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 10 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 239 186 236
Rank change year-on-year -53 +50 +2
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 473 441 459
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 1.49% 1.03%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 6.95% 7.82% 6.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 338 350 318
10th Percentile £400 £395 £375
25th Percentile £449 £469 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £580 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.17% +10.48% -8.70%
75th Percentile £638 £763 £625
90th Percentile £729 £938 £716
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £513
% change year-on-year -5.26% -7.32% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 4
10th Percentile - - £31.58
25th Percentile £64.00 - £37.31
Median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £50.25
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% +29.35% +43.57%
75th Percentile £69.11 - £60.38
90th Percentile £69.31 - £61.05
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 - £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 6,805 5,640 7,293
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.04% 19.08% 16.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,687 3,884 5,147
10th Percentile £344 £351 £340
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 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 133 95 178
10th Percentile £18.25 £19.59 £14.36
25th Percentile £28.72 £23.88 £20.78
Median hourly rate £50.00 £30.00 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +66.67% -25.93% -29.57%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.61 £62.31
90th Percentile £84.80 £69.50 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £27.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +81.82% -31.25% -29.08%

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 10 March 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 10 March 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 -77 374 £573 -4.50% 149
London -45 268 £603 -10.74% 58
Work from Home -86 147 £550 -18.52% 65
UK excluding London -61 120 £450 -5.26% 102
North of England -49 37 £478 +4.66% 21
Scotland +20 27 £436 +1.16% 9
Midlands -62 23 £481 +10.00% 12
South East -50 20 £438 -9.23% 29
North West -30 18 £425 -10.53% 9
Yorkshire -46 13 £550 +22.22% 9
West Midlands -64 12 £513 +17.14% 5
East Midlands -23 11 £444 +24.65% 6
North East -15 6 £475 +27.01% 3
South West -25 4 £900 +38.46% 21
East of England -33 4 - - 6
Wales -5 3 £410 -18.00% 5
Northern Ireland -2 2 £430 -18.10%

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 75 (15.86%) Apache Spark
2 49 (10.36%) Apache
3 48 (10.15%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (1.48%) Confluence
5 6 (1.27%) SharePoint
6 3 (0.63%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.42%) Apache Synapse
7 2 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.42%) nginx
7 2 (0.42%) SAS
8 1 (0.21%) Jupyter
Applications
1 5 (1.06%) 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 11 (2.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.42%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.21%) Aladdin
3 1 (0.21%) Infor M3
3 1 (0.21%) JDE EnterpriseOne
3 1 (0.21%) Loan IQ
3 1 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 329 (69.56%) Azure
2 162 (34.25%) AWS
2 162 (34.25%) Azure Synapse Analytics
3 155 (32.77%) Power Platform
4 143 (30.23%) Azure Data Factory
5 77 (16.28%) Azure DevOps
6 71 (15.01%) GitHub
7 66 (13.95%) GCP
8 65 (13.74%) Serverless
9 54 (11.42%) Amazon S3
10 46 (9.73%) Snowflake
11 41 (8.67%) AWS CloudFormation
12 35 (7.40%) GitHub Actions
12 35 (7.40%) Microsoft Purview
