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 January 2026.

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

6 months to
30 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 2,587 2,090 2,707
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.69% 6.64% 6.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.32% 7.15% 6.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,483 1,124 1,582
10th Percentile £400 £409 £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 £530
% change year-on-year - +3.77% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 14 39
10th Percentile £48.63 £64.41 £41.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £71.84 £54.65
Median hourly rate £60.00 £81.25 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -26.15% +28.38% -4.11%
75th Percentile £73.66 £86.00 £86.63
90th Percentile £81.85 £87.13 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £82.50 £62.15
% change year-on-year -27.27% +32.75% -1.36%

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 35,358 29,223 41,314
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.46% 92.91% 93.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,294 17,866 27,352
10th Percentile £300 £293 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £495
% change year-on-year -0.42% -3.64% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,104 859 2,166
10th Percentile £14.39 £15.98 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.00
Median hourly rate £28.90 £32.50 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.09% -10.96% +4.29%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.89 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.76 £37.50
% change year-on-year -13.41% -15.31% +25.00%

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 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 30 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 30 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 2,012 £550 - 1,170
UK excluding London 0 1,033 £550 - 922
Work from Home 0 956 £535 -2.82% 504
London -3 941 £575 +1.32% 529
South East -3 272 £550 - 376
North of England -7 268 £600 +9.09% 176
Midlands -17 184 £525 - 82
North West -1 160 £625 +16.17% 100
West Midlands -9 140 £550 +4.76% 52
South West +8 121 £594 +13.10% 178
Yorkshire +4 98 £550 -12.00% 64
East of England +5 95 £550 - 64
Scotland +10 62 £510 -7.27% 21
East Midlands -21 43 £505 -2.88% 29
Wales +10 27 £405 -22.86% 24
Northern Ireland +4 13 £405 -22.86% 20
North East -19 10 £525 -12.50% 12
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 661 (25.55%) SAP
2 648 (25.05%) Security Cleared
3 542 (20.95%) SC Cleared
4 362 (13.99%) Migration
5 361 (13.95%) SAP S/4HANA
6 325 (12.56%) Problem-Solving
7 306 (11.83%) Oracle
8 297 (11.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 290 (11.21%) Stakeholder Management
10 281 (10.86%) Microsoft
11 265 (10.24%) Azure
12 215 (8.31%) Workshop Facilitation
13 205 (7.92%) ERP
14 182 (7.04%) User Acceptance Testing
15 178 (6.88%) Agile
16 169 (6.53%) Analytics
17 155 (5.99%) Data Migration
18 154 (5.95%) Knowledge Transfer
19 152 (5.88%) SQL
20 145 (5.60%) Roadmaps
21 138 (5.33%) Business Intelligence
22 137 (5.30%) Validation
23 127 (4.91%) Dynamics 365
24 124 (4.79%) Cybersecurity
25 118 (4.56%) DevOps
26 115 (4.45%) Python
27 114 (4.41%) Power Platform
27 114 (4.41%) Risk Management
28 107 (4.14%) Continuous Improvement
29 105 (4.06%) 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 61 (2.36%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.16%) Confluence
2 30 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
3 6 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (0.19%) CMS
4 5 (0.19%) MTS
4 5 (0.19%) NetWeaver
5 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.077%) Apache
6 2 (0.077%) IIS
6 2 (0.077%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.077%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.039%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
7 1 (0.039%) nginx
7 1 (0.039%) SAS
7 1 (0.039%) Tomcat
Applications
1 49 (1.89%) 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 (0.15%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.15%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.15%) Revit
