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

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 245 191 147
Rank change year-on-year -54 -44 +41
Contract jobs citing SLA 541 432 705
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.06% 1.42% 1.63%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 6.30% 8.72% 11.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 300 248 334
10th Percentile £200 £181 £150
25th Percentile £297 £216 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £350 £340
Median % change year-on-year +28.57% +2.94% +13.33%
75th Percentile £519 £538 £488
90th Percentile £593 £613 £582
UK excluding London median daily rate £440 £265 £285
% change year-on-year +66.04% -7.02% +3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 49 88
10th Percentile £13.65 £15.90 £11.07
25th Percentile £17.57 £17.80 £12.75
Median hourly rate £18.67 £22.14 £15.24
Median % change year-on-year -15.70% +45.28% -17.00%
75th Percentile £20.92 £25.15 £23.80
90th Percentile £26.19 £35.55 £26.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.50 £22.14 £14.00
% change year-on-year -16.44% +58.14% -23.18%

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 8,594 4,952 5,940
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.86% 16.33% 13.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,497 3,172 3,695
10th Percentile £340 £275 £281
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £509
Median % change year-on-year - -1.77% -3.05%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +6.38% -1.05% -3.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 522 200 430
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.08 £11.07
25th Percentile £19.24 £18.50 £13.50
Median hourly rate £36.07 £31.57 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year +14.27% +32.63% -36.53%
75th Percentile £67.50 £65.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £82.22 £83.59 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £30.25 £20.46
% change year-on-year +28.95% +47.83% -42.37%

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 27 June 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 27 June 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 27 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 -60 464 £450 +20.00% 198
UK excluding London -74 333 £440 +66.04% 198
London -17 183 £450 +12.50% 39
Work from Home -7 133 £475 +26.67% 62
North of England -49 73 £435 +33.85% 34
South East -79 73 £463 +85.00% 73
East of England +13 59 £500 +122.22% 26
Midlands -72 52 £288 -23.33% 20
Scotland +26 47 £440 +42.51% 14
West Midlands -76 43 £269 -28.33% 10
North West -33 40 £438 +2.94% 19
Yorkshire -37 31 £365 +45.71% 9
South West -53 23 £378 +38.72% 23
Wales -12 10 £550 +109.52% 10
East Midlands -11 8 £475 - 10
Northern Ireland +2 2 £175 - 7
North East -35 2 £280 - 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 21 (3.88%) SharePoint
2 12 (2.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.85%) Confluence
4 7 (1.29%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.92%) IIS
5 5 (0.92%) Oracle Workflow
5 5 (0.92%) SAS
6 4 (0.74%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.37%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.18%) Apache
9 1 (0.18%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.18%) LiveCycle
9 1 (0.18%) Smallworld
Applications
1 53 (9.80%) Microsoft Office
2 50 (9.24%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (2.77%) Spreadsheet
4 8 (1.48%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.18%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.18%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 14 (2.59%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (2.03%) Oracle Payables
3 10 (1.85%) Oracle Assets
3 10 (1.85%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 6 (1.11%) ContrOCC
4 6 (1.11%) Oracle ERP
4 6 (1.11%) Oracle Receivables
5 5 (0.92%) Dynamics CRM
5 5 (0.92%) Oracle Applications
5 5 (0.92%) Oracle General Ledger
5 5 (0.92%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 3 (0.55%) Oracle Cash Management
6 3 (0.55%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.37%) Dynamics GP
7 2 (0.37%) IntelliMatch
7 2 (0.37%) Oracle EBS R12
7 2 (0.37%) Oracle Financials
7 2 (0.37%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.18%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 1 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 95 (17.56%) Azure
