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

 6 months to
17 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 259 210 194
Rank change year-on-year -49 -16 -20
Contract jobs citing SLA 559 438 492
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.02% 1.33% 1.29%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 5.83% 7.77% 9.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 331 249 226
10th Percentile £181 £185 £153
25th Percentile £250 £225 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £350 £300
Median % change year-on-year +21.43% +16.67% -25.00%
75th Percentile £525 £544 £500
90th Percentile £600 £615 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £325 £283
% change year-on-year +30.77% +14.74% -19.07%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 68 63
10th Percentile £13.45 £15.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £15.99 £17.47 £14.46
Median hourly rate £18.79 £22.14 £18.27
Median % change year-on-year -15.13% +21.18% +4.40%
75th Percentile £24.50 £25.15 £24.18
90th Percentile £72.10 £39.26 £46.36
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.79 £18.73 £16.97
% change year-on-year +0.32% +10.37% -3.03%

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 9,591 5,640 5,117
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.55% 17.12% 13.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,065 3,615 3,036
10th Percentile £325 £300 £281
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £625
90th Percentile £700 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +2.68% -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 616 270 262
10th Percentile £13.87 £13.60 £12.25
25th Percentile £16.75 £17.05 £15.00
Median hourly rate £32.75 £30.00 £27.09
Median % change year-on-year +9.17% +10.74% -23.97%
75th Percentile £67.50 £59.38 £58.44
90th Percentile £76.50 £80.28 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £28.18 £26.50
% change year-on-year +17.10% +6.34% -26.39%

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 17 September 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 17 September 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 17 September 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 -69 458 £425 +13.33% 605
UK excluding London -57 342 £425 +30.77% 354
London -50 182 £420 +3.07% 283
Work from Home -18 126 £463 +42.31% 213
North of England -47 89 £429 +71.26% 65
South East -71 72 £475 +39.09% 91
Scotland +29 65 £353 +0.71% 20
North West -4 64 £400 +23.08% 46
Midlands -61 50 £250 -28.57% 72
West Midlands -61 44 £250 -33.33% 45
East of England -12 40 £510 +45.71% 63
South West -49 30 £363 +11.54% 32
Yorkshire -53 22 £456 +82.14% 15
Wales -10 11 £525 +169.23% 10
East Midlands -11 6 £363 +170.52% 27
North East -39 3 £228 - 4
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 42 (7.51%) SharePoint
2 31 (5.55%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.43%) Confluence
4 6 (1.07%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.72%) IIS
6 3 (0.54%) SAS
7 2 (0.36%) Anypoint
7 2 (0.36%) Apache
7 2 (0.36%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.36%) Mule
8 1 (0.18%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.18%) CICS
8 1 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2013
8 1 (0.18%) JBoss
8 1 (0.18%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 53 (9.48%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (4.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.89%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (0.54%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 14 (2.50%) Remedy ITSM
2 8 (1.43%) ContrOCC
3 5 (0.89%) Oracle Applications
4 4 (0.72%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.72%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (0.54%) Oracle Assets
5 3 (0.54%) Oracle General Ledger
5 3 (0.54%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (0.54%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.36%) Dynamics GP
6 2 (0.36%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.36%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.18%) Actimize
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.18%) SAP HCM
7 1 (0.18%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 115 (20.57%) Microsoft 365
2 108 (19.32%) Azure
3 59 (10.55%) Entra ID
4 46 (8.23%) AWS
5 25 (4.47%) OneDrive
