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 22 March 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 289 214 208
Rank change year-on-year -75 -6 -21
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 376 361 502
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.86% 1.22% 1.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.93% 1.32% 1.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 236 363
10th Percentile £363 £365 £363
25th Percentile £425 £444 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - +0.96%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £613
90th Percentile £700 £681 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £514
% change year-on-year - -2.72% +2.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 15 8
10th Percentile £29.38 £28.28 -
25th Percentile £35.00 £35.45 £23.63
Median hourly rate £48.50 £62.00 £30.28
Median % change year-on-year -21.77% +104.79% -52.51%
75th Percentile £73.44 £70.00 £40.41
90th Percentile £96.13 £76.50 £57.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £70.00 £25.28
% change year-on-year -14.29% +176.95% -61.12%

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 40,370 27,451 41,125
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.94% 92.96% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,228 17,896 26,949
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.46%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,504 902 2,504
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.22 £12.88
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.01 £16.25
Median hourly rate £36.00 £32.91 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.41% +1.25% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £76.25 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +10.77% - -19.93%

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 22 March 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 22 March 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 22 March 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 -90 328 £525 - 286
UK excluding London -69 207 £500 - 253
London -37 136 £579 +5.27% 75
Work from Home -42 133 £525 - 122
South East -52 59 £475 -9.52% 66
North of England -76 48 £525 +7.69% 69
Midlands -56 41 £525 +9.38% 47
West Midlands -61 33 £550 +14.58% 23
South West -23 25 £463 -11.90% 31
North West -27 25 £563 +7.14% 43
Yorkshire -58 18 £488 +8.33% 23
East of England -27 14 £456 -29.81% 23
Scotland -8 13 £550 +22.91% 7
East Midlands -37 8 £473 -1.82% 24
North East -12 5 £450 -10.00% 3
Wales -2 4 £444 +10.94% 12
Northern Ireland -1 3 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 22 March 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.

1 127 (33.78%) Stakeholder Management
2 99 (26.33%) Project Management
3 76 (20.21%) Agile
4 66 (17.55%) Project Delivery
5 62 (16.49%) Security Cleared
6 60 (15.96%) ITIL
7 54 (14.36%) Continuous Improvement
8 42 (11.17%) SC Cleared
9 41 (10.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 40 (10.64%) Service Management
11 39 (10.37%) Change Management
12 38 (10.11%) Service Delivery
13 37 (9.84%) PRINCE2
14 36 (9.57%) Problem-Solving
15 35 (9.31%) ITSM
15 35 (9.31%) Roadmaps
16 32 (8.51%) Degree
17 30 (7.98%) ServiceNow
18 27 (7.18%) Migration
19 26 (6.91%) Cybersecurity
19 26 (6.91%) PMP
19 26 (6.91%) SAP
20 25 (6.65%) Waterfall
21 24 (6.38%) PMI Certification
21 24 (6.38%) PMO
22 23 (6.12%) JIRA
22 23 (6.12%) Risk Management
23 22 (5.85%) Decision-Making
23 22 (5.85%) ERP
23 22 (5.85%) Supplier Management

