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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 147 101 139
Rank change year-on-year -46 +38 +14
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,003 846 669
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.88% 2.57% 1.71%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.88% 11.34% 7.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 626 545 466
10th Percentile £378 £385 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -8.30% -7.73%
75th Percentile £648 £675 £724
90th Percentile £793 £813 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £469 £490
% change year-on-year +5.54% -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 10,149 7,460 8,587
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.04% 22.67% 21.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,627 5,030 5,830
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £427
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £638 £630 £671
90th Percentile £738 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 267 168 245
10th Percentile £28.79 £29.78 £22.50
25th Percentile £41.83 £40.75 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.44 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.40% +8.88% -16.67%
75th Percentile £73.00 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £80.30 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £56.25 £57.28
% change year-on-year +15.56% -1.79% -2.24%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -43 848 £550 - 525
London -38 499 £575 -8.00% 397
UK excluding London -35 379 £495 +5.54% 180
Work from Home -61 269 £550 -4.35% 203
North of England -14 175 £474 +1.94% 50
Yorkshire -3 81 £495 -1.00% 21
North West -38 73 £430 -8.42% 20
South East -30 63 £513 +15.82% 54
Scotland -17 56 £449 -4.57% 26
Midlands -55 37 £500 +19.05% 10
North East -18 28 £463 +0.05% 9
South West -33 28 £500 -9.09% 27
East of England -2 25 £513 +2.50% 4
West Midlands -53 22 £514 +2.80% 7
East Midlands -11 15 £470 +29.66% 3
Northern Ireland +1 3 - - 8
Wales -10 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
1 131 (13.06%) Apache Spark
2 67 (6.68%) Apache
3 58 (5.78%) Apache Airflow
4 18 (1.79%) Confluence
5 7 (0.70%) Camunda
6 6 (0.60%) CMS
6 6 (0.60%) OpenStack
6 6 (0.60%) WebSphere
7 4 (0.40%) 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 (0.80%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.20%) PlantUML
3 1 (0.100%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.100%) Maya
3 1 (0.100%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.100%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.20%) Endur
1 2 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
1 2 (0.20%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.100%) Actimize
2 1 (0.100%) Bloomberg AIM
2 1 (0.100%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.100%) FIS Private Capital Suite
2 1 (0.100%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.100%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (0.100%) SAP IS-U
2 1 (0.100%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 596 (59.42%) AWS
2 319 (31.80%) Azure
3 198 (19.74%) GCP
4 148 (14.76%) GitHub
5 106 (10.57%) GitHub Actions
6 104 (10.37%) Serverless
7 82 (8.18%) AWS Lambda
8 78 (7.78%) Amazon S3
9 70 (6.98%) OpenShift
10 69 (6.88%) Amazon EKS
11 66 (6.58%) Azure DevOps
12 60 (5.98%) Snowflake
13 52 (5.18%) Amazon SQS
14 48 (4.79%) dbt
15 46 (4.59%) Amazon ECS
16 43 (4.29%) Power Platform
17 42 (4.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 32 (3.19%) AWS CloudFormation
19 30 (2.99%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 29 (2.89%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.99%) HTTP
