IT Manager Contract Job Trends

IT Manager
UK

The median IT Manager daily rate in the UK is £535, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 April 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 281 219 205
Rank change year-on-year -62 -14 -18
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 409 358 498
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.89% 1.22% 1.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.97% 1.32% 1.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 233 370
10th Percentile £363 £378 £363
25th Percentile £440 £439 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £519 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.08% -1.14% +1.55%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £613
90th Percentile £711 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 14 11
10th Percentile £28.75 £27.16 £23.63
25th Percentile £30.31 £35.22 £25.31
Median hourly rate £37.00 £63.50 £33.55
Median % change year-on-year -41.73% +89.27% -47.37%
75th Percentile £84.69 £70.00 £49.88
90th Percentile £93.75 £76.75 £57.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.00 £70.00 £26.14
% change year-on-year -25.71% +167.81% -59.79%

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 42,306 27,128 40,399
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.26% 92.60% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,259 17,804 26,404
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £518 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% -1.43% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £627 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,679 980 2,578
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.65 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.26 £19.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.86 £31.42 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +33.20% -10.22% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.25 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.25 £75.58 £72.47
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.69 £30.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +42.28% -14.29% -17.38%

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 15 April 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 15 April 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 15 April 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 -78 351 £534 +1.67% 273
UK excluding London -59 226 £500 - 215
London -39 146 £600 +9.09% 82
Work from Home -20 145 £533 +2.40% 123
South East -41 67 £465 -11.43% 52
North of England -63 52 £510 +4.62% 71
Midlands -63 40 £520 +9.47% 47
West Midlands -56 34 £525 +10.53% 35
South West -13 31 £550 +5.26% 21
North West -37 28 £563 +11.11% 40
Scotland +6 17 £550 +14.29% 4
Yorkshire -58 16 £450 - 25
East of England -34 12 £463 -31.48% 20
North East -13 8 £440 -9.74% 6
East Midlands -36 6 £420 -12.73% 12
Northern Ireland +2 4 £775 +82.35% 1
Wales -7 4 £444 +10.94% 4

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

For the 6 months to 15 April 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.

1 144 (35.21%) Stakeholder Management
2 104 (25.43%) Project Management
3 89 (21.76%) Agile
4 76 (18.58%) ITIL
5 73 (17.85%) Project Delivery
6 71 (17.36%) Security Cleared
7 70 (17.11%) Continuous Improvement
8 55 (13.45%) Service Management
9 52 (12.71%) SC Cleared
9 52 (12.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 50 (12.22%) ITSM
11 45 (11.00%) Service Delivery
12 44 (10.76%) Change Management
13 41 (10.02%) PRINCE2
14 40 (9.78%) Problem-Solving
15 36 (8.80%) Degree
16 35 (8.56%) Roadmaps
16 35 (8.56%) ServiceNow
17 32 (7.82%) Cybersecurity
18 31 (7.58%) PMP
18 31 (7.58%) Waterfall
19 30 (7.33%) Migration
19 30 (7.33%) Risk Management
20 29 (7.09%) JIRA
20 29 (7.09%) PMO
21 28 (6.85%) PMI Certification
22 26 (6.36%) Budget Management
23 25 (6.11%) Azure
23 25 (6.11%) Decision-Making
24 24 (5.87%) SAP

