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 29 January 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,574 2,092 2,673
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.69% 6.65% 6.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.31% 7.15% 6.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,481 1,124 1,563
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £528
% change year-on-year - +4.27% -4.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 14 38
10th Percentile £47.75 £64.41 £42.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £71.84 £56.99
Median hourly rate £60.00 £81.25 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -26.15% +28.38% -6.93%
75th Percentile £73.75 £86.00 £86.81
90th Percentile £82.05 £87.13 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £82.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year -27.27% +32.00% -0.79%

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 35,199 29,243 40,804
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.46% 92.89% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,208 17,871 27,021
10th Percentile £300 £293 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £495
% change year-on-year -0.47% -3.59% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,087 861 2,102
10th Percentile £14.41 £16.00 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.22
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -13.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.98
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.51 £40.00
% change year-on-year -12.73% -21.23% +33.33%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -2 2,006 £550 - 1,199
UK excluding London -1 1,031 £550 - 971
Work from Home +1 950 £538 -2.27% 528
London -4 939 £575 +1.77% 509
South East -5 270 £550 - 396
North of England -8 266 £600 +9.09% 179
Midlands -17 185 £531 +1.19% 84
North West -2 159 £625 +16.17% 99
West Midlands -4 141 £550 +4.76% 49
South West +16 121 £588 +11.90% 181
Yorkshire +3 97 £550 -12.00% 65
East of England +10 96 £550 - 77
Scotland +8 62 £500 -9.09% 24
East Midlands -24 43 £505 -2.88% 34
Wales +8 27 £405 -22.86% 28
Northern Ireland +3 13 £405 -22.86% 21
North East -20 10 £525 -12.50% 15
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 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.

1 656 (25.49%) SAP
2 646 (25.10%) Security Cleared
3 541 (21.02%) SC Cleared
4 360 (13.99%) Migration
4 360 (13.99%) SAP S/4HANA
5 324 (12.59%) Problem-Solving
6 304 (11.81%) Oracle
7 295 (11.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 290 (11.27%) Stakeholder Management
9 277 (10.76%) Microsoft
10 265 (10.30%) Azure
11 212 (8.24%) Workshop Facilitation
12 200 (7.77%) ERP
13 182 (7.07%) User Acceptance Testing
14 181 (7.03%) Agile
15 169 (6.57%) Analytics
16 154 (5.98%) Data Migration
17 153 (5.94%) Knowledge Transfer
18 148 (5.75%) SQL
19 142 (5.52%) Roadmaps
20 136 (5.28%) Business Intelligence
20 136 (5.28%) Validation
21 126 (4.90%) Dynamics 365
22 124 (4.82%) Cybersecurity
23 120 (4.66%) DevOps
24 114 (4.43%) Power Platform
24 114 (4.43%) Python
24 114 (4.43%) Risk Management
25 108 (4.20%) Continuous Improvement
26 104 (4.04%) AI

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 60 (2.33%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.17%) Confluence
3 29 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
5 5 (0.19%) CMS
5 5 (0.19%) MTS
5 5 (0.19%) NetWeaver
5 5 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.078%) Apache
7 2 (0.078%) IIS
7 2 (0.078%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.039%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
8 1 (0.039%) nginx
8 1 (0.039%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.039%) SAS
8 1 (0.039%) Tomcat
Applications
1 48 (1.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 22 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.31%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.16%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.16%) Revit
6 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.039%) CATIA
8 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.039%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 360 (13.99%) SAP S/4HANA
2 73 (2.84%) Oracle EBS
3 65 (2.53%) SAP FI
4 59 (2.29%) Oracle Payables
5 53 (2.06%) Oracle Receivables
5 53 (2.06%) SAP EWM
6 50 (1.94%) SAP MM
7 45 (1.75%) Oracle EBS R12
7 45 (1.75%) Oracle General Ledger
8 42 (1.63%) SAP HCM
9 41 (1.59%) SAP CO
9 41 (1.59%) SAP PP
