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 21 July 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,066 2,124 2,811
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.82% 6.52% 6.80%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.28% 7.11% 7.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,687 1,235 1,658
10th Percentile £403 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £471
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £731 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £568
% change year-on-year -4.55% -3.08% +8.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 29 29
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £38.10
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £55.94
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.41%
75th Percentile £63.38 £81.25 £68.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £87.30 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -5.32%

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 48,798 29,864 38,453
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.64% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,431 18,992 24,873
10th Percentile £325 £285 £293
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £735 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,294 1,429 2,439
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.49
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £44.10 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +75.33% -37.13% -6.98%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £64.25
90th Percentile £80.17 £73.75 £74.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £41.81
% change year-on-year +78.93% -39.85% +5.65%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 2,450 £550 - 1,176
UK excluding London +1 1,328 £525 -4.55% 716
London -3 1,127 £550 -4.35% 568
Work from Home -2 1,058 £539 -2.05% 586
South East -2 382 £540 -1.82% 233
North of England -15 279 £525 -4.55% 167
Midlands -1 258 £500 -9.05% 87
South West +21 210 £556 -3.30% 115
West Midlands +12 186 £500 -9.09% 66
North West -12 159 £525 -7.89% 114
Scotland +32 99 £436 -5.68% 23
Yorkshire -15 99 £550 +15.79% 39
East of England -17 82 £550 - 59
East Midlands -9 63 £500 -9.09% 21
Wales -4 31 £550 +23.94% 15
North East -40 21 £650 +21.72% 14
Northern Ireland -5 2 £525 +0.96% 23

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 July 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.

1 645 (21.04%) SAP
2 585 (19.08%) Security Cleared
3 411 (13.41%) SC Cleared
4 402 (13.11%) Migration
5 385 (12.56%) Microsoft
6 351 (11.45%) Oracle
7 343 (11.19%) Stakeholder Management
8 317 (10.34%) Azure
9 280 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
10 274 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 257 (8.38%) Problem-Solving
12 247 (8.06%) ERP
12 247 (8.06%) SQL
13 230 (7.50%) User Acceptance Testing
14 205 (6.69%) Workshop Facilitation
15 203 (6.62%) Validation
16 197 (6.43%) Continuous Improvement
17 179 (5.84%) Data Migration
18 175 (5.71%) Cybersecurity
19 168 (5.48%) Agile
20 165 (5.38%) Analytics
21 164 (5.35%) Roadmaps
22 163 (5.32%) AI
23 147 (4.79%) AWS
24 141 (4.60%) Business Intelligence
25 140 (4.57%) Power Platform
26 132 (4.31%) DV Cleared
27 131 (4.27%) Dynamics 365
28 129 (4.21%) Requirements Gathering
29 125 (4.08%) Python

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 84 (2.74%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.53%) Confluence
3 16 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.098%) Apache
9 3 (0.098%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.098%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.098%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.098%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.098%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.065%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.065%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) IIS
10 2 (0.065%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.065%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.065%) WordPress
Applications
1 75 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.33%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.065%) Lectora
6 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.065%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.033%) CATIA
7 1 (0.033%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.033%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 280 (9.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 87 (2.84%) Oracle EBS
3 66 (2.15%) SAP FI
4 53 (1.73%) SAP PSCD
5 42 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.24%) SAP MM
