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 22 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 184 270 185
Rank change year-on-year +86 -85 +48
Contract jobs citing Service Design 514 228 491
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.48% 0.88% 1.29%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.69% 0.98% 1.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 403 151 365
10th Percentile £358 £413 £394
25th Percentile £413 £490 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £631 £638 £625
90th Percentile £738 £725 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -6.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 2 7
10th Percentile £37.19 £32.07 £29.52
25th Percentile - £32.89 £31.60
Median hourly rate £60.00 £34.26 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +75.13% +3.61% -
75th Percentile £95.00 £35.63 £53.71
90th Percentile £97.00 £36.45 £72.90
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £34.26 £33.07
% change year-on-year +75.13% +3.61% -

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 30,350 23,294 33,147
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.25% 90.10% 87.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,414 14,536 22,024
10th Percentile £313 £309 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £617 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,891 752 2,034
10th Percentile £15.22 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.21 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.26% - -
75th Percentile £63.32 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.48 £72.68
UK median hourly rate £25.77 £32.81 £35.00
% change year-on-year -21.46% -6.26% -

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 22 February 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 22 February 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 22 February 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 +50 207 £500 -8.30% 56
North of England +20 120 £500 +5.26% 45
South West +14 62 £725 +31.82% 16
North West +12 60 £451 -5.00% 21
Midlands -15 51 £525 -4.55% 19
South East -19 45 £485 -11.82% 36
West Midlands -31 45 £493 -10.39% 14
Yorkshire -28 34 £550 - 13
North East +3 26 £454 +0.89% 11
East of England -20 8 £550 -19.71% 9
East Midlands - 6 £581 - 5
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 47 (9.14%) Confluence
2 14 (2.72%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.36%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.39%) Appian
5 1 (0.19%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.19%) Drupal
5 1 (0.19%) LiveCycle
5 1 (0.19%) Mule
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 45 (8.75%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (5.84%) Microsoft Project
3 16 (3.11%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.95%) Adobe XD
4 10 (1.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.95%) Sketch
5 5 (0.97%) InVision
6 4 (0.78%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.78%) Trello
7 3 (0.58%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 3 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.58%) Zeplin
8 2 (0.39%) Adobe After Effects
8 2 (0.39%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (1.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.17%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.19%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle Payroll
5 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 41 (7.98%) Figma
2 37 (7.20%) Azure
3 22 (4.28%) Power Platform
4 20 (3.89%) AWS
5 12 (2.33%) Microsoft 365
5 12 (2.33%) SaaS
6 11 (2.14%) Miro
7 9 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (1.56%) GCP
8 8 (1.56%) Google Analytics
8 8 (1.56%) Google Tag Manager
9 7 (1.36%) OneDrive
10 4 (0.78%) IaaS
10 4 (0.78%) OpenShift
10 4 (0.78%) PaaS
11 3 (0.58%) Amazon S3
11 3 (0.58%) AWS CloudFormation
11 3 (0.58%) Boomi
11 3 (0.58%) Entra ID
11 3 (0.58%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.78%) WAN
2 3 (0.58%) VPN
3 2 (0.39%) Internet
3 2 (0.39%) LAN
4 1 (0.19%) Cisco ISE
4 1 (0.19%) DNS
4 1 (0.19%) Firewall
4 1 (0.19%) SD-WAN
4 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
4 1 (0.19%) WebEx
4 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.19%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (3.31%) Power BI
2 7 (1.36%) BigQuery
2 7 (1.36%) Looker
3 3 (0.58%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.58%) Tableau
4 1 (0.19%) EDRMS
4 1 (0.19%) Metadata
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Exadata
4 1 (0.19%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 61 (11.87%) JIRA
2 8 (1.56%) Axure RP
3 7 (1.36%) GitLab
4 5 (0.97%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.39%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.39%) Postman
5 2 (0.39%) Selenium
6 1 (0.19%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.19%) JMeter
6 1 (0.19%) JUnit
6 1 (0.19%) Mocha
6 1 (0.19%) Mockito
6 1 (0.19%) REST Assured
6 1 (0.19%) Zephyr
General
1 183 (35.60%) Social Skills
2 169 (32.88%) Public Sector
3 65 (12.65%) Analytical Skills
4 51 (9.92%) Finance
5 35 (6.81%) Military
6 27 (5.25%) Influencing Skills
7 17 (3.31%) Presentation Skills
8 13 (2.53%) Legal
9 12 (2.33%) Banking
9 12 (2.33%) Local Government
10 11 (2.14%) Retail
11 9 (1.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (1.17%) Law
