Data Lake Contract Job Trends

Data Lakes
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Data Lake skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 234 197 227
Rank change year-on-year -37 +30 +51
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 448 426 461
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.14% 1.37% 1.04%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 6.96% 7.39% 6.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 319 344 331
10th Percentile £379 £397 £400
25th Percentile £434 £482 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £530
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +13.21% -7.83%
75th Percentile £638 £766 £638
90th Percentile £738 £938 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £481 £525
% change year-on-year -6.44% -8.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 3
10th Percentile - - £34.20
25th Percentile £64.00 - £43.88
Median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% +8.33% +71.43%
75th Percentile £69.11 - £60.75
90th Percentile £69.31 - £61.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 - £45.75
% change year-on-year - - +30.71%

All Database & BI Skills
UK

Data Lake 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 6,438 5,765 7,217
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.44% 18.51% 16.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,433 3,801 5,149
10th Percentile £338 £355 £350
25th Percentile £412 £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 £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 90 182
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.17 £15.62
25th Percentile £29.00 £25.02 £20.99
Median hourly rate £51.25 £36.56 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +40.20% -13.99% -25.26%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.73 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.10 £70.38 £77.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £56.25 £30.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +87.50% -25.00% -29.65%

Data Lake
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Lake relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Data Lake job vacancy trend in the UK

Data Lake
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Lake.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Lake

Data Lake
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Lake over the 6 months to 5 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Lake in the UK

Data Lake
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Lake.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Lake

Data Lake
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 Data Lake within the UK over the 6 months to 5 February 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 -68 350 £550 -12.00% 137
London -37 252 £603 -10.74% 62
Work from Home -63 153 £540 -20.00% 77
UK excluding London -25 115 £450 -6.44% 109
North of England -47 35 £475 +5.56% 25
Scotland +29 29 £450 +19.44% 10
North West -18 19 £402 -10.67% 14
South East -34 19 £425 -21.30% 37
Midlands -56 15 £481 +10.00% 20
Yorkshire -48 10 £575 +27.78% 6
East Midlands -16 8 £445 +25.11% 8
West Midlands -48 7 £513 +17.14% 12
North East -15 6 £475 +21.79% 5
Wales +2 5 £555 +11.00% 2
South West -12 5 £713 +16.33% 8
East of England -17 5 £534 +4.15% 8
Northern Ireland 0 4 £378 -28.10%

