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 29 January 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 293 206 188
Rank change year-on-year -87 -18 +7
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 337 402 537
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.88% 1.28% 1.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.96% 1.37% 1.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 213 253 382
10th Percentile £352 £361 £363
25th Percentile £425 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -1.90% -
75th Percentile £638 £600 £613
90th Percentile £688 £722 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 12 6
10th Percentile £29.60 £24.92 £30.28
25th Percentile £47.50 £35.00 £36.41
Median hourly rate £60.00 £37.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -25.00% -23.08%
75th Percentile £65.00 £67.81 £56.50
90th Percentile £84.86 £69.88 £73.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £67.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -11.11% +50.00% -30.77%

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 35,199 29,243 40,804
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.46% 92.89% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,208 17,871 27,021
10th Percentile £300 £293 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £495
% change year-on-year -0.47% -3.59% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,087 861 2,102
10th Percentile £14.41 £16.00 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.22
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -13.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.98
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.51 £40.00
% change year-on-year -12.73% -21.23% +33.33%

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 29 January 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 29 January 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 29 January 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 -93 298 £525 - 241
UK excluding London -84 181 £500 - 222
London -32 124 £575 +4.55% 67
Work from Home -43 122 £525 -2.78% 103
Midlands -70 44 £525 -1.18% 50
South East -40 43 £494 -5.95% 82
North of England -71 40 £525 +16.67% 41
West Midlands -50 31 £525 -8.70% 29
South West -6 26 £450 -11.55% 20
Yorkshire -50 20 £494 +9.72% 15
East of England -14 16 £463 -19.57% 19
North West -35 16 £600 +71.43% 21
East Midlands -26 13 £525 +10.53% 21
Scotland -13 9 £525 +24.26% 9
North East -15 4 £450 -10.00% 6
Northern Ireland -2 2 - -
Wales -3 1 - - 6

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

For the 6 months to 29 January 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.

1 117 (34.72%) Stakeholder Management
2 103 (30.56%) Project Management
3 67 (19.88%) Agile
4 55 (16.32%) Project Delivery
5 44 (13.06%) Change Management
6 43 (12.76%) PRINCE2
7 42 (12.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 41 (12.17%) ITIL
8 41 (12.17%) Security Cleared
9 39 (11.57%) Degree
10 38 (11.28%) Continuous Improvement
11 33 (9.79%) PMI Certification
11 33 (9.79%) PMP
11 33 (9.79%) Service Delivery
12 32 (9.50%) Cybersecurity
13 30 (8.90%) Migration
13 30 (8.90%) Problem-Solving
14 28 (8.31%) Waterfall
15 27 (8.01%) SC Cleared
16 26 (7.72%) SAP
17 25 (7.42%) Risk Management
17 25 (7.42%) Service Management
18 22 (6.53%) Microsoft
19 21 (6.23%) Budget Management
19 21 (6.23%) Decision-Making
19 21 (6.23%) ERP
20 20 (5.93%) ServiceNow
20 20 (5.93%) Supplier Management
21 19 (5.64%) ITSM
21 19 (5.64%) JIRA

