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 18 August 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 28 27
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,564 1,676 2,143
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.61% 6.07% 6.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.06% 6.63% 6.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,457 1,050 1,318
10th Percentile £410 £413 £412
25th Percentile £463 £483 £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 64 22 27
10th Percentile £36.25 £27.73 £46.50
25th Percentile £51.00 £37.77 £55.47
Median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -2.22%
75th Percentile £83.94 £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 42,292 25,286 30,796
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.46% 91.58% 92.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,558 16,303 20,188
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% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,206 1,347 1,752
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.48 £21.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +8.43%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.08
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +3.61%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -3 1,189 £550 -4.35% 401
South East -1 412 £540 -1.82% 214
North of England -11 312 £550 - 191
Midlands +3 252 £500 -9.09% 85
South West +12 205 £553 -5.06% 125
North West -10 194 £581 +5.64% 138
West Midlands +17 179 £490 -10.91% 63
Yorkshire -18 97 £525 +2.44% 40
East of England -19 83 £550 - 55
East Midlands -7 64 £525 -4.55% 21
North East -34 20 £750 +39.66% 14
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 545 (21.26%) Security Cleared
2 483 (18.84%) SAP
3 375 (14.63%) Stakeholder Management
4 371 (14.47%) SC Cleared
5 345 (13.46%) Microsoft
6 344 (13.42%) Migration
7 286 (11.15%) Oracle
8 260 (10.14%) Azure
9 251 (9.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 227 (8.85%) SQL
11 216 (8.42%) User Acceptance Testing
12 211 (8.23%) Problem-Solving
13 189 (7.37%) Validation
14 187 (7.29%) Workshop Facilitation
15 180 (7.02%) Cybersecurity
15 180 (7.02%) SAP S/4HANA
16 176 (6.86%) ERP
17 166 (6.47%) Roadmaps
18 162 (6.32%) Continuous Improvement
19 160 (6.24%) Data Migration
20 155 (6.05%) Analytics
21 154 (6.01%) Agile
22 146 (5.69%) AI
23 140 (5.46%) AWS
24 133 (5.19%) DV Cleared
25 132 (5.15%) Requirements Gathering
26 125 (4.88%) Power Platform
27 119 (4.64%) Business Intelligence
28 115 (4.49%) Change Management
29 114 (4.45%) Dynamics 365

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 (2.93%) SharePoint
2 46 (1.79%) Confluence
3 15 (0.59%) 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 32 (1.25%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.27%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.039%) CPLEX
8 1 (0.039%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 180 (7.02%) SAP S/4HANA
2 79 (3.08%) Oracle EBS
3 43 (1.68%) Oracle Payables
4 42 (1.64%) Oracle ERP
5 35 (1.37%) SAP FI
5 35 (1.37%) SAP PSCD
6 32 (1.25%) Dynamics CRM
6 32 (1.25%) Oracle Receivables
7 31 (1.21%) SAP MM
8 30 (1.17%) NetSuite
9 26 (1.01%) Oracle EBS R12
9 26 (1.01%) SAP CO
10 24 (0.94%) SAP FI/CO
10 24 (0.94%) SAP SD
11 22 (0.86%) Oracle General Ledger
12 21 (0.82%) SAP Payroll
13 20 (0.78%) SAP EWM
13 20 (0.78%) SAP QM
13 20 (0.78%) Workday HCM
14 18 (0.70%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 260 (10.14%) Azure
2 140 (5.46%) AWS
3 125 (4.88%) Power Platform
4 114 (4.45%) Dynamics 365
5 95 (3.71%) SuccessFactors
6 76 (2.96%) GCP
7 75 (2.93%) Microsoft 365
8 67 (2.61%) OCI
9 63 (2.46%) Power Automate
10 47 (1.83%) Azure DevOps
11 46 (1.79%) Entra ID
12 39 (1.52%) SaaS
13 36 (1.40%) Microsoft Copilot
14 29 (1.13%) PowerApps
15 25 (0.98%) GitHub
16 21 (0.82%) Microsoft Purview
17 19 (0.74%) Copilot Studio
18 14 (0.55%) Azure Logic Apps
19 12 (0.47%) GitHub Actions
19 12 (0.47%) Snowflake
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 18 (0.70%) VPN
7 15 (0.59%) LAN
8 12 (0.47%) VSAN
9 11 (0.43%) DNS
9 11 (0.43%) SAN
10 10 (0.39%) TCP/IP
11 8 (0.31%) Ethernet VPN
11 8 (0.31%) 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 75 (2.93%) 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 26 (1.01%) 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 (0.20%) NonStop SQL
15 5 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 4 (0.16%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 85 (3.32%) 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 (0.20%) 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
1 575 (22.43%) Finance
