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 12 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 107 89 77
Rank change year-on-year -18 -12 +8
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,078 830 1,134
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.27% 2.84% 2.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.69% 3.13% 3.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 720 501 761
10th Percentile £220 £231 £280
25th Percentile £392 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.91% -0.48% +5.00%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £608
90th Percentile £725 £695 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 29 19
10th Percentile £16.09 - £12.53
25th Percentile £16.17 £12.62 £15.32
Median hourly rate £57.50 £15.80 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +263.92% -10.84% -67.78%
75th Percentile £83.81 £22.14 £20.37
90th Percentile £105.60 £33.44 £33.10
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £12.82 £17.50
% change year-on-year +368.02% -26.75% -70.83%

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 40,059 26,552 37,102
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.33% 90.94% 86.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,139 17,089 23,891
10th Percentile £321 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £519 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.69% -1.24% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £745 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £478 £500
% change year-on-year +2.93% -4.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,402 1,086 2,440
10th Percentile £14.97 £14.42 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.87 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.40 £28.75 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +47.48% -21.23% +0.29%
75th Percentile £67.25 £60.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £26.50 £38.00
% change year-on-year +69.81% -30.26% +8.57%

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 12 May 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 12 May 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 12 May 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 -14 960 £515 -1.90% 344
UK excluding London -12 711 £500 -4.76% 277
London -39 275 £520 +2.46% 100
Work from Home -15 270 £500 +0.60% 168
South East +33 210 £520 +15.56% 92
North of England -17 179 £491 +3.32% 69
South West -23 146 £564 +2.41% 29
North West +4 96 £550 +6.40% 32
Midlands -23 90 £413 -25.00% 43
Yorkshire -32 72 £475 +11.76% 35
West Midlands -42 69 £420 -23.77% 33
East of England -13 45 £475 -13.64% 39
Scotland -27 34 £500 -3.94% 8
East Midlands -17 21 £405 -7.11% 10
North East -13 11 £280 +43.59% 2
Wales -7 7 £340 -12.26% 6
Northern Ireland - 4 - - 3

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 80 (7.42%) Confluence
2 35 (3.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 35 (3.25%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.74%) Skype for Business
4 6 (0.56%) Mattermost
5 3 (0.28%) IIS
5 3 (0.28%) nginx
6 1 (0.093%) Apache
6 1 (0.093%) CICS
6 1 (0.093%) CMS
6 1 (0.093%) JBoss
6 1 (0.093%) LiveCycle
6 1 (0.093%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.093%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.093%) WebSphere
Applications
1 84 (7.79%) Microsoft Office
2 40 (3.71%) Microsoft Project
3 28 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
4 13 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.65%) Chatbot
6 6 (0.56%) MS Visio
7 4 (0.37%) PTC Creo
8 2 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.093%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 44 (4.08%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (1.21%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.74%) Oracle EBS
3 8 (0.74%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.19%) Oracle Applications
4 2 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
4 2 (0.19%) SAP PS
5 1 (0.093%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.093%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.093%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.093%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.093%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.093%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 1 (0.093%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.093%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.093%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.093%) SAP SM
5 1 (0.093%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 159 (14.75%) Azure
2 96 (8.91%) Microsoft 365
3 78 (7.24%) AWS
4 52 (4.82%) Power Platform
