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 7 February 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 27 26
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,556 2,055 2,750
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.55% 6.61% 6.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.16% 7.11% 6.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,465 1,116 1,604
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -0.68%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £718 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £530
% change year-on-year - +3.77% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 15 41
10th Percentile £54.25 £71.36 £42.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £73.63 £55.94
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +34.30% -9.59%
75th Percentile £68.50 £86.88 £86.25
90th Percentile £80.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.79
% change year-on-year -31.34% +35.54% -5.43%

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 35,711 28,902 42,066
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.50% 92.95% 93.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,518 17,719 27,795
10th Percentile £300 £291 £275
25th Percentile £405 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £717 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £476 £490
% change year-on-year -0.21% -2.86% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,166 840 2,312
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.89 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.57 £21.25 £16.67
Median hourly rate £29.82 £33.77 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.69% -3.51% -
75th Percentile £61.25 £63.38 £61.51
90th Percentile £71.25 £75.00 £72.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £32.13 £35.95
% change year-on-year -12.85% -10.63% +8.94%

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 7 February 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 7 February 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 7 February 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 1,983 £550 - 1,318
UK excluding London -3 1,025 £550 - 896
Work from Home 0 946 £532 -3.27% 574
London -5 924 £563 -2.17% 652
South East -3 273 £550 - 350
North of England -12 258 £601 +9.32% 207
Midlands -14 189 £550 +4.76% 96
North West -4 153 £626 +16.26% 131
West Midlands -12 142 £575 +9.52% 73
South West +14 127 £588 +11.90% 148
Yorkshire +4 95 £550 -12.00% 68
East of England -3 92 £550 +4.76% 52
Scotland +6 56 £520 -5.45% 26
East Midlands -17 46 £505 -2.88% 21
Wales +12 26 £405 -22.86% 15
Northern Ireland +6 13 £405 -22.86% 18
North East -25 10 £525 -9.48% 8

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 7 February 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.

1 655 (25.63%) SAP
2 631 (24.69%) Security Cleared
3 533 (20.85%) SC Cleared
4 369 (14.44%) Migration
5 354 (13.85%) SAP S/4HANA
6 321 (12.56%) Problem-Solving
7 285 (11.15%) Oracle
8 284 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 278 (10.88%) Stakeholder Management
10 274 (10.72%) Azure
11 272 (10.64%) Microsoft
12 209 (8.18%) Workshop Facilitation
13 206 (8.06%) ERP
14 174 (6.81%) User Acceptance Testing
15 170 (6.65%) Agile
16 165 (6.46%) Analytics
17 162 (6.34%) Data Migration
18 150 (5.87%) Knowledge Transfer
19 147 (5.75%) SQL
20 146 (5.71%) Roadmaps
21 136 (5.32%) Business Intelligence
22 135 (5.28%) Validation
23 128 (5.01%) Dynamics 365
24 121 (4.73%) Cybersecurity
25 115 (4.50%) Python
26 111 (4.34%) DevOps
27 110 (4.30%) Power Platform
28 109 (4.26%) AI
29 105 (4.11%) Continuous Improvement
29 105 (4.11%) Logistics

