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 June 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 29 28
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 +15
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,395 1,537 2,279
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.47% 6.03% 6.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.92% 6.54% 6.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,368 975 1,444
10th Percentile £406 £413 £406
25th Percentile £463 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £640 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £545 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -0.91% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 22 27
10th Percentile £36.25 £27.73 £27.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £37.77 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £67.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -14.81% +9.58% -4.75%
75th Percentile £60.00 £84.81 £63.32
90th Percentile £85.93 £86.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -6.67%

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 40,429 23,502 34,503
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.38% 92.15% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,779 15,373 22,543
10th Percentile £325 £293 £298
25th Percentile £419 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £638
90th Percentile £735 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,896 1,093 2,589
10th Percentile £15.99 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.93 £17.87 £16.74
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.50 £39.55
Median % change year-on-year +57.89% -27.94% -9.83%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.51
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -12.79%

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 June 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 June 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 June 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 1,096 £550 -4.35% 335
South East -3 348 £525 -4.55% 174
North of England -19 278 £550 +0.92% 135
Midlands -8 251 £525 -4.55% 66
South West +29 211 £553 +0.55% 64
West Midlands +10 175 £525 -4.55% 51
North West -11 151 £550 -3.51% 90
Yorkshire -8 105 £550 +15.79% 33
East of England -7 92 £550 +4.17% 45
East Midlands -12 67 £500 -9.09% 14
North East -35 22 £650 +20.37% 13
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 June 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.

1 448 (18.71%) SAP
2 427 (17.83%) Security Cleared
3 319 (13.32%) Migration
4 309 (12.90%) SC Cleared
5 294 (12.28%) Microsoft
6 283 (11.82%) Azure
7 246 (10.27%) Stakeholder Management
8 242 (10.10%) Oracle
9 226 (9.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 205 (8.56%) Problem-Solving
11 204 (8.52%) SQL
12 196 (8.18%) ERP
13 188 (7.85%) SAP S/4HANA
14 180 (7.52%) User Acceptance Testing
15 165 (6.89%) Validation
16 164 (6.85%) Workshop Facilitation
17 150 (6.26%) Cybersecurity
18 149 (6.22%) Data Migration
19 147 (6.14%) Continuous Improvement
20 142 (5.93%) AI
21 139 (5.80%) Analytics
22 137 (5.72%) Agile
23 130 (5.43%) Roadmaps
24 124 (5.18%) AWS
25 114 (4.76%) Power Platform
26 112 (4.68%) Change Management
27 109 (4.55%) Business Intelligence
28 107 (4.47%) Dynamics 365
29 102 (4.26%) Python
30 97 (4.05%) Requirements Gathering

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 (2.76%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.88%) Confluence
3 12 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
4 11 (0.46%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.38%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.33%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.17%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.17%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.17%) Jupyter
7 4 (0.17%) SAS
8 3 (0.13%) Apache
8 3 (0.13%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.084%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.084%) IIS
9 2 (0.084%) WordPress
10 1 (0.042%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.042%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.042%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.042%) Tomcat
Applications
1 72 (3.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.21%) PTC Creo
7 3 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.084%) Lectora
8 2 (0.084%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.042%) CATIA
