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 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 57 72 65
Rank change year-on-year +15 -7 0
Contract jobs citing Service Management 708 469 691
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.07% 2.80% 3.35%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.62% 3.33% 3.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 439 307 518
10th Percentile £185 £200 £230
25th Percentile £293 £350 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +7.69%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £638 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - +3.24%
Number of hourly rates quoted 97 25 10
10th Percentile £12.62 £22.30 £20.00
25th Percentile £16.06 £26.25 £20.69
Median hourly rate £20.79 £32.50 £21.91
Median % change year-on-year -36.03% +48.37% +3.08%
75th Percentile £33.75 £48.75 £53.44
90th Percentile £65.56 £62.50 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £20.83 £30.45 £41.38
% change year-on-year -31.59% -26.40% +94.71%

All Process and 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 15,332 14,078 18,244
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 88.21% 84.15% 88.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,330 8,071 11,946
10th Percentile £219 £250 £250
25th Percentile £367 £383 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.41% -3.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,738 894 1,289
10th Percentile £14.23 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.26 £18.53 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.63 £33.00 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -31.42% -24.83% +48.81%
75th Percentile £43.72 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £72.50 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -19.54% +24.29%

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 November 2025.

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 November 2025.

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 November 2025. 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
North of England +8 197 £450 +2.86% 78
South East +19 158 £450 -14.29% 120
South West +24 136 £550 -4.35% 46
North West +22 129 £464 +12.48% 41
Midlands +21 122 £503 -11.30% 73
West Midlands +11 97 £515 -9.77% 46
Yorkshire -24 57 £355 -29.74% 22
Scotland -1 43 £466 +4.78% 14
East of England -3 42 £531 +0.62% 26
East Midlands +3 25 £425 -19.05% 27
North East -5 14 £550 +182.05% 15
Wales -13 7 £205 -8.34% 16
Northern Ireland -3 5 £325 -40.91% 8
Channel Islands - 3 £725 -
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 54 (7.63%) Microsoft Exchange
2 43 (6.07%) Confluence
3 42 (5.93%) SharePoint
4 21 (2.97%) Apache
5 14 (1.98%) WebLogic
6 10 (1.41%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.99%) IIS
7 7 (0.99%) WebSphere
8 5 (0.71%) SharePoint Server
9 2 (0.28%) JBoss
10 1 (0.14%) CMS
10 1 (0.14%) HCL Notes
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 74 (10.45%) Microsoft Office
2 27 (3.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.69%) MS Visio
4 11 (1.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.27%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.14%) Trello
Business Applications
1 17 (2.40%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (0.99%) Maximo
3 6 (0.85%) assyst
4 5 (0.71%) Oracle EBS
4 5 (0.71%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
6 2 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.14%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.14%) SAP LE
7 1 (0.14%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.14%) SAP WM
7 1 (0.14%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 92 (12.99%) Azure
2 72 (10.17%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (8.33%) AWS
4 23 (3.25%) Entra ID
5 17 (2.40%) Power Platform
6 16 (2.26%) GCP
6 16 (2.26%) OneDrive
7 14 (1.98%) Azure Monitor
8 12 (1.69%) SaaS
9 11 (1.55%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (0.85%) PowerApps
10 6 (0.85%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 5 (0.71%) Google Workspace
