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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 106 83 80
Rank change year-on-year -23 -3 +10
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,041 868 1,169
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.37% 2.96% 2.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.76% 3.27% 3.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 712 554 783
10th Percentile £210 £222 £280
25th Percentile £365 £405 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -1.87% +7.00%
75th Percentile £609 £616 £608
90th Percentile £725 £700 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% +12.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 36 20
10th Percentile £15.50 £12.62 £12.53
25th Percentile £16.17 £21.05 £16.27
Median hourly rate £27.50 £25.34 £18.36
Median % change year-on-year +8.52% +38.02% -43.51%
75th Percentile £74.26 £32.72 £26.63
90th Percentile £85.53 £68.13 £56.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £24.18 £17.72
% change year-on-year +13.73% +36.46% -57.58%

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 37,710 26,528 38,308
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.02% 90.44% 86.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,926 17,086 24,905
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -1.28% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,216 926 2,329
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.25 £12.98
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £30.32 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.71% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.51 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.72 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.50 £31.76 £31.25
% change year-on-year -10.26% +1.63% -10.71%

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 21 March 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 21 March 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 21 March 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 -20 957 £511 -3.31% 364
UK excluding London -7 709 £500 -4.76% 318
London -56 256 £520 -0.95% 82
Work from Home -26 242 £491 -6.48% 149
South East +29 210 £510 +9.57% 117
North of England -7 169 £500 +9.29% 76
South West -9 163 £575 +2.22% 32
Midlands -20 100 £420 -25.86% 49
North West +1 97 £550 +10.00% 42
West Midlands -37 75 £420 -26.41% 32
Yorkshire -19 63 £468 +102.16% 28
East of England -8 47 £454 -17.45% 40
East Midlands -12 25 £419 -9.95% 17
Scotland -41 21 £500 - 11
North East -12 12 £280 +43.59% 7
Wales -9 2 £245 -46.30% 5
Northern Ireland - 1 £500 - 2

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 93 (8.93%) Confluence
2 48 (4.61%) Microsoft Exchange
3 43 (4.13%) SharePoint
4 10 (0.96%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.48%) Mattermost
6 3 (0.29%) IIS
6 3 (0.29%) nginx
6 3 (0.29%) SharePoint Server
7 2 (0.19%) Apache
7 2 (0.19%) JBoss
8 1 (0.096%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.096%) LiveCycle
8 1 (0.096%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.096%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 1 (0.096%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.096%) WebSphere
Applications
1 85 (8.17%) Microsoft Office
2 38 (3.65%) Microsoft Project
3 28 (2.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.38%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.19%) Autodesk Inventor
8 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.096%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 34 (3.27%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (1.25%) Oracle EBS
2 13 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.67%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.19%) Oracle Applications
4 2 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.096%) assyst
5 1 (0.096%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.096%) Dynamics NAV
5 1 (0.096%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.096%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.096%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.096%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.096%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.096%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.096%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.096%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.096%) SAP SM
5 1 (0.096%) SystmOne
5 1 (0.096%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 165 (15.85%) Azure
