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 30 June 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 257 230 196
Rank change year-on-year -27 -34 -11
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 508 350 527
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.14% 1.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.07% 1.24% 1.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 315 234 360
10th Percentile £407 £357 £363
25th Percentile £457 £425 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £516 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.74% -1.71% -
75th Percentile £631 £603 £625
90th Percentile £725 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% +4.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 10 14
10th Percentile £28.75 £58.49 £21.19
25th Percentile £35.00 £61.69 £22.78
Median hourly rate £62.50 £70.50 £27.70
Median % change year-on-year -11.35% +154.54% -56.07%
75th Percentile £84.38 £76.88 £43.22
90th Percentile £95.00 £78.88 £58.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.78 £73.00 £25.28
% change year-on-year -0.31% +188.82% -51.21%

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 47,423 28,164 40,143
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.41% 92.05% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,738 18,025 25,769
10th Percentile £325 £288 £283
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,196 1,261 2,867
10th Percentile £15.61 £13.78 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.23 £17.33 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -25 427 £525 - 219
UK excluding London -18 291 £513 +2.50% 210
London -50 174 £600 +9.09% 45
Work from Home -4 165 £525 +1.74% 106
South East -12 94 £475 -11.21% 79
North of England -76 58 £525 +5.00% 56
Midlands -49 49 £575 +21.05% 31
West Midlands -48 40 £575 +21.05% 17
South West -12 35 £550 +5.77% 13
Scotland +9 32 £520 +9.47% 4
North West -42 31 £550 +10.00% 23
Yorkshire -63 16 £420 -18.05% 27
East of England -24 15 £500 -3.66% 14
North East -27 11 £775 +67.57% 6
East Midlands -12 9 £575 +17.95% 14
Wales -6 8 £375 -23.08% 9
Northern Ireland +2 2 £775 +82.35% 6

