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 28 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 145 101 137
Rank change year-on-year -44 +36 +22
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,035 843 681
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.93% 2.58% 1.76%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 8.83% 10.16% 7.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 642 541 474
10th Percentile £374 £385 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.36% -8.30% -7.73%
75th Percentile £637 £675 £720
90th Percentile £750 £756 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £492
% change year-on-year +6.50% -4.48% -18.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 4 9
10th Percentile £44.78 £40.58 £24.87
25th Percentile £56.38 £48.56 £27.00
Median hourly rate £71.25 £59.25 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +20.25% +111.61% -64.10%
75th Percentile £83.00 £67.49 £38.75
90th Percentile £90.00 £74.22 £45.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.00 £78.70 £28.00
% change year-on-year -2.16% +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 11,719 8,295 9,480
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.80% 25.36% 24.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,711 5,600 6,428
10th Percentile £375 £354 £356
25th Percentile £431 £413 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £635 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £780
UK excluding London median daily rate £504 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +6.00% -5.00% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 283 183 200
10th Percentile £29.07 £30.35 £25.27
25th Percentile £45.00 £41.00 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £52.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +23.81% -14.77% -1.83%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.80 £77.96 £74.54
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +22.73% -15.38% +8.33%

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 28 August 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 28 August 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 28 August 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 -47 875 £550 - 838
London -45 516 £572 -4.67% 615
UK excluding London -29 390 £500 +6.50% 334
Work from Home -60 262 £547 -4.87% 353
North of England -20 188 £500 +6.38% 104
Yorkshire +7 97 £500 -13.04% 35
North West -36 72 £544 +15.88% 52
South East -31 61 £513 +17.82% 76
Scotland -28 53 £425 -9.57% 53
Midlands -40 42 £500 +19.05% 27
East of England +4 28 £500 -2.44% 10
West Midlands -46 27 £517 +3.40% 20
South West -16 26 £500 -9.09% 45
North East -20 26 £425 -8.55% 17
East Midlands -16 15 £447 +9.02% 7
Northern Ireland +2 4 - - 19
Wales - 1 £375 - 1

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 (12.75%) Apache Spark
2 68 (6.57%) Apache
2 68 (6.57%) Apache Airflow
3 22 (2.13%) Confluence
4 14 (1.35%) Camunda
5 8 (0.77%) OpenStack
6 7 (0.68%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 6 (0.58%) CMS
8 5 (0.48%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.39%) Apache Pulsar
9 4 (0.39%) PowerExchange
9 4 (0.39%) WebSphere
10 3 (0.29%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.29%) Mule
11 2 (0.19%) Apache Pig
11 2 (0.19%) IBM HTTP Server
11 2 (0.19%) MQSeries
11 2 (0.19%) nginx
11 2 (0.19%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.19%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 7 (0.68%) CPLEX
2 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (0.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 2 (0.19%) Endur
2 2 (0.19%) Finacle
2 2 (0.19%) FLEXCUBE
2 2 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.19%) Temenos T24
3 1 (0.097%) Actimize
3 1 (0.097%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.097%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.097%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.097%) SAP IS-U
3 1 (0.097%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 605 (58.45%) AWS
2 365 (35.27%) Azure
3 234 (22.61%) GCP
4 173 (16.71%) GitHub
5 122 (11.79%) GitHub Actions
6 101 (9.76%) Serverless
7 80 (7.73%) AWS Lambda
