Machine Learning Contracts

Machine Learning (ML)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Machine Learning skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Machine Learning over the 6 months leading up to 8 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 97 143 212
Rank change year-on-year +46 +69 -16
Contract jobs citing Machine Learning 764 714 727
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 2.62% 1.66% 1.24%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.89% 1.92% 1.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 493 525 503
10th Percentile £375 £413 £434
25th Percentile £456 £498 £511
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £575 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -4.17% -
75th Percentile £725 £733 £738
90th Percentile £874 £788 £885
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £525 £575
% change year-on-year +9.52% -8.70% +4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 21 18
10th Percentile £25.25 £41.25 £21.51
25th Percentile £45.00 £46.18 £25.37
Median hourly rate £61.50 £52.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.14% +50.00% -4.11%
75th Percentile £78.70 £66.25 £53.75
90th Percentile £81.01 £75.00 £78.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.25 £60.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +27.08% +71.43% -25.13%

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 26,476 37,215 52,661
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.94% 86.29% 89.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,029 23,965 36,513
10th Percentile £306 £300 £325
25th Percentile £411 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +3.77%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £745 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £479 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.20% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,078 2,429 1,738
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.26 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £28.68 £36.50 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.44% +1.39% +44.00%
75th Percentile £60.09 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.13 £37.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -27.67% +7.14% +75.00%

Machine Learning
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Machine Learning as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Machine Learning in the UK

Machine Learning
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Machine Learning.

Daily rate trend for Machine Learning in the UK

Machine Learning
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Machine Learning over the 6 months to 8 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Machine Learning in the UK

Machine Learning
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Machine Learning.

Hourly rate trend for Machine Learning in the UK

Machine Learning
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Machine Learning over the 6 months to 8 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Machine Learning in the UK

Machine Learning
Top 16 Contract 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 8 May 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 +45 657 £575 -0.86% 4,074
London +23 429 £600 -2.44% 2,328
Work from Home +55 270 £550 -5.78% 2,423
UK excluding London +85 236 £575 +9.52% 2,372
South East +72 57 £575 -4.17% 982
North of England +16 43 £508 -5.58% 504
South West +66 39 £630 +14.55% 149
East of England +46 36 £625 +47.06% 210
North West +18 29 £575 +9.52% 252
Scotland +4 27 £467 +0.97% 99
Midlands +15 23 £475 -18.10% 436
West Midlands +7 16 £500 -13.79% 211
Wales - 15 £575 - 26
North East -3 8 £358 - 54
East Midlands +12 7 £463 -31.48% 222
Yorkshire -6 6 - - 199

