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 15 September 2026.

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

6 months to
15 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 3,280 2,210 2,601
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.03% 6.81% 6.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.53% 7.48% 7.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,852 1,292 1,430
10th Percentile £406 £413 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - +1.85%
75th Percentile £650 £644 £650
90th Percentile £744 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £534 £550 £563
% change year-on-year -2.91% -2.22% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 26 24
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.52 £44.75
25th Percentile £48.56 £42.26 £56.24
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 £66.50
90th Percentile £91.88 £84.25 £73.41
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 50,255 29,550 35,480
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.36% 91.04% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,827 18,649 21,961
10th Percentile £325 £278 £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 £620 £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 3,770 1,552 1,702
10th Percentile £14.59 £13.69 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.25 £17.00 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.15 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.59% -41.51% -1.96%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +6.95%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 2,629 £550 - 3,593
UK excluding London -2 1,396 £534 -2.91% 1,753
London -2 1,257 £550 -4.35% 2,163
Work from Home -4 1,076 £550 - 1,930
South East -7 398 £545 -0.91% 353
North of England -12 320 £575 +4.55% 422
Midlands -2 230 £500 -9.09% 236
South West +6 208 £550 -7.56% 250
North West -3 207 £566 -1.65% 281
West Midlands +1 162 £490 -10.91% 195
Scotland +37 128 £452 -9.70% 175
East of England -14 109 £559 +1.55% 147
Yorkshire -8 92 £575 +22.99% 84
East Midlands -5 62 £525 -4.55% 40
Wales -14 22 £550 +10.00% 29
North East -31 20 £750 +37.61% 58
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 - 4
Northern Ireland -6 2 £544 +18.21% 150

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 15 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.

1 708 (21.59%) Security Cleared
2 677 (20.64%) SAP
3 552 (16.83%) Stakeholder Management
4 485 (14.79%) SC Cleared
5 461 (14.05%) Microsoft
6 440 (13.41%) Migration
7 425 (12.96%) Oracle
8 322 (9.82%) Azure
9 297 (9.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 286 (8.72%) SAP S/4HANA
11 283 (8.63%) User Acceptance Testing
12 263 (8.02%) Problem-Solving
13 243 (7.41%) Validation
14 234 (7.13%) ERP
15 232 (7.07%) Workshop Facilitation
16 231 (7.04%) SQL
17 221 (6.74%) Cybersecurity
18 211 (6.43%) Analytics
19 202 (6.16%) Continuous Improvement
20 198 (6.04%) Roadmaps
21 195 (5.95%) Data Migration
22 191 (5.82%) Agile
23 186 (5.67%) AWS
24 182 (5.55%) Requirements Gathering
25 171 (5.21%) AI
26 156 (4.76%) Power Platform
27 151 (4.60%) Business Intelligence
27 151 (4.60%) DV Cleared
28 149 (4.54%) Translating Business Requirements
29 143 (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 42 (1.28%) Confluence
3 31 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (0.37%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.27%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.24%) SAS
6 8 (0.24%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.12%) Apache
8 3 (0.091%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.091%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.091%) Apache Spark
8 3 (0.091%) CMS
8 3 (0.091%) NetWeaver
8 3 (0.091%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.091%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
9 2 (0.061%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.061%) IIS
9 2 (0.061%) Oracle Service Bus
9 2 (0.061%) Smallworld
9 2 (0.061%) WordPress
Applications
1 48 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 31 (0.95%) Microsoft Office
