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 30 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 142 99 140
Rank change year-on-year -43 +41 +10
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,013 841 676
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.91% 2.56% 1.70%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.94% 11.36% 7.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 621 544 471
10th Percentile £380 £385 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £578
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -11.15%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £711
90th Percentile £798 £813 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £465 £492
% change year-on-year +7.53% -5.39% -18.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 3 9
10th Percentile £56.50 £54.65 £22.55
25th Percentile £64.75 £57.13 £27.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £62.50 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% +123.21% -64.10%
75th Percentile £86.25 £71.23 £38.75
90th Percentile £90.00 £75.71 £45.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.50 £78.70 £28.00
% change year-on-year -7.88% +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 10,187 7,404 8,652
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.23% 22.56% 21.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,652 5,003 5,902
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £505 £550
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -8.18% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £669
90th Percentile £738 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 266 160 247
10th Percentile £29.07 £30.23 £23.38
25th Percentile £43.13 £40.75 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £73.94 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.81 £80.10 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year +13.04% -1.37% -0.42%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -38 860 £550 - 358
London -32 506 £575 -8.00% 256
UK excluding London -26 383 £500 +7.53% 152
Work from Home -61 276 £550 -4.35% 138
North of England -15 175 £470 +0.97% 44
Yorkshire -4 80 £495 -1.00% 13
North West -35 75 £429 -8.14% 21
South East -41 65 £513 +15.82% 42
Scotland -29 54 £449 -4.57% 20
Midlands -59 41 £500 +17.51% 9
South West -23 28 £500 -9.09% 25
North East -24 27 £463 +0.05% 10
West Midlands -61 25 £500 - 7
East of England +1 24 £550 +10.00% 6
East Midlands -14 16 £459 +26.48% 2
Northern Ireland -4 3 - - 5
Wales -14 2 £313 - 2

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
1 135 (13.33%) Apache Spark
2 72 (7.11%) Apache
3 60 (5.92%) Apache Airflow
4 19 (1.88%) Confluence
5 6 (0.59%) Apache Pulsar
5 6 (0.59%) Camunda
5 6 (0.59%) CMS
5 6 (0.59%) WebSphere
6 4 (0.39%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.30%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.30%) Mule
8 2 (0.20%) Apache Pig
8 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.20%) JBoss
8 2 (0.20%) MQSeries
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 2 (0.20%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 8 (0.79%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.20%) PlantUML
3 1 (0.099%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.099%) Maya
3 1 (0.099%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.099%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (0.39%) 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 (0.099%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.099%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.099%) SAP IS-U
3 1 (0.099%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 602 (59.43%) AWS
2 316 (31.19%) Azure
3 201 (19.84%) GCP
4 146 (14.41%) GitHub
5 104 (10.27%) GitHub Actions
6 103 (10.17%) Serverless
7 80 (7.90%) AWS Lambda
8 78 (7.70%) Amazon S3
9 72 (7.11%) OpenShift
10 70 (6.91%) Amazon EKS
11 63 (6.22%) Azure DevOps
12 59 (5.82%) Snowflake
13 50 (4.94%) Amazon SQS
