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 October 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 270 259 172
Rank change year-on-year -11 -87 +27
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 526 342 536
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.96% 1.04% 1.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.04% 1.14% 1.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 303 225 333
10th Percentile £400 £333 £322
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £610
90th Percentile £688 £691 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £512 £510 £505
% change year-on-year +0.44% +0.89% -3.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 8 8
10th Percentile £61.25 - -
25th Percentile - £60.00 £21.19
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.75 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.59% +109.17% -45.45%
75th Percentile £83.96 £73.63 £36.25
90th Percentile £87.10 £88.14 £47.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £22.56
% change year-on-year +4.00% +177.04% -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 50,528 29,913 34,877
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.00% 90.84% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,639 18,895 21,041
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.47%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £736 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,102 1,645 1,439
10th Percentile £14.36 £13.75 £15.00
25th Percentile £19.43 £17.30 £20.30
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £41.27
Median % change year-on-year +65.84% -39.05% -8.30%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.90 £68.15 £73.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £25.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +66.84% -41.18% -4.49%

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 October 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 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for IT Manager in the UK

IT Manager
Top 16 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 October 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 -35 454 £525 - 526
UK excluding London -14 285 £512 +0.44% 358
London -20 197 £550 +0.92% 209
Work from Home -33 147 £530 +0.95% 242
North of England -31 80 £475 -7.68% 91
South East -23 79 £525 - 93
North West -31 41 £438 -17.06% 46
Midlands -43 41 £575 +9.52% 63
East of England -5 33 £500 - 32
Scotland -9 27 £475 +11.76% 31
Yorkshire -35 26 £450 -10.00% 40
West Midlands -56 24 £550 +5.77% 34
South West -40 20 £550 +18.92% 25
East Midlands -4 17 £600 +14.29% 29
North East -31 13 £775 +72.22% 5
Wales -10 6 £375 -23.08% 9

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

For the 6 months to 13 October 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.

1 207 (39.35%) Stakeholder Management
2 115 (21.86%) Project Management
3 102 (19.39%) Agile
4 85 (16.16%) Microsoft
5 83 (15.78%) Project Delivery
6 78 (14.83%) ITIL
7 77 (14.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 74 (14.07%) Azure
8 74 (14.07%) Continuous Improvement
9 67 (12.74%) Service Management
10 63 (11.98%) Cybersecurity
11 62 (11.79%) PRINCE2
12 61 (11.60%) Problem-Solving
13 58 (11.03%) Risk Management
14 56 (10.65%) Change Management
14 56 (10.65%) Decision-Making
14 56 (10.65%) Supplier Management
15 55 (10.46%) Security Cleared
16 54 (10.27%) Service Delivery
17 52 (9.89%) Degree
18 51 (9.70%) ITSM
19 48 (9.13%) Microsoft 365
19 48 (9.13%) PMP
20 46 (8.75%) Budget Management
21 44 (8.37%) Migration
21 44 (8.37%) Project Governance
21 44 (8.37%) SC Cleared
22 43 (8.17%) PMI Certification
22 43 (8.17%) Waterfall
23 41 (7.79%) ServiceNow

