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 8 October 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 24 27
Rank change year-on-year -6 +3 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,244 2,384 2,592
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.95% 7.21% 6.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.46% 7.94% 7.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,819 1,378 1,388
10th Percentile £413 £411 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £652 £650 £650
90th Percentile £745 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £564
% change year-on-year - -2.44% +7.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 27 24
10th Percentile £35.60 £28.72 £45.38
25th Percentile £41.25 £42.92 £60.29
Median hourly rate £74.00 £77.50 £62.30
Median % change year-on-year -4.52% +24.40% -8.04%
75th Percentile £85.40 £81.25 £70.89
90th Percentile £90.75 £86.50 £74.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -9.08%

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 50,211 30,029 35,202
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.06% 90.85% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,500 18,931 21,295
10th Percentile £325 £276 £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 £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £737 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,030 1,622 1,502
10th Percentile £14.36 £13.75 £14.86
25th Percentile £19.40 £17.30 £20.50
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +65.84% -40.82% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.19 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.78 £68.52 £74.86
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.34% -41.69% -3.37%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 8 October 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 -5 2,602 £550 -2.22% 3,550
UK excluding London -11 1,340 £550 - 1,756
London -4 1,272 £550 -4.35% 1,910
Work from Home -4 1,055 £550 - 1,752
South East -5 378 £525 -4.55% 430
North of England -22 340 £576 -3.96% 450
North West -15 224 £585 -5.65% 255
Midlands -6 221 £501 -12.96% 234
South West +8 189 £600 +4.35% 211
West Midlands -2 159 £500 -13.04% 165
Scotland +17 118 £500 - 156
East of England -18 107 £559 +1.55% 167
Yorkshire -25 88 £575 +19.79% 103
East Midlands -9 56 £525 -7.69% 69
North East -18 27 £750 +36.36% 92
Wales -23 16 £575 +29.58% 44
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 - 3
Northern Ireland -7 1 £638 +22.60% 75

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 8 October 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.

1 698 (21.52%) Security Cleared
2 639 (19.70%) SAP
3 613 (18.90%) Stakeholder Management
4 485 (14.95%) Microsoft
5 474 (14.61%) SC Cleared
6 449 (13.84%) Migration
7 389 (11.99%) Oracle
8 322 (9.93%) Azure
9 297 (9.16%) User Acceptance Testing
10 295 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 289 (8.91%) SAP S/4HANA
12 281 (8.66%) Problem-Solving
13 262 (8.08%) Validation
14 258 (7.95%) Workshop Facilitation
15 255 (7.86%) Cybersecurity
16 226 (6.97%) ERP
17 223 (6.87%) Analytics
18 212 (6.54%) SQL
19 204 (6.29%) Data Migration
20 200 (6.17%) Roadmaps
21 196 (6.04%) Continuous Improvement
21 196 (6.04%) Requirements Gathering
22 182 (5.61%) Agile
23 171 (5.27%) AI
24 170 (5.24%) AWS
25 168 (5.18%) Knowledge Transfer
26 157 (4.84%) Power Platform
27 150 (4.62%) Business Intelligence
28 148 (4.56%) DV Cleared
29 146 (4.50%) 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 71 (2.19%) SharePoint
2 46 (1.42%) Confluence
3 31 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
4 8 (0.25%) SAS
4 8 (0.25%) WebSphere
5 7 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
5 7 (0.22%) WebLogic
6 5 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.12%) Apache
7 4 (0.12%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.12%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.12%) CMS
8 3 (0.092%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.092%) IIS
8 3 (0.092%) NetWeaver
8 3 (0.092%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.092%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 3 (0.092%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
9 2 (0.062%) SAP Portal
9 2 (0.062%) WordPress
Applications
1 50 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.02%) Microsoft Office
3 29 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.31%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.031%) 1Password
7 1 (0.031%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.031%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.031%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.031%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.031%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 289 (8.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 83 (2.56%) Oracle EBS
