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 17 July 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 27 25
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,057 2,120 2,858
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.80% 6.52% 6.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.27% 7.11% 7.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,685 1,236 1,690
10th Percentile £404 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £555
Median % change year-on-year - -0.95% +0.95%
75th Percentile £638 £649 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 97 27 29
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.72 £25.38
25th Percentile £56.25 £42.92 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.32%
75th Percentile £63.38 £81.25 £66.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £87.35 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £61.60
% change year-on-year -22.03% +19.72% -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 48,733 29,823 39,253
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.69% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,478 18,993 25,331
10th Percentile £325 £287 £288
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,268 1,412 2,586
10th Percentile £15.92 £13.75 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £17.50
Median hourly rate £44.50 £25.31 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +75.82% -36.73% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.02 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.33
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.63% +5.15%

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 17 July 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 17 July 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 17 July 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 2,444 £550 - 914
UK excluding London 0 1,315 £525 -4.55% 614
London -2 1,127 £550 -4.35% 422
Work from Home -2 1,066 £540 -1.82% 454
South East -4 377 £540 -1.82% 195
North of England -14 276 £525 -2.78% 140
Midlands -8 253 £501 -9.00% 81
South West +22 212 £556 -3.30% 96
West Midlands +11 181 £501 -9.00% 62
North West -12 157 £525 -7.49% 89
Yorkshire -14 98 £544 +14.47% 40
Scotland +35 95 £425 -8.11% 18
East of England -15 86 £550 - 58
East Midlands -11 63 £500 -9.09% 19
Wales -4 29 £550 +23.94% 14
North East -36 21 £650 +21.72% 12
Northern Ireland -6 2 £525 +0.96% 20

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 July 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.

1 643 (21.03%) SAP
2 586 (19.17%) Security Cleared
3 412 (13.48%) SC Cleared
4 400 (13.08%) Migration
5 385 (12.59%) Microsoft
6 353 (11.55%) Oracle
7 336 (10.99%) Stakeholder Management
8 324 (10.60%) Azure
9 277 (9.06%) SAP S/4HANA
10 274 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 252 (8.24%) ERP
11 252 (8.24%) Problem-Solving
12 244 (7.98%) SQL
13 231 (7.56%) User Acceptance Testing
14 207 (6.77%) Workshop Facilitation
15 203 (6.64%) Validation
16 198 (6.48%) Continuous Improvement
17 179 (5.86%) Data Migration
18 171 (5.59%) Cybersecurity
19 168 (5.50%) Agile
20 166 (5.43%) Analytics
21 164 (5.36%) Roadmaps
22 162 (5.30%) AI
23 147 (4.81%) AWS
24 140 (4.58%) Business Intelligence
24 140 (4.58%) Power Platform
25 132 (4.32%) DV Cleared
26 129 (4.22%) Dynamics 365
27 128 (4.19%) Requirements Gathering
28 125 (4.09%) Change Management

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 81 (2.65%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.54%) Confluence
3 16 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.098%) Apache
9 3 (0.098%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.098%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.098%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.098%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
10 2 (0.065%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.065%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.065%) IIS
10 2 (0.065%) NetWeaver
10 2 (0.065%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.065%) WordPress
Applications
1 74 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
5 9 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.098%) PTC Creo
8 2 (0.065%) Lectora
8 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
9 1 (0.033%) CATIA
9 1 (0.033%) CPLEX
9 1 (0.033%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 277 (9.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 86 (2.81%) Oracle EBS
3 65 (2.13%) SAP FI
4 56 (1.83%) SAP PSCD
5 42 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.24%) SAP MM