6 21 (3.76%) SaaS
7 17 (3.04%) Power Platform
8 13 (2.33%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.79%) Datadog
10 9 (1.61%) IaaS
10 9 (1.61%) OCI
10 9 (1.61%) PaaS
11 8 (1.43%) Azure Sentinel
12 7 (1.25%) Serverless
13 6 (1.07%) Amazon S3
14 5 (0.89%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 5 (0.89%) AWS CloudFormation
14 5 (0.89%) Dynamics 365
14 5 (0.89%) GCP
14 5 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 42 (7.51%) DNS
2 36 (6.44%) VPN
3 32 (5.72%) DHCP
4 24 (4.29%) TCP/IP
5 23 (4.11%) WAN
6 22 (3.94%) LAN
7 21 (3.76%) Firewall
8 17 (3.04%) Wi-Fi
9 14 (2.50%) SAN
9 14 (2.50%) SDH
10 12 (2.15%) MPLS
11 11 (1.97%) Network Security
11 11 (1.97%) VLAN
12 10 (1.79%) Skype
13 8 (1.43%) Wireless
14 7 (1.25%) Cisco IOS
14 7 (1.25%) Radio Access Network
15 6 (1.07%) Diameter Protocol
15 6 (1.07%) VoLTE
15 6 (1.07%) VoWiFi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (4.11%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.15%) Power BI
3 8 (1.43%) Tableau
4 7 (1.25%) Oracle Reports
5 5 (0.89%) Delta Lake
5 5 (0.89%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.72%) Db2
7 3 (0.54%) Amazon Athena
7 3 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (0.54%) Big Data
7 3 (0.54%) Data Lake
7 3 (0.54%) Pentaho
7 3 (0.54%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.36%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.36%) Flink
8 2 (0.36%) Metadata
8 2 (0.36%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.36%) Oracle Database 11g
8 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 2 (0.36%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 41 (7.33%) JIRA
2 7 (1.25%) GitLab
3 6 (1.07%) Git
4 5 (0.89%) Chocolatey
4 5 (0.89%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.89%) RStudio
5 3 (0.54%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.36%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.36%) Toad
7 1 (0.18%) WiX
General
1 231 (41.32%) Social Skills
2 104 (18.60%) Analytical Skills
3 95 (16.99%) Finance
4 33 (5.90%) Public Sector
5 28 (5.01%) Banking
6 27 (4.83%) Organisational Skills
7 24 (4.29%) Telecoms
8 22 (3.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 19 (3.40%) Documentation Skills
10 17 (3.04%) Legal
11 13 (2.33%) Billing
11 13 (2.33%) Local Government
12 12 (2.15%) Manufacturing
13 11 (1.97%) Retail
14 9 (1.61%) Influencing Skills
15 8 (1.43%) Aerospace
16 5 (0.89%) Back Office
17 4 (0.72%) Financial Institution
17 4 (0.72%) French Language
18 3 (0.54%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 76 (13.60%) Analyst
2 58 (10.38%) Support Engineer
3 47 (8.41%) IT Support
4 36 (6.44%) Senior
5 35 (6.26%) Lead
6 32 (5.72%) IT Engineer
7 29 (5.19%) Consultant
7 29 (5.19%) Service Analyst
8 26 (4.65%) Field Engineer
9 25 (4.47%) Service Manager
10 24 (4.29%) Architect
10 24 (4.29%) Desktop Support
10 24 (4.29%) Network Engineer
11 23 (4.11%) IT Support Engineer
12 22 (3.94%) Service Desk Analyst
13 18 (3.22%) Administrator
13 18 (3.22%) Applications Support
14 17 (3.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 16 (2.86%) Delivery Manager
16 14 (2.50%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.04%) REST
2 13 (2.33%) Terraform
3 11 (1.97%) .NET
4 8 (1.43%) LDAP
5 6 (1.07%) Middleware
5 6 (1.07%) PySpark
5 6 (1.07%) XML
6 5 (0.89%) Kafka
6 5 (0.89%) OAuth
6 5 (0.89%) Oracle Fusion
7 4 (0.72%) Software Packaging
8 3 (0.54%) .NET Framework
8 3 (0.54%) ARM Templates
8 3 (0.54%) Elastic Stack
8 3 (0.54%) Java RMI
8 3 (0.54%) JSON
8 3 (0.54%) SOAP
9 2 (0.36%) JDBC
9 2 (0.36%) RAML
9 2 (0.36%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 64 (11.45%) Onboarding
2 28 (5.01%) Data Centre
3 23 (4.11%) CMDB
4 21 (3.76%) Enterprise Software
5 15 (2.68%) Smartphone
6 14 (2.50%) PKI
6 14 (2.50%) Video Conferencing
7 12 (2.15%) Security Posture
7 12 (2.15%) Virtual Team
8 8 (1.43%) Cyber Threat
8 8 (1.43%) Driving Licence
9 7 (1.25%) Fat Client
9 7 (1.25%) iPhone
9 7 (1.25%) Replication
9 7 (1.25%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (1.25%) Thin Client
10 6 (1.07%) Fibre Optics
11 5 (0.89%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (0.89%) BYOD
11 5 (0.89%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 171 (30.59%) Windows
2 62 (11.09%) Windows 10
3 48 (8.59%) Windows Server
4 39 (6.98%) Android
5 33 (5.90%) Linux
6 14 (2.50%) Apple iOS
7 13 (2.33%) Mac OS
