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 9 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 109 161
Rank change year-on-year -22 +52 -25
Contract jobs citing Kafka 943 716 638
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.98% 2.45% 1.48%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.98% 10.82% 7.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 582 473 467
10th Percentile £363 £400 £400
25th Percentile £416 £463 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £552 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.89% +2.22% -16.92%
75th Percentile £650 £738 £675
90th Percentile £800 £838 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £477 £485
% change year-on-year -2.94% -1.75% -11.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 4 6
10th Percentile £40.00 £51.09 £22.24
25th Percentile £64.00 £68.84 £23.81
Median hourly rate £70.00 £85.60 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.22% +171.75% -59.62%
75th Percentile £87.25 £93.75 £38.94
90th Percentile £91.50 - £54.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.72 £78.70 £31.50
% change year-on-year -11.41% +149.84% -59.62%

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 9,448 6,617 8,932
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.80% 22.69% 20.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,236 4,537 6,200
10th Percentile £360 £363 £340
25th Percentile £415 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -0.10% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £620 £650 £650
90th Percentile £727 £780 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 269 113 244
10th Percentile £35.00 £29.45 £21.25
25th Percentile £52.50 £51.06 £42.81
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year - +36.84% -26.92%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.20 £82.79 £74.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year - +36.84% -25.78%

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 9 May 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 9 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Kafka in the UK

Kafka
Top 16 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 9 May 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 -18 817 £530 -9.40% 179
London -11 517 £600 -7.69% 113
Work from Home -13 308 £600 -4.00% 110
UK excluding London -36 294 £463 -2.94% 100
North of England -42 126 £455 -13.33% 32
Yorkshire -19 63 £460 -31.85% 5
South East -37 54 £441 -7.69% 35
North West -44 53 £453 -9.50% 19
Midlands -35 48 £495 +34.88% 7
Scotland -8 35 £450 -4.26% 10
South West -15 28 £525 +2.44% 12
West Midlands -41 26 £517 -6.00% 5
East Midlands -23 22 £425 +19.05% 2
North East -10 16 £450 -2.70% 8
East of England -32 14 £550 +72.85% 3
Wales -11 1 £250 -

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
1 129 (13.68%) Apache Spark
2 67 (7.10%) Apache
3 47 (4.98%) Apache Airflow
4 23 (2.44%) Confluence
5 6 (0.64%) Camunda
5 6 (0.64%) Ethereum
5 6 (0.64%) Hyperledger
6 5 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
6 5 (0.53%) MQSeries
6 5 (0.53%) OpenStack
6 5 (0.53%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
8 2 (0.21%) Apache Pulsar
8 2 (0.21%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 2 (0.21%) SharePoint
8 2 (0.21%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 4 (0.42%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.21%) PlantUML
3 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.11%) Maya
3 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.11%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (0.42%) Bloomberg AIM
1 4 (0.42%) Fidessa
2 3 (0.32%) Oracle 11i
2 3 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.32%) SAP BRIM
3 2 (0.21%) Actimize
3 2 (0.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 2 (0.21%) Shopify
3 2 (0.21%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.11%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.11%) R3 Corda
Cloud Services
1 557 (59.07%) AWS
2 282 (29.90%) Azure
3 164 (17.39%) GCP
4 151 (16.01%) GitHub
5 119 (12.62%) Serverless
6 110 (11.66%) GitHub Actions
