Service Design Contract Job Trends in the North West

Service Design
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Service Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 96 81
Rank change year-on-year -3 -15 +73
Contract jobs citing Service Design 47 23 58
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 1.88% 1.07% 2.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.13% 1.23% 2.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 10 47
10th Percentile £313 £356 £435
25th Percentile £350 £430 £519
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £424 £488 £625
Median % change year-on-year -13.13% -22.00% +13.64%
75th Percentile £603 £589 £650
90th Percentile £654 £600 £672
England median daily rate £525 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -2.78% -1.82% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 0
10th Percentile £61.15 £32.07 -
25th Percentile £62.86 £32.89 -
Median hourly rate £65.73 £34.26 -
Median % change year-on-year +91.84% - -
75th Percentile £68.59 £35.63 -
90th Percentile £70.31 £36.45 -
England median hourly rate £60.00 £32.64 £71.93
% change year-on-year +83.85% -54.63% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,203 1,873 2,343
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 88.12% 87.12% 88.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,435 1,062 1,603
10th Percentile £213 £264 £305
25th Percentile £358 £390 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +1.01%
75th Percentile £550 £568 £600
90th Percentile £650 £656 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 96 155
10th Percentile £16.50 £16.00 £15.85
25th Percentile £21.13 £21.05 £18.25
Median hourly rate £40.00 £30.20 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.45% -20.53% +39.45%
75th Percentile £56.69 £47.39 £46.89
90th Percentile £70.00 £68.96 £64.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +26.76%

Service Design
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Service Design job vacancy trend in the North West

Service Design
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Service Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Service Design

Service Design
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Design in the North West over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Service Design in the North West

Service Design
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Service Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Service Design

Service Design
Contract Job Locations in the North West

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 North West region over the 6 months to 1 January 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
Manchester +18 36 £402 -8.11% 5
Cumbria - 5 £603 - 1
Cheshire -16 4 £430 -20.00%
Lancashire -23 2 £350 -26.32% 1
Service Design
England

Service Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 4 (8.51%) SharePoint
2 3 (6.38%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (21.28%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.13%) Adobe XD
2 1 (2.13%) MS Visio
2 1 (2.13%) Sketch
2 1 (2.13%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (2.13%) Trello
Business Applications
1 1 (2.13%) NetSuite
1 1 (2.13%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 11 (23.40%) Power Platform
2 9 (19.15%) Azure
2 9 (19.15%) SaaS
3 8 (17.02%) Google Analytics
3 8 (17.02%) Google Tag Manager
4 7 (14.89%) GCP
5 3 (6.38%) Boomi
5 3 (6.38%) Figma
5 3 (6.38%) Power Automate
6 2 (4.26%) Miro
7 1 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (2.13%) Lucidchart
7 1 (2.13%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (2.13%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 2 (4.26%) Firewall
1 2 (4.26%) Wireless
2 1 (2.13%) Cisco ISE
2 1 (2.13%) LAN
2 1 (2.13%) SD-WAN
2 1 (2.13%) WAN
2 1 (2.13%) WebEx
2 1 (2.13%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (23.40%) Power BI
2 7 (14.89%) BigQuery
2 7 (14.89%) Looker
3 3 (6.38%) Tableau
4 1 (2.13%) EDRMS
Development Applications
1 4 (8.51%) JIRA
2 1 (2.13%) GitLab
General
1 31 (65.96%) Social Skills
2 17 (36.17%) Public Sector
3 6 (12.77%) Finance
3 6 (12.77%) Influencing Skills
3 6 (12.77%) Presentation Skills
4 4 (8.51%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (8.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 2 (4.26%) Legal
5 2 (4.26%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (2.13%) Banking
6 1 (2.13%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (2.13%) Law
6 1 (2.13%) Publishing
6 1 (2.13%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 14 (29.79%) Analyst
2 12 (25.53%) Architect
3 8 (17.02%) Designer
4 6 (12.77%) Business Analyst
4 6 (12.77%) Performance Analyst
4 6 (12.77%) Service Designer
5 5 (10.64%) Senior
5 5 (10.64%) Service Architect
6 4 (8.51%) Senior Analyst
6 4 (8.51%) Service Manager
6 4 (8.51%) Solutions Architect
7 3 (6.38%) Digital Analyst
7 3 (6.38%) Digital Business Analyst
7 3 (6.38%) Environment And Release Manager
7 3 (6.38%) Release Manager
7 3 (6.38%) SailPoint Architect
7 3 (6.38%) Service Transition Manager
7 3 (6.38%) Transition Manager
7 3 (6.38%) UX Designer
8 2 (4.26%) UX Service Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (8.51%) SailPoint
2 3 (6.38%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (2.13%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 5 (10.64%) Onboarding
2 4 (8.51%) Management Information System
3 3 (6.38%) IVR
3 3 (6.38%) Product Ownership
4 1 (2.13%) CMDB
4 1 (2.13%) Mobile App
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (53.19%) Agile
2 19 (40.43%) User Experience
3 15 (31.91%) Analytics
3 15 (31.91%) User Research
4 13 (27.66%) Continuous Improvement
4 13 (27.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 12 (25.53%) ITIL
5 12 (25.53%) ITSM
6 11 (23.40%) Business Intelligence
7 10 (21.28%) Stakeholder Management
7 10 (21.28%) Validation
8 9 (19.15%) Roadmaps
8 9 (19.15%) Service Management
9 8 (17.02%) Actionable Insight
9 8 (17.02%) Data Analysis
9 8 (17.02%) Data Privacy
9 8 (17.02%) Digital Transformation Programme
9 8 (17.02%) Performance Measurement
9 8 (17.02%) Release Management
10 7 (14.89%) Statistical Analysis
Qualifications
1 15 (31.91%) Security Cleared
2 10 (21.28%) SC Cleared
3 6 (12.77%) ITIL Certification
4 5 (10.64%) Degree
5 4 (8.51%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (2.13%) APMG
6 1 (2.13%) ISEB
6 1 (2.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 1 (2.13%) PMI Certification
6 1 (2.13%) PMP
6 1 (2.13%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (36.17%) Accessibility
2 9 (19.15%) QA
3 8 (17.02%) Data Quality
4 3 (6.38%) GDPR
5 1 (2.13%) PSD2
5 1 (2.13%) WCAG
Vendors
1 15 (31.91%) Microsoft
2 8 (17.02%) Google
3 6 (12.77%) ServiceNow
4 4 (8.51%) Oracle
5 3 (6.38%) Genesys
5 3 (6.38%) Salesforce
5 3 (6.38%) UiPath
6 1 (2.13%) Adobe
6 1 (2.13%) Aruba
6 1 (2.13%) Cisco
6 1 (2.13%) Ekahau
6 1 (2.13%) Epicor
6 1 (2.13%) Fortinet
6 1 (2.13%) Juniper
6 1 (2.13%) SAP