Kafka Contract Job Trends

Apache Kafka
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Kafka skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 101 146
Rank change year-on-year -38 +45 +6
Contract jobs citing Kafka 995 835 715
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.89% 2.57% 1.67%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.70% 11.41% 7.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 592 544 508
10th Percentile £380 £400 £400
25th Percentile £425 £457 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £573
Median % change year-on-year - -3.93% -11.92%
75th Percentile £650 £688 £700
90th Percentile £799 £825 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +5.32% -4.08% -18.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 5 9
10th Percentile £56.65 £44.75 £22.55
25th Percentile £64.50 £53.00 £27.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £62.50 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% +123.21% -64.10%
75th Percentile £90.00 £78.70 £38.75
90th Percentile £95.00 £87.73 £45.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.25 £78.70 £28.00
% change year-on-year -9.47% +181.07% -64.10%

All Software Libraries and Frameworks
UK

Kafka falls under the Software Libraries and Frameworks category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills 10,262 7,319 9,160
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.50% 22.55% 21.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,720 4,947 6,290
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -4.74% -2.18%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £656
90th Percentile £738 £756 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 276 161 277
10th Percentile £30.00 £29.25 £22.65
25th Percentile £50.00 £39.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -12.35%
75th Percentile £74.26 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £81.01 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year +4.00% +7.20% -1.24%

Kafka
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Kafka relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Kafka job vacancy trend in the UK

Kafka
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Kafka.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Kafka

Kafka
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Kafka over the 6 months to 15 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Kafka in the UK

Kafka
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Kafka.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Kafka

Kafka
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Kafka over the 6 months to 15 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Kafka in the UK

Kafka
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 Kafka within the UK over the 6 months to 15 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 -39 852 £550 - 373
London -28 508 £588 -6.00% 175
UK excluding London -49 365 £495 +5.32% 277
Work from Home -61 279 £551 -4.26% 257
North of England -19 171 £463 -1.39% 63
Yorkshire -6 81 £495 -10.00% 22
North West -31 75 £430 -8.32% 31
South East -46 59 £519 +19.25% 73
Scotland -27 49 £450 -4.26% 31
Midlands -53 41 £500 +13.51% 33
South West -18 29 £500 -9.09% 34
West Midlands -61 25 £500 - 18
North East -21 24 £425 -8.11% 10
East of England -10 21 £550 +10.00% 26
East Midlands -12 16 £459 +28.43% 15
Northern Ireland -1 3 - - 8
Wales -10 2 £313 - 13

