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 23 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 100 98 79
Rank change year-on-year -2 -19 +18
Contract jobs citing Service Management 996 810 1,164
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.63% 2.56% 2.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.00% 2.87% 3.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 697 483 810
10th Percentile £200 £220 £270
25th Percentile £350 £401 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £532
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.22% +6.30%
75th Percentile £588 £623 £613
90th Percentile £706 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 23 15
10th Percentile £13.25 £21.05 £12.53
25th Percentile £17.30 £24.97 £15.46
Median hourly rate £26.11 £30.40 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -14.11% +71.56% -30.25%
75th Percentile £60.00 £37.00 £51.88
90th Percentile £74.26 £68.50 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.00 £30.43 £16.94
% change year-on-year -30.98% +79.66% -44.35%

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 33,213 28,195 38,072
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.59% 88.98% 87.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,058 17,139 25,095
10th Percentile £305 £306 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £644
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,026 893 1,862
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.94 £17.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £37.01
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -12.19% +15.66%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £30.62 £39.55
% change year-on-year -21.61% -22.59% +52.12%

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 23 January 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 23 January 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 23 January 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 -4 901 £500 -4.76% 239
UK excluding London +6 686 £500 -2.44% 222
Work from Home -1 247 £475 -12.24% 122
London -64 229 £500 -4.76% 59
South East +28 175 £500 +11.11% 77
North of England +3 170 £496 +24.00% 51
South West +1 153 £571 -0.65% 20
Midlands +2 114 £475 -18.10% 37
North West +2 95 £550 +37.50% 25
West Midlands -12 86 £508 -12.50% 24
Yorkshire -14 61 £468 +102.16% 17
East of England -11 43 £330 -40.00% 24
Scotland -4 30 £484 +0.05% 11
East Midlands -3 28 £419 -16.25% 13
North East -6 17 £280 -53.04% 10
Northern Ireland - 4 £325 - 3
Wales -6 3 £170 -46.44% 8

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 74 (7.43%) Confluence
2 69 (6.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 56 (5.62%) SharePoint
4 15 (1.51%) Apache
4 15 (1.51%) WebLogic
5 14 (1.41%) Skype for Business
6 5 (0.50%) SharePoint Server
7 3 (0.30%) nginx
8 2 (0.20%) JBoss
9 1 (0.10%) CMS
9 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.10%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.10%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.10%) WebSphere
Applications
1 98 (9.84%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (3.51%) Microsoft Project
3 34 (3.41%) Microsoft Excel
4 16 (1.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.70%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.40%) Autodesk Inventor
7 2 (0.20%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 24 (2.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (1.31%) Oracle EBS
3 9 (0.90%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.40%) Dynamics CRM
5 3 (0.30%) assyst
5 3 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
5 3 (0.30%) Teamcenter
6 2 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.10%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.10%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.10%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 1 (0.10%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.10%) SystmOne
7 1 (0.10%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 170 (17.07%) Azure
2 106 (10.64%) AWS
3 105 (10.54%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (4.32%) GCP
5 37 (3.71%) Entra ID
6 30 (3.01%) Power Platform
7 25 (2.51%) OneDrive
7 25 (2.51%) SaaS
8 24 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
