Kafka Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Apache Kafka
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Kafka skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 434 202 365
Rank change year-on-year -232 +163 -93
Permanent jobs citing Kafka 258 489 288
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.30% 1.41% 0.55%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.57% 10.57% 2.87%
Number of salaries quoted 188 113 179
10th Percentile £53,750 £45,000 -
25th Percentile £61,250 £52,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £67,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.41% +22.73% -22.07%
75th Percentile £85,000 £85,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,000 £81,000
UK median annual salary £75,000 £85,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year -11.76% +21.43% -15.15%

All Software Libraries and Frameworks
UK excluding London

Kafka falls under the Software Libraries and Frameworks category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills in the UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills 7,217 4,625 10,047
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 8.34% 13.31% 19.14%
Number of salaries quoted 5,525 2,781 5,884
10th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £36,250
25th Percentile £47,500 £44,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £76,750 £73,750 £70,000
90th Percentile £93,750 £85,000 £82,500
UK median annual salary £67,500 £67,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year - +3.85% -3.70%

Kafka
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Kafka relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Kafka job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Kafka
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Kafka.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Kafka

Kafka
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Kafka in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 5 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Kafka in the UK excluding London

Kafka
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Kafka within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 5 October 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England -108 91 £67,500 -3.57% 137
North West -85 66 £75,000 +7.14% 86
South East -56 50 £69,000 -1.43% 67
South West -71 37 £85,000 +17.24% 33
Midlands -87 32 £85,000 +25.93% 22
West Midlands -32 31 £85,000 +51.11% 18
Wales - 27 £70,000 - 10
North East -46 22 £61,250 +28.95% 17
East of England -35 21 £72,500 +1.40% 22
Scotland -86 12 £50,000 -16.67% 70
Yorkshire -44 9 £66,805 -10.93% 34
East Midlands -80 1 £71,500 +5.93% 4
Northern Ireland -88 1 - - 46
Kafka
UK

