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 6 March 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 28 25
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,769 2,009 2,758
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.49% 6.59% 6.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.06% 7.10% 6.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,555 1,130 1,649
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -0.45%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £716 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £540
% change year-on-year - +1.85% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 17 36
10th Percentile - £68.00 £42.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.50 £55.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -7.35%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.25 £81.56
90th Percentile £78.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.72
% change year-on-year -31.34% +35.70% -6.49%

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 39,202 28,292 41,263
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.90% 92.81% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,554 17,968 27,109
10th Percentile £310 £291 £275
25th Percentile £409 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,408 853 2,419
10th Percentile £14.82 £16.23 £13.05
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.43 £16.25
Median hourly rate £34.00 £34.00 £34.08
Median % change year-on-year - -0.23% -15.93%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.52 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.20 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year +1.54% -7.14% -11.50%

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 6 March 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 6 March 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 6 March 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 -1 2,165 £550 - 1,236
UK excluding London +1 1,140 £550 - 876
Work from Home +1 1,038 £525 -4.55% 577
London -4 996 £550 -4.35% 551
South East -1 317 £520 -9.57% 322
North of England -10 273 £575 +6.48% 204
Midlands -8 220 £563 +7.14% 87
West Midlands +1 163 £563 +4.17% 51
North West -2 150 £626 +16.19% 115
South West +16 148 £550 - 154
Yorkshire +3 113 £500 -5.88% 66
East of England -5 96 £550 - 53
East Midlands -13 53 £500 -3.85% 36
Scotland +11 52 £520 -5.45% 24
Wales +16 32 £447 -8.31% 29
Northern Ireland +2 11 £405 -22.86% 16
North East -25 10 £525 -4.55% 24

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 6 March 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.

1 663 (23.94%) Security Cleared
2 656 (23.69%) SAP
3 561 (20.26%) SC Cleared
4 399 (14.41%) Migration
5 347 (12.53%) SAP S/4HANA
6 307 (11.09%) Problem-Solving
7 306 (11.05%) Azure
8 296 (10.69%) Oracle
9 288 (10.40%) Stakeholder Management
10 287 (10.36%) Microsoft
11 279 (10.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 230 (8.31%) ERP
13 217 (7.84%) Workshop Facilitation
14 186 (6.72%) User Acceptance Testing
15 176 (6.36%) Agile
15 176 (6.36%) SQL
16 173 (6.25%) Data Migration
17 166 (5.99%) Analytics
18 160 (5.78%) Roadmaps
19 149 (5.38%) Knowledge Transfer
20 147 (5.31%) Business Intelligence
21 141 (5.09%) Validation
22 139 (5.02%) Cybersecurity
22 139 (5.02%) Dynamics 365
23 132 (4.77%) Continuous Improvement
24 122 (4.41%) Python
25 114 (4.12%) Risk Management
26 112 (4.04%) AWS
27 111 (4.01%) AI
28 110 (3.97%) 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 71 (2.56%) SharePoint
2 34 (1.23%) Confluence
3 27 (0.98%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (0.22%) Jupyter
5 6 (0.22%) NetWeaver
6 5 (0.18%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.18%) MTS
7 4 (0.14%) CMS
7 4 (0.14%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (0.11%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.072%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.072%) Apache
9 2 (0.072%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.072%) IIS
9 2 (0.072%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.036%) nginx
10 1 (0.036%) SharePoint 2010
10 1 (0.036%) Skype for Business
10 1 (0.036%) WebSphere
Applications
1 52 (1.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 6 (0.22%) Oracle Smart View
7 5 (0.18%) PTC Creo
8 4 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.072%) Lectora
9 2 (0.072%) Navisworks
9 2 (0.072%) Revit
10 1 (0.036%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.036%) CATIA
10 1 (0.036%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.036%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.036%) ProjectWise
10 1 (0.036%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.036%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 347 (12.53%) SAP S/4HANA
