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 22 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 81 88
Rank change year-on-year -15 +7 -4
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,490 959 947
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.77% 2.92% 2.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.27% 3.23% 2.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 980 581 650
10th Percentile £261 £209 £225
25th Percentile £413 £350 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £492 £525
Median % change year-on-year +6.71% -6.29% +2.44%
75th Percentile £622 £575 £608
90th Percentile £725 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £497 £525
% change year-on-year +5.74% -5.43% +8.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 75 18
10th Percentile £14.50 - £17.50
25th Percentile £17.21 £12.62 £19.44
Median hourly rate £55.00 £18.73 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +193.65% -31.89% -34.33%
75th Percentile £85.00 £29.33 £48.75
90th Percentile £92.53 £42.00 £54.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £18.73 £27.50
% change year-on-year +193.65% -31.89% +29.05%

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 45,595 29,691 33,157
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.72% 90.49% 85.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,992 18,509 21,072
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.58%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,871 1,749 1,744
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.87
25th Percentile £18.27 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +66.68% -37.90% -2.41%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.00 £41.50
% change year-on-year +91.13% -44.58% +10.67%

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 22 August 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 22 August 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 22 August 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 1,288 £525 +5.00% 863
UK excluding London -17 882 £525 +5.74% 676
London +23 460 £525 +5.00% 307
Work from Home +10 419 £515 +2.95% 404
South East +20 289 £565 +13.00% 202
North of England -19 244 £475 +5.56% 156
North West -20 148 £484 +3.97% 91
South West -32 118 £550 +4.76% 78
Midlands -43 99 £500 -1.96% 103
West Midlands -31 93 £500 -4.76% 60
Yorkshire -15 89 £443 +24.79% 54
Scotland +10 83 £516 +10.67% 51
East of England -14 45 £525 -4.55% 56
Wales -13 13 £800 +247.83% 13
Northern Ireland +7 8 - - 25
North East -42 7 £500 +156.41% 12
East Midlands -29 6 £250 -16.67% 44

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
1 103 (6.91%) SharePoint
2 61 (4.09%) Confluence
3 55 (3.69%) Microsoft Exchange
4 15 (1.01%) Skype for Business
5 6 (0.40%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.20%) CMS
6 3 (0.20%) IIS
7 2 (0.13%) Apache
8 1 (0.067%) CICS
8 1 (0.067%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.067%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.067%) JBoss
8 1 (0.067%) Mattermost
8 1 (0.067%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
8 1 (0.067%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 82 (5.50%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.94%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.67%) Chatbot
4 10 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.067%) Maple
Business Applications
1 58 (3.89%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (0.74%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.47%) Primavera
4 5 (0.34%) ContrOCC
4 5 (0.34%) NEC Housing
5 4 (0.27%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
6 3 (0.20%) SAP CO
6 3 (0.20%) SAP FI
6 3 (0.20%) SAP FI/CO
6 3 (0.20%) SAP SM
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.13%) Remedy AR System
7 2 (0.13%) SAP PS
7 2 (0.13%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.067%) Cloudability
8 1 (0.067%) iTrent
8 1 (0.067%) Salesforce CRM
8 1 (0.067%) SAP CX
Cloud Services
1 258 (17.32%) Azure
2 189 (12.68%) Microsoft 365
3 117 (7.85%) AWS
4 105 (7.05%) Entra ID
5 66 (4.43%) Power Platform
6 58 (3.89%) SaaS
7 50 (3.36%) OneDrive
8 32 (2.15%) GCP
9 29 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
10 21 (1.41%) GitHub
11 20 (1.34%) Microsoft Copilot
12 15 (1.01%) Azure Monitor
13 14 (0.94%) OCI
14 12 (0.81%) PaaS
15 10 (0.67%) Google Workspace
15 10 (0.67%) IaaS
16 9 (0.60%) Azure AKS
17 8 (0.54%) Amazon S3
