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 14 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 266 181 133
Rank change year-on-year -85 -48 +13
Contract jobs citing Programme Management 560 520 692
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.01% 1.57% 1.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.20% 1.73% 2.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 333 313 381
10th Percentile £406 £161 £275
25th Percentile £474 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -6.78%
75th Percentile £700 £688 £700
90th Percentile £823 £801 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £546 £535
% change year-on-year +0.69% +2.10% -5.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 42 15
10th Percentile £20.93 £16.97 £19.15
25th Percentile £31.44 £23.50 £23.34
Median hourly rate £42.59 £35.60 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.63% +1.71% -21.22%
75th Percentile £86.25 £63.44 £46.42
90th Percentile £102.95 £77.13 £86.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £27.47 £24.18
% change year-on-year +136.62% +13.61% -46.27%

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 46,826 30,024 32,246
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.73% 90.50% 86.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,144 18,679 19,408
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £737 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,407 1,886 1,245
10th Percentile £13.64 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.72 £65.07 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £40.33
% change year-on-year +68.43% -44.79% -8.14%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -86 473 £585 +1.74% 549
London -37 260 £625 +1.79% 349
UK excluding London -114 246 £550 +0.69% 224
Work from Home -44 190 £550 -10.20% 206
North of England -62 67 £495 -7.82% 54
South East -35 63 £575 -3.77% 57
Yorkshire -10 43 £494 -8.01% 20
Scotland -20 37 £500 - 19
Midlands -65 36 £600 - 20
West Midlands -56 24 £600 -4.00% 15
North West -56 23 £525 -4.55% 26
East of England -27 21 £550 -12.00% 23
South West -79 21 £669 +21.59% 36
East Midlands -21 12 £650 +57.58% 5
Wales -16 3 £613 +47.77% 5
Northern Ireland -2 2 £775 +369.70% 14
North East -49 1 £350 +14.29% 8

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 (5.71%) Confluence
2 6 (1.07%) IIS
2 6 (1.07%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.89%) CMS
4 2 (0.36%) Apache
4 2 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.36%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.36%) Apache Superset
4 2 (0.36%) Oracle Service Bus
4 2 (0.36%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.36%) SAS
5 1 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
Applications
1 31 (5.54%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (5.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 30 (5.36%) Microsoft Project
3 25 (4.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.71%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.36%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
7 1 (0.18%) Notion
7 1 (0.18%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 23 (4.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.07%) Oracle ERP
3 4 (0.71%) Magento
4 3 (0.54%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.54%) SAP SD
5 2 (0.36%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.36%) SAP BRIM
5 2 (0.36%) SAP EWM
5 2 (0.36%) SAP IBP
5 2 (0.36%) SAP MM
5 2 (0.36%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.18%) Aladdin
6 1 (0.18%) Finacle
