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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 91 94
Rank change year-on-year +6 +3 -11
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,729 960 894
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.13% 2.89% 2.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.69% 3.20% 2.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,124 590 562
10th Percentile £263 £188 £213
25th Percentile £434 £327 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £492 £515
Median % change year-on-year +6.71% -4.47% -2.42%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £603
90th Percentile £730 £649 £687
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £486 £500
% change year-on-year +7.97% -2.80% -2.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 90 16
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £22.61
25th Percentile £15.26 £15.44 £25.36
Median hourly rate £35.53 £20.81 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.74% -42.19% -19.33%
75th Percentile £83.75 £33.75 £48.75
90th Percentile £92.00 £60.00 £51.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £20.77 £40.50
% change year-on-year +34.81% -48.72% +84.89%

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 46,826 30,024 32,246
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.73% 90.50% 86.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,144 18,679 19,408
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £737 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,407 1,886 1,245
10th Percentile £13.64 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.72 £65.07 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £40.33
% change year-on-year +68.43% -44.79% -8.14%

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 14 October 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 14 October 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 14 October 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 +5 1,492 £525 +5.00% 1,226
UK excluding London -1 1,004 £525 +7.97% 781
London +40 531 £525 +5.00% 483
Work from Home +5 461 £525 +10.53% 571
South East +9 319 £575 +27.78% 230
North of England -11 288 £480 +7.38% 179
North West -9 169 £483 +7.33% 96
Midlands -30 128 £525 +2.94% 106
West Midlands -14 119 £525 +0.96% 61
Yorkshire -1 113 £463 +26.71% 71
Scotland +21 103 £566 +21.39% 64
South West -31 103 £558 +1.36% 94
East of England +8 72 £600 +11.01% 90
Wales -8 13 £800 +247.83% 11
East Midlands -33 9 £206 -52.09% 43
Northern Ireland +9 7 - - 17
North East -44 6 £600 +207.69% 12

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
1 131 (7.58%) SharePoint
2 67 (3.88%) Microsoft Exchange
3 64 (3.70%) Confluence
4 15 (0.87%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.29%) CMS
5 5 (0.29%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.23%) Apache
6 4 (0.23%) IBM Transformation Extender
6 4 (0.23%) IIS
7 3 (0.17%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.12%) CICS
8 2 (0.12%) nginx
9 1 (0.058%) Documentum
9 1 (0.058%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.058%) Mattermost
9 1 (0.058%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.058%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
9 1 (0.058%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.058%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.058%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 83 (4.80%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (2.43%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (0.87%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.46%) Chatbot
5 8 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.17%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.058%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.058%) Maple
Business Applications
1 54 (3.12%) Remedy ITSM
2 16 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.40%) Primavera
5 5 (0.29%) ContrOCC
5 5 (0.29%) NEC Housing
5 5 (0.29%) Teamcenter
5 5 (0.29%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.17%) SAP CO
6 3 (0.17%) SAP FI
6 3 (0.17%) SAP FI/CO
6 3 (0.17%) SAP SM
6 3 (0.17%) SystmOne
7 2 (0.12%) Exchequer
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.12%) Remedy AR System
7 2 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.12%) SAP CX
7 2 (0.12%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 298 (17.24%) Azure
2 231 (13.36%) Microsoft 365
3 148 (8.56%) Entra ID
4 142 (8.21%) AWS
5 81 (4.68%) Power Platform
6 71 (4.11%) SaaS
7 60 (3.47%) OneDrive
8 45 (2.60%) GCP
