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 17 August 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 28 27
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 +9
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,567 1,689 2,141
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.62% 6.08% 6.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.07% 6.63% 6.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,460 1,057 1,317
10th Percentile £407 £414 £412
25th Percentile £463 £485 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £656 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 24 27
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.12 £46.50
25th Percentile £51.00 £40.32 £55.47
Median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -2.22%
75th Percentile £83.25 £81.25 £67.00
90th Percentile £88.75 - £74.92
UK median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -5.32%

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 42,264 25,460 30,800
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.48% 91.59% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,561 16,436 20,203
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,196 1,351 1,763
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.48 £21.15
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.30 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.98% -43.78% +8.43%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.87%

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 17 August 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 17 August 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 17 August 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 1,197 £550 -4.35% 1,014
South East 0 417 £533 -3.18% 239
North of England -9 307 £550 - 315
Midlands +3 249 £500 -9.09% 143
South West +13 205 £553 -6.27% 175
North West -5 188 £585 +6.36% 222
West Midlands +9 177 £490 -10.91% 110
Yorkshire -8 98 £531 +3.66% 67
East of England -15 81 £550 - 73
East Midlands -7 63 £525 -4.55% 32
North East -37 20 £750 +39.66% 28
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 August 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.

1 544 (21.19%) Security Cleared
2 482 (18.78%) SAP
3 370 (14.41%) Stakeholder Management
4 368 (14.34%) SC Cleared
5 344 (13.40%) Migration
6 343 (13.36%) Microsoft
7 282 (10.99%) Oracle
8 262 (10.21%) Azure
9 249 (9.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 227 (8.84%) SQL
11 214 (8.34%) User Acceptance Testing
12 213 (8.30%) Problem-Solving
13 189 (7.36%) Workshop Facilitation
14 187 (7.28%) Validation
15 180 (7.01%) Cybersecurity
15 180 (7.01%) SAP S/4HANA
16 174 (6.78%) ERP
17 167 (6.51%) Roadmaps
18 161 (6.27%) Continuous Improvement
19 159 (6.19%) Data Migration
20 156 (6.08%) Agile
21 155 (6.04%) Analytics
22 148 (5.77%) AI
23 139 (5.41%) AWS
24 135 (5.26%) DV Cleared
25 128 (4.99%) Requirements Gathering
26 126 (4.91%) Power Platform
27 119 (4.64%) Business Intelligence
28 115 (4.48%) Dynamics 365
29 114 (4.44%) Change Management

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 75 (2.92%) SharePoint
2 46 (1.79%) Confluence
3 14 (0.55%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (0.47%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.35%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.31%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.16%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.16%) SAS
8 3 (0.12%) Apache
8 3 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.12%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.12%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
9 2 (0.078%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.078%) CMS
9 2 (0.078%) IIS
9 2 (0.078%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.078%) WordPress
10 1 (0.039%) Appian
10 1 (0.039%) Oracle Self-Service HR
Applications
1 71 (2.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.29%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.27%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.078%) Lectora
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.039%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.039%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 180 (7.01%) SAP S/4HANA
2 79 (3.08%) Oracle EBS
3 42 (1.64%) Oracle Payables
4 40 (1.56%) Oracle ERP
5 35 (1.36%) SAP FI
5 35 (1.36%) SAP PSCD
6 33 (1.29%) Dynamics CRM
7 31 (1.21%) Oracle Receivables
8 30 (1.17%) NetSuite
8 30 (1.17%) SAP MM