6 1 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.18%) SAP Convergent Charging
6 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG-F
6 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG-S
6 1 (0.18%) SystmOne
6 1 (0.18%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 53 (9.46%) Azure
2 28 (5.00%) AWS
3 22 (3.93%) Power Platform
4 18 (3.21%) SaaS
5 17 (3.04%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (2.32%) Google Workspace
7 12 (2.14%) Entra ID
7 12 (2.14%) GCP
8 8 (1.43%) Microsoft 365
8 8 (1.43%) OCI
9 6 (1.07%) Dynamics 365
9 6 (1.07%) Smartsheet
10 4 (0.71%) SuccessFactors
11 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Copilot
11 3 (0.54%) Snowflake
12 2 (0.36%) Anthropic Claude
12 2 (0.36%) Azure Data Factory
12 2 (0.36%) ChatGPT
12 2 (0.36%) Google Drive
12 2 (0.36%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.61%) Network Security
2 6 (1.07%) TCP/IP
3 5 (0.89%) DNS
3 5 (0.89%) HTTPS
4 4 (0.71%) Firewall
4 4 (0.71%) LAN
4 4 (0.71%) VPN
4 4 (0.71%) WAN
5 3 (0.54%) DHCP
5 3 (0.54%) IPv4
5 3 (0.54%) IPv6
5 3 (0.54%) VLAN
6 2 (0.36%) FTP
6 2 (0.36%) Kerberos
6 2 (0.36%) Software-Defined Networking
6 2 (0.36%) Structured Cabling
6 2 (0.36%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.18%) IKE
7 1 (0.18%) Modbus
7 1 (0.18%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (2.86%) Power BI
2 6 (1.07%) Qlik Sense
3 4 (0.71%) Big Data
3 4 (0.71%) Data Warehouse
4 3 (0.54%) Electronic Patient Records
4 3 (0.54%) Metadata
4 3 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.36%) Trino
6 1 (0.18%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.18%) Db2
6 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 1 (0.18%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 45 (8.04%) JIRA
2 7 (1.25%) Git
3 4 (0.71%) Jenkins
3 4 (0.71%) Subversion
4 2 (0.36%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 2 (0.36%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
General
1 281 (50.18%) Finance
2 232 (41.43%) Social Skills
3 94 (16.79%) Analytical Skills
4 78 (13.93%) Public Sector
5 68 (12.14%) Influencing Skills
6 50 (8.93%) Organisational Skills
7 49 (8.75%) Banking
8 41 (7.32%) Retail
9 34 (6.07%) Legal
10 31 (5.54%) Manufacturing
11 28 (5.00%) Presentation Skills
12 23 (4.11%) Aerospace
12 23 (4.11%) Marketing
13 16 (2.86%) Local Government
13 16 (2.86%) Telecoms
14 13 (2.32%) Documentation Skills
15 10 (1.79%) Aviation
15 10 (1.79%) Investment Banking
15 10 (1.79%) Pharmaceutical
16 9 (1.61%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 131 (23.39%) Project Manager
2 106 (18.93%) Programme Manager
3 94 (16.79%) Lead
4 68 (12.14%) Senior
5 48 (8.57%) Senior Manager
6 33 (5.89%) Transformation Manager
7 29 (5.18%) Technical Manager
8 28 (5.00%) Senior Project Manager
9 24 (4.29%) Consultant
9 24 (4.29%) Delivery Manager
10 23 (4.11%) Analyst
10 23 (4.11%) IT Manager
10 23 (4.11%) Transformation Programme Manager
11 15 (2.68%) Architect
11 15 (2.68%) IT Project Manager
12 14 (2.50%) Digital Programme Manager
13 13 (2.32%) SAP Manager
13 13 (2.32%) Technical Project Manager
14 11 (1.96%) Business Analyst
14 11 (1.96%) PMO Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.68%) Oracle Fusion
2 11 (1.96%) REST
3 6 (1.07%) OAuth
3 6 (1.07%) SailPoint
4 5 (0.89%) JSON
4 5 (0.89%) Middleware
5 4 (0.71%) Terraform
5 4 (0.71%) VML
5 4 (0.71%) Web Services
5 4 (0.71%) XML
6 3 (0.54%) ADO
6 3 (0.54%) RESTful
7 2 (0.36%) LDAP
7 2 (0.36%) ModSecurity
7 2 (0.36%) OAuth2
7 2 (0.36%) SAML
7 2 (0.36%) SOAP
7 2 (0.36%) XSD
7 2 (0.36%) XSLT