5 46 (4.27%) SaaS
6 37 (3.43%) Entra ID
7 36 (3.34%) GCP
8 26 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (1.86%) GitHub
9 20 (1.86%) PaaS
10 18 (1.67%) OneDrive
11 16 (1.48%) IaaS
12 13 (1.21%) OCI
13 12 (1.11%) AWS Lambda
13 12 (1.11%) Serverless
14 10 (0.93%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 10 (0.93%) Microsoft Copilot
15 9 (0.83%) OpenShift
16 8 (0.74%) Dynamics 365
16 8 (0.74%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 60 (5.57%) Firewall
2 44 (4.08%) DNS
3 36 (3.34%) WAN
4 34 (3.15%) LAN
4 34 (3.15%) VPN
5 30 (2.78%) Network Security
6 22 (2.04%) DHCP
7 20 (1.86%) TCP/IP
8 14 (1.30%) BGP
9 13 (1.21%) OSPF
9 13 (1.21%) SD-WAN
10 12 (1.11%) BIG-IP
11 11 (1.02%) Cisco ISE
11 11 (1.02%) Wi-Fi
12 10 (0.93%) VLAN
12 10 (0.93%) Wireless
13 8 (0.74%) Ethernet VPN
13 8 (0.74%) Junos
13 8 (0.74%) Skype
13 8 (0.74%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (3.53%) Power BI
2 15 (1.39%) SQL Server
3 8 (0.74%) Relational Database
4 7 (0.65%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (0.56%) Oracle Reports
6 5 (0.46%) Oracle Database
7 4 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (0.37%) InfluxDB
7 4 (0.37%) Oracle Database 11g
7 4 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 4 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 3 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.28%) MySQL
8 3 (0.28%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 2 (0.19%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.19%) GIS
9 2 (0.19%) MariaDB
9 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Analysis Services
9 2 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 139 (12.89%) JIRA
2 17 (1.58%) Jenkins
3 16 (1.48%) GitLab
4 15 (1.39%) Git
5 13 (1.21%) Bitbucket
6 7 (0.65%) ScriptRunner
7 6 (0.56%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 5 (0.46%) Browser DevTools
9 4 (0.37%) MLflow
10 3 (0.28%) Fiddler
10 3 (0.28%) Hudson
10 3 (0.28%) IntelliJ
10 3 (0.28%) Selenium
10 3 (0.28%) TestRail
11 2 (0.19%) Cypress.io
11 2 (0.19%) Firebug
11 2 (0.19%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.093%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.093%) Protractor
12 1 (0.093%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 382 (35.44%) Social Skills
2 176 (16.33%) Finance
3 157 (14.56%) Analytical Skills
4 108 (10.02%) Public Sector
5 61 (5.66%) Legal
6 44 (4.08%) Military
7 37 (3.43%) Banking
8 35 (3.25%) Organisational Skills
9 30 (2.78%) Telecoms
10 28 (2.60%) Documentation Skills
11 23 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
12 18 (1.67%) Retail
13 12 (1.11%) Aerospace
14 9 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 9 (0.83%) Local Government
14 9 (0.83%) Presentation Skills
15 8 (0.74%) Front Office
15 8 (0.74%) Investment Banking
16 7 (0.65%) Police
17 5 (0.46%) International Banking
Job Titles
1 125 (11.60%) Architect
2 122 (11.32%) Analyst
3 112 (10.39%) Lead
4 110 (10.20%) Service Manager
5 81 (7.51%) Senior
6 61 (5.66%) Consultant
6 61 (5.66%) IT Manager
7 55 (5.10%) Service Architect
8 49 (4.55%) Service Analyst
9 44 (4.08%) Project Manager
10 36 (3.34%) Delivery Manager
10 36 (3.34%) Hardware Engineer
11 32 (2.97%) IT Analyst
12 30 (2.78%) Support Engineer
13 29 (2.69%) Developer
13 29 (2.69%) IT Services Manager
14 27 (2.50%) Service Delivery Manager
15 25 (2.32%) Designer
15 25 (2.32%) Network Engineer
16 24 (2.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (3.43%) REST
2 22 (2.04%) SOAP
3 9 (0.83%) 802.1X
3 9 (0.83%) Middleware
4 8 (0.74%) HTML
5 7 (0.65%) CSS
5 7 (0.65%) OAuth
5 7 (0.65%) Oracle Fusion
6 6 (0.56%) Elastic Stack
6 6 (0.56%) XML
7 5 (0.46%) .NET
7 5 (0.46%) JSON
7 5 (0.46%) LDAP
7 5 (0.46%) Web Services
8 4 (0.37%) Lightning Web Components
8 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Graph
8 4 (0.37%) OpenID
8 4 (0.37%) RabbitMQ
8 4 (0.37%) SAML
8 4 (0.37%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 86 (7.98%) Product Ownership
2 71 (6.59%) Onboarding
3 67 (6.22%) CMDB
4 45 (4.17%) Data Centre
5 30 (2.78%) Management Information System
6 27 (2.50%) PKI
7 26 (2.41%) Virtual Team
8 20 (1.86%) Clustering
9 18 (1.67%) Driving Licence
10 17 (1.58%) Enterprise Software
11 15 (1.39%) Data Protection Act
11 15 (1.39%) PMI
12 10 (0.93%) Analytical Mindset
12 10 (0.93%) Cloud Native
12 10 (0.93%) Operational Technology
12 10 (0.93%) Replication
13 9 (0.83%) Algorithms
14 8 (0.74%) Legacy Systems
15 7 (0.65%) Self-Motivation
16 6 (0.56%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 177 (16.42%) Windows
2 55 (5.10%) Linux
3 40 (3.71%) Windows 10
3 40 (3.71%) Windows Server
4 14 (1.30%) Unix
5 12 (1.11%) Mac OS
6 10 (0.93%) Windows 7
