Service Design Contracts

Service Design
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Service Design skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Service Design over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 260 197 170
Rank change year-on-year -63 -27 -20
Contract jobs citing Service Design 293 511 911
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.00% 1.17% 1.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.10% 1.36% 1.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 222 355 697
10th Percentile £363 £400 £413
25th Percentile £457 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £600 £606 £650
90th Percentile £693 £688 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £550 £536
% change year-on-year -9.05% +2.56% -0.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 11 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £17.80 £56.25
Median hourly rate £31.52 £33.07 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% -42.50% +63.93%
75th Percentile - £34.53 £58.75
90th Percentile - £72.90 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.52 £33.07 -
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Service Design 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 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

Service Design
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Service Design as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Service Design in the UK

Service Design
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Service Design.

Daily rate trend for Service Design in the UK

Service Design
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Design over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Service Design in the UK

Service Design
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Service Design.

Hourly rate trend for Service Design in the UK

Service Design
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Service Design within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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 -64 214 £545 +1.21% 135
UK excluding London -16 123 £500 -9.05% 91
London -51 114 £542 +3.15% 72
Work from Home -59 92 £500 -9.09% 59
Scotland -13 30 £500 -1.96% 8
South West +56 29 £563 +8.17% 8
North of England -24 26 £488 -7.14% 30
South East +27 25 £500 -13.04% 19
North West -8 19 £475 -10.38% 15
Midlands +9 8 £575 -16.36% 13
West Midlands +3 8 £575 -32.35% 10
Yorkshire -13 5 £638 +30.77% 11
East of England +22 4 £800 +6.67% 1
Wales +3 4 £306 -46.20% 8
North East 0 2 £513 - 4

