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

 6 months to
27 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 243 194 171
Rank change year-on-year -49 -23 +11
Contract jobs citing SLA 580 465 541
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.08% 1.42% 1.39%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 6.24% 8.32% 10.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 345 267 259
10th Percentile £181 £184 £156
25th Percentile £250 £218 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £429 £350 £315
Median % change year-on-year +22.57% +11.11% -21.25%
75th Percentile £523 £541 £489
90th Percentile £600 £613 £588
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £325 £295
% change year-on-year +30.77% +10.08% -6.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 64 77
10th Percentile £13.45 £15.65 £11.76
25th Percentile £14.45 £17.48 £13.00
Median hourly rate £18.79 £22.14 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.13% +23.00% +2.86%
75th Percentile £22.26 £25.15 £24.18
90th Percentile £27.44 £40.05 £41.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.79 £18.87 £14.92
% change year-on-year -0.42% +26.47% -14.74%

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 9,302 5,587 5,209
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.32% 17.06% 13.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,911 3,591 3,182
10th Percentile £325 £285 £285
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £511
Median % change year-on-year - -2.07% -2.74%
75th Percentile £600 £604 £625
90th Percentile £700 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +3.16% -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 579 265 300
10th Percentile £13.86 £13.60 £11.07
25th Percentile £17.29 £17.35 £13.96
Median hourly rate £36.00 £30.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% +24.07% -30.91%
75th Percentile £68.75 £61.25 £54.52
90th Percentile £79.20 £84.35 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.07 £27.54 £24.18
% change year-on-year +31.00% +13.88% -30.91%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 -57 476 £436 +16.33% 496
UK excluding London -58 347 £425 +30.77% 321
London -29 195 £425 +3.66% 214
Work from Home -18 136 £463 +44.53% 180
North of England -40 95 £450 +79.64% 74
South East -70 75 £473 +41.89% 96
Scotland +41 67 £353 +0.71% 13
North West -10 66 £459 +41.23% 44
Midlands -64 54 £250 -28.57% 58
West Midlands -58 46 £250 -31.03% 36
East of England -14 30 £505 +44.29% 42
South West -50 30 £356 +9.54% 32
Yorkshire -57 26 £450 +87.87% 22
Wales -13 11 £525 +169.23% 6
East Midlands -19 7 £363 +170.52% 22
North East -39 3 £228 - 9
Northern Ireland 0 1 £175 - 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 41 (7.07%) SharePoint
2 25 (4.31%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.38%) Confluence
4 7 (1.21%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.86%) IIS
6 4 (0.69%) SAS
7 3 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.34%) Anypoint
8 2 (0.34%) Apache
8 2 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.34%) Mule
9 1 (0.17%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.17%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.17%) CICS
9 1 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.17%) JBoss
9 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.17%) Smallworld
Applications
1 56 (9.66%) Microsoft Office
2 28 (4.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.86%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.52%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.17%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.17%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 14 (2.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 8 (1.38%) ContrOCC
3 5 (0.86%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.86%) Oracle Applications
4 4 (0.69%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (0.52%) Oracle Assets
5 3 (0.52%) Oracle General Ledger
5 3 (0.52%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (0.52%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.34%) Dynamics GP
6 2 (0.34%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 1 (0.17%) Actimize
7 1 (0.17%) OpenText VIM for SAP
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.17%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 111 (19.14%) Microsoft 365
2 103 (17.76%) Azure
3 55 (9.48%) Entra ID
4 54 (9.31%) AWS
5 24 (4.14%) OneDrive
