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

 6 months to
8 Mar 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 212 191 138
Rank change year-on-year -21 -53 +37
Contract jobs citing SLA 539 425 772
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.27% 1.41% 1.73%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 7.34% 9.39% 11.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 274 241 366
10th Percentile £200 £148 £150
25th Percentile £263 £185 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £440 £250 £350
Median % change year-on-year +76.00% -28.57% +19.15%
75th Percentile £529 £488 £525
90th Percentile £596 £600 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £241 £285
% change year-on-year +65.98% -15.44% +26.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 46 85
10th Percentile £16.16 £14.70 £11.07
25th Percentile £17.69 £17.87 £13.18
Median hourly rate £18.50 £22.21 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.69% +38.78% -13.51%
75th Percentile £20.35 £24.54 £26.15
90th Percentile £27.87 £29.00 £33.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.50 £22.14 £14.16
% change year-on-year -16.44% +56.36% -22.30%

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 7,348 4,524 6,480
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.34% 15.05% 14.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,734 2,817 4,142
10th Percentile £328 £260 £300
25th Percentile £413 £375 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £482
% change year-on-year +5.26% -1.35% +1.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 394 173 394
10th Percentile £15.40 £16.23 £11.06
25th Percentile £18.45 £22.00 £14.13
Median hourly rate £28.28 £31.76 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.97% +27.04% -23.08%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £46.75
90th Percentile £78.33 £78.45 £70.01
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.58 £31.76 £24.43
% change year-on-year -3.72% +30.00% -18.97%

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 8 March 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 8 March 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 8 March 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 -23 483 £438 +75.00% 274
UK excluding London -42 361 £400 +65.98% 229
London +5 148 £485 +61.67% 78
East of England +38 111 £475 +111.11% 30
Work from Home -42 100 £500 +100.00% 95
South East -60 75 £425 +70.00% 90
North of England -65 57 £348 +39.00% 46
Midlands -83 47 £303 +28.72% 37
South West -11 40 £275 -50.00% 18
West Midlands -64 36 £299 +27.34% 15
Scotland +16 29 £440 +129.17% 11
North West -50 29 £435 +74.00% 33
Yorkshire -56 21 £365 +58.70% 13
East Midlands -36 11 £534 +78.00% 22
North East - 7 £265 -
Northern Ireland -2 5 £500 +237.84% 1
Wales -8 1 - - 4

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 19 (3.53%) SharePoint
2 17 (3.15%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.11%) Confluence
4 5 (0.93%) Oracle Workflow
5 4 (0.74%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.37%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.37%) SAS
8 1 (0.19%) GeoServer
8 1 (0.19%) LiveCycle
8 1 (0.19%) Oracle Spatial
8 1 (0.19%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.19%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 53 (9.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 46 (8.53%) Spreadsheet
3 33 (6.12%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.93%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.74%) Oracle Smart View
6 3 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 16 (2.97%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 13 (2.41%) Oracle EBS
3 12 (2.23%) Oracle Payables
4 11 (2.04%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (1.86%) Oracle Assets
6 8 (1.48%) Oracle General Ledger
7 7 (1.30%) Oracle Receivables
8 6 (1.11%) Oracle ERP
9 4 (0.74%) Oracle FAH
10 3 (0.56%) Oracle Cash Management
11 2 (0.37%) Dynamics CRM
11 2 (0.37%) IntelliMatch
11 2 (0.37%) Oracle EBS R12
11 2 (0.37%) Oracle E-Business Tax
11 2 (0.37%) Oracle Financials
11 2 (0.37%) Payment Gateway
11 2 (0.37%) Temenos T24
12 1 (0.19%) Adobe Campaign
12 1 (0.19%) SAP Payroll
