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

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 88 96
Rank change year-on-year +2 +8 -14
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,657 961 896
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.02% 2.91% 2.38%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.57% 3.21% 2.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,082 588 567
10th Percentile £263 £200 £213
25th Percentile £432 £334 £376
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £488 £515
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% -5.34% -1.90%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £606
90th Percentile £725 £649 £682
UK excluding London median daily rate £531 £481 £501
% change year-on-year +10.39% -3.85% -1.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 86 17
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £20.03
25th Percentile £16.53 £15.52 £25.75
Median hourly rate £45.27 £21.71 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.50% -39.69% -19.33%
75th Percentile £85.00 £33.75 £48.75
90th Percentile £92.00 £60.00 £54.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.53 £21.06 £40.50
% change year-on-year +68.75% -48.01% +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 46,438 29,893 32,352
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.57% 90.54% 85.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,948 18,567 19,512
10th Percentile £325 £295 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £736 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,331 1,864 1,314
10th Percentile £13.65 £14.35 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.08 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £37.87 £25.15 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +50.56% -39.40% -2.92%
75th Percentile £65.00 £43.20 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.00 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.13 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +70.85% -48.10% +1.18%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 0 1,424 £525 +5.00% 1,438
UK excluding London -7 960 £531 +10.39% 971
London +40 507 £525 +5.00% 557
Work from Home +5 447 £525 +10.53% 663
South East +13 306 £575 +28.64% 293
North of England -14 274 £480 +5.96% 225
North West -9 161 £483 +5.92% 122
Midlands -28 126 £525 +3.96% 139
West Midlands -14 119 £525 +1.94% 86
Yorkshire -9 107 £456 +8.96% 84
Scotland +23 100 £574 +24.00% 78
South West -38 97 £550 - 107
East of England +7 65 £550 +1.76% 112
Wales -6 13 £800 +247.83% 13
Northern Ireland +10 8 - - 15
East Midlands -31 7 £206 -34.83% 51
North East -42 6 £600 +207.69% 20

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
1 127 (7.66%) SharePoint
2 64 (3.86%) Microsoft Exchange
3 63 (3.80%) Confluence
4 15 (0.91%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.30%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.24%) Apache
6 4 (0.24%) CMS
6 4 (0.24%) IBM Transformation Extender
6 4 (0.24%) IIS
7 3 (0.18%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.12%) CICS
8 2 (0.12%) nginx
9 1 (0.060%) Documentum
9 1 (0.060%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.060%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.060%) Mattermost
9 1 (0.060%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
9 1 (0.060%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.060%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.060%) SAS
Applications
1 84 (5.07%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (2.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (1.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (0.91%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.48%) Chatbot
5 8 (0.48%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.060%) Maple
Business Applications
1 52 (3.14%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (0.72%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.42%) Primavera
5 5 (0.30%) ContrOCC
5 5 (0.30%) NEC Housing
5 5 (0.30%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.18%) SAP CO
6 3 (0.18%) SAP FI
6 3 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
6 3 (0.18%) SAP SM
6 3 (0.18%) 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
7 2 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 289 (17.44%) Azure
2 215 (12.98%) Microsoft 365
3 143 (8.63%) AWS
4 140 (8.45%) Entra ID
5 76 (4.59%) Power Platform
6 71 (4.28%) SaaS
7 57 (3.44%) OneDrive
