IT Manager Contract Job Trends

IT Manager
UK

The median IT Manager daily rate in the UK is £529, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 April 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 286 221 209
Rank change year-on-year -65 -12 -23
Contract jobs requiring an IT Manager 398 364 501
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.88% 1.25% 1.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.95% 1.34% 1.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 239 367
10th Percentile £364 £399 £363
25th Percentile £428 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £529 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.71% - +0.96%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £611
90th Percentile £708 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 14 11
10th Percentile - £27.16 £23.63
25th Percentile £28.75 £35.22 £25.31
Median hourly rate £36.00 £63.50 £33.55
Median % change year-on-year -43.31% +89.27% -46.32%
75th Percentile £73.44 £70.00 £49.88
90th Percentile £96.13 £76.75 £57.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £70.00 £26.14
% change year-on-year -50.00% +167.81% -59.79%

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 41,784 27,118 40,940
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.22% 92.78% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,031 17,841 26,815
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.31%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +2.63% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,612 956 2,534
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £12.86
25th Percentile £19.91 £20.26 £16.25
Median hourly rate £40.00 £32.00 £33.78
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -5.26% -24.15%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £71.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.06 £31.29 £34.61
% change year-on-year +31.21% -9.58% -18.32%

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 5 April 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 5 April 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 5 April 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 -81 345 £525 - 267
UK excluding London -63 226 £500 - 233
London -47 142 £600 +9.09% 74
Work from Home -41 136 £529 +0.71% 111
South East -48 62 £465 -11.43% 61
North of England -65 52 £518 +4.81% 60
Midlands -66 41 £525 +10.41% 45
West Midlands -51 34 £525 +10.41% 22
South West -8 31 £525 - 30
North West -39 28 £563 +4.65% 38
Scotland +7 18 £550 +14.29% 8
Yorkshire -59 16 £450 - 19
East of England -34 15 £500 -23.08% 19
North East -7 8 £440 -9.74% 3
East Midlands -38 7 £473 -1.82% 23
Northern Ireland -2 4 £775 +72.22% 1
Wales -10 4 £444 +10.94% 11

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

For the 6 months to 5 April 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.

1 137 (34.42%) Stakeholder Management
2 103 (25.88%) Project Management
3 82 (20.60%) Agile
4 71 (17.84%) ITIL
5 69 (17.34%) Security Cleared
6 66 (16.58%) Project Delivery
7 65 (16.33%) Continuous Improvement
8 53 (13.32%) Service Management
9 51 (12.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 49 (12.31%) SC Cleared
11 48 (12.06%) ITSM
12 44 (11.06%) Service Delivery
13 39 (9.80%) Change Management
13 39 (9.80%) PRINCE2
14 38 (9.55%) Problem-Solving
15 34 (8.54%) Roadmaps
16 32 (8.04%) Degree
17 31 (7.79%) ServiceNow
18 30 (7.54%) Migration
19 29 (7.29%) Cybersecurity
20 28 (7.04%) PMP
20 28 (7.04%) Risk Management
20 28 (7.04%) Waterfall
21 26 (6.53%) JIRA
21 26 (6.53%) PMO
22 25 (6.28%) Budget Management
22 25 (6.28%) PMI Certification
23 24 (6.03%) Decision-Making
24 23 (5.78%) SAP
25 22 (5.53%) ERP