Kafka
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
1 132 (13.27%) Apache Spark
2 73 (7.34%) Apache
3 61 (6.13%) Apache Airflow
4 19 (1.91%) Confluence
5 7 (0.70%) Camunda
6 6 (0.60%) Ethereum
6 6 (0.60%) Hyperledger
6 6 (0.60%) WebSphere
7 5 (0.50%) Apache Pulsar
8 3 (0.30%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.30%) CMS
8 3 (0.30%) Mule
8 3 (0.30%) OpenStack
9 2 (0.20%) Apache Pig
9 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.20%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 8 (0.80%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.20%) PlantUML
3 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.10%) Maya
3 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.20%) Bloomberg AIM
2 2 (0.20%) Endur
2 2 (0.20%) Fidessa
2 2 (0.20%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.10%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.10%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.10%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.10%) R3 Corda
3 1 (0.10%) SAP IS-U
3 1 (0.10%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 582 (58.49%) AWS
2 309 (31.06%) Azure
3 195 (19.60%) GCP
4 140 (14.07%) GitHub
5 105 (10.55%) Serverless
6 98 (9.85%) GitHub Actions
7 83 (8.34%) Amazon S3
8 80 (8.04%) AWS Lambda
9 69 (6.93%) OpenShift
10 63 (6.33%) Azure DevOps
11 60 (6.03%) Amazon EKS
12 58 (5.83%) Snowflake
13 48 (4.82%) Power Platform
14 46 (4.62%) dbt
15 41 (4.12%) Amazon ECS
16 40 (4.02%) Amazon SQS
17 37 (3.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 32 (3.22%) AWS CloudFormation
19 29 (2.91%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 28 (2.81%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.81%) HTTP
2 11 (1.11%) Firewall
3 10 (1.01%) Network Security
4 7 (0.70%) MQTT
4 7 (0.70%) SSL
5 6 (0.60%) DNS
6 5 (0.50%) NAS
6 5 (0.50%) SAN
7 4 (0.40%) Internet
8 3 (0.30%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.20%) NaaS
9 2 (0.20%) OpenVPN
9 2 (0.20%) Reverse Proxy
9 2 (0.20%) WAN
10 1 (0.10%) 4G
10 1 (0.10%) 5G
10 1 (0.10%) FIX Connectivity
10 1 (0.10%) MIMO
10 1 (0.10%) SSH
10 1 (0.10%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 175 (17.59%) PostgreSQL
2 161 (16.18%) MongoDB
3 125 (12.56%) NoSQL
4 102 (10.25%) Relational Database
5 69 (6.93%) Big Data
6 61 (6.13%) Data Warehouse
7 58 (5.83%) SQL Server
8 53 (5.33%) Data Lake
9 42 (4.22%) Elasticsearch
9 42 (4.22%) Power BI
10 40 (4.02%) Redis
11 39 (3.92%) Hadoop
12 37 (3.72%) Apache Cassandra
12 37 (3.72%) Flink
13 34 (3.42%) MySQL
14 32 (3.22%) BigQuery
15 31 (3.12%) Metadata
16 27 (2.71%) DynamoDB
17 24 (2.41%) Amazon Athena
17 24 (2.41%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 170 (17.09%) Jenkins
2 135 (13.57%) Git
3 125 (12.56%) GitLab
4 71 (7.14%) JUnit
5 56 (5.63%) Mockito
6 47 (4.72%) JIRA
7 42 (4.22%) Gradle
8 35 (3.52%) Selenium
9 27 (2.71%) Cucumber
10 23 (2.31%) REST Assured
11 22 (2.21%) Maven
12 19 (1.91%) Gatling
13 17 (1.71%) Liquibase
13 17 (1.71%) Postman
13 17 (1.71%) SonarQube
14 15 (1.51%) Serenity BDD
15 9 (0.90%) Cypress.io
16 7 (0.70%) JMeter
17 5 (0.50%) Artifactory
17 5 (0.50%) Snyk
General
1 268 (26.93%) Finance
2 187 (18.79%) Social Skills
3 135 (13.57%) Banking
4 95 (9.55%) Public Sector
5 89 (8.94%) Analytical Skills
6 47 (4.72%) Front Office
7 35 (3.52%) Investment Banking
8 27 (2.71%) Retail
9 25 (2.51%) Documentation Skills
10 20 (2.01%) Financial Institution
11 15 (1.51%) Law
12 14 (1.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 13 (1.31%) Telecoms
14 10 (1.01%) Billing
14 10 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
15 9 (0.90%) Publishing
16 8 (0.80%) Marketing
16 8 (0.80%) Military
16 8 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
17 7 (0.70%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 326 (32.76%) Developer
2 194 (19.50%) Senior
3 168 (16.88%) Java Developer
4 147 (14.77%) Data Engineer
5 128 (12.86%) Architect
6 116 (11.66%) Lead
7 97 (9.75%) Software Engineer
8 80 (8.04%) Senior Developer
9 76 (7.64%) Java Engineer
10 53 (5.33%) Solutions Architect
11 48 (4.82%) Senior Java Developer
12 45 (4.52%) AWS Architect
13 43 (4.32%) DevOps Engineer
14 39 (3.92%) Full-Stack Developer
15 36 (3.62%) Developer/Software Engineer
16 35 (3.52%) Lead Developer
17 33 (3.32%) Java Software Engineer
18 32 (3.22%) Kafka Engineer
18 32 (3.22%) Principal Engineer
18 32 (3.22%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 254 (25.53%) Spring
2 241 (24.22%) Spring Boot
3 155 (15.58%) REST
4 140 (14.07%) React
5 134 (13.47%) RESTful
6 108 (10.85%) RabbitMQ
7 86 (8.64%) Node.js
8 67 (6.73%) GraphQL
9 63 (6.33%) JSON
10 55 (5.53%) Redux
11 50 (5.03%) OpenTelemetry
12 41 (4.12%) AngularJS
12 41 (4.12%) Swagger
13 40 (4.02%) OpenAPI
14 39 (3.92%) OAuth
15 37 (3.72%) Middleware
16 35 (3.52%) gRPC
17 34 (3.42%) PySpark
18 33 (3.32%) Apache Avro