2 67 (12.38%) Microsoft 365
3 54 (9.98%) AWS
4 27 (4.99%) Entra ID
5 21 (3.88%) Power Platform
6 18 (3.33%) Azure DevOps
7 16 (2.96%) SaaS
8 15 (2.77%) OneDrive
9 14 (2.59%) Amazon S3
9 14 (2.59%) OCI
10 13 (2.40%) Datadog
10 13 (2.40%) IaaS
10 13 (2.40%) PaaS
11 11 (2.03%) GCP
11 11 (2.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 10 (1.85%) Amazon EC2
13 9 (1.66%) Azure Sentinel
13 9 (1.66%) Snowflake
14 8 (1.48%) AWS CloudFormation
15 7 (1.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 27 (4.99%) DNS
2 25 (4.62%) VPN
3 23 (4.25%) DHCP
3 23 (4.25%) Firewall
4 22 (4.07%) WAN
5 17 (3.14%) Wi-Fi
6 16 (2.96%) LAN
7 15 (2.77%) SAN
8 14 (2.59%) Network Security
9 10 (1.85%) Cisco ASA
9 10 (1.85%) Cisco IOS
9 10 (1.85%) SD-WAN
10 9 (1.66%) MPLS
10 9 (1.66%) VLAN
10 9 (1.66%) Wireless
11 8 (1.48%) TCP/IP
12 7 (1.29%) 5G
12 7 (1.29%) LTE
12 7 (1.29%) Radio Access Network
12 7 (1.29%) SDH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (3.14%) Power BI
1 17 (3.14%) SQL Server
2 8 (1.48%) Oracle Reports
2 8 (1.48%) Tableau
3 5 (0.92%) Oracle Database
3 5 (0.92%) Pentaho
3 5 (0.92%) Relational Database
4 4 (0.74%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.74%) MySQL
4 4 (0.74%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (0.55%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 2 (0.37%) GIS
6 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.18%) Apache Iceberg
7 1 (0.18%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.18%) Db2
7 1 (0.18%) Hadoop
7 1 (0.18%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 47 (8.69%) JIRA
2 15 (2.77%) GitLab
3 13 (2.40%) Jenkins
4 12 (2.22%) Git
5 7 (1.29%) Chocolatey
6 4 (0.74%) Maven
7 3 (0.55%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.37%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.37%) JMeter
8 2 (0.37%) Toad
9 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.18%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.18%) WiX
General
1 239 (44.18%) Social Skills
2 111 (20.52%) Finance
3 94 (17.38%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (7.76%) Public Sector
5 34 (6.28%) Banking
6 29 (5.36%) Organisational Skills
7 27 (4.99%) Documentation Skills
8 25 (4.62%) Telecoms
9 22 (4.07%) Legal
10 13 (2.40%) Billing
11 12 (2.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 12 (2.22%) Retail
12 11 (2.03%) Local Government
13 9 (1.66%) Aerospace
13 9 (1.66%) Manufacturing
14 8 (1.48%) Financial Institution
15 7 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
15 7 (1.29%) Investment Banking
16 6 (1.11%) Marketing
17 5 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 72 (13.31%) Analyst
2 50 (9.24%) IT Support
3 38 (7.02%) Support Engineer
4 35 (6.47%) Lead
5 33 (6.10%) Senior
6 32 (5.91%) Administrator
7 31 (5.73%) Service Manager
8 25 (4.62%) Service Analyst
9 24 (4.44%) IT Engineer
10 22 (4.07%) Delivery Manager
11 20 (3.70%) Consultant
12 19 (3.51%) Service Delivery Manager
12 19 (3.51%) Technical Support
13 17 (3.14%) Azure Engineer
13 17 (3.14%) Desktop Engineer
14 16 (2.96%) Desktop Support
14 16 (2.96%) Network Engineer
15 15 (2.77%) Coordinator
16 14 (2.59%) Applications Support
17 13 (2.40%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (2.59%) Oracle Fusion
2 11 (2.03%) Middleware
3 10 (1.85%) REST
4 9 (1.66%) LDAP
5 8 (1.48%) .NET
5 8 (1.48%) Web Services
6 6 (1.11%) Software Packaging
7 5 (0.92%) ARM Templates
7 5 (0.92%) AWS CDK
7 5 (0.92%) Spring
8 4 (0.74%) AngularJS
8 4 (0.74%) Bootstrap
8 4 (0.74%) CSS
8 4 (0.74%) J2EE
8 4 (0.74%) jQuery
8 4 (0.74%) Sass
8 4 (0.74%) Spring MVC
9 3 (0.55%) ADO
10 2 (0.37%) SOAP
10 2 (0.37%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 46 (8.50%) Onboarding
2 33 (6.10%) Data Centre
3 19 (3.51%) CMDB
4 13 (2.40%) Product Ownership
5 12 (2.22%) Smartphone
6 11 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (2.03%) Management Information System
7 10 (1.85%) Cloud Native
8 9 (1.66%) Cyber Threat
9 8 (1.48%) BYOD
9 8 (1.48%) PKI
10 7 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.29%) Driving Licence
10 7 (1.29%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (1.29%) Virtual Team
11 6 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
12 5 (0.92%) IoT
13 4 (0.74%) Augmented Reality
13 4 (0.74%) Enterprise Cloud
13 4 (0.74%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 115 (21.26%) Windows
