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

6 months to
10 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 114 140
Rank change year-on-year +31 +26 +89
Contract jobs citing Machine Learning 1,464 719 732
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.96% 2.45% 1.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.49% 2.69% 1.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 893 438 520
10th Percentile £413 £393 £413
25th Percentile £492 £460 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £556 £575
Median % change year-on-year +3.42% -3.30% -2.13%
75th Percentile £675 £688 £738
90th Percentile £775 £850 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £525
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 19 19
10th Percentile £40.54 £29.85 £41.25
25th Percentile £50.30 £45.00 £46.22
Median hourly rate £67.00 £75.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -10.67% +42.86% +50.00%
75th Percentile £87.81 £81.01 £66.25
90th Percentile £89.88 £88.00 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £78.10 £56.25
% change year-on-year -18.05% +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 41,920 26,731 37,187
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.71% 91.01% 85.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,154 16,984 23,772
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £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 2,513 1,182 2,587
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.87 £16.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.28 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.14% -25.26% +1.39%
75th Percentile £67.84 £56.00 £61.16
90th Percentile £81.24 £73.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% +8.91%

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 10 June 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 10 June 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 10 June 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 +20 1,216 £575 - 936
London +31 822 £575 - 487
UK excluding London +15 451 £550 -4.35% 599
Work from Home +22 422 £581 +5.68% 475
North of England +1 125 £554 +3.02% 152
Scotland +47 101 £516 +10.55% 25
South East -38 89 £630 +9.57% 204
North West -4 66 £588 +6.82% 94
Midlands -29 59 £550 +10.00% 54
Yorkshire -18 45 £550 - 38
West Midlands -25 43 £550 +10.00% 30
South West -18 42 £500 -19.35% 84
East of England -18 38 £525 -14.29% 64
North East -10 17 £550 +46.67% 20
Wales -13 15 £579 +0.70% 18
East Midlands -20 14 £675 +58.82% 23
Northern Ireland - 1 £334 - 13

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
1 107 (7.31%) Apache Spark
2 67 (4.58%) Apache Airflow
3 51 (3.48%) Apache
4 36 (2.46%) Jupyter
5 18 (1.23%) Confluence
6 10 (0.68%) Appian
7 8 (0.55%) SharePoint
8 5 (0.34%) CMS
8 5 (0.34%) Headless CMS
9 4 (0.27%) Palantir Foundry
9 4 (0.27%) SAS
10 2 (0.14%) Luigi
10 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
11 1 (0.068%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.068%) Apache Superset
11 1 (0.068%) Apache Synapse
11 1 (0.068%) ArcGIS
11 1 (0.068%) NetWeaver
11 1 (0.068%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 28 (1.91%) Chatbot
2 12 (0.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
6 3 (0.20%) LaTeX
7 2 (0.14%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.14%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 11 (0.75%) SAP IBP
2 6 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
3 2 (0.14%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.068%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.068%) OpenText VIM for SAP
4 1 (0.068%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.068%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.068%) SAP APO
4 1 (0.068%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 533 (36.41%) Azure
2 512 (34.97%) AWS
3 254 (17.35%) GCP
4 125 (8.54%) Power Platform
5 106 (7.24%) Serverless
6 93 (6.35%) GitHub
7 92 (6.28%) Amazon S3
8 85 (5.81%) Azure AI
9 79 (5.40%) Amazon SageMaker
10 77 (5.26%) AWS Lambda
11 71 (4.85%) Azure Machine Learning
