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 12 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 235 207 176
Rank change year-on-year -28 -31 +33
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 543 385 597
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.09% 1.31% 1.37%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.16% 6.98% 8.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 392 304 465
10th Percentile £403 £409 £413
25th Percentile £450 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% +10.08%
75th Percentile £650 £778 £850
90th Percentile £750 £934 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +10.53% -4.04% -5.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 2
10th Percentile £51.25 - £42.50
25th Percentile £57.25 - £45.50
Median hourly rate £64.00 - £50.75
75th Percentile £67.75 - £56.25
90th Percentile £69.22 - £59.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 - £50.75
% change year-on-year - - +45.00%

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 7,581 5,518 7,461
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.17% 18.75% 17.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,065 3,745 5,333
10th Percentile £350 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -3.67%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £760 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 237 102 155
10th Percentile £14.51 £19.72 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £25.00 £20.77
Median hourly rate £41.71 £34.99 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.21% -12.53% -31.73%
75th Percentile £71.50 £65.90 £54.56
90th Percentile £78.58 £78.58 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.50 £31.85 £35.00
% change year-on-year +20.90% -9.01% -38.54%

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 12 June 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 12 June 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 12 June 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 -41 464 £575 -4.17% 96
London -29 311 £588 -18.97% 57
Work from Home -53 184 £535 -26.21% 48
UK excluding London -24 149 £525 +10.53% 62
Midlands -31 45 £600 +35.21% 11
North of England -52 43 £500 +5.26% 14
West Midlands -37 29 £600 +33.33% 10
South East -80 22 £431 -6.25% 20
North West -28 21 £500 +2.56% 10
Scotland +7 19 £500 -13.34% 4
East Midlands -10 16 £573 +41.48% 1
Yorkshire -42 15 £550 +22.09% 3
South West -14 13 £600 +6.67% 8
East of England -24 9 £575 -0.86% 3
North East -28 7 £463 - 1
Northern Ireland - 1 £430 -

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 80 (14.73%) Apache Spark
2 40 (7.37%) Apache
3 35 (6.45%) Apache Airflow
4 20 (3.68%) SAS
5 15 (2.76%) Confluence
6 2 (0.37%) Apache Synapse
6 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.37%) nginx
6 2 (0.37%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.37%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.18%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 3 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.55%) Infor M3
3 2 (0.37%) Endur
3 2 (0.37%) Loan IQ
3 2 (0.37%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.37%) Temenos T24
4 1 (0.18%) Adobe Campaign
4 1 (0.18%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.18%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 368 (67.77%) Azure
2 195 (35.91%) AWS
3 194 (35.73%) Power Platform
4 160 (29.47%) Azure Data Factory
5 145 (26.70%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 88 (16.21%) Azure DevOps
6 88 (16.21%) GCP
7 80 (14.73%) GitHub
8 64 (11.79%) Serverless
9 59 (10.87%) Amazon S3
10 50 (9.21%) Snowflake
11 38 (7.00%) GitHub Actions
12 33 (6.08%) AWS Lambda
13 32 (5.89%) Microsoft Purview
