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 18 January 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 289 199 200
Rank change year-on-year -90 +1 +7
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 328 418 531
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.88% 1.32% 1.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.97% 1.42% 1.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 207 261 377
10th Percentile £350 £350 £363
25th Percentile £425 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £519 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.16% -5.64% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £625
90th Percentile £689 £700 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 12 5
10th Percentile £40.76 £24.92 £34.20
25th Percentile - £35.00 £45.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £37.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -31.82% -15.38%
75th Percentile £67.50 £67.81 £57.00
90th Percentile £88.57 £69.88 £76.80
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 33,942 29,468 40,286
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.41% 92.82% 93.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,457 18,028 26,771
10th Percentile £300 £296 £279
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,003 894 1,815
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.91 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £18.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £40.69
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -20.13% +19.68%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £64.45
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £75.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +46.55%

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 18 January 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 18 January 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 18 January 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 -83 291 £525 - 234
UK excluding London -97 173 £500 - 232
London -19 124 £550 - 53
Work from Home -48 120 £525 -2.78% 90
Midlands -63 44 £525 -1.18% 50
North of England -71 38 £504 +12.00% 44
South East -42 36 £525 -0.94% 83
West Midlands -57 31 £525 -8.70% 22
South West +7 28 £450 -11.55% 19
Yorkshire -48 19 £488 +8.33% 19
East of England -13 17 £500 -13.04% 20
North West -47 15 £625 +95.31% 19
East Midlands -21 13 £525 +10.53% 28
Scotland -16 7 £538 +24.64% 10
North East -14 4 £450 -10.00% 7
Northern Ireland -3 2 - - 2
Wales +1 1 - - 9

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

For the 6 months to 18 January 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.

1 108 (32.93%) Stakeholder Management
2 104 (31.71%) Project Management
3 63 (19.21%) Agile
4 56 (17.07%) Project Delivery
5 44 (13.41%) Change Management
6 40 (12.20%) PRINCE2
6 40 (12.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 39 (11.89%) ITIL
8 37 (11.28%) Security Cleared
9 36 (10.98%) Degree
10 34 (10.37%) Cybersecurity
11 33 (10.06%) Migration
12 31 (9.45%) PMP
12 31 (9.45%) Risk Management
12 31 (9.45%) Waterfall
13 30 (9.15%) Continuous Improvement
13 30 (9.15%) PMI Certification
13 30 (9.15%) Problem-Solving
14 28 (8.54%) Service Delivery
15 25 (7.62%) SAP
15 25 (7.62%) SC Cleared
16 23 (7.01%) Service Management
17 21 (6.40%) Microsoft
17 21 (6.40%) ServiceNow
18 20 (6.10%) Budget Management
18 20 (6.10%) Decision-Making
18 20 (6.10%) JIRA
19 19 (5.79%) Supplier Management
20 18 (5.49%) ERP
21 17 (5.18%) ITSM

