Project Management Contract Job Trends

Project Management
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Project Management skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -26 -4 +2
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,038 2,310 2,928
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.84% 7.04% 7.37%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.52% 7.79% 8.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,250 1,415 1,748
10th Percentile £313 £308 £305
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £512 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.38% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £625 £610 £611
90th Percentile £734 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 137 126 240
10th Percentile £17.87 £21.39 £21.20
25th Percentile £28.00 £26.75 £27.93
Median hourly rate £42.25 £37.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +13.73% -2.54% -11.35%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.69 £50.00
90th Percentile £85.23 £75.00 £65.28
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.30 £40.50 £38.12
% change year-on-year +4.44% +6.24% -10.09%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Project 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 45,107 29,668 33,959
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.95% 90.46% 85.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,893 18,635 21,816
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £736 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,744 1,629 1,969
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £13.69
25th Percentile £19.66 £17.35 £17.72
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £24.00 £40.33
% change year-on-year +83.17% -40.48% +0.81%

Project Management
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Project Management relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Project Management job vacancy trend in the UK

Project Management
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Project Management.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Project Management

Project Management
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Project Management over the 6 months to 31 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Project Management in the UK

Project Management
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Project Management.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Project Management

Project Management
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Project Management over the 6 months to 31 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Management in the UK

Project 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 Project Management within the UK over the 6 months to 31 July 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 -25 1,816 £525 +2.54% 1,345
UK excluding London -31 1,003 £500 +6.38% 987
London -27 859 £550 +4.76% 552
Work from Home -24 623 £500 +4.38% 477
North of England -26 284 £475 -3.46% 241
South East -23 265 £500 +2.83% 285
North West -15 179 £475 - 131
Midlands -42 146 £525 +16.67% 173
South West -21 139 £438 -2.78% 121
West Midlands -59 99 £550 +17.27% 109
Yorkshire -44 98 £500 - 79
East of England -7 91 £525 +0.48% 106
Scotland -45 61 £500 +11.11% 39
East Midlands -14 47 £488 +30.00% 64
Northern Ireland -4 16 £447 -14.86% 25
Wales -23 12 £400 -13.98% 29
North East -42 10 £420 -12.95% 36

