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 16 January 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 29 27
Rank change year-on-year +2 -2 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,546 2,096 2,607
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.85% 6.58% 6.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.49% 7.09% 6.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,476 1,138 1,507
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £466 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £750 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £525
% change year-on-year - +4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 13 38
10th Percentile £41.06 £56.30 £42.50
25th Percentile £60.00 £68.00 £59.06
Median hourly rate £70.50 £74.75 £64.15
Median % change year-on-year -5.69% +16.53% -8.36%
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.00 £86.81
90th Percentile £84.63 £87.25 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £74.75 £62.75
% change year-on-year +3.68% +19.12% -0.40%

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 33,987 29,559 39,694
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.39% 92.78% 93.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,524 18,135 26,394
10th Percentile £300 £288 £280
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,986 889 1,685
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.61 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.22 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +21.43%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.52 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.21% -29.96% +53.85%

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 16 January 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 16 January 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 16 January 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 1,984 £553 +0.45% 988
UK excluding London +2 1,029 £550 - 778
Work from Home +2 923 £538 -2.27% 447
London -3 923 £575 +4.55% 396
North of England -5 277 £595 +8.18% 153
South East -1 276 £545 -0.91% 299
Midlands -16 170 £531 +1.19% 77
North West +1 168 £623 +15.71% 88
West Midlands -8 134 £538 +2.38% 50
South West +8 111 £588 +11.90% 143
Yorkshire +7 100 £550 -12.00% 51
East of England -1 91 £550 -4.35% 68
Scotland +14 68 £508 -7.73% 14
East Midlands -28 35 £524 +0.72% 27
Wales +11 29 £426 -22.55% 20
Northern Ireland +3 12 £405 -22.86% 15
North East -21 9 £620 +3.33% 15
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 3

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 January 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.

1 665 (26.12%) SAP
2 645 (25.33%) Security Cleared
3 539 (21.17%) SC Cleared
4 358 (14.06%) Migration
5 347 (13.63%) SAP S/4HANA
6 319 (12.53%) Problem-Solving
7 308 (12.10%) Oracle
8 307 (12.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 298 (11.70%) Stakeholder Management
10 268 (10.53%) Microsoft
11 249 (9.78%) Azure
12 202 (7.93%) Workshop Facilitation
13 190 (7.46%) Agile
14 183 (7.19%) ERP
15 176 (6.91%) User Acceptance Testing
16 165 (6.48%) Analytics
17 158 (6.21%) Data Migration
18 154 (6.05%) Roadmaps
19 151 (5.93%) SQL
20 148 (5.81%) Knowledge Transfer
21 139 (5.46%) Validation
22 133 (5.22%) Business Intelligence
23 130 (5.11%) Cybersecurity
24 127 (4.99%) DevOps
25 123 (4.83%) Dynamics 365
26 118 (4.63%) Risk Management
27 117 (4.60%) Python
28 113 (4.44%) AWS
29 109 (4.28%) Power Platform
30 106 (4.16%) Continuous Improvement