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

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 178 (35.04%) Stakeholder Management
2 104 (20.47%) Project Management
3 101 (19.88%) ITIL
4 99 (19.49%) Agile
5 84 (16.54%) Continuous Improvement
6 76 (14.96%) Project Delivery
7 75 (14.76%) Service Management
8 70 (13.78%) Security Cleared
9 67 (13.19%) ITSM
10 62 (12.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 54 (10.63%) Service Delivery
12 52 (10.24%) Azure
13 49 (9.65%) Degree
13 49 (9.65%) Problem-Solving
14 48 (9.45%) Change Management
14 48 (9.45%) Microsoft
15 46 (9.06%) Decision-Making
15 46 (9.06%) SC Cleared
15 46 (9.06%) ServiceNow
16 45 (8.86%) PRINCE2
16 45 (8.86%) Risk Management
17 40 (7.87%) Migration
18 39 (7.68%) Roadmaps
19 35 (6.89%) Cybersecurity
19 35 (6.89%) JIRA
20 34 (6.69%) Budget Management
21 33 (6.50%) SAP
22 32 (6.30%) Microsoft 365
23 30 (5.91%) Supplier Management
24 29 (5.71%) ITIL 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 24 (4.72%) SharePoint
2 8 (1.57%) Confluence
3 5 (0.98%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 18 (3.54%) Microsoft Project
2 15 (2.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.59%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.39%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.18%) NetSuite
2 3 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.59%) Maximo
2 3 (0.59%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.39%) Endur
3 2 (0.39%) Primavera
4 1 (0.20%) assyst
4 1 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.20%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.20%) SAP Retail
4 1 (0.20%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.20%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 52 (10.24%) Azure
2 32 (6.30%) Microsoft 365
3 19 (3.74%) SaaS
4 17 (3.35%) AWS
5 11 (2.17%) Azure DevOps
5 11 (2.17%) Entra ID
5 11 (2.17%) Power Platform
6 7 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
7 4 (0.79%) GCP
8 2 (0.39%) Google Workspace
8 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Copilot
8 2 (0.39%) OneDrive
8 2 (0.39%) WhatsApp
9 1 (0.20%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.20%) ClickUp
9 1 (0.20%) GitHub
9 1 (0.20%) IaaS
9 1 (0.20%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.20%) Rubrik
9 1 (0.20%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.57%) Network Security
2 6 (1.18%) WAN
3 5 (0.98%) Firewall
4 4 (0.79%) DNS
4 4 (0.79%) LAN
5 3 (0.59%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.39%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.20%) Broadband
7 1 (0.20%) BT 21CN
7 1 (0.20%) DHCP
7 1 (0.20%) Internet
7 1 (0.20%) Intranet
7 1 (0.20%) NaaS
7 1 (0.20%) RFID
7 1 (0.20%) Structured Cabling
7 1 (0.20%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.20%) Wireless
7 1 (0.20%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.17%) Power BI
2 2 (0.39%) BusinessObjects
2 2 (0.39%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.20%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.20%) EDRMS
3 1 (0.20%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.20%) Metadata
3 1 (0.20%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.20%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 35 (6.89%) JIRA
General
1 172 (33.86%) Social Skills
2 168 (33.07%) Finance
3 56 (11.02%) Public Sector
4 41 (8.07%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (7.28%) Legal
6 24 (4.72%) Manufacturing
7 20 (3.94%) Banking
7 20 (3.94%) Organisational Skills
8 19 (3.74%) Retail
9 14 (2.76%) Influencing Skills
10 12 (2.36%) Telecoms
11 11 (2.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 9 (1.77%) Aerospace
13 8 (1.57%) Financial Institution
14 7 (1.38%) Law
14 7 (1.38%) Marketing
15 6 (1.18%) Local Government
15 6 (1.18%) Pharmaceutical
16 4 (0.79%) German Language
16 4 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.95%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (0.59%) Middleware
3 2 (0.39%) ADO
4 1 (0.20%) JSON
4 1 (0.20%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.20%) SAP Fiori
4 1 (0.20%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 17 (3.35%) Data Centre
2 16 (3.15%) Onboarding
3 14 (2.76%) FMCG
4 12 (2.36%) Management Information System
5 11 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
5 11 (2.17%) Operational Technology
6 10 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
6 10 (1.97%) Product Ownership
7 8 (1.57%) Virtual Team
8 7 (1.38%) CMDB
9 5 (0.98%) PMI
10 4 (0.79%) Credit Risk
10 4 (0.79%) Mobile App
10 4 (0.79%) Reinsurance
10 4 (0.79%) Robotics
10 4 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.59%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.59%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.59%) Greenfield Project
11 3 (0.59%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 22 (4.33%) Windows
2 4 (0.79%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.20%) Mac OS
3 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 178 (35.04%) Stakeholder Management
2 104 (20.47%) Project Management
3 101 (19.88%) ITIL
4 99 (19.49%) Agile
5 84 (16.54%) Continuous Improvement
6 76 (14.96%) Project Delivery
7 75 (14.76%) Service Management
8 67 (13.19%) ITSM
9 62 (12.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 54 (10.63%) Service Delivery
11 49 (9.65%) Problem-Solving
12 48 (9.45%) Change Management
13 46 (9.06%) Decision-Making
14 45 (8.86%) PRINCE2
14 45 (8.86%) Risk Management
15 40 (7.87%) Migration
16 39 (7.68%) Roadmaps
17 35 (6.89%) Cybersecurity
18 34 (6.69%) Budget Management
19 30 (5.91%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (1.18%) SQL
2 1 (0.20%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 70 (13.78%) Security Cleared
2 49 (9.65%) Degree
3 46 (9.06%) SC Cleared
4 29 (5.71%) ITIL Certification
4 29 (5.71%) PMP
5 25 (4.92%) PMI Certification
6 12 (2.36%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 11 (2.17%) CISSP
8 10 (1.97%) CISA
9 8 (1.57%) DV Cleared
10 5 (0.98%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 4 (0.79%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (0.79%) CISM
11 4 (0.79%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 3 (0.59%) APMG
13 1 (0.20%) APMP
13 1 (0.20%) CGEIT
13 1 (0.20%) CRISC
13 1 (0.20%) Master's Degree
13 1 (0.20%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (3.94%) PMO
2 19 (3.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (2.76%) COBIT
4 12 (2.36%) GRC
5 11 (2.17%) SLA
6 10 (1.97%) QA
7 9 (1.77%) GDPR
8 6 (1.18%) NIST
9 5 (0.98%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.79%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.59%) Data Quality
11 3 (0.59%) GxP
11 3 (0.59%) ISO 31000
11 3 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 3 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 2 (0.39%) GMP
12 2 (0.39%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.20%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 13 (2.56%) Active Directory
2 4 (0.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.59%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.20%) KVM
4 1 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.20%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 4 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.39%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.39%) Terraform
2 2 (0.39%) vRealize
3 1 (0.20%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.20%) VxRail
Vendors
1 48 (9.45%) Microsoft
2 46 (9.06%) ServiceNow
3 33 (6.50%) SAP
4 26 (5.12%) Oracle
5 21 (4.13%) Ariba
6 13 (2.56%) Salesforce
7 6 (1.18%) VMware
8 3 (0.59%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.59%) Cisco
8 3 (0.59%) Computacenter
8 3 (0.59%) Refinitiv
8 3 (0.59%) Snow
8 3 (0.59%) SolarWinds
8 3 (0.59%) Workday
9 2 (0.39%) Autodesk
9 2 (0.39%) Google
9 2 (0.39%) Kronos
9 2 (0.39%) Meraki
9 2 (0.39%) NEC
10 1 (0.20%) BT