SLA Contract Job Trends

Service Level Agreement (SLA)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring SLA skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 22 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
22 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 224 198 159
Rank change year-on-year -26 -39 +22
Contract jobs citing SLA 480 425 673
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.27% 1.34% 1.56%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 7.38% 9.34% 10.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 251 221 334
10th Percentile £171 £148 £148
25th Percentile £258 £192 £186
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £410 £260 £375
Median % change year-on-year +57.69% -30.67% +25.00%
75th Percentile £525 £499 £514
90th Percentile £625 £588 £635
UK excluding London median daily rate £350 £261 £300
% change year-on-year +34.36% -13.17% +33.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 123 43 73
10th Percentile £16.05 £14.70 £12.63
25th Percentile £17.69 £17.85 £13.29
Median hourly rate £18.50 £24.18 £17.14
Median % change year-on-year -23.49% +41.07% -2.06%
75th Percentile £20.35 £26.13 £32.50
90th Percentile £26.48 £36.19 £61.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.50 £24.18 £14.16
% change year-on-year -23.49% +70.76% -17.40%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

SLA falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 6,506 4,549 6,180
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.21% 14.35% 14.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,202 2,668 4,114
10th Percentile £315 £256 £307
25th Percentile £410 £375 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £640
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 329 178 289
10th Percentile £15.30 £15.00 £12.56
25th Percentile £17.96 £21.01 £15.42
Median hourly rate £25.77 £29.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.14% -3.33% +20.00%
75th Percentile £63.40 £64.93 £57.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.72 £29.00 £28.37
% change year-on-year -28.55% +2.22% +22.76%

SLA
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SLA relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

SLA job vacancy trend in the UK

SLA
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SLA.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SLA

SLA
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SLA over the 6 months to 22 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SLA in the UK

SLA
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SLA.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SLA

SLA
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SLA over the 6 months to 22 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SLA in the UK

SLA
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 SLA within the UK over the 6 months to 22 January 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 -8 434 £400 +56.10% 190
UK excluding London -37 338 £350 +34.36% 187
London -2 114 £475 +93.88% 47
East of England +37 100 £473 +110.00% 23
Work from Home -14 97 £438 +88.17% 53
South East -58 62 £411 +64.50% 65
North of England -70 59 £285 -4.20% 33
Midlands -62 49 £195 -13.33% 33
South West -5 44 £283 -48.64% 16
West Midlands -46 36 £200 -3.03% 17
North West -49 31 £300 -29.41% 17
Yorkshire -42 21 £283 +17.71% 12
Scotland +4 18 £355 +69.05% 18
East Midlands -31 13 £134 -61.71% 16
Northern Ireland -7 7 £500 +237.84% 1
North East -8 7 £265 +0.95% 4
Wales -5 3 £183 -16.82% 6

