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 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 86 101 78
Rank change year-on-year +15 -23 +21
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,057 868 1,286
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.94% 2.36% 2.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.28% 2.73% 3.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 691 533 919
10th Percentile £198 £213 £259
25th Percentile £329 £372 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £528
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.57% +5.60%
75th Percentile £575 £613 £615
90th Percentile £675 £688 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £501 £525
% change year-on-year -0.10% -4.67% +8.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 98 29 18
10th Percentile £12.62 £20.54 £18.64
25th Percentile £16.44 £25.75 £20.69
Median hourly rate £20.81 £30.45 £41.38
Median % change year-on-year -31.66% -26.40% +92.44%
75th Percentile £59.69 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £57.50 £76.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.79 £31.48 £21.31
% change year-on-year -33.95% +47.70% -0.30%

All Process and 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 32,181 31,778 41,284
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.57% 86.49% 88.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,153 19,119 27,753
10th Percentile £300 £310 £308
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £740 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,131 1,159 1,593
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.10 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.12 £19.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.93 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.88% -22.89% +25.71%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.85 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -29.71% -26.97% +44.76%

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 November 2025.

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 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Service Management in the UK

Service Management
Top 18 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 November 2025. 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 +17 941 £500 -4.76% 537
UK excluding London +20 738 £500 -0.10% 408
Work from Home +4 287 £513 -6.82% 236
London -39 234 £500 - 184
North of England +9 199 £447 +5.18% 77
South East +23 179 £488 -7.14% 128
South West +24 142 £560 -2.61% 56
North West +17 126 £466 +16.38% 47
Midlands +14 126 £500 -11.74% 72
West Midlands +14 102 £510 -10.65% 46
Yorkshire -26 58 £355 -29.74% 19
Scotland +1 42 £466 +4.78% 23
East of England -6 39 £541 +1.89% 33
East Midlands +3 24 £419 -20.24% 26
North East +6 18 £260 +33.33% 11
Wales -15 7 £205 +2.50% 18
Northern Ireland -1 5 £325 -40.91% 9
Channel Islands - 3 £725 -

