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

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 237 237 159
Rank change year-on-year 0 -78 +61
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 606 381 599
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 1.16% 1.55%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.39% 6.35% 8.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 477 282 503
10th Percentile £400 £382 £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 £750 £850
90th Percentile £750 £825 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +7.37% -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 8,199 6,001 6,913
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.02% 18.24% 17.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,479 4,012 4,751
10th Percentile £356 £340 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £533
Median % change year-on-year - -6.19% -1.84%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £712 £738 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £488
% change year-on-year - -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 270 89 89
10th Percentile £16.63 £21.24 £17.50
25th Percentile £23.35 £29.07 £21.25
Median hourly rate £40.18 £43.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.63% +24.29% -36.36%
75th Percentile £58.44 £65.00 £59.95
90th Percentile £75.10 £81.50 £71.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £37.48 £30.00
% change year-on-year +4.06% +24.93% -45.45%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -26 483 £550 -8.33% 490
London -55 284 £575 -11.54% 304
Work from Home -41 209 £525 -19.23% 205
UK excluding London -8 199 £510 +7.37% 249
Midlands +18 82 £600 +33.33% 46
West Midlands +5 59 £615 +2.50% 30
North of England -35 54 £510 +7.37% 48
North West -29 30 £525 +7.69% 27
East Midlands 0 23 £500 +21.95% 16
Yorkshire -33 22 £525 +10.53% 12
Scotland -7 21 £410 +14.53% 53
South East -68 17 £459 +0.88% 38
South West -23 16 £600 +26.32% 30
East of England -31 9 £575 +4.55% 16
Wales -12 3 £500 -16.67% 7
North East -41 2 £438 - 9

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 69 (11.39%) Apache Spark
2 49 (8.09%) Apache
3 46 (7.59%) Apache Airflow
4 36 (5.94%) SAS
5 20 (3.30%) Confluence
6 12 (1.98%) 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 7 (1.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 7 (1.16%) 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%) Actimize
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
1 380 (62.71%) Azure
2 215 (35.48%) AWS
3 180 (29.70%) Power Platform
4 146 (24.09%) Azure Data Factory
5 112 (18.48%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 95 (15.68%) GCP
7 92 (15.18%) Snowflake
8 85 (14.03%) Azure DevOps
9 63 (10.40%) Amazon S3
10 60 (9.90%) Serverless
11 55 (9.08%) GitHub
12 47 (7.76%) Azure Databricks
13 39 (6.44%) AWS Lambda
14 34 (5.61%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 34 (5.61%) dbt
15 33 (5.45%) Entra ID
16 27 (4.46%) Amazon EMR
17 26 (4.29%) GitHub Actions
18 25 (4.13%) SaaS
19 24 (3.96%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.98%) Firewall
2 11 (1.82%) HTTP
3 9 (1.49%) DNS
4 5 (0.83%) WAN
5 3 (0.50%) Broadband
6 2 (0.33%) DSL
6 2 (0.33%) Network Security
7 1 (0.17%) AMQP
7 1 (0.17%) IPsec
7 1 (0.17%) LoRaWAN
7 1 (0.17%) Modbus
7 1 (0.17%) MQTT
7 1 (0.17%) OpenVPN
7 1 (0.17%) Radio Access Network
7 1 (0.17%) Reverse Proxy
7 1 (0.17%) SMS
7 1 (0.17%) VPN
7 1 (0.17%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 243 (40.10%) Data Warehouse
2 163 (26.90%) Power BI
3 97 (16.01%) Metadata
4 59 (9.74%) Amazon Redshift
5 54 (8.91%) Azure SQL Database
6 47 (7.76%) NoSQL
7 40 (6.60%) Delta Lake
8 39 (6.44%) Amazon Athena
9 37 (6.11%) Big Data
10 35 (5.78%) SQL Server
11 30 (4.95%) BigQuery
12 29 (4.79%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
13 26 (4.29%) Relational Database
14 25 (4.13%) PostgreSQL
15 22 (3.63%) Tableau
16 21 (3.47%) Semantic Layer
17 18 (2.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 18 (2.97%) Star Schema
18 16 (2.64%) Amazon RDS
18 16 (2.64%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 59 (9.74%) Git
2 41 (6.77%) GitLab
3 26 (4.29%) JIRA
4 16 (2.64%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.49%) ERwin
6 7 (1.16%) ER Studio
7 6 (0.99%) PowerDesigner
8 4 (0.66%) JUnit
8 4 (0.66%) MLflow
8 4 (0.66%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.50%) Terragrunt
10 2 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.17%) Postman
11 1 (0.17%) Robot Framework
11 1 (0.17%) TestRail
11 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 152 (25.08%) Social Skills
2 140 (23.10%) Finance
3 70 (11.55%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (10.23%) Public Sector
5 44 (7.26%) Banking
6 30 (4.95%) Retail
7 25 (4.13%) Marketing
8 21 (3.47%) Manufacturing
9 17 (2.81%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
11 10 (1.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (1.16%) Investment Banking
12 7 (1.16%) Military
12 7 (1.16%) Police
13 6 (0.99%) Publishing
14 5 (0.83%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.66%) Front Office
15 4 (0.66%) Legal
