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 1 March 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 27 25
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 +21
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,692 2,009 2,766
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.48% 6.60% 6.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.06% 7.11% 6.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,519 1,122 1,646
10th Percentile £400 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £638 £650 £650
90th Percentile £715 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £537
% change year-on-year - +2.42% -2.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 17 36
10th Percentile - £68.00 £42.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.50 £55.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -7.35%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.25 £81.56
90th Percentile £78.25 £87.50 £90.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £83.75 £61.79
% change year-on-year -31.34% +35.54% -6.38%

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 38,119 28,262 41,512
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.82% 92.85% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,936 17,829 27,270
10th Percentile £310 £290 £275
25th Percentile £409 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,335 854 2,415
10th Percentile £14.71 £16.25 £13.05
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.30
Median hourly rate £33.50 £34.06 £34.53
Median % change year-on-year -1.63% -1.38% -13.68%
75th Percentile £63.88 £64.73 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.18 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year - -7.14% -6.67%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 1 March 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 -2 2,097 £550 - 1,479
UK excluding London +1 1,096 £550 - 1,107
Work from Home 0 1,014 £525 -4.55% 685
London -4 971 £550 -4.35% 620
South East -1 299 £515 -10.43% 415
North of England -8 265 £581 +6.61% 248
Midlands -6 205 £563 +7.14% 119
West Midlands -5 151 £563 +4.17% 71
North West -7 148 £626 +15.97% 151
South West +17 145 £550 - 160
Yorkshire -2 107 £550 +3.53% 75
East of England -5 96 £550 - 88
Scotland +8 51 £520 -5.45% 29
East Midlands -14 50 £500 -3.85% 48
Wales +9 32 £447 -8.31% 41
Northern Ireland +4 12 £405 -22.86% 25
North East -25 10 £525 -7.08% 23

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 March 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.

1 646 (24.00%) SAP
2 643 (23.89%) Security Cleared
3 543 (20.17%) SC Cleared
4 388 (14.41%) Migration
5 344 (12.78%) SAP S/4HANA
6 310 (11.52%) Problem-Solving
7 304 (11.29%) Azure
8 291 (10.81%) Oracle
9 288 (10.70%) Microsoft
10 281 (10.44%) Stakeholder Management
11 273 (10.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 226 (8.40%) ERP
13 213 (7.91%) Workshop Facilitation
14 177 (6.58%) User Acceptance Testing
15 172 (6.39%) Agile
16 167 (6.20%) Data Migration
17 161 (5.98%) Analytics
17 161 (5.98%) SQL
18 157 (5.83%) Roadmaps
19 145 (5.39%) Business Intelligence
19 145 (5.39%) Knowledge Transfer
20 138 (5.13%) Dynamics 365
21 134 (4.98%) Validation
22 132 (4.90%) Cybersecurity
23 126 (4.68%) Continuous Improvement
24 120 (4.46%) Python
25 111 (4.12%) AI
26 110 (4.09%) Power Platform
27 109 (4.05%) DevOps
28 108 (4.01%) Risk 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 67 (2.49%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.23%) Confluence
3 28 (1.04%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.22%) Jupyter
4 6 (0.22%) NetWeaver
4 6 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
5 5 (0.19%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.19%) MTS
6 4 (0.15%) CMS
6 4 (0.15%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (0.11%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.074%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.074%) Apache
8 2 (0.074%) Cloud Foundry
8 2 (0.074%) IIS
8 2 (0.074%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.037%) LiveCycle
9 1 (0.037%) nginx
9 1 (0.037%) SharePoint 2010
9 1 (0.037%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 47 (1.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.41%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.26%) Oracle Smart View
6 6 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
7 5 (0.19%) PTC Creo
8 4 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.074%) Lectora
9 2 (0.074%) Navisworks
9 2 (0.074%) Revit
10 1 (0.037%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.037%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.037%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.037%) CATIA
10 1 (0.037%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.037%) InfoPath
10 1 (0.037%) ProjectWise