2 554 (21.61%) Social Skills
3 192 (7.49%) Analytical Skills
4 167 (6.51%) Public Sector
5 88 (3.43%) Banking
6 77 (3.00%) Manufacturing
7 72 (2.81%) Legal
8 57 (2.22%) Telecoms
9 49 (1.91%) General Ledger
10 48 (1.87%) Billing
10 48 (1.87%) Marketing
10 48 (1.87%) Presentation Skills
11 44 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
12 43 (1.68%) Retail
13 42 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 31 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
15 25 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
16 20 (0.78%) Local Government
17 18 (0.70%) Law
18 15 (0.59%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.12%) Oracle Fusion
2 77 (3.00%) REST
3 50 (1.95%) XML
4 38 (1.48%) SOAP
5 30 (1.17%) Middleware
6 29 (1.13%) SAP Fiori
7 22 (0.86%) Web Services
8 21 (0.82%) JSON
9 18 (0.70%) HTML
10 16 (0.62%) CSS
11 15 (0.59%) LDAP
11 15 (0.59%) 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%) EDI
14 10 (0.39%) IDoc
15 9 (0.35%) NETCONF
Miscellaneous
1 102 (3.98%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.87%) CMDB
3 35 (1.37%) Product Ownership
4 33 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
4 33 (1.29%) Security Posture
5 31 (1.21%) Data Centre
6 29 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
7 25 (0.98%) Operational Technology
8 23 (0.90%) Data Structures
9 22 (0.86%) AI Agents
10 19 (0.74%) Cloud Native
10 19 (0.74%) Replication
11 18 (0.70%) Management Information System
12 16 (0.62%) Analytical Mindset
12 16 (0.62%) Public Cloud
13 15 (0.59%) Greenfield Project
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 62 (2.42%) 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 (0.20%) 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
1 375 (14.63%) Stakeholder Management
2 344 (13.42%) Migration
3 251 (9.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 216 (8.42%) User Acceptance Testing
5 211 (8.23%) Problem-Solving
6 189 (7.37%) Validation
7 187 (7.29%) Workshop Facilitation
8 180 (7.02%) Cybersecurity
9 176 (6.86%) ERP
10 166 (6.47%) Roadmaps
11 162 (6.32%) Continuous Improvement
12 160 (6.24%) Data Migration
13 155 (6.05%) Analytics
14 154 (6.01%) Agile
15 146 (5.69%) AI
16 132 (5.15%) Requirements Gathering
17 119 (4.64%) Business Intelligence
18 115 (4.49%) Change Management
19 111 (4.33%) Workflow
20 107 (4.17%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 227 (8.85%) SQL
2 105 (4.10%) Python
3 51 (1.99%) PowerShell
4 45 (1.76%) PL/SQL
5 40 (1.56%) JavaScript
6 38 (1.48%) T-SQL
7 37 (1.44%) 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%) C++
16 3 (0.12%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 545 (21.26%) Security Cleared
2 371 (14.47%) SC Cleared
3 133 (5.19%) DV Cleared
4 73 (2.85%) CISSP
5 67 (2.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 57 (2.22%) CISM
7 55 (2.15%) Degree
8 37 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
9 29 (1.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 25 (0.98%) CCSP
11 19 (0.74%) CIMA
12 18 (0.70%) ACCA
13 15 (0.59%) PMP
14 14 (0.55%) CompTIA Security+
15 13 (0.51%) CEH
15 13 (0.51%) CRISC
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 81 (3.16%) NIST
2 71 (2.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 69 (2.69%) Data Quality
4 64 (2.50%) GRC
5 45 (1.76%) QA
6 34 (1.33%) GDPR
7 26 (1.01%) NCSC
8 24 (0.94%) PMO
9 23 (0.90%) PCI DSS
10 19 (0.74%) Accessibility
11 18 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
11 18 (0.70%) SLA
12 13 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 10 (0.39%) COBIT
14 7 (0.27%) GAAP
14 7 (0.27%) GxP
14 7 (0.27%) JSP 440
14 7 (0.27%) NIST 800
15 6 (0.23%) Def Stans
15 6 (0.23%) IFRS
System Software
1 53 (2.07%) Active Directory
2 35 (1.37%) 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 39 (1.52%) Kubernetes
3 22 (0.86%) Ansible
4 15 (0.59%) 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%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 11 (0.43%) vCenter Server
9 10 (0.39%) FortiGate
9 10 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
10 9 (0.35%) Grafana
11 6 (0.23%) Prometheus
11 6 (0.23%) VxRail
12 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.16%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 483 (18.84%) SAP
2 345 (13.46%) Microsoft
3 286 (11.15%) Oracle
4 107 (4.17%) ServiceNow
5 62 (2.42%) VMware
6 48 (1.87%) Salesforce
6 48 (1.87%) Workday
7 41 (1.60%) Databricks
8 36 (1.40%) Splunk
9 28 (1.09%) BMC
10 23 (0.90%) Ariba
10 23 (0.90%) IBM
11 22 (0.86%) Google
12 20 (0.78%) OpenText
12 20 (0.78%) Palo Alto
13 18 (0.70%) Adobe
14 16 (0.62%) JD Edwards
15 15 (0.59%) Dell
16 14 (0.55%) Cisco
16 14 (0.55%) Sage