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 12 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 141 110 150
Rank change year-on-year -31 +40 -7
Contract jobs citing Kafka 945 730 696
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.89% 2.48% 1.60%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.65% 10.85% 7.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 558 476 508
10th Percentile £381 £400 £400
25th Percentile £425 £458 £461
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.41% - -15.38%
75th Percentile £650 £700 £675
90th Percentile £800 £825 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £475 £490
% change year-on-year -2.11% -3.06% -14.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 3 8
10th Percentile £60.38 £47.14 £22.44
25th Percentile £64.75 £58.98 £25.94
Median hourly rate £70.00 £78.70 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.05% +181.07% -64.10%
75th Percentile £90.00 £86.23 £36.31
90th Percentile £92.50 £90.74 £48.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £78.70 £28.00
% change year-on-year -11.05% +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 9,789 6,726 9,219
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.59% 22.85% 21.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,432 4,599 6,367
10th Percentile £363 £358 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £536
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -2.94% -2.59%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £768 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 281 118 263
10th Percentile £31.03 £29.20 £22.10
25th Percentile £51.25 £39.84 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £58.88 £49.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.40% +18.94% -23.85%
75th Percentile £73.46 £68.56 £68.38
90th Percentile £81.25 £81.35 £74.49
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.25 £55.00
% change year-on-year +2.77% +15.00% -15.38%

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 12 June 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 12 June 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 12 June 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 -23 814 £540 -2.44% 118
London -15 514 £588 -7.84% 67
UK excluding London -33 310 £465 -2.11% 78
Work from Home -40 280 £575 - 77
North of England -31 138 £453 -9.50% 20
Yorkshire -13 71 £461 -16.14% 4
North West -33 54 £461 -7.80% 13
South East -50 53 £488 +8.33% 25
Scotland -18 45 £450 -4.76% 8
Midlands -57 39 £491 +8.09% 1
South West -10 24 £500 -9.09% 14
West Midlands -55 21 £500 -
North East -20 20 £425 -8.05% 3
East Midlands -18 18 £407 +14.40% 1
East of England -14 17 £550 +33.92% 6
Northern Ireland -3 2 - - 3
Wales -15 1 £250 - 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
1 126 (13.33%) Apache Spark
2 64 (6.77%) Apache
3 51 (5.40%) Apache Airflow
4 12 (1.27%) Confluence
5 7 (0.74%) Camunda
6 6 (0.63%) Ethereum
6 6 (0.63%) Hyperledger
7 5 (0.53%) WebSphere
8 4 (0.42%) Apache Pulsar
8 4 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.21%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.21%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.21%) OpenStack
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.21%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.11%) Apache Pig
10 1 (0.11%) JBoss
Applications
1 6 (0.63%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.21%) PlantUML
3 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.11%) Maya
Business Applications
1 4 (0.42%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.32%) Bloomberg AIM
2 3 (0.32%) Fidessa
3 2 (0.21%) Endur
3 2 (0.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 2 (0.21%) Shopify
3 2 (0.21%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.11%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 1 (0.11%) R3 Corda
Cloud Services
1 558 (59.05%) AWS
2 277 (29.31%) Azure
3 170 (17.99%) GCP
4 142 (15.03%) GitHub
5 122 (12.91%) Serverless
6 107 (11.32%) GitHub Actions
7 94 (9.95%) Amazon S3
8 91 (9.63%) AWS Lambda
9 68 (7.20%) OpenShift