15 4 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
15 4 (0.66%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 215 (35.48%) Architect
2 161 (26.57%) Data Engineer
3 139 (22.94%) Data Architect
4 89 (14.69%) Senior
5 60 (9.90%) Azure Engineer
6 56 (9.24%) Solutions Architect
7 49 (8.09%) Analyst
8 47 (7.76%) Senior Data Engineer
9 39 (6.44%) Azure Data Engineer
10 36 (5.94%) Data Analyst
10 36 (5.94%) Lead
11 33 (5.45%) Developer
12 32 (5.28%) Business Analyst
13 30 (4.95%) Data Business Analyst
14 24 (3.96%) Cloud Architect
14 24 (3.96%) Databricks Engineer
15 21 (3.47%) Azure Architect
16 20 (3.30%) Databricks Data Engineer
17 18 (2.97%) Technical Leader
18 17 (2.81%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (16.01%) Terraform
2 71 (11.72%) PySpark
3 48 (7.92%) Kafka
4 31 (5.12%) REST
5 14 (2.31%) .NET
6 13 (2.15%) JSON
6 13 (2.15%) YAML
7 11 (1.82%) Spring Boot
8 10 (1.65%) Model Context Protocol
8 10 (1.65%) Spring
9 8 (1.32%) LangChain
9 8 (1.32%) Middleware
9 8 (1.32%) OAuth
10 7 (1.16%) Apache NiFi
10 7 (1.16%) ARM Templates
10 7 (1.16%) OAuth2
10 7 (1.16%) XML
11 6 (0.99%) JWT
11 6 (0.99%) Microsoft Graph
11 6 (0.99%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 88 (14.52%) Cloud Native
2 43 (7.10%) Data Structures
3 31 (5.12%) Product Ownership
4 21 (3.47%) Distributed Systems
5 19 (3.14%) Data Fabric
5 19 (3.14%) Legacy Systems
5 19 (3.14%) Onboarding
6 18 (2.97%) AI Agents
7 14 (2.31%) Reference Data
8 13 (2.15%) Low-Code
9 12 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
10 11 (1.82%) Marketing Technology
11 9 (1.49%) Autonomous Agent
11 9 (1.49%) Data Protection Act
12 8 (1.32%) Management Information System
12 8 (1.32%) Reinsurance
13 7 (1.16%) Fixed Income
13 7 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
13 7 (1.16%) IoT
14 6 (0.99%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 20 (3.30%) Linux
2 13 (2.15%) Unix
3 6 (0.99%) Windows
4 4 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.50%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 310 (51.16%) Analytics
2 263 (43.40%) Data Modelling
3 254 (41.91%) ETL
4 237 (39.11%) Data Pipeline
5 231 (38.12%) CI/CD
6 212 (34.98%) Data Engineering
7 198 (32.67%) Business Intelligence
8 196 (32.34%) Data Governance
9 186 (30.69%) Agile
10 177 (29.21%) DevOps
11 167 (27.56%) AI
11 167 (27.56%) Data Architecture
12 166 (27.39%) Migration
13 127 (20.96%) Stakeholder Management
14 118 (19.47%) Lakehouse
15 102 (16.83%) Data Integration
16 100 (16.50%) Data Transformation
17 94 (15.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 92 (15.18%) Machine Learning
19 86 (14.19%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 323 (53.30%) SQL
2 187 (30.86%) Python
3 39 (6.44%) Java
4 21 (3.47%) PowerShell
5 20 (3.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 19 (3.14%) Bicep
7 17 (2.81%) Bash
7 17 (2.81%) C#
8 11 (1.82%) Scala
9 8 (1.32%) JavaScript
9 8 (1.32%) Shell Script
10 7 (1.16%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.99%) PL/SQL
12 4 (0.66%) R
12 4 (0.66%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.50%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.33%) Cypher
14 2 (0.33%) Go
14 2 (0.33%) SHACL
14 2 (0.33%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 146 (24.09%) Security Cleared
2 109 (17.99%) SC Cleared
3 28 (4.62%) Azure Certification
4 21 (3.47%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (3.14%) DV Cleared
6 17 (2.81%) Degree
7 13 (2.15%) AWS Certification
8 10 (1.65%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 9 (1.49%) Master's Degree
9 9 (1.49%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.16%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 6 (0.99%) TOGAF Certification
13 4 (0.66%) CSPO
14 3 (0.50%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 3 (0.50%) CCSP
14 3 (0.50%) CISM
14 3 (0.50%) CISSP
14 3 (0.50%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 3 (0.50%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 205 (33.83%) Data Quality
2 41 (6.77%) GDPR
3 25 (4.13%) QA
4 10 (1.65%) Accessibility
5 9 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.16%) NIST
7 6 (0.99%) GRC
7 6 (0.99%) 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%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.17%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.17%) PSD2
System Software
1 39 (6.44%) Docker
2 11 (1.82%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.50%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 44 (7.26%) Kubernetes
2 15 (2.48%) Grafana
3 9 (1.49%) Ansible
4 8 (1.32%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.66%) Puppet
5 4 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.50%) Argo
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
1 228 (37.62%) Databricks
2 146 (24.09%) Microsoft
3 32 (5.28%) Informatica
4 28 (4.62%) Google
5 23 (3.80%) Oracle
6 19 (3.14%) OpenAI
7 18 (2.97%) SAP
8 17 (2.81%) Denodo
9 13 (2.15%) Talend
10 8 (1.32%) Adobe
10 8 (1.32%) Salesforce
10 8 (1.32%) Teradata
11 7 (1.16%) Sparx
12 6 (0.99%) Cloudera
12 6 (0.99%) Dynatrace
12 6 (0.99%) MuleSoft
12 6 (0.99%) SnapLogic
13 5 (0.83%) IBM
13 5 (0.83%) Infor
14 4 (0.66%) MicroStrategy