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 18 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 54 71
Rank change year-on-year -12 +17 -5
Contract jobs citing Service Management 935 634 511
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 3.33% 4.10% 2.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.11% 4.59% 3.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 637 372 355
10th Percentile £262 £185 £193
25th Percentile £420 £293 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year +6.17% -1.10% -
75th Percentile £625 £575 £600
90th Percentile £725 £638 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £493 £501
% change year-on-year +6.60% -1.60% -4.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 77 11
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £15.17
25th Percentile £17.21 £12.82 £26.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £18.73 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +193.65% -60.57% +116.85%
75th Percentile £85.00 £33.00 £49.38
90th Percentile £94.51 £60.00 £53.75
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £20.66 £47.50
% change year-on-year +166.21% -56.51% -13.64%

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 22,728 13,810 14,893
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 80.93% 89.26% 83.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,938 8,306 8,563
10th Percentile £300 £235 £242
25th Percentile £410 £368 £388
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 £663 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,707 1,447 1,212
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.00 £14.65
25th Percentile £17.01 £17.04 £18.00
Median hourly rate £41.56 £22.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +84.69% -47.67% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.50 £42.50 £66.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.35 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -1.91%

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 18 September 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 18 September 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 18 September 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 +12 306 £575 +27.78% 248
North of England -16 261 £475 +3.43% 204
North West -15 157 £481 +2.29% 119
Midlands -38 112 £525 +4.48% 120
West Midlands -23 107 £525 +1.94% 76
South West -28 107 £600 +11.11% 84
Yorkshire -8 96 £443 +21.37% 71
Scotland +15 95 £535 +13.83% 57
East of England -10 54 £525 -4.55% 92
Wales -8 13 £800 +247.83% 19
Northern Ireland +7 8 - - 35
North East -48 8 £535 +174.36% 17
East Midlands -33 5 £206 -31.25% 44
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 58 (6.20%) SharePoint
2 36 (3.85%) Microsoft Exchange
3 32 (3.42%) Confluence
4 15 (1.60%) Skype for Business
5 3 (0.32%) CMS
5 3 (0.32%) IBM Transformation Extender
5 3 (0.32%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.11%) CICS
6 1 (0.11%) Mattermost
Applications
1 66 (7.06%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (2.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.53%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.11%) Maple
Business Applications
1 42 (4.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 8 (0.86%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.53%) ContrOCC
4 4 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.43%) Workday HCM
5 3 (0.32%) NEC Housing
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle Applications
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%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.11%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 155 (16.58%) Azure
2 101 (10.80%) Microsoft 365
3 73 (7.81%) Entra ID
4 59 (6.31%) AWS
5 45 (4.81%) Power Platform
6 37 (3.96%) SaaS
7 28 (2.99%) Azure DevOps
8 22 (2.35%) GCP
8 22 (2.35%) OneDrive
9 13 (1.39%) Azure Monitor
10 12 (1.28%) Dynamics 365
11 11 (1.18%) Microsoft Copilot
12 9 (0.96%) GitHub
12 9 (0.96%) Power Automate
12 9 (0.96%) Serverless
13 8 (0.86%) Azure Functions
13 8 (0.86%) IaaS
13 8 (0.86%) OCI
14 7 (0.75%) PaaS
15 6 (0.64%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 44 (4.71%) DNS
2 41 (4.39%) Firewall
3 35 (3.74%) VPN
4 32 (3.42%) DHCP
