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 3 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 235 216 163
Rank change year-on-year -19 -53 +41
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 547 381 651
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.06% 1.22% 1.50%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 6.96% 6.64% 8.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 404 292 529
10th Percentile £400 £403 £425
25th Percentile £462 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £580 £650
Median % change year-on-year -5.17% -10.77% +13.04%
75th Percentile £663 £778 £850
90th Percentile £750 £825 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £473 £495
% change year-on-year +16.40% -4.55% -5.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 1
10th Percentile £51.25 - -
25th Percentile £57.25 - -
Median hourly rate £64.00 - £40.50
75th Percentile £67.75 - -
90th Percentile £69.22 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 - £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 7,860 5,735 7,601
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.26% 18.34% 17.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,198 3,884 5,428
10th Percentile £350 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
75th Percentile £600 £630 £650
90th Percentile £700 £751 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 255 102 150
10th Percentile £15.21 £19.71 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.11 £25.20 £20.77
Median hourly rate £38.50 £34.99 £39.25
Median % change year-on-year +10.03% -10.85% -31.08%
75th Percentile £63.75 £63.31 £51.87
90th Percentile £76.80 £77.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.31 £31.64 £31.50
% change year-on-year +17.92% +0.44% -42.73%

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 3 July 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 3 July 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 3 July 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 -36 456 £575 -4.17% 159
London -36 291 £595 -11.93% 94
Work from Home -35 199 £555 -17.78% 90
UK excluding London -26 161 £550 +16.40% 102
Midlands -12 61 £600 +46.34% 15
North of England -54 45 £500 +5.26% 21
West Midlands -25 42 £608 +42.94% 12
North West -35 25 £500 +2.56% 14
Scotland +9 19 £425 -26.34% 8
East Midlands -1 19 £549 +35.56% 3
Yorkshire -44 17 £600 +33.19% 3
South East -71 16 £461 +2.39% 37
South West -17 13 £600 +6.67% 11
East of England -25 9 £575 -0.86% 5
North East -35 3 £463 - 4
Wales - 1 £325 - 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 74 (13.53%) Apache Spark
2 41 (7.50%) Apache
3 38 (6.95%) Apache Airflow
4 28 (5.12%) SAS
5 22 (4.02%) Confluence
6 3 (0.55%) SharePoint
7 2 (0.37%) Apache Synapse
7 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.37%) nginx
7 2 (0.37%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.18%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.18%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.18%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 5 (0.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 4 (0.73%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.55%) Infor M3
2 3 (0.55%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 2 (0.37%) Adobe Campaign
3 2 (0.37%) Endur
3 2 (0.37%) Loan IQ
3 2 (0.37%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.37%) Temenos T24
4 1 (0.18%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 353 (64.53%) Azure
2 193 (35.28%) AWS
3 169 (30.90%) Power Platform
4 141 (25.78%) Azure Data Factory
5 129 (23.58%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 91 (16.64%) GCP
7 80 (14.63%) Azure DevOps
8 68 (12.43%) GitHub
9 63 (11.52%) Snowflake
10 59 (10.79%) Amazon S3
11 57 (10.42%) Serverless
12 35 (6.40%) GitHub Actions
13 33 (6.03%) AWS Lambda
