Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 April 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 24
Rank change year-on-year 0 -4 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,853 1,898 2,749
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.32% 6.49% 6.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.85% 7.00% 6.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,603 1,103 1,706
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £454 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - -2.35%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £713 £729 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 17 30
10th Percentile £53.18 £63.50 £27.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £70.00 £50.73
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +37.99% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.25 £63.22
90th Percentile £78.25 £87.50 £70.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £84.25 £56.89
% change year-on-year -31.75% +48.11% -13.81%

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 41,646 27,118 40,940
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.22% 92.78% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,966 17,841 26,815
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.31%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +2.53% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,596 956 2,534
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £12.86
25th Percentile £19.91 £20.26 £16.25
Median hourly rate £40.00 £32.00 £33.78
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -5.26% -24.15%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £71.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.50 £31.29 £34.61
% change year-on-year +32.63% -9.58% -18.32%

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 4 April 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 4 April 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 4 April 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 +2 2,234 £538 -2.27% 1,211
UK excluding London +5 1,175 £525 -4.55% 849
London -1 1,035 £550 -4.35% 544
Work from Home +1 1,006 £525 -4.55% 598
South East +4 354 £525 -8.70% 278
Midlands -11 230 £525 - 104
North of England -20 230 £525 -2.42% 172
South West +25 169 £525 -4.55% 152
West Midlands +3 167 £550 +4.76% 52
Yorkshire +8 109 £519 -1.19% 53
North West -29 109 £525 -3.67% 109
East of England -7 95 £550 +10.00% 67
Scotland +24 65 £500 -4.76% 38
East Midlands -20 55 £500 -3.85% 51
Wales +8 34 £550 +37.50% 33
North East -23 12 £525 -1.69% 12
Northern Ireland +1 6 £405 -22.86% 15

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 4 April 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.

1 623 (21.84%) SAP
2 599 (21.00%) Security Cleared
3 495 (17.35%) SC Cleared
4 395 (13.85%) Migration
5 324 (11.36%) Oracle
6 312 (10.94%) Azure
7 300 (10.52%) Problem-Solving
8 290 (10.16%) Microsoft
8 290 (10.16%) SAP S/4HANA
9 282 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 253 (8.87%) Stakeholder Management
11 241 (8.45%) ERP
12 216 (7.57%) SQL
13 204 (7.15%) Workshop Facilitation
14 187 (6.55%) User Acceptance Testing
15 181 (6.34%) Agile
16 171 (5.99%) Roadmaps
17 167 (5.85%) Continuous Improvement
18 161 (5.64%) Data Migration
19 155 (5.43%) Analytics
20 151 (5.29%) Business Intelligence
21 145 (5.08%) Cybersecurity
22 144 (5.05%) Validation
23 130 (4.56%) Dynamics 365
24 128 (4.49%) Knowledge Transfer
25 127 (4.45%) Python
26 126 (4.42%) AI
27 120 (4.21%) Power Platform
28 115 (4.03%) AWS
28 115 (4.03%) Risk Management

