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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 149 106 139
Rank change year-on-year -43 +33 +10
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,009 833 669
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.88% 2.54% 1.72%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 8.62% 10.03% 7.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 622 535 462
10th Percentile £369 £385 £400
25th Percentile £421 £451 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £724
90th Percentile £750 £750 £793
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +6.38% -4.08% -18.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 4 9
10th Percentile £52.25 £40.58 £24.87
25th Percentile £56.75 £48.56 £27.00
Median hourly rate £72.50 £59.25 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +22.36% +111.61% -64.10%
75th Percentile £85.00 £67.49 £38.75
90th Percentile £90.00 £74.22 £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 11,704 8,306 9,495
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.82% 25.37% 24.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,703 5,615 6,430
10th Percentile £375 £354 £356
25th Percentile £431 £413 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -6.36% -
75th Percentile £630 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 282 183 208
10th Percentile £29.07 £30.35 £23.80
25th Percentile £45.31 £41.00 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +20.37% -12.34% -2.22%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.13 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.88 £79.74 £74.61
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +22.73% -12.00% +4.17%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -49 850 £550 - 197
London -42 501 £563 -7.25% 126
UK excluding London -23 381 £500 +6.38% 134
Work from Home -67 255 £549 -0.18% 99
North of England -15 181 £498 +5.29% 30
Yorkshire +10 91 £500 -9.09% 8
North West -27 71 £525 +11.82% 13
South East -37 62 £513 +17.82% 50
Scotland -26 54 £428 -9.04% 8
Midlands -58 37 £500 +17.51% 9
East of England +1 27 £525 +2.44% 4
North East -20 26 £425 -8.55% 9
South West -29 25 £500 -9.09% 29
West Midlands -42 22 £514 +2.80% 6
East Midlands -16 15 £447 +16.41% 3
Northern Ireland 0 4 - - 3
Wales - 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
1 132 (13.08%) Apache Spark
2 69 (6.84%) Apache
3 68 (6.74%) Apache Airflow
4 20 (1.98%) Confluence
5 12 (1.19%) Camunda
6 7 (0.69%) OpenStack
7 6 (0.59%) CMS
7 6 (0.59%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 5 (0.50%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.40%) Apache Pulsar
9 4 (0.40%) PowerExchange
9 4 (0.40%) WebSphere
10 3 (0.30%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.30%) Mule
11 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
11 2 (0.20%) JBoss
11 2 (0.20%) MQSeries
11 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Application Server
11 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 7 (0.69%) CPLEX
2 1 (0.099%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.099%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (0.40%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 2 (0.20%) Endur
2 2 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.099%) Actimize
3 1 (0.099%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.099%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.099%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.099%) SAP IS-U
3 1 (0.099%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 589 (58.37%) AWS
2 360 (35.68%) Azure
3 227 (22.50%) GCP
4 167 (16.55%) GitHub
5 120 (11.89%) GitHub Actions
6 104 (10.31%) Serverless
7 79 (7.83%) AWS Lambda
8 74 (7.33%) Amazon S3
9 72 (7.14%) Azure DevOps
10 70 (6.94%) Amazon EKS
10 70 (6.94%) Snowflake
11 68 (6.74%) OpenShift
12 52 (5.15%) Amazon SQS
13 51 (5.05%) dbt
14 46 (4.56%) Power Platform