2 10 (1.00%) DNS
2 10 (1.00%) Network Security
3 9 (0.90%) Firewall
4 7 (0.70%) MQTT
4 7 (0.70%) SSL
5 5 (0.50%) TCP/IP
6 4 (0.40%) NAS
6 4 (0.40%) 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 (0.100%) FIX Connectivity
9 1 (0.100%) MIMO
9 1 (0.100%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 181 (18.05%) PostgreSQL
2 165 (16.45%) MongoDB
3 132 (13.16%) NoSQL
4 101 (10.07%) Relational Database
5 63 (6.28%) Big Data
6 60 (5.98%) SQL Server
7 58 (5.78%) Data Warehouse
8 52 (5.18%) Data Lake
9 45 (4.49%) Redis
10 40 (3.99%) Power BI
11 39 (3.89%) MySQL
12 36 (3.59%) Apache Cassandra
12 36 (3.59%) Elasticsearch
12 36 (3.59%) Flink
13 33 (3.29%) Hadoop
14 32 (3.19%) DynamoDB
15 31 (3.09%) BigQuery
15 31 (3.09%) Metadata
16 25 (2.49%) Delta Lake
16 25 (2.49%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 183 (18.25%) Jenkins
2 149 (14.86%) Git
3 131 (13.06%) GitLab
4 71 (7.08%) JUnit
5 64 (6.38%) Mockito
6 51 (5.08%) Gradle
7 42 (4.19%) JIRA
8 34 (3.39%) Selenium
9 27 (2.69%) Cucumber
9 27 (2.69%) Maven
10 19 (1.89%) REST Assured
10 19 (1.89%) SonarQube
11 18 (1.79%) Liquibase
12 15 (1.50%) Gatling
13 13 (1.30%) Postman
14 11 (1.10%) Bitbucket
14 11 (1.10%) Cypress.io
15 10 (1.00%) Serenity BDD
16 7 (0.70%) Claude Code
17 6 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 262 (26.12%) Finance
2 177 (17.65%) Social Skills
3 133 (13.26%) Banking
4 101 (10.07%) Public Sector
5 94 (9.37%) Analytical Skills
6 50 (4.99%) Front Office
7 31 (3.09%) Retail
8 29 (2.89%) Investment Banking
9 21 (2.09%) Financial Institution
10 18 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 17 (1.69%) Telecoms
12 16 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
13 15 (1.50%) Law
14 11 (1.10%) Billing
14 11 (1.10%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.90%) Publishing
16 8 (0.80%) Games
16 8 (0.80%) Influencing Skills
16 8 (0.80%) Military
17 7 (0.70%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 337 (33.60%) Developer
2 188 (18.74%) Senior
3 173 (17.25%) Java Developer
4 143 (14.26%) Architect
5 138 (13.76%) Data Engineer
6 103 (10.27%) Lead
7 94 (9.37%) Software Engineer
8 75 (7.48%) Java Engineer
9 73 (7.28%) Senior Developer
10 62 (6.18%) Solutions Architect
11 48 (4.79%) DevOps Engineer
12 43 (4.29%) Senior Java Developer
13 42 (4.19%) Full-Stack Developer
14 40 (3.99%) AWS Architect
15 38 (3.79%) Lead Developer
16 36 (3.59%) Developer/Software Engineer
17 35 (3.49%) Java Software Engineer
17 35 (3.49%) Python Engineer
18 34 (3.39%) Data Architect
19 33 (3.29%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 238 (23.73%) Spring
2 228 (22.73%) Spring Boot
3 185 (18.44%) REST
4 153 (15.25%) React
5 142 (14.16%) RESTful
6 119 (11.86%) RabbitMQ
7 86 (8.57%) Node.js
8 75 (7.48%) GraphQL
9 68 (6.78%) JSON
10 60 (5.98%) Redux
11 52 (5.18%) OpenTelemetry
12 48 (4.79%) OAuth
13 45 (4.49%) Swagger
14 44 (4.39%) OpenAPI
14 44 (4.39%) PySpark
15 37 (3.69%) .NET
15 37 (3.69%) AngularJS
16 36 (3.59%) Middleware
17 35 (3.49%) OAuth2
18 33 (3.29%) ActiveMQ
Miscellaneous
1 198 (19.74%) Distributed Systems
2 190 (18.94%) Cloud Native
3 41 (4.09%) Data Structures
4 40 (3.99%) Fixed Income
5 35 (3.49%) Product Ownership
6 30 (2.99%) Algorithms
6 30 (2.99%) Enterprise Software
7 26 (2.59%) Legacy Systems
8 25 (2.49%) Self-Motivation
9 24 (2.39%) Onboarding
10 22 (2.19%) Management Information System
11 19 (1.89%) AI Agents
11 19 (1.89%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 17 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
12 17 (1.69%) Public Cloud
13 16 (1.60%) Replication
14 14 (1.40%) Hybrid Cloud
14 14 (1.40%) SWIFT Messaging Network
15 13 (1.30%) Equities