12 1 (0.19%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 61 (11.32%) Microsoft 365
2 60 (11.13%) Azure
3 48 (8.91%) AWS
4 19 (3.53%) Power Platform
5 18 (3.34%) GCP
6 14 (2.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 13 (2.41%) Entra ID
7 13 (2.41%) IaaS
8 12 (2.23%) Amazon EC2
8 12 (2.23%) Amazon S3
8 12 (2.23%) PaaS
9 11 (2.04%) Datadog
10 9 (1.67%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 9 (1.67%) AWS CloudFormation
10 9 (1.67%) OCI
10 9 (1.67%) SaaS
10 9 (1.67%) Snowflake
11 8 (1.48%) Azure DevOps
12 7 (1.30%) GitHub
13 5 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 34 (6.31%) Firewall
2 26 (4.82%) WAN
3 22 (4.08%) DNS
3 22 (4.08%) VPN
4 18 (3.34%) SD-WAN
5 17 (3.15%) DHCP
6 14 (2.60%) Network Security
7 13 (2.41%) LAN
7 13 (2.41%) PABX
8 12 (2.23%) MPLS
9 11 (2.04%) SAN
9 11 (2.04%) VLAN
10 10 (1.86%) BGP
10 10 (1.86%) Cisco ASA
10 10 (1.86%) OSPF
11 9 (1.67%) TCP/IP
11 9 (1.67%) Wi-Fi
12 8 (1.48%) Cisco IOS
12 8 (1.48%) Wireless
13 7 (1.30%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (3.15%) Power BI
2 15 (2.78%) SQL Server
3 10 (1.86%) Oracle Database
4 9 (1.67%) MySQL
5 6 (1.11%) MongoDB
5 6 (1.11%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (0.93%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
7 3 (0.56%) GIS
7 3 (0.56%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (0.56%) SAP HANA
7 3 (0.56%) Tableau
8 2 (0.37%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.37%) Pentaho
8 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.19%) Geospatial Data
9 1 (0.19%) Metadata
9 1 (0.19%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 1 (0.19%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.19%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 28 (5.19%) JIRA
2 18 (3.34%) Jenkins
3 17 (3.15%) GitLab
4 15 (2.78%) Git
5 6 (1.11%) Chocolatey
6 5 (0.93%) Visual Studio
7 4 (0.74%) Maven
8 3 (0.56%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.37%) JMeter
10 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.19%) Metasploit
10 1 (0.19%) Selenium
10 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 250 (46.38%) Social Skills
2 113 (20.96%) Finance
3 68 (12.62%) Analytical Skills
4 53 (9.83%) Public Sector
5 35 (6.49%) Organisational Skills
6 34 (6.31%) Banking
7 29 (5.38%) Telecoms
8 23 (4.27%) Documentation Skills
8 23 (4.27%) Legal
9 17 (3.15%) Retail
10 12 (2.23%) Marketing
11 10 (1.86%) Financial Institution
12 9 (1.67%) Billing
12 9 (1.67%) Investment Banking
13 7 (1.30%) Aerospace
14 6 (1.11%) Law
14 6 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
15 5 (0.93%) Local Government
16 4 (0.74%) Aviation
16 4 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 79 (14.66%) IT Support
2 69 (12.80%) Analyst
3 54 (10.02%) Lead
4 41 (7.61%) Administrator
5 33 (6.12%) Desktop Support
5 33 (6.12%) Support Engineer
5 33 (6.12%) Technical Support
6 32 (5.94%) Senior
7 28 (5.19%) Service Manager
8 23 (4.27%) Service Analyst
9 22 (4.08%) Support Analyst
10 21 (3.90%) IT Engineer
10 21 (3.90%) Team Leader
11 19 (3.53%) Consultant
12 17 (3.15%) IT Administrator
13 16 (2.97%) Desktop Engineer
14 15 (2.78%) Developer
15 14 (2.60%) Delivery Manager
15 14 (2.60%) Service Desk Analyst
16 13 (2.41%) Service Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.41%) Oracle Fusion
2 11 (2.04%) Middleware
3 9 (1.67%) REST
4 8 (1.48%) Web Services
5 7 (1.30%) LDAP
6 6 (1.11%) CSS
7 5 (0.93%) AWS CDK
7 5 (0.93%) jQuery
7 5 (0.93%) Kafka
7 5 (0.93%) Spring
8 4 (0.74%) 802.1X
8 4 (0.74%) AngularJS
8 4 (0.74%) Bootstrap
8 4 (0.74%) J2EE
8 4 (0.74%) Sass
8 4 (0.74%) Spring MVC
9 3 (0.56%) .NET
9 3 (0.56%) OAuth
9 3 (0.56%) RESTful
9 3 (0.56%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (6.31%) Onboarding
2 27 (5.01%) Management Information System
3 21 (3.90%) Data Centre
4 20 (3.71%) Self-Motivation
5 15 (2.78%) Product Ownership
5 15 (2.78%) Smartphone
6 13 (2.41%) Driving Licence
7 12 (2.23%) Cloud Native
8 9 (1.67%) Enterprise Cloud
9 8 (1.48%) CMDB
9 8 (1.48%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.30%) Public Cloud
11 6 (1.11%) Cyber Threat
11 6 (1.11%) Equities
12 5 (0.93%) Enterprise Software
13 4 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
13 4 (0.74%) BYOD
13 4 (0.74%) IoT
13 4 (0.74%) PKI
