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 10 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 59 73 60
Rank change year-on-year +14 -13 +3
Contract jobs citing Service Management 682 426 644
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.76% 3.05% 3.31%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.41% 3.48% 3.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 469 264 483
10th Percentile £185 £207 £248
25th Percentile £313 £375 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £604
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £528
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.52% +6.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 20 10
10th Percentile £13.25 £20.16 £15.17
25th Percentile £17.01 £24.18 £15.73
Median hourly rate £20.79 £30.43 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -31.67% +71.70% -49.45%
75th Percentile £60.00 £39.94 £21.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.63 £49.38
UK median hourly rate £26.11 £30.40 £20.50
% change year-on-year -14.11% +48.29% -19.31%

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 15,452 12,244 16,940
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 85.27% 87.77% 87.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,466 7,156 10,831
10th Percentile £222 £243 £250
25th Percentile £375 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,680 688 1,262
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £17.30
Median hourly rate £23.83 £30.41 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -21.64% -31.67% +62.56%
75th Percentile £55.00 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £73.75 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.19
% change year-on-year -22.62% -22.97% +23.04%

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 10 January 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 10 January 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 10 January 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 +33 191 £500 - 71
North of England -1 153 £475 +18.75% 61
South West +2 145 £575 +4.55% 26
Midlands +9 118 £488 -11.52% 45
West Midlands -2 89 £515 -6.53% 29
North West -6 85 £550 +37.50% 33
Yorkshire -19 54 £463 +99.78% 22
East of England -14 38 £452 -14.80% 26
Scotland +1 36 £463 -6.57% 13
East Midlands +4 29 £413 -17.50% 16
North East 0 17 £280 -53.04% 6
Northern Ireland - 4 £325 - 6
Wales -4 3 £170 -46.44% 11
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 61 (8.94%) Confluence
2 51 (7.48%) Microsoft Exchange
3 44 (6.45%) SharePoint
4 14 (2.05%) Apache
4 14 (2.05%) WebLogic
5 10 (1.47%) Skype for Business
6 5 (0.73%) SharePoint Server
7 2 (0.29%) JBoss
8 1 (0.15%) CMS
8 1 (0.15%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 83 (12.17%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (5.13%) Microsoft Project
3 21 (3.08%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (1.03%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 16 (2.35%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (1.91%) Oracle EBS
3 3 (0.44%) assyst
4 2 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.15%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.15%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.15%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.15%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 106 (15.54%) Azure
2 79 (11.58%) AWS
3 65 (9.53%) Microsoft 365
4 37 (5.43%) GCP
5 22 (3.23%) Entra ID
6 21 (3.08%) Power Platform
7 16 (2.35%) OneDrive
8 14 (2.05%) Azure Monitor
9 12 (1.76%) SaaS
10 10 (1.47%) Azure DevOps
11 9 (1.32%) PowerApps
12 6 (0.88%) Salesforce Service Cloud
13 5 (0.73%) IaaS
13 5 (0.73%) OpenShift
13 5 (0.73%) Power Automate
14 4 (0.59%) Amazon EC2
14 4 (0.59%) Amazon S3
14 4 (0.59%) AWS Lambda
14 4 (0.59%) GitHub
14 4 (0.59%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 44 (6.45%) DNS
2 29 (4.25%) DHCP
3 28 (4.11%) Firewall
4 22 (3.23%) VLAN
4 22 (3.23%) VPN
5 21 (3.08%) TCP/IP
