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 contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 429 287 203
Rank change year-on-year -142 -84 +36
Contract jobs citing Big Data 253 298 463
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.92% 1.21%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.09% 5.07% 6.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 212 311
10th Percentile £379 £405 £354
25th Percentile £441 £455 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £638 £678 £725
90th Percentile £725 £750 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £556
% change year-on-year - -10.11% +1.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 2 5
10th Percentile £61.00 £45.06 £27.25
25th Percentile £63.75 £54.22 £36.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £69.48 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +0.75% +46.27% -39.10%
75th Percentile £75.00 £84.74 £53.75
90th Percentile £90.00 £93.90 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £38.96 -
% change year-on-year +79.67% - -

All Database & BI 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 8,182 5,873 6,928
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.26% 18.07% 18.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,455 3,930 4,835
10th Percentile £358 £339 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -3.09%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £480
% change year-on-year - -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 260 96 98
10th Percentile £15.91 £21.23 £15.69
25th Percentile £23.00 £29.05 £19.87
Median hourly rate £39.00 £38.85 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +0.40% +19.52% -40.91%
75th Percentile £60.94 £65.00 £56.88
90th Percentile £75.10 £80.00 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £34.19 £30.00
% change year-on-year +11.87% +13.97% -42.86%

Big Data
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Big Data relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Big Data job vacancy trend 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 3 September 2026.

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 3 September 2026.

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 3 September 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 -160 213 £545 -0.91% 499
London -92 134 £600 +2.39% 376
Work from Home -61 85 £505 -1.51% 170
UK excluding London -123 85 £500 - 190
North of England -42 32 £518 +4.81% 27
Yorkshire -25 19 £534 -2.95% 4
South East -83 15 £456 -18.89% 46
Midlands -58 14 £410 -2.50% 14
Scotland -22 12 £416 -13.56% 34
East Midlands -25 9 £495 +17.86% 5
South West -37 9 £515 +14.44% 30
North East -37 7 £425 - 2
North West -49 6 £600 +26.32% 21
West Midlands -52 5 £405 -14.10% 9
East of England -34 2 £540 +7.46% 20
Wales - 2 £475 - 3

