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

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 26 22
Rank change year-on-year -31 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,037 2,246 2,935
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.80% 6.81% 7.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.47% 7.53% 8.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,258 1,367 1,737
10th Percentile £313 £308 £304
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £613
90th Percentile £725 £725 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 119 123 227
10th Percentile £20.35 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £28.44 £27.00 £27.25
Median hourly rate £42.65 £36.48 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +16.91% -4.30% -7.02%
75th Percentile £64.75 £60.00 £48.75
90th Percentile £85.04 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £40.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year +12.50% +4.93% -4.16%

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 45,525 29,831 33,211
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.86% 90.51% 85.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,003 18,596 21,236
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £424 £403 £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 2,834 1,716 1,828
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -39.40% -1.19%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.71 £68.00 £74.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.13% -45.88% +13.33%

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 15 August 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 15 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Project Management in the UK

Project Management
Top 18 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 15 August 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 -26 1,797 £525 +1.94% 2,597
UK excluding London -34 979 £500 +5.26% 1,466
London -26 874 £550 +2.80% 1,402
Work from Home -24 629 £500 +4.17% 984
North of England -35 269 £475 -4.23% 322
South East -25 251 £500 - 406
North West -22 166 £475 - 173
Midlands -47 143 £539 +15.67% 226
South West -24 139 £435 -3.33% 195
West Midlands -57 97 £550 +15.79% 144
Yorkshire -43 96 £485 -3.00% 108
East of England -9 85 £525 -1.13% 156
Scotland -39 69 £465 +3.33% 97
East Midlands -17 46 £500 +18.41% 82
Northern Ireland -1 17 £430 -18.14% 59
Wales -19 14 £400 - 33
North East -43 9 £420 -12.95% 44
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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
1 108 (5.30%) SharePoint
2 104 (5.11%) Confluence
3 34 (1.67%) CMS
4 25 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
5 16 (0.79%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.34%) Sitecore CMS
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%) JBoss
8 5 (0.25%) Moodle
9 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.098%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.098%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 2 (0.098%) SAS
11 1 (0.049%) CICS
11 1 (0.049%) Tomcat
Applications
1 187 (9.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 170 (8.35%) Microsoft Project
3 154 (7.56%) Microsoft Office
4 119 (5.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 45 (2.21%) MS Visio
6 21 (1.03%) Spreadsheet
7 15 (0.74%) Trello
8 10 (0.49%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.29%) Photoshop
10 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
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%) CATIA
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
Business Applications
1 67 (3.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.23%) Primavera
3 11 (0.54%) Adobe Campaign
3 11 (0.54%) Magento
4 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (0.39%) NEC Housing
5 8 (0.39%) NetSuite
6 7 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
6 7 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
6 7 (0.34%) SAP CO
6 7 (0.34%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.34%) SAP PS
7 6 (0.29%) ProductWriter
7 6 (0.29%) SAP FI/CO
7 6 (0.29%) Shopify
8 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
8 5 (0.25%) SAP MM
9 4 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.20%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 179 (8.79%) Azure
2 126 (6.19%) Power Platform
3 94 (4.61%) SaaS
4 79 (3.88%) Microsoft 365
5 74 (3.63%) AWS
