Consultant Contract Job Trends

Consultant
UK

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK is £540, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +15
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,806 1,899 2,699
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.82% 6.52% 6.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.30% 7.06% 6.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,556 1,108 1,693
10th Percentile £387 £413 £400
25th Percentile £455 £480 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% - -
75th Percentile £636 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £535 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -0.56% -2.18% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 20 28
10th Percentile £41.25 £36.45 £27.13
25th Percentile £56.25 £49.87 £52.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £72.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -20.69% +17.69% -6.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £63.00
90th Percentile £81.35 £87.50 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £76.25 £56.89
% change year-on-year -24.59% +34.04% -12.48%

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 44,544 26,886 39,472
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 92.37% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,258 17,494 25,719
10th Percentile £325 £293 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.86% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,901 1,057 2,674
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.83
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £27.99 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.50% -23.32% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.50 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £26.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +70.88% -34.16% -5.88%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 2,233 £550 - 1,737
UK excluding London -1 1,157 £535 -0.56% 1,197
London -1 1,044 £550 -4.35% 735
Work from Home -2 978 £550 - 732
South East -2 336 £530 -4.72% 274
North of England -21 237 £531 -0.14% 358
Midlands -14 227 £525 -2.33% 116
South West +31 191 £577 +4.91% 238
West Midlands -6 152 £550 - 81
North West -24 109 £518 -4.05% 253
Yorkshire -3 107 £550 +8.64% 72
Scotland +31 71 £425 -15.00% 52
East of England -4 70 £550 +10.00% 74
East Midlands -15 67 £500 -3.85% 36
Wales +6 30 £550 +37.50% 37
North East -24 21 £725 +35.77% 34
Northern Ireland -4 3 £600 +15.38% 61

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 May 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.

