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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 454 297 202
Rank change year-on-year -157 -95 +35
Contract jobs citing Big Data 236 292 465
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.43% 0.88% 1.23%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 2.88% 4.81% 6.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 169 209 304
10th Percentile £362 £380 £356
25th Percentile £438 £425 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -8.70% -4.17%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £716
90th Percentile £720 £736 £829
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £500 £556
% change year-on-year -7.50% -10.11% +1.14%
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 8,205 6,066 6,798
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.94% 18.35% 17.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,462 4,055 4,602
10th Percentile £351 £340 £350
25th Percentile £418 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £650
90th Percentile £713 £738 £793
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £485
% change year-on-year - -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 282 89 90
10th Percentile £16.70 £21.02 £17.50
25th Percentile £23.05 £29.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £41.36 £38.96 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.15% +11.31% -33.33%
75th Percentile £58.44 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £79.00 £71.73
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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -147 199 £525 - 469
London -111 122 £599 +8.91% 315
UK excluding London -110 89 £463 -7.50% 207
Work from Home -95 76 £502 +0.40% 188
North of England -57 34 £500 +2.56% 41
Yorkshire -22 22 £500 - 10
Scotland -18 15 £402 -19.60% 31
South West -30 14 £478 -0.78% 33
South East -71 13 £440 -20.00% 36
Midlands -58 12 £410 -2.50% 24
East Midlands -19 7 £495 +17.86% 8
North East -32 7 £425 - 3
West Midlands -43 5 £405 -7.74% 16
North West -55 5 £513 +7.89% 28
Wales - 2 £475 - 7
East of England -39 1 £505 - 19

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
1 136 (57.63%) Apache Spark
2 47 (19.92%) Apache
3 39 (16.53%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (2.97%) Confluence
5 6 (2.54%) JBoss
6 5 (2.12%) Jupyter
6 5 (2.12%) SharePoint
7 3 (1.27%) Apache Superset
7 3 (1.27%) CMS
7 3 (1.27%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (1.27%) Palantir Foundry
7 3 (1.27%) SAS
8 2 (0.85%) Apache Pig
9 1 (0.42%) Luigi
9 1 (0.42%) MQSeries
9 1 (0.42%) nginx
Applications
1 3 (1.27%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.85%) Endur
2 1 (0.42%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.42%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 106 (44.92%) AWS
2 91 (38.56%) Azure
3 64 (27.12%) GCP
4 43 (18.22%) Snowflake
5 35 (14.83%) Amazon S3
6 27 (11.44%) Power Platform
7 22 (9.32%) Amazon EMR
8 21 (8.90%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (8.47%) AWS Lambda
10 18 (7.63%) GitHub
11 17 (7.20%) Serverless
12 16 (6.78%) OpenShift
13 14 (5.93%) Amazon ECS
13 14 (5.93%) Azure Databricks
14 13 (5.51%) Azure Data Factory
15 12 (5.08%) PaaS
16 11 (4.66%) Amazon EKS
17 10 (4.24%) GitHub Actions
18 9 (3.81%) dbt
19 8 (3.39%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.54%) Kerberos
2 5 (2.12%) DNS
3 3 (1.27%) Broadband
3 3 (1.27%) DHCP
3 3 (1.27%) Firewall
3 3 (1.27%) Internet
3 3 (1.27%) SMTP
