Machine Learning Contracts in the UK excluding London

Machine Learning (ML)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Machine Learning skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Machine Learning over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 143 233 238
Rank change year-on-year +90 +5 +32
Contract jobs citing Machine Learning 231 171 243
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.81% 0.82% 1.01%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.00% 0.97% 1.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 144 109 173
10th Percentile £358 £362 £425
25th Percentile £459 £435 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year +9.52% -8.70% +4.55%
75th Percentile £675 £625 £675
90th Percentile £738 £690 £723
UK median daily rate £575 £575 £600
% change year-on-year - -4.17% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 13 13
10th Percentile £45.00 £47.19 £20.43
25th Percentile £56.81 £51.25 £22.16
Median hourly rate £76.25 £60.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.08% +71.43% -40.68%
75th Percentile £81.01 £66.25 £52.50
90th Percentile £87.30 £70.35 £53.75
UK median hourly rate £61.50 £52.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year +17.14% +50.00% -6.67%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Machine Learning falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 11,543 17,602 21,544
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 90.42% 84.74% 89.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,249 10,520 14,947
10th Percentile £235 £250 £255
25th Percentile £375 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £662 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 825 2,048 1,307
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.33 £11.00
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.28 £16.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%
75th Percentile £64.50 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £72.98
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
% change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%

Machine Learning
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Machine Learning as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Machine Learning in the UK excluding London

Machine Learning
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Machine Learning in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Machine Learning in the UK excluding London

Machine Learning
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Machine Learning in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Machine Learning in the UK excluding London

Machine Learning
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Machine Learning in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Machine Learning in the UK excluding London

Machine Learning
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Machine Learning in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Machine Learning in the UK excluding London

Machine Learning
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Machine Learning within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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
South East +79 60 £575 -4.17% 1,125
North of England +18 45 £513 -6.82% 836
South West +75 40 £640 +16.36% 302
East of England +41 35 £625 +38.89% 410
North West +24 31 £600 +14.29% 426
Scotland -2 25 £467 +0.97% 170
Midlands +13 17 £475 -18.10% 714
Wales - 15 £575 - 60
West Midlands +4 11 £500 -13.79% 357
North East -1 7 £358 - 88
Yorkshire -1 7 £500 -9.75% 323
East Midlands +11 6 £450 -33.33% 332
Machine Learning
UK

