Service Design Contract Job Trends in England

Service Design
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Service Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 171 233 256
Rank change year-on-year +62 +23 -80
Contract jobs citing Service Design 700 305 343
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.56% 1.12% 0.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.83% 1.24% 1.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 511 227 232
10th Percentile £400 £400 £405
25th Percentile £450 £450 £461
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% -2.27% -4.35%
75th Percentile £580 £638 £638
90th Percentile £700 £700 £736
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 2 10
10th Percentile £40.99 £53.35 -
25th Percentile £60.33 £56.36 £17.80
Median hourly rate £95.50 £62.06 £30.37
Median % change year-on-year +53.88% +104.36% -47.19%
75th Percentile £103.25 £67.09 £34.53
90th Percentile £106.25 £69.71 -
UK median hourly rate £95.50 £62.06 £30.37
% change year-on-year +53.88% +104.36% -47.19%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Service Design 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 England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 38,249 24,669 31,010
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.41% 90.67% 85.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,059 15,837 20,183
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £420 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £645
90th Percentile £735 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,360 1,307 2,114
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.26 £13.18
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.88 £16.30
Median hourly rate £47.00 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +86.88% -34.02% -8.14%
75th Percentile £68.75 £53.75 £63.67
90th Percentile £83.00 £71.33 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -5.88%

Service Design
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Service Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Service Design job vacancy trend in England

Service Design
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Service Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Service Design

Service Design
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Design in England over the 6 months to 17 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Service Design in England

Service Design
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Service Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Service Design

Service Design
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Service Design in England over the 6 months to 17 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Service Design in England

Service Design
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Service Design within the England region over the 6 months to 17 July 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
London +44 306 £520 -5.45% 61
North of England +14 137 £475 -4.23% 22
South East -4 114 £525 -2.33% 34
Midlands +4 76 £475 +5.56% 9
West Midlands -1 74 £475 +5.56% 9
Yorkshire +13 64 £500 -11.11% 9
North West -31 50 £475 - 10
South West -40 35 £583 +5.91% 10
North East -17 24 £420 -20.00% 4
East of England -26 6 £500 -9.09% 6
East Midlands - 2 £516 -
Service Design
UK