18 7 (0.47%) Amazon EC2
18 7 (0.47%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 82 (5.50%) Firewall
2 67 (4.50%) DNS
3 50 (3.36%) VPN
4 46 (3.09%) TCP/IP
5 45 (3.02%) DHCP
6 43 (2.89%) WAN
7 41 (2.75%) Network Security
8 36 (2.42%) LAN
9 19 (1.28%) Wi-Fi
9 19 (1.28%) Wireless
10 17 (1.14%) SD-WAN
11 15 (1.01%) Skype
12 14 (0.94%) VLAN
13 13 (0.87%) BGP
14 11 (0.74%) Intrusion Detection
14 11 (0.74%) SSH
15 9 (0.60%) OSPF
15 9 (0.60%) SSL
16 8 (0.54%) HTTP
17 7 (0.47%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (3.22%) Power BI
2 27 (1.81%) SQL Server
3 8 (0.54%) Oracle Database
3 8 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (0.47%) MySQL
4 7 (0.47%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 6 (0.40%) Oracle Database 11g
5 6 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
5 6 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 5 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
6 5 (0.34%) MariaDB
6 5 (0.34%) Relational Database
6 5 (0.34%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 3 (0.20%) Amazon Aurora
7 3 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.20%) Metadata
8 2 (0.13%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.13%) Looker
8 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Analysis Services
8 2 (0.13%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 144 (9.66%) JIRA
2 26 (1.74%) Jenkins
3 25 (1.68%) Bitbucket
3 25 (1.68%) Git
4 17 (1.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 10 (0.67%) GitLab
6 5 (0.34%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.27%) Maven
7 4 (0.27%) MLflow
7 4 (0.27%) ScriptRunner
7 4 (0.27%) webpack
8 3 (0.20%) Fiddler
8 3 (0.20%) Gradle
8 3 (0.20%) Hudson
8 3 (0.20%) IntelliJ
8 3 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.20%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.13%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.13%) Firebug
10 1 (0.067%) Selenium
General
1 574 (38.52%) Social Skills
2 243 (16.31%) Finance
3 237 (15.91%) Analytical Skills
4 173 (11.61%) Public Sector
5 72 (4.83%) Telecoms
6 57 (3.83%) Documentation Skills
6 57 (3.83%) Organisational Skills
7 52 (3.49%) Banking
7 52 (3.49%) Influencing Skills
8 48 (3.22%) Legal
9 31 (2.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 27 (1.81%) Military
11 24 (1.61%) Presentation Skills
12 23 (1.54%) Local Government
13 19 (1.28%) Aerospace
14 15 (1.01%) Retail
15 13 (0.87%) Police
16 11 (0.74%) Financial Institution
17 9 (0.60%) Manufacturing
18 8 (0.54%) Law
Job Titles
1 163 (10.94%) Analyst
2 143 (9.60%) Architect
3 141 (9.46%) Lead
4 112 (7.52%) Senior
5 108 (7.25%) Consultant
6 105 (7.05%) Service Manager
7 74 (4.97%) IT Manager
8 68 (4.56%) Project Manager
9 65 (4.36%) Support Engineer
10 58 (3.89%) Developer
11 55 (3.69%) Service Analyst
12 46 (3.09%) IT Support
13 45 (3.02%) Delivery Manager
14 44 (2.95%) Solutions Architect
15 41 (2.75%) ServiceNow Developer
16 39 (2.62%) Service Architect
17 37 (2.48%) Business Analyst
17 37 (2.48%) Transition Manager
18 35 (2.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
19 34 (2.28%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (5.37%) REST
2 47 (3.15%) Terraform
3 34 (2.28%) SOAP
4 18 (1.21%) HTML
5 17 (1.14%) CSS
6 15 (1.01%) Middleware
6 15 (1.01%) Web Services
7 12 (0.81%) XML
8 10 (0.67%) SAML
9 9 (0.60%) AngularJS
9 9 (0.60%) JSON
10 8 (0.54%) Elastic Stack
11 7 (0.47%) OAuth
12 6 (0.40%) .NET
12 6 (0.40%) ARM Templates
12 6 (0.40%) Node.js
13 5 (0.34%) OpenID
13 5 (0.34%) RESTful
14 4 (0.27%) Bootstrap
14 4 (0.27%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 157 (10.54%) Onboarding
2 112 (7.52%) CMDB
3 66 (4.43%) Management Information System
4 62 (4.16%) Product Ownership
5 46 (3.09%) Enterprise Software
6 45 (3.02%) Data Centre
7 32 (2.15%) PKI
8 28 (1.88%) Operational Technology
9 25 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
10 23 (1.54%) Hybrid Cloud
10 23 (1.54%) Security Operations Centre
10 23 (1.54%) Virtual Team
11 20 (1.34%) Cloud Native
11 20 (1.34%) Clustering
12 17 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
13 16 (1.07%) AI Agents
13 16 (1.07%) Analytical Mindset
14 14 (0.94%) NHS
15 13 (0.87%) Cyber Threat
15 13 (0.87%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 291 (19.53%) Windows
2 83 (5.57%) Windows Server
3 78 (5.23%) Linux
4 63 (4.23%) Windows 10
5 27 (1.81%) Apple iOS
6 26 (1.74%) Mac OS
7 20 (1.34%) Unix