9 19 (1.91%) Azure Monitor
10 11 (1.10%) GitHub
11 10 (1.00%) PowerApps
12 9 (0.90%) Dynamics 365
12 9 (0.90%) IaaS
13 7 (0.70%) Nutanix
13 7 (0.70%) OpenShift
13 7 (0.70%) Salesforce Service Cloud
14 6 (0.60%) PaaS
14 6 (0.60%) Serverless
15 5 (0.50%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 62 (6.22%) DNS
2 52 (5.22%) Firewall
3 36 (3.61%) DHCP
4 31 (3.11%) VPN
5 26 (2.61%) TCP/IP
6 25 (2.51%) VLAN
7 24 (2.41%) Skype
8 22 (2.21%) WAN
9 20 (2.01%) LAN
10 18 (1.81%) Cisco IOS
10 18 (1.81%) Network Security
11 17 (1.71%) Cisco Firepower
11 17 (1.71%) Cisco ISE
11 17 (1.71%) Junos
12 13 (1.31%) Wi-Fi
13 12 (1.20%) SSH
14 10 (1.00%) HTTP
15 8 (0.80%) WebEx
16 7 (0.70%) BGP
16 7 (0.70%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (2.11%) Power BI
2 16 (1.61%) Relational Database
3 13 (1.31%) SQL Server
4 7 (0.70%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
6 5 (0.50%) Metadata
7 4 (0.40%) Data Mining
7 4 (0.40%) InfluxDB
7 4 (0.40%) Tableau
8 3 (0.30%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.20%) Big Data
9 2 (0.20%) GIS
9 2 (0.20%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.20%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.10%) MariaDB
10 1 (0.10%) MySQL
10 1 (0.10%) Oracle Discoverer
10 1 (0.10%) RDBMS
10 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 122 (12.25%) JIRA
2 16 (1.61%) Jenkins
3 11 (1.10%) Git
4 10 (1.00%) GitLab
5 8 (0.80%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.40%) ScriptRunner
7 2 (0.20%) TestRail
7 2 (0.20%) webpack
8 1 (0.10%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.10%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.10%) MLflow
8 1 (0.10%) Selenium
8 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 409 (41.06%) Social Skills
2 173 (17.37%) Analytical Skills
3 149 (14.96%) Finance
4 135 (13.55%) Public Sector
5 44 (4.42%) Military
6 41 (4.12%) Legal
7 37 (3.71%) Telecoms
8 36 (3.61%) Banking
9 35 (3.51%) Organisational Skills
10 33 (3.31%) Documentation Skills
11 32 (3.21%) Influencing Skills
12 28 (2.81%) Manufacturing
13 24 (2.41%) Retail
14 14 (1.41%) Presentation Skills
15 13 (1.31%) Marketing
16 12 (1.20%) Electronics
16 12 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 10 (1.00%) Investment Banking
18 7 (0.70%) Front Office
18 7 (0.70%) Law
Job Titles
1 142 (14.26%) Analyst
2 118 (11.85%) Lead
3 117 (11.75%) Architect
4 72 (7.23%) Service Manager
5 64 (6.43%) Support Engineer
6 56 (5.62%) Service Architect
7 48 (4.82%) Consultant
8 45 (4.52%) IT Support
9 43 (4.32%) Service Analyst
10 37 (3.71%) Support Analyst
11 33 (3.31%) Senior
12 31 (3.11%) 2nd Line Support
13 30 (3.01%) Platform Engineer
14 29 (2.91%) Desktop Support
15 28 (2.81%) IT Analyst
16 26 (2.61%) Business Analyst
16 26 (2.61%) Hardware Engineer
16 26 (2.61%) Network Engineer
17 25 (2.51%) IT Manager
18 24 (2.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (3.61%) REST
2 17 (1.71%) SOAP
3 9 (0.90%) LDAP
4 8 (0.80%) .NET
4 8 (0.80%) Elastic Stack
4 8 (0.80%) Web Services
4 8 (0.80%) XMPP
5 7 (0.70%) CSS
5 7 (0.70%) RFC 2544
6 6 (0.60%) HTML
7 4 (0.40%) RabbitMQ
7 4 (0.40%) React
8 3 (0.30%) AngularJS
8 3 (0.30%) ARM Templates
8 3 (0.30%) EDI
8 3 (0.30%) Middleware
8 3 (0.30%) Oracle Fusion
9 2 (0.20%) Lightning Web Components
9 2 (0.20%) ModSecurity
9 2 (0.20%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 71 (7.13%) Product Ownership
2 53 (5.32%) CMDB
3 43 (4.32%) Data Centre
4 39 (3.92%) Management Information System
4 39 (3.92%) Onboarding
5 24 (2.41%) PKI
6 23 (2.31%) Analytical Mindset
7 20 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
7 20 (2.01%) Virtual Team
8 17 (1.71%) Driving Licence
9 13 (1.31%) Mainframe
9 13 (1.31%) PMI
10 10 (1.00%) Enterprise Software
10 10 (1.00%) NHS
11 8 (0.80%) Data Protection Act
12 7 (0.70%) Fibre Optics
12 7 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
13 6 (0.60%) Distributed Systems
13 6 (0.60%) Public Cloud
13 6 (0.60%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 239 (24.00%) Windows
2 82 (8.23%) Linux
3 67 (6.73%) Windows Server
4 65 (6.53%) Windows 10
5 26 (2.61%) Unix
6 13 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 12 (1.20%) Android
7 12 (1.20%) Apple iOS
8 10 (1.00%) Mac OS
8 10 (1.00%) Windows 7
9 8 (0.80%) Windows Server 2012
