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

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 200 128 121
Rank change year-on-year -72 -7 +40
Contract jobs citing Programme Management 555 638 893
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.40% 2.07% 2.00%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.61% 2.32% 2.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 345 348 650
10th Percentile £170 £263 £290
25th Percentile £425 £436 £427
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -
75th Percentile £645 £663 £688
90th Percentile £800 £777 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 21 11
10th Percentile £17.49 £20.26 £26.24
25th Percentile £20.50 £22.50 £38.25
Median hourly rate £23.83 £28.60 £68.67
Median % change year-on-year -16.70% -58.35% +111.28%
75th Percentile £41.25 £44.08 £76.05
90th Percentile £70.34 £65.00 £79.78
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £23.00 £72.33
% change year-on-year +3.59% -68.20% +122.55%

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 34,545 27,534 38,814
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.04% 89.45% 87.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,908 16,837 25,471
10th Percentile £306 £306 £300
25th Percentile £408 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £717 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,083 848 2,117
10th Percentile £14.51 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.78 £21.03 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £33.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -2.99% +2.48%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.38 £60.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.08 £35.00
% change year-on-year -19.08% -11.20% +8.53%

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 11 February 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 11 February 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 11 February 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 -66 491 £550 -0.90% 97
UK excluding London -78 315 £525 -4.55% 78
London -32 206 £550 - 33
Work from Home -67 123 £551 -4.17% 57
North of England -44 66 £500 -0.99% 16
Midlands -46 63 £550 +2.33% 10
South East -68 63 £550 -8.33% 29
South West -45 55 £525 -6.25% 13
East Midlands +5 41 £531 +10.34% 3
Yorkshire -37 30 £537 -2.36% 9
East of England -11 25 £613 +22.81% 5
North West -32 24 £475 -5.94% 6
West Midlands -66 22 £600 - 7
Scotland -8 21 £500 - 3
Wales +6 12 £160 -72.47% 4
North East -15 12 £175 -55.70% 1
Northern Ireland +5 10 £358 +30.00% 2

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 31 (5.59%) Confluence
2 21 (3.78%) SharePoint
3 12 (2.16%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.54%) Apache
5 2 (0.36%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.36%) Oracle Service Bus
5 2 (0.36%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.18%) Apache Superset
6 1 (0.18%) CMS
6 1 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 48 (8.65%) Microsoft Office
2 37 (6.67%) Microsoft Project
3 35 (6.31%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (3.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.54%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.36%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.36%) Trello
7 1 (0.18%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 13 (2.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.90%) Oracle ERP
3 3 (0.54%) Primavera
4 2 (0.36%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.36%) Maximo
4 2 (0.36%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.36%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.36%) SAP IBP
