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 11 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 100 147
Rank change year-on-year -43 +47 +1
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,004 829 715
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.90% 2.55% 1.66%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.73% 11.31% 7.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 595 536 509
10th Percentile £381 £400 £400
25th Percentile £425 £458 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £565
Median % change year-on-year - -2.65% -13.08%
75th Percentile £650 £696 £700
90th Percentile £800 £825 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £498 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +5.85% -4.08% -18.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 5 9
10th Percentile £56.65 £44.75 £22.55
25th Percentile £64.50 £53.00 £27.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £62.50 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% +123.21% -64.10%
75th Percentile £90.00 £78.70 £38.75
90th Percentile £95.00 £87.73 £45.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.25 £78.70 £28.00
% change year-on-year -9.47% +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 10,322 7,330 9,254
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.52% 22.59% 21.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,766 4,948 6,332
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -4.65% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £656
90th Percentile £738 £761 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 277 159 280
10th Percentile £30.00 £29.21 £22.73
25th Percentile £50.00 £38.52 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.00 £55.63
Median % change year-on-year +16.07% +0.67% -14.42%
75th Percentile £74.26 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £80.20 £74.04
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year +4.00% +7.20% -6.72%

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 11 July 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 11 July 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 11 July 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 -34 863 £550 -0.36% 201
London -32 526 £588 -6.00% 120
UK excluding London -47 356 £498 +5.85% 117
Work from Home -52 280 £572 -0.61% 76
North of England -18 168 £459 -2.19% 30
Yorkshire -4 78 £480 -12.73% 7
North West -36 75 £430 -8.32% 19
South East -41 59 £519 +17.23% 39
Scotland -21 49 £450 -4.76% 8
Midlands -56 41 £500 +13.51% 8
South West -22 27 £500 -9.09% 22
West Midlands -62 25 £500 - 5
North East -14 24 £425 -8.11% 4
East of England -18 17 £550 +10.00% 6
East Midlands -20 16 £459 +28.43% 3
Northern Ireland +1 3 - - 1
Wales -13 2 £313 - 3

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
1 137 (13.65%) Apache Spark
2 74 (7.37%) Apache
3 61 (6.08%) Apache Airflow
4 19 (1.89%) Confluence
5 7 (0.70%) Camunda
6 6 (0.60%) Ethereum
6 6 (0.60%) Hyperledger
6 6 (0.60%) WebSphere
7 5 (0.50%) Apache Pulsar
8 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.30%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.30%) CMS
9 3 (0.30%) Mule
9 3 (0.30%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.20%) Apache Pig
10 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 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 4 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (0.30%) Bloomberg AIM
2 3 (0.30%) Fidessa
3 2 (0.20%) Endur
3 2 (0.20%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.100%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.100%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 1 (0.100%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.100%) R3 Corda
4 1 (0.100%) SAP IS-U
4 1 (0.100%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 590 (58.76%) AWS
2 312 (31.08%) Azure
3 197 (19.62%) GCP
4 140 (13.94%) GitHub
5 114 (11.35%) Serverless
6 100 (9.96%) GitHub Actions
7 89 (8.86%) Amazon S3
