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

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 434 289 211
Rank change year-on-year -145 -78 +34
Contract jobs citing Big Data 252 301 466
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.91% 1.21%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.09% 5.07% 6.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 173 214 314
10th Percentile £365 £405 £356
25th Percentile £440 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £638 £675 £725
90th Percentile £725 £750 £846
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £550
% change year-on-year - -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 2 6
10th Percentile £61.15 £45.06 £28.75
25th Percentile £64.38 £54.22 £37.50
Median hourly rate £70.00 £69.48 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.75% +54.40% -42.31%
75th Percentile £75.00 £84.74 £52.50
90th Percentile £88.50 £93.90 £53.75
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 8,165 5,939 6,990
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.19% 18.02% 18.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,436 3,981 4,881
10th Percentile £358 £340 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
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 255 94 100
10th Percentile £15.82 £21.22 £14.93
25th Percentile £23.00 £29.02 £19.77
Median hourly rate £38.25 £38.85 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.53% +19.52% -40.91%
75th Percentile £60.75 £64.94 £55.63
90th Percentile £75.00 £79.63 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £34.19 £30.00
% change year-on-year +11.87% +13.97% -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 31 August 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 31 August 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 31 August 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 -150 212 £544 -1.14% 204
London -96 131 £598 +2.05% 151
UK excluding London -106 87 £500 - 87
Work from Home -63 84 £504 -1.61% 60
North of England -51 33 £518 +3.50% 13
Yorkshire -29 19 £534 -2.95% 5
South East -85 16 £463 -19.57% 15
Midlands -58 14 £410 -2.50% 10
Scotland -18 12 £416 -13.56% 17
East Midlands -19 9 £495 +17.86%
South West -39 9 £515 +14.44% 19
North East -31 7 £425 -
North West -50 7 £600 +26.32% 8
West Midlands -47 5 £405 -14.10% 10
East of England -29 2 £540 +7.46% 7
Wales - 2 £475 -

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
1 124 (49.21%) Apache Spark
2 37 (14.68%) Apache
3 35 (13.89%) Apache Airflow
4 9 (3.57%) Confluence
5 6 (2.38%) JBoss
6 5 (1.98%) Jupyter
6 5 (1.98%) SAS
6 5 (1.98%) SharePoint
7 4 (1.59%) 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
1 122 (48.41%) AWS
2 95 (37.70%) Azure
3 77 (30.56%) GCP
4 41 (16.27%) Snowflake
5 32 (12.70%) Amazon S3
6 31 (12.30%) Power Platform
7 23 (9.13%) GitHub
8 22 (8.73%) Amazon EMR
9 21 (8.33%) AWS Lambda
10 19 (7.54%) Azure DevOps
11 17 (6.75%) Serverless
12 14 (5.56%) Amazon ECS
13 12 (4.76%) dbt
13 12 (4.76%) GitHub Actions
14 11 (4.37%) Amazon EKS
15 10 (3.97%) OpenShift
15 10 (3.97%) PaaS
16 9 (3.57%) Azure Data Factory
17 7 (2.78%) Amazon EC2
17 7 (2.78%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.38%) 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 51 (20.24%) Hadoop
2 44 (17.46%) Data Warehouse
3 39 (15.48%) Data Lake
4 30 (11.90%) NoSQL
4 30 (11.90%) Power BI
5 27 (10.71%) PostgreSQL
6 22 (8.73%) Amazon Redshift
7 20 (7.94%) Apache Hive
8 18 (7.14%) BigQuery
9 14 (5.56%) Amazon Athena
9 14 (5.56%) MongoDB
10 13 (5.16%) Amazon RDS
10 13 (5.16%) DynamoDB
10 13 (5.16%) Relational Database
11 12 (4.76%) Tableau
12 11 (4.37%) Metadata
12 11 (4.37%) SQL Server
13 9 (3.57%) Amazon Aurora
13 9 (3.57%) Elasticsearch
14 8 (3.17%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 35 (13.89%) Git
2 33 (13.10%) GitLab
3 28 (11.11%) Jenkins
4 16 (6.35%) JIRA
5 7 (2.78%) Selenium
6 4 (1.59%) 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
9 1 (0.40%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.40%) eggPlant
9 1 (0.40%) Gatling
9 1 (0.40%) TeamCity
General
1 84 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 67 (26.59%) Analytical Skills
3 52 (20.63%) Finance
4 27 (10.71%) Banking
5 22 (8.73%) Public Sector
6 10 (3.97%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (3.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (3.17%) Investment Banking
8 8 (3.17%) Telecoms
