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 11 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 113 79 81
Rank change year-on-year -34 +2 +4
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,110 889 1,095
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.22% 3.03% 2.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.62% 3.33% 2.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 727 536 749
10th Percentile £220 £220 £265
25th Percentile £404 £356 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% +2.94%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 47 16
10th Percentile £16.15 - £12.53
25th Percentile £21.25 £12.62 £14.91
Median hourly rate £60.00 £22.14 £18.36
Median % change year-on-year +171.00% +20.59% -56.16%
75th Percentile £83.75 £32.75 £26.63
90th Percentile £99.60 £39.25 £28.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £21.28 £17.72
% change year-on-year +181.95% +20.09% -50.78%

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 42,291 26,731 37,187
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.76% 91.01% 85.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,385 16,984 23,772
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,541 1,182 2,587
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.87 £16.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.28 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.14% -25.26% +1.39%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.00 £61.16
90th Percentile £81.25 £73.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +78.93% -34.02% +8.91%

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 11 June 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 11 June 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 11 June 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 -30 973 £520 +4.00% 374
UK excluding London -28 676 £500 - 313
London -26 325 £540 +8.00% 108
Work from Home +2 314 £511 +7.63% 157
North of England -23 197 £500 +7.82% 85
South East +20 194 £528 +30.38% 115
North West -14 111 £550 +13.87% 37
South West -34 110 £500 -11.11% 27
Yorkshire -21 80 £468 +10.12% 39
Midlands -53 76 £474 -9.71% 47
West Midlands -48 63 £475 -13.64% 34
Scotland -29 45 £475 -8.74% 8
East of England -15 44 £475 -13.64% 31
East Midlands -24 13 £200 -54.13% 13
Wales -13 7 £340 +4.62% 5
North East -25 6 £440 +125.64% 11
Northern Ireland - 4 - - 10

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 51 (4.59%) Confluence
2 50 (4.50%) SharePoint
3 33 (2.97%) Microsoft Exchange
4 11 (0.99%) Skype for Business
5 6 (0.54%) Mattermost
6 3 (0.27%) IIS
6 3 (0.27%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.090%) Apache
7 1 (0.090%) CICS
7 1 (0.090%) CMS
7 1 (0.090%) JBoss
7 1 (0.090%) LiveCycle
7 1 (0.090%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
7 1 (0.090%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.090%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.090%) WebSphere
Applications
1 56 (5.05%) Microsoft Office
2 29 (2.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.81%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (0.81%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.63%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.36%) PTC Creo
7 2 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.090%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 51 (4.59%) Remedy ITSM
2 14 (1.26%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.81%) Teamcenter
4 6 (0.54%) Primavera
5 3 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
6 2 (0.18%) SAP PS
7 1 (0.090%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.090%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.090%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.090%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.090%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.090%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 1 (0.090%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.090%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.090%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.090%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.090%) SAP Payroll
7 1 (0.090%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.090%) SAP SM
Cloud Services
1 168 (15.14%) Azure
2 109 (9.82%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (5.32%) AWS
4 51 (4.59%) Power Platform
5 50 (4.50%) Entra ID
6 39 (3.51%) SaaS
7 30 (2.70%) Azure DevOps
8 25 (2.25%) OneDrive
9 22 (1.98%) GCP
10 19 (1.71%) PaaS