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 11 (3.26%) SharePoint
2 8 (2.37%) Confluence
3 2 (0.59%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.30%) Documentum
4 1 (0.30%) IIS
Applications
1 14 (4.15%) Microsoft Excel
1 14 (4.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 12 (3.56%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (3.26%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (2.67%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.59%) Trello
6 1 (0.30%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 7 (2.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.59%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.59%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.59%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.59%) SAP MDG
2 2 (0.59%) SAP MM
2 2 (0.59%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.59%) Teamcenter
2 2 (0.59%) TrackWise
3 1 (0.30%) Loan IQ
3 1 (0.30%) Maximo
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.30%) PRMS
3 1 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP PLM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP Retail
Cloud Services
1 14 (4.15%) SaaS
2 13 (3.86%) Azure
3 12 (3.56%) IaaS
4 9 (2.67%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (2.37%) AWS
6 6 (1.78%) GCP
6 6 (1.78%) Power Platform
7 5 (1.48%) Entra ID
7 5 (1.48%) Google Workspace
8 3 (0.89%) Dynamics 365
8 3 (0.89%) OneDrive
8 3 (0.89%) SuccessFactors
9 2 (0.59%) Azure API Management
9 2 (0.59%) Google Drive
9 2 (0.59%) Rubrik
9 2 (0.59%) Slack
10 1 (0.30%) Azure DevOps
10 1 (0.30%) PaaS
10 1 (0.30%) Smartsheet
10 1 (0.30%) Veeva
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.78%) LAN
1 6 (1.78%) Structured Cabling
1 6 (1.78%) WAN
2 3 (0.89%) Network Security
2 3 (0.89%) Wi-Fi
3 2 (0.59%) Firewall
3 2 (0.59%) SD-WAN
4 1 (0.30%) Intranet
4 1 (0.30%) RFID
4 1 (0.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.48%) Power BI
2 4 (1.19%) Electronic Patient Records
3 3 (0.89%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.59%) EDRMS
5 1 (0.30%) Metadata
5 1 (0.30%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
5 1 (0.30%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 19 (5.64%) JIRA
2 2 (0.59%) LSMW
General
1 114 (33.83%) Finance
2 105 (31.16%) Social Skills
3 31 (9.20%) Analytical Skills
4 26 (7.72%) Public Sector
5 25 (7.42%) Banking
6 16 (4.75%) Legal
7 15 (4.45%) Manufacturing
8 10 (2.97%) Telecoms
9 9 (2.67%) Pharmaceutical
10 7 (2.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (2.08%) Marketing
10 7 (2.08%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.78%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (1.78%) Retail
12 5 (1.48%) Aviation
13 4 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (1.19%) Financial Institution
13 4 (1.19%) Japanese Language
13 4 (1.19%) Local Government
14 3 (0.89%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.19%) SAP Fiori
2 2 (0.59%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.59%) OpenID
2 2 (0.59%) SAML
3 1 (0.30%) ADO
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.30%) WF
3 1 (0.30%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.45%) Onboarding
2 12 (3.56%) Data Centre
2 12 (3.56%) Management Information System
3 8 (2.37%) NHS
4 7 (2.08%) Analytical Mindset
5 6 (1.78%) Virtual Team
6 5 (1.48%) CMDB
6 5 (1.48%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (1.48%) Life Science
7 4 (1.19%) FMCG
7 4 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (1.19%) LIMS
7 4 (1.19%) PMI
8 3 (0.89%) EPoS
9 2 (0.59%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.59%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (0.59%) Product Ownership
9 2 (0.59%) Security Operations Centre
10 1 (0.30%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 17 (5.04%) Windows
2 3 (0.89%) Linux
2 3 (0.89%) Windows 10
3 2 (0.59%) Mac OS
3 2 (0.59%) OpenVMS
3 2 (0.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.30%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (34.72%) Stakeholder Management
2 103 (30.56%) Project Management
3 67 (19.88%) Agile
4 55 (16.32%) Project Delivery
5 44 (13.06%) Change Management
6 43 (12.76%) PRINCE2
7 42 (12.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 41 (12.17%) ITIL
9 38 (11.28%) Continuous Improvement
10 33 (9.79%) Service Delivery
11 32 (9.50%) Cybersecurity
12 30 (8.90%) Migration
12 30 (8.90%) Problem-Solving
13 28 (8.31%) Waterfall
14 25 (7.42%) Risk Management
14 25 (7.42%) Service Management
15 21 (6.23%) Budget Management
15 21 (6.23%) Decision-Making
15 21 (6.23%) ERP
16 20 (5.93%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (0.89%) Python
1 3 (0.89%) SQL
2 2 (0.59%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.30%) ABAP
3 1 (0.30%) Java
3 1 (0.30%) VB
Qualifications
1 41 (12.17%) Security Cleared
2 39 (11.57%) Degree
3 33 (9.79%) PMI Certification
3 33 (9.79%) PMP
4 27 (8.01%) SC Cleared
5 6 (1.78%) DV Cleared
5 6 (1.78%) PRINCE2 Certification
6 4 (1.19%) Master's Degree
7 3 (0.89%) CISA
7 3 (0.89%) CISSP
7 3 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (0.89%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
7 3 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
7 3 (0.89%) MBA
8 2 (0.59%) ACSP
8 2 (0.59%) ACTC
8 2 (0.59%) CISM
8 2 (0.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 1 (0.30%) APMP
9 1 (0.30%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.75%) PMO
1 16 (4.75%) SLA
2 11 (3.26%) GDPR
3 10 (2.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (1.48%) GxP
4 5 (1.48%) QA
4 5 (1.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 4 (1.19%) NIST
6 3 (0.89%) COBIT
6 3 (0.89%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.89%) GMP
6 3 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 19770
6 3 (0.89%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.59%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.59%) MiFID
7 2 (0.59%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.30%) GRC
8 1 (0.30%) NIST 800
System Software
1 10 (2.97%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 3 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
2 2 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.59%) vRealize
3 1 (0.30%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.30%) VxRail
Vendors
1 26 (7.72%) SAP
2 22 (6.53%) Microsoft
3 20 (5.93%) ServiceNow
4 17 (5.04%) Oracle
5 9 (2.67%) Salesforce
6 8 (2.37%) Ariba
7 6 (1.78%) Google
8 4 (1.19%) Cisco
8 4 (1.19%) VMware
8 4 (1.19%) Workday
9 3 (0.89%) Arista
9 3 (0.89%) Snow
10 2 (0.59%) Apple
10 2 (0.59%) Guidewire
10 2 (0.59%) IBM
10 2 (0.59%) IFS
10 2 (0.59%) Northgate
10 2 (0.59%) Red Hat
10 2 (0.59%) Remedy
10 2 (0.59%) Siemens