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 5 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 141 109 122
Rank change year-on-year -32 +13 +47
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,092 829 726
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.01% 2.51% 1.91%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.29% 9.67% 7.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 699 533 466
10th Percentile £375 £375 £372
25th Percentile £425 £450 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £724
90th Percentile £757 £750 £810
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £463 £492
% change year-on-year +7.93% -5.75% -18.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 4 5
10th Percentile £50.33 £40.58 £26.04
25th Percentile £60.00 £48.56 £27.00
Median hourly rate £77.00 £59.25 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.96% +111.61% -64.10%
75th Percentile £86.50 £75.31 £38.75
90th Percentile £95.00 £96.13 £68.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.00 - £28.00
% change year-on-year - - -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 11,760 8,570 9,415
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.62% 25.97% 24.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,717 5,687 6,112
10th Percentile £375 £353 £356
25th Percentile £440 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £725 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -4.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 287 190 189
10th Percentile £29.07 £31.20 £25.60
25th Percentile £50.38 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +20.37% -13.60% +4.17%
75th Percentile £77.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £70.00 £74.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.47 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +17.34% -11.54% +10.94%

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 5 October 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 5 October 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 5 October 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 -44 905 £550 - 1,041
London -31 558 £575 -4.17% 698
UK excluding London -16 386 £500 +7.93% 497
Work from Home -58 276 £549 -5.51% 503
North of England -2 190 £502 +6.19% 163
Yorkshire +12 92 £501 -12.96% 42
North West -20 78 £550 +21.01% 99
Scotland -24 60 £406 -14.53% 91
South East -50 52 £460 +5.75% 81
Midlands -45 39 £500 +11.11% 37
South West -18 29 £575 +4.55% 44
West Midlands -46 27 £700 +40.00% 27
East of England -1 26 £488 -4.88% 33
North East -20 25 £426 -26.00% 22
East Midlands -14 12 £449 +8.07% 10
Northern Ireland +7 4 - - 39
Wales - 1 £375 - 10

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
1 127 (11.63%) Apache Spark
2 78 (7.14%) Apache Airflow
3 77 (7.05%) Apache
4 26 (2.38%) Confluence
5 15 (1.37%) Camunda
6 7 (0.64%) OpenStack
6 7 (0.64%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 6 (0.55%) CMS
7 6 (0.55%) nginx
8 5 (0.46%) Apache Pulsar
8 5 (0.46%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.37%) MQSeries
9 4 (0.37%) PowerExchange
10 3 (0.27%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.27%) Mule
11 2 (0.18%) Apache Pig
11 2 (0.18%) JBoss
11 2 (0.18%) Traefik
11 2 (0.18%) WebSphere
12 1 (0.092%) CICS
Applications
1 6 (0.55%) CPLEX
2 3 (0.27%) Mingle
3 1 (0.092%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.092%) Gliffy
3 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (0.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.37%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 3 (0.27%) Finacle
3 3 (0.27%) FLEXCUBE
3 3 (0.27%) Temenos T24
4 2 (0.18%) Endur
5 1 (0.092%) Actimize
5 1 (0.092%) Distributed Ledger
5 1 (0.092%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.092%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.092%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.092%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.092%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.092%) SAP IS-U
5 1 (0.092%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 627 (57.42%) AWS
2 398 (36.45%) Azure
3 263 (24.08%) GCP
4 181 (16.58%) GitHub
