P3O Contract Job Trends

Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O) Guidance
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring P3O skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 22 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 604 509 547
Rank change year-on-year -95 +38 +135
Contract jobs citing P3O 15 13 24
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.031% 0.045% 0.057%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.19% 0.29% 0.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 4 18
10th Percentile £328 £331 £425
25th Percentile £350 £359 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £413 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.03% -21.43% +4.48%
75th Percentile £440 £456 £577
90th Percentile £483 £468 £604
UK excluding London median daily rate £375 £375 £513
% change year-on-year - -26.83% +9.33%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

P3O falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 7,981 4,560 6,021
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.52% 15.83% 14.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,132 2,929 3,826
10th Percentile £340 £263 £280
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £509
Median % change year-on-year - -1.67% -3.14%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +5.26% - -1.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 466 173 384
10th Percentile £14.00 £17.79 £10.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.14 £13.18
Median hourly rate £36.04 £34.50 £21.38
Median % change year-on-year +4.45% +61.38% -38.92%
75th Percentile £67.25 £67.50 £45.94
90th Percentile £82.13 £80.00 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £36.01 £18.27
% change year-on-year +11.08% +97.10% -43.78%

P3O
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing P3O relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

P3O job vacancy trend in the UK

P3O
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing P3O.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing P3O

P3O
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing P3O over the 6 months to 22 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for P3O in the UK

P3O
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing P3O.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing P3O

P3O
Top 11 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing P3O within the UK over the 6 months to 22 May 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 -108 14 £400 -11.11% 3
Work from Home -29 8 £400 - 2
UK excluding London -112 8 £375 - 2
London -53 7 £440 -2.22% 2
North of England - 5 £375 -
Yorkshire - 3 £400 -
North West - 2 £350 -
Scotland -4 1 £350 -
South East -63 1 £475 +5.56%
West Midlands - 1 - -
Midlands - 1 - - 1

P3O
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 4 (26.67%) Confluence
2 2 (13.33%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (60.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (46.67%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (40.00%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (40.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 4 (26.67%) Power Platform
2 2 (13.33%) Microsoft 365
3 1 (6.67%) Azure
3 1 (6.67%) Azure DevOps
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (26.67%) Power BI
2 2 (13.33%) Tableau
3 1 (6.67%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 5 (33.33%) JIRA
General
1 8 (53.33%) Social Skills
2 6 (40.00%) Finance
3 3 (20.00%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (13.33%) Banking
4 2 (13.33%) Presentation Skills
4 2 (13.33%) Public Sector
5 1 (6.67%) Law
5 1 (6.67%) Military
5 1 (6.67%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 4 (26.67%) Senior
2 3 (20.00%) Analyst
2 3 (20.00%) Lead
2 3 (20.00%) PMO Analyst
2 3 (20.00%) PMO Lead
2 3 (20.00%) Senior Analyst
2 3 (20.00%) Senior PMO
2 3 (20.00%) Senior PMO Analyst
3 1 (6.67%) DV Cleared Project Manager
3 1 (6.67%) Junior
3 1 (6.67%) Junior Project Manager
3 1 (6.67%) PMO Manager
3 1 (6.67%) Portfolio Manager
3 1 (6.67%) Programme Director
3 1 (6.67%) Project Manager
3 1 (6.67%) Senior Manager
3 1 (6.67%) Senior Portfolio Manager
3 1 (6.67%) Support Officer
Miscellaneous
1 1 (6.67%) Management Information System
1 1 (6.67%) PMI
1 1 (6.67%) Product Ownership
1 1 (6.67%) Self-Motivation
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (73.33%) PRINCE2
2 6 (40.00%) Agile
3 5 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
3 5 (33.33%) Portfolio Management
3 5 (33.33%) Project Management
3 5 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
4 4 (26.67%) Business Intelligence
4 4 (26.67%) Project Delivery
4 4 (26.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 3 (20.00%) Actionable Insight
5 3 (20.00%) Change Management
5 3 (20.00%) Programme Management
5 3 (20.00%) Risk Management
6 2 (13.33%) Capacity Planning
6 2 (13.33%) Change Control
6 2 (13.33%) Quality Management
6 2 (13.33%) Regulatory Compliance
6 2 (13.33%) Service Delivery
6 2 (13.33%) Visualisation
6 2 (13.33%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 1 (6.67%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 8 (53.33%) Degree
2 7 (46.67%) Security Cleared
3 6 (40.00%) PMI Certification
4 5 (33.33%) PMP
5 4 (26.67%) SC Cleared
6 3 (20.00%) CTC Cleared
7 2 (13.33%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (13.33%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (93.33%) PMO
2 2 (13.33%) GRC
3 1 (6.67%) QA
Vendors
1 4 (26.67%) Microsoft
2 2 (13.33%) ServiceNow
3 1 (6.67%) Planview