Service Manager Contract Job Trends in the South East

Services Manager
England > South East

The median Services Manager daily rate in the South East is £415, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 143 159 148
Rank change year-on-year +16 -11 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Service Manager 18 25 66
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.52% 0.54% 1.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.57% 0.59% 1.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 21 42
10th Percentile £333 £425 £375
25th Percentile £363 £500 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £565 £550
Median % change year-on-year -26.55% +2.73% +15.79%
75th Percentile £538 £588 £594
90th Percentile £569 £700 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £61.75
Median hourly rate £89.63 - £63.50
75th Percentile - - £65.25
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £48.46 £37.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +30.97% -35.65% +85.19%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the South East with a recognized job title 3,138 4,241 5,295
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.12% 92.38% 94.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,031 2,534 3,585
10th Percentile £204 £250 £213
25th Percentile £363 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £508 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.33% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 278 317 250
10th Percentile £13.43 £16.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £30.41 £21.05
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.26% +15.00% +106.78%
75th Percentile £57.50 £75.00 £66.19
90th Percentile £71.95 £80.00 £75.67
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £44.75
% change year-on-year -45.54% +3.20% +71.00%

Service Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings that featured Service Manager in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Service Manager in the South East

Service Manager
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Manager job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Manager job vacancies in the South East

Service Manager
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Manager in the South East over the 6 months to 17 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Service Manager in the South East

Service Manager
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Manager job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Manager job vacancies in the South East

Service Manager
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 Manager within the South East region over the 6 months to 17 September 2025. 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
Thames Valley +7 8 £405 -30.17% 10
Buckinghamshire +6 5 £405 -32.50% 5
Hampshire +2 3 £550 -2.22% 8
Kent 0 3 £400 -44.44% 2
Oxfordshire - 2 - - 1
Surrey - 2 £350 - 5
Berkshire +15 1 - - 4
Service Manager
England

Service Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 17 September 2025, Service Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region featuring Service Manager in the job title.

1 12 (66.67%) ITIL
2 8 (44.44%) ServiceNow
2 8 (44.44%) Service Delivery
2 8 (44.44%) Social Skills
3 7 (38.89%) ITSM
3 7 (38.89%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (33.33%) SC Cleared
4 6 (33.33%) Security Cleared
4 6 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
5 5 (27.78%) Service Management
5 5 (27.78%) Project Management
6 4 (22.22%) Finance
6 4 (22.22%) Service Design
6 4 (22.22%) Acceptance Criteria
7 3 (16.67%) Decision-Making
7 3 (16.67%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (16.67%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (16.67%) Palo Alto
7 3 (16.67%) Stakeholder Management
7 3 (16.67%) Firewall
7 3 (16.67%) Wireless
7 3 (16.67%) Telecoms
7 3 (16.67%) Microsoft
7 3 (16.67%) ITIL Certification
7 3 (16.67%) Degree
8 2 (11.11%) JIRA
8 2 (11.11%) Computer Science
8 2 (11.11%) Release Management
8 2 (11.11%) Time Management
8 2 (11.11%) DV Cleared

Service Manager Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Cloud Services
1 2 (11.11%) SaaS
2 1 (5.56%) IaaS
2 1 (5.56%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (5.56%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (16.67%) Firewall
1 3 (16.67%) Wireless
2 2 (11.11%) DHCP
2 2 (11.11%) DNS
2 2 (11.11%) TCP/IP
2 2 (11.11%) VPN
Development Applications
1 2 (11.11%) JIRA
General
1 8 (44.44%) Social Skills
2 7 (38.89%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (22.22%) Finance
4 3 (16.67%) Influencing Skills
4 3 (16.67%) Organisational Skills
4 3 (16.67%) Telecoms
5 2 (11.11%) Aerospace
6 1 (5.56%) Aviation
6 1 (5.56%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 1 (5.56%) Cyberattack
1 1 (5.56%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 2 (11.11%) Mac OS
1 2 (11.11%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (66.67%) ITIL
2 8 (44.44%) Service Delivery
3 7 (38.89%) ITSM
4 6 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
5 5 (27.78%) Project Management
5 5 (27.78%) Service Management
6 4 (22.22%) Acceptance Criteria
6 4 (22.22%) Service Design
7 3 (16.67%) Decision-Making
7 3 (16.67%) Stakeholder Management
8 2 (11.11%) B2B
8 2 (11.11%) Coaching
8 2 (11.11%) Computer Science
8 2 (11.11%) Incident Response
8 2 (11.11%) Release Management
8 2 (11.11%) Risk Register
8 2 (11.11%) Service Catalogue
8 2 (11.11%) Time Management
9 1 (5.56%) Availability Management
9 1 (5.56%) Project Delivery
Qualifications
1 6 (33.33%) SC Cleared
1 6 (33.33%) Security Cleared
2 3 (16.67%) Degree
2 3 (16.67%) ITIL Certification
3 2 (11.11%) A+ Certification
3 2 (11.11%) DV Cleared
3 2 (11.11%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (11.11%) GDPR
2 1 (5.56%) Actionable Recommendations
2 1 (5.56%) SLA
Vendors
1 8 (44.44%) ServiceNow
2 3 (16.67%) Microsoft
2 3 (16.67%) Palo Alto
3 2 (11.11%) CheckPoint
3 2 (11.11%) Cisco
4 1 (5.56%) Aruba
4 1 (5.56%) BMC
4 1 (5.56%) Extreme Networks
4 1 (5.56%) Mitel