Service Manager Contracts in the UK excluding London

Services Manager
UK > UK excluding London

The median Services Manager daily rate in the UK excluding London is £463, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 August 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 264 214 221
Rank change year-on-year -50 +7 -12
Contract jobs requiring a Service Manager 109 162 226
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.71% 0.88% 1.01%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.79% 0.95% 1.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 63 110 156
10th Percentile £308 £370 £350
25th Percentile £364 £400 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% - -
75th Percentile £581 £594 £588
90th Percentile £656 £638 £688
UK median daily rate £508 £500 £520
% change year-on-year +1.50% -3.85% +1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 7 2
10th Percentile £53.94 £19.75 -
25th Percentile £67.33 £21.19 -
Median hourly rate £89.63 £22.56 £12.95
Median % change year-on-year +297.30% +74.21% -56.10%
75th Percentile - £30.25 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £89.63 £22.56 £12.95
% change year-on-year +297.30% +74.21% -60.28%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 13,822 17,041 21,101
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.38% 92.08% 94.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,467 10,446 14,301
10th Percentile £215 £219 £230
25th Percentile £363 £375 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +2.04%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £680 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,205 1,801 1,170
10th Percentile £13.41 £13.86 £13.95
25th Percentile £16.50 £18.27 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £39.03
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% +10.19% +85.83%
75th Percentile £55.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% +1.18% +65.50%

Service Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Service Manager in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Service Manager in the UK excluding London

Service Manager
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Service Manager in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Service Manager in the UK excluding London

Service Manager
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Manager in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 2 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Service Manager in the UK excluding London

Service Manager
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Service Manager in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Service Manager in the UK excluding London

Service Manager
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Service Manager in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 2 August 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Service Manager in the UK excluding London

Service 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 Service Manager within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 2 August 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
South West -1 25 £500 -13.04% 26
South East +23 24 £415 -27.19% 44
North of England -24 24 £475 +9.83% 53
North West -11 20 £550 +46.67% 29
Scotland +5 18 £316 -47.42% 18
Midlands -15 13 £515 -1.90% 25
West Midlands -7 11 £515 -11.40% 17
East of England +7 5 £472 -8.00% 17
Yorkshire -14 4 £431 -6.76% 16
East Midlands -8 2 - - 8
Wales -3 1 - - 8
Service Manager
UK

Service Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 2 August 2025, Service Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Service Manager in the job title.

1 67 (61.47%) ITIL
2 55 (50.46%) Service Delivery
3 50 (45.87%) Service Management
4 37 (33.94%) Social Skills
5 35 (32.11%) ITSM
5 35 (32.11%) Security Cleared
6 31 (28.44%) SC Cleared
7 22 (20.18%) Stakeholder Management
7 22 (20.18%) Change Management
8 21 (19.27%) Finance
8 21 (19.27%) ServiceNow
9 20 (18.35%) ITIL Certification
10 17 (15.60%) Incident Management
10 17 (15.60%) Continuous Improvement
11 16 (14.68%) Analytical Skills
11 16 (14.68%) Public Sector
12 15 (13.76%) Microsoft
13 14 (12.84%) Military
14 13 (11.93%) Problem-Solving
14 13 (11.93%) Service Design
15 12 (11.01%) Project Delivery
15 12 (11.01%) Firewall
15 12 (11.01%) Project Management
16 11 (10.09%) Risk Management
16 11 (10.09%) Service Catalogue
16 11 (10.09%) Cybersecurity
17 10 (9.17%) SLA
17 10 (9.17%) Problem Management
17 10 (9.17%) Release Management
18 9 (8.26%) Azure

Service Manager Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (7.34%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.92%) Mule
Applications
1 3 (2.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (2.75%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.92%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 9 (8.26%) Azure
1 9 (8.26%) Microsoft 365
2 7 (6.42%) Power Platform
3 6 (5.50%) SaaS
4 1 (0.92%) GCP
4 1 (0.92%) GitHub
4 1 (0.92%) IaaS
4 1 (0.92%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (11.01%) Firewall
2 9 (8.26%) VPN
3 7 (6.42%) Internet
4 6 (5.50%) Network Security
5 2 (1.83%) Cisco Firepower
5 2 (1.83%) DHCP
5 2 (1.83%) DNS
5 2 (1.83%) TCP/IP
5 2 (1.83%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (6.42%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (6.42%) JIRA
2 1 (0.92%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.92%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 37 (33.94%) Social Skills
2 21 (19.27%) Finance
3 16 (14.68%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (14.68%) Public Sector
4 14 (12.84%) Military
5 8 (7.34%) Legal
6 6 (5.50%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (4.59%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (4.59%) Telecoms
8 4 (3.67%) Banking
8 4 (3.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (2.75%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (2.75%) Publishing
9 3 (2.75%) Retail
10 2 (1.83%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.92%) Aviation
11 1 (0.92%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.92%) Fire and Rescue
11 1 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.92%) Police
Miscellaneous
1 7 (6.42%) Video Conferencing
2 5 (4.59%) Management Information System
2 5 (4.59%) Onboarding
3 3 (2.75%) Data Centre
4 2 (1.83%) CMDB
5 1 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (0.92%) Distributed Applications
5 1 (0.92%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (0.92%) NHS
5 1 (0.92%) Product Ownership
5 1 (0.92%) Security Operations Centre
5 1 (0.92%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.83%) Mac OS
1 2 (1.83%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (61.47%) ITIL
2 55 (50.46%) Service Delivery
3 50 (45.87%) Service Management
4 35 (32.11%) ITSM
5 22 (20.18%) Change Management
5 22 (20.18%) Stakeholder Management
6 17 (15.60%) Continuous Improvement
6 17 (15.60%) Incident Management
7 13 (11.93%) Problem-Solving
7 13 (11.93%) Service Design
8 12 (11.01%) Project Delivery
8 12 (11.01%) Project Management
9 11 (10.09%) Cybersecurity
9 11 (10.09%) Risk Management
9 11 (10.09%) Service Catalogue
10 10 (9.17%) Problem Management
10 10 (9.17%) Release Management
11 9 (8.26%) Acceptance Criteria
11 9 (8.26%) Agile
11 9 (8.26%) Disaster Recovery
Qualifications
1 35 (32.11%) Security Cleared
2 31 (28.44%) SC Cleared
3 20 (18.35%) ITIL Certification
4 8 (7.34%) Degree
5 7 (6.42%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.83%) A+ Certification
6 2 (1.83%) CISA
6 2 (1.83%) CISM
6 2 (1.83%) CISSP
6 2 (1.83%) GIAC
6 2 (1.83%) ISACA
6 2 (1.83%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.83%) SANS
7 1 (0.92%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (9.17%) SLA
2 3 (2.75%) QA
3 2 (1.83%) GDPR
3 2 (1.83%) ISO 22301
3 2 (1.83%) ISO 31000
3 2 (1.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.92%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.92%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.92%) GxP
4 1 (0.92%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 1 (0.92%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 6 (5.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.83%) FortiGate
2 2 (1.83%) OPNET
3 1 (0.92%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 21 (19.27%) ServiceNow
2 15 (13.76%) Microsoft
3 6 (5.50%) Remedy
4 4 (3.67%) BMC
4 4 (3.67%) Cisco
5 2 (1.83%) CheckPoint
5 2 (1.83%) Palo Alto
5 2 (1.83%) SAP
5 2 (1.83%) Tenable
6 1 (0.92%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.92%) Foundry
6 1 (0.92%) Google