Data Lake
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 67 (14.96%) Apache Spark
2 52 (11.61%) Apache Airflow
3 50 (11.16%) Apache
4 6 (1.34%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.67%) Confluence
5 3 (0.67%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.67%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.45%) Apache Synapse
7 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (1.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.67%) MS Visio
2 3 (0.67%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.22%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 15 (3.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.89%) Aladdin
3 3 (0.67%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.22%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.22%) Infor M3
4 1 (0.22%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 1 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.22%) SAP CO
4 1 (0.22%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.22%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 312 (69.64%) Azure
2 153 (34.15%) AWS
3 150 (33.48%) Azure Synapse Analytics
4 143 (31.92%) Power Platform
5 129 (28.79%) Azure Data Factory
6 67 (14.96%) GCP
7 65 (14.51%) Azure DevOps
8 63 (14.06%) Serverless
9 60 (13.39%) GitHub
10 56 (12.50%) Snowflake
11 47 (10.49%) Amazon S3
12 36 (8.04%) AWS CloudFormation
12 36 (8.04%) Microsoft Purview
13 31 (6.92%) Azure Functions
14 29 (6.47%) GitHub Actions
15 24 (5.36%) AWS Lambda
16 23 (5.13%) Azure Key Vault
16 23 (5.13%) dbt
17 22 (4.91%) Azure Cosmos DB
18 17 (3.79%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.34%) Firewall
2 5 (1.12%) VPN
3 3 (0.67%) Kerberos
4 2 (0.45%) Hyperconnected
4 2 (0.45%) Network Security
5 1 (0.22%) DSL
5 1 (0.22%) InfiniBand
5 1 (0.22%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 130 (29.02%) Power BI
2 127 (28.35%) Data Warehouse
3 60 (13.39%) Metadata
4 54 (12.05%) SQL Server
5 51 (11.38%) Azure SQL Database
5 51 (11.38%) Delta Lake
6 33 (7.37%) Amazon Athena
7 32 (7.14%) Big Data
8 28 (6.25%) Relational Database
9 27 (6.03%) NoSQL
9 27 (6.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 25 (5.58%) PostgreSQL
11 24 (5.36%) BigQuery
12 22 (4.91%) Amazon Redshift
13 19 (4.24%) Hadoop
14 18 (4.02%) Spark SQL
15 16 (3.57%) Mixpanel
15 16 (3.57%) Tableau
16 13 (2.90%) Snowflake Schema
17 12 (2.68%) OLAP
Development Applications
1 39 (8.71%) Git
2 31 (6.92%) GitLab
3 9 (2.01%) MLflow
4 7 (1.56%) JIRA
5 6 (1.34%) ER Studio
5 6 (1.34%) ERwin
5 6 (1.34%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.67%) JMeter
7 2 (0.45%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.45%) Pylint
7 2 (0.45%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.45%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.22%) Hudson
8 1 (0.22%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.22%) Poetry
8 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.22%) Visual Studio
General
1 116 (25.89%) Social Skills
2 111 (24.78%) Finance
3 56 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
4 46 (10.27%) Public Sector
5 22 (4.91%) Banking
6 19 (4.24%) Influencing Skills
7 15 (3.35%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (3.13%) Pharmaceutical
9 13 (2.90%) Front Office
10 8 (1.79%) Investment Banking
10 8 (1.79%) Retail
11 6 (1.34%) Marketing
12 4 (0.89%) Back Office
12 4 (0.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.89%) Military
13 3 (0.67%) Legal
13 3 (0.67%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.45%) Local Government
14 2 (0.45%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 145 (32.37%) Data Engineer
2 85 (18.97%) Architect
3 66 (14.73%) Senior
4 54 (12.05%) Data Architect
5 52 (11.61%) Azure Engineer
6 40 (8.93%) Lead
7 36 (8.04%) Developer
8 32 (7.14%) AWS Engineer
9 30 (6.70%) Azure Data Engineer
10 26 (5.80%) Senior Data Engineer
10 26 (5.80%) Software Engineer
11 21 (4.69%) Python Engineer
12 19 (4.24%) DevOps Engineer
13 18 (4.02%) Principal Engineer
14 17 (3.79%) Analyst
15 15 (3.35%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
15 15 (3.35%) Data Analytics Engineer
15 15 (3.35%) Lead Data Engineer
15 15 (3.35%) Principal Software Engineer
16 14 (3.13%) Azure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (19.87%) PySpark
2 45 (10.04%) Kafka
3 22 (4.91%) Pandas
4 21 (4.69%) REST
5 15 (3.35%) NumPy
6 14 (3.13%) JSON
6 14 (3.13%) LangChain
7 13 (2.90%) Great Expectations
