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 March 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,731 1,986 2,771
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.44% 6.61% 6.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.01% 7.11% 6.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,532 1,123 1,668
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -0.90%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £716 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £550 £540
% change year-on-year -1.82% +1.85% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 17 36
10th Percentile - £68.00 £35.00
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% -7.35%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.25 £81.56
90th Percentile £78.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £60.82
% change year-on-year -31.34% +37.70% -7.84%

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 38,954 27,938 41,468
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 92.92% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,406 17,829 27,199
10th Percentile £310 £294 £270
25th Percentile £409 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.40%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,403 873 2,490
10th Percentile £14.67 £15.66 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £34.50 £33.40 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.29% +2.77% -19.93%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.25 £71.87
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.17 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +2.06% - -15.58%

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 March 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 March 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 8 March 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 2,139 £550 - 1,188
UK excluding London +3 1,133 £540 -1.82% 846
Work from Home +1 1,019 £525 -4.55% 548
London -5 978 £550 -4.35% 549
South East 0 315 £520 -9.57% 317
North of England -7 272 £575 +6.88% 193
Midlands -13 225 £550 +4.76% 82
West Midlands -2 167 £563 +5.88% 51
North West -3 149 £627 +16.45% 112
South West +19 144 £550 - 144
Yorkshire +3 113 £500 -4.76% 60
East of England -5 92 £538 -2.27% 48
East Midlands -15 54 £500 -3.85% 31
Scotland +9 51 £520 -5.45% 34
Wales +8 32 £447 -8.31% 25
Northern Ireland +2 11 £405 -22.86% 15
North East -19 10 £525 -4.55% 22

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 8 March 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.

1 647 (23.69%) SAP
2 645 (23.62%) Security Cleared
3 545 (19.96%) SC Cleared
4 390 (14.28%) Migration
5 338 (12.38%) SAP S/4HANA
6 303 (11.09%) Azure
7 299 (10.95%) Problem-Solving
8 292 (10.69%) Oracle
9 283 (10.36%) Microsoft
9 283 (10.36%) Stakeholder Management
10 280 (10.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 223 (8.17%) ERP
12 209 (7.65%) Workshop Facilitation
13 182 (6.66%) User Acceptance Testing
14 174 (6.37%) Agile
14 174 (6.37%) SQL
15 173 (6.33%) Data Migration
16 167 (6.11%) Analytics
17 159 (5.82%) Roadmaps
18 145 (5.31%) Business Intelligence
18 145 (5.31%) Knowledge Transfer
19 140 (5.13%) Dynamics 365
19 140 (5.13%) Validation
20 138 (5.05%) Cybersecurity
21 130 (4.76%) Continuous Improvement
22 116 (4.25%) Python
23 113 (4.14%) AI
24 112 (4.10%) Risk Management
25 110 (4.03%) AWS
26 109 (3.99%) Power Platform

