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

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 83 79
Rank change year-on-year -19 -4 +10
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,047 862 1,172
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.38% 2.97% 2.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.77% 3.28% 3.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 716 549 782
10th Percentile £211 £224 £280
25th Percentile £381 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -2.62% -1.41% +6.50%
75th Percentile £610 £608 £608
90th Percentile £725 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £507 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -3.38% -1.87% +12.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 36 20
10th Percentile £15.25 £12.62 £12.53
25th Percentile £16.17 £20.94 £16.27
Median hourly rate £26.50 £24.18 £18.36
Median % change year-on-year +9.59% +31.70% -47.58%
75th Percentile £74.26 £32.72 £26.63
90th Percentile £89.40 £68.13 £56.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.50 £23.16 £17.72
% change year-on-year +5.79% +30.70% -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 37,733 26,318 38,291
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.81% 90.56% 86.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,910 17,091 24,889
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 £746
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.89% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,221 949 2,344
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.19 £12.85
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.45 £16.00
Median hourly rate £34.50 £32.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.81% -1.54% -9.72%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £58.69
90th Percentile £76.00 £76.25 £71.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £31.52 £31.80
% change year-on-year -4.82% -0.88% -12.28%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -20 963 £515 -1.90% 367
UK excluding London -14 713 £507 -3.38% 317
London -49 261 £520 -0.95% 89
Work from Home -41 242 £500 -3.85% 157
South East +28 208 £518 +7.25% 109
North of England -7 172 £500 +7.53% 73
South West -14 163 £575 +2.22% 34
North West 0 99 £550 +10.00% 39
Midlands -23 99 £413 -27.19% 50
West Midlands -41 74 £408 -28.60% 35
Yorkshire -17 62 £468 +42.57% 28
East of England -15 48 £475 -13.64% 45
East Midlands -12 25 £419 -9.95% 15
Scotland -40 23 £475 -5.00% 13
North East -7 14 £440 +125.64% 7
Wales -13 3 £340 -25.48% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 £500 -

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 94 (8.98%) Confluence
2 46 (4.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 38 (3.63%) SharePoint
4 9 (0.86%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.48%) Mattermost
6 3 (0.29%) IIS
6 3 (0.29%) nginx
7 2 (0.19%) Apache
7 2 (0.19%) JBoss
7 2 (0.19%) SharePoint Server
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 86 (8.21%) Microsoft Office
2 40 (3.82%) Microsoft Project
3 28 (2.67%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.57%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.38%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.096%) Autodesk Inventor
9 1 (0.096%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 38 (3.63%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (1.24%) Oracle EBS
2 13 (1.24%) 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%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
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
1 159 (15.19%) Azure
2 98 (9.36%) Microsoft 365
3 83 (7.93%) AWS
4 44 (4.20%) GCP
5 43 (4.11%) Power Platform
6 42 (4.01%) Entra ID
7 40 (3.82%) SaaS
8 31 (2.96%) Azure DevOps
9 18 (1.72%) GitHub
10 17 (1.62%) OneDrive
10 17 (1.62%) PaaS
11 15 (1.43%) IaaS
12 12 (1.15%) Serverless
13 11 (1.05%) AWS Lambda
14 10 (0.96%) OCI
15 9 (0.86%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 8 (0.76%) Dynamics 365
16 8 (0.76%) OpenShift
17 7 (0.67%) Google Workspace