5 1 (0.18%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.18%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 46 (8.29%) Microsoft 365
2 39 (7.03%) Azure
3 33 (5.95%) AWS
4 25 (4.50%) Power Platform
5 22 (3.96%) Google Workspace
6 21 (3.78%) Cloud Computing
7 20 (3.60%) Google Sheets
8 14 (2.52%) GCP
8 14 (2.52%) SaaS
9 10 (1.80%) Smartsheet
10 8 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
11 7 (1.26%) Dynamics 365
12 6 (1.08%) GitHub
13 5 (0.90%) Miro
13 5 (0.90%) Slack
14 4 (0.72%) Entra ID
14 4 (0.72%) GitHub Actions
14 4 (0.72%) OCI
14 4 (0.72%) OpenShift
14 4 (0.72%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 26 (4.68%) Wireless
2 9 (1.62%) Network Security
3 8 (1.44%) Cisco IOS
3 8 (1.44%) LAN
3 8 (1.44%) Skype
4 6 (1.08%) 5G
4 6 (1.08%) Broadband
4 6 (1.08%) VPN
5 5 (0.90%) Internet
5 5 (0.90%) WAN
6 4 (0.72%) DNS
6 4 (0.72%) Kerberos
6 4 (0.72%) Unified Communications
7 3 (0.54%) BGP
7 3 (0.54%) Firewall
7 3 (0.54%) InfiniBand
7 3 (0.54%) Junos
7 3 (0.54%) OSPF
7 3 (0.54%) SD-WAN
7 3 (0.54%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (4.14%) Power BI
2 8 (1.44%) Electronic Patient Records
2 8 (1.44%) Relational Database
3 6 (1.08%) Oracle Reports
4 5 (0.90%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.72%) MySQL
5 4 (0.72%) Tableau
6 3 (0.54%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.36%) Big Data
7 2 (0.36%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.36%) Power Query
7 2 (0.36%) Qlik Sense
8 1 (0.18%) Data Mining
8 1 (0.18%) Looker
8 1 (0.18%) Metadata
8 1 (0.18%) QlikView
8 1 (0.18%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.18%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 67 (12.07%) JIRA
2 3 (0.54%) Jenkins
2 3 (0.54%) JUnit
2 3 (0.54%) Storybook
3 1 (0.18%) GitLab
3 1 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
3 1 (0.18%) Rational Rhapsody
3 1 (0.18%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 352 (63.42%) Finance
2 248 (44.68%) Social Skills
3 223 (40.18%) Public Sector
4 189 (34.05%) Marketing
5 187 (33.69%) Manufacturing
6 180 (32.43%) Telecoms
7 174 (31.35%) Electronics
8 57 (10.27%) Analytical Skills
9 40 (7.21%) Organisational Skills
10 30 (5.41%) Banking
11 25 (4.50%) Retail
12 20 (3.60%) Influencing Skills
13 16 (2.88%) Presentation Skills
14 15 (2.70%) Legal
15 13 (2.34%) Documentation Skills
16 8 (1.44%) Investment Banking
17 7 (1.26%) Military
17 7 (1.26%) Pharmaceutical
18 6 (1.08%) Local Government
18 6 (1.08%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 105 (18.92%) Programme Manager
2 69 (12.43%) Project Manager
3 57 (10.27%) Lead
4 43 (7.75%) Analyst
4 43 (7.75%) Senior
5 41 (7.39%) IT Support
6 33 (5.95%) Desktop Support
7 32 (5.77%) Technical Manager
8 31 (5.59%) Senior Manager
9 25 (4.50%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
9 25 (4.50%) 2nd Line Support
9 25 (4.50%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
10 20 (3.60%) Architect
10 20 (3.60%) Migration Engineer
11 19 (3.42%) IT Engineer
12 17 (3.06%) Senior Project Manager
13 15 (2.70%) Windows Engineer
14 14 (2.52%) Business Analyst
14 14 (2.52%) Coordinator
14 14 (2.52%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.80%) Oracle Fusion
2 7 (1.26%) React
2 7 (1.26%) SailPoint
3 6 (1.08%) OAuth
3 6 (1.08%) RESTful
4 5 (0.90%) .NET
4 5 (0.90%) ADO
4 5 (0.90%) SAML
5 4 (0.72%) CSS
5 4 (0.72%) HTML
5 4 (0.72%) REST
6 3 (0.54%) Middleware
6 3 (0.54%) PySpark
6 3 (0.54%) PyTorch
6 3 (0.54%) SOAP
6 3 (0.54%) Spring Boot
6 3 (0.54%) TensorFlow
6 3 (0.54%) Vitest
6 3 (0.54%) Web Services
6 3 (0.54%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 39 (7.03%) Data Centre
2 27 (4.86%) NHS
3 23 (4.14%) Data Protection Act
4 22 (3.96%) Product Ownership
5 21 (3.78%) Management Information System
