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 11 August 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 257 239 189
Rank change year-on-year -18 -50 -5
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 525 381 526
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.98% 1.16% 1.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.06% 1.27% 1.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 326 248 354
10th Percentile £391 £349 £361
25th Percentile £456 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £516 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.74% -1.71% -
75th Percentile £625 £619 £613
90th Percentile £703 £688 £686
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 9 13
10th Percentile £28.75 £55.98 £21.19
25th Percentile £45.63 £61.25 £22.50
Median hourly rate £72.78 £71.00 £25.28
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +180.91% -56.04%
75th Percentile £85.00 £77.50 £46.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £79.00 £58.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.78 £75.00 £25.28
% change year-on-year -2.97% +196.74% -43.83%

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 49,431 30,083 36,174
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.55% 91.36% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,700 19,069 23,306
10th Percentile £328 £282 £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 £625 £638
90th Percentile £729 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,475 1,511 2,026
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.08 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £45.00
% change year-on-year +69.49% -44.28% +28.57%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -42 443 £525 - 312
UK excluding London -26 296 £500 - 252
London -46 184 £563 +2.27% 90
Work from Home -17 164 £525 - 134
South East -29 88 £475 -12.84% 72
North of England -67 73 £505 +1.00% 94
Midlands -53 44 £538 +10.26% 34
North West -31 41 £525 +4.58% 49
South West -25 33 £550 +13.99% 16
West Midlands -59 33 £563 +18.42% 20
Scotland +4 31 £500 +14.29% 12
East of England -12 20 £500 -15.79% 17
Yorkshire -56 17 £425 -15.00% 39
North East -31 15 £775 +67.57% 7
East Midlands -5 11 £400 -30.62% 14
Wales -5 7 £375 -23.08% 8
Northern Ireland +6 2 £775 +82.35% 2

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 187 (35.62%) Stakeholder Management
2 114 (21.71%) Project Management
3 107 (20.38%) Agile
4 97 (18.48%) ITIL
5 82 (15.62%) Continuous Improvement
5 82 (15.62%) Project Delivery
6 75 (14.29%) Service Management
7 72 (13.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 68 (12.95%) Azure
9 67 (12.76%) ITSM
10 63 (12.00%) Microsoft
10 63 (12.00%) Security Cleared
11 59 (11.24%) Service Delivery
12 57 (10.86%) Problem-Solving
13 55 (10.48%) PRINCE2
14 54 (10.29%) Degree
15 52 (9.90%) Decision-Making
16 49 (9.33%) Change Management
17 48 (9.14%) Risk Management
17 48 (9.14%) SC Cleared
18 47 (8.95%) ServiceNow
19 43 (8.19%) Microsoft 365
20 40 (7.62%) Budget Management
20 40 (7.62%) Migration
21 39 (7.43%) JIRA
21 39 (7.43%) PMP
22 38 (7.24%) Cybersecurity
23 37 (7.05%) Supplier Management
24 35 (6.67%) Roadmaps
25 34 (6.48%) 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 (4.76%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.33%) Confluence
3 6 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 23 (4.38%) Microsoft Project
2 20 (3.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (2.48%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.57%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (1.33%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.76%) Maximo
3 3 (0.57%) 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 68 (12.95%) Azure
2 43 (8.19%) Microsoft 365
3 18 (3.43%) SaaS
4 17 (3.24%) AWS
5 13 (2.48%) Azure DevOps
5 13 (2.48%) Entra ID
6 11 (2.10%) Power Platform
7 6 (1.14%) Dynamics 365
7 6 (1.14%) Smartsheet
8 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (0.76%) GCP
9 4 (0.76%) IaaS
9 4 (0.76%) OneDrive
10 2 (0.38%) Google Workspace
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%) GitHub
11 1 (0.19%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.71%) WAN
2 8 (1.52%) Firewall
2 8 (1.52%) LAN
2 8 (1.52%) Network Security
3 5 (0.95%) DNS
4 2 (0.38%) Internet
4 2 (0.38%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.19%) Broadband
5 1 (0.19%) DHCP
5 1 (0.19%) FTP
5 1 (0.19%) Intranet
5 1 (0.19%) Structured Cabling
5 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
5 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.19%) Wireless
