Service Design Contract Job Trends in the South East

Service Design
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East 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 111 128 141
Rank change year-on-year +17 +13 +26
Contract jobs citing Service Design 68 39 62
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.54% 1.09% 1.26%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.83% 1.23% 1.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 23 53
10th Percentile £387 - £363
25th Percentile £475 £500 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% +4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £556 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £668 £740
England median daily rate £525 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -2.78% -1.82% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 0
10th Percentile £86.50 - -
25th Percentile £88.75 - -
Median hourly rate £95.00 - -
75th Percentile £101.75 - -
90th Percentile £104.30 - -
England median hourly rate £60.00 £32.64 £71.93
% change year-on-year +83.85% -54.63% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,716 3,166 4,399
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 84.32% 88.46% 89.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,445 1,971 2,819
10th Percentile £224 £250 £213
25th Percentile £400 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £518
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -1.06% +1.57%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £615
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 347 119 239
10th Percentile £14.75 £19.84 £18.95
25th Percentile £17.00 £26.13 £27.50
Median hourly rate £22.50 £47.25 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -52.38% -14.10% +37.50%
75th Percentile £49.38 £63.00 £66.73
90th Percentile £76.00 £74.89 £76.53
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 South East

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

Service Design job vacancy trend in the South East

Service Design
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Service Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Service Design

Service Design
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

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

Daily rate histogram for Service Design in the South East

Service Design
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Service Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Service Design

Service Design
Contract Job Locations in the South East

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 South East 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
Hampshire +3 41 £538 +3.37% 2
Thames Valley -4 25 £475 -14.03% 4
Berkshire 0 20 £450 -20.35% 3
Buckinghamshire +6 5 £800 +92.77%
West Sussex - 1 £495 -
Service Design
England

Service Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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:

Applications
1 1 (1.47%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (1.47%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 6 (8.82%) AWS
1 6 (8.82%) Azure
2 2 (2.94%) PaaS
2 2 (2.94%) SaaS
3 1 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
3 1 (1.47%) Figma
3 1 (1.47%) Google Ads
3 1 (1.47%) IaaS
3 1 (1.47%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 3 (4.41%) VPN
2 1 (1.47%) Unified Communications
2 1 (1.47%) WAN
General
1 15 (22.06%) Social Skills
2 7 (10.29%) Finance
3 5 (7.35%) Public Sector
4 4 (5.88%) Retail
5 3 (4.41%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (2.94%) Aerospace
7 1 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (1.47%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 38 (55.88%) Architect
2 31 (45.59%) Service Architect
3 5 (7.35%) Designer
3 5 (7.35%) Lead
3 5 (7.35%) Senior
3 5 (7.35%) Technical Architect
4 4 (5.88%) Analyst
4 4 (5.88%) Consultant
4 4 (5.88%) Senior Analyst
4 4 (5.88%) Service Design Consultant
5 3 (4.41%) Senior Service Transition Analyst
5 3 (4.41%) Service Analyst
5 3 (4.41%) Service Design Analyst
5 3 (4.41%) Service Designer
5 3 (4.41%) Service Transition Analyst
5 3 (4.41%) Transition Analyst
5 3 (4.41%) User Researcher
6 2 (2.94%) Solutions Architect
6 2 (2.94%) Technical Director
7 1 (1.47%) Service Manager
Miscellaneous
1 6 (8.82%) Cloud Native
2 4 (5.88%) CMDB
3 3 (4.41%) Data Centre
3 3 (4.41%) Hybrid Cloud
3 3 (4.41%) Onboarding
4 1 (1.47%) Cyberattack
4 1 (1.47%) Driving Licence
4 1 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (52.94%) ITIL
2 34 (50.00%) Service Management
3 30 (44.12%) IT4IT
4 25 (36.76%) Project Delivery
5 11 (16.18%) Agile
6 10 (14.71%) Cybersecurity
7 9 (13.24%) Roadmaps
8 8 (11.76%) Acceptance Criteria
8 8 (11.76%) Service Delivery
9 7 (10.29%) Continuous Improvement
9 7 (10.29%) Problem-Solving
9 7 (10.29%) Technology Roadmap
9 7 (10.29%) TOGAF
10 6 (8.82%) DevSecOps
10 6 (8.82%) MODAF
10 6 (8.82%) Scaled Agile Framework
10 6 (8.82%) Thought Leadership
10 6 (8.82%) User Experience
11 5 (7.35%) Change Management
11 5 (7.35%) UX Design
Qualifications
1 41 (60.29%) Security Cleared
2 30 (44.12%) SC Cleared
3 8 (11.76%) DV Cleared
4 6 (8.82%) AWS Certification
4 6 (8.82%) Azure Certification
5 5 (7.35%) TOGAF Certification
6 2 (2.94%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (44.12%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 5 (7.35%) SLA
3 3 (4.41%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (2.94%) Accessibility
4 2 (2.94%) WCAG
5 1 (1.47%) ISO 9001
5 1 (1.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 3 (4.41%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 3 (4.41%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 8 (11.76%) VMware
2 6 (8.82%) ServiceNow
3 5 (7.35%) Cisco
4 3 (4.41%) Palo Alto
4 3 (4.41%) Zscaler
5 2 (2.94%) Microsoft
6 1 (1.47%) Salesforce
6 1 (1.47%) Virgin Media
6 1 (1.47%) Workday