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 30 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 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 2,036 2,310 2,947
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.84% 7.04% 7.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.52% 7.78% 8.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,252 1,418 1,759
10th Percentile £313 £308 £306
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 £608
90th Percentile £731 £725 £721
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £471 £500
% change year-on-year +6.27% -5.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 124 245
10th Percentile £17.87 £21.39 £21.25
25th Percentile £27.13 £27.25 £28.00
Median hourly rate £41.92 £37.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +12.84% -2.54% -15.29%
75th Percentile £64.75 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £85.13 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £40.50 £38.12
% change year-on-year +4.32% +6.24% -11.35%

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 45,002 29,684 34,056
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.96% 90.46% 85.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,855 18,648 21,888
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% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £734 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,714 1,621 1,980
10th Percentile £14.64 £14.20 £13.69
25th Percentile £19.89 £17.33 £17.74
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 £23.57 £40.33
% change year-on-year +86.55% -41.56% -

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -24 1,813 £525 +2.54% 1,302
UK excluding London -30 1,000 £500 +6.27% 956
London -26 860 £550 +4.76% 528
Work from Home -25 618 £500 +4.82% 500
North of England -32 282 £475 -3.46% 230
South East -23 262 £500 +2.56% 278
North West -18 179 £475 - 123
Midlands -46 146 £525 +16.67% 163
South West -22 139 £438 -2.78% 127
West Midlands -61 100 £550 +17.27% 101
Yorkshire -42 96 £500 - 78
East of England -8 92 £525 +0.48% 100
Scotland -43 62 £500 +11.11% 37
East Midlands -12 46 £488 +27.28% 62
Northern Ireland -5 16 £447 -14.86% 25
Wales -23 12 £400 -13.98% 26
North East -44 10 £420 -12.95% 32

