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 22 February 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,646 2,029 2,756
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.49% 6.60% 6.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.07% 7.10% 6.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,495 1,119 1,617
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £482 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £644 £650
90th Percentile £716 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £549
% change year-on-year - +0.18% -0.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 17 37
10th Percentile - £68.00 £40.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.50 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -10.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.25 £86.25
90th Percentile £79.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.79
% change year-on-year -31.34% +35.54% -4.46%

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 37,410 28,560 41,523
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.75% 92.90% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,490 17,819 27,326
10th Percentile £306 £290 £275
25th Percentile £406 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,280 830 2,340
10th Percentile £14.63 £16.25 £13.16
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.50 £16.45
Median hourly rate £31.76 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.27% - -10.26%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.31 £60.06
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £35.95
% change year-on-year -7.69% -9.60% +0.84%

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 22 February 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 22 February 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 22 February 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 2,055 £550 - 1,081
UK excluding London -1 1,070 £550 - 805
Work from Home 0 995 £525 -4.55% 438
London -4 949 £550 -4.35% 546
South East +1 283 £535 -2.73% 341
North of England -11 263 £595 +9.17% 189
Midlands -12 207 £550 +4.76% 76
North West -4 152 £625 +15.74% 121
West Midlands -9 152 £563 +5.88% 53
South West +15 139 £575 +4.55% 100
Yorkshire -7 101 £550 +2.33% 53
East of England +3 96 £550 - 45
Scotland -4 51 £520 -5.45% 22
East Midlands -18 51 £500 -3.85% 22
Wales +8 28 £405 -16.92% 19
Northern Ireland +2 12 £405 -22.86% 24
North East -33 10 £525 -7.08% 16

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 22 February 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.

1 659 (24.91%) SAP
2 631 (23.85%) Security Cleared
3 532 (20.11%) SC Cleared
4 387 (14.63%) Migration
5 351 (13.27%) SAP S/4HANA
6 308 (11.64%) Problem-Solving
7 296 (11.19%) Azure
8 294 (11.11%) Microsoft
9 284 (10.73%) Oracle
10 278 (10.51%) Stakeholder Management
11 273 (10.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 225 (8.50%) ERP
13 211 (7.97%) Workshop Facilitation
14 177 (6.69%) User Acceptance Testing
15 167 (6.31%) Agile
15 167 (6.31%) Data Migration
16 158 (5.97%) Analytics
17 152 (5.74%) Roadmaps
18 146 (5.52%) SQL
19 144 (5.44%) Business Intelligence
19 144 (5.44%) Knowledge Transfer
20 139 (5.25%) Dynamics 365
21 134 (5.06%) Validation
22 124 (4.69%) Cybersecurity
23 117 (4.42%) Continuous Improvement
24 115 (4.35%) Power Platform
24 115 (4.35%) Python
25 113 (4.27%) AI
26 107 (4.04%) DevOps
27 106 (4.01%) Degree

