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

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 85 78
Rank change year-on-year -19 -7 +9
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,084 842 1,195
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.34% 2.85% 2.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.75% 3.14% 3.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 730 522 801
10th Percentile £220 £226 £270
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.19% - +5.00%
75th Percentile £613 £606 £608
90th Percentile £725 £693 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.86% - +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 33 23
10th Percentile £16.09 - £12.85
25th Percentile £16.17 £12.62 £15.46
Median hourly rate £60.00 £22.14 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +171.00% +24.94% -65.76%
75th Percentile £80.00 £30.68 £26.75
90th Percentile £99.00 £68.50 £57.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £22.14 £17.72
% change year-on-year +171.00% +24.94% -63.46%

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 39,369 26,799 37,747
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.81% 90.74% 86.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,829 17,326 24,410
10th Percentile £318 £307 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £521 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.03% -0.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £485 £500
% change year-on-year - -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,359 1,054 2,423
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.84 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.88 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £39.50 £29.90 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.11% -14.57% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65.60 £62.25 £58.70
90th Percentile £78.25 £75.00 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.56 £28.18 £35.00
% change year-on-year +47.46% -19.49% -6.17%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 -11 977 £520 -0.95% 342
UK excluding London -9 729 £510 -2.86% 331
Work from Home -5 268 £500 - 123
London -37 268 £520 -0.95% 78
South East +33 211 £510 +2.00% 93
North of England -5 175 £500 +5.26% 71
South West -12 165 £600 +8.89% 35
North West +12 102 £550 +5.26% 28
Midlands -20 96 £406 -24.42% 50
West Midlands -36 74 £406 -26.20% 33
Yorkshire -32 61 £468 +10.12% 37
East of England -12 48 £475 -13.64% 53
Scotland -30 32 £500 -1.04% 14
East Midlands -16 22 £405 +5.88% 17
North East -12 15 £420 +115.38% 6
Wales -9 3 £340 -12.26% 13
Northern Ireland - 3 £500 - 13

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 89 (8.21%) Confluence
2 47 (4.34%) Microsoft Exchange
3 34 (3.14%) SharePoint
4 9 (0.83%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.46%) Mattermost
6 3 (0.28%) IIS
6 3 (0.28%) nginx
7 2 (0.18%) Apache
8 1 (0.092%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.092%) JBoss
8 1 (0.092%) LiveCycle
8 1 (0.092%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.092%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.092%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.092%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.092%) WebSphere
Applications
1 87 (8.03%) Microsoft Office
2 40 (3.69%) Microsoft Project
3 28 (2.58%) Microsoft Excel
4 13 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.65%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.37%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.28%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.092%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 41 (3.78%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (1.11%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (1.01%) Oracle EBS
4 7 (0.65%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.092%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.092%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.092%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.092%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.092%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.092%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.092%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.092%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.092%) SAP HR
6 1 (0.092%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.092%) SAP PM
6 1 (0.092%) SAP SM
6 1 (0.092%) SystmOne
6 1 (0.092%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 150 (13.84%) Azure
2 95 (8.76%) Microsoft 365
3 83 (7.66%) AWS