17 7 (0.67%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 71 (6.78%) Firewall
2 58 (5.54%) DNS
3 37 (3.53%) VPN
3 37 (3.53%) WAN
4 36 (3.44%) LAN
5 31 (2.96%) DHCP
5 31 (2.96%) Network Security
6 21 (2.01%) TCP/IP
7 19 (1.81%) BGP
7 19 (1.81%) Cisco ISE
7 19 (1.81%) VLAN
8 16 (1.53%) Junos
9 15 (1.43%) Wi-Fi
10 14 (1.34%) Skype
11 13 (1.24%) OSPF
12 12 (1.15%) BIG-IP
12 12 (1.15%) SD-WAN
13 11 (1.05%) Cisco Firepower
13 11 (1.05%) WebEx
14 9 (0.86%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (3.15%) Power BI
2 14 (1.34%) SQL Server
3 9 (0.86%) Relational Database
4 6 (0.57%) 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%) Oracle Reports
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%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.096%) Amazon Redshift
9 1 (0.096%) KNIME
9 1 (0.096%) OpenStack Swift
9 1 (0.096%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 150 (14.33%) JIRA
2 19 (1.81%) Jenkins
3 16 (1.53%) Bitbucket
3 16 (1.53%) GitLab
4 15 (1.43%) Git
5 6 (0.57%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 6 (0.57%) ScriptRunner
6 4 (0.38%) MLflow
7 3 (0.29%) Selenium
7 3 (0.29%) TestRail
8 2 (0.19%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.19%) IntelliJ
9 1 (0.096%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.096%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.096%) Hudson
9 1 (0.096%) JMeter
9 1 (0.096%) JUnit
9 1 (0.096%) Protractor
9 1 (0.096%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.096%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 376 (35.91%) Social Skills
2 161 (15.38%) Analytical Skills
3 148 (14.14%) Finance
4 121 (11.56%) Public Sector
5 59 (5.64%) Legal
6 47 (4.49%) Military
7 35 (3.34%) Banking
8 32 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
9 31 (2.96%) Influencing Skills
9 31 (2.96%) Organisational Skills
10 22 (2.10%) Retail
11 21 (2.01%) Telecoms
12 11 (1.05%) Aerospace
12 11 (1.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (1.05%) Manufacturing
13 8 (0.76%) Investment Banking
13 8 (0.76%) Law
13 8 (0.76%) Local Government
14 7 (0.67%) Front Office
15 6 (0.57%) Police
Job Titles
1 129 (12.32%) Analyst
2 121 (11.56%) Architect
3 118 (11.27%) Lead
4 98 (9.36%) Service Manager
5 68 (6.49%) Senior
6 65 (6.21%) Consultant
7 58 (5.54%) Service Architect
8 53 (5.06%) Service Analyst
9 41 (3.92%) IT Manager
10 37 (3.53%) Support Engineer
11 36 (3.44%) Hardware Engineer
12 35 (3.34%) IT Support
13 33 (3.15%) IT Analyst
14 32 (3.06%) Delivery Manager
15 31 (2.96%) Project Manager
16 30 (2.87%) Network Engineer
17 28 (2.67%) Administrator
18 27 (2.58%) Service Delivery Manager
19 24 (2.29%) Field Engineer
19 24 (2.29%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (4.49%) REST
2 17 (1.62%) SOAP
3 11 (1.05%) XMPP
4 9 (0.86%) 802.1X
5 8 (0.76%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (0.67%) Middleware
7 6 (0.57%) Web Services
8 5 (0.48%) .NET
8 5 (0.48%) LDAP
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%) HTML
11 2 (0.19%) Spring Boot
11 2 (0.19%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 97 (9.26%) Product Ownership
2 67 (6.40%) CMDB
3 58 (5.54%) Onboarding
4 41 (3.92%) Data Centre
5 36 (3.44%) Management Information System
6 32 (3.06%) Virtual Team
7 24 (2.29%) PKI
8 20 (1.91%) Driving Licence
9 15 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
9 15 (1.43%) Self-Motivation
10 14 (1.34%) Clustering
11 13 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
11 13 (1.24%) PMI
12 11 (1.05%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (0.76%) Hybrid Cloud
13 8 (0.76%) Replication
14 7 (0.67%) Algorithms
14 7 (0.67%) Cloud Native
14 7 (0.67%) NHS
15 6 (0.57%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 198 (18.91%) Windows
2 65 (6.21%) Linux
3 61 (5.83%) Windows Server
4 46 (4.39%) Windows 10
5 17 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (1.05%) Mac OS
6 11 (1.05%) Windows 7
7 10 (0.96%) Android
8 8 (0.76%) Apple iOS
8 8 (0.76%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (0.67%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.57%) Unix
11 5 (0.48%) VMS
12 4 (0.38%) Windows Server 2003
