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 12 January 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 29 27
Rank change year-on-year +3 -2 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,495 2,071 2,649
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.88% 6.57% 6.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.54% 7.09% 6.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,444 1,133 1,526
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 24 12 38
10th Percentile £40.48 £55.65 £49.28
25th Percentile £61.44 £66.38 £60.21
Median hourly rate £71.25 £74.00 £65.06
Median % change year-on-year -3.71% +13.73% -7.05%
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.06 £86.81
90th Percentile £85.18 £87.38 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.50 £74.00 £63.15
% change year-on-year +4.73% +17.19% +0.23%

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 33,096 29,209 40,038
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 92.69% 93.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,909 17,885 26,705
10th Percentile £300 £291 £280
25th Percentile £406 £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 £479 £500
% change year-on-year -0.73% -4.30% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,948 878 1,679
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.52 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +28.79%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.88 £45.00
% change year-on-year -18.54% -31.39% +66.65%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 0 1,947 £555 +0.82% 1,054
UK excluding London +3 1,013 £550 - 838
London -2 903 £575 +4.55% 400
Work from Home 0 900 £538 -2.14% 416
South East -2 277 £550 -2.22% 310
North of England -2 269 £598 +8.73% 154
Midlands -16 165 £531 +1.19% 98
North West 0 164 £623 +15.71% 83
West Midlands -8 131 £550 +4.76% 52
South West +1 111 £588 +11.90% 159
Yorkshire +14 96 £550 -12.00% 57
East of England 0 88 £550 -4.35% 75
Scotland +12 67 £500 -9.09% 22
East Midlands -22 33 £510 -3.32% 46
Wales +12 29 £405 -31.06% 20
Northern Ireland +1 12 £405 -22.86% 12
North East -12 9 £620 +3.33% 15
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 3

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 657 (26.33%) SAP
2 644 (25.81%) Security Cleared
3 538 (21.56%) SC Cleared
4 348 (13.95%) Migration
5 345 (13.83%) SAP S/4HANA
6 312 (12.51%) Problem-Solving
7 306 (12.26%) Oracle
8 300 (12.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 296 (11.86%) Stakeholder Management
10 260 (10.42%) Microsoft
11 231 (9.26%) Azure
12 195 (7.82%) Workshop Facilitation
13 193 (7.74%) Agile
14 174 (6.97%) ERP
15 166 (6.65%) User Acceptance Testing
16 159 (6.37%) Analytics
17 154 (6.17%) Data Migration
18 150 (6.01%) SQL
19 148 (5.93%) Roadmaps
20 143 (5.73%) Knowledge Transfer
21 133 (5.33%) Validation
22 130 (5.21%) Business Intelligence
23 129 (5.17%) Cybersecurity
24 120 (4.81%) DevOps
25 118 (4.73%) Dynamics 365
26 115 (4.61%) Python
27 111 (4.45%) Risk Management
28 108 (4.33%) AWS
29 105 (4.21%) Data Modelling
30 104 (4.17%) 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 59 (2.36%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.20%) Microsoft Exchange
3 28 (1.12%) Confluence
4 6 (0.24%) CMS
4 6 (0.24%) NetWeaver
4 6 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
5 5 (0.20%) MTS
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Service Bus
6 4 (0.16%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.080%) Apache
8 2 (0.080%) IIS
8 2 (0.080%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.040%) SAS
9 1 (0.040%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.040%) WebSphere
Applications
1 43 (1.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.32%) 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 1 (0.040%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.040%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.040%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.040%) InVision
8 1 (0.040%) Sketch
8 1 (0.040%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 345 (13.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 77 (3.09%) Oracle EBS
3 59 (2.36%) SAP FI
4 58 (2.32%) Oracle Payables
5 51 (2.04%) SAP EWM
5 51 (2.04%) SAP HCM
6 49 (1.96%) Oracle Receivables
6 49 (1.96%) SAP MM
7 47 (1.88%) Oracle EBS R12
8 44 (1.76%) Oracle General Ledger
9 42 (1.68%) SAP PP
10 39 (1.56%) Oracle Cash Management
10 39 (1.56%) SAP CO