5 122 (11.17%) GitHub Actions
6 106 (9.71%) Serverless
7 88 (8.06%) Amazon S3
8 87 (7.97%) AWS Lambda
9 83 (7.60%) Amazon EKS
10 75 (6.87%) Snowflake
11 68 (6.23%) Azure DevOps
12 62 (5.68%) OpenShift
13 51 (4.67%) Amazon SQS
13 51 (4.67%) dbt
14 48 (4.40%) Amazon ECS
15 43 (3.94%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 36 (3.30%) Azure Data Factory
16 36 (3.30%) Power Platform
17 31 (2.84%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 29 (2.66%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.75%) HTTP
2 22 (2.01%) DNS
3 14 (1.28%) Network Security
4 9 (0.82%) Firewall
4 9 (0.82%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.64%) MQTT
5 7 (0.64%) SSH
5 7 (0.64%) SSL
6 6 (0.55%) SAN
7 5 (0.46%) 4G
7 5 (0.46%) 5G
8 4 (0.37%) NAS
9 3 (0.27%) Internet
9 3 (0.27%) VPN
10 2 (0.18%) Broadband
10 2 (0.18%) Kerberos
10 2 (0.18%) Reverse Proxy
11 1 (0.092%) MIMO
11 1 (0.092%) RTP
11 1 (0.092%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 185 (16.94%) PostgreSQL
2 168 (15.38%) MongoDB
3 136 (12.45%) NoSQL
4 90 (8.24%) Relational Database
5 74 (6.78%) Data Warehouse
6 64 (5.86%) SQL Server
7 61 (5.59%) Redis
8 50 (4.58%) MySQL
9 48 (4.40%) Big Data
10 47 (4.30%) Data Lake
11 44 (4.03%) Elasticsearch
12 39 (3.57%) BigQuery
12 39 (3.57%) Flink
13 34 (3.11%) Power BI
14 30 (2.75%) Metadata
15 28 (2.56%) Delta Lake
16 26 (2.38%) Amazon Redshift
17 22 (2.01%) Amazon RDS
17 22 (2.01%) RDBMS
18 21 (1.92%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 220 (20.15%) Jenkins
2 192 (17.58%) Git
3 170 (15.57%) GitLab
4 69 (6.32%) JUnit
5 67 (6.14%) Gradle
6 57 (5.22%) Mockito
7 56 (5.13%) Selenium
8 47 (4.30%) JIRA
9 44 (4.03%) Maven
10 38 (3.48%) Cucumber
11 34 (3.11%) SonarQube
12 25 (2.29%) Postman
12 25 (2.29%) REST Assured
13 22 (2.01%) Bitbucket
14 21 (1.92%) JMeter
15 17 (1.56%) Gatling
16 16 (1.47%) LoadRunner
16 16 (1.47%) SoapUI
17 15 (1.37%) Sonatype Nexus
18 14 (1.28%) Cypress.io
General
1 276 (25.27%) Finance
2 204 (18.68%) Social Skills
3 183 (16.76%) Banking
4 110 (10.07%) Analytical Skills
5 101 (9.25%) Public Sector
6 43 (3.94%) Retail
7 32 (2.93%) Investment Banking
8 27 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (2.01%) Front Office
10 18 (1.65%) Financial Institution
10 18 (1.65%) Telecoms
11 12 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
12 11 (1.01%) Law
13 10 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.82%) Military
15 8 (0.73%) Billing
15 8 (0.73%) Documentation Skills
15 8 (0.73%) Retail Banking
16 7 (0.64%) Corporate Banking
16 7 (0.64%) Games
Job Titles
1 328 (30.04%) Developer
2 229 (20.97%) Senior
3 181 (16.58%) Java Developer
4 173 (15.84%) Architect
5 129 (11.81%) Data Engineer
6 100 (9.16%) Lead
7 74 (6.78%) Java Engineer
8 70 (6.41%) Solutions Architect
9 65 (5.95%) Senior Developer
10 63 (5.77%) Software Engineer
11 62 (5.68%) DevOps Engineer
12 47 (4.30%) Full-Stack Developer
13 43 (3.94%) Senior Data Engineer
14 38 (3.48%) Kafka Engineer
14 38 (3.48%) Python Engineer
14 38 (3.48%) Senior Java Developer
15 37 (3.39%) Python Developer
16 36 (3.30%) AWS Engineer
16 36 (3.30%) Senior Java Engineer
16 36 (3.30%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 298 (27.29%) Spring
1 298 (27.29%) Spring Boot
2 251 (22.99%) REST
3 235 (21.52%) Terraform
4 155 (14.19%) RESTful
5 131 (12.00%) React
6 117 (10.71%) RabbitMQ
7 68 (6.23%) OAuth
8 67 (6.14%) JSON
9 57 (5.22%) HTML
10 56 (5.13%) Node.js
11 52 (4.76%) PySpark
12 48 (4.40%) GraphQL
13 46 (4.21%) .NET
13 46 (4.21%) Middleware
13 46 (4.21%) SOAP
14 45 (4.12%) Elastic Stack
15 43 (3.94%) CSS
15 43 (3.94%) XML
16 42 (3.85%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 260 (23.81%) Cloud Native
2 230 (21.06%) Distributed Systems
3 79 (7.23%) Product Ownership
4 47 (4.30%) Enterprise Software
5 43 (3.94%) Data Structures
6 37 (3.39%) AI Agents
7 36 (3.30%) Onboarding
8 34 (3.11%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (2.56%) Replication
10 27 (2.47%) Greenfield Project
11 26 (2.38%) Legacy Systems
11 26 (2.38%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 25 (2.29%) Algorithms
13 21 (1.92%) Public Cloud
14 20 (1.83%) Distributed Architecture