6 21 (3.62%) Power Platform
7 18 (3.10%) SaaS
8 14 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
8 14 (2.41%) Datadog
9 10 (1.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 10 (1.72%) Amazon S3
9 10 (1.72%) IaaS
9 10 (1.72%) PaaS
10 9 (1.55%) Azure Sentinel
10 9 (1.55%) OCI
10 9 (1.55%) Serverless
10 9 (1.55%) Snowflake
11 7 (1.21%) AWS CloudFormation
12 6 (1.03%) Amazon EC2
12 6 (1.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 41 (7.07%) DNS
2 35 (6.03%) VPN
3 32 (5.52%) DHCP
4 27 (4.66%) WAN
5 26 (4.48%) LAN
6 23 (3.97%) TCP/IP
7 22 (3.79%) Wi-Fi
8 21 (3.62%) Firewall
9 17 (2.93%) Network Security
10 15 (2.59%) SAN
10 15 (2.59%) SDH
11 11 (1.90%) MPLS
11 11 (1.90%) VLAN
12 9 (1.55%) Skype
13 8 (1.38%) Cisco IOS
13 8 (1.38%) Radio Access Network
14 7 (1.21%) 5G
14 7 (1.21%) LTE
14 7 (1.21%) Wireless
15 6 (1.03%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (3.45%) SQL Server
2 15 (2.59%) Power BI
3 8 (1.38%) Tableau
4 7 (1.21%) Oracle Reports
5 5 (0.86%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.69%) Db2
6 4 (0.69%) Delta Lake
6 4 (0.69%) MySQL
6 4 (0.69%) Pentaho
7 3 (0.52%) Amazon Athena
7 3 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (0.52%) Big Data
7 3 (0.52%) Data Lake
7 3 (0.52%) Oracle Database
7 3 (0.52%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.34%) Oracle Database 10g
8 2 (0.34%) Oracle Database 11g
8 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.17%) GIS
9 1 (0.17%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 45 (7.76%) JIRA
2 10 (1.72%) GitLab
3 8 (1.38%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.03%) Chocolatey
4 6 (1.03%) Git
5 4 (0.69%) RStudio
6 3 (0.52%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.34%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.34%) Maven
7 2 (0.34%) Toad
8 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.17%) WiX
General
1 241 (41.55%) Social Skills
2 106 (18.28%) Analytical Skills
3 105 (18.10%) Finance
4 37 (6.38%) Public Sector
5 29 (5.00%) Telecoms
6 28 (4.83%) Organisational Skills
7 27 (4.66%) Banking
8 22 (3.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 21 (3.62%) Documentation Skills
10 16 (2.76%) Legal
11 15 (2.59%) Local Government
12 14 (2.41%) Retail
13 11 (1.90%) Billing
13 11 (1.90%) Manufacturing
14 8 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
15 6 (1.03%) Financial Institution
16 5 (0.86%) Aerospace
17 4 (0.69%) French Language
18 2 (0.34%) Military
18 2 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 80 (13.79%) Analyst
2 61 (10.52%) Support Engineer
3 48 (8.28%) IT Support
4 44 (7.59%) Senior
5 35 (6.03%) IT Engineer
6 34 (5.86%) Lead
7 32 (5.52%) Consultant
8 31 (5.34%) Service Manager
9 29 (5.00%) Service Analyst
10 27 (4.66%) Field Engineer
11 25 (4.31%) Architect
11 25 (4.31%) Network Engineer
12 24 (4.14%) Desktop Support
12 24 (4.14%) IT Support Engineer
13 22 (3.79%) Service Desk Analyst
14 20 (3.45%) Delivery Manager
15 18 (3.10%) Administrator
15 18 (3.10%) Applications Support
16 17 (2.93%) Service Delivery Manager
17 16 (2.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (3.10%) Terraform
2 14 (2.41%) REST
3 11 (1.90%) .NET
4 8 (1.38%) LDAP
5 6 (1.03%) Oracle Fusion
5 6 (1.03%) XML
6 5 (0.86%) Middleware
6 5 (0.86%) PySpark
6 5 (0.86%) Software Packaging
7 4 (0.69%) Kafka
8 3 (0.52%) .NET Framework
8 3 (0.52%) ARM Templates
8 3 (0.52%) Jakarta EE
8 3 (0.52%) Java RMI
8 3 (0.52%) JSON
8 3 (0.52%) RESTful
8 3 (0.52%) SOAP
8 3 (0.52%) Web Services
9 2 (0.34%) CSS
9 2 (0.34%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 62 (10.69%) Onboarding
2 26 (4.48%) Data Centre
3 23 (3.97%) CMDB
4 20 (3.45%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (2.41%) PKI
5 14 (2.41%) Smartphone
6 13 (2.24%) Virtual Team
7 12 (2.07%) Video Conferencing
8 10 (1.72%) Product Ownership
9 9 (1.55%) Cyber Threat
10 8 (1.38%) Driving Licence
10 8 (1.38%) iPhone
11 7 (1.21%) Fat Client
11 7 (1.21%) Self-Motivation
11 7 (1.21%) Thin Client
12 6 (1.03%) Fibre Optics
13 5 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
13 5 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
13 5 (0.86%) Replication
13 5 (0.86%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 161 (27.76%) Windows
2 64 (11.03%) Windows 10
3 36 (6.21%) Android
4 35 (6.03%) Windows Server
5 32 (5.52%) Linux
6 13 (2.24%) Unix
7 12 (2.07%) Mac OS
7 12 (2.07%) Windows 7
8 11 (1.90%) Apple iOS
9 9 (1.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.86%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.69%) CentOS