10 66 (6.98%) Amazon EKS
11 60 (6.35%) Azure DevOps
12 59 (6.24%) Power Platform
13 51 (5.40%) Snowflake
14 46 (4.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 46 (4.87%) Amazon ECS
14 46 (4.87%) AWS CloudFormation
15 41 (4.34%) dbt
16 38 (4.02%) Amazon SQS
17 35 (3.70%) Amazon Kinesis
18 31 (3.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.69%) Firewall
2 13 (1.38%) HTTP
3 10 (1.06%) DNS
4 9 (0.95%) Network Security
5 7 (0.74%) MQTT
6 5 (0.53%) NAS
6 5 (0.53%) SAN
6 5 (0.53%) SMS
6 5 (0.53%) SSL
6 5 (0.53%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.21%) Internet
7 2 (0.21%) NaaS
7 2 (0.21%) OpenVPN
7 2 (0.21%) Reverse Proxy
7 2 (0.21%) WAN
8 1 (0.11%) 4G
8 1 (0.11%) 5G
8 1 (0.11%) FIX Connectivity
8 1 (0.11%) FTP
8 1 (0.11%) MIMO
Database & Business Intelligence
1 190 (20.11%) PostgreSQL
2 152 (16.08%) MongoDB
3 124 (13.12%) NoSQL
4 87 (9.21%) Relational Database
5 62 (6.56%) Big Data
6 55 (5.82%) Data Warehouse
7 53 (5.61%) Data Lake
8 52 (5.50%) Redis
9 51 (5.40%) SQL Server
10 48 (5.08%) Power BI
11 45 (4.76%) Elasticsearch
12 44 (4.66%) Apache Cassandra
13 37 (3.92%) Flink
14 36 (3.81%) DynamoDB
15 35 (3.70%) MySQL
16 33 (3.49%) Amazon Athena
17 32 (3.39%) Hadoop
18 30 (3.17%) Amazon RDS
19 29 (3.07%) Amazon Redshift
20 28 (2.96%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 148 (15.66%) Jenkins
2 127 (13.44%) Git
3 126 (13.33%) GitLab
4 66 (6.98%) JUnit
5 49 (5.19%) JIRA
6 45 (4.76%) Mockito
7 31 (3.28%) Gradle
8 29 (3.07%) Selenium
9 23 (2.43%) REST Assured
10 20 (2.12%) Cucumber
10 20 (2.12%) Gatling
11 17 (1.80%) Liquibase
12 15 (1.59%) Serenity BDD
13 14 (1.48%) Maven
13 14 (1.48%) Postman
14 12 (1.27%) SonarQube
15 8 (0.85%) Jaeger
16 7 (0.74%) JMeter
16 7 (0.74%) Snyk
17 5 (0.53%) Artifactory
General
1 255 (26.98%) Finance
2 177 (18.73%) Social Skills
3 127 (13.44%) Banking
4 84 (8.89%) Public Sector
5 78 (8.25%) Analytical Skills
6 45 (4.76%) Front Office
7 36 (3.81%) Investment Banking
8 26 (2.75%) Documentation Skills
9 23 (2.43%) Financial Institution
10 20 (2.12%) Retail
11 16 (1.69%) Law
12 11 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (1.16%) Marketing
13 10 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
13 10 (1.06%) Telecoms
14 9 (0.95%) Publishing
15 8 (0.85%) Corporate Banking
16 7 (0.74%) Automotive
16 7 (0.74%) Military
16 7 (0.74%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 306 (32.38%) Developer
2 196 (20.74%) Senior
3 158 (16.72%) Java Developer
4 154 (16.30%) Data Engineer
5 118 (12.49%) Lead
6 113 (11.96%) Architect
7 94 (9.95%) Software Engineer
8 85 (8.99%) Senior Developer
9 75 (7.94%) Java Engineer
10 55 (5.82%) AWS Architect
11 49 (5.19%) Senior Java Developer
12 46 (4.87%) DevOps Engineer
13 41 (4.34%) Full-Stack Developer
14 40 (4.23%) Solutions Architect
15 35 (3.70%) Developer/Software Engineer
16 32 (3.39%) Lead Developer
16 32 (3.39%) Principal Engineer
17 31 (3.28%) Data Architect
18 30 (3.17%) Senior Data Engineer
19 29 (3.07%) Kafka Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 235 (24.87%) Spring
2 222 (23.49%) Spring Boot
3 138 (14.60%) REST
4 127 (13.44%) RESTful
5 123 (13.02%) React
6 94 (9.95%) Node.js
6 94 (9.95%) RabbitMQ
7 61 (6.46%) GraphQL
8 58 (6.14%) OpenTelemetry
9 52 (5.50%) gRPC
10 48 (5.08%) JSON
11 45 (4.76%) Redux
12 43 (4.55%) Middleware
13 42 (4.44%) Apache Avro
14 40 (4.23%) AngularJS
14 40 (4.23%) OAuth
15 38 (4.02%) PySpark
15 38 (4.02%) Swagger
16 37 (3.92%) OpenAPI
17 35 (3.70%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 181 (19.15%) Distributed Systems
2 168 (17.78%) Cloud Native
3 40 (4.23%) Management Information System
4 39 (4.13%) Fixed Income
5 37 (3.92%) Product Ownership
6 26 (2.75%) Data Structures
7 21 (2.22%) Onboarding
8 20 (2.12%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (1.90%) Legacy Systems
10 16 (1.69%) Algorithms
11 15 (1.59%) Derivative
11 15 (1.59%) Hybrid Cloud
12 14 (1.48%) Clustering
12 14 (1.48%) Data Protection Act
12 14 (1.48%) Equities
13 13 (1.38%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 12 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
