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

6 months to
13 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 231 237 158
Rank change year-on-year +6 -79 +63
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 602 376 610
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 1.14% 1.58%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.33% 6.32% 8.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 471 278 515
10th Percentile £400 £375 £450
25th Percentile £450 £463 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £750
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% -23.33% +30.43%
75th Percentile £650 £749 £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 3 0 0
10th Percentile £35.80 - -
25th Percentile £40.19 - -
Median hourly rate £50.00 - -
75th Percentile £53.75 - -
90th Percentile £54.50 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 - -

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 8,212 5,947 6,915
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.11% 18.07% 17.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,471 3,973 4,785
10th Percentile £358 £338 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £530
Median % change year-on-year - -5.66% -2.21%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £747 £795
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £480
% change year-on-year - -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 92 86
10th Percentile £16.49 £22.85 £17.50
25th Percentile £24.13 £30.55 £20.88
Median hourly rate £39.84 £39.48 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.91% +12.80% -36.36%
75th Percentile £60.75 £65.00 £59.34
90th Percentile £76.00 £80.00 £73.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £34.98 £30.00
% change year-on-year +11.49% +16.60% -43.93%

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 13 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Lake over the 6 months to 13 September 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 13 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 -29 482 £560 -6.67% 329
London -54 289 £575 -11.54% 212
Work from Home -38 209 £525 -19.23% 133
UK excluding London 0 192 £525 +10.53% 174
Midlands +24 79 £600 +39.53% 22
West Midlands +7 58 £615 +23.00% 14
North of England -41 50 £550 +15.79% 34
North West -37 30 £525 +10.53% 18
East Midlands 0 21 £500 +21.95% 8
Scotland -10 20 £410 +14.53% 47
Yorkshire -30 19 £550 +15.79% 12
South East -69 17 £459 -0.22% 26
South West -30 16 £600 +26.32% 16
East of England -24 10 £575 +4.55% 17
Wales -15 3 £500 -16.67% 6
North East -41 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 65 (10.80%) Apache Spark
2 48 (7.97%) Apache
3 46 (7.64%) Apache Airflow
4 35 (5.81%) SAS
5 20 (3.32%) Confluence
6 11 (1.83%) SharePoint
7 3 (0.50%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.33%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.33%) nginx
8 2 (0.33%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.17%) Apache Superset
9 1 (0.17%) Apache Synapse
9 1 (0.17%) JBoss
9 1 (0.17%) MQSeries
9 1 (0.17%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 6 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 6 (1.00%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 5 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.50%) Adobe Campaign
3 3 (0.50%) 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 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.17%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.17%) SAP BPC
5 1 (0.17%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 381 (63.29%) Azure
2 205 (34.05%) AWS
3 182 (30.23%) Power Platform
4 148 (24.58%) Azure Data Factory
5 117 (19.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 96 (15.95%) GCP