10 1 (0.037%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.037%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 344 (12.78%) SAP S/4HANA
2 62 (2.30%) SAP FI
3 58 (2.15%) Oracle EBS
4 52 (1.93%) SAP MM
5 48 (1.78%) Oracle Payables
6 47 (1.75%) Oracle Receivables
7 42 (1.56%) SAP HCM
8 39 (1.45%) Dynamics CRM
8 39 (1.45%) SAP PP
9 38 (1.41%) SAP CO
10 37 (1.37%) Oracle EBS R12
10 37 (1.37%) Oracle General Ledger
11 36 (1.34%) SAP EWM
12 35 (1.30%) SAP FI/CO
13 32 (1.19%) SAP PSCD
14 31 (1.15%) SAP Travel Management
15 30 (1.11%) Oracle Assets
16 28 (1.04%) SAP Payroll
17 25 (0.93%) Oracle Cash Management
17 25 (0.93%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 304 (11.29%) Azure
2 138 (5.13%) Dynamics 365
3 110 (4.09%) Power Platform
4 106 (3.94%) AWS
4 106 (3.94%) OCI
5 81 (3.01%) Microsoft 365
6 76 (2.82%) GCP
7 69 (2.56%) SaaS
8 62 (2.30%) Entra ID
9 50 (1.86%) SuccessFactors
10 39 (1.45%) Power Automate
11 35 (1.30%) Microsoft Copilot
12 32 (1.19%) Azure DevOps
13 30 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
14 29 (1.08%) PowerApps
15 26 (0.97%) GitHub
16 24 (0.89%) OneDrive
17 19 (0.71%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 19 (0.71%) Serverless
18 18 (0.67%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 47 (1.75%) Firewall
2 19 (0.71%) VPN
3 17 (0.63%) DNS
4 16 (0.59%) Network Security
5 14 (0.52%) HTTP
6 13 (0.48%) Kerberos
6 13 (0.48%) SMS
6 13 (0.48%) WAN
7 12 (0.45%) DHCP
8 11 (0.41%) VSAN
9 10 (0.37%) SD-WAN
9 10 (0.37%) SSL
10 9 (0.33%) FTP
10 9 (0.33%) SAN
10 9 (0.33%) Software-Defined Networking
10 9 (0.33%) TCP/IP
11 8 (0.30%) Intranet
11 8 (0.30%) LAN
12 7 (0.26%) BGP
12 7 (0.26%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (2.93%) Power BI
2 48 (1.78%) SAP HANA
3 45 (1.67%) Oracle Reports
4 25 (0.93%) Metadata
5 24 (0.89%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 23 (0.85%) SQL Server
7 14 (0.52%) NoSQL
8 13 (0.48%) SAP BW
9 12 (0.45%) Data Warehouse
9 12 (0.45%) PostgreSQL
10 11 (0.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 11 (0.41%) Tableau
11 8 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
11 8 (0.30%) GIS
12 7 (0.26%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.26%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.22%) Data Lake
13 6 (0.22%) Data Mart
13 6 (0.22%) DynamoDB
14 5 (0.19%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 63 (2.34%) JIRA
2 19 (0.71%) Jenkins
3 13 (0.48%) Oracle Forms
4 12 (0.45%) Git
4 12 (0.45%) Hudson
5 9 (0.33%) GitLab
6 7 (0.26%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.15%) LSMW
7 4 (0.15%) Postman
8 3 (0.11%) JUnit
9 2 (0.074%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.074%) git-flow
9 2 (0.074%) Mockito
9 2 (0.074%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.074%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.074%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.074%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.074%) Tricentis qTest
9 2 (0.074%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.037%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 709 (26.34%) Social Skills
2 582 (21.62%) Finance
3 253 (9.40%) Public Sector
4 248 (9.21%) Analytical Skills
5 124 (4.61%) Manufacturing
6 96 (3.57%) Banking
7 76 (2.82%) Marketing
8 73 (2.71%) Documentation Skills
9 62 (2.30%) Billing
10 60 (2.23%) Legal
11 44 (1.63%) General Ledger
12 42 (1.56%) Presentation Skills
12 42 (1.56%) Telecoms
13 34 (1.26%) Retail
14 31 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
15 28 (1.04%) Pharmaceutical
16 26 (0.97%) Law
17 21 (0.78%) Financial Institution
18 20 (0.74%) Aerospace
19 17 (0.63%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 96 (3.57%) Oracle Fusion
2 69 (2.56%) REST
3 59 (2.19%) SAP Fiori
4 48 (1.78%) Web Services
5 46 (1.71%) XML
6 39 (1.45%) SAP TM
7 38 (1.41%) SOAP
8 28 (1.04%) BAPI
9 27 (1.00%) LDAP
10 26 (0.97%) Node.js
11 23 (0.85%) Middleware
12 19 (0.71%) JSON
12 19 (0.71%) SAP PI
13 17 (0.63%) GraphQL
14 16 (0.59%) .NET
15 15 (0.56%) IDoc
16 14 (0.52%) HTML
16 14 (0.52%) Kafka
17 13 (0.48%) SAML
17 13 (0.48%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 70 (2.60%) Onboarding
2 56 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
3 40 (1.49%) Product Ownership
4 38 (1.41%) Security Posture
5 33 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
6 31 (1.15%) Data Centre
7 27 (1.00%) Cloud Native
8 25 (0.93%) Operational Technology
9 24 (0.89%) Replication
10 23 (0.85%) Greenfield Project
10 23 (0.85%) Management Information System
11 22 (0.82%) Data Structures
12 19 (0.71%) AI Agents
13 18 (0.67%) Analytical Mindset
13 18 (0.67%) NHS
14 15 (0.56%) Life Science
14 15 (0.56%) Self-Motivation
15 14 (0.52%) Public Cloud
16 13 (0.48%) Hybrid Cloud
17 12 (0.45%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 70 (2.60%) Windows
2 38 (1.41%) Linux