4 48 (4.43%) Power Platform
5 46 (4.24%) SaaS
6 41 (3.78%) GCP
7 39 (3.60%) Entra ID
8 27 (2.49%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (1.85%) GitHub
10 18 (1.66%) PaaS
11 17 (1.57%) IaaS
12 14 (1.29%) OneDrive
13 12 (1.11%) AWS Lambda
13 12 (1.11%) OCI
13 12 (1.11%) Serverless
14 11 (1.01%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 9 (0.83%) OpenShift
16 8 (0.74%) Dynamics 365
16 8 (0.74%) Google Workspace
17 7 (0.65%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 68 (6.27%) Firewall
2 56 (5.17%) DNS
3 40 (3.69%) VPN
3 40 (3.69%) WAN
4 38 (3.51%) LAN
5 33 (3.04%) Network Security
6 30 (2.77%) DHCP
7 23 (2.12%) TCP/IP
8 20 (1.85%) VLAN
9 19 (1.75%) BGP
10 16 (1.48%) Wi-Fi
11 13 (1.20%) OSPF
11 13 (1.20%) SD-WAN
12 12 (1.11%) BIG-IP
12 12 (1.11%) Cisco ISE
13 11 (1.01%) Skype
13 11 (1.01%) WebEx
13 11 (1.01%) Wireless
14 9 (0.83%) Junos
15 8 (0.74%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (3.51%) Power BI
2 13 (1.20%) SQL Server
3 7 (0.65%) Relational Database
4 6 (0.55%) Oracle Reports
4 6 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (0.46%) Oracle Database
6 4 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.37%) InfluxDB
6 4 (0.37%) Oracle Database 11g
7 3 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 3 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (0.28%) Tableau
8 2 (0.18%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.18%) GIS
8 2 (0.18%) Metadata
8 2 (0.18%) MySQL
8 2 (0.18%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 1 (0.092%) OpenStack Swift
Development Applications
1 151 (13.93%) JIRA
2 18 (1.66%) Jenkins
3 17 (1.57%) GitLab
4 15 (1.38%) Bitbucket
4 15 (1.38%) Git
5 7 (0.65%) ScriptRunner
6 6 (0.55%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 4 (0.37%) MLflow
8 3 (0.28%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.28%) Hudson
8 3 (0.28%) IntelliJ
8 3 (0.28%) Selenium
8 3 (0.28%) TestRail
9 2 (0.18%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.18%) Fiddler
10 1 (0.092%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.092%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.092%) Protractor
10 1 (0.092%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.092%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 385 (35.52%) Social Skills
2 164 (15.13%) Analytical Skills
3 163 (15.04%) Finance
4 115 (10.61%) Public Sector
5 65 (6.00%) Legal
6 46 (4.24%) Military
7 36 (3.32%) Banking
8 32 (2.95%) Organisational Skills
9 30 (2.77%) Documentation Skills
10 26 (2.40%) Telecoms
11 25 (2.31%) Influencing Skills
12 21 (1.94%) Retail
13 13 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 12 (1.11%) Aerospace
15 8 (0.74%) Front Office
15 8 (0.74%) Investment Banking
15 8 (0.74%) Local Government
15 8 (0.74%) Manufacturing
15 8 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
16 7 (0.65%) Police
Job Titles
1 131 (12.08%) Analyst
2 125 (11.53%) Architect
3 111 (10.24%) Lead
4 109 (10.06%) Service Manager
5 78 (7.20%) Senior
6 64 (5.90%) Consultant
7 59 (5.44%) IT Manager
7 59 (5.44%) Service Architect
8 52 (4.80%) Service Analyst
9 41 (3.78%) Project Manager
10 36 (3.32%) Hardware Engineer
10 36 (3.32%) IT Analyst
11 34 (3.14%) Delivery Manager
12 31 (2.86%) Administrator
13 30 (2.77%) Support Engineer
14 29 (2.68%) IT Services Manager
15 28 (2.58%) IT Support
16 27 (2.49%) Developer
17 26 (2.40%) Service Delivery Manager
18 25 (2.31%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (4.15%) REST
2 21 (1.94%) SOAP
3 11 (1.01%) XMPP
4 9 (0.83%) 802.1X
4 9 (0.83%) Middleware
5 7 (0.65%) Oracle Fusion
6 6 (0.55%) CSS
6 6 (0.55%) Elastic Stack
6 6 (0.55%) HTML
6 6 (0.55%) JSON
6 6 (0.55%) OAuth
7 5 (0.46%) .NET
7 5 (0.46%) Lightning Web Components
8 4 (0.37%) AngularJS
8 4 (0.37%) LDAP
8 4 (0.37%) Microsoft Graph
8 4 (0.37%) RabbitMQ
8 4 (0.37%) Web Services
8 4 (0.37%) XML
9 3 (0.28%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 97 (8.95%) Product Ownership
2 69 (6.37%) Onboarding
3 68 (6.27%) CMDB
4 44 (4.06%) Data Centre
5 32 (2.95%) Management Information System
6 25 (2.31%) Virtual Team
7 23 (2.12%) PKI
8 20 (1.85%) Driving Licence
9 18 (1.66%) Clustering
10 15 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
10 15 (1.38%) PMI
11 13 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
11 13 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
12 10 (0.92%) Cloud Native
12 10 (0.92%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (0.83%) Operational Technology
14 8 (0.74%) Replication
15 7 (0.65%) Algorithms
15 7 (0.65%) Hybrid Cloud
15 7 (0.65%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 186 (17.16%) Windows
