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 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 140 104 133
Rank change year-on-year -36 +29 +27
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,057 839 700
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.95% 2.55% 1.83%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 8.99% 9.90% 7.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 666 538 464
10th Percentile £375 £381 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £487
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -0.91% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £630 £675 £725
90th Percentile £738 £750 £810
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £497
% change year-on-year +6.61% -5.54% -20.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 4 7
10th Percentile £43.85 £40.58 £24.34
25th Percentile £56.25 £48.56 £26.20
Median hourly rate £77.00 £59.25 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.96% +111.61% -64.10%
75th Percentile £87.00 £75.31 £33.88
90th Percentile £94.00 £96.13 £39.35
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 11,764 8,473 9,528
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.68% 25.72% 24.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,728 5,672 6,318
10th Percentile £375 £354 £356
25th Percentile £435 £413 £434
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £634 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £501 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.37% -5.00% -2.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 291 182 187
10th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 £25.60
25th Percentile £47.90 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £66.66 £53.25 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +25.18% -13.56% -2.99%
75th Percentile £76.50 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £72.45 £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.75 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +23.18% -15.38% +4.00%

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 16 September 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 16 September 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 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 -40 885 £550 - 1,228
London -44 530 £575 -5.00% 864
UK excluding London -30 387 £500 +6.61% 490
Work from Home -51 273 £530 -7.83% 497
North of England -21 187 £500 +5.26% 164
Yorkshire -1 95 £501 -12.96% 41
North West -32 73 £550 +17.77% 107
South East -39 62 £460 +5.75% 78
Scotland -35 55 £410 -12.77% 82
Midlands -45 35 £500 +13.51% 44
East of England +1 28 £500 -2.44% 31
South West -28 27 £500 -9.09% 52
North East -23 24 £425 -8.55% 16
West Midlands -51 22 £700 +40.00% 31
East Midlands -11 13 £495 +19.28% 13
Northern Ireland +3 4 - - 38
Wales - 1 £375 - 3

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
1 128 (12.11%) Apache Spark
2 75 (7.10%) Apache Airflow
3 67 (6.34%) Apache
4 24 (2.27%) Confluence
5 16 (1.51%) Camunda
6 7 (0.66%) OpenStack
6 7 (0.66%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 6 (0.57%) CMS
8 5 (0.47%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.38%) Apache Pulsar
9 4 (0.38%) MQSeries
9 4 (0.38%) PowerExchange
10 3 (0.28%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.28%) Mule
10 3 (0.28%) nginx
10 3 (0.28%) WebSphere
11 2 (0.19%) Apache Pig
11 2 (0.19%) JBoss
12 1 (0.095%) CICS
12 1 (0.095%) Oracle HTTP Server
Applications
1 6 (0.57%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.19%) Mingle
3 1 (0.095%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.095%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (0.28%) Finacle
1 3 (0.28%) FLEXCUBE
1 3 (0.28%) SAP S/4HANA
1 3 (0.28%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
1 3 (0.28%) Temenos T24
2 2 (0.19%) Endur
2 2 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.095%) Actimize
3 1 (0.095%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.095%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.095%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.095%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.095%) SAP IS-U
Cloud Services
1 603 (57.05%) AWS
2 380 (35.95%) Azure
3 252 (23.84%) GCP
4 175 (16.56%) GitHub
5 119 (11.26%) GitHub Actions