9 43 (2.49%) Azure DevOps
10 27 (1.56%) Azure Monitor
11 21 (1.21%) GitHub
12 19 (1.10%) Google Workspace
12 19 (1.10%) Microsoft Copilot
13 15 (0.87%) Dynamics 365
13 15 (0.87%) Power Automate
14 14 (0.81%) Serverless
15 11 (0.64%) Amazon EC2
15 11 (0.64%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (0.64%) IaaS
16 10 (0.58%) Google Docs
Communications & Networking
1 79 (4.57%) DNS
1 79 (4.57%) Firewall
2 67 (3.88%) VPN
3 61 (3.53%) DHCP
4 54 (3.12%) TCP/IP
5 47 (2.72%) Network Security
6 40 (2.31%) WAN
7 37 (2.14%) LAN
8 27 (1.56%) Wi-Fi
9 19 (1.10%) VLAN
10 17 (0.98%) Wireless
11 16 (0.93%) Skype
12 14 (0.81%) BGP
12 14 (0.81%) SD-WAN
13 12 (0.69%) SSH
14 11 (0.64%) Intrusion Detection
15 10 (0.58%) Internet
15 10 (0.58%) OSPF
15 10 (0.58%) SAN
16 9 (0.52%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (2.83%) Power BI
2 34 (1.97%) SQL Server
3 24 (1.39%) Metadata
4 9 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (0.52%) Looker
4 9 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (0.46%) MySQL
5 8 (0.46%) Oracle Database
5 8 (0.46%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (0.40%) BigQuery
7 6 (0.35%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.29%) MariaDB
8 5 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 4 (0.23%) Oracle Database 11g
10 3 (0.17%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (0.17%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 2 (0.12%) EDRMS
11 2 (0.12%) GIS
11 2 (0.12%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.12%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 153 (8.85%) JIRA
2 37 (2.14%) Git
3 22 (1.27%) Jenkins
4 18 (1.04%) Bitbucket
5 14 (0.81%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 9 (0.52%) GitLab
7 4 (0.23%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.23%) Maven
7 4 (0.23%) webpack
8 3 (0.17%) Gradle
8 3 (0.17%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.12%) Fiddler
9 2 (0.12%) Firebug
9 2 (0.12%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.058%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.058%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.058%) MLflow
10 1 (0.058%) ScriptRunner
10 1 (0.058%) Snyk
10 1 (0.058%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 702 (40.60%) Social Skills
2 287 (16.60%) Finance
3 285 (16.48%) Analytical Skills
4 213 (12.32%) Public Sector
5 83 (4.80%) Organisational Skills
6 72 (4.16%) Documentation Skills
6 72 (4.16%) Telecoms
7 70 (4.05%) Banking
8 62 (3.59%) Influencing Skills
9 49 (2.83%) Aerospace
9 49 (2.83%) Legal
10 42 (2.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 30 (1.74%) Military
11 30 (1.74%) Presentation Skills
12 24 (1.39%) Local Government
12 24 (1.39%) Manufacturing
13 18 (1.04%) Police
14 16 (0.93%) Retail
15 14 (0.81%) Law
16 12 (0.69%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 187 (10.82%) Architect
2 166 (9.60%) Lead
3 161 (9.31%) Analyst
4 128 (7.40%) Consultant
5 123 (7.11%) Senior
6 120 (6.94%) Service Manager
7 82 (4.74%) Developer
8 79 (4.57%) Delivery Manager
8 79 (4.57%) Support Engineer
9 68 (3.93%) IT Manager
10 67 (3.88%) Project Manager
11 60 (3.47%) Solutions Architect
12 53 (3.07%) IT Support
13 49 (2.83%) Service Analyst
14 43 (2.49%) ServiceNow Developer
15 42 (2.43%) Service Architect
15 42 (2.43%) ServiceNow Architect
16 38 (2.20%) IT Engineer
16 38 (2.20%) Transition Manager
17 37 (2.14%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (4.80%) REST
2 65 (3.76%) Terraform
3 30 (1.74%) SOAP
4 29 (1.68%) Middleware
4 29 (1.68%) XML
5 26 (1.50%) Web Services
6 24 (1.39%) JSON
7 19 (1.10%) HTML
8 18 (1.04%) CSS
9 14 (0.81%) LDAP
10 12 (0.69%) .NET
11 10 (0.58%) ARM Templates
11 10 (0.58%) SAML
12 9 (0.52%) Elastic Stack
12 9 (0.52%) OAuth
13 8 (0.46%) XSLT
14 7 (0.40%) Ajax
14 7 (0.40%) AngularJS
14 7 (0.40%) Node.js
14 7 (0.40%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 190 (10.99%) Onboarding
2 146 (8.44%) CMDB
3 107 (6.19%) Management Information System
4 74 (4.28%) Enterprise Software
5 58 (3.35%) Product Ownership
6 55 (3.18%) Data Centre
7 39 (2.26%) PKI
8 34 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
9 32 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
10 27 (1.56%) Security Operations Centre
11 26 (1.50%) Virtual Team
12 25 (1.45%) Cloud Native
12 25 (1.45%) Operational Technology
13 18 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
14 17 (0.98%) Security Posture
14 17 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
14 17 (0.98%) Video Conferencing
15 15 (0.87%) Analytical Mindset
16 14 (0.81%) AI Agents