10 38 (1.48%) Oracle Cash Management
10 38 (1.48%) SAP FI/CO
11 36 (1.40%) Dynamics CRM
12 34 (1.32%) Oracle Assets
13 33 (1.28%) SAP WM
14 29 (1.13%) SAP PSCD
15 28 (1.09%) SAP Payroll
16 26 (1.01%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 265 (10.30%) Azure
2 126 (4.90%) Dynamics 365
3 114 (4.43%) Power Platform
4 103 (4.00%) AWS
5 101 (3.92%) OCI
6 73 (2.84%) GCP
7 68 (2.64%) Microsoft 365
8 62 (2.41%) SaaS
9 60 (2.33%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.52%) SuccessFactors
11 37 (1.44%) Power Automate
12 33 (1.28%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (1.17%) PowerApps
14 28 (1.09%) Microsoft Copilot
15 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (0.74%) GitHub
17 18 (0.70%) OneDrive
17 18 (0.70%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 17 (0.66%) Serverless
19 16 (0.62%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 51 (1.98%) Firewall
2 20 (0.78%) VPN
3 19 (0.74%) DNS
4 16 (0.62%) Network Security
5 14 (0.54%) WAN
6 13 (0.51%) HTTP
6 13 (0.51%) Kerberos
7 12 (0.47%) DHCP
7 12 (0.47%) SD-WAN
7 12 (0.47%) SMS
7 12 (0.47%) SSL
8 10 (0.39%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.31%) Intranet
9 8 (0.31%) SSH
10 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
10 7 (0.27%) LAN
10 7 (0.27%) SAN
10 7 (0.27%) Software-Defined Networking
11 6 (0.23%) BGP
11 6 (0.23%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (3.11%) Power BI
2 48 (1.86%) Oracle Reports
3 42 (1.63%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.20%) SQL Server
5 24 (0.93%) Metadata
6 22 (0.85%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 21 (0.82%) SAP BW
8 16 (0.62%) Data Warehouse
9 13 (0.51%) SAP Data Services
10 12 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
11 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 11 (0.43%) Tableau
12 10 (0.39%) NoSQL
13 8 (0.31%) Oracle Database
14 7 (0.27%) DB2
14 7 (0.27%) Electronic Patient Records
15 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
15 6 (0.23%) DynamoDB
15 6 (0.23%) GIS
15 6 (0.23%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 66 (2.56%) JIRA
2 19 (0.74%) Jenkins
3 17 (0.66%) Git
4 14 (0.54%) GitLab
5 13 (0.51%) Oracle Forms
6 9 (0.35%) Hudson
7 8 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
8 5 (0.19%) LSMW
9 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.16%) Postman
10 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.12%) JUnit
10 3 (0.12%) Selenium
11 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.078%) git-flow
11 2 (0.078%) Mockito
11 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
11 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.078%) TeamCity
11 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 725 (28.17%) Social Skills
2 575 (22.34%) Finance
3 255 (9.91%) Public Sector
4 227 (8.82%) Analytical Skills
5 139 (5.40%) Manufacturing
6 92 (3.57%) Banking
7 80 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
8 71 (2.76%) Marketing
9 62 (2.41%) Billing
10 56 (2.18%) Legal
11 53 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
12 47 (1.83%) General Ledger
13 42 (1.63%) Telecoms
14 30 (1.17%) Law
14 30 (1.17%) Retail
15 29 (1.13%) Pharmaceutical
16 24 (0.93%) Organisational Skills
17 22 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 20 (0.78%) Financial Institution
19 18 (0.70%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.19%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.80%) REST
3 70 (2.72%) SAP Fiori
4 44 (1.71%) Web Services
5 39 (1.52%) SAP TM
6 37 (1.44%) SOAP
7 34 (1.32%) XML
8 28 (1.09%) LDAP
8 28 (1.09%) Node.js
9 24 (0.93%) BAPI
10 21 (0.82%) Middleware
11 19 (0.74%) JSON
11 19 (0.74%) SAP PI
12 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
13 17 (0.66%) HTML
14 15 (0.58%) CSS
15 14 (0.54%) .NET
16 13 (0.51%) Kafka
16 13 (0.51%) OAuth
16 13 (0.51%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 78 (3.03%) Onboarding
2 61 (2.37%) Legacy Systems
3 44 (1.71%) Product Ownership
4 40 (1.55%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.28%) Data Centre
6 30 (1.17%) Cloud Native
6 30 (1.17%) Management Information System
7 25 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
8 24 (0.93%) Data Structures
8 24 (0.93%) Replication
9 20 (0.78%) Greenfield Project
10 17 (0.66%) Hybrid Cloud
11 16 (0.62%) Operational Technology
12 15 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
12 15 (0.58%) NHS
13 14 (0.54%) Public Cloud
14 12 (0.47%) Life Science
15 11 (0.43%) AI Agents
