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 30 January 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 29 31
Rank change year-on-year -2 +2 +23
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,012 1,633 2,113
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.09% 6.15% 5.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.65% 6.61% 6.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,186 954 1,285
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £488 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.65%
75th Percentile £647 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 13 33
10th Percentile £46.00 £63.44 £37.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £71.62 £52.90
Median hourly rate £60.00 £82.50 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.27% +30.95% -10.32%
75th Percentile £72.25 £86.00 £80.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £87.25 £89.80
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £81.25 £63.29
% change year-on-year -26.15% +28.38% -4.11%

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 30,253 24,723 35,060
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.60% 93.04% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,276 15,264 23,666
10th Percentile £300 £300 £275
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £645
90th Percentile £725 £750 £745
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,876 738 1,991
10th Percentile £14.83 £15.98 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.13
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -4.11% +4.29%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.36 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £28.90 £32.50 £36.50
% change year-on-year -11.09% -10.96% +4.29%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -3 941 £575 +1.32% 525
South East -3 272 £550 - 370
North of England -7 268 £600 +9.09% 173
Midlands -17 184 £525 - 86
North West -1 160 £625 +16.17% 98
West Midlands -9 140 £550 +4.76% 57
South West +8 121 £594 +13.10% 175
Yorkshire +4 98 £550 -12.00% 62
East of England +5 95 £550 - 63
East Midlands -21 43 £505 -2.88% 28
North East -19 10 £525 -12.50% 13
South Coast - 1 £550 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 500 (24.85%) Security Cleared
2 499 (24.80%) SAP
3 410 (20.38%) SC Cleared
4 285 (14.17%) Migration
5 274 (13.62%) SAP S/4HANA
6 251 (12.48%) Problem-Solving
7 248 (12.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 242 (12.03%) Oracle
9 237 (11.78%) Stakeholder Management
10 212 (10.54%) Microsoft
11 210 (10.44%) Azure
12 181 (9.00%) Workshop Facilitation
13 177 (8.80%) ERP
14 147 (7.31%) Agile
15 140 (6.96%) User Acceptance Testing
16 132 (6.56%) Analytics
17 125 (6.21%) Roadmaps
18 123 (6.11%) SQL
19 116 (5.77%) Data Migration
20 114 (5.67%) Business Intelligence
21 112 (5.57%) Cybersecurity
21 112 (5.57%) Knowledge Transfer
22 104 (5.17%) Validation
23 98 (4.87%) Risk Management
24 97 (4.82%) Dynamics 365
25 95 (4.72%) DevOps
26 91 (4.52%) AI
27 89 (4.42%) Power Platform
28 88 (4.37%) AWS
28 88 (4.37%) Continuous Improvement

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 49 (2.44%) SharePoint
2 29 (1.44%) Confluence
3 28 (1.39%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.30%) Jupyter
5 5 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
6 4 (0.20%) CMS
6 4 (0.20%) NetWeaver
7 3 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.15%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.15%) MTS
7 3 (0.15%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.099%) Apache
8 2 (0.099%) IIS
8 2 (0.099%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.050%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.050%) nginx
9 1 (0.050%) SAP Portal
9 1 (0.050%) SAS
9 1 (0.050%) SharePoint 2010
9 1 (0.050%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 35 (1.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.40%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.25%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.20%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.20%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.20%) Revit
7 3 (0.15%) ProjectWise
7 3 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.050%) CATIA
8 1 (0.050%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.050%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.050%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.050%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 274 (13.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 61 (3.03%) Oracle EBS
3 53 (2.63%) Oracle Payables
4 48 (2.39%) Oracle Receivables