7 108 (11.45%) Amazon S3
8 88 (9.33%) AWS Lambda
9 76 (8.06%) Amazon EKS
10 66 (7.00%) Azure DevOps
11 65 (6.89%) OpenShift
11 65 (6.89%) Power Platform
12 60 (6.36%) AWS CloudFormation
13 50 (5.30%) Amazon ECS
14 47 (4.98%) Snowflake
15 45 (4.77%) Amazon SQS
16 40 (4.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 39 (4.14%) Amazon Kinesis
18 37 (3.92%) dbt
19 36 (3.82%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 20 (2.12%) Firewall
2 17 (1.80%) HTTP
3 13 (1.38%) SSL
4 9 (0.95%) DNS
5 6 (0.64%) SMS
6 5 (0.53%) FTP
6 5 (0.53%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.32%) SSH
7 3 (0.32%) VPN
8 2 (0.21%) Kerberos
8 2 (0.21%) MQTT
8 2 (0.21%) NaaS
8 2 (0.21%) OpenVPN
8 2 (0.21%) Reverse Proxy
8 2 (0.21%) WAN
9 1 (0.11%) 4G
9 1 (0.11%) 5G
9 1 (0.11%) Broadband
9 1 (0.11%) Internet
9 1 (0.11%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 195 (20.68%) PostgreSQL
2 136 (14.42%) MongoDB
3 123 (13.04%) NoSQL
4 78 (8.27%) Relational Database
5 62 (6.57%) Big Data
6 57 (6.04%) Data Warehouse
7 56 (5.94%) Apache Cassandra
7 56 (5.94%) Data Lake
7 56 (5.94%) SQL Server
8 52 (5.51%) Power BI
9 51 (5.41%) Redis
10 46 (4.88%) Elasticsearch
11 42 (4.45%) Flink
12 40 (4.24%) DynamoDB
13 38 (4.03%) Amazon Athena
14 36 (3.82%) Hadoop
15 35 (3.71%) Metadata
16 33 (3.50%) Amazon Redshift
17 32 (3.39%) Amazon RDS
17 32 (3.39%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 146 (15.48%) Jenkins
2 132 (14.00%) GitLab
3 123 (13.04%) Git
4 66 (7.00%) JUnit
5 57 (6.04%) JIRA
6 42 (4.45%) Mockito
7 25 (2.65%) Gradle
8 22 (2.33%) Cucumber
9 14 (1.48%) Gatling
9 14 (1.48%) Selenium
10 13 (1.38%) Liquibase
10 13 (1.38%) REST Assured
11 12 (1.27%) Maven
12 11 (1.17%) JMeter
13 10 (1.06%) Jaeger
13 10 (1.06%) Postman
14 8 (0.85%) Artifactory
14 8 (0.85%) CircleCI
14 8 (0.85%) Sonatype Nexus
15 7 (0.74%) Serenity BDD
General
1 266 (28.21%) Finance
2 181 (19.19%) Social Skills
3 118 (12.51%) Banking
4 78 (8.27%) Analytical Skills
5 75 (7.95%) Public Sector
6 48 (5.09%) Front Office
7 32 (3.39%) Investment Banking
8 28 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
9 22 (2.33%) Financial Institution
10 13 (1.38%) Telecoms
11 11 (1.17%) Marketing
12 10 (1.06%) Retail
13 9 (0.95%) Law
13 9 (0.95%) Publishing
14 7 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
15 6 (0.64%) Automotive
15 6 (0.64%) Corporate Banking
16 5 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 4 (0.42%) Military
17 4 (0.42%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 325 (34.46%) Developer
2 216 (22.91%) Senior
3 158 (16.76%) Data Engineer
4 154 (16.33%) Java Developer
5 115 (12.20%) Lead
6 112 (11.88%) Architect
7 99 (10.50%) Senior Developer
8 91 (9.65%) Software Engineer
9 59 (6.26%) Java Engineer
10 53 (5.62%) AWS Architect
11 50 (5.30%) Senior Java Developer
12 49 (5.20%) Full-Stack Developer
13 44 (4.67%) DevOps Engineer
14 40 (4.24%) Solutions Architect
15 35 (3.71%) Senior Data Engineer
16 33 (3.50%) AWS Engineer
16 33 (3.50%) Developer/Software Engineer
16 33 (3.50%) Full-Stack Engineer
17 32 (3.39%) Data Architect
17 32 (3.39%) Kafka Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 216 (22.91%) Spring
2 197 (20.89%) Spring Boot
3 126 (13.36%) REST
4 112 (11.88%) RESTful
5 110 (11.66%) Node.js
5 110 (11.66%) React
6 81 (8.59%) RabbitMQ
7 66 (7.00%) gRPC
8 57 (6.04%) OpenTelemetry
9 50 (5.30%) GraphQL
10 49 (5.20%) JSON
11 47 (4.98%) Middleware
12 45 (4.77%) PySpark
13 42 (4.45%) Apache Avro
14 39 (4.14%) AngularJS
14 39 (4.14%) Redux
15 37 (3.92%) OAuth
16 32 (3.39%) OAuth2
16 32 (3.39%) OpenAPI
16 32 (3.39%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 157 (16.65%) Distributed Systems
2 144 (15.27%) Cloud Native
3 50 (5.30%) Management Information System
4 45 (4.77%) Fixed Income
5 34 (3.61%) Product Ownership
6 26 (2.76%) Data Structures
7 21 (2.23%) Onboarding
8 20 (2.12%) Equities
9 18 (1.91%) Hybrid Cloud
9 18 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
10 15 (1.59%) Algorithms
10 15 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
11 14 (1.48%) Derivative
12 12 (1.27%) Clustering