7 90 (14.95%) Snowflake
8 87 (14.45%) Azure DevOps
9 59 (9.80%) Serverless
10 57 (9.47%) Amazon S3
11 54 (8.97%) GitHub
12 49 (8.14%) Azure Databricks
13 37 (6.15%) AWS Lambda
14 34 (5.65%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 34 (5.65%) dbt
15 31 (5.15%) Entra ID
16 25 (4.15%) GitHub Actions
17 24 (3.99%) Azure Monitor
17 24 (3.99%) SaaS
18 22 (3.65%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.83%) Firewall
1 11 (1.83%) HTTP
2 8 (1.33%) DNS
3 5 (0.83%) WAN
4 3 (0.50%) Broadband
5 2 (0.33%) DSL
5 2 (0.33%) Network Security
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
1 240 (39.87%) Data Warehouse
2 164 (27.24%) Power BI
3 95 (15.78%) Metadata
4 58 (9.63%) Azure SQL Database
5 57 (9.47%) Amazon Redshift
6 44 (7.31%) NoSQL
7 41 (6.81%) Delta Lake
8 39 (6.48%) Amazon Athena
9 36 (5.98%) Big Data
10 35 (5.81%) SQL Server
11 32 (5.32%) BigQuery
12 31 (5.15%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
13 26 (4.32%) Relational Database
14 25 (4.15%) PostgreSQL
15 23 (3.82%) Tableau
16 21 (3.49%) Semantic Layer
16 21 (3.49%) Star Schema
17 18 (2.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
18 16 (2.66%) Amazon RDS
19 15 (2.49%) Base SAS
Development Applications
1 58 (9.63%) Git
2 34 (5.65%) GitLab
3 26 (4.32%) JIRA
4 17 (2.82%) Jenkins
5 8 (1.33%) ERwin
6 7 (1.16%) ER Studio
7 6 (1.00%) PowerDesigner
8 5 (0.83%) MLflow
9 4 (0.66%) JUnit
9 4 (0.66%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.50%) Terragrunt
11 2 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.17%) Postman
12 1 (0.17%) Robot Framework
12 1 (0.17%) TestRail
12 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 143 (23.75%) Finance
1 143 (23.75%) Social Skills
2 70 (11.63%) Analytical Skills
3 59 (9.80%) Public Sector
4 41 (6.81%) Banking
5 30 (4.98%) Retail
6 26 (4.32%) Marketing
7 20 (3.32%) Manufacturing
8 16 (2.66%) Influencing Skills
9 14 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
10 10 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.16%) Military
11 7 (1.16%) Police
12 6 (1.00%) Financial Institution
12 6 (1.00%) Investment Banking
12 6 (1.00%) Publishing
13 4 (0.66%) Corporate Banking
13 4 (0.66%) Legal
13 4 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.50%) Law
Job Titles
1 208 (34.55%) Architect
2 165 (27.41%) Data Engineer
3 135 (22.43%) Data Architect
4 92 (15.28%) Senior
5 58 (9.63%) Azure Engineer
6 56 (9.30%) Solutions Architect
7 49 (8.14%) Analyst
7 49 (8.14%) Senior Data Engineer
8 38 (6.31%) Azure Data Engineer
9 36 (5.98%) Data Analyst
9 36 (5.98%) Lead
10 33 (5.48%) Developer
11 32 (5.32%) Business Analyst
12 30 (4.98%) Data Business Analyst
13 25 (4.15%) Cloud Architect
13 25 (4.15%) Databricks Engineer
14 21 (3.49%) Azure Architect
15 20 (3.32%) Databricks Data Engineer
16 18 (2.99%) Technical Leader
17 17 (2.82%) Cloud Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (14.78%) Terraform
2 68 (11.30%) PySpark
3 49 (8.14%) Kafka
4 32 (5.32%) REST
5 13 (2.16%) .NET
6 12 (1.99%) JSON
6 12 (1.99%) YAML
7 11 (1.83%) Spring Boot
8 10 (1.66%) Model Context Protocol
8 10 (1.66%) Spring
9 8 (1.33%) LangChain
9 8 (1.33%) Middleware
10 7 (1.16%) Apache NiFi
10 7 (1.16%) ARM Templates
11 6 (1.00%) Microsoft Graph
11 6 (1.00%) Node.js
11 6 (1.00%) OAuth
11 6 (1.00%) pytest
11 6 (1.00%) XML
12 5 (0.83%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 88 (14.62%) Cloud Native
2 43 (7.14%) Data Structures
3 33 (5.48%) Product Ownership
4 21 (3.49%) Distributed Systems
5 19 (3.16%) Data Fabric
6 18 (2.99%) AI Agents
6 18 (2.99%) Onboarding
7 17 (2.82%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (2.16%) Low-Code
9 12 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
9 12 (1.99%) Reference Data
10 11 (1.83%) Marketing Technology
