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

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 232 234 157
Rank change year-on-year +2 -77 +68
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 603 382 600
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 1.16% 1.57%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.36% 6.40% 8.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 473 281 506
10th Percentile £400 £375 £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 £525 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +10.53% -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 8,189 5,967 6,865
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 15.09% 18.12% 17.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,468 3,995 4,734
10th Percentile £358 £340 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -6.54% -1.47%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £705 £738 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £485
% change year-on-year - -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 266 93 86
10th Percentile £16.35 £22.85 £17.50
25th Percentile £23.88 £29.33 £20.88
Median hourly rate £40.18 £40.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.45% +14.29% -36.36%
75th Percentile £59.88 £65.00 £61.19
90th Percentile £75.50 £80.00 £73.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £35.49 £30.00
% change year-on-year +11.30% +18.30% -45.21%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -46 481 £550 -8.33% 591
London -62 285 £575 -11.54% 377
Work from Home -30 211 £525 -19.23% 243
UK excluding London +3 197 £525 +10.53% 285
Midlands +27 81 £600 +39.53% 43
West Midlands +2 59 £615 +23.00% 28
North of England -47 52 £525 +10.53% 67
North West -26 30 £525 +7.69% 38
East Midlands +7 22 £500 +21.95% 15
Scotland -7 21 £410 +14.53% 70
Yorkshire -34 21 £538 +13.16% 19
South East -75 17 £459 +0.88% 39
South West -34 16 £600 +26.32% 31
East of England -25 10 £575 +4.55% 20
Wales -12 3 £500 -16.67% 6
North East -39 1 £450 - 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 66 (10.95%) Apache Spark
2 48 (7.96%) Apache
3 46 (7.63%) Apache Airflow
4 36 (5.97%) SAS
5 20 (3.32%) Confluence
6 11 (1.82%) 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 6 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
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%) 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
1 377 (62.52%) Azure
2 208 (34.49%) AWS
3 180 (29.85%) Power Platform
4 147 (24.38%) Azure Data Factory
5 111 (18.41%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 96 (15.92%) GCP
7 91 (15.09%) Snowflake
8 84 (13.93%) Azure DevOps
9 60 (9.95%) Amazon S3
10 59 (9.78%) Serverless
11 54 (8.96%) GitHub
12 48 (7.96%) Azure Databricks
13 38 (6.30%) AWS Lambda
14 35 (5.80%) dbt
15 34 (5.64%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 32 (5.31%) Entra ID
17 27 (4.48%) GitHub Actions
18 24 (3.98%) Azure Monitor
18 24 (3.98%) SaaS
19 23 (3.81%) Amazon EMR
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.82%) Firewall
1 11 (1.82%) HTTP
2 9 (1.49%) DNS
3 5 (0.83%) WAN
4 3 (0.50%) Broadband
5 2 (0.33%) DSL
5 2 (0.33%) Network Security
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
1 243 (40.30%) Data Warehouse
2 163 (27.03%) Power BI
3 96 (15.92%) Metadata
4 59 (9.78%) Amazon Redshift
5 54 (8.96%) Azure SQL Database
6 46 (7.63%) NoSQL
7 41 (6.80%) Delta Lake
8 39 (6.47%) Amazon Athena
9 37 (6.14%) Big Data
10 34 (5.64%) SQL Server
11 31 (5.14%) BigQuery
12 29 (4.81%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
13 26 (4.31%) Relational Database
14 25 (4.15%) PostgreSQL
15 23 (3.81%) Tableau
16 21 (3.48%) Semantic Layer
17 19 (3.15%) Star Schema
18 18 (2.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
19 16 (2.65%) Amazon RDS
19 16 (2.65%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 58 (9.62%) Git
2 38 (6.30%) GitLab
3 26 (4.31%) JIRA
4 17 (2.82%) Jenkins
5 8 (1.33%) ERwin
6 7 (1.16%) ER Studio
7 6 (1.00%) 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
1 149 (24.71%) Social Skills
2 141 (23.38%) Finance
3 69 (11.44%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (9.95%) Public Sector
5 43 (7.13%) Banking
6 30 (4.98%) Retail
7 26 (4.31%) Marketing
8 20 (3.32%) Manufacturing
9 17 (2.82%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (2.32%) Documentation Skills
11 10 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (1.16%) Investment Banking
12 7 (1.16%) Military
12 7 (1.16%) Police
13 6 (1.00%) Financial Institution
13 6 (1.00%) Publishing
14 4 (0.66%) Corporate Banking
14 4 (0.66%) Front Office
