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

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 237 230 170
Rank change year-on-year -7 -60 +44
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 615 389 573
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.12% 1.17% 1.50%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.51% 6.42% 8.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 478 280 477
10th Percentile £400 £375 £450
25th Percentile £450 £463 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £725
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -20.69% +26.09%
75th Percentile £641 £738 £850
90th Percentile £738 £825 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £32.87 - -
Median hourly rate £35.45 - -
75th Percentile £52.50 - -
90th Percentile £54.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.45 - -

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 8,193 6,058 6,851
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.92% 18.29% 17.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,460 4,047 4,642
10th Percentile £352 £340 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £501 £530
Median % change year-on-year -0.10% -5.57% -1.85%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £650
90th Percentile £713 £738 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £485
% change year-on-year - -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 282 88 91
10th Percentile £16.70 £21.02 £17.50
25th Percentile £22.87 £29.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £40.59 £39.48 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.81% +12.80% -33.33%
75th Percentile £58.44 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £74.68 £79.13 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £35.49 £30.00
% change year-on-year +17.53% +18.30% -42.86%

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 2 October 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Lake over the 6 months to 2 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Lake in the UK

Data Lake
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 Data Lake within the UK over the 6 months to 2 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 -29 487 £550 -8.33% 476
London -60 278 £575 -11.54% 270
UK excluding London +8 209 £500 +5.26% 274
Work from Home -37 208 £525 -17.71% 211
Midlands +24 90 £590 +31.00% 55
West Midlands +16 62 £600 - 37
North of England -44 51 £500 +5.26% 53
East Midlands +9 28 £500 +21.95% 18
North West -33 28 £550 +15.79% 27
South East -62 24 £461 +2.39% 51
Scotland -14 23 £410 +7.01% 54
Yorkshire -23 21 £505 +6.32% 14
South West -25 15 £600 +26.32% 30
East of England -32 6 £350 -36.36% 16
Wales -13 3 £500 -16.67% 10
North East -41 2 £438 - 13

