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

6 months to
5 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 141 97 145
Rank change year-on-year -44 +48 +9
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,013 845 667
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.90% 2.57% 1.70%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.98% 11.36% 7.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 631 545 463
10th Percentile £375 £386 £400
25th Percentile £425 £452 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -0.91% -8.26% -7.77%
75th Percentile £645 £675 £725
90th Percentile £798 £813 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £490
% change year-on-year +6.61% -4.29% -18.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 3 9
10th Percentile £56.40 £54.65 £22.55
25th Percentile £65.00 £57.13 £27.00
Median hourly rate £71.25 £62.50 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.00% +123.21% -64.10%
75th Percentile £88.75 £71.23 £38.75
90th Percentile £90.00 £75.71 £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 10,155 7,440 8,609
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.09% 22.61% 21.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,639 5,024 5,854
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £638 £634 £666
90th Percentile £738 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 165 248
10th Percentile £28.26 £30.10 £22.50
25th Percentile £41.33 £40.75 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.88 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year +18.45% +2.09% -10.42%
75th Percentile £73.00 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £79.48 £74.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £58.60
% change year-on-year +18.18% -6.15% +0.02%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -50 857 £550 - 575
London -34 501 £575 -8.00% 440
UK excluding London -32 387 £500 +6.61% 202
Work from Home -56 272 £550 -4.35% 239
North of England -7 176 £485 +4.19% 53
Yorkshire +1 82 £498 -0.50% 23
North West -37 73 £430 -8.42% 21
South East -41 63 £513 +15.82% 58
Scotland -25 56 £449 -4.57% 26
Midlands -55 41 £500 +19.05% 11
North East -17 28 £463 +0.05% 9
South West -34 28 £500 -9.09% 29
East of England +4 27 £500 - 4
West Midlands -51 26 £500 - 8
East Midlands -13 15 £470 +29.66% 3
Northern Ireland +2 3 - - 20
Wales -10 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
1 132 (13.03%) Apache Spark
2 71 (7.01%) Apache
3 58 (5.73%) Apache Airflow
4 18 (1.78%) Confluence
5 7 (0.69%) Camunda
6 6 (0.59%) CMS
6 6 (0.59%) OpenStack
6 6 (0.59%) WebSphere
7 4 (0.39%) Apache Pulsar
8 3 (0.30%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.30%) Mule
9 2 (0.20%) Apache Pig
9 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.20%) JBoss
9 2 (0.20%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.20%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Application Server
9 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 2 (0.20%) Bloomberg AIM
1 2 (0.20%) Endur
1 2 (0.20%) Fidessa
1 2 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
1 2 (0.20%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.099%) Actimize
2 1 (0.099%) FIS Private Capital Suite
2 1 (0.099%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.099%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.099%) SAP IS-U
2 1 (0.099%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 596 (58.84%) AWS
2 318 (31.39%) Azure
3 200 (19.74%) GCP
4 147 (14.51%) GitHub
5 106 (10.46%) GitHub Actions
6 105 (10.37%) Serverless
7 83 (8.19%) AWS Lambda
8 79 (7.80%) Amazon S3
9 71 (7.01%) OpenShift
10 70 (6.91%) Amazon EKS
11 68 (6.71%) Azure DevOps
12 60 (5.92%) Snowflake