13 4 (0.74%) PropTech
Operating Systems
1 100 (18.55%) Windows
2 31 (5.75%) Linux
3 29 (5.38%) Windows 10
4 18 (3.34%) Unix
5 11 (2.04%) Windows Server
6 7 (1.30%) Android
6 7 (1.30%) Apple iOS
6 7 (1.30%) CentOS
6 7 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (1.11%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.19%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.19%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.19%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 139 (25.79%) ITIL
2 119 (22.08%) Customer Service
3 98 (18.18%) Service Delivery
4 86 (15.96%) Time Management
5 79 (14.66%) Continuous Improvement
6 68 (12.62%) ITSM
7 65 (12.06%) Problem-Solving
8 60 (11.13%) Incident Management
8 60 (11.13%) Stakeholder Management
9 55 (10.20%) Root Cause Analysis
10 54 (10.02%) Change Management
11 52 (9.65%) Agile
12 42 (7.79%) Service Management
13 41 (7.61%) Roadmaps
14 38 (7.05%) Asset Management
15 35 (6.49%) Disaster Recovery
16 34 (6.31%) Problem Management
17 32 (5.94%) CI/CD
17 32 (5.94%) Migration
18 29 (5.38%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 33 (6.12%) Python
1 33 (6.12%) SQL
2 19 (3.53%) PowerShell
3 18 (3.34%) Shell Script
4 15 (2.78%) Java
5 12 (2.23%) Bash
6 7 (1.30%) JavaScript
6 7 (1.30%) MATLAB
7 6 (1.11%) PL/SQL
8 4 (0.74%) C++
9 3 (0.56%) Go
10 2 (0.37%) VB
11 1 (0.19%) Apex Code
11 1 (0.19%) Bicep
11 1 (0.19%) C#
11 1 (0.19%) Groovy
11 1 (0.19%) Korn
11 1 (0.19%) Scala
Qualifications
1 129 (23.93%) Security Cleared
2 101 (18.74%) SC Cleared
3 39 (7.24%) Degree
4 16 (2.97%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (2.41%) DV Cleared
6 11 (2.04%) MOS
7 10 (1.86%) ITIL Certification
8 6 (1.11%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 6 (1.11%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (0.93%) Master's Degree
10 4 (0.74%) Azure Certification
10 4 (0.74%) CISA
10 4 (0.74%) DBS Check
10 4 (0.74%) PMI Certification
10 4 (0.74%) RIBA
11 3 (0.56%) CCA
11 3 (0.56%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (0.56%) Numerate Degree
12 2 (0.37%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 2 (0.37%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (3.90%) GDPR
2 17 (3.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (2.78%) PMO
4 13 (2.41%) QA
5 12 (2.23%) Data Quality
6 9 (1.67%) NIST
7 8 (1.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 7 (1.30%) GRC
9 6 (1.11%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.74%) COBIT
11 3 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.37%) ISO 20022
12 2 (0.37%) ISO 31000
12 2 (0.37%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 2 (0.37%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.37%) PSD2
12 2 (0.37%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
13 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 50 (9.28%) Active Directory
2 12 (2.23%) Docker
3 9 (1.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (1.48%) vSphere
5 3 (0.56%) DFS Replication
6 2 (0.37%) Firmware
6 2 (0.37%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.37%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.19%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.19%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 23 (4.27%) SCCM
2 20 (3.71%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (3.71%) Terraform
3 17 (3.15%) Ansible
4 12 (2.23%) ServiceCenter
5 10 (1.86%) Grafana
6 9 (1.67%) Kubernetes
6 9 (1.67%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (1.30%) Check_MK
7 7 (1.30%) Podman
7 7 (1.30%) Red Hat Satellite
8 6 (1.11%) FortiGate
9 5 (0.93%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (0.74%) TeamSite
11 2 (0.37%) HP ALM
11 2 (0.37%) HP Quality Center
11 2 (0.37%) Puppet
11 2 (0.37%) SCOM
11 2 (0.37%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 155 (28.76%) Microsoft
2 64 (11.87%) ServiceNow
3 53 (9.83%) Oracle
4 32 (5.94%) Cisco
4 32 (5.94%) HP
5 31 (5.75%) SAP
6 27 (5.01%) Dell
6 27 (5.01%) VMware
7 19 (3.53%) Apple
8 15 (2.78%) Remedy
9 14 (2.60%) Splunk
10 11 (2.04%) IBM
11 9 (1.67%) AppDynamics
11 9 (1.67%) Tenable
11 9 (1.67%) Zscaler
12 8 (1.48%) Fortinet
13 7 (1.30%) Red Hat
14 6 (1.11%) Dynatrace
14 6 (1.11%) Workday
15 5 (0.93%) Databricks
297 SLA jobs Nationwide