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 13 July 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 249 237 194
Rank change year-on-year -12 -43 -11
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 523 369 525
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.13% 1.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.07% 1.23% 1.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 324 243 358
10th Percentile £406 £350 £363
25th Percentile £458 £425 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £628 £600 £625
90th Percentile £725 £675 £677
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 10 14
10th Percentile £28.75 £58.49 £21.19
25th Percentile £35.00 £61.69 £22.78
Median hourly rate £72.78 £70.50 £27.70
Median % change year-on-year +3.23% +154.54% -56.07%
75th Percentile £85.00 £76.88 £43.22
90th Percentile £94.38 £78.88 £58.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.78 £73.00 £25.28
% change year-on-year -0.31% +188.82% -51.21%

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 48,729 30,023 39,779
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.87% 93.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,502 19,148 25,568
10th Percentile £325 £287 £288
25th Percentile £419 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,285 1,392 2,719
10th Percentile £15.90 £13.75 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.41 £17.00
Median hourly rate £43.69 £26.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +64.87% -33.75% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £56.25 £63.20
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% +6.67%

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 13 July 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 13 July 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 13 July 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 -38 440 £525 - 262
UK excluding London -22 300 £513 +2.50% 242
London -30 178 £600 +9.09% 62
Work from Home -9 169 £525 +1.74% 128
South East -17 99 £476 -12.61% 83
North of England -77 62 £533 +10.65% 69
Midlands -40 47 £575 +19.48% 38
South West -16 36 £550 +5.77% 16
West Midlands -63 36 £575 +21.05% 18
North West -52 33 £550 +46.67% 32
Scotland +3 32 £520 +18.86% 7
East of England -18 16 £500 -3.66% 15
Yorkshire -65 15 £425 -19.05% 34
North East -24 14 £775 +67.57% 3
East Midlands -7 11 £525 -15.15% 20
Wales -7 8 £375 -23.08% 9
Northern Ireland +2 2 £775 +82.35% 8

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

For the 6 months to 13 July 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.

1 187 (35.76%) Stakeholder Management
2 106 (20.27%) ITIL
3 104 (19.89%) Project Management
4 99 (18.93%) Agile
5 87 (16.63%) Continuous Improvement
6 79 (15.11%) Project Delivery
7 76 (14.53%) Service Management
8 73 (13.96%) Security Cleared
9 71 (13.58%) ITSM
10 68 (13.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 56 (10.71%) Problem-Solving
11 56 (10.71%) Service Delivery
12 54 (10.33%) Azure
12 54 (10.33%) Degree
12 54 (10.33%) Microsoft
13 51 (9.75%) Decision-Making
14 49 (9.37%) Change Management
15 48 (9.18%) SC Cleared
16 47 (8.99%) PRINCE2
16 47 (8.99%) ServiceNow
17 43 (8.22%) Risk Management
18 41 (7.84%) Roadmaps
19 39 (7.46%) Migration
20 37 (7.07%) Budget Management
21 36 (6.88%) JIRA
22 35 (6.69%) Microsoft 365
23 34 (6.50%) Cybersecurity
24 32 (6.12%) PMP
24 32 (6.12%) Supplier Management
25 31 (5.93%) Project Governance

