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 1 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 231 249 161
Rank change year-on-year +18 -88 +52
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 594 361 608
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 1.10% 1.57%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.27% 6.12% 8.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 456 263 515
10th Percentile £404 £400 £445
25th Percentile £456 £463 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £750
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% -23.33% +30.43%
75th Percentile £650 £750 £850
90th Percentile £750 £825 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile £48.25 - -
25th Percentile £49.38 - -
Median hourly rate £52.50 - -
75th Percentile £54.38 - -
90th Percentile £54.75 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 - -

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 8,175 5,898 6,993
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.24% 18.01% 18.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,437 3,953 4,879
10th Percentile £358 £340 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £610 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £480
% change year-on-year - -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 259 94 100
10th Percentile £15.90 £21.22 £14.93
25th Percentile £23.00 £29.02 £19.77
Median hourly rate £38.50 £38.85 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -0.89% +19.52% -40.91%
75th Percentile £61.13 £64.94 £55.63
90th Percentile £75.20 £79.63 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £34.19 £30.00
% change year-on-year +11.87% +13.97% -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 1 September 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 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 1 September 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 -24 480 £565 -5.83% 390
London -49 290 £588 -9.62% 264
Work from Home -18 210 £525 -19.23% 175
UK excluding London +4 189 £525 +10.53% 197
Midlands +11 77 £600 +46.34% 25
West Midlands +5 59 £600 +50.00% 13
North of England -43 50 £550 +15.79% 41
North West -41 30 £525 +10.53% 26
Yorkshire -25 19 £550 +22.09% 11
South East -67 19 £448 -3.39% 35
East Midlands -2 18 £500 +21.95% 12
Scotland -3 18 £425 - 42
South West -25 15 £600 +26.32% 25
East of England -25 10 £575 +4.55% 15
Wales -12 3 £500 - 7
North East -45 1 £450 - 4

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 70 (11.78%) Apache Spark
2 48 (8.08%) Apache
3 41 (6.90%) Apache Airflow
4 36 (6.06%) SAS
5 19 (3.20%) Confluence
6 8 (1.35%) SharePoint
7 3 (0.51%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.34%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.34%) nginx
8 2 (0.34%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.17%) Apache Superset
9 1 (0.17%) Apache Synapse
9 1 (0.17%) JBoss
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 5 (0.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (1.01%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 5 (0.84%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.51%) Adobe Campaign
3 3 (0.51%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.34%) Aladdin
4 2 (0.34%) Endur
4 2 (0.34%) Infor M3
4 2 (0.34%) SAP MDG
4 2 (0.34%) Temenos T24
5 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.17%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 369 (62.12%) Azure
2 210 (35.35%) AWS
3 179 (30.13%) Power Platform
4 144 (24.24%) Azure Data Factory
5 112 (18.86%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 96 (16.16%) GCP
7 85 (14.31%) Azure DevOps
8 84 (14.14%) Snowflake
9 63 (10.61%) Amazon S3
10 61 (10.27%) GitHub
11 58 (9.76%) Serverless
12 52 (8.75%) Azure Databricks
13 37 (6.23%) AWS Lambda
14 32 (5.39%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 31 (5.22%) dbt
