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 19 December 2025.

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

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 289 190 199
Rank change year-on-year -99 +9 +1
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 330 474 564
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.90% 1.39% 1.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.98% 1.49% 1.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 208 294 411
10th Percentile £325 £350 £363
25th Percentile £425 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £540
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -3.70% +2.86%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £625
90th Percentile £689 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 11 5
10th Percentile - £23.80 £34.20
25th Percentile £60.00 - £45.00
Median hourly rate £65.75 £35.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +87.86% -36.36% -15.38%
75th Percentile £73.63 £55.63 £57.00
90th Percentile £88.14 £68.75 £76.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £66.25 £45.00
% change year-on-year -5.66% +47.22% -30.77%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 33,513 31,718 41,239
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.01% 92.78% 93.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,192 19,534 27,738
10th Percentile £290 £300 £288
25th Percentile £404 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £644
90th Percentile £720 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £489 £500
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,975 999 1,468
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.52 £15.14
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.22 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.50 £34.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% -23.60% +48.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.84 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £72.55 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -27.78% +80.76%

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 19 December 2025.

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 19 December 2025.

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 19 December 2025. 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 -96 288 £525 -0.94% 333
UK excluding London -93 183 £500 - 332
London -31 116 £575 +4.55% 64
Work from Home -61 108 £525 -4.55% 174
North of England -77 43 £500 +11.11% 82
South East -41 40 £525 -2.78% 109
Midlands -70 39 £525 -1.18% 74
South West -12 30 £450 -10.89% 24
West Midlands -61 26 £500 -13.04% 49
Yorkshire -42 20 £500 +11.11% 31
North West -51 20 £525 +61.54% 37
East of England -18 16 £500 -16.67% 23
East Midlands -21 13 £525 +5.00% 24
Scotland -21 12 £425 -5.03% 12
North East -8 3 £450 -10.00% 17
Northern Ireland -5 2 - - 2
Wales +4 1 - - 13

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

For the 6 months to 19 December 2025, 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.

1 109 (33.03%) Stakeholder Management
2 103 (31.21%) Project Management
3 72 (21.82%) Agile
4 57 (17.27%) Project Delivery
5 51 (15.45%) PRINCE2
6 47 (14.24%) Change Management
7 44 (13.33%) Degree
7 44 (13.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 43 (13.03%) ITIL
9 36 (10.91%) Cybersecurity
10 35 (10.61%) Security Cleared
11 33 (10.00%) Migration
11 33 (10.00%) PMP
12 31 (9.39%) PMI Certification
12 31 (9.39%) Problem-Solving
13 30 (9.09%) Waterfall
14 29 (8.79%) Microsoft
15 28 (8.48%) Continuous Improvement
15 28 (8.48%) SC Cleared
16 26 (7.88%) Risk Management
17 25 (7.58%) Service Delivery
18 24 (7.27%) JIRA
18 24 (7.27%) ServiceNow
19 23 (6.97%) Budget Management
20 22 (6.67%) SAP
21 21 (6.36%) Service Management
22 18 (5.45%) ERP
22 18 (5.45%) ITSM
22 18 (5.45%) Logistics
22 18 (5.45%) Roadmaps