5 45 (2.24%) SAP FI
6 43 (2.14%) Oracle General Ledger
7 40 (1.99%) SAP EWM
8 38 (1.89%) Oracle EBS R12
9 37 (1.84%) Oracle Cash Management
10 35 (1.74%) SAP MM
11 34 (1.69%) Dynamics CRM
12 31 (1.54%) Oracle Assets
13 29 (1.44%) SAP CO
13 29 (1.44%) SAP HCM
13 29 (1.44%) SAP WM
14 27 (1.34%) SAP FI/CO
15 25 (1.24%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
15 25 (1.24%) SAP PSCD
16 24 (1.19%) SAP Payroll
16 24 (1.19%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 210 (10.44%) Azure
2 97 (4.82%) Dynamics 365
3 89 (4.42%) Power Platform
4 88 (4.37%) AWS
5 69 (3.43%) OCI
6 61 (3.03%) GCP
7 57 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
7 57 (2.83%) SaaS
8 50 (2.49%) Entra ID
9 30 (1.49%) Power Automate
10 28 (1.39%) SuccessFactors
11 26 (1.29%) Azure DevOps
12 23 (1.14%) PowerApps
13 22 (1.09%) Microsoft Copilot
14 19 (0.94%) GitHub
15 18 (0.89%) OneDrive
15 18 (0.89%) SAP Commerce Cloud
16 14 (0.70%) Serverless
17 12 (0.60%) Azure Logic Apps
17 12 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 37 (1.84%) Firewall
2 13 (0.65%) Network Security
2 13 (0.65%) VPN
3 12 (0.60%) DNS
3 12 (0.60%) Kerberos
3 12 (0.60%) SMS
4 8 (0.40%) HTTP
4 8 (0.40%) SSH
5 7 (0.35%) Cisco IPT
5 7 (0.35%) DHCP
5 7 (0.35%) SSL
5 7 (0.35%) WAN
6 6 (0.30%) TCP/IP
7 5 (0.25%) SD-WAN
7 5 (0.25%) VLAN
7 5 (0.25%) VSAN
8 4 (0.20%) FTP
8 4 (0.20%) Intranet
8 4 (0.20%) LAN
9 3 (0.15%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (3.28%) Power BI
2 35 (1.74%) SAP HANA
3 34 (1.69%) Oracle Reports
4 23 (1.14%) SQL Server
5 21 (1.04%) Metadata
6 20 (0.99%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 16 (0.80%) SAP BW
8 12 (0.60%) Data Warehouse
9 10 (0.50%) NoSQL
10 9 (0.45%) PostgreSQL
10 9 (0.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 9 (0.45%) Tableau
11 7 (0.35%) DB2
12 6 (0.30%) DynamoDB
12 6 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
12 6 (0.30%) Oracle Database
12 6 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
13 5 (0.25%) GIS
13 5 (0.25%) Oracle ODI
13 5 (0.25%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 52 (2.58%) JIRA
2 19 (0.94%) Jenkins
3 15 (0.75%) Git
4 14 (0.70%) GitLab
5 12 (0.60%) Oracle Forms
6 9 (0.45%) Hudson
7 4 (0.20%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.20%) LSMW
7 4 (0.20%) Oracle APEX
8 3 (0.15%) JUnit
8 3 (0.15%) Postman
9 2 (0.099%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.099%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.099%) git-flow
9 2 (0.099%) Mockito
9 2 (0.099%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.099%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.099%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.050%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.050%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 578 (28.73%) Social Skills
2 483 (24.01%) Finance
3 199 (9.89%) Public Sector
4 170 (8.45%) Analytical Skills
5 95 (4.72%) Manufacturing
6 71 (3.53%) Banking
7 63 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
8 59 (2.93%) Marketing
9 48 (2.39%) Billing
9 48 (2.39%) Presentation Skills
10 47 (2.34%) Legal
11 43 (2.14%) General Ledger
12 37 (1.84%) Telecoms
13 29 (1.44%) Retail
14 27 (1.34%) Law
15 20 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 20 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
16 19 (0.94%) Financial Institution
17 17 (0.84%) Organisational Skills
18 16 (0.80%) Front Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.88%) Oracle Fusion
2 59 (2.93%) REST
3 49 (2.44%) SAP Fiori
4 40 (1.99%) Web Services
5 30 (1.49%) SAP TM
5 30 (1.49%) SOAP
6 28 (1.39%) Node.js
7 24 (1.19%) LDAP
7 24 (1.19%) XML
8 20 (0.99%) BAPI
9 18 (0.89%) GraphQL
10 16 (0.80%) Middleware
11 15 (0.75%) HTML
12 13 (0.65%) CSS
12 13 (0.65%) Kafka
13 12 (0.60%) Playwright
13 12 (0.60%) SAML
13 12 (0.60%) SAP Basis
13 12 (0.60%) Vitest
14 11 (0.55%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 63 (3.13%) Onboarding
2 53 (2.63%) Legacy Systems
3 42 (2.09%) Product Ownership
4 36 (1.79%) Security Posture
5 27 (1.34%) Cloud Native
6 25 (1.24%) Data Centre
6 25 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
7 23 (1.14%) Replication
8 21 (1.04%) Management Information System
9 17 (0.84%) Data Structures
10 14 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
10 14 (0.70%) NHS
10 14 (0.70%) Public Cloud
11 13 (0.65%) Operational Technology
12 11 (0.55%) AI Agents
12 11 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
13 10 (0.50%) FMCG
13 10 (0.50%) IoT
13 10 (0.50%) SCADA
14 9 (0.45%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 62 (3.08%) Windows
2 36 (1.79%) Linux