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 14 (3.72%) SharePoint
2 12 (3.19%) Confluence
3 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.27%) Documentum
Applications
1 11 (2.93%) Microsoft Project
2 8 (2.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (1.86%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (1.60%) MS Visio
5 4 (1.06%) Microsoft Office
6 2 (0.53%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.27%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 6 (1.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.80%) NEC Housing
2 3 (0.80%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.53%) SAP MDG
3 2 (0.53%) SAP MM
3 2 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.53%) TrackWise
4 1 (0.27%) Maximo
4 1 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.27%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.27%) Primavera
4 1 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.27%) SAP Retail
4 1 (0.27%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 19 (5.05%) Azure
2 18 (4.79%) SaaS
3 13 (3.46%) IaaS
4 10 (2.66%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (2.13%) AWS
5 8 (2.13%) GCP
6 7 (1.86%) Entra ID
7 6 (1.60%) Google Workspace
8 5 (1.33%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.80%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (0.80%) OneDrive
11 2 (0.53%) Azure API Management
11 2 (0.53%) Google Drive
11 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Copilot
11 2 (0.53%) Rubrik
11 2 (0.53%) Slack
11 2 (0.53%) WhatsApp
12 1 (0.27%) GitHub
12 1 (0.27%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.33%) LAN
1 5 (1.33%) Network Security
1 5 (1.33%) WAN
2 4 (1.06%) Structured Cabling
3 3 (0.80%) Firewall
4 2 (0.53%) DNS
4 2 (0.53%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.27%) BT 21CN
5 1 (0.27%) NaaS
5 1 (0.27%) RFID
5 1 (0.27%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.27%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.06%) Power BI
2 3 (0.80%) Electronic Patient Records
2 3 (0.80%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.53%) EDRMS
3 2 (0.53%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.27%) BusinessObjects
4 1 (0.27%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.27%) Metadata
4 1 (0.27%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 23 (6.12%) JIRA
2 2 (0.53%) LSMW
General
1 119 (31.65%) Finance
2 111 (29.52%) Social Skills
3 36 (9.57%) Public Sector
4 32 (8.51%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (6.12%) Banking
6 15 (3.99%) Manufacturing
6 15 (3.99%) Telecoms
7 13 (3.46%) Retail
8 12 (3.19%) Legal
9 10 (2.66%) Aerospace
10 8 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (2.13%) Marketing
10 8 (2.13%) Organisational Skills
10 8 (2.13%) Pharmaceutical
11 5 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (1.33%) Law
12 4 (1.06%) Aviation
12 4 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.80%) French Language
14 2 (0.53%) Documentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.06%) SAP Fiori
2 2 (0.53%) ADO
2 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.53%) OpenID
2 2 (0.53%) SAML
3 1 (0.27%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.27%) SailPoint
3 1 (0.27%) Spring Boot
3 1 (0.27%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.12%) Data Centre
2 20 (5.32%) Onboarding
3 16 (4.26%) Management Information System
4 10 (2.66%) FMCG
5 9 (2.39%) NHS
6 6 (1.60%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (1.60%) Virtual Team
7 5 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (0.80%) CMDB
8 3 (0.80%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (0.80%) Life Science
8 3 (0.80%) LIMS
8 3 (0.80%) PMI
9 2 (0.53%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (0.53%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (0.53%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (0.53%) Mainframe
9 2 (0.53%) Manufacturing Execution System
9 2 (0.53%) Product Ownership
9 2 (0.53%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 14 (3.72%) Windows
2 2 (0.53%) Linux
3 1 (0.27%) Mac OS
3 1 (0.27%) OpenVMS
3 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.27%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.27%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (33.78%) Stakeholder Management
2 99 (26.33%) Project Management
3 76 (20.21%) Agile
4 66 (17.55%) Project Delivery
5 60 (15.96%) ITIL
6 54 (14.36%) Continuous Improvement
7 41 (10.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 40 (10.64%) Service Management
9 39 (10.37%) Change Management
10 38 (10.11%) Service Delivery
11 37 (9.84%) PRINCE2
12 36 (9.57%) Problem-Solving
13 35 (9.31%) ITSM
13 35 (9.31%) Roadmaps
14 27 (7.18%) Migration
15 26 (6.91%) Cybersecurity
16 25 (6.65%) Waterfall
17 23 (6.12%) Risk Management
18 22 (5.85%) ERP
18 22 (5.85%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 4 (1.06%) SQL
2 2 (0.53%) PowerShell
2 2 (0.53%) Python
3 1 (0.27%) ABAP
3 1 (0.27%) VB
Qualifications
1 62 (16.49%) Security Cleared
2 42 (11.17%) SC Cleared
3 32 (8.51%) Degree
4 26 (6.91%) PMP
5 24 (6.38%) PMI Certification
6 9 (2.39%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (1.60%) DV Cleared
8 4 (1.06%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 4 (1.06%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.80%) CISA
9 3 (0.80%) CISM
9 3 (0.80%) CISSP
9 3 (0.80%) MBA
9 3 (0.80%) PRINCE2 Certification
9 3 (0.80%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 2 (0.53%) APMG
10 2 (0.53%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.53%) CRISC
10 2 (0.53%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.27%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.38%) PMO
2 11 (2.93%) GDPR
3 10 (2.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (2.13%) SLA
5 6 (1.60%) NIST
5 6 (1.60%) QA
6 5 (1.33%) COBIT
7 4 (1.06%) Data Quality
7 4 (1.06%) GRC
7 4 (1.06%) GxP
7 4 (1.06%) PCI DSS
7 4 (1.06%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (1.06%) SOC 2
8 3 (0.80%) GMP
9 2 (0.53%) MiFID
10 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.27%) HL7
10 1 (0.27%) IASME
10 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 6 (1.60%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.53%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.27%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 5 (1.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.53%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.53%) vRealize
3 1 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.27%) VxRail
Vendors
1 30 (7.98%) ServiceNow
2 26 (6.91%) SAP
3 19 (5.05%) Microsoft
4 12 (3.19%) Oracle
5 9 (2.39%) Ariba
6 8 (2.13%) Salesforce
7 7 (1.86%) Google
8 5 (1.33%) Cisco
9 4 (1.06%) VMware
10 3 (0.80%) Arista
11 2 (0.53%) Guidewire
11 2 (0.53%) HP
11 2 (0.53%) Northgate
11 2 (0.53%) Remedy
11 2 (0.53%) Workday
12 1 (0.27%) BMC
12 1 (0.27%) Citrix
12 1 (0.27%) Dell
12 1 (0.27%) JD Edwards
12 1 (0.27%) Red Hat