Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £540, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 June 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 27 25
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 +10
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,860 1,920 2,792
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.78% 6.57% 6.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.26% 7.11% 6.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,599 1,105 1,721
10th Percentile £397 £411 £400
25th Percentile £456 £475 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% - -
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 87 23 27
10th Percentile £39.25 £27.93 £27.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £39.05 £51.45
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 -
90th Percentile £85.55 £87.25 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £56.89
% change year-on-year -17.86% +23.06% -13.15%

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 45,716 26,993 40,308
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.36% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,851 17,397 26,006
10th Percentile £325 £287 £280
25th Percentile £413 £403 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -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 3,052 1,108 2,874
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.30 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.04% -24.55% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.32 £40.00
% change year-on-year +77.73% -36.70% -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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -2 2,282 £550 - 2,040
UK excluding London +3 1,204 £525 -2.23% 1,213
London -1 1,053 £550 -4.35% 971
Work from Home -2 1,009 £540 -1.82% 947
South East -3 339 £525 -4.55% 291
North of England -17 266 £550 +3.77% 383
Midlands -13 228 £525 -4.55% 118
South West +32 201 £577 +4.91% 221
West Midlands -9 151 £525 -4.55% 73
North West -17 131 £525 -3.67% 253
Yorkshire -3 113 £550 +15.79% 90
Scotland +26 73 £418 -9.73% 75
East of England -4 72 £550 +6.08% 57
East Midlands -12 68 £500 -3.85% 44
Wales -1 30 £550 +37.50% 17
North East -26 22 £638 +19.38% 40
Northern Ireland +1 3 £600 +15.38% 58

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 7 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.

1 587 (20.52%) SAP
2 530 (18.53%) Security Cleared
3 396 (13.85%) SC Cleared
4 369 (12.90%) Migration
5 331 (11.57%) Oracle
6 327 (11.43%) Microsoft
7 315 (11.01%) Azure
8 259 (9.06%) SAP S/4HANA
9 257 (8.99%) Problem-Solving
10 253 (8.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 246 (8.60%) ERP
11 246 (8.60%) Stakeholder Management
12 223 (7.80%) SQL
13 205 (7.17%) User Acceptance Testing
14 188 (6.57%) Continuous Improvement
15 185 (6.47%) Workshop Facilitation
16 174 (6.08%) Validation
17 169 (5.91%) Data Migration
18 159 (5.56%) Agile
19 156 (5.45%) Cybersecurity
20 152 (5.31%) Roadmaps
21 150 (5.24%) Analytics
22 148 (5.17%) Power Platform
23 144 (5.03%) Business Intelligence
24 143 (5.00%) Dynamics 365
25 140 (4.90%) AI
26 135 (4.72%) AWS
27 121 (4.23%) Change Management
28 119 (4.16%) Python
29 114 (3.99%) 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 78 (2.73%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.64%) Confluence
3 13 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
4 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
5 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.14%) WebSphere
6 3 (0.10%) Apache
6 3 (0.10%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.10%) Cloud Foundry
6 3 (0.10%) IIS
6 3 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
6 3 (0.10%) SAS
6 3 (0.10%) Tomcat
6 3 (0.10%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.070%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.035%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.035%) Oracle Self-Service HR
8 1 (0.035%) WordPress
Applications
1 77 (2.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 20 (0.70%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.21%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.17%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.070%) Lectora
8 2 (0.070%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.035%) CATIA
9 1 (0.035%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 259 (9.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 75 (2.62%) Oracle EBS
3 53 (1.85%) SAP FI
4 46 (1.61%) Oracle Payables
