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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 104 80
Rank change year-on-year +5 -24 +14
Contract jobs citing Service Management 974 794 1,170
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.53% 2.52% 2.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.90% 2.83% 3.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 675 475 813
10th Percentile £200 £220 £270
25th Percentile £325 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £528
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.47% +5.50%
75th Percentile £594 £623 £608
90th Percentile £715 £700 £715
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% +12.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 22 15
10th Percentile £13.25 £21.05 £12.53
25th Percentile £16.86 £24.57 £15.46
Median hourly rate £26.21 £30.20 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -13.23% +70.43% -29.12%
75th Percentile £60.00 £36.19 £51.88
90th Percentile £74.26 £68.63 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.30 £30.40 £16.94
% change year-on-year -13.49% +79.51% -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 33,625 28,045 38,284
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.37% 89.09% 87.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,290 17,011 25,209
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 £640
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £499 £500
% change year-on-year -3.86% -0.15% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,022 880 1,958
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £13.50
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £16.85
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.96
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -9.62% +10.65%
75th Percentile £58.00 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.71 £30.45 £37.18
% change year-on-year -18.85% -18.10% +39.38%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -2 884 £500 -4.76% 287
UK excluding London 0 667 £500 -3.85% 266
Work from Home -3 232 £460 -13.41% 134
London -55 229 £500 -4.76% 71
South East +24 168 £450 - 93
North of England -7 166 £500 +17.65% 67
South West -1 152 £575 +0.88% 27
Midlands -11 107 £425 -26.72% 40
North West +6 94 £550 +29.41% 33
West Midlands -10 79 £475 -18.10% 24
Yorkshire -20 58 £476 +105.72% 26
East of England 0 45 £330 -40.00% 26
Scotland -11 29 £493 -0.50% 9
East Midlands -4 28 £411 -14.77% 16
North East -8 17 £280 -53.04% 8
Northern Ireland - 4 £325 - 3
Wales -7 2 £165 -48.02% 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 76 (7.80%) Confluence
2 70 (7.19%) Microsoft Exchange
3 59 (6.06%) SharePoint
4 14 (1.44%) Skype for Business
5 7 (0.72%) Apache
5 7 (0.72%) WebLogic
6 5 (0.51%) SharePoint Server
7 3 (0.31%) nginx
8 2 (0.21%) JBoss
9 1 (0.10%) CMS
9 1 (0.10%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.10%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.10%) WebSphere
Applications
1 97 (9.96%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (3.59%) Microsoft Project
3 28 (2.87%) Microsoft Excel
4 12 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.62%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.41%) Autodesk Inventor
7 3 (0.31%) PTC Creo
8 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 24 (2.46%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (1.33%) Oracle EBS
3 10 (1.03%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.41%) Teamcenter
5 3 (0.31%) assyst
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.10%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.10%) NetSuite
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
1 164 (16.84%) Azure
2 109 (11.19%) Microsoft 365
3 98 (10.06%) AWS
4 43 (4.41%) GCP
5 42 (4.31%) Entra ID
6 27 (2.77%) OneDrive
6 27 (2.77%) Power Platform
6 27 (2.77%) SaaS
7 21 (2.16%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (1.13%) Azure Monitor
8 11 (1.13%) IaaS
9 10 (1.03%) GitHub
9 10 (1.03%) PowerApps
10 9 (0.92%) Dynamics 365
10 9 (0.92%) PaaS
11 7 (0.72%) Nutanix
11 7 (0.72%) OpenShift
11 7 (0.72%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 6 (0.62%) Serverless
