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 15 September 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 271 238 175
Rank change year-on-year -33 -63 +17
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 532 363 534
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.98% 1.12% 1.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.06% 1.23% 1.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 327 246 339
10th Percentile £400 £348 £355
25th Percentile £456 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £511 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.69% -2.62% -2.33%
75th Percentile £619 £619 £632
90th Percentile £700 £689 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -1.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 8 10
10th Percentile £48.84 £62.48 £21.19
25th Percentile £61.25 £68.63 £21.51
Median hourly rate £65.00 £75.00 £32.56
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% +130.34% -43.37%
75th Percentile £74.16 £79.06 £43.25
90th Percentile £85.00 £88.14 £54.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £75.00 £22.56
% change year-on-year -13.33% +232.45% -54.88%

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 50,255 29,550 35,480
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.36% 91.04% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,827 18,649 21,961
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,770 1,552 1,702
10th Percentile £14.59 £13.69 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.25 £17.00 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.15 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.59% -41.51% -1.96%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +6.95%

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 15 September 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 15 September 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 15 September 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 -38 454 £525 - 619
UK excluding London -21 294 £500 - 414
London -38 192 £550 +1.15% 268
Work from Home -29 156 £530 +0.95% 255
North of England -48 84 £465 -7.00% 108
South East -18 79 £513 -2.38% 109
North West -31 43 £450 -10.36% 60
Midlands -47 37 £525 - 71
East of England -9 33 £513 +2.50% 44
Scotland +2 28 £488 +14.71% 36
South West -49 26 £550 +20.55% 26
Yorkshire -37 25 £425 -15.00% 45
West Midlands -59 24 £520 +2.36% 42
North East -25 16 £775 +72.22% 6
East Midlands -6 13 £525 -12.50% 29
Wales -6 7 £375 -23.08% 15
Northern Ireland +4 2 £775 +82.35% 7

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

For the 6 months to 15 September 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.

1 202 (37.97%) Stakeholder Management
2 120 (22.56%) Project Management
3 104 (19.55%) Agile
4 87 (16.35%) ITIL
5 84 (15.79%) Project Delivery
6 80 (15.04%) Microsoft
7 79 (14.85%) Continuous Improvement
8 78 (14.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 73 (13.72%) Azure
9 73 (13.72%) Service Management
10 62 (11.65%) PRINCE2
11 59 (11.09%) ITSM
12 58 (10.90%) Cybersecurity
12 58 (10.90%) Service Delivery
13 56 (10.53%) Change Management
13 56 (10.53%) Decision-Making
14 55 (10.34%) Problem-Solving
14 55 (10.34%) Risk Management
14 55 (10.34%) Security Cleared
15 51 (9.59%) Degree
16 49 (9.21%) Migration
17 47 (8.83%) Budget Management
18 46 (8.65%) Microsoft 365
19 44 (8.27%) Project Governance
19 44 (8.27%) SC Cleared
20 43 (8.08%) PMP
20 43 (8.08%) ServiceNow
21 42 (7.89%) Supplier Management
22 41 (7.71%) Waterfall
23 38 (7.14%) PMI Certification

