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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 152 105 142
Rank change year-on-year -47 +37 +16
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,013 843 668
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.89% 2.56% 1.72%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 8.64% 10.06% 7.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 626 541 462
10th Percentile £369 £385 £400
25th Percentile £423 £452 £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 £495 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +5.32% -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 11,722 8,376 9,495
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.85% 25.39% 24.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,701 5,659 6,433
10th Percentile £375 £355 £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% -1.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 292 185 208
10th Percentile £30.00 £30.45 £23.80
25th Percentile £49.75 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +20.37% -12.34% -1.83%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.16 £79.48 £74.61
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.47 £55.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +22.67% -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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -48 854 £550 - 192
London -40 507 £563 -8.16% 123
UK excluding London -35 379 £495 +5.32% 119
Work from Home -69 256 £550 -3.17% 100
North of England -12 179 £475 +0.53% 28
Yorkshire +12 91 £498 -9.55% 8
North West -36 69 £440 -6.28% 11
South East -39 62 £513 +17.82% 48
Scotland -31 54 £428 -9.04% 3
Midlands -42 37 £500 +17.51% 10
East of England -4 27 £525 +2.44% 4
North East -20 26 £425 -8.55% 9
South West -29 25 £500 -9.09% 23
West Midlands -43 22 £514 +2.80% 7
East Midlands -10 15 £447 +16.41% 3
Northern Ireland +1 4 - - 2
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
1 131 (12.93%) Apache Spark
2 69 (6.81%) Apache
3 67 (6.61%) Apache Airflow
4 18 (1.78%) Confluence
5 9 (0.89%) Camunda
6 6 (0.59%) CMS
6 6 (0.59%) OpenStack
7 5 (0.49%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 5 (0.49%) SharePoint
8 4 (0.39%) Apache Pulsar
8 4 (0.39%) PowerExchange
8 4 (0.39%) WebSphere
9 3 (0.30%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.30%) Mule
10 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) JBoss
10 2 (0.20%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Application Server
10 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 (0.39%) 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
1 594 (58.64%) AWS
2 362 (35.74%) Azure
3 226 (22.31%) GCP
4 169 (16.68%) GitHub
5 120 (11.85%) GitHub Actions
6 105 (10.37%) Serverless
7 80 (7.90%) AWS Lambda
8 75 (7.40%) Amazon S3
9 73 (7.21%) Azure DevOps
10 70 (6.91%) Amazon EKS
11 69 (6.81%) Snowflake
12 65 (6.42%) OpenShift
13 52 (5.13%) Amazon SQS
14 51 (5.03%) dbt
15 46 (4.54%) Power Platform
16 42 (4.15%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 38 (3.75%) Amazon ECS
18 32 (3.16%) Azure Data Factory
19 31 (3.06%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 27 (2.67%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 25 (2.47%) HTTP
2 16 (1.58%) DNS
3 11 (1.09%) Firewall
4 10 (0.99%) Network Security
5 7 (0.69%) MQTT
5 7 (0.69%) SSL
6 6 (0.59%) TCP/IP
7 5 (0.49%) SAN
8 4 (0.39%) NAS
8 4 (0.39%) SSH
9 3 (0.30%) Internet
10 2 (0.20%) 4G
10 2 (0.20%) 5G
10 2 (0.20%) NaaS
10 2 (0.20%) OpenVPN
10 2 (0.20%) WAN
11 1 (0.099%) Broadband
11 1 (0.099%) FIX Connectivity
11 1 (0.099%) Kerberos
11 1 (0.099%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 187 (18.46%) PostgreSQL
2 157 (15.50%) MongoDB
3 134 (13.23%) NoSQL
4 99 (9.77%) Relational Database
5 70 (6.91%) Data Warehouse
6 60 (5.92%) SQL Server
7 59 (5.82%) Big Data
8 52 (5.13%) Data Lake
9 51 (5.03%) Redis
10 45 (4.44%) Power BI
11 40 (3.95%) BigQuery
12 39 (3.85%) MySQL
13 36 (3.55%) Metadata
14 35 (3.46%) Flink
15 34 (3.36%) Elasticsearch
16 32 (3.16%) Apache Cassandra
17 30 (2.96%) DynamoDB
18 28 (2.76%) Amazon Redshift
18 28 (2.76%) Delta Lake
19 27 (2.67%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 208 (20.53%) Jenkins
2 173 (17.08%) Git
3 146 (14.41%) GitLab
4 69 (6.81%) JUnit
5 59 (5.82%) Mockito
6 57 (5.63%) Gradle
7 48 (4.74%) Selenium
8 43 (4.24%) JIRA
9 34 (3.36%) Maven
10 28 (2.76%) Cucumber
11 26 (2.57%) SonarQube
12 23 (2.27%) Postman
13 20 (1.97%) REST Assured
14 18 (1.78%) JMeter
14 18 (1.78%) Liquibase
15 16 (1.58%) Bitbucket
15 16 (1.58%) Gatling
16 13 (1.28%) Cypress.io
17 11 (1.09%) LoadRunner
17 11 (1.09%) SoapUI
General
1 246 (24.28%) Finance
2 189 (18.66%) Social Skills
3 134 (13.23%) Banking
4 106 (10.46%) Analytical Skills
5 102 (10.07%) Public Sector
6 35 (3.46%) Retail
7 24 (2.37%) Front Office
8 23 (2.27%) Investment Banking
9 19 (1.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (1.78%) Financial Institution
11 17 (1.68%) Telecoms
12 15 (1.48%) Law
13 12 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
14 10 (0.99%) Billing
14 10 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.89%) Publishing
16 8 (0.79%) Games
