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 15 July 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,068 2,120 2,899
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.83% 6.53% 6.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.30% 7.12% 7.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,695 1,231 1,718
10th Percentile £403 £410 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £552
Median % change year-on-year - -0.32% +0.32%
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 97 28 31
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.92 £26.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £43.57 £51.45
Median hourly rate £57.50 £72.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -20.69% +17.69% -5.32%
75th Percentile £63.38 £82.44 £65.52
90th Percentile £88.00 £87.33 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £59.95
% change year-on-year -25.81% +29.27% -7.77%

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 48,692 29,793 39,772
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.81% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,483 18,982 25,593
10th Percentile £325 £288 £288
25th Percentile £419 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,276 1,398 2,720
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.75 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.35 £17.44 £17.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £26.45 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.13% -33.88% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £56.19 £63.41
90th Percentile £80.07 £73.75 £73.78
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +81.13% -37.13% +6.67%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -5 2,456 £550 - 1,451
UK excluding London -1 1,316 £525 -4.55% 1,121
London -1 1,132 £550 -4.35% 595
Work from Home -2 1,078 £540 -1.82% 934
South East -2 377 £530 -3.64% 303
North of England -18 278 £525 -2.78% 238
Midlands -8 254 £501 -9.00% 153
South West +25 212 £556 -3.30% 137
West Midlands +7 181 £501 -9.00% 98
North West -13 157 £525 -6.04% 142
Yorkshire -22 100 £531 +8.97% 70
Scotland +34 93 £425 -8.11% 99
East of England -18 86 £550 - 113
East Midlands -8 64 £500 -9.09% 54
Wales -1 29 £550 +25.71% 48
North East -40 21 £650 +21.72% 27
Northern Ireland -5 2 £525 +0.96% 47

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 15 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.

1 650 (21.19%) SAP
2 585 (19.07%) Security Cleared
3 415 (13.53%) SC Cleared
4 401 (13.07%) Migration
5 378 (12.32%) Microsoft
6 353 (11.51%) Oracle
7 332 (10.82%) Stakeholder Management
8 324 (10.56%) Azure
9 280 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
10 272 (8.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 255 (8.31%) Problem-Solving
12 251 (8.18%) ERP
13 244 (7.95%) SQL
14 233 (7.59%) User Acceptance Testing
15 206 (6.71%) Workshop Facilitation
16 205 (6.68%) Validation
17 196 (6.39%) Continuous Improvement
18 183 (5.96%) Data Migration
19 174 (5.67%) Cybersecurity
20 169 (5.51%) Agile
21 164 (5.35%) Analytics
22 162 (5.28%) AI
23 159 (5.18%) Roadmaps
24 144 (4.69%) AWS
25 140 (4.56%) Power Platform
26 138 (4.50%) Business Intelligence
27 129 (4.20%) DV Cleared
27 129 (4.20%) Dynamics 365
27 129 (4.20%) Requirements Gathering
28 128 (4.17%) Python

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 (2.57%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.56%) Confluence
3 16 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.098%) Apache
9 3 (0.098%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.098%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.098%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.098%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.065%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.065%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) IIS
10 2 (0.065%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.065%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.065%) WordPress
Applications
1 75 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
5 9 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.098%) PTC Creo
8 2 (0.065%) Lectora
8 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.033%) CATIA
9 1 (0.033%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.033%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 280 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 86 (2.80%) Oracle EBS
3 67 (2.18%) SAP FI
4 58 (1.89%) SAP PSCD
5 43 (1.40%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.24%) SAP BRIM
6 38 (1.24%) SAP MM
7 35 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
