Consultant Contract Job Trends in England

Consultant
UK > England

The median Consultant daily rate in England is £545, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 May 2026.

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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 30 28
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,218 1,504 2,161
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.41% 6.15% 5.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.86% 6.65% 6.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,251 955 1,412
10th Percentile £393 £417 £400
25th Percentile £457 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.91% - -
75th Percentile £638 £641 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £538 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -2.27% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 14 26
10th Percentile £41.25 £38.03 £26.88
25th Percentile £56.25 £54.13 £50.73
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £60.80
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +15.13% -6.46%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £82.30 - £72.50
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £75.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -23.33% +21.75% -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 37,836 22,609 33,815
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.39% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,491 15,046 22,418
10th Percentile £319 £296 £284
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.01% -0.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £510 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -2.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,612 915 2,440
10th Percentile £15.72 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.79 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.59 £30.00 £36.92
Median % change year-on-year +51.95% -18.73% -17.54%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £28.15 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.75% -22.88% -18.89%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 1,036 £550 -4.35% 571
South East -3 337 £530 -6.69% 262
Midlands -14 233 £525 -2.33% 112
North of England -22 231 £525 -1.69% 318
South West +37 187 £550 +4.76% 208
West Midlands -4 157 £550 - 78
North West -27 107 £518 -4.93% 202
Yorkshire -9 104 £538 +6.17% 80
East of England -9 71 £550 +11.39% 70
East Midlands -16 68 £500 -3.85% 35
North East -25 20 £638 +19.38% 37
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 May 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.

1 427 (19.25%) SAP
2 413 (18.62%) Security Cleared
3 307 (13.84%) SC Cleared
4 296 (13.35%) Migration
5 258 (11.63%) Azure
6 250 (11.27%) Microsoft
7 221 (9.96%) Oracle
8 200 (9.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 199 (8.97%) Problem-Solving
10 197 (8.88%) Stakeholder Management
11 190 (8.57%) ERP
12 182 (8.21%) SQL
13 179 (8.07%) SAP S/4HANA
14 167 (7.53%) User Acceptance Testing
15 161 (7.26%) Workshop Facilitation
16 139 (6.27%) Data Migration
17 135 (6.09%) Agile
18 133 (6.00%) Cybersecurity
19 131 (5.91%) Validation
20 121 (5.46%) Analytics
21 120 (5.41%) Continuous Improvement
22 119 (5.37%) Dynamics 365
23 118 (5.32%) Roadmaps
24 117 (5.28%) Business Intelligence
25 115 (5.18%) AI
25 115 (5.18%) Power Platform
26 110 (4.96%) AWS
27 100 (4.51%) Change Management
28 87 (3.92%) Python
29 86 (3.88%) Risk 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 68 (3.07%) SharePoint
2 38 (1.71%) Confluence
3 11 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
4 10 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.27%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.18%) Apache
6 4 (0.18%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.14%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.14%) Apache Superset
7 3 (0.14%) Palantir Foundry
8 2 (0.090%) IIS
8 2 (0.090%) SAS
8 2 (0.090%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.090%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.045%) CMS
9 1 (0.045%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.045%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.045%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.045%) WordPress
Applications
1 63 (2.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (1.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.32%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.23%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.18%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.090%) Lectora