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 (2.59%) SharePoint
2 37 (1.30%) Confluence
3 22 (0.77%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (0.42%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
6 5 (0.18%) Apache
6 5 (0.18%) MTS
7 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.14%) CMS
8 3 (0.11%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
8 3 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.11%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.070%) IIS
9 2 (0.070%) NetWeaver
9 2 (0.070%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.035%) nginx
10 1 (0.035%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.035%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 69 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (0.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.46%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.32%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.11%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.070%) Lectora
8 2 (0.070%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.035%) Adobe XD
9 1 (0.035%) CATIA
9 1 (0.035%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.035%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.035%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 290 (10.16%) SAP S/4HANA
2 69 (2.42%) Oracle EBS
3 66 (2.31%) SAP FI
4 48 (1.68%) Oracle Payables
4 48 (1.68%) SAP MM
5 44 (1.54%) Oracle Receivables
6 41 (1.44%) SAP PP
7 37 (1.30%) Oracle EBS R12
7 37 (1.30%) SAP HCM
8 36 (1.26%) SAP CO
8 36 (1.26%) SAP PSCD
9 34 (1.19%) SAP FI/CO
10 33 (1.16%) SAP EWM
11 32 (1.12%) Dynamics CRM
12 27 (0.95%) Oracle Assets
12 27 (0.95%) SAP Travel Management
13 26 (0.91%) SAP SD
14 25 (0.88%) Oracle General Ledger
15 24 (0.84%) SAP BRIM
16 23 (0.81%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 312 (10.94%) Azure
2 130 (4.56%) Dynamics 365
3 120 (4.21%) Power Platform
4 115 (4.03%) AWS
5 112 (3.93%) OCI
6 77 (2.70%) GCP
7 73 (2.56%) Microsoft 365
8 71 (2.49%) SuccessFactors
9 68 (2.38%) SaaS
10 57 (2.00%) Entra ID
11 47 (1.65%) Power Automate
12 39 (1.37%) Azure DevOps
13 33 (1.16%) Microsoft Copilot
14 31 (1.09%) Microsoft Purview
14 31 (1.09%) PowerApps
15 27 (0.95%) GitHub
16 22 (0.77%) OneDrive
17 19 (0.67%) Azure Data Factory
18 18 (0.63%) SAP Commerce Cloud
19 15 (0.53%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 40 (1.40%) Firewall
2 25 (0.88%) Network Security
3 14 (0.49%) SMS
3 14 (0.49%) VSAN
4 13 (0.46%) Kerberos
4 13 (0.46%) VPN
4 13 (0.46%) WAN
5 12 (0.42%) DNS
5 12 (0.42%) HTTP
6 11 (0.39%) LAN
6 11 (0.39%) SD-WAN
7 10 (0.35%) SAN
7 10 (0.35%) SNMP
7 10 (0.35%) Software-Defined Networking
8 9 (0.32%) FTP
9 8 (0.28%) Intranet
9 8 (0.28%) SSH
9 8 (0.28%) SSL
10 7 (0.25%) DHCP
10 7 (0.25%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (3.05%) Power BI
2 62 (2.17%) Oracle Reports
3 36 (1.26%) SAP HANA
4 27 (0.95%) Metadata
5 26 (0.91%) Tableau
6 25 (0.88%) SQL Server
7 22 (0.77%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 15 (0.53%) Oracle ODI
9 13 (0.46%) SAP BW
10 11 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 9 (0.32%) Electronic Patient Records
12 8 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
12 8 (0.28%) NoSQL
13 7 (0.25%) GIS
14 6 (0.21%) Data Lake
14 6 (0.21%) Data Mart
14 6 (0.21%) Essbase
14 6 (0.21%) PostgreSQL
14 6 (0.21%) Relational Database
14 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 72 (2.52%) JIRA
2 19 (0.67%) Oracle Forms
3 18 (0.63%) Hudson
4 15 (0.53%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.32%) Git
6 7 (0.25%) GitLab
6 7 (0.25%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.14%) LSMW
7 4 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.11%) Postman
8 3 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.070%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.070%) git-flow
9 2 (0.070%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.070%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.070%) Selenium
9 2 (0.070%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.070%) TeamCity
10 1 (0.035%) PeopleTools
10 1 (0.035%) Toad
General
1 670 (23.48%) Social Skills
2 627 (21.98%) Finance
3 264 (9.25%) Analytical Skills
4 244 (8.55%) Public Sector
5 122 (4.28%) Manufacturing
6 106 (3.72%) Banking
7 73 (2.56%) Marketing
8 71 (2.49%) Legal
9 58 (2.03%) Billing
9 58 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
10 45 (1.58%) General Ledger
10 45 (1.58%) Telecoms
11 38 (1.33%) Retail
12 34 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
13 28 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
14 26 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 24 (0.84%) Law
16 21 (0.74%) Pharmaceutical
17 20 (0.70%) Electronics
18 19 (0.67%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (3.08%) Oracle Fusion
2 73 (2.56%) REST
3 62 (2.17%) XML
4 41 (1.44%) SAP Fiori
5 30 (1.05%) LDAP
5 30 (1.05%) SOAP
6 29 (1.02%) SAP TM
6 29 (1.02%) Web Services
7 22 (0.77%) Middleware
8 20 (0.70%) JSON
9 19 (0.67%) BAPI
9 19 (0.67%) Node.js
10 18 (0.63%) SAP Basis
11 17 (0.60%) .NET
12 15 (0.53%) IDoc
13 14 (0.49%) GraphQL
13 14 (0.49%) HTML
14 13 (0.46%) CSS
15 11 (0.39%) EDI
15 11 (0.39%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 68 (2.38%) Onboarding