9 1 (0.042%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.042%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 188 (7.85%) SAP S/4HANA
2 69 (2.88%) Oracle EBS
3 39 (1.63%) Oracle Payables
4 36 (1.50%) SAP PSCD
5 31 (1.29%) SAP MM
6 30 (1.25%) Oracle Receivables
7 28 (1.17%) Oracle ERP
8 27 (1.13%) SAP FI
9 25 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
9 25 (1.04%) NetSuite
9 25 (1.04%) SAP EWM
10 24 (1.00%) Oracle EBS R12
10 24 (1.00%) Teamcenter
11 21 (0.88%) SAP SD
12 19 (0.79%) SAP BRIM
13 17 (0.71%) Oracle General Ledger
13 17 (0.71%) SAP CO
13 17 (0.71%) SAP Payroll
13 17 (0.71%) SAP Travel Management
14 16 (0.67%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 283 (11.82%) Azure
2 124 (5.18%) AWS
3 114 (4.76%) Power Platform
4 107 (4.47%) Dynamics 365
5 76 (3.17%) Microsoft 365
6 69 (2.88%) GCP
7 62 (2.59%) SuccessFactors
8 59 (2.46%) Power Automate
9 49 (2.05%) Entra ID
10 45 (1.88%) OCI
11 38 (1.59%) SaaS
12 37 (1.54%) Microsoft Copilot
13 36 (1.50%) Azure DevOps
14 28 (1.17%) PowerApps
15 27 (1.13%) GitHub
16 22 (0.92%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.84%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.67%) Serverless
19 14 (0.58%) Azure AI
19 14 (0.58%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 38 (1.59%) Firewall
2 37 (1.54%) Network Security
3 19 (0.79%) SNMP
4 16 (0.67%) WAN
5 14 (0.58%) BGP
6 12 (0.50%) VPN
7 11 (0.46%) VSAN
8 10 (0.42%) LAN
8 10 (0.42%) SMS
9 9 (0.38%) FTP
9 9 (0.38%) SAN
10 6 (0.25%) Ethernet VPN
10 6 (0.25%) VXLAN
11 5 (0.21%) HTTP
11 5 (0.21%) IPsec
11 5 (0.21%) MPLS
11 5 (0.21%) NAS
11 5 (0.21%) TCP/IP
12 4 (0.17%) Radio Access Network
12 4 (0.17%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (2.76%) Power BI
2 40 (1.67%) Oracle Reports
3 28 (1.17%) SAP HANA
3 28 (1.17%) Tableau
4 24 (1.00%) SQL Server
5 22 (0.92%) Metadata
6 18 (0.75%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 17 (0.71%) Oracle ODI
8 15 (0.63%) SAP BW
9 12 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
10 10 (0.42%) BusinessObjects
10 10 (0.42%) SAP Data Services
11 8 (0.33%) Oracle Database
12 6 (0.25%) Delta Lake
12 6 (0.25%) NoSQL
13 5 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
13 5 (0.21%) NonStop SQL
13 5 (0.21%) Power Query
13 5 (0.21%) Relational Database
14 4 (0.17%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 76 (3.17%) JIRA
2 17 (0.71%) Oracle Forms
3 15 (0.63%) Hudson
4 11 (0.46%) Git
5 8 (0.33%) Jenkins
6 6 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.17%) GitLab
7 4 (0.17%) Toad
7 4 (0.17%) Zephyr
8 3 (0.13%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.13%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.13%) JDeveloper
8 3 (0.13%) MLflow
8 3 (0.13%) Postman
8 3 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.084%) Selenium
9 2 (0.084%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.084%) TestRail
10 1 (0.042%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.042%) Yeoman
General
1 537 (22.42%) Finance
2 508 (21.21%) Social Skills
3 201 (8.39%) Analytical Skills
4 159 (6.64%) Public Sector
5 82 (3.42%) Banking
6 68 (2.84%) Legal
7 60 (2.51%) Manufacturing
8 53 (2.21%) Telecoms
9 49 (2.05%) General Ledger
10 48 (2.00%) Billing
11 42 (1.75%) Marketing
12 41 (1.71%) Documentation Skills
13 36 (1.50%) Presentation Skills
13 36 (1.50%) Retail
14 33 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 25 (1.04%) Pharmaceutical
16 22 (0.92%) Law
17 21 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
18 20 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
19 18 (0.75%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (2.59%) Oracle Fusion
2 61 (2.55%) REST
3 50 (2.09%) XML
4 30 (1.25%) Middleware
5 23 (0.96%) SAP Fiori
6 22 (0.92%) SOAP
6 22 (0.92%) Web Services
7 18 (0.75%) HTML
8 17 (0.71%) SAP TM
9 16 (0.67%) CSS
10 15 (0.63%) JSON
11 13 (0.54%) SAP Basis
12 11 (0.46%) .NET
13 10 (0.42%) Microsoft Graph
13 10 (0.42%) OAuth
14 9 (0.38%) EDI
14 9 (0.38%) LDAP
14 9 (0.38%) SailPoint
15 8 (0.33%) BAPI
15 8 (0.33%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 64 (2.67%) Onboarding
2 41 (1.71%) Security Posture
3 34 (1.42%) CMDB
3 34 (1.42%) Data Protection Act
3 34 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
4 33 (1.38%) Product Ownership
5 30 (1.25%) AI Agents
6 24 (1.00%) Operational Technology
7 19 (0.79%) Cloud Native
7 19 (0.79%) Data Centre
8 18 (0.75%) Data Structures
9 17 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
9 17 (0.71%) Management Information System
9 17 (0.71%) Public Cloud
10 15 (0.63%) Replication
11 14 (0.58%) Life Science
