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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 147 105 145
Rank change year-on-year -42 +40 +10
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,025 822 673
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.91% 2.50% 1.73%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 10.11% 11.19% 7.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 637 531 466
10th Percentile £370 £385 £400
25th Percentile £423 £450 £476
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -3.18% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £636 £675 £724
90th Percentile £775 £756 £791
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £470 £493
% change year-on-year +1.06% -4.67% -17.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 3 9
10th Percentile £56.35 £54.65 £24.87
25th Percentile £65.00 £57.13 £27.00
Median hourly rate £72.50 £62.50 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.00% +123.21% -64.10%
75th Percentile £90.00 £71.23 £38.75
90th Percentile - £75.71 £45.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £83.50 £78.70 £28.00
% change year-on-year +6.10% +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 10,136 7,346 8,600
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 18.92% 22.39% 22.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,589 4,921 5,783
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £411 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £638 £625 £663
90th Percentile £738 £740 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 260 177 230
10th Percentile £28.00 £29.70 £22.50
25th Percentile £41.19 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.88 £55.63
Median % change year-on-year +18.45% -1.35% -6.54%
75th Percentile £73.00 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.63 £81.15 £74.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £56.25 £61.60
% change year-on-year +15.56% -8.69% +5.14%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -36 867 £550 - 500
London -31 517 £575 -7.26% 370
UK excluding London -16 380 £475 +1.06% 212
Work from Home -66 259 £550 -4.35% 217
North of England -20 177 £474 +1.07% 57
Yorkshire +8 91 £485 -11.82% 15
North West -45 67 £430 -8.32% 29
South East -41 63 £489 +12.36% 60
Scotland -27 54 £430 -8.99% 30
Midlands -37 37 £500 +17.51% 19
South West -28 27 £500 -9.09% 23
East of England -8 26 £550 +7.32% 12
North East -17 26 £425 -8.55% 13
West Midlands -52 22 £514 +2.80% 14
East Midlands -14 15 £470 +22.40% 5
Northern Ireland +5 4 - - 10
Wales -15 1 £375 - 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
1 134 (13.07%) Apache Spark
2 72 (7.02%) Apache
3 65 (6.34%) Apache Airflow
4 18 (1.76%) Confluence
5 9 (0.88%) Camunda
6 6 (0.59%) CMS
6 6 (0.59%) OpenStack
6 6 (0.59%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 6 (0.59%) WebSphere
7 5 (0.49%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.39%) Apache Pulsar
8 4 (0.39%) PowerExchange
9 3 (0.29%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.29%) Mule
10 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) WebLogic
10 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 7 (0.68%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.20%) PlantUML
3 1 (0.098%) Microsoft Excel
3 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
1 599 (58.44%) AWS
2 358 (34.93%) Azure
3 225 (21.95%) GCP
4 171 (16.68%) GitHub
5 123 (12.00%) GitHub Actions
6 108 (10.54%) Serverless
7 84 (8.20%) AWS Lambda
8 79 (7.71%) Amazon S3
9 72 (7.02%) Amazon EKS
9 72 (7.02%) Azure DevOps
10 69 (6.73%) Snowflake
11 64 (6.24%) OpenShift
12 54 (5.27%) Amazon SQS
12 54 (5.27%) dbt
13 47 (4.59%) Power Platform
14 44 (4.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 42 (4.10%) Amazon ECS
16 32 (3.12%) Azure Data Factory
