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 29 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 183 273 232
Rank change year-on-year +90 -41 -61
Contract jobs citing Service Design 619 211 376
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.48% 0.88% 1.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.74% 0.97% 1.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 462 153 244
10th Percentile £381 £400 £400
25th Percentile £431 £463 £462
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.73% - -2.22%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £625
90th Percentile £725 £723 £719
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -2.38% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 11
10th Percentile £40.99 - -
25th Percentile £60.33 £51.34 £17.80
Median hourly rate £95.50 £52.67 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +81.32% +59.29% -42.50%
75th Percentile £103.25 £54.01 £34.53
90th Percentile £106.25 - £72.90
UK median hourly rate £95.50 £52.67 £33.07
% change year-on-year +81.32% +59.29% -42.50%

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 35,508 21,848 31,547
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.90% 91.31% 85.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,529 14,223 20,659
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.10% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £622 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £512 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -0.10% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,216 949 2,294
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.84
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.10 £16.00
Median hourly rate £47.00 £28.18 £36.84
Median % change year-on-year +66.78% -23.51% -1.29%
75th Percentile £68.00 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.30 £27.59 £36.50
% change year-on-year +53.34% -24.42% +1.04%

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 29 May 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 29 May 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 29 May 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 +57 266 £520 -5.45% 69
North of England +15 119 £492 -4.00% 30
South East +12 89 £525 -12.50% 19
Midlands +8 74 £478 -8.95% 10
West Midlands +2 71 £475 -9.52% 6
Yorkshire -5 54 £525 -17.65% 12
North West -7 46 £463 -2.63% 13
South West -12 45 £595 +1.28% 14
North East -10 20 £420 -18.05% 5
East of England -28 6 £525 -22.22% 6
East Midlands - 3 £525 - 4
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 31 (5.01%) Confluence
2 13 (2.10%) SharePoint
3 6 (0.97%) LiveCycle
4 5 (0.81%) CMS
5 2 (0.32%) Appian
5 2 (0.32%) Drupal
5 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.16%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.16%) Apache Solr
6 1 (0.16%) Mule
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle Application Server
6 1 (0.16%) Tomcat
Applications
1 18 (2.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (2.26%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.62%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (1.29%) MS Visio
6 7 (1.13%) Sketch
7 5 (0.81%) Adobe XD
8 4 (0.65%) Chatbot
8 4 (0.65%) InVision
9 3 (0.48%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 3 (0.48%) Trello
10 2 (0.32%) Zeplin
11 1 (0.16%) Adobe After Effects
Business Applications
1 4 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
1 4 (0.65%) SAP S/4HANA
1 4 (0.65%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.16%) Adobe Campaign
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 34 (5.49%) Figma
2 30 (4.85%) Azure
3 28 (4.52%) AWS
4 16 (2.58%) Power Platform
4 16 (2.58%) SaaS
5 15 (2.42%) Microsoft 365
6 12 (1.94%) Miro
