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 15 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 81 115 197
Rank change year-on-year +34 +82 +12
Contract jobs citing Machine Learning 1,017 778 632
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.06% 2.07% 1.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.38% 2.40% 1.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 664 512 463
10th Percentile £400 £386 £400
25th Percentile £463 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -8.00%
75th Percentile £688 £731 £716
90th Percentile £775 £799 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £508 £500 £530
% change year-on-year +1.50% -5.66% -7.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 17 27
10th Percentile £27.59 £13.06 £44.71
25th Percentile £41.50 £17.50 -
Median hourly rate £53.22 £46.18 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +15.24% - -4.78%
75th Percentile £80.00 £48.75 -
90th Percentile £87.75 £53.75 £58.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.11 £46.18 £46.18
% change year-on-year +36.67% - -12.04%

All Process and 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 30,046 32,386 42,342
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.49% 86.01% 88.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,699 19,514 28,726
10th Percentile £294 £308 £313
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,888 1,247 1,585
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.12 £18.93
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -10.11% +36.92%
75th Percentile £42.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £65.25 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.27 £40.33 £43.90
% change year-on-year -44.79% -8.14% +67.57%

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 15 October 2025.

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 15 October 2025.

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 15 October 2025. 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 +31 856 £557 -7.17% 1,383
London +23 560 £614 -1.76% 716
UK excluding London +71 346 £508 +1.50% 948
Work from Home +46 332 £550 +7.32% 799
North of England +1 85 £480 -2.44% 184
South East +52 82 £538 +3.56% 427
Scotland +43 65 £501 +7.22% 85
East of England +27 49 £525 +2.44% 74
North West +2 46 £450 -5.26% 122
Midlands +6 41 £525 +31.25% 73
Yorkshire -5 33 £514 -6.88% 40
West Midlands +6 32 £525 +16.67% 52
South West -6 22 £550 -15.38% 77
East Midlands -6 7 £463 +29.92% 20
North East -15 7 £425 -14.14% 24
Wales +1 6 £675 +175.51% 31
Northern Ireland -6 1 £700 - 12

