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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 140 110 121
Rank change year-on-year -30 +11 +46
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,127 823 729
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.04% 2.48% 1.95%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.38% 9.55% 7.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 730 531 462
10th Percentile £380 £375 £363
25th Percentile £425 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £725
90th Percentile £761 £750 £810
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £462 £490
% change year-on-year +7.26% -5.82% -18.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 4 5
10th Percentile £51.75 £40.58 £26.04
25th Percentile £67.50 £48.56 £27.00
Median hourly rate £81.00 £59.25 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.71% +111.61% -64.10%
75th Percentile £89.06 £75.31 £38.75
90th Percentile £94.50 £96.13 £68.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £82.25 - £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 12,011 8,622 9,259
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.73% 25.99% 24.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,888 5,725 5,976
10th Percentile £380 £357 £355
25th Percentile £440 £413 £425
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% -2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 301 188 169
10th Percentile £29.07 £30.18 £25.56
25th Percentile £50.50 £40.75 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £50.72 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.15% -21.97% +10.11%
75th Percentile £77.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £72.90 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.47 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +22.67% -15.38% +13.04%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -40 931 £550 - 805
London -29 569 £575 -4.17% 575
UK excluding London -11 406 £495 +7.26% 317
Work from Home -55 280 £550 -4.35% 342
North of England +5 199 £504 +7.36% 113
Yorkshire +15 93 £501 -12.87% 28
North West -13 86 £550 +24.29% 73
Scotland -23 65 £410 -13.68% 51
South East -57 53 £460 +5.75% 37
Midlands -52 42 £407 -14.32% 20
South West -15 29 £588 +6.82% 27
East of England -4 28 £488 -4.88% 25
West Midlands -45 27 £700 +40.00% 17
North East -23 25 £426 -26.00% 12
East Midlands -18 15 £402 -3.13% 3
Northern Ireland - 4 - - 38
Wales - 1 £375 - 7

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 (11.71%) Apache Spark
2 80 (7.10%) Apache Airflow
3 78 (6.92%) Apache
4 28 (2.48%) Confluence
5 15 (1.33%) Camunda
6 7 (0.62%) nginx
6 7 (0.62%) OpenStack
6 7 (0.62%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 5 (0.44%) Apache Pulsar
7 5 (0.44%) CMS
7 5 (0.44%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.35%) PowerExchange
9 3 (0.27%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.27%) MQSeries
9 3 (0.27%) Mule
9 3 (0.27%) Traefik
10 2 (0.18%) Apache Pig
10 2 (0.18%) JBoss
10 2 (0.18%) WebSphere
11 1 (0.089%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 6 (0.53%) CPLEX
2 3 (0.27%) Mingle
3 2 (0.18%) Gliffy
4 1 (0.089%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.089%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.089%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.44%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 3 (0.27%) Finacle
3 3 (0.27%) FLEXCUBE
3 3 (0.27%) Temenos T24
4 2 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.18%) Endur
4 2 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.089%) Actimize
5 1 (0.089%) Distributed Ledger
5 1 (0.089%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.089%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.089%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.089%) SAP IS-U
5 1 (0.089%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 645 (57.23%) AWS
2 411 (36.47%) Azure
3 274 (24.31%) GCP
4 194 (17.21%) GitHub
5 127 (11.27%) GitHub Actions
6 106 (9.41%) Serverless
7 91 (8.07%) Amazon S3
8 87 (7.72%) AWS Lambda
9 83 (7.36%) Amazon EKS
10 78 (6.92%) Snowflake
11 66 (5.86%) Azure DevOps