1 584 (20.81%) SAP
2 521 (18.57%) Security Cleared
3 396 (14.11%) SC Cleared
4 361 (12.87%) Migration
5 315 (11.23%) Azure
6 314 (11.19%) Oracle
7 308 (10.98%) Microsoft
8 256 (9.12%) SAP S/4HANA
9 254 (9.05%) Problem-Solving
10 244 (8.70%) Stakeholder Management
11 243 (8.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 238 (8.48%) ERP
13 207 (7.38%) SQL
14 200 (7.13%) User Acceptance Testing
15 189 (6.74%) Workshop Facilitation
16 172 (6.13%) Continuous Improvement
17 167 (5.95%) Data Migration
18 163 (5.81%) Agile
18 163 (5.81%) Validation
19 149 (5.31%) Cybersecurity
20 147 (5.24%) Dynamics 365
20 147 (5.24%) Roadmaps
21 145 (5.17%) Analytics
21 145 (5.17%) Power Platform
22 143 (5.10%) Business Intelligence
23 131 (4.67%) AI
24 130 (4.63%) AWS
25 113 (4.03%) Change Management
26 112 (3.99%) DevOps
26 112 (3.99%) 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 81 (2.89%) SharePoint
2 42 (1.50%) Confluence
3 13 (0.46%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.21%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.14%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.11%) Apache
7 3 (0.11%) Apache Superset
7 3 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.071%) IIS
8 2 (0.071%) NetWeaver
8 2 (0.071%) SAS
8 2 (0.071%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.036%) CMS
9 1 (0.036%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.036%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.036%) WordPress
Applications
1 67 (2.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.46%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.25%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.18%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.071%) Lectora
7 2 (0.071%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.036%) CATIA
8 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 256 (9.12%) SAP S/4HANA
2 71 (2.53%) Oracle EBS
3 58 (2.07%) SAP FI
4 46 (1.64%) Oracle Payables
5 41 (1.46%) SAP MM
5 41 (1.46%) SAP PSCD
6 40 (1.43%) Oracle Receivables
7 33 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
8 31 (1.10%) SAP BRIM
9 29 (1.03%) SAP CO
9 29 (1.03%) SAP EWM
10 28 (1.00%) SAP PP
10 28 (1.00%) Teamcenter
11 27 (0.96%) Oracle EBS R12
11 27 (0.96%) SAP FI/CO
11 27 (0.96%) SAP FI-CA
11 27 (0.96%) SAP Travel Management
12 26 (0.93%) SAP SD
13 25 (0.89%) Oracle Assets
14 24 (0.86%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 315 (11.23%) Azure
2 147 (5.24%) Dynamics 365
3 145 (5.17%) Power Platform
4 130 (4.63%) AWS
5 93 (3.31%) OCI
6 77 (2.74%) Microsoft 365
7 72 (2.57%) GCP
8 67 (2.39%) Power Automate
9 61 (2.17%) SaaS
9 61 (2.17%) SuccessFactors
10 45 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
10 45 (1.60%) Entra ID
11 39 (1.39%) Microsoft Copilot
12 38 (1.35%) PowerApps
13 30 (1.07%) GitHub
14 28 (1.00%) Microsoft Purview
15 20 (0.71%) Serverless
16 19 (0.68%) Copilot Studio
17 17 (0.61%) Azure Data Factory
18 15 (0.53%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 34 (1.21%) Firewall
2 31 (1.10%) Network Security
3 21 (0.75%) SNMP
4 16 (0.57%) SMS
5 14 (0.50%) DNS
6 12 (0.43%) SAN
6 12 (0.43%) WAN
7 10 (0.36%) LAN
7 10 (0.36%) Software-Defined Networking
7 10 (0.36%) VPN
7 10 (0.36%) VSAN
8 9 (0.32%) FTP
9 8 (0.29%) Intranet
9 8 (0.29%) Kerberos
9 8 (0.29%) NAS
9 8 (0.29%) SD-WAN
10 7 (0.25%) VLAN
11 6 (0.21%) HTTP
12 5 (0.18%) DHCP
12 5 (0.18%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (3.10%) Power BI
2 53 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
3 35 (1.25%) SAP HANA
4 30 (1.07%) Tableau
5 26 (0.93%) SQL Server
6 23 (0.82%) Metadata
7 22 (0.78%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 17 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
9 16 (0.57%) SAP BW
10 13 (0.46%) Data Warehouse
11 9 (0.32%) Electronic Patient Records
12 8 (0.29%) BusinessObjects
13 7 (0.25%) GIS
13 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
13 7 (0.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 6 (0.21%) Data Lake
14 6 (0.21%) Essbase
14 6 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
15 5 (0.18%) Geospatial Data
15 5 (0.18%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 75 (2.67%) JIRA
2 18 (0.64%) Hudson
3 17 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
4 13 (0.46%) Git
5 12 (0.43%) Jenkins
6 9 (0.32%) GitLab
7 7 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.14%) Oracle APEX
8 4 (0.14%) Postman
8 4 (0.14%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
9 3 (0.11%) Toad
10 2 (0.071%) Browser DevTools
10 2 (0.071%) git-flow
10 2 (0.071%) JUnit
10 2 (0.071%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.071%) Selenium
11 1 (0.036%) Charles Proxy
11 1 (0.036%) MLflow
General
1 594 (21.17%) Social Skills
2 589 (20.99%) Finance
3 233 (8.30%) Analytical Skills
4 194 (6.91%) Public Sector
5 95 (3.39%) Banking
6 87 (3.10%) Manufacturing
7 64 (2.28%) Legal
8 62 (2.21%) Billing
8 62 (2.21%) Marketing
9 50 (1.78%) General Ledger
10 47 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
11 37 (1.32%) Telecoms
12 33 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
13 32 (1.14%) Retail
14 26 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 26 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
15 25 (0.89%) Pharmaceutical
16 23 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
17 20 (0.71%) Law
18 16 (0.57%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 76 (2.71%) REST
2 73 (2.60%) Oracle Fusion
3 60 (2.14%) XML
4 28 (1.00%) SAP TM
5 25 (0.89%) Middleware
