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

 6 months to
23 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 237 186 134
Rank change year-on-year -51 -52 +47
Contract jobs citing SLA 520 422 736
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.07% 1.48% 1.73%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 6.47% 9.31% 12.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 278 252 354
10th Percentile £212 £161 £150
25th Percentile £328 £205 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £291 £330
Median % change year-on-year +59.21% -11.97% +10.92%
75th Percentile £525 £510 £475
90th Percentile £625 £612 £582
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £250 £285
% change year-on-year +80.00% -12.28% +9.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 98 36 91
10th Percentile £16.01 £17.14 £11.07
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.57 £12.83
Median hourly rate £18.67 £22.21 £14.70
Median % change year-on-year -15.94% +51.05% -20.54%
75th Percentile £20.35 £24.66 £23.45
90th Percentile £30.53 £38.25 £32.50
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 8,038 4,534 6,010
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.55% 15.85% 14.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,169 2,917 3,822
10th Percentile £340 £263 £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 £615 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +5.26% - -1.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 469 171 387
10th Percentile £14.00 £16.92 £10.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.14 £13.18
Median hourly rate £36.00 £33.11 £21.73
Median % change year-on-year +8.73% +52.37% -37.91%
75th Percentile £67.25 £67.50 £48.75
90th Percentile £82.05 £80.00 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £33.11 £18.97
% change year-on-year +20.81% +74.54% -43.18%

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 23 May 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 23 May 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 23 May 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 -59 462 £463 +61.71% 268
UK excluding London -70 322 £450 +80.00% 227
London -18 174 £475 +18.75% 77
Work from Home -18 119 £475 +102.13% 109
East of England +28 84 £492 +118.67% 21
North of England -60 72 £438 +75.00% 53
South East -89 67 £468 +87.00% 77
North West -33 41 £450 +80.00% 29
Midlands -86 40 £296 +25.96% 34
Scotland +16 33 £448 +45.10% 14
West Midlands -81 30 £296 +25.96% 20
Yorkshire -54 28 £438 +2.94% 20
South West -58 20 £431 +39.11% 22
East Midlands -27 9 £329 +31.40% 14
Wales -14 5 - - 2
North East -24 3 £275 - 4
Northern Ireland +2 2 £175 +18.24% 11

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 16 (3.08%) SharePoint
2 14 (2.69%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.92%) Confluence
4 7 (1.35%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.96%) Oracle Workflow
6 4 (0.77%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 4 (0.77%) IIS
7 3 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.58%) SAS
8 2 (0.38%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.19%) Apache
9 1 (0.19%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.19%) LiveCycle
9 1 (0.19%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.19%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.19%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 48 (9.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 42 (8.08%) Microsoft Office
3 27 (5.19%) Spreadsheet
4 6 (1.15%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.19%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.19%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 13 (2.50%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (2.12%) Oracle Payables
2 11 (2.12%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 9 (1.73%) Oracle Assets
4 6 (1.15%) Oracle ERP
4 6 (1.15%) Oracle Receivables
5 5 (0.96%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 4 (0.77%) Oracle General Ledger
7 3 (0.58%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
8 2 (0.38%) Dynamics GP
8 2 (0.38%) IntelliMatch
8 2 (0.38%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.38%) Oracle Cash Management
8 2 (0.38%) Oracle E-Business Tax
8 2 (0.38%) Oracle Financials
8 2 (0.38%) Payment Gateway
8 2 (0.38%) Temenos T24
