Market Overview

As we move into Q1, public sector organisations are showing renewed confidence in engaging contingent and consultancy talent to deliver critical programmes. While permanent hiring has remained cautious, the need to maintain delivery, strengthen security and progress digital agendas is driving increased demand for specialist contract and interim expertise.

There is a clear return to contingent and consultancy hiring across cyber security, digital and AI. After a period of restrained permanent recruitment, organisations are increasingly:

  • Engaging contract and interim professionals to address immediate capability gaps.

  • Accessing highly specialised skills quickly and efficiently.

  • Managing budget and cost pressures while sustaining delivery.

  • Retaining flexibility in workforce planning.

Demand is particularly strong for:

  • Cyber security specialists, supporting resilience and risk mitigation.

  • Cloud and digital transformation roles, enabling modernisation of systems and services.

  • AI-focused skill sets, aligned to data-led and innovation-driven initiatives.

This sustained demand reflects continued investment in:

  • Operational resilience

  • Digital transformation and innovation

  • Data and AI-enabled capabilities

At Synapri, we specialise in connecting public sector teams with the digital experts needed to deliver transformation at pace. Whether you're filling permanent roles, building flexible teams, or accelerating early-career pipelines, we're ready to support your hiring goals with precision and speed.

Strategic Leadership & Governance 

 Job Title Avg. Contract Rates
Chief Digital Officer (CDO) / Chief Information Officer (CIO) Upwards of £1,200
Programme Manager  £700 - £900
Programme Director £900 - £1200
Policy & Governance Lead £600 - £700
Stakeholder Engagement & Communications £550 - £650

NB: UK public sector day rates can vary based on factors such as experience, project complexity, vetting, and location.

Technology & Architecture

Job Title Avg. Contract Rates
Enterprise Architect £750 - £950
Solution Architect £650 - £750
Cybersecurity Specialist £650 - £750
Cloud & Infrastructure Engineer £500 - £600

NB: UK public sector day rates can vary based on factors such as experience, project complexity, vetting, and location.

Delivery & Agile Teams

Job Title Avg. Contract Rates
Product Owner £500 - £700
Scrum Master / Agile Coach £550 - £650
Business Analyst £450 - £650
Service Designer £550 - £650

NB: UK public sector day rates can vary based on factors such as experience, project complexity, vetting, and location.

Data & Analytics

 Title Avg. Contract Rates
Data Analyst & Scientist £500 - £700
Data Engineer £400 - £500
Ethical AI / Machine Learning Expert £600 - £800

NB: UK public sector day rates can vary based on factors such as experience, project complexity, vetting, and location.

 

User-Centric Design & Accessibility

 Title Avg. Contract Rates
User Researcher £450 - £550
UX/UI Designer £450 - £550
Content Designer £450 - £550

NB: UK public sector day rates can vary based on factors such as experience, project complexity, vetting, and location.

Procurement & Vendor Management

 Title Avg. Contract Rates
Commercial & Procurement Specialist £500 - £700
Supplier & Vendor Manager £450 - £650

NB: UK public sector day rates can vary based on factors such as experience, project complexity, vetting, and location.

Need support with public sector recruitment? Or, would like to learn more about what we are seeing in the market? Contact [email protected].

Synapri have been excellent partners for the business & digital transformation programme at Sitecore, they have managed to source & secure high impact Salesforce Consultants who have been instrumental in our journey to implement Salesforce. I would highly recommend Synapri to any company who is looking to hire specialist Salesforce consultants

Sitecore

The team at Synapri are honest, reliable and very understanding of requirements which makes working with them very easy and straightforward. They understand our need for a culture/person fit as well as high technical ability, something that some agencies really struggle with. Synapri have been instrumental in supporting the growth of our tech-team and both through their professional attitude and their results have proved to be an essential partner to the Sole Supplier.

The Sole Supplier

The Synapri team are dedicated recruiters whose passion for providing quality recruitment services and supporting their customer shines through. When commencing an engagement the team ensure they take the time needed to get know both the hiring manager and the hiring organisation to help target candidates with the right fit. With candidates they take time to get to know them as a person and truly understand their aspirations before matching these to an organisation whose values and requirements align. Synapri demonstrate detailed knowledge of technology and technology businesses and operations which is invaluable when discussing vacancies and assessing candidate experience. I would happily recommend Synpari to others as either a recruiter who cares both about their clients, or to candidates seeking a new positon.

Save the Children

Synapri stands out as a agency who prioritises the client and the candidate. Friendly, thoughtful and with a thorough recruitment process with none of the usual pressure or persistence which makes relationships with some recruiters burdensome. They’re there when you need them and have patience to work through difficult hires in challenging market conditions, and are also able to scale with your business. I’m very happy to recommend them.

Perfect Channel

We have been working with Synapri since their inception to provide our product & tech resources and have been very pleased with the results. They work closely with us to understand not only the technical requirements, but also what we expect from a cultural & team fit perspective. Although we use more than one agency, Synapri stands out for their industry knowledge & expert advice. I have no hesitation in recommending them – they always deliver the goods!

Liberis

Synapri have proved to be an extremely responsive and valuable contract recruitment partner. Their ability to understand and deliver our technical and project requirements, often against tight deadlines, sets them apart from other recruiters. They are highly professional and they always provide candidates who meet the standards expected by NSC. They also strike the balance between getting the job done and maintaining regular communication with their client. Having worked with a number of different recruiters over the years, I would highly recommend Synapri to any organisation recruiting within technology.

NSC Global

Particularly skilled at finding senior resource, I have gone back to members of the team at Synapri over the past fifteen years in different roles and in different organisations. Their approach is highly professional and non-intrusive, finding outstanding candidates in reasonable timescales

Sports Information Services

Synapri are responsive, understand the cards and payments market, ask the right questions and reflect the requirements back in the candidates presented. I highly recommend them.

10x Banking

The team at Synapri have been invaluable. Our companies beliefs and culture is extremely important to us and Synapri have always worked closely with us to ensure each candidate put forward was aligned to these. We continue to have a strong relationship with the accuracy of candidates being put forward getting better and better, which is due to the time Chris and the team invest to understand our business and what is important to us. Their communication during each engagement is excellent and their attention to detail is thorough.

LIMOSS

Frontline has been using Synapri to source our temporary and permanent Salesforce skilled staff for over a year. It has been very successful with consultants driving vital system improvements to our Salesforce instance. As well as quality permanent staff that have joined our newly expanded CRM team. I have found Synapri’s professionalism and attention to detail excellent, helping us fully at each stage of our recruitment process.

Frontline

The team at Synapri have been instrumental in supporting the growth of our Sales and Marketing Technology teams at Trustpilot over the last year. The team has a knack of reading between the lines to understand exactly what I’m looking for, and they always provide profiles within a quick turnaround. I know that I can count on Synapri to go above and beyond to ensure we find the right person.

 

Trustpilot

Ryan was a pleasure to work with and took the time to not only understand the brief and expectations for this customer product owner role, but the company and team alike. We are a unique business with many nuances, which include location, being family run, having many standalone roles in our Technology department as well as end customer expectations that come with high-net-worth clients.

We endeavour to create strong relationships with our agency partners so that there is an understanding from all parties of our business and culture, which in return provides the candidate(s) with a positive experience throughout the application journey. Ryan's communication was clear, transparent and honest and understood our expectation from day one of engagement which resulted in an extremely timely turnaround and what we hope to be the perfect hire!

Banham Security

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