9 26 (1.01%) Oracle EBS R12
9 26 (1.01%) SAP CO
10 24 (0.93%) SAP FI/CO
10 24 (0.93%) SAP SD
11 21 (0.82%) Oracle General Ledger
11 21 (0.82%) SAP Payroll
12 20 (0.78%) SAP EWM
12 20 (0.78%) SAP QM
12 20 (0.78%) Workday HCM
13 18 (0.70%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 262 (10.21%) Azure
2 139 (5.41%) AWS
3 126 (4.91%) Power Platform
4 115 (4.48%) Dynamics 365
5 97 (3.78%) SuccessFactors
6 77 (3.00%) GCP
7 75 (2.92%) Microsoft 365
8 65 (2.53%) OCI
9 63 (2.45%) Power Automate
10 47 (1.83%) Azure DevOps
11 46 (1.79%) Entra ID
12 41 (1.60%) SaaS
13 36 (1.40%) Microsoft Copilot
14 29 (1.13%) PowerApps
15 26 (1.01%) GitHub
16 21 (0.82%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (0.74%) Copilot Studio
18 14 (0.55%) Azure Logic Apps
19 12 (0.47%) Oracle Service Cloud
19 12 (0.47%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 50 (1.95%) Firewall
2 49 (1.91%) Network Security
3 30 (1.17%) WAN
4 21 (0.82%) SNMP
5 19 (0.74%) BGP
6 17 (0.66%) VPN
7 15 (0.58%) LAN
8 13 (0.51%) VSAN
9 11 (0.43%) DNS
9 11 (0.43%) SAN
10 10 (0.39%) TCP/IP
11 8 (0.31%) Ethernet VPN
12 7 (0.27%) MPLS
12 7 (0.27%) NGFW
12 7 (0.27%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.27%) VXLAN
12 7 (0.27%) Wi-Fi
13 6 (0.23%) 3GPP
13 6 (0.23%) IPsec
13 6 (0.23%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (2.96%) Power BI
2 46 (1.79%) Oracle Reports
3 33 (1.29%) SQL Server
4 29 (1.13%) SAP HANA
5 28 (1.09%) Tableau
6 27 (1.05%) SAP BW
7 25 (0.97%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 23 (0.90%) Metadata
9 19 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
10 18 (0.70%) Oracle ODI
11 12 (0.47%) BusinessObjects
12 10 (0.39%) Oracle Database
12 10 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
13 7 (0.27%) Relational Database
14 6 (0.23%) Delta Lake
14 6 (0.23%) Looker
14 6 (0.23%) Power Query
15 5 (0.19%) NonStop SQL
16 4 (0.16%) NoSQL
16 4 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 85 (3.31%) JIRA
2 18 (0.70%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.66%) Git
4 13 (0.51%) Hudson
4 13 (0.51%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.27%) GitLab
6 6 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.19%) PowerBuilder
8 4 (0.16%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.16%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.12%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.12%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.12%) LoadRunner
9 3 (0.12%) MLflow
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) Snyk
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.12%) Toad
9 3 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.078%) MSI
General
1 573 (22.32%) Finance
2 553 (21.54%) Social Skills
3 194 (7.56%) Analytical Skills
4 168 (6.54%) Public Sector
5 89 (3.47%) Banking
6 78 (3.04%) Manufacturing
7 73 (2.84%) Legal
8 58 (2.26%) Telecoms
9 48 (1.87%) Billing
9 48 (1.87%) General Ledger
9 48 (1.87%) Marketing
9 48 (1.87%) Presentation Skills
10 44 (1.71%) Documentation Skills
10 44 (1.71%) Retail
11 41 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 31 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
13 26 (1.01%) Pharmaceutical
14 21 (0.82%) Local Government
15 18 (0.70%) Law
16 17 (0.66%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (3.00%) Oracle Fusion
1 77 (3.00%) REST
2 50 (1.95%) XML
3 38 (1.48%) SOAP
4 30 (1.17%) Middleware
5 29 (1.13%) SAP Fiori
6 22 (0.86%) Web Services
7 21 (0.82%) JSON
8 18 (0.70%) HTML
9 16 (0.62%) CSS
10 15 (0.58%) LDAP
11 14 (0.55%) SAP Basis
12 13 (0.51%) OAuth
12 13 (0.51%) SailPoint
13 11 (0.43%) SAP PI
14 10 (0.39%) .NET
14 10 (0.39%) ADO
14 10 (0.39%) IDoc
15 9 (0.35%) NETCONF
15 9 (0.35%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 102 (3.97%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.87%) CMDB
3 35 (1.36%) Security Posture
4 34 (1.32%) Product Ownership
5 33 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
6 31 (1.21%) Data Centre
7 29 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
8 27 (1.05%) Operational Technology
9 23 (0.90%) AI Agents
9 23 (0.90%) Data Structures
10 20 (0.78%) Cloud Native
11 19 (0.74%) Replication
12 18 (0.70%) Management Information System
13 16 (0.62%) Analytical Mindset
13 16 (0.62%) Greenfield Project
13 16 (0.62%) Public Cloud
14 14 (0.55%) Algorithms
14 14 (0.55%) FMCG
15 13 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
16 12 (0.47%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 78 (3.04%) Windows
2 61 (2.38%) Linux