3 13 (0.65%) Unix
4 10 (0.50%) Windows Server
5 8 (0.40%) Mac OS
5 8 (0.40%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.30%) AIX
6 6 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.30%) Solaris
7 3 (0.15%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.15%) VMS
7 3 (0.15%) zOS
8 2 (0.099%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.099%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2003
8 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.050%) Android
9 1 (0.050%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 285 (14.17%) Migration
2 251 (12.48%) Problem-Solving
3 248 (12.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 237 (11.78%) Stakeholder Management
5 181 (9.00%) Workshop Facilitation
6 177 (8.80%) ERP
7 147 (7.31%) Agile
8 140 (6.96%) User Acceptance Testing
9 132 (6.56%) Analytics
10 125 (6.21%) Roadmaps
11 116 (5.77%) Data Migration
12 114 (5.67%) Business Intelligence
13 112 (5.57%) Cybersecurity
13 112 (5.57%) Knowledge Transfer
14 104 (5.17%) Validation
15 98 (4.87%) Risk Management
16 95 (4.72%) DevOps
17 91 (4.52%) AI
18 88 (4.37%) Continuous Improvement
19 84 (4.17%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 123 (6.11%) SQL
2 84 (4.17%) Python
3 61 (3.03%) PowerShell
4 53 (2.63%) ABAP
5 48 (2.39%) JavaScript
6 32 (1.59%) Java
7 26 (1.29%) TypeScript
8 22 (1.09%) PL/SQL
9 17 (0.84%) Groovy
10 13 (0.65%) Bash
11 12 (0.60%) C#
12 9 (0.45%) Kusto Query Language
13 7 (0.35%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.30%) Apex Code
14 6 (0.30%) COBOL
15 5 (0.25%) Bicep
15 5 (0.25%) R
16 4 (0.20%) C++
16 4 (0.20%) Go
16 4 (0.20%) Korn
Qualifications
1 500 (24.85%) Security Cleared
2 410 (20.38%) SC Cleared
3 81 (4.03%) Degree
4 68 (3.38%) DV Cleared
5 56 (2.78%) BPSS Clearance
6 48 (2.39%) CISSP
7 32 (1.59%) CISM
8 24 (1.19%) SAP Certification
9 19 (0.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 13 (0.65%) CIMA
10 13 (0.65%) Master's Degree
11 11 (0.55%) Cisco Certification
11 11 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
12 8 (0.40%) AWS Certification
12 8 (0.40%) CESG Certified Professional
12 8 (0.40%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (0.35%) ACCA
14 6 (0.30%) CISA
14 6 (0.30%) CRISC
14 6 (0.30%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (3.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 63 (3.13%) NIST
3 62 (3.08%) GDPR
4 36 (1.79%) QA
5 35 (1.74%) Data Quality
5 35 (1.74%) GRC
6 17 (0.84%) NCSC
7 15 (0.75%) Actionable Recommendations
8 14 (0.70%) SLA
9 12 (0.60%) PMO
10 11 (0.55%) PERC
11 10 (0.50%) PCI DSS
12 8 (0.40%) COBIT
12 8 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 7 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
13 7 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 7 (0.35%) JSP 440
14 6 (0.30%) Accessibility
14 6 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 5 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 63 (3.13%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.84%) Docker
3 22 (1.09%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (0.89%) VMware NSX
5 9 (0.45%) vSphere
6 6 (0.30%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 6 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.099%) NDS
8 2 (0.099%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 1 (0.050%) Ceph
9 1 (0.050%) Firmware
9 1 (0.050%) Job Entry Subsystem
9 1 (0.050%) KVM
9 1 (0.050%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.050%) QEMU
9 1 (0.050%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.050%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 50 (2.49%) Kubernetes
2 30 (1.49%) Terraform
3 19 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (0.80%) Ansible
4 16 (0.80%) vRealize
5 13 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (0.50%) PingFederate
7 9 (0.45%) Grafana
8 7 (0.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 7 (0.35%) Prometheus
8 7 (0.35%) SCCM
9 6 (0.30%) Podman
10 3 (0.15%) CASB
10 3 (0.15%) CEMLI
10 3 (0.15%) vRealize Orchestrator
11 2 (0.099%) EnCase
11 2 (0.099%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.099%) FTK
11 2 (0.099%) Nexpose
11 2 (0.099%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 499 (24.80%) SAP
2 242 (12.03%) Oracle
3 212 (10.54%) Microsoft
4 68 (3.38%) ServiceNow
5 57 (2.83%) VMware
6 52 (2.58%) Workday
7 44 (2.19%) Salesforce
8 39 (1.94%) Cisco
9 37 (1.84%) CyberArk
10 35 (1.74%) Aruba
11 30 (1.49%) Adobe
12 28 (1.39%) Google
13 23 (1.14%) Ariba
14 20 (0.99%) Siemens
15 17 (0.84%) OpenText
16 13 (0.65%) Dynatrace
16 13 (0.65%) Murex
17 11 (0.55%) Atlassian
17 11 (0.55%) Databricks
17 11 (0.55%) IFS