Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 January 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 27 26
Rank change year-on-year +3 -1 +23
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,583 2,210 2,721
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.96% 6.66% 6.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.63% 7.19% 6.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,480 1,209 1,545
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £470 £488 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £750 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £538
% change year-on-year - +2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 14 40
10th Percentile £41.35 £45.03 £49.25
25th Percentile £62.75 £56.63 £60.62
Median hourly rate £73.25 £70.19 £66.44
Median % change year-on-year +4.36% +5.64% -5.09%
75th Percentile £81.25 £80.59 £86.44
90th Percentile £84.35 £87.13 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £72.81 £63.29
% change year-on-year +6.44% +15.04% -1.88%

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 33,835 30,753 40,099
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.20% 92.71% 93.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,431 18,857 26,859
10th Percentile £300 £298 £281
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £485 £500
% change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,964 949 1,554
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.50 £14.43
25th Percentile £18.24 £21.05 £19.25
Median hourly rate £26.00 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -27.78% +41.93%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.52 £46.18
% change year-on-year -20.21% -31.75% +80.14%

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 1 January 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 1 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in the UK

Consultant
Top 18 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 1 January 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 0 2,013 £550 - 1,141
UK excluding London +1 1,043 £550 - 779
London -1 935 £575 +4.55% 497
Work from Home 0 922 £540 -1.91% 480
South East 0 283 £550 -4.35% 288
North of England -5 282 £598 +8.73% 175
North West +4 173 £623 +14.75% 99
Midlands -21 162 £550 +4.76% 94
West Midlands -12 130 £550 +4.76% 66
South West +11 113 £590 +7.27% 139
Yorkshire -2 101 £550 -8.33% 63
East of England +6 97 £550 -2.22% 42
Scotland +12 68 £500 -9.09% 25
Wales +11 31 £405 -32.50% 11
East Midlands -27 31 £538 +1.42% 27
Northern Ireland -4 12 £405 -32.50% 14
North East -11 8 £620 +3.33% 14
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 January 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.

1 677 (26.21%) SAP
2 662 (25.63%) Security Cleared
3 552 (21.37%) SC Cleared
4 357 (13.82%) SAP S/4HANA
5 349 (13.51%) Migration
6 320 (12.39%) Problem-Solving
7 315 (12.20%) Oracle
8 309 (11.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 305 (11.81%) Stakeholder Management
10 273 (10.57%) Microsoft
11 236 (9.14%) Azure
12 208 (8.05%) Agile
13 190 (7.36%) Workshop Facilitation
14 175 (6.78%) ERP
15 171 (6.62%) User Acceptance Testing
16 162 (6.27%) SQL
17 157 (6.08%) Knowledge Transfer
18 156 (6.04%) Analytics
18 156 (6.04%) Roadmaps
19 154 (5.96%) Data Migration
20 140 (5.42%) Validation
21 135 (5.23%) Business Intelligence
22 131 (5.07%) Cybersecurity
23 124 (4.80%) DevOps
24 119 (4.61%) Python
25 115 (4.45%) Dynamics 365
26 114 (4.41%) AWS
26 114 (4.41%) Risk Management
27 111 (4.30%) Data Modelling
28 108 (4.18%) Power Platform

