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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 179 142
Rank change year-on-year -89 -37 +6
Contract jobs citing Programme Management 515 510 660
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.96% 1.58% 1.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.13% 1.75% 2.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 308 310 386
10th Percentile £399 £297 £279
25th Percentile £450 £457 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £589 £598 £555
Median % change year-on-year -1.46% +7.66% -7.50%
75th Percentile £700 £700 £700
90th Percentile £833 £800 £822
UK excluding London median daily rate £517 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -10.09% +4.55% -0.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 32 22
10th Percentile £28.78 £19.82 £12.75
25th Percentile £49.88 £28.29 £18.31
Median hourly rate £84.50 £46.25 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +82.70% +32.14% -11.50%
75th Percentile £88.00 £65.25 £48.75
90th Percentile £102.33 £77.13 £87.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £88.00 £32.08 £23.99
% change year-on-year +174.36% +33.70% -39.34%

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 45,398 29,222 32,553
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.63% 90.44% 85.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,773 18,158 20,413
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,911 1,744 1,558
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.20 £14.41
25th Percentile £17.72 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.84 £46.01 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.18 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +87.80% -47.37% +12.13%

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 September 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 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Programme Management in the UK

Programme Management
Top 16 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 September 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 -84 444 £600 - 841
London -36 260 £638 +2.00% 540
UK excluding London -114 211 £517 -10.09% 437
Work from Home -45 178 £550 -10.20% 359
South East -37 73 £572 -12.08% 104
North of England -73 52 £500 -9.09% 91
Scotland -24 33 £450 -4.00% 45
Yorkshire -24 30 £500 -10.31% 24
Midlands -73 23 £550 -8.33% 49
North West -58 22 £514 -4.81% 57
South West -96 17 £700 +24.44% 63
West Midlands -74 13 £491 -18.25% 35
East of England -21 12 £575 -11.54% 44
East Midlands -19 10 £638 +15.59% 14
Northern Ireland -3 2 £775 +369.70% 40
Wales -15 2 £425 +153.73% 7

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 24 (4.66%) Confluence
2 8 (1.55%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.17%) CMS
4 5 (0.97%) IIS
5 2 (0.39%) Oracle Service Bus
5 2 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.19%) Apache
6 1 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.19%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.19%) Apache Superset
6 1 (0.19%) nginx
6 1 (0.19%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.19%) Tomcat
Applications
1 31 (6.02%) Microsoft Project
2 30 (5.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (4.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 23 (4.47%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.58%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.39%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.19%) Notion
7 1 (0.19%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 26 (5.05%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.97%) Oracle ERP
2 5 (0.97%) SAP MDG
3 4 (0.78%) Magento
4 3 (0.58%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.58%) SAP SD
5 2 (0.39%) SAP BRIM
5 2 (0.39%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.39%) SAP EWM
5 2 (0.39%) SAP IBP
