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 22 July 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 26 25
Rank change year-on-year -1 -1 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 3,065 2,121 2,810
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 5.81% 6.50% 6.80%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.28% 7.09% 7.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,688 1,235 1,658
10th Percentile £401 £411 £406
25th Percentile £463 £475 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £732 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £568
% change year-on-year -4.55% -3.08% +8.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 28 29
10th Percentile £36.25 £28.92 £38.10
25th Percentile £56.25 £43.57 £55.94
Median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.41%
75th Percentile £63.38 £81.25 £68.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £87.33 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £61.60
% change year-on-year -22.03% +19.72% -5.32%

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 48,829 29,898 38,441
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.59% 91.63% 93.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,477 19,026 24,867
10th Percentile £325 £283 £295
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £730 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,287 1,429 2,436
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.75 £13.49
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -8.57%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £64.25
90th Percentile £80.52 £73.75 £74.47
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £41.81
% change year-on-year +78.93% -39.85% +4.53%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 2,448 £550 - 1,183
UK excluding London 0 1,324 £525 -4.55% 724
London -2 1,128 £550 -4.35% 580
Work from Home -3 1,054 £534 -2.95% 601
South East -2 384 £540 -1.82% 243
North of England -14 275 £525 -4.55% 173
Midlands -1 257 £500 -9.05% 82
South West +20 209 £556 -4.55% 117
West Midlands +12 185 £500 -13.04% 63
North West -12 157 £525 -7.89% 120
Scotland +30 99 £436 -8.16% 24
Yorkshire -14 98 £550 +12.82% 39
East of England -16 82 £550 - 50
East Midlands -8 63 £500 -9.09% 19
Wales -4 31 £550 +23.94% 15
North East -35 20 £750 +40.45% 14
Northern Ireland -3 2 £525 +0.96% 25

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 22 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 (20.98%) SAP
2 586 (19.12%) Security Cleared
3 411 (13.41%) SC Cleared
4 402 (13.12%) Migration
5 389 (12.69%) Microsoft
6 349 (11.39%) Oracle
7 347 (11.32%) Stakeholder Management
8 319 (10.41%) Azure
9 276 (9.00%) SAP S/4HANA
10 275 (8.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 256 (8.35%) Problem-Solving
12 249 (8.12%) SQL
13 246 (8.03%) ERP
14 229 (7.47%) User Acceptance Testing
15 205 (6.69%) Validation
15 205 (6.69%) Workshop Facilitation
16 196 (6.39%) Continuous Improvement
17 179 (5.84%) Data Migration
18 176 (5.74%) Cybersecurity
19 169 (5.51%) Agile
20 167 (5.45%) Analytics
21 164 (5.35%) AI
22 163 (5.32%) Roadmaps
23 149 (4.86%) AWS
24 142 (4.63%) Business Intelligence
24 142 (4.63%) Power Platform
25 133 (4.34%) DV Cleared
26 132 (4.31%) Dynamics 365
27 129 (4.21%) Requirements Gathering
28 126 (4.11%) Python

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 84 (2.74%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.53%) Confluence
3 16 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.29%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.13%) SAS
9 3 (0.098%) Apache
9 3 (0.098%) Apache Superset
9 3 (0.098%) ArcGIS
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 75 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.33%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.13%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.065%) Lectora
6 2 (0.065%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.065%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.033%) CATIA
7 1 (0.033%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.033%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 276 (9.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 87 (2.84%) Oracle EBS
3 67 (2.19%) SAP FI
4 53 (1.73%) SAP PSCD
5 42 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
