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 13 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 189 203 276
Rank change year-on-year +14 +73 -93
Contract jobs citing Service Design 722 377 279
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.55% 1.35% 0.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.83% 1.49% 1.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 506 288 166
10th Percentile £408 £371 £413
25th Percentile £460 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £529 £545
Median % change year-on-year -0.71% -2.98% -7.23%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £638
90th Percentile £725 £678 £713
UK median daily rate £515 £523 £550
% change year-on-year -1.44% -5.00% -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 12 3
10th Percentile £15.89 £33.47 £27.88
25th Percentile £61.00 £57.83 £30.08
Median hourly rate £62.00 £60.00 £33.75
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% +77.78% -
75th Percentile £63.00 - £35.38
90th Percentile £72.29 £70.31 £36.35
UK median hourly rate £62.00 £60.00 £33.75
% change year-on-year +3.33% +77.78% -

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 39,523 25,365 27,653
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.90% 90.87% 86.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,845 16,097 16,849
10th Percentile £325 £293 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,022 1,590 1,111
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.36 £17.87 £20.27
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -40.82% -5.56%
75th Percentile £67.44 £44.80 £66.80
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.28 £74.44
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%

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 13 October 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 13 October 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 13 October 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 +39 334 £525 - 200
North of England -4 140 £475 - 94
South East -19 115 £600 +11.63% 61
North West -38 59 £475 +2.70% 53
Yorkshire +7 58 £475 -6.17% 30
Midlands -6 57 £492 +10.07% 36
West Midlands -18 51 £500 +11.86% 27
South West -12 43 £575 +5.75% 31
North East -30 23 £420 -16.00% 11
East Midlands - 6 £425 - 9
East of England -32 5 £563 +2.27% 20
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 37 (5.12%) Confluence
2 10 (1.39%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.25%) CMS
4 1 (0.14%) Apache Superset
4 1 (0.14%) Drupal
4 1 (0.14%) nginx
4 1 (0.14%) Oracle Coherence
4 1 (0.14%) Umbraco
Applications
1 14 (1.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.80%) MS Visio
3 12 (1.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.69%) Adobe XD
5 4 (0.55%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 4 (0.55%) Sketch
6 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
8 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.14%) Gliffy
8 1 (0.14%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 5 (0.69%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 3 (0.42%) Exchequer
3 2 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.28%) SAP CX
4 1 (0.14%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 51 (7.06%) Azure
2 46 (6.37%) Figma
3 44 (6.09%) AWS
4 25 (3.46%) SaaS
5 24 (3.32%) Miro
6 18 (2.49%) Power Platform
7 17 (2.35%) GitHub
8 16 (2.22%) Datadog
9 15 (2.08%) Microsoft 365
10 14 (1.94%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 12 (1.66%) Azure Monitor
12 8 (1.11%) Azure DevOps
12 8 (1.11%) Microsoft Copilot
12 8 (1.11%) Serverless
13 7 (0.97%) Amazon S3
13 7 (0.97%) AWS Lambda
13 7 (0.97%) GCP
14 5 (0.69%) Azure AI
14 5 (0.69%) Entra ID