7 8 (0.74%) Android
7 8 (0.74%) Apple iOS
8 7 (0.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.56%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.37%) VMS
11 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.19%) Solaris
12 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.19%) zOS
13 1 (0.093%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.093%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.093%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 584 (54.17%) ITIL
2 452 (41.93%) ITSM
3 231 (21.43%) Agile
4 225 (20.87%) Continuous Improvement
5 222 (20.59%) Stakeholder Management
6 205 (19.02%) Problem-Solving
7 177 (16.42%) Service Delivery
8 152 (14.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 137 (12.71%) Change Management
10 118 (10.95%) DevOps
11 117 (10.85%) Customer Service
12 101 (9.37%) Service Design
13 83 (7.70%) Incident Management
13 83 (7.70%) Problem Management
13 83 (7.70%) Roadmaps
14 75 (6.96%) Configuration Management
15 73 (6.77%) Knowledge Transfer
16 72 (6.68%) Project Management
17 66 (6.12%) CI/CD
17 66 (6.12%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 62 (5.75%) PowerShell
2 54 (5.01%) SQL
3 36 (3.34%) Python
4 35 (3.25%) JavaScript
5 16 (1.48%) Java
6 11 (1.02%) Bash
7 9 (0.83%) PL/SQL
8 8 (0.74%) VB
8 8 (0.74%) VBScript
9 6 (0.56%) Apex Code
9 6 (0.56%) Kotlin
10 5 (0.46%) C#
10 5 (0.46%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.37%) Go
11 4 (0.37%) Groovy
11 4 (0.37%) T-SQL
12 3 (0.28%) C
13 2 (0.19%) ActionScript
13 2 (0.19%) PHP
13 2 (0.19%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 428 (39.70%) Security Cleared
2 316 (29.31%) SC Cleared
3 125 (11.60%) Degree
4 121 (11.22%) DV Cleared
5 49 (4.55%) ITIL Certification
6 33 (3.06%) PMI Certification
7 31 (2.88%) PMP
8 29 (2.69%) TOGAF Certification
9 28 (2.60%) Cisco Certification
10 21 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
11 20 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
12 18 (1.67%) Microsoft Certification
13 14 (1.30%) CCNA
14 12 (1.11%) A+ Certification
15 11 (1.02%) CCNP
15 11 (1.02%) Master's Degree
16 9 (0.83%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 9 (0.83%) JNCIA
16 9 (0.83%) MAPM
16 9 (0.83%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (5.75%) SLA
2 33 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 32 (2.97%) Data Quality
4 25 (2.32%) PMO
4 25 (2.32%) QA
5 24 (2.23%) GDPR
6 16 (1.48%) COBIT
6 16 (1.48%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 15 (1.39%) GRC
7 15 (1.39%) NCSC
8 11 (1.02%) Accessibility
9 10 (0.93%) NIST
10 9 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials
11 7 (0.65%) Government Security Classifications
12 6 (0.56%) ISO 31000
12 6 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 6 (0.56%) PCI DSS
12 6 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 5 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
13 5 (0.46%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 99 (9.18%) Active Directory
2 34 (3.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (1.30%) Docker
4 11 (1.02%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (0.74%) BitLocker
6 6 (0.56%) vSphere
7 5 (0.46%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.37%) NFS
8 4 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.37%) VMware NSX
9 3 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.19%) GPFS
10 2 (0.19%) IAG
10 2 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
10 2 (0.19%) vCloud
11 1 (0.093%) iptables
11 1 (0.093%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.093%) Samba
11 1 (0.093%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 1 (0.093%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 30 (2.78%) Ansible
2 29 (2.69%) OPNET
2 29 (2.69%) SCCM
3 24 (2.23%) Terraform
4 21 (1.95%) Microsoft Intune
5 20 (1.86%) Kubernetes
6 11 (1.02%) Grafana
7 10 (0.93%) FortiGate
8 9 (0.83%) WSUS
9 8 (0.74%) Jamf Pro
9 8 (0.74%) Prometheus
9 8 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.65%) Progress Chef
11 5 (0.46%) Puppet
11 5 (0.46%) SCOM
11 5 (0.46%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.46%) vMotion
12 4 (0.37%) Data Guard
12 4 (0.37%) Oracle RMAN
12 4 (0.37%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 288 (26.72%) ServiceNow
2 163 (15.12%) Microsoft
3 79 (7.33%) Remedy
4 56 (5.19%) Atlassian
5 53 (4.92%) VMware
6 44 (4.08%) Cisco
7 43 (3.99%) Oracle
8 39 (3.62%) HP
9 29 (2.69%) SAP
10 23 (2.13%) Google
11 22 (2.04%) IFS
12 21 (1.95%) BMC
12 21 (1.95%) Splunk
13 19 (1.76%) Dell
14 15 (1.39%) Canon
15 14 (1.30%) Citrix
16 13 (1.21%) F5
16 13 (1.21%) Salesforce
16 13 (1.21%) SolarWinds
17 11 (1.02%) Juniper