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 26 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 233 191 235
Rank change year-on-year -42 +44 +16
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 479 435 443
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 1.42% 1.01%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.10% 7.59% 6.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 344 350 309
10th Percentile £383 £389 £400
25th Percentile £431 £469 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £539 £587 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.22% +11.81% -8.70%
75th Percentile £638 £763 £635
90th Percentile £725 £938 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £525
% change year-on-year -5.26% -9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 3
10th Percentile - - £34.20
25th Percentile £64.00 - £43.88
Median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% +8.33% +71.43%
75th Percentile £69.11 - £60.75
90th Percentile £69.31 - £61.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 - £45.75
% change year-on-year - - +30.71%

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 6,744 5,731 7,126
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.27% 18.68% 16.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,650 3,859 5,066
10th Percentile £342 £350 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £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 £763 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 130 94 167
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.27 £15.96
25th Percentile £29.06 £25.02 £20.98
Median hourly rate £54.00 £36.56 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +47.72% -13.99% -22.73%
75th Percentile £75.00 £64.93 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.33 £70.00 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £29.80 £40.00
% change year-on-year +76.17% -25.50% -27.27%

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 26 February 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 26 February 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 -82 374 £550 -8.33% 74
London -39 270 £600 -11.11% 32
Work from Home -74 157 £525 -22.22% 35
UK excluding London -44 123 £450 -5.26% 52
North of England -50 36 £492 +11.82% 17
Scotland +29 32 £436 +9.00% 6
Midlands -50 20 £450 +2.86% 4
North West -23 18 £425 -3.41% 9
South East -45 18 £425 -15.00% 10
Yorkshire -54 12 £575 +27.78% 5
East Midlands -19 11 £444 +24.65% 2
West Midlands -57 9 £513 +17.14% 2
East of England -13 6 £534 +1.67% 2
North East -16 6 £475 +21.79% 3
Wales -5 5 £555 +11.00% 1
South West -23 5 £713 +9.62% 12
Northern Ireland 0 3 £378 -28.10%

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 68 (14.20%) Apache Spark
2 48 (10.02%) Apache Airflow
3 46 (9.60%) Apache
4 7 (1.46%) Confluence
5 6 (1.25%) SharePoint
6 3 (0.63%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.63%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.42%) Apache Synapse
7 2 (0.42%) nginx
8 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (1.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.63%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.21%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (2.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.42%) Aladdin
2 2 (0.42%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.21%) Infor M3
3 1 (0.21%) JDE EnterpriseOne
3 1 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.21%) SAP CO
3 1 (0.21%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
3 1 (0.21%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 341 (71.19%) Azure
2 164 (34.24%) Azure Synapse Analytics
3 157 (32.78%) AWS
4 155 (32.36%) Power Platform
5 142 (29.65%) Azure Data Factory
6 75 (15.66%) Azure DevOps
