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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 27 21
Rank change year-on-year -31 -6 0
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,020 2,144 2,956
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.76% 6.55% 7.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.45% 7.24% 8.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,236 1,301 1,733
10th Percentile £312 £309 £310
25th Percentile £413 £405 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.10% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £618 £625 £619
90th Percentile £725 £726 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 116 116 188
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.28 £21.25
25th Percentile £29.99 £25.63 £26.93
Median hourly rate £45.00 £34.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +30.43% -8.00% -6.25%
75th Percentile £63.56 £57.69 £49.25
90th Percentile £82.88 £74.38 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £36.00 £38.12
% change year-on-year +31.94% -5.56% -3.62%

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 45,369 29,617 32,996
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.56% 90.44% 85.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,730 18,446 20,728
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £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 2,902 1,758 1,607
10th Percentile £14.10 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.78 £17.30 £18.82
Median hourly rate £41.09 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.39% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.88 £47.09 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.56 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +92.49% -47.37% +14.67%

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 1 September 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 1 September 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 1 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 -29 1,773 £519 -0.19% 3,331
UK excluding London -33 973 £500 +6.61% 1,990
London -31 857 £550 - 1,788
Work from Home -23 620 £500 +2.56% 1,474
North of England -37 259 £475 -3.46% 431
South East -23 257 £500 - 499
North West -28 157 £475 - 255
Midlands -48 143 £538 +17.81% 268
South West -22 134 £450 - 299
Yorkshire -29 95 £475 -5.00% 128
West Midlands -60 93 £550 +17.27% 163
East of England -11 81 £525 - 195
Scotland -35 79 £478 +6.82% 180
East Midlands -17 50 £513 +15.23% 105
Northern Ireland -3 16 £413 -21.43% 95
Wales -21 12 £400 -3.03% 51
North East -45 9 £420 -4.55% 55
Channel Islands - 2 £575 -

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
1 120 (5.94%) SharePoint
2 105 (5.20%) Confluence
3 37 (1.83%) CMS
4 30 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (0.89%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.40%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.35%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.30%) JBoss
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Apache
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.050%) Apache Airflow
12 1 (0.050%) Appian
12 1 (0.050%) Camunda
12 1 (0.050%) nginx
Applications
1 193 (9.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 177 (8.76%) Microsoft Project
3 161 (7.97%) Microsoft Office
4 124 (6.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 42 (2.08%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
9 6 (0.30%) Photoshop
10 4 (0.20%) Simulink
10 4 (0.20%) Stateflow
11 3 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
11 3 (0.15%) InDesign
11 3 (0.15%) Windchill
12 2 (0.099%) Houdini
12 2 (0.099%) NUKE
13 1 (0.050%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.050%) CATIA
13 1 (0.050%) Notion
Business Applications
1 64 (3.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.24%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.64%) Magento
4 10 (0.50%) SAP CO
4 10 (0.50%) SAP FI
4 10 (0.50%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.45%) NetSuite
5 9 (0.45%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.40%) NEC Housing
6 8 (0.40%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) Shopify
8 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle General Ledger
9 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
9 5 (0.25%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 176 (8.71%) Azure
2 139 (6.88%) Power Platform
3 92 (4.55%) SaaS
4 89 (4.41%) Microsoft 365
5 71 (3.51%) AWS
6 67 (3.32%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (1.88%) Smartsheet
