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

6 months to
8 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 392 251 220
Rank change year-on-year -141 -31 +26
Contract jobs citing Big Data 283 339 486
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.54% 1.06% 1.13%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.55% 5.80% 6.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 183 236 354
10th Percentile £358 £408 £361
25th Percentile £439 £465 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £569
Median % change year-on-year - -3.30% -5.21%
75th Percentile £648 £675 £742
90th Percentile £754 £744 £835
UK excluding London median daily rate £505 £513 £510
% change year-on-year -1.46% +0.49% -9.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 3 9
10th Percentile £54.25 £42.42 -
25th Percentile £63.25 £47.61 £18.20
Median hourly rate £70.00 £57.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +21.74% +35.29% -45.51%
75th Percentile £75.00 £79.38 £47.50
90th Percentile £90.00 £91.75 £53.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.72 £38.96 £19.38
% change year-on-year +78.95% +101.08% -75.16%

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 7,972 5,847 7,587
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.28% 18.30% 17.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,261 3,958 5,409
10th Percentile £350 £355 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
75th Percentile £600 £629 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 259 103 151
10th Percentile £15.57 £19.82 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.11 £25.38 £20.24
Median hourly rate £38.50 £35.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -6.67% -35.39%
75th Percentile £63.88 £63.75 £51.75
90th Percentile £77.00 £76.50 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £31.64 £30.00
% change year-on-year +18.52% +5.47% -45.45%

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 8 July 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 8 July 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 8 July 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 -168 216 £550 - 118
London -107 132 £600 +2.39% 78
UK excluding London -126 101 £505 -1.46% 54
Work from Home -56 92 £500 -4.76% 70
North of England -69 32 £538 -9.28% 12
Scotland +6 23 £380 -16.44%
South East -87 20 £550 +4.02% 19
Yorkshire -35 13 £550 -8.33% 5
North East -28 12 £450 -2.70% 1
Midlands -73 11 £505 +1.00%
East Midlands -19 8 £500 +21.95%
South West -34 8 £525 -17.65% 19
North West -53 7 - - 6
Wales - 5 £388 -
East of England -40 3 £540 -16.92%
West Midlands -66 3 £640 +24.90%

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
1 148 (52.30%) Apache Spark
2 45 (15.90%) Apache
2 45 (15.90%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (2.12%) Confluence
3 6 (2.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (2.12%) SAS
4 5 (1.77%) SharePoint
5 4 (1.41%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.71%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.35%) Apache Pig
7 1 (0.35%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.35%) Camunda
7 1 (0.35%) CMS
7 1 (0.35%) Luigi
Applications
1 4 (1.41%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.71%) Endur
2 1 (0.35%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 149 (52.65%) AWS
2 121 (42.76%) Azure
3 90 (31.80%) GCP
4 44 (15.55%) Snowflake
5 35 (12.37%) Power Platform
6 32 (11.31%) Amazon S3
7 25 (8.83%) GitHub
8 23 (8.13%) Serverless
9 22 (7.77%) AWS Lambda
10 20 (7.07%) Amazon EMR
