Consultant Contract Job Trends in England

Consultant
UK > England

The median Consultant daily rate in England is £553, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 January 2026.

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

 6 months to
8 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 29 31
Rank change year-on-year +1 +2 +24
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,998 1,657 2,062
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.33% 6.06% 5.75%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.92% 6.52% 6.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,181 974 1,232
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £469 £481 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £553 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.45% - -1.79%
75th Percentile £645 £648 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 12 30
10th Percentile £39.91 £55.00 £42.50
25th Percentile £58.81 £59.88 £59.06
Median hourly rate £73.38 £72.81 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +0.78% +15.04% -10.86%
75th Percentile £81.25 £83.44 £84.69
90th Percentile £85.53 £87.38 £90.25
UK median hourly rate £72.63 £72.81 £65.13
% change year-on-year -0.25% +11.80% -6.96%

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 28,868 25,405 33,449
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.50% 92.84% 93.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,444 15,743 22,770
10th Percentile £300 £300 £280
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,758 792 1,481
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.92 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.24 £19.25
Median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% -22.22% +28.57%
75th Percentile £62.25 £64.73 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £74.99 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £26.54 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -18.35% -26.97% +34.85%

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 8 January 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 8 January 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 8 January 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 -1 933 £575 +4.55% 473
South East -1 282 £550 -4.35% 321
North of England +1 277 £595 +8.18% 175
North West +4 169 £621 +15.47% 92
Midlands -15 163 £544 +3.57% 106
West Midlands -9 130 £550 +4.76% 66
South West +12 114 £589 +12.14% 185
Yorkshire +6 99 £550 -8.33% 63
East of England +2 91 £550 -2.22% 93
East Midlands -32 32 £524 -1.18% 39
North East -13 9 £620 +3.33% 21
South Coast - 2 £525 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 8 January 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.

1 516 (25.83%) Security Cleared
2 506 (25.33%) SAP
3 423 (21.17%) SC Cleared
4 273 (13.66%) Migration
5 263 (13.16%) SAP S/4HANA
6 255 (12.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 246 (12.31%) Problem-Solving
8 245 (12.26%) Oracle
9 244 (12.21%) Stakeholder Management
10 218 (10.91%) Microsoft
11 189 (9.46%) Azure
12 166 (8.31%) Agile
13 164 (8.21%) Workshop Facilitation
14 145 (7.26%) ERP
15 142 (7.11%) Roadmaps
16 130 (6.51%) SQL
17 128 (6.41%) User Acceptance Testing
18 125 (6.26%) Analytics
19 117 (5.86%) Cybersecurity
20 114 (5.71%) Business Intelligence
21 112 (5.61%) Data Migration
22 108 (5.41%) Knowledge Transfer
23 99 (4.95%) Validation
24 98 (4.90%) AWS
25 96 (4.80%) DevOps
26 94 (4.70%) Risk Management
27 93 (4.65%) Python
28 92 (4.60%) Power Platform
29 90 (4.50%) Dynamics 365
30 89 (4.45%) AI

