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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 111 139
Rank change year-on-year +28 +28 +78
Contract jobs citing Machine Learning 1,396 710 715
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.88% 2.47% 1.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.42% 2.71% 1.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 849 439 518
10th Percentile £414 £375 £413
25th Percentile £495 £456 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £557 £580
Median % change year-on-year +3.23% -3.97% -1.28%
75th Percentile £675 £689 £738
90th Percentile £775 £850 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 21 19
10th Percentile £47.16 £25.25 £41.25
25th Percentile £50.64 £45.00 £46.22
Median hourly rate £65.00 £61.50 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.69% +17.14% +50.00%
75th Percentile £83.75 £80.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £89.13 £88.00 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £78.10 £56.25
% change year-on-year -16.77% +38.84% +60.71%

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 40,852 26,213 36,586
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.38% 91.03% 85.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,586 16,831 23,574
10th Percentile £325 £303 £300
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £498 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +4.74% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,418 1,066 2,483
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.85 £18.13 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.13 £27.59 £36.05
Median % change year-on-year +52.71% -23.47% -0.22%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.73 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £38.00
% change year-on-year +73.72% -33.82% +8.57%

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 25 May 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 25 May 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 25 May 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 +19 1,162 £574 -0.11% 1,210
London +36 779 £575 - 615
UK excluding London +5 430 £550 -4.35% 774
Work from Home +22 395 £596 +8.27% 456
North of England -9 116 £550 - 231
Scotland +57 92 £518 +10.81% 42
South East -33 85 £600 +4.35% 218
Midlands -23 62 £575 +17.95% 86
North West -17 57 £575 - 142
West Midlands -32 46 £550 +10.00% 44
Yorkshire -22 45 £519 - 57
East of England -22 45 £525 -17.65% 78
South West -28 37 £500 -21.88% 94
North East -11 17 £563 +60.71% 34
East Midlands -16 14 £675 +52.11% 41
Wales -14 12 £759 +31.96% 22
Northern Ireland - 1 £650 - 14

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
1 115 (8.24%) Apache Spark
2 68 (4.87%) Apache Airflow
3 55 (3.94%) Apache
4 33 (2.36%) Jupyter
5 16 (1.15%) Confluence
6 9 (0.64%) Appian
7 6 (0.43%) SharePoint
8 5 (0.36%) CMS
8 5 (0.36%) Headless CMS
9 4 (0.29%) SAS
10 3 (0.21%) Palantir Foundry
11 2 (0.14%) Luigi
12 1 (0.072%) Apache Superset
12 1 (0.072%) Apache Synapse
12 1 (0.072%) ArcGIS
12 1 (0.072%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 26 (1.86%) Chatbot
2 11 (0.79%) Microsoft Project
3 10 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.50%) Microsoft Office
6 3 (0.21%) LaTeX
7 2 (0.14%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.14%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 11 (0.79%) SAP IBP
2 4 (0.29%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
3 2 (0.14%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.072%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.072%) OpenText VIM for SAP
4 1 (0.072%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.072%) SAP APO
4 1 (0.072%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 526 (37.68%) Azure
2 473 (33.88%) AWS
3 237 (16.98%) GCP
4 125 (8.95%) Power Platform
5 93 (6.66%) GitHub
6 90 (6.45%) Serverless
7 88 (6.30%) Azure AI
8 82 (5.87%) Azure Machine Learning
9 73 (5.23%) Amazon SageMaker
10 70 (5.01%) Amazon S3
11 65 (4.66%) Azure DevOps
12 64 (4.58%) Snowflake
13 54 (3.87%) AWS Lambda
