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

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 91 96
Rank change year-on-year +5 +5 -14
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,686 964 917
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.09% 2.91% 2.41%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.66% 3.21% 2.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,098 591 582
10th Percentile £263 £200 £213
25th Percentile £434 £343 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £488 £518
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% -5.80% -1.43%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £607
90th Percentile £725 £649 £684
UK excluding London median daily rate £533 £485 £503
% change year-on-year +9.82% -3.48% -1.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 89 17
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £20.03
25th Percentile £16.04 £15.34 £25.75
Median hourly rate £40.27 £20.83 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +93.30% -42.14% -19.33%
75th Percentile £84.06 £33.75 £48.75
90th Percentile £92.00 £60.00 £54.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.53 £20.79 £40.50
% change year-on-year +70.90% -48.67% +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 46,102 30,004 32,672
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.46% 86.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,718 18,629 19,703
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% -2.78%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,326 1,885 1,303
10th Percentile £13.58 £14.33 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -8.31%
75th Percentile £65.00 £43.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.52 £65.00 £73.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £41.25
% change year-on-year +68.43% -46.02% -2.94%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 +2 1,449 £525 +5.00% 1,440
UK excluding London -4 976 £533 +9.82% 891
London +36 517 £525 +5.00% 594
Work from Home +2 452 £525 +10.53% 646
South East +10 310 £575 +27.78% 243
North of England -11 279 £480 +6.67% 208
North West -9 164 £483 +5.92% 110
Midlands -27 125 £525 +3.96% 137
West Midlands -14 118 £525 +0.96% 87
Yorkshire +2 109 £463 +23.33% 80
Scotland +23 102 £566 +22.38% 73
South West -31 102 £558 +1.36% 109
East of England +4 66 £550 +1.76% 103
Wales -5 13 £800 +247.83% 15
Northern Ireland +10 8 - - 16
East Midlands -33 7 £206 -51.47% 48
North East -43 6 £600 +207.69% 19

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
1 128 (7.59%) SharePoint
2 66 (3.91%) Microsoft Exchange
3 63 (3.74%) Confluence
4 15 (0.89%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.30%) CMS
5 5 (0.30%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.24%) Apache
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 (0.059%) Documentum
9 1 (0.059%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.059%) Mattermost
9 1 (0.059%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.059%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
9 1 (0.059%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.059%) SAS
9 1 (0.059%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 85 (5.04%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (2.49%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (0.89%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.47%) Chatbot
5 8 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.059%) Maple
7 1 (0.059%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 52 (3.08%) Remedy ITSM
2 14 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.59%) 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
6 3 (0.18%) Teamcenter
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
1 293 (17.38%) Azure
2 223 (13.23%) Microsoft 365
3 145 (8.60%) Entra ID
4 141 (8.36%) AWS
5 78 (4.63%) Power Platform
6 69 (4.09%) SaaS
7 59 (3.50%) OneDrive
8 45 (2.67%) GCP
9 42 (2.49%) Azure DevOps
10 27 (1.60%) Azure Monitor
11 21 (1.25%) GitHub
12 19 (1.13%) Microsoft Copilot
13 18 (1.07%) Google Workspace
14 15 (0.89%) Dynamics 365
14 15 (0.89%) Power Automate
