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 July 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 27 25
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 +8
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,087 2,129 2,901
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.83% 6.52% 6.76%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.30% 7.09% 7.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,714 1,228 1,720
10th Percentile £404 £406 £406
25th Percentile £463 £472 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £725 £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 98 29 31
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £26.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £51.45
Median hourly rate £57.50 £75.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -23.33% +21.75% -5.23%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £65.52
90th Percentile £86.53 £87.30 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £59.95
% change year-on-year -25.81% +29.27% -7.54%

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 48,976 30,008 39,912
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.87% 93.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,674 19,142 25,677
10th Percentile £325 £287 £288
25th Percentile £418 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.50% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,289 1,390 2,727
10th Percentile £15.83 £13.75 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.33 £17.00
Median hourly rate £43.50 £26.50 £39.55
Median % change year-on-year +64.15% -33.00% -8.02%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.98
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% +1.14%

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 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 12 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 12 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 -3 2,467 £550 - 1,065
UK excluding London 0 1,319 £525 -4.55% 715
London 0 1,141 £550 -4.35% 492
Work from Home -1 1,087 £540 -1.82% 528
South East -3 367 £525 -4.55% 215
North of England -17 281 £550 +2.09% 164
Midlands -9 258 £501 -9.00% 100
South West +26 215 £556 +1.09% 92
West Midlands +8 183 £501 -9.00% 67
North West -11 158 £525 -4.55% 102
Yorkshire -19 102 £544 +11.54% 45
Scotland +34 93 £425 -8.11% 22
East of England -18 88 £550 - 57
East Midlands -8 66 £500 -9.09% 33
Wales -4 31 £550 +37.50% 18
North East -36 21 £650 +21.72% 18
Northern Ireland -2 2 £525 +0.96% 54

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 643 (20.83%) SAP
2 577 (18.69%) Security Cleared
3 418 (13.54%) SC Cleared
4 409 (13.25%) Migration
5 381 (12.34%) Microsoft
6 357 (11.56%) Oracle
7 335 (10.85%) Azure
8 330 (10.69%) Stakeholder Management
9 277 (8.97%) SAP S/4HANA
10 274 (8.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 264 (8.55%) Problem-Solving
12 256 (8.29%) ERP
13 247 (8.00%) SQL
14 231 (7.48%) User Acceptance Testing
15 207 (6.71%) Validation
16 203 (6.58%) Continuous Improvement
17 202 (6.54%) Workshop Facilitation
18 188 (6.09%) Data Migration
19 171 (5.54%) Cybersecurity
20 168 (5.44%) Agile
21 167 (5.41%) Analytics
22 166 (5.38%) AI
23 162 (5.25%) Roadmaps
24 149 (4.83%) AWS
25 143 (4.63%) Power Platform
26 141 (4.57%) Business Intelligence
27 131 (4.24%) Python
28 129 (4.18%) Dynamics 365
29 125 (4.05%) Change Management
30 124 (4.02%) Requirements Gathering

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 80 (2.59%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.55%) 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 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.097%) Apache
9 3 (0.097%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.097%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.097%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.065%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) IIS
10 2 (0.065%) Jupyter
10 2 (0.065%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.065%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.065%) WordPress
Applications
1 77 (2.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.29%) MS Visio
4 9 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.16%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.065%) Lectora
7 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.032%) CATIA
8 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
8 1 (0.032%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 277 (8.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 87 (2.82%) Oracle EBS
3 65 (2.11%) SAP FI
4 58 (1.88%) SAP PSCD
