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 23 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 362 248 230
Rank change year-on-year -114 -18 -56
Contract jobs citing Big Data 234 324 435
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.62% 1.02% 1.00%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 3.71% 5.58% 6.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 185 197 286
10th Percentile £318 £368 £400
25th Percentile £400 £454 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £565 £550
Median % change year-on-year -11.50% +2.73% -8.33%
75th Percentile £619 £676 £700
90th Percentile £779 £740 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £449 £638 £510
% change year-on-year -29.65% +25.00% -11.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 24
10th Percentile - £30.25 £25.64
25th Percentile - £43.75 £41.88
Median hourly rate - £52.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year - +13.69% +5.84%
75th Percentile - £53.75 £72.00
90th Percentile - - £76.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £46.18

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 6,307 5,811 7,114
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.63% 18.34% 16.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,358 3,828 5,046
10th Percentile £335 £350 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £700 £763 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 105 84 170
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.26 £15.99
25th Percentile £29.00 £24.25 £21.64
Median hourly rate £45.00 £30.40 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +48.03% -28.47% -25.26%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.56 £62.50
90th Percentile £84.60 £71.43 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £49.36 £27.50 £40.25
% change year-on-year +79.49% -31.68% -26.82%

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 23 January 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
Top 17 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 23 January 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 -118 200 £500 -13.04% 309
London -65 135 £550 - 47
UK excluding London -90 70 £449 -29.65% 301
Work from Home -18 68 £494 -5.59% 96
North of England -57 16 £448 -33.70% 57
South East -36 15 £438 -20.09% 88
Midlands -38 14 £420 -17.73% 36
Scotland +8 13 £500 +28.21% 14
North West -21 13 £473 -30.00% 26
East Midlands -18 11 £420 - 28
South West -23 9 £525 -21.35% 42
West Midlands -45 3 £447 -12.44% 8
Wales -4 2 £388 -32.26% 16
North East -19 2 £413 +0.86% 9
Northern Ireland -6 1 £513 -14.58% 7
East of England -29 1 £505 -22.31% 49
Yorkshire -54 1 - - 22

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
1 108 (46.15%) Apache Spark
2 39 (16.67%) Apache
3 29 (12.39%) Apache Airflow
4 14 (5.98%) Confluence
5 4 (1.71%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.85%) Apache Pig
6 2 (0.85%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.85%) SAS
7 1 (0.43%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.43%) IIS
7 1 (0.43%) Luigi
7 1 (0.43%) nginx
Applications
1 2 (0.85%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.85%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.43%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 93 (39.74%) AWS
2 69 (29.49%) Azure
3 46 (19.66%) GCP
4 31 (13.25%) Power Platform
5 26 (11.11%) Serverless
5 26 (11.11%) Snowflake
6 17 (7.26%) GitHub
7 12 (5.13%) Amazon S3
7 12 (5.13%) Azure Data Factory
7 12 (5.13%) GitHub Actions
8 10 (4.27%) AWS Lambda
9 7 (2.99%) Amazon ECS
10 6 (2.56%) Amazon SageMaker
