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 29 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 192 126 122
Rank change year-on-year -66 -4 +47
Contract jobs citing Programme Management 565 667 847
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.47% 2.12% 1.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.68% 2.38% 2.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 353 367 617
10th Percentile £170 £261 £296
25th Percentile £450 £425 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -
75th Percentile £650 £645 £688
90th Percentile £788 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £537 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -2.36% -4.35% +4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 22 13
10th Percentile £17.61 £20.26 £24.76
25th Percentile £20.50 £22.50 £26.24
Median hourly rate £23.83 £28.60 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -16.70% -50.26% +88.52%
75th Percentile £41.60 £36.95 £72.33
90th Percentile £68.88 £64.13 £79.78
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £23.00 £70.50
% change year-on-year +3.59% -67.37% +25.33%

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 33,625 28,045 38,284
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.37% 89.09% 87.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,290 17,011 25,209
10th Percentile £305 £306 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £640
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £499 £500
% change year-on-year -3.86% -0.15% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,022 880 1,958
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £13.50
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £16.85
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.96
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -9.62% +10.65%
75th Percentile £58.00 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.71 £30.45 £37.18
% change year-on-year -18.85% -18.10% +39.38%

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 29 January 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 29 January 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 29 January 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 -74 503 £550 - 127
UK excluding London -61 330 £537 -2.36% 105
London -32 204 £551 +0.18% 38
Work from Home -53 130 £559 -2.87% 80
Midlands -40 69 £550 -4.35% 14
South East -67 67 £575 -4.13% 41
North of England -51 64 £500 -0.99% 23
South West -35 60 £550 +1.38% 12
East Midlands +4 42 £544 +11.49% 3
East of England -2 28 £638 +31.44% 10
West Midlands -51 27 £600 - 11
North West -29 26 £500 -0.99% 8
Yorkshire -38 25 £537 -2.36% 11
Scotland -15 21 £500 - 1
North East -15 13 £175 -55.70% 4
Wales +1 12 £160 -72.47% 3
Northern Ireland +4 9 £358 - 3

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 32 (5.66%) Confluence
2 21 (3.72%) SharePoint
3 12 (2.12%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.35%) Apache
4 2 (0.35%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.35%) Oracle Service Bus
4 2 (0.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.18%) CMS
5 1 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 48 (8.50%) Microsoft Office
2 37 (6.55%) Microsoft Project
3 36 (6.37%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (3.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.53%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.35%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.35%) Trello
7 1 (0.18%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.18%) Blender
7 1 (0.18%) CINEMA 4D
7 1 (0.18%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 15 (2.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.06%) Oracle ERP
3 3 (0.53%) Primavera
3 3 (0.53%) SAP IBP
4 2 (0.35%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.35%) Maximo