Big Data
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
1 129 (50.99%) Apache Spark
2 41 (16.21%) Apache
3 37 (14.62%) Apache Airflow
4 9 (3.56%) Confluence
5 6 (2.37%) JBoss
6 5 (1.98%) Jupyter
6 5 (1.98%) SAS
6 5 (1.98%) SharePoint
7 4 (1.58%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (1.19%) CMS
8 3 (1.19%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.79%) Apache Pig
9 2 (0.79%) Apache Superset
10 1 (0.40%) Luigi
Business Applications
1 2 (0.79%) Endur
2 1 (0.40%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.40%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 124 (49.01%) AWS
2 99 (39.13%) Azure
3 80 (31.62%) GCP
4 44 (17.39%) Snowflake
5 31 (12.25%) Amazon S3
5 31 (12.25%) Power Platform
6 22 (8.70%) Amazon EMR
6 22 (8.70%) GitHub
7 21 (8.30%) AWS Lambda
8 20 (7.91%) Azure DevOps
9 17 (6.72%) Serverless
10 14 (5.53%) Amazon ECS
11 12 (4.74%) Azure Data Factory
11 12 (4.74%) dbt
11 12 (4.74%) GitHub Actions
12 11 (4.35%) Amazon EKS
12 11 (4.35%) PaaS
13 10 (3.95%) OpenShift
14 8 (3.16%) Azure Databricks
15 7 (2.77%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.37%) Kerberos
2 5 (1.98%) IPv4
2 5 (1.98%) IPv6
3 3 (1.19%) Broadband
3 3 (1.19%) DHCP
3 3 (1.19%) DNS
3 3 (1.19%) Firewall
3 3 (1.19%) SMTP
3 3 (1.19%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (21.34%) Hadoop
2 46 (18.18%) Data Warehouse
3 38 (15.02%) Data Lake
4 31 (12.25%) NoSQL
5 30 (11.86%) Power BI
6 28 (11.07%) PostgreSQL
7 23 (9.09%) Amazon Redshift
8 22 (8.70%) Apache Hive
9 20 (7.91%) BigQuery
10 16 (6.32%) MongoDB
11 14 (5.53%) Amazon Athena
12 13 (5.14%) Amazon RDS
12 13 (5.14%) Relational Database
13 12 (4.74%) DynamoDB
13 12 (4.74%) Tableau
14 11 (4.35%) Metadata
15 10 (3.95%) SQL Server
16 9 (3.56%) Amazon Aurora
16 9 (3.56%) Elasticsearch
17 8 (3.16%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 36 (14.23%) Git
2 33 (13.04%) GitLab
3 28 (11.07%) Jenkins
4 16 (6.32%) JIRA
5 7 (2.77%) Selenium
6 4 (1.58%) SonarQube
7 3 (1.19%) JUnit
7 3 (1.19%) PowerDesigner
7 3 (1.19%) Robot Framework
8 2 (0.79%) JMeter
8 2 (0.79%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.79%) MLflow
8 2 (0.79%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.40%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.40%) eggPlant
9 1 (0.40%) Gatling
General
1 82 (32.41%) Social Skills
2 67 (26.48%) Analytical Skills
3 50 (19.76%) Finance
4 27 (10.67%) Banking
5 22 (8.70%) Public Sector
6 10 (3.95%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (3.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (3.16%) Investment Banking
8 8 (3.16%) Telecoms
9 7 (2.77%) Legal
9 7 (2.77%) Marketing
10 3 (1.19%) Aerospace
10 3 (1.19%) Retail
11 2 (0.79%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.79%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (0.79%) Local Government
12 1 (0.40%) Dutch Language
12 1 (0.40%) French Language
12 1 (0.40%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.40%) Police
Job Titles
1 80 (31.62%) Data Engineer
2 42 (16.60%) Senior
3 41 (16.21%) Architect
4 24 (9.49%) Developer
5 18 (7.11%) Solutions Architect
6 15 (5.93%) Analyst
7 14 (5.53%) Data Architect
7 14 (5.53%) Lead
7 14 (5.53%) Senior Data Engineer
8 13 (5.14%) DevOps Engineer
9 12 (4.74%) Big Data Engineer
10 10 (3.95%) Databricks Data Engineer
10 10 (3.95%) Databricks Engineer
11 9 (3.56%) Data Analyst
11 9 (3.56%) Data Scientist
11 9 (3.56%) Java Developer
11 9 (3.56%) Python Engineer
11 9 (3.56%) Test Engineer
12 8 (3.16%) Azure Engineer
12 8 (3.16%) Scala Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (22.92%) Kafka
2 42 (16.60%) Terraform
3 28 (11.07%) PySpark
4 19 (7.51%) REST
5 15 (5.93%) Spring
6 14 (5.53%) Spring Boot
7 12 (4.74%) Pandas
8 8 (3.16%) Apache NiFi
8 8 (3.16%) CSS
8 8 (3.16%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (3.16%) HTML
8 8 (3.16%) Middleware
8 8 (3.16%) Play Framework
9 7 (2.77%) NumPy
10 6 (2.37%) PyTorch
10 6 (2.37%) TensorFlow
11 5 (1.98%) Langfuse
11 5 (1.98%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (1.98%) RESTful
12 4 (1.58%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 35 (13.83%) Cloud Native
2 28 (11.07%) Distributed Systems
3 15 (5.93%) Product Ownership
4 14 (5.53%) Data Structures
5 12 (4.74%) Clustering
6 11 (4.35%) Onboarding