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 88 (8.65%) Apache Spark
2 60 (5.90%) Apache Airflow
3 25 (2.46%) Jupyter
4 23 (2.26%) Apache
5 12 (1.18%) Confluence
6 8 (0.79%) Apache Pig
7 6 (0.59%) GeoServer
7 6 (0.59%) Smallworld
8 4 (0.39%) Appian
8 4 (0.39%) IIS
8 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.39%) SAS
8 4 (0.39%) SharePoint
9 2 (0.20%) Camunda
9 2 (0.20%) CMS
10 1 (0.098%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.098%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.098%) Headless CMS
10 1 (0.098%) nginx
10 1 (0.098%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 34 (3.34%) Chatbot
2 13 (1.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.88%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.59%) Simulink
6 5 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.098%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.098%) GNU Octave
7 1 (0.098%) MadCap Flare
7 1 (0.098%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.098%) Sketch
7 1 (0.098%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.098%) Trello
Business Applications
1 8 (0.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.49%) SAP PM
3 2 (0.20%) Distributed Ledger
3 2 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.20%) SAP ERP
3 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.098%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 1 (0.098%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.098%) SAP GRC
4 1 (0.098%) Shopify
4 1 (0.098%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 413 (40.61%) Azure
2 366 (35.99%) AWS
3 200 (19.67%) GCP
4 96 (9.44%) Serverless
5 82 (8.06%) Power Platform
6 73 (7.18%) GitHub
7 69 (6.78%) Azure Machine Learning
8 59 (5.80%) Amazon SageMaker
9 58 (5.70%) Amazon S3
9 58 (5.70%) Azure DevOps
10 54 (5.31%) AWS Lambda
11 53 (5.21%) Snowflake
12 47 (4.62%) Azure Data Factory
13 42 (4.13%) Azure AI
13 42 (4.13%) Azure AKS
14 40 (3.93%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 39 (3.83%) GitHub Actions
15 39 (3.83%) Vertex AI
16 30 (2.95%) Amazon ECS
16 30 (2.95%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.47%) DNS
2 14 (1.38%) HTTP
3 12 (1.18%) Network Security
4 11 (1.08%) Firewall
4 11 (1.08%) SMTP
5 9 (0.88%) SSL
6 8 (0.79%) FTP
7 7 (0.69%) Ethernet
8 6 (0.59%) VPN
9 5 (0.49%) Internet
10 4 (0.39%) Radio Access Network
11 3 (0.29%) 4G
11 3 (0.29%) 5G
11 3 (0.29%) DHCP
11 3 (0.29%) DOCSIS
11 3 (0.29%) GPON
11 3 (0.29%) LTE
11 3 (0.29%) MPLS
11 3 (0.29%) VoIP
11 3 (0.29%) xDSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (7.57%) Power BI
2 74 (7.28%) Big Data
3 68 (6.69%) Data Warehouse
4 56 (5.51%) PostgreSQL
5 55 (5.41%) NoSQL
6 52 (5.11%) Data Lake
7 41 (4.03%) Tableau
8 40 (3.93%) BigQuery
9 33 (3.24%) Hadoop
10 28 (2.75%) MongoDB
11 27 (2.65%) Metadata
12 24 (2.36%) Elasticsearch
13 22 (2.16%) Data Mining
14 19 (1.87%) DynamoDB
15 18 (1.77%) Amazon Athena
15 18 (1.77%) Delta Lake
15 18 (1.77%) GIS
16 17 (1.67%) Geospatial Data
17 16 (1.57%) Azure SQL Database
18 15 (1.47%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 85 (8.36%) Git
2 60 (5.90%) MLflow
3 55 (5.41%) Jenkins
4 29 (2.85%) GitLab
5 26 (2.56%) JIRA
6 13 (1.28%) JUnit
6 13 (1.28%) Selenium
7 11 (1.08%) JMeter
7 11 (1.08%) SonarQube
8 8 (0.79%) Cypress.io
9 6 (0.59%) Mockito
9 6 (0.59%) Postman
10 5 (0.49%) Artifactory
10 5 (0.49%) Cucumber
11 4 (0.39%) Gatling
11 4 (0.39%) Robot Framework
11 4 (0.39%) Snyk
12 3 (0.29%) Locust
12 3 (0.29%) PyCharm
12 3 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 301 (29.60%) Social Skills
2 183 (17.99%) Finance
3 114 (11.21%) Analytical Skills
4 83 (8.16%) Public Sector
5 65 (6.39%) Banking
6 45 (4.42%) Marketing
7 38 (3.74%) Retail
8 33 (3.24%) Legal
8 33 (3.24%) Pharmaceutical
9 31 (3.05%) Telecoms
10 28 (2.75%) Investment Banking
11 19 (1.87%) Manufacturing
12 17 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
13 15 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 14 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
15 11 (1.08%) Front Office
16 10 (0.98%) Aerospace
16 10 (0.98%) Retail Banking
17 9 (0.88%) Corporate Banking
17 9 (0.88%) Games
Job Titles
1 148 (14.55%) Architect
2 138 (13.57%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
2 138 (13.57%) Data Scientist
3 104 (10.23%) Developer
4 101 (9.93%) Data Engineer
5 94 (9.24%) Senior
6 61 (6.00%) Lead
7 50 (4.92%) Analyst
7 50 (4.92%) Machine Learning Engineer
8 49 (4.82%) Python Engineer
9 48 (4.72%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
10 41 (4.03%) Solutions Architect
11 37 (3.64%) Software Engineer
12 35 (3.44%) Data Architect
13 28 (2.75%) Security Architect
14 27 (2.65%) Azure Engineer
15 26 (2.56%) Consultant
15 26 (2.56%) Data Analyst
16 25 (2.46%) AWS Engineer
17 24 (2.36%) Full-Stack Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 155 (15.24%) PyTorch
2 137 (13.47%) TensorFlow
3 87 (8.55%) Pandas
4 86 (8.46%) scikit-learn
5 74 (7.28%) LangChain
6 69 (6.78%) FastAPI
7 67 (6.59%) Kafka
8 60 (5.90%) React
9 59 (5.80%) Hugging Face
10 56 (5.51%) RESTful
11 51 (5.01%) NumPy
12 43 (4.23%) PySpark
