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 1 February 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 303 203 191
Rank change year-on-year -100 -12 +5
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 329 402 541
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.85% 1.28% 1.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.93% 1.38% 1.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 252 387
10th Percentile £350 £363 £363
25th Percentile £425 £440 £441
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.48% -0.48% -
75th Percentile £619 £604 £613
90th Percentile £688 £722 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 12 6
10th Percentile £29.60 £24.92 £30.28
25th Percentile £47.50 £35.00 £36.41
Median hourly rate £60.00 £37.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -25.00% -23.08%
75th Percentile £65.00 £67.81 £56.50
90th Percentile £84.86 £69.88 £73.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £67.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -11.11% +50.00% -30.77%

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 35,259 29,175 41,799
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.50% 92.88% 93.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,247 17,830 27,664
10th Percentile £300 £298 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £495
% change year-on-year -0.73% -3.33% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,103 856 2,215
10th Percentile £14.39 £15.92 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.66 £36.05
Median % change year-on-year -9.36% -9.40% +2.99%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.00
90th Percentile £70.57 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.64 £37.34
% change year-on-year -13.08% -15.27% +22.95%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -85 289 £525 -1.87% 291
UK excluding London -78 175 £500 - 256
Work from Home -41 121 £525 -3.89% 115
London -42 121 £563 +2.27% 85
South East -30 42 £513 -2.38% 83
Midlands -68 41 £525 -2.33% 62
North of England -68 41 £525 +16.67% 56
West Midlands -54 31 £525 -8.70% 37
South West -15 24 £450 -11.55% 22
Yorkshire -50 20 £494 +9.72% 21
North West -37 16 £569 +51.67% 29
East of England -20 15 £425 -22.73% 19
East Midlands -25 10 £525 +10.53% 25
Scotland -8 9 £525 +24.26% 12
North East -15 5 £450 -10.00% 7
Northern Ireland +1 2 - -
Wales -2 1 - - 7

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

For the 6 months to 1 February 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.

1 115 (34.95%) Stakeholder Management
2 96 (29.18%) Project Management
3 65 (19.76%) Agile
4 52 (15.81%) Project Delivery
5 44 (13.37%) ITIL
6 42 (12.77%) Change Management
7 41 (12.46%) PRINCE2
7 41 (12.46%) Security Cleared
7 41 (12.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 38 (11.55%) Continuous Improvement
8 38 (11.55%) Degree
9 33 (10.03%) Service Delivery
10 32 (9.73%) PMI Certification
10 32 (9.73%) PMP
11 30 (9.12%) Cybersecurity
11 30 (9.12%) Migration
12 29 (8.81%) Problem-Solving
13 27 (8.21%) SC Cleared
13 27 (8.21%) Service Management
14 25 (7.60%) Risk Management
14 25 (7.60%) SAP
15 23 (6.99%) Waterfall
16 22 (6.69%) Microsoft
17 21 (6.38%) Budget Management
17 21 (6.38%) Decision-Making
18 20 (6.08%) Roadmaps
18 20 (6.08%) ServiceNow
18 20 (6.08%) Supplier Management
19 19 (5.78%) ITSM
19 19 (5.78%) JIRA

