Service Desk Manager Contract Job Trends

Service Desk Manager
UK

The median Service Desk Manager daily rate in the UK is £363, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 575 547 570
Rank change year-on-year -28 +23 +175
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Manager 14 7 31
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.038% 0.021% 0.071%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.041% 0.022% 0.077%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 6 18
10th Percentile £193 £288 £300
25th Percentile £313 £322 £316
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £363 £400 £403
Median % change year-on-year -9.38% -0.62% -5.29%
75th Percentile £451 £475 £461
90th Percentile £550 £481 £595
UK excluding London median daily rate £363 £350 £388
% change year-on-year +3.57% -9.68% +6.16%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 33,803 31,437 40,517
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.09% 92.75% 93.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,362 19,311 27,163
10th Percentile £294 £300 £283
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £640
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,992 980 1,517
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.50 £14.86
25th Percentile £18.19 £21.03 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.20 £33.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.64% -26.67% +45.77%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -22.62% -29.62% +84.72%

Service Desk Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Service Desk Manager' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Service Desk Manager job vacancy trend in the UK

Service Desk Manager
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Desk Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Desk Manager job vacancies in the UK

Service Desk Manager
Daily Rate Histogram

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

Daily rate histogram for Service Desk Manager in the UK

Service Desk Manager
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Desk Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Desk Manager job vacancies in the UK

Service Desk Manager
Top 10 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 Desk Manager 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
UK excluding London -37 12 £363 +3.57% 3
England -34 11 £375 +7.14% 4
Work from Home +5 5 £195 -44.43% 1
South West -8 5 £375 +36.36%
North West - 3 £525 -
North of England - 3 £525 - 3
Scotland - 2 £190 -
London -6 1 - -
East of England - 1 £350 -
South East - 1 £650 -

Service Desk Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 25 December 2025, Service Desk Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Service Desk Manager in the job title.

1 10 (71.43%) ITIL
2 9 (64.29%) ITSM
3 8 (57.14%) Incident Management
3 8 (57.14%) Service Management
4 7 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (50.00%) Service Delivery
5 6 (42.86%) Continuous Improvement
6 5 (35.71%) Problem Management
7 4 (28.57%) Customer Service
8 3 (21.43%) assyst
8 3 (21.43%) Capacity Planning
8 3 (21.43%) Coaching
8 3 (21.43%) Degree
8 3 (21.43%) IFS
8 3 (21.43%) Performance Analysis
8 3 (21.43%) Performance Metrics
8 3 (21.43%) Planning and Forecasting
8 3 (21.43%) Project Delivery
8 3 (21.43%) Security Cleared
8 3 (21.43%) Service Catalogue
8 3 (21.43%) ServiceNow
9 2 (14.29%) Change Management
9 2 (14.29%) Data Protection
9 2 (14.29%) GAP Analysis
9 2 (14.29%) Information Security
9 2 (14.29%) JIRA
9 2 (14.29%) Roadmaps
9 2 (14.29%) SLA
9 2 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 2 (14.29%) Stakeholder Management

Service Desk Manager Skill Set
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:

Business Applications
1 3 (21.43%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 1 (7.14%) AWS
1 1 (7.14%) AWS Lambda
1 1 (7.14%) AWS Step Functions
1 1 (7.14%) Microsoft 365
1 1 (7.14%) Serverless
Development Applications
1 2 (14.29%) JIRA
General
1 6 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 5 (35.71%) Public Sector
3 3 (21.43%) Finance
4 1 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (7.14%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 2 (14.29%) Driving Licence
2 1 (7.14%) AI Agents
2 1 (7.14%) IVR
Operating Systems
1 1 (7.14%) Windows
1 1 (7.14%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (71.43%) ITIL
2 9 (64.29%) ITSM
3 8 (57.14%) Incident Management
3 8 (57.14%) Service Management
4 7 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (50.00%) Service Delivery
5 6 (42.86%) Continuous Improvement
6 5 (35.71%) Problem Management
7 4 (28.57%) Customer Service
8 3 (21.43%) Capacity Planning
8 3 (21.43%) Coaching
8 3 (21.43%) Performance Analysis
8 3 (21.43%) Performance Metrics
8 3 (21.43%) Planning and Forecasting
8 3 (21.43%) Project Delivery
8 3 (21.43%) Service Catalogue
9 2 (14.29%) Change Management
9 2 (14.29%) Data Protection
9 2 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 2 (14.29%) User Experience
Qualifications
1 3 (21.43%) Degree
1 3 (21.43%) Security Cleared
2 1 (7.14%) DV Cleared
2 1 (7.14%) PMI Certification
2 1 (7.14%) PMP
2 1 (7.14%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (14.29%) SLA
2 1 (7.14%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 1 (7.14%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 3 (21.43%) IFS
1 3 (21.43%) ServiceNow
2 1 (7.14%) Remedy