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 9 July 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 27 25
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 +8
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,072 2,097 2,911
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.85% 6.49% 6.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.33% 7.06% 7.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,712 1,218 1,739
10th Percentile £404 £406 £408
25th Percentile £463 £471 £471
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £556
Median % change year-on-year - -1.08% +1.09%
75th Percentile £636 £650 £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 96 28 31
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.92 £26.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £43.57 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £72.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -20.69% +17.69% -5.95%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £65.52
90th Percentile £86.81 £87.33 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year -25.81% +32.93% -10.08%

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 48,533 29,683 40,331
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.47% 91.90% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,422 18,950 25,979
10th Percentile £325 £288 £286
25th Percentile £419 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.50% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £494
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.85% -1.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,255 1,354 2,780
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.75 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.33 £16.65
Median hourly rate £43.50 £26.39 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +64.87% -29.64% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.87 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.10 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% +0.50%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 2,457 £550 - 1,110
UK excluding London +1 1,310 £525 -4.55% 733
London -2 1,139 £550 -4.35% 533
Work from Home -1 1,083 £540 -1.82% 543
South East -1 363 £525 -4.55% 219
North of England -21 278 £550 - 180
Midlands -8 257 £501 -9.00% 91
South West +24 215 £556 +1.09% 102
West Midlands +8 183 £501 -9.00% 63
North West -11 156 £525 -7.69% 114
Yorkshire -14 101 £544 +14.47% 48
Scotland +37 92 £425 -8.11% 21
East of England -15 88 £550 - 56
East Midlands -9 65 £500 -9.09% 28
Wales -3 31 £550 +31.34% 21
North East -35 21 £650 +20.37% 19
Northern Ireland -1 2 £525 +0.96% 50

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 9 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.

1 640 (20.83%) SAP
2 574 (18.68%) Security Cleared
3 417 (13.57%) SC Cleared
4 411 (13.38%) Migration
5 379 (12.34%) Microsoft
6 355 (11.56%) Oracle
7 337 (10.97%) Azure
8 325 (10.58%) Stakeholder Management
9 278 (9.05%) SAP S/4HANA
10 273 (8.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 259 (8.43%) Problem-Solving
12 254 (8.27%) ERP
13 247 (8.04%) SQL
14 228 (7.42%) User Acceptance Testing
15 206 (6.71%) Validation
16 202 (6.58%) Continuous Improvement
16 202 (6.58%) Workshop Facilitation
17 189 (6.15%) Data Migration
18 170 (5.53%) Cybersecurity
19 168 (5.47%) Agile
20 167 (5.44%) Analytics
21 166 (5.40%) AI
22 157 (5.11%) Roadmaps
23 149 (4.85%) AWS
24 144 (4.69%) Power Platform
25 140 (4.56%) Business Intelligence
26 132 (4.30%) Dynamics 365
26 132 (4.30%) Python
27 124 (4.04%) Change Management
27 124 (4.04%) Requirements Gathering

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 80 (2.60%) 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%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.065%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) IIS
10 2 (0.065%) Jupyter
10 2 (0.065%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.065%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.065%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.065%) WordPress
Applications
1 76 (2.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
5 8 (0.26%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
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
