Programme Management Contract Job Trends

Programme Management (Program Management)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Programme Management skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 267 174 133
Rank change year-on-year -93 -41 +13
Contract jobs citing Programme Management 546 520 696
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.00% 1.57% 1.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.18% 1.73% 2.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 321 317 383
10th Percentile £400 £170 £270
25th Percentile £463 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year - +4.55% -6.78%
75th Percentile £700 £700 £700
90th Percentile £850 £811 £815
UK excluding London median daily rate £538 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -2.27% +4.76% -8.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 36 18
10th Percentile £20.88 £17.44 £16.56
25th Percentile £31.31 £23.50 £22.92
Median hourly rate £42.59 £35.60 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.63% +1.71% -15.66%
75th Percentile £80.63 £65.25 £47.58
90th Percentile £103.25 £81.88 £81.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £27.47 £24.09
% change year-on-year +127.52% +14.05% -46.48%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Programme Management falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 46,144 30,062 32,646
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.46% 90.58% 85.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,776 18,666 19,743
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £634 £625 £638
90th Percentile £736 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,300 1,877 1,341
10th Percentile £13.65 £14.33 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.12 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £38.62 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.57% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.06 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £65.18 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.77% -48.10% +1.18%

Programme Management
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Programme Management job vacancy trend in the UK

Programme Management
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Programme Management.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Programme Management

Programme Management
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Programme Management over the 6 months to 4 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Programme Management in the UK

Programme Management
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Programme Management.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Programme Management

Programme Management
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Programme Management over the 6 months to 4 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Programme Management in the UK

Programme Management
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 Programme Management within the UK over the 6 months to 4 October 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 -85 460 £586 -0.21% 949
London -37 261 £625 +1.79% 577
UK excluding London -107 232 £538 -2.27% 466
Work from Home -52 192 £550 -12.00% 377
South East -32 63 £575 -3.77% 113
North of England -60 58 £487 -11.45% 81
Scotland -21 37 £500 - 56
Yorkshire -22 36 £487 -11.45% 30
Midlands -61 33 £600 - 60
North West -51 21 £514 -6.55% 40
West Midlands -59 21 £588 -4.08% 41
East of England -15 20 £700 +12.00% 39
South West -82 20 £669 +21.59% 66
East Midlands -13 12 £650 +51.60% 19
Northern Ireland -3 2 £775 +369.70% 36
Wales -16 2 £425 +41.55% 20
North East -43 1 £350 -38.46% 11