12 4 (0.56%) Lucidchart
13 3 (0.42%) Serverless
14 2 (0.28%) Asana
14 2 (0.28%) Azure AKS
14 2 (0.28%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 2 (0.28%) OpenShift
14 2 (0.28%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 53 (7.49%) DNS
2 44 (6.21%) Firewall
3 33 (4.66%) DHCP
4 27 (3.81%) WAN
5 26 (3.67%) LAN
6 24 (3.39%) VPN
7 22 (3.11%) VLAN
8 20 (2.82%) Skype
8 20 (2.82%) TCP/IP
9 17 (2.40%) Cisco Firepower
9 17 (2.40%) Cisco IOS
9 17 (2.40%) Cisco ISE
9 17 (2.40%) Junos
10 13 (1.84%) BGP
11 12 (1.69%) Network Security
11 12 (1.69%) Unified Communications
12 10 (1.41%) Wi-Fi
12 10 (1.41%) Wireless
13 8 (1.13%) MPLS
13 8 (1.13%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (2.26%) Relational Database
1 16 (2.26%) SQL Server
2 15 (2.12%) Power BI
3 10 (1.41%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (1.27%) DB2
5 4 (0.56%) Data Mining
5 4 (0.56%) Metadata
5 4 (0.56%) Oracle Reports
6 3 (0.42%) Amazon Aurora
6 3 (0.42%) Big Data
6 3 (0.42%) MariaDB
6 3 (0.42%) MySQL
7 2 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.14%) InfluxDB
8 1 (0.14%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.14%) Sqoop
8 1 (0.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 78 (11.02%) JIRA
2 14 (1.98%) Jenkins
3 7 (0.99%) webpack
4 4 (0.56%) Bitbucket
4 4 (0.56%) Git
5 1 (0.14%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.14%) MLflow
5 1 (0.14%) Selenium
5 1 (0.14%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.14%) WebDriver
General
1 256 (36.16%) Social Skills
2 149 (21.05%) Analytical Skills
3 86 (12.15%) Finance
4 84 (11.86%) Public Sector
5 30 (4.24%) Telecoms
6 29 (4.10%) Manufacturing
7 27 (3.81%) Legal
8 24 (3.39%) Military
9 19 (2.68%) Banking
9 19 (2.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 19 (2.68%) Influencing Skills
10 18 (2.54%) Documentation Skills
11 16 (2.26%) Organisational Skills
12 15 (2.12%) Presentation Skills
13 14 (1.98%) Marketing
14 12 (1.69%) Electronics
15 11 (1.55%) Police
16 10 (1.41%) Retail
17 8 (1.13%) Investment Banking
18 5 (0.71%) Billing
Job Titles
1 122 (17.23%) Analyst
2 64 (9.04%) Architect
3 62 (8.76%) Support Engineer
4 52 (7.34%) Service Manager
4 52 (7.34%) Support Analyst
5 47 (6.64%) IT Support
6 42 (5.93%) Lead
7 41 (5.79%) Desktop Support
8 38 (5.37%) Network Engineer
9 37 (5.23%) 2nd Line Support
9 37 (5.23%) Service Architect
10 29 (4.10%) IT Analyst
11 25 (3.53%) Senior
12 24 (3.39%) Consultant
12 24 (3.39%) Platform Engineer
12 24 (3.39%) Service Analyst
13 22 (3.11%) IT Support Analyst
14 21 (2.97%) Project Manager
15 20 (2.82%) Data Analyst
15 20 (2.82%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.68%) REST
2 16 (2.26%) RFC 2544
3 14 (1.98%) Web Services
4 13 (1.84%) CSS
4 13 (1.84%) HTML
5 12 (1.69%) SOAP
6 8 (1.13%) RESTful
6 8 (1.13%) XML
6 8 (1.13%) XMPP
7 7 (0.99%) CSS3
7 7 (0.99%) HTML5
7 7 (0.99%) NETCONF
7 7 (0.99%) Node.js
7 7 (0.99%) React
7 7 (0.99%) Redux
7 7 (0.99%) RESTCONF
8 6 (0.85%) Elastic Stack
9 5 (0.71%) AngularJS
10 3 (0.42%) LDAP
10 3 (0.42%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 42 (5.93%) Data Centre
2 38 (5.37%) Management Information System
3 30 (4.24%) Product Ownership
4 25 (3.53%) PKI
5 24 (3.39%) CMDB
6 20 (2.82%) Self-Motivation
7 18 (2.54%) Virtual Team
8 16 (2.26%) Onboarding
9 15 (2.12%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.84%) Driving Licence
10 13 (1.84%) Fibre Optics
11 11 (1.55%) NHS
12 10 (1.41%) Mainframe
13 7 (0.99%) iPhone
13 7 (0.99%) Public Cloud
14 6 (0.85%) Tandem
14 6 (0.85%) Video Conferencing
15 5 (0.71%) Distributed Systems
15 5 (0.71%) Enterprise Software
16 4 (0.56%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 181 (25.56%) Windows
2 59 (8.33%) Linux
3 56 (7.91%) Windows Server
4 41 (5.79%) Windows 10
5 24 (3.39%) Unix
6 13 (1.84%) Apple iOS
7 12 (1.69%) Mac OS
7 12 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 7 (0.99%) Windows Server 2012
9 6 (0.85%) Android
10 5 (0.71%) Windows 7
11 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.42%) CentOS