13 52 (5.13%) Amazon SQS
14 49 (4.84%) Amazon ECS
15 48 (4.74%) dbt
16 43 (4.24%) Power Platform
17 42 (4.15%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 33 (3.26%) AWS CloudFormation
19 30 (2.96%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 29 (2.86%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.88%) HTTP
2 10 (0.99%) DNS
2 10 (0.99%) Network Security
3 9 (0.89%) Firewall
4 7 (0.69%) MQTT
4 7 (0.69%) SSL
5 5 (0.49%) TCP/IP
6 4 (0.39%) NAS
6 4 (0.39%) SAN
7 3 (0.30%) 4G
7 3 (0.30%) 5G
7 3 (0.30%) Internet
7 3 (0.30%) SSH
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%) FIX Connectivity
9 1 (0.099%) MIMO
9 1 (0.099%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 184 (18.16%) PostgreSQL
2 166 (16.39%) MongoDB
3 132 (13.03%) NoSQL
4 105 (10.37%) Relational Database
5 63 (6.22%) Big Data
6 60 (5.92%) SQL Server
7 58 (5.73%) Data Warehouse
8 52 (5.13%) Data Lake
9 46 (4.54%) Redis
10 40 (3.95%) Power BI
11 39 (3.85%) MySQL
12 37 (3.65%) Flink
13 36 (3.55%) Apache Cassandra
13 36 (3.55%) Elasticsearch
14 34 (3.36%) BigQuery
15 33 (3.26%) Hadoop
16 32 (3.16%) DynamoDB
17 31 (3.06%) Metadata
18 25 (2.47%) Delta Lake
18 25 (2.47%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 183 (18.07%) Jenkins
2 147 (14.51%) Git
3 129 (12.73%) GitLab
4 71 (7.01%) JUnit
5 64 (6.32%) Mockito
6 50 (4.94%) Gradle
7 42 (4.15%) JIRA
8 34 (3.36%) Selenium
9 27 (2.67%) Cucumber
10 26 (2.57%) Maven
11 20 (1.97%) REST Assured
12 18 (1.78%) Liquibase
12 18 (1.78%) SonarQube
13 15 (1.48%) Gatling
14 13 (1.28%) Postman
15 10 (0.99%) Bitbucket
15 10 (0.99%) Cypress.io
15 10 (0.99%) Serenity BDD
16 7 (0.69%) Claude Code
17 6 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 265 (26.16%) Finance
2 180 (17.77%) Social Skills
3 134 (13.23%) Banking
4 101 (9.97%) Public Sector
5 95 (9.38%) Analytical Skills
6 51 (5.03%) Front Office
7 31 (3.06%) Retail
8 29 (2.86%) Investment Banking
9 21 (2.07%) Financial Institution
10 18 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
10 18 (1.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (1.78%) Telecoms
11 15 (1.48%) Law
12 11 (1.09%) Billing
12 11 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (0.89%) Publishing
14 8 (0.79%) Influencing Skills
14 8 (0.79%) Military
15 7 (0.69%) Games
15 7 (0.69%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 337 (33.27%) Developer
2 191 (18.85%) Senior
3 175 (17.28%) Java Developer
4 144 (14.22%) Data Engineer
5 142 (14.02%) Architect
6 107 (10.56%) Lead
7 95 (9.38%) Software Engineer
8 76 (7.50%) Java Engineer
9 73 (7.21%) Senior Developer
10 62 (6.12%) Solutions Architect
11 48 (4.74%) DevOps Engineer
12 43 (4.24%) Senior Java Developer
13 41 (4.05%) AWS Architect
13 41 (4.05%) Full-Stack Developer
14 37 (3.65%) Lead Developer
15 36 (3.55%) Developer/Software Engineer
15 36 (3.55%) Java Software Engineer
16 35 (3.46%) Python Engineer
17 34 (3.36%) Data Architect
18 32 (3.16%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 242 (23.89%) Spring
2 232 (22.90%) Spring Boot
3 185 (18.26%) REST
4 153 (15.10%) React
5 145 (14.31%) RESTful
6 119 (11.75%) RabbitMQ
7 84 (8.29%) Node.js
8 73 (7.21%) GraphQL
9 68 (6.71%) JSON
10 60 (5.92%) Redux
11 52 (5.13%) OpenTelemetry
12 47 (4.64%) OAuth
13 45 (4.44%) Swagger
14 44 (4.34%) OpenAPI
14 44 (4.34%) PySpark
15 37 (3.65%) .NET
15 37 (3.65%) AngularJS
16 36 (3.55%) Middleware
17 35 (3.46%) OAuth2
18 31 (3.06%) Apache Avro
Miscellaneous
1 204 (20.14%) Distributed Systems
2 192 (18.95%) Cloud Native
3 43 (4.24%) Data Structures
4 40 (3.95%) Fixed Income
5 36 (3.55%) Product Ownership
6 33 (3.26%) Algorithms
7 30 (2.96%) Enterprise Software
8 26 (2.57%) Legacy Systems
9 25 (2.47%) Self-Motivation
