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 August 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 27 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,143 2,152 2,714
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.90% 6.54% 6.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.37% 7.15% 7.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,738 1,257 1,591
10th Percentile £400 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 29 26
10th Percentile £36.25 £29.11 £41.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £44.23 £55.24
Median hourly rate £59.00 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -15.71% +13.64% -5.23%
75th Percentile £78.85 £81.25 £67.50
90th Percentile £88.75 £86.25 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -22.58% +25.81% -4.99%

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 49,373 30,106 36,347
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.62% 91.47% 92.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,709 19,120 23,460
10th Percentile £328 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,448 1,496 2,067
10th Percentile £15.13 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.89 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.56 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +73.20% -42.71% +17.07%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 -4 2,535 £550 - 1,605
UK excluding London +2 1,368 £525 -4.55% 943
London -1 1,177 £550 -4.35% 826
Work from Home -3 1,057 £545 -0.91% 837
South East -1 403 £525 -4.55% 264
North of England -10 298 £550 +2.66% 243
Midlands 0 256 £500 -9.09% 99
South West +18 207 £550 -7.56% 170
West Midlands +16 185 £500 -9.09% 74
North West -11 178 £550 - 162
Scotland +38 108 £425 -12.82% 59
Yorkshire -16 99 £538 +13.16% 63
East of England -21 80 £551 +0.18% 59
East Midlands -4 62 £500 -9.09% 25
Wales -6 28 £550 +10.00% 12
North East -36 20 £750 +38.89% 19
Northern Ireland -4 1 £450 -13.46% 44

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 6 August 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.

1 648 (20.62%) SAP
2 631 (20.08%) Security Cleared
3 434 (13.81%) SC Cleared
4 415 (13.20%) Stakeholder Management
5 408 (12.98%) Migration
6 400 (12.73%) Microsoft
7 369 (11.74%) Oracle
8 308 (9.80%) Azure
9 285 (9.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 267 (8.50%) SAP S/4HANA
11 258 (8.21%) SQL
12 254 (8.08%) Problem-Solving
13 244 (7.76%) ERP
13 244 (7.76%) User Acceptance Testing
14 214 (6.81%) Workshop Facilitation
15 208 (6.62%) Continuous Improvement
16 207 (6.59%) Validation
17 195 (6.20%) Cybersecurity
18 186 (5.92%) Roadmaps
19 181 (5.76%) Agile
19 181 (5.76%) Analytics
19 181 (5.76%) Data Migration
20 165 (5.25%) AI
21 156 (4.96%) AWS
22 151 (4.80%) Business Intelligence
23 150 (4.77%) Power Platform
24 145 (4.61%) DV Cleared
24 145 (4.61%) Requirements Gathering
25 134 (4.26%) Translating Business Requirements
26 132 (4.20%) 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 88 (2.80%) SharePoint
2 49 (1.56%) Confluence
3 14 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
4 12 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.25%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.095%) Apache
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.095%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.095%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.095%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.064%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.064%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.064%) IIS
10 2 (0.064%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.064%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.064%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.064%) WordPress
Applications
1 73 (2.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.05%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.22%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.16%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.064%) Lectora
8 2 (0.064%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Captivate
9 1 (0.032%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.032%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 267 (8.50%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (2.86%) Oracle EBS
3 69 (2.20%) SAP FI
4 50 (1.59%) SAP PSCD
5 45 (1.43%) Oracle Payables
6 39 (1.24%) Oracle ERP
7 37 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
7 37 (1.18%) SAP CO
