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

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 437 285 198
Rank change year-on-year -152 -87 +37
Contract jobs citing Big Data 258 294 468
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.90% 1.23%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.11% 4.99% 6.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 177 210 312
10th Percentile £383 £402 £353
25th Percentile £440 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% -8.30% -0.04%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £725
90th Percentile £725 £771 £849
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £500 £563
% change year-on-year -1.00% -11.11% +2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 2 5
10th Percentile £61.00 £45.06 £27.25
25th Percentile £63.75 £54.22 £36.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £69.48 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +0.75% +46.27% -39.10%
75th Percentile £75.00 £84.74 £53.75
90th Percentile £90.00 £93.90 -
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 8,294 5,896 6,840
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.23% 18.01% 17.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,536 3,934 4,736
10th Percentile £358 £336 £350
25th Percentile £421 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £526
Median % change year-on-year - -4.90% -2.64%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £651
90th Percentile £700 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £476
% change year-on-year - -0.21% -4.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 266 94 85
10th Percentile £15.97 £22.86 £17.50
25th Percentile £23.05 £30.24 £20.75
Median hourly rate £39.50 £39.48 £33.93
Median % change year-on-year +0.05% +16.36% -36.58%
75th Percentile £60.75 £65.00 £59.95
90th Percentile £75.50 £80.00 £73.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.38 £35.49 £30.00
% change year-on-year +8.13% +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 9 September 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 9 September 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 9 September 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 -142 217 £541 -1.59% 436
London -105 133 £600 +4.08% 336
UK excluding London -121 91 £495 -1.00% 165
Work from Home -86 86 £505 -1.37% 137
North of England -51 34 £514 +4.05% 24
Yorkshire -17 21 £518 -5.91% 3
South East -81 16 £450 -21.74% 36
Midlands -58 14 £410 -2.50% 14
Scotland -24 13 £416 -13.56% 37
South West -43 11 £515 +14.44% 24
East Midlands -20 9 £495 +17.86% 3
North East -41 7 £425 - 2
North West -56 6 £600 +26.32% 19
West Midlands -49 5 £405 -14.10% 11
East of England -36 2 £540 +7.46% 15
Wales - 2 £475 - 1

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
1 135 (52.33%) Apache Spark
2 42 (16.28%) Apache
3 38 (14.73%) Apache Airflow
4 9 (3.49%) Confluence
5 6 (2.33%) JBoss
6 5 (1.94%) Jupyter
6 5 (1.94%) SAS
6 5 (1.94%) SharePoint
7 4 (1.55%) Palantir Foundry
8 3 (1.16%) CMS
8 3 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.78%) Apache Pig
9 2 (0.78%) Apache Superset
10 1 (0.39%) Luigi
10 1 (0.39%) nginx
Applications
1 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.78%) Endur
2 1 (0.39%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.39%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 124 (48.06%) AWS
2 102 (39.53%) Azure
3 81 (31.40%) GCP
4 44 (17.05%) Snowflake
5 31 (12.02%) Amazon S3
5 31 (12.02%) Power Platform
6 22 (8.53%) Amazon EMR
6 22 (8.53%) Azure DevOps
6 22 (8.53%) GitHub
7 21 (8.14%) AWS Lambda
8 17 (6.59%) Serverless
9 14 (5.43%) Amazon ECS
10 13 (5.04%) Azure Data Factory
11 12 (4.65%) dbt
11 12 (4.65%) GitHub Actions
11 12 (4.65%) PaaS