10 6 (2.56%) Azure DevOps
11 5 (2.14%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 5 (2.14%) Amazon EKS
11 5 (2.14%) Microsoft Copilot
11 5 (2.14%) OpenShift
12 4 (1.71%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 4 (1.71%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.28%) Kerberos
1 3 (1.28%) VPN
2 1 (0.43%) HTTP
2 1 (0.43%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (36.32%) Hadoop
2 56 (23.93%) Data Warehouse
3 34 (14.53%) NoSQL
4 29 (12.39%) Power BI
5 27 (11.54%) Data Lake
6 24 (10.26%) Relational Database
7 22 (9.40%) Apache Hive
8 21 (8.97%) Elasticsearch
8 21 (8.97%) Metadata
9 20 (8.55%) SQL Server
10 18 (7.69%) PostgreSQL
11 16 (6.84%) Tableau
12 14 (5.98%) RDBMS
13 13 (5.56%) HBase
14 12 (5.13%) Impala
15 9 (3.85%) BigQuery
16 8 (3.42%) Amazon Redshift
16 8 (3.42%) MongoDB
17 7 (2.99%) Azure SQL Database
17 7 (2.99%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 33 (14.10%) Git
2 20 (8.55%) Jenkins
3 18 (7.69%) JIRA
4 16 (6.84%) GitLab
5 6 (2.56%) ERwin
6 5 (2.14%) MLflow
7 4 (1.71%) ER Studio
8 3 (1.28%) Postman
8 3 (1.28%) Robot Framework
8 3 (1.28%) Selenium
9 2 (0.85%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.85%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.85%) Subversion
9 2 (0.85%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.43%) JMeter
10 1 (0.43%) JUnit
10 1 (0.43%) NUnit
10 1 (0.43%) Poetry
10 1 (0.43%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.43%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 82 (35.04%) Social Skills
2 69 (29.49%) Finance
3 42 (17.95%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (10.68%) Banking
5 18 (7.69%) Public Sector
6 6 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (2.14%) Investment Banking
8 4 (1.71%) Financial Institution
8 4 (1.71%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.28%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.43%) Agriculture
10 1 (0.43%) Corporate Banking
10 1 (0.43%) Front Office
10 1 (0.43%) Marketing
10 1 (0.43%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.43%) Retail
10 1 (0.43%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 70 (29.91%) Data Engineer
2 32 (13.68%) Senior
3 28 (11.97%) Lead
4 24 (10.26%) Developer
5 21 (8.97%) Data Scientist
6 17 (7.26%) Analyst
7 15 (6.41%) Architect
8 14 (5.98%) Data Analyst
9 12 (5.13%) Data Architect
10 8 (3.42%) Python Engineer
10 8 (3.42%) Scala Developer
10 8 (3.42%) Senior Data Engineer
11 7 (2.99%) AWS Engineer
11 7 (2.99%) Data Modeller
11 7 (2.99%) Machine Learning Engineer
11 7 (2.99%) QA Engineer
12 6 (2.56%) Big Data Engineer
12 6 (2.56%) Java Engineer
12 6 (2.56%) Platform Engineer
12 6 (2.56%) Senior Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (18.80%) Kafka
2 32 (13.68%) PySpark
3 16 (6.84%) Apache NiFi
3 16 (6.84%) scikit-learn
4 15 (6.41%) Pandas
5 13 (5.56%) REST
6 12 (5.13%) TensorFlow
7 11 (4.70%) RESTful
8 10 (4.27%) HTML
9 9 (3.85%) Flask
10 8 (3.42%) .NET
10 8 (3.42%) Elastic Stack
10 8 (3.42%) JSON
10 8 (3.42%) NumPy
10 8 (3.42%) RabbitMQ
10 8 (3.42%) React
10 8 (3.42%) Spark Streaming
11 7 (2.99%) PyTorch
11 7 (2.99%) Spring
11 7 (2.99%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 17 (7.26%) Cloud Native
2 15 (6.41%) Distributed Computing
3 12 (5.13%) Algorithms
4 7 (2.99%) Data Structures
5 6 (2.56%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (2.14%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (2.14%) Distributed Systems
6 5 (2.14%) Management Information System
7 4 (1.71%) Derivative
7 4 (1.71%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.71%) Product Ownership