5 44 (1.43%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.23%) SAP BRIM
6 38 (1.23%) SAP MM
7 35 (1.13%) Oracle Receivables
8 33 (1.07%) Dynamics CRM
8 33 (1.07%) SAP FI-CA
8 33 (1.07%) SAP SD
9 31 (1.00%) Oracle ERP
10 29 (0.94%) Oracle EBS R12
10 29 (0.94%) SAP CO
11 28 (0.91%) NetSuite
11 28 (0.91%) SAP EWM
12 26 (0.84%) SAP PP
13 25 (0.81%) SAP FI/CO
13 25 (0.81%) SAP Payroll
14 24 (0.78%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 335 (10.85%) Azure
2 149 (4.83%) AWS
3 143 (4.63%) Power Platform
4 129 (4.18%) Dynamics 365
5 99 (3.21%) OCI
6 97 (3.14%) Microsoft 365
7 83 (2.69%) GCP
8 77 (2.49%) SuccessFactors
9 71 (2.30%) Power Automate
10 58 (1.88%) Entra ID
11 56 (1.81%) SaaS
12 50 (1.62%) Azure DevOps
13 46 (1.49%) Microsoft Copilot
14 36 (1.17%) GitHub
15 35 (1.13%) PowerApps
16 32 (1.04%) Microsoft Purview
17 21 (0.68%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.52%) OneDrive
19 15 (0.49%) Azure Logic Apps
19 15 (0.49%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 57 (1.85%) Firewall
2 48 (1.55%) Network Security
3 27 (0.87%) WAN
4 25 (0.81%) SNMP
5 19 (0.62%) BGP
6 18 (0.58%) LAN
6 18 (0.58%) VPN
7 16 (0.52%) DNS
8 13 (0.42%) SAN
9 12 (0.39%) VSAN
10 9 (0.29%) NGFW
10 9 (0.29%) TCP/IP
11 8 (0.26%) FTP
11 8 (0.26%) NAS
11 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.23%) DHCP
12 7 (0.23%) MPLS
12 7 (0.23%) Software-Defined Networking
12 7 (0.23%) Wireless
13 6 (0.19%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 89 (2.88%) Power BI
2 58 (1.88%) Oracle Reports
3 40 (1.30%) SAP HANA
4 35 (1.13%) Tableau
5 28 (0.91%) SQL Server
6 27 (0.87%) Metadata
6 27 (0.87%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 22 (0.71%) SAP BW
8 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
9 17 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
9 17 (0.55%) Data Warehouse
10 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
11 10 (0.32%) Power Query
12 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.19%) Data Lake
13 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
13 6 (0.19%) NoSQL
13 6 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 5 (0.16%) GIS
14 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
Development Applications
1 88 (2.85%) JIRA
2 22 (0.71%) 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
7 5 (0.16%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.13%) Toad
8 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.097%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.097%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.097%) MLflow
9 3 (0.097%) Selenium
9 3 (0.097%) TestRail
9 3 (0.097%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.065%) LSMW
10 2 (0.065%) Snyk
General
1 672 (21.77%) Finance
2 654 (21.19%) Social Skills
3 256 (8.29%) Analytical Skills
4 226 (7.32%) Public Sector
5 105 (3.40%) Manufacturing
6 90 (2.92%) Banking
6 90 (2.92%) Legal
7 84 (2.72%) Billing
8 68 (2.20%) Telecoms
9 61 (1.98%) General Ledger
10 49 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
11 47 (1.52%) Marketing
12 41 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
12 41 (1.33%) Retail
13 39 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 39 (1.26%) Pharmaceutical
14 25 (0.81%) Law
15 24 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
16 23 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
17 22 (0.71%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.72%) Oracle Fusion
2 77 (2.49%) REST
3 60 (1.94%) XML
4 37 (1.20%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.17%) SOAP
6 33 (1.07%) Middleware
7 29 (0.94%) BAPI
8 25 (0.81%) Web Services
9 20 (0.65%) HTML
9 20 (0.65%) SAP TM
10 18 (0.58%) CSS
10 18 (0.58%) JSON
11 17 (0.55%) IDoc
11 17 (0.55%) SAP Basis
12 15 (0.49%) .NET
13 14 (0.45%) OAuth
14 11 (0.36%) EDI
14 11 (0.36%) LDAP
15 10 (0.32%) Microsoft Graph
15 10 (0.32%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 88 (2.85%) Onboarding
2 50 (1.62%) Data Protection Act
3 45 (1.46%) Security Posture
4 44 (1.43%) CMDB
5 36 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
6 34 (1.10%) AI Agents
6 34 (1.10%) Product Ownership
7 28 (0.91%) Data Structures
8 27 (0.87%) Data Centre
8 27 (0.87%) Operational Technology
9 24 (0.78%) Management Information System
10 23 (0.75%) Cloud Native
10 23 (0.75%) Life Science
11 22 (0.71%) Public Cloud
12 21 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
13 20 (0.65%) NHS
14 17 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
14 17 (0.55%) Replication
15 15 (0.49%) Algorithms
15 15 (0.49%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 98 (3.17%) Windows