16 28 (4.71%) GitHub Actions
17 27 (4.55%) Entra ID
18 22 (3.70%) Azure Monitor
18 22 (3.70%) SaaS
19 20 (3.37%) Amazon EMR
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.68%) Firewall
1 10 (1.68%) HTTP
2 7 (1.18%) DNS
3 5 (0.84%) WAN
4 3 (0.51%) Broadband
4 3 (0.51%) Network Security
5 2 (0.34%) DSL
6 1 (0.17%) AMQP
6 1 (0.17%) IPsec
6 1 (0.17%) LoRaWAN
6 1 (0.17%) Modbus
6 1 (0.17%) MQTT
6 1 (0.17%) OpenVPN
6 1 (0.17%) Radio Access Network
6 1 (0.17%) Reverse Proxy
6 1 (0.17%) SMS
6 1 (0.17%) VPN
6 1 (0.17%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 230 (38.72%) Data Warehouse
2 162 (27.27%) Power BI
3 88 (14.81%) Metadata
4 65 (10.94%) Amazon Redshift
5 58 (9.76%) Azure SQL Database
6 43 (7.24%) Amazon Athena
7 41 (6.90%) Delta Lake
8 40 (6.73%) NoSQL
9 39 (6.57%) Big Data
10 36 (6.06%) SQL Server
11 30 (5.05%) BigQuery
11 30 (5.05%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
12 25 (4.21%) PostgreSQL
12 25 (4.21%) Relational Database
13 24 (4.04%) Tableau
14 20 (3.37%) Star Schema
15 19 (3.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 18 (3.03%) Semantic Layer
17 17 (2.86%) Amazon RDS
17 17 (2.86%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 55 (9.26%) Git
2 32 (5.39%) GitLab
3 25 (4.21%) JIRA
4 18 (3.03%) Jenkins
5 8 (1.35%) ERwin
6 7 (1.18%) ER Studio
7 6 (1.01%) PowerDesigner
8 5 (0.84%) MLflow
9 4 (0.67%) JUnit
10 3 (0.51%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.34%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.34%) Terragrunt
12 1 (0.17%) Postman
12 1 (0.17%) Robot Framework
12 1 (0.17%) TestRail
12 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 146 (24.58%) Finance
2 137 (23.06%) Social Skills
3 71 (11.95%) Analytical Skills
4 58 (9.76%) Public Sector
5 40 (6.73%) Banking
6 26 (4.38%) Retail
7 22 (3.70%) Marketing
8 19 (3.20%) Manufacturing
9 14 (2.36%) Documentation Skills
10 13 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
11 10 (1.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (1.18%) Military
12 7 (1.18%) Police
13 6 (1.01%) Financial Institution
14 5 (0.84%) Investment Banking
15 4 (0.67%) Legal
15 4 (0.67%) Publishing
16 3 (0.51%) Law
16 3 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
17 2 (0.34%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 202 (34.01%) Architect
2 169 (28.45%) Data Engineer
3 129 (21.72%) Data Architect
4 88 (14.81%) Senior
5 56 (9.43%) Solutions Architect
6 52 (8.75%) Azure Engineer
7 50 (8.42%) Analyst
8 47 (7.91%) Senior Data Engineer
9 37 (6.23%) Lead
10 36 (6.06%) Data Analyst
11 35 (5.89%) Azure Data Engineer
12 31 (5.22%) Business Analyst
12 31 (5.22%) Developer
13 29 (4.88%) Data Business Analyst
14 26 (4.38%) Cloud Architect
15 23 (3.87%) Databricks Engineer
16 21 (3.54%) Azure Architect
17 19 (3.20%) Databricks Data Engineer
18 18 (3.03%) AWS Engineer
18 18 (3.03%) Cloud Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (14.14%) Terraform
2 71 (11.95%) PySpark
3 51 (8.59%) Kafka
4 29 (4.88%) REST
5 12 (2.02%) YAML
6 11 (1.85%) JSON
7 10 (1.68%) Spring Boot
8 9 (1.52%) .NET
8 9 (1.52%) Middleware
8 9 (1.52%) Model Context Protocol
8 9 (1.52%) Spring
9 7 (1.18%) ARM Templates
9 7 (1.18%) LangChain
10 5 (0.84%) A2A Protocol
10 5 (0.84%) Great Expectations
10 5 (0.84%) HTML
10 5 (0.84%) Langfuse
10 5 (0.84%) LangGraph
10 5 (0.84%) Microsoft Graph
10 5 (0.84%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 89 (14.98%) Cloud Native
2 40 (6.73%) Data Structures
3 32 (5.39%) Product Ownership
4 22 (3.70%) Distributed Systems
5 21 (3.54%) Legacy Systems
6 18 (3.03%) AI Agents
7 16 (2.69%) Data Fabric
8 12 (2.02%) Low-Code
8 12 (2.02%) Onboarding
8 12 (2.02%) Reference Data
9 11 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (1.52%) Data Protection Act
10 9 (1.52%) IoT
10 9 (1.52%) Marketing Technology
