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

6 months to
4 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 84 109 192
Rank change year-on-year +25 +83 +13
Contract jobs citing Machine Learning 1,058 782 624
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.06% 2.15% 1.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.40% 2.50% 1.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 687 506 457
10th Percentile £402 £389 £400
25th Percentile £466 £475 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -8.00%
75th Percentile £688 £725 £713
90th Percentile £775 £800 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £508 £500 £530
% change year-on-year +1.50% -5.66% -7.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 15 28
10th Percentile £30.00 £13.06 £42.50
25th Percentile £42.52 £15.28 -
Median hourly rate £55.00 £28.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +92.98% -38.28% -11.19%
75th Percentile £84.75 £46.18 -
90th Percentile £113.50 £51.75 £57.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £46.18 £46.18
% change year-on-year +40.75% - -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 31,132 31,236 41,416
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.15% 86.03% 88.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,460 18,783 27,966
10th Percentile £295 £310 £311
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,011 1,107 1,584
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.02 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.41 £20.00 £18.93
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.36 £44.25
Median % change year-on-year -28.87% -20.09% +26.43%
75th Percentile £43.21 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.58 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -35.50% -21.35% +53.93%

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 November 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 4 November 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 4 November 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 +23 890 £575 -4.17% 2,832
London +20 581 £625 - 1,699
UK excluding London +58 359 £508 +1.50% 1,904
Work from Home +42 352 £550 +7.32% 1,335
North of England -10 91 £480 -1.69% 233
South East +41 80 £513 -1.35% 1,188
Scotland +41 64 £503 +18.24% 77
East of England +20 53 £538 +7.50% 101
North West -7 49 £450 -5.56% 128
Midlands +1 41 £525 +23.53% 137
Yorkshire -8 37 £525 - 70
West Midlands +3 33 £525 +16.67% 70
South West -10 24 £550 -12.00% 121
Wales +5 11 £700 +185.71% 42
East Midlands -15 6 £450 +26.40% 65
North East -18 6 £450 -9.09% 36
Northern Ireland -5 1 £700 - 21

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 90 (8.51%) Apache Spark
2 62 (5.86%) Apache Airflow
3 27 (2.55%) Apache
4 25 (2.36%) Jupyter
5 11 (1.04%) Confluence
6 8 (0.76%) Apache Pig
7 7 (0.66%) SAS
8 6 (0.57%) GeoServer
8 6 (0.57%) Smallworld
9 4 (0.38%) Appian
9 4 (0.38%) IIS
9 4 (0.38%) SharePoint
10 2 (0.19%) Camunda
11 1 (0.095%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.095%) Apache Superset
11 1 (0.095%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.095%) CMS
11 1 (0.095%) Microsoft Exchange
11 1 (0.095%) nginx
11 1 (0.095%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 37 (3.50%) Chatbot
2 17 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.13%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.57%) Simulink
6 5 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.095%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.095%) GNU Octave
7 1 (0.095%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.095%) Sketch
7 1 (0.095%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.095%) Trello
Business Applications
1 9 (0.85%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.47%) SAP PM
3 2 (0.19%) Distributed Ledger
3 2 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.19%) SAP ERP
3 2 (0.19%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.095%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 1 (0.095%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.095%) SAP GRC
4 1 (0.095%) Shopify
4 1 (0.095%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 437 (41.30%) Azure
