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 1 September 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 261 243 183
Rank change year-on-year -18 -60 +3
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 515 368 539
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.96% 1.12% 1.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.04% 1.23% 1.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 323 249 349
10th Percentile £400 £325 £355
25th Percentile £456 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £504 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £622 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £688 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 10 12
10th Percentile £28.75 £58.49 £21.19
25th Percentile £42.42 £61.69 £22.17
Median hourly rate £72.78 £73.00 £27.70
Median % change year-on-year -0.31% +163.56% -51.83%
75th Percentile £85.00 £78.44 £47.94
90th Percentile £89.50 £82.71 £59.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.78 £75.00 £25.14
% change year-on-year -2.97% +198.36% -44.14%

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 49,606 29,880 35,937
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.46% 91.25% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,580 18,873 22,662
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,581 1,559 1,838
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.69 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.04 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.33 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.95
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.78% +11.13%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -38 434 £525 - 390
UK excluding London -13 287 £500 - 306
London -43 182 £550 +4.76% 133
Work from Home -20 153 £528 +0.48% 171
North of England -52 82 £475 -5.00% 103
South East -19 76 £500 -6.54% 83
North West -43 44 £500 -0.79% 58
Midlands -53 39 £514 +2.80% 34
Scotland -1 30 £475 +11.76% 17
South West -33 29 £550 +22.22% 26
West Midlands -55 26 £507 +4.00% 26
East of England -11 24 £525 +5.00% 27
Yorkshire -45 23 £425 -15.00% 40
North East -33 15 £775 +72.22% 8
East Midlands -7 13 £525 - 7
Wales -8 7 £375 -23.08% 15
Northern Ireland +4 2 £775 +82.35% 4

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

For the 6 months to 1 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.

