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

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 259 184 136
Rank change year-on-year -75 -48 +11
Contract jobs citing Programme Management 538 488 687
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.50% 1.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.17% 1.66% 2.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 323 294 375
10th Percentile £396 £263 £276
25th Percentile £453 £461 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £581 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.08% +5.68% -7.17%
75th Percentile £700 £713 £701
90th Percentile £850 £825 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £564 £525
% change year-on-year -6.87% +7.38% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 31 20
10th Percentile £22.30 £19.79 £12.75
25th Percentile £35.84 £28.03 £21.10
Median hourly rate £45.00 £45.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year - +28.57% -15.66%
75th Percentile £91.25 £65.25 £48.75
90th Percentile £103.70 £77.50 £77.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.00 £32.50 £23.99
% change year-on-year +161.54% +35.47% -46.69%

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 46,027 29,389 32,594
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.35% 90.49% 85.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,906 18,237 19,938
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 £626 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,152 1,808 1,420
10th Percentile £13.81 £14.24 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.69
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.09% -1.10%
75th Percentile £67.25 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.25 £74.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.08 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +79.61% -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 22 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 22 September 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 22 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 -91 453 £588 -2.08% 812
London -29 262 £638 +2.00% 452
UK excluding London -104 224 £525 -6.87% 415
Work from Home -31 194 £550 -12.00% 287
South East -29 63 £575 -3.77% 124
North of England -64 55 £495 -12.09% 86
Scotland -17 38 £500 +3.90% 35
Yorkshire -26 33 £495 -12.48% 29
Midlands -66 29 £575 -8.00% 54
North West -62 21 £514 -6.55% 49
South West -80 20 £669 +21.59% 54
East of England -27 18 £600 -4.00% 35
West Midlands -66 18 £525 -16.00% 38
East Midlands -12 11 £638 +15.59% 16
Northern Ireland -1 2 £775 +369.70% 21
Wales -10 2 £425 +153.73% 11
North East -37 1 £350 -39.13% 9

