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 12 September 2026.

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

6 months to
12 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 3,283 2,231 2,634
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.02% 6.76% 6.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.52% 7.42% 7.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,842 1,299 1,452
10th Percentile £406 £412 £406
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 £534 £550 £567
% change year-on-year -2.91% -3.00% +8.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 26 26
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.52 £45.63
25th Percentile £51.00 £42.26 £55.24
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 £65.76
90th Percentile £91.88 £84.25 £72.43
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 50,382 30,069 35,903
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 91.09% 93.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,936 18,968 22,276
10th Percentile £325 £280 £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 £621 £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 3,746 1,571 1,738
10th Percentile £14.58 £13.75 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.25 £17.04 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £52.33 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.88 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.59
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.83% +12.32%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 2,627 £550 - 1,781
UK excluding London -2 1,401 £534 -2.91% 908
London -2 1,250 £550 -4.35% 1,083
Work from Home -2 1,078 £550 - 964
South East -3 401 £540 -1.82% 242
North of England -12 320 £575 +4.55% 184
Midlands 0 233 £500 -9.09% 98
South West +11 208 £550 -7.56% 151
North West -5 206 £566 -1.65% 114
West Midlands +4 164 £495 -10.00% 80
Scotland +30 128 £450 -10.00% 70
East of England -11 107 £565 +2.73% 90
Yorkshire -16 93 £575 +22.99% 33
East Midlands -8 62 £525 -4.55% 17
Wales -16 23 £550 +22.22% 20
North East -38 20 £750 +37.61% 37
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 - 4
Northern Ireland -7 2 £544 +18.21% 63

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 703 (21.41%) Security Cleared
2 684 (20.83%) SAP
3 550 (16.75%) Stakeholder Management
4 481 (14.65%) SC Cleared
5 459 (13.98%) Microsoft
6 445 (13.55%) Migration
7 425 (12.95%) Oracle
8 322 (9.81%) Azure
9 300 (9.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 287 (8.74%) SAP S/4HANA
11 284 (8.65%) User Acceptance Testing
12 267 (8.13%) Problem-Solving
13 243 (7.40%) Validation
14 237 (7.22%) ERP
15 233 (7.10%) SQL
16 232 (7.07%) Workshop Facilitation
17 220 (6.70%) Cybersecurity
18 211 (6.43%) Analytics
19 204 (6.21%) Continuous Improvement
20 198 (6.03%) Roadmaps
21 196 (5.97%) Data Migration
22 190 (5.79%) Agile
23 185 (5.64%) AWS
24 182 (5.54%) Requirements Gathering
25 172 (5.24%) AI
26 160 (4.87%) Power Platform
27 156 (4.75%) Business Intelligence
28 152 (4.63%) Translating Business Requirements
29 150 (4.57%) DV Cleared
30 143 (4.36%) 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 79 (2.41%) SharePoint
2 44 (1.34%) Confluence
3 31 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (0.37%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.27%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.24%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.21%) SAS
8 5 (0.15%) Apache
9 3 (0.091%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 3 (0.091%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.091%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.091%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.091%) CMS
9 3 (0.091%) NetWeaver
9 3 (0.091%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.091%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.061%) ArcGIS
10 2 (0.061%) Oracle Service Bus
10 2 (0.061%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 2 (0.061%) WordPress
Applications
1 50 (1.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (0.97%) Microsoft Office
3 26 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.27%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.091%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.091%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.030%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.030%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.030%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 287 (8.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 91 (2.77%) Oracle EBS