14 26 (4.79%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 25 (4.60%) Azure Functions
15 25 (4.60%) Azure Key Vault
16 23 (4.24%) AWS CloudFormation
17 19 (3.50%) Amazon EMR
17 19 (3.50%) Collibra
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.66%) HTTP
2 7 (1.29%) Firewall
3 4 (0.74%) DNS
3 4 (0.74%) WAN
4 2 (0.37%) Network Security
5 1 (0.18%) 4G
5 1 (0.18%) 5G
5 1 (0.18%) DSL
5 1 (0.18%) Ethernet
5 1 (0.18%) Modbus
5 1 (0.18%) Radio Access Network
5 1 (0.18%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 179 (32.97%) Data Warehouse
2 170 (31.31%) Power BI
3 75 (13.81%) Metadata
4 68 (12.52%) Azure SQL Database
5 67 (12.34%) SQL Server
6 60 (11.05%) Delta Lake
7 54 (9.94%) Amazon Redshift
8 42 (7.73%) Amazon Athena
9 36 (6.63%) Big Data
10 32 (5.89%) BigQuery
11 30 (5.52%) NoSQL
11 30 (5.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 24 (4.42%) Relational Database
12 24 (4.42%) Spark SQL
13 23 (4.24%) PostgreSQL
14 21 (3.87%) Hadoop
15 18 (3.31%) Snowflake Schema
15 18 (3.31%) Tableau
16 16 (2.95%) Mixpanel
16 16 (2.95%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 67 (12.34%) Git
2 26 (4.79%) GitLab
3 20 (3.68%) JIRA
4 17 (3.13%) Jenkins
5 6 (1.10%) MLflow
6 5 (0.92%) ER Studio
6 5 (0.92%) ERwin
6 5 (0.92%) PowerDesigner
7 4 (0.74%) JUnit
8 3 (0.55%) JMeter
9 2 (0.37%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.18%) Hudson
10 1 (0.18%) Postman
10 1 (0.18%) Robot Framework
10 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio
General
1 137 (25.23%) Finance
2 118 (21.73%) Social Skills
3 64 (11.79%) Analytical Skills
4 56 (10.31%) Public Sector
5 25 (4.60%) Banking
6 16 (2.95%) Documentation Skills
7 14 (2.58%) Marketing
8 12 (2.21%) Retail
9 7 (1.29%) Military
10 6 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (0.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (0.92%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.74%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.74%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.37%) Back Office
13 2 (0.37%) Front Office
13 2 (0.37%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.37%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.37%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.37%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 187 (34.44%) Data Engineer
2 149 (27.44%) Architect
3 87 (16.02%) Data Architect
3 87 (16.02%) Senior
4 52 (9.58%) Senior Data Engineer
5 43 (7.92%) Lead
5 43 (7.92%) Solutions Architect
6 36 (6.63%) Azure Engineer
7 34 (6.26%) Developer
8 27 (4.97%) Azure Data Engineer
9 26 (4.79%) Analyst
10 25 (4.60%) Principal Engineer
11 24 (4.42%) Cloud Architect
12 21 (3.87%) AWS Engineer
12 21 (3.87%) Azure Architect
12 21 (3.87%) Cloud Solutions Architect
13 17 (3.13%) Software Engineer
14 16 (2.95%) Data Analyst
15 15 (2.76%) AWS Data Engineer
15 15 (2.76%) Principal Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (17.86%) PySpark
2 53 (9.76%) Kafka
3 32 (5.89%) REST
4 15 (2.76%) Great Expectations
5 14 (2.58%) Model Context Protocol
6 12 (2.21%) XML
7 11 (2.03%) LangChain
8 10 (1.84%) JSON
8 10 (1.84%) LangGraph
8 10 (1.84%) Middleware
8 10 (1.84%) Pandas
9 9 (1.66%) YAML
10 8 (1.47%) .NET
10 8 (1.47%) Microsoft Graph
10 8 (1.47%) Node.js
10 8 (1.47%) PyTorch
10 8 (1.47%) scikit-learn
10 8 (1.47%) Spring Boot
11 7 (1.29%) A2A Protocol
11 7 (1.29%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 80 (14.73%) Cloud Native
2 24 (4.42%) Distributed Systems
3 21 (3.87%) Data Structures
4 20 (3.68%) Legacy Systems
5 17 (3.13%) Product Ownership
6 15 (2.76%) IoT
7 12 (2.21%) Data Protection Act
8 11 (2.03%) Distributed Computing
8 11 (2.03%) Low-Code
8 11 (2.03%) Management Information System
9 10 (1.84%) AI Agents
