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 23 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 82 98
Rank change year-on-year -7 +16 -14
Contract jobs citing Service Management 1,633 964 879
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.98% 2.95% 2.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.53% 3.26% 2.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,075 579 565
10th Percentile £263 £200 £210
25th Percentile £425 £350 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £488 £501
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% -2.60% -4.67%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £600
90th Percentile £725 £650 £680
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +7.20% -2.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 82 13
10th Percentile £14.50 £12.62 £15.84
25th Percentile £18.40 £12.82 £26.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £20.66 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +166.21% -56.51% -13.64%
75th Percentile £85.00 £33.56 £50.00
90th Percentile £92.53 £60.00 £54.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £18.73 £47.50
% change year-on-year +193.65% -60.57% +116.85%

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 46,309 29,588 32,312
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.42% 90.49% 85.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,063 18,372 19,750
10th Percentile £325 £300 £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 £627 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,189 1,818 1,403
10th Percentile £13.81 £14.25 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -
75th Percentile £67.25 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.25 £74.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +79.25% -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 23 September 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 23 September 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 23 September 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 -4 1,406 £525 +5.00% 1,265
UK excluding London -11 956 £525 +7.20% 892
London +37 496 £525 +5.00% 498
Work from Home +2 440 £525 +5.74% 568
South East +11 307 £575 +27.78% 258
North of England -24 267 £475 +5.56% 213
North West -10 157 £480 +3.45% 118
Midlands -36 123 £525 +5.00% 118
West Midlands -10 117 £525 +1.94% 75
South West -31 106 £600 +10.09% 99
Yorkshire -17 102 £450 +26.76% 77
Scotland +20 96 £535 +15.68% 73
East of England -7 57 £525 -4.55% 94
Wales -7 13 £800 +247.83% 23
Northern Ireland +8 8 - - 30
North East -40 8 £535 +174.36% 20
East Midlands -36 6 £163 -45.83% 43

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
1 122 (7.47%) SharePoint
2 64 (3.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 62 (3.80%) Confluence
4 15 (0.92%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.31%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.24%) IBM Transformation Extender
7 3 (0.18%) CMS
8 2 (0.12%) CICS
9 1 (0.061%) Apache
9 1 (0.061%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.061%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.061%) IIS
9 1 (0.061%) Mattermost
9 1 (0.061%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
9 1 (0.061%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 90 (5.51%) Microsoft Office
2 38 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.67%) MS Visio
5 10 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
6 8 (0.49%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.061%) Maple
Business Applications
1 54 (3.31%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (0.67%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.43%) Primavera
5 5 (0.31%) ContrOCC
5 5 (0.31%) NEC Housing
5 5 (0.31%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
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
7 2 (0.12%) Exchequer
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
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
8 1 (0.061%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 283 (17.33%) Azure
2 210 (12.86%) Microsoft 365
3 138 (8.45%) AWS
4 131 (8.02%) Entra ID
5 71 (4.35%) Power Platform
5 71 (4.35%) SaaS
6 58 (3.55%) OneDrive
7 38 (2.33%) GCP
8 35 (2.14%) Azure DevOps
9 21 (1.29%) Azure Monitor
10 19 (1.16%) Microsoft Copilot
11 14 (0.86%) Dynamics 365
11 14 (0.86%) GitHub
