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 12 March 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 221 206
Rank change year-on-year -67 -15 -21
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 373 363 518
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.87% 1.23% 1.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.95% 1.33% 1.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 219 238 374
10th Percentile £358 £363 £363
25th Percentile £425 £446 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - +1.45%
75th Percentile £625 £601 £609
90th Percentile £700 £700 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £513 £514
% change year-on-year -2.44% -0.29% +2.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 13 8
10th Percentile £30.00 £26.04 -
25th Percentile £35.00 £35.00 £23.63
Median hourly rate £60.00 £40.00 £30.28
Median % change year-on-year +50.00% +32.12% -52.51%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.50 £40.41
90th Percentile £94.75 £69.75 £66.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £67.50 £25.28
% change year-on-year -11.11% +167.06% -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 39,233 27,349 41,475
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 92.93% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,515 17,680 27,207
10th Percentile £312 £293 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,440 862 2,502
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.60 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.45 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.63% +2.92% -23.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.50
90th Percentile £75.79 £76.25 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -18.75%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -79 328 £525 -2.10% 256
UK excluding London -76 213 £500 -2.44% 229
Work from Home -32 133 £525 -2.78% 108
London -43 128 £575 +4.55% 68
South East -46 61 £466 -13.26% 66
North of England -62 47 £525 +6.33% 51
Midlands -59 44 £525 +7.69% 53
West Midlands -56 36 £538 +7.50% 26
South West -7 30 £450 -13.46% 24
North West -38 24 £563 +11.11% 36
Yorkshire -62 18 £499 +10.83% 13
Scotland -2 13 £550 +22.91% 7
East of England -30 13 £500 -22.33% 20
East Midlands -36 8 £473 -1.82% 27
North East -11 5 £450 -10.00% 2
Wales -4 3 £413 +3.13% 9
Northern Ireland -3 2 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 123 (32.98%) Stakeholder Management
2 95 (25.47%) Project Management
3 74 (19.84%) Agile
4 64 (17.16%) Security Cleared
5 62 (16.62%) ITIL
5 62 (16.62%) Project Delivery
6 53 (14.21%) Continuous Improvement
7 42 (11.26%) SC Cleared
8 41 (10.99%) Service Management
8 41 (10.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 40 (10.72%) Change Management
9 40 (10.72%) PRINCE2
9 40 (10.72%) Service Delivery
10 36 (9.65%) ITSM
10 36 (9.65%) Roadmaps
11 35 (9.38%) Problem-Solving
12 34 (9.12%) Degree
13 27 (7.24%) SAP
13 27 (7.24%) ServiceNow
14 26 (6.97%) PMP
15 25 (6.70%) Cybersecurity
15 25 (6.70%) Migration
15 25 (6.70%) PMI Certification
16 23 (6.17%) Waterfall
17 22 (5.90%) Supplier Management
18 21 (5.63%) Decision-Making
18 21 (5.63%) ERP
18 21 (5.63%) JIRA
18 21 (5.63%) Risk Management
19 20 (5.36%) Budget 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 13 (3.49%) SharePoint
2 11 (2.95%) Confluence
3 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.27%) Documentum
Applications
1 11 (2.95%) Microsoft Project
2 8 (2.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (1.88%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (1.34%) MS Visio
5 4 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
6 2 (0.54%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.27%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 6 (1.61%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.80%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.54%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.54%) SAP MDG
3 2 (0.54%) SAP MM
3 2 (0.54%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.54%) TrackWise
4 1 (0.27%) Maximo
4 1 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.27%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.27%) SAP Retail
4 1 (0.27%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 18 (4.83%) Azure
2 17 (4.56%) SaaS
3 13 (3.49%) IaaS
4 10 (2.68%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (2.14%) AWS
5 8 (2.14%) GCP
6 7 (1.88%) Entra ID
7 6 (1.61%) Google Workspace
8 5 (1.34%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.07%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.80%) OneDrive
11 2 (0.54%) Azure API Management
11 2 (0.54%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (0.54%) Google Drive
11 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Copilot
11 2 (0.54%) Rubrik
11 2 (0.54%) Slack
11 2 (0.54%) SuccessFactors
11 2 (0.54%) WhatsApp
12 1 (0.27%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.88%) LAN
