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 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 365 244 240
Rank change year-on-year -121 -4 -51
Contract jobs citing Big Data 258 313 438
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.62% 1.05% 0.98%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.83% 5.55% 6.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 193 207 311
10th Percentile £329 £371 £400
25th Percentile £393 £436 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £645 £656 £700
90th Percentile £770 £738 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £449 £568 £525
% change year-on-year -20.97% +8.10% -12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 2 22
10th Percentile £53.88 £51.75 £18.88
25th Percentile £61.75 £52.50 £26.62
Median hourly rate £66.72 £55.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +21.31% +22.22% +14.46%
75th Percentile £75.00 £57.50 £47.50
90th Percentile £79.50 £58.25 £52.41
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 - £46.18
% change year-on-year - - +31.94%

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 6,745 5,636 7,227
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.17% 18.87% 16.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,655 3,835 5,101
10th Percentile £344 £350 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £490
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.04% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 131 93 168
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.13 £15.97
25th Percentile £29.13 £24.25 £20.98
Median hourly rate £52.50 £32.81 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.01% -22.80% -22.73%
75th Percentile £74.84 £64.73 £62.62
90th Percentile £85.00 £69.75 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £27.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +81.82% -31.25% -27.27%

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 March 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 March 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 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 -137 205 £525 -3.05% 109
London -65 136 £550 +7.32% 63
UK excluding London -101 81 £449 -20.97% 54
Work from Home -53 71 £435 -16.83% 39
Scotland +22 20 £400 +2.56% 3
South East -40 20 £475 -5.00% 18
North of England -63 18 £475 -26.92% 19
North West -33 12 £473 -30.00% 14
Midlands -57 11 £428 -14.50% 3
South West -21 8 £525 -21.35% 2
East Midlands -30 7 £410 - 1
North East -16 5 £500 +14.74% 2
West Midlands -53 4 £449 -12.40% 2
Wales -6 3 £375 -34.44% 1
East of England -36 1 - - 10
Yorkshire -67 1 - - 4