12 11 (4.26%) Amazon EKS
12 11 (4.26%) OpenShift
13 8 (3.10%) Azure Databricks
14 7 (2.71%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.33%) Kerberos
2 4 (1.55%) DNS
2 4 (1.55%) IPv4
2 4 (1.55%) IPv6
3 3 (1.16%) Broadband
3 3 (1.16%) DHCP
3 3 (1.16%) Firewall
3 3 (1.16%) SMTP
3 3 (1.16%) VPN
4 1 (0.39%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (21.32%) Hadoop
2 47 (18.22%) Data Warehouse
3 39 (15.12%) Data Lake
4 31 (12.02%) NoSQL
5 30 (11.63%) Power BI
6 28 (10.85%) PostgreSQL
7 23 (8.91%) Amazon Redshift
7 23 (8.91%) Apache Hive
8 20 (7.75%) BigQuery
9 16 (6.20%) MongoDB
10 14 (5.43%) Amazon Athena
11 13 (5.04%) Amazon RDS
11 13 (5.04%) Relational Database
12 12 (4.65%) DynamoDB
12 12 (4.65%) Metadata
12 12 (4.65%) Tableau
13 10 (3.88%) Elasticsearch
13 10 (3.88%) SQL Server
14 9 (3.49%) Amazon Aurora
15 8 (3.10%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 36 (13.95%) Git
2 34 (13.18%) GitLab
3 29 (11.24%) Jenkins
4 16 (6.20%) JIRA
5 7 (2.71%) Selenium
6 4 (1.55%) SonarQube
7 3 (1.16%) JUnit
7 3 (1.16%) PowerDesigner
7 3 (1.16%) Robot Framework
8 2 (0.78%) JMeter
8 2 (0.78%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.78%) MLflow
8 2 (0.78%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.39%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.39%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.39%) eggPlant
9 1 (0.39%) Gatling
General
1 81 (31.40%) Social Skills
2 65 (25.19%) Analytical Skills
3 50 (19.38%) Finance
4 28 (10.85%) Banking
5 21 (8.14%) Public Sector
6 10 (3.88%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (3.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (3.10%) Investment Banking
8 8 (3.10%) Marketing
9 7 (2.71%) Legal
9 7 (2.71%) Telecoms
10 3 (1.16%) Aerospace
10 3 (1.16%) Retail
11 2 (0.78%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (0.78%) Local Government
12 1 (0.39%) Dutch Language
12 1 (0.39%) French Language
12 1 (0.39%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.39%) Police
Job Titles
1 81 (31.40%) Data Engineer
2 41 (15.89%) Senior
3 40 (15.50%) Architect
4 24 (9.30%) Developer
5 17 (6.59%) Solutions Architect
6 15 (5.81%) Analyst
6 15 (5.81%) DevOps Engineer
7 14 (5.43%) Data Architect
8 13 (5.04%) Lead
8 13 (5.04%) Senior Data Engineer
9 11 (4.26%) Big Data Engineer
10 10 (3.88%) Databricks Data Engineer
10 10 (3.88%) Databricks Engineer
11 9 (3.49%) Azure Engineer
11 9 (3.49%) Data Analyst
11 9 (3.49%) Data Scientist
11 9 (3.49%) Java Developer
11 9 (3.49%) Python Engineer
11 9 (3.49%) Test Engineer
12 8 (3.10%) Scala Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (22.87%) Kafka
2 45 (17.44%) Terraform
3 30 (11.63%) PySpark
4 19 (7.36%) REST
5 15 (5.81%) Spring
6 14 (5.43%) Spring Boot
7 12 (4.65%) Pandas
8 10 (3.88%) Elastic Stack
9 9 (3.49%) Apache NiFi
10 8 (3.10%) CSS
10 8 (3.10%) HTML
10 8 (3.10%) Middleware
10 8 (3.10%) Play Framework
11 7 (2.71%) NumPy
12 6 (2.33%) PyTorch
12 6 (2.33%) TensorFlow
13 5 (1.94%) Langfuse
13 5 (1.94%) Microsoft Graph
13 5 (1.94%) RESTful
14 4 (1.55%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 36 (13.95%) Cloud Native
2 28 (10.85%) Distributed Systems
3 15 (5.81%) Product Ownership
4 14 (5.43%) Data Structures
5 12 (4.65%) Clustering
6 11 (4.26%) Onboarding
6 11 (4.26%) Virtual Team
7 9 (3.49%) Algorithms
8 7 (2.71%) Data Centre
9 6 (2.33%) Cyber Threat
9 6 (2.33%) Distributed Computing
10 5 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.94%) Distributed Architecture
11 4 (1.55%) FMCG
12 3 (1.16%) AI Agents
12 3 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
12 3 (1.16%) Management Information System
12 3 (1.16%) PKI
12 3 (1.16%) Social Media
13 2 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 27 (10.47%) Linux