6 38 (1.24%) SAP MM
7 36 (1.17%) Dynamics CRM
8 35 (1.14%) SAP BRIM
9 34 (1.11%) SAP SD
10 33 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
11 32 (1.04%) SAP CO
12 31 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
12 31 (1.01%) SAP FI-CA
13 30 (0.98%) NetSuite
14 29 (0.95%) SAP EWM
14 29 (0.95%) SAP PP
15 28 (0.91%) SAP FI/CO
15 28 (0.91%) SAP Payroll
16 27 (0.88%) Oracle EBS R12
17 24 (0.78%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 319 (10.41%) Azure
2 149 (4.86%) AWS
3 142 (4.63%) Power Platform
4 132 (4.31%) Dynamics 365
5 99 (3.23%) OCI
6 95 (3.10%) Microsoft 365
7 84 (2.74%) GCP
8 82 (2.68%) SuccessFactors
9 75 (2.45%) Power Automate
10 56 (1.83%) Entra ID
11 53 (1.73%) SaaS
12 49 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
13 47 (1.53%) Microsoft Copilot
14 35 (1.14%) PowerApps
15 34 (1.11%) GitHub
16 29 (0.95%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.65%) Copilot Studio
18 16 (0.52%) OneDrive
19 15 (0.49%) Azure AI
19 15 (0.49%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 60 (1.96%) Firewall
2 50 (1.63%) Network Security
3 30 (0.98%) WAN
4 25 (0.82%) SNMP
5 20 (0.65%) BGP
5 20 (0.65%) VPN
6 19 (0.62%) LAN
7 15 (0.49%) SAN
8 14 (0.46%) DNS
8 14 (0.46%) VSAN
9 10 (0.33%) NGFW
9 10 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.26%) NAS
10 8 (0.26%) SD-WAN
11 7 (0.23%) FTP
11 7 (0.23%) IPsec
11 7 (0.23%) MPLS
11 7 (0.23%) Wireless
12 6 (0.20%) HTTP
12 6 (0.20%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (3.00%) Power BI
2 58 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
3 41 (1.34%) SAP HANA
4 34 (1.11%) Tableau
5 32 (1.04%) SQL Server
6 30 (0.98%) SAP BW
7 27 (0.88%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 25 (0.82%) Metadata
9 20 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
10 19 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
11 17 (0.55%) BusinessObjects
12 12 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
13 10 (0.33%) Power Query
14 9 (0.29%) Oracle Database
15 6 (0.20%) Delta Lake
15 6 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 5 (0.16%) Data Lake
16 5 (0.16%) Hadoop
16 5 (0.16%) NonStop SQL
16 5 (0.16%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 85 (2.77%) JIRA
2 20 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.55%) 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
1 648 (21.14%) Finance
2 633 (20.65%) Social Skills
3 249 (8.12%) Analytical Skills
4 215 (7.01%) Public Sector
5 109 (3.56%) Manufacturing
6 91 (2.97%) Legal
7 83 (2.71%) Banking
8 80 (2.61%) Billing
9 65 (2.12%) Telecoms
10 56 (1.83%) General Ledger
11 49 (1.60%) Marketing
12 44 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
12 44 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
13 41 (1.34%) Retail
14 40 (1.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 39 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
16 29 (0.95%) Influencing Skills
17 26 (0.85%) Aerospace
18 21 (0.69%) Law
18 21 (0.69%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (2.74%) Oracle Fusion
2 72 (2.35%) REST
3 60 (1.96%) XML
4 40 (1.31%) SAP Fiori
5 36 (1.17%) Middleware
5 36 (1.17%) SOAP
6 27 (0.88%) BAPI
7 26 (0.85%) Web Services
8 20 (0.65%) HTML
9 18 (0.59%) CSS
10 17 (0.55%) IDoc
10 17 (0.55%) JSON
10 17 (0.55%) SAP Basis
11 16 (0.52%) SAP PI
12 15 (0.49%) .NET
13 14 (0.46%) OAuth
14 13 (0.42%) LDAP
15 12 (0.39%) SAP TM
16 11 (0.36%) EDI
17 10 (0.33%) React
Miscellaneous
1 98 (3.20%) Onboarding
2 48 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
3 42 (1.37%) CMDB
3 42 (1.37%) Security Posture
4 34 (1.11%) AI Agents
5 33 (1.08%) Product Ownership
6 32 (1.04%) Legacy Systems
7 31 (1.01%) Data Centre
7 31 (1.01%) Data Structures
8 26 (0.85%) Operational Technology
9 21 (0.69%) Cloud Native
9 21 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
9 21 (0.69%) Life Science
9 21 (0.69%) Management Information System
10 20 (0.65%) NHS
11 18 (0.59%) Public Cloud
11 18 (0.59%) Replication
12 17 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
13 16 (0.52%) Enterprise Software
13 16 (0.52%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 96 (3.13%) Windows
2 66 (2.15%) Linux
3 26 (0.85%) Unix
4 21 (0.69%) Solaris
5 19 (0.62%) AIX
5 19 (0.62%) VMS
6 9 (0.29%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.16%) Android
