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 19 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 234 188 234
Rank change year-on-year -46 +46 +28
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 472 434 449
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 1.41% 1.02%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.09% 7.61% 6.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 335 349 316
10th Percentile £387 £400 £400
25th Percentile £440 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £600 £538
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +11.63% -6.52%
75th Percentile £638 £763 £638
90th Percentile £733 £938 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £491 £525
% change year-on-year -8.35% -6.48% -5.62%
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 6,653 5,702 7,185
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.34% 18.51% 16.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,563 3,816 5,100
10th Percentile £340 £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 £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 90 174
10th Percentile £18.25 £19.81 £16.04
25th Percentile £29.00 £24.81 £21.64
Median hourly rate £54.00 £38.31 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +40.97% -9.87% -24.01%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.93 £62.88
90th Percentile £85.10 £70.38 £77.21
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.85 £30.00 £40.25
% change year-on-year +82.83% -25.47% -28.04%

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 19 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 19 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 -74 368 £550 -10.93% 139
London -44 266 £603 -10.74% 66
Work from Home -73 156 £525 -22.22% 72
UK excluding London -23 121 £450 -8.35% 110
North of England -61 34 £475 +5.56% 24
Scotland +23 31 £447 +11.75% 12
South East -34 20 £425 -21.30% 34
Midlands -64 19 £481 +10.00% 16
North West -21 17 £425 -5.56% 11
Yorkshire -48 11 £600 +33.33% 7
East Midlands -17 10 £445 +25.11% 8
West Midlands -65 9 £513 +17.14% 8
North East -17 6 £475 +21.79% 6
Wales -5 5 £555 +11.00% 3
South West -16 5 £713 +9.62% 15
East of England -20 5 £534 +1.67% 6
Northern Ireland +1 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 68 (14.41%) Apache Spark
2 47 (9.96%) Apache
2 47 (9.96%) Apache Airflow
3 7 (1.48%) Confluence
4 6 (1.27%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.64%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.64%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.42%) Apache Synapse
6 2 (0.42%) nginx
7 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.64%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.21%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 13 (2.75%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.64%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.42%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.21%) Infor M3
4 1 (0.21%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 1 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.21%) SAP CO
4 1 (0.21%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.21%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 332 (70.34%) Azure
2 160 (33.90%) Azure Synapse Analytics
3 158 (33.47%) AWS
4 147 (31.14%) Power Platform
5 140 (29.66%) Azure Data Factory
6 73 (15.47%) Azure DevOps
7 70 (14.83%) GCP
8 66 (13.98%) GitHub
8 66 (13.98%) Serverless
9 54 (11.44%) Snowflake
10 47 (9.96%) Amazon S3
11 38 (8.05%) AWS CloudFormation
12 35 (7.42%) Microsoft Purview
13 33 (6.99%) Azure Functions
13 33 (6.99%) GitHub Actions
14 26 (5.51%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 25 (5.30%) AWS Lambda