8 31 (1.53%) Google Workspace
9 29 (1.44%) Entra ID
10 26 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (0.99%) Asana
12 19 (0.94%) GCP
13 16 (0.79%) GitHub
13 16 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 15 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
14 15 (0.74%) OneDrive
14 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
15 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
16 12 (0.59%) Cloud Computing
17 11 (0.54%) Google Sheets
Communications & Networking
1 40 (1.98%) Network Security
2 31 (1.53%) WAN
3 25 (1.24%) Firewall
4 24 (1.19%) DNS
4 24 (1.19%) LAN
4 24 (1.19%) TCP/IP
5 17 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
6 16 (0.79%) Internet
6 16 (0.79%) VPN
7 15 (0.74%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.69%) DHCP
8 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
9 13 (0.64%) BGP
9 13 (0.64%) Intranet
10 11 (0.54%) Wireless
11 10 (0.50%) MPLS
11 10 (0.50%) SAN
12 8 (0.40%) BIG-IP
13 7 (0.35%) DKIM
13 7 (0.35%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 125 (6.19%) Power BI
2 19 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (0.89%) Metadata
4 17 (0.84%) Tableau
5 13 (0.64%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.54%) Data Lake
7 10 (0.50%) Power Query
8 9 (0.45%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.40%) GIS
10 7 (0.35%) Big Data
11 6 (0.30%) Amazon RDS
11 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
12 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
12 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.25%) Looker
12 5 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
13 3 (0.15%) EDMS
13 3 (0.15%) QlikView
13 3 (0.15%) SAP HANA
13 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 261 (12.92%) JIRA
2 27 (1.34%) Git
3 21 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.45%) Subversion
5 7 (0.35%) Bitbucket
5 7 (0.35%) GitLab
6 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
7 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
10 1 (0.050%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.050%) Capybara
10 1 (0.050%) Gradle
10 1 (0.050%) Hudson
10 1 (0.050%) LoadRunner
10 1 (0.050%) Maven
10 1 (0.050%) RSpec
10 1 (0.050%) Selenium
10 1 (0.050%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.050%) TestDirector
General
1 900 (44.55%) Social Skills
2 766 (37.92%) Finance
3 342 (16.93%) Analytical Skills
4 200 (9.90%) Organisational Skills
5 179 (8.86%) Public Sector
6 171 (8.47%) Banking
7 137 (6.78%) Marketing
8 120 (5.94%) Retail
9 81 (4.01%) Influencing Skills
10 75 (3.71%) Telecoms
11 69 (3.42%) Legal
11 69 (3.42%) Manufacturing
12 55 (2.72%) Presentation Skills
13 40 (1.98%) Investment Banking
14 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
15 30 (1.49%) Front Office
16 29 (1.44%) Aerospace
16 29 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 28 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
17 28 (1.39%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 801 (39.65%) Project Manager
2 190 (9.41%) Senior
3 182 (9.01%) Lead
4 160 (7.92%) Analyst
5 141 (6.98%) Senior Manager
6 112 (5.54%) IT Manager
7 111 (5.50%) Senior Project Manager
8 85 (4.21%) IT Project Manager
9 84 (4.16%) Business Analyst
10 82 (4.06%) Programme Manager
11 72 (3.56%) Technical Manager
12 71 (3.51%) Consultant
13 67 (3.32%) Delivery Manager
14 60 (2.97%) Technical Project Manager
15 50 (2.48%) Infrastructure Manager
16 43 (2.13%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 38 (1.88%) Coordinator
17 38 (1.88%) Infrastructure Project Manager
18 37 (1.83%) Digital Project Manager
18 37 (1.83%) Project Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (1.19%) Middleware
2 20 (0.99%) REST
3 17 (0.84%) ADO
4 16 (0.79%) HTML
5 15 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
6 13 (0.64%) VML
6 13 (0.64%) Web Services
7 11 (0.54%) JSON
8 10 (0.50%) OAuth
9 9 (0.45%) .NET
9 9 (0.45%) React
9 9 (0.45%) SOAP
10 8 (0.40%) CSS
11 7 (0.35%) RESTful
12 6 (0.30%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
12 6 (0.30%) Terraform
12 6 (0.30%) XML
13 5 (0.25%) FHIR
14 4 (0.20%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 111 (5.50%) Management Information System
2 97 (4.80%) Product Ownership
3 90 (4.46%) Onboarding
4 62 (3.07%) Data Centre
5 52 (2.57%) Data Protection Act
6 47 (2.33%) PMI
7 44 (2.18%) Virtual Team
8 29 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (1.34%) FMCG
10 27 (1.34%) Operational Technology
11 26 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