14 53 (3.80%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 53 (3.80%) GitHub Actions
15 51 (3.65%) Vertex AI
16 48 (3.44%) Azure Data Factory
17 37 (2.65%) AWS CloudFormation
18 34 (2.44%) Amazon Bedrock
19 29 (2.08%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.00%) Network Security
2 10 (0.72%) Firewall
3 9 (0.64%) HTTP
4 8 (0.57%) DNS
5 5 (0.36%) FTP
5 5 (0.36%) SMTP
5 5 (0.36%) SSL
6 3 (0.21%) InfiniBand
6 3 (0.21%) NAS
6 3 (0.21%) SAN
7 2 (0.14%) 4G
7 2 (0.14%) 5G
7 2 (0.14%) DHCP
7 2 (0.14%) Ethernet
7 2 (0.14%) Internet
7 2 (0.14%) PCoIP
7 2 (0.14%) Radio Access Network
7 2 (0.14%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.072%) Modbus
8 1 (0.072%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (6.81%) Power BI
2 91 (6.52%) Data Lake
3 75 (5.37%) Big Data
4 62 (4.44%) Metadata
5 61 (4.37%) BigQuery
6 50 (3.58%) Data Warehouse
7 47 (3.37%) NoSQL
8 38 (2.72%) Tableau
9 36 (2.58%) Hadoop
10 33 (2.36%) Delta Lake
11 30 (2.15%) SQL Server
12 29 (2.08%) Pinecone
13 28 (2.01%) PostgreSQL
14 27 (1.93%) Relational Database
15 26 (1.86%) Amazon Athena
16 25 (1.79%) Mixpanel
17 22 (1.58%) Weaviate
18 21 (1.50%) MongoDB
19 16 (1.15%) Amazon Redshift
20 15 (1.07%) OLTP
Development Applications
1 86 (6.16%) Git
1 86 (6.16%) MLflow
2 34 (2.44%) JIRA
3 25 (1.79%) GitLab
4 24 (1.72%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.57%) Visual Studio
6 7 (0.50%) Selenium
7 5 (0.36%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.29%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.29%) ERwin
8 4 (0.29%) JMeter
8 4 (0.29%) Maven
8 4 (0.29%) PyCharm
9 3 (0.21%) Claude Code
9 3 (0.21%) Gradle
9 3 (0.21%) JUnit
9 3 (0.21%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.21%) Spinnaker
9 3 (0.21%) Vite
10 2 (0.14%) ER Studio
General
1 299 (21.42%) Social Skills
2 270 (19.34%) Finance
3 167 (11.96%) Analytical Skills
4 140 (10.03%) Public Sector
5 82 (5.87%) Banking
6 31 (2.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 28 (2.01%) Marketing
8 26 (1.86%) Pharmaceutical
9 25 (1.79%) Documentation Skills
9 25 (1.79%) Legal
10 23 (1.65%) Influencing Skills
11 22 (1.58%) Aviation
11 22 (1.58%) Investment Banking
11 22 (1.58%) Retail
12 21 (1.50%) Front Office
13 18 (1.29%) Telecoms
14 13 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
15 12 (0.86%) Aerospace
16 11 (0.79%) Law
16 11 (0.79%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 207 (14.83%) Data Scientist
2 194 (13.90%) Senior
3 185 (13.25%) Architect
4 157 (11.25%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
5 130 (9.31%) Data Engineer
6 119 (8.52%) Lead
7 94 (6.73%) Developer
8 73 (5.23%) Analyst
9 67 (4.80%) Python Engineer
10 60 (4.30%) Machine Learning Engineer
10 60 (4.30%) Software Engineer
11 57 (4.08%) Solutions Architect
12 54 (3.87%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
13 52 (3.72%) Data Architect
14 40 (2.87%) Senior Data Scientist
15 38 (2.72%) Consultant
16 32 (2.29%) Python Developer
17 31 (2.22%) Platform Engineer
18 29 (2.08%) Business Analyst
19 28 (2.01%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 187 (13.40%) PyTorch
2 134 (9.60%) TensorFlow
3 111 (7.95%) scikit-learn
4 94 (6.73%) Pandas
5 80 (5.73%) Kafka
6 70 (5.01%) LangChain
7 67 (4.80%) React
8 66 (4.73%) NumPy
9 63 (4.51%) PySpark
10 53 (3.80%) REST
11 52 (3.72%) .NET
12 49 (3.51%) Hugging Face
13 34 (2.44%) LangGraph
13 34 (2.44%) Node.js
14 33 (2.36%) AngularJS
14 33 (2.36%) Model Context Protocol
15 28 (2.01%) FastAPI
16 26 (1.86%) RESTful
17 21 (1.50%) Faiss
18 20 (1.43%) Great Expectations
Miscellaneous
1 165 (11.82%) Cloud Native
2 133 (9.53%) AI Agents
3 123 (8.81%) Algorithms
4 47 (3.37%) Product Ownership
5 43 (3.08%) Onboarding
6 37 (2.65%) Distributed Systems
7 25 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
8 19 (1.36%) Data Structures
9 18 (1.29%) Fixed Income
10 17 (1.22%) Enterprise Software
10 17 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
10 17 (1.22%) Management Information System
11 16 (1.15%) Life Science
12 13 (0.93%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (0.93%) Hybrid Cloud