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 52 (2.60%) SharePoint
2 29 (1.45%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.35%) Confluence
4 5 (0.25%) CMS
4 5 (0.25%) NetWeaver
5 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.15%) Apache
6 3 (0.15%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.15%) IIS
6 3 (0.15%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.15%) MTS
6 3 (0.15%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.15%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.15%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.10%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.050%) nginx
8 1 (0.050%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.050%) SAS
8 1 (0.050%) Tomcat
Applications
1 32 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.45%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.25%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.20%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.20%) Revit
7 3 (0.15%) ProjectWise
7 3 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.050%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.050%) CPLEX
8 1 (0.050%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.050%) InVision
8 1 (0.050%) Sketch
8 1 (0.050%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 263 (13.16%) SAP S/4HANA
2 65 (3.25%) Oracle EBS
3 52 (2.60%) Oracle Payables
4 44 (2.20%) Oracle Receivables
5 42 (2.10%) Oracle General Ledger
5 42 (2.10%) SAP FI
6 40 (2.00%) Oracle EBS R12
6 40 (2.00%) SAP EWM
7 38 (1.90%) Oracle Cash Management
8 37 (1.85%) SAP HCM
9 34 (1.70%) SAP MM
10 31 (1.55%) Dynamics CRM
10 31 (1.55%) Oracle Assets
11 30 (1.50%) SAP CO
12 29 (1.45%) SAP Payroll
12 29 (1.45%) SAP WM
13 28 (1.40%) SAP FI/CO
14 23 (1.15%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
14 23 (1.15%) SAP HR
14 23 (1.15%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 189 (9.46%) Azure
2 98 (4.90%) AWS
3 92 (4.60%) Power Platform
4 90 (4.50%) Dynamics 365
5 68 (3.40%) OCI
6 66 (3.30%) Microsoft 365
7 63 (3.15%) GCP
8 52 (2.60%) SaaS
9 45 (2.25%) Entra ID
10 30 (1.50%) Power Automate
10 30 (1.50%) SuccessFactors
11 25 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
12 23 (1.15%) PowerApps
13 19 (0.95%) GitHub
13 19 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
13 19 (0.95%) OneDrive
14 16 (0.80%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 13 (0.65%) Microsoft Purview
16 12 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
16 12 (0.60%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 42 (2.10%) Firewall
2 16 (0.80%) Network Security
3 15 (0.75%) DNS
3 15 (0.75%) VPN
4 13 (0.65%) Kerberos
5 10 (0.50%) SSH
6 9 (0.45%) DHCP
6 9 (0.45%) TCP/IP
6 9 (0.45%) WAN
7 8 (0.40%) HTTP
7 8 (0.40%) SMS
7 8 (0.40%) SSL
8 7 (0.35%) Cisco IPT
8 7 (0.35%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.25%) BGP
9 5 (0.25%) Intranet
9 5 (0.25%) SAN
9 5 (0.25%) VLAN
9 5 (0.25%) VoIP
9 5 (0.25%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (3.40%) Power BI
2 38 (1.90%) SAP HANA
3 34 (1.70%) Oracle Reports
4 28 (1.40%) SQL Server
5 21 (1.05%) Metadata
6 18 (0.90%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 17 (0.85%) SAP BW
8 14 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
9 11 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
10 10 (0.50%) DB2
10 10 (0.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 9 (0.45%) NoSQL
12 8 (0.40%) Tableau
13 7 (0.35%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.30%) DynamoDB
14 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
14 6 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
15 5 (0.25%) Data Lake
15 5 (0.25%) MongoDB
15 5 (0.25%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 53 (2.65%) JIRA
2 22 (1.10%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.90%) Git
4 17 (0.85%) GitLab
5 10 (0.50%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.40%) Hudson
7 4 (0.20%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.20%) LSMW
7 4 (0.20%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.20%) Postman
8 3 (0.15%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.15%) JUnit
9 2 (0.10%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.10%) git-flow
9 2 (0.10%) Mockito
9 2 (0.10%) Selenium
9 2 (0.10%) Snyk
9 2 (0.10%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.10%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.10%) Visual Studio
General
1 572 (28.63%) Social Skills
2 480 (24.02%) Finance
3 193 (9.66%) Public Sector
4 171 (8.56%) Analytical Skills
5 109 (5.46%) Manufacturing
6 69 (3.45%) Banking
7 63 (3.15%) Documentation Skills
8 55 (2.75%) Marketing
9 54 (2.70%) Presentation Skills
10 43 (2.15%) Billing
10 43 (2.15%) Legal
11 36 (1.80%) Telecoms
12 35 (1.75%) General Ledger
13 29 (1.45%) Retail
14 23 (1.15%) Law
15 21 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
16 20 (1.00%) Electronics
17 19 (0.95%) Financial Institution
17 19 (0.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 16 (0.80%) Front Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.90%) Oracle Fusion
2 53 (2.65%) REST
3 51 (2.55%) SAP Fiori
4 41 (2.05%) Web Services
5 31 (1.55%) Node.js
5 31 (1.55%) SOAP
6 25 (1.25%) LDAP
6 25 (1.25%) XML
7 23 (1.15%) SAP TM
8 20 (1.00%) HTML
9 18 (0.90%) GraphQL
10 16 (0.80%) BAPI
10 16 (0.80%) Middleware
11 15 (0.75%) SAP Basis
12 14 (0.70%) CSS
13 13 (0.65%) Playwright
14 12 (0.60%) .NET
14 12 (0.60%) Kafka
14 12 (0.60%) OAuth