15 25 (5.30%) Azure Key Vault
16 22 (4.66%) dbt
17 17 (3.60%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.91%) Firewall
2 5 (1.06%) VPN
3 3 (0.64%) Kerberos
3 3 (0.64%) Network Security
4 2 (0.42%) Hyperconnected
5 1 (0.21%) 4G
5 1 (0.21%) 5G
5 1 (0.21%) DSL
5 1 (0.21%) InfiniBand
5 1 (0.21%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 143 (30.30%) Data Warehouse
2 134 (28.39%) Power BI
3 65 (13.77%) Metadata
4 61 (12.92%) SQL Server
5 55 (11.65%) Delta Lake
6 54 (11.44%) Azure SQL Database
7 32 (6.78%) Amazon Athena
7 32 (6.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 31 (6.57%) Big Data
9 29 (6.14%) NoSQL
10 28 (5.93%) Relational Database
11 27 (5.72%) PostgreSQL
12 24 (5.08%) BigQuery
13 21 (4.45%) Amazon Redshift
13 21 (4.45%) Hadoop
14 18 (3.81%) Spark SQL
15 17 (3.60%) Mixpanel
16 15 (3.18%) Tableau
17 14 (2.97%) Snowflake Schema
18 13 (2.75%) OLTP
Development Applications
1 47 (9.96%) Git
2 31 (6.57%) GitLab
3 10 (2.12%) JIRA
4 9 (1.91%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.91%) MLflow
5 5 (1.06%) ER Studio
5 5 (1.06%) ERwin
6 3 (0.64%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.64%) JMeter
7 2 (0.42%) Hudson
7 2 (0.42%) Pylint
7 2 (0.42%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.42%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.21%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.21%) Poetry
8 1 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio
General
1 128 (27.12%) Social Skills
2 115 (24.36%) Finance
3 64 (13.56%) Analytical Skills
4 48 (10.17%) Public Sector
5 20 (4.24%) Banking
6 17 (3.60%) Influencing Skills
7 14 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.33%) Pharmaceutical
9 10 (2.12%) Front Office
10 9 (1.91%) Retail
11 6 (1.27%) Investment Banking
11 6 (1.27%) Marketing
12 4 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.85%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.85%) Military
13 3 (0.64%) Back Office
13 3 (0.64%) Legal
13 3 (0.64%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.42%) Local Government
14 2 (0.42%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 153 (32.42%) Data Engineer
2 96 (20.34%) Architect
3 71 (15.04%) Senior
4 59 (12.50%) Data Architect
5 50 (10.59%) Azure Engineer
6 44 (9.32%) Lead
7 38 (8.05%) Developer
8 31 (6.57%) Senior Data Engineer
9 29 (6.14%) AWS Engineer
10 28 (5.93%) Azure Data Engineer
11 24 (5.08%) Software Engineer
12 21 (4.45%) Solutions Architect
13 20 (4.24%) Analyst
13 20 (4.24%) Python Engineer
14 19 (4.03%) DevOps Engineer
14 19 (4.03%) Principal Engineer
15 18 (3.81%) Lead Data Engineer
16 15 (3.18%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
16 15 (3.18%) Data Analytics Engineer
16 15 (3.18%) Principal Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 96 (20.34%) PySpark
2 47 (9.96%) Kafka
3 22 (4.66%) REST
4 20 (4.24%) Pandas
5 18 (3.81%) JSON
6 14 (2.97%) Great Expectations
6 14 (2.97%) LangChain
7 13 (2.75%) LangGraph
7 13 (2.75%) Microsoft Graph
7 13 (2.75%) Model Context Protocol
7 13 (2.75%) NumPy
8 12 (2.54%) PyTorch
8 12 (2.54%) scikit-learn
8 12 (2.54%) XML
9 11 (2.33%) TensorFlow
10 10 (2.12%) Spark Streaming
10 10 (2.12%) YAML
11 8 (1.69%) React
11 8 (1.69%) SciPy
12 7 (1.48%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 43 (9.11%) Cloud Native
2 16 (3.39%) Data Structures
2 16 (3.39%) Distributed Computing
3 14 (2.97%) IoT
4 11 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
4 11 (2.33%) Product Ownership
5 10 (2.12%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.12%) Onboarding
6 8 (1.69%) Data Fabric
6 8 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (1.48%) Algorithms
7 7 (1.48%) Derivative
7 7 (1.48%) Equities