15 11 (1.16%) Public Cloud
15 11 (1.16%) SWIFT Messaging Network
16 10 (1.06%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 88 (9.31%) Linux
2 55 (5.82%) Unix
3 30 (3.17%) Windows
4 8 (0.85%) Mac OS X
5 6 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.53%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.32%) VMS
8 2 (0.21%) Debian
8 2 (0.21%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.21%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 2 (0.21%) zOS
9 1 (0.11%) Android
9 1 (0.11%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 428 (45.29%) CI/CD
2 359 (37.99%) Microservices
3 303 (32.06%) Agile
4 288 (30.48%) DevOps
5 280 (29.63%) Event-Driven
6 225 (23.81%) Observability
7 206 (21.80%) Containerisation
8 188 (19.89%) Event-Driven Architecture
9 187 (19.79%) Software Engineering
10 168 (17.78%) Data Pipeline
11 163 (17.25%) Infrastructure as Code
12 158 (16.72%) Data Modelling
13 150 (15.87%) Problem-Solving
14 146 (15.45%) Analytics
15 144 (15.24%) Test Automation
16 141 (14.92%) Data Engineering
17 134 (14.18%) ETL
18 110 (11.64%) AI
19 106 (11.22%) Full-Stack Development
20 104 (11.01%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 437 (46.24%) Java
2 327 (34.60%) Python
3 293 (31.01%) SQL
4 117 (12.38%) TypeScript
5 93 (9.84%) Go
6 86 (9.10%) JavaScript
7 53 (5.61%) C#
8 45 (4.76%) Bash
9 26 (2.75%) Scala
10 20 (2.12%) Rust
11 19 (2.01%) PowerShell
12 15 (1.59%) C++
12 15 (1.59%) Shell Script
13 13 (1.38%) Bicep
14 12 (1.27%) PL/SQL
15 10 (1.06%) Search Processing Language
16 8 (0.85%) Kotlin
17 7 (0.74%) Groovy
17 7 (0.74%) PHP
18 6 (0.63%) Perl
Qualifications
1 200 (21.16%) Security Cleared
2 156 (16.51%) SC Cleared
3 51 (5.40%) Degree
4 27 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 18 (1.90%) AWS Certification
5 18 (1.90%) DV Cleared
6 15 (1.59%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (1.27%) Master's Degree
8 9 (0.95%) Azure Certification
9 8 (0.85%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 7 (0.74%) SnowPro
11 3 (0.32%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.32%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.21%) AWS Certified Developer
12 2 (0.21%) Postgraduate
12 2 (0.21%) TOGAF Certification
13 1 (0.11%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
13 1 (0.11%) CISSP
13 1 (0.11%) PhD
13 1 (0.11%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (10.58%) Data Quality
2 53 (5.61%) QA
3 38 (4.02%) GDPR
4 32 (3.39%) Accessibility
5 19 (2.01%) ISO 20022
6 10 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 10 (1.06%) NIST
7 8 (0.85%) PCI DSS
8 7 (0.74%) SEPA
9 5 (0.53%) NCSC
10 4 (0.42%) SLA
10 4 (0.42%) WCAG
11 3 (0.32%) ISO 8583
11 3 (0.32%) PSD2
12 2 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.21%) EMIR
12 2 (0.21%) ISO 15022
12 2 (0.21%) MiFID
13 1 (0.11%) Basel III
13 1 (0.11%) Solvency II
System Software
1 317 (33.54%) Docker
2 6 (0.63%) etcd
3 3 (0.32%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 2 (0.21%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.11%) Apache Flume
5 1 (0.11%) HDFS
5 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 374 (39.58%) Kubernetes
2 200 (21.16%) Terraform
3 128 (13.54%) Grafana
4 127 (13.44%) Prometheus
5 61 (6.46%) Ansible
6 23 (2.43%) Argo
7 12 (1.27%) Istio
8 10 (1.06%) Kibana
9 9 (0.95%) Puppet
10 8 (0.85%) Podman
11 7 (0.74%) Fluentd
11 7 (0.74%) Kiali
12 6 (0.63%) Kustomize
12 6 (0.63%) linkerd
13 5 (0.53%) logstash
13 5 (0.53%) Rancher
14 4 (0.42%) Control-M
15 3 (0.32%) NetBackup
16 2 (0.21%) CA Wily
16 2 (0.21%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 84 (8.89%) Databricks
2 72 (7.62%) Splunk
3 67 (7.09%) Oracle
4 40 (4.23%) Microsoft
5 35 (3.70%) Google
6 29 (3.07%) Confluent
7 23 (2.43%) Informatica
8 17 (1.80%) IBM
9 14 (1.48%) Dynatrace
10 12 (1.27%) Salesforce
11 11 (1.16%) Red Hat
11 11 (1.16%) ServiceNow
12 10 (1.06%) Solace
13 9 (0.95%) MuleSoft
13 9 (0.95%) Talend
14 8 (0.85%) Sybase
15 7 (0.74%) AppDynamics
15 7 (0.74%) OpenAI
15 7 (0.74%) Tenable
16 6 (0.63%) SAP