12 6 (1.17%) Marketing
13 5 (0.97%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.58%) Digital Healthcare
14 3 (0.58%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.39%) Documentation Skills
15 2 (0.39%) Police
Job Titles
1 176 (34.24%) Designer
2 140 (27.24%) Service Designer
3 97 (18.87%) Architect
4 61 (11.87%) Senior
5 58 (11.28%) Analyst
5 58 (11.28%) Lead
6 56 (10.89%) Service Architect
7 47 (9.14%) User Researcher
8 43 (8.37%) Business Analyst
9 30 (5.84%) Service Manager
10 27 (5.25%) Senior Designer
11 22 (4.28%) Senior Service Designer
12 18 (3.50%) UX Designer
13 17 (3.31%) Lead Designer
13 17 (3.31%) Lead Service Designer
13 17 (3.31%) Service Design Manager
14 15 (2.92%) Senior Analyst
14 15 (2.92%) Service Transition Manager
14 15 (2.92%) Transition Manager
15 14 (2.72%) Interaction Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.56%) HTML
2 6 (1.17%) CSS
3 4 (0.78%) Oracle Fusion
3 4 (0.78%) REST
3 4 (0.78%) SailPoint
3 4 (0.78%) Spring
3 4 (0.78%) Spring Boot
4 3 (0.58%) .NET
4 3 (0.58%) AngularJS
4 3 (0.58%) Django
4 3 (0.58%) FastAPI
4 3 (0.58%) Flask
4 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Graph
4 3 (0.58%) OAuth
4 3 (0.58%) RESTful
4 3 (0.58%) Vue
5 2 (0.39%) FHIR
5 2 (0.39%) Framer.js
5 2 (0.39%) Model Context Protocol
5 2 (0.39%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 51 (9.92%) Product Ownership
2 20 (3.89%) NHS
3 11 (2.14%) Onboarding
4 10 (1.95%) Cloud Native
4 10 (1.95%) Legacy Systems
5 8 (1.56%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (1.56%) Management Information System
6 6 (1.17%) AI Agents
6 6 (1.17%) Data Centre
7 4 (0.78%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (0.78%) IVR
7 4 (0.78%) Mobile App
8 3 (0.58%) Hackathon
8 3 (0.58%) PMI
8 3 (0.58%) Taxonomies
9 2 (0.39%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (0.39%) Shadow IT
9 2 (0.39%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 2 (0.39%) Virtual Reality
9 2 (0.39%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 6 (1.17%) Windows
2 4 (0.78%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.19%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 232 (45.14%) Agile
2 151 (29.38%) User Research
3 123 (23.93%) ITIL
4 107 (20.82%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 93 (18.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 91 (17.70%) Service Management
6 91 (17.70%) User Experience
6 91 (17.70%) Workshop Facilitation
7 76 (14.79%) Journey Map
8 73 (14.20%) Roadmaps
8 73 (14.20%) Stakeholder Management
9 69 (13.42%) Continuous Improvement
10 61 (11.87%) Acceptance Criteria
11 60 (11.67%) Service Delivery
11 60 (11.67%) UX Design
12 56 (10.89%) Prototyping
13 54 (10.51%) Decision-Making
14 52 (10.12%) Usability Testing
15 46 (8.95%) Problem-Solving
16 43 (8.37%) Critical Thinking
Programming Languages
1 7 (1.36%) Java
2 6 (1.17%) JavaScript
3 5 (0.97%) Python
3 5 (0.97%) SQL
4 4 (0.78%) PowerShell
5 3 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (0.39%) C#
6 2 (0.39%) PL/SQL
6 2 (0.39%) T-SQL
6 2 (0.39%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.19%) DataWeave
7 1 (0.19%) Groovy
7 1 (0.19%) R
7 1 (0.19%) Scala
Qualifications
1 173 (33.66%) Security Cleared
2 145 (28.21%) SC Cleared
3 54 (10.51%) Degree
4 36 (7.00%) TOGAF Certification
5 18 (3.50%) DV Cleared
5 18 (3.50%) ITIL Certification
6 15 (2.92%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (1.56%) Azure Certification
8 6 (1.17%) AWS Certification
9 4 (0.78%) PMI Certification
10 3 (0.58%) CISM
10 3 (0.58%) CISSP
11 2 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.39%) CRISC
12 1 (0.19%) APMG
12 1 (0.19%) CSPO
12 1 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
12 1 (0.19%) IIBA
12 1 (0.19%) Six Sigma Green Belt
12 1 (0.19%) Six Sigma Yellow Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (20.82%) Accessibility
2 26 (5.06%) WCAG
3 17 (3.31%) QA
4 11 (2.14%) Data Quality
5 10 (1.95%) Actionable Recommendations
6 7 (1.36%) GDPR
6 7 (1.36%) SLA
7 6 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.97%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 4 (0.78%) COBIT
10 3 (0.58%) GRC
10 3 (0.58%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.39%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.39%) NIST
11 2 (0.39%) PMO
12 1 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.19%) FINRA
12 1 (0.19%) MiFID
12 1 (0.19%) NCSC
12 1 (0.19%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 6 (1.17%) Docker
2 3 (0.58%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.19%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 30 (5.84%) OPNET
2 10 (1.95%) Kubernetes
3 7 (1.36%) Terraform
4 5 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (0.58%) vRealize
6 1 (0.19%) Ansible
6 1 (0.19%) Grafana
6 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.19%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.19%) SCCM
6 1 (0.19%) VxRail
Vendors
1 51 (9.92%) ServiceNow
2 44 (8.56%) Microsoft
3 36 (7.00%) Remedy
4 30 (5.84%) Atlassian
5 14 (2.72%) Adobe
6 11 (2.14%) SAP
6 11 (2.14%) VMware
7 10 (1.95%) Oracle
8 9 (1.75%) Google
9 6 (1.17%) Cisco
9 6 (1.17%) Salesforce
10 5 (0.97%) UiPath
11 4 (0.78%) Workday
12 3 (0.58%) Foundry
12 3 (0.58%) Genesys
12 3 (0.58%) Palo Alto
12 3 (0.58%) Zscaler
13 2 (0.39%) MuleSoft
13 2 (0.39%) Red Hat
14 1 (0.19%) BMC