15 14 (0.83%) Serverless
16 12 (0.71%) Azure Sentinel
17 11 (0.65%) Amazon EC2
17 11 (0.65%) IaaS
18 10 (0.59%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 77 (4.57%) Firewall
2 76 (4.51%) DNS
3 66 (3.91%) VPN
4 58 (3.44%) DHCP
5 53 (3.14%) TCP/IP
6 47 (2.79%) Network Security
7 40 (2.37%) WAN
8 36 (2.14%) LAN
9 27 (1.60%) Wi-Fi
10 18 (1.07%) VLAN
11 16 (0.95%) Skype
12 15 (0.89%) SD-WAN
12 15 (0.89%) Wireless
13 14 (0.83%) BGP
14 12 (0.71%) SSH
15 11 (0.65%) Intrusion Detection
16 10 (0.59%) Internet
16 10 (0.59%) OSPF
16 10 (0.59%) SAN
17 9 (0.53%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (2.73%) Power BI
2 34 (2.02%) SQL Server
3 24 (1.42%) Metadata
4 9 (0.53%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (0.53%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (0.47%) Looker
5 8 (0.47%) MySQL
5 8 (0.47%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (0.42%) Oracle Database
7 6 (0.36%) BigQuery
7 6 (0.36%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.30%) MariaDB
8 5 (0.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 4 (0.24%) Oracle Database 11g
10 3 (0.18%) Amazon Aurora
10 3 (0.18%) 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
1 152 (9.02%) JIRA
2 36 (2.14%) Git
3 22 (1.30%) Jenkins
4 17 (1.01%) Bitbucket
5 13 (0.77%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 9 (0.53%) 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 (0.059%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.059%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.059%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.059%) MLflow
10 1 (0.059%) Snyk
10 1 (0.059%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 686 (40.69%) Social Skills
2 283 (16.79%) Analytical Skills
3 277 (16.43%) Finance
4 210 (12.46%) Public Sector
5 80 (4.74%) Organisational Skills
6 73 (4.33%) Telecoms
7 71 (4.21%) Documentation Skills
8 64 (3.80%) Banking
9 61 (3.62%) Influencing Skills
10 48 (2.85%) Aerospace
10 48 (2.85%) Legal
11 40 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 30 (1.78%) Military
13 29 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
14 24 (1.42%) Local Government
14 24 (1.42%) Manufacturing
15 19 (1.13%) Police
16 16 (0.95%) Retail
17 14 (0.83%) Law
18 10 (0.59%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 182 (10.79%) Architect
2 160 (9.49%) Analyst
3 158 (9.37%) Lead
4 125 (7.41%) Consultant
5 119 (7.06%) Senior
6 114 (6.76%) Service Manager
7 78 (4.63%) Support Engineer
8 77 (4.57%) Delivery Manager
8 77 (4.57%) Developer
9 69 (4.09%) Project Manager
10 66 (3.91%) IT Manager
11 59 (3.50%) Solutions Architect
12 51 (3.02%) IT Support
13 49 (2.91%) Service Analyst
14 42 (2.49%) ServiceNow Architect
15 41 (2.43%) ServiceNow Developer
16 40 (2.37%) Service Architect
17 38 (2.25%) IT Engineer
17 38 (2.25%) Transition Manager
18 36 (2.14%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (4.74%) REST
2 64 (3.80%) Terraform
3 29 (1.72%) SOAP
4 27 (1.60%) XML
5 26 (1.54%) Middleware
6 24 (1.42%) Web Services
7 22 (1.30%) JSON
8 18 (1.07%) HTML
9 17 (1.01%) CSS
10 13 (0.77%) LDAP
11 12 (0.71%) .NET
12 10 (0.59%) ARM Templates
12 10 (0.59%) SAML
13 9 (0.53%) Elastic Stack
14 8 (0.47%) OAuth
14 8 (0.47%) XSLT
15 7 (0.42%) AngularJS
15 7 (0.42%) Node.js
16 6 (0.36%) React
16 6 (0.36%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 183 (10.85%) Onboarding
2 141 (8.36%) CMDB
3 106 (6.29%) Management Information System
4 72 (4.27%) Enterprise Software
5 56 (3.32%) Product Ownership
6 55 (3.26%) Data Centre
7 39 (2.31%) PKI
8 33 (1.96%) Hybrid Cloud
9 32 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
10 27 (1.60%) Security Operations Centre
11 26 (1.54%) Virtual Team
12 25 (1.48%) Cloud Native
12 25 (1.48%) Operational Technology
13 18 (1.07%) Cyber Threat
14 17 (1.01%) Security Posture
14 17 (1.01%) Self-Motivation
15 16 (0.95%) Video Conferencing
16 15 (0.89%) Analytical Mindset
17 14 (0.83%) AI Agents
17 14 (0.83%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 343 (20.34%) Windows
2 99 (5.87%) Linux
3 93 (5.52%) Windows Server
4 76 (4.51%) Windows 10
5 39 (2.31%) Apple iOS
