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 26 September 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 26 27
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +2
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,226 2,311 2,589
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.88% 6.99% 6.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.38% 7.68% 7.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,824 1,364 1,399
10th Percentile £413 £411 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - +0.92%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £650
90th Percentile £750 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £550 £565
% change year-on-year -1.82% -2.65% +7.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 25 23
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.32 £44.00
25th Percentile £45.00 £41.60 £59.08
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -2.22%
75th Percentile £86.11 £81.25 £69.84
90th Percentile £91.50 £87.40 £74.97
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.61% +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 50,596 30,108 35,619
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.21% 91.02% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,877 19,013 21,671
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.62%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,928 1,616 1,603
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.84
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.30 £20.75
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -2.27%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.68 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £69.20 £74.97
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -0.38%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -6 2,572 £550 -0.23% 3,379
UK excluding London -5 1,355 £540 -1.82% 1,707
London -3 1,244 £550 -4.35% 1,899
Work from Home -4 1,069 £550 - 1,749
South East -9 378 £540 -1.82% 454
North of England -19 325 £575 -0.86% 425
Midlands -2 228 £500 -9.09% 226
North West -15 211 £581 -6.29% 251
South West +13 196 £550 -4.35% 201
West Midlands +1 164 £500 -9.09% 174
Scotland +24 125 £450 -10.00% 147
East of England -20 104 £550 - 129
Yorkshire -17 93 £575 +21.05% 95
East Midlands -10 59 £525 -4.55% 50
Wales -12 23 £550 +22.22% 31
North East -31 20 £750 +38.89% 79
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -11 2 £544 +4.57% 105

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 26 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.

1 694 (21.51%) Security Cleared
2 644 (19.96%) SAP
3 583 (18.07%) Stakeholder Management
4 472 (14.63%) SC Cleared
5 466 (14.45%) Microsoft
6 439 (13.61%) Migration
7 405 (12.55%) Oracle
8 316 (9.80%) Azure
9 304 (9.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 292 (9.05%) User Acceptance Testing
11 278 (8.62%) SAP S/4HANA
12 258 (8.00%) Problem-Solving
13 245 (7.59%) Validation
14 243 (7.53%) Workshop Facilitation
15 240 (7.44%) Cybersecurity
16 232 (7.19%) ERP
17 216 (6.70%) SQL
18 212 (6.57%) Analytics
19 207 (6.42%) Continuous Improvement
20 197 (6.11%) Roadmaps
21 196 (6.08%) Data Migration
22 184 (5.70%) AWS
23 183 (5.67%) Agile
23 183 (5.67%) Requirements Gathering
24 167 (5.18%) AI
25 161 (4.99%) Power Platform
26 153 (4.74%) Knowledge Transfer
27 152 (4.71%) Translating Business Requirements
28 151 (4.68%) Business Intelligence
29 149 (4.62%) DV Cleared

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 74 (2.29%) SharePoint
2 43 (1.33%) Confluence
3 31 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.28%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) SAS
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.12%) Apache
7 4 (0.12%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.12%) CMS
8 3 (0.093%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.093%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.093%) Apache Spark
8 3 (0.093%) NetWeaver
8 3 (0.093%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.093%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
9 2 (0.062%) OpenEdge
9 2 (0.062%) Smallworld
9 2 (0.062%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.062%) WordPress
Applications
1 49 (1.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (0.99%) Microsoft Office
3 28 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.28%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.062%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.031%) 1Password
