Consultant Contract Job Trends in England

Consultant
UK > England

The median Consultant daily rate in England is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 September 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 28 28
Rank change year-on-year -4 0 +9
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,614 1,727 2,085
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.68% 6.27% 6.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.15% 6.86% 6.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,533 1,084 1,218
10th Percentile £413 £416 £413
25th Percentile £463 £488 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £656 £650 £650
90th Percentile £750 £750 £763
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 23 22
10th Percentile £36.25 £27.93 £53.11
25th Percentile £46.13 £39.05 £57.86
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -2.22%
75th Percentile £86.81 £81.25 £65.76
90th Percentile £92.25 - £74.35
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -5.23%

All Contract IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 42,472 25,165 30,541
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 91.31% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,344 16,231 19,205
10th Percentile £325 £280 £304
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £506 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -3.62% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,400 1,346 1,510
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.67 £14.64
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £21.25
Median hourly rate £43.08 £25.15 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +71.27% -47.05% +5.56%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.75 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.35 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -1.71%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Consultant' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Consultant job vacancy trend in England

Consultant
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in England

Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Consultant in England over the 6 months to 14 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Consultant in England

Consultant
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in England

Consultant
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Consultant in England over the 6 months to 14 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in England

Consultant
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Consultant within the England region over the 6 months to 14 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
London -2 1,247 £550 -4.35% 1,949
South East -6 397 £540 -1.82% 345
North of England -11 318 £575 +4.55% 391
Midlands +1 229 £500 -9.09% 217
South West +9 208 £550 -7.56% 256
North West -10 205 £565 -1.74% 255
West Midlands +5 161 £495 -10.00% 167
East of England -13 108 £565 +2.73% 150
Yorkshire -11 92 £575 +22.99% 85
East Midlands -7 62 £525 -4.55% 47
North East -32 20 £750 +37.61% 52
Consultant
UK

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 14 September 2026, Consultant contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 577 (22.07%) Security Cleared
2 500 (19.13%) SAP
3 444 (16.99%) Stakeholder Management
4 391 (14.96%) SC Cleared
5 375 (14.35%) Microsoft
6 354 (13.54%) Migration
7 312 (11.94%) Oracle
8 273 (10.44%) Azure
9 246 (9.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 234 (8.95%) User Acceptance Testing
11 208 (7.96%) Problem-Solving
12 198 (7.57%) Validation
13 197 (7.54%) SAP S/4HANA
14 195 (7.46%) SQL
15 193 (7.38%) Cybersecurity
16 192 (7.35%) Workshop Facilitation
17 176 (6.73%) Roadmaps
18 172 (6.58%) Analytics
19 160 (6.12%) Data Migration
20 159 (6.08%) ERP
21 157 (6.01%) AWS
22 154 (5.89%) Continuous Improvement
23 152 (5.81%) Agile
24 147 (5.62%) Requirements Gathering
25 144 (5.51%) AI
26 139 (5.32%) DV Cleared
27 132 (5.05%) Power Platform
28 120 (4.59%) Business Intelligence
29 116 (4.44%) Dynamics 365
30 113 (4.32%) Translating Business Requirements