10 20 (7.07%) Azure DevOps
11 14 (4.95%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (4.95%) OpenShift
12 13 (4.59%) Amazon ECS
12 13 (4.59%) dbt
13 10 (3.53%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (3.18%) Amazon EKS
15 8 (2.83%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 7 (2.47%) PaaS
16 7 (2.47%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.77%) IPv4
1 5 (1.77%) IPv6
2 3 (1.06%) DHCP
2 3 (1.06%) DNS
2 3 (1.06%) Firewall
2 3 (1.06%) SMTP
2 3 (1.06%) VPN
3 1 (0.35%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (25.09%) Hadoop
2 59 (20.85%) Data Warehouse
3 48 (16.96%) NoSQL
4 40 (14.13%) PostgreSQL
5 38 (13.43%) Data Lake
6 30 (10.60%) Power BI
7 22 (7.77%) Relational Database
8 21 (7.42%) SQL Server
9 20 (7.07%) Amazon Redshift
9 20 (7.07%) Metadata
10 19 (6.71%) MongoDB
11 18 (6.36%) BigQuery
12 14 (4.95%) Apache Hive
13 13 (4.59%) DynamoDB
13 13 (4.59%) MySQL
13 13 (4.59%) Tableau
14 12 (4.24%) Amazon Athena
14 12 (4.24%) Amazon RDS
15 9 (3.18%) Amazon Aurora
15 9 (3.18%) Data Vault
Development Applications
1 43 (15.19%) Git
2 28 (9.89%) Jenkins
3 27 (9.54%) GitLab
4 14 (4.95%) JIRA
5 9 (3.18%) Selenium
6 6 (2.12%) Robot Framework
7 5 (1.77%) PowerDesigner
8 3 (1.06%) JUnit
8 3 (1.06%) Postman
8 3 (1.06%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.71%) ERwin
9 2 (0.71%) MLflow
10 1 (0.35%) Claude Code
General
1 96 (33.92%) Social Skills
2 70 (24.73%) Analytical Skills
2 70 (24.73%) Finance
3 41 (14.49%) Banking
4 24 (8.48%) Public Sector
5 13 (4.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 12 (4.24%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (3.53%) Investment Banking
8 7 (2.47%) Telecoms
9 6 (2.12%) Legal
10 5 (1.77%) Marketing
11 4 (1.41%) Retail
12 2 (0.71%) Aerospace
12 2 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.71%) Local Government
12 2 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.35%) Front Office
13 1 (0.35%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.35%) Military
Job Titles
1 90 (31.80%) Data Engineer
2 49 (17.31%) Architect
3 39 (13.78%) Senior
4 30 (10.60%) Developer
5 25 (8.83%) Lead
6 21 (7.42%) Data Architect
7 20 (7.07%) Data Scientist
8 18 (6.36%) Senior Data Engineer
9 16 (5.65%) Solutions Architect
10 15 (5.30%) Analyst
11 11 (3.89%) Big Data Engineer
11 11 (3.89%) Java Developer
12 9 (3.18%) Data Analyst
12 9 (3.18%) Python Engineer
13 8 (2.83%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
13 8 (2.83%) Java Engineer
13 8 (2.83%) Kafka Engineer
13 8 (2.83%) QA Engineer
13 8 (2.83%) Scala Engineer
14 7 (2.47%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (24.03%) Kafka
2 29 (10.25%) PySpark
3 21 (7.42%) Spring
4 19 (6.71%) REST
4 19 (6.71%) Spring Boot
5 10 (3.53%) CSS
5 10 (3.53%) HTML
5 10 (3.53%) Pandas
5 10 (3.53%) PyTorch
5 10 (3.53%) TensorFlow
6 8 (2.83%) Play Framework
6 8 (2.83%) React
7 6 (2.12%) Middleware
7 6 (2.12%) NumPy
8 5 (1.77%) Microsoft Graph
8 5 (1.77%) Node.js
8 5 (1.77%) RESTful
8 5 (1.77%) scikit-learn
9 4 (1.41%) Elastic Stack
9 4 (1.41%) Spark Streaming
Miscellaneous
1 38 (13.43%) Cloud Native
2 26 (9.19%) Distributed Systems
3 19 (6.71%) Product Ownership
4 17 (6.01%) Algorithms
5 14 (4.95%) Virtual Team
6 12 (4.24%) Data Structures
7 9 (3.18%) Clustering
7 9 (3.18%) Distributed Computing
8 7 (2.47%) Data Centre
8 7 (2.47%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (2.47%) Onboarding
9 5 (1.77%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (1.77%) Distributed Architecture
9 5 (1.77%) Reference Data
10 4 (1.41%) AI Agents
10 4 (1.41%) FMCG