7 35 (1.14%) Dynamics CRM
7 35 (1.14%) SAP BRIM
8 34 (1.11%) SAP SD
9 33 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
10 31 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
10 31 (1.01%) SAP CO
10 31 (1.01%) SAP EWM
10 31 (1.01%) SAP FI-CA
11 29 (0.95%) NetSuite
11 29 (0.95%) SAP PP
12 28 (0.91%) SAP Payroll
13 27 (0.88%) Oracle EBS R12
13 27 (0.88%) SAP FI/CO
14 24 (0.78%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 317 (10.34%) Azure
2 147 (4.79%) AWS
3 140 (4.57%) Power Platform
4 131 (4.27%) Dynamics 365
5 98 (3.20%) OCI
6 95 (3.10%) Microsoft 365
7 83 (2.71%) GCP
8 81 (2.64%) SuccessFactors
9 74 (2.41%) Power Automate
10 56 (1.83%) Entra ID
11 53 (1.73%) SaaS
12 48 (1.57%) Azure DevOps
13 47 (1.53%) Microsoft Copilot
14 34 (1.11%) GitHub
14 34 (1.11%) PowerApps
15 29 (0.95%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (0.65%) Copilot Studio
17 16 (0.52%) OneDrive
18 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
19 14 (0.46%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.96%) Firewall
2 50 (1.63%) Network Security
3 30 (0.98%) WAN
4 25 (0.82%) SNMP
5 20 (0.65%) BGP
5 20 (0.65%) VPN
6 19 (0.62%) LAN
7 15 (0.49%) SAN
8 14 (0.46%) DNS
8 14 (0.46%) VSAN
9 10 (0.33%) NGFW
9 10 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.26%) NAS
10 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.23%) FTP
11 7 (0.23%) MPLS
11 7 (0.23%) Wireless
12 6 (0.20%) HTTP
12 6 (0.20%) IPsec
12 6 (0.20%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (2.97%) Power BI
2 58 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.34%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.11%) Tableau
5 32 (1.04%) SQL Server
6 29 (0.95%) SAP BW
7 27 (0.88%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 25 (0.82%) Metadata
9 20 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
10 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
11 17 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
12 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
13 10 (0.33%) Power Query
14 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
15 6 (0.20%) Delta Lake
15 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 5 (0.16%) Data Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 85 (2.77%) JIRA
2 20 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.55%) Hudson
4 16 (0.52%) Git
4 16 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.26%) GitLab
6 7 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.13%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.13%) Toad
8 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.098%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.098%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.098%) MLflow
9 3 (0.098%) Selenium
9 3 (0.098%) TestRail
9 3 (0.098%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.065%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.065%) Snyk
General
1 646 (21.07%) Finance
2 635 (20.71%) Social Skills
3 250 (8.15%) Analytical Skills
4 216 (7.05%) Public Sector
5 109 (3.56%) Manufacturing
6 90 (2.94%) Legal
7 83 (2.71%) Banking
8 80 (2.61%) Billing
9 65 (2.12%) Telecoms
10 55 (1.79%) General Ledger
11 49 (1.60%) Marketing
12 44 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
12 44 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
13 41 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 41 (1.34%) Retail
14 39 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
15 28 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
16 25 (0.82%) Aerospace
17 21 (0.68%) Law
17 21 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.74%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.35%) REST
3 59 (1.92%) XML
4 40 (1.30%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.17%) Middleware
6 35 (1.14%) SOAP
7 27 (0.88%) BAPI
8 25 (0.82%) Web Services
9 20 (0.65%) HTML
10 18 (0.59%) CSS
11 17 (0.55%) IDoc
11 17 (0.55%) JSON
11 17 (0.55%) SAP Basis
12 16 (0.52%) SAP TM
13 15 (0.49%) .NET
13 15 (0.49%) SAP PI
14 13 (0.42%) LDAP
14 13 (0.42%) OAuth
15 11 (0.36%) EDI
16 10 (0.33%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 99 (3.23%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
3 42 (1.37%) CMDB
3 42 (1.37%) Security Posture
4 33 (1.08%) AI Agents
4 33 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
5 32 (1.04%) Product Ownership
6 31 (1.01%) Data Centre
7 30 (0.98%) Data Structures
8 26 (0.85%) Operational Technology
9 21 (0.68%) Cloud Native
9 21 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
9 21 (0.68%) Life Science
9 21 (0.68%) Management Information System
10 20 (0.65%) NHS
11 18 (0.59%) Public Cloud
11 18 (0.59%) Replication