8 34 (1.11%) Oracle Receivables
8 34 (1.11%) SAP SD
9 33 (1.08%) SAP FI-CA
10 31 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
10 31 (1.01%) SAP CO
11 30 (0.98%) SAP EWM
12 29 (0.95%) NetSuite
12 29 (0.95%) SAP PP
13 28 (0.91%) Oracle EBS R12
13 28 (0.91%) SAP Payroll
14 27 (0.88%) SAP FI/CO
15 25 (0.81%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 324 (10.56%) Azure
2 144 (4.69%) AWS
3 140 (4.56%) Power Platform
4 129 (4.20%) Dynamics 365
5 99 (3.23%) OCI
6 97 (3.16%) Microsoft 365
7 80 (2.61%) GCP
8 79 (2.57%) SuccessFactors
9 70 (2.28%) Power Automate
10 59 (1.92%) Entra ID
11 55 (1.79%) SaaS
12 48 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
13 46 (1.50%) Microsoft Copilot
14 36 (1.17%) GitHub
15 34 (1.11%) PowerApps
16 31 (1.01%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.65%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.52%) OneDrive
19 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
20 14 (0.46%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 59 (1.92%) Firewall
2 48 (1.56%) Network Security
3 28 (0.91%) WAN
4 25 (0.81%) SNMP
5 20 (0.65%) BGP
6 19 (0.62%) LAN
7 18 (0.59%) VPN
8 14 (0.46%) DNS
9 13 (0.42%) SAN
9 13 (0.42%) VSAN
10 10 (0.33%) TCP/IP
11 9 (0.29%) NGFW
12 8 (0.26%) NAS
12 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
13 7 (0.23%) FTP
13 7 (0.23%) MPLS
13 7 (0.23%) Software-Defined Networking
13 7 (0.23%) Wireless
14 6 (0.20%) HTTP
14 6 (0.20%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (2.87%) Power BI
2 58 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.34%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.11%) Tableau
5 29 (0.95%) SQL Server
6 27 (0.88%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 25 (0.81%) Metadata
8 23 (0.75%) SAP BW
9 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
10 17 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
10 17 (0.55%) Data Warehouse
11 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
12 11 (0.36%) Power Query
13 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.20%) Data Lake
14 6 (0.20%) Delta Lake
14 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.16%) GIS
15 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
15 5 (0.16%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 87 (2.84%) JIRA
2 22 (0.72%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.55%) Hudson
4 16 (0.52%) Git
4 16 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.26%) GitLab
6 7 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.13%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.13%) Toad
8 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.098%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.098%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.098%) MLflow
9 3 (0.098%) Selenium
9 3 (0.098%) TestRail
9 3 (0.098%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.065%) LSMW
10 2 (0.065%) Snyk
General
1 653 (21.28%) Finance
2 642 (20.93%) Social Skills
3 253 (8.25%) Analytical Skills
4 225 (7.33%) Public Sector
5 109 (3.55%) Manufacturing
6 90 (2.93%) Legal
7 85 (2.77%) Billing
8 84 (2.74%) Banking
9 68 (2.22%) Telecoms
10 58 (1.89%) General Ledger
11 47 (1.53%) Marketing
12 45 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
13 42 (1.37%) Presentation Skills
14 40 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 39 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
15 39 (1.27%) Retail
16 26 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
17 24 (0.78%) Aerospace
18 23 (0.75%) Local Government
19 22 (0.72%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.74%) Oracle Fusion
2 75 (2.44%) REST
3 60 (1.96%) XML
4 41 (1.34%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.17%) Middleware
5 36 (1.17%) SOAP
6 29 (0.95%) BAPI
7 26 (0.85%) Web Services
8 20 (0.65%) HTML
8 20 (0.65%) SAP TM
9 18 (0.59%) CSS
10 17 (0.55%) IDoc
10 17 (0.55%) JSON
10 17 (0.55%) SAP Basis
11 16 (0.52%) .NET
12 14 (0.46%) OAuth
12 14 (0.46%) SAP PI
13 12 (0.39%) LDAP
14 11 (0.36%) EDI
15 10 (0.33%) React
Miscellaneous
1 94 (3.06%) Onboarding
2 49 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
3 43 (1.40%) CMDB
3 43 (1.40%) Security Posture
4 36 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
5 34 (1.11%) AI Agents
6 33 (1.08%) Product Ownership
7 29 (0.95%) Data Centre
7 29 (0.95%) Data Structures
8 27 (0.88%) Operational Technology
9 23 (0.75%) Public Cloud
10 22 (0.72%) Life Science
11 21 (0.68%) Cloud Native
11 21 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (0.68%) Management Information System
12 20 (0.65%) NHS
13 17 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
13 17 (0.55%) Replication