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 74 (12.03%) Apache Spark
2 54 (8.78%) Apache
3 49 (7.97%) Apache Airflow
4 36 (5.85%) SAS
5 20 (3.25%) Confluence
6 14 (2.28%) SharePoint
7 3 (0.49%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.33%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.33%) nginx
8 2 (0.33%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.16%) Apache Superset
9 1 (0.16%) JBoss
9 1 (0.16%) MQSeries
9 1 (0.16%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 7 (1.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 7 (1.14%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 5 (0.81%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.49%) Adobe Campaign
3 3 (0.49%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.33%) Aladdin
4 2 (0.33%) Endur
4 2 (0.33%) Infor M3
4 2 (0.33%) SAP MDG
4 2 (0.33%) Temenos T24
5 1 (0.16%) Actimize
5 1 (0.16%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.16%) SAP BPC
5 1 (0.16%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 390 (63.41%) Azure
2 213 (34.63%) AWS
3 183 (29.76%) Power Platform
4 151 (24.55%) Azure Data Factory
5 113 (18.37%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 98 (15.93%) GCP
7 95 (15.45%) Snowflake
8 89 (14.47%) Azure DevOps
9 65 (10.57%) Amazon S3
10 62 (10.08%) Serverless
11 57 (9.27%) GitHub
12 51 (8.29%) Azure Databricks
13 39 (6.34%) AWS Lambda
14 36 (5.85%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 35 (5.69%) Entra ID
16 34 (5.53%) dbt
17 31 (5.04%) Amazon EMR
18 27 (4.39%) SaaS
19 26 (4.23%) GitHub Actions
19 26 (4.23%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.28%) Firewall
2 11 (1.79%) HTTP
3 9 (1.46%) DNS
4 5 (0.81%) WAN
5 3 (0.49%) Broadband
6 2 (0.33%) DSL
6 2 (0.33%) Network Security
6 2 (0.33%) Reverse Proxy
7 1 (0.16%) AMQP
7 1 (0.16%) IPsec
7 1 (0.16%) LoRaWAN
7 1 (0.16%) Modbus
7 1 (0.16%) MQTT
7 1 (0.16%) OpenVPN
7 1 (0.16%) Radio Access Network
7 1 (0.16%) SMS
7 1 (0.16%) VPN
7 1 (0.16%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 250 (40.65%) Data Warehouse
2 165 (26.83%) Power BI
3 100 (16.26%) Metadata
4 60 (9.76%) Amazon Redshift
5 54 (8.78%) Azure SQL Database
6 49 (7.97%) NoSQL
7 42 (6.83%) Delta Lake
8 39 (6.34%) Amazon Athena
9 37 (6.02%) Big Data
10 34 (5.53%) SQL Server
11 33 (5.37%) BigQuery
12 28 (4.55%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
13 27 (4.39%) Relational Database
14 25 (4.07%) PostgreSQL
15 23 (3.74%) Tableau
16 21 (3.41%) Semantic Layer
17 19 (3.09%) SQL Server Integration Services
18 18 (2.93%) Star Schema
19 17 (2.76%) Hadoop
20 16 (2.60%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 63 (10.24%) Git
2 44 (7.15%) GitLab
3 26 (4.23%) JIRA
4 17 (2.76%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.46%) ERwin
6 7 (1.14%) ER Studio
7 6 (0.98%) PowerDesigner
8 4 (0.65%) JUnit
8 4 (0.65%) MLflow
8 4 (0.65%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.49%) Terragrunt
10 2 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.16%) Postman
11 1 (0.16%) Robot Framework
11 1 (0.16%) TestRail
11 1 (0.16%) Visual Studio
General
1 162 (26.34%) Social Skills
2 146 (23.74%) Finance
3 76 (12.36%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (10.24%) Public Sector
5 47 (7.64%) Banking
6 33 (5.37%) Retail
7 27 (4.39%) Marketing
8 23 (3.74%) Manufacturing
9 17 (2.76%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (2.28%) Documentation Skills
11 10 (1.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (1.30%) Military
13 7 (1.14%) Investment Banking
13 7 (1.14%) Police
14 6 (0.98%) Legal
14 6 (0.98%) Publishing
15 5 (0.81%) Financial Institution
16 4 (0.65%) Front Office
16 4 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
16 4 (0.65%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 209 (33.98%) Architect
2 167 (27.15%) Data Engineer
3 140 (22.76%) Data Architect
4 98 (15.93%) Senior
5 64 (10.41%) Azure Engineer
6 55 (8.94%) Analyst
7 52 (8.46%) Senior Data Engineer
8 47 (7.64%) Solutions Architect
9 40 (6.50%) Azure Data Engineer
10 38 (6.18%) Data Analyst
11 36 (5.85%) Business Analyst
12 35 (5.69%) Lead
13 33 (5.37%) Developer
14 32 (5.20%) Data Business Analyst
15 25 (4.07%) Databricks Engineer
16 22 (3.58%) Databricks Data Engineer
17 21 (3.41%) Azure Architect
18 17 (2.76%) Technical Leader
19 16 (2.60%) Cloud Architect
19 16 (2.60%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 99 (16.10%) Terraform
2 73 (11.87%) PySpark
3 47 (7.64%) Kafka
4 33 (5.37%) REST
5 16 (2.60%) .NET
6 15 (2.44%) YAML
7 13 (2.11%) JSON
8 12 (1.95%) Model Context Protocol
9 11 (1.79%) Spring Boot
10 10 (1.63%) LangChain
10 10 (1.63%) Spring