6 65 (3.19%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.87%) Smartsheet
8 30 (1.47%) Google Workspace
9 27 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
10 22 (1.08%) Entra ID
11 20 (0.98%) Asana
12 18 (0.88%) GCP
12 18 (0.88%) GitHub
13 13 (0.64%) Google Sheets
13 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Copilot
13 13 (0.64%) PowerApps
13 13 (0.64%) Snowflake
13 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
14 11 (0.54%) OneDrive
14 11 (0.54%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 35 (1.72%) Network Security
2 27 (1.33%) WAN
3 24 (1.18%) LAN
4 23 (1.13%) TCP/IP
5 22 (1.08%) DNS
6 20 (0.98%) Firewall
6 20 (0.98%) Structured Cabling
7 15 (0.74%) Internet
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) DHCP
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
9 13 (0.64%) VPN
10 11 (0.54%) MPLS
11 10 (0.49%) BGP
11 10 (0.49%) Wireless
12 8 (0.39%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.39%) SAN
13 7 (0.34%) DKIM
13 7 (0.34%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 114 (5.60%) Power BI
2 20 (0.98%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (0.83%) Data Lake
4 16 (0.79%) SQL Server
5 15 (0.74%) Metadata
5 15 (0.74%) Tableau
6 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
7 9 (0.44%) Power Query
8 8 (0.39%) GIS
8 8 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
9 7 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
10 6 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
10 6 (0.29%) Big Data
11 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
12 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.20%) Hadoop
12 4 (0.20%) SAP HANA
13 3 (0.15%) EDMS
13 3 (0.15%) QlikView
13 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 252 (12.37%) JIRA
2 27 (1.33%) 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%) git-flow
8 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.049%) minitest
8 1 (0.049%) Postman
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
1 892 (43.79%) Social Skills
2 751 (36.87%) Finance
3 343 (16.84%) Analytical Skills
4 204 (10.01%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.69%) Public Sector
6 163 (8.00%) Banking
7 141 (6.92%) Marketing
8 117 (5.74%) Retail
9 78 (3.83%) Manufacturing
10 77 (3.78%) Influencing Skills
11 74 (3.63%) Legal
12 69 (3.39%) Telecoms
13 47 (2.31%) Presentation Skills
14 38 (1.87%) Investment Banking
15 32 (1.57%) Financial Institution
16 31 (1.52%) Aerospace
16 31 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
16 31 (1.52%) Pharmaceutical
17 30 (1.47%) Front Office
18 28 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 820 (40.26%) Project Manager
2 205 (10.06%) Senior
3 172 (8.44%) Lead
4 165 (8.10%) Analyst
5 151 (7.41%) Senior Manager
6 121 (5.94%) Senior Project Manager
7 115 (5.65%) IT Manager
8 91 (4.47%) IT Project Manager
8 91 (4.47%) Programme Manager
9 85 (4.17%) Business Analyst
10 74 (3.63%) Technical Manager
11 65 (3.19%) Delivery Manager
12 62 (3.04%) Consultant
13 61 (2.99%) Technical Project Manager
14 53 (2.60%) Infrastructure Manager
15 42 (2.06%) SC Cleared Project Manager
16 41 (2.01%) Infrastructure Project Manager
16 41 (2.01%) Project Officer
17 39 (1.91%) Developer
18 36 (1.77%) Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (1.28%) Middleware
2 21 (1.03%) REST
3 16 (0.79%) ADO
3 16 (0.79%) HTML
4 15 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) VML
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
6 11 (0.54%) SOAP
7 10 (0.49%) .NET
7 10 (0.49%) OAuth
8 9 (0.44%) React
9 8 (0.39%) CSS
9 8 (0.39%) RESTful
10 6 (0.29%) AngularJS
10 6 (0.29%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.29%) XML
11 5 (0.25%) FHIR
11 5 (0.25%) Lightning Web Components
11 5 (0.25%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 108 (5.30%) Management Information System
2 86 (4.22%) Onboarding
2 86 (4.22%) Product Ownership
3 68 (3.34%) Data Centre
4 54 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
5 53 (2.60%) PMI
6 47 (2.31%) Virtual Team
7 34 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
8 31 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
9 26 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
9 26 (1.28%) Operational Technology
10 25 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.18%) FMCG
11 24 (1.18%) Social Media
12 20 (0.98%) Data Structures
12 20 (0.98%) Life Science
13 19 (0.93%) AI Agents