Machine Learning
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 31 (13.42%) Apache Spark
2 8 (3.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (3.03%) Apache
4 5 (2.16%) Confluence
5 1 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.43%) CMS
5 1 (0.43%) Jupyter
5 1 (0.43%) SAS
Applications
1 4 (1.73%) Chatbot
2 3 (1.30%) Simulink
3 1 (0.43%) MadCap Flare
Business Applications
1 4 (1.73%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.87%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.43%) Distributed Ledger
3 1 (0.43%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 75 (32.47%) Azure
2 60 (25.97%) AWS
3 35 (15.15%) GCP
4 22 (9.52%) Azure Machine Learning
5 18 (7.79%) Cloud Computing
6 14 (6.06%) PaaS
7 12 (5.19%) Power Platform
8 10 (4.33%) Azure Data Factory
8 10 (4.33%) Serverless
9 9 (3.90%) IaaS
9 9 (3.90%) OpenShift
10 8 (3.46%) AWS Lambda
10 8 (3.46%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 6 (2.60%) Azure AI
11 6 (2.60%) Azure DevOps
12 5 (2.16%) Amazon S3
12 5 (2.16%) Azure AKS
12 5 (2.16%) Snowflake
13 4 (1.73%) Google Gemini
13 4 (1.73%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 15 (6.49%) DNS
1 15 (6.49%) SMTP
2 11 (4.76%) Firewall
3 10 (4.33%) Network Security
4 8 (3.46%) DHCP
4 8 (3.46%) VPN
5 7 (3.03%) FTP
5 7 (3.03%) HTTP
5 7 (3.03%) SSL
6 3 (1.30%) Ethernet
6 3 (1.30%) LTE
7 2 (0.87%) LAN
7 2 (0.87%) WAN
8 1 (0.43%) 3G
8 1 (0.43%) 3GPP
8 1 (0.43%) 4G
8 1 (0.43%) 5G
8 1 (0.43%) NAS
8 1 (0.43%) Radio Access Network
8 1 (0.43%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (17.32%) Big Data
2 26 (11.26%) Hadoop
3 24 (10.39%) Tableau
4 12 (5.19%) Power BI
5 11 (4.76%) Data Lake
5 11 (4.76%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (4.33%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (4.33%) Metadata
7 8 (3.46%) Amazon RDS
8 7 (3.03%) Data Mining
9 6 (2.60%) Neo4j
10 4 (1.73%) Apache Cassandra
10 4 (1.73%) MongoDB
10 4 (1.73%) NoSQL
11 3 (1.30%) Geospatial Data
11 3 (1.30%) Relational Database
12 2 (0.87%) BigQuery
12 2 (0.87%) Data Vault
12 2 (0.87%) DynamoDB
12 2 (0.87%) Redis
Development Applications
1 16 (6.93%) Git
2 7 (3.03%) JIRA
3 5 (2.16%) GitLab
4 3 (1.30%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.30%) JUnit
5 1 (0.43%) CMake
5 1 (0.43%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.43%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.43%) ER Studio
5 1 (0.43%) ERwin
5 1 (0.43%) MLflow
5 1 (0.43%) NetBeans
5 1 (0.43%) PyCharm
5 1 (0.43%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.43%) Visual Studio
General
1 66 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 57 (24.68%) Analytical Skills
3 32 (13.85%) Finance
4 22 (9.52%) Public Sector
5 12 (5.19%) Telecoms
6 11 (4.76%) Banking
7 8 (3.46%) Investment Banking
7 8 (3.46%) Pharmaceutical
8 7 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (2.60%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (2.60%) Legal
9 6 (2.60%) Manufacturing
10 5 (2.16%) Electronics
10 5 (2.16%) Marketing
10 5 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.30%) Games
12 3 (1.30%) Law
13 2 (0.87%) Advertising
13 2 (0.87%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 45 (19.48%) Senior
2 39 (16.88%) Developer
3 31 (13.42%) Architect
4 29 (12.55%) Data Scientist
5 20 (8.66%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 16 (6.93%) Data Engineer
7 14 (6.06%) Data Science Developer
8 12 (5.19%) Lead
8 12 (5.19%) Senior Developer
9 11 (4.76%) Artificial Intelligence Developer
9 11 (4.76%) Python Engineer
10 9 (3.90%) JavaScript Engineer
11 8 (3.46%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 8 (3.46%) 3rd Line Support
11 8 (3.46%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
11 8 (3.46%) Consultant
11 8 (3.46%) Solutions Architect
11 8 (3.46%) Support Engineer
12 7 (3.03%) Applications Architect
12 7 (3.03%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (15.15%) PyTorch
2 34 (14.72%) TensorFlow
3 27 (11.69%) scikit-learn
4 25 (10.82%) Pandas
5 23 (9.96%) NumPy
6 17 (7.36%) Matplotlib
7 16 (6.93%) PySpark
7 16 (6.93%) Seaborn
8 10 (4.33%) CSS
9 9 (3.90%) Kafka
10 7 (3.03%) HTML
10 7 (3.03%) LDAP
11 6 (2.60%) AngularJS