1 278 (9.05%) SAP S/4HANA
2 87 (2.83%) Oracle EBS
3 65 (2.12%) SAP FI
4 58 (1.89%) SAP PSCD
5 44 (1.43%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.24%) SAP BRIM
7 37 (1.20%) SAP MM
8 35 (1.14%) Oracle Receivables
9 33 (1.07%) Dynamics CRM
9 33 (1.07%) SAP FI-CA
9 33 (1.07%) SAP SD
10 31 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
11 29 (0.94%) Oracle EBS R12
11 29 (0.94%) SAP CO
11 29 (0.94%) SAP EWM
12 28 (0.91%) NetSuite
13 25 (0.81%) SAP FI/CO
13 25 (0.81%) SAP PP
14 24 (0.78%) Teamcenter
15 23 (0.75%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 337 (10.97%) Azure
2 149 (4.85%) AWS
3 144 (4.69%) Power Platform
4 132 (4.30%) Dynamics 365
5 99 (3.22%) OCI
6 97 (3.16%) Microsoft 365
7 83 (2.70%) GCP
8 77 (2.51%) SuccessFactors
9 71 (2.31%) Power Automate
10 56 (1.82%) Entra ID
11 54 (1.76%) SaaS
12 50 (1.63%) Azure DevOps
13 46 (1.50%) Microsoft Copilot
14 36 (1.17%) GitHub
15 35 (1.14%) PowerApps
16 32 (1.04%) Microsoft Purview
17 21 (0.68%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.52%) OneDrive
18 16 (0.52%) Serverless
19 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 57 (1.86%) Firewall
2 47 (1.53%) Network Security
3 26 (0.85%) WAN
4 24 (0.78%) SNMP
5 18 (0.59%) VPN
6 17 (0.55%) BGP
6 17 (0.55%) LAN
7 16 (0.52%) DNS
8 13 (0.42%) SAN
9 12 (0.39%) VSAN
10 9 (0.29%) NGFW
11 8 (0.26%) FTP
11 8 (0.26%) NAS
11 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
11 8 (0.26%) SMS
11 8 (0.26%) Software-Defined Networking
11 8 (0.26%) TCP/IP
12 7 (0.23%) DHCP
12 7 (0.23%) Wireless
13 6 (0.20%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 89 (2.90%) Power BI
2 58 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
3 39 (1.27%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.11%) Tableau
5 28 (0.91%) SQL Server
6 27 (0.88%) Metadata
7 26 (0.85%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 22 (0.72%) SAP BW
9 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
10 17 (0.55%) Data Warehouse
11 16 (0.52%) 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%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 5 (0.16%) GIS
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
Development Applications
1 88 (2.86%) 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
7 5 (0.16%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
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
1 666 (21.68%) Finance
2 652 (21.22%) Social Skills
3 251 (8.17%) Analytical Skills
4 224 (7.29%) Public Sector
5 104 (3.39%) Manufacturing
6 89 (2.90%) Banking
7 88 (2.86%) Legal
8 84 (2.73%) Billing
9 67 (2.18%) Telecoms
10 60 (1.95%) General Ledger
11 49 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
12 48 (1.56%) Marketing
13 40 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 40 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
13 40 (1.30%) Presentation Skills
13 40 (1.30%) Retail
14 25 (0.81%) Law
15 23 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
15 23 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
16 22 (0.72%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.73%) Oracle Fusion
2 80 (2.60%) REST
3 60 (1.95%) XML
4 37 (1.20%) SAP Fiori
4 37 (1.20%) SOAP
5 34 (1.11%) Middleware
6 29 (0.94%) BAPI
7 26 (0.85%) Web Services
8 20 (0.65%) HTML
8 20 (0.65%) SAP TM
9 18 (0.59%) CSS
9 18 (0.59%) JSON
10 17 (0.55%) IDoc
10 17 (0.55%) SAP Basis
11 15 (0.49%) .NET
12 14 (0.46%) OAuth
13 11 (0.36%) EDI
13 11 (0.36%) LDAP
14 10 (0.33%) React
14 10 (0.33%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 86 (2.80%) Onboarding
2 49 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
3 45 (1.46%) Security Posture
4 43 (1.40%) CMDB
5 37 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
6 34 (1.11%) AI Agents
7 33 (1.07%) Product Ownership
8 29 (0.94%) Data Structures
9 27 (0.88%) Operational Technology
10 25 (0.81%) Data Centre
11 24 (0.78%) Cloud Native
11 24 (0.78%) Management Information System
12 23 (0.75%) Life Science
13 21 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
13 21 (0.68%) Public Cloud
14 20 (0.65%) NHS
15 17 (0.55%) Replication
16 16 (0.52%) Analytical Mindset
17 15 (0.49%) Algorithms
17 15 (0.49%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 97 (3.16%) Windows
2 67 (2.18%) Linux
3 26 (0.85%) Unix
4 21 (0.68%) Solaris
