SLA Contracts in the UK excluding London

Service Level Agreement (SLA)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring SLA skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SLA over the 6 months leading up to 22 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 May 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 107 82 104
Rank change year-on-year -25 +22 -7
Contract jobs citing SLA 290 492 553
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 2.27% 2.43% 2.41%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 13.88% 16.65% 16.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 169 203 292
10th Percentile £158 £148 £133
25th Percentile £200 £197 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £250 £285 £250
Median % change year-on-year -12.28% +14.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £488 £438 £464
90th Percentile £588 £552 £538
UK median daily rate £296 £330 £298
% change year-on-year -10.23% +10.92% -19.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 69 61
10th Percentile £16.81 £11.05 £12.67
25th Percentile £20.27 £12.75 £14.50
Median hourly rate £22.14 £14.00 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.14% -24.32% +12.12%
75th Percentile £24.66 £17.72 £29.30
90th Percentile £33.75 £26.15 £47.00
UK median hourly rate £22.27 £14.70 £18.50
% change year-on-year +51.50% -20.54% +12.12%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK excluding London

SLA falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 2,089 2,955 3,383
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 16.34% 14.59% 14.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,324 1,743 2,237
10th Percentile £221 £242 £225
25th Percentile £360 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year - -1.04% +6.67%
75th Percentile £575 £586 £588
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £509 £525
% change year-on-year -1.77% -3.05% +1.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 134 311 192
10th Percentile £15.50 £10.95 £13.16
25th Percentile £22.14 £12.75 £18.07
Median hourly rate £36.01 £18.27 £31.89
Median % change year-on-year +97.10% -42.70% +41.71%
75th Percentile £67.50 £45.00 £62.00
90th Percentile £79.61 £68.75 £77.35
UK median hourly rate £34.50 £21.12 £35.00
% change year-on-year +63.39% -39.67% +16.67%

SLA
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing SLA as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for SLA in the UK excluding London

SLA
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Daily rate trend for SLA in the UK excluding London

SLA
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SLA in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 22 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SLA in the UK excluding London

SLA
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Hourly rate trend for SLA in the UK excluding London

SLA
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SLA in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 22 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for SLA in the UK excluding London

SLA
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 SLA within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 22 May 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 +12 92 £250 -12.28% 165
North of England -43 58 £250 -49.29% 116
Midlands +4 53 £235 -19.31% 83
West Midlands +8 47 £235 -16.44% 31
South West +13 45 £310 +12.73% 48
North West -39 36 £250 -51.92% 68
Yorkshire -2 21 £425 -5.56% 32
Scotland -10 17 £309 +9.49% 20
East of England +18 15 £225 -15.09% 57
Wales -18 8 £263 +94.44% 13
East Midlands -2 6 £250 -19.35% 46
Channel Islands - 2 £298 -
North East +3 1 - - 17
Northern Ireland - 1 £148 - 6
SLA
UK