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 8 (2.42%) Confluence
1 8 (2.42%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.61%) IIS
3 1 (0.30%) Documentum
3 1 (0.30%) Mule
Applications
1 17 (5.15%) Microsoft Excel
1 17 (5.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 16 (4.85%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (4.24%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (3.03%) MS Visio
5 4 (1.21%) Trello
6 1 (0.30%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 4 (1.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.61%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.61%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.61%) SAP MM
2 2 (0.61%) Teamcenter
2 2 (0.61%) 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%) PRMS
3 1 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.30%) SAP PLM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.30%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 13 (3.94%) Azure
1 13 (3.94%) IaaS
2 12 (3.64%) SaaS
3 9 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (2.12%) AWS
5 5 (1.52%) GCP
5 5 (1.52%) Power Platform
5 5 (1.52%) Smartsheet
6 3 (0.91%) Asana
6 3 (0.91%) Entra ID
6 3 (0.91%) SuccessFactors
7 2 (0.61%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (0.61%) Rubrik
8 1 (0.30%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.30%) GitHub
8 1 (0.30%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.30%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.30%) PaaS
8 1 (0.30%) Veeva
8 1 (0.30%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.12%) LAN
2 6 (1.82%) WAN
3 5 (1.52%) Structured Cabling
4 4 (1.21%) Network Security
4 4 (1.21%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (0.91%) Firewall
6 2 (0.61%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.30%) DHCP
7 1 (0.30%) DNS
7 1 (0.30%) Intranet
7 1 (0.30%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.21%) Electronic Patient Records
1 4 (1.21%) Power BI
2 3 (0.91%) Oracle Reports
2 3 (0.91%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.61%) Tableau
4 1 (0.30%) EDRMS
4 1 (0.30%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 24 (7.27%) JIRA
2 2 (0.61%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.30%) GitLab
3 1 (0.30%) LSMW
3 1 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 117 (35.45%) Finance
2 96 (29.09%) Social Skills
3 30 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (8.18%) Banking
5 21 (6.36%) Manufacturing
6 18 (5.45%) Legal
7 16 (4.85%) Public Sector
8 11 (3.33%) Telecoms
9 9 (2.73%) Pharmaceutical
10 8 (2.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (2.42%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (2.12%) Organisational Skills
11 7 (2.12%) Retail
12 5 (1.52%) Aviation
12 5 (1.52%) Marketing
13 4 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (1.21%) Financial Institution
13 4 (1.21%) Japanese Language
13 4 (1.21%) Military
14 3 (0.91%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (0.61%) SAP Fiori
1 2 (0.61%) WF
2 1 (0.30%) ADO
2 1 (0.30%) Oracle Fusion
2 1 (0.30%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.85%) Onboarding
2 12 (3.64%) Management Information System
3 11 (3.33%) Data Centre
4 8 (2.42%) Analytical Mindset
4 8 (2.42%) CMDB
4 8 (2.42%) Life Science
5 7 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
5 7 (2.12%) NHS
5 7 (2.12%) Virtual Team
6 5 (1.52%) LIMS
7 4 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (0.91%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (0.91%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (0.91%) EPoS
8 3 (0.91%) Operational Technology
9 2 (0.61%) PMI
9 2 (0.61%) Product Ownership
9 2 (0.61%) Renewable Energy
9 2 (0.61%) Security Operations Centre
9 2 (0.61%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 14 (4.24%) Windows
2 3 (0.91%) Linux
2 3 (0.91%) Windows 10
3 2 (0.61%) Mac OS
3 2 (0.61%) OpenVMS
3 2 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.30%) Unix
4 1 (0.30%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (33.03%) Stakeholder Management
2 103 (31.21%) Project Management
3 72 (21.82%) Agile
4 57 (17.27%) Project Delivery
5 51 (15.45%) PRINCE2
6 47 (14.24%) Change Management
7 44 (13.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 43 (13.03%) ITIL
9 36 (10.91%) Cybersecurity
10 33 (10.00%) Migration
11 31 (9.39%) Problem-Solving
12 30 (9.09%) Waterfall
13 28 (8.48%) Continuous Improvement
14 26 (7.88%) Risk Management
15 25 (7.58%) Service Delivery
16 23 (6.97%) Budget Management
17 21 (6.36%) Service Management
18 18 (5.45%) ERP
18 18 (5.45%) ITSM
18 18 (5.45%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 3 (0.91%) SQL
2 1 (0.30%) Java
2 1 (0.30%) Python
2 1 (0.30%) VB
Qualifications
1 44 (13.33%) Degree
2 35 (10.61%) Security Cleared
3 33 (10.00%) PMP
4 31 (9.39%) PMI Certification
5 28 (8.48%) SC Cleared
6 7 (2.12%) PRINCE2 Certification
7 4 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (1.21%) DV Cleared
8 3 (0.91%) CISSP
8 3 (0.91%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 3 (0.91%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 2 (0.61%) ACSP
9 2 (0.61%) ACTC
9 2 (0.61%) CISM
9 2 (0.61%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.61%) MBA
10 1 (0.30%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (0.30%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.30%) CISMP
10 1 (0.30%) PgMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (5.15%) PMO
2 14 (4.24%) SLA
3 9 (2.73%) GDPR
4 8 (2.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (1.52%) QA
6 4 (1.21%) NIST
7 3 (0.91%) GxP
7 3 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 19770
7 3 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.61%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.61%) COBIT
8 2 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.61%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.61%) MiFID
9 1 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.30%) GRC
9 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.30%) ITGC
9 1 (0.30%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.30%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 12 (3.64%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.61%) Jamf Pro
2 2 (0.61%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.30%) Ansible
3 1 (0.30%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.30%) Terraform
Vendors
1 29 (8.79%) Microsoft
2 24 (7.27%) ServiceNow
3 22 (6.67%) SAP
4 14 (4.24%) Oracle
5 10 (3.03%) Ariba
6 4 (1.21%) Cisco
6 4 (1.21%) Google
6 4 (1.21%) Salesforce
6 4 (1.21%) Workday
7 3 (0.91%) Arista
7 3 (0.91%) Snow
8 2 (0.61%) Apple
8 2 (0.61%) Guidewire
8 2 (0.61%) IBM
8 2 (0.61%) IFS
8 2 (0.61%) Red Hat
8 2 (0.61%) Remedy
8 2 (0.61%) Siemens
8 2 (0.61%) Wrike
9 1 (0.30%) LabVantage