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 28 September 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 26 27
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,188 2,294 2,578
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.86% 6.99% 6.75%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.36% 7.68% 7.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,807 1,358 1,388
10th Percentile £413 £411 £413
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - +0.09%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £650
90th Percentile £747 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £548 £550 £564
% change year-on-year -0.45% -2.44% +7.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 25 24
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.32 £45.38
25th Percentile £43.13 £41.60 £60.29
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £62.30
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +24.40% -2.66%
75th Percentile £86.06 £81.25 £70.89
90th Percentile £92.25 £87.40 £74.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.29% +25.81% -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 50,147 29,864 35,507
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.20% 91.01% 92.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,583 18,880 21,565
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £623 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,922 1,610 1,584
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.85
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.30 £20.50
Median hourly rate £41.72 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.89% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.57 £74.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.00 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.50% -41.69% -2.27%

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 28 September 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 28 September 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 28 September 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 2,539 £550 -0.90% 2,765
UK excluding London -6 1,338 £548 -0.45% 1,461
London -4 1,230 £550 -4.35% 1,456
Work from Home -4 1,057 £550 - 1,487
South East -4 374 £540 -1.82% 349
North of England -24 320 £575 - 369
Midlands -6 224 £500 -9.09% 204
North West -16 209 £581 -6.29% 220
South West +13 192 £556 -3.30% 174
West Midlands -3 161 £500 -9.09% 153
Scotland +28 125 £450 -10.00% 130
East of England -15 104 £552 +0.36% 116
Yorkshire -19 90 £575 +21.05% 72
East Midlands -8 59 £525 -4.55% 51
Wales -15 23 £550 +22.22% 29
North East -30 20 £750 +38.89% 77
Channel Islands -3 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -8 2 £544 +4.57% 100

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 28 September 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.

1 686 (21.52%) Security Cleared
2 631 (19.79%) SAP
3 581 (18.22%) Stakeholder Management
4 464 (14.55%) Microsoft
4 464 (14.55%) SC Cleared
5 437 (13.71%) Migration
6 399 (12.52%) Oracle
7 312 (9.79%) Azure
8 298 (9.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 290 (9.10%) User Acceptance Testing
10 274 (8.59%) SAP S/4HANA
11 257 (8.06%) Problem-Solving
12 244 (7.65%) Validation
13 240 (7.53%) Workshop Facilitation
14 239 (7.50%) Cybersecurity
15 227 (7.12%) ERP
16 214 (6.71%) SQL
17 210 (6.59%) Analytics
18 202 (6.34%) Continuous Improvement
19 198 (6.21%) Data Migration
20 195 (6.12%) Roadmaps
21 180 (5.65%) Agile
21 180 (5.65%) AWS
21 180 (5.65%) Requirements Gathering
22 168 (5.27%) AI
23 161 (5.05%) Power Platform
24 153 (4.80%) Knowledge Transfer
25 150 (4.71%) Business Intelligence
26 148 (4.64%) DV Cleared
27 147 (4.61%) Dynamics 365

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 74 (2.32%) SharePoint
2 41 (1.29%) Confluence
3 31 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
4 9 (0.28%) WebSphere
5 8 (0.25%) SAS
5 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
6 4 (0.13%) Apache
6 4 (0.13%) ArcGIS
6 4 (0.13%) CMS
7 3 (0.094%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.094%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.094%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.094%) NetWeaver
7 3 (0.094%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.094%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
8 2 (0.063%) IIS
8 2 (0.063%) OpenEdge
8 2 (0.063%) Smallworld
8 2 (0.063%) Tomcat
Applications
1 48 (1.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (1.00%) Microsoft Office
3 27 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.28%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.063%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.031%) 1Password
