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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 189 213 270
Rank change year-on-year +24 +57 -82
Contract jobs citing Service Design 698 368 277
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.50% 1.32% 0.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.77% 1.46% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 281 166
10th Percentile £411 £383 £413
25th Percentile £460 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £533 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.41% -3.18% -4.35%
75th Percentile £588 £590 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £713
UK median daily rate £520 £513 £550
% change year-on-year +1.46% -6.82% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 11 3
10th Percentile £15.89 £31.49 £27.88
25th Percentile £60.50 £55.67 £30.08
Median hourly rate £62.00 £60.00 £33.75
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% +77.78% -41.30%
75th Percentile £62.88 - £35.38
90th Percentile £71.21 - £36.35
UK median hourly rate £62.00 £60.00 £33.75
% change year-on-year +3.33% +77.78% -41.30%

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 39,443 25,283 28,060
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.68% 90.86% 86.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,053 16,051 17,283
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £423
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £645
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,841 1,529 1,252
10th Percentile £13.99 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.72 £17.87 £20.09
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -2.39%
75th Percentile £67.84 £47.12 £66.61
90th Percentile £79.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -

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 24 September 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 24 September 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 24 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
London +21 324 £525 - 277
North of England -12 125 £475 - 100
South East -17 111 £550 +2.33% 68
Midlands -1 61 £487 +8.47% 51
Yorkshire +7 56 £475 -7.32% 33
West Midlands -4 56 £500 +11.48% 40
North West -47 47 £475 +2.70% 58
South West -23 44 £575 +4.55% 39
North East -30 22 £420 -16.00% 9
East of England -35 7 £525 -4.55% 27
East Midlands - 5 £447 - 11
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 36 (5.16%) Confluence
2 10 (1.43%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.00%) CMS
4 5 (0.72%) LiveCycle
5 1 (0.14%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.14%) Drupal
5 1 (0.14%) nginx
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Coherence
5 1 (0.14%) Umbraco
Applications
1 12 (1.72%) MS Visio
2 10 (1.43%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.86%) Adobe XD
4 6 (0.86%) Sketch
5 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.14%) Gliffy
6 1 (0.14%) InVision
6 1 (0.14%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 5 (0.72%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 3 (0.43%) Exchequer
3 2 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.29%) SAP CX
4 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.14%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 56 (8.02%) Azure
2 50 (7.16%) AWS
3 40 (5.73%) Figma
4 30 (4.30%) SaaS
5 23 (3.30%) Miro
6 17 (2.44%) GitHub
7 16 (2.29%) Datadog
8 14 (2.01%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 14 (2.01%) Power Platform
9 13 (1.86%) Azure Monitor
9 13 (1.86%) Microsoft 365
10 8 (1.15%) Microsoft Copilot
10 8 (1.15%) Serverless
11 7 (1.00%) AWS Lambda
11 7 (1.00%) GCP
12 6 (0.86%) Amazon S3
12 6 (0.86%) Azure AI
12 6 (0.86%) Azure DevOps
13 4 (0.57%) Copilot Studio
13 4 (0.57%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.29%) Firewall