10 7 (0.70%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.50%) Windows Server 2003
11 5 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.40%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
13 3 (0.30%) CentOS
14 2 (0.20%) VMS
14 2 (0.20%) Windows XP
15 1 (0.10%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 560 (56.22%) ITIL
2 431 (43.27%) ITSM
3 208 (20.88%) Problem-Solving
4 182 (18.27%) Continuous Improvement
5 178 (17.87%) Agile
6 160 (16.06%) Change Management
6 160 (16.06%) Stakeholder Management
7 141 (14.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 140 (14.06%) Service Delivery
9 126 (12.65%) Customer Service
10 110 (11.04%) Service Design
11 99 (9.94%) Project Management
12 93 (9.34%) Incident Management
13 87 (8.73%) DevOps
14 75 (7.53%) Problem Management
15 72 (7.23%) Knowledge Transfer
16 71 (7.13%) Project Delivery
17 61 (6.12%) Business Continuity
18 60 (6.02%) Configuration Management
19 58 (5.82%) Critical Thinking
Programming Languages
1 89 (8.94%) PowerShell
2 65 (6.53%) SQL
3 59 (5.92%) Python
4 22 (2.21%) JavaScript
5 16 (1.61%) Java
6 15 (1.51%) Perl
6 15 (1.51%) Shell Script
7 14 (1.41%) Bash
8 9 (0.90%) VB
8 9 (0.90%) VBScript
9 4 (0.40%) Go
10 3 (0.30%) Bicep
10 3 (0.30%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.20%) ActionScript
11 2 (0.20%) ActionScript 2.0
11 2 (0.20%) C#
11 2 (0.20%) PHP
12 1 (0.10%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.10%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.10%) VBA
Qualifications
1 402 (40.36%) Security Cleared
2 321 (32.23%) SC Cleared
3 127 (12.75%) Degree
4 81 (8.13%) DV Cleared
5 50 (5.02%) ITIL Certification
6 38 (3.82%) Microsoft Certification
7 30 (3.01%) TOGAF Certification
8 25 (2.51%) BPSS Clearance
9 21 (2.11%) PMI Certification
10 19 (1.91%) Computer Science Degree
11 18 (1.81%) A+ Certification
12 17 (1.71%) MCSE
12 17 (1.71%) PMP
13 16 (1.61%) Azure Certification
14 15 (1.51%) Cisco Certification
15 14 (1.41%) Network+ Certification
15 14 (1.41%) Server+ Certification
16 13 (1.31%) CCNP
17 12 (1.20%) CCNA
18 9 (0.90%) APMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (4.72%) SLA
2 20 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (1.91%) Data Quality
4 17 (1.71%) GDPR
4 17 (1.71%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 17 (1.71%) QA
5 12 (1.20%) PMO
6 9 (0.90%) Accessibility
6 9 (0.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 7 (0.70%) NIST
8 6 (0.60%) COBIT
8 6 (0.60%) GRC
9 5 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
10 4 (0.40%) HIPAA
10 4 (0.40%) ISO 9001
10 4 (0.40%) NCSC
11 3 (0.30%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 3 (0.30%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.20%) GxP
System Software
1 128 (12.85%) Active Directory
2 45 (4.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.11%) VMware NSX
4 17 (1.71%) Docker
5 16 (1.61%) Hyper-V
6 11 (1.10%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.90%) BitLocker
8 7 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
9 6 (0.60%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 4 (0.40%) NDS
10 4 (0.40%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 3 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
13 1 (0.10%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.10%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 36 (3.61%) SCCM
2 32 (3.21%) OPNET
3 27 (2.71%) Ansible
4 26 (2.61%) Terraform
5 25 (2.51%) Microsoft Intune
6 24 (2.41%) Kubernetes
6 24 (2.41%) vCenter Server
7 17 (1.71%) WSUS
8 11 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 7 (0.70%) Grafana
10 6 (0.60%) Prometheus
10 6 (0.60%) SCOM
10 6 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
11 5 (0.50%) FortiGate
11 5 (0.50%) Jamf Pro
12 4 (0.40%) Nessus
12 4 (0.40%) Packer
12 4 (0.40%) Progress Chef
13 2 (0.20%) HP ALM
13 2 (0.20%) Puppet
Vendors
1 247 (24.80%) ServiceNow
2 181 (18.17%) Microsoft
3 73 (7.33%) Cisco
4 63 (6.33%) Remedy
5 61 (6.12%) Atlassian
6 58 (5.82%) VMware
7 55 (5.52%) Oracle
8 36 (3.61%) Splunk
9 34 (3.41%) Google
10 33 (3.31%) SolarWinds
11 32 (3.21%) SAP
12 31 (3.11%) HP
13 23 (2.31%) Dynatrace
14 21 (2.11%) AppDynamics
15 19 (1.91%) Juniper
16 18 (1.81%) Salesforce
17 15 (1.51%) Citrix
18 14 (1.41%) Red Hat
18 14 (1.41%) Veeam
19 10 (1.00%) Palo Alto