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 25 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
25 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 219 194 135
Rank change year-on-year -25 -59 +45
Contract jobs citing SLA 528 397 755
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.13% 1.35% 1.73%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 6.69% 8.69% 12.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 237 350
10th Percentile £200 £149 £150
25th Percentile £309 £195 £202
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £250 £330
Median % change year-on-year +80.00% -24.24% +14.07%
75th Percentile £525 £506 £498
90th Percentile £615 £607 £588
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £235 £285
% change year-on-year +86.17% -17.54% +18.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 118 37 98
10th Percentile £16.18 £14.70 £11.07
25th Percentile £17.69 £18.10 £12.83
Median hourly rate £18.50 £22.27 £14.70
Median % change year-on-year -16.93% +51.50% -20.54%
75th Percentile £20.35 £24.66 £23.80
90th Percentile £30.53 £29.00 £32.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.50 £22.14 £14.00
% change year-on-year -16.44% +58.14% -24.32%

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 7,889 4,571 6,271
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.92% 15.49% 14.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,118 2,929 3,969
10th Percentile £334 £265 £300
25th Percentile £413 £400 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £623 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% +3.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 448 178 381
10th Percentile £14.00 £18.01 £10.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.17 £13.00
Median hourly rate £33.55 £34.50 £20.47
Median % change year-on-year -2.75% +68.54% -45.77%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £81.00 £83.03 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £46.30 £17.72
% change year-on-year -22.25% +161.29% -49.37%

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 25 April 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 25 April 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 25 April 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 -35 473 £450 +76.47% 189
UK excluding London -47 333 £438 +86.17% 181
London -13 169 £486 +21.50% 40
Work from Home -4 115 £475 +102.13% 107
East of England +28 100 £485 +115.56% 34
North of England -48 74 £400 +86.05% 25
South East -76 72 £444 +77.68% 64
North West -34 41 £450 +109.30% 12
Midlands -75 37 £296 +25.96% 30
Scotland +22 29 £440 +131.88% 4
West Midlands -74 28 £293 +24.68% 18
Yorkshire -50 26 £365 +16.80% 11
South West -58 19 £463 -15.91% 17
East Midlands -36 8 £534 +78.00% 12
North East - 7 £270 - 3
Northern Ireland +3 3 £338 +128.04% 10
Wales -10 3 - - 7

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 15 (2.84%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (2.65%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.52%) Confluence
4 5 (0.95%) Oracle Workflow
5 4 (0.76%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 4 (0.76%) IIS
5 4 (0.76%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.57%) SAS
7 2 (0.38%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.19%) Apache
8 1 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.19%) LiveCycle
8 1 (0.19%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.19%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.19%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 47 (8.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 41 (7.77%) Spreadsheet
3 34 (6.44%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (1.14%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.19%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.19%) MicroStation
6 1 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 13 (2.46%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (2.08%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 10 (1.89%) Oracle Payables
4 8 (1.52%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (1.14%) Oracle ERP
6 5 (0.95%) Oracle EBS
6 5 (0.95%) Oracle Receivables
7 4 (0.76%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 3 (0.57%) Oracle General Ledger
9 2 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
9 2 (0.38%) IntelliMatch
9 2 (0.38%) Oracle Applications
9 2 (0.38%) Oracle E-Business Tax
9 2 (0.38%) Oracle Financials
9 2 (0.38%) Payment Gateway
9 2 (0.38%) Temenos T24
10 1 (0.19%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 1 (0.19%) Oracle FAH