6 20 (2.93%) Skype
7 17 (2.49%) Cisco Firepower
7 17 (2.49%) Cisco IOS
7 17 (2.49%) Cisco ISE
7 17 (2.49%) Junos
8 16 (2.35%) LAN
8 16 (2.35%) Network Security
9 15 (2.20%) WAN
10 8 (1.17%) WebEx
10 8 (1.17%) Wi-Fi
11 7 (1.03%) Wireless
12 5 (0.73%) BGP
12 5 (0.73%) SAN
12 5 (0.73%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (2.35%) Relational Database
2 14 (2.05%) Power BI
3 7 (1.03%) SQL Server
4 5 (0.73%) Amazon RDS
5 4 (0.59%) Data Mining
5 4 (0.59%) InfluxDB
5 4 (0.59%) Metadata
6 3 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.29%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.29%) Big Data
7 2 (0.29%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.15%) Amazon Aurora
8 1 (0.15%) BusinessObjects
8 1 (0.15%) GIS
8 1 (0.15%) MariaDB
8 1 (0.15%) MySQL
8 1 (0.15%) Oracle Discoverer
8 1 (0.15%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.15%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 96 (14.08%) JIRA
2 17 (2.49%) Jenkins
3 6 (0.88%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.73%) Git
4 5 (0.73%) webpack
5 4 (0.59%) GitLab
6 2 (0.29%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.15%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.15%) MLflow
7 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 287 (42.08%) Social Skills
2 138 (20.23%) Analytical Skills
3 90 (13.20%) Public Sector
4 75 (11.00%) Finance
5 43 (6.30%) Military
6 34 (4.99%) Legal
6 34 (4.99%) Organisational Skills
7 28 (4.11%) Manufacturing
8 22 (3.23%) Telecoms
9 18 (2.64%) Documentation Skills
10 17 (2.49%) Banking
11 14 (2.05%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (1.76%) Electronics
12 12 (1.76%) Marketing
12 12 (1.76%) Retail
13 11 (1.61%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (1.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 6 (0.88%) Investment Banking
16 5 (0.73%) Billing
17 4 (0.59%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 92 (13.49%) Architect
2 82 (12.02%) Analyst
3 70 (10.26%) Lead
4 65 (9.53%) Service Architect
5 57 (8.36%) Support Engineer
6 47 (6.89%) Service Manager
7 41 (6.01%) IT Support
8 30 (4.40%) 2nd Line Support
8 30 (4.40%) Support Analyst
9 25 (3.67%) Desktop Support
9 25 (3.67%) Network Engineer
10 23 (3.37%) Platform Engineer
11 22 (3.23%) Hardware Engineer
12 21 (3.08%) Consultant
12 21 (3.08%) IT Analyst
13 20 (2.93%) 3rd Line Engineer
13 20 (2.93%) 3rd Line Support
13 20 (2.93%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 19 (2.79%) Cloud Engineer
14 19 (2.79%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.08%) REST
2 8 (1.17%) CSS
2 8 (1.17%) XMPP
3 7 (1.03%) HTML
4 6 (0.88%) RFC 2544
4 6 (0.88%) SOAP
5 5 (0.73%) .NET
5 5 (0.73%) CSS3
5 5 (0.73%) HTML5
5 5 (0.73%) Node.js
5 5 (0.73%) React
5 5 (0.73%) Redux
5 5 (0.73%) RESTful
6 4 (0.59%) Elastic Stack
6 4 (0.59%) RabbitMQ
7 3 (0.44%) Web Services
8 2 (0.29%) GraphQL
8 2 (0.29%) Lightning Web Components
8 2 (0.29%) ModSecurity
8 2 (0.29%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 55 (8.06%) Product Ownership
2 33 (4.84%) Data Centre
3 26 (3.81%) Management Information System
4 22 (3.23%) CMDB
5 19 (2.79%) Onboarding
6 18 (2.64%) PKI
7 17 (2.49%) Driving Licence
7 17 (2.49%) Self-Motivation
8 16 (2.35%) Virtual Team
9 14 (2.05%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.91%) Mainframe
11 8 (1.17%) NHS
12 7 (1.03%) PMI
13 6 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
13 6 (0.88%) Fibre Optics
13 6 (0.88%) Public Cloud
14 5 (0.73%) Distributed Systems
14 5 (0.73%) Tandem
15 4 (0.59%) Hybrid Cloud
16 3 (0.44%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 172 (25.22%) Windows
2 68 (9.97%) Linux
3 51 (7.48%) Windows Server
4 41 (6.01%) Windows 10
5 23 (3.37%) Unix
6 12 (1.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (1.61%) Mac OS
8 8 (1.17%) Apple iOS
9 7 (1.03%) Android
9 7 (1.03%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.88%) Windows 7
11 4 (0.59%) Ubuntu