11 9 (1.46%) ARM Templates
12 8 (1.30%) Apache NiFi
12 8 (1.30%) Middleware
12 8 (1.30%) OAuth
13 7 (1.14%) A2A Protocol
13 7 (1.14%) Microsoft Graph
13 7 (1.14%) OAuth2
13 7 (1.14%) XML
14 6 (0.98%) LangGraph
Miscellaneous
1 90 (14.63%) Cloud Native
2 44 (7.15%) Data Structures
3 31 (5.04%) Product Ownership
4 23 (3.74%) Distributed Systems
4 23 (3.74%) Onboarding
5 21 (3.41%) AI Agents
6 20 (3.25%) Data Fabric
7 19 (3.09%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (2.28%) Reference Data
9 13 (2.11%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (2.11%) Marketing Technology
10 11 (1.79%) Low-Code
11 10 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
12 9 (1.46%) Autonomous Agent
12 9 (1.46%) Reinsurance
13 7 (1.14%) Fixed Income
13 7 (1.14%) Hybrid Cloud
13 7 (1.14%) IoT
13 7 (1.14%) Management Information System
14 6 (0.98%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 22 (3.58%) Linux
2 13 (2.11%) Unix
3 6 (0.98%) Windows
4 5 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.65%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.33%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 312 (50.73%) Analytics
2 270 (43.90%) Data Modelling
3 253 (41.14%) ETL
4 243 (39.51%) Data Pipeline
5 237 (38.54%) CI/CD
6 208 (33.82%) Data Engineering
7 202 (32.85%) Business Intelligence
8 200 (32.52%) Data Governance
9 190 (30.89%) Agile
10 182 (29.59%) DevOps
11 177 (28.78%) AI
12 170 (27.64%) Data Architecture
13 162 (26.34%) Migration
14 134 (21.79%) Stakeholder Management
15 121 (19.67%) Lakehouse
16 106 (17.24%) Data Integration
17 96 (15.61%) Machine Learning
18 95 (15.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 94 (15.28%) Data Transformation
20 86 (13.98%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 328 (53.33%) SQL
2 196 (31.87%) Python
3 42 (6.83%) Java
4 24 (3.90%) PowerShell
5 20 (3.25%) Bicep
5 20 (3.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 19 (3.09%) Bash
6 19 (3.09%) C#
7 14 (2.28%) Scala
8 8 (1.30%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.30%) Shell Script
9 6 (0.98%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.81%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.65%) R
11 4 (0.65%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.49%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.33%) Cypher
13 2 (0.33%) Go
13 2 (0.33%) SHACL
13 2 (0.33%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 148 (24.07%) Security Cleared
2 109 (17.72%) SC Cleared
3 27 (4.39%) Azure Certification
4 22 (3.58%) BPSS Clearance
5 18 (2.93%) Degree
5 18 (2.93%) DV Cleared
6 15 (2.44%) AWS Certification
7 12 (1.95%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 9 (1.46%) Master's Degree
9 8 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (1.30%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (1.14%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (0.98%) TOGAF Certification
12 4 (0.65%) CSPO
13 3 (0.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 3 (0.49%) CCSP
13 3 (0.49%) CISM
13 3 (0.49%) CISSP
13 3 (0.49%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 3 (0.49%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 210 (34.15%) Data Quality
2 39 (6.34%) GDPR
3 23 (3.74%) QA
4 10 (1.63%) Accessibility
5 9 (1.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (1.30%) GRC
7 7 (1.14%) NIST
8 6 (0.98%) Solvency II
9 5 (0.81%) MiFID
9 5 (0.81%) NCSC
10 3 (0.49%) IFRS
10 3 (0.49%) IFRS 17
10 3 (0.49%) PMO
10 3 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.49%) SLA
11 2 (0.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
System Software
1 39 (6.34%) Docker
2 12 (1.95%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.30%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.81%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (0.65%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 44 (7.15%) Kubernetes
2 15 (2.44%) Grafana
3 10 (1.63%) Ansible
4 8 (1.30%) Prometheus
5 5 (0.81%) Puppet
6 4 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.49%) Argo
8 2 (0.33%) Control-M
9 1 (0.16%) IBM Guardium
9 1 (0.16%) Istio
9 1 (0.16%) linkerd
9 1 (0.16%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.16%) QRadar
Vendors
1 244 (39.67%) Databricks
2 146 (23.74%) Microsoft
3 31 (5.04%) Google
4 30 (4.88%) Informatica
5 23 (3.74%) Oracle
6 22 (3.58%) OpenAI
7 18 (2.93%) SAP
8 17 (2.76%) Denodo
9 13 (2.11%) Talend
10 9 (1.46%) Salesforce
11 8 (1.30%) Adobe
11 8 (1.30%) Teradata
12 7 (1.14%) Cloudera
12 7 (1.14%) Sparx
13 6 (0.98%) Dynatrace
13 6 (0.98%) MuleSoft
13 6 (0.98%) SnapLogic
14 5 (0.81%) Foundry
14 5 (0.81%) IBM
14 5 (0.81%) Infor