7 36 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
7 36 (1.18%) SAP BRIM
8 34 (1.11%) SAP SD
9 33 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
9 33 (1.08%) SAP FI-CA
10 31 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
11 30 (0.98%) SAP EWM
12 29 (0.95%) NetSuite
12 29 (0.95%) SAP CO
12 29 (0.95%) SAP PP
13 28 (0.92%) SAP Payroll
14 27 (0.88%) Oracle EBS R12
15 25 (0.82%) SAP FI/CO
15 25 (0.82%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 324 (10.60%) Azure
2 147 (4.81%) AWS
3 140 (4.58%) Power Platform
4 129 (4.22%) Dynamics 365
5 98 (3.21%) OCI
6 97 (3.17%) Microsoft 365
7 83 (2.72%) GCP
8 79 (2.58%) SuccessFactors
9 72 (2.36%) Power Automate
10 58 (1.90%) Entra ID
11 55 (1.80%) SaaS
12 48 (1.57%) Azure DevOps
13 45 (1.47%) Microsoft Copilot
14 35 (1.14%) GitHub
14 35 (1.14%) PowerApps
15 31 (1.01%) Microsoft Purview
16 20 (0.65%) Copilot Studio
17 16 (0.52%) OneDrive
18 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
19 14 (0.46%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.96%) Firewall
2 49 (1.60%) Network Security
3 29 (0.95%) WAN
4 25 (0.82%) SNMP
5 20 (0.65%) BGP
6 19 (0.62%) LAN
6 19 (0.62%) VPN
7 14 (0.46%) DNS
8 13 (0.43%) SAN
8 13 (0.43%) VSAN
9 10 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 9 (0.29%) NGFW
11 8 (0.26%) NAS
11 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
12 7 (0.23%) FTP
12 7 (0.23%) MPLS
12 7 (0.23%) Wireless
13 6 (0.20%) HTTP
13 6 (0.20%) IPsec
13 6 (0.20%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (2.94%) Power BI
2 58 (1.90%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.34%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.11%) Tableau
5 31 (1.01%) SQL Server
6 27 (0.88%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 26 (0.85%) Metadata
8 23 (0.75%) SAP BW
9 20 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
10 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
11 17 (0.56%) BusinessObjects
12 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
13 11 (0.36%) Power Query
14 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
15 6 (0.20%) Data Lake
15 6 (0.20%) Delta Lake
15 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 85 (2.78%) JIRA
2 22 (0.72%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.56%) Hudson
4 16 (0.52%) Git
4 16 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.26%) GitLab
6 7 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.13%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.13%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.13%) Toad
8 4 (0.13%) Zephyr
9 3 (0.098%) Browser DevTools
9 3 (0.098%) JDeveloper
9 3 (0.098%) MLflow
9 3 (0.098%) Selenium
9 3 (0.098%) TestRail
9 3 (0.098%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.065%) LSMW
10 2 (0.065%) Snyk
General
1 647 (21.16%) Finance
2 633 (20.71%) Social Skills
3 249 (8.15%) Analytical Skills
4 222 (7.26%) Public Sector
5 109 (3.57%) Manufacturing
6 87 (2.85%) Legal
7 84 (2.75%) Banking
8 83 (2.72%) Billing
9 65 (2.13%) Telecoms
10 54 (1.77%) General Ledger
11 46 (1.50%) Marketing
12 44 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
12 44 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
13 41 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 39 (1.28%) Pharmaceutical
14 39 (1.28%) Retail
15 27 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
16 24 (0.79%) Aerospace
17 21 (0.69%) Local Government
17 21 (0.69%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.75%) Oracle Fusion
2 73 (2.39%) REST
3 59 (1.93%) XML
4 40 (1.31%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.18%) Middleware
6 35 (1.14%) SOAP
7 29 (0.95%) BAPI
8 25 (0.82%) Web Services
9 20 (0.65%) HTML
9 20 (0.65%) SAP TM
10 18 (0.59%) CSS
11 17 (0.56%) IDoc
11 17 (0.56%) JSON
11 17 (0.56%) SAP Basis
12 16 (0.52%) .NET
13 14 (0.46%) OAuth
13 14 (0.46%) SAP PI
14 13 (0.43%) LDAP
15 11 (0.36%) EDI
16 10 (0.33%) React
Miscellaneous
1 99 (3.24%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
3 43 (1.41%) CMDB
4 42 (1.37%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.08%) AI Agents
5 33 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
6 32 (1.05%) Product Ownership
7 29 (0.95%) Data Structures
8 28 (0.92%) Data Centre
9 26 (0.85%) Operational Technology
10 21 (0.69%) Cloud Native
10 21 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
10 21 (0.69%) Life Science
10 21 (0.69%) Management Information System
11 20 (0.65%) NHS
11 20 (0.65%) Public Cloud
12 17 (0.56%) Analytical Mindset
12 17 (0.56%) Replication
13 15 (0.49%) Algorithms
13 15 (0.49%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 99 (3.24%) Windows
