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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 101 110
Rank change year-on-year +14 +9 +80
Contract jobs citing Machine Learning 1,555 855 814
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.90% 2.61% 2.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.43% 2.89% 2.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,006 545 575
10th Percentile £413 £400 £405
25th Percentile £492 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £565 £600
Median % change year-on-year +1.77% -5.83% +2.56%
75th Percentile £700 £688 £738
90th Percentile £788 £798 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £500
% change year-on-year - +10.00% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 25 19
10th Percentile £28.50 £27.50 £13.06
25th Percentile £37.75 £45.00 £34.50
Median hourly rate £77.00 £65.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +18.46% +40.75% -
75th Percentile £84.38 £80.00 £53.75
90th Percentile £88.75 £87.80 £58.00
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 45,367 29,590 33,147
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.58% 90.44% 85.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,794 18,422 20,982
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 2,879 1,766 1,695
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.86
25th Percentile £17.97 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £41.06 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.26% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £42.50
% change year-on-year +94.26% -46.75% +6.25%

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 26 August 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 26 August 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 26 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 +8 1,335 £575 - 1,028
London +28 895 £588 -2.08% 637
UK excluding London +3 483 £550 - 575
Work from Home +2 405 £596 +8.27% 435
South East -13 139 £600 +4.35% 102
North of England -28 126 £550 +11.90% 127
Scotland +28 84 £450 -14.29% 70
North West -39 58 £600 +17.07% 66
Yorkshire -4 56 £550 +13.11% 43
Midlands -35 53 £550 +2.33% 42
South West -38 44 £513 -6.82% 157
West Midlands -40 44 £550 -4.35% 27
East of England -28 30 £500 -9.09% 73
North East -36 12 £463 +8.82% 19
Wales -9 9 £540 -20.00% 10
East Midlands -15 8 £438 -1.41% 15
Northern Ireland +1 1 £334 -52.29% 9

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 82 (5.27%) Apache Spark
2 74 (4.76%) Apache Airflow
3 48 (3.09%) Apache
4 32 (2.06%) Jupyter
5 19 (1.22%) Confluence
6 10 (0.64%) SAS
7 6 (0.39%) ArcGIS
8 5 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
9 4 (0.26%) SharePoint
10 3 (0.19%) CMS
10 3 (0.19%) Headless CMS
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%) Oracle Workflow
12 1 (0.064%) Apache Pulsar
12 1 (0.064%) Luigi
Applications
1 30 (1.93%) 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%) Simulink
6 1 (0.064%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 10 (0.64%) SAP IBP
2 8 (0.51%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.26%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 3 (0.19%) Cloudability
4 3 (0.19%) Oracle Assets
5 2 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.064%) Actimize
6 1 (0.064%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.064%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 1 (0.064%) Oracle Cash Management
6 1 (0.064%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.064%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.064%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.064%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.064%) SAP APO
6 1 (0.064%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 545 (35.05%) Azure
2 521 (33.50%) AWS
3 309 (19.87%) GCP
4 125 (8.04%) Power Platform
5 111 (7.14%) GitHub
6 106 (6.82%) Serverless
7 89 (5.72%) Amazon S3
8 83 (5.34%) Snowflake
9 80 (5.14%) AWS Lambda
10 71 (4.57%) Amazon SageMaker
11 61 (3.92%) Azure Machine Learning