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 23 (4.37%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.33%) Confluence
3 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.19%) Documentum
Applications
1 29 (5.51%) Microsoft Project
2 21 (3.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (2.09%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (1.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.38%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (0.76%) Endur
1 4 (0.76%) Maximo
1 4 (0.76%) NetSuite
2 2 (0.38%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.19%) assyst
3 1 (0.19%) CA PPM
3 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.19%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 74 (14.07%) Azure
2 48 (9.13%) Microsoft 365
3 24 (4.56%) SaaS
4 20 (3.80%) Azure DevOps
5 19 (3.61%) AWS
6 16 (3.04%) Power Platform
7 15 (2.85%) Entra ID
8 7 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
9 6 (1.14%) GCP
9 6 (1.14%) Smartsheet
10 5 (0.95%) IaaS
10 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
10 5 (0.95%) OneDrive
11 2 (0.38%) Google Workspace
11 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Purview
11 2 (0.38%) PowerApps
12 1 (0.19%) Boomi
12 1 (0.19%) PaaS
12 1 (0.19%) Rubrik
12 1 (0.19%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.28%) WAN
2 10 (1.90%) Firewall
3 8 (1.52%) LAN
3 8 (1.52%) Network Security
4 5 (0.95%) DNS
5 2 (0.38%) Broadband
5 2 (0.38%) DHCP
5 2 (0.38%) Internet
5 2 (0.38%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.19%) Fibre Channel
6 1 (0.19%) FTP
6 1 (0.19%) Intranet
6 1 (0.19%) iSCSI
6 1 (0.19%) NAS
6 1 (0.19%) SAN
6 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
6 1 (0.19%) VLAN
6 1 (0.19%) VoIP
6 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.85%) Power BI
2 2 (0.38%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.19%) BusinessObjects
3 1 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.19%) EDMS
3 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 36 (6.84%) JIRA
General
1 185 (35.17%) Finance
2 184 (34.98%) Social Skills
3 54 (10.27%) Public Sector
4 46 (8.75%) Analytical Skills
5 35 (6.65%) Legal
6 29 (5.51%) Influencing Skills
7 28 (5.32%) Banking
7 28 (5.32%) Organisational Skills
8 23 (4.37%) Manufacturing
9 19 (3.61%) Retail
10 17 (3.23%) Law
11 12 (2.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (2.09%) Financial Institution
13 8 (1.52%) Local Government
13 8 (1.52%) Military
13 8 (1.52%) Telecoms
14 7 (1.33%) Aerospace
14 7 (1.33%) Automotive
14 7 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
15 4 (0.76%) Documentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.61%) Oracle Fusion
2 4 (0.76%) Middleware
3 2 (0.38%) OpenJDK
3 2 (0.38%) Terraform
4 1 (0.19%) ADO
4 1 (0.19%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 26 (4.94%) Onboarding
2 21 (3.99%) Operational Technology
2 21 (3.99%) Product Ownership
3 19 (3.61%) Enterprise Software
4 18 (3.42%) Management Information System
5 15 (2.85%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (2.28%) Data Centre
7 11 (2.09%) CMDB
7 11 (2.09%) Credit Risk
8 10 (1.90%) Virtual Team
9 9 (1.71%) Mobile App
10 8 (1.52%) Industry 4.0
11 7 (1.33%) FMCG
12 5 (0.95%) PMI
13 4 (0.76%) Robotics
13 4 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
14 3 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
14 3 (0.57%) Data Protection Act
14 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Licensing
14 3 (0.57%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 29 (5.51%) Windows
2 9 (1.71%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.38%) AIX
3 2 (0.38%) Linux
4 1 (0.19%) macOS
4 1 (0.19%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 207 (39.35%) Stakeholder Management
2 115 (21.86%) Project Management
3 102 (19.39%) Agile
4 83 (15.78%) Project Delivery
5 78 (14.83%) ITIL
6 77 (14.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 74 (14.07%) Continuous Improvement
8 67 (12.74%) Service Management
9 63 (11.98%) Cybersecurity
10 62 (11.79%) PRINCE2
11 61 (11.60%) Problem-Solving
12 58 (11.03%) Risk Management
13 56 (10.65%) Change Management
13 56 (10.65%) Decision-Making
13 56 (10.65%) Supplier Management
14 54 (10.27%) Service Delivery
15 51 (9.70%) ITSM
16 46 (8.75%) Budget Management
17 44 (8.37%) Migration
17 44 (8.37%) Project Governance
Programming Languages
1 5 (0.95%) SQL
2 2 (0.38%) Java
2 2 (0.38%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.19%) Python
Qualifications
1 55 (10.46%) Security Cleared
2 52 (9.89%) Degree
3 48 (9.13%) PMP
4 44 (8.37%) SC Cleared
5 43 (8.17%) PMI Certification
6 21 (3.99%) ITIL Certification
7 11 (2.09%) CISA
8 10 (1.90%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 9 (1.71%) CISSP
10 8 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (1.33%) DV Cleared
12 6 (1.14%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 5 (0.95%) PgMP
14 3 (0.57%) APMP
14 3 (0.57%) Computer Science Degree
15 2 (0.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 1 (0.19%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 1 (0.19%) APMG
16 1 (0.19%) CRISC
16 1 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (2.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (2.28%) PMO
3 11 (2.09%) GRC
4 10 (1.90%) Cyber Essentials
4 10 (1.90%) SLA
5 7 (1.33%) COBIT
5 7 (1.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 4 (0.76%) QA
7 3 (0.57%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.57%) GDPR
7 3 (0.57%) GxP
8 2 (0.38%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.38%) ISO 31000
8 2 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 2 (0.38%) ITGC
8 2 (0.38%) NIST
8 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.38%) SEPA
8 2 (0.38%) TARGET2
9 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 16 (3.04%) Active Directory
2 7 (1.33%) 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 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.38%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.19%) Ansible
3 1 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
3 1 (0.19%) vMotion
Vendors
1 85 (16.16%) Microsoft
2 41 (7.79%) ServiceNow
3 32 (6.08%) SAP
4 28 (5.32%) Ariba
5 23 (4.37%) Oracle
6 14 (2.66%) Snow
7 11 (2.09%) VMware
8 7 (1.33%) Planview
8 7 (1.33%) Salesforce
9 4 (0.76%) Apple
9 4 (0.76%) Fortinet
10 3 (0.57%) Bloomberg
10 3 (0.57%) IBM
10 3 (0.57%) MuleSoft
10 3 (0.57%) Refinitiv
10 3 (0.57%) Samsung
11 2 (0.38%) Cisco
11 2 (0.38%) Google
11 2 (0.38%) IFS
11 2 (0.38%) SolarWinds