14 4 (0.66%) Legal
14 4 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 211 (34.99%) Architect
2 161 (26.70%) Data Engineer
3 138 (22.89%) Data Architect
4 90 (14.93%) Senior
5 59 (9.78%) Azure Engineer
6 55 (9.12%) Solutions Architect
7 49 (8.13%) Analyst
8 47 (7.79%) Senior Data Engineer
9 39 (6.47%) Azure Data Engineer
10 36 (5.97%) Data Analyst
10 36 (5.97%) Lead
11 33 (5.47%) Developer
12 32 (5.31%) Business Analyst
13 30 (4.98%) Data Business Analyst
14 24 (3.98%) Databricks Engineer
15 23 (3.81%) Cloud Architect
16 21 (3.48%) Azure Architect
17 20 (3.32%) Databricks Data Engineer
18 19 (3.15%) Technical Leader
19 17 (2.82%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 92 (15.26%) Terraform
2 70 (11.61%) PySpark
3 48 (7.96%) Kafka
4 31 (5.14%) REST
5 14 (2.32%) .NET
6 13 (2.16%) JSON
7 12 (1.99%) YAML
8 11 (1.82%) Spring Boot
9 10 (1.66%) Model Context Protocol
9 10 (1.66%) Spring
10 8 (1.33%) LangChain
10 8 (1.33%) Middleware
11 7 (1.16%) Apache NiFi
11 7 (1.16%) ARM Templates
11 7 (1.16%) XML
12 6 (1.00%) Microsoft Graph
12 6 (1.00%) Node.js
12 6 (1.00%) OAuth
12 6 (1.00%) pytest
13 5 (0.83%) React
Miscellaneous
1 88 (14.59%) Cloud Native
2 44 (7.30%) Data Structures
3 31 (5.14%) Product Ownership
4 21 (3.48%) Distributed Systems
5 20 (3.32%) Onboarding
6 19 (3.15%) Data Fabric
6 19 (3.15%) Legacy Systems
7 18 (2.99%) AI Agents
8 13 (2.16%) Low-Code
8 13 (2.16%) Reference Data
9 12 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
10 11 (1.82%) Marketing Technology
11 9 (1.49%) Autonomous Agent
11 9 (1.49%) Data Protection Act
12 8 (1.33%) Management Information System
12 8 (1.33%) Reinsurance
13 7 (1.16%) Fixed Income
13 7 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
13 7 (1.16%) IoT
14 6 (1.00%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 19 (3.15%) Linux
2 12 (1.99%) Unix
3 6 (1.00%) Windows
4 4 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.50%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 310 (51.41%) Analytics
2 264 (43.78%) Data Modelling
3 254 (42.12%) ETL
4 236 (39.14%) Data Pipeline
5 226 (37.48%) CI/CD
6 208 (34.49%) Data Engineering
7 199 (33.00%) Business Intelligence
8 193 (32.01%) Data Governance
9 184 (30.51%) Agile
10 172 (28.52%) DevOps
11 167 (27.69%) AI
11 167 (27.69%) Data Architecture
12 162 (26.87%) Migration
13 125 (20.73%) Stakeholder Management
14 118 (19.57%) Lakehouse
15 103 (17.08%) Data Transformation
16 101 (16.75%) Data Integration
17 95 (15.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 91 (15.09%) Machine Learning
19 83 (13.76%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 320 (53.07%) SQL
2 186 (30.85%) Python
3 37 (6.14%) Java
4 21 (3.48%) PowerShell
5 19 (3.15%) Bicep
5 19 (3.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 17 (2.82%) Bash
7 15 (2.49%) C#
8 11 (1.82%) Scala
9 8 (1.33%) JavaScript
10 7 (1.16%) Shell Script
10 7 (1.16%) T-SQL
11 6 (1.00%) 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%) SHACL
14 2 (0.33%) SOQL
15 1 (0.17%) Ada
Qualifications
1 141 (23.38%) Security Cleared
2 105 (17.41%) SC Cleared
3 28 (4.64%) Azure Certification
4 21 (3.48%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (3.15%) DV Cleared
6 16 (2.65%) Degree
7 11 (1.82%) AWS Certification
8 10 (1.66%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 9 (1.49%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
10 8 (1.33%) Master's Degree
11 6 (1.00%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 5 (0.83%) 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 (34.00%) Data Quality
2 40 (6.63%) GDPR
3 25 (4.15%) QA
4 10 (1.66%) Accessibility
5 9 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (1.16%) NIST
7 6 (1.00%) GRC
7 6 (1.00%) 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%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.17%) SEPA
11 1 (0.17%) SOC 2
System Software
1 39 (6.47%) Docker
2 11 (1.82%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.33%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.33%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 44 (7.30%) Kubernetes
2 15 (2.49%) Grafana
3 9 (1.49%) Ansible
4 8 (1.33%) 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
1 225 (37.31%) Databricks
2 146 (24.21%) Microsoft
3 32 (5.31%) Informatica
4 28 (4.64%) Google
5 24 (3.98%) Oracle
6 19 (3.15%) OpenAI
7 18 (2.99%) SAP
8 17 (2.82%) Denodo
9 14 (2.32%) Talend
10 10 (1.66%) Salesforce
11 8 (1.33%) Adobe
12 7 (1.16%) Teradata
13 6 (1.00%) Dynatrace
13 6 (1.00%) MuleSoft
13 6 (1.00%) SnapLogic
13 6 (1.00%) Sparx
14 5 (0.83%) Cloudera
14 5 (0.83%) IBM
14 5 (0.83%) Infor
15 4 (0.66%) MicroStrategy