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 (3.35%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.52%) Confluence
3 2 (0.61%) IIS
3 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.30%) Documentum
4 1 (0.30%) Mule
Applications
1 16 (4.88%) Microsoft Excel
1 16 (4.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 15 (4.57%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (3.35%) MS Visio
4 10 (3.05%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.61%) Trello
6 1 (0.30%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 4 (1.22%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.61%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.61%) Oracle ERP
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%) PRMS
3 1 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 14 (4.27%) Azure
1 14 (4.27%) SaaS
2 12 (3.66%) IaaS
3 9 (2.74%) AWS
3 9 (2.74%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (2.44%) GCP
5 5 (1.52%) Entra ID
5 5 (1.52%) Power Platform
6 4 (1.22%) Google Workspace
7 3 (0.91%) OneDrive
7 3 (0.91%) SuccessFactors
8 2 (0.61%) Azure API Management
8 2 (0.61%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (0.61%) Google Drive
8 2 (0.61%) Rubrik
9 1 (0.30%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.30%) Slack
9 1 (0.30%) Smartsheet
9 1 (0.30%) Veeva
9 1 (0.30%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.13%) LAN
2 6 (1.83%) Structured Cabling
2 6 (1.83%) WAN
3 4 (1.22%) Wi-Fi
4 3 (0.91%) Firewall
4 3 (0.91%) Network Security
5 2 (0.61%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.30%) Intranet
6 1 (0.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.22%) Electronic Patient Records
1 4 (1.22%) Power BI
2 3 (0.91%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.61%) Oracle Reports
3 2 (0.61%) Tableau
4 1 (0.30%) EDRMS
4 1 (0.30%) Metadata
4 1 (0.30%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 20 (6.10%) JIRA
2 2 (0.61%) LSMW
3 1 (0.30%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 112 (34.15%) Finance
2 98 (29.88%) Social Skills
3 29 (8.84%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (8.23%) Banking
5 19 (5.79%) Public Sector
6 18 (5.49%) Manufacturing
7 17 (5.18%) Legal
8 10 (3.05%) Pharmaceutical
8 10 (3.05%) Telecoms
9 7 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (2.13%) Marketing
9 7 (2.13%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.83%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (1.83%) Retail
11 5 (1.52%) Aviation
12 4 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (1.22%) Financial Institution
12 4 (1.22%) Japanese Language
12 4 (1.22%) Local Government
13 3 (0.91%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.91%) SAP Fiori
2 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.61%) OpenID
2 2 (0.61%) SAML
2 2 (0.61%) WF
3 1 (0.30%) ADO
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.30%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.88%) Onboarding
2 13 (3.96%) Management Information System
3 11 (3.35%) Data Centre
4 8 (2.44%) NHS
5 7 (2.13%) Analytical Mindset
5 7 (2.13%) Virtual Team
6 5 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (1.52%) FMCG
6 5 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.52%) Life Science
7 4 (1.22%) CMDB
7 4 (1.22%) LIMS
8 3 (0.91%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (0.91%) EPoS
8 3 (0.91%) PMI
9 2 (0.61%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (0.61%) Operational Technology
9 2 (0.61%) Product Ownership
9 2 (0.61%) Security Operations Centre
10 1 (0.30%) Manufacturing Execution System
Operating Systems
1 16 (4.88%) Windows
2 3 (0.91%) Linux
2 3 (0.91%) Windows 10
3 2 (0.61%) Mac OS
3 2 (0.61%) OpenVMS
3 2 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.30%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (32.93%) Stakeholder Management
2 104 (31.71%) Project Management
3 63 (19.21%) Agile
4 56 (17.07%) Project Delivery
5 44 (13.41%) Change Management
6 40 (12.20%) PRINCE2
6 40 (12.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 39 (11.89%) ITIL
8 34 (10.37%) Cybersecurity
9 33 (10.06%) Migration
10 31 (9.45%) Risk Management
10 31 (9.45%) Waterfall
11 30 (9.15%) Continuous Improvement
11 30 (9.15%) Problem-Solving
12 28 (8.54%) Service Delivery
13 23 (7.01%) Service Management
14 20 (6.10%) Budget Management
14 20 (6.10%) Decision-Making
15 19 (5.79%) Supplier Management
16 18 (5.49%) ERP
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 37 (11.28%) Security Cleared
2 36 (10.98%) Degree
3 31 (9.45%) PMP
4 30 (9.15%) PMI Certification
5 25 (7.62%) SC Cleared
6 6 (1.83%) DV Cleared
6 6 (1.83%) PRINCE2 Certification
7 3 (0.91%) CISA
7 3 (0.91%) CISSP
7 3 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (0.91%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
7 3 (0.91%) ITIL Certification
7 3 (0.91%) Master's Degree
7 3 (0.91%) MBA
8 2 (0.61%) ACSP
8 2 (0.61%) ACTC
8 2 (0.61%) CISM
8 2 (0.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 1 (0.30%) APMP
9 1 (0.30%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.88%) PMO
2 15 (4.57%) SLA
3 12 (3.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (3.35%) GDPR
5 6 (1.83%) QA
6 5 (1.52%) GxP
6 5 (1.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (1.22%) NIST
8 3 (0.91%) Data Quality
8 3 (0.91%) GMP
8 3 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 19770
8 3 (0.91%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.61%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.61%) COBIT
9 2 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.61%) MiFID
9 2 (0.61%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.30%) GRC
10 1 (0.30%) NIST 800
System Software
1 10 (3.05%) 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%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.61%) vRealize
3 1 (0.30%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.30%) VxRail
Vendors
1 25 (7.62%) SAP
2 21 (6.40%) Microsoft
2 21 (6.40%) ServiceNow
3 15 (4.57%) Oracle
4 8 (2.44%) Ariba
5 7 (2.13%) Google
6 6 (1.83%) Salesforce
7 4 (1.22%) Cisco
7 4 (1.22%) VMware
7 4 (1.22%) Workday
8 3 (0.91%) Arista
8 3 (0.91%) Snow
9 2 (0.61%) Apple
9 2 (0.61%) Guidewire
9 2 (0.61%) IBM
9 2 (0.61%) IFS
9 2 (0.61%) Northgate
9 2 (0.61%) Red Hat
9 2 (0.61%) Remedy
9 2 (0.61%) Siemens