9 1 (0.19%) Actimize
9 1 (0.19%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 81 (15.58%) Azure
2 60 (11.54%) AWS
3 50 (9.62%) Microsoft 365
4 22 (4.23%) Power Platform
5 19 (3.65%) Entra ID
6 18 (3.46%) GCP
7 17 (3.27%) IaaS
8 16 (3.08%) PaaS
9 15 (2.88%) SaaS
10 14 (2.69%) Amazon S3
11 12 (2.31%) OCI
12 11 (2.12%) AWS CloudFormation
12 11 (2.12%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (2.12%) Datadog
12 11 (2.12%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 10 (1.92%) Amazon EC2
14 9 (1.73%) OneDrive
14 9 (1.73%) Snowflake
15 8 (1.54%) Azure Sentinel
16 7 (1.35%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 32 (6.15%) DNS
2 31 (5.96%) Firewall
3 24 (4.62%) DHCP
4 23 (4.42%) VPN
5 19 (3.65%) WAN
6 15 (2.88%) SAN
7 14 (2.69%) Wi-Fi
8 13 (2.50%) SD-WAN
9 12 (2.31%) Network Security
10 11 (2.12%) Cisco ASA
10 11 (2.12%) LAN
10 11 (2.12%) TCP/IP
10 11 (2.12%) VLAN
11 8 (1.54%) Radio Access Network
12 7 (1.35%) 5G
12 7 (1.35%) BGP
12 7 (1.35%) LTE
12 7 (1.35%) OSPF
12 7 (1.35%) Wireless
13 6 (1.15%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (3.46%) Power BI
2 15 (2.88%) SQL Server
3 10 (1.92%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (1.54%) Oracle Reports
5 6 (1.15%) Tableau
6 5 (0.96%) Oracle Database
6 5 (0.96%) Relational Database
7 4 (0.77%) MongoDB
7 4 (0.77%) MySQL
8 3 (0.58%) Amazon Athena
8 3 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.58%) GIS
8 3 (0.58%) Pentaho
8 3 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.38%) SAP HANA
9 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.19%) Hadoop
10 1 (0.19%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.19%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 43 (8.27%) JIRA
2 22 (4.23%) GitLab
3 20 (3.85%) Jenkins
4 18 (3.46%) Git
5 7 (1.35%) Chocolatey
6 6 (1.15%) Visual Studio
7 4 (0.77%) Maven
8 3 (0.58%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.38%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.38%) JMeter
9 2 (0.38%) Toad
10 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.19%) WiX
General
1 228 (43.85%) Social Skills
2 110 (21.15%) Finance
3 78 (15.00%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (7.69%) Banking
5 33 (6.35%) Public Sector
6 27 (5.19%) Organisational Skills
7 26 (5.00%) Documentation Skills
8 22 (4.23%) Telecoms
9 21 (4.04%) Legal
10 15 (2.88%) Retail
11 11 (2.12%) Aerospace
12 10 (1.92%) Billing
13 8 (1.54%) Financial Institution
13 8 (1.54%) Investment Banking
14 7 (1.35%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (1.35%) Manufacturing
15 6 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 6 (1.15%) Local Government
15 6 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
16 5 (0.96%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 62 (11.92%) Analyst
2 58 (11.15%) IT Support
3 38 (7.31%) Administrator
4 37 (7.12%) Lead
5 35 (6.73%) Service Manager
6 32 (6.15%) Senior
7 31 (5.96%) Support Engineer
8 28 (5.38%) Service Analyst
9 23 (4.42%) IT Engineer
10 22 (4.23%) Technical Support
11 20 (3.85%) Consultant
12 19 (3.65%) Delivery Manager
13 18 (3.46%) Service Delivery Manager
14 17 (3.27%) Desktop Support
15 14 (2.69%) Service Desk Analyst
16 13 (2.50%) Architect
16 13 (2.50%) Network Engineer
17 12 (2.31%) AWS Engineer
17 12 (2.31%) Azure Engineer
18 11 (2.12%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.88%) Oracle Fusion
2 14 (2.69%) Middleware
3 11 (2.12%) LDAP
3 11 (2.12%) REST
4 8 (1.54%) Web Services
5 7 (1.35%) .NET
6 5 (0.96%) AWS CDK
6 5 (0.96%) Spring
7 4 (0.77%) 802.1X
7 4 (0.77%) AngularJS
7 4 (0.77%) ARM Templates
7 4 (0.77%) Bootstrap
7 4 (0.77%) CSS
7 4 (0.77%) J2EE
7 4 (0.77%) jQuery
7 4 (0.77%) Kafka
7 4 (0.77%) Sass
7 4 (0.77%) Spring MVC
8 3 (0.58%) ADO
8 3 (0.58%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 38 (7.31%) Onboarding
2 32 (6.15%) Data Centre
3 20 (3.85%) Product Ownership
4 17 (3.27%) Management Information System
5 10 (1.92%) Cloud Native
5 10 (1.92%) CMDB
6 9 (1.73%) Cyber Threat
7 8 (1.54%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (1.35%) BYOD
8 7 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (1.15%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (1.15%) Equities
9 6 (1.15%) PKI
9 6 (1.15%) Public Cloud
9 6 (1.15%) Security Posture
9 6 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.15%) Virtual Team