10 9 (1.66%) Reference Data
11 8 (1.47%) Analytical Mindset
11 8 (1.47%) Digital Media
12 7 (1.29%) Data Fabric
12 7 (1.29%) Onboarding
13 6 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
14 5 (0.92%) Distributed Architecture
14 5 (0.92%) Fixed Income
15 4 (0.74%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 11 (2.03%) Unix
2 9 (1.66%) Linux
3 2 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (0.37%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 297 (54.70%) Analytics
2 271 (49.91%) ETL
3 234 (43.09%) Data Modelling
4 225 (41.44%) Data Pipeline
5 215 (39.59%) Data Engineering
6 210 (38.67%) CI/CD
7 205 (37.75%) Business Intelligence
8 169 (31.12%) DevOps
9 166 (30.57%) Data Governance
10 160 (29.47%) AI
11 144 (26.52%) Data Architecture
12 122 (22.47%) Agile
13 107 (19.71%) Migration
14 105 (19.34%) Machine Learning
15 89 (16.39%) Problem-Solving
16 75 (13.81%) Infrastructure as Code
17 72 (13.26%) Data Integration
18 70 (12.89%) Data Transformation
19 67 (12.34%) Stakeholder Management
20 65 (11.97%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 330 (60.77%) SQL
2 228 (41.99%) Python
3 44 (8.10%) Java
4 24 (4.42%) C#
5 22 (4.05%) Scala
5 22 (4.05%) T-SQL
6 18 (3.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 15 (2.76%) Bicep
7 15 (2.76%) PowerShell
8 10 (1.84%) PL/SQL
9 9 (1.66%) JavaScript
9 9 (1.66%) Shell Script
10 8 (1.47%) Bash
11 5 (0.92%) R
12 2 (0.37%) Ada
12 2 (0.37%) C++
12 2 (0.37%) SOQL
12 2 (0.37%) TypeScript
13 1 (0.18%) C
13 1 (0.18%) Cypher
Qualifications
1 120 (22.10%) Security Cleared
2 94 (17.31%) SC Cleared
3 26 (4.79%) Azure Certification
4 19 (3.50%) Degree
5 13 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
6 12 (2.21%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (1.47%) Master's Degree
7 8 (1.47%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 7 (1.29%) AWS Certification
8 7 (1.29%) DV Cleared
8 7 (1.29%) TOGAF Certification
9 5 (0.92%) CISM
9 5 (0.92%) CISSP
10 3 (0.55%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (0.55%) ISTQB
10 3 (0.55%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 2 (0.37%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.37%) CSPO
11 2 (0.37%) Postgraduate
11 2 (0.37%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 180 (33.15%) Data Quality
2 56 (10.31%) GDPR
3 32 (5.89%) QA
4 5 (0.92%) Accessibility
4 5 (0.92%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 4 (0.74%) MiFID
5 4 (0.74%) NIST
5 4 (0.74%) PCI DSS
5 4 (0.74%) Solvency II
6 3 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
6 3 (0.55%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 3 (0.55%) IFRS
7 2 (0.37%) IFRS 17
7 2 (0.37%) IFRS 9
7 2 (0.37%) PMO
8 1 (0.18%) Basel II
8 1 (0.18%) GRC
8 1 (0.18%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.18%) SOC 2
System Software
1 26 (4.79%) Docker
2 4 (0.74%) Virtual Desktop
2 4 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (0.55%) HDFS
4 1 (0.18%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 94 (17.31%) Terraform
2 32 (5.89%) Kubernetes
3 10 (1.84%) Grafana
4 5 (0.92%) Ansible
5 3 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.37%) Argo
6 2 (0.37%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.18%) Hadoop YARN
7 1 (0.18%) IBM Guardium
7 1 (0.18%) Oozie
Vendors
1 205 (37.75%) Databricks
2 151 (27.81%) Microsoft
3 40 (7.37%) Informatica
4 32 (5.89%) Oracle
5 31 (5.71%) Google
6 20 (3.68%) OpenAI
7 15 (2.76%) Talend
8 14 (2.58%) SAP
9 9 (1.66%) Denodo
10 7 (1.29%) Infor
10 7 (1.29%) Salesforce
11 6 (1.10%) Adobe
11 6 (1.10%) Dynatrace
11 6 (1.10%) ServiceNow
12 5 (0.92%) BiZZdesign
12 5 (0.92%) Cloudera
13 4 (0.74%) CheckPoint
13 4 (0.74%) Fortinet
13 4 (0.74%) Hortonworks
14 3 (0.55%) Greenplum