12 3 (0.42%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.14%) AIX
13 1 (0.14%) Solaris
13 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 397 (56.07%) ITIL
2 315 (44.49%) ITSM
3 157 (22.18%) Problem-Solving
4 115 (16.24%) Change Management
5 107 (15.11%) Customer Service
6 100 (14.12%) Stakeholder Management
7 95 (13.42%) Service Delivery
8 93 (13.14%) Agile
9 90 (12.71%) Continuous Improvement
10 86 (12.15%) Service Design
11 67 (9.46%) Incident Management
12 65 (9.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 63 (8.90%) Project Management
14 62 (8.76%) Project Delivery
15 56 (7.91%) DevOps
16 49 (6.92%) Problem Management
17 44 (6.21%) Analytics
17 44 (6.21%) Business Intelligence
18 41 (5.79%) Visualisation
19 39 (5.51%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 63 (8.90%) SQL
2 60 (8.47%) Python
3 58 (8.19%) PowerShell
4 23 (3.25%) JavaScript
5 15 (2.12%) Perl
6 14 (1.98%) Bash
7 13 (1.84%) Shell Script
8 11 (1.55%) Java
9 7 (0.99%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.71%) VB
10 5 (0.71%) VBScript
11 2 (0.28%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.14%) C#
12 1 (0.14%) Go
12 1 (0.14%) HiveQL
12 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 294 (41.53%) Security Cleared
2 234 (33.05%) SC Cleared
3 87 (12.29%) Degree
4 59 (8.33%) DV Cleared
5 45 (6.36%) ITIL Certification
6 42 (5.93%) Microsoft Certification
7 29 (4.10%) Cisco Certification
8 26 (3.67%) CCNP
9 19 (2.68%) A+ Certification
10 16 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
11 15 (2.12%) Azure Certification
11 15 (2.12%) MCSE
12 14 (1.98%) Server+ Certification
13 13 (1.84%) CCNA
14 11 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
14 11 (1.55%) Network+ Certification
15 10 (1.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 6 (0.85%) HNC
16 6 (0.85%) Master's Degree
17 5 (0.71%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (7.63%) SLA
2 31 (4.38%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 15 (2.12%) GDPR
4 12 (1.69%) QA
5 8 (1.13%) Data Quality
5 8 (1.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (1.13%) NCSC
6 5 (0.71%) Disclosure Scotland
6 5 (0.71%) GxP
6 5 (0.71%) ISO 9001
6 5 (0.71%) PMO
6 5 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (0.42%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.42%) COBIT
7 3 (0.42%) GRC
8 2 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.28%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.28%) WCAG
9 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.14%) NIST
System Software
1 89 (12.57%) Active Directory
2 34 (4.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.97%) VMware NSX
4 13 (1.84%) Hyper-V
5 11 (1.55%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (0.85%) Docker
6 6 (0.85%) Virtual Desktop
6 6 (0.85%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (0.71%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.71%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 3 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 25 (3.53%) vCenter Server
2 18 (2.54%) SCCM
3 16 (2.26%) Ansible
4 14 (1.98%) Microsoft Intune
5 11 (1.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 11 (1.55%) WSUS
6 10 (1.41%) Terraform
7 9 (1.27%) Kubernetes
8 5 (0.71%) OPNET
9 4 (0.56%) NSN NetAct
9 4 (0.56%) OpenView
10 3 (0.42%) Check_MK
10 3 (0.42%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
11 2 (0.28%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.28%) Grafana
11 2 (0.28%) PowerCLI
11 2 (0.28%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.28%) SCOM
12 1 (0.14%) Nessus
Vendors
1 169 (23.87%) Microsoft
2 157 (22.18%) ServiceNow
3 100 (14.12%) Cisco
4 44 (6.21%) VMware
5 38 (5.37%) Oracle
6 35 (4.94%) Splunk
7 32 (4.52%) Atlassian
8 31 (4.38%) SolarWinds
9 29 (4.10%) SAP
10 26 (3.67%) Remedy
11 23 (3.25%) Juniper
12 21 (2.97%) Google
13 19 (2.68%) AppDynamics
13 19 (2.68%) Dynatrace
14 17 (2.40%) IBM
15 14 (1.98%) Red Hat
16 13 (1.84%) Veeam
17 12 (1.69%) Salesforce
18 8 (1.13%) Citrix
19 7 (0.99%) Apple