11 8 (1.35%) Management Information System
12 7 (1.18%) Autonomous Agent
13 6 (1.01%) Enterprise Cloud
13 6 (1.01%) Hybrid Cloud
13 6 (1.01%) Reinsurance
13 6 (1.01%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 21 (3.54%) Linux
2 14 (2.36%) Unix
3 4 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 4 (0.67%) Windows
4 3 (0.51%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 308 (51.85%) Analytics
2 263 (44.28%) ETL
3 255 (42.93%) Data Modelling
4 240 (40.40%) Data Pipeline
5 219 (36.87%) CI/CD
6 211 (35.52%) Data Engineering
7 200 (33.67%) Business Intelligence
8 189 (31.82%) Data Governance
9 176 (29.63%) Agile
10 168 (28.28%) Data Architecture
11 167 (28.11%) DevOps
12 162 (27.27%) AI
13 149 (25.08%) Migration
14 111 (18.69%) Stakeholder Management
15 106 (17.85%) Lakehouse
16 102 (17.17%) Data Transformation
17 96 (16.16%) Data Integration
18 90 (15.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 88 (14.81%) Machine Learning
20 84 (14.14%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 324 (54.55%) SQL
2 187 (31.48%) Python
3 36 (6.06%) Java
4 24 (4.04%) PowerShell
5 18 (3.03%) Bash
5 18 (3.03%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 18 (3.03%) Scala
6 17 (2.86%) Bicep
7 13 (2.19%) C#
8 11 (1.85%) Shell Script
9 8 (1.35%) JavaScript
10 7 (1.18%) T-SQL
11 6 (1.01%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.84%) R
13 4 (0.67%) TypeScript
14 3 (0.51%) Kusto Query Language
15 2 (0.34%) Cypher
15 2 (0.34%) SHACL
15 2 (0.34%) SOQL
16 1 (0.17%) Ada
Qualifications
1 144 (24.24%) Security Cleared
2 113 (19.02%) SC Cleared
3 25 (4.21%) Azure Certification
4 19 (3.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (2.69%) DV Cleared
6 14 (2.36%) Degree
7 9 (1.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 7 (1.18%) AWS Certification
8 7 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (1.18%) Master's Degree
8 7 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (0.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 4 (0.67%) CSPO
10 3 (0.51%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 3 (0.51%) CCSP
10 3 (0.51%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.51%) CISM
10 3 (0.51%) CISSP
10 3 (0.51%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 3 (0.51%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 196 (33.00%) Data Quality
2 46 (7.74%) GDPR
3 31 (5.22%) QA
4 9 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.18%) Accessibility
5 7 (1.18%) NIST
6 6 (1.01%) Solvency II
7 5 (0.84%) GRC
7 5 (0.84%) MiFID
7 5 (0.84%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.51%) IFRS
8 3 (0.51%) IFRS 17
8 3 (0.51%) PMO
8 3 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.51%) SLA
9 2 (0.34%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.34%) NCSC
10 1 (0.17%) Basel II
10 1 (0.17%) SOC 2
System Software
1 36 (6.06%) Docker
2 11 (1.85%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.84%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.34%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 42 (7.07%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.69%) Grafana
3 9 (1.52%) Ansible
4 8 (1.35%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.67%) Puppet
6 3 (0.51%) Argo
6 3 (0.51%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.34%) Control-M
8 1 (0.17%) IBM Guardium
8 1 (0.17%) Istio
8 1 (0.17%) linkerd
8 1 (0.17%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.17%) QRadar
Vendors
1 219 (36.87%) Databricks
2 142 (23.91%) Microsoft
3 38 (6.40%) Informatica
4 28 (4.71%) Google
5 23 (3.87%) Oracle
6 20 (3.37%) OpenAI
7 16 (2.69%) SAP
8 15 (2.53%) Denodo
9 14 (2.36%) Talend
10 10 (1.68%) Salesforce
11 9 (1.52%) Cloudera
12 8 (1.35%) Adobe
13 6 (1.01%) Dynatrace
13 6 (1.01%) SnapLogic
13 6 (1.01%) Sparx
13 6 (1.01%) Teradata
14 5 (0.84%) IBM
14 5 (0.84%) Infor
14 5 (0.84%) MuleSoft
15 4 (0.67%) Foundry