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 76 (7.19%) Confluence
2 75 (7.10%) Microsoft Exchange
3 64 (6.05%) SharePoint
4 22 (2.08%) Apache
5 15 (1.42%) WebLogic
6 10 (0.95%) Skype for Business
7 7 (0.66%) IIS
7 7 (0.66%) WebSphere
8 5 (0.47%) SharePoint Server
9 2 (0.19%) Apache Solr
9 2 (0.19%) JBoss
10 1 (0.095%) CMS
10 1 (0.095%) Exchange Server 2010
10 1 (0.095%) Exchange Server 2013
10 1 (0.095%) HCL Notes
10 1 (0.095%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.095%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.095%) SAS
Applications
1 93 (8.80%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (3.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (1.99%) Microsoft Project
4 15 (1.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 14 (1.32%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.38%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.095%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.095%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.095%) Trello
Business Applications
1 28 (2.65%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (1.04%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.85%) Oracle EBS
4 8 (0.76%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.66%) Maximo
6 6 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
6 6 (0.57%) Salesforce CRM
7 5 (0.47%) assyst
7 5 (0.47%) Workday HCM
8 2 (0.19%) ResourceLink
8 2 (0.19%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.095%) Cloudability
9 1 (0.095%) Integrated Workplace Management System
9 1 (0.095%) SAP HR
9 1 (0.095%) SAP LE
9 1 (0.095%) SAP PM
9 1 (0.095%) SAP WM
9 1 (0.095%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 169 (15.99%) Azure
2 113 (10.69%) Microsoft 365
3 109 (10.31%) AWS
4 38 (3.60%) Entra ID
5 32 (3.03%) Power Platform
6 30 (2.84%) GCP
7 28 (2.65%) SaaS
8 26 (2.46%) Azure DevOps
8 26 (2.46%) OneDrive
9 18 (1.70%) Azure Monitor
10 10 (0.95%) PowerApps
11 8 (0.76%) Nutanix
11 8 (0.76%) Serverless
12 7 (0.66%) Amazon S3
12 7 (0.66%) Dynamics 365
12 7 (0.66%) PaaS
12 7 (0.66%) Power Automate
12 7 (0.66%) Salesforce Service Cloud
13 6 (0.57%) GitHub
13 6 (0.57%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 74 (7.00%) Firewall
2 71 (6.72%) DNS
3 42 (3.97%) DHCP
4 34 (3.22%) VPN
5 33 (3.12%) WAN
6 30 (2.84%) LAN
7 28 (2.65%) TCP/IP
8 22 (2.08%) VLAN
9 20 (1.89%) Skype
10 19 (1.80%) Network Security
11 18 (1.70%) Cisco IOS
12 17 (1.61%) Cisco Firepower
12 17 (1.61%) Cisco ISE
12 17 (1.61%) Junos
13 15 (1.42%) BGP
14 14 (1.32%) SSH
15 13 (1.23%) Wi-Fi
16 12 (1.14%) Unified Communications
16 12 (1.14%) Wireless
17 11 (1.04%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (2.27%) Power BI
2 22 (2.08%) SQL Server
3 19 (1.80%) Relational Database
4 14 (1.32%) Amazon RDS
5 9 (0.85%) DB2
6 8 (0.76%) PostgreSQL
7 6 (0.57%) MySQL
8 5 (0.47%) Metadata
9 4 (0.38%) Amazon Aurora
9 4 (0.38%) Data Mining
9 4 (0.38%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.38%) Tableau
10 3 (0.28%) InfluxDB
10 3 (0.28%) Pentaho
11 2 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.19%) Big Data
11 2 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.19%) Looker
11 2 (0.19%) MariaDB
11 2 (0.19%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 142 (13.43%) JIRA
2 17 (1.61%) Jenkins
3 13 (1.23%) Git
4 7 (0.66%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.47%) webpack
6 4 (0.38%) GitLab
7 3 (0.28%) ScriptRunner
8 2 (0.19%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.19%) Storybook
9 1 (0.095%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.095%) MLflow
9 1 (0.095%) Selenium
9 1 (0.095%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.095%) WebDriver
9 1 (0.095%) Zephyr
General
1 419 (39.64%) Social Skills
2 191 (18.07%) Analytical Skills
3 146 (13.81%) Finance
4 132 (12.49%) Public Sector
5 42 (3.97%) Telecoms
6 37 (3.50%) Influencing Skills
6 37 (3.50%) Military
7 35 (3.31%) Legal
8 34 (3.22%) Manufacturing
9 30 (2.84%) Documentation Skills
10 28 (2.65%) Banking
11 25 (2.37%) Organisational Skills
11 25 (2.37%) Presentation Skills
12 23 (2.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 18 (1.70%) Marketing
13 18 (1.70%) Retail
14 14 (1.32%) Electronics
15 12 (1.14%) Police
16 11 (1.04%) Investment Banking
17 9 (0.85%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 162 (15.33%) Analyst
2 112 (10.60%) Architect
3 104 (9.84%) Lead
4 78 (7.38%) Service Manager
5 76 (7.19%) Support Engineer
6 53 (5.01%) Support Analyst
7 51 (4.82%) Consultant
7 51 (4.82%) IT Support
7 51 (4.82%) Service Architect
8 42 (3.97%) Senior
8 42 (3.97%) Service Analyst
9 41 (3.88%) 2nd Line Support
9 41 (3.88%) Network Engineer
10 40 (3.78%) Desktop Support
11 35 (3.31%) IT Analyst
12 31 (2.93%) Delivery Manager
12 31 (2.93%) Platform Engineer
13 30 (2.84%) Developer
14 29 (2.74%) IT Manager
14 29 (2.74%) Service Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (3.22%) REST
2 25 (2.37%) Web Services
3 23 (2.18%) SOAP
4 20 (1.89%) RFC 2544
5 14 (1.32%) .NET
6 13 (1.23%) CSS
6 13 (1.23%) HTML
7 10 (0.95%) React
7 10 (0.95%) RESTful
8 9 (0.85%) LDAP
8 9 (0.85%) XML
9 8 (0.76%) Lightning Web Components
9 8 (0.76%) XMPP
10 7 (0.66%) AngularJS
10 7 (0.66%) NETCONF
10 7 (0.66%) Node.js
10 7 (0.66%) RESTCONF
11 6 (0.57%) Elastic Stack
12 5 (0.47%) CSS3
12 5 (0.47%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 55 (5.20%) Data Centre
2 50 (4.73%) Product Ownership