8 77 (7.44%) Amazon S3
9 74 (7.15%) Azure DevOps
10 72 (6.96%) OpenShift
11 70 (6.76%) Amazon EKS
12 69 (6.67%) Snowflake
13 53 (5.12%) Amazon SQS
14 51 (4.93%) dbt
15 48 (4.64%) Power Platform
16 41 (3.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 38 (3.67%) Amazon ECS
18 33 (3.19%) Azure Data Factory
18 33 (3.19%) Azure Synapse Analytics
19 29 (2.80%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 28 (2.71%) HTTP
2 18 (1.74%) DNS
3 11 (1.06%) Firewall
3 11 (1.06%) Network Security
4 8 (0.77%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.68%) MQTT
5 7 (0.68%) SSL
6 6 (0.58%) SSH
7 5 (0.48%) SAN
8 4 (0.39%) 4G
8 4 (0.39%) 5G
8 4 (0.39%) NAS
9 3 (0.29%) Internet
10 2 (0.19%) OpenVPN
11 1 (0.097%) FIX Connectivity
11 1 (0.097%) MIMO
11 1 (0.097%) NaaS
11 1 (0.097%) Reverse Proxy
11 1 (0.097%) RTP
11 1 (0.097%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 182 (17.58%) PostgreSQL
2 161 (15.56%) MongoDB
3 138 (13.33%) NoSQL
4 95 (9.18%) Relational Database
5 71 (6.86%) Data Warehouse
6 65 (6.28%) SQL Server
7 58 (5.60%) Big Data
8 54 (5.22%) Data Lake
9 53 (5.12%) Redis
10 47 (4.54%) Power BI
11 41 (3.96%) BigQuery
11 41 (3.96%) MySQL
12 37 (3.57%) Metadata
13 36 (3.48%) Elasticsearch
14 34 (3.29%) Flink
15 30 (2.90%) Apache Cassandra
16 29 (2.80%) Amazon Redshift
17 28 (2.71%) Delta Lake
17 28 (2.71%) DynamoDB
18 25 (2.42%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 214 (20.68%) Jenkins
2 175 (16.91%) Git
3 155 (14.98%) GitLab
4 75 (7.25%) JUnit
5 63 (6.09%) Gradle
5 63 (6.09%) Mockito
6 49 (4.73%) Selenium
7 46 (4.44%) JIRA
8 40 (3.86%) Maven
9 33 (3.19%) SonarQube
10 26 (2.51%) Cucumber
11 24 (2.32%) REST Assured
12 22 (2.13%) Postman
13 18 (1.74%) Liquibase
14 17 (1.64%) JMeter
15 16 (1.55%) Bitbucket
16 15 (1.45%) Gatling
17 13 (1.26%) Cypress.io
18 11 (1.06%) LoadRunner
18 11 (1.06%) SoapUI
General
1 249 (24.06%) Finance
2 193 (18.65%) Social Skills
3 144 (13.91%) Banking
4 106 (10.24%) Analytical Skills
5 102 (9.86%) Public Sector
6 34 (3.29%) Retail
7 24 (2.32%) Front Office
8 23 (2.22%) Investment Banking
9 19 (1.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (1.74%) Telecoms
11 17 (1.64%) Financial Institution
12 15 (1.45%) Law
13 12 (1.16%) Documentation Skills
14 10 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.87%) Billing
15 9 (0.87%) Publishing
16 8 (0.77%) Games
17 7 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
17 7 (0.68%) Military
17 7 (0.68%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 320 (30.92%) Developer
2 205 (19.81%) Senior
3 175 (16.91%) Java Developer
4 142 (13.72%) Architect
5 139 (13.43%) Data Engineer
6 106 (10.24%) Lead
7 76 (7.34%) Software Engineer
8 74 (7.15%) Java Engineer
9 66 (6.38%) Senior Developer
10 61 (5.89%) Solutions Architect
11 58 (5.60%) DevOps Engineer
12 41 (3.96%) Full-Stack Developer
13 39 (3.77%) Senior Java Developer
14 38 (3.67%) Senior Data Engineer
15 37 (3.57%) Python Engineer
16 36 (3.48%) AWS Architect
16 36 (3.48%) AWS Engineer
16 36 (3.48%) Kafka Engineer
17 35 (3.38%) Python Developer
18 33 (3.19%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 270 (26.09%) Spring
2 269 (25.99%) Spring Boot
3 221 (21.35%) REST
4 220 (21.26%) Terraform
5 145 (14.01%) RESTful
6 142 (13.72%) React
7 121 (11.69%) RabbitMQ
8 71 (6.86%) JSON
9 58 (5.60%) Node.js
10 56 (5.41%) OAuth
11 52 (5.02%) OpenTelemetry
11 52 (5.02%) PySpark
12 51 (4.93%) GraphQL
13 48 (4.64%) HTML
14 45 (4.35%) .NET
15 42 (4.06%) Swagger
16 41 (3.96%) OAuth2
16 41 (3.96%) Redux
17 40 (3.86%) Elastic Stack
17 40 (3.86%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 220 (21.26%) Cloud Native
2 208 (20.10%) Distributed Systems
3 55 (5.31%) Product Ownership
4 45 (4.35%) Data Structures
5 39 (3.77%) Enterprise Software
6 35 (3.38%) Onboarding
7 29 (2.80%) Algorithms
7 29 (2.80%) Self-Motivation
8 27 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
9 25 (2.42%) AI Agents
10 22 (2.13%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 21 (2.03%) Management Information System
12 20 (1.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 20 (1.93%) Replication
13 17 (1.64%) Greenfield Project
14 16 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