5 25 (0.89%) SOAP
6 24 (0.86%) BAPI
6 24 (0.86%) SAP Fiori
7 21 (0.75%) JSON
7 21 (0.75%) Web Services
8 19 (0.68%) .NET
8 19 (0.68%) HTML
9 17 (0.61%) LDAP
9 17 (0.61%) SAP Basis
10 16 (0.57%) CSS
11 11 (0.39%) IDoc
11 11 (0.39%) Node.js
11 11 (0.39%) OAuth
11 11 (0.39%) React
12 10 (0.36%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 64 (2.28%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
3 41 (1.46%) Security Posture
4 39 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
5 32 (1.14%) Product Ownership
6 31 (1.10%) Operational Technology
7 29 (1.03%) AI Agents
8 26 (0.93%) Data Structures
9 25 (0.89%) Data Centre
10 23 (0.82%) Cloud Native
11 22 (0.78%) Management Information System
12 21 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
12 21 (0.75%) NHS
13 20 (0.71%) CMDB
14 19 (0.68%) Life Science
15 16 (0.57%) Public Cloud
16 15 (0.53%) Replication
17 14 (0.50%) Algorithms
18 13 (0.46%) Analytical Mindset
18 13 (0.46%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 72 (2.57%) Windows
2 54 (1.92%) Linux
3 20 (0.71%) VMS
4 17 (0.61%) Solaris
4 17 (0.61%) Unix
5 16 (0.57%) AIX
6 8 (0.29%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.18%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.14%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.14%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.14%) zOS
9 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.11%) SUSE
10 2 (0.071%) Android
10 2 (0.071%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 361 (12.87%) Migration
2 254 (9.05%) Problem-Solving
3 244 (8.70%) Stakeholder Management
4 243 (8.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 238 (8.48%) ERP
6 200 (7.13%) User Acceptance Testing
7 189 (6.74%) Workshop Facilitation
8 172 (6.13%) Continuous Improvement
9 167 (5.95%) Data Migration
10 163 (5.81%) Agile
10 163 (5.81%) Validation
11 149 (5.31%) Cybersecurity
12 147 (5.24%) Roadmaps
13 145 (5.17%) Analytics
14 143 (5.10%) Business Intelligence
15 131 (4.67%) AI
16 113 (4.03%) Change Management
17 112 (3.99%) DevOps
18 110 (3.92%) Translating Business Requirements
19 98 (3.49%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 207 (7.38%) SQL
2 112 (3.99%) Python
3 72 (2.57%) JavaScript
4 54 (1.92%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.71%) PL/SQL
6 35 (1.25%) T-SQL
7 31 (1.10%) ABAP
7 31 (1.10%) Java
8 21 (0.75%) C#
9 20 (0.71%) TypeScript
10 13 (0.46%) Bash
10 13 (0.46%) Search Processing Language
11 10 (0.36%) Shell Script
12 8 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 8 (0.29%) Groovy
12 8 (0.29%) R
13 7 (0.25%) C++
13 7 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
14 6 (0.21%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 521 (18.57%) Security Cleared
2 396 (14.11%) SC Cleared
3 105 (3.74%) DV Cleared
4 80 (2.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 66 (2.35%) CISSP
5 66 (2.35%) Degree
6 51 (1.82%) CISM
7 26 (0.93%) Cisco Certification
8 21 (0.75%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 21 (0.75%) CCSP
8 21 (0.75%) CIMA
9 19 (0.68%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 13 (0.46%) Computer Science Degree
10 13 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
10 13 (0.46%) PMP
11 12 (0.43%) CEH
11 12 (0.43%) SAP Certification
12 11 (0.39%) ACCA
13 10 (0.36%) Azure Certification
13 10 (0.36%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (2.99%) NIST
2 76 (2.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 67 (2.39%) Data Quality
4 53 (1.89%) GRC
5 44 (1.57%) GDPR
6 36 (1.28%) QA
7 26 (0.93%) NCSC
8 24 (0.86%) PCI DSS
9 20 (0.71%) PMO
9 20 (0.71%) SLA
10 18 (0.64%) Actionable Recommendations
11 15 (0.53%) Accessibility
11 15 (0.53%) COBIT
11 15 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 14 (0.50%) JSP 440
13 9 (0.32%) DICOM
13 9 (0.32%) GxP
13 9 (0.32%) HL7
14 7 (0.25%) RMADS
15 6 (0.21%) WCAG
System Software
1 49 (1.75%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.32%) VMware Infrastructure
2 37 (1.32%) VMware NSX
3 25 (0.89%) vSphere
4 20 (0.71%) Docker
5 11 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (0.32%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 5 (0.18%) IAG
9 3 (0.11%) NFS
10 1 (0.036%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.036%) HDFS
10 1 (0.036%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.036%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 54 (1.92%) Kubernetes
2 35 (1.25%) Terraform
3 27 (0.96%) vRealize
4 19 (0.68%) Ansible
5 17 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.53%) Nagios
6 15 (0.53%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.50%) Netcool
7 14 (0.50%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.46%) OpenView
8 13 (0.46%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 11 (0.39%) Grafana
9 11 (0.39%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.25%) SCCM
10 7 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (0.21%) NetBackup
11 6 (0.21%) Podman
11 6 (0.21%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.18%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 584 (20.81%) SAP
2 314 (11.19%) Oracle
3 308 (10.98%) Microsoft
4 90 (3.21%) VMware
5 81 (2.89%) ServiceNow
6 58 (2.07%) Ariba
7 54 (1.92%) Siemens
8 52 (1.85%) Workday
9 51 (1.82%) Salesforce
10 36 (1.28%) Splunk
11 30 (1.07%) Databricks
11 30 (1.07%) Google
12 26 (0.93%) BMC
13 22 (0.78%) IBM
14 19 (0.68%) Adobe
15 18 (0.64%) IFS
16 17 (0.61%) Palo Alto
17 16 (0.57%) Sage
17 16 (0.57%) SolarWinds
18 14 (0.50%) HP