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 14 September 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 26 27
Rank change year-on-year -1 +1 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,264 2,223 2,623
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.03% 6.80% 6.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.53% 7.47% 7.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,840 1,300 1,447
10th Percentile £406 £411 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - +1.85%
75th Percentile £650 £649 £645
90th Percentile £745 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £528 £550 £563
% change year-on-year -4.09% -2.22% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 26 24
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.52 £44.75
25th Percentile £48.56 £42.26 £56.24
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £86.46 £81.25 £66.50
90th Percentile £91.88 £84.25 £73.41
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.29% +25.81% -5.23%

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 49,990 29,768 35,726
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 91.07% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,655 18,799 22,146
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £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 3,750 1,555 1,711
10th Percentile £14.59 £13.69 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.27 £17.00 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -1.71%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.72 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +8.43%

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 14 September 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 14 September 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 14 September 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 -4 2,614 £550 - 3,319
UK excluding London -1 1,392 £528 -4.09% 1,661
London -2 1,247 £550 -4.35% 1,994
Work from Home -3 1,069 £550 - 1,836
South East -6 397 £540 -1.82% 342
North of England -11 318 £575 +4.55% 385
Midlands +1 229 £500 -9.09% 208
South West +9 208 £550 -7.56% 248
North West -10 205 £565 -1.74% 259
West Midlands +5 161 £495 -10.00% 169
Scotland +31 129 £452 -7.38% 166
East of England -13 108 £565 +2.73% 141
Yorkshire -11 92 £575 +22.99% 74
East Midlands -7 62 £525 -4.55% 38
Wales -14 22 £550 +22.22% 27
North East -32 20 £750 +37.61% 53
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 - 4
Northern Ireland -6 2 £544 +18.21% 154

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 September 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.

1 704 (21.57%) Security Cleared
2 674 (20.65%) SAP
3 549 (16.82%) Stakeholder Management
4 481 (14.74%) SC Cleared
5 458 (14.03%) Microsoft
6 438 (13.42%) Migration
7 424 (12.99%) Oracle
8 320 (9.80%) Azure
9 296 (9.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 284 (8.70%) SAP S/4HANA
11 282 (8.64%) User Acceptance Testing
12 261 (8.00%) Problem-Solving
13 242 (7.41%) Validation
14 234 (7.17%) ERP
15 230 (7.05%) Workshop Facilitation
16 229 (7.02%) SQL
17 219 (6.71%) Cybersecurity
18 209 (6.40%) Analytics
19 201 (6.16%) Continuous Improvement
20 196 (6.00%) Roadmaps
21 194 (5.94%) Data Migration
22 189 (5.79%) Agile
23 184 (5.64%) AWS
24 181 (5.55%) Requirements Gathering
25 170 (5.21%) AI
26 156 (4.78%) Power Platform
27 151 (4.63%) Business Intelligence
27 151 (4.63%) DV Cleared
28 148 (4.53%) Translating Business Requirements
29 143 (4.38%) 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 78 (2.39%) SharePoint
2 42 (1.29%) Confluence
3 31 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (0.37%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.28%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) SAS
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.12%) Apache
8 3 (0.092%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.092%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.092%) Apache Spark
8 3 (0.092%) CMS
8 3 (0.092%) NetWeaver
8 3 (0.092%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.092%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
9 2 (0.061%) Apache Superset
9 2 (0.061%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.061%) Oracle Service Bus
9 2 (0.061%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.061%) WordPress
Applications
1 48 (1.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 31 (0.95%) Microsoft Office
3 25 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.25%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.092%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.092%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.031%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.031%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.031%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 284 (8.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 91 (2.79%) Oracle EBS