6 20 (3.60%) Onboarding
7 14 (2.52%) Virtual Team
8 13 (2.34%) CMDB
9 12 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (1.80%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.80%) PMI
10 10 (1.80%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (1.62%) Cloud Native
11 9 (1.62%) Mobile App
12 7 (1.26%) Public Cloud
13 5 (0.90%) AI Agents
13 5 (0.90%) Cyber Defence
13 5 (0.90%) Cyber Threat
14 4 (0.72%) Enterprise Software
14 4 (0.72%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 32 (5.77%) Mac OS
2 31 (5.59%) Android
3 22 (3.96%) Windows
4 16 (2.88%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.36%) 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
1 199 (35.86%) Business Intelligence
2 179 (32.25%) Digital Marketing
3 169 (30.45%) Stakeholder Management
4 146 (26.31%) Agile
5 108 (19.46%) Project Management
6 104 (18.74%) Migration
7 99 (17.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 89 (16.04%) Risk Management
9 84 (15.14%) Continuous Improvement
10 80 (14.41%) Problem-Solving
11 72 (12.97%) PRINCE2
12 68 (12.25%) Change Management
12 68 (12.25%) Decision-Making
13 62 (11.17%) Project Delivery
14 56 (10.09%) Roadmaps
15 43 (7.75%) Workflow
16 41 (7.39%) Logistics
17 39 (7.03%) AI
17 39 (7.03%) ITIL
17 39 (7.03%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 41 (7.39%) SQL
2 19 (3.42%) Python
3 14 (2.52%) Java
4 9 (1.62%) PowerShell
5 7 (1.26%) JavaScript
6 4 (0.72%) TypeScript
7 3 (0.54%) Korn
8 2 (0.36%) BeanShell
8 2 (0.36%) Go
9 1 (0.18%) C
9 1 (0.18%) C#
9 1 (0.18%) C++
9 1 (0.18%) Google Apps Script
9 1 (0.18%) PHP
9 1 (0.18%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.18%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 149 (26.85%) Security Cleared
2 121 (21.80%) SC Cleared
3 90 (16.22%) Degree
4 54 (9.73%) PMI Certification
5 50 (9.01%) PMP
6 23 (4.14%) DV Cleared
7 19 (3.42%) Master's Degree
8 16 (2.88%) CISSP
8 16 (2.88%) ITIL Certification
9 12 (2.16%) CISM
10 11 (1.98%) APMP
11 9 (1.62%) TOGAF Certification
12 7 (1.26%) PhD
12 7 (1.26%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
13 6 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
14 5 (0.90%) PgMP
15 4 (0.72%) OCP
15 4 (0.72%) Oracle Certification
16 3 (0.54%) CBAP
16 3 (0.54%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (11.35%) PMO
2 31 (5.59%) QA
3 12 (2.16%) Accessibility
4 11 (1.98%) Data Quality
5 8 (1.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.26%) GDPR
6 7 (1.26%) NIST
7 6 (1.08%) JSP 440
8 5 (0.90%) P3O
8 5 (0.90%) RMADS
9 4 (0.72%) NCSC
10 3 (0.54%) Disclosure Scotland
10 3 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.54%) WCAG
11 2 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.36%) GMP
11 2 (0.36%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.36%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.36%) SLA
12 1 (0.18%) EU AI Act
System Software
1 18 (3.24%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.54%) Docker
3 2 (0.36%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 5 (0.90%) Kubernetes
1 5 (0.90%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (0.36%) SCCM
2 2 (0.36%) vRealize
3 1 (0.18%) Failover Clustering
3 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
3 1 (0.18%) Terraform
Vendors
1 192 (34.59%) SAP
2 78 (14.05%) Microsoft
3 46 (8.29%) Cisco
4 29 (5.23%) Google
5 24 (4.32%) Apple
6 23 (4.14%) Dell
6 23 (4.14%) HP
7 20 (3.60%) ServiceNow
8 17 (3.06%) Oracle
9 11 (1.98%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.26%) BiZZdesign
11 5 (0.90%) CyberArk
11 5 (0.90%) Databricks
11 5 (0.90%) GoldenSource
12 4 (0.72%) Centrify
12 4 (0.72%) VMware
13 3 (0.54%) Ariba
13 3 (0.54%) Computacenter
13 3 (0.54%) Juniper
13 3 (0.54%) Remedy