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 8 August 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,164 2,167 2,703
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.90% 6.59% 6.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.37% 7.21% 7.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,740 1,265 1,585
10th Percentile £400 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £639 £650 £644
90th Percentile £738 £744 £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 81 29 27
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £41.05
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £55.00
Median hourly rate £59.00 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -15.71% +13.64% -5.23%
75th Percentile £79.00 £81.25 £67.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £82.20 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -22.58% +25.81% -4.99%

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 49,634 30,076 36,192
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.60% 91.43% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,863 19,075 23,380
10th Percentile £328 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
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 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,458 1,498 2,043
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.64 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.30 £20.24
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +0.58%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +20.00%

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 8 August 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 8 August 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 8 August 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 2,553 £550 - 1,631
UK excluding London +1 1,378 £525 -4.55% 947
London -2 1,186 £550 -4.35% 848
Work from Home -3 1,066 £540 -1.82% 847
South East +1 409 £525 -4.55% 259
North of England -8 300 £550 +3.00% 256
Midlands +5 257 £500 -9.09% 92
South West +15 207 £550 -8.33% 167
West Midlands +18 184 £500 -11.11% 66
North West -9 178 £550 - 174
Scotland +37 108 £425 -10.53% 58
Yorkshire -13 101 £531 +11.84% 65
East of England -19 81 £551 +0.18% 65
East Midlands -2 64 £513 -6.82% 25
Wales -8 28 £550 +10.00% 15
North East -38 20 £750 +39.66% 18
Northern Ireland -3 1 £450 -13.46% 43

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 8 August 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.

1 648 (20.48%) SAP
2 644 (20.35%) Security Cleared
3 441 (13.94%) SC Cleared
4 436 (13.78%) Stakeholder Management
5 411 (12.99%) Migration
6 406 (12.83%) Microsoft
7 380 (12.01%) Oracle
8 308 (9.73%) Azure
9 290 (9.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 269 (8.50%) SAP S/4HANA
11 262 (8.28%) Problem-Solving
12 260 (8.22%) SQL
13 250 (7.90%) User Acceptance Testing
14 246 (7.77%) ERP
15 219 (6.92%) Workshop Facilitation
16 209 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
16 209 (6.61%) Validation
17 200 (6.32%) Cybersecurity
18 186 (5.88%) Roadmaps
19 185 (5.85%) Agile
20 183 (5.78%) Analytics
21 182 (5.75%) Data Migration
22 167 (5.28%) AI
23 158 (4.99%) AWS
24 151 (4.77%) Business Intelligence
25 150 (4.74%) Power Platform
26 146 (4.61%) Requirements Gathering
27 145 (4.58%) DV Cleared
28 136 (4.30%) Translating Business Requirements
29 133 (4.20%) 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 88 (2.78%) SharePoint
2 50 (1.58%) Confluence
3 14 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.28%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.095%) Apache
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.095%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.095%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.063%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.063%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.063%) IIS
10 2 (0.063%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.063%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.063%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.063%) WordPress
Applications
1 75 (2.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
5 8 (0.25%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.063%) Lectora
8 2 (0.063%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 269 (8.50%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (2.84%) Oracle EBS
3 70 (2.21%) SAP FI
4 50 (1.58%) SAP PSCD
5 45 (1.42%) Oracle Payables
6 42 (1.33%) Oracle ERP
7 38 (1.20%) SAP CO
8 37 (1.17%) Dynamics CRM
9 35 (1.11%) Oracle Receivables
10 34 (1.07%) SAP FI/CO
10 34 (1.07%) SAP MM