2 64 (2.31%) SAP FI
3 60 (2.17%) Oracle EBS
4 52 (1.88%) SAP MM
5 50 (1.81%) Oracle Payables
6 47 (1.70%) Oracle Receivables
7 41 (1.48%) SAP HCM
8 39 (1.41%) SAP CO
8 39 (1.41%) SAP PP
9 38 (1.37%) Oracle EBS R12
9 38 (1.37%) Oracle General Ledger
10 37 (1.34%) Dynamics CRM
11 35 (1.26%) SAP EWM
11 35 (1.26%) SAP FI/CO
12 33 (1.19%) SAP PSCD
13 32 (1.16%) Oracle Assets
14 31 (1.12%) SAP Travel Management
15 28 (1.01%) SAP Payroll
16 25 (0.90%) Oracle Cash Management
16 25 (0.90%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 306 (11.05%) Azure
2 139 (5.02%) Dynamics 365
3 112 (4.04%) AWS
4 110 (3.97%) Power Platform
5 106 (3.83%) OCI
6 82 (2.96%) GCP
7 81 (2.93%) Microsoft 365
8 68 (2.46%) SaaS
9 61 (2.20%) Entra ID
10 52 (1.88%) SuccessFactors
11 40 (1.44%) Power Automate
12 34 (1.23%) Microsoft Copilot
13 33 (1.19%) Azure DevOps
14 30 (1.08%) Microsoft Purview
14 30 (1.08%) PowerApps
15 26 (0.94%) GitHub
16 23 (0.83%) OneDrive
17 19 (0.69%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 18 (0.65%) Azure Data Factory
18 18 (0.65%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 49 (1.77%) Firewall
2 18 (0.65%) Network Security
3 17 (0.61%) DNS
3 17 (0.61%) VPN
4 15 (0.54%) HTTP
5 14 (0.51%) WAN
6 13 (0.47%) Kerberos
6 13 (0.47%) SMS
6 13 (0.47%) VSAN
7 11 (0.40%) DHCP
7 11 (0.40%) SAN
7 11 (0.40%) SD-WAN
8 10 (0.36%) SSL
9 9 (0.33%) FTP
9 9 (0.33%) LAN
9 9 (0.33%) Software-Defined Networking
9 9 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.29%) Intranet
11 7 (0.25%) BGP
11 7 (0.25%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (2.82%) Power BI
2 49 (1.77%) SAP HANA
3 46 (1.66%) Oracle Reports
4 26 (0.94%) SQL Server
5 25 (0.90%) Metadata
6 24 (0.87%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 14 (0.51%) NoSQL
8 12 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
8 12 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
8 12 (0.43%) SAP BW
9 11 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.40%) Tableau
10 8 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
10 8 (0.29%) GIS
11 7 (0.25%) MongoDB
11 7 (0.25%) Oracle Database
12 6 (0.22%) Data Mart
12 6 (0.22%) DynamoDB
12 6 (0.22%) Essbase
12 6 (0.22%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 64 (2.31%) JIRA
2 18 (0.65%) Jenkins
3 13 (0.47%) Oracle Forms
4 12 (0.43%) Git
4 12 (0.43%) Hudson
5 10 (0.36%) GitLab
6 7 (0.25%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.14%) LSMW
8 3 (0.11%) JUnit
8 3 (0.11%) Postman
9 2 (0.072%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.072%) git-flow
9 2 (0.072%) Mockito
9 2 (0.072%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.072%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.072%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.072%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.072%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.072%) Tricentis qTest
9 2 (0.072%) Visual Studio
General
1 713 (25.75%) Social Skills
2 597 (21.56%) Finance
3 261 (9.43%) Public Sector
4 247 (8.92%) Analytical Skills
5 126 (4.55%) Manufacturing
6 100 (3.61%) Banking
7 75 (2.71%) Marketing
8 72 (2.60%) Documentation Skills
9 63 (2.28%) Billing
10 62 (2.24%) Legal
11 45 (1.63%) General Ledger
12 43 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
13 42 (1.52%) Telecoms
14 34 (1.23%) Retail
15 31 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
16 27 (0.98%) Law
16 27 (0.98%) Pharmaceutical
17 21 (0.76%) Aerospace
17 21 (0.76%) Financial Institution
18 18 (0.65%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 96 (3.47%) Oracle Fusion
2 71 (2.56%) REST
3 59 (2.13%) SAP Fiori
4 51 (1.84%) XML
5 49 (1.77%) Web Services
6 39 (1.41%) SAP TM
6 39 (1.41%) SOAP
7 29 (1.05%) BAPI
8 28 (1.01%) LDAP
9 25 (0.90%) Node.js
10 24 (0.87%) Middleware
11 21 (0.76%) JSON
12 19 (0.69%) SAP PI
13 17 (0.61%) .NET
14 16 (0.58%) GraphQL
15 15 (0.54%) IDoc
16 14 (0.51%) HTML
16 14 (0.51%) Kafka
16 14 (0.51%) SAP Basis
17 13 (0.47%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 74 (2.67%) Onboarding
2 59 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
3 40 (1.44%) Product Ownership
4 39 (1.41%) Security Posture
5 34 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
6 30 (1.08%) Data Centre
7 26 (0.94%) Operational Technology
7 26 (0.94%) Replication
8 25 (0.90%) Cloud Native
9 24 (0.87%) Management Information System
10 22 (0.79%) Data Structures
10 22 (0.79%) Greenfield Project
11 19 (0.69%) Analytical Mindset
11 19 (0.69%) NHS
12 18 (0.65%) AI Agents
13 15 (0.54%) Hybrid Cloud
13 15 (0.54%) Life Science
13 15 (0.54%) Public Cloud
13 15 (0.54%) Self-Motivation
14 12 (0.43%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 71 (2.56%) Windows
2 42 (1.52%) Linux
3 16 (0.58%) Unix
