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 23 September 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 29 26 27
Rank change year-on-year -3 +1 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,261 2,277 2,555
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.94% 6.96% 6.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.44% 7.65% 7.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,842 1,341 1,394
10th Percentile £406 £413 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - +0.18%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £650
90th Percentile £750 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £528 £550 £565
% change year-on-year -4.09% -2.65% +7.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 26 24
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.52 £44.75
25th Percentile £45.00 £42.26 £56.24
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -2.22%
75th Percentile £86.11 £81.25 £69.77
90th Percentile £91.50 £87.38 £74.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.61% +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 50,606 29,766 35,027
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.26% 91.04% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,920 18,783 21,484
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 £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £733 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,907 1,587 1,616
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.79
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.30 £20.69
Median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.19% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.70 £51.65 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £69.65 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £43.97
% change year-on-year +69.49% -42.97% +0.50%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 -5 2,596 £550 -0.45% 3,056
UK excluding London -7 1,375 £528 -4.09% 1,676
London -4 1,248 £550 -4.35% 1,598
Work from Home -4 1,072 £550 - 1,667
South East -7 384 £540 -1.82% 446
North of England -26 324 £575 -0.86% 398
Midlands -1 227 £500 -9.09% 223
North West -12 211 £579 -6.57% 237
South West +10 204 £550 -5.58% 205
West Midlands +4 163 £500 -9.09% 175
Scotland +32 132 £450 -10.00% 139
East of England -16 104 £550 - 132
Yorkshire -23 91 £575 +21.05% 80
East Midlands -11 60 £525 -4.55% 46
Wales -11 24 £550 +22.22% 35
North East -29 21 £750 +38.89% 81
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -7 2 £544 +4.57% 109

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 23 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.

1 703 (21.56%) Security Cleared
2 660 (20.24%) SAP
3 574 (17.60%) Stakeholder Management
4 479 (14.69%) SC Cleared
5 463 (14.20%) Microsoft
6 438 (13.43%) Migration
7 416 (12.76%) Oracle
8 318 (9.75%) Azure
9 307 (9.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 287 (8.80%) User Acceptance Testing
11 285 (8.74%) SAP S/4HANA
12 262 (8.03%) Problem-Solving
13 246 (7.54%) Validation
14 241 (7.39%) Workshop Facilitation
15 240 (7.36%) ERP
16 236 (7.24%) Cybersecurity
17 225 (6.90%) SQL
18 214 (6.56%) Analytics
19 209 (6.41%) Continuous Improvement
20 197 (6.04%) Roadmaps
21 195 (5.98%) Data Migration
22 187 (5.73%) Agile
23 185 (5.67%) AWS
23 185 (5.67%) Requirements Gathering
24 167 (5.12%) AI
25 162 (4.97%) Power Platform
26 155 (4.75%) Translating Business Requirements
27 154 (4.72%) DV Cleared
28 151 (4.63%) Business Intelligence
29 150 (4.60%) Knowledge Transfer

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 73 (2.24%) SharePoint
2 41 (1.26%) Confluence
3 31 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.28%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) SAS
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 5 (0.15%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.12%) Apache
8 4 (0.12%) CMS
9 3 (0.092%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 3 (0.092%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.092%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.092%) NetWeaver
9 3 (0.092%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.092%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.061%) Oracle Service Bus
10 2 (0.061%) Smallworld
10 2 (0.061%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.061%) WordPress
Applications
1 50 (1.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (0.98%) Microsoft Office
3 29 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.28%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.061%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.031%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 285 (8.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 86 (2.64%) Oracle EBS