6 11 (4.35%) Virtual Team
7 9 (3.56%) Algorithms
8 7 (2.77%) Data Centre
9 6 (2.37%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.98%) Distributed Architecture
10 5 (1.98%) Distributed Computing
11 4 (1.58%) FMCG
12 3 (1.19%) AI Agents
12 3 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
12 3 (1.19%) Management Information System
12 3 (1.19%) PKI
12 3 (1.19%) Social Media
13 2 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 26 (10.28%) Linux
2 10 (3.95%) Unix
3 6 (2.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.19%) Windows
4 3 (1.19%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (47.83%) Data Pipeline
2 103 (40.71%) Analytics
3 93 (36.76%) CI/CD
3 93 (36.76%) Data Engineering
4 88 (34.78%) ETL
5 86 (33.99%) Agile
6 77 (30.43%) AI
7 67 (26.48%) Machine Learning
8 61 (24.11%) DevOps
9 57 (22.53%) Data Modelling
10 55 (21.74%) Problem-Solving
11 51 (20.16%) Data Governance
12 45 (17.79%) Containerisation
12 45 (17.79%) Data Science
13 37 (14.62%) Scrum
14 36 (14.23%) Business Intelligence
15 35 (13.83%) Data Analysis
16 34 (13.44%) Validation
17 33 (13.04%) Infrastructure as Code
17 33 (13.04%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 141 (55.73%) Python
2 122 (48.22%) SQL
3 59 (23.32%) Java
4 32 (12.65%) Scala
5 20 (7.91%) PowerShell
6 17 (6.72%) R
7 14 (5.53%) JavaScript
8 10 (3.95%) Bash
9 7 (2.77%) C#
10 3 (1.19%) Rust
10 3 (1.19%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.79%) Go
11 2 (0.79%) Korn
11 2 (0.79%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.79%) SAS Macro
11 2 (0.79%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.40%) C++
12 1 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.40%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.40%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 58 (22.92%) Security Cleared
2 46 (18.18%) SC Cleared
3 28 (11.07%) Degree
4 16 (6.32%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (4.35%) Master's Degree
6 10 (3.95%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (3.16%) AWS Certification
8 7 (2.77%) Azure Certification
9 6 (2.37%) DV Cleared
10 3 (1.19%) PhD
10 3 (1.19%) SnowPro
11 2 (0.79%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 2 (0.79%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 2 (0.79%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.79%) CISSP
12 1 (0.40%) AWS Certified Developer
12 1 (0.40%) MBA
12 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.40%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.40%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (20.55%) Data Quality
2 20 (7.91%) QA
3 16 (6.32%) GDPR
4 7 (2.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (2.77%) NIST
5 3 (1.19%) SLA
6 2 (0.79%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.79%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.40%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.40%) EMIR
7 1 (0.40%) EU AI Act
7 1 (0.40%) IFRS
7 1 (0.40%) IFRS 9
7 1 (0.40%) MiFID
7 1 (0.40%) NCSC
System Software
1 50 (19.76%) Docker
2 9 (3.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (2.37%) HDFS
4 5 (1.98%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.19%) BitLocker
5 3 (1.19%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.19%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (1.19%) Terminal Services
5 3 (1.19%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.19%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.79%) Apache Flume
Systems Management
1 54 (21.34%) Kubernetes
2 32 (12.65%) Grafana
3 13 (5.14%) Prometheus
4 11 (4.35%) Puppet
5 10 (3.95%) Ansible
6 8 (3.16%) Kibana
7 6 (2.37%) Red Hat Satellite
8 5 (1.98%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (1.19%) Nagios
9 3 (1.19%) vCenter Server
9 3 (1.19%) vMotion
10 2 (0.79%) Control-M
11 1 (0.40%) HP ALM
11 1 (0.40%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 63 (24.90%) Databricks
2 28 (11.07%) Google
3 22 (8.70%) Microsoft
4 18 (7.11%) Splunk
5 14 (5.53%) Salesforce
6 13 (5.14%) Cloudera
7 9 (3.56%) Oracle
7 9 (3.56%) VMware
8 6 (2.37%) Cisco
8 6 (2.37%) Red Hat
9 5 (1.98%) Amplitude
9 5 (1.98%) Foundry
9 5 (1.98%) IBM
9 5 (1.98%) Informatica
10 4 (1.58%) HP
10 4 (1.58%) Palantir
10 4 (1.58%) Talend
10 4 (1.58%) Tenable
11 3 (1.19%) Citrix
11 3 (1.19%) Teradata