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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 104 138
Rank change year-on-year -46 +34 +15
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,025 839 669
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.90% 2.56% 1.72%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 8.68% 10.06% 7.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 637 539 461
10th Percentile £370 £385 £400
25th Percentile £425 £451 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £636 £675 £725
90th Percentile £775 £751 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £470 £492
% change year-on-year +5.32% -4.37% -18.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 4 9
10th Percentile £56.30 £40.58 £24.87
25th Percentile £62.94 £48.56 £27.00
Median hourly rate £74.75 £59.25 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +26.16% +111.61% -64.10%
75th Percentile £86.25 £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 11,809 8,337 9,499
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.94% 25.41% 24.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,770 5,631 6,452
10th Percentile £375 £355 £356
25th Percentile £431 £413 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £514 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.14% -6.55% -
75th Percentile £631 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £780
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 289 184 215
10th Percentile £29.81 £30.40 £23.80
25th Percentile £50.00 £41.13 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.00 £58.91
Median % change year-on-year +20.37% -8.33% -5.75%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.44 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.32 £79.61 £74.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.47 £55.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year +22.67% -10.71% +2.67%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -44 866 £550 - 540
London -37 516 £575 -6.12% 395
UK excluding London -36 382 £495 +5.32% 229
Work from Home -58 264 £550 -3.08% 238
North of England -15 180 £475 +0.53% 64
Yorkshire +10 92 £500 -9.09% 17
North West -37 69 £440 -6.28% 32
South East -39 63 £489 +12.36% 59
Scotland -29 54 £428 -9.04% 24
Midlands -45 37 £500 +17.51% 20
East of England -2 26 £550 +7.32% 13
North East -24 26 £425 -8.55% 15
South West -27 26 £500 -9.09% 35
West Midlands -44 22 £514 +2.80% 15
East Midlands -15 15 £447 +16.41% 5
Northern Ireland 0 4 - - 12
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
1 131 (12.78%) Apache Spark
2 69 (6.73%) Apache
3 67 (6.54%) Apache Airflow
4 19 (1.85%) Confluence
5 9 (0.88%) Camunda
6 6 (0.59%) CMS
6 6 (0.59%) OpenStack
7 5 (0.49%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 5 (0.49%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.39%) Apache Pulsar
8 4 (0.39%) PowerExchange
8 4 (0.39%) WebSphere
9 3 (0.29%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.29%) Mule
10 2 (0.20%) Apache Pig
10 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 7 (0.68%) CPLEX
2 1 (0.098%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.098%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (0.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 2 (0.20%) Endur
2 2 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.098%) Actimize
3 1 (0.098%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.098%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.098%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.098%) SAP IS-U
3 1 (0.098%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 601 (58.63%) AWS
2 361 (35.22%) Azure
3 229 (22.34%) GCP
4 169 (16.49%) GitHub
5 120 (11.71%) GitHub Actions
6 105 (10.24%) Serverless
7 80 (7.80%) AWS Lambda
8 75 (7.32%) Amazon S3
9 73 (7.12%) Azure DevOps
10 70 (6.83%) Amazon EKS
11 69 (6.73%) Snowflake
12 65 (6.34%) OpenShift
13 53 (5.17%) Amazon SQS
14 51 (4.98%) dbt
15 46 (4.49%) Power Platform
16 42 (4.10%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 38 (3.71%) Amazon ECS