3 77 (2.36%) SAP FI
4 50 (1.53%) SAP PSCD
5 48 (1.47%) Oracle ERP
6 45 (1.38%) Oracle Payables
6 45 (1.38%) SAP CO
6 45 (1.38%) SAP Payroll
7 38 (1.17%) Workday HCM
8 37 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
8 37 (1.13%) Oracle Receivables
9 36 (1.10%) SAP FI/CO
10 35 (1.07%) SAP HR
10 35 (1.07%) SAP SD
11 33 (1.01%) SAP BRIM
12 32 (0.98%) Oracle General Ledger
12 32 (0.98%) SAP MM
13 31 (0.95%) SAP HCM
14 30 (0.92%) NetSuite
14 30 (0.92%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 318 (9.75%) Azure
2 185 (5.67%) AWS
3 162 (4.97%) Power Platform
4 145 (4.45%) Dynamics 365
5 123 (3.77%) OCI
6 102 (3.13%) SuccessFactors
7 97 (2.97%) GCP
8 89 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
9 69 (2.12%) Entra ID
10 66 (2.02%) Power Automate
11 63 (1.93%) Azure DevOps
12 54 (1.66%) Microsoft Copilot
13 45 (1.38%) SaaS
14 35 (1.07%) PowerApps
15 29 (0.89%) Microsoft Purview
16 26 (0.80%) GitHub
17 20 (0.61%) Snowflake
18 18 (0.55%) Azure AI
19 17 (0.52%) Amazon S3
20 15 (0.46%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 69 (2.12%) Firewall
2 68 (2.09%) Network Security
3 35 (1.07%) WAN
4 34 (1.04%) BGP
5 25 (0.77%) VPN
6 20 (0.61%) SNMP
7 18 (0.55%) DNS
8 16 (0.49%) LAN
9 14 (0.43%) Ethernet VPN
9 14 (0.43%) TCP/IP
10 12 (0.37%) SAN
10 12 (0.37%) VXLAN
11 11 (0.34%) IPsec
11 11 (0.34%) MPLS
11 11 (0.34%) NGFW
12 10 (0.31%) 3GPP
12 10 (0.31%) 5G
12 10 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
12 10 (0.31%) SD-WAN
13 7 (0.21%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (3.01%) Power BI
2 54 (1.66%) Oracle Reports
3 37 (1.13%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 35 (1.07%) SAP BW
4 35 (1.07%) SAP HANA
5 34 (1.04%) Data Warehouse
6 30 (0.92%) Tableau
7 28 (0.86%) SQL Server
8 27 (0.83%) Metadata
9 20 (0.61%) BusinessObjects
10 17 (0.52%) Oracle Database
11 14 (0.43%) Power Query
12 13 (0.40%) Oracle ODI
13 11 (0.34%) Relational Database
14 9 (0.28%) DynamoDB
15 8 (0.25%) BigQuery
15 8 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
16 7 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
16 7 (0.21%) Elasticsearch
16 7 (0.21%) Looker
Development Applications
1 92 (2.82%) JIRA
2 27 (0.83%) Git
3 17 (0.52%) Jenkins
3 17 (0.52%) Oracle Forms
4 12 (0.37%) GitLab
5 9 (0.28%) Hudson
6 7 (0.21%) PowerBuilder
6 7 (0.21%) Zephyr
7 6 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 5 (0.15%) Cypress.io
8 5 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.12%) MLflow
10 3 (0.092%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.092%) JDeveloper
10 3 (0.092%) JMeter
10 3 (0.092%) LoadRunner
10 3 (0.092%) Maven
10 3 (0.092%) Snyk
10 3 (0.092%) TestRail
10 3 (0.092%) Toad
General
1 729 (22.36%) Finance
1 729 (22.36%) Social Skills
2 262 (8.03%) Public Sector
3 231 (7.08%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (3.71%) Manufacturing
5 99 (3.04%) Banking
6 86 (2.64%) Legal
7 80 (2.45%) Billing
8 79 (2.42%) Documentation Skills
9 67 (2.05%) Telecoms
10 58 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
11 56 (1.72%) Retail
12 54 (1.66%) General Ledger
13 50 (1.53%) Marketing
14 43 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
15 41 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 39 (1.20%) Pharmaceutical
17 30 (0.92%) Local Government
18 25 (0.77%) Law
19 18 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 128 (3.93%) Oracle Fusion
2 80 (2.45%) REST
3 62 (1.90%) Terraform
4 49 (1.50%) SAP Fiori
5 38 (1.17%) Middleware
5 38 (1.17%) SOAP
5 38 (1.17%) XML
6 37 (1.13%) Web Services
7 29 (0.89%) SailPoint
8 24 (0.74%) JSON
9 23 (0.71%) OAuth
10 21 (0.64%) LDAP
11 19 (0.58%) HTML
12 18 (0.55%) BAPI
12 18 (0.55%) SAP PI
13 17 (0.52%) CSS
13 17 (0.52%) SAP Basis
14 14 (0.43%) EDI
14 14 (0.43%) SAML
15 13 (0.40%) NETCONF
Miscellaneous
1 130 (3.99%) Onboarding
2 53 (1.63%) CMDB
3 49 (1.50%) Operational Technology
4 48 (1.47%) Data Centre
5 44 (1.35%) Data Structures
6 41 (1.26%) Security Posture
7 40 (1.23%) Product Ownership
8 37 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
9 35 (1.07%) Enterprise Software
10 30 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
11 27 (0.83%) Replication
12 26 (0.80%) AI Agents
13 25 (0.77%) Cloud Native
14 24 (0.74%) Life Science
15 23 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
16 18 (0.55%) NHS
16 18 (0.55%) Public Cloud
17 17 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
18 16 (0.49%) Management Information System
18 16 (0.49%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 96 (2.94%) Windows
