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 9 January 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 290 195 197
Rank change year-on-year -95 +2 +5
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 315 428 515
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.86% 1.34% 1.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.94% 1.45% 1.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 266 365
10th Percentile £350 £350 £363
25th Percentile £425 £428 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £505 £540
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -6.48% +2.86%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £625
90th Percentile £691 £700 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 11 5
10th Percentile - £23.80 £34.20
25th Percentile - - £45.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £35.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.43% -36.36% -15.38%
75th Percentile £70.00 £55.63 £57.00
90th Percentile £92.28 £68.75 £76.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £66.25 £45.00
% change year-on-year -9.43% +47.22% -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 33,508 29,606 39,607
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 92.68% 93.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,195 18,121 26,431
10th Percentile £300 £291 £281
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £500
% change year-on-year -0.89% -4.15% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,969 900 1,622
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.52 £14.18
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.05 £19.06
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -26.97% +34.85%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.46 £73.75 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.50 £45.11
% change year-on-year -20.16% -30.16% +67.04%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -95 275 £525 - 225
UK excluding London -114 159 £500 - 217
London -15 123 £565 +2.73% 51
Work from Home -63 115 £525 -3.89% 81
Midlands -67 38 £525 -1.18% 52
North of England -70 37 £502 +11.56% 44
South East -44 31 £525 -2.33% 70
South West -5 25 £450 -11.55% 19
West Midlands -59 25 £525 -8.70% 25
Yorkshire -44 19 £488 +8.33% 20
East of England -20 17 £500 -16.67% 16
North West -52 15 £575 +79.69% 20
East Midlands -23 13 £525 +50.00% 27
Scotland -27 8 £425 -5.56% 7
North East -13 3 £370 -26.00% 6
Northern Ireland -5 2 - - 1
Wales 0 1 - - 9

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

For the 6 months to 9 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.

1 104 (33.02%) Project Management
1 104 (33.02%) Stakeholder Management
2 62 (19.68%) Agile
3 56 (17.78%) Project Delivery
4 44 (13.97%) PRINCE2
5 43 (13.65%) Change Management
6 39 (12.38%) ITIL
7 38 (12.06%) Degree
7 38 (12.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 34 (10.79%) Cybersecurity
9 33 (10.48%) Migration
10 32 (10.16%) PMP
11 31 (9.84%) PMI Certification
11 31 (9.84%) Waterfall
12 30 (9.52%) Security Cleared
13 29 (9.21%) Risk Management
14 28 (8.89%) Continuous Improvement
14 28 (8.89%) Problem-Solving
15 26 (8.25%) SAP
16 25 (7.94%) Service Delivery
17 23 (7.30%) Microsoft
17 23 (7.30%) SC Cleared
17 23 (7.30%) ServiceNow
18 22 (6.98%) JIRA
19 21 (6.67%) Service Management
20 20 (6.35%) Budget Management
21 19 (6.03%) Decision-Making
22 17 (5.40%) ERP
22 17 (5.40%) ITSM
22 17 (5.40%) Microsoft Excel