2 7 (1.00%) Cisco Nexus
3 5 (0.72%) Network Security
4 4 (0.57%) 2G
4 4 (0.57%) 3G
4 4 (0.57%) 4G
4 4 (0.57%) BGP
4 4 (0.57%) Diameter Protocol
4 4 (0.57%) OSPF
4 4 (0.57%) SIGTRAN
4 4 (0.57%) SS7
4 4 (0.57%) VPN
4 4 (0.57%) VXLAN
4 4 (0.57%) WAN
5 3 (0.43%) NX-OS
5 3 (0.43%) VLAN
6 2 (0.29%) Broadband
6 2 (0.29%) LAN
6 2 (0.29%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.29%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.15%) Power BI
2 6 (0.86%) Metadata
3 3 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (0.43%) DynamoDB
4 2 (0.29%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.29%) Geospatial Data
4 2 (0.29%) Oracle Database
4 2 (0.29%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.14%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.14%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.14%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.14%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.14%) Power Query
5 1 (0.14%) Redis
5 1 (0.14%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.14%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 37 (5.30%) JIRA
2 7 (1.00%) Git
3 6 (0.86%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.72%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.43%) GitLab
6 2 (0.29%) Appium
6 2 (0.29%) Maven
6 2 (0.29%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.29%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.14%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.14%) NUnit
7 1 (0.14%) Postman
7 1 (0.14%) Selenium
7 1 (0.14%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.14%) Vite
General
1 247 (35.39%) Social Skills
2 197 (28.22%) Public Sector
3 100 (14.33%) Finance
4 65 (9.31%) Analytical Skills
5 54 (7.74%) Influencing Skills
6 26 (3.72%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (3.15%) Banking
7 22 (3.15%) Military
7 22 (3.15%) Retail
8 19 (2.72%) Organisational Skills
9 18 (2.58%) Local Government
9 18 (2.58%) Telecoms
10 17 (2.44%) Legal
10 17 (2.44%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (0.86%) Back Office
11 6 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (0.86%) Law
11 6 (0.86%) Publishing
12 5 (0.72%) Automotive
12 5 (0.72%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 248 (35.53%) Designer
2 188 (26.93%) Service Designer
3 93 (13.32%) Architect
4 82 (11.75%) Lead
5 71 (10.17%) User Researcher
6 66 (9.46%) Senior
7 48 (6.88%) Analyst
8 45 (6.45%) Service Architect
9 34 (4.87%) Business Analyst
10 29 (4.15%) Service Manager
11 28 (4.01%) Senior Designer
12 21 (3.01%) Product Manager
12 21 (3.01%) Service Transition Manager
12 21 (3.01%) Solutions Architect
12 21 (3.01%) Transition Manager
13 19 (2.72%) Senior Service Designer
14 18 (2.58%) Consultant
14 18 (2.58%) Service Owner
15 17 (2.44%) Service Design Manager
16 16 (2.29%) Interaction Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.58%) Terraform
2 9 (1.29%) REST
3 7 (1.00%) RESTful
4 6 (0.86%) HTML
5 5 (0.72%) Web Services
6 4 (0.57%) .NET
6 4 (0.57%) CSS
6 4 (0.57%) SOAP
6 4 (0.57%) STL
6 4 (0.57%) Swagger
6 4 (0.57%) VML
7 3 (0.43%) Node.js
7 3 (0.43%) OpenAPI
8 2 (0.29%) Kafka
8 2 (0.29%) Middleware
8 2 (0.29%) NestJS
8 2 (0.29%) Oracle Fusion
8 2 (0.29%) Playwright
8 2 (0.29%) Spring Boot
8 2 (0.29%) TanStack
Miscellaneous
1 56 (8.02%) Onboarding
2 48 (6.88%) Product Ownership
3 30 (4.30%) CMDB
4 25 (3.58%) Cloud Native
5 20 (2.87%) NHS
6 15 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (1.58%) AI Agents
8 10 (1.43%) Data Centre
9 9 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (1.15%) Management Information System
10 8 (1.15%) Taxonomies
11 7 (1.00%) Analytical Mindset
11 7 (1.00%) Greenfield Project
12 6 (0.86%) Distributed Systems
12 6 (0.86%) Virtual Team
13 5 (0.72%) Self-Motivation
14 4 (0.57%) Hybrid Cloud
