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 5 December 2025.

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

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 266 187 192
Rank change year-on-year -79 +5 +14
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 359 507 586
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.98% 1.40% 1.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.08% 1.51% 1.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 314 429
10th Percentile £325 £341 £362
25th Percentile £425 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £545
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -4.59% +3.81%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £638
90th Percentile £691 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 11 7
10th Percentile - £23.50 £37.50
25th Percentile £60.00 - £50.00
Median hourly rate £65.75 £35.00 £57.00
Median % change year-on-year +87.86% -38.60% -12.71%
75th Percentile £73.63 £55.63 £68.65
90th Percentile £88.14 £68.75 £77.21
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -3.85% +18.18% -15.58%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 33,199 33,522 42,042
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.96% 92.79% 93.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,096 20,434 28,329
10th Percentile £285 £300 £294
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £645
90th Percentile £723 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,922 1,156 1,511
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.42 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.97 £20.75 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.45% +39.68%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.20 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £73.66 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025. 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 -71 314 £525 - 297
UK excluding London -99 192 £500 - 270
London -1 133 £575 +4.55% 66
Work from Home -52 123 £525 -3.23% 105
North of England -67 45 £504 +12.00% 73
South East -31 41 £525 -2.78% 86
Midlands -67 39 £525 - 73
South West -16 32 £450 -11.55% 22
West Midlands -63 26 £515 -4.19% 42
Yorkshire -35 21 £500 - 26
North West -42 21 £525 +64.06% 38
East of England -14 18 £475 -20.83% 13
Scotland -17 13 £438 -1.13% 3
East Midlands -17 13 £525 +5.00% 31
North East -7 3 £370 -26.00% 11
Northern Ireland -4 2 - - 1
Wales -6 2 £488 +21.88% 1

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

For the 6 months to 5 December 2025, 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.

1 126 (35.10%) Stakeholder Management
2 113 (31.48%) Project Management
3 84 (23.40%) Agile
4 67 (18.66%) Project Delivery
5 57 (15.88%) PRINCE2
6 51 (14.21%) Degree
6 51 (14.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 49 (13.65%) Change Management
8 48 (13.37%) ITIL
9 41 (11.42%) Security Cleared
10 39 (10.86%) Cybersecurity
11 37 (10.31%) Migration
12 36 (10.03%) PMP
12 36 (10.03%) Problem-Solving
13 34 (9.47%) PMI Certification
13 34 (9.47%) Waterfall
14 33 (9.19%) Risk Management
14 33 (9.19%) SC Cleared
15 30 (8.36%) Microsoft
16 29 (8.08%) JIRA
16 29 (8.08%) Service Management
17 28 (7.80%) Continuous Improvement
17 28 (7.80%) Service Delivery
18 26 (7.24%) ServiceNow
19 24 (6.69%) Budget Management
19 24 (6.69%) PMO
20 23 (6.41%) SAP
21 21 (5.85%) ERP
21 21 (5.85%) ITSM
22 20 (5.57%) Decision-Making