7 89 (8.86%) AWS Lambda
8 69 (6.87%) OpenShift
9 65 (6.47%) Azure DevOps
10 62 (6.18%) Amazon EKS
11 59 (5.88%) Snowflake
12 50 (4.98%) Power Platform
13 46 (4.58%) Amazon ECS
13 46 (4.58%) dbt
14 39 (3.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 39 (3.88%) Amazon SQS
15 37 (3.69%) AWS CloudFormation
16 31 (3.09%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 29 (2.89%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.79%) HTTP
2 11 (1.10%) Firewall
3 10 (1.00%) Network Security
4 7 (0.70%) MQTT
4 7 (0.70%) SSL
5 6 (0.60%) DNS
6 5 (0.50%) NAS
6 5 (0.50%) SAN
7 4 (0.40%) Internet
8 3 (0.30%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.20%) NaaS
9 2 (0.20%) OpenVPN
9 2 (0.20%) Reverse Proxy
9 2 (0.20%) WAN
10 1 (0.100%) 4G
10 1 (0.100%) 5G
10 1 (0.100%) Broadband
10 1 (0.100%) FIX Connectivity
10 1 (0.100%) MIMO
10 1 (0.100%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 183 (18.23%) PostgreSQL
2 163 (16.24%) MongoDB
3 128 (12.75%) NoSQL
4 106 (10.56%) Relational Database
5 70 (6.97%) Big Data
6 63 (6.27%) Data Warehouse
7 60 (5.98%) SQL Server
8 55 (5.48%) Data Lake
9 45 (4.48%) Elasticsearch
10 43 (4.28%) Power BI
11 41 (4.08%) Redis
12 39 (3.88%) Hadoop
13 37 (3.69%) Flink
14 35 (3.49%) Apache Cassandra
14 35 (3.49%) MySQL
15 31 (3.09%) BigQuery
16 30 (2.99%) Metadata
17 29 (2.89%) DynamoDB
18 26 (2.59%) Amazon Athena
18 26 (2.59%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 168 (16.73%) Jenkins
2 134 (13.35%) Git
3 124 (12.35%) GitLab
4 72 (7.17%) JUnit
5 56 (5.58%) Mockito
6 47 (4.68%) JIRA
7 38 (3.78%) Gradle
8 31 (3.09%) Selenium
9 25 (2.49%) Cucumber
10 23 (2.29%) REST Assured
11 20 (1.99%) Maven
12 18 (1.79%) Gatling
13 17 (1.69%) Liquibase
13 17 (1.69%) Postman
13 17 (1.69%) SonarQube
14 15 (1.49%) Serenity BDD
15 9 (0.90%) Cypress.io
16 7 (0.70%) JMeter
17 6 (0.60%) Snyk
18 5 (0.50%) Claude Code
General
1 270 (26.89%) Finance
2 193 (19.22%) Social Skills
3 134 (13.35%) Banking
4 96 (9.56%) Public Sector
5 90 (8.96%) Analytical Skills
6 48 (4.78%) Front Office
7 36 (3.59%) Investment Banking
8 26 (2.59%) Documentation Skills
8 26 (2.59%) Retail
9 20 (1.99%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.49%) Law
11 14 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (1.20%) Telecoms
13 10 (1.00%) Influencing Skills
14 9 (0.90%) Billing
14 9 (0.90%) Publishing
15 8 (0.80%) Marketing
15 8 (0.80%) Military
16 7 (0.70%) Automotive
16 7 (0.70%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 329 (32.77%) Developer
2 201 (20.02%) Senior
3 168 (16.73%) Java Developer
4 151 (15.04%) Data Engineer
5 127 (12.65%) Architect
6 117 (11.65%) Lead
7 99 (9.86%) Software Engineer
8 83 (8.27%) Senior Developer
9 77 (7.67%) Java Engineer
10 52 (5.18%) Solutions Architect
11 51 (5.08%) Senior Java Developer
12 47 (4.68%) AWS Architect
13 43 (4.28%) DevOps Engineer
14 42 (4.18%) Full-Stack Developer
15 36 (3.59%) Developer/Software Engineer
16 34 (3.39%) Lead Developer
17 33 (3.29%) Java Software Engineer
17 33 (3.29%) Kafka Engineer
17 33 (3.29%) Principal Engineer
18 31 (3.09%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 256 (25.50%) Spring
2 241 (24.00%) Spring Boot
3 153 (15.24%) REST
4 140 (13.94%) React
5 136 (13.55%) RESTful
6 109 (10.86%) RabbitMQ
7 89 (8.86%) Node.js
8 67 (6.67%) GraphQL
9 62 (6.18%) JSON
10 53 (5.28%) Redux
11 50 (4.98%) OpenTelemetry
12 41 (4.08%) AngularJS
12 41 (4.08%) Swagger
13 40 (3.98%) OpenAPI
14 39 (3.88%) OAuth
15 38 (3.78%) Middleware
16 37 (3.69%) gRPC
17 36 (3.59%) PySpark
18 34 (3.39%) Apache Avro
19 32 (3.19%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 189 (18.82%) Distributed Systems
2 180 (17.93%) Cloud Native
3 40 (3.98%) Product Ownership
4 39 (3.88%) Fixed Income
5 38 (3.78%) Data Structures
6 30 (2.99%) Management Information System
7 29 (2.89%) Algorithms
8 28 (2.79%) Enterprise Software
9 25 (2.49%) Onboarding
10 24 (2.39%) Legacy Systems
11 18 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