Service Design
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 16 (5.46%) Confluence
2 5 (1.71%) IIS
3 2 (0.68%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.34%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.34%) TPMS
Applications
1 15 (5.12%) Sketch
2 8 (2.73%) Adobe XD
3 7 (2.39%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (2.05%) Trello
5 3 (1.02%) Acrobat
5 3 (1.02%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.68%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.34%) Fusion 360
7 1 (0.34%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 3 (1.02%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.68%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.34%) Dynamics GP
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle Financials
Cloud Services
1 31 (10.58%) Figma
2 26 (8.87%) Azure
3 18 (6.14%) AWS
4 15 (5.12%) SaaS
5 13 (4.44%) Miro
6 11 (3.75%) PaaS
7 8 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
8 5 (1.71%) GCP
9 4 (1.37%) Cloudflare
10 3 (1.02%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (1.02%) Azure Machine Learning
10 3 (1.02%) IaaS
10 3 (1.02%) Power Platform
11 2 (0.68%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (0.68%) Dynamics 365
12 1 (0.34%) Adobe Creative Cloud
12 1 (0.34%) Entra ID
12 1 (0.34%) GitHub
12 1 (0.34%) Google Analytics
12 1 (0.34%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.07%) PBX
1 9 (3.07%) VoIP
2 8 (2.73%) Firewall
3 7 (2.39%) MPLS
3 7 (2.39%) VPN
4 5 (1.71%) HTTP
4 5 (1.71%) HTTPS
4 5 (1.71%) SSL
4 5 (1.71%) WAN
5 4 (1.37%) Network Security
5 4 (1.37%) VLAN
6 3 (1.02%) 4G
6 3 (1.02%) 5G
7 2 (0.68%) 3G
7 2 (0.68%) BGP
7 2 (0.68%) LTE
7 2 (0.68%) OSPF
7 2 (0.68%) VSAN
7 2 (0.68%) VXLAN
7 2 (0.68%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.68%) Data Warehouse
1 2 (0.68%) Tableau
2 1 (0.34%) Amazon Aurora
2 1 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.34%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.34%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.34%) MySQL
2 1 (0.34%) NoSQL
2 1 (0.34%) Power BI
2 1 (0.34%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 19 (6.48%) JIRA
2 9 (3.07%) Axure RP
3 2 (0.68%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.68%) webpack
4 1 (0.34%) Git
General
1 108 (36.86%) Public Sector
2 80 (27.30%) Social Skills
3 43 (14.68%) Finance
4 25 (8.53%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (6.14%) Telecoms
6 12 (4.10%) Influencing Skills
6 12 (4.10%) Legal
7 11 (3.75%) Banking
8 9 (3.07%) Local Government
9 8 (2.73%) Retail
10 4 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.37%) Law
10 4 (1.37%) Military
11 3 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.02%) Investment Banking
11 3 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (1.02%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (1.02%) Police
11 3 (1.02%) Publishing
11 3 (1.02%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 107 (36.52%) Designer
2 84 (28.67%) Service Designer
3 37 (12.63%) Architect
4 27 (9.22%) Analyst
4 27 (9.22%) Senior
5 22 (7.51%) Business Analyst
6 21 (7.17%) Lead
6 21 (7.17%) Service Manager
7 19 (6.48%) Senior Designer
7 19 (6.48%) Senior Service Designer
8 15 (5.12%) Service Architect
9 11 (3.75%) Delivery Manager
9 11 (3.75%) UX Designer
10 10 (3.41%) Consultant
10 10 (3.41%) Lead Designer
10 10 (3.41%) User Researcher
11 9 (3.07%) Interaction Designer
11 9 (3.07%) Project Manager
12 8 (2.73%) Developer
12 8 (2.73%) Service Design Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (3.75%) HTML
2 10 (3.41%) CSS
3 6 (2.05%) Node.js
3 6 (2.05%) React
4 5 (1.71%) Oracle Fusion
5 4 (1.37%) CSS3
5 4 (1.37%) HTML5
5 4 (1.37%) Redux
5 4 (1.37%) RESTful
6 3 (1.02%) DCOM
6 3 (1.02%) LangChain
6 3 (1.02%) Regular Expression
7 2 (0.68%) Jest
7 2 (0.68%) Middleware
7 2 (0.68%) Vue
8 1 (0.34%) .NET Core
8 1 (0.34%) AngularJS
8 1 (0.34%) Elastic Stack
8 1 (0.34%) GraphQL
8 1 (0.34%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 23 (7.85%) Product Ownership
2 8 (2.73%) Blackberry
2 8 (2.73%) Video Conferencing
3 7 (2.39%) Hybrid Cloud
3 7 (2.39%) Onboarding
4 6 (2.05%) CMDB
5 5 (1.71%) Public Cloud
6 4 (1.37%) Data Centre
6 4 (1.37%) NHS
7 3 (1.02%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.02%) Mobile App
8 2 (0.68%) Blog
8 2 (0.68%) Cloud Security Posture
8 2 (0.68%) e-Learning
8 2 (0.68%) IoT
8 2 (0.68%) Learning Management System
8 2 (0.68%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (0.68%) Private Cloud
8 2 (0.68%) SCORM
8 2 (0.68%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 6 (2.05%) Windows
2 5 (1.71%) Windows Server
3 4 (1.37%) Windows 10
3 4 (1.37%) Windows 7
3 4 (1.37%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (0.34%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (31.06%) Agile
2 72 (24.57%) User Research
3 67 (22.87%) ITIL
4 64 (21.84%) User Experience
5 62 (21.16%) Stakeholder Management
6 56 (19.11%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
7 48 (16.38%) Roadmaps
8 46 (15.70%) UX Design
9 44 (15.02%) Problem-Solving
10 38 (12.97%) Prototyping
10 38 (12.97%) Service Management
11 34 (11.60%) Workshop Facilitation
12 30 (10.24%) Continuous Improvement
12 30 (10.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 27 (9.22%) Journey Map
13 27 (9.22%) Service Delivery
14 26 (8.87%) Interaction Design
15 25 (8.53%) ITSM
16 23 (7.85%) Decision-Making
17 20 (6.83%) Usability Testing
Programming Languages
1 10 (3.41%) Python
2 8 (2.73%) JavaScript
3 7 (2.39%) SQL
4 4 (1.37%) PowerShell
5 3 (1.02%) Java
6 2 (0.68%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.34%) Bash
7 1 (0.34%) Scala
7 1 (0.34%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 80 (27.30%) Security Cleared
2 59 (20.14%) SC Cleared
3 27 (9.22%) DV Cleared
4 15 (5.12%) Cisco Certification
5 13 (4.44%) Degree
6 11 (3.75%) CCNP
7 8 (2.73%) ITIL Certification
7 8 (2.73%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 6 (2.05%) CCIE
8 6 (2.05%) Master's Degree
9 5 (1.71%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (1.02%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 2 (0.68%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.68%) JNCIE
11 2 (0.68%) MBA
12 1 (0.34%) SAFe Agilist
12 1 (0.34%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (15.70%) Accessibility
2 15 (5.12%) QA
3 9 (3.07%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 8 (2.73%) WCAG
5 7 (2.39%) SLA
6 5 (1.71%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (1.37%) Data Quality
8 3 (1.02%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.34%) GDPR
9 1 (0.34%) GRC
9 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.34%) NIST
9 1 (0.34%) PERC
9 1 (0.34%) PMO
System Software
1 11 (3.75%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (2.73%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.71%) Microsoft App-V
4 3 (1.02%) Docker
4 3 (1.02%) VMware NSX
5 2 (0.68%) vSphere
6 1 (0.34%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.34%) VMFS
6 1 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 6 (2.05%) SCCM
2 5 (1.71%) WSUS
3 4 (1.37%) Ansible
4 1 (0.34%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.34%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.34%) Terraform
4 1 (0.34%) Zipkin
Vendors
1 21 (7.17%) Microsoft
2 19 (6.48%) Cisco
3 15 (5.12%) F5
3 15 (5.12%) ServiceNow
4 12 (4.10%) Adobe
4 12 (4.10%) Juniper
4 12 (4.10%) VMware
5 11 (3.75%) Ericsson
5 11 (3.75%) Nokia
6 10 (3.41%) Palo Alto
7 8 (2.73%) Avaya
7 8 (2.73%) Ribbon
8 6 (2.05%) Fortinet
9 5 (1.71%) Oracle
9 5 (1.71%) SAP
9 5 (1.71%) Zscaler
10 4 (1.37%) CheckPoint
10 4 (1.37%) Citrix
11 3 (1.02%) BMC
11 3 (1.02%) Remedy