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 £535, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 11 February 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 163 127 160
Rank change year-on-year -36 +33 -7
Contract jobs requiring a Service Manager 29 27 50
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.62% 0.86% 0.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.68% 0.93% 0.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 25 36
10th Percentile £425 £405 £411
25th Percentile £463 £423 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £465 £575
Median % change year-on-year +15.05% -19.13% +32.95%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £625 £838
England median daily rate £520 £498 £525
% change year-on-year +4.52% -5.24% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 1
10th Percentile £88.00 - -
25th Percentile £92.50 - £61.75
Median hourly rate £100.00 - £63.50
75th Percentile £102.75 - £65.25
90th Percentile £104.40 - -
England median hourly rate £60.00 £37.00 £67.72
% change year-on-year +62.16% -45.36% -9.71%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 4,241 2,905 5,100
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.97% 92.78% 93.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,739 1,798 3,160
10th Percentile £256 £245 £205
25th Percentile £400 £400 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £600 £603 £608
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 366 101 401
10th Percentile £13.95 £18.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.43 £24.18 £18.20
Median hourly rate £27.50 £42.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -35.29% -5.56% -
75th Percentile £60.74 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.40 £74.87 £76.53
England median hourly rate £31.25 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -10.71% - -6.67%

Service Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Service Manager' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Service Manager job vacancy trend 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 11 February 2026.

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 11 February 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 -17 11 £550 -2.22% 3
Berkshire -15 8 £538 -4.44% 3
Thames Valley -34 8 £538 +19.78% 6
Kent - 4 £534 - 1
Surrey - 3 £350 - 3
West Sussex - 2 £513 -
Service Manager
England

Service Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 11 February 2026, Service Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region featuring Service Manager in the job title.

1 21 (72.41%) Service Delivery
2 18 (62.07%) ITIL
3 16 (55.17%) Continuous Improvement
4 12 (41.38%) Service Management
5 11 (37.93%) Problem-Solving
5 11 (37.93%) Security Cleared
6 10 (34.48%) ITSM
7 8 (27.59%) Stakeholder Management
8 7 (24.14%) SC Cleared
9 6 (20.69%) AWS
10 5 (17.24%) JIRA
10 5 (17.24%) Roadmaps
10 5 (17.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 4 (13.79%) Agile
11 4 (13.79%) Capacity Management
11 4 (13.79%) Change Management
11 4 (13.79%) Microsoft
11 4 (13.79%) Microsoft 365
11 4 (13.79%) PRINCE2
11 4 (13.79%) Risk Management
11 4 (13.79%) ServiceNow
11 4 (13.79%) VMware
12 3 (10.34%) Active Directory
12 3 (10.34%) Capacity Planning
12 3 (10.34%) Conflict Resolution
12 3 (10.34%) Degree
12 3 (10.34%) DV Cleared
12 3 (10.34%) Incident Management
12 3 (10.34%) Microsoft Exchange
12 3 (10.34%) Performance Metrics

Service Manager Skill Set
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:

Application Platforms
1 3 (10.34%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (6.90%) CMS
2 2 (6.90%) Confluence
2 2 (6.90%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (6.90%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 6 (20.69%) AWS
2 4 (13.79%) Microsoft 365
3 3 (10.34%) Power Automate
3 3 (10.34%) Power Platform
3 3 (10.34%) SaaS
4 1 (3.45%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (3.45%) Firewall
1 1 (3.45%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 5 (17.24%) JIRA
General
1 11 (37.93%) Social Skills
2 6 (20.69%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (10.34%) Finance
3 3 (10.34%) Public Sector
4 2 (6.90%) Manufacturing
4 2 (6.90%) Marketing
4 2 (6.90%) Military
Miscellaneous
1 4 (13.79%) Onboarding
2 3 (10.34%) PKI
2 3 (10.34%) Private Cloud
2 3 (10.34%) Virtual Team
3 2 (6.90%) Cloud Native
3 2 (6.90%) Mobile App
4 1 (3.45%) Analytical Mindset
4 1 (3.45%) Cyberattack
4 1 (3.45%) Data Centre
4 1 (3.45%) Mainframe
4 1 (3.45%) Management Information System
4 1 (3.45%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.45%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (72.41%) Service Delivery
2 18 (62.07%) ITIL
3 16 (55.17%) Continuous Improvement
4 12 (41.38%) Service Management
5 11 (37.93%) Problem-Solving
6 10 (34.48%) ITSM
7 8 (27.59%) Stakeholder Management
8 5 (17.24%) Roadmaps
8 5 (17.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 4 (13.79%) Agile
9 4 (13.79%) Capacity Management
9 4 (13.79%) Change Management
9 4 (13.79%) PRINCE2
9 4 (13.79%) Risk Management
10 3 (10.34%) Capacity Planning
10 3 (10.34%) Conflict Resolution
10 3 (10.34%) Incident Management
10 3 (10.34%) Performance Metrics
10 3 (10.34%) Process Management
10 3 (10.34%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 2 (6.90%) Java
Qualifications
1 11 (37.93%) Security Cleared
2 7 (24.14%) SC Cleared
3 3 (10.34%) Degree
3 3 (10.34%) DV Cleared
4 2 (6.90%) Computer Science Degree
4 2 (6.90%) ITIL Certification
4 2 (6.90%) PMI Certification
4 2 (6.90%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (10.34%) SLA
2 2 (6.90%) GDPR
2 2 (6.90%) PMO
2 2 (6.90%) QA
System Software
1 3 (10.34%) Active Directory
1 3 (10.34%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 4 (13.79%) Microsoft
1 4 (13.79%) ServiceNow
1 4 (13.79%) VMware
2 1 (3.45%) Aruba
2 1 (3.45%) Extreme Networks
2 1 (3.45%) Mitel
2 1 (3.45%) Palo Alto
2 1 (3.45%) Salesforce
2 1 (3.45%) SAP