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

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 437 196 268
Rank change year-on-year -241 +72 +3
Permanent jobs citing Kafka 226 496 467
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.27% 1.44% 0.84%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.15% 10.57% 4.40%
Number of salaries quoted 160 116 206
10th Percentile £53,750 £43,750 -
25th Percentile £62,376 £52,188 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £67,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.41% +22.73% -21.43%
75th Percentile £85,000 £82,813 £65,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £98,125 £82,500
UK median annual salary £80,000 £82,500 £70,000
% change year-on-year -3.03% +17.86% -17.65%

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 7,165 4,691 10,615
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 8.60% 13.61% 19.16%
Number of salaries quoted 5,573 2,829 6,513
10th Percentile £40,000 £33,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £47,500 £45,000 £44,738
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £76,250 £73,750 £70,000
90th Percentile £93,750 £86,250 £81,250
UK median annual salary £67,500 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year -3.57% +7.69% -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 14 September 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 14 September 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 -131 72 £75,000 +7.14% 129
North West -83 55 £75,000 +9.09% 78
South East -54 43 £67,500 -5.59% 73
South West -77 34 £85,000 +25.93% 33
Midlands -87 29 £85,000 +25.93% 26
West Midlands -36 27 £85,000 +51.11% 20
Wales - 24 £70,000 - 4
East of England -26 21 £72,500 -4.29% 16
North East -55 12 £67,500 +42.11% 15
Scotland -87 12 - - 62
Yorkshire -35 5 £78,500 +4.67% 36
East Midlands -71 2 £71,500 +5.93% 6
Northern Ireland -94 1 - - 35
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 27 (11.95%) Apache Spark
2 17 (7.52%) Apache
3 13 (5.75%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (1.33%) Anypoint
4 3 (1.33%) BizTalk Server
4 3 (1.33%) OpenStack
5 2 (0.88%) ArcGIS
5 2 (0.88%) Confluence
6 1 (0.44%) JBoss
6 1 (0.44%) WebLogic
Business Applications
1 1 (0.44%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 145 (64.16%) AWS
2 115 (50.88%) Azure
3 57 (25.22%) GCP
4 39 (17.26%) Serverless
5 33 (14.60%) AWS CloudFormation
6 30 (13.27%) GitHub
7 27 (11.95%) Amazon SQS
7 27 (11.95%) AWS Lambda
8 21 (9.29%) Amazon S3
9 19 (8.41%) Amazon ECS
10 17 (7.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 16 (7.08%) Amazon EventBridge
12 14 (6.19%) Azure Service Bus
13 13 (5.75%) Azure Data Factory
14 12 (5.31%) Amazon EKS
14 12 (5.31%) GitHub Copilot
14 12 (5.31%) Snowflake
15 11 (4.87%) Datadog
16 9 (3.98%) GitHub Actions
17 8 (3.54%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 26 (11.50%) MQTT
2 5 (2.21%) Network Security
3 2 (0.88%) 4G
3 2 (0.88%) 5G
3 2 (0.88%) DNS
3 2 (0.88%) HTTP
3 2 (0.88%) SSH
3 2 (0.88%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.44%) ATM
4 1 (0.44%) Firewall
4 1 (0.44%) Internet
4 1 (0.44%) LAN
4 1 (0.44%) SSL
4 1 (0.44%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (24.78%) MongoDB
2 46 (20.35%) PostgreSQL
3 42 (18.58%) NoSQL
4 28 (12.39%) MySQL
5 19 (8.41%) SQL Server
6 17 (7.52%) Elasticsearch
7 15 (6.64%) Data Lake
8 14 (6.19%) Big Data
9 13 (5.75%) Flink
9 13 (5.75%) Relational Database
10 12 (5.31%) Redis
11 10 (4.42%) Data Warehouse
11 10 (4.42%) DynamoDB
12 9 (3.98%) Amazon Redshift
13 8 (3.54%) Amazon RDS
14 7 (3.10%) Power BI
15 6 (2.65%) BigQuery
16 5 (2.21%) Looker
16 5 (2.21%) Tableau
17 4 (1.77%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 52 (23.01%) Git
2 25 (11.06%) GitLab
3 21 (9.29%) Jenkins
4 7 (3.10%) JIRA
5 5 (2.21%) Selenium
6 4 (1.77%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (1.77%) Bitbucket
6 4 (1.77%) MLflow
7 3 (1.33%) JUnit
7 3 (1.33%) Postman
7 3 (1.33%) SonarQube
8 2 (0.88%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.88%) JMeter
8 2 (0.88%) minitest
8 2 (0.88%) RSpec
9 1 (0.44%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.44%) ER Studio
9 1 (0.44%) Karma Test Runner
9 1 (0.44%) Maven
9 1 (0.44%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 33 (14.60%) Analytical Skills
1 33 (14.60%) Public Sector
1 33 (14.60%) Social Skills
2 22 (9.73%) Finance
3 14 (6.19%) Banking
4 11 (4.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 7 (3.10%) Law
6 5 (2.21%) Publishing
7 4 (1.77%) Advertising
7 4 (1.77%) Aerospace
7 4 (1.77%) Games
7 4 (1.77%) Marketing