2 47 (1.65%) Legacy Systems
3 43 (1.51%) Product Ownership
4 39 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
5 38 (1.33%) Security Posture
6 31 (1.09%) Replication
7 27 (0.95%) Data Centre
7 27 (0.95%) Management Information System
8 26 (0.91%) Operational Technology
9 25 (0.88%) Cloud Native
10 23 (0.81%) AI Agents
11 21 (0.74%) Data Structures
12 20 (0.70%) Analytical Mindset
13 19 (0.67%) NHS
14 18 (0.63%) Greenfield Project
15 17 (0.60%) CMDB
15 17 (0.60%) Public Cloud
16 14 (0.49%) Life Science
17 13 (0.46%) Self-Motivation
18 12 (0.42%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 82 (2.87%) Windows
2 52 (1.82%) Linux
3 16 (0.56%) Unix
3 16 (0.56%) VMS
4 14 (0.49%) AIX
5 13 (0.46%) Windows Server
6 11 (0.39%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.21%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.21%) Solaris
8 5 (0.18%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.14%) zOS
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.11%) SUSE
11 2 (0.070%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.070%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.035%) Android
12 1 (0.035%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 395 (13.85%) Migration
2 300 (10.52%) Problem-Solving
3 282 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 253 (8.87%) Stakeholder Management
5 241 (8.45%) ERP
6 204 (7.15%) Workshop Facilitation
7 187 (6.55%) User Acceptance Testing
8 181 (6.34%) Agile
9 171 (5.99%) Roadmaps
10 167 (5.85%) Continuous Improvement
11 161 (5.64%) Data Migration
12 155 (5.43%) Analytics
13 151 (5.29%) Business Intelligence
14 145 (5.08%) Cybersecurity
15 144 (5.05%) Validation
16 128 (4.49%) Knowledge Transfer
17 126 (4.42%) AI
18 115 (4.03%) Risk Management
19 113 (3.96%) Change Management
20 108 (3.79%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 216 (7.57%) SQL
2 127 (4.45%) Python
3 83 (2.91%) PowerShell
4 75 (2.63%) JavaScript
5 53 (1.86%) ABAP
6 43 (1.51%) PL/SQL
7 35 (1.23%) Java
8 32 (1.12%) T-SQL
9 23 (0.81%) TypeScript
10 17 (0.60%) C#
11 15 (0.53%) Groovy
12 14 (0.49%) Bash
13 10 (0.35%) C++
13 10 (0.35%) Shell Script
14 8 (0.28%) Apex Code
14 8 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 8 (0.28%) Search Processing Language
15 7 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
15 7 (0.25%) R
16 5 (0.18%) Korn
Qualifications
1 599 (21.00%) Security Cleared
2 495 (17.35%) SC Cleared
3 97 (3.40%) Degree
4 94 (3.29%) DV Cleared
5 72 (2.52%) BPSS Clearance
6 62 (2.17%) CISSP
7 43 (1.51%) CISM
8 28 (0.98%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 21 (0.74%) CIMA
10 19 (0.67%) Computer Science Degree
11 18 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (0.53%) Master's Degree
12 15 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
13 14 (0.49%) ITIL Certification
14 13 (0.46%) SAP Certification
15 11 (0.39%) Azure Certification
16 10 (0.35%) PMP
17 9 (0.32%) ACCA
17 9 (0.32%) CompTIA Security+
17 9 (0.32%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (3.33%) NIST
2 90 (3.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 61 (2.14%) GDPR
4 56 (1.96%) Data Quality
5 54 (1.89%) GRC
6 45 (1.58%) QA
7 26 (0.91%) NCSC
7 26 (0.91%) PCI DSS
8 22 (0.77%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 21 (0.74%) PMO
10 19 (0.67%) SLA
11 18 (0.63%) Actionable Recommendations
12 17 (0.60%) COBIT
13 14 (0.49%) JSP 440
14 11 (0.39%) PERC
15 10 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27005
16 7 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
16 7 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 7 (0.25%) HL7
16 7 (0.25%) RMADS
System Software
1 64 (2.24%) Active Directory
2 35 (1.23%) VMware NSX
3 33 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 28 (0.98%) Docker
5 27 (0.95%) vSphere
6 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 6 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.14%) IAG
9 3 (0.11%) NFS
9 3 (0.11%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.070%) NDS
10 2 (0.070%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 1 (0.035%) Ceph
11 1 (0.035%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.035%) KVM
11 1 (0.035%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 48 (1.68%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.26%) Terraform
3 33 (1.16%) vRealize
4 20 (0.70%) Microsoft Intune
5 16 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (0.42%) Ansible
7 10 (0.35%) Nagios
7 10 (0.35%) Netcool
7 10 (0.35%) OpenView
7 10 (0.35%) Tivoli
7 10 (0.35%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 10 (0.35%) ZABBIX
8 8 (0.28%) Failover Clustering
8 8 (0.28%) PingFederate
9 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
9 6 (0.21%) Podman
9 6 (0.21%) SCCM
10 5 (0.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (0.14%) Control-M
12 3 (0.11%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 623 (21.84%) SAP
2 324 (11.36%) Oracle
3 290 (10.16%) Microsoft
4 99 (3.47%) VMware
5 93 (3.26%) ServiceNow
6 63 (2.21%) Ariba
7 61 (2.14%) Salesforce
8 54 (1.89%) Workday
9 53 (1.86%) Siemens
10 45 (1.58%) Google
11 43 (1.51%) Cisco
12 37 (1.30%) Aruba
13 29 (1.02%) Databricks
14 26 (0.91%) Splunk
15 23 (0.81%) Adobe
16 21 (0.74%) IBM
17 19 (0.67%) OpenText
18 18 (0.63%) BMC
19 17 (0.60%) Murex
20 16 (0.56%) Sage