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 16 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.
| 6 months to 16 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 142 | 112 | 126 |
| Rank change year-on-year | -30 | +14 | +41 |
| Contract jobs citing Kafka | 1,124 | 820 | 733 |
| As % of all contract jobs in the UK | 2.03% | 2.46% | 1.95% |
| As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category | 9.33% | 9.46% | 7.89% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 730 | 527 | 462 |
| 10th Percentile | £376 | £369 | £364 |
| 25th Percentile | £425 | £450 | £481 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £550 | £550 | £600 |
| Median % change year-on-year | - | -8.33% | -7.69% |
| 75th Percentile | £638 | £675 | £722 |
| 90th Percentile | £757 | £750 | £810 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £495 | £455 | £490 |
| % change year-on-year | +8.91% | -7.24% | -18.33% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 12 | 4 | 5 |
| 10th Percentile | £51.75 | £40.58 | £26.04 |
| 25th Percentile | £67.50 | £48.56 | £27.00 |
| Median hourly rate | £81.00 | £59.25 | £28.00 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +36.71% | +111.61% | -64.10% |
| 75th Percentile | £89.06 | £75.31 | £38.75 |
| 90th Percentile | £94.50 | £96.13 | £68.00 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £82.25 | - | £28.00 |
| % change year-on-year | - | - | -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.
| 6 months to 16 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills | 12,053 | 8,671 | 9,296 |
| As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK | 21.79% | 26.06% | 24.71% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 7,920 | 5,742 | 6,020 |
| 10th Percentile | £375 | £358 | £356 |
| 25th Percentile | £438 | £413 | £425 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £525 | £513 | £550 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +2.44% | -6.82% | - |
| 75th Percentile | £638 | £625 | £650 |
| 90th Percentile | £738 | £725 | £775 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £500 | £475 | £500 |
| % change year-on-year | +5.26% | -5.00% | -2.63% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 305 | 189 | 165 |
| 10th Percentile | £29.07 | £30.20 | £25.21 |
| 25th Percentile | £50.00 | £40.75 | £43.00 |
| Median hourly rate | £65.00 | £50.00 | £65.00 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +30.00% | -23.08% | +10.11% |
| 75th Percentile | £77.00 | £65.00 | £70.00 |
| 90th Percentile | £90.00 | £72.60 | £74.00 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £67.47 | £55.00 | £65.00 |
| % change year-on-year | +22.67% | -15.38% | +13.04% |
Kafka Job Vacancy Trend
Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Kafka relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.
Kafka Daily Rate Trend
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 16 October 2026.
Kafka Hourly Rate Trend
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 16 October 2026.
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 16 October 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 | 927 | £550 | - | 680 |
| London | -29 | 567 | £575 | -4.17% | 461 |
| UK excluding London | -8 | 405 | £495 | +8.91% | 301 |
| Work from Home | -60 | 280 | £550 | -4.35% | 315 |
| North of England | +9 | 201 | £502 | +6.98% | 107 |
| Yorkshire | +14 | 93 | £501 | -12.87% | 26 |
| North West | -8 | 89 | £550 | +24.29% | 68 |
| Scotland | -26 | 65 | £410 | -13.68% | 44 |
| South East | -56 | 51 | £460 | +5.75% | 41 |
| Midlands | -52 | 40 | £475 | -5.00% | 21 |
| South West | -17 | 29 | £588 | +6.82% | 26 |
| East of England | -3 | 28 | £488 | -4.88% | 22 |
| West Midlands | -47 | 25 | £700 | +40.00% | 16 |
| North East | -21 | 24 | £425 | -26.04% | 13 |
| East Midlands | -7 | 15 | £402 | -3.13% | 5 |
| Northern Ireland | - | 4 | - | - | 35 |
| Wales | - | 2 | £375 | - | 7 |
Kafka Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spring Boot | 28.1% | 316 |
| 2 | Spring | 28.0% | 315 |
| 3 | REST | 23.4% | 263 |
| 4 | Terraform | 21.3% | 239 |
| 5 | RESTful | 14.2% | 160 |
| 6 | React | 11.8% | 133 |
| 7 | RabbitMQ | 10.4% | 117 |
| 8 | OAuth | 6.7% | 75 |
| 9 | JSON | 6.6% | 74 |
| 10 | HTML | 5.3% | 60 |
| 11 | Node.js | 5.2% | 59 |
| 12 | PySpark | 5.0% | 56 |
| 13 | GraphQL | 4.4% | 50 |
| 13 | SOAP | 4.4% | 50 |
| 15 | .NET | 4.2% | 47 |
| 15 | CSS | 4.2% | 47 |
| 15 | OpenTelemetry | 4.2% | 47 |
| 18 | OAuth2 | 4.1% | 46 |
| 19 | Middleware | 4.0% | 45 |
| 19 | XML | 4.0% | 45 |