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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 101 133
Rank change year-on-year -37 +32 +36
Contract jobs citing Kafka 1,092 843 693
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.99% 2.56% 1.82%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 9.16% 9.83% 7.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 694 542 453
10th Percentile £375 £376 £400
25th Percentile £425 £450 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £723
90th Percentile £746 £750 £810
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £497
% change year-on-year +6.61% -5.54% -17.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 4 8
10th Percentile £43.85 £40.58 £24.60
25th Percentile £56.25 £48.56 £26.60
Median hourly rate £77.00 £59.25 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.96% +111.61% -64.10%
75th Percentile £87.00 £75.31 £39.13
90th Percentile £94.00 £96.13 £54.43
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.00 - £28.00
% change year-on-year - - -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 11,917 8,579 9,447
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.71% 26.02% 24.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,834 5,726 6,195
10th Percentile £375 £354 £356
25th Percentile £438 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £725 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -3.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 303 187 190
10th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 £25.60
25th Percentile £50.00 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.70 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +18.83% -11.20% +2.67%
75th Percentile £76.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £72.20 £74.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +17.39% -11.54% +10.11%

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 September 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 September 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 September 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 -39 915 £550 - 1,019
London -24 551 £575 -4.17% 714
UK excluding London -26 395 £500 +6.61% 416
Work from Home -60 279 £550 -4.35% 420
North of England -14 193 £500 +4.17% 148
Yorkshire +9 98 £501 -16.23% 36
North West -35 75 £550 +17.77% 96
South East -38 60 £460 +6.98% 71
Scotland -34 55 £410 -13.68% 61
Midlands -46 39 £500 +15.47% 32
South West -18 29 £500 -9.09% 49
East of England -7 28 £488 -4.88% 21
West Midlands -39 27 £700 +40.00% 25
North East -30 25 £426 -8.49% 16
East Midlands -22 12 £449 +8.07% 7
Northern Ireland +4 4 - - 29
Wales - 1 £375 - 6

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 (12.00%) Apache Spark
2 78 (7.14%) Apache Airflow
3 73 (6.68%) Apache
4 25 (2.29%) Confluence
5 16 (1.47%) Camunda
6 7 (0.64%) OpenStack
6 7 (0.64%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 6 (0.55%) CMS
8 5 (0.46%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.37%) Apache Pulsar
9 4 (0.37%) MQSeries
9 4 (0.37%) nginx
9 4 (0.37%) PowerExchange
10 3 (0.27%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.27%) Mule
10 3 (0.27%) WebSphere
11 2 (0.18%) Apache Pig
11 2 (0.18%) JBoss
12 1 (0.092%) CICS
12 1 (0.092%) Oracle HTTP Server
Applications
1 6 (0.55%) CPLEX
2 2 (0.18%) Mingle
3 1 (0.092%) Gliffy
3 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.092%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (0.46%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 4 (0.37%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.27%) Finacle
3 3 (0.27%) FLEXCUBE
3 3 (0.27%) Temenos T24
4 2 (0.18%) Endur
4 2 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.092%) Actimize
5 1 (0.092%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.092%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.092%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.092%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 1 (0.092%) SAP IS-U
Cloud Services
1 625 (57.23%) AWS
2 401 (36.72%) Azure
3 258 (23.63%) GCP
4 181 (16.58%) GitHub
5 121 (11.08%) GitHub Actions
6 109 (9.98%) Serverless
7 91 (8.33%) AWS Lambda
8 84 (7.69%) Amazon S3