SLA
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 20 (4.17%) Microsoft Exchange
1 20 (4.17%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.04%) Confluence
3 4 (0.83%) Oracle Workflow
4 2 (0.42%) IIS
4 2 (0.42%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.21%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.21%) GeoServer
5 1 (0.21%) Oracle Spatial
5 1 (0.21%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.21%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 46 (9.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 43 (8.96%) Spreadsheet
3 33 (6.88%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (1.04%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.83%) Oracle Smart View
6 3 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.63%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 15 (3.13%) Oracle EBS
1 15 (3.13%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 10 (2.08%) Oracle Payables
3 9 (1.88%) Remedy ITSM
4 8 (1.67%) Oracle Assets
4 8 (1.67%) Oracle General Ledger
5 6 (1.25%) Oracle Receivables
6 5 (1.04%) Oracle FAH
7 4 (0.83%) Oracle EBS R12
7 4 (0.83%) Oracle ERP
8 3 (0.63%) Oracle Financials
8 3 (0.63%) Workday HCM
9 2 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
9 2 (0.42%) Dynamics GP
9 2 (0.42%) Oracle Cash Management
9 2 (0.42%) Oracle E-Business Tax
9 2 (0.42%) Temenos T24
10 1 (0.21%) iTrent
10 1 (0.21%) SAP Payroll
10 1 (0.21%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 64 (13.33%) Microsoft 365
2 45 (9.38%) Azure
3 31 (6.46%) AWS
4 16 (3.33%) GCP
5 11 (2.29%) Entra ID
6 8 (1.67%) Power Platform
7 7 (1.46%) GitHub
7 7 (1.46%) OCI
7 7 (1.46%) SaaS
8 6 (1.25%) IaaS
8 6 (1.25%) PaaS
9 5 (1.04%) GitHub Actions
9 5 (1.04%) OpenShift
10 4 (0.83%) Cloud Computing
11 3 (0.63%) AWS CloudFormation
11 3 (0.63%) AWS KMS
11 3 (0.63%) Azure DevOps
11 3 (0.63%) OneDrive
11 3 (0.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 2 (0.42%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 26 (5.42%) Firewall
2 24 (5.00%) WAN
3 19 (3.96%) DNS
4 16 (3.33%) SD-WAN
5 14 (2.92%) VPN
6 13 (2.71%) PABX
7 12 (2.50%) DHCP
7 12 (2.50%) MPLS
7 12 (2.50%) Wireless
8 10 (2.08%) LAN
9 8 (1.67%) TCP/IP
10 7 (1.46%) BGP
10 7 (1.46%) Cisco ASA
10 7 (1.46%) OSPF
11 6 (1.25%) Broadband
11 6 (1.25%) Network Security
11 6 (1.25%) SDH
11 6 (1.25%) VLAN
12 5 (1.04%) Cisco IOS
12 5 (1.04%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.08%) SQL Server
2 7 (1.46%) Oracle Database
2 7 (1.46%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (1.25%) MongoDB
3 6 (1.25%) Power BI
4 5 (1.04%) MySQL
5 4 (0.83%) Relational Database
6 3 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
6 3 (0.63%) SAP HANA
7 2 (0.42%) GIS
7 2 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.42%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.21%) Amazon Aurora
8 1 (0.21%) Azure SQL Database
8 1 (0.21%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.21%) Metadata
8 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 12c
8 1 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 16 (3.33%) JIRA
2 15 (3.13%) Jenkins
3 14 (2.92%) GitLab
4 13 (2.71%) Git
5 5 (1.04%) Visual Studio
6 4 (0.83%) Postman
7 3 (0.63%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.42%) Jaeger
8 2 (0.42%) PVCS
9 1 (0.21%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.21%) JMeter
9 1 (0.21%) Metasploit
9 1 (0.21%) Selenium
9 1 (0.21%) TestDirector
General
1 225 (46.88%) Social Skills
2 97 (20.21%) Finance
3 59 (12.29%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (11.46%) Public Sector
5 34 (7.08%) Telecoms
6 31 (6.46%) Organisational Skills
7 29 (6.04%) Banking
8 23 (4.79%) Legal
9 21 (4.38%) Documentation Skills
10 13 (2.71%) Retail
11 8 (1.67%) Aerospace
11 8 (1.67%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.67%) Law
11 8 (1.67%) Manufacturing
12 7 (1.46%) Investment Banking
12 7 (1.46%) Marketing
13 5 (1.04%) General Ledger
13 5 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (1.04%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 79 (16.46%) IT Support
2 62 (12.92%) Analyst
3 49 (10.21%) Lead
4 35 (7.29%) Administrator
4 35 (7.29%) Desktop Support
5 30 (6.25%) Support Engineer
6 27 (5.63%) Technical Support
7 25 (5.21%) Support Analyst
8 23 (4.79%) Service Analyst
8 23 (4.79%) Service Manager
9 21 (4.38%) Consultant
9 21 (4.38%) Team Leader
10 19 (3.96%) Senior
11 17 (3.54%) Desktop Engineer
11 17 (3.54%) IT Administrator
12 16 (3.33%) Service Desk Analyst
13 15 (3.13%) IT Manager
14 14 (2.92%) Developer
15 13 (2.71%) Desktop Support Engineer
16 12 (2.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (2.29%) Middleware
2 9 (1.88%) Oracle Fusion
3 7 (1.46%) LDAP
4 5 (1.04%) Kafka
4 5 (1.04%) REST
5 4 (0.83%) 802.1X
6 2 (0.42%) .NET
6 2 (0.42%) CSS
6 2 (0.42%) Elastic Stack
6 2 (0.42%) Node.js
6 2 (0.42%) OAuth
6 2 (0.42%) OAuth2