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 14 (3.52%) SharePoint
2 12 (3.02%) Confluence
3 2 (0.50%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.25%) Documentum
Applications
1 11 (2.76%) Microsoft Project
2 7 (1.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (1.51%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.01%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.75%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (1.51%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.75%) NEC Housing
2 3 (0.75%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.50%) Primavera
3 2 (0.50%) SAP MDG
3 2 (0.50%) SAP MM
3 2 (0.50%) TrackWise
4 1 (0.25%) Maximo
4 1 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.25%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.25%) SAP Retail
4 1 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.25%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 21 (5.28%) Azure
2 18 (4.52%) SaaS
3 13 (3.27%) IaaS
4 10 (2.51%) Microsoft 365
5 7 (1.76%) GCP
6 6 (1.51%) AWS
6 6 (1.51%) Entra ID
6 6 (1.51%) Google Workspace
7 4 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.01%) Dynamics 365
7 4 (1.01%) Power Platform
8 3 (0.75%) OneDrive
9 2 (0.50%) Azure API Management
9 2 (0.50%) Google Drive
9 2 (0.50%) Microsoft Copilot
9 2 (0.50%) Rubrik
9 2 (0.50%) Slack
9 2 (0.50%) WhatsApp
10 1 (0.25%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.25%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.26%) Network Security
2 2 (0.50%) DNS
2 2 (0.50%) Firewall
2 2 (0.50%) LAN
2 2 (0.50%) Structured Cabling
2 2 (0.50%) WAN
2 2 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (0.25%) BT 21CN
3 1 (0.25%) NaaS
3 1 (0.25%) RFID
3 1 (0.25%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.01%) Electronic Patient Records
2 3 (0.75%) Power BI
3 2 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.50%) EDRMS
3 2 (0.50%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.25%) BusinessObjects
4 1 (0.25%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.25%) Metadata
4 1 (0.25%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 26 (6.53%) JIRA
2 2 (0.50%) LSMW
General
1 123 (30.90%) Social Skills
2 118 (29.65%) Finance
3 41 (10.30%) Public Sector
4 37 (9.30%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (5.53%) Banking
6 19 (4.77%) Manufacturing
7 17 (4.27%) Retail
8 14 (3.52%) Telecoms
9 12 (3.02%) Legal
10 11 (2.76%) Influencing Skills
11 10 (2.51%) Aerospace
12 9 (2.26%) Organisational Skills
13 8 (2.01%) Marketing
13 8 (2.01%) Pharmaceutical
14 5 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (1.26%) Law
15 4 (1.01%) Aviation
16 3 (0.75%) Documentation Skills
16 3 (0.75%) French Language
16 3 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.01%) SAP Fiori
2 2 (0.50%) ADO
2 2 (0.50%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (0.50%) OpenID
2 2 (0.50%) SAML
3 1 (0.25%) Oracle Fusion
3 1 (0.25%) SailPoint
3 1 (0.25%) Spring Boot
3 1 (0.25%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 19 (4.77%) Data Centre
1 19 (4.77%) Onboarding
2 15 (3.77%) Management Information System
3 10 (2.51%) FMCG
3 10 (2.51%) NHS
4 7 (1.76%) Virtual Team
5 6 (1.51%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.26%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.01%) CMDB
7 4 (1.01%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (1.01%) Product Ownership
8 3 (0.75%) PMI
8 3 (0.75%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.50%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (0.50%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (0.50%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (0.50%) Life Science
9 2 (0.50%) LIMS
9 2 (0.50%) Mainframe
9 2 (0.50%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 12 (3.02%) Windows
2 1 (0.25%) Linux
2 1 (0.25%) Mac OS
2 1 (0.25%) OpenVMS
2 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 1 (0.25%) Windows 10
2 1 (0.25%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (34.42%) Stakeholder Management
2 103 (25.88%) Project Management
3 82 (20.60%) Agile
4 71 (17.84%) ITIL
5 66 (16.58%) Project Delivery
6 65 (16.33%) Continuous Improvement
7 53 (13.32%) Service Management
8 51 (12.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 48 (12.06%) ITSM
10 44 (11.06%) Service Delivery
11 39 (9.80%) Change Management
11 39 (9.80%) PRINCE2
12 38 (9.55%) Problem-Solving
13 34 (8.54%) Roadmaps
14 30 (7.54%) Migration
15 29 (7.29%) Cybersecurity
16 28 (7.04%) Risk Management
16 28 (7.04%) Waterfall
17 25 (6.28%) Budget Management
18 24 (6.03%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 3 (0.75%) SQL
2 2 (0.50%) PowerShell
2 2 (0.50%) Python
3 1 (0.25%) ABAP
3 1 (0.25%) VB
Qualifications
1 69 (17.34%) Security Cleared
2 49 (12.31%) SC Cleared
3 32 (8.04%) Degree
4 28 (7.04%) PMP
5 25 (6.28%) PMI Certification
6 15 (3.77%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (1.51%) DV Cleared
8 5 (1.26%) CISM
8 5 (1.26%) CISSP
9 4 (1.01%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 4 (1.01%) Master's Degree
9 4 (1.01%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 3 (0.75%) APMG
10 3 (0.75%) CISA
10 3 (0.75%) MBA
10 3 (0.75%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 2 (0.50%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.50%) CRISC
11 2 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 1 (0.25%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (6.53%) PMO
2 11 (2.76%) GDPR
3 10 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (2.26%) GRC
5 7 (1.76%) COBIT
5 7 (1.76%) NIST
5 7 (1.76%) QA
5 7 (1.76%) SLA
6 4 (1.01%) Data Quality
6 4 (1.01%) GxP
6 4 (1.01%) PCI DSS
6 4 (1.01%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (1.01%) SOC 2
7 3 (0.75%) GMP
8 2 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.25%) IASME
9 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 1 (0.25%) SOC 1
System Software
1 6 (1.51%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.50%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.25%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (1.01%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (0.50%) RSA Archer
2 2 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.50%) vRealize
3 1 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.25%) VxRail
Vendors
1 31 (7.79%) ServiceNow
2 23 (5.78%) SAP
3 17 (4.27%) Microsoft
4 12 (3.02%) Oracle
5 8 (2.01%) Ariba
5 8 (2.01%) Salesforce
6 6 (1.51%) Google
7 3 (0.75%) Cisco
7 3 (0.75%) VMware
7 3 (0.75%) Workday
8 2 (0.50%) Autodesk
8 2 (0.50%) Computacenter
8 2 (0.50%) Guidewire
8 2 (0.50%) HP
8 2 (0.50%) Kronos
8 2 (0.50%) Northgate
8 2 (0.50%) Remedy
9 1 (0.25%) Atlassian
9 1 (0.25%) Fortinet
9 1 (0.25%) Qualys