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 30 July 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,120 2,113 2,748
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.89% 6.44% 6.90%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.36% 7.04% 7.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,726 1,240 1,624
10th Percentile £403 £411 £408
25th Percentile £463 £475 £474
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £759
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 29 28
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £41.10
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £55.71
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.23%
75th Percentile £78.70 £81.25 £66.50
90th Percentile £88.75 £87.30 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -4.99%

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 49,068 30,025 37,043
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.63% 91.50% 92.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,609 19,114 23,981
10th Percentile £331 £282 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,359 1,460 2,193
10th Percentile £15.50 £13.69 £14.05
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £19.09
Median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +73.38% -40.82% -1.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +7.50%

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 30 July 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 30 July 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 30 July 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 2,509 £550 - 1,045
UK excluding London +3 1,360 £525 -4.55% 700
London 0 1,152 £550 -4.35% 490
Work from Home -3 1,053 £550 - 511
South East 0 391 £525 -4.55% 223
North of England -15 292 £550 +2.04% 186
Midlands -1 260 £500 -9.09% 82
South West +23 216 £556 -3.30% 114
West Midlands +11 187 £500 -11.11% 57
North West -13 173 £549 -0.23% 121
Scotland +32 102 £425 -12.82% 26
Yorkshire -14 100 £544 +14.47% 50
East of England -14 82 £550 - 39
East Midlands -1 64 £500 -9.09% 25
Wales -7 29 £550 +10.00% 13
North East -44 20 £750 +39.66% 16
Northern Ireland -9 1 £450 -13.46% 22

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 30 July 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.

1 654 (20.96%) SAP
2 617 (19.78%) Security Cleared
3 432 (13.85%) SC Cleared
4 410 (13.14%) Migration
5 389 (12.47%) Microsoft
6 385 (12.34%) Stakeholder Management
7 359 (11.51%) Oracle
8 315 (10.10%) Azure
9 284 (9.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 272 (8.72%) SAP S/4HANA
11 257 (8.24%) Problem-Solving
12 256 (8.21%) SQL
13 244 (7.82%) ERP
14 238 (7.63%) User Acceptance Testing
15 212 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
16 204 (6.54%) Continuous Improvement
16 204 (6.54%) Validation
17 188 (6.03%) Cybersecurity
18 184 (5.90%) Data Migration
19 178 (5.71%) Agile
19 178 (5.71%) Roadmaps
20 172 (5.51%) Analytics
21 162 (5.19%) AI
22 152 (4.87%) AWS
23 144 (4.62%) Power Platform
24 142 (4.55%) Business Intelligence
24 142 (4.55%) Requirements Gathering
25 138 (4.42%) DV Cleared
26 133 (4.26%) Translating Business Requirements
27 130 (4.17%) Dynamics 365