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 59 (2.31%) SharePoint
2 29 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 28 (1.10%) Confluence
4 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
5 5 (0.20%) CMS
5 5 (0.20%) MTS
5 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.078%) Apache
7 2 (0.078%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.078%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.078%) IIS
7 2 (0.078%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.039%) LiveCycle
8 1 (0.039%) nginx
8 1 (0.039%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.039%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 42 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 22 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.51%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.39%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
5 5 (0.20%) PTC Creo
6 4 (0.16%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.16%) Revit
6 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.12%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.039%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.039%) CATIA
8 1 (0.039%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.039%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.039%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.039%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 354 (13.85%) SAP S/4HANA
2 64 (2.50%) SAP FI
3 60 (2.35%) Oracle EBS
4 53 (2.07%) SAP EWM
4 53 (2.07%) SAP MM
5 52 (2.03%) Oracle Payables
6 51 (2.00%) Oracle Receivables
7 42 (1.64%) SAP HCM
8 41 (1.60%) Oracle General Ledger
9 39 (1.53%) Oracle EBS R12
9 39 (1.53%) SAP CO
9 39 (1.53%) SAP PP
10 36 (1.41%) Dynamics CRM
10 36 (1.41%) SAP FI/CO
11 34 (1.33%) SAP WM
12 32 (1.25%) Oracle Assets
13 31 (1.21%) SAP PSCD
14 30 (1.17%) Oracle Cash Management
15 27 (1.06%) SAP Payroll
15 27 (1.06%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 274 (10.72%) Azure
2 128 (5.01%) Dynamics 365
3 110 (4.30%) Power Platform
4 102 (3.99%) AWS
5 97 (3.79%) OCI
6 74 (2.90%) GCP
7 70 (2.74%) Microsoft 365
8 65 (2.54%) SaaS
9 61 (2.39%) Entra ID
10 42 (1.64%) SuccessFactors
11 37 (1.45%) Power Automate
12 30 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
13 29 (1.13%) Microsoft Copilot
13 29 (1.13%) PowerApps
14 24 (0.94%) Microsoft Purview
15 19 (0.74%) OneDrive
15 19 (0.74%) SAP Commerce Cloud
16 18 (0.70%) GitHub
17 17 (0.67%) Azure Data Factory
17 17 (0.67%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 50 (1.96%) Firewall
2 20 (0.78%) VPN
3 18 (0.70%) DNS
4 15 (0.59%) Network Security
5 13 (0.51%) HTTP
5 13 (0.51%) Kerberos
5 13 (0.51%) WAN
6 12 (0.47%) SMS
6 12 (0.47%) SSL
7 11 (0.43%) DHCP
7 11 (0.43%) SD-WAN
8 9 (0.35%) Software-Defined Networking
8 9 (0.35%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.31%) Intranet
9 8 (0.31%) SAN
10 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
10 7 (0.27%) LAN
11 6 (0.23%) FTP
11 6 (0.23%) SSH
11 6 (0.23%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (3.05%) Power BI
2 43 (1.68%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.60%) SAP HANA
4 27 (1.06%) SQL Server
5 20 (0.78%) Metadata
5 20 (0.78%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 14 (0.55%) Data Warehouse
7 13 (0.51%) SAP BW
8 12 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
9 11 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.43%) Tableau
10 10 (0.39%) NoSQL
10 10 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
11 9 (0.35%) Oracle Database
12 8 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
13 7 (0.27%) DB2
13 7 (0.27%) GIS
14 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
14 6 (0.23%) DynamoDB
14 6 (0.23%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 63 (2.46%) JIRA
2 20 (0.78%) Jenkins
3 16 (0.63%) Git
4 13 (0.51%) GitLab
5 12 (0.47%) Oracle Forms
6 11 (0.43%) Hudson
7 7 (0.27%) Oracle APEX
8 5 (0.20%) LSMW
9 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
9 4 (0.16%) Postman
10 3 (0.12%) JUnit
11 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.078%) git-flow
11 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
11 2 (0.078%) Rational Rhapsody
11 2 (0.078%) Selenium
11 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.078%) TeamCity
11 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
11 2 (0.078%) Visual Studio
General
1 695 (27.19%) Social Skills
2 543 (21.24%) Finance
3 248 (9.70%) Public Sector
4 231 (9.04%) Analytical Skills
5 130 (5.09%) Manufacturing
6 90 (3.52%) Banking
7 75 (2.93%) Documentation Skills
8 69 (2.70%) Marketing
9 63 (2.46%) Billing
10 53 (2.07%) Legal
11 52 (2.03%) Presentation Skills
12 44 (1.72%) General Ledger
13 37 (1.45%) Telecoms
14 30 (1.17%) Retail
15 29 (1.13%) Pharmaceutical
16 28 (1.10%) Law
17 25 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
18 20 (0.78%) Financial Institution
19 18 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
20 17 (0.67%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (3.33%) Oracle Fusion
2 70 (2.74%) REST
2 70 (2.74%) SAP Fiori
3 47 (1.84%) Web Services
4 38 (1.49%) SOAP
5 37 (1.45%) SAP TM
6 34 (1.33%) XML
7 28 (1.10%) Node.js
8 26 (1.02%) LDAP
9 25 (0.98%) BAPI
10 20 (0.78%) Middleware
11 19 (0.74%) JSON
12 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
12 18 (0.70%) SAP PI
13 17 (0.67%) HTML
14 15 (0.59%) CSS