Kafka
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 26 (10.08%) Apache Spark
2 18 (6.98%) Apache
3 10 (3.88%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (1.94%) OpenStack
5 4 (1.55%) WebLogic
6 3 (1.16%) Anypoint
6 3 (1.16%) BizTalk Server
6 3 (1.16%) Confluence
7 2 (0.78%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.78%) JBoss
Business Applications
1 1 (0.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 163 (63.18%) AWS
2 124 (48.06%) Azure
3 56 (21.71%) GCP
4 42 (16.28%) Serverless
5 36 (13.95%) AWS CloudFormation
6 35 (13.57%) Amazon SQS
6 35 (13.57%) GitHub
7 31 (12.02%) Amazon S3
8 29 (11.24%) AWS Lambda
9 24 (9.30%) Amazon ECS
10 20 (7.75%) Azure Data Factory
11 19 (7.36%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 18 (6.98%) Azure Service Bus
13 16 (6.20%) Amazon EKS
14 14 (5.43%) Amazon EventBridge
15 12 (4.65%) GitHub Copilot
16 11 (4.26%) GitHub Actions
17 9 (3.49%) AWS KMS
17 9 (3.49%) Datadog
18 8 (3.10%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 29 (11.24%) MQTT
2 5 (1.94%) Network Security
3 4 (1.55%) Internet
4 2 (0.78%) 4G
4 2 (0.78%) 5G
4 2 (0.78%) DNS
4 2 (0.78%) HTTP
4 2 (0.78%) SSH
4 2 (0.78%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.39%) ATM
5 1 (0.39%) LAN
5 1 (0.39%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (25.58%) MongoDB
2 54 (20.93%) PostgreSQL
3 42 (16.28%) NoSQL
4 32 (12.40%) MySQL
5 16 (6.20%) Elasticsearch
5 16 (6.20%) SQL Server
6 15 (5.81%) Big Data
7 14 (5.43%) Data Lake
7 14 (5.43%) Relational Database
8 13 (5.04%) Redis
9 12 (4.65%) Flink
10 8 (3.10%) Amazon RDS
10 8 (3.10%) Data Warehouse
11 7 (2.71%) Amazon Redshift
11 7 (2.71%) DynamoDB
12 6 (2.33%) DocumentDB
13 5 (1.94%) Power BI
14 4 (1.55%) Amazon Athena
14 4 (1.55%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 4 (1.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 61 (23.64%) Git
2 37 (14.34%) GitLab
3 25 (9.69%) Jenkins
4 7 (2.71%) JIRA
5 5 (1.94%) Cucumber
5 5 (1.94%) JUnit
5 5 (1.94%) Selenium
6 4 (1.55%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (1.55%) Bitbucket
7 3 (1.16%) Gatling
7 3 (1.16%) Postman
7 3 (1.16%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.78%) JMeter
8 2 (0.78%) minitest
8 2 (0.78%) Mockito
8 2 (0.78%) RSpec
9 1 (0.39%) ER Studio
9 1 (0.39%) ERwin
9 1 (0.39%) IntelliJ
9 1 (0.39%) Maven
General
1 47 (18.22%) Public Sector
2 40 (15.50%) Social Skills
3 36 (13.95%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (8.14%) Finance
4 21 (8.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 18 (6.98%) Banking
6 12 (4.65%) Publishing
7 7 (2.71%) Law
8 4 (1.55%) Advertising
8 4 (1.55%) Games
8 4 (1.55%) Marketing
9 3 (1.16%) Aerospace
9 3 (1.16%) iGaming
9 3 (1.16%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.78%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.39%) Automotive
11 1 (0.39%) Billing
11 1 (0.39%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.39%) Military
11 1 (0.39%) Retail
Job Titles
1 86 (33.33%) Developer
2 79 (30.62%) Senior
3 51 (19.77%) Data Engineer
4 41 (15.89%) Java Developer
5 39 (15.12%) Lead
6 34 (13.18%) Software Engineer
7 31 (12.02%) Senior Developer
8 25 (9.69%) Architect
9 23 (8.91%) Senior Data Engineer
10 18 (6.98%) Kafka Engineer
10 18 (6.98%) Python Engineer
11 15 (5.81%) Python Developer
12 14 (5.43%) Azure Data Engineer
12 14 (5.43%) Azure Engineer
13 13 (5.04%) Elasticsearch Engineer
13 13 (5.04%) Java Engineer
13 13 (5.04%) Python Data Engineer
13 13 (5.04%) Senior Python Developer
14 12 (4.65%) Backend Developer
15 11 (4.26%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 91 (35.27%) Spring
2 85 (32.95%) Spring Boot
3 75 (29.07%) Terraform
4 66 (25.58%) RESTful
5 63 (24.42%) RabbitMQ