3 3 (1.27%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (22.03%) Hadoop
2 41 (17.37%) Data Warehouse
3 37 (15.68%) Data Lake
4 29 (12.29%) NoSQL
4 29 (12.29%) PostgreSQL
5 26 (11.02%) Power BI
6 23 (9.75%) Apache Hive
7 20 (8.47%) Amazon Redshift
8 18 (7.63%) BigQuery
9 16 (6.78%) Metadata
9 16 (6.78%) MongoDB
10 13 (5.51%) Amazon RDS
11 12 (5.08%) Amazon Athena
11 12 (5.08%) Elasticsearch
11 12 (5.08%) Relational Database
11 12 (5.08%) Tableau
12 10 (4.24%) DynamoDB
13 8 (3.39%) Amazon Aurora
14 7 (2.97%) HBase
14 7 (2.97%) Presto
Development Applications
1 35 (14.83%) Git
1 35 (14.83%) GitLab
2 27 (11.44%) Jenkins
3 13 (5.51%) JIRA
4 5 (2.12%) Selenium
5 4 (1.69%) SonarQube
6 3 (1.27%) JMeter
6 3 (1.27%) JUnit
6 3 (1.27%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.85%) eggPlant
7 2 (0.85%) Gatling
7 2 (0.85%) PowerDesigner
7 2 (0.85%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.42%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.42%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.42%) MLflow
General
1 71 (30.08%) Social Skills
2 49 (20.76%) Analytical Skills
3 44 (18.64%) Finance
4 26 (11.02%) Banking
5 20 (8.47%) Public Sector
6 9 (3.81%) Investment Banking
7 8 (3.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (2.54%) Aerospace
8 6 (2.54%) Marketing
9 5 (2.12%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.69%) Retail
11 3 (1.27%) Legal
11 3 (1.27%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.85%) Financial Institution
12 2 (0.85%) Local Government
13 1 (0.42%) Corporate Banking
13 1 (0.42%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.42%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.42%) Police
13 1 (0.42%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 80 (33.90%) Data Engineer
2 44 (18.64%) Senior
3 29 (12.29%) Architect
4 19 (8.05%) Senior Data Engineer
5 18 (7.63%) Developer
6 16 (6.78%) Analyst
7 14 (5.93%) DevOps Engineer
8 13 (5.51%) Solutions Architect
9 12 (5.08%) Big Data Engineer
9 12 (5.08%) Data Architect
10 11 (4.66%) Azure Engineer
10 11 (4.66%) Data Analyst
10 11 (4.66%) Databricks Engineer
11 10 (4.24%) Databricks Data Engineer
11 10 (4.24%) Python Engineer
12 9 (3.81%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
13 8 (3.39%) Lead
13 8 (3.39%) Scala Engineer
14 7 (2.97%) Data Integration Engineer
14 7 (2.97%) Kafka Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (21.61%) Kafka
2 47 (19.92%) Terraform
3 29 (12.29%) PySpark
4 18 (7.63%) REST
5 15 (6.36%) Apache NiFi
6 14 (5.93%) Spring
6 14 (5.93%) Spring Boot
7 8 (3.39%) CSS
7 8 (3.39%) Elastic Stack
7 8 (3.39%) HTML
7 8 (3.39%) Pandas
7 8 (3.39%) Play Framework
8 6 (2.54%) .NET
8 6 (2.54%) NumPy
8 6 (2.54%) PyTorch
8 6 (2.54%) TensorFlow
9 5 (2.12%) Langfuse
9 5 (2.12%) Microsoft Graph
9 5 (2.12%) Middleware
9 5 (2.12%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 31 (13.14%) Cloud Native
2 24 (10.17%) Distributed Systems
3 14 (5.93%) Data Structures
3 14 (5.93%) Onboarding
3 14 (5.93%) Product Ownership
4 12 (5.08%) Clustering
4 12 (5.08%) Virtual Team
5 11 (4.66%) Algorithms
6 5 (2.12%) Cyber Threat
6 5 (2.12%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (2.12%) Distributed Architecture
7 4 (1.69%) Distributed Computing
8 3 (1.27%) AI Agents
8 3 (1.27%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.27%) PKI
8 3 (1.27%) Social Media
9 2 (0.85%) FMCG
9 2 (0.85%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (0.85%) Media Streaming
9 2 (0.85%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 27 (11.44%) Linux
2 10 (4.24%) Unix
