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 22 September 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 259 238 172
Rank change year-on-year -21 -66 +17
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 538 356 541
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.10% 1.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.07% 1.20% 1.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 331 240 341
10th Percentile £400 £343 £334
25th Percentile £456 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £619 £626
90th Percentile £700 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £512 £500 £503
% change year-on-year +2.35% -0.50% -4.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 6 10
10th Percentile £49.71 £60.63 £21.19
25th Percentile £61.69 £61.69 £21.51
Median hourly rate £65.00 £67.00 £32.56
Median % change year-on-year -2.99% +105.77% -43.37%
75th Percentile £74.16 £77.88 £43.25
90th Percentile £85.00 £93.57 £54.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £22.56
% change year-on-year +3.17% +179.26% -54.88%

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 50,343 29,565 35,332
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.26% 91.03% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,778 18,648 21,690
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,866 1,577 1,631
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.75 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.25 £17.29 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.80 £51.80 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £69.79 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.11 £43.90
% change year-on-year +69.26% -42.80% +0.34%

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 22 September 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 22 September 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 22 September 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 -38 461 £525 - 567
UK excluding London -18 298 £512 +2.35% 398
London -31 193 £550 +1.15% 221
Work from Home -23 155 £530 +0.95% 240
North of England -41 84 £475 -5.00% 103
South East -14 83 £513 -2.38% 103
North West -31 43 £463 -10.54% 54
Midlands -53 39 £525 - 74
East of England -11 33 £525 +10.53% 43
Scotland -6 28 £488 +14.71% 30
South West -40 26 £550 +22.22% 23
West Midlands -56 26 £525 +3.45% 42
Yorkshire -49 25 £450 -10.00% 42
North East -22 16 £775 +72.22% 9
East Midlands -9 13 £525 -12.50% 32
Wales -4 6 £375 -23.08% 19
Northern Ireland +5 1 £775 - 8

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

For the 6 months to 22 September 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.

1 208 (38.66%) Stakeholder Management
2 116 (21.56%) Project Management
3 104 (19.33%) Agile
4 88 (16.36%) ITIL
5 82 (15.24%) Microsoft
5 82 (15.24%) Project Delivery
6 80 (14.87%) Continuous Improvement
7 79 (14.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 75 (13.94%) Service Management
9 73 (13.57%) Azure
10 65 (12.08%) Cybersecurity
11 64 (11.90%) PRINCE2
12 62 (11.52%) ITSM
13 59 (10.97%) Change Management
13 59 (10.97%) Service Delivery
14 57 (10.59%) Decision-Making
14 57 (10.59%) Security Cleared
15 55 (10.22%) Risk Management
16 53 (9.85%) Degree
16 53 (9.85%) Problem-Solving
17 49 (9.11%) Budget Management
18 48 (8.92%) Microsoft 365
19 46 (8.55%) Migration
19 46 (8.55%) SC Cleared
20 45 (8.36%) PMP
21 44 (8.18%) Project Governance
22 42 (7.81%) ServiceNow
23 41 (7.62%) Supplier Management
24 40 (7.43%) PMI Certification
25 38 (7.06%) Waterfall