3 21 (0.82%) Solaris
4 19 (0.74%) Unix
5 16 (0.62%) AIX
6 12 (0.47%) Windows Server
7 11 (0.43%) VMS
8 6 (0.23%) Android
8 6 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.19%) Apple iOS
10 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
11 3 (0.12%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.039%) CoreOS
13 1 (0.039%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.039%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 370 (14.41%) Stakeholder Management
2 344 (13.40%) Migration
3 249 (9.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 214 (8.34%) User Acceptance Testing
5 213 (8.30%) Problem-Solving
6 189 (7.36%) Workshop Facilitation
7 187 (7.28%) Validation
8 180 (7.01%) Cybersecurity
9 174 (6.78%) ERP
10 167 (6.51%) Roadmaps
11 161 (6.27%) Continuous Improvement
12 159 (6.19%) Data Migration
13 156 (6.08%) Agile
14 155 (6.04%) Analytics
15 148 (5.77%) AI
16 128 (4.99%) Requirements Gathering
17 119 (4.64%) Business Intelligence
18 114 (4.44%) Change Management
19 111 (4.32%) Workflow
20 105 (4.09%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 227 (8.84%) SQL
2 105 (4.09%) Python
3 51 (1.99%) PowerShell
4 45 (1.75%) PL/SQL
5 40 (1.56%) JavaScript
6 38 (1.48%) T-SQL
7 36 (1.40%) ABAP
8 26 (1.01%) Java
9 14 (0.55%) Bash
10 13 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.51%) Search Processing Language
11 12 (0.47%) Kusto Query Language
12 11 (0.43%) C#
13 9 (0.35%) R
14 6 (0.23%) Korn
14 6 (0.23%) Perl
14 6 (0.23%) TypeScript
15 4 (0.16%) Groovy
16 3 (0.12%) Shell Script
16 3 (0.12%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 544 (21.19%) Security Cleared
2 368 (14.34%) SC Cleared
3 135 (5.26%) DV Cleared
4 75 (2.92%) CISSP
5 67 (2.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 59 (2.30%) CISM
7 58 (2.26%) Degree
8 38 (1.48%) Cisco Certification
9 30 (1.17%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 25 (0.97%) CCSP
11 19 (0.74%) CIMA
12 18 (0.70%) ACCA
13 15 (0.58%) CRISC
13 15 (0.58%) PMP
14 14 (0.55%) CompTIA Security+
15 13 (0.51%) CEH
16 11 (0.43%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
16 11 (0.43%) OSCP
17 10 (0.39%) Azure Certification
18 9 (0.35%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (3.27%) NIST
2 72 (2.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 69 (2.69%) Data Quality
4 62 (2.42%) GRC
5 45 (1.75%) QA
6 35 (1.36%) GDPR
7 26 (1.01%) NCSC
8 25 (0.97%) PCI DSS
9 22 (0.86%) PMO
10 19 (0.74%) Accessibility
10 19 (0.74%) Actionable Recommendations
11 16 (0.62%) SLA
12 13 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 11 (0.43%) COBIT
14 8 (0.31%) NIST 800
15 7 (0.27%) GAAP
15 7 (0.27%) GxP
15 7 (0.27%) JSP 440
16 6 (0.23%) HL7
16 6 (0.23%) RMADS
System Software
1 53 (2.06%) Active Directory
2 35 (1.36%) VMware NSX
3 29 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (0.86%) vSphere
5 13 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (0.39%) Docker
7 8 (0.31%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.31%) IAG
8 7 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.078%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.078%) Firmware
10 2 (0.078%) NFS
10 2 (0.078%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.039%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.039%) oVirt
11 1 (0.039%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.039%) RHEV
11 1 (0.039%) SRDF
11 1 (0.039%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 46 (1.79%) Terraform
2 40 (1.56%) Kubernetes
3 22 (0.86%) Ansible
4 15 (0.58%) vRealize
5 14 (0.55%) SCCM
6 13 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
6 13 (0.51%) Nagios
6 13 (0.51%) ZABBIX
7 12 (0.47%) Netcool
7 12 (0.47%) Tivoli
8 11 (0.43%) OpenView
8 11 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
8 11 (0.43%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 11 (0.43%) vCenter Server
9 10 (0.39%) FortiGate
10 9 (0.35%) Grafana
11 6 (0.23%) Prometheus
11 6 (0.23%) VxRail
12 5 (0.19%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.16%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 482 (18.78%) SAP
2 343 (13.36%) Microsoft
3 282 (10.99%) Oracle
4 109 (4.25%) ServiceNow
5 63 (2.45%) VMware
6 49 (1.91%) Workday
7 48 (1.87%) Salesforce
8 41 (1.60%) Databricks
9 36 (1.40%) Splunk
10 28 (1.09%) BMC
11 24 (0.93%) Google
12 23 (0.90%) IBM
13 22 (0.86%) Ariba
14 20 (0.78%) OpenText
14 20 (0.78%) Palo Alto
15 18 (0.70%) Adobe
16 16 (0.62%) JD Edwards
17 15 (0.58%) Dell
18 14 (0.55%) Cisco
18 14 (0.55%) Sage