17 7 (0.69%) Marketing
17 7 (0.69%) Military
17 7 (0.69%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 301 (29.71%) Developer
2 205 (20.24%) Senior
3 162 (15.99%) Java Developer
4 144 (14.22%) Architect
5 140 (13.82%) Data Engineer
6 103 (10.17%) Lead
7 76 (7.50%) Software Engineer
8 73 (7.21%) Java Engineer
9 67 (6.61%) Senior Developer
10 60 (5.92%) Solutions Architect
11 55 (5.43%) DevOps Engineer
12 40 (3.95%) Senior Data Engineer
13 38 (3.75%) AWS Architect
13 38 (3.75%) Senior Java Developer
14 37 (3.65%) Python Engineer
15 36 (3.55%) AWS Engineer
15 36 (3.55%) Full-Stack Developer
15 36 (3.55%) Kafka Engineer
16 33 (3.26%) Data Architect
17 32 (3.16%) Java Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 251 (24.78%) Spring
2 242 (23.89%) Spring Boot
3 215 (21.22%) Terraform
4 211 (20.83%) REST
5 149 (14.71%) RESTful
6 137 (13.52%) React
7 121 (11.94%) RabbitMQ
8 73 (7.21%) JSON
9 58 (5.73%) OAuth
10 57 (5.63%) Node.js
11 51 (5.03%) GraphQL
11 51 (5.03%) OpenTelemetry
11 51 (5.03%) PySpark
12 45 (4.44%) .NET
13 43 (4.24%) OAuth2
13 43 (4.24%) Swagger
14 41 (4.05%) OpenAPI
14 41 (4.05%) XML
15 38 (3.75%) HTML
15 38 (3.75%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 211 (20.83%) Cloud Native
2 206 (20.34%) Distributed Systems
3 50 (4.94%) Product Ownership
4 41 (4.05%) Data Structures
5 39 (3.85%) Enterprise Software
6 34 (3.36%) Onboarding
7 29 (2.86%) Algorithms
8 27 (2.67%) Self-Motivation
9 26 (2.57%) Legacy Systems
10 24 (2.37%) AI Agents
11 22 (2.17%) Management Information System
12 20 (1.97%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 20 (1.97%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 19 (1.88%) Replication
14 17 (1.68%) Greenfield Project
15 16 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
16 15 (1.48%) Fixed Income
17 14 (1.38%) Equities
17 14 (1.38%) Public Cloud
18 13 (1.28%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 122 (12.04%) Linux
2 67 (6.61%) Unix
3 27 (2.67%) Windows
4 9 (0.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.59%) Mac OS X
6 5 (0.49%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.30%) VMS
8 2 (0.20%) Android
8 2 (0.20%) Debian
8 2 (0.20%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.20%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.099%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.099%) CentOS
9 1 (0.099%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.099%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 540 (53.31%) CI/CD
2 393 (38.80%) Microservices
3 385 (38.01%) Event-Driven
4 360 (35.54%) DevOps
5 358 (35.34%) Agile
6 270 (26.65%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 261 (25.77%) Observability
8 221 (21.82%) Containerisation
9 211 (20.83%) Test Automation
10 204 (20.14%) Infrastructure as Code
11 190 (18.76%) Software Engineering
12 186 (18.36%) Data Pipeline
13 166 (16.39%) AI
14 154 (15.20%) Data Modelling
15 143 (14.12%) Problem-Solving
16 139 (13.72%) ETL
17 132 (13.03%) Analytics
18 124 (12.24%) Data Engineering
19 121 (11.94%) Continuous Improvement
20 115 (11.35%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 436 (43.04%) Java
2 355 (35.04%) Python
3 335 (33.07%) SQL
4 108 (10.66%) TypeScript
5 98 (9.67%) JavaScript
6 73 (7.21%) Bash
7 62 (6.12%) C#
8 54 (5.33%) Go
9 40 (3.95%) Scala
10 35 (3.46%) PowerShell
11 28 (2.76%) PL/SQL
12 23 (2.27%) 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%) Rust
14 10 (0.99%) Search Processing Language
15 7 (0.69%) PHP
16 6 (0.59%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 240 (23.69%) Security Cleared
2 187 (18.46%) SC Cleared
3 53 (5.23%) Degree
4 29 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 27 (2.67%) Computer Science Degree
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 (0.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 4 (0.39%) 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 98 (9.67%) Data Quality
2 63 (6.22%) QA
3 42 (4.15%) Accessibility
4 29 (2.86%) GDPR
5 26 (2.57%) 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 (0.39%) SLA
10 3 (0.30%) ISO 15022
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
1 366 (36.13%) Docker
2 7 (0.69%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 7 (0.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.59%) etcd
4 3 (0.30%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.20%) Apache Flume
5 2 (0.20%) HDFS
6 1 (0.099%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 450 (44.42%) Kubernetes
2 128 (12.64%) Grafana
3 114 (11.25%) Prometheus
4 65 (6.42%) Ansible
5 30 (2.96%) Argo
6 25 (2.47%) Control-M
7 12 (1.18%) 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 (0.49%) Check_MK
11 5 (0.49%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.49%) 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
1 111 (10.96%) Oracle
2 96 (9.48%) Databricks
3 58 (5.73%) Splunk
4 55 (5.43%) Microsoft
5 53 (5.23%) Google
6 40 (3.95%) IBM
7 34 (3.36%) Dynatrace
7 34 (3.36%) Informatica
8 32 (3.16%) Confluent
9 18 (1.78%) Salesforce
10 17 (1.68%) MuleSoft
11 16 (1.58%) SAP
12 15 (1.48%) OpenAI
12 15 (1.48%) Solace
13 11 (1.09%) 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%) ForgeRock