Product Ownership Contract Job Trends

Product Ownership
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Product Ownership in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Product Ownership over the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 76 106 85
Rank change year-on-year +30 -21 -16
Contract jobs citing Product Ownership 1,464 743 1,069
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.08% 2.54% 2.49%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 9.61% 7.50% 8.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 971 512 733
10th Percentile £358 £357 £400
25th Percentile £425 £416 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% -2.22%
75th Percentile £619 £653 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £462 £550
% change year-on-year +6.44% -15.95% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 12 11
10th Percentile £48.86 £44.51 £51.25
25th Percentile £64.36 £45.76 £57.33
Median hourly rate £81.50 £56.75 £57.44
Median % change year-on-year +43.61% -1.20% -17.94%
75th Percentile £88.00 £70.99 £85.00
90th Percentile - £93.80 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £81.50 £56.75 £68.72
% change year-on-year +43.61% -17.42% -19.15%

All Generic Skills
UK

Product Ownership falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 15,238 9,901 13,061
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.08% 33.91% 30.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,482 6,317 8,409
10th Percentile £308 £300 £269
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £738 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -1.54% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 726 401 904
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.95 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.78 £21.01 £15.17
Median hourly rate £43.60 £32.50 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year +34.16% +4.00% +38.98%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £87.75 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.77 £31.76 £29.25
% change year-on-year +53.56% +8.58% +32.95%

Product Ownership
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Product Ownership relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Product Ownership job vacancy trend in the UK

Product Ownership
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Product Ownership.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Product Ownership

Product Ownership
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Product Ownership over the 6 months to 12 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Product Ownership in the UK

Product Ownership
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Product Ownership.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Product Ownership

Product Ownership
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Product Ownership over the 6 months to 12 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Product Ownership in the UK

Product Ownership
Top 17 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 Ownership within the UK over the 6 months to 12 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 +31 1,260 £520 -5.45% 438
UK excluding London +38 744 £492 +6.44% 311
London +9 570 £550 -5.98% 164
Work from Home 0 408 £500 - 230
North of England +31 268 £478 +9.89% 102
South East +9 151 £525 +4.27% 83
Midlands +18 141 £468 -6.50% 58
North West +30 135 £462 +14.80% 47
Yorkshire +19 110 £485 +4.86% 31
South West +16 99 £563 -2.17% 30
West Midlands -3 89 £492 -4.19% 41
Scotland +26 72 £513 +13.89% 15
East Midlands +1 51 £424 -1.88% 17
East of England -8 30 £625 +35.14% 21
North East -8 24 £450 -5.26% 24
Wales -10 6 £527 -0.57% 6
Northern Ireland -4 2 - - 2