6 36 (2.14%) Mac OS
7 24 (1.42%) Android
8 21 (1.25%) Unix
9 20 (1.19%) Windows 7
10 19 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 6 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.24%) AIX
12 4 (0.24%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 3 (0.18%) Solaris
13 3 (0.18%) zOS
14 2 (0.12%) Ubuntu
14 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.12%) Windows XP
15 1 (0.059%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 894 (53.02%) ITIL
2 734 (43.53%) ITSM
3 558 (33.10%) Stakeholder Management
4 472 (28.00%) Continuous Improvement
5 355 (21.06%) Service Delivery
6 333 (19.75%) Agile
6 333 (19.75%) Problem-Solving
7 258 (15.30%) Roadmaps
8 254 (15.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 244 (14.47%) Change Management
10 204 (12.10%) Cybersecurity
11 200 (11.86%) Customer Service
12 195 (11.57%) Incident Management
13 173 (10.26%) DevOps
14 158 (9.37%) Project Delivery
15 150 (8.90%) Decision-Making
16 144 (8.54%) AI
17 139 (8.24%) Migration
18 135 (8.01%) Risk Management
19 122 (7.24%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 150 (8.90%) PowerShell
2 100 (5.93%) Python
3 62 (3.68%) SQL
4 60 (3.56%) JavaScript
5 59 (3.50%) Bash
6 22 (1.30%) Java
7 19 (1.13%) VBScript
8 16 (0.95%) Bicep
9 15 (0.89%) C#
9 15 (0.89%) VB
10 9 (0.53%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.42%) Groovy
12 5 (0.30%) C
12 5 (0.30%) Perl
12 5 (0.30%) TypeScript
13 4 (0.24%) PL/SQL
13 4 (0.24%) T-SQL
14 3 (0.18%) COBOL
14 3 (0.18%) Google Apps Script
14 3 (0.18%) RPG
Qualifications
1 652 (38.67%) Security Cleared
2 450 (26.69%) SC Cleared
3 158 (9.37%) Degree
3 158 (9.37%) DV Cleared
4 64 (3.80%) PMP
5 60 (3.56%) PMI Certification
6 58 (3.44%) BPSS Clearance
7 56 (3.32%) ITIL Certification
8 41 (2.43%) Microsoft Certification
9 36 (2.14%) CISSP
10 34 (2.02%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 31 (1.84%) CISM
12 27 (1.60%) Cisco Certification
12 27 (1.60%) Computer Science Degree
13 26 (1.54%) A+ Certification
14 24 (1.42%) DBS Check
15 22 (1.30%) Azure Certification
16 15 (0.89%) AWS Certification
17 10 (0.59%) CCNA
18 9 (0.53%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 144 (8.54%) SLA
2 65 (3.86%) QA
3 61 (3.62%) Data Quality
4 50 (2.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 38 (2.25%) GRC
5 38 (2.25%) NCSC
6 36 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 35 (2.08%) NIST
8 34 (2.02%) GDPR
9 23 (1.36%) PMO
10 16 (0.95%) Accessibility
10 16 (0.95%) ISO 9001
11 13 (0.77%) COBIT
11 13 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.59%) PCI DSS
13 8 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 8 (0.47%) ISO 22301
13 8 (0.47%) WCAG
14 7 (0.42%) Disclosure Scotland
15 5 (0.30%) JSP 440
System Software
1 202 (11.98%) Active Directory
2 87 (5.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (2.25%) Hyper-V
4 28 (1.66%) VMware ESXi
5 25 (1.48%) Virtual Desktop
6 24 (1.42%) Docker
7 22 (1.30%) vSphere
8 17 (1.01%) BitLocker
8 17 (1.01%) VMware NSX
9 13 (0.77%) vCloud
10 9 (0.53%) Firmware
11 8 (0.47%) Citrix Hypervisor
11 8 (0.47%) XenApp
11 8 (0.47%) XenDesktop
12 6 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.30%) KVM
13 5 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
14 4 (0.24%) IAG
14 4 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
15 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 103 (6.11%) Microsoft Intune
2 90 (5.34%) SCCM
3 58 (3.44%) Ansible
4 27 (1.60%) Kubernetes
5 26 (1.54%) Single Sign-On
6 24 (1.42%) SCOM
7 18 (1.07%) vCenter Server
8 15 (0.89%) Jamf Pro
9 11 (0.65%) Grafana
9 11 (0.65%) WSUS
10 8 (0.47%) 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
1 468 (27.76%) ServiceNow
2 431 (25.56%) Microsoft
3 114 (6.76%) VMware
4 57 (3.38%) Remedy
5 55 (3.26%) Cisco
6 49 (2.91%) BMC
7 41 (2.43%) SAP
8 38 (2.25%) Atlassian
9 35 (2.08%) Dynatrace
9 35 (2.08%) Oracle
10 33 (1.96%) Google
11 29 (1.72%) IBM
12 28 (1.66%) Splunk
13 27 (1.60%) Apple
14 23 (1.36%) Citrix
15 22 (1.30%) CyberArk
16 20 (1.19%) Salesforce
16 20 (1.19%) SolarWinds
17 15 (0.89%) Palo Alto
17 15 (0.89%) Zscaler