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 25 (4.65%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.30%) Confluence
3 6 (1.12%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.19%) Documentum
Applications
1 26 (4.83%) Microsoft Project
2 22 (4.09%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (2.23%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (1.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.74%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.37%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 4 (0.74%) Endur
1 4 (0.74%) Maximo
1 4 (0.74%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.19%) assyst
2 1 (0.19%) CA PPM
2 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (0.19%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.19%) Primavera
2 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 73 (13.57%) Azure
2 48 (8.92%) Microsoft 365
3 20 (3.72%) AWS
3 20 (3.72%) SaaS
4 16 (2.97%) Azure DevOps
5 14 (2.60%) Entra ID
5 14 (2.60%) Power Platform
6 7 (1.30%) Dynamics 365
7 6 (1.12%) OneDrive
7 6 (1.12%) Smartsheet
8 4 (0.74%) GCP
8 4 (0.74%) IaaS
9 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Copilot
10 1 (0.19%) Boomi
10 1 (0.19%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.19%) Nutanix
10 1 (0.19%) Rubrik
10 1 (0.19%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.23%) WAN
2 10 (1.86%) Network Security
3 9 (1.67%) Firewall
4 7 (1.30%) LAN
5 5 (0.93%) DNS
6 2 (0.37%) Broadband
6 2 (0.37%) DHCP
6 2 (0.37%) Internet
6 2 (0.37%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.19%) Fibre Channel
7 1 (0.19%) FTP
7 1 (0.19%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.19%) NAS
7 1 (0.19%) SAN
7 1 (0.19%) Structured Cabling
7 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.19%) VLAN
7 1 (0.19%) VoIP
7 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.42%) Power BI
2 2 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.19%) BusinessObjects
3 1 (0.19%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.19%) EDMS
3 1 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 35 (6.51%) JIRA
General
1 192 (35.69%) Social Skills
2 180 (33.46%) Finance
3 55 (10.22%) Public Sector
4 46 (8.55%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (7.25%) Legal
6 29 (5.39%) Organisational Skills
7 26 (4.83%) Banking
8 25 (4.65%) Influencing Skills
8 25 (4.65%) Manufacturing
9 22 (4.09%) Retail
10 16 (2.97%) Law
11 11 (2.04%) Financial Institution
11 11 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (1.49%) Local Government
12 8 (1.49%) Telecoms
13 7 (1.30%) Presentation Skills
14 6 (1.12%) Automotive
14 6 (1.12%) Military
15 4 (0.74%) Japanese Language
15 4 (0.74%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.53%) Oracle Fusion
2 4 (0.74%) Middleware
3 3 (0.56%) Terraform
4 1 (0.19%) ADO
4 1 (0.19%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 23 (4.28%) Onboarding
1 23 (4.28%) Product Ownership
2 19 (3.53%) Enterprise Software
2 19 (3.53%) Operational Technology
3 14 (2.60%) Legacy Systems
4 11 (2.04%) Credit Risk
4 11 (2.04%) Data Centre
4 11 (2.04%) Management Information System
4 11 (2.04%) Virtual Team
5 9 (1.67%) CMDB
5 9 (1.67%) Mobile App
6 7 (1.30%) FMCG
7 6 (1.12%) Industry 4.0
7 6 (1.12%) PMI
8 5 (0.93%) Reinsurance
9 4 (0.74%) Robotics
9 4 (0.74%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.56%) Driving Licence
10 3 (0.56%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 30 (5.58%) Windows
2 8 (1.49%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.19%) Linux
3 1 (0.19%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 208 (38.66%) Stakeholder Management
2 116 (21.56%) Project Management
3 104 (19.33%) Agile
4 88 (16.36%) ITIL
5 82 (15.24%) Project Delivery
6 80 (14.87%) Continuous Improvement
7 79 (14.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 75 (13.94%) Service Management
9 65 (12.08%) Cybersecurity
10 64 (11.90%) PRINCE2
11 62 (11.52%) ITSM
12 59 (10.97%) Change Management
12 59 (10.97%) Service Delivery
13 57 (10.59%) Decision-Making
14 55 (10.22%) Risk Management
15 53 (9.85%) Problem-Solving
16 49 (9.11%) Budget Management
17 46 (8.55%) Migration
18 44 (8.18%) Project Governance
19 41 (7.62%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (0.93%) SQL
2 2 (0.37%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.19%) Python
Qualifications
1 57 (10.59%) Security Cleared
2 53 (9.85%) Degree
3 46 (8.55%) SC Cleared
4 45 (8.36%) PMP
5 40 (7.43%) PMI Certification
6 27 (5.02%) ITIL Certification
7 11 (2.04%) CISA
7 11 (2.04%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 10 (1.86%) CISSP
9 9 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.12%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 4 (0.74%) DV Cleared
12 3 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (0.37%) APMG
13 2 (0.37%) APMP
13 2 (0.37%) CISM
13 2 (0.37%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.19%) CRISC
14 1 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
14 1 (0.19%) PgMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (3.35%) GRC
2 17 (3.16%) PMO
3 15 (2.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (1.86%) Cyber Essentials
4 10 (1.86%) SLA
5 9 (1.67%) COBIT
6 7 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 7 (1.30%) QA
7 3 (0.56%) ISO 31000
7 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 2 (0.37%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.37%) GDPR
8 2 (0.37%) GxP
8 2 (0.37%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.37%) ITGC
8 2 (0.37%) SEPA
8 2 (0.37%) TARGET2
9 1 (0.19%) GMP
9 1 (0.19%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 18 (3.35%) Active Directory
2 6 (1.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.37%) vSphere
4 1 (0.19%) Firmware
4 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.19%) KVM
4 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 4 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (0.19%) Ansible
2 1 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
2 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
2 1 (0.19%) vMotion
Vendors
1 82 (15.24%) Microsoft
2 42 (7.81%) ServiceNow
3 26 (4.83%) SAP
4 25 (4.65%) Oracle
5 24 (4.46%) Ariba
6 12 (2.23%) Snow
7 10 (1.86%) VMware
8 7 (1.30%) Planview
8 7 (1.30%) Salesforce
9 4 (0.74%) Fortinet
10 3 (0.56%) Apple
10 3 (0.56%) Bloomberg
10 3 (0.56%) Cisco
10 3 (0.56%) Refinitiv
10 3 (0.56%) Samsung
11 2 (0.37%) Computacenter
11 2 (0.37%) IBM
11 2 (0.37%) IFS
11 2 (0.37%) MuleSoft
11 2 (0.37%) SolarWinds