3 25 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.24%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.091%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.091%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.030%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.030%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.030%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 286 (8.72%) SAP S/4HANA
2 92 (2.80%) Oracle EBS
3 73 (2.23%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.49%) SAP PSCD
5 48 (1.46%) Oracle ERP
6 46 (1.40%) Oracle Payables
7 42 (1.28%) SAP CO
8 38 (1.16%) SAP Payroll
9 37 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
9 37 (1.13%) Oracle Receivables
10 35 (1.07%) SAP MM
10 35 (1.07%) SAP SD
10 35 (1.07%) Workday HCM
11 33 (1.01%) SAP FI/CO
11 33 (1.01%) SAP HR
12 32 (0.98%) SAP BRIM
13 30 (0.91%) NetSuite
13 30 (0.91%) Oracle General Ledger
13 30 (0.91%) SAP HCM
14 29 (0.88%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 322 (9.82%) Azure
2 186 (5.67%) AWS
3 156 (4.76%) Power Platform
4 143 (4.36%) Dynamics 365
5 124 (3.78%) OCI
6 108 (3.29%) SuccessFactors
7 100 (3.05%) GCP
8 88 (2.68%) Microsoft 365
9 69 (2.10%) Entra ID
10 67 (2.04%) Power Automate
11 61 (1.86%) Azure DevOps
12 53 (1.62%) Microsoft Copilot
13 44 (1.34%) SaaS
14 33 (1.01%) PowerApps
15 31 (0.95%) Microsoft Purview
16 27 (0.82%) GitHub
17 18 (0.55%) Azure AI
18 17 (0.52%) Snowflake
19 16 (0.49%) Azure Logic Apps
19 16 (0.49%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 67 (2.04%) Firewall
2 66 (2.01%) Network Security
3 35 (1.07%) WAN
4 34 (1.04%) 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%) MPLS
12 11 (0.34%) NGFW
13 10 (0.30%) 3GPP
13 10 (0.30%) 5G
13 10 (0.30%) IPsec
13 10 (0.30%) Radio Access Network
13 10 (0.30%) SD-WAN
14 7 (0.21%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 94 (2.87%) Power BI
2 61 (1.86%) Oracle Reports
3 37 (1.13%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 37 (1.13%) SAP BW
4 36 (1.10%) SAP HANA
5 34 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
6 28 (0.85%) Metadata
6 28 (0.85%) SQL Server
6 28 (0.85%) Tableau
7 20 (0.61%) BusinessObjects
8 17 (0.52%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.46%) Oracle ODI
10 13 (0.40%) SAP Data Services
11 12 (0.37%) Power Query
12 11 (0.34%) Relational Database
13 8 (0.24%) BigQuery
13 8 (0.24%) DynamoDB
13 8 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 7 (0.21%) Looker
15 6 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 93 (2.84%) JIRA
2 26 (0.79%) Git
3 20 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
4 17 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 12 (0.37%) GitLab
6 10 (0.30%) Hudson
7 7 (0.21%) PowerBuilder
7 7 (0.21%) Zephyr
8 6 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.15%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.12%) MLflow
11 3 (0.091%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.091%) JDeveloper
11 3 (0.091%) LoadRunner
11 3 (0.091%) Postman
11 3 (0.091%) Snyk
11 3 (0.091%) TestRail
11 3 (0.091%) Toad
11 3 (0.091%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 734 (22.38%) Social Skills
2 714 (21.77%) Finance
3 248 (7.56%) Public Sector
4 236 (7.20%) Analytical Skills
5 115 (3.51%) Manufacturing
6 97 (2.96%) Banking
7 86 (2.62%) Legal
8 78 (2.38%) Billing
9 77 (2.35%) Documentation Skills
10 68 (2.07%) Telecoms
11 57 (1.74%) General Ledger
12 56 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
13 54 (1.65%) Retail
14 48 (1.46%) Marketing
15 45 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 43 (1.31%) Influencing Skills
17 39 (1.19%) Pharmaceutical
18 28 (0.85%) Local Government
19 24 (0.73%) Law
20 19 (0.58%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 129 (3.93%) Oracle Fusion
2 83 (2.53%) REST
3 63 (1.92%) Terraform
4 49 (1.49%) SAP Fiori
5 38 (1.16%) SOAP
6 36 (1.10%) XML
7 35 (1.07%) Middleware
8 34 (1.04%) Web Services
9 27 (0.82%) SailPoint
10 24 (0.73%) JSON
11 22 (0.67%) LDAP
11 22 (0.67%) OAuth
12 20 (0.61%) HTML
13 19 (0.58%) SAP Basis
14 18 (0.55%) BAPI
14 18 (0.55%) CSS
14 18 (0.55%) SAP PI
15 13 (0.40%) EDI
15 13 (0.40%) NETCONF
15 13 (0.40%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 121 (3.69%) Onboarding
2 56 (1.71%) CMDB
3 48 (1.46%) Data Centre
4 44 (1.34%) Operational Technology