18 32 (3.12%) Azure Data Factory
19 31 (3.02%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 27 (2.63%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 25 (2.44%) HTTP
2 16 (1.56%) DNS
3 11 (1.07%) Firewall
4 10 (0.98%) Network Security
5 7 (0.68%) MQTT
5 7 (0.68%) SSL
6 6 (0.59%) TCP/IP
7 5 (0.49%) SAN
8 4 (0.39%) NAS
8 4 (0.39%) SSH
9 3 (0.29%) Internet
10 2 (0.20%) 4G
10 2 (0.20%) 5G
10 2 (0.20%) NaaS
10 2 (0.20%) OpenVPN
10 2 (0.20%) Reverse Proxy
10 2 (0.20%) WAN
11 1 (0.098%) MIMO
11 1 (0.098%) VPN
11 1 (0.098%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 188 (18.34%) PostgreSQL
2 157 (15.32%) MongoDB
3 135 (13.17%) NoSQL
4 99 (9.66%) Relational Database
5 70 (6.83%) Data Warehouse
6 59 (5.76%) Big Data
6 59 (5.76%) SQL Server
7 52 (5.07%) Data Lake
8 51 (4.98%) Redis
9 45 (4.39%) Power BI
10 40 (3.90%) BigQuery
10 40 (3.90%) MySQL
11 36 (3.51%) Metadata
12 35 (3.41%) Flink
13 34 (3.32%) Elasticsearch
14 32 (3.12%) Apache Cassandra
15 30 (2.93%) DynamoDB
16 28 (2.73%) Amazon Redshift
16 28 (2.73%) Delta Lake
17 27 (2.63%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 209 (20.39%) Jenkins
2 174 (16.98%) Git
3 146 (14.24%) GitLab
4 69 (6.73%) JUnit
5 59 (5.76%) Mockito
6 57 (5.56%) Gradle
7 48 (4.68%) Selenium
8 45 (4.39%) JIRA
9 34 (3.32%) Maven
10 28 (2.73%) Cucumber
11 26 (2.54%) SonarQube
12 23 (2.24%) Postman
13 20 (1.95%) REST Assured
14 18 (1.76%) JMeter
14 18 (1.76%) Liquibase
15 17 (1.66%) Gatling
16 16 (1.56%) Bitbucket
17 13 (1.27%) Cypress.io
18 11 (1.07%) LoadRunner
18 11 (1.07%) SoapUI
General
1 254 (24.78%) Finance
2 191 (18.63%) Social Skills
3 135 (13.17%) Banking
4 105 (10.24%) Analytical Skills
5 102 (9.95%) Public Sector
6 35 (3.41%) Retail
7 31 (3.02%) Front Office
8 23 (2.24%) Investment Banking
9 19 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (1.76%) Financial Institution
11 17 (1.66%) Telecoms
12 15 (1.46%) Law
13 12 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
14 11 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
15 10 (0.98%) Billing
16 9 (0.88%) Publishing
17 8 (0.78%) Games
17 8 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
18 7 (0.68%) Military
18 7 (0.68%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 311 (30.34%) Developer
2 205 (20.00%) Senior
3 164 (16.00%) Java Developer
4 144 (14.05%) Architect
5 140 (13.66%) Data Engineer
6 109 (10.63%) Lead
7 84 (8.20%) Software Engineer
8 75 (7.32%) Java Engineer
9 67 (6.54%) Senior Developer
10 60 (5.85%) Solutions Architect
11 55 (5.37%) DevOps Engineer
12 40 (3.90%) Senior Data Engineer
13 38 (3.71%) AWS Architect
13 38 (3.71%) Full-Stack Developer
13 38 (3.71%) Senior Java Developer
14 37 (3.61%) Python Engineer
15 36 (3.51%) AWS Engineer
15 36 (3.51%) Kafka Engineer
16 34 (3.32%) Java Software Engineer
17 33 (3.22%) Data Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 250 (24.39%) Spring
2 241 (23.51%) Spring Boot
3 216 (21.07%) Terraform
4 211 (20.59%) REST
5 148 (14.44%) RESTful
6 145 (14.15%) React
7 123 (12.00%) RabbitMQ
8 72 (7.02%) JSON
9 65 (6.34%) Node.js
10 60 (5.85%) GraphQL
11 58 (5.66%) OAuth
12 51 (4.98%) OpenTelemetry
12 51 (4.98%) PySpark
13 44 (4.29%) .NET
13 44 (4.29%) Redux
14 43 (4.20%) OAuth2
14 43 (4.20%) Swagger
15 41 (4.00%) OpenAPI
15 41 (4.00%) XML
16 40 (3.90%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 211 (20.59%) Cloud Native
2 207 (20.20%) Distributed Systems
3 49 (4.78%) Product Ownership
4 41 (4.00%) Data Structures
5 38 (3.71%) Enterprise Software
6 34 (3.32%) Onboarding
7 29 (2.83%) Algorithms
8 27 (2.63%) Self-Motivation
9 26 (2.54%) Legacy Systems
10 24 (2.34%) AI Agents
11 23 (2.24%) Fixed Income
12 22 (2.15%) Management Information System
13 20 (1.95%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 20 (1.95%) SWIFT Messaging Network
14 19 (1.85%) Replication
15 17 (1.66%) Data Protection Act
16 16 (1.56%) Greenfield Project
17 15 (1.46%) Public Cloud
18 14 (1.37%) Distributed Architecture
18 14 (1.37%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 122 (11.90%) Linux