5 43 (1.50%) SAP PSCD
6 40 (1.40%) SAP MM
7 38 (1.33%) Oracle Receivables
8 33 (1.15%) SAP BRIM
9 30 (1.05%) Dynamics CRM
10 29 (1.01%) SAP EWM
10 29 (1.01%) SAP Travel Management
11 28 (0.98%) Oracle ERP
11 28 (0.98%) Teamcenter
12 27 (0.94%) SAP SD
13 26 (0.91%) SAP FI-CA
14 25 (0.87%) SAP PP
15 24 (0.84%) Oracle EBS R12
15 24 (0.84%) SAP CO
16 23 (0.80%) SAP FI/CO
17 22 (0.77%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 315 (11.01%) Azure
2 148 (5.17%) Power Platform
3 143 (5.00%) Dynamics 365
4 135 (4.72%) AWS
5 94 (3.29%) OCI
6 87 (3.04%) Microsoft 365
7 71 (2.48%) GCP
8 67 (2.34%) Power Automate
9 63 (2.20%) SuccessFactors
10 57 (1.99%) SaaS
11 51 (1.78%) Entra ID
12 44 (1.54%) Azure DevOps
13 42 (1.47%) Microsoft Copilot
14 33 (1.15%) PowerApps
15 32 (1.12%) GitHub
16 31 (1.08%) Microsoft Purview
17 21 (0.73%) Copilot Studio
18 19 (0.66%) Serverless
19 15 (0.52%) Azure Data Factory
19 15 (0.52%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 37 (1.29%) Firewall
2 36 (1.26%) Network Security
3 21 (0.73%) SNMP
4 16 (0.56%) SMS
5 14 (0.49%) DNS
6 13 (0.45%) SAN
6 13 (0.45%) WAN
7 12 (0.42%) LAN
8 11 (0.38%) VPN
9 10 (0.35%) Software-Defined Networking
9 10 (0.35%) VSAN
10 9 (0.31%) FTP
11 8 (0.28%) NAS
11 8 (0.28%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.24%) Intranet
13 6 (0.21%) BGP
13 6 (0.21%) HTTP
13 6 (0.21%) IPsec
13 6 (0.21%) VLAN
13 6 (0.21%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (3.01%) Power BI
2 53 (1.85%) Oracle Reports
3 32 (1.12%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.08%) Tableau
5 26 (0.91%) SQL Server
6 24 (0.84%) Metadata
7 23 (0.80%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 18 (0.63%) Oracle ODI
9 16 (0.56%) SAP BW
10 15 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
11 11 (0.38%) BusinessObjects
12 9 (0.31%) Oracle Database
12 9 (0.31%) Power Query
13 7 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
13 7 (0.24%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.21%) Crystal Reports
14 6 (0.21%) GIS
14 6 (0.21%) Relational Database
14 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
14 6 (0.21%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 83 (2.90%) JIRA
2 18 (0.63%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.56%) Hudson
4 12 (0.42%) Jenkins
5 10 (0.35%) Git
6 8 (0.28%) GitLab
7 7 (0.24%) 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 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.10%) Selenium
9 3 (0.10%) Toad
9 3 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.070%) git-flow
10 2 (0.070%) JDeveloper
10 2 (0.070%) JUnit
10 2 (0.070%) Zephyr
11 1 (0.035%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 612 (21.40%) Social Skills
2 590 (20.63%) Finance
3 242 (8.46%) Analytical Skills
4 203 (7.10%) Public Sector
5 92 (3.22%) Banking
5 92 (3.22%) Manufacturing
6 66 (2.31%) Billing
7 64 (2.24%) Legal
8 57 (1.99%) Marketing
9 51 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
9 51 (1.78%) General Ledger
10 43 (1.50%) Telecoms
11 34 (1.19%) Retail
12 33 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
13 31 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 30 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
15 25 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
16 22 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
17 21 (0.73%) Law
18 17 (0.59%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (2.73%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.48%) REST
3 59 (2.06%) XML
4 30 (1.05%) Middleware
4 30 (1.05%) SAP TM
5 26 (0.91%) Web Services
6 23 (0.80%) BAPI
6 23 (0.80%) SAP Fiori
7 22 (0.77%) SOAP
8 18 (0.63%) HTML
8 18 (0.63%) JSON
9 17 (0.59%) .NET
10 16 (0.56%) SAP Basis
11 15 (0.52%) CSS
12 14 (0.49%) LDAP
13 12 (0.42%) OAuth
14 10 (0.35%) IDoc
14 10 (0.35%) Kafka
14 10 (0.35%) React
15 9 (0.31%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 66 (2.31%) Onboarding
2 44 (1.54%) Data Protection Act
2 44 (1.54%) Security Posture
3 37 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
4 35 (1.22%) Product Ownership
5 33 (1.15%) Operational Technology
6 29 (1.01%) AI Agents
7 25 (0.87%) CMDB
8 23 (0.80%) Cloud Native
8 23 (0.80%) Data Centre
8 23 (0.80%) Data Structures
9 22 (0.77%) Management Information System
10 21 (0.73%) NHS
11 20 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
11 20 (0.70%) Life Science
12 17 (0.59%) Replication
13 16 (0.56%) Public Cloud
14 14 (0.49%) Algorithms
14 14 (0.49%) Self-Motivation
15 13 (0.45%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 80 (2.80%) Windows