14 16 (1.55%) Public Cloud
15 15 (1.45%) Equities
15 15 (1.45%) Fixed Income
16 13 (1.26%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 130 (12.56%) Linux
2 68 (6.57%) Unix
3 28 (2.71%) Windows
4 10 (0.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.58%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.48%) Mac OS X
7 3 (0.29%) VMS
8 2 (0.19%) Android
8 2 (0.19%) Debian
8 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.19%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.19%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.097%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.097%) CentOS
9 1 (0.097%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.097%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 561 (54.20%) CI/CD
2 410 (39.61%) Microservices
3 397 (38.36%) Event-Driven
4 374 (36.14%) Agile
5 373 (36.04%) DevOps
6 277 (26.76%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 268 (25.89%) Observability
8 221 (21.35%) Containerisation
9 217 (20.97%) Test Automation
10 214 (20.68%) Infrastructure as Code
11 196 (18.94%) Software Engineering
12 186 (17.97%) Data Pipeline
13 168 (16.23%) AI
14 156 (15.07%) Data Modelling
15 142 (13.72%) Problem-Solving
16 137 (13.24%) ETL
17 134 (12.95%) Analytics
18 123 (11.88%) Continuous Improvement
18 123 (11.88%) Data Engineering
19 121 (11.69%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 457 (44.15%) Java
2 363 (35.07%) Python
3 343 (33.14%) SQL
4 110 (10.63%) TypeScript
5 105 (10.14%) JavaScript
6 80 (7.73%) Bash
7 61 (5.89%) C#
8 56 (5.41%) Go
9 41 (3.96%) Scala
10 35 (3.38%) PowerShell
11 28 (2.71%) PL/SQL
12 23 (2.22%) Shell Script
13 20 (1.93%) Kotlin
14 12 (1.16%) Search Processing Language
15 10 (0.97%) Bicep
15 10 (0.97%) Groovy
16 9 (0.87%) C++
16 9 (0.87%) Rust
17 7 (0.68%) PHP
18 6 (0.58%) Perl
Qualifications
1 243 (23.48%) Security Cleared
2 193 (18.65%) SC Cleared
3 59 (5.70%) Degree
4 35 (3.38%) BPSS Clearance
5 34 (3.29%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.74%) DV Cleared
7 11 (1.06%) AWS Certification
8 10 (0.97%) ISTQB
8 10 (0.97%) Master's Degree
9 8 (0.77%) Azure Certification
10 7 (0.68%) SnowPro
11 6 (0.58%) ISEB
12 5 (0.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 4 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 4 (0.39%) DBS Check
14 3 (0.29%) PhD
14 3 (0.29%) TOGAF Certification
15 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
16 1 (0.097%) ITIL Certification
16 1 (0.097%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (9.37%) Data Quality
2 63 (6.09%) QA
3 43 (4.15%) Accessibility
4 30 (2.90%) ISO 20022
5 29 (2.80%) GDPR
6 12 (1.16%) SEPA
7 8 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
8 6 (0.58%) WCAG
9 5 (0.48%) ISO 15022
10 4 (0.39%) SLA
11 3 (0.29%) NIST
11 3 (0.29%) PSD2
12 2 (0.19%) Basel III
12 2 (0.19%) EMIR
12 2 (0.19%) IFRS
12 2 (0.19%) IFRS 17
12 2 (0.19%) MiFID
12 2 (0.19%) Solvency II
13 1 (0.097%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 373 (36.04%) Docker
2 9 (0.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.68%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 6 (0.58%) etcd
5 3 (0.29%) Active Directory
6 2 (0.19%) Apache Flume
6 2 (0.19%) HDFS
7 1 (0.097%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 458 (44.25%) Kubernetes
2 133 (12.85%) Grafana
3 121 (11.69%) Prometheus
4 69 (6.67%) Ansible
5 31 (3.00%) Argo
6 25 (2.42%) Control-M
7 12 (1.16%) Istio
7 12 (1.16%) Kibana
7 12 (1.16%) Kustomize
8 11 (1.06%) Puppet
9 10 (0.97%) Podman
10 8 (0.77%) logstash
11 7 (0.68%) Fluentd
12 5 (0.48%) Check_MK
12 5 (0.48%) HP Fortify
12 5 (0.48%) Rancher
13 3 (0.29%) Bosun
13 3 (0.29%) Consul
13 3 (0.29%) NetBackup
13 3 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 112 (10.82%) Oracle
2 99 (9.57%) Databricks
3 62 (5.99%) Splunk
4 56 (5.41%) Microsoft
5 54 (5.22%) Google
6 49 (4.73%) IBM
7 34 (3.29%) Dynatrace
8 32 (3.09%) Confluent
8 32 (3.09%) Informatica
9 17 (1.64%) MuleSoft
9 17 (1.64%) Salesforce
10 16 (1.55%) SAP
11 15 (1.45%) OpenAI
11 15 (1.45%) Solace
12 13 (1.26%) VMware
13 10 (0.97%) Red Hat
13 10 (0.97%) TIBCO
14 9 (0.87%) New Relic
15 8 (0.77%) Veracode
16 6 (0.58%) ForgeRock