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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 60 27 21
Rank change year-on-year -33 -6 +1
Contract jobs citing Project Management 2,029 2,102 2,903
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.78% 6.51% 7.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.47% 7.19% 8.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,248 1,264 1,699
10th Percentile £312 £310 £310
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -
75th Percentile £619 £638 £616
90th Percentile £725 £738 £711
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 113 118 178
10th Percentile £21.00 £21.36 £21.25
25th Percentile £30.00 £25.75 £27.00
Median hourly rate £45.50 £34.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +31.88% -8.00% -6.25%
75th Percentile £63.25 £58.06 £49.75
90th Percentile £83.10 £74.13 £65.83
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £36.51 £38.12
% change year-on-year +30.10% -4.22% -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 45,398 29,222 32,553
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.63% 90.44% 85.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,773 18,158 20,413
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 2,911 1,744 1,558
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.20 £14.41
25th Percentile £17.72 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.84 £46.01 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.18 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +87.80% -47.37% +12.13%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 1,782 £525 +0.96% 3,524
UK excluding London -33 970 £500 +6.61% 2,076
London -31 865 £550 - 1,899
Work from Home -24 622 £500 +2.56% 1,515
North of England -36 260 £475 -3.01% 441
South East -21 258 £500 - 515
North West -20 159 £475 -3.01% 253
Midlands -46 140 £550 +18.92% 296
South West -24 135 £460 +2.11% 305
Yorkshire -33 94 £475 -5.00% 136
West Midlands -60 90 £550 +17.27% 179
East of England -11 81 £525 - 209
Scotland -30 78 £480 +6.67% 185
East Midlands -20 50 £525 +17.45% 117
Northern Ireland -5 14 £447 -14.86% 106
Wales -20 12 £400 - 47
North East -36 9 £420 +3.07% 59
Channel Islands - 2 £575 - 1

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
1 119 (5.86%) SharePoint
2 102 (5.03%) Confluence
3 35 (1.72%) CMS
4 30 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
5 18 (0.89%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 8 (0.39%) Sitecore CMS
7 7 (0.34%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.34%) WebSphere
8 6 (0.30%) Apache
8 6 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 6 (0.30%) JBoss
8 6 (0.30%) WordPress
9 5 (0.25%) Moodle
10 3 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.15%) SAS
11 2 (0.099%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Spark
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) Camunda
Applications
1 195 (9.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 176 (8.67%) Microsoft Project
3 162 (7.98%) Microsoft Office
4 127 (6.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (2.12%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
7 14 (0.69%) Trello
8 11 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 6 (0.30%) Chatbot
10 5 (0.25%) 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 (0.099%) Houdini
13 2 (0.099%) NUKE
14 1 (0.049%) CATIA
14 1 (0.049%) Notion
14 1 (0.049%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 63 (3.10%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (1.18%) Primavera
3 13 (0.64%) Adobe Campaign
3 13 (0.64%) Magento
4 10 (0.49%) SAP CO
4 10 (0.49%) SAP FI
4 10 (0.49%) SAP PS
5 9 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.44%) NetSuite
5 9 (0.44%) SAP MM
6 8 (0.39%) NEC Housing
6 8 (0.39%) Oracle Receivables
7 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.30%) SAP FI/CO
8 6 (0.30%) Shopify
8 6 (0.30%) Workday HCM
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle General Ledger
9 5 (0.25%) ProductWriter
9 5 (0.25%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 182 (8.97%) Azure
2 142 (7.00%) Power Platform
3 91 (4.48%) Microsoft 365
3 91 (4.48%) SaaS
4 73 (3.60%) AWS