11 14 (0.58%) NHS
12 13 (0.54%) Algorithms
12 13 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (0.54%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 73 (3.05%) Windows
2 50 (2.09%) Linux
3 21 (0.88%) Solaris
4 14 (0.58%) AIX
5 13 (0.54%) Unix
6 9 (0.38%) VMS
7 5 (0.21%) zOS
8 4 (0.17%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.17%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.13%) Android
9 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.084%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.042%) CoreOS
11 1 (0.042%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.042%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 319 (13.32%) Migration
2 246 (10.27%) Stakeholder Management
3 226 (9.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 205 (8.56%) Problem-Solving
5 196 (8.18%) ERP
6 180 (7.52%) User Acceptance Testing
7 165 (6.89%) Validation
8 164 (6.85%) Workshop Facilitation
9 150 (6.26%) Cybersecurity
10 149 (6.22%) Data Migration
11 147 (6.14%) Continuous Improvement
12 142 (5.93%) AI
13 139 (5.80%) Analytics
14 137 (5.72%) Agile
15 130 (5.43%) Roadmaps
16 112 (4.68%) Change Management
17 109 (4.55%) Business Intelligence
18 97 (4.05%) Requirements Gathering
19 95 (3.97%) Translating Business Requirements
20 92 (3.84%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 204 (8.52%) SQL
2 102 (4.26%) Python
3 44 (1.84%) PowerShell
4 43 (1.80%) PL/SQL
5 42 (1.75%) JavaScript
6 34 (1.42%) T-SQL
7 31 (1.29%) ABAP
8 23 (0.96%) Java
9 13 (0.54%) Bash
9 13 (0.54%) C#
9 13 (0.54%) Search Processing Language
10 11 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 11 (0.46%) Kusto Query Language
11 7 (0.29%) R
12 6 (0.25%) TypeScript
13 5 (0.21%) Korn
13 5 (0.21%) Shell Script
14 4 (0.17%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) COBOL
14 4 (0.17%) Perl
Qualifications
1 427 (17.83%) Security Cleared
2 309 (12.90%) SC Cleared
3 92 (3.84%) DV Cleared
4 67 (2.80%) CISSP
5 65 (2.71%) BPSS Clearance
6 62 (2.59%) Degree
7 49 (2.05%) CISM
8 29 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
9 25 (1.04%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 24 (1.00%) CCSP
11 22 (0.92%) CIMA
12 15 (0.63%) PMP
13 13 (0.54%) ACCA
13 13 (0.54%) CEH
14 11 (0.46%) Azure Certification
14 11 (0.46%) OSCP
15 9 (0.38%) Computer Science Degree
15 9 (0.38%) Master's Degree
16 8 (0.33%) CompTIA Security+
16 8 (0.33%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (3.47%) NIST
2 73 (3.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 57 (2.38%) Data Quality
4 53 (2.21%) GRC
5 40 (1.67%) QA
6 35 (1.46%) GDPR
7 28 (1.17%) NCSC
8 25 (1.04%) PCI DSS
9 21 (0.88%) Actionable Recommendations
10 18 (0.75%) Accessibility
11 16 (0.67%) SLA
12 15 (0.63%) PMO
12 15 (0.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 13 (0.54%) COBIT
14 9 (0.38%) JSP 440
15 7 (0.29%) GAAP
15 7 (0.29%) GxP
16 6 (0.25%) HL7
16 6 (0.25%) RMADS
16 6 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 44 (1.84%) Active Directory
2 32 (1.34%) VMware NSX
3 26 (1.09%) VMware Infrastructure
4 20 (0.84%) vSphere
5 11 (0.46%) Docker
6 10 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.21%) IAG
9 4 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.13%) NFS
11 2 (0.084%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.042%) Hyper-V
12 1 (0.042%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 1 (0.042%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.042%) SRDF
12 1 (0.042%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 40 (1.67%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.54%) Terraform
3 17 (0.71%) Ansible
4 16 (0.67%) vRealize
5 14 (0.58%) Microsoft Intune
6 13 (0.54%) Nagios
6 13 (0.54%) ZABBIX
7 12 (0.50%) Netcool
7 12 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.50%) Tivoli
8 11 (0.46%) OpenView
8 11 (0.46%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 9 (0.38%) vCenter Server
10 8 (0.33%) FortiGate
10 8 (0.33%) SCCM
11 7 (0.29%) Grafana
12 6 (0.25%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.25%) Prometheus
13 4 (0.17%) CEMLI
13 4 (0.17%) Podman
Vendors
1 448 (18.71%) SAP
2 294 (12.28%) Microsoft
3 242 (10.10%) Oracle
4 89 (3.72%) ServiceNow
5 60 (2.51%) VMware
6 53 (2.21%) Siemens
7 48 (2.00%) Workday
8 47 (1.96%) Salesforce
9 35 (1.46%) Databricks
10 31 (1.29%) Splunk
11 24 (1.00%) Google
12 22 (0.92%) BMC
13 21 (0.88%) IBM
14 20 (0.84%) Ariba
15 17 (0.71%) Palo Alto
16 16 (0.67%) JD Edwards
16 16 (0.67%) OpenAI
17 15 (0.63%) Sage
18 14 (0.58%) Adobe
18 14 (0.58%) SolarWinds