7 69 (14.41%) GCP
8 68 (14.20%) GitHub
9 66 (13.78%) Serverless
10 54 (11.27%) Snowflake
11 45 (9.39%) Amazon S3
12 39 (8.14%) AWS CloudFormation
13 37 (7.72%) Microsoft Purview
14 34 (7.10%) Azure Functions
14 34 (7.10%) GitHub Actions
15 26 (5.43%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 26 (5.43%) Azure Key Vault
16 24 (5.01%) AWS Lambda
17 21 (4.38%) dbt
18 18 (3.76%) Collibra
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.09%) Firewall
2 5 (1.04%) VPN
3 3 (0.63%) Kerberos
3 3 (0.63%) Network Security
4 2 (0.42%) 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%) Internet
5 1 (0.21%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 146 (30.48%) Data Warehouse
2 141 (29.44%) Power BI
3 62 (12.94%) Metadata
4 61 (12.73%) SQL Server
5 58 (12.11%) Delta Lake
6 56 (11.69%) Azure SQL Database
7 33 (6.89%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 32 (6.68%) Amazon Athena
9 29 (6.05%) Big Data
10 26 (5.43%) NoSQL
10 26 (5.43%) PostgreSQL
10 26 (5.43%) Relational Database
11 24 (5.01%) BigQuery
12 21 (4.38%) Hadoop
13 20 (4.18%) Amazon Redshift
14 19 (3.97%) Spark SQL
15 18 (3.76%) Mixpanel
16 15 (3.13%) Tableau
17 14 (2.92%) OLAP
17 14 (2.92%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (10.02%) Git
2 31 (6.47%) GitLab
3 11 (2.30%) MLflow
4 10 (2.09%) JIRA
5 9 (1.88%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.84%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.63%) ER Studio
7 3 (0.63%) ERwin
7 3 (0.63%) JMeter
8 2 (0.42%) Hudson
9 1 (0.21%) Liquibase
9 1 (0.21%) Pylint
9 1 (0.21%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.21%) Terragrunt
9 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio
General
1 134 (27.97%) Social Skills
2 116 (24.22%) Finance
3 62 (12.94%) Analytical Skills
4 47 (9.81%) Public Sector
5 21 (4.38%) Banking
6 17 (3.55%) Influencing Skills
7 14 (2.92%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.30%) Pharmaceutical
8 11 (2.30%) Retail
9 8 (1.67%) Front Office
10 7 (1.46%) Marketing
11 6 (1.25%) Manufacturing
12 5 (1.04%) Investment Banking
13 4 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (0.84%) Military
14 3 (0.63%) Legal
15 2 (0.42%) Back Office
15 2 (0.42%) Local Government
15 2 (0.42%) Publishing
15 2 (0.42%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 160 (33.40%) Data Engineer
2 97 (20.25%) Architect
3 71 (14.82%) Senior
4 57 (11.90%) Data Architect
5 51 (10.65%) Azure Engineer
6 46 (9.60%) Lead
7 38 (7.93%) Developer
8 31 (6.47%) Senior Data Engineer
9 29 (6.05%) AWS Engineer
9 29 (6.05%) Azure Data Engineer
10 24 (5.01%) Solutions Architect
11 23 (4.80%) Software Engineer
12 20 (4.18%) Analyst
12 20 (4.18%) Principal Engineer
12 20 (4.18%) Python Engineer
13 19 (3.97%) DevOps Engineer
13 19 (3.97%) Lead Data Engineer
14 15 (3.13%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
14 15 (3.13%) Azure Architect
14 15 (3.13%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 99 (20.67%) PySpark
2 46 (9.60%) Kafka
3 22 (4.59%) REST
4 19 (3.97%) Pandas
5 18 (3.76%) JSON
6 15 (3.13%) Great Expectations
7 13 (2.71%) LangChain
7 13 (2.71%) Microsoft Graph
7 13 (2.71%) Model Context Protocol
7 13 (2.71%) PyTorch
7 13 (2.71%) scikit-learn
8 12 (2.51%) LangGraph
8 12 (2.51%) NumPy
8 12 (2.51%) XML
9 10 (2.09%) Spark Streaming
9 10 (2.09%) TensorFlow
9 10 (2.09%) YAML
10 8 (1.67%) React
11 7 (1.46%) A2A Protocol
11 7 (1.46%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 46 (9.60%) Cloud Native
2 18 (3.76%) Data Structures
3 17 (3.55%) Distributed Computing
4 15 (3.13%) IoT
5 12 (2.51%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (2.30%) Legacy Systems
7 10 (2.09%) Management Information System
7 10 (2.09%) Onboarding
7 10 (2.09%) Product Ownership
8 8 (1.67%) Data Fabric
9 7 (1.46%) Algorithms