Machine Learning
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 96 (12.57%) Apache Spark
2 17 (2.23%) Apache
3 15 (1.96%) Jupyter
4 11 (1.44%) Apache Airflow
4 11 (1.44%) Confluence
5 9 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (0.52%) CMS
7 2 (0.26%) IBM Domino
7 2 (0.26%) SAS
8 1 (0.13%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 1 (0.13%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.13%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.13%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.13%) Luigi
Applications
1 12 (1.57%) Chatbot
2 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.39%) Simulink
3 2 (0.26%) Adobe XD
3 2 (0.26%) CPLEX
3 2 (0.26%) MadCap Flare
3 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.26%) Sketch
3 2 (0.26%) Weka
4 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.13%) Siemens NX
4 1 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 6 (0.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.52%) SAP PM
3 2 (0.26%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 2 (0.26%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.13%) Distributed Ledger
4 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.13%) Primavera
4 1 (0.13%) SAP IBP
4 1 (0.13%) SAP QM
4 1 (0.13%) SAP SRM
4 1 (0.13%) Shopify
4 1 (0.13%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.13%) TrackWise
Cloud Services
1 269 (35.21%) Azure
2 232 (30.37%) AWS
3 112 (14.66%) GCP
4 71 (9.29%) Azure Machine Learning
4 71 (9.29%) Power Platform
5 62 (8.12%) Azure Data Factory
6 37 (4.84%) Cloud Computing
7 34 (4.45%) GitHub
8 31 (4.06%) Amazon SageMaker
8 31 (4.06%) Serverless
9 26 (3.40%) Snowflake
10 25 (3.27%) Azure DevOps
11 23 (3.01%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 22 (2.88%) AWS Lambda
13 21 (2.75%) GitHub Actions
14 20 (2.62%) PaaS
15 19 (2.49%) Azure AI
16 18 (2.36%) Amazon S3
17 15 (1.96%) dbt
18 14 (1.83%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.09%) DNS
1 16 (2.09%) Firewall
1 16 (2.09%) SMTP
2 14 (1.83%) Network Security
3 10 (1.31%) VPN
4 9 (1.18%) DHCP
5 7 (0.92%) Ethernet
5 7 (0.92%) FTP
5 7 (0.92%) HTTP
5 7 (0.92%) SSL
6 3 (0.39%) Intrusion Detection
6 3 (0.39%) LAN
6 3 (0.39%) LTE
6 3 (0.39%) WAN
7 2 (0.26%) InfiniBand
7 2 (0.26%) Internet
7 2 (0.26%) MQTT
8 1 (0.13%) 4G
8 1 (0.13%) Modbus
8 1 (0.13%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 88 (11.52%) Big Data
2 69 (9.03%) Power BI
3 61 (7.98%) Data Lake
4 55 (7.20%) Tableau
5 48 (6.28%) Hadoop
6 44 (5.76%) Data Warehouse
7 27 (3.53%) Neo4j
8 24 (3.14%) Metadata
9 22 (2.88%) Data Mining
9 22 (2.88%) NoSQL
10 20 (2.62%) PostgreSQL
11 17 (2.23%) BigQuery
12 15 (1.96%) Delta Lake
13 13 (1.70%) Amazon RDS
14 12 (1.57%) Elasticsearch
15 9 (1.18%) MongoDB
16 8 (1.05%) Data Vault
16 8 (1.05%) GIS
16 8 (1.05%) Oracle Database
17 7 (0.92%) Apache Hive
Development Applications
1 38 (4.97%) Git
1 38 (4.97%) Jenkins
2 21 (2.75%) MLflow
3 19 (2.49%) JIRA
4 9 (1.18%) GitLab
5 8 (1.05%) ERwin
6 5 (0.65%) JUnit
7 2 (0.26%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.26%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.26%) ER Studio
7 2 (0.26%) MagicDraw
7 2 (0.26%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.26%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.13%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.13%) CMake
8 1 (0.13%) Jaeger
8 1 (0.13%) PyCharm
8 1 (0.13%) Qt Creator
8 1 (0.13%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.13%) Terragrunt
General
1 187 (24.48%) Social Skills
2 164 (21.47%) Analytical Skills
3 142 (18.59%) Finance
4 69 (9.03%) Banking
4 69 (9.03%) Public Sector
5 50 (6.54%) Investment Banking
6 34 (4.45%) Front Office
7 29 (3.80%) Marketing
8 25 (3.27%) Organisational Skills
9 21 (2.75%) Legal
9 21 (2.75%) Retail
10 20 (2.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 18 (2.36%) Financial Institution
12 17 (2.23%) Telecoms
13 16 (2.09%) Influencing Skills
13 16 (2.09%) Presentation Skills
14 13 (1.70%) Pharmaceutical
15 11 (1.44%) Manufacturing
16 7 (0.92%) Games
17 5 (0.65%) Law
Job Titles
1 116 (15.18%) Data Scientist
1 116 (15.18%) Developer
2 96 (12.57%) Senior
3 92 (12.04%) Architect
4 71 (9.29%) Data Engineer
5 58 (7.59%) Analyst
6 50 (6.54%) Lead
7 49 (6.41%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
8 46 (6.02%) Python Developer
9 45 (5.89%) Artificial Intelligence Developer
10 42 (5.50%) Machine Learning Engineer
11 30 (3.93%) Python Engineer
12 28 (3.66%) Gen AI Developer
12 28 (3.66%) Senior Data Scientist
13 27 (3.53%) Solutions Architect
14 26 (3.40%) Business Analyst
14 26 (3.40%) Data Architect
15 22 (2.88%) Data Analyst
16 20 (2.62%) Consultant
17 18 (2.36%) Product Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (10.86%) TensorFlow
2 78 (10.21%) PyTorch
3 73 (9.55%) React
4 61 (7.98%) Pandas
5 59 (7.72%) scikit-learn
6 44 (5.76%) NumPy
7 39 (5.10%) FastAPI
7 39 (5.10%) PySpark
8 33 (4.32%) Django
9 31 (4.06%) .NET
10 26 (3.40%) Kafka