14 47 (4.64%) Amazon ECS
14 47 (4.64%) dbt
15 43 (4.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 43 (4.24%) Power Platform
16 36 (3.55%) AWS CloudFormation
17 29 (2.86%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 26 (2.57%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.58%) HTTP
2 11 (1.09%) Firewall
3 10 (0.99%) Network Security
4 8 (0.79%) DNS
5 7 (0.69%) MQTT
5 7 (0.69%) SSL
6 4 (0.39%) NAS
6 4 (0.39%) SAN
7 3 (0.30%) Internet
7 3 (0.30%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.20%) NaaS
8 2 (0.20%) OpenVPN
8 2 (0.20%) Reverse Proxy
8 2 (0.20%) WAN
9 1 (0.099%) 4G
9 1 (0.099%) 5G
9 1 (0.099%) FIX Connectivity
9 1 (0.099%) MIMO
9 1 (0.099%) SSH
9 1 (0.099%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 185 (18.26%) PostgreSQL
2 162 (15.99%) MongoDB
3 125 (12.34%) NoSQL
4 107 (10.56%) Relational Database
5 66 (6.52%) Big Data
6 61 (6.02%) SQL Server
7 60 (5.92%) Data Warehouse
8 52 (5.13%) Data Lake
9 44 (4.34%) Redis
10 40 (3.95%) Power BI
11 39 (3.85%) MySQL
12 38 (3.75%) Flink
13 37 (3.65%) Hadoop
14 35 (3.46%) Apache Cassandra
14 35 (3.46%) Elasticsearch
15 33 (3.26%) BigQuery
15 33 (3.26%) Metadata
16 32 (3.16%) DynamoDB
17 25 (2.47%) Amazon Redshift
17 25 (2.47%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 177 (17.47%) Jenkins
2 143 (14.12%) Git
3 127 (12.54%) GitLab
4 72 (7.11%) JUnit
5 63 (6.22%) Mockito
6 46 (4.54%) Gradle
7 41 (4.05%) JIRA
8 29 (2.86%) Selenium
9 27 (2.67%) Cucumber
10 24 (2.37%) Maven
11 21 (2.07%) REST Assured
12 18 (1.78%) SonarQube
13 17 (1.68%) Liquibase
14 15 (1.48%) Gatling
15 13 (1.28%) Postman
16 10 (0.99%) Bitbucket
16 10 (0.99%) Cypress.io
16 10 (0.99%) Serenity BDD
17 7 (0.69%) Claude Code
18 6 (0.59%) MLflow
General
1 270 (26.65%) Finance
2 179 (17.67%) Social Skills
3 139 (13.72%) Banking
4 102 (10.07%) Public Sector
5 96 (9.48%) Analytical Skills
6 49 (4.84%) Front Office
7 32 (3.16%) Investment Banking
8 29 (2.86%) Retail
9 20 (1.97%) Documentation Skills
9 20 (1.97%) Financial Institution
10 16 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 15 (1.48%) Law
11 15 (1.48%) Telecoms
12 11 (1.09%) Billing
13 10 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.89%) Publishing
15 8 (0.79%) Influencing Skills
15 8 (0.79%) Military
16 7 (0.69%) Games
16 7 (0.69%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 332 (32.77%) Developer
2 189 (18.66%) Senior
3 174 (17.18%) Java Developer
4 145 (14.31%) Data Engineer
5 141 (13.92%) Architect
6 111 (10.96%) Lead
7 96 (9.48%) Software Engineer
8 76 (7.50%) Java Engineer
8 76 (7.50%) Senior Developer
9 59 (5.82%) Solutions Architect
10 46 (4.54%) DevOps Engineer
10 46 (4.54%) Senior Java Developer
11 41 (4.05%) AWS Architect
12 40 (3.95%) Full-Stack Developer
13 37 (3.65%) Lead Developer
14 36 (3.55%) Data Architect
14 36 (3.55%) Developer/Software Engineer
14 36 (3.55%) Java Software Engineer
15 35 (3.46%) Python Engineer
16 32 (3.16%) Kafka Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 242 (23.89%) Spring
2 232 (22.90%) Spring Boot
3 174 (17.18%) REST
4 149 (14.71%) React
5 139 (13.72%) RESTful
6 116 (11.45%) RabbitMQ
7 84 (8.29%) Node.js
8 71 (7.01%) GraphQL
9 67 (6.61%) JSON
10 59 (5.82%) Redux
11 55 (5.43%) OpenTelemetry
12 49 (4.84%) OAuth
13 43 (4.24%) PySpark
13 43 (4.24%) Swagger
14 42 (4.15%) OpenAPI
15 38 (3.75%) OAuth2
16 35 (3.46%) AngularJS
17 34 (3.36%) Middleware
18 33 (3.26%) .NET
19 32 (3.16%) Apache Avro
Miscellaneous
1 209 (20.63%) Distributed Systems
2 194 (19.15%) Cloud Native
3 44 (4.34%) Data Structures
4 39 (3.85%) Fixed Income
5 34 (3.36%) Product Ownership
6 33 (3.26%) Algorithms
7 30 (2.96%) Enterprise Software
8 26 (2.57%) Onboarding
9 25 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
9 25 (2.47%) Management Information System
10 24 (2.37%) Self-Motivation
11 20 (1.97%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 18 (1.78%) AI Agents
12 18 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
13 17 (1.68%) Public Cloud
