Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £545, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 June 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 24
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,821 1,898 2,777
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.78% 6.60% 6.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.26% 7.14% 6.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,570 1,102 1,720
10th Percentile £395 £411 £400
25th Percentile £456 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.91% - -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £537 £550
% change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 23 28
10th Percentile £38.75 £27.93 £27.13
25th Percentile £56.25 £39.05 £52.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £61.95
90th Percentile £85.63 £87.25 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £58.44
% change year-on-year -17.86% +19.78% -10.77%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 45,089 26,570 40,007
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.35% 92.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,438 17,201 25,885
10th Percentile £325 £288 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £504 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,017 1,072 2,851
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.85 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.79% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £59.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.39% -36.94% -5.88%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Consultant job vacancy trend in the UK

Consultant
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Consultant over the 6 months to 3 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Consultant
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Consultant over the 6 months to 3 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 3 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
England -3 2,249 £550 - 1,988
UK excluding London +1 1,191 £525 -2.23% 1,220
London -1 1,032 £550 -4.35% 921
Work from Home -1 998 £550 - 916
South East -4 339 £525 -4.55% 295
North of England -22 258 £550 +3.77% 395
Midlands -13 231 £525 -3.45% 118
South West +33 198 £600 +9.09% 217
West Midlands -8 153 £528 -4.09% 81
North West -17 126 £525 -3.67% 268
Yorkshire -10 110 £550 +15.79% 86
Scotland +27 71 £410 -11.35% 63
East of England -9 70 £550 +7.42% 66
East Midlands -14 69 £500 -3.85% 36
Wales +1 30 £550 +37.50% 22
North East -31 22 £638 +19.38% 41
Northern Ireland 0 3 £600 +15.38% 54

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 3 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 featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 583 (20.67%) SAP
2 527 (18.68%) Security Cleared
3 396 (14.04%) SC Cleared
4 364 (12.90%) Migration
5 325 (11.52%) Microsoft
6 319 (11.31%) Oracle
7 313 (11.10%) Azure
8 254 (9.00%) Problem-Solving
8 254 (9.00%) SAP S/4HANA
9 249 (8.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 242 (8.58%) ERP
11 236 (8.37%) Stakeholder Management
12 217 (7.69%) SQL
13 197 (6.98%) User Acceptance Testing
14 184 (6.52%) Continuous Improvement
14 184 (6.52%) Workshop Facilitation
15 171 (6.06%) Validation
16 166 (5.88%) Data Migration
17 157 (5.57%) Agile
18 153 (5.42%) Cybersecurity
19 148 (5.25%) Power Platform
20 147 (5.21%) Roadmaps
21 146 (5.18%) Analytics
22 144 (5.10%) Dynamics 365
23 142 (5.03%) Business Intelligence
24 135 (4.79%) AI
25 132 (4.68%) AWS
26 118 (4.18%) Change Management
27 115 (4.08%) Python
28 113 (4.01%) DevOps

Consultant Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 79 (2.80%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.67%) Confluence
3 14 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.11%) Apache
7 3 (0.11%) Apache Superset
7 3 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) SAS
7 3 (0.11%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.11%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.071%) IIS
8 2 (0.071%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.071%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.035%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.035%) WordPress
Applications
1 76 (2.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 19 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.071%) Lectora
8 2 (0.071%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.035%) CATIA
9 1 (0.035%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 254 (9.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 73 (2.59%) Oracle EBS
3 54 (1.91%) SAP FI