10 26 (3.40%) Plotly
11 24 (3.14%) LangChain
11 24 (3.14%) Matplotlib
12 22 (2.88%) CSS
13 18 (2.36%) HTML
14 16 (2.09%) Hugging Face
14 16 (2.09%) Seaborn
15 14 (1.83%) AngularJS
15 14 (1.83%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 129 (16.88%) Algorithms
2 38 (4.97%) Product Ownership
3 33 (4.32%) Distributed Systems
4 25 (3.27%) Management Information System
5 23 (3.01%) Distributed Computing
5 23 (3.01%) IoT
6 20 (2.62%) Data Structures
7 19 (2.49%) Cloud Native
8 18 (2.36%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 18 (2.36%) Hedge funds
9 16 (2.09%) Data Centre
9 16 (2.09%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (2.09%) Derivative
9 16 (2.09%) Equities
9 16 (2.09%) Fixed Income
10 15 (1.96%) Cyberattack
11 13 (1.70%) Analytical Mindset
12 12 (1.57%) Multi-touch
12 12 (1.57%) Public Cloud
13 11 (1.44%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 23 (3.01%) Linux
2 18 (2.36%) Windows
3 17 (2.23%) Apple iOS
4 9 (1.18%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.52%) Unix
5 4 (0.52%) Windows Server 2003
6 3 (0.39%) Android
7 1 (0.13%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 525 (68.72%) Artificial Intelligence
2 294 (38.48%) Data Science
3 226 (29.58%) Analytics
4 178 (23.30%) Agile
5 163 (21.34%) LLM
6 153 (20.03%) Problem-Solving
7 142 (18.59%) Generative AI
8 140 (18.32%) CI/CD
9 120 (15.71%) Visualisation
10 119 (15.58%) DevOps
11 108 (14.14%) Data Analysis
12 100 (13.09%) Decision-Making
13 97 (12.70%) Data Engineering
14 94 (12.30%) Computer Science
15 92 (12.04%) Data Pipeline
16 83 (10.86%) Data Modelling
16 83 (10.86%) Natural Language Processing
17 77 (10.08%) Business Intelligence
18 76 (9.95%) Continuous Improvement
19 73 (9.55%) Data Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 427 (55.89%) Python
2 208 (27.23%) SQL
3 76 (9.95%) JavaScript
4 75 (9.82%) Java
5 67 (8.77%) TypeScript
6 63 (8.25%) R
7 33 (4.32%) C#
8 25 (3.27%) Scala
9 20 (2.62%) C++
10 15 (1.96%) Rust
11 14 (1.83%) C
12 13 (1.70%) PowerShell
13 11 (1.44%) Shell Script
14 9 (1.18%) Go
15 7 (0.92%) Bash
15 7 (0.92%) Clojure
15 7 (0.92%) Elixir
15 7 (0.92%) SystemVerilog
15 7 (0.92%) Tcl
15 7 (0.92%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 139 (18.19%) Degree
2 123 (16.10%) Security Cleared
3 97 (12.70%) SC Cleared
4 49 (6.41%) Master's Degree
5 44 (5.76%) PhD
6 28 (3.66%) Computer Science Degree
7 24 (3.14%) DV Cleared
8 15 (1.96%) AWS Certification
9 8 (1.05%) Azure Certification
9 8 (1.05%) CISSP
10 6 (0.79%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (0.65%) CISM
11 5 (0.65%) Numerate Degree
12 4 (0.52%) Postgraduate
13 3 (0.39%) HNC
13 3 (0.39%) HND
13 3 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
14 2 (0.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 2 (0.26%) Cisco Certification
14 2 (0.26%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (11.65%) Data Quality
2 35 (4.58%) GDPR
3 29 (3.80%) QA
4 12 (1.57%) Accessibility
4 12 (1.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 9 (1.18%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 8 (1.05%) Actionable Recommendations
6 8 (1.05%) EU AI Act
6 8 (1.05%) NIST
7 3 (0.39%) DO-254
7 3 (0.39%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.26%) NCSC
8 2 (0.26%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.13%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 1 (0.13%) IEC 61508
9 1 (0.13%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.13%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.13%) SNOMED CT
9 1 (0.13%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 94 (12.30%) Docker
2 9 (1.18%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.18%) BitLocker
2 9 (1.18%) Hyper-V
2 9 (1.18%) Microsoft App-V
2 9 (1.18%) Terminal Services
2 9 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
2 9 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.39%) Firmware
4 2 (0.26%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 2 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.13%) Apache Flume
Systems Management
1 115 (15.05%) Kubernetes
2 51 (6.68%) Terraform
3 42 (5.50%) Ansible
4 15 (1.96%) Grafana
5 11 (1.44%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.18%) Nagios
6 9 (1.18%) Puppet
6 9 (1.18%) vCenter Server
6 9 (1.18%) vMotion
7 6 (0.79%) Kubeflow
8 4 (0.52%) Kibana
9 2 (0.26%) Argo
9 2 (0.26%) Proxmox
9 2 (0.26%) QRadar
10 1 (0.13%) Apache Ranger
10 1 (0.13%) Istio
10 1 (0.13%) linkerd
10 1 (0.13%) logstash
10 1 (0.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 1 (0.13%) Zipkin
Vendors
1 101 (13.22%) Databricks
2 71 (9.29%) Microsoft
3 61 (7.98%) Google
4 26 (3.40%) OpenAI
5 20 (2.62%) SAP
6 13 (1.70%) Oracle
7 12 (1.57%) ServiceNow
7 12 (1.57%) Splunk
7 12 (1.57%) VMware
8 11 (1.44%) Dataiku
9 9 (1.18%) Citrix
9 9 (1.18%) HP
9 9 (1.18%) Symantec
10 8 (1.05%) Foundry
11 7 (0.92%) Dynatrace
11 7 (0.92%) Intel
11 7 (0.92%) Xilinx
12 6 (0.79%) Palantir
13 5 (0.65%) Informatica
13 5 (0.65%) Sage