1 7 (1.88%) WAN
2 5 (1.34%) Network Security
2 5 (1.34%) Structured Cabling
3 4 (1.07%) Firewall
4 3 (0.80%) SD-WAN
5 2 (0.54%) DNS
5 2 (0.54%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (0.54%) Wireless
6 1 (0.27%) BT 21CN
6 1 (0.27%) Intranet
6 1 (0.27%) NaaS
6 1 (0.27%) RFID
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.07%) Power BI
2 3 (0.80%) Electronic Patient Records
2 3 (0.80%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.54%) EDRMS
3 2 (0.54%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.27%) BusinessObjects
4 1 (0.27%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.27%) Metadata
4 1 (0.27%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 21 (5.63%) JIRA
2 2 (0.54%) LSMW
General
1 119 (31.90%) Finance
2 111 (29.76%) Social Skills
3 36 (9.65%) Public Sector
4 30 (8.04%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (6.17%) Banking
6 15 (4.02%) Manufacturing
6 15 (4.02%) Telecoms
7 14 (3.75%) Retail
8 13 (3.49%) Legal
9 10 (2.68%) Aerospace
10 8 (2.14%) Influencing Skills
10 8 (2.14%) Marketing
10 8 (2.14%) Organisational Skills
10 8 (2.14%) Pharmaceutical
11 6 (1.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.34%) Law
13 4 (1.07%) Aviation
13 4 (1.07%) Military
14 3 (0.80%) French Language
14 3 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.07%) SAP Fiori
2 2 (0.54%) ADO
2 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.54%) OpenID
2 2 (0.54%) 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 (6.17%) Data Centre
2 20 (5.36%) Onboarding
3 15 (4.02%) Management Information System
4 10 (2.68%) FMCG
5 9 (2.41%) NHS
6 7 (1.88%) Virtual Team
7 5 (1.34%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
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 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (0.54%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (0.54%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (0.54%) Mainframe
9 2 (0.54%) Manufacturing Execution System
9 2 (0.54%) Self-Motivation
10 1 (0.27%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 15 (4.02%) Windows
2 2 (0.54%) 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
1 123 (32.98%) Stakeholder Management
2 95 (25.47%) Project Management
3 74 (19.84%) Agile
4 62 (16.62%) ITIL
4 62 (16.62%) Project Delivery
5 53 (14.21%) Continuous Improvement
6 41 (10.99%) Service Management
6 41 (10.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 40 (10.72%) Change Management
7 40 (10.72%) PRINCE2
7 40 (10.72%) Service Delivery
8 36 (9.65%) ITSM
8 36 (9.65%) Roadmaps
9 35 (9.38%) Problem-Solving
10 25 (6.70%) Cybersecurity
10 25 (6.70%) Migration
11 23 (6.17%) Waterfall
12 22 (5.90%) Supplier Management
13 21 (5.63%) ERP
13 21 (5.63%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 4 (1.07%) SQL
2 2 (0.54%) PowerShell
2 2 (0.54%) Python
3 1 (0.27%) ABAP
3 1 (0.27%) VB
Qualifications
1 64 (17.16%) Security Cleared
2 42 (11.26%) SC Cleared
3 34 (9.12%) Degree
4 26 (6.97%) PMP
5 25 (6.70%) PMI Certification
6 8 (2.14%) ITIL Certification
7 7 (1.88%) DV Cleared
8 4 (1.07%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 4 (1.07%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.80%) CISA
9 3 (0.80%) CISM
9 3 (0.80%) CISSP
9 3 (0.80%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.80%) MBA
9 3 (0.80%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 2 (0.54%) CRISC
10 2 (0.54%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 2 (0.54%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 1 (0.27%) APMG
11 1 (0.27%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (5.36%) PMO
2 14 (3.75%) GDPR
3 10 (2.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (2.68%) SLA
4 7 (1.88%) NIST
5 6 (1.61%) QA
6 5 (1.34%) COBIT
6 5 (1.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (1.07%) Data Quality
7 4 (1.07%) GRC
7 4 (1.07%) GxP
7 4 (1.07%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.80%) GMP
8 3 (0.80%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.54%) MiFID
10 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.27%) HL7
10 1 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.27%) IASME
System Software
1 7 (1.88%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.54%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.27%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (1.07%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.54%) vRealize
3 1 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.27%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.27%) VxRail
Vendors
1 27 (7.24%) SAP
1 27 (7.24%) ServiceNow
2 18 (4.83%) Microsoft
3 12 (3.22%) Oracle
4 9 (2.41%) Ariba
4 9 (2.41%) Salesforce
5 7 (1.88%) Google
6 5 (1.34%) Cisco
7 4 (1.07%) VMware
8 3 (0.80%) Arista
9 2 (0.54%) HP
9 2 (0.54%) NEC
9 2 (0.54%) Northgate
9 2 (0.54%) Workday
10 1 (0.27%) BMC
10 1 (0.27%) Citrix
10 1 (0.27%) Dell
10 1 (0.27%) JD Edwards
10 1 (0.27%) Mitel
10 1 (0.27%) Red Hat