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

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 241 166 115
Rank change year-on-year -75 -51 +37
Contract jobs citing Programme Management 508 508 842
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.08% 1.74% 1.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.27% 1.91% 2.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 296 306 592
10th Percentile £353 £309 £271
25th Percentile £425 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £675 £699 £725
90th Percentile £819 £775 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £536 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -6.78% - +4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 24 19
10th Percentile £20.50 £20.26 £12.75
25th Percentile £23.16 £22.50 £21.12
Median hourly rate £61.50 £33.50 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +83.58% -5.63% -5.19%
75th Percentile £88.00 £51.20 £59.38
90th Percentile - £68.50 £69.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £84.00 £23.00 £16.00
% change year-on-year +265.22% +43.75% -59.54%

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 39,989 26,597 37,605
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.62% 90.89% 86.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,206 17,155 24,229
10th Percentile £319 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £743 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £485 £500
% change year-on-year +0.62% -3.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,387 1,068 2,445
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.65 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.96 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £41.56 £29.00 £35.65
Median % change year-on-year +43.29% -18.65% -4.42%
75th Percentile £66.00 £60.84 £59.95
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £27.76 £37.18
% change year-on-year +57.38% -25.34% +3.28%

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 1 May 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 1 May 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 1 May 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 -77 453 £550 -4.35% 151
UK excluding London -97 249 £536 -6.78% 100
London -16 221 £550 -4.35% 65
Work from Home -40 135 £531 -7.65% 75
South East -48 93 £563 -10.00% 27
Midlands -63 47 £550 -2.22% 21
North of England -83 34 £516 -1.76% 16
East Midlands -10 31 £550 +14.29% 7
South West -55 26 £575 +0.88% 20
Yorkshire -45 23 £525 -4.55% 7
East of England -20 20 £600 +9.09% 6
Scotland -25 18 £450 -14.57% 8
West Midlands -69 16 £475 -20.83% 13
North West -55 9 £517 -1.52% 7
Wales -6 6 £160 -76.30% 1
Northern Ireland +5 5 £650 +136.36% 3
North East -29 2 £300 -41.75% 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 19 (3.74%) Confluence
2 14 (2.76%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.77%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.79%) CMS
5 2 (0.39%) IIS
5 2 (0.39%) Oracle Service Bus
5 2 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.20%) Apache
6 1 (0.20%) Apache Superset
6 1 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2013
6 1 (0.20%) nginx
6 1 (0.20%) SharePoint 2013
6 1 (0.20%) Tomcat
Applications
1 36 (7.09%) Microsoft Project
2 27 (5.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (3.74%) Microsoft Office
4 17 (3.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.59%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.20%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (3.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.79%) SAP ERP
3 3 (0.59%) Oracle ERP
3 3 (0.59%) SAP MDG
3 3 (0.59%) SAP MDG-F
4 2 (0.39%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.20%) iTrent
5 1 (0.20%) Maximo
5 1 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.20%) Primavera