3 79 (2.44%) SAP FI
4 57 (1.76%) SAP Payroll
5 50 (1.54%) SAP PSCD
6 46 (1.42%) Oracle ERP
7 44 (1.36%) SAP CO
7 44 (1.36%) SAP HCM
8 42 (1.29%) Oracle Payables
8 42 (1.29%) Oracle Receivables
8 42 (1.29%) Workday HCM
9 41 (1.26%) Oracle General Ledger
10 36 (1.11%) Dynamics CRM
10 36 (1.11%) SAP HR
11 35 (1.08%) SAP BRIM
11 35 (1.08%) SAP FI/CO
12 33 (1.02%) SAP SD
13 28 (0.86%) NetSuite
14 27 (0.83%) SAP FI-CA
15 25 (0.77%) Oracle Financials
Cloud Services
1 322 (9.93%) Azure
2 170 (5.24%) AWS
3 157 (4.84%) Power Platform
4 146 (4.50%) Dynamics 365
5 108 (3.33%) OCI
6 104 (3.21%) SuccessFactors
7 95 (2.93%) GCP
8 90 (2.77%) Microsoft 365
9 77 (2.37%) Entra ID
10 67 (2.07%) Azure DevOps
11 60 (1.85%) Power Automate
12 54 (1.66%) Microsoft Copilot
13 50 (1.54%) SaaS
14 35 (1.08%) PowerApps
15 31 (0.96%) Microsoft Purview
16 24 (0.74%) GitHub
17 22 (0.68%) Snowflake
18 19 (0.59%) Azure AI
19 17 (0.52%) SAP Commerce Cloud
20 16 (0.49%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 73 (2.25%) Network Security
2 70 (2.16%) Firewall
3 34 (1.05%) BGP
4 33 (1.02%) WAN
5 26 (0.80%) VPN
6 19 (0.59%) DNS
7 15 (0.46%) LAN
7 15 (0.46%) SNMP
8 14 (0.43%) Ethernet VPN
9 13 (0.40%) SAN
9 13 (0.40%) TCP/IP
10 12 (0.37%) IPsec
10 12 (0.37%) VXLAN
11 11 (0.34%) MPLS
11 11 (0.34%) NGFW
12 10 (0.31%) 3GPP
12 10 (0.31%) 5G
12 10 (0.31%) FTP
12 10 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
13 8 (0.25%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 94 (2.90%) Power BI
2 41 (1.26%) Oracle Reports
3 38 (1.17%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 35 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
4 35 (1.08%) SAP HANA
5 34 (1.05%) SAP BW
6 30 (0.92%) SQL Server
7 28 (0.86%) Metadata
8 24 (0.74%) Tableau
9 23 (0.71%) BusinessObjects
10 18 (0.55%) Power Query
11 17 (0.52%) Oracle Database
12 13 (0.40%) Elasticsearch
13 10 (0.31%) Amazon RDS
13 10 (0.31%) BigQuery
13 10 (0.31%) Relational Database
14 9 (0.28%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.28%) SAP Data Services
15 7 (0.22%) Data Lake
15 7 (0.22%) Looker
Development Applications
1 95 (2.93%) JIRA
2 32 (0.99%) Git
3 19 (0.59%) Jenkins
4 14 (0.43%) GitLab
5 10 (0.31%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.25%) SonarQube
7 7 (0.22%) PowerBuilder
7 7 (0.22%) Zephyr
8 6 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.15%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.15%) Hudson
10 4 (0.12%) Maven
11 3 (0.092%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.092%) JDeveloper
11 3 (0.092%) JMeter
11 3 (0.092%) LoadRunner
11 3 (0.092%) MLflow
11 3 (0.092%) Postman
11 3 (0.092%) Snyk
11 3 (0.092%) Toad
General
1 748 (23.06%) Social Skills
2 735 (22.66%) Finance
3 271 (8.35%) Public Sector
4 248 (7.64%) Analytical Skills
5 138 (4.25%) Manufacturing
6 100 (3.08%) Banking
7 93 (2.87%) Legal
8 91 (2.81%) Billing
9 85 (2.62%) Documentation Skills
10 70 (2.16%) Telecoms
11 60 (1.85%) General Ledger
12 59 (1.82%) Retail
13 55 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
14 45 (1.39%) Marketing
15 40 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
16 39 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 37 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
18 33 (1.02%) Local Government
19 25 (0.77%) Law
20 21 (0.65%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 130 (4.01%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.19%) REST
3 62 (1.91%) Terraform
4 46 (1.42%) SAP Fiori
5 40 (1.23%) Middleware
5 40 (1.23%) Web Services
6 38 (1.17%) SOAP
7 37 (1.14%) XML
8 26 (0.80%) SailPoint
9 21 (0.65%) OAuth
10 20 (0.62%) JSON
10 20 (0.62%) LDAP
11 18 (0.55%) SAP PI
12 16 (0.49%) BAPI
12 16 (0.49%) HTML
13 15 (0.46%) ADO
14 14 (0.43%) CSS
14 14 (0.43%) EDI
15 13 (0.40%) SAP Basis
15 13 (0.40%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 137 (4.22%) Onboarding
2 53 (1.63%) CMDB
2 53 (1.63%) Data Structures
3 50 (1.54%) Operational Technology
4 48 (1.48%) Data Centre
5 44 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
6 39 (1.20%) Product Ownership
7 35 (1.08%) Security Posture
8 31 (0.96%) Cloud Native
8 31 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
9 30 (0.92%) Replication
10 29 (0.89%) AI Agents
11 27 (0.83%) Legacy Systems
12 23 (0.71%) Public Cloud
13 22 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
13 22 (0.68%) Life Science
14 21 (0.65%) Management Information System
15 19 (0.59%) Hybrid Cloud
16 17 (0.52%) NHS
17 16 (0.49%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 97 (2.99%) Windows