10 4 (1.41%) Management Information System
11 3 (1.06%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 3 (1.06%) PKI
12 2 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 21 (7.42%) Linux
2 16 (5.65%) Unix
3 5 (1.77%) Windows
3 5 (1.77%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (47.00%) Data Pipeline
2 130 (45.94%) Analytics
3 121 (42.76%) CI/CD
4 116 (40.99%) Data Engineering
5 102 (36.04%) Agile
6 101 (35.69%) ETL
7 82 (28.98%) AI
7 82 (28.98%) Machine Learning
8 77 (27.21%) Problem-Solving
9 73 (25.80%) Data Governance
9 73 (25.80%) Data Modelling
10 72 (25.44%) Data Science
10 72 (25.44%) DevOps
11 49 (17.31%) Containerisation
12 45 (15.90%) Decision-Making
13 44 (15.55%) Scrum
14 42 (14.84%) Data Architecture
15 40 (14.13%) Business Intelligence
15 40 (14.13%) Visualisation
16 39 (13.78%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 162 (57.24%) Python
2 143 (50.53%) SQL
3 64 (22.61%) Java
4 33 (11.66%) Scala
5 26 (9.19%) R
6 12 (4.24%) Bash
6 12 (4.24%) JavaScript
7 8 (2.83%) PowerShell
8 5 (1.77%) SAS Macro
9 4 (1.41%) C#
9 4 (1.41%) TypeScript
10 3 (1.06%) Rust
10 3 (1.06%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.71%) Go
12 1 (0.35%) C
12 1 (0.35%) C++
12 1 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.35%) Korn
12 1 (0.35%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.35%) Perl
Qualifications
1 68 (24.03%) Security Cleared
2 55 (19.43%) SC Cleared
3 50 (17.67%) Degree
4 23 (8.13%) Master's Degree
5 17 (6.01%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (2.47%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (2.12%) AWS Certification
7 6 (2.12%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.77%) DV Cleared
9 3 (1.06%) IBM Certification
9 3 (1.06%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (1.06%) PhD
9 3 (1.06%) SnowPro
10 2 (0.71%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 2 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.71%) CISSP
10 2 (0.71%) MCITP
10 2 (0.71%) MCTS
10 2 (0.71%) Numerate Degree
10 2 (0.71%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (23.32%) Data Quality
2 22 (7.77%) QA
3 20 (7.07%) GDPR
4 7 (2.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (2.47%) NIST
5 4 (1.41%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.71%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.71%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.35%) ISO 13485
7 1 (0.35%) SLA
System Software
1 55 (19.43%) Docker
2 6 (2.12%) Active Directory
2 6 (2.12%) HDFS
3 3 (1.06%) BitLocker
3 3 (1.06%) Hyper-V
3 3 (1.06%) Microsoft App-V
3 3 (1.06%) Terminal Services
3 3 (1.06%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
3 3 (1.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.35%) Apache Flume
Systems Management
1 59 (20.85%) Kubernetes
2 39 (13.78%) Terraform
3 33 (11.66%) Grafana
4 15 (5.30%) Prometheus
5 9 (3.18%) Ansible
6 8 (2.83%) Kibana
7 4 (1.41%) Puppet
8 3 (1.06%) Nagios
8 3 (1.06%) vCenter Server
8 3 (1.06%) vMotion
9 1 (0.35%) Control-M
9 1 (0.35%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.35%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 54 (19.08%) Databricks
2 27 (9.54%) Microsoft
3 22 (7.77%) Google
4 12 (4.24%) Salesforce
4 12 (4.24%) Splunk
5 11 (3.89%) Oracle
6 9 (3.18%) Informatica
6 9 (3.18%) Talend
7 8 (2.83%) IBM
8 5 (1.77%) Ab Initio
8 5 (1.77%) Amplitude
8 5 (1.77%) Foundry
8 5 (1.77%) Teradata
9 4 (1.41%) HP
9 4 (1.41%) OpenAI
10 3 (1.06%) Citrix
10 3 (1.06%) Cloudera
10 3 (1.06%) Symantec
10 3 (1.06%) Tenable
10 3 (1.06%) VMware