16 32 (3.12%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 30 (2.93%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 21 (2.05%) HTTP
2 15 (1.46%) 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%) Broadband
11 1 (0.098%) FIX Connectivity
11 1 (0.098%) MIMO
Database & Business Intelligence
1 186 (18.15%) PostgreSQL
2 157 (15.32%) MongoDB
3 138 (13.46%) NoSQL
4 98 (9.56%) Relational Database
5 70 (6.83%) Data Warehouse
6 61 (5.95%) Big Data
7 60 (5.85%) SQL Server
8 53 (5.17%) Data Lake
9 50 (4.88%) Redis
10 46 (4.49%) Power BI
11 41 (4.00%) BigQuery
12 40 (3.90%) MySQL
13 37 (3.61%) Flink
14 36 (3.51%) Metadata
15 34 (3.32%) Elasticsearch
16 32 (3.12%) Apache Cassandra
17 31 (3.02%) DynamoDB
18 29 (2.83%) Amazon Redshift
19 28 (2.73%) Hadoop
20 26 (2.54%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 206 (20.10%) Jenkins
2 171 (16.68%) Git
3 143 (13.95%) GitLab
4 73 (7.12%) JUnit
5 58 (5.66%) Mockito
6 55 (5.37%) Gradle
7 46 (4.49%) JIRA
7 46 (4.49%) Selenium
8 32 (3.12%) Maven
9 31 (3.02%) Cucumber
10 24 (2.34%) SonarQube
11 23 (2.24%) Postman
12 20 (1.95%) REST Assured
13 18 (1.76%) JMeter
14 17 (1.66%) Gatling
14 17 (1.66%) Liquibase
15 14 (1.37%) Bitbucket
16 13 (1.27%) Cypress.io
17 11 (1.07%) LoadRunner
17 11 (1.07%) SoapUI
General
1 256 (24.98%) Finance
2 187 (18.24%) Social Skills
3 138 (13.46%) Banking
4 107 (10.44%) Analytical Skills
5 100 (9.76%) Public Sector
6 34 (3.32%) Front Office
6 34 (3.32%) Retail
7 26 (2.54%) Investment Banking
8 19 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 18 (1.76%) Financial Institution
10 17 (1.66%) Telecoms
11 15 (1.46%) Law
12 12 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
13 11 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
14 10 (0.98%) Billing
15 9 (0.88%) Publishing
16 8 (0.78%) Games
16 8 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
17 7 (0.68%) Marketing
17 7 (0.68%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 315 (30.73%) Developer
2 207 (20.20%) Senior
3 167 (16.29%) Java Developer
4 143 (13.95%) Architect
4 143 (13.95%) Data Engineer
5 108 (10.54%) Lead
6 80 (7.80%) Software Engineer
7 75 (7.32%) Java Engineer
8 69 (6.73%) Senior Developer
9 61 (5.95%) Solutions Architect
10 51 (4.98%) DevOps Engineer
11 40 (3.90%) Senior Java Developer
12 39 (3.80%) Senior Data Engineer
13 38 (3.71%) AWS Architect
13 38 (3.71%) Full-Stack Developer
14 37 (3.61%) Python Engineer
15 36 (3.51%) AWS Engineer
16 34 (3.32%) Kafka Engineer
17 33 (3.22%) Data Architect
17 33 (3.22%) Senior Java Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 246 (24.00%) Spring
2 237 (23.12%) Spring Boot
3 206 (20.10%) REST
4 150 (14.63%) RESTful
5 142 (13.85%) React
6 126 (12.29%) RabbitMQ
7 72 (7.02%) JSON
8 64 (6.24%) Node.js
9 60 (5.85%) GraphQL
10 56 (5.46%) OAuth
11 50 (4.88%) PySpark
12 49 (4.78%) OpenTelemetry
13 45 (4.39%) .NET
14 44 (4.29%) Redux
15 42 (4.10%) Swagger
16 41 (4.00%) OAuth2
16 41 (4.00%) OpenAPI
17 40 (3.90%) XML
18 39 (3.80%) Middleware
19 37 (3.61%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 206 (20.10%) Cloud Native
2 203 (19.80%) Distributed Systems
3 48 (4.68%) Product Ownership
4 42 (4.10%) 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 21 (2.05%) Management Information System
13 20 (1.95%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 18 (1.76%) Replication
14 18 (1.76%) SWIFT Messaging Network
15 17 (1.66%) Public Cloud
16 16 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
17 15 (1.46%) Greenfield Project
18 14 (1.37%) Equities
19 13 (1.27%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 121 (11.80%) Linux
2 68 (6.63%) 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 2 (0.20%) Android
7 2 (0.20%) Debian
7 2 (0.20%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.20%) Oracle Linux