4 2 (0.35%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.35%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.18%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.18%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 45 (7.96%) Microsoft 365
2 40 (7.08%) Azure
3 32 (5.66%) AWS
4 26 (4.60%) Power Platform
5 22 (3.89%) Google Workspace
6 21 (3.72%) Cloud Computing
7 20 (3.54%) Google Sheets
8 14 (2.48%) SaaS
9 13 (2.30%) GCP
10 11 (1.95%) Smartsheet
11 9 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
12 8 (1.42%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (1.06%) GitHub
14 5 (0.88%) Entra ID
14 5 (0.88%) Figma
14 5 (0.88%) Miro
14 5 (0.88%) OCI
14 5 (0.88%) Power Automate
14 5 (0.88%) Slack
15 4 (0.71%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 26 (4.60%) Wireless
2 8 (1.42%) Cisco IOS
2 8 (1.42%) Network Security
2 8 (1.42%) Skype
3 7 (1.24%) LAN
4 6 (1.06%) 5G
4 6 (1.06%) VPN
5 5 (0.88%) Broadband
5 5 (0.88%) Internet
6 4 (0.71%) DNS
6 4 (0.71%) Kerberos
6 4 (0.71%) Unified Communications
6 4 (0.71%) WAN
7 3 (0.53%) BGP
7 3 (0.53%) Firewall
7 3 (0.53%) InfiniBand
7 3 (0.53%) Junos
7 3 (0.53%) OSPF
7 3 (0.53%) SD-WAN
7 3 (0.53%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (4.07%) Power BI
2 8 (1.42%) Electronic Patient Records
2 8 (1.42%) Relational Database
3 6 (1.06%) Oracle Reports
4 4 (0.71%) MySQL
4 4 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.71%) Tableau
5 2 (0.35%) Big Data
5 2 (0.35%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.35%) Power Query
5 2 (0.35%) Qlik Sense
6 1 (0.18%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.18%) Looker
6 1 (0.18%) Metadata
6 1 (0.18%) QlikView
6 1 (0.18%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.18%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 69 (12.21%) JIRA
2 4 (0.71%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.53%) JUnit
3 3 (0.53%) Storybook
4 1 (0.18%) Artifactory
4 1 (0.18%) GitLab
4 1 (0.18%) Postman
4 1 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
4 1 (0.18%) Rational Rhapsody
4 1 (0.18%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 361 (63.89%) Finance
2 257 (45.49%) Social Skills
3 232 (41.06%) Public Sector
4 195 (34.51%) Manufacturing
4 195 (34.51%) Marketing
5 189 (33.45%) Telecoms
6 183 (32.39%) Electronics
7 64 (11.33%) Analytical Skills
8 39 (6.90%) Organisational Skills
9 33 (5.84%) Banking
10 26 (4.60%) Influencing Skills
11 21 (3.72%) Retail
12 17 (3.01%) Presentation Skills
13 16 (2.83%) Legal
14 14 (2.48%) Documentation Skills
15 9 (1.59%) Investment Banking
16 8 (1.42%) Pharmaceutical
17 7 (1.24%) Automotive
18 6 (1.06%) Aerospace
18 6 (1.06%) Military
Job Titles
1 103 (18.23%) Programme Manager
2 73 (12.92%) Project Manager
3 58 (10.27%) Lead
4 47 (8.32%) Senior
5 42 (7.43%) Analyst
6 41 (7.26%) IT Support
7 33 (5.84%) Desktop Support
7 33 (5.84%) Senior Manager
8 31 (5.49%) Technical Manager
9 25 (4.42%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
9 25 (4.42%) 2nd Line Support
9 25 (4.42%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
10 23 (4.07%) Architect
11 20 (3.54%) Migration Engineer
12 19 (3.36%) IT Engineer
13 17 (3.01%) Senior Project Manager
14 15 (2.65%) Windows Engineer
15 14 (2.48%) Business Analyst
15 14 (2.48%) Delivery Manager
15 14 (2.48%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.30%) Oracle Fusion
2 8 (1.42%) SailPoint
3 7 (1.24%) OAuth
4 6 (1.06%) React
4 6 (1.06%) REST
5 5 (0.88%) .NET
5 5 (0.88%) ADO
5 5 (0.88%) CSS
5 5 (0.88%) HTML
5 5 (0.88%) RESTful
5 5 (0.88%) SAML
6 4 (0.71%) XML
7 3 (0.53%) JSON
7 3 (0.53%) PySpark
7 3 (0.53%) PyTorch
7 3 (0.53%) Spring
7 3 (0.53%) Spring Boot
7 3 (0.53%) TensorFlow
7 3 (0.53%) Vitest
7 3 (0.53%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 41 (7.26%) Data Centre
2 26 (4.60%) NHS
3 22 (3.89%) Data Protection Act
4 21 (3.72%) Product Ownership
5 19 (3.36%) Management Information System
5 19 (3.36%) Onboarding
