Product Owner Contract Job Trends

Product Owner
UK

The median Product Owner daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 March 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 373 358 319
Rank change year-on-year -15 -39 +68
Contract jobs requiring a Product Owner 262 167 296
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.61% 0.57% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.66% 0.61% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 163 92 202
10th Percentile £413 £413 £406
25th Percentile £463 £500 £486
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £588 £575
Median % change year-on-year -10.64% +2.17% +4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £675 £650
90th Percentile £737 £713 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £515 £500
% change year-on-year +1.94% +3.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 4 1
10th Percentile - £34.63 -
25th Percentile £48.86 £45.31 -
Median hourly rate £52.78 £72.25 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.96% +44.50% +42.86%
75th Percentile £60.61 £95.75 -
90th Percentile £70.57 £96.19 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.78 £52.50 £50.00
% change year-on-year +0.52% +5.00% -

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 39,662 27,424 41,343
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.92% 92.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,771 17,715 27,123
10th Percentile £313 £296 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.40%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,471 874 2,496
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.36 £12.96
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.06 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +1.71% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.44
90th Percentile £75.79 £77.50 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -19.90%

Product Owner
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Product Owner' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Product Owner job vacancy trend in the UK

Product Owner
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Product Owner job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Product Owner job vacancies in the UK

Product Owner
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Product Owner over the 6 months to 14 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Product Owner in the UK

Product Owner
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Product Owner job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Product Owner job vacancies in the UK

Product Owner
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Product Owner over the 6 months to 14 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Product Owner in the UK

Product Owner
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Product Owner within the UK over the 6 months to 14 March 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 -13 242 £528 -8.26% 83
UK excluding London +2 127 £525 +1.94% 67
London -53 108 £561 -11.26% 27
Work from Home -20 69 £525 -19.23% 56
North of England -13 61 £492 -18.00% 24
South East -39 36 £575 +9.16% 16
North West -8 30 £561 -6.58% 19
Yorkshire -34 25 £486 -18.96% 4
Midlands -43 21 £525 +27.27% 12
East Midlands -21 13 £538 +50.98% 7
West Midlands -59 8 £520 +0.97% 5
South West -23 5 £475 - 7
North East - 4 £475 - 1
Scotland +8 2 - - 5
East of England -25 2 £450 - 2

Product Owner Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 March 2026, Product Owner 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 Product Owner in the job title.

1 134 (51.15%) Agile
2 125 (47.71%) Roadmaps
3 84 (32.06%) Product Backlog
4 83 (31.68%) User Stories
5 78 (29.77%) Stakeholder Management
6 60 (22.90%) Product Roadmap
6 60 (22.90%) Product Vision
7 58 (22.14%) Backlog Management
8 54 (20.61%) Security Cleared
9 47 (17.94%) Backlog Prioritisation
9 47 (17.94%) Scrum
10 45 (17.18%) Continuous Improvement
11 44 (16.79%) Acceptance Criteria
12 39 (14.89%) Sprint Planning
13 36 (13.74%) JIRA
13 36 (13.74%) SC Cleared
14 34 (12.98%) Decision-Making
14 34 (12.98%) Product Strategy
15 32 (12.21%) Microsoft
16 29 (11.07%) Problem-Solving
16 29 (11.07%) Product Management
17 28 (10.69%) User Experience
18 27 (10.31%) AWS
19 26 (9.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 25 (9.54%) DevOps
21 24 (9.16%) Confluence
21 24 (9.16%) Customer Experience
22 21 (8.02%) Scaled Agile Framework
23 20 (7.63%) QA
24 19 (7.25%) AI