5 2 (0.39%) SAP MM
5 2 (0.39%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.19%) CA PPM
6 1 (0.19%) ENOVIA
6 1 (0.19%) Finacle
6 1 (0.19%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.19%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.19%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.19%) SimCorp Dimension
6 1 (0.19%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 42 (8.16%) Azure
2 21 (4.08%) SaaS
3 19 (3.69%) AWS
4 17 (3.30%) Power Platform
5 13 (2.52%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (1.94%) Smartsheet
7 9 (1.75%) Entra ID
8 8 (1.55%) Google Workspace
8 8 (1.55%) OCI
9 6 (1.17%) GCP
10 5 (0.97%) Dynamics 365
10 5 (0.97%) Microsoft 365
11 4 (0.78%) ClickUp
11 4 (0.78%) Snowflake
12 2 (0.39%) Anthropic Claude
12 2 (0.39%) Asana
12 2 (0.39%) Azure Data Factory
12 2 (0.39%) ChatGPT
12 2 (0.39%) Google Sheets
12 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.36%) Network Security
2 5 (0.97%) HTTPS
3 4 (0.78%) TCP/IP
4 3 (0.58%) DNS
4 3 (0.58%) Firewall
4 3 (0.58%) LAN
4 3 (0.58%) WAN
5 2 (0.39%) DHCP
5 2 (0.39%) FTP
5 2 (0.39%) IPv4
5 2 (0.39%) IPv6
5 2 (0.39%) VLAN
5 2 (0.39%) VPN
6 1 (0.19%) HTTP
6 1 (0.19%) Internet
6 1 (0.19%) Radio Access Network
6 1 (0.19%) SAN
6 1 (0.19%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.19%) Structured Cabling
6 1 (0.19%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (2.72%) Power BI
2 4 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (0.58%) Big Data
3 3 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (0.58%) SAP HANA
4 2 (0.39%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.19%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.19%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 1 (0.19%) Tableau
5 1 (0.19%) Trino
Development Applications
1 48 (9.32%) JIRA
2 10 (1.94%) Rational DOORS
3 4 (0.78%) Git
3 4 (0.78%) Jenkins
3 4 (0.78%) Subversion
4 2 (0.39%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 2 (0.39%) Bitbucket
General
1 254 (49.32%) Finance
2 209 (40.58%) Social Skills
3 88 (17.09%) Analytical Skills
4 59 (11.46%) Public Sector
5 53 (10.29%) Influencing Skills
6 48 (9.32%) Organisational Skills
7 47 (9.13%) Retail
8 37 (7.18%) Banking
9 30 (5.83%) Legal
10 26 (5.05%) Marketing
11 25 (4.85%) Aerospace
12 19 (3.69%) Manufacturing
12 19 (3.69%) Presentation Skills
13 14 (2.72%) Telecoms
14 12 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
14 12 (2.33%) Local Government
15 9 (1.75%) Front Office
15 9 (1.75%) Investment Banking
15 9 (1.75%) Law
15 9 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 121 (23.50%) Project Manager
2 97 (18.83%) Programme Manager
3 82 (15.92%) Lead
4 66 (12.82%) Senior
5 48 (9.32%) Senior Manager
6 36 (6.99%) Technical Manager
7 29 (5.63%) Delivery Manager
8 28 (5.44%) Transformation Manager
9 26 (5.05%) Analyst
9 26 (5.05%) Senior Project Manager
10 20 (3.88%) Consultant
10 20 (3.88%) SAP Manager
11 18 (3.50%) Transformation Programme Manager
12 15 (2.91%) Business Analyst
12 15 (2.91%) Product Manager
13 13 (2.52%) IT Manager
13 13 (2.52%) PMO Manager
13 13 (2.52%) Product Delivery Manager
13 13 (2.52%) Technical Project Manager
14 12 (2.33%) Digital Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (2.33%) Oracle Fusion
2 8 (1.55%) Middleware
3 7 (1.36%) REST
4 5 (0.97%) XML
5 4 (0.78%) SailPoint
5 4 (0.78%) VML
6 3 (0.58%) RESTful
7 2 (0.39%) ADO
7 2 (0.39%) JSON
7 2 (0.39%) ModSecurity
7 2 (0.39%) OAuth
7 2 (0.39%) OAuth2
7 2 (0.39%) SOAP
7 2 (0.39%) Terraform
7 2 (0.39%) Web Services
7 2 (0.39%) XSD
7 2 (0.39%) XSLT
8 1 (0.19%) Azure Blueprints
8 1 (0.19%) React
8 1 (0.19%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 33 (6.41%) Product Ownership
2 19 (3.69%) Onboarding
3 18 (3.50%) Data Protection Act
3 18 (3.50%) Management Information System
4 14 (2.72%) Legacy Systems
5 12 (2.33%) Operational Technology
6 11 (2.14%) Data Structures