12 67 (4.58%) Snowflake
13 66 (4.51%) Azure DevOps
14 54 (3.69%) Amazon Bedrock
14 54 (3.69%) Vertex AI
15 53 (3.62%) GitHub Actions
16 51 (3.48%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 47 (3.21%) Azure Data Factory
18 37 (2.53%) AWS CloudFormation
19 33 (2.25%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 12 (0.82%) Firewall
2 8 (0.55%) Internet
3 7 (0.48%) Network Security
4 5 (0.34%) DNS
5 4 (0.27%) DHCP
5 4 (0.27%) HTTP
5 4 (0.27%) NAS
5 4 (0.27%) SAN
6 3 (0.20%) VPN
7 2 (0.14%) 4G
7 2 (0.14%) 5G
7 2 (0.14%) Ethernet
7 2 (0.14%) InfiniBand
7 2 (0.14%) MQTT
7 2 (0.14%) PCoIP
7 2 (0.14%) Radio Access Network
7 2 (0.14%) Remote Desktop
7 2 (0.14%) SMTP
8 1 (0.068%) LTE
8 1 (0.068%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (6.90%) Data Lake
2 98 (6.69%) Power BI
3 77 (5.26%) Big Data
4 69 (4.71%) Metadata
5 65 (4.44%) BigQuery
6 57 (3.89%) Data Warehouse
7 47 (3.21%) NoSQL
8 40 (2.73%) Amazon Athena
8 40 (2.73%) Tableau
9 35 (2.39%) Hadoop
9 35 (2.39%) PostgreSQL
10 33 (2.25%) Amazon Redshift
11 32 (2.19%) SQL Server
12 29 (1.98%) Delta Lake
12 29 (1.98%) Pinecone
12 29 (1.98%) Relational Database
13 21 (1.43%) MongoDB
13 21 (1.43%) Weaviate
14 20 (1.37%) Mixpanel
15 16 (1.09%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 88 (6.01%) Git
2 78 (5.33%) MLflow
3 40 (2.73%) JIRA
4 34 (2.32%) GitLab
5 24 (1.64%) Jenkins
6 9 (0.61%) Visual Studio
7 7 (0.48%) Selenium
8 5 (0.34%) Claude Code
8 5 (0.34%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.27%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.27%) ERwin
9 4 (0.27%) JMeter
9 4 (0.27%) Maven
9 4 (0.27%) PyCharm
10 3 (0.20%) Gradle
10 3 (0.20%) JUnit
10 3 (0.20%) REST Assured
10 3 (0.20%) Spinnaker
10 3 (0.20%) Vite
11 2 (0.14%) ER Studio
General
1 308 (21.04%) Social Skills
2 285 (19.47%) Finance
3 179 (12.23%) Analytical Skills
4 153 (10.45%) Public Sector
5 91 (6.22%) Banking
6 36 (2.46%) Marketing
7 35 (2.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 27 (1.84%) Pharmaceutical
9 26 (1.78%) Legal
10 24 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
11 23 (1.57%) Retail
12 22 (1.50%) Aviation
12 22 (1.50%) Front Office
13 21 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
14 19 (1.30%) Investment Banking
15 18 (1.23%) Telecoms
16 15 (1.02%) Law
17 13 (0.89%) Manufacturing
18 12 (0.82%) Financial Institution
19 11 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 215 (14.69%) Data Scientist
2 205 (14.00%) Senior
3 187 (12.77%) Architect
4 146 (9.97%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
5 135 (9.22%) Data Engineer
6 129 (8.81%) Lead
7 97 (6.63%) Developer
8 72 (4.92%) Analyst
9 70 (4.78%) Python Engineer
10 64 (4.37%) Machine Learning Engineer
10 64 (4.37%) Software Engineer
11 57 (3.89%) Data Architect
11 57 (3.89%) Solutions Architect
12 52 (3.55%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
13 41 (2.80%) Senior Data Scientist
14 40 (2.73%) Consultant
15 34 (2.32%) Platform Engineer
15 34 (2.32%) Python Developer
16 30 (2.05%) DevOps Engineer
17 29 (1.98%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 174 (11.89%) PyTorch
2 125 (8.54%) TensorFlow
3 106 (7.24%) scikit-learn
4 91 (6.22%) Pandas
5 81 (5.53%) Kafka
6 73 (4.99%) LangChain
7 68 (4.64%) React
8 67 (4.58%) NumPy
9 63 (4.30%) PySpark
10 57 (3.89%) REST
11 54 (3.69%) .NET
12 43 (2.94%) Hugging Face
13 35 (2.39%) LangGraph
14 34 (2.32%) Model Context Protocol
15 32 (2.19%) AngularJS
15 32 (2.19%) Node.js
16 31 (2.12%) FastAPI
17 28 (1.91%) RESTful
18 22 (1.50%) pytest
19 20 (1.37%) Faiss
Miscellaneous
1 176 (12.02%) Cloud Native
2 144 (9.84%) AI Agents
3 113 (7.72%) Algorithms
4 54 (3.69%) Product Ownership
5 43 (2.94%) Distributed Systems
6 42 (2.87%) Onboarding
7 27 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
8 20 (1.37%) Data Structures
8 20 (1.37%) Fixed Income
9 18 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (1.23%) Legacy Systems
10 17 (1.16%) Life Science
11 13 (0.89%) Hybrid Cloud
11 13 (0.89%) Low-Code
11 13 (0.89%) Management Information System
12 12 (0.82%) Distributed Computing
12 12 (0.82%) Public Cloud