2 69 (6.37%) Linux
3 56 (5.17%) Windows Server
4 44 (4.06%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (1.20%) Unix
7 12 (1.11%) Mac OS
8 11 (1.01%) Windows 7
9 8 (0.74%) Android
9 8 (0.74%) Apple iOS
10 7 (0.65%) Ubuntu
11 6 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.37%) VMS
13 3 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
14 2 (0.18%) CentOS
14 2 (0.18%) Solaris
14 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
14 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.092%) Windows Server 2008
15 1 (0.092%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 595 (54.89%) ITIL
2 465 (42.90%) ITSM
3 234 (21.59%) Agile
4 226 (20.85%) Continuous Improvement
5 220 (20.30%) Stakeholder Management
6 210 (19.37%) Problem-Solving
7 177 (16.33%) Service Delivery
8 151 (13.93%) Change Management
9 150 (13.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 127 (11.72%) DevOps
11 108 (9.96%) Customer Service
12 103 (9.50%) Service Design
13 85 (7.84%) Problem Management
14 83 (7.66%) Incident Management
15 78 (7.20%) Acceptance Criteria
16 77 (7.10%) Project Management
17 76 (7.01%) Roadmaps
18 75 (6.92%) Configuration Management
19 70 (6.46%) Knowledge Transfer
20 69 (6.37%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 89 (8.21%) PowerShell
2 52 (4.80%) Python
3 50 (4.61%) SQL
4 32 (2.95%) JavaScript
5 22 (2.03%) Bash
6 16 (1.48%) Java
7 9 (0.83%) Perl
7 9 (0.83%) PL/SQL
7 9 (0.83%) VB
7 9 (0.83%) VBScript
8 6 (0.55%) Apex Code
8 6 (0.55%) Kotlin
9 5 (0.46%) C#
9 5 (0.46%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.37%) Go
10 4 (0.37%) Groovy
11 3 (0.28%) Bicep
11 3 (0.28%) C
11 3 (0.28%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.18%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 454 (41.88%) Security Cleared
2 352 (32.47%) SC Cleared
3 129 (11.90%) Degree
4 121 (11.16%) DV Cleared
5 51 (4.70%) ITIL Certification
6 34 (3.14%) PMI Certification
7 32 (2.95%) PMP
8 30 (2.77%) TOGAF Certification
9 27 (2.49%) Cisco Certification
10 22 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
10 22 (2.03%) Microsoft Certification
11 20 (1.85%) Computer Science Degree
12 16 (1.48%) CCNP
13 15 (1.38%) CCNA
14 13 (1.20%) A+ Certification
15 11 (1.01%) Master's Degree
16 10 (0.92%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 9 (0.83%) JNCIA
17 9 (0.83%) JNCIS
17 9 (0.83%) MAPM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (5.17%) SLA
2 32 (2.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 31 (2.86%) Data Quality
4 22 (2.03%) PMO
5 21 (1.94%) QA
6 20 (1.85%) GDPR
7 16 (1.48%) GRC
7 16 (1.48%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 15 (1.38%) COBIT
9 13 (1.20%) NCSC
10 9 (0.83%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.83%) NIST
11 7 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
11 7 (0.65%) Government Security Classifications
12 6 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
12 6 (0.55%) ISO 31000
12 6 (0.55%) ISO 9001
12 6 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 6 (0.55%) PCI DSS
12 6 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 110 (10.15%) Active Directory
2 35 (3.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (1.57%) Docker
4 9 (0.83%) BitLocker
5 6 (0.55%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.37%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.28%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.18%) IAG
8 2 (0.18%) NFS
8 2 (0.18%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.092%) iptables
9 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.092%) Samba
9 1 (0.092%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 34 (3.14%) SCCM
2 30 (2.77%) OPNET
3 29 (2.68%) Ansible
3 29 (2.68%) Terraform
4 24 (2.21%) Kubernetes
5 23 (2.12%) Microsoft Intune
6 12 (1.11%) FortiGate
7 11 (1.01%) Grafana
7 11 (1.01%) WSUS
8 8 (0.74%) Jamf Pro
8 8 (0.74%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.65%) Progress Chef
10 6 (0.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.46%) Puppet
11 5 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (0.37%) Data Guard
12 4 (0.37%) Nessus
12 4 (0.37%) Oracle RMAN
12 4 (0.37%) Packer
12 4 (0.37%) SCOM
Vendors
1 281 (25.92%) ServiceNow
2 172 (15.87%) Microsoft
3 77 (7.10%) Remedy
4 67 (6.18%) Atlassian
5 54 (4.98%) VMware
6 52 (4.80%) Cisco
7 46 (4.24%) Oracle
8 39 (3.60%) HP
9 29 (2.68%) Google
10 25 (2.31%) SAP
10 25 (2.31%) Splunk
11 23 (2.12%) Citrix
12 20 (1.85%) IFS
13 19 (1.75%) Dell
13 19 (1.75%) Red Hat
14 18 (1.66%) Salesforce
15 17 (1.57%) BMC
16 16 (1.48%) SolarWinds
17 15 (1.38%) Canon
18 13 (1.20%) F5