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 65 (2.46%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.13%) Confluence
2 30 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
3 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
4 5 (0.19%) CMS
4 5 (0.19%) MTS
4 5 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 3 (0.11%) ArcGIS
5 3 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.076%) Apache
6 2 (0.076%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.076%) IIS
6 2 (0.076%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.038%) LiveCycle
7 1 (0.038%) SAS
7 1 (0.038%) SharePoint 2010
7 1 (0.038%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.038%) Tomcat
Applications
1 38 (1.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.53%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.42%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.23%) Oracle Smart View
6 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.19%) PTC Creo
7 4 (0.15%) Navisworks
7 4 (0.15%) Revit
7 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.11%) ProjectWise
9 2 (0.076%) Lectora
10 1 (0.038%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.038%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.038%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.038%) CATIA
10 1 (0.038%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.038%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.038%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.038%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 351 (13.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 68 (2.57%) SAP FI
3 56 (2.12%) Oracle EBS
4 52 (1.97%) SAP MM
5 49 (1.85%) Oracle Payables
6 47 (1.78%) Oracle Receivables
7 45 (1.70%) SAP HCM
8 42 (1.59%) SAP CO
9 40 (1.51%) SAP EWM
10 39 (1.47%) Dynamics CRM
10 39 (1.47%) SAP FI/CO
11 38 (1.44%) SAP PP
12 37 (1.40%) Oracle General Ledger
13 36 (1.36%) Oracle EBS R12
14 32 (1.21%) SAP PSCD
15 30 (1.13%) Oracle Assets
15 30 (1.13%) SAP Travel Management
16 28 (1.06%) SAP Payroll
17 25 (0.94%) Oracle Cash Management
17 25 (0.94%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 296 (11.19%) Azure
2 139 (5.25%) Dynamics 365
3 115 (4.35%) Power Platform
4 104 (3.93%) OCI
5 102 (3.85%) AWS
6 84 (3.17%) Microsoft 365
7 76 (2.87%) GCP
8 68 (2.57%) SaaS
9 62 (2.34%) Entra ID
10 47 (1.78%) SuccessFactors
11 41 (1.55%) Power Automate
12 34 (1.28%) Microsoft Copilot
13 31 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
13 31 (1.17%) PowerApps
14 30 (1.13%) Microsoft Purview
15 24 (0.91%) OneDrive
16 22 (0.83%) GitHub
17 19 (0.72%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 18 (0.68%) Serverless
19 17 (0.64%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 47 (1.78%) Firewall
2 19 (0.72%) VPN
3 14 (0.53%) DNS
3 14 (0.53%) Network Security
4 13 (0.49%) HTTP
4 13 (0.49%) Kerberos
5 12 (0.45%) SMS
5 12 (0.45%) WAN
6 11 (0.42%) DHCP
7 10 (0.38%) SSL
7 10 (0.38%) VSAN
8 9 (0.34%) SD-WAN
8 9 (0.34%) Software-Defined Networking
8 9 (0.34%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.30%) FTP
9 8 (0.30%) Intranet
9 8 (0.30%) SAN
10 7 (0.26%) Cisco IPT
10 7 (0.26%) LAN
11 6 (0.23%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (3.06%) Power BI
2 48 (1.81%) SAP HANA
3 43 (1.63%) Oracle Reports
4 24 (0.91%) SQL Server
5 22 (0.83%) Metadata
5 22 (0.83%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 13 (0.49%) Data Warehouse
6 13 (0.49%) SAP BW
7 12 (0.45%) PostgreSQL
8 11 (0.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 11 (0.42%) Tableau
9 10 (0.38%) NoSQL
10 8 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
10 8 (0.30%) GIS
10 8 (0.30%) Oracle Database
11 6 (0.23%) Data Lake
11 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
11 6 (0.23%) DB2
11 6 (0.23%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.23%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 61 (2.31%) JIRA
2 18 (0.68%) Jenkins
3 13 (0.49%) Hudson
4 12 (0.45%) Git
4 12 (0.45%) Oracle Forms
5 9 (0.34%) GitLab
6 7 (0.26%) Oracle APEX
7 6 (0.23%) Postman
8 4 (0.15%) LSMW
9 3 (0.11%) JUnit
10 2 (0.076%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.076%) git-flow
10 2 (0.076%) Mockito
10 2 (0.076%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.076%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.076%) Selenium
10 2 (0.076%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.076%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.076%) Tricentis qTest
10 2 (0.076%) Visual Studio
General
1 699 (26.42%) Social Skills
2 570 (21.54%) Finance
3 249 (9.41%) Public Sector
4 244 (9.22%) Analytical Skills
5 123 (4.65%) Manufacturing
6 95 (3.59%) Banking
7 77 (2.91%) Documentation Skills
8 76 (2.87%) Marketing
9 63 (2.38%) Billing
10 59 (2.23%) Legal
11 48 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
12 45 (1.70%) General Ledger
13 41 (1.55%) Telecoms
14 33 (1.25%) Retail
15 28 (1.06%) Law
16 27 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
16 27 (1.02%) Pharmaceutical
17 21 (0.79%) Aerospace
18 20 (0.76%) Financial Institution
19 17 (0.64%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 92 (3.48%) Oracle Fusion
2 66 (2.49%) REST
3 63 (2.38%) SAP Fiori
4 46 (1.74%) Web Services
5 38 (1.44%) SAP TM
6 36 (1.36%) SOAP
7 33 (1.25%) XML
8 28 (1.06%) BAPI
9 27 (1.02%) Node.js
10 26 (0.98%) LDAP
11 22 (0.83%) Middleware
12 19 (0.72%) SAP PI
13 18 (0.68%) GraphQL
14 17 (0.64%) JSON
15 15 (0.57%) .NET
15 15 (0.57%) IDoc
16 14 (0.53%) HTML
17 13 (0.49%) SAP Basis
18 12 (0.45%) EDI
18 12 (0.45%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 66 (2.49%) Onboarding