Product Owner 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 24 (9.16%) Confluence
2 8 (3.05%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (1.91%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.76%) CMS
5 1 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.38%) Appian
5 1 (0.38%) Mendix
5 1 (0.38%) Mule
5 1 (0.38%) Mule ESB
5 1 (0.38%) nginx
5 1 (0.38%) WebSphere
Applications
1 2 (0.76%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.38%) Adobe Illustrator
2 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.38%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.38%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 6 (2.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.76%) Finacle
2 2 (0.76%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.76%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.38%) Adobe Campaign
3 1 (0.38%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.38%) Oracle Payroll
3 1 (0.38%) ProductWriter
3 1 (0.38%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.38%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.38%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 27 (10.31%) AWS
2 19 (7.25%) Azure
3 11 (4.20%) GCP
4 8 (3.05%) Dynamics 365
5 7 (2.67%) Power Platform
6 6 (2.29%) Azure DevOps
6 6 (2.29%) SaaS
7 5 (1.91%) Microsoft 365
8 4 (1.53%) Amazon S3
8 4 (1.53%) OpenShift
8 4 (1.53%) Power Automate
9 3 (1.15%) Amazon Bedrock
9 3 (1.15%) Amazon OpenSearch
9 3 (1.15%) AWS Lambda
9 3 (1.15%) Serverless
9 3 (1.15%) SuccessFactors
10 2 (0.76%) Amazon ECR
10 2 (0.76%) Amazon EventBridge
10 2 (0.76%) Figma
10 2 (0.76%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.29%) DNS
1 6 (2.29%) Firewall
2 5 (1.91%) Network Security
3 3 (1.15%) NGFW
4 1 (0.38%) Cisco IPT
4 1 (0.38%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.29%) Power BI
2 3 (1.15%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.76%) Data Lake
3 2 (0.76%) Delta Lake
3 2 (0.76%) GIS
3 2 (0.76%) Metadata
3 2 (0.76%) Pinecone
3 2 (0.76%) SAP HANA
3 2 (0.76%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.38%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.38%) Big Data
4 1 (0.38%) Geospatial Data
4 1 (0.38%) MySQL
4 1 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 36 (13.74%) JIRA
2 1 (0.38%) Cucumber
2 1 (0.38%) Git
2 1 (0.38%) JUnit
2 1 (0.38%) Postman
2 1 (0.38%) REST Assured
2 1 (0.38%) Team Foundation Server
2 1 (0.38%) Vite
General
1 83 (31.68%) Social Skills
2 75 (28.63%) Finance
3 37 (14.12%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (9.54%) Banking
5 16 (6.11%) Public Sector
6 15 (5.73%) Marketing
7 10 (3.82%) Legal
8 8 (3.05%) Retail
9 7 (2.67%) Influencing Skills
9 7 (2.67%) Law
9 7 (2.67%) Pharmaceutical
10 6 (2.29%) Military
11 4 (1.53%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (1.53%) Police
11 4 (1.53%) Telecoms
12 3 (1.15%) Manufacturing
13 2 (0.76%) Corporate Banking
14 1 (0.38%) Documentation Skills
14 1 (0.38%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.38%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.53%) JSON
1 4 (1.53%) XML
2 3 (1.15%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.15%) REST
3 2 (0.76%) Faiss
3 2 (0.76%) Flutter
3 2 (0.76%) LangChain
3 2 (0.76%) LangGraph
3 2 (0.76%) React
4 1 (0.38%) ADO
4 1 (0.38%) AngularJS
4 1 (0.38%) CSS
4 1 (0.38%) Django
4 1 (0.38%) HTML
4 1 (0.38%) J2EE
4 1 (0.38%) Laravel
4 1 (0.38%) OAuth
4 1 (0.38%) RESTful
4 1 (0.38%) SOAP
4 1 (0.38%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 262 (100.00%) Product Ownership
2 14 (5.34%) Onboarding
3 11 (4.20%) Legacy Systems
4 9 (3.44%) Cloud Native
4 9 (3.44%) Data Protection Act
4 9 (3.44%) Mobile App
5 7 (2.67%) Analytical Mindset
5 7 (2.67%) CMDB
6 6 (2.29%) Greenfield Project
6 6 (2.29%) Public Cloud
7 4 (1.53%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.53%) Marketing Technology
8 3 (1.15%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 3 (1.15%) Life Science
9 2 (0.76%) Credit Risk
9 2 (0.76%) FMCG
9 2 (0.76%) Low-Code
9 2 (0.76%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.76%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 14 (5.34%) Windows
2 8 (3.05%) Linux
2 8 (3.05%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.38%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (51.15%) Agile
2 125 (47.71%) Roadmaps
3 84 (32.06%) Product Backlog
4 83 (31.68%) User Stories
5 78 (29.77%) Stakeholder Management
6 60 (22.90%) Product Roadmap
6 60 (22.90%) Product Vision
7 58 (22.14%) Backlog Management
8 47 (17.94%) Backlog Prioritisation
8 47 (17.94%) Scrum
9 45 (17.18%) Continuous Improvement
10 44 (16.79%) Acceptance Criteria
11 39 (14.89%) Sprint Planning
12 34 (12.98%) Decision-Making
12 34 (12.98%) Product Strategy
13 29 (11.07%) Problem-Solving
13 29 (11.07%) Product Management
14 28 (10.69%) User Experience
15 26 (9.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 25 (9.54%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 12 (4.58%) SQL
2 5 (1.91%) Python
3 3 (1.15%) Java
3 3 (1.15%) JavaScript
4 2 (0.76%) Kotlin
5 1 (0.38%) Bash
5 1 (0.38%) C#
5 1 (0.38%) Korn
5 1 (0.38%) PHP
5 1 (0.38%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.38%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 54 (20.61%) Security Cleared
2 36 (13.74%) SC Cleared
3 14 (5.34%) CSPO
4 11 (4.20%) Degree
5 10 (3.82%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.53%) DV Cleared
6 4 (1.53%) Master's Degree
7 2 (0.76%) AWS Certification
7 2 (0.76%) CBAP
8 1 (0.38%) ACCA
8 1 (0.38%) APMP
8 1 (0.38%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.38%) OCP
8 1 (0.38%) Oracle Certification
8 1 (0.38%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.38%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (7.63%) QA
2 13 (4.96%) Data Quality
3 10 (3.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (3.44%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 8 (3.05%) SLA
6 6 (2.29%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 6 (2.29%) NCSC
7 5 (1.91%) GDPR
8 4 (1.53%) NIST
9 3 (1.15%) Accessibility
9 3 (1.15%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.76%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 2 (0.76%) GxP
10 2 (0.76%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.38%) GRC
11 1 (0.38%) PERC
System Software
1 8 (3.05%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (2.29%) Hyper-V
4 5 (1.91%) Docker
5 1 (0.38%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 8 (3.05%) Kubernetes
2 4 (1.53%) CASB
3 2 (0.76%) Terraform
4 1 (0.38%) Ansible
4 1 (0.38%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.38%) PowerCLI
4 1 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.38%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.38%) vRealize
4 1 (0.38%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 32 (12.21%) Microsoft
2 18 (6.87%) Salesforce
3 15 (5.73%) SAP
4 12 (4.58%) ServiceNow
5 7 (2.67%) VMware
6 6 (2.29%) Databricks
7 5 (1.91%) Cisco
7 5 (1.91%) Splunk
7 5 (1.91%) Zscaler
8 4 (1.53%) ForeScout
8 4 (1.53%) Fortinet
8 4 (1.53%) Infoblox
9 3 (1.15%) Epicor
9 3 (1.15%) MuleSoft
9 3 (1.15%) Oracle
9 3 (1.15%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
9 3 (1.15%) Workday
10 2 (0.76%) Adobe
10 2 (0.76%) Cognizant
10 2 (0.76%) ESRI