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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 239 174 232
Rank change year-on-year -65 +58 +2
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 482 442 460
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.08% 1.52% 1.04%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 6.81% 8.05% 6.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 346 355 335
10th Percentile £400 £378 £389
25th Percentile £450 £464 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £580 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.17% +10.48% -8.70%
75th Percentile £638 £763 £650
90th Percentile £750 £938 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 3
10th Percentile - - £30.30
25th Percentile £64.00 - £34.13
Median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% +60.49% +15.71%
75th Percentile £69.11 - £51.00
90th Percentile £69.31 - £57.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 - £40.50
% change year-on-year - - +15.71%

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 7,074 5,492 7,291
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.89% 18.89% 16.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,873 3,820 5,165
10th Percentile £350 £351 £350
25th Percentile £413 £420 £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 £760 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £488
% change year-on-year -2.56% - -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 100 162
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.72 £14.04
25th Percentile £32.19 £24.25 £20.78
Median hourly rate £51.75 £31.64 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +63.56% -20.90% -33.33%
75th Percentile £75.00 £64.63 £55.94
90th Percentile £85.00 £70.63 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £29.90 £39.25
% change year-on-year +67.22% -23.82% -28.64%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 -95 390 £550 -8.33% 144
London -50 283 £600 -11.11% 67
Work from Home -77 158 £550 -18.52% 70
UK excluding London -78 116 £475 - 107
North of England -61 37 £486 +6.52% 31
Scotland +14 23 £475 +10.21% 3
Midlands -61 23 £450 +2.86% 14
South East -65 19 £425 -11.83% 32
North West -34 18 £425 -14.55% 22
Yorkshire -44 13 £550 +22.22% 5
East Midlands -28 12 £445 +25.11% 7
West Midlands -60 11 £513 +17.14% 7
East of England -33 8 £575 -0.86% 10
North East -13 6 £475 +32.68% 4
South West -25 3 £675 +3.85% 15
Wales -10 2 £410 +14.35% 4
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 81 (16.80%) Apache Spark
2 52 (10.79%) Apache
3 47 (9.75%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (1.45%) Confluence
5 4 (0.83%) SharePoint
6 3 (0.62%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.41%) Apache Synapse
7 2 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.41%) nginx
7 2 (0.41%) SAS
Applications
1 4 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.41%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.21%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (2.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.41%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.21%) Infor M3
3 1 (0.21%) Loan IQ
Cloud Services
1 338 (70.12%) Azure
2 166 (34.44%) AWS
2 166 (34.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
2 166 (34.44%) Power Platform
3 153 (31.74%) Azure Data Factory
4 88 (18.26%) Azure DevOps
5 85 (17.63%) GitHub
6 67 (13.90%) GCP
7 66 (13.69%) Serverless
8 57 (11.83%) Amazon S3
9 44 (9.13%) Snowflake
10 42 (8.71%) AWS CloudFormation
11 40 (8.30%) GitHub Actions
12 36 (7.47%) Microsoft Purview
13 33 (6.85%) Azure Functions
14 29 (6.02%) Azure Key Vault
15 25 (5.19%) AWS Lambda
