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 15 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 93 99
Rank change year-on-year +7 +6 -15
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,732 957 903
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.13% 2.88% 2.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.70% 3.19% 2.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,130 587 567
10th Percentile £263 £188 £213
25th Percentile £434 £326 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £492 £515
Median % change year-on-year +6.71% -4.47% -2.42%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £605
90th Percentile £730 £649 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £486 £500
% change year-on-year +7.97% -2.75% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 91 17
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £21.05
25th Percentile £15.13 £15.54 £24.18
Median hourly rate £35.53 £20.79 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.90% -42.25% -19.33%
75th Percentile £83.75 £33.75 £48.75
90th Percentile £92.00 £60.00 £51.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £20.79 £36.00
% change year-on-year +32.28% -42.25% +64.35%

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 46,870 30,047 32,387
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.76% 90.49% 86.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,156 18,700 19,515
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,444 1,888 1,247
10th Percentile £13.53 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.94 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.18 £65.25 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £40.33
% change year-on-year +68.43% -44.79% -8.14%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 +6 1,494 £525 +5.00% 344
UK excluding London -4 1,003 £525 +7.97% 290
London +49 534 £525 +5.00% 90
Work from Home +7 462 £525 +6.71% 174
South East +7 318 £575 +27.78% 106
North of England -9 287 £481 +7.61% 65
North West -10 168 £484 +7.56% 36
Midlands -31 128 £525 +2.94% 32
West Midlands -18 119 £525 +0.96% 17
Yorkshire -5 113 £466 +27.60% 23
Scotland +26 104 £566 +22.38% 14
South West -35 103 £558 +1.36% 50
East of England +9 72 £600 +11.01% 27
Wales -7 13 £800 +247.83% 5
East Midlands -27 9 £206 -52.09% 13
Northern Ireland +6 7 - - 3
North East -39 6 £600 +207.69% 6

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
1 131 (7.56%) SharePoint
2 68 (3.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 65 (3.75%) Confluence
4 15 (0.87%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.29%) CMS
5 5 (0.29%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.23%) Apache
6 4 (0.23%) IBM Transformation Extender
6 4 (0.23%) IIS
7 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.12%) CICS
8 2 (0.12%) nginx
9 1 (0.058%) Documentum
9 1 (0.058%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.058%) Mattermost
9 1 (0.058%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.058%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
9 1 (0.058%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.058%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.058%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 84 (4.85%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (2.37%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (0.87%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.46%) Chatbot
6 7 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.17%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.058%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.058%) Maple
Business Applications
1 53 (3.06%) Remedy ITSM
2 15 (0.87%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.40%) Primavera
5 5 (0.29%) ContrOCC
5 5 (0.29%) NEC Housing
5 5 (0.29%) Teamcenter
5 5 (0.29%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
6 3 (0.17%) SAP CO
6 3 (0.17%) SAP FI
6 3 (0.17%) SAP FI/CO
6 3 (0.17%) SAP SM
6 3 (0.17%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.12%) Exchequer
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.12%) Remedy AR System
7 2 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.12%) SAP CX
7 2 (0.12%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 301 (17.38%) Azure
2 230 (13.28%) Microsoft 365
3 150 (8.66%) Entra ID
4 142 (8.20%) AWS
5 82 (4.73%) Power Platform
6 70 (4.04%) SaaS
7 60 (3.46%) OneDrive
8 45 (2.60%) GCP
9 43 (2.48%) Azure DevOps
10 27 (1.56%) Azure Monitor
11 21 (1.21%) GitHub
12 19 (1.10%) Google Workspace