SLA
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 13 (4.48%) SharePoint
2 11 (3.79%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.41%) Skype for Business
4 6 (2.07%) IIS
5 4 (1.38%) Confluence
5 4 (1.38%) Exchange Server 2010
5 4 (1.38%) Oracle Self-Service HR
5 4 (1.38%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.34%) Apache
6 1 (0.34%) JBoss
6 1 (0.34%) nginx
6 1 (0.34%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.34%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.34%) WebLogic Portal
6 1 (0.34%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.34%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 33 (11.38%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (10.69%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.34%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 1 (0.34%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.34%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (1.38%) Oracle Assets
1 4 (1.38%) Oracle EBS R12
1 4 (1.38%) Oracle ERP
1 4 (1.38%) Oracle HRMS
1 4 (1.38%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.69%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle iProcurement
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.34%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 1 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 43 (14.83%) Microsoft 365
2 32 (11.03%) Azure
3 12 (4.14%) AWS
4 9 (3.10%) Entra ID
5 7 (2.41%) IaaS
5 7 (2.41%) SaaS
6 6 (2.07%) Google Workspace
6 6 (2.07%) OneDrive
7 4 (1.38%) PaaS
8 3 (1.03%) Power Platform
9 2 (0.69%) Amazon S3
9 2 (0.69%) Dynamics 365
9 2 (0.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 1 (0.34%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.34%) AWS Fargate
10 1 (0.34%) GitHub
10 1 (0.34%) OpenShift
10 1 (0.34%) Serverless
10 1 (0.34%) Twilio
10 1 (0.34%) Yammer
Communications & Networking
1 27 (9.31%) DNS
2 23 (7.93%) LAN
3 18 (6.21%) Firewall
4 17 (5.86%) VPN
5 16 (5.52%) DHCP
6 12 (4.14%) WAN
6 12 (4.14%) Wireless
7 11 (3.79%) TCP/IP
8 10 (3.45%) SAN
8 10 (3.45%) Skype
8 10 (3.45%) VoIP
9 9 (3.10%) Wi-Fi
10 7 (2.41%) Cisco Firepower
11 6 (2.07%) Cisco IOS
11 6 (2.07%) Cisco ISE
11 6 (2.07%) Junos
12 5 (1.72%) Remote Desktop
12 5 (1.72%) SMTP
13 4 (1.38%) PSTN
14 3 (1.03%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.07%) SQL Server
2 5 (1.72%) Oracle Database
3 3 (1.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 1 (0.34%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.34%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.34%) Power BI
4 1 (0.34%) RDBMS
4 1 (0.34%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 9 (3.10%) JIRA
2 1 (0.34%) GitLab
2 1 (0.34%) Mockito
2 1 (0.34%) Toad
General
1 139 (47.93%) Social Skills
2 52 (17.93%) Analytical Skills
3 51 (17.59%) Finance
4 26 (8.97%) Public Sector
5 24 (8.28%) Organisational Skills
6 21 (7.24%) Telecoms
7 16 (5.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (2.76%) Police
9 7 (2.41%) Banking
10 6 (2.07%) Military
10 6 (2.07%) Retail
11 4 (1.38%) Electronics
11 4 (1.38%) Legal
12 3 (1.03%) Automotive
12 3 (1.03%) Back Office
12 3 (1.03%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (1.03%) Manufacturing
12 3 (1.03%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.69%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 57 (19.66%) Analyst
2 52 (17.93%) Support Engineer
3 31 (10.69%) Desktop Engineer
4 30 (10.34%) Desktop Support
5 27 (9.31%) Service Analyst
6 26 (8.97%) Service Desk Analyst
7 24 (8.28%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 16 (5.52%) Administrator
8 16 (5.52%) Network Engineer
8 16 (5.52%) Support Assistant
9 15 (5.17%) Service Manager
10 14 (4.83%) Support Analyst
11 13 (4.48%) Communications Engineer
12 11 (3.79%) Server Engineer
13 10 (3.45%) IT Support
14 9 (3.10%) IT Engineer
14 9 (3.10%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
14 9 (3.10%) Support Technician
15 8 (2.76%) Lead
15 8 (2.76%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (0.69%) JWT
1 2 (0.69%) OAuth
1 2 (0.69%) REST
1 2 (0.69%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.34%) Apache Camel
2 1 (0.34%) AWS CDK
2 1 (0.34%) Express.js
2 1 (0.34%) FastAPI
2 1 (0.34%) FHIR
2 1 (0.34%) GraphQL
2 1 (0.34%) Java RMI
2 1 (0.34%) JSON
2 1 (0.34%) LangChain
2 1 (0.34%) Middleware
2 1 (0.34%) OpenID
2 1 (0.34%) SAML
2 1 (0.34%) Spring
2 1 (0.34%) Spring Batch
2 1 (0.34%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 37 (12.76%) Driving Licence
2 14 (4.83%) Enterprise Software
3 13 (4.48%) Data Centre
4 10 (3.45%) Management Information System
5 9 (3.10%) Smartphone