12 16 (1.59%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 16 (1.59%) Hybrid Cloud
13 15 (1.49%) Data Protection Act
13 15 (1.49%) Equities
13 15 (1.49%) Public Cloud
14 14 (1.39%) Clustering
15 13 (1.29%) AI Agents
15 13 (1.29%) Virtual Team
16 12 (1.20%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 98 (9.76%) Linux
2 54 (5.38%) Unix
3 26 (2.59%) Windows
4 10 (1.00%) Mac OS X
5 7 (0.70%) 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
8 2 (0.20%) zOS
9 1 (0.100%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.100%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 469 (46.71%) CI/CD
2 374 (37.25%) Microservices
3 344 (34.26%) Agile
4 315 (31.37%) Event-Driven
5 314 (31.27%) DevOps
6 225 (22.41%) Containerisation
7 223 (22.21%) Observability
8 213 (21.22%) Event-Driven Architecture
9 195 (19.42%) Software Engineering
10 194 (19.32%) Data Pipeline
11 165 (16.43%) Infrastructure as Code
12 162 (16.14%) Problem-Solving
13 160 (15.94%) Test Automation
14 155 (15.44%) Data Modelling
15 154 (15.34%) Analytics
16 149 (14.84%) Data Engineering
17 148 (14.74%) AI
17 148 (14.74%) ETL
18 119 (11.85%) TDD
19 109 (10.86%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 467 (46.51%) Java
2 354 (35.26%) Python
3 308 (30.68%) SQL
4 123 (12.25%) TypeScript
5 93 (9.26%) JavaScript
6 84 (8.37%) Go
7 59 (5.88%) C#
8 51 (5.08%) Bash
9 36 (3.59%) Scala
10 26 (2.59%) PowerShell
11 17 (1.69%) PL/SQL
12 16 (1.59%) Kotlin
13 14 (1.39%) Shell Script
14 13 (1.29%) Rust
15 12 (1.20%) C++
16 11 (1.10%) Bicep
17 10 (1.00%) Groovy
17 10 (1.00%) Search Processing Language
18 7 (0.70%) PHP
19 6 (0.60%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 220 (21.91%) Security Cleared
2 173 (17.23%) SC Cleared
3 51 (5.08%) Degree
4 31 (3.09%) BPSS Clearance
5 21 (2.09%) DV Cleared
6 19 (1.89%) AWS Certification
7 18 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (1.59%) Master's Degree
9 8 (0.80%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 8 (0.80%) Azure Certification
10 7 (0.70%) SnowPro
11 3 (0.30%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.30%) PhD
11 3 (0.30%) TOGAF Certification
12 2 (0.20%) AWS Certified Developer
12 2 (0.20%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (0.20%) Postgraduate
13 1 (0.100%) PMI Certification
13 1 (0.100%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (10.36%) Data Quality
2 52 (5.18%) QA
3 41 (4.08%) Accessibility
4 39 (3.88%) GDPR
5 17 (1.69%) ISO 20022
6 8 (0.80%) SEPA
7 7 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.50%) NIST
9 4 (0.40%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.30%) SLA
10 3 (0.30%) WCAG
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%) ISO 15022
11 2 (0.20%) MiFID
11 2 (0.20%) NCSC
11 2 (0.20%) Solvency II
12 1 (0.100%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 330 (32.87%) Docker
2 6 (0.60%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 6 (0.60%) etcd
3 2 (0.20%) Apache Flume
3 2 (0.20%) HDFS
3 2 (0.20%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.100%) OpenSSH
4 1 (0.100%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 409 (40.74%) Kubernetes
2 200 (19.92%) Terraform
3 122 (12.15%) Prometheus
4 118 (11.75%) Grafana
5 61 (6.08%) Ansible
6 20 (1.99%) Argo
7 11 (1.10%) Control-M
7 11 (1.10%) Kibana
8 9 (0.90%) Istio
8 9 (0.90%) Puppet
9 8 (0.80%) Kustomize
9 8 (0.80%) Podman
10 7 (0.70%) Fluentd
11 6 (0.60%) logstash
12 5 (0.50%) Rancher
13 3 (0.30%) NetBackup
14 2 (0.20%) CA Wily
14 2 (0.20%) Consul
14 2 (0.20%) Sysdig
14 2 (0.20%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 81 (8.07%) Databricks
2 74 (7.37%) Oracle
3 61 (6.08%) Splunk
4 48 (4.78%) Microsoft
5 43 (4.28%) Google
6 27 (2.69%) Informatica
7 24 (2.39%) Confluent
8 17 (1.69%) IBM
9 15 (1.49%) Dynatrace
9 15 (1.49%) MuleSoft
9 15 (1.49%) Salesforce
9 15 (1.49%) Solace
10 10 (1.00%) OpenAI
10 10 (1.00%) Sybase
11 9 (0.90%) SAP
11 9 (0.90%) Talend
12 8 (0.80%) Red Hat
12 8 (0.80%) ServiceNow
13 6 (0.60%) Pega
13 6 (0.60%) Teradata