Consultant Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Consultant
UK > UK excluding London

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK excluding London is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 February 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 33 32
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 +31
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,027 762 1,043
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.26% 5.60% 4.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.79% 6.05% 5.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 623 472 700
10th Percentile £403 £413 £375
25th Percentile £468 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £530
Median % change year-on-year - +3.77% -3.64%
75th Percentile £638 £633 £638
90th Percentile £713 £700 £713
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -0.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 10 29
10th Percentile - £71.58 £39.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £75.44 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.79
Median % change year-on-year -31.34% +35.54% -5.43%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £78.00
90th Percentile £80.58 £86.38 £87.20
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.29
% change year-on-year -32.35% +34.30% -9.59%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 17,733 12,585 19,730
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.74% 92.53% 93.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,756 7,513 12,433
10th Percentile £214 £210 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £476 £490
Median % change year-on-year -0.21% -2.86% -2.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £595
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,880 650 1,917
10th Percentile £14.12 £15.22 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.21 £20.30 £16.12
Median hourly rate £28.50 £32.13 £35.95
Median % change year-on-year -11.30% -10.63% +8.94%
75th Percentile £61.84 £64.40 £62.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.47 £73.24
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £33.77 £35.00
% change year-on-year -11.16% -3.51% -

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Consultant' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Consultant job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Consultant in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 8 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Consultant in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Consultant in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 8 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Consultant within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 8 February 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
South East -2 273 £550 - 333
North of England -13 258 £601 +9.32% 179
Midlands -11 190 £550 +4.76% 85
North West -3 153 £626 +16.26% 115
West Midlands -12 143 £569 +8.33% 66
South West +15 128 £588 +11.90% 139
Yorkshire +3 95 £550 -12.00% 58
East of England -1 92 £550 +4.76% 47
Scotland +5 56 £520 -5.45% 21
East Midlands -14 46 £505 -2.88% 17
Wales +12 26 £405 -22.86% 17
Northern Ireland +6 13 £405 -22.86% 19
North East -25 10 £525 -9.48% 6
South Coast - 1 £550 -
Consultant
UK

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 8 February 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 UK excluding London region featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 321 (31.26%) Security Cleared
2 262 (25.51%) SC Cleared
3 260 (25.32%) SAP
4 160 (15.58%) Migration
5 157 (15.29%) SAP S/4HANA
6 121 (11.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 119 (11.59%) Oracle
8 114 (11.10%) Problem-Solving
9 109 (10.61%) ERP
10 101 (9.83%) Workshop Facilitation
11 98 (9.54%) Stakeholder Management
12 97 (9.44%) Microsoft
13 95 (9.25%) Azure
14 67 (6.52%) Roadmaps
15 66 (6.43%) User Acceptance Testing
16 62 (6.04%) Data Migration
17 59 (5.74%) Validation
18 58 (5.65%) Knowledge Transfer
19 57 (5.55%) Analytics
20 52 (5.06%) Business Intelligence
20 52 (5.06%) Cybersecurity
21 50 (4.87%) CyberArk
22 49 (4.77%) Change Management
22 49 (4.77%) Cisco
23 48 (4.67%) Logistics
24 43 (4.19%) DV Cleared
24 43 (4.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
25 42 (4.09%) Agile
25 42 (4.09%) SQL
26 41 (3.99%) BPSS Clearance

Consultant Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 28 (2.73%) SharePoint
2 14 (1.36%) Confluence
2 14 (1.36%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.58%) Jupyter
4 3 (0.29%) MTS
5 2 (0.19%) CMS
5 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.097%) ArcGIS
6 1 (0.097%) Camunda