5 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (1.90%) 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 39 (7.43%) JIRA
General
1 179 (34.10%) Social Skills
2 173 (32.95%) Finance
3 60 (11.43%) Public Sector
4 50 (9.52%) Analytical Skills
5 40 (7.62%) Legal
6 26 (4.95%) Organisational Skills
7 24 (4.57%) Banking
8 20 (3.81%) Influencing Skills
8 20 (3.81%) Manufacturing
8 20 (3.81%) Retail
9 15 (2.86%) Law
10 12 (2.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (2.10%) Telecoms
12 10 (1.90%) Financial Institution
13 8 (1.52%) Local Government
14 5 (0.95%) Automotive
14 5 (0.95%) Marketing
15 4 (0.76%) Japanese Language
15 4 (0.76%) Military
15 4 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.86%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (0.57%) Middleware
3 2 (0.38%) ADO
4 1 (0.19%) JSON
4 1 (0.19%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.19%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.00%) Onboarding
2 18 (3.43%) Data Centre
3 17 (3.24%) Product Ownership
4 12 (2.29%) Enterprise Software
4 12 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
4 12 (2.29%) Operational Technology
5 11 (2.10%) FMCG
6 10 (1.90%) Credit Risk
6 10 (1.90%) Management Information System
7 8 (1.52%) CMDB
7 8 (1.52%) Mobile App
7 8 (1.52%) Virtual Team
8 7 (1.33%) PMI
9 5 (0.95%) NHS
10 4 (0.76%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
10 4 (0.76%) Reinsurance
10 4 (0.76%) Robotics
11 3 (0.57%) Low-Code
11 3 (0.57%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 28 (5.33%) Windows
2 5 (0.95%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
3 1 (0.19%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 187 (35.62%) Stakeholder Management
2 114 (21.71%) Project Management
3 107 (20.38%) Agile
4 97 (18.48%) ITIL
5 82 (15.62%) Continuous Improvement
5 82 (15.62%) Project Delivery
6 75 (14.29%) Service Management
7 72 (13.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 67 (12.76%) ITSM
9 59 (11.24%) Service Delivery
10 57 (10.86%) Problem-Solving
11 55 (10.48%) PRINCE2
12 52 (9.90%) Decision-Making
13 49 (9.33%) Change Management
14 48 (9.14%) Risk Management
15 40 (7.62%) Budget Management
15 40 (7.62%) Migration
16 38 (7.24%) Cybersecurity
17 37 (7.05%) Supplier Management
18 35 (6.67%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 5 (0.95%) SQL
2 1 (0.19%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 63 (12.00%) Security Cleared
2 54 (10.29%) Degree
3 48 (9.14%) SC Cleared
4 39 (7.43%) PMP
5 34 (6.48%) PMI Certification
6 31 (5.90%) ITIL Certification
7 12 (2.29%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 11 (2.10%) CISSP
9 10 (1.90%) CISA
10 7 (1.33%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (0.76%) DV Cleared
11 4 (0.76%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 3 (0.57%) APMG
12 3 (0.57%) CISM
12 3 (0.57%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (0.38%) APMP
13 2 (0.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 1 (0.19%) CGEIT
14 1 (0.19%) CRISC
14 1 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.38%) PMO
2 17 (3.24%) GRC
3 16 (3.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (2.10%) SLA
5 10 (1.90%) COBIT
6 8 (1.52%) QA
7 6 (1.14%) Cyber Essentials
8 5 (0.95%) GDPR
9 3 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.57%) ISO 31000
9 3 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 3 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 3 (0.57%) NIST
9 3 (0.57%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.38%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.38%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.19%) IASME
11 1 (0.19%) ITGC
11 1 (0.19%) SOC 1
System Software
1 14 (2.67%) Active Directory
2 4 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.57%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.19%) KVM
4 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.19%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (1.14%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.38%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.38%) Terraform
3 1 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 63 (12.00%) Microsoft
2 47 (8.95%) ServiceNow
3 28 (5.33%) SAP
4 21 (4.00%) Ariba
5 20 (3.81%) Oracle
6 7 (1.33%) Salesforce
7 5 (0.95%) VMware
8 3 (0.57%) Apple
8 3 (0.57%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.57%) Cisco
8 3 (0.57%) Computacenter
8 3 (0.57%) Refinitiv
8 3 (0.57%) Samsung
8 3 (0.57%) Snow
8 3 (0.57%) SolarWinds
9 2 (0.38%) Google
9 2 (0.38%) Kronos
9 2 (0.38%) Meraki
9 2 (0.38%) MuleSoft
9 2 (0.38%) Workday