2 73 (2.25%) Linux
3 30 (0.92%) Unix
4 29 (0.89%) Windows Server
5 19 (0.59%) Solaris
6 13 (0.40%) VMS
7 9 (0.28%) AIX
7 9 (0.28%) Windows 10
8 6 (0.18%) Android
8 6 (0.18%) Apple iOS
8 6 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.031%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.031%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.031%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.031%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.031%) SUSE
9 1 (0.031%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.031%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 613 (18.90%) Stakeholder Management
2 449 (13.84%) Migration
3 297 (9.16%) User Acceptance Testing
4 295 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 281 (8.66%) Problem-Solving
6 262 (8.08%) Validation
7 258 (7.95%) Workshop Facilitation
8 255 (7.86%) Cybersecurity
9 226 (6.97%) ERP
10 223 (6.87%) Analytics
11 204 (6.29%) Data Migration
12 200 (6.17%) Roadmaps
13 196 (6.04%) Continuous Improvement
13 196 (6.04%) Requirements Gathering
14 182 (5.61%) Agile
15 171 (5.27%) AI
16 168 (5.18%) Knowledge Transfer
17 150 (4.62%) Business Intelligence
18 139 (4.28%) Translating Business Requirements
19 135 (4.16%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 212 (6.54%) SQL
2 102 (3.14%) Python
3 68 (2.10%) ABAP
4 57 (1.76%) PowerShell
5 39 (1.20%) JavaScript
6 34 (1.05%) Java
7 29 (0.89%) PL/SQL
8 26 (0.80%) Bash
9 18 (0.55%) C#
10 17 (0.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
12 9 (0.28%) T-SQL
12 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
13 8 (0.25%) Groovy
13 8 (0.25%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.22%) Korn
14 7 (0.22%) Search Processing Language
15 4 (0.12%) Bicep
15 4 (0.12%) Perl
15 4 (0.12%) R
Qualifications
1 698 (21.52%) Security Cleared
2 474 (14.61%) SC Cleared
3 148 (4.56%) DV Cleared
4 107 (3.30%) BPSS Clearance
5 79 (2.44%) Degree
6 69 (2.13%) CISSP
7 55 (1.70%) CISM
8 41 (1.26%) Cisco Certification
9 29 (0.89%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 25 (0.77%) CCSP
11 19 (0.59%) ACCA
12 17 (0.52%) AWS Certification
13 16 (0.49%) CIMA
14 15 (0.46%) CRISC
15 12 (0.37%) CompTIA Security+
15 12 (0.37%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (0.34%) PMP
17 10 (0.31%) CCIE
17 10 (0.31%) CISA
18 9 (0.28%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 127 (3.91%) Data Quality
2 103 (3.18%) NIST
3 79 (2.44%) GRC
3 79 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 61 (1.88%) QA
5 46 (1.42%) NCSC
6 40 (1.23%) GDPR
7 33 (1.02%) SLA
8 28 (0.86%) PMO
9 22 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.65%) PCI DSS
11 19 (0.59%) Accessibility
12 18 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
13 13 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 11 (0.34%) NIST 800
14 11 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 9 (0.28%) GxP
15 9 (0.28%) IFRS
16 8 (0.25%) SOC 2
16 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 93 (2.87%) Active Directory
2 34 (1.05%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (0.86%) VMware NSX
4 18 (0.55%) Docker
5 17 (0.52%) vSphere
6 12 (0.37%) Hyper-V
6 12 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
8 9 (0.28%) IAG
9 8 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
10 7 (0.22%) Firmware
11 2 (0.062%) Embedded Firmware
11 2 (0.062%) NFS
11 2 (0.062%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.031%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.031%) HDFS
12 1 (0.031%) oVirt
12 1 (0.031%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.031%) RHEV
12 1 (0.031%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 49 (1.51%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.11%) Ansible
3 24 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
4 21 (0.65%) SCCM
5 15 (0.46%) Grafana
6 12 (0.37%) FortiGate
6 12 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (0.37%) vRealize
7 10 (0.31%) vCenter Server
8 9 (0.28%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.18%) Nagios
9 6 (0.18%) VxRail
9 6 (0.18%) ZABBIX
10 5 (0.15%) logstash
11 4 (0.12%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.12%) Control-M
11 4 (0.12%) Kibana
11 4 (0.12%) Netcool
11 4 (0.12%) Tivoli
12 3 (0.092%) Tivoli Monitoring
Vendors
1 639 (19.70%) SAP
2 485 (14.95%) Microsoft
3 389 (11.99%) Oracle
4 133 (4.10%) ServiceNow
5 84 (2.59%) Workday
6 67 (2.07%) VMware
7 48 (1.48%) Ariba
8 47 (1.45%) Salesforce
9 39 (1.20%) Databricks
10 36 (1.11%) Palo Alto
11 34 (1.05%) Splunk
12 33 (1.02%) CyberArk
13 30 (0.92%) Google
14 28 (0.86%) Cisco
15 23 (0.71%) OpenText
16 22 (0.68%) BMC
16 22 (0.68%) IBM
17 19 (0.59%) Zscaler
18 18 (0.55%) Adobe
18 18 (0.55%) Dell