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 16 June 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 253 232 198
Rank change year-on-year -21 -34 -22
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 498 339 504
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.14% 1.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.07% 1.24% 1.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 308 231 346
10th Percentile £400 £363 £363
25th Percentile £456 £438 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £519 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.16% -1.14% -
75th Percentile £638 £613 £614
90th Percentile £725 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £511 £500 £520
% change year-on-year +2.10% -3.85% +4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 7 14
10th Percentile £28.75 £50.96 £21.19
25th Percentile £35.00 £62.00 £22.78
Median hourly rate £72.78 £70.00 £27.70
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% +152.73% -56.55%
75th Percentile £85.00 £76.25 £43.22
90th Percentile £95.63 £78.00 £58.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.78 £75.00 £25.28
% change year-on-year -2.97% +196.74% -61.12%

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 46,390 27,334 40,477
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 92.27% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,221 17,578 25,945
10th Percentile £325 £288 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,091 1,160 2,956
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.85 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.79 £17.75 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.85% -26.80% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £62.01
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -2.55%

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 16 June 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 16 June 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 16 June 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 -29 420 £534 +1.67% 244
UK excluding London -16 282 £511 +2.10% 224
London -47 174 £600 +9.09% 64
Work from Home +6 164 £525 +5.00% 114
South East 0 92 £475 -9.52% 70
North of England -72 52 £525 +6.33% 51
Midlands -43 51 £575 +19.48% 45
West Midlands -49 42 £563 +18.42% 24
South West -8 34 £550 +5.77% 19
Scotland +10 30 £515 +3.00% 8
North West -39 28 £552 +10.30% 24
East of England -28 15 £500 -21.57% 17
Yorkshire -66 13 £413 -13.16% 24
North East -25 11 £456 -4.00% 4
East Midlands -18 9 £638 +30.77% 20
Wales -6 8 £375 -23.08% 14
Northern Ireland +2 2 £775 +82.35% 3

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

For the 6 months to 16 June 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.