Programme Management
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 28 (5.13%) Confluence
2 6 (1.10%) CMS
2 6 (1.10%) IIS
2 6 (1.10%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.37%) Apache
3 2 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.37%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.37%) Apache Superset
3 2 (0.37%) Oracle Service Bus
3 2 (0.37%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 1 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.18%) SAS
Applications
1 30 (5.49%) Microsoft Excel
1 30 (5.49%) Microsoft Office
2 29 (5.31%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (4.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.73%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.37%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.18%) Notion
7 1 (0.18%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 24 (4.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.10%) Oracle ERP
3 4 (0.73%) Magento
4 3 (0.55%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.55%) SAP SD
5 2 (0.37%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.37%) SAP BRIM
5 2 (0.37%) SAP EWM
5 2 (0.37%) SAP IBP
5 2 (0.37%) SAP MM
5 2 (0.37%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.18%) Aladdin
6 1 (0.18%) CA PPM
6 1 (0.18%) ENOVIA
6 1 (0.18%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.18%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.18%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.18%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.18%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.18%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 48 (8.79%) Azure
2 26 (4.76%) AWS
3 22 (4.03%) Power Platform
4 17 (3.11%) SaaS
5 13 (2.38%) Azure DevOps
5 13 (2.38%) Google Workspace
6 12 (2.20%) GCP
7 10 (1.83%) Entra ID
8 8 (1.47%) OCI
9 7 (1.28%) Smartsheet
10 6 (1.10%) Microsoft 365
11 5 (0.92%) Dynamics 365
12 4 (0.73%) Snowflake
12 4 (0.73%) SuccessFactors
13 2 (0.37%) Anthropic Claude
13 2 (0.37%) Asana
13 2 (0.37%) Azure Data Factory
13 2 (0.37%) Google Drive
13 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Copilot
13 2 (0.37%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.28%) Network Security
2 5 (0.92%) HTTPS
2 5 (0.92%) TCP/IP
3 4 (0.73%) DNS
3 4 (0.73%) Firewall
3 4 (0.73%) LAN
3 4 (0.73%) WAN
4 3 (0.55%) DHCP
4 3 (0.55%) IPv4
4 3 (0.55%) IPv6
4 3 (0.55%) VLAN
4 3 (0.55%) VPN
5 2 (0.37%) FTP
5 2 (0.37%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.18%) Ethernet VPN
6 1 (0.18%) Modbus
6 1 (0.18%) Radio Access Network
6 1 (0.18%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.18%) Unified Communications
6 1 (0.18%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (3.11%) Power BI
2 5 (0.92%) Qlik Sense
3 4 (0.73%) Big Data
3 4 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
4 3 (0.55%) Metadata
4 3 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.37%) Tableau
5 2 (0.37%) Trino
6 1 (0.18%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.18%) Db2
6 1 (0.18%) Electronic Patient Records
6 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.18%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 43 (7.88%) JIRA
2 6 (1.10%) Git
3 4 (0.73%) Jenkins
3 4 (0.73%) Subversion
4 2 (0.37%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 2 (0.37%) Bitbucket
General
1 276 (50.55%) Finance
2 228 (41.76%) Social Skills
3 91 (16.67%) Analytical Skills
4 74 (13.55%) Public Sector
5 65 (11.90%) Influencing Skills
6 52 (9.52%) Organisational Skills
7 42 (7.69%) Banking
8 41 (7.51%) Retail
9 33 (6.04%) Legal
10 30 (5.49%) Manufacturing
11 27 (4.95%) Presentation Skills
12 24 (4.40%) Marketing
13 20 (3.66%) Aerospace
14 15 (2.75%) Local Government
15 14 (2.56%) Telecoms
16 12 (2.20%) Documentation Skills
17 11 (2.01%) Pharmaceutical
18 10 (1.83%) Investment Banking
19 9 (1.65%) Aviation
19 9 (1.65%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 129 (23.63%) Project Manager
2 100 (18.32%) Programme Manager
3 91 (16.67%) Lead
4 65 (11.90%) Senior
5 47 (8.61%) Senior Manager
6 29 (5.31%) Transformation Manager
7 28 (5.13%) Senior Project Manager
7 28 (5.13%) Technical Manager
8 24 (4.40%) Analyst
8 24 (4.40%) Consultant
9 23 (4.21%) IT Manager
10 22 (4.03%) Delivery Manager
11 20 (3.66%) Transformation Programme Manager
12 15 (2.75%) IT Project Manager
13 14 (2.56%) SAP Manager
