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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 461 281 196
Rank change year-on-year -180 -85 +41
Contract jobs citing Big Data 231 285 467
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.42% 0.86% 1.23%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 2.85% 4.72% 6.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 166 204 302
10th Percentile £360 £380 £353
25th Percentile £436 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £572
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -8.14% -4.75%
75th Percentile £638 £645 £701
90th Percentile £722 £737 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £500 £550
% change year-on-year -7.50% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 2 5
10th Percentile £50.75 £45.06 £27.25
25th Percentile £57.44 £54.22 £36.25
Median hourly rate £63.70 £69.48 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.32% +46.27% -39.10%
75th Percentile £71.37 £84.74 £53.75
90th Percentile £72.83 £93.90 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £59.95 £38.96 -
% change year-on-year +53.88% - -

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 8,118 6,035 6,833
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.86% 18.18% 17.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,403 4,031 4,626
10th Percentile £353 £340 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £650
90th Percentile £713 £738 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £482
% change year-on-year - -1.45% -3.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 285 90 92
10th Percentile £16.70 £21.02 £17.50
25th Percentile £23.00 £29.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £41.71 £39.48 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +5.65% +12.80% -33.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £80.00 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £35.49 £30.00
% change year-on-year +17.53% +18.30% -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 4 October 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 4 October 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 4 October 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 -172 194 £528 +0.48% 631
London -117 122 £600 +9.09% 363
UK excluding London -113 84 £463 -7.50% 389
Work from Home -105 73 £500 - 378
North of England -48 33 £500 +2.56% 70
Yorkshire -23 21 £500 - 19
Scotland -21 15 £402 -19.60% 67
South West -26 14 £478 -6.83% 45
Midlands -53 11 £405 -3.57% 46
South East -72 10 £433 -21.36% 66
North East -34 7 £425 - 14
East Midlands -14 6 £400 -4.88% 21
North West -47 5 £513 +12.64% 37
West Midlands -50 5 £405 -7.74% 25
Wales - 2 £475 - 26
East of England -32 1 £505 - 43

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
1 133 (57.58%) Apache Spark
2 48 (20.78%) Apache
3 38 (16.45%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (3.03%) Confluence
5 6 (2.60%) JBoss
6 5 (2.16%) Jupyter
6 5 (2.16%) SharePoint
7 3 (1.30%) Apache Superset
7 3 (1.30%) CMS
7 3 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (1.30%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (1.30%) SAS
8 2 (0.87%) Apache Pig
8 2 (0.87%) nginx
9 1 (0.43%) Luigi
9 1 (0.43%) MQSeries
Applications
1 3 (1.30%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.87%) Endur
2 1 (0.43%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.43%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 103 (44.59%) AWS
2 89 (38.53%) Azure
3 62 (26.84%) GCP
4 40 (17.32%) Snowflake
5 33 (14.29%) Amazon S3
6 27 (11.69%) Power Platform
7 22 (9.52%) Amazon EMR
8 21 (9.09%) Azure DevOps
9 18 (7.79%) GitHub
10 17 (7.36%) AWS Lambda
11 15 (6.49%) Azure Data Factory
11 15 (6.49%) Serverless
12 14 (6.06%) Amazon ECS
12 14 (6.06%) Azure Databricks