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 62 (2.40%) SharePoint
2 31 (1.20%) Microsoft Exchange
3 28 (1.08%) Confluence
4 16 (0.62%) WebLogic
5 9 (0.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 9 (0.35%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.31%) Oracle Service Bus
7 6 (0.23%) CMS
7 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
8 5 (0.19%) MTS
9 4 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 3 (0.12%) Apache
10 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.12%) IIS
10 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.077%) Jupyter
11 2 (0.077%) SharePoint Server
12 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
12 1 (0.039%) nginx
Applications
1 42 (1.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.35%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
6 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.15%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.15%) Revit
7 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
9 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.039%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.039%) InVision
9 1 (0.039%) Sketch
9 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 357 (13.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 82 (3.17%) Oracle EBS
3 62 (2.40%) Oracle Payables
4 59 (2.28%) SAP FI
5 52 (2.01%) SAP EWM
5 52 (2.01%) SAP MM
6 51 (1.97%) Oracle EBS R12
6 51 (1.97%) Oracle Receivables
6 51 (1.97%) SAP HCM
7 45 (1.74%) Oracle General Ledger
8 44 (1.70%) Oracle Cash Management
9 42 (1.63%) SAP PP
10 39 (1.51%) SAP CO
11 36 (1.39%) SAP FI/CO
12 35 (1.36%) Oracle Assets
13 34 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
14 33 (1.28%) SAP Payroll
14 33 (1.28%) SAP WM
15 28 (1.08%) Oracle Financials
16 26 (1.01%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 236 (9.14%) Azure
2 115 (4.45%) Dynamics 365
3 114 (4.41%) AWS
4 108 (4.18%) Power Platform
5 99 (3.83%) OCI
6 77 (2.98%) Microsoft 365
7 75 (2.90%) GCP
8 57 (2.21%) SaaS
9 55 (2.13%) Entra ID
10 42 (1.63%) SuccessFactors
11 37 (1.43%) Power Automate
12 31 (1.20%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (1.16%) PowerApps
14 22 (0.85%) GitHub
14 22 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
15 21 (0.81%) OneDrive
16 20 (0.77%) Microsoft Purview
17 16 (0.62%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 14 (0.54%) Serverless
19 13 (0.50%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 61 (2.36%) Firewall
2 24 (0.93%) VPN
3 23 (0.89%) Network Security
4 21 (0.81%) DNS
5 20 (0.77%) WAN
6 18 (0.70%) SD-WAN
7 14 (0.54%) HTTP
8 13 (0.50%) DHCP
8 13 (0.50%) Kerberos
8 13 (0.50%) SSL
8 13 (0.50%) TCP/IP
9 11 (0.43%) BGP
10 10 (0.39%) OSPF
10 10 (0.39%) SSH
11 8 (0.31%) LAN
12 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
12 7 (0.27%) SAN
12 7 (0.27%) VLAN
12 7 (0.27%) VSAN
13 6 (0.23%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (3.10%) Power BI
2 49 (1.90%) Oracle Reports
3 45 (1.74%) SAP HANA
4 39 (1.51%) SQL Server
5 24 (0.93%) Metadata
6 22 (0.85%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 21 (0.81%) SAP BW
8 17 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
9 15 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
10 14 (0.54%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.54%) SAP Data Services
11 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 10 (0.39%) DB2
13 9 (0.35%) Tableau
14 8 (0.31%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.23%) DynamoDB
15 6 (0.23%) Power Query
16 5 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
16 5 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
16 5 (0.19%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 64 (2.48%) JIRA
2 22 (0.85%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.74%) Git
4 17 (0.66%) GitLab
5 10 (0.39%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.31%) Hudson
7 6 (0.23%) Oracle APEX
8 5 (0.19%) LSMW
8 5 (0.19%) Postman
9 4 (0.15%) Eclipse
10 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.12%) JUnit
10 3 (0.12%) Selenium
11 2 (0.077%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.077%) Mockito
11 2 (0.077%) Rational DOORS
11 2 (0.077%) Snyk
11 2 (0.077%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.077%) TeamCity
11 2 (0.077%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 731 (28.30%) Social Skills
2 584 (22.61%) Finance
3 246 (9.52%) Public Sector
4 236 (9.14%) Analytical Skills
5 160 (6.19%) Manufacturing
6 87 (3.37%) Banking
7 78 (3.02%) Documentation Skills
8 63 (2.44%) Marketing
9 62 (2.40%) Presentation Skills
10 57 (2.21%) Billing
11 54 (2.09%) Legal
12 41 (1.59%) Telecoms
13 38 (1.47%) General Ledger
14 33 (1.28%) Pharmaceutical
15 31 (1.20%) Retail
16 26 (1.01%) Law
17 25 (0.97%) Electronics
18 22 (0.85%) Financial Institution
19 21 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
20 20 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (3.29%) Oracle Fusion
2 74 (2.86%) SAP Fiori
3 72 (2.79%) REST
4 48 (1.86%) SOAP
5 47 (1.82%) Web Services
6 45 (1.74%) XML
7 37 (1.43%) Node.js
8 30 (1.16%) Middleware
8 30 (1.16%) SAP TM
9 29 (1.12%) HTML
9 29 (1.12%) JSON
10 28 (1.08%) LDAP
11 21 (0.81%) .NET
11 21 (0.81%) BAPI
11 21 (0.81%) OAuth
12 20 (0.77%) SAP PI
13 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
14 17 (0.66%) CSS
14 17 (0.66%) EDI