2 68 (2.20%) Linux
3 26 (0.84%) Unix
4 21 (0.68%) Solaris
5 18 (0.58%) VMS
6 17 (0.55%) AIX
7 8 (0.26%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.16%) zOS
9 4 (0.13%) Android
9 4 (0.13%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.13%) Windows 10
10 3 (0.097%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.065%) SUSE
12 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 409 (13.25%) Migration
2 330 (10.69%) Stakeholder Management
3 274 (8.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 264 (8.55%) Problem-Solving
5 256 (8.29%) ERP
6 231 (7.48%) User Acceptance Testing
7 207 (6.71%) Validation
8 203 (6.58%) Continuous Improvement
9 202 (6.54%) Workshop Facilitation
10 188 (6.09%) Data Migration
11 171 (5.54%) Cybersecurity
12 168 (5.44%) Agile
13 167 (5.41%) Analytics
14 166 (5.38%) AI
15 162 (5.25%) Roadmaps
16 141 (4.57%) Business Intelligence
17 125 (4.05%) Change Management
18 124 (4.02%) Requirements Gathering
19 122 (3.95%) Translating Business Requirements
20 113 (3.66%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 247 (8.00%) SQL
2 131 (4.24%) Python
3 62 (2.01%) JavaScript
4 60 (1.94%) PowerShell
5 56 (1.81%) PL/SQL
6 55 (1.78%) ABAP
7 40 (1.30%) Java
8 35 (1.13%) T-SQL
9 18 (0.58%) Bash
10 15 (0.49%) C#
11 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
12 12 (0.39%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 12 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
13 11 (0.36%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.32%) TypeScript
15 7 (0.23%) C++
15 7 (0.23%) R
16 5 (0.16%) Korn
17 4 (0.13%) Apex Code
17 4 (0.13%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 577 (18.69%) Security Cleared
2 418 (13.54%) SC Cleared
3 121 (3.92%) DV Cleared
4 88 (2.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 76 (2.46%) CISSP
6 75 (2.43%) Degree
7 55 (1.78%) CISM
8 36 (1.17%) Cisco Certification
9 28 (0.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.84%) CCSP
11 19 (0.62%) CIMA
12 15 (0.49%) PMP
13 14 (0.45%) CEH
13 14 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 13 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
14 13 (0.42%) ITIL Certification
14 13 (0.42%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.39%) ACCA
15 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.39%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (2.98%) NIST
2 79 (2.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 77 (2.49%) Data Quality
4 58 (1.88%) GRC
5 54 (1.75%) QA
6 37 (1.20%) GDPR
7 29 (0.94%) NCSC
8 28 (0.91%) PCI DSS
9 24 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
10 22 (0.71%) Accessibility
10 22 (0.71%) SLA
11 21 (0.68%) PMO
12 18 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.45%) COBIT
13 14 (0.45%) GxP
14 12 (0.39%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.26%) WCAG
16 7 (0.23%) DICOM
16 7 (0.23%) GAAP
16 7 (0.23%) HL7
System Software
1 59 (1.91%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.33%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.87%) vSphere
5 12 (0.39%) Docker
5 12 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (0.23%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.23%) IAG
8 6 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.13%) NFS
10 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.065%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 1 (0.032%) HDFS
11 1 (0.032%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.032%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.032%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.032%) SRDF
11 1 (0.032%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.72%) Terraform
2 45 (1.46%) Kubernetes
3 29 (0.94%) Ansible
4 25 (0.81%) vRealize
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (0.45%) Netcool
6 14 (0.45%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.42%) OpenView
7 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) Grafana
8 12 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
9 11 (0.36%) SCCM
10 10 (0.32%) vCenter Server
11 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
12 5 (0.16%) CEMLI
13 4 (0.13%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 643 (20.83%) SAP
2 381 (12.34%) Microsoft
3 357 (11.56%) Oracle
4 122 (3.95%) ServiceNow
5 98 (3.17%) VMware
6 66 (2.14%) Ariba
7 54 (1.75%) Siemens
8 53 (1.72%) Salesforce
9 51 (1.65%) Workday
10 41 (1.33%) Splunk
11 39 (1.26%) Databricks
12 27 (0.87%) Google
13 26 (0.84%) Palo Alto
14 23 (0.75%) BMC
15 22 (0.71%) IBM
16 20 (0.65%) OpenText
17 18 (0.58%) JD Edwards
18 16 (0.52%) Cisco
18 16 (0.52%) IFS
18 16 (0.52%) SolarWinds