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

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 106 133
Rank change year-on-year +25 +27 +80
Contract jobs citing Machine Learning 1,623 807 764
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.08% 2.49% 1.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.63% 2.75% 2.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,012 501 536
10th Percentile £413 £400 £413
25th Percentile £492 £459 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £588
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -6.38% +2.17%
75th Percentile £682 £688 £750
90th Percentile £775 £825 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £520
% change year-on-year - +5.77% -5.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 23 18
10th Percentile £36.00 £33.80 £19.13
25th Percentile £50.00 £52.86 £42.48
Median hourly rate £70.00 £75.00 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +48.51% +9.35%
75th Percentile £83.75 £81.01 £63.13
90th Percentile £88.75 £88.00 £76.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.22 £78.10 £52.50
% change year-on-year -11.37% +48.76% +21.14%

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 44,765 29,340 36,482
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.08% 90.42% 85.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,853 18,476 23,295
10th Percentile £325 £300 £304
25th Percentile £418 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,647 1,521 2,449
10th Percentile £14.94 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.61 £16.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -4.70%
75th Percentile £68.50 £52.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.70 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £24.64 £38.12
% change year-on-year +83.64% -35.36% -0.99%

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 July 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 15 July 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 15 July 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 +21 1,365 £575 +1.41% 2,113
London +37 908 £575 - 963
UK excluding London -5 520 £550 - 1,580
Work from Home +5 449 £600 +9.09% 1,462
North of England -1 147 £575 +16.99% 342
South East -21 124 £600 +6.67% 362
Scotland +41 99 £440 -5.78% 175
North West -4 82 £600 +9.09% 176
Midlands -19 66 £550 +10.00% 177
Yorkshire -21 52 £550 +12.19% 116
West Midlands -33 51 £550 -6.38% 87
South West -24 49 £530 -7.83% 172
East of England -20 36 £513 -10.87% 213
North East -30 17 £469 +17.19% 53
Wales -6 16 £540 -11.84% 91
East Midlands -7 13 £575 +35.29% 90
Northern Ireland - 1 £334 - 74

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
1 104 (6.41%) Apache Spark
2 76 (4.68%) Apache Airflow
3 55 (3.39%) Apache
4 34 (2.09%) Jupyter
5 21 (1.29%) Confluence
6 10 (0.62%) SAS
7 6 (0.37%) Appian
7 6 (0.37%) SharePoint
8 5 (0.31%) ArcGIS
8 5 (0.31%) CMS
8 5 (0.31%) Headless CMS
8 5 (0.31%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.12%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
11 1 (0.062%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.062%) Apache Superset
11 1 (0.062%) Apache Synapse
11 1 (0.062%) Luigi
11 1 (0.062%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 31 (1.91%) Chatbot
2 14 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
5 6 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.18%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.12%) Simulink
8 1 (0.062%) Notion
Business Applications
1 11 (0.68%) SAP IBP
2 7 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.12%) Oracle Assets
3 2 (0.12%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.062%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.062%) OpenText VIM for SAP
4 1 (0.062%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.062%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.062%) SAP APO
4 1 (0.062%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.062%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 576 (35.49%) Azure
2 574 (35.37%) AWS
3 291 (17.93%) GCP
4 146 (9.00%) Power Platform
5 123 (7.58%) Serverless
6 108 (6.65%) Amazon S3
7 104 (6.41%) GitHub
8 91 (5.61%) Amazon SageMaker
8 91 (5.61%) AWS Lambda