Project 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
1 109 (5.35%) Confluence
2 105 (5.15%) SharePoint
3 31 (1.52%) CMS
4 21 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.64%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
7 6 (0.29%) Apache
7 6 (0.29%) ArcGIS
7 6 (0.29%) WordPress
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
8 5 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) JBoss
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.098%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.098%) SAS
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) Camunda
Applications
1 185 (9.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 181 (8.88%) Microsoft Project
3 149 (7.31%) Microsoft Office
4 116 (5.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.11%) MS Visio
6 23 (1.13%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 8 (0.39%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 7 (0.34%) Chatbot
10 6 (0.29%) Photoshop
11 4 (0.20%) Simulink
11 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
12 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
12 3 (0.15%) InDesign
12 3 (0.15%) Windchill
13 2 (0.098%) Houdini
13 2 (0.098%) NUKE
14 1 (0.049%) Adobe After Effects
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
14 1 (0.049%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 80 (3.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (1.18%) Primavera
3 10 (0.49%) Magento
4 9 (0.44%) Adobe Campaign
5 8 (0.39%) NetSuite
5 8 (0.39%) SAP CO
5 8 (0.39%) SAP FI
5 8 (0.39%) SAP FI/CO
5 8 (0.39%) SAP HCM
6 7 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
6 7 (0.34%) NEC Housing
6 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
6 7 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
7 6 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
7 6 (0.29%) ProductWriter
7 6 (0.29%) SAP Payroll
7 6 (0.29%) SAP PS
7 6 (0.29%) Shopify
7 6 (0.29%) Teamcenter
8 5 (0.25%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 182 (8.93%) Azure
2 117 (5.74%) Power Platform
3 94 (4.61%) SaaS
4 82 (4.02%) AWS
5 75 (3.68%) Microsoft 365
6 62 (3.04%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (1.72%) Smartsheet
8 28 (1.37%) Google Workspace
9 25 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
10 24 (1.18%) GCP
11 20 (0.98%) Asana
11 20 (0.98%) Entra ID
12 18 (0.88%) GitHub
13 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
14 12 (0.59%) Google Sheets
14 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Copilot
15 11 (0.54%) Cloud Computing
15 11 (0.54%) OCI
15 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
16 10 (0.49%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 33 (1.62%) Network Security
2 25 (1.23%) WAN
3 23 (1.13%) TCP/IP
4 22 (1.08%) DNS
5 21 (1.03%) LAN
6 20 (0.98%) Structured Cabling
7 17 (0.83%) Firewall
8 15 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) DHCP
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
9 13 (0.64%) SD-WAN
10 12 (0.59%) Internet
10 12 (0.59%) MPLS
10 12 (0.59%) VPN
11 10 (0.49%) BGP
12 9 (0.44%) BIG-IP
13 8 (0.39%) SAN
13 8 (0.39%) Wireless
14 7 (0.34%) DKIM
14 7 (0.34%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (5.20%) Power BI
2 16 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
2 16 (0.79%) Tableau
3 14 (0.69%) Metadata
3 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
4 13 (0.64%) Data Lake
5 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
7 8 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
7 8 (0.39%) Power Query
7 8 (0.39%) SAP HANA
8 7 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
8 7 (0.34%) GIS
9 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
10 4 (0.20%) Big Data
11 3 (0.15%) EDMS
11 3 (0.15%) Looker
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 249 (12.22%) JIRA
2 27 (1.32%) Git
3 21 (1.03%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.34%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.34%) GitLab
6 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.098%) Hudson
7 2 (0.098%) Rational Rhapsody
7 2 (0.098%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.098%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.049%) Appium
8 1 (0.049%) git-flow
8 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.049%) minitest
8 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.049%) Snyk
8 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.049%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 890 (43.67%) Social Skills
2 752 (36.90%) Finance
3 333 (16.34%) Analytical Skills
4 196 (9.62%) Organisational Skills
5 176 (8.64%) Public Sector
6 137 (6.72%) Banking
7 136 (6.67%) Marketing
8 111 (5.45%) Retail
9 77 (3.78%) Manufacturing
10 74 (3.63%) Influencing Skills
10 74 (3.63%) Legal
11 58 (2.85%) Telecoms
12 48 (2.36%) Presentation Skills
13 34 (1.67%) Investment Banking
14 30 (1.47%) Aerospace
14 30 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
14 30 (1.47%) Financial Institution
14 30 (1.47%) Pharmaceutical
15 26 (1.28%) Front Office
15 26 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 807 (39.60%) Project Manager
2 207 (10.16%) Senior
3 179 (8.78%) Analyst
4 172 (8.44%) Lead
5 151 (7.41%) Senior Manager
6 129 (6.33%) Senior Project Manager
7 111 (5.45%) IT Manager
8 89 (4.37%) IT Project Manager
9 87 (4.27%) Business Analyst
9 87 (4.27%) Programme Manager
10 67 (3.29%) Consultant
11 66 (3.24%) Technical Manager
12 60 (2.94%) Delivery Manager
13 56 (2.75%) Infrastructure Manager
14 54 (2.65%) Technical Project Manager
15 44 (2.16%) Project Officer
16 43 (2.11%) Infrastructure Project Manager