12 19 (1.10%) Microsoft Copilot
13 15 (0.87%) Dynamics 365
13 15 (0.87%) Power Automate
14 14 (0.81%) Serverless
15 11 (0.64%) Amazon EC2
15 11 (0.64%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (0.64%) IaaS
16 10 (0.58%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 80 (4.62%) DNS
2 78 (4.50%) Firewall
3 68 (3.93%) VPN
4 62 (3.58%) DHCP
5 54 (3.12%) TCP/IP
6 45 (2.60%) Network Security
7 40 (2.31%) WAN
8 37 (2.14%) LAN
9 28 (1.62%) Wi-Fi
10 20 (1.15%) VLAN
11 17 (0.98%) Wireless
12 16 (0.92%) Skype
13 14 (0.81%) BGP
13 14 (0.81%) SD-WAN
14 12 (0.69%) SSH
15 11 (0.64%) Intrusion Detection
16 10 (0.58%) Internet
16 10 (0.58%) OSPF
16 10 (0.58%) SAN
17 9 (0.52%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (2.89%) Power BI
2 34 (1.96%) SQL Server
3 24 (1.39%) Metadata
4 9 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (0.52%) Looker
4 9 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (0.46%) MySQL
5 8 (0.46%) Oracle Database
5 8 (0.46%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (0.40%) BigQuery
7 6 (0.35%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.29%) MariaDB
8 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 4 (0.23%) Oracle Database 11g
10 3 (0.17%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (0.17%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 2 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.12%) GIS
11 2 (0.12%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.12%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 154 (8.89%) JIRA
2 37 (2.14%) Git
3 23 (1.33%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.04%) Bitbucket
5 14 (0.81%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 9 (0.52%) GitLab
7 4 (0.23%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.23%) Maven
7 4 (0.23%) webpack
8 3 (0.17%) Gradle
8 3 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.12%) Fiddler
9 2 (0.12%) Firebug
9 2 (0.12%) ScriptRunner
9 2 (0.12%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.058%) eggPlant
10 1 (0.058%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.058%) MLflow
10 1 (0.058%) Snyk
10 1 (0.058%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 704 (40.65%) Social Skills
2 288 (16.63%) Finance
3 286 (16.51%) Analytical Skills
4 214 (12.36%) Public Sector
5 83 (4.79%) Organisational Skills
6 72 (4.16%) Telecoms
7 71 (4.10%) Documentation Skills
8 70 (4.04%) Banking
9 62 (3.58%) Influencing Skills
10 50 (2.89%) Aerospace
11 48 (2.77%) Legal
12 42 (2.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 30 (1.73%) Military
13 30 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
14 25 (1.44%) Local Government
15 24 (1.39%) Manufacturing
16 18 (1.04%) Police
17 14 (0.81%) Law
17 14 (0.81%) Retail
18 12 (0.69%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 188 (10.85%) Architect
2 165 (9.53%) Lead
3 161 (9.30%) Analyst
4 130 (7.51%) Consultant
5 123 (7.10%) Senior
6 120 (6.93%) Service Manager
7 82 (4.73%) Developer
8 80 (4.62%) Delivery Manager
9 79 (4.56%) Support Engineer
10 66 (3.81%) IT Manager
10 66 (3.81%) Project Manager
11 61 (3.52%) Solutions Architect
12 54 (3.12%) IT Support
13 49 (2.83%) Service Analyst
14 43 (2.48%) ServiceNow Developer
15 42 (2.42%) ServiceNow Architect
16 41 (2.37%) Service Architect
17 38 (2.19%) IT Engineer
17 38 (2.19%) Transition Manager
18 37 (2.14%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (4.79%) REST
2 65 (3.75%) Terraform
3 30 (1.73%) SOAP
4 29 (1.67%) Middleware
4 29 (1.67%) XML
5 26 (1.50%) Web Services
6 24 (1.39%) JSON
7 19 (1.10%) HTML
8 18 (1.04%) CSS
9 14 (0.81%) LDAP
10 12 (0.69%) .NET
11 10 (0.58%) ARM Templates
11 10 (0.58%) SAML
12 9 (0.52%) Elastic Stack
12 9 (0.52%) OAuth
13 8 (0.46%) XSLT
14 7 (0.40%) Ajax
14 7 (0.40%) AngularJS
14 7 (0.40%) Node.js
14 7 (0.40%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 190 (10.97%) Onboarding
2 146 (8.43%) CMDB
3 106 (6.12%) Management Information System
4 73 (4.21%) Enterprise Software
5 58 (3.35%) Product Ownership
6 54 (3.12%) Data Centre
7 39 (2.25%) PKI
8 34 (1.96%) Hybrid Cloud
9 32 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
10 27 (1.56%) Security Operations Centre
11 26 (1.50%) Virtual Team
12 25 (1.44%) Cloud Native
12 25 (1.44%) Operational Technology
13 18 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
14 17 (0.98%) Security Posture
14 17 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
14 17 (0.98%) Video Conferencing
15 15 (0.87%) Analytical Mindset
16 14 (0.81%) AI Agents
16 14 (0.81%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 350 (20.21%) Windows
