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 25 August 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 264 237 181
Rank change year-on-year -27 -56 -1
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 519 368 529
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.97% 1.12% 1.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.05% 1.23% 1.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 328 249 349
10th Percentile £400 £325 £359
25th Percentile £456 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -
75th Percentile £620 £619 £625
90th Percentile £700 £688 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 9 11
10th Percentile £28.75 £55.98 £21.19
25th Percentile £42.42 £61.25 £21.84
Median hourly rate £72.78 £71.00 £25.28
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +180.91% -56.04%
75th Percentile £85.00 £77.50 £49.88
90th Percentile £89.50 £79.00 £60.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.78 £75.00 £25.14
% change year-on-year -2.97% +198.36% -44.14%

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 49,605 29,863 36,126
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.47% 91.22% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,683 18,859 22,977
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £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 3,539 1,568 1,933
10th Percentile £14.99 £13.64 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.21 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.68% -41.51% -1.58%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +7.50%

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 25 August 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 25 August 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 25 August 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 -39 438 £525 - 297
UK excluding London -21 292 £500 - 221
London -43 181 £550 +4.76% 103
Work from Home -27 157 £525 - 136
South East -20 81 £489 -8.64% 59
North of England -55 78 £488 -2.50% 67
North West -30 42 £500 -0.40% 39
Midlands -56 42 £520 +3.90% 25
Scotland +7 31 £475 +11.76% 11
South West -36 30 £550 +22.22% 22
West Midlands -46 30 £520 +3.90% 17
East of England -9 24 £525 - 27
Yorkshire -48 21 £438 -12.50% 26
North East -28 15 £775 +67.57% 4
East Midlands -11 12 £400 -23.81% 8
Wales -9 6 £375 -23.08% 11
Northern Ireland +2 2 £775 +82.35% 2

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

For the 6 months to 25 August 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.

1 188 (36.22%) Stakeholder Management
2 111 (21.39%) Project Management
3 101 (19.46%) Agile
4 88 (16.96%) ITIL
5 81 (15.61%) Project Delivery
6 76 (14.64%) Continuous Improvement
7 75 (14.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 74 (14.26%) Service Management
9 70 (13.49%) Azure
10 67 (12.91%) Microsoft
11 61 (11.75%) ITSM
12 59 (11.37%) PRINCE2
13 58 (11.18%) Service Delivery
14 56 (10.79%) Security Cleared
15 55 (10.60%) Decision-Making
15 55 (10.60%) Problem-Solving
16 51 (9.83%) Degree
17 49 (9.44%) Change Management
17 49 (9.44%) Risk Management
18 45 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
19 44 (8.48%) SC Cleared
19 44 (8.48%) ServiceNow
20 42 (8.09%) Budget Management
20 42 (8.09%) Microsoft 365
20 42 (8.09%) Migration
21 38 (7.32%) PMP
21 38 (7.32%) Project Governance
22 37 (7.13%) Supplier Management
23 35 (6.74%) Waterfall
24 33 (6.36%) JIRA