8 34 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
9 33 (1.05%) SAP BRIM
9 33 (1.05%) SAP FI/CO
9 33 (1.05%) SAP MM
9 33 (1.05%) SAP SD
10 30 (0.95%) NetSuite
10 30 (0.95%) SAP FI-CA
11 28 (0.89%) SAP PP
12 27 (0.86%) SAP EWM
12 27 (0.86%) SAP Payroll
13 26 (0.83%) Oracle EBS R12
14 23 (0.73%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 308 (9.80%) Azure
2 156 (4.96%) AWS
3 150 (4.77%) Power Platform
4 132 (4.20%) Dynamics 365
5 108 (3.44%) OCI
6 99 (3.15%) SuccessFactors
7 91 (2.90%) Microsoft 365
8 88 (2.80%) GCP
9 74 (2.35%) Power Automate
10 54 (1.72%) Entra ID
11 51 (1.62%) Microsoft Copilot
12 50 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
13 48 (1.53%) SaaS
14 37 (1.18%) PowerApps
15 33 (1.05%) GitHub
16 28 (0.89%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.64%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.51%) Azure AI
18 16 (0.51%) OneDrive
19 14 (0.45%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 62 (1.97%) Firewall
2 55 (1.75%) Network Security
3 34 (1.08%) WAN
4 25 (0.80%) SNMP
5 21 (0.67%) VPN
6 20 (0.64%) BGP
6 20 (0.64%) LAN
7 15 (0.48%) DNS
8 13 (0.41%) VSAN
9 12 (0.38%) SAN
10 11 (0.35%) NGFW
10 11 (0.35%) TCP/IP
11 9 (0.29%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.22%) HTTP
12 7 (0.22%) IPsec
12 7 (0.22%) MPLS
12 7 (0.22%) Wireless
13 6 (0.19%) Ethernet VPN
13 6 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
14 5 (0.16%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (3.02%) Power BI
2 60 (1.91%) Oracle Reports
3 39 (1.24%) SAP HANA
4 36 (1.15%) SQL Server
5 34 (1.08%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 33 (1.05%) Tableau
7 30 (0.95%) SAP BW
8 28 (0.89%) Metadata
9 23 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
10 19 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
11 18 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
12 12 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
13 10 (0.32%) Power Query
14 8 (0.25%) Oracle Database
15 6 (0.19%) Delta Lake
15 6 (0.19%) Relational Database
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
16 5 (0.16%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 90 (2.86%) JIRA
2 20 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
3 19 (0.60%) Git
4 16 (0.51%) Jenkins
5 15 (0.48%) Hudson
6 10 (0.32%) GitLab
7 7 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (0.16%) Cypress.io
8 5 (0.16%) Postman
8 5 (0.16%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.13%) Selenium
9 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
10 3 (0.095%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.095%) JDeveloper
10 3 (0.095%) LoadRunner
10 3 (0.095%) MLflow
10 3 (0.095%) Snyk
10 3 (0.095%) TestRail
10 3 (0.095%) Toad
10 3 (0.095%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 680 (21.64%) Finance
2 669 (21.29%) Social Skills
3 245 (7.80%) Analytical Skills
4 215 (6.84%) Public Sector
5 110 (3.50%) Manufacturing
6 96 (3.05%) Banking
7 89 (2.83%) Legal
8 79 (2.51%) Billing
9 67 (2.13%) Telecoms
10 56 (1.78%) Marketing
11 54 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
12 53 (1.69%) General Ledger
13 49 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
13 49 (1.56%) Retail
14 46 (1.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 40 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
16 32 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
17 23 (0.73%) Aerospace
17 23 (0.73%) Local Government
18 19 (0.60%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (3.09%) Oracle Fusion
2 82 (2.61%) REST
3 57 (1.81%) XML
4 40 (1.27%) SOAP
5 38 (1.21%) SAP Fiori
6 34 (1.08%) Middleware
7 24 (0.76%) BAPI
7 24 (0.76%) JSON
7 24 (0.76%) Web Services
8 20 (0.64%) HTML
9 18 (0.57%) CSS
9 18 (0.57%) SAP PI
10 17 (0.54%) IDoc
10 17 (0.54%) SAP Basis
11 15 (0.48%) OAuth
12 14 (0.45%) LDAP
13 13 (0.41%) .NET
14 11 (0.35%) ADO
14 11 (0.35%) EDI
15 10 (0.32%) SAP TM
Miscellaneous
1 117 (3.72%) Onboarding
2 47 (1.50%) CMDB
3 45 (1.43%) Data Protection Act
4 40 (1.27%) Security Posture
5 37 (1.18%) Product Ownership
6 33 (1.05%) AI Agents
6 33 (1.05%) Data Structures
7 32 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
8 31 (0.99%) Data Centre
9 29 (0.92%) Operational Technology
10 23 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (0.67%) Cloud Native
12 20 (0.64%) Life Science
12 20 (0.64%) Replication
13 19 (0.60%) Enterprise Software
14 18 (0.57%) Management Information System
14 18 (0.57%) Security Operations Centre