5 70 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
6 37 (1.82%) Smartsheet
7 30 (1.48%) Google Workspace
8 29 (1.43%) Entra ID
9 25 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
10 20 (0.99%) GCP
11 19 (0.94%) Asana
12 18 (0.89%) OneDrive
13 17 (0.84%) GitHub
14 16 (0.79%) PowerApps
15 15 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
15 15 (0.74%) Power Automate
16 13 (0.64%) SuccessFactors
17 12 (0.59%) Cloud Computing
18 11 (0.54%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 40 (1.97%) Network Security
2 28 (1.38%) WAN
3 24 (1.18%) DNS
3 24 (1.18%) Firewall
3 24 (1.18%) TCP/IP
4 23 (1.13%) LAN
5 18 (0.89%) Structured Cabling
6 15 (0.74%) VPN
7 14 (0.69%) DHCP
7 14 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
8 13 (0.64%) Internet
8 13 (0.64%) Intranet
9 12 (0.59%) BGP
9 12 (0.59%) SD-WAN
10 11 (0.54%) Wireless
11 10 (0.49%) SAN
12 8 (0.39%) BIG-IP
12 8 (0.39%) Radio Access Network
13 7 (0.34%) 4G
13 7 (0.34%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 128 (6.31%) Power BI
2 21 (1.03%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (0.89%) Metadata
4 17 (0.84%) Tableau
5 14 (0.69%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.64%) Data Lake
7 10 (0.49%) Power Query
7 10 (0.49%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.39%) GIS
9 7 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
9 7 (0.34%) Big Data
10 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
11 5 (0.25%) DynamoDB
11 5 (0.25%) Hadoop
11 5 (0.25%) Looker
11 5 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
12 4 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
12 4 (0.20%) EDMS
13 3 (0.15%) BigQuery
13 3 (0.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 263 (12.96%) JIRA
2 29 (1.43%) Git
3 21 (1.03%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.44%) Subversion
5 7 (0.34%) Bitbucket
6 6 (0.30%) GitLab
7 5 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
8 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.099%) Zephyr
11 1 (0.049%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.049%) Capybara
11 1 (0.049%) git-flow
11 1 (0.049%) Gradle
11 1 (0.049%) IBM UrbanCode
11 1 (0.049%) ScriptRunner
11 1 (0.049%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.049%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.049%) Terragrunt
11 1 (0.049%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 897 (44.21%) Social Skills
2 772 (38.05%) Finance
3 340 (16.76%) Analytical Skills
4 200 (9.86%) Organisational Skills
5 177 (8.72%) Public Sector
6 176 (8.67%) Banking
7 133 (6.55%) Marketing
8 120 (5.91%) Retail
9 80 (3.94%) Influencing Skills
10 72 (3.55%) Telecoms
11 70 (3.45%) Manufacturing
12 69 (3.40%) Legal
13 57 (2.81%) Presentation Skills
14 41 (2.02%) Investment Banking
15 31 (1.53%) Front Office
15 31 (1.53%) Pharmaceutical
16 29 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 29 (1.43%) Local Government
17 28 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
18 27 (1.33%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 809 (39.87%) Project Manager
2 191 (9.41%) Senior
3 178 (8.77%) Lead
4 158 (7.79%) Analyst
5 141 (6.95%) Senior Manager
6 115 (5.67%) IT Manager
7 111 (5.47%) Senior Project Manager
8 85 (4.19%) Business Analyst
8 85 (4.19%) IT Project Manager
9 84 (4.14%) Programme Manager
10 77 (3.79%) Technical Manager
11 72 (3.55%) Consultant
12 71 (3.50%) Delivery Manager
13 62 (3.06%) Technical Project Manager
14 48 (2.37%) Infrastructure Manager
15 41 (2.02%) SC Cleared Project Manager
16 40 (1.97%) Coordinator
17 37 (1.82%) Project Officer
18 36 (1.77%) Developer
18 36 (1.77%) Infrastructure Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (1.18%) Middleware
2 20 (0.99%) REST
3 17 (0.84%) ADO
4 15 (0.74%) HTML
4 15 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
5 13 (0.64%) VML
5 13 (0.64%) Web Services
6 11 (0.54%) JSON
7 10 (0.49%) .NET
7 10 (0.49%) OAuth
8 9 (0.44%) React
8 9 (0.44%) SOAP
9 7 (0.34%) AngularJS
9 7 (0.34%) CSS
9 7 (0.34%) pytest
9 7 (0.34%) RESTful
10 6 (0.30%) FastAPI
10 6 (0.30%) Terraform
10 6 (0.30%) XML
11 5 (0.25%) FHIR
Miscellaneous
1 115 (5.67%) Management Information System