2 97 (9.32%) Microsoft 365
3 90 (8.65%) AWS
4 50 (4.80%) GCP
5 43 (4.13%) Entra ID
6 42 (4.03%) Power Platform
7 39 (3.75%) SaaS
8 30 (2.88%) Azure DevOps
9 18 (1.73%) OneDrive
10 17 (1.63%) GitHub
10 17 (1.63%) PaaS
11 15 (1.44%) IaaS
12 12 (1.15%) Serverless
13 11 (1.06%) AWS Lambda
14 9 (0.86%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 8 (0.77%) Dynamics 365
15 8 (0.77%) OCI
15 8 (0.77%) OpenShift
16 7 (0.67%) Google Workspace
16 7 (0.67%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 67 (6.44%) Firewall
2 62 (5.96%) DNS
3 38 (3.65%) WAN
4 37 (3.55%) LAN
4 37 (3.55%) VPN
5 33 (3.17%) DHCP
6 28 (2.69%) Network Security
7 22 (2.11%) TCP/IP
8 20 (1.92%) VLAN
9 19 (1.83%) BGP
10 18 (1.73%) Cisco ISE
11 16 (1.54%) Junos
11 16 (1.54%) Skype
12 15 (1.44%) Wi-Fi
13 13 (1.25%) OSPF
14 12 (1.15%) BIG-IP
14 12 (1.15%) SD-WAN
15 11 (1.06%) Cisco Firepower
15 11 (1.06%) WebEx
16 9 (0.86%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (3.07%) Power BI
2 13 (1.25%) SQL Server
3 9 (0.86%) Relational Database
4 6 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (0.48%) Metadata
6 4 (0.38%) Amazon RDS
6 4 (0.38%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.38%) InfluxDB
7 3 (0.29%) Tableau
8 2 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.19%) Big Data
8 2 (0.19%) GIS
8 2 (0.19%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.096%) Amazon Redshift
9 1 (0.096%) KNIME
9 1 (0.096%) MySQL
9 1 (0.096%) OpenStack Swift
9 1 (0.096%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.096%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 145 (13.93%) JIRA
2 19 (1.83%) Jenkins
3 16 (1.54%) Bitbucket
3 16 (1.54%) Git
3 16 (1.54%) GitLab
4 6 (0.58%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 4 (0.38%) MLflow
5 4 (0.38%) ScriptRunner
6 3 (0.29%) Selenium
6 3 (0.29%) TestRail
7 2 (0.19%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.19%) IntelliJ
8 1 (0.096%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.096%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.096%) Hudson
8 1 (0.096%) JMeter
8 1 (0.096%) Protractor
8 1 (0.096%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.096%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.096%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 379 (36.41%) Social Skills
2 160 (15.37%) Analytical Skills
3 142 (13.64%) Finance
4 121 (11.62%) Public Sector
5 58 (5.57%) Legal
6 47 (4.51%) Military
7 34 (3.27%) Banking
8 32 (3.07%) Documentation Skills
8 32 (3.07%) Organisational Skills
9 31 (2.98%) Influencing Skills
10 22 (2.11%) Retail
11 18 (1.73%) Telecoms
12 11 (1.06%) Aerospace
12 11 (1.06%) Manufacturing
13 10 (0.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 8 (0.77%) Investment Banking
14 8 (0.77%) Law
14 8 (0.77%) Local Government
15 7 (0.67%) Front Office
16 6 (0.58%) Police
Job Titles
1 133 (12.78%) Analyst
2 123 (11.82%) Lead
3 118 (11.34%) Architect
4 98 (9.41%) Service Manager
5 66 (6.34%) Senior
6 64 (6.15%) Consultant
7 56 (5.38%) Service Architect
8 53 (5.09%) Service Analyst
9 40 (3.84%) IT Manager
10 37 (3.55%) Support Engineer
11 36 (3.46%) Hardware Engineer
12 35 (3.36%) IT Support
13 32 (3.07%) Delivery Manager
14 31 (2.98%) IT Analyst
15 29 (2.79%) Project Manager
16 28 (2.69%) Network Engineer
17 27 (2.59%) Service Delivery Manager
18 26 (2.50%) Administrator
19 25 (2.40%) Platform Engineer
20 24 (2.31%) Field Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (4.13%) REST
2 16 (1.54%) SOAP
3 11 (1.06%) XMPP
4 9 (0.86%) 802.1X
5 8 (0.77%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.67%) Middleware
6 7 (0.67%) Web Services
7 6 (0.58%) LDAP
8 5 (0.48%) .NET
8 5 (0.48%) Oracle Fusion
9 4 (0.38%) ARM Templates
9 4 (0.38%) JSON
9 4 (0.38%) RabbitMQ
10 3 (0.29%) CSS
10 3 (0.29%) Lightning Web Components
10 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Graph
10 3 (0.29%) OAuth
11 2 (0.19%) EDI
11 2 (0.19%) RFC 2544
11 2 (0.19%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 98 (9.41%) Product Ownership
2 67 (6.44%) CMDB
3 55 (5.28%) Onboarding
4 41 (3.94%) Data Centre
5 36 (3.46%) Management Information System
6 30 (2.88%) Virtual Team
7 25 (2.40%) PKI
8 20 (1.92%) Driving Licence
9 15 (1.44%) Analytical Mindset
9 15 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (1.34%) PMI
11 13 (1.25%) Data Protection Act
12 11 (1.06%) Clustering
12 11 (1.06%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (0.77%) Hybrid Cloud
14 7 (0.67%) Algorithms
14 7 (0.67%) Cloud Native
14 7 (0.67%) NHS
14 7 (0.67%) Replication