14 16 (1.58%) Hybrid Cloud
15 14 (1.38%) Equities
15 14 (1.38%) Replication
16 13 (1.28%) Distributed Architecture
17 12 (1.18%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 104 (10.27%) Linux
2 58 (5.73%) Unix
3 29 (2.86%) Windows
4 10 (0.99%) Mac OS X
5 8 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.49%) 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 (0.099%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.099%) CentOS
9 1 (0.099%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 483 (47.68%) CI/CD
2 384 (37.91%) Microservices
3 352 (34.75%) Agile
4 345 (34.06%) Event-Driven
5 321 (31.69%) DevOps
6 243 (23.99%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 235 (23.20%) Observability
8 226 (22.31%) Containerisation
9 196 (19.35%) Software Engineering
10 193 (19.05%) Data Pipeline
11 178 (17.57%) Infrastructure as Code
12 173 (17.08%) Test Automation
13 160 (15.79%) AI
14 157 (15.50%) Problem-Solving
15 156 (15.40%) Data Modelling
16 152 (15.00%) Analytics
17 143 (14.12%) ETL
18 140 (13.82%) Data Engineering
19 121 (11.94%) TDD
20 111 (10.96%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 463 (45.71%) Java
2 357 (35.24%) Python
3 316 (31.19%) SQL
4 127 (12.54%) TypeScript
5 96 (9.48%) JavaScript
6 79 (7.80%) Go
7 57 (5.63%) Bash
8 55 (5.43%) C#
9 36 (3.55%) Scala
10 26 (2.57%) PowerShell
11 22 (2.17%) PL/SQL
12 19 (1.88%) Kotlin
13 17 (1.68%) Shell Script
14 11 (1.09%) Bicep
14 11 (1.09%) C++
14 11 (1.09%) Rust
15 10 (0.99%) Groovy
15 10 (0.99%) Search Processing Language
16 7 (0.69%) PHP
17 6 (0.59%) Perl
Qualifications
1 221 (21.82%) Security Cleared
2 168 (16.58%) SC Cleared
3 48 (4.74%) Degree
4 33 (3.26%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
5 22 (2.17%) DV Cleared
6 15 (1.48%) AWS Certification
7 13 (1.28%) Master's Degree
8 7 (0.69%) Azure Certification
9 6 (0.59%) SnowPro
10 5 (0.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (0.30%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.30%) PhD
11 3 (0.30%) TOGAF Certification
12 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (0.20%) Postgraduate
13 1 (0.099%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.099%) PMI Certification
13 1 (0.099%) PMP
13 1 (0.099%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (9.97%) Data Quality
2 56 (5.53%) QA
3 45 (4.44%) Accessibility
4 31 (3.06%) GDPR
5 19 (1.88%) ISO 20022
6 10 (0.99%) SEPA
7 6 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.49%) WCAG
9 4 (0.39%) NIST
9 4 (0.39%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.30%) ISO 15022
10 3 (0.30%) SLA
11 2 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.20%) EMIR
11 2 (0.20%) IFRS
11 2 (0.20%) IFRS 17
11 2 (0.20%) MiFID
11 2 (0.20%) NCSC
11 2 (0.20%) Solvency II
12 1 (0.099%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 344 (33.96%) Docker
2 6 (0.59%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 6 (0.59%) etcd
3 3 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.20%) Apache Flume
4 2 (0.20%) HDFS
5 1 (0.099%) OpenSSH
5 1 (0.099%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 430 (42.45%) Kubernetes
2 203 (20.04%) Terraform
3 115 (11.35%) Prometheus
4 114 (11.25%) Grafana
5 61 (6.02%) Ansible
6 26 (2.57%) Argo
7 15 (1.48%) Control-M
8 12 (1.18%) Kibana
9 11 (1.09%) Istio
9 11 (1.09%) Podman
10 9 (0.89%) Puppet
11 7 (0.69%) Fluentd
11 7 (0.69%) Kustomize
12 5 (0.49%) logstash
12 5 (0.49%) Rancher
13 4 (0.39%) Check_MK
14 3 (0.30%) Bosun
14 3 (0.30%) NetBackup
15 2 (0.20%) CA Wily
15 2 (0.20%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 83 (8.19%) Oracle
2 81 (8.00%) Databricks
3 57 (5.63%) Splunk
4 48 (4.74%) Google
4 48 (4.74%) Microsoft
5 27 (2.67%) Confluent
6 25 (2.47%) Informatica
7 24 (2.37%) Dynatrace
8 21 (2.07%) IBM
9 16 (1.58%) Salesforce
10 15 (1.48%) MuleSoft
10 15 (1.48%) Solace
11 13 (1.28%) OpenAI
12 10 (0.99%) SAP
13 9 (0.89%) Red Hat
14 8 (0.79%) ServiceNow
14 8 (0.79%) Sybase
15 7 (0.69%) Talend
16 6 (0.59%) ForgeRock
16 6 (0.59%) Pega