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.031%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 278 (8.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 85 (2.63%) Oracle EBS
3 76 (2.36%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.52%) SAP PSCD
5 48 (1.49%) Oracle ERP
5 48 (1.49%) SAP Payroll
6 44 (1.36%) Oracle Payables
6 44 (1.36%) SAP CO
7 38 (1.18%) Oracle Receivables
7 38 (1.18%) Workday HCM
8 37 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
9 35 (1.08%) SAP FI/CO
9 35 (1.08%) SAP HR
9 35 (1.08%) SAP SD
10 34 (1.05%) Oracle General Ledger
11 33 (1.02%) SAP BRIM
11 33 (1.02%) SAP HCM
12 29 (0.90%) NetSuite
12 29 (0.90%) SAP MM
12 29 (0.90%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 316 (9.80%) Azure
2 184 (5.70%) AWS
3 161 (4.99%) Power Platform
4 146 (4.53%) Dynamics 365
5 116 (3.60%) OCI
6 101 (3.13%) SuccessFactors
7 96 (2.98%) GCP
8 91 (2.82%) Microsoft 365
9 69 (2.14%) Entra ID
10 66 (2.05%) Power Automate
11 63 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
12 55 (1.70%) Microsoft Copilot
13 46 (1.43%) SaaS
14 34 (1.05%) PowerApps
15 28 (0.87%) Microsoft Purview
16 25 (0.77%) GitHub
17 20 (0.62%) Snowflake
18 18 (0.56%) Azure AI
19 17 (0.53%) Amazon S3
20 16 (0.50%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 69 (2.14%) Firewall
1 69 (2.14%) Network Security
2 34 (1.05%) BGP
2 34 (1.05%) WAN
3 26 (0.81%) VPN
4 20 (0.62%) DNS
5 19 (0.59%) SNMP
6 15 (0.46%) LAN
7 14 (0.43%) Ethernet VPN
7 14 (0.43%) TCP/IP
8 12 (0.37%) SAN
8 12 (0.37%) VXLAN
9 11 (0.34%) IPsec
9 11 (0.34%) MPLS
9 11 (0.34%) NGFW
10 10 (0.31%) 3GPP
10 10 (0.31%) 5G
10 10 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
11 9 (0.28%) SD-WAN
12 8 (0.25%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (2.98%) Power BI
2 49 (1.52%) Oracle Reports
3 38 (1.18%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 35 (1.08%) SAP BW
5 34 (1.05%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (1.05%) SAP HANA
6 29 (0.90%) Tableau
7 27 (0.84%) Metadata
7 27 (0.84%) SQL Server
8 21 (0.65%) BusinessObjects
9 17 (0.53%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.43%) Power Query
11 10 (0.31%) Relational Database
12 9 (0.28%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.28%) Oracle ODI
13 8 (0.25%) BigQuery
13 8 (0.25%) Elasticsearch
13 8 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
14 7 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
14 7 (0.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 92 (2.85%) JIRA
2 27 (0.84%) Git
3 17 (0.53%) Jenkins
4 15 (0.46%) Oracle Forms
5 12 (0.37%) GitLab
6 8 (0.25%) Hudson
7 7 (0.22%) PowerBuilder
7 7 (0.22%) Zephyr
8 6 (0.19%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.15%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.12%) MLflow
11 3 (0.093%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.093%) JDeveloper
11 3 (0.093%) JMeter
11 3 (0.093%) Maven
11 3 (0.093%) Postman
11 3 (0.093%) Snyk
11 3 (0.093%) TestRail
11 3 (0.093%) Toad
General
1 731 (22.66%) Finance
2 729 (22.60%) Social Skills
3 263 (8.15%) Public Sector
4 229 (7.10%) Analytical Skills
5 122 (3.78%) Manufacturing
6 98 (3.04%) Banking
7 87 (2.70%) Legal
8 81 (2.51%) Billing
9 79 (2.45%) Documentation Skills
10 66 (2.05%) Telecoms
11 57 (1.77%) Presentation Skills
11 57 (1.77%) Retail
12 56 (1.74%) General Ledger
13 48 (1.49%) Marketing
14 43 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
15 39 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 36 (1.12%) Pharmaceutical
17 29 (0.90%) Local Government
18 24 (0.74%) Law
19 18 (0.56%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 128 (3.97%) Oracle Fusion
2 79 (2.45%) REST
3 60 (1.86%) Terraform
4 48 (1.49%) SAP Fiori
5 39 (1.21%) SOAP
5 39 (1.21%) XML
6 38 (1.18%) Middleware
6 38 (1.18%) Web Services
7 28 (0.87%) SailPoint
8 24 (0.74%) OAuth
9 23 (0.71%) JSON
10 21 (0.65%) LDAP
11 18 (0.56%) SAP PI
12 17 (0.53%) BAPI
12 17 (0.53%) HTML
13 16 (0.50%) SAP Basis
14 15 (0.46%) CSS
15 14 (0.43%) EDI
15 14 (0.43%) SAML
16 13 (0.40%) NETCONF
Miscellaneous
1 129 (4.00%) Onboarding
2 54 (1.67%) CMDB
3 49 (1.52%) Operational Technology
4 47 (1.46%) Data Centre
5 46 (1.43%) Data Structures
6 40 (1.24%) Security Posture
7 39 (1.21%) Product Ownership
8 37 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
9 35 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
10 29 (0.90%) Legacy Systems
11 27 (0.84%) AI Agents
11 27 (0.84%) Replication
12 25 (0.77%) Cloud Native
13 22 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
13 22 (0.68%) Life Science
14 18 (0.56%) Management Information System
14 18 (0.56%) Public Cloud
15 17 (0.53%) NHS
16 16 (0.50%) Hybrid Cloud
