Service Design Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Service Design
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Service Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 161 210 152
Rank change year-on-year +49 -58 +14
Contract jobs citing Service Design 297 151 305
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.62% 1.03% 1.57%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.90% 1.18% 1.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 94 243
10th Percentile £345 £402 £400
25th Percentile £434 £453 £478
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.37% -6.36% +3.53%
75th Percentile £640 £597 £625
90th Percentile £738 £679 £675
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 3 1
10th Percentile - £27.44 -
25th Percentile - £28.97 £70.97
Median hourly rate £60.00 £31.52 £71.93
Median % change year-on-year +90.36% -56.18% -
75th Percentile £77.34 £34.26 £72.90
90th Percentile £97.25 £35.90 -
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £32.64 £71.93
% change year-on-year +83.85% -54.63% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 15,652 12,774 16,981
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 85.55% 87.39% 87.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,590 7,494 10,922
10th Percentile £221 £243 £250
25th Percentile £375 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £691
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,719 732 1,219
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.50 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.58 £30.45 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.58% -32.33% +40.63%
75th Percentile £51.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.22 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.14% +25.71%

Service Design
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Service Design job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Service Design
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Service Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Service Design

Service Design
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Design in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Service Design in the UK excluding London

Service Design
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Service Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Service Design

Service Design
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Service Design in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Service Design in the UK excluding London

Service Design
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 Service Design within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 31 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 +14 95 £470 -1.05% 21
South East +10 68 £538 -2.27% 16
South West +27 61 £725 +20.83% 6
North West +6 47 £424 -13.13% 11
Scotland -1 27 £475 -4.62% 7
Yorkshire -24 27 £500 -6.98% 6
Midlands -24 27 £509 -13.30% 11
West Midlands -24 23 £460 -21.70% 9
North East +10 21 £454 +0.89% 4
East of England -14 12 £550 -3.51% 1
Wales - 9 £328 - 2
East Midlands - 4 £800 - 2
Northern Ireland - 2 £625 - 2
Service Design
UK