11 18 (1.62%) GitHub
12 14 (1.26%) OCI
13 11 (0.99%) IaaS
14 10 (0.90%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 10 (0.90%) Microsoft Copilot
15 9 (0.81%) AWS Lambda
15 9 (0.81%) Google Workspace
15 9 (0.81%) Serverless
16 6 (0.54%) Azure Monitor
16 6 (0.54%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 61 (5.50%) Firewall
2 44 (3.96%) DNS
3 37 (3.33%) WAN
4 33 (2.97%) LAN
4 33 (2.97%) VPN
5 27 (2.43%) Network Security
6 22 (1.98%) DHCP
7 21 (1.89%) TCP/IP
8 16 (1.44%) BGP
9 13 (1.17%) OSPF
9 13 (1.17%) SD-WAN
9 13 (1.17%) VLAN
9 13 (1.17%) Wi-Fi
10 12 (1.08%) BIG-IP
10 12 (1.08%) Wireless
11 11 (0.99%) Cisco ISE
11 11 (0.99%) Skype
12 10 (0.90%) VXLAN
13 8 (0.72%) Ethernet VPN
13 8 (0.72%) Junos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (3.78%) Power BI
2 15 (1.35%) SQL Server
3 7 (0.63%) Oracle Database
3 7 (0.63%) Oracle Reports
3 7 (0.63%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (0.54%) Oracle Database 11g
5 5 (0.45%) Relational Database
6 4 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 4 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (0.27%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.27%) MySQL
7 3 (0.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 2 (0.18%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.18%) GIS
8 2 (0.18%) MariaDB
8 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Analysis Services
9 1 (0.090%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.090%) Elasticsearch
9 1 (0.090%) InfluxDB
9 1 (0.090%) OpenStack Swift
Development Applications
1 125 (11.26%) JIRA
2 18 (1.62%) Git
3 15 (1.35%) Jenkins
4 12 (1.08%) Bitbucket
4 12 (1.08%) GitLab
5 7 (0.63%) ScriptRunner
6 5 (0.45%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 5 (0.45%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.36%) MLflow
8 3 (0.27%) Fiddler
8 3 (0.27%) Hudson
8 3 (0.27%) IntelliJ
9 2 (0.18%) Firebug
9 2 (0.18%) Selenium
9 2 (0.18%) TestRail
10 1 (0.090%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.090%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.090%) Postman
10 1 (0.090%) Protractor
10 1 (0.090%) webpack
General
1 359 (32.34%) Social Skills
2 184 (16.58%) Finance
3 145 (13.06%) Analytical Skills
4 108 (9.73%) Public Sector
5 52 (4.68%) Legal
6 42 (3.78%) Banking
6 42 (3.78%) Telecoms
7 31 (2.79%) Documentation Skills
8 29 (2.61%) Organisational Skills
9 27 (2.43%) Influencing Skills
10 19 (1.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 18 (1.62%) Military
12 15 (1.35%) Retail
13 12 (1.08%) Aerospace
13 12 (1.08%) Local Government
14 11 (0.99%) Financial Institution
15 10 (0.90%) Police
15 10 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
16 8 (0.72%) Investment Banking
16 8 (0.72%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 132 (11.89%) Analyst
2 109 (9.82%) Service Manager
3 102 (9.19%) Architect
4 100 (9.01%) Lead
5 90 (8.11%) Senior
6 76 (6.85%) Consultant
7 71 (6.40%) IT Manager
8 55 (4.95%) Project Manager
9 50 (4.50%) Service Analyst
10 41 (3.69%) Developer
11 39 (3.51%) Delivery Manager
12 33 (2.97%) Support Engineer
13 32 (2.88%) IT Analyst
14 29 (2.61%) ServiceNow Architect
14 29 (2.61%) Transition Manager
15 28 (2.52%) IT Services Manager
16 27 (2.43%) Hardware Engineer
16 27 (2.43%) Network Engineer
17 26 (2.34%) IT Support
18 25 (2.25%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (4.32%) REST
2 27 (2.43%) SOAP
3 13 (1.17%) HTML
4 12 (1.08%) CSS
5 9 (0.81%) 802.1X
5 9 (0.81%) Middleware
5 9 (0.81%) OAuth
6 7 (0.63%) Oracle Fusion
7 6 (0.54%) JSON
7 6 (0.54%) XML
8 5 (0.45%) Lightning Web Components
8 5 (0.45%) OpenID
8 5 (0.45%) SAML
8 5 (0.45%) Web Services
9 4 (0.36%) AngularJS
9 4 (0.36%) Elastic Stack
9 4 (0.36%) Microsoft Graph
9 4 (0.36%) OAuth2
9 4 (0.36%) Software Packaging
9 4 (0.36%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 89 (8.02%) CMDB
2 83 (7.48%) Onboarding
3 59 (5.32%) Product Ownership
4 48 (4.32%) Data Centre
5 32 (2.88%) Virtual Team
6 27 (2.43%) Management Information System
6 27 (2.43%) PKI
7 25 (2.25%) Enterprise Software
8 21 (1.89%) Clustering
9 16 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (1.44%) Driving Licence
9 16 (1.44%) Operational Technology
10 11 (0.99%) Analytical Mindset
11 10 (0.90%) Algorithms
11 10 (0.90%) Cloud Native
11 10 (0.90%) PMI
12 9 (0.81%) Self-Motivation
13 8 (0.72%) Legacy Systems
13 8 (0.72%) Replication
14 7 (0.63%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 198 (17.84%) Windows
2 52 (4.68%) Linux
3 42 (3.78%) Windows 10
