Big Data Contract Job Trends

Big Data
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Big Data skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 292 197 239
Rank change year-on-year -95 +42 -62
Contract jobs citing Big Data 287 474 515
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.87% 1.23% 1.04%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 4.79% 6.85% 6.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 315 324
10th Percentile £400 £353 £450
25th Percentile £448 £456 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £648 £719 £750
90th Percentile £738 £845 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £556 £550
% change year-on-year -10.11% +1.14% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 5 24
10th Percentile £45.06 £27.25 £70.50
25th Percentile £54.22 £36.25 £75.19
Median hourly rate £69.48 £47.50 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.27% -39.10% +30.00%
75th Percentile £84.74 £53.75 £86.25
90th Percentile £93.90 - £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.96 - £78.00
% change year-on-year - - +30.00%

All Database and Business Intelligence Skills
UK

Big Data falls under the Databases and Business Intelligence category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring database or business intelligence skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for database or business intelligence skills 5,987 6,922 8,327
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 18.17% 17.97% 16.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,012 4,763 5,796
10th Percentile £343 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £533 £543
Median % change year-on-year -6.19% -1.84% -1.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £800 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £485 £500
% change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 91 155
10th Percentile £21.24 £17.50 £20.93
25th Percentile £29.07 £21.00 £32.31
Median hourly rate £43.50 £35.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.29% -36.36% +22.66%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.78 £73.73
90th Percentile £81.50 £73.75 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.48 £30.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +24.93% -45.45% +57.14%

Big Data
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Big Data as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Big Data in the UK

Big Data
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Big Data.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Big Data

Big Data
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Big Data over the 6 months to 19 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Big Data in the UK

Big Data
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Big Data.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Big Data

Big Data
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Big Data over the 6 months to 19 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Big Data in the UK

Big Data
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Big Data within the UK over the 6 months to 19 September 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
England -97 252 £550 -8.33% 197
London -80 154 £568 -5.33% 124
UK excluding London -40 101 £500 -10.11% 112
Work from Home -30 96 £505 -10.22% 90
South East +18 27 £575 +35.29% 53
Midlands -34 20 £425 -30.56% 13
North of England -46 17 £500 -5.21% 23
East of England +11 14 £505 +1.00% 8
Scotland -8 13 £500 +5.26% 5
North West +1 12 £488 +19.19% 15
East Midlands -7 11 £420 -1.18% 10
West Midlands -25 9 £447 -31.23% 3
South West -8 7 £450 -32.58% 6
Northern Ireland -1 4 £410 -3.53% 5
Yorkshire -47 3 £500 -5.21% 7
North East -1 2 - - 1

