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 14 March 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 298 219 204
Rank change year-on-year -79 -15 -18
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 372 364 511
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.86% 1.23% 1.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.94% 1.33% 1.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 220 239 371
10th Percentile £358 £363 £363
25th Percentile £425 £444 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - +2.19%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £610
90th Percentile £700 £690 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £509 £514
% change year-on-year -1.72% -1.02% +2.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 12 8
10th Percentile £30.00 £24.92 -
25th Percentile £35.00 £35.00 £23.63
Median hourly rate £60.00 £41.25 £30.28
Median % change year-on-year +45.45% +36.25% -52.51%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.81 £40.41
90th Percentile £94.75 £69.88 £57.90
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 39,662 27,424 41,343
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.92% 92.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,771 17,715 27,123
10th Percentile £313 £296 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.40%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,471 874 2,496
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.36 £12.96
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.06 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +1.71% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.44
90th Percentile £75.79 £77.50 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -19.90%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -81 326 £525 - 244
UK excluding London -67 211 £500 -1.72% 219
Work from Home -36 132 £525 -2.78% 101
London -56 129 £577 +4.91% 63
South East -51 61 £466 -13.26% 64
North of England -66 47 £525 +7.69% 48
Midlands -55 43 £525 +7.69% 48
West Midlands -58 35 £550 +11.39% 27
South West -15 28 £450 -13.46% 25
North West -35 24 £563 +11.11% 34
Yorkshire -56 18 £499 +10.83% 13
Scotland +3 14 £550 +22.91% 6
East of England -31 13 £500 -22.33% 21
East Midlands -34 8 £473 -1.82% 21
North East -11 5 £450 -10.00% 1
Wales -7 3 £413 +3.13% 8
Northern Ireland -1 2 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 14 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.

1 125 (33.60%) Stakeholder Management
2 94 (25.27%) Project Management
3 74 (19.89%) Agile
4 63 (16.94%) Project Delivery
4 63 (16.94%) Security Cleared
5 62 (16.67%) ITIL
6 52 (13.98%) Continuous Improvement
7 42 (11.29%) SC Cleared
8 41 (11.02%) Service Management
8 41 (11.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 40 (10.75%) Service Delivery
10 39 (10.48%) Change Management
10 39 (10.48%) PRINCE2
11 36 (9.68%) ITSM
12 34 (9.14%) Problem-Solving
12 34 (9.14%) Roadmaps
13 33 (8.87%) Degree
14 27 (7.26%) ServiceNow
15 26 (6.99%) SAP
16 25 (6.72%) Cybersecurity
16 25 (6.72%) Migration
16 25 (6.72%) PMP
17 24 (6.45%) PMI Certification
18 23 (6.18%) Waterfall
19 21 (5.65%) Decision-Making
19 21 (5.65%) ERP
19 21 (5.65%) JIRA
19 21 (5.65%) PMO
19 21 (5.65%) Risk Management
19 21 (5.65%) Supplier 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 (2.96%) Confluence
3 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.27%) Documentum
Applications
1 11 (2.96%) Microsoft Project
2 8 (2.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (1.88%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (1.34%) MS Visio
5 4 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
6 2 (0.54%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.27%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 6 (1.61%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.81%) 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 (4.84%) Azure
2 17 (4.57%) SaaS
3 13 (3.49%) IaaS
4 9 (2.42%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (2.15%) AWS
5 8 (2.15%) GCP
6 7 (1.88%) Entra ID
7 6 (1.61%) Google Workspace