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 11 (3.06%) Confluence
2 9 (2.51%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.56%) IIS
4 1 (0.28%) Documentum
4 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.28%) Mule
4 1 (0.28%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 19 (5.29%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (5.01%) Microsoft Project
3 17 (4.74%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (4.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (2.79%) MS Visio
5 4 (1.11%) Trello
6 1 (0.28%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.84%) Dynamics CRM
1 3 (0.84%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.56%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.56%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.56%) SAP MM
2 2 (0.56%) Teamcenter
2 2 (0.56%) TrackWise
3 1 (0.28%) Loan IQ
3 1 (0.28%) Maximo
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.28%) PRMS
3 1 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.28%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.28%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.28%) SAP PLM
3 1 (0.28%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 15 (4.18%) SaaS
2 14 (3.90%) Azure
3 13 (3.62%) IaaS
4 10 (2.79%) Microsoft 365
5 9 (2.51%) AWS
6 6 (1.67%) Asana
7 5 (1.39%) GCP
7 5 (1.39%) Power Platform
7 5 (1.39%) Smartsheet
8 3 (0.84%) Entra ID
8 3 (0.84%) SuccessFactors
9 2 (0.56%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (0.56%) Dynamics 365
9 2 (0.56%) GitHub
9 2 (0.56%) Rubrik
10 1 (0.28%) Google Docs
10 1 (0.28%) Google Sheets
10 1 (0.28%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Purview
10 1 (0.28%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.95%) LAN
1 7 (1.95%) Wi-Fi
2 6 (1.67%) WAN
3 5 (1.39%) Structured Cabling
4 4 (1.11%) Firewall
4 4 (1.11%) Network Security
5 2 (0.56%) DHCP
5 2 (0.56%) DNS
5 2 (0.56%) SD-WAN
5 2 (0.56%) Wireless
6 1 (0.28%) Intranet
6 1 (0.28%) Remote Desktop
6 1 (0.28%) Skype
6 1 (0.28%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.39%) Power BI
2 4 (1.11%) Electronic Patient Records
3 3 (0.84%) Oracle Reports
3 3 (0.84%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.56%) Tableau
5 1 (0.28%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.28%) QlikView
5 1 (0.28%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 29 (8.08%) JIRA
2 2 (0.56%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.28%) GitLab
3 1 (0.28%) LSMW
3 1 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 130 (36.21%) Finance
2 115 (32.03%) Social Skills
3 36 (10.03%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (7.80%) Banking
5 25 (6.96%) Public Sector
6 22 (6.13%) Legal
7 21 (5.85%) Manufacturing
8 14 (3.90%) Telecoms
9 11 (3.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 10 (2.79%) Pharmaceutical
11 9 (2.51%) Influencing Skills
11 9 (2.51%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (2.23%) Retail
13 6 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
13 6 (1.67%) Military
14 5 (1.39%) Aviation
14 5 (1.39%) Marketing
15 4 (1.11%) Japanese Language
15 4 (1.11%) Local Government
15 4 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (0.56%) SAP Fiori
1 2 (0.56%) WF
2 1 (0.28%) ADO
2 1 (0.28%) Oracle Fusion
2 1 (0.28%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 19 (5.29%) Onboarding
2 12 (3.34%) Management Information System
3 10 (2.79%) Data Centre
4 9 (2.51%) Analytical Mindset
5 8 (2.23%) CMDB
5 8 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
5 8 (2.23%) Life Science
6 7 (1.95%) NHS
6 7 (1.95%) Virtual Team
7 5 (1.39%) LIMS
8 4 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (0.84%) Credit Risk
9 3 (0.84%) Distributed Systems
9 3 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (0.84%) EPoS
9 3 (0.84%) Market Risk
9 3 (0.84%) Operational Technology
9 3 (0.84%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.56%) Renewable Energy
10 2 (0.56%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 18 (5.01%) Windows
2 4 (1.11%) Windows 10
3 3 (0.84%) Linux
4 2 (0.56%) Mac OS
4 2 (0.56%) OpenVMS
4 2 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.28%) Unix
5 1 (0.28%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (35.10%) Stakeholder Management
2 113 (31.48%) Project Management
3 84 (23.40%) Agile
4 67 (18.66%) Project Delivery
5 57 (15.88%) PRINCE2
6 51 (14.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 49 (13.65%) Change Management
8 48 (13.37%) ITIL
9 39 (10.86%) Cybersecurity
10 37 (10.31%) Migration
11 36 (10.03%) Problem-Solving
12 34 (9.47%) Waterfall
13 33 (9.19%) Risk Management
14 29 (8.08%) Service Management
15 28 (7.80%) Continuous Improvement
15 28 (7.80%) Service Delivery
16 24 (6.69%) Budget Management
17 21 (5.85%) ERP
17 21 (5.85%) ITSM
18 20 (5.57%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 3 (0.84%) SQL
2 1 (0.28%) Java
2 1 (0.28%) Python
2 1 (0.28%) VB
Qualifications
1 51 (14.21%) Degree
2 41 (11.42%) Security Cleared
3 36 (10.03%) PMP
4 34 (9.47%) PMI Certification
5 33 (9.19%) SC Cleared
6 7 (1.95%) PRINCE2 Certification
7 6 (1.67%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (1.11%) DV Cleared
8 4 (1.11%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 3 (0.84%) CISSP
9 3 (0.84%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 2 (0.56%) ACSP
10 2 (0.56%) ACTC
10 2 (0.56%) CISA
10 2 (0.56%) CISM
10 2 (0.56%) CRISC
10 2 (0.56%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.56%) MBA
11 1 (0.28%) CPIM
11 1 (0.28%) PgMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.69%) PMO
2 18 (5.01%) SLA
3 10 (2.79%) GDPR
4 9 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (1.67%) QA
6 5 (1.39%) NIST
7 4 (1.11%) GxP
8 3 (0.84%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 19770
8 3 (0.84%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.56%) COBIT
9 2 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.56%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.56%) MiFID
10 1 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.28%) ITGC
10 1 (0.28%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.28%) PSD2
System Software
1 13 (3.62%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.28%) Docker
2 1 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 3 (0.84%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
2 2 (0.56%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.28%) Ansible
3 1 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
3 1 (0.28%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.28%) Terraform
Vendors
1 30 (8.36%) Microsoft
2 26 (7.24%) ServiceNow
3 23 (6.41%) SAP
4 12 (3.34%) Oracle
5 11 (3.06%) Ariba
6 5 (1.39%) Cisco
7 4 (1.11%) Google
7 4 (1.11%) Workday
8 3 (0.84%) Arista
8 3 (0.84%) Infoblox
8 3 (0.84%) Snow
9 2 (0.56%) Apple
9 2 (0.56%) Guidewire
9 2 (0.56%) IBM
9 2 (0.56%) IFS
9 2 (0.56%) Red Hat
9 2 (0.56%) Remedy
9 2 (0.56%) Salesforce
9 2 (0.56%) Siemens
9 2 (0.56%) Wrike