12 12 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
13 11 (1.17%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 11 (1.17%) Hedge funds
13 11 (1.17%) SWIFT Messaging Network
14 10 (1.06%) Replication
15 9 (0.95%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 108 (11.45%) Linux
2 56 (5.94%) Unix
3 36 (3.82%) Windows
4 9 (0.95%) Mac OS X
5 5 (0.53%) AIX
6 4 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.42%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.32%) VMS
7 3 (0.32%) zOS
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
9 1 (0.11%) Android
9 1 (0.11%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.11%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 423 (44.86%) CI/CD
2 327 (34.68%) Microservices
3 308 (32.66%) Agile
4 282 (29.90%) DevOps
5 239 (25.34%) Event-Driven
6 209 (22.16%) Observability
7 201 (21.31%) Containerisation
8 200 (21.21%) Software Engineering
9 174 (18.45%) Data Pipeline
10 165 (17.50%) Analytics
10 165 (17.50%) Data Modelling
11 161 (17.07%) Infrastructure as Code
12 156 (16.54%) Problem-Solving
13 154 (16.33%) Data Engineering
13 154 (16.33%) Event-Driven Architecture
14 144 (15.27%) ETL
15 138 (14.63%) Test Automation
16 115 (12.20%) Full-Stack Development
17 102 (10.82%) Data Governance
18 99 (10.50%) AI
Programming Languages
1 432 (45.81%) Java
2 337 (35.74%) Python
3 287 (30.43%) SQL
4 107 (11.35%) Go
5 106 (11.24%) TypeScript
6 99 (10.50%) JavaScript
7 62 (6.57%) C#
8 44 (4.67%) Bash
9 32 (3.39%) Scala
10 20 (2.12%) PowerShell
11 18 (1.91%) Rust
12 17 (1.80%) C++
13 16 (1.70%) Shell Script
14 14 (1.48%) Bicep
15 11 (1.17%) PL/SQL
16 9 (0.95%) Search Processing Language
17 7 (0.74%) Perl
18 6 (0.64%) Groovy
19 5 (0.53%) Korn
19 5 (0.53%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 217 (23.01%) Security Cleared
2 175 (18.56%) SC Cleared
3 46 (4.88%) Degree
4 27 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 18 (1.91%) AWS Certification
5 18 (1.91%) Azure Certification
6 17 (1.80%) DV Cleared
7 15 (1.59%) Computer Science Degree
8 13 (1.38%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.74%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (0.74%) SnowPro
10 4 (0.42%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (0.42%) TOGAF Certification
11 3 (0.32%) OCP
11 3 (0.32%) Oracle Certification
12 2 (0.21%) AWS Certified Developer
12 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (0.21%) Postgraduate
13 1 (0.11%) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
13 1 (0.11%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (11.98%) Data Quality
2 50 (5.30%) QA
3 44 (4.67%) GDPR
4 23 (2.44%) Accessibility
5 15 (1.59%) ISO 20022
6 9 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 9 (0.95%) NIST
7 8 (0.85%) NCSC
8 7 (0.74%) PCI DSS
8 7 (0.74%) SEPA
9 4 (0.42%) HL7
9 4 (0.42%) MiFID
9 4 (0.42%) SLA
9 4 (0.42%) WCAG
10 3 (0.32%) ISO 8583
11 2 (0.21%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.21%) EMIR
11 2 (0.21%) ISO 15022
11 2 (0.21%) PSD2
12 1 (0.11%) PMO
System Software
1 322 (34.15%) Docker
2 6 (0.64%) etcd
2 6 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.32%) HDFS
4 1 (0.11%) Apache Flume
4 1 (0.11%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 375 (39.77%) Kubernetes
2 199 (21.10%) Terraform
3 125 (13.26%) Grafana
4 118 (12.51%) Prometheus
5 60 (6.36%) Ansible
6 32 (3.39%) Argo
7 10 (1.06%) Istio
7 10 (1.06%) Kibana
8 9 (0.95%) Fluentd
8 9 (0.95%) Kiali
9 8 (0.85%) linkerd
9 8 (0.85%) logstash
10 7 (0.74%) Puppet
10 7 (0.74%) Rancher
11 5 (0.53%) Podman
12 4 (0.42%) Progress Chef
13 3 (0.32%) QRadar
14 2 (0.21%) Amdocs OSS
14 2 (0.21%) Sysdig
14 2 (0.21%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 95 (10.07%) Databricks
2 76 (8.06%) Splunk
3 70 (7.42%) Oracle
4 51 (5.41%) Microsoft
5 40 (4.24%) Google
6 34 (3.61%) Confluent
7 25 (2.65%) Informatica
8 21 (2.23%) IBM
9 14 (1.48%) Dynatrace
9 14 (1.48%) Red Hat
10 13 (1.38%) VMware
11 12 (1.27%) ServiceNow
11 12 (1.27%) Talend
12 10 (1.06%) Solace
13 9 (0.95%) AppDynamics
13 9 (0.95%) Salesforce
14 8 (0.85%) Pega
15 7 (0.74%) MuleSoft
15 7 (0.74%) PagerDuty
15 7 (0.74%) SAP