8 3 (1.33%) iGaming
8 3 (1.33%) Telecoms
9 2 (0.88%) Automotive
9 2 (0.88%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.44%) Billing
10 1 (0.44%) Italian Language
10 1 (0.44%) Retail
10 1 (0.44%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 73 (32.30%) Developer
2 69 (30.53%) Senior
3 48 (21.24%) Data Engineer
4 35 (15.49%) Lead
5 32 (14.16%) Java Developer
6 28 (12.39%) Senior Developer
7 25 (11.06%) Architect
8 22 (9.73%) Senior Data Engineer
8 22 (9.73%) Software Engineer
9 15 (6.64%) Kafka Engineer
9 15 (6.64%) Python Developer
10 13 (5.75%) Python Engineer
11 12 (5.31%) Backend Developer
11 12 (5.31%) Senior Python Developer
12 10 (4.42%) Azure Data Engineer
12 10 (4.42%) Azure Engineer
12 10 (4.42%) Elasticsearch Engineer
12 10 (4.42%) Integration Developer
12 10 (4.42%) Java Engineer
12 10 (4.42%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (30.53%) Spring
2 68 (30.09%) Terraform
3 66 (29.20%) Spring Boot
4 58 (25.66%) RESTful
5 54 (23.89%) RabbitMQ
6 46 (20.35%) REST
7 29 (12.83%) Hibernate
7 29 (12.83%) Node.js
8 27 (11.95%) JPA
9 20 (8.85%) FastAPI
9 20 (8.85%) React
10 17 (7.52%) OpenAPI
10 17 (7.52%) Swagger
11 16 (7.08%) .NET
12 15 (6.64%) PySpark
13 13 (5.75%) Keycloak
14 11 (4.87%) Apache NiFi
15 9 (3.98%) JWT
15 9 (3.98%) OAuth
16 8 (3.54%) Ruby on Rails
Miscellaneous
1 73 (32.30%) Cloud Native
2 57 (25.22%) Distributed Systems
3 31 (13.72%) Product Ownership
4 17 (7.52%) Enterprise Software
5 15 (6.64%) Hybrid Cloud
6 12 (5.31%) Self-Motivation
7 11 (4.87%) Virtual Team
8 10 (4.42%) Onboarding
9 8 (3.54%) Distributed Computing
9 8 (3.54%) Public Cloud
10 7 (3.10%) Greenfield Project
10 7 (3.10%) Legacy Systems
10 7 (3.10%) Robotics
11 6 (2.65%) Data Structures
11 6 (2.65%) Mainframe
12 5 (2.21%) AI Agents
12 5 (2.21%) Algorithms
12 5 (2.21%) IoT
12 5 (2.21%) Media Streaming
12 5 (2.21%) Podcast
Operating Systems
1 24 (10.62%) Linux
2 4 (1.77%) Windows
3 1 (0.44%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (56.19%) CI/CD
2 109 (48.23%) Agile
3 102 (45.13%) Microservices
4 101 (44.69%) DevOps
5 93 (41.15%) Event-Driven
6 73 (32.30%) Infrastructure as Code
7 72 (31.86%) Containerisation
7 72 (31.86%) Software Engineering
8 66 (29.20%) Mentoring
9 61 (26.99%) AI
10 60 (26.55%) Observability
11 54 (23.89%) Problem-Solving
12 49 (21.68%) Data Pipeline
13 47 (20.80%) Analytics
14 42 (18.58%) Roadmaps
14 42 (18.58%) Scrum
14 42 (18.58%) Technical Leadership
15 41 (18.14%) Continuous Improvement
16 39 (17.26%) API Design
16 39 (17.26%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 116 (51.33%) Python
2 111 (49.12%) Java
3 71 (31.42%) SQL
4 32 (14.16%) TypeScript
5 31 (13.72%) JavaScript
6 17 (7.52%) Go
7 11 (4.87%) C#
8 10 (4.42%) PowerShell
8 10 (4.42%) Rust
9 8 (3.54%) Ruby
9 8 (3.54%) Scala
10 7 (3.10%) Bash
10 7 (3.10%) Groovy
11 6 (2.65%) Kotlin
12 4 (1.77%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.77%) T-SQL
13 3 (1.33%) C++
13 3 (1.33%) DataWeave
14 2 (0.88%) Bicep
14 2 (0.88%) C
Qualifications
1 60 (26.55%) Security Cleared
2 41 (18.14%) SC Cleared
3 26 (11.50%) Degree
4 17 (7.52%) Computer Science Degree
4 17 (7.52%) DV Cleared
5 16 (7.08%) Azure Certification
6 6 (2.65%) AWS Certification
6 6 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (2.21%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.77%) MBA
9 3 (1.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (0.88%) TOGAF Certification
11 1 (0.44%) HND
11 1 (0.44%) OCP
11 1 (0.44%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (10.62%) QA
2 21 (9.29%) Data Quality
3 7 (3.10%) Accessibility
3 7 (3.10%) GDPR
4 6 (2.65%) WCAG
5 5 (2.21%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 3 (1.33%) NIST
6 3 (1.33%) NIST 800
7 2 (0.88%) SOC 2
8 1 (0.44%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.44%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.44%) PSD2
System Software
1 93 (41.15%) Docker
2 1 (0.44%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 109 (48.23%) Kubernetes
2 26 (11.50%) Grafana
3 22 (9.73%) Prometheus
4 16 (7.08%) Ansible
5 7 (3.10%) Argo
6 6 (2.65%) Puppet
7 5 (2.21%) Kibana
7 5 (2.21%) Podman
8 1 (0.44%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (8.85%) Databricks
1 20 (8.85%) Microsoft
1 20 (8.85%) Splunk
2 11 (4.87%) Dynatrace
3 9 (3.98%) Google
4 8 (3.54%) Oracle
5 7 (3.10%) Atlassian
5 7 (3.10%) HubSpot
5 7 (3.10%) OpenAI
6 5 (2.21%) Dell
6 5 (2.21%) MuleSoft
7 4 (1.77%) Adobe
7 4 (1.77%) Cloudera
7 4 (1.77%) Confluent
7 4 (1.77%) Informatica
7 4 (1.77%) NVIDIA
8 3 (1.33%) Tenable
8 3 (1.33%) webMethods
9 2 (0.88%) Sparx
10 1 (0.44%) VMware