2 65 (2.27%) Linux
3 21 (0.73%) Solaris
4 20 (0.70%) Unix
4 20 (0.70%) VMS
5 17 (0.59%) AIX
6 6 (0.21%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.17%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.17%) zOS
8 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.10%) Android
9 3 (0.10%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.10%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.10%) SUSE
10 2 (0.070%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.070%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 369 (12.90%) Migration
2 257 (8.99%) Problem-Solving
3 253 (8.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 246 (8.60%) ERP
4 246 (8.60%) Stakeholder Management
5 205 (7.17%) User Acceptance Testing
6 188 (6.57%) Continuous Improvement
7 185 (6.47%) Workshop Facilitation
8 174 (6.08%) Validation
9 169 (5.91%) Data Migration
10 159 (5.56%) Agile
11 156 (5.45%) Cybersecurity
12 152 (5.31%) Roadmaps
13 150 (5.24%) Analytics
14 144 (5.03%) Business Intelligence
15 140 (4.90%) AI
16 121 (4.23%) Change Management
17 114 (3.99%) DevOps
18 109 (3.81%) Translating Business Requirements
19 101 (3.53%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 223 (7.80%) SQL
2 119 (4.16%) Python
3 67 (2.34%) JavaScript
4 57 (1.99%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.68%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.22%) T-SQL
7 32 (1.12%) Java
8 31 (1.08%) ABAP
9 19 (0.66%) C#
10 14 (0.49%) Bash
11 13 (0.45%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.42%) Shell Script
12 12 (0.42%) TypeScript
13 11 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
14 10 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 8 (0.28%) R
16 7 (0.24%) C++
17 5 (0.17%) Apex Code
18 4 (0.14%) COBOL
18 4 (0.14%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 530 (18.53%) Security Cleared
2 396 (13.85%) SC Cleared
3 105 (3.67%) DV Cleared
4 82 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
5 72 (2.52%) CISSP
6 65 (2.27%) Degree
7 54 (1.89%) CISM
8 28 (0.98%) Cisco Certification
9 24 (0.84%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 24 (0.84%) CCSP
9 24 (0.84%) CIMA
10 19 (0.66%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 16 (0.56%) PMP
12 15 (0.52%) CEH
13 14 (0.49%) ACCA
14 13 (0.45%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.42%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.42%) OSCP
15 12 (0.42%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (3.01%) NIST
2 77 (2.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 70 (2.45%) Data Quality
4 51 (1.78%) GRC
5 43 (1.50%) GDPR
6 40 (1.40%) QA
7 30 (1.05%) NCSC
8 27 (0.94%) PCI DSS
9 21 (0.73%) Actionable Recommendations
10 20 (0.70%) Accessibility
11 19 (0.66%) SLA
12 18 (0.63%) PMO
13 15 (0.52%) COBIT
13 15 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 12 (0.42%) JSP 440
15 11 (0.38%) GxP
16 8 (0.28%) WCAG
17 7 (0.24%) DICOM
17 7 (0.24%) HL7
17 7 (0.24%) RMADS
System Software
1 52 (1.82%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.26%) VMware NSX
4 26 (0.91%) vSphere
5 17 (0.59%) Docker
6 12 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.31%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.21%) IAG
8 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.14%) NFS
10 2 (0.070%) 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 (1.82%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.29%) Terraform
3 28 (0.98%) vRealize
4 20 (0.70%) Ansible
5 18 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.52%) Nagios
6 15 (0.52%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.49%) Netcool
7 14 (0.49%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.45%) OpenView
8 13 (0.45%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 10 (0.35%) Grafana
9 10 (0.35%) Prometheus
10 9 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
11 8 (0.28%) SCCM
12 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
12 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.21%) Podman
12 6 (0.21%) vCenter Server
13 5 (0.17%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 587 (20.52%) SAP
2 331 (11.57%) Oracle
3 327 (11.43%) Microsoft
4 91 (3.18%) VMware
5 87 (3.04%) ServiceNow
6 62 (2.17%) Ariba
7 54 (1.89%) Siemens
8 52 (1.82%) Workday
9 51 (1.78%) Salesforce
10 36 (1.26%) Splunk
11 30 (1.05%) Databricks
11 30 (1.05%) Google
12 26 (0.91%) BMC
13 24 (0.84%) IBM
14 20 (0.70%) Palo Alto
15 16 (0.56%) Adobe
15 16 (0.56%) Sage
15 16 (0.56%) SolarWinds
16 15 (0.52%) IFS
17 14 (0.49%) HP