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 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 246 182 226
Rank change year-on-year -64 +44 +66
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 398 507 485
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 1.42% 1.07%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 6.33% 7.92% 6.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 290 407 367
10th Percentile £375 £400 £413
25th Percentile £450 £488 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £625 £550
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% +13.64% -7.17%
75th Percentile £663 £850 £650
90th Percentile £825 £888 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -7.45% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 3
10th Percentile - - £33.70
25th Percentile - - £42.63
Median hourly rate - £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year - +8.33% +71.43%
75th Percentile - - £61.25
90th Percentile - - £62.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £45.25
% change year-on-year - - +29.29%

All Database and Business Intelligence 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 6,292 6,399 7,661
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.49% 17.93% 16.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,317 4,223 5,369
10th Percentile £330 £345 £350
25th Percentile £410 £425 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £530 £535
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% -0.93% -2.73%
75th Percentile £606 £650 £650
90th Percentile £713 £775 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 85 86 144
10th Percentile £23.10 £18.25 £16.62
25th Percentile £29.25 £22.92 £21.57
Median hourly rate £48.72 £33.75 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +44.36% -26.92% -7.44%
75th Percentile £69.25 £55.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £84.30 £65.50 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £27.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +100.00% -40.45% +13.38%

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 December 2025.

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 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 December 2025. 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 -76 333 £600 -7.69% 144
London -47 241 £625 -10.71% 89
Work from Home -70 158 £600 -20.00% 97
UK excluding London -51 99 £463 -7.45% 110
North of England -50 31 £500 +11.11% 20
North West -20 18 £401 -10.89% 11
Scotland +4 16 £402 +6.70% 8
South East -15 15 £431 -21.23% 55
Yorkshire -28 13 £575 +6.98% 5
Midlands -32 13 £500 +7.24% 16
East of England -7 9 £550 +10.00% 3
East Midlands -9 7 £430 +20.79% 5
Wales 0 6 £500 - 3
Northern Ireland 0 6 £313 -40.48%
West Midlands -38 6 £613 +28.95% 11
South West -2 5 £713 +35.71% 6

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 71 (17.84%) Apache Airflow
2 62 (15.58%) Apache
3 52 (13.07%) Apache Spark
4 5 (1.26%) SharePoint
5 4 (1.01%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.75%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.50%) Confluence
8 1 (0.25%) Apache Synapse
Applications
1 5 (1.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.75%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.50%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.25%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 17 (4.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (1.26%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.50%) SAP CO
3 2 (0.50%) SAP FI
3 2 (0.50%) SAP FI/CO
3 2 (0.50%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.25%) Endur
4 1 (0.25%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 1 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.25%) SAP GRC
4 1 (0.25%) SAP MM
4 1 (0.25%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 240 (60.30%) Azure
2 140 (35.18%) AWS
3 116 (29.15%) Azure Synapse Analytics