9 7 (1.46%) Data Protection Act
9 7 (1.46%) NHS
10 6 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (1.25%) Derivative
10 6 (1.25%) Fixed Income
11 5 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
11 5 (1.04%) Equities
11 5 (1.04%) Hedge funds
11 5 (1.04%) Pricing Data
Operating Systems
1 15 (3.13%) Linux
2 9 (1.88%) Unix
3 7 (1.46%) Windows
4 2 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.21%) VMS
5 1 (0.21%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 256 (53.44%) Analytics
2 227 (47.39%) ETL
3 196 (40.92%) Data Pipeline
4 189 (39.46%) Data Modelling
5 175 (36.53%) CI/CD
6 166 (34.66%) Business Intelligence
7 154 (32.15%) Data Engineering
8 152 (31.73%) DevOps
9 151 (31.52%) Data Governance
10 116 (24.22%) AI
11 110 (22.96%) Data Architecture
12 99 (20.67%) Agile
13 93 (19.42%) Machine Learning
14 88 (18.37%) Infrastructure as Code
15 72 (15.03%) Problem-Solving
16 71 (14.82%) Data Science
17 67 (13.99%) Data Integration
18 58 (12.11%) Migration
19 53 (11.06%) Decision-Making
20 46 (9.60%) Data Ingestion
Programming Languages
1 285 (59.50%) SQL
2 240 (50.10%) Python
3 38 (7.93%) Java
4 30 (6.26%) C#
5 23 (4.80%) T-SQL
6 17 (3.55%) PowerShell
6 17 (3.55%) Scala
7 16 (3.34%) Bicep
8 14 (2.92%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 14 (2.92%) JavaScript
9 12 (2.51%) Bash
9 12 (2.51%) PL/SQL
10 9 (1.88%) TypeScript
11 7 (1.46%) R
12 2 (0.42%) Ada
12 2 (0.42%) C++
13 1 (0.21%) ANSI SQL
13 1 (0.21%) Korn
13 1 (0.21%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.21%) Perl
Qualifications
1 75 (15.66%) Security Cleared
2 55 (11.48%) SC Cleared
3 35 (7.31%) Degree
4 22 (4.59%) Azure Certification
5 16 (3.34%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (3.13%) Master's Degree
7 11 (2.30%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (1.46%) AWS Certification
8 7 (1.46%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 7 (1.46%) TOGAF Certification
9 6 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (1.04%) CISM
10 5 (1.04%) CISSP
11 3 (0.63%) ISTQB
11 3 (0.63%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 3 (0.63%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.63%) PMP
12 2 (0.42%) DV Cleared
12 2 (0.42%) Postgraduate
13 1 (0.21%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 128 (26.72%) Data Quality
2 66 (13.78%) GDPR
3 21 (4.38%) QA
4 14 (2.92%) HIPAA
5 13 (2.71%) NIST
6 9 (1.88%) Accessibility
7 8 (1.67%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 4 (0.84%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.63%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.42%) PMO
10 2 (0.42%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 1 (0.21%) SOC 2
System Software
1 34 (7.10%) Docker
2 7 (1.46%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.04%) HDFS
4 4 (0.84%) zsh
5 3 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.21%) Lustre
6 1 (0.21%) NFS
Systems Management
1 97 (20.25%) Terraform
2 30 (6.26%) Kubernetes
3 6 (1.25%) Ansible
3 6 (1.25%) Grafana
4 3 (0.63%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.21%) Fluentd
6 1 (0.21%) Hadoop YARN
6 1 (0.21%) Kibana
6 1 (0.21%) logstash
6 1 (0.21%) Oozie
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle ZFS
6 1 (0.21%) Packer
6 1 (0.21%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.21%) Puppet
6 1 (0.21%) Salt
6 1 (0.21%) SELinux
Vendors
1 204 (42.59%) Databricks
2 142 (29.65%) Microsoft
3 27 (5.64%) Google
4 24 (5.01%) Oracle
5 22 (4.59%) Informatica
6 21 (4.38%) SAP
7 20 (4.18%) OpenAI
8 10 (2.09%) Talend
9 6 (1.25%) Cloudera
9 6 (1.25%) Salesforce
9 6 (1.25%) ServiceNow
10 4 (0.84%) BiZZdesign
10 4 (0.84%) CheckPoint
10 4 (0.84%) Fortinet
10 4 (0.84%) Greenplum
11 3 (0.63%) Ab Initio
11 3 (0.63%) Red Hat
12 2 (0.42%) Infor
12 2 (0.42%) Splunk
12 2 (0.42%) Sybase