15 4 (0.55%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.11%) Firewall
2 6 (0.83%) Network Security
3 5 (0.69%) Cisco Nexus
4 4 (0.55%) BGP
4 4 (0.55%) OSPF
4 4 (0.55%) VXLAN
4 4 (0.55%) WAN
5 3 (0.42%) 2G
5 3 (0.42%) 3G
5 3 (0.42%) 4G
5 3 (0.42%) Diameter Protocol
5 3 (0.42%) NX-OS
5 3 (0.42%) SIGTRAN
5 3 (0.42%) SS7
5 3 (0.42%) Unified Communications
5 3 (0.42%) VLAN
5 3 (0.42%) VPN
6 2 (0.28%) Radio Access Network
6 2 (0.28%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.28%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.66%) Power BI
2 6 (0.83%) Metadata
3 4 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.42%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
5 2 (0.28%) Geospatial Data
5 2 (0.28%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.14%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.14%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.14%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.14%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.14%) Power Query
6 1 (0.14%) Redis
6 1 (0.14%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.14%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 38 (5.26%) JIRA
2 8 (1.11%) Git
2 8 (1.11%) Jenkins
3 4 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
4 3 (0.42%) GitLab
4 3 (0.42%) Maven
4 3 (0.42%) SonarQube
5 2 (0.28%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.14%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.14%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.14%) Vite
General
1 251 (34.76%) Social Skills
2 225 (31.16%) Public Sector
3 102 (14.13%) Finance
4 68 (9.42%) Analytical Skills
5 60 (8.31%) Influencing Skills
6 27 (3.74%) Documentation Skills
7 23 (3.19%) Military
8 22 (3.05%) Banking
9 20 (2.77%) Local Government
9 20 (2.77%) Organisational Skills
9 20 (2.77%) Retail
10 18 (2.49%) Presentation Skills
10 18 (2.49%) Telecoms
11 17 (2.35%) Legal
12 8 (1.11%) Publishing
13 6 (0.83%) Back Office
14 5 (0.69%) Automotive
14 5 (0.69%) Financial Institution
14 5 (0.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (0.69%) Law
Job Titles
1 239 (33.10%) Designer
2 183 (25.35%) Service Designer
3 96 (13.30%) Architect
4 86 (11.91%) Lead
5 80 (11.08%) User Researcher
6 78 (10.80%) Senior
7 49 (6.79%) Service Architect
8 48 (6.65%) Analyst
9 37 (5.12%) Business Analyst
10 31 (4.29%) Service Manager
11 30 (4.16%) Senior Designer
12 28 (3.88%) Product Manager
13 23 (3.19%) Service Transition Manager
13 23 (3.19%) Transition Manager
14 22 (3.05%) Solutions Architect
15 20 (2.77%) Consultant
15 20 (2.77%) Senior Service Designer
16 19 (2.63%) Service Design Manager
17 18 (2.49%) Service Transition Leader
18 17 (2.35%) Service Owner
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.80%) Terraform
2 6 (0.83%) REST
2 6 (0.83%) RESTful
3 4 (0.55%) Swagger
3 4 (0.55%) VML
3 4 (0.55%) Web Services
4 3 (0.42%) .NET
4 3 (0.42%) CSS
4 3 (0.42%) OpenAPI
4 3 (0.42%) STL
5 2 (0.28%) GeoJSON
5 2 (0.28%) GraphQL
5 2 (0.28%) HTML
5 2 (0.28%) Kafka
5 2 (0.28%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (0.28%) SOAP
6 1 (0.14%) .NET Core
6 1 (0.14%) gRPC
6 1 (0.14%) Lightning Web Components
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 52 (7.20%) Onboarding
1 52 (7.20%) Product Ownership
2 25 (3.46%) Cloud Native
2 25 (3.46%) CMDB
3 21 (2.91%) NHS
4 14 (1.94%) Legacy Systems
5 12 (1.66%) AI Agents
6 9 (1.25%) Data Centre
6 9 (1.25%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (1.11%) Mobile App
7 8 (1.11%) Taxonomies
8 7 (0.97%) Analytical Mindset
8 7 (0.97%) Distributed Systems
8 7 (0.97%) Management Information System
8 7 (0.97%) Virtual Team
9 5 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