10 24 (2.37%) Onboarding
11 22 (2.17%) Management Information System
12 21 (2.07%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 19 (1.88%) AI Agents
14 17 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
14 17 (1.68%) Public Cloud
15 16 (1.58%) Hybrid Cloud
15 16 (1.58%) Replication
16 14 (1.38%) Equities
16 14 (1.38%) SWIFT Messaging Network
17 12 (1.18%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 109 (10.76%) Linux
2 60 (5.92%) Unix
3 25 (2.47%) 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
9 1 (0.099%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.099%) CentOS
9 1 (0.099%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.099%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 488 (48.17%) CI/CD
2 381 (37.61%) Microservices
3 359 (35.44%) Agile
4 353 (34.85%) Event-Driven
5 332 (32.77%) DevOps
6 249 (24.58%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 233 (23.00%) Observability
8 224 (22.11%) Containerisation
9 200 (19.74%) Software Engineering
10 191 (18.85%) Data Pipeline
11 180 (17.77%) Test Automation
12 179 (17.67%) Infrastructure as Code
13 155 (15.30%) AI
14 153 (15.10%) Problem-Solving
15 151 (14.91%) Data Modelling
16 149 (14.71%) Analytics
17 138 (13.62%) ETL
18 133 (13.13%) Data Engineering
19 122 (12.04%) TDD
20 110 (10.86%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 459 (45.31%) Java
2 356 (35.14%) Python
3 317 (31.29%) SQL
4 130 (12.83%) TypeScript
5 99 (9.77%) JavaScript
6 77 (7.60%) Go
7 62 (6.12%) Bash
8 58 (5.73%) C#
9 35 (3.46%) Scala
10 28 (2.76%) PowerShell
11 24 (2.37%) PL/SQL
12 19 (1.88%) Shell Script
13 17 (1.68%) Kotlin
14 11 (1.09%) Rust
15 10 (0.99%) Bicep
15 10 (0.99%) Groovy
15 10 (0.99%) Search Processing Language
16 9 (0.89%) C++
17 7 (0.69%) PHP
18 6 (0.59%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 222 (21.92%) Security Cleared
2 172 (16.98%) SC Cleared
3 47 (4.64%) Degree
4 31 (3.06%) BPSS Clearance
5 24 (2.37%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (2.07%) DV Cleared
7 15 (1.48%) AWS Certification
8 10 (0.99%) Master's Degree
9 9 (0.89%) Azure Certification
10 6 (0.59%) SnowPro
11 5 (0.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (0.30%) DBS Check
13 3 (0.30%) PhD
14 2 (0.20%) ISTQB
14 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.20%) Postgraduate
15 1 (0.099%) CISM
15 1 (0.099%) ITIL Certification
15 1 (0.099%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (9.67%) Data Quality
2 57 (5.63%) QA
3 45 (4.44%) Accessibility
4 31 (3.06%) GDPR
5 20 (1.97%) ISO 20022
6 10 (0.99%) SEPA
7 7 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.59%) WCAG
9 4 (0.39%) NIST
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
12 1 (0.099%) NIST 800
System Software
1 352 (34.75%) 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
1 428 (42.25%) Kubernetes
2 201 (19.84%) Terraform
3 115 (11.35%) Prometheus
4 114 (11.25%) Grafana
5 61 (6.02%) Ansible
6 26 (2.57%) Argo
7 16 (1.58%) Control-M
8 12 (1.18%) Podman
9 11 (1.09%) Kibana
10 10 (0.99%) Istio
11 9 (0.89%) Puppet
12 7 (0.69%) Fluentd
12 7 (0.69%) Kustomize
13 6 (0.59%) logstash
14 5 (0.49%) Check_MK
14 5 (0.49%) Rancher
15 3 (0.30%) Bosun
15 3 (0.30%) NetBackup
16 2 (0.20%) CA Wily
16 2 (0.20%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 88 (8.69%) Oracle
2 82 (8.09%) Databricks
3 54 (5.33%) Splunk
4 49 (4.84%) Microsoft
5 48 (4.74%) Google
6 27 (2.67%) Confluent
7 25 (2.47%) Dynatrace
8 23 (2.27%) Informatica
9 22 (2.17%) IBM
10 17 (1.68%) Salesforce
11 16 (1.58%) MuleSoft
11 16 (1.58%) Solace
12 14 (1.38%) OpenAI
13 11 (1.09%) SAP
14 8 (0.79%) Red Hat
14 8 (0.79%) ServiceNow
14 8 (0.79%) Sybase
15 7 (0.69%) TIBCO
15 7 (0.69%) VMware
16 6 (0.59%) Pega