IT Manager Contract Job Trends

IT Manager
UK

The median IT Manager daily rate in the UK is £515, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 245 175 189
Rank change year-on-year -70 +14 -4
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 362 542 675
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.10% 1.41% 1.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.21% 1.51% 1.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 243 346 501
10th Percentile £329 £344 £363
25th Percentile £413 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.33% +2.38%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £691 £700 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £503 £525
% change year-on-year -0.50% -4.29% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 10 11
10th Percentile £62.48 £21.19 £35.00
25th Percentile £68.63 £21.51 £40.00
Median hourly rate £75.00 £32.56 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +130.34% -43.37% -11.54%
75th Percentile £79.06 £43.25 £75.59
90th Percentile £88.14 £54.88 £87.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £75.00 £22.56 £50.00
% change year-on-year +232.45% -54.88% -22.78%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 30,009 35,817 46,695
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.07% 92.96% 94.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,949 22,029 31,957
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,585 1,680 1,499
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £14.99
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.50 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%
75th Percentile £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -44.11% +2.86% +98.86%

IT Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured IT Manager in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for IT Manager 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 19 September 2025.

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 19 September 2025.

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 19 September 2025. 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 -55 319 £525 -4.55% 279
UK excluding London -77 186 £500 -0.50% 242
London -6 141 £550 -5.98% 85
Work from Home -24 120 £525 -4.55% 128
North of England -33 60 £500 +8.99% 61
Midlands -52 42 £525 - 38
West Midlands -42 34 £508 -7.73% 26
South East -5 32 £525 -5.41% 78
Yorkshire -2 30 £500 - 22
South West -14 27 £456 -12.05% 33
North West -26 27 £504 +12.00% 36
East of England +5 13 £500 -13.04% 16
Scotland -45 10 £425 -2.86% 7
East Midlands -9 8 £600 +20.00% 12
North East -5 3 £450 -18.18% 4
Wales -1 1 £488 +21.88% 7
Northern Ireland -7 1 - - 3

IT Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 September 2025, IT Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring IT Manager in the job title.

1 123 (33.98%) Finance
2 122 (33.70%) Social Skills
3 114 (31.49%) Stakeholder Management
4 111 (30.66%) Project Management
5 79 (21.82%) Agile
6 69 (19.06%) ITIL
7 64 (17.68%) Project Delivery
8 58 (16.02%) Change Management
9 55 (15.19%) PRINCE2
10 53 (14.64%) Microsoft
11 52 (14.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 50 (13.81%) Risk Management
13 46 (12.71%) ServiceNow
14 45 (12.43%) Degree
15 40 (11.05%) Service Management
16 36 (9.94%) Migration
16 36 (9.94%) Cybersecurity
17 35 (9.67%) ITSM
17 35 (9.67%) JIRA
18 34 (9.39%) Problem-Solving
18 34 (9.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 33 (9.12%) Microsoft Office
19 33 (9.12%) Waterfall
19 33 (9.12%) Security Cleared
20 32 (8.84%) Analytical Skills
20 32 (8.84%) Active Directory
20 32 (8.84%) Public Sector
21 30 (8.29%) Budget Management
21 30 (8.29%) PMP
21 30 (8.29%) Legal