4 44 (1.56%) SAP PSCD
5 41 (1.45%) Oracle Payables
6 40 (1.42%) SAP MM
7 34 (1.21%) Oracle Receivables
8 32 (1.13%) SAP BRIM
9 30 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
10 28 (0.99%) SAP EWM
10 28 (0.99%) SAP Travel Management
10 28 (0.99%) Teamcenter
11 27 (0.96%) SAP SD
12 26 (0.92%) SAP FI-CA
13 25 (0.89%) SAP CO
13 25 (0.89%) SAP PP
14 24 (0.85%) Oracle EBS R12
14 24 (0.85%) Oracle ERP
14 24 (0.85%) SAP FI/CO
15 21 (0.74%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 313 (11.10%) Azure
2 148 (5.25%) Power Platform
3 144 (5.10%) Dynamics 365
4 132 (4.68%) AWS
5 92 (3.26%) OCI
6 84 (2.98%) Microsoft 365
7 70 (2.48%) GCP
8 67 (2.38%) Power Automate
9 62 (2.20%) SuccessFactors
10 57 (2.02%) SaaS
11 49 (1.74%) Entra ID
12 44 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
13 41 (1.45%) Microsoft Copilot
14 34 (1.21%) PowerApps
15 33 (1.17%) GitHub
16 31 (1.10%) Microsoft Purview
17 21 (0.74%) Copilot Studio
18 20 (0.71%) Serverless
19 15 (0.53%) Azure Data Factory
19 15 (0.53%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 36 (1.28%) Firewall
2 35 (1.24%) Network Security
3 21 (0.74%) SNMP
4 16 (0.57%) SMS
5 14 (0.50%) DNS
6 13 (0.46%) SAN
6 13 (0.46%) WAN
7 12 (0.43%) LAN
8 11 (0.39%) VPN
9 10 (0.35%) Software-Defined Networking
9 10 (0.35%) VSAN
10 9 (0.32%) FTP
11 8 (0.28%) NAS
11 8 (0.28%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.25%) Intranet
13 6 (0.21%) HTTP
13 6 (0.21%) Kerberos
13 6 (0.21%) NGFW
13 6 (0.21%) VLAN
13 6 (0.21%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (3.05%) Power BI
2 53 (1.88%) Oracle Reports
3 32 (1.13%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.10%) Tableau
5 25 (0.89%) SQL Server
6 24 (0.85%) Metadata
7 23 (0.82%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 17 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
9 15 (0.53%) SAP BW
10 14 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
11 11 (0.39%) BusinessObjects
12 9 (0.32%) Power Query
13 8 (0.28%) Oracle Database
14 7 (0.25%) Electronic Patient Records
14 7 (0.25%) GIS
14 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
15 6 (0.21%) Relational Database
15 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
15 6 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 81 (2.87%) JIRA
2 18 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.60%) Hudson
4 12 (0.43%) Jenkins
5 10 (0.35%) Git
6 8 (0.28%) GitLab
7 7 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.14%) Postman
8 4 (0.14%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.11%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.11%) Toad
9 3 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.071%) git-flow
10 2 (0.071%) JDeveloper
10 2 (0.071%) JUnit
10 2 (0.071%) Selenium
11 1 (0.035%) Charles Proxy
11 1 (0.035%) MLflow
General
1 598 (21.20%) Social Skills
2 587 (20.81%) Finance
3 240 (8.51%) Analytical Skills
4 197 (6.98%) Public Sector
5 93 (3.30%) Banking
6 89 (3.15%) Manufacturing
7 65 (2.30%) Billing
8 61 (2.16%) Legal
9 57 (2.02%) Marketing
10 51 (1.81%) General Ledger
11 49 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
12 40 (1.42%) Telecoms
13 33 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
14 31 (1.10%) Retail
15 30 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 28 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
17 24 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
18 22 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
19 19 (0.67%) Law
20 17 (0.60%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (2.55%) Oracle Fusion
2 70 (2.48%) REST
3 60 (2.13%) XML
4 29 (1.03%) Middleware
4 29 (1.03%) SAP TM
5 25 (0.89%) Web Services
6 23 (0.82%) SAP Fiori
7 22 (0.78%) BAPI
7 22 (0.78%) SOAP
8 18 (0.64%) HTML
8 18 (0.64%) JSON
9 17 (0.60%) .NET
10 16 (0.57%) SAP Basis
11 15 (0.53%) CSS
11 15 (0.53%) LDAP
12 12 (0.43%) OAuth
13 10 (0.35%) IDoc
13 10 (0.35%) Kafka
13 10 (0.35%) React
14 9 (0.32%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 62 (2.20%) Onboarding
2 45 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
2 45 (1.60%) Security Posture
3 37 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
4 35 (1.24%) Product Ownership
5 33 (1.17%) Operational Technology
6 29 (1.03%) AI Agents
7 23 (0.82%) Data Centre
7 23 (0.82%) Data Structures
8 22 (0.78%) Cloud Native
8 22 (0.78%) CMDB
8 22 (0.78%) Management Information System
9 21 (0.74%) NHS
10 20 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
10 20 (0.71%) Life Science
11 17 (0.60%) Replication
12 16 (0.57%) Public Cloud
13 14 (0.50%) Algorithms
14 13 (0.46%) Hybrid Cloud