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 68 (2.49%) SharePoint
2 34 (1.24%) Confluence
3 27 (0.99%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (0.22%) Jupyter
6 5 (0.18%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.18%) MTS
6 5 (0.18%) NetWeaver
7 4 (0.15%) CMS
7 4 (0.15%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.11%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.073%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.073%) Apache
9 2 (0.073%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.073%) IIS
9 2 (0.073%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.037%) SAS
10 1 (0.037%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.037%) Skype for Business
10 1 (0.037%) Tomcat
Applications
1 52 (1.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.22%) Oracle Smart View
7 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
8 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.073%) Chatbot
9 2 (0.073%) Lectora
9 2 (0.073%) Navisworks
9 2 (0.073%) Revit
10 1 (0.037%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.037%) CATIA
10 1 (0.037%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.037%) ProjectWise
10 1 (0.037%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.037%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 338 (12.38%) SAP S/4HANA
2 63 (2.31%) SAP FI
3 59 (2.16%) Oracle EBS
4 56 (2.05%) SAP MM
5 49 (1.79%) Oracle Payables
6 45 (1.65%) Oracle Receivables
7 39 (1.43%) SAP PP
8 38 (1.39%) Dynamics CRM
8 38 (1.39%) Oracle EBS R12
9 37 (1.35%) SAP CO
9 37 (1.35%) SAP HCM
10 35 (1.28%) Oracle General Ledger
11 34 (1.24%) SAP FI/CO
12 33 (1.21%) SAP EWM
12 33 (1.21%) SAP PSCD
13 30 (1.10%) SAP Travel Management
14 29 (1.06%) Oracle Assets
15 28 (1.03%) SAP Payroll
16 24 (0.88%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
17 23 (0.84%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 303 (11.09%) Azure
2 140 (5.13%) Dynamics 365
3 110 (4.03%) AWS
4 109 (3.99%) Power Platform
5 104 (3.81%) OCI
6 81 (2.97%) GCP
7 77 (2.82%) Microsoft 365
8 67 (2.45%) SaaS
9 61 (2.23%) Entra ID
10 52 (1.90%) SuccessFactors
11 40 (1.46%) Power Automate
12 32 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
12 32 (1.17%) Microsoft Copilot
13 30 (1.10%) Microsoft Purview
13 30 (1.10%) PowerApps
14 26 (0.95%) GitHub
15 23 (0.84%) OneDrive
16 19 (0.70%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 18 (0.66%) Azure Data Factory
17 18 (0.66%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 49 (1.79%) Firewall
2 17 (0.62%) DNS
2 17 (0.62%) Network Security
3 16 (0.59%) VPN
4 15 (0.55%) HTTP
5 14 (0.51%) WAN
6 13 (0.48%) Kerberos
6 13 (0.48%) SMS
6 13 (0.48%) VSAN
7 11 (0.40%) DHCP
7 11 (0.40%) SAN
7 11 (0.40%) SD-WAN
8 10 (0.37%) LAN
8 10 (0.37%) SSL
9 9 (0.33%) FTP
9 9 (0.33%) Software-Defined Networking
9 9 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.29%) Intranet
11 7 (0.26%) BGP
11 7 (0.26%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (2.82%) Power BI
2 48 (1.76%) SAP HANA
3 46 (1.68%) Oracle Reports
4 27 (0.99%) SQL Server
5 25 (0.92%) Metadata
6 24 (0.88%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 14 (0.51%) NoSQL
8 12 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
8 12 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
8 12 (0.44%) SAP BW
9 11 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.40%) Tableau
10 7 (0.26%) Electronic Patient Records
10 7 (0.26%) MongoDB
11 6 (0.22%) Data Mart
11 6 (0.22%) DynamoDB
11 6 (0.22%) Essbase
11 6 (0.22%) GIS
11 6 (0.22%) Oracle Database
11 6 (0.22%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 64 (2.34%) JIRA
2 18 (0.66%) Jenkins
3 13 (0.48%) Oracle Forms
4 11 (0.40%) Git
5 10 (0.37%) Hudson
6 8 (0.29%) GitLab
7 7 (0.26%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.15%) LSMW
9 3 (0.11%) JUnit
9 3 (0.11%) Postman
10 2 (0.073%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.073%) git-flow
10 2 (0.073%) Mockito
10 2 (0.073%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.073%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.073%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.073%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.073%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.073%) Tricentis qTest
11 1 (0.037%) GCC
General
1 700 (25.63%) Social Skills
2 581 (21.27%) Finance
3 257 (9.41%) Public Sector
4 245 (8.97%) Analytical Skills
5 123 (4.50%) Manufacturing
6 96 (3.52%) Banking
7 75 (2.75%) Marketing
8 71 (2.60%) Documentation Skills
9 62 (2.27%) Billing
9 62 (2.27%) Legal
10 43 (1.57%) General Ledger
11 42 (1.54%) Telecoms
12 38 (1.39%) Presentation Skills
13 34 (1.24%) Retail
14 31 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
15 27 (0.99%) Law
16 26 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
17 20 (0.73%) Financial Institution
18 19 (0.70%) Aerospace
19 18 (0.66%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 96 (3.52%) Oracle Fusion
2 68 (2.49%) REST
3 57 (2.09%) SAP Fiori
4 49 (1.79%) Web Services
5 48 (1.76%) XML
6 38 (1.39%) SAP TM
7 36 (1.32%) SOAP
8 27 (0.99%) BAPI
8 27 (0.99%) LDAP
9 25 (0.92%) Node.js
10 22 (0.81%) Middleware
11 18 (0.66%) JSON
12 17 (0.62%) .NET
12 17 (0.62%) SAP PI
13 16 (0.59%) GraphQL
14 15 (0.55%) IDoc
15 14 (0.51%) HTML
15 14 (0.51%) Kafka
16 13 (0.48%) SAP Basis
17 12 (0.44%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 69 (2.53%) Onboarding
2 58 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
3 40 (1.46%) Product Ownership