5 18 (0.59%) VMS
6 17 (0.55%) AIX
7 8 (0.26%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.16%) zOS
9 4 (0.13%) Android
9 4 (0.13%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
10 3 (0.098%) Mac OS
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
1 411 (13.38%) Migration
2 325 (10.58%) Stakeholder Management
3 273 (8.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 259 (8.43%) Problem-Solving
5 254 (8.27%) ERP
6 228 (7.42%) User Acceptance Testing
7 206 (6.71%) Validation
8 202 (6.58%) Continuous Improvement
8 202 (6.58%) Workshop Facilitation
9 189 (6.15%) Data Migration
10 170 (5.53%) Cybersecurity
11 168 (5.47%) Agile
12 167 (5.44%) Analytics
13 166 (5.40%) AI
14 157 (5.11%) Roadmaps
15 140 (4.56%) Business Intelligence
16 124 (4.04%) Change Management
16 124 (4.04%) Requirements Gathering
16 124 (4.04%) Translating Business Requirements
17 114 (3.71%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 247 (8.04%) SQL
2 132 (4.30%) Python
3 64 (2.08%) JavaScript
4 62 (2.02%) PowerShell
5 56 (1.82%) PL/SQL
6 54 (1.76%) ABAP
7 40 (1.30%) Java
8 35 (1.14%) T-SQL
9 18 (0.59%) Bash
10 16 (0.52%) C#
11 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.39%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 11 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
13 11 (0.36%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
15 7 (0.23%) C++
15 7 (0.23%) R
16 5 (0.16%) Korn
17 4 (0.13%) Apex Code
17 4 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 574 (18.68%) Security Cleared
2 417 (13.57%) SC Cleared
3 119 (3.87%) DV Cleared
4 88 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 75 (2.44%) CISSP
6 74 (2.41%) Degree
7 55 (1.79%) CISM
8 34 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
9 28 (0.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.85%) CCSP
11 19 (0.62%) CIMA
12 15 (0.49%) PMP
12 15 (0.49%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 14 (0.46%) CEH
14 13 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
14 13 (0.42%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.39%) ACCA
15 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.39%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.39%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (2.96%) NIST
2 79 (2.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 74 (2.41%) Data Quality
4 58 (1.89%) GRC
5 55 (1.79%) QA
6 37 (1.20%) GDPR
7 28 (0.91%) NCSC
7 28 (0.91%) PCI DSS
8 24 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
9 22 (0.72%) Accessibility
9 22 (0.72%) SLA
10 20 (0.65%) PMO
11 18 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 14 (0.46%) COBIT
12 14 (0.46%) GxP
13 12 (0.39%) JSP 440
14 8 (0.26%) WCAG
15 7 (0.23%) DICOM
15 7 (0.23%) GAAP
15 7 (0.23%) HL7
System Software
1 58 (1.89%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.33%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.88%) vSphere
5 12 (0.39%) Docker
5 12 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (0.26%) Hyper-V
8 7 (0.23%) IAG
9 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.13%) NFS
11 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.065%) Slurm Workload Manager
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%) SRDF
12 1 (0.033%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 52 (1.69%) Terraform
2 45 (1.46%) Kubernetes
3 28 (0.91%) Ansible
4 27 (0.88%) vRealize
5 15 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.46%) Netcool
6 14 (0.46%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.42%) OpenView
7 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) Grafana
8 12 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
10 10 (0.33%) SCCM
10 10 (0.33%) vCenter Server
11 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
12 5 (0.16%) CEMLI
12 5 (0.16%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 640 (20.83%) SAP
2 379 (12.34%) Microsoft
3 355 (11.56%) Oracle
4 119 (3.87%) ServiceNow
5 100 (3.26%) VMware
6 66 (2.15%) Ariba
7 54 (1.76%) Siemens
8 52 (1.69%) Salesforce
9 51 (1.66%) Workday
10 39 (1.27%) Databricks
10 39 (1.27%) Splunk
11 27 (0.88%) Google
12 25 (0.81%) Palo Alto
13 23 (0.75%) BMC
14 22 (0.72%) IBM
15 20 (0.65%) OpenText
16 18 (0.59%) JD Edwards
17 16 (0.52%) Adobe
17 16 (0.52%) IFS
17 16 (0.52%) SolarWinds