2 369 (34.88%) AWS
3 207 (19.57%) GCP
4 96 (9.07%) Power Platform
5 93 (8.79%) Serverless
6 87 (8.22%) GitHub
7 73 (6.90%) Azure Machine Learning
8 69 (6.52%) Azure DevOps
9 59 (5.58%) Amazon SageMaker
10 56 (5.29%) Amazon S3
11 55 (5.20%) Snowflake
12 49 (4.63%) AWS Lambda
13 48 (4.54%) Azure Data Factory
14 45 (4.25%) Azure AKS
15 44 (4.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 43 (4.06%) Azure AI
16 43 (4.06%) Vertex AI
17 40 (3.78%) GitHub Actions
18 33 (3.12%) dbt
19 31 (2.93%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.32%) HTTP
1 14 (1.32%) Network Security
2 12 (1.13%) DNS
3 9 (0.85%) SSL
4 8 (0.76%) Firewall
4 8 (0.76%) FTP
4 8 (0.76%) SMTP
5 7 (0.66%) Ethernet
6 5 (0.47%) Internet
7 4 (0.38%) 5G
7 4 (0.38%) LTE
7 4 (0.38%) Radio Access Network
7 4 (0.38%) VoIP
8 3 (0.28%) 4G
8 3 (0.28%) DOCSIS
8 3 (0.28%) GPON
8 3 (0.28%) MPLS
8 3 (0.28%) VPN
8 3 (0.28%) xDSL
9 2 (0.19%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (8.22%) Power BI
2 73 (6.90%) Data Warehouse
3 69 (6.52%) Big Data
4 57 (5.39%) NoSQL
4 57 (5.39%) PostgreSQL
5 50 (4.73%) Data Lake
6 42 (3.97%) BigQuery
7 39 (3.69%) Tableau
8 29 (2.74%) Hadoop
8 29 (2.74%) Metadata
9 27 (2.55%) MongoDB
10 22 (2.08%) Data Mining
11 21 (1.98%) Elasticsearch
12 18 (1.70%) Amazon Athena
12 18 (1.70%) Delta Lake
13 17 (1.61%) GIS
14 16 (1.51%) Azure SQL Database
14 16 (1.51%) Geospatial Data
14 16 (1.51%) Pinecone
14 16 (1.51%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 95 (8.98%) Git
2 63 (5.95%) MLflow
3 56 (5.29%) Jenkins
4 29 (2.74%) GitLab
5 25 (2.36%) JIRA
6 18 (1.70%) Selenium
7 16 (1.51%) JMeter
8 12 (1.13%) JUnit
9 11 (1.04%) SonarQube
10 8 (0.76%) Cypress.io
11 7 (0.66%) Visual Studio
12 6 (0.57%) Mockito
12 6 (0.57%) Postman
13 5 (0.47%) Artifactory
13 5 (0.47%) Cucumber
13 5 (0.47%) MSTest
13 5 (0.47%) PyCharm
14 4 (0.38%) Robot Framework
14 4 (0.38%) RStudio
14 4 (0.38%) Snyk
General
1 305 (28.83%) Social Skills
2 197 (18.62%) Finance
3 115 (10.87%) Analytical Skills
4 87 (8.22%) Public Sector
5 66 (6.24%) Banking
6 46 (4.35%) Marketing
7 40 (3.78%) Retail
8 39 (3.69%) Pharmaceutical
9 31 (2.93%) Legal
9 31 (2.93%) Telecoms
10 28 (2.65%) Investment Banking
11 23 (2.17%) Manufacturing
12 17 (1.61%) Front Office
13 16 (1.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 16 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
14 15 (1.42%) Documentation Skills
15 11 (1.04%) Electronics
16 10 (0.95%) Aerospace
16 10 (0.95%) Financial Institution
16 10 (0.95%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 147 (13.89%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
2 141 (13.33%) Architect
2 141 (13.33%) Data Scientist
3 111 (10.49%) Developer
4 106 (10.02%) Data Engineer
5 104 (9.83%) Senior
6 64 (6.05%) Lead
7 51 (4.82%) Machine Learning Engineer
7 51 (4.82%) Python Engineer
8 50 (4.73%) Analyst
9 46 (4.35%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
10 41 (3.88%) Software Engineer
11 39 (3.69%) Data Architect
12 33 (3.12%) Solutions Architect
13 30 (2.84%) Consultant
14 28 (2.65%) Azure Engineer
15 26 (2.46%) Data Analyst
16 24 (2.27%) Full-Stack Engineer
16 24 (2.27%) Python Developer
17 23 (2.17%) Product Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 166 (15.69%) PyTorch
2 145 (13.71%) TensorFlow
3 95 (8.98%) scikit-learn
4 94 (8.88%) Pandas
5 76 (7.18%) FastAPI
5 76 (7.18%) LangChain
6 70 (6.62%) Kafka
7 62 (5.86%) React
8 61 (5.77%) NumPy
9 60 (5.67%) RESTful
10 57 (5.39%) Hugging Face
11 43 (4.06%) PySpark
12 42 (3.97%) REST
13 40 (3.78%) LangGraph
14 32 (3.02%) .NET
15 29 (2.74%) Flask
15 29 (2.74%) pytest
16 24 (2.27%) Node.js
17 21 (1.98%) AngularJS
18 20 (1.89%) OpenCV
Miscellaneous
1 166 (15.69%) Algorithms
2 141 (13.33%) Cloud Native
3 81 (7.66%) AI Agents
4 44 (4.16%) Distributed Systems
5 43 (4.06%) Product Ownership
6 35 (3.31%) Data Protection Act
7 33 (3.12%) Distributed Computing
8 29 (2.74%) Onboarding
9 26 (2.46%) Legacy Systems
10 25 (2.36%) Genomics
11 23 (2.17%) Data Structures
12 22 (2.08%) Life Science
13 20 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
14 18 (1.70%) Management Information System
15 16 (1.51%) Greenfield Project
15 16 (1.51%) IoT
