IT Manager Contract Job Trends

IT Manager
UK

The median IT Manager daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 July 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 251 237 189
Rank change year-on-year -14 -48 -2
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 529 361 516
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.00% 1.11% 1.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.08% 1.21% 1.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 332 236 346
10th Percentile £400 £350 £363
25th Percentile £458 £425 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £516 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.74% -1.71% -
75th Percentile £625 £601 £625
90th Percentile £723 £675 £681
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.50% - -0.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 9 14
10th Percentile £28.75 £55.98 £21.19
25th Percentile £35.75 £61.25 £22.78
Median hourly rate £72.78 £71.00 £27.70
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +156.34% -56.07%
75th Percentile £85.00 £77.50 £43.22
90th Percentile £94.69 £79.00 £58.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.78 £75.00 £25.28
% change year-on-year -2.97% +196.74% -51.21%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 48,798 29,864 38,453
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.64% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,431 18,992 24,873
10th Percentile £325 £285 £293
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £735 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,294 1,429 2,439
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.49
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £44.10 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +75.33% -37.13% -6.98%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £64.25
90th Percentile £80.17 £73.75 £74.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £41.81
% change year-on-year +78.93% -39.85% +5.65%

IT Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

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

IT Manager job vacancy trend in the UK

IT Manager
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

IT Manager
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IT Manager over the 6 months to 21 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for IT Manager in the UK

IT Manager
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

IT Manager
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing IT Manager over the 6 months to 21 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for IT Manager in the UK

IT Manager
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing IT Manager within the UK over the 6 months to 21 July 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
England -13 444 £525 - 260
UK excluding London -24 301 £513 +2.50% 222
London -26 183 £575 +4.55% 57
Work from Home -15 169 £525 - 113
South East -16 98 £476 -12.61% 71
North of England -70 66 £531 +8.97% 76
Midlands -40 45 £525 +7.69% 38
North West -44 35 £550 +27.54% 42
South West -22 34 £550 +5.77% 12
Scotland +3 33 £515 +14.44% 5
West Midlands -55 33 £575 +19.48% 19
East of England -14 17 £500 -12.09% 18
North East -30 16 £775 +67.57% 1
Yorkshire -66 15 £425 -19.05% 33
East Midlands -3 12 £400 -46.67% 19
Wales -8 8 £375 -23.08% 3
Northern Ireland +2 2 £775 +82.35% 2

IT Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 July 2026, IT 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 featuring IT Manager in the job title.

1 191 (36.11%) Stakeholder Management
2 107 (20.23%) ITIL
2 107 (20.23%) Project Management
3 104 (19.66%) Agile
4 90 (17.01%) Continuous Improvement
5 83 (15.69%) Project Delivery
6 78 (14.74%) Service Management
7 73 (13.80%) ITSM
8 71 (13.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 69 (13.04%) Security Cleared
10 61 (11.53%) Service Delivery
11 60 (11.34%) Azure
12 59 (11.15%) Problem-Solving
13 57 (10.78%) Degree
13 57 (10.78%) Microsoft
14 53 (10.02%) Decision-Making
15 51 (9.64%) PRINCE2
16 50 (9.45%) Change Management
17 49 (9.26%) SC Cleared
18 46 (8.70%) ServiceNow
19 44 (8.32%) Risk Management
20 41 (7.75%) Roadmaps
21 39 (7.37%) JIRA
21 39 (7.37%) Migration
22 38 (7.18%) Budget Management
22 38 (7.18%) Microsoft 365
23 36 (6.81%) Cybersecurity
24 35 (6.62%) Supplier Management
25 33 (6.24%) PMP
26 32 (6.05%) ITIL Certification

