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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 235 241 159
Rank change year-on-year +6 -82 +54
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 602 358 604
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.12% 1.11% 1.59%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.35% 6.16% 8.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 467 264 511
10th Percentile £404 £386 £445
25th Percentile £456 £463 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £572 £750
Median % change year-on-year -3.76% -23.80% +30.43%
75th Percentile £650 £750 £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 2 0 0
10th Percentile £48.25 - -
25th Percentile £49.38 - -
Median hourly rate £52.50 - -
75th Percentile £54.38 - -
90th Percentile £54.75 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 - -

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 8,192 5,815 6,869
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.27% 18.00% 18.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,469 3,886 4,789
10th Percentile £358 £338 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £480
% change year-on-year - -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 261 94 92
10th Percentile £15.93 £21.73 £16.07
25th Percentile £23.00 £29.50 £19.77
Median hourly rate £39.50 £38.90 £33.22
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% +17.12% -39.06%
75th Percentile £60.75 £65.00 £58.11
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.00 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.38 £34.74 £30.00
% change year-on-year +10.46% +15.80% -42.86%

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 4 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
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 4 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 -21 485 £560 -3.95% 407
London -45 295 £575 -11.54% 287
Work from Home -25 213 £525 -19.23% 177
UK excluding London +5 188 £525 +10.53% 196
Midlands +16 76 £600 +46.34% 24
West Midlands +6 57 £608 +51.88% 11
North of England -50 50 £550 +15.79% 39
North West -31 30 £525 +10.53% 25
East Midlands -7 19 £500 +21.95% 13
Yorkshire -31 19 £550 +18.85% 11
Scotland -5 18 £425 +30.77% 47
South East -77 18 £438 -5.71% 29
South West -32 16 £600 +26.32% 25
East of England -21 10 £575 +4.55% 17
Wales -12 3 £500 - 6
North East -37 1 £450 - 3

