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 5 February 2026.

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

6 months to
5 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 2,580 2,062 2,706
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.59% 6.62% 6.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.20% 7.13% 6.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,480 1,119 1,580
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 £644 £638 £650
90th Percentile £719 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £538
% change year-on-year - +2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 15 41
10th Percentile £53.75 £65.38 £42.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.06 £55.94
Median hourly rate £58.75 £82.50 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -28.79% +30.35% -6.93%
75th Percentile £72.38 £86.13 £86.25
90th Percentile £82.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £82.50 £61.79
% change year-on-year -30.30% +33.52% -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 35,817 28,937 41,417
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.49% 92.92% 93.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,569 17,745 27,379
10th Percentile £300 £292 £275
25th Percentile £405 £408 £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 £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £490
% change year-on-year -0.42% -2.65% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,156 846 2,282
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.92 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.57 £21.25 £16.54
Median hourly rate £30.00 £33.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -5.71% -
75th Percentile £61.31 £62.50 £61.52
90th Percentile £71.25 £75.00 £72.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £32.13 £35.98
% change year-on-year -12.85% -10.69% +10.69%

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 5 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 5 February 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 5 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 2,000 £550 - 1,470
UK excluding London 0 1,036 £550 - 982
Work from Home 0 953 £537 -2.32% 635
London -6 927 £575 +1.32% 738
South East -4 274 £550 - 383
North of England -9 267 £600 +9.09% 222
Midlands -18 186 £550 +4.76% 105
North West 0 160 £625 +16.17% 142
West Midlands -10 141 £575 +9.52% 82
South West +16 125 £588 +11.90% 162
Yorkshire +1 97 £550 -12.00% 71
East of England -1 93 £550 +4.76% 55
Scotland +13 59 £520 -5.45% 31
East Midlands -17 44 £505 -2.88% 21
Wales +13 26 £405 -22.86% 19
Northern Ireland +4 13 £405 -22.86% 22
North East -21 10 £525 -9.48% 9
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 5 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 (25.39%) SAP
2 637 (24.69%) Security Cleared
3 538 (20.85%) SC Cleared
4 364 (14.11%) Migration
5 358 (13.88%) SAP S/4HANA
6 325 (12.60%) Problem-Solving
7 302 (11.71%) Oracle
8 292 (11.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 284 (11.01%) Stakeholder Management
10 281 (10.89%) Microsoft
11 272 (10.54%) Azure
12 210 (8.14%) Workshop Facilitation
13 207 (8.02%) ERP
14 184 (7.13%) User Acceptance Testing
15 179 (6.94%) Agile
16 164 (6.36%) Analytics
17 161 (6.24%) Data Migration
18 154 (5.97%) Knowledge Transfer
19 148 (5.74%) SQL
20 146 (5.66%) Roadmaps
21 137 (5.31%) Validation
22 136 (5.27%) Business Intelligence
23 128 (4.96%) Dynamics 365
24 125 (4.84%) Cybersecurity
25 113 (4.38%) DevOps
25 113 (4.38%) Power Platform
25 113 (4.38%) Python
26 110 (4.26%) AI
27 107 (4.15%) Risk Management
28 105 (4.07%) Continuous Improvement

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 60 (2.33%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
3 29 (1.12%) Confluence
4 6 (0.23%) Jupyter
4 6 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
5 5 (0.19%) CMS
5 5 (0.19%) MTS
5 5 (0.19%) NetWeaver
6 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.078%) Apache
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%) Tomcat
Applications
1 48 (1.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 14 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.31%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.19%) Oracle Smart View
5 5 (0.19%) 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
1 358 (13.88%) SAP S/4HANA
2 72 (2.79%) Oracle EBS
3 65 (2.52%) SAP FI
4 56 (2.17%) Oracle Payables
5 53 (2.05%) SAP EWM