2 41 (7.58%) Linux
3 38 (7.02%) Windows 10
4 22 (4.07%) Windows Server
5 19 (3.51%) Android
6 16 (2.96%) Unix
7 12 (2.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.66%) CentOS
9 5 (0.92%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.92%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.92%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.74%) Windows XP
11 3 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.37%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.18%) Solaris
13 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 172 (31.79%) ITIL
2 109 (20.15%) Problem-Solving
3 105 (19.41%) ITSM
4 100 (18.48%) Continuous Improvement
5 96 (17.74%) Customer Service
5 96 (17.74%) Stakeholder Management
6 82 (15.16%) Service Delivery
7 81 (14.97%) Change Management
8 80 (14.79%) Agile
9 77 (14.23%) Service Management
10 68 (12.57%) Root Cause Analysis
11 52 (9.61%) Incident Management
12 51 (9.43%) Problem Management
13 44 (8.13%) Migration
14 43 (7.95%) Time Management
15 41 (7.58%) Asset Management
15 41 (7.58%) DevOps
15 41 (7.58%) Roadmaps
16 40 (7.39%) Project Management
17 38 (7.02%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 44 (8.13%) SQL
2 32 (5.91%) Python
3 22 (4.07%) PowerShell
4 16 (2.96%) Bash
5 12 (2.22%) Shell Script
6 9 (1.66%) Java
6 9 (1.66%) MATLAB
7 7 (1.29%) JavaScript
8 6 (1.11%) PL/SQL
9 4 (0.74%) Bicep
10 2 (0.37%) C#
10 2 (0.37%) Scala
10 2 (0.37%) VB
10 2 (0.37%) X++
11 1 (0.18%) Apex Code
11 1 (0.18%) COBOL
11 1 (0.18%) Groovy
11 1 (0.18%) Korn
11 1 (0.18%) RPG
11 1 (0.18%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 120 (22.18%) Security Cleared
2 96 (17.74%) SC Cleared
3 50 (9.24%) Degree
4 23 (4.25%) DV Cleared
5 19 (3.51%) ITIL Certification
6 17 (3.14%) BPSS Clearance
6 17 (3.14%) Cisco Certification
7 14 (2.59%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (2.03%) CCNP
9 9 (1.66%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 8 (1.48%) PMI Certification
11 7 (1.29%) CCNA
11 7 (1.29%) MCSE
12 6 (1.11%) Azure Certification
12 6 (1.11%) CCSE
12 6 (1.11%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.92%) CCSM
14 4 (0.74%) CCA
14 4 (0.74%) CISA
14 4 (0.74%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.51%) Data Quality
2 15 (2.77%) PMO
3 14 (2.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (2.59%) QA
4 11 (2.03%) NIST
5 9 (1.66%) COBIT
5 9 (1.66%) GDPR
5 9 (1.66%) GRC
6 6 (1.11%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.55%) ISO 20022
7 3 (0.55%) JSP 440
7 3 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.37%) ISO 31000
8 2 (0.37%) ISO 8583
8 2 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 2 (0.37%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.18%) DICOM
9 1 (0.18%) HL7
9 1 (0.18%) NCSC
System Software
1 73 (13.49%) Active Directory
2 23 (4.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (2.77%) VMware ESXi
4 8 (1.48%) Hyper-V
4 8 (1.48%) Virtual Desktop
5 7 (1.29%) Docker
6 6 (1.11%) vSphere
7 3 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.37%) Firmware
9 1 (0.18%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.18%) Ceph
9 1 (0.18%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.18%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.18%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.18%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 33 (6.10%) Microsoft Intune
2 31 (5.73%) SCCM
3 20 (3.70%) Terraform
4 19 (3.51%) Ansible
5 16 (2.96%) Kubernetes
6 11 (2.03%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (1.85%) vCenter Server
8 9 (1.66%) Check_MK
8 9 (1.66%) Podman
8 9 (1.66%) Red Hat Satellite
8 9 (1.66%) ServiceCenter
9 8 (1.48%) Grafana
10 6 (1.11%) Jamf Pro
11 5 (0.92%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.55%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.55%) Oracle Identity Management
12 3 (0.55%) Oracle Identity Manager
12 3 (0.55%) TeamSite
12 3 (0.55%) vMotion
Vendors
1 165 (30.50%) Microsoft
2 84 (15.53%) ServiceNow
3 50 (9.24%) Oracle
4 44 (8.13%) Cisco
5 43 (7.95%) VMware
6 28 (5.18%) HP
7 27 (4.99%) Apple
8 19 (3.51%) Dell
8 19 (3.51%) Remedy
9 15 (2.77%) SAP
10 11 (2.03%) Red Hat
10 11 (2.03%) Tenable
11 10 (1.85%) Zscaler
12 9 (1.66%) CheckPoint
12 9 (1.66%) Fortinet
12 9 (1.66%) IBM
12 9 (1.66%) Nokia
12 9 (1.66%) Palo Alto
12 9 (1.66%) Salesforce
12 9 (1.66%) Splunk