13 12 (0.86%) Low-Code
14 11 (0.79%) Augmented Reality
14 11 (0.79%) Distributed Computing
14 11 (0.79%) Public Cloud
14 11 (0.79%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 29 (2.08%) Linux
2 14 (1.00%) Windows
3 10 (0.72%) Unix
4 8 (0.57%) VMS
5 7 (0.50%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.43%) Android
7 2 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.072%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,106 (79.23%) AI
2 514 (36.82%) Data Science
3 431 (30.87%) CI/CD
4 407 (29.15%) LLM
5 380 (27.22%) Analytics
6 310 (22.21%) Generative AI
7 308 (22.06%) Data Pipeline
8 287 (20.56%) DevOps
9 270 (19.34%) MLOps
10 258 (18.48%) Data Engineering
11 251 (17.98%) Agile
12 198 (14.18%) Use Case
13 193 (13.83%) Problem-Solving
14 176 (12.61%) Data Governance
15 171 (12.25%) Decision-Making
15 171 (12.25%) ETL
15 171 (12.25%) Software Engineering
16 166 (11.89%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
17 152 (10.89%) Containerisation
18 148 (10.60%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 805 (57.66%) Python
2 354 (25.36%) SQL
3 103 (7.38%) Java
4 75 (5.37%) C#
5 64 (4.58%) R
6 50 (3.58%) TypeScript
7 47 (3.37%) JavaScript
8 25 (1.79%) C++
9 19 (1.36%) Bash
10 17 (1.22%) PowerShell
11 15 (1.07%) Bicep
12 13 (0.93%) Scala
13 11 (0.79%) Kotlin
14 8 (0.57%) Go
15 7 (0.50%) MATLAB
15 7 (0.50%) Rust
15 7 (0.50%) SPARQL
16 5 (0.36%) PL/SQL
17 4 (0.29%) Perl
18 3 (0.21%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 238 (17.05%) Security Cleared
2 163 (11.68%) SC Cleared
3 113 (8.09%) Degree
4 55 (3.94%) Master's Degree
5 40 (2.87%) DV Cleared
6 38 (2.72%) BPSS Clearance
7 36 (2.58%) PhD
8 31 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
9 24 (1.72%) AWS Certification
10 19 (1.36%) Azure Certification
11 18 (1.29%) CISSP
12 14 (1.00%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 14 (1.00%) CISM
13 7 (0.50%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 6 (0.43%) ISTQB
14 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
15 5 (0.36%) GIAC
15 5 (0.36%) PMI Certification
15 5 (0.36%) PMP
16 4 (0.29%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 149 (10.67%) Data Quality
2 55 (3.94%) GDPR
3 51 (3.65%) QA
4 29 (2.08%) NIST
5 18 (1.29%) Accessibility
6 14 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 13 (0.93%) EU AI Act
8 10 (0.72%) Actionable Recommendations
8 10 (0.72%) HIPAA
9 8 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 7 (0.50%) NCSC
11 5 (0.36%) GRC
11 5 (0.36%) WCAG
12 4 (0.29%) COBIT
12 4 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
12 4 (0.29%) GxP
13 2 (0.14%) DO-254
13 2 (0.14%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 2 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 1 (0.072%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 185 (13.25%) Docker
2 11 (0.79%) Active Directory
2 11 (0.79%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 5 (0.36%) Firmware
4 3 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.14%) Ceph
5 2 (0.14%) HDFS
5 2 (0.14%) Lustre
5 2 (0.14%) Microsoft App-V
5 2 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.072%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 218 (15.62%) Kubernetes
2 142 (10.17%) Terraform
3 22 (1.58%) Kubeflow
4 21 (1.50%) Grafana
5 14 (1.00%) Ansible
5 14 (1.00%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.64%) Podman
7 4 (0.29%) Istio
8 3 (0.21%) Rancher
9 2 (0.14%) Docker Swarm
9 2 (0.14%) Kibana
9 2 (0.14%) NetBackup
9 2 (0.14%) Packer
9 2 (0.14%) SCCM
10 1 (0.072%) Argo
10 1 (0.072%) HP Fortify
10 1 (0.072%) Knative
10 1 (0.072%) logstash
Vendors
1 196 (14.04%) Databricks
2 161 (11.53%) Microsoft
3 98 (7.02%) OpenAI
4 89 (6.38%) Google
5 57 (4.08%) Foundry
6 39 (2.79%) SAP
7 32 (2.29%) Oracle
8 23 (1.65%) ServiceNow
9 16 (1.15%) IBM
10 15 (1.07%) UiPath
11 13 (0.93%) Informatica
12 12 (0.86%) Dynatrace
13 11 (0.79%) Automation Anywhere
14 9 (0.64%) Amplitude
15 7 (0.50%) NVIDIA
15 7 (0.50%) Sybase
16 6 (0.43%) Ariba
16 6 (0.43%) Siemens
16 6 (0.43%) Talend
16 6 (0.43%) Workday