IT Manager Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 24 (4.54%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.32%) Confluence
3 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 22 (4.16%) Microsoft Project
2 20 (3.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (2.46%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (1.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.57%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (1.13%) NetSuite
2 3 (0.57%) Endur
2 3 (0.57%) Maximo
3 2 (0.38%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.38%) Primavera
4 1 (0.19%) assyst
4 1 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.19%) SAP Retail
4 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.19%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 60 (11.34%) Azure
2 38 (7.18%) Microsoft 365
3 19 (3.59%) SaaS
4 17 (3.21%) AWS
5 13 (2.46%) Power Platform
6 12 (2.27%) Azure DevOps
7 11 (2.08%) Entra ID
8 7 (1.32%) Dynamics 365
9 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
9 5 (0.95%) Smartsheet
10 4 (0.76%) GCP
10 4 (0.76%) IaaS
11 2 (0.38%) Google Workspace
11 2 (0.38%) OneDrive
11 2 (0.38%) WhatsApp
12 1 (0.19%) Azure Sentinel
12 1 (0.19%) ClickUp
12 1 (0.19%) Nutanix
12 1 (0.19%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.19%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.89%) WAN
2 8 (1.51%) Firewall
2 8 (1.51%) LAN
2 8 (1.51%) Network Security
3 6 (1.13%) DNS
4 3 (0.57%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.19%) Broadband
5 1 (0.19%) BT 21CN
5 1 (0.19%) DHCP
5 1 (0.19%) FTP
5 1 (0.19%) Internet
5 1 (0.19%) Intranet
5 1 (0.19%) NaaS
5 1 (0.19%) RFID
5 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
5 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.19%) Wireless
5 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.27%) Power BI
2 2 (0.38%) BusinessObjects
2 2 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.19%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.19%) EDRMS
3 1 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 39 (7.37%) JIRA
General
1 184 (34.78%) Social Skills
2 177 (33.46%) Finance
3 64 (12.10%) Public Sector
4 51 (9.64%) Analytical Skills
5 40 (7.56%) Legal
6 26 (4.91%) Organisational Skills
7 23 (4.35%) Manufacturing
8 19 (3.59%) Retail
9 18 (3.40%) Influencing Skills
10 17 (3.21%) Banking
11 12 (2.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 12 (2.27%) Law
11 12 (2.27%) Telecoms
12 10 (1.89%) Aerospace
13 8 (1.51%) Financial Institution
14 7 (1.32%) Local Government
14 7 (1.32%) Marketing
15 4 (0.76%) Automotive
15 4 (0.76%) Japanese Language
15 4 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.84%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (0.57%) Middleware
3 2 (0.38%) ADO
4 1 (0.19%) JSON
4 1 (0.19%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.19%) SAP Fiori
4 1 (0.19%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 20 (3.78%) Onboarding
2 18 (3.40%) Data Centre
3 14 (2.65%) Management Information System
4 12 (2.27%) FMCG
4 12 (2.27%) Operational Technology
5 11 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
5 11 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
5 11 (2.08%) Product Ownership
6 8 (1.51%) Virtual Team
7 7 (1.32%) CMDB
7 7 (1.32%) PMI
8 5 (0.95%) NHS
9 4 (0.76%) Credit Risk
9 4 (0.76%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
9 4 (0.76%) Mobile App
9 4 (0.76%) Reinsurance
9 4 (0.76%) Robotics
9 4 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (0.57%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 26 (4.91%) Windows
2 4 (0.76%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (36.11%) Stakeholder Management
2 107 (20.23%) ITIL
2 107 (20.23%) Project Management
3 104 (19.66%) Agile
4 90 (17.01%) Continuous Improvement
5 83 (15.69%) Project Delivery
6 78 (14.74%) Service Management
7 73 (13.80%) ITSM
8 71 (13.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 61 (11.53%) Service Delivery
10 59 (11.15%) Problem-Solving
11 53 (10.02%) Decision-Making
12 51 (9.64%) PRINCE2
13 50 (9.45%) Change Management
14 44 (8.32%) Risk Management
15 41 (7.75%) Roadmaps
16 39 (7.37%) Migration
17 38 (7.18%) Budget Management
18 36 (6.81%) Cybersecurity
19 35 (6.62%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (1.13%) SQL
2 1 (0.19%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 69 (13.04%) Security Cleared
2 57 (10.78%) Degree
3 49 (9.26%) SC Cleared
4 33 (6.24%) PMP
5 32 (6.05%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (5.67%) PMI Certification
7 12 (2.27%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 11 (2.08%) CISSP
9 10 (1.89%) CISA
10 7 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (0.95%) DV Cleared
11 5 (0.95%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 3 (0.57%) APMG
12 3 (0.57%) CISM
12 3 (0.57%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (0.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
14 1 (0.19%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
14 1 (0.19%) Master's Degree
14 1 (0.19%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (4.16%) PMO
2 15 (2.84%) GRC
2 15 (2.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (2.27%) COBIT
4 10 (1.89%) SLA
5 9 (1.70%) QA
6 6 (1.13%) GDPR
7 5 (0.95%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (0.76%) NIST
9 3 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.57%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.57%) ISO 31000
9 3 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 3 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.38%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.19%) GxP
11 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 13 (2.46%) Active Directory
2 4 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.57%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.19%) KVM
4 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.19%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.38%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.38%) Terraform
3 1 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 57 (10.78%) Microsoft
2 46 (8.70%) ServiceNow
3 30 (5.67%) SAP
4 22 (4.16%) Ariba
4 22 (4.16%) Oracle
5 8 (1.51%) Salesforce
6 4 (0.76%) VMware
7 3 (0.57%) Apple
7 3 (0.57%) Bloomberg
7 3 (0.57%) Cisco
7 3 (0.57%) Computacenter
7 3 (0.57%) Refinitiv
7 3 (0.57%) Samsung
7 3 (0.57%) Snow
7 3 (0.57%) SolarWinds
8 2 (0.38%) Google
8 2 (0.38%) Meraki
8 2 (0.38%) MuleSoft
8 2 (0.38%) NEC
8 2 (0.38%) Workday