2 103 (5.95%) Linux
3 95 (5.48%) Windows Server
4 77 (4.45%) Windows 10
5 41 (2.37%) Apple iOS
6 38 (2.19%) macOS
7 26 (1.50%) Android
8 22 (1.27%) Unix
9 21 (1.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 20 (1.15%) Windows 7
11 6 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.23%) AIX
12 4 (0.23%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 3 (0.17%) Solaris
13 3 (0.17%) zOS
14 2 (0.12%) Ubuntu
14 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.12%) Windows XP
15 1 (0.058%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 911 (52.60%) ITIL
2 758 (43.76%) ITSM
3 581 (33.55%) Stakeholder Management
4 489 (28.23%) Continuous Improvement
5 359 (20.73%) Service Delivery
6 346 (19.98%) Problem-Solving
7 342 (19.75%) Agile
8 275 (15.88%) Roadmaps
9 261 (15.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 247 (14.26%) Change Management
11 208 (12.01%) Customer Service
11 208 (12.01%) Cybersecurity
12 199 (11.49%) Incident Management
13 175 (10.10%) DevOps
14 163 (9.41%) Project Delivery
15 155 (8.95%) Decision-Making
16 148 (8.55%) AI
17 145 (8.37%) Migration
18 139 (8.03%) Risk Management
19 125 (7.22%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 154 (8.89%) PowerShell
2 102 (5.89%) Python
3 65 (3.75%) SQL
4 62 (3.58%) JavaScript
5 59 (3.41%) Bash
6 23 (1.33%) Java
7 19 (1.10%) VBScript
8 16 (0.92%) Bicep
9 15 (0.87%) C#
9 15 (0.87%) VB
10 9 (0.52%) Shell Script
11 8 (0.46%) Groovy
12 5 (0.29%) C
12 5 (0.29%) Perl
12 5 (0.29%) TypeScript
13 4 (0.23%) PL/SQL
13 4 (0.23%) T-SQL
14 3 (0.17%) COBOL
14 3 (0.17%) Google Apps Script
14 3 (0.17%) RPG
Qualifications
1 666 (38.45%) Security Cleared
2 455 (26.27%) SC Cleared
3 164 (9.47%) DV Cleared
4 159 (9.18%) Degree
5 63 (3.64%) BPSS Clearance
5 63 (3.64%) PMP
6 59 (3.41%) PMI Certification
7 55 (3.18%) ITIL Certification
8 40 (2.31%) Microsoft Certification
9 35 (2.02%) CISSP
10 34 (1.96%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 30 (1.73%) CISM
12 27 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
13 26 (1.50%) Cisco Certification
14 25 (1.44%) A+ Certification
14 25 (1.44%) DBS Check
15 23 (1.33%) Azure Certification
16 16 (0.92%) AWS Certification
17 10 (0.58%) CCNA
18 9 (0.52%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 149 (8.60%) SLA
2 66 (3.81%) Data Quality
3 65 (3.75%) QA
4 49 (2.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 38 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 37 (2.14%) GRC
6 37 (2.14%) NCSC
7 34 (1.96%) GDPR
7 34 (1.96%) NIST
8 22 (1.27%) PMO
9 16 (0.92%) Accessibility
9 16 (0.92%) ISO 9001
10 13 (0.75%) COBIT
10 13 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
11 10 (0.58%) PCI DSS
12 8 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 8 (0.46%) ISO 22301
12 8 (0.46%) WCAG
13 7 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
14 5 (0.29%) JSP 440
System Software
1 208 (12.01%) Active Directory
2 90 (5.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (2.14%) Hyper-V
4 28 (1.62%) VMware ESXi
5 26 (1.50%) Docker
6 25 (1.44%) Virtual Desktop
7 23 (1.33%) vSphere
8 17 (0.98%) BitLocker
8 17 (0.98%) VMware NSX
9 13 (0.75%) vCloud
10 9 (0.52%) Firmware
11 8 (0.46%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 8 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
11 8 (0.46%) XenApp
11 8 (0.46%) XenDesktop
12 7 (0.40%) KVM
13 6 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.23%) IAG
14 4 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
15 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 106 (6.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 93 (5.37%) SCCM
3 59 (3.41%) Ansible
4 29 (1.67%) Kubernetes
5 26 (1.50%) Single Sign-On
6 24 (1.39%) SCOM
7 18 (1.04%) vCenter Server
8 16 (0.92%) Jamf Pro
9 11 (0.64%) Grafana
9 11 (0.64%) WSUS
10 8 (0.46%) NetBackup
11 7 (0.40%) Progress Chef
11 7 (0.40%) Puppet
12 5 (0.29%) Data Guard
12 5 (0.29%) Oracle RMAN
12 5 (0.29%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.29%) Tivoli
12 5 (0.29%) Tivoli Monitoring
13 4 (0.23%) BMC PATROL
13 4 (0.23%) Perfmon
Vendors
1 477 (27.54%) ServiceNow
2 446 (25.75%) Microsoft
3 117 (6.76%) VMware
4 59 (3.41%) Remedy
5 52 (3.00%) Cisco
6 51 (2.94%) BMC
7 43 (2.48%) SAP
8 40 (2.31%) Atlassian
9 37 (2.14%) Oracle
10 36 (2.08%) Dynatrace
11 34 (1.96%) Google
12 31 (1.79%) IBM
13 30 (1.73%) Splunk
14 29 (1.67%) Apple
15 24 (1.39%) Citrix
16 23 (1.33%) CyberArk
17 22 (1.27%) Salesforce
18 18 (1.04%) SolarWinds
19 15 (0.87%) Palo Alto
20 14 (0.81%) Zscaler