17 42 (2.06%) Architect
18 41 (2.01%) SC Cleared Project Manager
19 37 (1.82%) Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.23%) Middleware
2 22 (1.08%) REST
3 15 (0.74%) ADO
3 15 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
4 14 (0.69%) HTML
5 13 (0.64%) OAuth
5 13 (0.64%) VML
6 12 (0.59%) JSON
6 12 (0.59%) SOAP
6 12 (0.59%) Web Services
7 10 (0.49%) .NET
8 9 (0.44%) React
9 8 (0.39%) CSS
9 8 (0.39%) RESTful
10 7 (0.34%) XML
11 6 (0.29%) AngularJS
11 6 (0.29%) FastAPI
11 6 (0.29%) SailPoint
11 6 (0.29%) SAML
12 5 (0.25%) FHIR
Miscellaneous
1 111 (5.45%) Management Information System
2 89 (4.37%) Onboarding
3 82 (4.02%) Product Ownership
4 68 (3.34%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.65%) PMI
6 52 (2.55%) Data Protection Act
7 46 (2.26%) Virtual Team
8 34 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
9 30 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
11 25 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
11 25 (1.23%) FMCG
12 24 (1.18%) Operational Technology
12 24 (1.18%) Social Media
13 20 (0.98%) AI Agents
13 20 (0.98%) Data Structures
13 20 (0.98%) Life Science
14 15 (0.74%) Credit Risk
14 15 (0.74%) EPoS
14 15 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 53 (2.60%) Windows
2 38 (1.86%) Linux
3 20 (0.98%) Unix
4 15 (0.74%) Windows Server
5 7 (0.34%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.25%) zOS
7 3 (0.15%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.15%) Solaris
8 2 (0.098%) Mac OS X
8 2 (0.098%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.049%) AIX
9 1 (0.049%) Android
9 1 (0.049%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 789 (38.71%) Stakeholder Management
2 738 (36.21%) Agile
3 543 (26.64%) Project Delivery
4 441 (21.64%) PRINCE2
5 366 (17.96%) Problem-Solving
6 336 (16.49%) Continuous Improvement
7 335 (16.44%) Change Management
8 301 (14.77%) Migration
9 299 (14.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 261 (12.81%) Decision-Making
11 257 (12.61%) Risk Management
12 242 (11.87%) Waterfall
13 196 (9.62%) AI
14 191 (9.37%) Scrum
15 157 (7.70%) ERP
16 145 (7.11%) ITIL
17 144 (7.07%) Budget Management
18 142 (6.97%) Roadmaps
19 139 (6.82%) Analytics
19 139 (6.82%) Project Governance
Programming Languages
1 84 (4.12%) SQL
2 66 (3.24%) Python
3 20 (0.98%) JavaScript
4 14 (0.69%) Java
5 13 (0.64%) VBA
6 10 (0.49%) C#
6 10 (0.49%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) TypeScript
7 9 (0.44%) PowerShell
8 8 (0.39%) ABAP
9 7 (0.34%) C
10 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
10 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.20%) Ada
11 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
11 4 (0.20%) JCL
12 3 (0.15%) Bash
12 3 (0.15%) Korn
12 3 (0.15%) R
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 334 (16.39%) Security Cleared
2 318 (15.60%) Degree
3 308 (15.11%) PMP
4 273 (13.40%) PMI Certification
5 234 (11.48%) SC Cleared
6 78 (3.83%) DV Cleared
7 65 (3.19%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 31 (1.52%) Master's Degree
9 30 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
10 29 (1.42%) ACCA
10 29 (1.42%) CIMA
11 22 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (0.88%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 17 (0.83%) CISSP
14 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
15 14 (0.69%) Azure Certification
16 13 (0.64%) APMP
16 13 (0.64%) CISM
17 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
17 10 (0.49%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 251 (12.32%) PMO
2 104 (5.10%) QA
3 57 (2.80%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.82%) SLA
5 36 (1.77%) GDPR
6 28 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 26 (1.28%) GRC
8 25 (1.23%) NIST
9 24 (1.18%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.44%) EMIR
11 8 (0.39%) P3O
12 7 (0.34%) FINREP
12 7 (0.34%) MiFID
12 7 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.29%) COREP
13 6 (0.29%) GMP
13 6 (0.29%) SOC 2
14 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.25%) HL7
14 5 (0.25%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 37 (1.82%) Active Directory
2 16 (0.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.20%) NFS
5 4 (0.20%) RACF
5 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
5 4 (0.20%) vSphere
6 3 (0.15%) Docker
7 2 (0.098%) Firmware
8 1 (0.049%) ACF2
8 1 (0.049%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.049%) IAG
8 1 (0.049%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.049%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 19 (0.93%) Ansible
2 15 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
3 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (0.29%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
5 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
5 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
5 4 (0.20%) Terraform
6 3 (0.15%) Puppet
6 3 (0.15%) SCCM
7 2 (0.098%) Failover Clustering
7 2 (0.098%) Red Hat Satellite
7 2 (0.098%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.049%) Nagios
8 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.049%) SCOM
8 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 330 (16.19%) Microsoft
2 188 (9.22%) SAP
3 119 (5.84%) ServiceNow
4 82 (4.02%) Oracle
5 55 (2.70%) Salesforce
6 53 (2.60%) Google
7 39 (1.91%) Adobe
8 27 (1.32%) Cisco
8 27 (1.32%) VMware
9 24 (1.18%) Workday
10 21 (1.03%) Sitecore
11 19 (0.93%) Atlassian
12 18 (0.88%) Databricks
12 18 (0.88%) NEC
13 16 (0.79%) Ariba
14 15 (0.74%) IBM
15 11 (0.54%) F5
15 11 (0.54%) IFS
15 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.49%) Alteryx