (1.57%) Azure Certification
11 15 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
11 15 (1.57%) CISSP
11 15 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
12 14 (1.46%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 12 (1.25%) CISM
14 11 (1.15%) A+ Certification
15 8 (0.84%) AWS Certification
15 8 (0.84%) BC Cleared
16 7 (0.73%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (8.57%) SLA
2 38 (3.97%) Data Quality
3 31 (3.24%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 31 (3.24%) QA
4 28 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 26 (2.72%) GRC
6 21 (2.19%) GDPR
7 20 (2.09%) NCSC
8 18 (1.88%) ISO 9001
8 18 (1.88%) NIST
8 18 (1.88%) PMO
9 10 (1.04%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.84%) Disclosure Scotland
10 8 (0.84%) WCAG
11 6 (0.63%) COBIT
11 6 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.63%) ISO 22301
12 5 (0.52%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.52%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 111 (11.60%) Active Directory
2 62 (6.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (2.40%) Hyper-V
3 23 (2.40%) VMware ESXi
4 17 (1.78%) VMware NSX
5 16 (1.67%) BitLocker
5 16 (1.67%) Docker
6 15 (1.57%) Virtual Desktop
7 14 (1.46%) vSphere
8 13 (1.36%) vCloud
9 9 (0.94%) Firmware
10 7 (0.73%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 7 (0.73%) XenApp
10 7 (0.73%) XenDesktop
11 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 3 (0.31%) NFS
11 3 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
12 2 (0.21%) GPFS
12 2 (0.21%) UAG
12 2 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 61 (6.37%) SCCM
2 55 (5.75%) Microsoft Intune
3 34 (3.55%) Ansible
4 20 (2.09%) SCOM
5 17 (1.78%) vCenter Server
6 15 (1.57%) Kubernetes
7 13 (1.36%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.73%) Jamf Pro
8 7 (0.73%) Progress Chef
9 5 (0.52%) NetBackup
10 4 (0.42%) PowerCLI
10 4 (0.42%) Tivoli
10 4 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
10 4 (0.42%) vMotion
10 4 (0.42%) WSUS
11 3 (0.31%) Dell DRAC
11 3 (0.31%) OPNET
11 3 (0.31%) vRealize
12 2 (0.21%) Istio
12 2 (0.21%) SysTrack
Vendors
1 239 (24.97%) Microsoft
2 228 (23.82%) ServiceNow
3 81 (8.46%) VMware
4 47 (4.91%) Remedy
5 29 (3.03%) BMC
6 28 (2.93%) Cisco
7 19 (1.99%) Oracle
8 18 (1.88%) Atlassian
8 18 (1.88%) IBM
9 16 (1.67%) CyberArk
9 16 (1.67%) SAP
10 15 (1.57%) Dynatrace
11 14 (1.46%) Citrix
12 13 (1.36%) Apple
12 13 (1.36%) SolarWinds
13 12 (1.25%) Google
14 10 (1.04%) Palo Alto
14 10 (1.04%) Qualys
15 8 (0.84%) Juniper
15 8 (0.84%) Splunk