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 18 July 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 26 25
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,068 2,117 2,846
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.80% 6.50% 6.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.27% 7.10% 7.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,695 1,234 1,682
10th Percentile £404 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £551
Median % change year-on-year - -0.09% +0.09%
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £726 £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 95 28 29
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.92 £25.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £43.57 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.23%
75th Percentile £63.38 £81.25 £66.00
90th Percentile £88.25 £87.33 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £61.60
% change year-on-year -22.03% +19.72% -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 48,955 29,836 39,186
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.53% 91.66% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,608 19,006 25,297
10th Percentile £325 £285 £288
25th Percentile £420 £400 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £494
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.85% -1.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,284 1,415 2,570
10th Percentile £15.82 £13.75 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £17.50
Median hourly rate £43.69 £25.30 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +72.69% -36.75% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.72
% change year-on-year +78.93% -38.24% +4.34%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 2,451 £550 - 901
UK excluding London 0 1,321 £525 -4.55% 608
London 0 1,129 £550 -4.35% 412
Work from Home -2 1,071 £540 -1.82% 452
South East -1 380 £540 -1.82% 201
North of England -16 277 £525 -4.55% 139
Midlands -4 256 £501 -9.00% 75
South West +24 211 £553 -1.69% 92
West Midlands +12 184 £501 -9.00% 56
North West -14 157 £525 -7.89% 89
Yorkshire -12 99 £550 +15.79% 39
Scotland +36 95 £425 -8.11% 18
East of England -14 86 £550 - 57
East Midlands -9 63 £500 -9.09% 19
Wales -3 30 £550 +23.94% 14
North East -32 21 £650 +21.72% 12
Northern Ireland -6 2 £525 +0.96% 20

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 647 (21.09%) SAP
2 588 (19.17%) Security Cleared
3 414 (13.49%) SC Cleared
4 401 (13.07%) Migration
5 389 (12.68%) Microsoft
6 352 (11.47%) Oracle
7 342 (11.15%) Stakeholder Management
8 324 (10.56%) Azure
9 281 (9.16%) SAP S/4HANA
10 275 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 254 (8.28%) Problem-Solving
12 252 (8.21%) ERP
13 244 (7.95%) SQL
14 232 (7.56%) User Acceptance Testing
15 208 (6.78%) Workshop Facilitation
16 203 (6.62%) Validation
17 199 (6.49%) Continuous Improvement
18 180 (5.87%) Data Migration
19 171 (5.57%) Cybersecurity
20 169 (5.51%) Agile
21 167 (5.44%) Analytics
22 164 (5.35%) Roadmaps
23 163 (5.31%) AI
24 147 (4.79%) AWS
25 141 (4.60%) Business Intelligence
25 141 (4.60%) Power Platform
26 132 (4.30%) DV Cleared
26 132 (4.30%) Dynamics 365
27 128 (4.17%) Requirements Gathering
28 126 (4.11%) Change Management

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%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.098%) Apache
9 3 (0.098%) Apache Superset
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 74 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
5 9 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.098%) PTC Creo
8 2 (0.065%) Lectora
8 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.033%) CATIA
9 1 (0.033%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.033%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 281 (9.16%) SAP S/4HANA
2 86 (2.80%) Oracle EBS
3 65 (2.12%) SAP FI
4 56 (1.83%) SAP PSCD
5 42 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.24%) SAP MM
7 36 (1.17%) Dynamics CRM
7 36 (1.17%) SAP BRIM
8 34 (1.11%) SAP SD
9 33 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
9 33 (1.08%) SAP FI-CA
10 31 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
10 31 (1.01%) SAP EWM
11 29 (0.95%) NetSuite
11 29 (0.95%) SAP CO
11 29 (0.95%) SAP PP
12 28 (0.91%) SAP Payroll
13 27 (0.88%) Oracle EBS R12
14 25 (0.81%) SAP FI/CO
15 24 (0.78%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 324 (10.56%) Azure
2 147 (4.79%) AWS
3 141 (4.60%) Power Platform
4 132 (4.30%) Dynamics 365
5 98 (3.19%) OCI
6 97 (3.16%) Microsoft 365
7 83 (2.71%) GCP
8 80 (2.61%) SuccessFactors
9 75 (2.44%) Power Automate
10 58 (1.89%) Entra ID
11 55 (1.79%) SaaS
12 48 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
13 45 (1.47%) Microsoft Copilot
14 35 (1.14%) GitHub
14 35 (1.14%) PowerApps
15 31 (1.01%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (0.65%) Copilot Studio
17 16 (0.52%) OneDrive
18 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
19 14 (0.46%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.96%) Firewall
2 49 (1.60%) Network Security
3 29 (0.95%) WAN
4 25 (0.81%) SNMP
5 20 (0.65%) BGP
6 19 (0.62%) LAN
6 19 (0.62%) VPN
7 14 (0.46%) DNS
8 13 (0.42%) SAN
8 13 (0.42%) VSAN
9 10 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 9 (0.29%) NGFW
11 8 (0.26%) NAS
11 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.23%) FTP
12 7 (0.23%) MPLS
12 7 (0.23%) Wireless
13 6 (0.20%) HTTP
13 6 (0.20%) IPsec
13 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 31 (1.01%) SQL Server
6 27 (0.88%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 26 (0.85%) Metadata
7 26 (0.85%) SAP BW
8 20 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
9 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
10 17 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
11 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
12 11 (0.36%) Power Query