3 73 (2.24%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.50%) SAP PSCD
5 48 (1.47%) Oracle ERP
6 46 (1.41%) Oracle Payables
7 42 (1.29%) SAP CO
8 37 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
8 37 (1.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 37 (1.13%) SAP Payroll
9 35 (1.07%) SAP MM
9 35 (1.07%) SAP SD
9 35 (1.07%) Workday HCM
10 33 (1.01%) SAP FI/CO
11 32 (0.98%) SAP BRIM
11 32 (0.98%) SAP HR
12 30 (0.92%) NetSuite
12 30 (0.92%) Oracle General Ledger
13 29 (0.89%) SAP HCM
13 29 (0.89%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 320 (9.80%) Azure
2 184 (5.64%) AWS
3 156 (4.78%) Power Platform
4 143 (4.38%) Dynamics 365
5 124 (3.80%) OCI
6 107 (3.28%) SuccessFactors
7 99 (3.03%) GCP
8 87 (2.67%) Microsoft 365
9 68 (2.08%) Entra ID
10 67 (2.05%) Power Automate
11 61 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
12 53 (1.62%) Microsoft Copilot
13 43 (1.32%) SaaS
14 33 (1.01%) PowerApps
15 30 (0.92%) Microsoft Purview
16 27 (0.83%) GitHub
17 18 (0.55%) Azure AI
18 17 (0.52%) Snowflake
19 16 (0.49%) Azure Logic Apps
19 16 (0.49%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 66 (2.02%) Firewall
2 64 (1.96%) Network Security
3 35 (1.07%) WAN
4 34 (1.04%) BGP
5 24 (0.74%) VPN
6 22 (0.67%) SNMP
7 17 (0.52%) DNS
8 16 (0.49%) LAN
9 14 (0.43%) Ethernet VPN
10 13 (0.40%) SAN
11 12 (0.37%) TCP/IP
11 12 (0.37%) VXLAN
12 11 (0.34%) MPLS
12 11 (0.34%) NGFW
13 10 (0.31%) 3GPP
13 10 (0.31%) 5G
13 10 (0.31%) IPsec
13 10 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
13 10 (0.31%) SD-WAN
14 7 (0.21%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 94 (2.88%) Power BI
2 61 (1.87%) Oracle Reports
3 37 (1.13%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 37 (1.13%) SAP BW
4 36 (1.10%) SAP HANA
5 34 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
6 28 (0.86%) Tableau
7 27 (0.83%) Metadata
7 27 (0.83%) SQL Server
8 20 (0.61%) BusinessObjects
9 17 (0.52%) Oracle Database
10 15 (0.46%) Oracle ODI
11 13 (0.40%) SAP Data Services
12 12 (0.37%) Power Query
13 11 (0.34%) Relational Database
14 8 (0.25%) BigQuery
14 8 (0.25%) DynamoDB
14 8 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 7 (0.21%) Looker
16 6 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 93 (2.85%) JIRA
2 25 (0.77%) Git
3 20 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
4 17 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 12 (0.37%) GitLab
6 10 (0.31%) Hudson
7 7 (0.21%) PowerBuilder
7 7 (0.21%) Zephyr
8 6 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.15%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.12%) MLflow
11 3 (0.092%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.092%) JDeveloper
11 3 (0.092%) JMeter
11 3 (0.092%) LoadRunner
11 3 (0.092%) Maven
11 3 (0.092%) TestRail
11 3 (0.092%) Toad
11 3 (0.092%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 730 (22.37%) Social Skills
2 713 (21.84%) Finance
3 247 (7.57%) Public Sector
4 235 (7.20%) Analytical Skills
5 113 (3.46%) Manufacturing
6 97 (2.97%) Banking
7 85 (2.60%) Legal
8 78 (2.39%) Billing
9 76 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
10 68 (2.08%) Telecoms
11 57 (1.75%) General Ledger
12 56 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
13 54 (1.65%) Retail
14 48 (1.47%) Marketing
15 45 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 43 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
17 38 (1.16%) Pharmaceutical
18 27 (0.83%) Local Government
19 24 (0.74%) Law
20 19 (0.58%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 129 (3.95%) Oracle Fusion
2 82 (2.51%) REST
3 63 (1.93%) Terraform
4 49 (1.50%) SAP Fiori
5 38 (1.16%) SOAP
6 35 (1.07%) Middleware
6 35 (1.07%) XML
7 33 (1.01%) Web Services
8 26 (0.80%) SailPoint
9 23 (0.70%) JSON
10 21 (0.64%) LDAP
10 21 (0.64%) OAuth
11 20 (0.61%) HTML
12 19 (0.58%) SAP Basis
13 18 (0.55%) BAPI
13 18 (0.55%) CSS
13 18 (0.55%) SAP PI
14 13 (0.40%) EDI
14 13 (0.40%) NETCONF
14 13 (0.40%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 120 (3.68%) Onboarding
2 55 (1.69%) CMDB
3 48 (1.47%) Data Centre
4 42 (1.29%) Data Structures
4 42 (1.29%) Operational Technology
5 41 (1.26%) Security Posture
6 40 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
7 39 (1.19%) Product Ownership
8 34 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
9 31 (0.95%) Replication
10 30 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
11 26 (0.80%) AI Agents
11 26 (0.80%) Cloud Native
12 22 (0.67%) Life Science
13 21 (0.64%) Public Cloud
14 20 (0.61%) Greenfield Project