6 2 (0.42%) OpenID
6 2 (0.42%) RESTful
6 2 (0.42%) SAML
6 2 (0.42%) Universal Windows Platform
6 2 (0.42%) Web Services
7 1 (0.21%) HTML
7 1 (0.21%) RSS
7 1 (0.21%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 31 (6.46%) Management Information System
2 26 (5.42%) Onboarding
3 20 (4.17%) Data Centre
3 20 (4.17%) Self-Motivation
4 15 (3.13%) Driving Licence
4 15 (3.13%) Smartphone
5 13 (2.71%) Product Ownership
6 8 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (1.46%) Public Cloud
8 6 (1.25%) Enterprise Cloud
9 5 (1.04%) Cloud Native
9 5 (1.04%) CMDB
9 5 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.04%) Equities
9 5 (1.04%) NHS
10 4 (0.83%) Derivative
10 4 (0.83%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (0.83%) Equity Derivative
10 4 (0.83%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 94 (19.58%) Windows
2 32 (6.67%) Linux
3 31 (6.46%) Windows 10
4 19 (3.96%) Unix
5 16 (3.33%) Windows Server
6 15 (3.13%) Android
7 12 (2.50%) Apple iOS
8 9 (1.88%) Mac OS
9 7 (1.46%) CentOS
9 7 (1.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.63%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.42%) Windows 8
11 2 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.21%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.21%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (30.21%) ITIL
2 117 (24.38%) Customer Service
3 93 (19.38%) Service Delivery
4 76 (15.83%) Time Management
5 62 (12.92%) Continuous Improvement
6 58 (12.08%) ITSM
7 50 (10.42%) Stakeholder Management
8 49 (10.21%) Problem-Solving
9 47 (9.79%) Service Management
10 46 (9.58%) Incident Management
11 43 (8.96%) Change Management
12 38 (7.92%) Agile
13 34 (7.08%) Root Cause Analysis
14 33 (6.88%) Asset Management
15 29 (6.04%) Roadmaps
16 27 (5.63%) Problem Management
17 26 (5.42%) Customer Experience
18 24 (5.00%) DevOps
19 22 (4.58%) Disaster Recovery
19 22 (4.58%) Line Management
Programming Languages
1 28 (5.83%) SQL
2 22 (4.58%) Python
3 21 (4.38%) Shell Script
4 14 (2.92%) PowerShell
5 13 (2.71%) Java
6 7 (1.46%) MATLAB
7 5 (1.04%) Bash
7 5 (1.04%) PL/SQL
8 4 (0.83%) C++
9 3 (0.63%) Go
9 3 (0.63%) JavaScript
10 2 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.21%) Bicep
11 1 (0.21%) C#
11 1 (0.21%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.21%) VB
Qualifications
1 131 (27.29%) Security Cleared
2 106 (22.08%) SC Cleared
3 34 (7.08%) Degree
4 17 (3.54%) DV Cleared
5 13 (2.71%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (2.71%) ITIL Certification
6 11 (2.29%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 11 (2.29%) MOS
7 7 (1.46%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (1.46%) PMI Certification
8 4 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (0.83%) DBS Check
8 4 (0.83%) PMP
9 3 (0.63%) CCA
9 3 (0.63%) CCNP
9 3 (0.63%) Numerate Degree
10 2 (0.42%) CCIE
10 2 (0.42%) HNC
10 2 (0.42%) MCP
10 2 (0.42%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (3.75%) GDPR
2 16 (3.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (1.88%) QA
4 8 (1.67%) Data Quality
5 7 (1.46%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (1.04%) NIST
6 5 (1.04%) PMO
7 4 (0.83%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.63%) COBIT
8 3 (0.63%) GRC
9 2 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 2 (0.42%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.42%) PSD2
10 1 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.21%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 47 (9.79%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.88%) Docker
2 9 (1.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.25%) vSphere
4 4 (0.83%) Firmware
4 4 (0.83%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.63%) DFS Replication
5 3 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.42%) BitLocker
6 2 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 15 (3.13%) SCCM
2 14 (2.92%) Ansible
2 14 (2.92%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (2.50%) Kubernetes
4 9 (1.88%) Grafana
5 8 (1.67%) Terraform
6 7 (1.46%) Check_MK
6 7 (1.46%) Podman
6 7 (1.46%) Red Hat Satellite
7 6 (1.25%) SCOM
7 6 (1.25%) ServiceCenter
7 6 (1.25%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.83%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.83%) TeamSite
9 3 (0.63%) FortiGate
9 3 (0.63%) RSA Archer
9 3 (0.63%) WSUS
10 2 (0.42%) Microsoft Clustering
10 2 (0.42%) NetApp OnCommand
10 2 (0.42%) Puppet
Vendors
1 139 (28.96%) Microsoft
2 59 (12.29%) ServiceNow
3 45 (9.38%) Oracle
4 33 (6.88%) Cisco
5 27 (5.63%) HP
6 25 (5.21%) SAP
7 24 (5.00%) Dell
8 21 (4.38%) VMware
9 18 (3.75%) Apple
10 14 (2.92%) Remedy
11 9 (1.88%) Splunk
12 8 (1.67%) Fortinet
12 8 (1.67%) IBM
12 8 (1.67%) Workday
13 7 (1.46%) Red Hat
14 5 (1.04%) Juniper
14 5 (1.04%) Nokia
14 5 (1.04%) Trend Micro
15 4 (0.83%) BMC
15 4 (0.83%) Zscaler
220 SLA jobs Nationwide