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 86 (2.76%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.54%) Confluence
3 14 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.096%) Apache
9 3 (0.096%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.096%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.096%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.096%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.096%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.064%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.064%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.064%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.064%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.064%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.064%) WordPress
Applications
1 72 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.06%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
5 9 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.064%) Lectora
8 2 (0.064%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.032%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 272 (8.72%) SAP S/4HANA
2 92 (2.95%) Oracle EBS
3 67 (2.15%) SAP FI
4 52 (1.67%) SAP PSCD
5 43 (1.38%) Oracle Payables
6 36 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
6 36 (1.15%) Oracle ERP
6 36 (1.15%) SAP MM
7 35 (1.12%) SAP BRIM
7 35 (1.12%) SAP CO
8 34 (1.09%) SAP SD
9 33 (1.06%) Oracle Receivables
10 31 (0.99%) SAP FI/CO
11 30 (0.96%) NetSuite
11 30 (0.96%) SAP FI-CA
12 29 (0.93%) SAP EWM
13 28 (0.90%) SAP Payroll
13 28 (0.90%) SAP PP
14 27 (0.87%) Oracle EBS R12
15 24 (0.77%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 315 (10.10%) Azure
2 152 (4.87%) AWS
3 144 (4.62%) Power Platform
4 130 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
5 103 (3.30%) OCI
6 97 (3.11%) SuccessFactors
7 90 (2.88%) Microsoft 365
8 85 (2.72%) GCP
9 73 (2.34%) Power Automate
10 53 (1.70%) Entra ID
11 51 (1.63%) SaaS
12 50 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
13 49 (1.57%) Microsoft Copilot
14 36 (1.15%) PowerApps
15 33 (1.06%) GitHub
16 25 (0.80%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.64%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.51%) OneDrive
19 15 (0.48%) Azure AI
19 15 (0.48%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.92%) Firewall
2 52 (1.67%) Network Security
3 32 (1.03%) WAN
4 25 (0.80%) SNMP
5 20 (0.64%) BGP
5 20 (0.64%) VPN
6 19 (0.61%) LAN
7 14 (0.45%) DNS
8 13 (0.42%) SAN
8 13 (0.42%) VSAN
9 10 (0.32%) NGFW
9 10 (0.32%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.22%) HTTP
11 7 (0.22%) IPsec
11 7 (0.22%) Wireless
12 6 (0.19%) FTP
12 6 (0.19%) MPLS
12 6 (0.19%) Software-Defined Networking
12 6 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (2.88%) Power BI
2 57 (1.83%) Oracle Reports
3 40 (1.28%) SAP HANA
4 36 (1.15%) SQL Server
5 33 (1.06%) Tableau
6 30 (0.96%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 29 (0.93%) SAP BW
8 25 (0.80%) Metadata
9 21 (0.67%) Data Warehouse
10 19 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
11 17 (0.54%) BusinessObjects
12 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
13 10 (0.32%) Power Query
14 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
15 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Data Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
16 5 (0.16%) Relational Database
16 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 86 (2.76%) JIRA
2 19 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
3 16 (0.51%) Git
3 16 (0.51%) Hudson
3 16 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.32%) GitLab
5 7 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.16%) Postman
6 5 (0.16%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.13%) Selenium
7 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
8 3 (0.096%) JDeveloper
8 3 (0.096%) JMeter
8 3 (0.096%) LoadRunner
8 3 (0.096%) MLflow
8 3 (0.096%) Snyk
8 3 (0.096%) TestRail
8 3 (0.096%) Toad
8 3 (0.096%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 661 (21.19%) Finance
2 659 (21.12%) Social Skills
3 251 (8.04%) Analytical Skills
4 218 (6.99%) Public Sector
5 108 (3.46%) Manufacturing
6 89 (2.85%) Banking
7 88 (2.82%) Legal
8 78 (2.50%) Billing
9 66 (2.12%) Telecoms
10 55 (1.76%) Marketing
11 53 (1.70%) General Ledger
12 52 (1.67%) Presentation Skills
13 47 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
14 43 (1.38%) Retail
15 42 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 41 (1.31%) Pharmaceutical
17 31 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
18 25 (0.80%) Aerospace
19 24 (0.77%) Local Government
20 20 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 90 (2.88%) Oracle Fusion
2 78 (2.50%) REST
3 59 (1.89%) XML
4 39 (1.25%) SOAP
5 38 (1.22%) SAP Fiori
6 35 (1.12%) Middleware
7 26 (0.83%) Web Services
8 25 (0.80%) BAPI
9 23 (0.74%) JSON
10 20 (0.64%) HTML
11 18 (0.58%) CSS
12 17 (0.54%) IDoc
12 17 (0.54%) SAP Basis
12 17 (0.54%) SAP PI
13 15 (0.48%) OAuth
14 13 (0.42%) .NET
14 13 (0.42%) LDAP
15 11 (0.35%) ADO
15 11 (0.35%) EDI
15 11 (0.35%) SAP TM
Miscellaneous
1 108 (3.46%) Onboarding