10 5 (0.96%) IoT
10 5 (0.96%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 100 (19.23%) Windows
2 48 (9.23%) Linux
3 33 (6.35%) Windows 10
4 22 (4.23%) Unix
5 17 (3.27%) Windows Server
6 13 (2.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (2.12%) CentOS
8 9 (1.73%) Android
9 4 (0.77%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.58%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.58%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.38%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.38%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.19%) Solaris
12 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.19%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (29.04%) ITIL
2 92 (17.69%) ITSM
3 85 (16.35%) Service Delivery
4 84 (16.15%) Continuous Improvement
4 84 (16.15%) Problem-Solving
5 83 (15.96%) Stakeholder Management
6 74 (14.23%) Customer Service
6 74 (14.23%) Root Cause Analysis
7 67 (12.88%) Change Management
8 65 (12.50%) Service Management
9 62 (11.92%) Agile
10 59 (11.35%) Incident Management
11 54 (10.38%) Time Management
12 47 (9.04%) Problem Management
13 41 (7.88%) CI/CD
13 41 (7.88%) Migration
14 40 (7.69%) Roadmaps
15 37 (7.12%) Asset Management
15 37 (7.12%) DevOps
16 35 (6.73%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 45 (8.65%) SQL
2 36 (6.92%) Python
3 18 (3.46%) PowerShell
3 18 (3.46%) Shell Script
4 16 (3.08%) Bash
5 14 (2.69%) Java
6 11 (2.12%) MATLAB
7 7 (1.35%) JavaScript
8 6 (1.15%) PL/SQL
9 4 (0.77%) Go
10 3 (0.58%) Bicep
10 3 (0.58%) C++
11 2 (0.38%) C#
11 2 (0.38%) Scala
11 2 (0.38%) VB
11 2 (0.38%) X++
12 1 (0.19%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.19%) Groovy
12 1 (0.19%) Korn
Qualifications
1 111 (21.35%) Security Cleared
2 86 (16.54%) SC Cleared
3 50 (9.62%) Degree
4 23 (4.42%) DV Cleared
5 14 (2.69%) BPSS Clearance
6 12 (2.31%) Cisco Certification
6 12 (2.31%) ITIL Certification
7 11 (2.12%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (1.54%) CCNP
9 7 (1.35%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 6 (1.15%) Master's Degree
10 6 (1.15%) PMI Certification
11 5 (0.96%) CCSE
11 5 (0.96%) MCSE
12 4 (0.77%) CCNA
12 4 (0.77%) CCSM
12 4 (0.77%) CISA
12 4 (0.77%) MBA
12 4 (0.77%) RIBA
13 3 (0.58%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (3.08%) Data Quality
2 14 (2.69%) PMO
3 13 (2.50%) QA
4 12 (2.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 10 (1.92%) GRC
5 10 (1.92%) NIST
6 9 (1.73%) GDPR
7 6 (1.15%) PCI DSS
8 5 (0.96%) COBIT
9 4 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.58%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 3 (0.58%) JSP 440
10 3 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.38%) ISO 31000
11 2 (0.38%) ISO 8583
11 2 (0.38%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.19%) HL7
12 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 67 (12.88%) Active Directory
2 22 (4.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (2.50%) VMware ESXi
4 12 (2.31%) Docker
5 8 (1.54%) vSphere
6 7 (1.35%) Hyper-V
7 6 (1.15%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.58%) DFS Replication
9 2 (0.38%) Firmware
10 1 (0.19%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.19%) Ceph
10 1 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
10 1 (0.19%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 26 (5.00%) SCCM
2 24 (4.62%) Ansible
3 23 (4.42%) Microsoft Intune
4 21 (4.04%) Terraform
5 16 (3.08%) Kubernetes
6 13 (2.50%) Grafana
7 12 (2.31%) ServiceCenter
8 11 (2.12%) Check_MK
8 11 (2.12%) Podman
8 11 (2.12%) Red Hat Satellite
9 10 (1.92%) Single Sign-On
10 9 (1.73%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.96%) Prometheus
12 4 (0.77%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 4 (0.77%) TeamSite
13 3 (0.58%) FortiGate
13 3 (0.58%) Oracle Identity Management
13 3 (0.58%) Oracle Identity Manager
14 2 (0.38%) Jamf Pro
14 2 (0.38%) Nessus
Vendors
1 151 (29.04%) Microsoft
2 87 (16.73%) ServiceNow
3 50 (9.62%) Oracle
4 43 (8.27%) VMware
5 33 (6.35%) HP
6 32 (6.15%) Cisco
7 24 (4.62%) Apple
7 24 (4.62%) Dell
8 20 (3.85%) SAP
9 19 (3.65%) Remedy
10 15 (2.88%) Splunk
11 12 (2.31%) Red Hat
12 11 (2.12%) IBM
12 11 (2.12%) Tenable
13 10 (1.92%) AppDynamics
14 8 (1.54%) CheckPoint
14 8 (1.54%) Ericsson
14 8 (1.54%) Fortinet
14 8 (1.54%) Huawei
14 8 (1.54%) Palo Alto
315 SLA jobs Nationwide