1 193 (37.48%) Stakeholder Management
2 112 (21.75%) Project Management
3 103 (20.00%) Agile
4 90 (17.48%) ITIL
5 86 (16.70%) Project Delivery
6 78 (15.15%) Continuous Improvement
7 74 (14.37%) Service Management
7 74 (14.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 71 (13.79%) Azure
9 70 (13.59%) Microsoft
10 61 (11.84%) PRINCE2
11 60 (11.65%) ITSM
12 57 (11.07%) Service Delivery
13 56 (10.87%) Security Cleared
14 55 (10.68%) Decision-Making
14 55 (10.68%) Problem-Solving
14 55 (10.68%) Risk Management
15 54 (10.49%) Change Management
16 50 (9.71%) Cybersecurity
16 50 (9.71%) Degree
17 44 (8.54%) Budget Management
17 44 (8.54%) Migration
17 44 (8.54%) SC Cleared
18 42 (8.16%) Microsoft 365
19 41 (7.96%) ServiceNow
20 40 (7.77%) Supplier Management
21 39 (7.57%) PMP
21 39 (7.57%) Project Governance
22 38 (7.38%) Waterfall
23 36 (6.99%) 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 24 (4.66%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.17%) Confluence
2 6 (1.17%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 25 (4.85%) Microsoft Project
2 21 (4.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (2.33%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (1.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.78%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.58%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 7 (1.36%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.78%) Maximo
3 3 (0.58%) Endur
4 2 (0.39%) Primavera
5 1 (0.19%) assyst
5 1 (0.19%) CA PPM
5 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.19%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 71 (13.79%) Azure
2 42 (8.16%) Microsoft 365
3 18 (3.50%) AWS
4 17 (3.30%) SaaS
5 16 (3.11%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (2.52%) Entra ID
6 13 (2.52%) Power Platform
7 7 (1.36%) Dynamics 365
8 6 (1.17%) Smartsheet
9 4 (0.78%) IaaS
9 4 (0.78%) OneDrive
10 3 (0.58%) GCP
10 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Copilot
11 1 (0.19%) Boomi
11 1 (0.19%) ClickUp
11 1 (0.19%) Google Workspace
11 1 (0.19%) Nutanix
11 1 (0.19%) Rubrik
11 1 (0.19%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
11 1 (0.19%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.33%) WAN
2 10 (1.94%) Firewall
2 10 (1.94%) Network Security
3 8 (1.55%) LAN
4 5 (0.97%) DNS
5 2 (0.39%) Broadband
5 2 (0.39%) DHCP
5 2 (0.39%) Internet
5 2 (0.39%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.19%) Fibre Channel
6 1 (0.19%) FTP
6 1 (0.19%) Intranet
6 1 (0.19%) iSCSI
6 1 (0.19%) NAS
6 1 (0.19%) SAN
6 1 (0.19%) Structured Cabling
6 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
6 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.19%) Wireless
6 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.33%) Power BI
2 2 (0.39%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.19%) BusinessObjects
3 1 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 36 (6.99%) JIRA
General
1 185 (35.92%) Social Skills
2 170 (33.01%) Finance
3 58 (11.26%) Public Sector
4 50 (9.71%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (7.18%) Legal
6 27 (5.24%) Organisational Skills
7 23 (4.47%) Manufacturing
8 22 (4.27%) Banking
8 22 (4.27%) Influencing Skills
9 20 (3.88%) Retail
10 14 (2.72%) Law
11 11 (2.14%) Financial Institution
11 11 (2.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 9 (1.75%) Telecoms
13 8 (1.55%) Local Government
14 6 (1.17%) Automotive
14 6 (1.17%) Military
15 4 (0.78%) Documentation Skills
15 4 (0.78%) Japanese Language
15 4 (0.78%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.30%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (0.58%) Middleware
2 3 (0.58%) Terraform
3 2 (0.39%) ADO
4 1 (0.19%) JSON
4 1 (0.19%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.08%) Onboarding
1 21 (4.08%) Product Ownership
2 16 (3.11%) Enterprise Software
3 14 (2.72%) Data Centre
4 13 (2.52%) Legacy Systems
4 13 (2.52%) Operational Technology
5 11 (2.14%) Credit Risk
5 11 (2.14%) Management Information System
6 9 (1.75%) Mobile App
7 8 (1.55%) FMCG
7 8 (1.55%) Virtual Team
8 7 (1.36%) CMDB
8 7 (1.36%) PMI
9 5 (0.97%) Reinsurance
10 4 (0.78%) Robotics
10 4 (0.78%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.58%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.58%) Greenfield Project
11 3 (0.58%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 29 (5.63%) Windows
2 8 (1.55%) 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
1 193 (37.48%) Stakeholder Management
2 112 (21.75%) Project Management
3 103 (20.00%) Agile
4 90 (17.48%) ITIL
5 86 (16.70%) Project Delivery
6 78 (15.15%) Continuous Improvement
7 74 (14.37%) Service Management
7 74 (14.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 61 (11.84%) PRINCE2
9 60 (11.65%) ITSM
10 57 (11.07%) Service Delivery
11 55 (10.68%) Decision-Making
11 55 (10.68%) Problem-Solving
11 55 (10.68%) Risk Management
12 54 (10.49%) Change Management
13 50 (9.71%) Cybersecurity
14 44 (8.54%) Budget Management
14 44 (8.54%) Migration
15 40 (7.77%) Supplier Management
16 39 (7.57%) Project Governance
Programming Languages
1 4 (0.78%) SQL
2 2 (0.39%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 56 (10.87%) Security Cleared
2 50 (9.71%) Degree
3 44 (8.54%) SC Cleared
4 39 (7.57%) PMP
5 34 (6.60%) PMI Certification
6 29 (5.63%) ITIL Certification
7 12 (2.33%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 11 (2.14%) CISA
9 10 (1.94%) CISSP
10 7 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (0.78%) DV Cleared
11 4 (0.78%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 3 (0.58%) APMG
12 3 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (0.39%) APMP
13 2 (0.39%) CISM
13 2 (0.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.19%) Cisco Certification
14 1 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
14 1 (0.19%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (3.88%) PMO
2 16 (3.11%) GRC
2 16 (3.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (1.94%) COBIT
3 10 (1.94%) Cyber Essentials
3 10 (1.94%) SLA
4 8 (1.55%) QA
5 7 (1.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (0.58%) GDPR
6 3 (0.58%) ISO 31000
6 3 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 3 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 2 (0.39%) GxP
7 2 (0.39%) ITGC
8 1 (0.19%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.19%) GMP
8 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 1 (0.19%) NIST
8 1 (0.19%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 17 (3.30%) Active Directory
2 6 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.39%) 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 (0.78%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (0.19%) Ansible
2 1 (0.19%) RSA Archer
2 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
2 1 (0.19%) vMotion
Vendors
1 70 (13.59%) Microsoft
2 41 (7.96%) ServiceNow
3 28 (5.44%) SAP
4 22 (4.27%) Ariba
4 22 (4.27%) Oracle
5 10 (1.94%) VMware
6 7 (1.36%) Salesforce
7 4 (0.78%) Fortinet
8 3 (0.58%) Apple
8 3 (0.58%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.58%) Cisco
8 3 (0.58%) Computacenter
8 3 (0.58%) Refinitiv
8 3 (0.58%) Samsung
8 3 (0.58%) Snow
9 2 (0.39%) Autodesk
9 2 (0.39%) Kronos
9 2 (0.39%) MuleSoft
9 2 (0.39%) Planview
9 2 (0.39%) Workday