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 60 (2.36%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
3 28 (1.10%) Confluence
4 6 (0.24%) CMS
4 6 (0.24%) NetWeaver
5 5 (0.20%) Jupyter
5 5 (0.20%) MTS
6 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
6 4 (0.16%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.12%) Oracle Service Bus
8 2 (0.079%) Apache
8 2 (0.079%) IIS
8 2 (0.079%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
9 1 (0.039%) nginx
9 1 (0.039%) WebSphere
Applications
1 45 (1.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.31%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.16%) Revit
6 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
8 2 (0.079%) PTC Creo
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
9 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.039%) InVision
9 1 (0.039%) Sketch
9 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 347 (13.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 78 (3.06%) Oracle EBS
3 59 (2.32%) Oracle Payables
3 59 (2.32%) SAP FI
4 52 (2.04%) SAP EWM
5 50 (1.96%) Oracle Receivables
6 49 (1.92%) SAP HCM
6 49 (1.92%) SAP MM
7 48 (1.89%) Oracle EBS R12
8 45 (1.77%) Oracle General Ledger
9 42 (1.65%) SAP PP
10 39 (1.53%) Oracle Cash Management
10 39 (1.53%) SAP CO
11 36 (1.41%) Dynamics CRM
11 36 (1.41%) SAP FI/CO
12 35 (1.37%) Oracle Assets
13 33 (1.30%) SAP Payroll
13 33 (1.30%) SAP WM
14 25 (0.98%) Oracle Financials
14 25 (0.98%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 249 (9.78%) Azure
2 123 (4.83%) Dynamics 365
3 113 (4.44%) AWS
4 109 (4.28%) Power Platform
5 98 (3.85%) OCI
6 76 (2.99%) GCP
7 65 (2.55%) Microsoft 365
8 58 (2.28%) SaaS
9 55 (2.16%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.53%) SuccessFactors
11 35 (1.37%) Power Automate
12 34 (1.34%) Azure DevOps
13 29 (1.14%) PowerApps
14 25 (0.98%) Microsoft Copilot
15 20 (0.79%) GitHub
15 20 (0.79%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (0.75%) OneDrive
17 17 (0.67%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 17 (0.67%) Serverless
18 16 (0.63%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 49 (1.92%) Firewall
2 19 (0.75%) DNS
3 18 (0.71%) VPN
4 17 (0.67%) WAN
5 16 (0.63%) Network Security
6 15 (0.59%) SD-WAN
7 14 (0.55%) Kerberos
8 13 (0.51%) HTTP
9 12 (0.47%) DHCP
9 12 (0.47%) SSL
10 10 (0.39%) SMS
10 10 (0.39%) TCP/IP
11 9 (0.35%) Intranet
11 9 (0.35%) SSH
12 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
12 7 (0.27%) LAN
12 7 (0.27%) SAN
13 6 (0.24%) BGP
13 6 (0.24%) Software-Defined Networking
13 6 (0.24%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (2.99%) Power BI
2 50 (1.96%) Oracle Reports
3 45 (1.77%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.34%) SQL Server
5 25 (0.98%) Metadata
6 21 (0.82%) SAP BW
7 20 (0.79%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 16 (0.63%) Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.55%) SAP Data Services
10 13 (0.51%) PostgreSQL
11 10 (0.39%) NoSQL
11 10 (0.39%) Oracle Database
11 10 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 10 (0.39%) Tableau
12 9 (0.35%) DB2
13 7 (0.27%) Electronic Patient Records
14 6 (0.24%) DynamoDB
15 5 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
15 5 (0.20%) MongoDB
15 5 (0.20%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 61 (2.40%) JIRA
2 21 (0.82%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.75%) Git
4 16 (0.63%) GitLab
5 10 (0.39%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.31%) Hudson
6 8 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
7 5 (0.20%) LSMW
7 5 (0.20%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
9 3 (0.12%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.12%) JUnit
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
10 2 (0.079%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.079%) git-flow
10 2 (0.079%) Mockito
10 2 (0.079%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.079%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.079%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.079%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 720 (28.28%) Social Skills
2 579 (22.74%) Finance
3 238 (9.35%) Public Sector
4 226 (8.88%) Analytical Skills
5 148 (5.81%) Manufacturing
6 90 (3.53%) Banking
7 81 (3.18%) Documentation Skills
8 69 (2.71%) Marketing
9 58 (2.28%) Presentation Skills
10 56 (2.20%) Billing
11 51 (2.00%) Legal
12 41 (1.61%) General Ledger
12 41 (1.61%) Telecoms
13 31 (1.22%) Pharmaceutical
13 31 (1.22%) Retail
14 27 (1.06%) Law
15 23 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 22 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
17 21 (0.82%) Electronics
18 20 (0.79%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (3.22%) Oracle Fusion
2 73 (2.87%) REST
3 70 (2.75%) SAP Fiori
4 46 (1.81%) Web Services
5 42 (1.65%) SOAP
6 38 (1.49%) XML
7 30 (1.18%) Node.js
7 30 (1.18%) SAP TM
8 28 (1.10%) LDAP
9 23 (0.90%) JSON
9 23 (0.90%) Middleware
10 21 (0.82%) HTML
11 20 (0.79%) BAPI
11 20 (0.79%) SAP PI
12 18 (0.71%) GraphQL
13 16 (0.63%) CSS
13 16 (0.63%) OAuth
14 15 (0.59%) SAP Basis
15 14 (0.55%) .NET
15 14 (0.55%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 77 (3.02%) Onboarding
2 61 (2.40%) Legacy Systems