13 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
14 6 (0.20%) Data Lake
14 6 (0.20%) Delta Lake
14 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
15 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
15 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 85 (2.77%) JIRA
2 22 (0.72%) 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%) LSMW
10 2 (0.065%) Snyk
General
1 651 (21.22%) Finance
2 637 (20.76%) Social Skills
3 250 (8.15%) Analytical Skills
4 224 (7.30%) Public Sector
5 108 (3.52%) Manufacturing
6 88 (2.87%) Legal
7 83 (2.71%) Banking
7 83 (2.71%) Billing
8 65 (2.12%) Telecoms
9 54 (1.76%) General Ledger
10 49 (1.60%) Marketing
11 44 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
11 44 (1.43%) Presentation Skills
12 41 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 39 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
13 39 (1.27%) Retail
14 27 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
15 24 (0.78%) Aerospace
16 21 (0.68%) Local Government
16 21 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.74%) Oracle Fusion
2 73 (2.38%) REST
3 59 (1.92%) XML
4 40 (1.30%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.17%) Middleware
6 35 (1.14%) SOAP
7 29 (0.95%) BAPI
8 25 (0.81%) Web Services
9 20 (0.65%) HTML
9 20 (0.65%) SAP TM
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%) .NET
13 14 (0.46%) OAuth
13 14 (0.46%) SAP PI
14 13 (0.42%) LDAP
15 11 (0.36%) EDI
16 10 (0.33%) React
Miscellaneous
1 99 (3.23%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
3 43 (1.40%) CMDB
4 42 (1.37%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.08%) AI Agents
5 33 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
6 32 (1.04%) Product Ownership
7 29 (0.95%) Data Structures
8 28 (0.91%) Data Centre
9 26 (0.85%) Operational Technology
10 21 (0.68%) Cloud Native
10 21 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
10 21 (0.68%) Life Science
10 21 (0.68%) Management Information System
11 20 (0.65%) NHS
12 19 (0.62%) Public Cloud
13 17 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
13 17 (0.55%) Replication
14 15 (0.49%) Algorithms
14 15 (0.49%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 99 (3.23%) Windows
2 67 (2.18%) Linux
3 25 (0.81%) Unix
4 21 (0.68%) Solaris
5 19 (0.62%) VMS
6 17 (0.55%) AIX
7 9 (0.29%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.16%) Android
8 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.098%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.098%) zOS
11 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.065%) SUSE
12 1 (0.033%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 401 (13.07%) Migration
2 342 (11.15%) Stakeholder Management
3 275 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 254 (8.28%) Problem-Solving
5 252 (8.21%) ERP
6 232 (7.56%) User Acceptance Testing
7 208 (6.78%) Workshop Facilitation
8 203 (6.62%) Validation
9 199 (6.49%) Continuous Improvement
10 180 (5.87%) Data Migration
11 171 (5.57%) Cybersecurity
12 169 (5.51%) Agile
13 167 (5.44%) Analytics
14 164 (5.35%) Roadmaps
15 163 (5.31%) AI
16 141 (4.60%) Business Intelligence
17 128 (4.17%) Requirements Gathering
18 126 (4.11%) Change Management
18 126 (4.11%) Translating Business Requirements
19 113 (3.68%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 244 (7.95%) SQL
2 124 (4.04%) Python
3 61 (1.99%) JavaScript
4 58 (1.89%) PowerShell
5 56 (1.83%) ABAP
5 56 (1.83%) PL/SQL
6 38 (1.24%) Java
7 35 (1.14%) T-SQL
8 18 (0.59%) Bash
9 15 (0.49%) C#
10 14 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
13 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
14 9 (0.29%) Shell Script
15 7 (0.23%) C++
15 7 (0.23%) R
16 4 (0.13%) Apex Code
16 4 (0.13%) Perl
16 4 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 588 (19.17%) Security Cleared
2 414 (13.49%) SC Cleared
3 132 (4.30%) DV Cleared
4 89 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
5 75 (2.44%) CISSP
6 72 (2.35%) Degree
7 57 (1.86%) CISM
8 37 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
9 29 (0.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.85%) CCSP
11 18 (0.59%) 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%) ITIL Certification
16 11 (0.36%) SAP Certification
16 11 (0.36%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (2.84%) NIST
2 79 (2.57%) Data Quality
3 75 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 58 (1.89%) GRC
5 52 (1.69%) QA
6 38 (1.24%) GDPR
7 30 (0.98%) NCSC
8 28 (0.91%) PCI DSS
9 24 (0.78%) 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 13 (0.42%) GxP
14 10 (0.33%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.26%) NIST 800
15 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
15 8 (0.26%) WCAG
16 7 (0.23%) GAAP
System Software
1 61 (1.99%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.37%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.88%) vSphere
5 13 (0.42%) 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
12 1 (0.033%) HDFS
12 1 (0.033%) Job Entry Subsystem
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%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.46%) Netcool
6 14 (0.46%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.42%) OpenView
7 13 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) Grafana
8 12 (0.39%) SCCM
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
9 11 (0.36%) vCenter Server
10 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.16%) CEMLI
12 4 (0.13%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 647 (21.09%) SAP
2 389 (12.68%) Microsoft
3 352 (11.47%) Oracle
4 120 (3.91%) ServiceNow
5 96 (3.13%) VMware
6 62 (2.02%) Ariba
7 52 (1.69%) Workday
8 51 (1.66%) Salesforce
9 50 (1.63%) Siemens
10 45 (1.47%) Splunk
11 38 (1.24%) Databricks
12 26 (0.85%) Palo Alto
13 25 (0.81%) Google
14 24 (0.78%) BMC
15 22 (0.72%) IBM
15 22 (0.72%) OpenText
16 17 (0.55%) Cisco
16 17 (0.55%) JD Edwards
16 17 (0.55%) Okta
17 16 (0.52%) SolarWinds