8 2 (0.090%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.045%) CATIA
9 1 (0.045%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 179 (8.07%) SAP S/4HANA
2 61 (2.75%) Oracle EBS
3 41 (1.85%) Oracle Payables
4 34 (1.53%) Oracle Receivables
5 32 (1.44%) SAP MM
6 31 (1.40%) Dynamics CRM
6 31 (1.40%) SAP PSCD
7 30 (1.35%) SAP FI
8 27 (1.22%) Oracle EBS R12
8 27 (1.22%) Teamcenter
9 24 (1.08%) SAP Travel Management
10 23 (1.04%) SAP EWM
11 21 (0.95%) Oracle Assets
11 21 (0.95%) Oracle ERP
11 21 (0.95%) SAP CO
12 20 (0.90%) Oracle General Ledger
13 19 (0.86%) Oracle Cash Management
13 19 (0.86%) SAP FI/CO
14 18 (0.81%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
14 18 (0.81%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 258 (11.63%) Azure
2 119 (5.37%) Dynamics 365
3 115 (5.18%) Power Platform
4 110 (4.96%) AWS
5 62 (2.80%) Microsoft 365
6 60 (2.71%) GCP
7 57 (2.57%) Power Automate
8 53 (2.39%) SuccessFactors
9 50 (2.25%) SaaS
10 47 (2.12%) OCI
11 41 (1.85%) Entra ID
12 34 (1.53%) Microsoft Copilot
13 31 (1.40%) Azure DevOps
13 31 (1.40%) PowerApps
14 24 (1.08%) GitHub
15 17 (0.77%) Copilot Studio
16 16 (0.72%) Microsoft Purview
16 16 (0.72%) Serverless
17 13 (0.59%) Azure AI
17 13 (0.59%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 24 (1.08%) Network Security
2 23 (1.04%) Firewall
3 16 (0.72%) SMS
3 16 (0.72%) SNMP
4 11 (0.50%) VSAN
5 10 (0.45%) FTP
6 9 (0.41%) VPN
7 8 (0.36%) Kerberos
7 8 (0.36%) SAN
8 5 (0.23%) HTTP
8 5 (0.23%) NAS
8 5 (0.23%) VLAN
8 5 (0.23%) WAN
9 4 (0.18%) Intranet
9 4 (0.18%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.18%) TCP/IP
10 3 (0.14%) BGP
10 3 (0.14%) IPsec
10 3 (0.14%) Wireless
11 2 (0.090%) Connectrix
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (3.16%) Power BI
2 45 (2.03%) Oracle Reports
3 28 (1.26%) SAP HANA
4 25 (1.13%) SQL Server
5 23 (1.04%) Tableau
6 19 (0.86%) Metadata
7 18 (0.81%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 17 (0.77%) Oracle ODI
9 10 (0.45%) SAP BW
10 8 (0.36%) Data Warehouse
11 7 (0.32%) Electronic Patient Records
12 6 (0.27%) GIS
12 6 (0.27%) NoSQL
12 6 (0.27%) SAP Data Services
12 6 (0.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 5 (0.23%) BusinessObjects
13 5 (0.23%) Crystal Reports
13 5 (0.23%) Essbase
13 5 (0.23%) Relational Database
13 5 (0.23%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 62 (2.80%) JIRA
2 16 (0.72%) Hudson
3 15 (0.68%) Oracle Forms
4 10 (0.45%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.32%) Git
6 6 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.23%) GitLab
8 4 (0.18%) Visual Studio Code
9 3 (0.14%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.14%) Toad
10 2 (0.090%) git-flow
10 2 (0.090%) Postman
11 1 (0.045%) Browser DevTools
11 1 (0.045%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.045%) Charles Proxy
11 1 (0.045%) CircleCI
11 1 (0.045%) MLflow
11 1 (0.045%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.045%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.045%) Zephyr
General
1 508 (22.90%) Finance
2 466 (21.01%) Social Skills
3 181 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
4 145 (6.54%) Public Sector
5 83 (3.74%) Banking
6 59 (2.66%) Manufacturing
7 56 (2.52%) Legal
8 53 (2.39%) Marketing
9 41 (1.85%) Billing
10 40 (1.80%) General Ledger
11 39 (1.76%) Documentation Skills
12 32 (1.44%) Retail
13 30 (1.35%) Telecoms
14 24 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
15 23 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 23 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
15 23 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
16 20 (0.90%) Law
17 16 (0.72%) Advertising
18 15 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (2.89%) REST
2 60 (2.71%) Oracle Fusion
3 53 (2.39%) XML
4 24 (1.08%) SAP TM
5 21 (0.95%) Middleware
5 21 (0.95%) SOAP
6 19 (0.86%) Web Services
7 17 (0.77%) JSON
8 16 (0.72%) HTML
8 16 (0.72%) SAP Fiori
9 14 (0.63%) LDAP
9 14 (0.63%) SAP Basis
10 13 (0.59%) CSS
11 12 (0.54%) .NET
11 12 (0.54%) Node.js
12 10 (0.45%) GraphQL
12 10 (0.45%) Kafka
13 9 (0.41%) React
14 8 (0.36%) IDoc
14 8 (0.36%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 53 (2.39%) Onboarding
2 38 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
2 38 (1.71%) Legacy Systems
3 35 (1.58%) Security Posture
4 30 (1.35%) Product Ownership
5 28 (1.26%) AI Agents
6 24 (1.08%) Operational Technology
7 19 (0.86%) Cloud Native
7 19 (0.86%) Data Centre
8 17 (0.77%) Data Structures
8 17 (0.77%) NHS
9 16 (0.72%) Greenfield Project
9 16 (0.72%) Management Information System
10 15 (0.68%) CMDB
