Product Lead Contracts

Product Leader
UK

The median Product Leader daily rate in the UK is £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 504 567 659
Rank change year-on-year +63 +92 +158
Contract jobs requiring a Product Lead 16 15 59
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.055% 0.034% 0.099%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.059% 0.037% 0.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 11 46
10th Percentile £591 £400 £412
25th Percentile - £425 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +8.70% +36.90%
75th Percentile £684 £630 £600
90th Percentile £705 £638 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £625 £418
% change year-on-year -4.00% +49.70% +0.60%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Product Lead
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Product Lead in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Product Lead in the UK

Product Lead
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Product Lead in the UK

Product Lead
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Product Lead over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Product Lead in the UK

Product Lead
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Product Lead in the UK

Product Lead
Top 8 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Product Lead within the UK over the 6 months to 1 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 +59 16 £600 -4.00% 29
London +40 10 £625 +15.74% 21
UK excluding London +64 6 £600 -4.00% 11
Work from Home +45 5 £625 - 11
South West - 3 £600 -
South East +47 2 - - 4
North of England +16 1 - - 4
North West - 1 - - 4

Product Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Product Lead contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Product Lead in the job title.

1 11 (68.75%) Roadmaps
2 10 (62.50%) Social Skills
3 7 (43.75%) Agile
4 6 (37.50%) Artificial Intelligence
4 6 (37.50%) Product Management
4 6 (37.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 6 (37.50%) Product Strategy
4 6 (37.50%) Product Backlog
5 5 (31.25%) Backlog Management
5 5 (31.25%) Presentation Skills
5 5 (31.25%) Product Ownership
5 5 (31.25%) Continuous Improvement
5 5 (31.25%) Coaching
5 5 (31.25%) Microsoft
6 4 (25.00%) Scrum
6 4 (25.00%) JIRA
6 4 (25.00%) QA
6 4 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (25.00%) Chatbot
6 4 (25.00%) Conversational UI
6 4 (25.00%) Copilot Studio
6 4 (25.00%) Product Roadmap
7 3 (18.75%) Public Sector
7 3 (18.75%) Business Case
7 3 (18.75%) Product Vision
7 3 (18.75%) Epics
7 3 (18.75%) User Stories
7 3 (18.75%) Decision-Making
7 3 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
7 3 (18.75%) Data-Driven Decision Making

Product Lead Skill Set
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 3 (18.75%) Confluence
2 2 (12.50%) Drupal
Applications
1 4 (25.00%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (18.75%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (12.50%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 4 (25.00%) Copilot Studio
2 2 (12.50%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (12.50%) Microsoft Copilot
2 2 (12.50%) OCI
2 2 (12.50%) SaaS
3 1 (6.25%) Power Platform
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (6.25%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (25.00%) JIRA
General
1 10 (62.50%) Social Skills
2 5 (31.25%) Presentation Skills
3 4 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (18.75%) Finance
4 3 (18.75%) Manufacturing
4 3 (18.75%) Public Sector
5 2 (12.50%) Back Office
6 1 (6.25%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (6.25%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 5 (31.25%) Product Ownership
2 1 (6.25%) Onboarding
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (68.75%) Roadmaps
2 7 (43.75%) Agile
3 6 (37.50%) Artificial Intelligence
3 6 (37.50%) Product Backlog
3 6 (37.50%) Product Management
3 6 (37.50%) Product Strategy
3 6 (37.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 5 (31.25%) Backlog Management
4 5 (31.25%) Coaching
4 5 (31.25%) Continuous Improvement
5 4 (25.00%) Conversational UI
5 4 (25.00%) Product Roadmap
5 4 (25.00%) Scrum
6 3 (18.75%) Business Case
6 3 (18.75%) Decision-Making
6 3 (18.75%) Epics
6 3 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
6 3 (18.75%) Product Vision
6 3 (18.75%) Project Management
6 3 (18.75%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 2 (12.50%) PHP
2 1 (6.25%) Python
2 1 (6.25%) R
2 1 (6.25%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (12.50%) Security Cleared
2 1 (6.25%) CTC Cleared
2 1 (6.25%) Degree
2 1 (6.25%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (25.00%) QA
2 2 (12.50%) Accessibility
2 2 (12.50%) PMO
Vendors
1 5 (31.25%) Microsoft
2 3 (18.75%) Atlassian
2 3 (18.75%) SAP
3 2 (12.50%) Oracle