Machine Learning Contract Job Trends

Machine Learning (ML)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Machine Learning skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 99 108
Rank change year-on-year +6 +9 +79
Contract jobs citing Machine Learning 1,567 840 818
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.92% 2.60% 2.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.45% 2.87% 2.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,005 531 567
10th Percentile £413 £400 £400
25th Percentile £493 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £565 £600
Median % change year-on-year +1.77% -5.83% +2.13%
75th Percentile £688 £684 £734
90th Percentile £788 £788 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £500
% change year-on-year - +10.00% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 23 17
10th Percentile £28.50 £26.34 £13.06
25th Percentile £42.25 £44.42 £27.75
Median hourly rate £77.00 £62.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +23.20% +35.34% -
75th Percentile £88.63 £78.73 £53.75
90th Percentile £89.75 £87.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £77.00 £75.00 £49.34
% change year-on-year +2.67% +52.01% +6.84%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Machine Learning falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 45,398 29,222 32,553
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.63% 90.44% 85.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,773 18,158 20,413
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,911 1,744 1,558
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.20 £14.41
25th Percentile £17.72 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.84 £46.01 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.18 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +87.80% -47.37% +12.13%

Machine Learning
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Machine Learning relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Machine Learning job vacancy trend in the UK

Machine Learning
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Machine Learning.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Machine Learning

Machine Learning
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Machine Learning over the 6 months to 4 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Machine Learning in the UK

Machine Learning
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Machine Learning.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Machine Learning

Machine Learning
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Machine Learning over the 6 months to 4 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Machine Learning in the UK

Machine Learning
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 Machine Learning within the UK over the 6 months to 4 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 +6 1,346 £575 - 4,898
London +27 905 £589 -1.92% 3,450
UK excluding London +1 485 £550 - 2,008
Work from Home -1 418 £600 +9.09% 1,846
South East -11 133 £600 +4.35% 441
North of England -29 132 £550 +14.58% 394
Scotland +21 85 £450 -14.29% 307
North West -35 61 £600 +24.35% 248
Yorkshire -5 59 £550 +13.11% 108
Midlands -33 50 £500 -9.09% 165
South West -33 46 £525 -4.55% 285
West Midlands -31 42 £525 -8.70% 96
East of England -17 34 £488 -13.33% 310
North East -31 13 £463 +8.82% 40
Wales -9 9 £540 -20.00% 50
East Midlands -20 7 £438 -5.41% 69
Northern Ireland +4 1 £334 -52.29% 77