3 45 (1.77%) Product Ownership
4 36 (1.41%) Security Posture
5 31 (1.22%) Cloud Native
5 31 (1.22%) Data Centre
6 29 (1.14%) Management Information System
7 24 (0.94%) Data Protection Act
7 24 (0.94%) Replication
8 23 (0.90%) Data Structures
9 19 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
10 18 (0.71%) Hybrid Cloud
11 16 (0.63%) Analytical Mindset
12 15 (0.59%) Operational Technology
13 14 (0.55%) NHS
14 11 (0.43%) Life Science
15 10 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
15 10 (0.39%) FMCG
15 10 (0.39%) IoT
15 10 (0.39%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 73 (2.87%) Windows
2 52 (2.04%) Linux
3 22 (0.86%) Unix
4 13 (0.51%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.39%) Mac OS
7 9 (0.35%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.27%) AIX
8 7 (0.27%) Solaris
9 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) VMS
11 2 (0.079%) CentOS
11 2 (0.079%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.079%) zOS
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) SUSE
12 1 (0.039%) tvOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 358 (14.06%) Migration
2 319 (12.53%) Problem-Solving
3 307 (12.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 298 (11.70%) Stakeholder Management
5 202 (7.93%) Workshop Facilitation
6 190 (7.46%) Agile
7 183 (7.19%) ERP
8 176 (6.91%) User Acceptance Testing
9 165 (6.48%) Analytics
10 158 (6.21%) Data Migration
11 154 (6.05%) Roadmaps
12 148 (5.81%) Knowledge Transfer
13 139 (5.46%) Validation
14 133 (5.22%) Business Intelligence
15 130 (5.11%) Cybersecurity
16 127 (4.99%) DevOps
17 118 (4.63%) Risk Management
18 106 (4.16%) Continuous Improvement
19 100 (3.93%) Data Modelling
19 100 (3.93%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 151 (5.93%) SQL
2 117 (4.60%) Python
3 88 (3.46%) PowerShell
4 80 (3.14%) JavaScript
5 73 (2.87%) ABAP
6 43 (1.69%) Java
7 30 (1.18%) Groovy
8 28 (1.10%) TypeScript
9 26 (1.02%) PL/SQL
10 17 (0.67%) Bash
11 14 (0.55%) C#
12 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
13 7 (0.27%) Apex Code
13 7 (0.27%) C++
13 7 (0.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 7 (0.27%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.24%) R
14 6 (0.24%) VBA
15 5 (0.20%) Bicep
16 4 (0.16%) Go
Qualifications
1 645 (25.33%) Security Cleared
2 539 (21.17%) SC Cleared
3 101 (3.97%) Degree
4 82 (3.22%) DV Cleared
5 79 (3.10%) BPSS Clearance
6 54 (2.12%) CISSP
7 37 (1.45%) CISM
8 29 (1.14%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 27 (1.06%) SAP Certification
10 17 (0.67%) CIMA
10 17 (0.67%) Cisco Certification
10 17 (0.67%) Microsoft Certification
11 14 (0.55%) Computer Science Degree
11 14 (0.55%) Master's Degree
12 13 (0.51%) ACCA
13 11 (0.43%) AWS Certification
13 11 (0.43%) CCNP
14 9 (0.35%) CESG Certified Professional
14 9 (0.35%) CISA
15 8 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (2.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 74 (2.91%) NIST
3 71 (2.79%) GDPR
4 53 (2.08%) QA
5 45 (1.77%) Data Quality
6 40 (1.57%) GRC
7 21 (0.82%) NCSC
8 20 (0.79%) SLA
9 17 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
10 14 (0.55%) PMO
11 13 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 12 (0.47%) PCI DSS
13 11 (0.43%) PERC
14 9 (0.35%) COBIT
15 8 (0.31%) Accessibility
15 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
15 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 8 (0.31%) HIPAA
15 8 (0.31%) IFRS
15 8 (0.31%) JSP 440
System Software
1 73 (2.87%) Active Directory
2 45 (1.77%) Docker
3 35 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
4 25 (0.98%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.75%) vSphere
6 8 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.24%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.20%) NDS
8 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 5 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.079%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.039%) Ceph
11 1 (0.039%) Firmware
11 1 (0.039%) KVM
11 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.039%) QEMU
11 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 61 (2.40%) Kubernetes
2 39 (1.53%) Terraform
3 30 (1.18%) vRealize
4 23 (0.90%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.71%) Ansible
5 18 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (0.47%) Grafana
7 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
7 11 (0.43%) SCCM
8 10 (0.39%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.27%) Failover Clustering
10 6 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 6 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
11 5 (0.20%) Podman
12 4 (0.16%) CASB
13 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
13 3 (0.12%) Nessus
14 2 (0.079%) Nexpose
Vendors
1 665 (26.12%) SAP
2 308 (12.10%) Oracle
3 268 (10.53%) Microsoft
4 91 (3.57%) VMware
5 76 (2.99%) ServiceNow
6 64 (2.51%) Workday
7 58 (2.28%) CyberArk
8 57 (2.24%) Salesforce
9 55 (2.16%) Cisco
10 54 (2.12%) Ariba
11 39 (1.53%) Google
12 35 (1.37%) Aruba
13 34 (1.34%) Adobe
14 23 (0.90%) OpenText
15 19 (0.75%) Databricks
16 18 (0.71%) Dynatrace
17 15 (0.59%) Dell
18 14 (0.55%) Remedy
19 13 (0.51%) Murex
20 12 (0.47%) Splunk