15 6 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 200 (19.21%) Windows
2 64 (6.15%) Linux
3 58 (5.57%) Windows Server
4 46 (4.42%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (1.06%) Mac OS
6 11 (1.06%) Windows 7
7 10 (0.96%) Android
8 8 (0.77%) Apple iOS
8 8 (0.77%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (0.67%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.67%) Unix
10 5 (0.48%) VMS
11 4 (0.38%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.29%) CentOS
12 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.096%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.096%) Rocky
13 1 (0.096%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 585 (56.20%) ITIL
2 450 (43.23%) ITSM
3 234 (22.48%) Agile
4 212 (20.37%) Problem-Solving
5 211 (20.27%) Continuous Improvement
6 191 (18.35%) Stakeholder Management
7 163 (15.66%) Service Delivery
8 157 (15.08%) Change Management
9 146 (14.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 120 (11.53%) DevOps
11 104 (9.99%) Customer Service
12 102 (9.80%) Service Design
13 88 (8.45%) Problem Management
14 86 (8.26%) Incident Management
15 79 (7.59%) Configuration Management
16 78 (7.49%) Project Management
17 75 (7.20%) Acceptance Criteria
18 70 (6.72%) Knowledge Transfer
19 64 (6.15%) Migration
19 64 (6.15%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 92 (8.84%) PowerShell
2 58 (5.57%) Python
3 46 (4.42%) SQL
4 23 (2.21%) JavaScript
5 19 (1.83%) Bash
6 18 (1.73%) Java
7 10 (0.96%) Perl
8 9 (0.86%) VB
8 9 (0.86%) VBScript
9 8 (0.77%) Shell Script
10 6 (0.58%) Kotlin
11 5 (0.48%) C#
11 5 (0.48%) PL/SQL
12 4 (0.38%) Go
13 2 (0.19%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.19%) Bicep
13 2 (0.19%) PHP
14 1 (0.096%) C
14 1 (0.096%) Groovy
14 1 (0.096%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 441 (42.36%) Security Cleared
2 332 (31.89%) SC Cleared
3 132 (12.68%) Degree
4 128 (12.30%) DV Cleared
5 50 (4.80%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (2.88%) TOGAF Certification
7 28 (2.69%) PMI Certification
8 25 (2.40%) Microsoft Certification
8 25 (2.40%) PMP
9 24 (2.31%) BPSS Clearance
10 23 (2.21%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
12 14 (1.34%) CCNP
13 13 (1.25%) A+ Certification
14 12 (1.15%) CCNA
14 12 (1.15%) MCSE
15 9 (0.86%) JNCIA
15 9 (0.86%) JNCIP
15 9 (0.86%) JNCIS
15 9 (0.86%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (4.71%) SLA
2 31 (2.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 29 (2.79%) Data Quality
4 23 (2.21%) GDPR
5 22 (2.11%) QA
6 18 (1.73%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 17 (1.63%) PMO
8 11 (1.06%) Accessibility
8 11 (1.06%) NCSC
9 10 (0.96%) COBIT
10 9 (0.86%) NIST
11 8 (0.77%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.67%) Government Security Classifications
12 7 (0.67%) GRC
13 6 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.58%) PCI DSS
14 4 (0.38%) ISO 9001
15 3 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
15 3 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
16 2 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 118 (11.34%) Active Directory
2 37 (3.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (1.73%) Docker
4 12 (1.15%) VMware NSX
5 9 (0.86%) BitLocker
6 7 (0.67%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 2 (0.19%) NDS
9 2 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 2 (0.19%) NFS
9 2 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.096%) iptables
10 1 (0.096%) Samba
10 1 (0.096%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 39 (3.75%) SCCM
2 30 (2.88%) OPNET
3 29 (2.79%) Microsoft Intune
4 28 (2.69%) Ansible
5 27 (2.59%) Terraform
6 25 (2.40%) Kubernetes
7 14 (1.34%) WSUS
8 12 (1.15%) FortiGate
8 12 (1.15%) vCenter Server
9 10 (0.96%) Grafana
10 8 (0.77%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 8 (0.77%) Jamf Pro
11 7 (0.67%) Progress Chef
11 7 (0.67%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.48%) Puppet
12 5 (0.48%) SCOM
12 5 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
13 4 (0.38%) Nessus
13 4 (0.38%) Packer
14 3 (0.29%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 261 (25.07%) ServiceNow
2 164 (15.75%) Microsoft
3 72 (6.92%) Atlassian
4 70 (6.72%) Remedy
5 57 (5.48%) Cisco
6 56 (5.38%) VMware
7 39 (3.75%) HP
7 39 (3.75%) Oracle
8 38 (3.65%) Google
9 28 (2.69%) SAP
10 25 (2.40%) SolarWinds
10 25 (2.40%) Splunk
11 21 (2.02%) Citrix
12 18 (1.73%) Dell
12 18 (1.73%) Juniper
12 18 (1.73%) Red Hat
12 18 (1.73%) Salesforce
13 15 (1.44%) Canon
14 14 (1.34%) IFS
15 13 (1.25%) F5