7 7 (1.48%) Fixed Income
7 7 (1.48%) NHS
8 6 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (1.27%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 6 (1.27%) Hedge funds
8 6 (1.27%) Pricing Data
Operating Systems
1 16 (3.39%) Linux
2 11 (2.33%) Unix
3 7 (1.48%) Windows
4 2 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.21%) VMS
5 1 (0.21%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (52.12%) Analytics
2 228 (48.31%) ETL
3 191 (40.47%) Data Pipeline
4 182 (38.56%) Data Modelling
5 169 (35.81%) CI/CD
6 158 (33.47%) Business Intelligence
7 150 (31.78%) Data Engineering
8 148 (31.36%) Data Governance
9 147 (31.14%) DevOps
10 113 (23.94%) AI
11 110 (23.31%) Data Architecture
12 100 (21.19%) Agile
13 92 (19.49%) Machine Learning
14 83 (17.58%) Infrastructure as Code
15 74 (15.68%) Problem-Solving
16 68 (14.41%) Data Science
17 67 (14.19%) Data Integration
18 55 (11.65%) Migration
19 51 (10.81%) Decision-Making
20 45 (9.53%) Data Ingestion
Programming Languages
1 281 (59.53%) SQL
2 237 (50.21%) Python
3 38 (8.05%) Java
4 30 (6.36%) C#
5 23 (4.87%) T-SQL
6 17 (3.60%) Bicep
6 17 (3.60%) PowerShell
7 16 (3.39%) JavaScript
7 16 (3.39%) Scala
8 13 (2.75%) Bash
8 13 (2.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 11 (2.33%) PL/SQL
9 11 (2.33%) TypeScript
10 8 (1.69%) R
11 2 (0.42%) Ada
11 2 (0.42%) C++
11 2 (0.42%) Korn
11 2 (0.42%) Perl
12 1 (0.21%) ANSI SQL
12 1 (0.21%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 76 (16.10%) Security Cleared
2 56 (11.86%) SC Cleared
3 33 (6.99%) Degree
4 23 (4.87%) Azure Certification
5 16 (3.39%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (3.18%) Master's Degree
7 11 (2.33%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (1.69%) AWS Certification
9 7 (1.48%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 7 (1.48%) TOGAF Certification
10 6 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.06%) CISM
11 5 (1.06%) CISSP
12 3 (0.64%) ISTQB
12 3 (0.64%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 3 (0.64%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.64%) PMP
13 2 (0.42%) DV Cleared
14 1 (0.21%) CGEIT
14 1 (0.21%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 126 (26.69%) Data Quality
2 65 (13.77%) GDPR
3 22 (4.66%) QA
4 14 (2.97%) HIPAA
5 13 (2.75%) NIST
6 8 (1.69%) Accessibility
6 8 (1.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (0.85%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 4 (0.85%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.21%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.21%) Solvency II
System Software
1 33 (6.99%) Docker
2 7 (1.48%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.06%) HDFS
3 5 (1.06%) zsh
4 4 (0.85%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.21%) Lustre
5 1 (0.21%) NFS
Systems Management
1 95 (20.13%) Terraform
2 29 (6.14%) Kubernetes
3 7 (1.48%) Ansible
4 6 (1.27%) Grafana
5 3 (0.64%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.42%) Fluentd
6 2 (0.42%) Packer
6 2 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.21%) Hadoop YARN
7 1 (0.21%) Kibana
7 1 (0.21%) logstash
7 1 (0.21%) Oozie
7 1 (0.21%) Oracle ZFS
7 1 (0.21%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.21%) Puppet
7 1 (0.21%) Salt
7 1 (0.21%) SELinux
Vendors
1 200 (42.37%) Databricks
2 136 (28.81%) Microsoft
3 27 (5.72%) Google
4 24 (5.08%) Oracle
5 23 (4.87%) Informatica
6 21 (4.45%) SAP
7 20 (4.24%) OpenAI
8 10 (2.12%) Talend
9 6 (1.27%) Cloudera
9 6 (1.27%) ServiceNow
10 5 (1.06%) Salesforce
11 4 (0.85%) BiZZdesign
11 4 (0.85%) CheckPoint
11 4 (0.85%) Fortinet
11 4 (0.85%) Greenplum
12 3 (0.64%) Ab Initio
12 3 (0.64%) Red Hat
13 2 (0.42%) New Relic
13 2 (0.42%) Splunk
13 2 (0.42%) Sybase