15 17 (0.54%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (0.54%) NHS
15 17 (0.54%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 94 (2.99%) Windows
2 68 (2.16%) Linux
3 25 (0.80%) Unix
4 21 (0.67%) Solaris
5 19 (0.60%) AIX
6 18 (0.57%) VMS
7 10 (0.32%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.19%) Android
9 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
10 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.095%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.064%) CoreOS
12 2 (0.064%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.064%) zOS
13 1 (0.032%) SUSE
13 1 (0.032%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 415 (13.20%) Stakeholder Management
2 408 (12.98%) Migration
3 285 (9.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 254 (8.08%) Problem-Solving
5 244 (7.76%) ERP
5 244 (7.76%) User Acceptance Testing
6 214 (6.81%) Workshop Facilitation
7 208 (6.62%) Continuous Improvement
8 207 (6.59%) Validation
9 195 (6.20%) Cybersecurity
10 186 (5.92%) Roadmaps
11 181 (5.76%) Agile
11 181 (5.76%) Analytics
11 181 (5.76%) Data Migration
12 165 (5.25%) AI
13 151 (4.80%) Business Intelligence
14 145 (4.61%) Requirements Gathering
15 134 (4.26%) Translating Business Requirements
16 129 (4.10%) Change Management
17 121 (3.85%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 258 (8.21%) SQL
2 124 (3.95%) Python
3 59 (1.88%) PowerShell
4 57 (1.81%) JavaScript
5 54 (1.72%) PL/SQL
6 52 (1.65%) ABAP
7 38 (1.21%) T-SQL
8 33 (1.05%) Java
9 17 (0.54%) Bash
10 14 (0.45%) C#
11 13 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 13 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
12 9 (0.29%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.22%) R
13 7 (0.22%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.19%) Korn
14 6 (0.19%) Perl
15 5 (0.16%) C++
15 5 (0.16%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 631 (20.08%) Security Cleared
2 434 (13.81%) SC Cleared
3 145 (4.61%) DV Cleared
4 91 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
5 79 (2.51%) CISSP
6 70 (2.23%) Degree
7 60 (1.91%) CISM
8 38 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (0.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.83%) CCSP
11 20 (0.64%) CIMA
12 18 (0.57%) ACCA
13 15 (0.48%) CRISC
13 15 (0.48%) PMP
14 14 (0.45%) CEH
15 12 (0.38%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
15 12 (0.38%) OSCP
16 11 (0.35%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (2.90%) NIST
2 79 (2.51%) Data Quality
3 77 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 67 (2.13%) GRC
5 55 (1.75%) QA
6 39 (1.24%) GDPR
7 29 (0.92%) PCI DSS
8 27 (0.86%) NCSC
9 26 (0.83%) Actionable Recommendations
10 24 (0.76%) SLA
11 21 (0.67%) Accessibility
12 19 (0.60%) PMO
13 15 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 13 (0.41%) GxP
15 12 (0.38%) COBIT
16 10 (0.32%) NIST 800
17 9 (0.29%) SOC 2
18 8 (0.25%) IFRS
18 8 (0.25%) JSP 440
18 8 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 62 (1.97%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.30%) VMware NSX
4 26 (0.83%) vSphere
5 14 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.35%) Docker
6 11 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (0.25%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.25%) IAG
8 7 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.095%) NFS
10 2 (0.064%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.064%) Firmware
10 2 (0.064%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.032%) HDFS
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 55 (1.75%) Terraform
2 43 (1.37%) Kubernetes
3 32 (1.02%) Ansible
4 22 (0.70%) vRealize
5 17 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (0.48%) Nagios
6 15 (0.48%) ZABBIX
7 14 (0.45%) Grafana
7 14 (0.45%) Netcool
7 14 (0.45%) SCCM
7 14 (0.45%) Tivoli
8 13 (0.41%) OpenView
8 13 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (0.41%) Tivoli Monitoring
9 12 (0.38%) FortiGate
9 12 (0.38%) vCenter Server
10 11 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.22%) NetBackup
12 5 (0.16%) VxRail
13 4 (0.13%) CEMLI
Vendors
1 648 (20.62%) SAP
2 400 (12.73%) Microsoft
3 369 (11.74%) Oracle
4 125 (3.98%) ServiceNow
5 91 (2.90%) VMware
6 62 (1.97%) Ariba
7 61 (1.94%) Salesforce
8 55 (1.75%) Workday
9 49 (1.56%) Splunk
10 41 (1.30%) Databricks
11 28 (0.89%) Google
12 27 (0.86%) BMC
13 26 (0.83%) OpenText
13 26 (0.83%) Palo Alto
13 26 (0.83%) Siemens
14 24 (0.76%) IBM
15 20 (0.64%) Adobe
16 17 (0.54%) JD Edwards
16 17 (0.54%) OpenAI
17 16 (0.51%) Okta