7 5 (0.81%) Microsoft Copilot
8 4 (0.65%) Datadog
8 4 (0.65%) Entra ID
8 4 (0.65%) GCP
8 4 (0.65%) GitHub
8 4 (0.65%) PaaS
8 4 (0.65%) Power Automate
9 3 (0.48%) Dynamics 365
9 3 (0.48%) Google Analytics
9 3 (0.48%) IaaS
9 3 (0.48%) OCI
9 3 (0.48%) OneDrive
9 3 (0.48%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.97%) Firewall
2 5 (0.81%) Cisco Nexus
3 4 (0.65%) VPN
4 3 (0.48%) 3GPP
4 3 (0.48%) BGP
4 3 (0.48%) NX-OS
4 3 (0.48%) OSPF
4 3 (0.48%) VLAN
4 3 (0.48%) VXLAN
4 3 (0.48%) Wireless
5 2 (0.32%) 2G
5 2 (0.32%) 3G
5 2 (0.32%) 4G
5 2 (0.32%) 5G
5 2 (0.32%) Broadband
5 2 (0.32%) Diameter Protocol
5 2 (0.32%) SS7
5 2 (0.32%) TETRA
5 2 (0.32%) WAN
5 2 (0.32%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (2.26%) Power BI
2 4 (0.65%) Electronic Patient Records
2 4 (0.65%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.48%) BigQuery
3 3 (0.48%) Looker
3 3 (0.48%) Metadata
3 3 (0.48%) Tableau
4 2 (0.32%) Oracle Reports
4 2 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.16%) EDRMS
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle Exadata
5 1 (0.16%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 40 (6.46%) JIRA
2 7 (1.13%) Jenkins
3 4 (0.65%) GitLab
4 3 (0.48%) Axure RP
4 3 (0.48%) Git
5 2 (0.32%) Appium
5 2 (0.32%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.32%) Postman
5 2 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.32%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.16%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.16%) JUnit
6 1 (0.16%) Maven
6 1 (0.16%) Mockito
6 1 (0.16%) NUnit
6 1 (0.16%) REST Assured
6 1 (0.16%) Selenium
6 1 (0.16%) Subversion
6 1 (0.16%) VersionOne
General
1 189 (30.53%) Social Skills
2 188 (30.37%) Public Sector
3 77 (12.44%) Finance
4 45 (7.27%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (4.20%) Influencing Skills
6 22 (3.55%) Presentation Skills
7 19 (3.07%) Banking
7 19 (3.07%) Military
8 18 (2.91%) Legal
9 17 (2.75%) Telecoms
10 16 (2.58%) Retail
11 12 (1.94%) Local Government
12 11 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
13 10 (1.62%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (1.13%) Law
15 6 (0.97%) Financial Institution
16 5 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 5 (0.81%) Marketing
17 4 (0.65%) Police
18 3 (0.48%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 250 (40.39%) Designer
2 198 (31.99%) Service Designer
3 81 (13.09%) Architect
4 76 (12.28%) Senior
5 67 (10.82%) Lead
6 60 (9.69%) Analyst
6 60 (9.69%) User Researcher
7 40 (6.46%) Business Analyst
7 40 (6.46%) Senior Designer
8 35 (5.65%) Service Architect
9 32 (5.17%) Lead Designer
10 31 (5.01%) Lead Service Designer
10 31 (5.01%) Senior Service Designer
11 22 (3.55%) Service Manager
12 17 (2.75%) Interaction Designer
13 15 (2.42%) Senior User Researcher
13 15 (2.42%) Service Design Manager
14 14 (2.26%) Service Analyst
15 13 (2.10%) Consultant
15 13 (2.10%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.42%) REST
2 11 (1.78%) HTML
2 11 (1.78%) SOAP
3 6 (0.97%) CSS
3 6 (0.97%) RESTful
4 5 (0.81%) .NET
4 5 (0.81%) Spring
4 5 (0.81%) Spring Boot
4 5 (0.81%) Web Services
5 4 (0.65%) Microsoft Graph
6 3 (0.48%) AngularJS
6 3 (0.48%) Middleware
6 3 (0.48%) SAML
6 3 (0.48%) STL
6 3 (0.48%) VML
7 2 (0.32%) Node.js
7 2 (0.32%) OAuth
7 2 (0.32%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (0.32%) React Native
7 2 (0.32%) TanStack
Miscellaneous
1 45 (7.27%) Product Ownership
2 40 (6.46%) Onboarding
3 28 (4.52%) NHS
4 17 (2.75%) CMDB
5 15 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (1.94%) Data Centre
7 9 (1.45%) AI Agents
8 8 (1.29%) Cloud Native
9 7 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
9 7 (1.13%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (1.13%) Management Information System