14 13 (0.46%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 79 (2.80%) Windows
2 64 (2.27%) Linux
3 21 (0.74%) Solaris
4 20 (0.71%) Unix
4 20 (0.71%) VMS
5 17 (0.60%) AIX
6 6 (0.21%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.18%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.18%) zOS
8 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.11%) Android
9 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.11%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.11%) SUSE
10 2 (0.071%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 364 (12.90%) Migration
2 254 (9.00%) Problem-Solving
3 249 (8.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 242 (8.58%) ERP
5 236 (8.37%) Stakeholder Management
6 197 (6.98%) User Acceptance Testing
7 184 (6.52%) Continuous Improvement
7 184 (6.52%) Workshop Facilitation
8 171 (6.06%) Validation
9 166 (5.88%) Data Migration
10 157 (5.57%) Agile
11 153 (5.42%) Cybersecurity
12 147 (5.21%) Roadmaps
13 146 (5.18%) Analytics
14 142 (5.03%) Business Intelligence
15 135 (4.79%) AI
16 118 (4.18%) Change Management
17 113 (4.01%) DevOps
18 108 (3.83%) Translating Business Requirements
19 99 (3.51%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 217 (7.69%) SQL
2 115 (4.08%) Python
3 67 (2.38%) JavaScript
4 55 (1.95%) PowerShell
5 49 (1.74%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.24%) T-SQL
7 30 (1.06%) Java
8 28 (0.99%) ABAP
9 19 (0.67%) C#
10 14 (0.50%) Bash
11 13 (0.46%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.43%) TypeScript
13 11 (0.39%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 10 (0.35%) Kusto Query Language
15 8 (0.28%) R
16 7 (0.25%) C++
17 5 (0.18%) Apex Code
18 4 (0.14%) COBOL
18 4 (0.14%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 527 (18.68%) Security Cleared
2 396 (14.04%) SC Cleared
3 105 (3.72%) DV Cleared
4 80 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
5 73 (2.59%) CISSP
6 65 (2.30%) Degree
7 55 (1.95%) CISM
8 27 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
9 24 (0.85%) CIMA
10 23 (0.82%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 23 (0.82%) CCSP
11 19 (0.67%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 16 (0.57%) PMP
13 15 (0.53%) CEH
14 14 (0.50%) ACCA
15 13 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (0.43%) SAP Certification
17 11 (0.39%) Azure Certification
17 11 (0.39%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (3.01%) NIST
2 76 (2.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 68 (2.41%) Data Quality
4 50 (1.77%) GRC
5 43 (1.52%) GDPR
6 40 (1.42%) QA
7 29 (1.03%) NCSC
8 26 (0.92%) PCI DSS
9 21 (0.74%) Actionable Recommendations
10 19 (0.67%) Accessibility
11 18 (0.64%) PMO
11 18 (0.64%) SLA
12 15 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.50%) COBIT
14 13 (0.46%) JSP 440
15 10 (0.35%) GxP
16 8 (0.28%) WCAG
17 7 (0.25%) DICOM
17 7 (0.25%) HL7
17 7 (0.25%) RMADS
System Software
1 50 (1.77%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (1.24%) VMware NSX
4 26 (0.92%) vSphere
5 17 (0.60%) Docker
6 12 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.21%) IAG
8 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.14%) NFS
10 2 (0.071%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.035%) HDFS
11 1 (0.035%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.035%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.035%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.035%) SRDF
11 1 (0.035%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 52 (1.84%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.31%) Terraform
3 28 (0.99%) vRealize
4 20 (0.71%) Ansible
5 17 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.53%) Nagios
6 15 (0.53%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.50%) Netcool
7 14 (0.50%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.46%) OpenView
8 13 (0.46%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 10 (0.35%) Grafana
9 10 (0.35%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.28%) SCCM
10 8 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
11 6 (0.21%) Podman
11 6 (0.21%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.18%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 583 (20.67%) SAP
2 325 (11.52%) Microsoft
3 319 (11.31%) Oracle
4 90 (3.19%) VMware
5 82 (2.91%) ServiceNow
6 62 (2.20%) Ariba
7 54 (1.91%) Siemens
8 52 (1.84%) Workday
9 50 (1.77%) Salesforce
10 36 (1.28%) Splunk
11 30 (1.06%) Databricks
11 30 (1.06%) Google
12 26 (0.92%) BMC
13 24 (0.85%) IBM
14 19 (0.67%) Palo Alto
15 16 (0.57%) Adobe
15 16 (0.57%) IFS
15 16 (0.57%) Sage
15 16 (0.57%) SolarWinds
16 14 (0.50%) HP