5 27 (2.89%) Network Security
6 21 (2.25%) LAN
6 21 (2.25%) TCP/IP
7 17 (1.82%) WAN
8 16 (1.71%) Skype
9 13 (1.39%) Wireless
10 12 (1.28%) VLAN
10 12 (1.28%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (1.07%) SSH
12 8 (0.86%) BGP
13 7 (0.75%) Intrusion Detection
14 6 (0.64%) NetScaler
14 6 (0.64%) OSPF
14 6 (0.64%) Software-Defined Networking
15 5 (0.53%) Internet
15 5 (0.53%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (2.99%) Power BI
1 28 (2.99%) SQL Server
2 19 (2.03%) Metadata
3 8 (0.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 6 (0.64%) MySQL
5 5 (0.53%) MariaDB
5 5 (0.53%) Oracle Reports
5 5 (0.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 4 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.43%) Relational Database
6 4 (0.43%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 3 (0.32%) Amazon Aurora
7 3 (0.32%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.21%) EDRMS
8 2 (0.21%) Looker
8 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Analysis Services
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.11%) Azure SQL Database
9 1 (0.11%) InfluxDB
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 75 (8.02%) JIRA
2 22 (2.35%) Git
3 9 (0.96%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.86%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 8 (0.86%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.53%) Browser DevTools
6 4 (0.43%) webpack
7 3 (0.32%) Fiddler
7 3 (0.32%) GitLab
7 3 (0.32%) Gradle
7 3 (0.32%) Maven
7 3 (0.32%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.21%) Firebug
8 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.11%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.11%) eggPlant
9 1 (0.11%) Hudson
9 1 (0.11%) IntelliJ
9 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 374 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 147 (15.72%) Analytical Skills
3 134 (14.33%) Finance
4 104 (11.12%) Public Sector
5 45 (4.81%) Documentation Skills
6 39 (4.17%) Influencing Skills
7 37 (3.96%) Organisational Skills
8 31 (3.32%) Legal
9 27 (2.89%) Aerospace
10 23 (2.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 23 (2.46%) Military
10 23 (2.46%) Telecoms
11 18 (1.93%) Banking
12 15 (1.60%) Presentation Skills
13 14 (1.50%) Local Government
14 12 (1.28%) Manufacturing
15 5 (0.53%) Retail
16 4 (0.43%) Law
17 3 (0.32%) Police
18 2 (0.21%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 111 (11.87%) Lead
2 95 (10.16%) Analyst
3 82 (8.77%) Architect
4 69 (7.38%) Senior
5 65 (6.95%) Service Manager
6 46 (4.92%) Delivery Manager
7 44 (4.71%) IT Manager
8 42 (4.49%) Service Analyst
8 42 (4.49%) Support Engineer
9 35 (3.74%) Consultant
10 34 (3.64%) Service Architect
11 31 (3.32%) Developer
12 30 (3.21%) Project Manager
13 25 (2.67%) Technical Leader
14 24 (2.57%) Desktop Engineer
15 23 (2.46%) Administrator
16 22 (2.35%) Change Manager
17 21 (2.25%) 2nd Line Support
17 21 (2.25%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 21 (2.25%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (4.06%) Terraform
2 31 (3.32%) REST
3 17 (1.82%) XML
4 13 (1.39%) Middleware
5 12 (1.28%) JSON
6 10 (1.07%) SAML
7 9 (0.96%) SOAP
8 8 (0.86%) Web Services
8 8 (0.86%) XSLT
9 7 (0.75%) .NET
9 7 (0.75%) OAuth
10 6 (0.64%) ARM Templates
11 5 (0.53%) OpenID
11 5 (0.53%) SailPoint
12 4 (0.43%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.43%) Node.js
12 4 (0.43%) OAuth2
12 4 (0.43%) Oracle Fusion
12 4 (0.43%) Redux
12 4 (0.43%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 89 (9.52%) Onboarding
2 59 (6.31%) Management Information System
3 49 (5.24%) CMDB
4 34 (3.64%) Enterprise Software
5 32 (3.42%) Data Centre
6 29 (3.10%) PKI
7 23 (2.46%) Data Protection Act
7 23 (2.46%) Product Ownership
8 19 (2.03%) Hybrid Cloud
9 16 (1.71%) Operational Technology
10 15 (1.60%) Clustering
10 15 (1.60%) Virtual Team
11 14 (1.50%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
13 12 (1.28%) Security Operations Centre
14 11 (1.18%) Cyber Threat
15 9 (0.96%) NHS
15 9 (0.96%) Security Posture
15 9 (0.96%) Taxonomies
16 8 (0.86%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 212 (22.67%) Windows
2 64 (6.84%) Windows Server
3 55 (5.88%) Linux
4 48 (5.13%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.82%) Windows 7