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 24 (4.62%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.77%) Confluence
Applications
1 24 (4.62%) Microsoft Project
2 20 (3.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (2.31%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.58%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.39%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 7 (1.35%) NetSuite
2 4 (0.77%) Maximo
3 3 (0.58%) Endur
4 2 (0.39%) Primavera
5 1 (0.19%) assyst
5 1 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.19%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 70 (13.49%) Azure
2 42 (8.09%) Microsoft 365
3 19 (3.66%) AWS
4 18 (3.47%) SaaS
5 14 (2.70%) Azure DevOps
5 14 (2.70%) Entra ID
6 12 (2.31%) Power Platform
7 6 (1.16%) Dynamics 365
7 6 (1.16%) Smartsheet
8 4 (0.77%) GCP
8 4 (0.77%) IaaS
8 4 (0.77%) Microsoft Copilot
8 4 (0.77%) OneDrive
9 2 (0.39%) WhatsApp
10 1 (0.19%) Boomi
10 1 (0.19%) ClickUp
10 1 (0.19%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.19%) Nutanix
10 1 (0.19%) Rubrik
10 1 (0.19%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.12%) WAN
2 10 (1.93%) Network Security
3 9 (1.73%) Firewall
4 8 (1.54%) LAN
5 5 (0.96%) DNS
6 2 (0.39%) DHCP
6 2 (0.39%) Internet
6 2 (0.39%) 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%) Wireless
7 1 (0.19%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.12%) Power BI
2 2 (0.39%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.19%) BusinessObjects
3 1 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 33 (6.36%) JIRA
General
1 181 (34.87%) Social Skills
2 173 (33.33%) Finance
3 58 (11.18%) Public Sector
4 50 (9.63%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (7.51%) Legal
6 29 (5.59%) Organisational Skills
7 25 (4.82%) Banking
8 24 (4.62%) Manufacturing
9 21 (4.05%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (3.85%) Retail
11 14 (2.70%) Law
12 12 (2.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 11 (2.12%) Financial Institution
14 9 (1.73%) Telecoms
15 8 (1.54%) Local Government
16 6 (1.16%) Automotive
16 6 (1.16%) Military
17 4 (0.77%) Japanese Language
17 4 (0.77%) Marketing
18 3 (0.58%) German Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.28%) Oracle Fusion
2 3 (0.58%) Middleware
2 3 (0.58%) Terraform
3 2 (0.39%) ADO
4 1 (0.19%) JSON
4 1 (0.19%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.05%) Onboarding
2 18 (3.47%) Product Ownership
3 17 (3.28%) Data Centre
4 16 (3.08%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (2.70%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (2.31%) Operational Technology
7 11 (2.12%) Credit Risk
8 10 (1.93%) FMCG
8 10 (1.93%) Management Information System
9 9 (1.73%) Mobile App
10 8 (1.54%) Virtual Team
11 7 (1.35%) CMDB
11 7 (1.35%) PMI
12 5 (0.96%) Reinsurance
13 4 (0.77%) NHS
13 4 (0.77%) Robotics
14 3 (0.58%) Data Protection Act
14 3 (0.58%) Driving Licence
14 3 (0.58%) Greenfield Project
14 3 (0.58%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 28 (5.39%) Windows
2 7 (1.35%) 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
1 188 (36.22%) Stakeholder Management
2 111 (21.39%) Project Management
3 101 (19.46%) Agile
4 88 (16.96%) ITIL
5 81 (15.61%) Project Delivery
6 76 (14.64%) Continuous Improvement
7 75 (14.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 74 (14.26%) Service Management
9 61 (11.75%) ITSM
10 59 (11.37%) PRINCE2
11 58 (11.18%) Service Delivery
12 55 (10.60%) Decision-Making
12 55 (10.60%) Problem-Solving
13 49 (9.44%) Change Management
13 49 (9.44%) Risk Management
14 45 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
15 42 (8.09%) Budget Management
15 42 (8.09%) Migration
16 38 (7.32%) Project Governance
17 37 (7.13%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 4 (0.77%) SQL
2 2 (0.39%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 56 (10.79%) Security Cleared
2 51 (9.83%) Degree
3 44 (8.48%) SC Cleared
4 38 (7.32%) PMP
5 32 (6.17%) PMI Certification
6 29 (5.59%) ITIL Certification
7 12 (2.31%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 10 (1.93%) CISA
8 10 (1.93%) CISSP
9 7 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (0.77%) DV Cleared
10 4 (0.77%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 3 (0.58%) APMG
11 3 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (0.39%) APMP
12 2 (0.39%) CISM
12 2 (0.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 1 (0.19%) CRISC
13 1 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
13 1 (0.19%) PgMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.43%) PMO
2 18 (3.47%) GRC
3 16 (3.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (1.93%) COBIT
4 10 (1.93%) SLA
5 9 (1.73%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.54%) QA
7 6 (1.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.58%) GDPR
8 3 (0.58%) ISO 31000
8 3 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 3 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 2 (0.39%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.39%) GxP
10 1 (0.19%) GMP
10 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.19%) ITGC
10 1 (0.19%) NIST
10 1 (0.19%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 17 (3.28%) Active Directory
2 6 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.39%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.39%) vSphere
4 1 (0.19%) Firmware
4 1 (0.19%) KVM
4 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 5 (0.96%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.39%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.19%) Ansible
3 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
3 1 (0.19%) vMotion
Vendors
1 67 (12.91%) Microsoft
2 44 (8.48%) ServiceNow
3 28 (5.39%) SAP
4 22 (4.24%) Ariba
4 22 (4.24%) Oracle
5 9 (1.73%) VMware
6 7 (1.35%) Salesforce
7 3 (0.58%) Apple
7 3 (0.58%) Bloomberg
7 3 (0.58%) Cisco
7 3 (0.58%) Computacenter
7 3 (0.58%) Fortinet
7 3 (0.58%) Refinitiv
7 3 (0.58%) Samsung
7 3 (0.58%) Snow
8 2 (0.39%) Autodesk
8 2 (0.39%) Kronos
8 2 (0.39%) MuleSoft
8 2 (0.39%) SolarWinds
8 2 (0.39%) Workday