7 2 (0.20%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
7 2 (0.20%) VMS
8 1 (0.098%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.098%) CentOS
8 1 (0.098%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.098%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 533 (52.00%) CI/CD
2 394 (38.44%) Microservices
3 379 (36.98%) Event-Driven
4 365 (35.61%) Agile
5 358 (34.93%) DevOps
6 266 (25.95%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 252 (24.59%) Observability
8 224 (21.85%) Containerisation
9 208 (20.29%) Test Automation
10 201 (19.61%) Infrastructure as Code
11 192 (18.73%) Software Engineering
12 187 (18.24%) Data Pipeline
13 164 (16.00%) AI
14 156 (15.22%) Data Modelling
15 146 (14.24%) Problem-Solving
16 139 (13.56%) ETL
17 136 (13.27%) Analytics
18 127 (12.39%) Data Engineering
19 119 (11.61%) Continuous Improvement
19 119 (11.61%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 446 (43.51%) Java
2 358 (34.93%) Python
3 331 (32.29%) SQL
4 112 (10.93%) TypeScript
5 103 (10.05%) JavaScript
6 71 (6.93%) Bash
7 63 (6.15%) C#
8 61 (5.95%) Go
9 40 (3.90%) Scala
10 33 (3.22%) PowerShell
11 28 (2.73%) PL/SQL
12 22 (2.15%) Shell Script
13 17 (1.66%) Kotlin
14 11 (1.07%) Rust
15 10 (0.98%) C++
15 10 (0.98%) Groovy
15 10 (0.98%) Search Processing Language
16 9 (0.88%) Bicep
17 7 (0.68%) PHP
18 6 (0.59%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 235 (22.93%) Security Cleared
2 183 (17.85%) SC Cleared
3 53 (5.17%) Degree
4 28 (2.73%) BPSS Clearance
4 28 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (1.76%) DV Cleared
6 12 (1.17%) AWS Certification
7 11 (1.07%) Master's Degree
8 10 (0.98%) ISTQB
9 7 (0.68%) Azure Certification
9 7 (0.68%) SnowPro
10 6 (0.59%) ISEB
11 5 (0.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (0.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 3 (0.29%) DBS Check
12 3 (0.29%) PhD
12 3 (0.29%) TOGAF Certification
13 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.20%) Postgraduate
14 1 (0.098%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (9.56%) Data Quality
2 63 (6.15%) QA
3 42 (4.10%) Accessibility
4 30 (2.93%) GDPR
5 25 (2.44%) ISO 20022
6 10 (0.98%) SEPA
7 8 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
8 6 (0.59%) WCAG
9 4 (0.39%) ISO 15022
9 4 (0.39%) NIST
9 4 (0.39%) SLA
10 2 (0.20%) EMIR
10 2 (0.20%) IFRS
10 2 (0.20%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.20%) MiFID
10 2 (0.20%) NCSC
10 2 (0.20%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.098%) HL7
11 1 (0.098%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 365 (35.61%) Docker
2 7 (0.68%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 7 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.59%) etcd
4 2 (0.20%) Active Directory
4 2 (0.20%) Apache Flume
4 2 (0.20%) HDFS
5 1 (0.098%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 449 (43.80%) Kubernetes
2 210 (20.49%) Terraform
3 125 (12.20%) Grafana
4 112 (10.93%) Prometheus
5 62 (6.05%) Ansible
6 28 (2.73%) Argo
7 24 (2.34%) Control-M
8 12 (1.17%) Istio
8 12 (1.17%) Kibana
9 11 (1.07%) Kustomize
9 11 (1.07%) Podman
9 11 (1.07%) Puppet
10 7 (0.68%) Fluentd
10 7 (0.68%) logstash
11 5 (0.49%) Check_MK
11 5 (0.49%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.49%) Rancher
12 3 (0.29%) Bosun
12 3 (0.29%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 109 (10.63%) Oracle
2 96 (9.37%) Databricks
3 56 (5.46%) Splunk
4 55 (5.37%) Google
5 53 (5.17%) Microsoft
6 41 (4.00%) IBM
7 34 (3.32%) Informatica
8 33 (3.22%) Confluent
9 32 (3.12%) Dynatrace
10 18 (1.76%) Salesforce
11 17 (1.66%) MuleSoft
12 16 (1.56%) SAP
13 15 (1.46%) OpenAI
13 15 (1.46%) Solace
14 11 (1.07%) VMware
15 10 (0.98%) New Relic
15 10 (0.98%) Red Hat
15 10 (0.98%) TIBCO
16 9 (0.88%) ServiceNow
17 8 (0.78%) Sybase