2 10 (3.88%) Unix
3 6 (2.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.16%) Windows
4 3 (1.16%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 125 (48.45%) Data Pipeline
2 105 (40.70%) Analytics
3 97 (37.60%) CI/CD
4 96 (37.21%) Data Engineering
5 91 (35.27%) ETL
6 86 (33.33%) Agile
7 76 (29.46%) AI
8 68 (26.36%) Machine Learning
9 65 (25.19%) DevOps
10 60 (23.26%) Data Modelling
11 55 (21.32%) Problem-Solving
12 50 (19.38%) Data Governance
13 46 (17.83%) Containerisation
13 46 (17.83%) Data Science
14 38 (14.73%) Infrastructure as Code
14 38 (14.73%) Scrum
15 36 (13.95%) Business Intelligence
15 36 (13.95%) Data Analysis
16 35 (13.57%) Test Automation
16 35 (13.57%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 145 (56.20%) Python
2 123 (47.67%) SQL
3 60 (23.26%) Java
4 33 (12.79%) Scala
5 22 (8.53%) PowerShell
6 17 (6.59%) R
7 14 (5.43%) JavaScript
8 11 (4.26%) Bash
9 8 (3.10%) C#
10 3 (1.16%) Kusto Query Language
10 3 (1.16%) Rust
10 3 (1.16%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.78%) Go
11 2 (0.78%) Korn
11 2 (0.78%) SAS Macro
12 1 (0.39%) C
12 1 (0.39%) C++
12 1 (0.39%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.39%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.39%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 60 (23.26%) Security Cleared
2 46 (17.83%) SC Cleared
3 28 (10.85%) Degree
4 15 (5.81%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (4.26%) Master's Degree
6 10 (3.88%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (3.10%) DV Cleared
8 7 (2.71%) AWS Certification
9 6 (2.33%) Azure Certification
10 3 (1.16%) PhD
10 3 (1.16%) SnowPro
11 2 (0.78%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 2 (0.78%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 2 (0.78%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.78%) CISSP
12 1 (0.39%) AWS Certified Developer
12 1 (0.39%) MBA
12 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.39%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.39%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (20.93%) Data Quality
2 20 (7.75%) QA
3 15 (5.81%) GDPR
4 6 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (2.33%) NIST
5 3 (1.16%) SLA
6 2 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.78%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.39%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.39%) EMIR
7 1 (0.39%) EU AI Act
7 1 (0.39%) IFRS
7 1 (0.39%) IFRS 9
7 1 (0.39%) MiFID
7 1 (0.39%) NCSC
System Software
1 49 (18.99%) Docker
2 9 (3.49%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (2.33%) HDFS
4 5 (1.94%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.16%) BitLocker
5 3 (1.16%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.16%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (1.16%) Terminal Services
5 3 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.78%) Apache Flume
Systems Management
1 54 (20.93%) Kubernetes
2 32 (12.40%) Grafana
3 13 (5.04%) Prometheus
4 11 (4.26%) Ansible
4 11 (4.26%) Puppet
5 8 (3.10%) Kibana
6 6 (2.33%) Red Hat Satellite
7 5 (1.94%) Failover Clustering
8 3 (1.16%) Nagios
8 3 (1.16%) vCenter Server
8 3 (1.16%) vMotion
9 2 (0.78%) Control-M
10 1 (0.39%) HAProxy
10 1 (0.39%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.39%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 65 (25.19%) Databricks
2 28 (10.85%) Google
3 22 (8.53%) Microsoft
4 18 (6.98%) Splunk
5 14 (5.43%) Cloudera
5 14 (5.43%) Salesforce
6 9 (3.49%) Oracle
6 9 (3.49%) VMware
7 6 (2.33%) Cisco
7 6 (2.33%) Red Hat
8 5 (1.94%) Amplitude
8 5 (1.94%) Foundry
8 5 (1.94%) IBM
8 5 (1.94%) Informatica
9 4 (1.55%) HP
9 4 (1.55%) Palantir
9 4 (1.55%) Talend
9 4 (1.55%) Tenable
10 3 (1.16%) Citrix
10 3 (1.16%) Teradata