6 8 (2.76%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.72%) Onboarding
8 4 (1.38%) Blackberry
8 4 (1.38%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.38%) Handset
9 3 (1.03%) CMDB
9 3 (1.03%) IVR
10 2 (0.69%) Anti-Spyware
10 2 (0.69%) CSOC
10 2 (0.69%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (0.69%) Fat Client
10 2 (0.69%) Replication
10 2 (0.69%) Security Operations Centre
10 2 (0.69%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.69%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 84 (28.97%) Windows
2 44 (15.17%) Windows 10
3 19 (6.55%) Linux
4 16 (5.52%) Windows Server
5 11 (3.79%) Android
6 10 (3.45%) Windows Server 2016
6 10 (3.45%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (2.41%) Mac OS
8 6 (2.07%) Windows Server 2012
9 5 (1.72%) Unix
10 4 (1.38%) AIX
11 3 (1.03%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.69%) CentOS
13 1 (0.34%) Rocky
13 1 (0.34%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (35.86%) ITIL
2 68 (23.45%) Customer Service
3 62 (21.38%) Problem-Solving
4 34 (11.72%) Service Delivery
4 34 (11.72%) Service Management
5 33 (11.38%) Customer Experience
6 30 (10.34%) ITSM
7 23 (7.93%) Mathematics
8 18 (6.21%) Agile
8 18 (6.21%) Continuous Improvement
8 18 (6.21%) Incident Management
8 18 (6.21%) Problem Management
9 17 (5.86%) Customer Requirements
9 17 (5.86%) Process Improvement
9 17 (5.86%) Root Cause Analysis
9 17 (5.86%) Test Scripting
10 15 (5.17%) Disaster Recovery
11 12 (4.14%) Information Security
11 12 (4.14%) Performance Tuning
11 12 (4.14%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 34 (11.72%) SQL
2 7 (2.41%) PowerShell
2 7 (2.41%) Python
3 6 (2.07%) VB
4 2 (0.69%) Bicep
4 2 (0.69%) Java
4 2 (0.69%) PL/SQL
4 2 (0.69%) VBScript
5 1 (0.34%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.34%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 123 (42.41%) Security Cleared
2 105 (36.21%) SC Cleared
3 24 (8.28%) Dell Certification
4 18 (6.21%) ITIL Certification
5 14 (4.83%) Degree
6 12 (4.14%) DV Cleared
7 8 (2.76%) DBS Check
8 6 (2.07%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 6 (2.07%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (1.38%) A+ Certification
10 3 (1.03%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (0.69%) MCSE
12 1 (0.34%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.34%) Azure Certification
12 1 (0.34%) CCIE
12 1 (0.34%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.34%) CISSP
12 1 (0.34%) HNC
12 1 (0.34%) OSCP
12 1 (0.34%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (3.10%) GDPR
2 8 (2.76%) QA
3 3 (1.03%) PCI DSS
3 3 (1.03%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.69%) NEBOSH
4 2 (0.69%) PMO
5 1 (0.34%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.34%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.34%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.34%) HL7
5 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.34%) NCSC
System Software
1 50 (17.24%) Active Directory
2 15 (5.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (2.07%) DFS Replication
3 6 (2.07%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (2.07%) VMware ESXi
3 6 (2.07%) vSphere
4 5 (1.72%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.38%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 4 (1.38%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.69%) Docker
6 2 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.34%) Firmware
7 1 (0.34%) LXC
7 1 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.34%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 20 (6.90%) SCCM
2 9 (3.10%) Ansible
3 8 (2.76%) FortiGate
3 8 (2.76%) Terraform
4 7 (2.41%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (2.07%) SmoothWall
6 5 (1.72%) Microsoft Clustering
6 5 (1.72%) NetApp OnCommand
6 5 (1.72%) vCenter Server
6 5 (1.72%) vMotion
6 5 (1.72%) WSUS
7 4 (1.38%) Tivoli
7 4 (1.38%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 3 (1.03%) TeamSite
9 2 (0.69%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.69%) Kubernetes
9 2 (0.69%) SCOM
9 2 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.69%) XenMobile
10 1 (0.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 102 (35.17%) Microsoft
2 48 (16.55%) ServiceNow
3 38 (13.10%) Dell
3 38 (13.10%) HP
4 23 (7.93%) Google
5 20 (6.90%) Oracle
6 18 (6.21%) IBM
6 18 (6.21%) VMware
7 14 (4.83%) Cisco
8 12 (4.14%) Remedy
9 7 (2.41%) Apple
10 6 (2.07%) Citrix
10 6 (2.07%) F5
10 6 (2.07%) Juniper
11 4 (1.38%) Clearswift
11 4 (1.38%) Ribbon
12 3 (1.03%) Adobe
12 3 (1.03%) SAP
12 3 (1.03%) SolarWinds
13 2 (0.69%) Ivanti
764 SLA jobs Nationwide