3 75 (2.28%) SAP FI
4 52 (1.58%) SAP PSCD
5 47 (1.43%) Oracle ERP
6 46 (1.40%) Oracle Payables
7 42 (1.28%) SAP CO
8 37 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
8 37 (1.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 37 (1.13%) SAP MM
8 37 (1.13%) SAP Payroll
8 37 (1.13%) SAP SD
9 36 (1.10%) Workday HCM
10 34 (1.04%) SAP BRIM
11 33 (1.01%) SAP FI/CO
12 32 (0.97%) SAP HR
13 30 (0.91%) NetSuite
13 30 (0.91%) Oracle General Ledger
14 29 (0.88%) SAP HCM
14 29 (0.88%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 322 (9.81%) Azure
2 185 (5.64%) AWS
3 160 (4.87%) Power Platform
4 143 (4.36%) Dynamics 365
5 124 (3.78%) OCI
6 108 (3.29%) SuccessFactors
7 99 (3.02%) GCP
8 87 (2.65%) Microsoft 365
9 69 (2.10%) Power Automate
10 68 (2.07%) Entra ID
11 61 (1.86%) Azure DevOps
12 53 (1.61%) Microsoft Copilot
13 43 (1.31%) SaaS
14 35 (1.07%) PowerApps
15 30 (0.91%) Microsoft Purview
16 27 (0.82%) GitHub
17 17 (0.52%) Azure AI
17 17 (0.52%) Snowflake
18 16 (0.49%) Azure Monitor
18 16 (0.49%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 67 (2.04%) Firewall
2 64 (1.95%) Network Security
3 34 (1.04%) WAN
4 33 (1.01%) BGP
5 24 (0.73%) 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%) NGFW
13 10 (0.30%) 3GPP
13 10 (0.30%) 5G
13 10 (0.30%) IPsec
13 10 (0.30%) MPLS
13 10 (0.30%) Radio Access Network
14 9 (0.27%) SD-WAN
15 7 (0.21%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (2.99%) Power BI
2 61 (1.86%) Oracle Reports
3 37 (1.13%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 37 (1.13%) SAP BW
3 37 (1.13%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
5 32 (0.97%) Tableau
6 27 (0.82%) Metadata
6 27 (0.82%) SQL Server
7 20 (0.61%) BusinessObjects
8 18 (0.55%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.46%) Oracle ODI
10 13 (0.40%) Power Query
10 13 (0.40%) SAP Data Services
11 11 (0.34%) Relational Database
12 8 (0.24%) BigQuery
12 8 (0.24%) DynamoDB
12 8 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 7 (0.21%) Looker
14 6 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 95 (2.89%) JIRA
2 25 (0.76%) Git
3 20 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
4 17 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 12 (0.37%) GitLab
5 12 (0.37%) Hudson
6 7 (0.21%) PowerBuilder
6 7 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
6 7 (0.21%) Zephyr
7 6 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 5 (0.15%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.12%) MLflow
10 3 (0.091%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.091%) JMeter
10 3 (0.091%) Maven
10 3 (0.091%) Postman
10 3 (0.091%) Selenium
10 3 (0.091%) Snyk
10 3 (0.091%) TestRail
10 3 (0.091%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 738 (22.48%) Social Skills
2 719 (21.90%) Finance
3 247 (7.52%) Public Sector
4 242 (7.37%) Analytical Skills
5 114 (3.47%) Manufacturing
6 97 (2.95%) Banking
7 87 (2.65%) Legal
8 82 (2.50%) Billing
9 76 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
10 69 (2.10%) Telecoms
11 58 (1.77%) General Ledger
12 56 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
13 54 (1.64%) Retail
14 50 (1.52%) Marketing
15 46 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 43 (1.31%) Influencing Skills
17 38 (1.16%) Pharmaceutical
18 27 (0.82%) Local Government
19 24 (0.73%) Law
20 19 (0.58%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 129 (3.93%) Oracle Fusion
2 82 (2.50%) REST
3 63 (1.92%) Terraform
4 49 (1.49%) SAP Fiori
5 38 (1.16%) SOAP
6 35 (1.07%) Middleware
6 35 (1.07%) XML
7 33 (1.01%) Web Services
8 25 (0.76%) SailPoint
9 23 (0.70%) JSON
10 21 (0.64%) LDAP
10 21 (0.64%) OAuth
11 20 (0.61%) BAPI
11 20 (0.61%) HTML
11 20 (0.61%) SAP Basis
12 18 (0.55%) CSS
12 18 (0.55%) SAP PI
13 13 (0.40%) EDI
13 13 (0.40%) NETCONF
13 13 (0.40%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 120 (3.66%) Onboarding
2 55 (1.68%) CMDB
3 48 (1.46%) Data Centre
4 42 (1.28%) Data Structures
5 41 (1.25%) Operational Technology
5 41 (1.25%) Security Posture
6 40 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
7 39 (1.19%) Product Ownership
8 34 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
9 32 (0.97%) Replication
10 31 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
11 27 (0.82%) Cloud Native
12 26 (0.79%) AI Agents
13 22 (0.67%) Life Science
14 21 (0.64%) Public Cloud
15 20 (0.61%) Greenfield Project
16 18 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