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 26 (4.83%) Confluence
2 7 (1.30%) CMS
2 7 (1.30%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.93%) IIS
4 2 (0.37%) Oracle Service Bus
4 2 (0.37%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.19%) Apache
5 1 (0.19%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.19%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.19%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.19%) nginx
5 1 (0.19%) SAS
5 1 (0.19%) Tomcat
Applications
1 30 (5.58%) Microsoft Project
2 29 (5.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (4.65%) Microsoft Office
4 22 (4.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.74%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.37%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.19%) Notion
8 1 (0.19%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 25 (4.65%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.93%) Oracle ERP
3 4 (0.74%) Magento
4 3 (0.56%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.56%) 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
6 1 (0.19%) ENOVIA
6 1 (0.19%) Finacle
6 1 (0.19%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.19%) Primavera
6 1 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.19%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.19%) SAP Convergent Charging
6 1 (0.19%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.19%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.19%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 43 (7.99%) Azure
2 23 (4.28%) AWS
3 21 (3.90%) Power Platform
4 20 (3.72%) SaaS
5 12 (2.23%) Azure DevOps
5 12 (2.23%) Google Workspace
6 10 (1.86%) Entra ID
7 9 (1.67%) GCP
7 9 (1.67%) Smartsheet
8 8 (1.49%) OCI
9 5 (0.93%) Dynamics 365
9 5 (0.93%) Microsoft 365
10 4 (0.74%) Snowflake
10 4 (0.74%) SuccessFactors
11 2 (0.37%) Anthropic Claude
11 2 (0.37%) Asana
11 2 (0.37%) ChatGPT
11 2 (0.37%) ClickUp
11 2 (0.37%) Google Drive
11 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.30%) Network Security
2 5 (0.93%) HTTPS
2 5 (0.93%) TCP/IP
3 4 (0.74%) DNS
3 4 (0.74%) Firewall
3 4 (0.74%) LAN
3 4 (0.74%) WAN
4 3 (0.56%) DHCP
4 3 (0.56%) IPv4
4 3 (0.56%) IPv6
4 3 (0.56%) VLAN
4 3 (0.56%) VPN
5 2 (0.37%) FTP
5 2 (0.37%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (0.19%) Ethernet VPN
6 1 (0.19%) IPsec
6 1 (0.19%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.19%) SSL
6 1 (0.19%) VXLAN
6 1 (0.19%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (2.97%) Power BI
2 4 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
2 4 (0.74%) Qlik Sense
3 3 (0.56%) Big Data
3 3 (0.56%) Metadata
3 3 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.37%) Electronic Patient Records
4 2 (0.37%) SAP HANA
5 1 (0.19%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.19%) Db2
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 44 (8.18%) JIRA
2 6 (1.12%) Git
3 4 (0.74%) Jenkins
3 4 (0.74%) Subversion
4 2 (0.37%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 2 (0.37%) Bitbucket
General
1 267 (49.63%) Finance
2 217 (40.33%) Social Skills
3 88 (16.36%) Analytical Skills
4 70 (13.01%) Public Sector
5 62 (11.52%) Influencing Skills
6 49 (9.11%) Organisational Skills
7 45 (8.36%) Retail
8 39 (7.25%) Banking
9 34 (6.32%) Legal
10 27 (5.02%) Manufacturing
11 26 (4.83%) Marketing
12 25 (4.65%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (3.53%) Aerospace
14 15 (2.79%) Local Government
14 15 (2.79%) Telecoms
15 12 (2.23%) Documentation Skills
16 11 (2.04%) Pharmaceutical
17 10 (1.86%) Investment Banking
18 9 (1.67%) Front Office
19 8 (1.49%) Law
Job Titles
1 124 (23.05%) Project Manager
2 96 (17.84%) Programme Manager
3 94 (17.47%) Lead
4 64 (11.90%) Senior
5 47 (8.74%) Senior Manager
6 34 (6.32%) Technical Manager
7 27 (5.02%) Transformation Manager
8 25 (4.65%) Analyst
8 25 (4.65%) Senior Project Manager
9 23 (4.28%) Consultant
10 22 (4.09%) Delivery Manager
11 18 (3.35%) IT Manager
11 18 (3.35%) Transformation Programme Manager
12 15 (2.79%) SAP Manager
13 14 (2.60%) Business Analyst
14 13 (2.42%) Architect
14 13 (2.42%) Digital Programme Manager
14 13 (2.42%) PMO Manager
14 13 (2.42%) Technical Project Manager
15 12 (2.23%) PMO Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (2.60%) Oracle Fusion
2 10 (1.86%) REST
3 6 (1.12%) Middleware
4 5 (0.93%) SailPoint
4 5 (0.93%) XML
5 4 (0.74%) JSON
5 4 (0.74%) VML
6 3 (0.56%) OAuth
6 3 (0.56%) RESTful
6 3 (0.56%) Web Services
7 2 (0.37%) ADO
7 2 (0.37%) ModSecurity
7 2 (0.37%) OAuth2
7 2 (0.37%) SOAP
7 2 (0.37%) Terraform
7 2 (0.37%) XSD
7 2 (0.37%) XSLT
8 1 (0.19%) LDAP
8 1 (0.19%) SAP Basis
8 1 (0.19%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 28 (5.20%) Management Information System
2 26 (4.83%) Product Ownership
3 23 (4.28%) Onboarding
4 20 (3.72%) Operational Technology
5 18 (3.35%) Data Protection Act
6 12 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (2.04%) Enterprise Software
7 11 (2.04%) PMI
8 9 (1.67%) NHS
9 8 (1.49%) Virtual Team
10 7 (1.30%) FMCG
10 7 (1.30%) Industry 4.0
11 6 (1.12%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
12 5 (0.93%) AI Agents
12 5 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
12 5 (0.93%) Learning Management System
12 5 (0.93%) Life Science
12 5 (0.93%) Marketing Technology
13 4 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 9 (1.67%) Windows
2 3 (0.56%) Linux
2 3 (0.56%) zOS
3 2 (0.37%) 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
1 275 (51.12%) Stakeholder Management
2 180 (33.46%) Agile
3 163 (30.30%) Project Management
4 125 (23.23%) Decision-Making
5 119 (22.12%) PRINCE2
6 114 (21.19%) Continuous Improvement
7 112 (20.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 101 (18.77%) Roadmaps
9 96 (17.84%) Change Management
10 88 (16.36%) Programme Governance
11 84 (15.61%) Problem-Solving
11 84 (15.61%) Project Delivery
12 83 (15.43%) Risk Management
13 82 (15.24%) Programme Delivery
14 68 (12.64%) AI
15 55 (10.22%) Migration
16 54 (10.04%) Business Case
17 51 (9.48%) Matrix Organization
18 50 (9.29%) Cybersecurity
19 48 (8.92%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 5 (0.93%) SQL
2 4 (0.74%) Java
3 3 (0.56%) PowerShell
3 3 (0.56%) Python
4 1 (0.19%) ABAP
4 1 (0.19%) Bash
4 1 (0.19%) BeanShell
4 1 (0.19%) Bicep
4 1 (0.19%) Korn
4 1 (0.19%) PL/SQL
4 1 (0.19%) VBA
Qualifications
1 86 (15.99%) Degree
1 86 (15.99%) Security Cleared
2 81 (15.06%) PMP
3 67 (12.45%) PMI Certification
4 64 (11.90%) SC Cleared
5 15 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
6 13 (2.42%) DV Cleared
7 12 (2.23%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 11 (2.04%) CISM
8 11 (2.04%) CISSP
9 10 (1.86%) Master's Degree
10 7 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
11 6 (1.12%) TOGAF Certification
12 5 (0.93%) MBA
12 5 (0.93%) PgMP
13 4 (0.74%) HND
13 4 (0.74%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.74%) Six Sigma Green Belt
14 3 (0.56%) APMP
14 3 (0.56%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 103 (19.14%) PMO
2 22 (4.09%) QA
3 16 (2.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (2.79%) Data Quality
5 12 (2.23%) GDPR
6 8 (1.49%) GRC
7 7 (1.30%) NIST
8 6 (1.12%) HIPAA
9 5 (0.93%) NCSC
9 5 (0.93%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.74%) MiFID
10 4 (0.74%) P3O
10 4 (0.74%) SLA
11 3 (0.56%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.56%) EMIR
11 3 (0.56%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.37%) Accessibility
System Software
1 6 (1.12%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.37%) Docker
3 2 (0.37%) 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 6 (1.12%) Ansible
2 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.37%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.19%) Control-M
4 1 (0.19%) MOM
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle RMAN
4 1 (0.19%) SCCM
4 1 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 76 (14.13%) Microsoft
2 50 (9.29%) SAP
3 22 (4.09%) Oracle
4 18 (3.35%) ServiceNow
5 13 (2.42%) Google
6 11 (2.04%) Salesforce
7 8 (1.49%) Atlassian
8 6 (1.12%) Databricks
8 6 (1.12%) IBM
9 5 (0.93%) Zscaler
10 4 (0.74%) Palantir
11 3 (0.56%) Bloomberg
11 3 (0.56%) Charles River
11 3 (0.56%) VMware
11 3 (0.56%) Workday
12 2 (0.37%) Ariba
12 2 (0.37%) Dell
12 2 (0.37%) FIS
12 2 (0.37%) Siebel
12 2 (0.37%) Temenos