Consultant Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 66 (2.52%) SharePoint
2 38 (1.45%) Confluence
3 30 (1.15%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.34%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.31%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.23%) SAS
8 4 (0.15%) Apache
9 3 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 3 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.11%) CMS
9 3 (0.11%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.11%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.077%) Apache Superset
10 2 (0.077%) IIS
10 2 (0.077%) Smallworld
10 2 (0.077%) WordPress
11 1 (0.038%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.038%) OpenEdge
11 1 (0.038%) Tomcat
Applications
1 41 (1.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 30 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
3 23 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.31%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.077%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.038%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.038%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.038%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 197 (7.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 79 (3.02%) Oracle EBS
3 43 (1.64%) Oracle Payables
4 42 (1.61%) SAP FI
5 40 (1.53%) Oracle ERP
6 39 (1.49%) SAP PSCD
7 34 (1.30%) Dynamics CRM
7 34 (1.30%) Oracle Receivables
8 30 (1.15%) NetSuite
8 30 (1.15%) SAP CO
9 29 (1.11%) SAP MM
10 28 (1.07%) SAP Payroll
11 27 (1.03%) Oracle General Ledger
11 27 (1.03%) SAP SD
11 27 (1.03%) Workday HCM
12 25 (0.96%) SAP FI/CO
12 25 (0.96%) SAP HR
13 24 (0.92%) SAP HCM
14 23 (0.88%) Oracle EBS R12
15 21 (0.80%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 273 (10.44%) Azure
2 157 (6.01%) AWS
3 132 (5.05%) Power Platform
4 116 (4.44%) Dynamics 365
5 95 (3.63%) SuccessFactors
6 85 (3.25%) GCP
7 73 (2.79%) OCI
8 71 (2.72%) Microsoft 365
9 60 (2.30%) Power Automate
10 55 (2.10%) Entra ID
11 51 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
12 36 (1.38%) SaaS
13 35 (1.34%) Microsoft Copilot
14 28 (1.07%) PowerApps
15 26 (0.99%) Microsoft Purview
16 25 (0.96%) GitHub
17 17 (0.65%) Snowflake
18 15 (0.57%) Copilot Studio
19 14 (0.54%) Azure AI
19 14 (0.54%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 58 (2.22%) Firewall
2 55 (2.10%) Network Security
3 32 (1.22%) WAN
4 28 (1.07%) BGP
5 22 (0.84%) VPN
6 18 (0.69%) SNMP
7 14 (0.54%) DNS
7 14 (0.54%) LAN
8 11 (0.42%) Ethernet VPN
8 11 (0.42%) SAN
8 11 (0.42%) TCP/IP
9 10 (0.38%) 3GPP
9 10 (0.38%) 5G
9 10 (0.38%) MPLS
9 10 (0.38%) Radio Access Network
10 9 (0.34%) IPsec
10 9 (0.34%) SD-WAN
10 9 (0.34%) VXLAN
11 8 (0.31%) NGFW
12 7 (0.27%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (2.87%) Power BI
2 46 (1.76%) Oracle Reports
3 29 (1.11%) SAP BW
4 28 (1.07%) Data Warehouse
4 28 (1.07%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 26 (0.99%) SAP HANA
6 25 (0.96%) Metadata
7 24 (0.92%) SQL Server
7 24 (0.92%) Tableau
8 14 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
8 14 (0.54%) Oracle ODI
9 10 (0.38%) Oracle Database
9 10 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
10 9 (0.34%) Power Query
10 9 (0.34%) Relational Database
11 7 (0.27%) DynamoDB
12 6 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
13 5 (0.19%) Delta Lake
13 5 (0.19%) Looker
13 5 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 77 (2.95%) JIRA
2 21 (0.80%) Git
3 19 (0.73%) Oracle Forms
4 14 (0.54%) Jenkins
5 10 (0.38%) Hudson
6 9 (0.34%) GitLab
7 7 (0.27%) PowerBuilder
8 4 (0.15%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.15%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.11%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.11%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.11%) LoadRunner
9 3 (0.11%) MLflow
9 3 (0.11%) Selenium
9 3 (0.11%) Snyk
9 3 (0.11%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.11%) Toad
9 3 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.077%) MSI
General
1 568 (21.73%) Social Skills
2 565 (21.61%) Finance
3 177 (6.77%) Public Sector
4 176 (6.73%) Analytical Skills
5 95 (3.63%) Banking
6 79 (3.02%) Manufacturing
7 70 (2.68%) Legal
8 60 (2.30%) Telecoms
9 58 (2.22%) Documentation Skills
10 49 (1.87%) Billing
10 49 (1.87%) General Ledger
11 47 (1.80%) Presentation Skills
11 47 (1.80%) Retail
12 46 (1.76%) Marketing
13 39 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 37 (1.42%) Influencing Skills
15 24 (0.92%) Law
16 23 (0.88%) Pharmaceutical
17 20 (0.77%) Local Government
18 17 (0.65%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 93 (3.56%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.75%) REST
3 53 (2.03%) Terraform
4 37 (1.42%) SAP Fiori
5 33 (1.26%) Middleware
5 33 (1.26%) SOAP
6 25 (0.96%) Web Services
7 23 (0.88%) XML
8 22 (0.84%) SailPoint
9 19 (0.73%) HTML
9 19 (0.73%) LDAP
10 17 (0.65%) CSS
10 17 (0.65%) JSON
10 17 (0.65%) OAuth
11 14 (0.54%) SAP Basis
12 13 (0.50%) NETCONF
12 13 (0.50%) SAML
12 13 (0.50%) YANG
13 11 (0.42%) SAP PI