12 57 (3.67%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 56 (3.60%) Amazon Bedrock
14 54 (3.47%) dbt
15 53 (3.41%) Azure AI
16 51 (3.28%) Azure DevOps
17 46 (2.96%) GitHub Actions
17 46 (2.96%) Vertex AI
18 44 (2.83%) SaaS
19 43 (2.77%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.16%) Internet
1 18 (1.16%) Network Security
2 17 (1.09%) Broadband
3 15 (0.96%) Firewall
4 11 (0.71%) DNS
5 10 (0.64%) VPN
6 9 (0.58%) DHCP
7 4 (0.26%) NAS
7 4 (0.26%) SAN
7 4 (0.26%) SMS
7 4 (0.26%) TCP/IP
7 4 (0.26%) VLAN
8 3 (0.19%) HTTP
8 3 (0.19%) MQTT
8 3 (0.19%) SMTP
9 2 (0.13%) CTI
9 2 (0.13%) Modbus
9 2 (0.13%) PCoIP
9 2 (0.13%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.064%) OpenFlow
Database & Business Intelligence
1 114 (7.33%) Power BI
2 86 (5.53%) Data Lake
3 83 (5.34%) Data Warehouse
4 79 (5.08%) Metadata
5 78 (5.02%) BigQuery
6 65 (4.18%) Big Data
7 51 (3.28%) Amazon Redshift
8 48 (3.09%) NoSQL
9 46 (2.96%) Delta Lake
10 42 (2.70%) Tableau
11 36 (2.32%) Amazon Athena
12 32 (2.06%) Relational Database
13 30 (1.93%) PostgreSQL
14 22 (1.41%) MongoDB
15 21 (1.35%) Hadoop
16 18 (1.16%) Data Mining
16 18 (1.16%) Looker
16 18 (1.16%) Neo4j
17 15 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
17 15 (0.96%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 86 (5.53%) Git
2 51 (3.28%) MLflow
3 50 (3.22%) GitLab
4 43 (2.77%) JIRA
5 23 (1.48%) Jenkins
6 11 (0.71%) Claude Code
7 10 (0.64%) Vite
8 7 (0.45%) Selenium
9 6 (0.39%) ERwin
10 5 (0.32%) Cypress.io
11 4 (0.26%) PyCharm
11 4 (0.26%) RStudio
11 4 (0.26%) Spinnaker
12 3 (0.19%) ER Studio
12 3 (0.19%) REST Assured
13 2 (0.13%) JMeter
13 2 (0.13%) NUnit
13 2 (0.13%) Oracle APEX
13 2 (0.13%) Pylint
13 2 (0.13%) SonarQube
General
1 338 (21.74%) Social Skills
2 286 (18.39%) Finance
3 219 (14.08%) Analytical Skills
4 126 (8.10%) Public Sector
5 109 (7.01%) Banking
6 41 (2.64%) Marketing
7 34 (2.19%) Retail
8 31 (1.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 29 (1.86%) Telecoms
10 28 (1.80%) Pharmaceutical
11 26 (1.67%) Legal
12 23 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
13 22 (1.41%) Front Office
14 20 (1.29%) Aerospace
14 20 (1.29%) Manufacturing
15 19 (1.22%) Financial Institution
16 18 (1.16%) Influencing Skills
17 16 (1.03%) Aviation
18 15 (0.96%) Law
19 14 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 255 (16.40%) Architect
2 246 (15.82%) Senior
3 200 (12.86%) Data Scientist
4 168 (10.80%) Lead
5 165 (10.61%) Data Engineer
6 130 (8.36%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 96 (6.17%) Machine Learning Engineer
8 86 (5.53%) Developer
9 77 (4.95%) Python Engineer
10 74 (4.76%) Solutions Architect
11 68 (4.37%) Data Architect
12 60 (3.86%) Analyst
12 60 (3.86%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
13 54 (3.47%) Software Engineer
14 52 (3.34%) Platform Engineer
15 49 (3.15%) Security Architect
16 47 (3.02%) Senior Data Engineer
17 44 (2.83%) Consultant
17 44 (2.83%) DevOps Engineer
18 39 (2.51%) Senior Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 184 (11.83%) Terraform
2 124 (7.97%) PyTorch
3 110 (7.07%) Kafka
4 90 (5.79%) TensorFlow
5 87 (5.59%) PySpark
6 76 (4.89%) scikit-learn
7 70 (4.50%) REST
8 67 (4.31%) LangChain
8 67 (4.31%) Pandas
9 64 (4.12%) React
10 50 (3.22%) NumPy
11 38 (2.44%) .NET
12 35 (2.25%) LangGraph
13 34 (2.19%) pytest
14 29 (1.86%) FastAPI
15 26 (1.67%) Hugging Face
15 26 (1.67%) RESTful
16 25 (1.61%) Model Context Protocol
17 23 (1.48%) Node.js
18 22 (1.41%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 192 (12.35%) Cloud Native
2 170 (10.93%) AI Agents
3 99 (6.37%) Algorithms
4 66 (4.24%) Product Ownership
5 62 (3.99%) Onboarding
6 61 (3.92%) Distributed Systems
7 33 (2.12%) Enterprise Software
8 28 (1.80%) Data Structures
9 25 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
9 25 (1.61%) Life Science
10 22 (1.41%) Data Protection Act
11 19 (1.22%) CMDB
12 16 (1.03%) Public Cloud
12 16 (1.03%) Social Media
12 16 (1.03%) Virtual Team
13 14 (0.90%) Enterprise Cloud
13 14 (0.90%) IoT
13 14 (0.90%) Legacy Systems