9 86 (5.30%) Azure Machine Learning
10 85 (5.24%) Azure AI
11 80 (4.93%) Snowflake
12 64 (3.94%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 61 (3.76%) Azure DevOps
14 59 (3.64%) Amazon Bedrock
15 55 (3.39%) Vertex AI
16 52 (3.20%) Azure Data Factory
17 50 (3.08%) GitHub Actions
18 44 (2.71%) dbt
19 41 (2.53%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.11%) Firewall
2 13 (0.80%) Internet
3 11 (0.68%) Network Security
4 8 (0.49%) DNS
5 7 (0.43%) VPN
6 6 (0.37%) DHCP
7 4 (0.25%) HTTP
7 4 (0.25%) NAS
7 4 (0.25%) SAN
8 3 (0.18%) Broadband
8 3 (0.18%) MQTT
8 3 (0.18%) SMTP
9 2 (0.12%) 4G
9 2 (0.12%) 5G
9 2 (0.12%) CTI
9 2 (0.12%) Ethernet
9 2 (0.12%) Modbus
9 2 (0.12%) PCoIP
9 2 (0.12%) Radio Access Network
9 2 (0.12%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 119 (7.33%) Power BI
2 99 (6.10%) Data Lake
3 84 (5.18%) Big Data
4 74 (4.56%) Data Warehouse
4 74 (4.56%) Metadata
5 69 (4.25%) BigQuery
6 50 (3.08%) NoSQL
7 49 (3.02%) Tableau
8 43 (2.65%) Amazon Redshift
9 41 (2.53%) Amazon Athena
10 40 (2.46%) PostgreSQL
11 38 (2.34%) Hadoop
12 36 (2.22%) Delta Lake
13 33 (2.03%) Relational Database
14 28 (1.73%) SQL Server
15 24 (1.48%) MongoDB
15 24 (1.48%) Pinecone
16 20 (1.23%) Neo4j
17 19 (1.17%) MySQL
18 18 (1.11%) Looker
Development Applications
1 102 (6.28%) Git
2 74 (4.56%) MLflow
3 49 (3.02%) GitLab
4 48 (2.96%) JIRA
5 27 (1.66%) Jenkins
6 9 (0.55%) Claude Code
6 9 (0.55%) Vite
7 8 (0.49%) Selenium
8 5 (0.31%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.25%) ER Studio
9 4 (0.25%) ERwin
9 4 (0.25%) Maven
9 4 (0.25%) PyCharm
10 3 (0.18%) Gradle
10 3 (0.18%) JUnit
10 3 (0.18%) REST Assured
10 3 (0.18%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.18%) Spinnaker
11 2 (0.12%) Oracle APEX
11 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
General
1 338 (20.83%) Social Skills
2 301 (18.55%) Finance
3 212 (13.06%) Analytical Skills
4 151 (9.30%) Public Sector
5 115 (7.09%) Banking
6 47 (2.90%) Marketing
7 36 (2.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 33 (2.03%) Retail
9 32 (1.97%) Pharmaceutical
10 25 (1.54%) Legal
11 24 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
12 23 (1.42%) Front Office
13 20 (1.23%) Aviation
13 20 (1.23%) Telecoms
14 19 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
15 17 (1.05%) Financial Institution
15 17 (1.05%) Law
16 16 (0.99%) Investment Banking
16 16 (0.99%) Presentation Skills
17 12 (0.74%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 240 (14.79%) Architect
2 230 (14.17%) Senior
3 226 (13.92%) Data Scientist
4 157 (9.67%) Lead
5 151 (9.30%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 145 (8.93%) Data Engineer
7 110 (6.78%) Developer
8 74 (4.56%) Solutions Architect
9 73 (4.50%) Data Architect
9 73 (4.50%) Machine Learning Engineer
9 73 (4.50%) Python Engineer
10 70 (4.31%) Software Engineer
11 66 (4.07%) Analyst
12 56 (3.45%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
13 52 (3.20%) Platform Engineer
14 44 (2.71%) Senior Data Scientist
15 41 (2.53%) DevOps Engineer
16 39 (2.40%) Azure Engineer
16 39 (2.40%) Consultant
16 39 (2.40%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 163 (10.04%) PyTorch
2 113 (6.96%) TensorFlow
3 108 (6.65%) Kafka
4 100 (6.16%) scikit-learn
5 90 (5.55%) Pandas
6 87 (5.36%) LangChain
7 71 (4.37%) PySpark
7 71 (4.37%) React
8 70 (4.31%) NumPy
9 66 (4.07%) REST
10 46 (2.83%) .NET
11 44 (2.71%) Hugging Face
12 32 (1.97%) FastAPI
12 32 (1.97%) LangGraph
13 29 (1.79%) Node.js
14 28 (1.73%) Model Context Protocol
15 26 (1.60%) RESTful
16 25 (1.54%) AngularJS
17 23 (1.42%) pytest
18 22 (1.36%) LlamaIndex
Miscellaneous
1 194 (11.95%) Cloud Native
2 155 (9.55%) AI Agents
3 118 (7.27%) Algorithms
4 60 (3.70%) Product Ownership
5 58 (3.57%) Onboarding
6 54 (3.33%) Distributed Systems
7 29 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
8 28 (1.73%) Enterprise Software
9 24 (1.48%) Life Science
10 23 (1.42%) Data Structures
11 18 (1.11%) Fixed Income
11 18 (1.11%) Legacy Systems
12 17 (1.05%) Hybrid Cloud
12 17 (1.05%) Management Information System
13 15 (0.92%) Security Posture
14 14 (0.86%) Taxonomies
14 14 (0.86%) Virtual Team
15 13 (0.80%) Distributed Computing
15 13 (0.80%) Public Cloud
