Product Backlog Contracts

Product Backlogs
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Product Backlog skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Product Backlog over the 6 months leading up to 16 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 370 353 405
Rank change year-on-year -17 +52 -56
Contract jobs citing Product Backlog 154 228 320
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.53% 0.54% 0.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.58% 0.62% 0.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 97 173 222
10th Percentile £400 £353 £425
25th Percentile £463 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.82% - -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £648
90th Percentile £704 £688 £735
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -9.09% - +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 10 1
10th Percentile £51.17 £31.71 -
25th Percentile £53.47 £37.56 -
Median hourly rate £59.31 £65.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.46% -6.43% +145.61%
75th Percentile £63.15 £65.75 -
90th Percentile £64.26 £65.98 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £59.31 £65.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -9.46% -6.43% +145.61%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Product Backlog falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,555 36,687 51,295
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.98% 86.22% 89.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,047 23,611 35,552
10th Percentile £305 £300 £325
25th Percentile £410 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -4.55% +3.77%
75th Percentile £626 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +5.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,084 2,428 1,693
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.75 £10.77
25th Percentile £18.13 £16.00 £16.13
Median hourly rate £28.00 £36.05 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.32% +0.13% +40.19%
75th Percentile £60.00 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -32.93% +7.14% +75.00%

Product Backlog
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Product Backlog as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Product Backlog in the UK

Product Backlog
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Product Backlog.

Daily rate trend for Product Backlog in the UK

Product Backlog
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Product Backlog over the 6 months to 16 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Product Backlog in the UK

Product Backlog
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Product Backlog.

Hourly rate trend for Product Backlog in the UK

Product Backlog
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Product Backlog over the 6 months to 16 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Product Backlog in the UK

Product Backlog
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Product Backlog within the UK over the 6 months to 16 May 2025. 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 -8 122 £548 -0.45% 234
London -1 67 £600 +9.09% 108
UK excluding London -14 56 £500 -9.09% 155
Work from Home -3 51 £500 -9.09% 118
South East +16 20 £494 -17.67% 51
South West +49 12 £545 -9.09% 13
Midlands +10 12 £545 -0.91% 24
West Midlands +6 9 £515 -6.36% 19
North of England +10 8 £500 +5.26% 44
Yorkshire +14 6 £483 +7.33% 15
Scotland -3 4 £506 -11.96% 7
East Midlands +10 3 £800 +106.45% 5
East of England +16 1 - - 12
North West +3 1 £660 +50.86% 21
North East -4 1 - - 8

