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 26 May 2026.

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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 371 399 340
Rank change year-on-year +28 -59 +46
Contract jobs requiring a Product Owner 283 127 241
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.44% 0.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.63% 0.48% 0.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 81 174
10th Percentile £413 £390 £405
25th Percentile £467 £419 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £575
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -10.43% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £675
90th Percentile £737 £675 £755
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £462 £550
% change year-on-year +13.64% -16.00% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 0
10th Percentile £48.86 £88.62 -
25th Percentile £54.73 £88.79 -
Median hourly rate £79.91 £92.54 -
Median % change year-on-year -13.65% - -
75th Percentile £93.80 £96.24 -
90th Percentile £102.66 £96.39 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £79.91 £92.00 -
% change year-on-year -13.14% - -

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 44,822 26,395 39,583
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.28% 92.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,378 17,183 25,758
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,956 1,008 2,746
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.81
25th Percentile £20.49 £18.12 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.52 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.46% -24.62% -18.89%
75th Percentile £67.06 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -5.88%

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 26 May 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 26 May 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 26 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 +22 261 £525 +1.94% 130
UK excluding London -31 134 £525 +13.64% 73
London -6 125 £550 +4.76% 63
Work from Home -12 72 £500 -9.09% 48
North of England -22 58 £500 -16.67% 23
South East -39 38 £525 +5.00% 20
Yorkshire -31 28 £500 -16.67% 6
North West -12 27 £561 -10.32% 16
Midlands -50 26 £538 +33.71% 12
West Midlands -49 19 £538 +4.37% 9
South West -27 9 £500 +9.65% 12
East Midlands -29 7 £520 +29.35% 3
Scotland -4 5 £466 -6.75% 4
North East -20 3 £475 - 1
East of England -34 3 £450 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 26 May 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.

1 151 (53.36%) Agile
2 147 (51.94%) Roadmaps
3 109 (38.52%) User Stories
4 99 (34.98%) Stakeholder Management
5 96 (33.92%) Product Backlog
6 80 (28.27%) Product Roadmap
7 70 (24.73%) Backlog Prioritisation
8 64 (22.61%) Backlog Management
9 63 (22.26%) Acceptance Criteria
10 53 (18.73%) Product Vision
11 50 (17.67%) Decision-Making
12 48 (16.96%) Sprint Planning
13 47 (16.61%) Continuous Improvement
13 47 (16.61%) Security Cleared
14 45 (15.90%) JIRA
15 40 (14.13%) Scrum
16 36 (12.72%) AI
17 34 (12.01%) Analytics
18 33 (11.66%) Microsoft
19 32 (11.31%) Product Management
20 30 (10.60%) Product Strategy
21 29 (10.25%) Customer Experience
21 29 (10.25%) SC Cleared
22 27 (9.54%) Problem-Solving
22 27 (9.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
23 26 (9.19%) Confluence
23 26 (9.19%) Epics
24 25 (8.83%) Salesforce
24 25 (8.83%) Scaled Agile Framework
25 24 (8.48%) DevOps

