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 15 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 230 194 235
Rank change year-on-year -36 +41 +32
Contract jobs citing Data Lake 464 429 460
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 1.39% 1.03%
As % of the Database & Business Intelligence category 7.10% 7.50% 6.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 330 347 324
10th Percentile £382 £399 £400
25th Percentile £433 £481 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £600 £531
Median % change year-on-year -11.46% +12.94% -7.61%
75th Percentile £638 £763 £638
90th Percentile £726 £938 £721
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £491 £525
% change year-on-year -8.35% -6.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 3
10th Percentile - - £34.20
25th Percentile £64.00 - £43.88
Median hourly rate £66.50 £65.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% +8.33% +71.43%
75th Percentile £69.11 - £60.75
90th Percentile £69.31 - £61.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 - £45.75
% change year-on-year - - +30.71%

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 6,533 5,722 7,345
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.35% 18.51% 16.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,486 3,812 5,216
10th Percentile £338 £350 £350
25th Percentile £412 £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 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 90 178
10th Percentile £18.25 £19.81 £15.97
25th Percentile £29.00 £24.81 £21.64
Median hourly rate £53.25 £38.31 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +39.02% -9.87% -25.26%
75th Percentile £74.68 £64.93 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.23 £70.38 £76.82
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.70 £30.00 £40.25
% change year-on-year +82.33% -25.47% -28.04%

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 15 February 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 15 February 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 -72 361 £550 -12.00% 123
London -30 258 £603 -10.74% 47
Work from Home -69 155 £525 -22.22% 67
UK excluding London -40 120 £450 -8.35% 100
North of England -52 34 £475 +5.56% 23
Scotland +20 30 £449 +12.48% 10
South East -36 21 £425 -21.30% 32
Midlands -52 18 £513 +17.14% 15
North West -25 17 £402 -10.67% 12
Yorkshire -56 11 £600 +33.33% 6
East Midlands -18 10 £445 +25.11% 8
West Midlands -51 8 £513 +17.14% 7
North East -15 6 £475 +21.79% 5
Wales -1 5 £555 +11.00% 2
East of England -17 5 £534 +1.67% 7
South West -21 5 £713 +9.62% 11
Northern Ireland 0 4 £378 -28.10%

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 67 (14.44%) Apache Spark
2 47 (10.13%) Apache Airflow
3 46 (9.91%) Apache
4 6 (1.29%) SharePoint
5 5 (1.08%) Confluence
6 3 (0.65%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.65%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.43%) Apache Synapse
7 2 (0.43%) nginx
8 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (1.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.65%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.22%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (2.80%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.65%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.43%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.22%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.22%) Infor M3
4 1 (0.22%) JDE EnterpriseOne
4 1 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.22%) SAP CO
4 1 (0.22%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.22%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 325 (70.04%) Azure
2 157 (33.84%) Azure Synapse Analytics
3 155 (33.41%) AWS
4 145 (31.25%) Power Platform