7 13 (2.90%) LangGraph
7 13 (2.90%) Microsoft Graph
7 13 (2.90%) Model Context Protocol
7 13 (2.90%) scikit-learn
8 12 (2.68%) PyTorch
8 12 (2.68%) TensorFlow
9 11 (2.46%) Spark Streaming
10 10 (2.23%) SciPy
11 8 (1.79%) gRPC
11 8 (1.79%) Protocol Buffers
12 7 (1.56%) React
12 7 (1.56%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 43 (9.60%) Cloud Native
2 17 (3.79%) Distributed Computing
3 15 (3.35%) Data Structures
4 11 (2.46%) Product Ownership
5 10 (2.23%) Equities
5 10 (2.23%) IoT
5 10 (2.23%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.23%) Onboarding
6 9 (2.01%) Data Fabric
6 9 (2.01%) Derivative
6 9 (2.01%) Fixed Income
7 8 (1.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 8 (1.79%) Hedge funds
7 8 (1.79%) Pricing Data
8 7 (1.56%) Algorithms
8 7 (1.56%) Distributed Systems
8 7 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (1.56%) NHS
9 6 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (1.34%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 13 (2.90%) Linux
2 10 (2.23%) Unix
3 6 (1.34%) Windows
4 1 (0.22%) VMS
4 1 (0.22%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 228 (50.89%) Analytics
2 214 (47.77%) ETL
3 176 (39.29%) Data Pipeline
4 170 (37.95%) Data Modelling
5 162 (36.16%) CI/CD
6 143 (31.92%) Business Intelligence
7 141 (31.47%) Data Engineering
8 140 (31.25%) Data Governance
9 139 (31.03%) DevOps
10 110 (24.55%) AI
11 108 (24.11%) Data Architecture
12 91 (20.31%) Machine Learning
13 88 (19.64%) Agile
14 81 (18.08%) Infrastructure as Code
15 65 (14.51%) Data Science
16 61 (13.62%) Problem-Solving
17 59 (13.17%) Data Integration
18 47 (10.49%) Migration
19 44 (9.82%) Decision-Making
19 44 (9.82%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 265 (59.15%) SQL
2 222 (49.55%) Python
3 41 (9.15%) Java
4 25 (5.58%) C#
5 19 (4.24%) Scala
6 18 (4.02%) T-SQL
7 16 (3.57%) JavaScript
8 14 (3.13%) TypeScript
9 13 (2.90%) Bicep
9 13 (2.90%) PowerShell
10 11 (2.46%) Bash
10 11 (2.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 10 (2.23%) PL/SQL
12 9 (2.01%) R
13 3 (0.67%) Korn
14 2 (0.45%) Ada
14 2 (0.45%) C++
14 2 (0.45%) Perl
15 1 (0.22%) ANSI SQL
15 1 (0.22%) HiveQL
Qualifications
1 66 (14.73%) Security Cleared
2 49 (10.94%) SC Cleared
3 33 (7.37%) Degree
4 23 (5.13%) Azure Certification
5 17 (3.79%) Master's Degree
5 17 (3.79%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (2.23%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (1.79%) AWS Certification
8 7 (1.56%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 6 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (0.67%) ISTQB
10 3 (0.67%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 3 (0.67%) TOGAF Certification
11 2 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (0.45%) CISM
11 2 (0.45%) CISSP
11 2 (0.45%) DV Cleared
11 2 (0.45%) PMI Certification
11 2 (0.45%) PMP
12 1 (0.22%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 118 (26.34%) Data Quality
2 63 (14.06%) GDPR
3 19 (4.24%) QA
4 15 (3.35%) HIPAA
5 12 (2.68%) NIST
6 8 (1.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 7 (1.56%) Accessibility
8 4 (0.89%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 3 (0.67%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.22%) Solvency II
System Software
1 35 (7.81%) Docker
2 7 (1.56%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.12%) HDFS
3 5 (1.12%) zsh
4 4 (0.89%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.22%) Lustre
5 1 (0.22%) NFS
Systems Management
1 88 (19.64%) Terraform
2 29 (6.47%) Kubernetes
3 7 (1.56%) Ansible
4 6 (1.34%) Grafana
5 3 (0.67%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.45%) Fluentd
6 2 (0.45%) Packer
7 1 (0.22%) Hadoop YARN
7 1 (0.22%) Kibana
7 1 (0.22%) logstash
7 1 (0.22%) Oozie
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle ZFS
7 1 (0.22%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.22%) Puppet
7 1 (0.22%) Salt
7 1 (0.22%) SELinux
7 1 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 188 (41.96%) Databricks
2 130 (29.02%) Microsoft
3 26 (5.80%) Google
4 23 (5.13%) Oracle
5 22 (4.91%) SAP
6 20 (4.46%) Informatica
7 19 (4.24%) OpenAI
8 10 (2.23%) Talend
9 6 (1.34%) Cloudera
9 6 (1.34%) ServiceNow
10 4 (0.89%) Greenplum
10 4 (0.89%) Salesforce
11 3 (0.67%) Ab Initio
12 2 (0.45%) Charles River
12 2 (0.45%) CheckPoint
12 2 (0.45%) eFront
12 2 (0.45%) Fortinet
12 2 (0.45%) New Relic
12 2 (0.45%) NVIDIA
12 2 (0.45%) SimCorp