Big Data
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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
1 116 (40.42%) Apache Spark
2 61 (21.25%) Apache
3 31 (10.80%) Apache Airflow
4 17 (5.92%) Confluence
5 9 (3.14%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (1.39%) Jupyter
6 4 (1.39%) nginx
7 3 (1.05%) Luigi
8 2 (0.70%) Apache Pig
8 2 (0.70%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 2 (0.70%) SAS
9 1 (0.35%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.35%) Apache Superset
9 1 (0.35%) IIS
9 1 (0.35%) MS Project Server
9 1 (0.35%) Oracle Coherence
9 1 (0.35%) SharePoint
9 1 (0.35%) Tomcat
Applications
1 6 (2.09%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.70%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (1.74%) Avolution ABACUS
2 4 (1.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 2 (0.70%) Distributed Ledger
4 1 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 114 (39.72%) AWS
2 91 (31.71%) Azure
3 68 (23.69%) GCP
4 32 (11.15%) Serverless
5 28 (9.76%) Power Platform
6 24 (8.36%) Amazon S3
7 17 (5.92%) OpenShift
7 17 (5.92%) Snowflake
8 13 (4.53%) Azure Data Factory
8 13 (4.53%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (4.53%) GitHub
9 11 (3.83%) PaaS
10 10 (3.48%) AWS Lambda
10 10 (3.48%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 10 (3.48%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 10 (3.48%) IaaS
11 8 (2.79%) Amazon SageMaker
12 6 (2.09%) AWS Step Functions
13 5 (1.74%) dbt
13 5 (1.74%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 15 (5.23%) DNS
2 9 (3.14%) DHCP
2 9 (3.14%) Firewall
2 9 (3.14%) SMTP
2 9 (3.14%) VPN
3 3 (1.05%) SSH
3 3 (1.05%) TCP/IP
4 2 (0.70%) HTTP
4 2 (0.70%) Internet
4 2 (0.70%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 105 (36.59%) Hadoop
2 43 (14.98%) Data Warehouse
3 37 (12.89%) Data Lake
4 35 (12.20%) Elasticsearch
5 31 (10.80%) NoSQL
6 29 (10.10%) Tableau
7 24 (8.36%) Power BI
8 21 (7.32%) SQL Server
9 19 (6.62%) Metadata
10 18 (6.27%) Apache Hive
10 18 (6.27%) PostgreSQL
11 16 (5.57%) BigQuery
12 15 (5.23%) Relational Database
13 11 (3.83%) Amazon RDS
13 11 (3.83%) Amazon Redshift
13 11 (3.83%) Delta Lake
14 10 (3.48%) Amazon Athena
14 10 (3.48%) MongoDB
15 9 (3.14%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 8 (2.79%) HBase
Development Applications
1 44 (15.33%) Git
2 28 (9.76%) JIRA
3 21 (7.32%) Jenkins
4 13 (4.53%) GitLab
5 8 (2.79%) MLflow
6 7 (2.44%) ERwin
7 5 (1.74%) ER Studio
7 5 (1.74%) SonarQube
8 4 (1.39%) Artifactory
8 4 (1.39%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (1.05%) Bitbucket
9 3 (1.05%) Gradle
9 3 (1.05%) Maven
10 2 (0.70%) JUnit
10 2 (0.70%) Poetry
10 2 (0.70%) PyCharm
10 2 (0.70%) Visual Studio Code
11 1 (0.35%) Jaeger
11 1 (0.35%) Locust
11 1 (0.35%) Visual Studio
General
1 79 (27.53%) Finance
2 73 (25.44%) Social Skills
3 51 (17.77%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (8.71%) Public Sector
5 20 (6.97%) Banking
6 13 (4.53%) Financial Institution
6 13 (4.53%) Telecoms
7 7 (2.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (2.44%) Retail
8 5 (1.74%) General Ledger
8 5 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (1.74%) Legal
8 5 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.39%) Law
9 4 (1.39%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.05%) Investment Banking
10 3 (1.05%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.70%) Health Technology
11 2 (0.70%) Marketing
11 2 (0.70%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 70 (24.39%) Data Engineer
2 52 (18.12%) Architect
3 46 (16.03%) Developer
4 32 (11.15%) Senior
5 26 (9.06%) Data Scientist
6 24 (8.36%) Data Architect
7 21 (7.32%) Solutions Architect
8 17 (5.92%) Python Engineer
9 16 (5.57%) Analyst
10 15 (5.23%) Java Developer
10 15 (5.23%) Lead
11 14 (4.88%) Senior Data Engineer
12 12 (4.18%) Apache Spark Developer
12 12 (4.18%) Software Engineer
13 11 (3.83%) Data Analyst
14 10 (3.48%) Azure Engineer
14 10 (3.48%) Python Data Engineer
15 9 (3.14%) Java Engineer
16 8 (2.79%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
16 8 (2.79%) Artificial Intelligence Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 65 (22.65%) Kafka
2 28 (9.76%) PySpark
3 27 (9.41%) Apache NiFi
4 24 (8.36%) Pandas
5 21 (7.32%) PyTorch
5 21 (7.32%) scikit-learn
5 21 (7.32%) TensorFlow
6 17 (5.92%) NumPy
7 14 (4.88%) .NET
7 14 (4.88%) RabbitMQ
7 14 (4.88%) RESTful
8 13 (4.53%) OpenTelemetry
