IT Manager Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

IT Manager
UK > UK excluding London

The median IT Manager daily rate in the UK excluding London is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 December 2025.

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

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 232 134 169
Rank change year-on-year -98 +35 -23
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 173 267 274
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.95% 1.83% 1.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.05% 1.98% 1.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 167 198
10th Percentile £300 £313 £363
25th Percentile £410 £412 £439
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £598
90th Percentile £669 £672 £645
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £540
% change year-on-year +5.00% -7.41% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 4 3
10th Percentile - £46.75 £30.60
25th Percentile - £56.88 £36.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £66.25 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.43% +47.22% -30.77%
75th Percentile £62.50 £69.06 £50.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £69.63 £53.00
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £35.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +71.43% -36.36% -12.00%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 UK excluding London with a recognized job title 16,495 13,472 18,234
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.33% 92.34% 93.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,135 8,008 11,848
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £373 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £487 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.41% -2.65% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,657 759 1,280
10th Percentile £13.95 £15.33 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.26 £18.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.94
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -29.26% +77.99%
75th Percentile £58.75 £64.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.38 £76.58
UK median hourly rate £25.47 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -21.63% -27.78% +41.93%

IT Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'IT Manager' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

IT Manager job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

IT Manager
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for IT Manager job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for IT Manager job vacancies in the UK excluding London

IT Manager
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IT Manager in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 29 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for IT Manager in the UK excluding London

IT Manager
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for IT Manager job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for IT Manager job vacancies in the UK excluding London

IT Manager
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing IT Manager within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 29 December 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
North of England -70 41 £500 +11.11% 85
Midlands -71 38 £525 -1.18% 84
South East -27 36 £525 -2.33% 116
South West -2 27 £450 -10.00% 29
West Midlands -55 25 £525 -8.70% 48
North West -44 20 £525 +61.54% 49
Yorkshire -42 19 £500 +11.11% 27
East of England -16 17 £500 -16.67% 37
East Midlands -23 13 £525 +23.53% 33
Scotland -21 11 £419 -6.42% 10
Northern Ireland -8 2 - - 3
North East -9 2 £370 -26.00% 10
Wales 0 1 - - 15
IT Manager
UK

IT Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 29 December 2025, IT 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 UK excluding London region featuring IT Manager in the job title.

1 52 (30.06%) Stakeholder Management
2 48 (27.75%) Project Management
3 36 (20.81%) Agile
4 31 (17.92%) Project Delivery
5 26 (15.03%) PRINCE2
6 25 (14.45%) ITIL
6 25 (14.45%) Security Cleared
7 23 (13.29%) Change Management
7 23 (13.29%) Waterfall
8 19 (10.98%) SC Cleared
9 18 (10.40%) Continuous Improvement
10 17 (9.83%) Cybersecurity
10 17 (9.83%) Degree
11 16 (9.25%) PMI Certification
11 16 (9.25%) PMP
11 16 (9.25%) Service Delivery
11 16 (9.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 15 (8.67%) Microsoft
12 15 (8.67%) Problem-Solving
13 14 (8.09%) Service Management
14 13 (7.51%) ITSM
14 13 (7.51%) Migration
14 13 (7.51%) ServiceNow
15 12 (6.94%) ERP
16 11 (6.36%) Budget Management
16 11 (6.36%) Oracle
16 11 (6.36%) Project Governance
16 11 (6.36%) Windows
17 10 (5.78%) IaaS
17 10 (5.78%) SAP