8 12 (2.15%) Unix
8 12 (2.15%) Windows 7
9 9 (1.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.72%) CentOS
10 4 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.54%) Windows XP
12 1 (0.18%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.18%) VMS
12 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.18%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 231 (41.32%) ITIL
2 139 (24.87%) ITSM
3 131 (23.43%) Customer Service
4 130 (23.26%) Problem-Solving
5 126 (22.54%) Service Management
6 125 (22.36%) Continuous Improvement
7 108 (19.32%) Stakeholder Management
8 86 (15.38%) Service Delivery
9 81 (14.49%) Change Management
10 74 (13.24%) Incident Management
11 67 (11.99%) Root Cause Analysis
12 57 (10.20%) Problem Management
13 50 (8.94%) Agile
14 42 (7.51%) Validation
15 40 (7.16%) Migration
16 39 (6.98%) Runbook
17 37 (6.62%) DevOps
18 35 (6.26%) Asset Management
18 35 (6.26%) Incident Response
19 34 (6.08%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 46 (8.23%) SQL
2 43 (7.69%) PowerShell
3 37 (6.62%) Python
4 10 (1.79%) Bash
5 9 (1.61%) JavaScript
6 7 (1.25%) Java
6 7 (1.25%) Shell Script
7 6 (1.07%) PL/SQL
8 5 (0.89%) C#
8 5 (0.89%) R
9 4 (0.72%) Bicep
9 4 (0.72%) MATLAB
10 2 (0.36%) DataWeave
10 2 (0.36%) Perl
10 2 (0.36%) X++
11 1 (0.18%) COBOL
11 1 (0.18%) Go
11 1 (0.18%) Korn
11 1 (0.18%) RPG
11 1 (0.18%) Scala
Qualifications
1 174 (31.13%) Security Cleared
2 134 (23.97%) SC Cleared
3 41 (7.33%) Degree
4 32 (5.72%) DV Cleared
5 20 (3.58%) ITIL Certification
5 20 (3.58%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 18 (3.22%) Microsoft Certification
7 16 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
8 15 (2.68%) Cisco Certification
9 9 (1.61%) A+ Certification
9 9 (1.61%) Azure Certification
9 9 (1.61%) PMI Certification
10 8 (1.43%) CCNA
10 8 (1.43%) CCNP
11 7 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.25%) DBS Check
11 7 (1.25%) MCSE
12 5 (0.89%) PMP
13 4 (0.72%) CCSE
13 4 (0.72%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (4.29%) Data Quality
2 13 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 12 (2.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.97%) NIST
5 8 (1.43%) QA
6 6 (1.07%) GDPR
6 6 (1.07%) NCSC
7 5 (0.89%) COBIT
7 5 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (0.89%) ISO 9001
7 5 (0.89%) PMO
8 4 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 4 (0.72%) GRC
9 3 (0.54%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.36%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.18%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.18%) HL7
11 1 (0.18%) ISO 20022
11 1 (0.18%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 132 (23.61%) Active Directory
2 27 (4.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (3.22%) Virtual Desktop
4 12 (2.15%) Hyper-V
4 12 (2.15%) VMware ESXi
5 7 (1.25%) Docker
6 6 (1.07%) Firmware
7 5 (0.89%) vSphere
8 4 (0.72%) RACF
8 4 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.54%) ACF2
10 2 (0.36%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 2 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
10 2 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.18%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.18%) Ceph
11 1 (0.18%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.18%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 52 (9.30%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (5.19%) SCCM
3 21 (3.76%) Kubernetes
4 13 (2.33%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (1.97%) Ansible
6 9 (1.61%) Grafana
7 8 (1.43%) vCenter Server
8 7 (1.25%) Jamf Pro
9 6 (1.07%) SCOM
10 4 (0.72%) Check_MK
10 4 (0.72%) Podman
10 4 (0.72%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.72%) Red Hat Satellite
10 4 (0.72%) SCOrch
11 3 (0.54%) Oracle Identity Management
11 3 (0.54%) Oracle Identity Manager
11 3 (0.54%) vMotion
12 2 (0.36%) Data Guard
12 2 (0.36%) systemd
12 2 (0.36%) WSUS
Vendors
1 203 (36.31%) Microsoft
2 111 (19.86%) ServiceNow
3 44 (7.87%) VMware
4 40 (7.16%) Cisco
5 27 (4.83%) Oracle
6 20 (3.58%) Apple
7 18 (3.22%) Remedy
8 15 (2.68%) HP
9 10 (1.79%) Nokia
10 9 (1.61%) Citrix
10 9 (1.61%) Databricks
10 9 (1.61%) Okta
10 9 (1.61%) Salesforce
10 9 (1.61%) SAP
10 9 (1.61%) Zscaler
11 8 (1.43%) BT
11 8 (1.43%) Fortinet
11 8 (1.43%) Liquidlogic
12 7 (1.25%) Dynatrace
12 7 (1.25%) Huawei
688 SLA jobs Nationwide