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 (5.16%) SharePoint
3 31 (1.52%) CMS
4 21 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.64%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 7 (0.34%) Apache
6 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
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%) CICS
12 1 (0.049%) IBM HTTP Server
Applications
1 186 (9.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 180 (8.84%) Microsoft Project
3 145 (7.12%) Microsoft Office
4 115 (5.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.11%) MS Visio
6 24 (1.18%) 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 81 (3.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.13%) 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%) Oracle Payables
6 7 (0.34%) Oracle Receivables
7 6 (0.29%) NEC Housing
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
1 183 (8.99%) Azure
2 116 (5.70%) Power Platform
3 93 (4.57%) SaaS
4 83 (4.08%) AWS
5 76 (3.73%) Microsoft 365
6 62 (3.05%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (1.72%) Smartsheet
8 27 (1.33%) Google Workspace
9 25 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
10 24 (1.18%) GCP
11 21 (1.03%) Asana
12 20 (0.98%) Entra ID
13 18 (0.88%) GitHub
14 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
15 12 (0.59%) Google Sheets
15 12 (0.59%) Microsoft Copilot
16 11 (0.54%) Cloud Computing
16 11 (0.54%) OCI
16 11 (0.54%) Snowflake
17 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 14 (0.69%) Intranet
10 13 (0.64%) DHCP
10 13 (0.64%) MPLS
10 13 (0.64%) SD-WAN
11 12 (0.59%) Internet
11 12 (0.59%) VPN
12 10 (0.49%) BGP
13 9 (0.44%) BIG-IP
14 8 (0.39%) SAN
14 8 (0.39%) Wireless
15 7 (0.34%) DKIM
15 7 (0.34%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 105 (5.16%) Power BI
2 16 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
2 16 (0.79%) Tableau
3 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
4 13 (0.64%) Data Lake
4 13 (0.64%) Metadata
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
1 248 (12.18%) JIRA
2 26 (1.28%) 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%) Maven
8 1 (0.049%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.049%) RSpec
8 1 (0.049%) Selenium
8 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.049%) Team Foundation Server
8 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 890 (43.71%) Social Skills
2 756 (37.13%) Finance
3 327 (16.06%) Analytical Skills
4 198 (9.72%) Organisational Skills
5 174 (8.55%) Public Sector
6 140 (6.88%) Banking
7 136 (6.68%) Marketing
8 111 (5.45%) Retail
9 77 (3.78%) Manufacturing
10 74 (3.63%) Influencing Skills
11 73 (3.59%) Legal
12 57 (2.80%) Telecoms
13 48 (2.36%) Presentation Skills
14 35 (1.72%) Investment Banking
15 30 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
15 30 (1.47%) Financial Institution
15 30 (1.47%) Pharmaceutical
16 29 (1.42%) Aerospace
17 27 (1.33%) Front Office
18 26 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 808 (39.69%) Project Manager
2 207 (10.17%) Senior
3 182 (8.94%) Analyst
4 170 (8.35%) Lead
5 151 (7.42%) Senior Manager
6 129 (6.34%) Senior Project Manager
7 110 (5.40%) IT Manager
8 89 (4.37%) Business Analyst
8 89 (4.37%) IT Project Manager
9 87 (4.27%) Programme Manager
10 67 (3.29%) Consultant
10 67 (3.29%) Technical Manager
11 61 (3.00%) Delivery Manager
12 56 (2.75%) Infrastructure Manager
13 54 (2.65%) Technical Project Manager
14 45 (2.21%) Project Officer
15 43 (2.11%) Architect
15 43 (2.11%) Infrastructure Project Manager
16 42 (2.06%) SC Cleared Project Manager
17 38 (1.87%) 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%) CSS
8 9 (0.44%) React
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
1 110 (5.40%) Management Information System
2 90 (4.42%) Onboarding
3 82 (4.03%) Product Ownership
4 68 (3.34%) Data Centre
5 54 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
5 54 (2.65%) PMI
6 46 (2.26%) Virtual Team
7 35 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
8 30 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
9 25 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
9 25 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
9 25 (1.23%) FMCG
10 24 (1.18%) Operational Technology
10 24 (1.18%) Social Media
11 20 (0.98%) AI Agents
11 20 (0.98%) Data Structures
11 20 (0.98%) Life Science
12 15 (0.74%) Credit Risk
12 15 (0.74%) EPoS
12 15 (0.74%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 53 (2.60%) Windows
2 37 (1.82%) 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
1 786 (38.61%) Stakeholder Management
2 741 (36.39%) Agile
3 544 (26.72%) Project Delivery
4 437 (21.46%) PRINCE2
5 366 (17.98%) Problem-Solving
6 336 (16.50%) Change Management
7 334 (16.40%) Continuous Improvement
8 302 (14.83%) Migration
9 299 (14.69%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 260 (12.77%) Decision-Making
11 255 (12.52%) Risk Management
12 242 (11.89%) Waterfall
13 196 (9.63%) AI
14 194 (9.53%) Scrum
15 158 (7.76%) ERP
16 144 (7.07%) Budget Management
16 144 (7.07%) Roadmaps
17 143 (7.02%) ITIL
18 139 (6.83%) Analytics
19 138 (6.78%) Project Governance
Programming Languages
1 84 (4.13%) 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%) R
12 3 (0.15%) REXX
13 2 (0.098%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.098%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 333 (16.36%) Security Cleared
2 311 (15.28%) Degree
3 307 (15.08%) PMP
4 272 (13.36%) PMI Certification
5 235 (11.54%) SC Cleared
6 78 (3.83%) DV Cleared
7 64 (3.14%) 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
1 249 (12.23%) PMO
2 105 (5.16%) QA
3 58 (2.85%) Data Quality
4 37 (1.82%) SLA
5 36 (1.77%) GDPR
6 28 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.23%) NIST
8 24 (1.18%) GRC
9 21 (1.03%) 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
1 327 (16.06%) Microsoft
2 188 (9.23%) SAP
3 120 (5.89%) ServiceNow
4 81 (3.98%) Oracle
5 55 (2.70%) Salesforce
6 52 (2.55%) Google
7 39 (1.92%) Adobe
8 27 (1.33%) Cisco
8 27 (1.33%) VMware
9 22 (1.08%) Workday
10 21 (1.03%) Sitecore
11 19 (0.93%) Atlassian
12 18 (0.88%) Databricks
13 16 (0.79%) Ariba
13 16 (0.79%) NEC
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