2 99 (4.88%) Product Ownership
3 94 (4.63%) Onboarding
4 64 (3.15%) Data Centre
5 52 (2.56%) Data Protection Act
6 48 (2.37%) Virtual Team
7 45 (2.22%) PMI
8 29 (1.43%) Enterprise Software
9 28 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
9 28 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
10 27 (1.33%) FMCG
10 27 (1.33%) Operational Technology
11 24 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.18%) Social Media
12 22 (1.08%) Credit Risk
13 21 (1.03%) Life Science
14 20 (0.99%) AI Agents
15 19 (0.94%) Data Structures
16 16 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 16 (0.79%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 66 (3.25%) Windows
2 59 (2.91%) Linux
3 24 (1.18%) Unix
3 24 (1.18%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.39%) Windows 10
6 7 (0.34%) zOS
7 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.20%) Android
8 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
9 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.099%) Solaris
9 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.049%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 897 (44.21%) Stakeholder Management
2 784 (38.64%) Agile
3 591 (29.13%) Project Delivery
4 455 (22.42%) PRINCE2
5 343 (16.90%) Problem-Solving
6 341 (16.81%) Continuous Improvement
7 333 (16.41%) Change Management
8 297 (14.64%) Migration
9 292 (14.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 268 (13.21%) Decision-Making
11 253 (12.47%) Waterfall
12 250 (12.32%) Risk Management
13 209 (10.30%) AI
14 203 (10.00%) Scrum
15 187 (9.22%) Project Governance
16 165 (8.13%) Roadmaps
17 159 (7.84%) Analytics
18 157 (7.74%) ITIL
19 154 (7.59%) Programme Management
20 152 (7.49%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 80 (3.94%) SQL
2 71 (3.50%) Python
3 18 (0.89%) JavaScript
4 16 (0.79%) Java
4 16 (0.79%) VBA
5 13 (0.64%) C++
6 10 (0.49%) C#
6 10 (0.49%) PowerShell
7 9 (0.44%) TypeScript
8 7 (0.34%) Ada
8 7 (0.34%) Bash
8 7 (0.34%) C
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
1 327 (16.12%) Security Cleared
2 311 (15.33%) Degree
3 294 (14.49%) PMP
4 259 (12.76%) PMI Certification
5 226 (11.14%) SC Cleared
6 75 (3.70%) DV Cleared
7 72 (3.55%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 29 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
9 27 (1.33%) Master's Degree
10 21 (1.03%) ACCA
10 21 (1.03%) CIMA
11 18 (0.89%) ITIL Certification
12 16 (0.79%) PRINCE2 Certification
13 15 (0.74%) Azure Certification
13 15 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
14 13 (0.64%) APMP
14 13 (0.64%) ISTQB
15 12 (0.59%) CISSP
16 11 (0.54%) MBA
17 10 (0.49%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 261 (12.86%) PMO
2 101 (4.98%) QA
3 55 (2.71%) Data Quality
4 38 (1.87%) GDPR
5 25 (1.23%) SLA
6 24 (1.18%) GRC
7 23 (1.13%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 20 (0.99%) NIST
9 9 (0.44%) P3O
10 7 (0.34%) EMIR
10 7 (0.34%) FINREP
10 7 (0.34%) GMP
11 6 (0.30%) COREP
11 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.30%) MiFID
11 6 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.25%) HL7
12 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 44 (2.17%) Active Directory
2 26 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.34%) 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 (0.049%) 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
Systems Management
1 22 (1.08%) Ansible
2 14 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (0.49%) 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 (0.049%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.049%) Nagios
9 1 (0.049%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.049%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.049%) vRealize
Vendors
1 365 (17.99%) Microsoft
2 158 (7.79%) SAP
3 110 (5.42%) ServiceNow
4 81 (3.99%) Oracle
5 58 (2.86%) Salesforce
6 50 (2.46%) Google
7 46 (2.27%) Adobe
8 42 (2.07%) VMware
9 30 (1.48%) Cisco
10 24 (1.18%) Sitecore
11 20 (0.99%) Ariba
11 20 (0.99%) Atlassian
11 20 (0.99%) Workday
12 18 (0.89%) Databricks
12 18 (0.89%) NEC
13 16 (0.79%) IBM
14 14 (0.69%) Planview
15 12 (0.59%) Alteryx
16 11 (0.54%) Dell
17 10 (0.49%) F5