IT Project Manager Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

IT Project Manager
UK > UK excluding London

The median IT Project Manager daily rate in the UK excluding London is £513, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 357 292 225
Rank change year-on-year -65 -67 +31
Contract jobs requiring an IT Project Manager 134 92 142
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.47% 0.58% 0.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.52% 0.65% 0.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 67 113
10th Percentile £400 £397 £387
25th Percentile £450 £419 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £579 £588
90th Percentile £638 £663 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 0
10th Percentile £61.95 - -
25th Percentile £63.00 - -
Median hourly rate £72.78 - -
75th Percentile £74.16 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £72.78 - £35.00
% change year-on-year - - -43.37%

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 25,901 14,261 15,912
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.95% 89.62% 92.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,951 8,772 9,040
10th Percentile £300 £206 £220
25th Percentile £413 £363 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £588
90th Percentile £688 £671 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,571 1,341 1,203
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.51 £14.73
25th Percentile £19.25 £16.40 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +66.84% -41.18% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.85 £50.00 £66.47
90th Percentile £78.75 £69.65 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £41.27
% change year-on-year +65.84% -39.05% -8.30%

IT Project Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

IT Project Manager job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

IT Project Manager
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

IT Project Manager
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IT Project Manager in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for IT Project Manager in the UK excluding London

IT Project Manager
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

IT Project 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 Project Manager within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 14 October 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
North of England -55 35 £425 -19.05% 30
South East -43 32 £513 -6.82% 19
North West -33 25 £438 -20.81% 19
Midlands -57 22 £625 +25.00% 12
Scotland -9 21 £475 +11.76% 8
East of England -23 15 £505 -8.18% 5
West Midlands -54 13 £625 +31.58% 6
East Midlands -15 9 £688 +22.22% 6
Yorkshire -34 9 £425 -19.05% 11
South West -39 9 £550 +22.22% 4
North East -41 1 £600 +33.33%
IT Project Manager
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 October 2026, IT Project 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 Project Manager in the job title.

1 62 (46.27%) Stakeholder Management
2 46 (34.33%) Project Management
3 37 (27.61%) Agile
4 30 (22.39%) Project Delivery
4 30 (22.39%) Project Governance
5 24 (17.91%) Supplier Management
6 20 (14.93%) Waterfall
7 18 (13.43%) PRINCE2
8 16 (11.94%) Migration
8 16 (11.94%) Project Planning
9 15 (11.19%) Budget Management
10 13 (9.70%) Business Intelligence
10 13 (9.70%) Change Management
10 13 (9.70%) Scrum
10 13 (9.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 12 (8.96%) Change Control
11 12 (8.96%) Cybersecurity
12 11 (8.21%) Azure
12 11 (8.21%) Microsoft
13 10 (7.46%) Microsoft Project
13 10 (7.46%) Supply Chain Management
14 9 (6.72%) Decision-Making
14 9 (6.72%) ERP
14 9 (6.72%) Logistics
15 8 (5.97%) AI
15 8 (5.97%) Continuous Improvement
15 8 (5.97%) JIRA
15 8 (5.97%) PMI Certification
15 8 (5.97%) ServiceNow
16 7 (5.22%) Power BI

IT Project 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 4 (2.99%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.49%) Confluence
3 1 (0.75%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 10 (7.46%) Microsoft Project
2 6 (4.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.75%) CA PPM
1 1 (0.75%) Maximo
1 1 (0.75%) NEC Housing
1 1 (0.75%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 11 (8.21%) Azure
2 7 (5.22%) Power Platform
3 4 (2.99%) Dynamics 365
3 4 (2.99%) Microsoft 365
3 4 (2.99%) SaaS
4 2 (1.49%) AWS
4 2 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (1.49%) Entra ID
4 2 (1.49%) IaaS
4 2 (1.49%) OneDrive
4 2 (1.49%) Smartsheet
5 1 (0.75%) Microsoft Copilot
5 1 (0.75%) Microsoft Purview
5 1 (0.75%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.75%) Broadband
1 1 (0.75%) Intranet
1 1 (0.75%) SD-WAN
1 1 (0.75%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (5.22%) Power BI
2 2 (1.49%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.75%) BusinessObjects
Development Applications
1 8 (5.97%) JIRA
General
1 52 (38.81%) Finance
2 48 (35.82%) Social Skills
3 11 (8.21%) Organisational Skills
4 10 (7.46%) Banking
4 10 (7.46%) Retail
5 7 (5.22%) Manufacturing
5 7 (5.22%) Public Sector
6 6 (4.48%) Analytical Skills
7 5 (3.73%) Automotive
7 5 (3.73%) Legal
8 2 (1.49%) Back Office
8 2 (1.49%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.49%) Law
8 2 (1.49%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.75%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.75%) Retail Banking
9 1 (0.75%) Social Housing
9 1 (0.75%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.99%) Oracle Fusion
2 1 (0.75%) Middleware
2 1 (0.75%) OpenJDK
Miscellaneous
1 9 (6.72%) Legacy Systems
1 9 (6.72%) Product Ownership
2 8 (5.97%) Credit Risk
2 8 (5.97%) Mobile App
2 8 (5.97%) Onboarding
3 7 (5.22%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (2.99%) FMCG
4 4 (2.99%) Operational Technology
4 4 (2.99%) Robotics
5 3 (2.24%) Life Science
6 2 (1.49%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (1.49%) CMDB
6 2 (1.49%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.49%) PMI
7 1 (0.75%) CCTV
7 1 (0.75%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.75%) LIMS
7 1 (0.75%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.75%) SCADA
7 1 (0.75%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 6 (4.48%) Windows
2 2 (1.49%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.75%) AIX
3 1 (0.75%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (46.27%) Stakeholder Management
2 46 (34.33%) Project Management
3 37 (27.61%) Agile
4 30 (22.39%) Project Delivery
4 30 (22.39%) Project Governance
5 24 (17.91%) Supplier Management
6 20 (14.93%) Waterfall
7 18 (13.43%) PRINCE2
8 16 (11.94%) Migration
8 16 (11.94%) Project Planning
9 15 (11.19%) Budget Management
10 13 (9.70%) Business Intelligence
10 13 (9.70%) Change Management
10 13 (9.70%) Scrum
10 13 (9.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 12 (8.96%) Change Control
11 12 (8.96%) Cybersecurity
12 10 (7.46%) Supply Chain Management
13 9 (6.72%) ERP
13 9 (6.72%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.49%) SQL
2 1 (0.75%) Java
Qualifications
1 8 (5.97%) PMI Certification
2 6 (4.48%) PMP
3 5 (3.73%) Degree
3 5 (3.73%) Security Cleared
4 4 (2.99%) SC Cleared
5 2 (1.49%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (1.49%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 1 (0.75%) APMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.24%) Cyber Essentials
1 3 (2.24%) GxP
1 3 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (1.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 2 (1.49%) GDPR
2 2 (1.49%) PMO
3 1 (0.75%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.75%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (0.75%) GMP
3 1 (0.75%) NIST
3 1 (0.75%) QA
System Software
1 2 (1.49%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 11 (8.21%) Microsoft
2 8 (5.97%) ServiceNow
3 4 (2.99%) Oracle
3 4 (2.99%) SAP
4 2 (1.49%) MuleSoft
4 2 (1.49%) Snow
4 2 (1.49%) SolarWinds
5 1 (0.75%) IFS
5 1 (0.75%) JD Edwards
5 1 (0.75%) LabVantage
5 1 (0.75%) NEC
5 1 (0.75%) Planview
5 1 (0.75%) Workday