12 6 (0.62%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 62 (6.37%) DNS
2 50 (5.13%) Firewall
3 38 (3.90%) DHCP
4 28 (2.87%) VPN
5 25 (2.57%) TCP/IP
5 25 (2.57%) VLAN
6 24 (2.46%) Skype
7 22 (2.26%) LAN
7 22 (2.26%) WAN
8 18 (1.85%) Cisco IOS
8 18 (1.85%) Network Security
9 17 (1.75%) Cisco Firepower
9 17 (1.75%) Cisco ISE
9 17 (1.75%) Junos
9 17 (1.75%) Wi-Fi
10 12 (1.23%) SSH
11 10 (1.03%) HTTP
12 8 (0.82%) WebEx
13 6 (0.62%) BGP
13 6 (0.62%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (1.64%) Power BI
2 14 (1.44%) Relational Database
3 13 (1.33%) SQL Server
4 7 (0.72%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
6 5 (0.51%) Metadata
7 4 (0.41%) InfluxDB
7 4 (0.41%) Tableau
8 3 (0.31%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.21%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.21%) Big Data
9 2 (0.21%) Data Mining
9 2 (0.21%) GIS
9 2 (0.21%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.10%) BusinessObjects
10 1 (0.10%) Oracle Discoverer
10 1 (0.10%) RDBMS
10 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 124 (12.73%) JIRA
2 15 (1.54%) Jenkins
3 12 (1.23%) Git
4 10 (1.03%) GitLab
5 8 (0.82%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.41%) ScriptRunner
7 2 (0.21%) TestRail
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
8 1 (0.10%) webpack
General
1 400 (41.07%) Social Skills
2 170 (17.45%) Analytical Skills
3 145 (14.89%) Finance
4 132 (13.55%) Public Sector
5 47 (4.83%) Legal
6 44 (4.52%) Military
7 35 (3.59%) Organisational Skills
8 34 (3.49%) Telecoms
9 33 (3.39%) Banking
9 33 (3.39%) Documentation Skills
10 32 (3.29%) Influencing Skills
11 27 (2.77%) Manufacturing
12 25 (2.57%) Retail
13 11 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 10 (1.03%) Electronics
14 10 (1.03%) Investment Banking
14 10 (1.03%) Marketing
14 10 (1.03%) Presentation Skills
15 7 (0.72%) Law
16 5 (0.51%) International Banking
Job Titles
1 137 (14.07%) Analyst
2 114 (11.70%) Lead
3 108 (11.09%) Architect
4 76 (7.80%) Service Manager
5 63 (6.47%) Support Engineer
6 49 (5.03%) Consultant
7 48 (4.93%) Service Architect
8 46 (4.72%) IT Support
9 45 (4.62%) Service Analyst
10 36 (3.70%) Support Analyst
11 32 (3.29%) 2nd Line Support
11 32 (3.29%) Senior
12 30 (3.08%) Desktop Support
12 30 (3.08%) Hardware Engineer
13 29 (2.98%) IT Analyst
14 27 (2.77%) Business Analyst
15 25 (2.57%) IT Manager
16 24 (2.46%) Network Engineer
17 23 (2.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 23 (2.36%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (3.70%) REST
2 17 (1.75%) SOAP
3 10 (1.03%) LDAP
4 8 (0.82%) Elastic Stack
4 8 (0.82%) Web Services
4 8 (0.82%) XMPP
5 6 (0.62%) .NET
5 6 (0.62%) RFC 2544
6 4 (0.41%) ARM Templates
6 4 (0.41%) CSS
6 4 (0.41%) RabbitMQ
7 3 (0.31%) AngularJS
7 3 (0.31%) EDI
7 3 (0.31%) HTML
7 3 (0.31%) Middleware
7 3 (0.31%) React
8 2 (0.21%) JSON
8 2 (0.21%) Spring Boot
8 2 (0.21%) Vue
8 2 (0.21%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 70 (7.19%) Product Ownership
2 54 (5.54%) CMDB
3 41 (4.21%) Onboarding
4 38 (3.90%) Management Information System
5 34 (3.49%) Data Centre
6 24 (2.46%) Analytical Mindset
6 24 (2.46%) PKI
7 21 (2.16%) Virtual Team
8 20 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
9 19 (1.95%) Driving Licence
10 13 (1.33%) PMI
11 10 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (1.03%) NHS
12 9 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
13 8 (0.82%) Mainframe
14 7 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
14 7 (0.72%) Smartphone
15 6 (0.62%) Fibre Optics
15 6 (0.62%) Tandem
16 5 (0.51%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 234 (24.02%) Windows
2 75 (7.70%) Linux
3 67 (6.88%) Windows 10
4 64 (6.57%) Windows Server
5 15 (1.54%) Unix
6 14 (1.44%) Mac OS
7 13 (1.33%) Android
7 13 (1.33%) Apple iOS
7 13 (1.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 10 (1.03%) Windows 7
9 8 (0.82%) Windows Server 2012
10 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.41%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2003
12 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2008
13 3 (0.31%) CentOS