6 53 (20.54%) REST
7 34 (13.18%) Node.js
8 33 (12.79%) Hibernate
9 31 (12.02%) JPA
10 30 (11.63%) React
11 25 (9.69%) FastAPI
12 21 (8.14%) OpenAPI
12 21 (8.14%) Swagger
13 16 (6.20%) Keycloak
14 15 (5.81%) .NET
15 14 (5.43%) PySpark
16 10 (3.88%) Apache NiFi
17 9 (3.49%) Elastic Stack
18 8 (3.10%) OAuth
18 8 (3.10%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 79 (30.62%) Cloud Native
2 59 (22.87%) Distributed Systems
3 38 (14.73%) Product Ownership
4 24 (9.30%) Enterprise Software
5 19 (7.36%) Hybrid Cloud
5 19 (7.36%) Self-Motivation
6 15 (5.81%) Virtual Team
7 12 (4.65%) Media Streaming
7 12 (4.65%) Podcast
8 10 (3.88%) Onboarding
9 8 (3.10%) Distributed Computing
9 8 (3.10%) IoT
9 8 (3.10%) Legacy Systems
10 7 (2.71%) Greenfield Project
11 6 (2.33%) Data Structures
11 6 (2.33%) Mainframe
11 6 (2.33%) Robotics
12 5 (1.94%) AI Agents
12 5 (1.94%) Algorithms
12 5 (1.94%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 26 (10.08%) Linux
2 5 (1.94%) Windows
3 1 (0.39%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (57.75%) CI/CD
2 135 (52.33%) Agile
3 124 (48.06%) DevOps
4 117 (45.35%) Microservices
5 108 (41.86%) Event-Driven
6 88 (34.11%) Software Engineering
7 87 (33.72%) Containerisation
8 82 (31.78%) Mentoring
9 78 (30.23%) Infrastructure as Code
10 73 (28.29%) Observability
11 67 (25.97%) Problem-Solving
12 63 (24.42%) AI
13 55 (21.32%) Scrum
14 53 (20.54%) Continuous Improvement
14 53 (20.54%) Roadmaps
15 51 (19.77%) Data Pipeline
16 49 (18.99%) Analytics
16 49 (18.99%) Technical Leadership
17 47 (18.22%) API Design
18 44 (17.05%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 132 (51.16%) Java
2 114 (44.19%) Python
3 63 (24.42%) SQL
4 42 (16.28%) TypeScript
5 35 (13.57%) JavaScript
6 22 (8.53%) Go
7 10 (3.88%) PowerShell
8 9 (3.49%) C#
8 9 (3.49%) Rust
8 9 (3.49%) Scala
9 8 (3.10%) Ruby
10 7 (2.71%) Bash
10 7 (2.71%) Kotlin
11 6 (2.33%) Groovy
12 4 (1.55%) PHP
12 4 (1.55%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.55%) T-SQL
13 3 (1.16%) DataWeave
14 2 (0.78%) Bicep
14 2 (0.78%) C++
Qualifications
1 75 (29.07%) Security Cleared
2 57 (22.09%) SC Cleared
3 27 (10.47%) Degree
4 21 (8.14%) DV Cleared
5 19 (7.36%) Azure Certification
6 18 (6.98%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (3.10%) AWS Certification
8 7 (2.71%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.94%) Master's Degree
10 4 (1.55%) MBA
11 3 (1.16%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.78%) TOGAF Certification
13 1 (0.39%) HND
13 1 (0.39%) OCP
13 1 (0.39%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (11.63%) QA
2 20 (7.75%) Data Quality
3 7 (2.71%) Accessibility
4 6 (2.33%) WCAG
5 3 (1.16%) GDPR
5 3 (1.16%) NIST
5 3 (1.16%) NIST 800
6 2 (0.78%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.39%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.39%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.39%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.39%) PSD2
System Software
1 115 (44.57%) Docker
2 1 (0.39%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 132 (51.16%) Kubernetes
2 29 (11.24%) Grafana
3 25 (9.69%) Prometheus
4 15 (5.81%) Ansible
5 7 (2.71%) Argo
6 5 (1.94%) Kibana
6 5 (1.94%) Podman
6 5 (1.94%) Puppet
7 1 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 24 (9.30%) Splunk
2 22 (8.53%) Databricks
3 20 (7.75%) Microsoft
4 13 (5.04%) Dynatrace
5 10 (3.88%) Oracle
6 9 (3.49%) Google
7 8 (3.10%) Atlassian
8 7 (2.71%) OpenAI
9 6 (2.33%) Confluent
9 6 (2.33%) MuleSoft
10 5 (1.94%) HubSpot
11 4 (1.55%) Adobe
11 4 (1.55%) Informatica
11 4 (1.55%) NVIDIA
12 3 (1.16%) Tenable
12 3 (1.16%) webMethods
13 2 (0.78%) Sparx
13 2 (0.78%) VMware
14 1 (0.39%) Red Hat
14 1 (0.39%) YouTube