3 48 (4.54%) Management Information System
4 40 (3.78%) CMDB
5 35 (3.31%) Onboarding
6 32 (3.03%) PKI
7 24 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
8 20 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
8 20 (1.89%) Virtual Team
9 14 (1.32%) Driving Licence
9 14 (1.32%) Fibre Optics
10 13 (1.23%) NHS
11 12 (1.14%) Mainframe
12 10 (0.95%) Public Cloud
12 10 (0.95%) Video Conferencing
13 9 (0.85%) Data Protection Act
13 9 (0.85%) Enterprise Software
14 8 (0.76%) Tandem
15 7 (0.66%) PMI
16 5 (0.47%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 228 (21.57%) Windows
2 72 (6.81%) Linux
3 69 (6.53%) Windows Server
4 56 (5.30%) Windows 10
5 27 (2.55%) Unix
6 14 (1.32%) Mac OS
7 13 (1.23%) Apple iOS
7 13 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 10 (0.95%) Android
9 7 (0.66%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.57%) Windows 7
11 5 (0.47%) Windows Server 2003
11 5 (0.47%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.38%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.28%) CentOS
13 3 (0.28%) VMS
14 2 (0.19%) Ubuntu
15 1 (0.095%) Mac OS X
15 1 (0.095%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 587 (55.53%) ITIL
2 462 (43.71%) ITSM
3 222 (21.00%) Problem-Solving
4 187 (17.69%) Agile
5 172 (16.27%) Change Management
6 160 (15.14%) Stakeholder Management
7 159 (15.04%) Continuous Improvement
8 150 (14.19%) Service Delivery
9 138 (13.06%) Customer Service
10 126 (11.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 118 (11.16%) Service Design
12 102 (9.65%) Project Management
13 100 (9.46%) Incident Management
14 96 (9.08%) Project Delivery
15 94 (8.89%) DevOps
16 72 (6.81%) Problem Management
17 64 (6.05%) Analytics
17 64 (6.05%) Business Intelligence
18 56 (5.30%) Configuration Management
19 52 (4.92%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 81 (7.66%) PowerShell
2 78 (7.38%) Python
2 78 (7.38%) SQL
3 34 (3.22%) JavaScript
4 20 (1.89%) Java
5 15 (1.42%) Bash
5 15 (1.42%) Perl
6 14 (1.32%) Shell Script
7 9 (0.85%) TypeScript
8 5 (0.47%) VB
8 5 (0.47%) VBScript
9 3 (0.28%) Bicep
9 3 (0.28%) C#
9 3 (0.28%) Go
10 2 (0.19%) ActionScript
10 2 (0.19%) ActionScript 2.0
10 2 (0.19%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.19%) Groovy
11 1 (0.095%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.095%) VBA
Qualifications
1 419 (39.64%) Security Cleared
2 346 (32.73%) SC Cleared
3 134 (12.68%) Degree
4 65 (6.15%) ITIL Certification
5 61 (5.77%) DV Cleared
6 46 (4.35%) Microsoft Certification
7 31 (2.93%) Cisco Certification
8 26 (2.46%) CCNP
9 24 (2.27%) BPSS Clearance
10 21 (1.99%) A+ Certification
11 20 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (1.70%) Azure Certification
13 16 (1.51%) MCSE
13 16 (1.51%) PMP
14 15 (1.42%) PMI Certification
15 14 (1.32%) CCNA
15 14 (1.32%) Server+ Certification
15 14 (1.32%) TOGAF Certification
16 13 (1.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 11 (1.04%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (5.87%) SLA
2 32 (3.03%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 25 (2.37%) GDPR
4 24 (2.27%) QA
5 16 (1.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (1.14%) PMO
7 11 (1.04%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 10 (0.95%) COBIT
9 9 (0.85%) Data Quality
10 8 (0.76%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.76%) NCSC
11 7 (0.66%) GRC
12 6 (0.57%) GxP
12 6 (0.57%) HIPAA
12 6 (0.57%) ISO 9001
13 5 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
14 3 (0.28%) NIST
15 2 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
15 2 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
16 1 (0.095%) NIST 800
System Software
1 130 (12.30%) Active Directory
2 50 (4.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (1.99%) VMware NSX
4 17 (1.61%) Hyper-V
5 13 (1.23%) Docker
5 13 (1.23%) Virtual Desktop
5 13 (1.23%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (0.57%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (0.47%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.47%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 4 (0.38%) NDS
8 4 (0.38%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 3 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.28%) vSphere
10 1 (0.095%) Btrfs
10 1 (0.095%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.095%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 29 (2.74%) Ansible
2 27 (2.55%) SCCM
3 25 (2.37%) Microsoft Intune
3 25 (2.37%) vCenter Server
4 23 (2.18%) Terraform
5 22 (2.08%) Kubernetes
6 16 (1.51%) OPNET
7 13 (1.23%) WSUS
8 11 (1.04%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 11 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (0.57%) Grafana
9 6 (0.57%) SCOM
10 5 (0.47%) Jamf Pro
10 5 (0.47%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.38%) OpenView
12 3 (0.28%) Check_MK
12 3 (0.28%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.28%) NSN NetAct
12 3 (0.28%) Progress Chef
13 2 (0.19%) Packer
Vendors
1 250 (23.65%) ServiceNow
2 225 (21.29%) Microsoft
3 109 (10.31%) Cisco
4 61 (5.77%) Oracle
4 61 (5.77%) VMware
5 53 (5.01%) Atlassian
6 49 (4.64%) Remedy
7 40 (3.78%) SAP
8 38 (3.60%) Splunk
9 32 (3.03%) SolarWinds
10 30 (2.84%) Google
11 23 (2.18%) Juniper
12 21 (1.99%) Salesforce
13 20 (1.89%) AppDynamics
13 20 (1.89%) Dynatrace
13 20 (1.89%) IBM
14 15 (1.42%) Red Hat
14 15 (1.42%) Veeam
15 14 (1.32%) Citrix
16 13 (1.23%) IFS