Service Design Contract Job Trends

Service Design
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Service Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 170 263 183
Rank change year-on-year +93 -80 +29
Contract jobs citing Service Design 610 332 607
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.64% 0.98% 1.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.87% 1.11% 1.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 483 217 479
10th Percentile £363 £411 £400
25th Percentile £425 £469 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -1.79%
75th Percentile £606 £615 £640
90th Percentile £738 £700 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £538 £521 £550
% change year-on-year +3.12% -5.23% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 4 0
10th Percentile £31.49 £27.95 -
25th Percentile £59.06 £30.24 -
Median hourly rate £60.00 £32.64 -
Median % change year-on-year +83.85% - -
75th Percentile £77.34 £34.56 -
90th Percentile £96.25 £36.03 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £31.52 -
% change year-on-year +90.36% - -

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 32,705 29,929 38,262
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.13% 88.30% 88.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,588 18,254 25,497
10th Percentile £300 £308 £306
25th Percentile £406 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,080 971 1,514
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £14.43
25th Percentile £17.54 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +27.14%
75th Percentile £50.19 £62.62 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £74.44 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.54 £31.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -25.28% -30.00% +40.63%

Service Design
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Service Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Service Design job vacancy trend in the UK

Service Design
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Service Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Service Design

Service Design
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Design over the 6 months to 25 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Service Design in the UK

Service Design
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Service Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Service Design

Service Design
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Service Design over the 6 months to 25 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Service Design in the UK

Service Design
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 Service Design within the UK over the 6 months to 25 December 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 +85 486 £525 -2.42% 382
UK excluding London +47 298 £538 +3.12% 365
Work from Home +59 205 £525 -2.42% 266
London +46 201 £525 - 70
North of England +9 94 £465 -2.11% 83
South East +4 71 £538 -2.27% 84
South West +13 60 £725 +20.83% 41
North West -6 47 £424 -13.13% 37
Yorkshire -18 26 £500 -6.98% 36
Midlands -30 26 £494 -15.96% 69
Scotland -11 25 £475 -5.00% 24
West Midlands -26 22 £455 -22.55% 39
North East +11 21 £454 +0.89% 10
East of England -14 15 £550 -3.51% 51
Wales - 9 £328 - 12
East Midlands - 4 £800 - 25
Northern Ireland - 2 £625 - 6