15 14 (0.55%) .NET
16 13 (0.51%) OAuth
16 13 (0.51%) SAP Basis
17 12 (0.47%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 76 (2.97%) Onboarding
2 60 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
3 40 (1.56%) Security Posture
4 39 (1.53%) Product Ownership
5 35 (1.37%) Data Centre
6 31 (1.21%) Management Information System
7 28 (1.10%) Cloud Native
8 26 (1.02%) Data Protection Act
9 24 (0.94%) Data Structures
9 24 (0.94%) Replication
10 21 (0.82%) Operational Technology
11 20 (0.78%) Greenfield Project
12 18 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
13 17 (0.67%) Analytical Mindset
14 16 (0.63%) NHS
15 15 (0.59%) Public Cloud
16 14 (0.55%) Life Science
17 13 (0.51%) AI Agents
18 11 (0.43%) Self-Motivation
19 10 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 76 (2.97%) Windows
2 47 (1.84%) Linux
3 22 (0.86%) Unix
4 14 (0.55%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.31%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.20%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.16%) AIX
9 4 (0.16%) Solaris
9 4 (0.16%) VMS
10 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.12%) zOS
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE
11 2 (0.078%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.039%) Android
12 1 (0.039%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 369 (14.44%) Migration
2 321 (12.56%) Problem-Solving
3 284 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 278 (10.88%) Stakeholder Management
5 209 (8.18%) Workshop Facilitation
6 206 (8.06%) ERP
7 174 (6.81%) User Acceptance Testing
8 170 (6.65%) Agile
9 165 (6.46%) Analytics
10 162 (6.34%) Data Migration
11 150 (5.87%) Knowledge Transfer
12 146 (5.71%) Roadmaps
13 136 (5.32%) Business Intelligence
14 135 (5.28%) Validation
15 121 (4.73%) Cybersecurity
16 111 (4.34%) DevOps
17 109 (4.26%) AI
18 105 (4.11%) Continuous Improvement
18 105 (4.11%) Logistics
19 104 (4.07%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 147 (5.75%) SQL
2 115 (4.50%) Python
3 90 (3.52%) PowerShell
4 82 (3.21%) JavaScript
5 66 (2.58%) ABAP
6 37 (1.45%) Java
7 30 (1.17%) TypeScript
8 25 (0.98%) PL/SQL
9 23 (0.90%) Groovy
10 15 (0.59%) Bash
10 15 (0.59%) C#
11 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
11 10 (0.39%) Shell Script
12 8 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 7 (0.27%) Apex Code
13 7 (0.27%) C++
14 6 (0.23%) COBOL
14 6 (0.23%) R
14 6 (0.23%) VBA
15 5 (0.20%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 631 (24.69%) Security Cleared
2 533 (20.85%) SC Cleared
3 100 (3.91%) Degree
4 83 (3.25%) DV Cleared
5 70 (2.74%) BPSS Clearance
6 48 (1.88%) CISSP
7 33 (1.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 31 (1.21%) CISM
9 24 (0.94%) SAP Certification
10 18 (0.70%) Master's Degree
11 17 (0.67%) Cisco Certification
12 16 (0.63%) Microsoft Certification
13 14 (0.55%) CIMA
14 13 (0.51%) Computer Science Degree
15 10 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
16 9 (0.35%) AWS Certification
16 9 (0.35%) CCNP
17 8 (0.31%) CESG Certified Professional
18 7 (0.27%) ACCA
18 7 (0.27%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (3.01%) NIST
2 74 (2.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 69 (2.70%) GDPR
4 51 (2.00%) Data Quality
5 50 (1.96%) QA
6 38 (1.49%) GRC
7 21 (0.82%) NCSC
8 19 (0.74%) SLA
9 17 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
9 17 (0.67%) PMO
10 14 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 11 (0.43%) PERC
12 10 (0.39%) COBIT
12 10 (0.39%) PCI DSS
13 9 (0.35%) JSP 440
14 7 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
14 7 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 7 (0.27%) HIPAA
14 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 6 (0.23%) Accessibility
System Software
1 71 (2.78%) Active Directory
2 42 (1.64%) Docker
3 35 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
4 28 (1.10%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.74%) vSphere
6 8 (0.31%) Hyper-V
6 8 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 5 (0.20%) NDS
8 5 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 3 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.039%) Ceph
10 1 (0.039%) Firmware
10 1 (0.039%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.039%) KVM
10 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.039%) NFS
10 1 (0.039%) QEMU
10 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 58 (2.27%) Kubernetes
2 35 (1.37%) Terraform
3 34 (1.33%) vRealize
4 21 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.59%) Ansible
7 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
8 10 (0.39%) Failover Clustering
8 10 (0.39%) Grafana
8 10 (0.39%) SCCM
9 8 (0.31%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 6 (0.23%) Podman
12 5 (0.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
14 3 (0.12%) CEMLI
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
14 3 (0.12%) Nessus
14 3 (0.12%) vMotion
Vendors
1 655 (25.63%) SAP
2 285 (11.15%) Oracle
3 272 (10.64%) Microsoft
4 96 (3.76%) VMware
5 76 (2.97%) ServiceNow
6 59 (2.31%) Workday
7 56 (2.19%) CyberArk
7 56 (2.19%) Salesforce
8 54 (2.11%) Cisco
9 53 (2.07%) Ariba
10 37 (1.45%) Google
11 36 (1.41%) Aruba
12 33 (1.29%) Adobe
13 30 (1.17%) Siemens
14 20 (0.78%) Databricks
15 19 (0.74%) OpenText
16 15 (0.59%) Dynatrace
17 14 (0.55%) Dell
17 14 (0.55%) Murex
18 12 (0.47%) IFS