13 38 (3.74%) REST
14 35 (3.44%) LangGraph
15 29 (2.85%) .NET
16 28 (2.75%) Flask
17 25 (2.46%) pytest
18 20 (1.97%) Node.js
18 20 (1.97%) OpenCV
19 18 (1.77%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 166 (16.32%) Algorithms
2 130 (12.78%) Cloud Native
3 69 (6.78%) AI Agents
4 43 (4.23%) Distributed Systems
5 37 (3.64%) Product Ownership
6 35 (3.44%) Data Protection Act
7 32 (3.15%) Distributed Computing
8 27 (2.65%) Onboarding
9 25 (2.46%) Legacy Systems
10 23 (2.26%) Genomics
11 21 (2.06%) Life Science
12 19 (1.87%) Analytical Mindset
12 19 (1.87%) Data Structures
13 17 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
14 16 (1.57%) Management Information System
15 15 (1.47%) Hybrid Cloud
16 13 (1.28%) Greenfield Project
16 13 (1.28%) IoT
17 12 (1.18%) Virtual Team
18 11 (1.08%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 30 (2.95%) Linux
2 10 (0.98%) Windows
3 9 (0.88%) Unix
4 7 (0.69%) Apple iOS
4 7 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (0.69%) VMS
5 5 (0.49%) Ubuntu
6 3 (0.29%) Android
6 3 (0.29%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.098%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.098%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 732 (71.98%) AI
2 400 (39.33%) Data Science
3 280 (27.53%) LLM
4 272 (26.75%) CI/CD
5 254 (24.98%) Agile
6 246 (24.19%) Analytics
7 236 (23.21%) DevOps
8 185 (18.19%) Generative AI
9 181 (17.80%) Data Pipeline
9 181 (17.80%) Problem-Solving
10 171 (16.81%) MLOps
11 153 (15.04%) Data Engineering
12 142 (13.96%) Software Engineering
13 139 (13.67%) Natural Language Processing
14 126 (12.39%) Containerisation
14 126 (12.39%) Visualisation
15 114 (11.21%) Computer Science
15 114 (11.21%) Infrastructure as Code
16 110 (10.82%) Data Modelling
17 109 (10.72%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 637 (62.64%) Python
2 247 (24.29%) SQL
3 77 (7.57%) Java
4 76 (7.47%) R
5 61 (6.00%) TypeScript
6 52 (5.11%) JavaScript
7 34 (3.34%) C++
8 31 (3.05%) PowerShell
8 31 (3.05%) Scala
9 28 (2.75%) C#
10 18 (1.77%) Bicep
11 15 (1.47%) Bash
12 14 (1.38%) C
12 14 (1.38%) MATLAB
13 13 (1.28%) Go
14 7 (0.69%) Kusto Query Language
14 7 (0.69%) Shell Script
15 6 (0.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 6 (0.59%) SystemVerilog
15 6 (0.59%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 155 (15.24%) Degree
2 129 (12.68%) Security Cleared
3 92 (9.05%) SC Cleared
4 65 (6.39%) Master's Degree
5 42 (4.13%) PhD
6 39 (3.83%) Computer Science Degree
7 31 (3.05%) MCP
8 26 (2.56%) DV Cleared
9 22 (2.16%) Azure Certification
10 21 (2.06%) AWS Certification
11 11 (1.08%) BPSS Clearance
11 11 (1.08%) CISSP
12 6 (0.59%) HNC
12 6 (0.59%) HND
13 5 (0.49%) CISM
13 5 (0.49%) TOGAF Certification
14 4 (0.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 3 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
15 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Certification
15 3 (0.29%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (6.19%) GDPR
2 61 (6.00%) Data Quality
3 39 (3.83%) NIST
4 38 (3.74%) QA
5 35 (3.44%) EU AI Act
6 24 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 18 (1.77%) Accessibility
8 13 (1.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 7 (0.69%) HIPAA
10 6 (0.59%) DO-254
11 4 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
11 4 (0.39%) GRC
11 4 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 4 (0.39%) SOC 2
12 3 (0.29%) NCSC
13 2 (0.20%) EMIR
13 2 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 2 (0.20%) OASIS TOSCA
14 1 (0.098%) Actionable Recommendations
14 1 (0.098%) Solvency II
System Software
1 166 (16.32%) Docker
2 12 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
3 10 (0.98%) Active Directory
4 6 (0.59%) Firmware
4 6 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.49%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.29%) BitLocker
6 3 (0.29%) Microsoft App-V
6 3 (0.29%) Terminal Services
6 3 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.20%) KVM
7 2 (0.20%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.098%) GPFS
8 1 (0.098%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 177 (17.40%) Kubernetes
2 110 (10.82%) Terraform
3 36 (3.54%) Grafana
4 29 (2.85%) Ansible
5 19 (1.87%) Kubeflow
5 19 (1.87%) Prometheus
6 18 (1.77%) Kibana
7 11 (1.08%) logstash
8 10 (0.98%) ITRS Geneos
9 9 (0.88%) Argo
10 8 (0.79%) SCOM
11 5 (0.49%) Kustomize
12 4 (0.39%) Cilium
12 4 (0.39%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.39%) Puppet
12 4 (0.39%) Rsyslog
13 3 (0.29%) Nagios
13 3 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (0.29%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.29%) vMotion
Vendors
1 149 (14.65%) Microsoft
2 122 (12.00%) Databricks
3 83 (8.16%) Google
4 52 (5.11%) OpenAI
5 32 (3.15%) SAP
6 29 (2.85%) Foundry
7 21 (2.06%) Splunk
8 14 (1.38%) Oracle
9 12 (1.18%) Salesforce
10 11 (1.08%) ServiceNow
11 10 (0.98%) Solace
12 9 (0.88%) TIBCO
13 8 (0.79%) Informatica
13 8 (0.79%) NVIDIA
14 7 (0.69%) Dynatrace
14 7 (0.69%) Palantir
15 6 (0.59%) Actel
15 6 (0.59%) Altera
15 6 (0.59%) ESRI
15 6 (0.59%) Intergraph