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 20 July 2026.

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

6 months to
20 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 3,062 2,145 2,835
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.80% 6.54% 6.79%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.27% 7.13% 7.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,691 1,247 1,673
10th Percentile £404 £411 £404
25th Percentile £463 £475 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £728 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £567
% change year-on-year -4.55% -3.04% +8.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 29 30
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £26.44
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £53.66
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.41%
75th Percentile £63.38 £81.25 £67.50
90th Percentile £88.50 £87.30 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -5.32%

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 48,848 30,065 38,836
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.55% 91.66% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,490 19,139 25,111
10th Percentile £325 £285 £291
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £737 £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 3,297 1,430 2,509
10th Percentile £15.79 £13.75 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £17.80
Median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -6.98%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.94
% change year-on-year +78.93% -38.57% +3.51%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 2,444 £550 - 934
UK excluding London 0 1,319 £525 -4.55% 628
London -2 1,130 £550 -4.35% 430
Work from Home -1 1,064 £540 -1.82% 459
South East -2 377 £540 -1.82% 205
North of England -17 277 £525 -4.55% 140
Midlands -3 253 £501 -9.00% 80
South West +22 210 £553 -1.69% 95
West Midlands +10 182 £501 -9.00% 58
North West -12 157 £525 -7.89% 92
Scotland +31 99 £436 -8.16% 24
Yorkshire -17 99 £550 +15.79% 36
East of England -13 84 £550 - 59
East Midlands -10 62 £500 -9.09% 22
Wales -4 31 £550 +23.94% 14
North East -34 21 £650 +21.72% 12
Northern Ireland -4 2 £525 +0.96% 19

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 20 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.

1 644 (21.03%) SAP
2 583 (19.04%) Security Cleared
3 409 (13.36%) SC Cleared
4 402 (13.13%) Migration
5 385 (12.57%) Microsoft
6 351 (11.46%) Oracle
7 340 (11.10%) Stakeholder Management
8 319 (10.42%) Azure
9 278 (9.08%) SAP S/4HANA
10 274 (8.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 251 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
12 250 (8.16%) ERP
13 244 (7.97%) SQL
14 230 (7.51%) User Acceptance Testing
15 205 (6.69%) Workshop Facilitation
16 202 (6.60%) Validation
17 197 (6.43%) Continuous Improvement
18 180 (5.88%) Data Migration
19 173 (5.65%) Cybersecurity
20 168 (5.49%) Agile
21 166 (5.42%) Analytics
22 164 (5.36%) AI
22 164 (5.36%) Roadmaps
23 147 (4.80%) AWS
24 140 (4.57%) Business Intelligence
24 140 (4.57%) Power Platform
25 132 (4.31%) DV Cleared
25 132 (4.31%) Dynamics 365
26 128 (4.18%) Requirements Gathering
27 125 (4.08%) Change Management