11 14 (0.86%) Google Workspace
11 14 (0.86%) Power Automate
12 13 (0.80%) Serverless
13 9 (0.55%) Azure Sentinel
13 9 (0.55%) IaaS
13 9 (0.55%) OCI
14 8 (0.49%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 75 (4.59%) Firewall
2 73 (4.47%) DNS
3 56 (3.43%) VPN
4 55 (3.37%) DHCP
5 45 (2.76%) Network Security
5 45 (2.76%) TCP/IP
6 38 (2.33%) WAN
7 34 (2.08%) LAN
8 24 (1.47%) Wi-Fi
9 18 (1.10%) Wireless
10 16 (0.98%) Skype
11 15 (0.92%) VLAN
12 13 (0.80%) SD-WAN
13 11 (0.67%) BGP
13 11 (0.67%) Intrusion Detection
13 11 (0.67%) SAN
14 10 (0.61%) 5G
14 10 (0.61%) Internet
14 10 (0.61%) SSH
15 8 (0.49%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (2.57%) Power BI
2 34 (2.08%) SQL Server
3 24 (1.47%) Metadata
4 9 (0.55%) Oracle Database
5 8 (0.49%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (0.43%) Oracle Database 11g
7 6 (0.37%) MySQL
7 6 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
8 5 (0.31%) MariaDB
8 5 (0.31%) Oracle Reports
8 5 (0.31%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (0.31%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.31%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 3 (0.18%) Amazon Aurora
9 3 (0.18%) Looker
10 2 (0.12%) Db2
10 2 (0.12%) EDRMS
10 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Analysis Services
10 2 (0.12%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 156 (9.55%) JIRA
2 30 (1.84%) Git
3 20 (1.22%) Jenkins
4 16 (0.98%) Bitbucket
5 12 (0.73%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 5 (0.31%) Browser DevTools
6 5 (0.31%) GitLab
7 4 (0.24%) Maven
7 4 (0.24%) webpack
8 3 (0.18%) Fiddler
8 3 (0.18%) Gradle
8 3 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.18%) ScriptRunner
9 2 (0.12%) Firebug
9 2 (0.12%) Hudson
9 2 (0.12%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.061%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.061%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.061%) IntelliJ
10 1 (0.061%) MSI
General
1 651 (39.87%) Social Skills
2 268 (16.41%) Analytical Skills
2 268 (16.41%) Finance
3 201 (12.31%) Public Sector
4 74 (4.53%) Telecoms
5 66 (4.04%) Documentation Skills
6 65 (3.98%) Organisational Skills
7 60 (3.67%) Banking
8 57 (3.49%) Influencing Skills
9 47 (2.88%) Legal
10 41 (2.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 39 (2.39%) Aerospace
12 29 (1.78%) Military
13 27 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
14 22 (1.35%) Local Government
15 19 (1.16%) Manufacturing
16 17 (1.04%) Retail
17 16 (0.98%) Police
18 11 (0.67%) Law
19 10 (0.61%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 179 (10.96%) Architect
2 152 (9.31%) Lead
3 149 (9.12%) Analyst
4 118 (7.23%) Senior
5 116 (7.10%) Service Manager
6 113 (6.92%) Consultant
7 76 (4.65%) Support Engineer
8 75 (4.59%) IT Manager
9 71 (4.35%) Project Manager
10 69 (4.23%) Delivery Manager
10 69 (4.23%) Developer
11 57 (3.49%) Solutions Architect
12 52 (3.18%) IT Support
13 47 (2.88%) Service Analyst
14 42 (2.57%) ServiceNow Architect
15 41 (2.51%) Service Architect
15 41 (2.51%) ServiceNow Developer
16 39 (2.39%) Transition Manager
17 36 (2.20%) IT Engineer
18 35 (2.14%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (5.08%) REST
2 52 (3.18%) Terraform
3 34 (2.08%) SOAP
4 25 (1.53%) XML
5 21 (1.29%) HTML
6 20 (1.22%) CSS
6 20 (1.22%) Web Services
7 19 (1.16%) JSON
7 19 (1.16%) Middleware
8 10 (0.61%) SAML
9 9 (0.55%) AngularJS
9 9 (0.55%) Elastic Stack
10 8 (0.49%) XSLT
11 7 (0.43%) .NET
11 7 (0.43%) ARM Templates
11 7 (0.43%) OAuth
12 6 (0.37%) Ajax
12 6 (0.37%) LDAP
13 5 (0.31%) Node.js
13 5 (0.31%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 180 (11.02%) Onboarding
2 130 (7.96%) CMDB
3 90 (5.51%) Management Information System
4 58 (3.55%) Enterprise Software
5 56 (3.43%) Data Centre
6 51 (3.12%) Product Ownership
7 38 (2.33%) PKI
8 29 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
8 29 (1.78%) Virtual Team
9 28 (1.71%) Hybrid Cloud
10 27 (1.65%) Operational Technology
11 23 (1.41%) Security Operations Centre
12 20 (1.22%) Cloud Native
13 18 (1.10%) Clustering
14 17 (1.04%) Analytical Mindset
14 17 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
14 17 (1.04%) Self-Motivation
15 15 (0.92%) AI Agents
15 15 (0.92%) NHS
15 15 (0.92%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 326 (19.96%) Windows
2 93 (5.70%) Windows Server
3 91 (5.57%) Linux