7 20 (1.34%) Windows 7
8 14 (0.94%) Android
9 12 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.20%) VMS
11 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.13%) Solaris
12 2 (0.13%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.13%) Windows XP
12 2 (0.13%) zOS
13 1 (0.067%) Rocky
13 1 (0.067%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 790 (53.02%) ITIL
2 667 (44.77%) ITSM
3 429 (28.79%) Stakeholder Management
4 385 (25.84%) Continuous Improvement
5 330 (22.15%) Service Delivery
6 311 (20.87%) Agile
7 300 (20.13%) Problem-Solving
8 225 (15.10%) Change Management
8 225 (15.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 171 (11.48%) Customer Service
10 161 (10.81%) Roadmaps
11 158 (10.60%) Incident Management
12 155 (10.40%) DevOps
13 147 (9.87%) Cybersecurity
14 132 (8.86%) Project Delivery
15 126 (8.46%) Migration
16 123 (8.26%) Decision-Making
17 120 (8.05%) AI
18 114 (7.65%) Service Design
19 108 (7.25%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 131 (8.79%) PowerShell
2 89 (5.97%) Python
3 73 (4.90%) SQL
4 54 (3.62%) JavaScript
5 47 (3.15%) Bash
6 17 (1.14%) VBScript
7 16 (1.07%) Java
8 15 (1.01%) VB
9 11 (0.74%) PL/SQL
10 9 (0.60%) Bicep
10 9 (0.60%) Groovy
11 7 (0.47%) Shell Script
12 6 (0.40%) C
13 5 (0.34%) Apex Code
13 5 (0.34%) C#
13 5 (0.34%) Perl
13 5 (0.34%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.27%) TypeScript
15 3 (0.20%) Lua
16 2 (0.13%) ActionScript 2.0
Qualifications
1 544 (36.51%) Security Cleared
2 367 (24.63%) SC Cleared
3 148 (9.93%) DV Cleared
4 142 (9.53%) Degree
5 61 (4.09%) ITIL Certification
6 51 (3.42%) PMP
7 45 (3.02%) PMI Certification
8 43 (2.89%) BPSS Clearance
9 34 (2.28%) CISSP
10 32 (2.15%) CISM
11 30 (2.01%) Cisco Certification
11 30 (2.01%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 29 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
13 28 (1.88%) Microsoft Certification
14 25 (1.68%) A+ Certification
15 16 (1.07%) DBS Check
16 14 (0.94%) Azure Certification
16 14 (0.94%) CCNA
17 13 (0.87%) Master's Degree
18 12 (0.81%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 121 (8.12%) SLA
2 50 (3.36%) QA
3 49 (3.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 42 (2.82%) Data Quality
5 34 (2.28%) NCSC
6 32 (2.15%) GRC
6 32 (2.15%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 30 (2.01%) PMO
8 27 (1.81%) GDPR
9 20 (1.34%) NIST
10 17 (1.14%) COBIT
11 16 (1.07%) ISO 9001
12 14 (0.94%) Cyber Essentials
13 9 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 9 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
14 8 (0.54%) Accessibility
15 7 (0.47%) Government Security Classifications
15 7 (0.47%) PCI DSS
16 6 (0.40%) ISO 31000
16 6 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 170 (11.41%) Active Directory
2 76 (5.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (2.01%) Hyper-V
4 24 (1.61%) VMware ESXi
5 21 (1.41%) Docker
6 17 (1.14%) VMware NSX
7 16 (1.07%) BitLocker
7 16 (1.07%) Virtual Desktop
8 15 (1.01%) vSphere
9 11 (0.74%) vCloud
10 6 (0.40%) IAG
10 6 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
11 5 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
12 4 (0.27%) NFS
12 4 (0.27%) Oracle RAC
13 3 (0.20%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 3 (0.20%) Firmware
13 3 (0.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 3 (0.20%) XenApp
13 3 (0.20%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 82 (5.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 70 (4.70%) SCCM
3 46 (3.09%) Ansible
4 23 (1.54%) Kubernetes
5 20 (1.34%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (1.28%) SCOM
7 15 (1.01%) vCenter Server
8 11 (0.74%) Jamf Pro
9 10 (0.67%) WSUS
10 7 (0.47%) Data Guard
10 7 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
10 7 (0.47%) Puppet
11 6 (0.40%) Grafana
11 6 (0.40%) Progress Chef
12 5 (0.34%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.27%) PowerCLI
13 4 (0.27%) Prometheus
13 4 (0.27%) vMotion
14 3 (0.20%) Dell DRAC
14 3 (0.20%) vRealize
Vendors
1 421 (28.26%) ServiceNow
2 340 (22.82%) Microsoft
3 106 (7.11%) VMware
4 63 (4.23%) Remedy
5 53 (3.56%) Cisco
6 52 (3.49%) BMC
7 44 (2.95%) Oracle
8 35 (2.35%) Atlassian
9 32 (2.15%) SAP
10 26 (1.74%) Splunk
11 24 (1.61%) Dynatrace
12 20 (1.34%) Citrix
12 20 (1.34%) CyberArk
12 20 (1.34%) IFS
12 20 (1.34%) Salesforce
13 19 (1.28%) Apple
13 19 (1.28%) Zscaler
14 18 (1.21%) IBM
15 16 (1.07%) Google
15 16 (1.07%) SolarWinds