Service Design
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 53 (8.69%) Confluence
2 11 (1.80%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.82%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.49%) Apache
5 2 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.33%) Appian
5 2 (0.33%) IIS
5 2 (0.33%) WebSphere
Applications
1 45 (7.38%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (5.08%) Microsoft Project
3 17 (2.79%) Adobe XD
4 15 (2.46%) Sketch
5 11 (1.80%) Microsoft Excel
6 10 (1.64%) Trello
7 9 (1.48%) InVision
8 8 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 5 (0.82%) Zeplin
10 4 (0.66%) MS Visio
11 3 (0.49%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 3 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
11 3 (0.49%) UserZoom
12 2 (0.33%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.16%) Adobe Illustrator
13 1 (0.16%) Chatbot
13 1 (0.16%) InDesign
13 1 (0.16%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 9 (1.48%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.98%) Maximo
3 4 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
3 4 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.49%) Oracle Payroll
5 2 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.16%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 53 (8.69%) Figma
2 43 (7.05%) Azure
3 33 (5.41%) Miro
4 27 (4.43%) AWS
5 23 (3.77%) Power Platform
6 15 (2.46%) SaaS
7 10 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
7 10 (1.64%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (1.48%) GCP
8 9 (1.48%) Google Analytics
8 9 (1.48%) Serverless
9 8 (1.31%) Amazon S3
9 8 (1.31%) AWS Lambda
9 8 (1.31%) Google Tag Manager
10 6 (0.98%) AWS CloudFormation
11 5 (0.82%) Amazon ECS
11 5 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (0.82%) OneDrive
11 5 (0.82%) PaaS
12 4 (0.66%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.97%) WAN
2 11 (1.80%) LAN
3 4 (0.66%) VPN
4 3 (0.49%) Internet
5 2 (0.33%) Firewall
5 2 (0.33%) Wireless
6 1 (0.16%) Cisco ISE
6 1 (0.16%) DNS
6 1 (0.16%) HTTP
6 1 (0.16%) Network Security
6 1 (0.16%) PBX
6 1 (0.16%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.16%) Unified Communications
6 1 (0.16%) VoIP
6 1 (0.16%) WebEx
6 1 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (2.95%) Power BI
2 8 (1.31%) BigQuery
3 7 (1.15%) Looker
4 5 (0.82%) SQL Server
5 4 (0.66%) Amazon Aurora
5 4 (0.66%) Tableau
6 3 (0.49%) Amazon RDS
6 3 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.33%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.33%) DB2
7 2 (0.33%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.33%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.16%) Amazon Athena
8 1 (0.16%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.16%) EDRMS
8 1 (0.16%) MariaDB
8 1 (0.16%) Metadata
8 1 (0.16%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.16%) Power Query
8 1 (0.16%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 69 (11.31%) JIRA
2 13 (2.13%) Axure RP
3 8 (1.31%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.15%) GitLab
5 4 (0.66%) webpack
6 3 (0.49%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.33%) Git
7 2 (0.33%) Postman
7 2 (0.33%) Selenium
8 1 (0.16%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.16%) JMeter
8 1 (0.16%) Mocha
8 1 (0.16%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.16%) Zephyr
General
1 222 (36.39%) Social Skills
2 202 (33.11%) Public Sector
3 70 (11.48%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (10.49%) Finance
5 34 (5.57%) Military
6 29 (4.75%) Influencing Skills
7 25 (4.10%) Banking
8 15 (2.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 14 (2.30%) Presentation Skills
10 13 (2.13%) Local Government
11 12 (1.97%) Retail
12 11 (1.80%) Legal
13 8 (1.31%) Marketing
13 8 (1.31%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (1.15%) Telecoms
15 5 (0.82%) Police
16 4 (0.66%) Publishing
17 3 (0.49%) Digital Health
17 3 (0.49%) Digital Healthcare
17 3 (0.49%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 205 (33.61%) Designer
2 164 (26.89%) Service Designer
3 114 (18.69%) Architect
4 75 (12.30%) Service Architect
5 68 (11.15%) Analyst
6 67 (10.98%) Senior
7 53 (8.69%) User Researcher
8 52 (8.52%) Lead
9 47 (7.70%) Business Analyst
10 30 (4.92%) Senior Designer
10 30 (4.92%) Service Manager
11 29 (4.75%) Senior Service Designer
12 24 (3.93%) Consultant
12 24 (3.93%) UX Designer
13 20 (3.28%) Senior Analyst
13 20 (3.28%) Service Transition Manager
13 20 (3.28%) Transition Manager
14 15 (2.46%) Developer