11 33 (1.04%) SAP BRIM
12 31 (0.98%) SAP SD
13 30 (0.95%) NetSuite
13 30 (0.95%) SAP FI-CA
14 28 (0.88%) SAP Payroll
14 28 (0.88%) SAP PP
15 27 (0.85%) SAP EWM
16 26 (0.82%) Oracle EBS R12
17 25 (0.79%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 308 (9.73%) Azure
2 158 (4.99%) AWS
3 150 (4.74%) Power Platform
4 133 (4.20%) Dynamics 365
5 113 (3.57%) OCI
6 99 (3.13%) SuccessFactors
7 91 (2.88%) Microsoft 365
8 89 (2.81%) GCP
9 74 (2.34%) Power Automate
10 55 (1.74%) Entra ID
11 51 (1.61%) Azure DevOps
11 51 (1.61%) Microsoft Copilot
11 51 (1.61%) SaaS
12 37 (1.17%) PowerApps
13 34 (1.07%) GitHub
14 28 (0.88%) Microsoft Purview
15 20 (0.63%) Copilot Studio
16 16 (0.51%) Azure AI
16 16 (0.51%) OneDrive
17 14 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 62 (1.96%) Firewall
2 54 (1.71%) Network Security
3 34 (1.07%) WAN
4 25 (0.79%) SNMP
5 21 (0.66%) VPN
6 20 (0.63%) BGP
6 20 (0.63%) LAN
7 16 (0.51%) DNS
8 14 (0.44%) VSAN
9 12 (0.38%) SAN
10 11 (0.35%) NGFW
10 11 (0.35%) TCP/IP
11 9 (0.28%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.22%) HTTP
12 7 (0.22%) IPsec
12 7 (0.22%) MPLS
12 7 (0.22%) Wireless
13 6 (0.19%) Ethernet VPN
13 6 (0.19%) FTP
13 6 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (3.00%) Power BI
2 60 (1.90%) Oracle Reports
3 39 (1.23%) SAP HANA
4 36 (1.14%) SQL Server
5 34 (1.07%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 34 (1.07%) Tableau
6 30 (0.95%) SAP BW
7 28 (0.88%) Metadata
8 23 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
9 19 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
10 18 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
11 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
12 10 (0.32%) Power Query
13 8 (0.25%) Oracle Database
14 7 (0.22%) Relational Database
15 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) Looker
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
16 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 92 (2.91%) JIRA
2 20 (0.63%) Oracle Forms
3 19 (0.60%) Git
4 17 (0.54%) Jenkins
5 14 (0.44%) Hudson
6 11 (0.35%) GitLab
7 7 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
8 6 (0.19%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.16%) Postman
10 4 (0.13%) Selenium
10 4 (0.13%) Snyk
10 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
11 3 (0.095%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.095%) JDeveloper
11 3 (0.095%) JMeter
11 3 (0.095%) MLflow
11 3 (0.095%) TestRail
11 3 (0.095%) Toad
11 3 (0.095%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 693 (21.90%) Finance
2 688 (21.74%) Social Skills
3 253 (8.00%) Analytical Skills
4 223 (7.05%) Public Sector
5 111 (3.51%) Manufacturing
6 98 (3.10%) Banking
7 90 (2.84%) Legal
8 79 (2.50%) Billing
9 67 (2.12%) Telecoms
10 56 (1.77%) Presentation Skills
11 55 (1.74%) General Ledger
11 55 (1.74%) Marketing
12 54 (1.71%) Documentation Skills
13 51 (1.61%) Retail
14 46 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 41 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
16 33 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
17 24 (0.76%) Local Government
18 23 (0.73%) Aerospace
19 19 (0.60%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 106 (3.35%) Oracle Fusion
2 85 (2.69%) REST
3 59 (1.86%) XML
4 41 (1.30%) SOAP
5 39 (1.23%) SAP Fiori
6 34 (1.07%) Middleware
7 27 (0.85%) Web Services
8 26 (0.82%) JSON
9 24 (0.76%) BAPI
10 20 (0.63%) HTML
11 18 (0.57%) CSS
11 18 (0.57%) SAP PI
12 17 (0.54%) IDoc
12 17 (0.54%) SAP Basis
13 16 (0.51%) OAuth
14 15 (0.47%) LDAP
15 13 (0.41%) .NET
16 11 (0.35%) ADO
16 11 (0.35%) EDI
17 10 (0.32%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 117 (3.70%) Onboarding
2 49 (1.55%) CMDB
3 44 (1.39%) Data Protection Act
4 41 (1.30%) Security Posture
5 37 (1.17%) Product Ownership
6 34 (1.07%) AI Agents
6 34 (1.07%) Data Structures
7 32 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
8 31 (0.98%) Data Centre
9 28 (0.88%) Operational Technology
10 24 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (0.66%) Cloud Native
11 21 (0.66%) Enterprise Software
12 20 (0.63%) Life Science
12 20 (0.63%) Replication
13 18 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
13 18 (0.57%) Management Information System
13 18 (0.57%) Security Operations Centre
14 17 (0.54%) NHS
14 17 (0.54%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 97 (3.07%) Windows
2 71 (2.24%) Linux
3 25 (0.79%) Unix
4 21 (0.66%) Solaris
5 19 (0.60%) AIX
6 18 (0.57%) VMS
7 12 (0.38%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.19%) Android
9 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