4 101 (25.38%) Power Platform
5 96 (24.12%) Azure Data Factory
6 82 (20.60%) Snowflake
7 50 (12.56%) GCP
8 47 (11.81%) dbt
9 37 (9.30%) Amazon S3
9 37 (9.30%) Azure DevOps
10 36 (9.05%) Serverless
11 35 (8.79%) GitHub
12 24 (6.03%) AWS CloudFormation
13 20 (5.03%) AWS Lambda
13 20 (5.03%) Microsoft Purview
14 17 (4.27%) Azure Key Vault
14 17 (4.27%) GitHub Actions
15 16 (4.02%) Azure Machine Learning
15 16 (4.02%) Entra ID
16 14 (3.52%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.01%) Firewall
1 8 (2.01%) VPN
2 2 (0.50%) Hyperconnected
2 2 (0.50%) Kerberos
2 2 (0.50%) Network Security
3 1 (0.25%) DSL
3 1 (0.25%) InfiniBand
3 1 (0.25%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 129 (32.41%) Data Warehouse
2 99 (24.87%) Power BI
3 42 (10.55%) Amazon Athena
4 40 (10.05%) Metadata
5 38 (9.55%) Azure SQL Database
6 37 (9.30%) Delta Lake
7 35 (8.79%) Apache Iceberg
7 35 (8.79%) Big Data
8 30 (7.54%) Apache Arrow
8 30 (7.54%) Apache Ignite
8 30 (7.54%) Dremio
9 24 (6.03%) Relational Database
10 22 (5.53%) SQL Server
11 18 (4.52%) Tableau
12 17 (4.27%) BigQuery
12 17 (4.27%) NoSQL
12 17 (4.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 16 (4.02%) Hadoop
13 16 (4.02%) PostgreSQL
14 15 (3.77%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 29 (7.29%) Git
2 25 (6.28%) GitLab
3 9 (2.26%) MLflow
4 8 (2.01%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.01%) ER Studio
5 4 (1.01%) ERwin
5 4 (1.01%) JIRA
6 3 (0.75%) Gradle
6 3 (0.75%) Maven
7 2 (0.50%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.50%) GCC
7 2 (0.50%) Pylint
7 2 (0.50%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.50%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.25%) Hudson
8 1 (0.25%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.25%) Poetry
8 1 (0.25%) Spinnaker
8 1 (0.25%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.25%) Visual Studio
General
1 125 (31.41%) Social Skills
2 123 (30.90%) Finance
3 53 (13.32%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (11.31%) Banking
5 36 (9.05%) Front Office
6 34 (8.54%) Public Sector
7 30 (7.54%) Investment Banking
8 16 (4.02%) Influencing Skills
8 16 (4.02%) Pharmaceutical
9 9 (2.26%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (1.51%) Legal
10 6 (1.51%) Retail
11 4 (1.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 4 (1.01%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.75%) Marketing
12 3 (0.75%) Publishing
13 2 (0.50%) Back Office
13 2 (0.50%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.50%) Local Government
13 2 (0.50%) Police
Job Titles
1 107 (26.88%) Data Engineer
2 80 (20.10%) Senior
3 74 (18.59%) Architect
4 52 (13.07%) AWS Engineer
5 47 (11.81%) Azure Engineer
6 40 (10.05%) Software Engineer
7 36 (9.05%) Data Architect
8 35 (8.79%) Python Engineer
9 34 (8.54%) Developer
10 33 (8.29%) AWS Software Engineer
10 33 (8.29%) Java Engineer
10 33 (8.29%) Java Software Engineer
11 30 (7.54%) Python Software Engineer
12 29 (7.29%) Senior Java Engineer
12 29 (7.29%) Senior Java Software Engineer
12 29 (7.29%) Senior Software Engineer
13 27 (6.78%) Azure Data Engineer
14 26 (6.53%) Lead
15 22 (5.53%) Azure Architect
16 21 (5.28%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (14.32%) PySpark
2 37 (9.30%) Pandas
3 34 (8.54%) NumPy
4 32 (8.04%) Kafka
5 30 (7.54%) gRPC
5 30 (7.54%) Protocol Buffers
5 30 (7.54%) SciPy
6 11 (2.76%) JSON
6 11 (2.76%) REST
7 10 (2.51%) PyTorch
8 9 (2.26%) scikit-learn
8 9 (2.26%) TensorFlow
9 6 (1.51%) HTML
9 6 (1.51%) React
9 6 (1.51%) SOAP
10 5 (1.26%) ARM Templates
10 5 (1.26%) GraphQL
10 5 (1.26%) Microsoft Graph
10 5 (1.26%) Spark Streaming
11 4 (1.01%) Great Expectations
Miscellaneous
1 32 (8.04%) Equities
2 31 (7.79%) Derivative
2 31 (7.79%) Fixed Income
3 30 (7.54%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 30 (7.54%) Hedge funds
3 30 (7.54%) Pricing Data
4 26 (6.53%) Cloud Native
5 16 (4.02%) Product Ownership
6 10 (2.51%) Legacy Systems
