Service Management Contract Job Trends

Service Management
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Service Management skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 86 78
Rank change year-on-year -22 -8 +11
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,022 862 1,183
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.37% 2.92% 2.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.76% 3.23% 3.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 692 545 799
10th Percentile £210 £220 £280
25th Percentile £358 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -2.95% -1.87% +7.00%
75th Percentile £604 £613 £608
90th Percentile £722 £700 £731
UK excluding London median daily rate £503 £523 £535
% change year-on-year -3.83% -2.34% +12.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 36 20
10th Percentile £15.75 £12.62 £12.53
25th Percentile £16.17 £21.05 £16.27
Median hourly rate £27.50 £25.34 £18.36
Median % change year-on-year +8.52% +38.02% -43.51%
75th Percentile £74.26 £32.72 £26.63
90th Percentile £85.25 £68.13 £56.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.00 £24.18 £17.72
% change year-on-year +11.66% +36.46% -57.58%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Service 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 37,084 26,717 38,494
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.01% 90.37% 86.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,485 17,170 25,048
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £610 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £745 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,212 916 2,333
10th Percentile £14.83 £15.26 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.02
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.79 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.36 £31.76 £31.50
% change year-on-year -13.85% +0.83% -10.00%

Service Management
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Service Management job vacancy trend in the UK

Service Management
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Service Management
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Management over the 6 months to 16 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Service Management in the UK

Service Management
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Service Management
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Service Management over the 6 months to 16 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Service Management in the UK

Service 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 Service Management within the UK over the 6 months to 16 March 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 -19 931 £510 -2.86% 339
UK excluding London -6 694 £503 -3.83% 302
Work from Home -23 246 £475 -9.52% 138
London -54 246 £514 -2.14% 67
South East +30 208 £503 +8.65% 106
North of England -15 163 £506 +19.12% 74
South West -15 162 £575 +2.22% 32
Midlands -23 95 £425 -25.54% 42
North West -9 92 £550 +16.53% 42
West Midlands -44 71 £425 -26.09% 28
Yorkshire -25 61 £465 +101.63% 28
East of England -18 44 £452 -17.82% 47
East Midlands -9 24 £419 -9.95% 14
Scotland -35 23 £500 - 9
North East -8 13 £280 +43.59% 5
Wales -10 2 £245 -36.77% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 £500 - 1

