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 12 May 2026.

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

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 265 230 212
Rank change year-on-year -35 -18 -33
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 439 348 474
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 1.19% 1.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.00% 1.29% 1.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 279 227 339
10th Percentile £394 £388 £363
25th Percentile £455 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
75th Percentile £638 £608 £614
90th Percentile £710 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 11 13
10th Percentile £28.75 £23.80 -
25th Percentile £30.31 £35.00 £23.63
Median hourly rate £37.00 £62.00 £33.55
Median % change year-on-year -40.32% +84.80% -46.32%
75th Percentile £84.69 £72.50 £53.75
90th Percentile £93.75 £77.50 £59.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.00 £75.00 £25.28
% change year-on-year -30.67% +196.74% -49.45%

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 43,836 26,998 39,901
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.47% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,861 17,609 25,964
10th Percentile £319 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.07% -2.38% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +4.21% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,872 1,048 2,673
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.34 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £28.60 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.85% -23.73% -16.67%
75th Percentile £66.63 £62.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £27.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.65% -31.25% -5.73%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -62 372 £529 +0.71% 298
UK excluding London -52 240 £500 - 271
London -35 157 £600 +9.09% 67
Work from Home -18 156 £533 +6.50% 107
South East -24 76 £475 -10.80% 79
North of England -68 51 £518 +3.50% 58
Midlands -52 39 £538 +13.16% 56
West Midlands -59 33 £525 +10.53% 39
South West -16 32 £550 +5.77% 33
North West -38 26 £563 +7.14% 38
Scotland +9 23 £533 +18.33% 6
Yorkshire -62 17 £415 -17.00% 13
East of England -27 13 £500 -25.93% 27
North East -11 8 £440 -7.37% 7
East Midlands -35 6 £700 +43.59% 16
Wales - 4 £444 - 14
Northern Ireland +6 3 £775 +82.35% 2

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

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 151 (34.40%) Stakeholder Management
2 106 (24.15%) Project Management
3 93 (21.18%) Agile
4 85 (19.36%) ITIL
5 73 (16.63%) Security Cleared
6 72 (16.40%) Continuous Improvement
6 72 (16.40%) Project Delivery
7 61 (13.90%) Service Management
8 59 (13.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 57 (12.98%) ITSM
10 52 (11.85%) SC Cleared
11 48 (10.93%) Service Delivery
12 46 (10.48%) Problem-Solving
13 45 (10.25%) Change Management
14 44 (10.02%) PRINCE2
15 38 (8.66%) Degree
16 36 (8.20%) Azure
16 36 (8.20%) Roadmaps
17 35 (7.97%) Migration
17 35 (7.97%) ServiceNow
18 33 (7.52%) PMP
18 33 (7.52%) Risk Management
19 32 (7.29%) Decision-Making
20 31 (7.06%) JIRA
21 30 (6.83%) Budget Management
21 30 (6.83%) PMI Certification
21 30 (6.83%) Waterfall
22 27 (6.15%) Microsoft
22 27 (6.15%) PMO
23 26 (5.92%) Cybersecurity