5 134 (28.88%) Azure Data Factory
6 71 (15.30%) Azure DevOps
7 69 (14.87%) GCP
8 64 (13.79%) Serverless
9 63 (13.58%) GitHub
10 51 (10.99%) Snowflake
11 46 (9.91%) Amazon S3
12 37 (7.97%) AWS CloudFormation
13 34 (7.33%) Microsoft Purview
14 32 (6.90%) Azure Functions
15 31 (6.68%) GitHub Actions
16 26 (5.60%) Azure Cosmos DB
17 24 (5.17%) AWS Lambda
17 24 (5.17%) Azure Key Vault
18 22 (4.74%) dbt
19 17 (3.66%) Collibra
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.72%) Firewall
2 5 (1.08%) VPN
3 3 (0.65%) Kerberos
4 2 (0.43%) Hyperconnected
4 2 (0.43%) Network Security
5 1 (0.22%) DSL
5 1 (0.22%) InfiniBand
5 1 (0.22%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 137 (29.53%) Data Warehouse
2 132 (28.45%) Power BI
3 64 (13.79%) Metadata
4 59 (12.72%) SQL Server
5 53 (11.42%) Azure SQL Database
6 52 (11.21%) Delta Lake
7 32 (6.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 31 (6.68%) Amazon Athena
8 31 (6.68%) Big Data
9 29 (6.25%) NoSQL
10 27 (5.82%) PostgreSQL
10 27 (5.82%) Relational Database
11 24 (5.17%) BigQuery
12 21 (4.53%) Hadoop
13 20 (4.31%) Amazon Redshift
14 18 (3.88%) Spark SQL
15 17 (3.66%) Mixpanel
16 15 (3.23%) Tableau
17 14 (3.02%) Snowflake Schema
18 13 (2.80%) OLTP
Development Applications
1 44 (9.48%) Git
2 31 (6.68%) GitLab
3 9 (1.94%) JIRA
3 9 (1.94%) MLflow
4 8 (1.72%) Jenkins
5 5 (1.08%) ER Studio
5 5 (1.08%) ERwin
6 3 (0.65%) JMeter
7 2 (0.43%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.43%) Hudson
7 2 (0.43%) Pylint
7 2 (0.43%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.43%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.22%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.22%) Poetry
8 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.22%) Visual Studio
General
1 122 (26.29%) Social Skills
2 113 (24.35%) Finance
3 62 (13.36%) Analytical Skills
4 47 (10.13%) Public Sector
5 20 (4.31%) Banking
6 17 (3.66%) Influencing Skills
7 14 (3.02%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.37%) Pharmaceutical
9 10 (2.16%) Front Office
10 9 (1.94%) Retail
11 6 (1.29%) Investment Banking
11 6 (1.29%) Marketing
12 4 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.86%) Military
13 3 (0.65%) Back Office
13 3 (0.65%) Legal
13 3 (0.65%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.43%) Police
14 2 (0.43%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 151 (32.54%) Data Engineer
2 95 (20.47%) Architect
3 68 (14.66%) Senior
4 59 (12.72%) Data Architect
5 50 (10.78%) Azure Engineer
6 44 (9.48%) Lead
7 38 (8.19%) Developer
8 30 (6.47%) Senior Data Engineer
9 29 (6.25%) AWS Engineer
10 28 (6.03%) Azure Data Engineer
11 24 (5.17%) Software Engineer
12 20 (4.31%) Solutions Architect
13 19 (4.09%) DevOps Engineer
13 19 (4.09%) Principal Engineer
13 19 (4.09%) Python Engineer
14 18 (3.88%) Analyst
14 18 (3.88%) Lead Data Engineer
15 15 (3.23%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
15 15 (3.23%) Data Analytics Engineer
15 15 (3.23%) Principal Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 93 (20.04%) PySpark
2 46 (9.91%) Kafka
3 22 (4.74%) REST
4 20 (4.31%) Pandas
5 18 (3.88%) JSON
6 14 (3.02%) Great Expectations
6 14 (3.02%) LangChain
7 13 (2.80%) LangGraph
7 13 (2.80%) Microsoft Graph
7 13 (2.80%) Model Context Protocol
7 13 (2.80%) NumPy
7 13 (2.80%) PyTorch
7 13 (2.80%) scikit-learn
8 12 (2.59%) TensorFlow
8 12 (2.59%) XML
9 10 (2.16%) Spark Streaming
9 10 (2.16%) YAML
10 8 (1.72%) React
10 8 (1.72%) SciPy
11 7 (1.51%) A2A Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 42 (9.05%) Cloud Native
2 16 (3.45%) Data Structures
2 16 (3.45%) Distributed Computing
3 14 (3.02%) IoT
4 11 (2.37%) Product Ownership
5 10 (2.16%) Distributed Systems
5 10 (2.16%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.16%) Onboarding
