IT Manager Contract Job Trends

IT Manager
UK

The median IT Manager daily rate in the UK is £533, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2026.

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

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 275 226 210
Rank change year-on-year -49 -16 -28
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 428 348 485
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.91% 1.19% 1.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.98% 1.28% 1.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 273 224 359
10th Percentile £363 £388 £363
25th Percentile £454 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.43% - +0.96%
75th Percentile £638 £601 £613
90th Percentile £719 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 11 12
10th Percentile £28.75 £23.80 -
25th Percentile £30.31 £35.00 £23.63
Median hourly rate £37.00 £42.50 £31.84
Median % change year-on-year -12.94% +33.50% -49.06%
75th Percentile £84.69 £72.50 £47.94
90th Percentile £93.75 £77.50 £56.68
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.00 £75.00 £25.28
% change year-on-year -30.67% +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 43,629 27,082 40,416
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.55% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,928 17,690 26,310
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £492
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.46% -1.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,807 1,034 2,664
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.15 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.42
Median % change year-on-year +51.72% -20.37% -19.07%
75th Percentile £66.00 £62.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £28.00 £39.55
% change year-on-year +62.36% -29.20% -6.94%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 -58 362 £535 -0.70% 303
UK excluding London -49 232 £500 - 263
London -30 155 £600 +9.04% 75
Work from Home -16 153 £541 +4.29% 106
South East -37 70 £465 -13.89% 79
North of England -69 50 £525 +5.00% 65
Midlands -77 39 £538 +13.16% 56
West Midlands -57 34 £525 +10.53% 35
South West -15 32 £550 +5.77% 22
North West -40 27 £563 +7.14% 32
Scotland +5 22 £533 +18.33% 9
Yorkshire -62 15 £463 -2.63% 24
East of England -27 12 £450 -33.33% 30
North East -13 8 £440 -9.74% 9
East Midlands -36 5 £700 +43.59% 20
Northern Ireland +7 4 £775 +82.35% 4
Wales - 4 £444 - 4

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 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.

1 149 (34.81%) Stakeholder Management
2 108 (25.23%) Project Management
3 94 (21.96%) Agile
4 83 (19.39%) ITIL
5 74 (17.29%) Security Cleared
6 72 (16.82%) Continuous Improvement
6 72 (16.82%) Project Delivery
7 58 (13.55%) Service Management
7 58 (13.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 54 (12.62%) SC Cleared
9 53 (12.38%) ITSM
10 47 (10.98%) Change Management
10 47 (10.98%) Service Delivery
11 46 (10.75%) PRINCE2
12 45 (10.51%) Problem-Solving
13 36 (8.41%) Degree
13 36 (8.41%) ServiceNow
14 35 (8.18%) Roadmaps
15 34 (7.94%) Migration
15 34 (7.94%) PMP
15 34 (7.94%) Risk Management
16 33 (7.71%) Azure
17 32 (7.48%) Waterfall
18 31 (7.24%) Budget Management
18 31 (7.24%) JIRA
18 31 (7.24%) PMI Certification
19 28 (6.54%) Decision-Making
19 28 (6.54%) PMO
20 27 (6.31%) Cybersecurity
21 25 (5.84%) ERP