12 65 (5.77%) OpenShift
13 52 (4.61%) Amazon SQS
13 52 (4.61%) dbt
14 49 (4.35%) Amazon ECS
15 47 (4.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 38 (3.37%) Azure Data Factory
17 36 (3.19%) Power Platform
18 31 (2.75%) Google Kubernetes Engine
19 30 (2.66%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.84%) HTTP
2 25 (2.22%) DNS
3 14 (1.24%) Network Security
4 9 (0.80%) Firewall
4 9 (0.80%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.62%) MQTT
5 7 (0.62%) SSH
5 7 (0.62%) SSL
6 6 (0.53%) SAN
7 5 (0.44%) 4G
7 5 (0.44%) 5G
8 4 (0.35%) NAS
9 3 (0.27%) Internet
9 3 (0.27%) Reverse Proxy
9 3 (0.27%) VPN
10 2 (0.18%) Broadband
10 2 (0.18%) Kerberos
11 1 (0.089%) FIX Connectivity
11 1 (0.089%) RTP
11 1 (0.089%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 190 (16.86%) PostgreSQL
2 172 (15.26%) MongoDB
3 141 (12.51%) NoSQL
4 95 (8.43%) Relational Database
5 76 (6.74%) Data Warehouse
6 62 (5.50%) SQL Server
7 60 (5.32%) Redis
8 55 (4.88%) MySQL
9 50 (4.44%) Data Lake
10 47 (4.17%) Big Data
11 42 (3.73%) Elasticsearch
12 39 (3.46%) BigQuery
13 38 (3.37%) Flink
14 34 (3.02%) Power BI
15 30 (2.66%) Metadata
16 29 (2.57%) Delta Lake
17 27 (2.40%) Amazon Redshift
18 22 (1.95%) Hadoop
18 22 (1.95%) RDBMS
19 21 (1.86%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 224 (19.88%) Jenkins
2 201 (17.83%) Git
3 176 (15.62%) GitLab
4 76 (6.74%) JUnit
5 74 (6.57%) Gradle
6 61 (5.41%) Mockito
7 57 (5.06%) Selenium
8 49 (4.35%) JIRA
8 49 (4.35%) Maven
9 40 (3.55%) Cucumber
10 36 (3.19%) SonarQube
11 26 (2.31%) Postman
12 25 (2.22%) REST Assured
13 23 (2.04%) Bitbucket
14 21 (1.86%) JMeter
15 18 (1.60%) Claude Code
16 17 (1.51%) Gatling
17 16 (1.42%) Cypress.io
17 16 (1.42%) LoadRunner
17 16 (1.42%) SoapUI
General
1 291 (25.82%) Finance
2 215 (19.08%) Social Skills
3 200 (17.75%) Banking
4 113 (10.03%) Analytical Skills
5 106 (9.41%) Public Sector
6 42 (3.73%) Retail
7 37 (3.28%) Investment Banking
8 27 (2.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 24 (2.13%) Front Office
10 22 (1.95%) Financial Institution
11 18 (1.60%) Telecoms
12 11 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
12 11 (0.98%) Law
13 10 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.80%) Military
15 8 (0.71%) Billing
16 7 (0.62%) Documentation Skills
16 7 (0.62%) Games
16 7 (0.62%) Marketing
16 7 (0.62%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 333 (29.55%) Developer
2 236 (20.94%) Senior
3 187 (16.59%) Java Developer
4 183 (16.24%) Architect
5 132 (11.71%) Data Engineer
6 101 (8.96%) Lead
7 78 (6.92%) Java Engineer
8 73 (6.48%) Solutions Architect
9 68 (6.03%) Senior Developer
10 65 (5.77%) DevOps Engineer
11 64 (5.68%) Software Engineer
12 50 (4.44%) Full-Stack Developer
13 44 (3.90%) Senior Data Engineer
14 40 (3.55%) Senior Java Developer
15 38 (3.37%) AWS Engineer
15 38 (3.37%) Python Engineer
16 37 (3.28%) Senior Java Engineer
17 36 (3.19%) Test Engineer
18 35 (3.11%) Kafka Engineer
18 35 (3.11%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 315 (27.95%) Spring
2 314 (27.86%) Spring Boot
3 262 (23.25%) REST
4 239 (21.21%) Terraform
5 160 (14.20%) RESTful
6 134 (11.89%) React
7 118 (10.47%) RabbitMQ
8 74 (6.57%) OAuth
9 72 (6.39%) JSON
10 60 (5.32%) HTML
11 58 (5.15%) Node.js
12 54 (4.79%) PySpark
13 50 (4.44%) GraphQL
14 48 (4.26%) SOAP
15 47 (4.17%) CSS
15 47 (4.17%) Middleware
16 46 (4.08%) .NET
16 46 (4.08%) OpenTelemetry
16 46 (4.08%) XML
17 45 (3.99%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 274 (24.31%) Cloud Native
2 246 (21.83%) Distributed Systems
3 78 (6.92%) Product Ownership
4 52 (4.61%) Enterprise Software
5 44 (3.90%) Data Structures
6 37 (3.28%) AI Agents
7 35 (3.11%) Onboarding
8 33 (2.93%) Self-Motivation
9 27 (2.40%) Greenfield Project
9 27 (2.40%) Legacy Systems
9 27 (2.40%) Replication
10 26 (2.31%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 25 (2.22%) Algorithms
11 25 (2.22%) Distributed Architecture
12 21 (1.86%) Public Cloud
13 20 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
14 18 (1.60%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 18 (1.60%) PKI
15 17 (1.51%) Private Cloud