11 36 (1.44%) SAP FI/CO
12 35 (1.40%) Oracle Assets
13 33 (1.32%) SAP Payroll
13 33 (1.32%) SAP WM
14 32 (1.28%) Dynamics CRM
15 25 (1.00%) Oracle Financials
16 24 (0.96%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 231 (9.26%) Azure
2 118 (4.73%) Dynamics 365
3 108 (4.33%) AWS
4 104 (4.17%) Power Platform
5 99 (3.97%) OCI
6 73 (2.93%) GCP
7 65 (2.61%) Microsoft 365
8 57 (2.28%) SaaS
9 54 (2.16%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.56%) SuccessFactors
11 34 (1.36%) Power Automate
12 30 (1.20%) Azure DevOps
13 28 (1.12%) PowerApps
14 24 (0.96%) Microsoft Copilot
15 20 (0.80%) GitHub
16 19 (0.76%) Microsoft Purview
16 19 (0.76%) OneDrive
17 16 (0.64%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 16 (0.64%) Serverless
18 15 (0.60%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 52 (2.08%) Firewall
2 19 (0.76%) VPN
3 17 (0.68%) DNS
3 17 (0.68%) WAN
4 16 (0.64%) Network Security
5 15 (0.60%) SD-WAN
6 14 (0.56%) Kerberos
7 13 (0.52%) HTTP
8 12 (0.48%) SSL
9 11 (0.44%) TCP/IP
10 10 (0.40%) DHCP
10 10 (0.40%) SMS
11 9 (0.36%) Intranet
11 9 (0.36%) SSH
12 7 (0.28%) BGP
12 7 (0.28%) Cisco IPT
12 7 (0.28%) LAN
12 7 (0.28%) SAN
13 6 (0.24%) OSPF
13 6 (0.24%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.97%) Power BI
2 50 (2.00%) Oracle Reports
3 45 (1.80%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.36%) SQL Server
5 23 (0.92%) Metadata
6 21 (0.84%) SAP BW
7 20 (0.80%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 16 (0.64%) Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.56%) SAP Data Services
10 13 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
11 11 (0.44%) Oracle Database
12 10 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 9 (0.36%) DB2
13 9 (0.36%) NoSQL
13 9 (0.36%) Tableau
14 7 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
15 6 (0.24%) DynamoDB
16 5 (0.20%) Data Mart
16 5 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
16 5 (0.20%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 60 (2.40%) JIRA
2 21 (0.84%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.76%) Git
4 16 (0.64%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.32%) Hudson
6 8 (0.32%) 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 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) git-flow
10 2 (0.080%) Mockito
10 2 (0.080%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.080%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.080%) Tricentis qTest
10 2 (0.080%) Visual Studio
General
1 707 (28.34%) Social Skills
2 559 (22.40%) Finance
3 238 (9.54%) Public Sector
4 225 (9.02%) Analytical Skills
5 150 (6.01%) Manufacturing
6 85 (3.41%) Banking
7 76 (3.05%) Documentation Skills
8 68 (2.73%) Marketing
9 59 (2.36%) Presentation Skills
10 55 (2.20%) Billing
11 49 (1.96%) Legal
12 40 (1.60%) Telecoms
13 37 (1.48%) General Ledger
14 31 (1.24%) Pharmaceutical
15 28 (1.12%) Retail
16 25 (1.00%) Law
17 22 (0.88%) Electronics
17 22 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 21 (0.84%) Organisational Skills
19 20 (0.80%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (3.33%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.89%) REST
3 69 (2.77%) SAP Fiori
4 47 (1.88%) Web Services
5 43 (1.72%) SOAP
6 38 (1.52%) XML
7 30 (1.20%) Node.js
7 30 (1.20%) SAP TM
8 28 (1.12%) LDAP
9 24 (0.96%) JSON
9 24 (0.96%) Middleware
10 21 (0.84%) HTML
11 20 (0.80%) BAPI
11 20 (0.80%) SAP PI
12 18 (0.72%) GraphQL
12 18 (0.72%) OAuth
13 16 (0.64%) CSS
14 15 (0.60%) SAP Basis
15 14 (0.56%) .NET
15 14 (0.56%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 75 (3.01%) Onboarding
2 61 (2.44%) Legacy Systems
3 43 (1.72%) Product Ownership
4 36 (1.44%) Security Posture
5 31 (1.24%) Cloud Native
5 31 (1.24%) Data Centre
6 25 (1.00%) Management Information System
7 24 (0.96%) Replication
8 23 (0.92%) Data Structures
9 22 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
10 19 (0.76%) Greenfield Project
11 18 (0.72%) Analytical Mindset
11 18 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
12 14 (0.56%) NHS
12 14 (0.56%) Operational Technology
13 12 (0.48%) CMDB
13 12 (0.48%) Virtual Team
14 10 (0.40%) FMCG
14 10 (0.40%) IoT
14 10 (0.40%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 73 (2.93%) Windows
2 51 (2.04%) Linux
3 20 (0.80%) Unix
4 13 (0.52%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Mac OS
7 9 (0.36%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.28%) AIX
8 7 (0.28%) Solaris