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 84 (2.74%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.53%) 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%) SAS
9 3 (0.098%) Apache
9 3 (0.098%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.098%) ArcGIS
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 74 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.69%) 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 2 (0.065%) Lectora
7 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.065%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.033%) CATIA
8 1 (0.033%) CPLEX
8 1 (0.033%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 278 (9.08%) SAP S/4HANA
2 87 (2.84%) Oracle EBS
3 65 (2.12%) SAP FI
4 53 (1.73%) SAP PSCD
5 42 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.24%) SAP MM
7 36 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
8 35 (1.14%) SAP BRIM
9 34 (1.11%) SAP SD
10 33 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
11 31 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
11 31 (1.01%) SAP EWM
11 31 (1.01%) SAP FI-CA
12 30 (0.98%) SAP CO
13 29 (0.95%) NetSuite
13 29 (0.95%) SAP PP
14 28 (0.91%) SAP Payroll
15 27 (0.88%) Oracle EBS R12
16 26 (0.85%) SAP FI/CO
17 24 (0.78%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 319 (10.42%) Azure
2 147 (4.80%) AWS
3 140 (4.57%) Power Platform
4 132 (4.31%) Dynamics 365
5 98 (3.20%) OCI
6 95 (3.10%) Microsoft 365
7 83 (2.71%) GCP
8 80 (2.61%) SuccessFactors
9 75 (2.45%) Power Automate
10 56 (1.83%) Entra ID
11 54 (1.76%) SaaS
12 48 (1.57%) Azure DevOps
13 46 (1.50%) Microsoft Copilot
14 35 (1.14%) PowerApps
15 34 (1.11%) GitHub
16 30 (0.98%) 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 60 (1.96%) Firewall
2 50 (1.63%) Network Security
3 30 (0.98%) WAN
4 25 (0.82%) SNMP
5 20 (0.65%) BGP
5 20 (0.65%) VPN
6 19 (0.62%) LAN
7 14 (0.46%) DNS
8 13 (0.42%) SAN
8 13 (0.42%) VSAN
9 10 (0.33%) NGFW
9 10 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.26%) NAS
10 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.23%) FTP
11 7 (0.23%) MPLS
11 7 (0.23%) Wireless
12 6 (0.20%) HTTP
12 6 (0.20%) IPsec
12 6 (0.20%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (2.94%) Power BI
2 58 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.34%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.11%) Tableau
5 31 (1.01%) SQL Server
6 27 (0.88%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 26 (0.85%) SAP BW
8 25 (0.82%) Metadata
9 20 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
10 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
11 17 (0.56%) BusinessObjects
12 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
13 10 (0.33%) Power Query
14 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
15 6 (0.20%) Delta Lake
15 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 5 (0.16%) Data Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 84 (2.74%) JIRA
2 20 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.56%) 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
1 649 (21.20%) Finance
2 629 (20.54%) Social Skills
3 248 (8.10%) Analytical Skills
4 220 (7.18%) Public Sector
5 109 (3.56%) Manufacturing
6 90 (2.94%) Legal
7 83 (2.71%) Banking
8 80 (2.61%) Billing
9 64 (2.09%) Telecoms
10 55 (1.80%) General Ledger
11 49 (1.60%) Marketing
12 44 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
12 44 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
13 41 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 40 (1.31%) Pharmaceutical
15 39 (1.27%) Retail
16 27 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
17 24 (0.78%) Aerospace
18 21 (0.69%) Local Government
18 21 (0.69%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.74%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.35%) REST
3 59 (1.93%) XML
4 40 (1.31%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.18%) Middleware
6 35 (1.14%) SOAP
7 27 (0.88%) BAPI
8 25 (0.82%) Web Services
9 20 (0.65%) HTML
10 19 (0.62%) SAP TM
11 18 (0.59%) CSS
12 17 (0.56%) IDoc
12 17 (0.56%) JSON
12 17 (0.56%) SAP Basis
13 16 (0.52%) .NET
14 15 (0.49%) SAP PI
15 13 (0.42%) LDAP
15 13 (0.42%) OAuth
16 11 (0.36%) EDI
17 10 (0.33%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 100 (3.27%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
3 42 (1.37%) CMDB
3 42 (1.37%) Security Posture
4 33 (1.08%) AI Agents
4 33 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
5 32 (1.05%) Product Ownership
6 29 (0.95%) Data Centre
6 29 (0.95%) Data Structures
7 26 (0.85%) Operational Technology
8 21 (0.69%) Cloud Native
8 21 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
8 21 (0.69%) Life Science
8 21 (0.69%) Management Information System
9 20 (0.65%) NHS
10 18 (0.59%) Public Cloud
11 17 (0.56%) Analytical Mindset
11 17 (0.56%) Replication
12 16 (0.52%) FMCG
13 15 (0.49%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 97 (3.17%) Windows
2 67 (2.19%) Linux
3 25 (0.82%) Unix
4 21 (0.69%) Solaris
5 19 (0.62%) VMS
6 17 (0.56%) AIX
7 9 (0.29%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.16%) Android
8 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.098%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.098%) zOS
11 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.065%) SUSE
12 1 (0.033%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 402 (13.13%) Migration
2 340 (11.10%) Stakeholder Management
3 274 (8.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 251 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
5 250 (8.16%) ERP
6 230 (7.51%) User Acceptance Testing
7 205 (6.69%) Workshop Facilitation
8 202 (6.60%) Validation
9 197 (6.43%) Continuous Improvement
10 180 (5.88%) Data Migration
11 173 (5.65%) Cybersecurity
12 168 (5.49%) Agile
13 166 (5.42%) Analytics
14 164 (5.36%) AI
14 164 (5.36%) Roadmaps
15 140 (4.57%) Business Intelligence
16 128 (4.18%) Requirements Gathering
17 125 (4.08%) Change Management
17 125 (4.08%) Translating Business Requirements
18 112 (3.66%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 244 (7.97%) SQL
2 124 (4.05%) Python
3 61 (1.99%) JavaScript
4 57 (1.86%) PowerShell
5 56 (1.83%) ABAP
5 56 (1.83%) PL/SQL
6 37 (1.21%) Java
7 35 (1.14%) T-SQL
8 18 (0.59%) Bash
9 15 (0.49%) C#
10 14 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
13 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
14 9 (0.29%) Shell Script
15 7 (0.23%) C++
15 7 (0.23%) R
16 4 (0.13%) Korn
16 4 (0.13%) Perl
17 3 (0.098%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 583 (19.04%) Security Cleared
2 409 (13.36%) SC Cleared
3 132 (4.31%) DV Cleared
4 87 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
5 75 (2.45%) CISSP
6 72 (2.35%) Degree
7 57 (1.86%) 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
14 13 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.39%) ACCA
15 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.39%) OSCP
16 11 (0.36%) ITIL Certification
16 11 (0.36%) SAP Certification
16 11 (0.36%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (2.84%) NIST
2 78 (2.55%) Data Quality
3 75 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 58 (1.89%) GRC
5 51 (1.67%) QA
6 38 (1.24%) GDPR
7 30 (0.98%) NCSC
8 28 (0.91%) PCI DSS
9 24 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.69%) Accessibility
10 21 (0.69%) PMO
10 21 (0.69%) SLA
11 18 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 14 (0.46%) COBIT
13 13 (0.42%) 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%) HL7
System Software
1 60 (1.96%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.34%) 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 6 (0.20%) Hyper-V
9 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.13%) NFS
11 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.033%) HDFS
12 1 (0.033%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 1 (0.033%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.033%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.033%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.033%) SRDF
12 1 (0.033%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.73%) Terraform
2 43 (1.40%) Kubernetes
3 29 (0.95%) Ansible
4 23 (0.75%) 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
1 644 (21.03%) SAP
2 385 (12.57%) Microsoft
3 351 (11.46%) Oracle
4 119 (3.89%) ServiceNow
5 95 (3.10%) VMware
6 62 (2.02%) Ariba
7 52 (1.70%) Workday
8 49 (1.60%) Salesforce
9 47 (1.53%) Siemens
10 45 (1.47%) Splunk
11 38 (1.24%) Databricks
12 27 (0.88%) Palo Alto
13 25 (0.82%) Google
14 24 (0.78%) BMC
15 22 (0.72%) IBM
15 22 (0.72%) OpenText
16 17 (0.56%) Cisco
16 17 (0.56%) JD Edwards
16 17 (0.56%) Okta
17 16 (0.52%) SolarWinds