16 14 (1.24%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 146 (12.95%) Linux
2 71 (6.30%) Unix
3 28 (2.48%) Windows
4 12 (1.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (0.62%) macOS
6 5 (0.44%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.35%) CentOS
8 2 (0.18%) Android
8 2 (0.18%) VMS
9 1 (0.089%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.089%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.089%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 641 (56.88%) CI/CD
2 486 (43.12%) Event-Driven
3 472 (41.88%) Microservices
4 409 (36.29%) DevOps
5 406 (36.02%) Agile
6 341 (30.26%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 294 (26.09%) Observability
8 275 (24.40%) Test Automation
9 249 (22.09%) Infrastructure as Code
10 227 (20.14%) Containerisation
11 218 (19.34%) Software Engineering
12 192 (17.04%) AI
13 168 (14.91%) Data Pipeline
14 158 (14.02%) Problem-Solving
15 147 (13.04%) Continuous Improvement
15 147 (13.04%) Technical Leadership
16 146 (12.95%) Data Modelling
17 133 (11.80%) TDD
18 130 (11.54%) ETL
19 126 (11.18%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 508 (45.08%) Java
2 381 (33.81%) Python
3 371 (32.92%) SQL
4 113 (10.03%) JavaScript
5 99 (8.78%) TypeScript
6 88 (7.81%) Bash
7 68 (6.03%) C#
8 54 (4.79%) Go
9 42 (3.73%) Scala
10 33 (2.93%) PowerShell
11 31 (2.75%) PL/SQL
12 28 (2.48%) Shell Script
13 25 (2.22%) Kotlin
14 11 (0.98%) C++
14 11 (0.98%) Groovy
15 8 (0.71%) Perl
15 8 (0.71%) PHP
16 7 (0.62%) Bicep
16 7 (0.62%) Kusto Query Language
17 6 (0.53%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 275 (24.40%) Security Cleared
2 227 (20.14%) SC Cleared
3 67 (5.94%) Degree
4 45 (3.99%) Computer Science Degree
5 44 (3.90%) BPSS Clearance
6 30 (2.66%) DV Cleared
7 16 (1.42%) Azure Certification
8 14 (1.24%) AWS Certification
9 12 (1.06%) Master's Degree
10 11 (0.98%) ISTQB
11 7 (0.62%) DBS Check
11 7 (0.62%) ISEB
11 7 (0.62%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 5 (0.44%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 5 (0.44%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (0.27%) PhD
13 3 (0.27%) SnowPro
14 2 (0.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 1 (0.089%) FFIEC
15 1 (0.089%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (8.34%) Data Quality
2 90 (7.99%) QA
3 44 (3.90%) Accessibility
4 33 (2.93%) ISO 20022
5 20 (1.77%) GDPR
6 14 (1.24%) SEPA
7 6 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
8 5 (0.44%) ISO 15022
8 5 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.44%) NIST
8 5 (0.44%) PSD2
9 4 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 4 (0.35%) SLA
9 4 (0.35%) WCAG
10 2 (0.18%) Basel III
10 2 (0.18%) EMIR
10 2 (0.18%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.18%) MiFID
10 2 (0.18%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.18%) Solvency II
System Software
1 395 (35.05%) Docker
2 16 (1.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.71%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 4 (0.35%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.18%) Apache Flume
5 2 (0.18%) HDFS
6 1 (0.089%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 518 (45.96%) Kubernetes
2 149 (13.22%) Grafana
3 127 (11.27%) Prometheus
4 67 (5.94%) Ansible
5 27 (2.40%) Argo
5 27 (2.40%) Control-M
6 17 (1.51%) Istio
7 16 (1.42%) Kustomize
8 14 (1.24%) Kibana
8 14 (1.24%) Puppet
9 9 (0.80%) Podman
10 8 (0.71%) logstash
11 7 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
12 6 (0.53%) HP Fortify
13 5 (0.44%) Check_MK
13 5 (0.44%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.44%) Rancher
14 4 (0.35%) Bosun
14 4 (0.35%) HAProxy
15 3 (0.27%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 124 (11.00%) Oracle
2 109 (9.67%) Databricks
3 62 (5.50%) Google
3 62 (5.50%) IBM
3 62 (5.50%) Splunk
4 59 (5.24%) Microsoft
5 40 (3.55%) Dynatrace
6 32 (2.84%) Confluent
7 28 (2.48%) Informatica
8 20 (1.77%) MuleSoft
8 20 (1.77%) SAP
8 20 (1.77%) VMware
9 19 (1.69%) OpenAI
10 15 (1.33%) TIBCO
11 13 (1.15%) New Relic
11 13 (1.15%) Salesforce
12 12 (1.06%) Solace
13 10 (0.89%) Sybase
13 10 (0.89%) Veracode
13 10 (0.89%) WSO2