11 4 (0.59%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.44%) CentOS
12 3 (0.44%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.15%) AIX
13 1 (0.15%) Solaris
13 1 (0.15%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 415 (60.85%) ITIL
2 294 (43.11%) ITSM
3 140 (20.53%) Problem-Solving
4 119 (17.45%) Change Management
5 108 (15.84%) Continuous Improvement
6 104 (15.25%) Agile
7 98 (14.37%) Service Design
8 93 (13.64%) Customer Service
9 89 (13.05%) Stakeholder Management
10 85 (12.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 82 (12.02%) Service Delivery
12 67 (9.82%) Incident Management
13 62 (9.09%) Project Management
14 59 (8.65%) Project Delivery
15 54 (7.92%) Knowledge Transfer
16 50 (7.33%) Acceptance Criteria
17 49 (7.18%) DevOps
18 48 (7.04%) Problem Management
19 45 (6.60%) Business Continuity
19 45 (6.60%) Performance Metrics
Programming Languages
1 60 (8.80%) PowerShell
2 55 (8.06%) SQL
3 48 (7.04%) Python
4 15 (2.20%) Perl
4 15 (2.20%) Shell Script
5 12 (1.76%) Bash
6 11 (1.61%) JavaScript
7 9 (1.32%) Java
8 5 (0.73%) TypeScript
8 5 (0.73%) VB
8 5 (0.73%) VBScript
9 4 (0.59%) Go
10 3 (0.44%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.29%) PHP
12 1 (0.15%) C#
12 1 (0.15%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.15%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 333 (48.83%) Security Cleared
2 270 (39.59%) SC Cleared
3 101 (14.81%) Degree
4 69 (10.12%) DV Cleared
5 39 (5.72%) ITIL Certification
6 36 (5.28%) Microsoft Certification
7 30 (4.40%) TOGAF Certification
8 18 (2.64%) A+ Certification
9 16 (2.35%) MCSE
10 15 (2.20%) Cisco Certification
10 15 (2.20%) Computer Science Degree
11 14 (2.05%) PMP
11 14 (2.05%) Server+ Certification
12 13 (1.91%) Azure Certification
12 13 (1.91%) PMI Certification
13 12 (1.76%) BPSS Clearance
13 12 (1.76%) CCNP
13 12 (1.76%) Network+ Certification
14 11 (1.61%) CCNA
15 10 (1.47%) APMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (4.69%) SLA
2 29 (4.25%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 11 (1.61%) GDPR
4 9 (1.32%) Data Quality
4 9 (1.32%) PMO
5 8 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (0.73%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.59%) QA
8 3 (0.44%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.44%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.29%) NCSC
10 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.15%) COBIT
10 1 (0.15%) GRC
10 1 (0.15%) GxP
10 1 (0.15%) NIST
10 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 81 (11.88%) Active Directory
2 32 (4.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (3.08%) VMware NSX
4 13 (1.91%) Hyper-V
5 8 (1.17%) Docker
6 6 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
6 6 (0.88%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (0.73%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.73%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 4 (0.59%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 32 (4.69%) OPNET
2 26 (3.81%) vCenter Server
3 19 (2.79%) Ansible
3 19 (2.79%) SCCM
4 16 (2.35%) Terraform
5 15 (2.20%) Kubernetes
5 15 (2.20%) Microsoft Intune
6 11 (1.61%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 11 (1.61%) WSUS
7 5 (0.73%) Grafana
8 4 (0.59%) Nessus
8 4 (0.59%) Packer
8 4 (0.59%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.59%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.44%) Jamf Pro
10 2 (0.29%) Docker Swarm
10 2 (0.29%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.29%) PowerCLI
10 2 (0.29%) Puppet
10 2 (0.29%) SCOM
Vendors
1 155 (22.73%) ServiceNow
2 132 (19.35%) Microsoft
3 74 (10.85%) Cisco
4 56 (8.21%) Atlassian
5 54 (7.92%) Remedy
6 44 (6.45%) VMware
7 43 (6.30%) Oracle
8 32 (4.69%) Google
8 32 (4.69%) Splunk
9 31 (4.55%) SolarWinds
10 24 (3.52%) HP
11 22 (3.23%) SAP
12 20 (2.93%) AppDynamics
13 19 (2.79%) Dynatrace
13 19 (2.79%) Juniper
14 14 (2.05%) Palo Alto
15 13 (1.91%) Red Hat
15 13 (1.91%) Salesforce
15 13 (1.91%) Veeam
16 10 (1.47%) Citrix