14 1 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.10%) VMS
14 1 (0.10%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 545 (55.95%) ITIL
2 425 (43.63%) ITSM
3 209 (21.46%) Problem-Solving
4 178 (18.28%) Continuous Improvement
5 177 (18.17%) Agile
6 161 (16.53%) Stakeholder Management
7 157 (16.12%) Change Management
8 141 (14.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 136 (13.96%) Service Delivery
10 121 (12.42%) Customer Service
11 102 (10.47%) Service Design
12 100 (10.27%) Project Management
13 84 (8.62%) Incident Management
14 82 (8.42%) DevOps
15 80 (8.21%) Problem Management
16 70 (7.19%) Knowledge Transfer
17 62 (6.37%) Project Delivery
18 60 (6.16%) Configuration Management
19 59 (6.06%) Critical Thinking
20 58 (5.95%) Business Continuity
Programming Languages
1 90 (9.24%) PowerShell
2 59 (6.06%) Python
3 52 (5.34%) SQL
4 19 (1.95%) JavaScript
5 16 (1.64%) Java
6 15 (1.54%) Perl
6 15 (1.54%) Shell Script
7 14 (1.44%) Bash
8 9 (0.92%) VB
8 9 (0.92%) VBScript
9 4 (0.41%) Go
10 2 (0.21%) ActionScript
10 2 (0.21%) ActionScript 2.0
10 2 (0.21%) Bicep
10 2 (0.21%) C#
10 2 (0.21%) PHP
10 2 (0.21%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.10%) C
11 1 (0.10%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.10%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 387 (39.73%) Security Cleared
2 305 (31.31%) SC Cleared
3 128 (13.14%) Degree
4 88 (9.03%) DV Cleared
5 49 (5.03%) ITIL Certification
6 37 (3.80%) Microsoft Certification
7 30 (3.08%) TOGAF Certification
8 25 (2.57%) BPSS Clearance
9 21 (2.16%) PMI Certification
10 19 (1.95%) A+ Certification
10 19 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (1.75%) Azure Certification
11 17 (1.75%) PMP
12 16 (1.64%) MCSE
13 14 (1.44%) Network+ Certification
14 13 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
15 12 (1.23%) CCNP
16 11 (1.13%) CCNA
16 11 (1.13%) Server+ Certification
17 9 (0.92%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (4.83%) SLA
2 20 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (1.85%) GDPR
4 17 (1.75%) Data Quality
4 17 (1.75%) QA
5 12 (1.23%) PMO
6 9 (0.92%) Accessibility
6 9 (0.92%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 9 (0.92%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 7 (0.72%) NIST
8 6 (0.62%) COBIT
8 6 (0.62%) GRC
9 5 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
10 4 (0.41%) HIPAA
10 4 (0.41%) ISO 9001
10 4 (0.41%) NCSC
11 3 (0.31%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 3 (0.31%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.21%) GxP
System Software
1 132 (13.55%) Active Directory
2 44 (4.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.16%) VMware NSX
4 17 (1.75%) Docker
5 15 (1.54%) Hyper-V
6 11 (1.13%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.92%) BitLocker
8 7 (0.72%) Virtual Servers
9 6 (0.62%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 4 (0.41%) NDS
10 4 (0.41%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 3 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
13 1 (0.10%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 38 (3.90%) SCCM
2 32 (3.29%) OPNET
3 26 (2.67%) Ansible
3 26 (2.67%) Microsoft Intune
4 24 (2.46%) Kubernetes
4 24 (2.46%) Terraform
4 24 (2.46%) vCenter Server
5 17 (1.75%) WSUS
6 12 (1.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 9 (0.92%) Jamf Pro
8 8 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (0.72%) Grafana
10 6 (0.62%) Prometheus
10 6 (0.62%) SCOM
11 4 (0.41%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.41%) Nessus
11 4 (0.41%) Packer
11 4 (0.41%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.21%) Docker Swarm
12 2 (0.21%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 247 (25.36%) ServiceNow
2 180 (18.48%) Microsoft
3 62 (6.37%) Atlassian
3 62 (6.37%) Cisco
3 62 (6.37%) Remedy
4 57 (5.85%) VMware
5 44 (4.52%) Oracle
6 36 (3.70%) Google
7 33 (3.39%) HP
7 33 (3.39%) SolarWinds
8 31 (3.18%) SAP
9 28 (2.87%) Splunk
10 19 (1.95%) Juniper
11 18 (1.85%) Salesforce
12 15 (1.54%) Citrix
12 15 (1.54%) Dynatrace
13 14 (1.44%) Red Hat
14 13 (1.33%) AppDynamics
14 13 (1.33%) Veeam
15 12 (1.23%) Dell