15 41 (4.06%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 38 (3.77%) Amazon ECS
17 32 (3.17%) Azure Data Factory
17 32 (3.17%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 27 (2.68%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 26 (2.58%) HTTP
2 17 (1.68%) DNS
3 11 (1.09%) Firewall
4 10 (0.99%) Network Security
5 7 (0.69%) MQTT
5 7 (0.69%) SSL
5 7 (0.69%) TCP/IP
6 5 (0.50%) SAN
6 5 (0.50%) SSH
7 4 (0.40%) NAS
8 3 (0.30%) 4G
8 3 (0.30%) 5G
8 3 (0.30%) Internet
9 2 (0.20%) NaaS
9 2 (0.20%) OpenVPN
9 2 (0.20%) WAN
10 1 (0.099%) FIX Connectivity
10 1 (0.099%) MIMO
10 1 (0.099%) Reverse Proxy
10 1 (0.099%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 184 (18.24%) PostgreSQL
2 156 (15.46%) MongoDB
3 135 (13.38%) NoSQL
4 98 (9.71%) Relational Database
5 71 (7.04%) Data Warehouse
6 62 (6.14%) SQL Server
7 59 (5.85%) Big Data
8 53 (5.25%) Data Lake
9 51 (5.05%) Redis
10 45 (4.46%) Power BI
11 41 (4.06%) BigQuery
12 40 (3.96%) MySQL
13 36 (3.57%) Metadata
14 35 (3.47%) Flink
15 34 (3.37%) Elasticsearch
16 31 (3.07%) Apache Cassandra
17 29 (2.87%) Amazon Redshift
17 29 (2.87%) DynamoDB
18 28 (2.78%) Delta Lake
19 27 (2.68%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 209 (20.71%) Jenkins
2 171 (16.95%) Git
3 149 (14.77%) GitLab
4 71 (7.04%) JUnit
5 60 (5.95%) Gradle
5 60 (5.95%) Mockito
6 48 (4.76%) Selenium
7 44 (4.36%) JIRA
8 35 (3.47%) Maven
9 29 (2.87%) SonarQube
10 26 (2.58%) Cucumber
11 22 (2.18%) Postman
11 22 (2.18%) REST Assured
12 18 (1.78%) JMeter
12 18 (1.78%) Liquibase
13 16 (1.59%) Bitbucket
13 16 (1.59%) Gatling
14 13 (1.29%) Cypress.io
15 11 (1.09%) LoadRunner
15 11 (1.09%) SoapUI
General
1 245 (24.28%) Finance
2 189 (18.73%) Social Skills
3 136 (13.48%) Banking
4 107 (10.60%) Analytical Skills
5 100 (9.91%) Public Sector
6 35 (3.47%) Retail
7 24 (2.38%) Front Office
8 23 (2.28%) Investment Banking
9 19 (1.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (1.78%) Financial Institution
10 18 (1.78%) Telecoms
11 15 (1.49%) Law
12 12 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
13 10 (0.99%) Billing
13 10 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.89%) Publishing
15 8 (0.79%) Games
16 7 (0.69%) Marketing
16 7 (0.69%) Military
16 7 (0.69%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 300 (29.73%) Developer
2 200 (19.82%) Senior
3 159 (15.76%) Java Developer
4 144 (14.27%) Architect
5 140 (13.88%) Data Engineer
6 101 (10.01%) Lead
7 75 (7.43%) Software Engineer
8 72 (7.14%) Java Engineer
9 63 (6.24%) Senior Developer
10 60 (5.95%) Solutions Architect
11 55 (5.45%) DevOps Engineer
12 40 (3.96%) Senior Data Engineer
13 38 (3.77%) AWS Architect
14 37 (3.67%) Python Engineer
15 36 (3.57%) AWS Engineer
15 36 (3.57%) Full-Stack Developer
15 36 (3.57%) Kafka Engineer
15 36 (3.57%) Senior Java Developer
16 33 (3.27%) Data Architect
16 33 (3.27%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 248 (24.58%) Spring
2 243 (24.08%) Spring Boot
3 211 (20.91%) Terraform
4 210 (20.81%) REST
5 146 (14.47%) RESTful
6 139 (13.78%) React
7 121 (11.99%) RabbitMQ
8 74 (7.33%) JSON
9 57 (5.65%) Node.js
9 57 (5.65%) OAuth
10 51 (5.05%) GraphQL
10 51 (5.05%) OpenTelemetry
10 51 (5.05%) PySpark
11 44 (4.36%) .NET
12 43 (4.26%) Swagger
13 42 (4.16%) HTML
13 42 (4.16%) OAuth2
14 41 (4.06%) OpenAPI
14 41 (4.06%) XML
15 39 (3.87%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 212 (21.01%) Cloud Native
2 204 (20.22%) Distributed Systems
3 51 (5.05%) Product Ownership
4 44 (4.36%) Data Structures
5 39 (3.87%) Enterprise Software
6 35 (3.47%) Onboarding
7 29 (2.87%) Algorithms
8 28 (2.78%) Self-Motivation
9 26 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
10 24 (2.38%) AI Agents
11 22 (2.18%) Management Information System
12 20 (1.98%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 20 (1.98%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 19 (1.88%) Replication
14 17 (1.68%) Greenfield Project
15 16 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