15 18 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
15 18 (0.55%) Management Information System
15 18 (0.55%) NHS
16 16 (0.49%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 100 (3.06%) Windows
2 78 (2.39%) Linux
3 26 (0.80%) Unix
4 22 (0.67%) Windows Server
5 21 (0.64%) Solaris
6 16 (0.49%) AIX
7 14 (0.43%) VMS
8 6 (0.18%) Android
8 6 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.15%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.12%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.031%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.031%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.031%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.031%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 549 (16.82%) Stakeholder Management
2 438 (13.42%) Migration
3 296 (9.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 282 (8.64%) User Acceptance Testing
5 261 (8.00%) Problem-Solving
6 242 (7.41%) Validation
7 234 (7.17%) ERP
8 230 (7.05%) Workshop Facilitation
9 219 (6.71%) Cybersecurity
10 209 (6.40%) Analytics
11 201 (6.16%) Continuous Improvement
12 196 (6.00%) Roadmaps
13 194 (5.94%) Data Migration
14 189 (5.79%) Agile
15 181 (5.55%) Requirements Gathering
16 170 (5.21%) AI
17 151 (4.63%) Business Intelligence
18 148 (4.53%) Translating Business Requirements
19 138 (4.23%) Knowledge Transfer
20 130 (3.98%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 229 (7.02%) SQL
2 114 (3.49%) Python
3 57 (1.75%) PowerShell
4 54 (1.65%) ABAP
5 51 (1.56%) PL/SQL
6 48 (1.47%) JavaScript
7 32 (0.98%) Java
8 18 (0.55%) Bash
9 15 (0.46%) C#
10 14 (0.43%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 12 (0.37%) Search Processing Language
13 9 (0.28%) T-SQL
13 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
14 8 (0.25%) R
15 7 (0.21%) Shell Script
16 6 (0.18%) Groovy
16 6 (0.18%) Perl
17 5 (0.15%) Korn
18 3 (0.092%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 704 (21.57%) Security Cleared
2 481 (14.74%) SC Cleared
3 151 (4.63%) DV Cleared
4 108 (3.31%) BPSS Clearance
5 78 (2.39%) CISSP
6 73 (2.24%) Degree
7 62 (1.90%) CISM
8 45 (1.38%) Cisco Certification
9 33 (1.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 29 (0.89%) CCSP
11 20 (0.61%) ACCA
12 17 (0.52%) CIMA
13 16 (0.49%) CRISC
14 15 (0.46%) PMP
15 14 (0.43%) AWS Certification
15 14 (0.43%) CompTIA Security+
16 13 (0.40%) Azure Certification
17 11 (0.34%) CISA
18 10 (0.31%) CCIE
18 10 (0.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 103 (3.16%) Data Quality
2 92 (2.82%) NIST
3 75 (2.30%) GRC
4 73 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 56 (1.72%) QA
6 38 (1.16%) GDPR
7 36 (1.10%) NCSC
8 29 (0.89%) SLA
9 24 (0.74%) PMO
10 23 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
11 22 (0.67%) Accessibility
12 20 (0.61%) PCI DSS
13 14 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials
14 13 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 11 (0.34%) GxP
16 10 (0.31%) COBIT
16 10 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 10 (0.31%) NIST 800
17 9 (0.28%) IFRS
18 8 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 84 (2.57%) Active Directory
2 38 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 33 (1.01%) VMware NSX
4 18 (0.55%) Docker
4 18 (0.55%) vSphere
5 13 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (0.37%) Hyper-V
6 12 (0.37%) IAG
7 11 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.12%) Firmware
10 2 (0.061%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.061%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.031%) HDFS
11 1 (0.031%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.031%) oVirt
11 1 (0.031%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.031%) RHEV
11 1 (0.031%) SRDF
11 1 (0.031%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 48 (1.47%) Kubernetes
2 32 (0.98%) Ansible
3 21 (0.64%) SCCM
4 20 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.46%) vRealize
6 14 (0.43%) Grafana
7 13 (0.40%) Nagios
7 13 (0.40%) ZABBIX
8 12 (0.37%) FortiGate
8 12 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
9 11 (0.34%) Netcool
9 11 (0.34%) Tivoli
10 10 (0.31%) OpenView
10 10 (0.31%) Prometheus
10 10 (0.31%) Tivoli Monitoring
10 10 (0.31%) vCenter Server
11 6 (0.18%) VxRail
12 4 (0.12%) CEMLI
12 4 (0.12%) NetBackup
12 4 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 674 (20.65%) SAP
2 458 (14.03%) Microsoft
3 424 (12.99%) Oracle
4 128 (3.92%) ServiceNow
5 79 (2.42%) VMware
6 73 (2.24%) Workday
7 62 (1.90%) Ariba
8 45 (1.38%) Salesforce
9 42 (1.29%) Splunk
10 40 (1.23%) Databricks
11 32 (0.98%) Palo Alto
12 29 (0.89%) BMC
12 29 (0.89%) Cisco
13 26 (0.80%) Google
13 26 (0.80%) OpenText
14 25 (0.77%) IBM
15 24 (0.74%) CyberArk
16 20 (0.61%) Adobe
17 18 (0.55%) Dell
17 18 (0.55%) Veeam