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 26 (4.89%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.13%) Confluence
2 6 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.19%) Documentum
Applications
1 25 (4.70%) Microsoft Project
2 21 (3.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (2.26%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (1.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.56%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 5 (0.94%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.75%) Endur
2 4 (0.75%) Maximo
3 2 (0.38%) Primavera
4 1 (0.19%) assyst
4 1 (0.19%) CA PPM
4 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.19%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 73 (13.72%) Azure
2 46 (8.65%) Microsoft 365
3 21 (3.95%) SaaS
4 20 (3.76%) AWS
5 16 (3.01%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (2.63%) Power Platform
7 13 (2.44%) Entra ID
8 7 (1.32%) Dynamics 365
8 7 (1.32%) OneDrive
9 6 (1.13%) Smartsheet
10 4 (0.75%) GCP
10 4 (0.75%) IaaS
11 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Copilot
12 1 (0.19%) Boomi
12 1 (0.19%) ClickUp
12 1 (0.19%) Google Workspace
12 1 (0.19%) Nutanix
12 1 (0.19%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.19%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.26%) WAN
2 10 (1.88%) Network Security
3 9 (1.69%) Firewall
4 7 (1.32%) LAN
5 5 (0.94%) DNS
6 2 (0.38%) Broadband
6 2 (0.38%) DHCP
6 2 (0.38%) Internet
6 2 (0.38%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.19%) Fibre Channel
7 1 (0.19%) FTP
7 1 (0.19%) Intranet
7 1 (0.19%) iSCSI
7 1 (0.19%) NAS
7 1 (0.19%) SAN
7 1 (0.19%) Structured Cabling
7 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.19%) VLAN
7 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.44%) Power BI
2 2 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.19%) BusinessObjects
3 1 (0.19%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.19%) EDMS
3 1 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 35 (6.58%) JIRA
General
1 190 (35.71%) Social Skills
2 179 (33.65%) Finance
3 55 (10.34%) Public Sector
4 47 (8.83%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (7.33%) Legal
6 30 (5.64%) Organisational Skills
7 24 (4.51%) Banking
7 24 (4.51%) Manufacturing
8 23 (4.32%) Influencing Skills
9 20 (3.76%) Retail
10 16 (3.01%) Law
11 11 (2.07%) Financial Institution
11 11 (2.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 9 (1.69%) Telecoms
13 8 (1.50%) Local Government
14 7 (1.32%) Presentation Skills
15 6 (1.13%) Automotive
15 6 (1.13%) Military
16 4 (0.75%) Japanese Language
16 4 (0.75%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.57%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (0.56%) Middleware
2 3 (0.56%) Terraform
3 1 (0.19%) ADO
3 1 (0.19%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 22 (4.14%) Onboarding
2 21 (3.95%) Product Ownership
3 19 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
4 16 (3.01%) Operational Technology
5 13 (2.44%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (2.26%) Management Information System
7 11 (2.07%) Credit Risk
7 11 (2.07%) Data Centre
7 11 (2.07%) Virtual Team
8 9 (1.69%) Mobile App
9 8 (1.50%) CMDB
10 7 (1.32%) FMCG
11 6 (1.13%) PMI
12 5 (0.94%) Reinsurance
13 4 (0.75%) Industry 4.0
13 4 (0.75%) Robotics
13 4 (0.75%) Self-Motivation
14 3 (0.56%) Analytical Mindset
14 3 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
14 3 (0.56%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 29 (5.45%) Windows
2 8 (1.50%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.19%) Linux
3 1 (0.19%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (37.97%) Stakeholder Management
2 120 (22.56%) Project Management
3 104 (19.55%) Agile
4 87 (16.35%) ITIL
5 84 (15.79%) Project Delivery
6 79 (14.85%) Continuous Improvement
7 78 (14.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 73 (13.72%) Service Management
9 62 (11.65%) PRINCE2
10 59 (11.09%) ITSM
11 58 (10.90%) Cybersecurity
11 58 (10.90%) Service Delivery
12 56 (10.53%) Change Management
12 56 (10.53%) Decision-Making
13 55 (10.34%) Problem-Solving
13 55 (10.34%) Risk Management
14 49 (9.21%) Migration
15 47 (8.83%) Budget Management
16 44 (8.27%) Project Governance
17 42 (7.89%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 4 (0.75%) SQL
2 2 (0.38%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 55 (10.34%) Security Cleared
2 51 (9.59%) Degree
3 44 (8.27%) SC Cleared
4 43 (8.08%) PMP
5 38 (7.14%) PMI Certification
6 28 (5.26%) ITIL Certification
7 12 (2.26%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 11 (2.07%) CISA
9 10 (1.88%) CISSP
10 9 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (0.94%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 4 (0.75%) DV Cleared
13 3 (0.56%) APMG
13 3 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
14 2 (0.38%) APMP
14 2 (0.38%) CISM
14 2 (0.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 1 (0.19%) Cisco Certification
15 1 (0.19%) CRISC
15 1 (0.19%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (3.95%) PMO
2 18 (3.38%) GRC
3 16 (3.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (1.88%) Cyber Essentials
4 10 (1.88%) SLA
5 9 (1.69%) COBIT
6 7 (1.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 7 (1.32%) QA
7 3 (0.56%) ISO 31000
7 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 3 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 2 (0.38%) GDPR
8 2 (0.38%) GxP
8 2 (0.38%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.38%) ITGC
8 2 (0.38%) SEPA
8 2 (0.38%) TARGET2
9 1 (0.19%) NIST
9 1 (0.19%) SOC 1
9 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 17 (3.20%) Active Directory
2 6 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.38%) vSphere
4 1 (0.19%) Firmware
4 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.19%) KVM
4 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 4 (0.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (0.19%) Ansible
2 1 (0.19%) RSA Archer
2 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
2 1 (0.19%) vMotion
Vendors
1 80 (15.04%) Microsoft
2 43 (8.08%) ServiceNow
3 25 (4.70%) Oracle
3 25 (4.70%) SAP
4 23 (4.32%) Ariba
5 11 (2.07%) Snow
6 10 (1.88%) VMware
7 7 (1.32%) Salesforce
8 6 (1.13%) Planview
9 4 (0.75%) Fortinet
10 3 (0.56%) Apple
10 3 (0.56%) Bloomberg
10 3 (0.56%) Cisco
10 3 (0.56%) Computacenter
10 3 (0.56%) Refinitiv
10 3 (0.56%) Samsung
11 2 (0.38%) Autodesk
11 2 (0.38%) IBM
11 2 (0.38%) Kronos
11 2 (0.38%) SolarWinds