4 38 (1.39%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
6 30 (1.10%) Data Centre
7 26 (0.95%) Operational Technology
7 26 (0.95%) Replication
8 25 (0.92%) Cloud Native
8 25 (0.92%) Management Information System
9 20 (0.73%) Analytical Mindset
9 20 (0.73%) Data Structures
9 20 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
10 19 (0.70%) NHS
11 18 (0.66%) AI Agents
12 15 (0.55%) Hybrid Cloud
12 15 (0.55%) Self-Motivation
13 14 (0.51%) Life Science
13 14 (0.51%) Public Cloud
14 12 (0.44%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 72 (2.64%) Windows
2 43 (1.57%) Linux
3 16 (0.59%) Unix
4 14 (0.51%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (0.37%) Windows 10
6 8 (0.29%) VMS
7 7 (0.26%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.22%) AIX
9 5 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.15%) Solaris
10 4 (0.15%) zOS
11 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.11%) SUSE
12 2 (0.073%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.073%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.073%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.073%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.073%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.037%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 390 (14.28%) Migration
2 299 (10.95%) Problem-Solving
3 283 (10.36%) Stakeholder Management
4 280 (10.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 223 (8.17%) ERP
6 209 (7.65%) Workshop Facilitation
7 182 (6.66%) User Acceptance Testing
8 174 (6.37%) Agile
9 173 (6.33%) Data Migration
10 167 (6.11%) Analytics
11 159 (5.82%) Roadmaps
12 145 (5.31%) Business Intelligence
12 145 (5.31%) Knowledge Transfer
13 140 (5.13%) Validation
14 138 (5.05%) Cybersecurity
15 130 (4.76%) Continuous Improvement
16 113 (4.14%) AI
17 112 (4.10%) Risk Management
18 106 (3.88%) Change Management
18 106 (3.88%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 174 (6.37%) SQL
2 116 (4.25%) Python
3 80 (2.93%) JavaScript
3 80 (2.93%) PowerShell
4 71 (2.60%) ABAP
5 38 (1.39%) Java
6 30 (1.10%) TypeScript
7 23 (0.84%) PL/SQL
8 22 (0.81%) Groovy
9 17 (0.62%) T-SQL
10 16 (0.59%) C#
11 15 (0.55%) Bash
12 10 (0.37%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.33%) C++
14 7 (0.26%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.26%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.26%) Kusto Query Language
15 5 (0.18%) Bicep
15 5 (0.18%) Korn
16 4 (0.15%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 645 (23.62%) Security Cleared
2 545 (19.96%) SC Cleared
3 103 (3.77%) Degree
4 80 (2.93%) DV Cleared
5 63 (2.31%) BPSS Clearance
6 51 (1.87%) CISSP
7 34 (1.24%) CISM
8 31 (1.14%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 19 (0.70%) Master's Degree
10 18 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
11 17 (0.62%) CIMA
12 16 (0.59%) Computer Science Degree
13 15 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
14 14 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
14 14 (0.51%) SAP Certification
15 8 (0.29%) AWS Certification
15 8 (0.29%) CCNP
15 8 (0.29%) CEH
15 8 (0.29%) CESG Certified Professional
16 7 (0.26%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (3.44%) NIST
2 88 (3.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 68 (2.49%) GDPR
4 52 (1.90%) Data Quality
5 51 (1.87%) QA
6 42 (1.54%) GRC
7 23 (0.84%) NCSC
8 20 (0.73%) Actionable Recommendations
8 20 (0.73%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 19 (0.70%) PCI DSS
9 19 (0.70%) SLA
10 18 (0.66%) PMO
11 13 (0.48%) COBIT
12 11 (0.40%) PERC
13 10 (0.37%) JSP 440
14 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 6 (0.22%) Accessibility
16 5 (0.18%) ITGC
System Software
1 68 (2.49%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.35%) Docker
3 32 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (1.17%) VMware NSX
4 26 (0.95%) vSphere
5 8 (0.29%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 6 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.18%) NDS
8 5 (0.18%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 3 (0.11%) NFS
10 1 (0.037%) Ceph
10 1 (0.037%) IAG
10 1 (0.037%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.037%) KVM
10 1 (0.037%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.037%) QEMU
10 1 (0.037%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.037%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 52 (1.90%) Kubernetes
2 32 (1.17%) Terraform
3 31 (1.14%) vRealize
4 22 (0.81%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.62%) Ansible
5 17 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (0.37%) Failover Clustering
7 9 (0.33%) PingFederate
8 7 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (0.22%) Podman
10 5 (0.18%) SCCM
11 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.15%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.15%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.15%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.11%) CEMLI
12 3 (0.11%) Grafana
12 3 (0.11%) Puppet
12 3 (0.11%) Rancher
12 3 (0.11%) vMotion
Vendors
1 647 (23.69%) SAP
2 292 (10.69%) Oracle
3 283 (10.36%) Microsoft
4 93 (3.41%) VMware
5 83 (3.04%) ServiceNow
6 56 (2.05%) CyberArk
7 55 (2.01%) Salesforce
8 53 (1.94%) Siemens
9 52 (1.90%) Cisco
9 52 (1.90%) Workday
10 48 (1.76%) Ariba
11 45 (1.65%) Google
12 37 (1.35%) Aruba
13 32 (1.17%) Adobe
14 24 (0.88%) Databricks
15 21 (0.77%) OpenText
16 16 (0.59%) Sage
16 16 (0.59%) Splunk
17 15 (0.55%) Murex
18 13 (0.48%) Zscaler