6 51 (1.98%) Oracle Receivables
7 50 (1.94%) SAP MM
8 45 (1.74%) Oracle EBS R12
9 42 (1.63%) Oracle General Ledger
9 42 (1.63%) SAP HCM
10 40 (1.55%) SAP PP
11 39 (1.51%) SAP CO
12 36 (1.40%) Dynamics CRM
12 36 (1.40%) Oracle Cash Management
12 36 (1.40%) SAP FI/CO
13 33 (1.28%) Oracle Assets
13 33 (1.28%) SAP WM
14 30 (1.16%) SAP PSCD
15 27 (1.05%) SAP Payroll
15 27 (1.05%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 272 (10.54%) Azure
2 128 (4.96%) Dynamics 365
3 113 (4.38%) Power Platform
4 103 (3.99%) AWS
4 103 (3.99%) OCI
5 74 (2.87%) GCP
6 70 (2.71%) Microsoft 365
7 67 (2.60%) SaaS
8 61 (2.36%) Entra ID
9 41 (1.59%) SuccessFactors
10 37 (1.43%) Power Automate
11 30 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
12 29 (1.12%) Microsoft Copilot
12 29 (1.12%) PowerApps
13 24 (0.93%) Microsoft Purview
14 19 (0.74%) GitHub
14 19 (0.74%) OneDrive
15 18 (0.70%) SAP Commerce Cloud
16 17 (0.66%) Azure Data Factory
16 17 (0.66%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 50 (1.94%) Firewall
2 20 (0.78%) VPN
3 18 (0.70%) DNS
4 16 (0.62%) Network Security
5 13 (0.50%) HTTP
5 13 (0.50%) Kerberos
5 13 (0.50%) 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%) TCP/IP
9 8 (0.31%) Intranet
9 8 (0.31%) SAN
9 8 (0.31%) Software-Defined Networking
10 7 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
10 7 (0.27%) LAN
11 6 (0.23%) BGP
11 6 (0.23%) SSH
11 6 (0.23%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (3.10%) Power BI
2 45 (1.74%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.59%) SAP HANA
4 30 (1.16%) SQL Server
5 21 (0.81%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 20 (0.78%) Metadata
7 13 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
7 13 (0.50%) 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 8 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
11 8 (0.31%) Oracle Database
12 7 (0.27%) DB2
12 7 (0.27%) GIS
13 6 (0.23%) Data Mart
13 6 (0.23%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.23%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 64 (2.48%) JIRA
2 20 (0.78%) Jenkins
3 16 (0.62%) Git
4 13 (0.50%) GitLab
4 13 (0.50%) Oracle Forms
5 9 (0.35%) Hudson
6 8 (0.31%) Oracle APEX
7 5 (0.19%) LSMW
8 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
9 3 (0.12%) JUnit
10 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.078%) git-flow
10 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.078%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.078%) Selenium
10 2 (0.078%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.078%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.078%) Tricentis qTest
10 2 (0.078%) Visual Studio
General
1 713 (27.64%) Social Skills
2 563 (21.82%) Finance
3 253 (9.81%) Public Sector
4 234 (9.07%) Analytical Skills
5 135 (5.23%) Manufacturing
6 89 (3.45%) Banking
7 79 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
8 69 (2.67%) Marketing
9 63 (2.44%) Billing
10 54 (2.09%) Legal
11 53 (2.05%) Presentation Skills
12 44 (1.71%) General Ledger
13 36 (1.40%) Telecoms
14 30 (1.16%) Retail
15 29 (1.12%) Law
16 28 (1.09%) Pharmaceutical
17 25 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
18 20 (0.78%) Financial Institution
19 18 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
20 17 (0.66%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (3.29%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.79%) REST
3 71 (2.75%) SAP Fiori
4 45 (1.74%) Web Services
5 40 (1.55%) SAP TM
6 39 (1.51%) SOAP
7 33 (1.28%) XML
8 28 (1.09%) Node.js
9 26 (1.01%) LDAP
10 25 (0.97%) BAPI
11 21 (0.81%) Middleware
12 19 (0.74%) JSON
12 19 (0.74%) SAP PI
13 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
14 17 (0.66%) HTML
15 15 (0.58%) .NET
15 15 (0.58%) CSS
16 13 (0.50%) Kafka
16 13 (0.50%) OAuth
16 13 (0.50%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 77 (2.98%) Onboarding
2 59 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
3 40 (1.55%) Product Ownership
3 40 (1.55%) Security Posture
4 35 (1.36%) Data Centre
5 33 (1.28%) Management Information System
6 29 (1.12%) Cloud Native
7 25 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
7 25 (0.97%) Data Structures
8 24 (0.93%) Replication
9 20 (0.78%) Greenfield Project
10 18 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
10 18 (0.70%) Operational Technology
11 16 (0.62%) Analytical Mindset
11 16 (0.62%) NHS
12 15 (0.58%) Public Cloud
13 13 (0.50%) AI Agents
13 13 (0.50%) Life Science