7 5 (0.16%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.13%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.098%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.065%) CoreOS
10 2 (0.065%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.065%) SUSE
10 2 (0.065%) zOS
11 1 (0.033%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 402 (13.12%) Migration
2 347 (11.32%) Stakeholder Management
3 275 (8.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 256 (8.35%) Problem-Solving
5 246 (8.03%) ERP
6 229 (7.47%) User Acceptance Testing
7 205 (6.69%) Validation
7 205 (6.69%) Workshop Facilitation
8 196 (6.39%) Continuous Improvement
9 179 (5.84%) Data Migration
10 176 (5.74%) Cybersecurity
11 169 (5.51%) Agile
12 167 (5.45%) Analytics
13 164 (5.35%) AI
14 163 (5.32%) Roadmaps
15 142 (4.63%) Business Intelligence
16 129 (4.21%) Requirements Gathering
17 124 (4.05%) Change Management
17 124 (4.05%) Translating Business Requirements
18 112 (3.65%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 249 (8.12%) SQL
2 126 (4.11%) Python
3 60 (1.96%) JavaScript
4 56 (1.83%) ABAP
4 56 (1.83%) PL/SQL
4 56 (1.83%) PowerShell
5 37 (1.21%) Java
6 36 (1.17%) T-SQL
7 18 (0.59%) Bash
8 14 (0.46%) C#
8 14 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 13 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
10 12 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
11 10 (0.33%) TypeScript
12 9 (0.29%) Shell Script
13 7 (0.23%) C++
13 7 (0.23%) R
14 6 (0.20%) Perl
15 4 (0.13%) Korn
16 3 (0.098%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 586 (19.12%) Security Cleared
2 411 (13.41%) SC Cleared
3 133 (4.34%) DV Cleared
4 87 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
5 76 (2.48%) CISSP
6 72 (2.35%) Degree
7 58 (1.89%) CISM
8 38 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
9 30 (0.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 26 (0.85%) CCSP
11 17 (0.55%) CIMA
12 15 (0.49%) PMP
13 14 (0.46%) CEH
14 13 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (0.39%) ACCA
15 12 (0.39%) Azure Certification
15 12 (0.39%) OSCP
16 11 (0.36%) Master's Degree
16 11 (0.36%) SAP Certification
17 10 (0.33%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (2.90%) NIST
2 80 (2.61%) Data Quality
3 78 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 59 (1.92%) GRC
5 51 (1.66%) QA
6 39 (1.27%) GDPR
7 30 (0.98%) NCSC
8 29 (0.95%) PCI DSS
9 26 (0.85%) Actionable Recommendations
10 21 (0.69%) Accessibility
10 21 (0.69%) PMO
10 21 (0.69%) SLA
11 18 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 14 (0.46%) COBIT
13 12 (0.39%) GxP
14 10 (0.33%) JSP 440
15 9 (0.29%) NIST 800
16 8 (0.26%) SOC 2
16 8 (0.26%) WCAG
17 7 (0.23%) GAAP
System Software
1 59 (1.92%) Active Directory
2 44 (1.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.37%) VMware NSX
4 27 (0.88%) vSphere
5 14 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.33%) Docker
8 8 (0.26%) IAG
9 7 (0.23%) Hyper-V
10 6 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.13%) NFS
12 2 (0.065%) BitLocker
12 2 (0.065%) Firmware
12 2 (0.065%) PowerHA
13 1 (0.033%) HDFS
13 1 (0.033%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.033%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.033%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.033%) SRDF
13 1 (0.033%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 53 (1.73%) Terraform
2 43 (1.40%) Kubernetes
3 29 (0.95%) Ansible
4 23 (0.75%) vRealize
5 15 (0.49%) Nagios
5 15 (0.49%) ZABBIX
6 14 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (0.46%) Netcool
6 14 (0.46%) Tivoli
7 13 (0.42%) Grafana
7 13 (0.42%) OpenView
7 13 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 12 (0.39%) vCenter Server
9 11 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.36%) Prometheus
9 11 (0.36%) SCCM
10 7 (0.23%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.16%) CEMLI
11 5 (0.16%) VxRail
Vendors
1 643 (20.98%) SAP
2 389 (12.69%) Microsoft
3 349 (11.39%) Oracle
4 115 (3.75%) ServiceNow
5 95 (3.10%) VMware
6 63 (2.06%) Ariba
7 52 (1.70%) Salesforce
7 52 (1.70%) Workday
8 46 (1.50%) Splunk
9 45 (1.47%) Siemens
10 38 (1.24%) Databricks
11 27 (0.88%) Palo Alto
12 26 (0.85%) Google
13 24 (0.78%) IBM
14 23 (0.75%) BMC
14 23 (0.75%) OpenText
15 17 (0.55%) Cisco
15 17 (0.55%) JD Edwards
15 17 (0.55%) Okta
16 16 (0.52%) OpenAI