13 11 (0.75%) Augmented Reality
13 11 (0.75%) Security Posture
13 11 (0.75%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 30 (2.05%) Linux
2 16 (1.09%) Windows
3 11 (0.75%) Unix
4 6 (0.41%) Apple iOS
4 6 (0.41%) VMS
5 5 (0.34%) Android
6 3 (0.20%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.068%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,178 (80.46%) AI
2 554 (37.84%) Data Science
3 466 (31.83%) CI/CD
4 431 (29.44%) LLM
5 404 (27.60%) Analytics
6 332 (22.68%) Data Pipeline
6 332 (22.68%) Generative AI
7 308 (21.04%) DevOps
8 295 (20.15%) MLOps
9 274 (18.72%) Data Engineering
10 265 (18.10%) Agile
11 226 (15.44%) Use Case
12 199 (13.59%) Problem-Solving
12 199 (13.59%) Software Engineering
13 187 (12.77%) Decision-Making
14 182 (12.43%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
15 176 (12.02%) Data Governance
16 173 (11.82%) ETL
17 159 (10.86%) Infrastructure as Code
18 154 (10.52%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 836 (57.10%) Python
2 375 (25.61%) SQL
3 107 (7.31%) Java
4 71 (4.85%) C#
5 62 (4.23%) R
6 50 (3.42%) TypeScript
7 46 (3.14%) JavaScript
8 26 (1.78%) C++
9 20 (1.37%) Bash
10 13 (0.89%) Bicep
11 12 (0.82%) PowerShell
11 12 (0.82%) Scala
12 10 (0.68%) Kotlin
13 8 (0.55%) Go
14 7 (0.48%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.48%) Rust
14 7 (0.48%) SPARQL
15 6 (0.41%) MATLAB
16 5 (0.34%) Perl
17 3 (0.20%) Korn
Qualifications
1 250 (17.08%) Security Cleared
2 173 (11.82%) SC Cleared
3 117 (7.99%) Degree
4 49 (3.35%) Master's Degree
5 44 (3.01%) BPSS Clearance
6 39 (2.66%) Computer Science Degree
6 39 (2.66%) DV Cleared
7 34 (2.32%) AWS Certification
8 32 (2.19%) PhD
9 19 (1.30%) Azure Certification
9 19 (1.30%) CISSP
10 18 (1.23%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 15 (1.02%) CISM
12 7 (0.48%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 7 (0.48%) ISTQB
13 5 (0.34%) CEH
13 5 (0.34%) CompTIA Security+
13 5 (0.34%) DBS Check
13 5 (0.34%) GIAC
13 5 (0.34%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 172 (11.75%) Data Quality
2 57 (3.89%) GDPR
3 52 (3.55%) QA
4 32 (2.19%) NIST
5 18 (1.23%) Accessibility
6 17 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 13 (0.89%) EU AI Act
8 11 (0.75%) Actionable Recommendations
8 11 (0.75%) HIPAA
9 8 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 7 (0.48%) GRC
10 7 (0.48%) GxP
10 7 (0.48%) NCSC
11 5 (0.34%) WCAG
12 4 (0.27%) COBIT
12 4 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 3 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 3 (0.20%) SLA
14 2 (0.14%) DO-254
System Software
1 198 (13.52%) Docker
2 12 (0.82%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 11 (0.75%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.27%) Firmware
4 4 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
4 4 (0.27%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.14%) BitLocker
6 2 (0.14%) HDFS
6 2 (0.14%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
6 2 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.068%) Ceph
7 1 (0.068%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.068%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 235 (16.05%) Kubernetes
2 159 (10.86%) Terraform
3 23 (1.57%) Kubeflow
4 19 (1.30%) Grafana
5 14 (0.96%) Ansible
5 14 (0.96%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.61%) Podman
7 6 (0.41%) Istio
8 3 (0.20%) NetBackup
8 3 (0.20%) Rancher
9 2 (0.14%) Argo
9 2 (0.14%) Docker Swarm
9 2 (0.14%) Nagios
9 2 (0.14%) Packer
9 2 (0.14%) Puppet
9 2 (0.14%) SCCM
9 2 (0.14%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.14%) vMotion
10 1 (0.068%) HP Fortify
10 1 (0.068%) Kibana
Vendors
1 184 (12.57%) Databricks
2 163 (11.13%) Microsoft
3 98 (6.69%) OpenAI
4 85 (5.81%) Google
5 56 (3.83%) Foundry
6 38 (2.60%) SAP
7 34 (2.32%) Oracle
8 21 (1.43%) ServiceNow
9 16 (1.09%) Informatica
10 15 (1.02%) IBM
10 15 (1.02%) UiPath
11 12 (0.82%) Dynatrace
12 11 (0.75%) Automation Anywhere
13 7 (0.48%) Amplitude
13 7 (0.48%) Sybase
14 6 (0.41%) NVIDIA
14 6 (0.41%) Talend
14 6 (0.41%) Workday
15 5 (0.34%) Pega
15 5 (0.34%) Splunk