9 5 (0.69%) Self-Motivation
10 4 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (0.55%) Public Cloud
10 4 (0.55%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 9 (1.25%) Unix
1 9 (1.25%) Windows
2 8 (1.11%) Linux
3 4 (0.55%) Android
3 4 (0.55%) Apple iOS
4 3 (0.42%) VMS
5 1 (0.14%) macOS
5 1 (0.14%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 289 (40.03%) Agile
2 216 (29.92%) Stakeholder Management
3 188 (26.04%) User Research
4 164 (22.71%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 151 (20.91%) ITIL
6 150 (20.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 148 (20.50%) Workshop Facilitation
8 139 (19.25%) Continuous Improvement
9 122 (16.90%) Decision-Making
10 117 (16.20%) User Experience
11 114 (15.79%) Service Management
12 111 (15.37%) Journey Map
13 101 (13.99%) Roadmaps
14 82 (11.36%) AI
15 75 (10.39%) Service Delivery
16 73 (10.11%) Actionable Insight
17 72 (9.97%) Problem-Solving
18 69 (9.56%) Digital Transformation Programme
19 68 (9.42%) Interaction Design
19 68 (9.42%) UX Design
Programming Languages
1 13 (1.80%) SQL
2 8 (1.11%) Python
3 7 (0.97%) Bash
3 7 (0.97%) Java
4 4 (0.55%) PowerShell
4 4 (0.55%) Shell Script
5 3 (0.42%) Groovy
5 3 (0.42%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.28%) Bicep
6 2 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 1 (0.14%) C#
7 1 (0.14%) Go
7 1 (0.14%) Kotlin
7 1 (0.14%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 265 (36.70%) Security Cleared
2 171 (23.68%) SC Cleared
3 62 (8.59%) DV Cleared
4 46 (6.37%) BPSS Clearance
5 24 (3.32%) ITIL Certification
6 15 (2.08%) Degree
7 3 (0.42%) Master's Degree
8 2 (0.28%) AWS Certification
8 2 (0.28%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 2 (0.28%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.28%) CTC Cleared
8 2 (0.28%) DBS Check
8 2 (0.28%) IIBA
8 2 (0.28%) PMI Certification
8 2 (0.28%) SANS
8 2 (0.28%) TOGAF Certification
9 1 (0.14%) APMG
9 1 (0.14%) CRISC
9 1 (0.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 121 (16.76%) Accessibility
2 30 (4.16%) Actionable Recommendations
3 26 (3.60%) WCAG
4 25 (3.46%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 18 (2.49%) QA
6 17 (2.35%) SLA
7 11 (1.52%) Data Quality
8 9 (1.25%) PMO
9 5 (0.69%) GDPR
10 4 (0.55%) NCSC
11 3 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.42%) NIST
12 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 1 (0.14%) COBIT
13 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials
13 1 (0.14%) GRC
13 1 (0.14%) GxP
13 1 (0.14%) ISO 31000
13 1 (0.14%) ISO 9001
13 1 (0.14%) PERC
System Software
1 14 (1.94%) IAG
2 9 (1.25%) Docker
3 5 (0.69%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (0.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.14%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 1 (0.14%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 20 (2.77%) Kubernetes
2 18 (2.49%) Ansible
3 7 (0.97%) Grafana
4 3 (0.42%) BMC PATROL
4 3 (0.42%) BMC Performance Manager
4 3 (0.42%) Perfmon
4 3 (0.42%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.28%) Istio
5 2 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.14%) Argo
6 1 (0.14%) Avamar
6 1 (0.14%) EMC VPLEX
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 59 (8.17%) ServiceNow
2 36 (4.99%) Microsoft
3 11 (1.52%) Adobe
3 11 (1.52%) Salesforce
4 10 (1.39%) Dynatrace
4 10 (1.39%) Google
4 10 (1.39%) Nexthink
5 9 (1.25%) Oracle
6 7 (0.97%) Cisco
6 7 (0.97%) SAP
7 6 (0.83%) AppDynamics
7 6 (0.83%) BMC
8 5 (0.69%) F5
8 5 (0.69%) Sparx
9 4 (0.55%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.55%) Foundry
9 4 (0.55%) VMware
10 3 (0.42%) Checkmarx
10 3 (0.42%) Splunk
10 3 (0.42%) Virgin Media