8 44 (2.66%) GCP
9 41 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
10 26 (1.57%) Azure Monitor
11 20 (1.21%) GitHub
12 18 (1.09%) Microsoft Copilot
13 17 (1.03%) Google Workspace
14 14 (0.84%) Dynamics 365
14 14 (0.84%) Power Automate
14 14 (0.84%) Serverless
15 11 (0.66%) Amazon EC2
15 11 (0.66%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (0.66%) IaaS
16 10 (0.60%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 74 (4.47%) Firewall
2 73 (4.41%) DNS
3 60 (3.62%) VPN
4 55 (3.32%) DHCP
5 47 (2.84%) TCP/IP
6 46 (2.78%) Network Security
7 38 (2.29%) WAN
8 34 (2.05%) LAN
9 27 (1.63%) Wi-Fi
10 16 (0.97%) Skype
11 14 (0.84%) SD-WAN
11 14 (0.84%) VLAN
11 14 (0.84%) Wireless
12 12 (0.72%) SSH
13 11 (0.66%) BGP
13 11 (0.66%) Intrusion Detection
14 10 (0.60%) SAN
15 9 (0.54%) Internet
16 8 (0.48%) 5G
17 7 (0.42%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (2.72%) Power BI
2 32 (1.93%) SQL Server
3 24 (1.45%) Metadata
4 9 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (0.48%) MySQL
6 7 (0.42%) Looker
6 7 (0.42%) Oracle Database
6 7 (0.42%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 6 (0.36%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.30%) BigQuery
8 5 (0.30%) MariaDB
8 5 (0.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 4 (0.24%) Oracle Database 11g
9 4 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
10 3 (0.18%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (0.18%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 2 (0.12%) GIS
11 2 (0.12%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.12%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 151 (9.11%) JIRA
2 33 (1.99%) Git
3 22 (1.33%) Jenkins
4 17 (1.03%) Bitbucket
5 13 (0.78%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 9 (0.54%) GitLab
7 4 (0.24%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.24%) Maven
7 4 (0.24%) webpack
8 3 (0.18%) Gradle
8 3 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.12%) Fiddler
9 2 (0.12%) Firebug
9 2 (0.12%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.060%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.060%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.060%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.060%) MLflow
10 1 (0.060%) Snyk
10 1 (0.060%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 674 (40.68%) Social Skills
2 280 (16.90%) Analytical Skills
3 267 (16.11%) Finance
4 205 (12.37%) Public Sector
5 79 (4.77%) Organisational Skills
6 70 (4.22%) Documentation Skills
6 70 (4.22%) Telecoms
7 61 (3.68%) Banking
8 59 (3.56%) Influencing Skills
9 44 (2.66%) Aerospace
10 43 (2.60%) Legal
11 41 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 29 (1.75%) Military
13 28 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
14 24 (1.45%) Local Government
15 23 (1.39%) Manufacturing
16 19 (1.15%) Police
17 16 (0.97%) Retail
18 14 (0.84%) Law
19 10 (0.60%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 181 (10.92%) Architect
2 161 (9.72%) Analyst
3 153 (9.23%) Lead
4 122 (7.36%) Consultant
5 118 (7.12%) Senior
6 112 (6.76%) Service Manager
7 77 (4.65%) Developer
8 76 (4.59%) Support Engineer
9 75 (4.53%) Delivery Manager
10 67 (4.04%) Project Manager
11 64 (3.86%) IT Manager
12 58 (3.50%) Solutions Architect
13 50 (3.02%) IT Support
14 49 (2.96%) Service Analyst
15 42 (2.53%) Service Architect
15 42 (2.53%) ServiceNow Architect
16 41 (2.47%) ServiceNow Developer
17 39 (2.35%) IT Engineer
18 36 (2.17%) Business Analyst
18 36 (2.17%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (4.77%) REST
2 62 (3.74%) Terraform
3 29 (1.75%) SOAP
4 26 (1.57%) XML
5 25 (1.51%) Middleware
6 23 (1.39%) Web Services
7 19 (1.15%) JSON
8 18 (1.09%) HTML
9 17 (1.03%) CSS
10 11 (0.66%) LDAP
11 10 (0.60%) .NET
11 10 (0.60%) SAML
12 9 (0.54%) ARM Templates
12 9 (0.54%) Elastic Stack
13 8 (0.48%) OAuth
13 8 (0.48%) XSLT
14 7 (0.42%) AngularJS
14 7 (0.42%) Node.js
15 6 (0.36%) OpenID
15 6 (0.36%) React
Miscellaneous
1 180 (10.86%) Onboarding
2 136 (8.21%) CMDB
3 101 (6.10%) Management Information System
4 68 (4.10%) Enterprise Software
5 54 (3.26%) Data Centre
5 54 (3.26%) Product Ownership
6 39 (2.35%) PKI
7 32 (1.93%) Data Protection Act
7 32 (1.93%) Hybrid Cloud
8 27 (1.63%) Security Operations Centre
9 26 (1.57%) Virtual Team
10 25 (1.51%) Operational Technology
11 24 (1.45%) Cloud Native
12 18 (1.09%) Cyber Threat
12 18 (1.09%) Security Posture
13 17 (1.03%) Self-Motivation
14 15 (0.91%) AI Agents
14 15 (0.91%) Analytical Mindset