13 32 (6.77%) Azure Functions
14 26 (5.50%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 26 (5.50%) Azure Key Vault
15 25 (5.29%) AWS Lambda
16 23 (4.86%) Collibra
17 18 (3.81%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.90%) Firewall
2 4 (0.85%) VPN
3 3 (0.63%) Kerberos
4 2 (0.42%) Hyperconnected
4 2 (0.42%) Network Security
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%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 140 (29.60%) Data Warehouse
1 140 (29.60%) Power BI
2 66 (13.95%) Metadata
3 62 (13.11%) Delta Lake
4 61 (12.90%) SQL Server
5 57 (12.05%) Azure SQL Database
6 36 (7.61%) Amazon Athena
7 32 (6.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 29 (6.13%) Big Data
9 28 (5.92%) Amazon Redshift
10 27 (5.71%) PostgreSQL
11 23 (4.86%) Relational Database
12 22 (4.65%) Hadoop
12 22 (4.65%) NoSQL
13 21 (4.44%) BigQuery
13 21 (4.44%) Mixpanel
14 19 (4.02%) Spark SQL
15 17 (3.59%) OLAP
16 16 (3.38%) OLTP
16 16 (3.38%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (10.15%) Git
2 32 (6.77%) GitLab
3 11 (2.33%) Jenkins
3 11 (2.33%) MLflow
4 10 (2.11%) JIRA
5 4 (0.85%) ER Studio
5 4 (0.85%) ERwin
6 3 (0.63%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.63%) JMeter
7 1 (0.21%) Hudson
7 1 (0.21%) Liquibase
7 1 (0.21%) PowerDesigner
7 1 (0.21%) Pylint
7 1 (0.21%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.21%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio
General
1 125 (26.43%) Social Skills
2 113 (23.89%) Finance
3 59 (12.47%) Analytical Skills
4 52 (10.99%) Public Sector
5 19 (4.02%) Banking
6 16 (3.38%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (3.38%) Influencing Skills
7 10 (2.11%) Pharmaceutical
8 9 (1.90%) Retail
9 7 (1.48%) Marketing
10 5 (1.06%) Front Office
11 4 (0.85%) Manufacturing
11 4 (0.85%) Military
12 3 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.63%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.63%) Legal
13 2 (0.42%) Back Office
13 2 (0.42%) Billing
13 2 (0.42%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.42%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 158 (33.40%) Data Engineer
2 101 (21.35%) Architect
3 66 (13.95%) Senior
4 60 (12.68%) Data Architect
5 49 (10.36%) Azure Engineer
6 47 (9.94%) Lead
7 34 (7.19%) Developer
8 32 (6.77%) AWS Engineer
9 30 (6.34%) Senior Data Engineer
10 29 (6.13%) Principal Engineer
11 27 (5.71%) Azure Data Engineer
12 26 (5.50%) Software Engineer
12 26 (5.50%) Solutions Architect
13 20 (4.23%) Principal Software Engineer
14 19 (4.02%) DevOps Engineer
14 19 (4.02%) Lead Data Engineer
15 18 (3.81%) Principal Data Engineer
16 17 (3.59%) Analyst
16 17 (3.59%) Platform Engineer
17 16 (3.38%) Azure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (20.72%) PySpark
2 54 (11.42%) Kafka
3 22 (4.65%) REST
4 17 (3.59%) Great Expectations
4 17 (3.59%) JSON
5 15 (3.17%) Pandas
6 13 (2.75%) Microsoft Graph
6 13 (2.75%) Model Context Protocol
7 12 (2.54%) PyTorch
7 12 (2.54%) scikit-learn
8 11 (2.33%) LangChain
8 11 (2.33%) XML
9 10 (2.11%) LangGraph
9 10 (2.11%) Spark Streaming
9 10 (2.11%) YAML
10 9 (1.90%) TensorFlow
11 8 (1.69%) NumPy
12 7 (1.48%) A2A Protocol
12 7 (1.48%) FastAPI
13 6 (1.27%) React
Miscellaneous
1 49 (10.36%) Cloud Native
2 18 (3.81%) Data Structures
3 17 (3.59%) Distributed Computing
4 15 (3.17%) IoT
5 12 (2.54%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (2.54%) Legacy Systems
6 10 (2.11%) Data Fabric
6 10 (2.11%) Management Information System
6 10 (2.11%) Product Ownership
7 9 (1.90%) Onboarding
8 8 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
9 7 (1.48%) Algorithms
9 7 (1.48%) Analytical Mindset
9 7 (1.48%) NHS
10 5 (1.06%) Digital Media
11 4 (0.85%) AI Agents
11 4 (0.85%) Fixed Income
11 4 (0.85%) Replication