Product Ownership
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
1 198 (13.52%) Confluence
2 23 (1.57%) CMS
3 21 (1.43%) SharePoint
4 18 (1.23%) Apache Spark
5 13 (0.89%) Microsoft Exchange
6 11 (0.75%) Apache
7 9 (0.61%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 9 (0.61%) Apache Airflow
8 6 (0.41%) Ethereum
8 6 (0.41%) Hyperledger
9 5 (0.34%) Jupyter
10 3 (0.20%) OpenStack
10 3 (0.20%) SAS
11 2 (0.14%) Camunda
12 1 (0.068%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.068%) Appian
12 1 (0.068%) Drupal
12 1 (0.068%) Mendix
12 1 (0.068%) Mule ESB
12 1 (0.068%) Umbraco
Applications
1 47 (3.21%) Microsoft Project
2 46 (3.14%) Microsoft Excel
3 39 (2.66%) Microsoft Office
4 36 (2.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 19 (1.30%) MS Visio
6 9 (0.61%) Sketch
7 8 (0.55%) InVision
8 7 (0.48%) Chatbot
9 6 (0.41%) Adobe XD
10 3 (0.20%) Adobe Captivate
10 3 (0.20%) Trello
11 2 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.14%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.14%) Zeplin
12 1 (0.068%) Camtasia
12 1 (0.068%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 18 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (0.82%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.41%) Aladdin
4 5 (0.34%) ProductWriter
5 4 (0.27%) Endur
5 4 (0.27%) NEC Housing
5 4 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.27%) SAP EWM
6 3 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.20%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.20%) Oracle Payroll
6 3 (0.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.20%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.14%) Finacle
7 2 (0.14%) HFM
7 2 (0.14%) Maximo
7 2 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
7 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
7 2 (0.14%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 267 (18.24%) Azure
2 188 (12.84%) AWS
3 99 (6.76%) Azure DevOps
4 93 (6.35%) GitHub
5 82 (5.60%) Power Platform
6 67 (4.58%) GCP
7 64 (4.37%) GitHub Actions
8 63 (4.30%) Serverless
9 42 (2.87%) Amazon S3
10 40 (2.73%) AWS Lambda
11 35 (2.39%) SaaS
12 33 (2.25%) Dynamics 365
12 33 (2.25%) Figma
13 31 (2.12%) Microsoft 365
14 29 (1.98%) Salesforce Service Cloud
15 25 (1.71%) AWS CloudFormation
16 24 (1.64%) Amazon ECS
17 20 (1.37%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 20 (1.37%) Amazon EC2
17 20 (1.37%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.09%) Network Security
2 13 (0.89%) Firewall
3 12 (0.82%) HTTP
4 11 (0.75%) DNS
5 4 (0.27%) Reverse Proxy
6 3 (0.20%) NFC
6 3 (0.20%) NGFW
6 3 (0.20%) WebEx
7 2 (0.14%) Intranet
7 2 (0.14%) SAN
7 2 (0.14%) SSL
7 2 (0.14%) Wireless
8 1 (0.068%) BGP
8 1 (0.068%) Broadband
8 1 (0.068%) DHCP
8 1 (0.068%) HTTPS
8 1 (0.068%) Internet
8 1 (0.068%) Intrusion Detection
8 1 (0.068%) SSH
8 1 (0.068%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (3.96%) Power BI
2 41 (2.80%) PostgreSQL
3 35 (2.39%) NoSQL
3 35 (2.39%) Relational Database
4 32 (2.19%) Metadata
5 26 (1.78%) MongoDB
5 26 (1.78%) MySQL
5 26 (1.78%) Tableau
6 20 (1.37%) SQL Server
7 19 (1.30%) Data Warehouse
8 17 (1.16%) Big Data
9 14 (0.96%) Amazon RDS
9 14 (0.96%) Data Lake
9 14 (0.96%) DynamoDB
10 12 (0.82%) Delta Lake
11 11 (0.75%) Amazon Aurora
12 9 (0.61%) BigQuery
13 8 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
13 8 (0.55%) Data Vault
14 7 (0.48%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 296 (20.22%) JIRA
2 75 (5.12%) Git
3 72 (4.92%) Jenkins