6 100 (9.46%) Serverless
7 83 (7.85%) AWS Lambda
8 74 (7.00%) Amazon EKS
8 74 (7.00%) Amazon S3
9 73 (6.91%) Snowflake
10 71 (6.72%) Azure DevOps
11 65 (6.15%) OpenShift
12 51 (4.82%) dbt
13 48 (4.54%) Amazon SQS
14 42 (3.97%) Amazon ECS
15 40 (3.78%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 39 (3.69%) Power Platform
17 33 (3.12%) Azure Data Factory
18 31 (2.93%) Google Kubernetes Engine
19 27 (2.55%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.84%) HTTP
2 20 (1.89%) DNS
3 12 (1.14%) Network Security
4 9 (0.85%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.66%) Firewall
5 7 (0.66%) MQTT
5 7 (0.66%) SSH
6 6 (0.57%) SAN
6 6 (0.57%) SSL
7 5 (0.47%) 4G
7 5 (0.47%) 5G
8 4 (0.38%) NAS
9 3 (0.28%) Internet
10 2 (0.19%) Kerberos
11 1 (0.095%) Broadband
11 1 (0.095%) FIX Connectivity
11 1 (0.095%) MIMO
11 1 (0.095%) RTP
11 1 (0.095%) VPN
11 1 (0.095%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 187 (17.69%) PostgreSQL
2 167 (15.80%) MongoDB
3 131 (12.39%) NoSQL
4 94 (8.89%) Relational Database
5 74 (7.00%) Data Warehouse
6 66 (6.24%) SQL Server
7 57 (5.39%) Redis
8 52 (4.92%) Big Data
9 49 (4.64%) MySQL
10 48 (4.54%) Data Lake
11 40 (3.78%) Elasticsearch
12 39 (3.69%) BigQuery
13 38 (3.60%) Power BI
14 34 (3.22%) Flink
15 32 (3.03%) Metadata
16 27 (2.55%) Delta Lake
17 24 (2.27%) Amazon Redshift
17 24 (2.27%) Hadoop
18 23 (2.18%) Apache Cassandra
18 23 (2.18%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 212 (20.06%) Jenkins
2 185 (17.50%) Git
3 160 (15.14%) GitLab
4 71 (6.72%) JUnit
5 67 (6.34%) Gradle
6 60 (5.68%) Mockito
7 50 (4.73%) Selenium
8 46 (4.35%) Maven
9 45 (4.26%) JIRA
10 32 (3.03%) SonarQube
11 30 (2.84%) Cucumber
12 24 (2.27%) REST Assured
13 22 (2.08%) Postman
14 19 (1.80%) JMeter
15 18 (1.70%) Bitbucket
16 16 (1.51%) Gatling
17 15 (1.42%) Liquibase
18 13 (1.23%) Cypress.io
18 13 (1.23%) LoadRunner
19 12 (1.14%) SoapUI
General
1 266 (25.17%) Finance
2 205 (19.39%) Social Skills
3 163 (15.42%) Banking
4 112 (10.60%) Analytical Skills
5 98 (9.27%) Public Sector
6 37 (3.50%) Retail
7 25 (2.37%) Investment Banking
8 24 (2.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 19 (1.80%) Front Office
10 18 (1.70%) Telecoms
11 16 (1.51%) Financial Institution
12 13 (1.23%) Law
13 11 (1.04%) Documentation Skills
14 9 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
14 9 (0.85%) Military
14 9 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.85%) Publishing
15 8 (0.76%) Billing
15 8 (0.76%) Retail Banking
16 7 (0.66%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 330 (31.22%) Developer
2 227 (21.48%) Senior
3 184 (17.41%) Java Developer
4 157 (14.85%) Architect
5 127 (12.02%) Data Engineer
6 97 (9.18%) Lead
7 70 (6.62%) Java Engineer
7 70 (6.62%) Senior Developer
8 62 (5.87%) DevOps Engineer
8 62 (5.87%) Software Engineer
8 62 (5.87%) Solutions Architect
9 44 (4.16%) Full-Stack Developer
10 43 (4.07%) Senior Java Developer
11 41 (3.88%) Senior Data Engineer
12 38 (3.60%) AWS Engineer
13 37 (3.50%) Kafka Engineer
13 37 (3.50%) Python Developer
13 37 (3.50%) Python Engineer
14 33 (3.12%) Test Engineer
15 32 (3.03%) AWS Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 283 (26.77%) Spring
1 283 (26.77%) Spring Boot
2 246 (23.27%) REST
3 225 (21.29%) Terraform
4 153 (14.47%) RESTful
5 132 (12.49%) React
6 125 (11.83%) RabbitMQ
7 73 (6.91%) JSON
8 61 (5.77%) OAuth
9 57 (5.39%) Node.js
10 52 (4.92%) HTML
11 50 (4.73%) PySpark
12 49 (4.64%) OpenTelemetry
13 47 (4.45%) .NET
13 47 (4.45%) GraphQL
14 43 (4.07%) Elastic Stack
15 42 (3.97%) Swagger
16 41 (3.88%) Middleware
16 41 (3.88%) XML
17 40 (3.78%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 241 (22.80%) Cloud Native
2 224 (21.19%) Distributed Systems
3 70 (6.62%) Product Ownership
4 45 (4.26%) Enterprise Software
5 44 (4.16%) Data Structures
6 37 (3.50%) Onboarding
7 35 (3.31%) AI Agents
8 30 (2.84%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (2.74%) Legacy Systems
10 27 (2.55%) Algorithms
10 27 (2.55%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 25 (2.37%) Replication
12 23 (2.18%) Greenfield Project
13 19 (1.80%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 17 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
14 17 (1.61%) Distributed Architecture
14 17 (1.61%) Management Information System