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 (11.46%) Apache Spark
2 50 (8.31%) Apache
3 44 (7.31%) 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%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 6 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
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
1 382 (63.46%) Azure
2 207 (34.39%) AWS
3 181 (30.07%) Power Platform
4 151 (25.08%) Azure Data Factory
5 116 (19.27%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 95 (15.78%) GCP
7 92 (15.28%) Azure DevOps
8 88 (14.62%) Snowflake
9 63 (10.47%) GitHub
10 58 (9.63%) Amazon S3
11 57 (9.47%) Serverless
12 55 (9.14%) Azure Databricks
13 35 (5.81%) AWS Lambda
14 33 (5.48%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 32 (5.32%) dbt
16 30 (4.98%) Entra ID
16 30 (4.98%) GitHub Actions
17 25 (4.15%) Azure Monitor
18 23 (3.82%) SaaS
19 22 (3.65%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.83%) Firewall
1 11 (1.83%) HTTP
2 7 (1.16%) DNS
3 5 (0.83%) WAN
4 3 (0.50%) Broadband
4 3 (0.50%) Network Security
5 2 (0.33%) DSL
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
1 233 (38.70%) Data Warehouse
2 163 (27.08%) Power BI
3 93 (15.45%) Metadata
4 61 (10.13%) Amazon Redshift
5 59 (9.80%) Azure SQL Database
6 42 (6.98%) Delta Lake
7 41 (6.81%) NoSQL
8 40 (6.64%) Amazon Athena
9 38 (6.31%) Big Data
10 37 (6.15%) SQL Server
11 31 (5.15%) BigQuery
12 30 (4.98%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
13 25 (4.15%) PostgreSQL
13 25 (4.15%) Relational Database
14 24 (3.99%) Tableau
15 20 (3.32%) Star Schema
16 18 (2.99%) Semantic Layer
16 18 (2.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 16 (2.66%) Amazon RDS
18 15 (2.49%) Base SAS
Development Applications
1 58 (9.63%) Git
2 31 (5.15%) 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
1 146 (24.25%) Finance
2 136 (22.59%) Social Skills
3 70 (11.63%) Analytical Skills
4 56 (9.30%) Public Sector
5 41 (6.81%) Banking
6 30 (4.98%) Retail
7 26 (4.32%) Marketing
8 19 (3.16%) Manufacturing
9 14 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
9 14 (2.33%) Influencing 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%) Legal
13 4 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.50%) Corporate Banking
14 3 (0.50%) Law
Job Titles
1 203 (33.72%) Architect
2 172 (28.57%) Data Engineer
3 130 (21.59%) Data Architect
4 93 (15.45%) Senior
5 56 (9.30%) Azure Engineer
5 56 (9.30%) Solutions Architect
6 50 (8.31%) Analyst
6 50 (8.31%) Senior Data Engineer
7 39 (6.48%) Azure Data Engineer
8 37 (6.15%) Lead
9 36 (5.98%) Data Analyst
10 33 (5.48%) Developer
11 31 (5.15%) Business Analyst
12 29 (4.82%) Data Business Analyst
13 26 (4.32%) Cloud Architect
14 25 (4.15%) Databricks Engineer
15 21 (3.49%) Azure Architect
15 21 (3.49%) Databricks Data Engineer
16 18 (2.99%) Cloud Solutions Architect
16 18 (2.99%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (14.29%) Terraform
2 70 (11.63%) PySpark
3 49 (8.14%) Kafka
4 32 (5.32%) REST
5 13 (2.16%) JSON
6 12 (1.99%) YAML
7 11 (1.83%) .NET
8 10 (1.66%) Model Context Protocol
8 10 (1.66%) Spring Boot
9 9 (1.50%) Middleware
9 9 (1.50%) Spring
10 8 (1.33%) LangChain
11 7 (1.16%) Apache NiFi
11 7 (1.16%) ARM Templates
12 6 (1.00%) Microsoft Graph
12 6 (1.00%) pytest
12 6 (1.00%) XML
13 5 (0.83%) HTML
13 5 (0.83%) Node.js
13 5 (0.83%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 89 (14.78%) Cloud Native
2 41 (6.81%) Data Structures
3 31 (5.15%) Product Ownership
4 22 (3.65%) Distributed Systems
5 20 (3.32%) Legacy Systems
6 19 (3.16%) Data Fabric
7 18 (2.99%) AI Agents
8 15 (2.49%) Onboarding
9 13 (2.16%) Low-Code
10 12 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
10 12 (1.99%) Reference Data
11 11 (1.83%) Marketing Technology
12 9 (1.50%) IoT
13 8 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
13 8 (1.33%) Management Information System
14 7 (1.16%) Autonomous Agent
14 7 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
15 6 (1.00%) Enterprise Cloud
15 6 (1.00%) Reinsurance
15 6 (1.00%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 21 (3.49%) Linux
2 14 (2.33%) Unix
3 4 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 4 (0.66%) Windows
4 3 (0.50%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 306 (50.83%) Analytics
2 263 (43.69%) Data Modelling
3 262 (43.52%) ETL
4 243 (40.37%) Data Pipeline
5 221 (36.71%) CI/CD
6 218 (36.21%) Data Engineering
7 201 (33.39%) Business Intelligence
8 190 (31.56%) Data Governance
9 179 (29.73%) Agile
10 175 (29.07%) DevOps
11 168 (27.91%) Data Architecture
12 162 (26.91%) AI
13 156 (25.91%) Migration
14 113 (18.77%) Stakeholder Management
15 109 (18.11%) Lakehouse
16 105 (17.44%) Data Transformation
17 99 (16.45%) Data Integration
18 95 (15.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 90 (14.95%) Machine Learning
20 83 (13.79%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 326 (54.15%) SQL
2 188 (31.23%) Python
3 35 (5.81%) Java
4 22 (3.65%) PowerShell
5 19 (3.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 18 (2.99%) Bash
6 18 (2.99%) Bicep
7 16 (2.66%) Scala
8 14 (2.33%) C#
9 11 (1.83%) Shell Script
10 8 (1.33%) JavaScript
10 8 (1.33%) T-SQL
11 6 (1.00%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.83%) 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
1 145 (24.09%) Security Cleared
2 112 (18.60%) SC Cleared
3 26 (4.32%) Azure Certification
4 19 (3.16%) BPSS Clearance
4 19 (3.16%) DV Cleared
5 16 (2.66%) Degree
6 10 (1.66%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 9 (1.50%) AWS Certification
8 8 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (1.33%) Master's Degree
9 7 (1.16%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (0.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 4 (0.66%) CSPO
12 3 (0.50%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (0.50%) CCSP
12 3 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
12 3 (0.50%) CISSP
12 3 (0.50%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 3 (0.50%) SnowPro
12 3 (0.50%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 204 (33.89%) Data Quality
2 43 (7.14%) GDPR
3 30 (4.98%) QA
4 9 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.16%) Accessibility
5 7 (1.16%) NIST
6 6 (1.00%) GRC
6 6 (1.00%) Solvency II
7 5 (0.83%) MiFID
7 5 (0.83%) NCSC
8 3 (0.50%) IFRS
8 3 (0.50%) IFRS 17
8 3 (0.50%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.50%) PMO
8 3 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.50%) SLA
9 2 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
10 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 45 (7.48%) Kubernetes
2 15 (2.49%) Grafana
3 9 (1.50%) Ansible
4 7 (1.16%) 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
1 226 (37.54%) Databricks
2 146 (24.25%) Microsoft
3 37 (6.15%) Informatica
4 27 (4.49%) Google
5 23 (3.82%) Oracle
6 20 (3.32%) OpenAI
7 17 (2.82%) SAP
8 15 (2.49%) Denodo
9 14 (2.33%) Talend
10 10 (1.66%) Salesforce
11 9 (1.50%) Cloudera
12 8 (1.33%) Adobe
13 6 (1.00%) Dynatrace
13 6 (1.00%) SnapLogic
13 6 (1.00%) Sparx
13 6 (1.00%) Teradata
14 5 (0.83%) IBM
14 5 (0.83%) Infor
14 5 (0.83%) MuleSoft
15 4 (0.66%) Foundry