4 14 (0.51%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (0.36%) Windows 10
6 8 (0.29%) VMS
7 6 (0.22%) AIX
7 6 (0.22%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.18%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.14%) Solaris
9 4 (0.14%) zOS
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.072%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.072%) SUSE
11 2 (0.072%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.072%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.072%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.036%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 399 (14.41%) Migration
2 307 (11.09%) Problem-Solving
3 288 (10.40%) Stakeholder Management
4 279 (10.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 230 (8.31%) ERP
6 217 (7.84%) Workshop Facilitation
7 186 (6.72%) User Acceptance Testing
8 176 (6.36%) Agile
9 173 (6.25%) Data Migration
10 166 (5.99%) Analytics
11 160 (5.78%) Roadmaps
12 149 (5.38%) Knowledge Transfer
13 147 (5.31%) Business Intelligence
14 141 (5.09%) Validation
15 139 (5.02%) Cybersecurity
16 132 (4.77%) Continuous Improvement
17 114 (4.12%) Risk Management
18 111 (4.01%) AI
19 108 (3.90%) Change Management
19 108 (3.90%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 176 (6.36%) SQL
2 122 (4.41%) Python
3 86 (3.11%) JavaScript
3 86 (3.11%) PowerShell
4 71 (2.56%) ABAP
5 38 (1.37%) Java
6 30 (1.08%) TypeScript
7 24 (0.87%) PL/SQL
8 22 (0.79%) Groovy
9 17 (0.61%) T-SQL
10 16 (0.58%) C#
11 15 (0.54%) Bash
12 10 (0.36%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.33%) C++
14 8 (0.29%) Apex Code
14 8 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 7 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
16 5 (0.18%) Bicep
16 5 (0.18%) Korn
17 4 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 663 (23.94%) Security Cleared
2 561 (20.26%) SC Cleared
3 105 (3.79%) Degree
4 82 (2.96%) DV Cleared
5 64 (2.31%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (1.81%) CISSP
7 36 (1.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 34 (1.23%) CISM
9 19 (0.69%) Master's Degree
10 17 (0.61%) CIMA
10 17 (0.61%) Cisco Certification
10 17 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
11 16 (0.58%) SAP Certification
12 15 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
13 13 (0.47%) ITIL Certification
14 8 (0.29%) AWS Certification
14 8 (0.29%) CCNP
14 8 (0.29%) CESG Certified Professional
15 7 (0.25%) CISA
15 7 (0.25%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (3.39%) NIST
2 90 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 70 (2.53%) GDPR
4 53 (1.91%) Data Quality
5 51 (1.84%) QA
6 43 (1.55%) GRC
7 23 (0.83%) NCSC
8 22 (0.79%) Actionable Recommendations
9 20 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 18 (0.65%) PCI DSS
10 18 (0.65%) PMO
10 18 (0.65%) SLA
11 12 (0.43%) COBIT
12 11 (0.40%) PERC
13 10 (0.36%) JSP 440
14 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 6 (0.22%) Accessibility
16 5 (0.18%) SOC 2
System Software
1 69 (2.49%) Active Directory
2 37 (1.34%) Docker
3 33 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
4 32 (1.16%) VMware NSX
5 25 (0.90%) vSphere
6 8 (0.29%) Hyper-V
7 7 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 6 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (0.18%) NDS
9 5 (0.18%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 3 (0.11%) NFS
11 1 (0.036%) Ceph
11 1 (0.036%) IAG
11 1 (0.036%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.036%) KVM
11 1 (0.036%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.036%) QEMU
11 1 (0.036%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.036%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 53 (1.91%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.34%) vRealize
3 34 (1.23%) Terraform
4 22 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.61%) Ansible
7 10 (0.36%) Failover Clustering
7 10 (0.36%) PingFederate
8 7 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (0.22%) Podman
10 5 (0.18%) Grafana
10 5 (0.18%) SCCM
11 4 (0.14%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.14%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.14%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.14%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.14%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.11%) CEMLI
12 3 (0.11%) Puppet
12 3 (0.11%) vMotion
Vendors
1 656 (23.69%) SAP
2 296 (10.69%) Oracle
3 287 (10.36%) Microsoft
4 98 (3.54%) VMware
5 83 (3.00%) ServiceNow
6 56 (2.02%) CyberArk
6 56 (2.02%) Salesforce
7 55 (1.99%) Workday
8 53 (1.91%) Siemens
9 52 (1.88%) Ariba
9 52 (1.88%) Cisco
10 45 (1.63%) Google
11 37 (1.34%) Aruba
12 32 (1.16%) Adobe
13 24 (0.87%) Databricks
14 21 (0.76%) OpenText
15 16 (0.58%) Sage
16 15 (0.54%) Murex
16 15 (0.54%) Splunk
17 13 (0.47%) Zscaler