19 32 (3.22%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 189 (18.99%) Distributed Systems
2 177 (17.79%) Cloud Native
3 39 (3.92%) Data Structures
3 39 (3.92%) Fixed Income
3 39 (3.92%) Product Ownership
4 29 (2.91%) Algorithms
5 28 (2.81%) Enterprise Software
5 28 (2.81%) Management Information System
6 25 (2.51%) Onboarding
7 23 (2.31%) Legacy Systems
8 20 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
9 17 (1.71%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 16 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
11 15 (1.51%) Data Protection Act
11 15 (1.51%) Public Cloud
12 14 (1.41%) Clustering
12 14 (1.41%) Equities
13 13 (1.31%) AI Agents
13 13 (1.31%) Greenfield Project
13 13 (1.31%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 98 (9.85%) Linux
2 52 (5.23%) Unix
3 27 (2.71%) Windows
4 10 (1.01%) Mac OS X
5 7 (0.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.50%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.30%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.20%) Android
8 2 (0.20%) Debian
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.20%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 2 (0.20%) VMS
8 2 (0.20%) zOS
9 1 (0.10%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.10%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 464 (46.63%) CI/CD
2 373 (37.49%) Microservices
3 345 (34.67%) Agile
4 317 (31.86%) Event-Driven
5 314 (31.56%) DevOps
6 224 (22.51%) Observability
7 216 (21.71%) Containerisation
8 215 (21.61%) Event-Driven Architecture
9 191 (19.20%) Software Engineering
10 190 (19.10%) Data Pipeline
11 163 (16.38%) Infrastructure as Code
12 160 (16.08%) Test Automation
13 159 (15.98%) Problem-Solving
14 156 (15.68%) Data Modelling
15 153 (15.38%) Analytics
16 147 (14.77%) AI
17 144 (14.47%) Data Engineering
17 144 (14.47%) ETL
18 115 (11.56%) TDD
19 108 (10.85%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 465 (46.73%) Java
2 349 (35.08%) Python
3 305 (30.65%) SQL
4 122 (12.26%) TypeScript
5 91 (9.15%) JavaScript
6 81 (8.14%) Go
7 56 (5.63%) C#
8 51 (5.13%) Bash
9 34 (3.42%) Scala
10 26 (2.61%) PowerShell
11 19 (1.91%) PL/SQL
12 16 (1.61%) Kotlin
13 14 (1.41%) Shell Script
14 13 (1.31%) Rust
15 11 (1.11%) Bicep
15 11 (1.11%) C++
16 10 (1.01%) Groovy
16 10 (1.01%) Search Processing Language
17 7 (0.70%) PHP
18 6 (0.60%) Perl
Qualifications
1 218 (21.91%) Security Cleared
2 168 (16.88%) SC Cleared
3 50 (5.03%) Degree
4 32 (3.22%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (2.01%) DV Cleared
6 18 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
7 17 (1.71%) AWS Certification
8 16 (1.61%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (0.70%) Azure Certification
9 7 (0.70%) SnowPro
10 3 (0.30%) DBS Check
10 3 (0.30%) PhD
10 3 (0.30%) TOGAF Certification
11 2 (0.20%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (0.20%) Postgraduate
12 1 (0.10%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.10%) PMP
12 1 (0.10%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (10.25%) Data Quality
2 51 (5.13%) QA
3 42 (4.22%) Accessibility
4 38 (3.82%) GDPR
5 17 (1.71%) ISO 20022
6 9 (0.90%) SEPA
7 7 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.40%) NIST
8 4 (0.40%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.30%) SLA
9 3 (0.30%) WCAG
10 2 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.20%) EMIR
10 2 (0.20%) IFRS
10 2 (0.20%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.20%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.20%) MiFID
10 2 (0.20%) NCSC
10 2 (0.20%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.10%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 328 (32.96%) Docker
2 6 (0.60%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 6 (0.60%) etcd
3 3 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.20%) Apache Flume
4 2 (0.20%) HDFS
5 1 (0.10%) OpenSSH
5 1 (0.10%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 405 (40.70%) Kubernetes
2 196 (19.70%) Terraform
3 120 (12.06%) Prometheus
4 117 (11.76%) Grafana
5 59 (5.93%) Ansible
6 21 (2.11%) Argo
7 13 (1.31%) Control-M
8 11 (1.11%) Kibana
9 10 (1.01%) Istio
9 10 (1.01%) Podman
10 9 (0.90%) Puppet
11 8 (0.80%) Kustomize
12 7 (0.70%) Fluentd
13 6 (0.60%) logstash
14 5 (0.50%) Rancher
15 3 (0.30%) Check_MK
15 3 (0.30%) NetBackup
16 2 (0.20%) CA Wily
16 2 (0.20%) Sysdig
16 2 (0.20%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 78 (7.84%) Databricks
2 77 (7.74%) Oracle
3 60 (6.03%) Splunk
4 48 (4.82%) Microsoft
5 43 (4.32%) Google
6 25 (2.51%) Informatica
7 23 (2.31%) Confluent
8 16 (1.61%) Dynatrace
8 16 (1.61%) IBM
9 15 (1.51%) MuleSoft
9 15 (1.51%) Salesforce
9 15 (1.51%) Solace
10 10 (1.01%) OpenAI
11 9 (0.90%) SAP
11 9 (0.90%) Talend
12 8 (0.80%) Red Hat
12 8 (0.80%) ServiceNow
12 8 (0.80%) Sybase
13 6 (0.60%) Pega
14 5 (0.50%) AppDynamics