15 19 (1.74%) Data Protection Act
16 18 (1.65%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 17 (1.56%) Private Cloud
18 16 (1.47%) PKI
19 14 (1.28%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 146 (13.37%) Linux
2 70 (6.41%) Unix
3 27 (2.47%) Windows
4 12 (1.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.46%) Ubuntu
6 4 (0.37%) CentOS
6 4 (0.37%) Mac OS X
7 2 (0.18%) Android
7 2 (0.18%) VMS
8 1 (0.092%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.092%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.092%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.092%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 620 (56.78%) CI/CD
2 464 (42.49%) Event-Driven
3 454 (41.58%) Microservices
4 396 (36.26%) DevOps
5 392 (35.90%) Agile
6 323 (29.58%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 282 (25.82%) Observability
8 259 (23.72%) Test Automation
9 243 (22.25%) Infrastructure as Code
10 224 (20.51%) Containerisation
11 203 (18.59%) Software Engineering
12 185 (16.94%) AI
13 164 (15.02%) Data Pipeline
14 151 (13.83%) Problem-Solving
15 144 (13.19%) Continuous Improvement
16 142 (13.00%) Technical Leadership
17 140 (12.82%) Data Modelling
18 128 (11.72%) ETL
19 124 (11.36%) Analytics
20 123 (11.26%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 485 (44.41%) Java
2 376 (34.43%) Python
3 358 (32.78%) SQL
4 109 (9.98%) JavaScript
5 94 (8.61%) TypeScript
6 87 (7.97%) Bash
7 69 (6.32%) C#
8 53 (4.85%) Go
9 40 (3.66%) Scala
10 31 (2.84%) PowerShell
11 30 (2.75%) PL/SQL
12 29 (2.66%) Shell Script
13 25 (2.29%) Kotlin
14 11 (1.01%) Groovy
15 10 (0.92%) C++
16 8 (0.73%) Perl
16 8 (0.73%) PHP
17 7 (0.64%) Kusto Query Language
17 7 (0.64%) Rust
18 6 (0.55%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 268 (24.54%) Security Cleared
2 222 (20.33%) SC Cleared
3 65 (5.95%) Degree
4 44 (4.03%) Computer Science Degree
5 42 (3.85%) BPSS Clearance
6 28 (2.56%) DV Cleared
7 15 (1.37%) Azure Certification
8 13 (1.19%) AWS Certification
9 12 (1.10%) Master's Degree
10 11 (1.01%) ISTQB
11 7 (0.64%) DBS Check
11 7 (0.64%) ISEB
11 7 (0.64%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 5 (0.46%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 5 (0.46%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (0.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (0.27%) PhD
13 3 (0.27%) SnowPro
14 1 (0.092%) CISSP
14 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (7.88%) Data Quality
1 86 (7.88%) QA
2 44 (4.03%) Accessibility
3 33 (3.02%) ISO 20022
4 20 (1.83%) GDPR
5 14 (1.28%) SEPA
6 6 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
7 5 (0.46%) ISO 15022
7 5 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (0.46%) NIST
7 5 (0.46%) PSD2
8 4 (0.37%) SLA
8 4 (0.37%) WCAG
9 2 (0.18%) Basel III
9 2 (0.18%) EMIR
9 2 (0.18%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.18%) MiFID
9 2 (0.18%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.18%) Solvency II
System Software
1 388 (35.53%) Docker
2 17 (1.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.73%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 4 (0.37%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.18%) Apache Flume
5 2 (0.18%) HDFS
6 1 (0.092%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 506 (46.34%) Kubernetes
2 147 (13.46%) Grafana
3 125 (11.45%) Prometheus
4 69 (6.32%) Ansible
5 29 (2.66%) Argo
6 27 (2.47%) Control-M
7 15 (1.37%) Istio
7 15 (1.37%) Kibana
8 14 (1.28%) Kustomize
8 14 (1.28%) Puppet
9 9 (0.82%) Podman
10 7 (0.64%) logstash
10 7 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.55%) HP Fortify
11 6 (0.55%) Rancher
12 5 (0.46%) Check_MK
12 5 (0.46%) Progress Chef
13 4 (0.37%) Bosun
14 3 (0.27%) Cilium
14 3 (0.27%) Consul
Vendors
1 120 (10.99%) Oracle
2 105 (9.62%) Databricks
3 62 (5.68%) Splunk
4 61 (5.59%) IBM
5 56 (5.13%) Google
6 52 (4.76%) Microsoft
7 39 (3.57%) Dynatrace
8 32 (2.93%) Confluent
9 27 (2.47%) Informatica
10 21 (1.92%) VMware
11 19 (1.74%) MuleSoft
11 19 (1.74%) OpenAI
11 19 (1.74%) SAP
12 14 (1.28%) TIBCO
13 13 (1.19%) New Relic
14 12 (1.10%) Salesforce
14 12 (1.10%) Solace
15 10 (0.92%) Sybase
15 10 (0.92%) Veracode
16 9 (0.82%) WSO2