Service Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 29 (4.14%) Confluence
2 14 (2.00%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.14%) CMS
4 6 (0.86%) LiveCycle
5 2 (0.29%) Drupal
5 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.14%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.14%) Apache Solr
6 1 (0.14%) Mule
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Application Server
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Coherence
6 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.14%) Umbraco
Applications
1 13 (1.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 11 (1.57%) MS Visio
3 8 (1.14%) Sketch
4 5 (0.71%) Adobe XD
4 5 (0.71%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.29%) InVision
6 2 (0.29%) Trello
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.14%) Zeplin
Business Applications
1 4 (0.57%) SAP S/4HANA
1 4 (0.57%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 2 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.14%) Adobe Campaign
Cloud Services
1 52 (7.43%) Azure
2 41 (5.86%) AWS
3 37 (5.29%) Figma
4 26 (3.71%) SaaS
5 17 (2.43%) Microsoft 365
6 14 (2.00%) Miro
7 13 (1.86%) Power Platform
8 11 (1.57%) GitHub
9 10 (1.43%) Datadog
9 10 (1.43%) Microsoft Copilot
10 9 (1.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 9 (1.29%) Azure Monitor
11 7 (1.00%) Azure AI
12 5 (0.71%) Entra ID
12 5 (0.71%) PowerApps
13 4 (0.57%) Azure DevOps
13 4 (0.57%) Copilot Studio
13 4 (0.57%) OCI
14 3 (0.43%) Dynamics 365
14 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.86%) Cisco Nexus
1 6 (0.86%) Firewall
2 3 (0.43%) 2G
2 3 (0.43%) 3G
2 3 (0.43%) 3GPP
2 3 (0.43%) 4G
2 3 (0.43%) BGP
2 3 (0.43%) Diameter Protocol
2 3 (0.43%) Network Security
2 3 (0.43%) NX-OS
2 3 (0.43%) OSPF
2 3 (0.43%) SIGTRAN
2 3 (0.43%) SS7
2 3 (0.43%) VLAN
2 3 (0.43%) VPN
2 3 (0.43%) VXLAN
3 2 (0.29%) 5G
3 2 (0.29%) Radio Access Network
3 2 (0.29%) TETRA
3 2 (0.29%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.00%) Power BI
2 5 (0.71%) Metadata
3 4 (0.57%) Electronic Patient Records
3 4 (0.57%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.29%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.29%) Geospatial Data
4 2 (0.29%) Oracle Reports
4 2 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.14%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.14%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.14%) Looker
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Exadata
5 1 (0.14%) Power Query
5 1 (0.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 32 (4.57%) JIRA
2 8 (1.14%) Jenkins
3 5 (0.71%) Git
4 4 (0.57%) GitLab
5 3 (0.43%) Team Foundation Server
6 2 (0.29%) Appium
6 2 (0.29%) Postman
6 2 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.14%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.14%) Axure RP
7 1 (0.14%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.14%) JUnit
7 1 (0.14%) Maven
7 1 (0.14%) Mockito
7 1 (0.14%) NUnit
7 1 (0.14%) REST Assured
7 1 (0.14%) Selenium
7 1 (0.14%) Subversion
7 1 (0.14%) VersionOne
7 1 (0.14%) Vite
General
1 216 (30.86%) Social Skills
2 202 (28.86%) Public Sector
3 99 (14.14%) Finance
4 56 (8.00%) Analytical Skills
5 46 (6.57%) Influencing Skills
6 20 (2.86%) Banking
6 20 (2.86%) Presentation Skills
7 18 (2.57%) Documentation Skills
7 18 (2.57%) Retail
8 16 (2.29%) Telecoms
9 15 (2.14%) Legal
9 15 (2.14%) Organisational Skills
10 14 (2.00%) Military
11 13 (1.86%) Local Government
12 9 (1.29%) Financial Institution
13 8 (1.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (0.71%) Back Office
14 5 (0.71%) Law
14 5 (0.71%) Police
15 4 (0.57%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 277 (39.57%) Designer
2 213 (30.43%) Service Designer
3 84 (12.00%) Lead
4 78 (11.14%) Architect
5 68 (9.71%) User Researcher
6 64 (9.14%) Senior
7 53 (7.57%) Analyst
8 37 (5.29%) Business Analyst
9 33 (4.71%) Senior Designer
10 30 (4.29%) Service Manager
11 29 (4.14%) Service Architect
12 27 (3.86%) Lead Designer
13 26 (3.71%) Lead Service Designer
14 22 (3.14%) Consultant
14 22 (3.14%) Senior Service Designer
15 20 (2.86%) Interaction Designer
15 20 (2.86%) Service Design Manager
15 20 (2.86%) Service Transition Manager
15 20 (2.86%) Transition Manager
16 17 (2.43%) Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (2.00%) REST
2 12 (1.71%) SOAP
3 8 (1.14%) HTML
3 8 (1.14%) RESTful
4 6 (0.86%) .NET
4 6 (0.86%) CSS
4 6 (0.86%) Web Services
5 5 (0.71%) Microsoft Graph
5 5 (0.71%) STL