5 1 (0.20%) SAP BRIM
5 1 (0.20%) SAP CO
5 1 (0.20%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.20%) SAP FI/CO
5 1 (0.20%) SAP SD
5 1 (0.20%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.20%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 36 (7.09%) Azure
2 25 (4.92%) Google Workspace
3 22 (4.33%) Google Sheets
3 22 (4.33%) SaaS
4 18 (3.54%) Cloud Computing
4 18 (3.54%) Power Platform
5 16 (3.15%) AWS
6 15 (2.95%) Microsoft 365
7 11 (2.17%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (1.97%) GCP
8 10 (1.97%) Smartsheet
9 4 (0.79%) ClickUp
9 4 (0.79%) Dynamics 365
9 4 (0.79%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (0.59%) Asana
10 3 (0.59%) GitHub
10 3 (0.59%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (0.59%) Google Ads
10 3 (0.59%) OCI
10 3 (0.59%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.57%) Network Security
2 6 (1.18%) Cisco IOS
2 6 (1.18%) Skype
3 5 (0.98%) Broadband
4 4 (0.79%) Internet
4 4 (0.79%) LAN
4 4 (0.79%) Structured Cabling
4 4 (0.79%) WAN
5 3 (0.59%) 5G
5 3 (0.59%) DNS
5 3 (0.59%) InfiniBand
5 3 (0.59%) VPN
6 2 (0.39%) BGP
6 2 (0.39%) Firewall
6 2 (0.39%) HTTPS
6 2 (0.39%) Junos
6 2 (0.39%) OSPF
6 2 (0.39%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.20%) Ethernet VPN
7 1 (0.20%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (3.15%) Power BI
2 6 (1.18%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (0.98%) Electronic Patient Records
3 5 (0.98%) Oracle Reports
4 3 (0.59%) MySQL
4 3 (0.59%) SAP HANA
4 3 (0.59%) Tableau
5 2 (0.39%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.20%) Looker
6 1 (0.20%) Qlik Sense
6 1 (0.20%) QlikView
6 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 59 (11.61%) JIRA
2 28 (5.51%) Rational DOORS
3 3 (0.59%) Atlassian Bamboo
3 3 (0.59%) Bitbucket
4 2 (0.39%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.39%) JUnit
4 2 (0.39%) Storybook
General
1 268 (52.76%) Finance
2 218 (42.91%) Social Skills
3 121 (23.82%) Public Sector
4 95 (18.70%) Marketing
5 81 (15.94%) Manufacturing
6 80 (15.75%) Telecoms
7 70 (13.78%) Electronics
8 57 (11.22%) Analytical Skills
9 49 (9.65%) Organisational Skills
10 40 (7.87%) Retail
11 38 (7.48%) Aerospace
12 24 (4.72%) Influencing Skills
13 18 (3.54%) Banking
14 15 (2.95%) Presentation Skills
15 13 (2.56%) Legal
16 7 (1.38%) Pharmaceutical
17 5 (0.98%) Documentation Skills
17 5 (0.98%) Front Office
17 5 (0.98%) Local Government
18 4 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 106 (20.87%) Programme Manager
2 83 (16.34%) Project Manager
3 54 (10.63%) Senior
4 53 (10.43%) Lead
5 44 (8.66%) Delivery Manager
6 38 (7.48%) Senior Manager
6 38 (7.48%) Technical Manager
7 36 (7.09%) Analyst
8 29 (5.71%) Product Manager
9 28 (5.51%) Product Delivery Manager
10 22 (4.33%) Systems Manager
11 21 (4.13%) Business Analyst
11 21 (4.13%) Systems Delivery Manager
12 19 (3.74%) Senior Project Manager
13 16 (3.15%) IT Manager
14 15 (2.95%) Architect
15 14 (2.76%) Transformation Manager
16 13 (2.56%) Consultant
16 13 (2.56%) Infrastructure Manager
16 13 (2.56%) SAP Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.77%) Oracle Fusion
2 6 (1.18%) Middleware
2 6 (1.18%) React
2 6 (1.18%) RESTful
3 5 (0.98%) XML
4 4 (0.79%) ADO
4 4 (0.79%) REST
5 3 (0.59%) CSS
5 3 (0.59%) HTML
6 2 (0.39%) JSON
6 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Graph
6 2 (0.39%) OAuth
6 2 (0.39%) OAuth2
6 2 (0.39%) SOAP
6 2 (0.39%) Spring
6 2 (0.39%) Spring Boot
6 2 (0.39%) Vitest
6 2 (0.39%) Web Services
6 2 (0.39%) XSD
6 2 (0.39%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 48 (9.45%) Product Ownership
2 24 (4.72%) Data Structures
3 23 (4.53%) Data Protection Act
4 22 (4.33%) Onboarding
5 19 (3.74%) NHS
6 16 (3.15%) Data Centre
6 16 (3.15%) PMI
7 15 (2.95%) Management Information System