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 18 (4.10%) SharePoint
2 12 (2.73%) Confluence
3 7 (1.59%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.23%) Documentum
Applications
1 16 (3.64%) Microsoft Project
2 6 (1.37%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (1.14%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.68%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.68%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.37%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.68%) NEC Housing
2 3 (0.68%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.46%) Primavera
3 2 (0.46%) SAP MDG
3 2 (0.46%) TrackWise
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 36 (8.20%) Azure
2 18 (4.10%) SaaS
3 16 (3.64%) Microsoft 365
4 13 (2.96%) IaaS
5 12 (2.73%) AWS
6 9 (2.05%) Azure DevOps
6 9 (2.05%) Entra ID
7 8 (1.82%) GCP
8 6 (1.37%) Google Workspace
9 5 (1.14%) Dynamics 365
10 4 (0.91%) OneDrive
10 4 (0.91%) Power Platform
11 3 (0.68%) Rubrik
12 2 (0.46%) Azure API Management
12 2 (0.46%) Google Drive
12 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Copilot
12 2 (0.46%) Slack
12 2 (0.46%) Smartsheet
12 2 (0.46%) WhatsApp
13 1 (0.23%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.82%) Network Security
2 4 (0.91%) WAN
3 3 (0.68%) DNS
3 3 (0.68%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.46%) Firewall
4 2 (0.46%) LAN
5 1 (0.23%) BT 21CN
5 1 (0.23%) DHCP
5 1 (0.23%) NaaS
5 1 (0.23%) RFID
5 1 (0.23%) Structured Cabling
5 1 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.23%) Wireless
5 1 (0.23%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.91%) Electronic Patient Records
2 3 (0.68%) Power BI
3 2 (0.46%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.46%) 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 (7.06%) JIRA
2 2 (0.46%) LSMW
General
1 133 (30.30%) Social Skills
2 123 (28.02%) Finance
3 41 (9.34%) Public Sector
4 35 (7.97%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (5.01%) Legal
6 20 (4.56%) Manufacturing
7 16 (3.64%) Banking
8 15 (3.42%) Retail
8 15 (3.42%) Telecoms
9 14 (3.19%) Influencing Skills
10 13 (2.96%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (2.28%) Aerospace
12 7 (1.59%) Law
12 7 (1.59%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (1.14%) Marketing
14 3 (0.68%) French Language
14 3 (0.68%) German Language
14 3 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.68%) Local Government
14 3 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.68%) Oracle Fusion
2 2 (0.46%) ADO
2 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.46%) OpenID
2 2 (0.46%) SAML
2 2 (0.46%) SAP Fiori
3 1 (0.23%) SailPoint
3 1 (0.23%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 18 (4.10%) Onboarding
2 17 (3.87%) Data Centre
3 15 (3.42%) Management Information System
4 10 (2.28%) FMCG
5 8 (1.82%) Virtual Team
6 7 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
6 7 (1.59%) NHS
6 7 (1.59%) Operational Technology
7 5 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.14%) PMI
7 5 (1.14%) Product Ownership
8 4 (0.91%) CMDB
8 4 (0.91%) Greenfield Project
8 4 (0.91%) Reinsurance
9 3 (0.68%) Analytical Mindset
9 3 (0.68%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.46%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (0.46%) Low-Code
10 2 (0.46%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 15 (3.42%) Windows
2 2 (0.46%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.23%) Mac OS
3 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (34.40%) Stakeholder Management
2 106 (24.15%) Project Management
3 93 (21.18%) Agile
4 85 (19.36%) ITIL
5 72 (16.40%) Continuous Improvement
5 72 (16.40%) Project Delivery
6 61 (13.90%) Service Management
7 59 (13.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 57 (12.98%) ITSM
9 48 (10.93%) Service Delivery
10 46 (10.48%) Problem-Solving
11 45 (10.25%) Change Management
12 44 (10.02%) PRINCE2
13 36 (8.20%) Roadmaps
14 35 (7.97%) Migration
15 33 (7.52%) Risk Management
16 32 (7.29%) Decision-Making
17 30 (6.83%) Budget Management
17 30 (6.83%) Waterfall
18 26 (5.92%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 3 (0.68%) PowerShell
2 2 (0.46%) Python
2 2 (0.46%) SQL
3 1 (0.23%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 73 (16.63%) Security Cleared
2 52 (11.85%) SC Cleared
3 38 (8.66%) Degree
4 33 (7.52%) PMP
5 30 (6.83%) PMI Certification
6 18 (4.10%) ITIL Certification
7 7 (1.59%) DV Cleared
8 6 (1.37%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 5 (1.14%) CISM
9 5 (1.14%) CISSP
10 4 (0.91%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 4 (0.91%) Master's Degree
11 3 (0.68%) APMG
11 3 (0.68%) CISA
11 3 (0.68%) MBA
12 2 (0.46%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (0.46%) CRISC
13 1 (0.23%) APMP
13 1 (0.23%) CGEIT
13 1 (0.23%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (6.15%) PMO
2 14 (3.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (2.73%) GRC
4 9 (2.05%) COBIT
4 9 (2.05%) GDPR
4 9 (2.05%) QA
5 7 (1.59%) NIST
5 7 (1.59%) SLA
6 4 (0.91%) Data Quality
6 4 (0.91%) GxP
6 4 (0.91%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (0.91%) SOC 2
7 3 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.68%) GMP
7 3 (0.68%) ISO 31000
7 3 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 3 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 2 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.23%) IASME
System Software
1 11 (2.51%) Active Directory
2 4 (0.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.68%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.23%) KVM
4 1 (0.23%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.46%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.46%) Terraform
2 2 (0.46%) vRealize
3 1 (0.23%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 35 (7.97%) ServiceNow
2 27 (6.15%) Microsoft
3 26 (5.92%) SAP
4 15 (3.42%) Oracle
5 12 (2.73%) Ariba
6 9 (2.05%) Salesforce
7 6 (1.37%) Google
7 6 (1.37%) VMware
8 3 (0.68%) Cisco
8 3 (0.68%) Computacenter
8 3 (0.68%) Workday
9 2 (0.46%) Autodesk
9 2 (0.46%) Bloomberg
9 2 (0.46%) Kronos
9 2 (0.46%) Meraki
9 2 (0.46%) Northgate
9 2 (0.46%) Refinitiv
9 2 (0.46%) Remedy
10 1 (0.23%) BT
10 1 (0.23%) NEC