13 19 (0.93%) Credit Risk
14 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.74%) EPoS
Operating Systems
1 59 (2.90%) Windows
2 44 (2.16%) Linux
3 20 (0.98%) Unix
4 18 (0.88%) Windows Server
5 8 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.39%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.25%) zOS
7 3 (0.15%) Android
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%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 840 (41.24%) Stakeholder Management
2 768 (37.70%) Agile
3 566 (27.79%) Project Delivery
4 461 (22.63%) PRINCE2
5 352 (17.28%) Problem-Solving
6 345 (16.94%) Continuous Improvement
7 336 (16.49%) Change Management
8 304 (14.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 301 (14.78%) Migration
10 260 (12.76%) Decision-Making
11 257 (12.62%) Risk Management
12 246 (12.08%) Waterfall
13 199 (9.77%) Scrum
14 191 (9.38%) AI
15 162 (7.95%) Project Governance
15 162 (7.95%) Roadmaps
16 154 (7.56%) ITIL
17 146 (7.17%) Analytics
18 145 (7.12%) ERP
19 144 (7.07%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 82 (4.03%) SQL
2 64 (3.14%) Python
3 20 (0.98%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 10 (0.49%) C#
5 10 (0.49%) C++
5 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
6 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
7 7 (0.34%) C
8 5 (0.25%) ABAP
8 5 (0.25%) Korn
8 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
8 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.20%) Ada
9 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
9 4 (0.20%) Bash
9 4 (0.20%) JCL
10 3 (0.15%) R
10 3 (0.15%) REXX
Qualifications
1 324 (15.91%) Security Cleared
2 318 (15.61%) Degree
3 313 (15.37%) PMP
4 274 (13.45%) PMI Certification
5 221 (10.85%) SC Cleared
6 76 (3.73%) DV Cleared
7 70 (3.44%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 30 (1.47%) Master's Degree
9 28 (1.37%) BPSS Clearance
10 25 (1.23%) ACCA
10 25 (1.23%) CIMA
11 19 (0.93%) Computer Science Degree
11 19 (0.93%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 16 (0.79%) APMP
12 16 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
13 15 (0.74%) CISSP
14 14 (0.69%) Azure Certification
15 11 (0.54%) CISM
15 11 (0.54%) MBA
16 10 (0.49%) CIPFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 246 (12.08%) PMO
2 101 (4.96%) QA
3 57 (2.80%) Data Quality
4 38 (1.87%) GDPR
5 32 (1.57%) SLA
6 28 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 26 (1.28%) GRC
8 24 (1.18%) NIST
9 23 (1.13%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.44%) P3O
11 8 (0.39%) EMIR
11 8 (0.39%) MiFID
12 7 (0.34%) FINREP
12 7 (0.34%) GMP
12 7 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.29%) COREP
13 6 (0.29%) SOC 2
14 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.25%) HL7
14 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 38 (1.87%) Active Directory
2 20 (0.98%) 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%) Time Sharing Option
5 4 (0.20%) vSphere
6 3 (0.15%) Docker
6 3 (0.15%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.098%) Firmware
8 1 (0.049%) ACF2
8 1 (0.049%) IAG
8 1 (0.049%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.049%) RACF
8 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.049%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.049%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 20 (0.98%) Ansible
2 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.29%) Terraform
4 6 (0.29%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.25%) Puppet
6 4 (0.20%) Failover Clustering
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
6 4 (0.20%) Kubernetes
6 4 (0.20%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.20%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.098%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.049%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.049%) HP Quality Center
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Nessus
9 1 (0.049%) OMEGAMON
9 1 (0.049%) SCOM
9 1 (0.049%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 341 (16.74%) Microsoft
2 168 (8.25%) SAP
3 118 (5.79%) ServiceNow
4 84 (4.12%) Oracle
5 54 (2.65%) Google
5 54 (2.65%) Salesforce
6 45 (2.21%) Adobe
7 34 (1.67%) VMware
8 31 (1.52%) Cisco
9 24 (1.18%) Workday
10 23 (1.13%) Sitecore
11 21 (1.03%) Atlassian
11 21 (1.03%) Databricks
12 19 (0.93%) NEC
13 16 (0.79%) Ariba
14 14 (0.69%) IBM
15 11 (0.54%) Alteryx
15 11 (0.54%) IFS
15 11 (0.54%) JD Edwards
16 10 (0.49%) Guidewire