2 74 (2.27%) Linux
3 25 (0.77%) Unix
4 21 (0.64%) Solaris
4 21 (0.64%) Windows Server
5 14 (0.43%) AIX
5 14 (0.43%) VMS
6 6 (0.18%) Android
6 6 (0.18%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (0.15%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.031%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.031%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.031%) OpenVMS
8 1 (0.031%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.031%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 574 (17.60%) Stakeholder Management
2 438 (13.43%) Migration
3 307 (9.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 287 (8.80%) User Acceptance Testing
5 262 (8.03%) Problem-Solving
6 246 (7.54%) Validation
7 241 (7.39%) Workshop Facilitation
8 240 (7.36%) ERP
9 236 (7.24%) Cybersecurity
10 214 (6.56%) Analytics
11 209 (6.41%) Continuous Improvement
12 197 (6.04%) Roadmaps
13 195 (5.98%) Data Migration
14 187 (5.73%) Agile
15 185 (5.67%) Requirements Gathering
16 167 (5.12%) AI
17 155 (4.75%) Translating Business Requirements
18 151 (4.63%) Business Intelligence
19 150 (4.60%) Knowledge Transfer
20 136 (4.17%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 225 (6.90%) SQL
2 105 (3.22%) Python
3 58 (1.78%) ABAP
4 52 (1.59%) PowerShell
5 43 (1.32%) JavaScript
5 43 (1.32%) PL/SQL
6 29 (0.89%) Java
7 17 (0.52%) Bash
8 13 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 13 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
9 12 (0.37%) C#
10 11 (0.34%) Search Processing Language
11 9 (0.28%) T-SQL
11 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.21%) R
13 6 (0.18%) Groovy
13 6 (0.18%) Shell Script
14 5 (0.15%) Korn
14 5 (0.15%) Perl
15 3 (0.092%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 703 (21.56%) Security Cleared
2 479 (14.69%) SC Cleared
3 154 (4.72%) DV Cleared
4 111 (3.40%) BPSS Clearance
5 76 (2.33%) CISSP
5 76 (2.33%) Degree
6 59 (1.81%) CISM
7 44 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
8 32 (0.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 28 (0.86%) CCSP
10 20 (0.61%) ACCA
11 17 (0.52%) CIMA
12 16 (0.49%) CRISC
13 14 (0.43%) AWS Certification
13 14 (0.43%) PMP
14 13 (0.40%) CompTIA Security+
15 11 (0.34%) Azure Certification
16 10 (0.31%) CCIE
16 10 (0.31%) CISA
16 10 (0.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (3.25%) Data Quality
2 103 (3.16%) NIST
3 84 (2.58%) GRC
4 75 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 60 (1.84%) QA
6 43 (1.32%) NCSC
7 39 (1.20%) GDPR
8 30 (0.92%) SLA
9 26 (0.80%) PMO
10 23 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
11 19 (0.58%) Accessibility
11 19 (0.58%) PCI DSS
12 17 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
13 14 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 12 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 11 (0.34%) GxP
15 11 (0.34%) NIST 800
16 9 (0.28%) IFRS
17 8 (0.25%) SOC 2
17 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 85 (2.61%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (0.98%) VMware NSX
4 18 (0.55%) vSphere
5 17 (0.52%) Docker
6 13 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.34%) Hyper-V
7 11 (0.34%) IAG
8 10 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 8 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.12%) Firmware
11 2 (0.061%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.061%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.031%) HDFS
12 1 (0.031%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.031%) oVirt
12 1 (0.031%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.031%) RHEV
12 1 (0.031%) SRDF
12 1 (0.031%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 46 (1.41%) Kubernetes
2 32 (0.98%) Ansible
3 21 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (0.61%) SCCM
5 14 (0.43%) Grafana
6 13 (0.40%) vRealize
7 12 (0.37%) FortiGate
7 12 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
8 11 (0.34%) Nagios
8 11 (0.34%) ZABBIX
9 10 (0.31%) vCenter Server
10 9 (0.28%) Netcool
10 9 (0.28%) Prometheus
10 9 (0.28%) Tivoli
11 8 (0.25%) OpenView
11 8 (0.25%) Tivoli Monitoring
12 6 (0.18%) VxRail
13 4 (0.12%) CEMLI
13 4 (0.12%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 660 (20.24%) SAP
2 463 (14.20%) Microsoft
3 416 (12.76%) Oracle
4 131 (4.02%) ServiceNow
5 77 (2.36%) Workday
6 73 (2.24%) VMware
7 62 (1.90%) Ariba
8 46 (1.41%) Salesforce
9 39 (1.20%) Databricks
9 39 (1.20%) Splunk
10 36 (1.10%) Palo Alto
11 30 (0.92%) Cisco
12 27 (0.83%) BMC
13 26 (0.80%) CyberArk
13 26 (0.80%) IBM
13 26 (0.80%) OpenText
14 25 (0.77%) Google
15 19 (0.58%) Adobe
15 19 (0.58%) Zscaler
16 18 (0.55%) Dell