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 £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 July 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
23 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 267 231 218
Rank change year-on-year -36 -13 -7
Contract jobs requiring a Service Manager 103 165 241
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.69% 0.84% 1.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.76% 0.91% 1.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 109 174
10th Percentile £308 £375 £350
25th Percentile £365 £400 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £660 £638 £650
UK median daily rate £504 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +0.75% -1.96% -0.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 9 2
10th Percentile £53.94 £20.47 -
25th Percentile £67.33 £21.19 -
Median hourly rate £89.63 £30.00 £12.95
Median % change year-on-year +198.77% +131.66% -56.10%
75th Percentile - £30.25 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £89.63 £30.00 £12.95
% change year-on-year +198.77% +131.66% -56.10%

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 13,529 18,225 21,810
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.57% 92.26% 94.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,318 11,121 14,882
10th Percentile £216 £215 £232
25th Percentile £363 £375 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +2.56%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £536
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.05% -0.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,158 2,055 1,196
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.23 £13.98
25th Percentile £16.71 £16.81 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £39.80
Median % change year-on-year -40.82% +6.78% +89.52%
75th Percentile £56.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £77.25
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £40.33 £43.69
% change year-on-year -37.63% -7.70% +70.13%

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 23 July 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 23 July 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 23 July 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 East +28 24 £415 -28.45% 31
South West +3 24 £483 -16.09% 9
North of England -17 20 £475 +5.56% 20
Scotland +5 18 £316 -47.42% 3
North West -4 18 £550 +23.60% 10
Midlands -9 12 £483 -12.27% 10
West Midlands +4 10 £483 -17.87% 8
East of England +20 5 £472 -5.70% 7
East Midlands -12 2 - - 2
Yorkshire -12 2 £438 -5.41% 5
Wales -6 1 - - 6
Service Manager
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 July 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 66 (64.08%) ITIL
2 53 (51.46%) Service Delivery
3 49 (47.57%) Service Management
4 34 (33.01%) ITSM
4 34 (33.01%) Security Cleared
4 34 (33.01%) Social Skills
5 30 (29.13%) SC Cleared
6 22 (21.36%) Finance
7 21 (20.39%) Change Management
7 21 (20.39%) ServiceNow
8 20 (19.42%) Stakeholder Management
9 19 (18.45%) ITIL Certification
10 17 (16.50%) Analytical Skills
10 17 (16.50%) Public Sector
10 17 (16.50%) Continuous Improvement
11 16 (15.53%) Incident Management
12 15 (14.56%) Microsoft
13 13 (12.62%) Military
13 13 (12.62%) Service Design
13 13 (12.62%) Problem-Solving
14 12 (11.65%) Firewall
15 11 (10.68%) Project Management
16 10 (9.71%) Risk Management
16 10 (9.71%) Release Management
16 10 (9.71%) Problem Management
16 10 (9.71%) Project Delivery
16 10 (9.71%) Service Catalogue
16 10 (9.71%) Cybersecurity
17 9 (8.74%) Microsoft 365
17 9 (8.74%) Acceptance Criteria

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 (7.77%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (2.91%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.97%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (2.91%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 9 (8.74%) Microsoft 365
2 8 (7.77%) Azure
3 7 (6.80%) Power Platform
3 7 (6.80%) SaaS
4 1 (0.97%) IaaS
4 1 (0.97%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (11.65%) Firewall
2 9 (8.74%) VPN
3 7 (6.80%) Internet
4 6 (5.83%) Network Security
5 2 (1.94%) Cisco Firepower
5 2 (1.94%) DHCP
5 2 (1.94%) DNS
5 2 (1.94%) TCP/IP
5 2 (1.94%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (6.80%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 6 (5.83%) JIRA
General
1 34 (33.01%) Social Skills
2 22 (21.36%) Finance
3 17 (16.50%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (16.50%) Public Sector
4 13 (12.62%) Military
5 7 (6.80%) Legal
6 6 (5.83%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (4.85%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (4.85%) Telecoms
8 4 (3.88%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (2.91%) Banking
9 3 (2.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (2.91%) Publishing
10 2 (1.94%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.97%) Aviation
11 1 (0.97%) Fire and Rescue
11 1 (0.97%) Local Government
11 1 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.97%) Police
11 1 (0.97%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 7 (6.80%) Video Conferencing
2 5 (4.85%) Management Information System
3 4 (3.88%) Onboarding
4 2 (1.94%) CMDB
4 2 (1.94%) Data Centre
5 1 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (0.97%) NHS
5 1 (0.97%) Product Ownership
5 1 (0.97%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.94%) Mac OS
1 2 (1.94%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (64.08%) ITIL
2 53 (51.46%) Service Delivery
3 49 (47.57%) Service Management
4 34 (33.01%) ITSM
5 21 (20.39%) Change Management
6 20 (19.42%) Stakeholder Management
7 17 (16.50%) Continuous Improvement
8 16 (15.53%) Incident Management
9 13 (12.62%) Problem-Solving
9 13 (12.62%) Service Design
10 11 (10.68%) Project Management
11 10 (9.71%) Cybersecurity
11 10 (9.71%) Problem Management
11 10 (9.71%) Project Delivery
11 10 (9.71%) Release Management
11 10 (9.71%) Risk Management
11 10 (9.71%) Service Catalogue
12 9 (8.74%) Acceptance Criteria
12 9 (8.74%) Agile
12 9 (8.74%) Disaster Recovery
Qualifications
1 34 (33.01%) Security Cleared
2 30 (29.13%) SC Cleared
3 19 (18.45%) ITIL Certification
4 8 (7.77%) Degree
5 7 (6.80%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.94%) A+ Certification
6 2 (1.94%) CISA
6 2 (1.94%) CISM
6 2 (1.94%) CISSP
6 2 (1.94%) GIAC
6 2 (1.94%) ISACA
6 2 (1.94%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (1.94%) SANS
7 1 (0.97%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.74%) SLA
2 2 (1.94%) GDPR
2 2 (1.94%) ISO 22301
2 2 (1.94%) ISO 31000
2 2 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (1.94%) QA
3 1 (0.97%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
3 1 (0.97%) COSHH
3 1 (0.97%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (0.97%) GxP
3 1 (0.97%) NEBOSH
3 1 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 1 (0.97%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 6 (5.83%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.94%) FortiGate
2 2 (1.94%) OPNET
Vendors
1 21 (20.39%) ServiceNow
2 15 (14.56%) Microsoft
3 6 (5.83%) Remedy
4 4 (3.88%) BMC
4 4 (3.88%) Cisco
5 2 (1.94%) CheckPoint
5 2 (1.94%) Palo Alto
5 2 (1.94%) SAP
5 2 (1.94%) Tenable
6 1 (0.97%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.97%) Foundry