14 13 (0.84%) Augmented Reality
14 13 (0.84%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 47 (3.02%) Linux
2 13 (0.84%) Unix
3 12 (0.77%) Windows
4 4 (0.26%) Ubuntu
4 4 (0.26%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.19%) Android
5 3 (0.19%) 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 1,256 (80.77%) AI
2 574 (36.91%) Data Science
3 491 (31.58%) CI/CD
4 451 (29.00%) Analytics
5 416 (26.75%) LLM
6 369 (23.73%) Generative AI
7 347 (22.32%) Data Pipeline
8 332 (21.35%) Agile
9 323 (20.77%) DevOps
10 285 (18.33%) MLOps
11 268 (17.23%) Data Engineering
12 244 (15.69%) Software Engineering
13 232 (14.92%) Use Case
14 221 (14.21%) Decision-Making
15 216 (13.89%) Stakeholder Management
16 210 (13.50%) Roadmaps
17 207 (13.31%) Problem-Solving
18 200 (12.86%) Infrastructure as Code
19 183 (11.77%) Data Governance
20 178 (11.45%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Programming Languages
1 838 (53.89%) Python
2 383 (24.63%) SQL
3 113 (7.27%) Java
4 72 (4.63%) JavaScript
5 54 (3.47%) TypeScript
6 45 (2.89%) C#
7 43 (2.77%) R
8 40 (2.57%) Bash
9 26 (1.67%) PowerShell
10 21 (1.35%) C++
11 19 (1.22%) Bicep
12 17 (1.09%) Scala
13 16 (1.03%) Go
14 11 (0.71%) PL/SQL
15 8 (0.51%) Cypher
16 7 (0.45%) Kotlin
16 7 (0.45%) Shell Script
16 7 (0.45%) SPARQL
17 6 (0.39%) Gremlin
17 6 (0.39%) Perl
Qualifications
1 275 (17.68%) Security Cleared
2 202 (12.99%) SC Cleared
3 117 (7.52%) Degree
4 54 (3.47%) Computer Science Degree
5 53 (3.41%) DV Cleared
6 43 (2.77%) AWS Certification
7 42 (2.70%) Master's Degree
8 34 (2.19%) CISSP
9 30 (1.93%) BPSS Clearance
10 28 (1.80%) PhD
11 23 (1.48%) Azure Certification
12 18 (1.16%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 15 (0.96%) CISM
14 14 (0.90%) TOGAF Certification
15 11 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
16 10 (0.64%) ITIL Certification
17 9 (0.58%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
18 7 (0.45%) PMP
19 6 (0.39%) (ISC)2 CCSP
19 6 (0.39%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 199 (12.80%) Data Quality
2 60 (3.86%) GDPR
3 53 (3.41%) QA
4 32 (2.06%) NIST
5 22 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 16 (1.03%) Accessibility
7 15 (0.96%) EU AI Act
8 10 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 10 (0.64%) SLA
9 9 (0.58%) GxP
10 8 (0.51%) GRC
10 8 (0.51%) HIPAA
10 8 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 7 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
12 6 (0.39%) WCAG
13 5 (0.32%) NCSC
13 5 (0.32%) Solvency II
14 4 (0.26%) COBIT
14 4 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
15 3 (0.19%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 214 (13.76%) Docker
2 11 (0.71%) Active Directory
3 10 (0.64%) IAG
4 5 (0.32%) Microsoft App-V
4 5 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.19%) BitLocker
5 3 (0.19%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 3 (0.19%) Terminal Services
5 3 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.13%) Apache ZooKeeper
6 2 (0.13%) Firmware
6 2 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.064%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 275 (17.68%) Kubernetes
2 38 (2.44%) Ansible
3 30 (1.93%) Kubeflow
4 26 (1.67%) Grafana
5 18 (1.16%) Prometheus
6 6 (0.39%) Istio
7 5 (0.32%) Podman
8 4 (0.26%) systemd
9 3 (0.19%) Kibana
9 3 (0.19%) Nagios
9 3 (0.19%) NetBackup
9 3 (0.19%) Puppet
9 3 (0.19%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.19%) vMotion
10 2 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.13%) Argo
10 2 (0.13%) Docker Swarm
10 2 (0.13%) Packer
10 2 (0.13%) SCCM
11 1 (0.064%) QRadar
Vendors
1 202 (12.99%) Databricks
2 164 (10.55%) Microsoft
3 104 (6.69%) Google
4 75 (4.82%) OpenAI
5 46 (2.96%) SAP
6 37 (2.38%) ServiceNow
7 33 (2.12%) Foundry
8 30 (1.93%) Oracle
9 24 (1.54%) Informatica
10 18 (1.16%) Dynatrace
11 13 (0.84%) Splunk
12 12 (0.77%) UiPath
13 11 (0.71%) IBM
14 10 (0.64%) Nexthink
15 7 (0.45%) Cisco
15 7 (0.45%) Salesforce
15 7 (0.45%) Sybase
16 6 (0.39%) Pega
16 6 (0.39%) VMware
17 5 (0.32%) New Relic