16 18 (0.55%) Management Information System
16 18 (0.55%) NHS
17 16 (0.49%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 102 (3.11%) Windows
2 81 (2.47%) Linux
3 26 (0.79%) 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 (0.030%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.030%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.030%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.030%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 550 (16.75%) Stakeholder Management
2 445 (13.55%) Migration
3 300 (9.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 284 (8.65%) User Acceptance Testing
5 267 (8.13%) Problem-Solving
6 243 (7.40%) Validation
7 237 (7.22%) ERP
8 232 (7.07%) Workshop Facilitation
9 220 (6.70%) Cybersecurity
10 211 (6.43%) Analytics
11 204 (6.21%) Continuous Improvement
12 198 (6.03%) Roadmaps
13 196 (5.97%) Data Migration
14 190 (5.79%) Agile
15 182 (5.54%) Requirements Gathering
16 172 (5.24%) AI
17 156 (4.75%) Business Intelligence
18 152 (4.63%) Translating Business Requirements
19 142 (4.33%) Knowledge Transfer
20 133 (4.05%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 233 (7.10%) SQL
2 117 (3.56%) Python
3 57 (1.74%) PowerShell
4 54 (1.64%) ABAP
5 52 (1.58%) PL/SQL
6 48 (1.46%) JavaScript
7 33 (1.01%) Java
8 18 (0.55%) Bash
9 15 (0.46%) C#
10 14 (0.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 14 (0.43%) Kusto Query Language
11 12 (0.37%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.27%) R
12 9 (0.27%) T-SQL
12 9 (0.27%) TypeScript
13 8 (0.24%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.18%) Groovy
14 6 (0.18%) Perl
15 5 (0.15%) Korn
16 3 (0.091%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 703 (21.41%) Security Cleared
2 481 (14.65%) SC Cleared
3 150 (4.57%) DV Cleared
4 110 (3.35%) BPSS Clearance
5 80 (2.44%) CISSP
6 76 (2.31%) Degree
7 62 (1.89%) CISM
8 45 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
9 33 (1.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 29 (0.88%) 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
17 11 (0.34%) Computer Science Degree
18 10 (0.30%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (3.17%) Data Quality
2 93 (2.83%) NIST
3 76 (2.31%) GRC
4 74 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 56 (1.71%) QA
6 38 (1.16%) GDPR
7 36 (1.10%) NCSC
8 29 (0.88%) SLA
9 24 (0.73%) PMO
10 23 (0.70%) Accessibility
10 23 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
11 21 (0.64%) PCI DSS
12 14 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials
13 12 (0.37%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 11 (0.34%) GxP
15 10 (0.30%) COBIT
15 10 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 10 (0.30%) NIST 800
16 9 (0.27%) IFRS
17 8 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 84 (2.56%) Active Directory
2 38 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (1.07%) VMware NSX
4 19 (0.58%) vSphere
5 18 (0.55%) Docker
6 14 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.37%) Hyper-V
7 12 (0.37%) IAG
8 11 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
9 10 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.12%) Firmware
11 2 (0.061%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.061%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.030%) HDFS
12 1 (0.030%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.030%) oVirt
12 1 (0.030%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.030%) RHEV
12 1 (0.030%) SRDF
12 1 (0.030%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 48 (1.46%) Kubernetes
2 32 (0.97%) Ansible
3 20 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
3 20 (0.61%) SCCM
4 16 (0.49%) vRealize
5 14 (0.43%) Grafana
6 13 (0.40%) Nagios
6 13 (0.40%) ZABBIX
7 12 (0.37%) FortiGate
7 12 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
8 11 (0.34%) Netcool
8 11 (0.34%) Tivoli
9 10 (0.30%) OpenView
9 10 (0.30%) Prometheus
9 10 (0.30%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 10 (0.30%) vCenter Server
10 6 (0.18%) VxRail
11 5 (0.15%) NetBackup
12 4 (0.12%) CEMLI
12 4 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 684 (20.83%) SAP
2 459 (13.98%) Microsoft
3 425 (12.95%) Oracle
4 129 (3.93%) ServiceNow
5 81 (2.47%) VMware
6 74 (2.25%) Workday
7 64 (1.95%) Ariba
8 48 (1.46%) Salesforce
9 42 (1.28%) Splunk
10 41 (1.25%) Databricks
11 32 (0.97%) Palo Alto
12 29 (0.88%) BMC
12 29 (0.88%) Cisco
13 26 (0.79%) Google
13 26 (0.79%) OpenText
14 25 (0.76%) IBM
15 23 (0.70%) CyberArk
16 21 (0.64%) Adobe
17 18 (0.55%) Dell
17 18 (0.55%) Veeam