16 12 (0.74%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 49 (3.02%) Linux
2 17 (1.05%) Windows
3 11 (0.68%) Unix
4 6 (0.37%) Apple iOS
4 6 (0.37%) VMS
5 5 (0.31%) Android
6 4 (0.25%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.062%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.062%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,298 (79.98%) AI
2 597 (36.78%) Data Science
3 520 (32.04%) CI/CD
4 473 (29.14%) Analytics
5 454 (27.97%) LLM
6 378 (23.29%) Generative AI
7 374 (23.04%) Data Pipeline
8 341 (21.01%) DevOps
9 319 (19.65%) MLOps
10 314 (19.35%) Agile
11 292 (17.99%) Data Engineering
12 262 (16.14%) Use Case
13 238 (14.66%) Software Engineering
14 225 (13.86%) Decision-Making
15 219 (13.49%) Problem-Solving
16 197 (12.14%) Roadmaps
17 194 (11.95%) Data Governance
18 191 (11.77%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
19 186 (11.46%) Infrastructure as Code
20 182 (11.21%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 909 (56.01%) Python
2 410 (25.26%) SQL
3 119 (7.33%) Java
4 65 (4.00%) TypeScript
5 64 (3.94%) R
6 61 (3.76%) JavaScript
7 59 (3.64%) C#
8 36 (2.22%) Bash
9 18 (1.11%) C++
9 18 (1.11%) PowerShell
10 17 (1.05%) Scala
11 16 (0.99%) Bicep
11 16 (0.99%) Go
12 12 (0.74%) Kotlin
13 9 (0.55%) PL/SQL
13 9 (0.55%) SPARQL
14 8 (0.49%) Cypher
15 7 (0.43%) Gremlin
15 7 (0.43%) Rust
16 5 (0.31%) Perl
Qualifications
1 291 (17.93%) Security Cleared
2 197 (12.14%) SC Cleared
3 139 (8.56%) Degree
4 59 (3.64%) Master's Degree
5 56 (3.45%) DV Cleared
6 54 (3.33%) Computer Science Degree
7 48 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
8 47 (2.90%) AWS Certification
9 33 (2.03%) PhD
10 30 (1.85%) CISSP
11 24 (1.48%) Azure Certification
12 22 (1.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 14 (0.86%) CISM
14 12 (0.74%) TOGAF Certification
15 7 (0.43%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
15 7 (0.43%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
16 6 (0.37%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 5 (0.31%) AWS Certified Developer
17 5 (0.31%) CEH
17 5 (0.31%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 189 (11.65%) Data Quality
2 66 (4.07%) GDPR
3 54 (3.33%) QA
4 29 (1.79%) NIST
5 17 (1.05%) Accessibility
5 17 (1.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (0.86%) EU AI Act
7 11 (0.68%) HIPAA
7 11 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 9 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
8 9 (0.55%) GRC
8 9 (0.55%) GxP
9 5 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
9 5 (0.31%) SLA
9 5 (0.31%) WCAG
10 4 (0.25%) COBIT
10 4 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 4 (0.25%) NCSC
10 4 (0.25%) Solvency II
11 3 (0.18%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 221 (13.62%) Docker
2 12 (0.74%) Active Directory
3 9 (0.55%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 5 (0.31%) IAG
4 5 (0.31%) Microsoft App-V
4 5 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.18%) BitLocker
5 3 (0.18%) Firmware
5 3 (0.18%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.18%) Terminal Services
5 3 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.12%) Apache ZooKeeper
6 2 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.062%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 278 (17.13%) Kubernetes
2 181 (11.15%) Terraform
3 27 (1.66%) Kubeflow
4 24 (1.48%) Ansible
4 24 (1.48%) Grafana
5 15 (0.92%) Prometheus
6 11 (0.68%) Podman
7 6 (0.37%) Istio
8 3 (0.18%) Kibana
8 3 (0.18%) Nagios
8 3 (0.18%) NetBackup
8 3 (0.18%) Puppet
8 3 (0.18%) Rancher
8 3 (0.18%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.18%) vMotion
9 2 (0.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.12%) Docker Swarm
9 2 (0.12%) Packer
9 2 (0.12%) SCCM
10 1 (0.062%) Argo
Vendors
1 206 (12.69%) Databricks
2 170 (10.47%) Microsoft
3 102 (6.28%) Google
4 97 (5.98%) OpenAI
5 53 (3.27%) Foundry
6 46 (2.83%) SAP
7 36 (2.22%) Oracle
8 31 (1.91%) ServiceNow
9 25 (1.54%) Informatica
10 17 (1.05%) IBM
11 15 (0.92%) UiPath
12 14 (0.86%) Dynatrace
13 8 (0.49%) Salesforce
14 7 (0.43%) Amplitude
14 7 (0.43%) Automation Anywhere
14 7 (0.43%) Splunk
14 7 (0.43%) Sybase
14 7 (0.43%) Talend
15 6 (0.37%) Pega
15 6 (0.37%) Workday