14 12 (0.60%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 64 (3.20%) Onboarding
2 54 (2.70%) Legacy Systems
3 41 (2.05%) Product Ownership
4 32 (1.60%) Security Posture
5 31 (1.55%) Cloud Native
6 24 (1.20%) Data Centre
6 24 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
7 23 (1.15%) Replication
8 19 (0.95%) Management Information System
9 15 (0.75%) Data Structures
9 15 (0.75%) Operational Technology
10 14 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
11 13 (0.65%) Hybrid Cloud
11 13 (0.65%) NHS
12 12 (0.60%) SCADA
13 11 (0.55%) AI Agents
13 11 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
13 11 (0.55%) IoT
13 11 (0.55%) Public Cloud
14 10 (0.50%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 61 (3.05%) Windows
2 39 (1.95%) Linux
3 12 (0.60%) Windows Server
4 11 (0.55%) Unix
5 9 (0.45%) Mac OS
5 9 (0.45%) Windows 10
6 7 (0.35%) AIX
6 7 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (0.35%) Solaris
7 4 (0.20%) VMS
8 3 (0.15%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.10%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.10%) CentOS
9 2 (0.10%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2003
9 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.050%) Android
10 1 (0.050%) tvOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 273 (13.66%) Migration
2 255 (12.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 246 (12.31%) Problem-Solving
4 244 (12.21%) Stakeholder Management
5 166 (8.31%) Agile
6 164 (8.21%) Workshop Facilitation
7 145 (7.26%) ERP
8 142 (7.11%) Roadmaps
9 128 (6.41%) User Acceptance Testing
10 125 (6.26%) Analytics
11 117 (5.86%) Cybersecurity
12 114 (5.71%) Business Intelligence
13 112 (5.61%) Data Migration
14 108 (5.41%) Knowledge Transfer
15 99 (4.95%) Validation
16 96 (4.80%) DevOps
17 94 (4.70%) Risk Management
18 89 (4.45%) AI
19 86 (4.30%) Continuous Improvement
20 85 (4.25%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 130 (6.51%) SQL
2 93 (4.65%) Python
3 64 (3.20%) PowerShell
4 59 (2.95%) ABAP
5 51 (2.55%) JavaScript
6 38 (1.90%) Java
7 25 (1.25%) TypeScript
8 23 (1.15%) PL/SQL
9 17 (0.85%) Groovy
10 16 (0.80%) Bash
11 9 (0.45%) C#
11 9 (0.45%) Kusto Query Language
12 7 (0.35%) C++
13 6 (0.30%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.25%) Bicep
14 5 (0.25%) R
14 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
15 4 (0.20%) COBOL
15 4 (0.20%) Go
16 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 516 (25.83%) Security Cleared
2 423 (21.17%) SC Cleared
3 80 (4.00%) Degree
4 70 (3.50%) DV Cleared
5 61 (3.05%) BPSS Clearance
6 58 (2.90%) CISSP
7 43 (2.15%) CISM
8 25 (1.25%) SAP Certification
9 19 (0.95%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 16 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
11 13 (0.65%) CIMA
12 12 (0.60%) Cisco Certification
12 12 (0.60%) Master's Degree
13 11 (0.55%) ACCA
14 10 (0.50%) AWS Certification
14 10 (0.50%) CESG Certified Professional
14 10 (0.50%) CISA
15 9 (0.45%) Computer Science Degree
16 7 (0.35%) CRISC
17 6 (0.30%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (3.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 63 (3.15%) GDPR
3 59 (2.95%) NIST
4 36 (1.80%) QA
5 33 (1.65%) GRC
6 31 (1.55%) Data Quality
7 20 (1.00%) NCSC
8 14 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
9 13 (0.65%) SLA
10 12 (0.60%) PCI DSS
11 11 (0.55%) PERC
12 9 (0.45%) PMO
12 9 (0.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 8 (0.40%) COBIT
14 7 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
14 7 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 7 (0.35%) IFRS
15 6 (0.30%) Accessibility
15 6 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
System Software
1 65 (3.25%) Active Directory
2 35 (1.75%) Docker
3 26 (1.30%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (0.85%) VMware NSX
5 10 (0.50%) vSphere
6 8 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 3 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.10%) Firmware
8 2 (0.10%) NDS
8 2 (0.10%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 2 (0.10%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.050%) Ceph
9 1 (0.050%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.050%) IAG
9 1 (0.050%) KVM
9 1 (0.050%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.050%) QEMU
9 1 (0.050%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 52 (2.60%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.80%) Terraform
3 23 (1.15%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (1.00%) Ansible
5 15 (0.75%) vRealize
6 14 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.60%) Grafana
8 10 (0.50%) PingFederate
9 9 (0.45%) Prometheus
9 9 (0.45%) SCCM
10 6 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.15%) CASB
11 3 (0.15%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.15%) Istio
11 3 (0.15%) Podman
11 3 (0.15%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 2 (0.10%) Nessus
12 2 (0.10%) NetBackup
12 2 (0.10%) Red Hat Satellite
12 2 (0.10%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 506 (25.33%) SAP
2 245 (12.26%) Oracle
3 218 (10.91%) Microsoft
4 62 (3.10%) ServiceNow
5 61 (3.05%) VMware
6 51 (2.55%) Workday
7 45 (2.25%) Salesforce
8 44 (2.20%) Cisco
9 37 (1.85%) CyberArk
10 34 (1.70%) Aruba
11 31 (1.55%) Adobe
12 30 (1.50%) Google
13 23 (1.15%) Ariba
14 17 (0.85%) OpenText
15 16 (0.80%) Dynatrace
16 14 (0.70%) Remedy
17 11 (0.55%) Databricks
17 11 (0.55%) Dell
17 11 (0.55%) IFS
18 10 (0.50%) EMC
1,244 Consultant jobs in England