10 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
10 1 (0.19%) Veritas eDiscovery
Cloud Services
1 62 (11.74%) Azure
2 52 (9.85%) AWS
3 47 (8.90%) Microsoft 365
4 21 (3.98%) Power Platform
5 18 (3.41%) GCP
6 16 (3.03%) IaaS
7 15 (2.84%) PaaS
8 14 (2.65%) Amazon S3
9 13 (2.46%) SaaS
10 12 (2.27%) OCI
11 11 (2.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 10 (1.89%) Amazon EC2
12 10 (1.89%) AWS CloudFormation
12 10 (1.89%) Datadog
13 9 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (1.70%) Snowflake
14 7 (1.33%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 7 (1.33%) Entra ID
15 6 (1.14%) dbt
15 6 (1.14%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 33 (6.25%) Firewall
2 27 (5.11%) DNS
3 26 (4.92%) WAN
4 21 (3.98%) VPN
5 19 (3.60%) DHCP
5 19 (3.60%) SD-WAN
6 16 (3.03%) SAN
7 14 (2.65%) LAN
7 14 (2.65%) Network Security
7 14 (2.65%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (2.27%) Cisco ASA
9 11 (2.08%) VLAN
10 10 (1.89%) BGP
10 10 (1.89%) OSPF
10 10 (1.89%) TCP/IP
11 9 (1.70%) MPLS
12 7 (1.33%) Broadband
12 7 (1.33%) Cisco IOS
12 7 (1.33%) Wireless
13 6 (1.14%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (3.41%) Power BI
2 15 (2.84%) SQL Server
3 9 (1.70%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (1.52%) Oracle Reports
5 7 (1.33%) Oracle Database
6 6 (1.14%) MySQL
7 5 (0.95%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.95%) Tableau
8 4 (0.76%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.57%) Amazon Athena
9 3 (0.57%) GIS
9 3 (0.57%) Pentaho
9 3 (0.57%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 1 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.19%) DB2
11 1 (0.19%) Metadata
11 1 (0.19%) Parquet
11 1 (0.19%) Spark SQL
11 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 34 (6.44%) JIRA
2 18 (3.41%) GitLab
3 17 (3.22%) Jenkins
4 16 (3.03%) Git
5 7 (1.33%) Chocolatey
6 4 (0.76%) Maven
6 4 (0.76%) Visual Studio
7 3 (0.57%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.38%) JMeter
8 2 (0.38%) Toad
9 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.19%) WiX
General
1 238 (45.08%) Social Skills
2 102 (19.32%) Finance
3 81 (15.34%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (7.58%) Public Sector
5 36 (6.82%) Banking
6 32 (6.06%) Organisational Skills
7 26 (4.92%) Telecoms
8 21 (3.98%) Documentation Skills
9 20 (3.79%) Legal
10 18 (3.41%) Retail
11 10 (1.89%) Aerospace
11 10 (1.89%) Financial Institution
12 9 (1.70%) Billing
13 8 (1.52%) Investment Banking
14 7 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
15 6 (1.14%) Local Government
15 6 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
16 5 (0.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 5 (0.95%) Manufacturing
16 5 (0.95%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 69 (13.07%) IT Support
2 65 (12.31%) Analyst
3 43 (8.14%) Administrator
4 39 (7.39%) Senior
5 37 (7.01%) Lead
6 35 (6.63%) Service Manager
7 27 (5.11%) Service Analyst
8 26 (4.92%) Technical Support
9 25 (4.73%) Support Engineer
10 23 (4.36%) IT Engineer
11 21 (3.98%) Desktop Support
12 20 (3.79%) Consultant
13 18 (3.41%) Delivery Manager
14 17 (3.22%) Service Delivery Manager
15 14 (2.65%) Architect
15 14 (2.65%) Service Desk Analyst
16 13 (2.46%) Network Engineer
17 12 (2.27%) Azure Engineer
17 12 (2.27%) IT Administrator
18 11 (2.08%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (2.65%) Oracle Fusion
2 12 (2.27%) Middleware
3 9 (1.70%) LDAP
3 9 (1.70%) REST
4 7 (1.33%) Web Services
5 5 (0.95%) AWS CDK
5 5 (0.95%) Spring
6 4 (0.76%) .NET
6 4 (0.76%) 802.1X
6 4 (0.76%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.76%) Bootstrap
6 4 (0.76%) CSS
6 4 (0.76%) J2EE
6 4 (0.76%) jQuery
6 4 (0.76%) Kafka
6 4 (0.76%) Sass
6 4 (0.76%) Spring MVC
7 3 (0.57%) ADO
7 3 (0.57%) Software Packaging
8 2 (0.38%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 31 (5.87%) Onboarding
2 27 (5.11%) Data Centre
3 23 (4.36%) Management Information System
4 21 (3.98%) Product Ownership
5 13 (2.46%) Cloud Native
6 10 (1.89%) CMDB
6 10 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
7 9 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (1.33%) Cyber Threat
8 7 (1.33%) Driving Licence
8 7 (1.33%) Enterprise Cloud
9 6 (1.14%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.14%) Equities
9 6 (1.14%) Public Cloud
9 6 (1.14%) Security Posture
10 5 (0.95%) Distributed Systems
10 5 (0.95%) IoT
10 5 (0.95%) PMI
11 4 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (0.76%) Cloud Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 84 (15.91%) Windows