6 14 (1.50%) Unix
7 11 (1.18%) Mac OS
8 10 (1.07%) Android
8 10 (1.07%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.21%) Solaris
11 2 (0.21%) Windows XP
11 2 (0.21%) zOS
12 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 524 (56.04%) ITIL
2 393 (42.03%) ITSM
3 282 (30.16%) Stakeholder Management
4 273 (29.20%) Continuous Improvement
5 210 (22.46%) Service Delivery
6 183 (19.57%) Agile
7 178 (19.04%) Problem-Solving
8 158 (16.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 147 (15.72%) Change Management
10 117 (12.51%) Roadmaps
11 111 (11.87%) Incident Management
12 109 (11.66%) Customer Service
12 109 (11.66%) Cybersecurity
13 87 (9.30%) DevOps
13 87 (9.30%) Project Delivery
14 74 (7.91%) Risk Management
15 73 (7.81%) Decision-Making
16 70 (7.49%) Data Protection
17 69 (7.38%) Service Design
18 67 (7.17%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 100 (10.70%) PowerShell
2 56 (5.99%) Python
3 36 (3.85%) SQL
4 31 (3.32%) Bash
5 27 (2.89%) JavaScript
6 19 (2.03%) VBScript
7 15 (1.60%) VB
8 12 (1.28%) Java
9 11 (1.18%) C#
10 7 (0.75%) Bicep
11 5 (0.53%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.43%) C
12 4 (0.43%) T-SQL
12 4 (0.43%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.32%) Groovy
13 3 (0.32%) Lua
13 3 (0.32%) Perl
14 2 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.21%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.21%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 434 (46.42%) Security Cleared
2 275 (29.41%) SC Cleared
3 136 (14.55%) DV Cleared
4 102 (10.91%) Degree
5 35 (3.74%) BPSS Clearance
6 34 (3.64%) ITIL Certification
7 30 (3.21%) PMP
8 29 (3.10%) PMI Certification
9 27 (2.89%) Microsoft Certification
10 18 (1.93%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
12 16 (1.71%) Azure Certification
13 15 (1.60%) DBS Check
13 15 (1.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 14 (1.50%) CISSP
15 11 (1.18%) A+ Certification
15 11 (1.18%) CISM
16 10 (1.07%) CCNP
17 9 (0.96%) CCNA
18 8 (0.86%) BC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (7.49%) SLA
2 36 (3.85%) Data Quality
3 28 (2.99%) QA
4 27 (2.89%) GRC
5 26 (2.78%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 26 (2.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 22 (2.35%) GDPR
6 22 (2.35%) PMO
7 20 (2.14%) NCSC
8 15 (1.60%) ISO 9001
8 15 (1.60%) NIST
9 10 (1.07%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.96%) COBIT
10 9 (0.96%) Disclosure Scotland
11 8 (0.86%) WCAG
12 6 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.64%) ISO 31000
12 6 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 5 (0.53%) ISO 22301
13 5 (0.53%) JSP 440
System Software
1 108 (11.55%) Active Directory
2 60 (6.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (2.46%) VMware ESXi
4 22 (2.35%) Hyper-V
5 17 (1.82%) VMware NSX
6 16 (1.71%) BitLocker
7 15 (1.60%) Docker
7 15 (1.60%) Virtual Desktop
8 13 (1.39%) vCloud
8 13 (1.39%) vSphere
9 6 (0.64%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 6 (0.64%) Firmware
9 6 (0.64%) XenApp
9 6 (0.64%) XenDesktop
10 3 (0.32%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 3 (0.32%) NFS
10 3 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.21%) KVM
11 2 (0.21%) UAG
Systems Management
1 57 (6.10%) SCCM
2 51 (5.45%) Microsoft Intune
3 36 (3.85%) Ansible
4 20 (2.14%) SCOM
5 17 (1.82%) vCenter Server
6 14 (1.50%) Kubernetes
6 14 (1.50%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (0.64%) Jamf Pro
8 5 (0.53%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.43%) PowerCLI
9 4 (0.43%) vMotion
9 4 (0.43%) WSUS
10 3 (0.32%) Cisco Prime
10 3 (0.32%) Dell DRAC
10 3 (0.32%) NetBackup
10 3 (0.32%) OPNET
10 3 (0.32%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.32%) Tivoli
10 3 (0.32%) Tivoli Monitoring
10 3 (0.32%) vRealize
Vendors
1 230 (24.60%) ServiceNow
2 228 (24.39%) Microsoft
3 81 (8.66%) VMware
4 45 (4.81%) Remedy
5 33 (3.53%) BMC
6 30 (3.21%) Cisco
7 23 (2.46%) Oracle
8 20 (2.14%) CyberArk
9 17 (1.82%) Atlassian
10 16 (1.71%) IBM
11 15 (1.60%) Dynatrace
12 13 (1.39%) Citrix
12 13 (1.39%) SAP
12 13 (1.39%) SolarWinds
13 11 (1.18%) Splunk
14 10 (1.07%) Palo Alto
14 10 (1.07%) Qualys
14 10 (1.07%) Red Hat
15 9 (0.96%) Apple
15 9 (0.96%) IFS