16 12 (1.20%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 109 (10.87%) Linux
2 61 (6.08%) Unix
3 25 (2.49%) Windows
4 10 (1.00%) Mac OS X
5 8 (0.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.50%) 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 (0.100%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.100%) CentOS
9 1 (0.100%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.100%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 483 (48.16%) CI/CD
2 376 (37.49%) Microservices
3 361 (35.99%) Agile
4 351 (35.00%) Event-Driven
5 332 (33.10%) DevOps
6 248 (24.73%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 227 (22.63%) Observability
8 220 (21.93%) Containerisation
9 197 (19.64%) Software Engineering
10 189 (18.84%) Data Pipeline
11 180 (17.95%) Test Automation
12 178 (17.75%) Infrastructure as Code
13 154 (15.35%) AI
14 150 (14.96%) Problem-Solving
15 149 (14.86%) Data Modelling
16 144 (14.36%) Analytics
17 136 (13.56%) ETL
18 131 (13.06%) Data Engineering
19 121 (12.06%) TDD
20 108 (10.77%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 448 (44.67%) Java
2 346 (34.50%) Python
3 310 (30.91%) SQL
4 129 (12.86%) TypeScript
5 101 (10.07%) JavaScript
6 77 (7.68%) Go
7 62 (6.18%) Bash
8 59 (5.88%) C#
9 35 (3.49%) Scala
10 28 (2.79%) PowerShell
11 24 (2.39%) PL/SQL
12 19 (1.89%) Shell Script
13 17 (1.69%) Kotlin
14 11 (1.10%) Rust
15 10 (1.00%) Bicep
15 10 (1.00%) Groovy
15 10 (1.00%) Search Processing Language
16 9 (0.90%) C++
17 7 (0.70%) PHP
18 6 (0.60%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 222 (22.13%) Security Cleared
2 172 (17.15%) SC Cleared
3 46 (4.59%) Degree
4 32 (3.19%) BPSS Clearance
5 23 (2.29%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (1.99%) DV Cleared
7 14 (1.40%) AWS Certification
8 10 (1.00%) Master's Degree
9 9 (0.90%) Azure Certification
10 6 (0.60%) SnowPro
11 5 (0.50%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (0.40%) 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 (0.100%) CISM
15 1 (0.100%) ITIL Certification
15 1 (0.100%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (9.57%) Data Quality
2 56 (5.58%) QA
3 43 (4.29%) Accessibility
4 31 (3.09%) GDPR
5 20 (1.99%) ISO 20022
6 10 (1.00%) SEPA
7 7 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.60%) WCAG
9 4 (0.40%) 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 (0.100%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 1 (0.100%) NIST 800
System Software
1 348 (34.70%) Docker
2 6 (0.60%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 6 (0.60%) etcd
3 3 (0.30%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.20%) Apache Flume
4 2 (0.20%) HDFS
5 1 (0.100%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.100%) OpenSSH
5 1 (0.100%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 427 (42.57%) Kubernetes
2 195 (19.44%) Terraform
3 112 (11.17%) Grafana
3 112 (11.17%) Prometheus
4 61 (6.08%) Ansible
5 26 (2.59%) Argo
6 16 (1.60%) Control-M
7 12 (1.20%) Podman
8 10 (1.00%) Istio
8 10 (1.00%) Kibana
9 9 (0.90%) Puppet
10 7 (0.70%) Fluentd
10 7 (0.70%) Kustomize
11 6 (0.60%) logstash
12 5 (0.50%) Check_MK
12 5 (0.50%) Rancher
13 3 (0.30%) Bosun
13 3 (0.30%) NetBackup
14 2 (0.20%) CA Wily
14 2 (0.20%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 89 (8.87%) Oracle
2 81 (8.08%) Databricks
3 52 (5.18%) Splunk
4 47 (4.69%) Google
5 45 (4.49%) Microsoft
6 26 (2.59%) Confluent
7 25 (2.49%) Dynatrace
8 24 (2.39%) Informatica
9 23 (2.29%) IBM
10 17 (1.69%) MuleSoft
10 17 (1.69%) Salesforce
11 14 (1.40%) OpenAI
11 14 (1.40%) Solace
12 11 (1.10%) SAP
13 8 (0.80%) Red Hat
13 8 (0.80%) ServiceNow
13 8 (0.80%) Sybase
13 8 (0.80%) TIBCO
14 7 (0.70%) VMware
15 6 (0.60%) Pega