Service 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 94 (9.20%) Confluence
2 49 (4.79%) Microsoft Exchange
3 44 (4.31%) SharePoint
4 10 (0.98%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.49%) Mattermost
6 3 (0.29%) IIS
6 3 (0.29%) nginx
6 3 (0.29%) SharePoint Server
7 2 (0.20%) Apache
7 2 (0.20%) JBoss
8 1 (0.098%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.098%) LiveCycle
8 1 (0.098%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.098%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.098%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.098%) WebSphere
Applications
1 84 (8.22%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (3.52%) Microsoft Project
3 30 (2.94%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.49%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.39%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.20%) Autodesk Inventor
9 1 (0.098%) Camtasia
9 1 (0.098%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 34 (3.33%) Remedy ITSM
2 14 (1.37%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (1.27%) Oracle EBS
4 7 (0.68%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.098%) assyst
6 1 (0.098%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.098%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.098%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.098%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.098%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.098%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.098%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.098%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.098%) SAP PM
6 1 (0.098%) SAP SM
6 1 (0.098%) SystmOne
6 1 (0.098%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 164 (16.05%) Azure
2 95 (9.30%) AWS
3 91 (8.90%) Microsoft 365
4 50 (4.89%) GCP
5 45 (4.40%) Entra ID
6 42 (4.11%) Power Platform
7 36 (3.52%) SaaS
8 28 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (1.96%) OneDrive
10 15 (1.47%) IaaS
10 15 (1.47%) PaaS
11 14 (1.37%) GitHub
12 12 (1.17%) Serverless
13 11 (1.08%) AWS Lambda
14 9 (0.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 8 (0.78%) Dynamics 365
15 8 (0.78%) OpenShift
15 8 (0.78%) PowerApps
16 7 (0.68%) Salesforce Service Cloud
17 6 (0.59%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 67 (6.56%) Firewall
2 64 (6.26%) DNS
3 37 (3.62%) LAN
4 36 (3.52%) WAN
5 34 (3.33%) DHCP
5 34 (3.33%) VPN
6 28 (2.74%) Network Security
7 22 (2.15%) TCP/IP
8 21 (2.05%) VLAN
9 19 (1.86%) BGP
10 18 (1.76%) Cisco ISE
11 16 (1.57%) Junos
11 16 (1.57%) Skype
12 15 (1.47%) Wi-Fi
13 13 (1.27%) OSPF
14 12 (1.17%) BIG-IP
15 11 (1.08%) Cisco Firepower
15 11 (1.08%) WebEx
16 10 (0.98%) SD-WAN
17 9 (0.88%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (3.13%) Power BI
2 15 (1.47%) SQL Server
3 10 (0.98%) Relational Database
4 8 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (0.49%) Metadata
6 4 (0.39%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.39%) InfluxDB
7 3 (0.29%) Tableau
8 2 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.20%) Big Data
8 2 (0.20%) GIS
8 2 (0.20%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.098%) Amazon Redshift
9 1 (0.098%) Data Mining
9 1 (0.098%) KNIME
9 1 (0.098%) OpenStack Swift
9 1 (0.098%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.098%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.098%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 145 (14.19%) JIRA
2 18 (1.76%) Jenkins
3 17 (1.66%) Git
4 15 (1.47%) Bitbucket
4 15 (1.47%) GitLab
5 6 (0.59%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.39%) ScriptRunner
7 3 (0.29%) MLflow
7 3 (0.29%) Selenium
7 3 (0.29%) TestRail
8 2 (0.20%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.20%) IntelliJ
9 1 (0.098%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.098%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.098%) Hudson
9 1 (0.098%) JMeter
9 1 (0.098%) JUnit
9 1 (0.098%) Postman
9 1 (0.098%) Protractor
9 1 (0.098%) Rational DOORS
General
1 380 (37.18%) Social Skills
2 163 (15.95%) Analytical Skills
3 136 (13.31%) Finance
4 123 (12.04%) Public Sector
5 56 (5.48%) Legal
6 46 (4.50%) Military
7 32 (3.13%) Influencing Skills
8 31 (3.03%) Banking
8 31 (3.03%) Documentation Skills
8 31 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
9 23 (2.25%) Retail
10 18 (1.76%) Telecoms
11 12 (1.17%) Manufacturing
12 11 (1.08%) Aerospace
13 10 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 8 (0.78%) Law
14 8 (0.78%) Local Government
14 8 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
15 6 (0.59%) Investment Banking
15 6 (0.59%) Police
Job Titles
1 132 (12.92%) Analyst
2 119 (11.64%) Lead
3 118 (11.55%) Architect
4 94 (9.20%) Service Manager
5 63 (6.16%) Consultant
5 63 (6.16%) Senior
6 56 (5.48%) Service Architect
7 53 (5.19%) Service Analyst
8 41 (4.01%) IT Manager
9 36 (3.52%) Hardware Engineer
9 36 (3.52%) IT Support
9 36 (3.52%) Support Engineer
10 31 (3.03%) Delivery Manager
11 30 (2.94%) Network Engineer
12 27 (2.64%) IT Analyst
13 26 (2.54%) Administrator
13 26 (2.54%) Service Delivery Manager
14 25 (2.45%) Business Analyst
14 25 (2.45%) Platform Engineer
14 25 (2.45%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (4.11%) REST
2 15 (1.47%) SOAP
3 11 (1.08%) XMPP
4 9 (0.88%) 802.1X
5 8 (0.78%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.68%) LDAP
6 7 (0.68%) Web Services
7 6 (0.59%) Middleware
8 4 (0.39%) .NET
8 4 (0.39%) ARM Templates
8 4 (0.39%) JSON
8 4 (0.39%) RabbitMQ