9 12 (4.18%) HTML
9 12 (4.18%) React
10 11 (3.83%) Flask
10 11 (3.83%) Hugging Face
10 11 (3.83%) Spark Streaming
11 10 (3.48%) Elastic Stack
12 9 (3.14%) Matplotlib
12 9 (3.14%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.97%) Algorithms
2 18 (6.27%) Distributed Computing
3 16 (5.57%) Cloud Native
4 12 (4.18%) Data Centre
5 10 (3.48%) Market Risk
6 9 (3.14%) Analytical Mindset
6 9 (3.14%) Clustering
6 9 (3.14%) PKI
6 9 (3.14%) Self-Motivation
7 8 (2.79%) Distributed Systems
7 8 (2.79%) Onboarding
7 8 (2.79%) Private Cloud
8 5 (1.74%) AI Agents
8 5 (1.74%) Credit Risk
8 5 (1.74%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (1.74%) Greenfield Project
8 5 (1.74%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.74%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.39%) Data Structures
9 4 (1.39%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 36 (12.54%) Linux
2 16 (5.57%) Windows
3 11 (3.83%) Windows Server
4 10 (3.48%) Unix
5 7 (2.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.39%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (0.70%) CentOS
8 1 (0.35%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (31.36%) Agile
2 87 (30.31%) Machine Learning
3 83 (28.92%) Analytics
4 72 (25.09%) ETL
5 70 (24.39%) Data Pipeline
6 68 (23.69%) CI/CD
7 66 (23.00%) Data Science
8 64 (22.30%) Artificial Intelligence
9 63 (21.95%) Data Modelling
9 63 (21.95%) Problem-Solving
10 62 (21.60%) Data Engineering
11 56 (19.51%) DevOps
12 47 (16.38%) Data Governance
13 45 (15.68%) Visualisation
14 41 (14.29%) Microservices
15 36 (12.54%) Business Intelligence
15 36 (12.54%) Data Integration
16 35 (12.20%) Data Architecture
16 35 (12.20%) Software Engineering
17 33 (11.50%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 167 (58.19%) Python
2 113 (39.37%) SQL
3 54 (18.82%) Java
4 26 (9.06%) R
4 26 (9.06%) Scala
5 16 (5.57%) C#
6 15 (5.23%) C++
6 15 (5.23%) JavaScript
7 12 (4.18%) PowerShell
8 7 (2.44%) Bash
9 6 (2.09%) C
10 4 (1.39%) TypeScript
11 3 (1.05%) Groovy
11 3 (1.05%) Perl
12 2 (0.70%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.70%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.35%) HiveQL
13 1 (0.35%) Korn
13 1 (0.35%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.35%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 56 (19.51%) Security Cleared
2 46 (16.03%) Degree
3 42 (14.63%) SC Cleared
4 29 (10.10%) DV Cleared
5 21 (7.32%) Master's Degree
6 14 (4.88%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (3.14%) PhD
8 6 (2.09%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.74%) AWS Certification
10 4 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (0.70%) CISSP
12 1 (0.35%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 1 (0.35%) ISTQB
12 1 (0.35%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.35%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.35%) Tableau Certification
12 1 (0.35%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (16.72%) Data Quality
2 18 (6.27%) GDPR
3 10 (3.48%) QA
4 4 (1.39%) Accessibility
5 2 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 1 (0.35%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 32 (11.15%) Docker
2 11 (3.83%) Active Directory
2 11 (3.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (3.14%) BitLocker
3 9 (3.14%) HDFS
3 9 (3.14%) Hyper-V
3 9 (3.14%) Microsoft App-V
3 9 (3.14%) Terminal Services
3 9 (3.14%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.70%) vCloud
4 2 (0.70%) VMware Workstation
4 2 (0.70%) vSphere
5 1 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 48 (16.72%) Kubernetes
2 23 (8.01%) Terraform
3 20 (6.97%) Ansible
4 17 (5.92%) Grafana
5 10 (3.48%) Argo
5 10 (3.48%) Puppet
6 9 (3.14%) Nagios
6 9 (3.14%) vCenter Server
6 9 (3.14%) vMotion
7 8 (2.79%) Prometheus
8 7 (2.44%) Kibana
9 4 (1.39%) Hadoop YARN
9 4 (1.39%) Istio
9 4 (1.39%) Kustomize
10 3 (1.05%) logstash
10 3 (1.05%) Oozie
11 2 (0.70%) Progress Chef
12 1 (0.35%) HAProxy
12 1 (0.35%) Kubeflow
12 1 (0.35%) Zipkin
Vendors
1 42 (14.63%) Databricks
2 40 (13.94%) Microsoft
3 33 (11.50%) Google
4 23 (8.01%) Cloudera
5 14 (4.88%) Foundry
5 14 (4.88%) Oracle
5 14 (4.88%) Palantir
6 12 (4.18%) VMware
7 10 (3.48%) Informatica
8 9 (3.14%) Citrix
8 9 (3.14%) HP
8 9 (3.14%) Symantec
9 5 (1.74%) ServiceNow
9 5 (1.74%) Splunk
10 4 (1.39%) BiZZdesign
10 4 (1.39%) OpenAI
10 4 (1.39%) Sage
10 4 (1.39%) Sparx
10 4 (1.39%) Talend
11 3 (1.05%) Salesforce