1 171 (34.34%) Stakeholder Management
2 101 (20.28%) Project Management
3 98 (19.68%) ITIL
4 93 (18.67%) Agile
5 81 (16.27%) Continuous Improvement
6 74 (14.86%) Project Delivery
7 73 (14.66%) Service Management
8 69 (13.86%) Security Cleared
9 67 (13.45%) ITSM
10 61 (12.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 53 (10.64%) Azure
11 53 (10.64%) Service Delivery
12 51 (10.24%) Problem-Solving
13 48 (9.64%) Microsoft
14 47 (9.44%) Decision-Making
14 47 (9.44%) Degree
15 46 (9.24%) SC Cleared
16 45 (9.04%) ServiceNow
17 44 (8.84%) Change Management
18 42 (8.43%) PRINCE2
19 41 (8.23%) Risk Management
20 39 (7.83%) Migration
20 39 (7.83%) Roadmaps
21 36 (7.23%) JIRA
22 35 (7.03%) SAP
23 33 (6.63%) Budget Management
23 33 (6.63%) Microsoft 365
24 32 (6.43%) Cybersecurity
25 28 (5.62%) Business Case
25 28 (5.62%) 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 23 (4.62%) SharePoint
2 9 (1.81%) Confluence
3 7 (1.41%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 17 (3.41%) Microsoft Project
2 14 (2.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.81%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (1.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.60%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.40%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.00%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.80%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.40%) Primavera
3 2 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.20%) assyst
4 1 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.20%) Maximo
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.20%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.20%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.20%) SAP Retail
4 1 (0.20%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 53 (10.64%) Azure
2 33 (6.63%) Microsoft 365
3 22 (4.42%) SaaS
4 15 (3.01%) AWS
5 13 (2.61%) Entra ID
6 11 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
7 9 (1.81%) Power Platform
8 7 (1.41%) Dynamics 365
8 7 (1.41%) GCP
9 6 (1.20%) Google Workspace
10 4 (0.80%) OneDrive
11 2 (0.40%) Azure API Management
11 2 (0.40%) Google Drive
11 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Copilot
11 2 (0.40%) Slack
11 2 (0.40%) WhatsApp
12 1 (0.20%) Azure Sentinel
12 1 (0.20%) ClickUp
12 1 (0.20%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.20%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.41%) Network Security
2 6 (1.20%) WAN
3 4 (0.80%) Firewall
3 4 (0.80%) LAN
4 3 (0.60%) DNS
4 3 (0.60%) SD-WAN
5 2 (0.40%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.20%) Broadband
6 1 (0.20%) BT 21CN
6 1 (0.20%) DHCP
6 1 (0.20%) NaaS
6 1 (0.20%) RFID
6 1 (0.20%) Structured Cabling
6 1 (0.20%) Unified Communications
6 1 (0.20%) Wireless
6 1 (0.20%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.81%) Power BI
2 2 (0.40%) BusinessObjects
2 2 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (0.40%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.20%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.20%) EDRMS
3 1 (0.20%) Metadata
3 1 (0.20%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.20%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 36 (7.23%) JIRA
2 1 (0.20%) LSMW
General
1 168 (33.73%) Social Skills
2 160 (32.13%) Finance
3 57 (11.45%) Public Sector
4 39 (7.83%) Analytical Skills
5 33 (6.63%) Legal
6 24 (4.82%) Manufacturing
7 19 (3.82%) Organisational Skills
8 18 (3.61%) Banking
9 16 (3.21%) Retail
10 13 (2.61%) Influencing Skills
11 12 (2.41%) Telecoms
12 11 (2.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 9 (1.81%) Aerospace
14 8 (1.61%) Law
15 7 (1.41%) Marketing
15 7 (1.41%) Pharmaceutical
16 5 (1.00%) Financial Institution
17 4 (0.80%) German Language
17 4 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
18 3 (0.60%) Japanese Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (3.01%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (0.60%) Middleware
3 2 (0.40%) ADO
3 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (0.40%) OpenID
3 2 (0.40%) SAML
3 2 (0.40%) SAP Fiori
4 1 (0.20%) JSON
4 1 (0.20%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.20%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 17 (3.41%) Data Centre
2 16 (3.21%) Onboarding
3 15 (3.01%) FMCG
4 12 (2.41%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
5 10 (2.01%) Operational Technology
6 9 (1.81%) Product Ownership
7 8 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (1.61%) Virtual Team
8 7 (1.41%) CMDB
9 6 (1.20%) PMI
10 5 (1.00%) NHS
11 4 (0.80%) Reinsurance
11 4 (0.80%) Robotics
11 4 (0.80%) Self-Motivation
12 3 (0.60%) Analytical Mindset
12 3 (0.60%) Credit Risk
12 3 (0.60%) Data Protection Act
12 3 (0.60%) Greenfield Project
12 3 (0.60%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 22 (4.42%) Windows
2 4 (0.80%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.20%) Mac OS
3 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 171 (34.34%) Stakeholder Management
2 101 (20.28%) Project Management
3 98 (19.68%) ITIL
4 93 (18.67%) Agile
5 81 (16.27%) Continuous Improvement
6 74 (14.86%) Project Delivery
7 73 (14.66%) Service Management
8 67 (13.45%) ITSM
9 61 (12.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 53 (10.64%) Service Delivery
11 51 (10.24%) Problem-Solving
12 47 (9.44%) Decision-Making
13 44 (8.84%) Change Management
14 42 (8.43%) PRINCE2
15 41 (8.23%) Risk Management
16 39 (7.83%) Migration
16 39 (7.83%) Roadmaps
17 33 (6.63%) Budget Management
18 32 (6.43%) Cybersecurity
19 28 (5.62%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 6 (1.20%) SQL
2 3 (0.60%) PowerShell
3 2 (0.40%) Python
4 1 (0.20%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 69 (13.86%) Security Cleared
2 47 (9.44%) Degree
3 46 (9.24%) SC Cleared
4 27 (5.42%) PMP
5 26 (5.22%) ITIL Certification
6 23 (4.62%) PMI Certification
7 9 (1.81%) CISSP
7 9 (1.81%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 8 (1.61%) CISA
9 7 (1.41%) DV Cleared
10 4 (0.80%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (0.80%) CISM
10 4 (0.80%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 4 (0.80%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 3 (0.60%) APMG
12 2 (0.40%) Master's Degree
13 1 (0.20%) APMP
13 1 (0.20%) Azure Certification
13 1 (0.20%) CGEIT
13 1 (0.20%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (4.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 20 (4.02%) PMO
3 14 (2.81%) COBIT
4 12 (2.41%) GRC
5 11 (2.21%) QA
5 11 (2.21%) SLA
6 9 (1.81%) GDPR
7 6 (1.20%) NIST
8 5 (1.00%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.80%) Data Quality
9 4 (0.80%) GxP
9 4 (0.80%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 4 (0.80%) SOC 2
10 3 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.60%) GMP
10 3 (0.60%) ISO 31000
10 3 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 3 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.20%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 15 (3.01%) Active Directory
2 4 (0.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.60%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.20%) KVM
4 1 (0.20%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 4 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.40%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.40%) Terraform
2 2 (0.40%) vRealize
3 1 (0.20%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.20%) VxRail
Vendors
1 48 (9.64%) Microsoft
2 45 (9.04%) ServiceNow
3 35 (7.03%) SAP
4 27 (5.42%) Oracle
5 20 (4.02%) Ariba
6 12 (2.41%) Salesforce
7 6 (1.20%) Google
7 6 (1.20%) VMware
8 3 (0.60%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.60%) Cisco
8 3 (0.60%) Computacenter
8 3 (0.60%) Refinitiv
8 3 (0.60%) Snow
8 3 (0.60%) SolarWinds
8 3 (0.60%) Workday
9 2 (0.40%) Autodesk
9 2 (0.40%) Kronos
9 2 (0.40%) Meraki
9 2 (0.40%) NEC
9 2 (0.40%) Northgate