8 4 (0.39%) RFC 2544
9 3 (0.29%) CSS
9 3 (0.29%) Lightning Web Components
9 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Graph
9 3 (0.29%) OAuth
9 3 (0.29%) Oracle Fusion
10 2 (0.20%) EDI
10 2 (0.20%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 94 (9.20%) Product Ownership
2 62 (6.07%) CMDB
3 49 (4.79%) Onboarding
4 44 (4.31%) Data Centre
5 35 (3.42%) Management Information System
6 31 (3.03%) Virtual Team
7 25 (2.45%) PKI
8 20 (1.96%) Driving Licence
9 18 (1.76%) Analytical Mindset
10 15 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (1.37%) PMI
12 13 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
13 11 (1.08%) Clustering
13 11 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
14 8 (0.78%) Hybrid Cloud
15 7 (0.68%) Algorithms
15 7 (0.68%) Cloud Native
15 7 (0.68%) NHS
15 7 (0.68%) Replication
16 6 (0.59%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 199 (19.47%) Windows
2 63 (6.16%) Linux
3 56 (5.48%) Windows Server
4 47 (4.60%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (1.08%) Android
6 11 (1.08%) Mac OS
6 11 (1.08%) Windows 7
7 9 (0.88%) Apple iOS
8 8 (0.78%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (0.68%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.68%) Unix
10 5 (0.49%) VMS
11 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.29%) CentOS
12 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.098%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.098%) Rocky
13 1 (0.098%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 579 (56.65%) ITIL
2 444 (43.44%) ITSM
3 224 (21.92%) Agile
4 209 (20.45%) Continuous Improvement
5 206 (20.16%) Problem-Solving
6 188 (18.40%) Stakeholder Management
7 156 (15.26%) Service Delivery
8 153 (14.97%) Change Management
9 138 (13.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 115 (11.25%) DevOps
11 105 (10.27%) Customer Service
12 102 (9.98%) Service Design
13 86 (8.41%) Problem Management
14 83 (8.12%) Incident Management
15 78 (7.63%) Configuration Management
16 77 (7.53%) Project Management
17 74 (7.24%) Acceptance Criteria
18 70 (6.85%) Knowledge Transfer
19 64 (6.26%) CI/CD
19 64 (6.26%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 90 (8.81%) PowerShell
2 59 (5.77%) Python
3 46 (4.50%) SQL
4 23 (2.25%) JavaScript
5 20 (1.96%) Java
6 19 (1.86%) Bash
7 10 (0.98%) Perl
8 9 (0.88%) VB
8 9 (0.88%) VBScript
9 8 (0.78%) Shell Script
10 6 (0.59%) Kotlin
11 5 (0.49%) C#
12 4 (0.39%) Go
13 3 (0.29%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.20%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.20%) Bicep
14 2 (0.20%) PHP
15 1 (0.098%) Search Processing Language
15 1 (0.098%) SOQL
15 1 (0.098%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 429 (41.98%) Security Cleared
2 317 (31.02%) SC Cleared
3 127 (12.43%) Degree
4 124 (12.13%) DV Cleared
5 51 (4.99%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (2.94%) TOGAF Certification
7 28 (2.74%) PMI Certification
8 27 (2.64%) BPSS Clearance
9 25 (2.45%) PMP
10 24 (2.35%) Microsoft Certification
11 23 (2.25%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
13 14 (1.37%) CCNP
14 13 (1.27%) A+ Certification
15 12 (1.17%) CCNA
15 12 (1.17%) MCSE
16 9 (0.88%) Azure Certification
16 9 (0.88%) JNCIA
16 9 (0.88%) JNCIP
16 9 (0.88%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (4.50%) SLA
2 29 (2.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (2.74%) Data Quality
4 23 (2.25%) GDPR
5 22 (2.15%) QA
6 15 (1.47%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 14 (1.37%) PMO
8 10 (0.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 9 (0.88%) Accessibility
9 9 (0.88%) COBIT
9 9 (0.88%) NCSC
9 9 (0.88%) NIST
10 7 (0.68%) GRC
11 6 (0.59%) PCI DSS
12 5 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
12 5 (0.49%) Government Security Classifications
13 4 (0.39%) HIPAA
14 3 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
14 3 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (0.29%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 118 (11.55%) Active Directory
2 36 (3.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (1.86%) Docker
4 12 (1.17%) VMware NSX
5 9 (0.88%) BitLocker
6 8 (0.78%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.39%) NDS
7 4 (0.39%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 4 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 2 (0.20%) NFS
9 2 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.098%) iptables
10 1 (0.098%) Samba
10 1 (0.098%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 36 (3.52%) SCCM
2 30 (2.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (2.94%) OPNET
3 28 (2.74%) Ansible
4 26 (2.54%) Kubernetes
4 26 (2.54%) Terraform
5 12 (1.17%) FortiGate
5 12 (1.17%) vCenter Server
5 12 (1.17%) WSUS
6 10 (0.98%) Grafana
7 8 (0.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 8 (0.78%) Jamf Pro
8 7 (0.68%) Progress Chef
8 7 (0.68%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.49%) Puppet
10 5 (0.49%) SCOM
11 4 (0.39%) Nessus
11 4 (0.39%) Packer
12 3 (0.29%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 257 (25.15%) ServiceNow
2 156 (15.26%) Microsoft
3 72 (7.05%) Atlassian
4 68 (6.65%) Remedy
5 59 (5.77%) Cisco
6 55 (5.38%) VMware
7 39 (3.82%) HP
8 37 (3.62%) Google
9 35 (3.42%) Oracle
10 28 (2.74%) SAP
11 25 (2.45%) SolarWinds
11 25 (2.45%) Splunk
12 18 (1.76%) Citrix
12 18 (1.76%) Dell
12 18 (1.76%) Juniper
13 17 (1.66%) Salesforce
14 16 (1.57%) Red Hat
15 15 (1.47%) Canon
16 14 (1.37%) IFS
17 13 (1.27%) F5