2 67 (2.19%) Linux
3 25 (0.82%) Unix
4 21 (0.69%) Solaris
5 19 (0.62%) VMS
6 17 (0.56%) AIX
7 9 (0.29%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.16%) Android
8 5 (0.16%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.098%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.098%) zOS
11 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
11 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.065%) SUSE
12 1 (0.033%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 400 (13.08%) Migration
2 336 (10.99%) Stakeholder Management
3 274 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 252 (8.24%) ERP
4 252 (8.24%) Problem-Solving
5 231 (7.56%) User Acceptance Testing
6 207 (6.77%) Workshop Facilitation
7 203 (6.64%) Validation
8 198 (6.48%) Continuous Improvement
9 179 (5.86%) Data Migration
10 171 (5.59%) Cybersecurity
11 168 (5.50%) Agile
12 166 (5.43%) Analytics
13 164 (5.36%) Roadmaps
14 162 (5.30%) AI
15 140 (4.58%) Business Intelligence
16 128 (4.19%) Requirements Gathering
17 125 (4.09%) Change Management
17 125 (4.09%) Translating Business Requirements
18 112 (3.66%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 244 (7.98%) SQL
2 124 (4.06%) Python
3 58 (1.90%) JavaScript
3 58 (1.90%) PowerShell
4 56 (1.83%) ABAP
4 56 (1.83%) PL/SQL
5 38 (1.24%) Java
6 35 (1.14%) T-SQL
7 18 (0.59%) Bash
8 15 (0.49%) C#
9 14 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 13 (0.43%) Search Processing Language
11 12 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
12 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
13 9 (0.29%) Shell Script
14 7 (0.23%) C++
14 7 (0.23%) R
15 4 (0.13%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.13%) COBOL
15 4 (0.13%) Perl
Qualifications
1 586 (19.17%) Security Cleared
2 412 (13.48%) SC Cleared
3 132 (4.32%) DV Cleared
4 88 (2.88%) BPSS Clearance
5 75 (2.45%) CISSP
6 71 (2.32%) Degree
7 56 (1.83%) CISM
8 37 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
9 29 (0.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.85%) CCSP
11 18 (0.59%) CIMA
12 15 (0.49%) PMP
13 14 (0.46%) CEH
14 13 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.39%) ACCA
15 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.39%) OSCP
16 11 (0.36%) ITIL Certification
16 11 (0.36%) SAP Certification
16 11 (0.36%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (2.85%) NIST
2 78 (2.55%) Data Quality
3 74 (2.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 58 (1.90%) GRC
5 52 (1.70%) QA
6 37 (1.21%) GDPR
7 29 (0.95%) NCSC
8 28 (0.92%) PCI DSS
9 24 (0.79%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.69%) Accessibility
10 21 (0.69%) PMO
11 20 (0.65%) SLA
12 18 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (0.46%) COBIT
14 13 (0.43%) GxP
15 10 (0.33%) JSP 440
16 8 (0.26%) NIST 800
16 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
16 8 (0.26%) WCAG
17 7 (0.23%) GAAP
System Software
1 61 (2.00%) Active Directory
2 43 (1.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.37%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.88%) vSphere
5 13 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.33%) Docker
8 8 (0.26%) IAG
9 6 (0.20%) Hyper-V
9 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.13%) NFS
11 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.033%) HDFS
12 1 (0.033%) Job Entry Subsystem
12 1 (0.033%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.033%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.033%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.033%) SRDF
12 1 (0.033%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.73%) Terraform
2 43 (1.41%) Kubernetes
3 29 (0.95%) Ansible
4 23 (0.75%) vRealize
5 15 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.46%) Netcool
6 14 (0.46%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.43%) OpenView
7 13 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.43%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) Grafana
8 12 (0.39%) SCCM
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
9 11 (0.36%) vCenter Server
10 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.16%) CEMLI
12 4 (0.13%) VxRail
Vendors
1 643 (21.03%) SAP
2 385 (12.59%) Microsoft
3 353 (11.55%) Oracle
4 119 (3.89%) ServiceNow
5 96 (3.14%) VMware
6 62 (2.03%) Ariba
7 52 (1.70%) Siemens
8 51 (1.67%) Salesforce
8 51 (1.67%) Workday
9 45 (1.47%) Splunk
10 38 (1.24%) Databricks
11 26 (0.85%) Palo Alto
12 25 (0.82%) Google
13 24 (0.79%) BMC
14 22 (0.72%) IBM
14 22 (0.72%) OpenText
15 17 (0.56%) Cisco
15 17 (0.56%) JD Edwards
15 17 (0.56%) Okta
16 16 (0.52%) SolarWinds