14 4 (0.57%) Mobile App
14 4 (0.57%) Reference Data
15 3 (0.43%) IBM XIV
Operating Systems
1 10 (1.43%) Windows
2 7 (1.00%) Unix
3 6 (0.86%) Linux
4 3 (0.43%) Android
4 3 (0.43%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.29%) VMS
6 1 (0.14%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.14%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 261 (37.39%) Agile
2 188 (26.93%) Stakeholder Management
3 182 (26.07%) User Research
4 152 (21.78%) ITIL
4 152 (21.78%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 137 (19.63%) Workshop Facilitation
6 136 (19.48%) Continuous Improvement
7 135 (19.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 117 (16.76%) Decision-Making
9 111 (15.90%) Service Management
10 108 (15.47%) Journey Map
11 102 (14.61%) User Experience
12 92 (13.18%) Roadmaps
13 77 (11.03%) AI
14 69 (9.89%) Interaction Design
15 68 (9.74%) Digital Transformation Programme
16 65 (9.31%) ITSM
16 65 (9.31%) Problem-Solving
17 61 (8.74%) Qualitative Research
17 61 (8.74%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 14 (2.01%) SQL
2 6 (0.86%) Bash
2 6 (0.86%) Python
3 5 (0.72%) Java
3 5 (0.72%) JavaScript
4 4 (0.57%) PowerShell
5 3 (0.43%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.29%) Bicep
6 2 (0.29%) C#
6 2 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 2 (0.29%) Groovy
7 1 (0.14%) Go
7 1 (0.14%) Kotlin
7 1 (0.14%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.14%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 256 (36.68%) Security Cleared
2 169 (24.21%) SC Cleared
3 63 (9.03%) DV Cleared
4 48 (6.88%) BPSS Clearance
5 23 (3.30%) ITIL Certification
6 15 (2.15%) Degree
7 3 (0.43%) Master's Degree
8 2 (0.29%) AWS Certification
8 2 (0.29%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 2 (0.29%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.29%) CTC Cleared
8 2 (0.29%) IIBA
8 2 (0.29%) PMI Certification
8 2 (0.29%) SANS
8 2 (0.29%) TOGAF Certification
9 1 (0.14%) APMG
9 1 (0.14%) CBAP
9 1 (0.14%) CRISC
9 1 (0.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 108 (15.47%) Accessibility
2 25 (3.58%) WCAG
3 22 (3.15%) QA
4 20 (2.87%) Actionable Recommendations
4 20 (2.87%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 20 (2.87%) SLA
5 12 (1.72%) Data Quality
6 6 (0.86%) GDPR
7 5 (0.72%) PMO
8 4 (0.57%) NCSC
9 3 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 3 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 3 (0.43%) NIST
10 1 (0.14%) COBIT
10 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.14%) GRC
10 1 (0.14%) GxP
10 1 (0.14%) ISO 31000
10 1 (0.14%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.14%) PERC
System Software
1 17 (2.44%) IAG
2 8 (1.15%) Docker
3 5 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (0.57%) Active Directory
5 3 (0.43%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 3 (0.43%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.29%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 20 (2.87%) Ansible
2 19 (2.72%) Kubernetes
3 5 (0.72%) Grafana
4 3 (0.43%) Avamar
4 3 (0.43%) EMC VPLEX
5 2 (0.29%) BMC PATROL
5 2 (0.29%) BMC Performance Manager
5 2 (0.29%) Istio
5 2 (0.29%) Perfmon
5 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.14%) Argo
6 1 (0.14%) Kibana
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.14%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.14%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.14%) Puppet
Vendors
1 66 (9.46%) ServiceNow
2 29 (4.15%) Microsoft
3 11 (1.58%) Nexthink
3 11 (1.58%) Salesforce
4 10 (1.43%) Dynatrace
4 10 (1.43%) SAP
5 9 (1.29%) Adobe
5 9 (1.29%) Cisco
5 9 (1.29%) Google
6 7 (1.00%) Oracle
7 5 (0.72%) BMC
7 5 (0.72%) F5
7 5 (0.72%) Foundry
7 5 (0.72%) Sparx
8 4 (0.57%) AppDynamics
8 4 (0.57%) Atlassian
8 4 (0.57%) IBM
8 4 (0.57%) Virgin Media
8 4 (0.57%) VMware
9 3 (0.43%) Brocade