5 42 (1.28%) Data Structures
5 42 (1.28%) Security Posture
6 40 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
6 40 (1.22%) Product Ownership
7 35 (1.07%) Enterprise Software
8 31 (0.95%) Replication
9 30 (0.91%) Legacy Systems
10 26 (0.79%) AI Agents
10 26 (0.79%) Cloud Native
11 23 (0.70%) Life Science
12 21 (0.64%) Public Cloud
13 20 (0.61%) Greenfield Project
13 20 (0.61%) Management Information System
14 18 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
14 18 (0.55%) NHS
15 16 (0.49%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 100 (3.05%) Windows
2 78 (2.38%) 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
1 552 (16.83%) Stakeholder Management
2 440 (13.41%) Migration
3 297 (9.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 283 (8.63%) User Acceptance Testing
5 263 (8.02%) Problem-Solving
6 243 (7.41%) Validation
7 234 (7.13%) ERP
8 232 (7.07%) Workshop Facilitation
9 221 (6.74%) Cybersecurity
10 211 (6.43%) Analytics
11 202 (6.16%) Continuous Improvement
12 198 (6.04%) Roadmaps
13 195 (5.95%) Data Migration
14 191 (5.82%) Agile
15 182 (5.55%) Requirements Gathering
16 171 (5.21%) AI
17 151 (4.60%) Business Intelligence
18 149 (4.54%) Translating Business Requirements
19 139 (4.24%) Knowledge Transfer
20 131 (3.99%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 231 (7.04%) SQL
2 114 (3.48%) Python
3 58 (1.77%) PowerShell
4 55 (1.68%) ABAP
5 51 (1.55%) 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%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 12 (0.37%) Search Processing Language
13 9 (0.27%) T-SQL
13 9 (0.27%) TypeScript
14 8 (0.24%) R
15 7 (0.21%) Shell Script
16 6 (0.18%) Groovy
16 6 (0.18%) Perl
17 5 (0.15%) Korn
18 3 (0.091%) Scala
Qualifications
1 708 (21.59%) Security Cleared
2 485 (14.79%) SC Cleared
3 151 (4.60%) DV Cleared
4 109 (3.32%) BPSS Clearance
5 78 (2.38%) CISSP
6 76 (2.32%) 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
18 10 (0.30%) CEH
18 10 (0.30%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (3.17%) Data Quality
2 92 (2.80%) NIST
3 75 (2.29%) GRC
4 73 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 57 (1.74%) 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%) Actionable Recommendations
11 22 (0.67%) Accessibility
12 20 (0.61%) PCI DSS
13 14 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials
14 13 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 11 (0.34%) GxP
16 10 (0.30%) COBIT
16 10 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 10 (0.30%) NIST 800
17 9 (0.27%) IFRS
18 8 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 85 (2.59%) Active Directory
2 38 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 33 (1.01%) VMware NSX
4 18 (0.55%) Docker
4 18 (0.55%) vSphere
5 13 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (0.37%) Hyper-V
6 12 (0.37%) IAG
7 11 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.12%) Firmware
10 2 (0.061%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.061%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.030%) HDFS
11 1 (0.030%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.030%) oVirt
11 1 (0.030%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.030%) RHEV
11 1 (0.030%) SRDF
11 1 (0.030%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 48 (1.46%) Kubernetes
2 32 (0.98%) Ansible
3 21 (0.64%) SCCM
4 20 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.46%) vRealize
6 14 (0.43%) Grafana
7 13 (0.40%) Nagios
7 13 (0.40%) ZABBIX
8 12 (0.37%) FortiGate
8 12 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
9 11 (0.34%) Netcool
9 11 (0.34%) Tivoli
10 10 (0.30%) OpenView
10 10 (0.30%) Prometheus
10 10 (0.30%) Tivoli Monitoring
10 10 (0.30%) vCenter Server
11 6 (0.18%) VxRail
12 4 (0.12%) CEMLI
12 4 (0.12%) NetBackup
12 4 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 677 (20.64%) SAP
2 461 (14.05%) Microsoft
3 425 (12.96%) Oracle
4 129 (3.93%) ServiceNow
5 79 (2.41%) VMware
6 73 (2.23%) Workday
7 62 (1.89%) Ariba
8 45 (1.37%) Salesforce
9 42 (1.28%) Splunk
10 41 (1.25%) Databricks
11 33 (1.01%) Palo Alto
12 30 (0.91%) Cisco
13 29 (0.88%) BMC
14 26 (0.79%) Google
14 26 (0.79%) OpenText
15 25 (0.76%) CyberArk
15 25 (0.76%) IBM
16 20 (0.61%) Adobe
17 18 (0.55%) Dell
17 18 (0.55%) Veeam