Machine Learning
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 87 (5.55%) Apache Spark
2 77 (4.91%) Apache Airflow
3 52 (3.32%) Apache
4 32 (2.04%) Jupyter
5 21 (1.34%) Confluence
6 11 (0.70%) SAS
7 6 (0.38%) ArcGIS
8 5 (0.32%) IIS
8 5 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
9 4 (0.26%) SharePoint
10 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.19%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.13%) Apache Superset
11 2 (0.13%) Appian
11 2 (0.13%) CMS
11 2 (0.13%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.064%) Apache Pulsar
12 1 (0.064%) Luigi
Applications
1 29 (1.85%) Chatbot
2 10 (0.64%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.26%) CPLEX
3 4 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.13%) DaVinci Resolve
5 2 (0.13%) Notion
5 2 (0.13%) NUKE
6 1 (0.064%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.064%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.064%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.064%) Simulink
6 1 (0.064%) Sketch
6 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (0.64%) SAP IBP
2 7 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.19%) Cloudability
3 3 (0.19%) Oracle Assets
3 3 (0.19%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 2 (0.13%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.064%) Actimize
5 1 (0.064%) Endur
5 1 (0.064%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.064%) OpenLink RightAngle
5 1 (0.064%) Oracle Cash Management
5 1 (0.064%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.064%) Oracle Payables
5 1 (0.064%) Oracle Receivables
5 1 (0.064%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.064%) SAP APO
5 1 (0.064%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 539 (34.40%) Azure
2 513 (32.74%) AWS
3 302 (19.27%) GCP
4 120 (7.66%) Power Platform
5 114 (7.28%) GitHub
6 106 (6.76%) Serverless
7 90 (5.74%) Amazon S3
8 89 (5.68%) Snowflake
9 82 (5.23%) AWS Lambda
10 71 (4.53%) Amazon SageMaker
11 63 (4.02%) Azure Machine Learning
12 58 (3.70%) dbt
13 57 (3.64%) Amazon Bedrock
14 56 (3.57%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 52 (3.32%) Azure DevOps
16 48 (3.06%) Azure AI
17 47 (3.00%) GitHub Actions
18 46 (2.94%) Azure Data Factory
19 45 (2.87%) Vertex AI
20 43 (2.74%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.15%) Broadband
1 18 (1.15%) Internet
1 18 (1.15%) Network Security
2 14 (0.89%) Firewall
3 11 (0.70%) DNS
4 9 (0.57%) DHCP
4 9 (0.57%) VPN
5 8 (0.51%) HTTP
6 4 (0.26%) NAS
6 4 (0.26%) SAN
6 4 (0.26%) SMS
6 4 (0.26%) TCP/IP
6 4 (0.26%) VLAN
7 3 (0.19%) MQTT
7 3 (0.19%) SMTP
8 2 (0.13%) CTI
8 2 (0.13%) Modbus
8 2 (0.13%) PCoIP
8 2 (0.13%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.064%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (7.15%) Power BI
2 91 (5.81%) Data Warehouse
3 90 (5.74%) Data Lake
4 80 (5.11%) Metadata
5 78 (4.98%) BigQuery
6 66 (4.21%) Big Data
7 52 (3.32%) Amazon Redshift
8 49 (3.13%) NoSQL
9 48 (3.06%) Delta Lake
10 43 (2.74%) Tableau
11 35 (2.23%) Amazon Athena
12 31 (1.98%) PostgreSQL
13 29 (1.85%) Relational Database
14 24 (1.53%) MongoDB
15 23 (1.47%) Hadoop
16 21 (1.34%) Neo4j
17 19 (1.21%) Data Mining
18 18 (1.15%) Looker
19 16 (1.02%) Semantic Layer
20 15 (0.96%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 91 (5.81%) Git
2 52 (3.32%) GitLab
3 50 (3.19%) MLflow
4 46 (2.94%) JIRA
5 19 (1.21%) Jenkins
6 11 (0.70%) Claude Code
7 8 (0.51%) Selenium
7 8 (0.51%) Vite
8 6 (0.38%) ERwin
9 5 (0.32%) Cypress.io
9 5 (0.32%) RStudio
10 4 (0.26%) JMeter
11 3 (0.19%) ER Studio
11 3 (0.19%) Pylint
11 3 (0.19%) REST Assured
11 3 (0.19%) Spinnaker
12 2 (0.13%) Locust
12 2 (0.13%) PyCharm
12 2 (0.13%) SonarQube
12 2 (0.13%) Terragrunt
General
1 334 (21.31%) Social Skills
2 288 (18.38%) Finance
3 225 (14.36%) Analytical Skills
4 132 (8.42%) Public Sector
5 110 (7.02%) Banking
6 43 (2.74%) Marketing
7 38 (2.43%) Retail
8 31 (1.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 28 (1.79%) Pharmaceutical
9 28 (1.79%) Telecoms
10 25 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
11 24 (1.53%) Legal
12 21 (1.34%) Aerospace
12 21 (1.34%) Front Office
13 20 (1.28%) Influencing Skills
13 20 (1.28%) Manufacturing
14 19 (1.21%) Financial Institution
15 16 (1.02%) Investment Banking
15 16 (1.02%) Law
16 14 (0.89%) Billing
Job Titles
1 258 (16.46%) Architect
2 257 (16.40%) Senior
3 201 (12.83%) Data Scientist
4 169 (10.78%) Data Engineer
5 167 (10.66%) Lead
6 137 (8.74%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 98 (6.25%) Machine Learning Engineer
8 80 (5.11%) Developer
9 74 (4.72%) Data Architect
9 74 (4.72%) Solutions Architect
10 71 (4.53%) Python Engineer
11 63 (4.02%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
12 60 (3.83%) Analyst
13 56 (3.57%) Software Engineer
14 52 (3.32%) Platform Engineer
15 49 (3.13%) Security Architect
16 47 (3.00%) Senior Data Engineer
17 44 (2.81%) DevOps Engineer
18 43 (2.74%) Consultant
19 42 (2.68%) Senior Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 189 (12.06%) Terraform
2 119 (7.59%) PyTorch
3 110 (7.02%) Kafka
4 89 (5.68%) PySpark
5 86 (5.49%) TensorFlow
6 72 (4.59%) scikit-learn
7 71 (4.53%) REST