10 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.095%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.063%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.063%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.063%) zOS
13 1 (0.032%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.032%) SUSE
13 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 436 (13.78%) Stakeholder Management
2 411 (12.99%) Migration
3 290 (9.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 262 (8.28%) Problem-Solving
5 250 (7.90%) User Acceptance Testing
6 246 (7.77%) ERP
7 219 (6.92%) Workshop Facilitation
8 209 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
8 209 (6.61%) Validation
9 200 (6.32%) Cybersecurity
10 186 (5.88%) Roadmaps
11 185 (5.85%) Agile
12 183 (5.78%) Analytics
13 182 (5.75%) Data Migration
14 167 (5.28%) AI
15 151 (4.77%) Business Intelligence
16 146 (4.61%) Requirements Gathering
17 136 (4.30%) Translating Business Requirements
18 130 (4.11%) Change Management
19 123 (3.89%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 260 (8.22%) SQL
2 124 (3.92%) Python
3 59 (1.86%) PowerShell
4 54 (1.71%) JavaScript
4 54 (1.71%) PL/SQL
5 53 (1.68%) ABAP
6 38 (1.20%) T-SQL
7 33 (1.04%) Java
8 18 (0.57%) Bash
9 14 (0.44%) C#
10 13 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
10 13 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
11 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.22%) Korn
12 7 (0.22%) R
12 7 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 6 (0.19%) Perl
14 5 (0.16%) C++
14 5 (0.16%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 644 (20.35%) Security Cleared
2 441 (13.94%) SC Cleared
3 145 (4.58%) DV Cleared
4 92 (2.91%) BPSS Clearance
5 79 (2.50%) CISSP
6 75 (2.37%) Degree
7 60 (1.90%) CISM
8 38 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (0.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.82%) CCSP
11 20 (0.63%) CIMA
12 18 (0.57%) ACCA
13 16 (0.51%) CRISC
14 15 (0.47%) PMP
15 14 (0.44%) CEH
16 13 (0.41%) CompTIA Security+
16 13 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
17 12 (0.38%) Azure Certification
17 12 (0.38%) OSCP
18 11 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (2.88%) NIST
2 80 (2.53%) Data Quality
3 78 (2.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 68 (2.15%) GRC
5 55 (1.74%) QA
6 40 (1.26%) GDPR
7 29 (0.92%) PCI DSS
8 28 (0.88%) NCSC
9 26 (0.82%) Actionable Recommendations
10 24 (0.76%) SLA
11 21 (0.66%) Accessibility
12 20 (0.63%) PMO
13 15 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 13 (0.41%) GxP
15 12 (0.38%) COBIT
16 10 (0.32%) NIST 800
17 9 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
17 9 (0.28%) IFRS
17 9 (0.28%) SOC 2
18 8 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 64 (2.02%) Active Directory
2 42 (1.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (1.26%) VMware NSX
4 26 (0.82%) vSphere
5 14 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (0.38%) Docker
6 12 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (0.25%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.25%) IAG
8 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.095%) NFS
10 2 (0.063%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.063%) Firmware
10 2 (0.063%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.032%) HDFS
11 1 (0.032%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.032%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.032%) SRDF
11 1 (0.032%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 56 (1.77%) Terraform
2 43 (1.36%) Kubernetes
3 32 (1.01%) Ansible
4 20 (0.63%) vRealize
5 18 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.47%) Nagios
6 15 (0.47%) SCCM
6 15 (0.47%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.44%) Grafana
7 14 (0.44%) Netcool
7 14 (0.44%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.41%) OpenView
8 13 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (0.41%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 12 (0.38%) FortiGate
9 12 (0.38%) vCenter Server
10 11 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.22%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.19%) VxRail
13 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 648 (20.48%) SAP
2 406 (12.83%) Microsoft
3 380 (12.01%) Oracle
4 126 (3.98%) ServiceNow
5 90 (2.84%) VMware
6 61 (1.93%) Ariba
7 60 (1.90%) Salesforce
8 57 (1.80%) Workday
9 49 (1.55%) Splunk
10 41 (1.30%) Databricks
11 29 (0.92%) Google
12 28 (0.88%) BMC
13 26 (0.82%) OpenText
13 26 (0.82%) Palo Alto
14 25 (0.79%) IBM
15 24 (0.76%) Siemens
16 21 (0.66%) Adobe
17 17 (0.54%) JD Edwards
17 17 (0.54%) OpenAI
18 16 (0.51%) Okta