14 13 (2.38%) Architect
14 13 (2.38%) Business Analyst
14 13 (2.38%) Digital Programme Manager
15 12 (2.20%) PMO Manager
15 12 (2.20%) Technical Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.75%) Oracle Fusion
2 10 (1.83%) REST
3 5 (0.92%) Middleware
3 5 (0.92%) SailPoint
4 4 (0.73%) JSON
4 4 (0.73%) VML
4 4 (0.73%) XML
5 3 (0.55%) OAuth
5 3 (0.55%) RESTful
5 3 (0.55%) Web Services
6 2 (0.37%) ADO
6 2 (0.37%) ModSecurity
6 2 (0.37%) OAuth2
6 2 (0.37%) SOAP
6 2 (0.37%) Terraform
6 2 (0.37%) XSD
6 2 (0.37%) XSLT
7 1 (0.18%) Azure Blueprints
7 1 (0.18%) React
7 1 (0.18%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 32 (5.86%) Management Information System
2 24 (4.40%) Operational Technology
2 24 (4.40%) Product Ownership
3 22 (4.03%) Onboarding
4 17 (3.11%) Data Protection Act
5 13 (2.38%) Enterprise Software
5 13 (2.38%) Legacy Systems
6 9 (1.65%) Industry 4.0
6 9 (1.65%) NHS
6 9 (1.65%) Virtual Team
7 8 (1.47%) PMI
8 7 (1.28%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.10%) AI Agents
9 6 (1.10%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (1.10%) FMCG
9 6 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
10 5 (0.92%) Derivative
10 5 (0.92%) Learning Management System
10 5 (0.92%) Marketing Technology
10 5 (0.92%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.47%) Windows
2 3 (0.55%) Linux
2 3 (0.55%) zOS
3 2 (0.37%) Unix
4 1 (0.18%) Alpine Linux
4 1 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.18%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 286 (52.38%) Stakeholder Management
2 179 (32.78%) Agile
3 166 (30.40%) Project Management
4 131 (23.99%) Decision-Making
5 123 (22.53%) PRINCE2
6 115 (21.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 113 (20.70%) Continuous Improvement
8 104 (19.05%) Roadmaps
9 97 (17.77%) Change Management
10 96 (17.58%) Programme Governance
11 91 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
12 90 (16.48%) Risk Management
13 89 (16.30%) Project Delivery
14 83 (15.20%) Programme Delivery
15 72 (13.19%) AI
16 59 (10.81%) Cybersecurity
17 54 (9.89%) Technology Transformation
18 53 (9.71%) Migration
19 52 (9.52%) Scaled Agile Framework
20 51 (9.34%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 4 (0.73%) Java
2 3 (0.55%) PowerShell
2 3 (0.55%) SQL
3 2 (0.37%) Python
4 1 (0.18%) ABAP
4 1 (0.18%) Bash
4 1 (0.18%) BeanShell
4 1 (0.18%) Bicep
4 1 (0.18%) Korn
4 1 (0.18%) VBA
Qualifications
1 93 (17.03%) Degree
2 88 (16.12%) Security Cleared
3 86 (15.75%) PMP
4 70 (12.82%) PMI Certification
5 65 (11.90%) SC Cleared
6 16 (2.93%) BPSS Clearance
7 14 (2.56%) DV Cleared
8 12 (2.20%) CISM
8 12 (2.20%) CISSP
8 12 (2.20%) Master's Degree
9 11 (2.01%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 7 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.28%) MBA
10 7 (1.28%) PgMP
10 7 (1.28%) TOGAF Certification
11 4 (0.73%) HND
11 4 (0.73%) ITIL Certification
11 4 (0.73%) Six Sigma Green Belt
12 3 (0.55%) APMP
12 3 (0.55%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 105 (19.23%) PMO
2 24 (4.40%) QA
3 17 (3.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (2.75%) Data Quality
5 12 (2.20%) GDPR
6 10 (1.83%) GRC
7 8 (1.47%) NIST
8 6 (1.10%) HIPAA
8 6 (1.10%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.92%) NCSC
9 5 (0.92%) P3O
9 5 (0.92%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.73%) MiFID
11 3 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.55%) EMIR
11 3 (0.55%) ISO 9001
11 3 (0.55%) SLA
11 3 (0.55%) SOC 2
System Software
1 6 (1.10%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.18%) Docker
3 1 (0.18%) ISA Server
3 1 (0.18%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.18%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (1.10%) Ansible
2 3 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.37%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.18%) Control-M
4 1 (0.18%) MOM
4 1 (0.18%) SCCM
4 1 (0.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 83 (15.20%) Microsoft
2 49 (8.97%) SAP
3 23 (4.21%) Oracle
4 19 (3.48%) ServiceNow
5 13 (2.38%) Google
6 11 (2.01%) Salesforce
7 8 (1.47%) Atlassian
8 6 (1.10%) Databricks
9 5 (0.92%) IBM
9 5 (0.92%) Palantir
9 5 (0.92%) Zscaler
10 3 (0.55%) Ariba
10 3 (0.55%) Bloomberg
10 3 (0.55%) Charles River
11 2 (0.37%) CA Agile Central
11 2 (0.37%) IFS
11 2 (0.37%) Siebel
11 2 (0.37%) Temenos
11 2 (0.37%) Wrike
11 2 (0.37%) Xactly