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 (3.49%) SharePoint
2 7 (2.22%) Confluence
3 2 (0.63%) IIS
3 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.32%) Documentum
4 1 (0.32%) Mule
Applications
1 17 (5.40%) Microsoft Excel
1 17 (5.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 16 (5.08%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (3.81%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (3.49%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.63%) Trello
6 1 (0.32%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 4 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.63%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.63%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.63%) SAP MDG
2 2 (0.63%) SAP MM
2 2 (0.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.63%) Teamcenter
2 2 (0.63%) TrackWise
3 1 (0.32%) Loan IQ
3 1 (0.32%) Maximo
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.32%) PRMS
3 1 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.32%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 14 (4.44%) Azure
1 14 (4.44%) SaaS
2 12 (3.81%) IaaS
3 9 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (2.22%) GCP
5 6 (1.90%) AWS
6 5 (1.59%) Entra ID
6 5 (1.59%) Power Platform
7 4 (1.27%) Google Workspace
8 3 (0.95%) OneDrive
8 3 (0.95%) SuccessFactors
9 2 (0.63%) Azure API Management
9 2 (0.63%) Dynamics 365
9 2 (0.63%) Google Drive
9 2 (0.63%) Rubrik
9 2 (0.63%) Smartsheet
10 1 (0.32%) Azure DevOps
10 1 (0.32%) Slack
10 1 (0.32%) Veeva
10 1 (0.32%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.22%) LAN
2 6 (1.90%) WAN
3 5 (1.59%) Structured Cabling
4 3 (0.95%) Firewall
4 3 (0.95%) Network Security
4 3 (0.95%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (0.63%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.32%) Intranet
6 1 (0.32%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.27%) Electronic Patient Records
1 4 (1.27%) Power BI
2 3 (0.95%) Oracle Reports
2 3 (0.95%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.63%) Tableau
4 1 (0.32%) EDRMS
4 1 (0.32%) Metadata
4 1 (0.32%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.32%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 22 (6.98%) JIRA
2 2 (0.63%) LSMW
3 1 (0.32%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 113 (35.87%) Finance
2 94 (29.84%) Social Skills
3 27 (8.57%) Banking
4 25 (7.94%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (6.35%) Manufacturing
6 18 (5.71%) Public Sector
7 17 (5.40%) Legal
8 12 (3.81%) Pharmaceutical
9 11 (3.49%) Telecoms
10 8 (2.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (2.22%) Retail
12 6 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.90%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.59%) Aviation
13 5 (1.59%) Marketing
14 4 (1.27%) Documentation Skills
14 4 (1.27%) Financial Institution
14 4 (1.27%) Japanese Language
14 4 (1.27%) Military
15 3 (0.95%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.95%) SAP Fiori
2 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.63%) OpenID
2 2 (0.63%) SAML
2 2 (0.63%) WF
3 1 (0.32%) ADO
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.32%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.76%) Onboarding
2 12 (3.81%) Data Centre
2 12 (3.81%) Management Information System
3 8 (2.54%) NHS
4 7 (2.22%) Life Science
4 7 (2.22%) Virtual Team
5 6 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (1.59%) CMDB
6 5 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (1.59%) FMCG
7 4 (1.27%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (1.27%) LIMS
8 3 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (0.95%) EPoS
8 3 (0.95%) Operational Technology
8 3 (0.95%) PMI
9 2 (0.63%) Product Ownership
9 2 (0.63%) Replication
9 2 (0.63%) Security Operations Centre
10 1 (0.32%) Manufacturing Execution System
Operating Systems
1 15 (4.76%) Windows
2 3 (0.95%) Linux
2 3 (0.95%) Windows 10
3 2 (0.63%) Mac OS
3 2 (0.63%) OpenVMS
3 2 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.32%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (33.02%) Project Management
1 104 (33.02%) Stakeholder Management
2 62 (19.68%) Agile
3 56 (17.78%) Project Delivery
4 44 (13.97%) PRINCE2
5 43 (13.65%) Change Management
6 39 (12.38%) ITIL
7 38 (12.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 34 (10.79%) Cybersecurity
9 33 (10.48%) Migration
10 31 (9.84%) Waterfall
11 29 (9.21%) Risk Management
12 28 (8.89%) Continuous Improvement
12 28 (8.89%) Problem-Solving
13 25 (7.94%) Service Delivery
14 21 (6.67%) Service Management
15 20 (6.35%) Budget Management
16 19 (6.03%) Decision-Making
17 17 (5.40%) ERP
17 17 (5.40%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 3 (0.95%) Python
1 3 (0.95%) SQL
2 2 (0.63%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.32%) ABAP
3 1 (0.32%) Java
3 1 (0.32%) VB
Qualifications
1 38 (12.06%) Degree
2 32 (10.16%) PMP
3 31 (9.84%) PMI Certification
4 30 (9.52%) Security Cleared
5 23 (7.30%) SC Cleared
6 7 (2.22%) PRINCE2 Certification
7 4 (1.27%) DV Cleared
8 3 (0.95%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (0.95%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 3 (0.95%) Master's Degree
8 3 (0.95%) MBA
9 2 (0.63%) ACSP
9 2 (0.63%) ACTC
9 2 (0.63%) CISA
9 2 (0.63%) CISSP
9 2 (0.63%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.32%) APMG
10 1 (0.32%) APMP
10 1 (0.32%) CRISC
10 1 (0.32%) PgMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (5.08%) PMO
2 14 (4.44%) SLA
3 9 (2.86%) GDPR
3 9 (2.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (1.90%) GxP
4 6 (1.90%) QA
5 4 (1.27%) GMP
5 4 (1.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 3 (0.95%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 19770
7 2 (0.63%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.63%) MiFID
7 2 (0.63%) NIST
7 2 (0.63%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.63%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.32%) COBIT
8 1 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.32%) GRC
8 1 (0.32%) NIST 800
System Software
1 11 (3.49%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 3 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.63%) Jamf Pro
2 2 (0.63%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.32%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 26 (8.25%) SAP
2 23 (7.30%) Microsoft
2 23 (7.30%) ServiceNow
3 15 (4.76%) Oracle
4 10 (3.17%) Ariba
5 7 (2.22%) Google
6 4 (1.27%) Cisco
7 3 (0.95%) Arista
7 3 (0.95%) Salesforce
7 3 (0.95%) Snow
7 3 (0.95%) Workday
8 2 (0.63%) Apple
8 2 (0.63%) Guidewire
8 2 (0.63%) IBM
8 2 (0.63%) IFS
8 2 (0.63%) Northgate
8 2 (0.63%) Red Hat
8 2 (0.63%) Remedy
8 2 (0.63%) Siemens
9 1 (0.32%) JD Edwards