2 39 (7.39%) Linux
3 25 (4.73%) Windows 10
4 19 (3.60%) Unix
5 15 (2.84%) Windows Server
6 10 (1.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 9 (1.70%) CentOS
8 4 (0.76%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.57%) Android
9 3 (0.57%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.57%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.38%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.38%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.19%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.19%) Solaris
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.19%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 148 (28.03%) ITIL
2 87 (16.48%) Customer Service
3 85 (16.10%) Service Delivery
4 84 (15.91%) ITSM
5 80 (15.15%) Stakeholder Management
6 79 (14.96%) Continuous Improvement
7 74 (14.02%) Problem-Solving
8 72 (13.64%) Time Management
9 67 (12.69%) Root Cause Analysis
10 66 (12.50%) Change Management
11 65 (12.31%) Agile
12 63 (11.93%) Incident Management
13 61 (11.55%) Service Management
14 46 (8.71%) Problem Management
15 44 (8.33%) Roadmaps
16 38 (7.20%) Migration
17 37 (7.01%) CI/CD
18 36 (6.82%) Asset Management
19 33 (6.25%) DevOps
19 33 (6.25%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 39 (7.39%) SQL
2 34 (6.44%) Python
3 18 (3.41%) Shell Script
4 17 (3.22%) PowerShell
5 15 (2.84%) Bash
6 13 (2.46%) Java
7 9 (1.70%) MATLAB
8 5 (0.95%) JavaScript
9 4 (0.76%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.57%) C++
10 3 (0.57%) Go
11 2 (0.38%) Scala
11 2 (0.38%) VB
12 1 (0.19%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.19%) Bicep
12 1 (0.19%) Groovy
12 1 (0.19%) Korn
Qualifications
1 112 (21.21%) Security Cleared
2 87 (16.48%) SC Cleared
3 51 (9.66%) Degree
4 18 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (3.22%) DV Cleared
6 14 (2.65%) ITIL Certification
7 9 (1.70%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (1.70%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (1.33%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 6 (1.14%) CCNP
9 6 (1.14%) Master's Degree
9 6 (1.14%) PMI Certification
10 4 (0.76%) CISA
10 4 (0.76%) MBA
10 4 (0.76%) RIBA
11 3 (0.57%) CCA
11 3 (0.57%) CCSE
11 3 (0.57%) CISSP
11 3 (0.57%) CRISC
11 3 (0.57%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (2.84%) Data Quality
2 14 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (2.65%) PMO
3 13 (2.46%) QA
4 10 (1.89%) GRC
5 9 (1.70%) GDPR
5 9 (1.70%) NIST
6 6 (1.14%) PCI DSS
7 4 (0.76%) COBIT
8 3 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.57%) ISO 20022
8 3 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 3 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.38%) ISO 31000
9 2 (0.38%) ISO 8583
9 2 (0.38%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.38%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.19%) DICOM
10 1 (0.19%) HL7
10 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 59 (11.17%) Active Directory
2 18 (3.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (2.08%) Docker
3 11 (2.08%) VMware ESXi
4 8 (1.52%) vSphere
5 5 (0.95%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.57%) DFS Replication
6 3 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.19%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.19%) Ceph
7 1 (0.19%) Firmware
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.19%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 25 (4.73%) SCCM
2 21 (3.98%) Ansible
3 20 (3.79%) Terraform
4 17 (3.22%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (2.27%) Kubernetes
5 12 (2.27%) ServiceCenter
6 11 (2.08%) Grafana
7 9 (1.70%) Check_MK
7 9 (1.70%) Podman
7 9 (1.70%) Red Hat Satellite
7 9 (1.70%) vCenter Server
8 6 (1.14%) FortiGate
8 6 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (0.76%) TeamSite
10 3 (0.57%) Oracle Identity Management
10 3 (0.57%) Oracle Identity Manager
10 3 (0.57%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.38%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.38%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 155 (29.36%) Microsoft
2 76 (14.39%) ServiceNow
3 50 (9.47%) Oracle
4 36 (6.82%) VMware
5 32 (6.06%) Cisco
5 32 (6.06%) HP
6 26 (4.92%) Dell
7 25 (4.73%) SAP
8 19 (3.60%) Apple
9 18 (3.41%) Remedy
10 15 (2.84%) Splunk
11 11 (2.08%) Fortinet
11 11 (2.08%) IBM
11 11 (2.08%) Tenable
12 10 (1.89%) AppDynamics
12 10 (1.89%) Red Hat
13 9 (1.70%) Zscaler
14 7 (1.33%) Dynatrace
14 7 (1.33%) Juniper
15 6 (1.14%) CheckPoint
213 SLA jobs Nationwide