6 14 (2.48%) CMDB
6 14 (2.48%) Virtual Team
7 13 (2.30%) PMI
8 12 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
9 11 (1.95%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.77%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (1.59%) Cloud Native
11 9 (1.59%) Mobile App
12 7 (1.24%) Public Cloud
13 5 (0.88%) AI Agents
13 5 (0.88%) Cyber Defence
13 5 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
13 5 (0.88%) Life Science
14 4 (0.71%) LIMS
Operating Systems
1 32 (5.66%) Mac OS
2 31 (5.49%) Android
3 22 (3.89%) Windows
4 16 (2.83%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.35%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.18%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.18%) Linux
6 1 (0.18%) VMS
6 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 208 (36.81%) Business Intelligence
2 188 (33.27%) Digital Marketing
3 179 (31.68%) Stakeholder Management
4 150 (26.55%) Agile
5 112 (19.82%) Project Management
6 109 (19.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 105 (18.58%) Migration
8 92 (16.28%) Risk Management
9 85 (15.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 85 (15.04%) Problem-Solving
10 73 (12.92%) Change Management
11 72 (12.74%) Decision-Making
12 71 (12.57%) PRINCE2
13 68 (12.04%) Project Delivery
14 50 (8.85%) Roadmaps
15 45 (7.96%) Waterfall
16 43 (7.61%) Workflow
17 41 (7.26%) ITIL
18 40 (7.08%) Logistics
19 39 (6.90%) AI
Programming Languages
1 41 (7.26%) SQL
2 19 (3.36%) Python
3 16 (2.83%) Java
4 11 (1.95%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.24%) JavaScript
6 4 (0.71%) TypeScript
7 3 (0.53%) BeanShell
7 3 (0.53%) Korn
8 2 (0.35%) C
8 2 (0.35%) C#
8 2 (0.35%) C++
8 2 (0.35%) Go
9 1 (0.18%) Google Apps Script
9 1 (0.18%) PHP
9 1 (0.18%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.18%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 157 (27.79%) Security Cleared
2 128 (22.65%) SC Cleared
3 89 (15.75%) Degree
4 57 (10.09%) PMI Certification
5 54 (9.56%) PMP
6 25 (4.42%) DV Cleared
7 19 (3.36%) Master's Degree
8 17 (3.01%) ITIL Certification
9 16 (2.83%) CISSP
10 11 (1.95%) APMP
10 11 (1.95%) CISM
11 9 (1.59%) TOGAF Certification
12 7 (1.24%) PhD
13 6 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
13 6 (1.06%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
14 4 (0.71%) OCP
14 4 (0.71%) Oracle Certification
14 4 (0.71%) PgMP
15 3 (0.53%) JNCIA
15 3 (0.53%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (11.86%) PMO
2 30 (5.31%) QA
3 13 (2.30%) Accessibility
4 11 (1.95%) Data Quality
5 8 (1.42%) GDPR
5 8 (1.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.24%) JSP 440
7 6 (1.06%) NIST
7 6 (1.06%) P3O
8 5 (0.88%) RMADS
9 4 (0.71%) NCSC
9 4 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.53%) Disclosure Scotland
10 3 (0.53%) GMP
10 3 (0.53%) WCAG
11 2 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.35%) IEC 61508
11 2 (0.35%) ISO 26262
11 2 (0.35%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.35%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 22 (3.89%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.35%) Docker
2 2 (0.35%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 6 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
2 4 (0.71%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.35%) SCCM
3 2 (0.35%) vRealize
4 1 (0.18%) Failover Clustering
4 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 1 (0.18%) Terraform
Vendors
1 201 (35.58%) SAP
2 78 (13.81%) Microsoft
3 46 (8.14%) Cisco
4 29 (5.13%) Google
5 24 (4.25%) Apple
6 23 (4.07%) Dell
6 23 (4.07%) HP
7 22 (3.89%) Oracle
8 20 (3.54%) ServiceNow
9 15 (2.65%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.24%) BiZZdesign
11 6 (1.06%) CyberArk
12 5 (0.88%) Databricks
12 5 (0.88%) GoldenSource
13 4 (0.71%) Centrify
13 4 (0.71%) Remedy
13 4 (0.71%) VMware
14 3 (0.53%) Ariba
14 3 (0.53%) Juniper
14 3 (0.53%) Samsung