Product Backlog
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 29 (18.83%) Confluence
2 2 (1.30%) CMS
2 2 (1.30%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.65%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.65%) WordPress
Applications
1 12 (7.79%) Trello
2 2 (1.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.30%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.65%) Adobe XD
3 1 (0.65%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.65%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 3 (1.95%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.30%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.65%) Endur
3 1 (0.65%) Primavera
3 1 (0.65%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.65%) Shopify
3 1 (0.65%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.65%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 37 (24.03%) Azure
2 18 (11.69%) Azure DevOps
3 10 (6.49%) AWS
3 10 (6.49%) Power Platform
3 10 (6.49%) SaaS
4 7 (4.55%) GCP
4 7 (4.55%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (3.90%) Dynamics 365
6 4 (2.60%) Salesforce Service Cloud
6 4 (2.60%) Serverless
7 3 (1.95%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 3 (1.95%) Azure Data Factory
7 3 (1.95%) Azure Functions
7 3 (1.95%) Azure Monitor
7 3 (1.95%) Miro
8 2 (1.30%) Azure AKS
8 2 (1.30%) Azure Machine Learning
8 2 (1.30%) CloudBees
8 2 (1.30%) Entra ID
8 2 (1.30%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.60%) Firewall
2 3 (1.95%) Broadband
3 2 (1.30%) BGP
3 2 (1.30%) DHCP
3 2 (1.30%) DNS
3 2 (1.30%) EIGRP
3 2 (1.30%) HTTP
3 2 (1.30%) IPsec
3 2 (1.30%) Network Security
3 2 (1.30%) OSPF
3 2 (1.30%) Software-Defined Networking
3 2 (1.30%) SSL
3 2 (1.30%) TACACS
3 2 (1.30%) VLAN
3 2 (1.30%) VPN
3 2 (1.30%) Wireless
4 1 (0.65%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.55%) Power BI
2 2 (1.30%) BigQuery
2 2 (1.30%) NoSQL
2 2 (1.30%) Star Schema
3 1 (0.65%) Big Data
3 1 (0.65%) Data Mart
3 1 (0.65%) Data Mining
3 1 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.65%) Delta Lake
3 1 (0.65%) GIS
3 1 (0.65%) Metadata
3 1 (0.65%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.65%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.65%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 43 (27.92%) JIRA
2 9 (5.84%) Git
3 4 (2.60%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.95%) Cypress.io
4 3 (1.95%) Postman
4 3 (1.95%) Selenium
4 3 (1.95%) Visual Studio
4 3 (1.95%) Visual Studio Code
5 2 (1.30%) Moq
5 2 (1.30%) SpecFlow
6 1 (0.65%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.65%) MLflow
6 1 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.65%) WebDriver
General
1 66 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 41 (26.62%) Finance
3 36 (23.38%) Analytical Skills
4 35 (22.73%) Public Sector
5 10 (6.49%) Presentation Skills
6 8 (5.19%) Banking
6 8 (5.19%) Telecoms
7 7 (4.55%) Back Office
7 7 (4.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (4.55%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (4.55%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (3.90%) Marketing
9 5 (3.25%) Electronics
9 5 (3.25%) Manufacturing
10 4 (2.60%) Investment Banking
11 3 (1.95%) Retail
12 2 (1.30%) Automotive
12 2 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
12 2 (1.30%) Military
13 1 (0.65%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 37 (24.03%) Product Owner
2 30 (19.48%) Product Manager
3 23 (14.94%) Analyst
4 20 (12.99%) Business Analyst
5 19 (12.34%) Scrum Master
6 12 (7.79%) Lead
6 12 (7.79%) Senior
7 10 (6.49%) Developer
8 6 (3.90%) Product Lead
9 5 (3.25%) Consultant
9 5 (3.25%) Senior Product Owner
10 4 (2.60%) Architect
10 4 (2.60%) Dynamics 365 Consultant
10 4 (2.60%) Full-Stack Developer
10 4 (2.60%) Product Analyst
10 4 (2.60%) Senior Developer
11 3 (1.95%) Azure Developer
11 3 (1.95%) React Developer
11 3 (1.95%) Salesforce Architect
11 3 (1.95%) Salesforce Solution Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.25%) .NET
1 5 (3.25%) CSS
1 5 (3.25%) HTML
2 4 (2.60%) ADO
2 4 (2.60%) React
2 4 (2.60%) RESTful
3 3 (1.95%) AngularJS
3 3 (1.95%) JSON
3 3 (1.95%) XML
3 3 (1.95%) YAML
4 2 (1.30%) .NET Core
4 2 (1.30%) ASP.NET
5 1 (0.65%) Bootstrap
5 1 (0.65%) EDI
5 1 (0.65%) Gherkin
5 1 (0.65%) Lightning Web Components
5 1 (0.65%) SAP Fiori
5 1 (0.65%) VML
5 1 (0.65%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 93 (60.39%) Product Ownership
2 7 (4.55%) Virtual Team
3 4 (2.60%) Cyberattack
4 3 (1.95%) FMCG
4 3 (1.95%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 3 (1.95%) Mobile App
4 3 (1.95%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (1.30%) Greenfield Project
5 2 (1.30%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (1.30%) Management Information System
5 2 (1.30%) NHS
5 2 (1.30%) Reinsurance
6 1 (0.65%) Embedded Systems
6 1 (0.65%) IoT
6 1 (0.65%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.65%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.65%) PACS
6 1 (0.65%) PMI
6 1 (0.65%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.65%) Android
1 1 (0.65%) Apple iOS
1 1 (0.65%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (78.57%) Agile
2 72 (46.75%) Backlog Management
3 70 (45.45%) Scrum
4 68 (44.16%) Roadmaps
5 66 (42.86%) User Stories
6 46 (29.87%) Backlog Prioritisation
7 41 (26.62%) Sprint Planning
8 39 (25.32%) Stakeholder Management
9 37 (24.03%) Sprint Retrospective
10 36 (23.38%) Product Roadmap
10 36 (23.38%) Product Vision
11 35 (22.73%) Continuous Improvement
12 34 (22.08%) Acceptance Criteria
12 34 (22.08%) Problem-Solving
13 33 (21.43%) DevOps
14 31 (20.13%) Product Management
15 27 (17.53%) Product Strategy
15 27 (17.53%) User Experience
16 26 (16.88%) Coaching
17 22 (14.29%) Sprint Review
Programming Languages
1 8 (5.19%) JavaScript
1 8 (5.19%) SQL
2 7 (4.55%) Python
3 6 (3.90%) C#
4 3 (1.95%) Java
4 3 (1.95%) TypeScript
5 2 (1.30%) Apex Code
5 2 (1.30%) Kotlin
5 2 (1.30%) Shell Script
6 1 (0.65%) Groovy
6 1 (0.65%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 18 (11.69%) Security Cleared
2 16 (10.39%) Degree
3 15 (9.74%) SC Cleared
4 5 (3.25%) CSPO
5 2 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (1.30%) PMI Certification
6 1 (0.65%) APMP
6 1 (0.65%) DV Cleared
6 1 (0.65%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.65%) PMP
6 1 (0.65%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (11.04%) QA
2 15 (9.74%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.30%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.65%) Automotive SPICE
4 1 (0.65%) Basel II
4 1 (0.65%) COPPA
4 1 (0.65%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.65%) GDPR
4 1 (0.65%) GRC
4 1 (0.65%) ISO 20022
4 1 (0.65%) ISO 26262
4 1 (0.65%) SEPA
4 1 (0.65%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (1.95%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.30%) Docker
2 2 (1.30%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 4 (2.60%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.30%) Grafana
2 2 (1.30%) Nagios
2 2 (1.30%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 25 (16.23%) Microsoft
2 16 (10.39%) Salesforce
3 7 (4.55%) Google
3 7 (4.55%) SAP
4 5 (3.25%) Oracle
4 5 (3.25%) ServiceNow
5 4 (2.60%) Atlassian
5 4 (2.60%) Cisco
6 3 (1.95%) Murex
6 3 (1.95%) Workday
7 2 (1.30%) Adobe
7 2 (1.30%) Arista
7 2 (1.30%) Databricks
7 2 (1.30%) Juniper
7 2 (1.30%) OpenAI
7 2 (1.30%) SolarWinds
8 1 (0.65%) OpenLink
8 1 (0.65%) Siemens
8 1 (0.65%) Sitecore
8 1 (0.65%) Splunk