4 41 (3.69%) Windows Server
5 17 (1.53%) Unix
6 15 (1.35%) Windows 7
7 13 (1.17%) Android
7 13 (1.17%) Apple iOS
7 13 (1.17%) Mac OS
8 8 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.36%) VMS
10 3 (0.27%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.27%) Windows XP
11 2 (0.18%) Solaris
11 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.18%) zOS
12 1 (0.090%) Rocky
12 1 (0.090%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 569 (51.26%) ITIL
2 481 (43.33%) ITSM
3 257 (23.15%) Stakeholder Management
4 255 (22.97%) Continuous Improvement
5 221 (19.91%) Agile
6 214 (19.28%) Problem-Solving
7 196 (17.66%) Service Delivery
8 161 (14.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 150 (13.51%) Change Management
10 120 (10.81%) DevOps
11 110 (9.91%) Customer Service
12 96 (8.65%) Roadmaps
13 92 (8.29%) Incident Management
14 87 (7.84%) Problem Management
15 76 (6.85%) Service Design
16 75 (6.76%) Configuration Management
16 75 (6.76%) Migration
17 74 (6.67%) Project Delivery
17 74 (6.67%) Project Management
18 71 (6.40%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 79 (7.12%) PowerShell
2 52 (4.68%) SQL
3 49 (4.41%) Python
4 45 (4.05%) JavaScript
5 18 (1.62%) Bash
6 14 (1.26%) Java
7 11 (0.99%) PL/SQL
7 11 (0.99%) VB
7 11 (0.99%) VBScript
8 6 (0.54%) Apex Code
8 6 (0.54%) Groovy
9 5 (0.45%) C#
9 5 (0.45%) Kotlin
10 4 (0.36%) C
11 3 (0.27%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.27%) SOQL
11 3 (0.27%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.18%) ActionScript
12 2 (0.18%) Bicep
12 2 (0.18%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 397 (35.77%) Security Cleared
2 277 (24.95%) SC Cleared
3 123 (11.08%) DV Cleared
4 86 (7.75%) Degree
5 59 (5.32%) ITIL Certification
6 31 (2.79%) PMI Certification
7 29 (2.61%) PMP
8 28 (2.52%) Cisco Certification
9 21 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
10 18 (1.62%) Computer Science Degree
11 16 (1.44%) CCNA
11 16 (1.44%) Microsoft Certification
12 13 (1.17%) Master's Degree
13 11 (0.99%) CISM
13 11 (0.99%) CISSP
14 10 (0.90%) A+ Certification
14 10 (0.90%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 9 (0.81%) JNCIA
15 9 (0.81%) JNCIP
15 9 (0.81%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (6.76%) SLA
2 37 (3.33%) Data Quality
2 37 (3.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 27 (2.43%) PMO
4 26 (2.34%) GDPR
4 26 (2.34%) QA
5 21 (1.89%) COBIT
6 19 (1.71%) GRC
6 19 (1.71%) NCSC
7 15 (1.35%) NIST
8 14 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 11 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials
10 9 (0.81%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.81%) PCI DSS
11 7 (0.63%) Government Security Classifications
12 6 (0.54%) ISO 31000
12 6 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 6 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 5 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 5 (0.45%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 111 (10.00%) Active Directory
2 39 (3.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (1.35%) VMware ESXi
4 12 (1.08%) BitLocker
4 12 (1.08%) Docker
5 8 (0.72%) VMware NSX
6 7 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.54%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.54%) vCloud
7 6 (0.54%) vSphere
8 5 (0.45%) NFS
9 4 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.27%) Firmware
10 3 (0.27%) Oracle RAC
11 2 (0.18%) GPFS
11 2 (0.18%) IAG
11 2 (0.18%) KVM
12 1 (0.090%) iptables
12 1 (0.090%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.090%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 42 (3.78%) SCCM
2 37 (3.33%) Microsoft Intune
3 24 (2.16%) Ansible
4 18 (1.62%) Terraform
5 16 (1.44%) Kubernetes
6 13 (1.17%) Jamf Pro
7 10 (0.90%) FortiGate
8 9 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (0.72%) Grafana
9 8 (0.72%) vCenter Server
10 7 (0.63%) WSUS
11 6 (0.54%) Data Guard
11 6 (0.54%) Oracle RMAN
11 6 (0.54%) SCOM
12 5 (0.45%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.45%) vMotion
13 4 (0.36%) PowerCLI
13 4 (0.36%) Progress Chef
13 4 (0.36%) Puppet
14 3 (0.27%) vRealize
Vendors
1 304 (27.39%) ServiceNow
2 179 (16.13%) Microsoft
3 57 (5.14%) Remedy
4 55 (4.95%) VMware
5 46 (4.14%) Cisco
6 37 (3.33%) Oracle
7 28 (2.52%) Atlassian
7 28 (2.52%) HP
7 28 (2.52%) SAP
8 25 (2.25%) BMC
9 24 (2.16%) IFS
10 21 (1.89%) Splunk
11 17 (1.53%) Dell
12 15 (1.35%) SolarWinds
13 14 (1.26%) Canon
14 13 (1.17%) Citrix
14 13 (1.17%) F5
14 13 (1.17%) Salesforce
14 13 (1.17%) Zscaler
15 12 (1.08%) Google