8 11 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
9 7 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (1.18%) Mobile App
11 5 (0.98%) Learning Management System
11 5 (0.98%) Public Cloud
12 4 (0.79%) CCTV
12 4 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
12 4 (0.79%) FMCG
12 4 (0.79%) Hedge funds
12 4 (0.79%) Operational Technology
12 4 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
12 4 (0.79%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 16 (3.15%) Windows
2 10 (1.97%) Windows 10
3 6 (1.18%) Android
3 6 (1.18%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.20%) Solaris
4 1 (0.20%) VMS
4 1 (0.20%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2008
4 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 189 (37.20%) Stakeholder Management
2 156 (30.71%) Agile
3 120 (23.62%) Project Management
4 114 (22.44%) Continuous Improvement
5 110 (21.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 105 (20.67%) Migration
7 101 (19.88%) PRINCE2
8 86 (16.93%) Business Intelligence
9 77 (15.16%) Digital Marketing
10 76 (14.96%) Decision-Making
11 75 (14.76%) Change Management
12 74 (14.57%) Risk Management
13 63 (12.40%) Roadmaps
14 60 (11.81%) Problem-Solving
15 59 (11.61%) Project Delivery
16 57 (11.22%) Change Control
17 50 (9.84%) Scaled Agile Framework
18 45 (8.86%) Programme Delivery
19 42 (8.27%) Logistics
20 41 (8.07%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 33 (6.50%) SQL
2 12 (2.36%) Python
3 9 (1.77%) Java
4 6 (1.18%) JavaScript
5 5 (0.98%) PowerShell
6 2 (0.39%) Go
6 2 (0.39%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.20%) ABAP
7 1 (0.20%) Google Apps Script
7 1 (0.20%) PHP
7 1 (0.20%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 135 (26.57%) Security Cleared
2 100 (19.69%) Degree
3 78 (15.35%) SC Cleared
4 52 (10.24%) PMP
5 50 (9.84%) PMI Certification
6 20 (3.94%) DV Cleared
7 12 (2.36%) APMP
8 8 (1.57%) CISSP
8 8 (1.57%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 7 (1.38%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (1.18%) CISM
11 5 (0.98%) Master's Degree
12 4 (0.79%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (0.59%) AWS Certification
13 3 (0.59%) Azure Certification
13 3 (0.59%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.59%) CSPO
13 3 (0.59%) PgMP
13 3 (0.59%) TOGAF Certification
14 2 (0.39%) CBAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (13.19%) PMO
2 29 (5.71%) QA
3 18 (3.54%) Data Quality
4 8 (1.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (1.57%) SLA
5 6 (1.18%) GDPR
5 6 (1.18%) JSP 440
6 5 (0.98%) NIST
6 5 (0.98%) RMADS
7 4 (0.79%) NCSC
7 4 (0.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.59%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.59%) GRC
8 3 (0.59%) P3O
9 2 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.39%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.39%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.20%) ECSS
10 1 (0.20%) MiFID
System Software
1 9 (1.77%) Active Directory
2 4 (0.79%) Docker
3 1 (0.20%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.20%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (0.79%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.39%) vRealize
3 1 (0.20%) Failover Clustering
3 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.20%) Oracle RMAN
3 1 (0.20%) SCCM
3 1 (0.20%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.20%) Terraform
Vendors
1 105 (20.67%) SAP
2 50 (9.84%) Microsoft
3 31 (6.10%) Google
4 28 (5.51%) IBM
5 18 (3.54%) Oracle
6 14 (2.76%) Cisco
7 13 (2.56%) ServiceNow
8 11 (2.17%) Salesforce
9 5 (0.98%) Workday
10 4 (0.79%) Ariba
10 4 (0.79%) Databricks
10 4 (0.79%) VMware
11 3 (0.59%) Atlassian
11 3 (0.59%) GoldenSource
11 3 (0.59%) Nokia
11 3 (0.59%) Planview
11 3 (0.59%) Zoho
12 2 (0.39%) Instagram
12 2 (0.39%) Rapid7
12 2 (0.39%) Zuora