14 24 (4.39%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 24 (4.39%) dbt
15 22 (4.02%) Azure Key Vault
15 22 (4.02%) Microsoft Purview
16 21 (3.84%) AWS CloudFormation
17 20 (3.66%) Azure Functions
17 20 (3.66%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 11 (2.01%) Firewall
2 9 (1.65%) HTTP
3 5 (0.91%) DNS
3 5 (0.91%) WAN
4 4 (0.73%) Network Security
5 2 (0.37%) DSL
5 2 (0.37%) Modbus
6 1 (0.18%) 4G
6 1 (0.18%) 5G
6 1 (0.18%) AMQP
6 1 (0.18%) Broadband
6 1 (0.18%) Ethernet
6 1 (0.18%) IPsec
6 1 (0.18%) LoRaWAN
6 1 (0.18%) MQTT
6 1 (0.18%) OpenVPN
6 1 (0.18%) Radio Access Network
6 1 (0.18%) SMS
6 1 (0.18%) VPN
6 1 (0.18%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 192 (35.10%) Data Warehouse
2 150 (27.42%) Power BI
3 73 (13.35%) Metadata
4 60 (10.97%) Azure SQL Database
5 58 (10.60%) Amazon Redshift
6 52 (9.51%) Delta Lake
7 47 (8.59%) SQL Server
8 41 (7.50%) Amazon Athena
9 37 (6.76%) Big Data
10 34 (6.22%) BigQuery
11 30 (5.48%) PostgreSQL
12 28 (5.12%) NoSQL
13 24 (4.39%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
13 24 (4.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 23 (4.20%) Relational Database
15 21 (3.84%) Hadoop
15 21 (3.84%) Snowflake Schema
16 19 (3.47%) Star Schema
17 18 (3.29%) Tableau
18 15 (2.74%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 56 (10.24%) Git
2 26 (4.75%) JIRA
3 23 (4.20%) GitLab
4 18 (3.29%) Jenkins
5 6 (1.10%) ER Studio
5 6 (1.10%) ERwin
5 6 (1.10%) MLflow
6 5 (0.91%) PowerDesigner
7 4 (0.73%) JUnit
8 2 (0.37%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.18%) Hudson
9 1 (0.18%) JMeter
9 1 (0.18%) Postman
9 1 (0.18%) Robot Framework
9 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio
General
1 141 (25.78%) Finance
2 117 (21.39%) Social Skills
3 70 (12.80%) Analytical Skills
4 57 (10.42%) Public Sector
5 31 (5.67%) Banking
6 20 (3.66%) Marketing
7 18 (3.29%) Retail
8 14 (2.56%) Documentation Skills
9 12 (2.19%) Manufacturing
10 8 (1.46%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (1.10%) Financial Institution
11 6 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.91%) Military
13 4 (0.73%) Investment Banking
13 4 (0.73%) Publishing
14 3 (0.55%) Police
15 2 (0.37%) Automotive
15 2 (0.37%) Billing
15 2 (0.37%) General Ledger
15 2 (0.37%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 177 (32.36%) Data Engineer
2 167 (30.53%) Architect
3 97 (17.73%) Data Architect
4 84 (15.36%) Senior
5 53 (9.69%) Solutions Architect
6 45 (8.23%) Senior Data Engineer
7 44 (8.04%) Azure Engineer
7 44 (8.04%) Lead
8 34 (6.22%) Azure Data Engineer
9 32 (5.85%) Analyst
9 32 (5.85%) Developer
10 23 (4.20%) Cloud Architect
11 22 (4.02%) Principal Engineer
12 21 (3.84%) AWS Engineer
12 21 (3.84%) Azure Architect
13 20 (3.66%) Cloud Solutions Architect
13 20 (3.66%) Data Analyst
14 16 (2.93%) Lead Data Engineer
15 15 (2.74%) AWS Data Engineer
15 15 (2.74%) Azure Data Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (16.09%) PySpark
2 52 (9.51%) Kafka
3 26 (4.75%) REST
4 13 (2.38%) Great Expectations
5 12 (2.19%) XML
6 11 (2.01%) JSON
6 11 (2.01%) YAML
7 10 (1.83%) Middleware
7 10 (1.83%) Spring Boot
8 9 (1.65%) Model Context Protocol
8 9 (1.65%) Spring
9 8 (1.46%) React
10 7 (1.28%) FastAPI
11 6 (1.10%) .NET
11 6 (1.10%) ARM Templates
11 6 (1.10%) Node.js
12 5 (0.91%) HTML
12 5 (0.91%) LangChain
12 5 (0.91%) PyTorch
12 5 (0.91%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 79 (14.44%) Cloud Native
2 25 (4.57%) Data Structures
2 25 (4.57%) Distributed Systems
3 22 (4.02%) Legacy Systems
4 21 (3.84%) Product Ownership
5 15 (2.74%) IoT
6 11 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
6 11 (2.01%) Low-Code
7 10 (1.83%) AI Agents
8 9 (1.65%) Onboarding
8 9 (1.65%) Reference Data
9 8 (1.46%) Digital Media
9 8 (1.46%) Management Information System