6 8 (1.72%) Data Fabric
6 8 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (1.51%) Algorithms
7 7 (1.51%) Derivative
7 7 (1.51%) Equities
7 7 (1.51%) Fixed Income
7 7 (1.51%) NHS
8 6 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (1.29%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 6 (1.29%) Hedge funds
8 6 (1.29%) Pricing Data
Operating Systems
1 16 (3.45%) Linux
2 11 (2.37%) Unix
3 7 (1.51%) Windows
4 2 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.22%) VMS
5 1 (0.22%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 241 (51.94%) Analytics
2 225 (48.49%) ETL
3 187 (40.30%) Data Pipeline
4 179 (38.58%) Data Modelling
5 166 (35.78%) CI/CD
6 156 (33.62%) Business Intelligence
7 150 (32.33%) Data Engineering
8 145 (31.25%) Data Governance
9 144 (31.03%) DevOps
10 112 (24.14%) AI
11 109 (23.49%) Data Architecture
12 97 (20.91%) Agile
13 92 (19.83%) Machine Learning
14 81 (17.46%) Infrastructure as Code
15 70 (15.09%) Problem-Solving
16 68 (14.66%) Data Integration
17 66 (14.22%) Data Science
18 51 (10.99%) Decision-Making
18 51 (10.99%) Migration
19 45 (9.70%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 278 (59.91%) SQL
2 233 (50.22%) Python
3 37 (7.97%) Java
4 30 (6.47%) C#
5 22 (4.74%) T-SQL
6 17 (3.66%) Bicep
6 17 (3.66%) PowerShell
7 16 (3.45%) JavaScript
8 15 (3.23%) Scala
9 14 (3.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 12 (2.59%) Bash
11 11 (2.37%) PL/SQL
11 11 (2.37%) TypeScript
12 9 (1.94%) R
13 3 (0.65%) Korn
14 2 (0.43%) Ada
14 2 (0.43%) C++
14 2 (0.43%) Perl
15 1 (0.22%) ANSI SQL
15 1 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 75 (16.16%) Security Cleared
2 56 (12.07%) SC Cleared
3 33 (7.11%) Degree
4 23 (4.96%) Azure Certification
5 16 (3.45%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (3.23%) Master's Degree
7 11 (2.37%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (1.72%) AWS Certification
9 7 (1.51%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 7 (1.51%) TOGAF Certification
10 6 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
11 4 (0.86%) CISM
11 4 (0.86%) CISSP
12 3 (0.65%) ISTQB
12 3 (0.65%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 2 (0.43%) DV Cleared
13 2 (0.43%) PMI Certification
13 2 (0.43%) PMP
14 1 (0.22%) ACCA
14 1 (0.22%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 124 (26.72%) Data Quality
2 64 (13.79%) GDPR
3 22 (4.74%) QA
4 14 (3.02%) HIPAA
5 12 (2.59%) NIST
6 8 (1.72%) Accessibility
6 8 (1.72%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (0.86%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 3 (0.65%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.22%) Solvency II
System Software
1 32 (6.90%) Docker
2 7 (1.51%) Active Directory
3 5 (1.08%) HDFS
3 5 (1.08%) zsh
4 4 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.22%) Lustre
5 1 (0.22%) NFS
Systems Management
1 92 (19.83%) Terraform
2 28 (6.03%) Kubernetes
3 7 (1.51%) Ansible
4 6 (1.29%) Grafana
5 3 (0.65%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.43%) Fluentd
6 2 (0.43%) Packer
7 1 (0.22%) Hadoop YARN
7 1 (0.22%) Kibana
7 1 (0.22%) logstash
7 1 (0.22%) Oozie
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle ZFS
7 1 (0.22%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.22%) Puppet
7 1 (0.22%) Salt
7 1 (0.22%) SELinux
7 1 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 195 (42.03%) Databricks
2 133 (28.66%) Microsoft
3 27 (5.82%) Google
4 24 (5.17%) Oracle
5 23 (4.96%) Informatica
6 21 (4.53%) SAP
7 19 (4.09%) OpenAI
8 10 (2.16%) Talend
9 6 (1.29%) Cloudera
9 6 (1.29%) ServiceNow
10 5 (1.08%) Salesforce
11 4 (0.86%) BiZZdesign
11 4 (0.86%) CheckPoint
11 4 (0.86%) Fortinet
11 4 (0.86%) Greenplum
12 3 (0.65%) Ab Initio
12 3 (0.65%) Red Hat
13 2 (0.43%) IFS
13 2 (0.43%) NVIDIA
13 2 (0.43%) Sybase