14 10 (0.38%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 101 (3.86%) Onboarding
2 52 (1.99%) CMDB
3 40 (1.53%) Data Centre
4 38 (1.45%) Operational Technology
5 35 (1.34%) Product Ownership
6 32 (1.22%) Security Posture
7 28 (1.07%) Data Protection Act
7 28 (1.07%) Data Structures
8 26 (0.99%) Legacy Systems
9 23 (0.88%) Replication
10 20 (0.77%) AI Agents
10 20 (0.77%) Cloud Native
10 20 (0.77%) Enterprise Software
11 17 (0.65%) Management Information System
12 16 (0.61%) Greenfield Project
13 15 (0.57%) PKI
13 15 (0.57%) Public Cloud
14 14 (0.54%) FMCG
15 13 (0.50%) Algorithms
15 13 (0.50%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 77 (2.95%) Windows
2 63 (2.41%) Linux
3 21 (0.80%) Solaris
4 20 (0.77%) Unix
5 17 (0.65%) Windows Server
6 13 (0.50%) AIX
7 10 (0.38%) VMS
8 6 (0.23%) Android
9 5 (0.19%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.15%) Windows 10
10 4 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.038%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.038%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.038%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 444 (16.99%) Stakeholder Management
2 354 (13.54%) Migration
3 246 (9.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 234 (8.95%) User Acceptance Testing
5 208 (7.96%) Problem-Solving
6 198 (7.57%) Validation
7 193 (7.38%) Cybersecurity
8 192 (7.35%) Workshop Facilitation
9 176 (6.73%) Roadmaps
10 172 (6.58%) Analytics
11 160 (6.12%) Data Migration
12 159 (6.08%) ERP
13 154 (5.89%) Continuous Improvement
14 152 (5.81%) Agile
15 147 (5.62%) Requirements Gathering
16 144 (5.51%) AI
17 120 (4.59%) Business Intelligence
18 113 (4.32%) Translating Business Requirements
19 105 (4.02%) Change Management
20 104 (3.98%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 195 (7.46%) SQL
2 98 (3.75%) Python
3 52 (1.99%) PowerShell
4 44 (1.68%) PL/SQL
5 41 (1.57%) ABAP
6 40 (1.53%) JavaScript
7 27 (1.03%) Java
8 14 (0.54%) Bash
9 13 (0.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 13 (0.50%) Kusto Query Language
10 12 (0.46%) C#
10 12 (0.46%) Search Processing Language
11 9 (0.34%) T-SQL
12 8 (0.31%) R
13 7 (0.27%) TypeScript
14 6 (0.23%) Perl
15 5 (0.19%) Korn
16 4 (0.15%) Groovy
17 3 (0.11%) Shell Script
17 3 (0.11%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 577 (22.07%) Security Cleared
2 391 (14.96%) SC Cleared
3 139 (5.32%) DV Cleared
4 82 (3.14%) BPSS Clearance
5 68 (2.60%) CISSP
6 56 (2.14%) CISM
7 53 (2.03%) Degree
8 41 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (1.19%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 27 (1.03%) CCSP
11 17 (0.65%) ACCA
12 15 (0.57%) CIMA
12 15 (0.57%) PMP
13 14 (0.54%) AWS Certification
13 14 (0.54%) CRISC
14 12 (0.46%) CompTIA Security+
15 11 (0.42%) Azure Certification
16 10 (0.38%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
17 9 (0.34%) CISA
17 9 (0.34%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (3.21%) Data Quality
1 84 (3.21%) NIST
2 67 (2.56%) GRC
3 64 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 42 (1.61%) QA
5 33 (1.26%) NCSC
6 31 (1.19%) GDPR
7 22 (0.84%) PMO
7 22 (0.84%) SLA
8 18 (0.69%) Accessibility
9 17 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
10 16 (0.61%) PCI DSS
11 11 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 9 (0.34%) COBIT
13 8 (0.31%) NIST 800
14 7 (0.27%) GxP
15 6 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
15 6 (0.23%) GAAP
15 6 (0.23%) IFRS
15 6 (0.23%) WCAG
System Software
1 62 (2.37%) Active Directory
2 29 (1.11%) VMware NSX
3 27 (1.03%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (0.61%) Docker
4 16 (0.61%) vSphere
5 12 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (0.38%) IAG
7 9 (0.34%) Hyper-V
8 7 (0.27%) Virtual Desktop
9 6 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.15%) Firmware
11 2 (0.077%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.077%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.038%) NFS
12 1 (0.038%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.038%) oVirt
12 1 (0.038%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.038%) RHEV
12 1 (0.038%) SRDF
12 1 (0.038%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 43 (1.64%) Kubernetes
2 22 (0.84%) Ansible
3 18 (0.69%) SCCM
4 17 (0.65%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (0.54%) vRealize
6 11 (0.42%) FortiGate
6 11 (0.42%) Nagios
6 11 (0.42%) ZABBIX
7 10 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.38%) vCenter Server
8 9 (0.34%) Grafana
8 9 (0.34%) Netcool
8 9 (0.34%) Tivoli
9 8 (0.31%) OpenView
9 8 (0.31%) Tivoli Monitoring
10 6 (0.23%) Prometheus
10 6 (0.23%) VxRail
11 4 (0.15%) CEMLI
12 3 (0.11%) Failover Clustering
12 3 (0.11%) logstash
Vendors
1 500 (19.13%) SAP
2 375 (14.35%) Microsoft
3 312 (11.94%) Oracle
4 108 (4.13%) ServiceNow
5 59 (2.26%) Workday
6 58 (2.22%) VMware
7 39 (1.49%) Databricks
8 37 (1.42%) Salesforce
9 32 (1.22%) Splunk
10 27 (1.03%) BMC
11 24 (0.92%) Ariba
11 24 (0.92%) Palo Alto
12 22 (0.84%) Cisco
13 21 (0.80%) CyberArk
13 21 (0.80%) Google
14 19 (0.73%) IBM
15 18 (0.69%) OpenText
16 16 (0.61%) Adobe
16 16 (0.61%) Dell
16 16 (0.61%) JD Edwards