14 10 (0.39%) Enterprise Software
14 10 (0.39%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 77 (2.98%) Windows
2 49 (1.90%) Linux
3 23 (0.89%) Unix
4 14 (0.54%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 8 (0.31%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.19%) 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
1 364 (14.11%) Migration
2 325 (12.60%) Problem-Solving
3 292 (11.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 284 (11.01%) Stakeholder Management
5 210 (8.14%) Workshop Facilitation
6 207 (8.02%) ERP
7 184 (7.13%) User Acceptance Testing
8 179 (6.94%) Agile
9 164 (6.36%) Analytics
10 161 (6.24%) Data Migration
11 154 (5.97%) Knowledge Transfer
12 146 (5.66%) Roadmaps
13 137 (5.31%) Validation
14 136 (5.27%) Business Intelligence
15 125 (4.84%) Cybersecurity
16 113 (4.38%) DevOps
17 110 (4.26%) AI
18 107 (4.15%) Risk Management
19 105 (4.07%) Continuous Improvement
19 105 (4.07%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 148 (5.74%) SQL
2 113 (4.38%) Python
3 88 (3.41%) PowerShell
4 81 (3.14%) JavaScript
5 66 (2.56%) ABAP
6 39 (1.51%) Java
7 30 (1.16%) TypeScript
8 25 (0.97%) PL/SQL
9 24 (0.93%) Groovy
10 17 (0.66%) C#
11 16 (0.62%) Bash
12 10 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 10 (0.39%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 7 (0.27%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.27%) C++
15 6 (0.23%) COBOL
15 6 (0.23%) R
15 6 (0.23%) VBA
16 5 (0.19%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 637 (24.69%) Security Cleared
2 538 (20.85%) SC Cleared
3 103 (3.99%) Degree
4 83 (3.22%) DV Cleared
5 77 (2.98%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (1.94%) CISSP
7 33 (1.28%) CISM
8 31 (1.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 25 (0.97%) SAP Certification
10 17 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
10 17 (0.66%) Master's Degree
11 16 (0.62%) Microsoft Certification
12 15 (0.58%) CIMA
12 15 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (0.35%) AWS Certification
13 9 (0.35%) CCNP
13 9 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
14 8 (0.31%) ACCA
14 8 (0.31%) CESG Certified Professional
15 7 (0.27%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (2.98%) NIST
2 75 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 70 (2.71%) GDPR
4 52 (2.02%) QA
5 50 (1.94%) Data Quality
6 40 (1.55%) GRC
7 22 (0.85%) NCSC
8 19 (0.74%) SLA
9 18 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
9 18 (0.70%) PMO
10 12 (0.47%) 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 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 7 (0.27%) HIPAA
15 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
16 6 (0.23%) Accessibility
System Software
1 71 (2.75%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.67%) Docker
3 33 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.05%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.74%) vSphere
6 8 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.27%) Hyper-V
8 6 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 5 (0.19%) NDS
9 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 3 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.039%) Ceph
11 1 (0.039%) Firmware
11 1 (0.039%) Job Entry Subsystem
11 1 (0.039%) KVM
11 1 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.039%) NFS
11 1 (0.039%) QEMU
11 1 (0.039%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.039%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 58 (2.25%) Kubernetes
2 35 (1.36%) Terraform
3 32 (1.24%) vRealize
4 22 (0.85%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.58%) Ansible
7 11 (0.43%) PingFederate
7 11 (0.43%) SCCM
8 10 (0.39%) Grafana
9 9 (0.35%) Failover Clustering
10 8 (0.31%) Prometheus
11 7 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.23%) Podman
13 5 (0.19%) vRealize Orchestrator
14 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
15 3 (0.12%) CASB
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) FortiGate
15 3 (0.12%) Nessus
15 3 (0.12%) vMotion
Vendors
1 655 (25.39%) SAP
2 302 (11.71%) Oracle
3 281 (10.89%) Microsoft
4 93 (3.60%) VMware
5 81 (3.14%) ServiceNow
6 59 (2.29%) Workday
7 56 (2.17%) CyberArk
8 55 (2.13%) Salesforce
9 54 (2.09%) Cisco
10 52 (2.02%) Ariba
11 37 (1.43%) Google
12 36 (1.40%) Aruba
13 33 (1.28%) Adobe
14 28 (1.09%) Siemens
15 22 (0.85%) OpenText
16 18 (0.70%) Databricks
17 15 (0.58%) Dynatrace
18 14 (0.54%) Dell
18 14 (0.54%) Murex
19 12 (0.47%) Zscaler