4 74 (4.53%) Windows 10
5 36 (2.20%) Apple iOS
6 35 (2.14%) Mac OS
7 23 (1.41%) Unix
8 21 (1.29%) Android
9 20 (1.22%) Windows 7
10 15 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 6 (0.37%) Windows Server 2019
12 5 (0.31%) Solaris
13 4 (0.24%) AIX
13 4 (0.24%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
14 3 (0.18%) zOS
15 2 (0.12%) Windows XP
16 1 (0.061%) SUSE
16 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 869 (53.21%) ITIL
2 722 (44.21%) ITSM
3 527 (32.27%) Stakeholder Management
4 458 (28.05%) Continuous Improvement
5 347 (21.25%) Service Delivery
6 330 (20.21%) Agile
7 328 (20.09%) Problem-Solving
8 250 (15.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 247 (15.13%) Change Management
10 229 (14.02%) Roadmaps
11 188 (11.51%) Customer Service
12 180 (11.02%) Incident Management
13 176 (10.78%) Cybersecurity
14 162 (9.92%) DevOps
15 150 (9.19%) Project Delivery
16 145 (8.88%) Decision-Making
17 137 (8.39%) AI
18 133 (8.14%) Risk Management
19 129 (7.90%) Migration
20 122 (7.47%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 146 (8.94%) PowerShell
2 90 (5.51%) Python
3 64 (3.92%) SQL
4 61 (3.74%) JavaScript
5 48 (2.94%) Bash
6 19 (1.16%) VBScript
7 16 (0.98%) Java
8 15 (0.92%) VB
9 12 (0.73%) C#
10 10 (0.61%) Bicep
11 9 (0.55%) Shell Script
12 8 (0.49%) Groovy
12 8 (0.49%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.37%) C
14 5 (0.31%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.31%) Perl
14 5 (0.31%) T-SQL
15 4 (0.24%) TypeScript
16 3 (0.18%) Lua
17 2 (0.12%) ActionScript 2.0
Qualifications
1 618 (37.84%) Security Cleared
2 425 (26.03%) SC Cleared
3 162 (9.92%) Degree
4 149 (9.12%) DV Cleared
5 64 (3.92%) PMP
6 62 (3.80%) ITIL Certification
7 59 (3.61%) PMI Certification
8 57 (3.49%) BPSS Clearance
9 41 (2.51%) Microsoft Certification
10 36 (2.20%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 35 (2.14%) CISSP
12 31 (1.90%) CISM
13 30 (1.84%) Cisco Certification
14 28 (1.71%) Computer Science Degree
15 27 (1.65%) A+ Certification
16 21 (1.29%) Azure Certification
17 16 (0.98%) DBS Check
18 15 (0.92%) AWS Certification
19 14 (0.86%) CCNA
20 11 (0.67%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 129 (7.90%) SLA
2 61 (3.74%) QA
3 55 (3.37%) Data Quality
4 49 (3.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 43 (2.63%) GRC
6 35 (2.14%) NCSC
7 33 (2.02%) GDPR
8 30 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 30 (1.84%) NIST
9 26 (1.59%) PMO
10 16 (0.98%) COBIT
10 16 (0.98%) ISO 9001
11 14 (0.86%) Accessibility
12 13 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials
13 9 (0.55%) Disclosure Scotland
13 9 (0.55%) PCI DSS
14 8 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.49%) WCAG
15 7 (0.43%) ISO 31000
15 7 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 184 (11.27%) Active Directory
2 87 (5.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (2.27%) Hyper-V
4 28 (1.71%) VMware ESXi
5 22 (1.35%) vSphere
6 21 (1.29%) Virtual Desktop
7 18 (1.10%) Docker
8 17 (1.04%) VMware NSX
9 16 (0.98%) BitLocker
10 13 (0.80%) vCloud
11 7 (0.43%) Firmware
12 6 (0.37%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 6 (0.37%) IAG
12 6 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
12 6 (0.37%) XenApp
12 6 (0.37%) XenDesktop
13 5 (0.31%) Oracle RAC
14 4 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
15 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.18%) NFS
Systems Management
1 101 (6.18%) Microsoft Intune
2 82 (5.02%) SCCM
3 52 (3.18%) Ansible
4 24 (1.47%) SCOM
4 24 (1.47%) Single Sign-On
5 22 (1.35%) Kubernetes
6 18 (1.10%) vCenter Server
7 14 (0.86%) Jamf Pro
8 11 (0.67%) WSUS
9 8 (0.49%) Data Guard
9 8 (0.49%) NetBackup
9 8 (0.49%) Oracle RMAN
10 6 (0.37%) Grafana
10 6 (0.37%) Progress Chef
11 4 (0.24%) PowerCLI
11 4 (0.24%) Puppet
11 4 (0.24%) Tivoli
11 4 (0.24%) Tivoli Monitoring
11 4 (0.24%) vMotion
12 3 (0.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 469 (28.72%) ServiceNow
2 399 (24.43%) Microsoft
3 116 (7.10%) VMware
4 57 (3.49%) Remedy
5 52 (3.18%) BMC
6 51 (3.12%) Cisco
7 40 (2.45%) Oracle
8 39 (2.39%) Atlassian
9 34 (2.08%) SAP
10 31 (1.90%) Dynatrace
11 27 (1.65%) Apple
11 27 (1.65%) Splunk
12 25 (1.53%) IBM
13 24 (1.47%) Google
14 23 (1.41%) CyberArk
15 22 (1.35%) Salesforce
16 20 (1.22%) SolarWinds
17 19 (1.16%) Citrix
18 15 (0.92%) Zscaler
19 14 (0.86%) IFS