4 59 (4.03%) GitLab
5 47 (3.21%) Postman
6 25 (1.71%) Rational DOORS
7 23 (1.57%) Cucumber
8 21 (1.43%) JUnit
8 21 (1.43%) Selenium
9 15 (1.02%) Bitbucket
10 11 (0.75%) Cypress.io
11 10 (0.68%) Gradle
12 9 (0.61%) REST Assured
13 8 (0.55%) Axure RP
13 8 (0.55%) CircleCI
13 8 (0.55%) JMeter
14 7 (0.48%) NUnit
14 7 (0.48%) TestRail
15 6 (0.41%) Claude Code
15 6 (0.41%) Maven
General
1 485 (33.13%) Social Skills
2 337 (23.02%) Finance
3 215 (14.69%) Analytical Skills
4 191 (13.05%) Public Sector
5 182 (12.43%) Banking
6 78 (5.33%) Marketing
7 69 (4.71%) Retail
8 45 (3.07%) Legal
9 44 (3.01%) Military
10 35 (2.39%) Aerospace
10 35 (2.39%) Retail Banking
11 34 (2.32%) Influencing Skills
12 30 (2.05%) Presentation Skills
13 29 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
14 24 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
15 23 (1.57%) Telecoms
16 19 (1.30%) Investment Banking
17 18 (1.23%) Corporate Banking
18 14 (0.96%) Front Office
19 13 (0.89%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 273 (18.65%) Product Owner
2 209 (14.28%) Analyst
3 169 (11.54%) Business Analyst
4 153 (10.45%) Senior
5 150 (10.25%) Architect
6 139 (9.49%) Developer
7 121 (8.27%) Lead
8 85 (5.81%) Product Manager
9 72 (4.92%) Scrum Master
10 62 (4.23%) Delivery Manager
11 55 (3.76%) Designer
12 46 (3.14%) Solutions Architect
13 43 (2.94%) Project Manager
14 41 (2.80%) Software Engineer
15 33 (2.25%) Product Delivery Manager
16 31 (2.12%) Consultant
17 30 (2.05%) Data Engineer
18 29 (1.98%) Service Architect
19 27 (1.84%) Java Developer
20 26 (1.78%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 118 (8.06%) REST
2 95 (6.49%) RESTful
3 68 (4.64%) React
4 43 (2.94%) .NET
4 43 (2.94%) Spring
5 42 (2.87%) CSS
6 40 (2.73%) Spring Boot
7 39 (2.66%) HTML
8 36 (2.46%) SOAP
9 35 (2.39%) Node.js
10 34 (2.32%) AngularJS
11 33 (2.25%) Kafka
12 27 (1.84%) Playwright
13 24 (1.64%) Lightning Web Components
14 23 (1.57%) JSON
15 22 (1.50%) Web Services
16 19 (1.30%) Middleware
17 16 (1.09%) Jest
18 15 (1.02%) PySpark
19 14 (0.96%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 68 (4.64%) Cloud Native
2 56 (3.83%) Onboarding
3 38 (2.60%) Data Structures
4 36 (2.46%) Data Protection Act
5 32 (2.19%) Legacy Systems
6 28 (1.91%) Virtual Team
7 26 (1.78%) AI Agents
7 26 (1.78%) Greenfield Project
8 25 (1.71%) CMDB
9 23 (1.57%) Distributed Systems
10 22 (1.50%) Mobile App
11 19 (1.30%) Management Information System
11 19 (1.30%) PMI
12 18 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
13 16 (1.09%) Enterprise Software
14 15 (1.02%) NHS
15 13 (0.89%) Reference Data
16 12 (0.82%) Self-Motivation
17 11 (0.75%) Marketing Technology
18 10 (0.68%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 35 (2.39%) Linux
2 30 (2.05%) Windows
3 20 (1.37%) Android
4 11 (0.75%) Apple iOS
5 9 (0.61%) Windows Server
6 8 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.34%) Unix
7 5 (0.34%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.27%) Debian
8 4 (0.27%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.27%) Rocky
8 4 (0.27%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.14%) VMS
10 1 (0.068%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 886 (60.52%) Agile
2 374 (25.55%) Scrum
3 368 (25.14%) Continuous Improvement
4 365 (24.93%) Stakeholder Management
5 332 (22.68%) Roadmaps
6 319 (21.79%) DevOps
7 289 (19.74%) User Stories
8 281 (19.19%) CI/CD
9 265 (18.10%) Problem-Solving
10 236 (16.12%) Acceptance Criteria