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 17 (3.97%) SharePoint
2 12 (2.80%) Confluence
3 7 (1.64%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.23%) Documentum
Applications
1 15 (3.50%) Microsoft Project
2 6 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.40%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.70%) Chatbot
3 3 (0.70%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.40%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.70%) NEC Housing
2 3 (0.70%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.47%) Primavera
3 2 (0.47%) SAP MDG
3 2 (0.47%) TrackWise
4 1 (0.23%) Maximo
4 1 (0.23%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.23%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.23%) SAP Retail
4 1 (0.23%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.23%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 33 (7.71%) Azure
2 19 (4.44%) SaaS
3 13 (3.04%) IaaS
3 13 (3.04%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (2.80%) AWS
5 9 (2.10%) Azure DevOps
6 8 (1.87%) Entra ID
7 7 (1.64%) GCP
8 6 (1.40%) Google Workspace
9 4 (0.93%) Dynamics 365
9 4 (0.93%) OneDrive
9 4 (0.93%) Power Platform
10 2 (0.47%) Azure API Management
10 2 (0.47%) Google Drive
10 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Copilot
10 2 (0.47%) Rubrik
10 2 (0.47%) Slack
10 2 (0.47%) Smartsheet
10 2 (0.47%) WhatsApp
11 1 (0.23%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.87%) Network Security
2 3 (0.70%) DNS
2 3 (0.70%) WAN
3 2 (0.47%) Firewall
3 2 (0.47%) LAN
3 2 (0.47%) SD-WAN
4 1 (0.23%) BT 21CN
4 1 (0.23%) DHCP
4 1 (0.23%) NaaS
4 1 (0.23%) RFID
4 1 (0.23%) Structured Cabling
4 1 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.23%) Wireless
4 1 (0.23%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.93%) Electronic Patient Records
2 3 (0.70%) Power BI
3 2 (0.47%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.47%) EDRMS
4 1 (0.23%) BusinessObjects
4 1 (0.23%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.23%) Metadata
4 1 (0.23%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.23%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.23%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 31 (7.24%) JIRA
2 2 (0.47%) LSMW
General
1 129 (30.14%) Social Skills
2 121 (28.27%) Finance
3 43 (10.05%) Public Sector
4 37 (8.64%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (4.67%) Legal
6 19 (4.44%) Manufacturing
7 17 (3.97%) Banking
8 15 (3.50%) Retail
8 15 (3.50%) Telecoms
9 14 (3.27%) Influencing Skills
10 13 (3.04%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (2.34%) Aerospace
12 7 (1.64%) Law
12 7 (1.64%) Pharmaceutical
13 6 (1.40%) Marketing
14 3 (0.70%) French Language
14 3 (0.70%) German Language
14 3 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.70%) Local Government
14 3 (0.70%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (0.47%) ADO
1 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Graph
1 2 (0.47%) OpenID
1 2 (0.47%) SAML
1 2 (0.47%) SAP Fiori
2 1 (0.23%) SailPoint
2 1 (0.23%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 17 (3.97%) Data Centre
2 16 (3.74%) Management Information System
2 16 (3.74%) Onboarding
3 10 (2.34%) FMCG
4 9 (2.10%) Virtual Team
5 8 (1.87%) NHS
6 7 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.40%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (1.40%) Operational Technology
8 5 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (1.17%) PMI
8 5 (1.17%) Product Ownership
9 4 (0.93%) CMDB
9 4 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
9 4 (0.93%) Reinsurance
10 3 (0.70%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (0.70%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (0.47%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (0.47%) Low-Code
11 2 (0.47%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 13 (3.04%) Windows
2 2 (0.47%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.23%) Mac OS
3 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (34.81%) Stakeholder Management
2 108 (25.23%) Project Management
3 94 (21.96%) Agile
4 83 (19.39%) ITIL
5 72 (16.82%) Continuous Improvement
5 72 (16.82%) Project Delivery
6 58 (13.55%) Service Management
6 58 (13.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 53 (12.38%) ITSM
8 47 (10.98%) Change Management
8 47 (10.98%) Service Delivery
9 46 (10.75%) PRINCE2
10 45 (10.51%) Problem-Solving
11 35 (8.18%) Roadmaps
12 34 (7.94%) Migration
12 34 (7.94%) Risk Management
13 32 (7.48%) Waterfall
14 31 (7.24%) Budget Management
15 28 (6.54%) Decision-Making
16 27 (6.31%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 3 (0.70%) PowerShell
2 2 (0.47%) Python
2 2 (0.47%) SQL
3 1 (0.23%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 74 (17.29%) Security Cleared
2 54 (12.62%) SC Cleared
3 36 (8.41%) Degree
4 34 (7.94%) PMP
5 31 (7.24%) PMI Certification
6 16 (3.74%) ITIL Certification
7 8 (1.87%) DV Cleared
8 6 (1.40%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 5 (1.17%) CISM
9 5 (1.17%) CISSP
10 4 (0.93%) APMG
10 4 (0.93%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 4 (0.93%) Master's Degree
11 3 (0.70%) CISA
11 3 (0.70%) MBA
12 2 (0.47%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (0.47%) CRISC
12 2 (0.47%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 1 (0.23%) Azure Certification
13 1 (0.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (6.54%) PMO
2 13 (3.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (2.80%) GRC
4 9 (2.10%) COBIT
4 9 (2.10%) GDPR
4 9 (2.10%) QA
5 7 (1.64%) NIST
5 7 (1.64%) SLA
6 4 (0.93%) Data Quality
6 4 (0.93%) GxP
6 4 (0.93%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (0.93%) SOC 2
7 3 (0.70%) GMP
7 3 (0.70%) ISO 31000
7 3 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 3 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 2 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.23%) IASME
System Software
1 11 (2.57%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.47%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 3 (0.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.47%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.47%) Terraform
2 2 (0.47%) vRealize
3 1 (0.23%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 36 (8.41%) ServiceNow
2 24 (5.61%) Microsoft
2 24 (5.61%) SAP
3 12 (2.80%) Oracle
4 10 (2.34%) Ariba
5 9 (2.10%) Salesforce
6 6 (1.40%) Google
7 5 (1.17%) VMware
8 3 (0.70%) Cisco
8 3 (0.70%) Computacenter
8 3 (0.70%) Workday
9 2 (0.47%) Autodesk
9 2 (0.47%) Kronos
9 2 (0.47%) Meraki
9 2 (0.47%) Northgate
9 2 (0.47%) Remedy
10 1 (0.23%) Atlassian
10 1 (0.23%) BT
10 1 (0.23%) Fortinet
10 1 (0.23%) NEC