13 3 (0.29%) CentOS
13 3 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
14 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.096%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.096%) Rocky
15 1 (0.096%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 586 (55.97%) ITIL
2 456 (43.55%) ITSM
3 239 (22.83%) Agile
4 210 (20.06%) Problem-Solving
5 207 (19.77%) Continuous Improvement
6 196 (18.72%) Stakeholder Management
7 167 (15.95%) Service Delivery
8 158 (15.09%) Change Management
9 146 (13.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 125 (11.94%) DevOps
11 103 (9.84%) Customer Service
12 101 (9.65%) Service Design
13 94 (8.98%) Problem Management
14 85 (8.12%) Incident Management
15 78 (7.45%) Configuration Management
15 78 (7.45%) Project Management
16 76 (7.26%) Acceptance Criteria
17 70 (6.69%) Knowledge Transfer
18 64 (6.11%) CI/CD
18 64 (6.11%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 93 (8.88%) PowerShell
2 57 (5.44%) Python
3 48 (4.58%) SQL
4 26 (2.48%) JavaScript
5 19 (1.81%) Bash
6 18 (1.72%) Java
7 9 (0.86%) Perl
7 9 (0.86%) VB
7 9 (0.86%) VBScript
8 7 (0.67%) Shell Script
9 6 (0.57%) Kotlin
9 6 (0.57%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.48%) C#
11 4 (0.38%) Apex Code
11 4 (0.38%) Go
12 3 (0.29%) Groovy
13 2 (0.19%) Bicep
13 2 (0.19%) PHP
13 2 (0.19%) T-SQL
14 1 (0.096%) C
Qualifications
1 447 (42.69%) Security Cleared
2 336 (32.09%) SC Cleared
3 133 (12.70%) Degree
4 132 (12.61%) DV Cleared
5 50 (4.78%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (2.87%) TOGAF Certification
7 29 (2.77%) PMI Certification
8 27 (2.58%) PMP
9 25 (2.39%) Cisco Certification
10 24 (2.29%) BPSS Clearance
10 24 (2.29%) Microsoft Certification
11 16 (1.53%) CCNP
11 16 (1.53%) Computer Science Degree
12 14 (1.34%) A+ Certification
12 14 (1.34%) CCNA
13 11 (1.05%) MCSE
14 9 (0.86%) JNCIA
14 9 (0.86%) JNCIP
14 9 (0.86%) JNCIS
15 8 (0.76%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (4.78%) SLA
2 31 (2.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 29 (2.77%) Data Quality
4 23 (2.20%) GDPR
5 21 (2.01%) QA
6 19 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 18 (1.72%) PMO
8 11 (1.05%) Accessibility
8 11 (1.05%) NCSC
9 10 (0.96%) COBIT
10 9 (0.86%) NIST
11 8 (0.76%) GRC
11 8 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.67%) Government Security Classifications
13 6 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.57%) PCI DSS
14 4 (0.38%) Disclosure Scotland
14 4 (0.38%) ISO 9001
15 3 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
16 2 (0.19%) HIPAA
System Software
1 118 (11.27%) Active Directory
2 33 (3.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (1.72%) Docker
4 11 (1.05%) VMware NSX
5 9 (0.86%) BitLocker
6 5 (0.48%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.19%) NDS
8 2 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 2 (0.19%) NFS
8 2 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.096%) IAG
9 1 (0.096%) iptables
9 1 (0.096%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.096%) Samba
9 1 (0.096%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 38 (3.63%) SCCM
2 30 (2.87%) Ansible
2 30 (2.87%) OPNET
3 28 (2.67%) Microsoft Intune
4 27 (2.58%) Terraform
5 25 (2.39%) Kubernetes
6 12 (1.15%) FortiGate
6 12 (1.15%) WSUS
7 11 (1.05%) vCenter Server
8 10 (0.96%) Grafana
9 8 (0.76%) Jamf Pro
10 7 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 7 (0.67%) Progress Chef
10 7 (0.67%) Prometheus
11 5 (0.48%) Puppet
11 5 (0.48%) SCOM
12 4 (0.38%) Nessus
12 4 (0.38%) Packer
12 4 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (0.29%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 266 (25.41%) ServiceNow
2 165 (15.76%) Microsoft
3 74 (7.07%) Atlassian
3 74 (7.07%) Remedy
4 58 (5.54%) Cisco
5 53 (5.06%) VMware
6 43 (4.11%) Oracle
7 39 (3.72%) HP
8 32 (3.06%) Google
9 28 (2.67%) SAP
10 26 (2.48%) Splunk
11 23 (2.20%) SolarWinds
12 21 (2.01%) Citrix
13 20 (1.91%) Salesforce
14 19 (1.81%) Red Hat
15 18 (1.72%) Dell
15 18 (1.72%) Juniper
16 15 (1.43%) BMC
16 15 (1.43%) Canon
16 15 (1.43%) IFS