3 6 (2.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.27%) Windows
4 3 (1.27%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (50.85%) Data Pipeline
2 95 (40.25%) Analytics
3 93 (39.41%) ETL
4 92 (38.98%) CI/CD
5 89 (37.71%) Data Engineering
6 83 (35.17%) AI
7 72 (30.51%) Agile
8 65 (27.54%) Machine Learning
9 64 (27.12%) DevOps
10 54 (22.88%) Data Modelling
11 44 (18.64%) Containerisation
11 44 (18.64%) Data Science
12 42 (17.80%) Problem-Solving
13 37 (15.68%) Infrastructure as Code
13 37 (15.68%) Test Automation
14 36 (15.25%) Validation
15 34 (14.41%) Data Analysis
15 34 (14.41%) Data Governance
15 34 (14.41%) Data Integration
16 33 (13.98%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 140 (59.32%) Python
2 122 (51.69%) SQL
3 57 (24.15%) Java
4 30 (12.71%) Scala
5 21 (8.90%) PowerShell
6 15 (6.36%) JavaScript
7 11 (4.66%) Bash
8 10 (4.24%) R
9 9 (3.81%) C#
10 3 (1.27%) Kusto Query Language
10 3 (1.27%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.85%) Go
11 2 (0.85%) Korn
12 1 (0.42%) Bicep
12 1 (0.42%) C
12 1 (0.42%) C++
12 1 (0.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.42%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.42%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.42%) Rust
Qualifications
1 62 (26.27%) Security Cleared
2 43 (18.22%) SC Cleared
3 30 (12.71%) Degree
4 13 (5.51%) Computer Science Degree
4 13 (5.51%) DV Cleared
5 10 (4.24%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (4.24%) Master's Degree
6 5 (2.12%) Azure Certification
7 4 (1.69%) AWS Certification
8 3 (1.27%) PhD
9 2 (0.85%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 2 (0.85%) SnowPro
10 1 (0.42%) ISEB
10 1 (0.42%) MBA
10 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.42%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.42%) PMP
10 1 (0.42%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (19.07%) Data Quality
2 16 (6.78%) QA
3 8 (3.39%) GDPR
4 3 (1.27%) Actionable Recommendations
4 3 (1.27%) SLA
5 1 (0.42%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.42%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 1 (0.42%) EMIR
5 1 (0.42%) EU AI Act
5 1 (0.42%) IFRS
5 1 (0.42%) IFRS 9
5 1 (0.42%) MiFID
5 1 (0.42%) NCSC
5 1 (0.42%) PSD2
5 1 (0.42%) SEPA
System Software
1 45 (19.07%) Docker
2 9 (3.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (2.97%) HDFS
4 5 (2.12%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.27%) BitLocker
5 3 (1.27%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.27%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (1.27%) Terminal Services
5 3 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.27%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.85%) Apache Flume
Systems Management
1 52 (22.03%) Kubernetes
2 26 (11.02%) Grafana
3 15 (6.36%) Ansible
4 12 (5.08%) Puppet
5 8 (3.39%) Kibana
6 7 (2.97%) Prometheus
7 6 (2.54%) Red Hat Satellite
8 5 (2.12%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (1.27%) Nagios
9 3 (1.27%) vCenter Server
9 3 (1.27%) vMotion
10 1 (0.42%) Control-M
10 1 (0.42%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 65 (27.54%) Databricks
2 21 (8.90%) Google
3 20 (8.47%) Microsoft
4 18 (7.63%) Splunk
5 14 (5.93%) Cloudera
6 10 (4.24%) Oracle
7 9 (3.81%) VMware
8 8 (3.39%) Salesforce
9 6 (2.54%) Red Hat
10 5 (2.12%) Amplitude
10 5 (2.12%) Cisco
10 5 (2.12%) IBM
10 5 (2.12%) Informatica
11 4 (1.69%) Foundry
11 4 (1.69%) Talend
11 4 (1.69%) Tenable
12 3 (1.27%) Dynatrace
12 3 (1.27%) New Relic
12 3 (1.27%) Palantir
12 3 (1.27%) Teradata