11 212 (14.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 201 (13.73%) Sprint Planning
13 166 (11.34%) Decision-Making
14 153 (10.45%) AI
14 153 (10.45%) Test Automation
15 150 (10.25%) Scaled Agile Framework
16 149 (10.18%) Product Backlog
17 148 (10.11%) Analytics
18 143 (9.77%) User Experience
19 139 (9.49%) Backlog Prioritisation
Programming Languages
1 132 (9.02%) Python
2 129 (8.81%) SQL
3 102 (6.97%) Java
4 85 (5.81%) JavaScript
5 69 (4.71%) TypeScript
6 52 (3.55%) C#
7 19 (1.30%) Apex Code
7 19 (1.30%) PowerShell
8 18 (1.23%) Kotlin
8 18 (1.23%) Scala
9 13 (0.89%) Go
10 10 (0.68%) Bash
10 10 (0.68%) Ruby
11 7 (0.48%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.41%) Bicep
12 6 (0.41%) R
13 5 (0.34%) SOQL
14 4 (0.27%) ABAP
14 4 (0.27%) Rust
14 4 (0.27%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 339 (23.16%) Security Cleared
2 236 (16.12%) SC Cleared
3 168 (11.48%) Degree
4 72 (4.92%) BPSS Clearance
5 31 (2.12%) Computer Science Degree
6 30 (2.05%) TOGAF Certification
7 28 (1.91%) PMI Certification
8 25 (1.71%) DV Cleared
9 20 (1.37%) Master's Degree
9 20 (1.37%) PMP
10 19 (1.30%) SAFe Agilist
11 18 (1.23%) CSPO
12 13 (0.89%) MBA
13 12 (0.82%) AWS Certification
14 9 (0.61%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 7 (0.48%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
15 7 (0.48%) Azure Certification
15 7 (0.48%) CBAP
16 6 (0.41%) IIBA
17 5 (0.34%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 154 (10.52%) QA
2 72 (4.92%) Data Quality
3 65 (4.44%) Accessibility
4 40 (2.73%) GDPR
5 22 (1.50%) WCAG
6 21 (1.43%) SLA
7 20 (1.37%) GRC
7 20 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 17 (1.16%) PMO
9 16 (1.09%) NIST
10 10 (0.68%) Basel III
11 9 (0.61%) PCI DSS
12 8 (0.55%) NCSC
13 7 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 6 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 6 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 6 (0.41%) SOC 2
15 5 (0.34%) Government Security Classifications
16 4 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
16 4 (0.27%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 73 (4.99%) Docker
2 23 (1.57%) Active Directory
3 12 (0.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.55%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.48%) Ceph
7 3 (0.20%) ISA Server
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.14%) vSphere
9 1 (0.068%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.068%) KVM
9 1 (0.068%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 93 (6.35%) Terraform
2 71 (4.85%) Kubernetes
3 30 (2.05%) OPNET
4 26 (1.78%) Grafana
5 21 (1.43%) Ansible
6 14 (0.96%) Prometheus
7 9 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.48%) Kibana
8 7 (0.48%) SCCM
9 6 (0.41%) Argo
9 6 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.27%) CASB
10 4 (0.27%) HAProxy
11 3 (0.20%) HP ALM
12 2 (0.14%) Data Guard
12 2 (0.14%) Oracle RMAN
12 2 (0.14%) Podman
12 2 (0.14%) Puppet
13 1 (0.068%) NetBackup
13 1 (0.068%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 176 (12.02%) Microsoft
2 109 (7.45%) ServiceNow
3 84 (5.74%) Salesforce
4 45 (3.07%) SAP
5 37 (2.53%) Atlassian
5 37 (2.53%) Google
6 34 (2.32%) Databricks
7 32 (2.19%) Oracle
7 32 (2.19%) Remedy
8 27 (1.84%) IBM
9 26 (1.78%) Adobe
10 20 (1.37%) Splunk
11 12 (0.82%) VMware
12 11 (0.75%) Pega
13 10 (0.68%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
13 10 (0.68%) Workday
14 8 (0.55%) Cisco
14 8 (0.55%) Dynatrace
14 8 (0.55%) OpenAI
15 6 (0.41%) CA Agile Central