2 67 (6.54%) Unix
3 27 (2.63%) Windows
4 9 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.59%) Mac OS X
6 5 (0.49%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.29%) VMS
8 2 (0.20%) Android
8 2 (0.20%) Debian
8 2 (0.20%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.20%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.098%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.098%) CentOS
9 1 (0.098%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.098%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 540 (52.68%) CI/CD
2 395 (38.54%) Microservices
3 386 (37.66%) Event-Driven
4 366 (35.71%) Agile
5 359 (35.02%) DevOps
6 269 (26.24%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 261 (25.46%) Observability
8 221 (21.56%) Containerisation
9 213 (20.78%) Test Automation
10 205 (20.00%) Infrastructure as Code
11 198 (19.32%) Software Engineering
12 186 (18.15%) Data Pipeline
13 166 (16.20%) AI
14 154 (15.02%) Data Modelling
15 143 (13.95%) Problem-Solving
16 139 (13.56%) ETL
17 132 (12.88%) Analytics
18 124 (12.10%) Data Engineering
19 121 (11.80%) Continuous Improvement
20 116 (11.32%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 445 (43.41%) Java
2 361 (35.22%) Python
3 334 (32.59%) SQL
4 116 (11.32%) TypeScript
5 106 (10.34%) JavaScript
6 73 (7.12%) Bash
7 63 (6.15%) Go
8 61 (5.95%) C#
9 40 (3.90%) Scala
10 35 (3.41%) PowerShell
11 28 (2.73%) PL/SQL
12 23 (2.24%) Shell Script
13 19 (1.85%) Kotlin
14 11 (1.07%) Rust
15 10 (0.98%) Bicep
15 10 (0.98%) C++
15 10 (0.98%) Groovy
15 10 (0.98%) Search Processing Language
16 7 (0.68%) PHP
17 6 (0.59%) Perl
Qualifications
1 240 (23.41%) Security Cleared
2 187 (18.24%) SC Cleared
3 54 (5.27%) Degree
4 29 (2.83%) BPSS Clearance
5 28 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.76%) DV Cleared
7 10 (0.98%) AWS Certification
7 10 (0.98%) ISTQB
7 10 (0.98%) Master's Degree
8 8 (0.78%) Azure Certification
9 7 (0.68%) SnowPro
10 6 (0.59%) ISEB
11 5 (0.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 4 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (0.29%) DBS Check
13 3 (0.29%) PhD
13 3 (0.29%) TOGAF Certification
14 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.20%) Postgraduate
15 1 (0.098%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (9.56%) Data Quality
2 63 (6.15%) QA
3 42 (4.10%) Accessibility
4 29 (2.83%) GDPR
5 26 (2.54%) ISO 20022
6 11 (1.07%) SEPA
7 8 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
8 6 (0.59%) WCAG
9 4 (0.39%) SLA
10 3 (0.29%) ISO 15022
10 3 (0.29%) NIST
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%) Solvency II
12 1 (0.098%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 1 (0.098%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.098%) NIST 800
System Software
1 366 (35.71%) Docker
2 7 (0.68%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 7 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.59%) etcd
4 3 (0.29%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.20%) Apache Flume
5 2 (0.20%) HDFS
6 1 (0.098%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 452 (44.10%) Kubernetes
2 129 (12.59%) Grafana
3 115 (11.22%) Prometheus
4 65 (6.34%) Ansible
5 30 (2.93%) Argo
6 25 (2.44%) Control-M
7 12 (1.17%) Kibana
8 11 (1.07%) Istio
8 11 (1.07%) Kustomize
8 11 (1.07%) Podman
8 11 (1.07%) Puppet
9 7 (0.68%) Fluentd
9 7 (0.68%) logstash
10 5 (0.49%) Check_MK
10 5 (0.49%) HP Fortify
10 5 (0.49%) Rancher
11 3 (0.29%) Bosun
11 3 (0.29%) NetBackup
11 3 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
12 2 (0.20%) CA Wily
Vendors
1 111 (10.83%) Oracle
2 96 (9.37%) Databricks
3 58 (5.66%) Splunk
4 55 (5.37%) Google
4 55 (5.37%) Microsoft
5 40 (3.90%) IBM
6 34 (3.32%) Dynatrace
6 34 (3.32%) Informatica
7 32 (3.12%) Confluent
8 18 (1.76%) Salesforce
9 17 (1.66%) MuleSoft
10 16 (1.56%) SAP
11 15 (1.46%) OpenAI
11 15 (1.46%) Solace
12 11 (1.07%) Red Hat
12 11 (1.07%) VMware
13 10 (0.98%) New Relic
13 10 (0.98%) TIBCO
14 8 (0.78%) ServiceNow
15 6 (0.59%) ForgeRock