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.031%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.031%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 274 (8.59%) SAP S/4HANA
2 83 (2.60%) Oracle EBS
3 76 (2.38%) SAP FI
4 49 (1.54%) SAP PSCD
5 48 (1.51%) SAP Payroll
6 47 (1.47%) Oracle ERP
7 44 (1.38%) SAP CO
8 43 (1.35%) Oracle Payables
9 38 (1.19%) Workday HCM
10 37 (1.16%) Dynamics CRM
10 37 (1.16%) Oracle Receivables
11 35 (1.10%) SAP FI/CO
12 34 (1.07%) SAP HR
13 33 (1.04%) Oracle General Ledger
13 33 (1.04%) SAP BRIM
13 33 (1.04%) SAP HCM
13 33 (1.04%) SAP SD
14 28 (0.88%) NetSuite
14 28 (0.88%) SAP MM
14 28 (0.88%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 312 (9.79%) Azure
2 180 (5.65%) AWS
3 161 (5.05%) Power Platform
4 147 (4.61%) Dynamics 365
5 114 (3.58%) OCI
6 100 (3.14%) SuccessFactors
7 94 (2.95%) GCP
8 91 (2.85%) Microsoft 365
9 68 (2.13%) Entra ID
10 66 (2.07%) Power Automate
11 63 (1.98%) Azure DevOps
12 56 (1.76%) Microsoft Copilot
13 47 (1.47%) SaaS
14 34 (1.07%) PowerApps
15 28 (0.88%) Microsoft Purview
16 25 (0.78%) GitHub
17 20 (0.63%) Snowflake
18 18 (0.56%) Azure AI
19 17 (0.53%) Amazon S3
20 16 (0.50%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 69 (2.16%) Firewall
2 68 (2.13%) Network Security
3 34 (1.07%) BGP
3 34 (1.07%) WAN
4 26 (0.82%) VPN
5 20 (0.63%) DNS
6 17 (0.53%) SNMP
7 15 (0.47%) LAN
8 14 (0.44%) Ethernet VPN
8 14 (0.44%) TCP/IP
9 12 (0.38%) SAN
9 12 (0.38%) VXLAN
10 11 (0.35%) IPsec
10 11 (0.35%) MPLS
10 11 (0.35%) NGFW
11 10 (0.31%) 3GPP
11 10 (0.31%) 5G
11 10 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
12 9 (0.28%) SD-WAN
13 8 (0.25%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (3.01%) Power BI
2 47 (1.47%) Oracle Reports
3 38 (1.19%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 35 (1.10%) SAP BW
5 34 (1.07%) Data Warehouse
6 33 (1.04%) SAP HANA
7 29 (0.91%) Tableau
8 28 (0.88%) SQL Server
9 26 (0.82%) Metadata
10 21 (0.66%) BusinessObjects
11 17 (0.53%) Oracle Database
12 14 (0.44%) Power Query
13 10 (0.31%) Relational Database
14 9 (0.28%) DynamoDB
15 8 (0.25%) BigQuery
15 8 (0.25%) Elasticsearch
15 8 (0.25%) Oracle ODI
15 8 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
16 7 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
16 7 (0.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 91 (2.85%) JIRA
2 27 (0.85%) Git
3 17 (0.53%) Jenkins
4 13 (0.41%) Oracle Forms
5 12 (0.38%) GitLab
6 8 (0.25%) Hudson
7 7 (0.22%) PowerBuilder
7 7 (0.22%) Zephyr
8 6 (0.19%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.13%) MLflow
11 3 (0.094%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.094%) JDeveloper
11 3 (0.094%) JMeter
11 3 (0.094%) LoadRunner
11 3 (0.094%) Maven
11 3 (0.094%) Postman
11 3 (0.094%) Snyk
11 3 (0.094%) Toad
General
1 726 (22.77%) Finance
2 722 (22.65%) Social Skills
3 262 (8.22%) Public Sector
4 224 (7.03%) Analytical Skills
5 123 (3.86%) Manufacturing
6 95 (2.98%) Banking
7 87 (2.73%) Legal
8 81 (2.54%) Billing
9 79 (2.48%) Documentation Skills
10 65 (2.04%) Telecoms
11 57 (1.79%) Retail
12 56 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
13 55 (1.73%) General Ledger
14 47 (1.47%) Marketing
15 41 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
16 39 (1.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 36 (1.13%) Pharmaceutical
18 29 (0.91%) Local Government
19 24 (0.75%) Law
20 18 (0.56%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 128 (4.02%) Oracle Fusion
2 77 (2.42%) REST
3 60 (1.88%) Terraform
4 48 (1.51%) SAP Fiori
5 39 (1.22%) SOAP
5 39 (1.22%) XML
6 38 (1.19%) Middleware
6 38 (1.19%) Web Services
7 27 (0.85%) SailPoint
8 23 (0.72%) JSON
8 23 (0.72%) OAuth
9 19 (0.60%) LDAP
10 18 (0.56%) SAP PI
11 17 (0.53%) BAPI
11 17 (0.53%) HTML
12 15 (0.47%) CSS
12 15 (0.47%) SAP Basis
13 13 (0.41%) NETCONF
13 13 (0.41%) SAML
13 13 (0.41%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 129 (4.05%) Onboarding
2 54 (1.69%) CMDB
3 49 (1.54%) Operational Technology
4 47 (1.47%) Data Centre
5 46 (1.44%) Data Structures
6 39 (1.22%) Security Posture
7 38 (1.19%) Product Ownership
8 37 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
9 35 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
10 29 (0.91%) Legacy Systems
11 27 (0.85%) AI Agents
11 27 (0.85%) Replication
12 25 (0.78%) Cloud Native
13 22 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
13 22 (0.69%) Life Science
14 18 (0.56%) Public Cloud
15 17 (0.53%) Management Information System
16 16 (0.50%) Hybrid Cloud
16 16 (0.50%) NHS
16 16 (0.50%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 94 (2.95%) Windows