12 25 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
12 25 (1.24%) Social Media
13 22 (1.09%) Credit Risk
14 20 (0.99%) AI Agents
14 20 (0.99%) Life Science
15 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
16 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 16 (0.79%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 66 (3.27%) Windows
2 55 (2.72%) Linux
3 24 (1.19%) Windows Server
4 23 (1.14%) Unix
5 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.30%) zOS
8 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.20%) Android
9 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
10 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.099%) Solaris
10 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.050%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 888 (43.96%) Stakeholder Management
2 783 (38.76%) Agile
3 586 (29.01%) Project Delivery
4 453 (22.43%) PRINCE2
5 342 (16.93%) Problem-Solving
6 337 (16.68%) Continuous Improvement
7 333 (16.49%) Change Management
8 294 (14.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 289 (14.31%) Migration
10 268 (13.27%) Decision-Making
11 250 (12.38%) Risk Management
11 250 (12.38%) Waterfall
12 202 (10.00%) AI
12 202 (10.00%) Scrum
13 179 (8.86%) Project Governance
14 166 (8.22%) Roadmaps
15 157 (7.77%) Analytics
16 155 (7.67%) ITIL
17 151 (7.48%) Programme Management
18 149 (7.38%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 77 (3.81%) SQL
2 69 (3.42%) Python
3 18 (0.89%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 13 (0.64%) C++
6 10 (0.50%) PowerShell
7 9 (0.45%) C#
7 9 (0.45%) TypeScript
8 7 (0.35%) Ada
8 7 (0.35%) C
9 5 (0.25%) Bash
9 5 (0.25%) Korn
9 5 (0.25%) MATLAB
9 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.20%) JCL
11 3 (0.15%) ABAP
11 3 (0.15%) REXX
12 2 (0.099%) R
Qualifications
1 333 (16.49%) Security Cleared
2 315 (15.59%) Degree
3 295 (14.60%) PMP
4 258 (12.77%) PMI Certification
5 230 (11.39%) SC Cleared
6 75 (3.71%) DV Cleared
7 71 (3.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 28 (1.39%) Master's Degree
9 27 (1.34%) BPSS Clearance
10 21 (1.04%) ACCA
10 21 (1.04%) CIMA
11 18 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
12 16 (0.79%) Computer Science Degree
12 16 (0.79%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
14 13 (0.64%) APMP
14 13 (0.64%) ISTQB
15 12 (0.59%) CISSP
16 11 (0.54%) MBA
17 10 (0.50%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 251 (12.43%) PMO
2 101 (5.00%) QA
3 55 (2.72%) Data Quality
4 38 (1.88%) GDPR
5 25 (1.24%) GRC
5 25 (1.24%) SLA
6 23 (1.14%) Accessibility
6 23 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (0.99%) NIST
8 9 (0.45%) P3O
9 8 (0.40%) EMIR
10 7 (0.35%) FINREP
10 7 (0.35%) GMP
10 7 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.30%) COREP
11 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.30%) MiFID
12 5 (0.25%) HL7
12 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 43 (2.13%) Active Directory
2 26 (1.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
5 5 (0.25%) vSphere
6 4 (0.20%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.20%) NFS
6 4 (0.20%) Time Sharing Option
7 2 (0.099%) Docker
7 2 (0.099%) Firmware
7 2 (0.099%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.050%) ACF2
8 1 (0.050%) IAG
8 1 (0.050%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.050%) RACF
8 1 (0.050%) Sendmail
8 1 (0.050%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 21 (1.04%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.30%) Puppet
4 6 (0.30%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 5 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Satellite
6 4 (0.20%) ITRS Geneos
7 3 (0.15%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.15%) RSA Archer
7 3 (0.15%) SCCM
8 2 (0.099%) BMC PATROL
8 2 (0.099%) BMC Performance Manager
8 2 (0.099%) Perfmon
8 2 (0.099%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.050%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.050%) Nagios
9 1 (0.050%) Nessus
9 1 (0.050%) OMEGAMON
9 1 (0.050%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 358 (17.72%) Microsoft
2 158 (7.82%) SAP
3 112 (5.54%) ServiceNow
4 82 (4.06%) Oracle
5 56 (2.77%) Salesforce
6 53 (2.62%) Google
7 48 (2.38%) Adobe
8 42 (2.08%) VMware
9 30 (1.49%) Cisco
10 24 (1.19%) Atlassian
10 24 (1.19%) Sitecore
11 20 (0.99%) Workday
12 19 (0.94%) Ariba
12 19 (0.94%) NEC
13 16 (0.79%) Databricks
14 15 (0.74%) IBM
15 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
16 10 (0.50%) F5
16 10 (0.50%) IFS
16 10 (0.50%) Planview