13 13 (5.63%) OpenShift
13 13 (5.63%) PaaS
14 11 (4.76%) Amazon EKS
15 9 (3.90%) GitHub Actions
16 8 (3.46%) Azure AKS
16 8 (3.46%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.60%) DNS
1 6 (2.60%) Kerberos
2 4 (1.73%) Firewall
3 3 (1.30%) Broadband
3 3 (1.30%) DHCP
3 3 (1.30%) Internet
3 3 (1.30%) SMTP
3 3 (1.30%) VPN
4 1 (0.43%) Network Security
4 1 (0.43%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (22.51%) Hadoop
2 39 (16.88%) Data Warehouse
3 38 (16.45%) Data Lake
4 27 (11.69%) Power BI
5 26 (11.26%) NoSQL
5 26 (11.26%) PostgreSQL
6 24 (10.39%) Apache Hive
7 20 (8.66%) Amazon Redshift
8 18 (7.79%) BigQuery
9 16 (6.93%) Metadata
9 16 (6.93%) MongoDB
10 13 (5.63%) Amazon RDS
10 13 (5.63%) Elasticsearch
11 12 (5.19%) Amazon Athena
11 12 (5.19%) Tableau
12 9 (3.90%) Relational Database
13 8 (3.46%) Amazon Aurora
14 7 (3.03%) DynamoDB
14 7 (3.03%) HBase
14 7 (3.03%) Presto
Development Applications
1 36 (15.58%) GitLab
2 35 (15.15%) Git
3 27 (11.69%) Jenkins
4 13 (5.63%) JIRA
5 5 (2.16%) Selenium
6 4 (1.73%) SonarQube
7 3 (1.30%) JMeter
7 3 (1.30%) JUnit
7 3 (1.30%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.87%) eggPlant
8 2 (0.87%) Gatling
8 2 (0.87%) PowerDesigner
8 2 (0.87%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.43%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.43%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.43%) MLflow
General
1 69 (29.87%) Social Skills
2 49 (21.21%) Analytical Skills
3 42 (18.18%) Finance
4 26 (11.26%) Banking
5 20 (8.66%) Public Sector
6 9 (3.90%) Investment Banking
7 8 (3.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (3.03%) Marketing
9 6 (2.60%) Aerospace
10 5 (2.16%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.30%) Legal
11 3 (1.30%) Retail
11 3 (1.30%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.87%) Financial Institution
12 2 (0.87%) Local Government
13 1 (0.43%) Automotive
13 1 (0.43%) Corporate Banking
13 1 (0.43%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.43%) Police
13 1 (0.43%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 79 (34.20%) Data Engineer
2 42 (18.18%) Senior
3 29 (12.55%) Architect
4 19 (8.23%) Senior Data Engineer
5 15 (6.49%) Analyst
5 15 (6.49%) DevOps Engineer
6 14 (6.06%) Developer
7 13 (5.63%) Solutions Architect
8 12 (5.19%) Big Data Engineer
8 12 (5.19%) Data Architect
9 11 (4.76%) Azure Engineer
9 11 (4.76%) Data Analyst
10 10 (4.33%) Databricks Engineer
10 10 (4.33%) Python Engineer
11 9 (3.90%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 9 (3.90%) Databricks Data Engineer
12 8 (3.46%) Lead
12 8 (3.46%) Scala Engineer
13 7 (3.03%) Data Integration Engineer
13 7 (3.03%) Kafka Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (21.21%) Kafka
2 48 (20.78%) Terraform
3 29 (12.55%) PySpark
4 17 (7.36%) REST
5 15 (6.49%) Apache NiFi
6 11 (4.76%) Spring
6 11 (4.76%) Spring Boot
7 8 (3.46%) CSS
7 8 (3.46%) Elastic Stack
7 8 (3.46%) HTML
7 8 (3.46%) Pandas
7 8 (3.46%) Play Framework
8 6 (2.60%) .NET
8 6 (2.60%) NumPy
8 6 (2.60%) PyTorch
8 6 (2.60%) TensorFlow
9 5 (2.16%) Langfuse
9 5 (2.16%) Microsoft Graph
9 5 (2.16%) Middleware
9 5 (2.16%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 31 (13.42%) Cloud Native
2 23 (9.96%) Distributed Systems
3 14 (6.06%) Data Structures
3 14 (6.06%) Onboarding
3 14 (6.06%) Product Ownership
4 12 (5.19%) Clustering
4 12 (5.19%) Virtual Team
5 11 (4.76%) Algorithms
6 6 (2.60%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (2.16%) Distributed Architecture
8 4 (1.73%) Cyber Threat
8 4 (1.73%) Distributed Computing
9 3 (1.30%) AI Agents
9 3 (1.30%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.30%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (1.30%) PKI
9 3 (1.30%) Social Media
10 2 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