9 80 (7.33%) Amazon EKS
10 77 (7.05%) Snowflake
11 71 (6.50%) Azure DevOps
12 68 (6.23%) OpenShift
13 54 (4.95%) dbt
14 51 (4.67%) Amazon SQS
15 47 (4.30%) Amazon ECS
16 44 (4.03%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 38 (3.48%) Power Platform
18 36 (3.30%) Azure Data Factory
19 31 (2.84%) Google Kubernetes Engine
20 28 (2.56%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.75%) HTTP
2 21 (1.92%) DNS
3 12 (1.10%) Network Security
4 9 (0.82%) TCP/IP
5 8 (0.73%) Firewall
6 7 (0.64%) MQTT
6 7 (0.64%) SSH
6 7 (0.64%) SSL
7 6 (0.55%) SAN
8 5 (0.46%) 4G
8 5 (0.46%) 5G
9 4 (0.37%) NAS
10 3 (0.27%) Internet
11 2 (0.18%) Kerberos
11 2 (0.18%) VPN
12 1 (0.092%) Broadband
12 1 (0.092%) FIX Connectivity
12 1 (0.092%) MIMO
12 1 (0.092%) RTP
12 1 (0.092%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 192 (17.58%) PostgreSQL
2 174 (15.93%) MongoDB
3 135 (12.36%) NoSQL
4 94 (8.61%) Relational Database
5 76 (6.96%) Data Warehouse
6 65 (5.95%) SQL Server
7 60 (5.49%) Redis
8 53 (4.85%) Big Data
9 52 (4.76%) MySQL
10 48 (4.40%) Data Lake
11 44 (4.03%) Elasticsearch
12 38 (3.48%) BigQuery
12 38 (3.48%) Flink
13 36 (3.30%) Power BI
14 32 (2.93%) Metadata
15 27 (2.47%) Delta Lake
16 25 (2.29%) Hadoop
17 24 (2.20%) Amazon Redshift
17 24 (2.20%) DynamoDB
18 22 (2.01%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 215 (19.69%) Jenkins
2 193 (17.67%) Git
3 166 (15.20%) GitLab
4 71 (6.50%) JUnit
5 67 (6.14%) Gradle
6 61 (5.59%) Mockito
7 55 (5.04%) Selenium
8 47 (4.30%) Maven
9 46 (4.21%) JIRA
10 35 (3.21%) Cucumber
11 34 (3.11%) SonarQube
12 25 (2.29%) Postman
13 24 (2.20%) REST Assured
14 21 (1.92%) JMeter
15 19 (1.74%) Bitbucket
16 17 (1.56%) Gatling
17 16 (1.47%) LoadRunner
17 16 (1.47%) SoapUI
18 14 (1.28%) Liquibase
19 13 (1.19%) Cypress.io
General
1 275 (25.18%) Finance
2 212 (19.41%) Social Skills
3 174 (15.93%) Banking
4 112 (10.26%) Analytical Skills
5 103 (9.43%) Public Sector
6 40 (3.66%) Retail
7 27 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 26 (2.38%) Investment Banking
9 20 (1.83%) Front Office
10 18 (1.65%) Telecoms
11 17 (1.56%) Financial Institution
12 12 (1.10%) Law
13 11 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
14 10 (0.92%) Documentation Skills
14 10 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.82%) Military
16 8 (0.73%) Billing
16 8 (0.73%) Publishing
16 8 (0.73%) Retail Banking
17 7 (0.64%) Games
Job Titles
1 334 (30.59%) Developer
2 238 (21.79%) Senior
3 189 (17.31%) Java Developer
4 170 (15.57%) Architect
5 130 (11.90%) Data Engineer
6 100 (9.16%) Lead
7 73 (6.68%) Senior Developer
8 70 (6.41%) Java Engineer
9 69 (6.32%) Solutions Architect
10 63 (5.77%) DevOps Engineer
10 63 (5.77%) Software Engineer
11 44 (4.03%) Senior Data Engineer
12 43 (3.94%) Full-Stack Developer
12 43 (3.94%) Senior Java Developer
13 41 (3.75%) Kafka Engineer
14 38 (3.48%) AWS Engineer
14 38 (3.48%) Python Engineer
15 36 (3.30%) Python Developer
15 36 (3.30%) Test Engineer
16 34 (3.11%) Senior Java Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 293 (26.83%) Spring
1 293 (26.83%) Spring Boot
2 250 (22.89%) REST
3 235 (21.52%) Terraform
4 155 (14.19%) RESTful
5 133 (12.18%) React
6 124 (11.36%) RabbitMQ
7 74 (6.78%) JSON
8 69 (6.32%) OAuth
9 61 (5.59%) Node.js
10 54 (4.95%) HTML
11 51 (4.67%) GraphQL
11 51 (4.67%) PySpark
12 47 (4.30%) Middleware
12 47 (4.30%) OpenTelemetry
13 46 (4.21%) .NET
13 46 (4.21%) SOAP
14 45 (4.12%) Elastic Stack
15 43 (3.94%) Swagger
15 43 (3.94%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 254 (23.26%) Cloud Native
2 230 (21.06%) Distributed Systems
3 76 (6.96%) Product Ownership
4 47 (4.30%) Enterprise Software
5 43 (3.94%) Data Structures
6 38 (3.48%) Onboarding
7 36 (3.30%) AI Agents
8 34 (3.11%) Self-Motivation
9 27 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
9 27 (2.47%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 26 (2.38%) Algorithms
10 26 (2.38%) Greenfield Project
10 26 (2.38%) Replication
11 20 (1.83%) Distributed Architecture
11 20 (1.83%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 19 (1.74%) Public Cloud
13 18 (1.65%) Private Cloud
14 17 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
15 15 (1.37%) Equities