11 6 (2.60%) React
12 5 (2.16%) Node.js
12 5 (2.16%) RESTful
13 4 (1.73%) .NET
13 4 (1.73%) Middleware
14 3 (1.30%) jQuery
14 3 (1.30%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 60 (25.97%) Algorithms
2 20 (8.66%) Management Information System
3 13 (5.63%) IoT
4 12 (5.19%) Data Structures
5 11 (4.76%) Cyberattack
5 11 (4.76%) Distributed Systems
6 8 (3.46%) Analytical Mindset
6 8 (3.46%) Blockchain
6 8 (3.46%) Clustering
6 8 (3.46%) Cyber Threat
6 8 (3.46%) Data Centre
6 8 (3.46%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (3.46%) PKI
7 7 (3.03%) Onboarding
7 7 (3.03%) Security Operations Centre
8 6 (2.60%) CSOC
9 4 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.73%) Public Cloud
10 3 (1.30%) Blog
10 3 (1.30%) FPGA
Operating Systems
1 17 (7.36%) Linux
2 16 (6.93%) Windows
3 8 (3.46%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.30%) Windows Server 2003
5 1 (0.43%) Android
5 1 (0.43%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 174 (75.32%) Artificial Intelligence
2 86 (37.23%) Data Science
3 62 (26.84%) Analytics
4 55 (23.81%) Agile
5 52 (22.51%) LLM
6 51 (22.08%) Problem-Solving
7 47 (20.35%) Decision-Making
8 40 (17.32%) Generative AI
9 36 (15.58%) Data Analysis
10 35 (15.15%) Visualisation
11 32 (13.85%) DevOps
12 30 (12.99%) Computer Science
13 29 (12.55%) Data Engineering
14 28 (12.12%) CI/CD
15 27 (11.69%) Data Analytics
15 27 (11.69%) Natural Language Processing
16 26 (11.26%) Roadmaps
17 23 (9.96%) Cybersecurity
17 23 (9.96%) Data Governance
18 22 (9.52%) Predictive Analytics
Programming Languages
1 113 (48.92%) Python
2 39 (16.88%) SQL
3 27 (11.69%) JavaScript
3 27 (11.69%) R
4 22 (9.52%) Java
5 21 (9.09%) TypeScript
6 9 (3.90%) PowerShell
7 5 (2.16%) Rust
8 4 (1.73%) C#
8 4 (1.73%) C++
9 3 (1.30%) MATLAB
9 3 (1.30%) Scala
9 3 (1.30%) SystemVerilog
9 3 (1.30%) Tcl
10 2 (0.87%) Bash
10 2 (0.87%) Perl
11 1 (0.43%) C
11 1 (0.43%) Ruby
11 1 (0.43%) Search Processing Language
11 1 (0.43%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 52 (22.51%) Security Cleared
2 45 (19.48%) Degree
3 32 (13.85%) SC Cleared
4 23 (9.96%) DV Cleared
5 19 (8.23%) Master's Degree
6 17 (7.36%) PhD
7 4 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (1.73%) Postgraduate
8 3 (1.30%) Azure Certification
8 3 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.30%) HNC
8 3 (1.30%) HND
9 2 (0.87%) CCNA
9 2 (0.87%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.87%) Numerate Degree
10 1 (0.43%) CISA
10 1 (0.43%) CISM
10 1 (0.43%) CISSP
10 1 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (17.32%) Data Quality
2 12 (5.19%) QA
3 9 (3.90%) GDPR
4 4 (1.73%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 3 (1.30%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.30%) DO-254
6 2 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.43%) IEC 61508
7 1 (0.43%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.43%) MISRA
7 1 (0.43%) MISRA C
7 1 (0.43%) NIST
7 1 (0.43%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.43%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.43%) SNOMED CT
7 1 (0.43%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 24 (10.39%) Docker
2 8 (3.46%) Active Directory
2 8 (3.46%) BitLocker
2 8 (3.46%) Hyper-V
2 8 (3.46%) Microsoft App-V
2 8 (3.46%) Terminal Services
2 8 (3.46%) VMware ESXi
2 8 (3.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.30%) Firmware
4 1 (0.43%) Apache Flume
4 1 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 29 (12.55%) Kubernetes
2 13 (5.63%) Ansible
3 12 (5.19%) Terraform
4 8 (3.46%) Nagios
4 8 (3.46%) Puppet
4 8 (3.46%) vCenter Server
4 8 (3.46%) vMotion
5 7 (3.03%) Grafana
6 3 (1.30%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.43%) Kibana
7 1 (0.43%) logstash
7 1 (0.43%) QRadar
Vendors
1 25 (10.82%) Microsoft
2 17 (7.36%) Databricks
2 17 (7.36%) Google
3 9 (3.90%) VMware
4 8 (3.46%) Citrix
4 8 (3.46%) HP
4 8 (3.46%) Symantec
5 6 (2.60%) OpenAI
5 6 (2.60%) SAP
5 6 (2.60%) ServiceNow
6 5 (2.16%) Foundry
6 5 (2.16%) Splunk
7 4 (1.73%) Dynatrace
7 4 (1.73%) Palantir
8 3 (1.30%) Actel
8 3 (1.30%) Altera
8 3 (1.30%) Intel
8 3 (1.30%) Microsemi
8 3 (1.30%) Xilinx
9 2 (0.87%) Workday