11 14 (0.63%) Public Cloud
11 14 (0.63%) Replication
12 13 (0.59%) Life Science
12 13 (0.59%) Self-Motivation
13 12 (0.54%) Algorithms
13 12 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 54 (2.43%) Windows
2 34 (1.53%) Linux
3 17 (0.77%) Solaris
4 13 (0.59%) AIX
5 9 (0.41%) VMS
6 7 (0.32%) Unix
7 5 (0.23%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.18%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.18%) zOS
9 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.090%) Android
10 2 (0.090%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.090%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.045%) CoreOS
11 1 (0.045%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 296 (13.35%) Migration
2 200 (9.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 199 (8.97%) Problem-Solving
4 197 (8.88%) Stakeholder Management
5 190 (8.57%) ERP
6 167 (7.53%) User Acceptance Testing
7 161 (7.26%) Workshop Facilitation
8 139 (6.27%) Data Migration
9 135 (6.09%) Agile
10 133 (6.00%) Cybersecurity
11 131 (5.91%) Validation
12 121 (5.46%) Analytics
13 120 (5.41%) Continuous Improvement
14 118 (5.32%) Roadmaps
15 117 (5.28%) Business Intelligence
16 115 (5.18%) AI
17 100 (4.51%) Change Management
18 86 (3.88%) Risk Management
18 86 (3.88%) Translating Business Requirements
19 84 (3.79%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 182 (8.21%) SQL
2 87 (3.92%) Python
3 42 (1.89%) JavaScript
4 41 (1.85%) PL/SQL
5 36 (1.62%) PowerShell
6 35 (1.58%) T-SQL
7 23 (1.04%) ABAP
8 20 (0.90%) Java
9 16 (0.72%) TypeScript
10 14 (0.63%) C#
11 13 (0.59%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.41%) Bash
12 9 (0.41%) R
13 7 (0.32%) Groovy
13 7 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
14 6 (0.27%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 4 (0.18%) Korn
16 4 (0.18%) Shell Script
17 3 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 413 (18.62%) Security Cleared
2 307 (13.84%) SC Cleared
3 85 (3.83%) DV Cleared
4 60 (2.71%) BPSS Clearance
5 58 (2.61%) CISSP
6 57 (2.57%) Degree
7 45 (2.03%) CISM
8 20 (0.90%) CIMA
8 20 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
9 17 (0.77%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 17 (0.77%) CCSP
10 12 (0.54%) PMP
11 10 (0.45%) ACCA
11 10 (0.45%) CEH
12 8 (0.36%) Azure Certification
12 8 (0.36%) Computer Science Degree
12 8 (0.36%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 8 (0.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 8 (0.36%) Master's Degree
12 8 (0.36%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 74 (3.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 74 (3.34%) NIST
2 51 (2.30%) Data Quality
3 49 (2.21%) GRC
4 44 (1.98%) GDPR
5 27 (1.22%) QA
6 24 (1.08%) NCSC
7 21 (0.95%) PCI DSS
8 16 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
8 16 (0.72%) PMO
9 14 (0.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 14 (0.63%) SLA
10 13 (0.59%) COBIT
11 12 (0.54%) Accessibility
12 10 (0.45%) JSP 440
13 7 (0.32%) HL7
13 7 (0.32%) RMADS
14 6 (0.27%) DICOM
15 5 (0.23%) GAAP
16 4 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 39 (1.76%) Active Directory
2 30 (1.35%) VMware NSX
3 20 (0.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (0.77%) vSphere
5 16 (0.72%) Docker
6 8 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.27%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 6 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.090%) IAG
8 2 (0.090%) NFS
9 1 (0.045%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.045%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.045%) Job Entry Subsystem
Systems Management
1 38 (1.71%) Kubernetes
2 22 (0.99%) Terraform
3 16 (0.72%) Microsoft Intune
4 14 (0.63%) vRealize
5 13 (0.59%) Nagios
5 13 (0.59%) ZABBIX
6 12 (0.54%) Netcool
6 12 (0.54%) Tivoli
7 11 (0.50%) OpenView
7 11 (0.50%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 10 (0.45%) Ansible
9 8 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.32%) SCCM
11 6 (0.27%) NetBackup
11 6 (0.27%) Podman
12 5 (0.23%) Grafana
12 5 (0.23%) Prometheus
13 4 (0.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 4 (0.18%) vCenter Server
14 3 (0.14%) Puppet
Vendors
1 427 (19.25%) SAP
2 250 (11.27%) Microsoft
3 221 (9.96%) Oracle
4 62 (2.80%) ServiceNow
5 53 (2.39%) Siemens
6 52 (2.34%) VMware
7 51 (2.30%) Salesforce
8 48 (2.16%) Workday
9 30 (1.35%) Splunk
10 25 (1.13%) Google
11 23 (1.04%) BMC
11 23 (1.04%) Databricks
12 21 (0.95%) Ariba
13 20 (0.90%) Adobe
13 20 (0.90%) IBM
14 15 (0.68%) Sage
15 14 (0.63%) IFS
16 13 (0.59%) SolarWinds
17 12 (0.54%) OpenAI
18 11 (0.50%) Palo Alto