14 15 (0.91%) Video Conferencing
15 14 (0.84%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 336 (20.28%) Windows
2 98 (5.91%) Linux
3 90 (5.43%) Windows Server
4 74 (4.47%) Windows 10
5 37 (2.23%) Apple iOS
6 35 (2.11%) Mac OS
7 22 (1.33%) Android
7 22 (1.33%) Unix
8 20 (1.21%) Windows 7
9 18 (1.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.24%) AIX
11 4 (0.24%) Solaris
11 4 (0.24%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 3 (0.18%) 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 (0.060%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 882 (53.23%) ITIL
2 722 (43.57%) ITSM
3 546 (32.95%) Stakeholder Management
4 472 (28.49%) Continuous Improvement
5 353 (21.30%) Service Delivery
6 330 (19.92%) Problem-Solving
7 328 (19.79%) Agile
8 251 (15.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 249 (15.03%) Roadmaps
10 240 (14.48%) Change Management
11 199 (12.01%) Cybersecurity
12 193 (11.65%) Customer Service
13 192 (11.59%) Incident Management
14 172 (10.38%) DevOps
15 155 (9.35%) Project Delivery
16 150 (9.05%) Decision-Making
17 142 (8.57%) AI
18 136 (8.21%) Migration
19 132 (7.97%) Risk Management
20 122 (7.36%) Service Design
Programming Languages
1 147 (8.87%) PowerShell
2 95 (5.73%) Python
3 61 (3.68%) SQL
4 60 (3.62%) JavaScript
5 58 (3.50%) Bash
6 19 (1.15%) Java
6 19 (1.15%) VBScript
7 15 (0.91%) VB
8 14 (0.84%) Bicep
8 14 (0.84%) C#
9 9 (0.54%) Shell Script
10 7 (0.42%) Groovy
11 5 (0.30%) C
11 5 (0.30%) Perl
11 5 (0.30%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 4 (0.24%) T-SQL
13 3 (0.18%) COBOL
13 3 (0.18%) Google Apps Script
13 3 (0.18%) RPG
Qualifications
1 640 (38.62%) Security Cleared
2 442 (26.67%) SC Cleared
3 157 (9.47%) Degree
4 154 (9.29%) DV Cleared
5 63 (3.80%) PMP
6 59 (3.56%) BPSS Clearance
6 59 (3.56%) PMI Certification
7 55 (3.32%) ITIL Certification
8 39 (2.35%) Microsoft Certification
9 36 (2.17%) CISSP
10 34 (2.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 31 (1.87%) CISM
12 27 (1.63%) Cisco Certification
12 27 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
13 25 (1.51%) A+ Certification
14 24 (1.45%) DBS Check
15 22 (1.33%) Azure Certification
16 15 (0.91%) AWS Certification
17 10 (0.60%) CCNA
18 9 (0.54%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 143 (8.63%) SLA
2 64 (3.86%) QA
3 57 (3.44%) Data Quality
4 49 (2.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 38 (2.29%) GRC
5 38 (2.29%) NCSC
6 35 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 34 (2.05%) GDPR
7 34 (2.05%) NIST
8 23 (1.39%) PMO
9 17 (1.03%) ISO 9001
10 16 (0.97%) Accessibility
11 13 (0.78%) COBIT
11 13 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.60%) PCI DSS
13 8 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 8 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
13 8 (0.48%) WCAG
14 7 (0.42%) ISO 22301
15 5 (0.30%) JSP 440
System Software
1 192 (11.59%) Active Directory
2 86 (5.19%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (2.23%) Hyper-V
4 28 (1.69%) VMware ESXi
5 25 (1.51%) Virtual Desktop
6 24 (1.45%) Docker
7 22 (1.33%) vSphere
8 17 (1.03%) BitLocker
8 17 (1.03%) VMware NSX
9 13 (0.78%) vCloud
10 9 (0.54%) Firmware
11 7 (0.42%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 7 (0.42%) XenApp
11 7 (0.42%) XenDesktop
12 6 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.30%) IAG
14 4 (0.24%) KVM
14 4 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
14 4 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
15 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 101 (6.10%) Microsoft Intune
2 86 (5.19%) SCCM
3 54 (3.26%) Ansible
4 27 (1.63%) Kubernetes
5 25 (1.51%) Single Sign-On
6 24 (1.45%) SCOM
7 18 (1.09%) vCenter Server
8 15 (0.91%) Jamf Pro
9 11 (0.66%) Grafana
9 11 (0.66%) WSUS
10 8 (0.48%) NetBackup
11 7 (0.42%) Progress Chef
11 7 (0.42%) Puppet
12 5 (0.30%) Data Guard
12 5 (0.30%) Oracle RMAN
12 5 (0.30%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.30%) Tivoli
12 5 (0.30%) Tivoli Monitoring
13 4 (0.24%) PowerCLI
13 4 (0.24%) vMotion
Vendors
1 464 (28.00%) ServiceNow
2 416 (25.11%) Microsoft
3 113 (6.82%) VMware
4 56 (3.38%) Remedy
5 51 (3.08%) Cisco
6 49 (2.96%) BMC
7 40 (2.41%) SAP
8 38 (2.29%) Atlassian
9 35 (2.11%) Dynatrace
9 35 (2.11%) Oracle
10 32 (1.93%) Google
11 28 (1.69%) IBM
12 27 (1.63%) Apple
13 25 (1.51%) Splunk
14 21 (1.27%) Citrix
15 20 (1.21%) CyberArk
15 20 (1.21%) SolarWinds
16 19 (1.15%) Salesforce
17 15 (0.91%) Zscaler
18 13 (0.78%) Qualys