16 15 (1.49%) Fixed Income
17 14 (1.39%) Equities
17 14 (1.39%) Public Cloud
18 13 (1.29%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 122 (12.09%) Linux
2 67 (6.64%) Unix
3 27 (2.68%) Windows
4 9 (0.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (0.50%) Mac OS X
5 5 (0.50%) Ubuntu
6 3 (0.30%) VMS
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
8 1 (0.099%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.099%) CentOS
8 1 (0.099%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.099%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 540 (53.52%) CI/CD
2 394 (39.05%) Microservices
3 385 (38.16%) Event-Driven
4 362 (35.88%) DevOps
5 359 (35.58%) Agile
6 269 (26.66%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 261 (25.87%) Observability
8 220 (21.80%) Containerisation
9 209 (20.71%) Test Automation
10 202 (20.02%) Infrastructure as Code
11 188 (18.63%) Software Engineering
12 187 (18.53%) Data Pipeline
13 166 (16.45%) AI
14 154 (15.26%) Data Modelling
15 141 (13.97%) Problem-Solving
16 140 (13.88%) ETL
17 133 (13.18%) Analytics
18 124 (12.29%) Data Engineering
19 120 (11.89%) Continuous Improvement
20 117 (11.60%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 434 (43.01%) Java
2 356 (35.28%) Python
3 337 (33.40%) SQL
4 107 (10.60%) TypeScript
5 100 (9.91%) JavaScript
6 74 (7.33%) Bash
7 60 (5.95%) C#
8 53 (5.25%) Go
9 41 (4.06%) Scala
10 35 (3.47%) PowerShell
11 28 (2.78%) PL/SQL
12 24 (2.38%) Shell Script
13 19 (1.88%) Kotlin
14 10 (0.99%) Bicep
14 10 (0.99%) C++
14 10 (0.99%) Groovy
14 10 (0.99%) Search Processing Language
15 9 (0.89%) Rust
16 7 (0.69%) PHP
17 6 (0.59%) Perl
Qualifications
1 236 (23.39%) Security Cleared
2 184 (18.24%) SC Cleared
3 55 (5.45%) Degree
4 30 (2.97%) Computer Science Degree
5 29 (2.87%) BPSS Clearance
6 18 (1.78%) DV Cleared
7 10 (0.99%) AWS Certification
7 10 (0.99%) ISTQB
7 10 (0.99%) Master's Degree
8 8 (0.79%) Azure Certification
9 7 (0.69%) SnowPro
10 6 (0.59%) ISEB
11 5 (0.50%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 4 (0.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (0.30%) DBS Check
13 3 (0.30%) PhD
13 3 (0.30%) TOGAF Certification
14 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.20%) Postgraduate
15 1 (0.099%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 99 (9.81%) Data Quality
2 62 (6.14%) QA
3 42 (4.16%) Accessibility
4 29 (2.87%) GDPR
5 27 (2.68%) ISO 20022
6 11 (1.09%) SEPA
7 8 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
8 6 (0.59%) WCAG
9 4 (0.40%) ISO 15022
9 4 (0.40%) SLA
10 3 (0.30%) NIST
11 2 (0.20%) Basel III
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%) Solvency II
12 1 (0.099%) HL7
12 1 (0.099%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 365 (36.17%) Docker
2 8 (0.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (0.69%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 6 (0.59%) etcd
5 3 (0.30%) Active Directory
6 2 (0.20%) Apache Flume
6 2 (0.20%) HDFS
7 1 (0.099%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 446 (44.20%) Kubernetes
2 128 (12.69%) Grafana
3 114 (11.30%) Prometheus
4 65 (6.44%) Ansible
5 30 (2.97%) Argo
6 25 (2.48%) Control-M
7 12 (1.19%) Kibana
8 11 (1.09%) Istio
8 11 (1.09%) Kustomize
8 11 (1.09%) Puppet
9 10 (0.99%) Podman
10 7 (0.69%) Fluentd
10 7 (0.69%) logstash
11 5 (0.50%) Check_MK
11 5 (0.50%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.50%) Rancher
12 3 (0.30%) Bosun
12 3 (0.30%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.20%) Amdocs OSS
Vendors
1 112 (11.10%) Oracle
2 97 (9.61%) Databricks
3 59 (5.85%) Splunk
4 55 (5.45%) Microsoft
5 52 (5.15%) Google
6 44 (4.36%) IBM
7 34 (3.37%) Dynatrace
7 34 (3.37%) Informatica
8 32 (3.17%) Confluent
9 18 (1.78%) Salesforce
10 17 (1.68%) MuleSoft
11 16 (1.59%) SAP
12 15 (1.49%) OpenAI
12 15 (1.49%) Solace
13 12 (1.19%) VMware
14 10 (0.99%) New Relic
14 10 (0.99%) Red Hat
14 10 (0.99%) TIBCO
15 8 (0.79%) ServiceNow
16 6 (0.59%) WSO2