15 16 (1.51%) Public Cloud
16 15 (1.42%) Equities
16 15 (1.42%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 136 (12.87%) Linux
2 70 (6.62%) Unix
3 24 (2.27%) Windows
4 11 (1.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.57%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.47%) Mac OS X
7 3 (0.28%) CentOS
7 3 (0.28%) VMS
8 2 (0.19%) Android
8 2 (0.19%) Debian
8 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.095%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.095%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.095%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.095%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.095%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 586 (55.44%) CI/CD
2 445 (42.10%) Event-Driven
3 431 (40.78%) Microservices
4 383 (36.23%) DevOps
5 374 (35.38%) Agile
6 311 (29.42%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 282 (26.68%) Observability
8 236 (22.33%) Test Automation
9 231 (21.85%) Containerisation
9 231 (21.85%) Infrastructure as Code
10 193 (18.26%) Software Engineering
11 179 (16.93%) AI
12 170 (16.08%) Data Pipeline
13 152 (14.38%) Problem-Solving
14 143 (13.53%) Data Modelling
15 133 (12.58%) Technical Leadership
16 130 (12.30%) ETL
17 129 (12.20%) Continuous Improvement
18 123 (11.64%) Analytics
19 120 (11.35%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 470 (44.47%) Java
2 362 (34.25%) Python
3 341 (32.26%) SQL
4 102 (9.65%) JavaScript
5 101 (9.56%) TypeScript
6 82 (7.76%) Bash
7 61 (5.77%) C#
8 50 (4.73%) Go
9 42 (3.97%) Scala
10 30 (2.84%) PowerShell
11 29 (2.74%) PL/SQL
12 24 (2.27%) Shell Script
13 23 (2.18%) Kotlin
14 11 (1.04%) Groovy
15 9 (0.85%) Perl
16 8 (0.76%) C++
16 8 (0.76%) Rust
16 8 (0.76%) Search Processing Language
17 7 (0.66%) Bicep
17 7 (0.66%) PHP
Qualifications
1 251 (23.75%) Security Cleared
2 205 (19.39%) SC Cleared
3 64 (6.05%) Degree
4 41 (3.88%) Computer Science Degree
5 40 (3.78%) BPSS Clearance
6 21 (1.99%) DV Cleared
7 12 (1.14%) Azure Certification
8 11 (1.04%) AWS Certification
8 11 (1.04%) Master's Degree
9 10 (0.95%) ISTQB
10 6 (0.57%) DBS Check
10 6 (0.57%) ISEB
11 5 (0.47%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 5 (0.47%) SnowPro
11 5 (0.47%) TOGAF Certification
12 3 (0.28%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.28%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 3 (0.28%) PhD
13 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
14 1 (0.095%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (8.04%) Data Quality
2 83 (7.85%) QA
3 42 (3.97%) Accessibility
4 34 (3.22%) ISO 20022
5 19 (1.80%) GDPR
6 15 (1.42%) SEPA
7 5 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
7 5 (0.47%) ISO 15022
7 5 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (0.47%) PSD2
7 5 (0.47%) SLA
7 5 (0.47%) WCAG
8 3 (0.28%) NIST
9 2 (0.19%) EMIR
9 2 (0.19%) GRC
9 2 (0.19%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.19%) IFRS
9 2 (0.19%) IFRS 17
9 2 (0.19%) MiFID
9 2 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 375 (35.48%) Docker
2 16 (1.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.76%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 3 (0.28%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.19%) Apache Flume
5 2 (0.19%) HDFS
6 1 (0.095%) etcd
6 1 (0.095%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 484 (45.79%) Kubernetes
2 139 (13.15%) Grafana
3 122 (11.54%) Prometheus
4 67 (6.34%) Ansible
5 30 (2.84%) Argo
6 25 (2.37%) Control-M
7 14 (1.32%) Istio
7 14 (1.32%) Kibana
7 14 (1.32%) Kustomize
8 11 (1.04%) Puppet
9 9 (0.85%) Podman
10 8 (0.76%) logstash
11 7 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
12 6 (0.57%) Rancher
13 5 (0.47%) Check_MK
13 5 (0.47%) HP Fortify
14 4 (0.38%) Bosun
14 4 (0.38%) Consul
15 3 (0.28%) Cilium
15 3 (0.28%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 122 (11.54%) Oracle
2 100 (9.46%) Databricks
3 58 (5.49%) Splunk
4 55 (5.20%) IBM
5 54 (5.11%) Microsoft
6 51 (4.82%) Google
7 37 (3.50%) Dynatrace
8 31 (2.93%) Confluent
9 29 (2.74%) Informatica
10 20 (1.89%) MuleSoft
10 20 (1.89%) VMware
11 18 (1.70%) OpenAI
12 17 (1.61%) Salesforce
13 16 (1.51%) SAP
14 15 (1.42%) Solace
15 12 (1.14%) TIBCO
16 11 (1.04%) New Relic
17 9 (0.85%) Sybase
17 9 (0.85%) Veracode
18 8 (0.76%) Red Hat