6 1 (0.097%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.097%) SAS
6 1 (0.097%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.097%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (1.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.68%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.49%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.29%) Navisworks
7 3 (0.29%) Revit
8 2 (0.19%) ProjectWise
9 1 (0.097%) CATIA
9 1 (0.097%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.097%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.097%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 157 (15.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (3.31%) Oracle EBS
3 29 (2.82%) Oracle Receivables
4 28 (2.73%) SAP FI
5 27 (2.63%) Oracle Payables
5 27 (2.63%) SAP MM
6 26 (2.53%) SAP PSCD
7 23 (2.24%) Oracle EBS R12
8 21 (2.04%) Oracle General Ledger
8 21 (2.04%) SAP EWM
8 21 (2.04%) SAP HCM
9 20 (1.95%) Oracle Cash Management
10 19 (1.85%) Oracle Assets
10 19 (1.85%) SAP Hybris
10 19 (1.85%) SAP WM
11 18 (1.75%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 18 (1.75%) SAP BRIM
11 18 (1.75%) SAP Payroll
12 15 (1.46%) Teamcenter
13 13 (1.27%) Oracle AGIS
Cloud Services
1 95 (9.25%) Azure
2 38 (3.70%) OCI
3 36 (3.51%) Dynamics 365
4 34 (3.31%) AWS
5 31 (3.02%) GCP
6 28 (2.73%) Power Platform
7 26 (2.53%) Microsoft 365
8 19 (1.85%) SAP Commerce Cloud
9 18 (1.75%) Entra ID
10 14 (1.36%) SaaS
11 13 (1.27%) SuccessFactors
12 12 (1.17%) Microsoft Copilot
13 10 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
14 9 (0.88%) PowerApps
15 8 (0.78%) OneDrive
16 7 (0.68%) Power Automate
17 5 (0.49%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 4 (0.39%) Copilot Studio
18 4 (0.39%) dbt
18 4 (0.39%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.56%) Firewall
2 5 (0.49%) FTP
2 5 (0.49%) Kerberos
2 5 (0.49%) SD-WAN
2 5 (0.49%) WAN
3 4 (0.39%) Cisco ISE
3 4 (0.39%) Network Security
3 4 (0.39%) SSH
4 3 (0.29%) BGP
4 3 (0.29%) Cisco ASA
4 3 (0.29%) Cisco Firepower
4 3 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
4 3 (0.29%) EIGRP
4 3 (0.29%) OSPF
4 3 (0.29%) SAN
4 3 (0.29%) VPN
4 3 (0.29%) VSAN
4 3 (0.29%) WebEx
5 2 (0.19%) VLAN
5 2 (0.19%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (2.24%) Power BI
2 19 (1.85%) Oracle Reports
3 18 (1.75%) SAP HANA
4 14 (1.36%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 11 (1.07%) SQL Server
6 10 (0.97%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (0.78%) Metadata
8 5 (0.49%) GIS
8 5 (0.49%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.39%) Snowflake Schema
9 4 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.29%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.29%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.29%) SAP BW
10 3 (0.29%) SAP Data Services
11 2 (0.19%) EDMS
11 2 (0.19%) MS Access
11 2 (0.19%) Oracle BI EE
11 2 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (2.63%) JIRA
2 9 (0.88%) Hudson
3 7 (0.68%) GitLab
4 5 (0.49%) Git
5 3 (0.29%) Oracle Forms
6 2 (0.19%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (0.097%) Appium
7 1 (0.097%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.097%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.097%) JUnit
7 1 (0.097%) LSMW
7 1 (0.097%) MSTest
7 1 (0.097%) NeoLoad
7 1 (0.097%) NUnit
7 1 (0.097%) Postman
7 1 (0.097%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.097%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.097%) Toad
7 1 (0.097%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 244 (23.76%) Social Skills
2 202 (19.67%) Finance
3 127 (12.37%) Public Sector
4 86 (8.37%) Analytical Skills
5 46 (4.48%) Manufacturing
6 31 (3.02%) Presentation Skills
7 30 (2.92%) Billing
8 29 (2.82%) Telecoms
9 22 (2.14%) General Ledger
10 19 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
11 17 (1.66%) Marketing
12 15 (1.46%) Legal
13 11 (1.07%) Banking
13 11 (1.07%) Local Government
13 11 (1.07%) Pharmaceutical
14 9 (0.88%) Aerospace
14 9 (0.88%) Law
14 9 (0.88%) Retail
15 7 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
16 6 (0.58%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (3.80%) Oracle Fusion
2 34 (3.31%) SAP Fiori
3 31 (3.02%) REST
4 29 (2.82%) Web Services
5 19 (1.85%) XML
6 18 (1.75%) SOAP
7 16 (1.56%) BAPI
8 11 (1.07%) LDAP
9 9 (0.88%) SAML
9 9 (0.88%) SAP Basis
10 7 (0.68%) OAuth
10 7 (0.68%) SAP TM
11 6 (0.58%) JSON
11 6 (0.58%) Middleware
11 6 (0.58%) SAP Business Workflow
12 5 (0.49%) .NET
12 5 (0.49%) OpenID
13 3 (0.29%) IDoc
13 3 (0.29%) PyTorch
13 3 (0.29%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 36 (3.51%) Onboarding
2 23 (2.24%) Legacy Systems
3 13 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