6 11 (2.14%) PMI
7 9 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
7 9 (1.75%) FMCG
8 7 (1.36%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.17%) Learning Management System
9 6 (1.17%) NHS
9 6 (1.17%) Virtual Team
10 5 (0.97%) AI Agents
10 5 (0.97%) Greenfield Project
11 4 (0.78%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (0.78%) Digital Currency
11 4 (0.78%) Marketing Technology
11 4 (0.78%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 11 (2.14%) Windows
2 3 (0.58%) Linux
2 3 (0.58%) zOS
3 2 (0.39%) Unix
4 1 (0.19%) Alpine Linux
4 1 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.19%) Solaris
4 1 (0.19%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.19%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 256 (49.71%) Stakeholder Management
2 178 (34.56%) Agile
3 154 (29.90%) Project Management
4 120 (23.30%) PRINCE2
5 116 (22.52%) Continuous Improvement
6 113 (21.94%) Decision-Making
6 113 (21.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 96 (18.64%) Change Management
8 91 (17.67%) Roadmaps
9 84 (16.31%) Project Delivery
10 81 (15.73%) Programme Governance
11 79 (15.34%) Risk Management
12 78 (15.15%) Programme Delivery
13 76 (14.76%) Problem-Solving
14 68 (13.20%) AI
15 59 (11.46%) Migration
16 53 (10.29%) Matrix Organization
17 50 (9.71%) Business Case
18 47 (9.13%) Waterfall
19 46 (8.93%) Scaled Agile Framework
Programming Languages
1 4 (0.78%) SQL
2 2 (0.39%) Java
2 2 (0.39%) Python
3 1 (0.19%) ABAP
3 1 (0.19%) Bicep
3 1 (0.19%) Korn
3 1 (0.19%) PL/SQL
3 1 (0.19%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.19%) VBA
Qualifications
1 89 (17.28%) Degree
2 87 (16.89%) Security Cleared
3 73 (14.17%) PMP
4 59 (11.46%) PMI Certification
5 54 (10.49%) SC Cleared
6 13 (2.52%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
7 12 (2.33%) DV Cleared
8 11 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
8 11 (2.14%) CISM
8 11 (2.14%) CISSP
9 9 (1.75%) Master's Degree
10 7 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (1.17%) TOGAF Certification
12 5 (0.97%) MBA
12 5 (0.97%) PgMP
13 4 (0.78%) HND
13 4 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.78%) Six Sigma Green Belt
14 3 (0.58%) APMP
15 2 (0.39%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (19.61%) PMO
2 22 (4.27%) QA
3 16 (3.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 14 (2.72%) Data Quality
5 11 (2.14%) GDPR
6 8 (1.55%) GRC
7 7 (1.36%) NIST
7 7 (1.36%) SLA
8 6 (1.17%) HIPAA
9 5 (0.97%) NCSC
9 5 (0.97%) P3O
9 5 (0.97%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.97%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.78%) MiFID
11 3 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.58%) EMIR
11 3 (0.58%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.39%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.39%) NIST 800
System Software
1 5 (0.97%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.39%) Docker
3 2 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.19%) ISA Server
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
4 1 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.19%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.19%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 4 (0.78%) Ansible
2 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.19%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.19%) MOM
3 1 (0.19%) Oracle RMAN
3 1 (0.19%) SCCM
3 1 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 67 (13.01%) Microsoft
2 48 (9.32%) SAP
3 19 (3.69%) Oracle
4 18 (3.50%) ServiceNow
5 15 (2.91%) IBM
6 14 (2.72%) Google
7 11 (2.14%) Salesforce
8 7 (1.36%) Atlassian
9 6 (1.17%) Databricks
10 5 (0.97%) Zscaler
11 4 (0.78%) Workday
12 3 (0.58%) Bloomberg
12 3 (0.58%) Charles River
12 3 (0.58%) Rapid7
12 3 (0.58%) VMware
13 2 (0.39%) Ariba
13 2 (0.39%) Dell
13 2 (0.39%) Qualys
13 2 (0.39%) Siebel
13 2 (0.39%) Temenos