10 5 (0.81%) Security Posture
11 4 (0.65%) Mobile App
11 4 (0.65%) Self-Motivation
11 4 (0.65%) Taxonomies
11 4 (0.65%) Virtual Team
12 3 (0.48%) Analytical Mindset
12 3 (0.48%) Hackathon
12 3 (0.48%) Operational Technology
12 3 (0.48%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 4 (0.65%) Windows
2 2 (0.32%) Android
2 2 (0.32%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.16%) Linux
3 1 (0.16%) MVS
3 1 (0.16%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 239 (38.61%) Agile
2 181 (29.24%) User Research
3 124 (20.03%) ITIL
4 119 (19.22%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 100 (16.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 100 (16.16%) Stakeholder Management
6 97 (15.67%) Workshop Facilitation
7 96 (15.51%) User Experience
8 92 (14.86%) Continuous Improvement
8 92 (14.86%) Journey Map
9 88 (14.22%) Roadmaps
10 81 (13.09%) Decision-Making
11 72 (11.63%) Service Management
12 62 (10.02%) UX Design
13 56 (9.05%) Interaction Design
14 54 (8.72%) Collaborative Working
14 54 (8.72%) Prototyping
15 51 (8.24%) ITSM
15 51 (8.24%) Service Delivery
16 48 (7.75%) Usability Testing
Programming Languages
1 13 (2.10%) SQL
2 8 (1.29%) Java
2 8 (1.29%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.13%) JavaScript
4 5 (0.81%) Python
5 4 (0.65%) Bash
5 4 (0.65%) C#
5 4 (0.65%) T-SQL
6 3 (0.48%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 1 (0.16%) DataWeave
7 1 (0.16%) Groovy
7 1 (0.16%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.16%) Scala
Qualifications
1 200 (32.31%) Security Cleared
2 147 (23.75%) SC Cleared
3 52 (8.40%) DV Cleared
4 37 (5.98%) BPSS Clearance
5 35 (5.65%) Degree
6 14 (2.26%) ITIL Certification
7 11 (1.78%) TOGAF Certification
8 4 (0.65%) AWS Certification
8 4 (0.65%) CISM
8 4 (0.65%) CISSP
8 4 (0.65%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 3 (0.48%) CRISC
10 2 (0.32%) APMG
10 2 (0.32%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 2 (0.32%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.32%) IIBA
11 1 (0.16%) CBAP
11 1 (0.16%) CTC Cleared
11 1 (0.16%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (18.26%) Accessibility
2 22 (3.55%) WCAG
3 12 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 11 (1.78%) QA
4 11 (1.78%) SLA
5 10 (1.62%) Actionable Recommendations
6 9 (1.45%) Data Quality
6 9 (1.45%) GDPR
6 9 (1.45%) NCSC
7 7 (1.13%) Government Security Classifications
8 5 (0.81%) PMO
9 4 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.48%) COBIT
10 3 (0.48%) NIST
11 2 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.32%) GRC
12 1 (0.16%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 1 (0.16%) FINRA
12 1 (0.16%) ISO 31000
12 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 3 (0.48%) Docker
1 3 (0.48%) IAG
2 2 (0.32%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.32%) EMC RecoverPoint
2 2 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
2 2 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (0.32%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 8 (1.29%) Ansible
2 7 (1.13%) Kubernetes
2 7 (1.13%) OPNET
3 4 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (0.48%) Terraform
4 3 (0.48%) vRealize
5 2 (0.32%) Avamar
5 2 (0.32%) EMC VPLEX
6 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.16%) SysTrack
6 1 (0.16%) VxRail
Vendors
1 46 (7.43%) ServiceNow
2 33 (5.33%) Microsoft
3 12 (1.94%) Adobe
4 8 (1.29%) SAP
5 7 (1.13%) Atlassian
5 7 (1.13%) Cisco
5 7 (1.13%) Oracle
5 7 (1.13%) Remedy
5 7 (1.13%) Salesforce
6 6 (0.97%) VMware
7 5 (0.81%) Google
8 4 (0.65%) Foundry
8 4 (0.65%) Sparx
8 4 (0.65%) Virgin Media
8 4 (0.65%) Workday
9 3 (0.48%) F5
9 3 (0.48%) Palo Alto
10 2 (0.32%) 3PAR
10 2 (0.32%) Aruba
10 2 (0.32%) Isilon