3 13 (1.27%) Security Posture
4 11 (1.07%) Product Ownership
4 11 (1.07%) Replication
5 10 (0.97%) Data Centre
6 8 (0.78%) Data Structures
6 8 (0.78%) Public Cloud
7 7 (0.68%) Management Information System
7 7 (0.68%) Operational Technology
7 7 (0.68%) SCADA
8 6 (0.58%) Beowulf
8 6 (0.58%) NHS
9 5 (0.49%) AI Agents
9 5 (0.49%) SCORM
10 4 (0.39%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (0.39%) Contract for Difference
10 4 (0.39%) FMCG
10 4 (0.39%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 32 (3.12%) Windows
2 17 (1.66%) Linux
3 6 (0.58%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.49%) Unix
5 4 (0.39%) AIX
5 4 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.39%) Solaris
5 4 (0.39%) VMS
5 4 (0.39%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
6 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.097%) CentOS
7 1 (0.097%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 160 (15.58%) Migration
2 121 (11.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 114 (11.10%) Problem-Solving
4 109 (10.61%) ERP
5 101 (9.83%) Workshop Facilitation
6 98 (9.54%) Stakeholder Management
7 67 (6.52%) Roadmaps
8 66 (6.43%) User Acceptance Testing
9 62 (6.04%) Data Migration
10 59 (5.74%) Validation
11 58 (5.65%) Knowledge Transfer
12 57 (5.55%) Analytics
13 52 (5.06%) Business Intelligence
13 52 (5.06%) Cybersecurity
14 49 (4.77%) Change Management
15 48 (4.67%) Logistics
16 42 (4.09%) Agile
17 41 (3.99%) Process Improvement
18 40 (3.89%) Collaborative Working
19 39 (3.80%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 42 (4.09%) SQL
2 32 (3.12%) ABAP
3 27 (2.63%) Python
4 22 (2.14%) PowerShell
5 8 (0.78%) Bash
6 7 (0.68%) JavaScript
7 6 (0.58%) PL/SQL
8 5 (0.49%) Java
9 4 (0.39%) C#
9 4 (0.39%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.29%) VBA
11 2 (0.19%) C++
11 2 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.19%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.19%) X++
12 1 (0.097%) Bicep
12 1 (0.097%) C
12 1 (0.097%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.097%) R
12 1 (0.097%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 321 (31.26%) Security Cleared
2 262 (25.51%) SC Cleared
3 43 (4.19%) DV Cleared
4 41 (3.99%) BPSS Clearance
5 27 (2.63%) Degree
6 16 (1.56%) CISSP
7 12 (1.17%) CISM
8 11 (1.07%) Cisco Certification
8 11 (1.07%) SAP Certification
9 8 (0.78%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (0.58%) CCNP
11 5 (0.49%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
12 4 (0.39%) Master's Degree
13 3 (0.29%) ACCA
13 3 (0.29%) CCIE
13 3 (0.29%) CEH
13 3 (0.29%) CIMA
13 3 (0.29%) PMP
13 3 (0.29%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (4.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (3.41%) NIST
3 24 (2.34%) GDPR
4 21 (2.04%) QA
5 19 (1.85%) Data Quality
6 15 (1.46%) GRC
7 13 (1.27%) Actionable Recommendations
8 9 (0.88%) NCSC
9 7 (0.68%) JSP 440
9 7 (0.68%) PMO
10 6 (0.58%) COBIT
11 5 (0.49%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 4 (0.39%) PCI DSS
13 3 (0.29%) ISO 19650
14 2 (0.19%) HIPAA
14 2 (0.19%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.19%) RMADS
14 2 (0.19%) SLA
System Software
1 30 (2.92%) Active Directory
2 12 (1.17%) Docker
3 11 (1.07%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.97%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.58%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 3 (0.29%) vSphere
7 1 (0.097%) Ceph
7 1 (0.097%) Firmware
7 1 (0.097%) KVM
7 1 (0.097%) NDS
7 1 (0.097%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.097%) QEMU
7 1 (0.097%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.097%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.097%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 20 (1.95%) Kubernetes
2 13 (1.27%) Terraform
3 10 (0.97%) PingFederate
3 10 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (0.68%) Grafana
5 6 (0.58%) Podman
5 6 (0.58%) Prometheus
6 5 (0.49%) Ansible
6 5 (0.49%) SCCM
7 4 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.19%) EMC NetWorker
9 2 (0.19%) EMC VPLEX
9 2 (0.19%) EnCase
9 2 (0.19%) FTK
9 2 (0.19%) NetBackup
9 2 (0.19%) vRealize
10 1 (0.097%) Cisco UCCE
10 1 (0.097%) Puppet
10 1 (0.097%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 260 (25.32%) SAP
2 119 (11.59%) Oracle
3 97 (9.44%) Microsoft
4 50 (4.87%) CyberArk
5 49 (4.77%) Cisco
6 35 (3.41%) Aruba
7 31 (3.02%) Siemens
8 30 (2.92%) Workday
9 28 (2.73%) ServiceNow
10 19 (1.85%) Google
11 18 (1.75%) VMware
12 13 (1.27%) Ariba
13 12 (1.17%) Adobe
14 11 (1.07%) OpenText
15 9 (0.88%) IFS
15 9 (0.88%) Sage
16 8 (0.78%) Atlassian
16 8 (0.78%) BMC
16 8 (0.78%) Databricks
16 8 (0.78%) Salesforce