10 2 (0.87%) Management Information System
10 2 (0.87%) Media Streaming
Operating Systems
1 28 (12.12%) Linux
2 8 (3.46%) Unix
3 6 (2.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (1.73%) Windows
5 3 (1.30%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.43%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (50.65%) Data Pipeline
2 93 (40.26%) Analytics
3 90 (38.96%) CI/CD
4 89 (38.53%) ETL
5 86 (37.23%) Data Engineering
6 82 (35.50%) AI
7 72 (31.17%) Agile
8 65 (28.14%) DevOps
9 64 (27.71%) Machine Learning
10 53 (22.94%) Data Modelling
11 43 (18.61%) Data Science
12 42 (18.18%) Problem-Solving
13 39 (16.88%) Containerisation
14 38 (16.45%) Infrastructure as Code
15 36 (15.58%) Test Automation
15 36 (15.58%) Validation
16 34 (14.72%) Data Analysis
16 34 (14.72%) Data Governance
17 33 (14.29%) Scrum
18 32 (13.85%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 136 (58.87%) Python
2 120 (51.95%) SQL
3 55 (23.81%) Java
4 29 (12.55%) Scala
5 22 (9.52%) PowerShell
6 15 (6.49%) JavaScript
7 11 (4.76%) Bash
8 10 (4.33%) C#
8 10 (4.33%) R
9 4 (1.73%) Kusto Query Language
10 3 (1.30%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.87%) Go
11 2 (0.87%) Korn
12 1 (0.43%) Bicep
12 1 (0.43%) C
12 1 (0.43%) C++
12 1 (0.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.43%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.43%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 62 (26.84%) Security Cleared
2 43 (18.61%) SC Cleared
3 31 (13.42%) Degree
4 14 (6.06%) Computer Science Degree
5 13 (5.63%) DV Cleared
6 10 (4.33%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (4.33%) Master's Degree
7 4 (1.73%) AWS Certification
7 4 (1.73%) Azure Certification
8 3 (1.30%) PhD
9 2 (0.87%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 2 (0.87%) SnowPro
10 1 (0.43%) FFIEC
10 1 (0.43%) ISEB
10 1 (0.43%) MBA
10 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.43%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.43%) PMP
10 1 (0.43%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (19.48%) Data Quality
2 16 (6.93%) QA
3 8 (3.46%) GDPR
4 3 (1.30%) Actionable Recommendations
4 3 (1.30%) SLA
5 1 (0.43%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.43%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 1 (0.43%) EMIR
5 1 (0.43%) EU AI Act
5 1 (0.43%) GLBA
5 1 (0.43%) IFRS
5 1 (0.43%) IFRS 9
5 1 (0.43%) MiFID
5 1 (0.43%) NCSC
5 1 (0.43%) NIST
5 1 (0.43%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.43%) PSD2
5 1 (0.43%) SEPA
System Software
1 42 (18.18%) Docker
2 9 (3.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (3.03%) HDFS
4 5 (2.16%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.30%) BitLocker
5 3 (1.30%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.30%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (1.30%) Terminal Services
5 3 (1.30%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.30%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.87%) Apache Flume
Systems Management
1 48 (20.78%) Kubernetes
2 27 (11.69%) Grafana
3 16 (6.93%) Ansible
4 12 (5.19%) Puppet
5 8 (3.46%) Kibana
5 8 (3.46%) Prometheus
6 6 (2.60%) Red Hat Satellite
7 5 (2.16%) Failover Clustering
8 3 (1.30%) Nagios
8 3 (1.30%) vCenter Server
8 3 (1.30%) vMotion
9 1 (0.43%) Control-M
9 1 (0.43%) HAProxy
9 1 (0.43%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 64 (27.71%) Databricks
2 22 (9.52%) Google
3 19 (8.23%) Microsoft
4 18 (7.79%) Splunk
5 15 (6.49%) Cloudera
6 10 (4.33%) Oracle
7 9 (3.90%) VMware
8 8 (3.46%) Salesforce
9 7 (3.03%) Red Hat
10 5 (2.16%) Amplitude
10 5 (2.16%) Cisco
10 5 (2.16%) IBM
10 5 (2.16%) Informatica
11 4 (1.73%) Foundry
11 4 (1.73%) Talend
11 4 (1.73%) Tenable
12 3 (1.30%) Dynatrace
12 3 (1.30%) New Relic
12 3 (1.30%) Palantir
12 3 (1.30%) SAP