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 18 August 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 265 236 189
Rank change year-on-year -29 -47 -1
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 531 371 516
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.13% 1.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.07% 1.24% 1.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 331 242 346
10th Percentile £400 £346 £355
25th Percentile £456 £416 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £516 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.74% -1.71% -1.64%
75th Percentile £625 £617 £618
90th Percentile £706 £686 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 9 12
10th Percentile £28.75 £55.98 £21.19
25th Percentile £45.63 £61.25 £22.17
Median hourly rate £72.78 £71.00 £27.70
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +156.34% -51.83%
75th Percentile £85.00 £77.50 £47.94
90th Percentile £88.75 £79.00 £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 49,538 30,006 36,016
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.28% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,704 18,935 23,189
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% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £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 3,506 1,542 1,988
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.56 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +3.61%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £44.02
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.87% +22.28%

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 18 August 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 18 August 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 18 August 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 -40 449 £525 - 380
UK excluding London -23 301 £500 - 300
London -33 184 £563 +2.27% 130
Work from Home -5 163 £525 - 159
South East -31 86 £478 -12.39% 87
North of England -67 78 £505 +1.00% 96
North West -36 44 £525 +5.00% 56
Midlands -48 42 £525 +5.00% 33
South West -31 33 £550 +10.00% 27
Scotland +7 31 £500 +17.65% 15
West Midlands -49 30 £525 +5.00% 22
East of England -10 24 £525 -4.55% 31
Yorkshire -54 19 £425 -17.07% 38
North East -28 15 £775 +67.57% 5
East Midlands -11 12 £400 -23.81% 11
Wales -12 7 £375 -23.08% 13
Northern Ireland +5 2 £775 +82.35% 2

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

For the 6 months to 18 August 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.

1 190 (35.78%) Stakeholder Management
2 112 (21.09%) Project Management
3 108 (20.34%) Agile
4 95 (17.89%) ITIL
5 85 (16.01%) Project Delivery
6 80 (15.07%) Continuous Improvement
7 75 (14.12%) Service Management
8 74 (13.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 69 (12.99%) Azure
10 66 (12.43%) Microsoft
11 65 (12.24%) ITSM
12 62 (11.68%) PRINCE2
13 61 (11.49%) Security Cleared
14 59 (11.11%) Service Delivery
15 57 (10.73%) Problem-Solving
16 55 (10.36%) Decision-Making
17 53 (9.98%) Degree
18 50 (9.42%) Risk Management
19 49 (9.23%) Change Management
19 49 (9.23%) ServiceNow
20 47 (8.85%) SC Cleared
21 43 (8.10%) Cybersecurity
21 43 (8.10%) Microsoft 365
22 42 (7.91%) Budget Management
23 41 (7.72%) Migration
24 40 (7.53%) PMP
25 38 (7.16%) Project Governance
25 38 (7.16%) Supplier Management
26 36 (6.78%) JIRA
27 35 (6.59%) PMI Certification