6 4 (0.15%) 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
1 361 (13.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 73 (2.82%) Oracle EBS
3 66 (2.55%) SAP FI
4 59 (2.28%) Oracle Payables
5 53 (2.05%) Oracle Receivables
6 52 (2.01%) SAP EWM
7 50 (1.93%) SAP MM
8 45 (1.74%) Oracle EBS R12
8 45 (1.74%) Oracle General Ledger
9 42 (1.62%) SAP HCM
10 41 (1.58%) SAP CO
10 41 (1.58%) SAP PP
11 38 (1.47%) Oracle Cash Management
11 38 (1.47%) SAP FI/CO
12 36 (1.39%) Dynamics CRM
13 34 (1.31%) Oracle Assets
14 33 (1.28%) SAP WM
15 29 (1.12%) SAP PSCD
16 28 (1.08%) SAP Payroll
17 26 (1.01%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 265 (10.24%) Azure
2 127 (4.91%) Dynamics 365
3 114 (4.41%) Power Platform
4 103 (3.98%) AWS
5 102 (3.94%) OCI
6 73 (2.82%) GCP
7 70 (2.71%) Microsoft 365
8 66 (2.55%) SaaS
9 61 (2.36%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.51%) SuccessFactors
11 37 (1.43%) Power Automate
12 32 (1.24%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (1.16%) PowerApps
14 28 (1.08%) Microsoft Copilot
15 25 (0.97%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (0.77%) GitHub
17 19 (0.73%) OneDrive
18 18 (0.70%) SAP Commerce Cloud
19 17 (0.66%) Serverless
20 16 (0.62%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 51 (1.97%) Firewall
2 19 (0.73%) VPN
3 18 (0.70%) DNS
4 16 (0.62%) Network Security
5 14 (0.54%) WAN
6 13 (0.50%) HTTP
6 13 (0.50%) Kerberos
7 12 (0.46%) SD-WAN
7 12 (0.46%) SMS
7 12 (0.46%) SSL
8 11 (0.43%) DHCP
9 9 (0.35%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.31%) Intranet
10 8 (0.31%) SSH
11 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
11 7 (0.27%) LAN
11 7 (0.27%) SAN
11 7 (0.27%) Software-Defined Networking
12 6 (0.23%) BGP
12 6 (0.23%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (3.09%) Power BI
2 48 (1.86%) Oracle Reports
3 43 (1.66%) SAP HANA
4 31 (1.20%) SQL Server
5 24 (0.93%) Metadata
6 22 (0.85%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 21 (0.81%) SAP BW
8 15 (0.58%) Data Warehouse
9 13 (0.50%) SAP Data Services
10 12 (0.46%) PostgreSQL
11 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 11 (0.43%) Tableau
12 10 (0.39%) NoSQL
13 8 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
13 8 (0.31%) Oracle Database
14 7 (0.27%) DB2
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 65 (2.51%) JIRA
2 20 (0.77%) Jenkins
3 17 (0.66%) Git
4 14 (0.54%) GitLab
5 13 (0.50%) Oracle Forms
6 9 (0.35%) Hudson
7 8 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
8 5 (0.19%) LSMW
9 4 (0.15%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.15%) Postman
10 3 (0.12%) JUnit
11 2 (0.077%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.077%) Cypress.io
11 2 (0.077%) git-flow
11 2 (0.077%) Rational DOORS
11 2 (0.077%) Rational Rhapsody
11 2 (0.077%) Selenium
11 2 (0.077%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.077%) TeamCity
11 2 (0.077%) Visual Studio
General
1 732 (28.30%) Social Skills
2 574 (22.19%) Finance
3 256 (9.90%) Public Sector
4 231 (8.93%) Analytical Skills
5 140 (5.41%) Manufacturing
6 90 (3.48%) Banking
7 80 (3.09%) Documentation Skills
8 71 (2.74%) Marketing
9 62 (2.40%) Billing
10 57 (2.20%) Legal
11 53 (2.05%) Presentation Skills
12 48 (1.86%) General Ledger
13 41 (1.58%) Telecoms
14 30 (1.16%) Law
14 30 (1.16%) Retail
15 28 (1.08%) Pharmaceutical
16 24 (0.93%) Organisational Skills
17 22 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 20 (0.77%) Financial Institution
19 18 (0.70%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (3.25%) Oracle Fusion
2 73 (2.82%) REST
3 71 (2.74%) SAP Fiori
4 45 (1.74%) Web Services
5 39 (1.51%) SAP TM
6 38 (1.47%) SOAP
7 34 (1.31%) XML
8 29 (1.12%) LDAP
9 28 (1.08%) Node.js
10 24 (0.93%) BAPI
11 21 (0.81%) Middleware
12 19 (0.73%) JSON
12 19 (0.73%) SAP PI
13 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
14 17 (0.66%) HTML
15 15 (0.58%) .NET
15 15 (0.58%) CSS
16 13 (0.50%) Kafka
16 13 (0.50%) OAuth
16 13 (0.50%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 78 (3.02%) Onboarding
2 61 (2.36%) Legacy Systems
3 44 (1.70%) Product Ownership
4 40 (1.55%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.28%) Data Centre