10 7 (1.28%) Analytical Mindset
10 7 (1.28%) Data Fabric
11 6 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
12 5 (0.91%) Distributed Architecture
12 5 (0.91%) Distributed Computing
12 5 (0.91%) Enterprise Cloud
12 5 (0.91%) Marketing Technology
Operating Systems
1 13 (2.38%) Linux
2 10 (1.83%) Unix
3 5 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (0.55%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.37%) Windows
6 1 (0.18%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 293 (53.56%) Analytics
2 252 (46.07%) ETL
3 234 (42.78%) Data Modelling
4 224 (40.95%) Data Pipeline
5 214 (39.12%) Data Engineering
6 199 (36.38%) CI/CD
7 189 (34.55%) Business Intelligence
8 178 (32.54%) Data Governance
9 154 (28.15%) DevOps
10 149 (27.24%) Data Architecture
11 148 (27.06%) AI
12 133 (24.31%) Agile
13 125 (22.85%) Migration
14 102 (18.65%) Machine Learning
15 91 (16.64%) Problem-Solving
16 83 (15.17%) Data Transformation
17 76 (13.89%) Data Integration
18 75 (13.71%) Infrastructure as Code
19 74 (13.53%) Stakeholder Management
19 74 (13.53%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 307 (56.12%) SQL
2 207 (37.84%) Python
3 40 (7.31%) Java
4 23 (4.20%) Scala
5 21 (3.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 19 (3.47%) C#
7 16 (2.93%) T-SQL
8 15 (2.74%) PowerShell
9 12 (2.19%) Bicep
10 9 (1.65%) Bash
10 9 (1.65%) JavaScript
10 9 (1.65%) Shell Script
11 8 (1.46%) PL/SQL
12 4 (0.73%) R
12 4 (0.73%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.37%) Cypher
13 2 (0.37%) SHACL
13 2 (0.37%) SOQL
14 1 (0.18%) C
Qualifications
1 126 (23.03%) Security Cleared
2 103 (18.83%) SC Cleared
3 25 (4.57%) Azure Certification
4 23 (4.20%) Degree
5 15 (2.74%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (1.83%) Master's Degree
7 9 (1.65%) AWS Certification
8 7 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (1.28%) DV Cleared
8 7 (1.28%) TOGAF Certification
9 5 (0.91%) CISM
9 5 (0.91%) CISSP
9 5 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (0.91%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 3 (0.55%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (0.55%) CSPO
11 2 (0.37%) Postgraduate
11 2 (0.37%) SnowPro
12 1 (0.18%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
12 1 (0.18%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 175 (31.99%) Data Quality
2 57 (10.42%) GDPR
3 29 (5.30%) QA
4 5 (0.91%) Accessibility
4 5 (0.91%) PCI DSS
4 5 (0.91%) Solvency II
5 4 (0.73%) IFRS
5 4 (0.73%) MiFID
6 3 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
6 3 (0.55%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 3 (0.55%) IFRS 17
7 2 (0.37%) IFRS 9
7 2 (0.37%) NIST
7 2 (0.37%) PMO
8 1 (0.18%) Basel II
8 1 (0.18%) GRC
8 1 (0.18%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.18%) SLA
8 1 (0.18%) SOC 2
System Software
1 29 (5.30%) Docker
2 8 (1.46%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (0.73%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.37%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 87 (15.90%) Terraform
2 35 (6.40%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.01%) Grafana
4 6 (1.10%) Ansible
5 4 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.55%) Argo
7 2 (0.37%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.18%) Hadoop YARN
8 1 (0.18%) IBM Guardium
8 1 (0.18%) Oozie
8 1 (0.18%) Puppet
Vendors
1 199 (36.38%) Databricks
2 122 (22.30%) Microsoft
3 41 (7.50%) Informatica
4 32 (5.85%) Oracle
5 30 (5.48%) Google
6 17 (3.11%) OpenAI
7 16 (2.93%) SAP
7 16 (2.93%) Talend
8 9 (1.65%) Denodo
9 8 (1.46%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.28%) Adobe
10 7 (1.28%) Infor
11 6 (1.10%) Cloudera
11 6 (1.10%) Dynatrace
12 5 (0.91%) BiZZdesign
13 4 (0.73%) CheckPoint
13 4 (0.73%) Fortinet
13 4 (0.73%) Hortonworks
14 3 (0.55%) Greenplum
14 3 (0.55%) Red Hat