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 (4.71%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (0.94%) Confluence
Applications
1 25 (4.71%) Microsoft Project
2 21 (3.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (2.45%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (1.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.56%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.56%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (1.32%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.75%) Maximo
3 3 (0.56%) Endur
4 2 (0.38%) Primavera
5 1 (0.19%) assyst
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 69 (12.99%) Azure
2 43 (8.10%) Microsoft 365
3 19 (3.58%) SaaS
4 18 (3.39%) AWS
5 13 (2.45%) Azure DevOps
5 13 (2.45%) Entra ID
6 11 (2.07%) Power Platform
7 6 (1.13%) Dynamics 365
7 6 (1.13%) Smartsheet
8 5 (0.94%) GCP
8 5 (0.94%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (0.75%) IaaS
9 4 (0.75%) OneDrive
10 2 (0.38%) WhatsApp
11 1 (0.19%) Azure Sentinel
11 1 (0.19%) Boomi
11 1 (0.19%) ClickUp
11 1 (0.19%) Nutanix
11 1 (0.19%) Rubrik
11 1 (0.19%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.69%) Firewall
1 9 (1.69%) WAN
2 8 (1.51%) LAN
2 8 (1.51%) Network Security
3 5 (0.94%) DNS
4 2 (0.38%) DHCP
4 2 (0.38%) Internet
4 2 (0.38%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.19%) Fibre Channel
5 1 (0.19%) FTP
5 1 (0.19%) Intranet
5 1 (0.19%) iSCSI
5 1 (0.19%) NAS
5 1 (0.19%) SAN
5 1 (0.19%) Structured Cabling
5 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
5 1 (0.19%) VLAN
5 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.19%) Wireless
5 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (1.88%) Power BI
2 2 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.19%) BusinessObjects
3 1 (0.19%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 36 (6.78%) JIRA
General
1 182 (34.27%) Finance
1 182 (34.27%) Social Skills
2 60 (11.30%) Public Sector
3 51 (9.60%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (7.72%) Legal
5 28 (5.27%) Organisational Skills
6 24 (4.52%) Banking
7 22 (4.14%) Manufacturing
7 22 (4.14%) Retail
8 21 (3.95%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (2.82%) Law
10 12 (2.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 10 (1.88%) Financial Institution
12 9 (1.69%) Telecoms
13 8 (1.51%) Local Government
14 6 (1.13%) Automotive
15 5 (0.94%) Marketing
15 5 (0.94%) Military
16 4 (0.75%) Japanese Language
16 4 (0.75%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.20%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (0.56%) Middleware
3 2 (0.38%) ADO
4 1 (0.19%) JSON
4 1 (0.19%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.19%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 22 (4.14%) Onboarding
2 19 (3.58%) Data Centre
3 18 (3.39%) Product Ownership
4 16 (3.01%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (2.64%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (2.26%) FMCG
7 11 (2.07%) Credit Risk
7 11 (2.07%) Operational Technology
8 10 (1.88%) Management Information System
9 9 (1.69%) Mobile App
10 8 (1.51%) CMDB
10 8 (1.51%) Virtual Team
11 7 (1.32%) PMI
12 5 (0.94%) NHS
13 4 (0.75%) Data Protection Act
13 4 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
13 4 (0.75%) Reinsurance
13 4 (0.75%) Robotics
14 3 (0.56%) Driving Licence
14 3 (0.56%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 27 (5.08%) Windows
2 6 (1.13%) 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
1 190 (35.78%) Stakeholder Management
2 112 (21.09%) Project Management
3 108 (20.34%) Agile
4 95 (17.89%) ITIL
5 85 (16.01%) Project Delivery
6 80 (15.07%) Continuous Improvement
7 75 (14.12%) Service Management
8 74 (13.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 65 (12.24%) ITSM
10 62 (11.68%) PRINCE2
11 59 (11.11%) Service Delivery
12 57 (10.73%) Problem-Solving
13 55 (10.36%) Decision-Making
14 50 (9.42%) Risk Management
15 49 (9.23%) Change Management
16 43 (8.10%) Cybersecurity
17 42 (7.91%) Budget Management
18 41 (7.72%) Migration
19 38 (7.16%) Project Governance
19 38 (7.16%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (0.94%) SQL
2 2 (0.38%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 61 (11.49%) Security Cleared
2 53 (9.98%) Degree
3 47 (8.85%) SC Cleared
4 40 (7.53%) PMP
5 35 (6.59%) PMI Certification
6 30 (5.65%) ITIL Certification
7 14 (2.64%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 11 (2.07%) CISSP
9 10 (1.88%) CISA
10 7 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (0.75%) DV Cleared
11 4 (0.75%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 3 (0.56%) APMG
12 3 (0.56%) CISM
12 3 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (0.38%) APMP
13 2 (0.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.19%) CRISC
14 1 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
14 1 (0.19%) PgMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.71%) PMO
2 19 (3.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (3.39%) GRC
4 11 (2.07%) SLA
5 10 (1.88%) COBIT
6 8 (1.51%) QA
7 7 (1.32%) Cyber Essentials
8 5 (0.94%) GDPR
9 4 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.56%) ISO 31000
10 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.38%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.38%) NIST
11 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.38%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.19%) IASME
12 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 1 (0.19%) ITGC
12 1 (0.19%) SOC 1
System Software
1 15 (2.82%) Active Directory
2 5 (0.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.56%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.38%) vSphere
5 1 (0.19%) Firmware
5 1 (0.19%) KVM
5 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 6 (1.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (0.56%) Terraform
3 2 (0.38%) RSA Archer
4 1 (0.19%) Ansible
4 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.19%) vMotion
Vendors
1 66 (12.43%) Microsoft
2 49 (9.23%) ServiceNow
3 28 (5.27%) SAP
4 22 (4.14%) Ariba
4 22 (4.14%) Oracle
5 7 (1.32%) Salesforce
6 6 (1.13%) VMware
7 3 (0.56%) Apple
7 3 (0.56%) Bloomberg
7 3 (0.56%) Cisco
7 3 (0.56%) Computacenter
7 3 (0.56%) Refinitiv
7 3 (0.56%) Samsung
7 3 (0.56%) Snow
8 2 (0.38%) Autodesk
8 2 (0.38%) Dell
8 2 (0.38%) Kronos
8 2 (0.38%) MuleSoft
8 2 (0.38%) SolarWinds
8 2 (0.38%) Workday