Data Engineer Contract Job Trends in the City of London
Data Engineer
Central London > City of London
The median Data Engineer daily rate in the City of London is £555, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 October 2026.
The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.
| 6 months to 22 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 58 | 70 | 73 |
| Rank change year-on-year | +12 | +3 | +2 |
| Contract jobs requiring a Data Engineer | 97 | 53 | 53 |
| As % of all contract jobs in the City of London | 4.53% | 3.13% | 2.50% |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 4.84% | 3.33% | 2.67% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 77 | 39 | 35 |
| 10th Percentile | £400 | £303 | £463 |
| 25th Percentile | £425 | £409 | £513 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £555 | £525 | £575 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +5.71% | -8.70% | +0.88% |
| 75th Percentile | £675 | £575 | £675 |
| 90th Percentile | £763 | £638 | £745 |
| Central London median daily rate | £555 | £525 | £575 |
| % change year-on-year | +5.71% | -8.70% | -2.13% |
All Contract IT Job Roles
City of London
For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the City of 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.
| 6 months to 22 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract vacancies in the City of London with a recognized job title | 2,003 | 1,593 | 1,983 |
| % of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title | 93.64% | 94.09% | 93.58% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 1,375 | 1,099 | 1,225 |
| 10th Percentile | £363 | £325 | £363 |
| 25th Percentile | £455 | £420 | £463 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £550 | £550 | £575 |
| Median % change year-on-year | - | -4.35% | -2.13% |
| 75th Percentile | £675 | £675 | £688 |
| 90th Percentile | £775 | £775 | £778 |
| Central London median daily rate | £550 | £550 | £575 |
| % change year-on-year | - | -4.35% | - |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 20 | 17 | 15 |
| 10th Percentile | - | £16.85 | £16.60 |
| 25th Percentile | £17.60 | £20.18 | £25.06 |
| Median hourly rate | £21.75 | £26.57 | £57.50 |
| Median % change year-on-year | -18.14% | -53.79% | +55.41% |
| 75th Percentile | £32.94 | £36.00 | £112.00 |
| 90th Percentile | £61.85 | £64.48 | £137.50 |
| Central London median hourly rate | £25.00 | £27.04 | £35.00 |
| % change year-on-year | -7.53% | -22.76% | -2.78% |
Data Engineer Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London
Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Data Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London.
Data Engineer Daily Rate Trend in the City of London
Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Data Engineer job vacancies in the City of London.
Data Engineer Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London
Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Engineer in the City of London over the 6 months to 22 October 2026.
Data Engineer Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London
Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Data Engineer job vacancies in the City of London.
Data Engineer Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London
For the 6 months to 22 October 2026, Data Engineer 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 City of London region featuring Data Engineer in the job title.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SQL | 64.9% | 63 |
| 2 | Data Engineering | 61.9% | 60 |
| 2 | Python | 61.9% | 60 |
| 4 | Data Pipeline | 54.6% | 53 |
| 5 | CI/CD | 43.3% | 42 |
| 6 | Azure | 41.2% | 40 |
| 7 | Analytics | 39.2% | 38 |
| 7 | Data Modelling | 39.2% | 38 |
| 9 | Data Quality | 38.1% | 37 |
| 10 | ETL | 37.1% | 36 |
| 11 | Databricks | 32.0% | 31 |
| 12 | AWS | 26.8% | 26 |
| 13 | DevOps | 24.7% | 24 |
| 13 | Migration | 24.7% | 24 |
| 15 | Azure Data Factory | 21.6% | 21 |
| 15 | Data Governance | 21.6% | 21 |
| 17 | Agile | 18.6% | 18 |
| 17 | Data Warehouse | 18.6% | 18 |
| 17 | Performance Optimisation | 18.6% | 18 |
| 17 | PySpark | 18.6% | 18 |
| 21 | AI | 17.5% | 17 |
| 21 | Apache Airflow | 17.5% | 17 |
| 23 | Infrastructure as Code | 16.5% | 16 |
| 24 | Power Platform | 15.5% | 15 |
| 24 | Serverless | 15.5% | 15 |
| 26 | Business Intelligence | 14.4% | 14 |
| 26 | Data Architecture | 14.4% | 14 |
| 26 | Data Transformation | 14.4% | 14 |
| 26 | dbt | 14.4% | 14 |
| 26 | Microsoft | 14.4% | 14 |
Data Engineer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Job Titles
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Senior Data Engineer | 22.7% | 22 |
| 2 | Databricks Data Engineer | 11.3% | 11 |
| 3 | AWS Data Engineer | 9.3% | 9 |
| 4 | Azure Engineer | 6.2% | 6 |
| 4 | Data Migration Engineer | 6.2% | 6 |
| 4 | GCP Data Engineer | 6.2% | 6 |
| 4 | Lead Data Engineer | 6.2% | 6 |
| 8 | Azure Data Engineer | 5.2% | 5 |
| 9 | Python Data Engineer | 3.1% | 3 |
| 9 | Snowflake Data Engineer | 3.1% | 3 |
| 11 | Cloud Engineer | 2.1% | 2 |
| 11 | Data Analyst | 2.1% | 2 |
| 11 | Microsoft Engineer | 2.1% | 2 |
| 11 | SAP Engineer | 2.1% | 2 |
| 15 | Artificial Intelligence Engineer | 1.0% | 1 |
| 15 | Azure Software Engineer | 1.0% | 1 |
| 15 | Data Analytics Engineer | 1.0% | 1 |
| 15 | Data Migration Analyst | 1.0% | 1 |
| 15 | Data Protection Engineer | 1.0% | 1 |
| 15 | Data Scientist | 1.0% | 1 |