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 16 (3.91%) SharePoint
2 12 (2.93%) Confluence
3 5 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.24%) Documentum
Applications
1 12 (2.93%) Microsoft Project
2 7 (1.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (1.22%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (0.98%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.73%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 6 (1.47%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.73%) NEC Housing
2 3 (0.73%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.49%) Primavera
3 2 (0.49%) SAP MDG
3 2 (0.49%) SAP MM
3 2 (0.49%) TrackWise
4 1 (0.24%) Maximo
4 1 (0.24%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.24%) SAP Retail
4 1 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.24%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 25 (6.11%) Azure
2 18 (4.40%) SaaS
3 13 (3.18%) IaaS
4 12 (2.93%) Microsoft 365
5 9 (2.20%) AWS
6 7 (1.71%) Entra ID
6 7 (1.71%) GCP
7 6 (1.47%) Google Workspace
8 5 (1.22%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (0.98%) Dynamics 365
9 4 (0.98%) OneDrive
9 4 (0.98%) Power Platform
10 2 (0.49%) Azure API Management
10 2 (0.49%) Google Drive
10 2 (0.49%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (0.49%) Rubrik
10 2 (0.49%) Slack
10 2 (0.49%) WhatsApp
11 1 (0.24%) Azure Sentinel
11 1 (0.24%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.71%) Network Security
2 3 (0.73%) WAN
3 2 (0.49%) DNS
3 2 (0.49%) Firewall
3 2 (0.49%) LAN
3 2 (0.49%) SD-WAN
3 2 (0.49%) Structured Cabling
4 1 (0.24%) BT 21CN
4 1 (0.24%) NaaS
4 1 (0.24%) RFID
4 1 (0.24%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.24%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.98%) Electronic Patient Records
2 3 (0.73%) Power BI
3 2 (0.49%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.49%) EDRMS
4 1 (0.24%) BusinessObjects
4 1 (0.24%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.24%) Metadata
4 1 (0.24%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
4 1 (0.24%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 29 (7.09%) JIRA
2 2 (0.49%) LSMW
General
1 127 (31.05%) Social Skills
2 117 (28.61%) Finance
3 41 (10.02%) Public Sector
4 36 (8.80%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (4.65%) Banking
5 19 (4.65%) Manufacturing
6 17 (4.16%) Legal
6 17 (4.16%) Retail
7 15 (3.67%) Telecoms
8 12 (2.93%) Organisational Skills
9 11 (2.69%) Influencing Skills
10 10 (2.44%) Aerospace
11 7 (1.71%) Marketing
11 7 (1.71%) Pharmaceutical
12 6 (1.47%) Law
13 4 (0.98%) Aviation
13 4 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.73%) French Language
14 3 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
15 2 (0.49%) German Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (0.98%) SAP Fiori
2 2 (0.49%) ADO
2 2 (0.49%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.49%) OpenID
2 2 (0.49%) SAML
3 1 (0.24%) SailPoint
3 1 (0.24%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 19 (4.65%) Data Centre
2 18 (4.40%) Onboarding
3 15 (3.67%) Management Information System
4 10 (2.44%) FMCG
4 10 (2.44%) NHS
5 8 (1.96%) Virtual Team
6 6 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.22%) Product Ownership
8 4 (0.98%) CMDB
8 4 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
8 4 (0.98%) PMI
9 3 (0.73%) Reinsurance
9 3 (0.73%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.49%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.49%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (0.49%) Low-Code
10 2 (0.49%) Mainframe
10 2 (0.49%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 12 (2.93%) Windows
2 1 (0.24%) Linux
2 1 (0.24%) Mac OS
2 1 (0.24%) OpenVMS
2 1 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 1 (0.24%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 144 (35.21%) Stakeholder Management
2 104 (25.43%) Project Management
3 89 (21.76%) Agile
4 76 (18.58%) ITIL
5 73 (17.85%) Project Delivery
6 70 (17.11%) Continuous Improvement
7 55 (13.45%) Service Management
8 52 (12.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 50 (12.22%) ITSM
10 45 (11.00%) Service Delivery
11 44 (10.76%) Change Management
12 41 (10.02%) PRINCE2
13 40 (9.78%) Problem-Solving
14 35 (8.56%) Roadmaps
15 32 (7.82%) Cybersecurity
16 31 (7.58%) Waterfall
17 30 (7.33%) Migration
17 30 (7.33%) Risk Management
18 26 (6.36%) Budget Management
19 25 (6.11%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 2 (0.49%) PowerShell
1 2 (0.49%) Python
1 2 (0.49%) SQL
2 1 (0.24%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 71 (17.36%) Security Cleared
2 52 (12.71%) SC Cleared
3 36 (8.80%) Degree
4 31 (7.58%) PMP
5 28 (6.85%) PMI Certification
6 16 (3.91%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (1.47%) DV Cleared
8 5 (1.22%) CISM
8 5 (1.22%) CISSP
9 4 (0.98%) APMG
9 4 (0.98%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 4 (0.98%) Master's Degree
9 4 (0.98%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 3 (0.73%) CISA
10 3 (0.73%) MBA
10 3 (0.73%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 2 (0.49%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.49%) CRISC
11 2 (0.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 1 (0.24%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (7.09%) PMO
2 12 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (2.69%) GRC
4 10 (2.44%) GDPR
5 9 (2.20%) QA
6 7 (1.71%) COBIT
6 7 (1.71%) NIST
6 7 (1.71%) SLA
7 4 (0.98%) Data Quality
7 4 (0.98%) GxP
7 4 (0.98%) PCI DSS
7 4 (0.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (0.98%) SOC 2
8 3 (0.73%) GMP
9 2 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.24%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.24%) ISO 31000
10 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 8 (1.96%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.49%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.24%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 3 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.49%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.49%) vRealize
3 1 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.24%) Terraform
3 1 (0.24%) VxRail
Vendors
1 35 (8.56%) ServiceNow
2 24 (5.87%) SAP
3 22 (5.38%) Microsoft
4 12 (2.93%) Oracle
5 9 (2.20%) Ariba
5 9 (2.20%) Salesforce
6 6 (1.47%) Google
7 3 (0.73%) Cisco
7 3 (0.73%) Computacenter
7 3 (0.73%) VMware
7 3 (0.73%) Workday
8 2 (0.49%) Autodesk
8 2 (0.49%) Guidewire
8 2 (0.49%) Kronos
8 2 (0.49%) Northgate
8 2 (0.49%) Remedy
9 1 (0.24%) Atlassian
9 1 (0.24%) Fortinet
9 1 (0.24%) Infor
9 1 (0.24%) Qualys