8 1 (0.18%) Azure Blueprints
Miscellaneous
1 35 (6.25%) Management Information System
2 26 (4.64%) Onboarding
3 25 (4.46%) Operational Technology
4 24 (4.29%) Product Ownership
5 18 (3.21%) Data Protection Act
6 15 (2.68%) Enterprise Software
7 11 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (1.96%) NHS
8 9 (1.61%) Industry 4.0
8 9 (1.61%) Virtual Team
9 7 (1.25%) AI Agents
9 7 (1.25%) Data Centre
9 7 (1.25%) Distributed Systems
9 7 (1.25%) PMI
10 6 (1.07%) FMCG
10 6 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (1.07%) Life Science
11 5 (0.89%) Derivative
11 5 (0.89%) Marketing Technology
11 5 (0.89%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.43%) Windows
2 4 (0.71%) Linux
2 4 (0.71%) zOS
3 3 (0.54%) 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
1 297 (53.04%) Stakeholder Management
2 189 (33.75%) Agile
3 163 (29.11%) Project Management
4 135 (24.11%) Decision-Making
5 129 (23.04%) PRINCE2
6 120 (21.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 115 (20.54%) Continuous Improvement
8 112 (20.00%) Roadmaps
9 103 (18.39%) Programme Governance
10 99 (17.68%) Change Management
11 98 (17.50%) Problem-Solving
12 94 (16.79%) Risk Management
13 92 (16.43%) Project Delivery
14 84 (15.00%) Programme Delivery
15 76 (13.57%) AI
16 63 (11.25%) Cybersecurity
17 57 (10.18%) Migration
17 57 (10.18%) Technology Transformation
18 55 (9.82%) Scaled Agile Framework
19 54 (9.64%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 6 (1.07%) Java
2 4 (0.71%) PowerShell
2 4 (0.71%) SQL
3 2 (0.36%) BeanShell
3 2 (0.36%) Python
4 1 (0.18%) ABAP
4 1 (0.18%) Bash
4 1 (0.18%) Bicep
4 1 (0.18%) Korn
4 1 (0.18%) VBA
Qualifications
1 96 (17.14%) Degree
2 92 (16.43%) Security Cleared
3 89 (15.89%) PMP
4 75 (13.39%) PMI Certification
5 69 (12.32%) SC Cleared
6 18 (3.21%) BPSS Clearance
7 14 (2.50%) CISM
7 14 (2.50%) CISSP
7 14 (2.50%) DV Cleared
8 12 (2.14%) Master's Degree
8 12 (2.14%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 9 (1.61%) PgMP
10 8 (1.43%) TOGAF Certification
11 7 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.25%) MBA
12 4 (0.71%) HND
12 4 (0.71%) ITIL Certification
12 4 (0.71%) Six Sigma Green Belt
13 3 (0.54%) APMP
13 3 (0.54%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (19.11%) PMO
2 24 (4.29%) QA
3 17 (3.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (2.68%) Data Quality
5 12 (2.14%) GDPR
6 10 (1.79%) GRC
7 8 (1.43%) NIST
8 7 (1.25%) P3O
9 6 (1.07%) HIPAA
9 6 (1.07%) PCI DSS
9 6 (1.07%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (0.89%) NCSC
11 4 (0.71%) MiFID
12 3 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials
12 3 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.54%) EMIR
12 3 (0.54%) ISO 9001
12 3 (0.54%) SLA
12 3 (0.54%) SOC 2
System Software
1 8 (1.43%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.18%) Docker
4 1 (0.18%) Firmware
4 1 (0.18%) ISA Server
4 1 (0.18%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.18%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 7 (1.25%) Ansible
2 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (0.36%) 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 88 (15.71%) Microsoft
2 48 (8.57%) SAP
3 22 (3.93%) Oracle
4 19 (3.39%) ServiceNow
5 15 (2.68%) Salesforce
6 12 (2.14%) Google
7 8 (1.43%) Atlassian
8 6 (1.07%) Databricks
8 6 (1.07%) IBM
8 6 (1.07%) Palantir
9 5 (0.89%) Zscaler
10 3 (0.54%) Ariba
10 3 (0.54%) Bloomberg
10 3 (0.54%) Charles River
10 3 (0.54%) CyberArk
10 3 (0.54%) Dell
11 2 (0.36%) Adobe
11 2 (0.36%) Siebel
11 2 (0.36%) SimCorp
11 2 (0.36%) Temenos