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

6 months to
22 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 380 247 219
Rank change year-on-year -133 -28 +32
Contract jobs citing Big Data 279 328 473
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.55% 1.10% 1.08%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.61% 5.91% 6.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 186 226 351
10th Percentile £355 £409 £363
25th Percentile £418 £471 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £565 £575
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% -1.70% -4.17%
75th Percentile £649 £675 £741
90th Percentile £781 £744 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £505 £515 £515
% change year-on-year -1.94% - -10.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 3 10
10th Percentile £53.88 £42.42 £18.20
25th Percentile £64.00 £47.61 £19.90
Median hourly rate £70.00 £57.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +21.74% +43.75% -48.72%
75th Percentile £75.00 £79.38 £46.56
90th Percentile £90.00 £91.75 £51.13
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 7,734 5,550 7,544
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.24% 18.53% 17.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,149 3,773 5,385
10th Percentile £350 £358 £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 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £760 £778
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 250 98 156
10th Percentile £14.85 £19.49 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.05 £25.88 £20.77
Median hourly rate £39.50 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.86% -12.50% -30.43%
75th Percentile £67.75 £65.63 £54.34
90th Percentile £77.50 £79.09 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £31.85 £33.47
% change year-on-year +20.11% -4.84% -39.15%

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 22 June 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 22 June 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 22 June 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 -163 212 £550 -3.34% 85
London -105 130 £586 -0.02% 51
UK excluding London -119 100 £505 -1.94% 48
Work from Home -50 95 £495 -5.71% 25
North of England -65 31 £525 -11.39% 9
Scotland +12 23 £380 -16.44% 1
South East -80 21 £538 -2.27% 15
North East -29 12 £450 -2.70% 2
Yorkshire -49 12 £569 -5.21% 1
Midlands -70 10 £540 +8.00% 2
South West -31 8 £525 -18.45% 15
East Midlands -25 7 £505 +23.17% 2
North West -43 7 - - 6
Wales - 5 £388 -
East of England -38 3 £540 -16.92% 2
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
1 145 (51.97%) Apache Spark
2 42 (15.05%) Apache Airflow
3 40 (14.34%) Apache
4 8 (2.87%) Confluence
5 6 (2.15%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (2.15%) SAS
5 6 (2.15%) SharePoint
6 4 (1.43%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.72%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.36%) Apache Pig
8 1 (0.36%) Camunda
Applications
1 4 (1.43%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.72%) Endur
2 1 (0.36%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 141 (50.54%) AWS
2 116 (41.58%) Azure
3 86 (30.82%) GCP
4 43 (15.41%) Snowflake
5 33 (11.83%) Power Platform
6 30 (10.75%) Amazon S3
7 25 (8.96%) GitHub
8 23 (8.24%) Serverless
9 22 (7.89%) AWS Lambda
10 20 (7.17%) Amazon EMR
10 20 (7.17%) Azure DevOps
11 14 (5.02%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (5.02%) OpenShift
12 13 (4.66%) dbt
13 12 (4.30%) Amazon ECS
14 10 (3.58%) Azure Data Factory
15 8 (2.87%) Amazon EKS
15 8 (2.87%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 7 (2.51%) PaaS
17 6 (2.15%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.79%) IPv4
1 5 (1.79%) IPv6
2 3 (1.08%) DHCP
2 3 (1.08%) DNS
2 3 (1.08%) Firewall
2 3 (1.08%) SMTP
2 3 (1.08%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (26.16%) Hadoop
2 59 (21.15%) Data Warehouse
3 46 (16.49%) NoSQL
4 38 (13.62%) PostgreSQL
5 35 (12.54%) Data Lake
6 28 (10.04%) Power BI
7 22 (7.89%) Relational Database
8 21 (7.53%) Metadata
8 21 (7.53%) SQL Server
9 18 (6.45%) Amazon Redshift
9 18 (6.45%) MongoDB
10 17 (6.09%) BigQuery
11 15 (5.38%) Tableau
12 13 (4.66%) DynamoDB
13 12 (4.30%) Apache Hive
13 12 (4.30%) MySQL
14 11 (3.94%) Amazon Athena
14 11 (3.94%) Amazon RDS
14 11 (3.94%) Elasticsearch
15 9 (3.23%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 43 (15.41%) Git
2 28 (10.04%) Jenkins
3 27 (9.68%) GitLab
4 16 (5.73%) JIRA
5 9 (3.23%) Selenium
6 6 (2.15%) Robot Framework
7 5 (1.79%) PowerDesigner
8 3 (1.08%) JUnit
8 3 (1.08%) Postman
8 3 (1.08%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.72%) ERwin
9 2 (0.72%) MLflow
10 1 (0.36%) Claude Code
General
1 96 (34.41%) Social Skills
2 75 (26.88%) Finance
3 69 (24.73%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (13.98%) Banking
5 21 (7.53%) Public Sector
6 13 (4.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (4.30%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (3.58%) Investment Banking
9 7 (2.51%) Telecoms
10 5 (1.79%) Legal
10 5 (1.79%) Marketing
11 4 (1.43%) Retail
12 2 (0.72%) Aerospace
12 2 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.72%) Local Government