2 46 (1.47%) CMDB
3 45 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
4 40 (1.28%) Security Posture
5 34 (1.09%) Data Structures
5 34 (1.09%) Product Ownership
6 32 (1.03%) AI Agents
6 32 (1.03%) Data Centre
6 32 (1.03%) Legacy Systems
7 28 (0.90%) Operational Technology
8 23 (0.74%) Greenfield Project
9 21 (0.67%) Cloud Native
9 21 (0.67%) Life Science
10 20 (0.64%) Replication
11 18 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
11 18 (0.58%) Management Information System
11 18 (0.58%) NHS
12 17 (0.54%) Enterprise Software
12 17 (0.54%) Public Cloud
12 17 (0.54%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 93 (2.98%) Windows
2 67 (2.15%) Linux
3 24 (0.77%) Unix
4 21 (0.67%) Solaris
5 19 (0.61%) AIX
5 19 (0.61%) VMS
6 9 (0.29%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.19%) Android
8 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.096%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.064%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.064%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.064%) zOS
12 1 (0.032%) SUSE
12 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 410 (13.14%) Migration
2 385 (12.34%) Stakeholder Management
3 284 (9.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 257 (8.24%) Problem-Solving
5 244 (7.82%) ERP
6 238 (7.63%) User Acceptance Testing
7 212 (6.79%) Workshop Facilitation
8 204 (6.54%) Continuous Improvement
8 204 (6.54%) Validation
9 188 (6.03%) Cybersecurity
10 184 (5.90%) Data Migration
11 178 (5.71%) Agile
11 178 (5.71%) Roadmaps
12 172 (5.51%) Analytics
13 162 (5.19%) AI
14 142 (4.55%) Business Intelligence
14 142 (4.55%) Requirements Gathering
15 133 (4.26%) Translating Business Requirements
16 124 (3.97%) Change Management
17 113 (3.62%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 256 (8.21%) SQL
2 126 (4.04%) Python
3 59 (1.89%) JavaScript
4 58 (1.86%) PowerShell
5 54 (1.73%) PL/SQL
6 53 (1.70%) ABAP
7 37 (1.19%) T-SQL
8 34 (1.09%) Java
9 17 (0.54%) Bash
10 14 (0.45%) C#
11 13 (0.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.29%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.22%) R
13 7 (0.22%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.19%) Perl
15 5 (0.16%) C++
15 5 (0.16%) Korn
16 4 (0.13%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 617 (19.78%) Security Cleared
2 432 (13.85%) SC Cleared
3 138 (4.42%) DV Cleared
4 93 (2.98%) BPSS Clearance
5 76 (2.44%) CISSP
6 71 (2.28%) Degree
7 59 (1.89%) CISM
8 37 (1.19%) Cisco Certification
9 30 (0.96%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 25 (0.80%) CCSP
11 19 (0.61%) CIMA
12 15 (0.48%) ACCA
12 15 (0.48%) PMP
13 14 (0.45%) CEH
14 13 (0.42%) CRISC
15 12 (0.38%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.38%) OSCP
16 11 (0.35%) CompTIA Security+
16 11 (0.35%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (2.88%) NIST
2 80 (2.56%) Data Quality
3 77 (2.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 62 (1.99%) GRC
5 52 (1.67%) QA
6 38 (1.22%) GDPR
7 30 (0.96%) NCSC
8 29 (0.93%) PCI DSS
9 25 (0.80%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.67%) Accessibility
10 21 (0.67%) SLA
11 18 (0.58%) PMO
12 17 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 13 (0.42%) COBIT
13 13 (0.42%) GxP
14 10 (0.32%) NIST 800
15 9 (0.29%) JSP 440
16 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
16 8 (0.26%) WCAG
17 7 (0.22%) GAAP
System Software
1 59 (1.89%) Active Directory
2 45 (1.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.31%) VMware NSX
4 25 (0.80%) vSphere
5 14 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.32%) Docker
8 8 (0.26%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.26%) IAG
9 6 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.13%) NFS
11 2 (0.064%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.064%) Firmware
11 2 (0.064%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.032%) HDFS
12 1 (0.032%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.032%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.032%) SRDF
12 1 (0.032%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.70%) Terraform
2 42 (1.35%) Kubernetes
3 31 (0.99%) Ansible
4 23 (0.74%) vRealize
5 16 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.48%) Nagios
6 15 (0.48%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.45%) Grafana
7 14 (0.45%) Netcool
7 14 (0.45%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.42%) OpenView
8 13 (0.42%) SCCM
8 13 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 12 (0.38%) vCenter Server
10 11 (0.35%) FortiGate
10 11 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.22%) NetBackup
12 5 (0.16%) VxRail
13 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 654 (20.96%) SAP
2 389 (12.47%) Microsoft
3 359 (11.51%) Oracle
4 118 (3.78%) ServiceNow
5 93 (2.98%) VMware
6 63 (2.02%) Ariba
7 58 (1.86%) Salesforce
8 54 (1.73%) Workday
9 48 (1.54%) Splunk
10 41 (1.31%) Databricks
11 35 (1.12%) Siemens
12 27 (0.87%) Palo Alto
13 26 (0.83%) BMC
13 26 (0.83%) Google
14 25 (0.80%) OpenText
15 24 (0.77%) IBM
16 19 (0.61%) Adobe
17 17 (0.54%) JD Edwards
18 16 (0.51%) Cisco
18 16 (0.51%) Informatica