11 8 (1.33%) Autonomous Agent
11 8 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.33%) Management Information System
12 7 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (1.16%) IoT
12 7 (1.16%) Reinsurance
13 6 (1.00%) Enterprise Cloud
13 6 (1.00%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 19 (3.16%) Linux
2 12 (1.99%) Unix
3 6 (1.00%) Windows
4 4 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.50%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 309 (51.33%) Analytics
2 262 (43.52%) Data Modelling
3 258 (42.86%) ETL
4 240 (39.87%) Data Pipeline
5 223 (37.04%) CI/CD
6 213 (35.38%) Data Engineering
7 200 (33.22%) Business Intelligence
8 190 (31.56%) Data Governance
9 182 (30.23%) Agile
10 174 (28.90%) DevOps
11 168 (27.91%) AI
12 166 (27.57%) Data Architecture
13 155 (25.75%) Migration
14 121 (20.10%) Stakeholder Management
15 114 (18.94%) Lakehouse
16 105 (17.44%) Data Transformation
17 99 (16.45%) Data Integration
18 96 (15.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 92 (15.28%) Machine Learning
20 82 (13.62%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 323 (53.65%) SQL
2 181 (30.07%) Python
3 35 (5.81%) Java
4 21 (3.49%) PowerShell
5 20 (3.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 18 (2.99%) Bicep
7 17 (2.82%) Bash
8 14 (2.33%) C#
9 12 (1.99%) Scala
10 8 (1.33%) JavaScript
10 8 (1.33%) T-SQL
11 7 (1.16%) Shell Script
12 6 (1.00%) PL/SQL
13 4 (0.66%) R
13 4 (0.66%) TypeScript
14 3 (0.50%) Kusto Query Language
15 2 (0.33%) Cypher
15 2 (0.33%) SHACL
15 2 (0.33%) SOQL
16 1 (0.17%) Ada
Qualifications
1 143 (23.75%) Security Cleared
2 108 (17.94%) SC Cleared
3 28 (4.65%) Azure Certification
4 20 (3.32%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (3.16%) DV Cleared
6 16 (2.66%) Degree
7 10 (1.66%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 9 (1.50%) AWS Certification
9 8 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (1.33%) Master's Degree
9 8 (1.33%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (0.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 4 (0.66%) CSPO
11 4 (0.66%) TOGAF Certification
12 3 (0.50%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (0.50%) CCSP
12 3 (0.50%) CISM
12 3 (0.50%) CISSP
12 3 (0.50%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 3 (0.50%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 205 (34.05%) Data Quality
2 40 (6.64%) GDPR
3 29 (4.82%) QA
4 10 (1.66%) Accessibility
5 9 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.16%) NIST
7 6 (1.00%) GRC
7 6 (1.00%) Solvency II
8 5 (0.83%) MiFID
8 5 (0.83%) NCSC
9 3 (0.50%) IFRS
9 3 (0.50%) IFRS 17
9 3 (0.50%) PMO
9 3 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.50%) SLA
10 2 (0.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.17%) Basel II
11 1 (0.17%) PSD2
11 1 (0.17%) SOC 2
System Software
1 39 (6.48%) Docker
2 11 (1.83%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.33%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.33%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 44 (7.31%) Kubernetes
2 15 (2.49%) Grafana
3 9 (1.50%) Ansible
4 8 (1.33%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.66%) Puppet
6 3 (0.50%) Argo
6 3 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.33%) 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
1 225 (37.38%) Databricks
2 150 (24.92%) Microsoft
3 36 (5.98%) Informatica
4 28 (4.65%) Google
5 24 (3.99%) Oracle
6 19 (3.16%) OpenAI
7 18 (2.99%) SAP
8 16 (2.66%) Denodo
9 14 (2.33%) Talend
10 10 (1.66%) Salesforce
11 8 (1.33%) Adobe
12 6 (1.00%) Dynatrace
12 6 (1.00%) MuleSoft
12 6 (1.00%) SnapLogic
12 6 (1.00%) Sparx
12 6 (1.00%) Teradata
13 5 (0.83%) Cloudera
13 5 (0.83%) IBM
13 5 (0.83%) Infor
14 4 (0.66%) MicroStrategy