11 4 (0.85%) Taxonomies
12 3 (0.63%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 13 (2.75%) Linux
2 7 (1.48%) Unix
3 6 (1.27%) Windows
4 2 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.21%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 262 (55.39%) Analytics
2 228 (48.20%) ETL
3 194 (41.01%) Data Pipeline
4 192 (40.59%) Data Modelling
5 181 (38.27%) CI/CD
6 165 (34.88%) Data Engineering
7 163 (34.46%) Business Intelligence
8 159 (33.62%) Data Governance
9 154 (32.56%) DevOps
10 118 (24.95%) AI
11 116 (24.52%) Data Architecture
12 95 (20.08%) Agile
13 92 (19.45%) Machine Learning
14 87 (18.39%) Infrastructure as Code
15 74 (15.64%) Problem-Solving
16 69 (14.59%) Data Science
17 61 (12.90%) Data Integration
17 61 (12.90%) Migration
18 48 (10.15%) Data Ingestion
18 48 (10.15%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 275 (58.14%) SQL
2 232 (49.05%) Python
3 33 (6.98%) Java
4 32 (6.77%) C#
5 20 (4.23%) Scala
5 20 (4.23%) T-SQL
6 19 (4.02%) PowerShell
7 17 (3.59%) Bicep
8 14 (2.96%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 13 (2.75%) Bash
10 10 (2.11%) JavaScript
10 10 (2.11%) PL/SQL
11 6 (1.27%) R
12 5 (1.06%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.42%) Ada
13 2 (0.42%) C++
14 1 (0.21%) ANSI SQL
14 1 (0.21%) C
14 1 (0.21%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.21%) Perl
Qualifications
1 77 (16.28%) Security Cleared
2 55 (11.63%) SC Cleared
3 31 (6.55%) Degree
4 22 (4.65%) Azure Certification
5 16 (3.38%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (2.96%) Master's Degree
7 10 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (1.69%) AWS Certification
9 7 (1.48%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 7 (1.48%) TOGAF Certification
10 6 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.06%) CISM
11 5 (1.06%) CISSP
12 3 (0.63%) ISTQB
12 3 (0.63%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 3 (0.63%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.63%) PMP
13 2 (0.42%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.42%) DV Cleared
13 2 (0.42%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 133 (28.12%) Data Quality
2 73 (15.43%) GDPR
3 20 (4.23%) QA
4 12 (2.54%) HIPAA
4 12 (2.54%) NIST
5 8 (1.69%) Accessibility
6 7 (1.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 6 (1.27%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.63%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.42%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.42%) PMO
9 2 (0.42%) Solvency II
10 1 (0.21%) IFRS
10 1 (0.21%) IFRS 9
10 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 1 (0.21%) SOC 2
System Software
1 33 (6.98%) Docker
2 7 (1.48%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.06%) HDFS
4 3 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.42%) zsh
6 1 (0.21%) Lustre
6 1 (0.21%) NFS
Systems Management
1 100 (21.14%) Terraform
2 30 (6.34%) Kubernetes
3 6 (1.27%) Ansible
3 6 (1.27%) Grafana
4 4 (0.85%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.21%) Fluentd
5 1 (0.21%) Hadoop YARN
5 1 (0.21%) Kibana
5 1 (0.21%) logstash
5 1 (0.21%) Oozie
5 1 (0.21%) Oracle ZFS
5 1 (0.21%) Packer
5 1 (0.21%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.21%) Puppet
5 1 (0.21%) Salt
5 1 (0.21%) SELinux
5 1 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 196 (41.44%) Databricks
2 144 (30.44%) Microsoft
3 27 (5.71%) Google
4 23 (4.86%) Informatica
5 22 (4.65%) Oracle
6 18 (3.81%) OpenAI
7 17 (3.59%) SAP
8 10 (2.11%) Talend
9 5 (1.06%) Salesforce
9 5 (1.06%) ServiceNow
10 4 (0.85%) BiZZdesign
10 4 (0.85%) CheckPoint
10 4 (0.85%) Cloudera
10 4 (0.85%) Fortinet
10 4 (0.85%) Greenplum
11 3 (0.63%) Ab Initio
11 3 (0.63%) Red Hat
12 2 (0.42%) Infor
12 2 (0.42%) NVIDIA
12 2 (0.42%) Splunk