2 59 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
3 39 (1.47%) Product Ownership
3 39 (1.47%) Security Posture
4 30 (1.13%) Data Centre
4 30 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
5 29 (1.10%) Cloud Native
6 26 (0.98%) Management Information System
7 25 (0.94%) Operational Technology
8 24 (0.91%) Greenfield Project
8 24 (0.91%) Replication
9 22 (0.83%) Data Structures
10 19 (0.72%) AI Agents
11 18 (0.68%) Analytical Mindset
12 16 (0.60%) NHS
13 15 (0.57%) Life Science
13 15 (0.57%) Public Cloud
14 14 (0.53%) Hybrid Cloud
14 14 (0.53%) Self-Motivation
15 11 (0.42%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 73 (2.76%) Windows
2 42 (1.59%) Linux
3 20 (0.76%) Unix
4 14 (0.53%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.34%) Mac OS
5 9 (0.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (0.34%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.19%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.19%) VMS
7 4 (0.15%) AIX
7 4 (0.15%) Solaris
7 4 (0.15%) zOS
8 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.076%) SUSE
9 2 (0.076%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 2 (0.076%) Windows Server 2003
9 2 (0.076%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.038%) CentOS
10 1 (0.038%) CoreOS
10 1 (0.038%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 387 (14.63%) Migration
2 308 (11.64%) Problem-Solving
3 278 (10.51%) Stakeholder Management
4 273 (10.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 225 (8.50%) ERP
6 211 (7.97%) Workshop Facilitation
7 177 (6.69%) User Acceptance Testing
8 167 (6.31%) Agile
8 167 (6.31%) Data Migration
9 158 (5.97%) Analytics
10 152 (5.74%) Roadmaps
11 144 (5.44%) Business Intelligence
11 144 (5.44%) Knowledge Transfer
12 134 (5.06%) Validation
13 124 (4.69%) Cybersecurity
14 117 (4.42%) Continuous Improvement
15 113 (4.27%) AI
16 107 (4.04%) DevOps
17 106 (4.01%) Risk Management
18 104 (3.93%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 146 (5.52%) SQL
2 115 (4.35%) Python
3 88 (3.33%) PowerShell
4 83 (3.14%) JavaScript
5 72 (2.72%) ABAP
6 34 (1.28%) Java
7 30 (1.13%) TypeScript
8 22 (0.83%) Groovy
9 21 (0.79%) PL/SQL
10 16 (0.60%) C#
11 14 (0.53%) Bash
12 10 (0.38%) Shell Script
13 8 (0.30%) Apex Code
13 8 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.26%) C++
14 7 (0.26%) Kusto Query Language
15 5 (0.19%) Bicep
15 5 (0.19%) Korn
16 4 (0.15%) Ruby
16 4 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 631 (23.85%) Security Cleared
2 532 (20.11%) SC Cleared
3 106 (4.01%) Degree
4 76 (2.87%) DV Cleared
5 63 (2.38%) BPSS Clearance
6 47 (1.78%) CISSP
7 36 (1.36%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 32 (1.21%) CISM
9 20 (0.76%) SAP Certification
10 19 (0.72%) Master's Degree
11 17 (0.64%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (0.64%) Computer Science Degree
12 16 (0.60%) CIMA
13 15 (0.57%) Microsoft Certification
14 11 (0.42%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (0.30%) AWS Certification
15 8 (0.30%) CCNP
15 8 (0.30%) CESG Certified Professional
16 6 (0.23%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 6 (0.23%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (3.17%) NIST
2 77 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 69 (2.61%) GDPR
4 52 (1.97%) Data Quality
5 50 (1.89%) QA
6 38 (1.44%) GRC
7 22 (0.83%) Actionable Recommendations
8 21 (0.79%) NCSC
9 19 (0.72%) SLA
10 17 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 16 (0.60%) PMO
12 14 (0.53%) PCI DSS
13 11 (0.42%) COBIT
13 11 (0.42%) PERC
14 9 (0.34%) JSP 440
15 7 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
15 7 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 7 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27005
16 6 (0.23%) Accessibility
16 6 (0.23%) HIPAA
System Software
1 69 (2.61%) Active Directory
2 38 (1.44%) Docker
3 32 (1.21%) VMware Infrastructure
4 29 (1.10%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.79%) vSphere
6 8 (0.30%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 6 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.19%) NDS
8 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 5 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.076%) NFS
10 1 (0.038%) Ceph
10 1 (0.038%) IAG
10 1 (0.038%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.038%) KVM
10 1 (0.038%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.038%) QEMU
10 1 (0.038%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.038%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 54 (2.04%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.40%) vRealize
3 32 (1.21%) Terraform
4 21 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.57%) Ansible
7 10 (0.38%) Failover Clustering
7 10 (0.38%) PingFederate
8 7 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 7 (0.26%) SCCM
9 6 (0.23%) Podman
10 5 (0.19%) Grafana
11 4 (0.15%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.15%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.15%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.11%) CEMLI
12 3 (0.11%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.11%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.11%) vMotion
13 2 (0.076%) Puppet
Vendors
1 659 (24.91%) SAP
2 294 (11.11%) Microsoft
3 284 (10.73%) Oracle
4 95 (3.59%) VMware
5 76 (2.87%) ServiceNow
6 58 (2.19%) Salesforce
7 56 (2.12%) CyberArk
7 56 (2.12%) Workday
8 55 (2.08%) Ariba
9 51 (1.93%) Cisco
10 48 (1.81%) Siemens
11 41 (1.55%) Google
12 36 (1.36%) Aruba
13 33 (1.25%) Adobe
14 20 (0.76%) Databricks
15 19 (0.72%) OpenText
16 14 (0.53%) Murex
16 14 (0.53%) Sage
17 13 (0.49%) IFS
18 12 (0.45%) Dynatrace