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 10 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 571 518 590
Rank change year-on-year -53 +72 +151
Contract jobs citing P3O 16 14 10
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.041% 0.046% 0.022%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.24% 0.31% 0.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 8 4
10th Percentile £350 £300 £428
25th Percentile £400 £359 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £531
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -15.29% -3.41%
75th Percentile £513 £456 £558
90th Percentile £760 £498 £572
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £531
% change year-on-year +5.56% -15.29% +18.06%

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 6,797 4,455 6,475
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.27% 14.51% 14.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,372 2,621 4,266
10th Percentile £325 £260 £300
25th Percentile £413 £375 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £634
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.58% -2.56% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 355 168 341
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.00 £12.25
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.00 £14.50
Median hourly rate £26.11 £29.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.97% +16.00% -12.28%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £76.01 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.19 £29.00 £24.75
% change year-on-year -16.59% +17.17% -10.00%

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 10 February 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 10 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 10 February 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 -67 15 £475 +5.56% 7
UK excluding London -58 11 £475 +5.56% 7
Work from Home -21 5 £350 - 5
South East -22 5 £475 +5.56%
London -38 5 £638 +41.67% 1
North of England - 4 £350 - 1
North West - 3 £350 -
South West -15 1 £550 - 1
Wales - 1 £336 -
Yorkshire - 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 6 (37.50%) SharePoint
2 4 (25.00%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (56.25%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (56.25%) Microsoft Project
2 7 (43.75%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (37.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (6.25%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (12.50%) Primavera
2 1 (6.25%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (6.25%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 5 (31.25%) Power Platform
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (31.25%) Power BI
2 1 (6.25%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 5 (31.25%) JIRA
General
1 12 (75.00%) Finance
1 12 (75.00%) Social Skills
2 5 (31.25%) Public Sector
3 2 (12.50%) Banking
4 1 (6.25%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (6.25%) Military
Job Titles
1 5 (31.25%) Analyst
2 4 (25.00%) PMO Analyst
3 2 (12.50%) Lead
3 2 (12.50%) PMO Support Analyst
3 2 (12.50%) Project Analyst
3 2 (12.50%) Project Support Analyst
3 2 (12.50%) Senior
4 1 (6.25%) PMO Lead
4 1 (6.25%) PMO Manager
4 1 (6.25%) Portfolio Manager
4 1 (6.25%) Programme Director
4 1 (6.25%) Project Manager
4 1 (6.25%) Project Planner
4 1 (6.25%) QA Leader
4 1 (6.25%) Risk Analyst
4 1 (6.25%) Senior Analyst
4 1 (6.25%) Senior Manager
4 1 (6.25%) Senior Portfolio Manager
4 1 (6.25%) Senior Risk Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 2 (12.50%) PMI
2 1 (6.25%) Onboarding
2 1 (6.25%) Private Cloud
2 1 (6.25%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (87.50%) PRINCE2
2 8 (50.00%) Project Delivery
3 6 (37.50%) Agile
3 6 (37.50%) Document Management
3 6 (37.50%) Project Management
3 6 (37.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 5 (31.25%) Business Intelligence
4 5 (31.25%) Programme Management
4 5 (31.25%) Risk Management
5 4 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
6 3 (18.75%) Actionable Insight
6 3 (18.75%) Budgeting and Forecasting
6 3 (18.75%) Change Management
6 3 (18.75%) Programme Delivery
6 3 (18.75%) Programme Governance
6 3 (18.75%) Resource Management
6 3 (18.75%) Scaled Agile Framework
6 3 (18.75%) Stakeholder Management
6 3 (18.75%) Waterfall
6 3 (18.75%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 1 (6.25%) Korn
Qualifications
1 10 (62.50%) Degree
2 8 (50.00%) Security Cleared
3 5 (31.25%) DV Cleared
3 5 (31.25%) PMI Certification
4 4 (25.00%) PMP
5 3 (18.75%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (12.50%) SC Cleared
7 1 (6.25%) APMP
7 1 (6.25%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (81.25%) PMO
2 3 (18.75%) GRC
3 1 (6.25%) ISO 31000
3 1 (6.25%) QA
Vendors
1 6 (37.50%) Microsoft
2 2 (12.50%) Planview
3 1 (6.25%) Oracle
3 1 (6.25%) SAP
3 1 (6.25%) ServiceNow