Programme Director Contracts

Programme Director
UK

The median Programme Director daily rate in the UK is £875, 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 483 537 634
Rank change year-on-year +54 +97 +147
Contract jobs requiring a Programme Director 37 45 84
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.13% 0.10% 0.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.11% 0.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 20 28 59
10th Percentile £628 £713 £675
25th Percentile £794 £779 £775
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £875 £900 £875
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% +2.86% -11.39%
75th Percentile £956 £991 £1,000
90th Percentile £1,083 £1,153 £1,150
UK excluding London median daily rate £850 £780 £840
% change year-on-year +8.97% -7.14% -4.00%

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%

Programme Director
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Programme Director in the UK

Programme Director
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Programme Director.

Daily rate trend for Programme Director in the UK

Programme Director
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Programme Director over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Programme Director in the UK

Programme Director
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Programme Director.

Hourly rate trend for Programme Director in the UK

Programme Director
Top 13 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Programme Director 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 +52 36 £900 - 11
London +34 21 £900 -4.17% 6
UK excluding London +61 14 £850 +8.97% 4
Work from Home +36 11 £775 -0.64% 6
North of England +21 5 £900 - 1
Midlands +20 4 £825 -2.94% 2
Yorkshire +11 4 £950 +5.56% 1
West Midlands +14 3 £825 -2.94% 2
South West +47 2 £535 -
South East +43 2 £850 +13.33% 2
North West +16 1 £850 -15.00%
East Midlands +8 1 - -
Wales - 1 £675 -

Programme Director Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Programme Director 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 Programme Director in the job title.

1 17 (45.95%) Finance
2 11 (29.73%) Stakeholder Management
3 10 (27.03%) Social Skills
4 9 (24.32%) Banking
5 8 (21.62%) Programme Management
5 8 (21.62%) Agile
6 7 (18.92%) Project Management
6 7 (18.92%) Change Management
7 6 (16.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 6 (16.22%) Security Cleared
8 5 (13.51%) SC Cleared
8 5 (13.51%) ERP
8 5 (13.51%) Migration
8 5 (13.51%) Project Delivery
8 5 (13.51%) Programme Delivery
9 4 (10.81%) Budget Management
9 4 (10.81%) Risk Management
9 4 (10.81%) Oracle
9 4 (10.81%) PRINCE2
9 4 (10.81%) Analytical Skills
10 3 (8.11%) Cybersecurity
10 3 (8.11%) Oracle Fusion
10 3 (8.11%) Project Planning
10 3 (8.11%) NHS
10 3 (8.11%) Roadmaps
10 3 (8.11%) Coaching
10 3 (8.11%) Problem-Solving
10 3 (8.11%) Resource Allocation
10 3 (8.11%) PMO
11 2 (5.41%) IT Strategy

Programme Director 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:

Applications
1 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (2.70%) Oracle ERP
1 1 (2.70%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 1 (2.70%) Azure
1 1 (2.70%) Azure DevOps
1 1 (2.70%) Dynamics 365
1 1 (2.70%) Power Platform
1 1 (2.70%) SaaS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.41%) Big Data
1 2 (5.41%) Hadoop
2 1 (2.70%) Power BI
General
1 17 (45.95%) Finance
2 10 (27.03%) Social Skills
3 9 (24.32%) Banking
4 4 (10.81%) Analytical Skills
5 2 (5.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 2 (5.41%) Public Sector
6 1 (2.70%) Automotive
6 1 (2.70%) Financial Institution
6 1 (2.70%) Games
6 1 (2.70%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (2.70%) Investment Banking
6 1 (2.70%) Legal
6 1 (2.70%) Military
6 1 (2.70%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (8.11%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 3 (8.11%) NHS
2 2 (5.41%) Data Centre
2 2 (5.41%) Onboarding
3 1 (2.70%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (2.70%) Credit Risk
3 1 (2.70%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (2.70%) Greenfield Project
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (29.73%) Stakeholder Management
2 8 (21.62%) Agile
2 8 (21.62%) Programme Management
3 7 (18.92%) Change Management
3 7 (18.92%) Project Management
4 6 (16.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 5 (13.51%) ERP
5 5 (13.51%) Migration
5 5 (13.51%) Programme Delivery
5 5 (13.51%) Project Delivery
6 4 (10.81%) Budget Management
6 4 (10.81%) PRINCE2
6 4 (10.81%) Risk Management
7 3 (8.11%) Coaching
7 3 (8.11%) Cybersecurity
7 3 (8.11%) Problem-Solving
7 3 (8.11%) Project Planning
7 3 (8.11%) Resource Allocation
7 3 (8.11%) Roadmaps
8 2 (5.41%) Programme Governance
Programming Languages
1 1 (2.70%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (16.22%) Security Cleared
2 5 (13.51%) SC Cleared
3 2 (5.41%) Degree
4 1 (2.70%) CTC Cleared
4 1 (2.70%) MAPM
4 1 (2.70%) Master's Degree
4 1 (2.70%) PMI Certification
4 1 (2.70%) PMP
4 1 (2.70%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (8.11%) PMO
2 2 (5.41%) QA
3 1 (2.70%) Basel II
3 1 (2.70%) ITGC
Systems Management
1 2 (5.41%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 4 (10.81%) Oracle
2 2 (5.41%) Cloudera
2 2 (5.41%) NEC
3 1 (2.70%) Cognizant
3 1 (2.70%) CyberArk
3 1 (2.70%) SAP