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
1 125 (48.45%) Apache Spark
2 36 (13.95%) Apache
3 31 (12.02%) Apache Airflow
4 16 (6.20%) Confluence
5 8 (3.10%) Palantir Foundry
6 4 (1.55%) SharePoint
7 3 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (1.16%) SAS
8 2 (0.78%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.39%) Camunda
Applications
1 4 (1.55%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.39%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.78%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 117 (45.35%) AWS
2 98 (37.98%) Azure
3 61 (23.64%) GCP
4 31 (12.02%) Power Platform
5 26 (10.08%) Serverless
5 26 (10.08%) Snowflake
6 21 (8.14%) GitHub
7 15 (5.81%) GitHub Actions
8 13 (5.04%) Amazon S3
8 13 (5.04%) Azure Data Factory
8 13 (5.04%) Azure DevOps
9 12 (4.65%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (2.71%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 6 (2.33%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 6 (2.33%) Amazon ECS
11 6 (2.33%) dbt
12 5 (1.94%) Amazon EMR
12 5 (1.94%) Amazon SageMaker
12 5 (1.94%) AWS CloudFormation
12 5 (1.94%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.16%) Kerberos
1 3 (1.16%) VPN
2 1 (0.39%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (35.27%) Hadoop
2 68 (26.36%) Data Warehouse
3 39 (15.12%) NoSQL
4 30 (11.63%) Data Lake
5 29 (11.24%) Metadata
6 27 (10.47%) Power BI
6 27 (10.47%) Relational Database
7 25 (9.69%) SQL Server
8 24 (9.30%) PostgreSQL
9 17 (6.59%) Apache Hive
9 17 (6.59%) Elasticsearch
10 16 (6.20%) Tableau
11 12 (4.65%) RDBMS
12 11 (4.26%) Impala
13 9 (3.49%) BigQuery
13 9 (3.49%) MongoDB
13 9 (3.49%) MySQL
14 8 (3.10%) Star Schema
15 7 (2.71%) HBase
16 6 (2.33%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 34 (13.18%) Git
2 21 (8.14%) JIRA
3 20 (7.75%) GitLab
3 20 (7.75%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.55%) ERwin
4 4 (1.55%) MLflow
4 4 (1.55%) Postman
4 4 (1.55%) PowerDesigner
4 4 (1.55%) Robot Framework
4 4 (1.55%) Selenium
5 2 (0.78%) Subversion
5 2 (0.78%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.39%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.39%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.39%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.39%) Gradle
6 1 (0.39%) JMeter
6 1 (0.39%) NUnit
6 1 (0.39%) Poetry
6 1 (0.39%) SpecFlow
General
1 95 (36.82%) Social Skills
2 78 (30.23%) Finance
3 41 (15.89%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (14.73%) Banking
5 21 (8.14%) Public Sector
6 10 (3.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (2.71%) Investment Banking
8 4 (1.55%) Telecoms
9 2 (0.78%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (0.78%) Financial Institution
9 2 (0.78%) Front Office
9 2 (0.78%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.78%) Marketing
9 2 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.39%) Corporate Banking
10 1 (0.39%) Military
10 1 (0.39%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.39%) Retail
10 1 (0.39%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 71 (27.52%) Data Engineer
2 33 (12.79%) Lead
2 33 (12.79%) Senior
3 30 (11.63%) Architect
4 24 (9.30%) Data Architect
4 24 (9.30%) Data Scientist
5 22 (8.53%) Developer
6 16 (6.20%) Analyst
7 12 (4.65%) Data Analyst
8 11 (4.26%) Senior Data Engineer
9 8 (3.10%) Java Engineer
9 8 (3.10%) Platform Engineer
10 7 (2.71%) AWS Engineer
10 7 (2.71%) Big Data Engineer
10 7 (2.71%) Machine Learning Engineer
10 7 (2.71%) QA Engineer
10 7 (2.71%) Senior Data Scientist
11 6 (2.33%) Azure Engineer
11 6 (2.33%) DevOps Engineer
11 6 (2.33%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (17.05%) Kafka
2 35 (13.57%) PySpark
3 16 (6.20%) scikit-learn
4 14 (5.43%) Pandas
5 13 (5.04%) Apache NiFi
6 12 (4.65%) TensorFlow
7 10 (3.88%) REST
7 10 (3.88%) Spring
8 9 (3.49%) HTML
8 9 (3.49%) NumPy
8 9 (3.49%) PyTorch
8 9 (3.49%) React
8 9 (3.49%) Spring Boot
9 7 (2.71%) Elastic Stack
9 7 (2.71%) JSON
9 7 (2.71%) pytest
9 7 (2.71%) RabbitMQ
9 7 (2.71%) Spark Streaming
10 6 (2.33%) Flask
10 6 (2.33%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 24 (9.30%) Cloud Native
2 16 (6.20%) Algorithms
3 15 (5.81%) Distributed Computing
4 10 (3.88%) Data Structures
5 9 (3.49%) Virtual Team
6 8 (3.10%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.71%) Onboarding
8 6 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
8 6 (2.33%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.33%) Reference Data
9 4 (1.55%) Derivative
9 4 (1.55%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 3 (1.16%) AI Agents
10 3 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (0.78%) CMDB
11 2 (0.78%) Educational Technology
11 2 (0.78%) FMCG
11 2 (0.78%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 22 (8.53%) Linux
2 14 (5.43%) Unix
3 1 (0.39%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (43.41%) Analytics
2 94 (36.43%) ETL
3 92 (35.66%) Data Pipeline
4 88 (34.11%) CI/CD
5 85 (32.95%) Data Modelling
6 81 (31.40%) Agile
7 80 (31.01%) Data Engineering
7 80 (31.01%) Problem-Solving
8 77 (29.84%) Data Governance
9 66 (25.58%) Data Science
10 64 (24.81%) Machine Learning
11 58 (22.48%) DevOps
12 57 (22.09%) AI
13 49 (18.99%) Visualisation
14 39 (15.12%) Business Intelligence
14 39 (15.12%) Decision-Making
15 38 (14.73%) Data Architecture
16 37 (14.34%) Computer Science
17 34 (13.18%) Software Engineering
18 33 (12.79%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 161 (62.40%) Python
2 134 (51.94%) SQL
3 47 (18.22%) Java
4 28 (10.85%) R
5 22 (8.53%) Scala
6 12 (4.65%) Bash
6 12 (4.65%) JavaScript
7 11 (4.26%) C#
7 11 (4.26%) C++
8 8 (3.10%) Shell Script
9 3 (1.16%) SAS Macro
9 3 (1.16%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.78%) Ada
10 2 (0.78%) Perl
10 2 (0.78%) PowerShell
10 2 (0.78%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.39%) Go
11 1 (0.39%) Korn
11 1 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.39%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 65 (25.19%) Security Cleared
2 50 (19.38%) SC Cleared
3 49 (18.99%) Degree
4 24 (9.30%) Master's Degree
5 22 (8.53%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (6.20%) DV Cleared
7 4 (1.55%) AWS Certification
7 4 (1.55%) Azure Certification
7 4 (1.55%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (1.16%) IBM Certification
8 3 (1.16%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (1.16%) PhD
9 2 (0.78%) Numerate Degree
9 2 (0.78%) TOGAF Certification
10 1 (0.39%) HP APS
10 1 (0.39%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.39%) OCP
10 1 (0.39%) Oracle Certification
10 1 (0.39%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (25.97%) Data Quality
2 17 (6.59%) GDPR
2 17 (6.59%) QA
3 6 (2.33%) Actionable Recommendations
4 4 (1.55%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.16%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 3 (1.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.78%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.39%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.39%) IFRS
7 1 (0.39%) IFRS 17
7 1 (0.39%) ISO 13485
7 1 (0.39%) Solvency II
System Software
1 41 (15.89%) Docker
2 11 (4.26%) HDFS
3 2 (0.78%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 42 (16.28%) Kubernetes
2 21 (8.14%) Terraform
3 11 (4.26%) Grafana
4 10 (3.88%) Prometheus
5 6 (2.33%) Kibana
6 5 (1.94%) logstash
7 4 (1.55%) Ansible
8 3 (1.16%) Argo
8 3 (1.16%) Nagios
8 3 (1.16%) Rancher
9 1 (0.39%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.39%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 43 (16.67%) Databricks
2 17 (6.59%) Microsoft
3 15 (5.81%) Google
4 10 (3.88%) Foundry
4 10 (3.88%) Oracle
5 9 (3.49%) Cloudera
5 9 (3.49%) Informatica
6 8 (3.10%) IBM
6 8 (3.10%) Palantir
7 7 (2.71%) Ab Initio
7 7 (2.71%) Talend
8 5 (1.94%) OpenAI
9 3 (1.16%) ServiceNow
9 3 (1.16%) Teradata
10 2 (0.78%) Salesforce
10 2 (0.78%) Sybase
11 1 (0.39%) Atlassian
11 1 (0.39%) Guidewire
11 1 (0.39%) HP