9 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) VMS
11 2 (0.080%) CentOS
11 2 (0.080%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.040%) Android
12 1 (0.040%) SUSE
12 1 (0.040%) tvOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 348 (13.95%) Migration
2 312 (12.51%) Problem-Solving
3 300 (12.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 296 (11.86%) Stakeholder Management
5 195 (7.82%) Workshop Facilitation
6 193 (7.74%) Agile
7 174 (6.97%) ERP
8 166 (6.65%) User Acceptance Testing
9 159 (6.37%) Analytics
10 154 (6.17%) Data Migration
11 148 (5.93%) Roadmaps
12 143 (5.73%) Knowledge Transfer
13 133 (5.33%) Validation
14 130 (5.21%) Business Intelligence
15 129 (5.17%) Cybersecurity
16 120 (4.81%) DevOps
17 111 (4.45%) Risk Management
18 105 (4.21%) Data Modelling
19 100 (4.01%) Continuous Improvement
19 100 (4.01%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 150 (6.01%) SQL
2 115 (4.61%) Python
3 88 (3.53%) PowerShell
4 77 (3.09%) JavaScript
5 75 (3.01%) ABAP
6 41 (1.64%) Java
7 30 (1.20%) Groovy
8 28 (1.12%) PL/SQL
8 28 (1.12%) TypeScript
9 17 (0.68%) Bash
10 14 (0.56%) C#
11 10 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
12 7 (0.28%) Apex Code
12 7 (0.28%) C++
12 7 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 6 (0.24%) R
13 6 (0.24%) Shell Script
13 6 (0.24%) VBA
14 5 (0.20%) Bicep
15 4 (0.16%) Go
Qualifications
1 644 (25.81%) Security Cleared
2 538 (21.56%) SC Cleared
3 98 (3.93%) Degree
4 81 (3.25%) BPSS Clearance
4 81 (3.25%) DV Cleared
5 55 (2.20%) CISSP
6 40 (1.60%) CISM
7 27 (1.08%) SAP Certification
7 27 (1.08%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 19 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
9 17 (0.68%) Cisco Certification
10 16 (0.64%) CIMA
11 14 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
12 13 (0.52%) ACCA
12 13 (0.52%) Master's Degree
13 11 (0.44%) AWS Certification
13 11 (0.44%) CCNP
14 10 (0.40%) CESG Certified Professional
15 9 (0.36%) CISA
16 7 (0.28%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (2.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 70 (2.81%) GDPR
3 69 (2.77%) NIST
4 52 (2.08%) QA
5 42 (1.68%) Data Quality
6 38 (1.52%) GRC
7 22 (0.88%) NCSC
8 18 (0.72%) SLA
9 17 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
10 14 (0.56%) PMO
11 13 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 12 (0.48%) PCI DSS
13 11 (0.44%) PERC
14 9 (0.36%) COBIT
15 8 (0.32%) Accessibility
15 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
15 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 8 (0.32%) HIPAA
15 8 (0.32%) IFRS
16 7 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 72 (2.89%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.72%) Docker
3 34 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 25 (1.00%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.76%) vSphere
6 10 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.24%) Hyper-V
8 5 (0.20%) NDS
8 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 4 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 4 (0.16%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.080%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.040%) Ceph
11 1 (0.040%) Firmware
11 1 (0.040%) KVM
11 1 (0.040%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.040%) QEMU
11 1 (0.040%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 59 (2.36%) Kubernetes
2 39 (1.56%) Terraform
3 28 (1.12%) vRealize
4 25 (1.00%) Microsoft Intune
5 19 (0.76%) Ansible
6 18 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.52%) SCCM
8 12 (0.48%) Grafana
9 11 (0.44%) PingFederate
10 10 (0.40%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.28%) Failover Clustering
12 6 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.24%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 4 (0.16%) CASB
13 4 (0.16%) Podman
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
14 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
14 3 (0.12%) Nessus
15 2 (0.080%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 657 (26.33%) SAP
2 306 (12.26%) Oracle
3 260 (10.42%) Microsoft
4 91 (3.65%) VMware
5 73 (2.93%) ServiceNow
6 63 (2.53%) Workday
7 58 (2.32%) CyberArk
8 57 (2.28%) Salesforce
9 56 (2.24%) Cisco
10 49 (1.96%) Ariba
11 37 (1.48%) Google
12 35 (1.40%) Aruba
13 34 (1.36%) Adobe
14 23 (0.92%) OpenText
15 19 (0.76%) Remedy
16 18 (0.72%) Dynatrace
17 16 (0.64%) Databricks
18 15 (0.60%) Dell
19 13 (0.52%) Splunk
20 12 (0.48%) Zscaler