14 15 (0.49%) FMCG
14 15 (0.49%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 97 (3.16%) Windows
2 67 (2.18%) Linux
3 25 (0.81%) Unix
4 21 (0.68%) Solaris
5 19 (0.62%) VMS
6 17 (0.55%) AIX
7 9 (0.29%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.13%) Android
8 4 (0.13%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.098%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.098%) zOS
10 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.065%) SUSE
11 1 (0.033%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 401 (13.07%) Migration
2 332 (10.82%) Stakeholder Management
3 272 (8.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 255 (8.31%) Problem-Solving
5 251 (8.18%) ERP
6 233 (7.59%) User Acceptance Testing
7 206 (6.71%) Workshop Facilitation
8 205 (6.68%) Validation
9 196 (6.39%) Continuous Improvement
10 183 (5.96%) Data Migration
11 174 (5.67%) Cybersecurity
12 169 (5.51%) Agile
13 164 (5.35%) Analytics
14 162 (5.28%) AI
15 159 (5.18%) Roadmaps
16 138 (4.50%) Business Intelligence
17 129 (4.20%) Requirements Gathering
18 124 (4.04%) Change Management
18 124 (4.04%) Translating Business Requirements
19 111 (3.62%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 244 (7.95%) SQL
2 128 (4.17%) Python
3 61 (1.99%) JavaScript
3 61 (1.99%) PowerShell
4 56 (1.83%) ABAP
4 56 (1.83%) PL/SQL
5 38 (1.24%) Java
6 35 (1.14%) T-SQL
7 18 (0.59%) Bash
8 16 (0.52%) C#
9 14 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
11 12 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 10 (0.33%) Shell Script
12 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.23%) C++
13 7 (0.23%) R
14 4 (0.13%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.13%) COBOL
14 4 (0.13%) Perl
Qualifications
1 585 (19.07%) Security Cleared
2 415 (13.53%) SC Cleared
3 129 (4.20%) DV Cleared
4 89 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
5 76 (2.48%) CISSP
6 73 (2.38%) Degree
7 56 (1.83%) CISM
8 37 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
9 29 (0.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.85%) CCSP
11 18 (0.59%) CIMA
12 15 (0.49%) PMP
13 14 (0.46%) CEH
13 14 (0.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 13 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.39%) ACCA
15 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.39%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.39%) OSCP
16 11 (0.36%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (2.87%) NIST
2 76 (2.48%) Data Quality
3 75 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 58 (1.89%) GRC
5 52 (1.69%) QA
6 37 (1.21%) GDPR
7 29 (0.95%) NCSC
8 28 (0.91%) PCI DSS
9 24 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
10 22 (0.72%) Accessibility
11 21 (0.68%) PMO
11 21 (0.68%) SLA
12 18 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.46%) COBIT
13 14 (0.46%) GxP
14 10 (0.33%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.26%) NIST 800
15 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
15 8 (0.26%) WCAG
16 7 (0.23%) GAAP
System Software
1 59 (1.92%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.37%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.88%) vSphere
5 13 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.33%) Docker
8 8 (0.26%) IAG
9 7 (0.23%) Hyper-V
10 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.13%) NFS
12 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.033%) HDFS
13 1 (0.033%) Job Entry Subsystem
13 1 (0.033%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.033%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.033%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.033%) SRDF
13 1 (0.033%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.73%) Terraform
2 43 (1.40%) Kubernetes
3 29 (0.95%) Ansible
4 26 (0.85%) vRealize
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (0.46%) Netcool
6 14 (0.46%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.42%) OpenView
7 13 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) Grafana
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
9 11 (0.36%) SCCM
9 11 (0.36%) vCenter Server
10 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.16%) CEMLI
12 4 (0.13%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 650 (21.19%) SAP
2 378 (12.32%) Microsoft
3 353 (11.51%) Oracle
4 119 (3.88%) ServiceNow
5 99 (3.23%) VMware
6 64 (2.09%) Ariba
7 53 (1.73%) Salesforce
8 52 (1.69%) Siemens
9 50 (1.63%) Workday
10 45 (1.47%) Splunk
11 37 (1.21%) Databricks
12 25 (0.81%) Google
12 25 (0.81%) Palo Alto
13 24 (0.78%) BMC
14 22 (0.72%) IBM
15 21 (0.68%) OpenText
16 18 (0.59%) JD Edwards
17 17 (0.55%) Cisco
17 17 (0.55%) Okta
18 16 (0.52%) SolarWinds