16 14 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
16 14 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
17 11 (1.04%) SCADA
18 10 (0.95%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 30 (2.84%) Linux
2 11 (1.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 9 (0.85%) Ubuntu
4 8 (0.76%) Unix
4 8 (0.76%) Windows
5 7 (0.66%) VMS
6 5 (0.47%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.095%) Android
7 1 (0.095%) CentOS
7 1 (0.095%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 773 (73.06%) AI
2 425 (40.17%) Data Science
3 292 (27.60%) LLM
4 285 (26.94%) CI/CD
5 271 (25.61%) Agile
6 266 (25.14%) Analytics
7 260 (24.57%) DevOps
8 199 (18.81%) Data Pipeline
9 187 (17.67%) Generative AI
10 181 (17.11%) Problem-Solving
11 175 (16.54%) MLOps
12 168 (15.88%) Data Engineering
13 154 (14.56%) Software Engineering
14 153 (14.46%) Natural Language Processing
15 138 (13.04%) Containerisation
16 129 (12.19%) Visualisation
17 127 (12.00%) Computer Science
18 125 (11.81%) Data Modelling
19 121 (11.44%) Infrastructure as Code
20 118 (11.15%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 670 (63.33%) Python
2 264 (24.95%) SQL
3 74 (6.99%) Java
3 74 (6.99%) R
4 56 (5.29%) JavaScript
4 56 (5.29%) TypeScript
5 35 (3.31%) C#
5 35 (3.31%) C++
6 33 (3.12%) PowerShell
7 30 (2.84%) Scala
8 20 (1.89%) Bicep
9 19 (1.80%) Bash
10 16 (1.51%) C
11 14 (1.32%) MATLAB
12 13 (1.23%) Go
13 7 (0.66%) Kusto Query Language
13 7 (0.66%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 6 (0.57%) SystemVerilog
14 6 (0.57%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 173 (16.35%) Degree
2 136 (12.85%) Security Cleared
3 99 (9.36%) SC Cleared
4 70 (6.62%) Master's Degree
5 46 (4.35%) PhD
6 42 (3.97%) Computer Science Degree
7 36 (3.40%) MCP
8 25 (2.36%) DV Cleared
9 22 (2.08%) Azure Certification
10 19 (1.80%) AWS Certification
11 11 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
12 9 (0.85%) CISSP
13 6 (0.57%) HNC
13 6 (0.57%) HND
14 4 (0.38%) ISTQB
14 4 (0.38%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 3 (0.28%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 3 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
15 3 (0.28%) Postgraduate
15 3 (0.28%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (6.62%) Data Quality
2 57 (5.39%) GDPR
3 39 (3.69%) NIST
3 39 (3.69%) QA
4 31 (2.93%) EU AI Act
5 26 (2.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 18 (1.70%) Accessibility
7 7 (0.66%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 6 (0.57%) DO-254
8 6 (0.57%) SOC 2
9 5 (0.47%) HIPAA
9 5 (0.47%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 5 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 4 (0.38%) Disclosure Scotland
10 4 (0.38%) GRC
11 3 (0.28%) NCSC
12 2 (0.19%) EMIR
12 2 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 2 (0.19%) OASIS TOSCA
12 2 (0.19%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 177 (16.73%) Docker
2 12 (1.13%) Virtual Machines
3 9 (0.85%) Active Directory
4 6 (0.57%) Firmware
5 3 (0.28%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.19%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.19%) KVM
6 2 (0.19%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.095%) GPFS
7 1 (0.095%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 182 (17.20%) Kubernetes
2 113 (10.68%) Terraform
3 37 (3.50%) Grafana
4 26 (2.46%) Ansible
5 20 (1.89%) Prometheus
6 19 (1.80%) Kibana
6 19 (1.80%) Kubeflow
7 11 (1.04%) logstash
7 11 (1.04%) SCOM
8 10 (0.95%) ITRS Geneos
9 7 (0.66%) Argo
10 5 (0.47%) Kustomize
11 4 (0.38%) Cilium
11 4 (0.38%) Progress Chef
11 4 (0.38%) Rsyslog
12 3 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.19%) Amdocs OSS
13 2 (0.19%) Podman
13 2 (0.19%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 1 (0.095%) SCCM
Vendors
1 150 (14.18%) Microsoft
2 128 (12.10%) Databricks
3 86 (8.13%) Google
4 54 (5.10%) OpenAI
5 34 (3.21%) SAP
6 32 (3.02%) Foundry
7 21 (1.98%) Splunk
8 15 (1.42%) Oracle
9 10 (0.95%) NVIDIA
9 10 (0.95%) Salesforce
9 10 (0.95%) ServiceNow
9 10 (0.95%) Solace
10 9 (0.85%) TIBCO
11 8 (0.76%) Informatica
12 7 (0.66%) Palantir
13 6 (0.57%) Actel
13 6 (0.57%) Altera
13 6 (0.57%) Dynatrace
13 6 (0.57%) ESRI
13 6 (0.57%) Intergraph