7 4 (1.71%) Virtual Team
8 3 (1.28%) AI Agents
8 3 (1.28%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.28%) Onboarding
9 2 (0.85%) CMDB
9 2 (0.85%) Hedge funds
9 2 (0.85%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (0.85%) Reference Data
9 2 (0.85%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 25 (10.68%) Linux
2 8 (3.42%) Unix
3 1 (0.43%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (35.04%) ETL
2 80 (34.19%) Analytics
3 74 (31.62%) Data Modelling
3 74 (31.62%) Data Pipeline
4 68 (29.06%) Agile
5 65 (27.78%) Problem-Solving
6 63 (26.92%) CI/CD
7 56 (23.93%) Data Governance
8 54 (23.08%) Data Engineering
9 52 (22.22%) Machine Learning
10 49 (20.94%) Data Science
11 47 (20.09%) Visualisation
12 43 (18.38%) AI
13 39 (16.67%) DevOps
14 37 (15.81%) Business Intelligence
15 33 (14.10%) Decision-Making
16 31 (13.25%) Software Engineering
17 29 (12.39%) Computer Science
18 28 (11.97%) Data Integration
19 27 (11.54%) Data Architecture
Programming Languages
1 154 (65.81%) Python
2 122 (52.14%) SQL
3 42 (17.95%) Java
4 27 (11.54%) Scala
5 24 (10.26%) R
6 13 (5.56%) C#
6 13 (5.56%) C++
6 13 (5.56%) JavaScript
7 10 (4.27%) Bash
8 6 (2.56%) Shell Script
9 3 (1.28%) Perl
9 3 (1.28%) PL/SQL
10 2 (0.85%) Ada
10 2 (0.85%) Kusto Query Language
10 2 (0.85%) PowerShell
10 2 (0.85%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.43%) Go
11 1 (0.43%) Korn
11 1 (0.43%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 48 (20.51%) Security Cleared
2 36 (15.38%) SC Cleared
3 32 (13.68%) Degree
4 22 (9.40%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (7.69%) DV Cleared
6 13 (5.56%) Master's Degree
7 6 (2.56%) Azure Certification
8 4 (1.71%) AWS Certification
8 4 (1.71%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (1.28%) ITIL Certification
9 3 (1.28%) PhD
10 2 (0.85%) MCP
11 1 (0.43%) HP APS
11 1 (0.43%) ISTQB
11 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.43%) Numerate Degree
11 1 (0.43%) OCP
11 1 (0.43%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.43%) Postgraduate
11 1 (0.43%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (22.65%) Data Quality
2 14 (5.98%) QA
3 11 (4.70%) GDPR
4 4 (1.71%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.28%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (1.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 2 (0.85%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.43%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.43%) IFRS
7 1 (0.43%) IFRS 17
7 1 (0.43%) ISO 13485
7 1 (0.43%) Solvency II
System Software
1 40 (17.09%) Docker
2 15 (6.41%) HDFS
3 2 (0.85%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 1 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 41 (17.52%) Kubernetes
2 13 (5.56%) Terraform
3 9 (3.85%) Grafana
4 7 (2.99%) Prometheus
5 6 (2.56%) Kibana
6 5 (2.14%) Ansible
6 5 (2.14%) logstash
7 4 (1.71%) Argo
7 4 (1.71%) Hadoop YARN
8 3 (1.28%) Nagios
8 3 (1.28%) Oozie
8 3 (1.28%) Rancher
9 1 (0.43%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.43%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.43%) Puppet
9 1 (0.43%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 46 (19.66%) Databricks
2 16 (6.84%) Microsoft
3 15 (6.41%) Google
4 12 (5.13%) Cloudera
5 9 (3.85%) Foundry
5 9 (3.85%) Palantir
6 6 (2.56%) Oracle
6 6 (2.56%) ServiceNow
7 5 (2.14%) Ab Initio
8 4 (1.71%) Informatica
9 2 (0.85%) IBM
9 2 (0.85%) OpenAI
9 2 (0.85%) Salesforce
9 2 (0.85%) Splunk
10 1 (0.43%) Atlassian
10 1 (0.43%) Guidewire
10 1 (0.43%) Refinitiv
10 1 (0.43%) SnapLogic
10 1 (0.43%) Vertica
10 1 (0.43%) Zoomdata