6 10 (2.51%) Onboarding
7 9 (2.26%) Data Structures
7 9 (2.26%) Distributed Computing
8 8 (2.01%) Algorithms
9 7 (1.76%) Data Fabric
9 7 (1.76%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (1.76%) NHS
10 6 (1.51%) Distributed Systems
10 6 (1.51%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (1.51%) IoT
10 6 (1.51%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 14 (3.52%) Linux
2 11 (2.76%) Unix
3 7 (1.76%) Windows
4 3 (0.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.25%) VMS
5 1 (0.25%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (43.47%) Analytics
2 145 (36.43%) Data Pipeline
3 137 (34.42%) ETL
4 119 (29.90%) Data Modelling
5 114 (28.64%) CI/CD
6 107 (26.88%) Business Intelligence
7 102 (25.63%) Agile
7 102 (25.63%) Data Governance
8 93 (23.37%) Data Engineering
9 91 (22.86%) DevOps
10 82 (20.60%) Data Architecture
11 66 (16.58%) Infrastructure as Code
12 63 (15.83%) Machine Learning
13 58 (14.57%) AI
14 55 (13.82%) Software Engineering
15 54 (13.57%) Data Integration
16 52 (13.07%) Data Science
17 49 (12.31%) Migration
18 48 (12.06%) Data Transformation
19 46 (11.56%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 198 (49.75%) SQL
2 181 (45.48%) Python
3 53 (13.32%) Java
4 39 (9.80%) JavaScript
5 35 (8.79%) TypeScript
6 20 (5.03%) Scala
7 13 (3.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 12 (3.02%) Bash
8 12 (3.02%) T-SQL
9 11 (2.76%) Bicep
9 11 (2.76%) C#
9 11 (2.76%) PowerShell
9 11 (2.76%) R
10 8 (2.01%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.75%) C
11 3 (0.75%) Korn
12 2 (0.50%) Perl
13 1 (0.25%) C++
13 1 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.25%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 36 (9.05%) Security Cleared
2 29 (7.29%) Degree
3 27 (6.78%) SC Cleared
4 15 (3.77%) Azure Certification
5 13 (3.27%) Master's Degree
6 8 (2.01%) AWS Certification
6 8 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (2.01%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (1.51%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (0.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 2 (0.50%) ACCA
9 2 (0.50%) CIMA
9 2 (0.50%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.50%) PMI Certification
9 2 (0.50%) PMP
10 1 (0.25%) APMG
10 1 (0.25%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 1 (0.25%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.25%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 1 (0.25%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (16.58%) Data Quality
2 48 (12.06%) GDPR
3 15 (3.77%) HIPAA
4 14 (3.52%) QA
5 9 (2.26%) NIST
6 4 (1.01%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.50%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 2 (0.50%) GRC
7 2 (0.50%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.25%) IFRS
8 1 (0.25%) Solvency II
System Software
1 27 (6.78%) Docker
2 13 (3.27%) Active Directory
3 8 (2.01%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (1.26%) zsh
5 1 (0.25%) HDFS
5 1 (0.25%) Lustre
5 1 (0.25%) NFS
Systems Management
1 62 (15.58%) Terraform
2 30 (7.54%) Kubernetes
3 9 (2.26%) Grafana
4 6 (1.51%) Ansible
5 3 (0.75%) Argo
5 3 (0.75%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.50%) Fluentd
6 2 (0.50%) Packer
6 2 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.25%) Kibana
7 1 (0.25%) Kubeflow
7 1 (0.25%) logstash
7 1 (0.25%) Oracle ZFS
7 1 (0.25%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.25%) Puppet
7 1 (0.25%) Salt
7 1 (0.25%) SELinux
Vendors
1 147 (36.93%) Databricks
2 83 (20.85%) Microsoft
3 27 (6.78%) SAP
4 16 (4.02%) Google
5 13 (3.27%) Oracle
6 12 (3.02%) Informatica
7 10 (2.51%) OpenAI
8 7 (1.76%) Cloudera
9 6 (1.51%) Salesforce
10 5 (1.26%) Foundry
10 5 (1.26%) Palantir
10 5 (1.26%) Talend
11 2 (0.50%) Anaplan
11 2 (0.50%) eFront
11 2 (0.50%) Guidewire
11 2 (0.50%) Hyperion
11 2 (0.50%) New Relic
11 2 (0.50%) Qualtrics
11 2 (0.50%) ServiceNow
11 2 (0.50%) SimCorp