IT Manager Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 2 (1.16%) Confluence
1 2 (1.16%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.58%) Mule
Applications
1 7 (4.05%) Microsoft Project
2 6 (3.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.89%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (1.73%) Trello
5 1 (0.58%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.58%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (1.73%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.16%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.58%) Maximo
3 1 (0.58%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.58%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.58%) PRMS
3 1 (0.58%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.58%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.58%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.58%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 10 (5.78%) IaaS
2 9 (5.20%) Azure
3 7 (4.05%) SaaS
4 5 (2.89%) AWS
4 5 (2.89%) GCP
4 5 (2.89%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (2.31%) Power Platform
6 3 (1.73%) SuccessFactors
7 2 (1.16%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (1.16%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.58%) Azure API Management
8 1 (0.58%) GitHub
8 1 (0.58%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.58%) PaaS
8 1 (0.58%) Rubrik
8 1 (0.58%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 2 (1.16%) Firewall
1 2 (1.16%) LAN
1 2 (1.16%) Network Security
1 2 (1.16%) SD-WAN
1 2 (1.16%) WAN
2 1 (0.58%) Structured Cabling
2 1 (0.58%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.31%) Power BI
2 3 (1.73%) Electronic Patient Records
2 3 (1.73%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.16%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.58%) EDRMS
Development Applications
1 9 (5.20%) JIRA
2 2 (1.16%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.58%) GitLab
3 1 (0.58%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 54 (31.21%) Finance
2 49 (28.32%) Social Skills
3 16 (9.25%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (7.51%) Legal
5 11 (6.36%) Manufacturing
5 11 (6.36%) Public Sector
6 10 (5.78%) Banking
7 5 (2.89%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (2.31%) Aviation
8 4 (2.31%) Military
9 3 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.73%) Pharmaceutical
9 3 (1.73%) Telecoms
10 2 (1.16%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.16%) Automotive
10 2 (1.16%) Back Office
10 2 (1.16%) Marketing
10 2 (1.16%) Retail
10 2 (1.16%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.58%) ADO
1 1 (0.58%) Oracle Fusion
1 1 (0.58%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 9 (5.20%) Onboarding
2 8 (4.62%) Management Information System
3 6 (3.47%) CMDB
4 5 (2.89%) NHS
5 4 (2.31%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (1.73%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (1.73%) EPoS
6 3 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (1.73%) Life Science
6 3 (1.73%) Virtual Team
7 2 (1.16%) LIMS
7 2 (1.16%) Security Operations Centre
8 1 (0.58%) Distributed Applications
8 1 (0.58%) Driving Licence
8 1 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.58%) FMCG
8 1 (0.58%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.58%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.58%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 11 (6.36%) Windows
2 3 (1.73%) Windows 10
3 2 (1.16%) Linux
3 2 (1.16%) Mac OS
3 2 (1.16%) OpenVMS
3 2 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (30.06%) Stakeholder Management
2 48 (27.75%) Project Management
3 36 (20.81%) Agile
4 31 (17.92%) Project Delivery
5 26 (15.03%) PRINCE2
6 25 (14.45%) ITIL
7 23 (13.29%) Change Management
7 23 (13.29%) Waterfall
8 18 (10.40%) Continuous Improvement
9 17 (9.83%) Cybersecurity
10 16 (9.25%) Service Delivery
10 16 (9.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 15 (8.67%) Problem-Solving
12 14 (8.09%) Service Management
13 13 (7.51%) ITSM
13 13 (7.51%) Migration
14 12 (6.94%) ERP
15 11 (6.36%) Budget Management
15 11 (6.36%) Project Governance
16 9 (5.20%) Contract Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.58%) Java
1 1 (0.58%) SQL
1 1 (0.58%) VB
Qualifications
1 25 (14.45%) Security Cleared
2 19 (10.98%) SC Cleared
3 17 (9.83%) Degree
4 16 (9.25%) PMI Certification
4 16 (9.25%) PMP
5 4 (2.31%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.31%) PRINCE2 Certification
6 3 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.16%) ACSP
7 2 (1.16%) ACTC
8 1 (0.58%) APMG
8 1 (0.58%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.58%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.58%) MBA
8 1 (0.58%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.20%) SLA
2 8 (4.62%) PMO
3 7 (4.05%) GDPR
4 4 (2.31%) QA
5 3 (1.73%) ISO/IEC 19770
6 2 (1.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.58%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.58%) COBIT
7 1 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.58%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.58%) GRC
7 1 (0.58%) GxP
7 1 (0.58%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 1 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.58%) MiFID
7 1 (0.58%) NIST
7 1 (0.58%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.58%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 9 (5.20%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 3 (1.73%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.16%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.58%) Ansible
3 1 (0.58%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.58%) Terraform
Vendors
1 15 (8.67%) Microsoft
2 13 (7.51%) ServiceNow
3 11 (6.36%) Oracle
4 10 (5.78%) SAP
5 4 (2.31%) Google
6 3 (1.73%) Snow
6 3 (1.73%) Workday
7 2 (1.16%) Apple
7 2 (1.16%) Ariba
7 2 (1.16%) IBM
7 2 (1.16%) IFS
7 2 (1.16%) Red Hat
7 2 (1.16%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.58%) Cisco
8 1 (0.58%) HP
8 1 (0.58%) JD Edwards
8 1 (0.58%) Mitel
8 1 (0.58%) Northgate
8 1 (0.58%) Remedy
8 1 (0.58%) Siemens