16 14 (0.81%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 350 (20.24%) Windows
2 101 (5.84%) Linux
3 95 (5.49%) Windows Server
4 77 (4.45%) Windows 10
5 41 (2.37%) Apple iOS
6 38 (2.20%) macOS
7 26 (1.50%) Android
8 21 (1.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 21 (1.21%) Unix
9 20 (1.16%) Windows 7
10 6 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.23%) AIX
11 4 (0.23%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 3 (0.17%) Solaris
12 3 (0.17%) zOS
13 2 (0.12%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.12%) Windows XP
14 1 (0.058%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 909 (52.57%) ITIL
2 755 (43.67%) ITSM
3 576 (33.31%) Stakeholder Management
4 487 (28.17%) Continuous Improvement
5 361 (20.88%) Service Delivery
6 344 (19.90%) Problem-Solving
7 341 (19.72%) Agile
8 271 (15.67%) Roadmaps
9 262 (15.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 246 (14.23%) Change Management
11 210 (12.15%) Cybersecurity
12 207 (11.97%) Customer Service
13 199 (11.51%) Incident Management
14 175 (10.12%) DevOps
15 162 (9.37%) Project Delivery
16 155 (8.96%) Decision-Making
17 147 (8.50%) AI
18 145 (8.39%) Migration
19 139 (8.04%) Risk Management
20 124 (7.17%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 154 (8.91%) PowerShell
2 102 (5.90%) Python
3 64 (3.70%) SQL
4 62 (3.59%) JavaScript
5 59 (3.41%) Bash
6 23 (1.33%) Java
7 19 (1.10%) VBScript
8 16 (0.93%) Bicep
9 15 (0.87%) C#
9 15 (0.87%) VB
10 9 (0.52%) Shell Script
11 8 (0.46%) Groovy
12 5 (0.29%) C
12 5 (0.29%) Perl
12 5 (0.29%) TypeScript
13 4 (0.23%) PL/SQL
13 4 (0.23%) T-SQL
14 3 (0.17%) COBOL
14 3 (0.17%) Google Apps Script
14 3 (0.17%) RPG
Qualifications
1 666 (38.52%) Security Cleared
2 458 (26.49%) SC Cleared
3 163 (9.43%) DV Cleared
4 161 (9.31%) Degree
5 65 (3.76%) PMP
6 62 (3.59%) BPSS Clearance
7 61 (3.53%) PMI Certification
8 56 (3.24%) ITIL Certification
9 40 (2.31%) Microsoft Certification
10 35 (2.02%) CISSP
11 34 (1.97%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 30 (1.74%) CISM
13 27 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
14 26 (1.50%) Cisco Certification
15 25 (1.45%) A+ Certification
15 25 (1.45%) DBS Check
16 22 (1.27%) Azure Certification
17 15 (0.87%) AWS Certification
18 10 (0.58%) CCNA
19 9 (0.52%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 147 (8.50%) SLA
2 65 (3.76%) Data Quality
2 65 (3.76%) QA
3 49 (2.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 37 (2.14%) GRC
4 37 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 37 (2.14%) NCSC
5 34 (1.97%) GDPR
5 34 (1.97%) NIST
6 25 (1.45%) PMO
7 16 (0.93%) Accessibility
7 16 (0.93%) ISO 9001
8 13 (0.75%) COBIT
8 13 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
9 10 (0.58%) PCI DSS
10 8 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 8 (0.46%) ISO 22301
10 8 (0.46%) WCAG
11 7 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
12 5 (0.29%) JSP 440
System Software
1 206 (11.91%) Active Directory
2 90 (5.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (2.20%) Hyper-V
4 28 (1.62%) VMware ESXi
5 26 (1.50%) Virtual Desktop
6 25 (1.45%) Docker
7 23 (1.33%) vSphere
8 17 (0.98%) BitLocker
8 17 (0.98%) VMware NSX
9 13 (0.75%) vCloud
10 9 (0.52%) Firmware
11 8 (0.46%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 8 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
11 8 (0.46%) XenApp
11 8 (0.46%) XenDesktop
12 7 (0.40%) KVM
13 6 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
14 4 (0.23%) IAG
14 4 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
15 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 106 (6.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 92 (5.32%) SCCM
3 59 (3.41%) Ansible
4 28 (1.62%) Kubernetes
5 26 (1.50%) Single Sign-On
6 24 (1.39%) SCOM
7 18 (1.04%) vCenter Server
8 16 (0.93%) Jamf Pro
9 11 (0.64%) Grafana
9 11 (0.64%) WSUS
10 8 (0.46%) NetBackup
11 7 (0.40%) Progress Chef
11 7 (0.40%) Puppet
12 5 (0.29%) Data Guard
12 5 (0.29%) Oracle RMAN
12 5 (0.29%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.29%) Tivoli
12 5 (0.29%) Tivoli Monitoring
13 4 (0.23%) PowerCLI
13 4 (0.23%) vMotion
Vendors
1 478 (27.65%) ServiceNow
2 445 (25.74%) Microsoft
3 117 (6.77%) VMware
4 60 (3.47%) Remedy
5 54 (3.12%) Cisco
6 50 (2.89%) BMC
7 44 (2.54%) SAP
8 39 (2.26%) Atlassian
9 36 (2.08%) Dynatrace
9 36 (2.08%) Oracle
10 34 (1.97%) Google
11 31 (1.79%) IBM
12 29 (1.68%) Apple
12 29 (1.68%) Splunk
13 25 (1.45%) Citrix
14 23 (1.33%) CyberArk
15 21 (1.21%) Salesforce
16 19 (1.10%) SolarWinds
17 15 (0.87%) Palo Alto
18 14 (0.81%) Zscaler