IT Manager Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 13 (3.59%) Confluence
2 11 (3.04%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.93%) CMS
4 5 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.55%) IIS
6 1 (0.28%) Mule
6 1 (0.28%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 33 (9.12%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (4.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (4.70%) Microsoft Project
3 12 (3.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (2.21%) MS Visio
5 6 (1.66%) Trello
6 2 (0.55%) Adobe Illustrator
6 2 (0.55%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.28%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 3 (0.83%) Oracle ERP
1 3 (0.83%) Remedy ITSM
1 3 (0.83%) Teamcenter
2 2 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.55%) SAP PLM
2 2 (0.55%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.28%) Infor LN
3 1 (0.28%) Loan IQ
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.28%) PRMS
3 1 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.28%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.28%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 28 (7.73%) Microsoft 365
2 22 (6.08%) Azure
3 19 (5.25%) Entra ID
4 15 (4.14%) SaaS
5 13 (3.59%) AWS
6 10 (2.76%) Asana
7 6 (1.66%) OneDrive
8 5 (1.38%) Power Platform
8 5 (1.38%) Slack
8 5 (1.38%) Smartsheet
9 3 (0.83%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 3 (0.83%) GCP
9 3 (0.83%) Google Workspace
10 2 (0.55%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (0.55%) GitHub
10 2 (0.55%) SuccessFactors
10 2 (0.55%) Veeva
10 2 (0.55%) Yammer
11 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Purview
11 1 (0.28%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 11 (3.04%) Firewall
2 7 (1.93%) Wi-Fi
3 6 (1.66%) VPN
4 5 (1.38%) LAN
5 4 (1.10%) DNS
5 4 (1.10%) WAN
6 3 (0.83%) DHCP
7 2 (0.55%) Network Security
7 2 (0.55%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.55%) Structured Cabling
7 2 (0.55%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.55%) Wireless
8 1 (0.28%) Intranet
8 1 (0.28%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.28%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.38%) Power BI
2 3 (0.83%) Data Lake
2 3 (0.83%) Oracle Reports
3 2 (0.55%) Electronic Patient Records
3 2 (0.55%) Tableau
4 1 (0.28%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 35 (9.67%) JIRA
2 2 (0.55%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.28%) GitLab
3 1 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 123 (33.98%) Finance
2 122 (33.70%) Social Skills
3 34 (9.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 32 (8.84%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (8.84%) Public Sector
5 30 (8.29%) Banking
5 30 (8.29%) Legal
6 20 (5.52%) Retail
7 18 (4.97%) Manufacturing
8 16 (4.42%) Organisational Skills
9 12 (3.31%) Pharmaceutical
10 8 (2.21%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.93%) Financial Institution
11 7 (1.93%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.66%) Local Government
12 6 (1.66%) Military
13 5 (1.38%) Marketing
13 5 (1.38%) Presentation Skills
14 4 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
14 4 (1.10%) Japanese Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.10%) SailPoint
2 2 (0.55%) WF
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 16 (4.42%) Onboarding
2 14 (3.87%) Management Information System
3 12 (3.31%) iPhone
3 12 (3.31%) Smartphone
4 10 (2.76%) Analytical Mindset
4 10 (2.76%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (2.49%) CMDB
6 8 (2.21%) Life Science
7 6 (1.66%) FMCG
7 6 (1.66%) Virtual Team
8 5 (1.38%) Linux Command Line
9 4 (1.10%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.10%) Driving Licence
9 4 (1.10%) Operational Technology
10 3 (0.83%) Credit Risk
10 3 (0.83%) EPoS
10 3 (0.83%) Housing Association
10 3 (0.83%) LIMS
10 3 (0.83%) Market Risk
10 3 (0.83%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 26 (7.18%) Windows
2 16 (4.42%) Mac OS
3 6 (1.66%) Linux
4 5 (1.38%) Windows 10
5 4 (1.10%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.83%) Android
7 2 (0.55%) Unix
7 2 (0.55%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.28%) OpenVMS
8 1 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 114 (31.49%) Stakeholder Management
2 111 (30.66%) Project Management
3 79 (21.82%) Agile
4 69 (19.06%) ITIL
5 64 (17.68%) Project Delivery
6 58 (16.02%) Change Management
7 55 (15.19%) PRINCE2
8 52 (14.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 50 (13.81%) Risk Management
10 40 (11.05%) Service Management
11 36 (9.94%) Cybersecurity
11 36 (9.94%) Migration
12 35 (9.67%) ITSM
13 34 (9.39%) Problem-Solving
14 33 (9.12%) Waterfall
15 30 (8.29%) Budget Management
16 28 (7.73%) Service Delivery
17 25 (6.91%) Continuous Improvement
17 25 (6.91%) Project Governance
18 19 (5.25%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.28%) Java
1 1 (0.28%) Korn
1 1 (0.28%) Python
1 1 (0.28%) SQL
Qualifications
1 45 (12.43%) Degree
2 33 (9.12%) Security Cleared
3 30 (8.29%) PMP
4 29 (8.01%) PMI Certification
5 26 (7.18%) SC Cleared
6 10 (2.76%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (2.21%) ITIL Certification
8 7 (1.93%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 6 (1.66%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 5 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (1.10%) CISA
11 4 (1.10%) DV Cleared
12 3 (0.83%) CISSP
12 3 (0.83%) CRISC
13 2 (0.55%) ACSP
13 2 (0.55%) APMP
13 2 (0.55%) CEH
13 2 (0.55%) CISM
13 2 (0.55%) GCIH
13 2 (0.55%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (4.97%) SLA
2 16 (4.42%) PMO
3 12 (3.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (1.93%) QA
5 6 (1.66%) GDPR
5 6 (1.66%) NIST
6 5 (1.38%) GxP
6 5 (1.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (1.10%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.83%) COBIT
8 3 (0.83%) GRC
8 3 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 19770
8 3 (0.83%) ITGC
9 2 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.55%) ISO 22301
9 2 (0.55%) ISO 31000
9 2 (0.55%) SOX 404
10 1 (0.28%) Basel III
10 1 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 32 (8.84%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
3 1 (0.28%) Docker
3 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.28%) XenApp
3 1 (0.28%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 14 (3.87%) Jamf Pro
2 6 (1.66%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (0.83%) SCCM
4 2 (0.55%) RSA Archer
5 1 (0.28%) Ansible
5 1 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.28%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.28%) Terraform
Vendors
1 53 (14.64%) Microsoft
2 46 (12.71%) ServiceNow
3 21 (5.80%) SAP
4 16 (4.42%) Oracle
5 14 (3.87%) Apple
6 10 (2.76%) Ariba
7 6 (1.66%) Workday
8 5 (1.38%) Google
8 5 (1.38%) Salesforce
9 4 (1.10%) CyberArk
9 4 (1.10%) Remedy
10 3 (0.83%) Adobe
10 3 (0.83%) BMC
10 3 (0.83%) Infoblox
10 3 (0.83%) Siemens
10 3 (0.83%) Snow
11 2 (0.55%) Atlassian
11 2 (0.55%) Citrix
11 2 (0.55%) IBM
11 2 (0.55%) Infor