14 15 (2.46%) Senior Business Analyst
15 13 (2.13%) Interaction Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.61%) HTML
2 19 (3.11%) CSS
3 7 (1.15%) React
4 6 (0.98%) .NET
4 6 (0.98%) Oracle Fusion
4 6 (0.98%) RESTful
5 5 (0.82%) Kafka
5 5 (0.82%) Node.js
5 5 (0.82%) OAuth
6 4 (0.66%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.66%) AWS CDK
6 4 (0.66%) CSS3
6 4 (0.66%) FastAPI
6 4 (0.66%) HTML5
6 4 (0.66%) Redux
6 4 (0.66%) SailPoint
6 4 (0.66%) Spring
6 4 (0.66%) Spring Boot
6 4 (0.66%) Vue
7 3 (0.49%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 62 (10.16%) Product Ownership
2 27 (4.43%) NHS
3 14 (2.30%) Onboarding
4 12 (1.97%) Legacy Systems
5 10 (1.64%) Cloud Native
6 9 (1.48%) Management Information System
7 7 (1.15%) CMDB
7 7 (1.15%) Mobile App
8 6 (0.98%) AI Agents
9 4 (0.66%) Data Centre
9 4 (0.66%) Greenfield Project
9 4 (0.66%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (0.66%) IVR
9 4 (0.66%) PMI
10 3 (0.49%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (0.33%) Digital Wallet
11 2 (0.33%) Distributed Systems
11 2 (0.33%) Taxonomies
11 2 (0.33%) Team-Oriented Environment
11 2 (0.33%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.15%) Windows
2 4 (0.66%) Windows 10
3 2 (0.33%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.16%) Android
4 1 (0.16%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 271 (44.43%) Agile
2 178 (29.18%) User Research
3 148 (24.26%) ITIL
4 134 (21.97%) User Experience
5 130 (21.31%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
6 129 (21.15%) Service Management
7 110 (18.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 108 (17.70%) Workshop Facilitation
9 92 (15.08%) Stakeholder Management
10 83 (13.61%) Journey Map
10 83 (13.61%) Roadmaps
10 83 (13.61%) UX Design
11 77 (12.62%) Continuous Improvement
12 75 (12.30%) Acceptance Criteria
13 68 (11.15%) Problem-Solving
14 64 (10.49%) Service Delivery
14 64 (10.49%) Usability Testing
15 57 (9.34%) Decision-Making
16 52 (8.52%) ITSM
17 49 (8.03%) Design Thinking
Programming Languages
1 13 (2.13%) JavaScript
2 12 (1.97%) Python
3 10 (1.64%) Java
3 10 (1.64%) SQL
3 10 (1.64%) TypeScript
4 8 (1.31%) C#
5 3 (0.49%) Scala
6 2 (0.33%) Kotlin
6 2 (0.33%) R
6 2 (0.33%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.16%) Bash
7 1 (0.16%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.16%) PowerShell
7 1 (0.16%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 216 (35.41%) Security Cleared
2 171 (28.03%) SC Cleared
3 68 (11.15%) Degree
4 35 (5.74%) TOGAF Certification
5 34 (5.57%) BPSS Clearance
6 30 (4.92%) DV Cleared
7 16 (2.62%) ITIL Certification
8 8 (1.31%) Azure Certification
9 6 (0.98%) AWS Certification
10 5 (0.82%) PMI Certification
11 2 (0.33%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.33%) ISEB
11 2 (0.33%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 2 (0.33%) MCP
12 1 (0.16%) CCNP
12 1 (0.16%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.16%) CISSP
12 1 (0.16%) Master's Degree
12 1 (0.16%) PMP
12 1 (0.16%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (18.52%) Accessibility
2 34 (5.57%) WCAG
3 30 (4.92%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 22 (3.61%) QA
5 14 (2.30%) Actionable Recommendations
5 14 (2.30%) Data Quality
6 10 (1.64%) SLA
7 6 (0.98%) GDPR
7 6 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.66%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.33%) COBIT
10 1 (0.16%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.16%) GRC
10 1 (0.16%) HL7
10 1 (0.16%) NCSC
10 1 (0.16%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.16%) PSD2
10 1 (0.16%) SNOMED CT
10 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 12 (1.97%) Docker
2 3 (0.49%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.16%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.16%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 30 (4.92%) OPNET
2 11 (1.80%) Kubernetes
2 11 (1.80%) Terraform
3 5 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (0.66%) Grafana
5 3 (0.49%) Ansible
6 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.16%) SCCM
Vendors
1 62 (10.16%) ServiceNow
2 56 (9.18%) Microsoft
3 39 (6.39%) Remedy
4 30 (4.92%) Atlassian
5 23 (3.77%) Adobe
6 12 (1.97%) Google
7 9 (1.48%) Oracle
7 9 (1.48%) VMware
8 8 (1.31%) OneLogin
8 8 (1.31%) SAP
9 7 (1.15%) Cisco
9 7 (1.15%) Salesforce
10 5 (0.82%) UiPath
11 4 (0.66%) Palo Alto
11 4 (0.66%) Workday
12 3 (0.49%) Genesys
12 3 (0.49%) Zscaler
13 2 (0.33%) BMC
13 2 (0.33%) Juniper
13 2 (0.33%) Mercator