6 4 (0.57%) Spring Boot
6 4 (0.57%) VML
7 3 (0.43%) Node.js
7 3 (0.43%) Playwright
7 3 (0.43%) Spring
7 3 (0.43%) Swagger
8 2 (0.29%) GeoJSON
8 2 (0.29%) NestJS
8 2 (0.29%) OpenAPI
8 2 (0.29%) React Native
8 2 (0.29%) TanStack
Miscellaneous
1 53 (7.57%) Onboarding
2 48 (6.86%) Product Ownership
3 28 (4.00%) CMDB
4 24 (3.43%) NHS
5 16 (2.29%) Cloud Native
6 14 (2.00%) Data Centre
6 14 (2.00%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (1.71%) AI Agents
8 11 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
9 7 (1.00%) Management Information System
10 6 (0.86%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (0.86%) Virtual Team
11 5 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (0.71%) Security Posture
11 5 (0.71%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (0.71%) Taxonomies
12 3 (0.43%) Celerra
12 3 (0.43%) EMC Centera
12 3 (0.43%) Replication
12 3 (0.43%) Symmetrix
Operating Systems
1 5 (0.71%) Windows
2 2 (0.29%) Android
2 2 (0.29%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.14%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) MVS
3 1 (0.14%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 271 (38.71%) Agile
2 196 (28.00%) User Research
3 141 (20.14%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
4 139 (19.86%) ITIL
4 139 (19.86%) Stakeholder Management
5 120 (17.14%) Continuous Improvement
6 115 (16.43%) Workshop Facilitation
7 113 (16.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 109 (15.57%) Journey Map
9 108 (15.43%) User Experience
10 94 (13.43%) Roadmaps
11 93 (13.29%) Decision-Making
12 81 (11.57%) Service Management
13 69 (9.86%) UX Design
14 65 (9.29%) Interaction Design
15 64 (9.14%) AI
16 61 (8.71%) Problem-Solving
17 60 (8.57%) Collaborative Working
18 59 (8.43%) ITSM
19 52 (7.43%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 15 (2.14%) SQL
2 9 (1.29%) PowerShell
3 8 (1.14%) JavaScript
4 7 (1.00%) Java
5 6 (0.86%) Bash
5 6 (0.86%) Python
6 4 (0.57%) C#
6 4 (0.57%) T-SQL
7 3 (0.43%) Kusto Query Language
8 2 (0.29%) Bicep
9 1 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.14%) DataWeave
9 1 (0.14%) Go
9 1 (0.14%) Groovy
9 1 (0.14%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.14%) Scala
9 1 (0.14%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 226 (32.29%) Security Cleared
2 163 (23.29%) SC Cleared
3 59 (8.43%) DV Cleared
4 45 (6.43%) BPSS Clearance
5 29 (4.14%) Degree
6 15 (2.14%) ITIL Certification
7 5 (0.71%) AWS Certification
8 4 (0.57%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 4 (0.57%) TOGAF Certification
9 3 (0.43%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.43%) CISM
9 3 (0.43%) CISSP
9 3 (0.43%) CRISC
9 3 (0.43%) IIBA
10 2 (0.29%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 2 (0.29%) CTC Cleared
10 2 (0.29%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.14%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.14%) CSPO
11 1 (0.14%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 119 (17.00%) Accessibility
2 27 (3.86%) WCAG
3 19 (2.71%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 18 (2.57%) QA
5 13 (1.86%) SLA
6 12 (1.71%) NCSC
7 11 (1.57%) Actionable Recommendations
8 10 (1.43%) Data Quality
9 8 (1.14%) GDPR
10 7 (1.00%) Government Security Classifications
11 6 (0.86%) PMO
12 4 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
13 3 (0.43%) COBIT
13 3 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 3 (0.43%) NIST
14 2 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.29%) GRC
15 1 (0.14%) FINRA
15 1 (0.14%) ISO 31000
15 1 (0.14%) MiFID
System Software
1 12 (1.71%) IAG
2 5 (0.71%) Docker
3 3 (0.43%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.43%) EMC RecoverPoint
3 3 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.14%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 16 (2.29%) Ansible
2 12 (1.71%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.14%) Terraform
4 3 (0.43%) Avamar
4 3 (0.43%) EMC VPLEX
5 2 (0.29%) Grafana
5 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.14%) Argo
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.14%) SysTrack
Vendors
1 54 (7.71%) ServiceNow
2 36 (5.14%) Microsoft
3 10 (1.43%) Adobe
3 10 (1.43%) SAP
4 8 (1.14%) Nexthink
5 7 (1.00%) Cisco
5 7 (1.00%) Oracle
6 6 (0.86%) Dynatrace
6 6 (0.86%) Foundry
7 5 (0.71%) Google
7 5 (0.71%) Salesforce
8 4 (0.57%) IBM
8 4 (0.57%) Sparx
8 4 (0.57%) Virgin Media
9 3 (0.43%) 3PAR
9 3 (0.43%) Brocade
9 3 (0.43%) EMC
9 3 (0.43%) F5
9 3 (0.43%) NetApp
9 3 (0.43%) Veeam