16 10 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
16 10 (0.39%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 77 (2.99%) Windows
2 52 (2.02%) Linux
3 24 (0.93%) Unix
4 14 (0.54%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.31%) Windows 10
8 6 (0.23%) AIX
8 6 (0.23%) Solaris
9 5 (0.19%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) zOS
11 2 (0.078%) CentOS
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.039%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 360 (13.99%) Migration
2 324 (12.59%) Problem-Solving
3 295 (11.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 290 (11.27%) Stakeholder Management
5 212 (8.24%) Workshop Facilitation
6 200 (7.77%) ERP
7 182 (7.07%) User Acceptance Testing
8 181 (7.03%) Agile
9 169 (6.57%) Analytics
10 154 (5.98%) Data Migration
11 153 (5.94%) Knowledge Transfer
12 142 (5.52%) Roadmaps
13 136 (5.28%) Business Intelligence
13 136 (5.28%) Validation
14 124 (4.82%) Cybersecurity
15 120 (4.66%) DevOps
16 114 (4.43%) Risk Management
17 108 (4.20%) Continuous Improvement
18 104 (4.04%) AI
18 104 (4.04%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 148 (5.75%) SQL
2 114 (4.43%) Python
3 86 (3.34%) PowerShell
4 78 (3.03%) JavaScript
5 68 (2.64%) ABAP
6 40 (1.55%) Java
7 28 (1.09%) TypeScript
8 27 (1.05%) Groovy
9 24 (0.93%) PL/SQL
10 17 (0.66%) C#
11 15 (0.58%) Bash
12 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
13 9 (0.35%) Shell Script
14 8 (0.31%) Apex Code
14 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 6 (0.23%) C++
15 6 (0.23%) COBOL
15 6 (0.23%) R
15 6 (0.23%) VBA
16 5 (0.19%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 646 (25.10%) Security Cleared
2 541 (21.02%) SC Cleared
3 102 (3.96%) Degree
4 82 (3.19%) DV Cleared
5 73 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (1.94%) CISSP
7 32 (1.24%) CISM
8 30 (1.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 26 (1.01%) SAP Certification
10 18 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
12 16 (0.62%) CIMA
13 15 (0.58%) Master's Degree
14 14 (0.54%) Computer Science Degree
15 10 (0.39%) ACCA
15 10 (0.39%) CCNP
16 9 (0.35%) AWS Certification
16 9 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
17 8 (0.31%) CESG Certified Professional
18 7 (0.27%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 74 (2.87%) NIST
3 70 (2.72%) GDPR
4 53 (2.06%) QA
5 51 (1.98%) Data Quality
6 40 (1.55%) GRC
7 19 (0.74%) NCSC
7 19 (0.74%) SLA
8 18 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
9 17 (0.66%) PMO
10 12 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 11 (0.43%) PERC
12 10 (0.39%) PCI DSS
13 9 (0.35%) COBIT
14 8 (0.31%) Accessibility
14 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
14 8 (0.31%) JSP 440
15 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 72 (2.80%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.71%) Docker
3 32 (1.24%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.05%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.78%) vSphere
6 8 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.23%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 5 (0.19%) NDS
8 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 4 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.039%) Ceph
10 1 (0.039%) Firmware
10 1 (0.039%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.039%) KVM
10 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.039%) QEMU
10 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 59 (2.29%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.40%) Terraform
3 31 (1.20%) vRealize
4 22 (0.85%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.62%) Ansible
7 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
7 11 (0.43%) SCCM
8 10 (0.39%) Grafana
9 8 (0.31%) Failover Clustering
9 8 (0.31%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 6 (0.23%) Podman
12 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 3 (0.12%) CASB
13 3 (0.12%) CEMLI
13 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
13 3 (0.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 656 (25.49%) SAP
2 304 (11.81%) Oracle
3 277 (10.76%) Microsoft
4 93 (3.61%) VMware
5 81 (3.15%) ServiceNow
6 61 (2.37%) Workday
7 58 (2.25%) CyberArk
8 57 (2.21%) Salesforce
9 54 (2.10%) Cisco
10 51 (1.98%) Ariba
11 37 (1.44%) Google
12 36 (1.40%) Aruba
13 33 (1.28%) Adobe
14 22 (0.85%) OpenText
15 19 (0.74%) Databricks
15 19 (0.74%) Siemens
16 16 (0.62%) Dynatrace
17 15 (0.58%) Dell
18 14 (0.54%) Murex
19 12 (0.47%) Splunk