12 3 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.52%) Windows XP
13 1 (0.17%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.17%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.17%) VMS
13 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.17%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (41.03%) ITIL
2 138 (23.79%) ITSM
3 127 (21.90%) Customer Service
3 127 (21.90%) Service Management
4 125 (21.55%) Problem-Solving
5 124 (21.38%) Continuous Improvement
6 103 (17.76%) Stakeholder Management
7 95 (16.38%) Service Delivery
8 90 (15.52%) Change Management
9 64 (11.03%) Incident Management
10 63 (10.86%) Root Cause Analysis
11 60 (10.34%) Agile
11 60 (10.34%) Problem Management
12 52 (8.97%) Validation
13 47 (8.10%) Migration
14 40 (6.90%) DevOps
14 40 (6.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 38 (6.55%) Asset Management
15 38 (6.55%) CI/CD
16 36 (6.21%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 44 (7.59%) SQL
2 41 (7.07%) PowerShell
2 41 (7.07%) Python
3 13 (2.24%) Bash
4 11 (1.90%) JavaScript
5 9 (1.55%) Java
6 7 (1.21%) Shell Script
7 6 (1.03%) PL/SQL
8 5 (0.86%) C#
9 4 (0.69%) Bicep
9 4 (0.69%) MATLAB
9 4 (0.69%) R
10 2 (0.34%) DataWeave
10 2 (0.34%) Korn
10 2 (0.34%) X++
11 1 (0.17%) ActionScript
11 1 (0.17%) COBOL
11 1 (0.17%) JCL
11 1 (0.17%) RPG
11 1 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 164 (28.28%) Security Cleared
2 132 (22.76%) SC Cleared
3 49 (8.45%) Degree
4 26 (4.48%) DV Cleared
5 20 (3.45%) ITIL Certification
6 19 (3.28%) Microsoft Certification
7 18 (3.10%) BPSS Clearance
8 17 (2.93%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 15 (2.59%) Cisco Certification
10 11 (1.90%) Azure Certification
11 9 (1.55%) A+ Certification
11 9 (1.55%) CCNP
12 8 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
12 8 (1.38%) MCSE
12 8 (1.38%) PMI Certification
13 7 (1.21%) CCNA
13 7 (1.21%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.86%) CCSE
14 5 (0.86%) CCSM
15 4 (0.69%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (3.97%) Data Quality
2 15 (2.59%) NIST
3 13 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 12 (2.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 10 (1.72%) PMO
5 10 (1.72%) QA
6 6 (1.03%) NCSC
7 5 (0.86%) COBIT
7 5 (0.86%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (0.86%) GDPR
7 5 (0.86%) GRC
7 5 (0.86%) ISO 9001
8 4 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.52%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.34%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.17%) DICOM
11 1 (0.17%) GxP
11 1 (0.17%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.17%) HL7
System Software
1 118 (20.34%) Active Directory
2 25 (4.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (3.10%) Virtual Desktop
4 14 (2.41%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (1.72%) Docker
6 9 (1.55%) Hyper-V
7 6 (1.03%) Firmware
7 6 (1.03%) vSphere
8 4 (0.69%) RACF
8 4 (0.69%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.52%) ACF2
10 2 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
10 2 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.17%) Apache ZooKeeper
11 1 (0.17%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.17%) Ceph
11 1 (0.17%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.17%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 52 (8.97%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (5.00%) SCCM
3 21 (3.62%) Kubernetes
4 12 (2.07%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (1.90%) Grafana
6 10 (1.72%) Ansible
7 9 (1.55%) vCenter Server
8 6 (1.03%) Jamf Pro
8 6 (1.03%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.69%) Check_MK
9 4 (0.69%) Podman
9 4 (0.69%) Red Hat Satellite
10 3 (0.52%) Oracle Identity Management
10 3 (0.52%) Oracle Identity Manager
10 3 (0.52%) SCOM
10 3 (0.52%) vMotion
11 2 (0.34%) Data Guard
11 2 (0.34%) Nessus
11 2 (0.34%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.34%) WSUS
Vendors
1 201 (34.66%) Microsoft
2 118 (20.34%) ServiceNow
3 44 (7.59%) Cisco
3 44 (7.59%) VMware
4 30 (5.17%) Oracle
5 22 (3.79%) Apple
6 18 (3.10%) Remedy
7 17 (2.93%) HP
8 12 (2.07%) Zscaler
9 11 (1.90%) Nokia
10 10 (1.72%) Databricks
10 10 (1.72%) Fortinet
10 10 (1.72%) Splunk
11 9 (1.55%) Citrix
11 9 (1.55%) Okta
11 9 (1.55%) Salesforce
11 9 (1.55%) Tenable
12 8 (1.38%) Ericsson
12 8 (1.38%) Liquidlogic
12 8 (1.38%) SAP
560 SLA jobs Nationwide