8 66 (4.21%) LangChain
9 65 (4.15%) Pandas
10 61 (3.89%) React
11 50 (3.19%) NumPy
12 41 (2.62%) pytest
13 37 (2.36%) .NET
14 33 (2.11%) LangGraph
15 32 (2.04%) FastAPI
16 27 (1.72%) JSON
17 26 (1.66%) Hugging Face
18 25 (1.60%) RESTful
19 23 (1.47%) Model Context Protocol
20 20 (1.28%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 194 (12.38%) Cloud Native
2 163 (10.40%) AI Agents
3 100 (6.38%) Algorithms
4 68 (4.34%) Product Ownership
5 67 (4.28%) Onboarding
6 63 (4.02%) Distributed Systems
7 35 (2.23%) Enterprise Software
8 33 (2.11%) Data Structures
9 25 (1.60%) Life Science
10 23 (1.47%) Hybrid Cloud
11 21 (1.34%) Data Protection Act
12 19 (1.21%) CMDB
13 17 (1.08%) Management Information System
13 17 (1.08%) Social Media
14 16 (1.02%) IoT
15 15 (0.96%) Taxonomies
15 15 (0.96%) Virtual Team
16 14 (0.89%) Public Cloud
17 13 (0.83%) Augmented Reality
17 13 (0.83%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 46 (2.94%) Linux
2 17 (1.08%) Windows
3 14 (0.89%) Unix
4 4 (0.26%) Ubuntu
4 4 (0.26%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.19%) Android
6 2 (0.13%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.13%) VMS
7 1 (0.064%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.064%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,277 (81.49%) AI
2 574 (36.63%) Data Science
3 496 (31.65%) CI/CD
4 464 (29.61%) Analytics
5 418 (26.68%) LLM
6 375 (23.93%) Generative AI
7 346 (22.08%) Data Pipeline
8 331 (21.12%) Agile
9 323 (20.61%) DevOps
10 281 (17.93%) MLOps
11 274 (17.49%) Data Engineering
12 248 (15.83%) Software Engineering
13 234 (14.93%) Decision-Making
14 232 (14.81%) Use Case
15 219 (13.98%) Stakeholder Management
16 217 (13.85%) Roadmaps
17 204 (13.02%) Infrastructure as Code
17 204 (13.02%) Problem-Solving
18 198 (12.64%) Data Modelling
19 189 (12.06%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 854 (54.50%) Python
2 394 (25.14%) SQL
3 110 (7.02%) Java
4 73 (4.66%) JavaScript
5 53 (3.38%) TypeScript
6 44 (2.81%) R
7 41 (2.62%) Bash
7 41 (2.62%) C#
8 28 (1.79%) PowerShell
9 21 (1.34%) C++
10 20 (1.28%) Scala
11 18 (1.15%) Bicep
12 15 (0.96%) Go
13 11 (0.70%) PL/SQL
14 9 (0.57%) Cypher
14 9 (0.57%) Shell Script
15 6 (0.38%) Gremlin
15 6 (0.38%) Kotlin
15 6 (0.38%) SPARQL
16 5 (0.32%) Perl
Qualifications
1 296 (18.89%) Security Cleared
2 220 (14.04%) SC Cleared
3 118 (7.53%) Degree
4 57 (3.64%) DV Cleared
5 53 (3.38%) Computer Science Degree
6 42 (2.68%) AWS Certification
7 41 (2.62%) Master's Degree
8 35 (2.23%) CISSP
9 34 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
10 27 (1.72%) PhD
11 22 (1.40%) Azure Certification
12 17 (1.08%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 16 (1.02%) CISM
14 14 (0.89%) TOGAF Certification
15 11 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
16 10 (0.64%) ITIL Certification
17 9 (0.57%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
18 7 (0.45%) PMP
19 6 (0.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
20 5 (0.32%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 214 (13.66%) Data Quality
2 63 (4.02%) GDPR
3 57 (3.64%) QA
4 31 (1.98%) NIST
5 21 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 15 (0.96%) Accessibility
6 15 (0.96%) EU AI Act
7 10 (0.64%) SLA
8 9 (0.57%) GRC
8 9 (0.57%) GxP
8 9 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 9 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 8 (0.51%) HIPAA
10 6 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
10 6 (0.38%) WCAG
11 5 (0.32%) NCSC
11 5 (0.32%) Solvency II
12 4 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 4 (0.26%) COBIT
12 4 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 211 (13.47%) Docker
2 15 (0.96%) Active Directory
3 11 (0.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.64%) IAG
5 8 (0.51%) Hyper-V
6 7 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.32%) Microsoft App-V
7 5 (0.32%) NFS
8 3 (0.19%) BitLocker
8 3 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 3 (0.19%) Terminal Services
8 3 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.13%) Apache ZooKeeper
9 2 (0.13%) Firmware
9 2 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
10 1 (0.064%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 276 (17.61%) Kubernetes
2 38 (2.43%) Ansible
3 26 (1.66%) Grafana
3 26 (1.66%) Kubeflow
4 18 (1.15%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.38%) Istio
6 5 (0.32%) Podman
7 4 (0.26%) systemd
8 3 (0.19%) Argo
8 3 (0.19%) Kibana
8 3 (0.19%) Nagios
8 3 (0.19%) NetBackup
8 3 (0.19%) Puppet
8 3 (0.19%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.19%) vMotion
9 2 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.13%) Docker Swarm
9 2 (0.13%) Packer
9 2 (0.13%) SCCM
10 1 (0.064%) QRadar
Vendors
1 210 (13.40%) Databricks
2 163 (10.40%) Microsoft
3 102 (6.51%) Google
4 64 (4.08%) OpenAI
5 46 (2.94%) SAP
6 36 (2.30%) ServiceNow
7 31 (1.98%) Foundry
7 31 (1.98%) Oracle
8 24 (1.53%) Informatica
9 17 (1.08%) Dynatrace
10 13 (0.83%) Splunk
11 12 (0.77%) VMware
12 11 (0.70%) IBM
13 10 (0.64%) Nexthink
13 10 (0.64%) UiPath
14 9 (0.57%) Salesforce
15 7 (0.45%) Cisco
15 7 (0.45%) Sybase
16 6 (0.38%) Pega
17 5 (0.32%) HP