15 25 (5.19%) Collibra
16 23 (4.77%) Azure Cosmos DB
17 19 (3.94%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.07%) Firewall
2 4 (0.83%) VPN
3 3 (0.62%) Kerberos
3 3 (0.62%) Network Security
4 2 (0.41%) Hyperconnected
5 1 (0.21%) 4G
5 1 (0.21%) 5G
5 1 (0.21%) DSL
5 1 (0.21%) Ethernet
5 1 (0.21%) InfiniBand
5 1 (0.21%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 151 (31.33%) Power BI
2 134 (27.80%) Data Warehouse
3 68 (14.11%) Metadata
4 64 (13.28%) Azure SQL Database
5 62 (12.86%) Delta Lake
5 62 (12.86%) SQL Server
6 38 (7.88%) Amazon Athena
7 33 (6.85%) Amazon Redshift
8 30 (6.22%) Big Data
9 29 (6.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 26 (5.39%) PostgreSQL
11 23 (4.77%) NoSQL
12 22 (4.56%) BigQuery
12 22 (4.56%) Hadoop
12 22 (4.56%) Mixpanel
13 21 (4.36%) Relational Database
13 21 (4.36%) Spark SQL
14 20 (4.15%) OLAP
15 18 (3.73%) Snowflake Schema
16 17 (3.53%) OLTP
Development Applications
1 47 (9.75%) Git
2 30 (6.22%) GitLab
3 13 (2.70%) Jenkins
4 11 (2.28%) MLflow
5 10 (2.07%) JIRA
6 3 (0.62%) ER Studio
6 3 (0.62%) ERwin
6 3 (0.62%) JMeter
7 2 (0.41%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.21%) Hudson
8 1 (0.21%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.21%) PowerDesigner
8 1 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.21%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio
General
1 123 (25.52%) Finance
2 111 (23.03%) Social Skills
3 56 (11.62%) Analytical Skills
4 46 (9.54%) Public Sector
5 16 (3.32%) Banking
6 15 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
7 12 (2.49%) Influencing Skills
8 10 (2.07%) Pharmaceutical
9 7 (1.45%) Retail
10 6 (1.24%) Marketing
11 4 (0.83%) Front Office
11 4 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 4 (0.83%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.62%) Military
13 2 (0.41%) Back Office
13 2 (0.41%) Billing
13 2 (0.41%) Legal
13 2 (0.41%) Local Government
13 2 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.41%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 168 (34.85%) Data Engineer
2 110 (22.82%) Architect
3 64 (13.28%) Data Architect
4 61 (12.66%) Senior
5 46 (9.54%) Azure Engineer
6 43 (8.92%) Lead
7 35 (7.26%) Solutions Architect
8 32 (6.64%) Senior Data Engineer
9 31 (6.43%) Principal Engineer
10 30 (6.22%) AWS Engineer
10 30 (6.22%) Developer
11 27 (5.60%) Azure Data Engineer
12 26 (5.39%) Software Engineer
13 21 (4.36%) Principal Software Engineer
14 19 (3.94%) Principal Data Engineer
15 17 (3.53%) Cloud Architect
15 17 (3.53%) DevOps Engineer
16 16 (3.32%) Azure Architect
16 16 (3.32%) Data Analytics Engineer
16 16 (3.32%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (20.95%) PySpark
2 60 (12.45%) Kafka
3 23 (4.77%) REST
4 19 (3.94%) Great Expectations
5 16 (3.32%) JSON
6 13 (2.70%) Model Context Protocol
6 13 (2.70%) Pandas
7 11 (2.28%) LangChain
7 11 (2.28%) Microsoft Graph
7 11 (2.28%) Spark Streaming
7 11 (2.28%) XML
8 10 (2.07%) LangGraph
8 10 (2.07%) PyTorch
8 10 (2.07%) scikit-learn
8 10 (2.07%) YAML
9 7 (1.45%) A2A Protocol
9 7 (1.45%) FastAPI
9 7 (1.45%) NumPy
9 7 (1.45%) TensorFlow
10 5 (1.04%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 56 (11.62%) Cloud Native
2 19 (3.94%) Data Structures
3 17 (3.53%) Distributed Computing
3 17 (3.53%) IoT
4 16 (3.32%) Legacy Systems
5 14 (2.90%) Product Ownership
6 12 (2.49%) Distributed Systems
7 11 (2.28%) Management Information System
8 9 (1.87%) Data Fabric
8 9 (1.87%) Onboarding
9 7 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
10 6 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (1.24%) Digital Media
10 6 (1.24%) NHS
11 5 (1.04%) AI Agents
11 5 (1.04%) Replication
12 4 (0.83%) Algorithms