15 15 (1.37%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 143 (13.10%) Linux
2 73 (6.68%) Unix
3 24 (2.20%) Windows
4 12 (1.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.55%) Mac OS X
5 6 (0.55%) Ubuntu
6 4 (0.37%) CentOS
7 3 (0.27%) VMS
8 2 (0.18%) Android
8 2 (0.18%) Debian
8 2 (0.18%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.092%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.092%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.092%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.092%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.092%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 606 (55.49%) CI/CD
2 460 (42.12%) Event-Driven
3 448 (41.03%) Microservices
4 394 (36.08%) DevOps
5 388 (35.53%) Agile
6 322 (29.49%) Event-Driven Architecture
7 287 (26.28%) Observability
8 253 (23.17%) Test Automation
9 242 (22.16%) Infrastructure as Code
10 232 (21.25%) Containerisation
11 200 (18.32%) Software Engineering
12 182 (16.67%) AI
13 172 (15.75%) Data Pipeline
14 154 (14.10%) Problem-Solving
15 148 (13.55%) Data Modelling
16 140 (12.82%) Technical Leadership
17 136 (12.45%) Continuous Improvement
18 133 (12.18%) ETL
19 127 (11.63%) Analytics
20 123 (11.26%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 483 (44.23%) Java
2 375 (34.34%) Python
3 348 (31.87%) SQL
4 109 (9.98%) JavaScript
5 102 (9.34%) TypeScript
6 84 (7.69%) Bash
7 63 (5.77%) C#
8 53 (4.85%) Go
9 43 (3.94%) Scala
10 31 (2.84%) PowerShell
11 29 (2.66%) PL/SQL
12 26 (2.38%) Shell Script
13 25 (2.29%) Kotlin
14 11 (1.01%) Groovy
15 9 (0.82%) C++
15 9 (0.82%) Perl
16 8 (0.73%) PHP
17 7 (0.64%) Bicep
17 7 (0.64%) Rust
17 7 (0.64%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 268 (24.54%) Security Cleared
2 222 (20.33%) SC Cleared
3 64 (5.86%) Degree
4 42 (3.85%) BPSS Clearance
5 41 (3.75%) Computer Science Degree
6 26 (2.38%) DV Cleared
7 14 (1.28%) Azure Certification
8 12 (1.10%) AWS Certification
9 11 (1.01%) Master's Degree
10 10 (0.92%) ISTQB
11 7 (0.64%) DBS Check
12 6 (0.55%) ISEB
13 5 (0.46%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 5 (0.46%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 5 (0.46%) TOGAF Certification
14 4 (0.37%) SnowPro
15 3 (0.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 3 (0.27%) PhD
16 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Certification
17 1 (0.092%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (7.88%) Data Quality
2 85 (7.78%) QA
3 44 (4.03%) Accessibility
4 35 (3.21%) ISO 20022
5 21 (1.92%) GDPR
6 15 (1.37%) SEPA
7 6 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
8 5 (0.46%) ISO 15022
8 5 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.46%) NIST
8 5 (0.46%) PSD2
8 5 (0.46%) SLA
8 5 (0.46%) WCAG
9 2 (0.18%) Basel III
9 2 (0.18%) GRC
9 2 (0.18%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.18%) IFRS 17
9 2 (0.18%) MiFID
9 2 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.18%) Solvency II
System Software
1 387 (35.44%) Docker
2 17 (1.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.73%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 3 (0.27%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.18%) Apache Flume
5 2 (0.18%) HDFS
6 1 (0.092%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 498 (45.60%) Kubernetes
2 144 (13.19%) Grafana
3 124 (11.36%) Prometheus
4 69 (6.32%) Ansible
5 31 (2.84%) Argo
6 26 (2.38%) Control-M
7 15 (1.37%) Istio
7 15 (1.37%) Kibana
8 14 (1.28%) Kustomize
9 12 (1.10%) Puppet
10 9 (0.82%) Podman
11 8 (0.73%) logstash
12 7 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
13 6 (0.55%) HP Fortify
13 6 (0.55%) Rancher
14 5 (0.46%) Check_MK
15 4 (0.37%) Bosun
15 4 (0.37%) Consul
16 3 (0.27%) Cilium
16 3 (0.27%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 123 (11.26%) Oracle
2 104 (9.52%) Databricks
3 63 (5.77%) Splunk
4 61 (5.59%) IBM
5 57 (5.22%) Microsoft
6 52 (4.76%) Google
7 40 (3.66%) Dynatrace
8 34 (3.11%) Confluent
9 28 (2.56%) Informatica
10 21 (1.92%) MuleSoft
10 21 (1.92%) VMware
11 19 (1.74%) OpenAI
12 17 (1.56%) SAP
13 15 (1.37%) Salesforce
14 14 (1.28%) Solace
15 13 (1.19%) New Relic
15 13 (1.19%) TIBCO
16 9 (0.82%) Sybase
16 9 (0.82%) Veracode
16 9 (0.82%) WSO2