Data Scientist Contract Job Trends in Central London

Data Scientist
London > Central London

The median Data Scientist daily rate in Central London is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 February 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 103 130
Rank change year-on-year -5 +27 +49
Contract jobs requiring a Data Scientist 26 18 8
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 1.22% 0.87% 0.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.30% 0.94% 0.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 10 5
10th Percentile £400 £450 £562
25th Percentile £469 £510 £625
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £650 £650
Median % change year-on-year -23.08% - +33.33%
75th Percentile £638 £700 £675
90th Percentile £738 - -
London median daily rate £550 £499 £550
% change year-on-year +10.33% -9.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 0
Median hourly rate - £22.00 -
London median hourly rate £58.50 £37.25 £45.00
% change year-on-year +57.05% -17.22% -

All Contract IT Job Roles
Central London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Central London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in Central London with a recognized job title 2,007 1,921 2,434
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 94.00% 92.85% 94.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,368 1,209 1,736
10th Percentile £350 £362 £331
25th Percentile £436 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £546 £575 £551
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +4.45% -4.26%
75th Percentile £664 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
London median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -5.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 18 35
10th Percentile £18.75 £22.00 £17.00
25th Percentile £25.47 - £20.74
Median hourly rate £26.11 £35.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.40% +34.62% -10.34%
75th Percentile £42.65 £41.38 £38.25
90th Percentile £59.08 £112.00 £59.10
London median hourly rate £34.75 £37.25 £29.00
% change year-on-year -6.72% +28.45% -17.14%

Data Scientist
Job Vacancy Trend in Central London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Data Scientist' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London.

Data Scientist job vacancy trend in Central London

Data Scientist
Daily Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Data Scientist job vacancies in Central London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Data Scientist job vacancies in Central London

Data Scientist
Daily Rate Histogram in Central London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Scientist in Central London over the 6 months to 19 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Scientist in Central London

Data Scientist
Hourly Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Data Scientist job vacancies in Central London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Data Scientist job vacancies in Central London

Data Scientist
Contract Job Locations in Central London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Scientist within the Central London region over the 6 months to 19 February 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
City of London +1 25 £500 -28.57% 12
Data Scientist
London

Data Scientist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Central London

For the 6 months to 19 February 2026, Data Scientist contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the Central London region featuring Data Scientist in the job title.

1 26 (100.00%) Data Science
2 21 (80.77%) AI
3 20 (76.92%) Analytics
4 19 (73.08%) Python
5 17 (65.38%) Machine Learning
6 16 (61.54%) Generative AI
7 14 (53.85%) Power Platform
8 13 (50.00%) Visualisation
9 12 (46.15%) scikit-learn
10 11 (42.31%) Azure
10 11 (42.31%) Business Intelligence
10 11 (42.31%) Power BI
11 10 (38.46%) Natural Language Processing
12 9 (34.62%) Actionable Insight
12 9 (34.62%) Data Visualisation
12 9 (34.62%) SQL
13 8 (30.77%) Agile
13 8 (30.77%) AWS
13 8 (30.77%) Data Analysis
13 8 (30.77%) GCP
13 8 (30.77%) LLM
13 8 (30.77%) Pandas
13 8 (30.77%) PyTorch
13 8 (30.77%) Tableau
13 8 (30.77%) TensorFlow
14 7 (26.92%) NumPy
14 7 (26.92%) Security Cleared
15 6 (23.08%) Computer Science
15 6 (23.08%) Degree
15 6 (23.08%) Google

Data Scientist Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Central 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:

Cloud Services
1 14 (53.85%) Power Platform
2 11 (42.31%) Azure
3 8 (30.77%) AWS
3 8 (30.77%) GCP
4 4 (15.38%) Google Gemini
5 3 (11.54%) Amazon SageMaker
5 3 (11.54%) Azure Machine Learning
5 3 (11.54%) Cloud Computing
5 3 (11.54%) GitHub
5 3 (11.54%) GitHub Copilot
5 3 (11.54%) IBM Watson
6 1 (3.85%) Azure AI
6 1 (3.85%) IBM Cloud
6 1 (3.85%) Vertex AI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (42.31%) Power BI
2 8 (30.77%) Tableau
3 3 (11.54%) DB2
3 3 (11.54%) MongoDB
3 3 (11.54%) NoSQL
3 3 (11.54%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (3.85%) Big Data
4 1 (3.85%) Geospatial Data
4 1 (3.85%) Looker
4 1 (3.85%) Mixpanel
4 1 (3.85%) Neo4j
4 1 (3.85%) Oracle Database
4 1 (3.85%) Spatial Data
General
1 13 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
2 11 (42.31%) Social Skills
3 7 (26.92%) Finance
4 6 (23.08%) Public Sector
5 5 (19.23%) Banking
6 2 (7.69%) Marketing
7 1 (3.85%) Corporate Banking
7 1 (3.85%) Financial Institution
7 1 (3.85%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (3.85%) Investment Banking
7 1 (3.85%) Legal
7 1 (3.85%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (3.85%) Retail
7 1 (3.85%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (46.15%) scikit-learn
2 8 (30.77%) Pandas
2 8 (30.77%) PyTorch
2 8 (30.77%) TensorFlow
3 7 (26.92%) NumPy
4 4 (15.38%) Matplotlib
4 4 (15.38%) Seaborn
5 3 (11.54%) AngularJS
5 3 (11.54%) Backbone.js
5 3 (11.54%) Bootstrap
5 3 (11.54%) Ember.js
5 3 (11.54%) Hugging Face
5 3 (11.54%) jQuery
5 3 (11.54%) Keras
5 3 (11.54%) React
6 1 (3.85%) GraphX
6 1 (3.85%) LangChain
6 1 (3.85%) LangGraph
6 1 (3.85%) LlamaIndex
6 1 (3.85%) Semantic Kernel
Miscellaneous
1 8 (30.77%) Algorithms
2 2 (7.69%) Marketing Technology
3 1 (3.85%) Clustering
3 1 (3.85%) NHS
3 1 (3.85%) Onboarding
3 1 (3.85%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 3 (11.54%) Android
1 3 (11.54%) Apple iOS
1 3 (11.54%) Linux
1 3 (11.54%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (100.00%) Data Science
2 21 (80.77%) AI
3 20 (76.92%) Analytics
4 17 (65.38%) Machine Learning
5 16 (61.54%) Generative AI
6 13 (50.00%) Visualisation
7 11 (42.31%) Business Intelligence
8 10 (38.46%) Natural Language Processing
9 9 (34.62%) Actionable Insight
9 9 (34.62%) Data Visualisation
10 8 (30.77%) Agile
10 8 (30.77%) Data Analysis
10 8 (30.77%) LLM
11 6 (23.08%) Computer Science
11 6 (23.08%) Model Validation
11 6 (23.08%) Predictive Modelling
11 6 (23.08%) Problem-Solving
11 6 (23.08%) Software Engineering
11 6 (23.08%) Statistics
12 5 (19.23%) Storytelling
Programming Languages
1 19 (73.08%) Python
2 9 (34.62%) SQL
3 1 (3.85%) PL/SQL
3 1 (3.85%) R
Qualifications
1 7 (26.92%) Security Cleared
2 6 (23.08%) Degree
3 4 (15.38%) SC Cleared
4 3 (11.54%) PhD
5 2 (7.69%) BPSS Clearance
Systems Management
1 2 (7.69%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 6 (23.08%) Google
2 4 (15.38%) IBM
3 3 (11.54%) Cognos
3 3 (11.54%) Microsoft
3 3 (11.54%) Sage
4 1 (3.85%) Alteryx
4 1 (3.85%) Amplitude
4 1 (3.85%) Foundry
4 1 (3.85%) Oracle