2 72 (2.26%) Linux
3 27 (0.85%) Unix
4 23 (0.72%) Windows Server
5 21 (0.66%) Solaris
6 13 (0.41%) VMS
7 11 (0.35%) AIX
8 6 (0.19%) Android
8 6 (0.19%) Windows 10
8 6 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.031%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.031%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.031%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.031%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.031%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 581 (18.22%) Stakeholder Management
2 437 (13.71%) Migration
3 298 (9.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 290 (9.10%) User Acceptance Testing
5 257 (8.06%) Problem-Solving
6 244 (7.65%) Validation
7 240 (7.53%) Workshop Facilitation
8 239 (7.50%) Cybersecurity
9 227 (7.12%) ERP
10 210 (6.59%) Analytics
11 202 (6.34%) Continuous Improvement
12 198 (6.21%) Data Migration
13 195 (6.12%) Roadmaps
14 180 (5.65%) Agile
14 180 (5.65%) Requirements Gathering
15 168 (5.27%) AI
16 153 (4.80%) Knowledge Transfer
17 150 (4.71%) Business Intelligence
18 147 (4.61%) Translating Business Requirements
19 135 (4.23%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 214 (6.71%) SQL
2 96 (3.01%) Python
3 60 (1.88%) ABAP
4 48 (1.51%) PowerShell
5 42 (1.32%) JavaScript
6 35 (1.10%) PL/SQL
7 28 (0.88%) Java
8 19 (0.60%) Bash
9 13 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 13 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
10 12 (0.38%) C#
11 10 (0.31%) T-SQL
12 9 (0.28%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.28%) TypeScript
13 6 (0.19%) Groovy
13 6 (0.19%) R
13 6 (0.19%) Shell Script
14 5 (0.16%) Korn
14 5 (0.16%) Perl
15 3 (0.094%) Scala
Qualifications
1 686 (21.52%) Security Cleared
2 464 (14.55%) SC Cleared
3 148 (4.64%) DV Cleared
4 108 (3.39%) BPSS Clearance
5 77 (2.42%) Degree
6 73 (2.29%) CISSP
7 57 (1.79%) CISM
8 43 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (0.97%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 27 (0.85%) CCSP
11 19 (0.60%) ACCA
12 17 (0.53%) CRISC
13 16 (0.50%) CIMA
14 14 (0.44%) AWS Certification
15 13 (0.41%) PMP
16 12 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
17 11 (0.35%) CISA
18 10 (0.31%) CCIE
18 10 (0.31%) Computer Science Degree
18 10 (0.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (3.36%) Data Quality
2 99 (3.11%) NIST
3 83 (2.60%) GRC
4 75 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 57 (1.79%) QA
6 44 (1.38%) NCSC
7 35 (1.10%) GDPR
8 30 (0.94%) SLA
9 27 (0.85%) PMO
10 23 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
11 19 (0.60%) Accessibility
12 17 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
13 16 (0.50%) PCI DSS
14 13 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 12 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 11 (0.35%) NIST 800
17 10 (0.31%) GxP
18 9 (0.28%) IFRS
19 8 (0.25%) SOC 2
19 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 84 (2.63%) Active Directory
2 36 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (0.94%) VMware NSX
4 17 (0.53%) vSphere
5 16 (0.50%) Docker
6 12 (0.38%) Hyper-V
6 12 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.35%) IAG
8 10 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.13%) Firmware
11 2 (0.063%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.063%) PowerHA
12 1 (0.031%) HDFS
12 1 (0.031%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.031%) oVirt
12 1 (0.031%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.031%) RHEV
12 1 (0.031%) SRDF
12 1 (0.031%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 45 (1.41%) Kubernetes
2 32 (1.00%) Ansible
3 22 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
4 21 (0.66%) SCCM
5 14 (0.44%) Grafana
6 12 (0.38%) FortiGate
6 12 (0.38%) vRealize
7 11 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (0.31%) vCenter Server
9 9 (0.28%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.25%) Nagios
10 8 (0.25%) ZABBIX
11 6 (0.19%) Netcool
11 6 (0.19%) Tivoli
11 6 (0.19%) VxRail
12 5 (0.16%) OpenView
12 5 (0.16%) Tivoli Monitoring
13 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
13 4 (0.13%) vRealize Orchestrator
14 3 (0.094%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 631 (19.79%) SAP
2 464 (14.55%) Microsoft
3 399 (12.52%) Oracle
4 135 (4.23%) ServiceNow
5 79 (2.48%) Workday
6 70 (2.20%) VMware
7 59 (1.85%) Ariba
8 48 (1.51%) Salesforce
9 38 (1.19%) Databricks
10 36 (1.13%) Palo Alto
10 36 (1.13%) Splunk
11 29 (0.91%) Cisco
12 28 (0.88%) CyberArk
13 26 (0.82%) OpenText
14 24 (0.75%) BMC
14 24 (0.75%) Google
15 22 (0.69%) IBM
16 19 (0.60%) Zscaler
17 18 (0.56%) Dell
17 18 (0.56%) Veeam