15 16 (0.62%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 75 (2.90%) Onboarding
2 60 (2.32%) Legacy Systems
3 43 (1.66%) Product Ownership
4 37 (1.43%) Security Posture
5 34 (1.32%) Data Centre
6 33 (1.28%) Cloud Native
7 27 (1.05%) Management Information System
8 24 (0.93%) Data Protection Act
8 24 (0.93%) Replication
9 22 (0.85%) Data Structures
10 20 (0.77%) Greenfield Project
10 20 (0.77%) Hybrid Cloud
11 19 (0.74%) Operational Technology
12 18 (0.70%) Analytical Mindset
13 15 (0.58%) Virtual Team
14 14 (0.54%) CMDB
15 13 (0.50%) NHS
16 12 (0.46%) AI Agents
16 12 (0.46%) SCADA
17 11 (0.43%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 76 (2.94%) Windows
2 52 (2.01%) Linux
3 20 (0.77%) Unix
4 14 (0.54%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.39%) Mac OS
7 9 (0.35%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.27%) AIX
8 7 (0.27%) Solaris
9 4 (0.15%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.15%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.077%) CentOS
11 2 (0.077%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) SUSE
12 1 (0.039%) tvOS
12 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 349 (13.51%) Migration
2 320 (12.39%) Problem-Solving
3 309 (11.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 305 (11.81%) Stakeholder Management
5 208 (8.05%) Agile
6 190 (7.36%) Workshop Facilitation
7 175 (6.78%) ERP
8 171 (6.62%) User Acceptance Testing
9 157 (6.08%) Knowledge Transfer
10 156 (6.04%) Analytics
10 156 (6.04%) Roadmaps
11 154 (5.96%) Data Migration
12 140 (5.42%) Validation
13 135 (5.23%) Business Intelligence
14 131 (5.07%) Cybersecurity
15 124 (4.80%) DevOps
16 114 (4.41%) Risk Management
17 111 (4.30%) Data Modelling
18 106 (4.10%) Requirements Gathering
19 101 (3.91%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 162 (6.27%) SQL
2 119 (4.61%) Python
3 86 (3.33%) PowerShell
4 76 (2.94%) ABAP
4 76 (2.94%) JavaScript
5 50 (1.94%) Java
6 32 (1.24%) PL/SQL
7 30 (1.16%) Groovy
8 28 (1.08%) TypeScript
9 18 (0.70%) Bash
10 14 (0.54%) C++
11 12 (0.46%) C#
12 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
13 9 (0.35%) C
14 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 8 (0.31%) PHP
15 7 (0.27%) Apex Code
16 6 (0.23%) R
16 6 (0.23%) Shell Script
16 6 (0.23%) VBA
Qualifications
1 662 (25.63%) Security Cleared
2 552 (21.37%) SC Cleared
3 102 (3.95%) Degree
4 86 (3.33%) BPSS Clearance
5 85 (3.29%) DV Cleared
6 63 (2.44%) CISSP
7 45 (1.74%) CISM
8 28 (1.08%) SAP Certification
9 25 (0.97%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Certification
11 19 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
12 16 (0.62%) Computer Science Degree
13 14 (0.54%) CIMA
14 13 (0.50%) ACCA
14 13 (0.50%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.46%) CCNP
16 11 (0.43%) AWS Certification
16 11 (0.43%) CESG Certified Professional
16 11 (0.43%) CISA
17 7 (0.27%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (3.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 77 (2.98%) NIST
3 71 (2.75%) GDPR
4 52 (2.01%) QA
5 42 (1.63%) Data Quality
6 39 (1.51%) GRC
7 23 (0.89%) NCSC
8 18 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
9 17 (0.66%) SLA
10 15 (0.58%) PMO
11 14 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 13 (0.50%) PCI DSS
13 12 (0.46%) COBIT
14 11 (0.43%) PERC
15 9 (0.35%) Accessibility
15 9 (0.35%) HIPAA
16 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
16 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 8 (0.31%) IFRS
17 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 75 (2.90%) Active Directory
2 40 (1.55%) Docker
3 37 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.05%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.81%) vSphere
6 10 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.19%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.19%) NDS
7 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 4 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.12%) Firmware
10 2 (0.077%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.077%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.039%) Ceph
11 1 (0.039%) IAG
11 1 (0.039%) KVM
11 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.039%) QEMU
11 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.039%) UAG
Systems Management
1 59 (2.28%) Kubernetes
2 44 (1.70%) Terraform
3 25 (0.97%) Microsoft Intune
3 25 (0.97%) vRealize
4 22 (0.85%) Ansible
5 19 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.58%) SCCM
7 13 (0.50%) Grafana
8 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
9 10 (0.39%) Prometheus
10 6 (0.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 6 (0.23%) Failover Clustering
11 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 4 (0.15%) CASB
12 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
12 4 (0.15%) PowerCLI
13 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.12%) Istio
13 3 (0.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 677 (26.21%) SAP
2 315 (12.20%) Oracle
3 273 (10.57%) Microsoft
4 92 (3.56%) VMware
5 76 (2.94%) ServiceNow
6 65 (2.52%) Workday
7 60 (2.32%) Cisco
8 59 (2.28%) CyberArk
9 58 (2.25%) Salesforce
10 53 (2.05%) Ariba
11 39 (1.51%) Google
12 36 (1.39%) Aruba
13 34 (1.32%) Adobe
14 26 (1.01%) Dynatrace
15 25 (0.97%) OpenText
16 19 (0.74%) Remedy
17 17 (0.66%) Databricks
18 16 (0.62%) Dell
19 14 (0.54%) EMC
19 14 (0.54%) Palo Alto