Service Design
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 40 (13.47%) Confluence
2 9 (3.03%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.68%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.67%) Apache
5 1 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.34%) IIS
5 1 (0.34%) WebSphere
Applications
1 43 (14.48%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (10.10%) Microsoft Project
3 9 (3.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (2.69%) Microsoft Excel
5 6 (2.02%) Adobe XD
6 5 (1.68%) Sketch
7 4 (1.35%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 4 (1.35%) InVision
8 3 (1.01%) UserZoom
9 2 (0.67%) MS Visio
10 1 (0.34%) Adobe Illustrator
10 1 (0.34%) InDesign
10 1 (0.34%) Photoshop
10 1 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
10 1 (0.34%) Trello
Business Applications
1 6 (2.02%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.01%) Maximo
3 2 (0.67%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.34%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.34%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 24 (8.08%) Azure
2 20 (6.73%) Figma
3 16 (5.39%) AWS
3 16 (5.39%) Power Platform
4 12 (4.04%) SaaS
5 9 (3.03%) Google Analytics
5 9 (3.03%) Miro
6 8 (2.69%) Google Tag Manager
6 8 (2.69%) Microsoft 365
7 7 (2.36%) GCP
8 5 (1.68%) Amazon S3
8 5 (1.68%) AWS Lambda
8 5 (1.68%) OneDrive
8 5 (1.68%) Serverless
9 4 (1.35%) Amazon ECS
9 4 (1.35%) AWS CloudFormation
9 4 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (1.01%) Boomi
10 3 (1.01%) OpenShift
10 3 (1.01%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.01%) VPN
2 2 (0.67%) Firewall
2 2 (0.67%) WAN
2 2 (0.67%) Wireless
3 1 (0.34%) Cisco ISE
3 1 (0.34%) HTTP
3 1 (0.34%) LAN
3 1 (0.34%) PBX
3 1 (0.34%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.34%) Unified Communications
3 1 (0.34%) VoIP
3 1 (0.34%) WebEx
3 1 (0.34%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (4.38%) Power BI
2 7 (2.36%) BigQuery
2 7 (2.36%) Looker
3 4 (1.35%) Tableau
4 2 (0.67%) Amazon Aurora
4 2 (0.67%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.67%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.34%) DB2
5 1 (0.34%) EDRMS
5 1 (0.34%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.34%) MySQL
5 1 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.34%) Power Query
5 1 (0.34%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 41 (13.80%) JIRA
2 5 (1.68%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.35%) Axure RP
3 4 (1.35%) webpack
4 2 (0.67%) GitLab
5 1 (0.34%) JMeter
5 1 (0.34%) Mocha
5 1 (0.34%) Postman
5 1 (0.34%) Selenium
General
1 127 (42.76%) Social Skills
2 77 (25.93%) Public Sector
3 48 (16.16%) Analytical Skills
4 35 (11.78%) Finance
5 32 (10.77%) Military
6 11 (3.70%) Banking
6 11 (3.70%) Influencing Skills
7 10 (3.37%) Presentation Skills
8 7 (2.36%) Legal
9 6 (2.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (2.02%) Retail
10 3 (1.01%) Advertising
10 3 (1.01%) Local Government
10 3 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.01%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.67%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.67%) Marketing
11 2 (0.67%) Publishing
12 1 (0.34%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.34%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 91 (30.64%) Architect
2 71 (23.91%) Service Architect
3 66 (22.22%) Designer
4 43 (14.48%) Service Designer
5 33 (11.11%) Analyst
6 27 (9.09%) Senior
7 23 (7.74%) User Researcher
8 21 (7.07%) Lead
9 20 (6.73%) Business Analyst
9 20 (6.73%) Service Manager
10 14 (4.71%) Consultant
10 14 (4.71%) Service Transition Manager
10 14 (4.71%) Transition Manager
11 12 (4.04%) Senior Analyst
11 12 (4.04%) UX Designer
12 9 (3.03%) Developer
12 9 (3.03%) Senior Designer
12 9 (3.03%) Service Design Manager
13 8 (2.69%) Senior Service Designer
14 7 (2.36%) Service Design Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.68%) HTML
1 5 (1.68%) Node.js
1 5 (1.68%) RESTful
2 4 (1.35%) CSS
2 4 (1.35%) CSS3
2 4 (1.35%) FastAPI
2 4 (1.35%) HTML5
2 4 (1.35%) React
2 4 (1.35%) Redux
2 4 (1.35%) SailPoint
2 4 (1.35%) Vue
3 3 (1.01%) Django
3 3 (1.01%) Flask
3 3 (1.01%) Oracle Fusion
4 2 (0.67%) AWS CDK
4 2 (0.67%) FHIR
4 2 (0.67%) OAuth
4 2 (0.67%) PyTorch
4 2 (0.67%) REST
4 2 (0.67%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 48 (16.16%) Product Ownership
2 10 (3.37%) NHS
3 9 (3.03%) Onboarding
4 6 (2.02%) Cloud Native
4 6 (2.02%) CMDB
5 5 (1.68%) Management Information System
5 5 (1.68%) Mobile App
6 4 (1.35%) Data Centre
6 4 (1.35%) Digital Wallet
7 3 (1.01%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (1.01%) IVR
8 2 (0.67%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.34%) Algorithms
9 1 (0.34%) Cyberattack
9 1 (0.34%) Data Fabric
9 1 (0.34%) Data Structures
9 1 (0.34%) Driving Licence
9 1 (0.34%) Graphic Design
9 1 (0.34%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 1 (0.34%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 6 (2.02%) Windows
2 4 (1.35%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.34%) Android
3 1 (0.34%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.34%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (45.45%) Agile
2 106 (35.69%) ITIL
3 101 (34.01%) Service Management
4 69 (23.23%) User Research
5 65 (21.89%) User Experience
6 54 (18.18%) Acceptance Criteria
7 49 (16.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 42 (14.14%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
9 41 (13.80%) Stakeholder Management
9 41 (13.80%) TOGAF
10 40 (13.47%) Project Delivery
11 37 (12.46%) Workshop Facilitation
12 36 (12.12%) Continuous Improvement
13 35 (11.78%) Problem-Solving
14 34 (11.45%) Critical Thinking
14 34 (11.45%) ITSM
14 34 (11.45%) UX Design
15 33 (11.11%) Knowledge Transfer
15 33 (11.11%) Roadmaps
16 32 (10.77%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 8 (2.69%) JavaScript
1 8 (2.69%) Python
1 8 (2.69%) TypeScript
2 2 (0.67%) R
2 2 (0.67%) SQL
3 1 (0.34%) Bash
3 1 (0.34%) C#
3 1 (0.34%) Java
3 1 (0.34%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.34%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 121 (40.74%) Security Cleared
2 99 (33.33%) SC Cleared
3 44 (14.81%) Degree
4 35 (11.78%) TOGAF Certification
5 9 (3.03%) DV Cleared
6 6 (2.02%) AWS Certification
6 6 (2.02%) Azure Certification
6 6 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (2.02%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (0.67%) ISEB
7 2 (0.67%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.34%) APMP
8 1 (0.34%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.34%) CISM
8 1 (0.34%) CISSP
8 1 (0.34%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.34%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.34%) PMP
8 1 (0.34%) SAFe Agilist
8 1 (0.34%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (14.48%) Accessibility
2 30 (10.10%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 14 (4.71%) QA
4 9 (3.03%) Data Quality
5 6 (2.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.68%) Actionable Recommendations
6 5 (1.68%) SLA
7 4 (1.35%) GDPR
7 4 (1.35%) ISO 9001
7 4 (1.35%) WCAG
8 2 (0.67%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.34%) HL7
9 1 (0.34%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.34%) NCSC
9 1 (0.34%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.34%) PSD2
9 1 (0.34%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 6 (2.02%) Docker
2 3 (1.01%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.34%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 30 (10.10%) OPNET
2 7 (2.36%) Kubernetes
3 5 (1.68%) Terraform
4 3 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (0.67%) Grafana
6 1 (0.34%) Ansible
6 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.34%) SCCM
Vendors
1 51 (17.17%) ServiceNow
2 37 (12.46%) Microsoft
3 36 (12.12%) Remedy
4 30 (10.10%) Atlassian
5 11 (3.70%) Adobe
6 9 (3.03%) Google
6 9 (3.03%) VMware
7 7 (2.36%) Cisco
8 5 (1.68%) Salesforce
9 4 (1.35%) Oracle
9 4 (1.35%) Palo Alto
10 3 (1.01%) Genesys
10 3 (1.01%) OneLogin
10 3 (1.01%) SAP
10 3 (1.01%) UiPath
10 3 (1.01%) Zscaler
11 2 (0.67%) Juniper
12 1 (0.34%) Avaya
12 1 (0.34%) BMC
12 1 (0.34%) Ericsson