Service Design Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Service Design
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Service Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 107 105 109
Rank change year-on-year -2 +4 +10
Contract jobs citing Service Design 25 15 34
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 1.19% 0.85% 1.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.38% 0.94% 1.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 15 4 33
10th Percentile £221 £424 £296
25th Percentile £420 £449 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £575 £650 £588
90th Percentile £785 £672 £600
South East median daily rate £538 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -2.27% +4.76% -2.33%
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 - -
South East median hourly rate £95.00 - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,808 1,602 2,192
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 85.89% 90.41% 91.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,202 922 1,406
10th Percentile £270 £260 £213
25th Percentile £400 £407 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £638 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £510 £515
% change year-on-year -1.96% -0.97% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 113 48 101
10th Percentile £15.62 £23.98 £19.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £40.25 £26.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.12 £51.06
Median % change year-on-year -55.97% +11.88% +87.36%
75th Percentile £58.00 £64.73 £64.50
90th Percentile £94.75 £75.43 £72.33
South East median hourly rate £23.58 £42.69 £55.00
% change year-on-year -44.78% -22.38% +22.22%

Service Design
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Service Design job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Service Design
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Service Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Service Design

Service Design
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Design in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Service Design in the Thames Valley

Service Design
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Service Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Service Design

Service Design
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 14 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
Berkshire -1 19 £450 -28.00% 3
Buckinghamshire -1 6 £663 +59.64%
Service Design
South East

Service Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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:

Cloud Services
1 6 (24.00%) AWS
1 6 (24.00%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 3 (12.00%) VPN
2 1 (4.00%) Unified Communications
2 1 (4.00%) WAN
General
1 9 (36.00%) Social Skills
2 3 (12.00%) Finance
2 3 (12.00%) Retail
3 2 (8.00%) Aerospace
4 1 (4.00%) Presentation Skills
4 1 (4.00%) Public Sector
4 1 (4.00%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 8 (32.00%) Architect
2 6 (24.00%) Designer
3 5 (20.00%) Lead
3 5 (20.00%) Service Designer
3 5 (20.00%) Technical Architect
4 3 (12.00%) Senior
5 2 (8.00%) Lead Designer
5 2 (8.00%) Lead Service Designer
5 2 (8.00%) Senior Designer
5 2 (8.00%) Senior Service Designer
5 2 (8.00%) Service Architect
5 2 (8.00%) Technical Director
6 1 (4.00%) Analyst
6 1 (4.00%) Business Analyst
6 1 (4.00%) Senior Analyst
6 1 (4.00%) Senior Business Analyst
6 1 (4.00%) Solutions Architect
6 1 (4.00%) Telecoms Designer
Miscellaneous
1 6 (24.00%) Cloud Native
2 4 (16.00%) CMDB
2 4 (16.00%) Product Ownership
3 3 (12.00%) Data Centre
3 3 (12.00%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (4.00%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (4.00%) Onboarding
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (44.00%) Cybersecurity
2 10 (40.00%) Roadmaps
3 7 (28.00%) Agile
3 7 (28.00%) Service Delivery
4 6 (24.00%) Continuous Improvement
4 6 (24.00%) DevSecOps
4 6 (24.00%) MODAF
4 6 (24.00%) Scaled Agile Framework
4 6 (24.00%) Technology Roadmap
4 6 (24.00%) TOGAF
5 5 (20.00%) ArchiMate
5 5 (20.00%) ITIL
5 5 (20.00%) Thought Leadership
6 4 (16.00%) Change Management
6 4 (16.00%) Decision-Making
6 4 (16.00%) Enterprise Architecture
6 4 (16.00%) Strategic Planning
7 3 (12.00%) Business Case
7 3 (12.00%) Service Delivery Management
7 3 (12.00%) Zero Trust
Qualifications
1 10 (40.00%) Security Cleared
2 7 (28.00%) SC Cleared
3 6 (24.00%) AWS Certification
3 6 (24.00%) Azure Certification
4 5 (20.00%) TOGAF Certification
5 4 (16.00%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (4.00%) Actionable Recommendations
1 1 (4.00%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 3 (12.00%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 3 (12.00%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 8 (32.00%) VMware
2 5 (20.00%) Cisco
3 4 (16.00%) ServiceNow
4 3 (12.00%) Palo Alto
4 3 (12.00%) Zscaler
5 1 (4.00%) Microsoft
5 1 (4.00%) Salesforce
5 1 (4.00%) Virgin Media