12 2 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.36%) Agriculture
13 1 (0.36%) Front Office
13 1 (0.36%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 85 (30.47%) Data Engineer
2 43 (15.41%) Architect
3 34 (12.19%) Senior
4 29 (10.39%) Developer
5 28 (10.04%) Lead
6 22 (7.89%) Analyst
7 20 (7.17%) Data Scientist
8 18 (6.45%) Data Architect
9 15 (5.38%) Data Analyst
9 15 (5.38%) Senior Data Engineer
10 14 (5.02%) Solutions Architect
11 11 (3.94%) Java Developer
12 10 (3.58%) Big Data Engineer
13 9 (3.23%) Java Engineer
14 8 (2.87%) Kafka Engineer
14 8 (2.87%) Python Engineer
14 8 (2.87%) QA Engineer
14 8 (2.87%) Scala Engineer
15 7 (2.51%) Data Integration Engineer
15 7 (2.51%) Snowflake Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (22.22%) Kafka
2 27 (9.68%) PySpark
3 21 (7.53%) Spring
4 19 (6.81%) Spring Boot
5 17 (6.09%) REST
6 10 (3.58%) CSS
6 10 (3.58%) HTML
7 9 (3.23%) Pandas
8 8 (2.87%) Play Framework
8 8 (2.87%) PyTorch
8 8 (2.87%) React
8 8 (2.87%) TensorFlow
9 6 (2.15%) Middleware
9 6 (2.15%) NumPy
10 5 (1.79%) Node.js
10 5 (1.79%) RESTful
10 5 (1.79%) scikit-learn
11 4 (1.43%) AngularJS
11 4 (1.43%) Elastic Stack
11 4 (1.43%) Spark Streaming
Miscellaneous
1 35 (12.54%) Cloud Native
2 25 (8.96%) Distributed Systems
3 19 (6.81%) Product Ownership
4 17 (6.09%) Algorithms
5 12 (4.30%) Data Structures
5 12 (4.30%) Virtual Team
6 9 (3.23%) Clustering
7 8 (2.87%) Distributed Computing
8 7 (2.51%) Data Centre
8 7 (2.51%) Onboarding
9 6 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.79%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (1.79%) Distributed Architecture
10 5 (1.79%) Reference Data
11 4 (1.43%) FMCG
11 4 (1.43%) Management Information System
12 3 (1.08%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 3 (1.08%) PKI
13 2 (0.72%) AI Agents
13 2 (0.72%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 20 (7.17%) Linux
2 16 (5.73%) Unix
3 5 (1.79%) Windows
3 5 (1.79%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.36%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (46.95%) Analytics
2 125 (44.80%) Data Pipeline
3 119 (42.65%) CI/CD
4 111 (39.78%) Data Engineering
5 102 (36.56%) Agile
6 99 (35.48%) ETL
7 78 (27.96%) AI
7 78 (27.96%) Machine Learning
8 75 (26.88%) Problem-Solving
9 72 (25.81%) Data Governance
10 71 (25.45%) Data Science
10 71 (25.45%) DevOps
11 70 (25.09%) Data Modelling
12 46 (16.49%) Containerisation
13 44 (15.77%) Scrum
14 43 (15.41%) Decision-Making
15 40 (14.34%) Business Intelligence
15 40 (14.34%) Visualisation
16 39 (13.98%) Data Architecture
17 37 (13.26%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 159 (56.99%) Python
2 145 (51.97%) SQL
3 62 (22.22%) Java
4 32 (11.47%) Scala
5 29 (10.39%) R
6 11 (3.94%) Bash
6 11 (3.94%) JavaScript
7 6 (2.15%) PowerShell
8 5 (1.79%) SAS Macro
9 4 (1.43%) TypeScript
10 3 (1.08%) Rust
10 3 (1.08%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.72%) C#
12 1 (0.36%) C
12 1 (0.36%) C++
12 1 (0.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.36%) Korn
12 1 (0.36%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.36%) Perl
Qualifications
1 64 (22.94%) Security Cleared
2 52 (18.64%) SC Cleared
3 48 (17.20%) Degree
4 20 (7.17%) Master's Degree
5 16 (5.73%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (2.15%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.79%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.79%) DV Cleared
9 3 (1.08%) IBM Certification
9 3 (1.08%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (1.08%) SnowPro
10 2 (0.72%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 2 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.72%) CISSP
10 2 (0.72%) MCITP
10 2 (0.72%) MCTS
10 2 (0.72%) Numerate Degree
10 2 (0.72%) TOGAF Certification
11 1 (0.36%) AWS Certified Developer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (22.94%) Data Quality
2 22 (7.89%) QA
3 17 (6.09%) GDPR
4 7 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (2.51%) NIST
5 6 (2.15%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.72%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.36%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 55 (19.71%) Docker
2 6 (2.15%) Active Directory
2 6 (2.15%) HDFS
3 3 (1.08%) BitLocker
3 3 (1.08%) Hyper-V
3 3 (1.08%) Microsoft App-V
3 3 (1.08%) Terminal Services
3 3 (1.08%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (1.08%) VMware ESXi
3 3 (1.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.36%) Apache Flume
Systems Management
1 59 (21.15%) Kubernetes
2 38 (13.62%) Terraform
3 33 (11.83%) Grafana
4 15 (5.38%) Prometheus
5 9 (3.23%) Ansible
6 8 (2.87%) Kibana
7 4 (1.43%) Puppet
8 3 (1.08%) Nagios
8 3 (1.08%) vCenter Server
8 3 (1.08%) vMotion
9 1 (0.36%) Control-M
9 1 (0.36%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.36%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 51 (18.28%) Databricks
2 25 (8.96%) Microsoft
3 20 (7.17%) Google
4 12 (4.30%) Splunk
5 11 (3.94%) Oracle
5 11 (3.94%) Salesforce
6 9 (3.23%) Informatica
6 9 (3.23%) Talend
7 8 (2.87%) IBM
8 5 (1.79%) Ab Initio
8 5 (1.79%) Teradata
9 4 (1.43%) Amplitude
9 4 (1.43%) Foundry
9 4 (1.43%) HP
10 3 (1.08%) Citrix
10 3 (1.08%) Guidewire
10 3 (1.08%) OpenAI
10 3 (1.08%) Symantec
10 3 (1.08%) Tenable
10 3 (1.08%) VMware