8 5 (1.34%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.08%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.81%) 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%) WhatsApp
12 1 (0.27%) Azure Sentinel
12 1 (0.27%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.88%) LAN
1 7 (1.88%) WAN
2 5 (1.34%) Network Security
3 4 (1.08%) Firewall
3 4 (1.08%) Structured Cabling
4 3 (0.81%) 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 (1.08%) Power BI
2 3 (0.81%) Electronic Patient Records
2 3 (0.81%) 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 (5.65%) JIRA
2 2 (0.54%) LSMW
General
1 117 (31.45%) Finance
2 111 (29.84%) Social Skills
3 35 (9.41%) Public Sector
4 30 (8.06%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (6.18%) Banking
6 15 (4.03%) Manufacturing
7 14 (3.76%) Telecoms
8 13 (3.49%) Retail
9 12 (3.23%) Legal
10 10 (2.69%) Aerospace
11 8 (2.15%) Influencing Skills
11 8 (2.15%) Marketing
11 8 (2.15%) Organisational Skills
11 8 (2.15%) Pharmaceutical
12 6 (1.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (1.34%) Law
14 4 (1.08%) Aviation
15 3 (0.81%) French Language
15 3 (0.81%) Military
15 3 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.08%) 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 (6.18%) Data Centre
2 20 (5.38%) Onboarding
3 15 (4.03%) Management Information System
4 10 (2.69%) FMCG
5 9 (2.42%) NHS
6 7 (1.88%) Virtual Team
7 6 (1.61%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (1.34%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (0.81%) CMDB
9 3 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (0.81%) Life Science
9 3 (0.81%) LIMS
9 3 (0.81%) PMI
10 2 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.54%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (0.54%) Greenfield Project
10 2 (0.54%) Mainframe
10 2 (0.54%) Manufacturing Execution System
10 2 (0.54%) Self-Motivation
11 1 (0.27%) Video on Demand
Operating Systems
1 14 (3.76%) 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
1 125 (33.60%) Stakeholder Management
2 94 (25.27%) Project Management
3 74 (19.89%) Agile
4 63 (16.94%) Project Delivery
5 62 (16.67%) ITIL
6 52 (13.98%) Continuous Improvement
7 41 (11.02%) Service Management
7 41 (11.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 40 (10.75%) Service Delivery
9 39 (10.48%) Change Management
9 39 (10.48%) PRINCE2
10 36 (9.68%) ITSM
11 34 (9.14%) Problem-Solving
11 34 (9.14%) Roadmaps
12 25 (6.72%) Cybersecurity
12 25 (6.72%) Migration
13 23 (6.18%) Waterfall
14 21 (5.65%) Decision-Making
14 21 (5.65%) Risk Management
14 21 (5.65%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 4 (1.08%) SQL
2 2 (0.54%) PowerShell
2 2 (0.54%) Python
3 1 (0.27%) ABAP
3 1 (0.27%) VB
Qualifications
1 63 (16.94%) Security Cleared
2 42 (11.29%) SC Cleared
3 33 (8.87%) Degree
4 25 (6.72%) PMP
5 24 (6.45%) PMI Certification
6 8 (2.15%) ITIL Certification
7 7 (1.88%) DV Cleared
8 4 (1.08%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 4 (1.08%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.81%) CISA
9 3 (0.81%) CISM
9 3 (0.81%) CISSP
9 3 (0.81%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.81%) MBA
9 3 (0.81%) 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 21 (5.65%) PMO
2 13 (3.49%) GDPR
3 10 (2.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (2.42%) SLA
5 7 (1.88%) NIST
6 6 (1.61%) QA
7 5 (1.34%) COBIT
8 4 (1.08%) Data Quality
8 4 (1.08%) GRC
8 4 (1.08%) GxP
8 4 (1.08%) PCI DSS
8 4 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.81%) GMP
9 3 (0.81%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.54%) MiFID
11 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.27%) HL7
11 1 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 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 (1.08%) 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 (7.26%) ServiceNow
2 26 (6.99%) SAP
3 18 (4.84%) Microsoft
4 12 (3.23%) Oracle
5 9 (2.42%) Ariba
5 9 (2.42%) Salesforce
6 7 (1.88%) Google
7 5 (1.34%) Cisco
8 4 (1.08%) VMware
9 3 (0.81%) Arista
10 2 (0.54%) HP
10 2 (0.54%) Northgate
11 1 (0.27%) Atlassian
11 1 (0.27%) BMC
11 1 (0.27%) Citrix
11 1 (0.27%) Dell
11 1 (0.27%) Fortinet
11 1 (0.27%) JD Edwards
11 1 (0.27%) Qualys
11 1 (0.27%) Red Hat