6 32 (1.24%) Management Information System
7 29 (1.12%) Cloud Native
8 26 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
9 24 (0.93%) Data Structures
9 24 (0.93%) Replication
10 20 (0.77%) Greenfield Project
11 18 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
12 17 (0.66%) Operational Technology
13 15 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
13 15 (0.58%) NHS
13 15 (0.58%) Public Cloud
14 12 (0.46%) AI Agents
14 12 (0.46%) Life Science
15 10 (0.39%) FMCG
15 10 (0.39%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 78 (3.02%) Windows
2 51 (1.97%) Linux
3 24 (0.93%) Unix
4 14 (0.54%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.39%) 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 (0.077%) SUSE
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%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 362 (13.99%) Migration
2 325 (12.56%) Problem-Solving
3 297 (11.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 290 (11.21%) Stakeholder Management
5 215 (8.31%) Workshop Facilitation
6 205 (7.92%) ERP
7 182 (7.04%) User Acceptance Testing
8 178 (6.88%) Agile
9 169 (6.53%) Analytics
10 155 (5.99%) Data Migration
11 154 (5.95%) Knowledge Transfer
12 145 (5.60%) Roadmaps
13 138 (5.33%) Business Intelligence
14 137 (5.30%) Validation
15 124 (4.79%) Cybersecurity
16 118 (4.56%) DevOps
17 114 (4.41%) Risk Management
18 107 (4.14%) Continuous Improvement
19 105 (4.06%) AI
19 105 (4.06%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 152 (5.88%) SQL
2 115 (4.45%) Python
3 87 (3.36%) PowerShell
4 79 (3.05%) JavaScript
5 69 (2.67%) ABAP
6 40 (1.55%) Java
7 30 (1.16%) TypeScript
8 26 (1.01%) Groovy
9 25 (0.97%) PL/SQL
10 18 (0.70%) C#
11 16 (0.62%) Bash
12 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 10 (0.39%) Shell Script
13 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.27%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.27%) C++
15 6 (0.23%) COBOL
15 6 (0.23%) R
15 6 (0.23%) VBA
16 5 (0.19%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 648 (25.05%) Security Cleared
2 542 (20.95%) SC Cleared
3 103 (3.98%) Degree
4 83 (3.21%) DV Cleared
5 76 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
6 51 (1.97%) CISSP
7 33 (1.28%) CISM
8 30 (1.16%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 28 (1.08%) SAP Certification
10 18 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
12 16 (0.62%) Master's Degree
13 15 (0.58%) CIMA
13 15 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
14 10 (0.39%) CCNP
15 9 (0.35%) ACCA
15 9 (0.35%) AWS Certification
15 9 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
16 8 (0.31%) CESG Certified Professional
17 7 (0.27%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (2.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 75 (2.90%) NIST
2 71 (2.74%) GDPR
3 53 (2.05%) QA
4 51 (1.97%) Data Quality
5 41 (1.58%) GRC
6 19 (0.73%) NCSC
6 19 (0.73%) SLA
7 18 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
7 18 (0.70%) PMO
8 12 (0.46%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 11 (0.43%) PERC
10 10 (0.39%) PCI DSS
11 9 (0.35%) COBIT
12 8 (0.31%) Accessibility
12 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
12 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
12 8 (0.31%) JSP 440
13 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 73 (2.82%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.70%) Docker
3 31 (1.20%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.04%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.77%) 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 3 (0.12%) 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 (2.28%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.39%) 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
1 661 (25.55%) SAP
2 306 (11.83%) Oracle
3 281 (10.86%) Microsoft
4 92 (3.56%) VMware
5 82 (3.17%) ServiceNow
6 62 (2.40%) Workday
7 58 (2.24%) CyberArk
8 56 (2.16%) Salesforce
9 53 (2.05%) Cisco
10 51 (1.97%) Ariba
11 37 (1.43%) Google
12 36 (1.39%) Aruba
13 33 (1.28%) Adobe
14 22 (0.85%) OpenText
15 20 (0.77%) Siemens
16 19 (0.73%) Databricks
17 16 (0.62%) Dynatrace
18 15 (0.58%) Dell
19 14 (0.54%) Murex
20 12 (0.46%) Splunk