16 16 (0.50%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 97 (3.01%) Windows
2 75 (2.32%) Linux
3 27 (0.84%) Unix
4 23 (0.71%) Windows Server
5 21 (0.65%) Solaris
6 13 (0.40%) AIX
6 13 (0.40%) VMS
7 6 (0.19%) Android
7 6 (0.19%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (0.15%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.031%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.031%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.031%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.031%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.031%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 583 (18.07%) Stakeholder Management
2 439 (13.61%) Migration
3 304 (9.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 292 (9.05%) User Acceptance Testing
5 258 (8.00%) Problem-Solving
6 245 (7.59%) Validation
7 243 (7.53%) Workshop Facilitation
8 240 (7.44%) Cybersecurity
9 232 (7.19%) ERP
10 212 (6.57%) Analytics
11 207 (6.42%) Continuous Improvement
12 197 (6.11%) Roadmaps
13 196 (6.08%) Data Migration
14 183 (5.67%) Agile
14 183 (5.67%) Requirements Gathering
15 167 (5.18%) AI
16 153 (4.74%) Knowledge Transfer
17 152 (4.71%) Translating Business Requirements
18 151 (4.68%) Business Intelligence
19 138 (4.28%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 216 (6.70%) SQL
2 100 (3.10%) Python
3 60 (1.86%) ABAP
4 50 (1.55%) PowerShell
5 42 (1.30%) JavaScript
6 37 (1.15%) PL/SQL
7 29 (0.90%) Java
8 19 (0.59%) Bash
9 13 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 13 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
10 12 (0.37%) C#
11 10 (0.31%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.28%) T-SQL
12 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.22%) R
14 6 (0.19%) Groovy
14 6 (0.19%) Shell Script
15 5 (0.15%) Korn
15 5 (0.15%) Perl
16 3 (0.093%) Scala
Qualifications
1 694 (21.51%) Security Cleared
2 472 (14.63%) SC Cleared
3 149 (4.62%) DV Cleared
4 112 (3.47%) BPSS Clearance
5 78 (2.42%) Degree
6 77 (2.39%) CISSP
7 60 (1.86%) CISM
8 44 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
9 32 (0.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 28 (0.87%) CCSP
11 20 (0.62%) ACCA
12 17 (0.53%) CIMA
12 17 (0.53%) CRISC
13 14 (0.43%) AWS Certification
13 14 (0.43%) PMP
14 13 (0.40%) CompTIA Security+
15 11 (0.34%) CISA
16 10 (0.31%) CCIE
16 10 (0.31%) Computer Science Degree
16 10 (0.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (3.29%) Data Quality
2 102 (3.16%) NIST
3 86 (2.67%) GRC
4 77 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 57 (1.77%) QA
6 44 (1.36%) NCSC
7 37 (1.15%) GDPR
8 30 (0.93%) SLA
9 27 (0.84%) PMO
10 23 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
11 19 (0.59%) Accessibility
11 19 (0.59%) PCI DSS
12 17 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
13 14 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 12 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 11 (0.34%) NIST 800
16 10 (0.31%) GxP
17 9 (0.28%) IFRS
18 8 (0.25%) COBIT
18 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 86 (2.67%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (0.99%) VMware NSX
4 18 (0.56%) vSphere
5 17 (0.53%) Docker
6 13 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.37%) Hyper-V
8 11 (0.34%) IAG
9 10 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.12%) Firmware
12 2 (0.062%) BitLocker
12 2 (0.062%) PowerHA
13 1 (0.031%) HDFS
13 1 (0.031%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.031%) oVirt
13 1 (0.031%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.031%) RHEV
13 1 (0.031%) SRDF
13 1 (0.031%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 46 (1.43%) Kubernetes
2 32 (0.99%) Ansible
3 22 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
4 21 (0.65%) SCCM
5 14 (0.43%) Grafana
6 13 (0.40%) vRealize
7 12 (0.37%) FortiGate
7 12 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (0.31%) Nagios
8 10 (0.31%) vCenter Server
8 10 (0.31%) ZABBIX
9 9 (0.28%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.25%) Netcool
10 8 (0.25%) Tivoli
11 7 (0.22%) OpenView
11 7 (0.22%) Tivoli Monitoring
12 6 (0.19%) VxRail
13 4 (0.12%) CEMLI
13 4 (0.12%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 644 (19.96%) SAP
2 466 (14.45%) Microsoft
3 405 (12.55%) Oracle
4 136 (4.22%) ServiceNow
5 78 (2.42%) Workday
6 72 (2.23%) VMware
7 59 (1.83%) Ariba
8 48 (1.49%) Salesforce
9 39 (1.21%) Databricks
10 38 (1.18%) Splunk
11 36 (1.12%) Palo Alto
12 29 (0.90%) Cisco
13 28 (0.87%) CyberArk
14 26 (0.81%) BMC
14 26 (0.81%) OpenText
15 25 (0.77%) IBM
16 24 (0.74%) Google
17 19 (0.59%) Zscaler
18 18 (0.56%) Adobe
18 18 (0.56%) Dell