12 4 (0.83%) Security Posture
12 4 (0.83%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (0.62%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 14 (2.90%) Linux
2 10 (2.07%) Unix
3 5 (1.04%) Windows
4 2 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.21%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 274 (56.85%) Analytics
2 239 (49.59%) ETL
3 204 (42.32%) Data Modelling
4 201 (41.70%) Data Pipeline
5 191 (39.63%) CI/CD
6 187 (38.80%) Data Engineering
7 174 (36.10%) Business Intelligence
8 170 (35.27%) DevOps
9 163 (33.82%) Data Governance
10 123 (25.52%) Data Architecture
11 118 (24.48%) AI
12 92 (19.09%) Agile
13 87 (18.05%) Machine Learning
14 84 (17.43%) Infrastructure as Code
15 82 (17.01%) Problem-Solving
16 77 (15.98%) Migration
17 64 (13.28%) Data Integration
18 60 (12.45%) Data Science
19 59 (12.24%) Data Transformation
20 52 (10.79%) Data Ingestion
Programming Languages
1 288 (59.75%) SQL
2 234 (48.55%) Python
3 32 (6.64%) C#
4 31 (6.43%) Java
5 23 (4.77%) Scala
6 22 (4.56%) T-SQL
7 20 (4.15%) PowerShell
8 18 (3.73%) Bicep
9 17 (3.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 11 (2.28%) Bash
11 10 (2.07%) PL/SQL
12 9 (1.87%) JavaScript
13 6 (1.24%) R
14 4 (0.83%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.62%) TypeScript
16 2 (0.41%) Ada
16 2 (0.41%) C++
17 1 (0.21%) ANSI SQL
17 1 (0.21%) C
17 1 (0.21%) Perl
Qualifications
1 88 (18.26%) Security Cleared
2 67 (13.90%) SC Cleared
3 30 (6.22%) Degree
4 20 (4.15%) Azure Certification
5 16 (3.32%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (3.11%) Master's Degree
7 9 (1.87%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (1.66%) AWS Certification
9 7 (1.45%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 7 (1.45%) TOGAF Certification
10 5 (1.04%) CISM
10 5 (1.04%) CISSP
10 5 (1.04%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.62%) ISTQB
11 3 (0.62%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 3 (0.62%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.62%) PMP
12 2 (0.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.41%) DV Cleared
12 2 (0.41%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 144 (29.88%) Data Quality
2 72 (14.94%) GDPR
3 23 (4.77%) QA
4 7 (1.45%) Accessibility
4 7 (1.45%) PCI DSS
4 7 (1.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 6 (1.24%) HIPAA
5 6 (1.24%) NIST
6 3 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
6 3 (0.62%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 2 (0.41%) PMO
8 1 (0.21%) IFRS
8 1 (0.21%) IFRS 9
8 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.21%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.21%) Solvency II
System Software
1 34 (7.05%) Docker
2 5 (1.04%) Active Directory
2 5 (1.04%) HDFS
3 3 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.21%) Lustre
4 1 (0.21%) NFS
Systems Management
1 102 (21.16%) Terraform
2 35 (7.26%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.66%) Grafana
4 6 (1.24%) Ansible
5 5 (1.04%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.21%) Fluentd
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%) Packer
7 1 (0.21%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.21%) Puppet
7 1 (0.21%) Salt
7 1 (0.21%) SELinux
Vendors
1 198 (41.08%) Databricks
2 151 (31.33%) Microsoft
3 31 (6.43%) Informatica
4 28 (5.81%) Google
5 22 (4.56%) Oracle
6 17 (3.53%) OpenAI
6 17 (3.53%) SAP
7 11 (2.28%) Talend
8 8 (1.66%) Cloudera
9 6 (1.24%) Salesforce
10 5 (1.04%) ServiceNow
11 4 (0.83%) BiZZdesign
11 4 (0.83%) CheckPoint
11 4 (0.83%) Fortinet
11 4 (0.83%) Greenplum
12 3 (0.62%) Ab Initio
12 3 (0.62%) Hortonworks
12 3 (0.62%) Red Hat
12 3 (0.62%) Splunk
13 2 (0.41%) Infor