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 24 (4.59%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.34%) Confluence
3 5 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 19 (3.63%) Microsoft Project
2 16 (3.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (2.10%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.57%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.38%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.15%) NetSuite
2 3 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.57%) Endur
2 3 (0.57%) Maximo
3 2 (0.38%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.38%) Primavera
4 1 (0.19%) assyst
4 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.19%) SAP Retail
4 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.19%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 54 (10.33%) Azure
2 35 (6.69%) Microsoft 365
3 19 (3.63%) SaaS
4 18 (3.44%) AWS
5 12 (2.29%) Azure DevOps
5 12 (2.29%) Power Platform
6 11 (2.10%) Entra ID
7 7 (1.34%) Dynamics 365
8 4 (0.76%) GCP
8 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Copilot
9 2 (0.38%) Google Workspace
9 2 (0.38%) OneDrive
9 2 (0.38%) Smartsheet
9 2 (0.38%) WhatsApp
10 1 (0.19%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.19%) ClickUp
10 1 (0.19%) Nutanix
10 1 (0.19%) Rubrik
10 1 (0.19%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
10 1 (0.19%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.72%) WAN
2 8 (1.53%) Network Security
3 7 (1.34%) Firewall
3 7 (1.34%) LAN
4 5 (0.96%) DNS
5 3 (0.57%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.19%) Broadband
7 1 (0.19%) BT 21CN
7 1 (0.19%) DHCP
7 1 (0.19%) Internet
7 1 (0.19%) Intranet
7 1 (0.19%) NaaS
7 1 (0.19%) RFID
7 1 (0.19%) Structured Cabling
7 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.19%) Wireless
7 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.29%) Power BI
2 2 (0.38%) BusinessObjects
2 2 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.19%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.19%) EDRMS
3 1 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 36 (6.88%) JIRA
General
1 176 (33.65%) Finance
1 176 (33.65%) Social Skills
2 60 (11.47%) Public Sector
3 48 (9.18%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (7.46%) Legal
5 24 (4.59%) Manufacturing
5 24 (4.59%) Organisational Skills
6 19 (3.63%) Retail
7 17 (3.25%) Banking
7 17 (3.25%) Influencing Skills
8 12 (2.29%) Telecoms
9 11 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 10 (1.91%) Aerospace
10 10 (1.91%) Law
11 8 (1.53%) Financial Institution
12 7 (1.34%) Marketing
13 6 (1.15%) Local Government
14 4 (0.76%) Automotive
14 4 (0.76%) German Language
14 4 (0.76%) Japanese Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.87%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (0.57%) Middleware
3 2 (0.38%) ADO
4 1 (0.19%) JSON
4 1 (0.19%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.19%) SAP Fiori
4 1 (0.19%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 18 (3.44%) Onboarding
2 17 (3.25%) Data Centre
3 13 (2.49%) Management Information System
4 12 (2.29%) FMCG
5 11 (2.10%) Enterprise Software
5 11 (2.10%) Operational Technology
6 10 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
6 10 (1.91%) Product Ownership
7 8 (1.53%) Virtual Team
8 7 (1.34%) CMDB
9 5 (0.96%) PMI
10 4 (0.76%) Credit Risk
10 4 (0.76%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
10 4 (0.76%) Mobile App
10 4 (0.76%) Reinsurance
10 4 (0.76%) Robotics
10 4 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.57%) Low-Code
11 3 (0.57%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 23 (4.40%) Windows
2 4 (0.76%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.19%) Mac OS
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 187 (35.76%) Stakeholder Management
2 106 (20.27%) ITIL
3 104 (19.89%) Project Management
4 99 (18.93%) Agile
5 87 (16.63%) Continuous Improvement
6 79 (15.11%) Project Delivery
7 76 (14.53%) Service Management
8 71 (13.58%) ITSM
9 68 (13.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 56 (10.71%) Problem-Solving
10 56 (10.71%) Service Delivery
11 51 (9.75%) Decision-Making
12 49 (9.37%) Change Management
13 47 (8.99%) PRINCE2
14 43 (8.22%) Risk Management
15 41 (7.84%) Roadmaps
16 39 (7.46%) Migration
17 37 (7.07%) Budget Management
18 34 (6.50%) Cybersecurity
19 32 (6.12%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (1.15%) SQL
2 1 (0.19%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 73 (13.96%) Security Cleared
2 54 (10.33%) Degree
3 48 (9.18%) SC Cleared
4 32 (6.12%) PMP
5 30 (5.74%) ITIL Certification
6 27 (5.16%) PMI Certification
7 12 (2.29%) CISSP
7 12 (2.29%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 10 (1.91%) CISA
9 8 (1.53%) DV Cleared
10 5 (0.96%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 4 (0.76%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (0.76%) CISM
12 3 (0.57%) APMG
13 2 (0.38%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (0.38%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 2 (0.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 2 (0.38%) Master's Degree
14 1 (0.19%) Azure Certification
14 1 (0.19%) CGEIT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (4.21%) PMO
2 16 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (2.49%) GRC
4 12 (2.29%) COBIT
5 10 (1.91%) SLA
6 9 (1.72%) QA
7 6 (1.15%) GDPR
8 5 (0.96%) Cyber Essentials
8 5 (0.96%) NIST
9 3 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.57%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.57%) ISO 31000
9 3 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 3 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.38%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.19%) ITGC
11 1 (0.19%) SOC 1
System Software
1 13 (2.49%) Active Directory
2 5 (0.96%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.57%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.19%) KVM
4 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.19%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.38%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.38%) Terraform
2 2 (0.38%) vRealize
3 1 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.19%) VxRail
Vendors
1 54 (10.33%) Microsoft
2 47 (8.99%) ServiceNow
3 30 (5.74%) SAP
4 25 (4.78%) Oracle
5 21 (4.02%) Ariba
6 11 (2.10%) Salesforce
7 7 (1.34%) VMware
8 3 (0.57%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.57%) Cisco
8 3 (0.57%) Computacenter
8 3 (0.57%) Refinitiv
8 3 (0.57%) Snow
8 3 (0.57%) SolarWinds
8 3 (0.57%) Workday
9 2 (0.38%) Apple
9 2 (0.38%) Google
9 2 (0.38%) Meraki
9 2 (0.38%) MuleSoft
9 2 (0.38%) NEC
9 2 (0.38%) Samsung