12 17 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
13 16 (0.52%) FMCG
14 15 (0.49%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 97 (3.16%) Windows
2 67 (2.19%) Linux
3 26 (0.85%) Unix
4 21 (0.68%) Solaris
5 19 (0.62%) AIX
5 19 (0.62%) VMS
6 9 (0.29%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.16%) Android
7 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.13%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.098%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.065%) SUSE
10 2 (0.065%) zOS
11 1 (0.033%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 402 (13.11%) Migration
2 343 (11.19%) Stakeholder Management
3 274 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 257 (8.38%) Problem-Solving
5 247 (8.06%) ERP
6 230 (7.50%) User Acceptance Testing
7 205 (6.69%) Workshop Facilitation
8 203 (6.62%) Validation
9 197 (6.43%) Continuous Improvement
10 179 (5.84%) Data Migration
11 175 (5.71%) Cybersecurity
12 168 (5.48%) Agile
13 165 (5.38%) Analytics
14 164 (5.35%) Roadmaps
15 163 (5.32%) AI
16 141 (4.60%) Business Intelligence
17 129 (4.21%) Requirements Gathering
18 125 (4.08%) Translating Business Requirements
19 124 (4.04%) Change Management
20 111 (3.62%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 247 (8.06%) SQL
2 125 (4.08%) Python
3 60 (1.96%) JavaScript
4 56 (1.83%) ABAP
4 56 (1.83%) PL/SQL
4 56 (1.83%) PowerShell
5 37 (1.21%) Java
6 36 (1.17%) T-SQL
7 18 (0.59%) Bash
8 14 (0.46%) C#
8 14 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
10 12 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
11 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
12 9 (0.29%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.23%) C++
13 7 (0.23%) R
14 6 (0.20%) Perl
15 4 (0.13%) Korn
16 3 (0.098%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 585 (19.08%) Security Cleared
2 411 (13.41%) SC Cleared
3 132 (4.31%) DV Cleared
4 88 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
5 76 (2.48%) CISSP
6 72 (2.35%) Degree
7 58 (1.89%) CISM
8 38 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
9 30 (0.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.85%) CCSP
11 17 (0.55%) CIMA
12 15 (0.49%) PMP
13 14 (0.46%) CEH
14 13 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.39%) ACCA
15 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.39%) OSCP
16 11 (0.36%) Master's Degree
16 11 (0.36%) SAP Certification
17 10 (0.33%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (2.87%) NIST
2 78 (2.54%) Data Quality
3 77 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 58 (1.89%) GRC
5 51 (1.66%) QA
6 38 (1.24%) GDPR
7 30 (0.98%) NCSC
8 28 (0.91%) PCI DSS
9 26 (0.85%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.68%) Accessibility
10 21 (0.68%) PMO
10 21 (0.68%) SLA
11 18 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 14 (0.46%) COBIT
13 12 (0.39%) GxP
14 10 (0.33%) JSP 440
15 9 (0.29%) NIST 800
16 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
16 8 (0.26%) WCAG
17 7 (0.23%) HL7
System Software
1 60 (1.96%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.37%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.88%) vSphere
5 14 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.33%) Docker
8 8 (0.26%) IAG
9 6 (0.20%) Hyper-V
9 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.13%) NFS
11 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.065%) Firmware
11 2 (0.065%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.033%) HDFS
12 1 (0.033%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.033%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.033%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.033%) SRDF
12 1 (0.033%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.73%) Terraform
2 43 (1.40%) Kubernetes
3 29 (0.95%) Ansible
4 23 (0.75%) vRealize
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (0.46%) Netcool
6 14 (0.46%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.42%) Grafana
7 13 (0.42%) OpenView
7 13 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) vCenter Server
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
9 11 (0.36%) SCCM
10 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.16%) CEMLI
11 5 (0.16%) VxRail
Vendors
1 645 (21.04%) SAP
2 385 (12.56%) Microsoft
3 351 (11.45%) Oracle
4 116 (3.78%) ServiceNow
5 95 (3.10%) VMware
6 62 (2.02%) Ariba
7 53 (1.73%) Salesforce
7 53 (1.73%) Workday
8 46 (1.50%) Siemens
8 46 (1.50%) Splunk
9 38 (1.24%) Databricks
10 27 (0.88%) Palo Alto
11 26 (0.85%) Google
12 23 (0.75%) BMC
12 23 (0.75%) IBM
12 23 (0.75%) OpenText
13 17 (0.55%) Cisco
13 17 (0.55%) JD Edwards
13 17 (0.55%) Okta
14 16 (0.52%) SolarWinds