9 7 (2.78%) Legal
9 7 (2.78%) Marketing
10 3 (1.19%) Aerospace
10 3 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
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%) Police
Job Titles
1 77 (30.56%) Data Engineer
2 41 (16.27%) Architect
2 41 (16.27%) Senior
3 24 (9.52%) Developer
4 18 (7.14%) Solutions Architect
5 15 (5.95%) Analyst
6 14 (5.56%) Data Architect
6 14 (5.56%) Lead
7 12 (4.76%) DevOps Engineer
7 12 (4.76%) Senior Data Engineer
8 11 (4.37%) Big Data Engineer
9 9 (3.57%) Data Analyst
9 9 (3.57%) Data Scientist
9 9 (3.57%) Java Developer
9 9 (3.57%) Test Engineer
10 8 (3.17%) Kafka Engineer
10 8 (3.17%) Python Engineer
10 8 (3.17%) Scala Engineer
11 7 (2.78%) Databricks Data Engineer
11 7 (2.78%) Databricks Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (23.02%) Kafka
2 41 (16.27%) Terraform
3 28 (11.11%) PySpark
4 19 (7.54%) REST
5 15 (5.95%) Spring
6 14 (5.56%) Spring Boot
7 12 (4.76%) Pandas
8 8 (3.17%) Apache NiFi
8 8 (3.17%) CSS
8 8 (3.17%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (3.17%) HTML
8 8 (3.17%) Middleware
8 8 (3.17%) Play Framework
9 7 (2.78%) NumPy
10 6 (2.38%) PyTorch
10 6 (2.38%) TensorFlow
11 5 (1.98%) Langfuse
11 5 (1.98%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (1.98%) RESTful
12 4 (1.59%) React
Miscellaneous
1 34 (13.49%) Cloud Native
2 28 (11.11%) Distributed Systems
3 15 (5.95%) Product Ownership
4 14 (5.56%) Clustering
5 12 (4.76%) Data Structures
6 11 (4.37%) Onboarding
6 11 (4.37%) Virtual Team
7 7 (2.78%) Algorithms
7 7 (2.78%) Data Centre
8 6 (2.38%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.98%) Distributed Architecture
9 5 (1.98%) Distributed Computing
10 4 (1.59%) FMCG
11 3 (1.19%) AI Agents
11 3 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (1.19%) Management Information System
11 3 (1.19%) PKI
11 3 (1.19%) Social Media
12 2 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 26 (10.32%) Linux
2 10 (3.97%) Unix
3 6 (2.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (1.98%) Windows
4 5 (1.98%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.40%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (47.62%) Data Pipeline
2 102 (40.48%) Analytics
3 94 (37.30%) CI/CD
4 92 (36.51%) Data Engineering
5 87 (34.52%) Agile
6 84 (33.33%) ETL
7 74 (29.37%) AI
8 64 (25.40%) Machine Learning
9 60 (23.81%) DevOps
10 57 (22.62%) Problem-Solving
11 54 (21.43%) Data Modelling
12 51 (20.24%) Data Governance
13 44 (17.46%) Containerisation
14 43 (17.06%) Data Science
15 37 (14.68%) Scrum
16 36 (14.29%) Business Intelligence
17 35 (13.89%) Validation
18 34 (13.49%) Data Analysis
19 33 (13.10%) Software Engineering
19 33 (13.10%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 138 (54.76%) Python
2 121 (48.02%) SQL
3 58 (23.02%) Java
4 31 (12.30%) Scala
5 20 (7.94%) PowerShell
6 17 (6.75%) R
7 13 (5.16%) JavaScript
8 11 (4.37%) Bash
9 6 (2.38%) 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 59 (23.41%) Security Cleared
2 46 (18.25%) SC Cleared
3 27 (10.71%) Degree
4 15 (5.95%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (4.37%) Master's Degree
6 10 (3.97%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (3.17%) AWS Certification
8 7 (2.78%) Azure Certification
9 6 (2.38%) DV Cleared
10 3 (1.19%) Microsoft Certification
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
11 2 (0.79%) MCITP
11 2 (0.79%) MCTS
12 1 (0.40%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.40%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (19.84%) Data Quality
2 20 (7.94%) QA
3 14 (5.56%) GDPR
4 7 (2.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (2.78%) 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 (19.84%) Docker
2 9 (3.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (2.78%) Active Directory
4 6 (2.38%) HDFS
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 53 (21.03%) Kubernetes
2 32 (12.70%) Grafana
3 13 (5.16%) Prometheus
4 11 (4.37%) Puppet
5 10 (3.97%) Ansible
6 8 (3.17%) Kibana
7 6 (2.38%) 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 59 (23.41%) Databricks
2 26 (10.32%) Google
3 22 (8.73%) Microsoft
4 18 (7.14%) Splunk
5 12 (4.76%) Cloudera
5 12 (4.76%) Salesforce
6 9 (3.57%) Oracle
6 9 (3.57%) VMware
7 6 (2.38%) Cisco
7 6 (2.38%) Red Hat
8 5 (1.98%) Amplitude
8 5 (1.98%) Foundry
8 5 (1.98%) IBM
8 5 (1.98%) Informatica
9 4 (1.59%) HP
9 4 (1.59%) Palantir
9 4 (1.59%) Tenable
10 3 (1.19%) Citrix
10 3 (1.19%) Symantec
10 3 (1.19%) Teradata