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 26 (9.19%) Confluence
2 8 (2.83%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (1.06%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 3 (1.06%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.35%) Appian
4 1 (0.35%) CMS
4 1 (0.35%) Mendix
4 1 (0.35%) Mule
4 1 (0.35%) Mule ESB
4 1 (0.35%) nginx
Applications
1 2 (0.71%) Chatbot
1 2 (0.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.35%) Adobe Illustrator
2 1 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.35%) Notion
2 1 (0.35%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 7 (2.47%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.41%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.71%) Finacle
3 2 (0.71%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.35%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.35%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.35%) SAP HR
4 1 (0.35%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 23 (8.13%) AWS
2 15 (5.30%) Azure
3 13 (4.59%) SaaS
4 10 (3.53%) OpenShift
5 9 (3.18%) Dynamics 365
5 9 (3.18%) GCP
6 6 (2.12%) Power Platform
7 5 (1.77%) Collibra
7 5 (1.77%) Figma
7 5 (1.77%) GitHub
8 4 (1.41%) Amazon S3
8 4 (1.41%) PaaS
9 3 (1.06%) Amazon OpenSearch
9 3 (1.06%) AWS Lambda
9 3 (1.06%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (1.06%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.06%) Microsoft 365
9 3 (1.06%) Serverless
10 2 (0.71%) Amazon ECR
10 2 (0.71%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.12%) DNS
1 6 (2.12%) Firewall
2 5 (1.77%) Network Security
3 3 (1.06%) NGFW
4 2 (0.71%) Wireless
5 1 (0.35%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.83%) Metadata
2 7 (2.47%) Delta Lake
3 5 (1.77%) Parquet
3 5 (1.77%) Power BI
4 3 (1.06%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.71%) Big Data
5 2 (0.71%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.71%) GIS
5 2 (0.71%) Pinecone
6 1 (0.35%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.35%) Geospatial Data
6 1 (0.35%) MySQL
6 1 (0.35%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.35%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 45 (15.90%) JIRA
2 1 (0.35%) Cucumber
2 1 (0.35%) Git
2 1 (0.35%) JUnit
2 1 (0.35%) Postman
2 1 (0.35%) REST Assured
2 1 (0.35%) Vite
General
1 95 (33.57%) Finance
2 77 (27.21%) Social Skills
3 46 (16.25%) Banking
4 34 (12.01%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (8.13%) Marketing
6 18 (6.36%) Retail
7 17 (6.01%) Public Sector
8 14 (4.95%) Legal
9 12 (4.24%) Retail Banking
10 10 (3.53%) Corporate Banking
11 8 (2.83%) Investment Banking
12 7 (2.47%) Pharmaceutical
13 6 (2.12%) Military
14 5 (1.77%) Aerospace
14 5 (1.77%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (1.41%) Manufacturing
15 4 (1.41%) Telecoms
16 3 (1.06%) Front Office
16 3 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
17 2 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.41%) JSON
1 4 (1.41%) XML
2 3 (1.06%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.06%) OAuth
2 3 (1.06%) REST
3 2 (0.71%) AngularJS
3 2 (0.71%) Faiss
3 2 (0.71%) Flutter
3 2 (0.71%) LangChain
3 2 (0.71%) LangGraph
3 2 (0.71%) LDAP
3 2 (0.71%) OpenID
3 2 (0.71%) React
3 2 (0.71%) SAML
4 1 (0.35%) ADO
4 1 (0.35%) cloud-init
4 1 (0.35%) CSS
4 1 (0.35%) HTML
4 1 (0.35%) J2EE
4 1 (0.35%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 282 (99.65%) Product Ownership
2 14 (4.95%) Legacy Systems
3 13 (4.59%) Onboarding
4 9 (3.18%) Data Protection Act
4 9 (3.18%) Marketing Technology
5 8 (2.83%) CMDB
6 6 (2.12%) Greenfield Project
6 6 (2.12%) Mobile App
7 5 (1.77%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.77%) Cloud Native
7 5 (1.77%) Distributed Computing
7 5 (1.77%) Virtual Team
8 4 (1.41%) CCTV
8 4 (1.41%) Credit Risk
8 4 (1.41%) Hybrid Cloud
9 3 (1.06%) AI Agents
9 3 (1.06%) FMCG
9 3 (1.06%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 2 (0.71%) Security Posture
10 2 (0.71%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 14 (4.95%) Windows
2 9 (3.18%) Linux
3 8 (2.83%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (53.36%) Agile
2 147 (51.94%) Roadmaps
3 109 (38.52%) User Stories
4 99 (34.98%) Stakeholder Management
5 96 (33.92%) Product Backlog
6 80 (28.27%) Product Roadmap
7 70 (24.73%) Backlog Prioritisation
8 64 (22.61%) Backlog Management
9 63 (22.26%) Acceptance Criteria
10 53 (18.73%) Product Vision
11 50 (17.67%) Decision-Making
12 48 (16.96%) Sprint Planning
13 47 (16.61%) Continuous Improvement
14 40 (14.13%) Scrum
15 36 (12.72%) AI
16 34 (12.01%) Analytics
17 32 (11.31%) Product Management
18 30 (10.60%) Product Strategy
19 29 (10.25%) Customer Experience
20 27 (9.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 12 (4.24%) SQL
2 10 (3.53%) Python
3 3 (1.06%) Java
3 3 (1.06%) JavaScript
4 2 (0.71%) ABAP
4 2 (0.71%) Kotlin
5 1 (0.35%) Bash
5 1 (0.35%) C#
5 1 (0.35%) PHP
5 1 (0.35%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.35%) R
5 1 (0.35%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 47 (16.61%) Security Cleared
2 29 (10.25%) SC Cleared
3 12 (4.24%) Degree
4 8 (2.83%) CSPO
5 7 (2.47%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.41%) DV Cleared
6 4 (1.41%) Master's Degree
7 2 (0.71%) AWS Certification
7 2 (0.71%) CISSP
8 1 (0.35%) ACCA
8 1 (0.35%) APMP
8 1 (0.35%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.35%) CBAP
8 1 (0.35%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.35%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.35%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (6.01%) Data Quality
2 14 (4.95%) QA
3 6 (2.12%) SLA
4 4 (1.41%) GDPR
4 4 (1.41%) NIST
5 3 (1.06%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.06%) GRC
5 3 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 3 (1.06%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.71%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 2 (0.71%) GxP
6 2 (0.71%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.35%) Basel II
System Software
1 10 (3.53%) Active Directory
2 8 (2.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (2.12%) Ceph
3 6 (2.12%) Hyper-V
3 6 (2.12%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.35%) Docker
4 1 (0.35%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (2.12%) Kubernetes
2 4 (1.41%) CASB
3 3 (1.06%) Ansible
3 3 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (1.06%) Terraform
4 1 (0.35%) Argo
4 1 (0.35%) PingFederate
4 1 (0.35%) PowerCLI
4 1 (0.35%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.35%) vRealize
4 1 (0.35%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 33 (11.66%) Microsoft
2 25 (8.83%) Salesforce
3 12 (4.24%) ServiceNow
4 11 (3.89%) SAP
5 8 (2.83%) VMware
6 7 (2.47%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7 6 (2.12%) Databricks
8 5 (1.77%) Cisco
8 5 (1.77%) Splunk
8 5 (1.77%) Zscaler
9 4 (1.41%) Adobe
9 4 (1.41%) ForeScout
9 4 (1.41%) Fortinet
9 4 (1.41%) Infoblox
10 3 (1.06%) Epicor
10 3 (1.06%) MuleSoft
10 3 (1.06%) Oracle
11 2 (0.71%) Cognizant
11 2 (0.71%) ESRI
11 2 (0.71%) Sage