3 15 (0.56%) Unix
4 14 (0.52%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.37%) Windows 10
6 9 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.22%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.22%) VMS
8 5 (0.19%) Ubuntu
9 4 (0.15%) AIX
9 4 (0.15%) Solaris
9 4 (0.15%) zOS
10 3 (0.11%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.074%) SUSE
11 2 (0.074%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.074%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.074%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.037%) Android
12 1 (0.037%) CentOS
12 1 (0.037%) CoreOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 388 (14.41%) Migration
2 310 (11.52%) Problem-Solving
3 281 (10.44%) Stakeholder Management
4 273 (10.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 226 (8.40%) ERP
6 213 (7.91%) Workshop Facilitation
7 177 (6.58%) User Acceptance Testing
8 172 (6.39%) Agile
9 167 (6.20%) Data Migration
10 161 (5.98%) Analytics
11 157 (5.83%) Roadmaps
12 145 (5.39%) Business Intelligence
12 145 (5.39%) Knowledge Transfer
13 134 (4.98%) Validation
14 132 (4.90%) Cybersecurity
15 126 (4.68%) Continuous Improvement
16 111 (4.12%) AI
17 109 (4.05%) DevOps
18 108 (4.01%) Risk Management
19 104 (3.86%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 161 (5.98%) SQL
2 120 (4.46%) Python
3 88 (3.27%) PowerShell
4 86 (3.19%) JavaScript
5 72 (2.67%) ABAP
6 34 (1.26%) Java
7 30 (1.11%) TypeScript
8 22 (0.82%) Groovy
9 21 (0.78%) PL/SQL
10 16 (0.59%) C#
11 15 (0.56%) Bash
12 12 (0.45%) T-SQL
13 10 (0.37%) Shell Script
14 8 (0.30%) Apex Code
14 8 (0.30%) C++
15 7 (0.26%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 7 (0.26%) Kusto Query Language
16 5 (0.19%) Bicep
16 5 (0.19%) Korn
17 4 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 643 (23.89%) Security Cleared
2 543 (20.17%) SC Cleared
3 102 (3.79%) Degree
4 77 (2.86%) DV Cleared
5 63 (2.34%) BPSS Clearance
6 48 (1.78%) CISSP
7 36 (1.34%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 32 (1.19%) CISM
9 18 (0.67%) Master's Degree
10 17 (0.63%) CIMA
10 17 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
10 17 (0.63%) SAP Certification
11 16 (0.59%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
13 12 (0.45%) ITIL Certification
14 8 (0.30%) AWS Certification
14 8 (0.30%) CCNP
14 8 (0.30%) CESG Certified Professional
15 7 (0.26%) CISA
15 7 (0.26%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (3.34%) NIST
2 84 (3.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 69 (2.56%) GDPR
4 52 (1.93%) Data Quality
5 48 (1.78%) QA
6 38 (1.41%) GRC
7 23 (0.85%) NCSC
8 22 (0.82%) Actionable Recommendations
9 19 (0.71%) SLA
10 18 (0.67%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 16 (0.59%) PCI DSS
11 16 (0.59%) PMO
12 11 (0.41%) COBIT
12 11 (0.41%) PERC
13 9 (0.33%) JSP 440
14 8 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
14 8 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 6 (0.22%) Accessibility
16 5 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 70 (2.60%) Active Directory
2 38 (1.41%) Docker
3 32 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (1.11%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.82%) vSphere
6 8 (0.30%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 6 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.19%) NDS
8 5 (0.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 2 (0.074%) NFS
10 1 (0.037%) Ceph
10 1 (0.037%) IAG
10 1 (0.037%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.037%) KVM
10 1 (0.037%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.037%) QEMU
10 1 (0.037%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.037%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 53 (1.97%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.37%) vRealize
3 33 (1.23%) Terraform
4 22 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.59%) Ansible
7 10 (0.37%) Failover Clustering
7 10 (0.37%) PingFederate
8 7 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 7 (0.26%) SCCM
9 6 (0.22%) Podman
10 5 (0.19%) Grafana
11 4 (0.15%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.15%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.15%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.15%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.15%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.11%) CEMLI
12 3 (0.11%) Puppet
12 3 (0.11%) vMotion
Vendors
1 646 (24.00%) SAP
2 291 (10.81%) Oracle
3 288 (10.70%) Microsoft
4 95 (3.53%) VMware
5 79 (2.93%) ServiceNow
6 57 (2.12%) Salesforce
7 56 (2.08%) CyberArk
8 53 (1.97%) Siemens
8 53 (1.97%) Workday
9 52 (1.93%) Cisco
10 51 (1.89%) Ariba
11 42 (1.56%) Google
12 37 (1.37%) Aruba
13 34 (1.26%) Adobe
14 22 (0.82%) Databricks
15 19 (0.71%) OpenText
16 15 (0.56%) Sage
17 14 (0.52%) Murex
18 13 (0.48%) Splunk
18 13 (0.48%) Zscaler