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 10 (3.04%) SharePoint
2 8 (2.43%) Confluence
3 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.30%) Documentum
4 1 (0.30%) IIS
Applications
1 12 (3.65%) Microsoft Excel
1 12 (3.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 10 (3.04%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (3.04%) Microsoft Project
3 8 (2.43%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.61%) Trello
5 1 (0.30%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 7 (2.13%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.61%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.61%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.61%) SAP MDG
2 2 (0.61%) SAP MM
2 2 (0.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.61%) Teamcenter
2 2 (0.61%) TrackWise
3 1 (0.30%) Loan IQ
3 1 (0.30%) Maximo
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP PLM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP Retail
Cloud Services
1 14 (4.26%) SaaS
2 12 (3.65%) IaaS
3 11 (3.34%) Azure
4 9 (2.74%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (2.43%) AWS
6 6 (1.82%) GCP
7 5 (1.52%) Entra ID
7 5 (1.52%) Google Workspace
8 4 (1.22%) Power Platform
9 3 (0.91%) Dynamics 365
9 3 (0.91%) OneDrive
9 3 (0.91%) SuccessFactors
10 2 (0.61%) Azure API Management
10 2 (0.61%) Google Drive
10 2 (0.61%) Rubrik
10 2 (0.61%) Slack
11 1 (0.30%) Azure DevOps
11 1 (0.30%) PaaS
11 1 (0.30%) Smartsheet
11 1 (0.30%) Veeva
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.13%) WAN
2 6 (1.82%) LAN
2 6 (1.82%) Structured Cabling
3 3 (0.91%) Network Security
3 3 (0.91%) SD-WAN
3 3 (0.91%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (0.61%) Firewall
5 1 (0.30%) DNS
5 1 (0.30%) Intranet
5 1 (0.30%) RFID
5 1 (0.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.22%) Electronic Patient Records
2 3 (0.91%) Power BI
2 3 (0.91%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.61%) EDRMS
4 1 (0.30%) Metadata
4 1 (0.30%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
4 1 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
4 1 (0.30%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 19 (5.78%) JIRA
2 2 (0.61%) LSMW
General
1 110 (33.43%) Finance
2 104 (31.61%) Social Skills
3 30 (9.12%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (8.21%) Public Sector
5 25 (7.60%) Banking
6 16 (4.86%) Legal
7 13 (3.95%) Manufacturing
8 10 (3.04%) Telecoms
9 9 (2.74%) Marketing
10 8 (2.43%) Pharmaceutical
10 8 (2.43%) Retail
11 7 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (2.13%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (1.52%) Aviation
14 4 (1.22%) Local Government
14 4 (1.22%) Military
15 3 (0.91%) Documentation Skills
15 3 (0.91%) French Language
15 3 (0.91%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.22%) SAP Fiori
2 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.61%) OpenID
2 2 (0.61%) SAML
3 1 (0.30%) ADO
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.30%) WF
3 1 (0.30%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.56%) Onboarding
2 13 (3.95%) Data Centre
3 12 (3.65%) Management Information System
4 8 (2.43%) NHS
5 7 (2.13%) Analytical Mindset
6 6 (1.82%) Virtual Team
7 5 (1.52%) CMDB
7 5 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.22%) Life Science
8 4 (1.22%) LIMS
8 4 (1.22%) PMI
9 3 (0.91%) EPoS
9 3 (0.91%) FMCG
9 3 (0.91%) Legacy Systems
10 2 (0.61%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (0.61%) Enterprise Software
10 2 (0.61%) Fibre Optics
10 2 (0.61%) Product Ownership
10 2 (0.61%) Security Operations Centre
11 1 (0.30%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 17 (5.17%) Windows
2 3 (0.91%) Windows 10
3 2 (0.61%) Linux
3 2 (0.61%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.30%) OpenVMS
4 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.30%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 115 (34.95%) Stakeholder Management
2 96 (29.18%) Project Management
3 65 (19.76%) Agile
4 52 (15.81%) Project Delivery
5 44 (13.37%) ITIL
6 42 (12.77%) Change Management
7 41 (12.46%) PRINCE2
7 41 (12.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 38 (11.55%) Continuous Improvement
9 33 (10.03%) Service Delivery
10 30 (9.12%) Cybersecurity
10 30 (9.12%) Migration
11 29 (8.81%) Problem-Solving
12 27 (8.21%) Service Management
13 25 (7.60%) Risk Management
14 23 (6.99%) Waterfall
15 21 (6.38%) Budget Management
15 21 (6.38%) Decision-Making
16 20 (6.08%) Roadmaps
16 20 (6.08%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (0.91%) Python
1 3 (0.91%) SQL
2 2 (0.61%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.30%) ABAP
3 1 (0.30%) Java
3 1 (0.30%) VB
Qualifications
1 41 (12.46%) Security Cleared
2 38 (11.55%) Degree
3 32 (9.73%) PMI Certification
3 32 (9.73%) PMP
4 27 (8.21%) SC Cleared
5 6 (1.82%) DV Cleared
6 5 (1.52%) PRINCE2 Certification
7 4 (1.22%) Master's Degree
8 3 (0.91%) CISA
8 3 (0.91%) CISSP
8 3 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (0.91%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 3 (0.91%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (0.91%) MBA
9 2 (0.61%) ACSP
9 2 (0.61%) ACTC
9 2 (0.61%) CISM
9 2 (0.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.30%) APMP
10 1 (0.30%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.86%) SLA
2 15 (4.56%) PMO
3 11 (3.34%) GDPR
4 10 (3.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (1.52%) GxP
5 5 (1.52%) NIST
5 5 (1.52%) QA
5 5 (1.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (1.22%) COBIT
7 3 (0.91%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.91%) GMP
7 3 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 19770
7 3 (0.91%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.61%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.61%) MiFID
8 2 (0.61%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.30%) GRC
9 1 (0.30%) HL7
System Software
1 9 (2.74%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 3 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.61%) Jamf Pro
2 2 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.61%) vRealize
3 1 (0.30%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.30%) VxRail
Vendors
1 25 (7.60%) SAP
2 22 (6.69%) Microsoft
3 20 (6.08%) ServiceNow
4 15 (4.56%) Oracle
5 9 (2.74%) Salesforce
6 8 (2.43%) Ariba
7 6 (1.82%) Google
8 4 (1.22%) Cisco
8 4 (1.22%) VMware
8 4 (1.22%) Workday
9 3 (0.91%) Arista
9 3 (0.91%) Snow
10 2 (0.61%) Apple
10 2 (0.61%) Guidewire
10 2 (0.61%) IBM
10 2 (0.61%) IFS
10 2 (0.61%) Northgate
10 2 (0.61%) Remedy
10 2 (0.61%) Siemens
11 1 (0.30%) NEC